Sermon Tone Analysis

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Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
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Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
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Emotional Range
Anger
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Scripture Memory
Opening Scripture
New Series Introduction
Good morning, we are starting a new sermon series today titled.
Called to Commitment: Taking Your Spiritual Life to the Next Level.
Christians are called to commitment.
Over and over again in Scripture, we are called to live a life of obedience, of perseverance, of commitment.
Commitment requires constant, consistent, patient, persistent pursuit.
Commitment has an undeniable constant, an overarching ache to see a desired outcome come to pass.
No part of the person escapes that ache.
It refuses to cease – regardless of our situations.
As Christians, if we are to achieve what God has set before us, we must move into a place of commitment where our biggest difficulties will not be able to cause us to waver from wholeheartedly pursuing what God has set before us.
And to get to a place where we can be that committed to God, we need to shed a lot of “ourselves” – those things which cause us to look for momentary comforts.
We must allow God’s Word to allow us to see beyond that which our natural eyes can see.
Only then will we be able to stand strong.
Abraham had to leave everything and follow God – Commitment.
Moses had to face the Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
- Commitment.
When we look at the lives of Joseph, Joshua, Caleb, Gideon, Elijah, King David, King Hezekiah, King Josiah, Mary the mother of Jesus – they all did great things.
But one word defined each of them – Commitment.
Commitment is inconvenient.
But then, it was never meant to be easy.
It is not God’s intention to allow you to stagger through life, helplessly.
God has set so much before you?
It may not be easy but pursue it.
It’s worth it all – for it holds the potential to unlock the greatness God has set before you.
Commitment is the key to taking your spiritual life to the next level.
That commitment is not a suggestion, rather it is something we are all called to.
Today, we are going to be looking at a vital commitment of the Christian life from the Psalter.
Join me in Psalm 119, we will be reading verses 9-16.
Here we are going to view our need to be armed and dangerous.
First thing we need to understand from this psalm is....
1.
We are armed with God’s Word.
As we read at the beginning of the service, we are in a battle against the schemes of the Devil.
In that battle there is only one weapon sufficient to defeat our enemy.
Eph 6:17 says that the word of God is “the sword of the Spirit.”
Today, many people keep a gun in their homes for protection.
To them, that gun is the guardian of their home.
A. God’s Word is our Guardian (Ps.
119:9).
God’s word is the guardian of our lives!
Psalm 119 is an alphabetical poem, or an acrostic poem.
There are twenty-two sections ordered by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Each section contains eight verses.
Our section begins with the letter beth.
In Hebrew, beth can also mean “house.”
Herbert Lockyer believed that “the underlying thought of this stanza is making our heart a home for the Word of God.”
I like that.
But it brings up the question...
What is the condition of your heart, your home?
James Montgomery Boice has said,
“Apart from the grace of God in your life it will always be occupied by such filthy evil spirits as lust, greed, pride, and self-love.
If you try to drive these demons out by yourself, they will only return in greater numbers and your latter state will be worse than at the first.
God alone can cleanse the heart, and he does so through the agency of his Word, the Bible.”
Alexander Maclaren wrote that the world is “a great deal fuller of inducements to do wrong than of inducements to do right.…
a great many bad things that have a deceptive appearance of pleasure, a great many circumstances in which it seems far easier to follow the worse than to follow the better course.
We are in a battle, a battle for our minds, a battle for our devotion, a battle for our very hearts.
Left on our own, we would follow ways that seem right, but would ultimately lead us to death.
That is why we need God’s Word in our lives.
God’s Word cleanses us, God’s word purifies us, God’s Word is the only effective guardian of our souls, but it is not only our guardian.
It is also our most effective Guide.
B. God’s Word is our Guide (Ps.
119:10).
One of my favorite hymns, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” was written by the British Baptist hymn writer Robert Robinson (1735-1790), who as a barber’s apprentice, fell under the powerful influence of George Whitefield’s preaching.
In the last stanza is a line that I believe portrays our need for God’s guidance.
“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”
Many believe that this was autobiographical, referring to Robinson’s early life, when his mother sent him to London to be an apprentice.
It was during this time, according to hymnologist Kenneth Osbeck, that “he associated with a notorious gang of hoodlums and lived a debauched life” until he came under the spell of Whitefield.
What I believe the Psalmist is saying to us is that we are all prone to wander, even when it is our heart’s desire to seek God.
That is why we need the commandments, another word for God’s word.
They are what anchors us.
They guide us through the battle of life.
God’s word or lack thereof can be dangerous.
But with God’s word we can become dangerously effective at navigating life.
2. God’s Word makes us dangerous.
A. We can be dangerous to ourselves (Ps.
119:11).
We harm ourselves when we sin against God gracious love (Ps.
119.11).
Without God’s word in our heart, we not only have the potential to sin against God.
Scripture says that is exactly what we will do.
We harm ourselves when we can’t praise God due to our sin (Ps.
119:12).
We can praise God as we learn from Him; as he guides us and guards us.
As His word purifies our souls, we can celebrate what He is doing in our lives.
But when sin is present, the praising is much harder to accomplish.
In fact, it is virtually impossible.
Church, the point is this, if we linger in our biblical illiteracy.
If we continue to try to follow our own path rather than the path laid out for us in God’s Word, we will continue to sin, we will continue to be dangerous to ourselves and we will not be a threat to our enemies.
B. We should be dangerous to our enemies (Ps.
119:13).
Do you believe you have enemies?
The Bible mentions at least groupings of enemies.
They have been known as the unholy trinity.
They are the Devil and his demons, Our Flesh, and Our World.
We should be dangerous to these enemies.
We should be able to withstand them because we have the light of the world.
We have the Logos, the word, the God-man Jesus Christ!
If we are constantly living obediently in that word and proclaiming that word, then God will be honored, and our enemies will be beaten with the ugly stick.
That is what happened for the Psalmist, as he hid God’s word in his heart, as he committed to conceal God’s Scripture in his soul, his lips began to utter that word back out into his flesh, and into his world, and the Devil shrank back in fear!
What are our lips declaring?
Gossip, pride, envy, jealousy, greed, and power.
Or Grace, Mercy, Love, Redemption, and Salvation?
C. We can be dangerously victorious if we commit to conceal God’s Word in our hearts (Ps.
119: 11-13, 16).
There is a battle for your mind.
Satan’s singular aim is to draw away your devotion to Jesus.
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