Sermon Tone Analysis

What are you doing with your life?

Text: Matthew 6:33, 28:18-20

Preached in Quabbin Valley on 12-28-08

*Introduction*:

We are fast approaching a new year.

2008 went very fast, what will next year bring?

Will it bring more money, more things to buy?

Will it bring a better or worse economy?

Will Obama be a better or worse president?

What will the next year bring?

Will my kids do good in school will this church grow?

What about your death?

Will 2009 be the year you die?

Or will it be the year of Christ’s return and the final judgment when the dead in Christ will rise and we who are left will be caught up in the air?

Do you ever think about that, what if this year is the year I die?

As Christians I pray we can say that that would be glory for us, no more tears or fears, no, more worry about bills.

My question is what have you done with your life?

What are going to do with the life that you have left?

What have you spent your time on this earth doing?

Has it been glorifying to Christ?

 

*1)      **Worry about money*

a.        Have you spent your time worrying about money?

Not having enough, having a lot, wanting more?

Everyone is aware of the economic state that the country is in.

You can’t miss it it’s all over the news and on most people’s tongues.

Bank bailout, car company bailout, housing markets down the only good news some say is that the gas is still down.

b.

So many people worry about money that a new industry of money psychologists has sprung up to treat them.

It’s become a disease to worry about money.

One thing that can take my time away is thinking about money, how to spend it or do I have enough, are my bills going to get paid or not, what’s the Government doing with my money?

All this can take up our time and we can get so engrossed in it that we waist our lives thinking about money.

c.        Now paying our honest debts, our bills is a good thing, we should be doing that.

Making wise decisions about that money God has given us is good but to let it consume us is destructive and a waste of time, a waist of our lives.

d.

I watched a movie called “the bucket list” and in it were two men who both were sick with Cancer and lying in beds in a hospital.

One was the owner of the hospital and the other was a car mechanic.

One man, the mechanic writes a list “the bucket list” things to do before you “kick the bucket”.

The Owner of the hospital had spent his life making lots of money.

At one point he says that’s all he has is money.

e.

The point of the movie is to do the things that are important.

Money is not the most important thing that we should let it rule our lives that we should become so wrapped up in thinking about it that we lose hours, days, weeks, and even years.

/                                                               i.

/Jesus said */Matthew 6:19-21 /*/ 19 ¶ "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also./

f.         Think, be concerned about heavenly things, store away treasures in heaven, and be concerned about doing God’s will.

Don’t worry about, don’t run after, and don’t be consumed by money or riches that can be stolen or can rot away.

Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

Make it your life’s work to do God’s will.

2)      *Worry about tomorrow *

a.

There are people who fear the future.

Worry about tomorrow.

They spend all their time worrying about what could, should, might, or will happen tomorrow or next week or next year.

b.       /It is reported that the newspaper counselor, Ann Landers, received an avenge of 10,000 letters each month, and nearly all of them from people burdened with problems.

She was asked if there was any one of them which predominates throughout the letters she receives, and her reply was the one problem above all others seems to be fear.

People are afraid of losing their health, their wealth, their loved ones.

People are afraid of life itself.

—The Bible Friend/

c.        Have you spent your time worrying about tomorrow or next year?

Have you spent your time in fear of the future, whatever it is?

Listen we all know that planning for the future is not a bad thing, making wise Godly plans is good, something we should be doing but often we don’t just make wise plans we worry and fear about what is going to happen.

d.

I have in the past spent days fearing things that never could happen.

I built them up in my mind allowed myself to be taken to a fairy tale land and then built problems and catastrophic events in my mind that never did or could take place and I wasted those days.

e.

One man said: /“The word “worry” is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning to strangle or to choke.

How well-named the emotion it has been demonstrated again and again in persons who have lost their effectiveness due to the stultifying effect of anxiety and apprehension.

A certain well-controlled carefreeness may well be an asset.

Normal sensible concern is an important attribute of the mature person.

But worry frustrates one’s best functioning.”

/—Norman Vincent Peale

f.

We should make wise Godly plans but we need to be careful not to let ourselves worry and fear the future because we can and will lose a lot of time and may even become sick.

There are many who are seeing a link between fear and physical illness.

/                                                               i.

/*/Matthew 6:31-34 /*/ 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 ¶ "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble./

*3)      **How should we spend our time?*

a.        How should we spend our time?

How should we spend the time that God has given us?

Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Jesus said go make disciples of all nations.

i.

Seek the things of God; pursue God and his holiness, his righteousness.

Make your desire and your purpose in life to be Christ-like, godly, doing his will, doing what please him and not what pleases us.

How do we seek him and his righteousness?

It first starts with love.

Jesus said love the Lord your God with all your heart soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

In order to love God I think we need to be reminded of who we were and who we are.

You and I were dead in sins, you and I were enemies of God, you and I were headed for destruction but God being rich in mercy because of his great love which he loved us made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.

We will never want to follow God if we don’t remember who we were and what he did for us in Christ.

ii.

For most of us our conversion to Christ was a monumental event, life changing and it was.

The thing we need to do is to constantly keep that in our minds or it’s easy for us to become Lukewarm.

b.

Put yourself off and put on Christ, don’t worry about what other people think, be concerned about what God thinks.

Plan your day, your week your year around seeking God and his righteousness and the issues of money or the worries of life will be taken care of.