Sermon Tone Analysis

*Prelude*

*Welcome*

*Call to Worship*

“/I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth/.

*O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together*” (Ps.

34:1, 3 KJV).

*~*Praise                                         * # 323          “I’m a Child of the King”

*~*Invocation (Lord’s Prayer)        *Father, open now our eyes that we may see with clear vision.

Open our hearts that we may feel with deep conviction.

Open our minds that we may know you with certainty.

Make us ready to serve you and others with compassion.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen

*~*Gloria Patri** (*Sung together)*                                          *#575

*Psalm for Today                                                      *Psalm 33:12-22

12     /Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

/

13    * The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind.*

14     /From where he sits enthroned he watches all the inhabitants of the earth— /

15     *he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds.

*

16    / A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

/

17    * The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.

*

18  /   Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, /

19    * to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

*

20     /Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield.

/

21*     Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.

*

22    */ Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

/*

*Our Offering to God          *“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday” (Isa.

58:10 NIV).

*     *

*~*Doxology                                                                                       *#572

*~*Prayer of Dedication          *Father, as we walk the pilgrimage of faith, give us generous hearts and willing spirits.

Bless and multiply these offerings for the cause of your Kingdom and allow them to be used for the good of all people in every circumstance of life.

*~*Hymn of Prayer         *# 311        “My Anchor Holds”

*Pastoral Prayer           *Holy One, to you forever, let all thanks be sung!

Father, may we be glad when it is said to us, “Let us go into the house of the Lord!” Let it be our delight, as well as our responsibility, to worship you in the fellowship of your church.

Prepare us in mind and spirit for our worship, and tune our hearts to sing and speak your praise.

May we receive all that you have to give to us and offer all that you require from us.

May our lives, as well as our lips, glorify you.

Right now, we come to you in silence,        Amidst this silence we are overawed by the thoughts of your love for us; for you love us so much that you gave your only Son to suffer and die for us.

Yet to think that you love us like that makes us long to break our silence—to shout for joy and sing your praise.

You have given us new birth into a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

In him we are loved, ransomed, healed, restored, and forgiven.

This morning give us a heart to praise you, our God and Father.

Accept our worship and praise, whether silent, spoken, or sung, to the glory of your holy name.—Larry

Ellis

*~*Hymn of Praise          *# 225        “Standing on the Promises”

*Scripture Text                                                                      *1 Kings 18: 41-46

             Elijah said to Ahab, “Up on your feet!

Eat and drink—celebrate!

Rain is on the way; I hear it coming.”

Ahab did it: got up and ate and drank.

Meanwhile, Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bowed deeply in prayer, his face between his knees.

Then he said to his young servant, “On your feet now!

Look toward the sea.”

He went, looked, and reported back, “I don’t see a thing.”

“Keep looking,” said Elijah, “seven times if necessary.”

And sure enough, the seventh time he said, “Oh yes, a cloud!

But very small, no bigger than someone’s hand, rising out of the sea.”

Quickly then, on your way.

Tell Ahab, ‘Saddle up and get down from the mountain before the rain stops you.’

”

                     Things happened fast.

The sky grew black with wind-driven clouds, and then a huge cloudburst of rain, with Ahab hightailing it in his chariot for Jezreel.

And God strengthened Elijah mightily.

Pulling up his robe and tying it around his waist, Elijah ran in front of Ahab’s chariot until they reached Jezreel.

*Message                                                    *Clinging to the Promises of God

Christians who do not know how to appropriate the promises of God remind me of a story about Crowfoot, the great chief of the Blackfoot confederacy in southern Alberta, Canada.

When Crowfoot gave the Canadian Pacific Railroad permission to cross tribal land from Medicine Hat to Calgary, the railway commission wanted to do something special for the chief.

So in return for his gracious act, Crowfoot received a lifetime railway pass, which he could use anywhere in Canada.

Crowfoot treasured the pass.

He put it in a leather case and proudly wore it around his neck for the rest of his life.

~/~/ Yet there is no record that the chief ever once availed himself of the right to travel on the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

Tragically, many Christians treat the promises of God the same way.

They may hang them on the wall, they may recite them to their children, they may believe them in their heads – but they do not know how to appropriate God’s Promises.

Think of it this way – if you give me a check and I never deposit it or cash it, the check is useless to me; I never appropriated your gift.

Similarly, the Holy Spirit has given us promises:  They are recorded in God’s word.

But what you do with these promises, how you apply them in your life, is up to you.

Because of the ease with which promises are made and broken today, and because we get away with not keeping our word, we think it’s all right to break our promises, the result is that some Christians have trouble taking God at His Word.

God DID NOT make frivolous promises that He does not intend to keep.

God is faithful to all His promises.

God’s promises may not be fulfilled exactly the way we want them to be, or at the time we want them to be, but He always keeps His promises.

Let’s look again at the biblical record and see how Elijah clung to the promises of God.

There are two principles we need to learn about God’s promises.

One principle is that some of God’s promises are conditional and others are unconditional; the second is that some promises are universal and some are personal.

The Nature of God’s promises

An unconditional promise is not dependent on our actions; its fulfillment is strictly up to God.

A conditional promise has a condition attached to it.

It depends on us to do something in obedience to God before the promise can be fulfilled.

“If you will do this” God says, “then I will do this.”  2 Chronicles 7:14.

We are familiar with “IF…Then's.

The second principle relating to the nature of God’s promises is that some are personal and some are universal.

A personal promise is limited to one person at one particular time.

A universal promise has no limitations and no expiration date; it is for all believers in all time periods.

As we get back to our story of Elijah, we must examine the nature of God’s promises to his prophet.

God’s promise to withhold rain and then send rain at Elijah’s word was a personal promise.

God never made a universal promise that believers could decide whenever they wanted it to rain and He would be obligated to open the floodgates.

We get into trouble when we make personal promises into universal promises.

God’s promise to Elijah was not only personal, it was also conditional.