Sermon Tone Analysis

What’s the deal?

Good morning!

Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way first thing this morning, that way you don’t have to wait in anticipation wondering if I’m ever going to mention the Big Game (I can’t say the other thing because I am not a paying sponsor, we should maybe look into that for next year).

And here it is, Go Patriots.

Just kidding—Rise Up Rams.

If you have a Bible with you, please go ahead and open up to .

We will find ourselves being spurred on by this chapter today, particularly from a couple verses to urge us more toward to being a flourishing church.

You might be curious what I mean by Flourishing Church.

So this past week, the staff of Marietta Community Church, including myself, went to the ECO National Gathering, essentially it is a giant gathering of all the churches within our denomination.

Like last year, it was an amazing week full of worship, teaching, and encouragement for where ECO is going.

In particular, this year the national committee revealed what they are hopeful of for the next 5 to 10 years for each of our churches.

You see, this years theme, Locally Grown, really brings into focus the purpose of ECO on the national level, it is to equip local churches first and foremost.

The mission statement for ECO is “Building flourishing churches that make disciples of Jesus Christ.”

And in order to achieve the mission, the committee came up with a set of values, strategies and measures.Now, we could take the rest of the time just talking about these different facets of the mission, but I wouldn’t get very far because that was spread out over 2 hours of talk time.

So today I really want to focus on 1 facet, which is the value, “Our Mutual Spurring.”

This is not a some call to be horse by the way.

When I first heard it I was a little slow and was like, “spurring” are we talking about horses.

Funny enough, the sermon for the evening of the first day was about a horse farm, but that it neither here nor there.

The spurring we are referring to is defined this way: “the strength of our covenant community is how we challenge one another to constantly transform.”

which is explained as “the strength of our covenant community is how we challenge one another to constantly transform.”

As a church, we believe in the growth of the individual within the context of being a part of the community.

So, in order to be a flourishing church, we must place value in the the growth of everyone in our community.

The real question is how do we do that?

How do we ensure that everyone within our church is growing in their faith journey and being spurred on?

But going small for the sake of going small is notMore so, it is not just about going small, but addressing that we might not be going small effectively.

We might not be going after and achieving all that our groups are meant to be.

When we start our discipleship groups back up next week, I want each of us to get the most out of what our groups could be.

I feel it is all too easy to forget the reason we gather together, and instead just make it a social group.

I say this to you because I’m guilty of it.

I am guilty to making small groups more about the social nature and aspect instead of actually trying to grow and share in a means and manner worthy of the group.

For a moment, I wants us to all go back in time, and for students, they do not have to go back at all.

But I want you all to think back about a time that you placed in a small group for a class assignment.

Recall who was in your group, the kind of work you were assigned to do, and what the assignment’s bearing might be on your grade.

I think that everyone can fall into one of three different categories for these groups: I call them the WORKER, the PIGGY BACKER, and the TRYER

The first is the WORKER.

This person is the one who ends up doing all the work, putting everything together, and making sure everything is perfect.

The burden constantly fell on you to make sure that your grade, and everyone else’s for that matter, didn’t slip down the drain.

The second, is the PIGGY BACKER.

This is probably obvious and you know who you are, you are the one that let the others do all the work.

Always had some excuse or just goofed-off when the group met together.

Maybe one day us workers will forgive you, maybe.

Finally, you have the TRYER.

This person is the in between of the two.

they worked hard, but never got anything right.

No matter how hard they tried they just missed the mark on the work and the WORKER would have to correct their work, or in the worst of cases, start all over.

This is one of those southern saying “Bless your Heart” people.

So, thinking back to those groups assignments, we come to the realization that for each of these people, there is an aspect of these groups that we all didn’t take a liking too.

Whether it was animosity toward others because you did all the work, animosity toward the goal because you didn’t like work, or animosity toward self because you couldn’t figure out the work.

And very much like back then, we find that these can be the same things that keep us from participating and flourishing in our faith.

Scripture

So, if you will look at today’s scripture with me.

I will read it aloud.

you can follow along in your Bibles:

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

“

“24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

These verses fall within a larger context in which the author gives three exhortations to the church, this is the third.

But what you will realize if you read the passage yourself, is that the three exhortations are to faith, hope, and love.

Maybe that sounds familiar to you because it is the same three found in the great chapter on love, .

And in that chapter, Paul stated that the most IMPORTANT of these is “love.”

Now I generally use the ESV as my standard text for reading passages, but let’s also read this passage from the NIV, which says:

But why might love, of all the others be above the other two?

Well I think it become clear as we read today’s passage, it is the only one of the three that involves us having and being in relationship with others.

I am not saying that faith and hope happen outside of relationship and community, because they don’t.

But, love is always directed outward, where as faith and hope are inward.

“24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

We must meet together

Normally, I would never go out of the order of the text.

But what I want to focus on today is in verse 25: “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

In the NIV it talks about this “spurring” that we are trying to get at, that we want to get at, that we need to get at in order to be a Flourishing Church.

So today, let’s unpack this scripture more, but first:

The New International Version.

(2011).

().

Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Today, we are talking about “going small” about being in community with one another on a more personal level.

In our church we have discipleship groups.

And the purpose of these groups are to create smaller communities within our larger community.

For a moment, I wants us to all go back in time, and for students, they do not have to go back at all.

But I want you all to think back about a time that you placed in a small group for a class assignment.

Recall who was in your group, the kind of work you were assigned to do, and what the assignment’s bearing might be on your grade.

I think that everyone can fall into one of three different categories for these groups: I call them the WORKER, the PIGGY BACKER, and the TRYER

The first is the WORKER.

This person is the one who ends up doing all the work, putting everything together, and making sure everything is perfect.

The burden constantly fell on you to make sure that your grade, and everyone else’s for that matter, didn’t slip down the drain.

The second, is the PIGGY BACKER.

This is probably obvious and you know who you are, you are the one that let the others do all the work.

Always had some excuse or just goofed-off when the group met together.

Maybe one day us workers will forgive you, maybe.

Finally, you have the TRYER.

This person is the in between of the two.

they worked hard, but never got anything right.

No matter how hard they tried they just missed the mark on the work and the WORKER would have to correct their work, or in the worst of cases, start all over.

This is one of those southern saying “Bless your Heart” people.

So, thinking back to those groups assignments, we come to the realization that for each of these people, there is an aspect of these groups that we all didn’t take a liking too.

Whether it was animosity toward others because you did all the work, animosity toward the goal because you didn’t like work, or animosity toward self because you couldn’t figure out the work.

And very much like back then, we find that these can be the same things that keep us from participating and flourishing in our faith.

Let’s pray

We must consider others

The first thing I see when I read this passage is that the Hebrews is pushing us to “Consider” each person in our community: “and let us consider...”

“ANd let us consider...”

That means we must put in considerable effort and time in getting to know those we have surrounded ourselves with.

It is all too easy for us to not think about who else we are in community with.