Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.54LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.55LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.02UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.89LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.81LIKELY
Extraversion
0.05UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.69LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.69LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Inscription: Writing God’s Words on Our Hearts & Minds
Part 98: The Generosities of God
Philippians 2:5-11
December 23, 2012
END OF INSCRIPTION
After three years and 98 sermons, we are finally at the END of our INSCRIPTION series.
I know that I have a far deeper UNDERSTANDING and APPRECIATION of the Bible than when we began and I hope you do as well.
~* The big surprise for me was the RICHNESS of the OT.
I understand God better, his love for us, and what it means to be a follower of Christ.
On the other hand, it has been EXHAUSTING having to study a NEW BOOK of the Bible for each sermon.
I look forward to our next series – we will send 2-3 months in GALATIANS.
~* I want to end as we started, looking at the BIG PICTURE, the grand story, and CHRISTMAS which stands at the very center.
PRAYER
IN THE BEGINNING
So we start at the BEGINNING:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
This tells us everything we NEED to know, but not everything we WANT to KNOW.
It doesn’t answer one of the biggest questions:
Q WHY did God create?
Why did he make us?
Scripture doesn’t explicitly say “This is THEE reason I made you.”
It speaks of his GLORY and his LOVE.
One thing is clear, he did not make us out of any NEED.
~* He gave us life from the OVERFLOW of his GOODNESS, GREATNESS, and LOVE
CREATION was act of GENEROSITY, in no way prompted by a hole in himself.
He was COMPLETELY COMPLETE in himself.
GOD DOES NOT NEED
This stands in STARK CONTRAST to ANCIENT MYTHS, where the gods CAME OUT of the primordial soup (rather than creating it) and then NEEDED HUMANS to feed and serve them.
And is it also stands in contrast to our MODERN NOTIONS that God somehow NEEDS US; that we are doing him a FAVOR by being GOOD or HELPING others, and that we put him in OUR DEBT by being good.
Q How many of you remember the band “SIXPENCE None the Richer”?
There name came from a CS Lewis quote:
“Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God.
If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense his own already...
It is like a small child going to its father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’
It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction.”
Mere Christianity, Chapter 11
Q Don’t we ALREADY KNOW this?
I suppose, but it is a good reminder that God made us OUT of NOTHING, NEEDING NOTHING.
~* Not until he CREATED did he SUFFER; when he chose to create, know that creating would bring pain.
THE FALL
We know how the story goes – God says to Adam and Eve, “All of this yours – enjoy it, enjoy each other.
But DON’T EAT of that one tree.”
Then they ate from that tree.
Q Have you ever wondered WHY God made that TREE?
Part of me thinks, “These must have been your FIRST KIDS...I’ve learned better than to leave something that TEMPING.”
~* As a child, I decided that if I were Adam, the first thing I’d invent would be an AX, solve the problem nicely.
But that misses the point: For OBEDIENCE to be OBEDIENCE, there must be an option to be DISOBEDIENCE.
~* A child in a STRAIGHTJACKET may be better behaved, but that does not mean he is a BETTER CHILD.
God wants us to love him with all of our HEART, SOUL, STRENGTH, and MIND.
He didn’t want us to be MERE ANIMALS, acting out of instinct or programming.
THE GOD WHO FEELS
And with the Fall comes one of the GREAT MYSTERIES – the all-sufficient God EXPERIENCES PAIN.
He who LACKS NOTHING HURT for our sake.
~* We ALMOST CASUALLY talk about God MOURNING the tragic SHOOTING in CT, but forget how PROFOUND that truth is.
That God should care at all is AMAZING.
I spoke last time about the greatness of God in all his GLORY, that this entire cosmos is less than a MARBLE in the PACIFIC OCEAN.
~* By comparison, God should CARE LESS for the entire population of earth than we care for a FLY SPLATTERED on our windshield.
That God not only CARES, but LOVES, DESIRES, LONGS for, and MOURNS for us is a PROFOUND MYSTERY that should bring us to our knees in WORSHIP, AWE, and GRATITUDE.
RESCUE PLAN
And because he is the God who cares, within the HOUR of our FALL, God started the rescue plan:
Genesis 3:14-15 NIV So the LORD God said to the serpent, “...
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Theologians call this “PROTOEVANGELION,” first good news, God’s plan to defeat Satan and restore us.
~* This seems vague, but notice: “Your OFFSPRING” and “HE”; not people in general, but a SPECIFIC person, the Christ.
Throughout the OT, God continued to CONFIRM and CLARIFY this promise of a MESSIAH who would DIE to pay the penalty of sin and RESTORE what was lost.
~* Not just RESTORE, but redeem and MAKE BETTER than before.
The INSCRIPTION SERIES has taught me that the events and writings are far MORE than FILLER until the birth of Jesus, but because it is Christmas, I NEED to SKIP ahead to that.
THE DARKEST DAY
As most of you know, DECEMBER 25TH almost is certainly not the day Jesus was born.
We don’t know because birthday were not something people kept track of, except for kings.
~* Based on AGRICULTURAL CLUES, late October~/early November is the most likely.
But in another sense, December 25th is very appropriate.
By the 4TH CENTURY, the early CHURCH, decided to celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th, which had been PAGAN FESTIVAL called “The Feast of the INVINCIBLE SON,” one of the many MIDWINTER FESTIVALS in the ancient world.
~* In the ANCIENT CALENDAR, December 25th was the WINTER SOLSTICE, the shortest day of the year.
Said another way, the birth of Jesus is MEANT to be CELEBRATED when the WORLD was at its DARKEST.
And that is a very APPROPRIATE time to celebrate Christ’s birth.
~* In the CENTURIES leading up to Christ’s birth the world was DARKER SPIRITUALLY than it had ever been.
FOR THE GENTILES
The GENTILES, that’s us, lived in IGNORANCE of the TRUE GOD.
We worship the CREATION rather than the CREATOR.
We were trapped in futile thinking and FALSE IDEAS of God.
Man lived in FEAR of the ANGRY GODS and sacrificed ANIMALS and HUMANS to keep them happy.
~* Nearly every CULTURE had a MIDWINTER FESTIVAL and ceremony meant to HELP the forces of LIGHT and FERTILITY win.
God had called his people, the JEWS, to SPREAD the news of the one true God to the WORLD, but they had FAILED to REACH OUT to their neighbors.
FOR THE JEWS
And to the JEWS of that day, the world was also very DARK.
They had never been BLEAKER.
The Jews knew that they were God’s CHOSEN PEOPLE, but it seemed that he had ABANDONED them.
They had basically been SUBJUGATED to different FOREIGN NATIONS for the past 700 YEARS.
~* One of the DARKEST DAYS in their history was in 168 BC when a Greek EMPEROR sacrificed a PIG in the TEMPLE.
And to make things even DARKER, God has NOT SPOKEN to his people through PROPHETS in 400 YEARS.
Four hundred years without hearing from God.
~* So in years LEADING UP to Christ birth, the world was VERY DARK indeed; a winter solstice of despair.
A CHRISTMAS STORY
The people WALKING in DARKNESS saw a great light, the promised MESSIAH.
But even with all of the prophecies and promises, they could not CONCEIVE how GREAT the fulfillment would be.
~* They’d hoped God would send a DELIVERER, but GOD HIMSELF came.
Here I would like to switch from EARTH’S VIEW, to HEAVEN’S view, through my favorite Christmas passage, which I read last week.
This passage is UNIQUE; we are pretty sure it was ORIGINALLY a POEM or a song because of its structure and vocabulary.
~* It is to be EXPERIENCED more than DISSECTED.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9