Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning!

If you’d like to, feel free to make your way over to .

We’ll have the verses up on the screens as well for your convenience.

I’m glad you all could be here this morning.

Anybody have plans for tomorrow - Labor Day?

I have plans - to be lazy and rest!

You see, over the past month, we’ve been on a bit of a dirty journey.

Dirty - because our washing machine began having problems.

Some of you may have followed our journey on Facebook.

It started when I noticed the sound of something comparable to a jet engine coming from down the hall.

Turns out it was our washer.

I immediately suspected there was an issue with the bearings.

But, being somewhat busy, I decided I was going to be smart and resist the temptation to fix it myself.

Having taken apart washing machines before, I knew there’d be a ton of screws, springs, hoses, and wires to disconnect and set aside, and that it would take a serious commitment to take this machine apart - in a fashion that would allow me to get it put back together!

So, we called Samsung, and Samsung sent out a technician.

This first technician decided they couldn’t get the necessary parts, waived their service call fee and went on their merry way.

We called Samsung and they sent another technician.

This technician quickly diagnosed the issue and gave us a quote.

We mulled it over and decided to go ahead and pay for the repairs.

So, another team of repairmen came out and began disassembling our washer.

After a couple of hours, they asked if I had a sledgehammer they could borrow.

My first thought was maybe they’d had enough of this machine and were ready to send it to the grave.

But, they were just trying to break the main shaft free from the bearings.

After much time, they decided it couldn’t be done and we’d have to get a whole new tub.

This basically drove the cost of the repair into the zone of nearly the cost of a brand new machine.

So… we had them abort and put everything back together.

After chewing on it, we finally came to the decision that I’d attempt the repair.

I found a store on the web that sold the bearing kit (Samsung does not sell just the bearings & seals - instead you have to buy a whole new assembly, which is rather expensive).

I ordered the parts, and began taking the machine apart.

When I got to separating the main shaft from the bearings, I was happy to discover a technique the shop that sold me the bearings told me about worked beautifully, and so it only took a couple of minutes to get the shaft and bearings separated.

At this point, I’ve probably spent a total of a couple of hours spread out through a good half a day, and decided to take a break and pick up the next day.

The next day, I began reassembling everything, a little nervous that there seem to be more screws than I know what to do with.

But, as I get closer and closer to the end, all the screws are getting used up and fitting correctly, so I’m getting more and more excited!

I finally get everything put back together, and put the washer back in place.

Now for the moment of truth, I plug in the machine, put it into test mode, and immediately I get an error code.

Great.

Now what?

I research the error code, start opening up various panels and making sure all the wiring is correct, and I can’t seem to figure out what is wrong.

At this point, I’m getting discouraged and feeling like I’m about to throw away a washing machine with brand new bearings.

But finally, much to our delight, I discovered I attached a vibration sensor upside down, and I guess the washing machine brain didn’t really appreciate that.

With the issue corrected, the machine whirs and hums to life, and we washed more loads of laundry than I could keep track of, and boy am I both happy and tired!

So, all that to say, I’m going to relax tomorrow!

And I don’t plan on fixing anything - except maybe a nice tall glass of lemonade!

These past few weeks, we’ve been on a journey - learning how we are to do life together in unity.

Finding harmony in the midst of our many differences.

Today, we’ll come to the close of Paul’s strong argument and transition to the final movement of this masterpiece of a symphony.

Let’s invite the Lord to come.

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Accept each other.

It almost gives us the wrong idea.

What Paul is saying here - the word accept - is translated from the Greek work proslambano, which doesn’t mean to just - perhaps begrudgingly - put up with one another.

No - it actually means to welcome - like when you welcome someone into your home.

It means to treat them as family - and I don’t mean the kind of dysfunctional family we all know about that doesn’t get along.

It means to welcome others - with all their flaws and sins - into fellowship with us and to love and treat them as family.

It’s just as Christ has accepted us.

And can I let you in on a secret?

We all have flaws and sins.

When we accept one another as Christ has accepted us - flaws, sins, and all - we give glory to God.

Paul then gives some examples from Old Testament scripture - from Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah - that emphasize God’s promise that Gentiles are now fully members of God’s people.

It turns out that this was always God’s plan!

God never intended to be exclusive by making Israel a nation superior and distinguished against all others.

This is a big mistake that many fell victim to believing, including Paul himself.

The reality is that Israel was to be the vessel through which people of every nation would be called into one family.

Let me pause for a minute to address a tension that exists throughout Romans: Through Jesus, God is transforming individuals.

He’s making us more like Him.

He’s healing us.

He’s cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

He’s helping us to turn away from sin and to press in to being holy and consecrated - set apart for him.

But he’s not only working on transforming us as individuals, he’s also forming us into a community.

We can see a lot of that community focus in the preceding passages we’ve covered over the past weeks as well as what we’re reading today.

I think it’s important that as we read through Romans that we are careful not to have an either or mindset - that Paul is either drawing our focus to individual transformation or community formation, but that we have a both and mindset, which means that our focus needs to be on both.

As transformed individuals, we contribute to a healthier community.

And as a healthier community, we encourage greater health in each individual.

We are rescued (individual) and then reconciled (community).

Make sense?

Something that is very close to Lorien’s and my heart is ministering to marriages and families.

In our experience, it would be very easy to focus entirely on reconciliation.

On what is causing conflict in the “community”.

However, what we’ve found is that focusing on the relationship first rarely, if ever, produces lasting fruit.

Why?

Because we’re putting the cart before the horse.

We’re attempting to sow into reconciliation with others before we’re reconciled to God.

So, instead, what we do is help the couple or family members focus on their relationship with God.

And that’s where we often find that there has been a struggle.

I was doing good spending time in the Word, having a devotional time, spending time in prayer, connecting with God - and then things got busy at work… or the baby is keeping us up late at night… or I kind of fell out the rhythm… or… fill-in the blank.

Helping others press into their relationship with God (vertical reconciliation) often addresses the relationship with each other (horizontal reconciliation).

In an age of the quick-fix, we must be careful not to focus on only one without the other.

Without a healthy relationship with God, we are not going to be healthy members of the church.

And the church - it’s not a set of rules that we follow.

It’s not a building.

It’s not an hour and a half on Sunday morning.

It’s a community.

It’s a people.

Jesus came not only to seek and save that which was lost; he came to build the church.

Finally, Paul invokes the power of the Holy Spirit - the same power that raised Jesus from the grave - to flow through the family of believers.

You see, all that Paul has been teaching us about isn’t something that we can just - hey, great idea.

Ok - I’ll do it.

We need the power of the Holy Spirit to do everything that Paul is telling us, and we’re fooling ourselves if we think we can accomplish any of this to a significant degree without him.

There’s somewhat of a tension in Romans in that

This morning, I want to ask you these three questions:

How is your relationship with God?