Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Recap: If you were with us last Sunday, we started a series we are calling, “Do you know the time?”

Last Sunday Morning we said that It’s time to Wake Up

Too many Christians are distracted or asleep at the wheel.

Paul reminds us that it’s time to wake up because we are one day closer to Jesus’ return than we were yesterday.

Last Sunday Evening we said that It’s time to walk properly.

We said that we need to understand the time or the hour we live in.

Paul uses this metaphor of light and darkness of night and day.

The night is almost over and the day is almost here.

It’s time for us to stop behaving and acting like people of the night, but instead to act like people of the day.

We said that we need to have on the right spiritual attire.

That Paul uses the idea of taking off our sinful nature each day and putting on Christ.

What attitudes and habits are in our lives that we need to take off?

Opening Story/Illustration: Back in the summer my wife and I went away for our anniversary.

While we were away we decided to go see the movie, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”

It’s a documentary about Mr. Rogers.

I didn’t watch Mr. Rogers too much growing up, except when I went to my grandmother’s house.

All she had was a little antenna and about the only station she got was PBS.

So When I would visit her I would watch lots of Mr. Rogers.

This documentary about Mr. Rogers was incredibly moving.

By the end of the movie I was weeping.

Mr. Rogers was a Presbyterian minister who decided that his ministry was to children and he was going to use the avenue of Television to fulfill his calling.

His television show wasn’t flashy or dramatic or exciting - In fact, it was the opposite of what you would think kids would be attracted to - Yet Fred Rogers was a success.

Why?

He simply cared about and loved people and this showed, even through the TV screen.

One of the stars of the show actually says this, “If you take all of the elements that make good television and do the exact opposite, you have "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood".

Low production values, simple set, an unlikely star.

Yet, it worked.”

His language of inviting you to be his neighbor was very intentional and biblical.

He says, “Well, I suppose it's an invitation, ‘Won't you be my neighbor?’

It's an invitation for somebody to be close to you.”

A Speaking of love, he says,

“Love is at the root of everything - all learning, all parenting, all relationships.

Love or the lack of it.”

“The greatest thing that we can do is to help somebody know that they're loved and capable of loving.”

Transition to the text: This morning, I want to echo the words of Jesus, the Apostle Paul, and Mr. Rogers, and remind us that it’s time to love one another.

I want to take us back to the beginning of our Passage in Romans, and remind us how important love is.

Text:

Main Idea: As we wrap up this series on knowing the time, here’s the reminder:

It’s time to wake up

It’s time to walk properly

It’s time to love

Points

You can never love too much

Paul here reminds them that there is this continual obligation to love one another.

The metaphor here is that it is a debt that you can never pay off.

You can never love too much.

This does not mean that we are a door mat

This does not mean that we run around giving people whatever they want whenever they want.

This does mean that we are willing to give of ourselves in way that’s good for the ultimate benefit and growth of the other individual.

The mom and dad who constantly give to their son or daughter and they know he or she is on drugs - This isn’t love because it’s not for the ultimate benefit of the child.

Love isn’t always a yes!

Sometimes the most loving thing you can say is no!

You are to never stop working for and giving towards the ultimate benefit of the other individual.

You are to never stop working for and giving towards the ultimate benefit of the other individual.

To love is to give!

You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.

Loving is giving of your time, your energy, your resources for the ultimate good of others.

Loving is giving of your time, your energy, your resources for the ultimate good of others.

hat we are made of love

And all the beauty stemming from it

We are made of love

And every fracture caused by the lack of it

As one songwriter put it: “We are made of love And all the beauty stemming from it We are made of love And every fracture caused by the lack of it.”

The fulfillment of the law is love

Love deos

Paul tells us that when we love, we are fulfilling the commandments.

He’s echoing the word’s of Jesus -

Jesus is telling us the most important thing is loving God and loving our neighbor.

Our priorities get so messed up sometimes.

Augustine used this analogy that our lives are often messed up because we have “Disordered loves.”

In other words, we love the wrong things.

In his Book, Making Sense of God, Tim Keller talks about Augustine and This idea:

“Augustine taught that we are most fundamentally shaped not as much by what we believe, or think, or even do, but by what we love.

“For when we ask whether somebody is a good person, we are not asking what he believes or hopes for, but what he loves.”

For Augustine, what we call human virtues are nothing more than forms of love.

Courage is loving your neighbor’s well-being more than your own safety.

Honesty is loving your neighbor’s interests more than your own, even when the truth will put you at a disadvantage.

And because Jesus himself said that all God’s law comes down to loving God and your neighbor (), Augustine believed all sin was ultimately a lack of love.

Look at injustice.

Honesty is loving your neighbor’s interests more than your own, even when the truth will put you at a disadvantage.

And because Jesus himself said that all God’s law comes down to loving God and your neighbor (), Augustine believed all sin was ultimately a lack of love.

You may say that you believe in social equality and justice and think that you do, but if you make business decisions that exploit others, it is because at the heart level you love your own prosperity more than your neighbor’s.

In short, what you love most at the moment is what controls your action at that moment.

“A body by its weight tends to move toward its proper place... My weight is my love: wherever I am carried, my love is carrying me.”

You are what you love.

Look at injustice.

You may say that you believe in social equality and justice and think that you do, but if you make business decisions that exploit others, it is because at the heart level you love your own prosperity more than your neighbor’s.

You may say that you believe in social equality and justice and think that you do, but if you make business decisions that exploit others, it is because at the heart level you love your own prosperity more than your neighbor’s.

In short, what you love most at the moment is what controls your action at that moment.

“A body by its weight tends to move toward its proper place... My weight is my love: wherever I am carried, my love is carrying me.”

You are what you love.”

In short, what you love most at the moment is what controls your action at that moment.

“A body by its weight tends to move toward its proper place... My weight is my love: wherever I am carried, my love is carrying me.”

You are what you love.”

Paul is saying here, the order of our loves needs to be - Loving God and loving our neighbor.

This is fulfilling the law.

This puts our world in the right order.

Loving God - Giving myself, my time, my energy, and my resources for the ultimate benefit and glory of God.

Loving my neighbor - giving myself, my time, my energy, and my resources for the ultimate benefit of others.