Sermon Tone Analysis

The FFA Creed

I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born not of words but of deeds - achievements won by the present and past generations of agriculturists; in the promise of better days through better ways, even as the better things we now enjoy have come to us from the struggles of former years.

Remember When: Fill in with one word

There was no cable tv (Life was more peaceful)

There were no cell phones (Life was more connected)

A walk down memory lane for a 1980’s born, 1990’s raised, 2000’s adulthood person.

A walk down memory lane for a 1980’s born, 1990’s raided, 2000’s adulthood person.

Has any of this remembering been time well spent?

Ecclesiast

Were they really all that better?

This verse looks through time in the opposite direction: life was not any easier in the past.

In a sense, these two thoughts are related because fond memories of yesterday open one’s mind to at least the theoretical possibility of good times tomorrow.

All the human race has to do, so the thinking runs, is to reclaim what was beautiful about the past; no new inventions are needed.

However, it is all too feeble to found one’s hopes for the future upon dim recollections and a fuzzy memory of history.

The past had more than enough afflictions, as will the future!

Some say the past was better, others say the future will be better, but both schools of thought share a common idea: they both assume that today is the worst of all possible days.

After all, it is strangely therapeutic to be able to say, “I have suffered more than anyone ever has or ever will.”

A person may derive some comfort from such a martyr complex because it is his mark of distinction among the masses, even his badge of honor.

Consider, for example, the person who lived through the Depression and will let no one ever forget, including himself.

But this verse says in effect: “Not only do you suffer, every other inhabitant of this world endures suffering of his own.

People suffered in the past, and they will suffer in the future—just like you.”

God has made today for today!

Considerations for next weeks sermon:

1.) What do you miss about family as you knew it growing up?

2.) What do you not miss?

3.) What family dynamics of the past do you wish would be resurrected?

4.) What family dynamics need to stay in the dirt?

5.) What would your child self do if picked up and planted into your current family?

Final thought:

Jesus reminds us in the Sermon on the Mount “25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

28 And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. .

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

These words can become simple platitudes of living if we focus on anything in life other than God and His promises.

Life and its cares, worries, fears, and so on, will take root in our times of nostalgic reflection and in our hopes in the future that find hope in anything other than Christ.

The best thing we can do today is to learn and to teach our family how to live in the sufficiency of Christ.

The best thing we can do today is to learn and to teach our family how to live in the sufficiency of Christ.