Sermon Tone Analysis

*prelude*

*Prayer of Preparation      Without plans visions can become nightmares.

*For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:12

 

*welcome, announcements, joys and concerns*

*~*Hymn #         *# 217 I am the Church

*~*Call to Worship        Philippians 4:6-7 nlt   *Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

\\ \\ *~*Invocation* ~/ Lord’s Prayer    Gathering God, you have promised that if we draw near to you, you will draw near to us.

In this time, prepare our hearts and minds, that we might receive your wisdom and understanding.

Relieve our bodies and souls from all the desires and cravings shaped by this world, that we might be filled with your peace.

Pour out your Spirit upon us, that our worship might be joyful and authentic, bearing good fruit in our lives with our neighbors.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, at it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever.

Amen

*responsive reading                 Psalm 1*

*~*Gloria Patri* \\ *Young’s Peoples Moment *    Show the children a number of different kinds of seeds, and explain what kinds of seeds they are: apple, pumpkin, watermelon, sunflower, etc. Ask them if an apple seed can grow into a pumpkin, or a watermelon seed into a sunflower.

No way!

Stress that if you want a particular plant, you have to use the right seed.

Point out that the writer of the letter of James is looking for a “*harvest of righteousness” (James 3:18)*; that means that he wants to /grow Christians who follow the way of God and do the right thing./

Ask the children if they think a “harvest of righteousness” can grow from a seed of envy and /selfishness/ and /bragging/ and /lying/.

Let them know that it cannot, but such a harvest requires a seed that is “peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits” (v.

17).

Point out that God gives us this seed and plants it in our hearts.

Ask the children /to name some of the good deeds that they can do, based on this peaceable, gentle, merciful seed from God/.

Remind them that apple seeds can grow into wonderful apple trees, and a seed from God — planted in each one of them — can grow into an amazing Christian life.

Call to Prayer               Linus speaks to Peppermint Patty.

"A CAT?

What in the world do you want a cat for?"

P. P. says, "To put Snoopy in his place!

To show him that he's not so important!"

She then turns to Snoopy, looks him straight in the nose, and says, "Somebody's got to take him down a few notches."

Snoopy, shook up, face flat on the ground, responds to himself, "Please don't bother ... I'm not worth it!"

Have any of us ever felt that way about ourselves?

(Thirty seconds of silence.)

We may have felt that way because we have allowed the mass media to determine that popularity, riches, and power bring true greatness.

After all, those persons seem to get all of the publicity, except for rare people such as Mother Teresa.

Take a few moments to reflect about your life, as compared or contrasted with the lives of those who get the attention of the mass media.

Conclude this act of worship with this conversation between Charlie Brown and Linus.

Charlie: "You seem very secure today, Linus."

Linus:  "I am ... I feel quite secure ..." Charlie: "Where do you think the source of this security lies ... in your thumb, in that blanket, or in the pose you assume?"

Linus: "I say it's a combination of ingredients ...

Not unlike a doctor's prescription!"

For us, Jesus is the Good Doctor, in whom true greatness lies.

Prayer Hymn  # 402 Take Time to Be Holy v. 3

*Pastoral Prayer          *source of love and wisdom, work within us to overcome the urgent need we sometimes feel to be recognized and rewarded.

Help us to find reward in the good we do, the love we give, the kindness in our hearts.

Forgive our persistent failure, renew us by your power.

true greatness has to do with the qualities of the child, some of which you may want to name, and then explore in depth later.

*Musical response*

*Offertory sentence  *How will you put into practice these qualities of a child this week?

Remember, also, each of us is expected to sift out the healthy qualities of the child, from the adult's unhealthy expectations of the child.

*offering*           Doxology

*offertory prayer         Living  *God, who has given us life and liberty, enable  us to glorify you through faithful service.

Take first place in our lives, we pray that personal ambitions or unworthy purposes will not tempt us to forget the stewardship that you have given into our hands.

AMEN.

*Hymn #           *179 Breathe on Me Breath of God

*Scripture Text            */James 3:13-4:3, 7-8/

Who is wise and understanding among you?

Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.

But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth.

Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.

For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from?

Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?

You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder.

And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts.

You do not have, because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

*Sermon                       Super Powers*

*Imagine that you could select a super power, what would you choose?

Would you use your power to make the world a better place?*

A 25-year-old brunette rock star.

A cigar-chomping octogenarian comedian; and a sixtyish black man.

Alanis Morissette, George Burns and Morgan Freeman.

They’ve all played God in the movies.

\\ Morissette didn’t have any lines, but was God in Kevin Smith’s 1999 film Dogma.

George Burns appeared to John Denver in a plaid shirt and a golf cap in Oh, God! in the ’70s.

And more recently, in Bruce Almighty!, Morgan Freeman as God gives Jim Carrey a chance to have Godlike powers since Carrey was grumbling about God’s on-the-job performance.

\\ So what would you do if you were God for a week, or even a day?

Or, if you couldn’t be a full-blown God with all of God’s powers, which powers would you like to have?

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/ \\ On NPR’s program This American Life, John Hodgman conducted an informal, unscientific survey asking the question: Which is better?

The power of flight, or the power of invisibility?

What he found surprised him.

No matter which power people chose, they used it in self-serving ways.

Their plans weren’t often flashy or heroic.

In fact, they were almost never heroic, nor even simply kind.

\\ Here’s something that hardly anyone ever mentioned in his interviews - “I will use my power to fight crime.”

No one seemed to care about crime or justice.

Nobody wanted to work for peace - personal, local or worldwide.

No one tried to be merciful, or even just plain helpful.

\\ Hodgman wondered why no one wanted to take down organized crime, bring hope to the hopeless, swear vengeance on the underworld.