Sermon Tone Analysis

Last: Battle with Amelekites

Moses key in the battle.

Ron Burgundy:

…I’m kind of a big deal.

Delivered from river

burning bush

Pharaoh’s court

Miracles/Curses

Red Sea

Water

Hearing from God

Obviously Moses is an instrument of God.

It’s easy to see how he might begin to believe that “yes, yes, i’m kind of a big deal”

Do you ever fall into this?

Feeling like it all depends on you?

You would love to share the load, but who would I share it with?

Feeling like you can’t say no, because no one else will say yes?

2 burdens:

That you are a big deal and have to

That you are supposed to be a big deal so you try to

These are lies that we tell our selves.

In the same way, Moses had accepted that he was the key to this whole exodus thing.

We find him in

Seemed as right as breathing for Moses to be the go to guy...

From our point of view it is easy to see this is a bad idea.

Daughter in a rip tide…seemed right…but very wrong and if you could get away from it a little you could see it.

But Moses was right in the middle of it and couldn’t see it…he got caught up in the craziness of it.

The reality was for Moses, that he couldn't keep it up.

As much as he wanted to, as much as he felt like he had to…he couldn’t.

but it took someone else to see it.

You are going to wear yourself out…for what?

With this, we get a major shift in the story.

That’s how the story of our lives are too.

One change sets off a series of changes.

For the Israelites, this new structure of leadership paved the way for an encounter with God.

And just like Moses learned at the burning bush, an encounter with God changes everything.

Chapter 19 serves as a preamble to the Law of God which follows in the next few chapters, much like the preamble in our constitution, it sets the groundwork.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America

Moses up and down the mountain.

Over the next several weeks we are going to look in detail at these journeys of Moses.

But today I want to draw you attention to just 3 things here.

First we see that.

God always redeems people to himself.

We are just beginning to see how this plays itself out in the lives of the Israelites, but we already know how it works a bit.

Changed people change.

(eventually)

A change of heart always comes to those who are saved.

Romans 8:28-31

You might say that redeemed people gather to connect.

Gather to Connect.

Connecting is one of our highest values as disciples.

We gather to connect our lives with his.

Here is where we have to do a personal inventory.

I ask you this because I love you.

Do you feel connected?

May 24th was Aldersgate day fro us as Methodists.

When John Wesley realized as a pastor for many years that his heart was changed.

For the first time he knew that he was a child of God.

I know people who say you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian....I say, if God has changed your life, why wouldn’t you want to be with other changed people.

I love Jesus, just not the church.

That’s his bride.

How can you be OK with me and not my wife.

You can’t.

If you don’t like my wife, we are definitely not OK.

If you don’t sense changes in your heart.

IF you don’t sense your live being drawn to his.

IF you are growing in connection to God…then maybe you aren’t.

Being an american doesn’t make you a Christian.

Second, we are going to see that.

There’s no mystery to a God pleasing life.

Word given to show us what a God pleasing life looks like.

Romans 12:1-2

Saved to serve.

this should bring us joy.

I am struck sometimes that Christians are some of the saddest looking people I know.

When we sing it should be a time of praise...when we give, or serve, or help, or cook, or clean, or work, or rest, it should be a time of celebration.

Third, we see that when the people move from slaves to judges....when they find their freedom, God changes the mission.

The mission changes...after they have been set free.

The apostle Paul put it this way.

Up until this point, God had been telling us that this was all about setting them free because he heard their cries.

That they were going to a land of milk and honey because I AM was their God.

But now God speaks of their mission is to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

That’s the way sanctifying grace works.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Salvation always precedes holiness.

We can’t be holy without God’s salvation.

God saves you…then gives you a mission.

Redeem your pain...now to tell someone.

An encounter with God changes everything.

For sure that's what what our world needs

Watching the news last night and I saw that Ireland, one of the last nations where abortion was very limited, is moving to legalize it.

The world is changing right before our eyes.

But just as much as the world needs an encounter with God, so do we.

Lest we get caught up thinking that we are kind of a big deal.

That people ought to celebrate us…when it’s God.

We have to change too.

Establish a church in Rock Hall

There was a time when our churches were a place where Christians gathered...now we need to be a people that gathers

Now to transform Rock Hall