Sermon Tone Analysis

*Setting The Table For A God Visit* \\ \\ Exodus 19:1-19:25 \\ \\ Setting the Table for a God Visit: \\ How to Get the Most Out of 40 Days of Community \\ Exodus 19 \\ \\ I want you to imagine something this morning.

I want you to imagine that the Queen of England is coming to Utah.

The queen wants to get a feel for what real American life is like and wants to have dinner with a typical American family.

And you get the call.

She’s coming to your house to have dinner.

\\ \\ Knowing the Queen of England is coming to your home, do you think you will need to do any preparation for her coming?

\\ You’d probably start with a thorough cleaning of your home, make sure everything is nice and neat and in its place.

You’d probably pull out some of your favorite family recipes.

You’d probably spend most the day in the kitchen preparing a meal fit for a queen.

\\ \\ And then you’d set the table.

You’d bring out the fine china, the best crystal, and you’d gather your family together for this meal.

And here you all are – waiting for the guest of honor to appear.

\\ \\ Well, in a way we’ve been preparing over the last several months for a sort of spiritual meal.

We’ve been setting the table, so to speak, for a special occasion.

Every one of you has been invited to participate in this special occasion called 40 Days of Community.

I am sure we are going to enjoy what’s been prepared.

\\ It’s going to be fun doing it together.

\\ But I also want to make sure that we are prepared for the guest of honor.

Because even more important than us meeting together and enjoying one another over the next few months I want to make sure that we also have a time that we meet with God.

\\ We have been setting the table for a God visit.

\\ \\ To set the table for a God visit, I want to take us back to a story in the Old Testament that happened exactly 3,450 years ago.

\\ It’s a God-encounter that I find intriguing.

\\ To help us prepare for a God visit, I want us to try to understand what happened in that story.

\\ \\ Please turn to Exodus 19 if you are not there already... \\ As you know from the book of Exodus, it’s the story of the people of Israel leaving the bondage of Egypt and making their way to the promise land.

And through Moses, God delivers the nation of Israel from the Pharaoh.

They cross the Red Sea on dusty, dry ground, and they confidently march toward the promise land.

They number a little over 2 million people by now and they have been on the road for 60 days.

\\ Exodus 19 opens with these 2 million people standing at the foot of this imposing mountain called Mount Sinai.

And the Bible says that Moses climbed the mountain in order to appear before God.

This begins one of the most intriguing God encounters found anywhere in the Bible.

From this story I want to draw out some principals and applications that you and I can use to think about how we can spiritually get ready for what’s going to happen during 40 Days of Community.

\\ \\ So let’s jump in.

Here’s the first thing we must do to get ready: \\ \\ 1. Look back and remember God’s FAITHFULNESS \\ \\ As we think about where we are headed in the next 40 days I would encourage you to just stop for a moment and remember what God has already done.

Look at what the Lord says to Moses in v. 4... “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.”

\\ Isn’t that beautiful?

\\ When a young eagle learns to fly the mother eagle often flies just underneath the baby eagle with her wings spread out to support and catch if needed.

What a great picture of God’s faithfulness!

Always ready to be there in a time of need to support us when we are in trouble.

\\ \\ When Jeremiah talks about God’s mercy and faithfulness in Lamentations 3 verse 23 he says, “They are new every morning.”

and he says, “Great is your faithfulness.”

\\ God is faithful!

\\ He is reliable!

\\ He is trust worthy!

\\ You can depend on Him! \\ Amen? \\ \\ We see God’s faithfulness in the universe.

\\ God’s faithfulness is evident every morning when you wake up and the sun rises in the east and every evening when the sun sets in the west.

\\ Every 24 hours when the earth revolves around its axis and tilts at a 23 degree angle.

God creates just the right atmosphere and conditions so you can live on this planet.

\\ It’s an evidence of God’s faithfulness.

\\ God is faithful in keeping the universe running.

\\ \\ Colossians 1:17 says this, “He existed before everything else began and he holds all creation together.”

\\ \\ Jesus is the glue of the universe and were it not for his faithfulness the world in which we live would come unraveled at the seams.

\\ \\ But when I think about God’s faithfulness it becomes really personal for me very quickly.

And it is very fresh in my mind right now as I have been reflecting on Dad’s life.

\\ [Personalize, talk about dad and the memorial service] \\ \\ God is faithful!

\\ \\ I want to ask you to do something right now.

Take your outline, and I want you to write in the margin one area where you have seen God be faithful in your life.

\\ Celebrate and remember God’s faithfulness in your own life.

\\ \\ Listen to these words from Deuteronomy 7:9, “So know that the Lord your God the faithful God he will keep his agreement for love for a thousand lifetimes for people who love him and obey his commands.”

\\ I hope when you look back over your life journey that you see God’s faithfulness and that your heart fills with gratitude.

\\ As we think about what God has in store for us in the next 40 days, I want us to remember how faithful he has been in the past and the same God who is faithful in the past will be faithful in the future.

\\ \\ Take some time right now to write down at least one area where you have seen God be faithful in your life.

\\ \\ Here is the second thing I want to encourage you to do: \\ \\ 2. Look ahead and celebrate your FUTURE \\ \\ Look at what else God says in Exodus 19:5-6 “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.

Although the whole earth is min, you will be for me a kingdom of priest and a holy nation.”

\\ \\ Now remember who God says this to.

\\ This was a vagabond group of nomads.

\\ 60 days ago they were slaves.

\\ They were nobodies.

\\ They were poor, they had no influence and no political clout.

And now, 2 million strong, God looks at them and says, \\ “You are my special treasure.”

\\ \\ Here’s a truth I want you to learn about them and about us: \\ \\ • You will be a cherished possession.

\\ \\ The truth about that is that some of us really just have a hard time believing that God thinks about us in that way.

\\ You might look around and say about some people, “I can understand why God would feel that way about them.

I mean, they are gifted, they are talented, they are put together.

They even look like a special treasure!

But there’s no way that God could feel that way about me! Look at what’s in my past!

Look at what’s in my world and a part of my life.

There’s no way he could feel that way about me!” \\ \\ The truth is: He does! \\ You are valuable to Him!

You matter to Him! \\ And God is just as crazy about you as He is about anyone else here this just as anybody else in the room and he’s just as crazy about you as he is about anybody else.

\\ \\ This makes me think about a story I heard about a women in \\ San Diego a few years ago who suddenly noticed that she wasn’t wearing her diamond wedding ring... \\ \\ She thought she probably left if in the bathroom in the morning when she was getting dressed she would often take off her ring when she was putting on her makeup getting ready for the day.

She went to the bathroom, but no wedding ring.

She mentally began to retrace her steps and remembered the night before while she was doing work in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner that she had taken her ring off and set it up on the counter.

She walked into the kitchen, but no ring.

She began to try to figure out what could have possibly happened.

The only thing she could come up with is that when cleaning up the kitchen somehow she had wiped the ring off of the counter into the garbage can, which was laying at the edge of the counter.

She went to the garbage can there was absolutely nothing in the pail.

She called her husband and said did you take out the trash today?

Yes this is the day the trash men come.

I already pushed the bin out to the sidewalk you might see if they are still there.

She walks out to the sidewalk the bins are completely empty.

She gets on the phone with the waste management people and says can you tell me the number of the truck that picks up in my neighborhood and where it might be at this time of day?

So the person makes their best guess gives them the number of the truck she gets in her car begins to drive through the neighborhoods around the block until finally she spots the truck.

She signals this guy he pulls over she gets out she explains the situation and he says, lady I am really sorry but I pick up your trash first thing in the morning and I have already dumped that load at the city dump.

She said, can you tell me where you left the load?

So he tries to describe where at the city dump he left all the trash, and so she drives out there in her car, she gets out and she begins to walk through all of this garbage looking for the trash bags that are similar to the ones they used.

She finally found them she goes through one bag at a time one piece of trash at a time until finally in a can of refried beans is her wedding ring.

\\ \\ Here’s the point: In the very same way that that women pursued a cherished possession in her life God has pursued us.

\\ Even though our lives might be surrounded by garbage and trash, when God looks at you, you are a cherished possession.

Because God thinks so highly of you, over the next 40 days He wants to do something wonderful in your life.

He wants to continue to work in your life to make you like Jesus.

You are a cherished possession!