Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

“The artisan soul goes much deeper than simply those who understand themselves as artists and are pursuing careers in an overtly creative field.

I have come to realize after over thirty years of studying human creativity that the great divide is not between those who are artists and those who are not, but between those who understand that they are creative and those who have been convinced they are not.

the great divide is between those who understand that their very nature is that of an artist and those who remain unaware or in denial of their artisan soul.”

That quote is from the beginning of the book called the Artisan Soul by Erwin McManus.

Erwin is a pastor at a church called Mosaic in California, and a key cultural voice in Christianity today.

This book is about crafting your life into a work of Art.

Which goes great with our theme this morning.

This morning we are looking the paradigm of Life as a Canvas to Paint.

Erwin continues on in saying that western culture has trained us for standardization and conformity rather than uniqueness and creativity.

We’ve been conditioned to see life as a standardized test to pass rather than a canvas to paint.

Erwin says that the church has fallen into this cultural trend.

That we’ve built discipleship programs that emphasize conformity to a particular way to think, speak, behave rather than equip people to unleash their God given creativity.

This mornings sermon is all about unleashing your identity as an artisan by using your God given creativity to create.

Now, when referring to creativity, I am not simply referring to the usual activities and industries we associate with the creative arts.

We’re not just talking about excellence in the visual arts, music, writing, film or fashion.

Those are all areas in which people use their creativity to express themselves uniquely, but God given creativity is much larger and broader than that.

Creativity involves everyone, in every stage of life, in every industry, and living every kind of lifestyle.

Creativity is for innovators, managers, solutions providers.

Those who want to develop stronger and deeper relationships.

It’s for bookkeepers, accountants and financiers.

This season it’s really advantageous to find someone who can get “Creative” with your tax return.

Creativity is for people in customer service, in the trades, for parenting, discipleship and missional living.

For those in school, and those in retirement.

Whatever you can make a decision about, whatever God has allowed you the freedom to choose to do, you can use your God given creativity in creating or finding the best choices to make, and making them well.

Because your life is unique to you, your God given canvas is unique to you, to your gifting, to your skillset, to your passions and experiences and within your unique sphere of influence.

The first truth this morning is that you were created to paint.

You were created to create.

How do we know this?

Check out what the write of Genesis says about us (Humanity) just after he finished describing all of God’s beautiful, purposeful, intelligent, good creating.

It’s no coincidence that we all have an innate desire to create.

We were made in the image of a creative God, with the purpose of using the raw materials of His creation, to create.

And doing this is a primary act of worship towards our God, our maker.

One of the great examples we see in scripture of a person who lived out their identity as an artist by using their God given creativity is King Solomon.

King Solomon painted a beautiful canvas with his life, its one of the reasons we still read about him Today.

King Solomon was the son of King David.

The most revered King of Israel even to this day by many Jews.

King Solomon succeeded his father David around 3000 years ago and is famously known for having built the first major temple in Israel, known as Solomons Temple.

You can find more of his story in 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles.. King Solomon was known for a few other things as well.

He is known for having written and assembling the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Songs of Solomon in the Old Testament.

He was a writer, a guru, a poet.

Solomon is also known for bringing more organization to the government in order to rule over Israel with more efficiency and care for the people more effectively.

An effective COO

Solomon accumulated immense wealth in his lifetime.

I imagine through some creative endeavours.

He can be considered an entrepreneur.

And He was also known to have had hundreds of wives and concubines.

He would have taken up all the rooms at our upcoming couples retreat in Niagara Falls.

Actually, I’m not sure how we would handle that?

Would he have to pick just one to bring?

Doesn't matter, we live in a different time and we’re glad God has been pulling us as humanity forward for many years!

When you hear all that tho, don’t you picture a pure eccentric artist?

Always having a deep thought to share, creating new structures, extremely wealthy, lots of loving and love making?

Many would say that King Solomon saw his life as a canvas that God have him to paint, and boy did he paint.

Without going too much into details, I wanted to pull out three principles from Erwin’s book and King Solomons example of what makes a great artisan.

I want us to see what it looks like to paint a beautiful canvas of a life.

The FIRST principles is that artistry is all about self-expression.

Erwin describes it like this, “Art is an interpretation of life.

At its essence... art is our translation of all human experience.

Art is an expression of our emotions, an interpretation of our experiences.

It’s a mirror of our life.”

King Solomon displayed this very clearly in Songs of Solomon.

Let’s read a tid bit for fun.

Songs of Solomon 4:1-3 “Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful!

Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young.

Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely.”

Songs of Solomon 4:1

We’ll stop there.

haha.

Solomon is expressing himself here.

He is putting words to his thoughts, emotions, experiences, and values.

That’s what it means to create.

Did you know that you weren’t created to keep quiet?

You weren’t created to keep your thoughts, feelings, emotions, questions, frustrations, hurts, victories to yourself?

You were created to paint with them.

You were created to create out of them.

You were created to express your unique self.

This is how we glorify God.

Erwin says later in his book that the only ideas that matter are the ones that get turned into realities.

He says “there is no proof of creativity without action”.

I get to spend time with a lot of young adults who have lots of creative ideas.

We’re idealists, with lots of passion, and incredibly creative ideas of what needs to change and how to change it.

But I have to stop sometimes, and ask our young adult community collectively, “Why aren’t we doing something about it?”

I find myself commending the great ideas, and peoples willingness to express themselves through the forum of a conversation.

But wouldn’t it mean way more if the people with the ideas and feelings and opinions created out of them.

Brought them into reality, and did something new as a result of them?

King Solomon actively created out of his essence, his humanity, his experience, and emotions and passions.

And thousands of years later we are celebrating his creative works and are blessed by them.

God made you to paint, and to paint is to express yourself through creating something new from your unique human experience, and in your unique sphere of influence.

I don’t know what it is for you, whether it’s a new way to lead your family, or a new product you’ve always thought about inventing.

Maybe it’s a better way to manage and lead people in your organization that makes them feel loved and valued?

Or maybe it’s a new way to connect with your neighbours missionally.

Whatever it is, God is calling you to paint it.

The SECOND principle is that boundaries are our materials for creativity.

Allow me to read from the Artisan Soul page 145-146, “One of the great misconceptions about creativity is that it only exists where there are no rules, no boundaries, and no limitations.

Often people who find it difficult to express their true creativity blame external forces.

They point to rules and boundaries and limitations as the reasons their creativity has not flourished.

they become convinced that creativity blooms only when we are free of boundaries.

Yet this understanding of creativity is exactly wrong.

The artist always has a canvas.