Sermon Tone Analysis

March, 8, 2012

By John Barnett

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This morning the God of the Universe is seeking something—God is looking for individuals who will worship Him.

We were all born, alienated from God, by our sin.

But Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost by taking our place on the cross and paying the price for our sin.

The Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus did all that needs to be done to take away the penalty and power of our sin so that we can worship our Creator.

Open with me to Christ's words in John 4:22.

John 4:22-28/ “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

23 “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ).

“When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”/ NKJV

This morning salvation is turning towards Christ in faith and away from sin.

At the instant of salvation, as Jesus told this woman at the well, we become worshippers.

But we have so many hindrances all around us to fully offering that worship that God the Father seeks from us.

That is why we are studying edification this morning.

We need to be:

*Edified (Built up) To Worship*

Now, turn with me to I Peter 2:4 and listen to what we all need this morning.

1 Peter 2:5 /"you also, as living stones, are *being built up* (there is our word “edified”) a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."/

In order to offer worship as God desires, we all need to be a part of a lifelong building project that God has called the Church.

There have been some amazing building projects in history.

Noah building the ark; the Pharaohs building the pyramids 500 years before Abraham; and Solomon building God’s first temple a thousand years before Christ's Birth; Herod the Great building the Temple Mount of Christ's day; the Great Wall of China; and even recently the us governments interstate highway system…these all were monumental building projects.

But, the greatest construction project of all time has also been going on the longest.

For 2000 years God has been building up Christ's church using gifted workers with a blend of seven skill sets to make holy temples out of living stones that are sending clouds of worship before God’s Throne in heaven.

This morning you have come to the greatest construction project on Earth.

Christ's Church is God’s massive building project.

It stretches across our land and around the world and extends all the way up to the Sea of Glass surrounding God’s Throne.

An old hymn used to remind believers of what God was doing to us through the church.

The hymn was “O To Be Like Thee” and had one clear statement of edification when it says, “fitted for life and service above”.

Every day we need to be built up in our walk so that we can be better fitted for life and more prepared for the worship we offer now and will be offering forever above.

*The Church as God Sees Us*

Down here we only see the construction, but up there we see the offerings of worshipping saints.

Look with me at the finished product, what all of the edification or building up that we are to be each involved in doing, is for.

Turn with me to I Peter 2 where Peter shows us the Church functioning as God sees us and desires us to serve.

1 Peter 2:4-10 /"Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.9

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."/

NKJV

Do you see what God is doing?

He is taking each of us as we are saved and placing us into Christ's church.

There we are to be offering our lives as living sacrifices of worship.

Just as we are to do forever in Heaven (worship Him) so we are to be doing now as we go through our earthly lives.

Peter wrote to people living and working in the Roman Empire.

This letter went to the Roman Province of Asia (modern Turkey) where there was a very high degree of civilization.

People had to work just like today just to survive.

But Peter said, as you go to work—you are to worship.

As you go through life—you are a priest to God.

Becoming a temple of living stones that each is offering worship and collectively are a temple to God is not easy.

That is why Peter surrounds this description of what God wants and how we are to offer Him worship with all of these exhortations.

Note all the struggles these believers faced.

• They had to be reminded to put away the old life (2:1).

• They had to be encouraged to eat spiritual food (2:2-3).

• They had to be often reminded that this world is not their home (2:11a).

• They needed strong exhortations to abstain from feeding the flesh (2:11b).

• They had to be reminded and taught how to be living a lifestyle that pointed to the Lord (2:12).

• They had to be submissive to the laws of society around them (2:13-17).

• They had to learn to work hard for their employers (2:18).

• They had to learn to go through hard times or suffering affliction and not quit (2:19-21)

When saints are out of fellowship with the Lord, out of harmony with each other, out of line in their spiritual lives—we can’t offer pleasing worship.

Only a clean, humbled, and Spirit-filled saint can offer acceptable worship.

So we are all called to be some part of mending and building up other believers.

That is why every one of us has a spiritual gift set, just right for what God wants us to do.

To help us remember exactly what God wants each of us to be doing, we need to examine another passage of Scripture.

As we turn to Romans 12 we find the job descriptions of—

*Construction Workers God Always Wants and Uses*

Spiritual gifts are the grace-energized empowerments God uses to build up His Church.

There are several New Testament lists of these gifted believers, or construction workers God deploys at each building site.

The two main gift lists are Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12.

The easiest way to look at these two lists is to say that the Corinthian list is primarily pointed at temporary sign gifts and the Roman list is pointed at the ongoing gifts that we see today at work in local churches.

For our construction site visit, we’ll focus on the list in Romans 12. Please join me in v.4 as we see what God has given each of us and wants to do with all of us:

Romans 12:4-12 /"For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.6

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

9 Let love be without hypocrisy.

Abhor what is evil.

Cling to what is good.10

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;"/ NKJV

This passage in Romans 12 gives us seven amazing types of gifted people God wants to use in every church.

Three of these seven gifts are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:28 (prophets, teachers, administration); two of the gifts (prophets and pastor-teachers) are included in Ephesians 4:11; and another two (administering and serving) are listed in 1 Peter 4:10-11.

So, these seven seem to resonate as a complete set of workers that God loves to use to build up the individual members of Christ's church into fully functioning worshippers.

But whatever gift, or blend of gifts, you have been given, exercise them faithfully as a stewardship from God.

*Seven Gifted Believers that are Building up other believers*

At every construction site where Christ is at work building His church, He will be sending believers that He has gifted for the following construction “jobs” or “duties”:

1. *God has workers gifted in speaking forth God's Truth; and that is the word “prophecy” (Romans 12:6).

* This gift energizes a believer to be “speaking forth” (as the Greek word means) and does not necessarily have to involve prediction of the future or any other mystical or supernatural aspects.

When used in this non-revelatory way in the New Testament, this word “prophecy” simply identifies the skill of public proclamation of the Word of God (as in 1 Pet.

4:11).

This person may be random, or may be systematic—but they love to proclaim the Word.

But the key that tests the prompting of the Spirit is that a person’s “prophesying” is to be done in *proportion to the faith*, a better translation would be “in agreement to the (not his) faith.”

2. *God has workers gifted in Serving God’s People; and that is the word “ministry” (Romans 12:7a).*

This gift energizes believers to look for and want to do every kind of practical and helpful task (cf.

Acts 20:35; 1 Cor.

12:28), and is similar to the gift of helps (1 Cor.

12:28).

This person never needs to be pushed towards a job, they are always looking for things to do for others.

“Ministry” is actually the same word used of “deacon,” and simply means those who serve others.

These believers are energized by God’s grace to love to be servants to the needs of the individuals in the Body of Christ.

3. *God has workers gifted in explaining God's Word; and that is the word “teaching” (Romans 12:7b).*

This gift energizes believers with the ability to interpret, clarify, systematize, and explain God’s truth clearly (cf.