Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

If you don’t know by now, I love to joke around.

Some times I joke so much that it’s a fault.

When I told a good friend of mine that I worked with when I was in an IT job that I had surrendered to the ministry and that I believed God was calling me to be a pastor, he told me that he already knew I was going to tell him that one day because my jokes were worse than your every day ‘dad jokes.’

I guess that means that pastor humor is the cheesiest there is.

One type of joke I have just loved are jokes that are known as ‘Chuck Norris Facts.’

Are y’all familiar with these?

They’re awesome.

They are told as facts about Chuck Norris that we may be otherwise unaware.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

Chuck Norris doesn’t do push-ups, he pushes the earth down.

Chuck Norris counted to infinity.

Twice.

Chuck Norris can do a wheelie on a unicycle.

For those who know that our friends at the Church of Christ are not fond of instrumentation during worship, here’s one for you: Chuck Norris plays the piano during worship at a Church of Christ.

Sadly, I can go on with these for longer than most of you can tolerate, but the novelty in them is the sense of toughness and attitude that they suggest about Norris.

These things have an international impact, by the way.

There was a bakery in Croatia that had a frequent problem with break-ins until they put Chuck Norris to work for them.

As a joke, some of the bakery employees put a life-size poster of Norris in the window with a sign that read, “the shop is under the protection of Chuck Norris.”

Would you know that when the sign went up, the break-ins stopped?

The entire town that the bakery is in apparently has seen his movies and even the thieves appear to fear his roundhouse kick.

There are even people who pop into the bakery asking for an autograph because they believe Chuck Norris is hiding in a storeroom waiting to bust some bad guys.

Now, this may have been a joke, but posters of an actor offer no sustaining power, no encouragement, no value for which someone can cling beyond the paper and ink they are printed with.

Once the laughter gives way to silence and the reality of a fallen world with its afflictions and opposition settles in, what are we to do with the discouragement that the world throws at we Christians?

I believe our text this morning will reveal to us empowering answers, namely that when opposition comes, God’s people should find encouragement in his promises and the future hope to which they point.

Opposition to God’s Purposes

This brings us to first acknowledge that opposition to God and his purposes will be a constant which the people of God face.

Turning our attention to the passage open before us, we have made our way into the book of the Exodus, which we will find to be the detailing of God’s deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt.

As the book of Genesis closes, Joseph has died and such time has elapsed that there is a new pharaoh who had no recollection of Joseph and the blessings of the Hebrew God.

So blessed was the nation of Israel in Egypt that the numbers of the nation alarmed Egyptian leadership, and the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews in a move that the Egyptians thought would protect the integrity of their own nation.

The labors of the Egyptian slaves is difficult.

And God moves to raise a new leader amongst his people, Moses, who will lead the Hebrews out of their bondage because God has not forgotten his promise to Abraham concerning the Promised Land.

So God enlists and equips Moses to begin the task of leading Israel, and the first direction God gives Moses is to go to Pharaoh and announce that the God of Israel desires his people to be liberated from Egypt.

Now, in prior chapters, God has already warned Moses that Pharaoh is going to need a mighty hand to compel him to release the Israelites, but Moses obediently goes before Pharaoh and declares, Exodus 5:1 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’

” Notice, the boldness to go before the most powerful ruler in the known world and unapologetically declare: “Thus says the Lord.”

No gimmicks, no 13-week discipleship program with the promise of a meal to reel ‘em in.

And Pharaoh says, “Of course.

Can I offer from the storehouses of Egypt food for this feast?”

That would have been nice, but that’s not what actually took place.

As we read on, we see the response of the king of Egypt as he denies the command of the one true God.

Exodus 5:2 “2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?

I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.””

Opposition to God comes in various forms.

One thing that we can be confident of is that opposition to God and his purposes will always arise from those who, like Pharaoh, do not know the Lord.

I know some of the opposition that was faced by Christians in this assembly today who just this morning faced strife from their spouse or children.

“I don’t want to go, it’s boring and I hate it,” said the kids to their mother.

“Ever since you started going to that church, you’ve changed and I don’t like it,” said a husband to his wife.

Any time we enter ourselves into a situation where the Word of God will be proclaimed, where God will be glorified and praised, Satan will stir up opposition within those who are still his children (1 John 3:10).

Opposition to the Lord is only increasing.

No longer are we living or operating in a community, let alone a nation, that fears the Lord.

Last month, California pastor John McArthur was preaching on transgenderism where he said, there is “no such thing as transgender” and that there were only two gender categories - male and female.

After expounding on the destructive and entirely sinful nature of transgenderism, the platform his message was streamed to declared the simple truth from God’s Word to be “hate speech.”

If you’re in the sanctuary today, consider yourself fortunate because I may have just earned the same stripes from those who do not know the Lord and are inclined to oppose him.

The opposition against God won’t just stop at words, by the way.

People disconnected from God can become violent towards others.

This can take many different forms.

Notice in our text that Pharaoh wasn’t just content to have said “No thanks” to Moses, but he goes on to apply pain.

In Exodus 5:7-8, Egypt’s king declares that the anguish of Israel be dialed up by increasing the difficulty of making the bricks Pharaoh was using to build his kingdom.

Any time that someone promotes their own self-serving agenda like Pharaoh is here, they make life for others a grim experience.

Evil people, particularly those in positions of power over others, will be especially cruel to the children of God.

In fact, they delight in destroying the well-being of others.

Before I continue on, I want to call attention to those who entered this building today that are living in opposition to God.

You came here maybe for the first time or the fiftieth time telling yourself that you want nothing to do with him, I get it.

You’re the king or queen in your perfect little world.

That sense of power you have come to love - it’s not yours.

God’s purpose for your life is for you to be a keeper and guardian of what he has given you: your life, your spouse, your children, your siblings, every last thing to your existence.

Yet the power you’ve come to love is the root of your rebellion and why to this point you have refused to surrender rule to the rightful King and Lord of all - Jesus.

God’s desire and purpose for every last one of us here is his wish that none of us would perish…that is die without having trusted upon Jesus Christ for salvation (2 Peter 3:9).

God desires that each of us would reach that place of repentance and cry out to him in faith.

If you continue to live for yourself, like the kings of every nation you might build a magnificent kingdom, but it will not last for at the end of time, there is one before whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess is Lord of all.

The question is, will you bow and confess with joy before King Jesus or against your will?

Discouragement when serving God

The second reality we are faced with in this text is that opposition will give way to discouragement when serving God.

Immediately preceding the encounter of Moses and Aaron with Pharaoh in Exodus 5 is the reunion of these two brothers after a long time apart.

In their reunion meeting, Moses tells Aaron about all the things that God had commanded him to.

I don’t know about you but I read those final verses of Exodus 4 with a sense that excitement had filled the room that the brothers were sharing because it was evident that the God of Israel was going to move in a mighty way to deliver his people.

That excitement even carried over to the nation in bondage.

Exodus 4:31 “31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.”

You can imagine how filled with optimism and hope the tents of Israel must have been.

Conversations around the mud pits about how God was going to liberate them and that there may be a day when the toil of their labors would cease.

Some may have even remembered the promise of God to Abraham and stopped what they were doing to immediately worship and praise God for his faithfulness to his word.

That is, until Moses and Aaron entered Pharaoh’s court and are spurned.

The excitement of carrying God’s message is soured when Pharaoh rejects what God has commanded.

And hope gives way to beatings and harder labor to meet the expectation of the self-serving king of Egypt.

And looking out upon the affliction of the people he was sent to lead, all Moses can do when faced with the extreme discouragement of what had not come to be is cry out to God, saying, Exodus 5:22-23 “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people?

Why did you ever send me?

For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Loved ones, I don’t know if you realize this, but we are in the midst of a battle that is raging.

A number of young persons in our very own community are dealing with significant emotional and psychological trauma and the enemy is making great advances in these generations.

Increasing numbers are no longer attending church, no longer open to the claims of Jesus Christ, and are convinced that living a holy life is just another relic from the past.

It’s old fashioned.

We look at our local schools where we see more students who are claiming to be same-sex attracted or are identifying as a sex other than their sex at birth and we throw up our hands in discouragement and disgust.

Young people, I know you’re struggling with your classmates and many times feel the best thing to do is avoid any interaction with non-Christians.

Don’t give in to that feeling.

Be Jesus to them.

Who else will be?

Be prepared to give an account about who Jesus is and the faith you have.

But also know that your message won’t always be received.

Jesus warned his disciples that they and the message of the gospel would be rejected and times haven’t changed.

Discouragement comes to all who serve God.