Sermon Tone Analysis

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Tone of specific sentences

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Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
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Anger
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*TITLE:  *My New Birthday              *SCRIPTURE: * John 3:1-17
 
 
Sometimes Christians make the faith look unattractive.
For instance, the stranger who buttonholes you to ask if you have been born again.
When someone asks, "Have you been born again?" how do you answer?
One woman responded, "Of course not!
I'm Methodist!"
When someone asks me if I have been born again, I usually respond, "Of course!" –– but then I just keep walking.
But the idea of being born again is not foreign to us.
In his book, /Coming Back Alive/, Spike Walker tells about the /LeConte,/ a small fishing boat that sank in a winter storm in Alaskan waters.
When they realized that the boat was going down, the five crew members put out a Mayday signal, put on their survival suits, and abandoned ship.
The water was ice-cold –– the wind was blowing 90 miles (145 km) an hour –– it was sleeting and snowing –– dark –– and they were a hundred miles from land.
One of the crew members got separated from the others.
They didn't find his body until the following summer.
The Coast Guard launched three Search and Rescue helicopters, but it took them seven hours to reach the men in the water.
Gusty winds made it nearly impossible to hover over the men in the water.
A helicopter lowered a rescue basket on a winch, and one man got a hold of it.
As they were pulling him up, he lost his grip and fell to his death.
Finally, one of the helicopters succeeded in rescuing the three remaining men.
One of the rescued men was Mike Decapua –– a tough, hard-living fisherman.
But listen to what Mike had to say about that night in the water.
He said:
 
"January 31, 1998, is my new birthday.
That's when I was reborn.
The year since then was the best year I've ever had.
I have a new chance.
Prior to the sinking, I was bitter.
I walked around ticked off about life all the time, and my lot in it.
Now I'm just trying to navigate alone through my own harbor.
If I can do that, I'll be a happy guy.
That night taught me what's important in life."
When Mike talked about January 31st being his new birthday, he wasn't talking about just living longer.
He was talking about living better.
He was talking about being reborn into a new life –– a life no longer dominated by anger.
The prospect of death made him consider what was really important in life.
He came away from that experience a new man –– happier –– more fulfilled.
He says, "I was reborn."
Do you happen to know a recovering alcoholic –– someone who used to be a slave to alcohol but who has managed to stay sober for a number of years?
That person can tell you what it means to be born again –– to start life over again.
I read about a girl who got caught up in the Goth culture that is so popular in high schools these days.
The Goths are the kids who dress in black clothing and die their hair and wear extreme makeup and jewelry.
They are often associated with the occult.
This girl talked about being miserable and lonely –– most of us can relate to that.
Some of us were lonely and miserable in high school.
But the Wiccas accepted her, and she soon became a part of that Goth culture.
But she was still miserable.
She said:
 
"Sometimes I wish I could be born all over again.
I'd really like to start over from scratch."
(From /Irresistable Evangelism/ by Steve Sjogren, et.
al.)
 
Have you ever felt like that?
Many of us have.
You might be thinking the same thing.
You might be thinking:
 
"I wish I could be born all over again.
I'd really like to start over from scratch."
Let me assure you that it's possible.
You can be born all over again.
You can start over from scratch.
That's what the Christian faith is about.
It's about rejecting darkness and embracing light.
It's about walking with Jesus instead of wandering alone and lost.
Our Gospel lesson today is the story of Nicodemus, a devout Jew –– a Pharisee.
Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.
He started the conversation by complimenting Jesus, but Jesus quickly changed the subject.
Jesus said:
 
"Very truly, I tell you,
no one can see the kingdom of God
without being BORN FROM ABOVE" (v.
3).
Some translations say, "without being BORN AGAIN."
That's where the "born again" idea came from.
It came from Jesus, who said that we could not see the kingdom of God without being born again –– or born from above.
Which is it?
Let me explain.
The New Testament was written originally in Greek.
The Greek word was /anothen/ (pronounced AN-oh-thin).
Like many words, /anothen/ has two meanings –– "again" or "from above."
Some scholars say that Jesus meant "born again" –– and others say that he meant "born from above."
But I believe that he meant both.
Jesus was saying that we need to be "born again" and "born from above."
Just as we have an earthly father, we also need a Heavenly Father.
So it's Jesus who said that we must be born again –– born from above –– and, in fact, that has already happened for those of us who are Christians.
I say that it has already happened –– past tense –– and that is true.
But it is also happening right now –– present tense.
We are in the process of being reborn right now.
Someone put it this way:
 
Please Be Patient!
God Isn't Finished with Me Yet!
You who have been Christians for many years know what I am talking about.
Christ has been in the process of shaping your life all this time –– and there is still much work to be done.
You are better than you used to be, but you are still far from perfect.
Even the Apostle Paul experienced that.
He said:
 
"For I do not do the good I want,
but the evil I do NOT want is what I do" (Romans 7:19).
But those weren't words of despair, because Paul ends that passage with words of thanks that Christ has freed him from sin and death.
Paul still wasn't perfect, but he was on the road to perfection with Jesus.
When we hear Jesus say that we must be born again –– born from above –– it is easy to hear that as a one-time thing –– as if we should have become perfect on the day of our baptism.
But we know that we aren't perfect.
So I like the metaphor of the potter and the clay.
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