Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Welcome
Thank you for joining us today.
Let’s welcome everyone that is listening to us via our podcast.
I hope if you are in the Orlando area, you will stop by and worship with us.
To understand where we are going, we need to look at the end.
Jesus explains at the end of His sermon, it is wise to hear His words and do them.
Not because they are ingredients that will allow us to avoid trouble but when trouble comes, our foundation is strong enough to survive.
In this series, we will unpack this new standard, this Wild Standard.
Scripture(s)
(ESV) — 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
Series Summary
Standards provide direction for growth
Where there is no standard, there is confusion
Where there is no standard, there is confusion
Jesus is the standard
Jesus is the standard
Empire vs Kingdom
The presence of problems is not the absence of blessings
You are not blessed because of what you have, you are blessed because of who you have
As we continue to examine this sermon, we pick up where we left off.
I want to remind us that this is all one sermon for Jesus; .
Everything he is sharing is connected to the previous thought and the next thought.
So after Jesus deals with what it means to be blessed, He then puts His attention on another aspect of their identity by letting them know they are salt and light.
They are called to stand out.
They are called to make a difference.
He sets the record straight by saying He is the standard when He says He has come to fulfill the law.
The wild standard is not something to live up to, it is something we are invited to live in.
He then shifts His attention to matters of the heart and how we interact with people.
Anger and how we need to not let issues go unresolved
Lust and how we need to not dehumanize people:
(ESV) — 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.
For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.
For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Divorce and how unresolved issues and lust can lead to it
Oaths, which are covenants that don’t involve the grace of God
Retaliation and how we should respond with generosity and kindness when we feel the most offended
Then shares that love is the answer to all of these things:
(ESV) — 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Perfect means whole.
Perfect means Blameless.
It means complete.
God’s plan has always been for us to be whole.
Pray
Today as we continue in this series, I want to talk about our hearts and the Wild Standard of the Kingdom wants us to steward them.
No Stone Unturned.
God, speak to us today.
Open our eyes, open our ears, open our hearts.
In Jesus’ name...
Illustration
I recently read the most compelling but equally disturbing book ever.
It’s called Between a Rock and a Hard Place.
If you’re not familiar with it, let me fill you in.
It’s the story of a man named Aron Rolston.
He’s an avid outdoorsman that isolated himself from his loved ones.
One day he went on a hike not telling anyone where he was.
Once he got miles away from civilization, he falls down a canyon where his hand and arm gets trapped beneath an 800 pound rock/boulder.
While there he goes through a series of extreme scenarios that challenge him to go from one survival desperate act to the next.
Pushing him from rationing his resources to trying to stay warm and dry to having to drink his own bodily fluid in order to stay hydrated and survive.
Transition
Here’s the thing I think many of us aren’t too different than Aron.
We live isolated lives to the point no one knows where we are emotionally so when we end up stuck people don’t know how to support us.
While in that place, we slowly go through iterations of desperate measures where we end up ingesting things we shouldn’t, just to survive.
We give in to anger, just to survive.
We dehumanize people, just to survive.
We walk away from covenant relationships, just to survive.
We build barriers around our heart, just to survive.
We look for ways to get revenge, just to survive.
We hold on to the past to keep it from happening again, just to survive.
Unfortunately, no matter the survival techniques Aron employed, he was still trapped…so are we.
Have you ever felt trapped?
Unable to move forward, no matter how hard you try.
Trapped in bitterness, un-forgiveness, anger, addiction…what is the metaphorical rock that has you trapped?
Background/Context
God’s people have been trapped for years.
It seems like their entire existence is connected to one form of oppression or another.
Granted, much of it was self inflicted, but logic and personal responsibility is rarely the focal point when we just want relief.
They went from Egypt to Babylonians, to Persians, Greeks-Medes, and now the Roman Empire has its foot on their necks.
These are the chosen people and yet, they are not feeling chosen right now.
So for them, they were looking for the Messiah to come and regulate.
They envisioned a man of war who would come in and bring order.
In other words, they wanted their king to do to their oppressors what had been done to them.
So when Jesus shows up and He is saying the right things, He is doing the right thing, they are excited but, they begin to ask a one word, two letter question that can often through us off track…IF?
If He is the Messiah, why are we still dealing with the same drama?
If Jesus is Lord, why is my money not right?
If Jesus is Lord, why am I still struggling?
If Jesus is Lord, why did I experience this loss?
Thoughts/observations
The Lordship of Jesus isn’t dependent my comfort.
When we reduce the creator of the universe down to the variable of my feelings, or my preferred outcome, the answer isn’t God, we have a genie and cosmic santa clause.
There are few things that will stimulate a crisis of faith more than a If/Then proposition.
John the Baptist had the same crisis.
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