Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

It’s Thursday at 7:13, 2015.

Over 50 college students are crowded outside waiting for the doors to open.

Once the doors open, music is pumping, and another 10 students make a high five welcome tunnel.

Once everyone crams in, 60 college students sing the lyrics of a Taylor Swift’s - Shake it off or Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey.

And within 5 minutes they are singing a Christian worship song, albeit with much less gusto, but with a depth that would make you wonder - what’s this song about?

Then some student leader explains the rules of a game where people have to work as a team to pop a series of balloons.

This forces everyone to work together, and typically some unexpected quiet student becomes the hero.

Speaker comes up and shares a story about life, connecting it all back to this person named Jesus.

Then the professional loitering begins, and then groups of friends plan to get Whataburger - and inevitably a few newcomers get roped in.

They spend the rest of the night procrastinating from homework but getting ahead of the game to taste what a new welcoming community feels like.

This was YoungLife’s College ministry at the University of Houston.

And just like that, a ministry that started as 3 students have c

Over the next year, the college students who stick would eventually be trained and mobilized into teams that would pull off an equally fun experience at a dozen local high school or middle school for students they’ve never met before.

How does YoungLife mobilize dozens of College and Young Adult Leaders to commit over 2 nights a week to love and serve students they’ve never met?

They help them realize that they were made for this: They were told, over and over,

[slide YL Website] YOU WERE MADE FOR THIS.

YOU WERE MADE TO LEAD, LOVE, CELEBRATE, EXCITE, and CARE for people who feel the crowded loneliness of our human life.

YoungLife understands that we were not just made to consume, but we were made to contribute and to create the same experience for others they don’t yet know, regardless of their response.

YoungLife understands that people were made to invite other

The world and the church is filled critics and consumers, but like YoungLife, we need to understand that we need more disciples who are willing to be doers.

The world is filled critics and consumers, but we need more doers and disciples.

And one of the biggest barriers to DOING is feeling discouraged - And one way to understand discouragement is that distance between what you’re doing now, and the deep longing of your heart’s desire.

Discouragement is not a gap in desire - but a gap in what you’re doing.

and i understand discouragement to be the distance between doing what you were made for, and feeling forced to do something else.

[Transition] Sometimes, in the quiet moments of my life, I am filled with self-critical thoughts, or I get defensive because I hear the words - “You’re not good enough,” when in reality God is trying to tell me something - You weren’t made for that but you were made for this...

But what is “this”?!

I think by returning to - we’ll make sense of what “this” might be for all of us.

Basketball Game - DISTRACTIONS - to make someone fail at the free throw.

DISTRACTIONS

Basketball Game - DISTRACTIONS - to make someone fail at the free throw.

The basketball player has one mission - one goal - he SENT to the free throw line to get a chance to make a point.

One of the beauties of attending the game life is that you have an opportunity to distract.

You can affect the game by your presence.

And we all face various distractions that try to thwart what we have been sent to the line to do.

Distractions

We are bombarded by distractions.

We are bombarded by distractions.

Perhaps the greatest distraction people carry around is the belief that more stuff and more money will make them happy.

This belief motivates and animates a large segment of the population.

These people live by the “doctrine of abundance” (p.

54).

Simply put, many people are driven by the desire to have more.

In one sense, carrying within us, as humans, the very image of God.

In in another very real sense - the presence of God dwelling within us.

When Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us - it wasn’t just that he became a human to accomplish a mission - it was also that he became a human so as to reside within humans in a new way.

I just want to acknowledge

Although those realities might be in the room, I believe some of you are here today because showing up for a church service for an hour is a small cost to pay to keep the peace with your spouse, parent, or friend who wanted you to come.

But the rest of you might be here today because there is something within you that believes that we could all use a little more help in life.

That there could be more to life than the good news of capitalism, wealth creation, or product accumulation.

Maybe you realize that having that $6,000 or $50,000 Mac Pro will only bring you so much happiness.

Have any of you ever had someone come up to you and say, “Hey, you look like someone I know.”

Ever since 1871, America has had the world’s largest economy, growing to $20.41 trillion in 2018 - and every penny of that $20 trillion was spent to keep people alive, safe, or entertained.

But many of you realize, that getting a fraction of that wealth will only get you so far, so you’re here, believing that maybe church, maybe spirituality has some answers to make sense of who we are and why any of it matters.

And you’re here believing that maybe spirituality has a piece of the answer of making sense of our lives.

In the false gospel, getting more will always be better than getting less:

But while we are still poor, be it in confidence or cash, while we are still poor, piling up more will feel better and more enticing than getting less.

Giving will always be weighed against how much I can get.

But we are still number

Giving will always be weighed against how much I am getting.

Now, money and mac pros are not the problem -

Have any of you ever had someone come up to you and say, “Hey, you look like someone I know.”

Who here uses GMAIL?

I appreciate my gmail account.

I have used Gmail for over 12 years, with over 54,000 emails stored, 30 Gigabytes of personal data.

Now over all these years, I have YET to pay a PENNY for my gmail account.

So what’s in it for Google?

Why do they provide me a continually updated email system for free?

They are doing it because they make money from me.

That’s because they are taking all of my personal information and they are monetizing that information for advertisers to better target ads that are relevant to my life decisions or experiences.

Have any of you ever had someone come up to you and say, “Hey, you look like someone I know.”

By having access to 54,000 emails, they know me extremely well.

They know my writing style, my video preferences, my taste in music, my travel plans, my hobbies.

They probably know more data about me than all my closest friends.

They had to give me something free, which enabled them to “live with me” if you will through GMAIL, and YOUTUBE, and GOOGLE HOME, ALEXA, GOOGLE Searches, so that they can GUESS at selling me things.

SO they can make money off of me.

It’s like they live with me, seeing every text message, every personal email, and ever web search that I do.

In a very real sense - it’s like this company lives with me, so that they can do a better job of advertising, and selling me what I might need before or when I need it.

Now when Jesus came to “dwell among us” and live among humanity, did He come to dwell among me, collecting information about humanity, so that he could use humanity in some certain way to further his pocket book?

And I’ve given them full access,

Have any of you ever had someone come up to you and say, “Hey, you look like someone I know.”

No - Jesus came to dwell among us, not to learn about us, not so that he could collect information and guess at what I might NEED or WANT to buy or sell.

Jesus came to dwell among us, to become human because He KNEW and KNOWS what humans need the most.

And what we need the most is something that a $20 trillion dollar economy cannot provide - we need the REALITY OF SOMEONE WHO LOVES US.

far more powerful that humans could ever imagine.

Have any of you ever had someone come up to you and say, “Hey, you look like someone I know.”

It’s one thing to talk about the pains of poverty.

It’s another thing to actually move into the neighborhoods.

To be close enough to invite them to dinner and share life with them.

If you want to know what someone’s life is like, you have to live among them.

EXEGESIS OF 1:14

John 1:1-4

This second verse in which the term Logos appears here in the Prologue signals another major comparison with v. 1.

The eternal Logos was first introduced as coexistent with God (1:1); he was second identified with life and the source of light (1:8) in comparison to John, the witness (1:6–8); then third he was presented as being in the created world though he was unknown by his creatures (1:10).

Now here as the Prologue reaches its climactic assertion the Logos is Announced as fully participating in the realm of creation.

Contrary to docetic and Gnostic views that portrayed Christ as an alien messenger from without who appeared in fleshly form but was never affected by flesh, the Logos of the Prologue dramatically became (egeneto) flesh (sarx).

The term “flesh” carries no necessary negative or evil attributes here.

Instead the text means that the eternal Logos became human—truly human.

Progression from vs 1, 3-4, 10,

Context of progression of the Word’s action and movement from through

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