Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Early on the morning of 6 June 1944 as the troops prepared to cross the English Channel for the D-Day invasion, there were probably two main thoughts on the minds of most of the people.

1) This isn’t going to be easy, and 2) we will be victorious.

The Allied invasion force was comprised of 3 million men, 13,000 aircraft, 1,200 warships, 2,700 merchant ships, and 2,500 landing craft.

Nobody in their right mind would commit such a sizeable force to certain suicide, nor would they commit such a force without a reasonable expectation of victory.

The crushing weight of an overwhelming force of men and material began to arrive in Normandy at fifteen minutes after midnight when paratroopers jumped in behind enemy lines.

Then, just before dawn the Allied ships began to bomb the French coast.

At daybreak 135,000 Allied troops came forward like a tidal surge onto Normandy’s shore, filling five landing sites.

During the next five days, the forces moved forward in all sectors despite the fierce resistance of the enemy.

Finally, on June 11th, the five landing groups met up and Operation Overlord proceeded as planned.

We have been studying these last two weeks from the book of Exodus.

We have looked corporately at the people of Israel that will be birthed out of slavery to write a new chapter in their lives as a people that trusts and follows Yahweh.

Furthermore, we have looked at the life of Moses, one that was drawn out of the Nile, one that God drew out to formulate His plan, and that plan was to be lived out through a man named Moses and God’s chosen people, the Israelites.

Metaphorically, the story reminds us of our own journey of leaving a former life, a life enslaved in sin and the journey of the great turn around as God begins to have His impact on our very soul and being.

There are those testimonies of people that came into a saving knowledge of Christ and when they repented they walked the straight and narrow from that point onward.

The story of the Exodus is a story that for many, the great turn around is a process.

There is the fact that one does those things they should for a period, but Satan and the old life style allures and there are setbacks along the way.

But aren’t you glad that when that does happen, God is waiting with open arms to receive you from going astray?

The name Exodus means “exit” or “departure” or “going out from”.

We follow in the Exodus a nation that is being delivered from a former life of slavery and watching the transition of a new birth family experiencing birth pains in the new life following God.

We see Israel exercise the terrible twos and out and out defiance at times in struggling to accept the new life of trusting God to provide for their every need.

The thread of focus in our studies of Exodus is the fact that God is a God of change.

He heard Israel’s cries, He undoubtedly heard Moses despair in his own personal life.

Aren’t you glad we serve a God that is compassionate and hurts when we hurt?

And when we come to that crisis of belief that God alone is the only one that can turn your ship around, He is there with open arms to receive you.

Exodus 3:16-22

Prayer

Message

At this point, Moses had met God at the Burning Bush.

God had heard the cries of His people and He was ready to bring about change in the life of Israel and the life of Moses.

Moses encountered God in the burning bush.

We call that a theophany.

We see visually in this story what happens when the Holy Spirit works in your life and plants a seed of thought for a change he wants to bring about in your life and in the life of this church.

Last Wednesday night was the second time of focus as we as a body of believers began praying over several ministry strategies this spring to set out as a church to lead people to Christ.

The Lord will make it clear to us which direction we should go and He will bring about a synergy of direction that He wants us to lead out in.

God Provides His Advocates for Change VV. 16-18

Exodus 3:16-18 “16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt; 17 and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”

’ 18 Then they will heed your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’”

God called Moses to find advocates for the cause.

Find elders and get the elders on board to what I am wanting to do through you and the people of Israel.

God told Moses,

“Go and gather the elders”

God was telling Moses that the leadership needs to be behind what I have called you to do.

They need to gather

Gather-asaph which means to go gather, to gather in, you need to be one in mind, soul and body.

There must be unity among the people to accomplish what I have called you to accomplish.

As this church knows well the ending of the Exodus and all points in between, we know there were times they were not on the same band wagon and did not follow as they should and the problems and chaos that came about.

We know the times they became impatient over water, manna, quail, and the making of the Golden calf.

These were dark periods when the leadership was not one and they were not following the voice of God.

Vision is caught by those that are engaged and a part of what God is doing.

Ill.

Super Bowl-Kansas City Chiefs Vs.

Philadephia Eagles

-pulled for Jalen Hurts and Devonte Smith-Alabama graduates.

Jalen on his own played an excellent game, but it takes a team.

For God to do a great work in the days ahead as we seek vision for leading the lost for Christ, God calls for us to be assembled.

Be here to understand the vision, to understand the hurdles, to know where we may have to prepare harder, to understand why certain monies may need to be spent to accomplish the task.

Furthermore, we must realize in the individual battles we face in life that God never intended for you to go it alone.

God has placed advocates in your life to encourage, to hold you accountable to join with you in your journey.

Allow those people to gather with you.

Allow them to fellowship, to pray with you, to have Bible study with and to encourage.

A great advocate God has provided is His church.

Also, if you are one that God has called you to be an advocate in the life of another, do not let them down.

Stay engaged.

Keep contact, pray for, ride by, visit, love on and let them know you are their advocate.

Praise them in their victories and encourage them through their failures.

Has God called you to be an advocate in the life of another?

If you are a member of this church, God has called you to be His advocate.

There is no greater blessing you could receive that to see that God would use you to bring great change in the life of another for Christ.

Notice that God called the leadership to be gathered, to be on board, but to be of one mind.

God gave the plan, the message of execution, and the words to say to implement the plan.

God told Moses to say to the elders of the church, the same God of our forefathers is the God that spoke to me.

I am the God that has led the people of Mt Zion Baptist for the last 150 years and I am the God that leads you today.

I verse 17, God acknowledged His promise that went all the way back to the time of Abraham in Genesis 15: 13-21.

Genesis 15:13-21 “13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.

14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.

16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.

18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.””

Dearly beloved, Genesis 15:13-21 is not some vague palm reader providing sweeping words of future blessing.

God spoke very specific to what His plan was for the people of Israel.

God spoke these words to Abraham, words of prophecy, words that were coming true in the story we read today.

And, we know the rest of the story and the same vivid detail is how things turn out for Israel.

So, we come to a great fork in the road.

How do I know I am doing specifically what it is God wants me to do?

How do I know that I am administering the changes God really wants me to make and how can I be assured I am on the right path?

God Provides Affirmation when we are in the Center of His Will

Exodus 3:18-19 “18 Then they will heed your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’

19 But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand.”

God provided Moses and the Elders signs or measures of affirmation to know they were in the center of God’s will for their actions.

Doesn’t it give you a confidence to know that God is omniscient?

God is all knowing.

And, He knows how things are going to turn out before they ever happen?

Notice that God has already formulated a counter measure when fallen man acts outside of His will.

I can not speak for you, but that gives me great confidence knowing that God is still in control when you see the state of our world, our country and the things we are bombarded with on almost a daily basis that does not align with the tenets of God’s teachings.

God still accomplishes His will under the most heinous of actions and conditions.

God told Moses and the elders just exactly what to say and how it would be received.

“They will heed your voice.”

Firstly, God told Moses that the Elders would be on board.