Sermon Tone Analysis

In her hymn, /Come, All Christians, Be Committed/, Eva B. Lloyd reminds us that the Christian life is essentially a life of service to others in Jesus’ name.

It is, a relatively new hymn set to an old tune.

The words are by Eva B. Lloyd who composed the hymn in 1963.

The hymn first appeared in the 1975 Baptist Hymnal and was included in the 1991, and in our latest hymnal published in 2008.

The tune that Lloyd set her lyrics to is called /Beach Spring/, and like many of our hymns, is a tune based on a traditional Shaker folk melody of the day.

The music It was written by B. F. White.

White was the editor of a popular hymn book entitled The Sacred Harp, which used "/shaped notes/"—so-called because the musical notation uses note heads in 4 distinct shapes to aid in sight-reading.

The term "/sacred harp/" refers to the human voice—the musical instrument we were all given at birth.

There are Sacred Harp Singing Societies all across the nation, (including one up in Columbia), which continue the tradition of using shaped-note hymnals, and no instrumentation.

Some of these groups have been meeting in the same location for over 150 years.

The tune first appeared in White's 1844 edition of The Sacred Harp.

He named the tune for a Baptist Church in Harris County, Georgia located near two beech trees at a spring.

The Beech Spring Baptist Church still exists near Pine Mountain, GA.

This is a hymn that is exceptionally moving to me.

Its theology is about the importance of believers being committed to /“the service of the Lord.”/

As the Apostle James instructs us, we must not be merely /"hearers of the Word,"/ but /"Doers of the Word."/

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I. FAITHFUL COMMITMENT MEANS BEING COMMITTED TO THE SERVICE OF THE LORD

* /"Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!"/ (Psalm 100:2, ESV)

* Come, all Christians, be committed to the service of the lord; Make your lives for him more fitted, tune your hearts with one accord.

Come into His courts with gladness, each his sacred vows renew, Turn away from sin and sadness, be transformed with life anew.

#. a lifestyle of service is characterized by several Christ-like attributes ...

#. the Christian life is a life of /emulated service/

* /"It shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."/

(Matthew 20:26-28.

ESV)

#. we follow Christ by disdaining to be served, but rather desiring to serve as He served

#. the Christian life is a life of /humble service/

#. we see this most clearly in the example that Jesus set for us during the Lord's Supper when He washed the feet of the disciples

#. at the end of that event, Jesus said ...

* /"If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you."/ (John 13:14-15, ESV)

#. when we take up the towel and serve one another we represent Christi to those we serve

#. we become His hands and His feet

#. the Christian life is a life of /chosen service/

#. believers must become Bond Slaves to Christ and a servant to all

* /"But if the slave plainly says, 7 love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,' 6then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost.

And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever."/

(Exodus 21:5-6, ESV)

* ILLUS.

In the Old Testament a Hebrews debt-slave who labored six years for his Jewish master had a choice at the beginning of his or her seventh year of servitude.

They could choose freedom or they could choose to remain in bondage.

If they chose to remain a slave, an ear was pierced signifying their choice.

Those whose ears were pierced became known as "bondservants" because they had bonded themselves to their master for life.

#. bond servants to Christ are more concerned about serving the Master, then serving themselves

* /"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free."/

(Ephesians 6:5-8, ESV)

#. our service is to be with a /sincere heart/

#. we are to serve men as though we were serving Christ, himself

#. our service is to be with a /sincere effort/

#. not by way of eye-service—working well only when being watched by the boss

#. not by way of being people-pleasers—working only to promote one's self-interests, rather than to honor the Lord, whose servants we really are

#.

our service is to be with a /sincere purpose/

#. we are to serve with a good will as to the Lord

#. our service is to be with a /sincere motivation/

#. our motivation is not recompense and praise from men, but recompense and praise we receive back from the Lord

#. the paradox of serving others in the name of Christ is that, in emptying ourselves, we find the self-fulfillment that many are so desperately searching for

#.

Faithful Commitment Means Being Committed to the Service of the Lord

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II.

FAITHFUL COMMITMENT MEANS GIVING OUR TIME & TALENTS WHICH ARE FROM GOD ABOVE

* /"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;"/ (Romans 12:3-6, ESV)

* Of your time and talents give ye, they are gifts from God above; To be used by Christians freely, to proclaim His wondrous love.

Come again to serve the Savior, tithes and off'rings with you bring.

In your work, with Him find favor, and with joy His praises sing.

#.

God didn't save us to sit, but to serve

#. we were put on earth to make a contribution to the society in which we reside

* /"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."/

(Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

#. whenever you serve others in any way, you are actually serving God and fulfilling one of your purposes in Christ

#. if a professing believer has no desire to serve others, and they're only concerned about their own needs, they ought to question whether Christ is really in their life

#.

a non-serving Christian is simply a contradiction in terms

#. if you are a Christian, you are a minister, and if you're using your gifts and abilities to serve others, you're ministering

#.

Eva B. Lloyd writes in her hymn that our gifts are to be used by Christians freely to proclaim His wondrous love

#. sadly, thousands of churches across America are dying because of Christians who are more interested in being served than they are in serving

#. they sit on the sidelines as spectators, and the Body of Christ suffers

#. for Christians, giving our time and talents for service is not optional—something to be tacked onto our schedules if we can spare the time

#. it is the heart of the Christian life

#. the mature follower of Jesus doesn't ask the question, /"Who's going to meet my needs?"/

* ILLUS.

How many times do we hear some Christian say, /"I'm looking for a church that meets my needs and blesses me?”/

#. instead, the mature follower of Jesus asks, /"Whose need can I meet?"/

* ILLUS.

Most pastors I know would keel over dead if a prospective member told him, /"I'm looking for a place to serve and be a blessing."/

#. our gifts, our abilities, our time and our tithe were not given for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others

* ILLUS.

As members of the body of Christ, we can be compared to pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.

Each piece has protrusions and indentations.

The protrusions represent our gifts, talents, abilities, and the indentations represent our faults, limitations, and shortcomings.

The beautiful thing is that the pieces complement one another and produce a beautiful whole.

Just as each piece of a puzzle is important, so each member of the Body of Christ is important and can minister to the other members of the body.

Just as, when one piece is missing from the puzzle, its absence is very obvious and damages the picture, so also is the whole weakened when we are absent from the Body of Christ.

Just as, when each piece of a puzzle is in place, any one piece is not conspicuous but blends in to form the whole picture, so it should be in the body of Christ.

#.

Faithful Commitment Means Giving Our Time & Talents Which Are from God above

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III.

FAITHFUL COMMITMENT MEANS LOVING EACH OTHER WHICH IS REQUIRED

* /"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.