I broke the sermon up into two parts.

The first part began after our Welcome and announcements and began as follows: One of the main reasons we gather as Gods people is to remind each other that: God is Good! All the time! And, All the time! God is good! I was reminded of this fact very vividly several times this week but I want to specifically share a story with you about God s goodness. In fact, for the price of your offering admission youre not going to get one sermon but two smaller ones. So here goes the first of two sermons for the price of one! Those of you who were here last week remember that we began the New Year by celebrating the season of Epiphany the season we celebrate Christ being made known to all nations, which coincides with our remembrance of the story of the visit of the Magi to newborn Jesus. During my sermon I challenged all of you to Think of 1. Think of 1 person that you might be able to share the boundless riches of Christ(Eph. 3:8) with this year. And my challenge was not just giving them a pocket cross which is great but my challenge was to think of one person that you might be able to disciple; one person you might be used by God to disciple or to help them become a follower of Jesus. That was my challenge to you. And although I keep about 4-5 folks on my prayer list at all times that Im asking God for the help to disciple, I really, for the sake of the challenge I was offering to you, wanted to think of 1 new person to practice what I preach. I was specifically asking God to help me think of someone I havent been praying for already. Well, in preparation for todays sermon I came up with an idea for a sermon illustration that involved building something out of wood that Ill share with you in just a moment. So, I went to Lowes Hardware on Tuesday afternoon with the intention of buying some wood plywood to be exact. Well, as soon as I walked in and went past the checkout counter, I ran into a young lady, an employee, that I had a hunch, lived a different lifestyle than most of us. She was covered in tattoos and piercings, and she just looked and acted different than most of us in this room. But, boy was she helpful. I told her I was hoping to build a small box out of wood. I was thinking about building it out of plywood. Well, she asked me several questions to better understand my needs. I think she could tell I wasnt a master craftsman but you could tell by her questions, she knew what she was talking about when it came to wood and also when it came to crafting a work of art. She eventually steered me away from the plywood idea, but finally she asked the question, So what exactly are you trying to build? Well, I had a little sketch in my hand of what I was going to build. So I showed her the picture and she said thats interesting, whats that? Then I told her, Its actually what Im affectionately calling my little coffin for sins. And right there in the middle of Lowes hardwarewhere all the manly men and women go to get stuff to build, God prepared the way for me to share with her the truth of this mornings Baptismal text from Romans 6. I told her that, all too often as Christians we hear the words that Jesus died for our sins and thus forgives us of our sins, but we still try to hang onto those sinsthat we sometimes dont fully comprehend what it means to be forgiven from past sins. So, I told her, Im building this box to show that our sins are buried with Christ. That when we are baptized into Ch rist, he takes our sins and I told her I was going to use pieces of paper to represent our sins and how those sins are now buried with him. Here, let me show you what she helped me make(My son is holding it in the attached photo. I also leave the coffin on display the rest of the service on a small flower stand.). You see our sins are buried with Christ. The text says: Dont you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death OR buried with him. Meaning, our sins are buried with him. Our past hurts and sins are gone. Now, I told her, Often times, we as Christians forget the fact that our sins have been buried with Christ and we go through the pain of digging them (I begin exemplifying this by trying to pull out pieces of paper) back out of the grave of Christ. Im not really forgiven. I really hurt that person. Im really ashamed of this. I regret that. And the list goes on and on of how try to figuratively dig up our own past hurts. But the truth is, our sins are gone. Weve been set free! I may or may not have said it more or less eloquently than I just did, but right there in the midst of all these dangerous tools, with customers and other employees walking by, I had the opportunity to tell this person created in the image of God, that Jesus had the power to forgive and FOREVER remove our sins. You know what her response was? It was priceless. I couldnt have asked for a better response that opened the door for further proclamation of Gods good news in Jesus! You really want to know? Great! Ill tell you in the 2nd sermon later. Actually, Ill tell you her response now, then my reply to her comments, later in the allotted sermon time. Her first response was, Wow. You tell that in a passionate way thats not pushy, unlike some folks Ive had theological discussions with. I told her thats not only my style, but I believe thats the way Jesus prefers us to communicate the truth of His love. Then she said something profound and very insightful. She said, You know what I hear you saying is not really anything about dying or burying anything but what I hear you saying is really about living.

I smiled and said emphatically, Exactly! Thats why the text goes onto say, we were buried with Christso that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. That we were buried wi th Jesus so we could be raised to live with Jesusnot just for eternity but for today and everyday! Thats what Jesus was talking about when he said, I came to give you abundant life. Again I say, God is good! (All the time!) All the time! (God is good!) Ill share more in the message time what it specifically looks like to live a life raised with Jesus on a daily basis but for now lets stand and greet one another as Gods forgiven people and lets do so by reminding each other that God is good! Please just turn to those around you and look them in the eye and say, God is good and just let the chant with one another begin! Please remain standing as we sing the opening song

(After our opening song, liturgy, and Bible readings, the message song for the day is Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone. I point this out because I reference a couple times in my message the following line from the song, My chains are gone, Ive been set free.)

As stated earlier, this is the second part of the sermon. Now I realize some of you for various reason came in lateI know firsthand, you cant always help being late. So, Im going to very briefly restate what I said earlier to catch everyone up and quite honestly, share some things I may have left out. But most importantly, I want to make sure we all understand this Sins Buried concept from Romans 6(Ill point out the coffin and ask that the video camera show it on the screen.) because I believe it is foundational for understanding all the implications of being a child of God. (Im going to point to the Baptismal Font, then throughout this paragraph Im going to be constantly pointing to the coffin.) As I stated earlier, we are brought into the family of God through Baptism and faith and our sins are forgiven. They are buried with Christ. As our sins are forgiven or buried, they stay there. Our sins, represented by these pieces of paper that are stuck in this box, are buried in Christ at our Baptism. Not only the sins we committed before our Baptism but all sins. As we are perpetually in the Baptismal covenant with God through the faith hes given us, everything from the past is gone. Or to quote the song we just sang: My chains are gone. Ive been set free. Thats the concept. Whatever is in the past, no matter how marred and ugly that past is, its gone. Its been buried. That is the heart of Romans 6:3. To further illustrate this concept, I share a story about what this looks like in real life. Ill share something from my own past. Just before taking the Call to become your associate pastor back in the Fall of 2008, I was weary about my past. Although it was a gracious move for you guys to extend the Call to someone from the congregation, the thought I couldnt shake was, What if others from the community knew that I was coming back. I sinned A LOT in High School and College. I lived a GOOD life. too good if you know what I mean! What if someone threw those sins back up at me? What if someone came into this building one Sunday morning and said, Hey! Eric Hollar! Do you remember what you did to me? Do you remember how you treated me? Do you remember what you did to so and so? Quite honestly, my past haunted me. While these thoughts were going through my head and while I was contemplating the Call to come back here, by the grace of God I ran into Dr. David Ludwig. Hes a retired professor from Lenoir Rhyne University and hes on staff as a part time associate pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Hickory. Anyway, I brought up to him this fear. I asked him what if someone that Ive hurt in the past comes up to me and says, You hurt me. You did this. You did that. I mean I was a very typical high school boy. I got into a lot of mischief. I did things Im not proud of. But Ill never forget Dr. Ludwigs response. He looked at me and said, So what? What if they come up to you and say all that? I looked at him a little perplexed by his initial response, not sure of how to respond. I believe he sensed my dumbfoundedness. Thats when he asked THE QUESTION Has Christ forgiven you for those sins? I said, YES! somewhat emphatically and with relief, but not sure of the connection to my initial dilemma. The next words out of his mouth were so perfect. Then whats the problem?

The light bulb went off in my head. Hes right! I thought. The scriptures say, What can man do to me? I knew those words. I had preached those words before and for the first time, I was about to fully live them in light of my own hurtful past. He continued by stating the truth of scripture. Eric, if you are ever confronted with your ugly past and we all have them then look that person in the eye and say, Jesus has forgiven me and I pray that you would too. I knew these words, but my shame from all the hurtful things I had done in the past kept me from living them fully. But Dr. Ludwig was so right. What he was saying is this(I again refer to the coffin), My sins are buried with Christ. The old is contained in the grave where Christ rested. But just as he was raised from death, I too have been raise to live a new life. Thats what leads us into living out the raised life and I believe the Old Testament lesson is a wonderful outline for what it looks like to fully live this resurrected life. In Isaiah 42, Isaiah the prophet, some 600+ years before Jesus actual birth is prophesying about Jesus coming into this world. That God will put his spirit on his servant, Jesus, and Jesus will come with gentleness, not even breaking those who are already bruised nor snuffing out those whose flame is barely flickering. That Jesus gentleness and compassion will give all of us hope. Finally, in verse 4 God says, He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth. That is just what God did through his servant, Jesus. He carried out Gods justice by paying for the punishment we deserve. His death justified the demands of our God. His death was our punishment. We are forgiven. Thats the first part of Isaiah 42. But then, look at what God says he will do with us who walk in his spirit, the spirit of the resurrection from our sins. Verses 6 and following: I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. (42: Did you catch that? Hes not just talking about Jesus here. Hes talking about making YOU AND I as a covenant for the people. In other words, hes going to make us a light for the nations. Hes going to use us to share his life! Hes going to use us to share the good news that not only are our sins buried with Jesus death but we have been raised to a new life. We become a light, or a life if you will, to those who still feel dead in their sins. What does this look like? It looks like walking into a hardware store and bringing hope to an individual who suffered some hurt in the past. Its like going into a restaurant and sitting down to a waitress whos having a bad day and you get to bring her joy by your attitude that has been changed by the reality that you have been raised to newness of life in Christ. Its like handling things differently than your family of origin so that you become the example in your broken family to the resurrected Christ living in your life. You see, while I think that one level of interpreting the verse, to open the eyes that are blind is an actual literal interpretation because not only did the early church perform some of these miracles, I have no reason to believe God cant still gift some with that same gift of healing the physical blind. But I do think thats not the only interpretation of these verses. I believe Isaiah, even God himself is saying that you and I, as followers of Jesus will be used by God to open the eyes of the spiritually blind those who do not know the joy of knowing Jesus as their Savior. I believe from the context of all of scripture, God wants us, followers of Jesus, to be people who bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison of the darkness of sin. Whether were in a hardware store surrounded by dangerous tools and even more dangerous people, or in our own homes, chances are we are coming into contact with people who are daily sitting in the darkness of their past. They are hurting. They are searching for more. In my short, 10 years of ministry, I have learned a couple of things about reading peoples body language and comments. I could tell that my new friend in Lowes had been hurt by the church just by her comments and by her non-verbal communication. I may be completely wrong, but I have a hunch from some of the comments she made, shes not an active follower of Jesus. However, I could tell she wanted to know more about this hope and joy I kept talking about. I believe this young lady was an answer to my prayer. I had been praying that God would help me be an example for this challenge I had offered to all of you, to Think of 1 whom I could be used by God to lead to Jesus and help disciple them in what it means to live a resurrected life. In other words, I was praying for someone I could be an example of Christs love for. Someone who was perhaps spiritually blinded to the love of Christ, so I could help lead them out of the prison of sin, the dungeon of unforgiveness and into the glorious new life in Christ. I didnt get this young ladys contact information, but she did ask me to bring my finished coffin up to the store so she could see it. I dont know if this new friendship will go anywhere or maybe I was just planting the seed with this young lady and someone else will come behind me to help this faith take rootbut no matter what

happens, I encourage you to keep praying for God to open your eyes to the 1 person he wants you to share the good news of Jesus with and hopefully be used by him to lead them into a deeper relationship with Jesus. All Ive to left to say is, God is
Good! All the time! And, All the time! God is good!