WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.439 So we're going to look at Sam 13 tonight together and think about prayer because this is a Sam 00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:13.839 of prayer. 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:22.679 I want to start by talking about a movie though and if you've not seen Gravity, which is out 00:00:22.679 --> 00:00:25.480 six years ago so you should have seen it by now, if you've not seen Gravity and you're 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:29.519 worried about a spoiler alert, put your earphones in for a minute and don't listen to what I'm 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:34.399 going to say because I'm going to read to you from the Gravity script. 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:40.280 Now you have to imagine that I'm George Clooney, which isn't that hard, and I'm playing somebody 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:45.719 called Matt and then I'm also playing Sandra Bullock playing somebody called Ryan. 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:48.280 So there's two astronauts. 00:00:48.280 --> 00:00:55.039 One is George Clooney, his name's Matt, the other is Sandra Bullock and her name is Ryan. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:59.320 They've been on the space shuttle but it's been destroyed and now they're trying to save 00:00:59.320 --> 00:01:06.920 themselves by finding the International Space Station and Sandra Bullock, Ryan, has tenured 00:01:06.920 --> 00:01:13.439 herself to International Space Station but Matt, George Clooney, is drifting off into 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:15.960 space where he's going to die. 00:01:15.960 --> 00:01:18.400 So here's how the script goes. 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:22.879 Matt drifts away from the station into the empty space. 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:27.239 Ryan bumps up against the station pulled by the parachute. 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:32.000 She twists and turns before finally grabbing hold of a rail. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:38.239 Ryan says over the intercom, Matt, I'm coming to get you. 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:44.439 Matt says to Ryan, Ryan, you're going to have to learn to let go. 00:01:44.439 --> 00:01:52.199 Ryan stares at Matt's tiny figure in the distance, drifting off into the infinite darkness. 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:55.439 Matt's voice comes back over the intercom. 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:59.799 What kind of name is Ryan for a girl? 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:02.719 Ryan replies, my dad wanted a boy. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:06.600 Matt, are you close to the airlock? 00:02:06.600 --> 00:02:08.319 Ryan says not yet. 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:10.840 Matt says we'll just keep going. 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:14.520 Ryan arrives at the airlock. 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:16.879 Matt's voice comes back over the intercom. 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:24.079 So now that you have some distance between us, you're attracted to me, aren't you? 00:02:24.079 --> 00:02:26.199 Ryan, what? 00:02:26.199 --> 00:02:30.680 Matt says, well, people say I have beautiful blue eyes. 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:37.359 Ryan replies, you, you have beautiful, you have beautiful blue eyes. 00:02:37.359 --> 00:02:41.479 Matt says, I have brown eyes, that hurts. 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:43.719 She looks at Matt's figure receding. 00:02:43.719 --> 00:02:47.120 Matt, you know Ryan has a nice name for a girl. 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:50.120 Wow, you should see the sun in the Ganges. 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:52.520 It's amazing. 00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:59.240 Ryan starts to respond, then falters, watching Matt's figure grow ever smaller. 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:07.120 The sad cruelling of Hank Williams crackles through the dying radio, and then static hisses. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:11.319 Static again as Matt falls deeper into the distance, becoming lost in a sea of white 00:03:11.319 --> 00:03:15.239 specks and transmission ends. 00:03:15.239 --> 00:03:16.239 So that's the story of gravity. 00:03:16.239 --> 00:03:18.799 Sorry if I've ruined the movie on you. 00:03:18.799 --> 00:03:23.799 Here he is, George Cleary, looking gorgeous in a space suit after a spacecraft has been 00:03:23.799 --> 00:03:24.799 destroyed. 00:03:24.799 --> 00:03:30.439 And isn't he witty and wry and gorgeous and lovely and well-meaning as he floats off into 00:03:30.439 --> 00:03:33.879 the never-ending darkness of death? 00:03:33.879 --> 00:03:39.799 And sometimes, you know, life feels really awful and terrible. 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:44.120 We feel like we're staring into the abyss, and all we can try and do is sort of calm 00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:50.719 ourselves and tell some good stories that make us feel that life is worth something. 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:54.840 We're one of the most blessed and privileges of all generations. 00:03:54.840 --> 00:04:00.280 We have more materially than most people could ever imagine. 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:06.120 So we're a blessed generation, but we're also a very hurting generation. 00:04:06.120 --> 00:04:14.280 We've never had it so good at one level, but we've never found it so hard at another level. 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:17.959 We're more anxious than any previous generation. 00:04:17.959 --> 00:04:19.560 We feel trapped. 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:21.560 We feel inadequate. 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:27.720 We bear the curse of constant comparison on social media, and we're always made to feel 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:30.959 like we never quite measure up. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:32.759 We get down. 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:35.360 We get sad. 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:37.080 We're lonely. 00:04:37.080 --> 00:04:39.240 We're afraid. 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:41.879 And in the midst of all that, we've got nothing to believe in. 00:04:41.879 --> 00:04:49.160 So we're offered therapies, medications, and techniques, which might soothe us for a while, 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:56.520 but don't promise or offer any lasting answers, because there are no answers, are there? 00:04:56.520 --> 00:04:58.560 Life is where it is. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:04.480 We live in the edge of the abyss, and if Hollywood is to be believed, the best thing 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:11.480 that we can do is to tell each other good stories, be witty and kind, be brave and generous, 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:18.680 be handsome, because if you don't, the terror that lies within will eat you up. 00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:20.080 So life is hard. 00:05:20.080 --> 00:05:21.720 We all know that. 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:24.240 We all suffer. 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:27.600 And often we don't know what to make of that. 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:35.560 First bereavement, loneliness, relationship breakdown, ill health, unemployment, trauma. 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:41.040 The weight of human suffering forces itself on us. 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:44.439 And that makes us ask questions about God, doesn't it? 00:05:44.439 --> 00:05:48.920 If God cared, this wouldn't happen. 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:52.960 If God cared, He would be answering me right now. 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:57.919 If God was really there, I wouldn't be going through this. 00:05:57.919 --> 00:06:06.159 How can God be silent when I'm going through so many hard and horrible things? 00:06:06.159 --> 00:06:10.199 Sometimes we just say to ourselves, I can't take it much longer. 00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:13.279 How does God expect me just to keep going? 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:18.919 So I'm going to talk about two or three things to do with truth and hope. 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:24.840 And the first thing I want to talk about is when the truth doesn't touch you. 00:06:24.840 --> 00:06:27.520 So we've got a Psalm full of truth. 00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:31.920 And the key truth of the Psalm is found in verse 5. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:36.720 So if you just look at your Bible for a minute, you've got verse 5 there. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:38.040 There's the central truth of the Psalm. 00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:43.319 And the central truth of the Psalm is a truth about God, as it should be. 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:48.759 And it's a truth about God's steadfast covenant love. 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:52.879 So this Psalm proclaims one very important idea. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:56.920 God's love is unending and unchanging. 00:06:56.920 --> 00:07:01.759 The Psalmist says, I trust your steadfast, your unfailing love. 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:05.879 My heart rejoices in your salvation. 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:10.920 So the Psalmist's teaching us something very important then, that God is good. 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:16.039 He's a God of covenanted promised love that can't be broken. 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:22.120 God's more reliable and trustworthy than we've even begun to imagine. 00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:27.280 God will not let us down and God will not let us go. 00:07:27.280 --> 00:07:32.960 So when our hearts are full of pain and life is worse than we ever thought it might get, 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:36.560 we can still have joy in God. 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:41.200 The Bible promises that God works everything for good. 00:07:41.200 --> 00:07:43.960 We don't know the reason for many things. 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:48.000 We don't know the reason for all the experiences that we go through at any time. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:53.759 But at least we know there is a reason that God wants to bring good through the things 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:59.839 that hurt, that God wants to bring us closer to Him and use our suffering to help us grow 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:03.120 near to Him. 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:07.719 God will work through hard things to give us a bolder, brighter, better grasp on His 00:08:07.719 --> 00:08:10.599 beauty and kindness. 00:08:10.600 --> 00:08:15.600 So that's the central truth of this Psalm. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:16.760 So is that it then? 00:08:16.760 --> 00:08:17.760 Problem solved? 00:08:17.760 --> 00:08:19.560 Everything's good again? 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:25.600 Well, the unfortunate reality of life from our perspective, of course, is it's never 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:29.840 quite that simple, is it? 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:38.519 Even when we believe that these things are true, it can be really hard to hold on to them 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:47.360 when we're going through sorrow and fear and loneliness and anxiety. 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:50.759 Sometimes it feels like our faith isn't enough. 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:53.600 Sometimes it feels like God's not enough. 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:58.720 And sometimes even for the Christian it feels, well, God's not even there. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:05.840 Whatever this Psalm says is true just doesn't feel real to me. 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:08.960 Maybe God isn't listening to me. 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:12.639 Maybe God's not going to be there when I really need Him. 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:17.240 So sometimes our problem is not just that we don't know the truth, but sometimes the 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:23.560 problem is that the truth doesn't seem to touch us. 00:09:23.560 --> 00:09:29.480 And that's a dilemma then, because what do we do when the truth doesn't seem to help? 00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:34.720 And so I want to say secondly, keep moving towards God. 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:39.000 His truth doesn't seem to help, it doesn't touch us, but nevertheless I want to say to 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.960 you keep moving towards God. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:46.480 Because when the Bible starts speaking to you or when you feel that God's let you down 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:52.840 or He's not interested or He's forgotten about you or cast you off, then the temptation 00:09:52.840 --> 00:10:01.360 for us is to move away from God, to turn our back, to curve in on ourselves, to curl up 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:08.039 in a ball, to try and fix our own problems or find another solution or simply to go to 00:10:08.039 --> 00:10:16.560 things that comfort us and give us pleasure and drown our sorrows in some kind of way. 00:10:16.560 --> 00:10:20.200 So that's one thing that we sometimes are tempted to do. 00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:27.720 God isn't listening, God isn't helping, so I'm just going to find another way of coping. 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:32.320 The psalmist recommends not to take that path but to find prayer. 00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:35.399 Okay, that seems a bit obvious, doesn't it? 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:39.200 But that's what the psalm says. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:46.600 But what the psalm says is this, it says, pray like you've never really prayed before. 00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:55.680 When life feels rough, when things are terrible, and when God seems absent, the answer isn't 00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:02.279 to stop talking to God but the answer is actually to really begin talking to God in the most 00:11:02.279 --> 00:11:08.000 real and incredible way that you've ever spoken to God. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:14.519 In other words, when things are at their worst, don't go silent but instead pray some really 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:27.399 wild, big, bold prayers, maybe you've never prayed or maybe you only pray the shallow 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:36.319 kind of prayer, maybe your prayers are trite, banal or meaningless. 00:11:36.319 --> 00:11:42.840 Many of us think that prayer is like having a cup of tea with great anti-Beti. 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:47.720 She only sees her every few years, she lives in a very quiet house, it's a bit like a 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:55.560 dusty museum, and conversations with anti-Beti are done in whispers and platitudes with bone 00:11:55.560 --> 00:12:01.120 china tea cup, shortbread, lace doilies and polite chit chat. 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:05.360 I bet you that's a fairly good description of your prayer life. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:13.279 Not chit chat with a God of heaven and earth, platitudes uttered to the Almighty because 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:19.680 your prayer life doesn't really go to the things that are really happening. 00:12:19.680 --> 00:12:28.320 Bland conversations that avoid anything remotely personal or difficult or controversial. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:32.399 Can you talk to God about controversial things? 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:33.399 Of course. 00:12:33.399 --> 00:12:35.639 Can you talk to God about personal stuff? 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:36.639 Yes. 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:37.639 Can you talk to God about difficult stuff? 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:39.319 Yes. 00:12:39.319 --> 00:12:44.919 Because when we look at prayer in the Bible, prayer in the Bible is wild. 00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:45.919 It really is. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:48.360 It is fierce. 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:58.519 And prayer often explodes out of the pages of the Bible in anguished cries between broken 00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:09.000 people who have given up on platitudes, crying out to the God who said he cared but seems 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:17.480 to have disappeared off for a cup of tea with anti-Beti as ignoring all your phone calls. 00:13:17.480 --> 00:13:24.720 So this is one of those Psalms that teaches us to forget the platitudes of prayer and 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:31.680 learn to really pray big, bold, wild prayer. 00:13:31.680 --> 00:13:35.800 There's a message Bible that's called the Message Bible. 00:13:35.800 --> 00:13:40.800 It was translated in the 1970s by a hippie and it reads like it was translated in the 00:13:40.800 --> 00:13:44.759 1970s by a hippie but it's quite useful sometimes. 00:13:44.759 --> 00:13:53.519 And the Message Bible in Psalm 13 reads like this, long enough, oh God, you have ignored 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:56.319 me long enough. 00:13:56.319 --> 00:14:03.079 I'm looking at the back of your head long enough, long enough. 00:14:03.079 --> 00:14:06.199 I've carried this ton of trouble. 00:14:06.199 --> 00:14:12.879 I've lived with a belly full of pain long enough. 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:21.879 All my arrogant enemies are looking down their noses at me hoping I die long enough. 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:28.519 You see when they read this Psalm written by King David of Israel, it is a howl of 00:14:28.519 --> 00:14:29.919 pain. 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:33.080 He is howling to the heavens to God. 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:39.279 Verses 1 and 2 tell us that he's been suffering for a long time, don't they? 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:40.879 Can you hear him crying? 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:45.919 How long, oh Lord? 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:48.799 Will you forget me forever? 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:52.839 How long will you hide your face? 00:14:52.839 --> 00:14:57.359 How long must I take counsel and have sorrow in my heart? 00:14:57.359 --> 00:15:05.679 How long, how long will my enemy be exalted over me? 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:10.199 God seems unavailable, not for a minute or an hour or a day or a week but for months, 00:15:10.199 --> 00:15:11.199 even years. 00:15:11.199 --> 00:15:13.639 God is unavailable. 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:17.719 Uninterested it seems, out of contact. 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:22.279 And so he starts to think that he'll never see God's face or know God's presence again, 00:15:22.279 --> 00:15:26.440 that the things that he thought he knew about God aren't actually true. 00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:31.800 Verse 2 is about his mental and emotional struggles and scars. 00:15:31.800 --> 00:15:37.480 How long do I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day long? 00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:41.480 Can you hear him? 00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:45.200 Can you understand him? 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:50.400 How long are my enemies exalted over me? 00:15:50.400 --> 00:15:53.520 God's ignoring his parents' sorrow and so what does he do? 00:15:53.520 --> 00:15:58.120 He doesn't turn away from God, but he doesn't just repeat platitudes either. 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:03.440 He howls, howls to heaven in response. 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:08.120 God wants to hear your real prayers, not your fake prayers. 00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:13.560 He wants to hear genuine prayers, not platitudes. 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:18.759 He doesn't want the sugar-coated version of your life because, guess what? 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:21.039 He doesn't see the sugar-coated version of your life. 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:26.519 He sees the real you and the real cries of your heart and the real struggles and the 00:16:26.519 --> 00:16:31.639 real sorrows and fears. 00:16:31.639 --> 00:16:38.639 In verse 3, the psalmist is screaming out for answers, crying out, bellowing to heaven 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:45.039 for light because he says, I can't keep going. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:49.439 I can't do this any longer, Lord. 00:16:49.439 --> 00:16:55.439 Give me light or I will sleep this sleep of day. 00:16:55.439 --> 00:17:04.639 That is a soul in trouble, weeping, crying for help from heaven. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:10.200 And that's how God teaches us to pray. 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:16.880 So you don't need to feel ashamed when you're anxious, where you're despairing or where 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:17.880 you're angry. 00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:27.840 But what you do need to ask is, how do I keep my despair and my anger from destroying me? 00:17:27.840 --> 00:17:30.640 Cry to the Lord. 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:33.320 Emotions are the language of the soul. 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:37.359 They are the cry that gives the heart a voice. 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:44.039 They help us to tell God what's going on and to tell others as well, to say that we are 00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:46.679 hurting people. 00:17:46.679 --> 00:17:49.119 So when we feel in this way, we need to do two things. 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:52.079 We need to move towards God and cry out to Him. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:56.639 But we also need to move towards others and tell a friend. 00:17:56.639 --> 00:17:59.679 So when you feel like this, I would say, do two things. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:05.120 Pray to God and then ask a friend to pray for you as well. 00:18:05.120 --> 00:18:08.560 Tell God I'm depressed. 00:18:08.560 --> 00:18:11.600 Tell God I'm lonely. 00:18:11.600 --> 00:18:14.560 Tell God I've been hurt by someone. 00:18:14.560 --> 00:18:19.240 Tell God I feel terrible and I don't know why I feel so terrible. 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:21.560 Tell God and tell a friend. 00:18:21.560 --> 00:18:23.039 Tell your friend I'm depressed. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:24.920 Tell your friend I'm lonely. 00:18:24.920 --> 00:18:28.500 Tell your friend I've been hurt by someone. 00:18:28.500 --> 00:18:31.240 Tell your friend I feel terrible and I don't know why. 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:34.039 Please, please pray for me. 00:18:34.039 --> 00:18:37.400 Pray big, bold, wild prayers. 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:39.599 Even Jesus were told. 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:45.759 In the book of Hebrews were told this, chapter 5 verse 7, Jesus called to the Father with 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:50.039 loud cries and tears. 00:18:50.039 --> 00:18:55.039 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:58.920 cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death. 00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:03.079 And He was heard because of His reverence and submission. 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:09.920 If Jesus had to pray like this, you will end up praying like this as well. 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:14.319 Last year I read a book by Joni Erikson Tadder called When God Weeps. 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:20.000 And she's older than me, but when she was a teenager, she had a diving accident. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:22.920 She became quadriplegic. 00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:29.519 And talks about her days in hospital recovering from her accident or didn't learn how to live 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:30.960 after her accident really. 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:39.560 And the anger, the despair she felt at the loss of the use of all her limbs. 00:19:39.560 --> 00:19:43.279 She just says, all I wanted was to die. 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:46.440 And I was furious with God that He wouldn't let me die. 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:53.600 But she then says, the Psalms have been a huge place of learning for me. 00:19:53.600 --> 00:19:55.799 Because there I learnt to pray. 00:19:55.799 --> 00:19:57.960 The Psalms are a gyroscope, she says. 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:00.120 They keep moving things level. 00:20:00.120 --> 00:20:03.519 They are the voice of God that steals the wave. 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:07.039 They're an anchor holding steady and turbulent waves. 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:14.480 They stabilize, reminding us and teaching us solid rock-like truth. 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:17.200 So move towards God, cry out. 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:20.880 When truth doesn't touch you, don't turn away. 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:21.880 Move towards God. 00:20:21.880 --> 00:20:26.240 And then last thing, just this, move towards hope. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:31.120 The Psalms give us a language to speak to God and vent our anger and our fear and our 00:20:31.120 --> 00:20:33.240 distress. 00:20:33.240 --> 00:20:37.960 In the kind of way that we begin to move up from the bottom of the pit and out of the 00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.200 darkest place towards hope. 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:47.319 We're moving towards God, even though it's messy, tear-filled and hard. 00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:51.120 And as we do so, God's at work in us. 00:20:51.120 --> 00:20:54.240 And He's moving us to a place that's more hopeful. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:59.120 But that's not a quick process. 00:20:59.120 --> 00:21:03.640 It can last a very, very long time. 00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:12.200 In this Psalm there are four verses of complaint, but only two verses of assurance. 00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:19.520 There's a huge step change in this Psalm between verse four and verse five. 00:21:19.520 --> 00:21:24.440 In verse four, He's crying out about His enemies prevailing over Him. 00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:29.440 In verse five, He's found a place of rest. 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:40.799 But who knows how many days, months or years it took the psalmist to make that journey 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:43.279 from verse four to verse five. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:45.680 We don't know. 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:47.480 Hope. 00:21:47.480 --> 00:21:51.360 Where is our hope? 00:21:51.360 --> 00:21:56.640 I remember when I was a student training for ministry, I went to another free church 00:21:56.640 --> 00:22:04.320 in Edinburgh called the Clue Free Church, and there was an old minister, an old geezer 00:22:04.320 --> 00:22:06.360 preaching called Clement Graham. 00:22:06.360 --> 00:22:10.600 And Clement Graham was a very eloquent man who taught for many years and was principal 00:22:10.600 --> 00:22:14.920 of the Free Church College, now Edinburgh Theological Center. 00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:23.600 And he was talking about his own struggles with depression and doubt and fear. 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:29.959 And he sort of spoke of it just going down and down and down into this pit of darkness. 00:22:29.959 --> 00:22:34.439 And he said, you know, when I get to the rock bottom, he says, when I get to the very darkest 00:22:34.439 --> 00:22:41.319 place, the only thing I can do is hold on to the cross of Jesus Christ. 00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:44.000 I've never forgotten him saying that. 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:49.439 I was so surprised to hear him talking about his doubt and struggle and so impressed with 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:54.600 where he found his hope. 00:22:54.600 --> 00:22:57.480 For David, hope was found in the promises of God. 00:22:57.480 --> 00:23:04.880 I trust your covenant love expressed in the Torah, the tabernacle. 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:09.559 But where's the covenant love of God promised and shown to us? 00:23:09.559 --> 00:23:14.000 It is shown and seen in the cross. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:19.400 The cross is a great sign that God keeps his promise of love. 00:23:19.400 --> 00:23:24.759 The cross is a great sign that God will not back down and that God will never give up 00:23:24.759 --> 00:23:25.759 in you. 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:26.759 Why? 00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:35.560 Because he's already sent his son to suffer for you and to bear your sorrow in your wounds. 00:23:35.560 --> 00:23:40.280 In Romans chapter 8 verse 32, the apostle Paul says this, he who did not bear his own 00:23:40.280 --> 00:23:43.560 son but gave him up for us all. 00:23:43.560 --> 00:23:47.280 How will he not also freely give us all things? 00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:52.200 I've already crucified Jesus for you, he says. 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:59.039 You know then I'll do everything else you need to get you safely home. 00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:04.759 So we go to the fact, to the truth of the cross and we entrust ourselves to that pledge 00:24:04.759 --> 00:24:07.160 of God's love. 00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:11.759 The cross is a place of both suffering and joy. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:17.240 It is crucifixion and resurrection. 00:24:17.240 --> 00:24:20.759 Crucification power is found at the foot of the cross. 00:24:20.759 --> 00:24:27.200 New beginnings, new light, new hope. 00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:34.640 The cross is a place where the storm has come because the love of God is poured out at the 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:38.200 cross. 00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:48.600 The cross is a place where God says you may not get answers but you can have me. 00:24:48.600 --> 00:24:57.840 You may have so much unanswered pain but you have the embrace of the Father in heaven. 00:24:57.840 --> 00:25:03.279 So you can howl but you have hope. 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:10.359 At the end of this, the Samhitan says he will look back and worship one day. 00:25:10.359 --> 00:25:12.559 Verse 6, I will sing to the Lord, why? 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:15.319 Because he has dealt bountifully with me. 00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:19.399 One day he's going to look back, singing with praise to God and look back and say, yeah 00:25:19.399 --> 00:25:27.359 God, you were good to me, you dealt bountifully with me. 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:34.879 In the movie Gravity, Matt tells Ryan to think about only one thing, getting home. 00:25:34.879 --> 00:25:40.119 Because how gorgeous the sunrise looks over the Ganges. 00:25:40.119 --> 00:25:47.079 So we are looking forward to the day when we are home in the new creation with Jesus. 00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:51.279 Because one day you will, no matter how hard life is for you, one day you will look back 00:25:51.279 --> 00:25:54.479 with worship. 00:25:54.480 --> 00:26:00.759 You will look back with praise and you will say the Lord has dealt bountifully with me. 00:26:00.759 --> 00:26:03.079 Because then the whole story will make sense. 00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:08.279 Every bump, every turn will fall into its place. 00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:12.440 By then every sorrow will have become a joy. 00:26:12.440 --> 00:26:17.759 And by then every wound will have been healed. 00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:25.319 Because we know that sorrow lasts for a night and sometimes it's a very long night. 00:26:25.319 --> 00:26:31.519 But God promises joy comes in the morning. 00:26:31.519 --> 00:26:37.400 And a morning will come that is the last morning. 00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:44.200 The morning that never ends with a joy that never ends. 00:26:44.200 --> 00:26:51.799 And whether there is no night to fear, that's the promise of the Gospel. 00:26:51.799 --> 00:27:00.319 And in that promise we look to Jesus who bears our wounds and shares our suffering. 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:07.880 Who cry from the cross, God, God, why have you forsaken me? 00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:17.160 When we get to the new creation there's only one person who is still wounded. 00:27:17.160 --> 00:27:20.680 That's Jesus. 00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:29.560 He will carry the scars of his suffering forever so that you don't have to. 00:27:29.560 --> 00:27:37.280 Because his hands are wounded, you know that one day he will finally heal all your wounds 00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:41.359 too, you will be made whole. 00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:52.720 And so today God invites you to real, honest, heart-crrying prayer. 00:27:52.720 --> 00:28:01.839 Who you are, what you struggle with, all the heart and the anxiety, the sin and the suffering. 00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:10.359 God says take it to me and into that through the cross of Jesus I will bring you hope. 00:28:10.359 --> 00:28:15.559 I'm going to say a quick prayer, we're going to sing the Psalm and then we're going to 00:28:15.559 --> 00:28:16.559 be finished. 00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:20.720 Lord, we thank You that Your Word promises hope to those in darkness. 00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:24.319 It promises comfort to those who suffer. 00:28:24.319 --> 00:28:27.639 We thank You that Jesus is our comfort. 00:28:27.640 --> 00:28:32.480 He is our joy and He is our strength and so we pray that by faith we might have Christ 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:33.480 tonight. 00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:40.520 And we pray for those of us who struggle to get hold of spiritual reality. 00:28:40.520 --> 00:28:45.360 We pray for those of us who struggle to be real with You about what's happening in our 00:28:45.360 --> 00:28:53.800 lives that You will teach us to pray and that we will learn to pray the way the Psalms pray. 00:28:53.799 --> 00:29:00.799 In Jesus' name we ask.