Grateful

When Miracles Become Monotonous

Good morning CHURCH!

Are you ready to be equipped today? (Bibles)

Start my timer.

Let’s go to the book of Hebrews for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Some people can’t offer an acceptable worship because they think that God has at times consumed them.

Is God waiting to lay down a sentence in line with their sin committed.

How can the writer expect us to offer an acceptable worship when we see God like this?

We see it again in Exodus 24:17.

Exodus 24:17 ESV

17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.

Yes, I do agree that what they saw looked rather frightening.

But let’s see how they were supposed to interpret what they were seeing.

Deuteronomy 9:3 ESV

3 Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

That which seems frightening about God is actually not aimed at us but aimed at those against us.

That which seems frightening about God is actually there for us because he loves us.

When we understand God in this light, then and only then can we offer an acceptable worship to Him.

Grateful (2)

Today’s message title is:

When Miracles Become Monotonous

It’s something about us humans that we can be grateful for something or for someone and if you just give it some time, that gratefulness turns into thankfulness and give it some time and that thankfulness turns into taking for granted ness.

Through today’s lesson I think we’ll see it happened thousands of years ago and if we look at our lives, we have probably seen it in operation in us at one time or another.

Point #1

They needed a Miracle

Genesis 15:12-14 ESV

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

We know that this came true, and they became slaves in Israel for 400 years through a chain of events that came about because of a great famine in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 1:8-10 ESV

8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

This new Pharoah feared the possibility of on uprising of the Israelites against them, so they worked them hard.

But no matter how hard they worked them, the Israelites kept multiplying and growing in number.

Exodus 2:23-25 ESV

23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

They needed a miracle to get them out of slavery.

Point #2

The Miracle happened

Exodus 6:5-8 ESV

5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’”

Now let’s take a look at some of the miracles that happened for the children of Israel.

Moses and Aaron went to Pharoah and told them to let the people go.

Plague 1 water turned into blood: Plague 2 Frogs: Plague 3 Gnats: Plague 4 flies: Plague 5 Egyptian livestock died: Plague 6 boils: Plague 7 Hail: Plague 8 locust: Plague 9 darkness:

Plague 10 Egypt 1st born die

Exodus 12:12-13 ESV

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Pharoah let the children of Israel go.

We know that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he came back after the Israelite’s as they ran into the red sea.

Another miracle.

Exodus 13:15-17 ESV

15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen.

Another miracle while in the desert on the way to the promised land.

Exodus 13:21

21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.

Another miracle. You can read this in: Exodus 15:22-27.

They were three days without water and the people complained.

They came to some water, but it was too bitter to drink. They named it Marah.

The Lord showed Moses a log and he threw it in the water and the water became sweet.

Another miracle.

Exodus 16:4 ESV

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.

God rained food from the sky.

Let’s do one more.

Exodus 17:6 ESV

6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

All of these miracles.

*But no matter how many miracles the Lord preformed before the people they still murmured and complained.

*They still doubted him when they faced the next situation.

*The miracles became so common to Israel that the God of the miracles became no big deal.

This brings me to point #3

Point #3

Our Miracle Happened

We were once like the Israelites in Egypt. We needed rescuing. We needed a miracle.

God came through with our miracle. He saved us and made his home within us.

Often times in the body of Christ, the everyday miracle of God wanting to be relational with us and commune with us can with time become common.

So common that we begin to replace our time spent with God for time spent doing things we consider godly. (e.g. church, groups, serving etc.)

When this happens, we slowly disconnect from the vine, and we unknowingly become Christians who take our relationship with God for granted.

When this occurs, we can read the Bible or listen to worship music, and it not even move us in the slightest.

We can find ourselves not really feeling the presence of God.

As a believer we have received a miracle of being born again.

We should never become a complacent with the God of the Universe wanting to be relational with us.

When we become complacent with God, we become those who walk in the flesh.

When we become complacent with God, we go from grateful to just thankful and from thankful to prideful.

The Answer.

We need to focus on who God is and never let a day go by without reminding ourselves of this.

We should never allow the miracle of God in relationship with us to become common.

The miracle of a personal relationship with God should never become monotonous.

If you’re watching online or here in the room, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?