Sermon Tone Analysis

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*“WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE?”*
*Philippians 3:9-14; 4:11-13*
*New Hope Baptist Church ~~ San Bernardino, CA*
*March 30, 2003 11:30 a.m.*
 
\\ Some of you have been in God’s family for a long time.
Some of you were just born into the family a short time ago, and some of you are just “play” family members.
Some of you have learned to walk, but many others are still crawling or just beginning to stand freestyle.
Some of you have become good at trusting in the Lord, and still others are looking before they leap.
You see, that’s what the world teaches and what many of us have taught our children over the years, to “look before you leap.”
However, with God’s program, if you look too much and too long, all of your troubles will cloud your perceptions of God.
You will give more trust to what you see than to what you know.
\\ Whether you are new to the family of God or you’ve lived in the house for a long time; Whether you are gumming down your food or eating chunks of meat, sucking on chicken bones, or still digesting  pabulum;  Whether you know who you are, or you are not sure who you are or who you know; Whether you are a foot soldier, marching into war, or a frightened soldier, retreating at the first sign of resistance; Whether you’re up today and down tomorrow, or down today with no expectation for tomorrow;  If you think you’re doing everything right, or you know that you’re doing everything wrong;  If you’re experiencing God, or trying to make God experience you; If you’re high profile, or still in a gopher’s hole;  Whether you’ve got it going on, or it just keeps on going;  Whether you’re all of that, or you’re hoping that that isn’t all.
*Because* you are here today and in this place, I have a question for you.
I want to know if you know, *“WHERE YOU ARE NOW AND* *WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE?”*
In our text, three are three ways that we can move from where we are to where we should be; move from a place of complacency to one of contentment; to move from a knowledge of the workings of God to a working knowledge of God.
1.  First, we must *stop* counting on your own goodness and ability to obey God’s law.
2.  Second, you must *strain* for the prize of the high calling.
3.  Third, you have to *step* into the somehow realm of faith.
Well, what does it mean to stop counting on your own abilities?
I mean that where ever you are in life, you may be in mid-life crisis.
The world says it comes between the ages of 35 and 55 years of age.
But if you have been procrastinating about the things of God, if you are taking your service for granted, if you have lost the joy of your salvation, no matter what your age, you are in mid-life crisis, spiritually.
But mid-life crisis is not a time for panic.
To the contrary, it is a time for reflection and decision.
It is a time when you are able to stand at the crest of the hill and see in both directions.
To consider where you have come from and to make the changes necessary to ensure the rest of your life journey is productive and spiritually fruitful.
But all too often, we get caught in a rut because we fail to take advantage of the mid-life crisis opportunities to change.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in many a rut in my life.
You know.
You just realize one day that every day seems like a replay of the day before.
Something is wrong.
A time when getting out of bed holds no great expectations.
A time when you move, not instinctively, but habitually.
You get the idea, don’t you?
A rut.
A boring, unproductive, unfulfilled, less than satisfying time in life.
A rut is just another term for being somewhere between contentment and complacency.
A place of immobility.
A place that lends nothing to catch on to and pull yourself up.
\\ I’ve experienced those kinds of times in my life; in my physical, day to day life as Barbara.
Of course, there were times when life was even worse, but those were unique times.
I am not talking about unique times in you life.
I mean times when the meaning, expectation, striving, longing, experiences, and distinctiveness of a day are lost.
I’ve had those kinds of times in my life; in my physical life and in my spiritual life.
\\ Well, sometimes, just like our physical lives get into ruts, we can get into Spiritual ruts.
Sometimes, we come to places in our Spiritual lives where we seem just to move along from habit.
We do all of the things that we are supposed to do.
You support the Pastor.
You do don’t you?
You make all of the so-called, right meetings.
You participate and interact with the other brothers and sisters.
You give your money.
You join and sign up to participate in special functions.
You listen to the right music.
You talk the right talk at church, at home and at work.
You involve your children, in an effort to bring them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
You attend the special days and listen attentively to the speakers.
In short, you just go along with the same tenacity in your spiritual lives, day after day.
Some of you are in self-instituted ruts.
You are not going to do anything more because you believe that you are blessed just to be a member of God’s family.
Some of you are so hung up on your pasts that you have equated your spiritual worth with your self-rated physical worth.
Some of you think that you have no skills to offer to God’s work.
Some of you have allowed yourselves to be intimidated by the stature of others.
Then some of you just haven’t realized that there is more to the Spiritual life.
You are living the life of a Christian but not living the Christian life.
\\ If any of these conditions describe you, and you are willing to be truthful with yourself, then you know that you are in a rut and have become complacent.
But before you try and move yourself to a position of contentment, let me explain the difference.
One who is complacent is self-righteous, smug and full of conceit; haughty and arrogant; egotistical with an air of superiority; important to self and supercilious or pompous; full of self assurance, portentous and pretentious.
The Bible tells us of persons known to be complacent: the Pharisees who took pride in keeping the laws of Moses; the priests in Malachi became complacent in their giving to the Lord the leftovers and those sacrifices that they dared not to give to men in authority; and the rich young ruler who had kept the laws from an early age and knew them by heart.
When one is in a state of complacency, God is not working in them for they are consumed with their own righteousness.
Paul says that we need to stop counting on our own goodness and abilities to obey God’s law.
(Paul could say that, because….)
While we are stopped, we need to realize that we have other options available to us, but we have to go in a different direction.
Paul says that we can really know Christ and experience the mighty power of His resurrection, but in order to do that we have to strain toward the goal of becoming all that Jesus Christ saved us for and wants us to be.
How do we strain towards the goal?
You focus all of your energies on forgetting the past and looking towards what lies ahead.
You have to strain to reach the end of the race.
What does straining look like?
Well, one thing is for sure, it is not politely passing along and a wait and see attitude.
·         Remember the story of the woman with the issue of blood?
Mark and Luke relate the story.
A great multitude was following Jesus and he was on his way to Jairus’ home to see his sick daughter.
·         I imagine she was at a mid-life crisis.
She had put all she had in the ability of doctors.
She had tried everything she knew to get herself healed.
·         Then, she stopped.
She stopped when she heard (understood) about Jesus.
·         Now, she was straining (pressing) toward the goal for the prize (her healing).
·         She was not polite in her straining.
She did not just touch his clothes, but rather attached herself to them.
*We’ve stopped, and strained; now how do we become content in our faith?*
When one is content, there is a sense of satisfaction, ease and some gratification with life.
There is fulfillment, comfort and delight with your present events and their outcomes.
Because you gain enjoyment, there is indulgence and bliss and joyfulness.
Let me offer an example of one who was known to be content:  Paul said in Phil. 4 that he learned how to be content.
He learned how to get along happily with much or little, he learned the secret of living in every situation with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.
He learned that he could do all things with the help of Christ who gave him the strength he needed.
We are content when God works in us and sometimes through us, but the clue that you are really content is when God is at work in you and you are o.k.
not being in charge of yourselves.
We can experience contentment when we *step* into the somehow realm of faith.
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