Four Of The Hardest Words To Say

Why people would want to buy the family plan… They would want open a heaven saving account in their child’s name… They would want to help their brothers and sisters to get their million dollar ticket to heaven.

And once they had their million dollars. They would stand in line… They would pitch a tent and stay in sleeping bags on the sidewalk so that they would not lose place for their spot to purchase their ticket to heaven.

But you can’t purchase a ticket to heaven… But if there was some great thing that could be done to earn a way…

People would try do it…Even people who haven’t been to church in years. They would start today…

Even people who are not members of any church. How many would join today… If it guaranteed they could earn their way into heaven…. But God doesn’t ask us to do some great thing… He only asked that we say four words…, Four words that many people find to be the hardest words there are to say…, “I am a sinner.”

So Naaman gets on off his high horse…And he humbles himself…And his goes down to the Jordan river…

And he dipped himself seven times…As the prophet of God had instructed him to do…

It is important to note that the Hebrew word used for dipped… Is the word which means to be baptized.

And so Naaman was baptized in this one act in the Jordan river and when he came up out of the water… (Stop)

One hot summer day there were two boys who were each given a dollar. They decided go to the ice-cream store and looked at all those wonderful flavors of ice cream. They both ordered a double dip sundae with whipped cream…, all the toppings and a cherry on top..., without paying attention to the cost.

Neither of them had ever tasted anything so good. But when the waitress brought their bill, they looked at it and nearly died. It was for five dollars and all they had was a dollar a piece. They didn't know what to do. Their hearts just dropped.

Until a man at the next table overheard and understood what had happened. So he motioned for the waitress and said he would pick up their bill. He said to the boys, "It will be alright, I have taken care of it." This man, who was a stranger, paid their debt and rescued them.

This is exactly what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. We have a huge debt because of sin, a debt that we are unable to pay.

But Christ took it upon Himself to pay that debt for us. He blotted it out. He nailed it to the cross.

And so when we admit that we have a debt that we can not pay… That we do not have the money to buy

That we can not work hard enough to earn. That we can not be a good sinner… But will we humble ourself and confess our need? When we utter those four words, “I am a sinner.”

Then we come up out of the waters of baptism and we are not simply washed: We are cured! We are healed!

Our sin sickness is gone… The disease that rots the flesh and soul is gone!