Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Anger
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Christmas Promises
4 weeks series
come each week in December
Last week hope, next week Peace and then Love
Christmas Eve 4:30 & 6:30
Carols, Responsive Readings, a Message focussed on the Christmas story
Today our service is focused on Joy
Definition of Joy
“Closely related to gladness and happiness, although joy is more a sate of being then an emotion; a result of choice.”
- The Lexham Bible Dictionary.
Imagine with me that you have a cell phone in your jacket pocket.
It buzzes, because you are on church on put it on silent mode.
You get the news that you have one a contest, a brand new car.
You correctly answer the skill testing question, realize that its not a scam, and now you are sitting there, trying to be calm and listen to a sermon, but knowing that you have won a brand new car!
you are not just happy, and you are not just glad, there is a joy that comes spontaneously because of this good news that you have received.
That’s Joy,
“Joy”
2015 - Disney/Pixar - Inside Out
Riley & her emotions following a move from the midwest to San Fransisco.
Animated portrayal of 5 emotions, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust & Joy
PLOT - Riley finds herself under an unbearable weight to appear joyful, even as she goes through a roller coaster of emotions.
SUMMARY - Let people experience their true emotions, and the weight of expectations and appearances is removed.
What if there is more to joy than just being yourself?
The Bible teaches that true Joy is found in the hearts and lives of those who are forgiven of their sins.
Its more than just being happy and glad.
It’s a sense of being right with God that is good and satisfying.
It’s a knowing that you are pure and clean and right in his sight.
Joy in its purest form is the gladness and happiness that comes from being loved, forgiven accepted and made new by God.
Good News of Great Joy - Luke 2, takes place directly after the birth of Christ.
In this passage we see the announcement of Jesus’ birth to the Shepherds.
Whom the message was given
What the message was.
How they responded to the message.
Shepherds
Bottom rung on the social ladder.
part of being shepherd meant that there was little or no time to be a part of the Temple life.
Cut off culturally.
Don’t trust the shepherds.
their testimony was not valid in court.
Bethlehem Shepherds
Different from Travelling Shepherds
they were stationed around Bethlehem
had permission with local farmers
eat the stubble of the wheat between harvest and planting seasons.
(win-win)
Jewish law (Mishnah) stipulated that Temple sheep were to be kept at Bethlehem.
all other flocks were kept in the wildernesss
Good potential that these shepherds were in charge of future passover lambs.
Jesus would ultimately take the place of the passover lamb.
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
These shepherds did not know that God had sent his son to their world.
Instead, they were the outcasts of society, doing the job that no one else wanted to do.
I wonder what joy looked like for these shepherds.
What were they hoping for?
What would give them a sense of gladness and happiness.
Would they settle for just being thought of as an equal.
Would they want freedom from the authority of the Roman Government that they were living under.
These shepherds are about to have the night of their lives.
in the fields, keeping watch for thieves and wolves, checking out the stars in the sky, maybe enjoying the moonlight, maybe just about to nod off, when suddenly
An Angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
They didn’t see that coming.
We read that they were terrified, have you ever thought about why they were terrified?
it wasn’t just the sudden shock of the appearance of the Angel.
it was also the glory that accompanied the angel.
The Glory of the Lord
This isn’t the only time in the Bible that The Glory of the Lord shines.
We can see what happens the other times that God’s glory is mentioned to understand what these shepherds were going through.
Ezekiel and John
God is holy, which means pure and completely set apart from sin.
He is surrounded by glory, and the times that his glory is visible are very precious.
But to be in the presence of such purity and perfection also heightens our awareness of our own shortcomings, sin and pride.
Ezekiel was a prophet who lived 600 years before Jesus was born.
He had an amazing encounter with God.
Here he describes what God’s glory looked like.
God’s glory the appearance of a brilliant light.
And the light isn’t just white, its like the light of a rainbow.
It’s beautiful.
That gives us a glimpse into what these Shepherds were seeing surround that angel, but what were they feeling?
Display this slide, but don’t read the verse
John, who was one of Jesus disciples records in the book of revelation what it is like to be in the presence of God.
He sees Jesus himself in this vision and in Revelation 1:17 John says that he “fell at his feet like a dead man”.
That’s what a terrified person would do.
It’s an immediate loss of strength, it’s an instant realization that you are in the presence of God.
We are kidding ourselves if we think that we could see God’s glory without being terrified ourselves.
It’s not that it is scary or terrible.
It’s that God’s glory is so good and holy and pure because it emanates from a God who is Good, and Holy and Pure and loving.
We are sinful, we fall so short of his goodness and his love.
And in God’s unfiltered glory it is so obvious that we have no hope on our own strength to ever be near to God.
In that moment, we would immediately recognize that we are sinners in the presence of a holy God.
But the Angels said to them, “Don’t be afraid...”
Why shouldn’t they be afraid?
Why should any sinner have any sort of comfort when we know that we are justly deserving of the consequences of our sin.
But it seems as if God didn’t send his angel to declare his judgment against sin.
The message is entirely different.
A Great Fear was to be overtaken by a Greater Joy.
We are going to see here how the Joy affects the Shepherds.
What was this message that the Angel was giving them?
How would it affect these shepherds?
What would they do with the information?
What was the Good News that would make Great Joy for all the People?
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