Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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INTRO
Good evening and Merry Christmas!
My name is Ryan, I’m one of the pastors here at Georgianna.
It is so good to be able to celebrate with you all today… We are just so happy that you made Georgianna a part of your Christmas tradition this year.
So if you are in person… or watching online… let me wish you a very Merry Christmas.
_____________________________
And I don’t take it lightly that I am preaching tonight...
Let me tell you how this normally goes… The Senior Pastor preaches on the big days of the year.
Christmas Eve, Easter… these are non-negotiables.
And it’s the days AFTER the big days when everyone is exhausted… these are the international Associate Pastor preaching days.
You can check the church calendar… it’s on there.
But your Senior Pastor is different.
Yes… he’s a big guy.
Yes… he has a big voice.
Yes… he can command a room.
But this is one of the most humble men that I have ever met.
And since I have the stage now I want to tell you that I love and appreciate you… [WALKING DOWN TO HUG]
You believed in me and affirmed me and trusted me in ways that I never received anywhere else.
I am so grateful for you as my pastor and mentor and boss.
ME
Whew… glad we got that out of the way… :)
So something you may not know about me… Some people think I’m kind of a coffee person… Not sure where they get that idea.
[TAKES A LONG SIP OF COFFEE]
Here’s the weird thing… I got through college without being a coffee drinker… exactly when most people would need it.
I started my career without being a coffee person… having to wake up super early every day to earn that paycheck… didn’t need coffee.
But everything changed about 13 years ago.
For several years before attending seminary I was a Worship Pastor… I did what Nick does.
And in these churches we did NOT practice Simple Christmas.
December was event after event after event.
And one of those events was always a large-scale Christmas worship production.
And it was NOT simple.
And I can remember getting a jump start on this stuff around August and September thinking I was WAY ahead of the game…
and before I knew it Thanksgiving had come and gone… and I was looking at some LOOOOOONG work days if I was going to wrap this thing up in time.
And thus my relationship with coffee was born… just for those LONG work days.
____________________________
In several years of planning Christmas productions, my favorite was a show called “God With Us.”
It focused on this idea that, at Christmas, we celebrate a God who wanted to be WITH us, a God who wanted to be among His people.
It was in the songs that we sang together...
It was in the skit that was performed...
It was in the video pieces that were featured.
The whole show culminated to a scene that featured real stories of real people who had felt God with them in their lives.
*A man at a career crossroads and God was with him.
*A family recovering from a tornado that literally obliterated their house... and God was with them.
*A woman in the throes of chemotherapy... and God was with her.
*A woman who had buried her husband that year... A man who had buried his 8 year old grandson that year...
*One of my favorites was a woman that we worked with who had experienced a rougher life growing up in Chic-AH-go… and she said that God MUST be with her because she was finally able to quit smoking !
:-)
***And all of them stepped up to the microphone and told these brave stories... and said confidently that God was with them.
______________________
And ever since then… the idea that God is WITH us can just grip my heart when I think about Christmas.
WE
But wait… hasn’t this always been the case?
Like… when did God ever leave, right?
Okay… yes, it’s amazing that the God of the universe loves me and wants to have a relationship with me… but hasn’t He always been WITH us?
I think for us to understand how truly amazing this is we have to go back to the story before the story… the pre-Jesus story…
OPENING PRAYER
GOD
Throughout so much of the Old Testament there is this view of God as almost unapproachable.
You start with Adam and Eve… these are names you’ve probably heard before… but they make this massive mistake in their relationship with God… and now their interaction with Him becomes extremely fragile.
And there is a reason for this.
God is holy.
And Adam and Eve… and everyone in history and everyone of us in this room… well… we are not.
And holiness is dangerous to unholiness in the same way that light is dangerous to darkness.
It can’t co-exist… one puts the other out.
God’s holiness is dangerous… not because it’s BAD… but because it’s so GOOD.
And it is perilous to those of us who are not holy and not always good.
And you see this again and again in scripture.
God IS good, but being in the presence of God is something else entirely.
_______________________
***There is the story of the burning bush… And Moses sees it and just can’t help but go investigate...
I mean you would HAVE to go and see what was going on.
But God tells him, “Don’t come any closer!”
Like God doesn’t want to destroy Moses in the process.
And once Moses realizes Who he is speaking to the story says he hides his face because he is so afraid!
_________________________
***Later on there is a prophet Isaiah who has this vision of entering into the throne room of God.
And honestly, what he describes is terrifying!
He says that just God’s robes fill the temple.
He describes these really strange looking angels that fly with 2 wings… BUT they cover their faces with 2 more wings… and then they have 2 more covering their feet!
He says the whole place is shaking and filling with smoke.
And unlike Moses… Isaiah knows what’s up immediately… and he knows where he is and he should NOT be there.…
He talks about how unclean he is standing there in God’s presence.
And he literally says, “I AM RUINED!”
________________________
And then thousands of years go by and there is this other piece of art that shows us exactly what a bad idea it is to
***open the box that was supposed to contain God’s presence...
You’ve seen this right?
This story doesn’t end well!
________________________
So as the Jewish religion begins to take shape there was one guy whose job it was to go into the holiest place in God’s temple… The Holy of Holies, they called it…
And it was his job to go and approach God and make sacrifices on behalf of everyone else… in God’s presence.
And you’ve heard about this if you’ve been to Vineyard Bible Study… there is this Jewish tradition that says that THAT guy would tie a rope around his foot…
Just in case he wasn’t pure enough...
Because if he wasn’t pure enough he might just be struck dead in God’s presence…
And the rope was there so they could then pull his body out.
Cause I’m not going in after it… would you go in after it?
In fact they would cast lots (kind of like rolling the dice) to see who that guy was going to be.
And if you won… it really kind of meant that you lost, right?
_________________________
This reminds me… several years ago Allie and I took a vacation like most young couples do… we went to Cancun.
While there we decided to take the tour to the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza.
And among the many amazing things you’ll see there you’ll see what is still standing of a ball court.
The site of this ancient sport from that part of the world.
However, carved into the panels of the remains are… some interesting depictions of the winners.
And I don’t know if your tour guide was the same as mine, but according to him it was often the WINNING TEAM’S captain who was sacrificed… not the other way around… because it was an honor apparently.
I’m so happy we now have a different definition of what honor means today…
And so if you won… you really kind of lost right?
___________________________
This is what would happen with the priests… of course it would be a high honor… but you probably didn’t want it!
You get the idea right?
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