Sermon Tone Analysis

HOOK

INTRODUCTION

Words are immensely powerful and they are a two-edged sword.

They can cut to the heart or build people up.

There are life-giving words and life-stealing words.

If you are a Christian, you will have in internal desire to speak life-giving words more than life-stealing words.

This is because the Spirit of God resides within us.

He is conforming us to the image of Christ ().

This process of renewing us includes our words.

He is preparing us for life in the kingdom of God, where there will be only life-giving words- ones of truth, love, and justice.

Therefore, today we have an opportunity to change the world around us with our words.

Think, what would happen in your family, in your school, in your office, in your church, if you changed your words?

Last week, we learned from Jesus that words are the fruit of our hearts.

We speak out of the abundance of the heart.

Life-giving words come out of a heart that is alive in Christ.

Since the Spirit lives inside of us and empowers us to speak life-giving words, we have an opportunity to change the world around us with our words.

Think, what would happen in your family if you grew out of using cutting words and you said only words of truth, love, and justice?

How would that change your workplace?

How would it change our church?

Last week, we saw how Jesus taught that we speak out of the abundance of the heart.

So if we want our words to be full of grace and loving, then these characteristics must describe the condition of our heart.

This can only occur with hearts redeemed by Christ and cleansed by the spirit.

TRUE WORDS

HONEST WORDS

Today, we are going to look at an expression of life-giving words- true words.

As Christians, our words reflect the truth of God which has transformed our hearts.

Remember, our hearts and our words are made of the same substance.

If the truth of Christ has changed us, then our words will become honest as well.

Hopefully, you’ll be challenged to change your words to reflect the dramatic change God has worked in your hearts in Christ.

This makes sense.

Honesty is among the earliest lessons a person learns.

Innately, we know that honesty is of God.

If we are of God then we tell the truth.

Yet even this basic moral principle us under attack in the world.

There are all sorts of rationalizations which exist as to why we should lie a little in our day-to-day lives.

Real popular today is the skepticism that we can’t even know the truth.

People today echo Pilates words to Jesus,

I hope today that we will see that words of truth are words of life.

We are going to understand why there is such a critical link between God’s truthfulness and our honesty.

Hopefully, you’ll be challenged to search out and eliminate life-stealing and dishonest words from your life.

BOOK

CONTEXT

Paul wrote Ephesians from house arrest in Rome around 62 AD.

He spend three years with the Ephesians and knew many of them well.

The letter revisits the glory of the gospel and then teaches Christians that such grace should result in a worthy lifestyle.

In our passage today, Paul emphasizes that we have gone from lives founded in deception to lives based in the truth of God.

This change will show up in our words.

PASSAGE

TRUTH

Before we get started with the text, let’s agree on some definitions.

Let’s pause and talk about truth.

Truth is what actually is.

It is physical and spiritual reality.

It is objective and independent of you or me.

Truth is fact.

Let’s pause and talk about truth.

Truth is what is.

It is reality in physical and spiritual terms.

Truth is fact.

Scripture teaches that God is the author of truth.

It is of Him.

Do you remember the name God gave to Moses to give to Pharaoh?

He says His name is “I AM THAT I AM” ().

In this name God makes known His existence and the authenticity of His character.

God is truth.

Scripture teaches that God is true.

It is his characteristic.

Truth is of Him.

Do you remember the name God gave to Moses to give to Pharaoh?

He says His name is “I AM THAT I AM” ().

In this name God makes known that He is.

Truth emanates from Him.

Truth

Deception, on the other hand, can be defined as what is not.

It is not reality.

Yet, it is portrayed as reality.

Truth is associated with God and deception is the characteristic of His enemy, the devil.

Jesus calls him the father of lies ().

The classic example of the devil’s work is in the Garden of Eden, when God stated what is fact when He said,

The devil tempted Eve by saying,

The devil framed a mis-truth as the truth.

They would die, but he said they would not.

When Adam and Eve took the fruit, they believed the devil instead of God.

In effect, they determined God to be a liar.

This blasphemy is at the heart of human depravity.

Maybe we can start to understand why our sin is the object of God’s wrath more clearly after explaining it this way.

By default, every human being comes to call God a liar when we choose not to believe what God has said is true, and then we act according to our backward beliefs.

BOOK

BOOK

PASSAGE

PASSAGE

The letter revisits the glory of the gospel (that God brought us from so low and lifted us up so high through Jesus Christ) and then teaches Christians that such grace should result in a worthy lifestyle since we have been transformed.

In our passage today, Paul emphasizes that we have gone from lives founded in deception to lives based in the truth of God.

This change will show up in our words.

PASSAGE

Ephesians 17

These words of Paul carry inspired authority.

He speaks of two groups, 1) the Ephesian Christians and 2) the Gentiles.

The term Gentiles refers generally to non-Jews, in this passage Paul uses it to refers to unsaved pagans.

Given how Paul describes the heart of Gentiles, we can understand this description to apply to the heart of all people who are lost and outside of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ the Savior.