Sermon Tone Analysis

I have come across two bible references which I think we should take a look at.

I have been studying Psalm 1:1-3 and Isaiah 40:28-31.

These are two separate verses which to my knowledge have never been put together before.

But I believe that when they are put together, we then have a set of partners in the message of God’s word.

Psalm 1:1-2

In Psalm 1:1-2 we read “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”

Let’s begin by looking at the very first word.

Blessed.

What does it mean to be blessed?

You can go to the dictionaries you have and you will find all sorts of different definitions.

Most of us look at the word blessed and think about having received some special gift of grace or mercy from God.

And that’s true.

In Malachi 3, God promises such blessings to those that tithe, that “there will not be room to receive it.”,

In Matthew 5 Jesus tells us about the blessings that people will receive.

Being blessed has two connotations.

When blessed is applied to God, it has a sense of praise, giving to God the things that we can give, that will make him happy.

Love, obedience, worship—these are some of the things that we can do to bless God.

When blessed is referring to man, it means that we receive those things which make us happy as men and women of God.

I think that it is safe to say that a person who receives God’s blessings are made happy for it.

So blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.

This man is made happy by the giving of God.

The counsel of the ungodly.

Who are they?

Are they the sinners of this world?

Yes.

Are they the things that as Christians we should not be doing?

Yes.

In Ephesians 5:11 Paul says that we are to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness”.

So where is our happiness?

When we are not walking in sin.

But listen to this.

This verse goes on because it describes our lot in life-the things we have to endure, the temptations that Satan throws in our path that will affect our walk.

That affect our rewards in heaven, that affect our lives and our relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Blessed is the man that standeth not in the way of sinners.

Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

Note, we’re talking about three ways of moving.

Three different types of motion which every Christian goes through.

And we all do this, we are either sitting or standing or walking.

So lets look at the next part of this verse.

If we are sitting in the seat of the scornful, do you know what we’re doing?

We’re joining in on the sin.

We become fully engulfed in it as a willing participant.

We have become one of the fellow sinners.

We see something that delights us and we join in on it.

Now, I need to remind you at this point, just what sin is.

Sin, is willful disobedience of God.

That’s right.

When you are doing something that God doesn’t want you to do, it’s sin.

Some people may claim that the “devil made me do it”.

Well, let me tell you that is an outright lie.

Satan, cannot make you do anything sinful, Christian.

Sin is willful.

We chose it.

Satan only provides the temptation.

We sin when we CHOOSE to give into that temptation.

Some of you may be faced with what seems like insurmountable sin, some of us may have habitual sin.

But the point is that “all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.”

Every one of us has dealt with some type of sin in our lives.

All of us come face to face with temptation.

For some people perhaps there is a struggle with pornography, or others-alcohol, for some maybe it’s that third or fourth helping at the local buffet, for others it might seem smaller, perhaps an attitude we have, or the gossip we like to share, or that person we won’t witness too, because we believe they don’t deserve God’s grace and mercy.

Regardless of what it is, it is still sin.

“ But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Sin is sin, there are no varying degrees, one sin worse than the other.

In God’s eyes, a murderer is just as bad as someone who tells a little white lie.

We all have sinned, all of us.

So we sit in the seat of the scornful.

We are doing the things that we shouldn’t be doing.

We are sitting, and we shouldn’t be, because we have no blessing in that.

So when we sit we’re joining in, so what does it mean when we are standing in the way of sinners?

I picture it as us looking in upon sin—we are tempted.

It looks so inviting—we’re standing on the fence, wanting to join in.

We’re standing there saying-gimme some of that.

It looks so good.

It looks so fun, but you know what?

It’s still sin.

Remember, in Genesis 19 when Lot and his wife were fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah?

What happened to her and why?

As they were fleeing from Sodom and Gomorrah Lot’s “wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” Why?

Because she desired the city, she wanted to see it.

Her heart belonged to the city.

And the angel had previously said “do not look behind you…lest you be destroyed.”

She willfully disobeyed God’s angel, and she looked back.

She became a pillar of salt-a flavor, a seasoning with no more life; just like the cities she watched get destroyed.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:28-“…whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Are you beginning to get the picture?

When we are standing in the way of sinners, we are talking about sinning with our hearts.

Having a lustful eye makes us focused on the wrong thing, and looking in the wrong direction.

If you’re looking in on sin, then you’re not looking to where you are going, and you will eventually walk into something that you could have avoided- a wall, a closed door, or another person.

Or your head is so turned away from the path that God has laid out in front of you that , where it turns you don’t see it and you miss it.

How many of you have ever been going down the highway and you get so involved in listening to the radio, or talking on the cell phone, that you are too preoccupied and miss your exit?

That’s kind of the same thing.

Because of our lusts we miss the opportunities that God presents to us.

How many here know one of those people that like to look at things alongside the road?

I’m not talking about a glance.

I’m talking about a sustained look.

Have you ever noticed that after awhile, the car starts to veer towards what the driver is looking at?

I tore my back tire to sheds a couple of years ago by doing that.

Look at the results.

The distraction that we stand in, the sin that we stand in draws us in, it makes us veer into it’s lustful grip.