Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRO

LET’S PRAY

“Promises are made and broken so easily today, and because we get away with not keeping our word, we think it’s all right to break our promises, the result is that some Christians have trouble taking God at His Word.

God DID NOT make frivolous promises that He does not intend to keep.

God is faithful to all His promises.

God’s promises may not be fulfilled exactly the way we want them to be, or at the time we want them to be, but He always keeps His promises.”

-Esther Irish (Clinging to the Promises of God, Faithlife Sermons)

Alisha and I found this cool copper sign at a flea market a couple years ago and it says, “Faith in God includes faith in His timing”.

I love that, we have it hanging in our kitchen as a reminder to us.

True faith goes from “I” to “you” statements.

It’s not “I have hope that it will all work out.” or “I have faith that it will.”

It should be “Lord, I trust You.” or “Trust in the Lord and have faith in Him.”

We can’t promise people or give false hope through ourselves or nice words.

We can only hope, pray and have faith that, through God’s power and intervention He will work out the situations in our or our friends and families lives- if it according to His plan.

This is often one of the hardest things for people, especially Christians to overcome.

I think of the story with Joni Erickson Tada who is a quadriplegic.

She was on her dads shoulders in a lake and dove off, hitting her head on the bottom, she broke her neck.

That one incident changed her life forever and she struggle the first few years with God.

For over 5 decades she has been such an instrumental encouragement to so many who have struggled with the same issues through her ministry called “Joni & Friends”.

She has been able to lead so many people to Christ through her story as she explains that she has accepted God’s plan for her life, though not always easy, she trusts.

SHOW VIDEO OF JONI ERICKSON TADA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XFkVoi5CdU

God desires belief and faith from us.

Often times our faith seems like it is boiled down to wishful thinking instead of true faith, which is certain hope and trust in the Lord, not wishing.

The inconsistencies of life contribute to our wavering faith and clinging to promises but we must understand that God’s character does not allow Him to change.

The Lord wants everyone to come to Him from a state of repentance and forgiveness, in order to enter into a life filled with promise, and hope.

The gateway to this is placing our complete hope and life in His son, Jesus Christ.

It is placing our complete faith in Him without thinking twice that only He is able to...

Let’s look at two steps to getting to this type of a faith:

We already mentioned the first one...

To initially receive Christ, through faith.

2. To live by faith in God everyday through the Trinity.

What do I mean by that?

Christ- Believe and trust that He is interceding for us before the Father, preparing a place for us.

Holy Spirit- Rely on the H.S.’s guidance for truth from God’s Word in our lives each day.

Father- Trust in His great plan for our lives.

Paul speaks of Abraham’s faith and attitude in Romans 4 regarding him having a child with his wife Sarah at such an old age...

READ QUOTE FROM PAGE 43 (Walking with Christ book)

What does faith make possible?

FAITH MAKES HOPE, JOY & PEACE POSSIBLE.

(Romans 15:13)

FAITH MAKES ANSWERED PRAYER POSSIBLE.

(Matthew 21:22)

FAITH MAKES POWER OVER SATAN POSSIBLE.

(Ephesians 6:16)

FAITH MAKES ACCESS TO GOD POSSIBLE.

(Ephesians 3:12)

FAITH MAKES INTIMACY WITH GOD POSSIBLE.

(James 2:23)

“Real faith moves from belief in what is true about God to a trusting intimacy with God.”

READ JOHN 20:24-29

Thomas’ belief changed once he saw Jesus in flesh.

He took the other disciples words with a grain of salt but didn’t fully give his devotion until he saw Jesus face to face.

John 20:29 is for us today.

If you encounter someone who has said they’ve seen the risen Lord in a dream (that they consider a true appearance of the Lord) and feel that Jesus gave them a new revelation to add to God’s Word, or an actual encounter with Jesus face to face- be very cautious!

Be cautious because a promise that we know of is that Jesus will not appear to anyone until His second coming and that second coming will be apparent to all believers, not just a select few or in private.

This is how multiple false religions were formed- the leader has claimed to have an encounter with Jesus, an angel or God himself and created a separate revelation for God’s Word and led so many astray into false faith and empty promises.

As Christians we sometimes don’t need a false prophet to misguide us, we can do that well on our own...

We often have faith in our own strength, apart from God- this leads to a certain defeat.

2. We often put our faith in other people.

(As we discussed before)

3. We put our faith in our own understanding.

4. We put all our faith in wealth and success.

Bottom line- the object of our faith should be the Lord and nothing else.

Hebrews 11 is a great chapter in the Bible on what kind of a faith we should strive for.

I encourage you all to read it if you haven’t yet and if you have, take the time to re-read it as an encouragement to you.

But what does Scripture say about God’s promises?

1 Kings 8:56, They won’t fail.

2. Psalm 89:34, God doesn’t go back on His word.

3. Isaiah 55:11, His Word will not return void.

4. 2 Peter 1:4, We can participate in His promises.

A couple promises that we can claim or participate in:

READ Lamentations 3:22-26

The promise is that His mercies are new every morning, and the condition for that promise is that we hope, seek and wait on Him.

READ Romans 8:28

The promise to us is that God will work all things out, according to His purpose.

The condition is that this applies to those who love Him which means they are followers who put their hope and trust in Him- this does not apply to non believers.

Our attitude in claiming God’s promise should be like Hebrews 6 explains.

READ Hebrews 6:12, 16-19

Verse 12- We should be determined and not lazy.

Verse 16- We should not swear or make oaths or promises that we aren’t authorized to make.

Verse 17-19- We should realize that only God’s promises are unchanging.

Here is a fun exercise that you could do as you read God’s Word:

Look at any verse or set of verses and see if there are any promises in them.

Example...

What is the promise in the verse?

Eternal life.

What must we do to claim that promise?

Believe in Jesus

What is the promise in the verse?

Renewed strength from the Lord.

What must we do to claim that promise?

Wait on the Lord.

As we look at Scripture looking into God’s promises we take these steps:

What is the promise?

What must I do?

What is the result?

We could spend hours and hours going through the Bible to discover all the wonderful promises that God lays out for us, but remember that we must have faith, and trust in the Lord to pursue any of them.

Let’s look at a character in the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles that displays clinging to God’s promises and having faith among a big obstacle in life.

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, in chapter 19, set up judges and priests to reside over his people in order that they might not sin against each other or the Lord.

It seems each time God’s people head in the right direction the enemy is right there waiting to put up a road block or try to destroy the path.