Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning!

Welcome to everyone here live and everyone watching online.

I’m so glad you decided to join us today.

It’s that time of year, right?

The time of year that we all start thinking about the changes we need to make to make next year better than this year.

Unless you’re the one person who says, “there’s nothing about my life I want change.

I’m perfectly happy the way things are and I don’t need to change anything.”

Well welcome.

I’m so glad you decided to join us today, Jesus.

After today’s service maybe we can sit down and you can tell me some stories about the disciples.

I’d especially love to hear what was like running around with Peter.

Conversations with a computer

As soon as the phone is answered and it’s a computer my stress level goes through the roof.

Because I know how it’s going to go.

I’m going to keep talking to this stinking computer and having to keep repeating myself till I get so angry, I’m now yelling at the computer to “just put someone on the flippin phone”.

Since I’m not yelling and using Christian cuss words, it’s now understanding me a little less and I get even more mad and start pushing buttons so hard that I make Siri start crying.

And in my fury of pressing ‘0’ fifty times I accidentally hit the hang up button and have to start all over.

I know that’s about to happen so I do everything I can to avoid having to call anyone.

That doesn’t even help sometimes because now we have computers that are calling you.

Grrr!

I don’t even want to call anymore, because I know it’s going to be impossible for me to talk to someone.

I believe that’s how many of us are when it comes to New Year resolutions, or any kind of change we’d like to make to see a happier healthier life.

It seems impossible.

What’s the point in even trying?

Why start something that I don’t believe is going to make a difference?

Maybe you reflect back to last year, when your goal was to get in better shape so you go to the gym and pump some iron.

You go go home feeling great, like you accomplished something, then you wake up the next morning and can’t move.

What’s your first thought?

Yeah, that was dumb.

I ain’t doing that again.

No one wants to make themselves feel pain.

The old saying, ‘no pain, no gain’.

Uh, no…My thought is, ‘no pain....no pain’.

That’s so much better.

We feel like we know how it’s going to turn out.

We know we’re not going to succeed.

We don’t want to feel like a failure so we just never make the goal.

Even though we’ve thought about it and we know what we want/need to do, we choose to not act on it.

But, there’s just something about this time of year makes it impossible not to think about change.

Whether it’s an unofficial New Year resolution, where you don’t really say it or make it a goal, or you’re writing it down in your journal with a sharpie.

It’s almost like it’s just engrained in us.

We reflect back over the year and see what areas could have been better, what areas brought me joy, or what direction I’d like to go in.

It all circles around this idea of happiness.

The driving force behind New Year resolutions and thinking through what change we want to see in our life revolves around improvement.

What can we do in our life to make our life better?

whether it’s an unofficial New Year resolution, where you don’t really say it and make it a goal, or whether you’re writing it down in your journal with a sharpie,

and it all circles around this idea of happiness.

or

Walking towards improvement.

The driving force behind New Year resolutions and thinking through what change we want to see in our life revolves around improvement.

What can we do in our life to make our life better?

Everyone wants their life to be better.

No one is going to go home tonight and start charting out the different ways we can make our life worse.

That’s just weird.

You may write down the different things your spouse is doing, but that’s a different sermon for a different time.

We’d all like to see an improvement in our life in some area and that’s where these resolutions or goals come from.

For some it may be

Getting more organized

Get out of debt

Get in better shape

lose weight

Improve a relationship

Or get in a relationship

We want those things because we believe those are changes we can make to lead us to a happier place in life.

You may be right, but here’s what I’ve learned, even with those changes in place it’s:

As soon as the phone is answered and it’s a computer my stress level goes through the roof.

Because I know how it’s going to go.

I’m going to keep talking to this stinking computer and having to keep repeating myself till I get so angry, I’m now yelling at the computer to “just put someone on the flippin phone”.

Since I’m not yelling and using Christian cuss words, it’s now understanding me a little less and I get even more mad and start pushing buttons so hard that I make Siri start crying.

And in my fury of pressing ‘0’ fifty times I accidentally hit the hang up button and have to start all over.

I know that’s about to happen so I do everything I can to avoid having to call anyone.

That doesn’t even help sometimes because now we have computers that are calling you.

Grrr!

I don’t even want to call anymore, because I know it’s going to be impossible for me to talk to someone.

I believe that’s how many of us are when it comes to New Year resolutions, or any kind of change we’d like to make to see a happier healthier life.

It seems impossible.

What’s the point in even trying?

Why start something that I don’t believe is going to make a difference?

Maybe you reflect back to last year, when your goal was to get in better shape so you go to the gym and pump some iron.

You go go home feeling great, like you accomplished something, then you wake up the next morning and can’t move.

What’s your first thought?

Yeah, that was dumb.

I ain’t doing that again.

No one wants to make themselves feel pain.

The old saying, ‘no pain, no gain’.

Uh, no…My thought is, ‘no pain....no pain’.

That’s so much better.

We feel like we know how it’s going to turn out.

We know we’re not going to succeed.

We don’t want to feel like a failure so we just never make the goal.

Even though we’ve thought about it and we know what we want/need to do, we choose to not act on it.

What does God want for you

Because I honestly believe that 2018 can be the best year of your life up to this point.

It’s something every person can do and it’s not so much revolving around the completion of goals.

Your goals may be included in the progress of the year, but it’s something that, at any point in the year regardless if you’ve given up on your resolution or not, you can begin to do and see positive change begin to take place.

To begin to experience the joy, peace, and happiness you’re wanting.

It’s actually 4 question to ask yourself and 4 principles to live your life by and keep in the forefront of your mind.

And I believe that living by these 4 principles, will help you accomplish your goals, but lead to a happier healthier life and this year can be the best year you’ve ever had.

So I want to give you four questions for you to ask yourself and in those questions tell you four principles to move you toward having the best year of your life.

Direction, not intention determines destination