Sermon Tone Analysis

*Passing The Baton*

 (Finishing Well pt.4 /final segment/)

 

2 Samuel 18:18 (NASB95) Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself a pillar which is in the King’s Valley, for he said, “I have no son to preserve my name.”

So he named the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.

*1)     **Passing the baton requires you to be actively involved in the race.*

*a) Monuments are established to remember the past*

* Absalom wanted David’s success with out the Goliath experience

1Sam 17, (Taking on something larger than himself)

* Absalom wanted David’s success with out the Abddulum experience 1Sam.

22:1-2 (being a cave and everyone in it is a mess)

* Absalom wanted David’s success with out the Saul experience.

1Sam 24&26 (2 X David had the opportunity to kill David and he did not)

* Absalom wanted David’s success with out the Bathsheba experience 2Sam 11. (Success is one thing, failure and overcoming it another)

 

*b) Sons are a living inheritance.*

* *

A gift is worn on the outer man; an inheritance is planted deep inside like a seed.

“A Tale of Three Kings” Gene Edwards

 

a)              *We are God’s inheritance* John 1:12 says, “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Paul emphasizes this truth in Romans 8:14 when he writes that “those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

b)              *What a contrast to the enslavement of forever remaining a child victim!* Paul says that a Christian is “no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:7).

In spite of the depraved environment one may have grown up in, we are told that we “may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe” (Philippians 2:15).

What wonderful news this is for “adult children” who have been handcuffed to their tortured past![1]

 

*2)     **Passing the baton takes commitment.*

*a)     **What is commitment?

*

*Webster’s definition:*

*1) *An act of committing to a charge

*2) *An agreement or pledge to do something

 

* *

*b) Commitment requires a whole heartedness.

*

1 Kings 11:4  For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father /had been//./

* *

 

*3)     **Passing the baton means giving it over to someone who might not be able to it as good as you.*

* *

Luke 6: 32 “And if you love those who love you, what credit is /that /to you?

For even sinners love those who love them.

33 “And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is /that /to you?

For even sinners do the same.

NASB

 

a) The elder or experienced one must be willing to give authority to the younger or the novice.

b)     You have got to love those who aren’t like you, that is what gets the heart of God.

 

*4)     **When the baton is passed, the runner looks ahead to celebrating with those that have taken it after him.*

Proverbs 29:18 (NASB95) Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.

a)     Vision looks ahead- the could be, it is the dream, it is the hope of a more excellent future.

b)     Vision doesn’t limit itself.

D.L. Moody, “If God is your senior partner, you need to have big plans.”

Andy Stanely, “I know what I can do in 90 hrs~/wk, I wanted to know what God could do if I worked 40 hrs~/wk.”

c)      Vision brings covering

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[1]Bulkley, Ed: /Why Christians Can't Trust Psychology/.

Eugene, Or. : Harvest House, 1993, S. 119