Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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| Never Have I Ever: Christmas Edition
Welcome back to Good Things, where we're looking forward to Christmas day and remembering Christmases past!
INSTRUCTIONS: Have all of your students stand to begin the game.
Depending on the number of students you have and how long you'd like the game to last, give everyone between one and five lives.
To play, list things students might have done during past Christmases.
If a student has done it, they lose a life and must sit down when they've run out of lives.
You may want to give your last students standing a prize (like Christmas candy or cookies).
Try statements like, "Never have I ever . . .
"
"Re-gifted a present."
"Worn an ugly Christmas sweater."
"Known all the reindeer names."
"Had Christmas decorations up after January 1." "Forgot to invite someone to my Christmas party."
"Christmas shopped on Christmas Eve." "Listened to Christmas music before December 1." "Peeked at my Christmas presents."
"Opened a Christmas present and re-wrapped it to hide the evidence."
"Watched Christmas movies when it wasn't Christmas."
"Forgot to buy a present for my Secret Santa."
"Pranked someone with a terrible gift."
VIDEO | A Clip from "I Gave My Kids a Terrible Present" (Jimmy Kimmel)
Most people could probably say, "Never have I ever been pranked by my own parents on Christmas morning," but that's not true for these kids.
INSTRUCTIONS: As a teaching tool, play a short clip from a video like this one of parents giving their kids terrible Christmas presents — choose your favorite 30-second clip.
A prank like this one is pretty risky!
It can result in a funny and adorable memory you can enjoy for years . . .
or it could result in a total meltdown and ruin Christmas completely.
Christmas isn't Christmas without a little catastrophe, am I right?
Gifts get lost in the mail.
Someone breaks that weird (but very cute) Play-Doh ornament you made when you were six.
There's a big fight during Christmas dinner.
Your family's overly aggressive light display knocks out the power in your entire city.
You know, the usual.
But what if I told you these little mistakes and big catastrophes aren't just interruptions to the Christmas season?
What if I told you they actually have a lot to do with why we need Christmas in the first place?
SO WHAT?
Why does it matter to God and to us?
QUESTION | "What is Christmas all about?"
You might be familiar with the phrase, "Jesus is the reason for the season."
But what does that mean?
What exactly are we celebrating?
What is Christmas all about?
INSTRUCTIONS: Give a few students a chance to respond.
Encourage a variety of answers.
Usually when people talk about the Christmas season, they talk about joy, peace, and the gift of baby Jesus.
Of course, all of those things are true!
But here's another way to think about it.
Maybe . . .
We long for joy because we're familiar with sadness.
We want peace because we're so often in conflict.
We celebrate the gift of Jesus because He's a gift we desperately needed.
At Christmastime (and all the time) sometimes our plans go badly, things get broken, and relationships get damaged.
That's the human condition.
We humans mess up and make mistakes sometimes.
Sometimes we make small mistakes that hardly get noticed.
But other times we make huge mistakes that really hurt us or others.
In Scripture, this tendency toward brokenness is often called "sin."
Sin is anything less than God's best.
Sin is something we do by choice.
Sin often happens when we act selfishly, only caring about what we want, instead of thinking about what God wants or how our actions affect other people.
When we sin, we damage our relationship with God and others.
So why am I talking about sin at Christmastime? Great question!
Last week, we saw how this season before Christmas (the season of Advent) is all about reflecting on God's plans for the world and waiting for God's plans to become reality.
Like we saw last week, God's plans are good!
It has always been God's plan to restore the brokenness in the world, clean up the mess we've left, and heal the wounds we've given ourselves and each other.
And Christmas is a vital part of that plan.
SCRIPTURE | Malachi 3:1-2
Last week, we saw some of God's plan for humanity unfold over time.
It started in Genesis with the promise of a child who would one day come to defeat sin forever.
Then over the span of thousands of years, God left more clues about what was in store.
King David learned the coming king would be one of his descendants.
Then the prophet Jeremiah said the Savior was still on the way, and that God's promise to send Him was still good.
Today I want to introduce you to another prophet named Malachi, who gave God's people yet another hint about the Savior who was to come.
Malachi promised:
First, God will send a messenger.
Then God will come.
God will come to refine and to cleanse us from sin.
The people who heard Malachi's prophecy might have been thinking, "Uh, who is this messenger?
When is God coming?
What's getting set on fire?
And what's this about laundry?"
SCRIPTURE | Mark 1:1-8
For answers, let's skip ahead to the book of Mark, because it's there that we finally see this prophecy fulfilled.
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Finally, hundreds of years after Malachi recorded his prophecy, we finally got some answers!
The messenger Malachi promised was John the Baptist.
God did arrive on earth shortly after John.
God showed up in the form of Jesus — a baby who was born shortly after John was born.
Then, after Jesus and John had both grown up, Jesus began his ministry shortly after John began his.
Before Jesus got started preaching His message, John was already preaching messages about our need to be forgiven of our sins to help prepare people for Jesus.
Sounds a lot like what Malachi promised would happen, right?
So who was John the Baptist?
He was sort of weird.
He had an "open concept" home in the desert (no home at all).
His wardrobe was made of camel hair.
He loved a good bug and honey sandwich.
You know — typical prophet stuff.
Despite his odd persona, John's mission and message were perfectly clear.
He existed to prepare people for Jesus.
But when John arrived on the scene, people had their prophecies a little confused.
They weren't sure who John was.
Was he the Savior God had promised?
When he was asked if he was the Savior God had promised, John was like, "No!
He's coming soon, and He's way greater than I am!"
While everyone waited on Jesus, John had three jobs:
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