"What's In It For Me?" Sermon by Douglas Sherwood, 1 Corinthians 15:3-23

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"What's In It For Me?" Series

Contributed by Douglas Sherwood on Mar 27, 2008 (message contributor)

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Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:3-23

Denomination: Nazarene

Summary: In as plain a language as I can want to tell you what this whole Christ Event . . . Life . . . Death . . . and Resurrection . . . is all about . . . I want to help you answer the question: “What’s In It For Me?”

**Several of the Illustrations in this sermon came from an illustration search on Sermon Central.

INTRODUCTION:

A Sunday School teacher asked her class on the Sunday before Easter if they knew what happened on Easter and why it was so important. One little girl spoke up saying: "Easter is when the whole family gets together, and you eat turkey and sing about the pilgrims and all that." "No, that’s not it," said the teacher.

"I know what Easter is," a second student responded. "Easter is when you get a tree and decorate it and give gifts to everybody and sing lots of songs." "Nope, that’s not it either," replied the teacher.

Finally a third student spoke up, "Easter is when Jesus was killed, and put in a tomb and left for three days." "Ah, thank goodness somebody knows" the teacher thought to herself.

But then the student went on: "Then everybody gathers at the tomb and waits to see if Jesus comes out, and if he sees his shadow he has to go back inside and we have six more weeks of winter."

Some of us have some weird ideas about Easter.

YES! JESUS IS HERE TODAY!!

We’re here today because what happened over 2000 years ago matters today!

We can be sure that God is in this place BECAUSE His Son was raised from the dead over 2000 years ago!

-How many have plans today, after church?

-Maybe a nice Easter dinner with family?

-Maybe the park, or some other outing?

-Some will be watching “March Madness!”

-If this were next Sunday I know what some of you

couch potatoes would to be doing . . .

Martinsville – the next NASCAR Race!

-And then comes Monday . . .

-Back at work . . .

-Back to School . . .

-Life goes on as usual!

-Another Easter will have come and gone.

ILLUSTRATION:

Alexander the Great was one of the greatest military leaders in all of recorded history. During the brief years of his rule his army swept through most of the known world, conquering all in its path. Even the mighty Persian Empire proved to be helpless before him.

As his army marched through Persia the soldiers went into the villages & cities, taking whatever they wanted. In the capitol, they entered the palace of Darius, & one soldier found an attractive leather bag. He looked inside & there were the crown jewels of Persia.

But being ignorant of the value of precious stones, the soldier looked at them for a moment & decided that they were simply worthless, shiny rocks. So he dumped them out, but kept the leather bag. He was seen time & time again, carrying his prized find, a leather bag, & boasting of the attractive container in which he carried his food.

We smile at a story like that, don’t we?

But I wonder how often in life do we hang on to worthless bags & throw away precious jewels?

I want to show you something this morning that is PRICELESS! . . . the precious gift that God has given us.

So, my goal this morning is to tell you in as plain a language as I can what this whole Christ Event . . . Life . . . Death . . . and Resurrection . . . is all about . . .

I want to help you answer the question:

“What’s In It For Me?”

I. Because of Sin, I Cannot Get to God!

(Romans 3:23) “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

-Because of sin in our lives there is no way for us to get to God.

-We cannot be a good enough Dad, Mom,

neighbor, co-worker.

-You can be an excellent citizen and miss

heaven.

-You can spend your life doing nothing but

good for others and still miss heaven.

-We all fall short of the glory of God.