Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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Anger
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Agreeableness
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Anger
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The Gift Of Righteousness—Genesis 15:1-6
 
/“By faith //Abraham// sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land,/
/living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.”
/*/Hebrews 11:9/*
 
/ “…Those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness /
/will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.//”
*Romans 5:17b*/
 
 
God Considers My Faith As Righteousness: Verses 1-6
 
1.
Even If I Am *[AFRAID]* My Commitment Is Worthless.
/“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”//
*Verse 1*/
 
/”7Hearken to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not… 8 … my deliverance will be for ever, and my salvation to all generations.//”
*Isaiah 51:7-8*/
 
 
2.
When I’ve [*QUESTIONED]* That My Commitment Is Unrewarded.
/“2 But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of //Damascus//?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, thou hast given me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir.”//
*Verses 2-3*/
/ /
/“1 Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my supplications!
In thy faithfulness answer me, in thy righteousness! 2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for no man living is righteous before thee.”*
*/*/Psalms 143:1-2/*
 
 
3.
By *[SENDING]* His Word In Response To My Faltering Commitment.
/“4And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.”
Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”// *Verses 4-5*/
 
God’s Word Steadies My Commitment By:
 
¨      CORRECTING MY FAULTY LOGIC: /“There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is                                                                      the way to death.”
*Proverbs 14:12*/
/ /
¨      POINTING ME TO HIS GREATNESS: /“It is he who made the earth by his power, who established                                                                                the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding                                                                                 stretched out the heavens.
*Jeremiah** 51:15*/
/ /
¨      GIVING ME HOPE: “/For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that                                       by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have                                           hope.”
*Romans 15:4*/
 
4.
And Not My *[DEFICIENT]* Commitment.
/“And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness”//.
*Verse 6*/
/ /
*WHY MY FAITH IS RECKONED AS RIGHTEOUSNESS BY GOD*
 
Ú  Because My Works Cannot Merit My Justification
/“And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly,/
/his faith is reckoned as righteousness.”//
*Romans 4:5*/
/ /
Ú Because Through My Faith I Am Born Of Abraham’s Seed
/“6 Thus //Abraham// “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”/
/7 //So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”/
*/Galatians 3:6-7/*
/ /
Ú Because Commitment Along With Active Faith Makes Me God’s Friend.
/“22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works,/
/23 //and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned/
/ to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.”/ */James/**/ 2:22-23/*
/ /
/ /
\\ Do you sometimes feel that no matter how hard you try to be a Christian that you are rewarded with a lot of problems, a lot of frustration, and a lot of criticism?
I’ve sat in this auditorium with you and felt lonely and worthless and wondered if my work really mattered.
As a congregation you have been wonderful to me and mine.
Most of you I feel very close to, and I love every one of you unquestioningly.
Every now and then one of you will say something that will warm my heart to overflowing.
It’s not that you caused these lonely feelings or made me feel frustrated.
I have no complaints about Vaughn Hill.
No it is something else all together.
This thing that causes these feelings lives within my heart, and probably does in yours too.
It goes unrecognized but it erupts in my doubts and frustrations.
It makes me depressed and sometimes leads me into the sins of envy and jealousy.
What is it?
It is fear.
It is the fear of failure.
It is the fear of how I appear to you.
It is the fear that God will not reward my commitment to him or you.
Because commitment without faith is a pit of quicksand that sucks you down into a smothering hole of despair.
The opposite of fear is faith, and if we are going to meet the challenge of commitment this year we must learn to believe.
That is why the example of Abram is important.
The Bible says, /“By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.”/
He journeyed through Canaan like a foreigner.
As far as I can tell the only thing he owned of the land were grave plots in a cave.
He has no security in the land of promise.
He has to deal with famine, family conflict, and even a terrible war.
He is truly a stranger in a very strange and dangerous place, so all that he could do was to live every day by faith.
By faith Abram lived and became rich beyond what he would ever spend in his lifetime.
By faith his name became great and well respected by the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Salem.
By faith God shields him with supernatural protection through the famine, conflict with Lot, and the war with the four kings, so why is Abram afraid?
He’s afraid because the promise most important to him has not materialized.
It was the gift more precious than all the others.
It was the gift of Isaac.
Abram in Genesis 15 is depressed and fearful.
Even though he is rich, honored, and blessed by Melchizedek the priest of God Almighty Abram needs to be reassured because of his fear.
He’s seen God do everything He promised except for one thing.
He was still without a son.
And Abram is afraid he will never have a boy of his own.
It was not time for Isaac and Abram was sinking into that hole of despair.
However that was not the gift God gave him in Genesis 15.
God was not ready for Isaac to be born.
What God did give him was acceptance.
The Bible calls this the gift of grace and righteousness.
Paul in Romans chapter four argues that faith is the means through which God accepts you and not works or commitment.
Paul is not arguing that works are unimportant.
He would agree that faith without commitment is dead.
But he would never say that your commitment earns you the right to be accepted.
So in chapter 5 he reasons that grace through faith is how one is accepted by God.
And that God gifts what we cannot obtain ourselves.
He says, “/Those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”/
Our power over death to reign in life with God is what God does through Jesus.
What God does is that he accepts us without our merits (that is grace), and reckons our faith which is not righteous as acceptable righteousness.
He can do this for you because Jesus, Abram’s seed and God’s Son, died and was raised from the dead.
This is how God accepts you and it is how God accepted Abram.
Abram’s encounter with God is so instructive if you’ve ever been afraid, or questioning, or faltering, or felt your commitment was deficient.
He is like a lot of us who know we ought to be totally one hundred per cent committed to God.
But when we consider our commitment we are discouraged.
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