Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ The past 40 Days has been one of the greatest periods of blessing that I have ever experienced in my own life.

I also believe that the same is true for our church family.

Elaine and I are finishing six years here in Fredericton.

They have passed so quickly for us.

In that same time we have seen things take place that I will never forget.

I would like to make some of those things happen again but I know that today’s manna is for today.

When we try to preserve today’s’ supply for tomorrow’s experience it turns sour.

Each new day brings new supply, fresh and blessed.

But for the past 40 days, God has visited us in our Sunday gatherings, our small groups, our homes, our hearts.

I think that He has helped us to understand the path that he is ordering for our faith family.

In the recent years, we have been changing, as the world has been changing.

And the necessity to change and adapt will never be over if we are to effectively minister to an ever changing world.

Change brings blessing but it also brings difficulty and angst to all of us.

As we have considered together the 5 purposes for which we have been created, God has been dispensing grace to accept and to better understand what He has already been doing among us and in us.

Look at the scripture with me.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 11:2,

 

*/"Remember today what you have learned about the Lord through your experiences with Him."  /*

 

The Bible says we are to remember the lessons we have learned; otherwise, we have to learn them over and over and over and over.

I have stopped teaching Tae Kwon Do this past fall.

One of the most difficult things as a teacher was to have to re-teach the same lessons to people who didn’t practice what they had already learned.

The failure to practice what we have already learned limits our experience of God.

You can’t skip past unlearned lessons with Him.

You can’t go on to the next chapter until you finish the one that you are in the middle of.

I remember being at a Steven Covey seminar a few years ago in Halifax.

As we learned portions of the seminar he had us stop and gather in groups and re-teach what we had just learned.

It is the greatest way to retain what we have learned.

*/What have we learned about God?/*

 

·         */It's all about God, not me.

/*

 

The Bible says in Hebrews 2:10,

 

*"/God is the one who made all things and all things are for His glory.

He wanted to have many children share His glory/.”

*

 

It is so easy to drift from this truth.

When we feel unappreciated or discouraged or overcome with trouble we become the center of our own attention.

Whenever we center on ourselves we lose spiritual perspective.

Whether life is good or bad, we center on the Son of God.

The more we do this the more clarity we gain.

The more we center on ourselves the more confusing life becomes.

You were made for God.

And the Bible says that God made us for His forever family.

God is creating a family forever, and you were made to last forever.

The Bible says,

 

*"/Everything/ /got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him/.”  *

 

Have you ever wondered what the world would look like if you removed God from the equation?

I can’t imagine it but there are many people who try to make sense of life apart from the essence of life.

No wonder we are so restless.

No wonder we are driven, stressed, dissatisfied, disillusioned.

It’s like being lost in a maze and never being able to find the exit.

The meaning of life begins with God and is defined by His purposes.

·         */God still does miracles./*

As long as God is, there is hope.

He is not confined by human understanding or limitations.

I believe that God’s limitations are the outer limits of our imaginations.

The scripture says in Ephesians 3:14-21:

 

" For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!

Amen." [1][1]

 

How about this?

 

"But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”" (1 Corinthians 2:9, NKJV) [2]

 

There are people who live their entire Christian experience telling other people’s stories.

God is forever in the miracle working business.

I believe that He is in the process of revealing His miracle working power in this place.

He is writing His story, His miraculous story, in our lives.

*/What have we learned about life?/*

/ /

1.      */Life is preparation for eternity/**/./*

Life is a very brief experience.

The Bible calls it a vapor.

Its brevity would leave us asking, “Is that all there is?”  It’s sort of like a trip to Disney World.

I remember the first time I went.

They have developed the illusion of movement to its highest form.

Snaking lines that make you feel like you are close to climbing aboard, never far away, but always waiting for some experience that is over in a fraction of the time that you have invested in the line.

A day in the Magic Kingdom is a lot about waiting and when it’s all over you’ve had a few thrills and spent a lot of money and you’re not quite sure why, a people trap operated by a mouse.

Life is not the end, it’s the journey through the vestibule.

Eternity is the destination and we’ll be living out of a suitcase until we get home.

The Bible tells us that.

Look at what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11.

*“/God/ /has planted eternity in the human heart/.”

*

 

There's more to life than here and now.

You are an eternal soul passing through a material moment.

Man's life is made up of 20 years of his mother asking him where he is going, 40 years of his wife asking him where he has been and one hour at his funeral when everyone wonders where he is going.

-- Sermon Builder

 

*/2.

/**/We were put on earth for 5 purposes./*

/ /

·         */I was planned for God's pleasure/**.*

You're not doing well to begin with.

I was planned for God's pleasure.

The Bible word for that is "*worship*."

Absolutely.

Front row, you're letting me down, but there's a smart one right back there, those guys are smart, man!

Secondly, I was formed for *God's family*.

Family.

I was planned for God's pleasure.

·         */I was formed for God's family/*.

And the Bible word for that is "*fellowship*."

We're on a roll now.

·         */I was created to become like Christ./*

And the Bible word for that is "*discipleship*," becoming like Jesus Christ.

·         */I was shaped to serve God/*.

This is only a couple weeks ago, so we should get better on these last ones.

I was shaped to serve God.