Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

“Pre-requisites”

When I was a student at Clemson, there were certain courses I had to take before I could continue on to take higher level courses in my major.

In other words, I had to take 100 and 200 level classes before I could take the 300 level ones specific to my major.

These foundational classes are called “pre-requisites” — required coursework that you must complete so that you can continue to the higher levels of education.

Today’s message is kind of a pre-requisite course for all of the New Years Resolutions you’d like to make in the area of spiritual growth.

Scripture Reading

Last week Darren Russo preached from Colossians 1:1-8 to show us how the Gospel can and should effect our daily lives.

The question he answered for us was, “What does the manger have to do with Monday morning?”

How quickly we move from Christmas to normalcy again without really considering this question!

Today I want to keep reading in Colossians where Darren left off, but with a slightly different approach.

Rather than going deep into this passage and expositing its meaning, we’re going to use it to set up the topic we’re addressing across all of Forest Hill this morning.

So don’t be surprised if after we read it, we use some of the ideas as a spring board into some other areas rather than unpacking it verse by verse.

The passage is from Colossians 1:9-12.

If you’re able, will you stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Colossians 1:9–12 (ESV)

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

This is God’s Word.

You may be seated.

"That we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

As a pastor, my concern for you — as well as for myself — is Paul’s concern for the Colossian church.

He explicitly states his concern a little later in chapter one of Colossians:

Col 1:28-29 “28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

29 For this [presenting everyone mature in Christ] I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

This is my New Years resolution in ministry: to toil and struggle over this one thing with laser focus: to present each one of you mature in Christ.

But what does it mean to be mature in Christ?

That’s what’s defined in the verses we stood and read together a moment ago.

Consider these qualities again in list format, which Paul is praying for the Colossian believers:

That they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in spiritual wisdom and understanding

That they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him

That they would bear fruit in every good work

They they would increase in the knowledge of God

That they would be strengthened with all power . . .

for all endurance and patience with joy.

That they would give thanks to the Father.

One who is “mature in Christ” exemplifies these qualities, and so Paul is striving to help the Colossian believers realize these things.

No doubt, there were specific challenges that made growing mature in Christ in these ways difficult — challenges which you can see Paul addressing through the letter if you read on.

But this has led me to ask: what are some of the specific challenges to us, Forest Hill Church, to growing in Christian maturity?

What uniquely prevents us in our cultural moment, time, and place from growing in Christ?

That’s what today’s message is about.

As we kick off this new year together, I want to help you grow in spiritual maturity by helping you identify the one thing that is likely undercutting all of your attempts to grow in your faith.

So what is the major, if not surprising, problem we need to deal with if we want to experience dynamic life in Christ?

The Problem of Hurry

Time magazine reported in the 1960s that a US Senate subcommittee predicted that in the future, due to increasing technological advances, the greatest threat to Americans would be too much leisure time.

They predicted that technology would continually reduce the workload to the point that three or four day work weeks may become standard, and therefore helping Americans learn what to do with all their free time would be an increasingly important strategy.

While technological advances have allowed us to do incredible amounts of work in a fraction of the time to previous generations, we have not received the time saved as a gift.

Rather, we’ve just crammed it with even more work.

We are, as one commentator put it, rich in material goods and wealth, but poor in time for relationships and reflection.

This is the exact opposite of most cultures in the world and indeed in human history.

Corrie ten Boom famously said: “If the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.”

We are a chronically and sinfully busy people.

Hurry Sickness

Our addiction to “more” has created the phenomenon known as “Hurry Sickness.”

Yes, it’s a real thing.

Google it.

Here’s how it’s defined:

A behavior characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness.

—

A malaise in which a person feels chronically short of time, and so tends to perform every task faster and to get flustered when encountering any kind of delay.

—

A continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time.

What might the symptoms of hurry sickness look like in your own life?

Speeding up daily activities

Reading, talking, angling at stop lights, picking the fastest check out line at the grocery store

Multi-tasking

Doing more than one thing at once.

Studies show: this does not work!

Clutter

Lacking simplicity in material things as well as time due to calendar

Superficiality

Ortberg: “Depth comes slowly.”

81

Ortberg: “Today we have largely traded wisdom for information.

We have exchanged depth for breadth.

We want to microwave maturity.”

81

“Sunset fatigue”

“When we come home at the end of a day’s work, those who need our love the most, those to whom we are most committed, end up getting the leftovers.

Sunset fatigue is when we are just too tired, or too drained, or too preoccupied, to love the people to whom we have made the deepest promises.”

82 ...

You find yourself rushing when there’s no reason to

There is underlying tension causing sharp words or sibling quarrels

You set up mock races that are really about your own need to get through it

You sense a loss of gratitude and wonder

You indulge in self-destructive escapes from fatigue: abusing alcohol, watching too much TV, getting lost in social media, etc.

Inability to love — this is perhaps the most significant issue with hurry

Consider what’s known as the Great Commandment, a set of verses many of you are no doubt familiar with:

Matthew 22:37-40 ESV

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

38 This is the great and first commandment.

39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””

To simplify:

Love God.

Love others.

The common action verb: love.

Love requires two things:

Time

Presence

On time:

John Ortberg: “Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible.

Love always takes time, and time is one thing hurried people don’t have.”

81

On presence:

Consider how Jesus qualifies each of these loves:

Love God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.