Sermon Tone Analysis

Advent = Coming

The word Advent comes from the Latin word for comingThe early church would spend this time in fasting and prayer.. repenting of things that needed to be repented of and committing to the things that needed to be committed or recommitted to.

The Sundays of advent were a time where there was a break from the fasting and breaking of one’s self to celebrate the coming aspects of Christ.Today for whatever reason the Church has long ago discarded the idea that we need to get close to the Lord through the things that Christians should do to get closer, and replaced it with the lighting of candles.

Now that is a reproof that we should stop lighting candles and start beating on our selves, but this year I want want to remind us that the hope, peace, joy, love, and unity is much greater than we often perceive.

The word Advent comes from the Latin word for coming.

The early church would spend this time in fasting and prayer.. repenting of things that needed to be repented of and committing to the things that needed to be committed or recommitted to.

The Sundays of advent were a time where there was a break from the fasting and breaking of one’s self to celebrate the coming aspects of Christ.

The early church would spend this time in fasting and prayer.. repenting of things that needed to be repented of and committing to the things that needed to be committed or recommitted to.

The Sundays of advent were a time where there was a break from the fasting and breaking of one’s self to celebrate the coming aspects of Christ.

Today for whatever reason the Church has long ago discarded the idea that we need to get close to the Lord through the things that Christians should do to get closer, and replaced it with the lighting of candles.

Now that is not a reproof that we should stop lighting candles and start beating on our selves, but this year I want want to remind us that the hope, peace, joy, love, and unity is much greater than we often perceive.

Today for whatever reason the Church has long ago discarded the idea that we need to get close to the Lord through the things that Christians should do to get closer, and replaced it with the lighting of candles.

Now that is not a reproof that we should stop lighting candles and start beating on our selves, but this year I want want to remind us that the hope, peace, joy, love, and unity is much greater than we often perceive.

How the Coming Christ is the Candle in the Darkness.

How the Coming Christ is the Candle in the Darkness.

In order to demonstrate the light of Christ we are going to have to look at the darkness that the light dispels.

In order to demonstrate the light of Christ we are going to have to look at the darkness that the light dispels.Worldly ways we see the darkness.It’s much worse than we can possibly imagine.What the source of darkness is (or sources.)We

will discuss the truth of what God says and what his light does.We need to see the candle in the darkness.We need to know what steps to take to head towards that light.We will give an opportunity to repent and recommit to the light.

We will look at the way the world sees the darkness.

It’s much worse than we can possibly imagine.

What the source of darkness is (or sources.)

We will discuss the truth of what God says and what his light does.

We need to see the candle in the darkness.

We need to know what steps to take to head towards that light.

We will give an opportunity to repent and recommit to the light.

Today we talk about the second candle… peace.

Today we talk about the first candle… hope.

The Darkness Surrounding Peace - War

The Darkness Surrounding Hope

The Way the World Sees It

The Way the World Sees It.

War Defined

The opposite of hope.hopelessness - c’mon that’s cheatingdespair, doubt, fear, distrust, discouragement, pessimism, abandon, disbelief, reality, fact, depressionDespair - the feeling that everything is wrong and their is nothing that can be done about it.families,

at work, in health, finances… you’ve tried and tried and tried and it has not gotten any better.It is a culminations of some of the other words we used:doubtfear or discouragementdistrust or disbeliefpessimismIt can lead to a real physical or mental depressionIt may even lead to a desire to abandon everything that you know is good.The two saddest antonyms on this list:reality, fact - I find it sad because the Hope that God provides to us is the fact that He is here to love us and guide us an bring us to a place where despite the fact we are surrounded by great darkness and bleak circumstances, there is a light that shines so bright that all that darkness flees away from it.Somehow the world has substituted that fact, that reality with their own fact that tells us there is no hope.

When your mind tries tricking you into the thought that there is no hope scream back at your mind or the one trying to convince you that they are a liar and a thief.

a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state.

a struggle or conflict between two or more opposing forces

Ware is not the opposite of peace

agony - pain or suffering whether mental or physical

distress - specifically caused by anger or hatred

unrest - a “sense” that nothing is as is should be

agitation - the state of being “stirred up”

worry - a belief that it is not going to be ok

Top Ten Biggest worries facing the world today.

10.

Lack of economic opportunity and unemployment (12.1%)

9. Safety / security / well being (14.1%)

9. Safety / security / well being (14.1%)

📷A man in Helsinki waves the Finnish flag.

Finland is rated one of the happiest countries on earth, according to the World Happiness Report.

Reuters/Vesa Moilanen

8. Lack of education (15.9%)

8. Lack of education (15.9%)

📷Students attend school in a temporary classroom in Nepal one year after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 9,000 people.

Paula Bronstein/ Getty

7. Food and water security (18.2%)

7. Food and water security (18.2%)

📷A protester in Flint, Michigan, holds up a sign criticizing the city's water contamination crisis that became a federal emergency and required aid from the National Guard.

Bill Pugliano/Getty

6.

Government accountability and transparency / corruption (22.7%)

6.

Government accountability and transparency / corruption (22.7%)

📷Demonstrators wear masks depicting Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (L) and Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff during a protest calling for the impeachment of Rousseff near the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, December 13, 2015.

REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

5. Religious conflicts (23.9%)

5. Religious conflicts (23.9%)

📷In Germany, Yazidi protesters with friends and family in Iraq and Syria call for action to stop ISIS' violent siege.

Carsten Koall/Getty

4. Poverty (29.2%)

4. Poverty (29.2%)

📷Weeks before the 2016 Olympic Games commence, children play in a garbage dump in one Rio de Janeiro's largest favela complexes, which suffers from poverty and violence.

Mario Tama/Getty

3. Inequality (income, discrimination) (30.8%)

3. Inequality (income, discrimination) (30.8%)

📷The income gap between top and bottom earners is getting wider in the US.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

2. Large scale conflict / wars (38.9%)

2. Large scale conflict / wars (38.9%)

1. Climate change / destruction of nature (48.8%)

None of these are new.

In fact if you read the first 2 books of the Bible you will see that even God’s chosen people were whining about these things for thousands of years.

The answers to the

The fact of the matter is that those things are very small in God’s economy… In fact, His answer to all those is to simply have peace in knowing that He is Lord of all.

1. Climate change / destruction of nature (48.8%)

Now I don’t have time to discuss every one of these in detail.

What I can say is that these issues have not changed since the beginning of recorded history.

I can find every single one of these things in the first two books of the Bible.

I can also find the solutions to these things in the first two books of the Bible.

Now I am going to be bold when

It’s Worse Than We Thought.

It’s Worse Than We Thought.

Despair comes close - the feeling that everything is wrong and there is nothing you can do about it.The problem with that is that the world tells you that’s just a feeling.

Let me be abundantly clear.

It’s not a feeling.... everything is wrong.

There is nothing you can do about it.

Despair comes close - the feeling that everything is wrong and there is nothing you can do about it.The problem with that is that the world tells you that’s just a feeling.

Let me be abundantly clear.

It’s not a feeling.... everything is wrong.

There is nothing you can do about it.

​ ESV“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.