Sermon Tone Analysis

An Introduction

The direction of one’s whole life to God.

1. Piety as an experience of grace.

a. Piety is one of those words that makes the non-believer cringe and the believer cower.

(At least, that’s how I felt.)

Often the word, “piety,” or “pious,” isn’t used in the most positive contexts in today’s world.

Can’t you just hear the words in some dramatic movie line such as, “You’re such a pious, pompous, pretentious, prideful, pig!?!” OR, the other extreme we may hear such a term may sound something like, “You’re such a pious person you must live on your knees.”

If we hear this word at all, it’s almost always in an extreme sense of the word without a true understanding of what piety is.

b.

One reason this may be difficult for the believer is that the word, “piety,” isn’t a word we find in the Bible.

However, the concept is found throughout its pages.

There are many examples of those who experienced a life-changing encounter with the Savior, an encounter where they experienced grace for the first time, and that experience of grace redirected their entire life.

My favorite example is Saul.

You remember Saul, the zealous Jew, who hunted down Christians to prosecute, convict, and oversee their death sentences.

But, as he traveled to Damascus on one of those assignments he encountered Jesus and experienced grace for the first time.

His life immediately changed from being Saul, the hateful Christian-hunter, to being Paul, a fervent follower of Christ.

2. Piety as a process of growth.

a. Paul’s life dramatically changed in an instant, but for most Christians a life of piety is a process of growth.

Paul’s quick transition may have been accelerated by the fact that he’d been reared in a God-fearing home and was taught the scriptures from a young age.

He knew the prophetic passages about the Messiah, but it wasn’t until he encountered the Messiah that all of that teaching made sense.

b.

That is similar to my own experience.

I was reared in a Christian home and went to every church service every time the door was opened.

My father was a pastor and my parents lived out their faith daily.

They could drop truth bombs and quote scripture so fast it would make your head spin.

They fully lived out the wisdom of II Timothy 2:15 in “…correctly (handling) the word of truth,” in order to discipline me and my siblings and train us in the faith.

Soon I too knew how to wield that Bible and quote that Scripture (or at least give some paraphrase of a passage that fit the immediate need), but the loving relationship with God, his Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit were all missing.

Paul tells us in I Corinthians 8:1 that, “…knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (NIV).

All of that Bible training was great fertilizer for me though and when that seed of faith germinated, my walk with Christ grew.

To grow your spiritual walk you must grow in piety, study, and action.

c.

This stool represents your life in Christ.

When supported by three legs it’s a sturdy seat to support you when you sit and it’s a steady platform upon which to stand when you’re reaching for something higher up.

If you want to reach the highest ideal of all, life with Christ, you need the steady, sturdy stool of the spiritual life in Christ.

The first leg of this spiritual walk is piety.

(Attach the leg.)

The other two legs are study and action which we’ll learn more about later.

To grow our relationship with Christ we must grow in piety, study, and action.

We need a good understanding of what piety is in order to keep a balanced life in Christ.

3. False ideas of piety.

(Philippians 2:3-4)

There are many false ideas of piety and let’s examine some examples of these false ideas.

Holy Hazel - That person who is prideful and egotistical in their religion.

Notice I didn’t say “faith” or “Christian walk” because this is the person wrapped up in the religious, exterior concept, that the evil one easily lets us slide into; rather than a faith-filled daily walk, a constant relationship, with the Father.

Holy Hazel is devoted to the church building, traditions, rote prayers, and all of the external appearances of being a Christian rather than having a real dedication to God.

Mechanical Millie - She’s that person who just follows the crowd and the routine.

Whatever the pastor or teacher says she’ll agree with because she doesn’t actually know God’s word for herself and doesn’t really have a relationship with Christ.

Her relationship is with people in the church rather than with Christ.

Hypocritical Henrietta - She is that person whose religion is a false front in an effort to achieve personal acceptance or advancement.

I can identify with each one of these examples.

At times I’ve been Holy Crystal, Mechanical Crystal, and Hypocritical Crystal.

Remember, I was always at the church.

I knew how to find that Bible verse faster than anyone else at the table.

I could sing all the old hymns and new praise and worship songs too.

I was always a handy choice to pray when asked (as all preacher’s kids are asked on a routine basis to pray).

All of this works when you want to fit in and appear to be a Christian.

It’s great if you want to be included with the Christian crowd.

And, it even smooths the way to being accepted as a believer and maybe asked to lead in various areas of the church.

None of those skills and abilities are bad, but without relationship with Christ, a true desire to live my life in pursuit of Him, all of this false piety left me with an anemic leg of the stool that didn’t hold up when life’s trials hit.

What is piety?

A Definition

As I mentioned earlier, I struggled with what the true definition of piety is.

I knew the library definition as a, “reverence for God or devout fulfillment of religious obligations,” but the end of that textbook definition leaves a bad taste in mouth.

I’m not obligated to a religious organization (and that alone is what leads to false piety), but having a reverence for our Heavenly Father falls short as a good definition as well.

(Many people revere God, but don’t have a relationship with him.)

I decided to take an unqualified poll of my friends and family to ask them what piety meant.

What I got was a thesaurus of adjectives such as: a humble person, someone who loves God, a person who’s righteous, kind, holy, devout, etc.

So, we need a clear definition.

We’ll define it as, “The direction of one’s whole life to God.” Let me repeat that, “The direction of one’s whole life to God.” It’s a new perspective on why we live our lives the way we do.

We commit to live our lives in a way that considers his perspective of our life choices first.

The Pattern of the Christian Life

In order to know what direction God wants us to take takes a lot of prayer, but it is much more than prayer.

We must seek God’s will through prayer and thorough study of his word.

We must be open to the Holy Spirit to work and move in our life and allow him to mold us into the image of Christ.

We allow him to do this by engaging fully into worship, Communion, Christian community, Bible study, prayer, and diligently seeking the gifts, skills, and talents he’s given and equipped us with to minister and serve others.

As I said, I was blessed to be reared in a Christian home and benefitted from amazing Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, and Christian mentors.

I made an early profession of faith, because I did believe in God, but it was many years later before I truly came to an understanding of God as my father and the personal relationship I needed to develop with Him.

I needed to recognize that He is the one I could trust regardless of what was happening in life.

After high school I went to Bible college thinking I would like to teach music in a school or church setting and while there I met this incredibly handsome, charismatic, young man (who happened to be my boyfriend’s roommate).

Yes, you heard that right.

When my boyfriend introduced me to his roommate, I immediately knew I was in the car with the wrong guy.

I broke up with the boyfriend and over the next few months I began charming my way into Gary’s circle of friends so that I was always “coincidentally” running into him on campus.

I’d sit with them in the cafeteria or

wander into the library (but, of course, only during the hours when he was working in there).

As we became friends I listened to him tell me of his plans for life and ministry and I just knew this was the man I was supposed to marry as we were on the same path of following God’s call.

As I reflect back on that season of life I now can see how much we talked about our plans instead of God’s plans.

(You’ve heard the expression, “Man plans, God laughs?”

That loose translation of Proverbs 16:9 which says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”)

It definitely applied to us.

So, Gary and I married and he was “called” into his first ministry just two weeks after our wedding.

He was the youth pastor and I was helping with the music ministry and all our plans seemed to be on track.

Many moves and ministries later and at every phase I was the faithful pastor’s wife doing all the right things.

But, “Holy Crystal,” had little consideration for what God would have me to do.

Then my family encountered a series of crises that led me to rethink all of my motives and actions.

First, Gary had a bad car accident with injuries that still bother him to this day.

Then my mother had breast cancer and died.

A few months after that I had a significant back injury that eventually led to two surgeries.

One year after my mother’s death my mother-in-law died after being hospitalized and given an overdose of a medication she was allergic to.

Finally, just a couple of days after my mother-in-law’s passing, my Dad called and said he too had cancer and only had six months to live at best.

I hung up the phone and marched out into the field behind my house and began screaming at God.