Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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Focus Scripture
Focus Scripture Slides Here
2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Confused?
Confused?
Is there chaos in your life?
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by work, life or maybe your relationships or lack thereof?
Is this something new?
Maybe, maybe not!?
We all fell confused from time to time.
Life doesn’t always go the way we expect, and we pray to God for help and guidance.
But sometimes it seems like even though we pray with faith, God doesn’t do what we've asked.
We seek Him, but don’t feel His presence.
We go through pain, but our cries for relief seem to go unanswered.
Sometimes, our lives just don't make sense.
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Try to think back to the first time you felt confused?
Remember how you felt.
Did you feel paralyzed?
Maybe there were so many thing coming into your mind, you just didn’t know what to do.
Orientation
When God Doesn’t Make Sense Slide Here
This morning we begin a new three week worship series entitled “When God Doesn’t Make Sense”.
It is based on a series taught by Pastor Craig Groeschel and the teachings of Andy Stanley.
As pastors, we often share ideas, and even resources from time to time in order to make each other’s live a little easier.
I am planning to introduce a new series after this one in which we will be praying and exploring the power of prayer on a very personal level through a book entitled “The Circle Maker” written by Mark Batterson.
I will be preaching on this book but would like to invite you to consider leading or participating in a small group discussion on it too.
People do not have to be a part of this congregation because the focus in on the larger community too.
The reason we will be going through this book as a congregation is due to a few things.
First, we are a new church plant.
Yes our doors opened here about three years ago but due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, we are starting over with a new pastor and even for the most part new people.
We may look like a three year old church but we are really newly born and just like newborns we are in a process of discovering ourselves as a community of faith.
Like a new baby, our eyesight isn’t very clear.
We are still wailing about in an uncontrolled manner as we discover these things we call hands and feet.
This book will help us start that discovery process.
By praying individually and together as small groups for our families, our church and the communities and people with which we interact day to day.
The objective is to listen and claim the promises, pursue the God-sized dreams and seize the God-ordained opportunities that God has planted and scattered within us for these areas of our lives.
So please prayerfully consider being a facilitator or active participant in this conversation as we learn to draw prayer circles around our family, jobs, problems and goals.
Before starting this next series, it seemed wise to lay some groundwork to prepare us for what lies ahead.
I realize that prayer does not come easy for all of us.
In fact, some of us, struggle with the subject of prayer.
So, I thought we could explore what prayer is and some of the hazards we often run into when we have an active prayer life because it isn’t uncommon for us to have questions which can cause us to stumble.
Doubts and questions can start to fill our thoughts and minds, causing us to stumble in our faith.
Even John the Baptist who was one of the greatest religious leaders of the first century had moments of doubt and one of those moments is recorded in our Scripture passage today.
Confused?
Confused Slide Here
Let me ask you this question.
Is there chaos in your life?
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by work, life or maybe your relationships or lack thereof seem insurmountable?
Is this something new?
Maybe, maybe not!?
The truth is we all feel confused or overwhelmed from time to time.
Life doesn’t always go the way we expect Slide here
Life doesn’t always go the way we expect, and we pray to God’s for help and guidance.
But sometimes it seems like even though we pray with faith, God doesn’t do what we've asked.
We seek Him, but don’t feel His presence.
We go through pain, but our cries for relief seem to go unanswered.
Sometimes, our lives just don't make sense.
(1)
John the Baptist, was a powerful and very influential leader during the time that Jesus walked as living breathing man here on earth.
In fact, in resent year scholars have really dwelt deeply analyzing how people wrote about John the Baptist in relation to Jesus and have come to realize that John was so influential that they argue for the significance of Jesus as one who is worthy to take his place as a teacher.
So, powerful was John the Baptizer that his protesting against his marriage to Herodias placed his authority at great risk.
Herod Antipas had divorced his first wife, Phaselis, daughter of King Aretas of Nabataea.
It seems he had gone to visit his brother Philip and became infatuated with Philip’s wife Herodias.
She divorces Philip in order to marry Antipas.
As public figures who represented the people of Isreal, this violation of their God given laws only inflamed the tempers of people of the nation.
As son of Herod the Great, a man greatly respected not only by Isreal but also by Rome and other surrounding rulers and nations.
As Herod’s sons, Phillip and Antipas were use to a great deal of freedom.
However, they ruled at the pleasure of the Roman emperor, Caligula.
Any uprising or rebellion would place them in watchful eye of Rome who were always quick to deal with any problems.
This marriage was unlawful in the eyes of the people and as a spiritual leader we shouldn’t be surprised that John would encourage Antipas to repent and challenge the legitimacy of this marriage.
Herod knew that the people loved John but having him roaming about stirring up the people with his protests and pleas put Antipas at great peril.
Herodias wanted Antipas to put him to death but Antipas has great respect for John or at least for the powerful influence he had over the people.
So, instead he had him arrested which achieved the goal of getting John out of the sight of the general populace.
When John is arrested, Jesus come to Galilee preaching the gospel and many who who had been following John turned to following Jesus.
Despite the tension, Herod continues to protect John from Herodias until one day Herodias gets the upper hand on Antipas.
In , it is written that King Herod is greatly distressed because he makes an open oath to the daughter of Herodias that she could “Ask him for anything she wanted, and he would give it to her”.
This was his birthday and he had given his word in front of his dinner guest so his integrity was being pushed to the test among those who still supported him.
A young girl who didn’t know what to ask for, turns to her mother for advice on what she should request who instructs her to as for the “head of John the Baptist”.
Backed into a corner, Herod sends and executioner with orders to fulfill the request.
At some point while John is in prison, he hears that Jesus is preaching in the area and he sends his own disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is come, or should we expect someone else?”
John has been languishing in prison for a cause.
I have know doubt that he was praying while in that prison.
He had earlier pointed to Jesus as being the Messiah that the people were expecting, the “one who is coming”.
John must have had some preconceived notions of what Jesus’ ministry was going to look like because when things were not unfolding the way he had been hoping.
John had lived a life of great discipline and poverty wearing uncomfortable camel hair and eating locusts bean pods and honey, an devout ascetic lifestyle.
He has no doubt heard Jewish reports that Jesus is eating with sinners and accusations by Jewish authorities that he is a glutton and drunkard, charges which were intended to diminish Jesus’ authority.
He starts to have doubts and send his own disciple to question Jesus as to whether he had made a mistake.
John the Baptist is confused.
Insert Image of Distressed Man Here
Try to think back to the first time you felt confused?
Remember how you felt.
Did you feel paralyzed?
Maybe there were so many thing coming into your mind, you just didn’t know what to do.
I know I find myself wondering and feeling that way a lot these days when I see the events in the world today.
It is a rare day, that I don’t watch the news and think, “Where is God in the midst of this chaos, violence and tension?”
I remember God’s promises and I pray but the things that happen in this world don’t seem to make any sense.
It can sometime seem like we are praying but God just isn’t listening.
How many of you have prayed and it didn’t seem as if anyone was listening?
Would you raise your hands and make me feel better in knowing that I am not alone in feeling that way at times?
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