Sermon Tone Analysis

it's ABOUT YOU OR ITS ABOUT HIM

It Can’t Be Both!

Many of us believe that our salvation is a joint venture.

We have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, make the arduous journey to God, delivering our now clean self to him so he can approve of our labors and say to us well done you faithful servant.

But the truth is that we have never been able to approach the throne of God by our own goodness, our own sacraments, our own sacrifices.

We always fall short of the Glory of of God.

We always end where we begin, wretched and pitiful, eating pig slop.

Or maybe you’re of the camp that you believe that God called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

You recognize that your salvation is the result of the finished work of Christ and you would never be able to be saved without his sacrifice but you also believe that you need to hold on to it by doing what is good and right and noble.

Maybe you believe that your salvation, while initially the work of God is now up to you to take it to the end.

But much like the “I gotta get right first” Crowd you too will end up where you began, wretched, pitiful, eating pig slop.

So we need to change our focus from what we do to what he’s done.

From what we can offer to God to what Jesus is offering us.

Which brings me to today’s word of the day: Redeemed.

1 Peter 1:18–21 (The Message)

18 Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.

It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in.

19 He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know.

He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb.

20 And this was no afterthought.

Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you.

21 It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.

REDEEMED

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

In the ancient world, the word “redeem” was used to refer to setting someone free from a state of bondage or captivity, a bondage from which the person could not free himself, and this freedom was obtained by means of a payment, a price being paid.

For example, a slave or a prisoner could be redeemed, released from their slavery or imprisonment, if a certain price was paid, by someone else, for that slave or prisoner’s release.

That would be a “redemption.”

So the basic idea of “redeem,” then, is “release by means of payment.”

Released from What?

He didn’t just save us from hell, he saved us from worthlessness, futility of the human experience, the meaningless waste of time, which is all this world has to offer.

Bondage to the Law

Bondage and guilt brought on by our sinful nature

Bondage and power of Satan

Bondage to the debt we owe for our Sins

that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in.

it's ABOUT YOU OR ITS ABOUT HIM

It’s about you or its about him, it can’t be both.

Notice Paul’s use of the word rescue.

He recognizes that he himself is incapable.

He needs his life, his existence to be REDEEMED His response is perfect to his own question

PAID FOR BY WHAT

Precious blood of Christ

Now What

Here’s the big question, we were not redeemed from our dead-end, empty headed life for nothing.

He Redeemed us from the bondage so that we could be his ambassadors, messengers, example to the world.

Listen to Peter Illustrate this:

1 Peter 1:22–2:10 (NIV)

it's ABOUT YOU OR ITS ABOUT HIM