Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Who wants to be healthy?

Christian living is hard!

Would you agree?

At the beginning of each new year one of the main searches and ads on the internet is to do with weight loss and becoming healthy.

Just last night I had a message from someone I would consider to be spiritually mature, wise and a great example of Christ reaching out to say I am struggling and I feel like I am losing my way!

I am so glad we have people to journey with us in life!

How many people have set goals to get healthy and start laying out the rules early on : No junk food in the house, more salads, exercise more

I feel like that sometimes too!

I feel the overwhelming weight of life.

I think we all do!

In lab city I got caught up in the new years resolution of wanting to become healthy and so I bought a gym membership.

I wasted my money.

I have come to learn that in our own strength life would be often unbearable.

A few months into the membership I told a friend that I was planning on going back to the Gym, Crystal yelled out “ Norm,what do you mean go back to the gym?

You haven't even been there yet!

Living life in a counter cultural way as Jesus instructs us would be more unbearable in our own strength.

We focus so much on being physically healthy which is important, but how often do we come before God and ask him to evaluate our lives and set out on becoming healthier as a disciple.

Being set apart is hard and yet we are called to holy living - Kingdom living

Over the next few months we are going to be looking at Scripture that points to Jesus and his Disciples and gain some insight on how Jesus calls us become healthier followers.

For the month of Jan we will be looking at a series called blue print for a healthy church then moving into Feb we we focus on Kingdom Choices Kingdom Impact

I like the book of Acts because it is foundational as we see how followers of Jesus begin to live their lives

Luke who is believed to be the author begins writing by bringing our attention to the first book he wrote which would be Luke - Luke describes all that Jesus began to do and to teach until he was taken up to heaven and Acts is what he continued to do through the spirit after he was taken up.

As we begin our series today we are going to look at Blueprint for a healthy church - Is about the kingdom of God

Truth

When you go back to the book of Luke, I can’t help but pause and think that the followers of Jesus had just been through quite the ordeal.

They seen him captured, beaten, and killed.

They waited in silence for nothing because that thought that was the end.

Then resurrected Jesus started appearing to them and talking to them, tells them about the Holy Spirit and ascends into heaven and tells them he will be back.

The first thing he speaks about is the things of the kingdom of God, it must be important!

So in more detail what is the Kingdom of God?

A commentary on explains the kingdom of God like this “Jesus explained that his coming marked the beginning of the Kingdom of God.

When he returned to heaven, God’s kingdom would remain in the hearts and be worked out in the lives of all believers through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

But the Kingdom of God would not be fully realized until Jesus Christ returns to judge all people and removed all evil from the world.

Until that time believers are to work to spread God’s Kingdom across the world.

The book of Acts records how this work was begun.

What the early church started, we must continue.”

Pg 1512 Chron.

Bible

As Christ followers we are called to be people who live out the kingdom lifestyle ( will help you with that and we will look at some in Feb) - Kingdom - where God is in control

Life is often hard, living a life that is God honoring is even harder.

Living a life that is counter cultural is not easy, something as simple as love your neighbour - may not always be smooth sailing !

We live in a word of tensions

Tension

• We live in a world that is focused on self - Facebook, instragram – My space, Ipad, iphone, ipod, imac, selfie, selfie stick in case you have short arms

• In todays society we live in a I want it my way mentality – my will be done - My kingdom come

Turn on the news and this is evident

• Many times we caught up in it!

We make choices based on how the outcome will suit us and we often get trapped in not giving thought to God’s way

How would I live if I were fully surrendered to God’s will.

What could I offer to kingdom living

The struggle to live a life that pleases god is hard - Paul gives a shout out to this!

Paul points out about his struggle with doing God’s will from this we learn that kingdom living is only done by the power of the holy spirit that is within us and talked about in the end of Luke and acts.

There will always be the tension

You struggle and I do too!

When we rely on the holy spirit we claim the power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us!

That is the difference

Kingdom living changes us from the world around us

Experiencing the resurrection and ascension of Jesus must have been powerful for the disciples!

At Jesus death they had ran away, fearful and fearing for their own lives!

And after seeing Christ resurrected they risked anything to share the good news of Christ, they were put in prison, beaten, rejected and some even became martyrs and yet they never compromised their mission!

The early church was fired up to live out the mission and show people what the Kingdom God was really about!

Not only in how they lived but how they served

We have been called to carry on that mission

Because we join in the death, Resurrection and return of Jesus of his Church

To be a healthy church - body people we have to continue to live and serve as people about the kingdom of God in a world that has shifting values

In a commentary on it tells us this about the kingdom of God “Jesus explained that his coming marked the beginning of the Kingdom of God.

When he returned to heaven, God’s kingdom would remain in the hearts and be worked out in the lives of all believers through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

But the Kingdom of God would not be fully realized until Jesus Christ returns to judge all people and removed all evil from the world.

Until that time believers are to work to spread God’s Kingdom across the world.

The book of Acts records how this work was begun.

What the early church started, we must continue.”

Pg 1512 Chron.

Bible

Application

What does all of this mean for us as 21st century believers, we did not see Christ ascension into heaven but we experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Here we are thousands of years later holding on to these truths.

lets strive to live as kingdom people who place God in charge even when it is not popular, when it requires sacrifice, when we don’t feel like it, when the struggle is real.

In His strength

Let us be witnesses of kingdom living in a society that does not get it

I know that this week I have some surrendering to do because there are somethings in my life that God is not king over,

I believe that each person here can join me in saying that

Join me this morning as I ask Jesus to be the center.

Let’s start of this journey of becoming a healthier church together.

It starts at the heart of each person here

Next week in Blueprint for a healthy church Crystal is going to be talking about having a vision for the lost.

They did what they did for one main reason and it must have been important because it is the first thing mentioned in these early verses in they did what they did to extend the Kingdom of God! What does this mean they did it to declare that our God reigns … this kingdom belongs to God he is in all and above all he is King Jesus.

The early church was fired up to live out the mission and show people what the Kingdom God was really about!

So in more detail what is the Kingdom of God?

In a commentary on it tells us this about the kingdom of God “Jesus explained that his coming marked the beginning of the Kingdom of God.

When he returned to heaven, God’s kingdom would remain in the hearts and be worked out in the lives of all believers through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

But the Kingdom of God would not be fully realized until Jesus Christ returns to judge all people and removed all evil from the world.

Until that time believers are to work to spread God’s Kingdom across the world.

The book of Acts records how this work was begun.

What the early church started, we must continue.”

Pg 1512 Chron.

Bible

17 And they said,

“We give thanks to you, Lord God, the Almighty,

    the one who is and who always was,