Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ /"//Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel*.*/*/

/**/Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet/*/, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.//

//He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to* arms*, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.//

//Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised—// //look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.

If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.”//

//And that is what happened.

Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.//

//Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me.

Let me make just one more request.

Allow me one more test with the fleece.

This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.”// //That night God did so.

Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.//" (Judges 6:33-40, NIV) *[1]*/

/ /

We know the meaning of different sounds in our lives don’t we.

No words are necessary.

They punctuate our routines and bring a range of emotions with them.

When I was home on Grand Manan in early September we were privileged to have a foggy evening.

I slept with the windows open and listened to the low grunt of Swallow Tail light.

I remember it as a boy, standing close to the foghorn when it would blast it’s way beyond my sight.

The ground would vibrate beneath me  and I would cup my hands over my ears.

I could feel it – I didn’t have to hear it.

I had a friend, Roxie French who lived on Swallow Tail and would have no idea whether or not it was blasting away at night.

Frightening to think of the things that we fail to hear simply because of familiarity and acclimation.

Anyway, the low guttural groan seems to have been replaced by a high-pitched whistle.

I knew what it was but it’s just not the same.

I know the sound of an ambulance and I pull over.

I know the sound of a police siren and Elaine pulls over.

There have been times in my life when I know that God has been calling and I have not been listening.

I like this little ditty relative to listening.

I picked it up the other day.

His thoughts were slow,

 His words were few,

 And never formed to glisten.

But he was a joy to all his friends--

 You should have heard him listen.

After Gideon had a clear understanding that it was God who was directing him and after he had passed the test of challenging idolatry in his father’s home, he had the experience of God’s Spirit moving him to the next step of spiritual leadership.

/"//Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel*.*/*/

/**/Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet/*/, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.”/

This trumpet provided a priestly call for the people of God to arise.

It was a familiar sound in the history of the Israelite people.

Two and a half million people in Moses day were guided by the sound of the trumpet.

Look with me at the book of Numbers, chapter 10.

 

/" //The Lord said to Moses:// //“Make two trumpets of hammered silver, and use them for *calling the community together* and for *having the camps set out*.// //When both are sounded, the whole *community is to assemble* before you at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.//

//If only one is sounded, the leaders—the heads of the clans of Israel—are to assemble before you.//

//When a trumpet blast is sounded, the tribes camping on the east are to set out.// //At the sounding of a second blast, the camps on the south are to set out.

The blast will be the signal for setting out.//

//To gather the assembly, blow the trumpets, but not with the same signal.//

//“The sons of Aaron, *the priests, are to blow the trumpets*.

This is to be a lasting ordinance for you and the generations to come.//

/*/When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets./*/

Then you will be remembered by the Lord your God and rescued from your enemies.//

//Also at your times of rejoicing—your appointed feasts and New Moon festivals—you are to *sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings,* and they will be a memorial for you before your God.

I am the Lord your God.”//"// (Numbers 10:1-10, NIV)*[2]*/

 

Look at what the scriptures tell us about this call to the community.

n      Assembly - The trumpet call was to */assemble/* the people at the Tent of Meeting.

Two trumpets blowing different notes provided a call to gather.

The heads of the tribes were to gather at the sound of a single trumpet.

The people were to gather before Moses at the place where Moses met with God.

I would say that the purpose of this gathering was to hear what God was saying to His people through Moses.

Moses, as dynamic a leader as he was raised to be, was merely a mouthpiece.

His job was to tell the people what God was telling him.

n      Relocation - The people received their */relocation/* or marching orders at the sound of the trumpets.

Specific trumpet calls signaled tribes sequentially from the east, south, west and north to move.

Perhaps the number of blasts from the trumpets distinguished their calls.

n      The trumpets were to be blown by the priests.

n      Mobilization - The trumpets called or */mobilized/* the people to battle against an enemy in their own land and signified a cry to God to remember His people and to deliver them.

n      Celebration - As a memorial to the people, the trumpets were sounded over the */celebration/* of their various feasts.

It was to remind them in the midst of their celebration that God was their focus.

I would say that there are lessons to be learned from these Old Testament practices and procedures.

They probably have something to say to us as a people of God.

We are not wandering through a geographical desert but we are yet a people of God.

And God still directs His people.

As much as many might like to individualize this concept, God still works through groups of people, imperfect as they may be, in a greater way than He will work through people who try to remove themselves and function independently of the church.

We find the model of the contemporary church in the desert.

A people who are never at home in their surroundings.

I believe that the church is never going to be at home in this world.

We are not meant to be.

God still directs His people through a leader’s personal relationship with God.

Around that leader are other spiritual leaders.

They blew the trumpets to assemble the people and had specific roles to play as priests.

The people were divided into various groups and received direction from their own leaders.

I would say that the well being of the people of God in the wilderness depended on their ability to hear the trumpet call, to distinguish the direction that they were receiving and to act on it.

I believe that today God’s greatest blessing is reserved for the churches whose people are willing to hear the sound of the trumpet, distinguish it’s meaning and respond accordingly.

We can debate the direction and delay the whole process or we can diligently seek to know the signal and to commit ourselves to a more ready state of obedience.

I believe that this is what we must strive for as a people if we truly wish to experience God’s abiding blessing and His miracle working power and presence among us.

I’d like to take just a few minutes in the remainder of our time today to talk about the three most commonly ignored calls in the church today.

*/1.

/**/The Call to Pray./*

I tried for years in my Christian and pastoral life to be a person of prayer.

Like most other vocations, the ministry does not lend itself to prayer.

Everyone wants a spiritual leader behind the pulpit but they also want their leaders to respond immediately to their requests and needs.

One of my greatest desires for our church is that we would become a people of prayer.

I can’t see how it is possible to accomplish what God would have the church to accomplish unless we first learn to pray.

All the talent that we have will not take the place of prayer.

All the creativity that we have will not take the place of prayer.

All the administrative ability that the church may have will not take the place of prayer.

Without prayer a person is unable to feel the pulse of faith and the heartbeat of God.

Without prayer, churches are dry, dull, formal, irrelevant and largely ignored by their communities.

We’ll try a thousand other things to build the church.

We’ll hire pastors, run expensive advertising campaigns, bring in special guests and speakers, remodel, relocate, build million dollar buildings and develop all the organizational structures required to support these Herculean efforts.

The result is slick.

People will leave other less slick churches to come and we call it church growth.