Title: The Morning After
Text: Psalm 30:5
Date: June 10, 2012
Place: Washington A/G
Introduction
I. The Morning
A. A Positive Time
1. Ushers in a fresh start
a. The body is rested and ready
b. The shortcomings of yesterday stand to be rectified
2. A new sense of hope accompanies the rising sun
B. A Negative Time
1. The rising of the sun suggests that it is your lot in life to repeat again the torment that life has become
2. The rising of the sun only indicates that yesterday’s problems have followed you into today
II. A season
A. Does anybody know what I’m talking about when I make these contrasts
B. If the latter of the two is your situation then you find yourself in what we would call a night season
Body
I. Times and Seasons of Life
A. The Bible Speaks of distinct times and seasons of life
1. We know there is Seed Time and harvest.
a. There are seasons in life wherein we sow
b. There are seasons in which we reap
2. We find a very familiar passage in the book of Ecclesiastes that explains to us:
a. A time to laugh and a time to cry
b. A time for scattering and a time for gathering together
c. A time to be born and a time to die
3. The passage I would like to share with you speaks of two distinct times of life.
a. The night
b. The morning
B. Day/Season
1. When the Bible speaks of days it does not always denote a span of 24 hours.
2. Sometimes when the Bible speaks of a day or a night it is bearing reference to a particular season of life.
a. In the day of _______________....
b. The old timer always says, “back in my day….”
3. We know that in this sense the reference is to a season or an era of life.
II. The Night
A. The first period of life that our verse of focus brings to our attention is the night.
B. The night season is characterized by this verse to be a sorrowful time
1. “Weeping may endure for the night”
2. These are not tears of joy.
a. The Psalmist references sorrowful times
b. “… I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my foes rejoice over me. O LORD my God, I cried out to You, And You healed me. O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. (Psalm 30:1-3 NKJV)
c. The weeping the Psalmist spoke of was a time when his enemies were aimed against him to destroy him and bring him down.
d. It would seem that the Psalmist had even faced the perils of death as he has recognized that it was the Lord who had kept him alive
C. Compare Spiritual/Physical Night time
D. A Period with a restricted view
1. We can’t see what God is doing anymore; the truth be told we’re not sure that He’s doing anything at all.
2. We hear the rustling of our surroundings, we know something is happening, but we’re not at all sure of what it is.
3. It’s like the hurricane that reaches land fall in the night time.
a. When you went to bed it was just a little gust of wind, now and then.
b. You were awakened in the night to the sound of cracking timbers, falling limbs, howling winds, and driving rains.
c. The storm is raging in the night but you can’t see the effect that it’s having.
d. You go to the phone to check on the family and the lines are dead the tower’s out; your voice is not reaching outside the confines of the walls of your own home.
- In need to call the neighbor across the street and see if they can tell me what that thud was I just heard against my house!
- I need to call my family just to hear their voice.
e. You want to turn on the TV to hear a report from the outside, but the power is off and the cable is down, the antenna has been blown over.
f. It seems that you can neither send nor receive communication in any form
4. That’s the way it is:
a. Life is going along just fine one day
b. Next thing you know what was once a little stirring has now become a full blown storm.
c. The howling you hear are the voices of the critics, their talking about you, they’re demeaning your character, and running you down. Their judging you and criticizing you and yes even telling the occasional lie about you.
d. The cross-wind is the voice of the adversary whispering that you should just give up. This life just doesn’t seem to have much going for it
e. Instead of hearing the crackling of timbers and the dashing of rain and the falling of limbs and the fall of structures you’re listening to the sounds that would indicate that your life is falling apart
f. You pray and it doesn’t seem like your voice leaves the room
g. You sit to hear the voice of God and all you hear is the silence.
h. You look for solace in the counsels of friends but peace you cannot find
5. We can’t see how what’s happening is going to affect us.
6. We can’t see how what’s happening is going to shape our future.
E. The night Time is a Fearful period
1. What will life look like at the dawning of day; how are we going to be able to pick up the pieces and move on, we sit and wonder in the night watch will we ever be able to overcome the blow that we’ve been dealt?
2. Causes us to question every facet of our faith
a. Have I misunderstood the vision?
b. Did I not hear God’s voice?
c. Weeping endures as we ask is this Word really true, and where is this God that it speaks of
d. Have I strayed so far from the leadership of the Holy Spirit that I must endure this terror that life has become known as this “night season?”
F. Concerning the Night Season
1. The Fury of hell is aimed against your life, because there’s a devil who knows what he’s already lost and what you stand to gain
2. Suffice it to say that what the Devil intended for evil God meant it for good.
3. God Will make this trial a blessing
III. The Morning After
A. Ours is the Lord:
1. Who turned water into wine, stopped funeral processions and caused the mourning to be turned into celebration and the dead received new life.
2. Who disperses such an anointing that IF one by faith might so much as touch the hem of His garments 12 years of night season would be brought to a close in an instant.
3. Who IF we will answer appropriately the question “will thou be made whole” can cure any infirmity, can loose any shackle, and redeem any situation for His glory
B. The Contrast
1. Weeping endures for the Night
a. Hardships
b. Struggles
c. Difficulties
d. A reality that is perhaps at times hard to receive or even comprehend
2. Joy comes in the morning
C. How long does the season last?
1. If this is not a 24 hour period then how long is it?
2. The season of the dark night of weeping lasts only as long as you are willing to wallow in the mire of adversity.
3. It lasts only as long as you are willing to allow the adversary to withhold from you your inheritance as a Child of the King.
4. A disclaimer
a. I’m not telling you that your circumstance is going to change
b. I make no promise that everything is going to iron out just as you wish that it would
c. Tomorrow may bring the same problems, but problems do not equal defeat, and you child of God do not have to settle for defeat.
d. You may have to accept some of the problems that you are dealing with, but you don’t have to deal with them alone, and you do not have to accept the threat that they impose to destroy you emotionally, mentally, & spiritually.
e. Throughout the Bible we learn of people who pressed beyond their situations, who decided that enough was enough. They pressed through crowds of people to get a touch of Jesus, they tore the roofs off of houses, and walked for miles, and paid great costs just so they could get close enough to call on the name of Jesus.
D. The Apostle Paul
1. In the 8th chapter of the book of Romans speaks of the most deplorable of human conditions; if there’s ever been any time that one might describe as the dark night of life it would be that passage
2. Paul said, “in all these things we have been made more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loves us.”
E. When I call on Jesus
1. Victory is as close as the mention of His name.
2. I’m issuing a decree to the enemy that I recognize myself as a child of God and he has no right to mess in my life
3. You are calling on the name of the Bright and the Morning Star
4. You need to insist on your morning!
F. The Morning after there is clarity in the vision
1. The testing for this leg of the journey is concluded
2. We see clearly the prize that God has set before us
3. We see the snares set in the road
4. We have understanding of the obstacles that need to be negotiated
G. The morning after you will see that God has poised you for prosperity
1. In things of the Spirit
2. In that He is developing you to become an overcomer
3. The prayer of the apostle John was that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul has prospered
H. Weeping may have endured for the night, but Church I believe we are situated in the morning of our joy that comes from God Almighty Himself!
