Sermon Tone Analysis

Heaven on Earth

No matter how hard he tried, Herod could not halt the plans of God.

“Our songs of peace and public displays of charity have not erased the headlines of child poverty, gun violence, and even genocide.

This is a brutal world.”

God had a plan to bring grace and mercy to humanity through Jesus Christ.

Nothing could stop this from happening.

Christmas is a time when we come together with family, release our troubles, and celebrate the holidays.

But what do we do when Christmas isn’t a joyful season?

What about when it brings more hurt than it brings happiness?

Evil shines brightly in this passage.

Jesus came into a dark world to shine a bright, redeeming light.

Dorothy Sayers wrote, “The incarnation means that for whatever reason God chose to let us fall into a condition of being limited, to suffer, to be subject to sorrows and death—he has nonetheless had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine...

He himself has gone through the whole of human experience...

He was born in poverty and... suffered infinite pain—all for us—and thought it well worth his while”

Finally, if Jesus is God himself, become human, we live with an irrepressible, infallible hope.

Some day all deformity, decay, sin, disease, imperfection will be wiped away.

Whatever problem we face—whether disease or injustice or some other suffering—eventually God’s power will triumph over it.

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Jesus is God— and that means ‘God has landed’!

Jesus is man—and that means God cares for us.

God has become human; the ideal has penetrated the real and is transforming it into his likeness.

The world is destined for joy sooner or later, and so are all those who ‘love and long for his appearing.’

Jesus is God— and that means ‘God has landed’!

Jesus is man—and that means God cares for us.

God has become human; the ideal has penetrated the real and is transforming it into his likeness.

The world is destined for joy sooner or later, and so are all those who ‘love and long for his appearing.’

Despite the difficult circumstances that come your way, know that nothing can separate you from God’s love, forgiveness, and redemption.

He is “God with us.”