Sermon Tone Analysis

Week Three

This is Way

I can’t say that I have always been a big Star Wars fan.

I spent 12 years serving alongside a Pastor who was and he helped me appreciate how unwittingly, George Lucas wove the story and certain truths about the Gospel into the Star Wars Epic.

When I go back and watch the movies now , I can’t help but look for and find the Gospel.

It’s funny how the story of God seems to always find itself at the bedrock of the stories that resonate the most with us.

Maybe this is what Solomon was talking about when he said that God Set eternity into every man’s heart.

In recent years, there was a spin off from Star Wars called the Mandarlorian.

The Mandalorian culture had a code they lived by and whenever they rehearsed it among themselves and others, they would conclude by saying ‘This is the Way”

There is a huge part of us as humans that desires deeply just to know the way.

No A way but THE Way.

In

Jesus tells his followers this “I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

As we progress in this study, you will see that we as men have a very important part to play in the transformation of our hearts.

There is an active role that we have in this process.

But, it is vitally important to recognize that all of this hinges on Jesus and the work that he has done for us, which we could never do for ourselves.

He is the WAY!

As we discuss the places where God invites us to be co-laborers with him in our transformation, we must never lose sight of the work that God has done through his Son Jesus.

A work that is extended to us by grace alone and not by our actions or our own works.

Dallas Willard in his writings around Spiritual Formation said “ In Evangelical Circles, we aren’t only saved by Grace, we are paralyzed by it”

Hmmm!

he lamented that in the 20th century the Church helped to create a culture where discipleship was marginalized.

That we had come to see it as something of an option that we might chose to exercise, but if we simply want to believe the truth about Jesus and receive that and then just get on with our lives without any discipleship, that would be OK.

He said that we had created a place where you could be a Christian Forever without ever becoming a disciple.

This idea, this paralyzation of believers came because we had convinced ourselves and others that the transformative work of the Gospel in human’s life was God’s work alone, by grace through faith and that if we simply believed,... the transformation would take place.

I think it fair to say, Willard was right and the empirical evidence to prove that the idea of being Christian without being a disciple was deeply flawed and the wreckage of such an idea is all around us.

Willard conclude his thoughts with this statement “ If the idea that we must do something to “enable” God to do something bothers you, you have just hit a major barrier on the pathway of spiritual formation”

If this is an obstacle for you, I pray the Holy Spirit uses this to help clear the path for you.

God has always from the first days in Eden, desired and invited men to engage with Him in creation.

He has always wanted us to be co-laborers with him......And, in the transformation process of our hearts.

this still holds true.

Yes, there was work that only God could do and that work found its finish in Christ who is the Way the Truth and the source of all real Life.

If you would be transformed, you must first become a man that truly believes that Jesus is the Sinless Son of God, who gave himself to be brutally beaten and put to death in a most torturous way, that he has indeed risen from the dead and that his death paid the price for your sins, ask Jesus for forgiveness, submit yourself to him as your King and then publicly acknowledge this by the act of Baptism.

Keep in mind, that believing isn’t a mental ascent to some fact, but in this case it is a belief that produces loyalty to the person of Christ.

If your belief has not produced a loyalty to Jesus, it was not the kind of belief that the Apostle mentions here.

Once a man has experienced a believing loyalty to Jesus, there are now things that we must do, if we are to release the power of God in our lives.

We are asked to guard our hearts.

We are told to put off the Old Man and put on New Life.

Transformation, the putting off of the Old and the Putting On of the New cannot be accomplished without us as men doing something, and not just anything.

We can’t take just any steps, we must take steps that are wise and ordered by the Lord.

Steps that have been given to us by Jesus himself through the faithful witness of those who learned them from him face to face and life on life, his Apostles.

When we take those steps and trust God’s faithfulness to do his part, we will see the power of God, the Holy Spirit, actively engaging and empowering our lives and our transformation.

In the previous weeks, my goal was to establish a Vision for you.

I wanted you to see that real transformation isn’t just possible it is completely doable in partnership with Jesus.

That’s the Vision

Today is about Intention, because no matter the Vision, if you are not intentional about pursuing that Vision it is nothing more than a Dream that you can’t remember when you wake up.

Transformation requires Intentionality

In the Episodes that follow In the coming weeks, we will look at the steps we are given to take as our part in transformation.

I’ll do my best to share with you the steps I have learn and that were the most effective in my own transformation

this week I want to ask you to

Set intention in your heart today, and ask God by his Holy Spirit to engage with and empower you to follow after Christ with your whole heart and then step into the transforming Power of the Gospel, step out of just being a Christian and step into being a Disciple, maybe for the first time ever.

I personally spent 25 years as a Christian only before I became a disciple.

I can tell you from experience, being a disciple ...This is the Way!

Until next week

24 ‘May the Lord bless you

and protect you.

25 May the Lord smile on you

and be gracious to you.

26 May the Lord show you his favor

and give you his peace.’