Sermon Tone Analysis
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Welcome & Announcements (Hopson)
Good morning family!
Please take your seats.
Happy New Year!
With a new year we’re changing a few things about our order of service in hopes to strengthen our time of worship together
One of those changes is to take everybody’s least favorite part of the worship gathering (THIS) and get it over with before we do anything else.
So without further ado...
5 announcements:
1) If you’re our guest, we’re so grateful you’re here...
and we’d be grateful if you’d fill out one of our connect cards before you leave.
It will help us to learn more about you and how we can better serve.
You can find them near the offering boxes at the exits
You can fill it out there and hand it to me or leave it in the slot in the box
2) No evening gathering tonight
But Pray in the New Year stations open here in the gym until 2PM today
If you haven’t made time to walk through those prayer stations I think you’ll find it a helpful way to begin the new year.
3) Bible Reading Plan
I love this plan because there’s two off days every week that can be used to study other things OR to catch up if you fall behind
Consider reading through the whole Bible, or the whole NT (in bold)
4) Elder Nominee Q&A, Jan. 8 at 5:30 PM in the chapel
Grab a packet on your way out
5) Members Meeting, Jan 15 (meal at 5, meeting at 6)
Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.
Call to Worship (Psalm 84:1-2, 10)
Prayer of Praise (Carole Smith)
Better Is One Day
Come Thou Fount
Prayer of Confession (Jeremy Collins), Unforgiveness
In Christ Alone
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
Scripture Reading (Matthew 12:22-32)
Pastoral Prayer (Mike K.)
SERMON
START TIMER!!!
Last night the Boutot home was an unlikely place to find hope.
While many people may have spent the evening hoping and dreaming about a new year, we had a football game to watch!
Most of you know that as a native of Columbus, Ohio, I’m a lifelong fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Many of you also know that my dear wife grew up in Georgia, and is a lifelong fan of the Georgia Bulldogs.
And many of you further know that Ohio State and Georgia played each other last night in the first round of the college football playoff.
So no matter what happened, one of us was going to end the year with hopes still alive for a national championship, and the other with hopes dashed.
To complicate matters, our kids are just as divided as Holly and I.
And although we both love our respective teams, neither Holly or I are in the habit of cheering against each other’s teams, making last night’s game a particularly uncomfortable experience....
Especially for me... right at midnight when the potentially game-winning kick sailed wiiiiide left.
When the game ended, there was (of course) zero hope for the Ohio State Buckeyes to achieve their goal of competing for a national championship.
But hope was still alive in the Boutot household.
We survived four quarters of thrilling football against each other’s teams without bragging or smack talk, without hurt feelings or sore losers, with the ability to be generally happy for each other.
Now I know a football game is a silly analogy for this sort of thing, but the truth remains that God loves to bring hope in unlikely places.
When things are confusing, scary, painful, frustrating, and terrifying, God often brings hope.
In the places in life where we would love to bury our head in the sands, to pull the covers over our heads, to run away and never look back, in those places God loves to bring hope.
God loves to shine the light of hope in the darkest, most unlikely places.
And that’s exactly what I want to show you in our text, beginning in...
Matthew 12:22
Jesus is still in the early stage of His earthly ministry, but there’s been a noticeable shift in how He is being received.
As Jesus’ popularity increased, so did antagonism from the religious leaders.
Now they’re falsely accusing Him of casting out demons with the power of Satan!
And by the time the story is over, Jesus strikes back by warning them against committing a sin that can never be forgiven.
So in this story we’ve got powerful demons, Jesus-deniers, and the forever damned.
Seems like an unlikely place to find hope.
But with God’s help, I pray you’ll leave having found exactly that.
Father, help us to understand your Word.
Jesus, help me to clearly proclaim the truth about You.
Spirit, bring the hope in this text into the dark corners of our hearts.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Four Scenes:
A convincing miracle
A comical accusation
A credible defense
A chilling warning
Scene 1: A Convincing MIRACLE
12:22—Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to [Jesus], and He healed him, so that the man spoke and saw.
This is God’s Word, and we believe it’s true.
But here we come across something that seems to belong more to a horror film than the world we inhabit.
Demons?
Really?
In the preface to his book about demons called The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis says this: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils.
One is to disbelieve in their existence.
The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”[1]
What do we believe about demons?
Demons are real
Virtually every culture in human history (and most of the best stories in print and on film) feature the existence of real supernatural evil forces in the world.
It’s only in the uber-enlightened and “scientific” modern West where people now live under the assumption that supernatural evil doesn’t exist.
But of course we don’t decide what to believe based on polling data.
We believe demons are real spiritual beings because of what we read in the Bible
Nearly 100 references to demons in the New Testament alone
This doesn’t mean that all our stereotypes about demons are true.
The Bible says nothing about them being black, red, horned, scaly, or wielding pitchforks!
Do you believe Jesus is who He said He was?
Then you better believe that demons are real!
Jesus either (1) believed they were real and was crazy, (2) pretended they were real and was a liar, or (3) believed they were real because they are real!
We also believe...
Demons are created
No Bible verse explicitly mentions the creation of demons, but the Bible is clear God created everyone and everything...
Colossians 1:16—For by [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.
“Rulers and authorities” often refers to the unseen demonic realm
Why would God create demons?
God didn’t create them as demons.
The Scriptures indicate demons are fallen angels
Revelation 12:3-4a, 9—And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.
His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. . . .
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
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