OPEN: We’ve been talking about iPods the past few weeks, and as we’ve mentioned before iPods are a wondrous playthings, capable of storing and playing thousands of your personal favorite songs at the touch of button. But iPods do not magically perform this service. They need power.
Where do iPods get their power from? (batteries).
That’s right, just like numerous other electric devices, iPods run on batteries. Fortunately, due to the wonder of science, iPods are powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that can play music on some iPods for up to 14 hours on a charge. And these wondrous power sources can be recharged up to 500 times and have an estimated lifespan of 3 years.
And as I was researching that information, I discovered that scientists are even working now on a new technology (nanowire batteries) that could increase the playing power of the iPod 10 times (140 hrs per charge).
You could say: the life of the iPod is its battery.
Without that battery there is no life, no power… no music.
However, as I was researching this topic online I noticed that there was one issue that some users complained a lot about? Do you think you know what that is? That’s right – the durability of their iPod’s batteries.
ILLUS: Back in September of 2004, Casey Neistat of New York City discovered that the battery in his 1st-generation 5-gigabyte iPod could no longer hold a charge for more than an hour. So he called Apple. Unfortunately for him, Apple basically advised him to buy a new iPod (their prices at the time ranged from $300 to $500 a piece) because they didn’t have a battery replacement policy at the time. Neistat was upset. And he decided that – since Apple wasn’t going to replace the battery for him, he’d do it himself. He bought an off brand battery for $50, set down to open his iPod… and promptly broke it. Now, it didn’t matter what kind of battery he had, it would never work again.
Neistat was so infuriated that he started an internet site called ipodsdirtysecret.com which featured a video of him spray-painting the phrase: "iPod’s unreplaceable battery lasts only 18 months" all over lower Manhattan.
That got Apple’s attention, and they began offering a replacement service for $99.
(Just as a disclaimer here: Apple is consistently ranked #1 in product quality and support by leading consumer groups, such as Consumer Reports).
APPLY: Now I don’t blame Apple for the problem. They figured a battery’s only going to last so long anyway… so why get so upset? But in spite of the fact that it’s a fact of life that a battery will eventually age and die they soon discovered… people did get a little upset. People don’t react well to death… even if it’s the death of their iPod.
And people don’t react well to their own death’s either
One wit once said: “I am not afraid to die. It’s just that I can’t get up much enthusiasm for it.”
But despite that humor, most people do fear death.
Sigmund Freud - the father of psychiatry - observed “… finally there is the painful riddle of death, for which no remedy at all has yet been found, nor probably will ever be!”
Years ago, a song writer named Randy Newman (a rock musician in the 70s, who has since written the musical scores for “Toy Story”, “Monsters Inc”, and other movies), was being interviewed by a magazine back in the 70s and responded to one question by saying:
“I think religion is tremendously powerful force. How else is someone going to face the horror of everything ending?”
Knowing Newman to be an atheist, the reporter shot back: “So how do you face it?”
Newman replied: “I don’t. I joke around…”
Throughout my files, I have stories of people who’ve struggled with the fear of death because it is a reality in this world that most people are uncomfortable with death. They’re afraid of death.
And that’s what the Bible teaches us in Hebrews 2:15 – it says the major reason Jesus took on the form a man and died on the cross, was to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Jesus came to free us from that fear of death.
That’s why, throughout the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly said things like:
"I am the way and the truth and the life...” John 14:6
“... Because I live, you also will live.” John 14:19
“…I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” John 11:25
Jesus freed us from the fear of death by dying on the cross AND THEN by personally overcoming that death by His resurrection. When Jesus rose from the dead, He broke the bonds of death.
As I Corinthians 15 says it; "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:
"Death has been swallowed up in victory."O Death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?"
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 15:54-57
Jesus came to give us life, and life more abundantly than any other power can give.
But there is still that ticklish problem:
Just like the batteries in our electronic devices we still age, and decay… and eventually die.
How can this mortal body become immortal?
How can that which is perishable become imperishable?
Well, what we need a different battery… a different life-source.
And that’s what Romans 6 is all about.
Read again with me: Romans 6:3-8
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may LIVE a new life.
If we have been united with him like this in his death we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also LIVE with him.”
You see: when we were baptized into Christ something changed within us.
We put to death the old body of sin.
We crucified our sinful past.
And we allowed our mortal bodies to be buried in a watery grave.
BUT it didn’t end there.
How many of you –when you were baptized came back up out of the water? Good thing! Cause otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting out there in the audience would you?
The Christian who buried us in that water - didn’t keep us there.
We were lifted back out of the water – RESURRECTED, if you will, from the dead.
You see, that’s the beauty of what God was trying to teach us.
In baptism, we’re not only burying the past – we’re being reminded of the fact that, when Jesus comes again, we will be resurrected from the earthly grave just like we were brought back from the watery one.
In that Biblically mandated action, God took out the old life-source. He removed the sin that had powered our lives up that point. It was like removing an old battery that was going to decay and die. And then He replaced it with a new battery… a new life source.
As God promised us back in Ezekiel 36:26 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”
What the rest of Romans 6 is trying to say is: “don’t try putting that old battery back in. Don’t try hooking up the battery of sinful past along with the new one God just gave you when you became a Christian.
Just like an iPod we aren’t designed to run on two different life sources. You’ve either got to hook yourself up to the sinful past, or the Godly future. You can’t do both.
Look again with me to Romans 6:12-13 and you’ll see what I’m saying:
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”
Don’t put that old battery back in!
It may have seemed like it gave you power in the past
• it may have given a thrill to your existence
• it may seem like it gave music to your life
• AND it might have kept you entertained for a while
But after the thrill and the music and the entertainment died away all you were left with was a gnawing sense of disappointment/dissatisfaction.
That’s why you and I became a Christian to begin with. We wanted something better than what we had.
So don’t try to put back in that old battery.
Don’t go back and live that old life.
You went down into a watery grave and rose up a new creation… and this wasn’t of yourselves – it was a gift of God. Though you allowed yourself to be buried with Christ you didn’t create that new life that now exists within you. You didn’t personally put in that new battery … God did.
Now, there are people who don’t want God to do that.
They realize that their old way of life isn’t working, but they don’t want to give what life they have to God. They’d rather do it themselves. They’d rather be in charge.
But the new life they try to create will always disappoint.
Do you remember that guy that tried putting that off brand battery in his old iPod?
Do you remember what happened? That’s right, he broke the iPod!
But now, some folks might just manage to get it done.
Maybe they can put a new heart into their bodies.
They change their lifestyles, and they become better people.
But even that new heart - that new battery - that new lifestyle is still going to be inferior to the one God can give us. He’s the manufacturer. He knows what will work and what won’t. And any changes we make, while it may be an improvement over what has been in the past, will still be less than what God can do for us.
But there are many people (including Christians) who believe a falsehood.
You’ll hear all kinds of folks talking about how this person or that person will get into heaven because they were nice people.
Have you ever heard someone say that? Of course you have.
I mean, they didn’t curse or smoke or drink or fool around.
They gave to the poor.
They helped little old ladies across the street.
And so – even some Christians will think that “good people” will get into heaven… even if that person isn’t a Christian.
(pause…)
But the Bible tells me that can’t happen.
How can that which is mortal inherit immortality??
If all you have beating in your life is a really good mortal heart it could never last long enough in the courts of heaven. EVEN the best heart will decay and die.
In order for the mortal to inherit immortality, we need a far better life source than that.
ILLUS: At funerals I’ll often take a few moments to explain it this way:
When you go to a funeral, you’ll see the casket up front, and the pulpit for the preacher… and you’ll see something else? What?
That’s right flowers.
They’re all beautiful, and they’re all special gifts from people who wanted to show their love for the departed. They’re all beautiful… but there’s a basic difference between them.
• Some are cut flowers, arranged in a attractive bouquet.
• Others are potted plants.
About a week or so after the funeral, the cut flowers will begin to wither and die.
But for weeks, maybe years after the funeral – the potted plants will still be alive.
What’s the difference? (The potted plants have roots).
Both flower arrangements have a beautiful fruit… but only the potted plants have roots.
The roots are the source of life to the plant.
It’s the root – not the fruit - that determines if the plant will live.
So also, it’s the root – not the fruit - that determines if we will live forever with Christ.
When God gave you a new heart –He gave you a power source that will allow you to live forever.
CLOSE: One last thought.
There are those in this world who refuse to become Christians because they’re afraid of what they’ll have to give up. And they’re right. When you come to Christ, you surrender the past. You surrender your life to God because you realize you can’t do it on your own.
Whenever you send an iPod in to Apple you lose all the old music.
They send you a different refurbished iPod in your old one’s place. And even if they sent you the old one back, the music would be gone, because when they replace the battery, the music disappears. Then you have to put on new songs.
When you surrender yourself to God you surrender the old songs, God gives you a newer set of songs- songs that don’t depress you and don’t give you a feeling of sadness or shame. As David wrote in Psalm 40:3 “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.”
Christian singing group Phillips, Craig and Dean say it this way in their song “Crucified With Christ”
“When I look back at what I thought was living
I’m amazed at the price I chose to pay
And to think I ignored what really mattered
‘Cause I thought the sacrifice would be too great
But when I finally reached the point of giving in
I found the cross was calling even then
And even though it took dying to survive
I’ve never felt so much alive
CHORUS: For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live
Not I but Christ that lives within me
His cross will never ask for more than I can give
For it’s not my strength but His
There’s no greater sacrifice
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live
REPRISE And I will offer all I have so that His cross is not in vain
For I’ve found to live - is Christ … and to die is truly gain.
Sermons in this series:
i-Surrender = James 4:1-10
i-Serve = Luke 22:24-22:27
i-Give - Acts 4:15-4:37
i-Live = Romans 6:3-23
