Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Hi guys,

Hope you’ve had a great night so far.

We’re transitioning now into a new series.

We’ve finished the Back to the Basics series where we’ve looked at some of the basics of the Christian faith, we’ve talked about Jesus, the bible, prayer and the church.

Now over the rest of the year we’re going to spend time in the book of Romans.

We’re going to look at this letter that was written by this guy named Paul, who wrote a lot of things about Jesus and the church.

And as we spend time in this book we’re going to look at this one theme that we’ve called Am I Really That Bad?

What we’re not going to do is to spend a huge amount of time talking about how bad people are, but what I’m hoping for with this series name, is that we realize that no matter if we are new to the church or have grown up in the church and feel like we know it all, that we all struggle with this thing called sin, where we don’t live up to the standard that God has set for us.

So tonight we’re going to spend some time looking at our first passage, .

And it’ll be on the screen behind me, and it says, “16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ.

It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.*

17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight.

This is accomplished from start to finish by faith.

As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ.

It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.*

17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight.

This is accomplished from start to finish by faith.

As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Have you ever been ashamed of something?

I remember when I was your age that I remember being ashamed of my glasses.

The thing was for a time I just couldn’t stop my glasses from breaking.

Whether I was hit in the face playing sports or having someone bend them by accident I seemed to always have these glasses that we’re held together by tape.

And I didn’t grow up in a house where we had a ton of money so I’d have to wait months in order to get a new pair.

And so I’d spend this time just being ashamed that I had to walk around and have people look at me with these messed up glasses on.

Now in the grand scheme of life and things this is really minor.

But when things affect us it really doesn’t matter how minor it is it really matters a ton to us because it has a pretty huge effect on us.

The reality was that I was letting something that I couldn’t change define who I was and how I felt and what I did about it.

* 1:16 Greek also the Greek.

I’ve also found times in my life where I was also ashamed of standing strong for what I believed.

You see I had professed a faith in Jesus while I was in middle school and I remember times in my life where I stayed away from conversations about my faith, or said yes to doing things because I was afraid of what my friends would think of me.

I was ashamed of maybe them finding out that I was a Christian and treating me differently.

This

Tyndale House Publishers.

Holy Bible: New Living Translation.

Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015.

Print.

What I find Paul talking about in our verse is that he has been so changed by the gospel, which is the story the good news about Jesus, that he is excited and wanting to tell everyone about it.

We know that Paul wasn’t always a Christian, in his story he started out as someone who would find, put in jail and even kill people who were Christians.

We also read in the bible that God was able to change Paul’s heart in such a drastic way that his eyes and heart were opened to who Jesus is.

And we read in the bible that Paul went on to share who Jesus is with many people and to change the world.

You see Paul is saying for I am NOT ashamed of the gospel, this good news that he has.

He is not afraid of sharing with the people around him that he is a follower of Jesus.

That he believes in all that Jesus is.

He isn’t afraid to talk to these people and to tell them that Jesus has changed his life.

He’s not happy with the person who he once was, a persecutor of Christians, but he is now not ashamed of who is now is.

And so he’s willing to tell anyone who will listen.

Sometimes we don’t always have the same boldness that Paul has here.

I think we have to come to a point where we take a stand and think about the idea that if we really care about the people around us then we will want to share with them about Jesus and invite them to church or to Youth.

Guys when we are unashamed of the gospel then we are bold to tell others and we will see the lives of the people around us, our family and friends, changed.

Who are you living for?

Are you living for Jesus unashamed or are you living for yourself or your friends?

Why would Paul do this?

And it is important knowing the reason why Paul is not ashamed of the bible.

Right after making this statement he says that he isn’t ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that is at work saving anyone who believes or puts their hope and trust in Jesus.

He’s literally saying that the words of Jesus have power that can change us, that can change how we see ourselves, how we see other people and how we see the world around us.

Paul says that this good news, the story of Jesus, the gospel is designed to tells us the Good News about how God makes us right in his sight.

Who here likes instructions?

I was joking with some friends recently that I’m the type of person who generally looks at the instructions last.

Case in point.

I got a fog machine from Walmart for a halloween event that our church in Sicamous was running, where we had warming stations set up around streets and handed out candy, hotdogs and hot chocolate.

And I looked at the box it came in and was like ok I know how this works lets get to it.

I have never operated a fog machine in my life by the way.

So I open the box and get the machine out, set it on the table and pour in the fluid and press the button.

And you know what nothing happened.

I was like what, I brought a machine that was defective and now I need to take this back.

I was quickly getting a little frustrated that this thing that I thought would be a cool addition to this event was probably garbage now.

But then I realized Germ you need to take a look at the instructions.

So I pulled them out and read that the machine needs to heat up first and then the button will work and fog will stream out of the machine.

But this is what happens when we don’t have instructions.

We really don’t know if what we are doing is right and can easily and quickly get frustrated and want to give up, give what we got back or toss what we have in the garbage.

What Paul is telling us is that this Good News of Jesus, the gospel tells us about who God is and how he can make us right in his sight.

And we need to know this because without these instructions we just won’t know what is right.

Then Paul finishes this up by saying that this is accomplished, this is done, through this thing called faith.

What this means is that Paul is saying that the power that we get through the gospel to understand how God can make us right is done by us having faith in Jesus, believing that Jesus is the son of God and that he died and came back and that he still lives in us.

When we believe this God begins to work this all out in each of our lives.

But the starting point is that we need to believe we need to accept Jesus.

You might be asking what does that look like in your life?

We’ll it is as simple as saying that you believe in Jesus, and praying and asking Jesus into your heart.

And I would encourage you to do that tonight if you haven’t ever done it before.

I would encourage you to make a stand and say Jesus I believe in you I accept you I ask you into my life and my heart.

And if you make that decision I want you to talk to someone about it.

To tell your small group leader.

Cause we want to help encourage you and to help you with this decision.

If you aren’t sure what any of this means or are wanting more information, then again come talk to us.

We would love to help make you with these decisions.

And if you do believe in Jesus then this is a chance for you to make a stand and choose to be unashamed of the gospel and to be bold in sharing your faith to your friends.

So who are you

Let’s Pray