Sermon Tone Analysis

Secular:

*  Coming into the 8th grade I was  a B – B+ student

* It was my second year at Central Senior in Lindsay, ON

* It was also the year my parents split…

* Things were definitely turned upside down

* And my attention was focused on other places than my studies…

* My history teacher, Mrs. MacLean, was 1,000 years old… I think…

* She had no sense of humour and was very strict… she had actually taught my father when he attended the same school… he thought she was 1,000 years old back then…

* I didn’t do well… missing most of my assignments, and a project worth 30% of my mark.

* On that day when you go to the front and have your mark revealed….

My knees quaked… this was definitely going to be different.

* She pulled the slip of paper away from my mark….

And there was a B

* I looked at her like an inquisitive dog… (head turned)

* And she said…

* “I gave you a mark based on what I know about you, not about what you showed me.”

* It was a profound lesson on Grace.

* It wasn’t about what I truly deserved….

It was about what she saw in me.

* As we study our text… it is important for us to see Grace…

* For what we have been given by God’s Grace is not what we deserve… but that He sees His Son in us.

* *

Biblical:

Ephesians 2:1-3" And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

Personal:

* Have you ever been rescued….

* Whether from a fire, a car accident, a breakdown, an animal encounter….

* Dire circumstances…

* The bus with the baseball team where 6 died… and 4 are still in hospital…

* What was it like waiting for rescue…

* Horrifying….

* Dire circumstances…

* Katrina… aftermath

* Wandering… flooded… hungry…

* What was it like… before the rescue…

 

Bridge:

* God rescues us from the just consequence of our sin.

*  As a reminder… as he unfolds our salvation or rescue… we are reminded of what it was like before.

* This is a snapshot… and episode of this is your life…

* That we would never forget the GREAT GRACE OF GOD!

Body:

Ephesians 2:1-3" *And you were dead* in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,

 

*Well, Sick, or Dead?*

*  */Well/*… we have choices… stay healthy…

*  */Sick/*… seek remedy… mere malady… at least some hope

*  */Dead… /*dead… what do you do if you are dead?

Dead in your trespasses and sins?

* Dead men do not seek help… dead women do not ask to be rescued!

* "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

(Romans 6:23, ESV) 

* To live in sin… the consequence is death…

* And we all *were dead* in the trespasses and sins

* There was no sense of a spark of merit… a glint of holiness… a wee bit of spiritual life…

* We had a Radical Depravity… we may not have been as bad as we could have been…

* But our sin soaked souls were dead to the things of God.

* "They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart."

(Ephesians 4:18, ESV) 

*  Death is alienation from God

* *And you were dead* in the trespasses and sins

* Not Sick… definitely not… not bootstraps faith…

* Death is alienation from God….

* Apart from Christ… Apart from Grace…

* WE ARE DEAD PERIOD

* APPLICATION

*Well, Sick, or Dead?*

 

*Walking Corpses*

*And you were dead* in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,

* Dead people do dead peoples business…

* After hearing Christ’s message… to follow him…

* "Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”"

(Matthew 8:21-22, ESV)

* Worried about earthly inheritance…

* Idiom for waiting for dad to die to get my inheritance

* The focus is about earthly issues

* Our focus is hope

* The Walking Dead focus on the things that are perishing and fleeting

* Focusing on self! /Gulp!/

*  “but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives."

(1 Timothy 5:6, ESV)

* *And you were dead* in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,

* Is this not how we walked… self indulgent….

Self centred… temporal loves

* Spiritual Zombies…

* Zombie movies the dead that can not rest and are unsure if they are dead or alive…

* Walking… talking…..

* Worried about this or that… but missing out on life!

* Are you Walking like a zombie….

* So focused on this life… give no evidence… no credibility to the life to come…

* We give witness to our destiny…

* "The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil."

(Matthew 12:35, ESV)

* Life mirrors its outcome

* "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander."

(Matthew 15:18-19, ESV)

* *And you were dead* in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, ZOMBIE WALKING

* Dead in their deeds

* Tresspasses – paraptoma – slip, stumble, fall…

* Sins – Hamartia – miss the mark… missing and falling short of God’s standard of holiness "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Romans 3:23, ESV)

* The live unforgiven