Sermon Tone Analysis

1)      God’s Faithfulness

a)      What is the explanation for such wonderful works in our lives?

How can all of this be true in our lives?

How can we be certain that what God has promised to do will come to pass?

The explanation is given in verse nine.

God is faithful.

i)        In fact, in the Greek when the author wants to emphasize something, he puts the word first in the sentence.

If you were to look at this verse in the Greek, faithful comes first.

It literally says, faithful is God.

ii)       Paul doesn’t want us to miss his explanation.

Earlier we talked about God’s providence, that providence added with God’s faithfulness makes for a wondrous combination!

Not only has God promised to do it, he will do it.

You can count on it because he is faithful.

iii)     Consider also the connection made here between God’s faithfulness and his calling of us into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ.

(1)    This is the third time we have encountered God’s calling in the first nine verses, and it is not the last time we will encounter it in the book of 1 Corinthians.

(a)    God called Paul to be an apostle

(b)   God has called us to be holy

(c)    God has called us into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ.

(2)    Why this emphasis on God’s calling and God’s faithfulness?

Remember, the church is composed of a called out assembly of believers.

God is passionate about his church; he will not abandon it or go back on his promises.

He will not let it fall.

Quite the contrary, he will build it.

(a)    David Prior says, “We can totally depend on God: he is not a man, he cannot deny himself, he will keep his word.

The church is his responsibility, he is committed to the perfecting of the saints” (Prior, 26).

(b)   Consider the words of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-34 – “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

(c)    David Prior – “Not only is Paul very positive about the present resources of the church of God at Corinth; he is also full of confidence in the Lord for its future.

Whatever ups and downs it might face, Paul is sure of the faithfulness of God: he has called them into the fellowship of his Son, he will sustain them to the end” (Prior, 25).

b)      We can never doubt the faithfulness of God to those who have been called into fellowship.

There may be many things in this world you doubt, but the faithfulness of God is not one of them.

God is faithful.

It is part of his character.

c)       Having now considered the promise and faithfulness of God to sustain you so you will be blameless on that day, having briefly considered the riches of the fellowship we share in Christ, may I press you, urge you to be unreservedly committed to the church of God where he has placed you just as God is unreservedly committed to it.

May I urge and press you to be unhesitatingly confident about God’s desire and ability to make his church like Christ Jesus because he is faithful, and may I urge and press you to be uncompromisingly faithful in your pursuit to be holy as he is holy.

God has not called you into the fellowship of Son so you can be successful.

He has called you to be faithful.

d)      When the storms of life encompass you, when you feel like giving in, when you feel overcome and overburdened, keep your eyes on Jesus Christ.

Endure!

Persevere!

Remember the fellowship you have in him, how you are enriched in every way in Him, how he has confirmed you and will sustain you until that day.

God will sustain you in Him.

God is faithful.

God is in control.

He will keep you blameless.

Your heart and your flesh may fail, but not God.

May I urge you and press you to persevere in his promise and faithfulness.

Pursue God, strive to be more like him.

!

The Race

“Quit!” “Give up, you’re beaten,” they shout and plead \\ there’s just too much against you now, this time you can’t succeed.

\\ And as I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face, \\ my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.

And hope refills my weakened will as I recall that scene, \\ for just the thought of that short race rejuvenates my being.

\\ A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well, \\ excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.

They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race \\ or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.

\\ Their fathers watched from off the side, each cheering for his son, \\ and each boy hoped to show his dad that he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they went, young hearts and hopes of fire, \\ to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire.

\\ One boy in particular, his dad was in the crowd, \\ was running near the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.”

But as he speeded down the field across a shallow dip, \\ the little boy who thought to win, lost his step and slipped.

\\ Trying hard to catch himself, his hands, flew out to brace, \\ and mid the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.

So, down he fell and with him hope, he couldn’t win it now.

\\ Embarrassed, sad, he only wished to disappear somehow.

\\ But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face, \\ which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”

He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all, \\ and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.

\\ So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win, \\ his mind went faster than his legs, he slipped and fell again.

He wished that he had quit before with one disgrace.

\\ “I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.” \\ But, in the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face, \\ that steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!”

So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last, \\ if I’m going to gain those yards, he thought, I’ve got to run real fast.

\\ Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight or ten, \\ but trying so hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.

Defeat!

He lay there silently, a tear dropped from his eye, \\ there’s no sense running anymore—three strikes I’m out—why try' \\ The will to rise had disappeared, all hope had fled away, \\ so far behind, so error prone, closer all the way.

“I’ve lost, so what’s the use,” he thought, “I’ll live with my disgrace.”

\\ But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.

\\ “Get up,” an echo sounded low.

“Get up and take your place.

\\ You were not meant for failure here, get up and win that race.”

With borrowed will, “Get up,” it said, “you haven’t lost at all, \\ for winning is not more than this; to rise each time you fall.”

\\ So, up he rose to run once more, and with a new commit, \\ he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.

So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been, \\ still he gave it all he had and ran as though to win.

\\ Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.

\\ Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.

They cheered the winning runner as he crossed, first place; \\ head high and proud and happy—no falling, no disgrace.

\\ but, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, last place, \\ the crowd gave him the greater cheer for finishing the race.

And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud, \\ you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.

\\ And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”

\\ To me, you won,” his father said.

“You rose each time you fell.”

And now when things seem dark and hard and difficult to face, \\ the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.

\\ For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.

\\ And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.

“Quit!” “Give up, you’re beaten,” they still shout in my face, \\ but another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race.”

Family Times

e)      There will be times in life when you will fall down and Satan will say, “stay down.

Don’t bother getting back up.

Just quit.”

It is during these times you must remember the faithfulness of God who has called you into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ.

It is at this time you must be strong not in your strength, but in his power and might.

! 1 Corinthians 1:10

 

We have come to a passage of scripture that urges awesome unity of speech, mind, and thought.

One cannot help but think to himself as he reads and ponders what Paul has written and God has spoken in this verse if it is even possible.