Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ /“’If you are thirsty, come to me!

If you believe in me, come and drink!

For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.’

(When he said ‘living water,’ he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him).”

–John 7:37–39 nlt/

 

/1.

God’s spirit flows or rages within us./

How’s it flowing with you today?

The scripture tells us that everyone who believes in Christ receives the Spirit and that this Spirit of God cannot be contained.

If the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit is within you it will flow through you.

It’s like an artesian well, a well in which water is under pressure; one in which the water flows to the surface naturally.

I have no problem seeing that in the lives of certain people who call themselves Christians.

I am unaware of it in the lives of others.

In the lives of certain Christians I sense defeat.

I sense preoccupation with the here and now.

I encounter a “down-in-the-mouth” posture toward life and it is tragic because this is not what He has promised.

One can only conclude in the lives of some that there is no belief, that this sort of person has never really encountered Christ or that there is something that restricts the flow of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

So I ask you again today, “How’s it flowing?”

When Jesus’ mission was accomplished, when he laid down his life and broke free from the grave, were the disciples really ready to be left?

Could they make it on their own?

Could they possibly carry on His mission.

Apparently Jesus had knowledge and confidence that they would make it just fine.

What happens when we step away from people that we love?

It’s a frightening thing.

My daughter Erin had gone to a Christian school for the first 6 years of her academic experience.

She was now entering the public school system.

I was torn over this for several reasons.

There were very real financial pressures that we faced as a family with two of our children in the Christian school.

We served an aggressively evangelistic church.

The preaching, teaching all suggested that in order to win the world, we needed to go forward into the world rather than to retreat from it.

I didn’t want my children to fear the world as though they were unable to survive in the middle of a secular world that had little or no regard for God.

There are people who feel that way you know.

They hardly know how to relate to a non-Christian person and the thought of impacting that person with the love of Christ is absolutely foreign.

They are clean and spotless on the outside, untouched and untouchable – probably but absolutely impotent.

I think that I fear the idea of my life counting for nothing more than I fear the possibility of sinning.

God forgives our sin but I can’t see where he forgives our refusal to use what He has given us to bring others to Him.  Remember the “one-talented” man who hid his talent and was cursed by the Master.

Remember the barren fig tree?

Remember those who ignored the needs of the “least” in Matthew 25?  “Depart from me . .

.”

We comfort ourselves by times for our lack of trying by telling ourselves that someone might have been positively influenced by our lives and therefore there might be fruit.

For the disciple who is actively engaged in the process of influencing and winning the lost, */this is a very real possibility.

/*Think about it – the more you engage with that process, the more fruit you will see – where there is no doubt that God has used you in some fashion.

And the more “spill-over” there will be but accidental evangelism, . . .

I doubt it.

I certainly wouldn’t bank on it.

Every year I asked Erin if she wanted to go to public school.

Her thought process changed in Grade 6 and she began to gear up to go to Riverview Jr. High.

I think that it was most likely the most frightening thing that she had ever faced in her life.

I was frightened as well.

I had no idea if I was making a decision that would lead her to spiritual ruin or a more vital faith.

I am of the opinion that faith that is not questioned or tested is more fantasy than faith.

My “guts” told me that she needed to lose the fear and develop a dependence on God.

I drove her to school that first fall morning of her Grade 7 year.

She had this wild mop of curly hair that bounced with every step that she took.

Innocence personified.

Riverview Jr. High, prior to the middle schools, was the largest Jr. High in the Commonwealth and it had a nasty reputation.

There were large pubescent attitudes all over the place.

Nasty.

I prayed with her in the car as I let her out that day and continued praying as she slung a shoulder harness tastefully over one shoulder.

She was cool – she knew how to be cool.

I prayed that God would give her a greater desire than fitting in.

I prayed that she would stand up and stand out because she had something in her that was greater than anything that she would find in the halls of Riverview Jr. High.

It wasn’t something that she put on – it was more than cool.

It was Christ incarnate, bigger than she was and she walked away that morning in His Power and His care.

/" Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing."

(Philippians 2:12-16, NIV) *[1]* /

 

Was I comforted by that thought – nope.

I was still scared to death.

Was this the right decision for my little girl.

A stale faith became a vital one.

She challenged her teachers in class respectfully and caused them to question the validity of their own belief systems.

I can see her huddled in the middle of her basketball team, courtside, leading them in prayer.

There were the rivers of water raging in her, flowing out of her, blessing those around her.

It was a beautiful thing to see.

Sometimes our faith is diminished because we cower to big loud bullies, Goliaths.

We just shut up and sit down rather than standing in God’s strength, in His love and compassion and offering ourselves to His care whether we are proved to be heroes or fools.

/"Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.”

Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.

For who makes you different from anyone else?

What do you have that you did not receive?

And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Already you have all you want!

Already you have become rich!

You have become kings—and that without us!

How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena.

We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.

*We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ!

We are weak, but you are strong!

You are honored, we are dishonored!

To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.

We work hard with our own hands.

When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.

Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.*

I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children."

(1 Corinthians 4:6-14, NIV)*[2]* /

 

I love the saying, “I am a fool for Christ, whose fool are you?”

I wonder how Jesus felt when He walked away from the rag tag band of “”I-don’t-get-its”.

I wonder if He felt a little like I did when Erin got out of the car to take on her Jr.

High School.

You know what, I don’t think that he had one uneasy thought.