Sermon Tone Analysis

Small Groups and the Great Commission...

If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, I invite you to open with me to .

What I want to do this morning as I close out this “Engage” series is make the connection between the Great Commission and small groups.

As you may or may not know, there were over a million component parts of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

A million component parts that went into making that spacecraft and mission a reality.

Think about that.

Even if they had an astounding 99.9% reliability, that would still be over a 100 parts that could fail.

That whole mission was designed in a way that every single part, every single person had to be engaged in that mission for it to be a success.

Imagine a faith family designed by grace.

Imagine a faith family designed by grace.

What I want to do this morning as I close out this “Engage” series is make the connection between the Great Commission and small groups.

Out of those 100 parts that could fail, what if it was this one and this one that put together, would cause the whole thing to fall apart?

A notable secular anthropologist who had studied all kinds of people and tribes all over the world said, “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world.”

I think she was right, but I don’t think she came up with that.

I think God came up with that, and Jesus showed us that.

I am convinced that the mission He has put before His church is far greater than putting a man on the moon; it is putting the gospel in every corner of this planet among a billion people who still haven’t even heard the name of Jesus.

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Calling,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 895.

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Calling,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 895.

What I want to do this morning as I close out this “Engage” series is make the connection between the Great Commission and small groups.

Imagine all the component parts in this room … the gifts, the skills, the abilities, the passions of God’s people … completely unleashed to impact the world for His glory.

What we would see is not the pastor movement, but a people movement.

God’s people unleashed to fulfill the very mission for which He has saved us.

God, may it be so.

Let’s go back to .

This is Paul talking to the local church in Rome.

Imagine a faith family designed by grace.

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Calling,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 895.

Romans 12:

Let’s imagine, based on Romans 12...

Imagine a faith family designed by grace.

We talked last week about how the entire foundation for is the first part of verse 1… “by the mercies of God”.

Mercy molds the whole picture called the church.

Paul reiterates that in how he talks about grace and faith in these verses that we just read.

He starts talking about the grace that God had given him in verse 3. Later in that verse , he talks about the faith God gives each of us.

Then you get down to verse 6, and it says we have different gifts according to the grace given us.

The whole picture of the church is saturated with grace.

I want us to think about grace and how it permeates the church.

First of all, we are...

I want us to think about grace and how it permeates the church

Enlisted by grace.

Not a single one of us deserves to be here.

It’s not by merit or works.

It’s all by grace.

We are called by grace.

It’s the whole book of Romans.

Christ has brought us into His body.

He has enlisted us by His grace.

Also...

Equipped by grace.

Not only has he brought us into His body, but is teaching us that He gives us gifts when we trust Christ as our savior.

Every single Christ-follower in this room without exception, have been given gifts from the HS.

He has put those gifts inside you.

This is not just natural abilities, but supernatural abilities so we are equipped to care for one another in the body of Christ.

And He has...

Empowered by grace.

He has also given us everything we need to put those gifts in action.

This is the point in 1 Peter 4...

The only reason we can do anything of eternal value is because of the power that God provides through the gifts He has given to us.

And I believe that God has called us all together according to His plan and by His grace to accomplish exactly what He wants to be accomplished in this community and throughout the world.

Let that sink in for a moment.

What if God knew what He was doing when He brought each of us to be a part of the faith family called Faith Bible Church of Lake Charles.

This is the design of God’s grace in the church.

He has put us together with our variety of gifts so each one of us could be using that gift or gifts to carry out His mission to reach the world with the Gospel.

Next...

Imagine a faith family diversified by gifts.

Now, here is where it gets a step deeper.

This is where there is unity and diversity together.

One body, many parts.

There are differences that make us diverse in the family of God.

Every gift is given for a reason; God doesn’t make any mistakes.

He has brought us all together and formed us into a body.

Imagine a faith family diversified by gifts...

Where everyone counts.

That’s the whole point here.

Just like our bodies.

All our parts count.

They’re all important.

They are interdependent in a relationship to one another.

They work together.

They all correspond to the Head, , Christ is the Head of the church, and we all work in conjunction with the Head to accomplish the purpose.

That is the picture of the church.

When Paul was writing the book of Romans, he was in Corinth.

A church that was really struggling.

The people in the Corinthian church were fighting over this and that, a lot of division in the church.

So they were undermining this picture of a faith family where everyone counts.

Listen to what he says in ...

1 Corinthians 12:21-

He says, “Imagine a faith family where everyone counts, where...

No one superior.

What they had done especially in Corinth is they had taken the showy gifts or the more spectacular gifts that were very public, and they had exalted those, and if you had those gifts, then you were superior in the body of Christ.

He says, “Who are you to say that, because you are the hand, that you don’t need the feet.

It is ridiculous.”

What they had done especially in Corinth is they had taken the showy gifts or the more spectacular gifts that were very public, and they had exalted those, and if you had those gifts, then you were superior in the body of Christ.

He says, “Who are you to say that, because you are the hand, that you don’t need the feet.

It is ridiculous.”

No one inferior.

No one superior and...

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Calling,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 900.

No one inferior.

What was happening as a result of that in Corinth is you had a lot of people who didn’t have some of those more public gifts, spectacular, showy kind of picture, and so they were sitting back on the side lines of the church basically saying, “Well, I don’t have what those guys have, and so I am not as important in the church.”