Sermon Tone Analysis
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This morning we’re going to begin with some excerpts from Proverbs 19 & 20.
Now if you’ve been reading Proverbs as part of your devotions, you know that each chapter is divided up into sayings of wisdom that were written down for us to remember.
This is Godly wisdom, not the stuff we get in fortune cookies, although sometimes they are very similar.
These however come to us from God’s Word.
Listen as our worship team shares some of these with us from chapters 19 & 20 of the book of Proverbs.
God’s Wisdom to us from the Book of Proverbs.
Thanks be to God.
Do you remember the last time your home lost power?
Share experiences of losing power - we rely on electricity for our light, heat, and water as we’re on a well and the pump runs on electricity.
Our Gospel Reading this morning comes from Matthew 5:13-16.
This is near the beginning of Jesus’ sermon on the Mount.
Let’s read it together:
This is the Word of Our Lord!
Thanks be to God.
Jesus begins with a statement about you and I.
“You are the salt of the earth!”
Think about that for a minute.
What does it mean that Jesus would look out at his disciples, would look out to you and I and say that you are the salt of the earth?
What is salt?
Salt does many things - it adds flavor!
Have you ever just had a craving for something salty?
The other night we were sitting in our den and I said, “do we have any chips?”
I wanted something salty.
How do you restore the saltiness of salt?
I love this phrase - think about it.
How can you restore saltiness to salt - how can restore the very purpose of something that no longer is serving its purpose?
Salt is supposed to be salty.
If it’s not, it has no purpose, it’s simply white, and granular.
I’m sure there is some creative type that come up for a purpose, but it’s created purpose is gone - and it would be thrown out.
Then Jesus says about us,
Um…WOW!
This is what Jesus says of himself in John 8:12!
It’s the second of the seven “I AM” statements that Jesus makes about himself.
Here though, Jesus is saying it about us.
“You are the light of the world.”
You and me - the light of the world?
That’s a pretty big responsibility.
He goes on to say, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
and goes on further to say,
This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.
- Hide it under a bushel “NO!” I’m going to let it shine.
The light that we have is not to be hidden, but it is to be made obvious - put it on a stand and what does it do?
It gives light to all in the house...
but wait…there’s more.
Let’s put verses 14 & 15 together:
Beginning with the last part - it gives light to all in the house.
There’s an important lesson there.
Jesus is saying that when we let our light shine it gives light to all in the house - what house?
His house!
The church.
You and I being together shine our light to one another.
And we need that.
I need to see your light shining so that I can be more bold about shining my light and you need to see my light shining so that you can be more bold shining your light.
And when we join our lights together, we create a brighter light.
And that light gives light to all in the house and beyond.
Yes, beyond, because houses have windows.
That’s why a city on a hill cannot be hidden - the light shining out of the houses gives off light to the surrounding area.
Jesus ends this part of the Sermon on the Mount with this exhortation:
You and I shining our light encourages others.
Not only those following Christ, but those that might not know Christ yet.
And how do we shine our light, simply by connecting to the source.
If we’re connected to God, we cannot help but have the light shine just as this bulb, if it’s connected to electricity will light up
Plug lamp into power cord.
But this bulb that is not plugged into a power source will not light up.
There are different kinds of lamps, and different kinds of lights.
Each one of us is different as these lamps are different.
Some serve different purposes.
Some run on batteries, some need to be plugged into an outlet.
All of them have a source of power.
But to really create a brighter light they work together just as the church comes together and together we are able to do far more than we could ever do alone.
I want to share with you in closing about some friends of mine.
These young men took it upon themselves to be sure that a friend of theirs was able to enjoy every aspect of a middle school camp experience.
It is perhaps my best ministry memory.
Let me tell you a bit about their friend.
At that point in his life, he had only just begun spending any nights away from home and those only at his grandparents.
This was his first time ever at an overnight camp and it was a week long.
Beau is a wonderful young man with a smile that lights up the world.
He loves all kinds of music - especially classic rock.
He’s very insightful for his age, he observes everything.
He’s funny, definitely mischievous, and loves to go fast.
What I haven’t told you is that Beau is non-ambulatory and non-verbal.
He uses a motorized wheelchair and a communication device attached to that chair.
Insert photo of Cabin here
These 7 boys and their leaders - were determined that Beau would experience every single camp experience that week.
When Beau was scared at night, one of them crawled out of his bunk, sat down next to him and just let him know it was okay - even holding his hand as reassurance.
On the second night we were to do a night hike.
As leaders we kept asking was the hike going to be wheel chair accessible - but the only answer we got was, we’re working on that.
Plain and simple it wasn’t going to be wheel chair accessible.
The cabin was determined that Beau was not going to miss out on anything they did - so...
They carried him up that mountain.
Insert photo of Hike here.
They carried Beau to the top of the water slides so he could go down the slides like all the other kids.
They took him in the pool, through the mud pit, and were determined that everything the cabin did.
The entire camp took on the same attitude.
The day we were to do the ropes course I went down a few hours early and said, “Guys, I’m not asking if, I’m asking how are we going to do it.”
The staff was so stoked they’d figured out a way that was still within all their safety guidelines and would allow Beau to fully participate.
While on the ropes course when it came to a point to choose the high ropes or the lower ropes - Beau wanted it all.
He went for it.
He went up top.
This is what we do when we let our light shine.
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