Sermon Tone Analysis
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Nothing sells a newspaper like scandal, and no scandal is better than one which happens within a socially prominent family.
In many cases, the issues surrounding a scandal are not unusual.
What makes a scandal newsworthy is when it happens with someone whom we would normally not associate with such behavior.
We hold a high standard for our officials which we expect them to keep.
Behavior common to the average person is unacceptable.
Kings do not get into barroom brawls.
Queens do not get drunk in public.
Presidents do not shoplift.
To do any of these would be to live beneath what is expected of them.
If this is true for those of our society upon whom we place great honor, how much more so for the child of God who is heir to His kingdom.
Such high and regal honor is bestowed upon the redeemed of God.
Therefore, Paul challenges the believers not to lose sight of their responsibility and besmirch their name by acting in a manner not in keeping with who they are.
Nothing sells a newspaper like scandal, and no scandal is better than one which happens within a socially prominent family.
In many cases, the issues surrounding a scandal are not unusual.
What makes a scandal newsworthy is when it happens with someone whom we would normally not associate with such behavior.
We hold a high standard for our officials which we expect them to keep.
Behavior common to the average person is unacceptable.
Kings do not get into barroom brawls.
Queens do not get drunk in public.
Presidents do not shoplift.
To do any of these would be to live beneath what is expected of them.
If this is true for those of our society upon whom we place great honor, how much more so for the child of God who is heir to His kingdom.
Such high and regal honor is bestowed upon the redeemed of God.
Therefore, Paul challenges the believers not to lose sight of their responsibility and besmirch their name by acting in a manner not in keeping with who they are.
Nothing draws people to watch the news on TV, like scandal, and no scandal is better than one which happens within a socially prominent family.
In many cases, the issues surrounding a scandal are not unusual.
What makes a scandal newsworthy is when it happens with someone whom we would normally not associate with such behavior.
We hold a high standard for our officials which we expect them to keep.
Behavior common to the average person is unacceptable.
Kings do not get into barroom brawls.
Queens do not get drunk in public.
Presidents do not shoplift.
To do any of these would be to live beneath what is expected of them.
· If this is true for those of our society upon whom we place great honor, how much more so for the child of God who is heir to His kingdom.
Such high and regal honor is bestowed upon the redeemed of God.
Therefore, Paul challenges the believers not to lose sight of their responsibility and besmirch their name by acting in a manner, not in keeping with who they are.
We are called to a Higher Standard
When you read that opening verse in Chapter 4 we notice a of bit irony.
Paul is a prisoner, under house arrest by the Roman government, and he is telling us to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
Is Paul who actually is in jail have the right to tell us to live a life worthy of our calling?
Usually when someone is under arrest and in jail they have committed some crime and would not be living a life worthy of the calling of a Christian.
Could Paul’s reference to being a prisoner for the Lord mean something more than being held under house arrest?
Three times Paul mentions his imprisonment in the Ephesian letter.
Back in chapter 3:1 he states he is a “prisoner of Christ Jesus.”
Later in 6:20, he is an “ambassador” of the gospel, “in chains.”
Here in 4:1, Paul is a prisoner for the Lord.
The key words to consider are the prepositions used by Paul in describing his relationship to his condition.
When he states that he is a “prisoner of Christ Jesus” (3:1, my emphasis), Paul suggests that he is possessed by Christ and the gospel.
Paul sees his incarceration as a result of his being totally consumed by Christ and His will.
Anyone less committed would not be found imprisoned for their faith at all.
When Paul speaks of being a “prisoner for the Lord” he is implying that there is a purpose, a reason that God has brought him to be in the situation that he now finds himself.
His present situation has a purpose in God’s great plan.
Although Paul may not understand it, he is ready to accept it.
In both cases, he does not allow his imprisonment to be a detraction, but rather an expression of his life in Christ.
I know that in my life there have been times that life circumstances have happened that I did not plan for, nor did I want.
Indirectly the experience that I am about to relate to you has to do with Lebanon church.
Three years ago when the bishop sent me to Dinwiddie I did not want to go.
I had spent over twenty years pastoring churches in the Shenandoah Valley and I liked it there.
In fact when it came time for me to move I told my DS that I wanted to stay right there in the Shenandoah Valley.
Most of my family was there, and as you know we own a home in the valley and the long and short of it is I figured it was the best place for me to be.
Well, I am here to tell you, that God had other ideas for me and my family.
I was in for a big let down when I got a phone call from my DS telling me that I would not be staying in the valley but would be go to a place called Dinwiddie, Va.
A place who’s name I could not even spell.
The first time I heard the name Dinwiddie, I asked what is a Dinwiddie anyway.
I had to look it up on a map, just have some idea, what part of Virginia that it was in.
As a United Methodist pastor when we are ordain into the pastoral ministry, we agree to be itinerant, meaning we will go wherever we are sent.
Even if it is to a place named after some long deceased governor who’s name I can not spell.
I have to confess I was angry and hurt.
I did not want to go.
I asked is there not somewhere closer to my home I could be sent, some place that is not a three hour drive from the rest of my family.
The answer was no.
I could not see the reason that God was insisting that I uproot my family and move to a part of the state that I had never heard of before.
That is about the way I felt, that is, until we came to Dinwiddie and met all of you.
After the first meeting with the PPR committee in April and talking with them about the hopes of this church and seeing that a place called Dinwiddie was a very nice place to be.
And since that time I have grown to love Dinwiddie and even learned how to spell it.
I do say that I get a chuckle when I say Dinwiddie and they say “how do you spell that?
I will also say that I love Lebanon church maybe even as much as those of you that have grown up here.
I now believe that there is a reason and a purpose that God, through our bishop, sent me here.
That is about the way I felt until we came to Dinwiddie and met all of you.
That is about the way I felt until we came to Dinwiddie and met all of you.
Has that ever happened to you? Things happen and you find yourself in a place that you don’t want to be in, yet there you are.
I imagine that Paul felt that way.
He would much have preferred to be able to be out and about interacting with people rather than being confined and watched by a Roman guard.
When Daniel was being taken to be thrown into the lion’s den, he too did not want to find himself amongst those hungry cats with their sharp teeth and deadly claws.
Situations like these may not be where we want to be, but we do not know, what God has planned, nor can we always understand, but like Paul we must be ready to accept it.
Paul gloried in his chains as a king would glory in his royal robe and crown.
Paul’s imprisonment was not the evidence of scandal, but rather of loving commitment.
Has that ever happened to you? Things happen and you find yourself in a place that you don’t want to be in, yet there you are.
I imagine that Paul felt that way.
He would much have preferred to be able to be out and about interacting with people rather than being confined and watched by a Roman guard.
When Daniel was being taken to be thrown into the lion’s den, he too did not want to find himself amongst those hungry cats with their sharp teeth and deadly claws.
Situations like these may not be where we want to be, but we do not know what God has planned, nor can we always understand, but like Paul we must be ready to accept it.
Paul gloried in his chains as a king would glory in his royal robe and crown.
Paul’s imprisonment was not the evidence of scandal, but rather of loving commitment.
Paul’s challenge to his readers, you and I, in 4:1 is to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Our Calling
In Christianity, this calling has two directions.
First, we are called out from the world .
and its sinful lifestyle and its way of thinking and doing things.
Growing up this was expressed best by my mom when she said, “Others may behave have that way, but we do not.”
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