Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.19UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.53LIKELY
Sadness
0.57LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.55LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.16UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.89LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.75LIKELY
Extraversion
0.26UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.78LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.67LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
lass=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right'>1) 2-3-08…AM…SBCThe How-to’s of Holiness – Part 2
Romans 12:1-3
Introduction: /Voice of Martyrs/ story: “India- I thought I was the only one” May 2006
Rathnama and her 7yr old daughter climbed a set of concrete steps to a 2nd floor apartment in the Indian city of Hyderabad.
Radical Hindus murdered Rathnama’s husband Pastor David in 2004.
A year later she climbed these stairs to an apartment where she had been invited to attend a gathering of persecuted Christians.
As she entered the room she saw a handful of women, young to middle-aged sitting down with the children close by.
She recognized none of the faces she saw there that day in this very unfamiliar place.
As she sipped tea with the other women her uneasiness subsided.
Each woman introduced herself and then share her testimony and told how her husband had been martyred for the Gospel.
With tears running down her cheeks Satyaveni Raju told how her husband, Isaac Raju, had led many Hindus to Christ.
Late in May of 2004, Isaac disappeared after traveling to a bus stop.
She did not see him again until she was called to identify his body.
She could only identify him by his undergarment and the scars on his legs as militant Hindus had dismembered Pastor Isaac Raju and placed the parts in a burlap bag on the side of the road.
Hepsebah’s husband, Pastor Daniel was martyred about the same time as Pastor Isaac Raju after leading many Hindus to Christ.
His wife went on to say about the hardship she and her family now faced, “God will never do injustice.
This is His will for my life.
There can be no greater happiness and blessing than to know my husband died a martyr for Christ.”
Another widow told of how as a medical worker her husband gave medicines and the Gospel.
One night he left to help some men less than 2 miles from his home.
The men took him and mutilated him 32 times with an axe and the villagers heart the Pastor crying out, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!”
When they found his body his hand clung to a tract entitled “What happens after death.”
Rathnama was astonished to hear the testimonies of these other widows and then stood to relay her own story.
It was the night of December 10, 2004 and her husband David had just returned from a day of ministering in Hindu villages.
Pastor David became ill during the weekend to point that Rathnama could not wake him.
Pastor David had also been receiving threatening phone calls from those intent on stopping his evangelistic efforts.
After rushing him to the hospital and soon after she was told that her husband had died.
Knowing of the threats on her husband’s life and the tea and meals that he would have had that day, Rathnama is confident that her husband was poisoned.
Ø What do all of these women and their children know about living the Christian life----- it takes sacrifice.
Ø These women teach us:
- persecution is still taking place all over the world
- that they need our prayers – be praying for those around the world facing persecution
Ø They teach us something that we here in America many times forget:
- A commitment to live for Christ takes sacrifice
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Proposition: *Paul’s intent in Romans 12 is to teach us that in our own quest for Holiness God’s standard has not changed—God still requires sacrifice.
*-*---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read Romans 12:1-3 and Pray
Transition: God may not have called you to sacrifice in the same way that these ladies in India did, but we must see that…
1) God expects sacrifice *v1*
* *
Ø We come now to what is usually called the “practical” section of Romans.
The practical, however, must rest upon a solid theological foundation.
Otherwise it is little more than advice about how to get along in a religious community.[1]
The “therefore” (οὖν) of the passage unites us to all of Paul’s preceding arguments on justification
Ø The dynamic of God’s ethical instruction arises from its logical and necessary relationship to who he is and what he has done on our behalf.[2]
A- OT Sacrifice
1- The concept of sacrifice in the OT is rooted in the covenant into which God has integrated the people of Israel.[3]
2- When we see prophets fight against sacrifice, and Psalms reject it, is because in practice the original purpose of the act had been abandoned.
[4]
3- Human achievement has replaced personal, spiritual encounter with the God of salvation.[5]
4- Humble worship and praise, the doing of God’s will, and faithfulness and love are the true sacrifices[6]
B- Living Sacrifices[7]
i.
“the sacrifices of the new order do not consist in taking the lives of others, like the ancient animal sacrifices, but in the giving one’s own life.”7
· when someone dies for the faith we usually say they sacrificed their life for Christ
· *Paul is saying that sacrifice doesn’t only happen in death but realistically it must happen in life as well*
ii.
Bringing pleasure to God provides the powerful motivation for complete surrender of self.
iii.
“By /bodies/ he means not only our skin and bones but the totality of which we are composed.
· He explains the body as all that we are, for the members of the body are the instruments by which we carry out the purposes of the heart.”[8]
Application:
Ø In view of God’s acts of mercy it is entirely fitting that we commit ourselves without reservation to him.
[9]
- It is fitting because Paul embraced the reality that everything is a mercy *1 Timothy 1:12*
- Do you think you deserve to be treated better (at home, at work, at church, etc)
- Your salvation is a mercy from God – the fact that you are not in hell is a mercy
- Mercy is a gift of God’s grace and favor to the utterly undeserving
- Paul shows us that what we have in Christ is a gift of his mercy
· we don’t deserve the wife, husband, kids, church and homes that we have
- *God’s mercy is why the sacrifice of our entire beings to Christ is such a logical response*
* *
Ø To teach that accepting the free gift of God’s grace does not necessarily involve a moral obligation on our part is a heresy of gigantic proportions.
[10]
*?* – But, how do we know what to sacrifice?
How to discern what to sacrifice?
#1 – Is this activity helpful to me – physically, spiritually, mentally?
*1 Corinthians 6:12a *“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful.
[11]
#2 – Does it or could it bring me under its power?
*1 Corinthians 6:12b*.
“All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.
[12]
#3 – Does it or could it hurt others?
*1 Corinthians 8:13 *Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.[13]
#4 – Does it glorify God?
*1 Corinthians 10:31 *So, whether you eat or drink, or /u///whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
[14]
Illustration
Television programs that we watch
1- Are they helpful physically, spiritually and mentally?
- for some programs the answer maybe yes but for those that we honestly answer no to we need to consider not viewing them
2- Does it bring me under its power?
- you may be thinking of things such as smoking and drinking and drug – which is true
- but again what about the television
- have certain programs grabbed you so that you just can’t miss a single episode
- if they have then they have you under their power
- football and fantasy football
3- Does it or could it hurt others?
- What if it is something that doesn’t violate your conscience but you know it violate someone else’s
- Will you still participate in their presence?
- cf: Romans 14 – food sacrificed to idols (Christian Liberty)
4- Does this activity glorify God?
*Summary Question*: Are we willing to develop deep convictions from the Scriptures, and then live by these convictions?
Transition: Paul now instructs us on what the motivation to sacrifice should be while on our quest for holiness
C- Logical and Spiritual Act of Worship *v1b*
* *
1- To live separate from sin, and to sacrifice those things that weigh us down in our quest for holiness is the only rational response resulting in spiritual worship
2- it is right and proper—hence logical, reasonable—that those who have been highly favored should offer themselves to God wholeheartedly, as sacrifices, living, holy, and well-pleasing to him.[15]
3- When we chose to sacrifice our lives and our actions to Christ, Paul is saying that the sacrifice we render is intelligent and deliberate
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9