Sermon Tone Analysis

Message

Let me welcome our Student Camp tribe!

What an incredible week...

We’re ‘At the Movies” this month, and this series is designed to help you talk about your faith using some of the great visual stories of our culture.

Throughout this series, let me encourage you to watch these films, maybe for the first time, maybe for the 100th time, but this time, with the mind of Christ and ask yourself this question: how​ does the Good News of Jesus Christ intersect with the popular stories of our culture?

One of my favorite theologians, a man named Frederick Buechner, wrote of faith, saying:

Whatever your faith may be or my faith may be, it seems to me inseparable from the story of what has happened to us, and that is why I believe that no literary form is better adapted to the subject than the form of fiction.

From the essay “Faith and Fiction.​"

Great stories - fiction and nonfiction alike - help us find new and right language to identify and understand ourselves.

Think about it like this: have you ever read a great novel or watched a great film and afterward said, ‘I saw myself in that character.’

Perhaps in doing so, did you discover new words and new meaning to a season of life or maybe a circumstance?

Stories help connect us to the deeper undercurrents of our human experience.

The author of the great fiction classic, A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean once wrote, “The nearest anyone can come to finding himself at any given age is to find a story that somehow tells him about himself.”

Stories speak the language of our hearts that our minds doesn’t readily comprehend.

Jesus knew this.

Thus why he used parables as a means to elevate our hearts and minds above see-level and into faith-level.

Stories bring to life the intangible.

They make sense of those things that we can’t touch or feel or hear.

Stories don’t tell different truths, they just tell truth louder.

Stories bring to life the virtues of our faith, such as:

Grace

Mercy

Forgiveness

Stories bear witness to our experience of Christ alive here and now with us.

The Psalmist wrote, ​"​Let​ the redeemed of the Lord ​tell their story.”​

​Psalm 107:2

Notice how the Psalmist did not write, “Let the redeemed of the Lord prove their faith by arguing for the soundest philosophical argument for the existence of God.”

There’s a time for that, and that truth matters for our faith, and it matters a lot for some.

But I think the Psalmist wants us to know that your story speaks truth louder.

Much later, the Apostle John wrote that fellow believers will triumph over the evil one by ​“​the blood​ of the lamb and ​word of their testimony.”

Revelation 12:11​.

A testimony is the redeemed of the Lord telling your story.

What story?

Tell Jesus’ story about your life: your life before Jesus, what happened when your life made contact with Jesus, and then afterward, your life with Jesus.

Telling your story and speaking God’s truth all bear witness to Christ’s salvation alive in us.

We need to keep telling our Jesus story, and make forgiveness, mercy, and grace real in our world by any means necessary, including connecting through the great visual stories of our culture.

Just two days ago, one of those great stories came back into circulation.

Take a look:

[[[PLAY CLIP: The Lion King full movie trailer (2019) 0:00-1:10]]]

One of the greatest Disney films of all time, the Lion King.

At the time of its initial release, the Lion King was the highest grossing film in 1994 and the second highest grossing film of all time!

Currently, it is the highest grossing animated film of all time and the best selling video ever.

Any wonder why Disney just remade this film?

The Lion King tells the story of Simba, which means ‘Lion’ in Swahili (enjoy that factoid), who is being groomed to secede his father, Mufasa, as the King of the Pride Lands.

Until that is, His Uncle Scar, Mufasa’s brother, jealous for the throne, schemed a murder plot to kill Mufasa and usurp Simba as king.

This is one of the oldest stories ever told: Brother against brother.

The desire for power.

Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau.

Scar’s plot began by luring Simba into a deep ravine, staging a wildebeest stampede, which would force Mufasa to sacrifice his life to save Simba.

Interestingly, Scar convinces Simba to stay in the ravine by whispering a shame moment from Simba’s past, making him vulnerable, and placing Scar in a power position over Simba.

In this story, Scar personifies evil, and the evil one against God practices the very same tactic with us, whispering lies, deceiving us against God, and shaming us for our pasts.

In the midst of the stampede, Mufasa did exactly what Scar schemed.

He rescued Simba, but as he climbed out to save himself, Scar threw him back into the stampede and killed Mufasa.

Watech happened next:

[[[FILM CLIP: Scar shames Simba to run away: 35:55  - 38:45]]]

“Run away and never return.”

Friends, that’s the definition of shame.

Run away and never return.

Shame wants us to flee, build walls, live isolated, and never return to find help and healing.

In fact, shame tells us: you don’t need help.

You can do this on your own.

Or shame might say: you don’t deserve help.

Your past defines you now.

Eventually, Shame always leads us to hopelessness, despair, and death.

Perhaps not death of our physical body, but most certainly death of our hearts, dreams, and desires, because shame turns us inward and makes life all about you.

In fact, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesian church:

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.

You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the power of the air.

He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.

All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.

By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

Ephesians 2:1-3

Let me ask you this question: how much power does the air hold over you?

The answer is: nothing!

The devil is the commander of nothing, Paul says.

The devil has no power over you, except whatever power that you give to him.

Some of us give the devil way more power than he deserves, but please do not miss this: The devil has no power.

He is not a god.

He is a fallen created being.

His only offensive weapons are lies.

You give the devil power whenever you fall for his deception.

Unlike God, the devil does not know your heart, does not dwell in you, nor does the devil possess any power over you.

He simply wants you to turn from God and back to yourself and deceive you from your true source of life in order to follow him into death.

That’s the devil’s only strategy, and he is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God … And choose to live like the god of their own life apart from the one true God who:

Created all of us in his image and calls us “very good.”

Gen 1:31

“Fearfully and wonderfully made you” Psalm 139:14

Simba fell for Scar’s deception, fled from his home, and lived the hakuna matata life:

[[[PLAY CLIP: hakuna matata - 43:29 - 44:48]]]

“When the world turns its back on you, then you turn your back on the world,” Timon said.

“But that’s not what I was taught,” said Simba.

I hate to spoil a fun song for you today, but at the risk of losing favor with some of you (wink, wink), full disclosure:  if living your life with no worries has become your motto, then you’re missing the meaning of life, altogether.

In actuality, Hakuna Matata is a response to shame.

In the song itself, in fact, Pumba, the warthog, sings about how his own shame drove him away from all of the other animals in the jungle into an isolated life with Timon, the meerkat.

Hakuna Matata, no worries, right?

No, hakuna matata means no worries by ignoring your real concerns.

Jesus said do not worry or feel anxious because God holds your life and promises his peace.

Hakuna matata means no worries by ignoring the real truth.

Simba allowed the evil one, the commander of the power of nothing, his uncle scar, to whisper shame and keep him isolated from his true identity, as the king of the pride lands.

As a result, Simba left his responsibility and turned to a boys dream: eating, drinking, and living solely for himself.