Hope Today 038 - Why does God sometimes seem hidden?

A weekly program of word and music featuring an eclectic mix of christian music and teaching by Pastor Tom Cullen and Brian Evans.  Mac Wigfield starts the program with southern gospel classics.

Produced at Straight Path Studio in Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada.

Christian Artists featured are:

Tribute Quartet

Monument Quartet

Cassidy Bros

Andrew Peterson

Ali Matthews

Passion

Glen Solderholm

Travis Green

Building 429

Michael W Smith

Thank you for listening to HOPE TODAY. This is a program developed at Light & Life Programming, a registered charity. We are listener supported. If you would like to help with this ministry, donations can be made through our website at www.lightnlife.ca.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Here we are for another inspirational program of Hope Today. We are so glad that you and your friends have joined us. Have you ever wondered why God sometimes seems hidden? You are not alone. Listen over these next moments as Pastor Tom Cullen will provide some answers from God's Word. Mac Winkfield comes first to bring some wonderful messages in gospel music. Sit back and enjoy these blessings in harmony.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Well, thank you, Brian. Welcome to Hope Today. You heard in Brian's introduction. Today we're going to be talking about what they call the hiddenness of God. Why does God sometimes seem somewhere else? I'd like to make an affirmation for you as we begin the program today. For us all, shall we? It's always been you.

SPEAKER_10 1:12

Looking back, I see it all so clearly. Those things I thought were love weren't really love at all. And all those treasures that I held so dearly were nothing short of blessings, sure as summer turns to fall. Standing in the shadows, making all my dreams come dreams come true. Every time we every change, it's always been controlled. Standing in the shadow, making all my dreams come true. It's always been always been every time.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

And at the end, what will we remember of all of this? Now the monument quartet tells us we'll remember the climb.

SPEAKER_05 5:21

And many times I've reached the point of triumph. But seldom do my thoughts go wandering there. Sometimes we mark life's journey in terms of high and low, but in between the ups and downs is where we live and grow. So day after day, time after time, my mind goes back to the climb. I remember when I looked around, what peace I found in seeing Jesus walking up the jagged slope with me. Joy that likes my way. The longer that I live, the more I fight. I may forget about the valleys, might not recall the mountains, but I will remember the climb. So often I find comfort in the distance from the valley to the mountain top reward, and many are the blessings I'd be missing. If I never traveled with the Lord, But I know the taste of mercy and grace without an end, and on each and every journey I've walked beside a friend. So day after day, time after time, my mind goes back to the cloud. It slowed with me. But until then I'm all you ever need. Joy that likes my way. The longer that I live, the more I fight. I may forget about the valleys. Might not recall the mountains, but I will remember the climb. Might not recall the mountains, but I will remember the cloud sovereign law, sovereign law we exalt your holy name, sovereign law, creator redeemer, the king of kings adored.

SPEAKER_07 9:43

Praise your name, praise your holy name, sovereign law, sovereign law, sovereign law, your holy name, sovereign law, creator, reamer the king of kings of God, praise your name, praise our holiday Sovereign I'm so glad you're with us on Hope Today because we're asking a question that many ask in times of distress and crisis.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

Why does God sometimes seem hidden? It's a question the psalmist asks in Psalm 44, saying, Why, God, do you hide your face? You may be asking the question today, so stay with us and we'll explore what Scripture has to say together. Here is Andrew Peterson and the record.

SPEAKER_11 11:01

I can see a storm descending on the hill tonight. Tall trees are bending to your will tonight. Roar at the mighty bow down, with the thundering sound in your voice. And I can hear the howling wind and feel the rain tonight. Every drop of profit in your name tonight. It is washing me clean. How till this curtain is lifted. How does the song that we sing? How long until they wreck it? I'm going to hear the cries of every soul tonight. You see the teardrop tonight. All the racket great. You are feeling rest. You are anger and love. You curse me blessed. You are mighty and we are silent as dawn. You are the light as a day. The storm is past the rest of the back end.

SPEAKER_04 14:48

I know I have. In the midst of this pandemic, even it sometimes feels like God is absolutely I find some comfort in the fact that this is not a new question. I encourage you. Don't berate yourself or think little of yourself for feeling this way. It's normal. We all go through such experiences. And these are not times to sink into despair and abandon God, but to continue on in the faith. As Allie Matthews encourages us in just a little faith.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

I have been to the valley, I have been to the mountain. I know just where I'd like to stay. I've seen the heartache lights where joy arrives with the sunshine. Yeah, I know all about it. And I'd doubt it. You've got to hold on to what you know is true. Don't let the hope and you can just drift away. A little fat. Cause it's a watercolor wood. Just a little fat. Could just we've got a stack. And we could boost it if we choose it. Yeah, just a little fat. Get to believe in what you cannot see. I'm told that holds a place for you. We gotta stay. So we could use it. If we choose it, yeah, just a little faint. Out as a black. Turning colors to gray. If we could just really bum.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

You've got to hold on to what you know is true. Don't let the hope in you just drift away. What a great piece of advice for when we ask the question, Why does God sometimes seem hidden? It's an echo of the realization the psalmist comes to in Psalm 44. He asks the question, Why do you hide your face, God? And for the first eight verses of the Psalm, he reviews all that God has done in the past. He brings to mind the victories of God and he traces the line of God's work and his people. We are reassured that though the darkness fills the night. And we are made to ask a different question. Who shall I fear?

SPEAKER_11 20:44

You hear me with a call. You are my mother's soul. Though darkness feels the night, it cannot hide the light. You crush the enemy underneath my feet. You are my sword and shield. No troubles leave the steel. Who shall I fear? I know who can't be falling. I look who's got the

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Robert Robinson was born to lowly parents in Norfolk, England in 1735. His father died when he was eight years old. At the age of 14, Robert's mother sent him to London to learn the barbering trade. Without the necessary fatherly influence and now on his own, he became associated with a notorious gang of hoodlums and lived a debauched life. At the age of 17, he and his friends attended a church meeting for the purpose of scoffing at the poor deluded Methodist. George Whitfield was speaking that night, and his strong evangelical message so impressed young Robinson that he was converted to Christ. A few years later, Robert felt called to preach and entered the ministry. He became known as an able theologian through his writings, hymns, and other works. In his hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, he talks about raising an Ebenezer, which is known as a lasting symbol meant to remind us of God's faithfulness. Yet he also writes about the spiritual unstabless that sometimes plagues believers when he writes, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. And then his prayer, take my heart and seal it, for thy courts above. He wrote this hymn at the age of 23. Listen now as Hilary Scott and the Scott family sing, Come, thou fount of every blessing.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Come, thou fount of every blessing. Streams of mercy, ever ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some lowest song, sung by flaming tongues above. Hither by thy help, I come, and I hope by thy good bless her safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me in a stranger, wandering from the fort of God. He to rescue me from danger. Enner pose is precious blood. Daily I constrain to be that thy goodness like a fetter find my warm dream heart to thee. Prone to under Lord I fear. Prone to thee the God I love. Here's my heart, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above above. Here's my heart, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts of us.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

We've been asking the question, why does God sometimes seem hidden? And as we read Psalm 44, we see that the psalmist doesn't deserve the trouble he faces. He and the people of God hadn't been false or unfaithful, but yet they're in deep darkness. One of the errors we fall into during dark times in life is thinking that God owes us something because of the good that we have done. And this is how we sometimes think. If we attend worship and prayer meetings and be a good little Christian, then God owes us something. But listen, I cannot stand before God and say to him, God, I've responded to your calling and become a pastor. I've tried to be faithful to you and live a pure life, and now you owe me a healthy baby boy. Why couldn't I say that? Because that's a gospel of works. We believe in a gospel of grace. We worship and serve God, not to get things from him, but simply because he's God. God does not serve us. We serve him. And if we truly got what we deserved, we'd all be dead. Scripture says that the wages of sin is death, but thanks be to God. He is not like that. He is a God of grace, and he sent his son to die for our sin, and through faith in him, he graciously forgives us all our sin and gives us new life. I can say with confidence that Janet and I did not deserve to have a son with autism. But it's also true that we did not deserve to have two other children who are considered to be perfectly normal. It's all of grace. We don't believe that we're being punished by God with mark, but rather believe that we are entrusted to care for the gift that is mark. But thanks be to God for his grace. Glenn Solerholm reminds us of our Savior's promise.

SPEAKER_11 31:36

Oh learn from me with me.

SPEAKER_10 31:45

My yoke is easy and my burden life.

SPEAKER_11 31:54

I will give you a lot of people.

SPEAKER_04 33:54

Have you ever considered that the dark times may actually be a blessing if they drive you deeper into God Himself? The psalmist you will notice if you read the rest of the Psalm doesn't allow the dark times to drive him to despair. Drive him to prayer. She said, Every morning most people wake up, get out of bed, and run out the door. Every morning I wake up and I run into the arms of Jesus. I have nowhere else to go, she said. I wake up meeting Jesus desperately. That's a great blessing to me. And we read of person after person in scripture for whom that is true. There is a blind man sitting by the roadside, and Jesus passes by, and a blind man in the midst of his darkness and poverty calls out, Son of David, have mercy on me. Or we read of a man whose daughter was deathly sick, and in the midst of the father's despair, he reaches out to the one who can heal his daughter with a word. Or we read of a woman who suffers for twelve years and is not getting better. In her distress, she searches out of Jesus and reaches out to touch him. I'm not trivializing the darkness you may be facing. But if it causes you to go to the arms of Jesus, your darkness can be turned to light. Travis Green sings, You waited.

SPEAKER_06 35:53

So pay shiny. Where would I be? Little if you left me.

SPEAKER_04 38:33

And this is building four two nine with Where I Belong.

SPEAKER_09 38:37

Sometimes it feels like I'm watching from the outside. Sometimes it feels like I'm breathing. But am I alive?

SPEAKER_11 38:48

I won't keep searching for answers that aren't here to find So we almost confirmed down on me, and when I'm lost in the current, see, I have this blessed Holding.

SPEAKER_04 41:44

You may say, Pastor Tom, you don't know the darkness I'm experiencing right now. You don't know how hard it is for me to hold on to God right now. And you're right, I don't. But God knows what you're going through. And can I suggest one last thing in the midst of darkness? Go to the cross. The psalmist says that he is covered with deep darkness. When Jesus hung on the cross, we read in Matthew chapter 27, verse 45, From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness. The psalmist cries out, Awake, Lord! Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? When Jesus hung on the cross, he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When you go to the cross, you discover that Jesus took on the ultimate darkness. The darkness of your sin. He suffered ultimate abandonment. Because the wrath of God was laid on him. He took on your sin and my sin. We deserve to have darkness descend on us. We deserve to be abandoned by God. Because Jesus Christ took on that darkness and died in our place. In the words of Timothy Keller, Jesus was truly abandoned by God. So that you will only feel abandoned. And you can know that he is there. He's not going to abandon you in the midst of difficulty. Jesus has already been abandoned. He has paid the penalty and all fell on him. Jesus did not abandon us then. He stayed on that cross for you and me. So don't thank God that he'll abandon you now. We pray that if you are asking this question, why does God hide himself? That you will know the truth, that God came in the person of Jesus Christ and has revealed his unending love for you on the cross, and has assured you through the resurrection that he'll never leave you or forsake you. Turn to him in repentance and faith and know his saving power in your life today. May we all turn to him in whatever situation we face and join Michael W. Smith in giving God all the All the glory, all the praise for great are you.

SPEAKER_08 44:10

Great is the Lord, He is holy and just by His power we trust in His love. Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true. By His mercy, He proves His love. Great is the Lord and worthy of holy.

SPEAKER_11 44:36

Now lift up your voice. Now lift up your voice.

SPEAKER_08 44:57

Great is the Lord, He is holy and just By His power we trust in His love. Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true. By His mercy, He loses His love.

SPEAKER_11 45:14

Great is the Lord and worthy of glory. Great is the Lord and worthy of praise. Wait is the Lord, now live up your voice, now live up your voice.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. He is never hidden and is always visible if we want to see Him. We trust that you have been inspired to seek God while He may be found. We would love to hear from you. You can reach us by email to Listener at hopeToday-lp.ca. Once again, send your notes to Listener at hope today-lp.ca. HopeToday is produced at StraightCast Studios. We look forward to being with you and your friends next time for another program of cheer. Until then, keep looking up. Jesus is coming again.