Sermon Tone Analysis

What Are You Banking On?

 

*/Scripture: Psalm 20, Jeremiah 17:4-10/*

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Ø      I’m banking on the notion that I’ll have time to get my life right with God before I die.

Ø      I’m banking on the idea that if I’m good enough, God will let me into heaven.

Ø      I’m banking on the fact that God didn’t really mean what he said.

Ø      I’m banking on the fact that this rule doesn’t apply to me.

Ø      I’m banking on the fact that I’m as good as anyone else in the world.

Ø      I’m banking on the fact that because I’m not a hypocrite that I’m okay.

Ø      I’m banking on the fact that there’s another option besides Jesus.

Jeremiah 17:4 Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you.

I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn for ever." 5 ¶ This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

6  He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes.

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no-one lives.

7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.

8  He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

9  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

10  "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."

! 1.

Our own resourcefulness.

The attitude of self-sufficiency.

What’s the problem with this?

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/Ps 116:6  The LORD protects the simple-hearted; when I was in great need, he saved me.

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Ø      The belief that we have achieved all by ourselves.

Did you ever stop to think about the necessary parts of your success?

How much of that was your doing?

What about the hand of blessing in your life that perhaps you fail to give due credit to?

It's my pride that makes me independent of God.

It's appealing to feel I am the master of my fate; I run my own life, I call my own shots; I go it alone.

But that feeling is my basic dishonesty.

I can't go it alone.

I have to get help from other people, and I can't ultimately rely on myself.

I am dependent on God for my very next breath.

It is dishonest of me to pretend that I am anything but a man, small, weak and limited.

So, living independent of God is self- delusion.

It's not just a matter or pride being an unfortunate little trait and humility being an attractive little virtue, it's my inner psychological integrity that's at stake.

When I am conceited, I am lying to myself about what I am.

I am pretending to be God, and not man.

My pride is the idolatrous worship of myself, and that is the national religion of hell.

Success exposes a man to the pressures of people and thus tempts him to hold on to his gains by means of fleshy methods and practices, and to let himself be ruled wholly by the dictatorial demands of incessant expansion.

Success can go to my head and will unless I remember that it is God who accomplishes the work, that he can continue to do so without my help, and that he will be able to make out with other means whenever he wants to cut me out.

FUNNY how we can't think of anything to say when we pray, but don't have any difficulty thinking of things to talk about to a friend.

FUNNY how we are so quick to take directions from a total stranger when we are lost, but are hesitant to take God's direction for our lives.

FUNNY how so many churchgoers sing, "Standing on the Promises" but all they do is sit on the premises.

FUNNY how people want God to answer their prayers but refuse to listen to His counsel.

FUNNY how we sing about heaven, but live only for today.

FUNNY how people think they are going to Heaven but don't think there is a Hell.

FUNNY how it is okay to blame God for evil and suffering in the world, but it not necessary to thank Him for what is good and pleasant.

FUNNY how when something goes wrong, we cry, "Lord, why me?" but when something goes right, we think, "Hey, it must be me!"

Ø      I don’t need anyone else in this world.

Probably one of the greatest hindrances to the idea of “fellowship” in the body of Christ is that we don’t need other people.

Sunday is not a time of fellowship primarily but one of celebration.

In the NT, the church was alive daily in terms of fellowship.

They met “daily” from house to house.

Spiritual growth is meant to be an experience  that takes place with each other.

The writer of Hebrews wrote relative to fellowship – Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together and then Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

The strength of the Methodist movement, founded by John Wesley was the idea of people meeting regularly in groups.

These are 22 questions the members of John Wesley's Holy Club asked THEMSELVES EACH DAY in thier private devotions over 200 years ago.

1.

Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am?

In other words, am I a hypocrite?

2.  Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3.  Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?

4.  Can I be trusted?

5.  Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?

6.  Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self justifying?

7.  Did the Bible live in me today?

8.  Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?

9.  Am I enjoying prayer?

10.

When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?

11.

Do I pray about the money I spend?

12.  Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

13.  Do I disobey God in anything?

14.  Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?

15.  Am I defeated in any part of my life?

16.  Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

17.  How do I spend my spare time?

18.  Am I proud?

19.

Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?

20.

Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, critize, hold a resentment toward or disregard?

If so, what I am doing about it?

21.  Do I grumble or complain constantly?

22.

Is Christ real to me?

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Ø      I am not responsible to help others.

They should be able to do it themselves as well.

The story goes that, one time football coach Vince Lombardi climbed into bed and his wife, Marie, said, "God, your feet are cold!"

The coach answered, "Dear, in the privacy of the house, you may call me Vince."

Self-sufficient people sit back prideful and have a tendency to judge others weak or lazy if they have not done the same or achieved similar success.

They absolve themselves of responsibility of helping others because they believe that they have succeeded alone.

! 2.  Our ability to reason.

What’s the problem with this?

 

1Co 1:20  Where is the wise man?

Where is the scholar?

Where is the philosopher of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

It is in vain, 0 men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries.

All your insight only leads you to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you will discover the true and the good.

The philosophers promised them to you, and have not been able to keep their promises...

Your principal maladies are pride, which cuts you off from God, and sensuality, which binds you to the earth; and they have done nothing but foster at least one of these maladies.