Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

I heard a story this week about a Human Resources director who was interviewing a young man fresh out of College.

The young man had good references, made good grades and had some real world experience in the field so he looked promising.

About 20 minutes in, to what was slated to be a 40 minute interview, the HR director stopped and said, “Thank you for coming in, but I don’t think that you are what we are looking for right now”.

The young man got this look of incredible surprise on his face and started in on how they only gone for 20 minutes and it really wasn’t fair for her to make her decision only 20 minutes in.

Didn’t she see his good grades?

Didn’t she see his exemplary references?

Then what is the problem, why couldn’t she just hire him.

The HR director asked, “Do you really want to know?”  Indignantly the young man said, “Yes, I deserve to know”.

She said, “Well, it is because for the past 20 minutes you have not stopped texting on your phone”.

The young stared at her in disbelief for a moment and then left the office.

I would like to tell you that this is just a made up story.

A hyperbole.

An exageration to make a point.

But it is a true story…and it even gets better.

For 2 hours later the HR director gets a phone call from guess who…not the young man, but his parents.

They were emphatic that she had really missed out in not hiring their son because he was truly something special and if she was smart, she would reconsider.

I heard this story from author and psychologist Dr. John Townsend.

A couple of years ago he came out with a book called Curing Entitlement finding success doing hard things the right way.

He describes Entitlement as an “attidudinal disease” that needs to be cured in our society because it is reaking havoc on relationships, families and industry.

In his research on the subject, he uncovered to core attitudes that every “Entitled” person seems to display:  

1.

The attitude that I am exempt from responsibility

2. The attitude that I am owed special treatment

These two attitudes work together to form this “attitudinal disease” of Entitlement.

We might say, Well I am not Entitled, I don’t think that I am owed any special treatment - but I also don’t think that you don’t expect any special trea

TENSION

The truth is “entitlement” is really a hot button topic in our world today.

We hear it in the media as psychologist and sociologist try and make sense of so many of the struggles that exist in our world.

While we often hear that label aimed at young people, it is really not just an issue for the younger generations.

It has permeated our society in such a way that it seems to be indifferent to age, race, creed or gender and it has become something that all of us need to beware of.

John Townsend describes two types of Entitlement,

1.Global Entitlement

2. Pocket Entitlement

Global Entitlement

When I think of Global Entitlement, I think of someone who might say,  “That’s enough about me, lets talk about what you think about me.”

As much as we might awkwardly laugh, roll our eyes or just ignore an attitude like this, we really shoudl be concerned because they really are in a very sad situation.

When a person is that self-focused, they will find themselves isolated from relationships of any depth because people just cannot stand to be around someone who is so self-focused.

It is “Global” in that if effects every area of their life.

it is so obvious, for anyone looking in from outside, but they just don’t seem to see it.

Eventually, it will create this downward spiral where the person’s attitude pushes most people away,

then their loneliness leads them to feelings of valuelessness,  

so they talk themselves up even more and push more poeple away,

which brings more feelings of loneliness and it just spirals down and down….

And if you know someone like this then you know how hard it is to even see their pain because they are displaying such arrogance that all we want to do is either steer clear of them of get up in their face with a solid dose of reality…as we see it.

Sometimes we can easily forget that what we see on the outside is not all there is to a person.

This is the extreme example, and probably the first one that comes to mind when we hear the word “Entitled”.

It is easy to point to finger at someone who is Entitled in such a blatant way like this and if this is all Entitlement is then we don’t have to worry about it happening to us.

But there is a second type of Entitlement something that John Townsend calls

Pocket Entitlement

1.Global Entitlement

2. Pocket Entitlement

2. Pocket Entitlement

This is where our entitlement just shows up in small pockets and it is not something that we radiate in every aspect of our life.

There might be a particular people group, situation or experience where our “Entitlemet” flares up in, but it is not something that is easily seen through out most of our life.

This type is much more common, and in some ways it is just as dangerous.

The danger of this kind of “Entitlement” is that is gives way quickly to something called “hypocrisy”.

We can rail against others when their Entitlement flares up in one area, but we have a hard time seeing it in our own little pocket.

Just like any disease, if we miss the symptoms and the disease is left untreated, it can fester and grow into something that will become horribly damaging in our life.

The biggest danger of the attitude of “Entitlement”,whether it is Global or Pocket, is that you will start making decisions according to things that are just not true about you.

Anytime we make decisions based on faulty information it is a recipe for disaster.

This is true for everything in this life, and even more true for those things that echo into eternity.

Anytime we make decisions based on faulty information it is a recipe for disaster.

This is true for everything in this life, and even more true for those things that echo into eternity.

God cares about the destructive power that the attitude of “Entitlement” has in our lives.

In fact, we find Jesus confronting this attitude throughout the Gospels.

As we continue in our series on the book of Luke, we see Jesus coming face to face with the religious leaders of his day.

They have attitudes that are dripping with “Entitlement”.

Jesus repeated calls them, “hypocrites” that close cousin to “Entitlement”.

Both of them are rooted in pretending to be something that you are not.

We can recognize the attitude of Entitlement in the responses of the religious leaders of Jesus Day:

They certainly felt that they were owed special treatment.

They certainly felt also demonstrated that they felt exempt from the responsibility of their actions, even as Jesus calls them out in their hypocrisy of it all.

And even after Jesus calls them on their hypocrisy, the feel exempt from the responsibility of their actions, as they plot to get rid of Jesus.

It is textbook Entitlement.

As Jesus continues his journey toward his destiny in Jerusalem, he teaches the people about the essence of true Kingdom of God, Who it is that is truly Entitled to enter into it and He Expresses his pain over those who will not.

As Jesus continues his journey toward his destiny in Jerusalem, he continues to teach about the true Kingdome of God, both the essence of it and who it is that is actually “Entitled” to it.

TRANSITIONAL STATEMENT

Because at some point in our lives we will all have to face an attitude of “Entitlement”, but when it comes to our eternity, that is a pocket that we cannot afford to be wrong about.

Please open up your Bibles with me to Luke Chapter 13 starting in verse 18 (p 873), Ill pray and then we will learn from the words of the Lord Jesus together.

Essence of the Kingdom of God (Luke 13:18-20)

18 He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like?

And to what shall I compare it?

19 It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

What is it in our lives that is small, but we know has a big impact?

Whenever we are studying the Bible we want to remember to take note when we find the word “Therefore”.

We shoul

Since we have started here with a “therefore” we have to ask ourselves the classic question, “What is the therefore, there for?”

What has just happened that has caused Jesus to start describing the Kingdom of God in this way.

Well if we back up just one verse we read:

17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

So Jesus has the crowds singing his praises.

Not as we did this morning, because we praise Jesus for being the Christ, they were praising him because he was putting those “Entitled” religious leaders in their place.

Remember how we talked about that common response to the attitude of “Entitlement”.

We like it when they they get put in their place - well Jesus had done this, he had “put them to shame” and the people were celebrating over it.

So against the backdrop of their praises over these miraculous works, Jesus starts describing the effect of the Kingdom of God with these two comparisons.

Matthew gives us a little more detail on the reputation of the mustard seed, that it was known to be the smallest of all seeds but after it has grown to it’s full potential it is larger than anything else in the garden.

And the leaven was hidden in 3 measures which would have been about 60lbs of flour.

The commonality between these examples is that the effect of the Kingdom of God is so much larger than than what seems to be invested.

Have you ever considered how incredible it is that any tree would begin as just a small seed.