Someone has said, “Laughter is like changing a baby’s diaper--it doesn’t permanently solve any problems, but it makes things more acceptable for a while.”
We find ourselves today laughing at many things in life, such as:
- WE LAUGH AT JOKES. We all love a good joke and some people just live it seems to go around telling good jokes to cause people to laugh
-WE LAUGH AT PEOPLE. Have you noticed, when you laugh at something that happens to somebody else, that’s a good sense of humor. If it happens to us, that’s an outrage.
-WE LAUGH AT OURSELVES. Someone said, “One thing is certain. If you can laugh at your trouble, you will always have something to laugh at.”
-WE LAUGH AT OUR MATES. Someone said, “When a woman laughs at her husband’s jokes, either they are good jokes, or she’s a good wife.” We laugh at our mates.
-WE LAUGH AT IGNORANCE. Many enjoy listening to Paul Harvey. He discovered long ago that people enjoy laughing. One incident he reported was of a bank hold up. A Hispanic man robbed a bank. During the hold up he dropped a speeding violation ticket he had received that had his name, phone number, and address on it. Paul Harvey reported that shortly after the hold up the police were at his home to arrest him.
We go through life laughing at situations. Many of these situations which are no more than DUMB MISTAKES.
Illus: I am reminded of the story of the high school teacher who happened to have an unusual number of students who could be classified as “nuts.” After a particularly hard day of dealing with the below average students, he had to attend a teacher’s meeting. The principal knew the teachers had a hard day so he decided to have some light refreshments for them as he discussed various issues with them. He had some drinks, potato chips, cookies, and some nuts. As he was talking to all of the teachers, he stopped in the middle of what he was saying and said, “Mr. Jones, please pass the nuts.” The teacher said to the principal, “Is this an order sir? Most of those nuts deserve to flunk!”
Often gross ignorance produces humorous results.
Illus: The story is told of one young man whose eyes had been opened to Communism who was sitting in a college class when a teacher asked him, “Who were the first humans to live on earth?” Without hesitation, the young man responded, “Adam and Eve!’ The teacher said that is absolutely correct. She then asked the young man, “Were Adam and Eve Russians, or Americans?” Again, without hesitation the young man told the teacher they had to have been Russians. The teacher said, “You are absolutely correct again, but how can you be so sure that Adam and Eve were communists?”
The student told the teacher, “They had to be communists because they...
-Had no roof over their heads.
-Had no clothes on their backs.
-Had one apple between them.
and, they called this ‘Paradise..”
While we may laugh at ignorance, we also understand ignorance has caused much damage. For example,
Illus: When Saddam Hussein decided to invade Kuwait it drove the price of oil up around the world. That one, egotistical, power hungry, ignorant man cost mankind billions of dollars.
Ignorance has cost this country in many ways. Ignorance is as common in our society as the common cold. Also, like the common cold it has done a lot of damage in a lot of ways.
However, if you want an example of the height of ignorance you have to go back in time to what took place on Calvary’s hill.
On Calvary’s hill, man nailed the precious Son of God to a cross.
It boggles our mind to think. How could they have nailed Jesus to a cross! How could they have done such a thing?
We do not have to wonder how. Look at His prayer. He prayed, Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them; for they KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.”
You might say that was a nice way of saying that those people were DUMB! DUMB! DUMB!
God, in all His WISDOM and COMPASSION sent His Son to live among men to show them how to be saved. He healed the sick. He even raised the dead. How did people respond to such wisdom and compassion? THEY CRUCIFIED THE SON OF GOD! THIS IS THE HEIGHT OF IGNORANCE!
Look at this prayer again. Notice the words, “...they know not what they do.”
Jesus was saying that the men who did that terrible thing DID NOT KNOW WHAT THEY WERE DOING.
Even today, men who reject Christ as their Savior DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
I. THEY DO NOT KNOW THE MISERY IT COST THE FATHER.
Look at Ephesians 4:30, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
Look at the word, “grieve.” Most folks do not realize this (they are ignorant), but you can grieve the heart of God. That is, every day we live we cause God to rejoice, or we grieve Him.
Yes, every day we either GRIEVE God’s heart, or we cause Him TO REJOICE.
Every parent knows something about this kind of grief. Why? Because parents know when children disobey, it grieves their hearts.
Illus: A lady, a new convert, came to her pastor one day and said, “Pastor, I need to talk to you about something. I have this on my mind and it is about to run me crazy.” She continued, “When I was a teenager, I was one of the most disrespectful teenage girls that you could imagine to my parents. I broke their hearts. I am satisfied that they died an early death from worrying about me.” She went on to tell that one day she was smoking pot and her mother began to weep and cried out, “You do not care a thing about us, you are about to worry us to death!”
She then told how the bad seeds she had sown had come home to her because her children were about to run her crazy.
Then she said, “But I can not feel sorry for myself. I am only reaping what I sowed. My godly parents did not deserve the abuse I gave them!”
Lost person, listen, when you walk in sin you walk in ignorance.
Illus: It matters not if you have made many smart decisions that brought RICHES and ADVANCEMENT. The dumbest thing a person can do is reject Christ and disobey Him. YOU CAN DO NO DUMBER THING IN THIS LIFE! Why? Such a lifestyle grieves God’s heart.
The lost people in the world truly DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING today when they reject Christ Jesus.
THEY DO NOT KNOW THE MISERY IT COSTS THE FATHER. Secondly,
II. THEY DO NOT KNOW THE MISERY IT COSTS OTHERS.
Look at I Cor. 6:19. We read, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
Look at the words, “...know ye not...” The apostle Paul is again accusing them of being ignorant of what they are doing.
For example, when he spoke of the church, he spoke of it as a physical body. Why? The parallel is perfect. The “body,” of Christ is as the human body. What one member does affects the other members.
Illus: Just smash just one little toe on your foot and then try to let the rest of your body sleep. Just say, “Little fellow, I am sorry you got hurt today, but the rest of my body is tired. It needs rest. I will check on you in the morning.”
No you won’t! You will stay up with that little toe all night. When he aches, your whole body will stay awake to feel that pain. If you take a pain pill, the whole body will feel the relief as that little toe is relieved.
When one in this body of believers, that we call the church, hurts; we all hurt with him.
-This is why when one is lacking we come to his assistance financially. When that one is relieved, then we all are relieved.
-This is why when one of this body of believers that we call our church stands beside the coffin of a loved one, we stand there too. We hurt with him.
-This is why when one is in the hospital, we go to the bedside of that one.
Illus: When a pastor hears that a member of his flock has been rushed to the hospital, he drops whatever he is doing and rushes to his side. Why? Because whenever a member of his flock is facing a crisis, SO IS HE! Often people will say, “Oh pastor, you did not have to come to the hospital.” Yes he does! Love compels him to come.
Sometimes we hear people say about someone who is living in sin, “He is not hurting anyone except himself.” That is IGNORANCE speaking. What any person does affects his family, friends, neighbors, church, and even the nation in which we live.
Illus: Out of IGNORANCE, rebellious young people, bend on doing evil, will say to their loving parents. “It is my life. What I do to myself will not hurt anyone except myself!” That is one of the dumbest statements a teenager can make. What that teenager will do affects those parents to lay in bed at night and not sleep one wink. The next day they will go to work with no sleep and still carry a burden for that teenager on their heart and that dumb teenager said, “What I do will not affect anyone except me!”
When we do good it affects OTHERS! When we sin it affects OTHERS! Whatever we do affects others for GOOD or for BAD!
(1) Our SIN AFFECTS OUR FAMILY.
Illus: A family which seemed to be an ideal family turned out to be just the opposite. The husband wife had three boys and one girl. Just as the oldest son was about to graduate from high school the wife left home for another man just a little older than her oldest son. The news of what she did rocked the whole neighborhood, but more than that--it almost destroyed the rest of the family. Almost 40 years have gone by since she did that. Every one of her children has had some serious emotional problems
WE DO NOT KNOW what we are doing when we sin! What we do may not only destroy our happiness, but also the happiness of all who are around us.
(2) Our SIN AFFECTS OUR FRIENDS. When we sin WE DO NOT KNOW the MISERY it will bring to others. For example, what a tremendous price people pay for indulging in the sin of promiscuous sex. HOW LIGHTLY WE TALK ABOUT IT. Our schools claim they are teaching SAFE SEX. The Bible teaches the only way to BE SAFE--NO SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE! Experience has already taught us THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SAFE SEX OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARIES OF A GODLY MARRIAGE.
Illus: Would you board an airplane with a seating capacity of 100 when it was known before you left that two or three people would not come back alive, but the rest would be safe, WOULD YOU GET ON? I wouldn’t, and neither would any other sensible person.
Yet we have schools today where condoms are distributed as if they were pieces of candy with that kind of failure rate. WHAT A PRICE the world is paying for violating the sacred relationship that is to be between married men and women.
Illus: In November of 1996, we saw and heard reports on television of the millions of people who are starving to death. They are so hungry they are eating roots, and trying to suck moisture out of them, still they continue, like animals, to go from one to another making babies and bringing them into the world with no hope of being able to feed them.
When a nation chooses to disobey God, the people pay a tremendous price.
Also, as individuals, when we choose to sin, we pay a tremendous price.
Illus: A lady was warning young people on a national television talk show about the dangers of indulging in pre-marital sex. She was in her mid twenties. She was then married, and had a baby. She had AIDS. She told that she had dated a boy in high school who pressured her to have sex. She consented. After he was through with her, she heard no more from him. Her sin left within her the deadly aids virus. Now, when she should be ready to live and enjoy starting a family, she is making plans to die.
What we do will affect our church, nation, neighbors, and those around us. When we choose to sin, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING. If we knew, we would not do those things. Oh what a price we pay for our ignorance!
Conclusion: If a pastor could, some way, cause every sinner to see the face of God and the face of Satan during the invitation then every sinner would come to Jesus. If every person could see the SADNESS on the face of our Lord Jesus, and the SMILE on Satan’s face, every person would come, with tears streaming, to the altar.
I. THEY DO NOT KNOW THE MISERY IT COST THE FATHER.
II. THEY DO NOT KNOW THE MISERY IT COSTS OTHERS.
