Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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This past week I was in Nashville.
I was with a group of men that I’ve been studying with for the past 2 years.
While in Nashville, we went just out of town, and visited Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage.
It was his personal plantation.
He grew cotton on the land.
It was his private escape from the pressures of the world.
It’s where he welcomed visitors.
It’s where he called home.
It’s where he died.
It’s where he was buried.
I was with a group of men.
After taking a tour of a museum, we took a tour of his home.
It’s this ancient mansion.
95% of the furniture and the things inside the home were original to the home.
It continued to be decorated the way it was when he lived there.
After the tour of the home, we then went to small area of the land where Andrew Jackson and his family were buried.
His beloved wife was buried there.
His children were buried there.
There was even a single spot, where one of his slaves was buried, right next to him.
There I was, visiting the grave of a man I’ve never met.
A man who certainly made an impact on the United States.
He was kind of the original Donald Trump.
He was one of the greatest presidents of the United States of America.
He was an incredibly influential man.
You can see the impact he made on people and our nation.
While there, we watched group after group, somberly visit his grave.
And then there’s me.
Who am I?
I’m not Andrew Jackson.
And who are you?
You’re not Andrew Jackson.
When you compare our lives, there’s this truth that I will never live up to Andrew Jackson.
Life doesn’t matter.
Your life doesn’t matter.
When you die, they won’t build a museum where you lived.
And people will never take buses to visit your grave.
You simply live, then you die.
It may be true that you won’t be famous and no human will remember you in that sense.
But you’ve got a bigger legacy then Andrew Jackson.
You have a legacy that is stronger than any President to have ever lived.
You have a legacy that is stronger than any of the founding fathers.
Your legacy is that you are created in the very image of God.
And being created in the image of God, you exist for His glory.
You exist to reflect the glory of God, the way the Hubble Telescope reflects the glories of God’s heaven to our small planet for us to observe.
When we were at Jackson’s Hermitage, it was a tale of his efforts on earth.
And sadly, they will be forgotten.
But your life on earth tells an even bigger tale.
Your life is to be a resource to tell of the great and surpassing glory of God.
Instead of a life that points to itself, it should point to God and be a testament to His efforts.
Which also is the central story of the Bible.
The Bible is filled with people.
It tells of what they did or didn’t do.
We can study their lives and learn something about the past.
But really it’s a story about the works of God.
The Bible paints a picture of the sovereign God, who not only exists, but is infinitely worthy to be worshipped.
Let’s open our Bibles to .
Read .
You’ve heard the text, now let me set the scene.
We didn’t look at it, but in the previous chapter, Jacob and his sons were passing through the land, and a man named Schechem, took Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, and raped her.
Rightly, Jacob’s sons were furious.
After the assault, Shechem decided he wanted to marry Dinah.
He claimed to be in love with Dinah, and wanted her more than anything else.
And, rightly, Jacob’s sons were furious.
They were furious about the violence done to their only sister.
They wanted nothing more than to get revenge.
So they plotted a scheme in retaliation.
They said they wanted to make a deal with Shechem and the people of the land.
If Shechem’s men were circumcised, then there would be peace between the two.
Jacob’s sons would marry the women of the land.
And the men of the land would marry the people who were with Jacob.
Shechem and his family thought that Jacob’s sons had come up with a good plan, so they agreed.
So on one day, Shechem, his father Hamor, and all the males, not just men, but males of the town went to the city gate, and they were circumcised.
When the men of the town were healing after their circumcisions, Jacob’s sons attacked the city.
They killed the leaders of the town and plundered the city.
Understand that Jacob’s sons and family are not an army.
They may have been violent, and attacked a city, but they are not a military.
They tricked, and attacked like pirates.
They did more than just bring justice.
They went beyond, and brought violence upon the entire region.
They were people marked for death.
As Jacob traveled through the Promised Land, he would not be trusted.
You couldn’t ever make a deal with him or his sons.
People never knew if Jacob would change the deal, change the terms, and respond in violence.
If you saw Jacob’s family coming, instead of them being welcomed:
The city gates would be shut.
Armies would be brought out to stop them.
Their lives would be on the line.
And it’s coming out of this that we come to our first point, God calls for His glory.
Jacob’s family are marked men.
They are hated.
They are dead men walking.
It’s like those old Wild West Wanted Posters.
It’d have a picture of an outlaw.
Then in big bold letters, it’d say, “Wanted!
Dead or Alive!”
Jacob’s men are wanted dead.
And it’s in this condition, that God comes to Jacob in verse 1, “God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.
Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
Imagine, it’s April of 1992, the Rodney King Verdict was just announced, and someone asked you to run a little errand in South Central LA.
Remember what was going on at that time?
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