Sermon Tone Analysis

Loanne & I

Married 16 years ago

Loanne baptized at Victory

Moved to France a year later

Married Loanne 16 years ago

Felt God calling us to plant a church

Education - Strasbourg, England & Ireland

Planted a church in central Paris with Acts 29 in September 2014

Eglise Connexion

Central Paris

2.2 million people

Only a handful of solid, gospel-centered, Bible-preaching churches

Châtelet-Les Halles

The center of the center

The goal: give everyone who lives in and around the city reasonable access to the gospel.

Access to Châtelet in 20 minutes from outside the city limits

Church has grown from 6 to 160 in less than 5 years (the average evangelical church in France runs 30-50 people).

Mostly young singles

Eight couples in pre-marital counseling

Fifteen babies born in the last two years (the most recent being two weeks ago)

Mostly young Christians

The most frequent testimony at baptisms: “Grew up in church, but I didn’t understand the gospel.”

Connexion

Moved to France a year later

Jack, Zadie

> Expository preaching—books of the Bible (Luke)

Eglise Connexion

I don’t presume to know what would be useful for you to hear, but every summer we go through a selection from each book of the Psalms together in our church; so I thought that today we could do a similar exercise together, in .

Mostly young adults (though more variety now)

In , there are three subjects which Moses hovers around and circles back to constantly.

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place

And he’s going to respond to these three subjects with three distinct prayers at the end of the Psalm.

So the first big theme of the psalm is God’s eternity—or eternality.

throughout all generations.

2 Before the mountains were born

or you brought forth the whole world,

V. 1:

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place

throughout all generations.

2 Before the mountains were born

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

or you brought forth the whole world,

So that’s where Moses is going: he’ll be talking about time, and why God is fit to be a dwelling

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

We see the same idea in v. 4:

4 A thousand years in your sight

are like a day that has just gone by,

or like a watch in the night.

One of the fundamental facts of God’s existence is his eternity—

That’s where we get the idea that God has always existed and will always exist—he will live for all eternity, and he has lived for all eternity before creating the world.

he has always existed, and will always exist.

We see the same idea in v. 4:

In this way he is totally unique;

4 A thousand years in your sight

there is nothing else that is eternal.

The second big theme is a contrast with God’s eternity—it is the temporary nature of man.

are like a day that has just gone by,

V. 5:

5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—

they are like the new grass of the morning:

6 In the morning it springs up new,

but by evening it is dry and withered.

And in v. 10:

10 Our days may come to seventy years,

or eighty, if our strength endures;

yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,

for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Compared to God’s eternity, a man’s lifespan is like a weed which sprouts up in the morning and is withered by evening.

So Moses takes the time to establish this temporal distance that exists between us and God—that he is eternal, and we are temporary.

It’s actually the perfect illustration of the existential distance which between God and ourselves in every other way.

We constantly try to remake God into our image, but it just doesn’t work; he has shared with us a handful of his attributes, but he is not like us.

The third big theme of the psalm is the reason why that distance exists—our own sin.

V. 3:

3 You turn people back to dust,

saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”

Moses clearly has in mind (he wrote it, after all):

or like a watch in the night.

One of the fundamental facts

V. 1-10: God, Eternity and Us

V. 1-10: God, Eternity and Us

Intro: v. 1—Dwelling place

That’s where he’s going, but it’ll take some pain to get there.

19  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

3 subjects Moses hovers around and circles back to constantly, which he will respond to in 3 distinct prayers.

(he wrote it, after all): 19  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

In case that wasn’t quite explicit enough, he goes on—v.

7:

God’s Eternity

7 We are consumed by your anger

and terrified by your indignation.

8 You have set our iniquities before you,

v.2: From everlasting to everlasting

our secret sins in the light of your presence.

9 All our days pass away under your wrath;

v. 4: 1000 years = like a day

Man’s Temporality (temporariness)

v. 5: they are like the new grass of the morning

we finish our years with a moan.

v. 10: 70-80 years of trouble and sorrow

Moses takes the time to establish the temporal distance between us and God

In other words, sin is the reason we have an expiration date.