Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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*Intro*
In an insightful and thought-provoking article entitled /The Paradox of our Age,/ Dr. Bob Moorehead, former pastor of Seattle’s Overlake Christian Church, writes:
“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, yet more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less.
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; big men and small character; steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce; fancier houses but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill....”[1]
I thought this was a great portrayal of our society at large today.
This leads me to wonder: if he sampled the church of Jesus Christ today, do you think Dr. Moorehead would say it’s much different?
Would he say there is no disconnect between those who come to church on Sundays and their lifestyle the rest of the week?
So often we hear that the divorce rate among Christians is about the same as the divorce rate among non-Christians.
We hear also of the rising addiction of people, Christian and non-Christian, to pornography.
People ridicule you now if you claim to be a virgin and want to wait until marriage and sadly, many Christian young people cannot say that anyway.
Co-habitation is the norm everywhere, even among people who profess to be Christians.
Also, does it not seem like every few months some Christian leader has fallen into sexual sin?
How about socially?
I have seen more church divisions than I can number and have seen hurtful, hot-tempered church leaders stuck on their egos, tear churches apart, refusing to forgive or ask for forgiveness.
I have experienced Christian relationships destroyed over gossip and slander.
I don’t even want to get into Christians and materialism.
This is what the world is seeing and no wonder they don’t want any part of it because it is hypocrisy to them.
This is not what the Lord has called us to!
Here at EFC, we must have zero tolerance for sin.
In our text today, Paul is calling us to rise above the norm.
Dead fish swim with the stream, but living fish swim against the stream.
There is nothing the Lord calls us to, for which He does not give us the needed resources and power to live up to.
The power behind us is greater than all the tasks ahead of us!
Last week, we looked at our new identity in Jesus Christ.
That is who we are.
As a result, we are to make the priorities of Jesus Christ as our own.
This is where you sit.
Because of your new identity, you have a new responsibility to represent the One who has given you the new identity well.
Today you are an ordinary Joe Shmo of the street, but let’s say you were hired by the President of the United States to be his personal assistant.
I bet you tomorrow you will be dressed differently, you will act differently, you might even talk differently.
You will be driven by the fact that you want to represent the President well, but also you will want to represent the United States of America well.
Believer, when the Lord Jesus shed His blood to pay for your sin and mine, He was adopting us into His family and giving us the privilege to be co-heirs of His inheritance.
We are a child of the King of the Kings and Lord of Lord today!
You are not just hired by Him, you are His own!
The question is now that you have this new identity in Christ, how are you going to live?
What difference is the new life given to you in Christ going to make for you in day to day living?
How are you going to represent Him with this new identity?
How are you going to demonstrate His Supremacy?
In using the clothing theme, now that you are His, there are old dirty clothes that need to be discarded and new ones to be put on.
Today we are just going to look at some stuff that needs to be put away.
The title of the message is “The Supremacy Demonstrated: By Zero Tolerance for Sin.” God is looking for some to rise up with a personal conviction against sexual and social sins.
Zero tolerance.
Here is the first thing in verse 5.
Because of our new identity in Christ:
*I. **Believers must ruthlessly slay all sexual sin (Col.
3:5-7).
*
Here is evidence that when Paul says, “set your minds on the things above” that he is not talking about some spaced out, with your head in the clouds kind of Christianity.
He gets very practical as to what it means to have our identity wrapped up in Jesus Christ.
Also, God would never tell us to change our behavior, without the understanding that all transformation stems out of our position in the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit.
He will never build the house until he has laid the foundation.
This is why doctrine and theology is so important.
It helps us to think right so that we can act right.
It also gives the proper motivation as to why we must live right.
We do it out of gratitude and out of love for Christ and wanting to please the One who has given us new life.
With that in mind, look at Col. 3:5.
“Put to death, therefore.”
It is an imperative, a command, not a suggestion or option.
It could be expressed as, “Slay utterly.”
Completely exterminate like a termite-infested house.
If you have a termite problem, you would not try to cover it up with putty and paint, you would exterminate it.
Similarly, we are not try to control sin or try suppress it.
We must wipe it out.
There is a sense of urgency and a decisive action here to be taken.
“Do it now!
Do it resolutely!”
Expositor Alexander MaClaren likens it to “a man who while working at a machine gets his fingers drawn between rollers or caught in the belting.
Another minute and he will be flattened to a shapeless bloody mass.
He catches up an axe lying by and with his own arm hacks off his own hand at the wrist.…
It is not easy nor pleasant, but it is the only alternative to a horrible death" (p.
275).
Sorry for the graphic picture, but it is exactly what Paul is saying here.
If your appendix ruptured this very moment, a decisive action needs to be made.
No time to linger on it or talk about it or explain it.
Urgent attention is needed.
This idea is not new with Paul.
Even Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away” (Matt.
5:29-30).
So Paul is saying, “Ruthlessly slay what is earthly in you.”
That term, “what is earthly in you,” is a figure of speech that means the forms of evil which our body practices.
Here you might wonder if there is a contradiction.
He says “you have died” in Col 3:3 and in Col. 2:12 and Col. 2:20, but now he says there are some things to be “put to death.”
This is because we have died to our old life in our position, but we are practically working that out in our practice.
Just like I became a husband in 2004, I was only a husband by status or position.
However, the rest of my life I have the responsibility of living out that position by my practice.
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