Frustration, bitterness, resentment, anger—emotions we rarely associate with our spiritual lives, yet ones that inevitably surface when our expectations collide with reality. What do we do when God feels distant or his timing seems unbearably slow?
This episode explores the forgotten art of biblical lament—a practice modeled throughout Scripture that offers us a way forward when we're struggling with difficult emotions toward God. Drawing from Jonah's selfish complaint and David's honest lament in Psalm 13, we discover a crucial distinction that changes everything: while both men brought their complaints to God, only one ended with hope and praise.
The biblical pattern of lament includes four essential elements: directly addressing God, honestly expressing our complaints, petitioning for divine intervention, and concluding with an expression of trust. This final component distinguishes true lament from mere complaint, offering us a pathway through our darkest moments.
"The same storms that terrify the sheep also water the grass." This powerful image captures the heart of biblical perspective—our challenges often contain hidden provisions we can only see when we shift our gaze from inward turmoil to upward trust and outward service. When we find ourselves bitter or resentful, the solution isn't simply to pray differently but to see differently.
The sermon reveals how figures throughout Scripture—Job in his suffering, Asaph in his envy of the wicked, Habakkuk in his impatience, and Naomi in her bitterness—all eventually discovered that their painful chapters weren't the end of their stories. Like a father guiding his visually impaired daughter, God walks beside us through our limited understanding, teaching us to trust even when we cannot see.
Whether you're currently wrestling with disappointment or seeking to prepare for inevitable storms ahead, this message offers biblical wisdom for bringing your whole self—including your most difficult emotions—before a God who can handle your honesty and wants to lead you toward hope.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, I'll be reading from Psalms 13, verses 1 and 2,
and 5 and 6, and it's on page453 in the Pew Bibles.
Follow along while I read God'sWord.
Oh, how long, o Lord, will youforget me forever?
(00:20):
How long will you hide yourface from me?
How long must I take counsel inmy soul and have sorrow in my
heart all day?
How long shall my enemy beexalted over me?
But I have trusted in yoursteadfast love, my heart, your
salvation.
I will sing to the Lord becausehe has dealt beautifully with
(00:43):
me.
This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Thank you, sharon, much appreciated.
Crockett, appreciate you comingup and being support there as
well.
Well, hey guys, good morning.
Welcome to Midtree.
Excited to spend some time withyou.
I want to show you somethingfunny.
If you guys in the back will goahead and give me control of
the screens, that'd be great.
So I forgot.
We try to plan a lot of ourseries and our sermons.
(01:09):
Go ahead and throw it to mineif you don't mind.
There we go.
We plan them weeks and weeks inadvance.
Some of them are months inadvance, and this was a sermon
that I had been looking forwardto preaching for about a month.
Now let me tell you why.
The reason is after you spendtwo months in the Song of Songs,
in the Song of Solomon, whereGod is saying this is the
(01:33):
beautiful expression of whatlove is supposed to look like
Love from God to man, love fromman to a woman, love from a
woman to a man.
There is something that canbegin to happen in us.
Depending on the week, I am100% going to trip before this
day is out.
I'm good with it.
There's no way I'm standingbehind the pulpit the whole time
anyway, all right.
What begins to happen is this.
(01:54):
We can look at God's beautifuldesign by the way, you can do
this in anything and then welook at ourselves and we realize
we are far from God's design,realize we are far from God's
design, our relationships arefar from God's design, even if
we're doing our best, and werealize that God is sovereign in
all things.
And so what naturally begins todevelop in us when we see this
(02:19):
thank you, we have a lawn carecompany.
I don't know how they miss out,but as we like put our eyes
toward the ideal and especiallyas I've talked with lots of
spouses over Song of Solomon,it's like Will, I want to have a
great marriage, I want to havea great relationship, like I'm
putting in the work, I'm puttingin the time.
Here is what can happen.
(02:41):
We can get really frustratedwith God because, honestly,
where else would we put ourfrustration?
Yes, we can put it on ourselves, but if we are reading and
praying and in community, thereis this sort of expectation like
God, can't you throw me a bone,can't you meet me where I am,
and we can find ourselves angry,frustrated, bitter or resentful
(03:01):
toward God.
So I didn't think this partthrough, I didn't think about
what the stage was going to looklike for this sermon.
Do you do well to be angry, allright?
So let me kind of phrase thisfor us a little bit, because I
really want you to get the mostout of this.
I rarely do this.
(03:22):
In fact, I don't know if I'veever done this at mid-tree.
I did this in Thailand becausethere was a language barrier.
If you want it, these are allof the notes for today's sermon.
Okay, these are all of thethings that I'm going to put up
on the screen.
I don't do it because I'm astoryteller and I don't like you
knowing the end of the storybefore, like, we get there
(03:42):
together.
So I'm just gonna trust thatyou're not going to do that.
However, I've explained this toyou guys a number of times.
There's a difference inpreaching and teaching.
Okay, and I think pastors arecalled to do.
All of it Today is going tolead toward teaching.
So I'm gonna need you to sort ofshake off your summer and give
(04:04):
me a good 25 minutes of usingthe noodle that God gave you,
because that is how you're goingto get the most out of it.
Is the word of God going tospeak to our hearts?
Absolutely, our affections, ouremotions, absolutely.
But I want to begin by sayingthis I want us to begin by
thinking that this question doyou do well to be angry?
Is not mine.
(04:24):
This is actually God's questionwhen he looks at Jonah and the
Lord said do you do well to beangry?
So here's where I want us thismorning, before we go any
further and eventually, yes, wewill get to this beautiful,
beautiful place, but we do haveto start sort of in the clouds
to get there, the heavier clouds.
What are you frustrated about?
(04:45):
Especially, if you'll be honestwith yourself what are you
frustrated with the Lord about?
When you look at your life,when you look at your
circumstances, when you look atyour situation, what are you
bitter about?
Do you resent God for certainthings?
Are you legitimately angry?
Because what I want you to hearas we start is God can handle
that, and if I don't putanything on display today out of
(05:09):
the word of God, what I wantyou to know is God wants you to
come this way to him.
He desires for you to come thisway.
However, let's start with ourbrain.
God asked Jonah okay, jonah, doyou do well to be angry?
And Jonah thinks he does.
Jonah says, or the Bible says,it displeased Jonah exceedingly
and he was angry.
What upset Jonah?
(05:31):
The character of God, the factthat God was a forgiving God to
people that Jonah did not like,and he prayed to the Lord.
And that, by the way, ismassively important.
Jonah does pray.
He prayed to the Lord and hesaid oh Lord, is this not what I
said when I was yet in mycountry?
That's why I made haste to fleeto Tarshish.
I knew that you are a graciousGod.
(05:53):
You're merciful, slow to anger,abounding in steadfast love,
relenting from disaster.
By the way, he's quotingscripture.
So now we're looking at a guywho is angry at God, that prays
and has memorized scripture.
Therefore, now, o Lord, pleasetake my life from me You've been
there before For it is betterfor me to die than to live.
(06:15):
And the Lord then asks him thequestion hey, jonah, really, do
you really do well to be angry?
Now, here's what I want you tonotice.
If you were to just look atthis prayer, you would notice a
few obvious things.
Jonah looks at him and he sayshey, this is what I said.
(06:35):
I told you what was going tohappen.
This is why I did what I wasgoing to do, because I knew what
was going to happen, and I'mmostly concerned with what is
better for me.
If I were to take all of thisand summarize it, this is what
it would look like.
Jonah number one makes a selfishcomplaint.
He is not frustrated that Godis a gracious God.
(06:55):
He's frustrated that God is agracious God to people he
doesn't want God to be graciousto.
He wants God to be gracious tohim.
He wants him to be steadfast tohim.
He wants him to be gracious tohim.
He wants him to be steadfast tohim.
He wants him to be patient tohim.
But God, do you really need tobe patient to my enemy?
Do you really need to be kindto my enemy?
And then Jonah steps in.
He says look, I can fix this.
He plans to fix it.
(07:16):
If God is going to do this,then I'm just going to go there.
I don't want to be around a Godwho operates this way.
That may be who God is, but Idon't like it.
I don't trust it so much sothat he can see nothing worthy
of praise.
He looks at God and he sayswould you just take my life?
I'm finished, I'm done withthis, I'm just going to sit
(07:37):
under a plant for the rest of mydays and that is it.
Okay, now take a look at thescreen.
This is Jonah's prayer.
It's important to you, me all,for us to realize this.
The Bible calls this a prayer.
It does.
It says Jonah prayed to theLord and this is what he did.
Here is what I want you toleave knowing today.
(08:01):
How do I go to God when I'mbitter with him?
How do I go to God when I'mfrustrated with him?
How do I go to God when I'mfrustrated, resentful or angry?
And the Bible does tell us thisis what a biblical lament
actually looks like.
A lament, simply put, is apassionate plea to God about a
frustration or an injustice.
If you have ever been angryabout something you ought to be
(08:24):
angry for, you've been lamenting.
If you have ever beenheartbroken over something that
is heartbroken and you cried outto the Lord, or you threw a
shoe across the room, orwhatever you did, believe it or
not, you are in some form,lamenting.
I want to teach you how to doit biblically, because the
reality of it is all of us needto know how to do this If we're
(08:44):
Christians, especially if you'renot a Christian.
I want to show you thedifference.
What, zach, where Zach Dude thefact that you called the
ability of a Christian to have aGodward orientation, a
different vision, a superpower.
I went in the back and Ichanged my notes for the rest of
the sermon.
Do you want to know what thesuperpower of being a Christian
is?
It's that little piece in thebottom that I'm refusing to show
(09:05):
you.
Yet that's the superpower of aChristian.
But a biblical lament is fourthings.
Number one it is a directaddress to God.
This is you going to God withsomething?
This is not doubting God'sgoodness.
That's not a biblical lament.
Stewing in silence, gossipingaway our complaints, excusing
(09:27):
our bitterness, sweeping itunder the rug?
Not a biblical lament Posturingto get God's attention or
bargaining with him.
All right, god, if you will,just then I will always and
you've never always done thatthing.
Okay, if you've been followingthe word for 20 minutes, you
know this Bargaining doesn'twork.
(09:49):
But it is a direct address toGod.
You're allowed to complain.
I'll prove that to you.
You can describe to God howyour suffering feels and then
you can make a petition.
God, would you help me, wouldyou step in?
God is so okay with this thatthese are the Psalms in which it
happens.
(10:10):
Now, I know that barely any ofyou guys can read this, so I'm
just going to zoom in on acouple, okay, and do you know
what you will find?
By the way, a third of thePsalms are laments.
That doesn't necessarily meanthat a third of your life is
going to be a lament, but ifthere were a fraction, then I
don't think it's a horrible one.
Okay, now just look.
(10:31):
I'm not going to read these toyou, but do you see how
frequently oh Lord and my Godappears?
Can you see that?
It's because a biblical lamentis addressed to God?
This isn't you just dealing orstewing or convincing yourself.
A biblical lament is youdirectly addressing God.
This isn't you just dealing orstewing or convincing yourself.
A biblical lament is youdirectly addressing God.
(10:52):
Do you see any complaints here?
I'll give you a couple more.
You see any complaints in here?
I mean Psalm 64 literally sayshere is my complaint.
Psalm 55, I am in anguish.
Psalm 43, vindicate me.
That means somebody has treatedthem in an unjust way.
Psalm 70, deliver me.
By the way, that's just thefirst half.
On and on and on they go.
Are they asking God to step in?
(11:15):
Yes, over and over and overagain.
A lament is the honest cry of ahurting heart wrestling with the
paradox of pain and the promiseof god's goodness.
And here is where we begin tosee our superpower as a
(11:35):
christian begin.
Can god love me and bring paininto my life?
Can he?
Can it be loving for God tobring difficulty and pain into
my life?
If I'm a parent, would I wantto parent my children the way it
seems like God parents hischildren?
(11:57):
Now I want to show you thatfourth piece, but I don't want
to just tell it to you.
I want you to feel it.
So here is David in Psalm 13.
You've already listened toDavid when Zach read from him in
Psalm 16, I believe 16?
16.
Here he is a few chaptersearlier.
Here I got two challenges foryou while I read this.
(12:18):
Does David biblically lament?
Does he cry out to God?
Does he let him know why he'ssuffering?
Does he ask for to God?
Does he let him know why he'ssuffering?
Does he ask for God to step in?
Do you see that stuff?
And then my second question isthis what is it that David is
praying about?
Tell me the difficulty that youfind in David's life.
How long, oh Lord, will youforget me forever?
(12:40):
How long will you hide yourface from me?
How long must I take counsel inmy soul and have sorrow in my
heart all the day?
How long shall you hide yourface from me?
How long must I take counsel inmy soul and have sorrow in my
heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy beexalted over me?
Four times David's like?
How much longer?
How much longer?
This has been a hot one.
This isn't easy.
How long, how long?
How long?
How long?
Consider and answer me, o Lord,my God, light up my eyes lest I
(13:02):
sleep the sleep of death, versefour lest my enemy say I have
prevailed over him, lest my foesrejoice because I am shaken,
but I've trusted in yoursteadfast love, my heart shall
rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord becausehe has dealt bountifully with
(13:29):
me.
Now, jonah makes a selfishcomplaint, but David makes an
honest one.
It's not just that he iscomplaining.
I'm going to have to changecolors for this background.
All right, y'all tell me ifthis is better.
Is that better?
Okay, stick with y'all.
All right, jonah is complainingselfishly.
(13:51):
God, who you are is affectingme negatively.
David is complaining because heknows who God is and he wants
people to see God in the rightway.
God, if people know that I'myour guy, if they know I'm your
child and they see this in mylife, are they going to mistake
you?
Are they going to think you donot know, you do not care?
(14:12):
Jonah decides he is going tofix it, whereas David is
expecting God to fix it.
Jonah sees nothing worthy ofpraise, but David sees that
there is something always worthyof praise.
And this brings us to thesuperpower of the Christian.
(14:33):
Still speaking to your brainsright now Direct address to God.
When things go poorly, complain,describe your suffering to God.
You are invited to do so by athird of the Psalms, not to
mention other books of the Biblelike Lamentations, habakkuk, et
cetera.
Jeremiah, job, petition forhelp or intervention.
(14:53):
God, will you please step in?
But here is what David doesthat Jonah does not.
Don't forget, jonah did pray.
It isn't an issue of praying.
All right, yes, christian, youshould pray, but that isn't the
point.
That isn't an issue of praying.
All right, yes, christian, youshould pray, but that isn't the
point.
That isn't the main thing.
Here is what David does.
He expresses trust and hope inGod.
(15:14):
That is the whole difference.
That is the whole kit andcaboodle.
He gives this complaint God,you told me these things and I'm
confused.
He asks God to step in thatevil and injustice won't win.
Instead of taking his life, hehas the vision to say God, would
you give me life, would yougive me a desire for life?
And he ends it by saying yet Iwill praise the Lord.
(15:39):
There is always somethingworthy of praising.
All right now.
I gave you two questions.
Did David navigate this as abiblical lament?
All four of those things arethere.
Here's my question.
I double dog.
Dare somebody to answer outloud?
Because I can tell you're in anintrospective moment and nobody
(16:00):
ever wants to get it wrong.
What is David complaining aboutspecifically in his life?
Go, what is it Now?
Some of you grew up going to VBSsince you were four years old
and you know that David has hadall kinds of trouble.
Is this him fleeing evil, saul?
(16:21):
Do you see that in there?
Is it him living in thewilderness?
Is it him waiting on a promisedfuture?
Is it because of the loss of achild?
He experienced all of thosethings.
Is it because he's being mockedor cursed?
We definitely read about that.
Is it because of the loss of abattle?
Is it because of one of manybetrayals?
Here's my favorite line of theentire morning.
(16:42):
I don't know.
And this, to me, is one of thegreatest gifts of a biblical
lament in scripture it isincredibly specific in what the
person is feeling, butincredibly vague in the context.
Do you want to know why?
This is the Bible inviting youto come to God, regardless of
(17:05):
what your lament is.
There was a kid this morning, Iam sure of it, who, before they
made it to church, could notfind their fill in the blank.
For me, it was my Auburn hatthat I had for ages.
If I couldn't find my Auburnhat, my whole day was messed up.
Okay, for another kid it's ateddy bear or it's a little
lovey.
Hey, what's the little?
Is it a sloth?
(17:25):
What is it that Emmett carriesaround?
This little sloth?
If he doesn't have a sloth,does he have trouble going to
sleep?
Is it still a thing?
Or are you just leaning into myillustration?
Okay, all right, cool, Iappreciate it either way.
I appreciate it either way.
The way he feels over thatlittle loss, by the way, is the
way we feel in our big-sizedlosses.
It's just the way our heartsand our emotions work, and so
(17:50):
one of the greatest gifts thatGod gives us Is the specificity
in the content, like here is howto come to me when you feel
like I'm treating you unfairly,when you're bitter, when you
resent God, when you're angrywith God.
Here is the way to come to him.
And then he says and I don'tneed to define for you every way
that's going to happen, becauseit's going to be 10,000
(18:11):
different ways across the 10,000days of your life.
You can apply this toeverything, and this is how
David does it.
Instead of finishing withnothing, he praises God.
And now I want to start movingfrom our minds a little bit to
(18:31):
what that should mean for us.
The solution to being angrywith God or frustrated with God,
resenting God or bitter withGod is not just prayer.
Jonah did that.
It is not just memorizingscripture.
Jonah had done that.
It is a perspective.
All right, this little quotecomes from JC Ryle.
(18:53):
If somebody wants to Google itso that you can get the answer
right, my question after I readthis quote to you is going to be
how old is this quote All right?
Our whole culture is all aboutself-love, self-esteem,
self-discovery.
As long as there is self, therewill be problems.
Scripture teaches us to movefrom self to savior, from
(19:15):
self-discovery to self-denial,from self-esteem to
self-sacrifice.
Eyes are on Jesus, not self.
If your self was the cure,jesus would be unnecessary.
Okay, anybody want to guesswhat year that was written?
Somebody just give me something.
Okay, 1910, that was one Icould hear something.
(19:42):
Okay, 1910, that was the one Icould hear.
1820, you may have overshot,but not by much.
When I read this quote, I amassuming this is a pastor who
has congregation, who have beenon social media for at least six
months.
That's what I'm reading.
Like when I see this.
Like the internet had to havebeen around.
Okay, jc Ryle died in 1900,okay.
So when you read this and youapply it to yourself and you
(20:05):
look at your culture, how greatis this?
It's just a human problem.
It was a human problem whenthere was a phone in your back
pocket and it was a humanproblem when there wasn't.
When he wrote this quote, pariswas unveiling the newest
technology, called the escalator.
That's what was happening.
Radio waves were like, oh, thisis a great technology.
(20:27):
We're gonna have to look intothis a little bit more.
Films were silent.
That is the world in which hewrote.
This Scripture teaches us tomove from self to savior.
Henry Ford hadn't even made theassembly line yet.
No F-150s floating around, muchless with GPS that could get
(20:49):
you from one place to the other.
Why do I point this out?
Because when difficulty comes,it is not a matter of you just
praying.
It's how you pray.
It's not just a matter ofhaving a Bible or even having it
memorized.
It is your perspective on it.
And the superpower and thebiggest difference from David
(21:11):
all the way to Jonah was this Isthere still something worthy of
praise here?
That is the question In yourparticular thing.
Is there still something worthyof praise here?
That is the question In yourparticular thing, is there still
something worthy of praise?
Is there still some way thatGod has shown up in a but God
movement profound way?
This is what we see.
Romans tells us what to do.
(21:31):
There are going to be threedifferent things we have to look
at.
We refuse to look inward, welook upward and we look outward.
I'll say it again we refuse tolook inward.
That's why I gave you the quotefrom 18 something.
Instead, we look upward and welook outward, and this is what
God has been calling his peopleto do Since Christians weren't
even called Christians.
They were called the way.
Do not be conformed to thisworld.
(21:56):
Refuse to be.
Don't look like them, lookdifferently.
Did you guys ever read Jane Eyre?
By curiosity, show of hands.
Who read Jane Eyre?
Okay, I never read it.
Was it good?
Okay, I don't know.
I only know it because TimKeller quotes it in one of the
(22:18):
books that I recommend tocouples when they're getting
married, and he talks about JaneEyre who is pursued by another
man.
Am I correct in that?
I didn't even cliff notes this.
It's just a good quote by TimKeller.
Basically, this woman ispursued by another man.
This man is married to anotherwoman who is mentally ill and
(22:39):
lives upstairs in his estate.
They are, for all intents andpurposes, married legally, but
there is no relationship thereand this man pursues her.
Can somebody give me a head nod?
Okay, great, okay.
And Tim Keller said in no otherbook or article has he ever
read a better wrestling of thesoul of an individual.
(23:00):
When it comes to God, lifedoesn't seem fair.
Why can't I have this thing?
Why can't I have this love?
I can make every excuse in theworld.
She doesn't care about him, sheisn't even going to know.
And here is what we read fromTim Keller.
She does not look into herheart for strength.
There's nothing there butclamorous conflict.
(23:21):
Hey Christian non-Christian toowhen you are in the midst of
resenting God, being bitter, nottrusting or angry with him,
just know looking here is notgonna be a very good solution
for you.
You're already bitter, you'realready resentful.
All that will be there isclamorous conflict.
She ignores what her heart saysand looks to what God says.
(23:45):
The moral law of God at thatvery moment made no sense to her
heart, no sense to her mind atall.
They didn't appear reasonable.
They didn't appear fair.
God's laws.
They didn't appear reasonable.
They didn't appear fair God'slaws.
But she says, if she couldbreak them when they appear
inconvenient to her, of whatwould be their worth?
If you only obey God's wordwhen it seems reasonable or
(24:09):
profitable to you, well, thatisn't really obedience at all.
Obedience means you cedesomeone an authority over you
that is there, even when youdon't agree with him.
God's law is for times oftemptation, when body and soul
rise in mutiny on God's word,then, not her feelings and
(24:30):
passions she plants her foot.
This is what God calls us toNot looking inward.
It's the worst place you couldlook when you're in a place like
that.
So where do we look?
Instead, we look upward, welook outward, we don't want to
be conformed to this world, andthat's exactly what will happen
if you look inside.
(24:51):
So, instead, what do we do?
We try to find whatever is good, whatever is acceptable.
We'll even look at perfectthings, knowing that we will
never be perfect, but if we cansee who God is, we at least know
in what direction we ought togo.
And this, to me, would be one ofthe greatest applications for
(25:11):
anybody who is bitter,frustrated, resentful or angry
to God.
And it's counterintuitivefrustrated, resentful or angry
to God and it's counterintuitiveFor you to be those things.
It requires you to be lookinginward.
You can't be resentful at Godand not be thinking of yourself.
(25:32):
Can't be angry at God and notthinking of yourself or another
circumstance in someone else,where you're looking in them,
for them.
So what is it that we ought todo?
Well, brothers, I would appealto you and I would say, by the
mercy of God, we need to presentour bodies as a living
sacrifice.
Okay, well, that's verybiblical and it sounds wonderful
.
What on earth is that supposedto mean?
When I am looking inwardly,when I am frustrated at God,
(25:57):
when I resent what he has donein my life which may have been
the case for 10, 15, 20 years,when I am angry with God, do you
want to know?
The best way to get out of that?
It is not to try to bring aboutGod's goodness in my own life.
It isn't.
I know how to lament, and thatlament ends with me being
hopeful.
The greatest thing I can do isstep out of my stuff and walk
(26:19):
over here to where someone elseis, where someone else is hurt,
where someone else is bitter,where someone else is angry,
resentful, disappointed, and Ican desire, I can seek to bring
God's goodness into theirsituation, rather than trying to
bring it into mine, true orfalse.
If you've ever been in thisplace before, you have already
tried to bring God's goodnessinto their situation, rather
than trying to bring it intomine, true or false.
If you've ever been in thisplace before, you have already
(26:41):
tried to bring God's goodnessinto your situation, true or
false, true.
So, instead, what the Christianis called to do is to be a
living sacrifice.
What is a sacrifice?
Something valuable given forsomeone else.
You are valuable If you aretrusting in Christ.
You are valuable If you're nottrusting in Christ.
He made you in his image andyou are valuable and he is
(27:02):
seeking you still.
Your greatest, wisest, mostwonderful thing that you can do
is biblically lament this, endit with praise, then get out of
yourself and say but how might Ibring God's goodness into
somebody else's life?
How can I bring the value ofwho God is to me and live
sacrificially for them?
(27:23):
And if you do that, it doesn'tsomehow twist God's arm to give
you what you want, but it doesuntwist your heart.
It does cause you to stopseeing things the way Jonah did.
It aligns us with Christ and,guys, you are so good at this.
(27:43):
This is where I get to movefrom the heavy part of the
sermon to the fun part of thesermon, because y'all are rock
stars at this Might.
I prove it to you.
Right, there's like water inhere, and I don't even put them
in here.
Okay, like, okay.
You guys are so good at thisand you're like well, will.
(28:04):
That is a wonderful thing tosay.
Back it up 259 of our 300members serve.
That is, almost 90% of ourmembers serve in some capacity
Over 78, because I didn't gointo the numbers as much as I
could have lead in some capacity.
Do you know how unusual that isto not have 15 people leading a
(28:26):
church, to have 78 people thatare leading a church?
Last week I went to get a cup ofcoffee and a bottle of water
and Kenny and Elizabeth wereback there and Scott and Randy
were back there and I was saying, hey, how are you guys doing?
What's going on?
And they said they didn't usethe word lament, but they were
lamenting.
All right, I hadn't taught thisyet.
(28:49):
Now y'all could use the wordlament.
They were sad.
I was like you're inhospitality, it's kind of your
job not to be sad.
What's the story?
It was there last week and hereis the most beautiful thing
that they said to me, whichultimately tipped me over to
going ahead and doing the sermonthis week they were lamenting
that they were not going to beserving in that way because as a
(29:11):
church we sort of have a policywhere, after you've served for
a couple of years, we ask you totake a step back.
We do it so that you won't burnout, but that isn't the only
reason we do it.
We do it so that you will lookfor other areas to serve, but
that isn't the only reason we doit.
We do it so that you will lookfor other areas to serve, but
that isn't the only reason we doit.
We do it to create open spacesfor other people to step in, and
they were lamenting not beingable to serve.
(29:35):
Do you know how unusual that isin a church in the South?
I'm just asking Do you knowthat it is much more common for
them to be longing to get to theend of that two-year commitment
so that they can just hey, Idid my thing and now I can go
sit down.
But this is the heart of thebeliever.
This is the heart of the personwho is able to navigate life
(29:56):
without resentment, frustration,anger, or at least to do it in
a biblical way.
This is what it looks like.
The solution to our frustration, bitterness, resentment and
anger is not so much our prayersor our memorization of
scripture.
Good, good, it's your vision,it's your perspective.
It's what you're looking for.
(30:18):
The same storms that terrify thesheep also water the grass.
Whether the storm is good ornot depends on whether you want
green pastures or just to staydry, and a lot of God's sheep
don't want to be wet.
That's all it comes down to.
A lot of God's sheep want sunnydays.
A lot of God's sheep do notwant loud thunder.
(30:41):
A lot of God's sheep do notwant the lightning.
A lot of God's sheep do notwant loud thunder.
A lot of God's sheep do notwant the lightning.
A lot of God's sheep do notwant muddy ground.
It's the very thing that feedsyou.
It's the very thing that bringsthe greenest pastures.
And if we, as sheep in theflock of God, would get to the
place where we can say beautifulday, enjoy it.
Looks like rain's coming, isn'tGod good?
(31:03):
Lightning and thunder it's abit scary, but God is powerful.
Still, my feet are muddy, butthey will not always be, and
from this place will come up thevery thing that nourishes my
soul.
This, christians, is theinvitation.
Bring your resentment, bringyour frustration, bring all of
these things.
(31:31):
I want to end by giving you ashotgun of a couple of verses
and by telling you a story.
I'm going to try not to crywhen I tell you this story, okay
, because I can tell my voice isalready failing me.
I don't know where my wife is.
She gets real upset at me whenthis happens.
She's like you drank too muchcoffee.
I didn't drink a lick of coffeetoday and I'm almost out of
water in my pulpit back up.
All right, so hopefully I won'tcry.
I want to give you a shotgun ofverses, because some of you may
(31:53):
look at Jonah and you may saywell, I'm not angry, that isn't
my issue, that's okay.
Maybe your issue is there'sjust too much bad and there's
not enough good Might.
I introduce you to Job.
I don't know if you've heardabout him before.
He had a rough couple of days.
I'd invite you to read it.
It's a bit of a jaunt, okay,most of us read chapters 1 and 2
(32:14):
and then jump to 38 because therest of them are complaining
biblically, lamenting.
If you're Job, not his buddies.
By the way, this is what hismarriage looked like.
His wife said to him are youstill holding on to your
integrity?
Curse God and die Might.
I mention.
That sounds an awful lot likeJonah looking inwardly, but not
(32:36):
Job looking outwardly.
I wouldn't recommend this nextline in marriage counseling.
You speak as a foolish womanspeaks.
He told her Should we acceptonly good from God and not
adversity?
Through all this, job did notsin in what he said.
Bring the rain.
Job says Well, I'm not in a Jobsituation, don't blow it up.
(32:57):
It's just that sometimes I feellike the Christian life isn't
better.
Sometimes I feel like if Iwasn't a Christian, things would
have gone better for me.
Oh cool, might I introduce youto Asaph, psalm 73.
By the way, it's going to startpretty good.
Truly, god is good to Israel,to those who are pure in heart.
Solid start.
But as for me, my feet hadalmost stumbled, my steps had
(33:21):
nearly slipped.
I was envious of the arrogantwhen I saw the prosperity of the
wicked.
Behold, these are the wicked,always at ease.
They increase in riches.
All of the people in my lifewho are not trying to glorify
God.
Why does it seem like theirlife goes so much better for
them than me?
Does God not care?
He continues, verse 13,.
All in vain.
(33:41):
Have I kept my heart clean?
You ever been there before?
Why am I studying the word?
Why am I the one who's going tochurch?
Why am I the one who ismemorizing scripture and
repenting when other peopledon't repent.
What on earth are y'all doing?
Oh, okay, thank you.
Yes, good, nice, good boy.
Wow, all right.
(34:07):
Next week on humility, here wego.
Ice too.
Yeah, above and beyond Invanity.
Have I kept my heart clean?
What a waste of time.
Have I really wasted?
Have any of you look?
Some of you guys aren't oldenough to get here yet.
Some of you are older than meand you'll tell me I haven't
(34:29):
gotten here yet when you lookback on your life and you
literally say was following Godworth it?
Have you gotten there a coupleof times?
Is it really worth it?
Is it going to be worth it?
But when I thought how tounderstand this okay, it's about
to get better it seemed to me awearisome task.
It didn't get any better.
He's like I'm going to think onthis.
Let me think on this.
Until beautiful word in thePsalm.
(34:51):
Until I went into the sanctuaryof God.
This is where he had to get, bythe way, he had to get where
God's people were.
He had to get where the word ofGod was present.
He had to get where otherpeople's stories of God's
goodness was present.
And then I discerned their end,and by the end he says Lord, I
know you're continually with me.
(35:11):
You hold my right hand.
Remember that, remember that.
Remember that, hold my righthand.
You guide me with your counsel.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
There's nothing on earth that Idesire beside you.
Yeah, well, it's not that.
I'm glad that Asaph had avision for this before it came
to be.
It's just that God moves tooslow.
(35:33):
Enter Habakkuk, oh Lord, howlong?
How long am I going to cry forhelp?
Why do you make me see iniquity?
Why do you I love this idlylook at wrong God.
You're just sitting, iniquity.
Why do you I love this idlylook at wrong God?
You're just sitting in heaven,doing nothing about it.
I've been praying about it.
It's not for a day, week, monthor year, it's a long time.
Why are you moving so slow?
(35:54):
And God says well, Habakkuk, Igot to tell you something.
My people, israel, are fleeingfrom me and I'm going to fix it.
Habakkuk's like great, can yougo ahead and do that?
God's like yeah, I'm going tobring the Babylonians to do it.
This worse nation than you.
Are you kidding me?
And one of the greateststatements on trusting God in
bitterness, anger, resentmentand frustration is right here,
(36:16):
though the fig tree should notblossom.
If there's no fruit on the vine, the produce of the olive fail.
The fields yield no food.
I realize we're not in anagrarian culture.
Imagine just walking to Walmartthere's nothing there.
You go into your pantry andthere's nothing there.
You turn on the water andnothing comes out, even though
there's no herd in the stallsyet.
(36:36):
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,hell or high water.
I will take joy in the God ofmy salvation.
And finally, you might just besaying Will, it isn't that, it's
that it's too late for God toact, it's too far gone.
Hey, you ever met Naomi.
She's pretty cool and she's abitter thing.
(36:58):
For a good bit of her life shesaid to them don't call me Naomi
, call me Mara, don't call mepleasant.
Naomi means Call me Mara, callme bitterness, because I am
bitter with the Almighty who hasdealt very bitterly with me.
But by chapter 4, naomi takes achild.
(37:18):
She didn't expect to have Afamine had stepped in, just like
what I read to you in Habakkuk.
She then lost her husband.
She then lost her people.
She then lost her son.
But don't worry, she hadanother son.
She then lost that one too.
She says I mean, how is thereanything good in life?
Jonah's words seem to resoundquite well, but by the end Naomi
(37:40):
takes a child and lays him onher lap and she becomes his
nurse.
A child she didn't expect toever have, a grandchild she
didn't expect to ever have, andthe women of the neighborhood
gave him a name, saying a sonhas been born to Naomi.
They named him Obed.
He was the father of Jesse, thefather of David, who gives us a
(38:00):
vision for lamenting.
How incredible is God.
I'm not going to try to talkyou out of your frustration with
God.
It's all in the Bible.
I'm not going to try to talkyou out of being bitter with him
or even being angry with him.
I think many times that'sexactly the way you ought to
come to God.
I just don't want you to stopwhere Jonah stopped.
(38:21):
I want you to have a goodtheology of lamenting and I want
you to have a vision, becauseyou are not alone.
Jonah was angry and Davidconfused, job in anguish, asaph
treated unfairly, habakkukimpatient and Naomi bitter.
But that wasn't the whole story.
If they were able to see whatGod was doing, lily Stephen sent
(38:43):
me a devotional earlier in theweek on Be Thou my Vision it's
my favorite hymn of all time andone of the guys in the worship
team was looking out of hiswindow as he was doing his
devotional and there was a girlwalking by with a cane in hand.
Here is what he wrote.
You could tell something waswrong at first sight.
(39:05):
She walked along the sidewalkwithout the grace found in most
her age.
The cane wrapped the concretewith the rhythm of a man pecking
at a typewriter with twofingers.
Until a lift in the concretebroke the melody, she stumbled
in darkness at midday.
She most likely had made thiswalk many times, never so
meticulously.
(39:25):
Her newness to the taskcommunicated that her diagnosis
was degenerative.
She now saw people as trees,walking, slurred shapes moved
all about her.
The sun had almost set, so shepracticed maneuvering through
the neighborhood while it wasstill dusk, gripping her walking
stick in hand with her fatherby her side.
(39:45):
Step by step, they inchedtogether.
Every time the extended armoverlooked a crack in the path,
an unforgettable expressionflashed upon his face.
Every stagger was a dagger toher father's heart.
Yet he did not reach out hishand.
Tears streaming down his face,he let her reel and wobble with
(40:11):
every trip and lurch he wouldreach out his hand, but stop it
before it reached her.
She needed to learn to walk byherself again, though she was
not by herself.
His eyes fixed upon herwell-being, his heart stammering
every time she did.
His voice guided her from above.
He was her vision, and as theystruggled along, beauty grew in
(40:37):
the most unlikely places.
Her faltering smile radiatedher trust in them.
They do it.
Thank you, lily, for that.
They do a loop around theneighborhood and he begins
writing this and as they beginthe second loop, he sees them
and the father takes the walkingstick out of her hand and
(41:00):
instead he just holds her handand everything changes.
My kids actually played thisgame with me.
I don't know how it started.
We were probably bored at likea theme park or something, but
to this day Tiggy will do thison a long walk, she'll hold her
hand out and she'll say okay,daddy, don't forget my eyes are
closed.
She says that because sometimesI forget their eyes are closed.
(41:21):
We do this a lot and the pointis I just walk and they want to
see how far they can go withtheir eyes being closed.
Welcome to being a Christian inthis world, you will always in
some way walk with your eyesclosed.
You're never going to seeeverything that your father sees
(41:42):
.
The question is do you haveenough trust in him when you
cannot, and this is wherebitterness, resentment,
frustration and anger go to die.
I've got a really good fatherand he will always protect me,
even if it means letting me tripoccasionally because he wants
(42:06):
me to walk on my own, hand inhand with him.
I don't know if you're angry.
I don't know if you'refrustrated.
I don't know if you're bitter.
I know a bunch of you are,because enough of you talked to
me about it in the past eightweeks to write this sermon.
Okay, I know that much, but Ialso know this we have a really
(42:26):
good father, for those of us whowould call him that, and if you
have not cried out to God asfather in a long time, if you
haven't shared your complaint,most importantly, if you haven't
ended it with hope, let todaybe the day where you biblically
lament and for some of you, thatsuperpower at the end may be
(42:49):
you for the first time,believing that the storms and
the lightning and the rain areactually a good thing that God
has brought into your life tobring you to him.
So choose to draw near to him.
I'll put up a couple ofquestions for you to think on,
to pray on, and just know thisIf you want to talk to somebody,
(43:11):
I'll probably be on this side.
Thomas is over there, greg'sover there.
If anybody else wants to comedown and pray with folks, feel
free to do that as well.
If you want to walk in thebackfield and just talk with the
Lord, if you want to kneel,stand, sing, pray, it doesn't
really matter to me, so long asyou bring all of yourself to God
and have a vision for the factthat he has a hope for you and a
future for you in Christ.
(43:32):
So let's draw near to him today.
Okay, I'll be reading from Psalms 13, verses 1 and 2,
and 5 and 6, and it's on page453 in the Pew Bibles.
Follow along while I read God'sWord.
Oh, how long, o Lord, will youforget me forever?
(00:20):
How long will you hide yourface from me?
How long must I take counsel inmy soul and have sorrow in my
heart all day?
How long shall my enemy beexalted over me?
But I have trusted in yoursteadfast love, my heart, your
salvation.
I will sing to the Lord becausehe has dealt beautifully with
(00:43):
me.
This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Thank you, sharon, much appreciated.
Crockett, appreciate you comingup and being support there as
well.
Well, hey guys, good morning.
Welcome to Midtree.
Excited to spend some time withyou.
I want to show you somethingfunny.
If you guys in the back will goahead and give me control of
the screens, that'd be great.
So I forgot.
We try to plan a lot of ourseries and our sermons.
(01:09):
Go ahead and throw it to mineif you don't mind.
There we go.
We plan them weeks and weeks inadvance.
Some of them are months inadvance, and this was a sermon
that I had been looking forwardto preaching for about a month.
Now let me tell you why.
The reason is after you spendtwo months in the Song of Songs,
in the Song of Solomon, whereGod is saying this is the
(01:33):
beautiful expression of whatlove is supposed to look like
Love from God to man, love fromman to a woman, love from a
woman to a man.
There is something that canbegin to happen in us.
Depending on the week, I am100% going to trip before this
day is out.
I'm good with it.
There's no way I'm standingbehind the pulpit the whole time
anyway, all right.
What begins to happen is this.
(01:54):
We can look at God's beautifuldesign by the way, you can do
this in anything and then welook at ourselves and we realize
we are far from God's design,realize we are far from God's
design, our relationships arefar from God's design, even if
we're doing our best, and werealize that God is sovereign in
all things.
And so what naturally begins todevelop in us when we see this
(02:19):
thank you, we have a lawn carecompany.
I don't know how they miss out,but as we like put our eyes
toward the ideal and especiallyas I've talked with lots of
spouses over Song of Solomon,it's like Will, I want to have a
great marriage, I want to havea great relationship, like I'm
putting in the work, I'm puttingin the time.
Here is what can happen.
(02:41):
We can get really frustratedwith God because, honestly,
where else would we put ourfrustration?
Yes, we can put it on ourselves, but if we are reading and
praying and in community, thereis this sort of expectation like
God, can't you throw me a bone,can't you meet me where I am,
and we can find ourselves angry,frustrated, bitter or resentful
(03:01):
toward God.
So I didn't think this partthrough, I didn't think about
what the stage was going to looklike for this sermon.
Do you do well to be angry, allright?
So let me kind of phrase thisfor us a little bit, because I
really want you to get the mostout of this.
I rarely do this.
(03:22):
In fact, I don't know if I'veever done this at mid-tree.
I did this in Thailand becausethere was a language barrier.
If you want it, these are allof the notes for today's sermon.
Okay, these are all of thethings that I'm going to put up
on the screen.
I don't do it because I'm astoryteller and I don't like you
knowing the end of the storybefore, like, we get there
(03:42):
together.
So I'm just gonna trust thatyou're not going to do that.
However, I've explained this toyou guys a number of times.
There's a difference inpreaching and teaching.
Okay, and I think pastors arecalled to do.
All of it Today is going tolead toward teaching.
So I'm gonna need you to sort ofshake off your summer and give
(04:04):
me a good 25 minutes of usingthe noodle that God gave you,
because that is how you're goingto get the most out of it.
Is the word of God going tospeak to our hearts?
Absolutely, our affections, ouremotions, absolutely.
But I want to begin by sayingthis I want us to begin by
thinking that this question doyou do well to be angry?
Is not mine.
(04:24):
This is actually God's questionwhen he looks at Jonah and the
Lord said do you do well to beangry?
So here's where I want us thismorning, before we go any
further and eventually, yes, wewill get to this beautiful,
beautiful place, but we do haveto start sort of in the clouds
to get there, the heavier clouds.
What are you frustrated about?
(04:45):
Especially, if you'll be honestwith yourself what are you
frustrated with the Lord about?
When you look at your life,when you look at your
circumstances, when you look atyour situation, what are you
bitter about?
Do you resent God for certainthings?
Are you legitimately angry?
Because what I want you to hearas we start is God can handle
that, and if I don't putanything on display today out of
(05:09):
the word of God, what I wantyou to know is God wants you to
come this way to him.
He desires for you to come thisway.
However, let's start with ourbrain.
God asked Jonah okay, jonah, doyou do well to be angry?
And Jonah thinks he does.
Jonah says, or the Bible says,it displeased Jonah exceedingly
and he was angry.
What upset Jonah?
(05:31):
The character of God, the factthat God was a forgiving God to
people that Jonah did not like,and he prayed to the Lord.
And that, by the way, ismassively important.
Jonah does pray.
He prayed to the Lord and hesaid oh Lord, is this not what I
said when I was yet in mycountry?
That's why I made haste to fleeto Tarshish.
I knew that you are a graciousGod.
(05:53):
You're merciful, slow to anger,abounding in steadfast love,
relenting from disaster.
By the way, he's quotingscripture.
So now we're looking at a guywho is angry at God, that prays
and has memorized scripture.
Therefore, now, o Lord, pleasetake my life from me You've been
there before For it is betterfor me to die than to live.
(06:15):
And the Lord then asks him thequestion hey, jonah, really, do
you really do well to be angry?
Now, here's what I want you tonotice.
If you were to just look atthis prayer, you would notice a
few obvious things.
Jonah looks at him and he sayshey, this is what I said.
(06:35):
I told you what was going tohappen.
This is why I did what I wasgoing to do, because I knew what
was going to happen, and I'mmostly concerned with what is
better for me.
If I were to take all of thisand summarize it, this is what
it would look like.
Jonah number one makes a selfishcomplaint.
He is not frustrated that Godis a gracious God.
(06:55):
He's frustrated that God is agracious God to people he
doesn't want God to be graciousto.
He wants God to be gracious tohim.
He wants him to be steadfast tohim.
He wants him to be gracious tohim.
He wants him to be steadfast tohim.
He wants him to be patient tohim.
But God, do you really need tobe patient to my enemy?
Do you really need to be kindto my enemy?
And then Jonah steps in.
He says look, I can fix this.
He plans to fix it.
(07:16):
If God is going to do this,then I'm just going to go there.
I don't want to be around a Godwho operates this way.
That may be who God is, but Idon't like it.
I don't trust it so much sothat he can see nothing worthy
of praise.
He looks at God and he sayswould you just take my life?
I'm finished, I'm done withthis, I'm just going to sit
(07:37):
under a plant for the rest of mydays and that is it.
Okay, now take a look at thescreen.
This is Jonah's prayer.
It's important to you, me all,for us to realize this.
The Bible calls this a prayer.
It does.
It says Jonah prayed to theLord and this is what he did.
Here is what I want you toleave knowing today.
(08:01):
How do I go to God when I'mbitter with him?
How do I go to God when I'mfrustrated with him?
How do I go to God when I'mfrustrated, resentful or angry?
And the Bible does tell us thisis what a biblical lament
actually looks like.
A lament, simply put, is apassionate plea to God about a
frustration or an injustice.
If you have ever been angryabout something you ought to be
(08:24):
angry for, you've been lamenting.
If you have ever beenheartbroken over something that
is heartbroken and you cried outto the Lord, or you threw a
shoe across the room, orwhatever you did, believe it or
not, you are in some form,lamenting.
I want to teach you how to doit biblically, because the
reality of it is all of us needto know how to do this If we're
(08:44):
Christians, especially if you'renot a Christian.
I want to show you thedifference.
What, zach, where Zach Dude thefact that you called the
ability of a Christian to have aGodward orientation, a
different vision, a superpower.
I went in the back and Ichanged my notes for the rest of
the sermon.
Do you want to know what thesuperpower of being a Christian
is?
It's that little piece in thebottom that I'm refusing to show
(09:05):
you.
Yet that's the superpower of aChristian.
But a biblical lament is fourthings.
Number one it is a directaddress to God.
This is you going to God withsomething?
This is not doubting God'sgoodness.
That's not a biblical lament.
Stewing in silence, gossipingaway our complaints, excusing
(09:27):
our bitterness, sweeping itunder the rug?
Not a biblical lament Posturingto get God's attention or
bargaining with him.
All right, god, if you will,just then I will always and
you've never always done thatthing.
Okay, if you've been followingthe word for 20 minutes, you
know this Bargaining doesn'twork.
(09:49):
But it is a direct address toGod.
You're allowed to complain.
I'll prove that to you.
You can describe to God howyour suffering feels and then
you can make a petition.
God, would you help me, wouldyou step in?
God is so okay with this thatthese are the Psalms in which it
happens.
(10:10):
Now, I know that barely any ofyou guys can read this, so I'm
just going to zoom in on acouple, okay, and do you know
what you will find?
By the way, a third of thePsalms are laments.
That doesn't necessarily meanthat a third of your life is
going to be a lament, but ifthere were a fraction, then I
don't think it's a horrible one.
Okay, now just look.
(10:31):
I'm not going to read these toyou, but do you see how
frequently oh Lord and my Godappears?
Can you see that?
It's because a biblical lamentis addressed to God?
This isn't you just dealing orstewing or convincing yourself.
A biblical lament is youdirectly addressing God.
This isn't you just dealing orstewing or convincing yourself.
A biblical lament is youdirectly addressing God.
(10:52):
Do you see any complaints here?
I'll give you a couple more.
You see any complaints in here?
I mean Psalm 64 literally sayshere is my complaint.
Psalm 55, I am in anguish.
Psalm 43, vindicate me.
That means somebody has treatedthem in an unjust way.
Psalm 70, deliver me.
By the way, that's just thefirst half.
On and on and on they go.
Are they asking God to step in?
(11:15):
Yes, over and over and overagain.
A lament is the honest cry of ahurting heart wrestling with the
paradox of pain and the promiseof god's goodness.
And here is where we begin tosee our superpower as a
(11:35):
christian begin.
Can god love me and bring paininto my life?
Can he?
Can it be loving for God tobring difficulty and pain into
my life?
If I'm a parent, would I wantto parent my children the way it
seems like God parents hischildren?
(11:57):
Now I want to show you thatfourth piece, but I don't want
to just tell it to you.
I want you to feel it.
So here is David in Psalm 13.
You've already listened toDavid when Zach read from him in
Psalm 16, I believe 16?
16.
Here he is a few chaptersearlier.
Here I got two challenges foryou while I read this.
(12:18):
Does David biblically lament?
Does he cry out to God?
Does he let him know why he'ssuffering?
Does he ask for to God?
Does he let him know why he'ssuffering?
Does he ask for God to step in?
Do you see that stuff?
And then my second question isthis what is it that David is
praying about?
Tell me the difficulty that youfind in David's life.
How long, oh Lord, will youforget me forever?
(12:40):
How long will you hide yourface from me?
How long must I take counsel inmy soul and have sorrow in my
heart all the day?
How long shall you hide yourface from me?
How long must I take counsel inmy soul and have sorrow in my
heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy beexalted over me?
Four times David's like?
How much longer?
How much longer?
This has been a hot one.
This isn't easy.
How long, how long?
How long?
How long?
Consider and answer me, o Lord,my God, light up my eyes lest I
(13:02):
sleep the sleep of death, versefour lest my enemy say I have
prevailed over him, lest my foesrejoice because I am shaken,
but I've trusted in yoursteadfast love, my heart shall
rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord becausehe has dealt bountifully with
(13:29):
me.
Now, jonah makes a selfishcomplaint, but David makes an
honest one.
It's not just that he iscomplaining.
I'm going to have to changecolors for this background.
All right, y'all tell me ifthis is better.
Is that better?
Okay, stick with y'all.
All right, jonah is complainingselfishly.
(13:51):
God, who you are is affectingme negatively.
David is complaining because heknows who God is and he wants
people to see God in the rightway.
God, if people know that I'myour guy, if they know I'm your
child and they see this in mylife, are they going to mistake
you?
Are they going to think you donot know, you do not care?
(14:12):
Jonah decides he is going tofix it, whereas David is
expecting God to fix it.
Jonah sees nothing worthy ofpraise, but David sees that
there is something always worthyof praise.
And this brings us to thesuperpower of the Christian.
(14:33):
Still speaking to your brainsright now Direct address to God.
When things go poorly, complain,describe your suffering to God.
You are invited to do so by athird of the Psalms, not to
mention other books of the Biblelike Lamentations, habakkuk, et
cetera.
Jeremiah, job, petition forhelp or intervention.
(14:53):
God, will you please step in?
But here is what David doesthat Jonah does not.
Don't forget, jonah did pray.
It isn't an issue of praying.
All right, yes, christian, youshould pray, but that isn't the
point.
That isn't an issue of praying.
All right, yes, christian, youshould pray, but that isn't the
point.
That isn't the main thing.
Here is what David does.
He expresses trust and hope inGod.
(15:14):
That is the whole difference.
That is the whole kit andcaboodle.
He gives this complaint God,you told me these things and I'm
confused.
He asks God to step in thatevil and injustice won't win.
Instead of taking his life, hehas the vision to say God, would
you give me life, would yougive me a desire for life?
And he ends it by saying yet Iwill praise the Lord.
(15:39):
There is always somethingworthy of praising.
All right now.
I gave you two questions.
Did David navigate this as abiblical lament?
All four of those things arethere.
Here's my question.
I double dog.
Dare somebody to answer outloud?
Because I can tell you're in anintrospective moment and nobody
(16:00):
ever wants to get it wrong.
What is David complaining aboutspecifically in his life?
Go, what is it Now?
Some of you grew up going to VBSsince you were four years old
and you know that David has hadall kinds of trouble.
Is this him fleeing evil, saul?
(16:21):
Do you see that in there?
Is it him living in thewilderness?
Is it him waiting on a promisedfuture?
Is it because of the loss of achild?
He experienced all of thosethings.
Is it because he's being mockedor cursed?
We definitely read about that.
Is it because of the loss of abattle?
Is it because of one of manybetrayals?
Here's my favorite line of theentire morning.
(16:42):
I don't know.
And this, to me, is one of thegreatest gifts of a biblical
lament in scripture it isincredibly specific in what the
person is feeling, butincredibly vague in the context.
Do you want to know why?
This is the Bible inviting youto come to God, regardless of
(17:05):
what your lament is.
There was a kid this morning, Iam sure of it, who, before they
made it to church, could notfind their fill in the blank.
For me, it was my Auburn hatthat I had for ages.
If I couldn't find my Auburnhat, my whole day was messed up.
Okay, for another kid it's ateddy bear or it's a little
lovey.
Hey, what's the little?
Is it a sloth?
(17:25):
What is it that Emmett carriesaround?
This little sloth?
If he doesn't have a sloth,does he have trouble going to
sleep?
Is it still a thing?
Or are you just leaning into myillustration?
Okay, all right, cool, Iappreciate it either way.
I appreciate it either way.
The way he feels over thatlittle loss, by the way, is the
way we feel in our big-sizedlosses.
It's just the way our heartsand our emotions work, and so
(17:50):
one of the greatest gifts thatGod gives us Is the specificity
in the content, like here is howto come to me when you feel
like I'm treating you unfairly,when you're bitter, when you
resent God, when you're angrywith God.
Here is the way to come to him.
And then he says and I don'tneed to define for you every way
that's going to happen, becauseit's going to be 10,000
(18:11):
different ways across the 10,000days of your life.
You can apply this toeverything, and this is how
David does it.
Instead of finishing withnothing, he praises God.
And now I want to start movingfrom our minds a little bit to
(18:31):
what that should mean for us.
The solution to being angrywith God or frustrated with God,
resenting God or bitter withGod is not just prayer.
Jonah did that.
It is not just memorizingscripture.
Jonah had done that.
It is a perspective.
All right, this little quotecomes from JC Ryle.
(18:53):
If somebody wants to Google itso that you can get the answer
right, my question after I readthis quote to you is going to be
how old is this quote All right?
Our whole culture is all aboutself-love, self-esteem,
self-discovery.
As long as there is self, therewill be problems.
Scripture teaches us to movefrom self to savior, from
(19:15):
self-discovery to self-denial,from self-esteem to
self-sacrifice.
Eyes are on Jesus, not self.
If your self was the cure,jesus would be unnecessary.
Okay, anybody want to guesswhat year that was written?
Somebody just give me something.
Okay, 1910, that was one Icould hear something.
(19:42):
Okay, 1910, that was the one Icould hear.
1820, you may have overshot,but not by much.
When I read this quote, I amassuming this is a pastor who
has congregation, who have beenon social media for at least six
months.
That's what I'm reading.
Like when I see this.
Like the internet had to havebeen around.
Okay, jc Ryle died in 1900,okay.
So when you read this and youapply it to yourself and you
(20:05):
look at your culture, how greatis this?
It's just a human problem.
It was a human problem whenthere was a phone in your back
pocket and it was a humanproblem when there wasn't.
When he wrote this quote, pariswas unveiling the newest
technology, called the escalator.
That's what was happening.
Radio waves were like, oh, thisis a great technology.
(20:27):
We're gonna have to look intothis a little bit more.
Films were silent.
That is the world in which hewrote.
This Scripture teaches us tomove from self to savior.
Henry Ford hadn't even made theassembly line yet.
No F-150s floating around, muchless with GPS that could get
(20:49):
you from one place to the other.
Why do I point this out?
Because when difficulty comes,it is not a matter of you just
praying.
It's how you pray.
It's not just a matter ofhaving a Bible or even having it
memorized.
It is your perspective on it.
And the superpower and thebiggest difference from David
(21:11):
all the way to Jonah was this Isthere still something worthy of
praise here?
That is the question In yourparticular thing.
Is there still something worthyof praise here?
That is the question In yourparticular thing, is there still
something worthy of praise?
Is there still some way thatGod has shown up in a but God
movement profound way?
This is what we see.
Romans tells us what to do.
(21:31):
There are going to be threedifferent things we have to look
at.
We refuse to look inward, welook upward and we look outward.
I'll say it again we refuse tolook inward.
That's why I gave you the quotefrom 18 something.
Instead, we look upward and welook outward, and this is what
God has been calling his peopleto do Since Christians weren't
even called Christians.
They were called the way.
Do not be conformed to thisworld.
(21:56):
Refuse to be.
Don't look like them, lookdifferently.
Did you guys ever read Jane Eyre?
By curiosity, show of hands.
Who read Jane Eyre?
Okay, I never read it.
Was it good?
Okay, I don't know.
I only know it because TimKeller quotes it in one of the
(22:18):
books that I recommend tocouples when they're getting
married, and he talks about JaneEyre who is pursued by another
man.
Am I correct in that?
I didn't even cliff notes this.
It's just a good quote by TimKeller.
Basically, this woman ispursued by another man.
This man is married to anotherwoman who is mentally ill and
(22:39):
lives upstairs in his estate.
They are, for all intents andpurposes, married legally, but
there is no relationship thereand this man pursues her.
Can somebody give me a head nod?
Okay, great, okay.
And Tim Keller said in no otherbook or article has he ever
read a better wrestling of thesoul of an individual.
(23:00):
When it comes to God, lifedoesn't seem fair.
Why can't I have this thing?
Why can't I have this love?
I can make every excuse in theworld.
She doesn't care about him, sheisn't even going to know.
And here is what we read fromTim Keller.
She does not look into herheart for strength.
There's nothing there butclamorous conflict.
(23:21):
Hey Christian non-Christian toowhen you are in the midst of
resenting God, being bitter, nottrusting or angry with him,
just know looking here is notgonna be a very good solution
for you.
You're already bitter, you'realready resentful.
All that will be there isclamorous conflict.
She ignores what her heart saysand looks to what God says.
(23:45):
The moral law of God at thatvery moment made no sense to her
heart, no sense to her mind atall.
They didn't appear reasonable.
They didn't appear fair.
God's laws.
They didn't appear reasonable.
They didn't appear fair God'slaws.
But she says, if she couldbreak them when they appear
inconvenient to her, of whatwould be their worth?
If you only obey God's wordwhen it seems reasonable or
(24:09):
profitable to you, well, thatisn't really obedience at all.
Obedience means you cedesomeone an authority over you
that is there, even when youdon't agree with him.
God's law is for times oftemptation, when body and soul
rise in mutiny on God's word,then, not her feelings and
(24:30):
passions she plants her foot.
This is what God calls us toNot looking inward.
It's the worst place you couldlook when you're in a place like
that.
So where do we look?
Instead, we look upward, welook outward, we don't want to
be conformed to this world, andthat's exactly what will happen
if you look inside.
(24:51):
So, instead, what do we do?
We try to find whatever is good, whatever is acceptable.
We'll even look at perfectthings, knowing that we will
never be perfect, but if we cansee who God is, we at least know
in what direction we ought togo.
And this, to me, would be one ofthe greatest applications for
(25:11):
anybody who is bitter,frustrated, resentful or angry
to God.
And it's counterintuitivefrustrated, resentful or angry
to God and it's counterintuitiveFor you to be those things.
It requires you to be lookinginward.
You can't be resentful at Godand not be thinking of yourself.
(25:32):
Can't be angry at God and notthinking of yourself or another
circumstance in someone else,where you're looking in them,
for them.
So what is it that we ought todo?
Well, brothers, I would appealto you and I would say, by the
mercy of God, we need to presentour bodies as a living
sacrifice.
Okay, well, that's verybiblical and it sounds wonderful
.
What on earth is that supposedto mean?
When I am looking inwardly,when I am frustrated at God,
(25:57):
when I resent what he has donein my life which may have been
the case for 10, 15, 20 years,when I am angry with God, do you
want to know?
The best way to get out of that?
It is not to try to bring aboutGod's goodness in my own life.
It isn't.
I know how to lament, and thatlament ends with me being
hopeful.
The greatest thing I can do isstep out of my stuff and walk
(26:19):
over here to where someone elseis, where someone else is hurt,
where someone else is bitter,where someone else is angry,
resentful, disappointed, and Ican desire, I can seek to bring
God's goodness into theirsituation, rather than trying to
bring it into mine, true orfalse.
If you've ever been in thisplace before, you have already
tried to bring God's goodnessinto their situation, rather
than trying to bring it intomine, true or false.
If you've ever been in thisplace before, you have already
(26:41):
tried to bring God's goodnessinto your situation, true or
false, true.
So, instead, what the Christianis called to do is to be a
living sacrifice.
What is a sacrifice?
Something valuable given forsomeone else.
You are valuable If you aretrusting in Christ.
You are valuable If you're nottrusting in Christ.
He made you in his image andyou are valuable and he is
(27:02):
seeking you still.
Your greatest, wisest, mostwonderful thing that you can do
is biblically lament this, endit with praise, then get out of
yourself and say but how might Ibring God's goodness into
somebody else's life?
How can I bring the value ofwho God is to me and live
sacrificially for them?
(27:23):
And if you do that, it doesn'tsomehow twist God's arm to give
you what you want, but it doesuntwist your heart.
It does cause you to stopseeing things the way Jonah did.
It aligns us with Christ and,guys, you are so good at this.
(27:43):
This is where I get to movefrom the heavy part of the
sermon to the fun part of thesermon, because y'all are rock
stars at this Might.
I prove it to you.
Right, there's like water inhere, and I don't even put them
in here.
Okay, like, okay.
You guys are so good at thisand you're like well, will.
(28:04):
That is a wonderful thing tosay.
Back it up 259 of our 300members serve.
That is, almost 90% of ourmembers serve in some capacity
Over 78, because I didn't gointo the numbers as much as I
could have lead in some capacity.
Do you know how unusual that isto not have 15 people leading a
(28:26):
church, to have 78 people thatare leading a church?
Last week I went to get a cup ofcoffee and a bottle of water
and Kenny and Elizabeth wereback there and Scott and Randy
were back there and I was saying, hey, how are you guys doing?
What's going on?
And they said they didn't usethe word lament, but they were
lamenting.
All right, I hadn't taught thisyet.
(28:49):
Now y'all could use the wordlament.
They were sad.
I was like you're inhospitality, it's kind of your
job not to be sad.
What's the story?
It was there last week and hereis the most beautiful thing
that they said to me, whichultimately tipped me over to
going ahead and doing the sermonthis week they were lamenting
that they were not going to beserving in that way because as a
(29:11):
church we sort of have a policywhere, after you've served for
a couple of years, we ask you totake a step back.
We do it so that you won't burnout, but that isn't the only
reason we do it.
We do it so that you will lookfor other areas to serve, but
that isn't the only reason we doit.
We do it so that you will lookfor other areas to serve, but
that isn't the only reason we doit.
We do it to create open spacesfor other people to step in, and
they were lamenting not beingable to serve.
(29:35):
Do you know how unusual that isin a church in the South?
I'm just asking Do you knowthat it is much more common for
them to be longing to get to theend of that two-year commitment
so that they can just hey, Idid my thing and now I can go
sit down.
But this is the heart of thebeliever.
This is the heart of the personwho is able to navigate life
(29:56):
without resentment, frustration,anger, or at least to do it in
a biblical way.
This is what it looks like.
The solution to our frustration, bitterness, resentment and
anger is not so much our prayersor our memorization of
scripture.
Good, good, it's your vision,it's your perspective.
It's what you're looking for.
(30:18):
The same storms that terrify thesheep also water the grass.
Whether the storm is good ornot depends on whether you want
green pastures or just to staydry, and a lot of God's sheep
don't want to be wet.
That's all it comes down to.
A lot of God's sheep want sunnydays.
A lot of God's sheep do notwant loud thunder.
(30:41):
A lot of God's sheep do notwant the lightning.
A lot of God's sheep do notwant loud thunder.
A lot of God's sheep do notwant the lightning.
A lot of God's sheep do notwant muddy ground.
It's the very thing that feedsyou.
It's the very thing that bringsthe greenest pastures.
And if we, as sheep in theflock of God, would get to the
place where we can say beautifulday, enjoy it.
Looks like rain's coming, isn'tGod good?
(31:03):
Lightning and thunder it's abit scary, but God is powerful.
Still, my feet are muddy, butthey will not always be, and
from this place will come up thevery thing that nourishes my
soul.
This, christians, is theinvitation.
Bring your resentment, bringyour frustration, bring all of
these things.
(31:31):
I want to end by giving you ashotgun of a couple of verses
and by telling you a story.
I'm going to try not to crywhen I tell you this story, okay
, because I can tell my voice isalready failing me.
I don't know where my wife is.
She gets real upset at me whenthis happens.
She's like you drank too muchcoffee.
I didn't drink a lick of coffeetoday and I'm almost out of
water in my pulpit back up.
All right, so hopefully I won'tcry.
I want to give you a shotgun ofverses, because some of you may
(31:53):
look at Jonah and you may saywell, I'm not angry, that isn't
my issue, that's okay.
Maybe your issue is there'sjust too much bad and there's
not enough good Might.
I introduce you to Job.
I don't know if you've heardabout him before.
He had a rough couple of days.
I'd invite you to read it.
It's a bit of a jaunt, okay,most of us read chapters 1 and 2
(32:14):
and then jump to 38 because therest of them are complaining
biblically, lamenting.
If you're Job, not his buddies.
By the way, this is what hismarriage looked like.
His wife said to him are youstill holding on to your
integrity?
Curse God and die Might.
I mention.
That sounds an awful lot likeJonah looking inwardly, but not
(32:36):
Job looking outwardly.
I wouldn't recommend this nextline in marriage counseling.
You speak as a foolish womanspeaks.
He told her Should we acceptonly good from God and not
adversity?
Through all this, job did notsin in what he said.
Bring the rain.
Job says Well, I'm not in a Jobsituation, don't blow it up.
(32:57):
It's just that sometimes I feellike the Christian life isn't
better.
Sometimes I feel like if Iwasn't a Christian, things would
have gone better for me.
Oh cool, might I introduce youto Asaph, psalm 73.
By the way, it's going to startpretty good.
Truly, god is good to Israel,to those who are pure in heart.
Solid start.
But as for me, my feet hadalmost stumbled, my steps had
(33:21):
nearly slipped.
I was envious of the arrogantwhen I saw the prosperity of the
wicked.
Behold, these are the wicked,always at ease.
They increase in riches.
All of the people in my lifewho are not trying to glorify
God.
Why does it seem like theirlife goes so much better for
them than me?
Does God not care?
He continues, verse 13,.
All in vain.
(33:41):
Have I kept my heart clean?
You ever been there before?
Why am I studying the word?
Why am I the one who's going tochurch?
Why am I the one who ismemorizing scripture and
repenting when other peopledon't repent.
What on earth are y'all doing?
Oh, okay, thank you.
Yes, good, nice, good boy.
Wow, all right.
(34:07):
Next week on humility, here wego.
Ice too.
Yeah, above and beyond Invanity.
Have I kept my heart clean?
What a waste of time.
Have I really wasted?
Have any of you look?
Some of you guys aren't oldenough to get here yet.
Some of you are older than meand you'll tell me I haven't
(34:29):
gotten here yet when you lookback on your life and you
literally say was following Godworth it?
Have you gotten there a coupleof times?
Is it really worth it?
Is it going to be worth it?
But when I thought how tounderstand this okay, it's about
to get better it seemed to me awearisome task.
It didn't get any better.
He's like I'm going to think onthis.
Let me think on this.
Until beautiful word in thePsalm.
(34:51):
Until I went into the sanctuaryof God.
This is where he had to get, bythe way, he had to get where
God's people were.
He had to get where the word ofGod was present.
He had to get where otherpeople's stories of God's
goodness was present.
And then I discerned their end,and by the end he says Lord, I
know you're continually with me.
(35:11):
You hold my right hand.
Remember that, remember that.
Remember that, hold my righthand.
You guide me with your counsel.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
There's nothing on earth that Idesire beside you.
Yeah, well, it's not that.
I'm glad that Asaph had avision for this before it came
to be.
It's just that God moves tooslow.
(35:33):
Enter Habakkuk, oh Lord, howlong?
How long am I going to cry forhelp?
Why do you make me see iniquity?
Why do you I love this idlylook at wrong God.
You're just sitting, iniquity.
Why do you I love this idlylook at wrong God?
You're just sitting in heaven,doing nothing about it.
I've been praying about it.
It's not for a day, week, monthor year, it's a long time.
Why are you moving so slow?
(35:54):
And God says well, Habakkuk, Igot to tell you something.
My people, israel, are fleeingfrom me and I'm going to fix it.
Habakkuk's like great, can yougo ahead and do that?
God's like yeah, I'm going tobring the Babylonians to do it.
This worse nation than you.
Are you kidding me?
And one of the greateststatements on trusting God in
bitterness, anger, resentmentand frustration is right here,
(36:16):
though the fig tree should notblossom.
If there's no fruit on the vine, the produce of the olive fail.
The fields yield no food.
I realize we're not in anagrarian culture.
Imagine just walking to Walmartthere's nothing there.
You go into your pantry andthere's nothing there.
You turn on the water andnothing comes out, even though
there's no herd in the stallsyet.
(36:36):
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,hell or high water.
I will take joy in the God ofmy salvation.
And finally, you might just besaying Will, it isn't that, it's
that it's too late for God toact, it's too far gone.
Hey, you ever met Naomi.
She's pretty cool and she's abitter thing.
(36:58):
For a good bit of her life shesaid to them don't call me Naomi
, call me Mara, don't call mepleasant.
Naomi means Call me Mara, callme bitterness, because I am
bitter with the Almighty who hasdealt very bitterly with me.
But by chapter 4, naomi takes achild.
(37:18):
She didn't expect to have Afamine had stepped in, just like
what I read to you in Habakkuk.
She then lost her husband.
She then lost her people.
She then lost her son.
But don't worry, she hadanother son.
She then lost that one too.
She says I mean, how is thereanything good in life?
Jonah's words seem to resoundquite well, but by the end Naomi
(37:40):
takes a child and lays him onher lap and she becomes his
nurse.
A child she didn't expect toever have, a grandchild she
didn't expect to ever have, andthe women of the neighborhood
gave him a name, saying a sonhas been born to Naomi.
They named him Obed.
He was the father of Jesse, thefather of David, who gives us a
(38:00):
vision for lamenting.
How incredible is God.
I'm not going to try to talkyou out of your frustration with
God.
It's all in the Bible.
I'm not going to try to talkyou out of being bitter with him
or even being angry with him.
I think many times that'sexactly the way you ought to
come to God.
I just don't want you to stopwhere Jonah stopped.
(38:21):
I want you to have a goodtheology of lamenting and I want
you to have a vision, becauseyou are not alone.
Jonah was angry and Davidconfused, job in anguish, asaph
treated unfairly, habakkukimpatient and Naomi bitter.
But that wasn't the whole story.
If they were able to see whatGod was doing, lily Stephen sent
(38:43):
me a devotional earlier in theweek on Be Thou my Vision it's
my favorite hymn of all time andone of the guys in the worship
team was looking out of hiswindow as he was doing his
devotional and there was a girlwalking by with a cane in hand.
Here is what he wrote.
You could tell something waswrong at first sight.
(39:05):
She walked along the sidewalkwithout the grace found in most
her age.
The cane wrapped the concretewith the rhythm of a man pecking
at a typewriter with twofingers.
Until a lift in the concretebroke the melody, she stumbled
in darkness at midday.
She most likely had made thiswalk many times, never so
meticulously.
(39:25):
Her newness to the taskcommunicated that her diagnosis
was degenerative.
She now saw people as trees,walking, slurred shapes moved
all about her.
The sun had almost set, so shepracticed maneuvering through
the neighborhood while it wasstill dusk, gripping her walking
stick in hand with her fatherby her side.
(39:45):
Step by step, they inchedtogether.
Every time the extended armoverlooked a crack in the path,
an unforgettable expressionflashed upon his face.
Every stagger was a dagger toher father's heart.
Yet he did not reach out hishand.
Tears streaming down his face,he let her reel and wobble with
(40:11):
every trip and lurch he wouldreach out his hand, but stop it
before it reached her.
She needed to learn to walk byherself again, though she was
not by herself.
His eyes fixed upon herwell-being, his heart stammering
every time she did.
His voice guided her from above.
He was her vision, and as theystruggled along, beauty grew in
(40:37):
the most unlikely places.
Her faltering smile radiatedher trust in them.
They do it.
Thank you, lily, for that.
They do a loop around theneighborhood and he begins
writing this and as they beginthe second loop, he sees them
and the father takes the walkingstick out of her hand and
(41:00):
instead he just holds her handand everything changes.
My kids actually played thisgame with me.
I don't know how it started.
We were probably bored at likea theme park or something, but
to this day Tiggy will do thison a long walk, she'll hold her
hand out and she'll say okay,daddy, don't forget my eyes are
closed.
She says that because sometimesI forget their eyes are closed.
(41:21):
We do this a lot and the pointis I just walk and they want to
see how far they can go withtheir eyes being closed.
Welcome to being a Christian inthis world, you will always in
some way walk with your eyesclosed.
You're never going to seeeverything that your father sees
(41:42):
.
The question is do you haveenough trust in him when you
cannot, and this is wherebitterness, resentment,
frustration and anger go to die.
I've got a really good fatherand he will always protect me,
even if it means letting me tripoccasionally because he wants
(42:06):
me to walk on my own, hand inhand with him.
I don't know if you're angry.
I don't know if you'refrustrated.
I don't know if you're bitter.
I know a bunch of you are,because enough of you talked to
me about it in the past eightweeks to write this sermon.
Okay, I know that much, but Ialso know this we have a really
(42:26):
good father, for those of us whowould call him that, and if you
have not cried out to God asfather in a long time, if you
haven't shared your complaint,most importantly, if you haven't
ended it with hope, let todaybe the day where you biblically
lament and for some of you, thatsuperpower at the end may be
(42:49):
you for the first time,believing that the storms and
the lightning and the rain areactually a good thing that God
has brought into your life tobring you to him.
So choose to draw near to him.
I'll put up a couple ofquestions for you to think on,
to pray on, and just know thisIf you want to talk to somebody,
(43:11):
I'll probably be on this side.
Thomas is over there, greg'sover there.
If anybody else wants to comedown and pray with folks, feel
free to do that as well.
If you want to walk in thebackfield and just talk with the
Lord, if you want to kneel,stand, sing, pray, it doesn't
really matter to me, so long asyou bring all of yourself to God
and have a vision for the factthat he has a hope for you and a
future for you in Christ.
(43:32):
So let's draw near to him today.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.