Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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\\ 1Th 5:3 While people are saying, "Peace and safety", destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Much of what we believe to be reality is merely illusion.
Illustration from the movie “Instinct”.
I have taken away the “illusion of control.”
What are the major illusions that we hold?
o The Illusion of Safety.
The people in the World Trade Center did not lose their safety on Tuesday AM.
They were never safe.
They just understood that on Tuesday morning.
Their lives will never be the same for that revelation.
o The Illusion of Spirituality.
/Matthew 7:21 ¶ "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'
23 Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you.
Away from me, you evildoers!/'
/ /
Can you imagine the horror of facing God, expecting that everything is okay when in reality it is not and never was.
I am not out to create spiritual paranoia but clearly there will be people who will be surprised one day when they stand before God.
I believe that there are people like that in this service today.
You are resting in some unfounded hope either because:
o you don’t know the scriptures and therefore do not understand what God requires of you.
o You are deceiving yourself because you are not acting upon truth that God has revealed to you
o You’re just making it up as you go along to suit your own desires and cater your faith to your agenda
/ /
Matthew 23:27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
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One of our biggest problems at times can be that we look good and we make an effort to do so.
We actually construct our own illusion so that other people can believe that we are doing fine when we are not.
Consequently no one asks questions of us – this is the desired result.
Then when our world caves in we become cynical because we think that others don’t care when they just don’t know.
The church if it is to be effective must be unpretentious.
If it is not all right to struggle and admit it then we will struggle and deny it.
If this is not a place where tears are understood,
Then where shall I go to cry?
And if this is not a place where my spirit can take wings,
Then where shall I go to fly?
I don't need another place for tryin' to impress you
With just how good and virtuous I am, no, no, no
I don't need another place for always being on top of things.
Everybody knows that it's a sham, it's a sham.
I don't need another place for always wearin' smiles
Even when it's not the way I feel.
I don't need another place to mouth the same old platitudes
Everybody knows that it's not real.
So if this is not a place where my questions can be asked,
Then where shall I go to seek?
And if this is not a place where my heart cry can be heard,
Where, tell me where, shall I go to speak?
So if this is not a place where tears are understood,
Where shall I go, where shall I go to fly?
What a challenge for each of our churches in 1989.
n Ken Medema
The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give his church.
The bar is an imitation dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality, but it is permissive, it is accepting and it is an inclusive fellowship.
It is unshockable.
It is democratic.
You can tell people secrets and they usually don't tell others or even want to.
The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics, but because God has put into the human heart, the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved.
And so many people seek a counterfeit at the price of a few beers.
A hospital should be a place where people go to find health and healing not to display it.
The church should not be shocked at the sickness that presents itself at our doors.
Somehow redemptively we must welcome those who come to find help.
And somehow people need to learn to step out from the façade of wellness if they truly want to be well.
/ /
o The Illusion of Sovereignty - we may say that Jesus is Lord but many of us live our lives on a daily basis as though we are the ones who are making the decision.
Many will recognize the flagship of humanism in the words "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul."
They are from a poem entitled "Invictus" (meaning "unconquered"), by William Ernest Henley, an eighteenth century English poet.
Here is the entire poem:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charted with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
-- William Henley
Stephen Brown adds, "It is no accident that the life of William Henley ended in suicide."
o The Illusion of Possession & Acquisition - we own nothing, we are merely caretakers.
It is said that about 200 years ago, the tomb of the great conqueror Charlemagne was opened.
The sight the workmen saw was startling.
There was his body in a sitting position, clothed in the most elaborate of kingly garments, with a scepter in his bony hand.
On his knee lay the Holy Scriptures, with a cold, lifeless finger pointing to Mark 8:36: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and loose his own soul?"
o The Illusion of Permanence.
There is a fable which tells of three apprentice devils who were coming to this earth to finish their apprenticeship.
They were talking to Satan, the chief of the devils, about their plans to tempt and ruin men.
The first said, "I will tell them there is no God."
Satan said, "That will not delude many, for they know that there is a God."
The second said, "I will tell men there is no hell."
Satan answered, "You will deceive no one that way; men know even now that there is a hell for sin."
The third said, "I will tell men there is no hurry."
"Go," said Satan, "and you will ruin them by the thousand."
The most dangerous of all delusions is that there is plenty of time.
The most dangerous day in a man's life is when he learns that there is such a word as tomorrow.
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