Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

 If I were to look to the headlines of the newspaper or hear the opening lines of virtually any newscast …

If I were to look only at the scores of people I know who struggle daily with severe problems—diseases that have been diagnosed as terminal, marriages that are crumbling, children who are rebellious, communities that are being shattered by racism or eaten away by poverty, homes that are being destroyed by alcohol or chemical addictions …

If I were to focus only on the many civil war, intertribal, and religious conflicts that are raging around the world today …

If I were to listen only to people who are seeking to escape the horrors of present-day abuse or coping with the fear-evoking memories of past abuse …

If I were to keep my mind attuned only to the steady stream of programs on television that are filled with lewdness and violence …

It would be easy to lose hope.

But that is not where I look or focus my attention.

I have hope today.

It is an unshakable hope.

It is a hope based on something eternal and all-powerful.

It is a hope founded on good evidence.

The primary reason I’m hopeful today is that I know that I have a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

My relationship with Jesus Christ gives me an open door to everything that God has promised to His people in His Word.

It puts me into direct access to all the resources I will ever need, for any and every circumstance.

I have had enough experiences in my life to know that God is always there when I need Him.

He is /reliably/ there.

He is /certain/ to be there at all times.

I have absolute assurance that no matter what happens in my life, He is in control of my life—perfectly present, able, and at work—and since He is absolutely and completely sovereign, nothing can happen to me that is apart from His ultimate will for my life.

Because I know that God loves me perfectly and knows me intimately, I have hope in every situation.

No matter what happens to me, I can’t lose!

Even in what have appeared to be the worst possible circumstances in my personal life, I have been, and continue to be, hopeful.

I may appear to be suffering loss on the outside, but I am winning on the inside.

Why?

Because I am always looking to the Lord.

He is a victorious Lord; failure and futility are totally alien to His nature.

He imparts to me His victory, His righteousness, His perspective, His wisdom, His faith.

That does not mean that I am in denial about bad circumstances.

I live in the real world and have real problems just like everybody else.

But I refuse to be defeated by bad circumstances.

They do not have a hold on me.

They don’t fill me with fear or cause me to live in dread.

Certainly, many days are filled with problems that are so large, if I looked only at them and at nothing else, I could easily give way to despair.

But if I’m always looking to God from the midst of my circumstances, then I always have reason to hope.

He is above, beyond, and greater than my problems.

He is active in my problems.

And He is at work resolving my problems for my ultimate good and eternal future.

With that perspective, how can I not be hopeful?

I am linked to the sovereign and almighty King of the universe.

He is my heavenly Father.

He controls my life and desires a highly favorable outcome for me.

He is the anchor that always holds, no matter how severe the storm may be.

And He gives us very specific reasons on which each of us can base hope.

If you are without hope today, or if you have a loved one who is without hope, these are reasons you need to know about and take into your life.

This book is for you!

/My hope is built on nothing less \\ Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; \\ I dare not trust the sweetest frame, \\ But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

\\ On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; \\ All other ground is sinking sand, \\ All other ground is sinking sand./

/When darkness veils his lovely face, \\ I rest on his unchanging grace; \\ In every high and stormy gale, \\ My anchor holds within the veil.

\\ On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; \\ All other ground is sinking sand, \\ All other ground is sinking sand./

/His oath, his covenant, his blood \\ Support me in the whelming flood; \\ When all around my soul gives way, \\ He then is all my hope and stay.

\\ On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; \\ All other ground is sinking sand, \\ All other ground is sinking sand./

/When he shall come with trumpet sound, \\ O may I then in him be found!

\\ Dressed in his righteousness alone, \\ Faultless to stand before the throne.

\\ On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; \\ All other ground is sinking sand, \\ All other ground is sinking sand./

—Edward Mote, 1797–1874

“The Solid Rock”

Have you ever wondered about your purpose in life?

Have you ever wondered why God created you and what He has destined for you?

Have you ever asked yourself, What is my reason for getting up in the morning?

At the core of the depression and despair that many people feel is a nagging question: Why am I here?

The fact is, if you don’t know why you are here, then you don’t have a sense of purpose, direction, or meaning in your life.

If you are without a basic mooring for your soul, spirit, and mind, then it is very easy to lose hope.

If you don’t know why you are alive right now, then it is very difficult to see any reason for why you may continue to be alive in the future.

The very nature of hope requires that you have some sense of meaning and purpose for your life.

The Word of God says that you have a purpose, one that is both noble and highly desirable in the mind and heart of virtually every person who has ever lived: /You were created by God to love and be loved/.

Yes, you.

This statement is certainly true for all of humankind, but it is also a truth that is meant for you to embrace personally.

God loves /you/.

He loves you unconditionally, without limit or qualification, and He loves you personally and individually.

Not only does He love you and desire to shower you with His love, but He longs to be loved by you.

Furthermore, He desires that you love and be loved by other human beings.

God is generous—even extravagant—in His love.

He delights when you express His brand of unconditional love to others and when you experience that kind of love in return.

If I could use only one word to describe God’s nature and His desire for you, it would be /love/.

*/The Unfathomable Depth of God’s Love/*

The very essence of God’s being—His personality, His nature—is love.

The motivation for God’s sending Jesus into the world was love.

The most famous verse in all the Bible tells us this: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16 nkjv).

The reason that Jesus came to this earth, lived a victorious life, and then died as the one definitive and lasting sacrifice to reunite God and human beings was love.

God desires to have a relationship with you.

He desires to reveal Himself to you, to shower His love and good gifts upon you, and to live with you forever.

The apostle John told us in one of his letters that the supreme attribute of God is love.

John based that conclusion on his personal relationship with Jesus, having walked with Him for nearly three years of ministry before Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

He wrote this after having lived in relationship with the Lord Jesus for several decades after Jesus went to be with the Father:

/We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

(//1 John 4:14–16// //nkjv//)/

Note this one little phrase in the passage: “known and believed the love that God has for us.”

John /believed/ that God loved him.

John tended to refer to himself in his writings not by his name but as “the one whom Jesus loved.”

That was especially true in the gospel of John.

He certainly didn’t mean that Jesus loved him in an exclusive way.

John did not say that with pride; rather, he had great humility, in essence conveying that he, of all people, knew the love of God.

John was acknowledging that he was nobody without the love of Christ.

It was the hallmark of his identity, even more than his own name.

Christ’s love meant everything to him.

Remember that John was called one of the “Sons of Thunder” in the Gospels.

He no doubt was a sometimes boisterous, always passionate, periodically rambunctious, perhaps even an impetuous man—a fisherman who was truly a man’s man in every sense.