Sermon Tone Analysis

Pirate Postulate #1 – Most pirate treasure is stolen from someone else.

 

"/ //If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, //he is conceited and understands nothing.

He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions //and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who *think that godliness is a means to financial gain*.

//But godliness with contentment is great gain.

//For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

//But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

//People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

//For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs./"

(1 Timothy 6:3-10, NIV) [1]

 

/God will never give you anything that you will not give back to Him./

 

God will never give you anything that you will not give back to Him.

I know that I will never be rich as long as he wants me in the pastorate.

If I had means to support myself I would be much more arrogant with people.

I might leave the ministry altogether.

I have this other feeling about my life.

Think about it with me.

I wonder at times if God didn’t call me to the ministry  because He knew that it would be the means of my salvation.

I used to think that the “call” to the ministry was a test of my obedience and that to refuse the call would result in my damnation.

"/Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach.

*Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel*!

//If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.

//What then is my reward?

Just this: *that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge,* and so not make use of my rights in preaching it./"

(1 Corinthians 9:16-18, NIV) [2]

 

It was as though, once again, God had a gun to my head.

He was giving me a choice that went something like this . . .

“Do what I want you to do or I will damn you eternally.”

Something like the shotgun wedding where the father-in-law is suggesting that you have a choice as to whether or not to marry the daughter.

I guess technically you would have a choice but a fairly grim one.

When I think about the fact that I am currently obsessed with God, I wonder what I would do without a job that forced me to dig into the scriptures and to try to find a superhuman strength and wisdom that I need to function as a pastor.

I’m hooked now.

I am a “God-junkie” – can’t live without a daily fix.

Really, to one degree or another I am hooked.

They say that men develop an actual addiction to exercise – working out, running – whatever.

Every morning my body craves the adrenaline and endorphins that are generated by physical exercise.

I am cranky when I don’t get that natural high.

I am also cranky when I don’t find that spiritual “fix”.

It makes my experience of life a different one.

You know what?

God wants you to be hooked on holiness.

"/These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.

Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

//For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.

//They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for *a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.*

//If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

/*/It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them./*/

//Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.” /" (2 Peter 2:17-22, NIV) [3]

 

Samuel Shoemaker writes in a poem called “I Stand By The Door”,:

 

/There is another reason why I stand there./

/Some people get part way in and become afraid/

/Lest God and the zeal of his house devour them;/

/For God is so very  great and asks all of us./

/And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia,/

/And want to get out.

"Let me out!" they cry./

/And the people way inside only terrify them more./

/Somebody must be by the door to tell them they are spoiled/

/For the old life; they have seen too much:/

/Once taste God and nothing but God will do any more./

What I realize now after only 35 years as a Christian and 30 years as a minister is that the thing that I didn’t want to do has brought me into an intimate relationship with God.

It wasn’t a gun to my head but the most beautiful gift in the world.

Something that God chose for me that I would never have found on my own.

I don’t think that I could have ever known Him as I do without that “assignment”.

Not everyone is like me.

Some of you are strong enough and determined enough to find God and to know Him intimately without a call to the ministry.

I wasn’t called because of my strength but because of my weakness.

Let me tell you about or “boast” about my weakness.

[     I was too weak to walk the aisle.

I never was able to do that on my own.

It came to me.

I was in the front row and wanted to go to the altar but I was self-conscious, withdrawn, afraid of people.

My pastor knelt in front of me and looked up and asked me if I wanted to accept Christ.

I zipped around the end of the pew and hit my knees before anyone knew what was happening.

[     I was too weak stay in my seat.

When I was pretending, they gave an altar call for all those who had accepted Christ to come to the front.

My faith was a “front” and I didn’t have the courage to stay in my seat.

I had to follow the crowd to the front of the church.

My pastor’s wife who had never met me, turned around asked me if I wanted to pray.

I did and I surrendered my life there to Christ – stopped running from His call~/invitation to preach His word.

[     I was too weak to date according to God’s standards.

I was dumped by every girl I dated because I was pathetically weak sexually.

If I had ever found a girl who loved me enough to surrender herself to me, I would have had sexual relations with her, probably an unwanted pregnancy and I would have disqualified myself from the ministry.

But He had something more for me and he protected me with pain.

I suffered with each break-up and wondered what was wrong with me.

I felt terrible about myself.

What was the problem?

I had no ability to restrain myself so God ran interference for me.

I am not suggesting that if your love life is a disaster or non-existent, that you have the same problem but I am convinced that God had to go overboard to protect me from myself.

It hurt so much.

Today, I am eternally grateful.

Eventually I met the girl who was strong enough to see beyond my possessiveness and to maintain a standard.

God trusted me to her.

She is my better ¾’s.

I’d never be here speaking to you today apart from the role that God had for this wonderful woman to play in my life

 

So I was called for my weakness, according to God’s mercy for me.

Look at these verses:

 

"/Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.

Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

//But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the *weak things of the world to shame the strong*.