Sermon Tone Analysis

Under Pressure

I want to talk to you about dealing with pressure.

Whenever I think of pressure I often think of a sponge.

When a sponge is under pressure, whatever is in it will come out.

This is the same as us (cf.

Matthew 12:34).

Whatever is in us, whether good or bad, will come out of us.

From the time of childhood to adulthood the pressure on our lives increase.

At each stage things get tougher.

When you are a child the worst thing is having to go to bed.

As a teen there is homework and high school.

At college-age the pressure increases to discover your identity and career goals.

And then comes the pressure of rent and responsibility of survival.

And as things continue to get more complex in the world, we are under increasingly more pressure.

Haven’t you felt it?

The good news is that God knew we would be under pressure and has made a way to use that pressure for our good (Romans 8:28).

We can turn to God in faith and learn to leverage that pressure for our good and God’s glory.

Releasing Pressure

As I said, our world is increasing in complexity.

And with that complexity comes more pressure.

We feel this pressure in cultural changes.

We feel this pressure in financial change.

We feel this pressure in our workplace and in our schools.

The thing about pressure is that it is always looking to escape.

And isn’t that what we do when we feel under pressure?

When things get hard many times our default way of blowing off steam is to retreat or numb ourselves.

But pressure in the hands of God is powerful.

Illustration: A pressure cooker uses the pressure from steam to cook food.

Generally, the higher the pressure, the faster you can cook food without burning it.

When we learn how to let God work in our lives we will discover that pressure becomes a powerful tool for good in our lives to shape us and form us into godly men and women.

Dealing With Pressure

The pressure that we are under is working to influence and shape us.

It can crush us into dust or it can form us into diamonds.

There are three ways that pressure works to influence and shape us.

We Are Under Pressure to Conform

We are constantly under the pressure to conform to the world.

This pressure consists of adopting cultural biases, values, and norms.

A simple but clear picture of this pressure to conform to the world is the pressure to identify your pronoun.

This was never a thing thought necessary by any culture in human history until now but if you do not identify yourself in our culture by attaching these things to your bio you run the risk of being canceled and cut off and being called something nasty.

This is only one example.

On everything from sexuality to spirituality the culture wants you to adopt its view of what is right and true.

And increasingly it is trying to add more pressure by threatening silence or rejection.

We are being encouraged to not be conformed to the world, but instead we must be conformed to the will and ways of God.

The pressure of God to change is not external.

It’s not the fear of punishment.

It is an internal one as we renew our mind and are changed by the truth of the riches of God’s patience and goodness (Romans 2:4).

Illustration: Milgram’s Experiment in 1963.

Paid unskilled to highly skilled professionals to play the part of teachers (with “learners” as a plant).

Learners were strapped to electrodes on a chair.

Teachers, the volunteers, had to administer electric shock for every wrong question.

There were 30 switches from mild shock of 15 volts to severe shock of 450.

Four prods to keep the volunteers shocking the “learners.”

1) Please Continue.

2) The experiment requires you to continue.

3) It is absolutely essential that you continue.

4) You have no other choice but to continue.

65% continued all the way to the 450 volts.

All of them continued to 300 volts.

Ultimately this study was about obedience to authority.

But the pressure of the “authority” caused people to do things that they were not comfortable with doing.

We need to understand that there is pressure on us to conform and fit the mold of the world.

We are also given the invitation to be conformed to the image of God in Christ.

Do not allow yourself to be conformed to the pattern of this world and shaped by the corruption that is in it (2 Peter 1:4).

Choose to adopt the culture and values and norms of the kingdom of Heaven which is kingdom of goodness and mercy and justice.

We Are Under Pressure to Perform

We are also under pressure to perform.

The constant message that we have heard from our youth is that we can “do anything” we set our hearts to.

We are told that we need to hustle and grind and produce and perform if we want to make it and matter in the world.

We feel the pressure to do what others are doing even if we think it is wrong or are uncomfortable about it.

We feel the pressure to fit in and that means going along with behaviors and actions that are culturally acceptable.

When we come to Christ we are invited to the rest of faith.

We stop working and striving for acceptance.

We do the works of faith by trusting and following Jesus.

Illustration: TV Show, What Would You Do?

Where actors play out moral problems to test people’s responses.

You can see the pressure this places on people and even the discomfort they feel as they are unwittingly put into a situation to decide how they are going to act.

We are constantly being pulled on to perform and act according to what the world around us expects.

God has a different expectation and it is much less complicated.

You are under pressure to perform.

The question is will you do what the world says is acceptable or will you choose to enter into the rest of faith and do the works of God?

Choose to submit to God in faith and do justly.

Love mercy.

Walk with God.

Choose to allow His will to influence and shape your actions in this world.

We Are Under Pressure to Transform

Not only are we under pressure by the world to conform to their worldview and act according to their definitions of right but we are also under pressure to become like them.

Its not enough for you to let them do what they are doing.

Instead you have to do it too.

Otherwise, you are against them and your presence is offensive.

As Christ followers we are predestined to become like Jesus and ultimately share in His glory (Romans 8:29-30)

We can choose to become what the world wants us to be or the things we have been labeled to be, or we can become the person that God predestined us to be.

Illustration: There are stories about the famed artist Sir Edwin Landseer who started a trend.

He was in an inn in Scotland when he saw a fisherman accidentally knock a teacup out of a waitresses hands and it spilled onto the newly whitewashed wall leaving a dark stain.

The fisherman was horrified and apologized profusely.

But the artist thought he could do something with the stain and asked the owner if he could.

After a short time, he created a drawing of a royal stag.

He transformed the ugly stain into a work of art

We are under pressure to change and become something other than ourselves.

We can allow ourselves to become like the world around us or we can become a new creation in Christ.

We become transformed after that which we behold.