Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Good morning,
How did you come this morning to Worship?
Has the worship service to this point brought you into a state of worshiping the God who created us, sustains us and restored the broken relationship that we once had with Him.
I use to always say that there are two types of people.
Optimist and Pessimist.
But I have discovered a third.
Before I tell you the third,
This morning’s passage is inviting us to consider the third.
My favorite description of the two is the story of two children put in two different rooms.
One room is filled with every possible toy a child could ever want.
The other filled with manure.
After leaving the children in the rooms for an hour you come back to find the one in the toy room, sitting in the middle of the room crying.
Toys are thrown around the room and the child begins to describe the problems with each toy.
The second room, you open the door and find that child sitting in the middle of the pile throwing manure.
The child looks up and states, with all this manure in here, there must be a pony somewhere.
Optimist and pessimist, but the third, that child would look at each room and say, boy there is a lot to clean up today in both rooms.
That is what we would say is a realist.
I could imagine if you are like me, there is a little of all three in each one of us.
Times when we feel, everything is going wrong, hopeful that things will change and the strength to live in the moment.
With each one there is a full spectrum or pendulum swing to each.
Extreme to Mild to very little.
If your life is marked by one and not the other you are set at the extreme end of the spectrum.
Today’s passage will invite us to have both in our lives as we walk as believers.
It will also get us to examine how we look at a different spectrum.
That of the Past, the Present and the Future as we walk with God
These two have pendulum swings in our lives.
We often find ourselves or labeling others who view things differently than us as extreme.
For the types of people who are always looking back we call them ultra conservative.
They begin conversations with, “Remember When...”
“Wasn’t it exciting back........I miss the Good old days!”
Chuck Swindoll describes the good old days as those with a lack of memory and a vivid imagination.
Now before you begin to tune out if you like to review the past, I am talking the extreme folks.
Always centered around the past.
What about the other end of the swing.
Those who are looking forward and all that matters in what will be next.
They have sometimes been given name of radical, careless, head in the clouds, dreamers, on to the next new thing before the current becomes old.
Now if you find yourselves in this camp and are wanting to tune out, wait, this is a description of the extreme case of people who are always looking in the future.
As we look into this text this morning, both are needed in our lives.
As one writer puts it.
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 6: Joshua (Scripture Outline)
The problem with the ultraconservative and the ultraradical is that both are escaping from the present into a fantasy world.
The present isn’t perfect, but neither was the past nor will the future be on this earth.
I’m convinced that both the ultraconservative and the ultraradical are hungrily searching for meaning—a meaning that tends to elude them.
There is a third way, this way will be found in today’s passage, so turn with me to
Joshua chapter 4
Let’s Pray
Context of the Biblical Text
Like last Sunday, this passage must be understood in the context of the story.
We are looking into the narrative of the Nation of Israel after they have been wondering for forty years in circles.
I suppose if they have GPS in those days, Every day when turned on, it would say,
“Recalculating”
The nation finds themselves after 40 years wandering because a failure of trust in the almighty.
40 years of watching your parents pass away for their lack of trust.
The old way of not trusting is gone and the new way of trusting is here.
The untrusting generation had seen God part a sea, a body of water that was expansive, yet this new Generation approaches a fast moving, flood raising river to pass.
The Old generation approached the sea and waited till it was good to go.
The new generation had to step out in faith and step into the river in order for God to act.
Look at the map in comparison from one crossing to another.
In both Cases, God performed a miracle.
One to open a sea the other to stop the raging waters.
Chapter 4 begins after they started the crossing of the Jordan river
This narrative is not just about stones, but spiritual markers in our lives.
Do you have spiritual markers in your life that you can show others?
I have handed out a paper, that near the end of the service, I will be asking you to write out some of the markers.
Times in your life that you can look back at.
This passage is more than the miracle, but a way we are to live.
One person wrote:
This fourth chapter of Joshua, however, grapples with the fact that a basic component of life is a hope for the future that is based on the memories of the past—which help bring meaning to the present.
Memories are important!
They are the soil of our present experiences into which our roots sink deeply and from which we receive nourishment.
The superstructures of our lives are built upon the foundation of our memories.
We are instructed by our memories as to the most creative way to live in the present, and they help equip us with a positive hope for the future.
This narrative has three key groups of people.
Groups of People
Priests
This job was to be responsible for the carrying of the Ark of God.
This ark carried various items given by God to the People.
It was a symbol of God’s presence among them.
So Holy was this that if you were to touch it death would be a consequence.
Selected By God
This was not an occupation that you could go to school for in the day.
You were selected by God as you were born into this family.
They were called out by God and directed to follow the spiritual care of the people.
their marching orders were from God, through his chosen leader, Joshua.
They had to led the people in action faith.
They were the ones that had to step into the river first.
They stepped into water, the others walked on dry land.
What stories they could pass down from Generation to Generation of first hand experience of God’s Power.
Joshua
Joshua,
He was one of the spies that first looked at this land.
It wasn’t new to him as he saw first hand what was promised to the people.
He had a faith in God’s Word and that Faith helped him move forward in his walk with God.
He has served several years under the leadership of a mighty leader named Moses
Called by God
Have you ever been in a position or place that seems all overwhelming and you wonder why you have been placed there?
Or maybe you were promoted to a job as someone has retired and you find yourself having to fill a large pair of shoes.
You begin to ask yourself am I really up to the task?
If you have been in that position you can understand where Joshua was standing.
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