Sermon Tone Analysis

Pop quiz.

When the going gets tough, the tough get…going.

That’s right.

I would have also excepted shopping, or even out of here.

When the going gets tough, the tough get out of here.

At least that is the way things can feel sometimes, am I right?

There is something in our nature that makes us want to enjoy an easy life, without much pain, strife or conflict.

And all too often we fight really hard to keep these things out of our lives.

But to live this way is to live consumed by fear.

When the going gets tough, the tough get out of here.

If you ever decide to take classes at Michigan State University, I would highly recommend that you do not sign up for night classes during the winter semester, unless you have a car you can drive.

Mindy learned this lesson the hard way as she was riding her bike to class the first day of the winter semester, it must have been 10 degrees outside.

And she told herself that she was going to quit unless she could find someone to give her a ride.

She did.

She found and very friendly, helpful and not too bad looking guy who offered her a ride home that evening.

And the rest is history.

But there is something inside of us that makes us retreat from things that are difficult.

This is not something that we have to be taught.

In fact, what we have to be taught is that you don’t not do something just because it is hard.

Well, that’s OK for things like classes and summer camps, or sports teams and like, but what about the really difficult situations in life?

What about those situations when we find ourselves walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and the only like we can seem to find is that of the flaming arrows that the enemy is throwing at us?

                What about when marriages are falling apart?

Jobs are lost?

Relationships are strained?

What about those kinds of situations where they cause so much pain that it is uncomfortable to think about, and even more so to talk about?

What about those situations that cause to call into question everything that we have previously thought or believed?

Or those situations that cause us to question God?

Where are you God? Or is there even a God?

Or if God is God then he is not good, because he is allowing this to happen.

We have all had these experiences in our lives.

When you live in a world that is broken and corrupted by sin, they are bound to come up.

And these things can leave us feeling like we have just been run over by a truck and they can make us want to give up.

To throw in the towel.

When the going gets tough, the tough get out of here.

If you have been through this kind of situation, then you can relate very easily to ancestors in the faith who suffered through the Babylonian Exile.

The people of God, faced with the reality of their sins, of going after other gods, of being unmerciful, unjust, and the exact opposite of what they were called to be, were faced with the consequences of their actions.

The situation meant for them that the temple would be destroyed.

Keep in mind that the temple is where God was present with his people.

For them, the destruction of the temple meant that God was no longer with them.

That he gave up on them, and so they were taken to a foreign land and forced to in a strange place.

This created quite the crisis for these people.

They wondered if they were still God’s people, or if he had given up on them forever.

They wondered where he was, and if he would even hear their prayers again.

It is in this situation that the words of Isaiah speak loud and strong.

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;

 23 who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

(Isa 40:21-23 NRS)

                When life hits us hard, it is easy to be short sighted.

We cannot, very easily see past the pain of the situation that we find ourselves in.

For the people of the exile, this was the kingdom of Babylon.

They were the most powerful kingdom in the world.

There was no one else that was going to come and defeat them.

And even if there was, that doesn’t mean that ones who do overthrow them would be any more sympatheic toward God’s people.

So froma human perspective, it seemed quite hopeless.

And yet, even the most powerful person in this world, is like a grasshopper compared to our God.

He is so big and so power that he stretches out the heavens as if they were a curtain.

Compared to him the power of the rulers of this earth are nothing.

Even the most powerful of the powers in all of creation, is still just that, part of creation.

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.

30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

 31 but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

(Isa 40:28-31 NRS)

                But our God is the creator of all things, whether those things are visible and invisible.

That means that he is not subject to his creation, and that his creation is not outside of his control.

Even though it may seem that way from our perspective.

Our God is a god who give power to the faint.

He strengthens the powerless.

Waiting on him, is not a sign of weakness or giving up or even being passive.

But waiting on the Lord is a way to renew strength.

Although waiting is not much fun is it?

Especially in our fast paced almost instant world.

We have instant access to our bank information via the internet.

We have instant access to friends and family through cell phones.

We have instant coffee and instant pancakes.

And we can develop an attitude that says, “If I wanted patients, I would have been a doctor.”

And yet, waiting on God is a spiritual disciple.

It is a way of saying, “I trust you Lord.

I may not like what is going on.

It may be terrible painful and awful.

It may be a situation that I cannot see the end of, and yet I know that in your timing all things will work out.

So even though it is really hard, Thy will be done, O Lord.”

And yet in Jesus, we see that the kingdom of God has come near.

This doesn’t just mean that it is close at hand, but that it is here now in our midst.

Sure it is not in all of its fullness, but we are certainly experiencing it.

We can certainly live in it and enjoy it.

And we know this because where ever we see Jesus go, we see him, healing, fixing, restoring the creation.

Some of us today are in that valley.

Deep down.

And when if you are there, know that God is with you.

And some of us today are not in that valley.

Know that God is with you.

One the great things about this Christian life that we live together is that those of us who are not in the valley are able to come alongside of those who are in the valley, and the love them and support them, and encourage them and pray with them.