Sermon Tone Analysis

What is the Number One Thing Jesus Calls Us to Do?

We have to be with Him before we can do for Him.

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Abiding in Jesus and He in us is the key to fruitfulness in every area and role of life.

In seeking the kingdom of God we seek the King.

If it is so important shouldn’t we learn and know how to abide?

What does abide mean and how do we do it?

Before we look at what it means to abide, let’s look at what it means to be fruitful.

Fruit is what is produced from the actions of our mouths and deeds.

Jesus is saying that when we abide in Him, and He and His Word in us, we will bear much fruit to the glory of God.

What might this fruit look like?

Peace, Joy, and Hope (; ) We will see why later.

Blessed Family () Abiding and walking in the fear of the Lord are the same.

Miracles

Notice what Jesus said of Himself in .

You see Jesus was able to do the works He did because He abided in the Father and the Father in Him.

After we have looked at what it means to abide, we will come back to this and see how Jesus is our example of abiding and bearing fruit to the glory of God.

μένω (aor.

ἔμεινα, impv.

μέινον, inf.

μεῖναι; plpf.

3 pl.

μεμενήκεισαν ) intrans.

remain, stay, abide; live, dwell; last, endure, continue; trans.

await, wait for

Newman, B. M., Jr. (1993).

A Concise Greek-English dictionary of the New Testament.

(p.

113).

Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft; United Bible Societies.

I want you to notice that abiding in Jesus contains the idea and practice of continuing.

I’m going to teach you how I understand abiding with a phrase and in depth explanation of the phrase.

How to we abide?

By maintaining the Cycle of Grace.

How to we abide?

By maintaining the Cycle of Grace.

In other words maintaining the Cycle of Grace is synonymous with abiding in Jesus, so we will see why that is synonymous, and as we learn to have and maintain the Cycle of Grace, we will learn to abide in Jesus and He in us, and in doing so be in position to bear much fruit to the glory of God- even in our parenting.

Before I tell you what the Cycle of Grace is let’s:

1. look at what a cycle is and define grace.

So we are going to pull out and identify all the pieces of the puzzle and then put them together, keeping in mind the goal- learning where to start in fulfilling our God-given role as parents, and not only where to start; but how to start and continue.

2. Once we define cycle and grace, we will look at the elements of the cycle and put it all together.

Grace Defined

The grace of God is generally defined as being His unmerited favor.

It is something that we can not earn, but is given to us freely.

Favor requires power.

To act favorably toward someone has many implications.

To act favorably toward someone is to help them and bless them in a way that brings peace, joy, and other blessings.

That is what God in His grace does.

It takes power to help and bless, and so God’s grace contains His power.

Let’s look at that in God’s Word.

2 cor 12 9

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Notice grace, strength, and power are used interchangeably- so God’s grace contains God’s power.

The same Greek word translated strong in 2 Timothy is translated strong in

2 tim 2:1-2

2 tim

The same Greek word translated strong in 2 Timothy is translated strong in

God’s grace is God’s power (, , to:

Power to “do” ()

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

2. Power to “be” (, )

To borrow from Jack Hayford, grace is a force as well as a favor.

Joyce Meyer puts it this way, “grace is the power to change us and change our circumstances.”

I define God’s grace as His power to be and do.

Grace is also:

Recognizable (; )

2. Free ()

3.

For the Past, Present, and Future (; )

4. Grace is Impart-able (; , ; )

5. Grace (the power of God to be and do) in Increase-able (

- We are to grow in grace as we grow in the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ.

() As we grow in grace we grow in the power of God to be and do.

- We are to grow in grace as we grow in the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ.

(2 Peter 1:2)

- We are to grow in grace as we grow in the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ.

(2 Peter 1:2)

17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 peter 3 17-18

- We are to grow in grace as we grow in the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ.

We must grow in grace.

In other words the measure of grace must increase in our lives as we seek to come to know Christ in a more intimate way.

As we grow in grace we will have more victory and blessings in our life.

When troubles come instead of fearing, worrying, and complaining we will rejoice knowing that God will help us, we will rejoice that He will have a chance to be glorified in our circumstances, and we will rejoice knowing that the trying of our faith makes us more Christ like.

As we grow in grace we will be helped and be able to better help others.

Think about your needs right now.

Think about your desires right now- good or bad.

The grace of God is for those needs and desire.

Now we are ready for the Cycle of Grace

When I was preparing to speak at the men’s retreat in May of 2005 or 2006.

I was thinking about how much I was emphasizing prayer.

I didn’t want to leave the importance of God’s word left unspoken, so a phrase came to me.

It is pray, study, and obey and you will be ok.

As I was preparing to speak at the church in June I was giving it some more thought.

I was thinking about as we pray to God, asking to know Him better, asking Him to make us into what He wants us to be, asking Him to equip us with every good thing to do His will, asking Him to teach us and instruct us in the way we should go, as we ask Him those things He leads us to His word with understanding.

He directs us to the very same word that often tells us to pray.

I saw that successful/fruitful prayer and the study of God’s word are interdependent on each other, that is was a continuous cycle.

Without prayer we do not know, and without God’s word we do not and can not pray.

So I began to see that the flow of God’s grace to us follows a cycle, and the more complete and consistent the cycle, the greater measure of grace in our lives.

The Cycle of Grace

What is a cycle?

A cycle is a series of events that is repeated over and over again.