Sermon Tone Analysis

How do we value the opportunity to receive new life in Jesus, and appreciate the gift of growing in knowledge of the Bible on the Journey?

The State of the Bible in America

According to the American Bible Society, 87 percent of American households own a Bible.

However, a recent study suggests that only 10 percent of Americans have a worldview.

Based on Christian Publishing Houses' social media activity from 2005 – 2008, they have assessed that 90 percent of all worldwide are incapable of correctly interpreting and applying scripture.

They are incapable of defending the faith, God, and the Bible.

Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research teamed up to find out the state of theology in the United States among Christians.

Despite the clear teaching of scripture, the survey reveals that over half of evangelicals believe that God changes through adjusting to various situations.

The following findings indicate how Biblical teaching on the character of God is lacking in evangelical Churches.

With the rise of humanistic philosophies, it is not surprising that most U.S. adults believe that humans are born innocent.

However, the fact that nearly two-thirds of evangelicals believe that humans are born innocent reveals that most Christians do not accept or ignore the biblical teaching of original sin.

The lines of absolute truth regarding human sexuality, including homosexuality, transgenderism, and co-habitation, continue to become blurred, leading to an inconsistent Biblical ethic.

So, what does this tell us as a church?

What does this have to say to us as Christians.

We are in desperate need of spiritually informed and transformed followers of Christ if the church is be successful in the coming years.

At the Journey we Turn pages!

Lets read our key text in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Note: To understand the following text we must go back to the beginning of chapter 5. Paul speaks of our earthly body as a tent that is temporary, the permanent residence is a building built by God, a house not made with human hands that is eternal.

Everything we do this side of heaven is in preparation for the eternal dwelling place, our final destiny.

Here is the problem, many of us are not turning the pages of scripture because we lack an eternal perspective on this life we are living.

We see this body, these things around us not as temporary and fleeting.

We spend the majority of our lives preparing for this reality not the one that is to come in the Kingdom of God.

Look what Paul rights even further back in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

"Pinocchio": Longing to Be Changed

Pinocchio is based on a 19th-century children's story about a lonely old woodcarver named Geppetto who carves a little puppet boy and names it Pinocchio.

Whenever he sees the marionette, he thinks how wonderful it would be to have a real son.

Upon seeing the wishing star in the sky, Geppetto wishes Pinocchio would become real.

That night, the Blue Fairy brings Pinocchio to life, removes his strings, and instructs the wooden boy to shun evil and follow good.

But although he has life, Pinocchio is not fully alive—his body is still made of wood.

He longs to be a "real" boy.

One day Pinocchio discovers a gigantic whale has swallowed Geppetto and the family pets.

Pinocchio dives in the sea in an attempt to save his father.

After helping to free Geppetto, Figaro the cat, and Cleo the goldfish from the belly of the whale, Pinocchio drowns and is washed to shore.

Geppetto is brokenhearted and kneels over the boy sobbing.

The Blue Fairy speaks above Pinocchio, "Awake, Pinocchio, awake."

Pinocchio is supernaturally transformed from a wooden boy into one who is fully alive, complete with flesh and bones.

He sits up and rubs his eyes.

Seeing Geppetto weeping over his bed, Pinocchio calls out, "Father!

What are you crying for?"

Unable to comprehend what has transpired, Geppetto answers, "Because you are dead, Pinocchio."

Released from his former life, Pinocchio replies, "No, I'm not.

I'm alive.

See?

I'm real.

I'm a real boy."

Finally Geppetto is able to see the truth.

What appeared to be death was just the opposite.

Pinocchio is at last complete.

We may be afflicted in every way but not destroyed because we are carrying with us the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that is being manifested in our mortal bodies.

The Problem is that to our minds this present existence is solid and real, whereas our coming existence seems shadowy and insubstantial.

Paul teaches us that the reverse is true.

The life which is to come is strong, permanent and real; the present life is lived among the shadows.

Look at 2 Corinthians 5:2-5

What is to be made of the two sets of clothing?

The two sets of clothes represents our existence in this present age and in the age to come.

There is a yearning for death to bring us closer to the end of this present life and a longing to be clothed with the clothes he has for us in the age to come.

(Remember Paul’s longing in Philippians 1)

Note: Notice that Paul further reinforces this point with the desire that his mortal existence will not merely stop, but, before it ends, may be swallowed up by life.

Paul is predicting that the new age (life) as, let us say, a larger fish overtaking and swallowing whole a smaller fish (his mortality in the present age).

Now look at the next part of the narrative in 2 Corinthians 5:6-9

Note: While we are here our aim should be focused on pleasing God.

Why do we Turn the Pages as Scripture as a New Creation?

1.

The New Creations Aim is to Please God.

How do we Please God the Most?

What does God want from us anyway?

We know that in the Shema in Matt.

22:37-39 tells us to love God with all our heart soul and mind, and the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We know that those who are in the flesh cannot please God Romans 8:8

The next verse tells us the motivation and desire for pleasing God. 2 Corinthians 5:10

We will all find ourselves standing before the judgment seat of Christ and receiving what he has done in the body good or bad for the kingdom of God.

*The Father is pleased when we look most like Christ.

When do we look most like Christ?

He saved us to conform us to the image of His Son.

The Father wants all of His children to look more like Jesus.

The more we turn the pages of scripture the more we understand what it looks like to walk in obedience and conform to the image of His Son.

We look most like Christ when we don’t conform to the passions of the flesh but seek to be holy as he is holy.

For example in 1 Peter we learn that our job as obedient children is to not conform to evil and live in ignorance but be holy as he is holy. 1 Peter 1:14-15

A Holy Life

The call to a Holy life is to live a life that is set apart, reserved to give glory to God.

It is a life of discipline, focus, and attention to the things that matter most to God.

Turning the pages of scripture is the only way this is possible for us.

When we fail to spend time in the word of God we begin to look more like the world and less like Christ.

4 Threats to Your Holiness

God is perfect; he lacks nothing.

God is holy; he is set apart and wholly separate from sin.

As with many of God’s attributes, he desires to communicate perfection and holiness to his creation as we daily open the word of God.

Lucifer, an angel of God’s, did not get enough of God’s perfection and holiness.

He wanted it all.

He rebelled against God and lost all of what God gave him.

Satan’s goal is to ruin Holiness for all of you.

He elicited the fall of Adam and Eve by depriving them of holiness.

He continues this war against holiness today and is working to enlist your help as his co-conspirators.

And fallen humanity is all to eager to lend him a hand.

Relativism

Relativism conveys that there are no absolute truths.

This perspective legitimizes innumerable truths that contradict one another.

Relativism ruins holiness because there is no longer a supreme authority.

Satan deceives people into thinking that there are multiple acceptable authorities in the Universe.

All options outside of God point to Satan.

He is the only other authority people submit to.