Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

There are some weird people at church isn't there?

The overaggressive huggers who always bypass side-hugging for the full-on hug

The under-aggressive people who shake your hand like a limp noodle

The Baby Boomer who isn’t confident enough to dole out wisdom to Millennials like me

The know-it-all in life group who “christ-splains” everything in a condescending manner

The external processor who takes up precious social energy by working out meandering thoughts aloud

The person who manages to ask horribly offensive and personal questions under the guise of kind-hearted concern

The sweaty-handed people who lay their entire damp palms on your shoulder when they pray for you

The overly expressive worshiper who makes you feel embarrassed, distracted, and maybe if your honest a little self-consciously stiff

The person who frequently weeps during service, making you feel like an emotionless faux Christian

The (“fear of missing out”) members who say they’ll be at every event but often flake out at the last minute because something better comes up

The far-too-happy person whose perpetual smile makes you think it must mask something sinister

The person who has shaken hands with you twelve times but still can’t remember your name

The guy who thinks every discussion among men must involve meat, beer, cigars, sports, or guns

The “I’m not your typical Christian!” who goes out of their way to nonconformity while showing you their tattoos

The super bible scholar who shoots bible verses out faster then Wyatt Earp’s quick draw

Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community (8 Uncomfortable People)

Scott Sauls = “joining your imperfect self to many other imperfect selves to form an imperfect community that, through Jesus, embarks on a journey toward a better future . . .

together.”

This is the uncomfortable but beautiful struggle of being the church…

Spurgeon = “The church may be faulty, but that is no excuse for your not joining it, if you are the Lord’s.

Nor should you feel disqualified by your own faults, for the Church is not an institution for perfect people, but a sanctuary for sinners saved by Grace, who, though they are saved, are still sinners and need all the help they can derive from the sympathy and guidance of their fellow Believers.”

This is what makes up our uncomfortable Fellowship

PRAYER

Our God in heaven we thank you for people.

You have created us in your image and then use each of us as living stones to build your church.

We thank you for allowing us the gift of being a part of this body of believers.

Message

His church is His people.

It is impossible to be in Christ and not belong to others.

A Christian, by definition, has a connection with and a responsibility to other Christians.

You cannot claim Christ and avoid his people.

= Sam Allberry

There is no I in Church

football team / basketball team / hockey team / soccer team / curling…

Me and Jesus

salvation is personal not corporate… However

to say you love Jesus but not church is to say you love a decapitated head !!

Eph 5.23 “23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”

When the going gets tough… the tough get going …

YOLO | FOMO

Story of Narcissus in Greek mythology

became so self focused that it caused him to waste away and die…

We are stones

Have you ever seen a stone built cottage?

how do they fit?… does this church fit you?… backward!!

“We shouldn’t look for a church that will change to fit us.

We should look for one where we will be changed to better represent Christ.”

Eph 2.19-22 “19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

HE is cornerstone - We are being put together for Him

Family life is messy but beautiful

share our stuff

share our hearts

share our hurts

more than a nuclear family

Young married women, welcome in the single women who struggle with same-sex-attracted for genuine plutonic friendship!

Scandal of the Samaritan Woman | Woman caught in Adultery

Who is my mother, my sister, my brother?

1 Corinthians 6:11 “11 And such were some of you.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

His church is His people… His people are difficult… Being a part of the body is uncomfortable !!

His command is Love.

Christ loved you before you loved him.

He loved you when there was nothing good in you.

He loved you though you insulted him, though you despised him and rebelled against him.

He has loved you right on, and never ceased to love you.

He has loved you in your backslidings and loved you out of them.

He has loved you in your sins, in your wickedness and folly.

His loving heart was still eternally the same, and he shed his heart’s blood to prove his love for you.

He has given you what you want on earth, and provided for you an habitation in heaven.

Now Christian, your religion claims from you that you should love as your Master loved.

How can you imitate him, unless you love too? = CHARLES SPURGEON

Love isn’t a feeling its a commitment.

Does that have any romance in it?

Elisa is not my soul mate… She does not complete me!… Jesus is… Jesus Does!!

fireworks, butterflies

fireworks burn out and butterflies die

“If marriage is just about us feeling happy, then the minute a marriage stops delivering happiness, it is easy to justify ending it.”

Does it have any commitment in it?

1 Jhn 3.16 “16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

“Cruciform love doesn’t always feel rewarding and it doesn’t always look like progress.

But it does look like sacrifice and servanthood.

Which is to say, it looks like Jesus”

Love doesn't serve self it serves others.

Love is not about you!! … So counter cultural I will repeat…

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 “4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude.

It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

This sort of self-giving love works because it is how God-in-three-persons functions.

The other-serving love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one in which each “magnifies the other, wants the other to have the glory, and wherever possible gives to the other.”

Relational / Reciprocal

Love isn't always nice it pushes us toward holiness.

Men… what is the right answer when she asks if this dress makes her look fat?...

Love =/= Tolerance… Love = Truth

Nazareth (1976) - “Love Hurts, love scars, love wounds, and marks!”

Reduced to:

culturally and politically correct, endlessly tolerant

religious duty and the accountants moral ledger book