Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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An artist once made a sketch of a wintry twilight.
The trees were laden with snow; and a dreary-looking house, lonely and desolate, stood in the midst of the drifted field.
It was a bleak and depressing picture.
Then the artist took some yellow chalk and with a few quick strokes put a light in one window of that home.
The effect was almost magical.
The entire scene was transformed into a vision of comfort and cheer.
Likewise, the birth of Christ brought the luster of hope to this dark world.
You'd think people would have rejoiced and eagerly received the Saviour.
Instead, they lived on in their own dismal depravity, and with wicked hands they crucified the Prince of Life.
The second person of the Trinity had come to illuminate them spiritually, but they "loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19).
On this Christmas Day let us rejoice that Jesus the true Light visited this sin-smitten planet 2,000 years ago to cast the joyous rays of His salvation upon our pathway.
Three Plagues We All May Suffer
A. The Plague of the Darkness of the Former (Our Past)
Ungodly Decisions
Unwise Actions
Unchangeable Deeds
B. The Plague of the Darkness of the Immediate (Our Present)
A Family in Crisis
A Neighborhood Out of Control
A Nation Heading Toward Chaos
C. The Plague of the Darkness of the Impending (Uncertain Fut.)
The Uncertainty of Where (I will go, be or will die)
The Uncertainty of When (I will become sick, need help or die)
The Uncertainty of How (I will live, Take Care, or die)
The Challenge Then, Is How to Become Inoculated Against:
The Plague of Depression over What I have done,
My Unhealthy Anger over The way Things Are and
The Anxiety about Where When and How Something may happen to me…
The Plan to Beat the Plague
During the French Revolution political prisoners were herded into dungeons.
In one place a prisoner possessed a Bible.
His cell was crammed with men who wanted to hear the Word of God.
Once each day for only a few moments, a small shaft of light would come through a tiny window near the ceiling.
The prisoners devised a plan whereby they would lift the owner of the Bible onto their shoulders and into the sunlight.
There, in that position, he would study the Scriptures.
Then they would bring him down and say, "Tell us now, friend, what did you read while you were in the light?"
That remains the sacred, sweaty task of the preacher: to share with his people what he has learned in the light.
The First Step in Beating Depression, Anger, Anxiety and Any Sin that Plagues Me is Agreement With God of Where I Have Been
An old story tells of a desert nomad who awakened in the middle of the night.
He lit a candle and began eating dates from a bowl beside his bed.
He took a bite from one and saw a worm in it; so he threw it out of the tent.
He picked up a second date, took a bite out of it and found another worm.
He threw that date out of the tent too.
Then he picked up a third date, took a bite out of it and found another worm.
He threw that one away also.
He was very hungry, and reasoning that he wouldn't have any dates left to eat if he continued, he blew out the candle and very quickly ate the rest of the dates.
Many of us are like that.
We prefer darkness and denial to the light of reality.
The Second Step in Beating Depression, Anger, Anxiety and Any Sin that Plagues Me is Acceptance of Where I Am Now
Illustration: Boy with light
A dairy farmer told his son to go out to the barn and get a tool he left there.
It was night and the little boy was afraid.
The father lit the lantern which cast a circle of light on the ground.
He gave the lantern to his son and said, "Walk to the edge of the light."
Soon the boy was walking past the old stump, past the fence, past the pond -- and at last he reached the barn.
He could not see the barn from the house where he started, but by walking to the edge of his light he made it safely to the barn and back to the house in the surrounding darkness.
Jesus said of himself, "I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness."
John 8:12
The Third Step in Beating Depression, Anger, Anxiety and Any Sin the Plagues Me is Anticipation of Where I am Going
I know not what the long years hold Of winter days and summer clime;
But this I know: when life grows old It shall be light -- at evening time.
I cannot tell what boon awaits To greet me with the falling night;
But this I know: beyond the gates, At evening time, it shall be light.
- Thomas Curtis Clark
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