MAKE AN ETERNAL ALLIANCE!
Most of you have probably heard of the TV show "Survivor." Millions of people across North America tune in their TVs each week as a group of castaways attempt to survive in the wilderness of the Australian Outback on little food or water. Not only do they have to survive the elements, but also the will of the "tribe." The tribe of castaways votes one of its own out of the tribe each week. The final survivor wins a million dollars. The object of the game is to "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast." It’s been so popular, this is the show’s second season already - the first season was on an island. Who’s watching? You can admit it; we’re among friends. Who do you think will win? I was hoping Rodger would.
The key to winning has been made quite obvious: Make An Alliance! Last season, Richard Hatch made an alliance right in the beginning and rode it all the way to a $ million. After Rudy, one of the last to go, was voted off the island, in his final interview, he made this observation: "My advice for anyone who plays this game is to form an alliance and stick with it." In the current show, it’s being made very clear how important it is to have an alliance, and how devastating it is when that alliance fails! In this TV show, you need alliances to survive.
In life, you also need the right alliance to survive. In the next few weeks, we’re going to talk about "How To Be A Survivor." If you want to be a survivor in life, if you want to survive conflict, financial problems, work, and parenting, you need the right kind of alliance. Have you found the right alliance? What alliances have you made in life? By the dictionary’s definition, an alliance is "a connection based on kinship, marriage, or common interest; a bond or tie." Isn’t it true that our alliances in life are where we are spending most of our time, energy, and thoughts? Where are your alliances? What ones have you made?
We’re social creatures, aren’t we? We make alliances with friends. Friends bring us happiness. They’re a blessing. We enjoy spending a lot of our time with friends. It’s never a perfect alliance, though, is it? Friends often bring conflict. Pain. Sadness. They often disappoint. But more often, they help! Friends do make a good alliance. However, is that alliance enough to get you through life? If we fill up all our time with our friends, will that fill up all the empty space and loneliness in our lives? Or is there something more?
We need other things for security, too, don’t we? We need financial security to survive in life. Would you agree that we make alliances with our financial situation? We spend a lot of time thinking about it, banking, trading, investing, saving, planning, dealing with taxes, and trying to improve our bottom line. Some of you may have such a close alliance that you know right where you are sitting financially. You might be more familiar with your portfolio’s report card than your child’s report card! But - is this alliance trustworthy? If your financial alliance is at all tied in to the stock market, that’s a pretty easy question to answer right now! If this was our most important alliance, we would be in complete panic! Markets crash. Interest rates go up. Houses don’t sell. Our financial alliances betray us constantly!
Where else do you spend a lot of time? At your job, right? Have you made an alliance with work? We’re busy, today, aren’t we? We’re working long hours. We pour ourselves into our work! It often brings satisfaction. But does it give us true happiness? Or is there something more important? Does work give us security? Or could we be laid off? What if our health fails?
There are more important alliances than work, like the alliance we have with our families. Many of you have made a marriage alliance. That is a wonderful blessing! Many of you have children - more great alliances! Stick with these alliances! Spend quality time with these alliances. They are very important, and bring blessings into your life. I wish they were perfect, though. But you see, there can even be trouble at home. These alliances can sometimes bring our deepest pain and disappointment. You know why? Because they end. Some end in sin, separation, and divorce. The ones that don’t will eventually end in death. That is the problem with earthly alliances. We are all sinful. And that messes everything up. Sin always ends in death. It separates us from God and from anything truly good. Isn’t there something more? Isn’t there an alliance we can make that will last? One that isn’t tainted by sin? Something that we can count on 100% forever?
When Jesus died on Good Friday, the alliance his disciples were counting on came to an end. Can you imagine how they felt? Have you ever been so completely disappointed by an alliance you had put so much faith in? They thought they had the answer, the solution, the best alliance! But they just could not understand why He died. They hit rock-bottom disappointment! However, Easter morning changed all of that! Their disappointment was turned into true joy when they discovered they had made the right alliance - An Eternal Alliance!
They came to the tomb that Sunday morning and found it empty! What did that empty tomb mean to them? Jesus explained to them when He saw them later that night that He had to suffer and die for their sins, so they wouldn’t have to, and then be raised to life again as proof that God was satisfied with that payment. So, what did the empty tomb mean to them? Complete assurance that they were forgiven for all their sins, and guaranteed of eternal life in heaven! They no longer had to live in guilt and fear because of how they had denied, betrayed, and forsaken their Lord. He would never forsake them! What does the empty tomb mean to you and me? Same thing! An alliance with Jesus that lasts forever! The guilt of your sin and death no longer terrorize you. "He who believes [in Jesus] will live, even though he dies."
The "Survivor" castaways have to plot to make their alliances. It might take you years of courting to make your marriage alliance. But your Eternal Alliance with Jesus has already been made when He gave his life for you on the cross. He’ll even send the Holy Spirit to give you the faith to believe this. As our text asks, "Do you believe this?"
Have you found it to be true that all earthly alliances fail and bring disappointment? They leave you hanging, and don’t answer your deepest questions in life. They leave you with your sin. Your Eternal Alliance is different. It gives you PEACE. The peace of knowing you’re in a right relationship with God. He’s taken your guilt away. You don’t have to worry about it! Because Jesus died and rose for you, God is now satisfied with you and your life!
An Eternal Alliance also gives you JOY. Joy is different from "happiness." Earthly alliances can bring you happiness, but happiness depends on all those outside factors being just right. Joy, however, comes from inner peace. Fun disappears when we’re sad, but we can have inner joy even in heartbreak. When we lose a Christian loved one, we’re sad; but we have true joy knowing they are with the Lord. The empty tomb brings us joy!
It finally also brings us HOPE. The sure hope of eternal life. The sure hope that we will never get voted out of God’s tribe. The hope that gives us the answers to life’s deepest questions, and gives us a focus for handling everything else life throws our way. An eternal hope we can only have with Jesus! "…whoever lives and believes in me will never die."
Little Philip, born with Down’s syndrome, attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of that age, the children did not readily accept Philip with his differences. The Sunday after Easter, the teacher brought Leggs pantyhose containers, the kind that look like large eggs. Each receiving one, the children were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol for new life, and put it in the egg-like container. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols, opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion. After running about the church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and placed the containers on the table. Surrounded by the children, the teacher began to open them one by one. After each one, whether flower, butterfly, or leaf, the class would ooh and ahh. Then one was opened, revealing nothing inside. The children exclaimed, "That’s stupid. That’s not fair. Somebody didn’t do their assignment." Philip spoke up, "That’s mine." "Philip, you don’t ever do things right!" the students retorted. "There’s nothing there!" "I did so do it," Philip insisted. "I did do it. It’s empty. The tomb was empty!" Silence followed. From then on Philip became a full member of the class.
He died not long afterward from an infection most normal children would have shrugged off. At the funeral this class of eight-year-olds marched up to the altar, not with flowers, but with their Sunday school teacher, each to lay on it an empty pantyhose egg. Philip Made an Eternal Alliance with Jesus! He is with Him right now - that empty tomb meant everything to Philip! What does the empty tomb mean to you? To me, it means that I want my alliance to be with the One who is no longer in it! Amen.
