Sermon Tone Analysis

Big Idea

Tension: How does teach us to pray to God?

Resolution: through lament.

Exegetical idea: teaches us how to pray to God through lament.

Theological Idea: God wants his saints to pray with Christ in the language of lament.

Homiletical Idea: God wants us to pray with Christ through lament.

Introduction

Around 50 or 60 years ago, there was a movement in American Christianity called the Seeker Sensitive movement.

In the seeker sensitive movement, some Christians came together and they said, “Hey, we have this problem, people are leaving the church in droves.

We gotta fix this.

So what we’re going to do is we’re going to get rid of the parts of church which people don’t like and we’re going to really emphasize those parts of church which appeal to unbelievers.”

Now, the Seeker Sensitive movement didn’t get everything wrong.

But one thing that they were wrong about is that they forgot that sometimes the things that we don’t want to hear are sometimes the things that we need to hear.

And what started happening, is that these churches became places where only the cheerful and joyful were talked about.

They downplayed sin and suffering.

And they just tried to make everything super happy all the time.

But of course, the problem is that is not what life is like.

And what happened was church became a place that those who were feeling guilty, those who were feeling shame, those who were feeling pain did not feel welcome.

And the church became the one place where the people who needed it most did not feel welcome.

This is to our great detriment, because as Tim Keller says in his excellent book on suffering, that Christianity offers more resources for suffering than any other religion.

ANd in fact, only Christianity can bring life out of death, and joy out of pain, and singing out of suffering.

The Christian faith has a great deal to say about those who are feeling the weight and pain of suffering.

May our church always be a place where those who are feeling broken, those who are feeling hurt, those who are feeling pain feel welcome.

And in particular, the book of Psalms has much to say about suffering.

SO we said this last week, that most of the beginning of the book of Psalms is composed of what we call Psalms of lament.

And Psalms of lament are Psalms that teach sufferers how to approach God.

And as the book of Psalms continues, it slowly transitions into praise.

So the Book of Psalms is really one big lament and praise Psalm, kind of like a Mosaic is built of all these small pictures that combine to make a big picture.

And as we’re going to talk about today, the laments of God are a gift that he has given his people.

So today, I want you to understand that God wants us to lament with Christ.

That Christ laments to God, so can we.

God wants us to lament with Christ.

ANd I want to teach you how to lament.

So everybody put 4 fingers up in the air.

And here’s how you lament, almost every lament in the Bible follows these 4 movements.

First, address

Second, Complain

Third, Request

Fourht Trust

Why don’t you repeat that after me?

And today I want to let this Psalm that we’ve read today teach us how to lament.

So we’re going to follow and hopefully we’ll all be a little bit better at lamenting than we were when we started.

1. Address

How long Oh Lord

Will you forget me forever

Will you hide your face from me

Christ on the cross

Prayer Journal

Prayer to God: So when we say lament Psalms all start with an address, really, almost all of them start with some kind of address to God in the first couple of words.

That says a lot.

Because this is communication between the Psalmist and God.

The Psalmist knows that he can pray to God and God will hear him.

He knows he can pray to God, and God will want to hear him.

You see, to pray to God means that you assume two things about God.

God is good

How would you address God?

Transcendence: God is great (): The first thing that we have to know about God is what we talked about last week.

It is that God is “transcendent.”

When we say that God is transcendent, it means that we believe he is other than us.

He is higher than us.

He is greater than us.

He is bigger than us.

We are semipotent, he is omnipotent.

We know a few htings, he knows everything.

We are in one place at one time, he is in all places at all times.

ANd that’s important.

Becuase if you odn’t beleive that God is transcendent, than what is the point in addressing him?

What good is it to pray to God about a crisis if you don’t think he can do anythign about it?

No when we pray to God, we are praying and saying, “God, fix this.

Solve this.

God I know you’re strong, I know you’re able, I know your powerful.

So why don’t you show it.”

Immanence: God is good (): But the second thing that we have to bleieve about God when we are praying Psalms of lament is that we have to believe he is immanent.

We have to believe that he loves us, that he cherishes us, that he has chosen us and called us his own.

We are his chidlren.

We have to believe as says… We have to believe that God wants the best for us and that he loves us and will not let go of us.

God is great; he is transcendent.

But God is also good; he is immanent.

He loves us.

This is important, because if you don’t believe God loves you, why would you pray to him?

Because what good is a stoic god?

Why would that kind of God like the deists believed rescue?

But, if you believe that God is immanent You can say, “God, you say you are loving, but why have you let this happen to me?”

You see, if you lament, you have to believe that God loves.

Because what would be the point if he didn’t?

Christ is the convergence of God’s goodness and his greatness: Of course, as Christians, we know that Christ is where these two great attributes of God meet.

We know that Christ was fully God and therefore, that he is transcendent.

We see the limitless holiness of God when christ died on teh cross in tehp lace of our sins.

There a cosmic display of the wrath of God showed itself for all the universe to see.

But we also see God’s immanence; God shows his great love for sinners on the cross.

Christ revealed his great love for those who are broken and beaten, because he took teh wrath they deserved, he took the punishment they deserved.

In Christ, we see God’s transcdendence like we have never seen it before.

Yet, we also see his immanence.

Both his greatness and his goodness forever.

If you don’t believe this, then you will not be able to lament

The situation of lament: And if we understand these two things, we are free to call out to him when a crisis hits: when we lose our job, when we get into a car accident, when we get into a fight with our family.

When we understand tehse two things, when we are struck by a bout of depression, or when our marriage hits the rocks, or when thigns seem like they’re flaling apart all around us, we are freed to reach out and pray to God, because we know that he is both strong enough and loving enough to help us.

NOw, that’s what it takes to address God.

ANd this is how we address him...

2. Complain