December 10, 2002
A. Review
1) Theme: Journeying to the Promised Land
2) Saturday morning—In the Footsteps of Abraham
3) Saturday night—The Valley of Baca
4) Sunday night—Egypt and the Golden Calf
5) Monday night—Lingering in the Valley of Baca
B. Tonight—Scoffers in the Journey
1) We are going to come back and follow in the footsteps of God’s people as they embarked on journeying to the Promised Land.
2) On Sunday night, we learned that God’s people committed a heinous sin by making a Golden Calf
3) But God forgave them. In spite of this, the record shows that out of all who originally came out from Egypt, only two persons were able to enter the Promised Land.
a) Joshua and Caleb
b) Even Moses did not enter the Promised Land.
4) The question is why? Part of the answer is what we call “Spiritual Burnout”
C. What are some of the symptoms of burnout
1) Chronic exhaustion. The person is constantly tired without obvious reasons.
a) I am tired of church services
b) I am tired of reading my Bible
c) I am tired of participating in the church services
d) I am tired of smiling at the people all the time
e) I am tired of handing out the church bulletins
f) I am tired of functioning in the same office year in and year out.
g) I am tired of being tired
2) Detachment. The person starts isolating himself or herself from others.
a) Church is not really important in my spiritual journey towards the heavenly Canaan.
b) I can worship God in the privacy of my home.
c) The church can’t save me.
d) I don’t need other people to worship God
e) I can better worship God when I am alone
3) Pessimism. Doubts and negative thoughts start coming to our mind
a) Does God really care for me?
b) Is Christ really coming the second time?
c) Can I really be saved in spite of my spiritual conditions?
d) Is heaven a real place where God’s people will inhabit for a thousand years?
e) Are you sure that there is life after death?
f) I cannot really believe what the Bible says on unclean foods.
g) God is love. He will not really destroy the wicked.
4) Impatience. We grow weary and tired of waiting
a) Two thousand years of waiting for the Second Coming is too long
b) I have seen all the signs of the time already fulfilled. But why Jesus is not yet here.
c) I have spent all my adult life serving God faithfully, but it looks like that I am not going to see the fruits of my labors.
d) I have heard the same sermon again and again, but nothing has happened.
e) I have wasted my time serving God and his church.
5) Suspicion of being unappreciated
a) The elder does not talk to me, maybe he does not appreciate what I am doing in the church.
b) They did not announce my financial contributions to the church maybe they don’t really appreciate it.
c) When I call for a revival week, only few people are showing up. Maybe they don’t really need and appreciate my sermons.
d) I gave a wonderful clock to the church. But I don’t see the church using it. Perhaps they don’t appreciate what I gave to them.
e) When I propose that we venture on some church projects, I see only few people coming and helping.
6) Disorientation. Burnout people become disoriented with time, places, people, events, and other things.
a) We become disoriented between what is right and what is wrong
b) We make false arguments and conclusions on many clear biblical teachings.
1. “God helps those who help themselves. Therefore, if I am working on the Sabbath to help myself, then I am not really violating the provision not to work on the Sabbath.”
2. “As long as I pray for the food before I eat, it does not matter what I eat.”
3. “What was true during the time of the Apostles and the Reformers is not necessarily true today. Time had changed. Values and morals are different back then and now.”
c) We fall back into situational ethics.
7) Psychosomatic illnesses
a) We get sick on the Sabbath. But immediately after Sabbath, we are strong as a horse again. We can even stay in party up to 1 o’clock in the morning.
b) My ulcer keeps bothering me on the Sabbath. Interestingly, it does not bother me throughout the week.
c) I get migraine headache during prayer.
8) Depression and loneliness. Everywhere we look it is gloomy.
9) Denial of your feelings.
a) “I may look sad, but I am not really sad. I am happy inside.”
b) “I am not really angry.”
c) “I need to please everyone.”
10) Lessened satisfaction. We don’t find satisfaction in what we do.
11) Rigidity. Everything has to be done exactly the way I do it.
a) If you are not preaching the way I preach, you are not preaching well.
b) If you are not singing the way I sing, you are not singing well.
D. Why do we have to spend time identifying symptoms of spiritual burnout? Here’s why:
1) The Devil is seeking whom he may devour
a) 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
b) Revelation 12:12, “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
2) False Christs and false prophets
a) Matthew 24:24, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”
b) 2 Peter 2:1, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.”
3) Shaking and Falling away
a) 2 Thessalonians 2:3, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”
b) EGW, “We are in the shaking time, the time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken. The Lord will not excuse those who know the truth if they do not in word and deed obey His commands.”--6T 332
4) Scoffers in the journey
a) 2 Peter 3:3-4, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts. And saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”
b) Jude 1:18, “How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.”
c) What will scoffers do?
1. Creates doubts in the mind
2. Creates a mockery of what we believe
3. Points to nature to support their belief
a. EGW, The Faith I Live By, page 341, “Scoffers pointed to the things of nature--to the unvarying succession of the seasons, to the blue skies that had never poured out rain, to the green fields refreshed by the soft dews of night--and they cried out, "Doth he not speak parables?" In contempt they declared the preacher of righteousness to be a wild enthusiast; and they went on, more eager in their pursuit of pleasure, more intent upon their evil ways, than ever before. But their unbelief did not hinder the predicted event.”
4. Points to the delay to prove their belief
5. Uses your experiences of disappointment to win you to their side.
a. Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White, page 185, “The disappointment of God’s waiting people was great. The scoffers were triumphant and won the weak and cowardly to their ranks. Some who had appeared to possess true faith seemed to have been influenced only by fear, and now their courage returned with the passing of the time, and they boldly united with the scoffers declaring they had never been fooled to really believe the doctrine of Miller, who was a mad fanatic. Others, naturally yielding or vacillating, quietly deserted the cause.”
6. Former believers will become the boldest scoffers
a. EGW, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 95, “Many at first appeared to receive the warning; yet they did not turn to God with true repentance. They were unwilling to renounce their sins. During the time that elapsed before the coming of the Flood, their faith was tested, and they failed to endure the trial. Overcome by the prevailing unbelief, they finally joined their former associates in rejecting the solemn message. Some were deeply convicted, and would have heeded the words of warning; but there were so many to jest and ridicule, that they partook of the same spirit, resisted the invitations of mercy, and were soon among the boldest and most defiant scoffers; for none are so reckless and go to such lengths in sin as do those who have once had light, but have resisted the convicting Spirit of God.”
E. What must we do?
1) Watch and Pray
a) Luke 21:36, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
b) 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.”
2) Receive the word readily and study the Scriptures daily
a) Acts 17:11, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
b) 2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
3) Hold on to the Truth
a) Hebrews 4:14, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.”
b) 2 Timothy 1:13, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”
c) Revelation 3:3, “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.”
d) Revelation 2:25, “But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.”
4) Share what you have found
a) Proverbs 11:25, “The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
b) Ecclesiastes 11:1, “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.”
c) Evangelism defined—“One hungry person telling another hungry person the source of bread.”
5) Rest your worry in Christ
a) Hebrews 4:9-11, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
b) 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
F. Reflections on Noah’s Ark as it relates to the church
1) How many Ark did God command Noah to build? ONE
2) How many preachers of righteousness at Noah’s time? ONE
3) Aside from Noah, his family, and the animals, none were saved. Even those who in the beginning helped build the Ark.
4) It was probably noisy, congested, dirty, and crowded in the Ark. But it was God’s means of salvation.
5) Maybe the animals and Noah’s family did not always get along inside the Ark. Nevertheless, it was God’s means of salvation.
6) Maybe it did not rain during the first six days after God closed the Ark. But it does not matter. It rained anyhow.
7) Maybe the scoffers were correct in their observation that the seasons continued as it was in the beginning. But their conclusion that it will never rain was completely incorrect.
8) When the rain started pouring down, the scoffers wanted to get into the Ark, but it was too late.
9) EGW, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, page 49, “Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His supreme regard.”
10) Unfortunately, many who once rejoiced with the truth have now joined the world in mocking the truth. Others have abandoned God’s Ark for some other Arks.
11) The call is being given. The trumpet of warning is sounding. Will you obey God’s call to enter into His rest?
