Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning brothers and sisters, it’s good to be with you all again.

Emily and I missed you all very much.

Thank you for your prayers, and we were anxious to worship with you and share God’s word with you.

Our text today is 1stJohn 3:11-18, 1st John 3:11-18.

If you will all please go ahead and turn in that place in your bibles.

Also, when we come to the scripture reading it will be on the screen for you but please go ahead and keep your bibles open as well.

While you are doing that.

I want you to imagine a circle.

It can be any size of circle, big or large.

Then take that circle and put a little dot right in the middle.

What is this dot?

It’s the center, the center of the circle.

This circle now has something that is in a sense, the heart of it.

Big or small, the circle now has a central thing.

Maybe a small thing could be a tootsie pop, which we know has a tootsie roll at the center of the sucker.

We also know that this tootsie pop takes exactly 183 licks to get to the point that… the point that I stopped counting and just ate it.

A bigger circle could be that if you take a look at google maps and search Hopkinsville, Ky, you will notice that it is almost a circle as well.

What is at the center of this circle?

Well oddly enough a major marker comes up and it is the city and county museum which is in and of itself a testament of the history and culture of our County.

Zooming in, it isn’t perfectly at the center, but man is it close!

So, let’s take this idea of something that is central, something that matters, something at the heart of it all and apply it to our faith lives.

What is this central thing?

The answer to what this should be is our sermon title and today’s main point.

That, Gods love is at the heart of our lives.

Scripture

If you will all please rise for the reading of God’s word today, which is 1stJohn 3:11-18.

We have never done this before, but if you will please turn your attention to the screen above me, on the screen will be the text….

Please read along out loud with me as I read it.

When I am done I will finish with “this is the word of the Lord” and you will respond with “thanks be to God.” Before we begin though, let’s pray…….

Father, we thank you for this wonderful opportunity to come and hear Your Word today.

Your word is truth, and we thank you for this truth father.

We ask that you open our ears, hearts, minds, and hands so that we can receive what it is you are sharing with us today.

Help us to go out and understand that your love is what gives us life and that we are to live and walk in that; and share it with others.

Make us go out and share this with others.

It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and Precious name that I pray, Amen.

1st John 3, starting at verse 11.

Again, please read out loud from the screen above me.

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.

13 Do not be surprised, brothers,[c] that the world hates you.

14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death.

15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Context

I know I was gone for a little while, so I want to recap a few things we learned in our previous sermon passage.

We learned a lot about the truth.

We learned that god’s children are to know the truth.

The real truth, the truth of Jesus Christ and His gospel.

We then learned that God’s children are not to be deceived, many instances in our world will seek to trick and deceive us, but as children of God we are to study and know the truth and apply it to every part of our lives.

Especially we are to seek righteousness in our lives as this is a marker of being one of God’s children.

We then covered how God’s children battle their sins.

This is obviously expected and implied by the previous point itself.

Jesus came to destroy sin and the works of the devil.

If He (Christ) is our example, if God is our father (as opposed to Satan) then we will follow His lead in this.

The message there is the same as it often is, repent and believe.

Keep these things in your mind brethren.

Moving into this week’s passage.

Now, I want to share with you some important context that will help you understand this passage much better.

This is the story of Cain and his brother Abel which was referenced in our text.

These were the two the sons of Adam and Eve.

Their account can be read in Genesis 4 and I will go ahead and read this for us from the ESV. 4 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten[a] a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel.

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.

3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.

And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.

So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?

7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?[b]

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

Its desire is contrary to[c] you, but you must rule over it.”

8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother.[d]

And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”

He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done?

The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.

11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.

You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.[e]

14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden.

I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so!

If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.”

And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.

16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod,[f] east of Eden.

So, you can see here that Cain killed his brother Abel.

But why?

Why would he do this, well the text here makes it obvious, Cain was Jealous of his brother Abel, specifically that God favored and his offering Abel over Cain’s.

Even more specifically, he was angry with God because he did not receive favor, but his brother did.

This motivated him to jealousy, hatred, and anger that all led to murder.

In his heart as we understand it, Cain was murder before he ever became one because Jesus set the precedence and understanding that hatred is equivalent to murder in Matthew 15.

What else can we infer from this?

Well, when reading between the lines here, we can see that Cain was in rebellion against God but still expected God’s favor (which he didn’t receive).

I can say assuredly, that if Cain came to God with the right heart, his offering would have been accepted.

It’s likely that God gave them some kind of specific way/order in which to offer sacrifice, as we saw and understood in great detail with the Jewish priesthood.

God told Cain that sin was at his door, that he was a sinner in need of a proper atonement, which has always been a blood sacrifice to God.