Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Intro and scripture
Pray.
Writing to Logan:
My brother Logan...
Bridge...
Background of 2 Corinthians
This is a letter that Paul is writing to the people of Corinth.
He is describing the nature of his mission and journey thus far.
Talking of his eagerness to come and visit them as well.
Upon this mission Paul writes that he and the other fellow missionaries are “God’s aroma that brings life to people.”
In our section he makes the case for the mission they are on.
He makes it clear that all of this is not to boast about himself or the human work they are doing but rather the work God is doing through them.
There is some weird back and forth that is happening in the letters to the corinthians.
2 Corinthians is probably the 4th letter going between Paul in Corinth.
And he begins to the make the case with them that there is real fruit of the gospel happening.
Recommendation letters...
Jewish travelers would take recommendation letters wherever they go written by superiors or leaders to attest to their travel.
Paul says that we are in no need of recommendation letters because you are our recommendation letter about the work that God is doing.
In fact you are the very letter that Christ has written to the world.
Now what is he talking about?
How can people be recommendation letters.
How can people be a written message of proof or authority?
Well to understand that we need to see some OT references that Paul implies and explicitly states in this passage.
He is referring to this OT shift in the covenant.
First the covenant is made with Moses with the law on Mt.
Sinai, and it is a physical contract of a spiritual reality.
The people of Israel becoming the people of God.
Two key places for this understanding is Jeremiah 31:31...Ezekiel 11:19-20
Through the Spirit, I will put myself in their minds, and write myself in their hearts.
The actual contract, the actual proof, the outward sign of authority from God will be the actual people....and not some tablets.
Not religious symbols or buildings or steeples, but people will be the indicator of the covenant.
Or as Paul says here, recommendation letters.
Paul does not need some noble to write a letter proving that he is a minister of the gospel of Jesus....he says the people are the proof.
They are the letters from Christ.
What is a recommendation letter?
Accounts for the credibility of someone or something
Greater than the claims of the individuals
Not just anyone can write one....need to be qualified
Example?
So if we are the recommendation letters of Christ then we are that which attests to his presence in the world.
What are the implications of this?
Story Matters
Live Life with others
Smell like Jesus
What are the implications of this?
It means story matters.
An awareness of what Christ has done in your life and the willingness to share it.
Living life with others so that we might be the aroma of life to some.
Too often we live life on the go.
Example of garages in Porter Texas.
It means we need to smell like Jesus.
To be his aroma.
This weekend the men from Marvin went on a 24 hour retreat to Lakeview.
(By the way, we missed you guys there).
And the focus was to become more like Jesus.
There are a couple of things that make all of this work, for us to be recommendation letters from Christ:
Competence and Authority are found in the surrendered life
Recommendations speaks of competence.
As Paul is speaking to the Corinthians…it is not us that brings this level of competence and authority.
We are not claiming anything for ourselves, but it is Jesus in us that is competent.
This is important as you go back into the world.
Too often we trust in our own gumption.
We are going to keep calling you back to this place.
Yesterday I was journalling and I was just feeling rough about things in my own walk.
2. The community is the letter of Christ in the world
o Individually we are called to be that presence
o But as the community we should be that very communication to the world that God is big.
The Mind boggling thing about all of this is that God has chosen us to be letters from Christ.
To carry the message, to be a presence of hope in the world
Imagio dei: is the idea that we all have some value because we all have God’s image, identity, marking etc, within us.
There is never someone,according to Wesley, no one can be eternally lost.
Everyone is within the reach of grace, therefore every human being merits a holy awe and respect.
To take for granted or to see someone with out value then we have failed.
So when Peter says we are stewards of divine grace…this is it!
We have a responsibility…we are grace bearers!
Because everyone bears the mark of our creator then everyone deserves the opportunity to have their hearts strangely warmed.
If we are made in the image of God then the very nature of God has been seeded in us…meaning that all of the potential of the perfect eternal relationship of God is within us.
Every human being has the capacity to cink up with God.
When we begin to understand this then there will be a whole different kind of respect and love.
So my letter to my brother is the only thing that allows me to crawl into that jail cell...perhaps we are the very design God has to crawl into the darkness of other’s life.
Allow yourself to be written, allow yourself to be published.
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