Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer of the Holy Spirit:

Turn to Page 48 in your worship booklet, and join me in the prayer to the Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit,

fill the hearts of your faithful

and kindle in us the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit, and we shall be created.

And you shall renew the face of the earth.

O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit

did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit

we may be truly wise

and ever enjoy your consolations.

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Introduction

Story about Luke getting sick....

My wife Lauren and I have a son named Luke Wesley.

He was our first and man he changed our world.

People tell you over and over again, your whole world is going to change....oh man I was tired of hearing it haha.

Life will never be the same.

I got it, quit saying these vague generalities and then walking away.

Then he came and wow.

Life was full with Luke though.

Both working full time jobs flipping our schedules so we could do it.

Pastors salary does not give way for suitable childcare really.

But it was all worth it.

I loved my days with him.

One day I went to pick him up from our SLC pre k thing at the church and something was slightly off.

Tell the story.

In the middle of it all, something remarkable happened that brought Lauren and I to our knees and reminded us of God’s promises and forced us to turn our why questions into ok, now what questions.

In an instant we were partnering with God to not only take care of Luke but to trust in Him for what he was going to do in us.

My name is John Wayne McMann, and the title of this talk is Sanctifying Grace.

My name is John Wayne McMann, and the title of this talk is Sanctifying Grace.

God’s Grace

Let me bring us all together here with the talks you have had about grace.

You have heard about prevenient grace, justifying grace, and now we will talk about sanctifying grace.

You have talked about obstacles of grace and means of Grace.

All of this is a way of putting language to the ways in which God is trying to restore you, bring you home, call you to him, and send you out.

There are not different graces, like we use up all of one potion and then we need the next one.

Grace is the unmerited love of God in Jesus Christ that opens our eyes to our brokenness and makes a way for us back to him, and finally brings healing into our lives.

The means of grace are those avenues through which we can position ourself more directly in the love of God to be shaped and formed.

The obstacles of grace are those very things that distract us...

The reason why we talk about grace like this in three parts; prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying is because it is the only way we can conceptualize what God’s love is doing for us and in us.

So remember prevenient grace, it is the work calling us to him before we even acknowledge Him.

I like to thing of this as the wooing.

Trying to get our attention.

I believe it is by prevenient grace that scales on our eyes are removed and we see.

Some of you might have been led this far this weekend or remember a time.

Then justifying grace is the love of God done for us to forgive us of our sins.

It is when we give him our yes and the grace of God forgives us of our sin and we are called children...

Sanctifying grace, then is the love of God working in us so that we might become who we are created to be… John Wesley would put it this way,

“Expressed in the most general terms, sanctification addresses the entire work of transformation in human lives by the Holy Spirit from the moment individuals are born again until they are given glorification in death.

The ultimate end of the Spirit’s work is to restore the full image of God in humanity, making humanity like Christ.”

(Theology of John Wesley, Lecture 6) In other words, salvation itself is the process of cleansing man from all sin, thereby making it possible for him to once again dwell in the presence of God and enjoy perfect communion and eternal life with Him.

The House of God

The best analogy I have heard for the Christian message of salvation is the house of God.

Prevenient Grace is the inviting to the Porch,

Justification is standing at the door or in the door way and choosing to go in.

Sanctification is being in the house, and experience all that God has for us in the house.

Just like you have a choice to walk through the door, you have a choice to how you experience the house and how far in you will go.

This means a lot to me…my daughter Rylie Grace....cause sanctifying grace was a little wordy and I wanted to give her a chance in grade school....though it would ward off any potential heathen boyfriends.

RIPE Branches

Ok, so what does Sanctifying grace do?

Why is this important?

Well I am glad you asked...

And with any preacher speaking they usually have a bad joke or a bad acronym...

I chose to use this because it covers everything but you can remember it.

R.I.P.E.

Restoring, Imparting, Perfecting, Equipping

The best way to think about this is in reference to John 15

Sanctifying grace makes us RIPE, ensures that we are growing.

Restoring

Sanctifying grace is restoring our relationship with God and others.

Friends, when we come to know Christ and he calls us son and daughter there is some work to be done in our hearts.

There is healing to be done, there is correcting to be done.

Sanctifying grace is like the Prodigal son coming home to find a father ready to take care of his wounds and short comings, so that he might be restored.

The restoration process is by which we begin to believe we are children of God

My wife has a story of restoration that is still ongoing.

Imparting

Sanctifying grace is imparting new life, new light, new strength, and a new heart

Remember earlier I said that God has not just done a work for you....but he wants to do a work in you.

Transforming you from the inside out.

Paul puts it this way....

I am meeting with a person, let’s call him Billy.

Who gave his life to Christ after 20 years of attending church…hallelujah.

And he was telling me, almost a little freaked out, dude I was in a meeting the other day.

Now, Billy works with important people all over the world, in a meeting the other day with these scientists and business people and someone went on this tirade and they were cussing like a sailor, and I butted in and said, excuse me, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.

And everyone stared at me....and then laughed, John Wayne help me.

He is transforming you Billy.

He is giving you a new heart.

Perfecting

Sanctifying Grace is perfecting us in the image of God and the likeness of Jesus Christ.

Now, I know people get lost on this one all the time.

The word perfect throws people off....but I needed it for my sweet acronym.

Just kidding.

Perfect is the right word but let me put some context on it.

Perfect means mature or complete.

Sanctifying means holy....this journey is about bringing you back to who you were always created to be.

This is about loving God with your whole heart and loving people with your whole heart.

Free from sin, death, self, all to him.

This idea of grace is declaring that being saved is not an arrival point, it is a launching point to a life of more.