Sermon Tone Analysis

What Does God Treasure?

Luke 15

Outline

Main Idea: God treasures you.

Intro:

Hello!

Like Drew said my name is Zach

I am a fellow youth pastor in Galesburg, IL

At Bethel Baptist Baptist Church—

Which is the name here.

It’s kinda like a weird twilight episode.

I am so honored to speak this weekend.

I love your youth pastor Drew.

He is awesome and he has such incredible insight and wisdom.

Even if he is a Ram’s fan— He is just amazing and I really love this guy!

I mean what really solidified Drew’s awesomeness is when he shot a bottle rocket out of his butt!

It was incredible.

Can I tell that story?

Is that okay Drew.

No— I shouldn’t have.

Okay just pretend I didn’t tell that story.

Oh man you kinda ruined some good material there.

Well anyway— like I said my name is Zach and I am a youth pastor.

I have been at my Bethel for about 5 years.

I am married to my best friend Brittni and we will celebrate our 12th year of marriage in July.

You know how in video games you level up or you may get upgraded, or you play above your skill level.

My wife did that— for me— Totally kidding I was the one who married up— way up and out of my league.

For some reason she fell for me and as soon as she showed a slight interest— I told her I loved her and I wanted to grow old with her.

And it worked— You can see me afterwards for dating advice.

But we have three kids

Evelynn Marie who is 9 (Picture)

Rosalee Kay who is 7 (Picture)

And Corona V- I’m kidding This is Theodor Alan (Picture) He is 15 months old but we did have a Covid Baby and we also got a pandemic puppy named Albus Thor.

(Picture)

Combining some of our favorite things Harry Potter and Marvel movies (Thor)

Something I really love to do: Over the last nine months my wife and I started Crossfit— It is just a lot of us just trying to lift weights as fast as possible, waking up really sore, and having weird pains that I know I never had before joining.

But honestly it has been really fun and it is something my wife and I get to do together which is fun.

That is a little bit about me and I would love to get to you know each one of over the next like 48 hours!

So come up and introduce yourself to me!

As we begin tonight I have some very important questions to ask you tonight.

Number 1 are you ready?

That wasn’t the question— easy now.

Question number 1--

Taylor Swift or Beyoncé?

We know that answer is Beyoncé

Have you heard of the Taylor Swift issue?

Okay so Taylor has bad relationships right?

I mean she writes about a ton of them.

Do you know what is the common factor is? It is Taylor Swift.

I think she is the issue for her failed relationships.

Okay moving on.

Question number 2?

Pepsi or Coke

It is Pepsi unless it is Coke Zero that stuff is good.

Question #3

Apple or Android?

It is only Apple—

Question #4

Culvers or Chick-fil-a

We know it is chick-fil-a

Last question #5

Pancakes or Waffles?

Waffles all day!

Alright that gives me a good idea of what I am dealing with this weekend.

Lucky you kinda of past so I guess I can stay.

Like I said before, I am super pumped to be with you guys this weekend.

I am so excited for what we are going to be talking about.

And as Drew and I were talking and thinking about what this weekend could mean, I asked him what do you want your students to walk away from this weekend with?

And a word or phrase that kept coming up was I just want them to treasure their relationship with Jesus.

As in what are we in pursuit of in life?

What do you pursue?

Because what we pursue comes down to what we value.

Me:

Know what I value compared to what my kids value is vastly different.

Like this last week my wife and I were going through their room and we made a huge pile of stuffed animals that they needed to get rid of.

And we told them hey were are going to get rid of these stuff animals.

And my oldest Evey— she is so sweet and cares so deeply about things— she grabbed each stuffed animal and told me and Brittni about why they needed to keep said stuffed animal.

From this is the stuffed animal that I got because we moved it is special to me.

Or I got this stuffed animal on my third birthday and when I skinned my knee and we had to put peroxide on— this stuffed animal got me through it.

How do you argue with that.

Needless to say they still have a ton of stuffed animals but what they value and what I value is very different.

But we all have this to an extent.

We:

We all have different perspectives on what is valuable.

What are somethings that you value?

Ask Students

We all have different things that we put value in.

And we can do a lot ton of verbal gymnastics to argue why those things are valuable.

We can make a case for anything we deem valuable.

And those things that we put value in it is because it means something to us.

Or it is an activity that we dedicate a ton of time and energy into.

It is our beauty that we take extra care of.

It could be an instrument, a friendship, a relationship, school, or even things.

You see what you are passionate about is what you will value.

And we can call those valuables treasures.

And the Bible says a lot about what we treasure and what is a treasure.

And we will dive more into our theme verse tomorrow but I still want to read it to you.

But now let me ask you a question?

What are your passionate about— what is your treasure?

I noticed that nobody themselves.