Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Intro:
Good morning.
Welcome.
We’re going to start things off a little different today.
If you’ve been with us for the Summer, you know we’ve been working our way through the book of Revelation.
This morning, will you turn your Bible/app to .
Before we start, I want to ask for your permission to be completely honest.
Can I be real with you?
I’m not doing good.
I’m going through a tough time.
That’s hard for me to say.
I know, it’s not MANLY to say that.
In the hardworking-independent -New England culture, it’s not NORMAL to say that.
And in the realm of leadership - especially pastoral leadership (where God has called me to lead people spiritually) - it’s assumed that it’s NOT OKAY to say that.
And sure, the church is talking about mental health more openly, but again.... let’s be real… it doesn’t seem smart for the leader of the church to show weakness.
I mean, If the pastor is messed up, what the heck is the church going to be like?
People come to church to get answers from spiritual leaders about how to fix their lives.
Can we really trust a broken leader to help us with our brokenness?
I think that’s a fair question.
Now, I’ve got to clarify.
I’m not depressed.
I’m not burned-out.
I haven’t had any moral failure.
But I’m just not doing well.
I’m tired.
I feel stuck.
I feel a little spiritually dry.
I’m a little lost.
I feel like I’m in the wilderness.
The wilderness:
Many times, the Bible describes God’s people going through the wilderness.
Now, it was an actual wilderness (or desert), but it represented so much more.
It spiritually described the hearts of men or the trials of life.
Nevertheless, the wilderness of the Bible was a brutal and scary place.
We really have to step out of our world and into theirs to get this.
Because today, we don’t fear the wilderness.
If we have our smart phones and reception, those no need to fear the wilderness!
But think about when the settlers of New England decided to head West.
They headed into the wild - the wilderness!
That’s a scary trip.
Like...
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t know, let’s just go that way and see where we end up.”
They couldn’t click on the map app and then use two fingers to zoom out.
They didn’t know about the mountain ranges ahead, the deserts, the flat plains filled with tornados!
And that’s a long trip!!!! I’ve made the coast to coast.
It was scary and I had GPS and a car!
Now, think about ancient Israel traveling through the wilderness.
That’s scary!
The wilderness is this scary place.
It’s where you asked three questions, “Where am I? And how did I get here?
And how do I get out of here?”
And God’s people ended up spending a lot of time in the wilderness.
It was a part of their lives.
The wilderness is part of life:
And I believe the wilderness is still part of life!
And we can end up there for multiple reasons.
Sometimes we’re in the wilderness because it’s our fault.
We end up in a scary place because we make bad decisions.
The prophet Elijah was a powerful man of God.
He did miraculous things.
But he also made some poor decisions with real consequences.
One time, Elijah let his fear overcome his faith, and ran from his calling.
It actually says that Elijah ran into the wilderness...
Well, that’s dumb (say: that’s dumb).
Why would you take yourself there?
Bad decision.
Even God thought so.
God said...
Through bad decisions, Elijah ended up in the wilderness.
That happens to us too!
Or, sometimes we’re in the wilderness because it’s God’s fault.
I’m not saying that irreverently.
Sometimes, God puts us in the wilderness...
Jesus, God’s Son, was even sent to the wilderness...
Jesus didn’t do anything wrong, but God had a purpose for sending Him to the wilderness (more on that later).
And SOMETIMES… God sends us the wilderness because He’s disciplining us.
It’s a consequence of our sinful living.
This is different than Elijah.
Elijah made a bad decision and took himself into the wilderness.
But in this situation, the people don’t want to go to the wilderness, but God says, “That’s where you’re going because of your sin!”
I share these examples simply to say, there are multiple ways to end up wilderness.
Sometimes it’s our fault; sometimes it’s God’s.
The point being, the wilderness is part of life.
Everybody spends time in the wilderness!
And like I said before, it can also be a spiritual wilderness.
And that’s where I am.
I honestly don’t know what’s going on.
I don’t know why I’m in this spiritual wilderness.
Maybe it’s my fault.
Maybe God led me here.
What I do know is I’m like, “How do I get out of here!?!”
Though I’m stuck in the wilderness, I have learned a few things during previous wilderness experiences.
One lesson I’ve learned is the answers for getting out of the wilderness - my next right steps - are found in the Bible.
This week I was reading my Bible and I came across this verse:
Part of my daily devotions (or my quiet time with God) involves systematically reading through the Bible.
What that means is either reading through the an entire book of the Bible, or attempting to read through the entire Bible in a year.
I like doing this for a couple reasons:
I believe the entire Bible is God’s perfect word and all of it can help me live my life in a way that honors God.
2. I believe that God’s word is alive.
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