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.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.09UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.06UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.67LIKELY
Sadness
0.2UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.68LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.03UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.76LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.98LIKELY
Extraversion
0.23UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.84LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.62LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Hello and welcome to Confessors of Christ Church!
It is time for us to Open God’s Word together, and hear from God through the Apostle John as we explore 1 John.
Today we are in Chapter 2 verse 28-29 as we close out the second chapter and we are going to embark on the 3rd chapter this morning in verses 1-3.
If you have your Bibles you can follow along.
We will be towards the very end of our Bibles in 1 John beginning in the last two verses of chapter 2.
Last week Matt bought forward the Word to give us a biblical understanding of how we make God our commitment for 2023.
Matt gave us a roadmap in true baptist form that included 3 points and each point began with the same letter R.
Recognize, rejoice, renewal
Today, you have me preaching, and I am not nearly as cool or smart to be able to pull off something catchy like that.
The point that I took away last week was how the Gospel influences our commitment to God.
When we recognize the greatness and holiness of God, and recognize our inability to meet God’s standard.
When we recognize we need a Savior, we can rejoice that God’s plan is carried out in Jesus as our Redeemer.
Through the Spirit we are renewed into a new purpose, plan, and mission.
The Gospel is what encourages our commitment, encourages our prayer life, encourages our Bible reading.
(Pause)
In a culture that tries to convince us each year to make new year’s resolutions with new trends and technology.
Christianity points us back 2000 years to Jesus.
Christianity points us back to the old rugged cross.
Christianity points us to a plan before the foundations of the world.
New Year’s Resolution Illustration: Not going to give in to the hype and more importantly the failure of NY Resolutions.
Then forced by Coty into 30 Day Shred Challenge.
Then seeing 22 people from the church join in greatly encouraged me to dig in.
Encouragement is important, commitment is necessary, motivation is vital to accomplishing any goal.
But, you may be asking yourselves, how do I really get motivated and focused on actually accomplishing a commitment to God in 2023.
Last week Matt showed us why our commitment this year should be to God.
He gave us a few pointers at the end on things to do as well.
But, how can we be encouraged and motivated to accomplish this?
Well, God’s Word invites us into this very answer, today.
I wish I was smart enough to say that Matt and I planned it this way,
but we serve a God who often surprises and delights us with the way He guides us.
It is now time for us to continue our journey through 1st John as we explore verse by verse this incredible letter written to the church.
We find ourselves now in 1st John chapter 2 beginning in verse 28.
Hear now the infallible and inerrant Words of God.
These are the Words of God.
Here, John has one main point he is making,
John has one focus, one grand theme he wants us to grab hold of.
He states this theme and bounces back and forth and all around to give encouragements and motivations for his main point.
So, what is John’s main point?
(Write this down, it’s 3 words)
Abide in Christ.
John wants us to have Jesus as our main focus, main direction, and main purpose in this life.
John isn’t wanting a commitment for 2023, John is telling us of a new lifestyle that goes from this day through, get this: Eternity.
If commitments scare you, if you are unsure if you are ready, or even worthy, well, then then John has you in mind when he wrote this.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we need to answer a very important question.
What does Abide mean?
Let me try to give us clarity to our main point, then we will break down each verse individually.
Abide is the English translations of the greek word Meno (Minno)
It means to remain...... in Christ, stay...... in Christ, reside...... in Christ.
Basically, take residence, to live inside the refuge given to you in the redemption of Christ, the life, purpose, and mission of Christ, and live to this end.
So, this is what John is telling us.
(Pause)
This leads us to the first question we must be willing to ask ourselves and answer as honestly as possible.
Are you abiding in Christ?
How many of us can say that Jesus is our main focus, main direction and main purpose in this life?
How many of us can claim that we make our decisions, our actions, our future plans, based on Christ’s redemption of us?
When it comes to how we spend our time, our money, our energy, is Jesus the priority?
You see, it’s not just the elder’s and Deacon of the church who are called to prioritize Jesus.
But, it is every believer’s call and purpose to be on mission for the Kingdom of God.
You were saved for this reason.
You were redeemed for this purpose.
You were born for this mission.
If you want your life to have meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.
John wants you to abide in Jesus.
-------------------------
Now, this week’s verse really captivated me.
Not, because of what we are told to do, but what drives us to do it.
This part is huge, so don’t miss it.
John doesn’t just say: “do this,” John doesn’t point the finger and say abide in Christ or else.
John isn’t a grumpy old man yelling at you to do this or else.
John encourages us, he motivates us, he tells us reasons why there is no greater purpose for us in this life than Jesus.
This is the part that not only fascinates me, but excites me to do exactly what John calls us to do: Abide in Christ.
If today you are struggling with what it means to abide in Christ
If you are wondering if this is going to be another failed attempt in your life to commit to something.
Then I believe you are going to be blown away by how you are encouraged and motivated to do this very thing.
So, let’s grab our magnifying glass and look deep into our text before we step back and see the grand pictures.
Let’s begin with the first two words: And Now
John is telling us this is a continuation of what He’s spoken about and due to what he has already shared.
This is because of us being Children of God in the introduction.
This is in light of God being our Light in Chapter 1
This is including Jesus being our propitiation in Chapter 2
Take everything we learned all last year, John says, And now, because of all this.....
Here is what John wants us to do.
But even then, and I love this part, John doesn’t just get right to it.
He shares two more words with us.
Hey says And now, Little Children.
This isn’t him belittling us.
This isn’t John asserting his male dominance over us.
This is John, as an apostle, a messenger of God, telling those he has been called to shepherd,
a loving encouragement.
This is a term of endearment, we are His spiritual children whom he loves, John is our Spiritual father as we read this letter.
Now look at what John says: abide in Him.
Who is Him?
This is Jesus, this is the Messiah, the Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
This is our Savior and our Redeemer.
This is the main point and exactly what John is calling his readers, and that now includes each and every one of you, to do.
We already hit on the meaning of Abide so let’s look at the first reason given for abiding.
Abiding in Christ gives us Confidence and anticipation for His return.
Now, here is what we are going to see now and beyond.
John isn’t just going to tell us what to do and now it is up to us to just do it.
John is going to give us reasons and encouragements and motivations on why abiding in Christ is exactly what we should be doing.
John is going to show us that if we are not currently doing this, then we need to make today the first day we begin doing this.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9