Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ /"//For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring://" (Isaiah 44:3, ASV)*[1]*/

 

*/Most of us underestimate the huge withdrawals that our lifestyles extract from us on a daily basis./*

What the busyness of life does to the physical body is one thing.

What it does to the soul is another.

I had the privilege of sharing this past week with an individual whose life is largely about dealing with people in severe emotional crisis.

As she began to describe some of the circumstances, there was a convulsive emotional response.

She was a lady who was truly engaged in the lives of those that she was trying to serve, her compassion was impossible to conceal.

Others, policemen for example, have to maintain a cool response to people who provoke them.

They have to weigh every response and keep them within a certain set of professional parameters.

What about teachers?

The following note was received from a middle school teacher:

 

Received from a middle school teacher....

 

Let me see if I've got this right.

You want me to go into that room with all those kids, and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning.

Not only that, I am to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, behaviorally modify disruptive behavior, and observe them for signs of abuse, drugs, and T-shirt messages.

I am to fight the war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for guns and raise their self-esteem.

I am to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, how and where to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook and how to apply for a job.

But, I am never to ask if they are in this country illegally.

I am to check their heads occasionally for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of potential antisocial behavior, offer advice, write letters of recommendation for student employment and scholarships, encourage respect for the cultural diversity of others.

And, oh yes, teach, always making sure that I give the girls in my class fifty percent of my attention.

I am required by my contract to be working, on my own time, summer and evenings and at my own expense towards additional certification, advanced certification and a master's degree.

I am to sponsor the cheerleaders or the sophomore class, and after school, I am to attend committee and faculty meetings and participate in staff development training to maintain my current certification and employment status.

I am to collect data and maintain all records to support and document our building's progress in the selected state mandated program to "assess and upgrade educational excellence in the public schools."

I am to be a paragon of virtue larger than life, such that my very presence will awe my students into being obedient and respectful of authority.

I am to pledge allegiance to supporting family values, a return to the basics, and my current administration.

I am to incorporate technology into the learning, but monitor all web sites for appropriateness while providing a personal one-on-one relationship with each student.

I am to decide who might be potentially dangerous and~/or liable to commit crimes in school or who is possibly being abused, and I can be sent to jail for not mentioning these suspicions to those in authority.

I am to make sure ALL students pass the state and federally mandated testing and all classes whether or not they attend school on a regular basis or complete any of the work assigned.

I am to communicate frequently with each student's parent by letter, phone, newsletter, and grade card.

I am to do all of this with just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books, a bulletin board, a 45 minute or less plan time, and a big smile on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps in many states.

Is that all?

You want me to do all of this, and you expect me to do it without praying?

AMEN!

Life can run us to death.

We lose ourselves somewhere along the line.

We wake up one day to find a stranger staring back at us in the mirror.

Somehow the person that we want to be has vanished and been replaced by someone that we would never have chosen to become.

And what’s more we fear that we may never find ourselves again.

We’ve forgotten how to smile and mean it, how to take life less seriously, how to laugh at our mistakes.

We have forsaken joy and convinced ourselves with half-truths that this is all that we can expect, this half-death is normal.

Value this time in your life kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly.

When you're a teenager you think you can do anything, and you do.

Your twenties are a blur.

Your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, "What happened to my twenties?"

Your forties, you grow a little pot belly you grow another chin.

The music starts to get too loud and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother.

Your fifties you have a minor surgery.

You'll call it a procedure, but it's a surgery.

Your sixties you have a major surgery, the music is still loud but it doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway.

Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale, you start eating dinner at two, lunch around ten, breakfast the night before.

And you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering "how come the kids don't call?"

By your eighties, you've had a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can't stand but who you call mama.

Any questions?

 

*/And within the church, the halls of faith, we reduce a living vital experience to something that we compartmentalize to one hour and half on a Sunday morning./*

We manage it as an item on the priority list.

The great challenge for me these days is to redefine the way that I see the Christian experience.

I want to see faith become newsworthy for the right reasons.

I want to spend our people in pursuit of things that are eternal.

I don’t want to waste one second on things that are secondary.

We talk about stewardship of finances within the church – we even have a finance committee – they are doing a needed job, wonderfully well.

Maybe though we need a committee that monitors the way that we spend the available people hours that we have.

In my mind they are equally and perhaps even more important.

Brothers and sisters, if you are involved in a ministry within this church that is not clearly accomplishing things that will last for eternity, things that are made of costly materials, please quit.

/"//By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it.

But each one should be careful how he builds.//

//For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.//

//If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,// //his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.

It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.//

//If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.//

//If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.//"

(1 Corinthians 3:10-15, NIV)*[2]*/

 

Please, as a church, let’s not perpetuate activity that is ineffective, regardless of how effective it once was.

It only contributes to the dehydration of a church and the people who attend there.

We’re left with a freeze dried faith, a shriveled spirituality a mummified monasticism . . . .

and somehow we are supposed to have some positive impact for God.

I would say that the chances of that happening are slim to none.

Are you thirsty for the Spirit-water to quench your soul.

I believe that the way that we treat our souls will determine the way that we live our lives.

We cannot run away from life’s responsibilities and demands.

They chase everyone of us.

There has to be a way to live “fresh” and daily “revitalized”.

It all has to do with the care, the hydration of the soul.

Dehydration occurs when the percentage of water in our bodies dips below the 75-80% level constant.

If it were your car there would be a little light that would indicate that the fluid levels are low and we’d stop and top off.

But a good number of people live physically, emotionally intellectually and spiritually dehydrated.

*/It’s time to re-hydrate./*

For several years now I have lived “thirsty” for God – more so than I ever remember.

Religion is a diuretic for the soul.

We try to satisfy our thirst with things that only accentuate it over the long haul and diminish our performance capability in the meantime.

Religion is the degenerate end of what began as a quest for God.

Listen to this quote from Max Lucado’s book “Come Thirsty.

“Let Christ be the water of your soul.

How is this done?

Begin by heeding your thirst.

Don’t dismiss your loneliness.

Don’t deny your anger.

Your restless spirit, your churning stomach, the sense of dread that turns your armpits into swamplands – these are signal flares exploding in the sky.

We could use a little moisture down here!

Don’t let your heart shrink into a raisin.

For the sake of those who need your love, hydrate your soul!  Heed your thirst.”