Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

            Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this morning.

Besides the fact that it is a privilege to speak the Word of God, it is also interesting that a unique set of circumstances has come together with this message.

The theme that was given to me was “Broken and Blessed.”

This theme fits well with what has been happening to us recently.

It was about a year ago that we together with our home church agreed that my work there was completed.

We had been in Manitou for 12 years and completed our ministry there at the end of July.

When we were done, we sold our house and moved to Winnipeg because we had not found another church.

We have lived there and for the past seven months I have been unemployed.

I received unemployment, Carla worked and I also had odd jobs, but it has been a difficult time because we were looking for another place of ministry and were not finding it.

There have been days of questioning, doubts, all kinds of reflections and a whole load of puzzles.

It has been a time of being broken.

In preparing this message, I have had the opportunity to reflect theologically on this time and to put down on paper some of the things which I have learned in this time.

I am glad I could do this.

About two weeks ago, we received a call from the Rosenort EMC church and will begin there on April 1.

So my recent experience has been one of being broken and also blessed.

I hope that you will permit me to do some personal reflection as we look at the Biblical texts together.

There are times in our life when we feel that our life or something in it is broken.

Perhaps you feel that way this morning.

We don’t like having trouble and just as all of us would avoid pain when it comes to a visit to the dentist, all of us would also like to avoid the pains which life sometimes brings us… and yet they come.

I am convinced that such reflection on what it means to experience being broken and also blessed is very important.

There are certain thoughts which tempt us and trouble us in the midst of our struggle.

We ask, “Why is this happening?”

We wonder whether God exists or whether He cares about us.

We wonder who is in control and we try to take control.

We wonder if our faith is strong enough.

There are some people who believe that if we have any trouble in life that we just don’t have enough faith.

We attended a church once where this was taught and the theology was evident in what was preached.

Some have identified this as the “name it and claim it” theology.

On the other hand, there are some who seem to revel in sorrow and think that being spiritual means enduring suffering and expecting nothing from God.

With all these different reactions to times of brokeness, it is important to take control of our thinking.

We need a good theology of suffering.

I am not going to pretend to be comprehensive about that today, but I hope that reflection on the texts that I have been given and some thought about these things will provide us with some sound thinking in this direction.

! I.                   God Desires To Bless

            During the last few months, there were days when I began to wonder where God was.

Although I have always believed in God, I wondered if he cared about me and where he was in the midst of my trials.

I have been tempted to forget about what God wants and do what I want.

Although such doubt is natural, is it justified?

What does the Bible tell us about the nature of God and his desires for us?

 

!! A.                Seen In The Rainbow

            One time when the whole world was broken is the story of the flood.

The story of Noah is a story that tells us something of the nature of God and answers this question.

At a time in human history when people had become very wicked, God, who is just and holy determined that it was time for judgement on the earth.

He called upon Noah to build an ark in order to preserve one family and the animals of the earth and to bring them through the judgement of flooding and to repopulate the earth once again.

After the flood, Noah made a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.

At the time of that sacrifice, God spoke to Noah and made a covenant with him that he would never destroy the earth by a flood again.

In this covenant, we see what God’s desire is.

A covenant is a promise, but it is even more than a promise, it is a contract.

God, as the creator and ruler of the universe, declared with all solemnity and seriousness that he would enter into an agreement with sinful humanity.

Promising not to destroy the world by a flood again tells us that it is God’s desire to bless and not to destroy.

God also made a sign of the covenant for everyone to see.

The sign of the covenant was the rainbow.

The rainbow would be a reminder to God that he had made this promise and would keep it.

Of course, the rainbow is much more for us.

It tells us that God will not destroy the earth by flooding and that it is his desire to bless and build up his people.

The other thing that we notice is that God is the only one who can create and sustain a rainbow and so God is the only one who can keep the promise.

The keeping of this promise is in the hand of God.

The rainbow assures us that God’s promise stands inviolate.

Now this story tells us some important things about who God is.

The presence of the rainbow reminds us of the desire of God.

It is not his desire to destroy, but to build up.

It is not his desire to leave people in brokeness, but to bless them.

We also realize that God has not only revealed this desire, but has also acted on it.

Since that time, the whole earth has not been flooded.

Every time we see a rainbow, we can be reminded that God has made this covenant and that He is a covenant keeping God.

 

!! B.                 Demonstrated In The Coming Of Jesus

            As we continue to study the Bible, we find again and again that God is a covenant keeping God.

Always in the history of His people, we see that it is His desire to bless and build up and not to destroy.

The greatest example of this, is of course the coming of Jesus.

I Peter 3:18a is a passage that arises in the context of suffering for doing good.

It was written to believers who were experiencing severe persecution.

To these broken believers, Peter reminds them of the greatest evidence of God’s grace and faithful covenant keeping when he says in 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” Jesus Christ died on the cross in the greatest act of covenant keeping and blessing the world has ever seen.

The flood was necessary because people walked in wickedness.

God, desiring to bless, but also being holy and just, had to destroy the evil.

But having washed the evil from the earth, it was evident that this was not the end of it, there would need to be a better solution and since he had promised not to wash the evil out of the earth by a flood again, He brought us Jesus as that better way.

By his blood, God is both just in that he deals with evil and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus so that he can keep his covenant to bless.

I like the promise in Romans 8:32 which says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

!! C.                Our Response

During the time of our struggle over the last half year as I have been tempted to doubt the power of God or the love of God, I have often been helped as I have reflected on the Bible and such passages as these.

I have been encouraged to know that God is the one who has promised to bless and that he is a God who keeps his promises.

I don’t know what your struggle is today.

I suspect that there are times when you wonder where God is or why he is doing what he is doing in your life.

I suspect that you question his sovereignty, his power or his love.

The stories of the rainbow and the coming of Jesus are both stories that tell us that God’s desire is to bless and that he keeps the promises he makes.

One practical thing which we can do and which I have tried to do at the times when I was most discouraged is to remember the God of promise.

I try to think back over the times when God has blessed and answered prayer for me.

I have reflected on stories in the Bible when God has acted and have also reflected on the things that have happened to me in the past when I have seen God act.

These have encouraged me in the times of struggle.

Psalm 22:1-5 speaks about this,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

2O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.

In these first two verses we hear the broken and struggling cry of the writer, but he goes on.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.

4 In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.

5 They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.”

In our brokeness, let us remember the God who makes and keeps his promise to bless.

! II.

God Blesses Because Of His Mercy

            But what reason do we have to hope in the promises of God? Have you ever thought, “ God should give this to me because I deserve it?”