Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

Well, this is a most unusual kind of morning here at church.

I don't know if I've ever preached to a mostly empty room.

There are two others here with me.

Just so you are aware, Keith and Kathy are here, helping with the technology this morning.

Thank goodness, and they send their greetings to you all.

And it's I wonder if this is what the queen feels like when she does her, her royal broadcasts and speaks to the camera and I thought it would be kind of fun.

I was joking with Andrea about different possibilities.

We could do this morning like I could wear a mask and I you could all guess who was preaching or something like that.

But the see, this is what happens when the senior pastor is away, but I'll try to behave myself and I do realize that you have the opportunity to switch between me and YouTube videos of cats, but I do hope you'll spend some time with me as we look.

The word of God this morning.

And we know, there are people out there who are they're not well with other things, and we are praying for you, people who have experienced loss recently.

We're praying for you and we are aware that the people have needs and we can't be together in person.

But we want you to know that there are people in our church that are praying for you and thinking about you.

Well, when Believers need comfort and Assurance, they often turn to the songs.

And the songs are filled with reminders of the Lord's Tender Love.

And guidance.

We read about the Lord as our gentle Shepherd leading us compassionately to green waters and Green Pastures and Quiet Waters.

Well, Psalm 77 ain't no Psalm 23, and I wonder if you have courage this morning to open your Bible and sail out with me in to ominous Darkness on the Open Sea.

And if you do feel particularly courageous that, I invite you to open your Bible, the song 77.

We think of David when we think of the songs.

Well, this song was not written by David.

This song was written by a man named ASAP ASAP was the leader of worship during the time of David and Solomon.

And in the Old Testament.

He is referred to as a prophet and as a poet.

And there are at least 12 Songs, which we know ASAP wrote.

And his writing is a little bit different than David's.

He has a different focus, a different style.

And the famous preacher.

Charles Spurgeon said that ASAP had a certain.

Sadness about him.

And this came through in his writing.

And Spurgeon said in order to follow ASAP with understanding.

It is needful to have done business on the Great Waters and weathered many and Atlanta jail.

Let's talk about the ocean.

The poet.

Henry, Wadsworth Longfellow said, learn the secret of the sea.

Only those who Brave, its dangers comprehend, its mystery.

And in conversation, I often tell people that I love the ocean.

But maybe that's not entirely accurate.

I think I am fascinated by the ocean and I have been mystified by the ocean since I was very young and Kathy if she'll put up that first photo.

This is little Mica and my grandfather took this photo and we were on vacation near the ocean in New England.

And this is my first vivid memory of being at the seashore.

And it was a foggy day and I remember walking up to the waves and looking down at my feet and feeling dizzy as the waves broke and pulled the sand from around my feedback toward itself.

And I think I was frightened, but also mesmerised.

And I've never lost that.

Sense of wonder.

Concerning the ocean.

And I used to look out at the horizon line.

And ask my dad is the other side of this ocean, really touching Europe.

And I still look out at the Horizon and think about those kinds of things.

I purchased a book a few years ago, and the book is called The Wave.

It's about ocean waves.

You might think that would be very tedious reading, but it was fascinating to me.

And here's a quote from that book.

The author writes.

From a science and technology standpoint.

We humans like to think we're quite smart.

But quite simply the ocean, doesn't subscribe to the orderly explanations that we would like it, too.

It's a mosh pit of variables.

Some of which science has considered and others of which it hasn't because we don't even know what those variables are.

And it blows my mind that with all the scientific and technological resources.

We have we really don't understand something as seemingly fundamental and accessible as the ocean.

And it surprises me whenever I read in the headlines, on a fairly regular basis that another creature, which scientists had declared to be extinct for 2.7 million years.

Just washed up on a beach in New Jersey.

And the ocean is mysterious.

It can draw us to itself with its beauty and Kathy.

If you could put the next photo up, I really don't know where this photo was taken.

I know, I wasn't there.

I wish I had been my Administrative Assistant found this photo for me, but I have seen water like this in my lifetime.

And for instance, I've flown in an airplane over the Bahamas and look down.

And seeing these colors in the ocean around all those little islands and it is like some kind of soothing therapy.

To look upon this sort of a scene especially on a day like today.

And people will pay thousands of dollars to sit beside water like this and just look at it all day long.

And the ocean can transform from that into this, if you'll changed the photos.

With little warning, the sea can transfer transform itself from Paradise to an iron grave.

The ocean can be treacherous.

And in Psalm 77, we meet a sailor who is lost far out at Sea in the black night with waves like huge walls of water.

The wind is carrying his bow dangerously close to reefs and rocks and the sailor has no control over the situation.

He has tried everything he knows to do but he still is no better off.

He is in a desperate state.

And the ocean, which threatens him is not the Atlantic, or the Pacific or the Arctic Ocean.

This man is lost on a stormy, sea within his own mind.

ASAP is wrestling with the deepest kinds of Darkness.

And I wonder if some of you can relate to him.

We aren't told exactly what he's dealing with.

It could be anxiety or depression, or guilt, or anger.

We don't know what circumstances are causing these emotions in him.

It could be a war or relational difficulties or health problems, and we aren't told the specifics.

And therefore we might be able to relate to ASAP as we remember some of our own darker moments in life.

Let's go through this song together this morning beginning in verse 1 and 2.

ASAP rights.

I cried out to God for help.

I cried out to God, to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord at night.

I stretched out on tiring hands and I would not be comforted.

Asaf begins his story here and keep in mind that this could have been a whole season of time in his life.

Not just one night.

He describes it as a night in the song, but he might just be using one night as a picture representing a dark.

Of time.

He was in distress.