The Morning After

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.