Sermon Tone Analysis

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we find these words:

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When I think of the wisdom and scope of His plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father .....  that out of His glorious, unlimited resources He will give you the mighty inner strengthening of his Holy Spirit.

And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in Him… Eph.

3:14, 16 & 17

Or as another has translated, “That Christ may settle down and be at home in your hearts by faith.”

Without question one of the most remarkable Christian doctrines is that Jesus Christ Himself, through the presence of the Holy Spirit will actually enter a heart, settle down and be at home there.

Christ will make the human heart His home.

Christ said to His disciples, “Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching.

My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home (in) him.’”

John 14:23.

It was difficult for them to understand what He was saying.

How was it possible for Him to make His home with them in this sense?

Jesus used the same word used when He said “I go to prepare a place for you...that where I am, there you may be also.”

(John 14:3).

Jesus was promising to the disciples that just as He was going to heaven to prepare a place for them and would welcome them one day, now it would be possible for them to prepare a place for Him in their hearts and He would come and make His home within them.

They could not understand this.

How could it be?

Then came Pentecost.

The Spirit of the living Christ was given to the Church and they understood that God did:

· Not dwell in Herod’s temple in Jerusalem...

· not in temples made by human hands...

· but now, through the miracle of the outpoured Spirit, God would dwell in human hearts.

· Believers body...temple...living God...human heart His home…

It is difficult for me to think of a higher privilege than to make for Christ a home in my heart, to welcome, to serve, to please, to fellowship with Him there.

One night I will never forget close to 54 years ago now, I invited Him into my heart.

What an entrance He made!

It was not a spectacular emotional thing, but it was very real.

It was at the very center of my life.

He came into the darkness of my heart and lit the candle there.

He built a fire in the hearth and the chill disappeared.

He started music where there had been stillness and He filled the emptiness with His own loving, wonderful fellowship.

I have never regretted opening the door to Christ and I never will--not into eternity.

This, of course, is the first step in making the heart Christ’s home.

He has said Rev. 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

If you are interested in making your heart the home of the living God, let me encourage you to invite Christ into your heart and He will surely come.

After Christ entered my heart and in the joy of that new found relationship, I said to Him “Lord, I want this heart of mine to be yours.

I want to have You settle down here and be perfectly at home.

Everything I have belongs to You.

Let me show You around and introduce You to the various features of the home that You may be more comfortable and that we may have a fuller fellowship together.”

He was happy to come in, of course, and happier still to be given a place in the heart.

The first room we went to was:

I.

The Library

A. The study of the mind

1.

Small room very thick walls

2. But it is an important room.

B. In a sense, it is the control room of the house

1.

He entered w/ me ...

a. books bookcase

b. magazines on the table

c.

Pictures on the wall

2. As I followed His gaze, I became uncomfortable.

Strangely enough I had not felt badly about this before, but now that He was looking at these things I was embarrassed.

a. books…His eyes…too pure to look on

b. trash and literature.. table.. Christian.. no business reading

c. picture on the wall...the imaginations and thoughts of my mind--these were shameful.

C. “Master, I know that this room needs some major alteration.

Will You help me make it what it ought to be--to bring every thought into captivity to You?” 2 Cor.

10:5

1. “Surely... Gladly... the reason I’m here.”

a. “First of all take those things that you are reading, seeing, watching ... things that are not helpful, pure, good and true and throw them out.”

b.

Books of the Bible.

Fill shelves and Meditate day and night.

c.

Pictures on the wall...difficulty controlling these images...to aid a full-sized portrait of Himself.

“Hang this centrally on the wall of your mind.”

*I did and have discovered through the years... thoughts centered on Christ Himself, His purity and His power cause impure imaginations to retreat.

So, He has helped me to bring my thoughts into captivity.

*May I suggest to you if you have difficulty with this room of the mind, that you bring Christ in there.

1. Pack it full of the Word of God

2. Meditate on it

3. Keep it ever before the presence of the Lord Jesus.

II.

The Dining Room

A. The room of appetites and desires.

1. Very large room...

2. Good deal of time dining...

3. Much effort in satisfying my wants.

B. I said to Him “This is a very welcoming room and I am quite sure You will be pleased with what we serve here”

C.

He sat at the table... “What is on the menu for dinner?”

1. “Well... My favorite dishes: old bones, corn husks, sour cabbage, leeks onions and garlic right out of Egypt”

2. Things I liked, worldly things.

3. I suppose ... there was nothing radically wrong in any particular item, but it was not the food that should satisfy the life of a Christian.

D. When food placed before Him ... nothing said.. I observed...

He didn’t eat it.

1.

I said to Him, somewhat disturbed, “Savior, You don’t care for the food that is placed before You?

What is the trouble?”

2. “I have meat to eat that you don’t know about.

My meat is to do the will of He who sent Me” (John 4:32-34)

3. “If you want food that really satisfies you, seek the will of the Father, not your own pleasures, not your own desires, not your own satisfaction.”

4.

There at the table He gave me a taste of doing the God’s will.

a.

What a flavor!

b.

No food like it ...

c.

It alone satisfies ...

d.