Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ Scripture: 1 Chronicles 16:1-7, 2 Samuel 6,

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Worship without creativity is like inviting a congregation to come and chew on Kleenex for an hour.

Cal LeMon in Leadership, Vol. 7, no. 2.

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( *Why am I preaching this sermon this AM*?

I believe that we need to meaningfully engage ourselves in vital relationship with God.

We’ve got the truth thing down fairly well.

I am confident that as a church we preach the gospel well.

We advocate a standard of living that is Christlike, we call this holiness and believe that this lifestyle is merely the visible evidence of an invisible spiritual reality – we are made new in Christ, our hearts are made pure and the way that we live is evidence of this reality.

There is a tendency to go into spiritual slumps and lose focus and intensity.

We become content to fool people, not to be hypocritical, just to be accepted and also because we are sure that we will work things through.

There may be many living just that way today – you know that things are not as they should be and you are pacifying yourself by telling yourself that you will come to grips with it – you will work it out.

So weeks come and go and we “backshelf” our faith and try to survive on the truth on orthodoxy, on the correctness of our theology but our hearts are hardened by our willingness to tolerate our sinfulness or our rebellion.

We come to church on Sundays and worship him in truth but not in Spirit.

Thus we become false worshippers.

Jesus said to the woman at the well that the Father desires true worshippers who will engage Him in Spirit and Truth.)

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I may be the only person in this church who struggles with church ritual and liturgy.

At the turn of the century, James Burns wrote the book Revivals: The Laws and Leaders.

In the opening chapter he discusses "laws" of revival, as well as the "laws" of the absence of revival.

"The first tendency," he writes, "Is for the doctrine of the church to lose its power of convicting the conscience, convincing the mind, or moving the heart."

He goes on to point out that spiritual decay brings with it a formality of worship in which the "ritual" is so exalted that it crushes the spirit.

See:  Rom 6:17-18; 1 Thes 1:5

 

When I first began in the ministry, I remember how awkward it was to get up in front of a group of people and labor through the reading of various of the more formal ministerial ceremonies and sacraments.

It felt stiff, formal, even dead by times.

I was concentrating so hard on the words in front of me that I was failing to minister to people.

I was bound to the book.

Weddings now are one of the favorite things that I do as a minister.

I have the ceremony committed to memory and when I look at two people who are approaching the marriage altar, I savor every word that I speak because it is rich in it’s meaning and I pay attention to every thing that I say and enjoy it all.

It’s difficult to grasp the significance of what we do here on Sundays unless we are personally acquainted with the Lord and intimately enough to begin to actively love him.

A young woman teacher with obvious liberal tendencies explains to her class of small children that she is an atheist.

She asks her class if they are atheists too.

Not really knowing what atheism is but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands explode into the air like fleshy fireworks.

There is, however, one exception.

A girl named Lucy has not gone along with the crowd.

The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different.

"Because I'm not an atheist."

Then, asks the teacher, what are you?

"I'm a Christian."

The teacher is a little perturbed now, her face slightly red.

She asks Lucy  why she is a Christian.

"Well, I was brought up knowing and loving Jesus.

My mom is a Christian, and my dad is a Christian, so I am a Christian."

The teacher is now angry.

"That's no reason," she says loudly.

"What if your mom was a moron, and your dad was a moron.

What would you be then?"

A pause, and a smile.

"Then," says Lucy, "I'd be an atheist."

*I have this aversion to “going through the motions”.

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A devout Christian who had a cat used to spend several minutes each day at prayer and meditation in his bedroom.

He read a portion of Scripture and a devotional book, followed by a period of silent meditation and prayer.

As time went on his prayers became longer and more intense.

He came to cherish this quiet time in his bedroom, but his cat came to like it, too.

She would cozy up to him, purr loudly, and rub her furry body against him.

This interrupted the man's prayer time, so he put a collar around the cat's neck and tied her to the bedpost whenever he wanted to be undisturbed while at prayer.

This didn't seem to upset the cat, and it meant that the man could meditate without interruption.

Over the years, the daughter of this devout Christian had noted how much his devotional time had meant to him.

When she began to establish some routines and patterns with her own family, she decided she should do as her father had done.

Dutifully she, too, tied her cat to the bedpost and then proceeded to her devotions.

But time moved faster in her generation and she couldn't spend as much time at prayer as did her father.

The day came when her son grew up and wanted to make sure that he preserved some of the family traditions which had meant so much to his mother and his grandfather.

But the pace of life had quickened all the more and there simply was no time for such elaborate devotional proceedings.

So he eliminated the time for meditation, Bible reading, and prayer.

But in order to carry on the religious tradition, each day while he was dressing he tied the family cat to the bedpost.

Thus forms become more important than the faith they are meant to convey.

--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 437.

During a more cynical point in my ministry I remember one morning looking out in the church to see people disengaged from the worship experience.

I saw folks singing and chewing gum and looking around.

While I did not want to judge them, they gave me every impression that they were just mindlessly drifting through a familiar routine to them.

Isaiah 29:13  The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

{Hebrew; Septuagint They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men}

 

I can’t imagine what it would be like to see from God’s perspective.

He knows the truth – he sees you this morning friend.

He knows whether the expression of faith that you have participated in is real or merely rhote.

The following words are from an old engraving on a cathedral in Labeck, Germany:

 

   Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us:

   You call Me master and obey Me not.

You call Me light and see Me not.

You call Me the Way and walk Me not.

You call Me life and live Me not.

You call Me wise and follow Me not.

You call Me fair and love Me not.

You call Me rich and ask Me not.

You call Me eternal and seek Me not.

If I condemn thee, blame Me not.

Finney said something cute:  "There can be no revival when Mr. Amen and Mr. Wet-Eyes are not found in the audience."

See:  James 4:9-10

 

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The **Appointment** To Give Thanks*

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1 Samuel 4 –  A battle between Israel and the Philistines in which Israel is defeated with the loss of 4,000 men.

They decide to take it to the Philistines one more time and bring the ark of the Lord along with Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s decadent sons.

They become over confident.

The Philistines are fearful, the battle commences.

Israel loses once more at the cost of 30,000 men thisn time.

Hophni and Phinehas are slain and the ark of God is taken. 

 

1 Samuel 5 – The Philistines set the ark in the temple of Dagon, whose image is found the next morning prostate before it and broken in pieces.

The Philistines also are afflicted with a strange disease.

The people of Ashdod refuse to have the ark stay with them and in consultation with the Philistine Lords, order it to be carried to Gath.

God smites the inhabitants there with the same disease.

They then send it to Ekron and heavy destruction falls on that city.

Finally they resolve to return the ark to Shiloh.