Sermon Tone Analysis

A. We do not know what is best for us.

Illus:

I. God will give you what you ask for.

18 And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat?

For it was better for us in Egypt.”

Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat.

19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?” ’ ”

A. We do not know what is best for us.

Illus: Have you heard of the freshman fifteen?

It the truth that 18 year olds tend to gain weight as they leave the house for the first time.

Oh, I can remember my first year of college.

I went three hours away to Howard Payne University and I had the unlimited meal plan.

It was SOOOOO good.

Our college cafeteria had a burger bar where you could make a triple cheese burger if you so desired.

Oh they also had a nacho cheese dispenser… which meant cheese fries with every meal!

They had a dessert bar, unlimited cokes, bacon, an omelet bar, pasta.... all the food your belly could handle.

I not only gained my freshman fifteen, but a freshman thirty.

Three months thirty pounds, I may have set a record for that first semester.

I did not know what was best for me.

Often with the buffet of life in front of us we look and believe that indulgence is the answer to happiness.

Well until we look into the mirror of truth and realize that indulgence has left us fat with sin.

B. God’s passive wrath is giving you what you want.

Illus: You have heard the phrase when God closes a door he opens a window.

Sometimes God closes the door on purpose.

Sometimes God closes the door for your greater good.

Yet our sinful desire is at war against God, and often will continue to pound on the door which God closed purposely for our good.

If we continue to pound on the door which God purposly closed, God will open it, not because it is good for you, but because you won’t stop beating on the door.

When God opens the door which is not good for you, it is to allow you to have the sinful desire you long for.

He hands you over to that desire in order that you can feel it’s emptiness and worthlessness.

This is called the passive wrath of God.

When God hands you over to you sin so that you can feel it’s emptiness and turn back to Him.

II.

God is working on another level.

A. Where we care about the temporal, God is working in the eternal.

Illus: We spend out lives talking about food preferences, air conditioning preferences, work stress, people conflicts, and first world problems.

We live for our first world problems.

Like the fact that we get calls from telemarketers, having a bad phone signal, waiting for an extra five minutes at walmart, having amazon deliver a day later than expected, having someone park in your spot at church or sit in your pew, having a baby cry while you are out eating, should I go on?

In large part our lives are spent dealing with the insignificant complaints of how we are annoyed by the world around us.

We are no different than the Israelite.

When you read through scripture, God is not working for our temporal concerns, nor is he working to bring ease to our lives.

God may very well call you to embrace pain for a greater purpose, an eternal purpose.

He may call you to a difficult or impoverished life for his eternal purpose.

We are called to endure far more than temporal discomfort for God’s much greater plan.

By the way, Jesus did… because Jesus’ life was not lived for the avoidance of pain, but instead to embrace pain in order to accomplish Gods eternal plan.

B. God will expose the emptiness of what you want to lead you to the abundance of who He is.

Illus: In our world today we are always looking for the next fix to make us happy.

If only I had this gadget, this experience, this tattoo, this house, this boat, this car, then I will be happy...

Then we get the thing we want and we find that I is just another empty promise which did not satisfy our hearts.

So we look for the next thing always wanting more.

Over and over God is exposing the emptiness of what we want so that we turn to him.

There is a reason these temporary things don’t make you happy… they are not God.

When you come to embrace God, He will satisfy you in a way that the next thing never will.

III.

Does God’s anger still burn against us?

A. You cannot understand Christ without understanding the burning anger of God.

Illus: I want to take a moment to look at the anger of God.

God is still just as angry at our selfish hearts as he was in ancient times.

God is still hates sin.

His anger still burns against our wickedness.

When Jesus died on the cross, God poured out the full anger he has towards our sin onto Christ.

When we follow God by repenting of our sin and trusting him by faith, our sin is placed on Jesus and He absorbs the anger we are due.