Sermon Tone Analysis

Anarchy

To have God as enemy

!!! *Welcome and announcements*

!!! *Doxology*                        /Hymn 271:1-3/

!!! *Call to worship and Greeting*

!!! *Hymn no 317:*             / “O Praise now the Lord”/

*Bible Reading:   *New Testament:                                /  Matthew 7:24-29/

!!! *Prayer of adoration and Confession of sins*

/Adoration/

The Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the nations are idols, But the Lord made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before Him; Strength and joy are in His place.

I will ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

I will ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Tremble before him, all the earth.

The world is firmly established, it will not be moved.

/Confession/

Save me from bloodguilt, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth will declare Your praise.

For You do not desire sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not delight in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

/Thanksgiving/

You have loved me with an everlasting love; You have drawn me with lovingkindness.

(Jeremiah 31:3)You led Your people with cords of human kindness, With bands of love; You lifted the yoke from their neck And bent down to feed them.

!!! *Declaration of pardoning*

Those who obey Christ’s commandments abide in Him, and He in them.

And this is how I know that He abides in me: by the Spirit whom He has given me.

(1 John 3:24)

 

!!! *Hymn no 497:*             /  “How blest is he”/

!!! *Offering and Dedication*

While the Offering is taken up, all (remaining seated) sing Hymn no 432    /“I am yours O Lord”/

!!! *Hymn 423:1, 2*

!!! *Prayer of Intercession*

The poor and hungry

The oppressed and persecuted

Those in authority

Peace among nations

Current events and concerns

*Bible Reading*

Old Testament:                  /  Isaiah 3:1-11/

!!! *Sermon*

!!!!!! Introduction

Beloved brother and sister in the Lord, Jesus Christ

If we lived in Jerusalem some 2600 years ago to witness what was going on then, and if we would endeavour to interpret what is going on thne, we would probably write headlines in the newspaper that would sound something like this:

“Living under the breadline:  food is getting in short supply.”

In an article under this heading we would write about poor supplies from an ever moaning farming community which cannot get enough subsidies from the government.

We would also include something about a very negative trade balance because of all the supplies that need to be imported.

In the next day’s paper we would write about services.

“Government fails to meet expectations” would be the headline.

Utility companies like telephone services and electricity suppliers and also water suppliers would be criticised for poor service.

Not only would we write and read about these things.

The newspaper headings would continue:  “Concern for Defence Force:  not enough soldiers to protect borders.”

And maybe:  “Security Services reach a dangerous low-water mark.”

Under these headings articles would elaborate on how the government could have put plans into plans to prevent this sort of thing.

Undertones in these articles would suggest that we are living in dangerous times and that perhaps people should think of installing alarms or putting bars on their windows.

Reports of the escalating break-ins, robberies and violence will start making headlines.

Discussions would be going on TV, but no-one would really come up with a solution.

Then we read another paper:  “Brain drain:  Academics migrate for better opportunities.”

With all of this we will argue about jobs, employment, unemployment, economic forecasts.

Endless talks on TV about how these problems can be fixed.

Everyone will have solution, but the unemployment will go up, violence will go up.

We would read about politicians leaving the country.

Some will die violent deaths.

Some wise leaders will keep talking about the situation to calm people down:  “It is not as bad as we think.

Look at the silver lining, forget the dark clouds’ they will advise.

In place of wise and mature leaders, some others will be elected.

They are the leaders of the new age.

Their ideas would be accepted, but it would plunge society even deeper into the mess they are in.

By now the economy would be bad.

The rain would stay away, making life for the farmers really bad.

Violence would reign in the streets.

More discussion groups.

“We must be more progressive”, they say.

New ideas.

Lets be open in our society.

Lets forget about the chains that kept us in bondage for too long.

So, we read about the City council of Jerusalem which made and historic decision.

This is heralded as one of the high marks of development of this new progressive society.

This decision will bring in millions of dollars as the people will stream in from all over the place to spend their tourist dollar.

The Concil of Jerusalem has decided to give the green light to a gay and lesbian mardi grass through the streets of Jerusalem.

This will be the biggest and best ever.

In the meantime politicians can’t find wise and willing people to make themselves available for election.

The electorate has to put up with about anyone.

Administration is bad.

Violence is bad.

The economy is bad.

The agriculture is bad.

The education is bad.

The defence Force is hopeless.

We are going down the gurglar.

The only thing that keeps the economy going is the amount of money put into setting up investigating committees to come up with some sort of solution to the problem.

And of course night clubs and place of entertainment are doing not too badly, because people resorted into doing evil – in fact they glorify evil – while every else around them is falling apart.

Then, one day, in the correspondence columns of the Jerusalem Times of 2,600 B.C. we read a letter.

Not too long, because the editor cut away more than half of it.

He actually published the letter merely because he wanted to put the writer in a bad light and also because he thinks it will prompt the column readers to keep the debate alive – all good business for the paper.

In this letter some dared to write the following lines:  “Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and their deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence.

The look on their faces testifies against them, they parade their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it.

Woe to them!

They have brought disaster upon themselves.”

Of course al hell breaks lose.