Sermon Tone Analysis

Does Your Faith Make Sense?

Start with a story today: Three friends, Fred, Charity & Kirk, go out for dinner.

After dinner they return to Fred’s apartment and discover that the window is smashed and his television is gone.

Fred’s first reaction is “I’ve been robbed.

Call the police.”

Charity stops him, however.

She tends to see the best in people and thinks there is usually a good reason for peoples’ behaviors.

She says, “Wait..don’t jump to conclusions too quickly.

Clearly what happened here is that some kids were playing baseball and accidentally broke your window.

Then, noticing the broken window, your neighbor climbed in here and removed the TV to keep it safe until you returned home.

Kirk takes a look at the situation, though, and says, “You guys have got it all wrong.

Aliens often visit earth and are interested in studying human technology.

Every now and then you’ll find things missing because they’ve beamed it up to their ship to study it.

The tractor beam they use, however, can generate a lot of heat, cause the air pressure in the room to increase and blow out your windows.

That’s all that happened here.

You should feel honored!”

What do you make of a situation like this?  Three people with very different perspective look at the same situation and come up with three different explanations.

There is a mystery to be solved right?

They need to gather some more evidence.

So they check with Fred’s neighbor.

He denies having the television.

Fred says, “So much for that theory, “ but Charity responds, “Wait a minute.

I’m sure your neighbor expected someone to show up pretending to be you.

Obviously he thought you were an imposter and didn’t want to let you know the truth.”

Also, a quick check with the air traffic controllers verifies that there were no UFO sightings that day.

Kirk says, “Duh!

Don’t you know that aliens have cloaking devices to prevent detection?”

So what is going on here?

Well, you have three people with three different sets of beliefs about the world-three different worldviews.

Fred believes there are people in the world who do bad things.

Charity believes that people are good and we need to see the best in them.

Kirk honestly believes aliens frequently visit the planet.

The movie “Men in Black”?

That was based on a real government program.

We all have different worldviews.

Although we will have some common beliefs, there are some things we will disagree on.

Let me give you an example of my basic worldview:

I am Scott Christian Wildenberg.

I was born in Ft.

Eustis Virginia, am 38 years old and live in Cannon Falls, MN.

I have been married for 16 years to the most wonderful, intelligent and beautiful woman in the world.

I am the pastor of True North church which is now 2 years old and is the best place in Cannon Falls to come and seek God with other people.

And I believe there is one God-all powerful, all-present, all loving, creator of the universe who exists in three persons-Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

The Son of God, Jesus, lived among the Jews some 2000 years ago and was crucified so that we all can be forgiven of our sins when we turn to Him and enjoy a restored relationship with God.

Now, there is a lot in there.

You may agree with some of those things…some seem pretty self-evident.

Unless we are all deceived-you know, we are not all part of some brain-control experiement- this is Cannon Falls and I do live here.

There are other things we may disagree upon, though.

Some people would say it’s fine that we don’t all agree-that’s just life, and it really doesn’t matter.

Each person is free to believe what they want.

It’s not hurting anyone.

Others would go on to say that truth is really just in the eye of the beholder.

Everyone will make up their own truth from what they see.

The problem with this is that sometimes there really is only one truth.

There is only one truth to what happened in Fred’s apartment.

Hopefully with some more digging around they will be able to discover that truth.

Each person is going to stick to their beliefs until it can be rejected, but at some point you’d think there will be enough evidence to at least say “This is the most likely truth.”

It will just make sense.

You might be able to make up any theory you want, but there is only one truth.

Also, it does matter what that truth is.

It matters to Fred what actually happened to his TV and window.

It matters to his neighbors, too.

They’ll want to know whether they need to watch out for kids being reckless with a baseball, or whether they need to be concerned about thieves-and maybe organize a neighborhood crime watch.

Or should they possibly expect an encounter with alien life forms.

It matters to all three of these friends, too.

There is something in us that wants to know the truth.

We don’t want to be deceived.

If we do go on believing false beliefs, we will also eventually get hurt.

If Charity always believes the best in every situation, she will get taken advantage of at some point.

It’s also like trying to maintain a lie.

If you’ve ever told a lie you know that sometimes people discover holes in the lie…and you need to tell another lie to cover it…you keep having to build lie upon lie to maintain the original lie…eventually the whole thing comes crashing down and the truth has to come out.

If you go on believing something false…you have to explain everything you experience according to that false belief…building more false beliefs on it…Eventually you won’t be able to maintain it anymore and all these beliefs will come crashing down on you.

The larger the structure…the harder the fall.

It can devastate a person to have a huge system of beliefs come crashing down on them.

It’s best to seek out the truth as quickly as possible.

So why does this matter to us?

Why am I telling you all this anyway?

Well…let me share another story.

Four guys are standing on a beach looking out at the ocean.

They are listening to the waves crashing…the water is washing over their feet….off in the distance they see a school of dolphins playing as the sun sets on the horizon.

The first guy thinks to himself, “Wow, what a beautiful sight.

It’s it amazing how God designed this world.

He is so creative…and what an expression of His love to give us this world to live in.”

The second guy thinks, “Wow, what a beautiful sight.

If I just continue to meditate on a higher plane of existence and channel my energies I can become one with the spirit of this world.”

The third guy thinks, “Wow, what a beautiful sight.

If I just dedicate myself to the principles of my religion…and life a good life..I can be rewarded someday with a world of my own in which I can continually enjoy all its pleasures.”

And the fourth guy thinks, “Wow, what a beautiful sight.

To think that nature can take some basic compounds and over billions of years of random change produce this!

I wonder where we will end up next.”

Four people sharing the exact same experience have four different views because of their basic beliefs.

Again, some people will say it really doesn’t matter.

In fact, all religions are basically the same.

People are turning to some other “Higher Existence” and learning to be less selfish and think about others more.

That’s really what it’s all about, so it doesn’t matter what god they choose to follow.

Now, is that really true?

For some beliefs is certainly does not really matter.

What is the best flavor of ice cream?.....<interact on this>

So some beliefs are OK to disagree on.

There are lots of beliefs like this-colors, foods, clothing styles, music styles, etc.