Sermon Tone Analysis

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Anger
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Anger
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\\ *Text: Luke 15:11-32*
*Introduction:*
A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam.
He called his parents from San Francisco.
"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask.
I have a friend I'd like to bring home with me."
 
"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."
"There's something you should know," the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting.
He stepped on a land mine and lost an arm and a leg.
He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."  "I'm sorry to hear that, son.
Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."
 
"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."
 
"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking.
Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden to us.
We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives.
I think you should just come on home and forget about this guy.
He'll find a way to live on his own."
At that point, the son hung up the phone.
The parents heard nothing more from him.
A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police.
Their son died after falling from a building, they were told.
The police believed it was suicide.
The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son.
They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.
The parents in this story are not unlike many of us.
We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable.
We would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are.
(See Luke 15:11-32)
 
Thankfully, there's One who won't treat us that way.
He loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into His forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.
* *
!
I.       A Father's Heart Gives Us Blessings.
!! A.   Though Undeserved
!! B.   Though Ungrateful
***   In his book Folk Psalms of Faith, Ray Stedman tells of an experience H. A. Ironside had in a crowded restaurant.
Just as Ironside was about to begin his meal, a man approached and asked if he could join him.
Ironside invited him to have a seat.
Then, as was his custom, Ironside bowed his head in prayer.
When he opened his eyes, the other man asked, "Do you have a headache?"
Ironside replied, "No, I don't."
The other man asked, "Well, is there something wrong with your food?"
Ironside responded, "No, why?"  "Well," the man said, "I saw you sitting there with your head down and I thought you must be sick, or that there was something wrong with your food."
Ironside replied, "No, I was simply thanking God as I always do before I eat."
The man said, "Oh, you're one of those, are you?
Well, I want you to know I never give thanks.
I earn my money by the sweat of my brow and I don't have to give thanks to anybody when I eat.
I just start right in!"  Ironside said, "Yes, you're just like my dog.
That's what he does too!"
!! C.   Though wasted
***   A man past middle life came to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, bringing with him some sketches and drawings.
The fumes of liquor were on his breath; his eyes were bloodshot, his hands unsteady.
Rossetti saw at a glance that the drawings were hopeless, and told him so.
For a moment the visitor hesitated.
Then, he drew from an inside pocket another portfolio of drawings, saying they were the work of a young student.
Rossetti was delighted and asked that the youth be sent to him.
"Ah, sir," said the man, "I am, or rather I was, that youth.
Your words, sir, have only confirmed my own suspicions.
I have thrown away my best talents."
!
II.
A Father's Heart Grants Us Freedom.
!! A.   Freedom to choose
***   A fictional tale is told in management seminars about a young manager who was to replace a retiring executive.
The younger man approached the older, venerated leader and asked, "Sir, I know of the legend that you have become as a leader in this company.
Could you give me some advice as I try to fill your shoes?"
The older man pondered the question  and responded: "Three words: Make good decisions!"
"That is good advice," the young man replied as he wrote this down.
"And what is the key to making good decisions?"
"One word," the veteran executive replied, "Experience."
"And how do I get this?" the eager young man asked as he scribbled "experience" on his paper.
"Two words," the retiring man answered, "Bad decisions."
The younger man looked surprised, and the older man asked, "Any other questions?"
!! B.   Freedom to fail
***  "Failure does not mean you will never make it.
It does mean
you have to do it differently."
- _Pulpit Helps_, November, 1991, p. 10.
 
                        ***  Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.
- Unknown
!! C.   Freedom to reject him
***  A soldier received a box of home-baked cookies from his girlfriend.
Several  were thick and lumpy.
He ate the thin ones and left the others for his buddies in the barracks.
To his chargrin, he learned that his sweetheart had placed intimate love notes in some of the cookies - the thick, lumpy ones that he had rejected and left for his fellow-soldiers.
Are we sometimes like that soldier?
Are we sometimes guilty of rejecting God's expressions of love and carelessly tossing them aside?
!
III.
A Father's Heart Grieves Our Sin.
!! A.   He grieves over the pain it causes.
***  "Sin is not harmful because it is forbidden, but it is
forbidden because it is hurtful."
- Benjamin Franklin
 
***  There is an old saying that goes, "If you haven't let go of your sins, you're holding on to a hand grenade with the pin pulled out."
- Tom Sirotnak, Warriors, (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), p. 29
!! B.   He grieves over the disgrace it causes.
***   A man was successful in business, and had a well-educated son who was highly respected and honored like his father.
But one day to everyone's surprise the young man was charged with embezzlement.
At his trial he appeared nonchalant and arrogant about his sinful actions.
When the judge told him to stand up for sentencing, he still seemed unrepentant.
Then hearing a slight scuffle on the other side of the room, he turned to see that his aged father had also risen.
The once erect head and straight shoulders of that honest man were now bowed low with shame.
He had stood to be identified with his boy and to receive the verdict as though it were being pronounced upon himself.
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