Well, today is Halloween. Like it or hate it is has become an American tradition unlike any other. Some celebrate it to an extreme with all mystic and cultic implications. Others celebrate it innocently as a time to dress up in their favorite costume and collect candy. A standard institution around Halloween is the haunted house. Just Saturday night some of the men from Phillips St. took our teenagers to a couple of haunted houses/trails in Jackson and Medina, TN with the point to be scared out of our minds. Halloween is meant to a be a time of fear. But far above ghosts and goblins is something that we should fear – the idea of being lost! Our sermon starter today is an outline I preached on Halloween a few years ago to remind us that to fall into the hands of an angry God is something to fear immensely.
Title: That Which We Should Fear the Most
Text: Matthew 10:28
Main Point: Someone once said that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” That may be true to an extent, at least in this material world, but with regards to spiritual matters there is something far more fearful than fear itself – eternal condemnation.
Discussion Points:
1. The Temptation of the Lost Soul – Three temptations confront the lost soul every day:
- The Temptation to Stay – some are just satisfied in sin, thus they are tempted to remain in their lost state (Matthew 16:19-22).
- The Temptation to Wander – Sin often results in open doors to further sin – example: a sheep eats moving down and moves forward and around as he does without watching where he’s going, the result is that the sheep wanders far away from the other sheep and the shepherd without realizing it.
- The Temptation to Go – Sin also results in dissatisfaction with the “status quo.” This means that the more they remain in sin the more they desire to increase their pleasure by committing more sin. Luke 15:11-32 – the prodigal was not satisfied with the life he was living and traveled to the far country to indulge in riotous living.
2. The Terror of the Lost Soul – Matthew 25 addresses three particular terrors that will exist at the judgment scene for the soul that is lost:
- The Terror of the Scene – the lost soul will quake in fear to see Jesus, the perfect Judge, sitting at the judgment seat because His longsuffering has expired and His justice will now be met (Matthew 25:31).
- The Terror of the Sound – Matthew 25:41-45 – The deeds done by that person will be fully revealed and ultimately they will hear the sound of condemnation “Depart from me for I never knew you.”
- The Terror of the Sentence – Matthew 25:46a – Hell will be eternal, a place of everlasting fire and separation from God, the place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:44,46,48). It is outer darkness.
3. The Tragedy of the Lost Soul – the tragedy of the lost is ultimately that each of them could have been saved. Every soul lost is lost because of neglect, they neglected God, His truth, His righteousness, and His grace. At the judgment the urgency of the Great Commission will have more meaning than ever before because of the countless billions who will be pronounced lost. This means we should live our lives trying with all effort to not have to hear those fateful words from a companion in this life, “You never mentioned Him to me!”
What a terrible tragedy awaits the lost. It is truly something that should make us tremble in fear. Let’s work to remind the world of that which we should fear the most.
-Andy Brewer