Sermon Tone Analysis

A Christian Research Group in a nationwide survey conducted in the first quarter of 2001 asked this question: “Please describe your goals in life.”

\\ The survey found that almost 9 out of 10 adults classified themselves as a “Christian,” by the following definition, “I am personally committed to Jesus Christ and have confessed my sins and I believe that I will go to heaven when I day because of God’s love and grace through Christ.”

STRONG DEFINITION!

Yet not one of those who said they were Christians declared that their life goal was to be a “fully committed follower of Jesus Christ and to participate in making Christian disciples.”

George Gallup reports: \\ Less than 10 % of Americans are deeply committed Christians.

These committed Christians are far, far happier than the rest of the population.

Committed Christians are more accepting of others than the average American, more involved in charitable activities, and are absolutely committed to prayer.

While many more Americans than this 10 % profess to be Christians, most actually know little or nothing of Christian beliefs, and act no differently than non-Christians.

Overall, the Sunday School and religious education system in this country is not working.

\\ \\ Being committed to Christ is not boring…it is the source of true happiness!

Counterfit bills are never made in odd denominations($3 or $8 or $12) but are meant to imitate the real thing.

At first glance they seem real, you may have passed them along without knowing it.

But there is always something bogus about them, some blur or omition, something that doesn’t exactly correspond to real money.

Phony Christians may fool many people: go right places, hang with right crowds, say the right things(John says they say ’I know Him’) but their experience is that of an unchanged life.

Unchanged on the inside(Lack a desire to surrender before the Lord).

Paul says, ’they profess to know God but by their deed they deny Him’.

\\ SPURGEON: An unchanged life is the sign of an uncleansed heart’.

\\    

There was a farmer who had three sons: Ron, Don and Little John.

All had their names on the church roll but none ever attended church or had time for God.

Then one day Don was bitten by a rattlesnake.

The doctor was called and he did all he could to help Don, but the outlook for his recovery was very dim indeed.

So the pastor was called and appraised of the situation.

The pastor arrived, and began to pray as follows: "O wise and righteous Father, we thank Thee that in Thine wisdom thou didst send this rattlesnake to bite Don.

He hasn’t been inside the church in years and has shown little interest in You.

We trust that this experience will be a valuable lesson to him and will lead to his genuine repentance.

And now, O Father, wilt thou send another rattlesnake to bite Ron, and another to bite Little John, and another really big one to bite the old man.

For years we have done everything we know to get them to get serious with Thee.

Thank you God for rattlesnakes.

\\ \\ Just as in the story of the rattlesnakes, James recognizes that there is often a break down for many between what they profess to have and the fruit they bare.

\\    

W.H. Griffith Thomas scourged Christians this way, “There is no greater foe to Christianity than mere profession.

There is no greater discredit to Christianity today than to stand up for it, and yet not live it in our lives.

There is no greater danger in the Christian world today than to stand up for the Bible, and yet to deny that Bible by the very way we defend it.

There is no greater hindrance to Christianity today than to contend for orthodoxy, whatever the orthodoxy may be, and to deny it by the censoriousness, the hardness, the unattractiveness with which we champion our cause.

Oh this power of personal testimony ?with the heart filled with the love of Christ, the mind saturated with the teaching of Christ, the conscience sensitive to the law of Christ, the whole nature aglow with grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.?(Listening to tthe Giants, 149-50, Warren Wiersbe, Baker 1980) \\    I believe I got this story from Bob George… \\ Mac was a hard driving, though businessman in his 70’s.

\\ He had been a church member for many years.

\\ But one Wednesday night as he heard the associate share his testimony, he realized that he had never personally trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior.

\\ Though he had been involved in a lot of religious activity, he never really had a clear idea of what it meant to be a Christian.

\\ \\ After spending a few days pondering and asking the associate questions, Mac made up his mind.

\\ At the Sunday night service of their church, he decided to come forward to make a public profession of his faith in Christ.

\\ The associate was down front serving as a counselor, and was deeply moved by the sight of this tough old businessman coming forward to receive Christ in childlike faith.

\\ They were both in tears as they stood before the pastor.

\\ \\ “This is tremendous!” the pastor exclaimed.

\\ He told the associate, “This man is one of the most brilliant businessmen in our city!

He’s wealthy, he’s talented, and we need to put him to work!

I want you to see that Mac is totally involved in what you are doing.

We want to take full advantage of what he can do.”

\\ \\ The associate said he will never forget Mac, his eyes full of tears, speaking with a sincere, trembling voice: “Pastor, I don’t need a job.

I need the Lord.”

Even when we come across test questions that seem simple on the surface, we find that they’re often not as simple as we first thought.

For instance, the answer to the question, "How long did the Hundred Years War last?’ seems obvious, but the answer is 116 years.

When a test asks, "Which country manufactures Panama hats?" the correct answer is Equador.

Here’s another: From what animal do we get cat gut?

From sheep and horses of course.

In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?

November.

What was King George IV’s first name?

Well, everyone knows it was Albert.

Ah yes...many test takers are glad to be out of school...far away from trick questions like that thought up in some teacher’s lounge.

\\ \\ But as far as we try to get from the rigors of the academic life, we find our lives are filled with other kinds of tests.

We take driver’s tests, drug tests, polygraph tests, sobriety tests, eye tests, entrance exams.

People in law enforcement have to qualify on the shooting range at least four times a year, many of you have to take a test for your chosen profession.

Like it or not, tests are a part of life.

\\ \\ But is there a test to determine whether a person is on the right track spiritually?

In a sermon several weeks ago I referred to a man I couldn’t reach.

John was ex-Navy, a heavy drinker and a violent man.

He was very personable when you first met him; when he drank enough beer the demons took over.

I must confess that, until I met John I always thought people were born with a good nature, and, if they wound-up on the wrong side of things, had just somehow made a wrong turn.

John taught me better.

\\ John had married Rosemary only a few months before I met him; it was his fourth time at the marriage license bureau – her second.

A few weeks after Rosemary joined our church, John came down the aisle also.

We baptized him and it seemed they would escape the divorce statistic hanging over multiple marriages.

Rosemary thought she could get John to quit drinking; she was wrong.

It seems I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t reach John.

\\ The crisis came less than a month after John’s baptism.

The honeymoon had ended and John began drinking again.

One night, late, Rosemary showed up at the parsonage door.

She was bruised and scared.

Elizabeth and I took her in, and I went to see John the next day.

When I drove up to their front yard I was greeted by a strange sight.

John had stuck empty beer cans on the end of every branch of the small orange tree in front of their trailer.

The sign at the bottom of the tree read: This is for you, preacher man.

\\ John was very drunk but still somewhat coherent…and very loud.

He greeted me at the front door and invited me in.

I only asked, John, how can I help?

John talked angrily for the next twenty minutes.

Finally, he looked at me with a hatred that wasn’t his own and said, I’m going to make a minister out of you.

\\ Later that day Rosemary asked if we would accompany her to the trailer to get her clothes.

We drove up and I went in first.

He was calm and seemed reasonably sobered.

He agreed to let Rosemary come in and get her belongings.

When she came in he immediately began to threaten her.

At one point he went to get his pistol.

I urged Rosemary to forget her clothes and leave; it was a bad idea to come back.

She was determined to get her clothing.

When she went to the closet, John re-entered the room waving a pistol – a very BIG pistol!

(I must say it looked a lot bigger from the wrong end of the barrel).

After several tense moments John allowed us to return to the car where Elizabeth was waiting.

\\ Several months later we got a letter from Rosemary thanking us for our help, and saying that she had settled in another state.

Not long after that we heard about John – on the evening news.

He had threatened people outside a K-Mart store with his pistol, and when the police showed up he committed suicide.