Sermon Tone Analysis
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We started this Journey of Grace several weeks ago.
Throughout it, we have seen that it is an invitation to draw closer to Jesus… to walk with Him… to grow… to be transformed by Him…
We’ve seen that it is a journey of submission to Him and to His will for our lives…
We’ve seen how Sneaky Grace saves us… and transforms us…
How Grace goes ahead of us making a way for us… empowering us to live faithful lives, even when we seem to keep failing ourselves.
Grace gives us a lot to celebrate!
It is a gift from God!
It changes everything!
Paul tells us in Phil 2:15 that Grace causes us to “shine like stars”, and in Rom 8:37 that it makes us “more than conquerors”
Grace enables us to overcome… to rise above sin… to be transformed into a new creation!
Grace makes all things new!
Except when it doesn’t!
You see… If we’re not careful, we can make Grace out to be a “get out of jail free” card… We can make it out to be some form of invincibility… as though we can just “pray it all away”…
What happens when that doesn’t work?
What happens when we can’t just “pray it away”?
What happens when the depression and anxiety doesn’t go away?
When the person we prayed for dies?
When we still lose our job?
What happens then?
Life is rough… amen?
— Those Jars of Clay can get beaten up… cracked… and broken…
But here’s the thing…
No matter how broken we are…
No matter how many pieces our lives have been shattered into…
Grace is there… picking us up and putting us back together.
We need to understand what Grace does and doesn’t do.
— Grace doesn’t remove memories…
— Grace doesn’t exempt us from damage… from hard times.
— Grace doesn’t extract sorrow.
— Grace doesn’t resolve our fragile hearts…
But…
— Grace does reframe our story.
— Grace does the work in the cracks…
— Grace does deepen our intimacy…
— Grace does reveal God’s Work in our lives.
I. Grace Sustains us in the hard times.
Paul is responding here to people who were demanding that he tell them all about his visions and blessings… That he boast about the gifts God has given him, and that he prove himself an apostle by doing so…
But he refuses…
Instead he talks about a “thorn in his flesh”…
Now… Paul was no weakling… amen?
He was not spiritually weak… would you agree?
In fact, Paul gives us a list of his sufferings: (I love the way the Message puts it!)
And that’s not even to mention his Damascus Road experience!
Paul KNEW suffering!
Look at what he says:
2 Corinthians 12:8–9 (NIV)
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
…
“So I gave up and walked away.”
NO!!!!
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
… Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Paul understood what God meant!
And he found contentment in his suffering because of it!
Paul understood that God was saying: “You are stronger in your weakest moments when I am with you than you are in your strongest moments without me.”
— Dr. Busic
II.
Sustaining Grace carries us when we cannot carry ourselves.
— “Footprints in the Sand” parable…
… One night a man had a dream… he was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life… For each scene he saw footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord...
When the last scene played, he looked back at the footprints… He noticed that many times there was only one set of footprints…
He also noticed that they seemed to coincide with the lowest, most difficult moments of his life…
Confused and upset by this, he asked, “Lord, you said that if I followed you, you’d walk with me all the way.
But… when I struggled the most, there is only one set of footprints.
Why did you leave me when I needed you the most?!”
“My precious child,” said the Lord, “I love you, and I would never leave you.
Those were the times when I carried you!”
How many times are we like that man?!
We look back at our lives… at the tough times… and we think God left us!
Hebrews 13:5 (NIV)
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God [promises], “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Look at that promise to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you...”
That is God’s way of saying: “When you come to the end of your strength, I will give you mine.
When your energy runs out, I will give you mine.
When you cannot go any farther, I will pick you up and carry you.
You will rest in my arms.”
Over and over in scripture, we find this to be true… God’s grace sustains us!
III.
His Grace is enough.
Let me tell you… God gives us the Grace we need for today.
No more, No less!
In Exo. 16, we find the story of the Israelites in the wilderness… (explain)
— God gives them Manna from Heaven.
— It was a gift from God… All they had to do was pick it up and prepare it… But…
— They couldn’t horde it…
— God gave them enough for today!
They had to trust Him for tomorrow!
That’s Sustaining Grace!!!
— They didn’t deserve it… but God provided it…
God gives us what we need for today… Tomorrow He’ll give us enough too!
God says: “Whatever you need, I WILL provide.
Why?
I AM!”
There was a pastor in Penn.
After church one day, he noticed a man with a bulldog pin on his lapel… So he asked, “What does the bulldog stand for?”
The man answered, “Well, Pastor, the bulldog symbolizes the tenacity with which I hold onto Jesus.”
The pastor replied, “It’s a wonderful symbol — but bad theology.”
Surprised, the man asked, “What do you mean?”
“It should never stand for the tenacity with which you hold on to Jesus… It should stand for the tenacity with which Jesus holds on to you!”
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