SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Each week we share a message from God's Word to encourage your heart, strengthen your faith, and help you grow in your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We hope this time blesses you and draws you closer to the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is a big week.
SPEAKER_01: Kids starting school tomorrow, so every they're going back to school.
SPEAKER_01: So that's Liberation Day for sing stay-at-home moms.
SPEAKER_01: Liberation Day.
SPEAKER_01: You get to get to have the house to yourself now.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, this has been a this has been a week of going back to things.
SPEAKER_01: And lots of you this week, it's kind of been a tough week because you've had to say goodbye to your college students.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, especially if it's the first time saying goodbye to your kids going off to college, that can be a tough thing.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, they're the and so they're there now and they're meeting new people, and the colleges go out of their way to make sure they have a good time.
SPEAKER_01: Those first first few days they're there.
SPEAKER_01: So they're doing great right now.
SPEAKER_01: You're probably missing them more than they miss you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: But at some point, you know, they're gonna get to a weekend where it looks like everybody from everybody from the college has gone home and they're there and they feel alone and feel start feeling like, man, I really miss, I really miss being uh at home and with my parents, you know.
SPEAKER_01: They start feeling that, and then, you know, the your your daughters, you know, they have a bad day and they go, man, I wish I could, I wish I could talk to mom.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I could get a hug from my dad.
SPEAKER_01: And your sons, you know, they think, man, I really, really need my mom right now.
SPEAKER_01: Because that laundry is not going to do itself.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they really start missing you at some point.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna start missing you, and they're going to miss you more the more that they need you.
SPEAKER_01: The more they need you, the farther away you're going to feel to them.
SPEAKER_01: The more they need you, the farther away you're going to feel.
SPEAKER_01: And the same is true in our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: The more we need him, the farther away he sometimes seems.
SPEAKER_01: And that's that's a tough thing to deal with.
SPEAKER_01: And as we've gone through the Psalms this summer, some of you you've seen this as we've talked about it.
SPEAKER_01: David says that over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: God, why are you so far away from me?
SPEAKER_01: Where are you when you need me?
SPEAKER_01: You know, we see that in the life of David, that here's this man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_01: There were times in his life where he's going, Where are you?
SPEAKER_01: I need you, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: You know, and Psalm 22, we're gonna look at Psalm 22 today.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 22 starts with that cry in David's heart.
SPEAKER_01: Starts off by saying, God, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: And and the cool thing about Psalm 22 is that all through it there are these little glimpses, these little prophetic glimpses of the day of the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if David knew what he was writing or not, but man, he just, I mean, real specific things.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna point those out as we go, as we go through this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna point out those different prophecies and and uh uh so that you see where they are.
SPEAKER_01: But and and honestly, if if you're here today and you're you're thinking, you know, you know, I'm I'm I'm glad I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: I love being part of this church, but you know, the whole Bible thing, I'm not, I'm not totally sold that it is it it is complete truth.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not I'm not sold on the fact that it is what it says that it is.
SPEAKER_01: I would challenge you, both in this this chapter today and throughout the Old Testament, to look at fulfilled prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the prophecies of Jesus, and I think you'll be blown away that so many, there's like 300 prophecies about Jesus, and most of them were fulfilled in his lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them have not been fulfilled yet.
SPEAKER_01: They have to do with his coming back.
SPEAKER_01: So most of those prophecies were fulfilled in his lifetime, and lots of them were fulfilled on the day of his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: And to look at that and think, man, for so many prophecies to be fulfilled about one man in his lifetime is just astounding.
SPEAKER_01: And and a common response to that is people think, well, isn't that just Jesus kind of self-fulfilling those prophecies?
SPEAKER_01: You know, he knew what the prophecies were, so he went and did that.
SPEAKER_01: And I I understand that.
SPEAKER_01: I understand that way of thinking, but it's hard for a man to prophesy and self-fulfill his execution, his method of execution.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody self-fulfills that.
SPEAKER_01: And and what happened to him in detail on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna see that in Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're on the fence about the bot the reality of the Bible, then look at those prophecies.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope today some of these things we just point out will convince you, man, this is this is God's word.
SPEAKER_01: It is what it says it is.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna point those prophecies out, but really what I want you to get out of this today, what I want you to get out of this today, is that no matter what, no matter what, when God feels farthest away from us, when you feel that way, he's there.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to understand, here is how you respond to that.
SPEAKER_01: When you feel like, where is God when I need him?
SPEAKER_01: Here's how you respond.
SPEAKER_01: So, so look at look at uh uh Psalm, uh Psalm 22, verse 1, it says this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, what do we what do we do when God feels far away?
SPEAKER_01: David starts with this, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus cried that out on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: David said it's 700 years before Christ ever cried it out.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: He said, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
SPEAKER_01: Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
SPEAKER_01: Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.
SPEAKER_01: Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever felt that way?
SPEAKER_01: You're just going through the darkest time in your life and you're crying out, and it just feels like, where is God when I need him?
SPEAKER_01: Where is he?
SPEAKER_01: That's what David was going through.
SPEAKER_01: And and I I I I've referenced this recently, and I don't want to be repetitious about this, but it it is exactly uh what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: There are two uh two faithful servants at family church that recently have gone through long uh illnesses, in and out of the hospital, fighting fighting disease and and and whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And and I mean weeks, months fighting this.
SPEAKER_01: And and both of them, I visited both of them on the same day, separate hospitals, at a time when when they were at their their physically at a very crucial point.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, to the point that that we were praying things like, God, please just let them live.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's let's take care of that.
SPEAKER_01: Let them live.
SPEAKER_01: That's how that's how bad things were getting.
SPEAKER_01: And both of those people, same day, separate hospitals, both of them said, I don't feel like God is with me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't feel like God is with me.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we need him the most, he feels farthest away.
SPEAKER_01: That's just natural.
SPEAKER_01: That that that's what happens.
SPEAKER_01: We we go through that.
SPEAKER_01: And and whether you are in that dark space or you're walking through, you're walking with somebody through that dark space, you know, it's easy to just think, I I don't understand this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand why would God let somebody go through this?
SPEAKER_01: Why why would their prayers go unanswered for such a long period of time?
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand that.
SPEAKER_01: And and we were talking about this in our men's Bible study on Thursday morning.
SPEAKER_01: And all of you guys are invited.
SPEAKER_01: We meet Thursday morning, 7 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: at Vita Nova Coffee Shop down in Noakesville, uh, and we're going through the book of Judges right now.
SPEAKER_01: And we were talking about this because in the book of Judges, you know, Judges is a great book.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never studied Judges, it's full of stories that that never made it into the Veggie Tales cartoons.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, pretty violent, pretty vile stuff, you know, but but it it's because Israel turned its back on God and it shows you this is what happens to man apart from God, apart from the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is what man is capable of.
SPEAKER_01: And so some pretty dark stories in there.
SPEAKER_01: And and when when uh Israel would turn its back on God, God would allow foreign invaders to come over and take over their country for a period of time.
SPEAKER_01: And then he would raise up judges to deliver them.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, I'm doing this for two reasons.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter two, he says, I'm doing this to test you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing this to test Israel.
SPEAKER_01: How committed are you to me?
SPEAKER_01: How willing are you to walk into the darkness with me so that I can deliver you from that darkness?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have that much faith in me?
SPEAKER_01: So when you're going through something, something difficult in your life and you don't feel like God is there, you can just think, okay, God is testing my faith.
SPEAKER_01: God's testing my faith right now.
SPEAKER_01: And that's your cue to go, I'm gonna put my faith in God even though I don't feel his presence.
SPEAKER_01: It's about what we know, and we know that God is with us, and we can still put our faith in him even when we don't feel like he's there.
SPEAKER_01: The second reason God allowed Israel to go through those those times of captivity is because he said, He said, I'm gonna train you for warfare.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna train you to go to battle because if you're gonna be your own nation, you're gonna have to know how to defend yourself, and you're gonna have to know how to fight to take the land that I promised you that is that is occupied by pagan uh pagan idol worshipers.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have to take that land, so you're gonna need to know how to fight.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm allowing you to go through this to train you for warfare.
SPEAKER_01: When God allows us to go through things like that, he is training us for warfare.
SPEAKER_01: And it's called spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_01: And that warfare takes place in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: The battleground is your mind.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, Satan wants nothing more than for you to get distracted and think that God is not with you and that God has abandoned you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants nothing more than for you to feel that way.
SPEAKER_01: And and so he will do everything he can to take your mind away from God and to weaken your faith.
SPEAKER_01: And he's gonna say things like, you know, if God were here, if God were really here with you, then you wouldn't be going through this.
SPEAKER_01: If God were here, you wouldn't feel the way you feel right now.
SPEAKER_01: If God were here, he would have answered your prayers by now.
SPEAKER_01: That's what that's what Satan does.
SPEAKER_01: And and uh, I'm just looking at my notes, and I I have no clue where I am right now.
SPEAKER_01: Um so we start videotaping our services in a few weeks.
SPEAKER_01: I really got to get that, I really gotta figure that out.
SPEAKER_01: How do I figure out where I am in my notes?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's not gonna look good on YouTube if your pastor can't find out.
SPEAKER_01: But I just found it.
SPEAKER_01: So when God says those, or Satan will tell you those things, it's that battleground for your mind.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to take over what's going on in your mind to distract you from trusting in God.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants you to feel like God is not there.
SPEAKER_01: That's Satan, that's Satan playing with your mind.
SPEAKER_01: That's all that is.
SPEAKER_01: And if difficult circumstances are coming your way, that is your opportunity to strengthen yourself in that spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and when Satan comes to you and says, God's not here, God's not answering your prayers, God doesn't care about you, God doesn't love you, that's your opportunity to stand up and say, get thee behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_01: That's what that's all about.
SPEAKER_01: That's why God brings you through those things.
SPEAKER_01: It's a test to test your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Are you willing to walk with God into a dark place so that he can deliver you from that?
SPEAKER_01: And it's training so that you can equip yourself, you can be ready for battle, spiritual warfare with the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: James says that if you stand up to Satan, he'll flee.
SPEAKER_01: All you do is stand up to him.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have the Holy Spirit living within you, you know, he's he is no match for what the Holy Spirit can do through you.
SPEAKER_01: So all you have to do is stand up to him.
SPEAKER_01: And when you do that, every time you stand up to him, every time you're tempted to sin, you say, No, it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Get thee behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_01: Every time a negative thought comes in and you think, where's God when I need him?
SPEAKER_01: You stop.
SPEAKER_01: Nope, he's here, his Holy Spirit lives within me, his presence is everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Where can I go from your presence, O Lord?
SPEAKER_01: So Satan, get thee behind me.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you do that, you are strengthening your your ability to fight against Satan.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you do that.
SPEAKER_01: So, what do we do when we feel like like God is far away?
SPEAKER_01: What do we do when we feel like God's not there?
SPEAKER_01: Just like David.
SPEAKER_01: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: What do we do?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what we do.
SPEAKER_01: First, when you feel like God is far away, look at look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: We just sang a minute ago that that uh that we worship, when when we worship our worship puts you on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the throne of your worship.
SPEAKER_01: We sang that.
SPEAKER_01: And David says exactly that on the enthroned on the praises of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Our ancestors trusted in you.
SPEAKER_01: You have rescued them.
SPEAKER_01: They cried out to you and were saved, they trusted in you and were never disgraced.
SPEAKER_01: You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to feel like God is close to you, start praising him.
SPEAKER_01: And I love that this verse, you know, sometimes it'll say worship.
SPEAKER_01: Worship is a very general term.
SPEAKER_01: Our whole life should be an act of worship.
SPEAKER_01: It means to ascribe worth of something.
SPEAKER_01: This word praise means sing.
SPEAKER_01: It means to sing.
SPEAKER_01: When you feel like God is far from you, just start singing.
SPEAKER_01: Start praising God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if all you can remember are the songs you learned when you were as a kid, man, start belting out Jesus loves me as loud as you can.
SPEAKER_01: You know, whatever it is, just start singing.
SPEAKER_01: And and and God is gonna feel closer to you.
SPEAKER_01: And here's, you know, uh uh science, science just every day proves more and more how real God is.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: And with everything they're like they're able to do and monitoring your body and your brain and chemicals and all this stuff, it's just so cool.
SPEAKER_01: So so this this is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: I used to teach music, and this kind of thing just just made me just like amazed.
SPEAKER_01: It says this the University of the University College of London measured what happens to the body when a person sings.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: When they sing, and they compared that to multiple other activities common to humans.
SPEAKER_01: No other human activity does what singing does.
SPEAKER_01: Three separate hormones are simultaneously released in your body when you sing.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And you may think, so, big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, but nothing else does that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, nothing else releases three simultaneously.
SPEAKER_01: And here they are, cortisol levels drop.
SPEAKER_01: Cortisol is the stress-regulating hormone.
SPEAKER_01: So when cortisol levels drop, that means you are less stressed.
SPEAKER_01: When you start singing, you're less stressed.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, oxytocin level shift.
SPEAKER_01: Oxytocin is the hormone that is connected to a person's ability to connect with other people.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And that increases.
SPEAKER_01: Oxytocin increases, increasing your ability to connect with other people.
SPEAKER_01: That's why, like you go to you go to a uh a ball game or something and they stand and sing the national anthem.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you just feel like you're connected to something bigger when you start belting out the Star Spangled Banner.
SPEAKER_01: Well, part of that is because God designed it that way.
SPEAKER_01: Because the hormone that that helps you to connect with other people, to feel that connection with other people, is released.
SPEAKER_01: Third one, beta endorphins are released when you sing.
SPEAKER_01: Beta endorphins are your body's natural painkillers.
SPEAKER_01: So as you're singing, you're getting uh stress relief, connection to other people and to God, and you're you're you're gonna have you're gonna have pain relief when you're singing.
SPEAKER_01: All by God's design.
SPEAKER_01: So when you feel like God is far away and you're dealing with the dark, dark, dealing with what's going on in the dark places, literally sing.
SPEAKER_01: God designed your body to respond to that in a way that is going to be positive.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you are looking at me like, well, that's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna sing.
SPEAKER_01: Just try it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you you used to do it sometime.
SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe you haven't really sung, but man, just belt out, Jesus loves me, amazing grace, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Sing what we sang this morning, turn the radio on, sing along with it.
SPEAKER_01: But worshiping God, literally singing, is something that will help you to deal with the fact that, man, I don't feel God's presence right now.
SPEAKER_01: You start singing and you will feel God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: It says, But I am a worm, not a man.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, David's not getting any better here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm a worm, not a man.
SPEAKER_01: I am scorned and despised by all.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who sees me mocks me.
SPEAKER_01: They sneer and shake their heads, saying, Is he the one who relies on the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Then let the Lord save him.
SPEAKER_01: If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's that's another prophetic statement.
SPEAKER_01: Because when Jesus was on the cross, they said, You're the king of the Jews, you say your God will save yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what they're telling, that's what David's enemies are saying.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you're trusting in God, let your God save you.
SPEAKER_01: And they're mocking him doing that.
SPEAKER_01: And then look at David's opinion of himself in those moments.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, I'm a worm.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a worm.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a man.
SPEAKER_01: No one likes me.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone's making fun of me.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's mocking me.
SPEAKER_01: That's David's opinion of himself because when you feel like God is far away from you, that's when all the self-talk starts.
SPEAKER_01: That's when all the damaging, negative self-talk starts.
SPEAKER_01: You feel like God's far away, and you start saying things to yourself, and you start assuming that you're unlovable and that nobody likes you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm an idiot, I'm stupid, I'm not pretty, I'm not smart, whatever those things are, you feel like God's far away, that's when the self-talk starts, and self-pity.
SPEAKER_01: But look what look what David says next.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 22, 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Yet you brought me safely from my mother's womb and led me to trust you at my mother's breast.
SPEAKER_01: I was thrust into your arms at my birth.
SPEAKER_01: You have been my God from the moment I was born.
SPEAKER_01: When you feel like God is far away from you, when you feel like he's far away, just remember that he is your creator.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that he is your creator.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody creates something that they don't value.
SPEAKER_01: And the more you value it, the more you take time and and and perfection at creating it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, artists in here, artists in here can relate to this because when they take the time to create something, it's because they value it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, somebody that loves to cook, you know, they create something because they value it, and they value the people that are going to be eating it.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is, if you create something, it's because you value it.
SPEAKER_01: When you feel like, hey, where's God when I need him?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I feel like everybody's out to get me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a worm, I'm not a man.
SPEAKER_01: Remember who your creator is and that God created you because he values you.
SPEAKER_01: Then look at the next few verses, and you're gonna see a lot of those prophetic statements in here.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of them you're gonna go, there's one, there's one, there's one.
SPEAKER_01: They're that obvious.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11 says, Do not stay far from me, for trouble is near, and no one else can help me.
SPEAKER_01: My enemies surround me like a herd of bulls, fierce bulls of Vashan have hemmed me in.
SPEAKER_01: Like lions, they open their jaws against me, roaring and tearing into their prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Pray.
SPEAKER_01: My life is poured out like water, and my bones are out of joint.
SPEAKER_01: My heart is like wax melting within me, my strength, my strength is is the dust and left me for dead.
SPEAKER_01: My strength has dried up, sorry, and uh like unbaked clay.
SPEAKER_01: My tongue is sticks to the roof of my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead.
SPEAKER_01: My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs, an evil gang closes in on me.
SPEAKER_01: They have pierced my hands and my feet.
SPEAKER_01: I can count all my bones.
SPEAKER_01: My enemies stare at me and gloat.
SPEAKER_01: They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.
SPEAKER_01: O Lord, do not str do not stay far away.
SPEAKER_01: You are my strength.
SPEAKER_01: Come quickly to my aid, save me from the sword, spare my precious life from these dogs, snatch me from the lion's jaws and from the horns of these wild oxen.
SPEAKER_01: So things are not getting better for David here.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: He still feels like God is far away from him, and everyone is turning turning against him.
SPEAKER_01: But look at the next verses.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he does.
SPEAKER_01: I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: I will praise you among your assembled people.
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord, all you who fear him, honor him, all your descendants of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: Show him reverence, all you descendants of Israel, for he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy.
SPEAKER_01: He has not turned his back on them, but he has listened to their cries for help.
SPEAKER_01: I will praise you in the great assembly.
SPEAKER_01: I will fulfill my vows in the presence of those who worship you.
SPEAKER_01: When you feel like God is far away, turn to the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to feel the presence of God, be among the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Be among the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Look what he says.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna proclaim God, you still feel far away from me, so I'm gonna go and proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna praise you among the assembled people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna praise you in the great assembly.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna fulfill my vows, or I'm gonna go be obedient to the word in the presence of your worshipers.
SPEAKER_01: When you feel like God is far away, be around the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Be among the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, because when when you know He left us here to be his hands and feet, the Holy Spirit is living within us.
SPEAKER_01: When you are when you are around the people of God, you are in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And it says where the scripture says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the presence.
SPEAKER_01: Those those couple people that were that were in the hospital, they both said, I feel like I don't feel like God is far from me.
SPEAKER_01: But they also said, I'm so blessed by the people of this church.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe they didn't maybe they didn't feel the presence of God in that way, but they knew the presence of God through the people of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Coming to visit him, pray over him, provide meals, all those things.
SPEAKER_01: They felt the presence of God through the people of this church.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you don't feel the presence of God in your life and you think, God, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: Why aren't you answering my prayers?
SPEAKER_01: You know, the best place you can be is among the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Best place you can be on Sunday mornings right here.
SPEAKER_01: Best place you can be, if you're a guy, best place you can be on Thursday mornings is 7 o'clock at Vita Nova with some other guys, or something like that, another Bible study, a men's Bible study, ladies' Bible study, couples' Bible study, single adults' Bible study, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Get with other people.
SPEAKER_01: Get with other people to study the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna feel the presence of God in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I mentioned uh that we were gonna talk about all those different mentions, all those different prophetic statements.
SPEAKER_01: So this is kind of a kind of an awkward uh uh uh shift in topic.
SPEAKER_01: So it feels like an awkward shift in topic, but just hang with me and uh you'll you'll see where this is going.
SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about those prophecies.
SPEAKER_01: First, um there were there were like six of them that that I meant that I mentioned that were obvious.
SPEAKER_01: There were more than that, but six of them are obvious.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: David says that at the beginning of the Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus cried it out.
SPEAKER_01: Out on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Those exact words.
SPEAKER_01: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: Why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: Because at some point while Jesus was on the cross, the Bible says that God had to turn his back on him.
SPEAKER_01: Because as Jesus took the full weight of sin on himself, God could not look at that sinfulness, and he turned his back to his son, and Jesus said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: Then it says, Let the Lord save.
SPEAKER_01: And I explained that.
SPEAKER_01: They were saying, hey, if you're God, save yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Save yourself.
SPEAKER_01: They said, All my bones are out of joint.
SPEAKER_01: My heart melts like wax within me.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, all my bones are out of joint.
SPEAKER_01: They said, when they nailed Jesus to the cross, uh medical professionals have said that the cross was most likely laying on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: They nailed them to the cross in these giant beams of wood, and they lifted those things up and then dropped them into a hole in the ground so the crosses would stay upright.
SPEAKER_01: They said when that when that uh cross would hit the bottom of that hole, Jesus' body would jerk so much that it would pull the joints out of socket.
SPEAKER_01: So when David's saying that, he's predicting this is what's going to happen to Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: It says, My heart is melt is like wax melting within me.
SPEAKER_01: When they when they uh at the end of end of the day, when it was time to take them off the cross, they always make sure they're good and dead.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, you know, they would usually they would leave them up for hours and days on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: This happened to be taking place on Passover, so, uh, and on Friday, so they had to come down before sunset.
SPEAKER_01: And and the Jews, the Jews worked it out with the Romans.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, yeah, do your crucifixion if you have to.
SPEAKER_01: But they got to come down before sunset because we're moving into the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: So to make sure they were dead, they took a spear and pierced each one of them.
SPEAKER_01: Each of the three men hanging on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: When they pierced Jesus, Jesus was already dead.
SPEAKER_01: But when they pierced him, you know, they're they're coming up at him like that.
SPEAKER_01: So it went up in his side and right up into his chest cavity, pierced his heart.
SPEAKER_01: His heart had had fluid had gathered around his heart by that time.
SPEAKER_01: So when they pierced him with that spear, water sprayed out.
SPEAKER_01: It was like his heart was melting.
SPEAKER_01: And David said the exact exactly that.
SPEAKER_01: It says, My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus cried out, I thirst.
SPEAKER_01: David called it.
SPEAKER_01: It says, They divided my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.
SPEAKER_01: As Jesus was hanging on the cross, it says that the Roman soldiers were taking his clothes and rolling dice to see who got to keep them.
SPEAKER_01: Probably like a trophy.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like when a hunter puts a notch in the handle of his gun because he got another deer, or he puts the deer on the, you know, this was like a trophy to them.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we crucified another one, and they they would gamble for who got to keep the clothing.
SPEAKER_01: And David prophesied that before that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Another awkward shift in topic.
SPEAKER_01: All right, but we'll pull it all together.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament Israel, they there were seven or eight feasts that they would celebrate every year.
SPEAKER_01: Seven or eight feasts.
SPEAKER_01: And and they were important feasts.
SPEAKER_01: They all they all uh the feast all helped them to remember somehow God had blessed them, but they all pointed forward as well to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so they they would celebrate these feasts, and every feast traditionally had certain scripture that they would read on those feast days.
SPEAKER_01: Or some of the some of the feasts would be like three days, some would be seven, some ten, and they would have certain Old Testament scripture that they would read each day of those feasts.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's one feast called Purim, and that was a feast and a week-long celebration that would commemorate when Queen Esther saved the Israelites in captivity from being killed.
SPEAKER_01: There was an order made by the king, all the Israelites were to be killed, and Queen Esther, who was an Israelite but married to the king, stopped that from happening.
SPEAKER_01: They prayed, they fasted, and it all stopped.
SPEAKER_01: And to remember that, they celebrated Puram.
SPEAKER_01: Puram happened a month before Passover.
SPEAKER_01: And every day during Puram, they would read Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_01: Every day during Parm.
SPEAKER_01: They would read it, they would teach it.
SPEAKER_01: So these religious leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the priests, all these religious leaders who condemned Jesus to die and were watching when he was crucified, would hear Jesus cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: And they would think, We just read that a month ago, David said that.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus would go, I thirst.
SPEAKER_01: They'd go, we just read that.
SPEAKER_01: David said that.
SPEAKER_01: And they watched as his body was beaten and broken, and his hands and feet pierced, and his and his side pierced, and all those things, they would watch, and watching, watching, I mean, something so specific as the Roman soldiers gambling for his clothes, they would go, we just read that a month ago.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and as fascinating as that is, the one thing that it assures us of is just like just like sometimes you feel like God is far away from you, like David felt like God was far away from him, in the moment Jesus was hanging on that cross, he felt everything that you have felt, every dark place that you've walked down.
SPEAKER_01: Because he took the sin of all mankind on him on the cross, he knows exactly what you're going through.
SPEAKER_01: When you feel like God is not far away, Jesus felt exactly that.
SPEAKER_01: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: Where are you?
SPEAKER_01: So anytime you're in that dark place and you feel like, man, I don't I don't know where God is right now, just remind yourself Jesus went through the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Peter said uh many years later, he said, cast all of your anxiety, cast all of your fears, cast everything, cast it all at the feet of Jesus because he cares for you.
SPEAKER_01: And he cares for you so much because he knows exactly what you're going through.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're in the dark places, if it's fear, if it's sin, if it's illness, emotional, whatever it is, and you feel like God's not there, think I know he's here, and I'm gonna praise him.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna sing praises to him so I can feel his presence.
SPEAKER_01: I know he's here because he said he would be.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna remember that he's my creator.
SPEAKER_01: And and I know that he's here because the people of God are here.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you for your love for us.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thank you for for uh your your promise to us that Lord you will never leave us or forsake us.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, no matter where we go, to the heights of heaven or the depths of hell, Lord, as we talked about last week, you are with us.
SPEAKER_01: God, help us to remember when when we are feeling like where is God when I need him, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to remember the truth of your word that you are here and that you care about us and that you know exactly how we feel.
SPEAKER_01: You know what we're going through.
SPEAKER_01: God help us to always turn to you in those times.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here this morning and you're going through a dark, dark place right now and you just need prayer, just lift your hands, let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: You're going through a difficult, difficult time, physically, financially, fear, emotionally, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: Changes, life changes that come.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going through anything, raise your hand, let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: God, you see these hands, Lord, you you know there are people here that are raising their hands on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: They just don't want to put their hand up.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, Lord, you know what we're going through.
SPEAKER_01: God, you you know, you know good and well what we're feeling when we feel like God is not with us because you felt the same thing through your son.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, I pray that that you would just help us, Lord, first to remember the promise of your word.
SPEAKER_01: And then, Lord, help us to feel your presence by doing what you've told us to do.
SPEAKER_01: God, God, by by singing your praises, by being with other believers, just by remembering you you valued us enough that you created each one of us unique and individual.
SPEAKER_01: God, help us to remember that.
SPEAKER_01: Still with heads bowed and eyes closed, if you're here this morning and and uh as I was talking about what Jesus went through on the cross, you started thinking, yeah, that's I've never heard that.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know he went through all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And you've never accepted Christ as your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Make today the day that you accept him as your savior.
SPEAKER_01: Don't walk out of here unless you know absolutely, positively, I'm going to heaven because of what Jesus did on the cross for me.
SPEAKER_01: And it's and it's so simple.
SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes we meet we like to make things so complicated and think, well, I've got to earn it, I've got to do something.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly, certainly I've got to do something to earn that kind of love and to earn his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: You don't.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to do a thing.
SPEAKER_01: Because Christ did all of it.
SPEAKER_01: When he went through all of that suffering on the cross, he did that in your place so that you can have eternity in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He died so that you didn't have to.
SPEAKER_01: You can have eternal life because of what he did.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're here today and you've never accepted him as your savior, it's it's simple.
SPEAKER_01: You just you just pray and you ask God to be your savior, to forgive you of your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Tell him that you trust in his death, burial, and resurrection and his shed blood for the forgiveness of your sin and for your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And you can say that any way that you want to, but if you struggle putting that into words, that's going, that's what's going on in your heart and mind, but you struggle putting that into words, you can you can just talk to God and say something like this and say, Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that he took my place on the cross so that I don't have to.
SPEAKER_01: That he died so that I can have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: So today I trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for my salvation, and I trust in his shed blood for the forgiveness of my sin.
SPEAKER_01: And today I surrender to him and I ask forgiveness of my sin and I accept him as my Savior.
SPEAKER_01: If you just prayed that, God's made you some promises, and one of them is that you have crossed from death to life.
SPEAKER_01: Your name has been written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
SPEAKER_01: Your sins are forgotten and forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody else promises that.
SPEAKER_01: Only Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So if you prayed that today, if you're here today and you prayed that, just I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: So just throw your hand up so I can see that you prayed that today.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you for the hand that was raised, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that that you would become so real to that person.
SPEAKER_01: They would understand the price that you paid on the cross for them.
SPEAKER_01: And that they would understand that, Lord, this this one-time decision has guaranteed you a place in heaven, guaranteed them a place with you in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that you would help them to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, surround them by the people of God so that they will feel the presence of God, know the presence of God, but will also uh get the support and prayer and wise counsel they need as they choose to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God, I just pray that you would bless everyone in this room.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray for this church as we move forward to become uh an independent, autonomous church, Lord, as we're working towards that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray that you would continue to guide us, continue to bless us.
SPEAKER_01: You have you have blessed us in so many ways, Lord, so that we can make this happen.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, you the people you've brought to us, Lord, Lord, we know that that this is there's a financial commitment with this, Lord, and you're meeting that need, God, and it's it's all through you.
SPEAKER_01: It's nothing, nothing we've created, it's all through you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, we're just grateful for that, and we just ask your blessing and continued mercy as we move forward.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that for the kids as they start school this week, Lord, the teachers have been back a couple weeks, Lord, bless them.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, bless those teachers as their rooms fill up with kids.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for every Christian teacher in here, Lord, even with the limitations that that they may have at how they can share their faith.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that that the kids in that classroom would see Jesus in them.
SPEAKER_01: God, God, there are there are there are pagans living among us, God.
SPEAKER_01: There are idol worshipers living among us.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that those people would see Jesus in those teachers.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray for every kid, Lord, I pray that that you would just bless them, every one of these Christian kids.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that that Jesus would just be so evident in their life that their friends would look at them and go, I want what they have.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, give them a boldness.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray, I pray for Patriot High School.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that we can see a revival in Patriot High School, that the Christian kids in this high school, the presence of this church in this high school would spark a revival that spreads throughout this campus.
SPEAKER_01: And every every kid, every teacher gets to hear the gospel because we're here.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, use this church in a great way.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, as our community grows, help us to be one step ahead of it in reaching the people of this community.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, we love you.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for loving us.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for being here with us, because we're two or three are gathered in your name.
SPEAKER_01: You are there in the midst.
SPEAKER_01: So thanks for being here with us.
SPEAKER_01: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message encouraged you and helped you grow in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: If it blessed you, share it with a friend and follow so you never miss a new episode.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more about Family Church at myfamilychurch.com.
SPEAKER_00: If you are in the area, join us on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: We meet at Patriot High School 10504 Kittle Run Drive.