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.
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False Advertising and the Power of the Gospel
Companies have to be careful when they advertise their products.
That advertisement is saying why you should buy their product.
Sometimes the advertisements are quite clever and convincing.
And sometimes they say things that might be a little too far reaching.
For example, Duracell, sold batteries called Duracell Ultra Advanced.
They were supposed to provide longer battery life than their normal batteries.
And of course they cost quite a bit more than their normal Duracell batteries.
It turns out that the Duracell Ultra Advanced batteries were their normal batteries, with a different wrapper and a higher price.
They were sued for deceptive marketing.
There was Enfamil, a baby formula.
They advertised that it was “clinically proven to improve brain and eye development.”
Think that through.
That’s a huge claim!
You can either have a normal baby.
Or you can have a genius baby, that can see like a hawk.
In the end, Enfamil had to pay $13.5 million in false advertising.
Even Splenda has gotten in trouble.
Splenda is a sugar substitute, a sweetner.
They used to have a slogan that was, “Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar.”
Equal, another sugar substitute, sued Splenda saying that their advertising was claiming it was healthier than other sugar substitutes.
In the end, Splenda lost, and had to change its slogan to something much simpler, “no calorie Sweetner.”
The yogurt, Activia, has gotten in trouble as well.
They advertised that Activia “helps prevent colds and flu and one daily serving of Activia could relieve irregularity” and “it helps slow intestinal transit time.”
When you compare intestines to transit time, you are in trouble.
In the end, they had to pay $45 million dollars.
And lastly, remember, the Skechers “Shape Up” shoes?
They looked like normal tennis shoes, except, they had a giant rounded soul, that looked like a rocking chair.
The slogan was “Shape up while you walk.”
Apparently, this wasn’t true, and they were sued for $45 million dollars.
The church has made some pretty outlandish claims as well.
We talk about the power of God and the power of the Gospel, and at times, churches are just as guilty as these companies and their false advertising..
Think about how the Gospel is promoted on TV.
When people talk about the power of the Gospel, what do you see on TV.
You flip through the channels and you find TBN.
This is always a dangerous endeavor, I don’t encourage it.
You get to TBN and you find Benny Hinn, and what’s the power of the Gospel?
It’s him blowing on people.
They fall over on the ground.
They are slain in the Spirit.
There is a song being performed.
The organ player has been vamping the same 3 chords for 10 minutes, while the singer repeats the name Jesus in a hushed tone.
And the audience is in tears.
The woman on the stage is in tears, as her make up drips down her face.
What is promoted is if you become a Christian, and if you truly experience the power of the Gospel, and the power of the Holy Spirit, it will be a huge emotional experience.
TBN may be more on the fringe of true Christianity, but that same expectation emotionalism can work its way into the church.
And the idea is that the Gospel is something you should be able to feel.
When you experience the power of the Gospel, you feel it.
And when you come to church, you better feel something, or something is wrong.
You better have some kind of emotional experience each and every time you come here, or you are not experiencing the power of the Gospel.
I’m not against emotions.
They happen.
I just read this morning, of Jesus encountering Mary and Martha when Lazarus was dead.
What did Jesus do?
He wept.
These emotions don’t prove that you are a Christian.
Saying that these emotions prove your conversion … is false advertising.
This morning, I think it would be helpful to us to recognize the true power of the Gospel in a person’s life.
I don’t want to be accused of false advertising the Gospel in one’s life.
Because believe me … if I speak wrongly about the Gospel, the punishment is a lot more than a $45 million dollar lawsuit.
says that I will be judged stricter than others.
To help us in this, we will be in .
Read .
Paul is writing to the Thessalonians and in this section he is verifying the affects of the Gospel within their lives.
There is verifiable proof that they are actually born again.
He is writing to show what the power of the Gospel looks like in a person’s life.
The first proof is that The Power of the Gospel produces an imitation of others.
At the moment of conversion, a person’s sins are completely erased.
They are gone.
A person is seen as:
Justified.
Righteous..
Perfect.
Good in God’s eyes.
But … a person is not a finished product yet.
Let me put it another way, the Christian is not perfect.
His sins may be paid for, but there certainly are a lot of flaws in the person’s life that need to be ironed out.
The Spirit comes into the person, and changes the person.
One of the changes is that he mimics or imitates others.
Notice that in verse 6, Paul says, “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord.
There are two people that the Christian imitates.
Other Christians.
And Jesus.
Evidence of the Gospel in a person’s life is that he imitates other Christians.
This makes sense in any other arena of life.
This makes sense in any other arena of life.
You want to learn how to work out … you sit under a personal trainer.
You imitate the trainer’s movements.
You want to get better at baseball … you find someone who knows about baseball.
You imitate his movements.
When a person graduates high school, he goes to college.
He sits under experts in his desired field of work.
He imitates them, so he will be prepared for the workplace.
And evidence of a person’s salvation is that he also sits under another Christian.
But he doesn’t imitate just anyone.
You don’t go through the church directory and blindly pick a name.
This isn’t picking someone who can become a business mentor, or help you make loads of money.
Paul says, “you became imitators of us”.
The us are in relation to the Lorx
The “us” are more mature Christians.
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