Psalm 42 and verse number one,
as the heart pantheth after the water brooks,
so pantheth my soul after thee, O God.
The title for the sermon this evening is
Thirsting for God, Thirsting for God.
And so the Psalmist described himself
as the heart of the high as a male deer,
which pantheth after the water brooks,
and of course panting is to breathe heavily from exertion.
You know, this deer is so thirsty,
it's looking for a place to drink water from,
it's been running, it's desiring.
There's a good, genuine desire to drink of that water brook,
to be filled by the water, to take care of the thirst.
And then the Psalmist uses that description to say,
so pantheth my soul after thee, O God.
And you know, just this one verse alone,
it just, you know, it's challenging,
because I just wonder, now look,
do I love my Lord?
Of course I do.
Do I love God?
Absolutely.
Am I thankful to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do I look forward to,
looking forward to the second coming of Christ
and to be at home in heaven one day?
Absolutely.
But when I think about this verse,
you know, do I truly, you know, desire,
do I truly desire God as much as a thirsty deer
that is just panting for that water?
And I don't know, maybe I am, maybe sometimes I am,
sometimes I'm not.
So just this one verse alone definitely challenges me.
And often when we think about, you know, thirsting for God,
you know, I think the first thought we would often get
is about salvation.
You know, just for example,
we know the story of Jesus Christ
and the woman at the well, Samaritan woman at the well.
And Jesus Christ says to her in John 4.14,
but whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst.
And so, yes, absolutely.
You know, salvation is like taking that cup of water
and never thirsting again.
Praise God, once saved, always saved.
You can never lose it
because once you drink of the water,
you'll never thirst again.
And that's what salvation is.
And yes, we can apply this to salvation,
but of course the Psalmist is a saved man.
And what I want to sort of point you to,
if you can please take your Bibles,
keep your finger there in Psalm 42
and turn to Revelation 7 for me,
turn to Revelation 7.
And yes, there is that thirst for the unbeliever,
the thirst of not knowing what the future holds,
not knowing if they're right with God,
not knowing what's going to happen when they pass away,
and then knowing salvation,
knowing that when you die,
you go home to be with God in heaven,
it definitely satisfies the thirst,
if you've believed in the right gospel.
If you believe in a gospel where you have to get re-saved,
you can lose your salvation,
you're re-saved and you lose it again,
then you're constantly thirsting.
That gospel never satisfies the thirst.
So yes, we can apply this to the gospel.
But I do believe in,
definitely by looking at the context of Psalm 42,
this thirst is something that we ought to have
even as saved believers.
Not about salvation, that's done and dusted, okay?
But while you turn to Revelation 7,
I'll quickly read to you from Matthew chapter five,
verse six, the words of Jesus Christ.
And he says,
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness for they shall be filled.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness for they shall be filled.
Now, if you're saved, the new man within you,
you know what he wants?
It's thirsting after righteousness.
It desires that you would walk the righteous paths
that God has laid out for you.
And the Psalmist says,
so panteth my soul after thee, O God,
because our God is our God of righteousness.
We can only walk through righteous paths
as long as the Holy Spirit of God,
the Lord God himself is directing our paths.
And so this ought to be a thirsting
that we have right now.
You know, the fact that you've come to church,
you know, there's that part of you,
the spirit of the new man, the spirit,
which is thirsting after the righteousness of God.
You come to hear a preacher
because you wanna hear the words of God preached.
You want to understand his righteousness
and be able to walk in those paths.
That's why you're in church today, you know?
And this is why you've been in church for the past four years
at New Life Baptist Church,
because there's this constant thirst
for the Lord God and his righteousness.
Now look at Revelation 7, verse number 14.
Revelation 7, verse number 14.
And we're going to the end times, okay?
So this is after the rapture,
after the tribulation before God calls out his wrath.
And it says in Revelation 7, 14,
and I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.
And he said to me,
these are they which came out of great tribulation
and have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
So these are all the great multitude that gets raptured,
that appears in heaven coming out of that great tribulation.
Verse number 15.
Therefore are they before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple.
For he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
Now notice verse number 16.
It says, they shall hunger no more,
neither thirst anymore,
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
So notice this, these people are definitely saved.
We know that once we take that cup of salvation,
we'll never thirst again.
But notice that when we go home to be with God in heaven,
God promises us that we'll never thirst again.
And so there is this constant thirsting that we have
that are so as for God's presence, for God's guidance,
for God's righteousness,
that gets ultimately satisfied
when we go home to be with God in heaven.
We're not going to hunger anymore, not thirst anymore.
Verse number 17.
For the lamb which is in the midst of the throne
shall feed them, look at this,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters,
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
And so we'll never thirst ever again.
You know, we've shed tears on this earth
and you know, there appears to be this final expression
of the expression of sadness and sorrow
at the time that we get raptured,
simply because we live in an ungodly world.
We've sinned against the Lord, even though we're saved.
We're constantly struggling with this wicked flesh.
And there comes a time when we go home
to be with God in heaven,
that the Lord God leads us to this living fountains of waters
that we get to drink from and we'll never thirst again.
We'll never have sorrows ever again.
We'll never have tribulations and persecutions
and struggles ever again.
And truly at this point we can say
there's that completion of that thirst.
We'll never truly thirst again.
And so you can see not only is never thirsting
about salvation, praise God it is,
but it's also the desiring of God's righteousness
and who God is.
Now we're in the presence of God
and it's going to wipe away all our tears.
And so this thirst for God is an ongoing desire
in our Christian life.
And we all have it.
Now, sometimes we express it more so than others.
When you're on fire for God
and you just want to be in the house of God,
you just want to be amongst the believers
and hear the word of God being preached
and singing of praise as we come to church.
And yet there's a thirsting
and we have a satisfaction when we're fed God's word,
when we get to drink of the beautiful waters
of his righteousness, praise God.
And then other times that you may come to church
and just don't really feel like being there.
Or you're strung with tribulations and problems
and your heart's desire isn't really to lift up the Lord
in praise, but you come to God's house anyway.
And what I love about this Psalm
is we kind of see both sides of the Psalmist.
He loves the Lord, he loves God's house.
I'll soon show it to you
that this is definitely the house of God,
but he also is a real man.
He also has times when he has problems
and he doesn't really feel like rejoicing
because of all the sorrows that comes upon in life.
Now look at Psalm 42 in verse number two,
go back to Psalm 42 in verse number two.
Psalm 42 in verse number two,
it says, my soul thirsts for God,
for the living God, praise God,
we serve a living God, right?
Not a dead idol, we serve a living God.
And when I, sorry, when, and look, he asked the question,
when shall I come and appear before God?
Now, when you take this verse in context
with the rest of the chapter,
when he's saying, when should I come to appear before God?
He's saying, when can I go to the house of God?
He's looking forward to being in, of course,
the house of God in the time of the Psalmist
would have been the tabernacle.
He desires to be in the tabernacle,
desires to be there with the assembly
as they assembled before the tabernacle.
But in that mindset, he says, look,
this is where I go to appear before God.
And the house of God in the New Testament,
brethren, of course, is your local church,
it's New York Baptist Church for you.
And so he has such a desire for God
that he can't wait to appear before God
in the house of God in the local church.
And I wonder whether you've had that attitude today
when you've come to God's house.
It's like, I'm just thirsting for God.
I can't wait, when am I gonna get to church?
And there's that excitement, that anticipation to get there.
You know, I wish you have that.
You know, maybe some of you have that right now.
But I also know that, you know, reality,
because of hardships, because of struggles,
we don't always wanna be there, you know?
And, you know, it's a challenge,
especially midweek services to get to the house of God,
because so many of us, you know, are out working
and you've had a long day.
It's like, well, you know,
could I just have this evening to myself, God?
But I wanna tell you that, you know,
even when you struggle to come to the house of God,
the new man thirsts after God.
The new man thirsts after righteousness.
This is why you're in church, okay?
This is why you're in church,
because it's the new man that's pushing you to do this,
even when the flesh wants to rest.
And I just wanna quickly show you a few passages here.
Can you please go to Exodus 40?
Go to Exodus 40 and verse number 31.
Exodus 40 and verse number 31.
And so the point I'm trying to bring
to your attention here, brethren,
if we, and we do, we all have a thirst of God,
one place that we can definitely get that thirst quenched
is in the house of God.
We come amongst God's people, praising the Lord in song,
hearing God's word, being preached,
being fed by God's words,
definitely going to quench that thirst, all right?
And then when you're done with tonight,
I hope you're like, hey,
when can I present myself to God again, right?
On Sunday, praise God,
looking forward to being there in the house of God
again on Sunday.
I hope that's your attitude.
And again, it's the attitude of the new man,
but it's not always the attitude of the flesh
or the old man, okay?
But Exodus 40, verse number 31,
I just wanna show you this,
this is when they constructed the tabernacle.
Exodus 40, verse number 31,
it says, Moses and Aaron and his sons
washed their hands and their feet there at,
when they went into the tent of the congregation,
and when they came near unto the altar,
they washed as the Lord commanded Moses.
And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle
and the altar and set up the hanging of the court gates.
So Moses finished the work.
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation,
look at this, and the glory of the Lord
filled the tabernacle.
So God allows his presence,
his glory to just fill that house of God there
in the Old Testament days.
And he keeps going to verse number 35,
when Moses was not able to enter
into the tent of the congregation
because the cloud abode thereon,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
And so there's an overwhelming glory,
there's an overwhelming presence
in the house of God here, verse number 36.
And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle,
the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys.
But if the cloud were not taken up,
then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.
So the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day,
and fire was on it by night
in the sight of all the house of Israel
throughout all their journeys.
And so the Lord in his presence, in his glory,
abode in that house, his presence was there,
his real presence was there.
And when the cloud of his presence
stayed upon that tabernacle,
then the people, the children of Israel knew,
hey, we need to stay here.
We're wandering the wilderness,
this is where we need to stay.
But when that cloud got up and started to move,
they knew, hey, now's the time for us to pack our things.
We need to get moving
as we're being led by this cloud of the Lord.
And so one thing that we learned
about the house of the Lord here,
it's a place that we can get direction, okay?
So we come to God's house,
we hear the preaching of God's word,
and it's a place where we can get some direction light.
We can get some guidance.
We know, we should know more about what God's word says
when we come to God's house
so we can make better decisions for our future,
for our lives, for our family, okay?
And so I wanna take obviously the parallel.
Okay, let's understand Psalm 42,
it's historical context, yes,
but let's apply it to ourselves
at New Life Baptist Church.
And you know what?
Yes, there's an amazing miracle,
a very physical presence of that cloud in the tabernacle.
But don't forget the words of Jesus Christ.
He says in Matthew 18 verse 20,
for where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.
And the context of that verse,
if you look just further up in the chapter,
if you're not sure, it's about church.
And I hate it when people take this verse
and say, oh, yeah, we can just,
just me and my saved brethren,
we come together and that's church.
Well, that's good enough
because Jesus says he's gonna be in the midst of us.
No, the context earlier was about the church.
And in church, when we're gathered,
even if it's just two or three of us, all right,
even if everyone's sick with COVID
and just two of us turn up,
we turn up to praise the Lord,
hey, Jesus Christ promises there to be in the midst of us.
Praise God.
And so, yeah, you know what?
Even right now, in the presence of our congregation,
meeting together to serve the Lord,
Jesus Christ is there right now.
He's there right now.
His presence is there right now in the house of God.
So please don't think of the house of God as some,
I don't know, concert or some place of entertainment,
just another place to go on a Wednesday night.
No, you're going to a place
where you're gonna present yourself before God,
God's presence, God's real presence is there.
And God wants to direct you.
He wants to give you guidance in life
through the preaching of His word.
Another passage that you're very familiar with,
I'll quickly read to you,
Revelation chapter two, verse number seven,
just for example,
he that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
And that phrase that I just read,
he that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,
appears seven times in the book of Revelation, okay?
And yes, seven times because it's written to seven churches,
but seven times also to reinforce the fact
that God's Holy Spirit is working in your hearts
and your minds,
and even working in this preacher right now
to proclaim God's word, all right?
So, hey, do we have the Holy Spirit living within us?
Yes, absolutely, we all have the Holy Spirit.
Yes, can we anytime open up God's word
and learn from His word through His spirit?
Absolutely, but there's a special word
that God wants to teach you in the house of God.
It's exciting to be there
because God's spirit wants to teach you something.
Once you guide your hand,
it may not even be the preaching.
It may very well just be the singing of the hymns
where you just sing it up to the Lord
and you just learn some good sound doctrine
from those good hymns that we sing.
That might very well be the Holy Spirit
guiding you right there,
or just the Holy Spirit guiding you in fellowship
where one brother says something kind to you,
one brother encourages you,
one brother just greets you and shows you love,
shows you appreciation.
And that may very well be the spirit of God
that's teaching you that you're loved,
that you're important to the house of God and to His people.
Back to Psalm 42, please, in verse number three.
Psalm 42 in verse number three,
it says, my tears have been my meat day and night.
So he's thirsting for God,
but really what he's consuming every day is just sorrow,
just hardships, difficulties, right?
And one thing that I've definitely learned,
and I'm gonna be preaching about this one day
in the Perfect Man series,
is that we all have problems, yeah?
Every person, every family has problems, okay?
And it's something that I had to sort of understand
as a pastor, wow, everyone has problems, you know?
And maybe I get a little bit more insight
of those problems because I am the pastor.
And when I look at the Psalmist here,
even though he has his eyes and pants after God,
but he's got tears day and night.
There's problems.
We live in a sin-cursed world forever.
This is how it is.
You know, I can't pretend that I'm just gonna be chirpy
and happy every single minute of every single hour
of every single day.
And if you're not chirpy and happy
and just praising God, hallelujah, every moment,
there's something wrong with you.
No, that's not the case.
We live in a sin-cursed world.
There's gonna be troubles, there's gonna be problems.
And this is what he's consuming.
He's being consumed with grief.
While they continually saying to me, where is thy God?
The they, I'll prove it to you later in this Psalm,
the they that continually say to me are his enemies
or people that kind of laugh at his faith.
They say, hey, where is your God?
You know, the Psalmist, you're going through problems,
you're going through hardships.
And this God that you worship,
this God that you go to church and this God you talk about,
you read the Bible and you still have problems.
Where is your God?
And that is the voice of the unbeliever.
That is the voice of the enemy.
Now, I want you to keep your finger there
and go to Psalm 115, please.
Go to Psalm 115.
Psalm 115.
And I've only recently covered this with a church here,
blessed of this church about idolatry.
And I want you to notice that, you know,
we serve an invisible God, okay?
We serve the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords,
not even God's creation can contain the Lord God, amen?
And we wouldn't worship just like this image
or this God that we can just point to in a physical sense.
You know, in order to become one of God's children,
you have to exercise faith.
And once you exercise faith,
God is as real as anything else.
And I've said it before, Jesus Christ coming 2000 years ago,
never seen him, never seen him crucified,
never seen him resurrected,
but I believe it as much as I believe
the birth of my own children.
In fact, I believe it even more
because I've got the testimonies of God's word
testifying of this truth.
But the unbeliever, they don't understand it.
They say, where's your God, right?
But look at Psalm 115 verse number one,
Psalm 115 verse one,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake.
Look at verse number two,
wherefore should the heathen say,
where is now their God?
The heathen say, where's your God?
These people come to New Life Baptist Church.
Hey, where's the statue?
Where's the idol?
You know, I mean, they're just there sitting there
listening to this guy will now on a TV for you guys.
All right, where's the God of this place?
Jesus Christ already told us he's in the midst of us,
but that's what they ask.
Look at verse number three,
but our God, the heathen are saying this,
but our God is, sorry, sorry, this is what,
we're responding to the heathen.
It says, but our God is in the heavens.
He have done whatsoever he have pleased.
Hey, how God's in heaven?
You know, our God's mighty.
He's not some carnal being.
He's not something that can be etched on piece of paper
or worshiped as an idol,
because it says in verse number four,
their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands, men's hands, okay?
So yeah, their gods are the works of men's hands.
Our God is not the work of men's hands.
In fact, our God, we are the work of our God's hands, okay?
It's the opposite.
Verse number five, they have mouths, but they speak not.
Eyes have they, but they see not.
They have ears, but they hear not.
Nosees have they, but they smell not.
They have hands, but they handle not.
Feet have they, but they walk not.
Neither speak they through their throats,
but that make them alike unto them.
So is everyone that trusteth in them.
Anyone that trusts in these idols
become as stupid as these idols,
as stupid as these false gods.
Hey, our God is the creator.
You know, our God has created us.
Our God is in the heavens.
You know, our God, Jesus Christ,
came and died for us 2,000 years ago,
rose again from the dead,
paid for the consequences of all our sins,
paid for our sins, amen.
We're forgiven because of Christ.
Hey, that's our God.
And yes, Christ is coming back.
Okay, one day, every eye shall see him.
Okay, and see him in his glory.
And what a wonderful day that's going to be.
Okay, but right now, yeah,
you know what people that laugh at your faith,
they mock you, your enemies,
they're asking, hey, where's your God?
You know, if God is, you love God so much,
why are you going through these problems?
Why are you going through financial hardships?
Why are you struggling for relationships, you know?
Why are you struggling with your health problems?
Where is your God?
And that is, you know,
that's the mocking that comes from this unsaved world.
And so the Psalmist, he's feeling sad about it, right?
He's got struggles, he's got tears.
People mock him about his faith.
Let's go back to Psalm 42, verse number four.
It says here, when I remember these things,
I pour out my soul in me.
Now notice the next words.
For I had gone with the multitude,
I went with them to the house of God
with the voice of joy and praise,
with a multitude that kept holy day.
And so notice when we started earlier,
he's saying, look, I can't wait to be in the presence.
Where can I present myself to God?
And now it says, now I am.
Now I'm going into the house of God
with the multitude, right?
And he's coming to the house of God,
even with the pain and the anguish and sorrows
that he has because of his enemies
and whatever other struggles that he's going through.
But look how he's excited
about going to the house of the God,
because it says, look, I'm going with the multitude.
And that's what church ought to be,
in a place where we can have fellowship
with other brethren that are like-minded,
that we believe in the same God,
we believe in the same gospel,
we believe in the same core doctrines,
and we can have great fellowship.
We should enjoy each other's company, brethren.
Praise God for that.
But also he goes and he pours out his soul.
Hey, church is a great place
where you can pour out your soul to God.
Yes, there's a very special presence
of God in the house of God.
His spirit moves here, okay?
And it's a great place where you can just
maybe silently pray, okay?
We may recall the story of Hannah,
where she couldn't fall pregnant.
She came to the house of God,
which was a temple at that stage.
And, sorry, it wasn't a temple, it was a tabernacle.
And, wait, have I got that right?
Of course, yeah, it was a tabernacle, right?
And she came and she prayed, you know,
at the house of God and she,
her praise got answered, right?
The Lord allowed her to fall pregnant with Samuel.
And then she ended up having a whole bunch
of other kids after that.
So, yeah, definitely church is a place
where we can come and pray, share a concern.
In fact, that's what we do on Wednesday nights, aren't we?
You know, we share any prayer requests
that we have together as a body,
and we pray for those things.
And also, he says here in verse number four,
we're the voice of joy and praise.
So, you know, church is a place
where we rejoice about the Lord, right?
It should not be a place where it's just depressing
and sad and just conflicts and sorrow
and whining, complaining.
And, you know, no, church was a place
where we can come and sing praises.
We have the voice of joy, the voice of praise.
But I want you to, again, remember the fact
that he's coming to church,
or he's coming to the house of God here,
with great sorrow, with great sadness
that we saw there in early in verse number three.
The other thing that I want to just bring to your attention
in verse number four, it says,
with a multitude that kept holy day,
because in the Old Testament days,
the holy days or the feast days,
you know, when they had those celebrations,
they would need to come,
the Israelites would need to come into Jerusalem
and assemble before the house of God,
and that's one place that they would have their holy days.
That's why it's brought up.
And so when it comes to the Psalmist,
it might be that there's been a long time between holidays.
We don't know what holiday they're celebrating right now,
but there might've been a long time between,
and you just can't wait to be amongst the assembly,
amongst the multitude, you know,
singing praises and hearing voices of praise
toward the Lord God.
Now, while I was excited to be in church,
his soul pants after God, right?
He wants to be quenched at first in the house of God.
He says in verse number five,
why art thou cast down, O my soul?
He goes, look, I'm in the house of God
and I'm still cast down.
And this is what I love about the Psalms.
I love so many sort of works of poetry in the Bible
because we see the, you know,
like I can preach and say, brethren, you know,
we ought to be in the house of God and just be joyful,
praising God, and yes, I'll preach those things.
But at the same time,
I understand that there are many people that come to church
and maybe yourself, you're in this situation right now,
and you have just great sorrow, just got great sadness.
You're happy to be in the house of God,
but you're just asking your own soul,
why art thou cast down, O soul?
You know, I'm in the best place that I can be right now,
amongst the brethren, in the assembly,
singing praises to God, but I'm still cast down.
I'm still sad.
And look, if that's you, you know, you're not odd,
you're not evil or wicked or anything like that.
This is just the reality of life, okay?
And I, you know, I understand that, you know,
even if you have a big smile on your face, you know,
you just want to, you want to be a blessing
to the brethren in the house of God
that you could be right now struggling
with all kinds of problems and turmoil.
And so the Psalmist, okay, he keeps going by saying,
and why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God.
So the Psalmist is telling his own soul,
hey, hope in God.
Why are you upset, soul?
We're in the house of God.
Let's hope in God.
For I, look at this, for I shall yet praise him
for the help of his countenance.
He goes, even though I'm sad and upset,
I'm still going to praise God, right?
The Psalmist doesn't say, you know what,
I'm going to wait till I'm happy and joyful,
and now I'll praise God.
He says, you know what, even when I'm upset,
it doesn't matter, soul.
Okay, you want to stay that way?
I'm still going to sing praises to God.
And that's the right attitude, all right?
You sing praise to God, even when you're upset.
And you know what, Reverend,
sometimes if you are going to go through hardships
and you're going to make a decision and say, you know what,
I don't want to be in the house of God right now.
I'm going through too many difficulties.
I'm going through too many hardships.
I think I'll just skip the church service this week.
And you might even try to justify yourself and say,
well, I'll be a hypocrite if I go to church
and I'm all upset and worried and stressed.
And then I'm going to the house of God.
I don't want to be seen as a hypocrite.
No, you know what, when you're going through problems
and turmoil, I don't care how bad it is,
the best place to be is the house of God.
It's going to encourage your soul.
It's a place where you can come and just praise God.
And just for a moment, just for a moment,
put aside all your problems and say, you know what,
I'm still going to praise God.
Just for a moment, put away all your stress
and just sing praises to God.
And that's what the house of God should be,
a place where we can come to be edified and enjoy,
being within the presence of the Holy Spirit of God
as he teaches and guides us.
And I think what I truly believe we're seeing here
in verse number five is just that battle
between flesh and spirit.
Remember, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
The flesh is cast down.
Why are you cast down, oh soul?
And the part that says, I shall yet praise him
for the help of his countenance, that's the spirit.
The flesh is like, oh man,
no, I have to be in the house of God.
You know, problems, the spirit's like this new man.
Spirit's just, you know, shut up flesh.
Let's just praise God anyway, right?
And praise God, you know what?
If you're in the house of God
and you didn't feel like being in the house of God tonight,
you had that battle within you, okay?
And guess what?
Because you're here, the new man won.
The spirit won and you know,
you've allowed yourself to be in the house of God.
You know, I can understand verse number five a lot
because I remember experiencing a lot of these feelings.
You know, I grew up going to church pretty much.
I grew up in a Christian home, okay?
I've been a Baptist pretty much my whole life, okay?
Even though I went to a Baptist union church
and it was watered down, it wasn't great preaching,
but at least I, you know,
at least I heard some sound fundamental truths, okay?
I didn't really hear any major heresies that I remember,
anything major, okay?
But because the house of God that I attended
for many years was just watered down,
I was kind of like, I know I need to be here.
I know I need to be in the assembly.
I want to sing praises to God.
I want to hear the preaching of his word.
I actually, I want to learn something from God.
No, I'd be in the house of God.
I'd just become like depressed.
Part of it was just bad preaching.
Just, it just, there was nothing that I could learn from.
I was learning more just reading my Bible on my own, okay?
And I remember this struggle, just like a part of me,
just like, you know, sometimes I'd go to church by myself
and I saw them when I was a kid
and I had a few dollars in my pocket
and I'd rather go to an arcade
that I knew was a few blocks away
and play like Street Fight or something, okay?
And it tore me apart because again,
there's that part of me that wants to be in the house of God
that just wants to praise him in the spirit.
And it's the flesh, it's like, man, I'm miserable.
You know, this church service does not uplift me.
And you know, this is why I, at least,
I give my best I can with the preaching
because I want it to be valuable.
You know, I know a lot of you guys make efforts
to be there in the church, especially on a Sunday.
Some of you guys drive long distances
and even here in Sydney, listen,
we've got a guy that tries to come here
every Sunday from Canberra.
Canberra, three hours away or more, okay?
And then I've got another guy
that comes from Victoria, country Victoria.
And he comes as often as he can.
Drive in, not catching a flight, drive in.
To be in the house of God
because this is where he finds joy.
Praise God for that.
You know, that encourages me.
It helps me not become, you know,
to take church for granted or something.
When I realized there are certain people traveling so far,
just to be in a place where they can serve God,
worship God, praise God,
desiring to be amongst the brethren.
You know, that first thing that I had as a child,
because I wasn't being satisfied, I wasn't,
my thirst wasn't being quenched in the house of God.
It only started to be quenched in my early twenties
when I went to my very first IFB church.
Honestly, my very first IFB church,
yes, it was pre-trib, et cetera.
But I learned so much Bible
and I was just looking forward to every service.
And I'm still thankful for,
well, they're now called Southland Baptist Church.
I'm still thankful, Church of Seven Hills here in Sydney.
Still very thankful for that church
because it satisfied my thirst.
Praise God, I finally found a church.
I finally found a church that's preaching God's word,
that's going soul-willing and actually learned something.
And I know God's presence was there
because I desired to be there.
My thirst was being quenched.
And brethren, that's what I want for you.
I want you to come to church.
Yeah, you might have all sorrows and sadness,
but I want you to walk away after the end of the service,
say, you know what?
That thirst was quenched.
And that's when you know you're in a good church.
When you're in that thirst,
and it's not about the size of the church.
It's not about how much money our church makes.
It's about, hey, is our hunger being taken care of?
Is our thirst being taken care of?
Are we being fed God's word?
Praise God if that's happening for you.
I appreciate the church that you're in.
Psalm 42, verse number six.
Simon says, oh my God, my soul is cast down within me.
Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan
and of the Hermanites from the hill Mizra.
All right, so what I believe is happening here,
he was looking forward to being in the house of God.
He got there.
Yes, it worked, okay?
It satisfied his thirst.
But now he's recognized that when he's away
from the house of God, when he's in the land of Jordan,
when he's in the hill Mizra,
that he's getting thirsty again, all right?
Now here's the thing,
we can't always be in the house of God.
We don't have church every single day, every single hour.
But he says that his soul is cast down.
Then he says, therefore will I remember thee
from the land of Jordan?
So he goes, look, it's not just about coming to God's house
and remembering the Lord at the house of God,
but also when I'm away from the house of God,
when I'm on some land of Jordan, whatever it is,
wherever it is, even then I need to remember the Lord.
And that's going to really be what satisfies my thirst
all the time.
Because again, we don't have church every day.
So the other days that we don't have church,
the other times when you are getting thirsty for the Lord,
hey, you need to remember the Lord.
You need to spend time with the Lord.
You need to have fellowship.
You need to have your own time with the Lord.
Church alone is not gonna satisfy your thirst enough
for the week, okay?
Yes, it's gonna satisfy your thirst
at the end of the service, during the service,
but not for the whole week, okay?
Yes, we have, right now we have two services a week.
So, you know, it's 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
And we might be in church in that house of God now,
maybe three hours, four hours, let's say, you know, a week.
You still have many, many other hours.
And so you need to get in the habit
of having your own quiet time with the Lord.
Going to the Lord and remembering him and saying, Lord,
please satisfy my thirst.
Open the word, pray to the Lord.
Have your quiet time.
And I'd really encourage you every morning when you wake up,
even if it's 10 minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes,
just wake up before you pick up your phone
and check Facebook, all right?
Before you do anything else, just bow your head in prayer.
Say, God, thank you for this new day that you've given me.
Okay, open the word of God.
Say, Lord, guide me in your word.
May your Holy Spirit teach me some things from your word
and start your day like that.
Start your day where you've taken a good drink
from the waters of the Lord, okay?
So you go through the day full, refreshed,
having spent time with the Lord.
So church alone is not enough, okay?
You need every day with the Lord, no matter where you are.
Verse number seven.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts.
All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
All right, so the Psalmist now, his worries,
he likens his worries to like a sea storm or ocean storm.
And he's being swallowed up.
He's being overwhelmed by the waves.
So this guy's, you know, he's not having the best life.
He's going through a lot of hardships.
But I like verse number eight.
It says, yet the Lord will command his loving kindness
in the daytime and in the night,
his song shall be with me and my prayer
unto the God of my life.
And so when he speaks about the daytime here
and then the nights, again, this is a work of poetry.
It's a book of Psalms.
The daytime represents obviously the good times, okay?
And the nights here represents the hard times,
the problems that he's going through.
So it says, during the good times,
yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime.
So when things are going well, no problems,
he says it's because of God's loving kindness.
God's shown me love, he's shown me kindness.
He's keeping me safe from problems and worries right now.
And he rejoices in the loving kindness of God.
Praise God.
That's how we ought to be when we're having great days,
great time, no problems,
just praise God that you're having no problems.
Praise God that he's showing you with his loving kindness.
But then when it comes to nighttime,
when you do have problems and hardships,
he says in the night, his song shall be with me
and my prayer unto the God of my life.
So it says, when I'm going through hard times,
now I need to draw to God even closer.
You know, I'm gonna continue singing praises unto the Lord,
just like we saw earlier, right?
He's in the house of God.
He says, you know what?
Even when I'm going through hardships,
I'm still gonna sing praises to God.
That's what he does.
He continues singing praise to God.
And this is my prayer and my prayer unto the God of my life.
So yes, when you're going through hardships,
you're gonna find yourself praying more, okay?
Asking for God's help during these hard times.
Hey, you know what?
Combine your prayer with song.
Still praise God, still thank him
that you're going even in the midst of hard times, you know?
And this is the key that we can take out of this.
And we should always be ready to just praise God,
no matter if times are good or times are tough.
Verse number nine, I will say unto God my rock,
why has thou forgotten me?
Of course, God's not forgotten the Psalmist.
That's how he feels.
He feels that God's presence is so far
because he's going through so many hardships.
Why go I morning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Now, when you are going through difficulties,
and I know this as complete truth,
because again, as a pastor,
I get to sometimes hear from you guys
when you're going through problems.
And the question that always gets asked
when people are going through problems is why?
Look at verse number nine again.
I will say unto God my rock, my rock,
why has thou forgotten me?
Why, okay?
And then why go I morning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
When people have a hard time, problems, trials,
health issues, finance issues, it's always why?
Why does God allow this?
Why am I going through this?
Why, why?
And why actually is a good question, okay?
Now, once again, God's not forgotten him, okay?
We know he's just expressing his emotions.
But I wanna quickly read to you
from James chapter one, verse number five.
And this is something that I've applied in my life
probably in the last say decade, in the last 10 years.
And I feel by applying James chapter one, verse five,
that I have understood the whys
a lot more than I ever have, okay?
Part of it is also just maturity,
growing, understanding the world, becoming a father, right?
Just the growth that one goes through,
the experiences that one goes through.
But I believe James chapter one, verse five
can be underrated many times.
Because it says here, if any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally
and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.
Now, if you look at the context of James chapter one,
it's about you when you go through temptations,
when you're going through trials and hardships, okay?
You don't always know why, why Lord, why?
Well, if you need wisdom, if you need the answer,
go and ask God, okay?
I mean, it seems so basic, but so many people forget.
And they'll ask everybody why,
except they'll forget to ask God.
And God says, he'll answer, he'll tell us why, right?
He says, that give to all men liberally.
So God's very free, we've given the information
as to why we go through hardships.
And upbraideth not, he's not going to tell you off
for asking why, okay?
So he's not angry at you for asking why.
He wants you to ask why.
He wants you to ask for wisdom.
Why am I going through these challenges, Lord?
And it shall be given him.
So let me just challenge you with that, brethren.
If you're going through difficulties now
and you don't know why, ask God, you know?
You know, tell God, look God,
I just read James chapter one verse five,
Pastor Kevin preached this tonight.
And I can see there that you want to tell me why,
you want to give me your wisdom.
So Lord, now I come before you humbly,
I'm going through hardships.
I don't fully understand why.
Can you give me that answer?
And I have no doubt God will show you, okay?
Because it's God's word, that's why, okay?
God's word, you know, these are the promises of God
that we can hold onto.
Back to Psalm 42, verse number 10.
Psalm 42, verse number 10.
As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me,
while they say daily unto me, where is thy God?
So again, that question, where is thy God?
I was actually going to call this sermon,
where is thy God?
But I kind of went in the direction.
But verse number 10 is very similar to verse number three.
And if you can just keep your finger there
and go to second Peter chapter three, please.
Keep your finger there and go to second Peter chapter three.
Second Peter chapter three and verse number three.
Second Peter chapter three, verse number three reads,
knowing this first that there shall come in the last days,
scoffers walking after their own lusts
and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were
from the beginning of the creation.
See, Jesus Christ has promised that he's going to come back.
The Bible says in the latter days,
people are going to be like, hey, where's Jesus?
Where is thy God?
Where is this promise of his coming?
And, you know, let's not become discouraged, right?
Understand that, you know, there are scoffers,
there are wicked people in this world,
and the Psalmist experienced this himself.
He's been challenged, where is your God?
And it's amazing because how many Psalms
actually are the words of Christ himself?
Okay, like Jesus Christ is literally
on every page of the Bible, okay?
In every book of the Bible, Jesus Christ is there.
The Lord God is on every single page.
But people are so blind,
they haven't got the Spirit of God,
and they can't see it.
They can't see the work of art this is.
It's truly a miraculous book that God has given us.
And I see God in his word, yeah?
I don't need to see some miracle.
I don't need to see, you know, some,
I don't even need to see the glory of the cloud
that fell upon the tabernacle of God.
Just reading about it in his word is enough for me
because, brethren, we walk by faith, okay?
We walk by faith.
So people wanna know why.
Where is your God?
And the scoffers in the last days
are going to be asking these questions.
Drop down to verse number nine
in 2 Peter 3, verse number nine.
"'The Lord is not slack concerning his promise,
"'as some men count slackness,
"'but is longsuffering to ask word,
"'not willing that any should perish,
"'but that all should come to repentance.'"
So people are gonna be mocking.
Where's this Jesus Christ that said he's gonna come back?
Well, we know why, okay?
It's not that he's slack concerning his promise.
He is gonna return.
But the reason he's not returned yet
is because he wants all to come to repentance.
He wants all to believe on him.
He's giving people time, yeah?
Instead of complaining, where are you, Jesus, all right?
Hey, maybe you're going through hardship right now,
and you're like saying, Jesus, I know you're coming back.
Can't you just come back now
because I'm going through so many problems?
Well, instead of having that attitude,
say, well, Jesus Christ, you haven't come back yet.
How about I use these days to preach the gospel to the lost?
How about I use these days to sing praises
and worship towards you?
God gives us days so we can serve him.
He gives us days so we can preach the gospel
that all may come to repentance.
God wants all men to be saved.
And he's entrusted us with that gospel message.
What an honor.
And how scary is that thought as well?
To be given such a tremendous,
the greatest message ever in our hands.
And what are we really?
But hey, we're the children of God.
And we've been given the beautiful promise
of Christ's return and eternity with him in heaven.
Verse number 11, please.
Psalm 42, verse 11.
And basically, Psalm 11 is almost identical
to verse number five.
It says, why art thou cast down all my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God, for I will yet praise him.
Who is the health of my countenance and my God?
Okay, so you may recall,
this was very similar to verse number five
when he's in the house of God.
And he's like, why are you so way upset?
You know, and he's saying,
I'm gonna sing praise to God anyway.
Well, one thing I just wanna pull out of this,
verse number 11.
Let's compare verse number five to verse number 11.
It's almost identical,
but the ending of the verse is a little bit different.
So in verse number five, it says,
for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
Now the word countenance has to do with your face
or the expressions of your face.
So even though we've never seen God face to face
in that sense, you know, we do,
when we come to God for help, we come to God in prayer,
we do approach his throne of grace.
You know, we do want his face to shine upon us,
to bless us, okay?
And so as this man is struggling, that the Psalmist,
he goes to God for the help of his countenance.
He knows if I just spend time in God's presence,
if I see him spiritually face to face, as it were,
you know, just praising God,
then I know God's gonna help me.
God's countenance is going to help me.
He knows that in verse number five, okay?
As we kept going in the other verses,
you can see that he's still struggling with difficulties.
But then when we get to verse number 11,
it's a little bit different.
It says, for I shall yet praise him
who is the health of my countenance.
So before he was talking about the countenance of God
being his help, now he says, yes, God has helped me.
He's been the health of my countenance.
So you can see on my face that I've been helped by God.
You can see on my face
that I've received help from my sickness,
or whatever difficulty the Psalmist was going through,
whatever difficulty you're going through, brethren.
This is the thought.
We come to the house of God, you might be cast down,
you might be strung with sorrows and hardships,
but the thought is that when you leave the house of God,
once you've sung praises to him,
once you've prayed to him, once you've asked him for help,
that the countenance of God's shining face
of his blessings would fall upon you,
that you would walk away more edified,
you'd walk away loving the Lord,
you'd walk away having your thirst quenched,
and you can say, yes, truly,
God is the health of my confidence and my God.
So that's what I want church to be.
I want it to be a place where you get your thirst satisfied,
a place where you go to the countenance of God
in your hardships and you walk away at the end of the service
saying, you know what?
Look at my countenance, look at my face.
I'm happy, even though I'm still going through difficulties,
I'm happy that I've come to the house of God.
I've been edified, I've been encouraged.
You know, my thirst has been quenched
because I've heard from the Lord God.
And this is the place to be, brethren.
New Life Baptist Church,
spirit of God moves in our church, yeah?
Jesus Christ is in the midst of us.
And church is so important.
Once again, it's not just another place.
You know, I'm not like, you know, I'm not like,
okay, you know, blessed hope here in Sydney,
New Life, where should I be?
They're both very important.
They're both very important houses to the house of God.
And you know, it's not the building, okay?
It's the people of God.
It's the assembly, come together.
When we come together to worship Jesus Christ,
that is the church.
Brethren, please appreciate New Life Baptist Church.
It's very rare to have a church like ours.
I'm not talking about this pastor
because this pastor is just one member, okay?
Our church is made up of many members.
We're one body, we're here to work together.
God has put us together,
even though we're very different, different backgrounds,
we're all very different.
God has put us together so we can worship Him.
And it's definitely the place to come and be edified
and having your thirst quenched.
Okay, let's.