Sermon Tone Analysis

To our guests today.

We are so happy to have you at Branches Church.

It is our desire that your experience is a positive one.

At the end of my sermon it is our church family practice that we join at the front for prayer.

Giving the Lord an opportunity to speak to us, speak to our need, to let the Holy Spirit minister as only it can.

We invite you to join us.

If you prefer to stay where you have been seated that is ok too.

We are just happy that you have joined us today.

The next six weeks I am going to be preaching a series on the teachings of Jesus Christ that we have titled Red Letters.

If we are going to call ourselves Christian then we should be doing what Christ taught.

In the 2004 Athens Olympics there was a sharpshooter named Matthew Emmons.

Matthew Emmons was far and away the best shooter in the world.

Some said he is the best shooter that’s ever lived.

That year the question was not who is going to win the gold, but who would take the silver and the bronze.

Everyone knew Matt Emmons was going to take home the gold.

Today I am preaching “optional failure”.

There are really only two options when it comes to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Doing or not doing.

Failure is optional.

Rifle shooters are trained to fire between heartbeats.

They try to slow their heartbeat down as much as possible and fire in between those beats per minute.

Medals are literally won by millimeters.

Going into his final shot, Emmons was in first place by a mile and all he needed to do to win the gold was hit the target, which for many of us in this room wouldn’t be a problem, for the greatest shooter in the world, piece of cake!