Sermon Tone Analysis

Becoming a Person of Connection in a World of Isolation

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Restoring the Savour of Our Salt       Series # 6

 

 

In the year 1880 a struggling Irish businessman~/miner bought a silver mine in Montana called the Anaconda Silver Mine.

When he bought that mine, the entire mining community in Montana made fun of him and ridiculed him, because the silver had been mined out of it.

But Markus Daley bought the mine and within one year, he discovered the world’s largest vein of copper in his mine.

It was right at the beginning of electric lights and a huge need for copper for wiring.

And he had this huge vein of copper, and Markus Daley became an overnight millionaire.

He amassed a huge amount of money, because of the Anaconda Copper Mine.

When he got this money, Markus Daley moved to Hamilton, Montana, built a huge southern-style mansion, bought 28,000 acres of land in that valley, bought 1,200 race horses that he began to train on  his property, and began to live the life of a wealthy southern gentleman.

At the age of 59 in the year 1900, he died.

He left all of his wealth to his wife and four children.

His wife and four children and their families lived on this estate.

And his children had children, and they raised them on this estate.

One of Markus Daley’s grandsons was a young boy who grew up virtually alone.

This child was incredibly pampered.

He had anything he could desire.

He was protected from any kind of harm or trouble.

He was treated like royalty.

He was waited on hand and foot by a personal nanny.

He was told that he was very important and that he was an extremely wonderful person, and he grew up essentially alone.

He was never allowed to play with any of the children of Hamilton, Montana, where he lived.

This boy grew up alone and as a result of growing up alone, he was extremely immature.

He was socially inept.

He was insufferably arrogant.

Anybody who knew him couldn’t stand him.

In fact, he died in his mid-thirties in a car accident, and he was so arrogant and so unliked that it is said the people of the valley actually rejoiced at his death.

Markus Daley’s grandson grew up alone.

We are in a situation in America where we are very close to growing up alone.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, that we are not growing up because we are so often alone.

Not growing up because of living so much of life in isolation.

I think the American culture has become a hotbed for isolation.

I want to begin today by thinking about six basic ways in which the American culture is working very hard to keep us away from one another.

Working very hard to keep us alone, to be sure that we are not interacting with one another, to be sure that we are not helping one another, and knocking the rough edges off of each other.

Six ways the American culture is working very hard to isolate us from one another.

We are kept apart, number one, by our own busyness, and by unreasonable schedules.

America has an epidemic of busyness.

We are people who are terrified of quiet.

We are terrified of rest.

We are terrified of taking a little break to talk to one another.

Who knows what I might think, if I had time to think!

Who knows what might happen if I find time to relate to someone.

We are people who are kept apart and who are avoiding relationships by incredible epidemic busyness.

Number two, we are kept apart from each other in America by electronic isolation.

We have personal televisions now.

Sociologists used to lament that families were sitting on the couch watching TV, but not interacting with each other.

Now they lament that we’re not even watching the same TV!

Mom and Dad have one, and children have them in their rooms.

If you have ever tried to talk to a child wearing a headset, you understand that they are not there!

They are in some other world.

We are kept apart by electronic isolation.

Number three.

We are kept apart by dysfunctional parenting, which makes us relationally inept.

There are so many dysfunctional, struggling homes in America raising children who do not know how to relate to anyone.

Raising children who don’t know how to relate to their parents, who don’t know how to get along with siblings, raising children who wouldn’t have a clue how to get along with a spouse, who wouldn’t have a clue how to parent a child.

Number four, we are kept apart by age-graded recreation.

We are people who are starting to recreate, not as a family, but in age groups.

Children don’t gamble and parents don’t skateboard.

You can go to a lot of places in America where you get there with your family, and they proceed to divide you up into the your differing age-graded recreation activities.

Number five.

We are kept apart, we are isolated by remarkable physical conveniences.

We have garage door openers.

I don’t even need to get out of my car and wave to my neighbor.

I just push the button and it opens.

I go in, push it down, and the door closes.

We are kept apart by these physical conveniences like telephones.

We can order anything we want.

We have internet connections.

We get more information on our computer screen than the state of Idaho public library has in its whole collection.

We have a lot of conveniences that help us stay away from one another.

And finally, number six, in America we have a huge social trend that’s been going on for over 20 years.

The sociologists call it privatization.

And privatization simply means we are becoming more and more private people.

We more and more want to be left alone.

We are more and more threatened if someone comes to our door.

We are more and more living in our homes like fortresses.

One man tells the story of driving home and saw that one of his neighbors about a mile away, had parked his pickup truck on the side of his house and left the lights on.

He thought, if I don’t stop and let him know, his battery will be dead in the morning.

So this man stopped, went up to the front door, knocked on the door.

The man comes to the door in a hostile mood.

“What do YOU WANT!? How dare you come on to my porch.

How dare you knock on the door of my fortress!”

We are more and more living in privatization, wanting more and more to be alone.

We are a culture of isolation.

God never intended us to live that way, and especially of believers, He never intended us to be isolated from one another.

In fact, it’s 180 degrees out of sync with what God was intending when He invented us and when He invented relationships.

He intends for us to be connected with one another.

I’d like to encourage you as we continue in a series of messages on Restoring the Savour of Our Salt—how we are to live and confront the culture that surrounds us.

I want to ask you today to think about this issue of being a person of connection in a culture of isolation.

First of all, the definition of quality relationships, and for that we want to look to Proverbs 3:3-4.

Then we’ll look at three major things that only happen in our lives if we are in quality relationships—three very positive, significant and eternal things.

First of all, let’s define a quality relationship as God defines it in Proverbs 3:3-4.

Principle # 1. Proverbs 3:3-4.

Quality relationships require a deep commitment to both grace and truth.

Let me read this passage.

Please follow if you will in Proverbs 3.

“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 4  So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.”

Two very simple, very basic things in every relationship.

Number one, he is saying to us, we need to be people whose relationships are characterized by grace.

And grace is very simply a spirit of kindness.