Hell In The Hallways

Hell in the Hallways

PPT 1 Message Title

(Note to Pastor's I created a powerpoint presentation for this message,if interested Email me at ikings1844@yahoo.com and I will send it to you.)

Introduction: Explain message

I was in the car on the way to a large church where I was going to preach this message. My 18 year old son Judah asked me what I was preaching on. I told him I was preaching on, "Hell in the Hallways." He immediately told me he knew what that was. I was shocked, how could he know, I thought? He then told me hell in the hallways is when you get up in the middle of the night and have to go to the bathroom, but you are so sleepy you can't find the bathroom door. After laughing I told him I thought he was on the right track.

The Apostle Paul once stated that he was in a straight, (Phil 1:23) a straight is:

PPT 2 Definition of a straight

A straight is a narrow body of water between two larger bodies of water. A place of confinement and restriction.

Another word for a straight would be a hallway.

Hallways are those places in life where you are transitioning or waiting to transition from one place to another. When one chapter of your life has come to an end, whether it be in the area of employment, a relationship that has ended, or living in a certain house or at a certain level of financial security, when one of those things has ended and it is difficult for you, invariably you will hear someone try to comfort you with words along these lines:

"When God closes one door He opens another."

Pastor Joseph Garlington in Pittsburgh PA commenting on that thought said, "Yeah but it can be hell in the hallways."

An excellent OT example of being in a straight or a "hallway," is the life of Joseph.

He came out of a nice large place - family life in Israel, and he was headed to a nice large place -

Prime minister of Egypt, but in between was one big hellish hallway.

It is what you do in the hallways of life that in large part determines the doors of life that God will open to you.

This morning we are going to use the life of Joseph and a portion of text in Psalm 105, and his hallway experience to make these three points:

PPT 3 Message Outline

1.The Trial, 2. Tests, and 3. Triumphs of hallways.

First I would like to define hallways in life and the people who are in them.

1. Those in school are in a hallway.

2. Those seeking a mate.

3. Those looking for a job.

4. Those waiting to retire.

5. Those in a difficult marriage.

6. Those who are waiting for a healing.

7. Those who are waiting for that baby to pop out.

8. Those who are waiting for those kids to move out!

9. Those who are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God...

So you can see that life is actually one hallway after another, and in one sense this life is just the hallway to the next.

Joseph was in a hallway first, he was waiting for his dreams to come true, than to reunite with his family, then to have his bones buried in the promised land. Life is a hallway.

What we have to learn to do, is not put life off until we get out of the hallway.

Let's begin now by looking at:

I. The Trials of the Hallways.

PPT 4 The difference between trials and tests

Trials are hardships, difficulties or troubles we have to endure.

Tests on the other hand is the fact that these trials are used to critique and query the spiritual metal from which we are made. It is not a test to find faults but more of a quality control type issue where the goal is better and consistent results.

Trials and tests are so overlapping we can't often tell the difference where one begins an the other ends. In this message you will see how these overlap, and that trials also bring seasons of testing. It is my hope that God will comfort you in your trials, and grow you in your tests.

PPT 5 Sermon text

Text: Psalm 105:16-19

Ps 105:16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.

Ps 105:17 He sent a man before them, [even] Joseph, [who] was sold for a servant:

Ps 105:18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: Ps 105:19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.

Please notice God called for a famine. The famine was to get Israel in line with God's plans for them. Perhaps your current financial crisis or other difficulty is part of God's plan to bring others to Christ.