1. Making the most of a difficult situation
Maxwell tells a story that illustrates the importance of a positive attitude. A newly married woman insisted on going to the California desert so she could be near her military husband. The only place the couple could find to live was a rundown shack near an Indian village. The daytime heat was unbearable-105 degrees in the shade. The dry wind blew constantly, covering everything with dust. None of the Indians spoke English. The young wife was miserable.
Then she learned that her husband was going deeper into the desert for 2 weeks. So she wrote her mother and asked if she could come home.
In her mother¡¯s reply were these words: "Two men looked through prison bars; one saw mud, the other saw stars." As the woman read those lines over and over, she decided to change. She would look for the stars.
She set out to make friends with the Indians. When they saw her genuine interest, they taught her weaving and pottery. She learned their culture.
Then she began to study the desert itself-its cacti, Joshua trees, and seashells left behind by the sands of an ocean floor.
Not only did she survive, she became known as an expert on the area and later published a book about it.
2. The desert is a picture of difficulty AND opportunity
3. Genesis 21.15-17
4. The bush described here is believed by some scholars to be the desert Broom Tree which provides a spotted shade and a respite from the sun
5. This tree would prove to be important on the desert journey.
I. Relief of Shade
A. When the Heat is On We Seek Shade
If you were to walk down the aisles of any pharmacy in America you¡¯d find that one of their most popular products is pain killers. They have shelves that are packed with bottles Ibuprofen, Aspirin, Tylenol etc. If you want, you can buy them in huge jars holding 250 pills. Other shelves contain tubes of "rub-on pain relief" like Ben Gay and Aspergel. Or, you might want to check out various types of chemical ice packs and heating pads. Pain relief is big business in America. We spend billions every year because none of us want to hurt. Everyone wants to live a comfortable life.
1. Life¡¯s difficulties sap us like heat in the summer
2. Examples: Disease; Death of loved ones; Job-loss; Divorce; Rebellious child . . .
3. Some difficulties come by our own doing ¨C Adam and Eve
4. Some by the hands of others ¨C Sarah and Abraham with Hagar; 10 and 2 Spies
B. God is Our partner in the Heat
1. He is our shade
5 The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade
on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite you by day,
nor the moon by night. Psalm 121.5-6
For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, Isaiah 25.4
2. He is our shade for the NOW
a. We still have to walk in the desert
b. But more relief is promised ¨C more Broom Trees along the way
c. Jonah received and lost shade from God ¨C more to come
C. We Become Shade for Others
As Abraham, we are blessed to be a blessing
1. A Challenge for Israel ¨C
You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches. Psalm 80.8-10
23 on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. Ezekiel 17.23
2. A Component of Peter ¨C 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and pallets, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. Acts 5.14-16
3. A Characteristic of Yeshua (Jesus) ¨C Matthew 11.28-30
4. A Commitment for the Church (God¡¯s Witnessing Body) ¨C James 1.27; 2.1-13
II. Reflections on Shade
A. Shade is Sure
1. Light and an Object are Needed
2. Many sources: Living and Dead; Tall and Short; Rich or Poor; Good and Evil
B. Shade is Still but Powerful
1. Some things are done in a public and loud ¨C Acts 2
2. Some things are quiet and private (leaven in dough)
Many years ago in England a book was published entitled, John Inglefant. The book was a flop. Only 100 copies could be disposed of, and 60 of those were given to the author. One day William Gladstone, Prime Minister of Britain, was to sit for a photograph. To make the photo more realistic, the photographer asked Gladstone to hold a book, as if he were reading it. The official photo was released and people all over England and the world saw Gladstone reading John Inglefant. There was a run on them at the book stores and several new editions sold out.
C. Shade is Steadfast (Indestructible)
1. Remove shade by removing light or the object
2. Influence continues ¨C reason we are careful about what we say/do
3. God is indestructible and steadfast ¨C no beginning and no end
100 years after John Wesley had preached in a certain village, an English Nobleman stopped in the town to buy a drink of alcohol. He could not find a single store that sold liquor.
D. Shade/Shadow is a Symbol of a Person
1. Powerful influence
You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; 2 Corinthians 3.2
2. Be sure to express proper influence
1. God makes provision for his people
a. Shade for Ishmael
b. Wells of Water ¨C Genesis 21.19
2. God continues making provision for us
a. Shade for the journey
b. Living water:
6 Jacob¡¯s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There came a woman of Samar¡äia to draw water. Jesus said to her, ¡°Give me a drink.¡± 8 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, ¡°How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samar¡äia?¡± For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered her, ¡°If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ¡®Give me a drink,¡¯ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.¡± 11 The woman said to him, ¡°Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?¡± 13 Jesus said to her, ¡°Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.¡± 15 The woman said to him, ¡°Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.¡± John 4.6-15
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ¡°If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ¡®Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.¡¯¡± 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7.37-39
3. A difference ¨C God¡¯s provisions last, Man¡¯s do not
a. Food and Water given by Abraham did not last (No Caravan?)
b. Only what God gives lasts
