Sermon Tone Analysis

Next!

Intro

…[reintroduce our theme for the year again]...we want to focus this year on taking our faith away from the keyboard, away from the socially accepted ways in which we package our appearance - away from hashtags and feigning praise - and into the desert of the real.

The difficult and important moments of our lives.

We want our lives to be a mirror for Christ - the one we claim to follow - the hashtag, if you will, that people lookup.

We want our lives to be so clearly following our God that His light and love start trending in our world, not our ways, or our mannerisms, or our posts.

So this year, we choose to follow.

But if you follow, that means that something, or someone, is out there in front.

Something is giving you orders, right?

And honestly, part of the reason we need to focus on follow Christ is that all too often, we forget about Him!

We reserve Him for Sunday morning, and maybe important decisions.

And then once we get through that Sunday, once we move beyond that difficult decision, Jesus gets put back in the tool chest, and we go on doing what we were going to do without Him anyway!

When that happens.

When our lives are lived out like that.

We bow to the Lordship of self.

To the lordship of comfort.

To the lordship of convenience.

And Jesus becomes just a crutch that we rely on when it benefits us.

prov

But that isn’t at all how we are to live.

And we know it!

But we are so enraptured by self, that we forget that God is ultimately in control of our lives!

Or at least, He is supposed to be!

[aman’sheartplanshispathgodguidessteps] But that isn’t at all how we are to live.

And we know it!

But we are so enraptured by self, that we forget that God is ultimately in control of our lives!

Or at least, He is supposed to be!

Sure our desires might plan our lives, or even our days and moments!

But we aren’t called to follow those feelings!

No, everything we do must flow through God - at the very least, everything we do must be done in light of the fact that we are following God!

So today, I want us to ask ourselves, who is lord of my life?

Is it God, or is it me?

Is it ambition?

Is it heritage?

Is it hate?

What motivates me?

Who or what have I given true Lordship of my life.

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But you don’t want....

But you don’t want....

pray

pray

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This week our text opens, well, it is set up by at the very least.

with the same question that I emphasized from our text last week.

What shall we do?

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This week our text opens, well, it is set up by at the very least.

with the same question that I emphasized from our text last week.

What shall we do?

It’s an important question for us, one that we can all understand, because it is one that we have asked more times than we can count!

But it is more than a question, it is a feeling that guides us.

That feeling that compels us to say, “Lord I believe in you!

What can I do to have you in my life?

What can I do to get what I want, or be what I want to be?”

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Like we spoke about last week, Jesus says sell it all.

And this week, John says, essentially, the same thing.

Give it away.

Your stuff.

Your money.

Your life.

I can hear in this text, and in John’s life and ministry, this call to forget not only the stuff - but to forget what we have done.

Forget what we have, forget what we have accomplished - forget all those things that hold us back and make us want to keep things like they have always been - and instead look to what God will do next.

And all week, even up until this very morning, my mind kept circling around this idea or what’s next.

This idea that we must follow God to wherever He might lead - even if in the middle of what we are doing we think we are right on track!

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[baptizingpic] After all, that is the whole idea behind his ministry and message.

Repent!

Turn away from what you have done, and turn toward what God has for you next.

And don’t just repent - don't’ just say things have changed - BEAR FRUIT in keeping with repentance.

I can hear him, in his pastor like voice, baptizing person after person!

Do you repent of your sins, and turn away from all that was and toward all that will be?

To which they answer, like us, I do.

He would baptize them, and then lead them off, and then yell - Next!

Who’s next?

Who is the next person to step up and be changed by God? Who is the next one to lay down all that stuff that muddies the waters, all that stuff that rules over us.

All that stuff that demands our allegiance and convinces us that to live life we must give full authority to it and not God.

What is Lord of your life?

Stuff that changes daily, by the way.

There is always the next great thing.

The next technology.

The next twitter or facebook.

The next relationship or job.

The next school.

The next hobby.

It turns out, the only constant this world offers is change.

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VI. [verse 15] But there they would be, lined up.

Waiting for their moment to be next to find new life in God; to find out what is next.

But there they would be, lined up.

Waiting for their moment to be next to find new life in God; to find out what is next.

But understand, they were there in that line with more expectations than that!

They were there to see if John was the next thing.

The next prophet?

Perhaps some thought that.

The next religious leader?

Surely most thought that.

But for some, he was more than that - they thought he was the next part of God’s plan?

Are you the messiah?

Are you what’s next?