8.9.2009.Sermon.Cash for Clunkers
By William Akehurst, BA
HSWC
While driving up the road past a local car dealership, I saw what I would have to say is one of the best marketing statements I have ever seen. On the lot was a large rollback dumpster with a car sticking up in the air, as if placed there to be thrown away.
How many of you own or owned a car?
What was your first car?
Do you still have it? What happened to it?
We’ve had some good vehicles that one day went bad.
We had a Jeep Cherokee, that one day, while driving along, the engine blew. We ended up giving it away to charity, and they ended up sending it to the scrap pile.
We had a car, we paid $50 for, it lasted all of 18 months. It was hauled away.
Man built these things. From day one, they are deteriorating, breaking down, and falling apart.
I heard it the other day on the radio, and I’ve pondered the thought ever since:
“Everything this side of heaven is a clunker”
But GOD sent HIS SON for us…clunkers, and he RESTORES US
At a Recent Car show. Pictures of a car all rusted out and sitting in a field. Showed the restoration process and sitting there was a shiny new restored car.
Kind of like us, although we know that eventually that car will rust away again. But God’s promise is heaven. Imperishable.
AFFECTION ON THINGS ABOVE
Colossians 3:1-17
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
NEW BIRTH
1 Peter 1:3-22
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
AN INHERITANCE THAT NEVER PERISHES
4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
FAITH GENUINE - GREATER THAN GOLD
7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
Be Holy
13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
17Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.
YOU WERE REDEEMED BY THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, THE LAMB WITHOUT SPOT
18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
BORN AGAIN OF IMPERISHABLE
23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For,
"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
WORD STANDS FOREVER
25but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.
