Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning, You never know how things can change from one week to the next… On Thursday morning we woke up to a flume of smoke over Paradise…what started out as a brush fire soon grew into a raging inferno that has now burned over 100 000 acres of land and destroyed several thousand home and buildings..

I heard that the damage caused by the 50 mile winds described as burning 80 FootBall fields per minute..

The people of paradise had very little warning and many were unable to evacuate before the fire arrived.

The suddenness of he fire led to a major Traffic congestion - It was so bad that on the evacuation routes there were people who abandoned their cars and left on foot… There are incredible stories of how people survived --- and many instances quite miraculously.

One Fox news reported that this wild fire known now as “Camp Fire” is officially the worst fire in California’s history!

That is really stunning and somewhat shocking.. …

I would venture to say that most of us know family and friends who have lost everything they own--- From Homes, to possessions, memories and possibly face unemployment …

Just want say that we have amazing people in this community and I am so thankful for many of you who reached out… and helped us and others in this crisis..

We as church sheltered 13 people during the week - and again thankful for food and responses for bedding..

We are in series in the Epistles of 1John and over the past several Weeks...

John the beloved disciple of Jesus....has been telling us what it looks like to be follower of Jesus..

One of the words that comes up is the word AGAPEO.... it comes up 60 times in the Epistles of John.... John tells us that true Children of God are Marked by the quality of Love.. Children of God are those who love God… but it doesn’t end there it overflows into loving others.…

John desires that Christians are not only known by their confession of faith… or through their orthodoxy (good Theology) but also that our Belief are expressed in our daily living.

.…

John puts Faith Deeds and Truth all on the same shelf..

True Faith is not stagnant it requires Action and engagement in lives of other people…When you think with the huge needs that are currently surrounding us… We don’t have to ask the question who is my neighbor..… because the need is right here on our door step… We are too love out loud through our Faith.. and our deeds..

John is coming to the conclusion this Epistle and so in a sense He is summarizing some of the things he has already mentioned... John knows that these 1 st Century Christians are going to face some difficulties…and he wants them to have the tools over Overcome difficulties and trial they are may face...

Life is going to be full of challenges a John is calling us to be Overcomes.

When our children were younger we lived… close to the University of Maine who had this Rock Climbing Wall which was open to the public.. and it was a great activity for out kids.

The wall was about 30 feet tall and at the top there was this button that the kids would press when they reached the top… There were various sequence of Anchors they would hold onto to traverse to the top…it took a lot of skill and maneuvering to get from one anchor to the next… life is like that wall… we all have something that is in front of us… A challenge of sorts..

Each of our challenges may look a little difference… But we are all called to overcome the challenge…

The key to Overcoming —getting to the top... is Holding onto the right Anchors - The early church knew the importance of Anchors..

You may have hear of the catacombs in Rome, these are tunnels under the ancient city, where many of the early Christians were buried, and you can see the symbols of faith on their tombs.

Three common symbols appear: the dove, the fish, and the anchor.

The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

The letters of the Greek word for "fish," ichthus, stand for the words Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior.

Then there is the symbol of the Anchor - The anchor came from the idea that as Christians were going through difficult, insecure times, their hope anchored their souls...

Part of me wonders if some of these Christian heard John’s sermon in First John...

T/S In Chapter 5 John shares with these early Christian key Anchors of the Christian faith that are going to keep them in the midst of some difficult times…

T/s How do we keep you from becoming unglued in sticky world.

1. Stick to your True Identity as a Child of God.

The first (Theological) Anchor is to..

Depend fully on Jesus as our Savior.

John says

5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God

John tells us that Everyone who believes - This is inclusive language and it is referring to the extent of the Gospel....

The gospel is not just for a select few…the privileged… the message is for everyone... It’s the same language John uses in…

Whoever Believes in Jesus has Eternal life..

The offer of Salvation is offer available to all people... However the condition of being a Child of God is through believing… Believing simply means to put your faith in something or someone … There is a lot of things we can have faith in… we can believe in others… we can have belief in ourselves… What’s important about Faith is the object of Faith..

The object of Belief in our text is Jesus Christ.

It is not simply belief but belief the that Jesus IS - the Christ.

The Greek word eimi IS/BE identical to something- That Jesus is indeed the CHRISTOS… The anointed One or the Messiah...

This seems so basic… But how many times to we try and save ourselves…

How many times do get to the Rock wall and we try and do it on our own… We want to find our own path up…and often we get Stuck and unglued…

John Wesley great revival preacher and founder of the Methodist Church was raised by an incredible woman Susanna Wesley… Susanna had 19 children in 21 years she personally educated and mentored her children and taught them the scriptures…

But on day in 1701 the church parsonage burn down and everyone was accounted except for Jackie or John Wesley….Fortunately a neighbor saw John standing in the window… and he was subsequently rescued with a ladder… Susanna recognized that it was God who saved John that day..... that God had a purpose for Him....

She often called John a “brand plucked from the fire.

Taken from a scripture

John Wesley ministry was impacted by his mothers words.. “A Brand Plucked from the fire” and he often remembered her mothers words..

Sussane knew that God rescued her Son for a purpose…

John the Beloved disciple is telling us that True Faith are those who not only recognize Jesus as God --- but as have accept Jesus as their rescuer... their personal savior..

John is saying in these verses… Those who are born again are those who are Anchored in Jesus being their Messiah --- Their deliverer… their Savior..

John gives us the next Theological Anchor..

b.

Deepen our Love for The Father and for others

John has just defined the core belief that Jesus is the Christ - the Anchor of Believing in Jesus as the Savior.. and then in the very next breathe he is telling us that Faith has an expression…that it expresses it self in love… First to the the Father then to others.

We talk about the love of God extensively last week… John told us that “God is Love”… It is His Central attribute…and every other attribute His justice, Righteousness, holiness.. comes from the place of love...

love is fluid… we receive love… but we also are to express love..

Love is the most powerful Influence in the world....

When you think what terrorism has done in our world… How it has changed the way we think and the way we travel… Terrorism is motivated by fear… we have to have security with Fear… .

The opposite is true of love…

John says perfect love cast out Fear… In other words LOVE brings Freedom....

The apostle Paul tells us that there are three primary Christian virtues Faith Hope and Love… But love towers over the rest… In Context of the spiritual gifts.. Paul tells us,..

Love is the greatest virtue… The question How do we become more loving?

How do we hold onto the Anchor of love...

WE FOCUS ON THE FATHER…Johns says “and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.”

Love centered on anything other than God is the opposite of love.

- Augustine

When we focus on the Love of God… It changes our worldview..

We see the love of the father in that he laid aside

This is the inflow of the Fathers love that now flows into loving others who are born of God.... we love God so it is going to flow into our relationships...

John gives another Theological Anchor and that is

C. Obedience to His commandments.

2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

In his TED Talk, "The Paradox of Choice," psychologist Barry Schwartz claims that many of us live by this unspoken but “belief that we bought into — And that is IF WE maximize our happiness by maximizing our individual freedom.

And according to Schwartz, "The way to maximize freedom is to maximize choice."

For example — a local supermarket offers 175 different kinds of salad dressing — we would say that we have more freedom… The paradox of Choice is that we Need boundaries… we need boundaries...

Schwartz ended his talk by pointing to a fish in a fishbowl as he said:

The truth of the matter is that if you shatter the fishbowl so that everything is possible, you don't have freedom.

You have paralysis.

If you shatter this fishbowl so that everything is possible, you decrease satisfaction …

Everybody needs a fishbowl … The absence of some metaphorical fishbowl is a recipe for misery, and, I suspect, disaster…

John tells us that one of the Anchors in our lives is that we obey the word of God.

It is so easy to turn love for God into a mushy emotional experience, but John does not allow this in his epistle.

Love for the brethren means love that expresses itself “with actions and in truth” (3:18).

Similarly, love for God means a love that expresses itself in obedience to his commandments...

John qualifies our Obedience — It is not the pharisaical kind of obedience - the Pharisees had created thousands of minute requirements by which the central commands of the law were to be guarded.

But they were not God’s commands, nor were they life-giving.

They were burdensome.

Jesus cut through these man-made rules to expose the central heart attitudes that were required but that God would himself supply in his regenerated people

Are not burdensome, or ‘are not hard,’ ‘are not difficult to keep/follow/obey’; or ‘are easy,’ ‘are do-able’ (as one language expresses the concept of being easy).—The

present tense of the verb serves to characterize the statement as a general truth.

The reason why Obedience is not burdensome is because it is a byproduct of a healthy Christian life.

When we have focused on the love of God --- … There is freedom in love not restrictions… The result is a positive energy involved in obedience.

Now there is another Theological Anchor that is going to keep us from becoming unglued..

d .

Don’t settle - BE an Overcomer..

John says who every is born of God is an Overcomer-

4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.

And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Overcomes the world.