Sermon Tone Analysis

Funnies

I went to a faith healing session at the local community centre last night but it was absolute rubbish.

Even the fella in the wheelchair got up and walked out.

A preacher in New Orleans is known to be a good, holy man of God.

One day, while the preacher is at home, a hurricane whips up, with torrential rains and rising waters.

His neighbor comes by, saying he's leaving, and would the preacher like ride?

The preacher says, "No, the Lord will save me."

The neighbor says fine, and drives away.

A few hours later, the waters are rising.

The preacher has to retreat to the second floor window.

A fireman comes by in a boat, and asks the preacher if he would like to be taken to dry land.

The preacher says, "No, the Lord will save me."

The fireman pulls away, surprised.

Hours later, the waters have risen further, and the preacher has been forced onto his roof.

A helicopter flies over, and through a loudspeaker yells for the preacher to grab the rope, they will rescue him.

The preacher says, "No, the Lord will save me."

Amazed, the helicopter leaves.

A few hours later, the waters overwhelm the house.

The preacher drowns, and comes before the Lord.

The preacher asks, "Why, Lord, after my professed faith in you, didn't you save me?"

The Lord replies, "What do you mean?

I sent you a car, a boat, and a helicopter.

Whadda' you want?"

An Old man attended a Faith Healing session

The preacher said "Stand up and walk"

Then the old man proceeded to stand up from his wheelchair and slowly walked.

The shocked crowd yelled in praise.

The preacher asked him: "How are you feeling now?"

The old man replied: "I still can't see"

The pastor and his mom

One Sunday, a mom woke her son up for church, it went like this:

MOM: Son get out of bed, we have church today

SON: Why do I have to go to church, it's the same thing every week

MOM: you still have to go to show you're faithful to God

SON: but that doesn't answer my question

MOM: you have to go because you're the pastor

During the wedding rehearsal, the groom approaches the pastor with an unusual offer.

"Look, I'll give you $100 if you'll change the wedding vows.

When you get to the part where I'm supposed to promise to 'love, honor, and obey' and 'be faithful to her forever,' I'd appreciate it if you'd just leave that out."

He passes the minister a $100 bill and walks away satisfied.

On the day of the wedding, when it comes time for the groom's vows, the pastor looks the young man in the eye and says, "Will you promise to prostrate yourself before her, obey her every command and wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life, and swear eternally before God and your lovely wife that you will not ever even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?"

The groom gulps, looks around, and says in a tiny voice, "Yes," then leans toward the pastor and hisses, "I thought we had a deal."

The pastor puts a $100 bill into the groom's hand and whispers, "She made me a better offer."

Intro

What is faith?

Faith the assurance of things hoped for

What the writer means is not faith for personal ambition,

not positive thinking nor optimism,

but faith in the promises of God as revealed in the Bible

Some self-help gurus insist you can achieve anything if you just have enough faith.

Not so.

No matter how much conviction or hope I have I will never be world best ballerina

A little later, he spells out the most important promise of all: “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.

… The Lord is my helper.”

Faith is not just really hoping you get what you want.

what you want, must line up with God’s will for your life

its believing

God’s word is true and its going to happen

Faith is believing in God......not simply believing for what you want.

Scripture

The letter to the Hebrews has a whole chapter of biblical examples of faith to encourage his persecuted readers to stay strong.

They include Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Joseph, Moses and Rahab, the prostitute who lived in Jericho.

It continues

Faith is Important

Faith is one of the big 3

but not the most important

You can’t please God without faith

You can’t get saved without faith

Prayer without faith is meaningless

In fact Anything done without faith is sin!

The conviction of things unseen

is important because it requires an awareness beyond the arena of material facts.

Those who believe the only things that exist are the things we can measure by our senses or scientific instruments will not be impressed,

but it seems to me that such a world view takes a great leap of faith.

As author C. S. Lewis wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

1 corinthians 2:5

Mustard seed

mustard seed starts out small but grows massive tree

Some people right this off as allgorical

“Jesus didn’t actual mean you could iterally move a mountain, he was just illustrating a point”

but if we read on a few chapters Jesus debunks this line of reasoning

Jesus didn’t figuratively curse the fig tree. it actually withered up and died.

then he tied that ti moving mountains

Just like he literally stopped the storm

and fed 5 thousand people, healed the lepers, raised the dead.

I truly beleive we as God’s people need to awaken to the supernatural and stop trusting in the mere natural method of solving problems.

I believe Jesus emphasizes this if we read on with the Parable of the 2 sons and the parable of the tenants later on in this chapter 21

I encourage you to read and study it this week

Tower of Babel

How do you build your faith?

The Key to do anything, is to make sure it lines up with the will of God

1. Consistently read the Bible.

Read it out loud

Journal

2. Pray Regularly

3. Share your faith every day.

4. Regularly attend corporate worship.

5. Serve others