Sermon Tone Analysis

Bookmarks & Needs:

B:Luke 5:17-26

Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:

Welcome, introduce yourself.

Invite guests to the Parlor following service.

We are just a week away from Vacation Bible School!

This year’s theme is “In the Wild,” and we’re going to spend June 3-7 looking in the Bible for incredible encounters with our Lord, as we learn to ZOOM IN and FOCUS ON JESUS.

It’s going to be an exciting week, and my hope is that if you’ve just finished your school year in grades K-5, or parents: if you have kids in grades K-5, that you’ll plan to go on this adventure “In the Wild” next week.

And if you’ve got friends in those grades, why not invite them and give them an opportunity to come and have a real-life encounter with Jesus?

You can register online through our website.

Also, if you have donations that you need to drop off, please to that ASAP, so we can get things organized for a great week!

This weekend is Memorial Day.

Memorial Day is a special day set aside in the U.S. to remember those in our armed forces who have given their lives in protection of our freedoms, and in the name of freedom around the world.

In honor and remembrance for those who have died while serving in our armed forces, let’s stand (if you are able) and observe a moment of respectful silence.... Thank you.

Finally this morning, I’d like to recognize that our own Matt Ricks is preparing to go overseas to serve the Lord.

I’d like for us to pray for him as we send him off this summer.

Pray, and then let’s remain standing while I read our focal passage of Scripture this morning.

Opening

We’re in a season of concentration on the question “Who’s Your One?” As a whole congregation, we’re asking the Lord to show us one person in our circle of influence whom we can share the hope of Jesus with, and then aggressively praying for that “one” and intentionally looking for opportunities to speak the truth of the Gospel to them.

This is the second weekend of this focus, and last week we opened up by asking the question, “What is a Christian?”

We contrasted the cultural idea of “Christian” with what the original followers of Jesus called themselves: disciples.

We’re in a season of concentration on the question “Who’s Your One?” As a whole congregation, we’re asking the Lord to show us one person in our circle of influence whom we can share the hope of Jesus with, and then aggressively praying for that “one” and intentionally looking for opportunities to speak the truth of the Gospel to them.

This is the second weekend of this focus, and last week we opened up by asking the question, “What is a Christian?”

Now, in this room there are many of us who would call ourselves “disciples.”

But something I want to ask is this: how did you become a disciple?

How did you come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?

For most, if not all of us, we would say that someone told us about Jesus… someone brought us to Jesus, and we surrendered our lives to Him in faith.

With this emphasis on “Who’s Your One?”, we’re not looking for a one-and-done kind of thing.

While that’s the question we’re asking, my hope is that we always have a “one...” That there is always someone in our lives that we’re sharing the message of Jesus with… that sharing the Gospel becomes a part of our DNA as disciples.

If that happens, then this won’t be just an emphasis: it will become a movement.

With this emphasis on “Who’s Your One?”, we’re not looking for a one-and-done kind of thing.

We’re not hoping for each of us to ju

What I’m hoping that we would begin to do today, is that we would begin to unpack, and we would begin to look at this idea of one person in our life, that doesn’t know Christ, that we would begin to go fishing for them.

📷

What I’m hoping that we would begin to do today, is that we would begin to unpack, and we would begin to look at this idea of one person in our life, that doesn’t know Christ, that we would begin to go fishing for them.

We’re really passionate about movements today, aren’t we? Especially the millennial generation and now Generation Z, we’re excited at the idea of big, grand things happening around us.

We want to be a part of something great.

As I was preparing for this message, Pastor J.D. said something, a couple weeks ago, that really started to weigh heavy on my heart.

It’s this idea that, man, we’re really passionate about movements, are we not?

Especially the millennial generation, we love this idea of big, grand things happening all around us.

We love to be a part of something great.

We love to be part of a church that’s doing great things for the kingdom of God, yet somehow we’ve missed our part in it.

It’s really easy for us to just say we’re a part of something great, but now to actually use our gifting, to be a part of that movement.

So we’d love to be part of a church that’s doing great things in the kingdom of God, yet somehow we’ve missed our place in it.

It’s really easy for us to just say we’re a part of something great, but not to actually use our gifting, to be a part of that movement.

I am a Steelers fan.

Have been since I was young, possibly to the chagrin of some of my extended family who are here… We’re mostly a family of Bears fans, because we come from the Chicago area.

So while I have a special family affinity for the Bears, I’m a Steelers fan.

She’s like, “Okay.”

I’m like, he is so sexist, you know?

She can play football.

She could probably rip his head off.

I look out the back window, and there’s Annie with her pink pom poms.

She’s got on a tutu, and she’s cheering for Holt.

She’s like, “Go Bubba, go Bubba,” cheering.

He’s throwing the football to himself, diving, catching, rolling 10 yards into the end zone.

He stands up, spikes the ball, and he’s like, “It’s good.”

I think it’s funny how we sports fans act.

We quarterback from our armchairs (often after the fact), we yell and scream like coaches at screens that are only communicating in one-direction (no, they can’t hear you or see you), and a team doing poorly or well can even impact our moods for days or even weeks as if we were the owners of these multi-million dollar organizations.

We speak about how “we” won or lost.

She’s just cheering.

She comes inside, she said, “Dad, did you see me and Holt playing football?”

I said, “Sweetie, Holt played football.

You just cheered.”

No, we didn’t.

They did.

We were just watching it happen from the comfort of our living rooms.

Our cheers and jeers, our dedication and ideas had absolutely NO impact on the outcome of the game or the season.

We’re cheerleaders at best.

Is this how we are in the mission of God? We’re great cheerleaders, but not actually contributing anything of worth to the Kingdom?

Maybe we’re really good at standing on the sidelines, throwing up our pom poms and cheering, while everybody else is hard at work on the front lines.

My hope today is that we would stop being cheerleaders, and we would start becoming contributors to a great movement of the mission of God.

It doesn’t start with the masses.

It starts with one.

What I’m afraid of is that a lot of us, we’ve become really good cheerleaders, but not good contributors to the mission of God.

We’re really good at standing on the sidelines, throwing up our pom poms and cheering, while everybody else is hard at work on the frontlines.

What I’m hoping today is that we would stop being cheerleaders, and we would start becoming contributors to a great movement of the mission of God, right here in Raleigh Durham.

Listen, it doesn’t start with the masses.

It starts with one.

It starts with one.

It starts with one person.

Let’s look at our focal passage again, and my prayer for us is that the Holy Spirit will ignite a fire in our hearts today for our “one”: stop reading after “Jerusalem”:

luke 5:17

This is near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus is traveling from place to place, and He’s always running into these “teachers of the law” and Pharisees.

They were the religious leaders of the day, and Jesus, this itinerant rabbi often frustrates them with the things that He says and does.

This time is no different.

The Gospel of Luke, chapter five, if you have your Bibles, if you would go ahead and open up to the Gospel of Luke, chapter five, verse 17.

What I’m hoping today is that, we would begin to read this passage and that the Holy Spirit would begin to put on our hearts a desire, a longing, a passion, for the one.

Luke five, verse 17, “One day as he, Jesus, was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the Law, who had come from every village of Galilee, in from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there.”

Continue reading from verse 17 “And the Lord’s power to heal was in Him.”

Now if you read the New Testament, you’ll notice as Jesus is going around from place to place, this is in the beginning stages of His ministry.

As He goes around from place to place, He constantly has encounters with teachers of the Law, and Pharisees.

These are religious leaders of the day.

These are people that Jesus came, and most of His teachings went completely against them.

They had put unnecessary weight on the people of God, on God’s people, for salvation.

Jesus comes and He pits Himself against them, and He says, “This is actually the way of salvation.”

luke 5:18-

Who is this man?

The Pharisees actually almost ask the right question.

The power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick.