Sermon Tone Analysis

I am .

This message is for the wanderer.

Are you wandering without purpose?

Is your soul thirsty for something more?

Are you trying to satisfy a spiritual hunger?

Would you like direction and purpose, would you like your spiritual thirst quenched?

If so the Lord has good news for you this morning.

This message is also for those that are in bondage.

Does something have a grip on your life?

Does it feel like you are chained to sin? Are you in bondage to a guilt, or anger?

Would you like to be free?

Would like for those chains to be broken?

If so the Lord has good news for you this morning.

This message is also for the rebels.

Those that follow their own wisdom.

Those who think they know what is best.

Has following your own decisions led to poor choices, and now you wished you had wisdom to follow?

If you are a rebel the Lord has good news for you this morning.

This message is also for the self-sufficient.

Those who are convinced that they can do it on there own.

Is that you?

Have you found that sometimes there are things out of your grasp, things you can you nothing about?

Would like some assurance today that everything is going to be all right?

Are you ready to place your trust in someone other than yourself?

If so, the Lord has some good news for you today.

Which one are you?

Are you a wanderer?

Are you in bondage, or a rebel?

Self-sufficient?

Perhaps a little of all of them?

Before we begin, let me start with a word of prayer.

Pray

What are you thankful for?

Who are you thankful to?

What are you thankful for?

Most of us here have a lot to thankful for.

Who are you thankful to?

This seems obvious, but let me explain.

When things are going well for us, we have plenty of things to thankful for.

We usually express it very easily.

However, and I’m not faulting anyone, it is just this way with people, when things are good our thankfulness tends to be on the surface.

If things are going well for a period of time, you may be thankful for food, or your job and your family, and that is fine.

But who are you thankful to?

Now it may be assumed we are thankful to God.

However, sometimes deep in your mind, and you may not even be fully aware of it, but what is way down in your thinking is you know my hard work built this house.

My talent earned the money that paid for the Television.

And you are thankful, but the thankfulness only goes so deep.

Ultimately, you can be just thankful that things are going well, and it is directed personally toward any one specific person, You are just thankful.

Now if that same person goes through hard times, like a job loss, or an illness, they may look at things differently.

Maybe, now you are praying your way through a tragedy, a real rough spot.

Now, when you come to thanksgiving, things look a little different.

You have a greater appreciation of what you have.

Even the little things bring you a great sense of gratitude.

And you can give thanks specifically to God above for hearing your prayer, and carrying you that difficult time.

Your thankfulness is so much deeper.

When you have not had a job for a while, even a bad job is pretty good.

You now more clearly see how God had his hand in your life, now you are thank to a person-specifically-the Lord.

For His hand in the process of you getting a job.

The Pilgrims

It was like that for the pilgrims.

The pilgrims, were desperately seeking religious freedom.

They left everything they knew and packed up their whole lives, and set out in search of a place they could worship God in freedom, and peace.

We don’t give too much though about this, but remember they sailed across the ocean in a wooden sailboat.

No modern conveniences.

People died.

And they landed here, in the Northeast in winter.

Imagine, that for a second.

We have gortex, and snowblowers insulated houses, cars and we complain about winter.

They landed here without any of that.

Just surviving was an accomplishment.

After the first summer here, in the harvest of 1621, they gave thanks.

Now imagine their thankfulness.

Now, they had that deep thankfulness I was talking about.

They gave thanks to God.

They gave thanks to God, that they survived.

They gave thanks to God that they had a harvest at all, now matter how bleak it was, and it wasn’t great by the way.

Part of their deep thankfulness, was their knowledge of today’s passage of scripture, Psalm 107.

The commander of the group, William Bradford referenced Psalm 107 in his summary of their achievement.

WIlliam Bradford wrote-

May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice and looked on their adversity,.…

“Let them therefore praise the Lord, because he is good: and his mercies endure forever.”

“Yes, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, shew how he hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor.

When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them.

Let them confess before the Lord his loving kindness and his wonderful works before the sons of men.”

The Pilgrim’s had this deep sense of gratitude toward God, because he recused them from something.

He saved them from religious persecution, He saved them from perils at sea, from the winter.

God acted in their history and they praised him for it.

Thanks or Thanksgiving from a biblical perspective is tied to praise.

It is a giving of praise, to God for His works in human history.

That can even be our personal history.-For

instance- you get a job, and you praise God, or honor God, in some way, maybe in prayer, maybe in worship, whatever way you, express your love to God because in some fashion he acted in your life and you got the job.

That is what Psalm 107, Psalm 107 is this prayer, of praise, to God for his works in human history.

Verses 1-3 of the Psalm start out as a call to Praise God.

Give thanks, or Praise the Lord.

Why? because He is good.

He is good.

That is part of His character, it what makes God, God, He is good, And his lovingkindness, endures forever.

God is not sometimes loving He has everlasting faithfulness.

It is who God is.

It is part of his character.