Sermon Tone Analysis

Thanksgiving

Scripture:

Title: A Defense Against the Wilderness Experience

Preached: 8 October 2017

Church: St. Paul Chapel Baptist Church

Invited By: Deacon Larry Hayes

A Defense Against the Wilderness Experience

Thanksgiving

Prayer

Heavenly Father!

Thank You for using me in Your ministry!

Thank You for guiding me thus far and granting me Your grace!

Even now Lord You know the purpose for which I have come to You.

Father!

Fill me with grace, anointing and power so that I can preach Your word boldly and with authority.

I'm unworthy Lord!

But make me worthy by cleansing me and filling me with Your Holy Spirit.

Amen!

Scripture

6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces.

And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, 7 and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water.

So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.”

9 And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him.

10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”

11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

Introduction\Background

I have prayed today about this message and I hope that its received with the same passion as it was place in me.

The calling for today is for all of us to take step back and provide room for a deep reflection of self.

I have come to noticed that in our everyday busy lives it’s easy for us to get so methodical with our next steps that we can find ourselves moving without thinking.

Doing without understanding.

Ultimately were so involved in our actions that we often celebrate without acknowledgement.

We are a culture of lists, check boxes, and next steps!

It’s unfortunate in some cases we are so process that driven that we forget the chief processor and our thesis for today’s discussion is centered on that very fact.

Brothers and Sisters, whenever God has placed you in a position to make a significant decision you ought to first pause and remember that the blessor is always greater than the blessing.

That the blessor is greater than then the blessing.

Furthermore, know that the preparation needed to even take part in such a significant decision is not of your own doing, but of Gods glory being witnessed in your actions.

God has prepared you for a great work however, don’t mistake your blessings as work done under your own power.

God has placed upon this church a great responsibility.

For some, he has called you to put in extra hours of research and discover, trial and error, patience and obedience and a list of other adjectives to describe the toil of searching for a Shepard.

Truth be told your closer to completing the task but still far away from taking a break on the entire process.

Whenever you’re doing work for the Lord its challenge.

If you’re not struggling in ministry, I would suggest that you are not really doing ministry.

We are called to die to self-daily.

Bare the weight of the cross and to go into the battle field not to turn and run away from it.

While you’re working hard for the Lord guess what the people will starting to talk.

The will begin to as questions and apply pressure.

All the while you’re trying to spend time talking to God.

Your being instructed by God on what to do, when to do it and how to do it.

After careful meditation and prayer, you go forth with the instructions to move in a certain direction.

One in which you hope that comes with the release of certain responsibilities and promise of a new Shepard.

Your so close, you can almost taste the victory.

However, somewhere in this process the opportunity to experience success might actually get in under your flesh.

There is a lurking sensation to present false witness before the people of God because of your labor through the storm.

Words and statements start to emerge such as:

Look at what I did?

Look how hard I worked?

Yes, we decided to do this over that?

And it’s was be we made this happen?

Brothers and sisters, even if you’re not a part of the church administration you too have been in a situation where you and God toiled through some challenges and just before you came out of the storm, and started to record your blessings, you felt the urge to use the same words.

Look at what I did?

Look how hard I worked?

It was because of my actions that I made this thing happen.

Don’t look to your right or left because someone might have already said that in a conversation and I don’t want to start no trouble.

The perils of Israel are somewhat in us all.

Everything we witnessed them doing in scripture can been seen in our own lives from time to time.

It’s the reason why God has us studying their blessings and failures in so much detail.

There's a reason that the Old Testament is so large in comparison to the New Testament.

It’s easy to fall for the flesh and to get yourself into a wilderness situation.

Our brother Moses, the chief backsliders in biblical history, teaches us through his experiences what happens when you stand before Gods people and plagiarize blessings as your own.

I don’t want to be before you long but I come by to share with you a "defense against having a wilderness experiences".

I pray that in this time together that you will recognize your current situation, keep your composure and don’t lose your witness in such a critical time in your churches life.

I pray that you will head three steps in this journey.

The first being to “take it to the Lord” and "hear from God", then "do exactly what He says" and acknowledge Him for His blessings.

Points of power

1.

Take it to the Lord

2. Hear from God

3. Do exactly what He says

A defense against the wilderness experience begins with your obedience to Gods commands for you and your people.

In our text, we pick up the story of Moses and people years after fleeing from their captures in the Exodus still wandering in the wilderness of disobedience.

Historical commentary suggests that at this point of the journey the people are weary and beat up.

They have come a long way and just want some stability in life.

We know that Miriam, Aarons sister, a woman in Israel's wilderness community who exercised religious leadership alongside Moses and Aaron had passed on and as a result of this and other challenges the people and leadership was growing weary.

The people of Israel had camped in a place called Kadesh.

This place was known to be an oasis but for some reason the water was dry.

Some would argue that this place being dry was deliberately allowed so that Israel would seek God as their spirits grew dim.

Align with God

That’s where many of us are in life right now.

Our spirits have gone dim and we are in seek of a new Shephard.

Where is our water?

What about our concerns?

Who will come see about us.

Israel was just miles away from the fertile promised land but without God they can’t get there.

You’re just across the street away from getting some support, but remember that without God you can’t get there.

So, preacher what do we do?

How do you prepare for the journey that’s just out of arms reach?

The text we just heard in our reading shows us a seen where Moses and Aaron are confronted by the people and they decided to take their concerns to the Lord.

The first thing you ought to do when confronted with a challenge, a big decision, a moment where the flesh just might get in the way.

Take it to the Lord!

Take it to the Lord: