Sermon Tone Analysis

GOD BUILDS PEOPLE OF CHARACTER

 

October 15, 2006

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My daughter works in a country & western-style restaurant in Westakiwin which has a plaque on the wall giving the ten commandments country-style.

It reads this way:

1.

There is only one God.

2.   No false gods

3.   No hankerin’ for others stuff

4.   No cuss’n

5.   Gather on Sunday

6.

No killin’

7.   Mind your Ma and Pa

8.   Cheatin’ is forbidden

9.   Ya’ll don’t steal

  10.

No white lies or gossipin’

 

No, I’m not preaching on the ten commandments.

In fact, this illustration has absolutely nothing to do with my message.

I just enjoyed it and thought you might as well.

Well, on to serious business.

If you have your Bible with you, please turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and we’ll read verses 27 and 28.

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/God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things./

God is known for taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary.

Throughout Scripture Cod used ordi­nary people to affect his kingdom in extraordinary ways.

Because God is everywhere, any situation has the potential for becoming extraordinary.

His presence dramatically changes circumstances.

There is no limit to what can happen.

From man's perspective this process is unexplainable.

From a kingdom per­spective it is the normal way God accomplishes his will through us – His ordinary people.

Four things, however, set apart these ordinary people used by God.

If we look carefully, we can see something they all had in common.

Each person God used had a responsive heart ready to hear God and a life that was available to obey God.

Each also possessed the integrity to honor God.

And of course, they all loved God.

That God can use me, an ordinary person, is something I find exciting.

I love this verse:  “No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him."

(1 Cor.

2:9)

Talent and ability are not prerequisites to being used by God.

Accomplishments, awards, and recognition will not ensure kingdom usefulness; a /"broken and contrite heart"/ does (Ps.

5 I:17).

The Lord looks at the heart.

/"I the LORD search the heart."

/(Jer.17:10)

Some months ago, I woke with a sharp pain in my side.

Within hours I was in Emergency being examined.

Before making a diagnosis the doctor checked my blood pressure and heart rate, sent me to the lab to have blood samples taken, and asked about my family medical history.

He checked for warning signs of heart disease, stroke, or any hidden ailments.

Although physical checkups are common to men my age, spiritual checkups are less common.

And it is a spiritual check-up with the Great Physician that I want us to take today.

If we fail to heed the warning signs, spiritual sickness will grow just like a physical disease.

Our spiritual hearts will weaken and fail us.

The result may be a waning interest in the things of God, or, even more serious, complete moral failure – a fall into sin.

A weakening heart, whether physical or spiritual, puts us in crisis.

At the time of my attack, it was diagnosed that I had kidney stones.

If I had not heeded that initial excrutiating pain and gone to the hospital , I would not have been diagnosed and on my way to treatment.

Likewise the Holy Spirit may point to symptoms that indicate a heart problem.

God's Spirit may force you to stop and deal with a partic­ular issue in your character or behavior.

Like physical pain, the Holy Spirit can make things very uncomfortable for you if you don’t deal with your sin.

This whole message deals with the heart.

Consider it a heart "checkup".

The Great Physician, our Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit may be dealing with you right now.

Listen carefully to him.

My prayer is that God will guide you into a healthy heart relationship with Himself.

*A SPIRITUAL **CHECKUP *

In Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24 David wrote,

        /"Search me, 0 God, and know my heart;/

/                test me and know my anxious thoughts./

/       See if there is any offensive way in me,/

/  and lead me in the way everlasting."

/

/ /

Just as a doctor points out signs of your health and sickness during a physical checkup, the Holy Spirit will show you the condition of your heart.

The Holy Spirit will use Scripture or situations or sermons or His servants to do it.

And when he does, as when we receive our report from our doctor, along with signs of health, we may receive some bad news.

But the good news is that God heals the hearts of men.

God is interested most of all in the condition of your heart.

In Acts 13:22 (which is a reiteration of 1 Samuel 13:14), God testifies that in David he found a man after his own heart, one whom he could count on to "do everything I want him to do." Would God find you to be such a person?

How is your heart health today?

The number 1 criteria for a healthy heart is your relationship to God – your salvation.

Are you born again?

I John chapter 3, during a furtive night time rendezvous between Nicodemus, the Pharisee, and Jesus, Jesus urged Nicodemus to be born again, born spiritually not physically.

He told Nicodemus that unless you are born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Jesus was explaining the importance of spiritual birth.

Have you taken this step – accepting Jesus as your personal Savior?

We all need to do that to become children of God, don’t we? John 1:12 says this: /“to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”  /That’s rebirth – birth that comes from God.

We must believe and receive.

We can’t get to heaven on our own merit.

/“There is none righteous, no not one” /says Romans 3:10.

/“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God /( Romans 3:23).

In Romans 6:23  we’re told: /“and the wages of sin is death-eternal separation from God.”/

Only through Jesus Christ can we come to God the Father.

John 14:6 tells us that “/Jesus is the way, the truth and the life”/ Jesus is God’s gracious gift to thee world.

In Romans 5:8.

we’re told that /“God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

/And, in John 3:16: /“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

“ /That is the number one criteria for a healthy heart – to accept Jesus’ sacrifice.

Have you done this?

I ask you again, are you born again?

The development of a strong Christian character starts at salvation, then devel­ops you into of a man or woman after God's own heart.

God is honing your character right now even as you sit here this morning.