Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: Hope you have been blessed, equipped, encouraged today with the sessions, breakouts and the fellowship.

We have learned what Christianity isn’t, we have covered what it is, now lets spend some time on how to live in light of the Gospel.

In other words, if I claim Christianity , if I claim to be a follower/disciple of Jesus, what should my life look like?

According to Barna Reasearch Group

1 in 4 Americans are considered Practicing Christians

That number uses to hover around 50%.

So where did everyone go?

Well the number of people who claim to have no religious affiliation grew, Barna calls this group of people is called the nones.

In 2000 this group was at 20% in 2019 it jumped to 30%

Barna has another group of people that has grown, this group hovered around 20% in 2000 but has grown to 43% in 2020.

Barna calls this group Non - Practicing Christians.

These are people who claim Christianity, but do not live it out.

When we look through the lens of Scripture, there is no such thing as a non - practicing follower of Jesus.

This is something our culture has created because at one time there was social pressure to be a church member, which is no longer the case, so now we have poeple who grew up in the church and claim Christianty as their “religion” but have no clue on what it means to follow Jesus.

I think sometimes we who cling to some form of “reformed theology” have been part of the problem, because of how we explain or loosely define the security of the believer or in one of my most disliked terms “once saved always saved”.

But that is another session for another conference.

So the question before us this afternoon is, in light of the Gospel, if I claim to be a Christian, how should I then live?

I plan to tackle this using selected passages from the book of Ephesians.

So lets dive in, open your Bible to Ephesians so you can follow along.

1.

The Gospel transforms us and reorients our lives to love God and love others.

What we find is Ephesians 1-3 is the riches of God’s glorious grace freely given to the sinner described as “in Christ”.

In Christ

we are chosen in love

we holy and blameless

we are adopted

we are redeemed

forgiven

we have been given an inheritance

made alive

freely given God’s grace

have been placed in a community, known as the church.

Why did God do this for us?

God has done this in love, to the praise of his glory.

God has lavished us with grace, ultimately for his Glory.

God is gathering a people across the globe who live by God’s grace and for his glory.

When God saves someone they are transformed by the riches of God’s grace, but they are also being transformed into the image of Jesus every day.

When the Gospel takes root in someone, your life is reoriented to live for God’s glory.

Before Jesus took hold of your life, you were living for your glory, you were building your own kingdom, you were living for your self.

Jesus reorints yoour life to live for his glory, to build his kingdom, to take up your cross and follow him.

Listen to Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:1–4 (ESV)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

Paul is telling us

You were dead in your sins

you once walked in the ways of the world

we all once lived under the domain of the prince of the power of the air

We were all there… But God, rich in mercy and because of his great love, he made us alive in Christ.

There is nothing we could have done, it all God.

As a result of what Jesus has done in us, our life now is reoriented to live for him.

Paul said before God’s grace showed up, you were dead, walked in the ways of the world, operated in the realm of prince of the power air, But NOT ANY MORE.

Now....

What should we do?

Walk in them.

Paul uses this term walk, 7 times in Ephesians, we have just read 2, he will use it 5 more times.

What Paul is implying by using the word walk, is lifestyle, living or what should characterize are lives.

Which leads us to our second point.

2. The Gospel Compels us to walk worthy of our calling as our act of worship.

This is the Romans 12:1-2 of the book of Ephesians.

Do your remember Romans 12:1-2?

In Romans 1-11 Paul is explaining to them the why they need the Gospel & what the Gospel has accomplished.

Then he gets to Romans 12 and says

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Ephesians 4:1 is our Romans 12:1 moment for the church of Ephesus.

If the Gospel has taken root in you, your act of worship to God is to walk worthy of the calling you have recieved.

This is your spiritual act of worship to the Lord.

Jesus said it very plainly in John 14:15

How do we show our love and gratefulness to the Lord for what he has done for us?

Walk worthy of the calling we have recieved.

The God through the Gospel gives us the faith, desire and passion to walk worthy of the calling we have received through the power of the Spirit.

God doesn’t say I saved you now go live it out in your strength.

No God says I saved and I will be with to empower to walk worthy of the calling you have recieved until you breath your last breath or I take you home.

Notice what Paul says how we are to walk, with all

humility

gentleness

patience

bearing with one another in love

eager to maintain unity of the Spirit

in the bond of peace

Christians across the world can use a fresh wind of all this right here.

Christian twitter can use a whole lot of this right here.

Our local churches can use a whole lot of this right here.

Many times we are going through life waiting for people to say or do something we don’t like ad then we blow them up.

I got ya!

A 20 tweet thread later, it turns out to be nothing.

I love what Ray Ortland says, gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture.

When you life is transformed by the Gospel your life will reflect these attitudes and characteristics.

Now when you get a community of believers who live out these characteristics, then you will display the power of the Gospel to those in the church and outside the church.

Which leads into our last point...

3. The Gospel compels us to walk worthy of our calling in our relationships with people.

God is working in this world through the local church.

Something I never noticed before, which i realized when I was preparing for this conference, is after Rom 12:1-2 and Eph 4:1 Paul moves immediately on how we serve in the community of faith the church.

In both instances he talks about gifts the Lord has given the body of believers to work in the ministries of the church.

The work and activity of God is going to be accomplished in this world through the local churches who serve in their communities.

Para-church orgs are great, but the local church is what God is going to use to transform lives and communities.

What does this mean?

In order to walk worthy of the calling we have recieved we need to be part of a healthy local church.

You have something to give the community of faith you are a part of that they need and they have something to give that you need.