Sermon Tone Analysis

*GRCBC 20 January 2008 – 10.00am & 6.00pm*

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*Will You be a Spectator or a Participant in 2008?*

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Good morning church!

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Before I start, I thought I should introduce myself.

My name is Craig Shannon.

Together with my wife Chris, son Dominic and daughter Angela, we have been a part of Georges River since May last year.

So we are relatively new to the church family here.

I would just like to thank you for the warm and loving welcome we received from the moment we arrived.

If you look on our church website, you will see its written that one of the defining characteristics of our church is the sense of family that we have.

And we have experienced this sense of family as new people coming in.

And it is very special.

So we feel really blessed that God has lead us here.

And so we are looking forward to getting to know more of you to a deeper level and we are also looking forward to serving with you in seeing God’s vision for the church realized.

I want to speak today about a choice in life we have.

And this choice is one that we make daily and even moment by moment.

This is a choice that will effect each of us personally, and it’s a choice that will effect the life and ministry of our whole church family.

It is a huge choice.

If you think about it, our nation today is really a land full of people who are professional spectators.

What I mean by this is that many many people spend hours every day simply watching others live out their lives.

What about all of the reality type TV shows that are so popular.

I typed in Reality TV on the internet and there was one website that listed hundreds and hundreds of reality TV shows around the world.

The list is endless - Big Brother, my wifes favourite program -Biggest loser, survivor, Police Files Unlocked,  Surf Rescue, Australian Idol, the Amazing Race, The Apprentice, Extreme Makover, Fear Factor, and who could forget that nanny of all nannys, Supernanny.

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And what about all the news that’s available for us to watch.

This is one that I can get consumed with.

We could spend 24 hours a day just watching the news on TV or the Internet.

And the Sport.

I won’t even start on that.

Is anyone able to admit to watching all 5 days of a cricket test without missing a ball.?  Don’t tell me I am on my own here.

Scary isn’t it.

So what does all this have to do with my message today?

Each of us here today can make a decision every day and moment by moment during each day to sit on the sideline as a spectator in life, or we can make the choice to be a participator.

Unfortunately life can become empty, unproductive and basically fruitless because of a choice we make to sit on the sideline as a spectator.

Sometimes we can just let life go by, without really making a difference.

Sometimes we can choose to just exist, and just cope with what happens in life.

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Many of you would know the passage in Matthew 5 where Jesus compares his disciples to salt and light.

He said */You are the salt of the earth, /*and he also said */You are the light of the world.

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Jesus has left us with the responsibility of being salt and light to the world.

The responsibility of being different and standing out and fully participating with God in what he is doing in the world.

This year church, 2008 is the The Year of Living Dangerously.

Georges River, our church family has such a huge vision for growing God’s kingdom and transforming our community.

We all will have a choice to make in this.

This year in 2008, */will you be a spectator, or will you be a participant?/*

Will you be happy to watch others living dangerously, or will you make the decision to be dangerous, to really participate and play your part in what God is doing through the church.

*Reasons We Can Choose to sit on Sideline as a Spectator*

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Sure we can use any number of excuses to avoid getting into the action.

Moses was a great man of God we can read about in the bible.

But do you know that he is also is a really good example of someone who tried and tried and tried to sit on the sideline and be a spectator.

He used just about every excuse you could think of to avoid getting into the action.

You can read about it in Exodus chapter 3 and 4.

 

For a bit of background, Moses had fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian.

He was living in Midian at the time looking after a flock of sheep when he notices this bush that was on fire but not being consumed by the fire.

So Moses went over to the bush  to check it out and God spoke to him from the bush and said ‘Moses I have got a pretty exciting job for you to do.

I want you to go down to Egypt God said and visit Pharoah and tell him to release all the Israelites out of Egypt.

Most of you will know the story, but what God was asking Moses to do was a challenging task to put it mildly.

And all sorts of objections would have been going through the mind of Moses.

Moses knew that it would be very unlikely that Pharoah was going to simply release all of the Israelites, because the Israelites were basically the Egyptian workforce.

The Israelites were slaves.

Moses is thinking …… ‘not a good idea God’

 

He comes up with a whole list of excuses as to why he shouldn’t go down to Egypt and speak to Pharoah.

And looking at this list of excuses, I have used every one of these excuses at some point in my life.

Perhaps you have used some of them as an excuse so you could stay on the sideline.

\\ \\ So what I want to do is look at */some of the reasons we use as excuses to stay out of the action.

/*Or to stay on the sideline as a spectator.

There are 5 excuses we can get from Moses and one that I have added at the end.

*1.

**Feelings of Inadequacy~/Low Self Image** (Moses in Ex 3:11-12).

\\ \\ *The first excuse Moses uses we see in Ex 3:11-12, where Moses said to God ‘*/Who am I, that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Iraelites out of Egypt’./*

\\ \\ Here we see Moses with a real feeling of inadequacy.

Moses would be thinking like ‘Pharoah is only the most powerful man in the entire known world, and here I am, a fugitive Israelite hiding in Midian looking after a flock of sheep.

And God’s asking me to go and what – demand that Pharoah release all of their slaves.

-Moses would have been thinking?

‘Are you for real God?

Who am I that Pharoah would even see me, let alone listen to me’.

\\ \\ Who has ever felt inadequate or not up to something that you know God has asked you to do?  \\ \\ So when God wants to accomplish something through us, and we say to God “I am not really up to it’ then we are choosing to sit on the sidelines and be a spectator.

\\ \\ So Moses felt Inadequate.

Is that an excuse that is common for you to use? \\ \\

*/2.

/**Low View of God and His Power and Authority** (Moses in Ex 3:13-15).

\\ *If we look in Exodus 3:13-15 we can see Moses coming up with another excuse.

\\ \\ */Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’

Then what shall I tell them?”/* \\ \\ Here we see Moses really struggling with who God is.

In any conflict situation it is important to know who is sending you into battle.

And Moses was really struggling with this.

He probably saw God as a bit detached and distant, and if Moses felt that way then the Israelites in Egypt were bound to be on the same wavelength.

\\ \\ He probably saw God as a bit of a grandfather figure sitting in heaven looking down on is people, but somehow detached and distant.

\\ \\ Moses probably saw God as sovereign and over all, but not really a God that was intimately in love with His people and wanting to come and lovingly rescue them from slavery.

\\ \\ When we question God’s desire to be involved in our circumstances and we doubt the existence of his power and authority today, this is probably the sort of mindset that Moses had at the time.

Where Moses knew God was real but questioned whether God would really show his power in his situation.

\\ \\ Second excuse Moses had for wanting to avoid the action was his low or sort of detached view of God.

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*/3.

/**What Ifs?** (Moses in Ex 4:1-9) \\ *Moses still wasn’t too keen on obeying God and we can read on and see his third excuse in Ex 4:1 \\ \\ */Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”/* \\ \\ Moses came up with a ‘what if’.

Moses was concerned that if he went to the Israelites they might not believe him and what if they go even further and say that God didn’t appear to him at all.

\\ \\ How many ‘what if’s’ have you used to avoid getting in to the action with God? \\ \\ What if I pray for someone and they don’t get healed?

\\ What if I open up to share my faith with someone and they ridicule me and treat me like a fool?

\\ What if I offend someone with what I say and turn them away from God? \\ \\ What if?

A big excuse we can use.

\\ \\

*/4.

/**Perceived Weaknesses** (Moses in Ex 4:10) \\ *The 4th excuse is one that I can really identify with*.

\\ \\ *Exodus 4:10* **/Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant.

I am slow of speech and tongue.”/**/

/* \\ \\ Moses felt he had an impediment that should stop him from following God’s instructions.

Moses felt he had a weakness.

He felt he couldn’t speak eloquently.

\\ \\ I can really understand Moses.