Sermon Tone Analysis

Thesis: Generosity is the law of Christian life

Thesis: Generosity is the law of Christian life

for Kids: Card games with different rules: Go Fish vs. Uno

Me

As a young Christian I was confused about Grace

Lots of people tried to put it into short explanations that fit on bumper stickers and expect that to change my life

It made it memorable, but not very applicable

Neither God, nor any of the Bible authors put God into a bumper sticker

They pointed instead to the life of Jesus, and they wrote four whole books and even more commentary and interpretation on them.

John even said:

John

We

We

Where I got tripped up often, and sometimes where we get confused is the idea of who and what grace involves.

Grace is not all about God.

If we did not exist, there would be no need or existence of Grace.

Grace takes at least two people.

God’s saving grace, involves more than one act as well.

It involves at least 3.

We sin and hurt or offend God

God forgives us and offers us relationship again

We receive that restored relationship

So Grace involves us, and the whole story of grace involves us doing things wrong initially and the receiving things right at the end.

Nowhere in this are we in charge or control of grace.

God always initiates it, but it always calls for a response from us.

God’s grace is like the Sun, and we, like the moon can either choose to reflect God’s light or block it.

Either was, the world will know God’s grace and we will either shine with him or be a big black spot in the beautiful sky He created.

How do we live in that grace daily?

God

11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people?

By no means!

I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” 4 But what is the divine reply to him?

“I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.a

7 What then?

Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.

The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written,

“God gave them a sluggish spirit,

eyes that would not see

and ears that would not hear,

down to this very day.”

9And David says,

“Let their table become a snare and a trap,

a stumbling block and a retribution for them;

10let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,

and keep their backs forever bent.”

Paul compared to Elijah.

Scripture paraphrases - Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and then Psalms

Who are the elect that Paul is referring to?

There have always been people invited into God's Kingdom, but not everyone chose or chooses to take Him up on that offer.

What holds them back?

The notion that they either deserve it or could never earn it themselves.

It is too close for them to appreciate

The way that we do not consider fresh water or sunlight a gift from God until the day comes that it is taken away from us.

How did you accept that invitation?

Jewish faith was not an accident of birth

You lived out the law.

It was more than just words, saying you believed certain things

You were judged by your actions

A strange example from the life of Moses - on the way to Egypt to be God’s prophet...

24 On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the LORD met him and tried to kill him.

25 But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, “Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone.

It was then she said, “A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.”

- Rahab

Exodus

- Ruth

- wives of Solomon

The crowd and tapestry weaving

List of adopted Jews:

- warp (Jews) and woof (Gentiles)

List of adopted Jews:

The wife and child of Moses (plus his in-laws)

Rahab

Ruth

Most of the Wives of King Solomon

The “crowd” that gathered with the Hebrew Slaves fleeing Egypt.

The crowd and tapestry weaving

Rahab

Ruth

wives of Solomon

The crowd and tapestry weaving

warp (Jews) and woof (Gentiles)

Warp sets the boundaries and woof fills it in

In other words, the warp holds the woof in place

In a tapestry, it is the woof, in all its color and glory that makes the pictures and the warp that holds that story up.

Are you part of the warp or woof in God’s kingdom?

The Salvation of the Gentiles

Romans 11:11-

Moses used the image of woven cloth

Paul uses the image of an olive tree

Something living

Something that is supposed to bear fruit

Paul was writing to the first generations of Christians, when Gentiles were not even raised in Jewish ways, let alone according to Christ’s values.

Now, almost 2000 years later I think we could read this in light of those raised in Christian families and those who were raised outside the Church and only entered in later.

I believe the principles are the same here.

There is probably not enough Jewish DNA among us for us avoid us all being labeled as Gentiles.

Christian families and communities have taken on the same role that the Jews held in the Bible

It’s why we can often see some of those Jewish traits (Law-abiding Pharisees, Liberal Sadducees, Mystic Essenes, Political Zealots, etc.) in ourselves and in the Christians around us.