Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Have you ever seen, “The Long Island Medium”?

She allegedly delivers messages from the dead to the people that have been left behind.

She has a TV show and she does live appearances in theaters.

It has been speculated that she uses the information from the ticket purchase, to research the guests prior to seeing them in person.

There is a story circulating on the internet about one of her live shows.

The supposed medium told the audience that she is seeing a pile of baby clothes.

at that moment a woman in the crowd, in one of the first few rows, places her head in hands and starts to weep.

The supposed psychic, said you lost a child didn’t you?

Your child wants to tell you that that they love you, but they have passed to the other world now and they are going to be alright.

The grieving mother was comforted, and so thankful for that message because now she could have peace, and hope that one day she would see her child again.

People pay

It was reported that if you look up that poor grieving mom on Facebook, you would see that she posted a picture of piles of baby clothes.

You could read all her messages about losing her child, and you could read how lost she was without her child.

It is speculated that the medium used the name on the credit card used to purchase a ticket to research the audience prior to the show.

That poor grieving mother was desperate, All she wanted was hope.Hope that there was something beyond.

Hope that her child was ok.

The only place she get that assurance was to attend this event and hope that psychic would pick her out, and give her a message, an message that her child was ok.

She just needed hope.

Our world today needs hope like never before.

There are statistics, and psychological studies, that back this up.

But all you really have to do is look around.

Get to know people around town, right here in Faribault, look outside and it is easy to see that more and more people lack hope.

Read the paper, watch the news, Depression, sadness, suicide drug abuse, alcoholism are all products of this hopelessness, as people look for things to dull the pain of living without any concrete hope.

Psychologists and Sociologists that study such things tell us, that in order to combat this feeling of hopelessness, people need a good education, a good job, and a good relationship.

If you have a good education, you have hope that you can move up in your job.

If you have a good job, you have hope that you will someday retire, and hope that you will be able to make more money.

And if you have a good relationship, you can have hope that you will not be lonely in the future.

If people do not have those things statistically, they are more likely to experience feelings of hopelessness.

The message from the world is place your hope in something like a job, or money or a relationship, and keep it up.

Place your hope in those things, and you get through life.

The problem occurs when one or more of those things go away.

It is when the plant shuts down and your spouse leaves, that hopelessness sets in.

Many people experience difficulty with those things.

Many people struggle with having a good career, and find themselves in a dead end job.

Not everyone has had the opportunity, or has the ability for a good education.

And many people, find themselves alone, or haven’t met the right person.

So they search after these things trying to find hope.

And meanwhile, they try to push down their hopeless feelings with alcohol, drugs or pornography.

There hope for a netter life comes in the form of the lottery, and they even pray that a god that they don’t know will deliver them from their hopelessness through the lottery.

This phenomenon is nothing new.

2000 years ago Jesus pointed out this problem, In Matthew chapter 6 verse 19, Jesus said,

Jesus, predicted this

This phenomenon is nothing new.

2000 years ago Jesus pointed out this problem, In Matthew chapter 6 verse 19, Jesus said,

mt

If your hope is in the things of the earth, when they go away you find you don’t have anywhere to turn.

When you place your hope in a person or a job or money, if they go away you have nowhere to turn.

King Saul, had nowhere to turn.

Let’s take a look at what might be King Saul’s state of mind here in chapter 28.

So far, he has not killed the threat to his throne, David.

In fact, the mighty warrior David is in Philistine territory, and may be aligning forces with the Philistines.

The Philistine army is pressing in on King Saul.

As the pressure mounts, Saul decides to utter a foxhole prayer.

He decides to ask the Lord what to do.

Now Saul, shouldn’t expect the Lord to answer him.

Saul does not follow the Lord, he does not have a relationship with the Lord, and the Lord said specifically that he would not answer.

But nonetheless, Saul tries.

When my cell phone rings, the phone number 1 samuel 8.18

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sam And there were at least two other instances where King Saul sought to inquire of the Lord in , and 16: 14, and the Lord refused to answer Him.

Maybe, if King Saul could have have asked someone what to do, maybe that could have helped, but he can’t even do that.

The Urim, and the Thumimmin were kept in the breast piece of the priestly garments.

There is not a lot of information on what they were exactly but most likely they were similar to casting dice.

The priest would use the Urim and Thummimin to determine the will of the Lord, but today, for Saul the Lord is not answering.

And there were at least two other instances where King Saul sought to inquire of the Lord in , and 16: 14, and the Lord refused to answer Him.

Maybe, if King Saul could have have asked someone what to do, maybe that could have helped, but he can’t even do that.

King Saul, had an advisor named Samuel.

King Saul last encountered Samuel back in 1 Samuel chapter 15.

It was there that Samuel had brought the dark news to King Saul, that because Saul did not follow the word of the Lord, the Lord had torn the kingdom away from him and was going to give it to his successor, David.

The end of that chapter leaves us with a scene that shows a desperate King Saul clinging to Samuel, in an attempt to hold on to the kingdom.

As Samuel left, Saul was clinging so tightly that Samuel’s robe tore away, symbolizing the kingdom being torn away.

Saul hoped in himself, and the kingdom.

When that was torn away,

When the things of the world are torn away from us, we do this thing, we hold out hope.

Maybe, just maybe Saul is thinking, something will happen and Samuel will come back and give me some good advice.

But sadly, in 1 Samuel chapter 25, verse 1 we learn that Samuel has died.

1 Samuel today, when we turn to chapter 28, what little flicker of Samuel being his advisor is snuffed out.

And today, when we turn to chapter 28, the author of Samuel, reminds us that Samuel is indeed dead, just to emphasize the importance of that.

1 Sam 28

So there sits King Saul the Philistines army is pressing in, God is silent, and his advisor is dead.

Saul has no where to turn.

When people are desperate they look for hope any place they can find it, sometimes that is a psychic, or a medium.

So Saul is thinking, I have no where to get advice, my life is collapsing maybe I can find a flicker of hope from other magic person, but even that is a problem for Saul, because he expelled them from Israel.

Now according to

Saul should have killed the mediums, but as we learned earlier, one of Saul’s leadership characteristics is to only partially follow God’s word.

SO instead of killing the mediums he expelled them from the land.

But he did let them live.

Maybe, just maybe Saul can find a flicker of Hope there.

This a problem because the King will have to leave the land, and travel through enemy territory.

To do that he will need a disguise, so he will have to remove the royal robes, and humiliate himself in order to travel a long distance to find a little hope.

This a problem because the King will have to leave the land, and travel through enemy territory, if he is to that he will need a disguise, so he will have to remove the royal robes, and humiliate himself in order to travel a long distance to find a little hope.

Desperate people do desperate things, and it so ironic isn’t it?

Here is the King of Israel, with no where to turn, his kingdom is being threatened, and he sees it slipping away.

So out of desperation, he is going to degrade himself by stripping off the royal garments, and travel through enemy territory to find a little hope from a medium that he expelled in the first place.

Unfortunately In todays terms, stories like this are played out a million ways.

Picture an alcoholic.

Can you picture it, You have a man who was drinking heavily and it ruined his career so he purged his home of alcohol.

Not because he found hope in Jesus Christ, but because he now had hope in his career, and family.

In his new life he even speaks bad about bars and alcohol to everyone in town, and as long as he is chasing after money he is fine.

But when the economy goes south, or something tragic happens to his business, he needs to kill the pain.