Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Today’s Party

Next Sunday

Prayer Requests

Toby

The Lord be with you.

But God holds us responsible for staying in the valley.

Sparky

Pastor Eric and transition

Michelle and Katherine and rest of my family

Graduates and family

Bill Collier / surgery

the lost

other churches

Offertory Prayer:

Almighty God who comes to us in wind and fire, may the doors of our hearts be open to let your Holy Spirit blow in and your love and grace flow out!

As we offer up these gifts to you this morning, may they empower mission and ministries that spread across all your creation like wildfire.

May our giving help your church to be born anew, not as bricks and mortar, but as hearts on fire to serve others and make disciples for Jesus Christ.

In his holy name, we pray.

Amen.

And also with you.

Revelations 2:1-6

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Spiritual disciplines do more than just keep us spiritually healthy, they provide the atmosphere for encounters with God’s Spirit that keeps us vibrant.

Start Recording

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This has been based on the passage from where Jesus explained why he came.

I have come so that they…we…might have life and life to its fullest.

Today we are looking at the area of our lives that for the person who believes in Jesus is the anchor to everything else, our spiritual health.

Me:

we think we haven't moved…but in realty over time our digging got out of the vein of gospel blessing and got into religious behavior…religious behavior is exhausting.

we think we haven't moved…but in realty over time our digging got out of the vein of gospel blessing and got into religious behavior…religious behavior is exhausting.

But when we are spiritually empty, the solution isn’t to go elsewhere and dig…it’s to dig right where we are…to dig deep into the gospel.

But when we are spiritually empty, the solution isn’t to go elsewhere and dig…it’s to dig right where we are…to dig deep into the gospel.

dig deep into god’s word, prayer, fasting, fellowship, listening, worship, scripture, silence, praise, confession, loving others, helping others, telling others, dig deep

Digging deep sets the stage with an encounter

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Digging deep sets the stage with an encounter

provoke one another to love and good works...

persevere...

persevere...

stand fast...

There is good news, however.

Trying harder was never God’s spiritual growth plan for us.

God has given us an entirely different pathway into the life He desires for us to experience.

This book is a description of that pathway.

In many respects, it is a picture of my own journey—off a twenty-five-year-long treadmill of spiritual performance and into the transforming ocean of God’s purposes and presence.

I invite you to join me in this journey.

The fact that the Scriptures are brim full of hustlers, murderers,

cowards, adulterers, and mercenaries used to shock me.

Now it is a source of great comfort.

—Bono

In the beginning your Spirit moved over the face of the waters.

Isaaiah 30:15

When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.

Me:

I am an optimist.

Half full....is a matter of perspective… but in reality it is half empty.... it’s only half.

If you are really thirsty, it’s only half a glass.

If you run across a group of thirsty travelers....it’s only half a glass.

You:

Have you found yourself going through the motions?

Have you found yourself spending too much time in the valleys of the spiritual roller coaster?

That happens to us.

We go through seasons where life is difficult.

These difficulties aren’t always accidents or natural events.

Often they are due to a combination of factors… third party events combined with the things we do or don’t do.

That happens to us.

We go through seasons where life is difficult.

These difficulties aren’t always accidents or natural events.

Often they are due to a combination of factors… third party events combined with the things we do or don’t do.

A problem at work comes during the same season that we are disengaged at church.

A medical crisis comes at a time when we are questioning.

A difficult relationship with friends

they all come at a time when we aren’t as engaged spiritually as we normally are.

Satisfied with a half full spiritual life?

we have been in a series of messages since Easter Running on Empty.

Seeking to understand how the resurrection can fill us when we are running on empty.

We have looked at various areas of life: mentally, Physically, Relationally, emotionally, vocationally, and financially

This has been based on the passage from where Jesus explained why he came.

I have come so that they…we…might have life and life to its fullest.

Today we are looking at the area of our lives that for the person who believes in Jesus is the anchor to everything else, our spiritual health.

In fact today is Pentecost.

The Sunday in the church when we remember the first Pentecost when the disciples were gathered in the upper room some 40 days after the resurrection when the Holy Spirit came like tongues of fire upon each one and they spoke in unknown tongues and all who were gathered heard the Good news in their own language.

The disciples had lost their rabbi and friend Jesus, yet they found themselves spiritually full, to the point that they went and faced prison, beatings, and death and yet they told the story of the good news.

Man would I have loved to have been there at that time.

They were spiritually full.

Sadly, we don’t stay full like that do we?

We don’t experience the supernatural peace of God on an ongoing basis.

We get flashes of it, but for too many of us, it’s not an ongoing reality.

Well, congratulations, you are not unique…this is the typical christian experience....but i’m not sure it should be.

God:

Let’s look at the life of one Jewish man who too found himself in a low place and what he found.

If you would turn in your bibles to Luke chapter 19 as we consider for a moment the life of Zacchaeus.

This is all we know about this man Zacchaeus from tehe bible.

But I believe it is enough to help us move from spiritually empty or half a tank to full and overflowing.

YOU:

YOU:

Take Jesus serious

Zacchaeus ran ahead...

Take Stock

Zacchaeus understood what he had done wrong.