Sermon Tone Analysis

Open with thanking the WHOLE church for the amazing job they all did with the 4th of July outreach and the plans for next year!

Mention about the number of hot dogs that we served and were eaten.

Ask if anyone ate more than 5 hot dogs?

(Then show slide of man eating 72 and breaking record!)

July 4 (UPI) -- Joey Chestnut continued a Fourth of July tradition -- winning Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island's famed Boardwalk in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Chestnut, 33, of San Jose, Calif, earned his 10th title Tuesday eating an event-record 72 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

Chestnut, 33, of San Jose, Calif, earned his 10th title Tuesday eating an event-record 72 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

(Ask if anyone loves chocolate?)

Show slide of world’s most expensive chocolate.

Fritz Knipschildt, sometimes known as the Willy Wonka of Connecticut, prepared the La Madeline au Truffe, at the Choclate room in Brooklyn.

One of the La Madeline au Truffe's primary ingredients is a rare French Perigord truffle that accounts for its high price.

The expensive truffle is then surrounded by a ganache of heavy cream, sugar, truffle oil and vanilla coated in 70% Valrhona dark chocolate and rolled in fine cocoa powder.

Each piece of the chocolate is presented on a bed of faux pearls in a silver box tied with a bow and sells for $250 each, or $2,600/pound!!

I would also like to thank all of the men that did, as they always do, an amazing job with the Men’s Breakfast, yesterday morning!

(NOTE: To all men that are here, or watching this on Facebook, you are invited to the men’s monthly breakfast!

It is a great time of food and praise and worship and a teaching/reading from the Word!)

In line with this, I would also like to thank Trevor Wyatt for doing an awesome job yesterday at the breakfast, with sharing his testimony and faith with all of the men.

God is doing some amazing things in people’s lives all around us!

And we, as the church body, should celebrate with those who God is restoring and healing and building up!

AMEN?!

, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doin

, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

We are to become a source of exhortation and encouragement for one another, as we come together to corporately praise and worship His mighty name!!

MAN, I WISH THAT I HAD SOME SAVED FOLK AROUND HERE THIS MORNING THAT COULD GET EXCITED AND HELP ME CELEBRATE WHAT THE WORD IS SAYING!!!!!!

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

This morning, we are going to talk about brothers.

Not so much about the general understanding of the word “brothers”, as in the Christian realm, that we are all “brothers” and or “sisters” in Christ; but rather, we are going to talk about some particular, actual brothers that we find in the Bible.

Throughout the Word of God, we find several prominent and very well known stories that deal with the conflict between brothers and we try to glean some wisdom from these popular sibling rivalries!

Please allow me to just share two or three of these famous brotherhood accounts with you and see what we have learned from each.

The first set of brothers that we come across in the Bible, is found rather early on, in and it is the account of Cain and Abel.

I think that everyone is familiar with this story and the outcome of it.

Cain’s offering was not found favorable by God and Abel’s was.

Cain deceived his brother by asking him to go out into the field and there he attacked and killed him.

Cain was cursed and banished from the ground where he lived and no longer would the ground yield for him good crops, because of what he did.

The famous retort from Cain after God questioned the whereabouts of his brother, that many of us know, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” was given here!

You find God asking Cain an almost identical question that He asked Cain’s mother after the sin in the garden took place, “What have you done?”

In both cases, the question was preceded by someone shirking any responsibility and trying to divert God’s righteous gaze upon them, as they were feeling the weight of shame and sin.

(Adam passed the blame to Eve and then God asked her the question and in this story, Cain attempts to dismiss God’s inquiry about his brother, by asking God if it was his job to keep up with Abel!)

The moral for us, is this; each of us are accountable for our own sins and when we try to shirk responsibility and pass the buck, God asks the same question to us, “What have you done?”

The next set of brothers is found, again in Genesis, chapter 25.

Can anyone tell me who these two are?

Yes, Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac and Rebekah.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we looked at this Biblical account and of the situation of guarding your birthright as we see so dramatically played out between Jacob and Esau.

If you remember, Esau freely and without coercion or being forced, sold his natural birthright and all of the authority that came with it, to his brother Jacob, all for the bargain basement price of one bowl of bean soup!! WOW!! (An entire future and all of the power and authority that goes with it, for some bean soup!)

The story between these two involved more than just themselves; it also involved their mother who favored one son more than another and aided, by means of deception, in taking the first born son’s blessing from the father, which carried a lot of weight with it.

After more than 20 years, their was some healing and reconciling between them, but Jacob, the younger son, had a destiny and a future that was arranged ahead of time by God for his life.

How many of you know that God has a plan for your life and your future; provided you will yield to His will and walk in the path that He has for you?!

The big lesson here, as I pointed out some time ago, is that you and I, (as children of the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s), and just like Esau, have been given sonship and rights to the kingdom.

We have a spiritual birthright from our Heavenly Father and we would be wise to regard it and to guard it as the valuable thing it is, and not be like Esau and treat it as some flippant and easy come easy go possession.

We should cherish our eternal inheritance and put everything that we have into securing it in heaven, versus trying to store up for ourselves treasures here in this life!

The final question from these two brother’s story that I leave with you is this, “What is going to be for you (the bowl of soup, which is meaningless and temporal, likened to that of the life that you have here on this earth and this world), or the birthright from you Father, (which is your eternal inheritance as a son or as a daughter in the kingdom, outside of this world)?!

“Choose this day, whom you will serve!”

Next in the line of brothers, I give you the story of Joseph and his brothers; once again, found within the book of Genesis.

There were 12 brothers in this story, and they were the sons of Jacob, from the previous brothers account we just looked at.

Jacob, having been a part of a family where one parent favored another child and all of the tragedy that this brings, should have known better than to do the same thing, with his own sons.

But, that’s the situation here, in that Jacob loved his younger son Joseph, more than the others and showed him favoritism!

Most of you know the outcome, the brothers, out of jealousy and bitterness, sold their younger brother Joseph into slavery and then lied about it to their father Jacob; saying that Joseph had been killed by an animal.

Joseph, from the time he was sold into slavery, until his rise to power in Egypt, had to wait, some 13 years, as both a servant as well as a prisoner.

There again, God had a plan for Joseph and Joseph had to decide to follow God, or take the quick and seemingly pleasurable route that this world offers!

In the end, Joseph showed mercy on his brothers and allowed for reconciliation to take place.

In the end, one man’s faithfulness to God, became a means of provision and protection and favor for an entire nation, as Israel was brought into the Egypt and protected!

Joseph is a type, a representation, of another man who would come centuries later and who would also serve as a means to provide protection and provisions and allow favor for not just one nation, but for every nation and all peoples around the world and for all times; and just like Joseph, this second man’s fate would stem from His having favor from His Father.

This second Joseph would also become a servant, and would be accused wrongly and suffer for that which he hadn’t done.

He would also have brothers and they, just as Joseph’s brothers had done, would reject this man as well!

This next man, and the most important man, that I would like to mention and the account of his brothers, is none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now, for the sake of consideration of time, I am going to mainstream us towards one particular person in this instance that was a brother of Jesus.

How many people here have read the epistle found in the Bible, called Jude?

Great!

It is a massive book in the Bible!

I want to encourage you to read it today.

Go home this afternoon and put on something comfortable to wear and then start preparing yourself a nice cup of hot tea and while the tea is steeping, sit down and begin reading this book.

About the time your tea has steeped to an acceptable flavor level, you will already be done reading the book of Jude and its amassed 25 verses!

And of the verses written in this epistle to the church, a couple that stand out to me personally, are verses 20-21, which read, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

().

Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Now back to the writer, himself.

Did you know that Jude was a half-brother of our Lord Jesus?

It’s true.

Yet, Jude is not the brother that I am referring to today!

There is another epistle in the New Testament that contains the writings of one who identifies himself as, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”.

This James, is identified in the opening of Jude’s epistle as Jude’s brother.

So, using my amazing skills of deduction, if Jude is listed as a brother of Jesus and James is the brother of Jude, then that means that James is also a brother of ................?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

().

Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Right, Jesus and James were half-brothers!

Now the reason that you keep hearing me say that Jesus was the half-brother of James and Jude, is because Jesus had the same mother in common to both of them; however, they shared a different father.

James and Jude were the sons of their father Joseph and their mother, Mary.

Jesus was also a son of Mary, but His Father was a little more well known than Joseph; Jesus’ Father was Yahweh!

God, Himself!

So, this is why I refer to them as half- brothers; same mother, but different fathers!

(Does this make sense to everyone?)

Can any of you, honestly imagine what it would be like, to be a brother or a sister to Jesus?

As far as that goes, can any of you that are present this morning and are currently or have ever been in the past, a parent, imagine having Jesus as a child?

They are probably two diametric thoughts, all together!

That is, considering that idea of being a sibling to Jesus versus being a parent to Jesus.