Click HERE to return to Brother Aaron’s Sermons
The PATHETIC RAGS of Life
Isaiah 64: 6
Text Scripture:
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Intro:
ILLUSTRATION:
"Nobody wants to be called common people, especially common people." … Will Rogers
ILLUSTRATION:
"There is something about riding down the street on a prancing horse that makes you feel like something, even when you ain't a thing." … Will Rogers.
From time-to-time, in life we all feel like the fellow on the prancing horse … each of us feels like we’re really something … when we ain’t a thing!
According to the Bible, outside of God’s grace, all of our attempts at “being “SOMETHING” or being ‘SOMEBODY” are at best: PATHETIC!
The text scripture states:
· We are all as an unclean thing
· All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags
· We all do fade as a leaf
· And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Despite our Accomplishments
Despite the Accolades
Despite the Applause
No matter how good we seem … WE CANNOT SUSTAIN OUR OWN GOODNESS.
We all fail
We all stand at the foot of the cross on level ground: SINNERS IN NEED OF A SAVIOR!
We all need the TRANSFORMING POWER of Jesus Christ applied to our lives!
ILLUSTRATION:
· In England there's a paper factory that makes the finest stationery in the world.
· One day a man touring the factory asked what the paper was made from.
· He was shown a huge pile of old rags.
· The rag content is what determined the quality of the paper.
· The man wouldn't believe it.
· In 6 weeks he received a package of paper from the company with his initials embossed on it.
· On the 1st page were written the words: "Dirty Rags Transformed."
· In three words we find the purpose of the WHOLE BIBLE and the reason for Jesus’ earthly ministry: "Dirty Rags Transformed."
o Our best efforts at holiness are PATHETIC
o The TRANSFORMING POWER of the SAVIOR is: PRECIOUS!
Lest we forget … this is the work of our Savior … this is also our work!
Seeing failed lives … the DIRTY RAGS …
TRANSFORMED!
Tonight I want to give you seven principles that will transform Pathetic Rags:
1: Love God More than Life Itself
Exodus 20:
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Matthew 22:
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Have you had a LIFE CHANGING ENCOUNTER with Jesus?
Are you PASSIONATE about Jesus?
Are you PASSIONATE about doing His work in your personal life?
Are you PASSIONATE about His work in this church?
We are talking about seven principles that will transform PATHETIC RAGS:
1: Love God More than Life Itself
2: Live as if You Are Dying … Because … YOU ARE!
Seldom do I listen
to Country Music. However, the other
day, for whatever the reason, I heard Tim McGraw’s song: LIVE LIKE YOU WERE
DYING
The lyrics say what
I want to say tonight:
He said: "I was
in my early forties,
"With a lot of life before me,
"An' a moment came that stopped me on a dime.
"I spent most of the next days,
"Looking at the x-rays,
"An' talking 'bout the options an' talkin’ ‘bout sweet time."
I asked him when it sank in,
That this might really be the real end?
How’s it hit you when you get that kind of news?
Man whatcha do?
An' he said: "I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'."
He said "I was finally the husband,
"That most the time I wasn’t.
"An' I became a friend a friend would like to have.
"And all of a sudden goin' fishin’,
"Wasn’t such an imposition,
"And I went three times that year I lost my Dad.
"Well, I finally read the Good Book,
"And I took a good long hard look,
"At what I'd do if I could do it all again,
"And then:
"I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'."
Like tomorrow was a gift,
And you got eternity,
To think about what you’d do with it.
An' what did you do with it?
An' what can I do with it?
An' what would I do with it?
"Sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I watched Blue Eagle as it was flyin'."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'."
There are three very important list that should govern each of our lives:
1: Our TO DO List
2: Our NOT TO DO List
3: Our TO DO BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE TO DO list
We are talking about seven principles that will transform PATHETIC RAGS:
1: Love God More than Life Itself
2: Live as if You Are Dying … YOU ARE!
3: Latch-on to the REAL THINGS in LIFE
ILLUSTRATION:
· Velveteen Rabbit
ILLUSTRATION:
· Movie: Toy Story:
· Woody (Cowboy main character)
· Buzz Lightyear (Space Ranger)
· Thought he could fly
· Woody tells him he can’t fly … he’s just a child’s play thing
· Then Woody, feeling badly, tells him to look on the bottom of his foot
· Written in indelible ink is the child’s name
· PROPERTY OF!!!
·
Woody tells him he is important … not because of
what he can do … but because of who he belongs to!
ILLUSTRATION:
· Retired Music Teacher and a young man sharing an apartment
· Teacher wheelchair bound
·
Routine … every morning the young man would come
bounding down the stairs and ask: Hey old man, what’s the good news today?
·
Without hesitation, he would take a Middle-C tuning
fork from the side pouch of his wheelchair, strike in on the arm and say: The
good news is that this is a Middle-C.
·
It was Middle-C yesterday.
·
It will be Middle-C tomorrow.
·
The piano down the hall is out of tune.
·
The tenor upstairs sing off key
·
BUT THAT, MY BOY … IS A MIDDLE C!
In a world filled with uncertainty … the old man had found something both familiar and constant!
The Good News today is:
· The tomb was empty three days after the crucifixion
· It will is empty today
· It will still be empty tomorrow!
· AND THAT JESUS LOVES YOU … WARTS AND ALL!!!
We are talking about seven principles that will transform PATHETIC RAGS:
1: Love God More than Life Itself
2: Live as if You Are Dying … YOU ARE!
3: Latch-on to the REAL THINGS in LIFE
4: Limit Bad Thoughts and Bad Company
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
We are talking about seven principles that will transform PATHETIC RAGS:
1: Love God More than Life Itself
2: Live as if You Are Dying … YOU ARE!
3: Latch-on to the REAL THINGS in LIFE
4: Limit Bad Thoughts and Bad Company
*Some people suck the life right
out of you!
*Be around people who make you a
better you!
5 Leave a LEGACY of What you GAVE
not what you GOT!
Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Acts 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
We are talking about seven principles that will transform PATHETIC RAGS:
1: Love God More than Life Itself
2: Live as if You Are Dying … YOU ARE!
3: Latch-on to the REAL THINGS in LIFE
4: Limit Bad Thoughts and Bad Company
5 Leave a LEGACY of What you GAVE not what you GOT!
6: LAUGH
Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
· To laugh often and much;
· To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
· To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
· To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
· To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
· To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
· This is to have succeeded. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are talking about seven principles that will transform PATHETIC RAGS:
1: Love God More than Life Itself
2: Live as if You Are Dying … YOU ARE!
3: Latch-on to the REAL THINGS in LIFE
4: Limit Bad Thoughts and Bad Company
5: Leave a LEGACY of What you GAVE not what you GOT!
6: LAUGH
7: LEARN to FORGIVE
Matthew 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
ILLUSTRATION:
· Man caught in adultery
· Begged his wife to forgive
· She couldn’t find it in her heart to do so
· After years of begging forgiveness and seeking reconciliation, he went on with his life
· On her death bed she called her children to her side and said: I WILL DIE A MISERABLE, LONELY OLD WOMAN … BECAUSE I COULDN’T FIND IT IN MY HEART TO FORGIVE YOUR FATHER!
· Don’t make this mistake in your lives!!!
ILLUSTRATION:
Dungeon of Unforgiveness
Close:
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.