Sermon Tone Analysis

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

Halfway, Virginia; est.

1786

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!!! Sunday, May 8th, 2005

 

 

 

 

 

Enter to Worship

 

 

 

 

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Prelude                                                       

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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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#32

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/“Immortal, Invisible”/

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Welcome and Announcements

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Morning Prayer

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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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#375

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/“Tis’ so Sweet, to Trust in Jesus”/

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Offertory

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Mr. Witt

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Doxology

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Scripture

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Proverbs 31:10-31

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Sermon

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Mr. Hollinger

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“Mom: Vision from A-Z”

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Concluding Hymn

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#212

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“Be Thou My Vision”

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Benediction*

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Congregational Response

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Postlude*                                                       

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Mr. Witt

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* Congregation, please stand.

Depart To Serve

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Responsive Reading

 

Be subject to one another in out of reverence for Christ.

*Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lo*rd

For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior.

*Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her*,

in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—

*yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish*.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies.

*He who loves his wife loves himself.*

For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it,

*just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body.*

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

*This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.

Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.*

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/-/ /Ephesians 5:22-33, NRSV/

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\\ Title:     Mom: Vision from A-Z

 

Text:     Proverbs 31:10-31

 

FCF:     As the Bride of Christ, we can be people worthy of being praised like this woman.

SO:       I want my congregation to realize that Christ loves this church, and that he has a vision for it.

This body needs to begin to dream again, and I want them to take from this the first steps of how to dream

 

Intro:

 

I want you to imagine for a moment, you are young man have that heart-felt conversation only a young man can have with his now ageing father.

As he prepares to set you lose in the world, he takes the time to give you one last exhortation – Get Wisdom!

That’s what the book of Proverbs is – an exhortation to get wisdom.

No matter how, make sure that wisdom is what you get.

But he knows you’re a young man.

Your hormones are in overdrive, and while you sit patiently your mind isn’t always on the conversation.

So, as your dad wraps up “the talk,” he knows he needs to show you why you need wisdom.

So he tells you a secret.

Like all young Jewish boys, a wife has been selected for you, and your father wants to tell you about her.

She’s beautiful, she’s charming – one day both you and your children will realize how great she is.

You will rise up and call her blessed.

Even if her children should pass before she does, she has the vision to know that upon meeting her children in heaven, the words ‘Blessed are you among women!’ will be the first on their lips.

But know, I want you to imagine something else.

This young lady you are going to be married to is also there.

Perhaps she’s just sitting outside in the hallway, and she is hearing this description of this woman, and thinking, ‘This is pretty heady stuff!’

This ideal woman sounds too good to be true.

‘Oh, wait a minute,’ she realizes, ‘that’s supposed to be me!

I can’t live up to this,’ she thinks.

But, you see, this father is wise.

He has seen vision in this girl.

This poem he constructs – and it is just that a beautiful love poem – this poem is a vision about a woman of vision.

It is an idealized portrait to be sure, but it is based on real characteristics of a real woman he has knows.

She just needs to see it for herself.

Now I want you to change this imagination one last time.

I want you to imagine that the young man is Jesus.

He loves his bride.

His bride, of course, is his church.

He cares for her; he loves her; he wants to encourage her.

And so, he carefully reconstructs the poem his father told him so many years before to remind his bride of the vision he once saw in her.

She is a blessed woman.

Every generation, she gives rise to another generation of children that holds fast to him, and has the vision that he has of her.

So, with this in mind, I beg your forbearance as I read this vision – this vision about a woman of vision, once more.

<READ Proverbs 31.10-31>

When I started working for the government, I had to use the desk of a man who had a teenager daughter.

On his desk, he had a mothers’ day card that said ‘Happy Mother’s Day, Dad!’

That was a card that needed a little bit of explaining.

I finally found out the story – he was divorced, and had to be both mother and father to his daughter.

And so, one year, in recognition of that fact, she decided to make him a ‘Happy Mothers’ Day, Dad!’ card.

It was a beautiful sentiment, but only that obviously needed some context to be understood.

This morning, if you don’t mind, I want to do a little bit of explaining about this Mothers’ Day card of a poem, tucked there at the end of Proverbs.

Before I get into the heart of the message that this poem tells us, I want to start by telling you a little bit about how it’s put together – because it’s really a beautiful poem.

-          Its an acrostic

-          It’s a chiasm – centered on the husband!

But, beyond the beautiful trappings, I want to focus your attention on just a single detail that stands out in this praise of a good woman.

You see, this poem is a vision of a good woman – but she is good precisely because of the vision she has.

Specifically, I want to point out a few characteristics of that vision – a vision that we, as the bride of Christ, have an obligation to instill in our own children – birthed both by water and spirit – both natural children and spiritual ones.