Sermon Tone Analysis

Promises, Prayers, Presence

It begins with God.

Therefore, it makes sense that it should end with God.

The garden of Eden is what we can call “Temple.”

God made the heavens and the earth and at the end of creating said, “It is very good.”

When I consider what our planet looks like now, I can only imagine how amazing it must have been before Genesis 3 resulted in the earth being cursed.

In the midst of all that was very good, God planted a garden and in it places humanity.

There was communion, learning, commitment, love, unity.

No sin, no shame, to problems.

Sadly, we wouldn’t allow it to last.

Sin destroyed the perfection of our relationship with God.

All our own doing, all our own fault, no one to blame but ourselves.

So, God made a promise.

He gave us a shot at the whole DIY thing, but we just made everything worse.

Thankfully, God wasn’t intending to just let us go.

People prayed and sought the Lord.

Others built for themselves towers and cities and tried to make for themselves a name.

How proto-typical of humanity to think we could manage without God.

We still build towers and cities, and we still think we can manage without God.

Just like Babel.

And just like Babel, we remain confused and unintelligible to ourselves as we grasp at the dark.

We build communities, but the wrong kind of communities.

We learn, but we learn the wrong things.

We commit to everything but God.

We love but find it in all the wrong places.

We claim unity, but only if it advances our needs.

We are bewitched by the collective culture and ignorant of the presence of God.

It’s because of...

Stinking Thinking

“...we are all addicted to our own habitual way of doing anything, our own defenses, and, most especially, our patterned way of thinking, or how we process reality.”

(Richard Rohr, 15/11/2021)

https://cac.org/stinking-thinking-2021-11-15/

Rohr writes about addiction.

We are addicted.

It may not be drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, but we are addicted.

We hear the word “sin” and even pontificate against it, perhaps even in our lives.

We need to remember...

"What caused man's banishment from the Garden was his unwillingness to accept a status inferior to that of God"

(Jon Levenson, Sinai & Zion)

Can any of us accept a status inferior to God?

If we think about it, we may actually prefer thinking that grace is a bad idea because the thing with grace is, it’s all God’s idea.

And God doesn’t have bad ideas.

Which is strange.

He made us thinking creatures.

Not only do we have minds, but we can think and ponder and consider and contemplate and choose.

We are image-bearers of God.

Therefore, God can think because we can.

However, we have become addicted to our own way of thinking.

We need to be healed by His way of thinking.

Praying Purposefully

Jesus prayed a lot.

He prayed on the mountain.

He prayed in an upper room.

He prayed in a garden.

He prayed.

He prayed for Peter that he not be sifted like wheat.

So many prayers.

One stands out for me.

“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.” John 11:41.

God listened to Jesus.

Jesus prayed.

God listened.

Have you ever thanked God that He heard your prayers?

We thank Him for our food.

We thank Him for forgiveness of sins.

We thank him for the nice things He has granted to us.

Have you ever thanked Him for having heard your prayers?

“Father, I thank You that You have heard me.”

The longest recorded prayer of Jesus is found in John 17.

If you don’t know it, you need to know it.

He mentions us there.

Not by name, but it is you and I He is praying for...

John 17:20–21 (NKJV)

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Jesus is praying for unity.

He is basing that unity on Who God is:

“…that they may be one just as We are one” John 17:22

If you want to know how that unity works, read the gospel of John...

But...

“...we are all addicted to our own...way of thinking...”

How human is that?

Jesus is utterly restrained to speak only what the Father says can be spoken.

The Holy Spirit is utterly restrained to speak only what is said from the throne of God.

But us?

Well, we can only know unity if we abandon stinking thinking and wholly submit to God’s way.

Carnal Christians

Being baptised into Christ for the forgiveness of sins means receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

The Holy Spirit is given to the Christian as a guarantee of our new relationship with God in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:22).

However, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian does not make us spiritual.

“...we are all addicted to our own...way of thinking...”

Carnal mind ≍ Division

The carnality of our Corinthian brethren is written because of division.

In contrast,

“Unity is the hallmark of spirituality.”

(Niall Scobbie)

The spiritual Christian who has the presence of God restored by obedience to Christ Jesus and then surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus and the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

We have to become...

Spiritually Surrendered

How does the Holy Spirit lead?

First of all, He leads with our consent.