3. The explanation is persuasive.
4. The sermon is Christ-centered.
5. The sermon is well illustrated.
6. The sermon is well applied.
7. It is not an expository sermon.
Sermon Number 10 Background
This sermon was preached for the workers of Seoul Adventist Hospital during a spiritual emphasis week.
Synopsis
The sermon title was "The Condition of Happiness."
The preaching passage: 1 John 4:9-10.
Unless plants respond to sunlight, they may
experience nourishment growth, but they may not experience reproductive growth. Likewise, unless we respond to God's love, we may live metabolic growth, but we may not live reproductive growth.
God gave us mothers so that we may understand and experience God's love. My two children are in the States.
So every evening we feel empty. We miss them. One day my son in California was playing basketball and his feet were injured. He had to have a serious operation. My wife flew to him to take care of him. He said to her, "Mom, it is
strange. When I was apart from you, I ate too much. But now I eat only a little." Mother's love is an expression of God's love. When a wayward child sees mother's love, he begins to be mature. Likewise, when we understand God's love, we grow toward maturity. When we respond to God's love manifested through the cross, we have life.
Until the mid-nineteenth century at the hospitals in Europe, medical students and doctors examined pregnant women without washing their hands after they had done an autopsy.
Thus the death rate of women was high. Then a man realized where the problem was. He made a regulation that all the medical students and doctors must wash their hands after they had done an autopsy. As a result, while in April 1847 fifty-seven women died, in June that year, of forty-two women examined, only one died. After a month, it was only one of eighty-four women that died. But germs were known to spread also from patient to patient. The man made another regulation that all the medical students and doctors must wash their hands whenever they diagnosed and treated
patients. Many doctors protested. Eventually this man's contribution was forgotten, and he died alone in the
psychiatric ward. But 3,500 years ago God said, "Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean" (Num 19:11, 12). If people had practiced the laws of cleansing
Chun Won Gwang Soo Lee, a famous literary man, wrote of a woman named Sun Ok, an Adventist. He wrote about the Adventists' pure and noble lifestyle, expressing his
favorable impression and love toward her. It has happened when individuals or institutions faithfully obeyed God's law that they reflected to the world God's glory. When the Word of God is obeyed, the world will better know God. And the world will respond to His love.
It seems that you are wondering why the Battle Creek Adventist Hospital failed. The hospital did not lack
patients. It worked well. Because the hospital prospered, Dr. Kellogg decided to follow his own way instead of God's principles. He entered into pantheism and left the Church.
Before the hospital fell, the man fell. In spite of the world-famous hospital and college, Ellen White saw the man's
fall and suggested that the Church should leave Battle Creek. As a result, the school moved to Berrien Springs, Michigan, and the hospital moved to Loma Linda, California.
The hospital in Battle Creek suddenly burned down. Although it was rebuilt, because of heavy debt it was handed over to the government. Dr. Kellogg's house, which was the home of fifty orphans, was eaten by a swarm of ants. So it was burned down. I pray you can see from the Word and history since then, numberless people would have been saved from death. The Bible is a guidebook for life science.
that humbly obeying the Word of God is the way to happiness and prosperity.
In the hydrotherapy room at Weimar the students
assist the patients as volunteers. The first thing for them to do is to pray for the patients. Then the patients begin to weep in heart. They begin to think of the days when they hated others or treated their spouses cruelly. They begin to repent. There are those who have never grasped their wives' hands in their lifetime. They weep at the unselfish
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love of the students. While they take a walk they begin to grasp their wives' hands and their diseases begin to be healed. Love is the life-giving power. When love is responded to, disease begins to be healed.
St. Helena is in the mountains. Mrs. Ellen White suggested there should be a sanitarium and hospital there.
There are no big cities around St. Helena Adventist
Hospital. There is a Korean medical doctor named Dr. Oh. A cardiosurgeon, he has so many personal patients that if he goes on vacation the other assistants should go on vacation.
He memorizes the names of his patients, and remembers the situations of their family members. He is so interested in his patients' lives and happiness that his patients like him and bring other patients. So he contributes to the
hospital's being full of patients.
Last winter I had the opportunity to visit Sao Paulo in Brazil. With Mexico City and Shanghai, this city is one
of the three largest metropolitan cities in the world. As the number of other hospitals increased, the Adventist hospital in Sao Paulo faced difficulties in management.
Then the hospital established a sanitarium at a quiet place.
The sanitarium has doctors and nurses. Because diseases of adult people last a long time, rich patients are coming.
The sanitarium profited for the first time in the recent history of the Adventist hospital. The ideal health institution which God revealed to Mrs. Ellen White was a sanitarium and hospital. This suggests that man should cooperate with God. That is, modern medicine should be harmonized with natural remedies. We will see that when modern medicine is in God's hand, wonderful healing power will be manifested. God will show a way for the Adventist hospital that is following Him. God saves us not because we grasp God but because He loves us. It is not true that God loves us because we are worthy. Rather, God regards us as worthy because He loves us. I pray that you will personally experience God's love and salvation, and that you will be God's faithful coworkers.
Analysis
The preaching passage is 1 John 4:9-10. The message is: We should respond to God's love and obey His principles as coworkers of God. Of the seven illustrations, five are those about medical workers and institutions, which are appropriate for the workers of Seoul Adventist Hospital.
The illustration of cleansing hands strongly shows why God and the Bible are the guide of life science. The
illustration of Dr. Kellogg powerfully shows the end of those who do not obey God. And the illustrations of Weimar students and Dr. Oh of St. Helena Hospital show how workers should work. The last illustration shows which direction the hospital should go. Therefore the illustrations had clear purposes for the message.
The message was Christ-centered, and the application was appropriate. However, the illustration of a mother's love did not fit the whole message, though it was used as an expression of God's love. The exegesis and contextual study of the preaching passage were lacking. The title of the sermon is "The Condition of Happiness." The message did not come from the exposition of the preaching passage. The
preaching passage speaks of God's love. But the message is about responding to God's love and obeying His principles.
It is a topical sermon, not expository.
Summarizing the Analysis
1. The message is not controlled by the preaching