A Kiss You Don't Want To Miss

TITLE: A Kiss You Don’t Want To Miss

TEXT: Psalm 85:1-13; John 1:14-17

TOPIC: The reconciliation of truth and righteousness with mercy and peace.

Preached to Point Assembly of God on April 27, 2003 by Louis Bartet.

Psalm 85 can be divided into three sections.

- The first, verses 1-3, describes a previous deliverance for which the Psalmist gives praise to God.

- The second section, verses 4-7, forms a lamentation in which the people plead with God to deliver them from their present distress. Their sin was the cause for God’s anger. They were asking God, on the basis of verses 1-3, to do what He had done before—"Restore us" (v.4), "revive us" (v.6).

- The third section, verses 8-13, proclaims God’s response.

Our text is located in section three, verses which some consider to be a prophetic word of comfort to a distressed people.

Psalm 85:10 - Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

In Psalm 85:10, the Psalmist says, "Mercy and truth have met together".

- What had kept them apart?

- Were they in need of reconciliation?

- What enabled them to commune with each other?

Later, in the verse 10, the Psalmist declares, "Righteous and peace have kissed each other."

- What was the occasion for this kiss?

- Was it a passionate kiss that would have caused onlookers to blush?

- Did it posses any significance or was it merely an action motivated by tolerance?

- Was it a kiss denoting reconciliation?

Jack, the homosexual

Jack, a young man brought up in a Christian home, fought a constant battle with same-sex attractions and activity. He was afraid…

- of what he felt,

- of what he might be,

- of what he might become, and

- of what other people would think of him if they came to know his shameful secret.

Jack lived in a closet with his secret, and with unbearable pain and anger. Because he knew and believed the Bible he knew no peace and constantly experienced the guilt of unrighteousness. Days filled with sunshine were no different than cloudy ones. He was deaf to the cheerful sound of song birds and laughing children. His homosexuality was his only means of coping with the psychological and emotional nausea he experienced constantly.

Bobby, the cancer patient

Bobby was the picture of health, but a yearly physical revealed a possible problem. Upon further examination doctors diagnosed Bobby with lung cancer. Bobby demanded a second opinion, got it and it confirmed that he had lung cancer. He demanded a third opinion and it too confirmed he had lung cancer. Unable to cope with such news, Bobby began to show signs of severe depression. One day, to his wife’s joy and amazement, Bobby emerged from their bedroom with a smile on his face. When asked why he was so happy he declared, "I refuse to believe I have cancer. The doctors are wrong. The diagnosis is wrong. I never have, I do not now have and I never will have cancer." Three months later, Bobby died of lung cancer.

TRUTH IS A PAINFUL THING

Facing reality is a very painful thing.

QUOTE: Philip Dick, author of Minority Report said, "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away."

—Philip K. Dick, science fiction author, writer of the summer blockbuster Minority Report

Rather than face reality people deny it, justify their behavior or make excuses.

ILLUS: Boudreaux and Dufrene were drinking a few beers while driving around, when Boudreaux saw a roadblock ahead. He couldn’t turn around, so he told Dufrene, "peel the label off your bottle and put in on your forehead."

"Are you crazy," Dufrene responded?

"No! Just do it and let me do the talking," said Boudreaux.

The officer looked at Dufrene and Boudreaux and asked, "Have you two been drinking and driving"?

"No," replied Boudreaux.

The officer looked at the labels on Boudreaux’s and Dufrene’s forehead and said, "Then what’s with the labels on your forehead"?

Boudreaux drew himself up tall in the seat and explained, "Well, officer, we’re recovering alocoholics and our doctor put us on the patch."

or

ILLUS: A police officer stopped a man driving a ’60 Ford pickup truck.

"Sir," inquired the officer, "Do you know how fast you were going?"

To which the man replied, "Not really, Officer, but if I was speeding I can explain why. You see, I replaced my fourteen inch tires with fifteen inch tires and that makes me go faster. My speedometer is set for 14" tires and these 15" tires make my speedometer inaccurate."

"Sir," replied the Officer, "if we put your tires on the space shuttle it could travel at the speed of light. You were doing 90 MPH in a 55 mile per hour speed zone."