Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

In the comedy movie 50 First Dates, Drew Barrymore plays a woman who has suffered a

serious head injury in a car accident.

As a result, she develops a rare form of anterograde amnesia which causes her memory to reset whenever she goes to sleep.

After she wakes up, all her new memories have been erased and she believes that it’s the day of her accident.

Believe it or not, this story actually has some basis in reality.

In 1985, Michelle Philpots of England suffered a head injury a motorcycle accident.

Five years later, she re-injured her head in a serious car accident.

These injuries did enough cumulative damage to Philpots’ brain that she eventually started having seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy.

By 1994, she was suffering from anterograde amnesia and had completely lost the ability to create new memories.

For the past 20 years, Philpots has had all her memories wiped clean after she goes to sleep.

When she wakes up, she believes that it is still 1994.

Even though Philpots was in a relationship with her husband long before she suffered amnesia, they did not actually get married until 1997.

As a result, Philpots’ husband has to show her their wedding pictures every morning in order to remind her that they’re married.

During an appearance on The Today Show with Matt Lauer, Philpots actually forgot Lauer’s name in the middle of their interview.

Even though an operation was performed to remove some of Philpots’ damaged brain cells and put an end to her seizures, it seems unlikely that her condition will go away or that her erased memories will return.

What a tragedy!

And how frustrating.

To live your life with with no memory.

To not be able to build on the past of what you have learned or experienced or seen.

Ms. Philpots had a physical reason for her amnesia and that is a tragedy, but I submit to you that many Christians today have a self-inflicted spiritual amnesia that leaves them unable to deal with the regular challenges they face.

And even worse, many are stuck in the past either living in the memories of their former victories or, more generally so, they are stuck living in the memories of their past sin and, thus, not living in the freedom of their new life in Christ.

Well, Paul here is continuing his thought to Timothy that began the chapter when he told him to be a good soldier of Christ Jesus particularly in suffering for the gospel.

But now he turns that thought to the foundation for how we live by rooting it in the realities of the gospel.

Read

Paul loves Timothy and he charges by being such a passionate witness.

This is not someone who doesn’t know what he is talking about.

This is his last letter just before he is going to die as a martyr for the faith.

It has all led up to this and he is about to go home to be with Jesus.

So, he reminds him again of the Person of the Gospel; the Power of the Gospel; and the Promises of the Gospel.

The Person of Gospel v 8

Paul has just told Timothy in verse 7 to think over what he has said.

To consider by the illustrations he has given what it takes to follow Christ.

He tells him it is like a soldier, like an athlete and like a farmer.

In other words, it is hard work that takes fortitude and courage and commitment.

But we know what this is like don’t we?

It takes motivation.

A LOT of motivation.

Whether it is not getting killed as a soldier or the gold medal of the Olympics or the prospect of not eating as a farmer; these are all pretty good motivations, but what about as a Christian?

What is your motivation?

Is this what you live for?

To give glory to God? Well, the only way you can do that or Paul or Timothy or anybody else is to see Him for who He is and live in the light of that truth in an ongoing, growing relationship.

It is about Lordship; not just salvation.

Your salvation is the start.

It is about sanctification or living for Christ and growing in His likeness for the rest of your life.

What I really like about the book The Resilient Life is that the author insists that the greatest contributions and achievements you will reach will be in the second half of your life, after 40, if you will pursue Christ and finish strong.

I want that.

Not just because I am now over 40, but because I want to see God glorified in my life and in the world around and I want to grow in faith and holiness.

Is this what you want?

Do you order your day; your goals; around this?

Paul says to remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David.

Remember here is an action word, a verb and in the Greek it literally means “to remember someone or something and respond accordingly.”

So, it is not just remembering something wistfully like a happy memory.

It is remembering the God who saved you and raised you.

Set you free from the shackles of sin and the clutches of the devil.

Gave you new life and eternal hope so that you can live for His glory now and with the command to do just that.

In all things, glorify Him! Remember Jesus Christ and the fact that you were bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus and live in response to that.

Every day and in all ways.

There is nothing in your life that is not under the Lordship of Christ, but many times we act that way.

We just won’t give it all to Christ.

Maybe it is that hobby or relationship or device or pet sin or attitude or memory or bitterness, but the fact is that Christ died and was raised again as Lord of all!

There is nothing hidden from Him and He deserves everything from us.

Give Him your life.

He gave you His and so much more!

See here in verse 8 that Paul gives the basis for Jesus as Messiah.

His preaching certainly involved explaining these tenets, as we see in the book of Acts, showing us that Jesus is the offspring of David.

In other words, He is the Promised One.

He is the one that all of the OT was pointing to.

From creation to forming of Israel, to the calling of His people out of Egypt, to the kings and the promise to David that His throne would endure forever and the Messiah would come through his line to the prophets who pointed the people to the hope of the Messiah in the worst of their suffering and in the depths of their sin.

Everything was pointing to Jesus.

And Paul says that He is risen from the dead.

Meaning that He fulfilled all the promises and the prophecies and accomplished His goal of glorifying God by being obedient to the point of death on the cross so that His death would pay the penalty for our sins.

And we know that it was effective because He rose from the dead.

Showing that He had conquered sin and the curse of death.

Proving that He is the Messiah.

The One.

And by placing our trust in Him we receive the forgiveness that He earned for us and thus we receive resurrection power.

Power to live for Him; to bring Him glory; to love Him and to love the world that He came to save.

So, remember the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The truth and the foundation for your salvation.

Remind yourself daily.

Go to the Word.

Talk to God.

Plan your day in front of Him; with Him in mind; take on the trials and temptations of the day with Him leading you through it.

Remind yourself of His love for you and His power for you and His eternal plans for you when the going gets tough and you are tempted to forget Him.

This is the power He offers you.

So,

Remember the Power of the Gospel v 9-10

It is the power of the gospel that fuels your Christian life.

In this knowledge that you have become a child of God and you have been given the Holy Spirit and have Him living inside you, then you can face the day with power to glorify Him!

Paul is suffering.

Bound in chains.

Stuffed in a hole of a cell in a little dark and nasty cave.

Waiting to die, but always fully alive.

How could he live this way?

Or as a Christian might you ask, how could he not?

He knew the power of the gospel that fueled him and gave him hope in the darkest of trials.

You see the power of the gospel is not like an adrenaline shot or shotgunning rebels that leaves you with a spiritual high and then a deep crash that leaves you disoriented.

No, it is more like a sustainable and renewable energy source that burns evenly and clean and keeps going and will keep going for all eternity.

Do you know the story of Richard Wurmbrand?