Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRO

Good morning!

My name is Ryan, I’m one of the pastors here at Georgianna.

It’s so good to be with you in worship today…

[MENTION LIVE STREAM AT 9:45]

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A couple of things as we get started...

First off, congratulations to Chris and Sabrina Calhoun on their wedding last night!

We pray God’s blessings on their marriage.

I know Corky and Deedie have had a wonderful time celebrating with them… as well as Kyle and Ashley.

ALSO… I want to express a huge thank you on behalf of myself and Pastor Corky… Thank you to Dave Winston, Tommy Enlow… and the whole team of Trustees for making sure we were ready for worship today.

They were out on Friday raking and blowing and getting the debris cleaned up and it looks great… thank you!

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So we are wrapping up a pretty amazing series on prayer.... has this been meaningful to you as well???

Corky has done a fantastic job and I have been tasked with not ruining the ending today :)

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If you read The Hook, our weekly email, you may have already seen a few of my thoughts on this...

To me, prayer seems like one of those “put your money where your mouth is” parts of our faith.

Like there is a whole lot of good stuff that a half-committed person can do… but PRAYER… prayer is where you’re vulnerable… prayer is where you finally admit that there might be Someone out there… Someone who hears you… Someone who can do for you what you can’t do on your own.

But what happens when we truly put ourselves out there in prayer… and it doesn’t go how you wanted it go?

You know that the God of the universe is capable of acting on your behalf… you seen it and read about it before… so why didn’t it happen?

What do you do when you prayed and prayed and prayed for a loved one with cancer… you went before a God who works wonders and miracles…

But they died.

WHAT DO WE DO WITH THAT?

as we take prayer seriously through this series I think we have to ask ourselves… Well what do we do with what seems like unanswered prayer?

OPENING PRAYER

God our Father… God the Son… God the Holy Spirit… we pray for an encounter with You.

We pray for You to make Yourself known in our lives, so that we may see how You act on our behalf.

But, God, even when we don’t see You… even when You seem quiet and our prayers feel unanswered… help us to trust and put ourselves out there anyway.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight… O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Amen.

ME

Let me confess something to you… sometimes I feel like I have two sides of my faith…

I have the level-headed version.

I mean, sure, it’s challenging.

But it’s challenging in all those ways that make sense.

All those ways that make me a better person… or that help my family or my community.

I know I should serve others… help those in need.

I know I should give of my time and my money… I should be generous.

I know that we are all better together in community… leaning on one another.

Building healthy relationships.

I know that if I’m really serious about this that I should probably study scripture…

But all of that make sense, right?

Even if you encounter someone who isn’t a follower of Jesus… no one is really going to disagree with you on much of that.

They may not have the same convictions, but it makes sense to anyone that if you wanted to follow Jesus you would probably read the Bible and help those in need.

I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of any of this.

It’s all good stuff.

Everyone has their convictions.

These are mine.

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There’s another side of my faith.

I don’t talk always talk about it.

I’m not sure what people will think.

They may look at me like I have 3 eyes.

It doesn’t always come off as intelligent.

In fact, people may assume the opposite about you.

But if you’re really going to follow Jesus, and you’re really going to take the stories about Him seriously… then you can’t have one side of this faith without the other.

My faith is a supernatural one.

I believe in prayer.

I believe in miracles.

I believe that there truly is a divine being who created this world and that He loves you and me…

And I believe that He can hear us… and that He can act on our behalf!

I believe that He can part a sea… and that He can make a young boy victorious over a giant… and that He can preserve someone’s life in the belly of a fish if He wanted to.

I believe that He sent a part of Himself called Jesus… and I believe that Jesus was miraculous as well.

He could open the eyes of the blind and heal the skin of the lepers… He could cast out demons… He could feed 5,000 people with a child’s lunch.

And, oh yeah, He could raise people back from the dead.

Now if you’re not a Jesus follower, let’s be honest… that’s going to be tougher to swallow than the first version of our faith that says help your neighbor and give money to good causes.

WE

Now you don’t have to answer out loud, but think about it… if someone asks you about what you believe… which version are you more likely to share?

Do you share that Jesus teaches me to live a better life and help those in need?

Or do you share that I’ve got Jesus on that mainline… and He hears all my prayers… and heals all my diseases… and He do the same for you, praise God!

Now don’t get me wrong… Jesus DOES teach us to live a better life and help those in need… and we celebrate the times when we are about that work.

But there is a fullness to our faith that says Jesus DOES heal… Miracles CAN happen.

And God HEARS you when you pray.

GOD

In fact, one of the first things Jesus does in His ministry is he lets everyone know the kind of work that He is going to be about…

Go to Luke chapter 4 with me… we’re going to look at verses 16-21

And as you read you’ll see Jesus announcing the fullness of his ministry… and we clearly see version #1 and version #2 of our faith in Jesus’ announcement…

And I want to do something a little different today… will you stand if you are able, for the reading of Scripture.

PASSAGE

Luke 4:16–21 (NIV)

16 [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.

He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.

Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

[AND THEN HE READS FROM ISAIAH]

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

REFLECTIONS

So every part of this scene is completely normal… until the very end.

The way this is described, Jesus was probably a guest teacher at his hometown synagogue.

It was the custom to stand when reading scripture… like we just did.

And Jesus reads from Isaiah in what is now our OT.

It was also custom to sit while you taught.

So it’s not like Jesus just read scripture and then went and found His seat.

No He sat down and took His place as THE teacher in the synagogue that day.

And everything about this feels normal on the surface… but you can tell that there might be something different when everyone’s eyes are locked in on Jesus.