Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduce self...

Pray...

Heavenly father,

I praise you that you are great.

I praise you that you were before all things and that by you all things hold together.

Thank you for coming down from heaven in likeness of sinful men, to make a way for rebels like me to return to you.

I confess that I fall short of your righteous standard of thought and life, I trust your steadfast love and mercy.

Grant me words to speak today; my lips belong to you.

I ask that you would glorify yourself and make your own name great in all the earth.

For those listening this morning, I pray that the Holy Spirit would speak.

I pray that each person here would hear and learn from you through my words.

I pray that we would be a congregation that is thoughtful and reflective when you speak, God.

I pray for renewal for myself and for this congregation.

Renewal to remember and embrace the truth about who you are - to be refreshed by the truth of your gospel.

I pray for equipping for myself and for this congregation.

I pray for practical equipping in the fight of faith - for sanctification - that you would continue to close the gap between what we say we believe, (what we know to be true), and how we actually live our lives.

And finally I pray for salvation.

I pray that the hearts of those here this morning that don’t know you would be softened.

I pray that repentance would be granted.

I pray that lost souls would be united to you.

All these things I pray in Jesus name,

Amen

Introduce series:

For advent this year, I am going to preach through 4 simple truths...

On the surface, these truth’s seem to be little more than platitudes, but through careful examination I hope to scratch the surface and demonstrate their rich depth.

Last week we talked about

God is GREAT - so we don’t have to be in control

Underlying assumptions for this series:

Every sin is a result of believing a lie

Repenting of sin is not merely changing behavior (although it includes that)

The solution to sin is not “trying harder”

Sin is idolatry.

Wrong belief about God

We must believe what is true about God, and what is true about us in light of the gospel

These 4 simple truths address a great deal of false belief in our life.

Belief is root.

Behavior is fruit.

The Bible is clear: Our behavior and even in large part our emotions are the direct result of our beliefs...the deep-rooted beliefs of our hearts.

What you deeply hold to be true will flow out of you as be behaviors and emotions.

Real faith is head, heart, and hands.

Few Christians would read the 4 G’s and have any issue with them intellectually…

But those things which we believe in our head,

Must transfer to our heart,

And must flow out of our hands...

Last week we started with 1 Timothy 6:12 and I want to start there again this week...

1 Timothy 6:12 (ESV)

Fight the good fight of the faith.

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called...

Paul says that faith is something we must fight for...

Paul says that eternal life is something we can “take hold of...”

At Abide Church, we believe that fighting the good fight of faith is a COMMUNITY PROJECT.

Community Project

What do I mean by that?

Fighting for your faith is NOT something you can do by yourself...

Community is not something that only new Christians need...

WE ALL NEED COMMUNITY.

(Turn to your neighbor, remind them, “You need community!”)

Many of us prickle at the idea of community...

Community is actually kind of anti-American in some ways.

We live in a culture that highly prizes individual freedoms and individual rights and individual fulfillment.

You can be and do anything you want, and anyone who tells you otherwise is your enemy.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

Compare that to what Paul teaches concerning the church:

We are called to speak the truth to each other, in part, because we are being bombarded by lies all the time.

WHAT LIES?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

Our consumeristic culture teaches us that if we had a little more money, we could have a little more stuff, we could have a little more control...

God is great, so I don’t have to be in control...

Our consumeristic culture teaches us that if we had a little more money, we could have a little more stuff, we could have a little more happiness…

That neighborhood you have to drive through to get to your house on the way home from work… and the thought that if only you had a nicer house you’d truly be happy....

That friend you have on instagram who has taken yet another trip… If only YOU could take a vacation like that… then you’d finally be able to settle down...

The actor on TV or the magazine cover at the grocery store who’s body is a 10.

If only you had a body like that, then you could be popular, rich, famous, finally happy...

Nearly every large company in nearly every major industry is not simply competing for your money… They are competing for your worship.

What do I mean by worship?

At least in part, worship means these 2 things...

[[SLIDE]]

Wholehearted devotion.

The belief that something will ultimately satisfy.

(your deepest longings)

Take a minute and think about it:

Video games, they are not designed to be fun, something you can play for an hour and be done… They are SPECIFICALLY designed to addict you to playing them.

They are designed to addict you to their reward systems and progressions so that you keep coming back for more and more and more.

We must be so careful… This applies to Playstation, XBox, PC, Mobile… Nearly all modern game developers have this in mind...

Think about fast food… McDonald’s SPECIFICALLY engineers their fries to have the scientifically proven optimal amount of grease and salt...

You’d have to be living under a rock to not know everything that has recently come out on social media… whether it’s Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, whatever.

All these tech companies are intentionally and specifically designing their apps to TRAP you into compulsive use.

They use Big Data and complex computer algorithms to predict what content will keep you glued to your screen on their app for the maximum amount of time.

Even malls and shopping centers design their experiences to be enticing and quite literally draw you into worship… although they wouldn’t use that term.

I could go on and on...

All these industries, as well as the individual companies that make up these industries are trying to convince you that if you come to their temple and worship their gods, you will find the happiness you so desperately desire.

The world is lying to you all the time… Your own heart is lying to you all the time...

This is why I said the fight of faith is a community project.

We need each other to speak the truth!

To combat these lies!

REFER BACK TO EPHESIANS

Well people don’t pursue me.

People don’t invite me over.

No one disciples me...

You MUST FIGHT.