Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Story about Wilma being crowned Queen of the Hubbard Care Center

The type of person who didn’t seek out lots of attention.

Was so shocked that when everyone voted for her.

She was thrilled and couldn’t wrap her mind around this great honor being bestowed upon her.

She was humble, but was graciously given a crown.

Context:

The Apostle Paul near the end of his life

Paul was going to, and now has, received the crown of righteousness.

As he looked back at his life he had no regrets.

Paul wasn’t afraid of death.

In fact he was at peace .

He even looked forward to crossing life’s finish line and receiving a victor’s crown.

How could he have such peace and confidence?

Do you have that kind of peace today in your heart?

Can you look death in the face without fear?

Could you stand before God with confidence and know that you will be accepted?

Could you even be so bold as to expect a crown for the way you lived your life?

As you start to examine yourself you may start to feel a little uneasy.

How did Paul have such confidence in the face of death and judgment?

Paul was a wretched sinner who even was an enemy of Jesus, a blasphemer, and violent oppressor.

But God offered him mercy and forgiveness.

So Paul had a hope that he wants you to have as well.

Do you see that even though you and I are sinful people and we should by all rights be afraid of death and standing before the Lord, we, even we can still have courage and peace?

This hope is because of another kind of crown.

A crown of thorns.

Jesus, the eternal Son of God,

, “Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

HCSB

For Yahweh takes pleasure in his people;

he glorifies the afflicted with salvation.

Wilma received a crown as the Queen of the Hubbard Care Center, but she has received a much more valuable crown now, the Crown of Life.

She did not receive this crown because she had lived a perfect life or earned it by her own strenght and goodness, but because Jesus the son of God, the only sinless person who has ever lived took upon His head a crown of thorns.

To Pastor/Shepherds

, “...Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

James 1:12