Sermon Tone Analysis

At FBCC, we exist to spread the supremacy of God by treasuring Christ together and building laborers in the local church

The 1998 movie What Dreams May Come portrays heaven as a beautiful but lonely place for Chris Nielsen (played by Robin Williams) because, although his children were there, his wife wasn’t.

Remarkably, someone else is entirely absent from the movie’s depiction of heaven: God.

The 1998 movie What Dreams May Come portrays heaven as a beautiful but lonely place for Chris Nielsen (played by Robin Williams) because, although his children were there, his wife wasn’t.

Remarkably, someone else is entirely absent from the movie’s depiction of heaven: God.

That movie’s viewpoint mirrors numerous contemporary approaches to heaven which either leave God out or put him in a secondary role.

“Heaven without God would be like a honeymoon without a groom or a palace without a king.”

God is Glorified by the way we experience Him and not simply by the way we think about Him.

God is Glorified by the way we experience Him and not simply by the way we think about Him.

The devil thinks more true thoughts about god everyday than any saint will in a life time.

Satans problem isn’t theology but desires.

The 1998 movie What Dreams May Come portrays heaven as a beautiful but lonely place for Chris Nielsen (played by Robin Williams) because, although his children were there, his wife wasn’t.

Remarkably, someone else is entirely absent from the movie’s depiction of heaven: God.

Deut 28:47-48

God threatens terrible things if we will not find our delight in Him and treasure Him.

So, it is not just that we dutifully follow Christ because that is what we are suppose to do but rather God has a higher bar for HIs children.

We are to treasure Christ.

Find our joy in God.

To be Happy in God.

“Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” —Saint Augustine

The 1998 movie What Dreams May Come portrays heaven as a beautiful but lonely place for Chris Nielsen (played by Robin Williams) because, although his children were there, his wife wasn’t.

Remarkably, someone else is entirely absent from the movie’s depiction of heaven: God.

Samuel Rutherford said, “O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without thee, it would be a hell; and if I could be in hell, and have thee still, it would be a heaven to me, for thou art all the heaven I want.”

To be with God — to know him, to see him — is the central, irreducible draw of heaven.

That movie’s viewpoint mirrors numerous contemporary approaches to heaven which either leave God out or put him in a secondary role.

“Heaven without God would be like a honeymoon without a groom or a palace without a king.”

This is a portrayal of a heaven that isn’t about God and our relationship with him, but only about human beings and our relationships with each other.

A heaven where humanity is the cosmic center, and God plays a supporting role.

The Bible knows nothing of this pseudo-heaven.

The best part of heaven on the new earth will be enjoying God’s presence.

He’ll actually dwell among us ().

Just as the Holy of Holies contained the dazzling presence of God in ancient Israel, so will the New Jerusalem contain his presence.

The new earth’s greatest miracle will be our continual, unimpeded access to the God of everlasting splendor and perpetual delight.

What is the essence of eternal life?

“That they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” ().

The best part of heaven will be knowing and enjoying God.

Article by Randy Alcorn

Director, Eternal Perspective Ministries.

DG 4/21/18

“The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things . . .

but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them.”Jonathan

Edwards

We may imagine we want a thousand different things, but God is the one we really long for.

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” ().

God’s presence brings satisfaction; his absence brings thirst and longing.

Randy Alcorn same article from DG

Why Jesus is the Best Treasure You Have

Heather Holleman

1.

Why Treasure Christ? 1 Pet 2:4-5

1.1.

Why should we treasure Christ?

1.2.

Are we treasuing Christ?

2. How do we Treasure Christ ? 1 Pet 2:2-3

2. How do we Treasure Christ ?

Our Desires and not just our decisions matter.

However, C.S. Lewis

2. Together:

3. How doe we Treasure Christ Together? 1 Pet 2:5-12

2.1.

Holy Temple- Written to the church and not individuals.

1 cor 3:16 God dwells in us

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1.

Why Should we Treasure Christ?

The phrase “through Jesus Christ” carries more meaning than meets the eye.

Paul said in , “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

What you see with the eyes of the heart when you become a Christian—when you are born again and have a new nature—is “the glory in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Christ “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” ().

Two verses earlier () “the glory of God in the face of Christ” is called “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

The place we see the glory of God most clearly is in the glory of Jesus Christ who is his image, his radiance, his exact nature.

And the place we see the glory of Christ most clearly is in the terrible and glorious events of the gospel—the death and resurrection of Christ, the pinnacle of his strength and wisdom and obedience and love.

Underlying much of modern evangelism is the heretical idea that anyone can and will respond to the gospel if it is presented in an ingenious enough way.

That view sees unbelievers as consumers, for whom the gospel must be cleverly packaged in order to make the sale.

Roy Clements writes perceptively of this trend:

b.

Look with me at verse 4: “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious.”

Note carefully the word “precious.”

Then look at verse 6, “For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

Again Peter gets our attention with the word “precious.”

Very simply and very amazingly think of the implications that God almighty with infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom and infinitely perfect capacities to see and savor what is infinitely valuable and beautiful—this God values Jesus Christ as precious.

This is simply another way of saying he treasures Christ.

Treasuring means feeling the preciousness of what you value or what you prize.

A preacher( Don’t think “preacher as me or what I do but think of the preacher as any christian sharing the gospel with someone who is not a christian) … is a herald, and a herald is precisely a one-way communicator; he does not dialogue, he announces a message he has received.

But if our communication experts are correct, announcements do not change anybody.

Where is the flaw in their reasoning?…

It lies in the theology.

For people who argue like this are assuming that Christian preaching is analogous to a marketing exercise.

You have your product: the gospel.

You have your consumers: the congregation.

And the preacher is the salesman.

It is his job to overcome consumer resistance and persuade people to buy.

According to Paul, there is one very simple but overwhelming reason why that analogy is not a good one.

The preacher does not overcome consumer resistance.

He cannot.

Consumer resistance is far too large for any preacher to overcome.

All the preacher does, Paul says, is to expose that resistance in its formidable impenetrability.

If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

The god of this age has blinded their minds and “they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

… The preacher does not save anybody.

He is an instrument whereby people who are being saved become aware of the fact.

Evangelism has to be proclamation because preaching is a sacrament of the divine sovereignty.

(The Strength of Weakness [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995], 75–76)

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2003). 2 Corinthians (pp.

130–131).

Chicago: Moody Publishers.