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Transcript
Church, good morning. Man, it is such a good day to be here with you guys. I'm so excited. Hey, real quick, before we get into the message and we get into the word, man, next week we start the Advent season, the Christmas season, which is, that's just wild. That's wild that we're here. I'm so looking forward to it. We got two claps, it's gonna be great. But here's the thing, this is my encouragement for you. We've got this great week. I hope that you've got really great Thanksgiving plans this week. Hope you get to spend time with family and friends. If you get to mix a little football in there, even better. I think it's gonna be a really good week. But here, as we start this season, this is my encouragement for you because the Advent season can be very, very full. There's a lot of things that happen. Lots of parties, lots of gatherings, lots of stuff, lots of busyness, lots of things to be done. And those things are gonna happen. But man, I just really wanna encourage you to make sure that you carve out and you protect time for your family and for your heart this season to keep the priorities of what are important in this season and what the focus of what we're actually doing in this season of waiting and anticipating God's goodness in this thing. And so there's several ways that you can do that. But I just wanna encourage you, man, participate in some of the things we have going on at the church. Next week we're gonna be releasing, or not releasing, but sharing a couple of different reading plans that you can do, both personally or with your family through the season of Advent. You can do, my family, starting in December st, we always read the book of Luke out loud together as a family. There's chapters, so it kinda works out perfectly. We're gonna do all the way up to Christmas Eve. There's a lot of different things that you can participate in, including, and not limited to, baking cookies, hanging out, grabbing tags and buying presents for other people. All these things are great ways for us to stay connected and to walk and to keep the purpose of the season in front of us. And so, man, I just wanna encourage you. It's gonna be a really fun season. I love Christmas here at Destiny. I look forward to it every year. And I just admit, just anticipating it, this to be the best one yet. And so here's what I wanna do before we get into today's message. Stand up. I'd like to read this together. It's a short verse, but I wanna just kinda let it wash over us this morning as we are in the final week of our prayer series, Jeremiah chapter .. It says this, "Call to me and I will answer you "and tell you great and unsearchable things "you do not know." Father God, I thank you that today, we can walk in the ability and the truth that we can call out to you, that we can pray to you, that we can ask you in the name of Jesus and that you will be able to illuminate things in our life, the things that we don't know, that you will lead us, that you will guide us, that you will make our steps plain and true. Father, we just are so thankful for that opportunity that we get to work, to trust in you and to walk with you. It's in your holy name we pray, amen and amen. All right, you may be seated. All right, all right. Hey, so I'm looking forward to today. It's the last week of our prayer series. This is week eight, week nine, week eight, somewhere in there. It's been really great and I've been enjoying it a lot. Some of you are also going through the prayer class that we're doing, which I've enjoyed that time together as well. But here's what we're gonna look at today. We're gonna kind of wrap it up and we're gonna kind of look at two, I don't wanna talk, two aspects of prayer.
Which are petition and intercession, but those things are kind of combined. We've talked about those a little bit. And then also the idea or the concept of lament, which we'll get there. You may be familiar with all of those or maybe you've not heard any of those words, but we're gonna talk through it. But really what we're gonna be looking at and what we're gonna be just walking through is what does it mean for us to pray and how is prayer good for us? Because here's maybe the thing that you can ask. Maybe you ask yourself the question, prayer is great, but how is prayer good for me?
What does prayer do? I know that we can create some reverence towards God and that's important. I know that we can create some repetition of keeping ourselves mindful in God's thing, that's important. But is there something in that prayer practice, something in the process of praying that does something within me and changes me? And I don't mean does it do it for me like treating God, one of my favorite things that I've read throughout the studying for this was treating God like a heavenly vending machine in the sky. Like this, like let me just ask God for these things and see what comes out. Like that's not what we're talking about, but is there something in the process of prayer that transforms and changes me as a person? Like if I spend time in prayer and in the different avenues of prayer, will I be a different person? And I'll go ahead and spoil the answer of what we're gonna walk through together, but my answer for you is like a resounding yes. You will be a different person as a result of spending time in prayer. There will be a lot of other things that happen. There's a lot of other things and we've talked about many different things, but one of the key things that happens in prayer, one massive thing that happens in prayer is that you, the person who's doing those prayers, are changed. That the time you spend in prayer, whether that's praying a liturgical, prewritten or scripturalbased prayer, whether that's being in a contemplative quietness, whether that's listening to God, no matter what style or thing of prayer that you find yourself in, or whether it's individual or in a group, you are being transformed in the process of praying.
Like you yourself are being transformed more and more because you're spending time in the presence of God. But I wanna look at this idea that I think is really important when it comes down to prayer is one of the questions that we have a lot is like, well, what do I pray? Like, what do I pray? And we're usually pretty good at like praying prayers or thanksgiving, thanking God, or at least if we practice it, it's easy to look around your life and thanking God. And it's easy also to ask God for the things that we're struggling with in our lives. But I wanna look at two different ideas that I think are very important and they actually get linked together,
which is why, when I pray, do I not say my just my own thing?
And what I mean by that is, it's not like your own words, but just like, God, will you please stop making the Cowboys be so bad?
Please God, how long will you forsake me? Now we're getting to the limit and make me watch them.
Long years have I suffered, oh Lord. I mean, I could really go into a full blown limit over the Cowboys and the other Cowboys fans would feel it deeply in their souls. Like, and that's okay, but we sometimes will pray about things that when we really back up are silly. But I wanna talk about the concept of what the scripture would call praying the promise.
Praying the promise. Because here's the thing, if you're a fan of scripture, what I know many of you are, the Bible is full of promises that God has for you. Of promises of God, what he is towards you, what he will be for you, what he's willing to do on your behalf, how he's willing to go to work on your behalf, who you are, your identity. Like the Bible is chock full from page one, all the way to the last page of promises that God is and how to you and how he wants to work through you and for you, like it is a beautiful thing. And there's something amazing that we see and we see this all the time. When people pray, some of the most powerful prayers we see in scripture, whether it was Moses or Abraham or some of the New Testament apostles, is they're not just praying like their own words, they are reminding God of the promises that he's made in their life. And in the process of reminding God, they're reminding themselves about the promises that God has made in their life and about the purpose that God has for them and about the identity that they have for them. And so when we get this opportunity to go into scripture, sometimes, especially when we're not sure what to pray, some of the things that we can do is we can pray the promise that God has for us. And if you are someone who studies the Bible, it's really a simple thing to make a list. Just this morning, I'm gonna share with you here in just a second, I just made a quick scripture list, actually there's a bonus one, so there's , but just of different themes of like, I'm feeling this way, does God have a promise about this? And if God has a promise about this, then I'm gonna use the scripture as the thing that I pray and that I speak over and that I stand on, not just because I'm telling God, but I'm also reminding myself. See, because God didn't forget what his promise was. God knows his promise, he doesn't forget. He's not a man that he should forget. But sometimes I need to remind myself that this is the creator of the universe and what he thinks about me and what he's willing to do for me. And so I'm just gonna read through it, like I said, I got categories. categories, if you go on the YouVersion notes there, I just posted them there and I just pasted them in a big text note so you can see them. And by the way, , that was like, you could easily do . You could do , it would like, you could just keep going, keep going, keep going. But this is just a quick little . So the first one is if you ever are feeling like you don't know where God is, like where's the presence of God?
Is God here in my life? Deuteronomy , , it says, "Be strong and courageous. "Do not be afraid or terrified because of them. "For the Lord your God goes with you. "He will never leave you nor forsake you."
You see, I take a promise like that. And in my personal life, when I'm feeling lonely or when I'm feeling lost or when I'm, I ask this question to God, God, where are you? I can remind myself of this promise and say, "God, I know that you are faithful "and that your word says that you will never leave me "nor forsake me." And so today in this moment, I maybe feel a certain way, but I'm believing and standing in agreement with what your word says, that you are here with me and that no matter what I'm experiencing in my natural flesh, I know the truth of what's happening in heavenly places and is that you are with me.
You will never leave me nor forsake me.
If I need peace, Philippians chapter four, verse seven, it says, "And the peace of God which transcends "all understanding will guard your hearts "and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Maybe you need guidance that says, "I will instruct you and teach you "in the way you should go. "I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." I love that verse. "I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." Like even just the imagery of like, sorry to do this, it totally, because it's not just, "I'm gonna tell you what to do."
Like that's something, my kids can ask me a question and I can tell them what to do. But for the parents in the room, you've probably experienced this. Your kids ask you a question, you tell them what to do, and then you come back to check on them and they didn't do anything that you told them to do. They totally messed it up.
And you're like, "But why?" And it's like, "Well, I tried, I didn't know how to do it." Because maybe you've been at that place where someone's told you what to do and they tell it to you like, "It's really easy." Like, "Yeah, just do it. "Just do it." And you're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, "I can totally do that, don't worry." And then they leave and you're like, "Oh gosh, I have no clue how to do that.
"I got no idea what I'm doing." And then you try something and they show back up and they're like, "What are you doing?
"Why would you do it that way?" And they're like, "Well, I don't know, I tried."
It was a total failure. But what God doesn't say is like, "I'm gonna tell you what to do and it's easy for me. "And then I'm gonna leave you on your own." What it says is like, "I'm gonna instruct you." And it says, "And with my loving eye on you, "meaning I'm right here with you, "I'm gonna make sure that you do it the right way." Because when someone's eyes on someone, you're with them. Sometimes I let my kids build Legos.
And you know, my kids love Legos. I love Legos, but I also hate Legos because they're like the most dangerous toy in the universe in the middle of the night. You just step one wrong step
and your whole life flashes before your eyes.
But you know what happens is they get to a hard spot, especially when they're young, and they're like, "Can you just do it for me?" And it's like, "No, I did not pay $, "for that Lego set to build it for you. "I want you to build it for you. "This is your thing." But I'm also, I can be like, "Just follow the instructions, it's easy."
I can sit there with them and I can just help watch it. I'm like, "Oh, nope, that's backwards. "Oh, nope, that's the wrong color. "Oh, nope, that's totally completely." And then we can lovingly walk through this process. Now, whenever they're , they don't appreciate it quite as much. But you know, when they're little, they like it. It was this loving eye. God has this loving eye of guidance for you. Strengths, as chapter , , I need this all the time. It says, "But for those who hope in the Lord "will renew their strength, "they will soar on wings like eagles, "they will run and not grow weary, "and they will walk and not be faint."
They will walk and not be faint.
How about forgiveness?
Maybe you need forgiveness. It says, "If we confess our sins, "he is faithful and just, "and will forgive our sins "and purify us from all unrighteousness." And that's just one. I mean, you could keep going. You could have verse after verse. I could go in and say, "As far as the east "is from the west, so far has he taken our sins from us." I could go over and over and just have scripture after scripture. And so the problem is, when I'm feeling like, "Oh man, I made a mistake," I can go to God and I can pray these verses, these promises, and I know that even though I fell short, you are faithful to forgive me because that's who you are. Let me experience this, and maybe what is the problem is just not that you're questioning if God forgives you, you're questioning if you have the ability to forgive yourself.
And if you can't forgive yourself, how in the world could you forgive someone else?
So sometimes I need to remind myself who God is so I can remind myself, and that's who I am. And I can receive forgiveness even from myself, and I can offer forgiveness even to the people who have hurt me, and I can walk in forgiveness.
Sometimes we need provision. Philippians chapter four, verse , it says, "And may God will meet all your needs "according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."
Protection, God is our refuge and strength and everpresent help and trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountain fall into the heart of the sea.
Comfort for grief.
Second Corinthians, verse three through four, it says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus "Christ, the Father of compassion "and the God of all comfort, "who comforts us in all our troubles "so that we can comfort those in any trouble "with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."
And this is a bonus one for you, Psalm , , because I couldn't choose which one it says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted "and he saves those who are crushed in spirit."
Like sometimes we think that God's far away when we're going through hardship, and here's what's amazing about God, when you're going through a hardship, grief or loss,
or a real strong trial, God's word says that he's the closest to you in the brokenheartedness. But it's not even just in the grief. Sometimes we feel like we're far away from God when we sin, but the Bible says that we're sin abounds, grace super abounds, like he's actually closest to you in the moments of some of your biggest distress, whether that's distress caused by yourself because you made a poor choice, or whether that's distress that's caused by something on the outside and you're grieving a loss, the Bible says that he is close to you in that moment. Sometimes we think he's far away from us in that moment because we're struggling, but God says, "No, no, no, in those moments, "I am absolutely closest to you.
"I'm right here in your presence."
Because he's faithful, Hebrews chapter , says, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, "for he who promised is faithful." All these problems will be talked about. We can base them on the fact that he is faithful.
Sometimes you need to find rest in your life. Matthew , says, "Come to me, "all you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Romans , says, "For I am convinced that neither death, "nor life, nor angels, nor demons, "nor the present, nor the future, "nor any power, nor height, nor depth, "nor anything else in all creation "will be able to separate us from the love of God "that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." If you sometimes wonder, "Does God love me?"
Just read that a couple times, and then pray that a couple times. Nothing can separate you from the love that God has for you.
Sometimes when we're walking through this process and we find our bodies needing healing, we can pray something like Isaiah ., it says, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Sometimes we wonder about direction. I know especially young people are like, "Where am I going in my life?"
And when you look around in the news, it's like the world is broken, everyone is awful, your life is going to suck.
I feel like that's what my kids basically get anytime they see on the news.
It's just downhill from here.
But Jeremiah , says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plan to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
That's who he is to me.
That's who he is to you. That's who he is to my kids. It actually doesn't matter what's going around in the world, because I'm not in that kingdom, I'm in the kingdom of God. And the one who provides for me and for my children and for my children's children is not what's unseen in Fox News or whatever of your favorite news media outlet of choice. It's what God says. And it doesn't matter what's happening in the world economy, my God says that I have a plan for you.
I have a plan for you.
Sometimes when we're feeling weak, we can read Corinthians ., it says, "But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me."
And then the last one, just because this is a good bow, it says, "Buddhians ., being confident of this, that he who began to work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." He's not done with you yet.
He's not done with you yet. He's still working on you.
He paid a high price for you. And for some of us, I like to look at it like,
my life is a house.
And God bought me with a ransom price of Jesus. It was a very big overpayment because I was not a complete house or a goodlooking house. I was what they call a fixerupper.
I needed a little TLC.
And Jesus has been working in my life, restoring every place in my heart and in my mind and in my body.
And he's still not done yet because there's still more rooms and expansions and more crown molding to be painted and all the different things that you real HTTP people love to watch, that there's still a fixerupper. But guess what? He's not gonna get threefourths of the way into this renovation project after he already paid for it with the blood of Jesus and say, "Ah, you know what?
Nevermind.
I'm actually gonna forget about that house."
He's going to finish the work. He's already paid the price. He's already started the renovation. It has not yet been completed, but it will be. And in the end, it's gonna be perfect.
But until that day, you just get to trust that that great carpenter is at work in your life. And you get to submit that he who began this work in me is faithful to continue to do it until the day that he finishes it. And I will just trust him in that moment. Now, those things, these praying the promises are ways in which we can either intercede on someone else's behalf or petition God on our behalf. And when we go to the Father, when we're dealing with some of these things, we can use Scripture as our guide, the promise from God himself to remind both God, but mostly our own hearts of who he is to us and what we can expect. And we can go through any subject. The Bible's full of different promises. You can use concordances. There's tons of tools. But here's the thing.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a place where we are struggling internally,
that we have a hurt or a wound or a brokenness or a disappointment, or we're not seeing the result that we're hoping to see. And we ourselves find ourselves living in many different emotions.
And there's this amazing thing that God does
in which he invites us to bring those feelings and emotions to him
and to fully express ourselves to God. And the biblical term for this is called a lament. It's this bringing our full emotions to God. And there's a reason that God invites us to bring them because he knows this. If you do not bring what you're feeling, what you're going through, what your struggles are, if you do not bring them and express them and process them with God, then you are gonna do one of two things. You are either going to process them on someone else,
a friend, a spouse, a coworker, a poor Starbucks employee,
or you are going to try to internalize them and you're never gonna deal with that hurt.
And either way is actually not healthy.
Because you're going through this pain and many times we go through the person that's closest to us and that's who we want to. It's like for me, I would go to my wife and I would try to process pain. But the thing is, if I'm going through something that's a struggle, more than likely, she's experiencing the same thing. And if I try to process my pain with her, she's already needing to deal with her own pain.
But God is not a God who says, hey, only happy prayers.
He's not that boss that has that cup that's like, only smiles.
And you're like, but I got a problem. Like, nope, we don't have problems here.
Only positivity.
Anybody ever work in one of those places?
When I used to sell, I shouldn't even say this because he could hear it. I'm gonna do it anyways. My first job, which I won't tell you what I did, but if you couldn't hear very well, I could help you. And I had one particular boss and he was a great guy, very positive guy, but anytime you ever brought up an actual, like a legitimate issue, he was always like, we need to figure out how to put a positive spin on this. I'm like, there's no positive spin on this.
Like, we got to just deal with the reality of what's happening here. And like, every time you brought up anything, like if you had an issue, you'd be like, can you phrase this to me where it's not a problem? And I'm like, no.
Why would I come to you if there wasn't a problem? Like, if things were great, I'd just be at my desk, plowing away, but I have a problem and I came to you. I don't like those.
Well, I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. We're at a real impasse.
And here's the thing. There's plenty of people that are like that.
God's not like that.
God doesn't sit there and say, hey, only happy prayers. Or hey, only come to me whenever you figured it out.
Like, once you cool off, then you can come talk to me, big pop of God. But till then, just keep your distance.
In fact, it's the complete opposite.
He says like, in the very moment of your greatest pain, your greatest suffering, your greatest anger, your greatest anger, in the middle of all of what you're going through, He invites you. Bring it to me.
All of it.
Unfiltered.
Bring it to me. Now, biblical lament, there's kind of like a form, a form that we can see in the Bible. And man, laments are all over the place. Probably you've read more than you thought. of the Psalms are Psalms of lament. Like, there are people lamenting. And that's not just all of it.
So obviously, there's the book Lamentations.
Surprise, surprise. The whole thing is a lament. The whole thing. That's all it is. But there's other things. There's things like Habakkuk, chapters one through three. Job's speeches are laments. Jeremiah's confession in chapter through . And there's more. Like, the Bible is full of lament of people bringing up their heartbreak and their anger and their disappointment to God.
Now, depending on the tradition you grew up in, you may be very uncomfortable with this.
I grew up in a tradition that you were not allowed to speak these things to God. And then you were definitely not allowed to speak these things to other people, but because that was lack of faith.
That if you admitted that you were struggling, or that you were hurting, or that you were sad, or that you were worried about finances, or that you were disappointed that God didn't heal someone in your life, or that you prayed for something and you didn't see it, and if you brought that up to someone,
that was negative faith.
And if you've ever been told you have negative faith, you will learn really quickly to stop sharing with those people.
Because that's what happens. We're like, man, I'm just really struggling with that. It's like, sounds like you got a faith issue. It's like, cool, I'm never talking to you again, thanks.
And again, I'm just being honest with you here. This is just me. Like, that's just it. Like, if you go to someone and you're like, man, I just, I was really believing God was gonna get, like, was gonna get this job and it didn't happen. I'm just really disappointed. It's like, don't worry, brother. God knows better than you anything. And he has something better for you. And it's just like, okay, yeah, I didn't need to hear that.
Like, I know what you're saying is maybe true, but that's not what I'm meaning right now.
And so we created this culture in which it was unsafe for people to actually be honest with where they were at.
And then not only will we not be honest with people around us, who we in theory had good relationships with, that began to transfer, like, well, if that's how people treat me, how is God gonna treat me? I shouldn't even be honest to God.
And then we start living in this delusion where we think, I have to keep some of these feelings away from God, as if God doesn't already know what you're feeling and thinking. But that's what we do.
And so then we come to God in prayer, and you're grieving the loss of someone in your life. And instead of sharing that pain with God, you're like, hello, God, it's me again. Thank you for all your provision. I'm so happy with the sun shining today. And I can't wait to see what you're gonna do tomorrow in Jesus' name, amen.
And God's like, anything else you'd like to talk to me about? And you're like, nope, my life's great, thanks God. You're the best. And number one.
And we get uncomfortable bringing how we feel to God.
You know who was not uncomfortable bringing what he felt to God?
David.
Holy smokes.
This guy just let it rip all the time. To the point where if I read the Psalms and we read some of them, you may think like, I don't think he's okay.
He's not okay. David has gone fully unhinged, and he's just saying crazy things to God.
And yet it was laid out as an example of how we can process our feelings to God.
The things that David was experiencing, he's not saying, see, it's totally righteous to feel like, no, no, no, he's saying, it's totally righteous to bring those things to God. Because David made a ton of mistakes.
And David felt many things that were not from God. But the thing that David constantly did was he took those feelings, those fears, those doubts, those shames, and he brought them right to God. And then he was like, God, what are we gonna do about this?
And God showed up. And so biblical lament in the most traditional, it has five parts. Now, biblical poetry and these ideas, they're kind of like jazz. You start off with kind of a form, and then they'll begin to play with the form, and they may change the order, and they may drop some of it. Like some of you guys know what I'm talking about, because you're cool cultured guys, like me who listen to jazz. But the rest of you, just take my word for it. Sometimes they play around, and they change the order and stuff, and that's how it works. But here's how it works. The five parts that they start, and we're gonna break a couple things down, is it starts with an address to God.
It starts with an address to God. Then comes the second part, which is called the complaint.
And it's not just moaning and groaning, like the complaint, it's like expressing the honest expression of what you're feeling.
Then there's a third part, which is like the request or the petition. Asking God for help.
It's really important.
Then the fourth one, the fourth part, is the expression of trust.
And then the fifth one is a vow of praise, or anticipated praise. Now what does this look like? Psalm is like a really great one, because it's a really compressed, easy one to see. And you can follow along to put it on the screen. So the first is the address.
And this one, by the way, this one comes in a little hot, because he even starts with a little bit of a complaint before he even gets the address. So let's read it, it says, "How long, Lord?" Like he forgot, like he was already complaining. And he's like, "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. God, how long, God?"
That's all the address was.
Just one acknowledgement of who he's speaking to.
One acknowledgement.
And then he goes on, "Will you forget me forever?"
Have you ever felt it? Like God, how long?
Like forever?
Just tell me now if we're gonna do this, if I gotta go through this forever. Then I can at least deal with it. How long will you hide your face from me?
Which by the way, remember what we talked about? Remember how we talked about God's face shining upon you? How that's like this whole idea of like attachment and exception and like the presence of God and the faith. And he says, "You're hiding your face. You won't even look at me.
That's how I feel. I feel disconnected from you, the one that I'm the most connected to, because you won't even look at me. Your face is hidden from me.
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?"
You ever wrestle with your thoughts?
They're tough.
And day after day have sorrow in my heart.
He's not like sugarcoating anything here.
God, you're rejecting me.
And all I have are these thoughts
which are making me more and more sorrowful.
And he says, "How long will my enemy triumph over me?"
Now in David, we don't know if this is like physical enemies, like Philistines or something like that, or if this is like emotional enemies, or if he's talking about the powers, because he talks about all three of these people, but any way you can cut it, he's saying, "They are winning, and I am losing, and you have abandoned me, and I am in sorrow and suffering."
He unloaded all of that in God in just a couple of verses.
But then, in verse three, he turns to the request,
and listen to the language, he says, "Look on me." Remember, look at my face.
Can your face shine on me again? Look at me and answer.
Lord, my God, give light back to my eyes,
or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fail. All he's asked is, "God, will you just let me experience your presence again?
Will you look at me again? Can I feel the warmth that comes from knowing that you are staring in my direction?"
So he requests God to help him so he can overcome what he is experiencing, and then, verse five, he says, "But I trust in your," it says unfailing love, but it's the word "hased."
This word, this unearned amount of love that you can't express, "I will trust in your unfailing love.
My heart rejoices in your salvation."
You notice that he's able to hold two things at the same time.
He's able to say, "I am angry, and I'm sorrowful, and I feel like you're rejecting me, and I feel like I can't even have my own thoughts together, and I feel alone, and I feel like the people are laughing at me, and everyone else is figuring it out but me, and you're leaving me out and not even looking at me, and so I'm asking you to look at me, and at the exact same moment."
He says, "And I still trust you,
and you can do both at the same time.
You are capable of holding on to both of those feelings at the same time."
He says, "I will trust, and your unfailing love, and my heart will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing praise, I will sing the Lord's praise,
for he has been good to me."
And that's the end.
Laments are far too uncommon in our modern church.
We don't do them.
I would ask, but I don't want it, like, it would be awkward. Like, when was the last time that you felt like you participated in a biblical lament?
And here's the thing, we are going through a hardship and difficulty all the time,
but we feel like we need to leave God out of this process,
and God's sitting here like, "I'm here for the good,
but I'm also here for the bad.
I am here to help you process what you're feeling. And in fact, I can actually bring healing, and resolution, and grace, and hope, and joy, and all of these things when you come to me, and you bring yourself, I can help you unburden your heavy heart." Just come to me. That's why Jesus' invitation was that. Come to me when you're weary, and burdened, and heavy laden, just come to me, and I will give you rest because my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Just come to me, and bring to me what you've got.
I'm not scared of your feelings.
I know what you're going through.
And sometimes we're afraid to be honest with God because we feel like we'll be disrespectful, or rude, or like, "I can't." But God's like, "You can hold on to both things, of being in the middle of pain and suffering, and still believing that He's good and true.
And you can walk through this place. And let me tell you, when you begin to lament,
and go through this complaint, and then in that process, by the way, you compare these with what we just said. You can lament what you're experiencing, and then you can pray the promise.
And when you do both, something powerful happens because it allows you to process things inside of you that if you held onto unsaid, they would just continue to eat at you.
This thing that David said, if he had just held onto it, and he would just continue to eat inside of his brain, it would just seem like this bigger monster than it was. But sometimes when you release something, and you expose it to the light of day, you realize that it's actually not as big as you thought it was. Or even if it is as big as you thought it was, you realize, "But at least I'm not alone."
And that is powerful.
And so, we get to walk through this, and listen, there's a New Testament example of this, which is really great, that I wanna look at. And again, it actually flips a couple of things, but I think it's so powerful when you see it. This is found in Acts chapter four, but just to put it in context. Acts chapter three is when John and Peter, they went to the temple, and they were talking, and there was the lame guy that had been lame from his whole life that was there, that they carried to the gate beautiful, and they asked him for money, and they looked at him, and they thought, "Oh man, he was excited," because they thought that they were gonna give him money. And Peter, like finally Peter, that big mouth of Peter that he kept on saying ridiculous stuff, now that he has the Holy Spirit, and so the thing that was constantly getting in trouble has now created a new boldness inside of him, and he looks at this guy who's lame, and he says, "Money and gold, we have not, but what I do, "have I give to you freely?" And the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk.
And then they just help this guy up,
and he's been lame his whole life,
and he's super excited about it,
and he goes into the temple with them for the time of prayer, and they're together, and everyone's just like, "Wasn't that the lame guy?
"He's now walking around," and it says that he won't leave their side, he's like hanging all over them.
And all of a sudden they're like, "What's going on?" And Peter takes this opportunity to begin to preach about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, and unashamedly, boldly talking about the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation that's available for everyone who hears. And it says that many people here, and like , people get saved that day as a result. But in chapter four, after they finish preaching, it says that he's confronted by the religious leaders and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all those people. They come and they confront him, and they're like, "Hey, you can't do that."
And they put him in jail overnight.
And then the next day they woke up because they were getting some heat from people. They're like, "Hey, you just arrested the guys "who just healed a lame man.
"What are you doing that for?" And so they went to him and they're like, "Okay, we got some problems here. "We can't let this guy keep doing this Jesus propaganda "because we killed that guy and it's making us look bad."
So they went to him like, "We're gonna let you go with a warning. "All you have to do is just not preach about Jesus anymore. "Cool."
And then yet again, Peter's like, "Not cool.
"We don't listen to what you say. "I don't even care what you say. "You are the one who crucified Jesus anyways. "And as long as there's breath in my lungs, "I will be preaching Christ crucified."
That was it.
And then they were like, "Ugh." And they knew that because they're like, this guy who was lame from birth, not he got hit by a cart and maybe it healed up on its own. No, no, he was lame from birth. And for years, he's been begging around this town and everybody knows who he is. And now he's walking around telling people about how Jesus healed him.
Like, we can't keep these guys arrested or the people are going to riot because this was a miracle.
So they're like, "Okay, fine."
But don't talk about Jesus. It's like, "We're talking about Jesus, bye." And they left.
It says then in verse , we'll read some of this. It says, "As soon as they were freed, "Peter and John returned to the other believers "and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. "When they heard the report, all the believers "lifted their voices together in prayer to God." Now listen.
"O sovereign Lord, creator of heaven and earth, "the sea and everything in them."
We have an address people.
"You spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit "through our ancestor, David, your servant, saying,
"'Why were the nations so angry? "'Why did they waste their time with feudal plans? "'The kings of the earth prepared for battles "'and the rulers gathered together against the Lord, "'against his Messiah.'"
In fact, this has happened here in this very city for Herod, Antipas, Pontius, Pilate, the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.
The complaint were being persecuted.
And you know what they referenced? They referenced Psalms too,
which by the way, wasn't a Psalm of the Mint. It was a Messianic promise by David, who said, "Look, he's here, he's coming." And they referenced the very person of who David was speaking about, and they said, "But we are being persecuted here "in this very town by both Jews and Gentiles alike."
But they flip it because before they get to the petition, before they ask, it says,
"But everything they did was determined beforehand
according to your will." We trust you.
We trust you. It says this, "And now, O Lord, hear their threats and give us your servants great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power. May miraculous signs and wonders be done." Now notice what they did when they decided to walk through this process. They didn't just ask, they didn't say, "God, don't let us be persecuted anymore."
That's actually not even what they asked for.
They said, "Will you give us great boldness to be able to proclaim your word?
Would you give us the ability to with boldness and courage to share the word of God to people who don't know your word?" And then they took it a step further.
And will you grant us miraculous signs and wonders so that people will know that you're God?
And then it goes through and it says, "And through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
Listen to the result in verse .
"After this prayer, the meeting place shook and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they preached the word of God with boldness."
You see, when you take this process
and you lament to God what struggling you're walking through, and in this context, it's a group lament,
together, and then you continue to proceed to pray the promise that God has because what they were standing on is you already sent Jesus. So every promise that you have that comes through the power of Jesus, we want to call on.
And the result is the very Spirit of God that lived in those early church members began to stir inside of them and began to deliver them. And here's the crazy part. Did they stop getting persecuted? No, the persecution got worse.
Did some of them lose their life? Yeah.
Were there struggles and hardships? Absolutely.
But did they see what they asked for?
Yeah.
Were they able to boldly go and share the name of Jesus? Yeah, they were. Did it become the fastest growing religion or relationship with God in the history of the planet? Yeah, it did. It was the ability for them to come in and to be completely overwhelmed with God's goodness.
To experience the transformation of what happens
when you can go to God with what you're feeling in the moment
and in the same time remind yourself of the promises that God has for you. The Spirit of God moves in a way that allows you to experience His goodness in your life.
When I was praying this morning,
I just believe that in my heart, there are people in this room
who are in need of a time of lament before God.
Not because you've done something wrong,
but because you've experienced something that has weighed on your soul
and you've been holding on to it in the darkness.
It could be a thing with work.
It could be a thing in your marriage. It could be a health. It could be a prayer that was unanswered. I don't know what it is, but it was brewing something inside of you.
And this morning, God is offering you the ability
to fully process that with Him.
And it's not necessarily just a onetime deal,
but that you can bring those feelings and emotions
and God will be there with you.
That you can ask Him, "Why have you not shown up yet?
Why are we still waiting for this?
Why am I still experiencing this lack in my life? Why am I so angry over what's going on? God, why can't you just show up and do what your word says?" Soft Music
But even in the middle of that,
I'll trust you.
And I believe that your provision and the work that you started and that you're faithful to complete is happening in my life.
And I will sing your praises from now until forever, whether I see what my eyes hope to see or not, because you are good and your mercies endure forever, that there is a moment in time for you to be able to bring what you're feeling to God.
And maybe that's today, or maybe that's this week,
that in your time of prayer,
the thing that you've been holding on to and the thing that maybe has been just festering
and growing, you can just release that to God
and process it with Him
and see the result in your life.
You will feel better.
You will feel lighter.
You will ask yourself, "Why didn't I do this a long time ago?" And as opposed to what you maybe you feared, which is that God would be upset with you,
you'll actually experience the fact that God is even closer to you and that you feel His presence even deeper.
And so I just wanna do this. Stand with me where you're at.
I'm just gonna pray for you
that this week, that this time, maybe later today, whatever it is, whatever the Spirit leads,
will be a moment
that you can be honest with yourself and with God.
And if you're curious what the . is,
the ., the next step is, and this is vulnerable,
is lamenting in a group.
That's a really vulnerable place because now you've gotta be honest with what you're feeling in the midst of other people and trust that they're not gonna judge you. It's a vulnerable place.
But we'll take it one step at a time. So Father, this morning, for everyone who's in this room,
Lord, I pray,
Lord, I pray that
just as sure as I am that there's however many hundred of people here,
that there's that many people who have experienced things that weighs on our soul and our hearts and our minds.
Lord, for those of us who have something
that we have yet to bring to you
and that makes us feel far away
or wrestles with our thoughts or makes us sad or angry or lonely,
Lord, allow us to bring those things to you, unfiltered to you,
our great counselor, the one who we can bring all things to and to fully express what we're doing to the very big arms that you have and to bring our burdens to you.
And then Lord, once we've fully completed that,
can you help us
pray your promise in our life
to speak your word and your truth and our identity to trust you.
And to praise you for who you are,
to hold the tension of the now and the not yet
and to feel your presence this morning.
It's in your holy name we pray, amen and amen. Well church, we love you very much. We're very thankful for you. I cannot wait for Christmas next week. It's gonna be awesome. I hope you have the most blessed Thanksgiving. The calories I hear are totally free on all apps that day. So just whatever you wanna eat, just go for it. The Lord is with you. Have a great rest of your Sunday, you're dismissed.
