Sermon Tone Analysis

Harmony

Father In Heaven,

You are the maker of heaven and earth and the one who cares so deeply for humanity,

Thank you that you care so much for us that you send your son to take on sin and make us new,

Father today we pray for those among us who care for others,

Whether it be by circumstance, employment or calling they are imitating your great love for humanity by caring for those who cannot care for themselves,

Lord when we were week you cared for us,

Lord when we couldn’t save ourselves you saved us,

Lord when we were unwise, you are our wisdom.

Lord, today we ask for a great renewal for those who care for others,

Lord that you would give them an energy that they didn’t know was possible

Lord, would they experience your happiness and joy and radiate that to those who are being cared for,

Lord, we ask that you would renew their resolve, when care giving gets difficult, would you be near to them and renew them

Lord, would you reveal your love to these caregivers so that they can love others in the same way.

On the long nights when the clock seems to tick in reverse,

We are reminded that you are closer than the air that we breathe

That you are right here among us.

We ask all these things,

In the name of the great physician,

Jesus Christ.

Worship

Jeff Shehan

Early November

Intro

When I first became a Christian, I knew and sensed that God desired a different kind of life from me but my life didn't look much different from before I was a Christian

Here I had made this shift in my mind, that I knew there was a God, I knew Jesus was the son of God, and I had surrendered my life over to Jesus

But there were still these behavior habits…Behavior that didn't honor God that was deeply engrained in me.

And the reason why was that I had practiced it…When you practice anything it becomes second nature.

But the difference once I had become a Christian was was that when I made these mistakes (AKA) sinned…I felt convicted and went oh…I need to change that

sometimes I didn’t really feel convicted but God used others to convict me

I remember that when I became a christian I was 14, I was in high school and like most other high school boys I had a pretty foul mouth

I would cuss…Not because I wanted to but everyone was doing it and I wanted to be cool

And one day I was standing near a girl that I had the hots for and I cussed…Don’t remember what I said or why…I was probably just trying to look cool and this girl says to me

“Ugh…Thats so unattractive” And what I realized in the moment is that not only was it unattractive to the girl that I really liked, but it was unattractive to God as well

So I stopped

And there were a thousand other moments like that and from time to time these moments still happen

And it is the Holy Spirit working with me to renew my mind to change my desires and make me into a new person

Holiness series is based on really one big idea in the Bible:

We believe in New Creation

What we believe is that the past doesn’t have to define you

That wherever you have been in life, whatever you have done, all of that is wiped away by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross

That he has paid for your sin and has justified you before the father

What we believe is that when you take the step of faith to say Yes to Jesus and give your life over to him that he does a crucifying work in your life…And he puts your old self to death and births something new in you...

see, when Jesus died on the cross, the entire enterprise of the old creation died with him...

and on the third day when Jesus rose again, that is the first day of new creation.

So through trusting Jesus with your life , and surrendering it to Him, you can be made into a new creation.

The Apostle Paul will talk about this all over the place:

The Old man that Paul is talking about is basically Living by default…Just living like everyone else

And living in that way of life is not an act of faith ....So Paul says don’t give in to the default way of life

it is an act of faith to not give into lust and deceitful desires

The New Man: When you make the choice to follow Jesus then the Holy spirit renews your mind

The holy spirit dwells in you and helps you birth new desires in your life

So you were created to be like God in righteousness and holiness

You were made for this

The audacity of the christian message is that we believe that God not only forgives us of our sins but actually remakes us into his image

that process is called sanctification

Sanctification is the process in which God makes you into a new creation who resembles Him.

(1 Thes 4:3-8)

See what Paul is telling the church is that Sanctification is God’s will…Don’t you love it in the Bible when it says: This is God’s will!

Its actually rare!

so when you see it…pay attention!

Sanctification takes self control (1 Thes 4:4)

Self control only comes out of a discipline

Which means it is a choice to control your body to abstain when you should abstain and to act when you should act

We all know people without self control, they are called children

Sanctification is a commitment to live in a holy and honorable way (1 Thes 4:7)

How does Paul define this?

Not living in a passionate lust type of way

We don’t take advantage of people

A commitment to purity

Sanctification takes a reliance on the Holy Spirit (1 Thes 4:8)

If you are trying to go at the Holy life alone, then you will fail

The holy life comes from reliance on the Holy Spirit

living in a way of life that pursue the Holiness of God in your own life is done in conjunction with the Holy Spirit

Sanctification is a perfecting process

To say I am going to pursue sanctification is to say that you are going to train for eternity with God

So you begin living in a way that relies on the Holy Spirit now, one day when you take your last breath, it will actually be the most natural thing in the world....

So in living lives of holiness we find verses like this

All of these verses show us that in following Jesus we are called to live a holy and set apart life.

A life that doesn't live by default

that doesn't give into our base desires

and a life that honors God...

A sacrificial life

So this is what sanctification is

But what is the process of sanctification?

See what we believe is that sanctification is a process

The reason why sanctification is a process is because it might take some of us years to lay everything in our life down at the feet of Jesus

And some others, it doesn’t take long at all

Sanctification really is the process of becoming more and more like Jesus.

And what

Sanctification reveals our own stubbornness

If I had a dollar for every time someone said…I have been struggling with this thing for a really long time but then when I finally surrendered it to Jesus, I had wished I did it a long time ago

There are some of you here today who could walk closer with God if you would just lay down whatever it is in your life that is causing you to stumble…But the problem is that these things that cause us to stumble are our security blankets

There is something about the refining fire of God that makes us afraid to walk though it.

It is easy and natural to want to hang on to our sin…But the more we give it up the more we realize just how stubborn of a people we are

So what I want to do is to look at a scripture where we see all in one place where this process of sanctification happen

Isaiah 6:1–8 (NIV)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

And they were calling to one another: