Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

The best of Christians make their share of mistakes, but John Turner was apparently trying to get a large portion of his quota of mistakes out of the way all in one day.

John was a conscientious pastor who got to his church early one Sunday morning, and he discovered that he had left his sermon notes at home.

He thought it was no problem.

There was plenty of time to correct his first mistake of the day.

But when he got home, he discovered his second mistake.

He had left his notes on the table right where his 18 month old daughter eats breakfast.

The notes were sopping wet from a glass she had turned over.

It was no problem he thought, for he could wipe them dry in time.

The words were blurred somewhat, but still readable.

He finally left for church as he corrected his second mistake of the day, and all was still under control.

Out of the house he bounded with all he needed, except for one thing.

He left his car keys in the house, and also the key to the house on the same key chain.

Mistake number three was staring him in the face.

He didn't have time for mistake number 3. Church was about to begin and he was several miles away locked out of his house, and with no keys to the car, and his family had already gone to church.

Desperation drives one to desperate measures.

They had a dog's door on the bottom of their back door that led to the back yard.

It was for the dog to be able to come and go, especially to go.

Pastor Turner was not so proud that he would not lower himself to getting into his house by Woofy's door.

He shed his suit coat, and got on his knees and proceeded to squirm into mistake number 4. He was bigger than the dog, and when he got half way in he was stuck, and could not move either way.

There he was half in and half out, and his congregation was probably already singing, "Stand up, Stand up for Jesus."

His dog was deeply impressed with the new game, and was licking his face the whole time.

It seemed like an eternity that he was stuck there, but he finally was able to twist around and reach the door knob.

He even eventually got to church, but due to his lateness he had to share the whole embarrassing story of his comedy of errors.

His experience proves that reality can be funnier than fiction, and that there is always room for improvement in our lives as Christians.

And not just in the trivialities of where we put our notes and keys, but in the tremendous areas of life like what do we do with our love?

Is it possible to ever make mistakes with our love, and foul up life with a poor use of the highest of all virtues?

If not, why would Paul pray that the love of the Philippians would abound more and more in knowledge, and depth of insight, so they could discern what is best.

The implication is that love can lack knowledge, and when it does it can chose what is less than the best.

In other words, uneducated love can make foolish choices.

J. Vernon McGee in his famous Through The Bible Series tells of when he first became a pastor of a church in downtown Los Angeles.

He did not know that there were people who loved to see new preachers come into the area, for they tended to be such suckers.

One Sunday morning a man came forward in the service, and he refused to talk to anyone but the pastor.

The personal worker told pastor McGee, and the pastor showed the man the way of salvation.

He was so interested that tears came to his eyes.

He got on his knees and prayed the sinner's prayer.

Then he told pastor McGee that he needed money to get his suitcase out of a hotel.

They were holding it until he paid for his room.

McGee felt obligated to help him out and so he gave him the money for the hotel.

He felt good about being such a Good Samaritan.

But then, six weeks later, he saw the man's picture in the paper.

He had been arrested.

The article told of how he had been living for six months off the preachers of the city.

His comment was, "They are the biggest saps in the world."

McGee knew he was one of them, and he learned quickly that love has to be discerning, or it can be used for folly.

McGee focused on this verse for his own life, and he wrote, "Paul says to let your love abound more and more, but let it abound in judgment, let it abound in being able to discern.

Over the years when I would drive to my study in Los Angeles, I use to say to the Lord, "I'm going to meet new people today, and I don't know them.

Some of them I will be able to help.

Others of them will put a knife in my back.

Lord, help me to be able to distinguish between the two.

Show me which I should help."

Actually this verse rescues a Christian from being naïve and gullible.

His love is to abound in knowledge and discernment."

Like most loving people, he had to learn by experience that love alone is not enough, for love can be uneducated, and when it is it can do stupid things.

Love has to abound in knowledge.

It has to get educated if it is to make wise choices that lead to the glory and praise of God.

Feelings alone can set you up for a fall.

A young boy wanted to go swimming but his mother said no because it is to cold.

He said, "Can I just go and look at the swimming hole?"

She said, okay to that.

He came back and his hair was all wet.

She said, "Did you swim?" "No, I fell in." "Then why are your clothes dry?" "I felt like I was going to fall in, so I took them off."

His punishment made him realize that he allowed his feelings to lead him into making a wrong choice.

Paul's point here is, if love gets educated and abounds in knowledge, it will be able to discern what is best.

Uneducated love chooses what is less than the best because it is not able to discern.

Uneducated love goes too much by feelings alone, and this leads to unwise decisions.

I love music, for example, but if I went by my feelings alone and decided to give my life to music, I may waste my life trying to do what I am not gifted to do.

Wise love seeks for confirmation of feelings.

If other Christians do not feel the same, then I have to recognize my feelings may not fit the evidence.

If there is no abounding evidence to support my feelings, they must be seen as love on a very low level of education, and not mature enough to make major decisions.

"It is not the calling of cats to plow, or horses to cat mice."

Every Christian needs to do for God what they are gifted to do, and it is growing in knowledge that helps them discover their gifts.

My mother had less than an 8th grade education.

She would be what many would call a non-gifted Christian.

But at her funeral I was impressed by the service of my mother.

For 46 years she did what she could.

She loved other people's babies in the nursery at her church.

There are all different levels of love, and all of them are good, but they are not all the best.

Kindergarten love is good, for it is a loving feeling of caring about people, but it is like the tiny bean spout, and not the full grown bean ready for harvest.

All love has to begin here just as all beans have to start as mere sprouts.

Christian puppy love is positive, for all love has to start somewhere, but it has to press on and get an education is what Paul is getting at.

Light is good, but there is candle light, moon light, and sun light.

There is an enormous difference in the power and value in these different degrees of light, and so it is with love.

Paul is not knocking the love of the Philippians.

Kindergarten love is not bad, but it is no place to level off and be content.

A child who does not progress beyond kindergarten is greatly handicapped, and so is the Christian whose love does not abound more and more in knowledge.

Why is it that Christians can do every stupid thing man is capable of doing stupidly?

It is because their love has not abounded more and more in knowledge, and so they choose what is second best, third, or tenth, or even worse.

If there is no limit to how wise love can be, then there is no limit either as to its lack of wisdom.

If love does not go the way Paul prays it will, and abound in knowledge, it can become a drop out, and abound in ignorance or lethargy.

This can lead to all the folly Christians have proven themselves capable of in history.

Christians have supported tyranny, persecution, intolerance, slavery, and every form of non-loving oppression you can think of.

It was because they had a kindergarten love that did not abound more and more in knowledge.

But to the credit of Christians, it was those Christians who did what Paul prayed for who did so abound, and who became the key leaders in history for the victories over oppression.

Christians with educated love have given us a world with rights and freedoms that make us the richest and most blest of peoples.

Abraham Lincoln was opposed by many Christians with kindergarten love, but those who had abounded more and more in knowledge gave him their support, and he came to appreciate the church as his strongest ally in the fight to end slavery.

The same thing happened to Albert Einstein in Germany.

There were so many baby Christians who supported Hitler that Einstein hated Christians.

But then he found out there were also mature Christians with a degree in discerning love, and he came to treasure the church as the key ally in fight against Hitler.

He wrote, "I'm forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."