Sermon Tone Analysis

Giving Birth

I get a kick when I remember day at Academy—pregnant lady on bench—Kim goes to encourage, “hard day? don’t let it get you down—they get much harder than this!”

My wife and I have had 4 babies.

Each time there was a pattern to the

Comes and tells and we all can’t quit laughing.

She is sincere—offering perspective.

She has given birth to 4 childrn.

So she knows what she’s talking about.

And in the last 20 yeasr of church ministry and the last 3 years of ministering to teen moms, it gets reaffirmed.

There’s a pattern.

morning sickness.

Mood swings.

cravings.

Starting to show.

People predicting—high low front back, etc. Waddle.

“ready!—start jogging, begging, etc.

And then that moment comes, teh water breaks, and it’s time!

At some point, the design is that it always eventually comes to something like this.

That was where it was headed all along.

And this is how God works--

—be fruitful and fill the earth—made every seed to produce its kind...

—same thing with Noah

—making disciples

—bear much fruit...

—purpose of union...

And note what Paul says about us--

Romand 8:28-29

Even more expressly, look at this--

The whole idea of being disciples is this—become like the one you follow

So if someone becomes like Christ, what would you call him or her?

Christians

Where did we get that term?

That’s what we will look at tonight.

When you think of the word Christian, what does it mean to you?

When it is first used, it could probably be said to suggest many of the things we think.

But it seems there was something God really wanted to communicate.

FINALLY!

THE CHRISTIANS HAVE ARRIVED!

The significance of the Greeks

have seen expansion in every way—geographic, cultural, ethnic, and even cultic (across the lines not just to gentile).

Now it hits fuinality— Cornelius, the first gentile saved, was at least a God-fearer.

Now there are no more boundaries.

Note

john 12:20-23, 27-32

Remember teh wineskin

True for Kingdom

inner vs outer

grace vs law

fruit vs works

spirit vs flesh

True for individuals (same list)

note the same trend then as now—those who stay well in the lines and those who go way outside—but not outside what God wants—always seems to be calling us out of safety of what has been

(You see some) characteristics of a movement of God--

defiance of old boundaries

integration into the mainstream of faith

Establishment of healthy operation

*** THese will be in your life and mine

*** These will happen again and again

*** But in a sense, this is unique—we don’t have Christians until we have this—people from every kind of nackground—Christianity is never meant to be defined by any human terms other than a relationship with Jesus by the presence of the Holy Spirit

God is defining what this new thing will be

eph 2:

**** That is critical as we move into each new generation, each new territory

*** And this is critical—it always happens with bridge-builders—

people who reach out

people who bring in

people who raise up

*** I think we are all meant to do some of all, but probably each have a knack for some more than others—everyone is meant to be a bridge builder—Christianity is teh one term that defines a peolpe otherwiose without definition—and you don’t fully have it until it crosses all the boundaries

So this--

*** tyeh world’s chaos is the color palate God uses to paint portraits of glory