Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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Tone of specific sentences

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Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
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Social Tendencies
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Anger
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Prayer
An authentic Thanksgiving.
I'm sorry.
It just dawned on me that perhaps you saw this title, and got the wrong idea.
Perhaps, you saw the title "An Authentic Thanksgiving," and thought this is going to be interesting.
Greg is going to talk the Pilgrims or the Puritans or maybe what the food was like then.
Or perhaps he might talk about all those warm feelings we remember from long ago when we gathered at Grandma's house for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and we didn't have cell phones, video games and black Friday sales to distract us.
If you came expecting that I am sorry, I wasn't trying to be well, less than genuine; I was just trying to explain in detail this idea of authenticity a little more.
Were you last week?
Last week I talked a little about authenticity.
It is the opposite of hypocrisy.
It is about being genuine and honest about what is going on in our heart.
I wonder if these days we haven’t accidentally cultivated a less than genuine approach to giving thanks and saying thank you.
Let me give you an example.
When children receive a present, they are very authentic with their expressions of their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the gift.
There is something raw and emotional on the face of a child when they open a present.
Right?
We have all seen this.
A child receives a gift and you immediately know whether they appreciate the gift, and the giver, or not.
When they receive the toy that they really wanted they cannot contain their emotion.
They shout they run they jump they run over to the giver and throw their arms around their neck almost knocking them over.
And sometimes the Adults even try to squelch the enthusiasm.
Sometime’s in the child's mind the giver is lifted up.
The child shouts.
“you are the greatest uncle ever,” thank you so much.
Praise and thanks, all rolled into one.
Authentic, genuine, not hypocritical, right out of the heart.
But what happens when you give kids clothes.
Kids excitedly tear into a birthday or Christmas present and then as soon as they see it’s clothes their eyes roll, their face drops, and they toss the gift aside and look for the next one.
The parents usually step in and say, now make sure you thank your aunt for the nice sweater.
The child mumbles out a thank you auntie.
Not very genuine, perhaps a bit hypocritical.
Interestingly, if you went to a third world country, some where the children don't have as many clothes as children in America, and you gave a kid the same gift, instead of disappointment you would see the same unbridled enthusiasm that child here exhibited for receiving the toy he always wanted.
Why is that?
It is because the child here perceives that he or she is self-sufficient in the clothes department.
They go to the drawer, and pull out what they need.
When it is too small, magically more appear.
But the toy, well that is something that cannot provide for themselves, they don't have that and there is no other way to get it unless it is given to them.
If you perceive that you are able to provide something for yourself, then it is difficult to genuinely give thanks for it.
You may do it, but it is not AS genuine.
This is similar to what we see In today's scripture text, Psalm 30.
A Psalm is Hebrew Poetry; it is a hymn or a song or a prayer.
It is an expression of the heart to God.
King David wrote Psalm 30.
In this Psalm King David at least for a period was self-sufficient, but then something happened.
David needed to rely on God, for God to rescue Him.
God delivered David, and out of David's grateful heart, exploded a testimony of Thanksgiving and Praise to God for who He is and what he has done.
If we can get a handle on how David's thanksgiving came from his heart to God, maybe we can understand a little more how we can be more authentic with our thanksgiving to God.
Turn with me to Psalm 30.
When we look at this Song of Thanksgiving or Hymn of Praise to God we see that there is a certain form to it.
It will be helpful if we look at a very basic form of this Psalm.
Psalm 30-Basic Outline
Verses 1-5-Testimony of Praise
Verses 6-10-David’s Experience
Verses 11-12-Testimony of Praise
One basic outline of this Psalm is David has a testimony of Praise and thanksgiving to God, followed by David recalling the events that led to it, followed again by a testimony of thanks and praise.
This is not unusual, we do it all the time.
Picture having guests over for thanksgiving, and in the rush of the day you burn the pies, as you are wondering what you are going to do, one of your guests arrives carrying two pies.
You will say, Thank you so much, how wonderful it was that you bailed me out.
A testimony of thanks and praise for what they have done.
You may follow that with a recall of the situation, I just burned the pies.
Then one more thanks and praise.
Thank you so much you are so thoughtful.
With that structure in mind let's begin in the middle where David recalls his situation so that we can tell what led to his praise, and thanksgiving.
David felt secure; he was on solid ground and God's grace was there for him.
The Lord provided, the kingdom was running smoothly.
He could go to the well and draw all the grace he would need.
Have you ever been there?
You know when things are going good when life is firing on all cylinders.
Work is stable, the kids are doing well, send up a quick prayer here and quick prayer there, off to work, back home and ready for the weekend.
You give thanks at mealtime and your fridge is full.
It's a good spot to be in.
My prayer is that everybody here is in that spot.
If David was sitting there with one of those note cards in his hand, he could write on it that he was thankful for food, thankful for the kingdom for protection from enemies, easy peasy.
If you think back to our earlier example with the children getting clothes, it is like the drawer is full.
A quick reminder to be thankful is all.
You know when we are in that spot, it is not as if it insincere, it is just not overflowing, just not bursting.
But for David, he did not stay in that place.
But there came a time when God hid his face from David.
Things got bad.
David was dismayed, he was depressed, he went to the well, and it was dry.
He probably had a severe health crisis, and might have been on his deathbed.
And the worse part was it seemed God hid his face from him.
That's why when people are ill, and we pray for them, we pray that the Lord will be there with them.
When you are sick or injured, and while your body heals it is of great comfort to know that at least the Lord is with you.
It is important to know as you struggle that God has not abandoned you and that he is right there with you.
But for David, it as if God has hidden his face.
So David prays.
David prays to the Lord and cries for mercy.
Mercy.
When we hear that word mercy, there is this image of the condemned pleading for mercy for his sentence.
That game when you were a kid, someone has the upper hand, and they can do away with you at any moment unless you cry for mercy.
David is someone who is aware of who is.
David is aware of the fact that He is a sinner.
In the ancient jewish mind there was a correlation between illness and sin.
We don’t think so much that way today.
Really the issue is not whether sin caused the illness or not.
David, just like us, one way or another well or sick, still sins.
We have this narrow view of God, where we think things are going well God is happy with me, things are not going well, I must be doing something wrong.
That is too narrow of a view.
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