Sermon Tone Analysis

Several months ago, my family came to visit us from Wales and when my brother and his family left they had to be in San Francisco at 9:00 am in the morning to catch their flight back home… We left Richvale nice and early around 4:30am in the morning, thinking that we had given ourselves enough time to get to the airport.

When hit the San Francisco just before the tolls there were 10 lanes of traffic travelling bumper to bumper and they are just crawling along… In 30 minutes, we moved less than a mile… When we looked at the GPS we were now within a 40-minute window of getting to the San Francisco airport on time.

Until this point we were doing fine and we had even stopped for a cup of coffee… feeling kind of relaxed.

But when we saw how much we had been delayed in the traffic we started to get a little worried and regretting our stop… Every minute counted…Fortunately, the traffic cleared up after the toll and we managed to make up some time and catch the flights.

How to get through Delays

How to get through Delays

Several months ago, my family came to visit us from Wales and when my brother and his family left they had to be in San Francisco at 9:00 am in the morning to catch their flight back home… We left Richvale nice and early around 4:30am in the morning, thinking that we had given ourselves enough time to get to the airport.

When hit the San Francisco just before the tolls there were 10 lanes of traffic travelling bumper to bumper and they are just crawling along… In 30 minutes, we moved less than a mile… When we looked at the GPS we were now within a 40-minute window of getting to the San Francisco airport on time.

Until this point we were doing fine and we had even stopped for a cup of coffee… feeling kind of relaxed.

But when we saw how much we had been delayed in the traffic we started to get a little worried and regretting our stop… Every minute counted…Fortunately, the traffic cleared up after the toll and we managed to make up some time and catch the flights.

We are in a sermon series entitled ‘getting through what you are going through.”

This morning we are going to talk about getting through delays…

What is a delay?

Delay can mean a few things –

it can mean that something is postponed to a different date.

We have all had to change our plans because something unexpected came up… still happening but the timing has changed.

Delay can also mean that things are slowing down….

you are going in the the right direction—but you are loosing momentum … you are at the airport.. looking for your flight on the tv and it comes us as delayed..

Delay can also mean you have completely stop, to hinder or detain…Frank and Shirley recently experience this on their trip… where there flights weren’t just delayed and when they looked again they were cancelled..

One of the challenges of encountering a delay… are the feelings of disappoints and frustration… hopelessness.. we need to remember that DELAYS Are not DENIALS -- God is often working his purposes… in the middle of our delays…

Delays can be those times of strengthening and renewal…

Isais

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Last week we talked about David’s mighty men turning on him at Ziglag --- his men wanted to stone him and the scriptures says But David Strengthened himself in the Lord..

Last week we talked about David’s mighty men turning on him at Ziglag --- his men wanted to stone him and the scriptures says But David Strengthened himself in the Lord..

The PROPHET Habakkuk talks about waiting for the appointed time..

Delays can be times of vision holding onto what God has spoken in the past.

…. we can find ourselves in a Period between now and not yet..

There is an appointed time for fulfillment of the vision.. even though it seems slow wait for it… these are times when we can grow in our faith… Abraham the patriarch of faith …waited patiently and obtained the promise.

:3For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

Delays can be times of vision holding onto what God has spoken in the past.

…. we can find ourselves in a Period between now and not yet..

There is an appointed time for fulfillment of the vision.. even though it seems slow wait for it… these are times when we can grow in our faith… Abraham the patriarch of faith …waited patiently and obtained the promise.

Sometimes we feel that we have been out on the bench for the season… we are out of the game.. DELAYS are not DENIALS rather they can be times and seasons of preparedness for something greater… preparing us for greater service or greater impact..

There are basically two kinds of Delays… there are human delays and Divine Delays…what we have to do is discern the difference…

T/S There are three questions to ask when facing a delay.

The first question to ask is:

1.

What is Causing the Delay?

One of the reasons we can experience delays is that we have lost our vision for the future.

We see this in the life of Israel..

The book of Numbers is the record of Israel journey into the promised land - It’s the story of their forty-year history From Mt Sinai to the promised land…

Moses apparently kept a “log book” - a diary of sorts where he noted significant events in their journey.

There are some incredible things in Moses diary… God had led people out of Egyptian bondage - they had witnesses miracle after miracle… have gone over the Red Sea….

God has provided and sustained the nation with water, manna and quail….

they had been Lead by the Shekinah Glory… the visible presence of God….a cloud by day and fire by night…

But Moses also record the difficulties of the trip…it’s been a little like a bad road trip...… the people got hungry and thirsty ....and were constantly complaining….

They kept on wanting to turn back to Egypt…

Despite all the challenges in just 10 Days they arrive on the Edge of the Promised land…they are camped in the Desert of Paran – which runs parallel to the land of Canaan.

They are literally on the edge of what God has promised them 100’s of years before through Abraham promise ()…

This was the generation God had chosen to occupy the promised land…what a privilege to be the ones chosen by God… sometimes we need to remember how awesome it is to be chosen by God… .. Just like Israel God has called and set apart the church for mission … the Greek word for church is ekklessia chosen set apart… for purpose.

we are chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that you are to proclaim the praises of him who called you out of Darkness into Marvelous light?

we are chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that you are to proclaim the praises of him who called you out of Darkness into Marvelous light?

So, Israel is on the Edge of the promise and God has called theminto blessing and he gives Moses the instructions ..to send men to spy out the land.

Numbers 13

ESV

The spies are on reconnaissance mission they are scout the land for forty days they are to find out what kind of people live in Canaan… they are discover the strengths and weaknesses of the people… they are to take note of how productive the land is…,they are to bring back a report of their findings

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.

From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a chief among them.”

The spies are on reconnaissance mission they are scout the land for forty days they are to find out what kind of people live in Canaan… they are discover the strengths and weaknesses of the people… they are to take note of how productive the land is…,they are to bring back a report of their findings

What is interesting about this text: In when God spoke to Moses back in Egypt he had already told Moses that the land was good and spacious a land flowing with milk and honey....So …. why would God command Moses to send men into spy out the land?

Moses already new that the land was full of abundance…

The reason is simply is that it was for Israels Benefit.

God wanted Israel as a community to get a taste of what the blessing he had in store for their future.. if we are going to get through delays we need to a vision.., a vision is a picture of a preferred future….

To have a vision means that we have this perspective of life where we are moving forward toward blessing to the way things could be or ought to be… one of the reason we left AFRICA twenty years ago.. is because of a vision of a brighter future..

Remember this generation had grown up struggling in Egypt… most of their lives they were told what they couldn’t do.. there were always boundaries in Egypt.. God is now removing boundaries of impossibilities and telling them what was formally impossible is now possible…

Everyone of us needs to have a vision

proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish

God’s intension was to bring Israel into His blessing… it’s the same word that Jeremiah give they…God knows the plan towards it is and it is to give us a hope and a future…

God’s intention towards us is that we would be people who are brought into blessing….

The reason God wants to bless his people is so that they can be a blessing to others..that others can see God’s goodness and graciousness in our lives

One of the reasons that we experience delays is that we have simply lost our vision..

Another reason for Delays is simply our own Disobedience

When Pam was in her last trimester about to deliver Ryan… we typical parents - bags packed and ready to go. it is your first child and so you want to get it right.

Pam had the Braxton hicks so we had a few practice runs.

But the day arrived… and it all happened… fast… When we arrived at the hospital the first thing they had me do is fill out all the forms for our medical insurance…

One of the forms we signed we had to declare that Pam had a “self inflicted illness” … I don’t know a about you but I have never thought about pregnancy being self inflicted…

The Delays we experience in life can be self-inflicted… A Self-inflicted delay is an obedience question…

If we are going to be people who obtain God’s promises we need to visionary but we also have to be people of faith and obedience.

InVerse 25 the 12 spies return from their 40 day mission And they give a mixed report.

Moses and the leaders of Israel hear the report and it’s a mixed review.

The report about the land’s fertility is positive, but there is a general pessimism about Israel’s ability to occupy it… the land is fruitful… but the problem is that it is going to be impossible to posses the land

ESV

At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.

And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh.

They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us.

It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large.

And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb.

The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country.

And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.

Moses and the leaders of Israel hear the report and it’s a mixed review.

The report about the land’s fertility is positive, but there is a general pessimism about Israel’s ability to occupy it… the land is fruitful… but the problem is that it is going to be impossible to posses the land

Out of twelve of the spies only two come back positive report .. Only Caleb and Joshua are confident that the land can be possessed….

Have you noticed that Faith always goes against the odds..you have to love the Faith of Caleb—let us go at once… let’s drop everything that we are doing….

Let’s occupy the land now - For we are well able to occupy the land….

Faith looks at the opportunities ….rather than all the obstacles … Abraham when was nearly a 100 years when he was told he would be the father of any nation