[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning again, and I'm weak Chima. I'd like to see all the graduates we have in the room. We had several in the first service. Not everybody could be here for this one, but if you're a graduate, you were able to make this service. Would you take just a second? Stand up so we can see you anywhere in the house? We got a few of you here. Wonderful.
Great.
That's so awesome. Congratulations. We're proud of you all.
Wonderful. Wonderful to have you here this morning and to celebrate you. You know those three levels of honors they have. What is that? Summa cum laude. They have. Magna cum laude. They have cum laude. I graduated. Thank the laude. So that.
So it's all right. We got out. We got through it. Right. But it's just great to see you guys. We're in a new series where we're taking some of the psalms and we're kind of looking at them because the songs of the psalms are so powerful. They really are. Because each of those psalms convey an experience.
You know, the most powerful music that you listen to are. Music is music that was written to communicate an experience, Whether it's a secular song or a sacred song.
It's one thing for the music to connect with you and kind of hit your hands or hit your feet, but it's another thing for the song to hit your heart.
If you're an artist, I would tell you, as you compose poetry or as you compose stories or as you compose music, always shoot for the heart.
Shot to the heart. You know, go for the heart. Because if you hit the heart, you'll hit everything else that's important.
And the songs that really resonate you are songs that made you feel something, songs that moved you. Even now you probably have your song. You hear a song on the radio, and it brings back a memory. You connect the song to experiences you had in life. Well, the person that composed that song composed the song because it was connected to a memory that they had in their life.
Songs that are just written to sell seldom do as well as songs that are written to communicate. That's the power of hymns. That's the power of a lot of the worship music that we sing is because those artists wrote those words out of an experience they had in life.
Some of it is heavy, some of it is happy, some of it is motivational, some of it is inspirational.
I mean, every song that is written communicates something a little different. And you typically will listen to a song to connect the mood that you're feeling on any given day.
So I'm saying that just to say, when you read the psalms, understand that the writers of those psalms were writing songs out of an experience that they had had.
That's why someone as well said that the psalms touch every emotion that we can feel.
Happy and sad and glad and bad.
It's all there, success and failure. All of those songs are in the Psalms. And this morning, we're going to look at probably the most famous writer of the Psalms, the psalmist David, and we're going to look at a moment in life where he wrote about an experience and he describes in this song how he was feeling when he went through the thing that he was going through.
And when you read the lyric and you understand his feeling, and I'll try to set you into the song so that you can relate it into your life. You see, the power of the song was in that he's honest with how he's feeling.
He doesn't pull up. He tells you exactly how he feels in the moment that he's writing this.
I mean, you know, David, God had a purpose and a plan for his life from a very early age.
And I would say to you this morning, if you're a graduate from high school or graduate from college or technical school, God has a plan for your life.
I would go so far as to say I think we are immortal until God is finished with us. I think the only reason you and I are in this room or those of you watching online are still here if you, is because God has something for you to do. He's got a plan. He's got a purpose for your life.
You go back to what he said in Ecclesiastes 3. To everything there is a season, and there is a time to every purpose under heaven. I've told you, life is made up of seasons. And within those seasons, God will connect your time with your purpose. And as long as you have purpose, God will give you time.
And the minute your time is up, I should say, the minute your purpose up, your time is up. And God will call you home and you'll be absent from the body present with the Lord. We had one of our longtime members who went to heaven yesterday, James Wilson.
And I'll do James service one day this week.
Young man left three children and a wife and a family that loved him dearly.
And yet his time, for whatever reason, our time, his family's time with him was not up. But for some reason, God said, okay, James, that's all I've sent you there to do. Come home. And he stepped from the temporal, and he stepped into the eternal. And that's exactly how it works.
So we're gonna be here as long as God has purpose for us. And I would tell you, regardless of the stage or the season of life you find yourself in this morning, as long as you have purpose, you'll have time.
But can I tell you something you need to be prepared for?
People who possess the greatest amount of potential are people who will also face the greatest amount of problems.
I think sometimes God will allow the problems to connect to the. To the. To the potential because he's developing something in our life that only trouble can develop for us.
Tribulation works. Patience, right? Hard times works for a reason. All things. Romans 8:28. Works together.
Good, bad, happy, sad. All things work together for good. To those who love God, those who are called to his purpose.
If you ever go into a gym and you do resistance training, you know that the way your muscles are stronger is because there's weight that comes down on you that you then push back up.
And it's the resistance that builds the muscle. The same thing is true of life experiences. It's the heavy experiences of life is what builds the endurance and builds the strength.
So I'm just saying, as you go through life and understanding, okay, I'm a person with purpose. I'm a person that God has created with potential, then don't be shocked when you have problems and you have difficulties, because those things are inevitable, and those things are inescapable. And there's no one in life that gets through life unscathed.
It doesn't matter how successful someone may appear to be. I promise you, if you spend a skinny minute and get to know them, they're dealing with something or they've dealt with something.
I mean, everybody in the room has gone through something or you may be going through something this morning. It's a part of the cycle of life.
There was a Supreme Court justice back in 1916, Louis Brandeis. And I love what Louis Brandeis, many of the famous quotes. For example, one of his most famous quotes is, sunshine is the best disinfectant. You've heard that one, right?
But I love what he said to his daughter. I think this was equally as powerful. He said to his daughter, she was going through a difficult time where she was frustrated, she was a little impatient. And he said, sweetheart, if you would only recognize that life is hard, things will get much easier for you.
Just accept the fact life is hard. And when you start there, things get a little easier for you because you begin to realize problems are not unique to you.
Problems are not unique to life. Problems are not indication that you're doing anything wrong. In fact, problems in your life may indicate you're doing the right thing.
Remember, people in places at the center of Holy Spirit activity will be people in places at the center of unholy spirit activity.
Anytime God is at work building, the devil will be at work blasting. And so you can just rest assured and be certain that problems that hit my life have a divine design attached to them. And God will use everything that happens to make me better, to make me stronger, to increase my faith, and to impact somebody's life for their good and for his glory. And that was true with David.
Gosh, from the time he's just a little shepherd boy watching his dad's sheep on the hillsides. Remember, he's out there guarding those sheep. And here comes a lion.
He talked about that experience of the lion approached and what it was good at. David was good with a slingshot.
And he took the lion and he. He killed the lion before it could kill the sheep. Nobody was around to applaud for him. Nobody was around to cheer him. But he faced some opposition. He faced some battles in private.
There was another time the Bible records that a bear approached the sheep. Same story, same outcome, took the slingshot, killed the bear, and you know what? Those two things were prepared him for it. Prepared him for what happened in 1st Samuel 17 when a giant appears in public.
He had already prepared for him in private.
And I'm saying the private battles that you face in life, that no one is around to cheer you on and no one's around to witness and no one is around to see those will prepare you to face something that's coming your way in the future.
Everything that happens today is preparing us for what will happen tomorrow. And God will use those experiences to make us better, better, make us stronger.
Because if God is going to use you greatly, he's got to prepare you for the road ahead.
And part of that preparation is the resistance training. Part of that preparation is some of the problems that we face. And it comes in two forms. It'll come in the form of opposition, and it comes in the form of oppression.
Opposition is what you face on the outside.
Opposition is the lion and the bear and the. And Goliath and all the other things that can happen to you. Oppression is what David faced on the inside.
The doubts, the anxiety, the fear, the worry, the stress.
And I'm saying those things are tactics the enemy will use and God will allow because he's strengthening you not just physically. He's strengthening you spiritually, and not just spiritually and physically. He's strengthening you emotionally through for the road ahead.
So when you get to this 40th Psalm that I want to share with you, a few thoughts this morning, this song of David, he's writing about an experience in life, and he uses this powerful metaphor, as great artists will do. They'll paint a great picture. So you can really kind of relate to what he's talking about.
And he talks about this experience he has in life where he feels like he's gone into a pit.
And nobody ever goes into a pit willingly. You would typically stumble or fall into a pit, or if you were in a pit, you were going down there to retrieve something that had fallen in there. But you didn't plan on going into a pit.
And it just wasn't a pit that he describes. He said, it is a pit that when I got into this pit, my feet were sinking in muck and mire.
Have you ever been in a situation that you felt like you didn't do anything to get yourself into it, and you're struggling to get yourself out of it, and while you're in the middle of it, you. You feel like you're having trouble even moving.
I don't know if you've ever walked across a muddy field or not and just almost stepped out of your shoes because they bogged down in the mud?
Well, that's the experience. He said, man, I'm just. I'm in a situation now. I didn't plan to do this.
I didn't. I didn't set out to be here today. I didn't set out to be there in this season of my life. I'm in a pit. I'm in a circumstance, and I can't get myself out of this.
And not only that, I feel like I'm just stuck in this muck and mire.
I was talking to Ashley. She's one of our worship leaders. You just heard her sing beautifully a moment ago. She was at the hospital all night last night with her mother in Law who may not live through the day.
And it wasn't that long ago when her mother went to heaven. She had her first Mother's Day without her mother.
And she was telling me just a moment ago before I came out to speak to you, she said, I just feel like sometimes, man, you just go out of one thing right into the other.
Have you ever had that experience?
And yet here she is singing, leading us in worship. But she's going through an experience of, I don't understand this.
I've just lost my mom and now I may be losing my mother in law and our family. She said, I just feel like we need a break.
You ever felt like that for your family? I just need a break.
I just need just a reprieve here. Just for a little. God just hit the pause button on my life a little. Just for a skinny minute. I need a break.
I told her, I said, well, there's a proverb where Solomon was writing and he talked about the experiences of life. And Solomon said, where the clouds return after the rain.
And what he meant by that is, just when you think the storm is over and just when you think you face the worst, you're here comes the clouds again and you're going, oh, dear Lord, another storm.
What in the world?
I'm saying, that's life. Life is a lot like that. And I don't have a lot of the answers, but I try to point people to the one who does. And I'm saying, david was there. And if you've ever been there, you understand where he is. When you read Psalm 40, he's in a pit. He feels like, I can't get myself out. And not only while I'm in the pit. I just, I feel stuck. I can't. I can't just. I can't seem to navigate. This is a difficult experience. And then he ends up saying, but God delivered me, God saw me, God heard me, he knew where I was.
And can I tell you this morning, you may have just gotten enough energy to get to this service this morning, and you may have just enough energy to have made it to the couch this morning with a cup of coffee to watch this service.
Can I tell you, God knows where you are, he knows what you're going through.
I can look at you and you can look at me. And Ashley could look at all of us and none of us would ever know what the other one is going through.
No one would know.
That's why I say to tell people all the time, everybody is broken.
We're just Broken in different places over different things.
You go to a restaurant a little while. You go to the grocery store in a little while. You pass your neighbor in a little while. Let me tell you, everybody's broken.
Everybody has been through something or they're going through something, or they're about to step into something.
That's why we ought to love each other. Cut some slack for each other to bear one another's burdens. The Bible says to pray for one another. Cause we're broken.
It's one of the reasons we go to church.
People don't show up at church because they've got their act together. They show up to church because they're honest enough to admit that they don't.
That's why I'm here.
I mean, church is just full of broken people that are seeking God and trying to navigate through the most difficult experiences of life.
I told you before when we started this church, that handful of folks that were with Cindy and me, that some of them are here this morning. When we started out, one of the things we prayed was, God, send us a room full of messed up people and look around, man. Mission accomplished. We're all messed up. I'm messed up.
Anybody that tells you they've got their act together is lying to you.
Nobody has it all together.
Nobody does. I'm just saying that we're all broken. Broken in different place, broken over different things. That was the story of David.
Holy cow.
And here he is talking about man, God, I'm in a pit. And in this case, it didn't happen to be a pit that he created on his own. Now, he did some of that, but not this time.
And he said, I can't get out of it.
God, unless you do something, nothing will get done unless you move. It won't happen unless you deliver.
I'm stuck.
And David said, but God delivered me.
And what I'm gonna show you in a moment when we read that last verse is David said, others saw how I went through that.
And as a result of them watching how I navigated through that, they believed in God, they trusted in him.
Can I tell you this morning, somebody is watching how you're going through what you're going through.
Somebody is seeing your attitude, your actions.
And the most.
Probably the most significant people that you'll have influence over in your entire life will be your children, your children, your grandchildren.
For some of you, it may be a little niece or a little nephew that just idolizes you.
I mean, somebody may. And they're watching accordingly. We'll Read this. In a second, they're going to see how you handle the pits in life, and you're gonna step into some.
It may be a pit of depression and despair.
It may be a pit of divorce and desertion.
It may be a pit of disease and even death.
I don't mean to sound negative this morning. I'm just saying I'm trying to keep this real and telling you at some point we're gonna drop into a pit.
David referred to himself as the apple of God's eye.
Talk about teacher's pet.
He said, man, I'm as close to God as any man who's ever lived could be close to God. I mean, the star of David is still the national flag of Israel. He's a big deal.
And here is a moment in his life that he writes about being a pit that he can't get himself out of, being stuck in something that he can't get delivered out of. And he said, when God finally delivered it, there were people who saw how I dealt with this, and they gave their hearts to Jesus as a result.
Look at this psalm, and then I'll comment and we'll go home.
Psalm 40. Look at verse one. He said, I waited patiently for the Lord.
I didn't have anything else to do. When you're in a pit, that's all you can do. Have you ever been in a situation where all you could do is just wait on God? You can't do anything else.
Maybe a hospital bed, maybe on a couch.
Maybe you're dealing with something emotionally that is so heavy that it's all you can do just to get up that day and function.
I mean, all you can.
The only energy you've got left is just to wait on God. I'm waiting patiently for the Lord. And notice it now. He inclined to me.
He inclined to me. And not only did he just. He leaned forward.
He leaned forward. Not that he's hard of hearing, but he wanted David to know you. You right there. I've got you.
I'm listening to you. I got a lot of kids, but I'm leaning into you. He said, he leaned into me and not only did he lean into me, he heard my cry. Notice what he did. He brought me out.
He brought me out of this horrible pit. Out of a miry clay he set my feet upon a rock he established my steps he put a new song in my mouth he took me from the mire and put me in the choir I'm a poet, don't know it and he said, even praise to our God. And here's what I said a moment ago. Many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord.
David said, many saw how I navigated the thing I was going through. They saw that and they feared. Not in the sense that they were afraid of God, but it means to reverence him, to respect him.
They saw, wow. God is awesome. That's what the idea of fear means, man. God is amazing. There's nothing he can't. I've seen what he did in my friend's life. For some, I've seen what he did in my mom and dad's life. I've seen what he did in.
I've seen God work.
Wow. You're in awe of his power. You're in awe of his ability. To fear him is to be in awe of him. Many will see it. And what do they do? They trust in the Lord because there may be a pit out there they're gonna fall in and they're gonna say, you know, I remember how he navigated. I remember how she went through that. And boy, if God took that care of them, he doesn't love her any more than he loves me. If he took care of her, he'll take care of me.
And notice three things that jumped out at me when I read the text that I want to share with you when we go home. Number one, he starts off with a problem that he faced.
He faced a problem.
And as I said a moment ago, if you are a person with potential and you are a person that has promised you'll be a person that sooner or later will have a problem.
And there are the problems, as David faced, that you'll bring on yourself. Some of them. You will.
Gosh. Read 1st Samuel. No, sorry. Read 2 Samuel 11:12. Remember, there's a time when he's supposed to go to fight in the battle, to lead his army into battle. And he stayed home.
He wasn't in the place he was supposed to be. And when he stays home, he sees Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop, and he has this affair with Bathsheba that results in the birth of a child and a man that was not where he was supposed to be. Not doing what he was supposed to be doing ended up where he wasn't supposed to be. And he ended up doing what he wasn't supposed to be doing.
That's why you hear me say a lot of Galatians 5, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
If you're doing what you should be doing, you cannot be doing what you should not be doing.
And the best way to keep from doing what you shouldn't do is just keep doing what you should do. Because as long as you do what you should do, you won't do what you shouldn't do.
So wake up every day and say, I'm going to do what I should do. If I don't do what I should do, I'm going to do what I shouldn't do. So I'm going to do what I should do. So I won't do what I shouldn't do.
And David didn't do what he should have done, and he did what he should not have done. Had if he done what he should have done, he wouldn't have done what he should not have done.
So in that case, there was an experience in his life where he did bring some stuff on himself.
But there's Goliath, there's a lion, there's a bear. There was a betrayal of his own son, Absalom. He didn't bring that on himself. There was Saul's jealousy and hatred of him. He didn't bring that on himself.
So I'm saying, sometimes the things that we face, we'll bring on ourselves. Sometimes the problems we face will be because of the work of other people. But I'm saying, you're gonna face a problem. And the song opens with that. It's really kind of the hook that brings you into the song, because you're hearing a song on the radio and all of a sudden you're connecting with a person that is going through a desertion. He's gone through a betrayal all of a sudden. Yeah, hooked you.
I got friends in low places.
All of a sudden you're going, man, I'm feeling that one. I'm feeling my heart is broken. Oh, gosh, I'm into that one now. I mean, it's the hook and David opens with by saying, man, I was in this terrible place. This is where I was. Here's the problem that I faced. But notice what he did. And this is significant. This is the second point.
There was a providence that he followed.
He pursued God, he pressed into God.
When you have problems, and you will, it will inevitably do one of two things to you. It will draw you closer to God, or it will drive you away from him.
And sometimes it'll do both.
You just go, two stepping with God.
Here we go with God. Here we go away from God. Now we're back with God. Now we're away from God. And you'll just do the two step for a while.
But what I would warn you about when you're doing the dance is remember, somebody's watching.
You have influence, maybe your kids.
When you walk away and you decide to come back, what they've seen when you walk away may impress them so much that they may not come back. They may, but they may not.
Give you an illustration. Remember John 21, when Simon Peter, the great apostle, when he got fed up and he said in John 21, verse one, I'm going fishing.
Now, there's nothing wrong with going fishing. That's not what he was saying. That's where you find a tooth and build a dinosaur. Don't do that. He's not saying there was anything wrong with that. Here's what he was saying. I was a professional fisherman before I met Jesus. I'm going to go back and do what I did before I ever got involved in ministry.
He quit.
And, man, if you've never wanted to quit or you never quit, you just didn't really. Probably hadn't gotten started yet.
I've quit a lot. I just didn't tell anybody about it.
I mean, there's a lot of times you just go, I just can't do this anymore. I just, oh, my gosh, I am burnt out.
And there's gonna be experiences in life. And Simon Peter, he was just boisterous. He was one of those personalities that you never wondered what he was thinking he's gonna take.
He said, boys, I'm going fishing. And here's the thing I didn't want you to miss.
The Bible says, look at John 21:1. We're going with you. That's influence.
You quit. We're quitting, too.
You're turning your back on God. We will, too.
God's not fair. We think that, too.
Is this the way, the outcome that you want? Well, this is where I am right now. And I'm just saying you're gonna have influence. And you have to think about it before you walk away from it because you may chase somebody with you.
So it's important how we navigate through this.
And the thing about David is, even in his moments of despair, instead of him driving it away from God, he instead let it draw him closer to God.
You're my only hope.
You have a loved one that dies. And I've been down that road. And you say, why didn't God heal them? And you got a choice to make. Am I going to trust God as I go forward? Because he didn't seem to come through with me on this situation. And he went ahead and took him home. But here's the hope I have. And the only hope I have.
If I have hope of ever seeing any loved one that I've ever lost again, that hope is found in Jesus.
I turn my back on him. I have no hope of ever seeing him again.
I'm saying the hope that we have is the fact. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. And heaven is a promised place for a prepared.
And when you put your faith in him and you lose someone, you're gonna see them again.
So I'm not gonna cut my nose off, spot my face.
I'm gonna keep my faith in Jesus.
And David decided he's my only hope. And so in the midst of this, he presses into God. And I don't want you to miss that term notice. He said, I'm waiting patiently on the Lord.
It's one thing to wait on God. It's another thing to wait patiently on God.
I'll illustrate it this way. You go to the light and you're waiting.
If the light skips a cycle.
Now you're waiting patiently.
You go to the checkout counter in a little while, and maybe you're at Kroger's and you're checking out, and you get all your food and you look and you got eight items.
So you go to the 10 items or less line.
And so you line up behind the guy that's got 14 items. Cause you just counted.
All right, it's one thing to wait patiently or to wait. It's another thing to wait patiently.
Patiently is when you don't count the items and go, are you on the wrong line?
Shouldn't you be over there?
Gosh, I want to tell you, let me chase one rabbit right here and I'll shut up.
I went to the bank one time with my dad years ago.
My dad was normally right on top of things. Right on top of things. So we're pulling through the drive through at the bank and my dad's making a deposit. So we pull up and traffic's really heavy, you know. So as we pull up to the window, he presses the button and the lady says, yes, can I help you? He goes, I need a deposit slip.
And she goes, okay, can you send me the thing?
There goes the cylinder.
And I'm going, what are the people behind me thinking right now?
Shouldn't we have done this before we got in line? Anyway, I'm just saying. I'm not saying anything. Cause he's my dad. And then here comes the thing. Bonk. And then he goes, hey, do you have a penk?
He gets a pen out, he finds the check. Now he's got to endorse the check.
And I'm looking over my window, hoping to God nobody behind me goes to our church, you know? You know, and I'm just going, oh, my gosh. So he signs the thing, he finally fills out the deposit. You know, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. You know, you're hearing that in your hair. And he puts it in the thing, sends it, sends it back over, gets a deposit made. Now I'm thinking, okay, we're going. He has less cash. He's sitting there counting the cash. 10, 20, 30. Got all my cash, puts it away.
Then he's going to pull out his checkbook and he's going to enter the. While we're still sitting there.
He's the last guy in the world you'd want to get behind, unless you're trying to develop the quality of patient waiting.
And finally we pulled out, and I said, dad, I love you, but we can never do this again.
You're gonna kill. You're gonna wear me out. You cannot do this. You gotta plan ahead, right? And so anyway, but I'm saying I learned something. I learned there is waiting and there's patient waiting.
Patient waiting is one more. It's when you're married, right? You remember when you got married, you got in the car, guys, and you're ready to go, and she's not quite ready, and you're going honking. Let me tell you what I learned. 42 years of marriage before Cindy went to heaven. Honking does no good.
Honking makes things worse.
If you don't honk to try to hurry her up. Can I tell you another thing that doesn't work? Going in the bathroom and sighing doesn't work. So, honey, you know what time we're supposed to be there?
No, no, I'm fine.
You know, none of that works. None of that works. You know what God's teaching you fellows? Patient waiting. He's teaching you how to wait patiently, right? How many you got it? Can I move on now? Am I in trouble? Too bad with something about you. So here we go. David was learning how to wait patiently. So he said, I waited on God. I'm pressed into him and God's teaching me. And here's the payoff.
Here's a third one. Notice the promotion he found. It's right there in the text. Let me give it to you. You might wanna underline this. First of all, he inclined to me. I touched on it a moment ago. David said, man, I sense God leaning into me. Number two. He heard me. He heard me. It's amazing to know. Have you ever prayed and wondered if God even heard your prayer? He heard you. He heard you. There's a beautiful story in Genesis 21 where Abraham had gone around God's plan for his life out of frustration because Sarah couldn't get pregnant. But, well, he and Sarah devised a scheme whereby they would get a child through Hagar, his handmaid. So out of God's plan for the life, he still has this affair with Hagar. And she has a son by the name of Ishmael. And there came a time when Sarah changed her mind about Ishmael and finally came to Abraham, said, you need to put that woman and that kid out. Put them out. I'm tired of them. I'm not. We're not doing this, you know, sister wives story anymore. And so the Bible says in Genesis 21, he sent him away.
And the Bible says that Hagar walked through the wilderness with Ishmael until she had ran out of resources, she ran out of food, she ran out of water. She couldn't bear the thought of her child dying in her arms. So the Bible says she lays the baby down and walks away from the baby. About as far, the Bible says, is a bow shot.
In other words, if you took a bow and arrow and you shot the arrow, about as far as that arrow could fly before it hit the ground is about how far Hagar walks from the baby. But here's the point of the story I'm telling you. The Bible says, when you read this, this is significant. It struck me one time when I read it. It says the Lord heard the voice of the child crying.
Wow.
Not that he didn't hear Hagar, but he heard the child.
And what had hit me when I read that is the littlest voice among us. God still hears it. The smallest voice among us. God still hears it. He knows he heard the voice of a child.
You may be sitting there this morning feeling insignificant or overwhelmed or in a pit you can't get out of. Can I tell you? You keep pressing into God, he will incline to you. He will hear you.
And notice what David said. He describes his deliverance. He said he brought me up.
He established my footing. He put something I'd had mud mire under my feet. Now I've got a rock under my feet. And you know what's significant about having a Rock under your feet. He's the rock.
And when he's your foundation. Listen, you may fall on top of that rock, but you'll never fall off of that rock.
And I would give you a bit of recommendation if you fall anywhere, fall at his feet.
He inclined to me. He heard my cry. He brought me up. He established my footing. And here's the last one. He put a new song in my mouth, even praise. He changed my tune. David said, man, I was singing the blues a little while ago. It was a sad country song. And now I'm singing praise to God.
And there's people on the sideline that have been watching how I've dealt with that. And he said, man, they're giving God praise, too.
And many of them, as a result of that, are gonna put their trust in him, too.
Some of you guys have kids that have seen how you navigate things, and it's impacted them in such a powerful way.
And one day, when they face something that they're going to face, they're gonna look back and remember how mom handled it, how dad handled it. And that'll be a source of strength to them.
So, man, don't give up, don't give in, don't give out. Like I said, if you fall somewhere, just fall at his feet.
You may fall on that rock, like I said, but you won't fall off of it. Just trust him and say, God, this is where I am and this is how I feel. And I promise you, sooner or later, you'll sense him inclining. You'll sense him hearing, you'll sense him delivering. He'll lift you up, he'll put you on the footing, and he'll give you a new song, a new attitude, a new outlook. Let's pray together.
Thank you, Lord, for your word.
Thank you for the beautiful song of Psalm 4.
I pray as we leave here today, regardless of where we are in that experience of life, we'll leave with encouragement, knowing that when the problems come and the pit happens, you're going to be faithful. You will never fail.
So help us, Lord, to look to you, to lean on you, to listen for you, to love you, knowing that you love us more than we can imagine. And you have a plan for us, Father, that we may not even be able to comprehend that you, as the apostle said, you do all things well.
Finally, Lord, I pray for those in the room who may never have trusted you as Savior, that this might be the moment in the closing of this service where they'll humble their heart and say, lord Jesus, with everything I know about me. I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. I place my all in you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
