Sermon Tone Analysis

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Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
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Analytical
Confident
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Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
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Anger
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We are in a series entitled: Ephesians: Fitting into God’s plan
Ephesians: Fitting into God’s plan
God has a plan to bring everything under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Last week we learned to find our place in that plan.
We talked about finding identity, purpose and power.
Here’s the problem: there are obstacles.
The enemy will remind you of your past.
When that doesn’t work he will try to get you into pride.
Then he tries to isolate you from other believers so that you end up separated from everyone including God.
So the obstacles that we are noting in this second chapter of Ephesians are--your past, pride and prejudices.
God’s plan is so amazing!
But these traps are so subtle that most people fall into them at one time or another.
If you know what the obstacles are you can perhaps avoid them.
Or at least you may recognize when you are running into them.
Overcoming your past
You were dead in your sin, Paul tells us, but is your sin now dead?
Think of three words that describe the person that you were before you came to Christ.
How does it feel to remember that person?
What motivated that person?
What was your goal in life at that time?
What were your feelings about God?
What did you think God thought of you?
Was it difficult to answer these questions?
Maybe it was a long time ago or maybe not so long?
Is there still guilt or shame associated with the person that you were?
We don’t talk about sin much these days in the church.
It’s too negative.
We all have a sinful nature - we just sin differently.
Some people say that once you come to Christ and get saved you should never talk about your past.
Is that true?
It is helpful to talk about the past to the degree that it is still influencing you in the present.
Prayer ministry does no new work, it was all done at the cross, but we are applying that work continually.
Some people say that once you come to Christ and get saved you should never talk about your past.
Is that true?
Does the sin nature ever go away?
Yes and no.
You can live in victory over sin.
But to say that you are no longer capable of sin has often proved disastrous!
We are flesh and we are spirit.
Whatever you feed will grow.
The sinful nature is still there, but we consider it dead because that’s not what we are living from or for.
God makes us alive!
Paul uses Christ’s death and resurrection as an analogy of victory over sin.
We are still mortal, but we don’t go around think about death - we focus on living!
And we know that even though we may die, we will live!
We don’t go around thinking about sin and trying really hard not to sin.
Some Christians have the mentality of seeing what they can get away with, that’s not the Christian life!
Our focus is on knowing God and doing what pleases Him.
It’s like having the eyes of our heart opened.
We have so much more to live for!
He raises us up!
If Jesus is seated at the right hand of God and you are “in Christ” then...
It not that we cease to be human, but we are made to live life from a higher place.
Why does God treat you with such favor?
Because He’s GOD and He’s good!
We were “children of wrath” but not we are objects of God’s immeasurable grace.
Overcoming your pride
: 8-10
Pride is at the root of all sin.
The sinful nature is a prideful nature.
It tries to live independent of God.
If you think you no longer have sin in your life, you have pride.
There was a time in my life where I was out of control.
I made myself accountable to one of my pastors who told me to cal him if I was struggling.
So I called him the next time I had a problem to tell him that I had prayed about it and I was really OK.
He told me that my attitude was not one of repentance, but of pride.
He was right and I knew it!
That is where I became broken before the Lord.
As a result, I know that i am no better than anyone who comes to me with their problem.
What is grace?
The typical definition is “unmerited favor”
Which word is more important “unmerited” - an adjective, or “favor” - a noun?
Why do we pay more attention to the “unmerited” part than to God’s favor?
What does it mean to have God’s favor?
What is grace?
- God likes me!
God likes you, not because of who you are, but because of who He is and you are made in his image.
What is pride?
Pride is an elevated sense of self.
It can be a high opinion of one’s self or a sense of accomplishment.
Pride can be inflated or substantive.
There’s real pride and false pride.
Most of what we think of as pride is really a cover for shame.
The person who doesn’t like himself has to prove himself comes across as arrogant.
Pride and performance go hand in hand. in performance, your worth comes from what you do.
The proud person has to do enough good to make up for their sin.
What is the gospel?
In Islam there is a teaching called Kiraman Katibin - “noble recorders” it refers to two angels that sit on a persons shoulders.
One records their good deeds and the other their bad.
Now God is the final judge, and it is only by his mercy that anyone get into heaven.
But it is thought that if your good deeds outnumber your bad deeds that will surely influence God’s decision.
You can never do enough to make the good outweigh the bad because your deeds aren’t the problem, its in your very nature!
Jesus death was a divine exchange, his death for yours, his nature for yours.
You can’t earn it, you can only receive it.
Accept that nothing you can do will ever earn God’s favor, but you don’t have to earn what you already have!
The gospel is not a message of trying harder, it is the process of becoming who God says you are.
psalm 139:16-17
So what do you do then?
So what do you do then?
You live your live out of gratitude to God.
You recognize that God who created you has a plan for your life.
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