Sermon Tone Analysis
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In March I laid out a new vision for the church.
“Encounter God’s Transforming Love” became our new motto.
Our process steps are Respond- Restore - Release - Relate.
As we came into the advent season it was time to reiterate the process - but it also corresponds to the themes of advent.
Hope requires a response.
Peace comes from allowing God to restore.
Joy is found in release as we live out our calling.
And then there is love which permeates everything.
Our vision at SCF is to “Encounter God’s Transforming Love.”
That is what we are offering to everyone who comes here.
Today is Christmas Eve.
It is the day when most of the Western Church celebrates the birth of Christ.
The Eastern Church celebrates in January, but you probably didn’t even know that because we are in the West.
The important thing is not when we celebrate Jesus’ birth but WHY we celebrate.
Advent, as we call it, celebrates God’s coming to earth as one of us.
Yes, Jesus was born as a baby to a woman named Mary who was betrothed to Joseph, but the baby was not Joseph’s son, but God’s son.
Jesus means “God saves.”
Saves from what? Well… sin.
Sin is what entered the human race when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
Their choice to be independent of God led to the corruption of all of mankind and of the earth.
The only way to undo it was for God to come as a man and to become that sacrifice for sin.
Sin naturally leads to death, but by dying on the cross in our place, Jesus made a way for a new humanity.
The key is to respond to what Jesus has done for us.
Respond
Maybe you have heard all of this before; but what have you done about it?
The message of Jesus coming to earth and dying for us requires a response.
The first ones to whom the message of Christmas was declared were shepherds.
They were ordinary working-class people.
They spend most of their time out in the hills watching over animals.
When the shepherds heard the message, they immediately did something.
They went to see for themselves what the angels had told them about.
They responded to the message …immediately!
If you saw angels with a message from God what would you do?
Turn over and go to sleep, figuring it must be a dream?
Check in with your therapist?
Get your head examined?
Would you be skeptical …research angel encounters to see if you can find collaborating evidence?
Today, they would probably take a picture with their phone and put it all over social media … hey look what we just saw!
What they did was exactly what the angel to told them to do.
They went and they saw.
That was what they were supposed to do - they were witnesses to the event.
Do you know that shepherds also had a symbolic meaning?
Jacob (aka Israel) and his sons were also shepherds when they went into Egypt.
The prophets referred to the leaders of Israel as shepherds.
God was announcing His plan metaphorically to all of Israel and especially to the leaders.
But the real leaders would never have believed it, so he reveled it to the literal shepherds and they obeyed.
What is the message that you have heard from God?
I’m sure that you have a lot of questions and that there are things that you don’t know, but what DO you know?
You will be held responsible for as much as you know.
How have you responded to what you know?
Are you obedient to what you know or are you waiting for more information?
God will give you more information when you respond to what He has already given you.
So what is the purpose of the message?
What is God doing?
God’s plan is to restore.
Restore
God created the world and it was good.
Sin messed it all up.
God wants to restore creation.
He wants to bring us back into fellowship with God which was His plan from the beginning.
When we begin to obey, God begins to restore.
Where do we see restore in the Christmas story?
We see it when we remember that Jesus come for a purpose which was to die for our sin.
That was part of the angel’s message to Joseph.
It also shows up in the prophecy by Zechariah, the father of john the Baptist.
Jesus would save Israel from their enemies, but first he would save them from their sins.
When we think of restoration we usually think of our problems and wanting them to go away.
I wish that I could get a better job.
I wish that I could get out of debt.
I wish that my family would get along better.
I wish that there wasn’t so much bad news.
I wish the pandemic would just go away.
I wish I could trust our leaders.
I wish that I could feel safe and secure in this crazy world.
I believe that God has a plan to restore all of that.
But part of God’s plan is that we each look inside first.
We always think the problem is “out there somewhere.’
Other people are always the problem, never me.
Sin affects all of us.
We are in no condition to help anyone else until we have confessed our own sin and repented of it.
That is where restoration starts.
That is where the light begins to dawn.
That is where God reveals Himself and His purpose.
Shame keeps us looking everywhere but inside.
But God loves you - even the decision to change is a result of His kindness and mercy.
God has done all that is necessary; we just need to respond and be restored.
But that’s not all.
God wants to release us into the world to tell others.
Release
If the good news were only respond and restore we would be in a constant loop of introspection.
Sure, we will be changed, but God wants to change the world around us!
If the good news was only to save you from your sin, it would still be good news; but the truly great news is that you have become part of God’s restoration plan.
Encounter God’s transforming love is first of all a message to you as an individual, but it also becomes your message and my message to the world around us.
Remember the shepherds?
It was their job to bear witness to the event of Christ’s birth.
But having become a witness to this event, it became their job to bear witness in terms of telling what they had heard and seen.
We know that when the wise men later came to visit Jesus they brought gifts, but the shepherds brought a gift too.
They brought the gift of their story.
Mary and Joseph had both been visited by angels.
But when the shepherds brought the account of their encounter, it was again confirmation of God’s hand at work.
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