Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Mark 9:41-50

Theme: In the Scripture passage which is our focus today, we hear Jesus discussing the importance of living lives that count.

He reveals to us several ways in which we can live lives that count.

Date: 04/07/19 File name: GospelOfMark23.wpd

ID Number:

Have you ever thought of how you would like to be remembered after you’ve gone home to be with the Lord?

How would you like for the epitaph on your headstone to read?

Most grave markers today have little more than the essential information about a person – when they were born, when they died, and perhaps a short statement like, “Beloved spouse.”

There was a time, however, when cemetery epitaphs actually described the deceased person’s life or character.

Sometimes they are very creative and even humorous.

The following are all real epitaphs.

In a cemetery in Ruidoso, New Mexico you’ll find a headstone that reads: “Hear lies Johnny Yeast.

Pardon me for not rising.”

In Uniontown, Pennsylvania is an epitaph to a accident victim: “Hear lies the body of Jonathan Blake.

Stepped on the gas instead of the brake.”

In Silver City, Nevada: “Hear lays Butch, We planted him in the raw.

He was quick on the trigger, But slow on the draw.”

In a Georgia cemetery is a tombstone that actually read, “I told you I was sick.”

I really like one that can be found in a Nantucket, Massachusetts grave yard.

It says, “Under the sod and under the trees, Lies the body of Jonathan Pease.

He is not hear, there’s only the pod.

Pease shelled out and went to God.”

But my one of my all-time favorites has to be the marker of a man simply named “Wallace” in a cemetery in Ribbesford, England: “The children of Israel wanted bread, And the Lord sent the mana, Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife, And the Devil sent him Anna.”

Hopefully, we will have more positive statements used to describe our lives than these examples.

All of us want our lives to count.

We all desire to live purposeful, fulfilling years upon this earth.

In the Scripture passage which is our focus tonight, we hear Jesus discussing the importance of living lives that count.

He reveals to us several ways in which our lives can make a difference.

I. LIVES THAT COUNT HAVE POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS

vv.

41-42 "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.

And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea."

1. one important area in which our lives need to count is the area of our relationships with others

a. the truth about how believers are to treat one another is based on the principle the Lord expressed in Mark 9:37, “Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives me; and whoever receives me does not receive me, but Him who sent me.”

b. the point that Jesus makes is this: how one treats a believer is how one treats Christ, and how one treats Christ is how one treat God

2. in verses 41 and 42, Jesus speaks of two ways in which we can deal with people

a. we can be positive in our relationships with others, and selflessly encourage them

b. or we can be negative in our relationships with others, and selfishly manipulate them

A. ENCOURAGEMENT BUILDS POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS

1.

In verse 41, Jesus speaks of someone giving you a cup of water to drink because you are a follower of Christ

a. this may seem like a such small thing to do, but it is a very important thing

ILLUS.

Then, as now, Israel has regions that receive little water.

Most of the country south of Beersheba is arid and known as the Negev Desert.

The Judean wilderness where Jesus faced his 40 days of temptation is also inhospitable.

In such places, offering water is not only an act of kindness, it means survival.

1) Jesus tells His disciples, “I solemnly declare ... one who does this shall not loose his reward”

2) Jesus therefore regards such a gift as one that is given to himself

2. it is a basic act of encouragement

a. the implication is that this cup of water is just what they need at just the right time

3. the bible exhorts us to mutual encouragement

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

(1 Thessalonians 5:11, NIV84)

a. you need encouragement

b. but you also ought to provide encouragement

1) indeed it is a basic biblical principle that the encouragement you receive is intended to equip you to minister similar encouragement to others

B. ALL OF US NEED ENCOURAGEMENT

ILLUS.

There's an old fable that says the Devil once held a sale and offered all the tools of his trade to any of his fellow demons who would pay the price.

The Devil’s tools were spread out on the table and each one labeled.

There was hatred, malice, envy, despair.

On another table sat sickness, sensuality, hedonism and debauchery.

All these weapons were well-known to the devil’s associates.

But off to one side, on a table all by itself, lay a harmless looking instrument marked discouragement.

It was old and worn looking but it was priced far above all the rest.

When asked the reason why, the Devil replied, "Because I can use this one so much more easily than the others.

No one knows that it belongs to me, so with it I can open doors that are tightly bolted against the others.

Once I get inside I can use any tool that suits me best."

1. discouragement is a fact of life

a. the question is, “When you see others in despair, are you an encourager or a discourager?”

1) when someone is down, do you help them up or give ‘em a good kick while they’re lying there?

2) when someone suggests a course of action do you promptly see all the difficulties which make it impossible, or do you see the possibilities which make it worth trying?

ILLUS.

Michelle was in her late-twenties and had grown up in the church First Baptist Church of Adrian.

One year, the nominating committee came to her and asked if she would head the social committee.

She agreed and plunged right into the task.

She was doing a great job.

That is until Lucille, who had been head of the social committee the previous millennium, came to her and informed her that the way she was doing things was not the way they had always been done.

Michelle declined to serve the next year in that position.

I wonder why?

2. encouragement has the power to build positive relationships

a. it can even turn negative relationships around as we seek to affirm that we are for one another, and that we care about one another

b.

how we treat others counts

1) and if our lives are to count, people must count

B. NONE OF US WANTS TO BE MANIPULATED

1. just as encouragement builds positive relationships, manipulation buries positive relationships

2. in vs. 42, Jesus warns us against causing another believer to stumble

a. it is an exhortation against selfishly manipulating people for our own purposes

3. we always have the choice of either seeking to build up one another or to tear down one another

a. the disciples had to make that choice

b. earlier in the chapter, we seem them arguing over who was the greatest among them

1) they were being prideful and exclusive, judgmental and manipulative

c. those kinds of attitudes always destroy relationships

4. we have the power to choose to liberate people into the freedom of being all God can make them, or to place unnecessary obstacles in their way, over which they may stumble and fall

a.

those obstacles are usually placed there because of selfish, small-mindedness on our part

1) we can put stumbling blocks in the path of others by having an unforgiving spirit

2) by engaging in dishonest business transactions

3) by using crude and excoriating language