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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["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 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 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 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 So So 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