Sermon Tone Analysis

Week Two: Loving People

Purpose: 1).

To explain that Jesus loved people by relating to them with others-centered love and through intentional evangelism .

2).

To encourage and instruct our students on how to relate with people with others-centered love and intentionally evangelize.

3).

To explain how we do this in the context of our student ministry.

Outline:

· R– Relates with other-centered love

o What did Jesus do?

Jesus loved people by relating to them with other-centered love

If I asked you to define humility how would you define it?

· … Jesus emptied himself to serve us, to put sinners before himself.

This is the ultimate example of other-centered love.

o How do we imitate that?

(Application Points)

· , … We are called to imitate that love.

Jesus “gave Himself up for us” and we are to do the same for others.

· Encourage a mindset switch from “I live for myself” to “I live for others”

o Give an example of how you or someone you know does this and challenge them to imitate you/them as you/they imitate Christ.

o How do we do this in Refuge/Rock?

We are a community of students.

We have the opportunity to give ourselves up for each other in many ways.

We can give of our time, resources, energy, talents, emotions, etc.

· I– Intentional Evangelism

o What did Jesus do?

Jesus loved people through intentional evangelism

· (emphasize v. 10)… Jesus was driven by his mission to “seek and save the lost”.

This mission led to action like inviting himself to lunch with lost people.

· (emphasize v. 10)… Jesus was driven by his mission to “seek and save the lost”.

This mission led to action like inviting himself to lunch with lost people.

o How do we imitate that?

Inviting yourself over to someone’s house for lunch might not work as well for you as it did for Jesus, but the key is to put yourself in a place where you can share Jesus with someone.

Fortunately, you all (as students) are already in places where you can introduce people to Jesus.

You don’t have to go out to the street corner and preach to crowds (that actually isn’t very effective most of the time), but you can take the opportunity to use a conversation at your lunch table at school to “seek and save” the lost.

o Practical Steps (because evangelism is difficult):

Ask them about what they believe

Give them reasons why you believe what you believe

Share you testimony with them.

Tell them how Jesus has changed your life.

o How do we do this in Refuge/Rock?

We encourage you to invite your friends to youth group or church.

That’s just a starting point though, we are called to make disciples, which is to imitate Christ and lead others in doing the same.

That takes a lot more than inviting someone to church.

Briefly outline the process of discipleship.

Small Group Questions:

1.

What is one way you could live out others-centered love tomorrow at school?

At home?

2. St. Francis of Assisi reportedly said, “Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use word”.

What do you think he meant by that?

Do you agree?

3. Why do you think we are so intimidated by evangelism?

4. Do you feel like you know enough to evangelize?

If not, what do you do about that?