Sermon Tone Analysis

Loving what God Loves.

1/28/18

And that is you.

Jesus Loves his Church.

Everyone in the Physical Church is not in Gods Church.

Definitions

The church is not a sheltered sanctuary for saints.

Rather, it is a survival station for sinners.

—Joseph Jay

Devotion to Church

Several preachers have told of a deaf member of a church and a rather typical-minded American churchman who asked, “Why do you come to church each Sunday when you cannot hear the service?”

The humble man replied, “I come each week to let people know which side I am on.”

Do You Go to Sunday School?

The late Pierce Harris, a prominent Methodist minister in Atlanta, told this story.

He was to preach at a prison camp.

The men were dressed in their usual garb and sat in a semicircle on the ground beneath the trees waiting for the service.

One inmate stood in the back of a truck to introduce the preacher.

In substance, the inmate said: “Several years ago, two boys lived in the same community in North Georgia, attended the same school, played with the same fellows, and went to the same Sunday School.

One dropped out of Sunday School because he felt he had outgrown it.

The second boy kept on going, because he really believed in it.

The boy who dropped out is making this presentation today.

The boy who kept going is the distinguished preacher of the morning,.

The cross of calvary and the word of God washy all wrinkles, and blemishs away.

Now we are Gods People.

God loves adding to his Church.

Trials come but joy should remain.

CHURCH

(Also see Worship)

The ministry of the church is a ministry of people.

When a church lives, it lives because the people within are vital and active.

When a church dies, it withers and dies not because the brick and mortar and carpet and pews get old and begin to crack and rip and crumble.

A church withers and dies because the people wither and die.

I think a vivid illustration of this comes from a true story of a young minister in Oklahoma who went to this little, though long-standing, church in hopes of really reviving the ministry of it.

He had stars in his eyes and great hopes for the future.

He thought he could turn it around.

And he gave it his best effort and his best shot week after week, to no avail.

Finally, he had one last idea, and it seemed to work.

He announced in the local newspaper on Saturday that the church had died, and on Sunday afternoon there would be a funeral service at the church itself, and all who wished could attend.

For the first time in his years there the place was packed.

In fact, people were standing outside on tiptoes looking through the window to see this most unusual funeral service for a church.

To their shock, because most of them got there twenty or thirty minutes early to get a seat, there was a casket down front.

And it was smothered with flowers.

He told the people as soon as the eulogy was finished they could pass by and view the remains of the dearly beloved that they were putting to rest that day.

They could hardly wait until he finished the eulogy.

He slowly opened the casket, pushed the flowers aside, and people walked by, filed by, one by one, to look in and leave sheepishly, feeling guilty as they walked out the door, because inside the casket he had placed a large mirror.

As they walked by, they saw the church that had died.

—Lloyd Cory, Quote Unquote