Sermon Tone Analysis

Forget not His benefits

What comes to mind when I say this is my last time to preach for you?

What goes through your mind?

The Holy Spirit has made it clear to Marci and me that we need to go work in Iowa.

So, we want to be pleasing to God and if the Spirit is saying it is time, then it is time.

But, I'll speak for myself now, I really do love this church.

And I am not talking about the building.

I love you, the people of Immanuel.

I know you.

You are my friends.

This is the 3rd longest I've lived anywhere in my adult life and the longest single job I have had in my life.

It is not easy to think about leaving you.

Yet, leave I must.

So, back to my original question, what does a preacher preach for his last sermon?

What words could possible leave what I hope is my legacy at Immanuel?

How do I sum up what God has done here and is still doing here?

Well obviously it must come from the Bible.

That has been my focus my entire time here.

I could pick the easy passages like - All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, - that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Or - I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: - preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

- For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, - and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.,

Or even - For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

But I did that last week.

So, instead of leaving you with words of exhortation, I want to leave with a word of encouragement.

Read

and PRAY...

Forget not His benefits

and PRAY...

If you have been in my office, you may be wondering which came first, my love for the Scripture verse, or my love of eagles.

And the answer is eagles.

I have collected them for years and because I love eagles and God's Word, people give me things that have and eagles on them.

I like it.

Are there ever times when you feel more like a worm in mud than like an eagle in flight?

Are there times when you feel like you would have to reach up to scratch an ant's belly?

If you go through those low times, this passage is for you.

Are there times when you wonder if God is ever going to answer your prayer?

Are there times when you think this Christian life is just too much and you feel like giving up?

If you go through these kinds of times, this passage is for you.

When we are in times of trouble, we need God's help.

We need to know that there is someone stronger and full of energy when we get to the end of our energy.

In this passage, we will see 3 benefits of God's help in times of trouble.

This passage and, in fact, this whole chapter is written to the Jewish people who were suffering.

Their own sin had led them to be punished by God.

And they were probably wondering where God was in the punishment.

Remember in - For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

The Jews were feeling the discipline of the Lord and they did not like it.

So Isaiah gives them this chapter of encouragement to remind them that God is still in control.

To encourage them that God has not forgotten about them.

To lighten their load because God would bring them through.

And, I think that is just exactly the kind of message Immanuel Baptist Church needs today.

So, let's look at these verses and we will see 3 benefits of God's help in times of trouble.

1.

The first benefit of God's help is that He is ever present.

1.1.

God doesn't give up.

God doesn't run out of energy.

And God knows what you are going through.

He is there He is with you.

In the Great Commission, Jesus said, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

He is always with you.

There may be times when you feel like He has pulled back from you, but He hasn't.

He is there.

If you were an Israelite exiled in a foreign land, would it not bring you great comfort to know that God is with you?

Forget not His benefits

1.1.

God doesn't give up.

God doesn't run out of energy.

And God knows what you are going through.

He is there He is with you.

In the Great Commission, Jesus said, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

He is always with you.

There may be times when you feel like He has pulled back from you, but He hasn't.

He is there.

If you were an Israelite exiled in a foreign land, would it not bring you great comfort to know that God is with you?

1.2.

But let me bring it to today.

You are not only my church family, but you are also my friends.

And I have been with you in difficult times.

I have seen you struggle with feeling alone.

I have prayed with you.

And more than anything else, I have tried to remind you that God has not left you.

He has not abandoned you.

He is with you.

And it is a message I don't want you to forget.

God knows when you feel like giving up.

God knows when you are feeling tired.

And He is there, ever present.

2. The first benefit of God's help is that He is ever present, and the second is that He is ever plentiful.

2.1.

Strength to those who are wearing out and power to those who are weak.

He takes where we come up short and fills it up.

He takes where we don't have enough and makes it enough.

Forget not His benefits

2.1.

Strength to those who are wearing out and power to those who are weak.

He takes where we come up short and fills it up.

He takes where we don't have enough and makes it enough.

2.2.

There are times when we are busy doing what God has designed us to do and we run out of gas.

We get tired.

We get weary.

Or, perhaps, we feel inadequate to get the job done.

God fills up those short comings.

He gives us the energy we need to finish what He called us to do.

We can always remember what Paul said in - And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

He gave you the vision of what to do.

He will give you the strength to see it through.