Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: Try Harder or admit our inability to try harder and our desperate need for God’s Grace on a moment by moment basis

It is actually foolishness and pride to think that the grace of God is only meant to get us up on our feet and that we are actually able on our own and by our own resources to live self controlled, upright and Godly lives today.

Context: What has come before

All that has been commanded: All that God has called us to -

How do we actually do what we need to do? Relate with Rom 7:18-25 “18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

That in all things we may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior

Make it attractrive - people will judge the validity of the gospel by the reality of its fruit in those who believe it.

if we are perceived as unloving and hypocritical, we provide unbelievers with good reason to be skeptical about the power of the gospel.

and if choose something other than the gospel to bring about the change that needs to happen in our lives we reveal that we don’t think the gospel is powerful enough to change us in the first place.

What are some of the other things we look to change us rather than the grace of God in the gospel?

self discipline, shame, manipulation pressure, reward that is disconnected from God. determination, self denial,

all of these are based on something that we need to do rather than based on something that God has already done.

God’s Grace Shows up (2:11)

Revealed epiphany - shines in a dark place Luke 1:79 “79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.””

Titus 3:4 “4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,”

Bringing Salvation

to all people - Does not mean all will be saved - The rest of Scripture is clear - Only those who trust Jesus

But it does mean that no one is outside of the reach of God’s Grace

& Fuels our Change (2:12)

12 training us (educating, disciplining, instructing, authoritative oversight, ) What is it that educates us?

Grace.

Vs shame - If we try to shame people into living Christian lives it is because at that moment we are saying that we don’t beleive the gospel and God’s grace are powerful enough to transform them.

God’s Grace is the only thing that will actually change and transform us.

Parenting -

To say no to ungodliness & Worldly Passion

, to renounce (deny, disavow, turn from, repent, say no to…) ungodliness and worldly passions (lusts, desires),

To say yes to self control, uprightness, Godly lives

When God frees us from something he always has in mind what we are freed to do. and to live instead in this way self-controlled,soberly, with a sound mind Our mind is to be on, not off, and we should be thinking clearly about how we are living

upright,righteously our conduct should bejust and upright with all and in the sight of all.

and godly lives the kind of lives that reflect God.

We often gloss over the idea of Godly lives.

Sometimes our brain merely thinks “Being good and doing what I am supposed to” but Godliness is more important than that.

Living a Godly life means living a life that communicates something about God.

How do we do that?

Really, how do we show the reality of God’s existence by the way we live our lives?

How do we communicate not only that God exists, but what God is like?

Today - (Application)

How?

In this present age When is this present age?

Presently.

This present age needs it!

We can actually live this way today.

Not someday.

today.

Not because

Grace trains you to see God’s Grace in everything that comes your way

Remember when you first came to know Christ or that point in your walk where you were so enamored with the Grace of God?

Grace’s goal is that our practical everyday lives would be evidence to all people that the Christ has rescued and transformed us.

It should never be the case that we think that we have rescued ourselves.

You live differently, yes, because my Savior has abolished death.

My life will never end, I can endure suffering.

Grace insists that change is possible (Saying No and yes) when we truly allow it to grip our hearts.

Where do you need the grace of God to appear?