Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning… We are in our series in the Epistles of John…We are going to talking about “Upsetting Normal.”

I want us to take a moment to greet some and then I want you find a seat somewhere else…not your normal Seat… if you in the back… I want you to change it up.

Now that I have made you a little uncomfortable….

Let’s talk about Normal

When we say, something is normal we mean that it is standard it’s something can be expected…

In some ways, normal is good… If you having a baby you hope that everything is normal… when you go in for the ultra sound you want there the be two hands, two eyes…heart beat…. in this sense, Normal is a good thing…

But in another sense Normal can be just average… the status quo… normal can mean the base line…if you in college class that you are finding challenging you are just happy to get through with a pass… I had one professor after hearing the Syllabus, I made a conscious decision to take a pass fail in his class…opposed to getting credit… my goal was simply to pass the class.

Another thing about normal is that it can also be habitual…our natural or normal responses… There is a guy at my Gym that says just about every time I see him …we are creatures of Habit.

it’s true we seem to be comfortable doing the same thing over and over… these habits can either be good or bad for us.

It takes intentionality to change our habits…but it can be done and we can exchange bad habits for good habits.

And there can be a “New Normal” for us.

John the beloved disciple of Jesus is writing at a time when there is a lot at stake for the church, there is false teaching has crept into the church…and, also, temptation to be like the world….

John knows that in order for the church to survive it’s going to have to go against the flow… Doing Church as normal was not an option.

John uses lots of repetition in his letters.

He addresses the church affectionately as children.

He reminds the church to go back to the beginning to the elementary teachings and doctrines of Christ himself.

False teachers may have started with them but they did not continue in the right teachings.

John talks about challenges of living in the last days.

He talks about the system of world being at odds with the values of believers…

He uses the contrasts of Darkness and light to make the distinction between what it means to be born again.

John tells us that one of the evidence of be being born of the spirit of God is that one practice righteousness and demonstrates Gods love towards others.

What John does in the book of 1 John is “upset Normal” the status Quo.

John pushes on what ought to be and should be as Christians- The truth is that God has called us to a life that is far from Normal… but a life that makes a difference… and that cannot be ignored.

The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we can become.

- Phil Jenkins

Johns is about the church making a difference in the world..

T/s lets read our text..

T/S How do we move from Normal to making a difference?

1.

We Shift the Balance from "Inward" to "Outward"

John tells us that the Christian message has not changed from the beginning, it’s always been about loving others… It’s always been about the person on the other side of us… Whether it’s the person sitting next to you or our neighbor or person we meet on the off chance… its always about them… Gospel (good News) is position outwardly… The trouble is that we are hard wired to take care of our inward need… We are wired for self-preservation - to have our own needs taken care of first… and so the natural response is too put our needs before others…

Christianity is a confessional religion… we preach sermons, we say prayers, we sing songs in worship…And now we have websites.

and Facebook accounts…These are all proclamation… There is a place for proclamation...But

John pushes back on identity as Christians being more than our confession (proclamation)but also the practice of Faith…

Christianity is a verb not a noun… Faith is an action…

If the only way that our community knows that we are Christian is by the sign hanging on the outside of the building, we have a problem...

A.W. Tozer says it like this....

“A Profession of faith that doesn’t make a difference, doesn’t make a difference to God either.”-

A.W. Tozer

John tells us that Faith is more than our words… it’s also our deeds.

John draws together the theology and the ethics of true Christian faith; that united whole is the inseparable mixture of word and work.

One of the mistakes we can make in interpreting the NT is by putting the emphasis in the wrong place…For example we can preach God is righteous and God is Holy (which is true) …but neglect that God is a God of love… Even though John deals with issues of sin, righteousness and judgement… It is still positive message because everything is prefaced by the love of God… John wants us to stand before God as Children of God and reap all the benefits of the relationship.

We need to remember that even though the scripture deals with the hard issues in our lives… the emphasis of the NT is always on the positive benefits of the character of God.

John is telling us that the message about the love of God has not changed….

As God, has loved us… so we ought to love one another… This is not exclusive love.

this is loving those whom God has put in front of us…Now, you might push back on this.. pastor you don’t know how hard it is to love certain people… And, I understand that some people take more energy than others… (just keeping it real).

I like Vaughn Roberts…pastor from Oxford said..

"When you love people who are like you, that's ordinary.

When you love people, who are unlike you, that's extraordinary.

When you love people, who dislike you, that's revolutionary."

Vaughn Roberts.

That’s why it’s called the great command because it’s not easy.

right.

If we are going to love like Jesus... we need to know a few things about love and the first is that love takes commitment.

When Pam and I were married her Uncle Dave sang the song for us on our wedding day… A song that Don Francisco wrote called love is not a feeling it’s an act of the will…

So you say you can't take it

The price is too high

Your feelings have gone

It seems your river's run dry

You never imagined

It could turn out so rough

You give and give and give

And still it's never enough

Your emotions have vanished

It once held a thrill

The wonder of love

Could be alive in you still

The ring on your finger

Is put there to stay

You'll never forget

The words you promised that day

Jesus didn't die for you

Because it was fun

He hung there for love

Because it had to be done

The Chorus says Cause …Love is not a feeling it's the act of your will.

We have never forgotten it in our marriage.

Now, I think that I have married the most incredible person in the world… I have admiration and love for Pam … She outstanding mom…She is amazing gifted at training children…She has amazing patience with me…

She prays like no other person I know…but we are still human --- and like every marriage both of constantly chose to love… Choosing to love in some ways is not natural… It’s not natural because we have to be intentional… and choose to love...

The kind of love that God demonstrated towards us --- is not natural – its supernatural…

John uses the word Agapao for loving others… It Comes from the kind of sacrificial love that God demonstrated in Christ … Agapao is the deepest possible expression of God’s character… It is characterized by God willingness to forfeit all his rights and privileges of being God and becoming a man to enjoy relationship with us.

This is the kind of love that we should demonstrate towards one another.

John writes about love in the present tense… meaning that there is no completion love.

there needs to be continuous display of love in the family of God.

How do we do this?

A couple years ago Neal and Judy Brower (district superintendent) shared with a group of us pastors about the important of listening to others… It was so practical…

Loving means being curious about someone else.

Each person is unique — The world population clock tells us that in October there are 7.7 Billion people on the planet and there are no two people the same…Every person is unique in every sense of the word…That just shows you how amazing God is… When meet someone we should take the time to appreciate uniqueness... every person has imprint of God… image bearers.

When we start looking for God’s image in people it may change our attitudes.

That's the kind of love John is calling us to—the kind of love the world is waiting to see.

T/S To illustrate this point of the importance of loving others – John uses an extreme example of Cain and Abel a relationship that sours and goes terribly wrong…

A story that his audience would have known quite well..

The story of Cain and Able is one of Jealousy… both offer a sacrifice to God… Cain offers a grain offering and Abel’s offers blood sacrifice…God accepts Cain’s and rejects Abel’s… Instead of dealing with the issue before God… Cain allowed Satan to get ahold of his heart and mind… He allowed evil thoughts to full his mind and this led to jealousy and this led to murder...

John asks the question…Why did Cain Murder?

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

Cain’s anger stemmed from the fact that his own offering was rejected… His anger against God boiled over against his brother and he killed Abel… Abel was the nearest representative of obedience to God…

What’s going on here?

The righteous acts of Abel provoked the jealousy of Cain, which digressed into hatred and eventually murder…John is saying this is what happens when we neglect love in our lives… We can allow thoughts to develop that are destructive… If we think about something negatively for so long… we can begin to start to believe our own conclusions… start to think negative things about people in our lives....

John tells us that “Jealousy—hatred—murder is a natural and terrible sequence”

John says, that this kind of behavior is normal in the world… Don’t go looking at the world for the God variety of love… The world doesn’t understand Agape love…

The world often behaves like Cain.…The world works on getting ahead of each other… outperforming the competition….