Sermon Tone Analysis

Everyone stand with me for a moment.

I’m going to ask a question and if this is NOT true of you, sit down.

So our first question is going to be I am a human.

If you are a human then remain standing.

If you are NOT a human then by all means sit down.

And while you’re at it roll over.

Okay question #2.

I was born in the United States of America.

Now I want to point out something right now.

If you are really engaged in this you might be feeling something right now.

Some of you might be feeling this in the fiber of your bones.

Those that sat down might feel different, awkward even.

Don’t worry you’ll have other friends sitting in a moment.

Question #3.

I was born in the awesome state of Missouri.

Question #4.

I was born in the awesome state of Missouri.

Question #4.

I was born in Northeast Missouri.

Question #5.

I was born in Perry, Missouri.

Wait…I have to sit down too…I was actually born in Hannibal, Missouri.

Now there are a couple of points I want to make here.

The first is that heritage is God-given.

I did not choose to be born in Northeast, Missouri.

Nor did you choose to be born where you did.

Or even did you choose to be born as a human and not a butterfly.

This is what Paul points out in .

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ( ESV)

Do you see what Paul is saying there?

God determined before the foundation of the world what time period you would live in, who your parents would be, where you would live, what the world would be like when you lived, so on and so forth.

Your heritage is God-given.

The second point that I want to make from our illustration is that heritage is necessarily connected with culture.

This is the dictionary definition of heritage: the traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc.,that are part of the history of a group or nation.

We’re going to see in just a moment what Paul says about his heritage.

The words he uses in this passage have cultural things connected to these words.

In just a moment you’ll hear me read, “circumcised on the eighth day”.

That means something culturally.

It means he is a set apart man.

We can see this in our own lives as well.

I’m from Northeast, Missouri.

If you ask anyone else from Northeast MO what the superior sport is they are likely to tell you the correct answer.

Baseball.

It is clearly superior.

But when I was pastoring in Indiana there was mass confusion.

Their heritage—their very wrong and foolish heritage—will tell you that it is basketball.

You see culture is inevitably attached to our heritage.

But there is something else that I just did and you might feel it in your gut.

I just implied that my heritage is superior to another’s.

Let’s see how this relates to what Paul said in .

There were certain cultural things connected with these words.

Circumcised on the eighth day means something culturally doesn’t it?

It means that he is a set apart man.

He isn’t like the Gentiles.

Paul was a good Jew and so he lived like a good Jew.

There were things that he ate and did not eat because of his heritage.

We can see this in our own lives as well.

I’m from Northeast, Missouri.

If you ask anyone else from Northeast MO what the superior sport is they are likely to tell you the correct answer.

Baseball.

It is clearly superior.

But if you go to Indiana there is mass confusion.

Your heritage—you’re very wrong and foolish heritage—will tell you that it is basketball.

You see culture is inevitably attached to our heritage.

But there is something else that I just did and you might feel it in your gut.

I just implied that my heritage is superior to yours.

At least those of you that would say that basketball is better.

That’s part of what is going on here in America with all of our division.

We are now made up of multiple cultures.

And multiple generations.

We’re finding ourselves in cultural competition.

I believe you see this in and 11.

You’ve got the table of nations in and then in the Tower of Babel.

The two, I don’t believe are chronological.

But there is something that you’ll pick up as you read through that section.

There are different cultures in each one of them.

And it’s no stretch of the imagination—especially as you consider war and such—that humanities quest to “make a name for themselves” is not obliterated when the nations are scattered and the languages are confused.

Instead what happens is we want to make a name for ourselves in the groups that we find ourselves in.

We want to be the best.

And we’ll go to war and arguments and everything else to show this.

Now I could do something else here to show this.

I could have all of you stand up if you like country music.

And what would happen is you would feel a certain affinity.

A certain connectedness…a sense of belonging…to those that are like you.

Who likes heavy metal?

Who remembers Ronald Reagan?

Who liked watching Care Bears?

Who agrees with me that Skeletor is the greatest villain to ever live?

Who has no idea who Skeletor is and feels a little bit disconnected and wondering what I’m even talking about?

Who watched Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series?

Who likes to eat sushi?

We tend to get a sense of belonging from our heritage and our culture.

And let’s not pretend that this isn’t divorced from our drive to be the best to be superior and to even attach moral meaning to things that are not necessarily moral.

I know that I’m superior musically to all of you country music fans.

In fact I might even be a little morally superior.

So here is what we’ve said so far.

Heritage is something that is God-given.

He determined where we would live and when we would live and what culture we would find ourselves in.

And heritage is necessarily connected with culture.