Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Over the years I have read the mail of many people.

It is because it is because I buy a lot of old books and people leave letters and postcards in these old books.

Seldom have I found anything worth reading, but the fact is, much of the best reading in history is found in reading other people's mail.

The joy of reading other people's letters is that you do not have to answer them.

In the book, A Treasury Of The World's Great Letters, you can find letters from Alexander the Great, Christopher Columbus, Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and just a host of famous people all through history.

Only one Bible author made it into this book and that was the Apostle Paul.

He wrote more of the world's most famous letters than any human being who has ever lived.

Nearly half of the New Testament is composed of his letters.

When you read the New Testament you are reading a lot of other people's mail.

Most of it was written to the church however, and was intended to be read in public.

But 4 of Paul's letter were written to individuals as private mail.

But they were so instructive and valuable for the whole church that God guided the church to include them in the New Testament.

We want to begin the study of the letter to Titus.

He was one of Paul's key troubleshooters.

He sent Titus into the church at Corinth where it was going through great turmoil and strong criticism of Paul.

It was a delicate mission calling for tact and wisdom.

Titus was able to calm the waters and return to Paul with a good report.

Paul considered Titus a good friend, but he gave him the dirtiest jobs because he was gifted to handle them.

He left Titus in Crete because it was a hard place to grow a church.

The people were a bunch of lying, lazy gluttonous brutes.

I am not making this up.

Paul says so in verse 12 and 13.

They had a bad reputation and they deserved it says Paul.

This was not the place for his most tender son in the faith-Timothy.

This was a job for tough Titus.

Paul left him there on the island of Crete and took off.

This letter is one he sent back to Ttius to instruct him in the management of this difficult local church.

In the very first paragraph of this letter Paul makes it clear that there are 2 key ingredients in a body of believers becoming a church that brings honor to Christ, and those are faith and knowledge.

Paul says that is why he was chosen to be a servant of God and a Apostle of Jesus Christ.

It was to impart faith and knowledge to God's elect.

These 2 paths lead even the toughest of people to a life of godliness.

Without faith and knowledge people live in fear and ignorance, and that is why they are so ungodly.

Show me crude and rude ungodliness, and I'll show you people who live in fear and ignorance.

Show me poor or rich Christians who live a life pleasing to God and I will show you people who walk in the light because of faith and knowledge.

The individual and the church that pleases God and fulfills His purpose in history is one where these two pillars are conspicuous.

How do you get the church in Crete to be a better church?

You increase faith and knowledge.

Both of these are expandable and capable of growing from lesser to greater.

Faith comes in all sizes.

Just as you can get a small, medium, or large cone, so you can get a great variety of sizes of faith.

In Mark 4:40 Jesus said to His disciples who feared the storm was going to sink them, and they would drown, "Why are you so afraid?

Do you still have no faith?"

That is the least amount of faith you can have, which is none.

The mustard seed size looks pretty good compared to this.

So what we see is that a Christian can have anywhere from no faith, to little faith, to great faith.

Jesus said to them on another occasion, "Oh you of little faith."

It was so little that it did little to overcome their doubts.

Then you have the account of the Centurion who had a severely ill servant, and he told Jesus he did not have to come to his house, but just say the word and he would be healed.

Jesus was astonished and said in Matt.

8:10, "I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith."

Here was a man with a ton of faith.

The Bible gives balance and tells of the Canaanite woman with the demon possessed daughter.

She came to Jesus and was so assured that He could heal her daughter that she refused to take no for an answer.

Jesus said to her in Matt.

15:28, "Woman, you have great faith," and He healed the daughter.

The point is, faith can be small and weak, or big and strong in either sex, and in every degree in between.

The goal of the church is to help Christians move from a mini-faith to a mega-faith.

If faith is not growing, the church is failing, for this is a primary purpose of the church.

This was Paul's job and the job of Titus, and it is the job of every church leader to help Christians grow in faith.

the RSV puts it, "To further the faith of God's elect."

Goodspeed has it, "To arouse faith in God's chosen."

The Amplified has it, "To stimulate and promote the faith of God's chosen."

The reason the Bible teaches that faith without works is dead is because all works grow out of a living faith.

Faith is the foundation for all action.

Have you ever had a salesman tell you that his is a great investment, and that you can't go wrong.

And yet you could not bring yourself to buy, and the reason is you just did not have an adequate faith.

There was too much doubt and fear to overcome, and the result was you took no action.

Fear paralyzes and prevents action.

You can only take action when there is some degree of faith that motivates you.

Without faith you cannot make a commitment.

The goal of all sales pitches is to increase your faith, for without faith there will no sale.

If you have no faith in the product, or the salesperson, you will not respond, for the will cannot go where faith has not prepared the way.

Faith is the pioneer that blazes new trails, and if faith has not done its job the will cannot stick its neck out into that uncharted territory.

Every action we take is based on faith.

When faith says jump, and only then, will we take the leap of faith.

Faith gives the green light and says go for it.

Robert Louis Stevenson said, "Faith forms the axles of the universe.

We do nothing apart from some faith.

We can't even walk unless we have faith our legs will hold us up.

Faith is the working principle of daily life."

Lack of faith is the cause for all of the insecurity and uncertainty of life.

Adam and Eve fell because they lacked the faith to believe that God's way was best.

Every sin we commit is because we do not have the faith to believe that God's way is better.

We worry because we don't have the faith to believe that God will work in all things for our good.

We let anxiety rob us of our peace because we do not have the faith to believe that God will give us the strength to handle whatever comes.

Every weakness and defect in the Christian life can be traced to a lack of faith, and every strength and virtue can be seen as a product of faith.

Faith and knowledge go together, for you have to have some basis for faith.

Faith is trust in somebody or something, and you have to have knowledge to person or truth in order to trust them.

If you ask me if I want to ride on a thig-a-magig, I will not be able to respond until you give me some knowledge of what it is.

Only when I have enough knowledge to overcome the doubts and fears of ignorance will I have faith to take action.

Now I might just have faith in you, and trust that you would not lead me into danger, and so in blind faith follow you to ride on this unknown thing.

But it is my knowledge of you that leads me to that step of faith.

There has to be some basis in knowledge for faith to be born, and the greater the knowledge, the greater the faith.

But keep in mind that knowledge is not faith.

They are two distinct realities.

Faith needs knowledge to motivate trust and action, but it does not necessarily lead to that response.

What if you inform me that a thig-a-magig is a very high ride where at the peak they let you float to the earth on a parachute.

You can explain the whole process so I understand its safety completely.

I can be thoroughly convinced, but still not have the faith to act an take a ride.