Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Vision

From the first Sunday we believed that the Church of Christ exists in the world to make disciples and plant churches.

We have tried to bring more clarity to that phrase by saying that we exist as a local church in Roseville to submit all of our life to our King and to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to our neighborhoods and the nations.

When we have conversations about ministries, structures, goals, and sermons we go back to that statement and say, “How does this connect to that?”

How is a sermon in the Psalms going to help us make disciples and plant churches?

How is this sermon going to help us submit all of our life to our King and bring the hope of Jesus to our neighbor?

Well, as the people of God who are disciples in the making, we believe that the our whole self belongs to God.

But, do we believe this?

We don’t have time to go through our multi-faceted person and gauge whether we believe this or not, but what the Psalms teach us is that even our emotions belong to God and...

They reveal the importance of emotions in our prayer life

Last year we devoted the month of November to Treasuring Christ through the Psalms and we’re going to continue that for the next few weeks.

Last year we devoted the month of November to Treasuring Christ through the Psalms and we’re going to continue that for the next few weeks.

The Psalms are a collection of poems of lament and thanksgiving, confessions and prayers, and songs.

There were several saints that contributed to the Psalm collective, King David wrote about 70 of these poems, prayers, and songs throughout the mountains and valleys of his own life.

We don’t have time to go through our multi-faceted person and gauge whether we believe this or not, but what the Psalms teach us is that even our emotions belong to God.

Last year we devoted the month of November to Treasuring Christ through the Psalms and we’re going to continue that for the next few weeks.

The Psalms are a collection of poems of lament and thanksgiving, confessions and prayers, and songs.

There were several saints that contributed to the Psalm collective, King David wrote about 70 of these poems, prayers, and songs throughout the mountains and valleys of his own life.

Now, I have learned that a lot of us don’t even like the word emotions.

And if you’re in that camp, prepare for a really uncomfortable sermon.

The Psalms do lots of things, but one is that they reveal the importance of emotions in our prayer life

I said this last week, and I probably say it all the time, but some of us are afraid of discussing let alone displaying emotions because we have seen churches exchange objective truth for subjective experience.

But emotions are a part of our person.

Emotions are a part of God’s character.

God is an emotional being.

So emotions are not to be held up against truth, they should work in tandem, not in competition.

Two ways to deal with emotions:

Shove them into the closet

When we’re angry, happy, doubtful, cynical, sad we do our best to make sure that nobody knows because displaying emotions reveals vulnerability and if there is one thing that we affluent, proud, 21st century suburban Christians are NOT is vulnerable.

So some of you shove them in the closet and you’re repulsed by the display of emotions that those who give full vent to their emotions.

So on the other end of the spectrum you have those who...

Give full vent to your emotions

You deal with your emotions by just letting them all hang out.

When there is an issue, you’re locked and loaded and ready to deal with it and then make up.

But you also say things or do things that you regret.

You are bothered when people are so unmoved by life.

You want to shake folks by the shoulders and tell them to wake up!

Which way do you lean?

Now, neither of these options reflect a fully Christian perspective, so what should we do?

The Psalms teach us to pray through our emotions in the presence of God

is a prime example of a saint Praying through their fear

Fear is one of our most primal emotions

Fear is probably the first emotion we experience

From the womb to the world

Fear doesn’t go away

Fear of death

Fear of failure

Fear of scarcity

Fear of exposure

What are you afraid of this morning?

And what does that lead you to do? Measure.

Now measuring is not always a bad thing.

But what are you measuring?

I think that if we were honest we would base the success of our prayer life by the outcome.

For instance, if you prayed often and fervently for something to happen (new job, healing, acceptance to a college, etc) and it didn’t happen, how would you grade your prayer life?

My prayer life is good because God answers my prayers.

My prayer life is bad because God is not answering my prayers.

And then you stew, did I not pray enough?

Did I not believe God could answer it enough?

The Psalms are a raw view into the prayer life of several people.

They became the prayer book for the people of God.

Martin Luther organized the prayers by how they reflected the Lord’s Prayer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer organized them similarly, believing that the prayers in Scripture are the prayers of Jesus.

The big idea this morning is that - praying through our fears biblically should lead us to have confidence in the care of our Father.

How does David go from, “I’m freaking out that everyone wants to kill me” to “I will not be afraid of many thousands of people, I’m going to bed?”

Identify the Source of Your Fear (1-2)

What is causing him to be afraid?

Many, many, many people after him (physical attack - = 12,000 foot soldiers)

Many are saying, God is through with David (attack on David’s identity)

What is David’s history?

Humble to hero > Shepherd to King > Pride to sin

What are they saying about David?

God isn’t on David’s side anymore

Who is David now?

He’s a sinner, he’s a bad king, he’s a bad husband, he’s a bad dad, he’s running, LOL

David has wrapped his identity in who he was as a hero, king, great dad, etc…, but all that is gone

Two types of fear:

Positive fear - adrenaline (feeling of power and energy)

Negative fear - anxiety (feeling of dread and weakness)

David is running for fear not only of his assailants; David is afraid that what is being said about he and God is true.

Once David has identified the source of his fear (both physical and spiritual) he then is able to recognize that the dreadful spirit that came over him is going to paralyze him.

So he knows he must turn somewhere, where does David turn his attention?

Turn Your Attention to the Character of God (3)

How does David describe God’s character?

Three metaphors

You are my shield - the image of God as shield is easy enough to understand = protection, prevents harm from over taking you.

But when a soldier puts on a shield, what is the expectation?

Nothing bad will ever happen to him, right?

Cause I have a shield…

He knows that things are not good and may not get better soon.

So what David is reminding himself of through prayers is that YHWH is present in the moment and protecting David from being utterly destroyed because God is a shield AROUND HIM.

Sometimes we assume that God’s role in our life is to keep us from bad stuff.

Some will even assume that when bad things come into our lives that it means God is NOT there.

What part does David need protection for?

Why doesn’t David just say, you are my helmet?

A shield protects the most significant organs on the body.

The following two metaphors reveal what David’s hangups were.

You are my glory - kavod - heavy and weightiness; significant and important

Eglon was heavy