Sermon Tone Analysis

Text :

Sermon Title : The missing ingredient….

Occasion : English Sanctuary Service

Location : Paya Lebar Methodist Sanctuary

MPP : We are all called to be involved in God’s work (NB – Confirmation Sunday)

<Pray>

Good morning/afternoon,

One afternoon, a few months ago, while trying to do some work in office,

I was feeling rather sleepy so I decided to make myself a cup of coffee…

So, I brought my tumbler to the pantry,

Filled it up with the right amount of hot water,

Put the cover back on,

When back to my office,

And went back to my work, while sipping my coffee…

And because my tumbler was reasonably big,

And because I decided to prolong my enjoyment of my coffee by slowing nursing it…

I took a long while to finish my afternoon coffee…

But you know what?

I felt that something was off that day…

I didn’t feel the effects of the coffee that afternoon at all…

But I decided not to pay much attention to it…

I mean usually after a while,

I would feel a bit of boost of energy after maybe half an hour…

Enough to carry me through the rest of the afternoon…

But not that particular afternoon…

But I convinced myself that I must be extra sleepy that afternoon…

But then… something else was off that afternoon…

My coffee tasted extra diluted…

And I convinced myself that I must have added too much water…

I decided not to pay much attention to it and continued to struggle through my work…

<pause>

Then suddenly it hit me…

I mentally retraced my steps…

I took my tumbler,

Went to the pantry,

Added the hot water,

Covered it,

Went back to my office…

And went back to do my work…

My worse fears were realised…

I gingerly opened the cover and saw this… <pic>

That’s right… I forgot to add the coffee powder…

So, I was basically drinking plain hot water the whole afternoon…

No wonder, it tasted diluted…

no wonder it didn’t have any effect in making me more alert…

My coffee was missing a critical ingredient…

Coffee!

And you know friends, after laughing at myself that afternoon,

And sharing with a few people in office about my blunder,

Then it occurred to me…

It was such an appropriate illustration to bring out what I’m trying to share with you this morning…

Which is that you are all critical ingredients in God’s work…

I mean, without the coffee powder,

The beverage is plain, not as effective in keeping me alert…

would still be drinkable and doesn’t cause me harm…

With when I add coffee powder to it,

That made the difference…

Without your participation,

God will probably be able to find some other way to fulfil His work…

But God chose to use us, His people, His creation, His Church

To fulfil His work…

And with us, we are able to make the difference in this world…

What an awesome privilege!

And this reflection is based on a rather familiar segment of the bible,

Taken from the book of Act, chapter 6 verses 1 to 7,

which some Bibles entitle “The Choosing of the Seven”

<pause>

This segment reveals to us what the early church was like in the first century,

And I hope to bring out some points that are relevant to us this morning/afternoon…

And I thought that this is especially appropriate considering that we just ended our Annual Conference a few days ago when all the pastors in TRAC had been appointed to our various churches,

And that today, we are confirming new members into our local church family…

And what is the link, I hope it will become clearer as we journey through the sermon together…

But for now, I think it’s appropriate for us to read God’s words together…

So join me as we read from New Revised Standard Version of the Bible,

the book of Acts, chapter 6 staring from verse 1…

“Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.

Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.”

What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”

(, NRSV)

This is the word of the Lord…

Now, in this passage,

There are two main groups of people here…

The first group is what the translators of the NRSV calls the Hellenists and the second group, the Hebrews…

And between them, there seems to be a very superficial administrative issue…

The problem of the distribution of food to the Hellenistic widows…

It seems like a very petty issue that can be easily solved right?

What is it such a big problem?

Well, to understand what’s going on here,

We need to look a little bit about the history of Israel…

The land where Israel is now geographically,

Is a place that had seen many wars over the years,

Because it is pretty much at the crossroad between two major fertile grounds in the middle east…

This arch is called the fertile crescent because that’s where things are able to grow…

Both, watered by rivers…

There are two parts, here in the Mesopotamia area, the land is watered by these two rivers,

Tigris and the Euphrates, which supports many empires here…

And over here, we have the Nile River supporting many empires here in the Northern horn of Africa…