Sermon Tone Analysis

*E3*

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*Everyone is Invited **(to have a right standing with God)*

*            Romans 3*

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1So what difference does it make who’s a Jew and who isn’t, who has been trained in God’s ways and who hasn’t? 

 

7It’s simply perverse to say, “If my lies serve to show off God’s truth all the more gloriously, why blame me?

I’m doing God a favor.”

8Some people are actually trying to put such words in our mouths, claiming that we go around saying, “The more evil we do, the more good God does, so let’s just do it!”

That’s pure slander, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

We’re All in the Same Sinking Boat

9So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others?

Not really.

Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners.

Scripture leaves no doubt about it:

10There’s nobody living right, not even one,

11nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.

12They’ve all taken the wrong turn;

they’ve all wandered down blind alleys.

No one’s living right;

I can’t find a single one.

13Their throats are gaping graves,

their tongues slick as mud slides.

Every word they speak is tinged with poison.

14They open their mouths and pollute the air.

15They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,

16litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,

17Don’t know the first thing about living with others.

18They never give God the time of day.

21But in our time something new has been added.

What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened.

22The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us.

And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him.

For there is no difference between us and them in this.

23Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, 24God did it for us.

Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself.

A pure gift.

He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be.

And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

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*Everyone is Included** (we are to make getting into a relationship with God easy & \\                                                 accessible – making sure the lower rungs are on the ladder)*

*            Acts 15*

6The apostles and leaders called a special meeting to consider the matter.

7The arguments went on and on, back and forth, getting more and more heated.

Then Peter took the floor: “Friends, you well know that from early on God made it quite plain that he wanted the pagans to hear the Message of this good news and embrace it—and not in any secondhand or roundabout way, but firsthand, straight from my mouth.

8And God, who can’t be fooled by any pretense on our part but always knows a person’s thoughts, gave them the Holy Spirit exactly as he gave him to us.

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6The apostles and leaders called a special meeting to consider the matter.

7The arguments went on and on, back and forth, getting more and more heated.

Then Peter took the floor: “Friends, you well know that from early on God made it quite plain that he wanted the pagans to hear the Message of this good news and embrace it—and not in any secondhand or roundabout way, but firsthand, straight from my mouth.

8And God, who can’t be fooled by any pretense on our part but always knows a person’s thoughts, gave them the Holy Spirit exactly as he gave him to us.

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19“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. (NIV)

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*Everyone is Important **(moving from “my purpose” to my role in this Body – the \\                                                     goal is not autonomy, it’s connection)*

*            1 Cor 12:27*

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13For we were all baptized by£ one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

16And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

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21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!”

And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 

22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.

And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment.

But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

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