The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: A Desire for God

Episode Date: August 27, 2017

One of the purposes of pain (and Psalm 42) is to ween us off the insecurity of hope in our circumstances and cleave us to our Sovereign Savior’s.

Amen, church. How are we doing? Doing okay? I hope so. Hey, grab your Bibles. We're going to be in Psalm 42. Psalm 42. There's been a few of us talking about this, pastors, some staff folks, some elders. And based on where we were last weekend with elder-led prayer and 24 hours of preaching, we just have this sense, amen. We have this sense that like we're on the verge of something. And as we've been studying some, just epic revivals, these moves of God throughout church history and throughout American history and throughout human history. The question that just keeps popping up in my mind is this. So, so God has moved in the past through just ordinary, uneducated men and women like us who had just been with Jesus, who just sought the heart of God. And so we're just asking, so why not us? And why not now? And why not here? That we believe that God is on the the move. And so, so what we are doing in this Gospel Awakening series is throughout church history anytime there was an extraordinary move of God, which anytime a revival happens, it is just the

intensification of the Holy Spirit in his normative waves of salvation and repentance and forgiveness through his bride, the church. And so we're doing what our forefathers have done, man. We're just praying and fasting and preaching and praying and fasting and preaching and praying and fasting and preaching. And so if you haven't jumped on to the Daniel fast, I pray to God that you would. And if God could only transform me as quickly as my digestive tract is transformed. Praise God. Praise God. But the real question, the real question is I get up here and yell at you for the next 45 minutes or so, honestly, is do we really want revival? Like, be careful what you ask for. because I do.

Our elders do. Our staff does. Our pastors do. But I would really check your heart because if God shows up at the Holy Spirit intensifies his work, it will completely and gloriously disrupt what you consider normal. It will change everything about everything, about everything about you, about the way you spend money, by the way you spend time, about the affections of your heart, the attention that you give to things.

and it begins with a desire for God. Not a desire for his blessings, not a desire for his provisions, not a desire for his miracles, not a desire for a feeling in us, but it begins with a desire for God. And there are some church fathers that just had this desire for God. As I've been studying this, I've shared some of these quotes with you before, but it just seemed like there was a time where men and women, they just spoke. about God differently. Augustine says it this way.

He says, how sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose. In other words, when he looked at his old way of life, he said, I don't know why I was afraid to give that up at one point in my life. And he says, God, you drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy, you drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasures. That's what revival is. When you look at God and say, God, you are sweeter than all pleasures, though not to the

flesh and blood, you outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any of the secrets in our heart, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves. Oh, Lord, my God, my light, my wealth, my salvation, you are sweeter than all pleasures. That Augustine digs into a good stake and he goes, this is good. God, you are better. Martin Luther says it this way, Oh, I wish to devote my mouth and my heart to you. Do not forsake me.

For if ever I should be on my own, I would easily wreck it all. Spurgeon, the prince of preacher, says, I thank thee that this, which is a necessity of my new life, is also the greatest delight. So I do at this hour feast on thee. John Owen, a Puritan pastor, says, Oh, to behold the glory of Christ. Herein what I live, herein would I die, herein would I dwell in my thoughts and affections

until all things below become unto me as dead and deformed thing. No way suitable for affection it embraces. Is that how you talk about God? Or is it more like, what are y'all doing tonight? I don't know. I think we might go to church. Yeah, maybe me too. That's like different things, isn't it?

There is like this, this affection for God that is utmost. in your affections, and then there's like church as a hobby. Like church is entertainment. Like, you know, I'm really, I just want God's blessings, whether God comes with it or not, whatever. Those are really distinct things. And until we, as God's people, until we have a desire for the personal presence of God, then we should never expect God to show up in any kind of significant way. This is what Psalm 42 is all about.

This is what Psalm 42 is about. Psalm 42 is about, is about, is about, is about this desire for God. And I'm just going to warn you, the writer of Psalm 42 emotionally is all over the place. He's kind of a spiritual schizophrenic. And I don't use that word schizophrenic lightly. I'm not talking about the medical condition, but probably is. Like when you read this, you're going to be like, this guy probably needed to be on something, okay? Because there is not a steadiness here.

He is all over the place. And he starts it out this way. 42-1. And man, evangelicalism has ruined this verse forever. I'm just going to tell you this now. I love the verse. As the deer pants for flowing stream, so pants my soul for you, oh God. This is not a cute verse.

This should not be a verse that you could get at Lifeway on a sweatshirt with like a deer and a stream. It's not. It's a... Look, I know about this verse. Deer don't just pant. What this verse is about, what we're going to find out here as the Psalm writer begins to confess about the struggles that he is going through is this deer is under serious attack. The reason that this deer is panting is this deer is running for its life. You ever seen a deer?

Most of you've only seen deer like on, I don't know where you say, at a zoo when they look peaceful. They're not peaceful. deer walk around like this their whole life all the time they are just like this you know what they're looking for me straight out i'm gonna shoot them september 9th it opens praise god the sermons are about to get better because i'm gonna spend more time in the woods so thank you jesus okay and so the deal here is this this deer is on the run for his life he's running with every he knows if he slows down he's dead, he's got something all around him coming after him, and he's panting, he's out of breath, and he just thinks, as the dear pants for water, he's thinking, if I could just,

if I don't get a sip of water soon, I'm going to die, I'm not going to make it. Like an intensification here is going on. He goes on to say, my soul thirst for God. Like, honestly, can you say that? There's some times I can, but there's some other. times I'm like, no, I just kind of get up and do my thing, say a quick little prayer, go on about my business. You see, the picture here, Pastor Ben and I were talking about this. A lot of times the pastors now, we just kind of get together and sort of just run through the whatever I'm going to

preach on. And he reminded me at the time I went surfing with him. Let me just warn you, man, if Pastor Ben calls you and says, the waves are great, let's go surfing. Don't. It's not a great idea. This is probably, I forget the day, eight, it seems eight years ago, seven years ago, something like that. You remember we had like three hurricanes, three weekends in a row. It was just like, hurricane, hurricane, and then he would call me and he'd be like, bro, the waves are going off. You got to go with me. Meanwhile, the people from the news stations are giving warnings about you should not be here. And so this traffic is going this way, and Pastor Ben and I are going this way. And I'm like, bro, this is not. Because I sort of, I would, to you,

Surfers, I just like ride waves. That's different than surfing. Surfing is like you do stuff. I just catch one, make one turn and be like, I did it again. And then I don't get off. I just go until that one's all the way over because I don't know what it's going to happen again. I typically ride a John boat, minus the motor.

That's how big my longboard is, all right? But with the waves, I mean, it was intense, and so I couldn't get a longboard out. So he brought me a shorter one, but it was still longer than what he does. And so about kill myself trying to get out there. And then finally, I'm out there. And he's probably already caught three or four, but I'm so exhausted. I've got to get past everything and just, like, get my breath, okay? And then finally, here comes a cleanup set, and I'm like, and you don't have a choice.

All right, here it comes. And I'm thinking, uh-oh. And so I paddle, paddle, paddle, and I pop up, and I'm just, uh-oh. And I'm not sure if my head hit the board or just board hit my head. I don't know, but it was like, boom. And then I'm under the water. And I don't know if you've ever been, like, really under. a pretty good size wave, but it's like your big brother just sitting on you on the ocean.

You're like, how is this even happening? Oh, my gosh. And then you're in the washing machine, right? Bro, I'm in total panic. I am. And you know what? I thought I was going to drown. I legitimately thought I was going to drown, but what I was more in panic of is what people would think of me if I drowned surfing at the Jacks Beach pier. That's what I was afraid of. Because it's Jack's Beach Pier, okay? This isn't jaws. But man, I am under the water, and I'm thinking, uh-oh, and I kind of don't know which the way is up because you get all shook around, and then I get my leash, and then I can

kind of see it, your eyes are burning, but they're open, and you're like, I've got to get there. And then as soon as you finally get there, you go, and you've never appreciated a breath so much in your entire life. And then what immediately happens, they're not called wave. the wave is good today boom right in the earhole again and I finally get together

talk to Ben when he comes back to the shore I'm not going back out there again I'm like bro do you see that I was under the water for like a minute he's like 11 seconds but whatever but until our soul thirst for God like I was dying for air then we don't get it

that's what this this is the psalm it's not some cutesy little deer just trying to get a little sip of water like we're just kind of going through our week and we just need to come out of the church and just just a little no this is like a moment of utter desperation my soul thirst for god for the living god you see i think it's interesting that the writer of the psalm repeats himself for the living god Not for programs, not for traditions, not for routine, not for entertainment, not a fleeting feeling, but the living God, the manifest presence of the almighty God himself. That's what I need. I don't just need rote religiosity. That's not going to do me any good because at a soul level, I feel like I'm dying and there is only one cure in my soul thirst for the living God.

And then here he says, he says, when shall I come and appear before God? Now there's a couple of things here. Most commentators think Psalm 42 was written during the exile period. There was a period where the Jewish people were taken over. Jerusalem was sacked and they were exiled. And so for them, in their context, they were removed from the very presence of God, which was represented in the Old Testament by the tabernacle of the temple. And they're saying, when can I appear before God again?

In our context, it would be this. So when can I get back to church? When can I get back with the people of God in the presence of God? Because I feel like I'm lost right now, but I know that I know that I know that I've seen him there before. By the way, literally what gets translated here appear before God literally is, when shall I come and see the face of God? By the way, in the Old Testament, this is an impossibility. You see the face of God, you are a burnt little crisp because we cannot handle his glory. But the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen him. We've seen

the glory of his face and the son and the father are one. He answer to this request comes in the person and work of Jesus. And then Jesus calls his church his body. So you want to see Jesus, then you get face to face with his people. Do not underestimate what we do when we gather in here. This is not Christian karaoke and an hour of the half hour Christian comedy tour. That is not what this thing is, man. This is us seeking the face of God as his saints gathered together because we need him like we need air to breathe. That's what this is. And so he says, went. Then he gets real. Verse three, my tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? This isn't his tears. These are his enemies. So listen, if you're busted up,

if you're bruised, if you're broke, if your life is jacked, if you barely dragged yourself in here, God might use you to write a psalm, you understand? This is part of the reason I believe in the validity, the truth of the scriptures. Because if I'm making up my own, like, little religion, I'm leaving this crazy stuff out of here. I'm like, no, you go my way, baby. It is just cash and prizes, Cadillacs and Cotton Candy. That's all you get. You know what this sounds like right here?

Me. You ever been here? You ever been here where it seems like the slightest little thing just make you break down because your world's falling apart? And then the people that are supposed to be your friends, which are actually your enemies, they come along and they make it worse, and they go, where's your God? Why would God let something like this happen to you? If you can't take care of you, are you sure he can take care of the world,

or maybe it just doesn't love you? This is where the root of the question, why do bad things happen to good people come from? from, from friends like this. I've told you a million times, it's the wrong question. There are no good people. None. There was one good man. Something really bad happened to him for our good.

And so, these enemies are saying, where's your God? Because what they think is they believe that our situation is greater than our sovereign savior. And they've got their eyes not fixed on things above, but they've got their eyes fixed on the circumstances and their circumstances and the feelings that are associated with those circumstances are the greatest thing in their life. This is why we say all the time here we don't care about your feelings. We care that you have feelings. You should have feelings. You should feel all kind of things. God gave us feelings to navigate life. Your feelings are not your Lord. Jesus is your Lord.

Your circumstances can't save you. Your Savior can. And so like Job's friend, Job's friends, in the book of Job will get there one day. They basically say, hey, you're a good man. doesn't God owe you good? Who told you that? Where did you get that? Paul says in Romans, there is nothing you can do to put God in your debt. Nothing. The real question is not, why is this happening to me?

The real question is, why not me? Listen, I'm the most blessed man on the planet. That's how I feel. I mean, I am blessed. It is crazy that God would save me out of the muck and the mire that is where I'm from. And I'm not just talking about my town. I am talking about, you know, my family, an extended family. And not only would he save me, but he would call me and equip me and give me this real desire to serve him in this way and then bless it the way he does.

And then to add to that, give me the wife that I have and the children that I have and the friends that I have and get to be a part of this church. It is crazy. And he owes me none of it. He could rightfully pull it all away tonight. and he would still be the sovereign king of the universe. And I would still, I still should not question his love for me based on my circumstances because he's already demonstrated his love for me and this, that while I was yet still a sinner, Christ died for me.

And that's true for you too. These friends are like, so where's God? And so here's what he does. He says, these things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go to the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God. means he remembers when he would go to church in our context with glad shouts in songs of praise and a multitude keeping festival. In other words, what he's saying is even in his darkest moments, it is really good to remember. And he's saying, I know God will be faithful because God has

always been faithful. You see, there's going to be a lot of deer stories, okay? It started with deer. Deer season starts next week. Give me a break. Okay, I've told you this before, but this helps me a bunch. when I shoot a deer when an arrow I hunt with a bow and arrow like Jesus would have us okay the bullet I mean the arrow goes through

and they don't just like fall over they bleed a lot quickly and they run off and you have to blood trail them and so what you do is when you blood trail a deer I don't see anybody writing this down

this is like this should help you okay the zombie apocalypse happens you're going to need to know how to do this, all right? And so you just, you got to mark it. You got to mark where the blood is. And so you can buy this expensive stuff.

I use toilet paper, right? So I just put a toilet paper in the tree right there. And then you're walking, and then you're like, well, here's a little bit of blood, and you put some more down. And you're walking, oh, here's a little bit of blood, and you put it down. And oftentimes what happens is you run out of any evidence. You just don't know where to go.

And you're looking around and you're looking around and you just can't, going forward, you can't tell where to go. but if you've marked the trail, if you just look back over your shoulder, the best predictor of where he's going is where he's been. You can look over your shoulder and you can say, okay, all right, he's kind of hanging a left right here and it looks like based on where he's been, if he keeps heading in the same direction, this is the way he is going. This is what the writer of Psalm 42 is sort of saying.

You see, I can look over my back shoulder and I know about God's faithfulness. By the way, this is why in the Old Testament, whenever God would move in a really significant way, they would gather stones together and they would build an altar so that when it seemed from here going forward, they could not see the face of God or they could not feel the hand of God, or maybe they didn't hear the voice of God, then they would just look over the past and say, yeah, but we know God. We know God was faithful in this moment with Abraham, when we know he was faithful here with Isaac, and we know he was faithful here with Jacob,

and we know he was faithful here with Moses. and God has been faithful then, and we know he is going to be faithful to us. And we have so much more to go on than the Old Testament guys because what they were doing is looking forward to God's faithfulness in Christ on the cross, and we get to look back and know him by name. And know that if God would not spare his own son,

then what would he do for you? And so in your times of utter despair, remind yourself of God's faithfulness. This is why, like, if you haven't been baptized and you're a believer, get baptized. So that when the enemy begins to whisper, hey, so where's your God now? And your tears are your food, and you begin to feel, God, where are you? Then you can look back to that moment when you declared to the whole world, Jesus is my Lord and Savior.

But boom, and you went under the water, and you're like, I know you were there that day. By the way, do you know some of the reason we want you to do a testimonial video is for you? It's so that you can watch you declare Jesus' faithfulness to you. I mean, how sweet is that? You don't want to talk about God's common grace of Dropbox? You don't have to, you don't even have to, like, remember. You can just hit play and just watch you tell you your testimony again. This is what he's saying.

You know what place I go to? literally and in my head Israel I do man by the way we're going again next year in February the website opens up on Monday it goes live

sign up fast we're going to limit it to one bus you should go you should go and part of the reason you should go I'm going to go with you and I'm going to take it to the empty tomb the empty tune and I'm going to plop you right there in front of this empty tomb

after we have spent a week of chasing the footsteps of Jesus. And everybody has like a different moment in a different place, man. But I'm telling you, the first time I stood at that empty tomb, and you read the account and it just lines up. You're like, oh, no wonder they had to stoop down because you can't see unless you do like this. And you stand there, and listen, I look, it's empty.

And if the tomb is empty, anything's possible. And when the enemy starts whispering those, where's your God? I'd be like, he ain't in here. Because I've been there and I looked. And the first time I ever went, man, I'm standing there, and Pastor Britt and Pastor Ben are with me, and they plop some headphones on me, boom, and they play that song, I cast my mind to Calvary, where Jesus bled and died for me.

See, I can, in my mind, go back to that place where I was at the empty tomb, and it just kind of squishes all the lives of the enemy. Do you have that kind of place? It could be a worship service here. It could be a moment where you surrendered your life to Jesus. What this guy is doing is he's saying, these things I remember. I remember seeing you, God. I remember experiencing you.

So I am not going to let my current circumstance dictate my faith. I'm going to actually let my faith dictate how I feel in these current circumstances. And so then, this is where it gets real, as if it wasn't real already. He says this, to himself, Why are you cast down, oh my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? You notice this. He's just being real.

Can I just encourage you something, especially if you're new to our church? Because we've got a bunch of new people to our church. Listen, you don't have to fake it here. You just don't have to fake it. The fake you's doing just fine. Man, fake it on Facebook. Don't get too real on Facebook. It gets weird for us all, okay?

Fake it there. Just take everything's great, right? Put a verse on it. When you walk into here, when you walk into your disciple group, when you come face to face with a brother or sister or a family member of 1122, you just don't have to fake it. The fake you's fine, man. It's fine.

And church, especially evangelical Southern church, is notorious for being the fakesest place in the world, which is crazy because the real Jesus died on the real cross for the real you. And he can really help if you'll get real with him. And so this guy looks at his own soul and goes, what is wrong with you, man? Why are you cast down on my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Then notice his answer.

His answer does not lie. This is where he gets all like schizophrenic. He goes, hope in God. For I shall again praise him, my salvation, my God. Which means this. Currently I'm not. Currently I'm kind of jacked up. But I am telling me hope in God.

It's not okay right now, but it's going to be. Okay. Martin Lloyd Jones in a book called Spiritual Depression. It's about Psalm 42. We've read a whole book on it. Here's what he says. I love this. This old dead British preacher. He says, the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression is, in a sense, is this. We allow ourselves to talk to us instead of talking to ourselves. Think about this. You see, most of the time we listen to us way too much and we don't talk to us enough. Be really, really careful about the things you say, even your internal dialogue. Because the things you say have power. And you don't want to hear your ears.

Your ears don't need to hear your mouth say something terrible about you because then you'll begin to believe it in your heart. And that is not good. And so he says, again, the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression, in a sense, is this, that we allow ourselves to talk to us instead of talking to ourselves. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?

Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you. They bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. somebody is talking who is talking to you yourself is talking to you now this man's treatment talking about the writer of psalm 42 this man's treatment was this instead of allowing this self to talk to him he starts talking to himself why are thou cast down oh my soul he asked his soul has been repressing him crushing him so he stands up and says self listen for a moment i will speak to you hope in the lord I shall again praise him.

Do you know what we would say today? This is why you need to preach the gospel to yourself. You need to preach the gospel to yourself. You do not allow your feelings to rule your life. You actually allow your ruler to rule all of your life. And one day maybe your feelings will catch up. This is why it is incredibly important to even to preach the gospel to yourself, to memorize the Bible, to preach the truth,

and allow you to line up one day with the truth of the Word of God. The next time you feel beaten down, the next time you feel battered, the next time you feel like this guy feels like a deer that pants for water, like a bad surfer that's pressed to the bottom of the ocean and can't breathe, like you just feel like I'm drowning here, then what you need to do is quit listening to you so much and start talking to you so much. And just borrow the words of God. What if the next time you're here or if you're here right now and it feels like your world's falling apart, you say this, what then shall we say to these things if God is for us? Who could be against us?

He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all? How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is to condemn. Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, he was raised, who is at the right hand of God, indeed interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

And the answer is no. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor heights nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You need to hear that every day instead of hearing the lies of the enemy that's talking to you. So he says, soul, why are you downcast?

And then he answers it. He's like, I'm not even going to hear that. Hoping God, for again, I shall praise him, my salvation and my God. And then he keeps going. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Herman from Mount Mazar. Okay, nobody knows what Mount Mazar is. it means like miserable

the other side of the Jordan was the desert where the Israelites were lost and Mount Herman you can see the mountaintops from a long ways away and all throughout the scripture it was a place of danger this is why like in the

song of Solomon says to the shoe like come away from Mount Herman which means if you come to me I will protect you here's what I think he's saying I think he's saying even though my soul is cast down within me me, here's what helps me a lot. Though I don't like where I'm at now, I'll testify this. I'm not where I used to be. I'm telling you, man, the driving force in my life is the gospel of Jesus Christ

and the amazing grace that, who am I, that he would take my place. The reason sometimes I get up here and I get all worked up and red and crying and stuff is because of that one thing. I run through my mind what a wretched blackhearted sinner I am and that I am a great sinner and yet I have a greater savior I'm telling you man sometimes when the ryan's preach when pastor and pastor ryan stone and britt and they talk about their upbringing anybody with me you have no sort of context that's anywhere similar to the thing they're like what did y'all just you're like devotionals and memorized scriptures and you know what I mean we didn't too. We didn't do any of that. Not one time in my entire life as my parents ever sat down with me

and opened the Bible and then we did a Jesus thing. Never once, but God. But God, who is rich in mercy for his own glory, just reeks down and in the lowest of low of times in my entire life. I mean, details that I do not need to share with you, honestly for the sake of my family. In the lowest of lows when I was in the most hopeless point of my life at a terrible time as a teenager. The most confusing time in my life when the events around me were the most confusing. God, honest and goodness through the graciousness of a J.B. football coach named Coach Bull Lee reached down and just plucked me out of the muck and mire. Who am I that you would take my place?

So no matter how bad it gets, I can say my soul is cast down within me, but I remember I remember from where I came. And then he says, deep calls to deep. At the roar of your waterfalls, all of your breakers and your ways have gone over me. He's going this. You want to talk about honesty. The writer of the Psalms is like, God, I am drowning here. I am drowning.

And listen, and the Holy Spirit of God goes, that's good, bro. Write that down. Put that one in the book. That's going to be there forever. That's scripture now. If you've ever felt like you're drowning, you're in good company. He's like, I'm just, I just, the waves keep coming.

And this is where people are like, well, I thought the Bible said the Lord would never give you more than you could handle. You used to actually read the Bible, not misquoted. Where people get that from in first Christi, the Bible says that you will never be tempted beyond what you can't resist. There's always a way out. But what do you mean the Lord will never give you more? than you can handle. Who told you that? The beginning of the gospel is you cannot handle your life

and sin. He won't give you more than you can handle. Jesus couldn't handle it. It killed it. That's the point. And that he took for us what we could not take for ourselves. The point of the gospel is this, God, I am drowning. I don't need help. I need a rescuer. This is why I giggle when people have said to me, you know what, Christianity is just a crutch. No, it's not a crutch. A crutch is some of me, some of that. Christianity, the gospel is a stretcher. I'm dead.

You want to tote me over it? Because I can't get up. Can't do nothing. That's what he's saying. I am drowning here. And then notice this, man. This is where the sovereignty of God rules and reigns. This is important.

He does not say deep cause to deep and the roar of some waterfalls and all of the breakers and all of the waves, notice this, it's your waterfalls and your breakers and your waves. God, my life seems like it is completely out of control, and yet you've still got the whole world in your hands, even the breakers and the waterfalls and the waves that are holding me under the water. He understands that it is the sovereign hand of God that is still in charge even of our pain.

God is not driving ambulance. He is not taking his eye off the ball. He does not hear about your situation. You know, the spirit does not tap the father and be like, hey, you want to check out Jacksonville? And he looks at you and he's like, what in the name of me is going on there? Oh my gosh. So tell me what's going on? No.

You see, and if you don't believe in the sovereignty of God, honest to goodness, I don't know how you have hope in a situation. Just cross your fingers in good luck, hope it gets better. because only a sovereign God could use the pain in our life, even the self-inflicted wounds for His glory and our own joy. Do you notice this? The crazy thing is this. If dependence on God is the point and not dependence on ourselves, then what if the most painful points in your life

were actually some of God's greatest blessings in your life? Because it was in those times that you turned to what matters most. And Paul says, man, a hundred years from now, the worst pain that we experience will be like a fleeting memory compared to the eternity of knowing him. And so he says, I am drowning here and you are in charge of the water. You ever feel like that? You ever feel like that? Because if not, you're going to. And when you do, where do you run?

And when you do, where do you run? And then he goes on to say this. This is where it gets all crazy again. So in one sentence, he's like, I'm drowning next sentence. By day, the Lord commands his steadfast love. And at night, his song is with me. A prayer to the God of my life. And I say to God my rock.

As a preacher, if it stopped right there, man, I could close this thing down. It'd be awesome. The problem is, life goes on, right? So right after he says, and I say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me? you're like, how can you simultaneously say God is your foundation and fatality? That's what he's saying. Here's why he says it.

Because that's me. Isn't that you? This is why I think Jesus called Peter to be a disciple. This is Peter's whole discipleship journey. Follow the life of Peter. Literally, Matthew chapter 15, who do people say that I am? Peter goes first because he always goes first. If you say enough words, eventually you say right stuff.

He jumps up, he's like, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus is like, ding, ding, ding, winter, winter. New name's Rocky. Dun, dun, da, da, da, da, da, dun, pun, dun. Pun, this rock. I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And Peter's like, y'all see that? Uh-huh, make fun of me for sinking in the water.

Ha-ha, what you got now? I'm not rock. Same page of the Bible. After Jesus lays out the gospel, Peter rebukes Jesus. Jesus Christ, get over here. You're not going to die. Jesus goes, get behind me, Satan. On the same page, he goes from Pope to the devil.

You understand? He gets invited to the mountain of transfiguration. After feeding thousands of people, what does he do? After he gets to see the glory of God, he sticks his face in there, and he goes, it is very good that we are here. What? Literally, Jesus is like, pack it up, we're heading back down the hill. On the night that Jesus was betrayed at the Lord's Supper, he promises, I would never leave you,

I would never forsake you. You ever have that kind of faith? But I'm telling you, man, like second night of saturated, that's going to be you. You're going to be like, I got this, man. I'm about to go. I'm going to win my office. I'm going to lead some. I'm going to go to Haiti.

I'm going to do some stuff. That very night, he denies that he knows Jesus three times. You're going to run by McDonald's. Somebody can be like, where you've been? Nowhere. Embarrassed to say you've even been over here. You understand? It's like that, man.

That's what this guy's doing. You are my rock. Have you forgotten me? What? You ever feel that way? so did the psalmist. But he keeps going. Why do I go on mourning

because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? So listen, man, if you're really struggling, a couple things. One, be honest, be honest.

You cannot fake God out. You can't. Just tell him. Be honest. I think one of the, the book of James says, the reason you don't have is because you don't ask, or you ask with the wrong motives or you ask with the wrong intensity. Because sometimes, till your fringe, you're like, I'm drowning over here, what am I going to do? And then in your prayer time, you're like, dear God, just bless my food. He's like, are you being serious right now? Why don't you just bring it to me?

That confession includes confessing to God, not your sins, but your current condition. saying, God, I need a little help here. And then what do you do? You don't just wallow in that. Then you talk to yourself. You preach the gospel to yourself. Here's how he closes. Why are you cast down, oh, my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

So there's the struggle. He's real, but here's the gospel. Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation in my God. So listen. If you're in a tough time right now, I've got good news. God is not done with you. He is not done with me. The empty tomb and the alarm clock are proof of that.

I mean, if you feel like you're drowning, if you feel like you're spiritually dry, if you feel like your situation is terrible, God's not finished with you. Because the empty tomb and the alarm clock are proof that anything is possible. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And if your alarm clock went off and you got up vertical again today, then he is not done with you. So here's the point. One of the purposes of pain, I'm not saying this is the only purpose, but one of the purposes of pain and particularly of Psalm 42 is to wean us off of the insecurity of our hope and circumstances and cleave us to the sovereign Savior. That's what it is.

that one of the reasons that we experience the circumstances that we do is so that we would understand that these circumstances are temporary and they will not fully and finally satisfy. Do you know the reason we fast is to give us a tactile and tangible realization of what it's like to hunger for something and for something to consume your thoughts? That's what fasting is about. I've never wanted a hamburger so much in my life. I don't even eat hamburgers that much until three days into veggies and water and you just drive by. I've never smelled McDonald's until this thing happened. I walk out here and like, that smells delicious. And so then it is a reminder, be like, hold on, if you can reset your desires, if you could reset your appetites in like three days from avoiding a thing,

then why wouldn't you not reset your soul's appetite to hunger and thirst for righteousness? That's what it's about. You see, if our highest good is utter dependence on God, then our times of weakness that cause us to cry out to him through pain are actually his greatest blessing. One of the craziest things in Psalm 42 is this, is that the man ever, he never asked for relief. He just leans into his relationship with Jesus. Notice the difference? He never asked for relief of his circumstances. He just leans into the relationship with the sovereign Savior.

You see, it's actually God's wrath to just turn us loose to our own desires. That's what Romans 1 says. But it's the grace of God to remind us of how fragile we are and how much we need him. So do you want revival? Jonathan Ezber says it this way. He says, God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of Him is our proper and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here.

God's purpose for my life was that I have passion for God's glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory. And that these two are one passion. We're going to close with a song that we sing around here a bunch. and I specifically asked for this one for this reason. It's rooted in Matthew 14. And if you go to Israel with me, I'll take you to the scene of where this thing happened. And the context around what's going on here is that Jesus goes up on a mountainside by himself to pray. And he tells Peter and the disciples, hey, get in the boat and you go on to the other side.

I'll catch up with you. And so they head out in the middle of the night. They're rowing to the other side. And so meanwhile, Jesus goes in the middle of the night. The Bible says, walking on the water. And the disciples are freaking out. Why? Because that's what we do.

We freak out. And they're afraid because they think it's a ghost. And then Peter, who's going to speak up first? Peter goes first. And he says, Jesus, that's really you. Tell me to come out to you on the water. And then Jesus says, come on, big boy. That's not exactly.

It's a loose translation. but that's kind of what he means, all right? Peter gets out of the boat. Now, oftentimes we talk about the faithfulness of Peter or to get out of the boat. Yeah, that's cool. But what I begin to think about in regards to what we're talking about here

in a desperation for God is do you think Jesus was surprised by any of the events that were about to happen? Do you think Jesus knew or did not know how Peter was going to do on this walk-on-water adventure that he called him out into? So Jesus, just spoiler alert,

in case you haven't done a lot of Bible study, Peter makes it a couple steps sinks, okay? And Jesus, knowing that this was going to end in the faithlessness of Peter, calls Peter to put himself into an environment where he would be terrified. The sovereign king of the universe out loud, face-to-face, says, step out of the boat,

knowing that 10 seconds later, he's going to be terrified thinking he's going to drown. The Bible says it this way, Matthew 14, 14, and Peter answered him, Lord, if it's you, command. me to come to you on the water. And Jesus said, come. And so Peter got down out of the boat and he walked on the water and he came to Jesus. Everything's going great. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and he began to sink. So what happened here? He quit trusting the sovereign

king of the universe and he got too focused on his circumstances. He began to ask himself, where's my God? Meanwhile, his God's right there. He can look back for three steps and he God Almighty had lifted him up on the top of the water and he took his eyes off of the sovereign Savior and he put it on his circumstances and he felt this fear. This is what it says. He was afraid.

Why was he afraid? Because he put his eyes on his circumstances instead of his Savior. And Jesus called him into that situation. What if there's a reason Jesus let him sink? And what if the next words are the reason? And he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out. Lord save me.

Why? Because when you're walking on water, you don't need Jesus. You ever walked on water? You'd probably be into you if you walked on water, wouldn't you? I would. I wouldn't even preach. Every week, we'd just set up the baptismal. But hey, if you got your Bible, don't worry about your Bible.

Check this out. Bam, bam, bam, bam. Anybody in? Who wants to get saved? That's what we do, every week. be the biggest church and the history of church for all the wrong reasons. One time I was their lifeguard at the camp I got saved at, my brother was on the work crew, and I was teaching on this.

It was terrible, but I was teaching on this. And we were at the pond, at the lake. Kids are swimming. Everybody looks like they're drowning the whole time because they're just trying to dunk each other. And I see my brother. He's standing on the dock. That's out of there all this. He looks at heaven, says a little prayer, and then, boom, straight to the bottom.

But what if? What if he went? Okay, I got this, right? You see, Israel never handled success very well. He never did. Because success will so often lead to independence. And while independence is a big value around our world, it is not a great value to God.

The greatest value is utter dependence on him. So what if Jesus calls Peter out of the boat, understanding that he knows he's going to have fear and he's going to sink, he's going to find himself in a place of utter desperation and fear. And in that place of utter desperation, he cries out the most important thing he could cry out. He does not cry out, watch me. He cries out, Lord, save me. This is my favorite part of it.

And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him. He did not go, what's wrong with you? I told you. no immediately reaches out of its hand and saves him most often a desire from god comes in our most desperate circumstances and maybe i'm telling you if we don't bring our heart to god and say god may my soul thirst for you thirst for the living god then it would be the grace of god for him to help us feel like we're drowning so that our hearts would cry out lord save me and we can trust him because he's trustworthy and he will immediately do so we sing these words

your grace abounds in deepest waters your sovereign hand will be my god where feet may fail and fear surrounds me you've never failed and you won't start now and i will call upon your name that's what it means to be desperate for god church is a hobby for you you might want to take a little break over the next season because we're not doing hobbies right now we're called in the church of 1122 to a desperation for the only one that can save us. We're asking God to quench our thirst at a soul level and the only thing will do that is Jesus to see his face. We are crying out whether life, whether you're being blessed like crazy right now or you feel like you're under the water just wave upon wave upon wave and you're pressed down and you feel like you can't breathe

then cry out in desperation to the only one that could save you. Lord, save me and trust him because of the cross that immediately he will reach out his hand to you. And he may not change your circumstances because they're so circumstantial, but I guarantee you he will save your soul. Would you please stand and pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you because you first loved us. Lord, I know deep in the heart of every man, of every woman, of every student, we have this desperate desire to cry out.

Lord, save me. Lord, I pray that you would strip away anything that would numb us to the greatest reality in all the universe for all eternity that we need you. God, we don't need your blessings. We don't need your provision. We don't need your miracles. We need you. God, we need to see the glory of your face in the glory of your son, Jesus Christ.

And so God as a church, on behalf of the church of 1122, God, I cry out, Lord, save us. Not just save us from our sins, but save us from our success and save us from our circumstances and save us from the mind-numbing daily rhythms that we find ourselves in and strip away all of those things so that we could understand that our greatest desire and our greatest need is not that you would take care of us, but you would give us you. So God, we ask that you would move, that you would intensify the work of the Holy Spirit in us and through us and to us for your glory and our joy. And we pray this in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, in church, we respond. And we're going to respond by bringing to God our first and our best,

our tithes, and our offerings. And we respond by prayer. Some of us, we respond by prayer. Some of you need to awaken a soul that God saved a long time ago, but somehow it's gone to sleep, and you need a gospel awakening, and there's no need to wait until we get to saturated. Let's do this right now. Just come down to the altar, and you just say, Lord, help me, Lord, save me. I feel like I'm drowning, and I need you. And we're going to sing. We're going to join our voices together, and we're going to sing, all of us together in, like, one unified prayer.

We're going to sing about when we are, when we feel like the way. waves are drowning us, but he's never failed us, and he won't start now. So let us respond.