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Inspired Christian Sermons
Sunday Sermon #5
A Song or a Snarl?
By
Pastor Jeremy Muniz
Jeremy Muniz is the Pastor of First Baptist Church in DeSoto, Missouri, USA. Click the Affiliated Church Directory link below to visit their web site or to contact Pastor Muniz.
Romans 1:18-32
Coming to Terms With The Way Things Are
When I was a little boy, I attended Unity Elementary School in Massac County, Illinois.
This tiny grade school had one class for grades K-8, an office, a kitchen, an activity room and a gymnasium. For some reason, we didn't have a cafeteria. Thus, when it was lunch time, we would file down to the kitchen and pick up our trays and take them back to our rooms to eat at our desks.
This arrangement did not seem to bother any of us, and at times, it was quite
advantageous. For example, I remember very well our lunch times during my second grade year. Mrs. Hensley had an old record player in the back corner of the room that she would play records on during the lunch hour. Her practice was to allow the children to bring his or her favorite record to class in turn. When it came time for me to bring a record to class, I brought my favorite record. I cannot tell you how excited I was to share this record with my peers. In my opinion, it was a masterpiece of an album that mixed sublime tunes with jokes as clever as any eight year old could imagine. Never was there such a long morning, I knew that particular lunch would be the greatest lunch in the history of Unity Elementary. It would be a lunch period that my friends would one day cherish as one of their most delightful memories from childhood.
I recall Mrs. Hensley instructing me to place my record on the record player and start the lunch time entertainment. I pulled the record out of my bag and quickly placed it on the turn table. Next, I placed the needle on the black vinyl and adjusted the volume, I scurried back to my seat and began to munch on my sandwich with glee as the record began to dispense its glorious contents. I recall humming the tunes along with the record. I remember laughing at the jokes that I had found so amusing. But more than anything else, I remember that no one else seemed to like the record one little bit. My friends, my very best friends in the world, looked at me and said,
"This is silly." It was incredible and incredulous, the overwhelming consensus was that my
record was pretty much the worst record they had ever heard! I can't tell you how crushed I was that day. How was it that an entire group of my peers found my favorite record to be perfect rubbish? I learned a very powerful lesson that day - not everyone has good taste!
It is important for each of us to come to terms with the way things are in this world.
Honest people disagree about what is good, beautiful, and even true. I could grab any two of you right now, take you to my car and play a CD for you. One of you might love the song I play and find it to be the most enjoyable three minutes of your day. The other might state that this was quite possibly the most dreadful song ever composed and that the last three minutes were less fun than last week's root canal. How is this possible? Two human beings that can be alike in so many ways, can hear the same song, and yet, have completely different feelings about that song.
Let's take this thought one step further. I realize that on any given Sunday in our church,
we have dozens of visitors in worship. How is it that some walk away completely unfazed and
unimpressed? These people did not seem to enjoy one song, one prayer, or one word of the
sermon. And yet, the fellow next to them felt the Spirit of God moving in their heart from the
opening prayer. If asked, this person might say something like, "I felt like I was the only person
here today - everything seemed custom designed for the needs of my heart." Two people and
two completely different responses.
This forces us to ask, "Is worship, and ultimately a
relationship with God, just a matter of personal preference?" I personally think that there is much more involved here than mere preference.
We live in a less than perfect world that was
made less than perfect by bad choices. These bad choices, otherwise known as sin in Scripture,
cause disagreement between human beings and distance between human beings and God.
Depending on the choices we make during our lifetimes, we will have more or less disagreement
with human beings - more or less distance between our hearts and God's. To love God or not to
love God is not merely a question of taste, it is instead a question of condition.
To put it simply, the condition that we find ourselves in is not overtly positive. The
world has a propensity to makes us cold and cynical. Pain and suffering have the effect of
driving a wedge between us and God. If we are not careful, we can be driven so far from God
that we can no longer hear His love song - all that we hear is the cacophonous din and roar of a
mixed-up and backward world. This world can be a dark place. Life's realities are harsh and we
need a light of grace and hope. But before we can find grace and hope it is important that we
evaluate where we stand, and who we are.
Where We Stand and Who We Are
The first book in C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia is The Magician's Nephew. In
this amazing little book, Lewis describes the creation of the world of Narnia. The fanciful tale
describes how Polly, Digory, their Uncle Andrew, a wicked witch, and a London cabby along
with his horse Strawberry find their way from our world into Narnia. When this group first sets
foot in Narnia, it is formless and void. There is nothing but darkness until a beautiful song
begins to resonate through the void. The far off voice is soon joined by countless voices in a
higher pitch. In that very instant, the sky of Narnia was filled with a galaxy of stars. The first
voice, now more loud and triumphant, began to sing alone once more. It was then that the sky
became grey, a wind began to blow, and hills began to form in the distance. A young sun then
rose in the east and illuminated the land of Narnia. The children and their company could see
that they were in a valley with a broad swift river in the middle of it. But there was only earth,
rock and water - no life. Then everyone saw the singer himself, it was a lion! The lion was
huge, shaggy, and bright. It stood facing the sun with its mouth open in song. Suddenly, the
song changed. The new song was more gentle, and as the lion sung it, green grass began to grow
in the valley, then trees, and then flowers! The children began to realize that the lion's song was
causing the world to come alive. They were not the least bit frightened by this awesome lion,
they realized that all of the beautiful things of this world came straight from the lion's mind!
It wasn't long until the song changed again, and with that change, animals began to spring
up from the ground. Every sort of animal arose and soon the fields were filled with every kind of
animal imaginable. The air was filled with "cawing, cooing, braying, neighing, baying, barking,
lowing, bleating, and trumpeting" - it almost had the effect of drowning out the lion's song.
Soon the animals came to gather around the lion, he breathed life into them and exclaimed
"Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine
waters."
The children and the London cabby were enchanted by the lion's beautiful song. But not
everyone liked what they heard. The witch and Uncle Andrew clearly despised the song, the
glorious magic of the lion, and the new world of Narnia. The witch even tried to harm the lion,
but to no effect. Uncle Andrew stood at a distance trying to figure out how to take advantage of
this amazing world where things grew literally from the "ground up." The witch, as we soon find
out, is pure evil. Her hatred for the lion is clearly understandable. She is the opposite of Aslan
the lion, the antithesis of all that is good and wholesome. But what of Uncle Andrew, why could
he not appreciate the beauty of the song? Why could he not drink in the joy of a fresh world
newly created?
C. S. Lewis senses that the reader might ask such a question and explains how someone
can experience something divine and not just reject it, but despise it. The narrator here mentions:
"For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on
what sort of person you are." And thus we discover the rub! Beauty, grace and truth are there for
all to see, but some choose to stand in a place of judgment and skepticism. They do so because
of their fear, their greed, their malice, their human imperfections.
Uncle Andrew had heard the song and witnessed the same glorious results that the
children saw. But as the children and the cabby felt drawn to the lion, Uncle Andrew felt
repulsed by it. At first, he recognized the song of Aslan but "disliked the song very much." How
is this possible? Because of the sort of person he was. He was a man who was practical, he had
no room in his heart for some foolish lion. He was a man who was selfish. Throughout the
narrative, Uncle Andrew proves himself to be totally unconcerned with the welfare of others.
And finally, he was a man with cruelty and hatred in his heart. The narrator lets us know that he
had been rather cruel to animals back in his own world. There were stains on Uncle Andrew's
soul, stains that he could sense in a very real way the moment the lion began to sing. The song
"made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel." The song forced Uncle
Andrew to wrestle with the darkness within, the feeling that he needed something more in his
life.
Due to his hardness of heart, Uncle Andrew quickly determined that the lion wasn't
singing or talking at all. In fact, it wasn't long before he was quite convinced that the lion was
just roaring . . . like all lions do. The narrator wisely comments: "Now the trouble about trying
to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did."
Because of his calloused soul, Uncle Andrew got to a point where "he couldn't have heard
anything else (other than a roar) even if he had wanted to. By the time the lion said, "Narnia.
Narnia. Awake!"- Uncle Andrew could hear nothing but a snarl. The condition of his heart
turned a song into a snarl.
Where Do You Stand?
The Bible confronts every human being with a simple question - "Where do you stand?"
To make a decisive choice in our day is to choose a path rarely traveled! The prevailing
philosophies of our day encourage us to be accepting and tolerant of all beliefs. Our culture
prides itself on encouraging us to stand where ever we feel most comfortable. When it comes to
spiritual truth, the relativists of our day would view the choice of one religion over another as a
matter of taste, cultural conditioning, mere preference. You like one song, I like another. You
like Jesus, I like Buddha.
But you cannot stand everywhere at once! Not all truths can be true. Such a philosophy
is unlivable. That it is to say, whether one realizes it or not, we all take a stand somewhere.
Many choose to stand on the shaky ground of relativism. They choose a way of life that is
inherently self-contradictory. They embrace ambiguity and seem not to care that two competing
and opposite ideas cannot be true at the same time. If we choose to stand on untruths, we choose
a life of deceit and death. Like Uncle Andrew, we put ourselves in a position where the truth is
ignored and despised.
Countless millions are standing in opposition to God and the teachings of His word. How
is that possible? It is possible because we are all standing in a fallen and imperfect world. So
many willingly reject God in this world because this world is inflicted with a curse. The Bible
lets us know that evil entered into the world at the very beginning. The effects of disobedience
sent a ripple effect through time and space. This world has experienced a fall, a plunge into the
abyss of sin. To help us understand exactly where we stand in this less than perfect world, it will
help us to hear the words of Saint Paul written to the Christians in Rome nearly 2,000 years ago.
Paul helps us understand why it is so hard for us to find God from where we stand here in this
world. Paul writes,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about
God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes,
namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the
creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For
although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they
became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be
wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave
them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among
themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason
God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations
for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with
women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts
with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did
not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought
not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness,.8
malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to
parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those
who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those
who practice them (Romans 1:18-32).
We are in need of help from a gracious God. We need His help to see the beauty of creation and
hear the song of the Creator. As Paul clearly explains to us in Romans 1:18-32, those who do not
believe are subject to God's wrath. They stand pat in their stubbornness and refuse to listen to
God's love song, they refuse to embrace His beauty.
Uncle Andrew heard the beautiful song of Aslan and deliberately attempted to suppress
its significance. Our shortcomings in life pull us further from the perfect song of God. As long
as God stays out of our life, we find it possible to "suppress the truth". As Lewis puts it,
"the trouble with trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often
succeed." Like a petulant child, we close our eyes and stop up our ears with our fingers so that
we do not have to acknowledge the uncomfortable presence of perfect purity. No one likes to
feel inadequate. No one enjoys being faced with every fault and failure. No one wants to think
of themselves as a helpless creature in need of help from above. But when God is present, we
cannot help but feel inadequate, full of faults, in need of help from above. The wickedness of the
world stirs our pride and causes us to recoil from the song of God. The Lord is reaching out to us
through His creation, through the truth of His word - but our wicked hearts turn the lovely voice
of the Creator into a snarl. All we hear is judgment. All God wants to give us is grace.
There is beauty, form, and truth to be found in this world. It is plain for all to see
according to Paul. But sin's power over us is wicked strong. If we embrace the material
world that surrounds us without a realization of its tainted, fallen nature; we exchange the perfect
truth of God for the lies, idols, and unnatural ways it has to offer (cf. 21-24, 25-26a). The
sovereign God of creation does not force His truth upon our souls. Because of His great love for
each of us, He allows us to choose our path. If we choose to stand in our sins, he "hands" us over
to our own lusts and the wicked desires of our hearts. The more we reject the truth and
beauty of God, the more difficult it becomes to translate the beauty of creation into the "love
song" it was meant to be. We embrace false gods of our own making and reject ultimate truth
along with the ultimate Creator.
Without doubt, we are standing in a dangerous spot! This world can so darken our view
that we fail to see God working right in front of our faces. We began to speak in terms of "luck"
or "fortune" instead of "blessing" and "Providence." The more urbane and sophisticated we
become, the more foolish we become spiritually. This leads to debauchery. A
debauchery that leads us further and further from God's truth. Before long, we embrace the most
wicked ways. Our lives become filled with "all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness,
malice - full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness - gossip, slander" - we begin to "hate
God" we are "insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish,
faithless, heartless, ruthless." We began to reflect the world instead of the God in whose image
we were created. It is then that we are willing to take a stand and adopt wrong as right and right
as wrong.
Just like Uncle Andrew, many of us do not like the conviction we feel when we are
confronted with "the divine nature". When the Spirit of God begins to convict us with His
sweet song that where we are standing is the wrong place, we immediately "dislike this song"
and let our less than perfect nature get the best of us. This is a tragedy that can only be avoided
when we allow the sweet voice of the Lord reveal to us exactly who we are.
Who Are You?
The world we live in causes us to have an identity crisis. The darkness of the world keeps
us from realizing who we were created to be. Only the "Good News" of Jesus Christ can shed
light on our true identities. The message of the Bible, from lid to lid, is one of a God who has
gone to great lengths to reach down to where we are and provide deliverance for "everyone who
believes". God is ultimately "relational" and is seeking out those who will become His
children of grace. We live in a world of death and destruction. However, God extends to us His
gracious arm of deliverance and desires for all who will believe to grab hold!
Generally speaking, the creation shouts out the existence of a beautiful and perfect God.
Not even sin's destructive power can rob nature of God's signature. Since the beginning, the
beauty of our Father's world has been calling us home - calling us to leave our shortcomings
behind and embrace truth, love and grace. Specifically, God's word helps us discover the
ultimate desire of our beautiful God. He desires to establish a relationship with us through His
Son Jesus Christ. It was Jesus Christ who made peace with the universe through His death on a
cross (Cf. Col. 1:20). The Lord was crucified, died, was buried, and rose again so that we could
establish a connection with God that was severed when the human race committed its first sin.
This is "Good News" indeed! There is no shame in such a message, there is only the "power" of
love and deliverance from eternal death.
It is not until we are willing to admit our insufficiency, our lack of strength, that God's glorious grace can come and rescue us. Yes, it hurts to admit that there is sin in our lives. Yes, it
is hard to fall on your face and admit to God that you have been traveling down the wrong path in
life. The din and roar of a fallen world muffles the song of the Creator that can always be heard
through His creation. The heavens and earth declare that God is a reality, but will we
have the faith to open the eyes of our hearts and see His "invisible attributes"?
There are no easy answers. Coming to terms with who you are is the most important
journey of your life! In fact, if you are willing to dig deep into your heart and discover your true
self, God will reach down and touch your life. God is calling you. Do you hear His song?
Sadly, some of you will leave here today without Christ in your heart. You will not allow the
Spirit of God to transform and renew your mind (cf. Rom. 12:1-2). Without God's help, you will
always hear the snarl and miss the song. When the snarl dominates our lives, we live in the
"futility" of a sinful lifestyle.
Imagine that you are planning a very long trip. You are given a complex set of directions
that are intended to help you find your way. You start off on your journey and soon come to your
first turn. When the moment arrives, you turn the wrong way, you start down the wrong path.
Instead of correcting your course, you keep making wrong turn after wrong turn. Soon you are
lost with little hope of getting back on track.
Some of you have taken some wrong turns in your life. You have compounded bad
choices with more bad choices. There are days when you feel like you will never be able to find
your way "home" again. The beauty of God has become less visible in your life, you have
trouble even hearing the faint whisper of His beautiful song. In the absence of God, you have embraced a few idols - idols that are pulling you down into a vortex of despair. But the memory
of the perfect Creator God is not completely lost, in the last few moments, you have heard His
tune in your soul. You heart is longing for the meaning and wholeness that you know He alone
can provide.
God has brought you to this moment so that you can hear His song once more. You are
here because He wants you to see how desperately you need His grace. Dear friend, AWAKE!
AWAKE! The Lord is wooing you with His love song. Do not let a sinful world rob you of
perfect joy. Do not allow the Lord's song of salvation to become a snarl of judgment!
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