Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome - Bienvenidos

Today, we are beginning a new series called Fact or Friction.

For the next 4 weeks we will be learning how to navigate the stress and struggles in trying times.

When things are hard, we call this times of friction.

It is when our perspective is affected and we find it hard to know what is true in those important areas of life

OUR FAMILIES

OUR MARRIAGES

OUR FINANCES

WITHIN OURSELVES

God wants us to be able to know how to overcome the obstacles in our lives.

For that, we need God to transform us by the renewing of our mind.

Would you pray with me:

OPEN THE EYES OF OUR HEART

ALLOW US TO HEAR YOUR VOICE TODAY

REMOVE THE DISTRACTIONS - WE WANT TO FOCUS ON YOU

SPEAK, FOR YOUR SERVANTS ARE LISTENING

Friction is the resistance that one surface encounters when moving against another.

La fricción es la resistencia que encuentra una superficie al moverse contra otra.

Have you ever tied pushing something heavy across the floor with thick carpet?

That is Friction.

Ever lit a match on the matchbox?

When you rub the match against the side of the box, you create friction.

- Let me show you

Friction Illustration

Everyone take your hands and put them together in front of you.

Now rub them together as fast as you can.

Do it for 10 seconds.

You can hear the friction.

You can feel the friction.

Do you feel your hands getting warmer?

That is from friction.

As the surfaces of your two hands move against each other, they experience resistance.

Do you ever experience that friction in your family?

- Well, that is what we are going to focus on today: Friction in our Families.

If you are a mother in the room, I want you to think back to the last very stressful time within your family.

How did it make you feel toward your husband?

Maybe you should not answer that right now.

:D

If you are a father in the room, I want you to think back to the last time you felt pulled in too many places.

How did it make you feel toward your kids?

Maybe you are a single parent and these stressful times are even more heightened.

If you are a kid in the room, think back to the last stressful day you had in school.

How did it make you react to your parents?

You see, life has a way of throwing so many curve balls and unexpected situations at us that often we struggle to keep things running smoothly within the home.

The reason this is all true is that, as humans, we have a tendency to want to protect ourselves when we feel like things are out of control.

Whenever we sense this to be the case, we often turn inward and begin to look out for ourselves rather than taking care of others.

1.

When we put ourselves first, everyone else becomes last - Cuando nos ponemos a nosotros mismos en primer lugar, todos los demás quedan en último lugar.

God designed the family to give us a support system that would help us navigate life.

In an ideal world, as things get more difficult and as trials come, the family rallies around to offer care and concern.

Unfortunately, in a broken world, when we face the unknown, our response is quite the opposite.

The most important person in the world becomes us.

We look to calm our nerves.

We look to soothe our pain.

We look to meet our own needs.

Therefore, whether we are a mother, father, husband, wife, or child, the decision to put ourselves first means that we in turn put everyone else last.

We ignore their needs.

We disregard their pain.

We cannot see from their perspective.

This is the birthplace of friction.

Grace turns us outward but sin turns us inward.

Help reading

Philippians 2:3

Paul instructs us to

practice humility and

raise the significance of those around us.

It is about who gets the priority.

It’s about who gets the attention.

It’s about who is first in line.

Naturally we want it to be us, but supernaturally it must become others.

Illustration: Imagine if you are in line at the grocery store waiting to check out.

Imagine, if you will, that that line is very, very long.

Probably not too hard to imagine.

You finally get to the head of line and it is your turn to check out and be on your way, when suddenly someone pushes their way in front of you.

They intentionally put themselves first.

They see their need to check out as a higher priority than your need to check out.

No longer are you first in line: you might as well be last.

When we begin to allow ourselves to become our highest priority within the family, then we will ultimately experience the grind and friction with our mother, father, spouse and child.

2. Friction cannot last forever - La fricción no puede durar para siempre

We were never designed to be able to withstand relational friction over an extended period of time.

Just like brakes on a car wear down over time and have to be replaced, just like knives become dull over time and have to be sharpened, if we allow friction to exist within our families for too long, it can wear our trust, care, and love thin with one another.

This wear shows up in what we believe about one another.

We begin to believe lies about each other.

When we are stressed, we translate things that are said to us to be personal even if they are not meant to be.

When we find ourselves in a difficult season, we interpret every action from our family members as an act of aggression.

When we face struggle, our perspective can become clouded and we begin to believe the worst about one another rather than believing the best.

This kind of situation can wear us down and destroy our relationships.

We have to be careful to respond the way Jesus would in relationships, especially during times of friction.

In the book of Philippians, Paul writes his most extensive and clear passage about Jesus’ attitude and mentality in terms of his relationships with others.

Jesus is lifted up as the example for how we are to treat one another.

Help me read

Philippians 2:1-5

Paul says that if we are united with Christ, if we consider ourselves followers of Jesus, then we are to be like-minded.

The Greek words that make up this phrase hold with them the idea that we would have a properly regulated internal perspective that would manifest itself externally in our behavior.

Therefore, our unity with Christ would cause us internally to treat each other with love no matter what the outside circumstances are.

The Spirit of God mentioned in verses 1-2 is what gives us this proper regulation.

The external manifestation of this internal state is humility.

The Spirit of God helps us to choose to put others’ interests above our own.

This does not happen naturally; we need the Spirit’s help.

When we begin to notice the friction levels rise in the family.

When we begin to notice things heating up.