God's Empty Promises - Resurrection Sunday

Scripture: Luke 24:1-12 and John 19:38-42

Theme: God's Empty Promises

Proposition: The World give us empty promises - God gave us two wonderful empty gifts - 1. The Empty Tomb 2. The Empty Clothes

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Have you ever on the end of an empty promise? Someone said that they would do something but in the end they didn't live up to their promise? It doesn't feel good does it?

Some years ago a young man from an wealthy family was about to graduate from High School. It was a tradition in his family that when one of the members of the family graduated one of the gifts they would receive would be a new car of their choice.

Bill and his father had spend the several weeks before graduation going around to different car lots and looking at brand new cars. They both wanted to find the "perfect car." Finally, after weeks of looking they came across what Bill thought was the perfect car. It was the right color, it had all the right little extras and he could see himself driving off to college in this car. It would be the best graduation present anyone could ever receive.

On the night before his graduation, Bill was handed a present by his dad. Bill was all excited, he just knew that it had to be the keys to the car. Hastily, he ripped off the wrapping paper to dig into the box to find the set of keys to his perfect car. To his amazement and utter astonishment there were no keys. All that was in the box was a Bible.

A Bible? Why in the world would his dad give him a Bible for graduation? It wasn't the worst gift in the world, but this was not the time to get a Bible. This was the time to get a brand new set of keys. This was the time to go out and spin some wheels. This was the time to rev your engines, burn a little rubber and go out on the highway and make some noise. This was not a great time to receive a Bible.

All the anger in the world came rushing into Bill's heart and soul. His face turned every color in the rainbow. He threw down the Bible, stormed out of the house and vowed that he would never speak to his father again. His father was a liar. He had promised him a car and all he got was a Bible. He didn't want anything to do with that man ever again.

As soon as he could, Bill got out of the house and made good on his own promise - He never spoke to his father again. Even though his father attempted to talk to him and write to him, Bill never spoke or responded to him. In Bill's mind, his dad was a liar and he was not going to ever speak or have anything to do with him. He was finished with the old man.

Years passed. Bill got word that his dad was very sick. It didn't matter, Bill still refused to talk to him. Then one day, he received word that his dad had passed away. The family needed Bill to come home and help take care of the final arrangements. He would have to go through his father's belongings and decide what to do with them.

At first, Bill simply wanted to just give everything to a local charity and be done with it all. He didn't want anything to do with his father or with anything he left behind. But for some reason he decided that wasn't the way to handle things and so he made up his mind he would just go through the stuff, ditch what he didn't want and be through with the old man once and for all. After all, the old man was a liar and had cheated him out of his perfect car.

As he looked through his father's stuff, he came across that Bible that his dad had given him for graduation. His dad had kept it all these years. Once again, a flood of anger came all over Bill as he picked it up. He thought about tearing it to pieces, then he thought about burning it right then and there but something caused him to thumb through it. He still couldn't believe that his father had broken that promise all those years ago. He still couldn't believe that he never got his perfect car.

Flipping through the pages suddenly something caught his attention. He flip back to the page and suddenly he was overwhelmed with shame and grief. There laying between two pages was a cashier's check made out the day before his High School Graduation. He looked at the amount and it took his breath; it was for the exact amount that "HIS PERFECT CAR" had been.