The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 10: Give Ear

Episode Date: June 26, 2022

But I call to God, and the Lord will save me. – Psalm 55:16 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. – Psalm 55:22 God hears our cries and knows our pain. Pour your heart out to the Lord in prayer like it matters more than anything else, because it does.

Amen. Amen. It's good to see you, church. I'm Ryan Britt. I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm always honored whenever Pastor Jobi asked me to teach the Bible. And so that's what I'm going to do. We're going to be in Psalm chapter 55 today as well as 2nd Samuel chapters 13 and 15. And so as you make your way there, I want to draw our attention to a line we sang earlier as well as what we just heard in that powerful testimony. And the lyric we sang earlier is it says, all my life. you have been faithful. All my life you have been faithful. One day we were seeing that in a staff meeting and it just illuminated to me differently. It landed on me a little bit heavier that day and I felt like God spoke to me a word of encouragement and he said,

Ryan, there has never been and there never will be one second of your life where you will experience anything but my absolute faithfulness because of Jesus. That's really, really good news. God is faithful. God is faithful to himself, praise God, and God is faithful to his people. Much of the Psalm's journey that we've been on the last handful of weeks is, in large part,

a testimony of God's faithfulness. And so we're going to keep in that Psalm 55 is where we're going to start, starting in verse 1. This is a Psalm of David. David has been the King of Israel for a minute now. He's been ruling and reigning for a little bit. and we pick up in verse one and just heads up. Buckle up right now. Psalm 55 starts heavy, stays heavy, and ends heavy. So we're going to have a thing right here together, okay?

Psalm 55, it says, give ear to my prayer, oh God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy. Attend to me and answer me. I am restless in my complaint and I moan. You ever been there? just got moaning and complaining from a not like an inconvenience place but from like a deep place I'm restless in my complaint and I moaned because of the noise of the enemy because of the oppression of the wicked for they drop trouble upon me and in anger they bear a grudge against me listen to the language my heart is in anguish within me

and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. My heart is at anguish within me and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Have you ever been there? I have. One of my most distinct memories is when I was 12 years old. I was sitting in the waiting room of a hospital

where my mother was having surgery because she had been diagnosed with cancer. And the initial prognosis was that she would need surgery and then she would get some treatment, but that she should expect a full recovery. But that day in that waiting room, the phone on the wall behind my dad's head rang. It was the surgeon calling from the operating room. And when my dad picked that phone up, it was like 10 seconds, maybe 20. And then the sounds that came out of my father, like the deep guttural sounds, I'll never forget them. The terror of death had found us.

And ultimately, what they said led to my mother's passing. And I've been there, that place where your heart is an anguish within you. And many of you have walked a similar road. you haven't walked the same road, maybe for you it was the death of a marriage or the death of the future that you thought you were going to have. The truth is, is that life can be hard sometimes. We can be awful to each other at times and we can experience incredibly awful things. Here's the wild thing about hurt in life is that it hurts. Hurt always hurts. In pain, unlike anything else, it has a powerful way of grabbing hold of our perspective.

Pain, unlike anything else, can grab possession over our perspective in life. King David experienced quite a bit of pain in his life. As we've studied through his history, his early years we're generally familiar with. David was a shepherd boy who was anointed and appointed to be king over Israel from the prophet Samuel, and then he marched out into the battlefield against the Philistines, He kills Goliath, the giant. He becomes a military leader in the nation of Israel. And then he becomes king of Judah.

And then by the time he's 30 years old, he becomes the king of Israel. Last week, Dr. Brunson did an incredible job, amen, walking us through Psalm chapter 57, which is the saga that David went through with King Saul, as King Saul tried to kill him over and over and over again. So those are the early years of David's life. But the later years of David's life were a little less familiar. you're familiar with. So let me just catch us up for context as to what's going on in Psalm chapter 55. If you go to 2 Samuel chapter 11, verse 1, it says this, in the springtime, when the kings go

out to war, David sent Joab and he remained in Jerusalem. So David's the king of Israel. He has a responsibility to God's people. He's supposed to lead them into battle. They trust him, and he is supposed to go and be their king and their leader. But instead of stepping into his God-given responsibility, David abdicates his responsibility, and he gives it to a man named Joab, and he sends almost all of Israel, all of Israel's fighting men out to war, and David remains in Jerusalem. So he abdicates his responsibility as king. And then 2nd Samuel 11 continues and says that one day, David arose from his couch late

in the afternoon. What are you doing your couch? What was he doing? He was napping. He was taking a nap. I am not anti-napp. I'm actually pro-napp. You can ask my wife. I like naps. Here's the thing, though. You shouldn't take a nap when you're supposed to be at war. That'll preach. Anyway, David takes a nap. And in exactly the right time in the afternoon, he wakes up and he strolls out onto his balcony. They call it the king's roof. Now, this is David's house. Do you think this is the first time David ever went out on the roof? No, David had been out there many times. Nobody could ever convince me this was the first time.

David knew exactly where to go and exactly when to go there in order to see what he wanted to see. And so sure enough, he walked out on the king's roof and there he saw a beautiful woman taking a bath. And then the scriptures say that he then sent and inquired about the woman. So David abdicates his responsibility as king. He arranges his environment in order to satisfy his appetites. That's a whole other sermon that'll preach, but I'm not preaching that day. I'm just letting y'all know what happened. And so David sees this woman, her name's Bathsheba, and David commits adultery with her.

He doesn't stop there. He then arranges for her husband to be killed on the battlefield, and then he lies multiple times in order to cover up what he had done. The prophet Nathan comes to David and says, David, you have sinned against the Lord. And David, he does not respond in defensiveness. He doesn't lie to the prophet Nathan. He doesn't get into the blame game. He doesn't try to help Nathan understand how he just doesn't understand David's plight

and he needed somebody. David doesn't do any of that. David receives the rebuke from the Lord and he responds in confession and repentance. He says, I have sinned against the Lord. And he responds in in a process of repentance. Now, the collateral damage from David's decisions were significant. However, God is merciful and God forgave David. Praise God that God is merciful.

And that he forgives sin. David says, I've sinned against the Lord. David and Bathsheba go on to have a son. And that son is named Solomon. And Solomon ends up becoming the king of Israel. Along the way, David actually has a few other wives. and with his other wives he has a few other kids. And this is where we pick up in 2nd Samuel, Chapter 13, verse 1.

2nd Samuel 13, verse 1. Now, Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar. Absalom and Tamar have the same mother and David is their father. Okay? And after a time, Amnon, David's son, loved her. David is his father, but he has a different mother than Absalom and Tamar, so they are half brother and sister. Verse two, and Amnon was so tormented

that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her. What do you think you wanted to do? Play checkers? I mean, you think your family's jacked up? You're probably right, but

this is a jacked up deal. I mean, can you imagine the tension at this family reunion? I mean, you roll up in there and you're talking to Cousin Eddie and you're like, hey, man, who's the moody broody guy over there in the corner trying to get everybody's attention? He's like, oh, that's Amnon, but he's not trying to get everybody's attention. He's just trying to get Tamar's attention because he wants to imagine and you go, wow, wow. And you're like, well, hold on, aren't they brother and sister?

He's like, yeah, man, you're like, okay. And then you're like, okay, so Tamar, she's the pretty one? Yeah, well, who's that standing next to her that's so swole with that sweet haircut? He's like, oh, that's Absalom. Yeah, Absalom kicks tell and takes names. There's no doubt about it. You just don't want to get too close to him because you have to sleep with one eye open. You're like, oh, okay.

Well, who's over here in the corner wearing all the bling with all the ladies around him? He's like, oh, that's Solomon. He's a whole other thing. I mean, this family is wrought with tension. There's a lot of dark stuff going on in here. But Amnon, verse 3 says this, but Amnon who had a friend, or Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimea, David's brother, and Jonadab was a very crafty man. Now, Absalom was looking for trouble.

I don't think Absalom would have told you he was looking for trouble. I think Absalom would have said he just wanted what he wanted. But Absalom, make no mistake, he was looking for trouble. And here's the thing, when you're looking for trouble, you can always find people to tell you what you want to hear. It's the people who have the guts to tell you what you don't want to hear that you want to stay close to. Now, if David's life were a movie, it is at this point in the movie where the soundtrack would shift. Everybody knows that every great movie has a great soundtrack, and everybody knows that the greatest soundtrack ever made was Last of the Mohicans.

You're absolutely right. Thank you. Thank you. If there was a soundtrack to David's early life, I think it probably would have sounded something a little like this. King David, born in Bethlehem, anointed and appointed by the prophet Samuel to be the king over the nation of Israel, armed with five smooth stones and a shepherd slingshot, marches into battle, and... Just let it happen, folks. Just let it happen.

What does David do? He marches onto the battlefield. He slays the giant Goliath. He chops his head off, and everybody begins to chant. David has killed his tens of thousands. He's a hero. Right, you're welcome. Some of you are like,

what song is that? There's this guy, Tom Cruise, he makes movies. You should probably get out more. All right. So that would have been David's early life, where for a minute he had some heroic moments, but make no mistake about it, the Bible. It's not a story filled with heroes.

The Bible is the testimony of one hero, and his name is Jesus. David's demand, and his life begins to change, really drastically right here. And so if David, the second part of David's life had a soundtrack, I think it would sound a little like this.

Just wait for it. Now, if you are not a child of the 90s, you don't know, but that is from a band called House of Pain. And if you know it, you're sitting on the edge of your seat right now thinking, pack it up, pack it in. Let me begin. Don't come to battle me, son. You know it's a sin.

House of Pain. They got more rhymes and the Bible got songs, you know? David's house is about to be filled with an incredible amount of pain. It gets seriously dark, seriously quick. Amnon tricks and then rapes Tamar. And Absalom, Tamar's brother, gets, as you can imagine, infuriated. And Absalom waits two years and works a plan and then he has Amnon killed. And in the process, Absalom becomes very bitter and very, very.

angry at David. In Absalom's mind, David becomes a problem to solve. This is where we pick up in 2 Samuel chapter 15. And the early verses, Absalom starts to work a plan to overthrow David. And little by little, he begins to turn the hearts of the people against the father. And it wasn't hard because David was pretty disconnected from the kingdom at this point of time. And Absalom leaves Jerusalem where the king's palace is and where his father is. And he goes to a city to get some distance called Hebron, and we pick up in verse 11 as Absalom leaves to go to Hebron. It says this, with 200 men, he went from Jerusalem, and they were invited guests. And they went with Absalom in their innocence, and they knew nothing. While Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent

for Ahethafel, the Ghillonite, David's counselor from Gailo, and the conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept in. increasing. Now, Ahethafel, this is the final nail in the proverbial coffin in this chapter of David's life. Aethephal is David's trusted advisor. His presence in support of Absalom emboldened Absalom's rebellion against his father. He was, Ahethefel was David's closest friend. It was his confidant. They had made countless sacrifices together. They had spent countless times in worship together. They had planned. He's the guy that David would have the meetings after the meetings with. He was his, when David's struggling, Ahethafel is where he would go. They had a bond, a spiritual connection.

They were in many ways closer than brothers. And now, Ahethefeld, David's trusted friend in Absalom, David's son, are trying to kill him and overthrow him. And so when David says, my heart is an anguish within me and the terrors of death have fallen on me, you bet. You bet they have. When we go through these times of uncertainty and pain in our life, there is often a whisper from hell that becomes a shout. And it beckons the question, is God faithful? You say David's ear was being tickled by the lie. He wasn't being tempted to abandon God.

He was being tempted to forget that God is faithful. And it's from this place at what I think is a breaking point that he writes these words, fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me. And I say, oh, that I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. Yes, I would wander far away. I would lodge in the wilderness. I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest. David just wants to go away, and can you blame him?

Whose instinct isn't to run when the hurt hits close to home? sometimes when people inflict hurt upon us, we can sometimes we can get away from the who, but you can never outrun the hurt. Sometimes you can get away from the who, but you can never outrun the hurt. David really starts letting it rip right here. He is bouncing from fear and running to anger and fighting. And he says these words, destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues, for I see violence and strife in the city. and night they go around it on its walls and in iniquity and trouble or within it.

Ruin is in its midst. Oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace. This is where it gets really personal. Four, it is not an enemy who taunts me. Then I could bear it. It is not an adversary who deals insolently with me. Then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal.

my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together within God's house. We walked in the throng. I believe specifically David's talking about a heathel here. I don't think you would have ever considered Absalom to be an equal, but he's talking about a heathel while also carrying the burden of Absalom. And there is a very specific kind of hurt that David is experiencing here, and it is the hurt of betrayal.

and it inherently comes with the wounds of rejection. David is experiencing the hurt of betrayal that inherently come with the wounds of rejection. And there's many of us here that have had these kinds and hopefully healed from these kinds of wounds. Maybe we have and we currently carry these kind of hurts. I mean, we stood at the altar and we said, I do and I will, but they didn't. And now they won't. They looked at you and they said, trust me, and they took you. They said, we were in this together and they left you holding the bag.

There's people in your life that were supposed to protect you and instead knowing them has felt like punishment. They were supposed to be there for you, but instead they were anywhere but. Many of us have been cut in deep places by the wounds of rejection. And if that's you here today, I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry. It's real. It's deep. And I'm here to tell you that it can be healed in Jesus' name.

Amen. It can be healed in Jesus' name. Proverbs 1814 says this. The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed and wounded spirit who can bear. There's a kind of hurt that goes deeper than our normal operating sense of consciousness. It's a wound on our spirit.

It's the wound. of rejection. It replicates itself unlike any other hurt that I've ever encountered. It is so deep and it is often so defining. It manifests itself in loneliness and self-loathing and hopelessness and purposeless and joyless living. It goes to work in and in and through our lives and often it'll turn into addictions and it'll manifest itself in habitual patterns of self-abuse. The spiritual forces of darkness at work in this evil age, they will grab onto this wound and they will use it to steal God-given identity. They will lie in order to destroy relationships and destroy self-image and destroy a beautiful

picture of grace. They will rob from you through this wound and lead you to a place to where, at best, you live a manufactured, inauthentic happiness, and at worst you pursue escapism as a way of life. but underneath all that activity is a spirit that has been wounded by rejection. And so how can it heal? Well, the answer is in Jesus' hands. Jesus himself says that the spirit of the Lord is upon me

because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. These type hurts and wounds, they will leave you spiritually and emotionally bankrupt faster than anything. But Jesus proclaims the good news of the peace of the kingdom of God to you today. Jesus says that he was sent to proclaim liberty, freedom to the prisoner, liberty to the captives. These kind of wounds of rejection, it'll hold hostages for entire lifetimes, if not generations,

but Jesus has come to break the chains and set the prisoners free. He says he came to recover the sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who are oppressed. 1 John chapter 3 verse 8 says, the reason Jesus came into the world is to destroy the works of the devil, The wound of rejection is one of, if not the favorite wound of the devil. He will pick and pick and pick and whisper and whisper and whisper all trying to steal your God-given identity. But praise God that Jesus came into this world to destroy the works of the devil. Listen to me, church, one drop of Jesus's blood has the power to set generations free. Romans chapter 1 verse 16 says,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God into salvation. For all who hear and believe, the gospel can save anybody from anything at any time. It can heal anybody at any time from anything. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, received, believed, and applied by faith, it heals you. It is healing you and it will heal you. Received by faith, believed by faith, and applied by faith. How does it go to work?

Healing. How do we apply the God? gospel in these deep places of hurt. Well, I would offer you this today, through prayer and forgiveness. Through prayer and the practice of forgiveness. Peter asked Jesus, Jesus, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Now, all of us logically have a category for the fact that people have the capacity to sin, to go places they're not supposed to go, to do things they're not supposed to do as prescribed by God. We logically understand that.

The challenge is when we get emotionally involved when they sin against me. Peter says, how often should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me seven times? And Jesus says, I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times. What he means is every time. Sometimes you'll hear even well-meaning Christians

say silly phrases like, just forgive and forget. Well, I've just not. I found that possible. I don't say forgiven, forget. I say forgive and remember that you have forgiven. Forgive and remember that you have forgiven. The hard part of practicing forgiveness

is remembering that you have and do forgive every time the hurt from the pain comes back around. When Jesus forgave you, mind you, was no easy task. Forgiveness is not easy.

It was not easy for Jesus to forgive sins. But when Jesus forgave you when you place your faith in his forgiveness, it inherently comes with the power for you to forgive others. When Jesus forgave you, it came with the power to forgive others. It is a choice we make, not just a place that we end up. Let death still over them, David continues in his rant. Let death still over them. Let them go down to She-ol alive. For evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart. What's David saying? He's saying, I hope a Bethel and Absalom burn in shield. That's correct.

No. He's saying, I hope they burn in hell. That's what he's saying. Who knows you can talk straight with God? You can talk straight with God. He can handle all you got all the time. He can handle all you got all the time. We say here all the time that the fake you is doing just fine.

But you should bring the real you to a real God who sent his real son to die on a real cross to pay for real sins so that you could really experience eternal life through Jesus Christ. Bring the real you all the time to the real God. He can handle you, I promise. David makes a turn right here and he says this, but I called to God. I'm angry, I'm hurt, I'm bitter, I'm scared, but I call to God. I don't call to my next relationship. I don't call to my next appointment or my next success or my next failure, but I call to God, Jehovah Rafa, the God who heals. But I call to God and the Lord will save me.

Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan and he hears my voice. Is there anybody thankful today that we serve a God who hears us? Is there anybody thankful today that we serve a God who is near to the brokenhearted? The living God, he does not. turn away from us. If we draw near to him, we will find every time that he is drawn near to us. He didn't, David doesn't say this.

Well, I said it once and I did it once, why don't I feel better? He says, morning, evening, noon, I utter my complaint and moan. Stay at it, brother and sister. Stay at it. Keep going to the father over and over and over again. One of the necessaries in any

healing process is wanting to be healed. In order to be healed, part of you has to want to be healed. Stay at it. Stay at it. Don't chase feelings, chase Jesus, and he will grow faithfulness in your life. He redeems my soul and safety is what David writes. The Lord will save me.

He redeems my soul and safety from the battle that I wage. For many are arrayed against me. God will give ear and humble them. He who is enthroned of old, because they do not change and they do not fear God. They do not change and they do not fear. God, he's putting it in the Lord's hands. A tough but freeing experience is when we come to place in life

where we realize that it is God who changes people, I can't change anybody. David's waging war. He's saying, I'm at war here, man. My circumstances are so wildly complicated that you can't even begin to get your head around them. Everything out here is war. Everything in here is war.

I am at war. I've done some right things and I've done some wrong things. I've said the right things at times and I've said the wrong things more times than I can count. But ultimately, Lord, it is up to you. One of the, as we go through life and we experience hurts like these, betrayal, we can and should pray for the other or the others to change. We can draw hard lines and sometimes we have to so that their habitual behaviors don't hijack our joy in our life. And sometimes we can join God in the work that he's doing as he opens the door to help them move toward health. But you cannot kick down the door in somebody's life and force them to change.

That belongs to the Lord. And you can trust him. Who here knows that everything God does is good. regardless of our perception of the outcome or how long it takes everything he does is good. The Lord is my shepherd and he is the good shepherd. I shall not want because every good and perfect gift has been handed down to me from the Father of Lights who is above. He is good when he leads me besides still waters. He is good as he makes me to lay down in green pastures.

He leads me in the path of righteousness for his, names sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for your rod and your staff. They comfort me. You prepare, listen, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. And it's in the presence of my enemies

where I will feast on your goodness. Amen. You will anoint, you anoint my head with oil and my cup runs over with your faithfulness. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the good house the good Lord forever.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. He has founded upon the waters and he established it upon the seas. Who can ascend to the hill of the Lord and who can stand in his holy place? Only he who has clean hands in a pure heart and does not bow his soul to an idol. Do you know how you know that God is good? It's because he sent Jesus Christ on a rescue mission and Jesus Christ had clean hands and a pure heart and he never bowed his soul to an idol. and he marched up the hill of the Lord.

He carried that wooden beam all the way up there to pay the full penalty for the cost of sin so that you could be forgiven and that you and I could be fully accepted into God's family and we could stand forever in the Holy Throne Room of God as brothers and sisters to Jesus Christ

totally accepted, totally redeem, and totally forgiven. He is good. I'm 14 years old. I'm standing in the back of a funeral parlor between me and the front of the room, where my father is standing next to an open casket that has my mother's body in it. It's a sea of people.

I'm leaning against the wall. I'm bitter. I'm angry. I'm confused. I'm hurting. Honestly, stuff that it would take me decades to work through. And somehow, whether it was a nudge of the spirit or it was, he just caught me out of the corner of his eye,

I don't know, but my father makes his way through all these people, and he walks up to me and he puts his hand on my shoulder and he looks at me in my face and he says, son, I know this is hard, but God is good. And 25 years later, I stand here and I give testimony that God works all things together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose.

He is good. We trust him for salvation, for a future, for provisions. But what about with your pain? Will you trust him with your pain? my companion stretched out his hand against his friends David said he violated his covenant his speech was smooth as butter yet war was in his heart his words were softer than oil yet they were drawn swords and then David says these words cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you I love that David says cast your burden I would encourage you

today that when you cast your burden upon the Lord, be specific. Don't just cast that you are burdened. Cast your specific burden on the Lord. And he will sustain you and he will never permit the righteous to be moved. The gospel is this for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus took all the bad that sin had to offer, all of it. He took all the bad and he forgave sin on the cross and then he gave us all the good that he ever earned which is his holy and perfect righteousness that's the gospel is that jesus took all the bad and he has credited us all his all the good which is the perfect righteousness we don't earn this there's nothing we can do to merit it for ourselves it is a free gift given to us by god and we place our faith in the finished

work of jesus christ and this is a gift given to us and we cannot lose it because we did not earn it. You cannot lose it, but unforgiveness, an unhealed wounds of the heart sure can keep you from enjoying it. Unforgiveness is the fastest road I know of to joyless living. If you want to get rid of the weeds, you've got to get down at the root. Look, God is growing a garden in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5 says, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. That all of this life and good goodness is growing in you by the Spirit of God, but that they're also weeds growing there. And if you let those weeds grow uncontrolled, they will begin to choke out the love and joy

and life that's trying to grow in your garden. So get down at the root. When it comes to carrying hurt, when it comes to hurt and walking through these seasons and these difficult situations in life, there are three options that I've found. only one of them leads to healing. Option number one is that you can carry it. You can wear it around your neck like a pair of glasses and you can see everybody and everything through it.

You can hold others hostage to it. You can live life in a way that people have to navigate you and step around you like they're on eggshells all the time. I've been there. And trust me when I tell you that God has better for you than that. So you can carry it or you can try to bury it. And shove it down in there. Don't talk about it.

Act like nothing ever happened. Fill all your time with busy and hurry and mind-numbing activities. Try to pursue distractions and relationships anywhere that you can. Hope the hurt doesn't spill out. And if it does, then you can get into the blame game and just keep yourself isolated from real relationships. Don't give yourself others to others in Jesus' name. don't pursue the vulnerability of faith. Just check all the boxes and have some kind of religious rituals that you go through

but not have an authentic faith relationship with Jesus. You can just bury it down in there, build walls of sarcasm and self-defense and just try to hide behind them. You can carry it or you can bury it or you can cast it. You can cast your burden on the Lord. Cast all your cares on him because he cares. for you. Jesus says in Matthew 11, come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. There's nothing heavier than the hurt of the heart. He says, come to me and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus's invitation today is to come, rest, take my yoke, and I love that he says this, learn from me. Who knows that Jesus is not a, he's not some genie in the bottle that you just rub and like, bamboose, everything's all the sudden better. No, he's someone that you follow and you learn from. You learn how to apply the gospel. You learn how to walk in healing.

You learn how to practice forgiveness. Learn from him. I've been there. I've tried to carry it. Different burdens, different ways. I've been there. I've tried to bury them and that road leads nowhere good. But it is here in this place with this people that I have learned how to cast it.

Morning, noon, and night, right here in places just like this, right now. I was walking through a season of needed healing in my life. One Sunday, just like. this and I'm sitting and I'm listening and I'm taking notes and then comes time to the end of the service where we're invited to respond and I feel the nudge where the Lord says Ryan cast your burden on me and I'm like I'm good man nobody really knows I've tucked that away like I'm all right it's not like hurting anybody yet it's like cast your burden on me so in faith honestly kind of scared.

I took a step and I walked down to a prayer rail just like this one. And I knelt down and I got there and honestly I didn't know what to say. I've been in church more times than you can imagine. I know many Bible verses, but in that moment I didn't know what to say. I had locked some stuff up so deep down in my guts that I didn't even have a language to talk about it. God was kind to me in that moment. And he reminded me of Jesus's words when Jesus says, when you pray, do it like this. He says, when you pray, say these words, our Father, who are in heaven. Howl it be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us to stay our daily bread. And then I got to this part right here. Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Forgive my sins. I've sinned. I've been selfish. I've crossed the line. Forgive my trespasses. I've gone places.

I shouldn't have gone. I've said things that I shouldn't have said. As we say, forgive our sins. Be specific. Give it a name. God can handle it. Jesus paid for it. Be specific.

As I've sinned. And as I forgive those who have trespassed against me. They went where they were not supposed to go. They did what they were not supposed to do. Who is it? A brother, a sister, a friend, an ex, a spouse, a child. Maybe today, and oftentimes the hardest person to forgive is yourself. Maybe today is the, you take a step in the direction of believing and receiving the power of forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ for you so that you can give it to others.

Be specific. My invitation to you today is this. Cast your burden on the Lord. Cast your burden on the Lord. It's amazing what happens when we choose to posture our body in the way that we want our hearts to be. The Bible prescribes all kinds of different postures for us.

It's amazing when we want our body. we take a step when we move our body in the direction of the Lord what we'll find and what begins to happen. Every week we end the service the same way. We say that we pray. We built prayer rails just like this one so that you could posture your body in the position that you want your heart in so that you could move your life, your body in the direction that you want your life to go, which is toward the Lord. There's nothing magic about this, but there is something supernatural about making a choice to put yourself under the Lord. to bow down before him.

So every week we say, will you pray? Today I would invite you to come and pray and cast your burden on the Lord. And maybe it's not you. Maybe it's someone you're close with and they have a burden. Would you come? Bear with them and their burden

and cast it upon the Lord. So we pray. We sing about God's faithfulness and we sing about God's goodness and then we respond in bringing. We bring our first and our best through ties and offerings because God gave his first and best

through Jesus Christ. I invite you today, wherever you are, will you respond to the Lord? Cast your burden on him because he cares for you. Let's pray together. Father, we love you. We trust you and we need you. I pray that you would fill this place

with the peace of the kingdom of God, heart, soul, mind, and strength that we would be overcome with your mercy and grace. I pray for my brothers and sisters who carry the deep wounds of betrayal and rejection that need to be healed. I pray the healing of Jesus. Jesus, you tell us that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And so I'm asking right now, Jesus,

will you bind up, hurt and betrayal and the lies and the whispers of the enemy that would pick at those things? And will you lose the healing that only you can provide? Will you set us free in the name of Jesus? We trust you. Help us to trust you. We believe you. Help us to believe you.

We want to be near you. We're drawing near to you, knowing that you have drawn near to us. We pray your kingdom come in this place right now on earth as it is in heaven. And all God's people said, amen. Amen. Would you stand with us? And would you come as you respond?