Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTN

I’D RATHER DIE WHILE I’M LIVING THAN LIVE WHILE I’M DEAD

I WANT TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER EVERY NOW AND THEN..

THE WEATHER IS HERE, WISH YOU WERE BEAUTIFUL.

All of these truisms were the creation of that “dock-of-the-bay” philosopher, Jimmy Buffet.

While I surely there are better sources of truth, I must say that this last one rings true to me, because it has often described me.

I would have to say with complete conviction that INDECISION SURELY MAY OR MAY NOT BE MY PROBLEM.

Anybody else struggle to make up your mind.

Anyone else ever have trouble maintaining your devotion to a decision you have made?

I sure have, and since I don’t want you to lose all faith in me, let me give you an example of it in my life from decades ago.

It was entering my junior year in college.

I was the president of the College Choir that year and we were traveling a good bit for the school.

For that reason, I suppose, the promotion department of FWBBC asked me to write a promotional piece which would be placed on a handbill that they would be using for advertisement whenever we went into a church.

I was flattered by the opportunity, and wrote the piece.

Then I began to have second thoughts . . .

not about what I had written but about whether I would be remaining in choir during my second semester.

I felt like I had very good reasons for leaving the choir and getting a job to earn some money that I really needed.

I went back and forth with it, finding it hard to decide.

I was torn.

I felt unsettled, even guilty when I thought of it.

I struggled to feel happy about it and wasn’t at all confident about my decision.

Meantime, as I struggled, the school was printing up all those handbills.

I think they printed hundreds.

Finally, I decided.

I really had to leave the Choir for the grocery store.

I think the administration probably had some choice thoughts and maybe even words about the fickle choir president who couldn’t be counted on.

That next semester the choir traveled with a promotional piece featuring a testimony from the college choir president who wasn’t even a member of the choir.

Yes, I was embarrassed!

Have you ever done anything like that?

Have you ever made a decision and had trouble sticking with it?

Maybe you went out for a sports team, made the team, but quit.

Maybe you were taking piano as a child and quit because you couldn’t stand to practice.

Or maybe, you’re a nursery worker here in this church who committed to keep the 1 year olds, but, whenever its your turn, you just find something else you need to do.

NEED

Our struggle to remain committed and to follow through is an important part of maturing into an adult, but its ramifications exceed the hazards of abandoning your teammates, neglecting your practice, or ditching your nursery assignment.

When this habit carries over into my spiritual life, the negative impact greatly increases.

And here’s what you need to know about those who are spiritually not devoted: Uncommitted people have little joy.

This is true for a number of reasons: In the first place, uncommitted people are usually distracted.

They suffer constantly from the stress of too many options.

Since they lack the lens of commitment their gaze suffers from a flood of possibilities that leaves them mired in the tar pit of indecision.

And, probably for that reason, uncommitted people are often discouraged.

Without the north star of an overriding devotion, they are overwhelmed and feel inadequate to decide.

This discourages them by robbing them of the presence of God that provides confidence that He will help them in their trouble.

In short, they do not have the confidence that comes from the constant presence of God.

They lack that confidence because they are not absolutely committed and devoted to God.

BACKGROUND:

A couple of weeks ago we began our series entitled Radical: Discovering the Joy of Genuine Faith.

We defined joy as the current confidence that flows from the future hope and practical guidance made possible through the constant presence of God.

We took that definition from the sixteenth psalm.

But, as I was studying this psalm, I found more than just a definition of joy in its verses.

I also found what I call the decision of Joy.

If you are to implement the definition of joy in your life so that you truly experience it, there is a clear decision you must make: You must decide to devote yourself, your whole life to God.

Now, immediately, when I say that, it is tempting to glaze over.

If you’ve gone to almost any church, you’ve heard something like this almost every time you’ve plopped in the pew.

Well, I want you to listen, because this psalm doesn’t just command devotion from you, it explains devotion to you.

Read it with me:

Preserve 1me, O God, for in You I put my trust.

O my soul, you have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, bMy goodness is nothing apart from You.”

As for the saints who are on the earth, “They are the excellent ones, in cwhom is all my delight.”

Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god; Their drink offerings of dblood I will not offer, Nor take up their names on my lips.

O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You 2maintain my lot.

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance.

I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; My 3heart also instructs me in the night seasons.

fI have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will 4rest in hope.

For You will not leave my soul in 5Sheol,Nor will You allow Your Holy One to 6see corruption.

You will show me the hpath of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

How can you be devoted to God? Well, in the first place, true devotion involves:

DIV 1: CLARITY

EXP

While vv 2-3 are difficult to translate and there are many interpretations of them, I think this one makes the most sense.

What David is doing here is attacking a problem that was common in his day and certainly common in ours.

What seems to be a great statement of faith in vv 2 and 3 actually may be not so good.

Now listen carefully and let me explain:

Notice in v2 that the words, “O my soul,” are in italics.

That means that they were supplied by the translators and not in the original.

Literally the verse says, “You have said to the Lord, You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.” David engages in an imagined conversation with another “believer” in this verse.

He says to this person, “You are saying that the Lord Jehovah is your Master.

You are saying that Yahweh is your primary passion and your number one priority.”

That’s great!

So far so good.

But this “friend” of David is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

In v 3. It says, As for the saints who are on the earth, “They are the excellent ones, in cwhom is all my delight.”

Now the word “saints” is literally “holy ones,” and doesn’t refer to people who are followers of Yahweh.

The “holy ones” here are the many gods that were in the land at the time who were worshiped by many Israelites along with Jehovah.

Thus, these pagan deities are also called “the mighty or excellent ones in whom is my delight.”

So, if you take the two verses together they would sound like this: You have said that Yahweh is your Master and that He is supplying your needs, but you have also said of the pagan gods around you that they are the mighty ones in whom you take great pleasure.

David’s friend is trying to have it both ways!

He’s making spiritual noises towards the one and only God and towards the many gods around him.

When you understand it that way, then v 4 makes a lot more sense.

David says of these mixed up people, Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god; Their drink offerings of dblood I will not offer, Nor take up their names on my lips.

As President Obama likes to say, David basically says, “Let me be CLEAR!

These people who are trying to have God and everything else will only multiply their sorrows.”

Get it?

If you are not clear about Who your God really is, you will have the opposite of JOY.

What is that?

Multiplied sorrows.

Listen!

The reason there is an epidemic of depression in America is not that it is tougher to live in our culture than its ever been.

The reason that people are more stressed and unhappy than ever before is not that they have more problems today than they’ve ever had before.