Sermon Tone Analysis

Message

I am proud of your courage last night.

Many of you took a first step toward honesty, which leads to freedom.

During our first night together, we began by hearing the 12 core truths about what God accomplished for us in Christ, and how God created our tribe, the Heaven tribe, to live as one together.

As I read these truth statements from Ephesians chapter 1:3-14, I want you to say the highlighted word with me:

Blessed us in Jesus - verse 3

Chose us in Jesus - verse 4

Adopted us into his family through Jesus - verse 5

Poured grace on us in Jesus, the one whom he loves - verse 6

Gave us redemption through Jesus - verse 7

Lavished grace on us through Jesus - verse 8

Made known to us the mystery of his will as he purposed in Jesus - verse 9

Intends to bring us into unity under Jesus - verse 10

Provided us with an inheritance through Jesus - verse 11

Gave us hope in Jesus - verse 12

Marked us in Jesus with the seal of salvation - verse 13

Guarantees the redemption of all of us, his holy people, through Jesus - verse 14

These truths belong to you at the very moment that you place your trust in Jesus!

God doesn’t meet you first with judgment, nor does God shame you for your past.

Rather, at the precise moment when you place your trust in Christ, God gives his truth to you and makes you part of his Heaven tribe!

AMEN!

Last night, we discussed the flipside to this truth, which is the cold hard fact about all of us - all of us - all of us - the playing field is level, for all of us:

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.

You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the power of the air.

He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.

All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.

By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

Hiding in our shame, running into our oblivions, and struggling with ourselves and with others.

Friends, listen, the Devil holds no power over you, except whatever deception that you choose to believe.

Don’t ever forget that!

Thus why last night, I invited you to get honest with yourself and say:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Point out anything in me that offends you,

and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Psalm 139:23-24

I hope all of you answered this question with a trusted leader:

“Who owns your heart?”

And then as thoughts rise to the surface for you, follow the wisdom of James, Jesus’ brother, when he instructed the church to:

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

James 5:16

Who owns your heart?

That’s our question for this week.

Does God own your heart, or do you own your heart?

When God owns your heart, God loves you all the way through to the very innermost parts of your being, showing you:

Love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

It does not demand its own way.

It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.

It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

This passage highlights one of God’s most important traits:

Our God is just.

Which means that true love demands that right wins over wrong.

Whenever we choose our own selfishness above God and others, we choose wrong over right, and whenever we choose sin over God, we break a bond that we cannot repair by ourselves.

To illustrate this broken bond between us and our Heavenly Father, Jesus told a story about a young man, who wanted to go his own way.

He wanted to live like the god of his own life and make his own rules.

Sound familiar?

He rejected his Father, demanded his inheritance, declared his father dead before his household, and left for the far country to get as far away from his family tribe as possible.

This dude inherited a sum of millions, let’s say, and he wasted every penny of it on wild living.

Use your imagination, we live in Miami.

In desperation, the young man begged a local farmer to hire him.

He got a job feeding pigs.

One day, the young man became so starved for food that the pig slop looked good to him.

But even then, no one gave him anything, not even pig slop to eat.

After slamming hard on rock bottom, the young man came to his senses.

He picked up his broken pieces and made the long walk back home to his Father’s house, hoping that maybe his father might show mercy on him and hire him as a servant in his house.

After all, the young man thought, at least his father’s servants ate 3 hot meals a day.

Listen to how Jesus told the story:

“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have enough food to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!

I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.

Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

Luke 15:17-19

Remember, the son no longer belonged to his family, and they no longer belonged to him.

The young man made a decision that he could not make right.

He gave back his rights as a son at the very moment when he declared his father dead before his family tribe.

...

At that time during the first century, in a situation like this, Jewish law allowed the Father to kill his own son for committing such a humiliating act toward him.

But friends, Hear this: by choosing to come home, the son faced the possibility of death.

He knew this, but he wanted his father more.

Friends, make no mistake, Jesus told this story as a way of explaining our lives.

Every human being ever, including all of us in this room, at one time or another, have turned our backs against our Heavenly Father, declared him dead to us, abandoned our rights as his sons and daughters of God, and left for the far country to live however we pleased.

Like the father in the parable, this God of justice that we abandoned is well within his rights as God to pronounce a death sentence over us because of our disobedience and many sins.

And like the son, some of us here, including me, eventually came to the realization that our lives amounted to nothing more than the junk that we used to pursue.

C.S. Lewis said it like this:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are far too easily pleased.”

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses

A couple of years ago, my wife and I celebrated our anniversary at her favorite restaurant, the Capital Grill.

Thank you ladies.

Dudes, take some notes.

That day, because of my schedule, I couldn’t eat breakfast, nor could I eat lunch, and by 3pm, I needed some grub…bad, so as dudes are prone to do, I made a quick pass by Taco Bell... and loaded up on some outstanding double decker tacos, even though I knew that in just a few hours time, the choicest steak in Miami awaited me.

Last night, the amazing, Jeni Hacker informed Jordan Harvell (another Taco Bell connoisseur) and me yesterday that Taco Bell uses Grade E meat, which on the box, actually says, edible,’ just in case anyone questions the grade.

Grocery stories like Publix don’t even sell Grade D meat.

I filled up on Grade E meat, when Grade A choicest cut Prime Rib literally awaited my mouth!

Friends, like the younger son, we have all fallen for the lie that if we simply satisfy our selfish desires with alcohol, weed, porn, gossip, pills, sex, sugar (seriously), vape, cliques, youtube binging, whatever, then all of our needs would be met, and we would be happy.

In reality, however, we end up feeling:

Depressed

Alone

Anxious