Sermon Tone Analysis

Nothing New Under the Sun

Which is a pretty-much direct quote from the book of Ecclesiastes.

And that is certainly true of our human behavior.

Three millennia past, a song writer and worship leader in Israel, by the name of Asaph, who appointed to that role by King David, wrote a hymn to remind Israel of their unfaithfulness.

I mentioned to someone in conversation yesterday that the devil doesn’t need any new tricks.

The same old stuff still works way to well.

3,000 years after the psalmist Asaph wrote this hymn about how the people of Israel responded to the amazing His-Story of God, nothing has changed in terms of God’s faithfulness.

And we also discover that nothing has really changed in the way humanity responds to the amazing grace of God.

Lets take a walk through the middle part of Psalm 78.

We left off with a verse that remind us that

God Gives Better Than We Ask

You would think that people would know that God is doing for them way more than they do for him, because this gift of Manna, the bread of angels, was given to them after they almost berated the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

When they had worried that God couldn’t care for them in the desert.

God had responded with Manna, the heavenly food, but the people complained that this sweet, melt-in-you-mouth sustenance did not give them a satisfying chew.

It was like ambrosia is to us, that fruit cocktail with coconut and marshmallow all stirred together with Cool Whip that has been called a salad to justify it on our summer buffets.

It’s good, it’s sweet, but it isn’t barbeque.

That is why, since they complained,

They Got What They Asked For:

God Sent the Quail For Meat

So they were knee-deep in meat, made up their barbeque, and. . .

It turns out having more meat than they could eat was a bad thing:

God Let Them Have What They Begged for, and

They Died Because Their Demands Were Met

Their Hearts Were Unchanged

They still did not beleive!

They could have enjoyed life, but instead,

God Sent Them Death

Because they acted like slavery in Egypt was better than having a miracle-working God who gave them heavenly food.

Now, it seems,

They Remembered God is Faithful

But it didn’t stick.

If you have read ahead in the Psalm, you find the roller-coaster ride of faith that is still common with us, 3,000 years later: as a whole,

Humanity Doesn’t Understand Faithfulness

And so, thinking they believed in God, they really only believed in themselves.

and

Flattery Will Get You Nowhere

God doesn’t want our lies, he wants our hearts.

No matter how we sin

God Loves This World

God Atones for Our Sin

God Restrains His Anger

God Remembers We Are Helpless

and sends help.

God Sends Hope

to our Hopelessness

AND STILL WE SIN AGAINST GOD

Why Do We Keep Doing That?

God will put up with us for a while,

But even God’s patience runs thin after a while.

Our Hearts Must Change Toward God