Sermon Tone Analysis

Message

Children are a gift from the Lord;

they are a reward from him.

Children born to a young man

are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.

How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! - Psalm 127:3-5 NIV

Children are a gift.

They are a heritage from the Lord.

They are a special possession.

The Psalmist writes, “[Children] are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.”

When properly released, an arrow soars to provide, defend, advance, protect, and win victory!

Likewise, from this Psalm, arrows represent our children.

I think most parents wish these dreams over their children.

Your parents for you, and you for your children.

For mine, my wife and I pray daily that our children soar into adulthood to provide, defend, advance, protect, and win victory for the sake of their families one day and for Jesus and his kingdom!

My boy, Levi, recently learned how to ‘roar’ like a lion.

RAWR!

He RAWR’s at his sister.

He RAWR’s at his baby brother.

He RAWR’s at his mother.

I love watching my little man cub feel his strength and use his voice.

I am so much enjoying the beginnings of forming my arrows and carving their points.

My daughter, Hannah, now loves to dance and count and sing her ABC’s.

But recently, this same daughter of mine during a total emotional breakdown told my wife, “I want to be mad at you.”

Ugh!

I asked my wife if she felt hurt, and she responded, ‘it always hurts.’

Ugh, this same beautiful girl who cuddles with us and twirls like a ballerina sometimes speaks such immature words to us that just pierce our hearts.

She’s 4, we wouldn’t expect anything different, but it still hurts.

Family is a roller coaster of emotions, isn’t it?

And all of us ride it, with all of its misunderstandings and hurts and joys and fears.

Sometimes, it seems like we’re all just holding on for dear life, doesn’t it?

Can we just be honest?

Family is hard.

Family is complicated.

Families wound and pierce one another - sometimes unintentionally, but other times with real intent to do harm.

I think most parents launch their arrows into the world with a deep sense of hope and optimism.

Yet, our flaws, our brokenness, our shortcomings, even our best intentions at times, still miss the mark and pierce those closest to us, our family and closest friends.

Some family wounds come to us intentionally.

Whether through betrayal, mistrust, lying, even abuse, these wounds… oh, these wounds pierce so deeply into our hearts that we often need an entire lifetime to heal from them.

As an aside: If you’ve been intentionally wounded, then I want you to know right now at the very beginning of this message that we can help you begin a journey toward healing and restoration.

That’s why we’re here.

As we help others find and follow Jesus, we help one another find safety, healing, and restoration.

Jesus is so much more than a pathway into Heaven.

He is our safety, healing, and restoration, beginning now into eternity.

Some family piercings happen by accident through immature speech, unintentional crashes, forgetfulness.

Other times, we become wounded by piercings entirely beyond our control, such as miscarriages, death, illness, unforeseen financial circumstances, and so many others.

These kinds of wounds feel like gut checks, don’t they?

They knock the wind out of us and make us feel so discouraged and full of sorrowful.

Sometimes these wounds don’t come with an explanation, or at least an easy one.

These wounds need lots of tender loving care for healing.

While other wounds come by way of obeying God.

Obedience is painful, isn’t it?

Following Jesus isn’t just unicorns and applesauce, as my daughter would say.

Jesus says ‘come and see’ and‘ come and die.’

Obedient discipleship begins and ends between these two comings.

Obedience is costly and painful, and much like the piercings that happen to us beyond our control, sometime the woundings we receive from following Jesus don’t have clear answers either.

Obedience to Jesus and our family is such an emotional roller coaster with moments of excitement and reward and pain and sorrow.

Perhaps no other set of parents from the history of our faith experienced this more than Mary and Joseph, the parents of Jesus himself.

They rode in the front row seats of this emotional roller coaster, even with the greatest arrow of all time being placed in their hands by our Warrior Heavenly Father.

Though we believe Jesus was without any brokenness and sin and was both fully God and fully man somehow within the mystery of God’s brilliance and power, his parents still were wounded by the simple obedience of raising their boy, Jesus, in a world that opposed him then and still opposes him to this very day.

As custom for faithful, devout Jewish parents like Mary and Joseph, they circumcised ***eight pound*** Baby Jesus eight days after his birth, and then, presented him before God in the Temple at 40 days old, as good, obedient Jewish parents would do.

There, at the Temple, an older priest named Simeon presided over their presentation.

Here, the Gospel writer Luke recorded in chapter 2 that under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Simeon recognized Jesus as the long anticipated Messiah.

In response, he pronounced this blessing over Jesus, saying:

I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people.

Keyword: all people!

Not just for the Jewish people, or for the good people, or for the people who have their lives well put together.

But for all people!

He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”

If I’m Joseph, then I’m thinking, “Yeah, that’s right.

Keep it coming, Simeon!

Tell me more about how great my boy is!”

Luke records: Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him.

These same parents who saw and heard angels speak to them about their son!

You gotta love the humanity of this moment and wonder if their heads were just spinning during their entire pregnancy, thinking, “Are we really becoming the parents of the Messiah?”

I think, too, many parents feel that kind of wonder and amazement over their children.

The slate typically starts clean with wonder and hope, until the truth about all families come to bear with what Simeon tells Mary next in verse 34, saying:

Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise.

He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him.

As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.

Notice the turn from Simeon’s blessing to truth-telling.

Obedience to Jesus isn’t just unicorns and applesauce, man.

It’s life and death!

More than two millennia after this pronouncement, anyone with eyes wide open can see how some fall because of their own wayward decisions and opposition against Jesus, while others rise because of their acceptance and trust of Jesus’ grace and mercy.

Simeon’s words still ring true to this very day around the world and in our city!

But Simeon wasn’t finished.

No, no, he had one more thought just for Mary, saying: And a sword will pierce your very soul.”

Now, if I’m Joseph, then I’m bewildered.

I went from ecstatic to bewildered, maybe even defensive for my wife.

A sword will pierce your very soul?!

That probably wasn't quite what Mary expected to hear.

In a matter of phrases, Simeon's soaring blessings of hope and salvation for the whole world through Jesus, then, radically shifted gears into the truthful reality of what Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection would represent, and the cost for every follower, including most of all, Jesus’ family.

Simeon pronounced the shadow side of Jesus’ life marked by suffering and woundedness.

How do you imagine Mary and Joseph received Simeon’s announcement?

These two young peasant parents holding before them the Savior of the world, just 40 days old, which nearly ended their marriage, crushed Mary’s reputation, and certainly brought much anxiety and fear to their lives, now hear Simeon say these words to Mary: ‘a sword will pierce your very soul.”

This underlines two aspects about Jesus’ life from his birth through the very end of his life:

● First, When grace and truth confront the 'deepest thoughts of many hearts,’ as Simeon said, along with the evils and powers of our world, then pain results.

Pain results, but not necessarily in a harmful way.

Like an antiseptic, such as hydrogen peroxide, when you apply the antiseptic of Jesus’ salvation onto our sinful lives, then the process may feel initially painful at first, but the pain is an indicator that Holy Spirit grace and truth is rooting out the junk from our lives.

It’s painful letting grace and truth heal our wounds, but it’s good and necessary.