Sermon Tone Analysis

Review of last week - Total Trust

5 Total Trust statements

I am totally reliant upon him

To call him my shepherd, I must confess that I am a sheep.

I lack the ability to provide for myself, I have a terrible sense of direction and I cannot defend myself

He knows what is best for me

He makes me lie down.

When my instinct tells me the best solution is do more, try harder, reach further…He makes me take rest.

He knows better than I do what I have need of.

My direction is clearer when He is closer

He leadeth into green pastures and beside still waters.

I don’t need to know how to get to the pasture nor to the still waters…I simply need to stay close to the shepherd…he will lead me where I need to go.

His strength and might bring comfort to my life

The rod and the staff were the same instrument that served two purposes…as a rod it was used to drive away and even destroy predators.

As a staff it was used to lift sheep out of precarious places and to nudge them back onto the right path.

When I don’t trust the shepherd, I can live like it is a rod to condemn me and even aid my adversaries in my defeat.

When he is at the center, my darkest hour and lowest point, strengthen my faith

It was in the dark valley of the shadow of death that the 23rd Psalm from a third person poem about God to first person narrative too God.

When the I am is at the center of our lives, our darkest storms draw us closer to the Good Shepherd.

And Moses told them, “It is the food the LORD has given you to eat.

16 These are the LORD’s instructions: Each household should gather as much as it needs.

Pick up two quarts for each person in your tent.”

17 So the people of Israel did as they were told.

Some gathered a lot, some only a little.

18 But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough.

Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough.

Each family had just what it needed.

19 Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.”

20 But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning.

But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell.

Moses was very angry with them.

21 After this the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need.

And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared.

I’m taking a minute to review Trust, because this week as we move on to the second principle of our Extreme Look at Psalms, contentment is impossible without TRUST…if you don’t trust in the Lord, you will never be content.

phil 4:10-13

One statement that I wouldn’t necessarily think of as a “contentment statement” is “I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life”.

Yet it is perhaps the most content statement in the entirety of the 23rd Psalm… We are, as humans restless creatures.

We are constantly looking for the place that makes us feel most complete and most satisfied.

To state that I will dwell in this place all the days of my life, is to state that here I am found all that I need.

Ph

Complete Contentment

Complete Contentment

I’m not going to ask you to stand for the reading of this next passage, but to demonstrate what Biblical contentment looks like,

exodus 16 the children of Isreal have literally just watched their enemies be destroyed as they pass over the red sea and Pharoah and all the armies of Egypt have been drowned.

They final measures from the song of Moses have just been sung and the sustain from Mariams tambourine is still reverberating in the air when the children of Isreal begin to complain because they are hangry.

When I was growing up I was told that there is a difference between hungry and hangry…I always thought it was just slang…but in fact, hangry is an actual word, in the actual dictionary, that actually means…to be irrationally angry because of hunger.

And I believe it fits, because they children of Isreal are so angry because of their hunger that they begin to declare, we had it better off when we were slaves in Egypt!

That isn’t even rational!

You have been liberated, your enemies have all been destroyed…and because the Taco Bell drive through isn’t open…you think you had it better off in Egypt?!? doesn’t even make sense...

So yes…they were hangry.

So God speaks to Moses in Exodus chapter 16 verse 12

God speaks and says, in the evening you will have meat and in the morning you will have bread...its about to be a night and day difference!

you will have all the bread you want!

God miraculously provides manna, which is described as being small, sweet wafers with the consistency of bread that would fall from heaven and when they woke in the mornings the ground would be covered with it.

they would simply have to rise from their tent and go out and gather the mannah.

The instruction was that they were to gather as much as their family needed.

Exodus 16:17-20Verse 17 tells us that some gathered a little and some gathered a lot, but when they finished measuring it out according to the appetite of everyone in the house, everyone had just enough.

Verse 17 tells us that some gathered a little and some gathered a lot, but when they finished measuring it out according to the appetite of everyone in the house, everyone had just enough.

Verse 17 tells us that some gathered a little and some gathered a lot, but when they finished measuring it out according to the appetite of everyone in the house, everyone had just enough.

Verse 17 tells us that some gathered a little and some gathered a lot, but when they finished measuring it out according to the appetite of everyone in the house, everyone had just enough.

And then Moses tells them in vs. 19 Don’t keep any of it until morning.

And then Moses tells them in vs. 19 Don’t keep any of it until morning.

And then Moses tells them in vs. 19 Don’t keep any of it until morning.

He says get all the bread you want…just no leftovers.

He says get all the bread you want…just no leftovers.

If you’re hungry and you’ve got a big appetite, get all the manna you want....Load it up in a pickup truck if you need to…just don’t take more than you will be able to eat.

Vs. 20 tells us some didn’t listen and they some leftovers and when they woke up it was filled with maggots and had a terrible smell.

Exodus 16:20

The swarm of maggots and the stench of rotting provision was not the result of them taking too much…the curse wasn’t an amount issue…it was a trust issue.

It wasn’t an appetite issue…Some gathered more some gathered less…they gathered every man according to his appetite.

It wasn’t an amount issue

It was the result of people bringing tupperware to Golden Corral…It’s always been wrong to bring your ziplock bags to Golden Corral!

It was people bringing ziplock bags to the buffet…trying to save some for later....

Why?

Just in case God can’t duplicate today’s miracle tomorrow!

It wasn’t an appetite issue and it wasn’t an amount issue…it was a trust issue!

Just in case God runs out of manna making power.

When you hoard-up and heap-on because you don’t trust God can keep-on, what God has blessed you with will become infested and funky!

When we don’t trust God we began living a more lifestlye.

Instead of contentment, we live in want.

It doesn’t matter how much you have, you still need more.

It doesn’t matter how good God has been to you, you need better!

Why…just in case God

5 confessions of the content:

I am content because...

1.

I shall not want = ...I have all that I need

Because the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

How many times a day do we utter the phrase “I want”

In America where every billl board and every commercial is to remind you of what you don’t have…we can become consumed with what we don’t have.

And a life that should be lived in green pastures and still waters is lived looking for greener pastures and always swimming upstream.

It was John D. Rockefeller who was regarded as the wealthiest man alive while he was alive, that was reportedly asked “how much money does it take to make a man happy?” to which he allegedly replied, “Just one more dollar".

More is implied than is expressed, not only, I shall not want, but, “I shall be supplied with whatever I need; and, if I have not every thing I desire, I may conclude it is either not fit for me or not good for me or I shall have it in due time.”

In its original Hebrew context the phrase I shall not want might be better understood by stating it this way “I will not lack”.

One Bible resource stated it as the understand that “i have all that I need”.

Because the Lord is my shepherd and I trust that where I am right now…wether that is beside still waters or in the dark shadow of death…for this time in my life, he has brought me to this place and given me what I need…so I can say “I have all that I need”!

Heb., lo’ ’ekhsar [3808/2637, 4202/2893] (I will not lack).

All of the verbs in 23:1–5a are imperfects and give the psalm an unmistakably future orientation (see commentary).

There is only one other use of the verb khaser [2637, 2893] that is grammatically identical (used with neither an object nor an explicit subject and used with the negative adverb lo’ [3808, 4202]); Neh 9:21 says of the wilderness generation, lo’ khaseru (they lacked nothing).

The connection with the wilderness generation in Neh 9:21 suggests the idea that 23:1 may have the wilderness experience in the background; this is confirmed by comparison to a text like Deut 2:7, lo’ khasarta dabar [3808/2637/1697, 4202/2893/1821] (you have lacked nothing).

Instead of comparing my life with what others around me have…instead of looking at all that I do not have…I have all that I need!