MidTree Church
The sermon audio of MidTree Church in Harris County, Ga. BEHOLD // BELIEVE // BECOME
MidTree Church
From Bitter Complaints to Beautiful Trust: Finding Hope in Life's Storms | Pastor Will Hawk | June 22nd, 2025
Frustration, bitterness, resentment, anger—emotions we rarely associate with our spiritual lives, yet ones that inevitably surface when our expectations collide with reality. What do we do when God feels distant or his timing seems unbearably slow?
This episode explores the forgotten art of biblical lament—a practice modeled throughout Scripture that offers us a way forward when we're struggling with difficult emotions toward God. Drawing from Jonah's selfish complaint and David's honest lament in Psalm 13, we discover a crucial distinction that changes everything: while both men brought their complaints to God, only one ended with hope and praise.
The biblical pattern of lament includes four essential elements: directly addressing God, honestly expressing our complaints, petitioning for divine intervention, and concluding with an expression of trust. This final component distinguishes true lament from mere complaint, offering us a pathway through our darkest moments.
"The same storms that terrify the sheep also water the grass." This powerful image captures the heart of biblical perspective—our challenges often contain hidden provisions we can only see when we shift our gaze from inward turmoil to upward trust and outward service. When we find ourselves bitter or resentful, the solution isn't simply to pray differently but to see differently.
The sermon reveals how figures throughout Scripture—Job in his suffering, Asaph in his envy of the wicked, Habakkuk in his impatience, and Naomi in her bitterness—all eventually discovered that their painful chapters weren't the end of their stories. Like a father guiding his visually impaired daughter, God walks beside us through our limited understanding, teaching us to trust even when we cannot see.
Whether you're currently wrestling with disappointment or seeking to prepare for inevitable storms ahead, this message offers biblical wisdom for bringing your whole self—including your most difficult emotions—before a God who can handle your honesty and wants to lead you toward hope.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
Okay, I'll be reading from Psalms 13, verses 1 and 2, and 5 and 6, and it's on page 453 in the Pew Bibles. Follow along while I read God's Word. Oh, how long, o Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? But I have trusted in your steadfast love, my heart, your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt beautifully with me. This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sharon, much appreciated. Crockett, appreciate you coming up and being support there as well. Well, hey guys, good morning. Welcome to Midtree. Excited to spend some time with you. I want to show you something funny. If you guys in the back will go ahead and give me control of the screens, that'd be great. So I forgot.
Speaker 2:We try to plan a lot of our series and our sermons. Go ahead and throw it to mine if you don't mind. There we go. We plan them weeks and weeks in advance. Some of them are months in advance, and this was a sermon that I had been looking forward to preaching for about a month.
Speaker 2:Now let me tell you why. The reason is after you spend two months in the Song of Songs, in the Song of Solomon, where God is saying this is the beautiful expression of what love is supposed to look like Love from God to man, love from man to a woman, love from a woman to a man. There is something that can begin to happen in us. Depending on the week, I am 100% going to trip before this day is out. I'm good with it. There's no way I'm standing behind the pulpit the whole time anyway, all right. What begins to happen is this. We can look at God's beautiful design by the way, you can do this in anything and then we look at ourselves and we realize we are far from God's design, realize we are far from God's design, our relationships are far from God's design, even if we're doing our best, and we realize that God is sovereign in all things. And so what naturally begins to develop in us when we see this thank you, we have a lawn care company. I don't know how they miss out, but as we like put our eyes toward the ideal and especially as I've talked with lots of spouses over Song of Solomon, it's like Will, I want to have a great marriage, I want to have a great relationship, like I'm putting in the work, I'm putting in the time. Here is what can happen.
Speaker 2:We can get really frustrated with God because, honestly, where else would we put our frustration? Yes, we can put it on ourselves, but if we are reading and praying and in community, there is this sort of expectation like God, can't you throw me a bone, can't you meet me where I am, and we can find ourselves angry, frustrated, bitter or resentful toward God. So I didn't think this part through, I didn't think about what the stage was going to look like for this sermon. Do you do well to be angry, all right? So let me kind of phrase this for us a little bit, because I really want you to get the most out of this.
Speaker 2:I rarely do this. In fact, I don't know if I've ever done this at mid-tree. I did this in Thailand because there was a language barrier. If you want it, these are all of the notes for today's sermon. Okay, these are all of the things that I'm going to put up on the screen. I don't do it because I'm a storyteller and I don't like you knowing the end of the story before, like, we get there together. So I'm just gonna trust that you're not going to do that. However, I've explained this to you guys a number of times. There's a difference in preaching and teaching. Okay, and I think pastors are called to do. All of it Today is going to lead toward teaching.
Speaker 2:So I'm gonna need you to sort of shake off your summer and give me a good 25 minutes of using the noodle that God gave you, because that is how you're going to get the most out of it. Is the word of God going to speak to our hearts? Absolutely, our affections, our emotions, absolutely. But I want to begin by saying this I want us to begin by thinking that this question do you do well to be angry? Is not mine. This is actually God's question when he looks at Jonah and the Lord said do you do well to be angry? So here's where I want us this morning, before we go any further and eventually, yes, we will get to this beautiful, beautiful place, but we do have to start sort of in the clouds to get there, the heavier clouds. What are you frustrated about? Especially, if you'll be honest with yourself what are you frustrated with the Lord about? When you look at your life, when you look at your circumstances, when you look at your situation, what are you bitter about? Do you resent God for certain things? Are you legitimately angry? Because what I want you to hear as we start is God can handle that, and if I don't put anything on display today out of the word of God, what I want you to know is God wants you to come this way to him. He desires for you to come this way. However, let's start with our brain. God asked Jonah okay, jonah, do you do well to be angry? And Jonah thinks he does.
Speaker 2:Jonah says, or the Bible says, it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry. What upset Jonah? The character of God, the fact that God was a forgiving God to people that Jonah did not like, and he prayed to the Lord. And that, by the way, is massively important. Jonah does pray. He prayed to the Lord and he said oh Lord, is this not what I said when I was yet in my country? That's why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious God. You're merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, relenting from disaster. By the way, he's quoting scripture. So now we're looking at a guy who is angry at God, that prays and has memorized scripture. Therefore, now, o Lord, please take my life from me You've been there before For it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord then asks him the question hey, jonah, really, do you really do well to be angry? Now, here's what I want you to notice. If you were to just look at this prayer, you would notice a few obvious things. Jonah looks at him and he says hey, this is what I said. I told you what was going to happen. This is why I did what I was going to do, because I knew what was going to happen, and I'm mostly concerned with what is better for me. If I were to take all of this and summarize it, this is what it would look like.
Speaker 2:Jonah number one makes a selfish complaint. He is not frustrated that God is a gracious God. He's frustrated that God is a gracious God to people he doesn't want God to be gracious to. He wants God to be gracious to him. He wants him to be steadfast to him. He wants him to be gracious to him. He wants him to be steadfast to him. He wants him to be patient to him. But God, do you really need to be patient to my enemy? Do you really need to be kind to my enemy?
Speaker 2:And then Jonah steps in. He says look, I can fix this. He plans to fix it. If God is going to do this, then I'm just going to go there. I don't want to be around a God who operates this way. That may be who God is, but I don't like it. I don't trust it so much so that he can see nothing worthy of praise. He looks at God and he says would you just take my life? I'm finished, I'm done with this, I'm just going to sit under a plant for the rest of my days and that is it. Okay, now take a look at the screen.
Speaker 2:This is Jonah's prayer. It's important to you, me all, for us to realize this. The Bible calls this a prayer. It does. It says Jonah prayed to the Lord and this is what he did. Here is what I want you to leave knowing today. How do I go to God when I'm bitter with him? How do I go to God when I'm frustrated with him? How do I go to God when I'm frustrated, resentful or angry? And the Bible does tell us this is what a biblical lament actually looks like.
Speaker 2:A lament, simply put, is a passionate plea to God about a frustration or an injustice. If you have ever been angry about something you ought to be angry for, you've been lamenting. If you have ever been heartbroken over something that is heartbroken and you cried out to the Lord, or you threw a shoe across the room, or whatever you did, believe it or not, you are in some form, lamenting. I want to teach you how to do it biblically, because the reality of it is all of us need to know how to do this If we're Christians, especially if you're not a Christian. I want to show you the difference. What, zach, where Zach Dude the fact that you called the ability of a Christian to have a Godward orientation, a different vision, a superpower. I went in the back and I changed my notes for the rest of the sermon. Do you want to know what the superpower of being a Christian is? It's that little piece in the bottom that I'm refusing to show you. Yet that's the superpower of a Christian.
Speaker 2:But a biblical lament is four things. Number one it is a direct address to God. This is you going to God with something? This is not doubting God's goodness. That's not a biblical lament. Stewing in silence, gossiping away our complaints, excusing our bitterness, sweeping it under the rug? Not a biblical lament Posturing to get God's attention or bargaining with him. All right, god, if you will, just then I will always and you've never always done that thing. Okay, if you've been following the word for 20 minutes, you know this Bargaining doesn't work. But it is a direct address to God. You're allowed to complain. I'll prove that to you. You can describe to God how your suffering feels and then you can make a petition. God, would you help me, would you step in? God is so okay with this that these are the Psalms in which it happens.
Speaker 2:Now, I know that barely any of you guys can read this, so I'm just going to zoom in on a couple, okay, and do you know what you will find? By the way, a third of the Psalms are laments. That doesn't necessarily mean that a third of your life is going to be a lament, but if there were a fraction, then I don't think it's a horrible one. Okay, now just look. I'm not going to read these to you, but do you see how frequently oh Lord and my God appears? Can you see that? It's because a biblical lament is addressed to God? This isn't you just dealing or stewing or convincing yourself. A biblical lament is you directly addressing God. This isn't you just dealing or stewing or convincing yourself. A biblical lament is you directly addressing God.
Speaker 2:Do you see any complaints here? I'll give you a couple more. You see any complaints in here? I mean Psalm 64 literally says here is my complaint. Psalm 55, I am in anguish. Psalm 43, vindicate me. That means somebody has treated them in an unjust way. Psalm 70, deliver me. By the way, that's just the first half. On and on and on they go. Are they asking God to step in? Yes, over and over and over again.
Speaker 2:A lament is the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of god's goodness. And here is where we begin to see our superpower as a christian begin. Can god love me and bring pain into my life? Can he? Can it be loving for God to bring difficulty and pain into my life? If I'm a parent, would I want to parent my children the way it seems like God parents his children?
Speaker 2:Now I want to show you that fourth piece, but I don't want to just tell it to you. I want you to feel it. So here is David in Psalm 13. You've already listened to David when Zach read from him in Psalm 16, I believe 16? 16. Here he is a few chapters earlier.
Speaker 2:Here I got two challenges for you while I read this. Does David biblically lament? Does he cry out to God? Does he let him know why he's suffering? Does he ask for to God? Does he let him know why he's suffering? Does he ask for God to step in? Do you see that stuff? And then my second question is this what is it that David is praying about?
Speaker 2:Tell me the difficulty that you find in David's life. How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Four times David's like? How much longer? How much longer? This has been a hot one. This isn't easy. How long, how long? How long? How long? Consider and answer me, o Lord, my God, light up my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death, verse four lest my enemy say I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken, but I've trusted in your steadfast love, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Speaker 2:Now, jonah makes a selfish complaint, but David makes an honest one. It's not just that he is complaining. I'm going to have to change colors for this background. All right, y'all tell me if this is better. Is that better? Okay, stick with y'all. All right, jonah is complaining selfishly. God, who you are is affecting me negatively. David is complaining because he knows who God is and he wants people to see God in the right way. God, if people know that I'm your guy, if they know I'm your child and they see this in my life, are they going to mistake you? Are they going to think you do not know, you do not care? Jonah decides he is going to fix it, whereas David is expecting God to fix it. Jonah sees nothing worthy of praise, but David sees that there is something always worthy of praise. And this brings us to the superpower of the Christian. Still speaking to your brains right now Direct address to God.
Speaker 2:When things go poorly, complain, describe your suffering to God. You are invited to do so by a third of the Psalms, not to mention other books of the Bible like Lamentations, habakkuk, et cetera. Jeremiah, job, petition for help or intervention. God, will you please step in? But here is what David does that Jonah does not. Don't forget, jonah did pray. It isn't an issue of praying. All right, yes, christian, you should pray, but that isn't the point. That isn't an issue of praying. All right, yes, christian, you should pray, but that isn't the point. That isn't the main thing.
Speaker 2:Here is what David does. He expresses trust and hope in God. That is the whole difference. That is the whole kit and caboodle. He gives this complaint God, you told me these things and I'm confused. He asks God to step in that evil and injustice won't win. Instead of taking his life, he has the vision to say God, would you give me life, would you give me a desire for life? And he ends it by saying yet I will praise the Lord. There is always something worthy of praising. All right now. I gave you two questions. Did David navigate this as a biblical lament? All four of those things are there. Here's my question. I double dog. Dare somebody to answer out loud? Because I can tell you're in an introspective moment and nobody ever wants to get it wrong. What is David complaining about specifically in his life? Go, what is it Now?
Speaker 2:Some of you grew up going to VBS since you were four years old and you know that David has had all kinds of trouble. Is this him fleeing evil, saul? Do you see that in there? Is it him living in the wilderness? Is it him waiting on a promised future? Is it because of the loss of a child? He experienced all of those things. Is it because he's being mocked or cursed? We definitely read about that. Is it because of the loss of a battle? Is it because of one of many betrayals? Here's my favorite line of the entire morning. I don't know. And this, to me, is one of the greatest gifts of a biblical lament in scripture it is incredibly specific in what the person is feeling, but incredibly vague in the context. Do you want to know why? This is the Bible inviting you to come to God, regardless of what your lament is.
Speaker 2:There was a kid this morning, I am sure of it, who, before they made it to church, could not find their fill in the blank. For me, it was my Auburn hat that I had for ages. If I couldn't find my Auburn hat, my whole day was messed up. Okay, for another kid it's a teddy bear or it's a little lovey. Hey, what's the little? Is it a sloth? What is it that Emmett carries around? This little sloth? If he doesn't have a sloth, does he have trouble going to sleep? Is it still a thing? Or are you just leaning into my illustration? Okay, all right, cool, I appreciate it either way. I appreciate it either way.
Speaker 2:The way he feels over that little loss, by the way, is the way we feel in our big-sized losses. It's just the way our hearts and our emotions work, and so one of the greatest gifts that God gives us Is the specificity in the content, like here is how to come to me when you feel like I'm treating you unfairly, when you're bitter, when you resent God, when you're angry with God. Here is the way to come to him. And then he says and I don't need to define for you every way that's going to happen, because it's going to be 10,000 different ways across the 10,000 days of your life. You can apply this to everything, and this is how David does it. Instead of finishing with nothing, he praises God. And now I want to start moving from our minds a little bit to what that should mean for us. The solution to being angry with God or frustrated with God, resenting God or bitter with God is not just prayer. Jonah did that. It is not just memorizing scripture. Jonah had done that. It is a perspective.
Speaker 2:All right, this little quote comes from JC Ryle. If somebody wants to Google it so that you can get the answer right, my question after I read this quote to you is going to be how old is this quote All right? Our whole culture is all about self-love, self-esteem, self-discovery. As long as there is self, there will be problems. Scripture teaches us to move from self to savior, from self-discovery to self-denial, from self-esteem to self-sacrifice. Eyes are on Jesus, not self. If your self was the cure, jesus would be unnecessary. Okay, anybody want to guess what year that was written? Somebody just give me something. Okay, 1910, that was one I could hear something. Okay, 1910, that was the one I could hear. 1820, you may have overshot, but not by much.
Speaker 2:When I read this quote, I am assuming this is a pastor who has congregation, who have been on social media for at least six months. That's what I'm reading. Like when I see this. Like the internet had to have been around. Okay, jc Ryle died in 1900, okay. So when you read this and you apply it to yourself and you look at your culture, how great is this? It's just a human problem. It was a human problem when there was a phone in your back pocket and it was a human problem when there wasn't. When he wrote this quote, paris was unveiling the newest technology, called the escalator. That's what was happening. Radio waves were like, oh, this is a great technology. We're gonna have to look into this a little bit more. Films were silent. That is the world in which he wrote.
Speaker 2:This Scripture teaches us to move from self to savior. Henry Ford hadn't even made the assembly line yet. No F-150s floating around, much less with GPS that could get you from one place to the other. Why do I point this out? Because when difficulty comes, it is not a matter of you just praying. It's how you pray. It's not just a matter of having a Bible or even having it memorized. It is your perspective on it.
Speaker 2:And the superpower and the biggest difference from David all the way to Jonah was this Is there still something worthy of praise here? That is the question In your particular thing. Is there still something worthy of praise here? That is the question In your particular thing, is there still something worthy of praise? Is there still some way that God has shown up in a but God movement profound way? This is what we see. Romans tells us what to do. There are going to be three different things we have to look at. We refuse to look inward, we look upward and we look outward. I'll say it again we refuse to look inward. That's why I gave you the quote from 18 something. Instead, we look upward and we look outward, and this is what God has been calling his people to do Since Christians weren't even called Christians. They were called the way. Do not be conformed to this world. Refuse to be. Don't look like them, look differently.
Speaker 2:Did you guys ever read Jane Eyre? By curiosity, show of hands. Who read Jane Eyre? Okay, I never read it. Was it good? Okay, I don't know. I only know it because Tim Keller quotes it in one of the books that I recommend to couples when they're getting married, and he talks about Jane Eyre who is pursued by another man. Am I correct in that? I didn't even cliff notes this. It's just a good quote by Tim Keller. Basically, this woman is pursued by another man. This man is married to another woman who is mentally ill and lives upstairs in his estate. They are, for all intents and purposes, married legally, but there is no relationship there and this man pursues her. Can somebody give me a head nod? Okay, great, okay. And Tim Keller said in no other book or article has he ever read a better wrestling of the soul of an individual.
Speaker 2:When it comes to God, life doesn't seem fair. Why can't I have this thing? Why can't I have this love? I can make every excuse in the world. She doesn't care about him, she isn't even going to know.
Speaker 2:And here is what we read from Tim Keller. She does not look into her heart for strength. There's nothing there but clamorous conflict. Hey Christian non-Christian too when you are in the midst of resenting God, being bitter, not trusting or angry with him, just know looking here is not gonna be a very good solution for you. You're already bitter, you're already resentful. All that will be there is clamorous conflict. She ignores what her heart says and looks to what God says.
Speaker 2:The moral law of God at that very moment made no sense to her heart, no sense to her mind at all. They didn't appear reasonable. They didn't appear fair. God's laws. They didn't appear reasonable. They didn't appear fair God's laws. But she says, if she could break them when they appear inconvenient to her, of what would be their worth? If you only obey God's word when it seems reasonable or profitable to you, well, that isn't really obedience at all. Obedience means you cede someone an authority over you that is there, even when you don't agree with him. God's law is for times of temptation, when body and soul rise in mutiny on God's word, then, not her feelings and passions she plants her foot. This is what God calls us to Not looking inward.
Speaker 2:It's the worst place you could look when you're in a place like that. So where do we look? Instead, we look upward, we look outward, we don't want to be conformed to this world, and that's exactly what will happen if you look inside. So, instead, what do we do? We try to find whatever is good, whatever is acceptable. We'll even look at perfect things, knowing that we will never be perfect, but if we can see who God is, we at least know in what direction we ought to go.
Speaker 2:And this, to me, would be one of the greatest applications for anybody who is bitter, frustrated, resentful or angry to God. And it's counterintuitive frustrated, resentful or angry to God and it's counterintuitive For you to be those things. It requires you to be looking inward. You can't be resentful at God and not be thinking of yourself. Can't be angry at God and not thinking of yourself or another circumstance in someone else, where you're looking in them, for them. So what is it that we ought to do? Well, brothers, I would appeal to you and I would say, by the mercy of God, we need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Okay, well, that's very biblical and it sounds wonderful.
Speaker 2:What on earth is that supposed to mean? When I am looking inwardly, when I am frustrated at God, when I resent what he has done in my life which may have been the case for 10, 15, 20 years, when I am angry with God, do you want to know? The best way to get out of that? It is not to try to bring about God's goodness in my own life. It isn't. I know how to lament, and that lament ends with me being hopeful.
Speaker 2:The greatest thing I can do is step out of my stuff and walk over here to where someone else is, where someone else is hurt, where someone else is bitter, where someone else is angry, resentful, disappointed, and I can desire, I can seek to bring God's goodness into their situation, rather than trying to bring it into mine, true or false. If you've ever been in this place before, you have already tried to bring God's goodness into their situation, rather than trying to bring it into mine, true or false. If you've ever been in this place before, you have already tried to bring God's goodness into your situation, true or false, true. So, instead, what the Christian is called to do is to be a living sacrifice. What is a sacrifice? Something valuable given for someone else. You are valuable If you are trusting in Christ. You are valuable If you're not trusting in Christ. He made you in his image and you are valuable and he is seeking you still. Your greatest, wisest, most wonderful thing that you can do is biblically lament this, end it with praise, then get out of yourself and say but how might I bring God's goodness into somebody else's life? How can I bring the value of who God is to me and live sacrificially for them? And if you do that, it doesn't somehow twist God's arm to give you what you want, but it does untwist your heart. It does cause you to stop seeing things the way Jonah did. It aligns us with Christ and, guys, you are so good at this. This is where I get to move from the heavy part of the sermon to the fun part of the sermon, because y'all are rock stars at this Might. I prove it to you. Right, there's like water in here, and I don't even put them in here. Okay, like, okay. You guys are so good at this and you're like well, will. That is a wonderful thing to say. Back it up 259 of our 300 members serve. That is, almost 90% of our members serve in some capacity Over 78, because I didn't go into the numbers as much as I could have lead in some capacity. Do you know how unusual that is to not have 15 people leading a church, to have 78 people that are leading a church?
Speaker 2:Last week I went to get a cup of coffee and a bottle of water and Kenny and Elizabeth were back there and Scott and Randy were back there and I was saying, hey, how are you guys doing? What's going on? And they said they didn't use the word lament, but they were lamenting. All right, I hadn't taught this yet. Now y'all could use the word lament. They were sad. I was like you're in hospitality, it's kind of your job not to be sad.
Speaker 2:What's the story? It was there last week and here is the most beautiful thing that they said to me, which ultimately tipped me over to going ahead and doing the sermon this week they were lamenting that they were not going to be serving in that way because as a church we sort of have a policy where, after you've served for a couple of years, we ask you to take a step back. We do it so that you won't burn out, but that isn't the only reason we do it. We do it so that you will look for other areas to serve, but that isn't the only reason we do it. We do it so that you will look for other areas to serve, but that isn't the only reason we do it. We do it to create open spaces for other people to step in, and they were lamenting not being able to serve. Do you know how unusual that is in a church in the South? I'm just asking Do you know that it is much more common for them to be longing to get to the end of that two-year commitment so that they can just hey, I did my thing and now I can go sit down.
Speaker 2:But this is the heart of the believer. This is the heart of the person who is able to navigate life without resentment, frustration, anger, or at least to do it in a biblical way. This is what it looks like. The solution to our frustration, bitterness, resentment and anger is not so much our prayers or our memorization of scripture. Good, good, it's your vision, it's your perspective. It's what you're looking for.
Speaker 2:The same storms that terrify the sheep also water the grass. Whether the storm is good or not depends on whether you want green pastures or just to stay dry, and a lot of God's sheep don't want to be wet. That's all it comes down to. A lot of God's sheep want sunny days. A lot of God's sheep do not want loud thunder. A lot of God's sheep do not want the lightning. A lot of God's sheep do not want loud thunder. A lot of God's sheep do not want the lightning. A lot of God's sheep do not want muddy ground. It's the very thing that feeds you. It's the very thing that brings the greenest pastures. And if we, as sheep in the flock of God, would get to the place where we can say beautiful day, enjoy it. Looks like rain's coming, isn't God good? Lightning and thunder it's a bit scary, but God is powerful. Still, my feet are muddy, but they will not always be, and from this place will come up the very thing that nourishes my soul. This, christians, is the invitation. Bring your resentment, bring your frustration, bring all of these things.
Speaker 2:I want to end by giving you a shotgun of a couple of verses and by telling you a story. I'm going to try not to cry when I tell you this story, okay, because I can tell my voice is already failing me. I don't know where my wife is. She gets real upset at me when this happens. She's like you drank too much coffee. I didn't drink a lick of coffee today and I'm almost out of water in my pulpit back up. All right, so hopefully I won't cry. I want to give you a shotgun of verses, because some of you may look at Jonah and you may say well, I'm not angry, that isn't my issue, that's okay. Maybe your issue is there's just too much bad and there's not enough good Might.
Speaker 2:I introduce you to Job. I don't know if you've heard about him before. He had a rough couple of days. I'd invite you to read it. It's a bit of a jaunt, okay, most of us read chapters 1 and 2 and then jump to 38 because the rest of them are complaining biblically, lamenting. If you're Job, not his buddies. By the way, this is what his marriage looked like. His wife said to him are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die Might. I mention. That sounds an awful lot like Jonah looking inwardly, but not Job looking outwardly. I wouldn't recommend this next line in marriage counseling.
Speaker 2:You speak as a foolish woman speaks. He told her Should we accept only good from God and not adversity? Through all this, job did not sin in what he said. Bring the rain. Job says Well, I'm not in a Job situation, don't blow it up.
Speaker 2:It's just that sometimes I feel like the Christian life isn't better. Sometimes I feel like if I wasn't a Christian, things would have gone better for me. Oh cool, might I introduce you to Asaph, psalm 73. By the way, it's going to start pretty good. Truly, god is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Solid start. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease. They increase in riches. All of the people in my life who are not trying to glorify God. Why does it seem like their life goes so much better for them than me? Does God not care? He continues, verse 13,.
Speaker 2:All in vain. Have I kept my heart clean? You ever been there before? Why am I studying the word? Why am I the one who's going to church? Why am I the one who is memorizing scripture and repenting when other people don't repent. What on earth are y'all doing? Oh, okay, thank you. Yes, good, nice, good boy. Wow, all right.
Speaker 2:Next week on humility, here we go. Ice too. Yeah, above and beyond In vanity. Have I kept my heart clean? What a waste of time. Have I really wasted? Have any of you look? Some of you guys aren't old enough to get here yet. Some of you are older than me and you'll tell me I haven't gotten here yet when you look back on your life and you literally say was following God worth it? Have you gotten there a couple of times? Is it really worth it? Is it going to be worth it?
Speaker 2:But when I thought how to understand this okay, it's about to get better it seemed to me a wearisome task. It didn't get any better. He's like I'm going to think on this. Let me think on this. Until beautiful word in the Psalm. Until I went into the sanctuary of God. This is where he had to get, by the way, he had to get where God's people were. He had to get where the word of God was present. He had to get where other people's stories of God's goodness was present. And then I discerned their end, and by the end he says Lord, I know you're continually with me. You hold my right hand. Remember that, remember that. Remember that, hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. Whom have I in heaven but you? There's nothing on earth that I desire beside you. Yeah, well, it's not that. I'm glad that Asaph had a vision for this before it came to be. It's just that God moves too slow.
Speaker 2:Enter Habakkuk, oh Lord, how long? How long am I going to cry for help? Why do you make me see iniquity? Why do you I love this idly look at wrong God. You're just sitting, iniquity. Why do you I love this idly look at wrong God? You're just sitting in heaven, doing nothing about it. I've been praying about it. It's not for a day, week, month or year, it's a long time. Why are you moving so slow?
Speaker 2:And God says well, Habakkuk, I got to tell you something. My people, israel, are fleeing from me and I'm going to fix it. Habakkuk's like great, can you go ahead and do that? God's like yeah, I'm going to bring the Babylonians to do it. This worse nation than you. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2:And one of the greatest statements on trusting God in bitterness, anger, resentment and frustration is right here, though the fig tree should not blossom. If there's no fruit on the vine, the produce of the olive fail. The fields yield no food. I realize we're not in an agrarian culture. Imagine just walking to Walmart there's nothing there. You go into your pantry and there's nothing there. You turn on the water and nothing comes out, even though there's no herd in the stalls yet. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, hell or high water. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. And finally, you might just be saying Will, it isn't that, it's that it's too late for God to act, it's too far gone.
Speaker 2:Hey, you ever met Naomi. She's pretty cool and she's a bitter thing. For a good bit of her life she said to them don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, don't call me pleasant. Naomi means Call me Mara, call me bitterness, because I am bitter with the Almighty who has dealt very bitterly with me. But by chapter 4, naomi takes a child. She didn't expect to have A famine had stepped in, just like what I read to you in Habakkuk. She then lost her husband. She then lost her people. She then lost her son. But don't worry, she had another son. She then lost that one too. She says I mean, how is there anything good in life? Jonah's words seem to resound quite well, but by the end Naomi takes a child and lays him on her lap and she becomes his nurse.
Speaker 2:A child she didn't expect to ever have, a grandchild she didn't expect to ever have, and the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David, who gives us a vision for lamenting. How incredible is God. I'm not going to try to talk you out of your frustration with God. It's all in the Bible. I'm not going to try to talk you out of being bitter with him or even being angry with him. I think many times that's exactly the way you ought to come to God. I just don't want you to stop where Jonah stopped. I want you to have a good theology of lamenting and I want you to have a vision, because you are not alone.
Speaker 2:Jonah was angry and David confused, job in anguish, asaph treated unfairly, habakkuk impatient and Naomi bitter. But that wasn't the whole story. If they were able to see what God was doing, lily Stephen sent me a devotional earlier in the week on Be Thou my Vision it's my favorite hymn of all time and one of the guys in the worship team was looking out of his window as he was doing his devotional and there was a girl walking by with a cane in hand. Here is what he wrote. You could tell something was wrong at first sight.
Speaker 2:She walked along the sidewalk without the grace found in most her age. The cane wrapped the concrete with the rhythm of a man pecking at a typewriter with two fingers. Until a lift in the concrete broke the melody, she stumbled in darkness at midday. She most likely had made this walk many times, never so meticulously. Her newness to the task communicated that her diagnosis was degenerative. She now saw people as trees, walking, slurred shapes moved all about her.
Speaker 2:The sun had almost set, so she practiced maneuvering through the neighborhood while it was still dusk, gripping her walking stick in hand with her father by her side. Step by step, they inched together. Every time the extended arm overlooked a crack in the path, an unforgettable expression flashed upon his face. Every stagger was a dagger to her father's heart. Yet he did not reach out his hand. Tears streaming down his face, he let her reel and wobble with every trip and lurch he would reach out his hand, but stop it before it reached her. She needed to learn to walk by herself again, though she was not by herself. His eyes fixed upon her well-being, his heart stammering every time she did. His voice guided her from above. He was her vision, and as they struggled along, beauty grew in the most unlikely places. Her faltering smile radiated her trust in them.
Speaker 2:They do it. Thank you, lily, for that. They do a loop around the neighborhood and he begins writing this and as they begin the second loop, he sees them and the father takes the walking stick out of her hand and instead he just holds her hand and everything changes. My kids actually played this game with me. I don't know how it started. We were probably bored at like a theme park or something, but to this day Tiggy will do this on a long walk, she'll hold her hand out and she'll say okay, daddy, don't forget my eyes are closed. She says that because sometimes I forget their eyes are closed. We do this a lot and the point is I just walk and they want to see how far they can go with their eyes being closed.
Speaker 2:Welcome to being a Christian in this world, you will always in some way walk with your eyes closed. You're never going to see everything that your father sees. The question is do you have enough trust in him when you cannot, and this is where bitterness, resentment, frustration and anger go to die. I've got a really good father and he will always protect me, even if it means letting me trip occasionally because he wants me to walk on my own, hand in hand with him. I don't know if you're angry. I don't know if you're frustrated. I don't know if you're bitter. I know a bunch of you are, because enough of you talked to me about it in the past eight weeks to write this sermon.
Speaker 2:Okay, I know that much, but I also know this we have a really good father, for those of us who would call him that, and if you have not cried out to God as father in a long time, if you haven't shared your complaint, most importantly, if you haven't ended it with hope, let today be the day where you biblically lament and for some of you, that superpower at the end may be you for the first time, believing that the storms and the lightning and the rain are actually a good thing that God has brought into your life to bring you to him.
Speaker 2:So choose to draw near to him. I'll put up a couple of questions for you to think on, to pray on, and just know this If you want to talk to somebody, I'll probably be on this side. Thomas is over there, greg's over there. If anybody else wants to come down and pray with folks, feel free to do that as well. If you want to walk in the backfield and just talk with the Lord, if you want to kneel, stand, sing, pray, it doesn't really matter to me, so long as you bring all of yourself to God and have a vision for the fact that he has a hope for you and a future for you in Christ. So let's draw near to him today.