Sermon Tone Analysis

A few years ago there I saw this movie called Limitless.

In it Bradley Cooper plays a man named Eddie who is a struggling author and everything seems to be going south for him, he can’t make money, he has terrible writers block, and then his girlfriend finally has enough and breaks up with him.

But things turn when he finds this drug called NZT and this drug super charges his brain in such a way that he can learn a new language in day, he writes an award winning book overnight, figures out how to game the stock market, and as it turns out also gives him perfect hand eye coordination, making him ineradicable a fighting, something he needed for all the action scenes in the movie.

But the drug also has terrible side effects and once you are on NZT if you get off, you will die.

But Eddie with his supper intelligence works to reverse engineering the drug so he can save his life.

Now spoiler alert, I am going to tell you how it ends.

It ends in a way that I did not expect.

I expected it to end with Eddie somehow solving the problem and coming off the drug and learning to appreciate his limited life, but it doesn't.

the move ends with him figuring the drug out and living as a limitless man running for the US Senate with his eye on the presidency and ultimately a desire to save the world.

The movie leaves you feeling, wow that really would be ineradicable to be limitless like that. he movie sells a vision of the good life that is actually not only not possible but runs against God’s vision of the good life.

The movie is tempts in the same way the serpent tempted in the garden.

“You will be like God.”

But there is only one God who is limitless and only one savior of the world.

Satan sowed seeds of discontentment with God’s good gifts and their limitations, told them they could be “like God.”

We today are still tempted to be like God, to be discontent with our limits and move past God’s boundaries, so we busy ourselves striving to overcome our limits and we busy ourselves trying do more than we can or we try to be in multiple places at once.

In the end we end up hurried and spiritually exhausted.

And the more that we believe that God given limitations are something to be overcome or pushed aside the more we feel tired, stressed, restless, and unsatisfied.

FCF: Often we feel tired, restless, and hurried, because we have been sold that our limitations are something to be overcome and two things happen when we buy this vision.

Either we busy ourselves striving to overcome our limits and we busy ourselves trying to fix it all, know it all, or be everywhere for all or we feel feel defeated with the thought that we can’t do enough, know enough or be enough.

This morning what we will see is that

We are tempted to try and do more than we can, or feel that we should do more than we are doing, We are tempted to think we know more than we actually do or that we should know more than we do, and we are tempted to be in more than one place at one time.

because God is the only limitless one we should embrace our God gift of limitations

Because God is our creator and we are not we should embrace our God given limitations

We are going to look at three ways we are tempted to be like God and move past our limits, in power, in knowledge, and in our presence.

First, Because God has limitless power we should embrace our limited power

Look with me at

Power is simply the ability to do something, or control something.

God can do all things.

And all throughout Scripture God is refereed to as the Lord Almighty.

All powerful, what this means is that God can do anything he desires to do.

There is nothing that hinders God and his purpose.

And God created us with power to do things, control things, and make things happen.

But our power is limited.

And if we try and exert our power and do something or control something that we cannot we feel frustrated, stressed and exhausted.

One of the ways we try and exert our power in a way that causes us stress is trying to control future outcomes.

James reminds us of our limited power this way

James 4:13-

The power to control belongs in God’s hands, not ours.

and if we think it lies in our hands we will be stressed and feel frustratingly out of control.

Now this does not mean we don’t save and plan, it just means we don’t presume.

As Proverbs tells us we plan our steps, but the Lord directs our ways.

Now our culture tells us that we can do anything we want to do.

With some hard work anything is possible.

Just listen to a line from the Dr. Seuss book “o the places you will go” that is often give at graduation.

book many students are given at graduation

“You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’re on your own.

And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who will decide where to go.”

And will you succeed?

Yes! you will indeed!

We are taught by Dr. Seuss and others in our culture that you are the master of your destiny.

The power belongs to you.

You can do anything you want to do.

This line of thought that say you can do anything you want to do can be great to an extent, but what often happens is that it breeds frenetic energy in us.

That we should be doing something else or something better something greater than what we are doing now.

I wonder if Adam and Eve were feeling and thinking when they were tempted in the Garden.

You know I really wish we could do something great and important instead of tend this garden and look after these animals.

I want to do something great with my life, not be satisfied with this boring stuff.

I wonder if Adam and Eve felt that when they were tempted in the Garden.

God I wish we could do something great and important instead of tend this garden and look after these animals.

Today we face this tremendous pressure to “succeed” which in our culture is usually connected to income or your power to influence others.

And if we don’t do these great successful things, well someone is to blame either you or someone else.

But what we as Christians must realize is that God is the one who is all powerful, he is the one who is in control.

He is the one who directs the paths of our life and God calls a whole lot more people into a life of humble obscurity than he does wealth or multiplied influence.

I wonder if Adam and Eve felt that when they were tempted in the Garden.

God I wish we could do something great and important instead of tend this garden and look after these animals.

or doing more for Jesus.

So if we find ourselves stressing about things that are not in our power, let us be still and know that the Lord is God and we are not.

But God is the one who is all powerful, he is the one who is in control.

And when we are stressing about things that are not in our power, let us be still and know that the Lord is God and we are not.

And when we are stressing about things that are not in our power, let us be still and know that the Lord is God and we are not.

This does not mean you don’t plan or work hard, it just means you plan and work with an open hand.

Plan, but know that whatever God calls you to he will call you to love him, and your neighbors.

For success in God’s eyes, and greatness in God’s eyes is not measured by the number of people you influence, or the amount of change you affect, or how big your platform is.

But success and greatness is about loving God and loving our spouse, kids, friends, neighbors.

So whether you are president, parent, engineer, or missionary.

You will have laundry to wash, kids to feed, and neighbors to love.

When we know that God is all powerful it means we can freedom to work and love because our power is limited and we don’t control the outcome.

James 4:13-14

Knowing that GOd is omnipotent means we don’t have to be

So if we want to feel less frantic, stressed, and overwhelmed one thing we can do is embrace the gift of being God’s limited creatures

But it is not our power to control stuff that is limited, but we are also limited in presence.

Let’s go back to creation.

After creating everything and made Adam, look with me at chapter 2 verse 15

God created Adam and put him in a specific place at a specific time.

God created us to be in one place at one time.

When God became incarnate he did so in a place and time.

Jesus who took on our limitations.

This is one reason why his ascension was good news so that he could be present with all believers through his Spirit

One way we can do this is with our attention, our attention focused on the next thing on our agenda or trying to get there instead of being here.

But because we are fallen humna beings we try to

Okay so this is in some way stating the obvious, but we all know what it is like when we try to be in two places at once, or when we are with someone who is trying to be in two place at once.

Physically present, but mentally in another place.

You probably know that song the “piano man”

Or can try and be in more than one place with technology on our smartphones we get the illusion of being in more than one place at a time.

Or can try and be in more than one place with technology on our smartphones we get the illusion of being in more than one place at a time.

One thing I enjoyed about the military was the customs, courtesies, and traditions, they gave the sense that you were part of something bigger than yourself.

Everyday you were reminded of this during reveille and retreat when the flag was raised an lowered.

No matter where you were or who you were talking to or if you were driving when the music started playing everyone stopped faced the flag and saluted.