Sermon Tone Analysis

Sign seen in a textile mill, "When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman."

A young woman was new on the job.

Her thread became tangled and she thought, "I'll just straighten this out myself."

She tried, but the situation only worsened.

Finally she called the foreman.

"I did the best I could," she said.

"No you didn't.

To do the best, you should have called me."

Striking is this message.

In our current individualistic, hedonistic, and self-absorbed society, getting help is kind of a weird dynamic.

Asking for help is a hard thing for many.

There is so much wrapped up in it.

First of all it might affect our self-esteem.

To ask for help is to admit you can’t do it and you and others might think less of you because of it and other opportunities for advancement, achievement, and self-satisfaction or our pride will be affected.

For many asking for help is too humiliating, too belittling, reminding me of times when people called me “hopeless.”

Maybe for some of us we don’t ask for help because no one is gonna help.

Shane I have asked people to help me but people will not lend out a hand.

They always got something to do.

They are too busy to help.

They got other priorities.

People just don’t care.

And many times that is so true.

But for many, they don’t want to help, because they say that they take advantage of me, they are irresponsible and now they need me to bail them out of their own mess.

They are not thankful and grateful for all that I have done for them.

Shane bro when they call they always ask… “So what are you doing Saturday afternoon?

Are you busy?” Man I dunno how to answer that… so now I say… “It depends.”

“Depends on what?” “On what you are gonna ask me.”

The reality is… many times people want to help, but they do not want to bail us out.

My uncle used to say to me all the time… “a lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”

We gotta get this.

Many times people want to help they just don’t want to bail us out.

But many times that why we ask.

We don’t ask for help, we ask to be bailed out.

Now there are times in life when we gotta get help.

Sometimes its just too important.

Sometimes we gotta get a sober view of ourselves and recognize our short-comings and that we cannot do it on our own.

I have always said that I’m smart, because I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything.

So I need help.

But to keep our distorted self-respect, we push to do it on our own, we have too much pride to ask for help.

We have too much independence to put ourselves in a place of dependance.

But especially as Christians, we cannot be like this.

We need to get help from God.

It is way too important for us to do all that God had called us too.

I remember when Scott was young, he was pretty adamant about doing some things on his own.

I hear it like this for many children.

They wanna tie their shoes by themselves.

They get upset cause they just gotta do it so that they can be a big boy.

And I get it, but sometimes, with all the screaming and crying you are running late and we do not have 5 minutes to wait for Scott to do it himself.

Or he does not do a good enough job and you don’t wanna spend all day telling him to tie his shoes.

Just let me do it!!!!

Sometimes it is not that we can’t do it.

We just can’t do it a certain way in a certain amount of the time required.

We just can’t do it.

And when it comes to God it is the same thing.

We so badly want our independence.

This has been true since the fall.

Or we wanna do it on our own because we so badly want to stand worthy and deserving before God by our own efforts.

Deep down inside we want to deserve heaven.

So we don’t... here is the key… we don’t depend on God.

And what makes it worse is that we don’t depend on him we use Him.

We pray and ask for help when we by our own folly mess things up and we need for Him to fix it.

We need Him to bail us out.

And when He does not, we get mad at Him.

We blame Him and we accuse Him.

But Shane we cannot live life they way He wants us to.

Its way too hard.

Loving enemies, taking up a cross, going to church, reading Bible and praying everyday, raising children with standards, stand against the flow of culture, give to those who do not deserve, turn the other cheek, denying things that give me pleasure, abstaining from the lust that the world provides.

How in the world does God expect me to do this.

What God is asking for is the impossible.

Why does He ask this of me?

I am way to weak… Yes, when we are weak then we are strong.

God expects so much, because He never intended of us to do it alone.

Let’s check it out.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

Him We Proclaim

His Energy

The first thing we will look at today is how Paul describes what he means when he says, “Him we proclaim.”

Second, we will see the real motivation and energy and where it comes from to enable Paul to do all that he has done for the kingdom for his grace is enough for us.

Thesis: Though sin, the pattern of this world, and the false teachers cause us to lose confidence in the sufficiency of Christ in all of life, but it is the truth of the scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit that will cause us to see the beauty and wonder of what it means for the grace of Christ to sufficient for us.

I. Him We Proclaim

- Warning and Teaching to present perfection.

A. So remember that Paul and Timothy are right now defending the ministry of the Apostle Paul against those in the church in Colossae who are causing many to fall away and give up on their complete confidence in Christ.

They are not denying Christ all together but they are denying that He is all that they need for life.

They are saying that Christ is an authority, but he is not THE Authority in the universe.

They are not throwing our Christ altogether.

But they are diminishing Christ.

And to diminish Christ IS JUST AS BAD as throwing him out altogether.

B. This is happening today.

We are not denying Christ, be many of us feel like Christ is not enough.

If we want to experience the fullness of life and live life to the fullest then we need to look at other things that the world has to offer to be compete.

To say that Christ is not fully supreme is indeed offending God.

To say that Christ is not enough is indeed offending.

Even if you don’t deny Him outright, to diminish Him in anyway is to deny Him outright.

Do not be deceived.

C. I read a quote from a Christian life coach this week and I quote, “True fulfillment (notice like the false teachers they are talking fullness)in life does not happen when you become some ideal person different than yourself.

Happiness and joy come when you become comfortable expressing who you really are at your core.”

This is a lie.

This is soooo messed up.

This kind of stuff is being proclaimed from the pulpits all across our country.

This is the message from the world not from Christ.