["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Wednesday evening service we call it the most encouraging service of the week. Amen
We are so glad to see everyone here this evening. Let's open the service with a word of prayer
Dear heavenly father. We love you
We thank you for a great day you've given us and thank you for all that you do for us and
Just thank you for the opportunity to be in your house this evening
We thank you for all that you provided us and we pray now lord that you would
Bless the service. We pray for the singing the preaching and the prayer time and the fellowship
We ask lord that everything that be said and done this evening would only bring glory and honor to your name
We love you in jesus and I pray amen. All right turns to page number four
Song number four
The way of the cross leads home song number four
I must needs go home by the way of the cross. Let's go ahead and sing it out
On the first I must needs go home by the way of the cross
There's no other way but this
I shall never get side of the gates of light if the way of the cross I miss
The way of the cross leads home
It is sweet to know
The way of the cross leads home
I must needs go on and the blood sprint away the path that the savior trod
If I ever climb to the heights of lime where the soul is at home with god
The way of the cross leads home
It is sweet to know as I yarn but go
The way of the cross leads home finish strong
On the last and then I bid farewell
To the way of the world to walk in it
Nevermore
Oh my lord says come and I see my home where he waits at the open door
The way of the cross leads home
It is sweet to know as I onward go
The way of the cross leads home. Amen
Amen
Amen and we want to welcome you to the wednesday evening service here at verity baptist church. We're so glad that you are
With us, let's go ahead and take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements real quickly
If you do not have a bulletin just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you
If you need a bulletin just put your hand up and we will get one for you the verse this week matthew
633 but seek you first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added
Unto you and that's a good verse there. We like that
We open up your bullets and you'll see our service time sunday morning service 10 30 a.m
Of course, we invite you to be with us on sunday morning on the lord safer church sunday evening service
At 6 p.m. And then we're glad you're here for the wednesday evening bible study
If you look at our soul winning times our main sewing times on saturday mornings at 10 a.m
And then of course we have additional soul winning times on thursdays and sundays at 2 p.m
So if you'd like to go soul winning tomorrow
There'll be an opportunity for you to be able to do that if you look at the announcements and upcoming events
Of course, we've got the spirit world sermon series. We're in on sunday mornings and we've talked about heaven. We've talked about hell
We've talked about angels
We've talked about demons and this sunday
We're going to be talking about the devil learning about what the bible teaches about the devil
So we encourage you to be here for that. And then of course we started the political series on sunday night
And we did part one god is not a republican and uh this coming sunday night we'll do part two
About the democrats. All right, so
Make sure you're here for that if you're interested in that harvest party is not tomorrow, but next thursday october 31st at 6 p.m
So we hope that you're getting excited about that. We'll have the annual chili cook-off games
There's sign-up sheets in the foyer if you'd like to help with bringing cornbread or desserts
Or if you'd like to sign up for the basketball game, we have a sign-up sheet for the ladies, but not the guys
But we'll have both games for ladies and men and then tomorrow is the homeschool group pe class
So make sure you don't forget about that at 10 a.m
And then there's other things there of course for you to look at on wednesday nights
There is a ladies weight loss and accountability group that they they meet at 6 15 p.m
Before the wednesday evening service in my wife's office. That's a group my wife leads
So ladies, you're welcome to be a part of that if you'd like if you look at the back of the bulletin birthdays and anniversaries
for the month of october
This week we had our deacon brother. Oliver. Gonzalez had a birthday on october 20th
And my brother brother abraham and miss karen. Jimenez had their anniversary on october 21st
leliana perez had
A birthday yesterday on october 22nd
Uh, and today is noel rosenberg's birthday on october 23rd. So happy birthday to her
Ji-yoon. Lynn. Davison has a birthday tomorrow october 24th
And emma. Gonzalez has a birthday on october 25th praise report money matters
All of those things are there for you to look at and I think that's it for all of the announcements
So let's go ahead and take our song books and go with me if you would to page number 355
page number three five five
And we're gonna sing
What a friend we have in jesus
page number
355
And let's go ahead and sing it out on the first
What a friend we have in jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to care
We
Breathing to god in prayer
Oh what peace we often forfeit
Oh what needless pain we bear
Do not
Say everything to god in prayer 355 sing it out on the second
Have we trials and temptations
Is there trouble anywhere
We should never be discouraged
Oh
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share
Jesus knows our every weakness
Is
Singing out on the last are we weak and heavy
With a load of care
Precious savior still
The lord in prayer
Do thy friends despise forsake me
Take it to the lord in prayer
In his arms, he'll take and
Amen good singing and we just want to remind you real quickly that we do have mother baby rooms
Of course and daddy rooms available
So if you have a child that's been distracting
During the service we encourage you to use those rooms as needed
And if you wouldn't mind we'd ask that you'd please check your cell phone and make sure it's on
Vibrate or off or silent so it doesn't go off in the middle of the sermon. We'd appreciate your help with that
Let's power heads and have a word of prayer. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time
Heavenly father lord, we do love you
And we thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight lord
We pray that you bless the offering the gift and the giver. We pray that you would
Continue to meet our financial needs lord
We pray that you'd meet with us as we take time to pray
And as we take time to study your word together in jesus name we pray. Amen
So
Amen, all right. Well, let's go and take our prayer sheets tonight
If you did not get a prayer sheet on your way in just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you
If you need a prayer sheet, just put your hand up and we will get one for you
And of course i'd like to remind you that the way we add a request the way you can add a request
So the prayer sheet is through your communication card on the back of the cards
There's a place for you to write down a request make sure you mark whether it's private or public if it's private
Only I will see it if it's
Public we'll put on the parachute if you don't mark it. We'll do our best to figure it out
We usually don't add those when we do add the requests
Of course, they're added in the order that they're received and they're removed after a couple of weeks
I would like you to notice on the back of the prayer sheet
That miss katie rosenberg has been added to the expecting
Ladies list there. So congratulations to brother keith and miss katie rosenberg on expecting a baby
And let's go ahead and take these requests to the lord. I'd like for you to
Follow along and pray in your mind and your heart with me as I pray out loud and let's pray together
Heavenly father lord, we come to you tonight asking for these requests from our church family
Lord, we begin with these requests dealing with health
We pray for brother john cervantes praying for his cousin alex and his wife
That they would enter a rehab program and get clean and sober also. Miss. Amy cortez praying for her son
For his health as well
and steven aims
Praying for complete healing as he undergoes treatment for colon cancer
tim padgett praying for his health
and also for the health of the wallace family and brother joshua gussellum the second praying for his mom's upcoming surgery and results
And also for his back to be healed
brother warren praying for
His sibling's mental health as well and brother ron praying for
His foot to heal so that his mobility would improve miss natalie
Just continuing to pray for her husband's recovery
And brother scott scroggs praying for his friend bob
peniston
And his ear pain to heal and miss maria kudalima praying for healing for pete's cirrhosis
and for sveta's
Healing from parkinson's disease and for her daughter
Natasha's insomnia miss christine ortiz praying for her health brother sabra praying for health. Miss dogma praying for
Her mri and also for healing for her sister's broken rib
And brother edgar misalina continuing to pray for urezi and jonathan to be healthy
And of course, we continue to pray for our missionary. Dave kabuntala's wife miss angel as she's
Battling breast cancer and lord we ask for all these individuals we pray that you would give them all
Healing lord. We pray that you'd give them all recovery. We pray that you'd give the
doctors and the nurses the
Physicians dealing with them you give them all wisdom and health
And then lord, we also pray for the ladies in our church that are expecting
Miss angel miss. Laura beth miss antonina and also miss katie praying that you give them all
healthy pregnancies with no issues and no complications
And then lord, we also pray for these that have requests
regarding
Their faith and their walk with you brother. John praying again also for his cousin hallux and his wife that they would start
attending church and
Miss christine and brother sabro praying for their faith and their walk with you
And lord, we also pray for these that have requests regarding salvation. Miss. Amy cortez praying for her son's salvation
and also for her daughter crystal salvation and
Miss minnie bass praying for her family's salvation brother warren praying for the salvation of his co-workers
brother ron praying for his mom and his family's salvation and
Miss natalie also praying for her husband's salvation and miss maria crudelima praying for roma and skylar's salvation
Miss christine praying for her family's salvation and lord. We ask for all these individuals
We pray that you would help them and be with them lord
We pray that your holy spirit would work in their hearts and their minds that they would
Be able to come to the place where they'd be willing to hear the gospel and that they would hear it clearly
And that they might be saved and lord. We pray for these that have physical and financial needs miss. Amy praying for her son
for his social security to be approved and
Also, brother joshua gussellum the second praying for a healthy work schedule for this upcoming christmas season
And miss brandy barrett praying for her finances for also for her new job that begins next month
Miss christine praying for her finances for the salvador as well lord. We ask for these individuals. We pray you
help them and be with them and
Open doors for them lord and take care of them
And we also pray for these that have requests regarding their families leliana pedes praying for her grandma and her aunt genie
And also miss brandy praying for her family brother salvador praying for his family as well
And lord, we ask that you bless these families and be with them
We also ask for miss dokma as she travels to germany that you'd give her safe travels and
Hope would have a good time and bring her home safely
and then of course we pray for these that have
Unspoken requests and miss britney lauterman having an unspoken request for the nate deakins brother. Felix. Jimenez. Miss kimmy
Gessler miss michelle scott all having unspoken requests miss natalie having an unspoken request brother salvador having an unspoken request
And lord, you know what they're
Asking about you know what their petitions are lord. We pray that you would answer
According to your will and lord
We ask that your will would be done in their lives in regards to these things
And then of course we pray for our church. We pray for the work being done in the philippines and pampanga bikol
we pray for pastor stuckey and
For his ministry and for his family and of course for our missionary dave kabuntala and sabu as well
We also pray lord
Just that you would continue to help our church bless our church be with our church and lord
We pray that you would meet with us in the next few moments as we take
another psalm and look at it and study it together lord help the word of god to
Minister to our hearts and help us to learn from it help us to draw close to you in jesus name. We pray. Amen
Please open up to psalm 13
Psalm 13 if you need a bible, please raise your hand and i'm not sure you bring your bible
Psalm chapter 13, just keep your hand up unless you'll come by
Psalm 13 we'll read the entire chapter as our custom
Psalm 13 verse number one
How long wilt thou forget me? Oh lord forever
How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul?
Having sorrow in my heart daily
How long shall my enemy enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and hear me. Oh lord my god
Lighten mine eyes
Lest I sleep the sleep of death
Lest my enemies say I have prevailed against him and those that troubled me rejoice when I am moved
But i've trusted in thy mercy
My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation
I will sing unto the lord because he had dealt bountifully with me. Let's pray heavenly father
Thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for our church and for your word
I ask you please give us all tender heart to the message and ask to be their pastor
Please strengthen him and fill in the spirit. We love you in jesus name. Pray. Amen
Amen
All right, we're there in psalm 13
And of course on wednesday night, we are making our way through the book of psalms. We've been studying one psalm
A week and tonight we find ourselves here in psalm 13. Of course. This is a short psalm just six verses
and
Just before we get into the psalm, of course
It has a superscription there to the chief musician a psalm of david the superscription doesn't give us a lot of context about the psalm
of course it identifies the fact that david is the
Author the writer the human instrument used to pen down this psalm
And we don't know what's going on in the life of david. Uh, we could probably probably take a guess but
What this psalm is is that?
He's dealing with a problem
And he does not see
an imminent solution
For this problem. It seems to david like god is absent
Like god is silent
And like god is delaying his response his help
And in some ways I think it's good that we don't know
the context in which david is
having this psalm
Writing this psalm because then it leaves it kind of open in general for all of us to use these psalms
I want you to notice that david is feeling this
Distance from god this silence from god this absence from god. In fact in verses one and two
You'll notice the this little phrase in those two verses is used four different times psalm 13 in verse one
It says how long?
How long?
He says how long will thou forget me? Oh lord?
Forever and then he says it again. How long?
Will thou hide thy face from me?
Then he says it a third time in verse two how long?
Shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily?
And then he says it a fourth time in these two verses. He says how long shall my enemy be exalted
Over me and we can feel the emotion here. I think from david
With these questions how long lord how long and again, we don't understand and we don't know the context
In which this psalm is being written. We don't know
What it is that david is referring to we could like I said probably take a guess
but I think this is good because of the fact that
These psalms as we've been studying these psalms together
We've been learning about the fact that the psalms are songs. We know that and they are
Scripture we know that as well. They're not just songs, but they're actually
The word of god holy men of god spake as they were moved by the holy ghost
They are music as well
And we know that the book of psalms in some ways was like the ancient hymn book of the children of israel
But it was also a prayer book all of these psalms that we've seen have all been prayers
And I think that the benefit of studying the psalms is that we can become aware and we can recognize
Which psalms deal with each subject because the psalms have been dealing with different things some have been discouragement have
Some have been while dealing with enemies some are going to be psalms of praise and here
David is making a prayerful request to the lord and asking how long and I think this is a psalm that you could pray through
That I could pray through at times when we feel like god is distant
Like god is silent
like god is
Absent like god is delaying his response and just real quickly
We're going to jump into the the verses here in a minute
But just just to give you maybe some thoughts, you know, when when might you need the psalm when might you need to pray?
Through this song when might you ask the question how long and I think we might go to psalm 13 and pray through psalm 13
When it seems that you have a problem maybe that is incurable
and
Maybe the diagnosis has been given and it's chronic
And there's no cure and it's not going away
I think during those times this psalm might be helpful as we hear
David cry out how long oh lord
Uh
We can also pray this psalm during times when maybe your problem seems irrevocable
when
the situation seems like it's been broken to the point where
There is no way to repair it
Then this psalm might be a fitting psalm to pray maybe when your problem seems as though it is insistent
And it's not going away it will be persistent
And sometimes we find ourselves in these situations. Sometimes we are dealing with issues
And I think if you've lived long enough
You might know that the hardest issues to deal with and the hardest pain to deal with
Is not the pain that is the sharpest but it is the pain that is the longest
When you're dealing with something and it just seems like it's not going to go
away
This is just the new way of life. This is just the thing we're going to deal with. This is just always going to be
This cloud that's hanging over us and this is where we find david as he pens these words. How long?
Wilt thou forget me? Oh lord, how long will thou hide thy face from me? And then of course those words he says forever
And we find ourselves oftentimes in these types of situations. I mean, I I think if we
Took a handheld mic and allowed everyone to give a story. Maybe many of you would find situations like this. I can tell you
um in in ministry we have situations like these
Many situations like this. I'm I can think of one situation in particular that I will not go into detail publicly about
Uh, but this is something that's been
Ongoing now for I don't know eight years
And uh, sometimes it weighs heavy on my heart and sometimes my wife and I
Give ourselves to seasons of daily prayer
And then honestly after eight years sometimes to be honest with you sometimes I just forget about it too
There's seasons where you just seem to forget
It seems like whenever there might be some hope that it's coming to an end the goal post gets
moved back
even further
And I have found myself at times asking the question how long lord
How long before this gets resolved how long?
before this situation
Gets dealt with and that's where we find david
So wherever it lands for you wherever it applies to you
And if it doesn't apply to you, then maybe you'll find one day that it will
But this is where we find david we find david in a moment of time
We don't know what his issue is we don't know what his problem is, but we know that god seems absent god
Sounds silent god seems far removed far away and he's asking these questions
How long wilt thou forget me? Oh lord, how long will thou hide thy face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul? How long shall my enemies be?
Exalted over me and i'd like to just give you three thoughts real quickly tonight again only six verses
But three thoughts in regards to what do you do?
When it feels like it's so long
When it feels like god is so far away
I'd like you to notice first of all
And if you're taking notes tonight
I do encourage you to take notes on the back your course the week there's a place for you to do that
I can notice first of all the problem
of when god delays
the problem of when god delays because that's really
The issue right when we ask the question how long?
We're asking the question how long because we have not yet synced ourselves to god's timetable
God has a timetable and I hope you know that god's never late
God's always on time
But sometimes we try to rush ahead of god and we want things to move faster than they need to move and to go
Quicker than they need to go
And david is asking this question about god's delay and I would say that the problem what we see in the text here
The problem of when god delays is this that the problem with god's silence the problem with god's
Absence the problem with god's delay is this that we feel forgotten
Isn't that true?
Look at verse one again. He says how long will thou forget me?
Now we know that god has not forgotten him
But david feels as though he's been forgotten
And the problem with god's absence at times or that feeling that he feels far away is that we often
feel
Forgotten but not only do we see that david feels forgotten there in verse one when he says how long?
Will thou forget me? Oh lord forever
And then I want you to notice secondly
We see that he feels forgotten, but we also see that he feels forsaken
Look at last part of verse one. He says how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
So he says god i'm not sure if it's that you've forgotten
Or I don't know if it's that you've forsaken
I'm, not sure if you just don't remember or if you're just hiding your face from me, but he says how long?
And then I want you to notice
in verse two
We see a third problem with god's silence with god's absence in verse one
We see that the problem is that we feel forgotten. The problem is that we feel forsaken
I want you to notice in verse two. The problem is that we feel frustrated
When
God is absent or when god seems absent when god feels absent when he feels like he's not around
He's not paying attention. His response is delayed and he's not doing what we need
The problem with that is we feel forgotten we feel forsaken and we feel frustrated notice verse two
David begins to talk about his emotions and he says this how long shall I take counsel in my soul?
He's talking about the fact that he's having these internal dialogues
And these these internal talks within himself and and and he's talking to himself and and sometimes
That can be good and most of the time I would say that can be not good
When you're having this internal dialogue and you're saying god must not care and god isn't around and does god even know?
He says how long shall I take counsel in my soul notice? He says having sorrow in my heart daily
And here we find david at a very low
Moment in his life
He's frustrated because he feels forgotten. He's frustrated because he feels forsaken. He's frustrated
because of his emotions
He says having sorrow in my heart and then he says this daily
Which is the frustration because when you're feeling something like this this anxiety this this sorrow in his heart daily
He says how long lord? Are you going to allow this?
And I want you to notice not only does david feel
frustrated because of his emotions
But he also feels frustrated because of his enemies for the last part of verse two
He says how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
So we find david and he's very discouraged here in psalm 13
And you might think well, I don't think that david or a man of god should ever
Act discouraged or be discouraged or admit to the fact that they are discouraged
I'm personally thankful that david through the inspiration only goes
Writes something like this because we definitely see david at highs at time
We definitely see him praising the lord and and saying everything that had breath should praise the lord
We definitely see him rejoicing and we see him in in good places, but
the christian life is
Often times are good and sometimes times are bad
Sometimes things aren't going well
And it's good for us to see here that david
Was feeling frustrated. He was feeling forsaken. He was feeling forgotten now
What's the application and we're going to move through the text here?
Further in a minute, but let me just say this
during times of god's silence
When we feel like god is absent, we feel like he's not moving he's not answering our prayers
He's not doing the things that we need him to do
We should remind ourselves of god's promises
Because everything that david is bringing up here. There's a promise connected to it
He feels forsaken, but there's a biblical promise forsake
Connected to that he feels a forgotten but there's a biblical promise connected to that
He feels frustrated because of his emotions and his enemies, but there's biblical promises associated with that
In fact, let's just run some verses real quickly and let's look at some of those keep your place there in psalms
That's our text for this evening
But go with me if you would to the book of isaiah isaiah chapter 49 if you're there in psalms
You go past the book of proverbs ecclesiastes song of solomon and then the book of isaiah isaiah 49
And i'd like you to look down at verse number 15 isaiah 49 and verse 15
Here's the reality sometimes god feels far away and sometimes god feels
It feels like god has forgotten it feels like god has forsaken it feels
Frustrating because our enemies are exalted above us our emotions are out of control
These are all things that we actually feel but one thing we need to remember is this
That just because you feel something doesn't make it so
And just because you feel a certain way doesn't mean it's right
In fact your emotions I did a whole sermon series on emotional intelligence
If you remember our emotions are often an alarm to tell us something is wrong
But they should not lead and they should not guide because though our emotions can bring up a lot of feelings. They are not logical
And david is feeling forsaken. He's feeling forgotten. He's feeling frustrated
He's scared and he's upset
But he's wrong
And during times when we feel these ways what we should do is remind ourselves of god's promises
Here's a promise from god. David says how long wilt thou forget me o lord forever
Here's a promise from god isaiah 49. Look at verse 15. Here's what god says isaiah 49 15
Can a woman forget her sucking child?
That she should have not have compassion on the son of her womb
God says can a can a can a woman forget her nursing child can a woman forget her little baby?
She gives birth to a baby her her body gives life to this baby and this baby's
Nourishment is dependent upon her. He says can a woman forget her sucking child
That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb
And then here's what god says and and the idea and what you and I would answer to that is no, of course
Not what kind of a mother would forget her nursing child and god says yay
They may forget
The idea is that it's not likely but god says, you know
It's more likely that a woman would forget her nursing child than that. I would forget you
He says they may forget yet. Will I not forget thee?
Sometimes we feel like god has forgotten
Remember joe
Job asked where is god? Does god even know does god even care?
Sometimes it feels like god has forgotten but god says yet will I not forget thee notice verse 16
He says behold. I have graven thee upon the palm of my hands
Thy walls are continually before me
You ever have somebody give you information that was important to you and you needed it and you did not want to forget it
But you didn't have any word to write it. So you write it on the palm of your hand
Why do we write things on the palm of our hands because we don't want to forget
Because somebody gives us an address and we don't want to forget it
Because somebody gives us some information some information we need for a job or whatever
It might be and we write it on the palm of our hand
So it's there so that we don't forget about it so that we can see it when we need it
And god says god says yet. Will I not forget thee behold. I have graven thee upon the palm of my hand
God says I have your name written in the palm of my hand and though at times David it might feel
Like I have forgotten it might feel and you might ask how long would thou forget me?
Oh lord forever and the idea is and the response is that the promise of god is this
Can a woman forget her suckling child?
Yea, they may forget
Yet will I not forget thee
so during times
Of distress we should remind ourselves of god's promise and here's the promise from god. He will not forget you
He will not forget get you
But here's another promise go go to hebrews 13 if you would if you go backwards from revelation
You have revelation jude third second and first john second and first peter james and then hebrews hebrews chapter 13
Because remember david makes these two we could call them accusations. How long will thou forget me?
Oh lord forever. How long will thou hide thy face from me?
Hide thy face from me
David feels like he is forgotten and he feels like he's forsaken
The interesting thing is this that all throughout the bible and i'm not going to take the time to do this because there's way too
Many verses but all throughout the bible. We are commanded to seek god's face
to seek him
to seek god
And here david is accusing god and saying you're hiding your face from me. How long will thou hide thy face from me?
That's how david feels
We counteract that with the promise from god, here's what god says hebrews 13 5
Let your conversation be without covetousness
And be content with such things as you have
For he had said here's the promise. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee
He says i'll never leave you
I'll never forsake you
I'll never forget you
You might go through seasons of life where you feel like i've forgotten but it's not true just because you feel that way
Does not make it so
Go back to psalm 13 if you would
So we see the problem
The problem of when god delays the problem of when god is silent the problem of when god is absent
What's the problem is that we feel forgotten. We feel forsaken. We feel frustrated
So
Then we see what we should do
And what we should do
And this is usually the answer is pray
Not only do we see the problem of when god delays, but I want you to notice secondly tonight. We see the prayer
for when god delays
Notice there in verse three. He says consider and hear me. Oh lord my god
So he just got done telling us I feel forgotten I feel forsaken I feel frustrated because of my emotions this
Sorrow daily in my heart and because of my enemies they seem to be winning and being exalted over me
But then david turns and he begins to pray he says consider and hear me. Oh lord my god
He says lighten mine eyes
And we're going to come back to that phrase at the end of the sermon. We'll talk about what that phrase lighten mine eyes mean
I want you to notice two prayers
Two prayers that god that david submits here in these verses
While he's feeling like god is far away. Here's what he prays number one
He has a prayer
For god to not allow his death look the last part of verse three lest I sleep the sleep of death
I don't know if david
Is exaggerating here being sarcastic
Being what we might call dramatic
Or maybe he's being literal. I don't know
It seems he seems to indicate that whatever problem he's dealing with might kill him
And again, sometimes we act like things are going to kill us and they're not
but he prays
And if you ever feel like lord, I can't sustain this lord. I can't deal with this lord
This is going to kill me maybe literally or maybe just it's hyperbole
Maybe uh, you just feel like you cannot continue with whatever it is that you're dealing with here
David is praying and saying lord. I need you to hear me consider and hear me lest I sleep the sleep of death
Go to jeremiah chapter 51. I meant to ask you to keep your place in isaiah
And I think I forgot to say that so I apologize for that. But if you can
Go to jeremiah. It's right after isaiah
If you had your place in isaiah psalms proverbs ecclesiastes song of zalman isaiah isaiah and then jeremiah jeremiah chapter 51
Jeremiah chapter 51
The bible says there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man
But god is faithful
Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape
That you may be able to bear it and what the bible teaches is that god is not going to give you more
Than you can bear someone said I know that god will not give me more than I can handle. I just wish that
Uh, god didn't trust me as much as he does
Because sometimes it feels like he's giving us more
Than we can handle
Sometimes it feels like the weight
of the circumstances
might even
Take away our life
In jeremiah 51 and verse 39, I want you to see how these words are used lest I sleep the sleep of death
That's what he says in psalm 13 3
Jeremiah 51 verse 39 he says in their heart
I will make their feast and I will make them drunken that they may rejoice and notice the word sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake saith the lord. These are all terms being used for death. Look at jeremiah 51 and verse 57
He says I will make
Drunk her princes and this is here in jeremiah. It's in the context of drinking alcohol
And let me just say this, you know, here's the lesson if you drink alcohol god might kill you
Or the alcohol might kill you or both
Jeremiah 51 57 I will make drunk her princes and her wise men her competence and her rulers and her mighty men and they shall
Sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake saith the king whose name is the lord of hosts
So you see
That the prayer that david gives when god feels far away
Is this god don't allow this to kill me
It's a prayer
That god would not allow for his death
But I want you to notice the second prayer
Go back if you would to psalm
13
And look down at verse number four
psalm 13 and verse 5 he says
Psalm 13 and verse 5, excuse me
verse 3
Consider and hear me. Oh lord my god light in mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death
We see that the first prayer request is it's is a request saying lord. Don't allow me to die
Don't allow my death don't allow this to bring my dad
And again, maybe he's being dramatic
But if he is I think that you and I can tend to be dramatic
But then in verse 4 we see another request another prayer request he says this lest mine enemies say
I have prevailed against him
And those that trouble me rejoice
When I am moved
So we see that the reason he said lord, don't let me sleep this perpetual sleep
Don't let me sleep the sleep of death
He's saying lord
I'm praying that you don't allow my death because I don't want you to allow my defeat
He says if I die
Then mine enemy will say I have prevailed against him and those that trouble me. He says rejoice when I am moved
And look this might seem like a little bit of a selfish
Prayer
But we see it here in psalms and we've seen it in other psalms as well
And we've seen it in other places in the bible and I think it's appropriate for you to go to god and say lord
Don't allow my marriage to die
Because this will be a terrible testimony to those around me
Because those that have rooted against me, uh, they'll say that they have prevailed against me lord
Don't allow my ministry to die lord. Don't allow uh this uh, uh thing to die or that thing to die
He's talking about physical death but the idea is this he's saying lord don't allow death
Because that would allow for defeat and in revelation we're told that we should strengthen those things that are ready to die
So we see that the answer is always prayer
And the prayer here is to not allow my defeat
Don't allow my defeat we see this in other psalms as well go to psalm 25 if you would just real quickly
Psalm 25 you're there in psalm 13 and look down at verse number one psalm 25 in verse number one
The bible says the psalm of david
This is a psalm that's actually been put to music he says unto thee o lord do I lift up my voice
Excuse me my soul
Unto thee. Oh lord. Do I lift up my soul verse two? He says oh my god
I trust in thee
Let me not be ashamed let not mine enemies triumph over me
It is an appropriate prayer to pray
lord
Don't let me be defeated
Don't let my enemies win
Let not mine enemies triumph over me
Look at psalm 35 in verse 19
Psalm 35 we could look at a lot of these i'll just give you a couple of examples
psalm 35 in verse 19
So the bible says this let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me
Neither let them wink with the eye
That hate me without a cause
So when god feels far away when he feels distant when he feels like his
Response is delayed and he's being silent we see the problem
The problem is we feel forgotten we feel forsaken we feel frustrated because of our emotions and because of our enemies
And what we should always do when we feel this way is pray
And we see that david prays don't allow my death
and david prays
Don't allow my defeat
And again in these instances we should remind ourselves of the promises of god
He says
Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me
He says let not mine enemies triumph over me
If you would go with me just real quickly to the book of romans romans chapter number eight
Romans chapter number eight
And i'd like you to look down at verse number 31
Romans chapter number eight
And verse 31
The bible says in romans 831, what shall we then say
to these things
The these things being referred to there are the things that
Cause us heartache causes fear cause us to doubt
Paul says what shall we say to these things and then he says here's what we should say to these things the things
That cause us frustration the things that cause us
To feel forgotten and forsaken the things that cause us to fear the things that cause us to feel like god has abandoned us
What shall we say to these things? He says here's what we say to these things if god before us who can be against us
And the answer is always this
To remind yourself of the promises of god
We sing the song standing on the promises
We need to stand on the promises. Look at verse 34 same chapter romans 834
Paul says this is what you should say to your enemy
After you get done praying a prayer lord, don't let me die and don't let me be defeated
Let not mine enemies say i've prevailed against him and those that trouble me rejoice once we have prayed
Then we should rest on the promises of god. Who is he romans 834 that condemned it?
It is christ that died yea rather that is risen again
Who is even at the right hand of god who also maketh intercession for us the idea there he's saying who is condemning me
When christ has already delivered me
Who is condemning me when christ has died and is risen again and is at the right hand of god and is making intercession for us
He says in verse 35 who shall separate us from the love of christ
Remember the idea is that you feel forsaken
But paul says we need to remind ourselves that no one can separate us from god
Who shall separate us from the love of christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
As it is written for thy sake we are killed. Yes. Are there times of difficulty are there times of tribulation?
Are there times of peril for thy sake we are killed all the day long
We are consumed as sheep for the slaughter verse 37
He says nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us
And he says these very famous words he says for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor
Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor death nor any other creature
Shall be able to separate us from the love of god, which is in christ. Jesus our lord
Amen
And i'm here to tell you when your problems seem big
We need to pray
And we need to stand on the promises of god
We need to remind ourselves that he will not leave me nor forsake me
We need to remind ourselves that he is not forgotten. In fact, he has written your name. He's inscribed your name in the palm of his hand
And i'd like you to notice thirdly tonight in this short psalm if you make your way back to psalm 13
Not only do we see the problem of when god delays and not only do we see the prayer for when god delays
But I'd like you to notice thirdly we see the praise
As when god delays
It's interesting to me that david moves from problem to prayer to praise
And look I understand that sometimes we don't feel like praying I get it
And sometimes we don't feel like praising I get that too
But I think it's important that we understand that when we are dealing with problems the proper response is prayer and praise
Notice that david begins to praise the lord he praises for triumph
There's a praise of triumph there in verse 5 psalm 13 5, but I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation
There's a prayer of triumph and and here's the thing you say pastor if you knew what I was going through
If you knew the the things that i'm dealing with right now, you would understand why you know
I don't have a lot of praise. I don't have a lot to to praise about but let me tell you something
No matter how bad things get you can always praise the lord for your salvation
No matter how bad things are you can always say but I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation
That's what we read in in romans 8
Who shall we then say to these things?
What shall we then send to these things of god before us who can stand against us?
Who is he that condemneth us?
It is christ that died yet rather it
That is risen again who is even at the right hand of god who also make an intercession for us
The idea is this no matter how bad things get here
One day i'm going to go to heaven
So I can say that I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoice
in thy salvation
We see
a praise of triumph
And again not to minimize whatever it is that you might go through
But no matter what you and I go through if you're saved
You can always have the praise of triumph. I have trusted in thy salvation
Then I want you to notice
There's a praise of thanksgiving
Look at verse 6
He says I will sing
And by the way whenever you're feeling down and defeated you ought to sing
I think when you come to church you ought to sing
You say I don't know how to sing. I didn't say you got to join the choir. I just said sing the congregation sing
Open your mouth and sing unto the lord or something music
Can be a spiritual connection to god
And we ought to sing david says I will sing unto the lord
Because he has dealt bountifully with me
He gives a prayer of thanksgiving. It's interesting to me that we see david
Saying standing on the promises. I cannot fail
Standing on the promises of god is what we need when we feel the problems
even sucking the life out of us
But then he says not only do I need to stand on the promises he says I also need to count my blessings
He says I will sing unto the lord because he had dealt bountifully with me
He says when I look back and I look at the blessings of god
And I look at what god has done in my life. It has been bountiful
He has dealt bountifully with me. Let's run some verses real quickly. Go to psalm 116
Look at verse 7
psalm 116 and verse 7. He says return unto thy rest psalm 116 7. Oh my soul for the lord hath dealt
bountifully with thee
The lord hath dealt bountifully with thee
And the truth of the matter is is that if you and I actually sat down and began to write down all the blessings
That god has given us
We would have to walk away and say the lord had dealt bountifully with me
He's done me good
Psalm 119 if you would look at verse 17
Psalm 119 and verse 17
The bible says deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep thy word
The truth is this you say when things things aren't looking good and i'm not feeling good
I'm feeling forgotten. I'm feeling forsaken. I'm frustrated
What do I do you pray?
You praise
You stand on the promises of god
And then you count your blessings
Because the truth is this we don't want to admit it we won't want to talk about it when we're in the midst of a pity
party
And you know that the pity parties are the best parties
We're in the midst of a pity party
We don't want to be cheered up
But the truth is this if we were to sit down and really begin
To take into account
All the blessings of god
We would have to say I will sing unto the lord
Because he had dealt bountifully with me
The hymn says when upon life's billows you are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings name them one by one and it will surprise you what the lord hath done
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings every doubt will fly
And you will be singing as the days go by
So amid the conflict david
whether great or small
Do not be discouraged god is over all count your many blessings angels will attend help and comfort give you
to your journey's end
Count your blessings name them one by one
Count your blessings see what god hath done count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings see what god hath done
See I don't need to know you to know this about you
That god has been good to you
You see I don't know
What god is doing right now, I feel forgotten I feel forsaken well, here's where you can start start with salvation
And start counting your blessings
And it may surprise you what the lord hath done
Yes
Notice psalm 13 if you would just real quickly go back to verse number three
I told you there was a phrase there in verse number three that we'd come back to
And i'd like to come back to it now if you wouldn't mind
What do we do when god delays what do we do when god feels absent?
What do we do when it feels like god is silent and god is not?
Doing what we need him to do
The problem the problem when god delays is that we feel forgotten we feel forsaken we feel frustrated our emotions are out of control
It seems like our enemies are winning
We're out to pray
You can pray lord. Don't let me die
And you can pray lord. Don't let me be defeated
And after we've prayed we out to praise
There's always a praise of triumph at least for salvation
And there's always a praise of thanksgiving
If you'll take the time to count your blessings and name them one by one
And see what we see here what david is doing is he begins at this low and he ends at this high
And how he got there is actually found in verse number three psalm 13 verse three
This is where the psalm kind of shifts because verses one and two are pretty negative. How long oh lord
Will you forget me forever? How long are you going to hide your face?
It's it's very how long will my enemy be exalted against me verses one and two are very negative
But then verse three he begins to pray and he says consider and hear me
Oh lord my god, and then he says this little phrase he says lighten mine eyes
Lighten mine eyes
He says because if you don't god
I will sleep the sleep of death lest I sleep the sleep of death
So what that phrase mean lighten
mine eyes, it's not a phrase we use in our modern vernacular, but let me just
Show you a couple verses and we'll finish up
Go to ezra if you would ezra chapter number nine if you you're there in psalms
If you go backwards you go past the book of job
Past the book of esther past the look of nehemiah into the book of ezra ezra chapter number nine
He says lighten mine eyes this phrase is used in a few places in scripture i'll just show you a couple
Ezra chapter 9 and verse 8
In ezra 9 and verse 8 we find the ready scribe ezra remember him
And he's being used of god to minister to people that have been in captivity for 70 plus years. They were coming back to the land
But things are grim
Remember nehemiah his contemporary nehemiah shows up and says
The wall is broken down. We're approached things are not
Looking good things are not going well
Of course god uses nehemiah and ezra to turn that around but I want you to notice in ezra chapter 9 and verse 8
Here's what ezra says he says and now
I love this little phrase. I just love how it's worded. You ought to mark this in your bible. He says for a little space
Grace hath been showed
From the lord our god
Ezra's not
Exaggerating here. He's not acting like the average preacher who inflates his numbers and everything's great. Everything's falling apart. It's like everything's great
They hear ezra saying
He says there's a little
Space just a little space of grace
Things aren't that great, but he says there's a little space of grace
It hath been showed from the lord our god to leave us a remnant to escape
And to give us a nail in this holy place and notice these words he says that our god may notice the words
Lighten our eyes
And give us a little reviving in our bondage
That phrase lighten our eyes. The idea is to enlighten
To enlighten my eyes means to enlighten my understanding and and what ezra is saying is that look things are grim
They're they're not looking good. It doesn't look like we're winning but it does look like there is a little space of grace
It does look like god has given us a little reviving in our bondage and he says because of that
He says our god may
lighten
our eyes
The idea is that he's being enlightened
Let me give you another example go to second samuel 22 if you continue going backwards
From ezra
You'll go past second chronicles first chronicles second kings first kings into the book of second samuel second samuel
chapter number 22
Second samuel 22 in verse 29 says this
Second samuel 22 in verse 29 says for thou art my lamp
oh lord
And the lord notice these words
Will lighten my darkness
So
He says that he will lighten our eyes
Ezra applied that to when I understand that though things aren't going well. There's some things going well
There's a little space of grace
There's a little reviving in our bondage and that will lighten our eyes here
Second samuel tells us that the lord is our lamp and the lord will lighten my darkness
See the idea go back to psalm 13 if you would and maybe this is the the best way to explain it the phrase
lighten my eyes
Has to do with light
Obviously like I can see a little light
But the idea is that lord
Enlighten my eyes and help me to see that little bit of light that is going to encourage me
That is going to bring me out of discouragement into encouragement see
Lighten my eyes as a archaic phrase that we don't use today
But let me give you maybe an equivalent phrase or a similar phrase that we would use today today
When someone is going through a difficult time when someone is going through something that's hard
When someone is going through something that is going to take a long time
they're going to be dealing with this for a long time because it's it's chronic because
It it's it's irrevocable because it's incurable because it's just going to be the way of life going forward
Someone though in encouragement. They might say i'm starting to see the light
At the end of the tunnel
And when david says
Psalm 13 and verse 3 consider and hear me. Oh lord my god
Lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death
What he's saying is lord
Will you help me to see just?
A little esra said a little space of grace
a little
reviving
Just a little bit of light
At the end of the tunnel
Because that's enough to get us from discouragement
to encouragement
So when it looks like the tunnel is long and it's dark
Begin to pray
begin to praise
begin to stand on the promises and begin to count your blessings and
You may begin to see a little bit
Of the light at the end of the tunnel
And for you and I that light
Is none other than the lord jesus christ
And praise god for it. That's why I had to not order prayer. Heavenly father. Lord. We do love you
And we thank you for this psalm
We find david we meet david. We're not sure why
But we meet david at a low
And we leave him at a high
We meet him in darkness
And we leave him in light
And lord, I pray you to help us
Because I think sometimes we walk through dark things
Dark tunnels
We can't see yet light at the end
And we ask the question how long lord
How long are you going to allow this
How long are you going to allow my enemies to triumph over me
How long are you going to forget me and forsake me and hide your face from me
But help us like david
To ask lord light in mine eyes
Help me to see the light at the end of the tunnel
Through prayer through praise to your promises
And lord, we thank you
That you are good to us, even when we don't feel it even when we don't feel you
You have not forgotten us. You have not forsaken us
And we thank you for that
In the maps the name of the lord jesus christ, we pray
Amen
We're gonna have brother rj come up and lead us in a final song
Just want to remind you of a couple of things if you wouldn't mind first of all, don't forget
That we've got soul winning of course this weekend thursday and saturday
If you'd like to go soloing tomorrow
There'll be an opportunity for you to do that
And then saturday is our big soul winning rally at 10 am and want to encourage you to be here for that
We usually have well over 100 soul winners 120 soul winners
Something like that and we'd love you to be a part of that great
Host of soul winners on saturday morning, so make sure you don't forget and then on sunday, of course
We're going to continue our spiritual
Our spirit world series and we're going to be talking about the devil. All right, just right in time for halloween
We'll learn about the devil and we'll we need to not be ignorant of his devices
So we'll learn about what the bible teaches about that
I want to encourage you to be here to bring someone with you and then of course don't forget not tomorrow
But next thursday is the harvest party
So we've got some sign-up sheets in the back if you'd like to sign up to
Bring something to help us with something. We'd appreciate your help with that
If there's anything we can do for you
Please let us know my brother rj come up and lead us in a final song
Amen scarab song books and turn to page number 439
Song number four hundred and thirty nine
Count your blessings song number four hundred and thirty nine. Let's go ahead and sing it out
on the first
When upon last billow you are tempest
Tossed when you were these courage thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings name them one by one
And it will surprise you what the lord had done
Count your blessings name them one by one
Count your blessings see what god had done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
And the many blessings see what god had done song number four hundred and thirty nine on the second
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Thus a cross in heavy you are called to bear
Count your many blessings every dot will fly
And you will be singing as the day goes by
Count your blessings name them one by one
Count your blessings see what god had done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one count how many blessings see what god had done
When you look at others with their lands and gold
Rise as I miss you
Count your many blessings money cannot buy your reward in heaven or your home
One by one count your blessings see what god had done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings see what god had done you guys are singing. Well, let's finish strong on the last
So amid a conflict whether great or small
Do not be discouraged god is all
Count your many blessings angel will
Help and comfort give you to your journeys
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings see what god had done
Amen great singing before we dismiss if anyone here has questions about salvation
baptism or church membership
Pastor will be at the door and he would love to talk to you and or direct you to someone who's trained to do that
As well brother matt, would you dismiss this with the word of prayer?
So
God bless you. You're dismissed
So
You