SPEAKER_00: Church, how are we doing today?
SPEAKER_00: Church, how are we today?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me if I was ready today.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, is the devil ready today?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is a word of God.
SPEAKER_00: PJ told me it does not return void.
SPEAKER_00: He reminds me of that when we were talking.
SPEAKER_00: And this is absolute truth.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we believe.
SPEAKER_00: And so it just amazes me that so many people are here.
SPEAKER_00: It's filled.
SPEAKER_00: And we're here to behold his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm thankful.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for those words.
SPEAKER_00: Packed.
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy that he said that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh, it's right there.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I'm thankful that that I'm I'm able to be, you know, entrusted with this opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a blessing, it's an honor.
SPEAKER_00: CBC is my family.
SPEAKER_00: I've been here for a few years now, and I look out and I see so many people.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are my family.
SPEAKER_00: If this is your first time here, welcome.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry that I'm your first sermon, but you're here now, you're stuck here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna jump right in.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know me, my name is Brian.
SPEAKER_00: You had that smooth little intro there, but a couple things about me.
SPEAKER_00: I love Manchester City.
SPEAKER_00: Manchester's blue.
SPEAKER_00: It's not red.
SPEAKER_00: Man United hasn't won a Premier League since 2012.
SPEAKER_00: If you look that up, some of you guys don't know what that means, but this is about me right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's about me.
SPEAKER_00: I love sports, even though I'm washed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting up there.
SPEAKER_00: I still think I'm the best at everything, but my body is just telling me no.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife, who's a clinical social worker, has diagnosed me with severe ADD.
SPEAKER_00: I think she corrected me, but that's why I'm walking back and forth right now.
SPEAKER_00: You can tell I gotta keep moving.
SPEAKER_00: Not just regular ADD, severe ADD.
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty harsh.
SPEAKER_00: I'm known as Brian.
SPEAKER_00: I'm known as Brave's Dad.
SPEAKER_00: If you were born after 2000, shout out, Brave! If you were born after 2005, I go by Unk.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get rid of that though.
SPEAKER_00: Gotta get rid of that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's an honor.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, it's an honor.
SPEAKER_00: Church, you've been privileged to hear our pastors dive deep into what one pastor says is God's favorite playlist.
SPEAKER_00: Compiled of honest, raw, heartfelt prayers and songs from people who believed God could hear them.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what I'll be doing today is continuing in our series of Summer in Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: Now, lastly, we've got a little break from that from Jake and Zach.
SPEAKER_00: Heard a great word from the boys.
SPEAKER_00: Jake and Zach, you run that back.
SPEAKER_00: If you know, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And today I think this will be an impactful word and encouraging to your spirit this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Church, can you open your Bibles and your phones to Psalm 63?
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 63.
SPEAKER_00: And while you're there, let me paint a picture for you.
SPEAKER_00: Might help you understand what I'm trying to communicate today.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone watch reality TV?
SPEAKER_00: Don't raise your hand, please.
SPEAKER_00: I was hoping I was hoping for one hand.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad we only got one.
SPEAKER_00: It's fake.
SPEAKER_00: It makes no sense.
SPEAKER_00: It's reality TV, but it's not real.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually fake.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a show called Survivor.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody watch Survivor?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Past.
SPEAKER_00: Survivor.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've seen bits and pieces.
SPEAKER_00: We have a friend that's obsessed with it, and he's telling me, hey, you gotta watch this show, the Survivor show.
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the name.
SPEAKER_00: And when you hear the name, it sounds crazy.
SPEAKER_00: And the premise of the show is this: you take normal people out of their normal lives and put them in an environment that removes them from everything they depended on.
SPEAKER_00: They have to survive in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: There's no fridge, no electricity, food is scarce, no showers.
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It's there's bugs.
SPEAKER_00: The weather's wild.
SPEAKER_00: It's rainy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the ideal place.
SPEAKER_00: But this one show I watched, poor Kathy Sleckman, God bless her soul, putting her full name out there.
SPEAKER_00: You can go look it up.
SPEAKER_00: She exposed the real feelings of being on the show in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: She was sent away with others to Exile Island, where she was left to sleep in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: And it happened to her multiple times.
SPEAKER_00: She's pretty she's not really good at the show.
SPEAKER_00: She was sleeping with bats, rats, insects.
SPEAKER_00: It was cold.
SPEAKER_00: She was alone.
SPEAKER_00: And it got so bad that she decided to send energies to her family, thinking that her family would receive the energies out in the ether.
SPEAKER_00: And she would feel connected to them.
SPEAKER_00: And when it was left to her power, she chose to leave.
SPEAKER_00: It was terrible.
SPEAKER_00: She was crying.
SPEAKER_00: She was done.
SPEAKER_00: She couldn't handle the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: She couldn't change the fact that she was in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: She lost hope.
SPEAKER_00: So she left.
SPEAKER_00: I think you get where I'm going with this today.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the wilderness brought things out of her, I think the spiritual wilderness does the same for all of us here.
SPEAKER_01: Kathy was in a show.
SPEAKER_00: But all of us here are living real life.
SPEAKER_00: And when it gets tough, it becomes apparent what matters most.
SPEAKER_00: It makes us ask ourselves, who or what we depend on?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you hide?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you run to?
SPEAKER_00: When trouble is knocking, who do you want to answer?
SPEAKER_00: When the unexpected happens, and you're left lost and confused, what do you do, church, whether you like it or not?
SPEAKER_00: We all go through wilderness seasons.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you've heard this metaphor.
SPEAKER_00: It's a popular Christianese term if you've grew up in church, right?
SPEAKER_00: I don't think if you go to your boss and ask them how they're feeling, you're not going to say, Oh, I'm in my wilderness season, you know, just going through it in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: The term that we've created here to describe as a place where all these factors may have you lost, confused, betrayed, broken, uncertain, and desperate.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a place for the weak.
SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't be a place most of us asked for.
SPEAKER_00: And it could be an unfortunate place to be in.
SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to look at a psalm in which David was in the wilderness wrestling with difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's important for us to consider what became clear in the wilderness for him.
SPEAKER_00: That might help us pursue God when we find ourselves in that very place.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, may we fix our eyes upon you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about me.
SPEAKER_00: It's about who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Allow me to remove myself from what your word says.
SPEAKER_00: Let me not add, let me not take away.
SPEAKER_00: Let it be you, Lord, that are able to speak to the hearts in the room today.
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason they're here.
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason you gathered us.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe understand that.
SPEAKER_00: May we become aware of your presence in this place.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, church, for praying with me.
SPEAKER_00: So for some context, depending on your translation, you might see that it even says Psalm 63, David, when he was in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: This is a heart's cry.
SPEAKER_00: And what one pastor simply puts, in David's greatest degree of trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Let's set this scene.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalms Samuel, excuse me, 2 Samuel 14 and 15, we learn that David's son Absalom had returned.
SPEAKER_00: He's a bad boy.
SPEAKER_00: He returned.
SPEAKER_01: And he's conspired to take over David's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Trick David.
SPEAKER_00: And he installs himself as king, betraying his own father, and puts David on the run.
SPEAKER_00: And David and his family and his trusted men have to embarrassingly flee Jerusalem and go hide in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a terrible moment.
SPEAKER_00: A terrible situation.
SPEAKER_00: A sign of shame, sorrow, their grieving.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, How could this happen?
SPEAKER_00: How could this be?
SPEAKER_00: How did we get here?
SPEAKER_00: And so this is a state they find themselves in.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what brings us here today.
SPEAKER_01: David's in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: He thinks he's about to die.
SPEAKER_00: He's afraid, betrayed, humiliated, and broken.
SPEAKER_00: David's in the unknown.
SPEAKER_00: And it's here that it's believed by biblical scholars in this state and these moments, waiting in the wilderness, Psalm 63, is birthed.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'll read it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, you are my God.
SPEAKER_00: Earnestly I seek you.
SPEAKER_00: My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.
SPEAKER_00: So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
SPEAKER_00: Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
SPEAKER_00: So I will bless you as long as I live.
SPEAKER_00: In your name I will lift up my hands, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
SPEAKER_00: When I remember you upon my bed and meditate you meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you have been my help.
SPEAKER_00: In the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
SPEAKER_00: My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me, but those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: They shall be given over to the power of the sword.
SPEAKER_00: There shall be portion for jackals, but the king shall rejoice in God.
SPEAKER_00: All who swear by him shall exalt, for the mouths of the liars will be stopped.
SPEAKER_00: Today we get an inside look at David's state of desperation and desire, dependence and satisfaction, and contentment and gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: And may that teach us what to do when we may find ourselves in the wilderness, how to survive in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: And what really matters, how to remain, how to be.
SPEAKER_00: Because when life is great, we may not need to face some things, but when the unexpected happens and we can't shake the circumstance, there will be a time when we can't save ourselves from it.
SPEAKER_00: So we learned three things from David about finding God in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: One, what you desire matters.
SPEAKER_00: Two, what you remember matters.
SPEAKER_00: Three, who you surrender control to matters.
SPEAKER_00: Point one, everybody say one.
SPEAKER_00: What you desire matters.
SPEAKER_00: In verse one, he says, Oh God, you are my God.
SPEAKER_00: Earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
SPEAKER_00: David says, I seek you, I thirst for you, my flesh faints for you over everything else.
SPEAKER_00: David is desperate for God himself.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what his spirit desperately needs, and that is the creator of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: Because God and all that he is is life-giving.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Paul says it's an acts.
SPEAKER_00: He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
SPEAKER_00: We just sang it.
SPEAKER_00: Great are you, Lord, you give life.
SPEAKER_00: To your breath in our lungs.
SPEAKER_00: David himself writes in Psalms 139, for you formed my inward parts, that's life.
SPEAKER_00: You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: That's life.
SPEAKER_00: You gave me life.
SPEAKER_00: I need you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I get to see this beautiful picture now.
SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned, I have an eight-month-old.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Brave.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all love him more than me.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay, though.
SPEAKER_00: And he's doing this thing that maybe, you know, some parents in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, I'm not giving you guys PTSD, but he's doing his thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's I don't I didn't think we'd experience it, but he's waking up in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: Not once.
SPEAKER_00: Not twice.
SPEAKER_00: It's averaging like three times, like three, three, two, three.
SPEAKER_00: But bro wakes up in the middle of the night like he's in the wildest of wildernesses.
SPEAKER_00: It's a crazy word, wildernesses.
SPEAKER_00: Me and Pac were talking about that word.
SPEAKER_00: It's a weird word to say.
SPEAKER_00: Fast.
SPEAKER_00: But he's waking up and he's in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: He's crying, he's moving, he's grunting, but he does this thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it.
SPEAKER_00: He turns his head because he knows who's there.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's still in our room.
SPEAKER_00: We're working on that.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the crib next to the bed.
SPEAKER_00: He knows who's there.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first thing he does.
SPEAKER_00: Where is mom?
SPEAKER_00: And Tara puts her hand through the crib, touches his face, and he stops.
SPEAKER_00: Goes about to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And when she picks him up thinking he wants milk, but he ends up just wanting to sleep on her chest.
SPEAKER_01: It's another scenario.
SPEAKER_00: And of course there's moments where he'll get fed, but it's the moments where he just wants to be with mom that speaks to me more clearly.
SPEAKER_00: To me, this is a picture of being desperate for the one that brings comfort, stability, security, wanting to connect, wanting to be connected to the one who he once was connected to inside the womb.
SPEAKER_00: He wants mom.
SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't he be desperate for her first?
SPEAKER_01: Some of us need to get like brave.
SPEAKER_00: And so back to Psalm 63, not only do we learn David was desperate for God, but we learn how he was desperate for God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's bring it back and key in on the word earnestly.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Hebrew scholars would translate this to the original Hebrew word shachar.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say shachar.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's the correct pronunciation, but I made all of you guys just say that.
SPEAKER_00: And in this context, they say it's to seek early, eagerly, to seek at dawn, showing that first things first, over seeking a way out, over seeking something that may work for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, My priority is to attain you.
SPEAKER_00: I want communion with you.
SPEAKER_00: Church, what a picture that is.
SPEAKER_00: Another key observation to make is a simile he uses when he's comparing the state he is in.
SPEAKER_00: He says, in a dry and where we land, where there is no water.
SPEAKER_01: David's in one socket, Rhodal.
SPEAKER_01: I knew that I knew that would work.
SPEAKER_00: Told you, Tara.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying he's saying where there is nothing to sustain me and satisfy me, let it be you.
SPEAKER_00: This is a picture of David having absolutely nothing, where he's at the very end of himself and what he can do.
SPEAKER_00: A picture of desperation.
SPEAKER_00: When he has nothing, one can argue he has absolutely everything because he has God himself.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a temptation to think the common solution, or we think might work, is the answer.
SPEAKER_00: When the answer is God.
SPEAKER_01: Here he's not asking for water.
SPEAKER_01: So we think he would want.
SPEAKER_01: He's asking for God.
SPEAKER_00: The song As a Deer, another song that David wrote.
SPEAKER_00: As the deer panteth for water, pants for water, so my soul longs for you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's my favorite song in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Number one song ever.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what's crazy is that a deer can go two to three days without water.
SPEAKER_01: They can last a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna need water.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes weeks.
SPEAKER_00: So if you see them drinking water, they desperately need it to keep on going.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a regular drink of water.
SPEAKER_00: No, they need it in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's equating the same desperate need for water to a need for God.
SPEAKER_01: What are you thirsting for?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're good right now, but give it two, three days.
SPEAKER_00: What are you thirsting for?
SPEAKER_00: Give it a week.
SPEAKER_00: What are you thirsting for?
SPEAKER_00: Months, years.
SPEAKER_00: What you desire matters.
SPEAKER_00: And it's crazy because here in this room, let's be honest, we all desire something.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it is the right job, the right school, the right partner.
SPEAKER_00: The list goes on.
SPEAKER_00: We want all this stuff the world has to offer.
SPEAKER_00: And though some things, yeah, they're important and it makes sense, one would argue they are the lesser things.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be so dependent on them that even in the wilderness we'll want them thinking that's what's gonna save us.
SPEAKER_00: If I just had that, if I just had this, the perfect circumstance, scenario, the perfect pleasures, what we think we're entitled to.
SPEAKER_01: But in the wilderness, those things might as well be long gone.
SPEAKER_01: Look at David.
SPEAKER_01: He was king.
SPEAKER_00: He had it all.
SPEAKER_00: The status, the title, the kingdoms, the feasts, the lands.
SPEAKER_00: But none of that mattered in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: May I encourage you this morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: Stop looking for everything.
SPEAKER_00: God is in everything else.
SPEAKER_00: As broken humans, we want the wrong thing at the wrong time.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's the person, relationships, it's the place, the substances, the experience, the thing without understanding that will not save us and will not silence those desires.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis says this if I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: You were made for life, made for a life of eternal joy with God.
SPEAKER_00: David shows that our greatest longings only find their satisfaction in God, and anything else anything less than that will not do.
SPEAKER_00: The other world C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis is talking about is eternity, reserved for those that believe in their hearts, confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord, accept him as their Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And the good news we can be reminded of today is that Jesus died on the cross to give us access to the holy life we were meant to live.
SPEAKER_00: Communion with God.
SPEAKER_00: May we desire that.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: I agree.
SPEAKER_00: May we get back to nothing and thirst for God like we see David does here.
SPEAKER_00: David's thirsty.
SPEAKER_00: He's desperate.
SPEAKER_01: He desires and he does something interesting.
SPEAKER_01: And he starts to reminisce.
SPEAKER_01: Church, are you following?
SPEAKER_01: Are you getting it?
SPEAKER_01: Point two.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say point two.
SPEAKER_01: What you remember matters.
SPEAKER_01: Verses two to eight.
SPEAKER_00: We'll move around.
SPEAKER_00: Want to capture these three themes.
SPEAKER_00: David remembering, David being sustained and satisfied, and David praising.
SPEAKER_00: One could argue and maybe see clearly that his ability to recall and remember is exactly what fueled his desires.
SPEAKER_00: He's basically saying, I'm longing for the God that I know.
SPEAKER_00: We just looked and saw in verse one.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My God, personal God.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody like football?
SPEAKER_00: American football.
SPEAKER_00: Had to specify.
SPEAKER_00: Like Peyton Manning is my GOAT.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all sound ready.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry about that.
SPEAKER_00: Peyton Manning is my GOAT.
SPEAKER_00: But that man does not know who the heck I am.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not in the back of any of his family photos.
SPEAKER_00: I never had a conversation with him.
SPEAKER_01: I've never even seen him live.
SPEAKER_00: But it's different with David and God.
SPEAKER_00: David has history.
SPEAKER_00: David has stories.
SPEAKER_00: David has personal interactions.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't his mom's God, his dad's God, or his pastor's God, the preacher's God, the podcaster's God.
SPEAKER_00: He says it's my God.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe those are some of the questions for us this morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: Do we have history with God?
SPEAKER_00: Have you experienced him before?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know him?
SPEAKER_00: Would you call him my God?
SPEAKER_00: Because maybe that's the first step.
SPEAKER_00: To accept him and be found in all that he is.
SPEAKER_00: David has history.
SPEAKER_00: He's experienced him.
SPEAKER_00: He remembers his power and glory that he has seen in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: So when he says that, he's referring to a time where he would worship and behold his glory in the tabernacle, where the physical manifestation of God was held in the Ark of the Covenant.
SPEAKER_00: When David worshipped in the sanctuary, he became aware of God's active presence and his spiritual longing was satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: He's encountered the reality of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: He's seen it.
SPEAKER_00: And now him recalling of this is a picture of him longing for the experience in his presence outside of the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: He's not in the sanctuary anymore.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Outside of the four church walls, outside of a worship set.
SPEAKER_01: Outside of hearing my favorite song.
SPEAKER_01: As a deer.
SPEAKER_00: And churchy also remembers that God has been his help.
SPEAKER_00: If you know the story of David, you know that he was on the run for several years in his early reign because the previous king Saul was after his life, trying to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: David was on the run.
SPEAKER_01: David was in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: David survived.
SPEAKER_01: And he's still troubled right now, but he's been here before.
SPEAKER_00: God has helped him, and God has kept him.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, when he lays his head at night and remembers God and who he's been, the history, the time he's shown up, it creates a satisfaction within him that transcends the circumstance and what may happen to him.
SPEAKER_00: David will be content.
SPEAKER_00: He says, satisfied as with fat and rich food, he's content.
SPEAKER_00: And he sings of his steadfast love, the steadfast love of God, and that alone is better than life itself.
SPEAKER_00: But stay here a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrew scholars would say his said love.
SPEAKER_00: That would be synonymous with his unwavering love, his loyal love, the love we do not deserve but remains.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's covenantal and it's committed.
SPEAKER_01: David thinks there's a chance he could possibly die.
SPEAKER_01: But it's the steadfast love of God that gives him life.
SPEAKER_00: The life he's experienced as king does not compare to his experiencing the steadfast love of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he values.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he sets his mind on in the wilderness, not when he was king.
SPEAKER_00: Now my hope is that you can also find it encouraging that in his remembering, in his satisfaction, it then spurs his spirit to praise.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at that verse again.
SPEAKER_01: The last verse, he says.
SPEAKER_01: Satisfaction.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I gather from this is that David is more reliant on the character and nature of God than he is being removed from the situation.
SPEAKER_00: And even being in the situation, he still finds the ability to praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 34, another Psalm from David.
SPEAKER_00: I will bless the Lord at all times.
SPEAKER_00: His praise shall continually be on my lips.
SPEAKER_00: You know how hard that is.
SPEAKER_00: When life's hard, when circumstances are hard, situations are hard.
SPEAKER_00: You know how hard it is.
SPEAKER_00: I understand it.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: He's still the same God.
SPEAKER_00: And he's still worthy of the praise.
SPEAKER_00: That's the nature of what we're called to in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just for the fanatics.
SPEAKER_01: The overly Christian people.
SPEAKER_01: This is for everyone.
SPEAKER_00: It's not less than this.
SPEAKER_00: Let that be a reminder that there is truly never a bad time to praise God.
SPEAKER_00: For there will be times that it may seem uncalled for, excuse me.
SPEAKER_00: Where it doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_00: But let us be encouraged by seeing David praise in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are going to have to endure.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to praise him for who he is and what he's done while in the waiting?
SPEAKER_00: Before you see a miracle, before you see an answer.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing?
SPEAKER_00: So David desired and thirsted for God.
SPEAKER_00: He recalled and remembered, and it led to gratitude and praise for the one who satisfies and sustains him.
SPEAKER_00: And at some point, he understands it.
SPEAKER_00: He understands the God who fights his battles and the confidence comes over him.
SPEAKER_00: Last point here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: There shall be given over to the power of the sword.
SPEAKER_00: For the mouths of liars will be stopped.
SPEAKER_00: Now is David saying he's the one that's going to do this?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Is he saying he's the one that will hand feed his enemies to the jackals?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Church.
SPEAKER_01: David has a confidence in the Lord, such a confidence.
SPEAKER_01: That he's dictating how the story is going to end.
SPEAKER_00: If the one who seeks to destroy will end up exposed for the jackals, whose life will be preserved?
SPEAKER_01: It's David's.
SPEAKER_01: David's.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not saying this because of who he is, but because of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: It won't be by David's own doing or his own strength.
SPEAKER_00: But he trusts that God has this under control.
SPEAKER_01: How can you say that?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's clear.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But the king shall rejoice in God.
SPEAKER_00: All who swear by him shall exalt, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
SPEAKER_00: I will rejoice in God, trust in God, have confidence in God.
SPEAKER_00: All who claim that he is their God, those that acknowledge him get to boast.
SPEAKER_00: Those that say he's my God get to boast.
SPEAKER_00: And those against him have absolutely no say.
SPEAKER_00: Those that hunt souls shall themselves be the victims.
SPEAKER_01: If you're on God's team, you can look at your circumstance and say, You have no power over me.
SPEAKER_00: Forget this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because of us, but because of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: David isn't the one who will handle his own deliverance.
SPEAKER_00: God will deal.
SPEAKER_00: Gonna get that tatted.
SPEAKER_00: It's a bar.
SPEAKER_00: God will deal.
SPEAKER_00: And because of this, David can endure.
SPEAKER_00: He surrendered control and trusted in the one who holds this thing together.
SPEAKER_00: And in conclusion, the band can come up.
SPEAKER_00: Always wanted to say that.
SPEAKER_00: I've always been on the opposite side.
SPEAKER_00: I've always been part of the band that's come up, and now I can say it.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we desire matters, what we remember matters, and who we surrender control to matters.
SPEAKER_00: Because everything and anything can make you desire, remember, and have confidence in the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: David understood.
SPEAKER_00: And he understood that doing those things made it a lot more clear to him how close God really is in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: How close he really is in the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: How close he is in his greatest degree of trouble.
SPEAKER_00: So today, church, I invite you into that closeness with God.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier, I mentioned a man named Jesus, that most of us in this room probably know.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe heard of.
SPEAKER_00: And in Colossians, he's called the image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_00: And out of love for us, God sent him to save us.
SPEAKER_00: Humanity is sinful, and God is just, and the sins of man needed to be paid for.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus gave himself freely to die on that cross.
SPEAKER_01: Just to be close with us.
SPEAKER_01: God sent his son to die for us.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't end.
SPEAKER_00: He rose out of that grave, defeating sin and death, granting us eternal life with him and God, and that is who we put our faith in.
SPEAKER_00: That's who we put our life in, our trust in everything we have.
SPEAKER_01: From separation and death to closeness and life.
SPEAKER_01: That's the story.
SPEAKER_01: And there are a few things we can do today when we hear that.
SPEAKER_00: We can hear all of this.
SPEAKER_00: Walk away.
SPEAKER_00: Not do a thing.
SPEAKER_00: But you can hear all this and not do a thing, or we could understand, maybe even admit, that we need saving.
SPEAKER_00: We need to surrender and respond.
SPEAKER_00: Because this world is broken and there is pain and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be wilderness after wilderness, trials after trials, troubles, hurts.
SPEAKER_00: For church, this morning, the Christian can say, In Jesus, I have hope.
SPEAKER_00: He is everything and all we need.
SPEAKER_00: He will satisfy and sustain us.
SPEAKER_00: In him, life is found.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.