Sermon Tone Analysis

Thesis: Loving People into God's Kingdom takes Persistent Patience

For Kids: Patience not like holding something in line - like holding something heavy for a long time for someone.

- Which shows more love?

Me

Dramatic reading of Romans 8:28-39

Romans 8:

We

We

We get fired up by the hope and joy and expectation from those verses, in such a way that many scholars split the letter to the Romans in half right here… saying this is a great place to say Amen!, sing a hymn, and go home… and it feels like that’s true, doesn’t it?

We want to end with good news and we want to end on a bang!

But Paul doesn’t know when to quit.

Or perhaps, all that was to set us up for something else?

God

Children of the flesh vs Children of the Promise

Paul wishes they were more than just flesh children, that will not remain in Israel but will be sent into further exile.

Examples from the OT

Pharaoh in not an example of God making someone turn away from Him - because the Jews would never consider Pharaoh one of the chosen.

He was the Anti-Jew the way Christians talk about the Anti-Christ.

No, the point is, God can still use those wrong choices to redeem others.

Even when Pharaoh was being nice and letting the Israelites have a little leniency in the early part of Exodus, he was never invited to join them, not by God and certainly not by the people.

The Big Point Here!

Wrath and Mercy

We focus too often on the wrath

Paul points out that God focuses on the mercy

"Enduring with much patience"

From The Prophets

Hosea

Isaiah

You

What do we do?

Striving in faith - patient endurance like God's example

vs Striving in works - trying to fix others instead of giving them the opportunity to choose for themselves

Vs Not Striving at all - giving it all over to God and ceasing to be Christ-like or Christians ourselves.

Which one of these do you find yourself doing?

Patient endurance in bringing others to Jesus?

Trying to fix them yourself?

Not trying to bring anyone to Jesus at all?

We

We win some, and we lose some

It's not our fault usually when we lose them

But it is not really to our credit when we win them either - it just means we were being obedient and God chose to work with us

But it makes a difference every single time with every single person, and we know that, because it makes a difference every single time someone shares the grace of God with us.

Paul, in a way, really did cut himself off from his own people, and most of the church initially, for the sake of taking the gospel to those who had never been invited because they just weren't considered the "right type of people".

What are you willing to give up to bring someone into God's Kingdom?