Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Today’s message is part of a new series we will be working through, entitled, “Faith not in vain.”

My reason for wanting to do this:

Maureen and my conversation

How can we get ready for the end (signs of the times)

How can we have the same confidence that the apostles had, and know that when Jesus comes, I am ready?

Start a Little Earlier

Rarely a week goes by when I do not fly somewhere.

Friends kid me about arriving at the airport so early.

I have reached the age when I do not hurry, so I start in time to prevent it.

I arrive in time to check in, go through security, and drink a cup of coffee while I read the paper.

When they call my flight I am at the gate and ready to go.

I drive a lot.

I drive, at least in my eyes, a lot.

Between 2000 and 3000 kms a month.

Invariably, in at least 80% of the cases, I find myself having to rush to the next appointment.

Speeding from one town to the next.

Sometimes I cannot help it.

Some event or situation or person needs my urgent attention, and I am forced to rush in between appointments.

But sometimes — most of the time — it is my fault.

Because I do linger at home, pushing my time of departure as far as possible, I sometimes get myself into a situation in which I have to put my life (and the life of others) in danger.

And I have come to hate that.

And I have a genuine desire (and I am putting it in action) to just start a little earlier.

Who knows, it could save my life.

This is my thinking.

Rarely a week goes by when I do not fly somewhere.

Friends kid me about arriving at the airport so early.

I have reached the age when I do not hurry, so I start in time to prevent it.

I arrive in time to check in, go through security, and drink a cup of coffee while I read the paper.

When they call my flight I am at the gate and ready to go.

But always someone rushes in just before the flight attendant closes the door.

I say to myself, “If you had gotten up even fifteen minutes earlier, all that rush would have been unnecessary.”

Some insist on “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands” ().

I say to myself, “If you had gotten up even fifteen minutes earlier, all that rush would have been unnecessary.”

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Some insist on “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands” ().

And before you know it…you are unprepared for something very important.

How can we be ready?

And how can we know that we are?

Ph 1:6

How can we have a faith, not in vain?

12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

Different context, but point remains: If you have lived your whole life a Christian, and at the end, have nothing to show for it, your faith is in vain.

This will be the questions we would like to answer in this series.

For today, however, I would like to share with you a short message about where our focus ought to be, at least in the beginning.

This is what our series will be about.

The choice is yours

Sirach…17:11-17

“It was the Lord’s doing that I fell away”; for he does not do what he hates.

Do not say, “It was he who led me astray”; for he has no need of the sinful.The Lord hates all abominations; such things are not loved by those who fear him.

It was he who created humankind in the beginning, and he left them in the power of their own free choice.

If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.

He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.

Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given.”

Video: Jeffrey Rosario | Elevator Series | Judgment

In the end, it is not so much God’s future decision that we need to be concerned about.

Rather, it is our present choices that we should be worried about.

The Bible teaches that God sets before us a choice

The Bible’s teaching about the idea that God sets before us a choice of whether or not we want to live, is clear.

Here are a few verses (there are many):  I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.,

Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt.

Serve the Lord!

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”STATEMENT: