Sermon Tone Analysis

Do you remember when you first fell in love?

Remember the feeling, the emotions, the physical feelings you experienced.

You would look at the object of your love and would do anything for them.

You wanted to spend every waking moment you could with them.

When you looked at them you were transfixed by their sight.

As your love grew and matured it became deeper.

While you may have been initially physically attracted to your love, you begin to understand and develop a deeper love for who they are.

Familiarity begins to enrich the love you have for them.

There is a danger though.

Familiarity may also breed contempt as you begin to realize that the object of your love is not perfect.

A choice must be made, do you focus on the imperfections in your love or do you overlook them and allow those imperfections to become part of the reasons you deeply love them.

In order to do the later, you have to hang on to that first love you felt for each other.

You see the deeper love you developed can enhance the initial love you felt for each other.

The love you have will be challenged by life, but if you can continue to kindle that initial love and the deeper love you have for each other you will persevere through whatever life can throw at you.

You can tell when a couple has persevered when as an aging couple they are still deeply in love to the point that they will do anything for each other and want to spend every waking moment together loving each other.

This is the kind of love that Jesus has for us, and the kind of love He wants us to feel towards Him.

He wants us to be willing to do anything for Him.

He wants to spend every waking moment with us and wants us to feel the same about Him.

The difference is that from the start, Jesus knows everything about us, including our imperfections, and loves us deeply in spite of them.

He wants us to know Him deeper, and to love Him deeper to where we live every moment in His presence.

Philippians

Romans 8:0

Abiding in Christ

Synopsis

The NT stresses the need for believers to remain in Christ.

The reality of this close personal relationship with Jesus Christ is expressed in obedience to his word and is essential to effective discipleship.

Jesus Christ tells his disciples to abide in him

(ESV) — 4 Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Abide in my love.

NT writers exhort believers to abide in Christ

(ESV) — 10 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

(ESV) — 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

(ESV) — 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”

NT writers exhort believers to abide in Christ

(ESV) — 6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

(ESV) — 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

(ESV) — 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

(ESV) — 1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

(ESV) — 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Abiding in Christ depends upon holding on to his teaching

(ESV) — 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.

If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

Experiencing the word not just reading it.

textbook teaching about riding a bike

Faith does indeed come by hearing the Word, but faith grows by experiencing the Word.

Faith and experience turn hope into manifested reality.

(ESV) — 15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.

(ESV) — 15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.

(ESV) — 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it

textbook teaching about riding a bike

(ESV) — 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth.

4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

(ESV) — 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.

Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

Faith does indeed come by hearing the Word, but faith grows by experiencing the Word.

Faith and experience turn hope into manifested reality.

(ESV) — 31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

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(ESV) — 31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

You have communion with God’s Spirit through your spirit.

Your body is in touch with the earthly things of the world around you, receiving and responding through the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

Your soul consists of your mind, your will, and your emotions—your character and personality.

Your mind is like a mainframe computer that is constantly gathering information from the world through the terminals of your senses.

The mind receives or rejects input according to what it has been pre-programmed to receive, analyzing what it does accept to arrive at various conclusions.

These conclusions are strongly influenced by what your senses perceive as truth.

Unfortunately, your senses can be completely deceived—as anyone knows who has ever watched a magician or a ventriloquist.

Your emotions come into play to flavor your mind’s conclusions.

Emotions are like powerful God given spices to enhance your life.

These emotional spices add delicious flavor at times, or can overpower and ruin everything when allowed to pour forth in huge amounts.

Just imagine the difference in an apple pie made with half a teaspoon of the spice nutmeg compared to an apple pie made with half a pound of nutmeg.

Filled with sensory perception and emotional flavoring, your mind’s conclusions are then downloaded to your will for some form of action—fight, flight, fidget, or file for later.

Sometimes your will authorizes a reaction quite the opposite of what your born-again spirit would advise.

(ESV) — 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it

To respond wisely to your circumstances, your mind, will, and emotions must be submitted to the will of God and the mind of Christ to override erroneous input from your senses and emotions.

If you are not, you can make very wrong choices.

The best choice you ever made was to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.

Every other choice you make from that point on, even the wrong ones, will ultimately be worked together for good when you love God and are called according to His purposes ().

(ESV) — 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.

Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

It depends on obedience to him

It depends on obedience to him

It depends on obedience to him

(ESV) — 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

(ESV) — 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

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(ESV) — 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

(ESV) — 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

(ESV) — 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.