Sermon Tone Analysis

February 7, 1999      PRELUDE               ANNOUNCEMENTS               Psalm 27 -- "The Lord is my light and my salvation" (v.

1).

CALL TO WORSHIP

~*OPENING HYMN                                 *It is Well with My Soul                                        # 453*

~*INVOCATION AND LORD'S PRAYER   Luminous Spirit, we thank you for placing in us the glow of your glory that increases in brightness as we cooperate together and as we share your love.

Remove the grimy film of sin from us so that the gospel light might shine through.

In Jesus' name.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever.

~*GLORIA PATRI    SCRIPTURE READING  *(Isa 58:1-11* NLT)  ""Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.

Tell my people Israel of their sins!

{2} Yet they act so pious!

They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to hear my laws.

You would almost think this was a righteous nation that would never abandon its God.

They love to make a show of coming to me and asking me to take action on their behalf.

{3} 'We have fasted before you!' they say.

'Why aren't you impressed?

We have done much penance, and you don't even notice it!' "I will tell you why! It's because you are living for yourselves even while you are fasting.

You keep right on oppressing your workers.

{4} What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling?

This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.

{5} You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like a blade of grass in the wind.

You dress in sackcloth and cover yourselves with ashes.

Is this what you call fasting?

Do you really think this will please the LORD?

{6} "No, the kind of fasting I want calls you to free those who are wrongly imprisoned and to stop oppressing those who work for you.

Treat them fairly and give them what they earn.

{7} I want you to share your food with the hungry and to welcome poor wanderers into your homes.

Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

{8} "If you do these things, your salvation will come like the dawn.

Yes, your healing will come quickly.

Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind.

{9} Then when you call, the LORD will answer.

'Yes, I am here,' he will quickly reply.

"Stop oppressing the helpless and stop making false accusations and spreading vicious rumors!

{10} Feed the hungry and help those in trouble.

Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as day.

{11} The LORD will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too.

You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.

OFFERING  (2 Cor 8:7 NLT)  "Since you excel in so many ways--you have so much faith, such gifted speakers, such knowledge, such enthusiasm, and such love for us--now I want you to excel also in this gracious ministry of giving."

~*DOXOLOGY

~*PRAYER OF DEDICATION             Our Father, grant that we translate our spiritual gifts into signs of your grace, so that what you have asked us to become may be reproduced in the lives and service of all those touched by what we are and do.

CHILDREN'S STORY TIME   "This Little Light of Mine"

CHORAL ANTHEM                PRAYER  O God, we thank You for Your loving patience and mercy.

Even though we choose to go astray You are constantly calling us to come home.

Give us the ears, Lord, to hear Your voice.

~/ So often we have chosen to move in the directions of the world and yet we wonder why we have no peace or why You do not seem to hear our prayers.

Forgive us, Lord, and help us to remember it is often we who close the door to Your blessings and it can only be through our repentance that the doors to our hearts are reopened.

~/~/~/  O God, in so many ways You have set before us the promises of Your eternal nourishing strength and power if we will but give our lives to You.

Help us have courage, Lord.

~/  So often we have given up Your Peace because we would rather try to live life in our own ways.

And so often instead of taking courage in Your presence and standing on Your promises we have moved with the wind trying to make life as easy as possible.

Forgive us, Lord, and help us stand firm as witnesses today of Your Love.

~/~/ O God, we are so humbled when we consider You have chosen us to carry Your message of redemption to all the nations.

Give us the courage and strength to be faithful servants.

~/  Sometimes we have been so slow to reach out to those hurting and in need of your Gospel.

Too often we have elected the comforts of life over reaching out to help others.

Too often we have hidden our witness when sharing Your word would have been so redemptive.

Forgive us, Lord, and give us the courage to be Your light high on a hill.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

~*PREPARATIONAL HYMN             He Keeps Me Singing                           # 359 v.1,5

SCRIPTURE TEXT     (Mat 5:13-20 NLT)  ""You are the salt of the earth.

But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?

Can you make it useful again?

It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

{14} You are the light of the world--like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see.

{15} Don't hide your light under a basket!

Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all.

{16} In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

{17} "Don't misunderstand why I have come.

I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets.

No, I came to fulfill them.

{18} I assure you, until heaven and earth disappear, even the smallest detail of God's law will remain until its purpose is achieved.

{19} So if you break the smallest commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.

But anyone who obeys God's laws and teaches them will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

{20} "But I warn you--unless you obey God better than the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees do, you can't enter the Kingdom of Heaven at all!"

SERMON                                            Salt and Light !?!

   A man gets fed-up at real or imagined discrimination and takes out a semiautomatic pistol on a  commuter train and opens fire, killing and wounding several people.

Some teenage gang members get into an argument at a shopping center.

Later, one of the disputants is gunned down in the parking lot by a rival gang member.

There has been a dramatic rise in youth violence in the past few years and every day we hear stories of innocent people being victims of random violence.

The frustrated, the abused and the criminally insane observe much that they dislike in the world and respond with assaults.

Christians too look at the world and behold a great deal that disturbs us, but if we follow the Lord's teaching, we will respond with salt.

Jesus proclaimed, "You are the salt of the earth ..." (v.

13).

We don't have salt; we are salt.

When we are frustrated, we need to pour out the salt that we are -- pour out the patience, the forgiveness, the helpfulness, and the love -- which is able to preserve the world and make it a more savory place in which to live.

But the salt can lose its flavor, according to Jesus, just as Christians can lose their saltness, by getting mixed up with salt-substitutes.

You are the light of the world (v.

14).

Salt is made to be tasted; light is that which enables us to see and to be seen.

The image is communal.

Together we are salt and light when we are in Christ.

As with the salt, the light is to benefit others; it is not to be hidden but put in the public place so that all can see.

The Lord told his disciples: "Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (v.

16).

The light that we are is a gift from God and not a result of our good works.

Strictly speaking, what Jesus is pointing to are good fruits rather than good works.