Sermon Tone Analysis

*YOUR INADEQUACY AND GOD'S POWER*

*/Freedom From Your Fears  -  Part 4/*

 

/"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know... his incomparably great power for us who believe."/

Eph.

1:19 (NIV)

 

/"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."/  2 Tim.

1:7 (NIV)

 

*What's our natural response to feeling inadequate?*

*1.       **We Cover up (Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves)*

*2.       **We Hide out (They hid in the bushes)*

*3.       **We Put down (They blamed one another)*

* *

*HOW TO ELLIMINATE THE FEAR OF INADEQUECY:*

* *

*I.

RESPOND TO INCURABLE WEAKNESS WITH DEPENDENCE ON GOD*

/"But he said to me, `My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'

For when I am weak, then I am strong."/  2 Cor.

12:9-10 (NIV)

 

/"A self-sufficient fool falls flat on his face."/

Prov.

10:8 (TLB)

 

/"I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory."/

Ps.

63:2 (NIV)

 

*II.

RESPOND TO UNREASONABLE PEOPLE WITH GOD’S PATIENCE*

/"Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love."/

Eph.

4:2 (TLB)

 

/"Be at peace with everyone, just as much as possible."/

Rom 12:18 (TLB)

 

          /"And I pray that you... may have power... to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ."/

Eph.

3:17-18 (NIV)

 

*III.

RESPOND TO IMPOSSIBLE PROBLEMS WITH FAITH*

/"God can do things that are not possible for people to do."/ Luke 18:27 (NCV)

 

/"And he asked them, `Why were you so fearful?

Don't you even yet have confidence in me?'"/  Mark 4:40 (TLB)

 

/"Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power... Nothing is too hard for you."/

Jer.

32;17 (NIV)

\\ *YOUR INADEQUACY AND GOD'S POWER*

*/Freedom From Your Fears  -  Part 4/*

*/ /*

Anytime we face something new in our lives we face the fear of inadequacy.

This is a very simple fear to describe.

It's when you look at your life and you think, "I don't have what it takes."

I don't have what it takes to be a parent, to be a leader, to be a believer.

Have you ever felt that way?

We all have.

Everyone in this room has.

It's very important to understand that God doesn't want us to feel this way.

A lot of times we get confused in Christianity and in church.

Sometimes people confuse this fear with humility.

They think God wants us to feel this way.

God wants us to feel like we're not worth much, just sort of down here.

That's not true at all.

Ephesians 1:19 /"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know his incomparably great power for us who believe."/  2 Timothy 1:7 /"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."/

That first prayer is my prayer for you today.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened, that you can see from the inside out how great God's power is for your life.

That's the answer to this fear of inadequacy in our lives.

You might circle /"his incomparably great power"/.

He wants to share it with us.

How great is God's power?

He keeps the world spinning.

He keeps the sun burning.

He takes billions of stars and hangs them in place and keeps them there, every minute of every day and the Bible says He wants to take that great power and transform it into our lives and make it work in our lives.

He wants to take our feeling of "I don't have what it takes" and He wants to express to us that He has what it takes in everyday life.

How?

How does He do that?

How do I experience His power in my life?

We have to learn to trade in our response to our feelings of inadequacy for God's response to our feelings of inadequacy.

When you learn that you begin to set aside this fear and begin to enjoy a new sense of strength and power and real confidence in everyday life.

What's our natural response to feeling inadequate?

Some of the things you think of were things described to us the first time anyone felt inadequate.

It started way back in the Garden of Eden -- this feeling of inadequacy.

The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve bit into the apple and they realized they were naked and they were ashamed.

That's not a bad description of what inadequacy is all about.

All of a sudden you've got this terrible realization of what's missing in your life.

And you struggle with that.

That reminds me of one of my favorite stories about a pastor who went to preach a sermon and used one of these loose leaf Bibles, ones that you could take pages in and out of so you could put your own notes in.

On the way up he didn't know it but one of the pages of scripture fell out.

He got up and was going to tell the story of Adam and Eve.  /"`And Adam said to Eve ...'" /and he turned the page.

One page had fallen out and he didn't realize it.

He turned back.

/"`And Adam said to Eve ...

And Adam said to Eve...' / Very interesting.

It looks like a leaf is missing."

That inadequacy!

You just have the feeling something's missing in your life.

Look at the response.

When we feel inadequate,

#. *We Cover Up*.

Adam and Eve sewed some fig leaves.

We cover up.

We pretend "I've got it all together.

I understand.

Everything's fine."

We cover up.

We don't want to let anybody know.

#.

*Or We Hide Out.* Adam and Eve were very simple about all this.