Sermon Tone Analysis

We are continuing our series this morning called “The Worshiping and Sending Church...”

And in this series, we are going to look at SIX values… SIX distinctives… that are essential to us being the church God has called us to be…

These are values that we share with our international family of churches all around the world called the Great Commission Collective… but really they are essential characteristics of health for ANY church...

God wants churches who WORSHIP CHRIST… that we are CONSUMED with his glory… that we live our lives for him alone…

And he wants churches who SEND OUT HIS PEOPLE into the harvest field… that we CAN’T HELP but tell others about who Jesus is and what he has done...

We want to be that kind of church… We want to be a church who has a front row seat to see God at work in our lives and the lives of the people around us.

We want to be a church who has a front row seat to see God at work in our lives and the lives of the people around us.

And the first value that we embrace that we want to look at today is FERVENT PRAYER.

Fervent means that there is heat… intensity… enthusiasm… behind our prayer…

That we really care about prayer because we realize how dependent upon God we are… and we really believe and expect that he works through prayer!

We want to be a church that WORSHIPS GOD with the way that we PRAY FERVENTLY for his glory to be revealed...

Often when people find out I’m a pastor, I get asked about our church… which is great, because I love telling people about you all… you’re my family… but it’s always interesting what they will ask, because it reveals their first thoughts about the church and what it is…

First, I almost ALWAYS get asked about how many people attend…

Did you ever read your Bible and think, “I wonder why God moved in such clear ways back then, but I don’t always feel like I see him working quite that way now… I wonder what made the difference?

I get asked if we have an old or young congregation...

How many kids we have in our church… what we do for a kids’ ministry...

This summer, we have something new happening at the Miller home: we are watching a leopard Gecko named Nicolai for the summer...

Nicolai is Levi’s 1st grade teacher’s pet gecko… and she wanted him to go to someone else’s house over the summer… and somehow out of all the kids, we were chosen...

I know… I hate that thought too...

And so we are learning a lot about lizards… and probably the biggest thing we are learning is that they need a certain type of environment that is very different than the environment of our home...

That can be sort of discouraging… right?

I get asked if our church is active in the community or not...

They need to eat live crickets… not dead crickets… live crickets… and so we are needing to keep live crickets in a feeder so that we can feed this thing…

They apparently don

It was Levi’s class pet last year and his teacher apparently didn’t want him for the summer, so we ended up with him!

They need it to be hot… and so we have to have a heat lamp on top of the terrarium...

But all of the sudden you have a need to find another church to participate with… what would you be looking for?

And so we are learning about the environment in which leopard Geckos need to thrive…

And usually when I answer these questions, most people are satisfied with the answer (at least verbally) and say, “Oh, that’s a good number...” or “Oh, kids in a church is a sign that a church is healthy...”

They need to have LIVE crickets to eat…

I think most of you would put preaching the word somewhere high on the list...

They need

They need to have water that keeps the air moist so that they can absorb it through their skin...

And I wouldn’t disagree that our church is healthy… those may just not be the best indicators of our health...

And most of all, they need to have the right amount of HEAT...

You may consider the truth that is sung on a Sunday morning...

And thankfully leopard geckos are pretty resilient as far as lizards go...

It’s always interesting to me what people think makes for a healthy church.

It doesn’t really matter WHAT the temperature outside is… it doesn’t matter what the temperature in the room is… what matters is the temperature inside the terrarium...

And they need

You probably want to know that the people love each other and are fulfilling the one anothers in scripture...

But we still need to create an environment where this little guy can thrive.

Because rarely do I get asked about how our church is applying the word of God together...

They need to have the right environment in order to thrive...

You may have some other things you would hope to see: kids and youth being discipled in the faith… outreach happening to the lost...

Rarely do people want to hear stories about how people in our church are sharing the gospel with the lost...

We need

And I was thinking about this question this week: what is the environment in which a church will thrive?

Really, that captures a little bit of what we are talking about in this series, “A Worshiping and Sending Church.”

And never once have I been asked about the health of our prayer life as a church.

That’s scary.

Because really, that should be at the top of questions if trying to get to know the heart of a church.

But let me ask you this: would the prayer temperature of the church end up on your list?

What kind of church does God want… and what needs to exist in the environment of a church in order for it to THRIVE?

A church’s prayer life reveals the activity of God in that church…

it reveals that church’s sense of dependence upon God… that they can do NOTHING apart from him...

A.W. Tozer is famous for saying, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference.

If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

And it reveals that church’s expectation for God… that ALL they want is to see God work...

They aren’t so concerned about felt needs and entertaining programs...

All of that stuff is a cheap trick compared to what God wants to do in a church.

Because as I read my Bible… as I look at Acts and the New Testament epistles... the HALLMARK of the early church that I see is Spirit-filled prayer.

And starting today, we are going to look at SIX values… SIX distinctives… that are essential indicators that we are fulfilling God’s purposes for our church…

Six values that we share with our international family of churches all around the world in the Great Commission Collective…

That we are WORSHIPING Christ… that we are CONSUMED with his glory...

And that we are LIVING SENT… that we CAN’T HELP but tell others about who he is and what he has done...

And in this, we want to be a church whose eyes are fixed on Christ… a church that believes JESUS CHRIST is ALL TO US…

We want to be a church who has a front row seat to the glory of God.

And yet as I read my Bible… as I look at Acts and the New Testament epistles, the HALLMARK of the early church was prayer.

And we’ve seen from that God wants his people to be first and foremost CONSUMED with his glory… that he wants us to be a WORSHIPING CHURCH...

You see, a lot of people think that the church needs

A.W. Tozer famously said, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference.

If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

We must think VERTICALLY first… “What does GOD want for his church,” not “what do WE want from our church” or “what does the world want from our church...” but what does GOD want???

But I think we need to reconsider and begin to question, “What would happen if we prayed the way that they did in the early church.

And when we truly get our eyes fixed on the glory of God… we will become consumed with that glory to the degree that we SEND one another out to tell others about Jesus and his glory...

D.L. Moody once said, “Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.”

— D. L. Moody

Worshiping churches are sending churches… but sending churches MUST FIRST be worshiping churches...

We have to make sure that the temperature in the terrarium is regulated to the heat of the glory of God...

And the heat lamp that sets the temperature for worship in any church is prayer...

Without prayer, the lifeblood of the church freezes.

What he’s saying is that too many times in the church, we can be too reliant on our own plans and pragmatism, and not reliant enough on prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it is OUR GOAL to make sure that quote is not true in OUR church.

So here’s how I hope we would respond to God’s word today:

- they were told to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from on high… and what did they do while they waited?:

“All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

(, ESV)

- 3000 people are added to their number those who were saved… and what did they do?:

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

(, ESV)

- the task of caring for the physical needs of the church gets too great for the apostles to handle on their own… so what do they do?

They appoint men filled with the Spirit to manage the task so that the apostles can devote themselves to PRAYER and the ministry of the word...

- Cornelius is a God-fearing Gentile who is about to become the first non-Jew to be saved by the Jewish Messiah...

And how does that whole event come about: he’s described as a man who prayed continually to God.

And Peter went up on a housetop to pray and God showed him a vision…

- Herod starts persecuting the church… he kills James, the brother of John, and he arrests Peter… it’s not looking good for the church… so what do they do?

“So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.”

(, ESV)

- When Saul and Barnabas are sent out on their first missionary journey, what are they doing when they are set apart?