Sermon Tone Analysis

Maximum Impact

Summary: Warning ( may contain some provocative material), listen at the risk of becoming uncomfortable with self as well as hungry and passionate for more of God.

My Text reading: , ,

: tells us

Elkanah had two wives: You know there’s going to be trouble right there.

The name of The one was: Hannah (Grace-favor)

And the name of the other was: Peninnah: (Jewel, ruby, precious, valuable)

Hannah was barren, her womb was dead).

When Elkanah gave out portions he gave to Peninnah and all her sons and daughters portions.

But to Hannah he gave a worthy portion: Double portion

Elkanah had come to the conclusion that it didn’t matter if Hannah ever bore him any children because Peninnah was very fruitful.

So Elkanah was adjusted to the situation and so was Hannah, Hannah was satisfied with the circumstances because she knew she was the favored wife,

she had Elkanah’s attention, and affection.

Everything was fine: they had an arrangement; they had it all figured out

(anybody ever been there?)

You thought you had everything figured out, you had all your ducks in a row, it wasn’t perfect but you knew you could make it serve your purposes.

Then out of nowhere (Something happened that messed everything up, all your plans and schemes, and working, and tweaking, and playing just isn’t  working anymore.)

So Peninnah would taunt Hannah and make fun of her because the Lord had kept her from having children.

7 Year after year it was the same—Peninnah would taunt Hannah as they went to the Tabernacle.

Each time, Hannah would be reduced to tears and would not even eat.

Peninnah starts to provoke Hannah over her barrenness, 

her words are harsh and hateful, filled with resentment and jealousy

and her words are like arrows that stick in Hannah’s heart.

At first they just seem to bounce off and have no effect, but Peninnah does not let up, and eventually it becomes clear the arrows have hit their mark.

Now we see that Hannah is disturbed over the fact that she is barren and has not borne any children to Elkanah.

But Elkanah tries to pull her back, and get her to settle back down and just enjoy what they have.

Am I not better to thee than 10 sons?

He asked.

But Hannah has been awakened (she has become uncomfortable and dissatisfied and discontent with things as they are.

And now discontent and discomfort and frustration change into a desire and a craving and expectation and a need for more.

Hannah begins to realize: there’s more than this, I was created for more than this.

Now she looks past Elkanah, all the love, all the favor, all the material blessings cannot satisfy her, they cannot open her womb, they cannot meet her need.

Application Point:

I came to tell you today: there is a cry from the spirit of every true believer for a life that is higher than money or popularity or worldly success, higher than religion.

Big Idea:

Inside the womb of every true child of God is a cry for the miraculous, for signs and wonders and miracles, a cry from their spiritual womb for the manifestation of the power of God, to be fruitful, to birth souls into the kingdom.

I believe today somebody is looking past Elkanah, (he represents the love the blessings the favor,)

and they’re going to cry out to God and contend with God for the glory and for the power.

In other words: somebody (maybe not everybody, but somebody) wants more out of life than to just go along and get along.

(Somebody is wanting a life of maximum impact)

****

I wish I had at least 30 people in here that would stand and let the devil know that you’re a force to be reckoned with, and let the devil know that you are contender, that you want more than just to be blessed, you want to make a maximum impact.********

The whole mission and operation of the Holy Spirit and the assignment over the fivefold ministry is to bring every believer to the place of maximum impact.

:11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.

12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.

12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

In other words to bring every believer to the place of Maximum Impact

Maximum (means greatest in quantity or highest in degree attainable, the most the best)

Impact (means affect, influence) (the force of impression of one thing on another)

Impact (means affect, influence) (the force of impression of one thing on another)

This is the aim and goal of the Holy Spirit, the church and all of her ministries:

To bring every child of God to the place where not only do they make it to heaven

but where they are living their lives at Maximum Impact.

Living the Christian life at the highest degree attainable, experiencing and manifesting the best and the highest and the greatest and affecting and influencing others with the force of maximum life.

I love you today and I want you to like me, but my goal in ministry is not to be your buddy:

 it is to push you to your destiny.

I have discovered that a lot of people in the church are very comfortable and satisfied right where they are and don’t like to be pushed.

So if you come by and push them even if it’s in the right direction,

even if it’s good for them and in their best interest,

if you push them you will not be their favorite person.

But I love you enough to keep on pushing, to take the flak to take the criticism

to take the hostility and keep on pushing even if you think I’m a pain in the neck,

because I want you to experience a life of maximum impact.

In fact you might even say the same thing about me that Hannah said about Peninnah.

(she is my adversary, a thorn in my side, she makes me uncomfortable, she irritates me,

in fact I can’t stand her)

Peninnah provoked Hannah over her barrenness:

The point is Hannah had more in her but she was satisfied to

have the love of her husband and be blessed and favored

never reach for more

or believe for more

or expect more.

(Until She was pushed, until she was Provoked)

I didn’t come here today to make friends I came here to push somebody and to provoke somebody.

I’m here today as an adversary*

I’m an adversary to status quo religion*I

’m an adversary to Luke warmness and indifference*

I’m an adversary to settling for crumbs when you can have the whole loaf*

I’m an adversary to sitting in the church and never reaching for more,

never contending for the baptism of the Holy ghost,

or never reaching for the gifts of the Spirit,

never casting out a devil or laying hands on the sick and seeing them recover.*

I’m an adversary to a form of godliness that denies the power thereof.*

I’m an adversary to a religion that can be satisfied just knowing you’re saved while the rest of the world goes to hell.*

I’m an adversary to self-righteous snooty nosed Christians who want to sit in the church and pass judgment on everybody that don’t meet their standards.

Im an adversary to disrespect in the House of God

to the man of God

by those who call themselves children of God

Somebody said: preacher you’re making me mad.

Praise the Lord

I hope before I’m finished I make everyone of you mad

M (Motivated)

A (Against)

D ( the devil)

Motivated against the devil.

I don’t know if Hannah and Peninnah ever became friends, but I know this:

if it weren’t for her adversary,

if it weren’t for Peninnah, Hannah would have lived her entire life with a barren womb.