Sermon Tone Analysis
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ME:
I’m Josh Clink
I am the lead pastor over at Afton Baptist Church
I grew up over in Greene not attending church
and got saved through the youth ministry at Berean when I was in high school
After college, I got married then began seminary down in North Carolina
I didn’t go to seminary to be a pastor, my degree is in biblical counseling
And one of my assignments that I really enjoyed, was having to take the account of a person in Scripture and give a diagnosis
Now the theme of this Christmas pastor rotation is God with us,
which comes from the Christmas passage in , which reads;
So each week we are focusing on God being with us,
either in the storm, or in the valley, or as I am presenting to you this morning, in the wilderness
So I want to introduce our study on God being with us in the wilderness, with a counseling case study
I’ve done this at my church a couple of times and when I do, I encourage them to participate by trying to figure out who I am describing before I reveal who it is
and if you guess correctly you win 1000 non-redeemable points that are good for, well nothing
but you will have the satisfaction of knowing you guessed right
I will refer to our wilderness counseling case study as E
Now I would diagnose E with experiencing a major depressive episode
which is different from being diagnosed depressed
He experiences an episode of depression, but it is not a continual, ongoing, repetitive pattern of depression
When E’s account begins, his land is in the midst of a famine
E experiences personal malnourishment before a single mom is able to provide for him
However, in the midst of her provision for E, her son passes away from illness
And she pours her grief out on E, questioning why he even came to her
Eventually, the boy is miraculously brought back to life, but that grief and the reaction of the mother was still experienced by E
E has a very distinct profession, which led to him experiencing great loneliness because he use to have many others who shared that profession, but that is no longer the case
Just before his depressive episode, E’s duty required him to kill hundreds of enemies
which is a common influencer of depression often expressed by military members who recall killing others in the line of duty
After this, E’s life was threatened, which led to great fear
So he fled, travelling about 130 miles on foot, taking a physical toll on his body
After he fled, while in the wilderness, the onset of his depressive episode was indicated by his desire to die
He had all the physical symptoms;
fatigue, hypersomnia (repeatedly falling asleep), and loss of appetite
E had to almost be forced to eat, and would fall back asleep even after eating
In the midst of his depressive episode, he pursued isolation, sleeping alone in a cave
E reveals that he had been placing his value and satisfaction in his works
And when he experienced this wilderness season, his misplaced value and worth contributed to his depressive episode
He repeatedly would express his feelings of loneliness and fear
And what E learned is that God was with him in the wilderness
That his deepest need became a gift because it drove him to depend on God
And eventually God brought him out of the woods
So at this point, I want to stop and ask, has anyone figured out who E is?
Right, it is the prophet Elijah
first introduced in , but we are going to look at how God was with him during his depressive episode, when he was in the wilderness
in
So if you have your Bible with you this morning, I’d like to ask you to turn to
We are going to be looking primarily at verses 1-12 this morning
And once you get there, I’d like to ask you to join me in prayer
WE:
Just to kind of set the context a bit
I have already given some of the background, during Elijah’s case study
But to explain more fully, Elijah is a prophet of Yahweh, that’s our God
Around the mid-800s BC
during a time period where God’s nation, Israel, is divided into two nations
The southern nation, Judah, was led by Jehoshaphat, good king, man of prayer, you can read about him in
where it says that the Lord was with him because He walked in the ways of King David and did not seek out Baals, which are other gods
The northern nation of Israel, was led by King Ahab, nooot as good of a king
He was the 7th king over the northern kingdom
and says;
He erected altars for Baal and Asherah, another false god
He willingly committed idolatry, theft, murder, and would usurp power
Near the end of his life, it is stated that he sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord under the influence of his wife, Jezebel
Archaeologists have found a Phoenician scroll, that pre-dates the events we are looking at this morning, and is not a part of the Bible that mentions queen Jezebel
Now this Jezebel is an important figure in our account this morning
Jezebel was a pagan woman who influenced idolatrous worship
Elijah, who we will continue to look at in further detail, wins the “who’s God is bigger?”
contest against the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah which leads to their slaughter
and Jezebel is enraged at their slaughter
and we will see how she responds in this morning
The biblical account of Jezebel portrays a woman of great wickedness who persuades her husband, the king, to oppose God and participate in evil deeds
including killing God prophets
Her name is stamped in history as the representative of all that is crafty, malicious, vengeful, and cruel.
She is really the first great instigator of persecution against the saints of God
She isn’t afraid of God or man, instead is passionately attached to her idolatrous worship, willing to do whatever is necessary to maintain that idolatry.
So Elijah is a prophet who proclaims the word of the Lord in Israel during Ahab’s reign under the influence of this malicious woman, Jezebel
Elijah was boldly in opposition to Baal worship
describe as a man of God in
His name means “My God is Yahweh”
Eli means “my God”
and Jah is also translated as “Yah” which is short for “Yahweh”
When we first see him in , he halts the rain as a consequence to Ahab’s idolatrous leading
but then returns it through prayer at the end of chapter 18
as references him;
And that is how ends
With Elijah on the mountaintop
He just won the “Who’s God is bigger?”
contest
slaughtered all the false prophets
then faithfully prayed for rain to end the multi-year drought
I’m a big football fan, so naturally I can’t stand the New England Patriots and Tom Brady
I’m a big football fan, so naturally I can’t stand the New England Patriots and Tom Brady
Who now has the most super bowl rings of any player in NFL history with six super bowl rings
But after winning his sixth superbowl this past year
He posted a picture on instagram with his six rings
and His tagline underneath said;
“Want to know which super bowl ring is my favorite?
The next one.”
And I realize this is meant to be a motivational statement
But instead, to me, it communicates that despite his unparalleled success
and the fact that he has been atop the NFL mountain more than anyone else
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