Sermon Tone Analysis

True worship leads to Growth.

Growth by it’s very nature is Change.

Change is hard.

some People change things just because they can.

that's not the kind of change we are talking about.

people everywhere hate change, not just in the church.

we are talking about the kind of change that produces growth.

what we are looking to happen us transformation.

Change begins in the mind; we start thinking differently about ourselves , our lives and others.

Cognitive transformation

Repentance is a true change of mind.

Instead, the Greek term for “repentance,” metanoia, simply means “mind change.”

To repent is to change the way you think about God and yourself, and when that happens, everything else in your life will change.

Kinnaman, G. (2014).

The Beginner’s Guide to Worshiping God (p.

69).

Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers: a division of Baker Publishing Group.

To expand this a bit, the landmark reference on New Testament Greek words, the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Gerhard Kittel, tells us that repentance means “to change one’s nous, that is, opinion, feelings, purpose.”

And the nous?

What’s that?

It’s your “inner sense directed toward a certain object,” what you perceive to be true, your “mode of thought.”

Shades of meaning in the Greek term nous include mind, insight, understanding, judgment, and meaning.

When you “repent,” you change all of these things, or to use Paul’s language, you are transformed, that is, radically changed, by the renewing of your mind.

And that happens when you hear the Word of God.

Transformation takes relationship.

(being active in a church as apposed to merely attending one.)

Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.

This may seem off the subject for a series on worship: real worship transforms our relationship with others.

God doesn't want our religion unless it transforms our relationships.

I heard it said one time that a true test of faith is if we love one another as much as we love Jesus.

The transformation triangle.

truth is at the top (open those fingers at the top and let truth in.

on the opposing sides at the bottom is crisis and friendship.

Transformation, then, is the result of these three things:

• Truth, that is, biblical principles (the rules of the game).

• A test of the truth in real-life experiences (playing the game): “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature” (James 1:2-4)

• Significant friendships (people helping you learn the game): “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (Jas.

5:16).

Kinnaman, G. (2014).

The Beginner’s Guide to Worshiping God (p.

75).

Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers: a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Truth + crisis + friendships = transformation is a clever formula, but it is missing the power factor: the special presence of God.

In the last chapter, when we talked about the special presence of God, I left out something terribly important there, too.

I didn’t really tell you the most significant thing we can know about the special presence of God.

The shekinah, you see, is not just a vaporous, swirling cloud of divine energy, sort of like that violent, thunderous mess at the very end of the motion picture Raiders of the Lost Ark. No, very simply,

The shekinah, the glory of God, the anointing, that wonder-working, special presence of Jahweh was and is a Person: the Holy Spirit.

From Glory to Glory

we know that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit.