Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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If it’s “free”, it’s me!
One of my sayings is “if it’s free, it’s me.”
I’m not one to turn down free stuff.
But there’s an adage in marketing that you can’t give it away.
One of the elders at St Paul in Harlingen tells the story of his dog who had a litter of puppies.
Gary isn’t a breeder, so his goal in this was to make sure those pups ended up in a loving home.
This was the days before social media and things like the Next Door app, so he took out an ad in the local newspaper which simply said, “FREE PUPPIES. 4 males, 3 females.
And then telephone number.”
He ran it in the run paper for 3 days and he received no phone calls what so ever for the free puppies.
That didn’t work and he didn’t want 8 dogs around the house, so he took out another ad.
This time the ad said, “PUPPIES FOR SALE, 4 male, 3 females, $25 for the males, $30 for the females.”
This time, when the paper was delivered in the morning, his phone began ringing off the hook immediately and all the puppies had a new home by dinner time.
7 puppies gone in less than a day.
What happened?
What changed?
Same paper, same puppies, same desire to find them new homes.
Gary just needed to change how he communicated.
When Gary said “free”, he was telling people, “these pups aren’t all that valuable.”
When Gary said “25 for the males, 30 for the females”, now he’s telling people these dogs have value.
They are worth an investment.
They are worth your emotions.
These puppies will bring you happiness.
The puppies are a treasure.
We have a treasure in our passage this morning.
And it is a treasure that brings us much delight.
The treasure has infinite value.
The treasure is life changing.
The treasure is our destiny.
For the last 9 weeks we have been on a journey of looking at Discipleship as an adventure of loving and being loved by Jesus using this book by Justin Rossow as a guide to help us navigate this journey.
What we have been learning along the way is that God truly does delight in us and he intends for the feeling to be mutual so that we too may delight in him and walk in his ways to the glory of his Holy name.
Yet we have been learning along that way that while we can see this is a biblical truth and while we can sing Yes Jesus love me Yes Jesus Loves me the Bible tells me so!
Broken pitchers, blaze of glory
There’s a story in the Old Testament that recounts one of Israel’s greatest military victories.
Israel was in the Promised Land just as God had promised them when he saved them out of Egypt through the Red Sea.
They eventually get to the Promised Land, which what we now know as Israel on the east side of the Mediterranean.
This is the land flowing with milk and honey that God has given them.
They conquer many of the cities, removing people groups who did not worship the One True God of Israel.
Israel was supposed to conquer all of the land and remove all of the false worship.
Over the course of a 100 years or so, it becomes evident that Israel is not doing this.
And various armies and people groups cause them all sorts of problems because they don’t worship the One True God of Israel.
At one point, a group of people called the Midianites were in control of a lot of Israel and caused Israel a lot of pain.
And God appoints a guy by the name of Gideon to free his people from the oppression of the Midianites.
Gideon has a smaller army.
Much smaller army.
But he surprised the Midian army at night.
Vastly outnumbered, Gideon wins a battle with pitchers, torches, and horns.
The text we read moments ago says,
Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 7)
They blew their rams’ horns and broke the pitchers that were in their hands.
The three companies blew their rams’ horns and shattered their pitchers.
They held their torches in their left hands and their rams’ horns to blow in their right hands, and they shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” (Judges 7:19-20)
Think about this.
Middle of the night.
A big, big crash.
300 clay pitchers being shattered on the ground.
Instant light.
Inside the pitchers, a torch of light now glowing brightly with 299 other torches.
Instantly.
And then the rams’ horns.
300 torches of instant light, 300 rams horns, instant noise.
And then 300 voices, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.”
The visual effect would be stunning… blackness into instant light.
But then all the noise… the pitchers breaking, the rams horns, and the voices… all of which support the light.
The next verse tells us that the Midianites were dazed and confused and soon running for their lives, even though they had the numbers on Israel’s army.
That’s a huge victory.
Fueled by sight and sound.
Our de-churched context
Paul references this fantastic military victory hundreds of years later.
He is writing to a church that is enamored with rock star preachers.
Even in the first century there were popular preachers who were more about image than substance.
This was going on in the city of Corinth with the church that Paul and his team had planted.
They found preachers more eloquent than Paul.
That church is big on numbers.
They are big on the best communicators.
They are big on success-oriented Christianity.
They want pastors who talk about how to win friends and influence people.
And this missionary Paul says the Christian life isn’t about all that.
The church isn’t about all that.
Pastors and leaders who understand and lead God’s people aren’t about all that.
And quite frankly, if we are going to be the church that Los Fresnos needs, our main message isn’t going to be 101 ways to succeed at life.
Did you know that here in Los Fresnos, more than half of our neighbors are people who used to go to church and they don’t go to church any more.
A little over 70% here are what some call the “de-churched”.
They are not going to church for a variety of reasons.
Some don’t go to church because somewhere along the way, church just didn’t seem to match up with their own lives.
What does church have to do with my life?
Some have a hard time coming up with an answer to that question.
I need help and the church doesn’t seem to be able to help or care to help.
Others are out of church because they’ve been burned by church.
Something bad happened to them at church.
What the “de-churched” don’t need is someone telling them how their lives are messed up.
They’re already well aware of how their lives don’t stack up.
What they also don’t need is someone telling them the 101 ways to get back on their feet or “5 steps to a better you.”
They’ve either already tried the churchy self-help stuff.
They’ve either done it and it seemed to work and now they are totally proud of themselves for having been better than the next person.
Or they are now tanked in despair because it doesn’t work.
Either way, Paul here in 2 Corinthians is saying the gospel is not about being the most polished or the most popular or the most practical.
The gospel is contained in and proclaimed by those who are clay jars.
Treasure in clay jars
Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 4)
We have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.
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