Sermon Tone Analysis

Ps 133

It’s obvious to anyone that has ever read this psalm, that the theme that leaps very obviously at one that is interwoven throughout the fabric of the verses of this short Psalm is the theme of unity.

It is believed that this Psalm was written on or for the occasion of the nation’s coming together at the coronation of David becoming the King of both the southern and the northern kingdoms of Israel.

Up until this point there had been what is called by scholars the Divided Monarchy.

In other words, the people of Israel have now split; and there is the northern kingdom and there is the southern kingdom.

David, in 2nd Samuel, around chapter 2, has already become the king of Judah.

And now he comes to be crowned the king of Israel, thus becoming the unifying king and once again unifying Israel.

And it is the believed that the writing of this Psalm was not only to celebrate what God had done in the kingship of David.

This Psalm teaches us that there is power in unity.

It suggests that unity produces an atmosphere and ambiance by which the anointing of God can flow.

The anointing of God cannot flow where there is strife, division or backbiting.

When the people of God begin to walk in unity, then the Spirit of God can begin to move.

And when the Spirit of God begins to move, things begin to happen.

\\ \\ • When the Spirit of God begins to move… \\ o Lives will be transformed \\ o Sickness and disease will be healed \\ o Shackles will be broken \\ \\ When the Spirit of God is allowed the freedom to move, then there is nothing that cannot be broken in the body of Christ.

\\ \\ And this is major thought because what that means is—the reason more miracles may not take place, MIGHT not be because of a lack of faith.

But it MIGHT be because of a lack of unity.

If there is one thing that needs to return to the church, it is the message of unity.

God has called us to work TOGETHER.

\\ \\ • You nor I alone make up the kingdom.

\\ \\ I’m not a kingdom and you are not a kingdom.

God has not made any of us to function alone without the necessity of other people in our lives.

God has not made us GOOD enough to where we don’t need other people to be connected to us in order for us to flow in who God made us to be.

I don’t care if my title is Reverend, Doctor, Deacon, Bishop or Potentate, God has not made ME anointed enough to make a church what is SHOULD be without the connection of other people.

It takes unity!!! \\ \\ He has not made us to function alone.

YOU AND I NEED RELATIONSHIPS!!!

And we need to understand today the concept of unity.

Because in this modern day church, particularly in an age of the mega church era, you run the risk of simply being a collection of strangers that show up at the same place for their own reasons on a given Sunday; and when it’s over we go to our separate lives as we’ve never been there together.

And one of the dangers of becoming a clique-ish church is that you run the risk of losing the necessary intimacy that it takes to be connected to each other in order to flow in each other’s lives.

\\ \\ - Tragically, the reason some people go to big crowds is so they can get lost in anonymity.

Because they don’t want anybody to know their business.

When, in reality, you ought to be in the church to be free to let people know what you’re going through, because you trust that the people there will pray for you when times get rough.

\\ \\ • Unity is the greatest GIFT you and I can give to the Spirit.

\\ \\ o Unity is greater than preaching \\ o Unity is greater than singing \\ o Unity is greater than vision \\ o Unity is greater than ministry \\ o Unity is greater than activity \\ o Unity is greater than all of the buildings you can come up with \\ o Unity is greater than any preacher, any deacon, any staff, any trustee, any member or any usher.

\\ o If we don’t work TOGETHER, then nothing will really be accomplished.

\\ \\ The greatest gift we have is to let the anointing of God flow is our unity.

And one of the reasons why it is so hard is because we want people to be like us.

That’s not unity.

\\ \\ - The testing of unity is not whether or not you can agree with somebody.

\\ - The testing of unity is not whether or not you can find someone that does what you want them to do.

\\ - The test is how do you hang in there with those that God has called you to be apart of; and LOVE them even when you don’t LIKE them.

\\ - Because God is a trip—God will make you love people that you don’t like; He even gives you a command to not love them; and then measure you maturity on how you handle how they treat you.

\\ \\ • Sometimes the problem is NOT that you want people to be like YOU.

Sometimes the issue, if we are honest, is that YOU want to be like THEM, or you want to BE them.

OR you want to be WITH them and CAN’T.

\\ o Question: Have you ever wondered why there are some people who don’t even like you and you don’t even know them?

\\ o Have you ever wondered why some people talk about you and lie on you and they don’t even know anything about you? \\ o Can I help you?

It’s called INSECURITY.

And the Devil uses it to keep disunity in the church because the Devil knows that if we EVER get TOGETHER, God says in the 11th chapter of the book of Genesis verse 6, that if they get together on one accord with one voice, then whatever they think, they will be able to accomplish.

\\ \\ So if we get on one accord, we can own 100 acres~/we can open up a school~/we can have businesses surrounding the church~/we can do ANYTHING…and there is nothing the Devil would be able to do to stop it!

\\ \\

\\ • One of the reasons the Devil tries to keep factions and separations in the church is because he knows that if we ever get together, we’ll be UNSTOPPABLE.

\\ \\ And if we could ever get together….our

communities wouldn’t be in the shape its in; our schools wouldn’t be in the shape they are in; families wouldn’t be in the shape that they are in.

But we can’t come together!

Our government would be the way it is!

\\ \\ Our crazy governor

 

Unity is something we’ve lost in the community and in the church.

We’ve lost it in pursuit of selfish endeavors.

Now everybody’s out for me, myself and I in the church.

And David says how beautiful and how pleasant it is for people to dwell together in unity.

The picture is of someone that is being brought into unity; and then is given the responsibility of keeping what they were brought into.

So that if you don’t mess it up, we can keep it’.

What David says is that the only people that can mess up the unity, are the ones who have been brought into unity.

He says that the only people that can mess up unity are the people that should be unified.

What he’s really saying is that people who are not apart of the community ought not have the power to break it up.

The only folk that can break it up are the folk that’s in it.

\\ \\ - If we keep unity, God is going to keep pouring out the oil and commanding the blessings.

God says, I am a God Who believes in unity and community.

\\ \\ I.

If your going to have understand the value of u! \\ \\ Now when I say the value of you, I don’t mean the value of you, pointing to yourself.

But rather, I mean the value of you, pointing to somebody else.

\\ \\ YOU HAVE VALUE TO ME \\ \\ He said, ‘it is like the oil flowing from the head of Aaron.’

Aaron was the high priest.

And whenever they anointed the high priest, they spent expensive and costly oil.

One of the points that was being made is—no matter how much the cost, it is not a waste, because he’s not a waste.

See, the more I value YOU, the LESS I value things.

And I know that this is a foreign word to this generation, because this NEW generation values THINGS more than we value PEOPLE.

In fact, we treat God as if God values things more than God values people; which is why we spend an inordinate amount of time in church asking God to give us STUFF.

\\ \\ He says, I can’t do something extravagant for you; and it not be wasteful for me, because if I do it in conjunction with you, then it shows you that you are important to ME.

The only way to have unity in the church is when we value the OTHERS over SELF to the extent that we will do for THEM beyond what we will do for OURSELVES.

\\ \\ He says, ‘it’s like the oil’.

Now you must understand the anointing oil.

The anointing oil was made up of several ingredients.

\\ \\ - Myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia.

All of those were used to make of the oil of anointing or the ointment.

This was the oil that was used, not only in consecration of the high priest; but this was the oil poured on the dead at a burial.

\\ - The only way you can value somebody else, is for something to die in YOU towards THEM.

\\ - The only way I can value YOU over ME is I’ve got to KILL something in ME that wants to make me value ME over YOU.

\\ - I’ve got to kill selfishness~/my personal agenda~/my likes and dislikes….because

to love YOU over ME means I’ve got to kill what wants to make ME put ME over YOU….so that you can know that I value YOU more than I value myself.

\\ \\ I’ve got to die to self.

\\ o I’ve got to seek to be a blessing to you FIRST.

\\ o Pray for you FIRST \\ o Encourage you FIRST.

\\ \\ • Because here is what I’ve discovered—when I get my eyes off of ME, and put them on others AROUND me, God will take care of ME while I’m busy blessing somebody else.

\\ \\ I wish I had atleast 2 selfless people in the building who could testify, preacher, when I decided to bless somebody else, by the time I got back to my issues, God had already worked everything out on my behalf.

\\ \\ He says, ‘It is like the anointing upon the head of Aaron.

It goes down his beard, shoulders, to his breastplate.’

\\ \\ This is not in the text but in history, according to Josephus and Tacitus, in the breastplate of the high priest, that the oil flows on, were the names of the 12 tribes of Israel.

So that as the oil flows down from his head, it flows down to every tribe that has every family that’s apart of the nation that the priest is over.

So in other words—God can’t anoint the head without everybody whose apart OF it, receiving the blessing.

\\ \\ God says if you learn bless the man of God, the oil will flow from the head all the way down.