Sermon Tone Analysis

Saved by Grace, Now What?

Scripture: and

Scripture: and

Objective Statement: Every Christian can figure out if they are living by grace or by works.

How?

Every Christian can figure out if they are living by grace or by works by how tired they are.

Today we will continue our journey of discovering some more truths about the complex term we call grace.

Before I get really going in this week’s message

Today we will continue our journey of discovering some more truths about the complex term we call grace.

Before I get really going in this week’s message let me ask you to do something for me this morning.

On your bulletin or on a scrap sheet of paper I would like for you to answer these two questions:

let me ask you to do something for me this morning.

On your bulletin or on a scrap sheet of paper I would like for you to answer these two questions:

When I cross the finish line the reward I most want to receive is ______.

As I approach the finish line what I am most afraid of is ________.

As I approach the finish line what I am most afraid of is ________.

I asked you to consider these questions because your answers I believe will dictate the kind of pace that you will run in life.

When you begin with the end in mind, then you develop your strategy on how to obtain what you are most desiring.

I asked you to consider your answers because those answers I believe will dictate the kind of pace that you will run.

Let me share with you my answers to help explain.

Let me share with you my answers to help explain.

A manly embrace from God.

Seeing disappointment on God’s face.

Based on those answers what kind of pace do you believe I will attempt to run?

The pace I am going to try and run is to do whatever it takes for God to give me that kind of embrace.

I see the embrace of the father for the prodigal son, but I do not see myself as the prodigal son.

I see myself as the older, dependable, loyal, reliable, trustworthy son who remained behind while the younger son took off.

I see myself as the Pharisee, or the Sadducee, who has diligently lived and taught the law.

I see myself as Martha believing that if there is work to be done, then the work must be done.

That as much as I would like to sit and to listen to Jesus teach, or to play with the children, there is much work to be done and I cannot play until that work is completed.

That is the pace I would run believing that if I maintained that pace - I would indeed experience the Father embracing me in a way that I desperately want to experience.

Paul wants us to know that the pace I have just described is not sustainable.

He uses the language of sacrifice.

My system would lead me to annually provide a sacrifice so that I might remember I have yet to finish the race.

I would also make these sacrifices on an annual basis so as to avoid experiencing what I am most afraid of - seeing disappointment on God’s face.

In other words - I keep running because I am afraid of disappointing God and I keep running because I am afraid of missing out on that embrace from God.

Paul wants us to know that the pace I have just described is not sustainable.

He uses the language of sacrifice.

My system would lead me to annually provide a sacrifice so that I might remember I have yet to finish the race.

I would also make these sacrifices on an annual basis so as to avoid experiencing what I am most afraid of - seeing disappointment on God’s face.

In other words - I keep running because I am afraid of disappointing God and I keep running because I am afraid of missing out on that embrace from God.

I also think about those who long to be noticed.

They want to be discovered, but they don’t feel like anyone is actually out looking for them, like the shepherd looking for the last sheep, or the one searching for the lost coin.

That’s how they hear the words, “BUT THOSE SACRIFICES ARE AN ANNUAL REMINDER OF SINS” in their minds it doesn’t matter how many sacrifices they make, how hard they try to get noticed they feel like they are destined to be ignored, or passed over.

So they do anything it takes to feel like they are being noticed by God.

They take up a pace that cannot be sustained.

:

On Monday, I went for a 7 mile training run.

I am training to run a fictional 10K (6.2 miles) in less than an hour.

On this run I was supposed to run a portion of it at specific paces.

My coach emailed me after the run, “Pay attention to those paces the first mile of the reps!

You got out the gate hot!”

There were two exclamation points in those sentences.

What do exclamation points mean?

That’s right emphasis, a strong, emotional emphasis.

What was my coach emphasizing?

His displeasure with me running my reps too fast.

Why?

Because he knew I would not be able to sustain that pace for the entire race, which meant I would not be able to reach my goal.

Last week we discovered that grace is forgiveness, but it is also more than forgiveness.

Grace gives us a different starting line.

Most of us run a race believing that at the finish line we will hear “Well done.

Good and faithful servant.”

I believe that if I run the race well I will receive the embrace from God that I want.

I offered to you that because of grace we not only hear those words at the end of the race, we also start the race with those words.

God has already given to me that manly embrace that I am longing for at the end of the race.

That is what Paul is saying - “If you keep returning a system that constantly reminds you of who you were and who you are, you are not running the race that God intended for you to run.

You are still trying to get to the race.

You are still trying to earn a spot on the line.

That is why you continue to feel guilty, embarrassed, and ashamed of your past.

That is why you continually make these annual pilgrimages for sacrifice making.”

Starting the race knowing that you already received what you most want in life - to be known, to be loved, to be affirmed, to be seen, to be understood, to be told that you matter, to be validated, should allow you to run the race whole-heartedly.

Yet, my experience in ministry and even in my own life, reveals to me, that most Christians when they get to your age they feel exhausted, as if they are running on fumes, having nothing left in the tank to give to others.

Why does that occur?

Let’s see if a story might help us.

Once there were two high school students who each received scholarships to Harvard University.

Full rides, every possible expense paid.

Both were bright kids, and both felt intimidated by the reputation of such a great college.

They each thought, “I don’t deserve to be here.”

One student studied day and night.

She gave it all she had.

The other student began to enjoy the thrill of college life: parties, the big city nearby, and the freedom of being on his own for the first time in his life.

By midterm, the first student was still working hard, earning C’s and B’s in her classes.

The other was failing every class and placed on academic probation.

By Christmas, the first student had earned a 3.0 GPA, but the second had flunked out of Harvard.

Which of these two students laid hold of the opportunity given to them?

What factors are you calling upon to make that determination?

What if after four years at Harvard this young lady found herself in the ICU of her local hospital because her body just quit working as she needed to prove she was worthy of the 4 year scholarship by maintaining that 3.0 G.P.A.?

What if the other student had figured out by Christmas that he didn’t really need an education from Harvard, but what he discovered is that he liked working under the hood of cars, so he left Harvard and became a Wal-Mart auto-mechanic.

We are tired, worn-out, exhausted, unable to approach anything that calls us to expand God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven, whole-heartedly, because we have done exactly what my coach said, “We got out of the gates with a pace that we could not sustain.”

Hebrews 10:

For most of our lives we have been running towards this imaginary finish line believing that once we cross that finish line we will finally hear, we will finally receive, what we have most longed to hear and receive.