[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry please visit citizenschurch.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I walked into the store that day, my demeanor was somber.
[SPEAKER_01]: My shoulders were slouched, my smile was fake.
[SPEAKER_01]: My heart was heavy, stuffed to hide.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was there, it was during my off period, because I'm a teacher, to purchase some supplies for an activity that I was going to do with my students later on in the week.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got what I needed, and then I approached the counter.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the man I met there could not have been more different than me.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was older,
[SPEAKER_01]: Jovial, engaging, affable as if he was filled with joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, how are we doing today, sir?
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was a significant part of me who just wanted to brush off his question with the ultimate conversation killer, something like good or fine, something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But instead, I figured that I wasn't fooling anyone, so I decided that day to take a more honest approach.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, man, if I can be honest with you,
[SPEAKER_01]: and I'm in the middle of a string of bad days.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for the next two minutes or so, during the time it took him to scan the items that I was there to get, we engaged in conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: There wasn't anything groundbreaking about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just him digging a little bit more into my honest response.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even now, I don't know if he loves and trust.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, our conversation just never got there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But his concern for and his attention to me was clear and it was genuine.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he handed me my receipt and he looked in the eye and he said, can I tell you something about a decision that I've made?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, I said.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said a few years ago, I decided that I don't have bad days.
[SPEAKER_01]: pause.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning, teach of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: My name's Alan, and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with you today.
[SPEAKER_01]: My wife Lisa and I have been a part of this family since the beginning, over 10 years now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for the past few years, I've had the distinct joy to serve this body as lay elder.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've heard this the last few weeks that our church is elder-led, and some of those elders are on staff.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Joe and Adam and J.M.
[SPEAKER_01]: and Blaker and Corey, the rest of us do other jobs during the week.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in just a few days, literally on Tuesday, I'll begin your number 21 as a public school classroom teacher.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't need to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: For the past 20 years I've been teaching middle schoolers literally in the same school same classroom 20 years
[SPEAKER_01]: 12 and 13 year olds, but this year I have decided to make a change, and so I'm jumping up a few grades to 10th graders.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be teaching high schoolers about reading and writing and research.
[SPEAKER_01]: So today I come to you from the world of six, seven, the world of aura and riz and crashing out and looks maxing in phantom taxes, and if you don't know what any of those things are, don't waste your time.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know this, though?
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a tough time to be a kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: They speak a different language than we do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: At least when I were married in 2010 and after about a year or two of being together, we decided that it was time for us to start growing our family.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we considered where we were and our careers.
[SPEAKER_01]: We considered the support systems and the community that we were surrounded with.
[SPEAKER_01]: We figured that adding a child to our family in the next year was a right step for us to take.
[SPEAKER_01]: what we didn't know was at that time was that what we expected to be a fun and exciting transition into life's next stage was actually an entry into a multi-year passage through the valley of infertility.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we talk about this time in our lives, we liken it to a hike.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm an English teacher, everything's a metaphor.
[SPEAKER_01]: In a hike, we set our hearts on a destination, maybe a scenic vista or waterfall or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You pack a backpack, a few granola bars in it, maybe a water bottle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's drop on our shoes and we head out and expecting the journey to take no more than a few hours if you do the kind of heights that I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: In our journey to grow our family, we followed the path that we thought was right.
[SPEAKER_01]: But instead of revealing our desired destination, every turn in the path, just lead to more path.
[SPEAKER_01]: the supplies that we packed, the energy that we had to spend even our hopes of reaching the destination were just depleted.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were insufficient for the actual journey that we were on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it left us in a place where we were tired, hopeless, angry, really confused.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it colored every single part of our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: We felt it in our marriage.
[SPEAKER_01]: We felt it in our jobs every day just brought some brutal reminder of our empty arms, of our circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's why, on that day, as I entered that store, it's why I was somber.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's why my shoulders were slouched.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I was going through the motions of life that day, but it just felt like I was doing it all in a minor key.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's also why this man's demeanor, especially his response to me, just landed so hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've decided that I don't have bad days.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would spend the next few years digesting that comment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it possible for someone to have no bad days?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that something that somebody can decide?
[SPEAKER_01]: These are similar questions that arise in me when I read this prayer of David in Psalm 86.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the question, how is it that David in the middle of trial prays a prayer like this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I mean.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a prayer of David.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're looking at Psalm 86 in your Bible, you'll see that just under the title.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the slingshot wielding shepherd boy, the killer of Goliath, a successor to King Saul, the pursuer of Ashiba, that guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible speaks at length about David, and what we learned about him is that his life was full of trial.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of that trial was a consequence of his own sin, but some of it was just because the life is hard and conversations are relationships are complicated.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while we know that David wrote this song, we don't know when he wrote it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know if this was written in a time when he was a boy and he was wondering why nobody else was stepping up to battle with Philistine giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know if it was written when David was on the run from Saul who's trying to kill him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know if it was written when he was king and his son, Absalom, was rising up to overthrow him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing that we do know about his circumstance what's actually in the song.
[SPEAKER_01]: as he writes this prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I picture him in a room at night, I don't know why, I picture it at night, I just do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Picture him in a room at night, sitting in a chair, parchment in front of him and some sort of writing utensil in hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a situation going on around him that's driving him to come before the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna read this prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna read the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want you to listen to what he says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pay close attention though to the indication that we get of his circumstance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Encline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Preserve my life for I'm godly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Save your servant who trusts in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are my God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you, do I cry all the day?
[SPEAKER_01]: Glad in the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul, for you, O Lord, are good, and forgiving, and abounding instead fast love to all who call upon you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So give ear, O Lord, to my prayer, listen to my plea for grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the day of my trouble, I call upon you, for you answer me.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.
[SPEAKER_01]: All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, shall glorify your name.
[SPEAKER_01]: For you are great and do wondrous things.
[SPEAKER_01]: You alone are God.
[SPEAKER_01]: and teach me your way, Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: You night my heart to fear your name.
[SPEAKER_01]: I give thanks to you, O Lord, my God, with my whole heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will glorify your name forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: For great is your steadfast love toward me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have delivered my soul from the depths of shill.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh God, insulin men have risen up against me.
[SPEAKER_01]: A band of ruthless men seeks my life and they do not set you before them, but you, allure to our God and merciful and gracious.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are slow to anger and abounding instead, fast loves and faithfulness will turn to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: and be gracious to me, give your strength to your servant and save the son of your made servant, show me a sign of your favor that those who hate me may see and be put to shame, because you, Lord, have helped and comforted me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you see it?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the only indication of what's actually going on in David's life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the context into which he pins this prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, can I make an observation about that?
[SPEAKER_01]: This prayer has 17 verses.
[SPEAKER_01]: How many of them are circumstantial?
[SPEAKER_01]: One.
[SPEAKER_01]: One out of 17.
[SPEAKER_01]: Numbers are hard for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I teach English, but I did the math.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is 6% of this prayer is about his circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: 94% than about something else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's be honest, his circumstances are bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not that he's struggling financially right now or that parenting is really demanding right now or that he and his wife feel disconnected right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: This prayer is in the middle of a clear life and death situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are insulin, arrogant people out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: One translation says there's a gang of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: men who don't fall the way of the Lord and they're out to kill him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've not faced that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hope I never have to.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Halden does this man facing what he's facing, not pray a prayer that is dominated by his circumstance.
[SPEAKER_01]: How is he not filling line after line with God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Make them stop.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, foil their plans, bring judgment on them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just, I can't serve you like I want to when this is happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or take it away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it something that he decided or was it something that maybe he cultivated when I read his prayer?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm asking the same questions of David that I asked after that Kesheer's comment to me that day in the store.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I don't know if your prayers were written out, exactly what they would sound like.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you were like me, you would probably say that we feel our need most.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our need for prayer, our need for the Lord, we feel it most when our circumstances are difficult.
[SPEAKER_01]: But friends, it may just be that the kind of prayer we need most is not mostly about our circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: The charge to you this morning is to use David's prayer and Psalm 86 as borrowed language for your own prayers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that the volume of what's true about the Lord would grow louder than the demands of your circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think of it this way, this might be helpful.
[SPEAKER_01]: Back there, in the back of this room, there's a giant mixing board.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are volume controls for each instrument up here, each microphone, the songs played between services, it's more than I can make sense of, to be honest with you, if I walk back there, I just don't want to touch anything, I'm going to mess it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what I do know is this, in the back there they have the ability to isolate different sounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're able to increase the volume of what needs to be heard and to diminish the noise that's created by the rest of my goal today.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's to turn down the volume of our circumstances and turn up the volume of what's true about the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if 6% of this song is David's description of his circumstance, how then does he fill the other 94% he fills it with what's true?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all over his prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow along with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 5, he says, the Lord is kind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord is ready to forgive.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is abounding and faithful of verse 7.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord will answer when we call upon him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 8, there is no one like the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: No works are like his.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 9, all nations one day will bow down before the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no one like him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 10, the Lord is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord performs wonders.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 13, the faithful love of the Lord is great, the Lord rescues.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 15, the Lord is compassionate, the Lord is gracious, the Lord is slow to anger, the Lord is abounding in love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 17, the Lord is a help and a comfort.
[SPEAKER_01]: Friends, this is who the Lord is.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what Phil's David's prayer and it should fill ours too.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as we allow this song today to turn down the volume of our circumstances and turn up the volume of what's true about the Lord, there are three reminders that emerge and these are the things that I'd like to amplify for you today.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first thing is that the things David Fraser true about the Lord are one relevant in all circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second, they are unchanged by our circumstances, and third, they change us in our circumstances first.
[SPEAKER_01]: In a conversation I had with a friend recently about communing with God and prayer, I came to an observation about my own prayer life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had sent me a song that connected with him, regarding a struggle in his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was in the middle of mowing the lawn on this day, so I paused the podcast that I was listening to, and I listened to this song.
[SPEAKER_01]: I ended up listening to the whole album and when I was done, I texted him back and I told him that thank you for sending this to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I told him that I prayed that album for you as I listened to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he thumbed up that comment, but then he replied back and he said, what do you mean, prayed that album?
[SPEAKER_01]: My response to him was something that I had never realized, maybe something that I at least never articulated.
[SPEAKER_01]: My prayers, I told him, were remarkably filled with borrowed language.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the context of this interaction, I listen to the words of the song through his eyes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm knowing what I knew about his struggle and his story, the lyrics of the song, became my prayer to God on his behalf.
[SPEAKER_01]: I borrowed the language.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as David is sitting there writing out this prayer, he's using borrowed language, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: According to one commentator, a reader who has been going through just the book of Psalms in sequence by this point will have encountered almost every line of this poem with minor variations elsewhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's an example.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verses five and 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you see some repetition here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 5, for you, O Lord, our good and forgiving, abounding instead, fast love to all who call upon you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 15, but you, O Lord, our God, merciful, and gracious, slow to anger and abounding instead, fast love and faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's barred language.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me tell you a story that David would have known.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Israelites, the people of God, had been led out of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: The plagues, partying in the sea, maybe you know this story, you find it in Exodus.
[SPEAKER_01]: For three months, they wander, they're complaining the whole time through the wilderness, and the Lord continues to hear them and provide for them, and ultimately they find themselves at the foot of a mountain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses goes up, has a profound encounter with the Lord, and he returns to the people to find that they had grown impatient, they had rebelled against the Lord by pooling their gold together to build an idol.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the Lord summons Moses back to the mountain, two new stone tablets in hand, and here's
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord came down and a cloud stood with Him there and proclaimed His name, the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord passed in front of Him and proclaimed the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding and faithful love and truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sound familiar?
[SPEAKER_01]: The truth that Moses needs in that moment is about the character in nature of God and David knows this story.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows the plight of it Israelites.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows about the golden idol.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows of the Lord's self-decloration to Moses.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the truth that Moses needed to hear on the side of that mountain or the same truth that David needed to hear as he fled for his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're the same truth that I need to hear today.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see this language echo to elsewhere in the Bible as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: The prophet Joel, for example, uses this language to call people to repentance.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's in chapter 2 verse 13 of Joel.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, tear your heart, not just your clothes and return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see this language even in Jonah, the story of Jonah, who sites this character of God as the reason that God squared the Ninevites as they repent.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the point?
[SPEAKER_01]: The language David uses in the song is echoed throughout scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's borrowed language.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the truth that's needed in all circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's why it doesn't matter who the men are who are after David.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter why they're after him.
[SPEAKER_01]: The events leading up to that point just don't matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: The truth that he prays are relevant there and they're relevant for me too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I press you for a moment?
[SPEAKER_01]: Most people don't decide to believe what's true about the Lord when they enter into a season of trial.
[SPEAKER_01]: The presence of trial is not what creates our need for the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: It reveals it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The urging here is to feed yourself a steady diet of what's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do it now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do it today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Study the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Barrel language from the prayers of David, encourage your home group in this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Speak about these things, hide them in your heart so that when your day of trial comes, your feet will land on solid ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second observation is adjacent to the first one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not only are the truths about God relevant in all circumstances, but they are unchanged by our circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is great news.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I were to take the same prayer of David today and change nothing about it, but verse 14, replacing his circumstances with those that are facing me right now, here's what it would sound like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I'm on the cusp of the most significant change of my working career.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that this fall is gonna be intense.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna be full of new demands on me, and there is so much unknown about what I'm stepping into.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm scared.
[SPEAKER_01]: but verse 15 stays the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is unchanged.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the truth that I need to hear, but you all Lord are a God merciful and gracious.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're slow to anger and you're abounding instead fast-loving faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_01]: How would you fill in verse 14 today?
[SPEAKER_01]: What are the circumstances that you find yourself in right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: You might say something like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord this relationship matters so deeply to me, but right now there's conflict, there's a fracture, and I just don't see it getting any better.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe it'd be this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I am waiting on a partner, or a job, or a child, and I know I'm not promises outcome, but I just wanted so bad, and I feel stuck.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm unable to move forward, or maybe it's this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I'm in the hospital again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody knows what's going on.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like my body's attacking me from the inside.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm struggling right now to find joy and purpose in my pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe you're a student, and the future just seems uncharted and unknown, or maybe you look around, and it just seems like all of your life is under control.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be honest with you, there is a danger in framing this prayer like this that there's a potential to minimize harmfully what it is that you're walking through right now and that is not my intent.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am not advocating here a shallow, no bad days dismissal of the things that are hard and unknown and demanding part of the great joy that we as elders find in serving this body.
[SPEAKER_01]: is the access that it affords us into the most challenging valleys in people's lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is great suffering in this church.
[SPEAKER_01]: There has been, there is right now, many of you are currently in the middle of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember what's true?
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord sees you right where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: The trials you face, they are not insignificant.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are not wasted.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to minimize them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, I want you for just a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Turn the volume down on them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to silence just for a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: The noise and the confusion that they create so that you can hear what's true about the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our circumstances may change, but the Lord never will.
[SPEAKER_01]: I grew up in church and in the days before lyrics were on a screen like the one behind me, they were found in songbooks scattered among the seats.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody around those days?
[SPEAKER_01]: I love these songs, maybe I'm just nostalgic, but there's something about the artistry of the lyrics, the progression of the chords they just speak to me, I want to read one to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was written by a woman named Jenny Bane Wilson just over a hundred years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jenny suffered a spinal infection in her childhood,
[SPEAKER_01]: when she was four years old and left her bound to a wheelchair for most of her life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And by the time she writes these words, she's 46 years old, a wheelchair and a bed.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the only thing she's ever known.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what she says.
[SPEAKER_01]: time is filled with swift transition, not of earth unmoved can stand, but build your hopes on things eternal, hold to God's unchanging hand, trust in Him who will not leave you whatsoever years may bring.
[SPEAKER_01]: If by earthly friends for second, still more closely to him cling, covet not this world's vain riches that so rapidly decay, but seek to gain the heavenly treasures, they'll never pass away to hold to his hand, to God's unchanging hand, hold to his hand, to God's unchanging hand, build your hopes on things eternal, hold to God's unchanging hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: not only are the truths that we find David praying in Psalm 86, relevant in all circumstances, but they are also unchanged by our circumstances and wherever you are, whatever you're facing, whatever you've walked through, whatever is coming at you tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: The writer of Hebrews tells us that the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: The truth about God is unchanged by our
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm walking in, shoulders slouched, meeting the demands of the day, but I'm sad.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm numb, life, like I said, was being played out in a minor key.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was my greatest need in that moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you had asked me then, I likely would have said that my greatest need was to have a child.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would have solved so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would have brought a destination to that hike that was way too long.
[SPEAKER_01]: My answer to my greatest need was an end to my circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: I prayed for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I prayed for it often.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I grew tired of praying for it, when I couldn't pray for it any more, the body of Christ, some of you in this room prayed for it for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had to reread this prayer, Psalm 86 multiple times, just to make sure this is accurate.
[SPEAKER_01]: But can I show you something?
[SPEAKER_01]: reread verse 14, again, with me, notice something else, something beautiful about David's prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh God, insulin, men have risen up against me.
[SPEAKER_01]: A band of ruthless men seeks my life and they do not set you before them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you notice that there's no request here to change this situation?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Could it be that a change in this situation while it is, it is very real, very urgent, very felt.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not as great as need.
[SPEAKER_01]: He describes himself in verse one as being poor and needy.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does he need?
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse four, he needs gladness in his soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_01]: He needs to be reminded that there will come a day in the future when every knee from every nation will bow before the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a divided heart,
[SPEAKER_01]: divided loyalties, and it needs to be united to fear the name of the Lord, me too.
[SPEAKER_01]: His greatest need is what he petitions the Lord for.
[SPEAKER_01]: David seems to understand that on the other side of this prayer, before his circumstances are resolved, that he wants to emerge as a man who recognizes, that the Lord is the one who saves, the Lord is the one who forgives the one who gives strength, the one who makes a so glad the one who helps and the one who comforts.
[SPEAKER_00]: the Lord does those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: A change in a circumstances never will.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there's another potential danger here in framing this prayer like this, is that you might walk away from today thinking that what we learn about David's prayer is not to pray specifically about our circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that either.
[SPEAKER_01]: A few weeks ago, James and characterize the Lord as a talk to me about that kind of father.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go listen to that sermon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 88, just a few Psalms later,
[SPEAKER_01]: models what it looks like to name the situation you're in before the Lord be honest about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So to the person in the room this morning who has asked and asked and asked and you've pled before the Lord for what you're walking into change keep asking.
[SPEAKER_01]: and to the person in the room who is walking with a friend or a family member through trial through suffering, keep asking the Lord on their behalf, keep going.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's the truth to remember today that the solution to my circumstances is not my greatest need.
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't then.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if I had the ability right now to travel back in time and revisit that guy in the store, the one with slouch shoulders who was living his life in a minor key, there's a part of me who would just want to tell him exactly how long his suffering would last.
[SPEAKER_01]: When it would be over, a part of me would want to show him a picture of my life right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you put me in a room with that slouch shoulder version of me in the store that day, and you give me a chance to say one thing to him before any of that, I tell him to pay attention.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pay attention.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is with you in this, and you're being changed in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pay attention to what's happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: That the God who is unchanged by your circumstances is changing you in them, anchor yourself
[SPEAKER_01]: This song, it does not mention Jesus by name, but as we close today, I want to be clear about something.
[SPEAKER_01]: The truths about God that David praised were faceless and nameless for David, but they're not for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: The very things that he prays are true about the Lord, they have a face and a name for us, and they're on full display in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: To see the grace that David prays for, look no further than the cross of Jesus, to see God's responsiveness and his attention to us in our time of need, look no further than the cross of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: to see the goodness and the forgiveness of God, look no further than Jesus, to see the steadfast love of God, look no further than Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just a few moments, we're gonna take communion where set out before you on full display as the crescendo of our time together, the volumes gonna be turned up on these things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Friend, believer, church.
[SPEAKER_01]: linger there, sit in it, linger in what's true, and what's relevant to you today, what's on changing, and what's going to meet your greatest need.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I didn't stay long enough in conversation with that man at the store, I wish I had.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did not ask him how he can conclude amid the trials and storms of his life that he doesn't have bad days.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if he loves interests in the Lord, I have my suspicions.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't know how he would answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I believe that if I were to ask David the same thing, how he, in the middle of life-threatening circumstances, others prayer like this centered on what's true about the Lord, I think he would say, just remember what's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: surround your circumstance with the true character in nature of God, the truth that is relevant in your circumstances right now, the truth that is unchanged by your circumstances and the truth that is changing you in your circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, here the prayers in the room this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, God, to the cries of your people in our day of trouble, we call to you, and you respond.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remind us of what's true today.
[SPEAKER_01]: in your kindness, Lord, would you do the work right now of volume control, would you amplify and magnify the volume of what's true about you and your character, silence the noise of our circumstances, remind us what's true, amen.