Sermon Tone Analysis
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ATTENTION
You’ve probably seen this book written by Pastor Joel Osteen.
It sold ___________copies and was part of what popularized his ministry.
I think part of its success, though, was not the message of the book as much as it was the chord it struck in the heart.
All of us are looking for the “best” life.
Well, really, I like to call it the “blessed” life.
We have this ideal picture of what our life should be.
I know I did.
ME
It was the early 80's and Kathy and I had just been married.
We lived in the basement apartment of Dr. Joe Ainge, a well-known preacher and campus pastor of the Bible College I had attended.
Dr. Ainge lived in a good middle-class neighborhood with modest, but nice homes.
To me, it looked like paradise!
For some reason, I had developed a real desire . . .
ok, let’s just call it what it was: It was an inappropriate desire to have what Dr. Ainge had.
You know, a home in the suburbs that I could call my own.
Since my dad was a pastor, living in the church parsonage had been all I’d ever known.
Now the homes were nice enough, but there was one problem.
They had never belonged to us.
There had always been the sense that this place we were living didn’t belong to us and we could be booted out whenever the people got tired of us.
So even though Dr. Ainge didn’t live in the Country Club, what he had looked like paradise to me!
There was only one problem: My janitor’s salary would never buy even a modest home.
So I’d just walk around the neighborhood and covet.
I didn’t realize it then, but I was being set up!
O yes!
I was a prime candidate for the “opportunity” that came my way.
Someone in another part of town had their home repossessed.
A friend of mine who was in real estate told me about it.
Now it was a much smaller home and the neighborhood wasn’t nearly as good, but if I could borrow several thousand from my dad and do a lot of work to the home, it would belong to me.
I was in!
It didn’t matter to me that the interest rate was over 11%, I was living the dream.
I was going for it.
In just a few short weeks, I had arrived.
I was on cloud nine.
I was living in paradise!
Until it rained . . .
and rained . . .
and rained.
We had an unusually wet spring and I quickly discovered why this particular house was repossessed.
When it rained my back yard became “Russell Lake.”
It was so bad that the neighborhood kids came down and swam.
So much for paradise!
YOU
Have you been there?
Have you ever wanted something so bad that you could taste it?
Ever thought things like, “If only this could happen, then my life would be good . .
.then
I’d be happy . .
.then
I’d be in paradise,” only to get it and find out that your pipe dream was really a night mare?
Some of you have salivated over getting some particular job or going into some particular career, only to get there and be really unhappy.
Others of you thought you’d be so happy if you could have a relationship with this person or that person, only to discover that what you thought was paradise was nothing but a dead end.
Others thought that buying this thing or that thing would bring your happiness, only to have it disappoint you.
Probably all of us, at one time or another, have missed-defined happiness and have found ourselves disappointed and disillusioned . . .
which just leads me to this truth.
Wrong definitions lead to problems, especially when it comes to the “blessed life.”
NEED
In fact, bad definitions can lead to all kinds of problems!
For one thing, if you don’t define “paradise” correctly, you’ll miss opportunities.
I really believe that Satan spends all kinds of time trying to paint pictures of his ideal in our minds so that we miss the opportunities that God has for us.
If I am chasing the pipe dream of my job, I’ll spend all kinds of time trying to be a success at work while my family goes to hell, literally.
I’ll trade being at the game for playing the game at the office.
I’ll trade getting the promotion at work for seeing God work through me in ministry here at the church or in my neighborhood.
And I’ll turn around at my retirement and realize that the company I gave my life to has already forgotten my contribution and I’ve wasted my life.
Incorrect definitions of the “blessed life” will cause you to miss the opportunities that really count.
And they will also destroy relationships.
Chasing ambition that God has not ordained will inevitably bring you into conflict.
For one thing, putting my effort in the wrong place causes me to take up the time God ordained for me to spend with others and put it into something that doesn’t even matter.
Dad, you cannot make up for years of neglect by taking your son on a camping trip one weekend out of the year.
Mom, those milestones you are missing will not come back.
I know some of you really must work and I do not, by any means, want to heap guilt on you.
But are you working because you have to or because you’re chasing a “blessed life” that is wrongly defined?
And its not just a time thing.
Chasing ambition in the wrong direction will also lead you to direct conflict.
James was clear in chapter 4 of his book: Wars and fights come from the inproper desires and ambitions within us.
Wrongly defining the “blessed” life always brings conflict.
Could it possibly be this morning, that one of the reasons you and your mate are at each other’s throats is that you have really just been chasing the wrong dream?
Bad definitions cause missed opportunities and destroyed relationships but they also bring:
Paralyzing fear.
You see, when I go after the wrong dream in my life, I am going after something that God cannot bless.
When I go after something that God cannot bless, I am on my own.
If it’s to be, it really is up to me, as the saying goes and, without His blessing, I am responsible for everything.
The result is, I end up trying to manufacture everything in my own flesh and everything goes along pretty good until I hit a problem I really can’t handle.
When that happens, I find that I turn to God and, since He’s not in favor of my direction, I get no answer.
And the net result is I walk around on my own, paralyzed or at least stressed by fear.
BACKGROUND
And none of these results: missed opportunities, destroyed relationships or paralyzing fear describe a truly blessed life.
Maybe that’s you this morning.
You know you should be happy, but you’re not.
You’ve been looking for the “blessed life,” but it’s eluding you and, for the life of you, you can’t figure out why.
To you, Peter writes verse 10 of chapter 3 of his first letter.
Look at what he says, For he who would love life and see good days . . .
Hey, Peter was writing about “your best life now,” way before Joel Osteen!
He says, “Hey, if you want to love your life . . .
if you want to see “good days.”
In other words, if you want to turn 70 with no regrets and love what has happened in your life, Peter can help!
In these verses he really does tell you how you can have your “blessed life, how!”
You can summarize what Peter says here in three concise statements.
In the first place, If you want to enjoy the blessed life, you can:
DIV 1 LOVE YOUR FAMILY
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