Sermon Tone Analysis

L*ong** *B*ranch** *B*aptist** *C*hurch*

Halfway, Virginia; est.

1786

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!!! Sunday, June 19th, 2005

 

 

 

 

 

Enter to Worship

 

 

 

 

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Prelude                                                       

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…………………………………………………………..………

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David Witt

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Invocation

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Michael Hollinger

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Opening Hymn*

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#48

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/“Fairest Lord Jesus”/

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Welcome and Announcements

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Morning Prayer

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………………..………

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Mr. Hollinger

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Responsive Reading

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[See Right]

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Offertory Hymn*                                                                    

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#198

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/“Turn your eyes upon Jesus”/

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Offertory

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…………………………………………………………..………

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Mr. Witt

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Doxology

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Scripture

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Rev 2:12-29

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Sermon

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Mr. Hollinger

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“Not for Love nor Money”

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Concluding Hymn

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#158

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/“Nothing But the Blood of Jesus”/

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Benediction*

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Congregational Response

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Postlude*                                                       

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…………………………………………………………..………

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Mr. Witt

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* Congregation, please stand.

Depart To Serve

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Responsive Reading

 

Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel;

*for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land.*

There is no faithfulness or loyalty,

*and no knowledge of God in the land.*

Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.

*My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;*

because you have rejected knowledge,

I reject you from being a priest to me.

*Therefore, I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.*

From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

There she shall respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

*On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer will you call me, “My Baal.”*

For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more.

*I will make for you a covenant on that day*;

I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety.

And I will take you for my wife forever;

*I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.

I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.**"*

/- Hosea 4:1,6, Hosea 2:13-20/

 

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\\ Title:     Not for Love nor Money

 

Text:     Rev 2:12-29

FCF:    Because our God is so much more loving than any other god, we must hold fast to him.

SO:      Last week’s Free Church Sermon could easily have been seen as an invitation to more broadly define Christianity – so broadly as to include Muslims, etc…  To the extent that he was saying that so that we could work together and accomplish good things, I’ll buy some of it – But the danger is that in being so “inclusive” we’ll end up mixing gods – and that’s pretty clear you don’t want to do that…

Text MP:          Purity.

Hymns I want:

-         Nothing But the Blood of Jesus (Invitation) ( 158)

 

Others:

-         Are you Washed in the Blood

-         Fairest Lord Jesus (48)

-         Turn your eyes upon Jesus (198)

 

 

\\ Last week, if you attended the Free Church Homecoming, you heard a beautiful sermon.

It was well organized, powerfully delivered, and elegant in the way it both provoked thought and led to a warm conclusion.

I had only one problem with it – it was a message that came straight from hell.

I don’t mean to say that the speaker was intentionally trying to mislead for nefarious intent; I have it on good authority that he is a strong Christian, and I believe firmly he was doing his best to present what he saw as “the spirit of the Bible.”

I just think that the message he delivered showed the dangers of reading even large themes of the Bible in isolation, ignoring those that are unpopular.

Basically, last week, Dr. Seltser’s the me was this – we as Christians need to stop drawing circles around what we call “Christianity.”

And, in several senses he is right.

We are not called to be God’s Gestapo, and attempting to become that is to be a Pharisee at best and Demon at worst.

I think you can also read into his suggestion that as Christians we need to work together as much as we can – and possibly even go beyond the bounds of what we see as the Orthodox Church in order to accomplish certain tasks.

I’d even argue that he is right that we are not responsible for determining the eternal state of anyone save ourselves.

But, the gist of his message was well explained when he stated, “We need to consider where we draw circles around our faith.

Does it include Mormons & Unitarians?  Muslims & Jews?”

What he was advocating was nothing less than the idea that we should abandon all discernment when it comes to defining religion.

Ecumenicalism should trump doctrine was the message I heard.

Again – to be fair, he still argued that we could worship separately to suit our own preferences, but the danger I saw in his message was that most people would have heard this: Don’t worry about doctrine.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to read the Old Testament for more than a few pages without running across things like “I the Lord your God am a jealous God.

Have no other gods before me.”

Just about every prophet will boil down to two themes: “(1) Stop messing with idols & Other Gods, and (2) do justice, because I am God unlike any other.”

When Jeremiah laments, “Can a nation change its gods, but they are not gods at all!” you hear not some need to “protect the faith,” but a realization that our God is as good it gets.

Now, I’m sure some are saying, “Oh, but that’s the OT god.

He’s bad and vengeful anyway.

I’m a NT Christian.

Well, aside from the fact that anyone who believes that is following in the footsteps of a heretic named Marcion, the truth of the matter is, this call to purity is a NT issue too.

You know that I’ve been talking about the messages to the churches in Rev, and last week I said my sermon was in preparation for this week.

Well, the Spirit works in wonderful ways, because I think this text is exactly what we needed to hear in creative tension with last week’s sermon.

It’s a call precisely to understand what purity is, and what our Jesus has called us to.

The danger in both of these churches was this – people coming into the church and teaching false doctrine.

In both cases, the answer is the same – Repent!

Be exclusive!

Hold fast and faithful to your true love.

Would you follow along with me?

 

<READ>

 

In Washington, it’s said that if you want to bring down a Republican, you need a sex scandal, and if you want to bring down a Democrat, you need a money scandal.

Empirically, this has been borne out.

I suspect the answer has to do with the fact that we expect Republicans to be rapacious – greedy but somehow tied into the Money system, and so money scandals are to be expected.

But, when it comes to the moral issues of the day, we still cling to a naïve hope of purity.