Sermon Tone Analysis

*INTRO*:    *How’s your dash?

*(I want this to be a statement that is asked often in our church)

 

*Born 1964 – Died ?*

 

*/God’s plans or my plans/*

 

That timeline between birth and death is to be /reserved/ for fulfilling the will of God for your life.

God has a plan for you.

You see, we have a tendency to fill our lives with /OUR plans/ and God is very patient with us.

He says today, *Pr 19: 21 */There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand./*(NKJV)*

If a plan, the counsel of God is going to stand and my plans fall over – lets trade plans today!

*Who wants to devote their life to something insignificant that has no bearing on ETERNITY?!!!!*

 

*/God is unstoppable in his purposes/*.

*Job 42:2 (NKJV) *"I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose /of Yours/ can be withheld from You.

* *

*Jeremiah 32:27 (NKJV) *"Behold, I /am/ the LORD, the God of all flesh.

Is there anything too hard for Me?

* *

God can do what He has said He’s going to do.

Is there anything more significant than to contribute the vapour of our lives to the plan of God??

 

*Turning the Common into the EXTRA-ordinary*

 

How do /common/, /ordinary/ people become *great people?*

By having a commitment to the great cause of heaven.

Our existence then takes on eternal significance!

The greatest thing you or I can do with our lives is to wrap it around God’s eternal plan of the AGES!

My money, my life, my children.

*What is the Lord’s counsel regarding the Master plan for planet earth?*

God’s plan is that mercy and justice flow into the nations of the earth

 

*Isaiah 42:4 (NKJV) *He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law."

 

*Right now /injustices abound/ on our planet *– despots, dictators, poverty, slavery, child sex slaves!

The list goes on and on…Terrorism – innocent victims.

BUT God has a plan – an unstoppable plan!

 

*Habakkuk 2:14 (NKJV) *For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea.

This is God’s plan.

*Psalms 22:27 (NKJV) *All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You.

A plan is in place – it’s *huge, its great*

 

Friends today I want to share with you what I consider to be one of the KEY ingredients for you and I to be fully involved in what is about to unfold on PLANET EARTH.

It is an unseen but very *TANGIBLE* commodity that has the ability to move all of heaven and earth.

Without this ingredient we live at a SUB-PAR level.

Without this ingredient we often get STUCK.

Without this ingredient the bible says we cannot please God.

What am I talking about?

*FAITH*

 

*FRESH FAITH*

* *

*WRONG MEASUREMENT STICK:*   When most of us think about /how we are doing/ /spiritually/, we think about *surface things*.

We zero in on behaviour patterns like: \\ \\

* Gossiping, criticizing

* Impure thoughts

* Have we been reading our bibles

* Have we been true in our tithing?

We concentrate on */outward works/*, while forgetting they are the /fruit of a deeper spiritual factor/.

*/Pastor’s/*/ are often most interested in church/ /attendance alone/, which does not always reflect a churches health.

What matters most is not so much how many are showing up on a Sunday, but how *ACTIVE* and *VIBRANT* their */faith/* is in the God they serve.

*YOU CAN EASILY PACK A BUILDING WITHOUT PLEASING GOD, BECAUSE *CROWDS* DO NOT *EQUAL SPIRITUALITY*.*

 

*/1.

Faith is the temperature reading of our spiritual health - Church at Thessalonica/*

 

Paul sends Timothy to check up on the new Thessalonian church (where he had /only been able to spend three weeks/ before getting run out of town).

You’d think he’d want to ask them firstly about how many were turning up?

Did they have their own church building yet?

Were the offerings enough to cover the bills?

And what about the individuals that received the Lord: Had they stopped swearing, drinking, committing adultery?

Going to see bad movies?

*NOT AT ALL!*

In 1 Thess 3, Paul reveals that his */primary concern is for the faith level of his precious converts/*.

He wants to take a */temperature reading/* of their spiritual health, and *faith* is what he is looking for!

* “We sent Timothy ….

To strengthen and encourage you in /your faith/ (v.2)

* “When I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about /your faith/” (v.5)

* “But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about /your faith/ and love” (v.6)

* “Therefore brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of /your faith/” (v.7)

* “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in /your faith/” (v.10)

What is Paul most concerned about?

*The condition of their faith.*

He has sent Timothy to /“strengthen and encourage/” the people in their faith.

Timothy comes back with a report that says nothing about the /building/, the /lighting/ or /sound system/ or condition of the /carpet/!

*No – he tells Paul about the condition of their faith*!

Then right at the end of the chapter in verse 10 he wants to make another trip there in order to “see you again and supply what is lacking in /your faith/.”

Faith – faith – faith – faith!

 

*/Why?/*

 

*/2.

Faith moves the Heart of God/*

 

What we seem to so easily forget is that when /people break down in their behaviour,/ backslide into sinful living or grow cold in the Lord, it is */because their faith has broken down first/*!  Deep down underneath is a /weakness of faith/!

 

*What do you think it took to amaze Jesus when he was walking on the earth?*

Remember – not easy to impress someone in whom the world was created through, someone who has forever existed in heaven itself!

/Could anything possibly impress the Lord/?

Did Jesus ever exclaim – *WOW!

AWESOME* *righteousness*!

Amazing INTELLECT!

That Matthew – a real financial genious!

NOPE – but he was amazed by one thing:  people’s faith!

 

*Hebrews 11:6 (NIV) * \\ 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

* *

* */Centurion’s faith/* – when he told this man that he would go to his house and heal his servant, and the centurion said not to bother but just to speak the word of healing.

\\ “Jesus was amazed at him and turning to the crowd following him said, /‘I tell you, I have not found such *great faith* even in Israel’”/ (Luke 7:9)

* */Canaanite woman/* pleads to jesus to come and heal her demon-possessed daughter and won’t take no for an answer.

Jesus exclaims/, “Woman, you have *great faith*!

Your request is granted”/ (Matthew 15:28)

 

*/Lack of faith hinders the hand of God/*

 

Back in Jesus hometown he’s desperately wanting to help some people and do some miracles *but he couldn’t*:

 

*Mark 6:5-6 (NIV) * \\ 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.

6 And he was amazed at their /lack of faith…./

Was it that there were /particularly powerful demons/ in Nazareth, some sicknesses that Jesus himself could not heal?!  No – no, his hands were tied by their unbelief!

/Faith is the *trigger* that moves the hand of God and the heart of God!  Faith is the *key* to our relationship with Him./

/ /

*/Achieve or Receive?/*

*/ /*

Many western church goers have a /dormant faith./

Yes - They still come to church services, they still sing Hillsong choruses – but their faith is dead!

They are trying to survive by /achieving/ in their Christianity – /“trying harder, struggling to obey the Lord and do His will – we all struggle you know!”/