My Condition

“My Condition”

“My condition in Christ is base on my relationship with Him.”

2 Cor. 5:16-21

Sunday Morning Sermon

05.20.07

Intro: (Start with text and title)

Did you hear about the man who was told he had three months to live? He goes to the doctor and they run tests, the cancer is not treatable and it’s spreading – his numbers are off the chart. He waits a few weeks and calls the doctor back, and the doctor confirms everything – 3 months would be good. You need to prepare your family, and get your stuff in order. The man buys a new car, a new boat, but stops paying for his mortgage. He stops paying all his bills – cause he doesn’t have long to live. He’s going on vacations, throwing parties, giving money away. After three months – he hasn’t died. He calls the doctor back, and come to find out the man has a rare, but treatable illness, and he will be just fine. The man is actually going to sue the doctor’s office.

That would be my luck. I don’t play the lottery, so it would be a miracle if I won, but assume for a second that I did – they would have some loop hole that on Saturday’s people with blonde hair couldn’t win. That’s the story of my life. There’s always a condition, a loop hole, an exception. I made the basketball team but they ran out of good uniforms – I was the one who had to wear the one that didn’t match the 30 kids who did make it.

Discussion:

What is my condition in Christ based on? If we have a condition in Christ what would it be based on – For some of us – it’s simply an extension of our parent’s faith. We believe what they do, and we talk to our heavenly grandfather every Sunday. For some of – it’s based on the Bible knowledge we have (this is where I am) – I love God’s word, I have some of the most boring books you have ever read, based on God’s word – they are GREAT – we approach our condition in Christ simply from the knowledge we can gain. For some of us – I know it’s about service – I’ve seen you endlessly, without being asked work on stuff here – So your condition is based on service (that’s good stuff). For some – it’s about attendance, or giving, or communion, or the other parts of our service – those are great things too.

Can I suggest something – Listen closely – Our condition in Christ is based on our relationship with him. It’s not based on our knowledge, or the service that we do, or have done, it’s not about the attendance pens we own, the amount of money we give, how pretty we are, or how nice we think we are.

It’s easy to get stuck in this cycle of impressing men so they think you are religious. If I impress all of you with my religiousness, we spend our time impressing each other with our religiousness but have no relationship, what good is it?

Maybe the most important thing in life – is not how wonderful everyone thinks I am, impressing people – or all the nice stuff they will say when I’m gone, but what my condition in Christ is, how my relationship with Christ is.

If I’m right and the most important thing is our relationship with Christ – maybe we should tell people. I don’t mean bragging that we are so holy because we have this relationship – but maybe we should demonstrate with our lives, our actions, our love, our speech, the condition we have in Christ – based on the relationship. You do have a relationship, right?

Turn with me to 2nd Corinthians 5:16-21 (Read) (Advance)

Paul tells us about condition and how that condition actually changes to a position in Christ. I see three things this morning:

(Advance)

I. Old Condition (16)

All of us have to start somewhere. People do not like those who do not have to start from somewhere. I’m a huge NASCAR fan – Jeff Gordan is hated by many, the reason – he didn’t have to start from somewhere – basically step-dad was very wealthy, and put him into the top level of NASCAR racing from an early age. Most drivers, including the son of the most famous driver – have to work their way up, and many never make it to the top level. When it comes to our old condition – we are all at the same starting point.

All of us were in rebellion – all of us like sheep have gone astray. When we look at the world: