Sermon Tone Analysis

OPEN with video, “The Jesus Creed”

I was sitting the other day and reading in the Word of God and I came across a very familiar passage and I re-read it a couple of times and then took my notepad sitting beside (I would encourage you to do the same.

Keep a notepad beside you when you read the word, because when you are feeding your soul and spirit from the Living Word of God, you will find many times that thoughts and questions will arise and you should write these things down.)

me and jotted down a note in asterisks, that note read, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

And then upon writing this note from the passage that I had just read, I began to ask myself, how do we accomplish this.

From reading this, I went on to read another completely different passage in the Old Testament and yet my mind stayed back upon the previous passage from Matthew’s gospel.

So, I said to the Lord, if this is something that you want me to teach on, then let me know.

Probably within an hour or so, I had gone into the house to get ready for an appointment that I had that morning and I did something that I do so many times, I went to YouTube to listen to something while I was getting ready.

As I scanned through the list of recommended videos from where I had watched other videos (if you use YouTube, then you’ll know what I’m talking about.

They make recommendations for you to watch, based upon other previous videos that you have looked at), there was one that stood to as soon as the page opened, front and center, entitled, “My failed mission to find God -- and what I found instead” by Anjali Kumar.

This particular message is one from a channel called TED Talks, which is stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.

These are short, usually no more than 18 minute videos, but informative videos done by very eloquent and inspiring speakers, both men and women who speak to inform the audience about whatever their area of expertise is.

And I have watched some of these before when they have dealt with science and medical science, as you can learn from them, if you know how to objectively listen.

Anyway, this one title caught my attention and I started listening to it as I was in the bathroom getting ready.

I became so locked in, that I stopped and listened to her message and was almost late to my appointment!

Now before I tell you of the bulk of her message, let me preface by telling you of something else that inspired me for today’s message title.

In September 1897, Francis Pharcellus Church, a former Civil War correspondent and editor at the New York Sun, received a letter from the then 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon.

In her letter, young Virginia wrote:

Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

Papa says, "If you see it in the Sun, it's so."

Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon

115 West Ninety-Fifth Street

Church’s then anonymous editorial page reply eventually became, and remains, a perennial favorite.

Translated into dozens of languages (including Latin!), Church’s testament to the spirit of Christmas has the notable distinction of being the "most reprinted newspaper editorial."

The name of his reply article in the New York Sun newspaper, was entitled, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus.”

SHOW SLIDE OF ARTICLE

The reason that I mention this to you and as to why it gave me my sermon title this morning, is this.

In this article from many years ago, we find a lost and confused little girl, as to the reality of whether there exists a spiritual entity called Santa Claus, St. Nicholas.

In this TED talks video, I witnessed an almost similar situation.

I listened to this well educated and eloquent speaking woman, a lost “little girl” if you will, (you see, we all come before the Father as lost little children), her message was entitled, “My failed mission to find God -- and what I found instead”, which was asking about the existence of whether there was a spiritual entity called GOD within the universe and her quest to find Him.

And so, my mind ran the two stories together and thus we have today’s message, entitled, “Yes Anjali, there is a God!”

As soon as I saw this video of Anjali, I knew that the passage from , which I had just read, was to be the basis for everything said this morning!

If you will turn with me in your Bible this morning to that passage, , we can look it together.

(If you don’t have a Bible, then you can simply follow along with me from the monitor screens, as we will have the passage up there as well.)

So, allow me to fill you in on the video from Mrs. Anjali Kumar and then I will come back to the passage we just read.

In her video, Anjali explains to an audience of women, of how she was born and raised here in America, by Indian parents and culturally under Hinduism, but as far as actual practicing religion, her parents brought she and her sister up under a much smaller and almost unknown religion here in America, called Jainism.

(This is much more recognized in India, but hardly practiced outside of India, especially somewhere like the United States.)

I looked some info on Jainism and found one thing that stood out to me and that is, in this particular religion, there are many vows that the followers can take, called “vratas”, but the devout followers have 5 main vows that they take, which are called, “ mahavratas,” and one of these vows is a vow that is called Satya.

According to the internet, “Satya is the vow to not lie, and to speak the truth..

A monk or nun must not speak the false, and either be silent or speak the truth.

The great vow of satya applies to "speech, mind, and deed", and it also means discouraging and disapproving others who perpetuate a falsehood.

Interesting isn’t it, that a religion that is trying to perpetuate TRUTH, is in itself, a lie and does not know the THE TRUTH.

Without Jesus, Himself, there is NO TRUTH!

Anyway, back to Anjali’s story.

Although being raised in their home practicing Jainism, her parents thought it would be good to enroll she and her sister into a catholic school and so they did.

So, now here is a young lady raised under the Hindu culture, while being taught the religion of Jainism and all the while learning from the catholic school about an all-knowing and all powerful being who is a single supreme being, called God.

You see in Jainism, they believe in INFINITE number of gods!

One of the big tenets of Jainism, is that of NON-ABSOLUTISM.

This basically means that no one single person can hold ownership or knowledge of ABSOLUTE TRUTH!

We have this same teaching today in America, but it is called “post modernism”.

This teaching has such influences behind it like that of Friedrich Nietzsche.

It was Nietzsche was the man who made the statement.

“God is dead!”

The post modern philosophy is that there is NO ABSOLUTE TRUTH and that reality and morality are subjective and basically up to the individual.

This is much the same mind set for the modern existentialist, who would say that individuals exist with the freedom to choose and define their own meaning in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe.

In other words, there is NO GOD who makes moral ethics by which we live by; we are our own god!

So, back to Anjali and her story in the search for God!

Basically, what happens early on in Anjali’s life, after being married, having a child and a prosperous career as an attorney, she decided that for her sake and that of her daughter, she was going to go on a quest of religion and try discover if there really is a god!

At the time she decided to do this, she said that she realized that she was part of a GROWING group in America that is called the “nones”, because when they are polled and asked which religious affiliation they belong to, they always check the box, “NONE”!

Currently in America, this group comprises about 1/4 of the entire population, or some 82 million Americans!

Now that is 82 million that flat out say they are atheists, or agnostics or simply no affiliation of anything at all!

The interesting thing about this group, according to Anjali, is that 68% of the “none” claim to be spiritual and that they believe there is some god, they just don’t know who he is yet!

So, Anjali goes all over the world, searching for God, or for a god, that she can believe in and that she can rest her spiritual trust in!

The main problem with her world wide search, was that she didn’t want to search within the known sphere of recognized religions, so she instead went searching for a god using such means as “mediums”, faith healers and shamans and other god men!

She attended a witch’s pot-luck dinner @ the LGBT center in NY city.

She drank from a 5 gallon Jerry can of volcanic “holy water” from a shaman in Peru.

She chanted for hours in a “sweat lodge” on the beaches of Mexico.

She worked with a Tequila drinking medium who conversed with the dead.

(One of which was her deceased mother-in-law!)

She joined a laughing yoga group from South Africa.

She participated in a group that practices tapping into the energy of the universe.

And she had a man from India, lie on top of her and CHANT over her to tap into the energy forces of the universe.

Anjali said that part of her “world tour”, involved going to see a man in Brazil, named, John of God.

John of God is a faith healer that operates as what is called, a trans-medium.

This simply means that he talks with dead people.

(Or at least that is what he THINKS he is talking to!)

John of God channels very specific spirits that are supposedly deceased saints and doctors, that he channels to perform healings for those who come to see him!

Anjali said that a person goes with three things that they wish to have John of God pray over them about and petition the spirits about and he does it!

(Oprah Winfrey went to to and interviewed John of God.

This man actually surgically cuts on people (even though he has no medical degree, or even a high school diploma) and asks for their healing, by channeling the spirits to heal them and all in the name of GOD!

I listened to one young man’s testimony the day after his procedure and Opera asked him what he was taking away from all of the whole experience and he said, “I think it’s for my soul to accept myself!”

Remember that phrase, because I coming back to it!

Now this is what Anjali said and it is the main point that I want to mention to you this morning.

Before she went to see John of God, she mentioned to several people that she was going to be going to see him in Brazil and that if anyone would like, she would take, on their behalf, three things that they would like for John of God to pray over for them, so that these three things would be healed, or repaired or improved.

She said she never expected anyone to really take her up on this, but the email address that she gave out for anyone who wanted to submit something for her to take exploded with emails from people she has never met!

She said that as she went through the emails, with the exception of a few, there was striking similarity between all of them.

They all had three things in common and those three things were:

Even though they were asked only for a photo of themselves, their name and their DOB, they all included specific physical mailing addresses for themselves, as if they believed that this could, or would work and so they wanted to make sure that Anjali, or John of God, could get a hold of them and convey the miracle!

Second, all of the people, surprisingly listed the same three things (large and in part) that they wanted to receive from John of God, as their miracle.

Those three things were: HEALTH, HAPPINESS and LOVE!

The third thing that they all included on their email, was, “please don’t tell anyone about this!”

Finish telling Anjali’s story of how she DIDN’T find God, but she did find something else; that we all have this inherent need for the same basic things, regardless of our religion, or backgrounds or beliefs.

Here is my point with this whole story and why it was on my heart so strongly as well as the point for each one of us, based upon the scripture from .

Anjali Kumar said that she left the United States looking for God, or at least “a god”, that she and her family could believe in and satisfy her “religious” longing.

Because she had been exposed to the basic religions already, she said that she traveled around the globe so as to look for other ways to find Him.

And in this process, she went through every gait and doorway that devil has devised to look for God.

(She used psychics, mediums, shamans, witches, spiritual faith healers, etc.)