Sermon Tone Analysis

Well, good morning again, and Merry Christmas.

Well, this morning we are finishing out our Christmas series.

If you’re new to our church, it would be good for you to know that typically we practice a form of preaching called “Expository Preaching”.

What that means is, we believe the Bible is best taught by taking books of the Bible, and then breaking them down from beginning to end, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, in order to understand what they mean in our lives today.

With that said, we are currently walking that through the NT book of Acts.

However through the month of December we are taking a break from our Acts study in order to focus on the Christmas season.

And we are doing that through a 4-week Christmas series called “The Reason for the Season”.

We’re calling it “The Reason for the Season” because unfortunately, in the excitement of Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, and holiday cheer, it’s easy to lose site of what Christmas is really all about.

It’s easy to forget what the Reason for the Season is.

With that said, we are currently doing that through the NT book of Acts.

However, through the month of December, we are taking a break from our Acts study in order to focus on Christmas through a series we have entitled, “The Reason for the Season”.

And while there are many aspects of Christmas we could focus on, we’ve boiled them down to four seasons.

Because unfortunately, in the excitement of Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, and holiday cheer, it’s easy to lose site of what Christmas is really all about.

It’s easy to forget what the Reason for the Season is.

And so, for the last few weeks, to help us get back in tune, we’ve broken Christmas down into season, four to be exact.

Seasons that represent the true purpose and meaning of Christmas.

And so, for the last few weeks, to help us get back in tune, we’ve broken Christmas down into season, four to be exact.

Seasons that represent the true purpose and meaning of Christmas.

The first season was called “A Season of Promise”.

We called it a season of promise, because Christmas is founded on a promise.

A promise that God made back in .

A promise God made as result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience.

An act of disobedience that opened the door for sin and death to enter the world and resulted in man’s separation from God.

But thankfully, despite Adam and Eve’s unfaithfulness, God remained faithful.

And in that moment God made a promise.

A promise that one day He would restore man’s relationship with God by providing a redeemer for mankind.

And God kept His promise.

Because throughout the OT and leading up to the NT, we see God preparing for Christmas through a man named Abraham, a son named Judah, a king named David, and finally through the birth of a savior as Christmas comes in and and the promised redeemer is born.

And this is where the second season comes in to play.

A season we called “A Season of Trust”.

We called it “A Season of Trust”, because with a promise, comes a need to trust.

To trust that God is the God of the crazy impossible.

That through a virgin brith, God provided something we could never do on our own.

That God provided a redeemer for mankind.

That God provided His Son.

That God did something we could never do for ourselves, that through a virgin birth, God provided a redeemer for mankind.

In addition to that, we learned in order to trust God’s promise, we have to be willing to abandon our fear and embrace our faith.

In other words, we have to stop worrying about what people might think or what people might say about our faith in Jesus.

Like Mary and Joseph, we have to embrace what seems impossible knowing that with God, nothing is impossible.

This led us to a third season.

A season we called, “A Season of Generosity”.

Because not only did God make good on His promise, not only does do we need to put our trust in the promise, but we need to understand the type of gift God has given us.

You see, unlike man’s gifts, God’s gift is much different for two primary reasons:

First, God’s gift of His Son is founded on love.

The Apostle John writes, “For God so loved the word, that he gave his only Son...” (ESV)

John says God’s generosity and the gift of His Son is based on his love for us.

His concern for our situation.

And His desire to save us and restore our relationship with Him.

You see, without love, it’s impossible to be generous.

And that’s why we so often struggle to be generous.

We struggle because we lack love.

We lack concern.

But God is a God of love.

And because He so loved the world, He gave.

Second, unlike man’s gifts, God’s gift of His Son comes with no strings attached.

In other words, its a gift that requires nothing from us.

A gift that we could never purchase, afford, barter for, or deserve.

A stringless gift that only God can give.

And as we learned, that’s a challenge for some of us as well.

It’s challenge because with a stringless gift, we often feel the need to attach a string.

In that moment we feel guilty for receiving something for nothing.

We feel the need to reciprocate the gift or pay God back.

And as we learned, that’s where religion comes in.

That’s where we start trying to attach our works to the gospel as we try to earn our salvation.

But God’s gift is stringless, and God doesn’t want our strings attached.

The Apostle Paul puts it like this:

Paul says the only way we can receive God’s gift is through faith and faith alone.

In other words, to believe that Jesus is all we need.

Paul says adding strings to God’s gift voids the gift.

The bottom line is this, if you want God’s gift, you can’t add your strings.

It has to be received as a stringless gift.

You see, God’s generosity is nothing like our generosity.

It’s always based out of love and comes with no strings attached.

As at result, its something we should strive to model as we extend the same kind of generosity to others.

So, if you missed the first three seasons of Christmas, I would encourage you to go online to mcf.life, where you can listen to all the messages leading up to today.

With that said, today we are entering into the final season of Christmas.

A season that is contingent on the three previous seasons, and a season that is often misunderstood not only by those outside the church, but those within as well.

But as we’re going to see today, without a proper understanding of this next season, Christmas really isn’t Christmas.

INTRODUCTION:

So, in order to introduce this next season, I want to begin by asking you a few questions.

Questions I think most of us have probably considered.

Here’s the first question.

Question #1 - How many of you would say you believe in the after life?

In other words, you believe that after you die, a person goes somewhere else?

For example, to either a heaven or to a hell.

Question #1 - How many of you would say you believe in the after life?

In other words, you believe that after you die, a person goes somewhere else?

For example, to either a heaven or to a hell.

I think at some point, we’ve all considered that possibility.

In fact, according to a recent CBS poll, 3 out of 4 Americans believe there is a heaven or hell AND 66% believe that both exist.

In other words, 66% of Americans believe when a person dies, they either go to heaven or to hell.

In other words, when you look at your life, when you look at the challenges you’ve faced, the messes you’ve made, the messes you are currently in, the relationships you’ve tanked, the relationship you are currently tanking, the people you’ve have hurt, the people you are currently hurting, the bad decisions you’ve made, the lack of discretion you’ve had at times, and the list goes on.

When you consider all of those things, do find yourself coming to the conclusion that maybe just maybe you are a flawed or faulted person that needs help?

Question #2 - If your one that believes in heaven and hell, where do you think you’re headed?

That’s a fun question to think about, right?

Again, something we’ve probably all considered or pondered.

That’s a fun Christmas question, right?

According to the CBS poll, of the 66% who believe in heaven and hell, 82% of them believe they will end up in heaven, 2% believe they’ll be in hell, and 9% believe they will end up in neither.

So, based on that, “Where do you fall in those statistics?

Are you in the 82% who believe they’ll go to heaven, the 2% who think they’ll go to hell, or the 9% who think it will be neither for you?”.