Sermon Tone Analysis

Opening

Welcome to the church of smiling faces and beautiful faces!

I got tons of God’s Word for you today… are you ready to catch them?

If you don’t have a copy of the outline just raise your hands and our beautiful ushers will generously give you one…

BREATHE!

Today, very many people are confused of who they are meant to be, and what they are supposed to do with their lives

That’s because they look at wrong places

What influences our values in life?…

I need your honest answers…

Money/Material Things?

People around us?

Culture?

BREATHE!

Our values are influenced by things and people that have touched our lives...

Money / Material Things

The Bible has tons of statement concerning “money”.. here are some of them...

I don’t have to go very far to support the claims of God’s Word...

I personally experienced it...

I’ve witnessed how “love of money” can lead up to many sins...

And it could lead up to turning away from serving God...

Last Wednesday while I was Uber driving… a passenger led me up to Harrah’s Casino in Valley Center...

In the part of the county, not too many riders are needing a ride back...

So, while waiting..

I decided to go inside the casino to relieve myself.. restroom break...

I passed through the tables for card games such as poker and black jack...

That moment reminded of me of my old life and I praised God for His grace that He plucked me out of that lifestyle...

While the Bible never specifically mentioned casinos or gambling or lotteries...

While casinos, lotteries, and other of today's get rich quick games aren't specifically mentioned within the Bible, God has still warned against the temptation.

Most often when people gamble it is because they become addicted to the love of money.

A simple game can become a sin when it takes over our minds and hearts and leads us down a road of never being satisfied.

Study the following Bible verses about gambling and see why God encourages us to stay away from it.

God has still warned against the temptation...

While casinos, lotteries, and other of today's get rich quick games aren't specifically mentioned within the Bible, God has still warned against the temptation.

Most often when people gamble it is because they become addicted to the love of money.

A simple game can become a sin when it takes over our minds and hearts and leads us down a road of never being satisfied.

Study the following Bible verses about gambling and see why God encourages us to stay away from it.

Most often when people gamble it is because they become addicted to the love of money...

A simple game can become a sin when it takes over our minds and hearts and leads us down a road of never being satisfied...

While I was growing up, my values are influenced by the people surrounding me...

I grew up as a “gambler”...

I started with low stakes gambling using rubber bands as our bet…

In apparent likeness and similarity with many other things… the dose goes higher as you become immune with whatever you are doing…

So, those low stakes betting led me up to high stakes gambling… (photo with Manny Pacquiao)

I was chasing a fantasy that ended up to poverty…

So, money was, and should never be the influence of our values because they don’t last...

People around us

Family:

While family is our ultimate refuge, not all are healthy

As a matter of fact, many families, up to this day, suffers the so called… “generational curse”...

Church:

Just like families, there are healthy and unhealthy churhes

Agape may not be the perfect church for you, but we are doing what we could to keep it healthy

Because we believe in the principle that everything and everybody grows as long as they are “healthy”.... ex.

human beings, animals, plants...

All we need to think about is their health, and God will take care of their growth...

School:

While the things they teach is within the bounds of morality, there are schools that are greatly affected by the morals and cultures of their communities

That’s why zip codes matters when we choose the school where we will send our kids, right?

Community:

While most of the communities are civilized, not all of them measures with God’s standards...

That’s why whenever we are to decide where our next residence will be, we always look into demographics… right?

Friends:

There is a saying that "Walking with a friend in the dark, is better than walking alone in the light”… Hmmm????

But not all friends are “good friends”...

Who among you here had experienced how it was to be betrayed by a friend?…

let me see your hands...

BREATHE!

Culture

Most of us being migrants to this country were exposed to multi cultures...

We have seen the good and bad from both cultures ..

But there’s no other culture that will build us the “Values that Last”...

Only Jesus’ Culture will outlast all the values you can learn from other things you lean onto...

Because Jesus’ culture is eternal, and they are all contained in the Bible...

Bible is the only source of Values that Last

BREATHE!

For the past few Sundays we’ve been looking into Values that we can learn from the Word of God....

Values that Last....

We started with “How to keep your cool?”

Followed by “How to live a balanced life?”

Today, I’d like us to look into biblical ways “How to show Respect even to those who do not Respect me?”

BREATHE!

But before that...

Someone said my that sermons are shallow and they are not biblical...

Here’s what I got to say to them… If what I teach is shallow for you and yet you can’t understand (or won’t understand) and can’t apply (or won’t apply) them in your life, how much more if I teach you deeper theology that will surely blow your mind?

God sent me here to help you become healthy christians...

I’d rather be “healthy” than “brainy”...

Actually, we could be both, but both of them takes time…

Like what I said, I don’t have to worry about “growth”, because everything or everyone that is “healthy”, grows naturally…

As much as I look on the welfare of every individual, I also have to put forward the wholistic welfare of the church family..

Our church attenders are very diverse, we have visiting unbelievers..

And we have both young and maturing christians...

My goal is for God’s Word to speak and make sense to the heart of unbelievers and new believers...

Which we have a lot in our church..

However, Nobody is preventing anyone from taking a deeper look at God’s Word..

In fact, everyone is encouraged to go deeper in their study of the Word...

One of the Life Group HOSTs called me early this week to ask if they can study the Bible book by book, chapter by chapter, section by section and verse by verse..

My outright answer was YES! by all means under heaven surely you may....

Though, I requested them to allocate 15 minutes, or so, of their meeting time to talk about the Sermon preceding their weekly gathering...

Because, talking over it will give them the much needed time to let the Word sink in their hearts, and influence their way of life...

Influence their Values that would last forever…