Emotional Roller Coaster (2)

Opening Greetings

Pray. . . .

The Creek. . Good Morning and great to be with you. To our guest, you are in a great place to worship God with a wonderful community of believers

I admire your love for God and passion for seeing Lives changed for His Glory. This evident in all the ways you serve this amazing city.

Pastor and Lady Anderson. . we are so grateful to have you in our lives. DJ and the entire Anderson family.

to all pastors and ministers

HOLEMAN

Donte Ferrell and Deacon Chester Caldwell. . thank you for your service to the Creek and helping me navigate this house.

psalm 44

Psalm 44:1–26 ESV

1 O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old: 2 you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free; 3 for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them. 4 You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob! 5 Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. 6 For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. 7 But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. 8 In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah 9 But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies. 10 You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil. 11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations. 12 You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them. 13 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us. 14 You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. 15 All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face 16 at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger. 17 All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. 18 Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way; 19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. 20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. 22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! 24 Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? 25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. 26 Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

Pray. . . .

Jimmy Valvano was a college basketball player and coach who experienced many twists and turns. The twist and turns hit an apex when he and his team pulled off one of the greatest march madness upsets of all time. In 1983, He led the NC State wolfpack to win the national championship against the Houston Cougars, who were big favorites to win it all. His iconic run across the floor is one of the best scenes from March madness ever.

In 1993 Jimmy invited the world into more twists and turns in his life. As he receives an ESPY award, he tells everyone he has a rare form of cancer. He knew it would take his life, yet he wanted to offer hope to those around. With this grim diagnosis Jimmy V tells the crowd about the 3 things they should do daily: Laugh, Think and Cry. He said if you can do these daily that you’d have an incredible day. Laughing with people you love, thinking about things going on around us and being moved with emotion gives us reason to live.

Despite everything happening in his life at the time he says, “Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.”

How could someone have such strong faith starring at uncertainty?

I started searching commentaries and encyclopedias and could not find a sufficient answer. I listened to sermons and my dilemma was still there. . .

aahhhhh ….but I found a word from the prophets of old: Frankie Beverly and Maze….

As the Group Frankie Beverly and maze calls it, Its the Joy and Pain of life. . . Sunshine and Rain. As we go through life, life will happen. As the young people tell me all the time: “Life be Life-ing”!

Rarely will anyone go through life and not experience pain. Adversity will come on all of us and somehow someway we must hold on to our faith. One theologian put it this way: “Its your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself, that determines how your life story will develop.”

How we respond to the hurdles life puts on our path, shows us who we really are. As believers, we should show that our faith lies in the hands of a Sovereign God.

Since Life will put you on an Emotional Roller Coaster, Hold fast to your faith!

Happiness: v.1-8

Psalm 44:1–2 “1 O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old: 2 you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free;”

There are many different psalms in the scriptures: Thanksgiving, Wisdom, Royal, praise and lament. All the psalms are giving raw emotions from the writer on how they feel about God and people around them. David and the other writers gives us roadmaps on how to express fear, anger, love to God and others and; how to look ourselves in the mirror to own whatever we have going on in our lives.

Psalm 44 is a psalm of lament. We don’t know the actual setting of this psalm and how they arrived with this lament. But we can see a range of emotions; we can feel the pain they are feeling. They start off happy remembering the good times. Their fathers told them the stories of God’s faithfulness. Next we see anger because they are in a dire situation, nothing is going well for them. Enemies are having their way and laughing at God’s people. Thirdly, they are feeling anxious because usually God punishes His people when they turn away from Him, not when they live faithfully. The psalmist is like we ain’t done anything wrong and we are suffering. Lastly, they feel joy as the look to God’s steadfast love.

The first thing we see is Happiness-God we heard of your deeds! You drove out enemies and planted your people. . . You afflicted your enemies, and set free Your people. It was Your hand and your Light that gave victory to your people.

The psalmist is looking back over their life and being reminded of God’s faithfulness. The psalmist is thinking about the goodness of God and all He has done. . and it causes their souls to rejoice!!

It’s happiness! It’s a great emotion. Happiness is the feeling of knowing life is good and you can’t help but feel satisfied. It’ the feeling I had yesterday after I checked scoreboard and saw Ole Miss won again!! I knew the drive in this morning would be nice.

Its the feeling you get when you enjoy a great meal. Many of your are ready to head to Mommas house. . or maybe you are Momma. . so they heading to yo house and the food is so good that you sit there feeling satisfied.

The feeling of satisfaction and satiation (in the culinary world). Satiation(the 5th taste) in Japanese cuisine is caused by the natural Umami created by the ingredients in the dish that doesn’t have you feeling Full, rather Satisfied.

He says, As I remember the days of old, I have the feeling of satisfaction in what God has done. The satisfaction helps me look forward to what God can do.

Do you ever have that feeling of satisfaction? When you think of where God has brought you from. . . crazy past. . crazy lifestyles. . . crazy family structure. . crazy relationships. . . It causes happy feelings!

It’s easy to serve the Lord with happiness when things are well; what do we do when adversity hits.

Anger: v.9-16

Psalm 44:9–12 “9 But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies. 10 You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil. 11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations. 12 You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them.”

The psalmist now goes from happiness and satisfaction to anger. It was good about a week ago, now we are in ruins! Nothing is going as planned. Family is suffering, inflation rising, unhappiness at work and at home, What’s going on God?

The psalmist is pulling us in on the suffering the people are experiencing. They are being defeated in battles. They are experiencing economic upheaval (no spoils from victory). They feel worthless and have no value, the trifle is not the value of a penny. The nations are laughing at them: social media is using them as a meme for disgrace. Nothing is going right!

So, they are being publicly humiliated and its affecting them internally. No confidence, low self esteem.

They are trying to hang on to the hope and victories of the past; while dealing with what’s happening in the current state of affairs. And the math ain’t adding up.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever been angry with God? Ever felt like the bottom was falling out from under you?

I’m not going to ask anyone to raise their hands but I want you to think about it; especially if life went bad while you did nothing wrong.

Detective Mike Lowrey From bad Boys knows about this all too well. Mike Lowrey, played by Will Smith, finds love and get married. He should be happy and overcome with JOY but has nightmares. . although his health is great, career is going well, married the love of his life. . . he fears this will be taken away. He starts thinking about people close to him that were taken away by death and could not enjoy life because of the pain of loss.

God what are you doing, we are experiencing loss in all areas of our lives? People taken away, social status taken, loosing money and resources. God I don’t like this, this hurts. I don’t like getting hurt. . because it make me Angry!

Its hard to focus when you angry.

Try getting work done angry. . .hopeless

Had a conversation with someone while angry? You can’t understand what the other person is saying

Angry while driving? Road rage

We can’t focus. . we loose direction. . we will attack.

If we are really, really honest. . . . it’s hard to Worship when we are angry and Have issues with the Ride God has us on.

“where were you when i lost my job. . . where were you when the abuse happened. . . when I was struggling… . bad relationships. .”

Many of us, when we are angry at God because we experience difficulty, We see this as an attack and punishment. Lord what did I do?

Instead of seeing Difficulty as a punishment, as believers, we should see this as an opportunity to trust in Sovereign hand of God.

The hymnologist Andre Crouch writes about this in the song Through it all. Its a song and trials, tribulation and sorrow. Listen to these words:

I thank God for the mountains And I thank Him for the valleys I thank Him for the storms He brought me through For if I'd never had a problem I wouldn't know God could solve them I'd never know what faith in God could do

Through it all Through it all I've learned to trust in Jesus I've learned to trust in God Through it all Through it all I've learned to depend upon His Word

Our psalmist hasn’t gotten there yet. . he moves to anxiety

Anxiety: v.17-22

Psalm 44:18–20 “18 Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way; 19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. 20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,”

Anxiety is the feeling of dread and uneasiness, fear

His anxiety is due to the fact that he believes the treatment of God’s people from God is unwarranted. He says: this has happened and we have not turned away from you, forgotten you, worshipped others. . .

I don’t understand why this is happening. He says we know from history what happens when God’s people turn away from God. Punishment and captivity happens time and time again when God’s people turn away.

That’s not our case! We’ve upheld your covenant, our heart is still following after your ways. And in return, you have left us in the dessert places (jackals).

God we are in the dessert place. . . The dessert place has no water. . .no resources. Lord we are in the dessert.

It doesn’t feel good, the temperature is not desired.

God where are you?

Someone here today is in the dessert place. Nothing is going as plan. God I’m walking in the valley of the shadow of death!!!! Lord I need you.

I want you to know that God meets you in the dessert place.. He will be with you. Yea tho I walk through the valley of the shadows of Death . . . Thou Art with Me!!! God is with you. .. but right now in our text they don’t feel His presence.

These folks are devoted, not perfect and don’t see hope.

Spike Tv had a series many years ago called 100 ways to die. It Chronicled different scenarios of unfortunate ways die in everyday life (sky-diving. . choking on protein shakes, etc).

I created a series called ways I don’t want to die. I was teaching a class and said because i’m type A, control freak. . enneagram 8 (challenger) . . I had created a list of ways I did not want leave this life.

Not By:

car accident

drowning

sickness

suddenly

slowly

food poisoning

alone

around people

in a hospital

at home

And a lot more………

All these, I thought would keep me from experiencing pain and I deserved this because I serve the Lord. Well, all of this came to bear last year when a regular doctors visit turned bad. I got a diagnosis and it wasn’t good news. I went to my list to see if I had thought of this one ...

I went through the emotions like the psalmist. . happy, angry, anxiety. I didn’t know what to do. . I’m usually praying for others, now I’m in need. I didn’t even know how to tell people.

By January this year things still uncertain. . . I was mad. Why me. .I don’t deserve this..

I started telling brothers what was happening and encouraging them to go get check ups. To my shock my pain, my anger towards God show me something I never would have known.

Folks said stuff like.. “you got to get well, we need you here”

parents at the school .. “we can’t have you leave, you mean so much”

This pain. . this anxiety and anger towards God showed me the purpose He has for me.

Instead of seeing my bad circumstances as punishment, i see them as a battle scar. Our problems are battle scars that show the faithfulness of God in our lives.

Battle scars of: Broken relationships, Health, career moves, family dynamics, addictions

In our Emotional roller coaster we see: happiness, anger, anxiety. . .lastly Joy

Joy: v.23-26

Psalm 44:26 “26 Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!”

One of the ways to deal with anxiety is to talk to someone you trust and know can help you feel at ease. . . .

The psalmist talks to God!!

The psalmist screams AWAKE why are you sleeping! After the pain an misery, many are thinking what’s the use. Why keep crying out to a God who obviously ain’t listening?

He knew there was something to rejoice about. He knew about the steadfast love of God. He remembered how the previous generation was sustained by God, because He made a covenant with them. He knew his father couldn’t withhold blessings from his people.

He knew just like David as he pinned psalm 103 that we can bless the Lord because He forgives our iniquity, heals our disease, redeems life from the pit, crowns us with steadfast love and mercy and satisfies us with good.

He knew so he had expectation that any day, God would show Himself strong in our lives. When He shows Himself strong in our lives. . we can display His strength to the world.

We in the Sip so I know you can relate to this. I have 3 kids ad they all play games on their devices requiring the purchase of V-bucks, Robucks, or other digital currency. The V-bucks is not needed but helps you look good while you play. You can purchase stylish clothes. . better weapons etc.

They went months without having Bucks and got worried.

{explain how i finally got them and how they knew they would get it. . to show their friends how much their father loved them.}

The Psalmist had Joy because he knew God would come through!

We see this in the scripture.. . but we have experienced this in Christ.

One Friday they raised Christ up on Calvary’s cross. . . He died in our place for our sin and Redeemed us through His blood!

He turned our sadness into Joy

Lets pray!