Sermon Tone Analysis

I am really excited by what God has shown is happening in the life of our church right now.

When I say church I don’t mean the building, I mean, look to the right and look to the left of you, look across the way, look behind you.

The people, you, what God is doing in your lives right now.

I am excited because I see God changing you.

I see God changing me.

I am excited and I know that some of you are going through an incredibly tough changing time right now.

It’s hard and we all care and walk with you in this hard.

Usually that is how change is right?

So honored that EJ shared with us about what God is doing in his life.

Even as EJ talks of this blessing he knows that the hard work is in the day to day.

Some of you are experiencing the hard work of the day to day right now.

The hard work might be on yourself, it might be with your family around you.

My wife had the hard work of nursing me back to health from COVID two weeks ago, Thank you to her and thank you to my dad for preaching last week.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers.

Today though you might be right in the middle of a spiritual work with others, maybe it’s their illness or maybe it’s their attitude.

The pressure of trying to be with others.

Where is God when we have to deal with people and their difficulties.

with people telling us what to do, with our culture telling us what to do.

Our culture celebrates tomorrow the independence of the United States.

Freedom from tyranny that was fought for an one.

We talk about freedoms, and the amazing blessing of our country, which we are so grateful for this gift but freedom can be hard.

Free speech means everyone gets a change to speak and everyone gets a chance to tell us what to do and from Tic-Toc, to news, to radio, to even our relationships everyone keeps telling us what to do.

What are we really supposed to do?

Yesterday, EJ came by my house and he was telling me some of the things God had shown him will he was in treatment.

I got really excited because I said that is exactly what God has been showing me through His words in the Bible.

Today I want to begin talking and sharing with you one book of the Bible.

This is just the first Sunday of many Sundays with this book and it’s exciting because it provides answers to all of the issues I just mentioned.

If your dealing with this stuff today and even if your not dealing with a tough time of change, a tough time of hard work, or trying to figure out who to listen to and what to do today, you can save it for your tomorrow because these issues hit all of us at one time.

The part of the Bible which will call a book which speaks to these problems is Galatians.

It really was a letter, written to a church in a city called Galatia by a follower of Jesus named Paul.

It’s a long letter and we are going to get to all of it but right now we are just going to start it.

It starts kind of weird, but good news, we are going to nerd out on it too and see that there is huge answers for us right now, today.

So let’s begin the letter sort of like we would begin a letter today, with an introduction.

This is an introduction with a point.

A point that may get lost if you read the Bible because it has a weird word that most people except for just a few use today.

Apostle.

What is an Apostle and why is it so important that Paul goes around telling people He is one.

Also really important, What does it matter to you?

Apostles were taught by Jesus, God himself.

Meaning God revealed what an Apostle knows and teaches.

No one else.

We have an old saying, “Straight from the horse’s mouth.”

It means that you got it from the source.

No one changed the message.

It actually goes back to that whole unique thing of following Jesus.

You see Paul joined 11 other guys specifically picked by Jesus and taught by Jesus.

Luke 6:13–16 (CSB)

13 When daylight came, he (Jesus) summoned his disciples, and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; 15 Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; 16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

There they are, the 12 apostles.

The 12 guys who went with Jesus everywhere and were the leaders that Jesus used to share with everyone what Jesus said, how a person is to follow Jesus, and how those who follow Jesus are to gather together worship God and do life together.

We got it from the apostles not Judas the traitor, but the others.

This teaching became the Bible and Jesus calls a few more Apostles later.

Today you might, every so often hear some leaders say they are apostles.

However, there is a special meaning to the word Apostle, the way that Paul is using it here and it should never be given to a person who lives today, even if they are a leader in the church.

Leaders in the church today do not have the same authority.But it actually is OK to call all of you Christians today apostles, because those who go out behind Chick-Fil-A today to worship God with the un-sheltered, are technically apostles but that’s not the kind of meaning of the word in Galatians 1:1

So let’s nerd out for a moment.

Because words are important and people use them to gain authority.

Nerd moment: Denotative and Connotative

See words have a dictionary definition, what the word actually means, also called the denotative meaning and then they have the way the word is almost always used and whether the way the word is used is an extra part of that meaning or the connotative definition.

Take for instance “elope.”

Elope technically means to go without permission, that is the denotative meaning.

But We usually elope only with a couple who goes off and gets married without letting others know or asking for their blessing.

When I say elope, the connotative definition is a couple driving up to Reno for a night and getting married.

I had a weird moment in my other job as a special education teacher.

We teachers use the denotative meaning, the dictionary definition to say that students who wander or run off from where they are supposed to be are “eloping.”

We actually ask does the student elope?

Believe me when I first started teaching special ed I wondered why all these elementary kids were getting married.

There is a denotative or technical definition of the word Greek word Apostolos from which we get the English word, Apostle is “special messengers or sending out.”

Apostle was also used for a ship or a ship commander that was ready to set sail.

Paul by saying he is an apostle, he is saying he is a special messenger of Jesus Christ.

and the way he use Apostle captures the special meaning, the connotative meaning the meaning of the way we use the word.

Apostle means someone who is shown the Gospel, the knowledge of who Jesus is by Jesus himself and no one else.

Apostles wrote or told a writer what Jesus did and His teaching in the Bible.

This God revealed teaching of the Bible has authority over all of us.

Everyone here in this room is not, and cannot be an Apostle because we learn about Jesus from the Bible which was written by Apostles.

I don’t have more authority over you than the Bible.

Yet because Paul and the other Apostles were taught by Jesus so that everything they tell us about God was revealed to them.

They didn’t learn it school, they lived walking with Jesus, hearing from Jesus, knowing Jesus Himself.

God reveals, He speaks through the Bible and all of us are under God no one alive today has the authority of the “Apostles”

But Paul was different than all the other Apostles because he was not taught by Jesus before Jesus crucifixion but after Jesus rose from the dead.

We will learn throughout Galatians that Paul and Jesus actually spent time together away from everyone else to learn from Him.

This gives Paul the Holy Spirit power to teach us how to actually follow the Lord Jesus and not just some nice words and good moral teaching.

The Gospel is not made up by people but given by God.

The first thing Paul stressed is that he isn’t making this stuff up.

It isn’t nice teaching or a new idea but a revelation from God himself.

It’s not just what popped into his head.

It’s a real, divine, metaphysical, spiritual revelation from God.

You see it is so important that if you are a follower of Jesus, if you have been a follower for a long, long time or a short time that you recognize such an important things in your life and in your faith.

This is called doctrine and it matters to you everyday.

This stuff is not made up.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ was revealed by God.

This isn’t one of many religions.

We can look in our own town, job and see people of so many different beliefs, some who claim Islam, Buddhism, and you know what inside those religions their are many different kinds of Buddhists and Muslims that there are, friends I can’t take the time to list all the different types of religions and sects or groups within religions that there are Hindus, Sikhs, and even those who claim to worship nothing or worship reason.

Their are many who claim to be followers of Jesus but add on or change the apostle’s teaching, they change the Bible.

The list goes on and on and when we who follow Jesus Christ try and love others, live in a respectful society, we should love and respect all people.

On this independence day weekend, We Christians should remember we fought hard for the 1st amendment of the Constitution that church and state would be separate.

Words have meaning and that meaning can get all messed up.

What does it mean to respect and love others who do not believe what has been revealed to us by God.

Respect means we don’t do anything to others that goes against how God would have us treat another.

Respect does not mean we are all correct.