Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
At Corporate Chaplains there is a chaplain who is also a church planter in the Virgina Beach area.
I just wanted you to know I’m not talking about myself.
This chaplain/pastor is in a unique position in his life because he has been diagnosed, for the second time with cancer and this time the diagnosis is terminal.
He has anywhere from 3-5 years of life left.
What is his response?
Depression?
Anger?
Does he spend his time chasing after the “good life”?
Is he racking up credit card debt on experiences and trips?
No.
This dear brother is leveraging his life for God’s glory.
I’ve heard it said about him that he would evangelize a tree if it could get saved.
He is distinctly aware that his time is short on this earth and that eternity looms before him.
He will meet the Lord soon and give an account for all that he has done with the life God has given him to steward.
Today is our last Sunday in our “mission statement” series.
And the last two Sundays we unpacked 9 tools that we need if we are going to accomplish the “seeing people radically transformed in Christ” part of our mission.
Today we are moving onto the second part of Covenant Life’s mission statement and that is to see people “leverage their lives for God’s glory”.
Does anyone remember our mission statement?
Let’s say it together.
Covenant Life Church exists to see people radically transformed in Christ who leverage their lives for God’s glory.
This is why we exist as a church.
We don’t exist to just hang out.
Although we love each other and love to hang out.
We don’t exist for a political agenda—a social movement—or to be a platform for our own ideologies.
We exist to worship God in spirit and truth.
And we do that by being obedient to seeing people radically transformed in Christ—and then seeing those transformed people leverage their lives for God’s glory.
So this morning we are going to ask the question: How do I leverage my life for God’s glory?
What does it look like to leverage our lives in it various parts for God’s glory?
So we’re going to get into some concrete ways that we can leverage our lives, then we are going to turn to the why.
Why should we do this?
First, let’s consider...
Definging Leverage
What does it mean to leverage our lives.
It sounds cool.
But what does it mean.
The dictionary defines leverage in a couple of ways.
“The ratio of a company’s loan capital...”
Is this what we mean by leverage?
No, this doesn’t work.
“The exertion of force by means of a lever or an object used as a lever.”
Is this what we mean?
In a way, you could probably word smith your way around this.
We are using our lives as a lever—to lift up a life that glorifies God.
“Use something to maximum advantage.”
This is the essence of what we are after.
We want to use our lives to bring God the maximum amount of glory that we can.
If this is our goal then we have to think about all of our lives being subject to God.
Last week we talked about not taking our lives and trying to keep ministry and service to God contained within a box in our life, but rather to see that ministry, this new life in Christ, encompasses all that we are.
When we were saved from death to life in Christ—we were made new creations.
We don’t hang onto any part of our death.
We don’t say—Christ I’ll give you my time on Sunday, I’ll give you some of my reading time, I might even stop watching a show here or there because it doesn’t honor you, but you can’t have blank, blank, blank.
I don’t know what the blank, blank, blank is in your life, but I know that there is some somewhere.
Some area that you really struggle to give to God for one reason or another.
And because of this—that means there are areas of your life that you are not using as leverage to bring glory to God.
And we don’t want that.
Let us be those who can say with Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
So we want to bring maximum glory to God and in order to do that we need to think about...
Leveraging our Resources for the glory of God.
Our resources are defined by time, money, food, and stuff.
If you think about your life and the resources you have they fall into one of these 4 categories.
So let’s take a look at what Jesus says about...
Food
Have you ever thought about food and eating as a resource to leverage for God’s glory?
1 Corinthians 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Paul exhorts the Corinthians church to do all things to the glory of God—including eating and drinking.
So how can we leverage the resource of food for God’s glory?
Share Your Table with Lost Friends
Jesus was found many times eating meals with lost people.
We tend to cultivate relationships with those who are like us and that means for most people in the church they are having meals with other believers.
And that is important we’re going to get to that.
But we see Christ having meals regularly with people who were not like him.
We see this in Matthew 9:10-13
Matthew 9:10–13 (ESV)
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’
For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus and his disciples ate with the lost.
Why?
Jesus tells us.
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…for I cam not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Your dinner table, your lunch break, your breakfast is a place where you can leverage your life for God’s glory.
People who have nothing in common have food in common.
We all eat.
Invite your lost friends to your house for dinner and then just love them well.
You don’t have to have hard conversations.
You don’t have to share the gospel with them.
Hard conversations may happen.
A God given opportunity may come to share the gospel—and you should take it when you can.
My point is don’t make your guests feel like the only reason you had them over was to meet a goal of sharing the gospel.
They aren’t a task.
Our text says that the sinners and tax collectors reclined with Jesus and his disciples.
Would your lost friends feel comfortable to relax with you?
You focus on building a caring relationship with the hope of gaining permission to share the gospel with them and God will provide the time.
Are you using your food as ministry?
Share Your Table with saved Friends
Glad people with generous hearts, eating together, praising God—no wonder the church was added to day by day.
That sounds like a group of people I want to be around.
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