Sermon Tone Analysis

WHO AM I BECOMING?

I just want to warn all of you at the outset that today might be a little challenging for some of us.

That is because today I am going to ask you to think about a problem that you are facing which does not have a solution.

This might be challenging for you if you come to church and expect to find THE SOLUTION to whatever problem you might be facing.

If that’s you, I know how tough that can be and I can relate.

The vast majority of conflicts between Amy and I are almost always caused by me pushing an issue in an attempt to find a solution when Amy would prefer just to learn from it and move on.

I have a difficult time with that.

Something went wrong, I need to figure out exactly what the problem was, dissect it to find out what happened, then determine how to avoid it in the future.

Some of you may know where I am coming from, others may be feeling very sorry for Amy right now!

She endures a lot.

She’s pretty awesome.

One thing is for sure, today we have no shortage of problems.

Everywhere you look there are horrible things happening.

World leaders constantly threatening wars and forcing injustices on their people.

Local leaders taking advantage of their positions.

Even Christian leaders constantly caught up in struggles and scandals, degrading your trust in people you once looked up to and had high hopes of making significant change.

Physical and emotional pain from illness and relational strife impacting almost everyone you know including yourself.

The problems abound.

They are everywhere.

Instead of looking at a problem and trying to fix it, what we are going to do today is more of a self evaluation.

When we encounter problems, annoying people like me stop and ask, “How can I fix this?” Today we are going to take a step back and ask the second question that usually comes to mind, “How did I get here?

How did I get to this place?”

Let’s take a second to drill down deep into this thought.

Let’s really dig deep, all the way down to a scary question you may or may not have ever asked yourself.

You might even be wrestling with this question in your life right now.

Do you ever feel like Christianity isn’t working?

You love God and want to serve, but you’re burned out by the busyness.

No matter what you do, there is no end in sight.

You pray and pray, but your discouraged because the prayers don’t work.

Even when you constantly and consistently do what is right, everything goes wrong.

You collapse into your chair at the end of the day and let out a big sigh because you feel like this just isn’t working.

Maybe you were that boy or girl who grew up in church.

You were still learning to read when you first went to VBS.

Then moved up to the youth group.

Met your first “girlfriend” on a mission trip.

The whole time you were learning about life while you were at church, you came home to a different message at home.

Parents were leaders at church, but would fight at home.

You prayed for a miracle, but after you moved out they got a divorce.

God, why didn’t You answer my prayer?

Do You even care?

Does Christianity even work?

Maybe you knew a couple who loves Jesus.

They did everything right.

Very involved at church, served at all of the functions, but they still lost something important, a job, a child, or their marriage.

Where is God?

Didn’t He know what was happening?

It doesn’t even have to be that dramatic.

You can be involved at church, committed to a daily bible reading plan, listening to k-love, wearing the WWJD or NOTW bracelet, going to a great job, living in a nice house, driving a nice car, hanging out with great friends, plenty of vacation time, but at the end of the day you’re JUST NOT HAPPY.

You don’t feel fulfilled.

Does Christianity even work?

There has got to be a better way.

In one of the last moments that Jesus would be with the disciples He was reassuring them and telling them not to worry.

He closed the thought by telling them that they knew the way to the place He was going…

Thomas is going to respond to Jesus next.

Even though his response seems so short sighted, I love it because it is such a great illustration of the relationship between God and humanity.

From the beginning we have been short sighted when it comes to “God’s way.”

In Isaiah 55:9, God describes His ways and thoughts higher than our own, just as the sky is higher than the ground.

With the desire of doing things our way, humanity abandoned God’s way in search of our own.

Even as followers of Christ, we tend to follow Christ our way.

We can hear that reflected in Thomas’ reply as he said, “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

We don’t know the answer to the problem, so how can we fix it?

This isn’t working, there has to be a better way!

Jesus responded to Thomas with a truth that is simultaneously simple, complex, and life changing…

“The way” matters.

Even the way you speak matters.

Sometimes you can say all the right things, but in the wrong way.

For example, Amy likes to get plenty of rest.

On the other hand, I hate having to sleep.

I tend to stay up too late, I can’t take naps during the day, and if I sleep too long in the morning I will be worthless all day long.

Amy loves it.

Sometimes that can be frustrating.

We may have somewhere to go, like a long trip.

I like to get up early, get on the road, and get it done.

Because of these differences, I have to be aware of THE WAY I communicate about sleep.

Amy has had a long week, so she wanted to sleep in yesterday.

So I tip-toed around the house, kept from turning on lights, and went outside to work in my office as soon as I could.

A little later I came in the house and she was awake so I asked, “Did you get enough sleep?”

I could tell that wasn’t the way to ask the question, so I quickly followed up with, “I tried to be quiet and not wake you!”

“The way” matters.

Jesus is “The Way.”

Here is some interesting Bible trivia… What were 1st century Christians called?

It wasn’t Christians.

Not Religious.

Not Bible Thumpers.

Not Jesus Freaks.

These devoted Christ followers who were filled with the Holy Spirit, loving Jesus, changing the world, crushing demons, sacrificing their lives, and so much more, in the name of Jesus, were called “People of the Way.”

Their goals didn’t stop at theology.

They didn’t just set out to live with strong morality.

Their goal was to live and love the way Jesus lived and loved.

Think about the way Jesus lived and compare that to the way most people live today…

Jesus was full of joy — Most of us are full of stress!

Jesus didn’t worry — We live in what some call the most anxious generation in history.

Jesus stopped what He was doing for people — Who has time for that?

Jesus was absolutely consumed with ongoing fellowship with the Father — I can barely pray for a couple of minutes without being distracted by my phone or something else.

It’s almost impossible to imagine if Jesus were like us.

Certainly it seems insane.

Imagine Jesus…

Shopping for a trendy pair of Converse All-Star’s or Air Jordan’s, instead of just wearing His open-toed, dirty sandals.

Scrolling Instagram and Facebook and wondering why John the Baptist had more followers.

Did the new kicks not make Him more popular?