Sermon Tone Analysis

! DETERMINED CHRISTIANS

 

*/INTRODUCTION/*

 

I’ve chosen this title for my message today because it describes the kind of people the Corinthians had to be.

When you read all of 1st Corinthians, you understood that these people knew what it meant to live out their Christian life in the midst of hard and difficult circumstances.

In 1st Corinthians, Paul corrects them for everything from partisan denominationalism, to tolerance for immorality, to lawsuits, to misuse of the gifts in church.

In 2 Corinthians Paul makes a statement of forgiveness toward them and gives this concept that communicates how determined not only *he* had to be, but they had to be as well.

*2 Cor 2:10‑11*

/10        If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him.

And what I have forgiven‑‑ if there was anything to forgive‑‑ I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,/

/11        in order that Satan might not outwit us.

For we are not unaware of his schemes./

Oswald chambers quote on drudgery.

/“Sometimes its not difficulty that makes me think God will forsake me, but drudgery”*[1]*/

 

You can look around you and see that our current circumstances present opportunity after opportunity to complain and quit.

Satan’s schemes provide one deceptive opportunity after another to be caught off guard.

Disappointment creeps in through some circumstance and stalls our Christian testimony,  Marriages continue to fail or falter, children continue to disappoint, spouses so busy they ignore each other, accidents and tragedy are the rule rather than the exception.

In short, hell rages against God’s church and God’s people.

*But God is calling on us to not be discouraged*.

He’s called on us to be determined.

As one sign outside a Baptist church in Waxahachie I saw said:  “Worry is the world’s alternative to Prayer” God wants us to be  Determined enough to *not* quit.

Determined to go forward with God.

Determined to be a light in the midst of darkness.

*PRAYER*

 

 

*1.

Determined Christians Keep Focused On the Finish*

 

/2 Cor 4:1‑18/

/1          Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart./

/2          Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.

On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God./

Every Christian has a testimony and every Christian has a history of what God has done for him.

We can’t lose heart.

We have to follow after God.

If we don’t lose heart, what should we do?

We renounce secret and shameful ways.

Indeed!

Christian people can’t get the Lord’s work done with the devil’s methods!

We are not unaware of his schemes to disrupt, cause miscommunication, depress, deride and ridicule.

/Notice two particular temptations of God’s people during times of trial and the tendency to go back to old habits./

/ /

*1.

We do not use deception.*

One of Satan’s greatest schemes is to cause God’s people to be liars and to lie to one another.

Unfortunately the world’s Christian caricature is a  phony church with phony methods and phony men.

*Jesus Christ is coming back for a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing!*

God has better things planned than for us to fall prey to the deceptive lying tricks of the world.

The end does *NOT* justify the means  It’s still wrong to suggest that monthly payments to a ministry guarantee a miracle.

As Peter told Simon the sorcerer

"May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!

NIV

 

God’s people are not worthy to take up the tools of a worldly workman.

* *

*2.

We do not distort the word of God.*

 

Jesus himself said “Heaven and Earth Shall Pass away, but my word shall not pass away.

If the devil can’t discourage us to lie and be dishonest, he’ll send us teachers having who can teach to our itching ears.

Too many today are distorting the word of God.

Suggesting that you have to reach some spiritual level before you can have a relationship with Jesus.

That giving a certain amount of money will grant a blessing, that personal morality isn’t important because God will forgive you anyway.

NO!  *This word is quick and powerful.....*In the 1st Century church Paul warned the Colossians IF I myself, or an angel from heaven preach anything other than what you have heard, let him be accursed....

 

If we don’t do that, then what do we do.....

 

*/What do you do if you’re not dishonest or distorting the word of God?/*

* *

*Second part of v. 2*  On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

* *

/Every time we walk out into that world, the light comes on in the midst of darkness.

On the highway and in the hotel, at the site or in the office in the store or the shop at the home or the school/

 

\\ /I Love to Tell the Story/

* *

/I Love to Tell the Story/

/Tis// Pleasant to Repeat/

/What Seems Each Time I Tell It/

/More Wonderfully Sweet/

/I Love to Tell the Story/

/For Some Have Never Heard/

!! The Message of Salvation

/From God’s Own Holy Word/

/ /

/I Love to Tell the Story/

/Twill be My Theme in Glory/

/To tell the Old Old Story/

/Of Jesus and His Love/

/ /

* *

/v.  2      in the sight of God./*........*

* *

God sees your faithfulness.

Nothing is hidden from God’s sight.

*Your labor is not in vain in the Lord*.

Go Ye into all the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you, and Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the age.

* *

*2.

Determined Christians* *Keep Clear on Their Condition*

 

There’s a difference between the lost and the saved..././.

 

/3          And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing./

/4          The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God./

What a commentary on the condition on our world.

They can’t see that their sinning, they don’t know their lost....they need the HS to convince them of their lost condition.

How does that happen?

Notice Jesus said to pray that laborers would be sent into the harvest field.

/5          For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake./

\\ /6          For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ./

/7          But we have this* treasure in jars of clay* to show that this all‑surpassing power is from God and not from us./

 

Oh, I can’t make it!

Oh its too hard!

Oh you just don’t know how hard its been.

But there is one who has gone before you....he was tempted in every way, yet without sin....That’s why Paul calls this a treasure in jars of clay.......there’s no way we can have peace on our own merit.

There’s no way we can be good enough to merit God’s favor!1!!

 

 

*3.

Determined Christians Keep the Right Perspective*

 

/8          We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;/

/9          persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed./

What a perspective!!!!!  Look at the beauty in these phrases....Christians!

God’s People!  *Even at their worst produce the best!!*  If we succeed it is because of God’s blessing.

If we suffer we see God’s comfort and help and deliverance.

If we die, we see a new country!