When You Feel Forgotten

[0:00] All right, if you've got your Bible, go to Psalm 22.

[0:31] Psalm 22 is where we're going to be this evening. The last several weeks, we've been in a short series called Summer in the Psalms, and tonight is going to be it because next week it's no longer summer, so we can't really be in the Psalms if it's just summer in the Psalms.

[0:47] So we didn't get to all of the Psalms that people requested, but I am thankful for those of you that shared. In fact, you gave many requests and tried to cover as many of them as we could, but tonight we're going to finish our study of just a few selected Psalms here in Psalm 22.

[1:06] I know a very familiar Psalm to many of you. So if you're ready to get after it, let's do this. Psalm 22, please stand if you're able to do so. I know you just got comfortable, but Psalm 22, as we stand for the reading of God's Word.

[1:21] This is a Psalm of David, and he writes verse 1, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me?

[1:33] From the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but I find no rest.

[1:46] Yet you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued.

[1:59] In you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm, not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

[2:11] All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord? Well, let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him.

[2:25] Yet you are he who took me from the womb. You made me trust you at my mother's breast. On you I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God.

[2:37] Be not far from me. Trouble is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls encompass me.

[2:47] Strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water. All of my bones are out of joint.

[2:59] My heart is like wax. It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a pot hard. My tongue sticks to my jaws. And you lay me in the dust of death.

[3:11] Dogs encompass me. A company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me.

[3:23] They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing they have cast lots. But you, O Lord, do not be far off. O you, my help, come quickly to my aid.

[3:38] Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion. You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.

[3:50] I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise Him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him. Stand in all of Him, all you offspring of Israel.

[4:03] For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. And He has not hidden His face from Him. But He has heard when He cried to Him. From you comes my praise and the great congregation.

[4:15] My vows I will perform before those who fear Him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek Him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.

[4:29] And all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord and He rules over nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.

[4:39] Before Him shall bow all who go down to the dust. Even the one who could not keep Himself alive. For the Lord and He will be told to the Lord. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation.

[4:51] They shall come and proclaim His righteousness of the people yet unborn. That He has done it. What a great and beautiful psalm. We get the privilege tonight to study this word.

[5:05] Let's pray. Lord, thank you by your grace for giving us Psalm 22. You've given it to us for a reason. Because there are times in life that we need it.

[5:15] We need to turn to it. And so I pray that tonight as we turn to it. To study it and reflect upon it. That you would talk to us and give us encouragement and strength.

[5:25] from what our brother David went through and what he experienced. And I know that many if not all in this room. Those watching and listening online have experienced this as well.

[5:39] So just come talk to us now I pray in Jesus name. And all God's people said amen. Amen. You can be seated. She was overlooked for 11 years.

[5:51] That means 11 years of watching everyone else be chosen. 11 years of watching everyone else find a home. 11 years of watching everybody else be wanted and loved.

[6:05] 11 years of being abandoned. That's the story of Vanessa. Vanessa is a female pit bull from New Orleans, Louisiana. Back in 2012 when Vanessa was just a 3 year old puppy.

[6:20] What a cute little girl. Right? 3 year old puppy. She was driven to the rescue center in the back of a moving truck. Her owner was leaving town. And he went by the rescue center and told them.

[6:33] Quote. I simply don't want her anymore. She had barely started her life and was already unwanted. Now listen. It's not uncommon at all for dogs to be dropped off at a rescue center.

[6:45] But what is uncommon is that for Vanessa, she was there for over a decade. And you might think, well then clearly there had to be something wrong with her. She had some kind of a defect.

[6:56] Some kind of an issue. But not at all. She was crate trained. She was very friendly. She was extremely well behaved. In fact, one of the workers at the rescue center said this.

[7:06] Quote. Quote. Vanessa was just one of those that slipped through the cracks. It's hard to say why some dogs are noticed and others are not. It's just no one ever applied to adopt her by no fault of her own.

[7:24] Close quote. I want you to get that image. For over a decade, she spent her life in a crate. Watching on average 50 dogs a month be adopted from that rescue center.

[7:41] Passed over every time. That all changed just a couple of weeks ago when a woman by the name of Ellie Mitchell was scrolling through Facebook.

[7:53] And she came across some photos of Vanessa. She said she stopped cold when she saw Vanessa's big brown eyes. In fact, Mitchell said, quote. I saw her sweet little face and my heart just went out to her.

[8:08] It made me sad to think that she'd lived her whole life without a family. Well, the good news is that Vanessa now has a home. Vanessa now has a family.

[8:21] She is abandoned no more. Let me ask you something tonight. And will you be honest with me? You don't have to say it out loud. Have you ever felt like Vanessa?

[8:32] Have you ever felt like Vanessa? Abandoned, neglected, forgotten, unwanted, alone.

[8:43] And my guess is that at one point or another in your life, you felt this way. Maybe your spouse abandoned you. Maybe your friend or a group of friends abandoned you when you needed a friend the most.

[8:56] Maybe you've been single for a long time and you're watching everybody else get married. Maybe you applied for job after job after job and yet no one would call you back.

[9:08] You had this great idea and opportunity that you were really excited about, but no one else believed in you. When it came to picking teams, you were always the last one wanted.

[9:19] The church that you were dedicated to rejected you. And on and on and on I could go. All of us in one way or another, we know the experience of being alone and abandoned.

[9:32] Amen? And listen, that doesn't just happen relationally or vocationally or emotionally. Let's be honest tonight. It happens spiritually. If you have been a Christian for very long, I assure you that you have gone through a season where it felt like God had abandoned you.

[9:50] You felt spiritually just like Vanessa stuck in the crate for 11 years watching everybody else get the better life. Everybody else get the freedom from their situation.

[10:01] Everybody else finding love. Everybody else finding a home. And if you were really honest, though you can't really say that at church, you felt completely and totally abandoned by God.

[10:15] Heaven was silent. And it didn't matter how many times you prayed. You sat there in your room. You sat there in your seat at church.

[10:26] And you felt like, where in the world is God? If you felt that way before, and if you haven't, cheer up. You will. Here's where you need to go.

[10:39] Are you listening to me tonight? You're going to go to Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is a psalm of David where David is honest about feeling abandoned by God.

[10:50] And I am so grateful, anybody with me, so thankful that by God's grace, He's put Psalm 22 in His Word for us to go to and cling to and study.

[11:04] Now listen, before I unpack this psalm, when I read verse 1, I already know where you went mentally. And because of that, before I unpack the psalm, I feel the need to deconstruct the psalm.

[11:20] And what I mean by deconstructing the psalm is, I need to set it in its context because some of you are already jumping somewhere. Listen, Psalm 22 verse 1 is probably the most quoted verse of all the psalms, of any verse in the psalms, right?

[11:38] Why? Because it's what Jesus stated from the cross, right? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And it's because that verse is so familiar to us that I think we forget how shocking Psalm 22 is.

[11:53] Here's what I mean. Most of us, when I read verse 1, you're like, oh, that's talking about Jesus. It's obviously about Jesus. But what I want to tell you is, listen, in fact, we'll even look down our arrogant noses at our Jewish friends and say, how could you be so stupid to not see this?

[12:10] This is clearly about Jesus. And what I'm telling you is it is not obviously about Jesus. Let me explain. Look at verse 16. For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me.

[12:25] They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots.

[12:38] Two questions. Here's the first. You with me? Is David making a prediction about the Messiah? And the answer is no.

[12:51] David is not saying, listen, there's going to come a day when Messiah is going to have his hands pierced and they will cast lots for his clothes. He's not saying that at all.

[13:02] What he's doing is he's describing his own experience. He's not making a prediction about the becoming Messiah. He's not even thinking Messiah. He's thinking, God, where are you?

[13:16] Second question. Is David saying these things literally happened to him? Oh, this is such an important point. Is David saying that these things literally happened to him?

[13:27] And be careful how you respond to that because the answer is absolutely not. If you understand literature at all, you know this is poetry.

[13:41] His heart isn't literally turning to wax. His hands aren't literally being pierced. Look, for instance, in verse 12. Many bulls encompass me.

[13:53] Strong bulls of Bashan surround me. That's metaphor, English students. That's metaphor. He's not saying I was really surrounded by a whole bunch of bulls. No. He's talking about his physical enemies are surrounding him and he's using poetic language to describe it.

[14:09] Same thing in verse 16-18. Look at it again. These dogs, that is, my enemies are encompassing me. I count all my bones, that is, I'm hungry.

[14:21] They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing they cast lots. David's not saying that's literally happening. He's saying, I'm brought to nothing.

[14:35] I don't have anything to eat. I don't have clothing. I'm desperate, God. God, enemies are after me. And you say, okay, okay, okay. What's your point?

[14:45] Now listen, listen. Don't misunderstand me. David is literally suffering. Everybody with me? He's literally going through this hardship, but he's describing what he's literally facing, metaphorically, through poetry.

[15:01] That's what the genre is here. What's your point? Here's my point. Listen, if David isn't making a prediction about Messiah, and David is only using metaphorical language to describe his literal suffering, how shocking it is that these things literally did happen to Jesus.

[15:26] In other words, listen to me. The idea that this psalm is about Jesus when you're in Psalm 22 is ridiculous. You have to get to the end of the story when the story takes a sudden twist, and that sudden twist is Jesus Himself, that you can then go back and see Psalm 22 as being about Jesus.

[15:48] Notice this on the screen. There is no reason to think Psalm 22 is about Jesus until you get to Jesus. Notice this. So when you enter into Psalm 22 first, this is why I'm spending the time doing this, is that you ought not jump to Jesus first.

[16:05] You need to first look specifically at David. Because David is describing his own situation. Can everybody hear me still good? Okay, alright. So David is talking about David, not Messiah.

[16:18] So to really understand Psalm 22, let's first look at it from the perspective of David. And then we can look at the end of the story. Verse 1. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[16:31] So don't thank Jesus yet, thank David. Why are you so far from saving me? From the words of my groaning? God, I cry by day and you don't answer.

[16:44] And by night, and I find no rest. I call this kind of the tragedy of the psalm. This is the negative, the struggle, the hardship of the psalm.

[16:55] That is one of abandonment. The tragedy of Psalm 22 is heaven has gone silent. David cries out to God and he hears nothing. He prays and he prays and he prays and God doesn't say anything.

[17:10] And isn't this something you've been through before? Like, you know that when suffering is its most intense, it feels like that God is on vacation. God, where are you? I don't understand why you're not helping me.

[17:25] Why aren't you answering my prayer? One of my favorite songs by Tyler Childers, Bottles and Bibles. There's a lyric that says, He'd call up to heaven, he'd hope and he'd pray.

[17:36] But the lion's always busy since he went astray. Have you ever felt like the lion's just busy? Or God has just cut it off?

[17:48] Jack Miller wrote about a time when he was stuck on Lake Victoria in Uganda. He describes it this way, I was in a very shattering experience in Uganda once, lost in the dark in a small boat during a storm on Lake Victoria.

[18:02] The whole thing seemed senseless. Going from bad to worse without prayers being answered in the blackness and rain and the utter misery of the cold. My last comfort was the Johnson outboard motor.

[18:15] I asked God to keep it going. I'd hardly prayed that when it quit. We were adrift, literally powerless, directionless and exposed to who knows what, including pirates who prowled the seas of the lake.

[18:31] And there was just God. Listen, there was just God seemingly battering us. Prayed?

[18:43] Nothing. And what I did pray for? The opposite happened. You're just like, God, what in the world? Where are you? And David, because he's really experiencing the abandonment of God, he feels, and you've felt this way before, he feels singled out.

[19:00] He feels like, what did I do to deserve this? I don't understand why this is happening to me. Look at verse 2. Oh my God, I cry by day and you don't answer and by night, but I find no rest and jump to verse 4.

[19:17] Listen, you can almost feel the sarcasm. In you our fathers trusted. Listen, they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and they were rescued.

[19:32] In you they trusted and they were not put to shame. Do you see what David is saying here? David is saying, God, you've helped others. Why aren't you helping me? Listen, when I look at my fathers, there were times when they were in desperate situations and they prayed to you and you answered their prayers.

[19:48] So why are you singling me out? Why am I the only one not being adopted? Why is every other dog leaving the rescue center and I'm still stuck in the crate?

[19:59] I don't understand. This doesn't make any sense at all. Others have cried out to you the way I'm crying out to you. They got something. I get nothing.

[20:10] Am I resonating with anybody here tonight? Am I the only one? Am David and I the only one who's been in this situation? I hope you're thankful to God he gave us Psalm 22.

[20:22] Listen, sometimes like Vanessa, it feels like everybody else is finding love and finding an answer and we're just in the crate.

[20:34] And this so deeply bothers David that he begins to question his identity. He questions like, okay, like, who am I to you? I mean, am I really yours?

[20:47] Look at verse 7. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me and they wag their heads. And you'll see verse 8 is in quotations.

[20:59] So this is what they're saying to David as they see him go through this. He trusts in the Lord. Let God deliver him. Let God rescue him. For he delights in God.

[21:11] It's a mockery. David, where's your God? Doesn't sound like he's listening. Verse 9. Yet, you are he who took me from the womb. You made me trust you at my mother's breast.

[21:24] On you I was cast from my birth and from my mother's womb. You have been my God. What's he saying here? He's saying, Is this how you treat your children?

[21:37] God, I've been yours since birth. I'm a part of your covenant people. I mean, literally from my mother's breast, I've been yours.

[21:48] Am I really yours? Or have you just abandoned me? Much like Wesley said in The Princess Bride, it's an appropriate point for a very theological point here.

[22:06] Life is pain, Highness. And anyone who says differently is selling you something. Amen? So what do you do with this? What do you do when you're in a place like David?

[22:19] When you're feeling the abandonment of Psalm 22? Well, here's what most Christians do, in my experience, in 25 years of pastoring. You suppress the feeling. Suppress the feeling.

[22:30] That is, good Christians act in good faith by doing this. Keep your mouth shut. Don't ask questions.

[22:41] Don't ask why. Don't make an issue of it. Just keep sticking your head in the sand and put on a happy face. You can't triple stamp a double stamp. You can't triple stamp a double stamp.

[22:52] You can't triple stamp a double stamp. Lord, Lord. Guys! That's kind of how we do it. I'm just going to ignore this. I'm going to act like it's not there. I'm going to suppress this feeling.

[23:03] And is it any wonder, listen to me, Faith Family, is it any wonder that non-Christians think the Christian faith is from Disney World? Like it's fantasy. It's just fantasy land with no real relevance at all in the hardship of life.

[23:20] And I am telling you, in fact, we have built a culture on this here at Faith Family. We are not to be a people that suppress the feeling that God has abandoned us.

[23:31] It is not the Christian response. You say, well, if suppressing it is not the right response, what is? It's this. Express it. Let it out.

[23:42] Why do you think, why do you think God gave you Psalm 22? If God didn't want you doing what David's doing in Psalm 22, He wouldn't have given you Psalm 22.

[23:55] In other words, God wants you to talk about it. I love this. Notice it on the screen. God wants you to argue with God about your abandonment by God.

[24:09] And if you don't believe that, rip Psalm 22 out of your Bible because that's what Psalm 22 is about. Arguing with God about the abandonment of God.

[24:20] And I would argue that that is the most gracious thing in our abandonment that God could do for us. To let us argue. To let us just let it out and tell God everything we think about Him.

[24:35] In fact, I will promise you this, He's big enough to handle it. I promise you that. And here's why it's an act of grace. Here's why it's an act of grace. Notice this on the screen.

[24:45] Because we have no right to argue with God. But God gives us that right because of His grace. Because He wants, newsflash, an actual relationship with you.

[25:03] God actually wants you, I hope you're listening, He wants you to get to the place where you are certain He will never forsake you. But you only get to the place of being certain He'll never forsake you by not suppressing it, but working through it with God until you get to the other side.

[25:22] He's going to be embarrassed by this, but I don't care. He's my son. He has to put up with it. I've shared this before, but I often will share this with people. He doesn't even remember he was so young.

[25:33] But he does remember when he was young. And he'll testify to this. My son hated loud noises. Just hated loud noises. And in particularly, he hated fireworks. Like anytime there were fireworks, he was terrified.

[25:45] And so I took him with me. I was suffering for Jesus speaking at a youth conference in Panama City, Florida. Just suffering for Jesus. And, well, that doesn't matter.

[25:58] All right. So we were, it was around the first week of July. We'd finished with an evening session and we went down to the beach. He was hanging out with some of the other students. And sure enough, they had a firework show.

[26:11] And as soon as those fireworks went off, he ran to me, jumped up in my arms, and just was like, Daddy, why did you bring me here?

[26:24] Why did you bring me here? Why would you do this? You know, I hate fireworks. And you know, obviously, you know if you're a parent, it's always hard when your kids question you. But he did it in my arms.

[26:40] And I would far rather him do it in my arms than running the other direction down the beach. God, it is inviting you into his arms to tell him everything you think.

[26:55] And question him all you want. Question him all you want. Lay all your unbelief on the table in his arms because that's the kind of relationship he wants with you.

[27:13] And working through that tragedy will get you to a place of triumph. Verse 22. I will.

[27:24] Now notice the shift now at the end of the psalm. So David has worked through his abandonment issues at the beginning of the psalm. And now in verse 22, I will tell of your name to my brothers.

[27:36] In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise Him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him. Stand in all of Him, all you offspring of Israel. For He, watch, notice the change, has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.

[27:56] And He has, this is good news, not hidden His face from Him, but has, say it with me, heard when He cried to Him.

[28:07] David's worked through his abandonment issues to now He's saying, listen, the beginning of the psalm, God, I didn't think you were listening. I thought you'd forsaken me. I thought you were nowhere to be found. By the end of the psalm, He's saying, no, God, you were actually there all along.

[28:22] You heard me when I cried. And I will testify to everyone of the congregation, to all of the people of Israel, that even when you think He's hidden, He's not.

[28:33] He's always there. That's the triumph from the psalm. Namely, that David moves from a place of feeling abandoned by God to a place of certainty of God's presence.

[28:44] repentance. And this is really the point I want to drive home, is that if you'll continue arguing with God, eventually you'll press through to a place of rescue and deliverance.

[28:57] David gets to the other side where he's now resting in the fact that God was with him all the time. It's what, if you were here last week or listened to the message of Psalm 23, it's what I told you.

[29:09] Listen, your life is being guided by your shepherd. And he's completely committed to your good. What was the big idea last week that I said? I trust you haven't forgotten it.

[29:20] It's this. You're never lost. You're always led. But in those places where you feel lost, that's when you're like, God, where are you? Shepherd? Like, I'm stuck here on the side of this fearful mountain and afraid I'm about to fall.

[29:35] And you're like somewhere else paying no attention. And God is like, no, I'm your shepherd. I'm never leaving you. And even in the valley of the shadow of death, I'm with you.

[29:49] I'm guiding your story. And whether you feel it or not, you're being led. This is one of the most important truths here. Notice it on the screen. You'll never have confidence of God's presence until you press through the confusion of God's absence.

[30:06] Amen? You'll never get to the place where you're confident in God's presence until you push through the confusion of His absence. This is maybe not the best illustration, but I thought about like, you can see it on the faces of teams that like win the Super Bowl or they win some type of championship.

[30:26] And the feeling that you see expressed is that all that hard work finally paid off. All the pain, all the practice, all the long hours, all the sacrifice, all the injuries was worth it.

[30:38] Why? Because they broke through to a place of victory. And that's what I'm suggesting. You're in the pain of feeling that God has abandoned you. You're in the suffering of feeling like God has just left you alone.

[30:51] But if you'll keep working through that, argue with Him day and night, get in His arms, tell Him what you think, question Him until the cows come home over and over and over and over and over again until you feel Him and you see Him and you hear Him and you know He's there.

[31:09] And then you'll press through to the other side of victory. And the comfort that I want to give you tonight as a Christian is this. Tonight, if you feel like Vanessa and you feel like God has totally abandoned you, listen, you will ultimately get to the point where you know that God is with you.

[31:28] I promise you that. Don't give up. Don't run the other direction. Your tragedy will result in triumph. And you say, how do you know that? How can you promise that?

[31:39] It's because if you're a Christian, here's how I know it, you already belong to the person who lived Psalm 22. Now we've looked at David and his tragedy to triumph.

[31:53] Now we can see the true fulfillment of the psalm. And as I mentioned earlier, the fulfillment of this psalm isn't obvious until you get to Jesus. But once you get to Jesus, here's what you realize, and this is what is so absolutely profound to me.

[32:07] Notice this here on the screen. It's that what David experienced metaphorically, Jesus experienced literally. He didn't have bulls surrounding him, but he literally did have his hands pierced.

[32:18] He literally did have lots cast for his clothing. There's metaphorical language of Psalm 22 that didn't happen metaphorically to Jesus. It happened literally to Jesus.

[32:30] And I think that's what's amazing is that metaphorical language of Psalm 22 was experienced literally in the life of Jesus. His hands were pierced. There was cast lots for his clothing.

[32:42] He was scorned and despised and mocked. And why did Jesus literally, are you listening? Don't zone out. Come in. This is the important part. Why did Jesus experience literally the things that David went through metaphorically?

[32:57] And the answer is that Jesus is the greater David. Jesus is the greater David and he's the greater David because he actually lived the life of David.

[33:10] And this very thing happens not just with David. Oh my goodness, I teach this all the time. It is one of the main commitments I have to understanding the Scripture, whether it's on a Tuesday night Bible study or in a sermon.

[33:23] The big theological word is recapitulation. It's the idea that Jesus recapitulates the Old Testament. One just very brief example I'm going basic here is Israel.

[33:34] Jesus, you do realize, literally lived the story of Israel. Israel's brought up out of Egypt. Jesus at his birth brought up out of Egypt. Israel passes through the waters.

[33:45] Jesus is baptized through the waters. Israel goes into the wilderness where they're tempted for 40 years. Jesus goes into the wilderness where he's tempted for 40 days. And on and on and on I could go.

[33:56] Jesus literally lived the life of Israel because he's the true Israel. And Jesus literally experienced Psalm 22 because he's the true David.

[34:09] He's the greater David. And as the greater David, Jesus' tragedy was greater than David's tragedy.

[34:20] Are you following the logic? If this is David and Jesus is the greater David, then the tragedy of David doesn't compare to the tragedy of Jesus because Jesus is greater than David.

[34:32] I sound like the author of Hebrews. And you say, what could possibly be worse than feeling abandoned by God?

[34:42] Answer, actually being abandoned by God. I'll tell you what's worse than feeling abandoned by God. Being abandoned by God. David just felt abandoned.

[34:57] Christian, you just feel abandoned. Jesus actually was. Jesus actually felt, literally, experienced personally, the abandonment of God.

[35:17] To say it simply, Jesus was divinely rejected. He was divinely rejected. And I pause because I don't have the words to explain this reality.

[35:31] I have preached on it before. I preached about the cup. It's like I get to this point and I don't know what to say. It's the darkest reality.

[35:44] The darkest reality of all realities. And here's why I say that because listen, the only thing that makes life worth living is the presence of God. Say it this way.

[35:56] Everything that you enjoy in life, you enjoy in life because it's because of God. It's His presence. He created it. So you could say, I love beautiful scenery and I love chocolate cake.

[36:12] I figured I'd get an amen there, right? Or whatever it is, like the things of life that I just so really enjoy. the good things that you might say kind of make life worth living, those only exist because God's presence is with us.

[36:33] Which means Jesus faced a darkness being abandoned by the presence of God that is inconceivable to your human mind. It's so inconceivable I don't have words to preach it.

[36:47] And the good news is we'll never, if you trust Jesus, have to know it because He took that abandonment for us. And you will never have to live one moment of all your eternity separated from the presence of Almighty God.

[37:06] Jesus is the greater David and His tragedy is the greater tragedy because He actually experienced abandonment. And if Jesus is the greater David, that means not just that His tragedy was the greater tragedy, but of course His triumph is the greater triumph.

[37:24] If Jesus went to the lowest of low places, it means He also went to the highest of high places. The ultimate triumph. And what was that? Look at Psalm 22, verse 22.

[37:37] I love this verse. This is such a good verse. I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation.

[37:49] I will praise you. Isn't that a great verse? Oh, don't play along. You have no idea what that verse means, right? You read that and you're like, I don't understand.

[38:01] Read it again. I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of my congregation. I will praise you. I don't understand at all. How's that like the best verse? It's because not of what you see in Psalm 22.

[38:13] You ready? It's how the writer of Hebrews quotes that verse. Look at Hebrews 2 and verse 9.

[38:25] This is the part you can get excited if you want to get excited, alright? But we see Him, Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels. He was made man. Crowned with glory and honor.

[38:37] He was crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that He for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should be the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

[38:53] For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That's why, now this is a great verse, it's why He's not ashamed to call us brothers saying, I will tell of Your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation.

[39:12] I will sing Your praise. Psalm 22, verse 22. In other words, the writer of Hebrews takes Psalm 22, verse 22 and applies it right here smack dab in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

[39:28] And here's the point, listen to me. Through Jesus' greater tragedy, His suffering, death, crucifixion, abandonment because of our sin, He was crowned with glory and honor.

[39:40] Through what? The resurrection. Jesus' life is the ultimate tragedy to triumph story. And because of that, His life guarantees that your life will end in triumph.

[39:56] You want to know how? Because it already has! Your life is the resurrected life if you're united with Jesus. You have already been triumphant.

[40:09] In fact, Jesus, now you see where this verse comes alive, isn't afraid to call you sinner. Brother.

[40:21] Brother. That's family adoption language. Notice it on the screen. Listen. In Psalm 22, verse 22, David is saying, I'm not ashamed to be identified with God.

[40:38] The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 2 takes that same verse but applies it to the Gospel where Jesus is not ashamed to be identified with you.

[40:49] And you say, well, how then can you tell me that my story will be the triumphant story? Because your story is His story. Because He went from tragedy, suffering, to triumph, crowned with glory and honor through the resurrection, and you became His.

[41:09] So much so, He calls you brother. And that's how you know no matter where you are tonight, your story not only is going to end in victory, it already is victorious.

[41:28] His life, the greatest triumph life, is your life. So what are some applications as we walk away? A few quick things and we're out of here.

[41:39] First of all, I would just say to you, faith family, is that see God's silence as an act of grace. Some of you right now, you're in Psalm 22. Like you feel the abandonment that David feels.

[41:51] You feel silence. And what I'm arguing for from the text is that that's gracious. Listen, sometimes God loves you so much He doesn't say a word.

[42:03] Sometimes God loves you so much He doesn't say a word. I know that because God loved you so much He didn't say a word when His Son dried it out. Heaven is often silent because heaven wants you to work through the tragedy and the suffering and the hardship to get to the other side of triumph.

[42:28] Listen, trying to remove moments in your life where God isn't silent is like wanting a resurrection without a crucifixion. If you're going to get to the resurrection, you're going to have to go through the crucifixion.

[42:44] What I mean is if you're going to get to the place where you're confident that God is with you, you're going to have to go through the darkness of doubting He is. So see that season as a gift of God's grace.

[42:58] Secondly, is you will feel abandoned but you never are. You will feel abandoned but you never are. The reason why you can know that you're never abandoned is because, I love this, listen, listen, listen.

[43:10] Jesus is your abandonment substitute. He's your abandonment substitute. The reason why I can stand up here and say you will never actually be abandoned if you're a Christian is because you have a substitute for that abandonment and His name is Jesus.

[43:27] He took your abandonment on Himself so that you can with confidence know that even though you feel like He isn't there, He really is.

[43:38] I must say though, before I'm done, if you're here tonight and you're not a Christian and you die without putting your faith in Jesus, the abandonment of God for all eternity is what you will face.

[43:53] and I plead with you. Come to Christ. Let Jesus be your abandonment substitute so that you do not have to be separated from God for eternity.

[44:06] But that is where you're headed without Jesus. Jesus is only the abandonment substitute for those that trust Him with their life and put their faith in Him.

[44:18] Last point and we're out is regardless of life's tragedies or regardless of life's tragedies, your life is a life of triumph. Your life is a life of triumph. The resurrection is the proof that you will be delivered.

[44:33] Why? Because you already have been. You've already been delivered in Christ. So, listen, we're going to go through times where we feel like Vanessa. You feel rejected.

[44:44] You feel abandoned. It might be a few months that you feel this way. It might be like Vanessa 11 years. But the good news of the Gospel is this.

[44:54] It's not how your story is going to end. Here's how your story goes. I love this. Like this just preaches itself. Look at one of the headlines of the article of Vanessa that I read.

[45:07] For 11 years, an abandoned pup was ignored in a shelter. Then, a Savior showed. That's the Gospel.

[45:19] Amen? That is why you know tonight that your story is one of victory because a Savior showed. He took your place.

[45:32] And for three hours, one Friday was actually abandoned as He faced your sin upon the cross. And through that tragedy came the ultimate triumph.

[45:43] The ultimate triumph. And as a result of the complete and finished work of Jesus, faith family, you have not only been forgiven, you have not only been justified, you have not only been given victory, you have forever been adopted into the family of God.

[46:05] And if the resurrection proves anything, it's this. God never ultimately abandons His own. And all God's people said, Amen.

[46:16] Let's pray together. Let's pray.