Sermon Tone Analysis

/Someone once defined real failure as: /

/ /

/   "...living without knowing what life is all about, feeding on things that do not satisfy, thinking you have everything, only to find out in the end you have nothing that matters."

/

 

*/What you have or have not done with your life to this point matters very little compared to what you decide to do with your life from this point forward.

Most of life is preparation./*

When we think that we are done with our “preparation” and we are ready to get out and rock the world, we are merely playing in the sand, thinking that the castles that we are building at the water’s edge are the serious business for which God has prepared and called us.

One of the major perception problems that we have to overcome in spiritual living or just living is a false understanding of what really constitutes failure.

/Karen Mains, using beautiful language of her own choosing, is talking about the effects of restorative grace when she writes: /

/ /

/Nature shouts of this beginning-again-God, this God who can make all our failures regenerative, the One who is God of risings again, who never tires of fresh starts, nativities, renaissances in persons or in culture.

God is a God of starting over, of genesis and re- genesis.

He composts life's sour fruits, moldering rank and decomposing; He applies the organic matter to our new day chances; He freshens the world with dew; He hydrates withered human hearts with his downpouring spirit.

/

 

n      With My Whole Heart

 

 

The way that we see things in life can either make life a much more enjoyable experience for us and for those around us or it can be our downfall and we can extend our own misery toward those that we love the most.

/One of the things that impresses me is that when Abraham Lincoln went off to the Black Hawk War he was a captain and, through no fault of his own, when he returned he was a private.

That brought an end to his military career.

Then his little shop in a country village "winked out" as he used to say, marking his failure as a businessman.

As a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, he was too impractical, too unpolished, too temperamental to be a success.

/

   Turning to politics he was defeated in his campaign for the legislature, defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for Congress, defeated in his application to be Commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the Senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his aspirations for the Vice Presidency in 1856, defeated again in the Senatorial election of 1858.

/   Then 1861, over 100 years ago, found him in the White House as President of the United States.

How did Lincoln interpret this strange succession of failures and frustrations which finally culminated in terrific personal victory?

He said, "That the Almighty directly intervenes in human affairs is one of the plainest statements in the Bible.

I have had so many evidences of His direction, so many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will that I have no doubt that what this power comes from above."

/

/   God knows what is good for us better than we ourselves.

Let us not make the mistake of judging God's overall plan for our lives by that portion which happened to be revealed today.

God has all eternity in which to bring His plans to fulfillment for our lives.

Think not in terms of today, but in terms of eternity.

After all, that's where we'll spend most of our life.

/

/ /

/   -- William Franklin Summerour/

 

There are certain things in life related to failure and the way that we choose to deal with it that reduce or minimize our effectiveness and even stop us in our tracks.

1.

The things that we settle for – a sense of futility

 

There are a great many folks in life who become discouraged and let abundant life come and go just beyond their grasp.

Because they are convinced that things will never fall into place for them they learn to accept and expect the worst and with regard to that they are never disappointed.

We settle for that which is acceptable to us while inwardly we yearn for something that really meets the need.

I know of folks today who are settling for marriages that may be okay but could be so much better if they worked together to make it that way.

I know of those who go to work unhappy each day of their lives because they are mentally dependent on the stability that their job provides them and they think that they could have it in no other way and so year after miserable year they are riding out the storm waiting for better days that may or may not come.

I know of Christian people who are surviving on the crumbs of other people’s experiences and they go through frequent peaks of elation followed by the valley of despair when God wants his people to live abundant lives.

Covey speaks of an abundance mentality rather than a scarcity mentality.

They have stopped asking themselves difficult questions because they believe that it makes them less than faithful and when we stop asking questions we cease to discover timeless truth, new to us.

We serve a God whose mercies are new every day.

Have you found His new mercy?

2.

The things that we are satisfied with – a sense of complacency.

Our world can grow so small.

There was an old chorus that read:

 

/You can build a wall/

/Or you can build a bridge/

/It all depends upon the love you give/

/And if you build a wall /

/Your world is small/

/But a bridge of love/

/Will conquer all/

 

Complacency is a false sense of security.

It is the pride of self-sufficiency.

It is the feeling that there are certain people low in our estimation who can offer us nothing worthy of our attention.

It is a feeling that I have no need of anything or anyone.

And we stop there.

We feel that we have arrived and there is so far yet to go.

It happens to people and it happens to churches.

We forget that God defies all of our boxes.

There is not one that can hold Him.

Our “theological certainties” are far too limiting and restricting for Him.

I am convinced that when I get to heaven someday, God will show me the truth and there will be at least a few things that I thought that I had figured out that I will have to throw aside as purely my ideas.

/ /

In the midst of this great coldness toward God there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic.

They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, "O God, show me thy glory."

They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.

/ /

/I want deliberately to encourage *this mighty longing after God*.

The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate.

The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire.

Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.

Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people.

He waits to be wanted.

Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.

/

/ /

/   -- From Pursuing the Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer/

 

How hungry are you today for Him?

As you have come to this place today are you prepared to hear him speak to you?  Do you long for it?

Are you listening.

I can say this with confidence today that He longs to communicate with you this morning.

I can also say with the same confidence that He is trying – right now – he has something that He wants to say to you.

You’ll miss it every Sunday unless you come here looking for it.

Our hearing can be dulled by messages that are of little or no importance – noise so to speak.

Elevator music – just something that runs all the time in the background and means nothing.

We could stand to be better listeners to God and to the cries of the world around us.  Often their cries come as criticisms and condemn them for their lack of “respect”  - there is always a message to be heard if we can and are willing to hear.

Our customer defines quality:  Sometimes the difference between success and failure in your organization isn't based on what you know.

It is simply an issue of the way you listen --and the way you question your customers.

Consider this true story about a very successful grocery store in Connecticut.

Stu Leonards' grocery store grossed over $100 million last year.

The average grocery store makes $300 per square foot.

Stu's preparation generates an amazing $3,000 per square foot.

The average grocery store stocks 15,000 items; Stu stocks only 700.

Stu has profited immensely from the art of listening and asking the right questions.

Recently, Stu was walking around his store when he asked a lady how she likes his fresh fish.

She responded, "I don't think it's fresh."

Stu tells her how the fish is brought in from the Boston pier every morning and that it is the freshest fish money can buy.

Again, she comments, "I don't think it's fresh."

Now Stu is frustrated.

He calls over Nick, the head of the seafood department, to get the customer's input.

Stu asks Nick if their fish is fresh.

Nick goes through a major speech about bringing in the fish from the Boston pier every morning.

Then, they both look at this lady and ask her:  "What do you think of our fresh fish?"

She says, "I still don't think that the fish is fresh."

Now depending on the time of the day, day of the week, or the kind of person you are, most of us would either think or say something like this to the lady:  "Look, bozo, we will put you on the truck, drive you to the Boston pier, and prove to you that we are right and that you are wrong!"

Stu Leonard didn't do that; instead, he asked two questions: (1) "What do you mean our fish is not fresh?"