Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Back in September, I sat down and began to set out a preaching schedule and themes for the next few months.

I knew we were going to do Jonah and I looked at the dates for Advent.

Advent, a time to reflect on the beginning of Emmanuel, God dwelling with us, and I noticed that there would be three weeks between the ending of the book of Jonah and advent.

God reminded me, that it may be time to once again review of what this body of believers holds to be true.

Now if you have been attending our gatherings for longer than a few years, you are in for a refresher course.

Like the those who are certified in CPR, every other year, they are being asked to go back to a class to refresh their knowledge on how to Do CPR.

Refreshing gives us a new perspective on life.

A recharging.

A reminder.

You see in the busyness of life, the coming out of Covid, the challenges we face as more people are coming to hear God Word and grown in their knowledge of God,

We all need a bit of refreshing.

For those of you who have just starting coming in the past two years.

What is a refresher for us, is new to you.

Let me give you a bit of a teaser,

Over the next three weeks we are going to look briefly at our mission and purpose statement as well as our process of discipleship.

The mission and purpose statements of our church are

Our mission is to intentionally reach families in our community for Christ and integrate them into the NVEFC family.

Our purpose is to glorify God while uniting as a family, training to spiritual maturity, serving in His Church and sharing Christ with others.

First off, why have a purpose statement at all.

Is not scripture enough to guide us through what we are to do as believers?

Is not the great commission enough for us as a rally cry?

“As you go into all the world preach Christ and make disciples of all nations”

The purpose statement and mission statement are a clearly defined way in which we,

as a local body will accomplish the tasks God has asked every believer and every church to do.

It’s what marks us from others.

Not in a competition to see who is better

rather it’s a style or method that defines and marks us.

What brought you hear today?

What brought you to this fellowship of people who are seeking to know God Better?

You may have heard this before, but it is worth repeating.

A past season of ministry in my life landed me in an environment where I was the coordinator for our child’s school’s track meet.

My boys liked to run and I liked to help.

It was my responsibility to seek out students who would excel in the world of athletics.

In that adventure, Two students came to mind.

Both were runners.

Both excelled in their respective races.

Both ran and won all their races, but there was a distinct difference between the two.

The first had a very awkward way of running.

If you were a running coach and this lad came to your university and tried out for the team you would cringe.

You see his arms were always flailing about as he ran, and it wasn’t a smooth process.

But it worked.

He won.

His style was different, but the results were the same.

He won races.

The second was a gal that came to our school who had recently moved from a city in South Africa.

When she came, she only signed up for a couple of races thinking she wasn’t very good.

Back in her home where she grew up running was a common skill and compared to her other students, she was average.

So, in her mind, she will sign up for the smallest number of races to “get it over with.”

She hadn’t seen success in her life before ,and wanted this part of the school process to end.

For her running reminded her of her inadequacies.

You see she was in grade 7 and had just arrived at the school just in time to sign up for the races.

No one knew her, Her teacher, her classmates, and I had never seen her run.

Then came the track meet.

If my memory serves me correctly it was the 400-meter race.

Once around the track.

The gun went off and by the time she had crossed the finish line, the next person was still 200 meters behind.

We wondered why she hadn’t signed up for all the running races and then we found out that she didn’t think she could run based upon her running skills back home.

Needless to say, that year, our school cleaned up in the races for the girls and the boys at the next level of meets.

But what surprised me the most at the end of the races, as I was congratulating her on her personal accomplishments was this.

She said, “I could have run faster if I ran in my bare feet.”

You made me wear shoes.

You see both runners ran races both racers had a different approach for their running,

As a coach, both could improve, and as we look at our purpose and mission statements we use them to focus our results on the calling of the church, specifically our church as we learn together on What God is calling us to do here.

One of the ways in which we are striving to fulfill our purpose statement is in the area of discipleship.

If you are coming investigating what we are all about, please continue to come.

Continue to come and hear the message of God, but for most of us, we have decided to become a disciple of Christ.

Let me make this abundantly clear.

We are disciples of Christ.

Not disciples of Pastor Paris, Not Pastor Josh, Not the leadership, Not the fellow followers.

We need to be a disciple of Christ.

As a follower of Christ, we understand it to be one who is Seeking to know God while being transformed into the image of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit in the context of Community.

We have simplified this to three phrases,

Knowing

Growing

Giving

This Sunday we will focus on the first.

Knowing God

You see even this statement follows a pattern of Head, Heart, Hands & Feet

Head, seeking to know God.

We need to seek who He is and when we continue to understand and grow in our knowledge of God, and we begin to understand what God has done for us through Christ, this knowledge moves to our heart.

In our heart we become transformed into the image of Christ.

When our head knowledge impacts our hearts, the truths of scripture move from knowing to believing, we become transformed into the image of Christ.

This is a daily process.

It’s renewable.

It’s transformational.

When our heart is stirred with the truth from God, then the Spirit, which is within us, has one thing.

To move us from heart to hands and feet.

It empowers us to do and to go.

It is the strength that we have to accomplish the many things for God.

All of this is done not in a vacuum, but in a community.

The vary nature of God is community.

God dwells in community.

Knowing: Who is God

So this this morning, let’s explore the first of the three.

Knowing, Who is God

Have you every been asked by someone, “Who is God”?

Can we hold to the world’s belief that we can have many gods.

It’s alright for you to believe in your God, I’ll believe in mine.

This morning I want to take you through how our understanding of God will drive us to be disciples of Christ.