Sermon Tone Analysis
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Two weeks ago I assigned some homework with my sermon.
Did anyone do the homework?
Does anyone remember the homework assignment?
The homework was to bless three people a week.
I would encourage you make this a part of your routine and do this for the rest of your life, but I’m asking you to do it at least through this series.
To refresh your memory I want you to find three people to bless: one person from here at West Side, one person you don’t think goes to church anywhere, and then a third person.
In that sermon I also suggested three ways you might bless someone:
Words of Affirmation: send them a note, write them an email, text them, encourage them in some way
Acts of Kindness: rake some leaves, babysit their kids, help a neighbor move
Gifts: it may be new, it may be something you already own but aren’t using
The point to each of these it that you help to lighten their load which is one of the definitions of bless: “to add strength to.”
I hope you will ask God to show you people you can bless this week.
I also hope that as you bless others that you will share your stories with me.
That would be a blessing to me.
Blessing others is one of five habits I will be preaching on that we can use to share the gospel.
The five habits, using the acronym BELLS are:
Bless
Eat
Listen
Learn
Sent
I didn’t come up with this acronym, nor am I sure who did, but I think it can be helpful when thinking about our call to share the gospel with others.
As I mentioned in the first sermon in this series, we are not all called to be evangelists, but we are all called to evangelize.
We may get very uncomfortable just thinking about bringing up the subject of our faith and Jesus, but have been instructed to live in such a way that people ask us about our faith.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
(1 Peter 3:15b)
In other words, we are to live questionable lives.
We are to live kind of lives that evoke questions from friends and neighbors about what we believe.
But the truth is most of us don’t live differently.
With the exception of attending church services most of us live just like everyone around us.
We don’t do anything out of the ordinary that causes people to wonder about out our faith.
That’s what this series is about – encouraging us to live in such a way that surprises the world.
The first way is by be a blessing to others.
The second way is by eating.
I think we can all do that.
You may be familiar with the story of the kindergarten class that was asked to bring an item for show and tell that illustrated their faith.
A Jewish child brought a menorah, a Muslim child brought a prayer rug, and a Christian child brought a covered dish.
Eating is just a part of our faith.
You’ve heard Jeff Foxworthy’s jokes about being a redneck.
You might be a redneck if. . . .
Here are a few on being a Christian.
You might be a Christian if. . . .
You might be a Christian if you believe you’re supposed to take a covered dish to heaven when you die.
You might be a Christian if you’re certain that Jesus and the disciples ate fried chicken at the Last Supper.
You might be a Christian if you woke up one morning craving fried chicken and interpreted that as a call to ministry.
You might be a Christian if believe “where two or more are gathered . .
.” there’s bound to be lots of food.
You might be a Christian if your definition of fellowship has something to do with food.
You might be a Christian if you help put together a secret committee at your church to discuss how to get the preacher to stick to his thirty-minute time limit so that you can beat the Baptists to a good restaurant.
We may go overboard in our preoccupation with food, but really that’s probably true of most people whether or not they are Christians.
That’s because everyone eats.
Everyone gets hungry and everyone eats.
However, perhaps what sets Christians apart from most is the understanding that while eating keeps us alive, eating with others makes us alive.
In other words, it’s not just eating that is important, but who we eat with.
After all, who wants to eat alone?
We want to eat with people we know: family and friends.
We also understand that there’s a difference between eating at the same time and eating together.
Eating at the same time focuses on the food, eating together focuses on the relationship.
And if you have children older than ten you know how difficult it sometimes is to be able to sit down together as a family.
Jesus understood the importance of eating together.
In fact, one of the reasons Jesus came was to eat.
Have you ever thought about how many stories in the gospels are about food and eating?
There are more than a dozen stories of food and eating in the gospel of Matthew alone.
Jesus came for more than that, but he also came to eat.
If you don't believe that, finish this sentence: The Son of Man came. . . .
The sentence is finished a few different ways by Jesus in the gospels.
In Mark 10 we read:
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
(Mark 10:45, ESV)
Jesus said this after James and John came to him asking to sit on his left and right.
The other disciples got a little mad – possibly because they didn’t think to ask first.
They began arguing over who was the most important and Jesus it doesn’t matter.
What’s important is that we serve one another.
In Luke 19 we find Jesus saying:
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
(Luke 19:10)
This idea was first in his mind and practice.
He wasn’t there to be served or look out for himself, but to find ways to lead the lost to God.
The third was Jesus completes this sentence is found in Luke 7 where Jesus says:
The Son of Man came eating and drinking. . . .
(Luke 7:34)
We understand the first two, but what about the third?
While the first two describe his purpose, the third describes his method.
Eating and drinking with people was central part of his ministry.
Some of the most dramatic parts of his ministry were around a table eating and drinking.
His first miracle took place at a wedding banquet.
And the Lord’s Supper was instituted around the Passover Feast.
Jesus was about to be arrested, beaten, and crucified but his desire was to celebrate the Passover with his disciples.
He wanted to eat one last meal with them.
Then, after the resurrection Jesus shows up with two men on their way to Emmaus.
When he reached the town he stopped and ate with them.
And there was the time when Jesus showed up on the shore while the disciples are out fishing.
They quickly came to shore where they ate breakfast with him.
Jesus ate with the disciples, his twelve closest friends, but he also ate with outsiders.
Custom dictated that you never ate with someone outside your circle.
You didn't eat with someone lower or less important than you, you never ate with someone of a different faith, and you never ate with your enemy.
But Jesus did.
Jesus ate with the most unexpected people.
You would expect Jesus to eat with the disciples, but Jesus also ate with the Pharisees who were trying to get rid of him and he ate with tax collectors who didn’t seem to care anything about God.
The first of those questionable meals took place after Jesus called Matthew to be a tax collector.
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