Sermon Tone Analysis

1.    I used to work at a Boys Ranch in Missouri.

I don’t know why I submitted myself to it, it was often not very fun to deal with extremely troubled and violent teenagers, and I had no training or experience in it at all.

But God made it clear that He wanted me to go.

Do we ever feel like God is asking us to do something without giving us what we need to do it?

Does it seem like the call of scripture to be His witnesses and proclaim His Gospel is more than we can do?

Does it seem like God must be talking to someone else?   Like Moses being sent before the King of the one of most powerful nations of his day to demand freedom for God’s people with nothing but God’s name; or maybe like Elijah taking on the 450 prophets of Baal with only a prayer.

I have felt over my head often – especially this week!

A.

What were the disciples ‘called’ to do?

As we read in Luke 9, the twelve disciples of Jesus were given ‘power and authority’ from Jesus as they were sent to proclaim the coming of God’s kingdom to earth.

Mark 6:12 records that: “they went out and proclaimed that *people should repent*.”

This is the primary message of Jesus: *‘the Kingdom of God is at hand.’*

It is a realm in which Jesus rules and to which those who trust him belong, and Jesus himself is the beginning of the God’s Kingdom being set up here on earth – which will be consummated when He returns to earth.

Luke 17:20-21 says: “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you”.

The Kingdom of God was present at that time in Jesus Himself.

1)   *What is the gospel that we proclaim?*

Do we know the essential gospel (good news) that even a child could accept?

Jesus came to earth to heal the sick and call to people to repentance and faith in Him.

As it says in Romans 3:22-24: the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction: *23 *for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, *24 *and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, John 3:16, Roman 10: 9-10: “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

*10 *For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

\\ 2)   *But What has Jesus done for you?*

If all we can give is theology, most will not be interested.

Can we tell our stories (nothing fancy) about what God did for me?

What makes Him real to me?

Some of us (myself included) have been in the church so long that we have taken Him for granted in our lives.

B.

But why does Jesus say to the disciples in Luke 9: “*Take nothing for your journey*—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, and do not take an extra tunic.”??  Wouldn’t it make more sense to send them out with all the latest multi-media tools, equipment, and training, and funds to pay for it all?

But total dependence on God alone was called for.

And what did they do?

“they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere” (vs.

6).

I went to that boys ranch in Missouri, not know how to do it or even what ‘it’ was exactly.

I often prayed, as I left my apartment each morning, “God don’t go anywhere – I need you today’.

Often though, we (myself included) respond to God in one of two ways:

 

1)   *The first response I call the  “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?” plan – that is, if we can get a clear & repeatable signal from God (when we want it) then we will go.

We want Him to confirm His call on our lives by giving us an unmistakable call, the plan and all the gifts & resources that we will need /before/ we start out in any direction of service for Him.*  God seldom calls His servants in this way.

In fact if we look to scripture, it is usually just the opposite.

Paul says in 1 Cor 1:26-2:5: “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,/ /not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

*27 *But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; *28 *God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, *29 *so that no human being/ /might boast in the presence of God.

*30 *He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

*31 *Therefore, as it is written,  “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony/ /of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

*2 *For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

*3 *And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, *4 *and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, *5 *that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

In John 6:28-35 Jesus is asked a question: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” *29 *Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

*30 *So they said to him,  “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform?

*31 *Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written,  ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” *32 *Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

*33 *For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

*34 *They said to him,  “Sir, give us this bread always.”

*35 *Jesus said to them,  “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Are we willing just to believe Him at a gut level that knows Him and trusts him without knowing how it will all work?

Do we have real faith?

Can we trust Him when He gives us one piece of the puzzle in which to obey Him so that He can give us the next piece of the puzzle of our lives, like the wise servant in the parable of the talents (Matt 25), “*29 *For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

2)   *The second response seems to me to be like these new cell phones with the built-in camera that you can use to send video images to your friends.

We send God pictures of what we are good at, and what we think He wants us to do - We keep sending Him a picture of our resume, to Him who knows every hair on our head!*

*  *We look to our ‘gift set’ and abilities alone to determine God’s call on our lives.

God does use our gifts, but He is not limited to them and often takes us way beyond them so that HE will get the glory (in our minds and others).

Are we willing to do what He really wants us to do?

For His reasons and not ours?

After all, what gifts do we have that did not come from Him?  Oswald Chambers says that “Unguarded strength is double weakness” meaning that these ‘strengths’ are the areas in our lives where we tend to seek God’s protection the least.

Are we willing only to seek /Him/ and abide in Him?

In John 15:4-9 Jesus says to his disciples: “Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

*5 *I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

* *If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

*7 *If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

*8 *By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

*9 *As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Abide in my love.”

Rich Mullins says it well in the chorus of one of his songs: “can I be with you?”

This what we are made to do both now and for eternity and in heaven – be with and glorify the maker and perfector of our souls.

In whom we have redemption.

Paul tells us that God wanted not to use his strengths, but his weakness.

First, he was humbled on the road from his great knowledge and determination to serve God in his own way, and then in 2 Cor 12:7-10 God made him to be totally dependent on God alone:  “So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations,/ /a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.

*8 *Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

*9 *But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

*10 *For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong”.

Only by humbly relying on Him can we be ready to follow His leading and share our faith where He has prepared hearts to listen – as it says in 1 Pet 3:15b: “always being prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

\\ C.   Later in Jesus’ ministry to the disciples, He tells them “And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.

* *And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, *but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit”*.

As we see Him work through us in ways that we know are NOT US, we will know Him.

What was the effect of utter dependence on the disciples of Jesus?

In Vs. 20 of Luke 9 (after they had been sent out & returned) we see for the first time that Peter finally understands at a gut level who Jesus really is: “But who do you say that I am?”

And Peter answered,  “The Christ of God.”

As I depended on God to be with me every day in my work with troubled teen age boys, I knew HIM more and more deeply, which made me want to serve Him more & more.

2.

Are we willing to seek the Holy Spirit and His calling and to REALLY know Him or would we rather submit our list of ‘best’ gifts (the ones we like to use) for His approval?

An unguarded strengths are double weaknesses.

He does not need our gifts, in fact, they can be a hindrance to His purposes and callings which require us to depend on His Holy Spirit.

When we don’t depend on His Holy Spirit, ‘our gifts’ will fall flat.

I have found it true in teaching Bible studies – when I have prepared all my ‘knowledge’ of scripture and its application without spending enough time in prayer for God to work in the hearers, people largely have not been challenged or changed.

We need to be willing, as Tony Campolo has said, ‘to let God peel away the layers around our hearts until God has to but breathe with His spirit on our hearts and we respond to His leading.’

That is why the disciples were to take no staff – the same reason we are not to rely on any gift or skill, but seek, as the great prophet Elisha did, ‘a double portion’ of God’s Spirit with which to minister as He leads, for His Glory alone.

This is the purpose for which He has created us.