Sermon Tone Analysis

/The mind is a garden that could be cultivated to produce the harvest that we desire.

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/The mind is a workshop where the important decisions of life and eternity are made.

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/The mind is an armory where we forge the weapons for our victory or our destruction.

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/The mind is a battlefield where all the decisive battles of life are won or lost./

/"//When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.// //For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.//

//I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.//

//My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,// //so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.//

//We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.//

//No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.//

//None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.//

//However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—// //but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.// //For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?

In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.// //We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.//

//This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.//

//The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.//

//The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:// //“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”//

//But we have the mind of Christ.//

//" (1 Corinthians 2:1-16, NIV) *[1]*/

 

I walked into the gymnasium one afternoon last week feeling particularly “helpful”.

I should be cautious when I get those feelings.

Randy Inman and I have shared a meaningful gesture during the years that he has spent as a trustee and head trustee.

It has to do with the fact that we all have certain areas of expertise and we are better off when we realize that and function as much as possible within that area.

Sometimes a measure of success will breed pride and we begin to believe that our specific knowledge or expertise gives us a right to speak more broadly.

This attitude is error prone.

I still love the wisdom that one of my more broken friends articulates when he says, “The older that I get the more I have come to distrust the “sovereignty” of my own thinking.

Consequently, I have felt that in the areas of my incompetence, which are many, I am better off to trust someone who likely “knows better”.

Randy will cup his hands either side of his face, look at me and say, “Keep the focus.”

That means, let me do what I do well and I’ll let you do what you do well.

I lost focus . . .

briefly.

It seemed to me that the gym was too warm so I checked the controls.

The box has a sign on it that says in very plain language, “Do not touch these controls.”

But it felt too warm.

I am the pastor.

There are slots big enough for me to get my car keys to the sliders on the temperature control module.

It was set to heat!!!  Of all things – no wonder it was too warm.

It’s the summer and we don’t need heat on in the summer.

And the fan was set to “Fan” rather than “Auto”.

That’s it – someone had “monkeyed” with this unit and the pastor was going to fix it.

I reached up in there with my church keys and set the temperature and the fan controls to “Auto”.

I checked periodically throughout the day and could tell that the gym was cooling off as it should have been to the 72 degree target that we aim for.

In our board meeting on Tuesday evening I was talking to Chris Haines – currently Chris is our head trustee.

He sits on the board.

Our trustees are in charge of building and grounds and insurance matters – a host of other things.

I want to thank these guys for taking on this responsibility and also to apologize for the times when the pastor complicates their job simply because he cannot “keep the focus”.

Just a small side thought as well.

Churches that don’t allow the pastor to be the pastor are dysfunctional.

They can make it difficult for the pastor to hear from God and to give leadership accordingly.

I don’t feel this is the case here.

Chris gently explained to me that the settings that I had changed were the designated settings.

He tried to make me feel better by telling me that this system was “counter-intuitive”.

I liked the sound of the word.

I think that he was telling me that he could understand the way that I was thinking and that this was a normal way of thinking.

What he didn’t have to say was “keep your hands off the system controls”.

But I heard it anyway.

I have been preparing this week to preach on the mind of Christ.

I want that mind to control everything that I do as an individual before God and as a pastor, the grateful pastor of this beautiful church.

Let me read a few verses of scripture this morning.

/“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.//

//The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:// //“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”//

//But *we have the mind of Christ.*//

//" (1 Corinthians 2:1-16, NIV)/

 

We have the mind of Christ but does the mind of Christ have us?

Are we guided and controlled by this mind above and beyond all others?

Do we “keep the focus”, or do we lose it every once in a while?

Maybe you have a “mind of your own” – that’s good when it comes to being able to think freely but not good when it tells you that others opinions are not worth hearing and considering because of the superiority of your own.

It’s not good when inwardly you are not able to accept the fact that God’s greatest messages will often come through humble or lowly sources.

/"//For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.//

//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.//

//He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,// //so that no one may boast before him.//

//It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.//

//Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”//"

(1 Corinthians 1:25-31, NIV) *[2]*/

God will never choose the proud to communicate his message but those who are wise enough to depend on Him – on His Strength, His Wisdom, His Power.

God never speaks through a proud messenger.

God builds His church on the shoulders of those who depend on Him for their help and strength.

That’s really what my prayers are for His church – our church.

I pray for a testimony to God’s greatness, a movement of God so significant in this city that I can’t “seminarize” it.

I have a planned response to give the more pragmatic who one day will come to First Wesleyan Church looking for the “key” to it’s growth.

I want to be able to look at them and say, “God is the reason.”

Nothing more and nothing less.

I want that the permeate the consciousness of our people so that when the time comes for me to leave, that people will not despair simply because we understand that God has done it.

So the idea of the mind of Christ and this word have gelled together for me.

*/1.

/**/I believe that the mind of Christ is “counter-intuitive”.  /*

 

It is not common sense – it is uncommon sense.

It is not what comes naturally but what comes supernaturally.

A real Christian is an odd number anyway.

He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another; empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up, is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest, and happiest when he feels worst.

He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passes knowledge.

(from "The Root of Righteousness" -   A.

W. Tozer)

 

I am going to come back to the gymnasium story but let me give you an example of the this counter-intuitive mind of Christ.

/" //Now a man named Lazarus was sick.

He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.//

//This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.//

//So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”//

//When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death.

No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”//