Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Martin Clark said every church should have a humor committee because there are more funny things that happen in church than in a zoo, for people are funnier than the animals.

God made man to be the only creature on earth who can laugh because of his sense of humor.

Christians need a sense of humor to deal with the reality that they are so fallible.

If all the mistakes pastors make were compiled in a book, it would make the unabridged dictionary look like a postage stamp in comparison.

One of the funniest mistakes I have ever read about was of the young pastor who just moved into the parsonage next to the church.

On his first Sunday they were having communion.

So he and his wife poured the grape juice into the little cups, and they thought they were ready.

But when it came time to serve, the pastor saw that they had not poured enough cups for the size of the congregation.

He leaned over the front pew and whispered to his wife, "Run next door and get that bottle of grape juice out of the refrigerator.

If you run fast enough you can be back before the deacons serve the cups."

She batted out the side door and flew to the parsonage.

She did not bother to even switch on the lights.

She just grabbed what she thought was the bottle of grape juice, and tore back to the church.

What she had was a bottle of green parsimmon juice.

The young pastor, with complete faith in his wife, did not bother to read the label.

He just uncapped it and poured its contents into the cups for himself and the deacons.

It was perfect timing, for just as he finished, the deacons were marching down the isle with their empty trays.

The pastor then served the deacons and led the congregation in drinking the juice.

Suddenly his lips began to pucker and he knew he had a problem.

He leaned over and wheezed, "deacon Jones will you please lead in closing prayer."

Deacon Jones was having his own problems, and was barely able to smack his lips and get out, "Please excuse me!"

The pastor surveyed the situation and could see none of the deacons were able to pray.

The congregation had no idea what was going on, for they had perfectly normal grape juice.

Finally the pastor motioned all to stand and said, "Well, friends, let's whistle the doxology and go home."

Murphey's law has not been repealed for the church.

Even in the most solemn and sacred moments Christians leaders provoke laughter by their slips of the tongue.

Billy Graham in a message in Atlanta roared out, "David slew Goliath and then he turned around and killed him."

Another pastor prayed, "Oh Lord, make us more offensive--I mean Lord, put on the offensive."

Another introduced the new music director with these words, "We are delighted he is coming to lead us in our sinning."

At a testimony meeting on the campus of a Christian college a tearful freshman concluded his personal testimony with what he thought was a sincere request.

He said, "Please pray I'll not be found sleeping with the five foolish virgins when Jesus comes."

At every homecoming since, this is remembered as a choice moment of laughter.

There is no end to the laughter producing goofs of Christians, but my point in sharing these is to make it clear that this sort of laughter is not what we are dealing with, as we consider the fruit of the Spirit, which is joy.

You do not need the Holy Spirit to see the humor in life.

This is a gift God has made available to all men.

The non Christian can have as good a sense of humor as the Christian.

Jews have always been the major contributors to the world of comedy.

So Christians do not have a monopoly on laughter.

Laughter is a universal gift.

But joy is something else.

Joy is much deeper, for joy is based on love and not laughter.

Joy is the feeling that even if I blew it, and made a blunder that everyone laughed at, I am loved and not rejected for my mistake.

That is a good feeling that lasts after the laughter quickly passes away.

Laughter is momentary, but joy is a state of mind that is permanent.

Joy makes you happy even when there is nothing funny to laugh at.

We see this all through the New Testament.

This was the joy of Jesus.

He is about to go to the cross and suffer on a level we can never comprehend, yet He says to His disciples in John 15:11, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that you joy may be full."

Again in His great prayer in John 17:13 He says, "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them."

Jesus was loaded with the fruit of the Spirit, and He had all the joy one is capable of possessing.

But you will notice, it was not because life was funny, and He was having a ball.

He was facing the worst life could throw at Him with evil, suffering, pain, hate, injustice, cruelty, and betrayal.

Yet, Jesus had fullness of joy.

We see it also in Paul and Silas in Acts 16.

They were attacked and beaten, and we read in verse 23, "After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison; and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully."

So he put their feet in stocks so they could not move.

It was not what you would call a fun day at the park.

It was a terrible day, and these men had to be in pain.

Nevertheless, we read in verse 25, "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them."

This is when God sent an earthquake, and the jailer was converted with his whole family.

Joy is not a positive feeling that life is going great.

Joy is a feeling that no matter how hard life is, I have the best that life can offer in Christ.

Anyone can feel good and be happy when all is going well and life is free of negatives.

But with the fruit of joy you can rejoice in the Lord always, even when life is full of negatives.

This is not man generated joy, but the joy of the Lord which is our strength.

Madam Guyon was thrown into prison in France, and she wrote-

"I passed my time there in great peace, content to pass the

rest of my life there, if such were the will of God.

I sang

songs of joy, while the maid who served me learned by

heart as fast as I made them, and we together sang Thy

praises, o my God.

The stones of my prison looked in

my eyes like rubies.

I esteemed them more than all the

gaudy brilliance of the world.

My heart was full of that

joy Thou givest to them that love Thee in the midst of

their greatest crosses."

Her poetry, which she sang in prison, is still read and sung today, thou she died in 1717.

She wrote forty volumes.

Here are just a few lines-

Tho my foes have combined

and my body confined

yet my soul is with liberty blest.

I am humbly content

With whatever is sent

For I know that Thy pleasure is best.

Thy wondrous defense

Makes a cell seem immence.

It sheds so peculiar a grace.

Such a pleasure abounds,

Such a glory surrounds,

And the joys of Thy kingdom embrace.

This is not natural joy but the fruit of the Spirit joy.

The joy that can only grow in the life of one who knows, that no matter what, they are loved by God.

Joy grows out of love, the first fruit of the Spirit.

Joy is not the laughter of the sense of humor, but the laughter of love which says, nothing can separate me from the love of God.

This joy does lead to laughter, and what we call happiness, for it fills one with a sense of optimism.