Sermon Tone Analysis

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ORGAN PRELUDE

ANNOUNCEMENTS                        Psalm 27:1, 4-9 "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?"

CALL TO WORSHIP

~*OPENING HYMN                            "Morning Has Broken"  # 274

~*INVOCATION AND LORD'S PRAYER     O God, so long ago You sent forth Your word promising us Your Holy Light amid the darkness of human sin and despair.

In Christ You have fulfilled Your promise.

We thank You, Lord.

~*GLORIA PATRI

SCRIPTURE READING         (Isa 49:1-7 NLT)  "Listen to me, all of you in far-off lands!

The LORD called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name.

{2} He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword.

He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.

I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver.

{3} He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory."

{4} I replied, "But my work all seems so useless!

I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose at all.

Yet I leave it all in the Lord's hand; I will trust God for my reward."

{5} And now the LORD speaks--he who formed me in my mother's womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring his people of Israel back to him.

The LORD has honored me, and my God has given me strength.

{6} He says, "You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me.

I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

{7} The LORD, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, says to the one who is despised and rejected by a nation, to the one who is the servant of rulers: "Kings will stand at attention when you pass by.

Princes will bow low because the LORD has chosen you.

He, the faithful LORD, the Holy One of Israel, chooses you.""

MISSION MOMENT

OFFERING                 (Hab 3:17-18 NLT)  "Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, {18} yet I will rejoice in the LORD!

I will be joyful in the God of my salvation."

~*DOXOLOGY

~*PRAYER OF DEDICATION            Gracious Lord, some of us have plenty; some of us have little.

The fortunes of most of us change from time to time; we are sometimes up, sometimes down.

Yet your love for us does not change.

May our love for you never change, even when the way is hard and unpromising.

Bless and use for your honor and glory the little or much that we are able to offer to you.

CHILDREN'S STORY TIME  "This Little Light of Mine"

CHORAL ANTHEM

PRAYER         Gracious God, in Holy Baptism you have called us into the fellowship of saints and have equipped us for the work of ministry.

Keep us faithful to our calling to be your servant people that we might be found blameless when the Lord Christ consummates his glorious kingdom.

Lord, so often we have struggled with just receiving the gift of Your love, and we have failed to understand it is a gift we were meant to pass on.

Too often we have limited the blessings You could bring to the world if only we would share Christ with those around us.

Forgive us, Lord, and through our lives take Christ to the nations.

O God, in so many ways You have touched our lives to give us guidance and show us Your Love.

Give us the wisdom to delight in Your discipline and to proclaim Your love to the world.

~*PREPARATIONAL HYMN             "Take Time To Be Holy"

SCRIPTURE TEXT                 (John 1:29-42 NLT)  "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look!

There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

{30} He is the one I was talking about when I said, 'Soon a man is coming who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before I did.' {31} I didn't know he was the one, but I have been baptizing with water in order to point him out to Israel."

{32} Then John said, "I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him.

{33} I didn't know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, 'When you see the Holy Spirit descending and resting upon someone, he is the one you are looking for.

He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' {34} I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Son of God." {35} The following day, John was again standing with two of his disciples.

{36} As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and then declared, "Look!

There is the Lamb of God!" {37} Then John's two disciples turned and followed Jesus.

{38} Jesus looked around and saw them following.

"What do you want?" he asked them.

They replied, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" {39} "Come and see," he said.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place, and they stayed there the rest of the day.

{40} Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of these men who had heard what John said and then followed Jesus.

{41} The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon, and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means the Christ).

{42} Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus.

Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, "You are Simon, the son of John--but you will be called Cephas" (which means Peter)."

(John 1:29-42 NRSV)  "The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

{30} This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' {31} I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel."

{32} And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

{33} I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' {34} And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God." {35} The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, {36} and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" {37} The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

{38} When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?"

They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" {39} He said to them, "Come and see."

They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.

{40} One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

{41} He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).

{42} He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John.

You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter)."

SERMON        The Lamb of God

Increasingly people are refusing to accept responsibility for their actions.

It's more convenient and less painful, it seems, to blame somebody else -- that other racial group, women, men, parents, and the like -- than take responsibility for oneself.

The Jews placed their sins symbolically on a scapegoat and drove him out into the wilderness.

This may have helped them cope with guilt but it didn't get to the crux of the problem of sin.

~/ God did that in the person of his Son.

~/ John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, "There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

~/ Jesus took our sins to the cross where he crucified them.

He enables us not only to evade the guilt of our sins for a time, he frees us from their power so that we have victory.

Jesus must have communicated a strong sense of being called as the Messiah, for the next day Andrew, one of the two disciples, finds his brother, Peter, and excitedly announces, "We have found the Messiah."

Andrew witnessed as one who has been called by Christ.

Not only does he make a verbal witness but brings his brother to Jesus.

All of these men have one thing in common: They are not fulfilling their own inward desires by responding to a call from outside themselves to be and to act as the Lord's servants.

Those of us who are white cannot fathom the pain of racial prejudice that blacks and other minorities face in our society.

This has been brought to our attention by the riot that followed the first Rodney King trial in Los Angeles.

In that riot a white truck driver was pulled out of his truck and brutally beaten by some young black men.

One of them took a brick and threw it with force at the head of the driver, John Denny.

The man who threw the brick and Denny were both invited to appear on the Phil Donahue show.

Denny is a Christian and does not blame or hate those who attacked him.

He even seems to excuse their actions on account of the conditions they live in.

To forgive them is wonderful, but should he also release them from the responsibility for their actions?

The man who threw the brick, Mr. Washington, says that he is sorry for the harm he has caused Denny but also stated that he does not entirely regret participating in the riot.

The audience in the studio was agitated with Washington because they felt he wasn't really sorry for what he had done, that he was not really ready to confess that he had done wrong.

I think that the audience intuitively understood that Mr. Washington could not rise above his past sins until he owned them and confessed them.

This is not a racial issue; it is a spiritual matter.

What it boils down to is this: We don't need a scapegoat; we need to lay our sins on the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

monologue on "The Lamb of God."   present it with dramatic flair.