Sermon Tone Analysis

We all know that the day after Thanksgiving marks the official start of the Christmas season, right?

Thanksgiving is late this year, though, so how many of you this morning have already put up your Christmas decorations?

We put the tree up yesterday so we can soak up all that Christmasy goodness for as long as possible.

I know that we have at least three different camps of people here today.

Some of you are like Buddy the Elf and would celebrate Christmas all year long if you could.

Some of you are more Grinch-like, and you would gladly give a “Bah Humbug” along with Ebenezer Scrooge.

For some of you, you just don’t really care either way.

Perhaps, for you, this Christmas is going to be painful.

You have lost someone you love, and it just isn’t the same.

I know it will look different this year, but my hope is that, as we look through God’s word over the next several weeks, you will rediscover the joy that Christmas brings.

In the midst of all the presents to buy, lights to hang, food to cook, and everything else that goes with Christmas in 2019, you may find yourself pondering the same question that a noble young philosopher pondered back in 1965—the great Charlie Brown.

If you remember, Charlie Brown was disgusted with the way this beautiful holiday had turned commercial, with proud kids in plays and his dog Snoopy obsessed with winning the neighborhood Christmas light contest.

If you recall, he found a puny little tree and tried to decorate it.

All the others made fun of him, when there is suddenly a moment of clarity.

His young friend Linus says that he can tell Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about, and then he proceeds to quote this passage:

luke 2:8-14 KJV

It is a beautiful moment, and a beautiful passage.

He quoted the King James Version, which is well known for its poetic but difficult language.

But truthfully, I wonder how many actually grasp the power of what Linus quoted in that moment.

However, it becomes all the more meaningful when we see what led up to that moment in history.

That’s what we are going to seek to do over the next several weeks.

We are going to join with Charlie Brown, Linus, and others throughout history to try to understand what Christmas is all about.

To do that, we are going back and setting the stage, ending up in the text Linus quoted on the Sunday before Christmas.

For us to understand what Christmas is all about, we have to start at the very beginning of history.

Turn your Bibles over to with me.

We are going to hit a few verses from chapters 1-2, and the bulk of our time will be in chapter 3.

This morning, we are going to see this as the first part of our answer: Christmas is about a broken world.

In fact, as we go through our time together over the next month, you will see with me that Christmas is the beautiful solution to the broken world.

For today, though, we need to see what happened that threw everything off.

It doesn’t take long to realize that there is something wrong with our world.

Watch the news, listen to the conversations around you at work, or even feel the tension in your own heart…something just isn’t right.

What happened?

What went wrong?

Let’s go back and look at three truths about our broken world.

1) We were created to enjoy a relationship with God.

(; , ; )

(; , ; )The picture of what life was like for Adam and Eve is absolutely beautiful.Look at the way God describes how He made us.

Read ; .If you were to look back over , you see God’s normal pattern for creating: He simply spoke, and those things came into being.But did you notice the care and concern He takes when it comes to us? Verse 27 tells us that God made us in His own image.No other creature has the honor of bearing the image of God!

We are the only creatures He created to live eternally, the only ones capable of knowing, worshipping, and serving Him as His image-bearers.

As an aside, that is one of the reasons we stand for life: every human being, no matter their disability, difference, or stage of development, is created in the image of God.That’s why we support ministries like the Pregnancy Resource Center in Blacksburg, who are committed to creating a culture of life in the New River Valley.

Back to the Garden, though, you see that we enjoyed a unique relationship with God.

Look again at 2:7-9…I can’t wait to see what Eden looked like.

I have seen some beautiful trees and flowers, and I have tasted some incredibly good fruits, but they will all pale in comparison to what they should have been.In fact, as we see in Chapter 3, not only was it a beautiful place, but they had access to God literally walking with them.

3:8 tells us that they heard God walking in the Garden.

That’s how it should have been!

We should be enjoying a beautiful place with nothing to worry or fear about.We should be joyfully tending to the garden God made for us, listening to hear Him walking so we can stop and talk with Him and see Him with untainted eyes.It’s not that way, though, is it?

No, it’s anything but.Look at the news this week—our world is marked by shootings, anger, and hatred.People steal and cheat each other, lost their tempers, and selfishly hoard.We have fallen so far from God’s design.I wouldn’t characterize this as “living in the light”, would you?It just doesn’t seem right, does it?So what happened?

That’s the next truth we need to look at.

Turn over to so we can see…

The picture of what life was like for Adam and Eve is absolutely beautiful.

Look at the way God describes how He made us.

Read ; .

If you were to look back over , you see God’s normal pattern for creating: He simply spoke, and those things came into being.

But did you notice the care and concern He takes when it comes to us? Verse 27 tells us that God made us in His own image.

No other creature has the honor of bearing the image of God!

We are the only creatures he created to live eternally, the only ones capable of knowing, worshipping, and serving him as his image-bearers.

We are the only beings in all creation with a conscience and the ability to truly understand right from wrong.

Because God created us so uniquely, we enjoyed a unique relationship with him.

Look again at 2:7-9…

Let your mind wander for a bit and dream about what this would have looked like.

I can’t wait to see what Eden looked like.

I have seen some beautiful trees and flowers, and I have tasted some incredibly good fruits, but they will all pale in comparison to what they should have been.

We are finishing up fall, and as beautiful as it is to watch the colors change,

In fact, as we see in Chapter 3, not only was it a beautiful place, but they had access to God literally walking with them.

3:8 tells us that they heard God walking in the Garden.

A few weeks ago, we sang a song based off that very idea: that we would walk with God in the garden.

What would it be like for us to actually be able to walk side by side with God?

Have you ever been talking to someone and they were around the corner or something, and you didn’t know whether or not they could hear you?

Don’t you feel that way about God sometimes?

You pray, and you aren’t sure if your prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling?

Wouldn’t it be incredible to actually walk with God like this?

That’s how it should have been!

We should be enjoying a beautiful place with nothing to worry or fear about.

By the way, Adam and Eve lived in perfect peace with God, each other, and even themselves at this point.

Wouldn’t that be awesome?

We should be joyfully tending to the garden God made for us, listening to hear Him walking so we can stop and talk with Him and see Him with untainted eyes.

It’s not that way, though, is it?

No, it’s anything but.

Look at the news this week—our world is marked by shootings, anger, and hatred.

People steal and cheat each other, lose their tempers, and selfishly hoard.

We have fallen so far from God’s design.

I wouldn’t characterize this as “living in the light”, would you?

It just doesn’t seem right, does it?

So what happened?

That’s the next truth we need to look at.

Turn over to so we can see that…

2) We turned off the light.

2) We chose to push God away.

We were doing so well!

We had everything we need, so what went wrong?Sin came into the world.Look at .

God gave Adam and Eve one command, and we disobeyed it.With that, everything changed.They had been completely comfortable, but suddenly, they felt alone and exposed.

Look again at verse 7 – Why was that the first thing they noticed?It may be that, because of sin, they were completely isolated from each other for the very first time.When Adam and Eve sinned, they were suddenly separated from each other because of selfishness and pride.They were separated from even their own hearts, because as God spoke through Jeremiah, we find out that the wickedness of our own hearts deceives us so that we don’t even know our own hearts anymore.

Most importantly, they were suddenly isolated from God.

We were doing so well!

We had everything we needed, so what went wrong?

Sin came into the world.

Look at .

God gave us one command, and we disobeyed it.

With that, everything changed.

They had been completely comfortable, but suddenly, they felt alone and exposed.

Look again at verse 7 – Why was that the first thing they noticed?