Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ *Holiday Food Tips:*

 

I hate this time of year.

Not for its crass commercialism and forced frivolity, but because it's the season when the food police come out with their wagging fingers and annual tips on how to get through the holidays without gaining 10 pounds.

You can't pick up a magazine without finding a list of holiday eating  do's and don'ts.

Eliminate second helpings, high-calorie sauces and cookies made with butter, they say.

Fill up on vegetable sticks, they say.

Good grief.

Is your favorite childhood memory of Christmas a carrot stick?

I didn't think so.

Isn't mine, either.

A carrot was something you left for Rudolph.

I have my own list of tips for holiday eating.

I assure you, if you  follow them, you'll be fat and happy.

So what if you don't make it to New Year's?

Your pants won't fit anymore, anyway.

1.

About those carrot sticks.

Avoid them.

Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit.

In fact, if  you see carrots, leave immediately.

2.

If something comes with gravy, use it.

That's the whole point of  gravy.

Gravy does not stand alone.

Pour it on.

Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes.

Fill it with gravy.

Eat the volcano.

Repeat.

3.

As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk.

If it's skim, pass.

Why bother?

It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

4.

Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control  your eating.

The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free.

Lots of it.

Hello?

Remember college?

 

5.

Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's.

You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do.

This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

6.

If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge.

Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention.

They're like a beautiful pair of shoes.

You can't leave them behind.

You're not going to see them again.

7.

Same for pies.

Apple.

Pumpkin.

Mincemeat.

Have a slice of each.

Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin.

Always have three.

When else do you get to have more than one dessert?

Labour Day? 

 

8.

Did someone mention fruitcake?

Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost.

I mean, have some standards, mate.

/9.

And one final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention.

Reread tips.

Start over.

But hurry!

Cookieless January is just around the corner./

*/Matthew 2:1/*/ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, *Magi from the east *came to Jerusalem [2] and asked, "*Where is the one* who has been born king of the Jews?

We *saw his star* in the east and have *come to worship him*."

[3] When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

[4] When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.

[5] "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:/

/ /

[6] " `But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.' "

/ /

[7] Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.

[8] *He sent them to Bethlehem* and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child.

As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."

[9] After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.

[10] *When they saw the star, they were overjoyed*.

[11] On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they *bowed down and worshiped him*.

Then they *opened their treasures* and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

[12] And having been *warned in a dream *not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

I have been wrestling with this message all week long.

There have been times when I have been tempted to find something to preach about that would bring more confidence to me as I preach today.

I have made a promise to the Lord since being here in Fredericton.

I pray and ask Him for scripture that would contain the essence of the message that He would like to communicate and then I labor with the text that He gives.

I have promised that, given the scripture that I feel is from Him, I will preach from it even if I do it without any confidence in myself.

There are times when I have confidence in my preparation and other times when I stand with only the belief that this is what I am to bring as a message and then I leave the rest in His capable hands.

I try not to take myself too seriously and I try to preach with a clear heart.

Meaning that no one in particular comes to mind when I develop a message.

I never feel that I use the pulpit as a method of propagating my own agenda but God’s agenda for His people.

You are His people and I believe that He wishes to speak to you today.

I am well spoken to in the process of preparation.

I am convicted always by the message that I bring for it is God’s truth for me as well.

I have no desire to communicate information for knowledge sake just truth that we all can apply personally.

If it is not easily applied then I choose to leave it to people to discover through a book or personal study of some sort or another.

As a pastor I have a passion to see people embrace God’s truth and practice it in their daily lives.

In this I believe that He is most mightily honored and worshipped.

Our emotions become worship when, in response to a truth about God, we give something back to God.  -- Tim Keller, Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 2. The diligent personal practice of truth thrills him more than any hymn or chorus that has ever been written and then sung.

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

[2] Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The scripture and the sermon today bring me to a single emphasis.

We will look at that as it is illustrated in the lives of these sojourning, star-guided sages seeking the Savior.

They had a simple agenda.

They had come over many months and miles merely *to worship the King*.

Nothing more and nothing less.