Sermon Tone Analysis

Review

Prepare your heart

Observe the Facts

Walk in their Shoes

Engage with the Meaning

Would you rather follow someone who is poor and always going through problems, or would you rather follow someone who is seemingly successful, wealthy, and has their act together?

Paul was essentially saying this: To suffer for Christ is not shameful.

To suffer for Christ is an honor, it is a privilege.

Any suffering I go through for Jesus is not shameful.

Does not mean He has forsaken me

It means that it is a privilege and honor

Introduction

Asking the Right Questions

There are many other great ways to apply the passage to your life.

Another method is to use the acronym “JOY” which stands for Jesus, Others, Yourself:

What does this passage teach you about Jesus?

Jesus died for our sins.

He is the example in suffering.

Was he willing to suffer so that the light of the gospel could shine in our hearts?

He suffered or our sake that we might be saved.

When we go through trials

What does this passage teach you about Others?

There are others who are in darkness, without a saving relationship with Jesus.

There are others who need to know about the gospel.

What does this passage teach you about Yourself?

I can choose to have a perspective change about trials.

When challenges come my way, instead of feeling forsaken, I can know that God is doing something special in my life

You might also consider asking yourself:

Which character(s) in the passage or story do I identify or relate with most?

What do I have in common with them, and how can I learn from their journey?

What is the light?

​

​ NKJV4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

The light is the gospel.

What is the gospel?

Gospel - “euangellion”

Compound word - 2 in 1

Eu = good + angellion = message

3 angel’s message

What is the good news message about?

Have you ever had someone come to you and say, “I have some good news!”

Or maybe someone has said, “I have some good news and I have some bad news”

What’s the natural reaction?

What’s the news??

By the way, have you ever noticed that bad news travels a lot faster than good news?

It’s been said that if the gospel were bad news, the whole world would know about it already.

The good news is about the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God.

What is the glory of Christ?

Word study - glory

Exodus 34.

The good news is about the character of Jesus.

The gospel is about who God is.

Exodus 34The good news is about the character of Jesus.

The gospel is about who God is. says the light is the knowledge of glory of God.

The knowledge of who God is.How do you get to know who someone is?By spending time with them.When you get to know God for who He really is, when you experience Him for yourself, when you have a personal relationship with Him, abiding in Him and Him in you every day, then you have the knowledge of the glory of God.

The good news is about the character of Jesus.

The gospel is about who God is. says the light is the knowledge of glory of God.

The knowledge of who God is.How do you get to know who someone is?By spending time with them.When you get to know God for who He really is, when you experience Him for yourself, when you have a personal relationship with Him, abiding in Him and Him in you every day, then you have the knowledge of the glory of God.

says the light is the knowledge of glory of God.

The knowledge of who God is.

How do you get to know who someone is?

By spending time with them.

When you get to know God for who He really is, when you experience Him for yourself, when you have a personal relationship with Him, abiding in Him and Him in you every day, then you have the knowledge of the glory of God.

Where can you find the glory of God?

says in the face of Jesus.

So now we know:

What is the light?

The gospel.

What is the gospel?

Good news.

What is the good news?

It is about the glory or character of God, it is about who God is.

Where can you learn about the character of God?

In the face of Jesus.

What does it mean for the light to shine in your heart?

For you to allow God’s character of love and goodness to personally touch your heart and change your life.

So you could summarize it this way:

The light that shines in our hearts is the good news of who God really is, as seen in the face of Jesus.

What does it mean for the light to shine in your heart?

For you to allow God’s character of love and goodness to personally touch your heart and change your life.

After verse 6, there is a minor shift in emphasis, a transition in thought.

Up until this point in the chapter, has Paul mentioned anything about trials?

Not yet.

But now, starting in verse 7, he begins to shift the focus in that direction.

​ KJV 19007 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Ministry of Healing, p. 471

What is the treasure?

The treasure is the light that has shined in our hearts!There is a contrast here in this verse.On one side you have the treasure: filled with glory, light, excellence, the gospel!On the other side you have earthen vessels, our hearts, Trials are a powerful tool to help others know about who God really is.Our attitude of faith through suffering is a testimony that will teach others about who Jesus is in a way nothing else can do.AA p. 330

It is because God is leading them that these things come upon them.

Trials and obstacles are the Lord’s chosen methods of discipline and His appointed conditions of success.

He who reads the hearts of men knows their characters better than they themselves know them.

He sees that some have powers and susceptibilities which, rightly directed, might be used in the advancement of His work.

In His providence He brings these persons into different positions and varied circumstances that they may discover in their character the defects which have been concealed from their own knowledge.

He gives them opportunity to correct these defects and to fit themselves for His service.

Often He permits the fires of affliction to assail them that they may be purified.

The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop.

If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us.

He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace.

It is valuable ore that He refines.

The blacksmith puts the iron and steel into the fire that he may know what manner of metal they are.

The Lord allows His chosen ones to be placed in the furnace of affliction to prove what temper they are of and whether they can be fashioned for His work.