Greetings Church Family ! I’m going to try something new here. I’ve never done this before. We’ll see how this goes. If I feel good about it after all is said and done then maybe this is the start of a new trend here on my blog, (or maybe not). The important part of all of this is that my Almighty God must get all of the glory, and I must get none of it, or it’s not worth doing any of this.
So what am I about to do ? I’m going to preach a short sermon on here (from start to finish), but not all at once. In keeping with my “3-minutes-or-less” theme of reading my blog posts I’m going to do this over the course of the next 4 Sundays – leading-up to Easter Sunday.
This is a sermon that I’ve never preached before in public in front of my church family (or anywhere), but it’s also not a brand new sermon. This sermon is one that I wrote during my first full year of preaching in 2017. God has given me wisdom to get much better since then.
I never thought that this sermon was appropriate or practical or relevant to preach to my church family over these past 3 years, so it just sat idle on my computer completed, but never delivered. Now it’s going to get delivered to a different audience – those of you who read my blog. I’m also reading it, praying about it, listening for wisdom, editing it, updating it, and enhancing it as I go along.
I’m a blogger, so this sermon will be in the form of a blog. That’s what I do. I’m not a podcaster, and I’m not a YouTube star. I don’t have a microphone. I don’t have a web camera. I don’t really want any of those things. I just want to write sermons, and then preach them in public – whether “in public” is to my own church family, other church families, or online where the audience is unlimited and eternal. Once it goes online – it’s out there forever.
So let’s begin this sermon:
Let’s see here. Yep. I think that we are all faces on here. I think that we are in fact babyfaces. Lovable babyfaces. That’s a good thing. We’re good people. Don’t let the heels tell you otherwise. They are miserable. They are up to no good. They are slaves of the world. They deliver those dirty deeds done dirt cheap.
So you may be thinking to yourself, “What on Earth is Pastor Chris talking about here ?”
The name of this sermon – is “Faces & Heels”. Let me tell you something that you probably don’t know about me. I am an avid fanatic – of World Wrestling Entertainment – the WWE (once known as the WWF).
My little brother – 26 at the time (I was 34) – somehow coerced me into attending two LIVE televised shows with him on back-to-back nights in mid-June of 2001 – “Raw” in Tampa and “Smackdown” in Orlando. I had never seen wrestling on TV before those two shows, but my brother prepared me for them by explaining how storylines work on the shows. He essentially sold it as a “soap opera for men”. I was skeptical, yet strangely intrigued.
Well long story short I thoroughly enjoyed my two-night induction into the weird and wild world of professional wrestling, and I was instantly addicted to the “soap opera for men”. Over the past nearly 19 years I’ve seen nearly every single WWE telecast and pay-per-view produced – most on TV – some in bars (when I used to frequent bars) – and some LIVE in person at the arena where it was televising or taping from. That’s right – I’m a 19-year member of the WWE Universe.
So this sermon is inspired by my WWE hobby. (OK we can call it a habit – perhaps even an addiction – of the past 19 years.) This will be a fun sermon, but also a life-changing one. And just like the WWE this is all scripted, but let me tell you this – this script comes straight from the Bible – and that’s the bottom line – because Stone Cold said so – and Pastor Chris too.
First Corinthians Chapter 15 Verse 33, and as the Bible says in various translations:
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” [NIV]
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” [ESV]
Be not deceived: Evil communications corrupt good manners. [KJ]
Don’t fool yourselves. Bad friends will destroy you. [CEV]
Stop being deceived: “Wicked friends lead to evil ends.” [ISV]
Proverbs Chapter 13 Verses 20 & 21:
Whoever walks with the wise will become wise. Whoever walks with fools will suffer harm. Trouble chases sinners. Blessings chase the righteous.
Who wants to be chased by trouble ? Anyone ? Anyone ? No one ?
Who wants to be chased by blessings ? Me ! You ! We all do ! We all want blessings. We all want blessings to follow us in everything we do – and in everywhere we go. And only God delivers blessings – at all times – in His time.
I wanna be wise. I wanna be righteous. I know I’m not alone. I’m surrounded by faces. It didn’t used to be that way. I used to surround myself with fools – with sinners. I’m still a fool at times. I’m still a sinner. But God’s Grace and His Mercy is awesome ! He’s doing a work in me – one day at a time. With each new day I strive to get closer to God. I strive to move further away from the dead man I used to be.
First Peter Chapter 4 – starting with Verse 3:
You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy – their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.
YES – I can relate to all of that – as recently as a decade-and-a-half ago. It ruined my health by the time I hit my late-30s. I was rescued and saved by my Lord & Savior Jesus Christ at 39 during the Summer of 2006, but I was still doing some of those evil things more than a year into my salvation. You see I came as I was. That’s what God wants. He wants you to come as you are. He can clean you up from where you are – if you just believe and follow Him.
(To be continued next Sunday.)
All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
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