The Breakthrough Moment with Rev. Bernese Shaw - "Come Out of the Wilderness" (10/19/2011)

Scripture: Numbers 13-16

Numbers 13:1-4 The LORD said to Moses, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD, all of them leading men among the Israelites.

At the LORD’s command, Moses selects one man from each tribe to form a spying party and survey the land of Canaan. They returned forty days later having all seen the same thing, but with a divided opinion as to what it means. The majority opinion: [The people] are stronger than we.” The minority opinion: “We are well able to overcome it.” Disheartened and faithless, the people threatened to stone Moses and return to Egypt rather than face what seems to them certain death. God’s punishment upon their unbelief was severe; the punishment was one year of wilderness wandering for each day the spies were in the land and death in the wilderness for that entire generation. And yet, God would ultimately bring the next generation of Israelites into the Promised Land because the law he gave them contained instructions for living in the Promised Land. So, on the verge of entering a land promised to Abraham more than six centuries before, the Israelites were faced with the spies’ report. The land is good; it flows with milk and honey; it also overflows with fortified cities and giants! Obviously, there could be only one response that's “Let’s go!” because this land was promised by God and the only question should had been which direction we should go. Joshua and Caleb responded with faith: “Let’s go forward!” The other ten spies responded with their feelings: “Let’s go back to Egypt!” Majority opinion prevailed…and Israel traveled (traced) in circles in the desert for forty years. So this morning I'd like to ask you where is God stretching your faith today?” Is it let us go forward or let us go backward. Spy out your situation and make a list of what you see. Then ask yourself two questions: “How can I respond to this without faith? How shall I respond to this in faith?” Then do the thing that pleases God. We may not know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future. We know who is the Alpha and the Omega; the beginning and the end and when we put our faith and trust in him whatever may be causing our wilderness experience right now cannot keep us. The idea of wilderness is seen as a dreadful experience and/or as “hate punishment” from God instead of in certain cases where the Spirit leads one there for a period of time. The scripture says that the children of Israel were wandering for forty years. We can see that the wilderness of our life has a definite time beginning and a definite time ending. For some people, this may be a couple of months while for others it would be for a couple of years. The beauty of the Christian journey is that we are walking with Christ. Sometimes, we will go through our wilderness but in the end, we will come out of the wilderness if we only believe and have faith. The wilderness experience is very critical to the current and future growth and development of the Christian. Faith and belief that God will deliver you and help you to make the transition from "things are not going to get better" to "let’s go forward". The wildernesses of the Old Testament consisted of barren lands and desert sands, the wildernesses of us may be the empty places of our hearts. Let us this morning praise God for grace and mercy. Because sometimes, we are guilty of seeing the ‘no’ to the point where we can not see what lies ahead of us at the end of the wilderness experience. Embracing the wilderness experience is what each and every one of us has to do at some point during the pursuit of Christian maturity. Your wilderness may be in the forms of financial, emotional, physical, relationships and even spiritual. If your situation seems as though your trials are never going to end, don’t give up, keep moving forward in the LORD and you will reach your promised land. Isaiah 40:3-4 says “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” Just because you are down does not mean you are out and best of all, it doesn’t mean that your situation will last forever. If you have experienced a loss of any kind – material possessions, a relationship, or a job – know that God will be there to comfort you through the process of healing – come out of the wilderness. God is a replenisher, and whatever you have lost, He can restore. It is his pleasure to bless us and it is our job to have faith no matter how big or strong the cities or giants we have or see. Pray, stand on the promises of God for your life and have faith. Come out of the Wilderness, let us go forward, Come Out of the Wilderness. Amen.

The Breakthrough Moment with Rev. Bernese Shaw - "FAITH UNDER FIRE" (10/5/2011)

Daniel 3: 15b-18 “But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden status that you have set up.”

So from this scripture this week I want us to meditate on when our FAITH IS UNDER FIRE. Do we have faith in God and think that He is an awesome God when times are good and we are getting what we want? Or do we separate ourselves from God in time of trouble? In times of trouble, we have to put our faith into action by trusting and leaning on Our Heavenly Father. Romans 10:8-9 says “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Faith is an action word; we have to put into motion our belief and the scripture that you just read is the Prayer of Confession so we have to believe in God with all of our heart and soul; and say with our mouth that we know that Jesus lives because He lives in us. You may have faith but feel that your faith is shaky in time of trouble. Luke 17:5-6 tells us how to increase our faith – it says The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. So in your time of trouble if you just believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is with you with whatever you are going through and if you continue to learn and depend on Jesus in the midst of everything, He will bring you through it. In these days and times of recession, no jobs, unable to pay your bills on time, sickness, over looked for a promotion, stand, stand on the promises of Jesus when our FAITH is UNDER FIRE.

The focus scripture this morning tells us that men of old stood and depended on God during their trials and tribulations. King Nebuchadnezzar was in a furious rage because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not serve his gods and worship his golden statue. King Nebuchadnezzar threw these men into a furnace and ordered the furnace to be heated up seven times more than was customary. And when King Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, not only there was the three men he threw into the furnace but a fourth man walking in the middle of the fire, not hurt and the fourth man had the appearance of a god. So when our faith is tested, we must remember that God will be there with us in the middle of whatever our fiery furnaces/problems may be. When our faith comes under fire, we need to speak faithfully that we have the faith that we say that we have and confess with our mouth that we believe. Joshua 1:9 says "Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." So we can tell our mountain (no job, trouble in our marriage, trouble with our children, trouble on our job, unable to pay our bills, sickness, etc) to move out of our way. Speak that no matter what is happening right now in my life that God is there leading me all the way. Continue to talk and believe that God will deliver us from our trials and tribulations. So when our faith is tested - that is when we should look back to things God has done – things that only God could have done in our lives. Mark 9:24 tells us sometimes we are like the man who said to Jesus, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.” We know that unbelief/not believing in God is wrong when we think of the gracious and powerful character of God – we know that God is ready to meet us where we are and lead us to greater faith. A prayer to God is faith in God. The power in faith rests with God and is not under the believer’s control. When our faith is tested, we are forced to feed and put our faith to work as we might not otherwise do. As we “dig in” and “hold on” to Christ, our faith grows. Jesus takes us into the fiery furnace of life to grow our faith. Our trials have come so that our faith will be of greater worth than any material thing. How many times life causes us to focus on what we don’t have and feel that there is no way out but faith reminds us that God is able, so keep praying, keep trusting, keep leaning on promises of God - FAITH UNDER FIRE. The old hymn sings have faith in God when your pathway is lonely, He sees and knows all the way you have trod, Never alone are the lease of His children; Have faith in God, have faith in God. Have faith in God when your prayers are unanswered, your earnest plea He will never forget; wait on the Lord, trust His Word and be patient; Have faith in God, He’ll answer yet. Have faith in God in your pain and your sorrow, His heart is touched with your grief and despair, Cast all your care and your burdens upon Him, and leave them there. Have faith in God, He’s on the throne; have faith in God, He watches over his own; He cannot fail, He must prevail; Have faith in God, have faith in God WHEN YOUR FAITH IS UNDER FIRE, HAVE FAITH IN GOD!!!