Sermon Tone Analysis

2A – Beware of Outside Obstacles

God has a plan for everyone’s lives.

· God’s vision for our lives is like a map that shows where to get on the proper highway.

· Once we say yes to God’s will and God’s way for our lives, we begin the journey of putting feet to our faith by goingwhere He leads us to and doing what He has called us to do.

· In other words, our destiny has a destination

· Following God’s plan is like a car driving in their lane.

Review:

1 - FIND the track

2 - GET on track

3 - STAY on track

After you find that God DOES have a plan for your life

· After you have found the ENTRANCE ramp to start your journey.

· Now is the time to STAY on track until you reach your destination.

Once the journey has begun, the second phase is to continue moving “forward in faith”, regardless of the obstacles and challenges ahead.

· Oftentimes, obstacles to our vision can appear internally or externally, or both!

· Inside obstacles to our journey are caused by internal issues such as – tiredness, greed, jealousy, etc. =

· Outside obstacles are the external challengesto achieving God’s will for our lives.

· Sometimes, external obstacles are situations beyond our control.

· Some external obstacles are caused by another person’s actions or inactions.

· Some negative events in life are caused by the willful and deliberate steps taken by another, often for their own interest, even if it means the detriment of your plans.

· Other obstacles are caused by inaction, or neglect, of another.

They simply did not do what they were supposed to do, therefore affecting your progress, whether directly or indirectly.

o This is like a fellow driver drifting in and out of his lane while asleep at his wheel or distracted while texting or has spilled hot coffee in his lap, causing a series of knee jerk reactions that may cause his car to swerve wildly into your lane.

· Either way, remember to stay in your lane, no matter what, and remember that God’s Son is your Pilot, God’s Word is your Map, and God’s Spirit is your fire!

Potholes of problems = situations beyond your control

· You are driving along just fine, following God’s will for your life, when, all the sudden – WHAM!

You hit something that seemed to come out of nowhere

· Hit something unseen – last minute

· Hurts along the way

· Damage cause by others – rocks from dump trucks

· Persecution when people do not approve or like where you are going

· Boycott – when people leave you because you are no longer beneficial to them

· Leaving you offended, upset, and frustrated

· This is why driver’s ed teaches “defensive driving”.

· IOW – watch out for the other guy.

· While we are to love everyone, it is probably not smart to blindly trust everyone.

Don’t Make A Crater Out A Pothole

It was just a pothole – not a crater, not a cliff

You were right

· doing the right thing – you did nothing wrong – but you hit it anyway - but it’s just a pothole

They were wrong

· It wasn’t right what they did to you - but it’s just a pothole

Don’t allow the enemy to make the situation bigger than it is -

Cast down pothole thoughts!

Yes, it hurts, but it’s just a pothole.

It came to pass, not to stay

Keep Your Eyes on the Road

· Let’s be smarter than a pothole and stay on course.

· Your peace and focus are well worth the temporary trouble.

Fix the flat – get back on track

· get back on the road!

· Those you passed are now passing you!

DITCHES

Avoid the Ditches of Distractions

· “life gets in the way”

· If excitement leaves, entertainment enters

Distracted driving – attention diverted to trivial things

cell phone generation – causes wrecks

· Distracted driving means that you are going the right way but are not giving your full attention to where you are going

· The warning signs are everywhere – HANDS free – police warning signs – fees – arrest

· leading cause of accidents – just because everyone seems to be doing it, does not make it right

· Hypocrisy and irony-

· Not viewed as bad, more socially acceptable,

· but causes more accidents than dui?

· Selfishness- I need this.

(text, call, finish this game, watch this movie, update this app, find someplace to eat…)

· I can handle it - multitask

· Self-exam: Do you have distractions based on a fear of missing out?

Ditches of deception lead to the cliff of error

· One side or the other – extremes – all or nothing

· Just a little off course, even for a short time, can cause a wreck

· How many of God’s people started out right, but have been drifting off course for a long time?

Blind lead blind

Don’t listen to those who don’t know what they are doing or where they are going.

· Armchair quarterbacks

· Monday morning critics

· Parking lot prophets

· Retweeting memes without knowing what they mean

OFFRAMPS

Desire to Detour

Avoid the temptations to exit

· On a long journey, we can drive for hours without hearing any instructions from our GPS.

· We can start to wonder if we are still going on the right direction, or if the GPS is even working and knows where we are.

Stay off the “Offramp of Opportunity”

· Grass is NOT greener

· The desire to detour comes in when we still Want to go to the same destination, but a different way.

· We claim to still want what God has for us; we just have a better way to go about it.

· We convince ourselves that we know a better way:

· No tolls, shortest distance.

Quickest time, most use of freeways…

· Avoid the areas known for bad weather – we like it nice…

God calls you to - not from

· Dinner of deception- been on my heart.

Until you don’t go along with it.

Not concerned about you but want to use you as a pawn for their own means.

· Job offers to leave

· House offer to buy

· Pastor is appreciated on the road

· Evangelist invited to start or take a church

· Singer invited to join another church praise team