Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

            I would like to invite you to do a little experiment.

Put your hand about 6-8 inches from your face.

Focus on your hand.

While continuing to focus your gaze on your hand, are you able to see clearly how many dots are on this page on the overhead?

Now if you change your focus onto this overhead, what is on here becomes clear and your hand is not as clear.

When we live in this world, our focus often is on what is around us.

This is natural and not surprising, because it is what we see.

The problem is that when we live with a focus on this world, we tend to lose focus on the eternal things, the things of God.

Last week, we talked about looking at God.

I said that one of the ways in which we build faith is to gaze upon the Father.

We read Psalm 123:1,2  “I lift up my eyes to you…our eyes look to the LORD our God…”

            Today is thanksgiving and one of the best ways to look to God is to look to Him in thanksgiving.

I know of no better way to adjust our focus away from the things of the earth and to look to God than by thanksgiving.

!

I.

The Focus Of Our Lives

            When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden before they sinned, it seems that they had an undisrupted fellowship with the Father.

After they sinned, there are several statements which are very suggestive to me.

It says that “God walked in the garden in the cool of the day.”

Then, it says that Adam and Eve hid from God.

The implication is that before they sinned God often walked in the garden and Adam and Eve had an open fellowship with Him.

Of course, when they sinned, that fellowship was broken and the open relationship they’d had was no more.

Sin broke the relationship.

In Christ, however, that relationship has been restored and all who belong to Christ have God’s Spirit living in them.

God has restored our relationship with Him.

Why is it then that we still have a hard time seeing God in our lives?

In one scene of the popular movie Robin Hood, The Prince of Thieves, Kevin Costner as Robin comes to a young man taking aim at an archery target.

Robin asks, "Can you shoot amid distractions?"

Just before the boy releases the string, Robin pokes his ear with the feathers of an arrow.

The boy's shot flies high by several feet.

After the laughter of those watching dies down, Maid Marian, standing behind the boy, asks Robin, "Can you?"

Robin Hood raises his bow and takes aim.

Just as he releases the arrow, Maid Marian leans beside him and flirtatiously blows into his face.

The arrow misses the target, glances off the tree behind it, and scarcely misses a bystander.

Just like the boy and Robin, we lose focus on God because we have become distracted.

We see the things of this world so vividly before us and we find it difficult to concentrate on God in our lives.

As a consequence, we begin to love the things we see instead of God.

And we forget that God supplies us with all things.

The Bible warns us repeatedly about this danger of losing focus on God by focusing on the things of the world.

In Matthew 19:16-26, we have the story of the rich young ruler.

This young man came to Jesus wanting to know how to inherit eternal life.

He was aware of the eternal dimension and longed for it.

When Jesus pointed out that in his case, he needed to sell everything and give it to the poor, He revealed that this young man was distracted by his wealth.

He was not able to let go of what he had in order to gain life.

He “held things as more important than the will of God.”

When the disciples realized that being so distracted by material things was common to all of us, they wondered how it was possible for anyone to gain a proper perspective and Jesus assured them that it was only possible by the power of God.

Now as we think about this, it might be tempting for us to condemn wealth in and of itself, but the story of the rich young ruler does not condemn wealth nor advocate universal poverty.

Jesus said these things because the young ruler was focused on his wealth and distracted from the things of God.

You do not, have to be wealthy in order to be focused on the things of this world.

I Timothy 6:6-10 is very clear that it is the love of money, not money that is the root of all sorts of evil.

Again it is a matter of focus.

The question is, “Are we focused on the things of this world, or are we focused on God?”

            I think the whole thing is very clear in Matthew 6:21 where it says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

What is the focus of our life?

If we are honest, all of us will likely have to confess that we are focused on what we can see.

In The Table of Inwardness, Calvin Miller writes, “Many years ago, someone gave me an antique wooden dynamite box made in the nineteenth century.

For years I prized that box.

It was meticulously constructed with mitred corners, and bore an ominous warning printed in bold red and black letters: “Danger Dynamite!”

At one time the box had, indeed, been dangerous; its contents had to be handled gently.

But the last time I saw it, the box was filled with common paraphernalia that could be found in any workroom.

There’s some force in the universe that doesn’t like empty boxes!

So when the emptiness is not filled by careful design, it becomes a catchall.

The box is a parable of Christians in our time.

Designed to bear the power of God, we are haphazardly filled with the trivia of our world.”

!

II.

Restoring A Proper Focus

            How can we restore a proper focus?

I think that the best way to do that is to develop and cultivate a habit of thankfulness.

Psalm 34:8 invites us, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

This morning is a great opportunity to spend some time reorienting our focus.

But, of course, I want to  encourage us to discipline ourselves to make thanksgiving a regular part of each day so that we maintain this God directed orientation.

!! A. Giving Thanks To God Our Creator

This morning, I invite us to direct our gaze, in thankfulness, on God who is our creator.

I love the beauty of what we see in the world.

This week I put up my bird feeder and the first visitors to the feeder were a magpie and a blue jay.

Have you ever had a good look at the colours on these birds?

The black and white of the magpie is highlighted with a beautiful greenish bluish fluorescent like colour on his back and tail feathers.

In the sunlight, the blue of the blue jay is so brilliant.

When offset by the black and white it is wonderful.

Since then juncos and chickadees have also discovered the feeder.

The colours of the trees have also been beautiful this week.

We have one tree in our yard which when it turned was a bright orange, red and yellow.

We could see it through the evergreens in the corner of our lot and enjoyed it very much.

When I have my devotions in the morning, I sit beside a window and opposite the window, there is a mirror which faces east.

As I sit there, I am able to see the changing sky as the sun comes up and then with brightness and beauty breaks the horizon and shines across the land.

I appreciate the beauty of the display which the decorating committee has put up which reminds us of what God has created.

We enjoy the beauty of all that is around us, but we need to be careful for in enjoying the beauty of it, we have not yet oriented our thoughts to the creator of it.

Eugene Peterson says,  “There are no nature psalms in Scripture…they are always about God.” “The Biblical poets did not go in for nature appreciation; in fact, they were in vehement opposition to it.”

As we see the beauty, we need to think not simply about the beauty of what we see, but deliberately think about the one who made it.

The Psalms help us do that.

Psalm 114, is an interesting Psalm that combines God’s action in history and on creation.

It expresses God’s power over creation in the parting of Red sea, the parting of the Jordan and God’s presence on Mount Sinai when Israel received the law.

Listen to the words of this Psalm.

Read Psalm 114:1-6.

But the Psalm is not about the experience of creation.

Listen to the last verse.

Read Psalm 114:7.

The Psalm is about God, who has made these things.

When we look at what has been created, as much as we might enjoy the beauty of what we see, we really need to cultivate a habit of thankfulness and like the Psalmist, allow the occasion of seeing the beauty of creation move us to give thanks to God who in creation has demonstrated His power, wisdom and creativity.

Psalm 33 is another Psalm which helps us focus on God as creator and moves us to thank Him for what He has done.