Sermon Tone Analysis

07-03-25.02

vv                           zz              07-04-01.02

07-03-25.01

07-04-01.01

*Title:           *“Fruit that endures…”

*FCF:            *hungering for purpose—desiring significance

*D-Theme:   *fruit that endures

*M-Thrust:   *bear fruit with patience

*App:*           Since the Christian life is about producing fruit that endures we must bear fruit with patience!

*Comment:  *sermon seemed to go much better @ Haviland than @ Melrose Church.

Helen Mumma came up to me afterward and said that it was a good sermon.

And we did receive a new member @ Melrose Church today [Betty Tanner]

*Subject:     *Fruitful Soil – Palm Sunday

*Date:          *EA4A1B71FD2647B4B8A757E39D612195

*Text:           *Luke 8:4-15

*Focus:        *Luke 8:8, 15         *Call to Worship: *John 15:12-17

 

4And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable: 5“A sower went out to sow his seed.

And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.

6Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.

7And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.

8*But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold*.”

When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” 9Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?” 10And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest /it is given/ in parables, that ‘Seeing they may not see, /And hearing they may not understand.’/

11“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

12Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

13But the ones on the rock /are those/ who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.

14Now the ones /that/ fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

15*But the ones /that/ fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep /it/ and bear fruit with patience.*

• Introduction

•   If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for this present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.

It is because Christians have largely ceased to think of the next world that they have become so ineffective in this one …C.S. Lewis

•   What is the hunger of your heart…?

•   As a human being created in the image of God…

•   What thing is the yearning and desire of your life…?

•   I wonder what thing first popped into your head…

•   Isn’t it true that part of the human condition is a…

•   …hungering for purpose—desiring significance…?

•   That in the quietness of our thoughts…

•   Our most secret and deepest prayers…

•   …is a longing for our lives to mean something…

•   …for our lives to make a difference…

•   We all live with that notion but many never come to realize…

•   That as things are—maybe our lives don’t count for much…

•   We’re living just taking up space…

•   Buckwheat Donahue—a resident of Skagway, Alaska—is planning a journey from Key West, Florida, to Nome, Alaska.

Starting in October, 2005, Donahue will walk 5000 miles and paddle 2,000 miles across North America.

His intention is to raise funds for building a medical clinic in Skagway.

•   Donahue suffered congestive heart failure in 2003, and if he had been in Skagway [@ the time] the absence of a medical clinic would have rendered his survival questionable.

•   He is influenced by Jack London’s words: “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time.”

•   “That’s what I want to do,” Donahue muses.

“I want to use my time.”

Choked with emotion, he adds, “And I want to share it with other people.”

[1]

•   In 1867, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel invented a new high explosive, which he named “dynamite.”

He was convinced that his invention would make war too horrible to ever happen again.

However, he quickly discovered there was no shortage of buyers for his new explosive.

He made a huge fortune from its sales, yet was horrified with the suffering and misery it caused in wars and conflicts.

But what was he to do?

•   Towards the end of the 19th, century he awoke one morning to read his own obituary in the local paper: “Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who died yesterday, devised a way for more people to be killed in a war than ever before.

He died a very rich man.”

•   Actually, it was Alfred’s older brother who had died.

A newspaper reporter had confused the epitaph.

But the account had a profound effect on Alfred.

He decided he wanted to be known for something other than developing a means to kill people efficiently, and for amassing a fortune in the process.

•   Go to slide of Nobel Peace Prize Medallion

•   As a result, he initiated the Nobel Prize—an award for scientists and writers who foster peace.

Nobel said, “Every man ought to have the chance to correct his epitaph in midstream and write a new one.”

[2]

•   Now most of us won’t get our names in the paper…

•   Or have the local TV station out to interview us…

•   But we can be one satisfied in our hunger for purpose…!

•   We can be one fulfilled in our desire for significance…!

•   We can be one who has made a difference…

•   …in the life of another human being…

•   Have you ever heard of the man walking on the beach…?

•   It was the morning after a powerful storm…

•   And the beach was littered with starfish washed up by it…

•   Off in the distance the man saw another man…

•   …picking up starfish—throwing them back in the ocean…

•   …as he approached the man he said to him…

•   “Hey, what are you doing?”

•   “How can you possibly expect to make a difference…!”

•   “There’s just too many for you to throw them all back…”

•   The man throwing the starfish back looked @ him…

•   And as he threw one more in said…

•   Yes, but it makes a difference for this one…

•   Often in our hungering for purpose—desiring significance…

•   We come to the place of resignation and defeat…

•   Thinking that it is impossible to make a difference…

•   When the reality is we only have to make a difference…

•   One soul @ a time… one person @ a time…

•   In the text read to begin the service Jesus talked about fruit…

John 15:16

16You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and /that/ your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

•   Speaking of producing fruit that endures…!

•   What is the fruit that endures…?

•   Certainly it is lives that are changed by our witness…

•   Lives that are changed by our testimony…

•   Lives that are changed by our outreach and ministry…

•   But it also has to be the fruit of our own changed life…

•   Coming to the end with the witness and testimony…

•   Still firmly planted and rooted in our hearts…

•   And still coming across our lips to the Glory of God…!

•   And so it is that in this version of the parable…