Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

A1 quick announcement.

I just remembered as I was taking prayer requests that I forgot to make, is that next week is the district conference.

So I will be down in Indianapolis Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

So on those days you can still get a hold of Jamie or two or one of the elders in the church if you need something or if you get in touch with me, I will get in touch with them.

But just know, I won't be here till Thursday night, which we do have our elders meeting and I will be back for that Thursday night.

So keep that in mind.

So last week, we talked about what gives us away, you know, what is it about us that identifies us as followers of Christ.

What is it?

That people noticed that when they see it in us, when they see it and how we act, how we talked, how we treat people, that they know We're a follower of Christ.

You know, that kind of naturally leads to the question to wonder, you know?

Okay.

Once you realize that we are Christian

How do they react to us?

You know, if we look in scripture, we see that, you know, most unbelievers loved being around, Jesus.

They enjoyed his company, they even sought him out at different times and they invited him to come to their homes and even to their parties as we know that he was invited to a wedding feast.

But sadly today, most unbelievers don't even want to be around Christians.

You know, unbelievers in Jesus day.

If you'll remember the story and scripture, they tried to bring their friend, who is sick to see Jesus, but they couldn't get there because of the crowd.

So they literally tore a hole in the roof.

So they could lower their friend down to him.

Man, that was a group of unbelievers but they wanted to be with Jesus their friend to be healed by Jesus that much.

Sadly enough.

Sometimes we see unbelievers.

Now, you know, climbing out windows to get away from us.

Why is that?

You know what did Jesus show them that we don't what do we lack that he had?

I think it's because he showed them Grace.

And because of that, Grace people sense that Jesus loves them even when he might be speaking difficult words to them.

They still knew that he loved them.

Yeah, he was full of grace and truth.

He was able to attract people kind of like a light attracts moths or bugs.

People just were naturally drawn to him.

And I believe it's because of that combination of grace and truth that he always showed them.

you know, sometimes I think as Christians, we forget that what we believe.

Can sound a lot like fiction to those who don't believe.

I mean, we do believe in a miracle, right?

We believe in a lot of Miracles, we believe that, you know, God decided to come to Earth in human form and was born to a virgin and, you know, he lived and performed all these Miracles and then when he was crucified on a cross, three days later, he rose from the dead and defeated death.

To those who don't know what the Bible says, who have never had that opportunity?

That all just sounds like a trailer to the next Hollywood movie.

It doesn't sound like something real something that they can believe in hope and trust in

And what we have to realize is that nobody is drawn to something which they think is just totally incomprehensible.

If they don't have a frame of reference for it, it's hard for them to believe it.

To address this with a lot of churches have done is they've decided up here.

Stuff.

So let's make it easier for them.

So, you know, instead of putting the cookies of Truth on the top shelf, in the cookie jar, they decide to put it on a lower shelf where people can get to it and that's good.

You're part of that is, you know, we have to realize sometimes when people come into a church for the first time and into a church service experience, a lot of things that they've never experienced before.

If we hear offertory, we know what that means.

If we hear.

So sometimes we have to eat a realize that being a church family, a group that gathers together a lot.

We have some of our own phrases that we use.

And that just confuses people didn't imitates him.

So there's times when we need to refer to things in other ways to make it easier for people to understand.

And that part of moving, those cookies of Truth down is good.

The problem comes, when we begin to water the truth down.

Because we can make the truth easier to understand without watering it down.

And that is the trick there.

Other churches try to just make people feel more comfortable.

In the way that they do it is they make the decision to never talk about Sin.

Even if you never talk about, sending you never offend anyone, right?

Cuz no one's ever upset because you never call anything that anyone's doing wrong.

and what they end up doing, is they end up replacing truth with tolerance, lowering the bar so that everybody can live, however, they want to live and everybody can be happy and everybody gets in There's no price of admission for anyting.

And we can all go home feeling just as good about ourselves as we did when we walked in.

She know Jesus said in John, 15:23 member what I told you.

A servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.

Also, if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

You know, something is wrong.

If all unbelievers hate us But something is also wrong.

If all unbelievers like us, You know, if we accurately demonstrate Grace and Truth, the way that Jesus did, some people are going to be drawn to us.

And some people will still be offended by it.

Just as they were by Jesus.

I mean, that's what he was meeting in that passage, you know, even though he came speaking truth, only showing people Grace.

Some people didn't like it.

Problem is that when we offend everybody it's because we've taken on the truth mantle without any Grace.

We just want a hammer people with the facts, right?

Hammer him with the truth.

And we forget to show them Grace.

But when we are on the other side of it and we have been nobody, it's because we've watered down the truth.

All in the name of Grace.

You know, many people throughout the centuries have tried to reinvent Jesus, they've tried to spin his statements in scripture to make them, more appealing to the public, you know, they've tried to spend what is said, in the Bible so that it's more relevant to people.

So that hit fits more with what popular culture thinks and believes.

Sure.

There's one thing about Jesus that's

He is notoriously uncooperative.

With all attempts, to repackage and reinvent, and try to Market him.

But that's because he's full of grace and truth.

So, when you try to alter that truth, anyway, it just doesn't work. in what we have to realize his churches as Believers in Christ is that Jesus isn't looking for image enhancers He's looking for followers, he's looking for us to follow him as servants.

Not to walk in front of him as his public relations team.

Jesus doesn't need that.

He never wanted it.

You know, when Jesus walked this Earth, many people didn't recognize him because he was not what they were looking for.

We read a lot of accounts of how people wanted a messiah who was going to come and basically overthrow all their enemies.

They wanted a military leader who was going to come in and annihilate, the Romans and put the Jewish people back in control.

But that's not how he came.

You know, they were looking for a messiah that was a powerful, lion bringing judgement on all their enemies.

But they overlooked all the passages that talked about him coming as a lamb.

Isaiah chapter 53 verse 7 says he was oppressed and Afflicted yet.

He did not open his mouth.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent.