Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer Challenges

Thesis: We make it through challenges serving God by watching Him work

For kids:

You are my strength when I am weak

You are the treasure that I seek

You are my all in all

When I fall down You pick me up

When I am dry You fill my cup

You are my all in all

Saved for a purpose

Saved for a purpose

Pastor Paul Wier's dream

That was not the end of my adventures.

It was just the beginning.

The Path to and through Salvation

If you ask someone who became a Christian later in life, I can almost guarantee they will say they regret waiting so long.

It is not because we as Christians do not suffer, or even suffer less.

It is because we live more abundantly, so that even our suffering has purpose.

In fact, it is often the very brokenness of our world that leads us to and through salvation.

Thanksgiving for Recovery from Illness

God saves us for a reason - He answers our prayers.

Physical healing is delaying our trip home

Not done without purpose

God's Prayers answered by us

Matthew 9:35-10:

Answering the Call/Answering God’s Prayer:

Levels of Personal Relationship with God

Not saved - ignorant of and ignoring God - Distracted

Not saved - knowing wrongly and blaming God - unforgiven and unforgiving

Saved - Jesus is Lord (my Lord) - Curious and Grateful

Saved - Struggling with weakness - Fearful and Focused

Saved - Seeing God's Grace in Action - Hopeful and Helping God

This Father's Day, which one of these relationships do you or did you have with your earthly father?

What about your Heavenly Father?

Matthew 10:5-

The Challenge of Getting Stuck at Stage 4

Thanksgiving for Recovery from Illness

1I love the LORD, because he has heard

my voice and my supplications.

2Because he inclined his ear to me,

therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

3The snares of death encompassed me;

the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

I suffered distress and anguish.

4Then I called on the name of the LORD:

God

“O LORD, I pray, save my life!”

5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;

our God is merciful.

6The LORD protects the simple;

when I was brought low, he saved me.

7Return, O my soul, to your rest,

for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

8For you have delivered my soul from death,

my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling.

9I walk before the LORD

in the land of the living.

As a child I can remember my Mom and other mother figures in my life, telling me not to do a whole bunch of things that were habit forming such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drinking coffee, eating sugar, etc. and giving the reason that they would stunt my growth.

10I kept my faith, even when I said,

“I am greatly afflicted”;

11I said in my consternation,

“Everyone is a liar.”

12What shall I return to the LORD

for all his bounty to me?

13I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the LORD,

14I will pay my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people.

15Precious in the sight of the LORD

It was the default threat.

is the death of his faithful ones.

16O LORD, I am your servant;

I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.

You have loosed my bonds.

17I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice

and call on the name of the LORD.

It was always a little confusing when my Dad did several of these things.

He would back mom up, but he still had his habits he kept.

18I will pay my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people,

Later I would find out that the women in my life had theirs as well that they either kept hidden better or only gave up temporarily.

19in the courts of the house of the LORD,

Either way, the model presented was “Don’t do this or you’ll get stuck!”

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Many wonderful, faithful, loving Christians get stuck at stage 4 in their faith - the fearful and focused stage - because they did something wrong somewhere down the road, maybe even picked up a bad habit.

That deed or habit then floats perpetually before them, reminding them of how they messed up and how they will never be the person they could have been without that mistake.

Many carry this to their graves as a secret guilt

Others rationalize it away as part of being human, that we all are sinners and no one is perfect

Either way, we focus in on those imperfections in ourselves and in others and we get stuck at stage 4

This type of person is not going to answer a call to be a missionary or to pastor a church.

In fact, someone stuck at this 4th stage is not likely even to teach a Sunday School class.

They prefer serving in ways that are out of sight and that do not require them to actually talk about their relationship with God - again, not because they are not Christians… but because their focus is on their sin that is ever before them.

Jesus, by contrast, did not tell his disciples not to mess up or else they would not make it.

He sent them out unprepared

He told them to expect rejection

He sent them to face the worst brokenness the world had to offer - curing illness, casting out demons, cleansing lepers, raising the dead

He knowingly sent them out like sheep among wolves into the face of persecution

How were they to succeed at all?

Do you ever have to be fearful and focused?