Sermon Tone Analysis

Ok, be honest, how many of you are excited about the new iPhone and Apple Watch release?

Everyone except for that disgruntled PC user sitting in the back with your arms folded.

We love you, too.

I remember my first iPhone.

Everybody remembers their first.

In 2010, I had just graduated from seminary, found my first church placement, and for the first time, I was earning more than 5 grand a year from my on campus work studies.

Up until this point, I had always owned a flip phone.

Do you remember texting on a flip phone?

Anybody remember those struggles?

Just to text my last name, I had to click the number 7 three times for R, and the number 3 two times for E. It took me 8 clicks just to spell my last name.

Imagine what happened when I texted my wife whose last name is Tschirhart.

10 letters in that bad boy.

When I texted my mom to tell her that I had met a girl named named Stacy Tschirhart, it took me 3 days!

But what Apple does better than technology is marketing.

Somehow, I’ve become convinced that I need this (embrace my iPad).

No, but I really do.

How could you not fall under Apple’s spell, especially with ads like this one?

***PLAY Think Different Video

In the years leading up to this ad, Apple had lost market share in technology and nearly a billion dollars on its failed ‘Apple Newton’ computer.

But The ‘Think Different’ campaign changed everything.

It marked the beginning of Apple's re-emergence as a technological powerhouse, which ushered in the debut of a device that would transform how people around the world would process information: the iMac.

As of a month ago, Apple reached a one trillion dollar value mark.

That’s a 1 with 12 zeros after it, and one thousand times more than what they had lost 20 years ago.

“Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Friends, the entire punch! of John’s first letter can be summed up in these two words: Think Different.

By the way, there’s a debate on the interwebs about the grammatical correctness of this slogan.

‘Think Different’ vs ‘Think Differently.’

I am on the “Differently” side, the right side, so

How might you:

Think differently about your life.

Think differently about your work.

Think differently about how you raise your kids, love your spouse, live single, mingle with others, rest well.

Think differently about how you use your money.

Think differently about Jesus.

And why might you think differently about these things?

Because I wonder, ‘how many people actually live satisfied lives.’

Before John wrote his letters, he wrote his Gospel about Jesus, quoting Jesus’ own words, saying:

'The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.

My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.' John 10:10

In Jesus’ own words.

‘Them’ meaning you.

The thief wants to steal, kill, and destroy you.

That’s his purpose.

Jesus, however, wants to give you an abundant and satisfying life.

Blessing upon blessing!

Grace upon grace!

Yet, I often wonder, ‘how many people actually live that way,’ so I asked the all-knowing Google and searched ‘Are People Happy?”, and within .13

seconds, Google told me everything I could ever want to know about happiness.

Here are some of the headlines that appeared on the first page of the search results:

● Happiness Index: Only 1 In 3 Americans Are Very Happy

● The 2017 World Happiness Report Shows That Americans Are Less Happy Than Ever Before

● Not only are Americans becoming less happy — we're experiencing more pain, too.

● American Happiness Is at a 10-Year Low, United Nations Study Finds

Yikes.

Google affirmed my hunch that few people ever discover real satisfaction, let alone the kind that Jesus promised to give to those who follow him.

Now, obviously, satisfaction does not mean perfection, nor does it mean a life without troubles or pain.

Quite the contrary, satisfaction means fulfillment, even amidst your pain.

On the flip side, then, I wonder, ‘how many people feel like something has been stolen from them… Like they’re dying on the inside… like their life is being destroyed.’

Do these words resonate better with you?

Are your actions currently hurting someone, hurting yourself, or is someone hurting you?

Friends, if the words ‘steal, kill, and destroy’ describe your current circumstances, either by your hand or someone else’s, then the thief is winning, and you must learn how to think differently about your circumstances and behavior.

***Pause

As an aside, for anyone facing immediate hurts right now, then I want you to know that we can help you.

You can either complete a connect card or talk to a ministry leader today.

This is a safe place where it’s ok not to be ok.

At this church, you can bring all of your hurts and failures here and not worry about condemnation.

There is an enemy to Jesus who wants to ‘steal, kill, and destroy’ from anyone standing off guard and vulnerable to temptation and sin.

Yet, also hear me say, ‘satisfactionis not a myth.’

There is a way to experience the promised satisfaction of Jesus here and now, despite whatever hardship you might encounter, and it begins by ‘Thinking Differently.”

Last week, we discussed how John opened his first letter by overstating the absolute necessity for Jesus, the incarnation of God, as the foundational belief for our Christian faith.

God lived and experienced our world through his Son, Jesus Christ, to offer himself as a sacrifice for the consequence of our sin that we cannot heal on our own.

God embodied human form and proclaimed a message, which John declared in his letter, stating:

God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7

The light is good, and living in the light produces triangular fellowship:

My life in fellowship with Christ, your life in fellowship with Christ, and our lives in fellowship with one another.

This is the very lifeblood of our church, which only exists when we live in the light.

What is the opposite, then?

Living in darkness, which leads to division and conflict, along with that which disintegrates our spirit and will eventually destroy our life.

John begins chapter 2, saying:

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin.

And thereby experience separation from Jesus and one another.

I hate talking about sin.

I really do.

I think any Pastor who does is completely missing the point about Jesus, but we need to talk about it because we need to understand our who we are and why the incarnation matters.

I hate sin because God hates sin.

Colossians 3:5-6

I hate sin because God didn't create you to experience sin.

Genesis 1-2; Romans 3:21-24

I hate sin because sin keeps us separated from God. Romans 6:23

I hate sin because sin keeps us separated from one another.

Galatians 5:19-21

I hate sin because sin distorts, disintegrates, and destroys.

Isaiah 64:6-7

I hate sin because sin is a result of our own doing.

James 4:17, Genesis 3

God did not sin against us.

We sinned against God.

We broke our relationship with God, and we keep it broken every time we make ourselves the very god or goddess of our own life, inviting the enemy then to steal, kill, and destroy us - sometimes little by little and other times in dramatic ways.