Sermon Tone Analysis

Ready.

Set.

Go!

PRAY On July 1st, 1982, Larry Walters Had a bright idea.

A truck driver from Los Angeles California, Walters had always dreamt of flying in the air force, when this plan didn’t work out… Larry took matters into his own hands.

for some 20 years Larry imagined what this flight might look like, the breeze in his face, the cool wind over the California sky.

That July morning, this dream became a reality.

Larry conspired his plan while sitting outside in his "extremely comfortable" Sears lawn chair.

He purchased 45 weather balloons from an Army-Navy surplus store, tied them to his tethered lawn chair (that he named the Inspiration I) and filled the four-foot diameter balloons with helium.

Then, armed with some sandwiches, Miller Lite, and a pellet gun, he strapped himself into his lawnchair.

He figured he would shoot a few of the many balloons when it was time to descend.

Now Larry planned to cut the anchor and lazily float to a height of about 30 feet above the backyard, where he would enjoy a few hours of flight before coming back down to earth.

But things didn't work out quite as Larry planned.

Larry did not float lazily up to 30 feet.

Instead, he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon.

He didn't level off at 100 feet, or even 1000 feet.

Larry Walters made it all the way to 16,000 feet.

At that height he felt he couldn't risk shooting any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really find himself in trouble.

So, he stayed there, drifting cold and frightened with his beer and sandwiches, for more than 14 hours.

He crossed the primary approach corridor of LAX, where startled Trans World Airlines and Delta Airlines pilots radioed in reports of the strange sight.

Eventually he gathered the nerve to shoot a few balloons, and slowly descended.

The hanging tethers tangled and caught in a power line, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes.

Larry climbed to safety, where he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD.

As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked him why he had done it.

Larry replied nonchalantly, "A man can't just sit around."

You can’t just sit around.

What famous words, of course, I’m not advocating that we leave from service today and tie ourselves to lawnchairs with 45 helium weather balloons… unless of course, you’re interested in that in which case, let’s talk.

But really, the heart of this story about lawn chair Larry is many of us can relate with this idea of having good intentions, or wanting to do things with our faith, and yet what started as a fire within us at one point, for some has now dwindled down to a mere flicker and we wonder where that initial zeal went in sharing the gospel and being impactful for the community.

You see, 2 weeks ago, we looked at the idea of discipleship as one of the primary reasons the church exists.

We read Matthew 4:19: 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

From there we discussed the initial choice personally to accept Christ as savior, second, we see the value and need in spiritual growth on an individual level… and by the way I feel as a church we accomplish this area pretty well.

But third and finally, we get to this point of going.

And sharing the gospel… and evangelizing… and all of a sudden… the tendency is to get scared.

You see church, that as few as 5 to 10 percent of most church goers in most churches across America have share their faith with someone over the last year.

Interestingly enough A survey from the Institute of American Church Growth showed that 75 to 90 percent of new believers actually came to Christ through a friend or acquaintance who explains the good news on a one-to-one basis.

And yet Only 17 percent of all conversionscome through what is called an “event”—whether it’s a pastor giving his message on Sunday morning, or Billy Graham like crusade…

And so, the point this morning guys is that we have a job to do… and studies show that so often, sharing our faith with others is how they come to a point of salvation.

And yet, again according to the studies, we see that many of us have a difficult time sharing our faith with others…

Can I share with you for a moment what I personally believe one of the biggest driving factors is…?

I believe at present that we certainly live in a culture and society that is drifting away from God…and so many of us are Christians, but there Is a sense of quietness or maybe even shame when we get around our secular friends… because after all, we don’t want to be outcasted by our family because of our faith….

But I also believe that we suffer from this sin of silence, where we haven’t put into practice the idea of actuallysharing our faith with others… and as the old saying Goes “if you don’t use it… you….

Lose it…” many of us have failed to share our faith with someone and the idea now is actually kind of scary.

And yet, I reminded of the words of Paul to his protégé timothy as he writes in 2 Timothy 1:6-8

6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.…)

7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

8 So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.

Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God

You see this morning God calls us to fan into flame the gift of God….

With this in mind there are 3 sermon points this morning are learning from Jesus: 1.

The message, 2. The method and 3.

The map.

Turn with me first to Matthew Chapter 4:12-17

1.

The message in Sharing our faith

MATT 4:12-17 12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee.

13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,

the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,

Galilee of the Gentiles—

16 the people living in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

a light has dawned.”[f]

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 9 simple words

Verse 17 is key this morning because this is the message.

It says to repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

I want to break down 2 words for us.

The first word is repent which in the Greek is the word: metanoeō

Meaning to change one's mind for better and to change in disgust from one's past sins.

In other words, Jesus is calling people to leave their old life, to change their mind and come after him…

But how is he spreading this word?

The message is spread by preaching.

It says from that time on Jesus began to Preach.

The word preach there is the Greek word kēryssō.

which means to be a or messenger.

It also means to make a public proclamation of the gospel.

In other words, when we look at the example of Jesus, yes, he’s using different ways of communicating… but the primary means of communication is by speaking in public.

Now for a second, I want us to see that the same message that Jesus was preaching during his earthly years of ministry.

Began before him and actually continued on after him.

In Matthew 3:1 we’re told of John the Baptist, who… came before Jesus and his message was this:

3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Do we some similarities here?

Then in Luke 10: 9-11 it goes from John the Baptist sharing ting this message, to Jesus, and now Jesus has commissioned 72 to go out.

It says:

9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you.

Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’

You see in one of my favorite books entitle share Jesus without fear the author explains:

Many Christians tell people they love the Lord.

They offer hugs and tell people they'll pray for them, yet they only share hints of gospel truth.

Sometimes they put those silver fish and “Honk If You Love Jesus” bumper stickers on the back of their cars.

And if they are made of braver stuff, they go to football games and hold up posters with the words “John 3:16” painted in large red letters.

These Christians don't share enough information to allow the Holy Spirit to affect a heart change.

They fail to tell their friends how to go from the state of death to the state of life!

Friends, if God had his messenger, John the Baptist go out before him and call people to repentance, then we see Jesus do the same and later commission 72 others to do the same… What does that say for you and I?

You see, the reality is we are now plan A. God has put us here, In Kenton Ohio to share the gospel with those around us.

Maybe you’ve never done that… and It’s scary to you… but if I could challenge you to do two things… I would just encourage you to 1. start praying for boldness in sharing your faith.

2. Start praying for others… You can begin there.

3.

As opportunities open themselves up, share your faith.

A common way of doing so is by using many of the scriptures in Romans, we know it as romans road and tell people your testimony.

Like we said early, most people that are accepting Christ as their savior do so on a one-to-one basis?

The question simply becomes, who do you know, that you need to start praying for?