Longing for God
Series: Wisdom
Speaker: Chris Jones
Date: 8th July 2012
Passage: Psalm 42:1-11
00:00:00 --> 00:00:06 I was a country pastor during some very severe years of drought in the early 1990s
00:00:06 --> 00:00:10 and I learnt a lot coming out of the city.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 I learnt to appreciate rain.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:20 I learnt not to stick my head out the window on another cold, cloudy, overcast, rainy day
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 and say, lousy weather.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 I lived among people whose faces lit up when it was wet.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:32 People would come into town, they'd have time for a talk and a cuppa.
00:00:33 --> 00:00:39 They would compare their rain gauge readings with joy, excitement, competitiveness
00:00:39 --> 00:00:43 and sometimes with great thankfulness to God.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:48 Drought brings deathly despair.
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 Day after day of endless blue sky.
00:00:54 --> 00:00:57 Crops come out of the ground and they wither and die.
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 Animals expire in the paddock.
00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 A lamb is not worth much but cattle are.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:09 And you see their carcasses withered and dead in the paddock
00:01:09 --> 00:01:13 and you know that something terrible is quietly going on.
00:01:13 --> 00:01:17 Hope dies.
00:01:17 --> 00:01:17 Hope dies.
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 Uncertainty prevails.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 And despair grows.
00:01:24 --> 00:01:30 Now as the drought grew longer I called a prayer meeting out towards Walcott in the community of Burren Junction
00:01:30 --> 00:01:35 and I advertised it as praying for people in drought.
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 And nearly a hundred people came in from farms out around the community
00:01:39 --> 00:01:44 and I wanted them to hear one another's stories and to pray for one another.
00:01:44 --> 00:01:52 Clearly everybody wanted it to rain but I thought it was important to support one another through the despair.
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 The meeting began.
00:01:55 --> 00:02:00 We heard some pretty torrid stories from people about how the drought was impacting them.
00:02:01 --> 00:02:06 And then a very prominent man in the community, a shire counsellor who wasn't a Christian man,
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 rose to his feet and aggressively and impatiently said,
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 So when are we going to pray for rain?
00:02:13 --> 00:02:14 That's what we've come for.
00:02:18 --> 00:02:25 Now unbeknown to me, he got on ABC radio that morning and told people that we were going to pray for rain.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:33 And I said we have come to pray for people and we will ask God for rain.
00:02:35 --> 00:02:41 My vision was to support people and to urge them to trust in God even if it never rained.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:45 Run to God, not run from God.
00:02:48 --> 00:02:54 The shire counsellor wanted God to fix the mess, to meet his needs.
00:02:55 --> 00:03:01 God, get me out of this time so that I can get on with my life without you.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 A lot of people are really happy to look to God in a difficult time.
00:03:08 --> 00:03:09 They want him to fix things.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:10 Somebody dies.
00:03:10 --> 00:03:11 Something terrible happens.
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 Everybody says I'm praying for you.
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 We want stuff from God but we don't want him.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 True people of faith are different.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:25 We want God.
00:03:27 --> 00:03:31 We want him much more than we want the things that he gives to us.
00:03:31 --> 00:03:40 And Psalm 42, this wonderful psalm, is a song which is written by a person who is hungry for God.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:48 And I discovered that as I prepared that you can't preach this psalm properly without preaching Psalm 43 as well.
00:03:48 --> 00:03:53 The two go together and in some of the ancient Hebrew manuscripts they are one song.
00:03:53 --> 00:03:57 And you'll see as I speak what it is that links them.
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 And so it begins.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:20 So this psalmist, this songwriter, he longs to be in God's presence.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 He wants to meet with him.
00:04:22 --> 00:04:28 Some of my favourite verses in all the Bible are verses which express a longing for God.
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 So you go into Philippians 3, verses 10 and 11.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:48 The sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus said,
00:04:48 --> 00:04:52 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:56 The invitational language of Jesus,
00:04:56 --> 00:05:00 Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.
00:05:02 --> 00:05:08 Pascal famously said,
00:05:08 --> 00:05:17 There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing,
00:05:17 --> 00:05:21 but only by God the Creator made known through Jesus Christ.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 And he's saying something that I think we all know,
00:05:26 --> 00:05:31 that people long for something or someone who is bigger than us.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:37 And as life goes on, we realise that life is not all that it's cracked up to be.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:45 We're told that we're the centre of our world and we learn from a tsunami or an earthquake or a death or a job loss or an illness
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 that we actually control very little.
00:05:48 --> 00:05:59 What makes you feel a long way from God and lonely for him?
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 Sin does it for me.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:13 The guilt, the unworthy feelings, sometimes even self-loathing.
00:06:13 --> 00:06:17 Personal criticism does it as well.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:24 Somebody points out your failures and they'll always qualify it by saying they're just trying to be constructive.
00:06:25 --> 00:06:33 But oftentimes it's given or it's received in a way that is destructive of self-image and eroding of confidence.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:38 Personal failure can be a terrifying moment as well.
00:06:39 --> 00:06:45 The moment when you've done something at work that's going to cost a lot of money or time to fix.
00:06:47 --> 00:06:48 You've made a mistake.
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 There's no hiding it.
00:06:50 --> 00:06:51 It will be seen.
00:06:51 --> 00:06:58 I am the engineer who designed a water pumping station down the south coast.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:04 And I got a call when I was on my next job while it was being built saying,
00:07:05 --> 00:07:10 who's the idiot engineer who specified rising spindles on the valves under the car park?
00:07:13 --> 00:07:18 They were putting them in and they realised that they were going to have steel rods projecting through the car park
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 for everyone to trip on and drive over.
00:07:21 --> 00:07:27 It wasn't my most glorious moment.
00:07:28 --> 00:07:32 And all I could say was, it was me.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 Which was a really good thing to say.
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 But I would still have liked a very big rock to hide under.
00:07:44 --> 00:07:55 The songwriter's oppression and his feelings of loneliness from God is not coming from his own failures.
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57 It's coming from external oppression.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:02 His enemies see his circumstances, whatever they are, and we're not really sure what they are.
00:08:02 --> 00:08:07 They know about his faith, but they're putting the boot in.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 And they taunt him.
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 And you see it in verse 3 and you see it again in verse 10.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:13 Where's your God?
00:08:16 --> 00:08:17 Where's your God?
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 You're the preacher.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:21 Where's your God?
00:08:23 --> 00:08:27 Now we've preached this series of messages from the book of Job over the last few weeks
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 and we saw that when Job suffered at God's hand,
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 his friends were the ones who became his oppressors.
00:08:37 --> 00:08:41 People who claimed faith in God made it even harder for their brother.
00:08:41 --> 00:08:50 But in Psalm 42 and 43, the oppressors are unbelievers, people who are outside the faith.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 They don't believe in God at all.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 And they're taunting the psalmist and he is hurting.
00:08:57 --> 00:08:58 And he's saying things like,
00:08:58 --> 00:09:00 My tears have been my food day and night,
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 while people are saying to me all day long,
00:09:03 --> 00:09:04 Where is your God?
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?
00:09:09 --> 00:09:14 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taught me,
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 saying to me all day long,
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 Where is your God?
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 And so his experience, life for him,
00:09:24 --> 00:09:28 is tears and mourning and suffering to the very bone.
00:09:30 --> 00:09:33 And the enemies look at his situation
00:09:33 --> 00:09:34 and they effectively say,
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 So much for your faith in God.
00:09:38 --> 00:09:39 Seems to be absent.
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 Doesn't seem to be listening.
00:09:45 --> 00:09:50 Because for them it's a world where God doesn't seem to make his presence known.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 He doesn't seem to have anything to say.
00:09:55 --> 00:09:56 Our world.
00:09:59 --> 00:10:02 Christian believers and what we stand for,
00:10:02 --> 00:10:03 more and more marginalised.
00:10:05 --> 00:10:07 Pushed to the edges of society.
00:10:07 --> 00:10:11 We are not even listened to in,
00:10:12 --> 00:10:13 sometimes for good reason,
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 but other times for poor reason.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:16 We're not even listened to
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 in some of the big picture public debates
00:10:19 --> 00:10:20 about marriage.
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 As soon as you open your mouth
00:10:24 --> 00:10:25 and you say that you are a Christian,
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 it is enough for people to ridicule you
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 without a word being heard.
00:10:29 --> 00:10:35 So when people say,
00:10:35 --> 00:10:36 where is your God?
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 It's an expression of unbelief.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 How stupid to say that there is a God
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 who is both creator and redeemer.
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 How foolish to think that a God exists
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 who is intricately involved in our lives.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 How ridiculous that God
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 superintends the events of our world.
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 These people think that they are accountable
00:10:56 --> 00:10:56 to no one.
00:10:56 --> 00:10:57 They mock,
00:10:57 --> 00:10:58 where is your God?
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 The world can be a lonely place for a believer
00:11:04 --> 00:11:05 and Jesus knows it.
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 And he says in John 15,
00:11:08 --> 00:11:09 if the world hates you,
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 keep in mind that it hated me first.
00:11:12 --> 00:11:18 I was talking to a minister the other day
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 who was in South Sudan earlier this year
00:11:20 --> 00:11:24 and he was taken to a bombed out building
00:11:24 --> 00:11:25 where 19 Arab men
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 were studying the scriptures.
00:11:29 --> 00:11:30 They'd come to Christ
00:11:30 --> 00:11:34 and they were encouraging each other as pastors
00:11:34 --> 00:11:38 and they were preparing to go back
00:11:38 --> 00:11:39 into the Arab North
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 and covertly plant churches
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 they were passionate for Jesus
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 even though it would cost them,
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 it could cost them their lives.
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 They treasure Jesus
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 even though their world taunts them with
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 where is your God?
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 I don't think the songwriter's looking for everything
00:12:04 --> 00:12:05 to be right with the world
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 but he is hungry for God.
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 He wants God present in his life.
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 He wants to be in submission to God's purposes.
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 As the deer pants for streams of water
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 so my soul pants for you, O God.
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 My soul thirsts for God,
00:12:25 --> 00:12:26 for the living God.
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29 Where can I go and meet with God?
00:12:29 --> 00:12:35 So his experience is loneliness,
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 God seems silent,
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 his enemies are delighting that there is no God.
00:12:44 --> 00:12:47 And verse 6 tells us that he is a long way from home.
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 My soul is downcast within me,
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan,
00:12:54 --> 00:12:55 the heights of Hermon from Mount Mizar.
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 He's up north in the mountains near the source of the Jordan River.
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 He's a long way from Jerusalem,
00:13:01 --> 00:13:02 the place of God's presence.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 He can't get to church to worship with God's people.
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 When I'm away from church,
00:13:09 --> 00:13:10 I miss it.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:12 I don't miss the building,
00:13:13 --> 00:13:14 it's inconsequential.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 I miss you, the people of God.
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 I miss our believing staff team
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 and the fellowship that we have with one another.
00:13:24 --> 00:13:28 I miss my community groups
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 and the place of belonging and stability
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 that they bring to my life.
00:13:34 --> 00:13:35 I miss our church
00:13:35 --> 00:13:40 because you remind me that God is near
00:13:40 --> 00:13:41 and that he is real.
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 I experience Christ with you.
00:13:44 --> 00:13:51 And so he engages in a sort of self-talk.
00:13:51 --> 00:13:52 Verse 5 and verse 11.
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 Why are you downcast, my soul?
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 Why so disturbed within me?
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 He's low, he's discouraged.
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 He tries to lift his eyes up to God.
00:14:03 --> 00:14:04 Put your hope in God.
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 I'll praise him, my saviour, my God.
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 It's sort of like self-effort
00:14:08 --> 00:14:09 to get out of this low.
00:14:11 --> 00:14:12 And he tries to use memory
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 to take him to another place.
00:14:14 --> 00:14:15 So in verse 4,
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 I remember as I pour out my soul
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 how I used to go with the multitude
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 leading the procession to the house of God
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 with songs of joy and thanksgiving
00:14:25 --> 00:14:26 amongst the festive throng.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:28 And verse 6,
00:14:29 --> 00:14:30 my soul is downcast,
00:14:30 --> 00:14:31 but I will remember you.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 He remembers great services
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 at church in the past
00:14:37 --> 00:14:40 and what a joy and a delight they were.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:42 I can remember gathering
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 with 90 believers
00:14:44 --> 00:14:47 at Randwick Racecourse in April 1979.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:53 And we heard Billy Graham preach Acts 17,
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 Paul at the Areopagus,
00:14:56 --> 00:14:57 and he was saying,
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59 for God has set a day
00:14:59 --> 00:15:01 when he will judge the world with justice
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 by the man he has appointed
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 and he has given proof of this
00:15:05 --> 00:15:07 to all people
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 by raising him from the dead.
00:15:09 --> 00:15:09 So for me,
00:15:10 --> 00:15:11 memory takes me back
00:15:11 --> 00:15:12 to a place of joy
00:15:12 --> 00:15:13 and delight
00:15:13 --> 00:15:14 and wonder.
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 Memory is particularly important
00:15:20 --> 00:15:20 for believers.
00:15:21 --> 00:15:22 When Jesus came,
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 Jews celebrated the Passover festival
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 with a memorial meal.
00:15:27 --> 00:15:28 It was a once-a-year meal.
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31 It took them back
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33 nearly 1 years
00:15:33 --> 00:15:33 to the moment
00:15:33 --> 00:15:35 when God rescued them
00:15:35 --> 00:15:36 from their enemies
00:15:36 --> 00:15:37 and saved them out of Egypt.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:40 It was an annual reminder
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 of the centre of their faith.
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 And so Jesus,
00:15:46 --> 00:15:47 on the night before he died,
00:15:47 --> 00:15:48 he celebrated the meal
00:15:48 --> 00:15:49 with his disciples.
00:15:50 --> 00:15:51 It was the last thing
00:15:51 --> 00:15:52 that he would do with them
00:15:52 --> 00:15:53 before he died.
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 And he gave it a new meaning.
00:15:56 --> 00:15:57 This bread is my body
00:15:57 --> 00:15:59 which is given for you.
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01 Do this in remembrance of me.
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 This cup is the new covenant
00:16:04 --> 00:16:05 in my blood
00:16:05 --> 00:16:06 which is poured out for you.
00:16:08 --> 00:16:10 So this ancient memorial meal,
00:16:11 --> 00:16:12 this great tradition
00:16:12 --> 00:16:14 of the previous 1 years,
00:16:15 --> 00:16:16 this annual reminder,
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 is completely reinterpreted
00:16:19 --> 00:16:21 by the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:16:21 --> 00:16:22 His body broken,
00:16:23 --> 00:16:24 his blood shed
00:16:24 --> 00:16:25 would become the great act
00:16:25 --> 00:16:26 of God's salvation
00:16:26 --> 00:16:28 that Christ achieved.
00:16:30 --> 00:16:31 And belief in it,
00:16:31 --> 00:16:32 it defines us
00:16:32 --> 00:16:33 as the people of God.
00:16:33 --> 00:16:34 We remember him
00:16:34 --> 00:16:35 and what he's done.
00:16:36 --> 00:16:36 So when we come
00:16:36 --> 00:16:37 to the Lord's Supper
00:16:37 --> 00:16:38 or Holy Communion,
00:16:38 --> 00:16:39 which we aren't doing
00:16:39 --> 00:16:40 this morning,
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 it's not a magic ritual.
00:16:43 --> 00:16:44 It's a memorial meal
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 which continually takes us
00:16:46 --> 00:16:47 to the centre of our faith.
00:16:48 --> 00:16:49 And through memory,
00:16:50 --> 00:16:52 we draw near to Christ our God.
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 We remember his perfect life.
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 We remember his wicked death.
00:16:57 --> 00:16:58 We remember how God
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 powerfully raised him
00:17:00 --> 00:17:00 from the dead.
00:17:01 --> 00:17:02 And we remember
00:17:02 --> 00:17:04 how God saved us
00:17:04 --> 00:17:06 by overcoming both our sin
00:17:06 --> 00:17:08 and death forever.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 So memory is one tool
00:17:13 --> 00:17:14 in the songwriter's kit.
00:17:14 --> 00:17:19 The other is in Psalm 43
00:17:19 --> 00:17:20 and it's prayer.
00:17:21 --> 00:17:23 There's a huge shift.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:26 He moves from self-talk
00:17:26 --> 00:17:27 to God-talk.
00:17:29 --> 00:17:30 He stops talking to himself
00:17:30 --> 00:17:32 and he starts talking to God.
00:17:33 --> 00:17:34 Verse 1.
00:17:35 --> 00:17:36 Vindicate me, O God.
00:17:37 --> 00:17:37 Plead my cause
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 against an ungodly nation.
00:17:39 --> 00:17:40 Rescue me
00:17:40 --> 00:17:42 from deceitful and wicked men.
00:17:42 --> 00:17:45 Verse 3.
00:17:46 --> 00:17:47 Send forth your light
00:17:47 --> 00:17:47 and your truth.
00:17:48 --> 00:17:49 Let them guide me.
00:17:49 --> 00:17:50 Let them bring me
00:17:50 --> 00:17:51 to your holy mountain
00:17:51 --> 00:17:52 to the place
00:17:52 --> 00:17:53 where you dwell.
00:17:55 --> 00:17:57 Can you see what happens
00:17:57 --> 00:17:58 when he prays?
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 He moves from this place
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 of feeling distant from God
00:18:02 --> 00:18:03 and as though God
00:18:03 --> 00:18:04 is a long way off.
00:18:05 --> 00:18:07 A really lonely place.
00:18:07 --> 00:18:08 And prayer is what actually
00:18:08 --> 00:18:09 brings him
00:18:09 --> 00:18:10 into the presence of God.
00:18:10 --> 00:18:15 So it doesn't matter
00:18:15 --> 00:18:15 how far he is
00:18:15 --> 00:18:16 from Jerusalem
00:18:16 --> 00:18:17 or from church.
00:18:18 --> 00:18:18 Prayer allows him
00:18:18 --> 00:18:19 to come right
00:18:19 --> 00:18:20 into the throne room
00:18:20 --> 00:18:21 of the king
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 and get an immediate audience.
00:18:25 --> 00:18:26 The psalm's great
00:18:26 --> 00:18:27 because we really don't know
00:18:27 --> 00:18:28 the details
00:18:28 --> 00:18:29 of his circumstances
00:18:29 --> 00:18:30 but we know
00:18:30 --> 00:18:31 that he feels oppressed.
00:18:31 --> 00:18:32 He does have
00:18:32 --> 00:18:33 mocking enemies.
00:18:33 --> 00:18:34 He feels a long way
00:18:34 --> 00:18:35 from the immediate
00:18:35 --> 00:18:36 presence of God.
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 And the remarkable thing
00:18:39 --> 00:18:39 is that as soon
00:18:39 --> 00:18:40 as he prays
00:18:40 --> 00:18:41 the distance is gone.
00:18:47 --> 00:18:48 Many times
00:18:48 --> 00:18:49 I have felt lonely.
00:18:51 --> 00:18:52 I've felt oppressed.
00:18:53 --> 00:18:54 I've felt like
00:18:54 --> 00:18:55 I was doing it tough.
00:18:56 --> 00:18:57 I've experienced
00:18:57 --> 00:18:58 hope dying.
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 Everything seems dark
00:19:01 --> 00:19:03 and hopeless
00:19:03 --> 00:19:04 and God does not
00:19:04 --> 00:19:05 seem to be
00:19:05 --> 00:19:06 all that close.
00:19:06 --> 00:19:12 and finally
00:19:12 --> 00:19:14 I think
00:19:14 --> 00:19:15 to open my mouth
00:19:15 --> 00:19:16 to pray.
00:19:19 --> 00:19:20 And I bring
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 my loaded heart
00:19:22 --> 00:19:23 or diary
00:19:23 --> 00:19:25 or plans
00:19:25 --> 00:19:25 to God
00:19:25 --> 00:19:26 and suddenly
00:19:26 --> 00:19:27 they are not
00:19:27 --> 00:19:28 mine anymore
00:19:28 --> 00:19:29 they are his.
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32 and many times
00:19:32 --> 00:19:33 God changes
00:19:33 --> 00:19:34 my mood
00:19:34 --> 00:19:36 and my sense
00:19:36 --> 00:19:37 of hopelessness
00:19:37 --> 00:19:37 when I bow
00:19:37 --> 00:19:38 my knee
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 and ask him
00:19:40 --> 00:19:40 to take hold
00:19:40 --> 00:19:41 of and intervene
00:19:41 --> 00:19:43 in my circumstances.
00:19:46 --> 00:19:47 That's faith.
00:19:47 --> 00:19:52 wonderful verse
00:19:52 --> 00:19:52 in 1 Peter
00:19:52 --> 00:19:53 chapter 5
00:19:53 --> 00:19:54 verse 7
00:19:54 --> 00:19:54 which we taught
00:19:54 --> 00:19:55 all our kids
00:19:55 --> 00:19:56 from a very early age
00:19:56 --> 00:19:57 and when you teach
00:19:57 --> 00:19:58 your kids a verse
00:19:58 --> 00:19:59 you learn it yourself.
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 It's 1 Peter 5
00:20:03 --> 00:20:03 verse 7
00:20:03 --> 00:20:06 casting all our cares
00:20:06 --> 00:20:07 on Jesus
00:20:07 --> 00:20:08 because he cares
00:20:08 --> 00:20:09 for you.
00:20:10 --> 00:20:12 Casting all our cares
00:20:12 --> 00:20:13 on Jesus
00:20:13 --> 00:20:14 because he cares
00:20:14 --> 00:20:15 for you.
00:20:17 --> 00:20:18 And we take
00:20:18 --> 00:20:19 God's wonderful
00:20:19 --> 00:20:19 invitation
00:20:19 --> 00:20:21 we step
00:20:21 --> 00:20:22 into his throne
00:20:22 --> 00:20:23 room
00:20:23 --> 00:20:24 we open
00:20:24 --> 00:20:25 our mouths
00:20:25 --> 00:20:26 and we pour
00:20:26 --> 00:20:26 out our hearts
00:20:26 --> 00:20:27 to our heavenly
00:20:27 --> 00:20:27 father
00:20:27 --> 00:20:30 and he restores
00:20:30 --> 00:20:30 hope
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 he rules
00:20:33 --> 00:20:34 he knows
00:20:34 --> 00:20:36 he cares
00:20:36 --> 00:20:38 he is
00:20:38 --> 00:20:38 trustworthy.
00:20:41 --> 00:20:42 See the taunt?
00:20:43 --> 00:20:44 Where is your
00:20:44 --> 00:20:44 God?
00:20:45 --> 00:20:46 And the answer
00:20:46 --> 00:20:49 he is as near
00:20:49 --> 00:20:50 as a bended
00:20:50 --> 00:20:51 knee
00:20:51 --> 00:20:52 and a humble
00:20:52 --> 00:20:53 heart.
00:20:59 --> 00:21:00 I don't know
00:21:00 --> 00:21:01 what sort of a heart
00:21:01 --> 00:21:02 you have brought
00:21:02 --> 00:21:02 to church this
00:21:02 --> 00:21:03 morning
00:21:03 --> 00:21:04 but maybe you
00:21:04 --> 00:21:05 have come here
00:21:05 --> 00:21:06 with a very
00:21:06 --> 00:21:07 heavy heart
00:21:07 --> 00:21:09 lonely
00:21:09 --> 00:21:09 oppressed
00:21:09 --> 00:21:11 a long way
00:21:11 --> 00:21:11 from God
00:21:11 --> 00:21:12 and maybe God
00:21:12 --> 00:21:13 does not feel
00:21:13 --> 00:21:13 that real
00:21:13 --> 00:21:14 in your life.
00:21:17 --> 00:21:18 But the
00:21:18 --> 00:21:19 psalmist
00:21:19 --> 00:21:19 is saying
00:21:19 --> 00:21:20 he is as
00:21:20 --> 00:21:20 near
00:21:20 --> 00:21:21 as your
00:21:21 --> 00:21:21 bended
00:21:21 --> 00:21:22 knee
00:21:22 --> 00:21:23 and your
00:21:23 --> 00:21:23 humbled
00:21:23 --> 00:21:24 heart.
00:21:26 --> 00:21:26 And he
00:21:26 --> 00:21:27 finishes
00:21:27 --> 00:21:28 his song
00:21:28 --> 00:21:29 in chapter
00:21:29 --> 00:21:30 43
00:21:30 --> 00:21:31 verse 5
00:21:31 --> 00:21:32 with the
00:21:32 --> 00:21:33 same chorus
00:21:33 --> 00:21:33 that he
00:21:33 --> 00:21:34 sang twice
00:21:34 --> 00:21:35 in Psalm
00:21:35 --> 00:21:35 42
00:21:35 --> 00:21:35 42
00:21:35 --> 00:21:38 but I
00:21:38 --> 00:21:38 think
00:21:38 --> 00:21:38 even
00:21:38 --> 00:21:38 though
00:21:38 --> 00:21:39 it's
00:21:39 --> 00:21:39 the
00:21:39 --> 00:21:39 same
00:21:39 --> 00:21:39 words
00:21:39 --> 00:21:39 this
00:21:39 --> 00:21:40 time
00:21:40 --> 00:21:40 it
00:21:40 --> 00:21:40 sounds
00:21:40 --> 00:21:41 different.
00:21:42 --> 00:21:43 It's
00:21:43 --> 00:21:43 full of
00:21:43 --> 00:21:43 hope.
00:21:45 --> 00:21:45 It's not
00:21:45 --> 00:21:46 a response
00:21:46 --> 00:21:46 to self
00:21:46 --> 00:21:47 talk.
00:21:48 --> 00:21:48 It's a
00:21:48 --> 00:21:48 response
00:21:48 --> 00:21:49 to having
00:21:49 --> 00:21:49 stood in
00:21:49 --> 00:21:50 the presence
00:21:50 --> 00:21:50 of God
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52 and walked
00:21:52 --> 00:21:52 out again
00:21:52 --> 00:21:53 full of
00:21:53 --> 00:21:53 hope.
00:21:53 --> 00:21:55 Why are
00:21:55 --> 00:21:55 you
00:21:55 --> 00:21:56 downcast
00:21:56 --> 00:21:56 O my
00:21:56 --> 00:21:56 soul?
00:21:58 --> 00:21:58 Why so
00:21:58 --> 00:21:59 disturbed
00:21:59 --> 00:22:00 within me?
00:22:01 --> 00:22:01 Put your
00:22:01 --> 00:22:01 hope in
00:22:01 --> 00:22:02 God
00:22:02 --> 00:22:03 for I
00:22:03 --> 00:22:04 will yet
00:22:04 --> 00:22:04 praise
00:22:04 --> 00:22:04 him
00:22:04 --> 00:22:05 my
00:22:05 --> 00:22:06 saviour
00:22:06 --> 00:22:06 and my
00:22:06 --> 00:22:07 God.
00:22:08 --> 00:22:08 Amen.
00:22:08 --> 00:22:08 Amen.