Sermon Tone Analysis

07-04-08.02

vv                              07-04-15.02

*Title:           *“God… pleading through us…!”

*FCF:            *we’ve got to be convinced by the Spirit

*D-Theme:   *the compelling love of God

*M-Thrust:   *let the Spirit convince and persuade you

*App:*           Since God’s love is compelling… let the Spirit convince and persuade you…

*Comment:  *Put your post-sermon comments here

*Subject:     *truth and reason

*Date:          *D8C2473070B640C1A2EA3E59E4CC5AA0

*Text:           *2Corinthians 5:10-15               *CTW:* Acts 26:22-32

 

10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things /done/ in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

11Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.

12For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have /an answer/ for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

13For if we are beside ourselves, /it is/ for God; or if we are of sound mind, /it is/ for you.

14For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

• Introduction

•   Make some comment about the number of people present…

•   Relative to the number of people present last Sunday…

•   What is the difference…?????????

•   Why would we worship with nearly 70 last Sunday…

•   …and only ___ this Sunday…?

•   Why is there so little interest in spiritual matters…?

•   …such a small amount of willingness to commit…

•   …to the cross of Christ and the Christian life…?

•   Isn’t the message preached convincing enough…?

•   Isn’t the fellowship sweet enough…?

•   In an article called “Super Spectators,” USA Today writers asked sports fanatics to describe the lengths they would go to support their teams.

One category of sports fanatics is referred to as the “Frequent Flyer.”

Here are a few examples:

•   Eight times a season, Geo Verna makes the 5,000-mile round trip from Philadelphia to Seattle to watch his beloved Seahawks at Qwest Field.

•   Mike Pratt of Louisville, Kentucky, has been flying his Cessna to watch every Detroit Lions home game for the last seven years.

•   According to the article: “Pratt doubles up on weekends when his alma mater, Michigan State, has a home game, too, and flies 45 minutes extra (the flight to Detroit is three hours) to East Lansing.

He’s still home by 7 p.m. for dinner on Sundays.”

•   When Frank Weishaupt was 11, he wrote to get on the New York Jets season ticket holder waiting list.

After waiting eight years, he got his tickets.

For each home game, Frank flies out of San Francisco to Boston and drives the last three-and-a-half hours to Kingston.

•   Jan and Van Rametta travel 6,000 miles from Washington, D.C. to attend every Seattle Seahawks football game.

•   Lou Raciti leaves New Jersey on Friday night and takes a vacation day on Mondays to make every Dallas Cowboys home game.

The truck driver admits the $500-a-pop weekends are barely affordable.

Says Raciti, “I started when I was single.

I got married, I still continued it, and I’m now divorced.

It’s survived through all that, and I managed to find the money and time to go.”

•   Sold out people do about anything for what they value.

/[1]/

•   Why…?

Because they are convinced it is worth it…

•   …that there is value and benefit to the activity…

•   …that they will be further ahead for the doing…

•   …than if they were to stay home and not do…

•   So here we are this morning…

•   Having just come from the celebration of the resurrection…

•   That glorious moment in history when Jesus…

•   Was declared to be the Son of God with power…

•   By the resurrection from the dead…

•   When God declared his love for all of humanity…

•   …by sending his Son to the cross to pay for our sins…

•   A message openly declared in churches across the country…

•   …heard by countless millions of people…

•   …who today are nowhere to be found…

•   And the reason they haven’t returned…?

•   They haven’t been convinced ~/ persuaded…

•   …that worship attendance is worth the effort…

•   And the reality is we’ve got to be convinced by the Spirit…

•   No amount of great preaching…

•   No amount of wonderful fellowship…

•   No amount of quality child care…

•   No amount of in-depth teaching…

•   Can persuade us about the compelling love of God…

•   Surely those things are important and used of God…

•   To bring people into his kingdom and to faith…

•   But it is the work of the Spirit to convince and persuade…

•   …to bring us to the place of surrender and commitment…

•   Where we let the Spirit convince and persuade you us…

•   And what does the Spirit do in his work of convincing…?

•   He overwhelms us with the terror of the Lord…!

•   Then exposes us to the compelling love of God…!

• The Terror of the Lord.............................. v. 10-12

•  10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

11Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.

12For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

•   Have you ever experienced standing before a judge…?

•   …in a secular law court… being accused of law-breaking…?

•   Do you remember how it felt—especially if you were guilty…?

•   …what could you say…?

What could you do…?

•   …other than stand before the judge and tremble…!

•   Have you ever experienced being called on the carpet…

•   By a boss or employer—having received an ultimatum…

•   …do this or lose your employment with our company…

•   …only to hear the boss say… “There’s nothing I can do…!”

•   Have you ever had to go home to your spouse afterward…

•   To tell them you have just lost your job…

•   And your only visible means of support for the family…?

•   How does that even begin to compare…

•   …to what it will mean for you personally…

•   …to appear before the judgment seat of Christ…?

•   When you look into the eyes of Him…

•   …who is perfect righteousness…?

Revelation 1:13-16

13…the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

14His head and hair /were/ white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15His feet /were/ like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; 16He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance /was/ like the sun shining in its strength.