WHAT DO YOU SAY

#1 · November 18, 2003, 9:46 am

Quote from Forum Archives on November 18, 2003, 9:46 am
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

WHAT DO YOU SAY?
November 16, 2003
Evening Service

Text: Romans 6:15-23

With thoughts of Christmas beginning to take shape, I am reminded of the
child who received a present from one of the relatives. Tearing off the
paper and ripping open the box revealed it to be a very nice electronic
toy. The parents, grabbing his attention for the briefest of seconds,
reminded, "Now what do you say?" Whereupon their child stopped in
mid-action, looked at the gift's giver, and asked, "Where are the
batteries?"

Well, this is an old joke, and you may have heard something like it
before. But it reveals, nonetheless, an unfortunate attitude prevalent in
humanity - that of thanklessness. Rather than responding for the gifts we
have been given, our insatiate side raises up to seek more - and then to
fall into a fit of rage and/or despondency if we fail to receive more.
Or, if we do say "thank you," we discover how tremendously difficult it
is to extend that thankfulness beyond the moment.

Opposed to this attitude and human tendency, the Bible regards
Christians' attitudes in a different light. It finds expression in many
ways throughout God's long history of dealing with men and women. Paul
examines it in Romans from the perspective of freedom from bondage to
sin. Regardless of how it is put into an understandable context for the
hearers, the appropriate response to God in answer to the question, "Now
what do you say?" is always a resounding Thank You! "But thanks be to
God..." is the kind of sentence that describes how we Christians are to
shape our lives as we discover how to live our lives abundantly.

For the Christian, the reason is obvious. Paul does not leave us
guessing; he points it out for us. "You have been set free from sin and
have become slaves to righteousness... When you were slaves to sin, you
were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at
that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in
death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become
slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life."

This is reason for great joy! It was for Paul, and it has been for
countless Christians since. Christianity as a lifestyle, religion, and
institution should be filled with joy and thanksgiving. The reason is
simply this: the Christians' lives are no longer ultimately controlled by
the whims and chances of a sinful world; they are, instead, motivated and
controlled by the steadfastness of God who creates in us the new life of
His grace and love. If we cannot recognize that message of the cross and
resurrection, then we need to return to Christian doctrine 101 and renew
our thoughts and attitudes in God's miracle of divine love found in
Christ on the cross.

This is the point where we begin to move away from spiritual milk to
meat. God does not demand that His people celebrate thankfulness to Him
just to have something to do. We celebrate because God has given us the
gift of eternal life. And this becomes the focal point of continuous
thanksgiving because eternal life has started now. Gerald Gragg writes,
"The immediate consequence of our new service is a life which begins to
bear the marks of holiness; the ultimate consequence is eternal life. But
eternal life is also in part a present experience. Its strict equivalent
is not 'life forevermore.' It is life of a new quality, life touched into
kinship with the life of God." (The Interpreter's Bible, vol. 9, p. 485)
This divine gift gives us the reason to say thank you on an ongoing
basis. Placing trust in God's ability to do these things gives us the
ability to be thankful in all seasons of life.

In spite of God's wonderful gift, we do sometimes fail to give thanks.
Like the athlete who is cheered one week and then booed the next, we end
up asking God, "What have you done for me lately?" Consider the response
of Israel time after time. They saw the miracles preceding the exodus
event, and then they experienced the exodus itself. They went out of the
bondage of slavery and into the service of God, much like the life of the
Christian experience. Did they live a life marked by thankful worship?
Not hardly. They no sooner were stopped at the banks of the Red Sea, than
they began crying out that the Egyptians would overtake and slay them.
They no sooner got across that sea than they cried out that they would
starve in the wilderness. They no sooner received manna from heaven, like
dew itself, than they cried out for meat. And on it went. Not a very good
heritage we share, is it? But these are the people God chose to redeem.

We are able to live thankful lives only when we recognize that we have
been given a gift. Imagine being washed overboard and lost at sea,
waiting only for that last moment when our strength plays out, and we go
down for the last time. Then, at that moment when the last little bit of
hope is gone, the Coast Guard arrives and plucks us out of the waters.
Would anyone not be thankful? Would that not be a gift worth celebrating?
Imagine being the parents of a prematurely born infant and watching that
tiny struggle for breath, hooked up to life sustaining tubes under the
lights of a sterile incubator, and walking in one day to see that little
one unhooked and beginning to breathe easier. Is that not a gift worth
celebrating?

Paul would tell us that, yes, they are worth celebrating. At the same
time, he would tell us that they pale in the light of God's gift.
Remember the gift that God has given, and we will never stop giving and
living in thanksgiving. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Christians say thank you because God's gift is ongoing. It was not given
once and then ended. It continues to cleanse us and lead us into that
"slavery to righteousness" that Paul writes about. The saving impact of
Christ's substitutionary death gives us eternal life today and tomorrow
and the next day and all the days down the road. Like God, it is
never-ending. An old slave preacher once said:

We ain't what we ought to be,
and we ain't what we want to be,
and we ain't what we're going to be
but, thank God, we ain't what we was.

The Christians who recognize and trust God in this way will always be
saying thank you.

What do we say? Well, if we say, "we would have been better off in
Egypt," or, "where is the meat?" or, "where are the batteries?" then we
have said the wrong thing. The only response to God's "gift of eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord" is "thank you," and then going to live
thank you lives.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

________________________________________________________________
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Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

WHAT DO YOU SAY?
November 16, 2003
Evening Service

Text: Romans 6:15-23

With thoughts of Christmas beginning to take shape, I am reminded of the
child who received a present from one of the relatives. Tearing off the
paper and ripping open the box revealed it to be a very nice electronic
toy. The parents, grabbing his attention for the briefest of seconds,
reminded, "Now what do you say?" Whereupon their child stopped in
mid-action, looked at the gift's giver, and asked, "Where are the
batteries?"

Well, this is an old joke, and you may have heard something like it
before. But it reveals, nonetheless, an unfortunate attitude prevalent in
humanity - that of thanklessness. Rather than responding for the gifts we
have been given, our insatiate side raises up to seek more - and then to
fall into a fit of rage and/or despondency if we fail to receive more.
Or, if we do say "thank you," we discover how tremendously difficult it
is to extend that thankfulness beyond the moment.

Opposed to this attitude and human tendency, the Bible regards
Christians' attitudes in a different light. It finds expression in many
ways throughout God's long history of dealing with men and women. Paul
examines it in Romans from the perspective of freedom from bondage to
sin. Regardless of how it is put into an understandable context for the
hearers, the appropriate response to God in answer to the question, "Now
what do you say?" is always a resounding Thank You! "But thanks be to
God..." is the kind of sentence that describes how we Christians are to
shape our lives as we discover how to live our lives abundantly.

For the Christian, the reason is obvious. Paul does not leave us
guessing; he points it out for us. "You have been set free from sin and
have become slaves to righteousness... When you were slaves to sin, you
were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at
that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in
death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become
slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life."

This is reason for great joy! It was for Paul, and it has been for
countless Christians since. Christianity as a lifestyle, religion, and
institution should be filled with joy and thanksgiving. The reason is
simply this: the Christians' lives are no longer ultimately controlled by
the whims and chances of a sinful world; they are, instead, motivated and
controlled by the steadfastness of God who creates in us the new life of
His grace and love. If we cannot recognize that message of the cross and
resurrection, then we need to return to Christian doctrine 101 and renew
our thoughts and attitudes in God's miracle of divine love found in
Christ on the cross.

This is the point where we begin to move away from spiritual milk to
meat. God does not demand that His people celebrate thankfulness to Him
just to have something to do. We celebrate because God has given us the
gift of eternal life. And this becomes the focal point of continuous
thanksgiving because eternal life has started now. Gerald Gragg writes,
"The immediate consequence of our new service is a life which begins to
bear the marks of holiness; the ultimate consequence is eternal life. But
eternal life is also in part a present experience. Its strict equivalent
is not 'life forevermore.' It is life of a new quality, life touched into
kinship with the life of God." (The Interpreter's Bible, vol. 9, p. 485)
This divine gift gives us the reason to say thank you on an ongoing
basis. Placing trust in God's ability to do these things gives us the
ability to be thankful in all seasons of life.

In spite of God's wonderful gift, we do sometimes fail to give thanks.
Like the athlete who is cheered one week and then booed the next, we end
up asking God, "What have you done for me lately?" Consider the response
of Israel time after time. They saw the miracles preceding the exodus
event, and then they experienced the exodus itself. They went out of the
bondage of slavery and into the service of God, much like the life of the
Christian experience. Did they live a life marked by thankful worship?
Not hardly. They no sooner were stopped at the banks of the Red Sea, than
they began crying out that the Egyptians would overtake and slay them.
They no sooner got across that sea than they cried out that they would
starve in the wilderness. They no sooner received manna from heaven, like
dew itself, than they cried out for meat. And on it went. Not a very good
heritage we share, is it? But these are the people God chose to redeem.

We are able to live thankful lives only when we recognize that we have
been given a gift. Imagine being washed overboard and lost at sea,
waiting only for that last moment when our strength plays out, and we go
down for the last time. Then, at that moment when the last little bit of
hope is gone, the Coast Guard arrives and plucks us out of the waters.
Would anyone not be thankful? Would that not be a gift worth celebrating?
Imagine being the parents of a prematurely born infant and watching that
tiny struggle for breath, hooked up to life sustaining tubes under the
lights of a sterile incubator, and walking in one day to see that little
one unhooked and beginning to breathe easier. Is that not a gift worth
celebrating?

Paul would tell us that, yes, they are worth celebrating. At the same
time, he would tell us that they pale in the light of God's gift.
Remember the gift that God has given, and we will never stop giving and
living in thanksgiving. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Christians say thank you because God's gift is ongoing. It was not given
once and then ended. It continues to cleanse us and lead us into that
"slavery to righteousness" that Paul writes about. The saving impact of
Christ's substitutionary death gives us eternal life today and tomorrow
and the next day and all the days down the road. Like God, it is
never-ending. An old slave preacher once said:

We ain't what we ought to be,
and we ain't what we want to be,
and we ain't what we're going to be
but, thank God, we ain't what we was.

The Christians who recognize and trust God in this way will always be
saying thank you.

What do we say? Well, if we say, "we would have been better off in
Egypt," or, "where is the meat?" or, "where are the batteries?" then we
have said the wrong thing. The only response to God's "gift of eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord" is "thank you," and then going to live
thank you lives.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit http://www.juno.com to sign up today!