Sermon Central
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Keeping Your Head More Than Above Water
Contributed by Ralph Andrus on May 21, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: We are not called to just exist in life but we are to thrive. The secret is to focus on Christ with Praise
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> Transistion
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Ps 27:6; Lk 21:1-28
On most days, Elkhorn Creek is a narrow stream that flows placidly through southern West Virginia of McDowell and Mercer counties. But on July 8 2002, after a flash flood dumped six inches of rain on the area in a couple of hours, the creek became a monster. One of the region’s worst floods ever killed six people, displaced thousands and caused $150 million worth of damage. But in the town of Kimball (pop. 550), brothers Carl and Teddy Hazzard and their friend Josh Andrigo fought the Elkhorn for more than a dozen lives - and won ....
Among them was James Crowder, 64, who had lost one leg to diabetes and was battling cancer. In Crowder’s almost submerged kitchen, his sister Margaret Griffith, 61, placed him on the sink to keep his head above water. They had been there for hours when the trio arrived. Says Debbie Blanchard, 41, whose husband is pastor at the Methodist church where the Crowders were later taken: If they had been 30 minutes longer in that water, they wouldn’t have made it ....
Thanks largely to the three men, no one in Kimball drowned that day.
- A man cannot drown so long as his head is above water
- If you are just managing to survive, you are keeping your head above water.
+ Ps 27:5 …. He shall set me up upon a rock 6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
> TLB - Ps 27:5 ... He will set me on a high rock 6 Out of reach of all my enemies. Then I will bring him sacrifices and sing his praises with much joy.
+ Kids Allowance Lk 21:1-2
(Today’s 8yr. Old = $4.32)
- Speaking of the rich and the widow putting
into the treasury
> Two Mites - The smallest Jewish coin
- She might have kept one
- Compare today with the average kids
allowance
> 2 Mites = $1.20
- Connecting the widow with the last days
- v. 6-7 Physical Events spake of the end
times
+ Last Days -Lk. 21:8-16
- We at times can feel that similar events are
taking place in our lives
> v, 8 False saviors
> v. 9-10 Threat of war from afar and
nearby
> v. 11. Earthquakes, famines, pestilence
(disease and sickness)
- Our life shaken with emptiness, poverty
and sickness
> v. 12-15 Persecution
> v. 16 Family and friends undependable
+ Depression – George Barna Research
> Over 70 million Americans today are
struggling to find some meaning in life.
> 50% of Americans struggle with some
type of depression.
> Lk 21:28 And when these things begin to
come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
- Joy has to have a focus
- Not in things
- It is in a lasting relationship — Christ
+ Depression Buster
> Ps 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God:
> for I shall yet praise him for the help of
his countenance.[He looks to me]
> Our Purpose is to give Him Praise
> Is 43:21 This people have I formed for
myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
+ Keeping Your Head More Than
Above Water
> Ps 27:6 ..... therefore will I offer in his
tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
Why Praise
- Why not run for cover?
- Why not Prayer?
- Scripture Reading?
- Go to the Temple?
> 1. Praise Pleases The Lord - Ps 50:23
> Ps 50:23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth
me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
> Ps 50:23 (NKJV) Whoever offers praise
glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.”
+ 2. Praise Raises Your Spirit - Deliverance
- Ps 40:1-3
> Ps 40:1-3 I waited patiently for the
LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
+ 3. Praise Stimulates Your Possibilities
- Ps. 67:5-7
> Ps 67:5-7 Let the people praise thee, O
God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
