Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Image – Summer

In the early 1900’s a high school student named Philp Taylor Farnsworth began to design a system that could capture moving images in a form that could be coded onto radio wavevs and then transformed back into a picture on a screen – On September 7, 1927 his idea became a reality in San Francisco as the first electronic television was successfully demonstrated – a year later John Baird beamed a television image from England to the United States prompting GE to introduce the first actual television set with a 3 inch by 4 inch screen.

Wow! Look how far we’ve come!

I checked Amazon at right now you can get an 85 inch HD Led flatscreen t.v. for just over $5,000 bucks!

In 2017 a study conducted by Nielsen reported that 96% of homes in the US have at least one T.V.

We have more channels on cable than ever and more options to stream live entertainment – sports, sit coms, 24 hour news, movies, and more.

Over the years there have been many programs on television that revolve around families.

· Andy Griffith show

· Leave it to Beaver

· The Waltons

· The Brady Bunch

· Family Ties

· Full House

· Family Matters

· The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire

· Home Improvement

· Everybody Loves Raymond

· Modern Family

What would happen if our life as a church family became a television show?

Would it be a drama?

Sitcom?

Reality T.V.? What would the name of our family show be?

What would the cameras capture?

What would the storyline of each episode be about?

Certainly a T.V. show about us would capture our births & deaths, our good times and hard times, and the laughter & tears as we navigate life as family.

Hopefully anyone who would watch the show about our family would see us loving one another, forgiving one another, and serving one another.

Hopefully the show would capture us being a family committed to our mission – a church committed to developing dedicated followers of Jesus Christ who worship, grow, love, and share all for the glory of God! Hopefully the show would capture this family being transformed by God’s love and grace.

We are a real family.

God has called us to be a family – we are brothers and sisters who live life together in community – and we live life together doing ministry.

Therefore we’re spending the summer talking a look at how God calls us to live as a family.

Today is week four of our ONE ANOTHER summer series – each week we are opening up God’s Word to discover how He has called us to treat “one another” in this family.

We’ve considered God’s call to “love one another,” forgive one another, and serve one another.

Today we consider the call to Comfort One Another.”

Need

Life is filled with too much pain and suffering.

When we hurt, there is nothing like the comfort of a family.

We see it every time a toddler trips on the sidewalk, scrapes his knee, and runs home to find comfort in the arms of mom.

We see it every time a jr.

high “crush” crushes the heart of pre-teen and runs home to the hug of sister.

We see it every time the ball is dropped during the championship game which ends the game, when a letter comes in the mail with news you didn’t get the job, and when you get a call the grandma has passed away - in those moments a caring family offers comfort.

All of us desperately need the comfort of a loving family.

Today we must consider the need for us to be a loving family who is willing to comfort one another.

I) THE CALL TO COMFORT ONE ANOTHER

We begin with the “The Call to Comfort One Another.”

The Call to Comfort One Another.

We need to do a brief word study (technical but practical) to grasp the call to comfort one another.

The NT reveals a very close connection between “comfort” and “encouragement.”

There are two primary Greek words used in the NT for “comfort” and “encouragement.”

1) παρακαλέω/παράκλησις (parakaleo-parakalesis) – to come alongside someone to urge, exhort, or help someone verbally or non-verbally; an appeal.

“Parakleo” is the most commonly used word for encouragement but it can be translated as comfort as well.

Jesus informed the disciples that He would ask the Father to give them another “Parakletos,” promising the arrival of another “Counselor,” “Helper,” or “Comforter” (the Holy Spirit).

2) Παραμυθέομαι (paramutheomai) – speaks of coming alongside someone to console them; to soothe and provide solace, to lessen grief or sorrow.

This word can be translated as comfort or encouragement.

Therefore depending what English translation of the Bible you’re reading, you’ll see “encouragement” or “comfort” used for the same verse.

Let me give you a few examples.

· (parakaleo) – “comfort one another” (ESV) or “be encouraged” (NET) while the NIV translates this phrase as “listen to my appeal” (exhortation in the form of encouragement or comfort).

· (parakaleo) – “Encourage one another with these words” (ESV, NET, & NIV) but it’s also translated “Comfort one another with these words” (NASB).

· (paramutheomai) – “encourage (by consoling) the fainthearted/timid” (ESV/NIV) or “comfort the discouraged” (NET).

The variety in our English translations highlight that “comfort” and “encouragement” are certainly related, almost interchangeable, and yet distinct.

We can think of comfort as a form of encouragement.

We’ll come back to the Scriptures to consider the call to “encourage one another” later in this series.

Today we want to zero in on “The Call to Comfort One Another.”

God desires that we “comfort one another” as members of His family.

We must be a church family where “comfort” is freely offered and received as a form of encouragement.

We must continue to be a church who “comforts” (consoles) one another in a time of need.

Let’s consider how we might fulfill the NT call to comfort one another by turning our focus to what God’s Word says about THE NECESSITY OF COMFORT and THE MINISTRY OF COMFORT.

II) THE NECESSITY OF COMFORT

· Story – needing comfort

Life is filled with unexpected tragedy and suffering.

Let’s consider “The Necessity of Comfort” in our lives.

All of us have or will be faced with painful circumstances and the desperate need for comfort.

Some of you are here this morning with a heavy heart, dealing with a difficult situation, or enduring a painful situation.

We live in a world filled with trials, suffering, pain, distress, tribulation, sickness, peril, and death.

Why? says “Therefore just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

We live in a fallen.

Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden was tragic.

Suffering.

Sickness.

Death.

None of us can escape it.

· Chuck Swindoll Quote – 169

Everyone is born into a fallen world as sinners by nature and by choice, and since sin has cursed God’s creation and causing us to experience suffering & death.

We hear/read about it in the news and we live it in our lives every day.

Some of the pain and suffering is the result of our own choices.

And yet we still long for comfort to help us deal with and overcome the pain that comes from our own choices.

Let’s take a quick “tour” through the Bible to discover the “need” for comfort in this broken world.

A) Comfort is needed when we are in distress (Job)

First, “Comfort is needed in times of distress.”

It’s likely all of us have or will experience some degree of distress in our lives—choices and circumstances that will cause you to experience and endure “inner turmoil” and “anguish of soul.”

In the OT we read about a man who experienced and endured (in my opinion) unparalleled distress—his name was Job.

Job was a faithful worshipper of Yahweh—a man of integrity—and God allowed Satan to severely test this man in the most painful of ways.

Job was a man felt the depths of distress during this trying season of his life.

(, )

· Livestock – stolen or killed; sheep, oxen, camel, donkeys (1:13-17)

· Servants: killed (1:15)

· Children: Sevens sons and three daughters killed by winds that collapses house on top of them (1:2,18-19)

Look at the depths of Job’s distress.

(Read ).

Job is mourning, his heart torn apart, and yet he did not sin or curse God.

God allowed Satan to test him again.