Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION

ME

McCauley Caulkin captured our hearts with his portrayal of Kevin in the Home Alone series.

You remember the movie.

When he first realizes he’s been left behind he dances around the house until something frightens him then he runs and hides under the bed.

But, finally, as he gets more accustomed to being by himself and fending for himself, he finally reaches the place that he conquers his fear.

One of my favorite scenes is when he calls out to the bad guys.

“Hey, bad guys, I’m not afraid anymore.”

Well, I had that experience last week.

Ok, I didn’t get left home alone, although there may have been a few times when my wife wished I had, maybe.

No, my “deliverance from fear” occurred when we went on vacation.

Now, if you know me very well, you know I am deathly afraid of heights.

We have a battery powered lift here that will take you up to heights of about 24'.

I have tried to talk myself into going up in that lift over and over again, but there is something about that which scares me silly.

I end up crouched down in the bucket afraid to look over the side.

I know, I’m an altitude wimp!

Well, it happened to me again last week.

We stayed at this place in Myrtle Beach while we were on vacation that was on the 15th floor.

The first time I walked out on the patio attached to our living room, it took my breath away.

You know, I kinda creeped up to the edge of the wall and just peeked over.

I didn’t want to get too near the edge.

The thoughts of that patio being unsupported and just over hanging empty space gave me butterflies.

BUT, I had the home alone experience.

After a few days of going out there and reading or just enjoying the sea breeze I could say with McCauley Caulkin, “I’m not afraid anymore.”

YOU

What about you, ever have the “Home Alone” Experience?

What are you afraid of?

Some of you are afraid of spiders.

I mean you see one of those creepy crawly webspinners, you run for the hills.

But then, you went to Camp Lapihio.

There were spiders everywhere, and after a week there you had the experience.

You could say it.

“I’m not afraid anymore.”

Some of you are afraid of public speaking.

You would rather be shot than get up and do what I’m doing right now, but then you got “that” job.

You may not have realized it when you got it, but they expect you to run a meeting every week, and, when you first found it out, you would have quit if your wife would have let you, but after a year or so of doing it, you can say it: “I’m not afraid anymore.”

Psychologists have a word to describe this.

They call it “desensitization.”

It was popularized in the Bill Murray movie, What about Bob.

In that movie the main character, Bob, is coached by his psychologist to take “baby steps” to overcome his fears.

That’s the whole idea of “desensitization.”

By exposure, you gradually overcome your fears.

US

But did you know that it also happens spiritually?

It sometimes goes like this: A man or woman hears the gospel and they come to fully grasp, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, that they are sinners.

They understand that they stand under the judgment of a Holy, Perfect, Sinless God who is angry with the wicked every day.

When the Spirit opens their eyes to their condition they are filled with a sense of dread and conviction.

But then they hear of the great mercy of God and how Christ died for them.

They come in repentance and confess Christ as their Savior and their sin is taken away and they are so happy.

They feel, as one pastor used to say, “squeaky clean” on the inside.

But then something happens.

They sin.

They realize they have displeased and hurt the God that saved them and they think they’re doomed again.

But someone explains to them that God has become their heavenly dad and that He will always be “faithful and just to forgive them of their sin” if they will just ask.

So they ask and again they experience His great forgiveness and they are so happy.

But, then, the thought enters their mind: “Well, if all I have to do is ask God to forgive me when I sin, and He’ll do it.

After all, He promised he would, then why can’t I just sin like I think I need to, and just ask Him to forgive me?”

And they begin to have, what I call the Home Alone Christian experience.

They begin to say, “Hey God, I’m not afraid anymore.”

They become desensitized to fear of God.

BACKGROUND

Now some would say that’s a good thing.

Well, if they do say that, they’d be at definite odds with the Apostle Peter.

In his first letter, chapter 1, verse 15, He writes: but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

When God says in that verse Be holy, for I am holy, I understand that the word “holiness” contains two ideas: Complete separation and complete perfection.

God is absolutely, uniquely separated from man and God is absolutely and completely perfect and no sin can enter His presence.

Now, holding that thought in your head, read on in v 17: And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; Peter says, “Hey, church, recognize who you’re dealing with!

God is absolutely holy and perfect and it is that holy perfect God who is going to judge you without any partiality whatsoever.

In light of that judgement then, we must have a certain quality.

He says we must spend the time of our stay here in this world in, what?

That’s right in f-e-a-r: fear!

I other words, I am not to let my heart become spiritually desensitized to Who He is.

I am to always hold God in reverence and, as much as our politically correct, psycho-cibernetic, I’m ok, you’re ok, world says it’s not good, in great FEAR!

I am to keep my heart sensitized to God.

NEED

See, here’s what I’m willing to bet this morning.

There are some of you out there who have highly desensitized hearts.

You’re like Bob walking at the end of What about Bob.

You’re walking around with no fear of God.

You claim to be a Christian, but you live like the devil.

You can drink and it doesn’t bother you.

You can live with your girlfriend or boy friend and justify it because NBC and CBS says its ok.

You can curse and think nothing of it.

You can walk by your neighbor who needs help and never even think about lending a hand.

You can abuse your family with your tongue and justify it by saying its just your personality.

Teenagers you can lie to your parents or steal and never even think twice about it.

You can take inappropriate pictures of yourself or your friends and put them up on the internet and just call it “fun.”

You never even stop to ask yourself what God thinks about it.

You have a desensitized heart.

And here’s the deal: Desensitized hearts forfeit their opportunity to be used by God because they are too hard to even hear Him speak.

So this morning, I want to try to tell you how you can keep a sensitive heart that truly fears God.

These verses tell us a couple of truths we can remember in order to keep our hearts sensitized to God.

First, if you want to keep a sensitized heart you can

DIV 1: REMEMBER WHO YOU’LL FACE

EXPLANATION

In verse 17 we are given the two faces of God.

First of all, Peter calls Him our Father.

I’m glad he starts with that picture.

He says, “And if you call on the Father . .

.”.

If I know Him as my Savior God is my Father spiritually speaking and I belong to His family.