Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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I wasn’t surprised I received the phone call, but I was surprised to find out where it was from.
At church one Sunday in the fall, a long time ago, a couple of friends started talking about wanting to go to Helen, Georgia.
I suspect most of you know about Helen.
It’s designed as a little Bavarian Village right near the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River.
It’s a neat little place to visit - lots of places to spend your money for sure.
But a neat little place.
And a couple of friends wanted to go.
So they made a date for the following Saturday.
We asked them if they knew how to get there because they were somewhat directionally challenged and they assured us they had been enough times with our Sunday School group that they could get there with no problem.
Saturday came and around mid morning I got a phone call.
My friends did indeed get up and head off to Helen.
They had a great time talking and laughing, zipping down the interstate in the early morning sunshine.
They’d been on the road for coming up on an hour when they saw the sign that said “Welcome to Alabama.”
She told me she didn’t remember seeing the Alabama sign when we went so she thought she might call for me to refresh her directions.
After I quit laughing, I told her she was headed towards Texas.
She was surprised - she swore she started he way we always did.
I told her that was not possible.
She need to turn around, and come back the way she came.
What if… ok, what if we are so busy headed down the highway that we don’t notice we are headed in the wrong direction?
There is hope though.
The more I studied for today, the more I kept having a song lyric run through my head.
In Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” Robert Plant sang these words, “Yes there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, There’s still time to change the road you are on.”
That is biblical.
There is still time to change the road we are on.
Remember where we’ve been over the last few weeks.
We ended studying the book of Malachi.
It’s the last book of the Old Testament and one of the last things the Lord said to us was this:
Malachi 4:4
So, we headed directly to the 10 commandments.
Last week we did the first three.
Number 1 is to have no other gods than the Lord.
Number 2 is to not make any representation of the Lord or any god.
And number 3 is to not speak or live in such a way as to demean the Lord.
Commandments 4 and 5 change the focus.
The first 3 tell us how to love God.
Then next 7 tells us how to love each other.
And these two lay the groundwork for loving the people around us.
The Lord Himself is the foundation the house is built up.
And now we find that worship and the family are the framework that holds the house up.
Exodus 20:8-12
Do you remember how you were taught the 10 commandments?
If you do these things, then you’ll be a good person and you’ll stay out of trouble with God.
Really, right?
These are 10 rules to live by.
Do them and you’ll stay out of trouble.
They will make you a good person and God will love you.
But now think with me for a moment, ok?
Who did the Lord give the 10 commandments to?
Well, He gave them to the Hebrew children standing at the base of Mt.
Horeb, right?
We said last week, the Lord Himself spoke these words to His people.
Where had they been before that?
Well, they had been in slavery in Egypt.
And how did they get out of slavery in Egypt?
Well, the Lord rescued them.
Why did He rescue them?
Because He loved them, He had compassion on them, and He had promised their fathers He would make them into a great nation.
So, from that we can only come to one conclusion - the Lord already loved them.
“The law was given to Israel because God loved His children and He wanted to instruct them regarding how to please Him and how to live wisely and well in the land He was giving to them.”
[Salvaggio].
The Lord loved them when He gave them the 10 commandments.
So He wasn’t giving them so He could say - “You guys do these things and I’ll like you and we’ll all be ok.”
He gave them saying, “You are my people.
“This is how I operate.
“These things are how I live - they are a part of my perfect personality.
“When you deal with me, this is what you can expect.
“And to honor me, the one who rescued you and will make you into a great nation, you do these things too.
What if we are so busy headed down the highway that we don’t notice we are headed in the wrong direction?
Exodus 20:8-11
Commandment number 4 tells us that the Lord is the Lord over all things - including time.
When He created all of creation, He established a pattern to be followed - work 6 days, rest and reflect on 1.
I don’t know how it works with you, but for me, working on Sunday was the worst.
In high school, I worked at South Cobb Pharmacy and every other weekend I had to work on Saturday and Sunday.
The drug store didn’t open until 1 pm on Sunday - so I could go to church.
And then I’d grab a quick lunch and come skidding into work at 1.
And every Sunday - every Sunday - was the slowest day of the week ever.
I don’t care how busy we might be - which generally on Sunday wasn’t so much - but no matter - the clock ticked by at half speed on Sunday.
There is something different to the day - by design.
We are to do our regular work for six days but on the seventh we are to rest and reflect on the Lord’s blessings.
Sabbath is simply a word that means cessation or rest.
And listen - it’s a sign.
Sunday is a sign of the covenant that God made with us.
You remember, “I will be your God and you will be my people.”
And keeping the Sabbath reminds us that the Lord is keeping His end of the covenant.
And keeping the Sabbath is a sign we are keeping our end of the covenant.
You hear trouble brewing right?
Having a Sabbath day doesn’t mean not doing any work and it doesn’t mean not being at church all day.
This is where the Pharisees in the Bible got it all wrong.
They wanted to define work in precise language so they would be certain to keep this law as perfectly as it could be kept.
But the purpose of the law is not to follow it precisely.
Do you remember something Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
In other words, the Sabbath was created to bring something to people.
It wasn’t created as a rule to be followed in our endless checklist of rules to be good people.
The Sabbath was created to remind good people of the one who made them good.
It is a different day for a different people.
It’s a day of reflection - of looking back and seeing the hand of God in our lives every day.
I want you to think for a moment, ok?
When do we ever say that we see the hand of God at work?
Usually after something tragic - where God allows us a major slap down so we’ll stop and look for Him.
But that’s what the Sabbath is designed for.
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