Sermon Tone Analysis

Looking for change

This post Christmas, new year, looking forwards to the summer time is a time when I tend to look at myself and at my life and notice all the things I’m either not happy with or the things I would like to be different.

That might be, I’d like to loose a few pounds or I’d like to read more or I’d like to be able to learn a new skill.

It’s natural for us all to be in a position where we want improvement.

Improvement in our health, our finances or maybe our situations.

Not a prosperity message.

Some christian speakers would talk about that all the changes we ever desire are possible because we serve an amazing God.

We serve a God that can step into any situation and do any thing, He can Heal, He can restore, He can change situations he can open blind eyes, he can re-grow lost limbs all you have to do is have enough faith, or pray long enough or in the case of some often US TV channels: just call this number and pledge.....

I sometimes hear this prosperity message of, “if you work at praying, if you give enough, if you believe enough the everything will be amazing, all your problems will go away”.

I have three problems with it:

Although, we are called to be obedient in things like worship, prayer and giving - God steps in out of Grace and Love not as a pay-check for the things we have done.

It doesn’t tie up with what (and it is that bit in the bible that I like to skip over) God has promised us that as followers of Jesus we will have issues.

I don’t see it in reality.

I don’t look at the Church as a whole and see it for of Physically perfect, mentally perfect, Rich, good looking folk who have no problems - well ok I’ll give you the Good looking part.

Like the prosperity preachers, I believe we serve an amazing God.

We serve a God that can step into any situation and do any thing, He can Heal; He can restore; He can change situations; he can open blind eyes,; he can re-grow lost limbs.

But I also believe that we are perfect in God whatever out condition - Dodgy hips, stressed minds, shyness and insecurity or a few extra pounds.

Not a barrier

Have a look at these images - who are they?

What do they have in common?

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All of them had starting points that on the face of it would make achieving what they have impossible.

Sylvester Stallone - Iconic actor, one of most successful actors; wrote and starred in three-Oscar-winning (ten nominations) Rocky, which became a franchise; starred as iconic John Rambo; got steps of Philadelphia Art Museum named after him - Partially Paralysed face, throat and tongue from Birth.

Franklin Roosevelt - Four-time President of the United States - Paralysed from the waste down due to Polio

Tom Cruise - Nominated for three Academy Awards and has won three Golden Globe Awards; As of 2012, Cruise is Hollywood's highest-paid actor.

Fourteen of his films grossed over $100 million domestically; twenty have grossed in excess of $200 million worldwide.

- Grew up in poverty, with an abusive father.

Operah Winfrey - .

She has been ranked the richest African-American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was for a time the world's only black billionaire.

She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.-

suffered child abuse and grew up in poverty.

I deliberatly cho

All of them are successful, powerful, highly regarded.

Over coming Adversity

All of them had starting points that on the face of it would make achieving what they have impossible.

Non of them could change the bad thing about them.

Not hiding behind the imperfect as an excuse

We live in a world where we make snap decisions about people based on their history their family where they grow and many other things.

Culturally we set our expectations of people unfairly often based on things out of their control.

Not only do we do this to other people, but we frequently do this to ourselves.

We spend our time defining our ability to do things based on a series of “if only”

If only I had gone to a better school

It only we’ve had more money

If only I could do maths

If only I had not been in that relationship

if only I was more confident

If only I was well

This morning I will say to you that God sees beyond our “if only...”, he sees our “because of...” opportunities.”.

God is bigger than our histories and our problems.

We serve a transforming God the desires to see you successful.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the what ever it is that ends the “If only I ....” Statement will be taken away.

Sometimes God want’s to come alongside you and transform that “What if...” situation into a “despite of...” or better still a “because of...” without removing the cause.

He wants to transform you personally, take you on that transformational journey that brings healing, and fruit fulneness that will see you go from:

‘If only I hadn’t been in that relationship I could serve God’.

To ‘despite having a history I can serve God’.

Ultimately, onto ‘Because I was or even am this, I am able to come along side others’.

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John Kirkby, the founder of Christians Against Poverty - started off with debts of over £78000, camping in a friends bedroom with his two daughters from his marriage that failed through the stress of debt.

He could have easily have hidden behind the “If only” mentality.

If only I was still married

If only I still had a Job and House,

If only wasn’t in debt....

God took him on a journey from If only, through the despite my situation, he started off with little cash (a £10 donation) sat at his kitchen table determined to help others escape similar situations.

God transformed him through this, to the “because of...” stage.

Because of his experience, his learning and the passion and compassion that God has planted in him John’s charity CAP helps over 20,000 people get through debt every year, both nationally and internationally.

CAP literally saves lives.

All because one man went on a journey with God from being an ‘If only...’ man to becoming a “because of...” man - John sums this up in his book ‘Nevertheless’.

John is not the only one, look at Betel, the Rising from the Rubbles Cafe.

Each person there has been on that same journey.

God is looking for that same journey with each of us, it may not be as someone at Betal dramatic as John’s or end up with you getting a CBE but the Journey is there to be had.

Now I have to throw in a caveat here.

Would be easy to think about this as a self help or positive thinking message.

So I want to be very clear from start.

Gartner does not promise that we’ll have an easy time.

God does not promise that you will solve all our problems in the timescales we expect

A journey supported by God’s Love and his desire for the best for you.

He promises that you will never have to bear anything you cannot cope with.

He promises that everything you as believers go through will come together for good.

He is on your side in this Journey!

Why the journey why can’t it be perfect.

I want deceive you sometimes it living with our pasts and our imperfections can be tough.

It would be so much easier if God would just take it away.

we end up asking:

So why won’t God remove my challenges?

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We are not alone when we asked this question.

This was a question asked many times by Paul.

Paul referred to his challenge as a Thorn in the side and pleaded with God to remove it.

God didn’t.

If Paul the mighty man of God who was clearly anointed and being used in amazing ways how to carry an affliction why was this?

Paul’s thorn is among the most famous afflictions in history, and we don’t even know what it was.

There’s been a lot of speculation over the years.

Paul’s thorn could have been a physical affliction.

This is plausible given all the physical violence and deprivation he endured

Some think he may have suffered from an eye disease

Or since he referred to his thorn as a harassing “messenger of Satan,” he could have been vulnerable to significant spiritual-psychological struggles.

This is plausible given the cumulative trauma of violently persecuting Christians, then suffering violent persecution, living in constant danger as a Christian, and then living with daily “anxiety for all the churches” ().

Or given the context of , his thorn could plausibly have been the “super-apostles” and false brothers constantly dogging him and wreaking havoc in the churches he planted (, ).

Or it might have been something else altogether.

God is bigger than our challenges.