Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Continuing our series, The Masks We Wear

When I was a youth, the group that I was a part of went to Lloydminster for a youth retreat.

It was early spring, so the snow was starting to melt, and as good teenage boys, we started having a snowball fight in between events.

We were in the parking lot of the church, and the signal came to get in the vehicles.

Well I had been working on this snowball for a while, and much to my disappointment, I had to off load it.

Now the proper thing to do would have been to drop the snowball.

However, I decided to throw the snowball into the nearby street, and just happened to nail an unsuspecting Corvette driving by.

The driver proceeded to slam on the breaks and bail out of the car to find out who had done it.

Well, the 6 teenagers that were in our van had already piled in and had the door closed.

Our unsuspecting youth leader proceeded to get an ear full, then he threw open the van door and give all of us an earfull before driving off.

Want to talk about masks, I remained as emotionless as humanly possible, meanwhile imaging the 101 ways this man would tear me apart if I came clean about my mistake.

It is safe to say, what I did would be considered by most to be rash.

Question 1: What is a rash action that you instantly regretted?

if I could have, I would have force pulled that snowball back into my hand.

King Saul

by way of introducing our next mask, we are going to look at King Saul.

Now we aren’t going to read his whole story because he takes up a large amount of 1 Samuel.

But we are going to look at key moments in Saul’s reign as king that not only highlights major parts of his story, but also happens to exemplify our next mask.

By way of introduction, Saul was the first king of Israel.

Israel has established itself in the promised land, and they went through the era of the judges.

These judges would rise up, rescue Israel, and lead the nation for a time until they died.

Now, the nation is looking to Samuel, both the last judge of Israel, and a prophet of God, to give them a king.

So God gives them the king they want; Saul.

Saul was described as head and shoulders over everyone else.

He looked intimidating, but when they wanted to annouce him as king, they found him hiding behind the luggage.

In chapter 10, Saul is annointed king over Israel, and by chapter 13, he makes his first mistake

Saul is Losing Control

Two years have passed between chapter 10 and chapter 13.

Saul is on the verge of going to war with the Philistines and the army is scared.

People are starting to flee, and Saul rashly decides to offer the sacrifice.

According to Old Testament law, only the priest is allowed to offer sacrifices.

Saul is losing control, and he is grasping at straws, desperately trying to keep it.

Saul Curses His Son

Jonathan attacks the Philistines and sends them running for the hills.

Saul, in his determination to finish off his enemies, is now in pursuit of the Philistines.

The people are starting to get tired, and instead of stopping, eating, and rejuvenating the army, he curses anyone who eats anything before evening.

Saul has concluded that eating would slow them down, and threatens a curse on anyone who acts outside of his drive.

Saul has a plan, and expects everyone to share his determination and drive to finish off his enemies.

Remember, Samuel told Saul that his kingdom would end, and now Saul is trying to earn back his kingdom.

Saul is even willing to kill his son for breaking this vow, if it wasn’t for the intervention of his soldiers.

Then along comes a lowly shepherd boy by the name of David.

David is a man after God’s heart, he has been annointed to be the next king of Israel, and he has proven himself quite the soldier

Saul Tries to Kill David

Saul continues to lose control.

He sees David as a threat, and proceeds to try to kill David every chance he gets.

He attempted to pin David to the wall on multiple occasions with his spear.

He tries to kill him in his bed.

He then proceeds to try to kill anyone who supports David.

Saul Tries to Kill Jonathan

Saul has completely lost it at this point.

He is so threatened by David that he tries to kill his own son for defending David.

Saul is not being rational, he is not putting the needs of the kingdom above himself.

Saul has a plan, and everything needs to stick to his plan.

Question 2: Are you a planner?

What happens when things don’t go according to plan?

How do you handle things going sideways?

Are your plans ironclad or do they have some wiggle room?

The Mask of the Overachiever

this mask can also be called the mask of perfectionism.

This how the mask works.

The perfectionist often gets complimented and high praise because they operate at a high level.

They often have a plan in place, and as long as everything goes according to plan or fits in the mold that they have made, the world will not fall apart.

Nothing bad ever happens, and everything is always good.

The problem that the overachiever or perfectionist has is that they are always at the mercy of something going wrong; they often go through life with a high level anxiety.

They also often have barriers between themselves and loved ones because they can be stubborn, obsessive, and they have a lack of trust of anyone.

Parents, we can put this mask on with our kids.

We can try to implement a plan that ensures our kids never get hurt, never get sick, never have anything bad happen to them.

Because we can’t tell everyone the plan all the time, we often have fear that someone is going to act outside our plan and something bad might happen.

Its not just parents.

This can happen in our marriages, our jobs; it can even happen in church.

We can have a plan for a ministry we are involved with, and someone decides to go rogue and throw the whole plan off!

The plan becomes a means of control, because we become afraid of the possibility of losing control.

Taking Off the Mask

so if we struggle with this mask, what do we do about it?

Now I realize when it comes to anxiety and fear, there is one passage that everyone always go to.

But I hope that today, it will speak to those who really need it.

And maybe it speaks to someone who didn’t realize they needed it.

Why Are You Anxious About…?

Jesus brings up food and clothing in this passage, but he actually gives us an example of the kinds of questions we need to be asking.

Follow the model.

Why are you anxious about_________?

Kids?

Don’t you believe that God has a plan and a purpose for them, and that he will protect them

The Future? Don’t you believe the words in Jeremiah, I have a plan for you, to give you a hope and a future.

When we begin to grasp the words of Scripture, we begin to realize that we never were in control, and that’s a good thing.

God’s got this, and we need to trust him with all of the unknowns of life.

We need to focus on the things that we can control

What can we control?

We can control where we put our attention and energy.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

If we make the most of today, if we take the energy we exert on worrying about tomorrow and start being productive today, it sets us up to have a better tomorrow.

How often do we get worried of about something coming, get distracted from the task at hand, and end of up making the thing we were worried about worse.

I will close with this from Philippians.

How Often?

How often has your anxiety ultimately become something unreasonable?

How often is the thing you are trying to control actually uncontrollable?

Instead, take thing that is cauing you to be anxious, ask yourself, “Why am I being anxious about this?” and take to the Lord with thanksgiving, knowing that he is the good God that can take care of anything that comes our way.

If we intentially take this approach, we will begin to experience the peace that surpasses understanding.

Why?