Sermon Tone Analysis

Well, we started this series a couple weeks ago by asking the question: / / What are you reaching for?

I’ve had a verse stick with me these last couple weeks.

James 4:2-3 says, / / …you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.

James continues to explain that even if we ask we have to be aware of our motives - / / what are we asking for and sometimes more importantly, / / why are we asking for it.

I can’t get mad at God if I ask for a Ferrarri and my Nissan Frontier continues to be a Nissan Frontier.

I can’t get upset if I ask God to get me out of debt and I start seeing financial blessing in my life, but I don’t learn to be a good steward with that money so I end up spending it on things that I don’t need, or I pay my credit card but don’t learn to stop using it so I just rack it back up again… that’s certainly not God’s fault.

/ / There is a measure of personal responsibility when we begin to ask God to move in our lives.

In Matthew 21 Jesus and his disciples are walking into Jerusalem and they pass a fig tree, and Jesus is hungry so he goes over to it, but it doesn’t have any fruit.

And he says to the tree, / / “May you never bear fruit again!” and the bible says that the fig tree withered right there in front of them.

I’ve always kind of thought it would be cool to start a landscaping business called the Withered Fig with that level of faith.

Just walk onto someone’s property and curse the weeds and you’re left with this beautiful lawn.

You can take that and run with it if you have that faith.

It’s yours!

But what’s interesting about that story is what Jesus says next.

Matthew 21:20-22 says, / / The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”

Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more.

You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen.

You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

This is where we get the saying, / / Faith can move mountains.

But the key to it isn’t the faith alone.

It’s the faith without the doubt.

Jesus says, / / If you have faith AND do not doubt.

Faith is the word pistis that we looked at a couple weeks ago, faith means more than just to believe, but it’s to believe to the point of commitment.

I can’t really say I have faith if I say I believe something but don’t actually do it.

Then clearly something isn’t right, is it?

Yes, we must have faith, or belief, in Jesus for salvation, which is something we can’t do on our own, so I believe in Jesus for salvation, but the problem can sometimes creep in that the word has been translated to simply believe when in reality it means so much more.

If you remember the word study I read from a couple weeks ago, and I’m going to read it again because it’s so good:

/ / Pistis…should probably be [written] as vow to faithful relationship as the truer understanding of the word in the early church…It is therefore probably best linked to a covenant (think like a wedding vow or a pledging of allegiance), but faithful relationship (or covenant loyalty) could be added for emphasis and further clarification considering the English word’s vast misunderstanding of the word.

The important things out of that...

/ / Faith would be better translated as: a vow to faithful relationship.

/ / We should think of it as a covenant, like a wedding vow, or a pledge of allegiance.

/ / The English words create a vast misunderstanding of the true meaning.

Does this really make a difference?

Well, in asking the question, what are you reaching for, the woman who had been sick for 12 years had belief that Jesus heals, but Jesus said her faith had made her well, and her faith was this, not that she only believed, but that she believed, “if I can only touch the hem of his garment I will be healed”, AND SHE DID IT… And the bible says IMMEDIATELY the bleeding stopped and she new she was made whole.

I’m not just believing it to be true, I’m committing to doing it.

I don’t just believe Jesus saves, I’m committed to following him unto salvation.

I don’t just believe Jesus heals, I’m reaching out to him for healing - until it happens - I’m not giving up.

I don’t just believe Jesus sets free, I’m being faithful to his teachings which He himself said then I would know the truth and the truth will set me free.

Belief that causes a commitment.

So, Jesus says in Matthew 21, / / “If you have faith and do not doubt”

The word doubt there means to separate, or withdraw from, to oppose, to be at odds with yourself, to hesitate.

Now, we have to understand, this is a very big statement.

And I don’t think that in the history of mankind anyone has actually said to any mountain, “Get up and be thrown into the sea” and it happened.

So does that mean that this level of faith is impossible to obtain?

I don’t think so, I think Jesus taught his disciples like we teach our kids.

Think of Jesus’ primary teaching model.

Parables.

Stories expressing extremes to make a point about something important.

This is very much a figure of speech here.

And think about it.

From a tree to a mountain.

What Jesus is saying is, no matter what is in your way, have faith.

Do not doubt.

And this is in the week that is leading up to Jesus death - it’s right after he’s rode a donkey into Jerusalem and everyone was cheering, “Praise God for the Son of David!, the King has come!” - we celebrate that as Palm Sunday, the week before Jesus is crucified.

So, very soon he won’t be with his disciples any more.

And we all know the advice people give right before they know they are going to die is usually the most valuable, or important things they say.

What did Jesus choose to focus on here?

Whatever you face.

Whatever trouble, trial, issue, or concern you come up against in your life, in these next few weeks, months and years as you become the founders of the Christian church, as you walk in the Kingdom, as you preach the gospel, as you build what I am building in you and through you..... have faith, and do not doubt.

Be single minded.

Be committed to the process.

Be committed to the way.

James actually says in James 1, / / …when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

....when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.

Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.

Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

(James 1:2-3, 6-7)

Again, a warning or an encouragement, / / Have faith and do not doubt.

Reach out with all the faith you can.

Commit yourself to Jesus.

Commit to his teaching, to his way, to his plan.

And why? Well this all comes out of James 4:8, / / Come close to God and God will come close to you.

What are you reaching for?

Well, this week I want to flip that question and ask, / / Do you know who is reaching out to you?

And I’m going to answer that question right away, but then we’re going to look at this.

And of course, just like in Sunday school - Jesus is the answer.

Jesus is reaching out to you.

Continually.

Without fail.

/ / Jesus is reaching out to you.

Seeking you.

Calling you.

When we read James 4, Come close to God and God will come close to you… it might seem like the ball is in our court all the time.

And as we saw a couple weeks ago, yes, this scripture is absolutely true - we need to reach out to God.

Looking at the miracles of Jesus in the gospel accounts was super eye opening for me.

If you weren’t here a couple weeks ago, I encourage you to go back and watch it.

To see that the majority of healings in scripture are a direct result of someone pursuing and asking Jesus for their healing, not just sitting back and waiting for it, that shows us something.

Sure, there may have been times where Jesus just walked up to people and healed them, but that’s not the narrative we are given.

That’s not in the book.

The only times that happened were in cases of extreme compassion.

And to me that is incredibly encouraging to remind myself that truly the doors that will be opened in my life are the ones I knock on.

The questions that are answered will be the ones I ask, and the things I find will be the things I am seeking.

If you rearrange that scripture a bit it seems so redundant, but Jesus is making a very strong point.

Every time he talks about prayer he’s encouraging this attitude of confident, unrelenting reaching out.

Matthew 7:7-8… / / Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for.

For everyone who asks, receives.

Keep on seeking, and you will find.

Everyone who seeks, finds.