Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Paying attention—growing up, in school, at home, etc.

Best hamburgers places in town — Blue Dot, The Hamburger Factory, etc.

Customers Risk Their Lives to Eat a 10,000 Calorie Burger

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Consider the foolhardy risk takers at the famous Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas.

This restaurant, known for its "flatliner fries" cooked in pure lard, butterfat shakes, no-filter cigarettes, and the "triple bypass burger," appears to be living up to its reputation.

The restaurant's most recent victim, a woman, was eating a "double bypass burger" lathered in cheese and bacon and smoking cigarettes when she collapsed and was taken to the hospital where she is currently recovering.

Potluck “Awwww, Mr. Burdick...” Me: “What’s going on?” Michelle: “I’m telling them our story.”

Owner Jon Basso said that he wishes the customer a swift and full recovery.

But, he added, the woman got exactly what she asked for: a brush with death.

"We attract … thrill seekers [and] risk takers," he told the Los Angeles Times, adding that his restaurant is a "bad for you but fun" restaurant that "attracts people who don't really take good care of their health."

The Quadruple Bypass Burger can top 10,000 calories.

Basso said the Guinness World Records book contacted him Friday to say that the burger was being crowned the most caloric sandwich on Earth.

The restaurant also offers free meals to people weighing more than 350 pounds.

"I tell you," said Basso, "we attract that very bleeding edge, the avant-garde of risk takers."

Possible Preaching Angle: (1) Taking Risks/Following Christ—At times following Jesus involves taking good and godly risks.

Unfortunately, at times we also take foolish and ungodly risks—risks that can hurt and even destroy us.

(2) Sin and Temptation—Even when we know sinful behavior is bad for us, at times we keep engaging in that activity anyway.

The devil fools us to think that whatever I do today stays in today.

It’s like Vegas.

The devil fools us to think that whatever I do today stays in today.

Life is a lot like how people see Vegas.

We want whatever happens today, to stay with today.

OPENING STATEMENT: Life gets messy, when we don’t pay attention to God.

What is unexpected is often

New York Times columnist David Brooks argues that there are three different lenses through which to think about marriage decisions—the psychological, the romantic, and the moral lens.

Your actions follow you.

Who you are

face to face with who you are

looking in a mirror

Be sure your sin will find you out

Most of the popular advice books adopt a psychological lens.

These books start with the premise that getting married is a daunting prospect.

So psychologists urge us to pay attention to traits like "agreeableness," social harmony, empathy, and niceness.

The second lens is the romantic lens.

This is the dominant lens in movie and song.

More than people in many other countries, Americans want to marry the person they are passionately in love with.

But in their book "The Good Marriage," Judith Wallerstein and Sandra Blakeslee concluded that 15 percent of couples maintain these kinds of lifelong romantic marriages.

The illusion of deceit is the

The third lens is the moral lens.

In this lens a marriage exists to serve some higher purpose.

Brooks points to Tim Keller's book "The Meaning of Marriage," where Keller argues that marriage introduces you to yourself; you realize you're not as noble and easy to live with as you thought when alone.

Brooks writes:

In a good marriage you identify your own selfishness and see it as the fundamental problem.

You treat it more seriously than your spouse's selfishness.

The everyday tasks of marriage are opportunities to cultivate a more selfless love.

Everyday there's a chance to inspire and encourage your partner to become his or her best self.

In this lens, marriage isn't about two individuals trying to satisfy their own needs; it's a partnership of mutual self-giving for the purpose of moral growth and to make their corner of the world a little better.

God’s best is often not what you expect.

Would you friend yourself People You May Know

God brought Jacob to the right place.

I. Jacob didn’t pay attention to God’s promises.

(Explanation—Application)

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A journey is simply a culmination of steps.

“…went on his journey...” — literally means to lift up his feet — lightness in his steps

You can’t move forward unless you pick up your feet.

God providentially leads Jacob to Laban’s neck of the woods.

You can move forward unless you pick up your feet.

Begin every step in prayer — so pray without ceasing

When God gives us the command to go, you obey and go.

What is missing from his journey?

Write home to momma points

Life is full of mostly normal, routine days—life is often uneventful.

We love the exciting moments in life—sometimes even live for them.

Every one of those travelings days, were bringing Jacob closer to God’s destination for Jacob.

Prayer was missing at his arrival

There was no praise, no prayers for next steps, etc.

Jacob just took over—instead of looking to God.

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Jacob failed to live in the reality of God’s promises.

God said, “I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest...” ()

Did Jacob seek out God in all places whither he went?

NO.

He was a good worshipper.

“This stone, I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house.”

()

He was a good tither.

“I will surely give the tenth unto thee.”

()

Yet, Jacob didn’t live in the reality of the God whom he worshipped and tithed to.

Is that us today?

I attend church.

I tithe.

Why doesn’t God’s promises work?

We wonder why God’s promises don’t “work”, but never ask ourselves if we lived in the reality of those promises.

Living in the reality of them is live with the understanding that God is always with me.

We complain, scheme, etc.

II.

Jacob didn’t pay attention to God’s will.

(Explanation—Application)

There is a great difference between Abraham’s servant seeking Isaac a wife and Jacob seeking himself a wife.

Abraham’s servant prayed before—he knew the limits of his own abilities to find the right wife for Isaac.

Abraham’s servant prayed, waited, and later worshipped/praised God for his blessings.

Jacob’s approach is depended on his own tactics, strengths, etc.

Jacob was impressed—probably too impressed.

We get the idea that he was so fascinated by Rachel’s beauty, and so enchanted by her charm, that he failed to recognize her shortcomings or even to consider the will of God in his relationship with her.

And being the shrewd operator that he was, he got down to business immediately.

He reminded the shepherds that grazing time was being lost and that they should water their flocks and get them back out to pasture while it was still light, probably a ploy to get rid of them so he could talk to Rachel alone.

But the shepherds had some sort of agreement that they would not roll the stone back from the mouth of the well until everybody’s flocks were gathered (, ).