Sermon Tone Analysis

2008-07-27 (am) Lamentations 4 It’s What’s Inside that Counts

 

            There comes a time in life, often when tragedy strikes, or when there’s a close brush with death, where our priorities get rearranged.

For the most part, though, life simply flows.

We work hard to put God first in our lives.

We try to be good Christians, good parents, good children, good spouses, good single people.

We try to keep an even keel.

We try to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

That is, having received the free gift of grace, the full, eternal righteousness of Jesus Christ, bought by his precious blood, his death on the cross which satisfied God’s justice, we work with the Holy Spirit to live godly lives.

But as time goes on, we, often without even intending it, we can get distracted.

Without really realising it, we can allow other things to creep up into our spheres of attention.

Instead of focussing all our heart, soul, mind and strength on God, we allow our minds and our lives to tune into other things.

We turn our eyes not to Jesus, but to stuff, or relationships, or desires of our sinful natures.

Not all of what grabs our attention is evil.

Sinful things are not the only things that draw us away from God.

We can make idols out of anything that isn’t God.

We can turn work into an idol.

We can idolise our families.

We can idolise our spouses, our friends, our favourite hockey team or player, pop star, what have you.

This happens, if it were otherwise, they’d have come up with a different name for /American Idol/!

People idolise all kinds of things, and Christians are still susceptible to such temptations.

Now, lots of these things are not evil in of themselves.

Sure, they might be fallen, but even though I’m a Canucks fan, I don’t think the Oilers are inherently evil!

But we can allow sports, and other things take top priority in our life, when we know that God is supposed to be the top priority in our lives.

It is difficult, and at times, the lines get somewhat blurred.

Being a good parent can be something that is done for the glory of God, and so, God still remains the priority, though your focus is on parenting your children.

Similarly, you can still have God as your top priority, and still take pleasure in doing a good job at work.

You can serve, honour, and glorify God at work.

But the waters get murky when work shifts to become your top priority.

This is a very difficult area, particularly in our society, which recognises no holy days.

You have to ask yourself the following question.

Does working on Sunday take priority away from God?  What if you’re in the healthcare profession?

What if you work for a company that has shift work?

These are difficult questions, and we have to ask ourselves what our priorities are.

Because, like it or not, getting together with fellow believers is part and parcel of an indication of putting God first in your life.

Church is not simply a human obligation.

It is a part of placing God as first priority in your life.

He’s the real reason you come here.

Another question relates to the job question.

We have to ask ourselves if we are really, truly trusting in God?  Do we trust God to provide for all our needs?

Or do we cover our bets?

Do we try to hedge God out of the equation altogether because we’ve decided to provide for ourselves.

This is not an excuse for laziness.

God is not the great provider so that we can sit back and do nothing.

God created us designed us with the purpose of taking care of the earth and subduing it.

We are to work for food, housing, clothing, and rest.

Yes, we have to work well enough each week so that we can take at least one day off to rest.

But the attitude in Israel was such that they were not confident enough in God’s provision, so they turned to other gods and worshipped them alongside God.

They tried to cover their bets.

They thought, “Well if God is sleeping, or not paying attention, or even more likely, if God is punishing us, and we aren’t likely to get what we want, then we’ll worship these other gods in order to get what we want from them.”

Of course, they failed to realise that there are no gods beside God.

God is God; everything else is either creatures, or figments of imagination.

So, for the sin of idolatry, and a whole host of other sins, God punished his people.

And though the punishment was incredibly difficult and painful, it was done in perfect love.

The destruction of Jerusalem was painful for God as well.

He did not delight in inflicting such pain on his people.

But that’s what He had to do in order to make them turn back to Him.

He longed for them to turn back to Him.

He desired them to desire Him.

He knew that they would be most happy, most satisfied, and most content, at peace, in harmony if they turned from their wicked ways and worshipped Him alone.

And that’s precisely what we find happening at the beginning of chapter 4.  The people are starting to get their priorities in order.

“Gold has lost its lustre.”

What’s the point of having all the gold in the world, if you can’t use it?

If you’re dying anyway?

What is gold in comparison to God?  What is stuff, what is family, even in comparison to God?

It is nothing!

There’s a scene at the end of the movie /Schindler’s List/ where Oskar Schindler realises that his actions saved the lives of many Jewish people.

But though he took great personal risk to do so, nevertheless he still afforded himself many luxuries during the war.

At the end of the war, those luxuries, those things that he’d considered important, became valueless.

Instead of seeing a Rolls Royce, he saw more lives that could have been bought and saved.

Instead of feeling good about the lives that he saved, his heart went out for the lives that were not saved.

He wished that he’d been more willing to part with more of his money, more of his luxuries.

Now, we cannot go back in time.

We cannot lose ourselves in remorse.

Remorse seems so pious and good, it seems like repentance, but it is not even close.

Judas felt remorse.

Peter repented.

The difference?

Judas did not turn to Jesus for forgiveness, but gave up his life in despair.

Peter, though bitterly sorrowful for betraying Jesus, did not wallow in what he’d done.

Instead, he owned up to it.

He confessed his failure.

And, he turned right around, turned right back to Jesus, and determined to make a fresh start.

The destruction of Israel awakened the hearts of the people.

Their hearts had become hard.

They trusted in the Temple building.

They trusted in their fortifications.

They trusted in their allies.

But they did not trust in God, except as one might treat a talisman, a good luck charm.

So, God took their precious treasures away.

God removed their idols from them.

They hit rock bottom, they hit reality hard.

In light of the extreme pain and suffering that God inflicted upon them, out his loving discipline, they were able to see the things they used to worship, for what they were.

That gold is just a hunk of metal.

Gemstones are nothing more than gravel.

When you’ve lost the stuff that really is most precious to you, you realise that the stuff you’ve been chasing after is worthless.

It is crazy!

All day long, society, through commercials, product reviews, you name it, tells us to go after this.

Or that such and such a product will bring us great happiness.

Or, you’ll be happy if you’re married.

If you have kids, then you’ll be happy.