Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

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· Price of Sermon

It was a beautiful Sunday morning at Clearwater Community Church.

Pastor Taylor approached the pulpit with a big smile – greeted the congregation and then announced – “I have three sermons in my hands: $100 sermon that lasts five minutes, $50 dollar sermon that lasts fifteen minutes, and a $20 dollar sermon that lasts an hour.

Now, would the ushers please come forward to take the collection and we’ll see which one I deliver.”

We’re already taken he offering so there is no chance to get the length of sermon you want this morning.

Just in case anyone is worried that’s not the way it works—you really can’t buy the length of sermon and that shouldn’t be your motivation for giving in the first place.

I’ve got one “priceless” sermon that will probably be about 40 minutes.

Need –

Question: What comes to mind when you hear the word devotion?

(Share) What do you think of?

Devotion is defined in the dictionary as “a strong feeling of love or loyalty.”

What is an example of being devoted to someone or something?

· Olympic or professional athlete

· Couple celebrating their 75th anniversary

· Retiring after working the same job for 50 years

· Loyalty to a brand or company (Nike, mechanic, or hairdresser)

· Other?

We live in an era that in many ways promotes and embraces a lack of devotion.

We live in a consumer-driven, self-seeking culture.

Let’s consider two examples.

The NBA is currently in the offseason period known as “free agency” – players whose contracts end become “free agents” and can sign with other teams – and all the sportswriters and broadcasters rant about a player’s lack of devotion to their organization and teammates when they choose to leave for another team that will pay them more money?

Every free agent must wrestle through what they are devoted to – current team, community they live/play in (fans), $, or chasing a championship with another team (For anyone who cares Lebron Jams is now a LA Laker).

People question Lebron’s devotion to Cleveland

I saw a commercial on T.V. last week that proclaimed this self-centered message - “You do you.”

(Literally the actor said that while trying to sell me something).

Do what you want to do.

Be concerned first and foremost with your own happiness and fulfilling your own desires.

Can I be honest with you, that’s ultimately a sad and unsatisfying way to life your life.

Truly.

If you live that way it will terminate on itself because there is a greater purpose for living than yourself.

(Know God, glorify Him, and being in relationships where you can serve and be served).

The consumer-driven and self-centered culture says \if you’re not happy in a marriage than break your vow of devotion, if your job doesn’t taylor things to fit and meet your needs, go find a new one, if a teacher holds his/her students to a high academic standard beyond your liking, then drop the class.

And this infiltrates the church - If a church doesn’t do what you want done, go find another one that will (as if the sole purpose of the church is to meet my needs).

Now that’s not to say that there aren’t good reasons to end a marriage, quit a job, drop a class, sign a contract with a different team, or find a new church but all too often these decisions are made with a heart that is driven to please our own selfish desires

What are you devoted to in life?

– Family.

Career.

Team.

Jesus.

Brand.

Sport.

Hobby.

Friends.

Fun.

Self-gratification.

A Church.

What does “devotion” to a church family look like in a consumer-driven age where you can “church shop” and find the one that meets all of your needs?

Preview

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans.

Romans Chapter 12 .

The book of Romans is a letter the apostle Paul penned to the Christians in Rome in A.D. 57.

Romans is a theologically robust – it outlines a systematic defense of the basic elements of the Christian faith (gospel) – humanity’s sin and God’s provision for righteousness through Jesus Christ.

Romans is linked to Galatians as both strongly pronounce a sinner’s justification through faith in Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

The basic theme (message) of Romans is the revelation of God’s provision of righteousness in the gospel.

Romans reveals the sinfulness of man (1-3), God’s way of salvation (3-5), the life of salvation through sanctification (6-8), God’s sovereignty in salvation (9-11), and a life of serving God (12-16).

In Romans Chapter 12 we several instructions about living the Christian life.

In we find the call to lay our lives down as an offering before God as an act of worship being transformed by the renewing our minds instead of being conformed to the world so that we can know God’s will.

The rest of Chapter contains instructions about a Christian’s conduct—the humble exercising of one’s spiritual gifts (12:3-8), the way to treat one’s fellow believers (12:9-13), and finally the way to treat people outside the church who don’t know Christ (12:14-21) Today we turn our attention to the section that highlights how to treat our fellow believers—zeroing in on the exhortation in .

(READ ).

The thrust of this section is genuine love (12:8) and how that’s expressed in how we treat one another as fellow believers (12:9-13).

Today we turn or focus to .

It’s just one verse but it packs a punch.

Let’s dig into this passage to take a closer look at this short and straightforward challenge to “Be Devoted to One Another” and how to live it out in our lives as a church family.

I) The Plea for Loving Devotion ()

We begin with “The Plea for Loving Devotion.”

In we find this simple plea, “be devoted to one another in brotherly love.”

In the first half of this verse we find two words that highlight a family’s affection, keeping these exhortations in the context of genuine love (12:9), and reminding us that “love” is the distinctive characteristic of discipleship.

The Greek text says “philostorgos one another in philadelphia.”

The Greek word philostorgos (“be devoted”) describes the “natural affection for close family members, typically in reference to “a parent’s love for a child” (Dunn), and it refers to the kind of family love that creates a bond and unity.

The phrase “in brotherly love” is the Greek word philadelphia which denotes love for one’s brother and sister.

Therefore this is an imperative plea to be devoted to one another like a loving family is tied together based on their love for one another as brothers and sisters.

John Stott describes the plea as “tender, warm affection which should unite the members of the family of God.”[1] (Stott).

Therefore when you put it together this is a plea for loving devotion to one another as a family—our lives bound together and united in the love we share as siblings in God’s family—to be devoted to one another because of our love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Application

The “Plea for Loving Devotion” has profound implications for our lives as a church family.

A Christian’s devotion to one another is born out of their love for one another as members of God’s family.

We’ve already talked about our call to “love one another” as a church family in week one of this series.

And yet today we see that our call to “love one another” is lived out by being devoted to one another.

We are called to live lives of loving devotion to one another because we’re a loving family

· “Blood Brothers” illustration/story

We’re “blood brothers and sisters.”

We’ve been adopted into God’s family through the shed blood of Jesus.

Our love for one another as brothers and sisters is a love that binds us together and produces a life of devotion to one another.

Let’s ask the hard questions this morning.

· Are we devoted to one another as a loving family?

· How devoted are you to this family?

– jeopardize it?

· Would you leave this church family because you didn’t get your own way?

· Would you leave this church family because your feelings go hurt?

· Would you leave this church family because you don’t like the music?

· Would you leave this church family because you disagree with someone politically?

Theologically? (Non-essential of the faith)

Again, that’s not to say that there aren’t good reasons to leave a church, it might be necessary if a church has abandoned orthodox doctrine (heretical or cult), stopped preaching & teaching the Bible, promotes sin, mistreated or ignored, or complete lack of alignment with our mission & ministry philosophy.

Each of those situations should be handled prayerfully and appropriately.

I suspect it might be hard for some of you to risk being lovingly devoted to a church family.

Perhaps the appeal for loving devotion to a church family is foreign to some of you?

You’ve never been committed to a church in this way?

For some of you the appeal for loving devotion to one another will take some time because you’re new.