Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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The Most Important Decision You Can Make
Be your own CEO
Be in a good mood
To focus on the right things
To love yourself
Who to model your success after
To be willing to change
Now, I feel all these things.
I think there are all important decisions to make.
However, I think there is one that is more important than all these.
I mean, obviously, right?
This is church.
But I want you to think about something.
What do all these have in common: They’re about you becoming self-fulfilled.
I want to be more successful, so I’ll be my CEO and I’ll find a successful model, or I want to be happy, so I’ll be in a good mood and I’ll love myself.
The decision to join the Christian story is not primarily a decision toward self-fulfillment (although I think that gets wrapped up in it).
The decision to join the Christian story is about giving away yourself to the God of the universe who made himself known in Jesus.
The Most Important Decision of Your Life is to Receive the Message of Jesus.
Paul is explaining the experience of the Thessalonians when they heard the message of God, and how they responded.
Here’s what happened.
Paul shows up in Thessalonica and he preaches the gospel in the synagogue (Jewish church) there.
But it’s not just words, the Holy Spirit shows up flexing, and the Thessalonians decide to receive, and not to reject, the message.
And that means, then, that their lives are changed as they throw their idols on the ground and stomp on ‘em and they go and follow Jesus instead.
And they do that even though they were different from the world around them, so different that they suffered for it.
And then, this story of their faith spread out to all the people all over and encouraged all the other churches in the area.
Do you feel like you have “full assurance” of your faith?
How? (v. 5)
Does your faith in Jesus bring you joy?
How so?
Does it ever not bring you joy? (v. 6)
Do you think this is the most important decision of you life?
Why?
Receive the Message
In verse six it says that they received the message with joy.
And this is the message: The good news of the gospel.
In the beginning—in fact, before the beginning—God existed.
and God, out of love, decided to create everything that is, every galaxy and every microbe.
And he created you and me as his image, his representatives on earth.
But, we messed that up pretty good.
We all, each and everyone of us, has broken God’s commands and rejected goodness, so the whole world was being driven into chaos, brokenness, and evil.
But, God chose a tiny, little nation—Israel—and he promised them that through their family, God would rescue the world.
In their worst times, they had prophets who reminded them that God was sending a king who would fix everything, everywhere, forever.
And then one day, a baby is born who is God himself: Jesus, the King.
The people didn’t get it.
They rejected him.
They killed him.
But three days later, he rose from the dead, and it was in his death and resurrection that he absorbed the sin of the world, defeating sin and death forever.
Finally, one day, he will come back and set up his perfect kingdom here on earth.
That’s the gospel.
That’s the message the Thessalonians received.
And it’s the message that has come all the way down to you, here, now.
Will you receive it?
Have you received it?It starts with belief.
Do you believe that God really exists?
Do you believe that Jesus really is God?
Do you believe that Jesus really rose from the dead?
Do you believe that his death and resurrection saves you from your sin? Do you believe that heaven is coming?
& When they receive it, it comes with the power of the Holy Spirit, and full assurance of truth.
I want to take a moment to talk about this idea.
So, when we become Christians, we get the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is with us, encouraging us, and teaching us the truth of the gospel.
Now, I think it’s important to try to step outside of 21st century, western culture, because we hear the word truth and we can’t help but think proof.
Like I did a science experiment, or I did a logical proof, and this is the 100% certain answer, and it’s literally un-doubtable that this is a fact.
Can I be honest with you?
There are lots of things that I am unsure about related to Christianity.
I do not have all the answers.
Doubt is a part of every Christian’s life.
We see doubt in the Bible!
The psalms and prophets sometimes are like, what’s the deal, God?? So, doubt is normal.
But the Holy Spirit gives us this burning conviction that the gospel is TRUE, in a deeper sense than just it makes sense of the evidence.
The Christian story, that there is something wrong with the world, with me, and God did something about it by flipping all our human expectations on their head—it rings true deep in the core of who I am.
What do you find about the gospel message exciting?
What is hard to believe?
Do you feel like you have “full assurance” of your faith?
How? (v. 5)
But it shouldn’t end at belief.
It didn’t end there for the Thessalonians.
Their belief translated into action.
You know, we know a lot of stuff, but that doesn’t always mean that we do it.
There was this Greek philosopher named Aristotle who said basically: You know the good, you do the good.
But that’s not how it has worked in my life.
I know that it’s good for me to run to stay in shape.
I know that it’s good for me to do my homework instead of playing Geometry Dash.
I know that it’s good for me to say, “yes, Karly” even when she’s wrong.
But I don’t do them all the time!
So, it can’t just be about knowing about Jesus.
It has to involve action.
You also need to reject your old self, and follow Jesus instead.
Serve Jesus Instead Of Yourself
In verse nine, we find out that the Thessalonians, when they decided to follow Jesus, they turned away from their idols to serve God.
Not just any god, but the Living and True God.
Because these idols, these false gods, they weren’t real.
They were just statues.
But Jesus, God himself, was a person in the flesh, living and true.
Jesus is so much better than any of the fakers that this world has to offer.
We don’t usually have little statues in our houses, but we do have things that we worship.
But none of them compare to God.
Worship your popularity or success, but you’ll never feel as significant as you do in Jesus.
Worship your happiness, but you’ll never have the joy that you do in Jesus.
Worship yourself, but you’ll never be as fulfilled as you are in Jesus.
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