Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

(NLT) — 12 There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

ILLUSTRATION- Being lost.

“Tonight I want to make an attempt to steer God’s people back onto the right path, not with clever words or my own persuasion, but with the word of God…”

“I believe we run the risk of loosing an entire generation because they are following a path that feels right, it seems right, but they are unaware they are walking into traps…”

“There is a story of a King who had the right questions, he had the right desires, but he was looking in the wrong place…”

MAIN POINT- You can have the right desires, the right questions but be looking for your answers in the wrong places.

ILLUSTRATION- When I had a bad dream and I woke up on the couch (cause I fell asleep there) thinking I was in my room, looking for the light switch where I thought it was in my room…

(NLT) — 1 After King Ahab’s death, the land of Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 One day Israel’s new king, Ahaziah, fell through the latticework of an upper room at his palace in Samaria and was seriously injured.

So he sent messengers to the temple of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask whether he would recover.

(Likely because of the way the text reads, it seems like there was a sky light, and a wooden lattice covered the opening on the roof, he stepped on it; where he should not have stepped and fell through… He then asks a very fair question… Reasonable desire…)

3 But the angel of the Lord told Elijah, who was from Tishbe, “Go and confront the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is there no God in Israel?

Why are you going to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask whether the king will recover?

(God had no problem with King Ahaziah asking his question, the problem was where he was going for his answer)

POINT- Stop living like God is dead!

4 Now, therefore, this is what the Lord says: You will never leave the bed you are lying on; you will surely die.’

” So Elijah went to deliver the message.

5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you returned so soon?”

(When you go to the wrong places for your answers you will always return empty handed and find there was nothing there quicker than you realize.)

6 They replied, “A man came up to us and told us to go back to the king and give him this message.

‘This is what the Lord says: Is there no God in Israel?

Why are you sending men to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask whether you will recover?

Therefore, because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on; you will surely die.’

” 7 “What sort of man was he?” the king demanded.

“What did he look like?” 8 They replied, “He was a hairy man, and he wore a leather belt around his waist.”

“Elijah from Tishbe!” the king exclaimed.

(The King knew of Elijah because Elijah’s reputation preceeded himself… YET the King would still rather seek an idol than the Lord, its not that the king did not know of God’s power, he just chose to go his own way.)

9 Then he sent an army captain with fifty soldiers to arrest him.

They found him sitting on top of a hill.

The captain said to him, “Man of God, the king has commanded you to come down with us.”

POINT- We have all been damaged by a fall.

I’m talking to someone tonight and at some point in your life you stepped out in a place you never should have and you fell… You became damaged…

(Relationships- good and bad) There are people here tonight and you stepped out on your lattice of relationships and without warning they caved in on you and you fell and became crippled…

(Sin) Some of you stepped out onto the shaky lattice of sin and though it was great for a season, like a snare; a trap in gave way to a deep pit that injured you in the fall.

(Discouragement/Disappointments) I’m talking to someone and you fell through a lattice of discouragement as your hopes and dreams became to much weight and now you feel you hit the bottom.

I’m talking to someone right now, and you don’t even realize it, but you have been going the wrong way to get to the right thing…

But somewhere along the way you stepped out where you never should have stepped

We are all looking for the things God wants us to have…

Joy.

Peace.

Hope.

(NLT) — 13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him.

Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Fulfilment.

Confidence.

Love.

(NLT) — 1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

KEY POINT- The true desires of your heart can only be found when you look for the one who put them there.

(NLT) — 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

You might sit here tonight and think to yourself, “I go to church, I’m not seeking after an idol, I am obviously going to the right places.”

But realize tonight that you still may be falling into the same trap as King Ahaziah…

MAIN POINT- WE CAN HAVE THE RIGHT QUESTIONS, THE RIGHT DESIRES BUT BE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACES.

WE GO TO THE WRONG PLACES WHEN WE…

1. Go to the place that has a reputation for defeat.

Think to yourself how often you return to the same sin knowing it will bring a moment of satisfaction, but then being left with shame and regret…

I do not believe it is an accident that sin has been a big point in the last 4 messages you have heard at this church, that is not always what we hit on, but its coming up a lot lately…

(NLT) — 2 One day Israel’s new king, Ahaziah, fell through the latticework of an upper room at his palace in Samaria and was seriously injured.

So he sent messengers to the temple of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask whether he would recover.

KEY- Ekron was 1 of 5 major Philistine cities on the boarder of Israel.

The Philistines who once mocked God and tormented God’s people were reduced next to nothing when a man of God named David decided to step up and confront sin.

(NLT) — 45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

From that moment forward the Philistines were sent into hiding, they were stripped of all there power and authority.

David with God’s power disarmed the Philistines who once oppressed God’s people…

(NLT) — 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.

He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

In the same way Jesus came and disarmed the enemy in our lives and stripped away the power of sin with the power of the Cross…

KEY POINT- Sin has been removed of its power BUT for some reason like King Ahaziah we go back to the place that was defeated.

ILLUSTRATION- I love winter, its my favorite of all seasons.

It started when I first comprehended the idea of a “snow day.”

The idea that everything slows down just because it snows… I love this.

As a kid if there was just the slightest chance that it would snow through the night the very first thing that would come into my mind when I opened my eyes the next morning is, “I wonder if school is cancelled???” It did not matter how early it was I was going to get out of bed and look out my window, but being that I grew up in Virginia most of the time I’d look out the window and be left disappointed…

Some of you keep running back to your sin hoping, maybe this time…

And so we sell out and compromise… If I just tell the right joke (regardless of how it goes or what I have to say) If I just find the right image on google… If I just wear the right outfit…

POINT- Compromise is the enemy of character.

Nothing is worth altering your God given role!

(NLT) — 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie.

So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise!

Amen.

POINT- Stop seeking out the temporary fix, the temporary answer.

(NLT) — 13 Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains.

POINT- God can not be the source of your strength if the world is the source of your standards.

2. When we get comfortable with the things that should annoy us.

(NLT) — 2 One day Israel’s new king, Ahaziah, fell through the latticework of an upper room at his palace in Samaria and was seriously injured.

So he sent messengers to the temple of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask whether he would recover.

DEFINE- Baal-zebub literally translated means, “lord of the flies.”

ILLUSTRATION- I remember being at a lake with some friends one time and we had a good time throughout the course of the day and we were getting ready to leave, it was dark… I rolled down my window as we were leaving and I started to choke literally choke as millions of these small flies came swarming into my car… I had never seen so many bugs…

I began to ask God what does Baal-zebub represent to your people?

What is the word that you want me to bring, and I felt God say, “Tell my people to stop being comfortable with what should annoy them.”

POINT- Flies are VERY annoying!

KEY- The thought that the people of Ekron would worship an idol that they call the lord of the flies sounds so crazy to me.

CHALLENGE- Don’t get comfortable with your insecurities, negative thoughts, worries… Sickness, problems, school…

CHALLENGE- Is it possible that you have built a temple that you worship your problems in?

Is it possible that you have magnified your struggles more than you have magnified God??

Some of us have built up temples for the flies in our lives…

I’ll always be insecure about this so I may as well get comfortable with it… I may as well put this thought in a sacred place…

“For someone the enemy has said just get comfortable with your insecurity but I’m telling you that as a son or daughter of God insecurity has no place in your life!

You have gotten use to having to deal with your sickness… How about we tell it to leave…

You have gotten use to having chaos in your life, you feel that nothing is ever stable, don’t get use to instability RATHER stand on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ!!

And tell your environment to shut up like Jesus did on the sea.