Sermon Tone Analysis

Growing up I never cared that much about how I dressed.

For your good, God brought Leanna into my life, so now I dress better than I would on my own.

But in thinking of clothes, I realized that I disliked the socks that I had growing up.

Not because of the style or anything, as you can figure I’m clueless to that.

What I didn’t like about my socks was the fact that they were not all the same, each pair of socks had a picture of something on the side.

As you can imagine it was only every other full moon that I would wear socks that would match not only in color but also with the picture.

You don’t need to worry about my socks matching today, most of my socks nowadays are just plain black eliminating this annoying aspect from my youth.

However, it knocks Leanna’s sock off that my socks don’t last as long as hers.

At best my socks last 6 months.

It must be in the boys’ genes because Byron’s socks also last only a short time.

So every so often we have socks that are worn out and need to be tossed and replaced.

Maybe your socks last longer, but all of our clothes wear out, they have a short lifespan.

In the passage today we see the author of Hebrews uses the fact that clothes wear out to compare to creation that is temporary, to God, or Christ, who remains forever.

Our experience in this life often cause us to assume that creation is secure and stable.

The main message in this passage is to remind us that only Christ is eternal.

Let’s pause and think for a moment.

What do we erroneously thing as eternal or that is not going to change?

Think of something that we might often consider stable and “eternal”.

Maybe a place you visit year and year, or the ocean.

Mt Rushmore.

Or relationships and memories.

Our need for teachers, doctors and preachers.

Psalm 102

In the passage today in Hebrews we see here another quotation of the OT.

v 10 to 12 is a quotation from Psalm 102:25-27 The subscription of this psalm says: “A prayer of one afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord” That is the overall context of the Psalm.

About half of Psalm 102 is a lament of someone who is greatly afflicted and as he brings his lament he finds hope by looking into who God is; he recognizes that God is on His throne forever and that gives the psalmist hope and great exaltation of God.

The highest part of the exaltation is the last verses of this Psalm quoted here saying:

In the midst of suffering the psalmist found hope by looking at what God had done, He created the earth from nothing - all that we know and rely on.

By looking at who God is, that God is reining on His throne, and above all that God is eternal.

As you face suffering meditating on Ps 102; making it your own words of prayer not only provides comfort; but teaches us how go to God in our sufferings.

First, cry out to God in the day of distress asking God to answer quickly.

Then we should tell God what is heavy in our hearts, being specific about what we are experiencing.

What is amazing about this is when we do so we are NOT giving God new information.

He knows much better than we do in what is going on, especially in our hearts.

It is good for our souls to pour out our hearts to Him because we are behaving in a manner that shows our dependency on God.

In an amazing way, as only God can orchestrate, this time of sharing is a privilege and audaciously, not just for us, but God himself delights in hearing us!

And what encouragement in your time of suffering!

Then after we pour all of our heart to God, we meditate on who God is, that He is reigning on His throne and nothing is outside of His control, that He raises nations and brings nations to nothing.

And He regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.

He the eternal God, infinitely more permanent than the heavens and earth He fashioned.

Than the problems/suffering of this temporal world.

It is here in our misery that we can shift our perspective and praise Him despite our temporal sufferings - as deep, intense and overwhelming it is.

PAUSE

When we consider the OT quotations in Heb 1 there is something unique about this quote in v 10-12.

The other quotations in chapter 1 of Hebrews are clear references to the Messiah in the OT, which were often addressed to a descendent of David, but addressed in a way that was only fitted for God.

What is unique for this quotation from Psalm 102 is that it is a clear direct reference to God, while the other references in Heb 1 were a clear reference to the Messiah.

Through the use of this quotation the author is making it crystal clear that Jesus is God.

The author can do so because he already has shown from Heb 1: 1- 9 that Christ is no other than the second person of the Trinity.

There he gave plenty of OT references that can be applied only to Christ.

So why this additional quote here if he had already provided so much?

To argue that Jesus, as God, is also eternal.

Jesus was part of creation and He will still be the same even after creation passes away.

This also reaffirms what was already said in Heb 1:2-3 that, through Jesus, the Father created the world.

Not only this, but Jesus upholds the universe by the word of His power.

The Eternal Christ

What we know about creation is what God told us in Genesis, now in the book of Hebrews God teaches us that Jesus was involved in the act of creation and it was through Him that the Father created the world.

But Heb 1 is not the only place that says that Jesus was involved in creation.

Paul tell us something similar in Col 1

We know from Gen 1 that God spoke and things came into existence.

Now God tells us that Jesus also was part of the action of creation.

It makes sense because there is one God.

A Triune God.

One God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So when we go out and observe God’s creation or look at breathtaking pictures of the universe like this one it should not only cause us to be in awe of our creation.

It should cause us to worship God, Father, Son and HS, as we observe the work of His hands.

When Miriam was born I was in tears, looking at this little, poor little girl that looked so much like me.

I saw her tiny hands and face, this person that God created.

It is such a miracle.

I can only say: Look and see what God has done!

His works are amazing.

When I didn’t know the Lord I remember being in places where creation was amazing to observe, but creation itself never caused any change in my heart.

But after I came to faith, and I remember this like it was yesterday.

I was in one of the most beautiful places in Brazil, in Florianopolis, where I climbed a mountain, and from the top, I could see for miles and miles many beaches and the ocean in perfect green with speckles of sunshine reflecting like a precious jewel.

The curved shape of the land was made by such an amazing perfect creator.

When I got to the top of the mountain and saw all of this amazing creation.

There was the only thing I could do I fell on my knees and worshiped the one who created it all.

This is such a special memory that I have because it was the first time I recognized God’s hands in His creation and truly worship the only creator.

Not just being amazed at creation itself.

Sometimes it is good for our souls to take a trip and see some of God’s creation.

Or hold an infant and just take the moment to think about the One who created.

Stopping to smell the roses is good, but to stop and admire the one who created the roses and worship Him, just because of who He is.

It is far greater.

The only true God, He is the source of all goodness.

The least we should do is to take some time to appreciate and give thanks to the One who is truly worthy of our praise.

However, in this moment of awe, as the Psalmist is looking at creation, there is an unexpected turn as the psalmist is observing creation.

He says

When we look at creation we don’t often think of it as something that is temporal.

When we want to have an idea of something that is never changing we often look at rocks or mountains.

We might go back to the place we used to live.

I actually often enjoy going by places where we used to live to see how things have changed and what stayed the same.

If we go back to the place where we were born and raised and if we had a familiar rock or boulder and go back to look after many years that rock has not changed a bit, it is still the same size, it might have more moss over it or shifted, but the rock hasn’t changed.

It seems like it is unchanging and stable.

Creation, at first sight, might seem so stable that some think that creation always existed.

For many years the common worldly belief was that creation always existed.

That it didn’t have a beginning.

Today it is commonly accepted that there was a beginning to creation.

However, often men refuse to honor and give thanks to God.

Scripture testifies to that, it says in

Rom 1:19-21 “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.