Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM- But I Still Believe - Pastor Ryan

All right. Good morning, church family. So glad you're here. It's good to see everybody. I want to invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started. Give everybody an extra second to dial in a little bit. Father, we just thank you for another day. And we thank you for this time that we can come to your house, Lord God, and spend some time in your word and just lift

praise to you. And Lord, we just ask your blessing upon this time. Lord, encourage us in you and comfort us, Lord. And we love you and we praise you in Jesus name. You guys can go and have a seat if you like. I just want to take a moment. A lot of us that are hurting this morning, we're looking to you for peace in the middle of it all. We're looking, we trust you, Lord God. We're looking to

you. Lord, in the darkest days of our lives, Lord, we look to you. Lord, we place our trust in you this morning. And so I just pray that you would come this morning, God, and comfort us.

Do you guys stand with me for the last one? Yes, Lord God. Lord God, just teach us to abide in you this morning, to remain in you, Lord, through every season of life, Lord. It seemed to be going well and, Lord, when we're just walking through the valley of the shadow of death, Lord, teach us to abide in you. Teach us to remain in you, Lord God, because you are our source of strength,

our source of life, our source of peace and comfort through those times, Lord. And now as Ryan comes, I just pray that you would overflow him with your Holy Spirit, Lord God. Move mightily in this place, Lord, Holy Spirit. We welcome you this morning. We invite you to come and do something awesome in this place, Lord. We love you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, all God's

people said, amen. Let's take some time and greet one another. Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seats, grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. Handful of things to take note of in your bulletin. Over on the left-hand side are things that go on

throughout the week, spots to be plugged into, so take note of those. Over in the middle section of your bulletin, just a reminder that this week starts the Grief Share group. If you're interested in that, all of the information is right there. Also, as I alluded to last week, we are in need of some help in the children's church ministry. There's a bunch of tiny people down at the end of

the other end of the hallway, and they're all learning about Jesus on a level that they can understand. I actually think it's the most important ministry in the church. You all are great, but I really like them. If you are interested in that, if you've been around for about six months or so, you have a heart for kids, please come talk to me. You will need to know that

you'll have to go through a background check because I care a lot more about the kids here than I do your feelings, so you will have to pass a background check as far as that goes. But yeah, come talk to me because we'd love to have you be a part of it. Growing ministry and a lot of good things are going on down there. One other thing that is not in your bulletin that's sort of come to light for me this week is that if you would like to know about things that are going on around the church, prayer requests, things along those lines, we use a communication system called Flocknote, and all of the information is down at the bottom part of your bulletin where it says notices and prayer needs. So if you go to that website, you'll find a lot of information

about things that are going on around the church. If you go to that website or text that number, you can get signed up to receive the prayer requests and different updates and things like that that come out. That's how we kind of alert people about things going on in the church. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our

responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 27. Psalm 27, looking at the new American standard for this part of the service, just so we all sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 27, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. I will read the odd verses if

you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 27, a Psalm of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life. Whom shall I dread? When evil doors come upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Against me, my heart will not fear. The war arise against me. In spite of this, I shall be confident.

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to admit in temple. For in the day of trouble, he will conceal me in his tabernacle. In the secret place of his tent, he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my

enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my

enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my

enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies. And now my head will be lifted up above my Sing praises to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer me. When you said, Seek my face, my heart said to you, Your face, O Lord, I shall seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger.

You have been my help. Do not abandon me, nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a level path, because of my foes. Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence.

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. And Father, we come before you now, and that's exactly what we're doing right now. Lord, we're waiting on you. Because we want to hear from you. And so, Lord, may you speak to our hearts in the places where we need to be spoken to.

Father, mature us, grow us, strengthen us, instruct us, and comfort us. All by the power of your Holy Spirit, through the means of your word, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And you can just keep your Bibles open to Psalm 27. Because that's where we're going to be this morning. Psalm 27.

Well, I'm just going to give you a little bit of a picture of what's going on this week. Most of you know if you are newer or not a part of anything in the community, I guess. I'm just going to let you know kind of what's going on this week. So, Tuesday morning, I woke up to a text message from Sandra that I needed to give her a call. And in my mind, I was thinking someone was in the hospital.

And so, in my sleepiness, I was thinking about what I need. What appointments I needed to move for the day. What appointments I needed to change so that I could make it to whichever hospital I was going to need to go to that day. And when I called her back, she sort of leveled me with the news, which I know that they were already leveled by. That Glenn had gone home to be with the Lord.

If you don't know who that is, Glenn was the one playing the drums here last week. And he was one of my deacons. And he leads our children's ministry. And on a personal note, he's my good friend.

So, I don't know how often. It's going to happen in this service because I'm pretty emotionally raw right now, just in general. But it's been a lot in a month. If I never relive this summer, I'll be really happy. Because losing people like this has just been really hard. You know, a month ago, losing Dad almost to the day. And then this week, losing Glenn. It's just been really, really hard.

And so, as I kind of navigated the week, I did what I often do because it's what my dad taught me. When I was going through something hard, I retreated to the Psalms. And by the way, that is God's counseling book. It is the Psalms. And so, when you're going through the hard things, the best part, I'm going to teach you just like my dad taught me. The best thing that you can do is retreat to the Psalms.

Because in the Psalms, you will find the full gamut of emotions that all of the Psalmists go through as they lay out the reality of what's going on in their life and they find their hope in the Lord. And that's what we find in Psalms. We find that in Psalm 27 today. As a matter of fact, Psalm 27 is a psalm of confidence and courage. It's a psalm of confidence and courage.

We don't exactly know when David wrote this. Most commentators agree it had to have been in a very hard time in his life. But we're not really sure when, although most of us feel like it was probably when David was on the run from Saul. David had been anointed king and Saul didn't like that he had been anointed king. And so, Saul sought to take the life of David.

And so, he was always pursuing him, always chasing him. And David was always chasing him. Always on the run and living in fear. And it was in a time just like that that David wrote this psalm. And this psalm reminds us that though things are difficult, we can still believe God because God has not changed. Even though life is difficult, we can still find our confidence in God.

And so, I have entitled the message this morning, But I Still Believe. Because that's the place I found myself this week as I was studying and reading and meditating. On scripture as I reminded myself that even though life is hard, I can still believe in a very good God. And so, I'm going to take you on this journey through Psalm 27 where hopefully we will find confidence in the Lord.

And we will find ourselves with the psalmist David saying that though life is hard, we do still believe that God is good. And so, there's four things he's going to tell us about in this psalm. Four words that we're going to focus on. We're going to focus on confidence. We're going to focus on presence. We're going to focus on pleading. And we're going to focus on hope.

And so, starting in verse 1, we'll look at the first of those four things, confidence. The psalmist David says this. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life. Whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear.

Though war arise against me. In spite of this, I shall be confident. Three things he tells us here. Three very powerful words that he starts off with that I think are really important for us to pay attention to. And I hope you noted them. They are the words light, salvation, and defense. Three ways that he describes God in a very powerful way. And I want to look at each of these three words here real quickly.

The first word that we look at is the word light. Now, when we think of light, we're reminded that Jesus is the light of the world. We're reminded that God created light. And that he dwells in unapproachability. That he is the approachable light. And that he is the very light. But as we look at this word as the Psalmist David portrays it here, don't think of it as much as light as far as illumination.

Think of it metaphorically like it would have been the Hebrew culture at that point in time. Metaphorically, in the Hebrew culture at that point in time, light was synonymous with life. So what he's saying about his savior, what he's saying about God, is that the Lord is his life. He is the one who is the giver of life. He is the one who is the author of life.

And he is the one who is the sustainer of his life. And so as he thinks about God in this very difficult time that he's going through, perhaps the time where he is running for his life, he reminds himself that the very thing that God is for him is his very life. And so he says, the Lord is my light. The second thing he tells us about the Lord is that he says, the Lord is my salvation.

The word salvation means deliverance or rescue. Deliverance or rescue. And if anybody understood what it was like to be rescued, it was David. Because David had found salvation. He had found himself so many times in a place where he was on the run from Saul. Where he was fleeing from some sort of an enemy that wanted to end his life. And the place where he found salvation was in the Lord.

The place where he was constantly set free was in the Lord. As a matter of fact, throughout the Old Testament, we see this word used. You know, the first times we see this word used is a guy by the name of Moses. And Moses, after the children of Israel had crossed the Red Sea, wrote this song. And as he wrote this song, he says, The Lord is my life and has become my salvation.

He has become my deliverance. And so he knew God as his deliverance. He knew God as that place of safety. And so he saw God as his salvation. And that's who David saw God as. And quite frankly, brothers and sisters, that's who we can see God as. We can see him as that salvation. We can see him as that rescue, that deliverance, that place of safety for us. But then he refers to him as a third word.

He refers to him as his defense. His defense. The word defense, in some of your translations, may say stronghold or refuge. But what it speaks of is a place of safety and protection. A place of safety and protection. As David was on the run from Saul, living in the wilderness, one of the most important things to him would have been to find some sort of a place of safety and protection.

Some place where he could lay his head down for the night, not fear for his life, and get the rest that he needed, so that he could get back into the battle for another day. And he knew how important that was to him physically. But what he realized was, is as important as he needed that, as much as he needed that physically, what he really needed was that spiritually and emotionally. And he always found that in the Lord.

He always found that place of safety, that place of protection, that place of refuge in God, so that no matter what was going on in his life, God was always his safety. Again, I would like to look at a couple of other scriptural examples of this. Because it's beautiful to see how God is our safety, no matter what's going on in our lives, no matter how difficult things are. I'm reminded of the story of Paul and Silas in the New Testament.

Paul and Silas found themselves in Philippi, where they were preaching the gospel and they were seeing an amazing revival take place in the city of Philippi. But the city leaders didn't like what was going on there, and so they brought accusations against them and they imprisoned them. But before they imprisoned them, it says they beat them with rods. They would have stripped them down to the waist, beat them with rods, put them in a prison where they were set up in the stocks.

And in the middle of the night, we're told at midnight, as these guys are bruised and beaten and uncomfortable, they still found a place of sanctuary. Because you know what they started doing at midnight? They started praising the Lord. Why? Because though physically they may have found themselves in a very difficult situation, spiritually and emotionally, God was their defense.

He was their place of safety. He was their place of protection. He was everything that they needed. And so the psalmist David cries out and says, The Lord is my light, He is my salvation, and He is my defense. And he tells us why he needed those things. Because he faced enemies. Notice what it says. He first asks two questions. Verse 1 he says, Whom shall I fear and whom shall I dread?

You know why he asked those questions? Because there were lots of people to fear and lots of people to dread. But in light of who God was, they were really nothing compared to the greatness of God. Because if God is for you, who can be against you? Right? He says, Who can I fear and who can I dread? But he describes these enemies a little bit. He describes them in verse 2 as evildoers.

Those who would devour his flesh. Those are his adversaries, his enemies. He refers to in verse 3 as a host or an army that encamps against him. And a war that comes against him. But in spite of all of those things, in spite of the enemies that he faces, he still has confidence. I want us to know something, brothers and sisters. And this is what David in the Psalms is so good at doing.

And I'll bring this up again in just a moment. We have to remember that there's a real enemy that we face. Sometimes we have this super spiritual feeling. God is my light. He's my salvation. He's my defense. And I really don't have any problems in life. No, there's real enemies that we face. And those real enemies that we face are what help us to realize that we need the light, the salvation, and the defense of God.

And David calls them out exactly like they are. He says, I have these enemies that I face. But in spite of all of those things, I can be confident in God. In spite of all of those things, I shall still be confident in the God who is my light, who is my salvation, and who is my defense. And it reminds me of something. You see, I think this is David paving the way for the difficulty

that he's about to pray for in just a few minutes. Because later in the Psalm, he's going to cry out to God for help. He's going to cry out to him for help. He's going to cry out to him for deliverance. And I think that David is now reminding himself of God's past faithfulness so that he will have confidence going into this prayer that he's about to offer to God.

And that reminds me of a truth about Scripture. And that's that God's past faithfulness always gives to us present confidence. God's past faithfulness always brings us present confidence. And that's why one of the greatest things that you can do is continually remind yourself of the past faithfulness of God. So there's a handful of ways I think that you need to do that.

First of all, that's why you need to be in God's Word. Because while God's Word is absolutely instructions on the way that we are supposed to live our lives, it is also stories of God's faithfulness to people throughout the generations. Starting with Adam, carrying us all the way through to the book of Revelation, they are all stories of God's faithfulness based upon the circumstances that they were going through and how God brought deliverance. And so you need to be in what God's Word has to say because it will remind you that God is a faithful God.

I think you should read biographies about believers in Jesus Christ who have been through really hard things and how God has delivered them and keep your mind constantly attuned to that faithfulness of God. But do you know what else? This is why you need fellowship with each other. This is why you need to come together on a Sunday morning or on a Wednesday evening or small group Bible studies because what happens when you gather with other believers is you not only share each other's problems, but you share each other's victories.

And as you share each other's victories, those are the things that remind you of God's faithfulness. Well, I know God worked in their life in this situation, so maybe God's going to work in my life in this situation. I know what God did for them, and I think He's going to do that same thing for me because He's the same God that has done all of these things. And that fellowship is so important for us.

One of the things I always encourage young people to do is go find you somebody that's walked with Jesus for a really long time and ask them to tell you their stories. And I'm here to tell you if you're an old person in here right now, find a young person that's willing to listen and tell them your stories. Because part of my faith journey is my parents telling me their stories, their stories of faith, is Pastor Mark, Pastor Rick, all the people that I've served alongside over the years telling me their stories of faith, because those all built for me a confidence in God because of His past faithfulness. But not only do you need to read about all of the other people's past faithfulness that God has had in their lives,

you need to establish some Ebenezer stones up for yourself. Do you know what Ebenezer stones are? I'm glad you asked. So when Joshua began to lead the children of Israel, after Moses died, it was time for Joshua to take the children of Israel into the promised land that God had promised for them. And so they come to the edge of the Jordan River. And the place where they were to cross the Jordan River

was a flooded river at that point in time. And there was no bridge to go across. They needed to cross the Jordan to get into the promised land. Now when they crossed the Red Sea, God parted the sea and then they walked into it. But it was going to be different with the Jordan River because they were going to have to walk by faith. And so God said it's going to be a little bit different this time.

What you're going to do is you're going to step into the water and as you step into the water, the waters will part and you'll walk through. But it's going to take a walk of faith. And that's exactly what they did. They began to step into the water, the waters parted and they walked across the Jordan River. And God said before the river closes up, this is what I want you to do.

I want you to take 12 stones, one for each of the tribes of the children of Israel. And I want you to build an altar and a memorial on the other side of the Jordan that you have just crossed into. So that every time you look at those stones, you are reminded of the faithfulness of God and that he led you by faith and will continue to lead you by faith. And so that in generations to come, when kids look and they say, what's with the big pile of rocks right there?

You can say, well, that's a reminder of God's faithfulness to us. You need to establish those in your own life. You need to establish those Ebenezer stones in your own life. It's lots of different ways that we can do it. I like to write things down, sometimes on really inconsequential pieces of paper. I was actually just going through a filing cabinet yesterday

because I got a new one from my office at home and I was going through a filing cabinet and I pulled out a piece of paper and it was a study that I had done at one point in time because I didn't used to type them up like this. I would just write them on insubstantial pieces of paper and I found it and I went, oh, I need to hold on to that because I really liked what God taught me in that study. And that's an Ebenezer stone for me because I remember what God did in me in that moment. Perhaps for you an Ebenezer stone is some sort of a painting.

I think my mom actually has one of these in her house right now that is a reminder of God's faithfulness. Whatever it is, you need to find something that you can attach God's faithfulness to to say, why do you still have that? Because that's a reminder to me of God's faithfulness. Because past faithfulness builds present confidence. And so David, first of all, in this Psalm,

as he's going through really hard things, reminds himself and us as the reader of the faithfulness of God and the confidence that he can have in the Lord. The second thing he tells us about is presence. Notice what it says in verse 4. It says, One thing have I asked from the Lord, and that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.

For in the day of trouble he will conceal me in his tabernacle. In the secret place of his tent he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock, and now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. And I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. As David begins to speak of presence, what he's speaking of is the presence of God.

Because he realized that in the hardest times of life, the greatest need that you have is for the presence of God to be with you. Now God is with us all the time because his presence is inescapable. But our understanding of his presence is what he is really seeking. And so he says, As I think about this, one thing have I asked from the Lord, that shall I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

Now he doesn't really want to go just live in the tabernacle. He doesn't really want to just go live in a temple that his son will eventually build for him. No, what he wants is he wants to constantly be in the presence of the Lord. He says, I want my life to be wrapped up in the presence of God. And I am reminded that the greatest thing that you and I need in our lives

is we need the presence of God with us. Because the presence of God with us is what gives the peace of God to us. Because as we live in that presence, we live in that presence of God, it's amazing how God's peace begins to minister to us. Well, how do we live in the presence of God? Well, it's not just your 15 minute devotional that you have in the morning.

That's just the start of God's presence in your life. It's an important start to God's presence in your life. But it's just the start of God's presence in your life. That time that you have in the word introduces you back into the presence of God so that you can now live your day in the presence of God. So that your entire day is one long prayer of you being in the presence of God.

Seeking Him in every aspect of your being. That doesn't mean that you don't have times where you shut everything down. Because I think sometimes we just need to shut everything down in order to hear the word of God. In order to truly sense the presence of God. I actually think one of the greatest issues that we have in the culture today is our inability to disconnect.

And our inability to disconnect is what is preventing us from that presence of God. But eventually you have to go back to work. Eventually you have to get back to school. You have to get back to living your life. But the time that you have with the Lord puts God's presence back in the forefront of your life as you live the rest of your life. I always talk about the fact that

the greatest place of God's presence for me is when I run. Matter of fact, I came home from one yesterday on a particularly long one at the absolute hottest part of the day because I'm not that smart. And I looked at what at one point in time was a white pair of running shoes. And they are just completely disgusting. Even though my wife told me, I'm dirty. Shh, don't tell her, she's not at this service.

Anyway, they're just all disgusting and dirty. And I just looked at them as I took them off getting cleaned up and I thought, those may be really dirty but they represent a lot of time in the presence of the Lord. That's the thought that went through my mind. Maybe your Bible is pretty torn up but it represents a lot of time in the presence of the Lord. And that's what we need in our lives

and that's what David was seeking in his life. He said, I want God's presence in my life to dwell in the house of the Lord and also to do two things. First of all, to behold His beauty. That word beauty can also be translated as His perfections. Isn't that great? Great translation for that word. That you can behold the perfection of the Lord. The perfection of God in His word.

The perfection of God in nature. The perfection of God in each other. Some of you aren't the perfection of God but sometimes you are, right? Like it's amazing what the presence of the body of Christ does for us, right? As you see the beauty of the Lord in the presence of the body of Christ. My family experienced this as we went through everything with my dad

as he was on hospice and after he died. We experienced the beauty of the presence of the Lord through the body of Christ. I know the Davis family is experiencing the exact same thing right now. They're experiencing that beauty of the presence of God because of the body of Christ being around them. They're beholding the beauty of God as you are living out the life of Jesus Christ

by being the hands and feet of Jesus to them. Just like you have been to us. If there's anything that I can continue to encourage you is nobody cares how much you know. They only care how much you love. And as the love of Jesus Christ flows through you, it's amazing how it will change the hearts and lives of people. Because they are beholding the beauty of the Lord

and to meditate in His temple. Notice what it says in verse 5. For in the day of trouble this is why he wants the presence of the Lord. For in the day of trouble he will conceal me in his tabernacle. In the secret place of his tent he will hide me and he will lift me up on a rock. I'm going to look at those three phrases that hopefully you noticed that I emphasized

just a little bit. The first two are that he will hide me and that he will conceal me. The idea is this. Though physically you may not always be hidden from the trouble of the world, when you are in the presence of God there is great safety. Daniel of course was living in a pagan kingdom but he was a ruler in a pagan kingdom. He was in a high position and authority in this pagan government.

And some of the other rulers didn't like him and so they decided they would establish a rule and the only thing they could catch him in and that was in the worship of his God. And so they said let's make a decree that if anyone prays to any other God but Darius that he will have to be thrown into the lion's den. And of course Daniel can't violate his religion. He can't violate his God.

So once the decree had been set into motion Daniel went home and sat down to pray just like he did every single day. And he opened up the curtains so that he could face towards Jerusalem because that's what good Jewish people did at that point in time. And he prayed to the Lord. And of course they said, King we caught him. He was praying to someone besides you.

And so he had to be thrown into the lion's den. And you know what happened to Daniel in the lion's den? Absolutely nothing. He snuggled with the lions. Took the best nap of his entire life. Made friends with them all and they high pawed later, right? That's all that happened with Daniel in the lion's den. You know why? Because he was concealed and hidden because of the presence of the Lord.

Because that's what God does for his people. But lest we think that protection only means that nothing ever happens to us physically I want to remind you of the very first of the New Testament martyrs. His name was Stephen. And right before Stephen was being stoned to death do you remember what he saw? There's this great line in Acts chapter 7 that says that Stephen looked

and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father right before he was put to death. Why? Because God's presence concealed him and God's presence hid him. And though he faced difficulty on this side of eternity he was welcomed with open arms on the other side of eternity because he lived in God's presence. David said in that day you will conceal me in your tabernacle

hide me in your secret place but then I want you to notice what it says and he will lift me up on a rock. It reminds me of one of my favorite Psalms Psalm 40 where he says that he's lifting him up out of the miry clay and he's placed his feet upon a rock because that's what God does for us no longer are you on slippery ground no longer are you on sinking sand you're on a place that's never going to sink because God is sustaining you. He says that's what God's presence does for me is it sustains me in a solid place where I won't sink into my place of despair where I won't sink into my place of depression where I won't sink into my place of despair where I won't sink into my place of discouragement

instead I will stand firmly on the truth of who God is. He says that's why I need the presence of God because that's what it does for me and what does it result in? It results in praise. Notice what he says and now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy I will sing yes I will sing praises to the Lord the natural reaction for all of us as believers to what God does in our lives I will sing praises to God in a few minutes not right now I've got two points left so hang in there with me but in a few minutes I'll be inviting the worship team to come up and sing one last song and this is my mission for you this is my job although we did pretty good during the service

I've got to tell you it was great to sit up here in the front row and just hear the sounds of God's people singing there's nothing that makes me happier maybe the turning of Bible pages right there together but to hear God's people really belted out and sing to the Lord I think I like it you ought to see how God smiles because it tells us that he loves it it's like incense coming into his nostrils it's like the smell of a barbecue it's exactly what it is for him so when we sing that last song after we've talked about the confidence and the presence and the pleading and the hope that we have in God would you just sing as loud as you possibly can throw your hands up in the air and just belt it out like nobody was listening

like there's nobody else in the room but you and Jesus because that's what happens when the presence of God takes its hold in our lives and we see him conceal us in his temple as it brings about so much praise in our hearts because that's what God does for us right? and so he says this is what comes about because of the presence of God is that it always results in praise well now we come to what I think is really the heart of Psalm 27 because the first part was him reminding him of the confidence that he could have in God and the second part is him crying out for the presence of God in his life but now he really begins to plead to the Lord for what the need really is that he's facing for the battle that he's really facing

and so notice the depth of emotion he pours into this prayer he says hear oh Lord when I cry hear oh Lord when I cry with my voice and be gracious to me and answer me when you said seek my face my heart said to you your face oh Lord I shall seek do not hide your face from me do not turn your servant away in anger help don't abandon me or forsake me oh God of my salvation for my father and my mother have forsaken me but the Lord will take me up teach me your way oh Lord and lead me in a level path because of my foes do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries for false witnesses have risen up against me and such is breathe out violence the first thing that he praises hear me when I cry hear me when I cry he says hear Lord when I cry to you

and be gracious to me and answer me you know why he had to say that because I think that there was some part of David that felt like God had forgotten there was some part of David that though he had confidence in who God is it still seemed like God was really distant in this moment that he needed to be reminded Lord I still need you to hear my prayers I still need you to hear me when I cry to you because sometimes we can we just be honest about this sometimes it feels like the prayers hit the ceiling can we be honest about that especially in the hardest times it feels like they went and then landed on the ground and if they can make it past the ceiling they certainly can't make it past the atmosphere and they're not getting to the ears of God

I actually had a young lady come to me Friday morning when I went and talked to some kids and she came up to me after I was done speaking and she said why does God feel distant like I feel like I pray and God's not there I feel like I'm seeking God and he just feels so distant from me what am I supposed to do with that and I said well it means you gotta keep seeking because God is there you're just not sensing the presence right now God is there you're just not sensing the answer right now but don't give up because God is about to have a breakthrough in your life and you just have to keep pursuing you just have to keep seeking because in the hardest of times it feels like God can be kind of distant even though he's not

in the hardest of times it feels like God is far away but he's not he's right there with you which is why sometimes with the Psalmist David we say hear me when I cry I was talking to somebody right before first service and they said this is the first time I've really had to deal with shocking news like this and it's almost affected me physically like the shock of it has it's just been really hard on me and all I could think was this is definitely not the first time I've had to deal with shocking news like this it's not even the second time I've had to it's been quite a few times and every time I could kind of find myself in the same place of going Lord could you just hear me when I cry because what I'm bringing to you is really

serious stuff right now he says hear me when I cry and he goes on to say you said for me to seek your face and so I'm seeking your face but Lord don't hide your face from me don't hide your face from me hear me when I cry he goes on to say do not forsake me he says do not turn away middle of verse 9 do not turn your servant away in anger you have been my help do not abandon me nor forsake me oh God of my salvation for my father and my mother have forsaken me but the Lord will take me up you ever felt forsaken by God you've maybe never used those words you've maybe never said to yourself maybe you have maybe you've never said to yourself I think God has given up on me I think God's forsaken me but you've probably asked this question

I don't know why God would allow this to happen I don't understand why this would have taken place in my life I don't understand the plan on this one God you see well that's not saying I feel like God has forsaken me in our hearts that's the cry of it because we're like Lord this doesn't seem good this doesn't seem happy this doesn't seem profitable I don't see how this is for my good and your glory so Lord why have you forsaken me you see one of the things we have to learn is that we have to get honest with God in our prayers because he knows what's going on on the inside anyway he knows how you feel anyway and he's not going to be like oh you mean you thought I forsook you on that one you mean you're shocked by what took place

see none of it catches him off guard and he's not insecure so God's not stressed that you're going to find out he doesn't really exist because he knows he exists and he knows the reality now it's time for you to get honest with God about it now it's time for you to be serious with God about the things going on in your life that's what David does that's why he says Lord why have you forsaken me don't forsake me here don't leave me here everybody else in the world can forsake me but you won't and I'm going to believe that you won't because notice how he goes from fear to faith look at the end of verse 10 but the Lord will take me up but the Lord will take me up I love that because we're presented with the reality of something here

and the reality that we're presented with is that even though sometimes there's fear there's also a great deal of faith even though sometimes there's discouragement you can also have a great deal of faith isn't it wild that those two can exist together but they can Ryan that's not what the Bible says yeah it does right there he deals with both of those because those are human emotions and we struggle with both of those things and he goes on to continue in his prayer and he says this teach me your way oh Lord and lead me in a level path because of my foes do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries for false witnesses have risen up against me and such as breathe out violence the next thing he says is teach me

I need you to teach me I need you to teach me how to navigate the things that I'm going through right now I need you to teach me how to walk the path of the things that I'm going through right now and that's what we have to ask the Lord too is we have to ask him Lord would you show me the way that you would have me to handle this would you show me the direction that I'm supposed to go the emotions that I'm supposed to have the feelings that I'm supposed to have I need you to teach me your way teach me your path and lead me all of these things. I can tell you from experience that when you pray those sorts of things to the Lord, he does show you what to do. He does lead you in the right path. He does give you everything

that you need to navigate through the difficulties of life. I remember when I first took over as the pastor here, and of course, I took over as the pastor by, first of all, doing the funeral for the pastor that died of cancer. And I remember thinking, Lord, I don't know how to navigate this. I don't know how to navigate my own grief of having lost my pastor, someone who was like a second dad to me. I don't know how to navigate the difficulties of now taking over a church,

and I don't know how to lead a church through the loss of their pastor. Lord, I don't know how to do any of those things, and I need you to teach me your path. I need you to lead me in the way. And you know what God was faithful to do? He was faithful to give me everything that I needed. Every morning, I would wake up, and I would say, Lord, what do I do today?

And he would say, Lord, what do I do today? And I would say, Lord, what do I do today? And he would always show me what to do that day. I would ask him how I was supposed to counsel people, and he would show me how to counsel people. I asked him how I was supposed to handle it, and he always showed me how to handle it. And in every consecutive issue that's come up in my

life, every difficulty, every loss, everything along those lines that's come up in my life, I've had to pray the same thing. Lord, teach me your way. Show me the path to take, and he has done it every single time. I shared this with, who did I share this with? Oh, he has Wednesday night. I shared this with the Wednesday night group that when I was in Bible college, we all went through Pastor Chuck's tapes together and all the way through the Bible. And

when we came to the book of Jeremiah, I don't know if you know this or not, but the prophet Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. And so when we came to Jeremiah, I don't know if you all know this about me or not, but I'm an emotional human being, and sometimes those emotions show on the outside. I hide it pretty well for the most part, but every now and then it shows. But I'm a pretty emotional person. I'm a pretty emotional person. I'm a pretty emotional person.

And I remember all of my friends looking at me and saying, oh my gosh, Ryan, you're Jeremiah. You're the weeping prophet. You know what you don't want to be? The weeping prophet. And I was like, oh, that's funny. Until it's true. Because my entire ministry has been based on grief. I've had to navigate it every single time that I turn around. Every year at the end of my journal,

every year I write, this was a hard year. Maybe next year will be better. I should probably stop writing that. Because that's not true. It's not going to be true. It's not going to be true. It's going to be better. But God's always good through all of it. Because one of the things that I always notice is he always gives me everything that I need. When I say, Lord, I need you to show

me what to do now, he's faithful to do it every single time. You know how I know that? You know how I can tell that? Not only because I'm still here, but you all are still here. As a matter of fact, you all brought a bunch of your friends too, and that's fun. And we see that God always teaches us how to walk in that level path, how to be in that right place. And then he says, deliver me. The

deliver me, oh Lord, from all of the things that I'm going through. Can I tell you right now that God is the God who delivers? I know that there's some folks that are hurting in here this morning from this incident this week, but I know some of you are hurting from other things too. And you're probably asking yourself, is God ever going to deliver me? Can I tell you that he is and he will?

Because I've watched him do it over and over again in my own life. I'm not telling you things that I read in a book somewhere. I'm telling you things that I walk through personally. And I watch him continue to do it. That's why when this one happened, when these past two events happened, the loss of my dad and the loss of Glenn, I went, man, that one hurts. But I still believe.

But I still believe that God is going to get me through it because it's the only thing that keeps me going. And I've watched him do it over and over again. And I've seen it happen. And so I can pray, Lord, deliver me with confidence, just like David. David started off by reminding himself of the loss of Glenn and God because he knew he was going to have to come to a place where he was going to

have to pray for the deliverance of God. And the past faithfulness brought present confidence to where he was. And so he says, Lord, deliver me. Deliver me from all my adversaries. Well, again, in Psalm 27, the psalmist David, first of all, gives us confidence in who God is and what God has done. He reminds us of God's presence, that that's truly the place that we should all be seeking in our lives, because that's the safest place for us to be. That's the

safest place for us to be. That's the safest place for us to be. That's the safest place for us to be. That's the safest place for us to be. That's the safest place for us to be. That's the safest place for us to be. lives because that's the safest place that we can be is in that continual presence of the Lord. And we've seen him plead to the Lord about the things going on in his life. But the last thing

that we look at, number four, is we look at hope. Verse 13 says this, I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. I love the way he starts off those verses. And for me personally, these are the verses that God

ministered to me the week before my dad died, is I read this psalm and I remember just thinking that's exactly what I need to hear right now, particularly verses 13 and 14, that I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. But I want to look at that first phrase, I would have despaired. Because that's the reality that we all live in apart from Jesus Christ. The reality that we all live in apart from Jesus Christ is that we're going to live a life of despair. I have zero idea how anybody without

Jesus survives this life. I have zero idea how anybody without Jesus faces death. Because the only thing that's brought a great deal of comfort to my heart, especially in this past month, but quite frankly over the past 10 years of my life, is that God has overcome death. And I can always find my hope in him. And if you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus

Christ, I'm here to tell you right now, stop living in despair and come to Jesus today. Stop living in despair and put your faith in him today, because I'm here to tell you right now, you're not going to survive. This is why everybody's getting drunk and high all the time, is because all they know to do is to mask their despair with the garbage of this world. All they know to do is to mask their despair with anything that will numb anything that they can possibly get their hands on. And David said, I would have despaired unless what? Unless I had

believed. Unless I had believed. And what did he believe? He believed that he would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Now I'm going to tell you how I used to always look at this until like three days ago. I used to always look at that. I think it's a good way to look at this. I think it's an accurate way to look at this, but I don't think it's the most accurate way to look

at it. The way that I always looked at it is, I don't have to despair in this life because I know I'm going to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, i.e. I have an eternal hope. Now, I don't want us to let go of that because we have an eternal hope. When I made a post on social media, I remember one of the first guys that posted on it said, tragic for us, but can

you imagine how much fun he's having right now? Can you imagine how awesome it is for him right now? And I thought, man, I needed that reminder. In that moment, I needed that reminder that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I can't wait to see him again. I can't wait to see my dad again. I can't wait to see my cousins again that I've lost. I can't wait to see all those people again, and I know that I'm going

to because I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, and I have this eternal hope. I have this eternal peace, and it's what's gotten me through the past month of my life, and for some of you, it's what's getting you through situations right now, but I don't actually think that's the most accurate way to look at it. I don't think that's the most accurate way to look at this. See, I was looking at a word study on this, and it said, we have to understand that what David's referring to in the Hebrew language here is he's not referring to eternity because in Hebrew language, the land of the living speaks of life on topside of planet Earth,

and I thought, now, wait a second. I don't agree with that at all. This guy's a Greek scholar or a Hebrew scholar, by the way, and I just have a little two-year Bible to college degree, so I should probably not disagree with him too much, but I was like, I don't agree with that at all, this is eternal hope, and so I started praying about it. I started thinking about it, and I started meditating on it, letting it marinate in my brain a little bit, and I thought, no, actually, that is the hope that we have. Yes, we have this eternal hope, and I don't ever want us to let go of that. We have

a hope for eternity, but sometimes, if all we have is a hope for eternity, we forget that there's a hope for today. We forget that we would despair unless we would believe that we would see the goodness of God in the land of the living. That in this world, we will see the healing of God. That in this world, we will see God do something beautiful through the most tragic things. That God will grow beautiful flowers on

dead soil, right? We believe that because we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, because God is a God who heals, and God is a God who restores, and God is a God who takes the worst of things in life and makes them into something beautiful for everyone around us, including you. One of my friends from Bible College who is now pastoring a large church in Montana, his name is Levi, and one of the things that is a part of his story is he had a five-year-old daughter. It's quite some time, about 10 years ago now. He had a five-year-old daughter. Her name

was Lenya, and Lenya had an asthma attack one night, and Lenya didn't survive that asthma attack, and she went home to be with Jesus. And in his book, Through the Eyes of a Lion, he writes about this, and he writes about the experience. I always tell everybody they should read that book, especially if you've gone through a loss. You should read that book, but you just need to know there's one chapter where you need a whole box of Kleenex, because when he walks you through the process of the loss of his daughter, especially if you've just gone through loss yourself, man, it hurts.

But one of the things that is so amazing is that what God has done with him through this is he has taken that tragedy, and it has become his platform. He's taken that tragedy, and it has become how he preaches the gospel to people all over the world. And there's this great line at the very end of the book, and he says, when we closed Lenya's eyes for the last time, mine were truly opened, because he could see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. See, that's the hope that we have, is that God doesn't waste tragedy.

God uses it to produce something in our lives that could have never been produced any other way. And he does something very beautiful with it. And yes, there is hope for eternity, but there's hope for today. You don't have to live in the despair. You don't have to live in the grief. I'm not saying that there's not always going to be an empty seat at the table. I'm not saying that there's not always going to occasionally be some heartache, because

there is. But there is still joy, and there is still peace, and there is still hope, and there is still beauty that comes out of life through the hardest of times. And that's what God has done for things. Because David says, I would have lost heart unless I would have despaired, unless I'd believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Because God is still a God

who heals, and God is still a God who restores. That's what he's in the business of doing. And so what are we supposed to do? Notice what it says in verse 14. It says, wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. The word wait there means to hope for or to look for expectantly. To hope for or to look for expectantly. What does it look like to wait? It doesn't always look like what we think it does.

It doesn't mean you just sit around. That doesn't mean you just sit around just kind of waiting for things to happen. No, there's an active aspect of waiting. Just like some of the other things we've talked about, it starts with you waiting on the Lord in prayer and in scripture. Again, sometimes you're going to have to shut off the devices, and you're going to have

to find your prayer closet. In my case, it's a prayer patio. But you're going to have to find your prayer closet, and that's where the waiting on the Lord begins, is you're going to have to wait to hear what he has to say to you. Because I'm here to tell you right now, until you can turn off the distractions, you're never going to hear what he has to say to you.

And as you do so, as you start that time in your word in the morning, that's where the beginning on the Lord starts. That's where it begins to happen. And then it carries on throughout every aspect of your day. And you will find that once your mind starts to meditate on the truth of God's word in the morning, it will carry you throughout the rest of your day, and you'll find that other things happen throughout the day that reinforce what you learned that morning.

And pretty soon, God is starting to speak to you, and he'll speak brand new things to you constantly throughout scripture. You know how I know that? Because up until three days ago, I looked at verse 13 completely differently. In the last three days, I've been given a completely different view of it, because I took time to wait on the Lord. It reminds me of one of my favorite stories about one of my favorite Bible teachers of

all time. David Hawking tells the story about a guy named J. Vernon McGee. J. Vernon McGee was this old Texas Bible teacher. He's been home with Jesus since about 1987-ish, and he, of course, died of cancer. David Hawking said, I had the privilege of hearing J. Vernon McGee preach for the very last time in his life. He said, I will never forget watching him have to be helped up on the stage because his body was riddled with

cancer. And as they helped him up on the stage, suit barely fitting him because he'd lost so much weight, he stood behind the pulpit, leaned heavily on it, and opened up the Bible to a psalm. And he said, I can't tell you how many times I've taught this psalm, and God just gave me something new to share with you today. You know why? Because he waited on the Lord. And when you wait on the Lord,

God faithfully shows up every single time. It's just what he does for us. Because the Spirit of the Lord searches to and fro throughout the earth to find those whose hearts are true to him. And so we wait on the Lord, and notice what he says, and be of good courage. Be strong and let your heart take courage. In other words, strengthen yourself in the Lord. And then if you didn't catch it,

the first time you did, you didn't catch it. You didn't catch it. You didn't catch it. The first time, he says it one more time, wait, I say, on the Lord. Brothers and sisters, this is a beautiful psalm that teaches us an incredible amount about God. But as we close here this morning, I want to say, I know that life is hard. I know that some things in life are difficult to accept, difficult to navigate.

But God is still good. And even though it's hard, we can still believe. Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me.

Father, we come to you now. And Lord, I just praise you for who you are. And I praise you for what your word does for us. And Lord, how your word speaks to us. And so, Father, I pray that as we sing this last song, Lord, may our hearts be poured out to you in praise. Father, may we, as the truth of your faithfulness begins to well up inside of us, Lord, may it come out through.

Through perfected praise, Lord. And God, as we depart from here and go about the rest of our week, Lord, may we rest in the confidence that we can have in you. Father, deliver us, we pray. Teach us. And help us to wait on you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. All my words fall short. I've got nothing new. How could I express? I could sing this song. Just express our gratitude to you this morning, God, for who you are and for how much you love us

and for what you've done for us, Lord God. And Lord, thank you for walking with us, Lord God, through these difficult seasons. Lord, thank you for being there for us, for comforting us and encouraging us. Lord, giving us hope. Lord, we have so many reasons to praise you and to thank you, God. And so, we offer you our gratitude this morning, Lord Jesus. We thank you. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Y'all just have a wonderful week. God bless you.