Desperate

Which reads Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me. Satan, you are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind. The concerns of God, but merely human concerns. And yes, I forgot to tell the kids to go out to children's church. So You know, we talked about how Jesus rebuked get behind me. Satan is a call for all of us to recognize and resist any influences at all that are trying to lead us away from that which God wants us to pursue you. No lead us away from God's plan and can get us so focused on our plan or what the world tells us we need That we get distracted. And I reminded us how the enemy will throw everything he possibly can add us to do that to distract us or steer us off of that god-given path to another path. The past that might seem equally as good, but still isn't leading us to fulfill God's purpose in our life.

But praise God, because of what Jesus did on the cross. We have the power and authority to stop those attacks. You know, we can tell the enemy to back off, he doesn't have authority. Here, he doesn't have that power over us any longer.

You know, cuz the enemy is so crafty. That he goes about it in such a subtle way, sometimes that we don't realize how far we've wondered. From God's plan until it is a great distance from us.

Then one day off, once we find ourselves at this point of desperation, you know, when The light bulb goes on and we remember oh yeah.

I don't have to be suffering through this. I don't have to be dealing with this. God is with me.

And we cry out for help but you know, the problem is why do we so often? Wait till that point when we desperately need him. Yeah. I think part of the biggest challenge to us is, you know, making sure that were checking in with God every day so we don't get to that point where we're desperate.

Show what I liked about this song, as if you dig into it and you there's some clips, you can watch online of the artist where she's talking about where this song came from. It came from a deep place in her life. Quote her. She said, there's been so many moments where I felt desperate. I spent a few years looking after my dad, who was sick. I was carrying a lot of grief, and a lot of Heartache from That season of life. And for her much like the psalmist. Do you know? It helped her to express her feelings and song? That's how she could best. Put her emotions to words to put them on paper as songs. And that's where this came from and it was where she crafted this song and I think it resonates with a lot of us because we all have different issues and things that can lead us to a point in life where we feel we are at the lowest point we've ever been And this song is a good reminder that God is near the Brokenhearted and that we can boldly go before him with our needs.

Another thing she said about the song is, I just hope people know that they can come boldly to God's throne and ask for what they need.

And I love this next part is, she says, a lot of times, we pray, fervently for other people. But when it comes to what we need for ourselves, we shy away from really passionately, asking God and seeking what he wants. Yo, te me, that leads me to the question. Will, why do we do that? You know, are we ashamed? Are we feeling guilty or unworthy? Put egg into that a little bit more here as we go. But as I dug deeper into the song, I could see that, you know, the journey that this artist had been let on through her life that it continually showed her that no matter what she was going through, no matter what she was experiencing personally. She knew that God was with her. Yo, you hear that? Line in the song, I'm not asking, I'm begging. She explains that a little bit more and says I just feel like a lot of people get to that low place and maybe they don't know how much God loves them. They don't feel like they can ask for big things from God. It's been cool to see God come through in some of my most desperate prayers and really show up and say it's okay. I've been listening.

You know, the song that she based the song off of his Psalm, 34 vs 17 and 18, beautifully illustrates the truth, she's talking about where it says the righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. He delivers them from all their troubles, the Lord is close to the Brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

You know, this song is talking about God's close relationship to us when we're hurting when were suffering, both physically and emotionally. In the song should help assure us that God is attentive to what our needs are. God's not clueless to what challenges are troubles your facing, he knows it. And God is there and ready to help us in those times of distress.

We have to Humble ourselves and ask him for that assistance.

Universe 17 emphasizes kind of that active, listening that God is doing and how God likes to be able to intervene there. But I think the part that gets stuff for us is where it says and the righteous call out. Does often. When we're going through, difficult, times are facing trouble. We don't feel all that righteous. We don't feel all that Worthy. The god reminds us that he is there, he's listening to our trouble. Cuz then when you go on to verse 18, it highlights God's closeness and compassion to those who are emotionally broken and crushed in spirit.

Yeah, it suggests that God understands our pain, he understands what's going on, and he's there to help us.

You know, when King David wrote that song, it's thought that he wrote that one after he had been captured by the Philistines and his way of escaping was he acted like he was insane. And after he did that for a while, they thought. Well, this guy's no threat to us. He's so off his rocker, who cares? Let him go.

But David still was crying out to God. He was crying out, and as he wrote this, I think he's riding it to remind us that, you know, even when we are in difficult situations, God is near God, sees what's happening in our lives and he's ready to help. So I think these verses from Psalm can be a source of comfort and encouragement when we are facing hardship, when reminding us that God is Not distant, he's not uncaring. He's ready to help and to save us.

And, you know, well that song, beautifully, illustrates that truth. Like I said, a little bit ago, I think, it also points us to a little bit of the strategy that the enemy likes to use against us. because when we're in those desperate places, like I said, we often don't feel like Well, we're not the righteous to call out thing is, God knows that. You know, we feel like we shouldn't bother god with our meager problems cuz, you know, he's got bigger things to handle, right? But he already knows what's going on. Or we think that were strong enough to handle the situation on our own, you know, cuz if we ask for help that just shows that were week that we can't handle it and that's not something we want to do. I'm here to remind you that, that little voice that's telling you all those negative things that is not the voice of your father. That is the voice of the enemy. The enemy of God, you know the one who loves nothing more than to get you believing that live that you are not worthy of God's love that you are not worthy of his help. His saving. When nothing could be farther from the truth.

Like I said, I think so often. The reason we let ourselves believe that lies because we know where we fall and we feel ashamed. We feel guilty for things. We've done some things. We've said And we think that it's taken us too far away.

So, it's hard for us to ask for help when we need it.

But, you know, another scripture, she based that song off of does what it always does. Net reminds us of God's true nature. Hebrews 4:16. Does lettuce thin approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find Grace to help us in our time of need.

You know, that's one of the unique things about Christianity. If you compare it to other, religions Around The World Is Our God, is not some remote deity who has no understanding of what it means to be human. Cuz if you remember Christ Our Savior came to live and to dwell among us so that he could experience what it is to be human. What it is to feel betrayed, what it is to be lied, to what it is to be criticized. When you're trying to help others, you're trying to tell them the truth. I mean, he was trying to save them all but they just didn't get it.

So we have to be very thankful for the fact that we have a God who invites us to approach him to ask him to intervene to step in to help us.

And you know, if you look at verse 16 and it's good to back up a couple versus because really, that verse is the conclusion of a point that began in verse 14. We're after and courage and Christians to do the good works that God has given us. The writer reminds us that God's word is the ultimate measuring stick for all of our thoughts, all of our deeds, and all of our intentions. It also reminds us that nothing is hidden from God.

He sees it all, he knows it all. But he wants you to bring it to him in prayer and worship. Cuz those verses 14 and 15, make it clear that, you know, we can maintain our faith in the midst of struggles. Even when we know we're struggling because we can know that Christ has already shown us the way.

You Jesus not only experienced suffering. And temptation. he experienced death, but he did all those things without giving in Descent. You know, for us as humans were all born with a sinful nature and it is a battle our entire lives to not give in to that sinful nature.

But God gives us the power and the strength to do it if we will rely on him.

And I think that knowing that Christ, understands our weakness and our suffering on a personal level because he has been through those things himself is what should encourage us to pray. We should know that when we go to him with our troubles, we're not going to someone who has no clue what we're talking about. He fully understands it. He has a first-hand knowledge of those things. No one understands pain. Better than Jesus.

which is why we see in the scripture that, you know, it was only Jesus who can serve as our high priest and as the only payment for our sin,

Do You Know The Enemy loves to keep all of the shame and the guilt that he can on us? The problem is, we usually letting we don't speak up with the authority that we have is Believers and say no you're not going to do this to me. I'm not going to think these negative thoughts. I'm not going to allow you to leave me down this dark path.

Like I said Hebrews 4:16 helps to remind us of otherwise that we can approach god with confidence knowing that he will respond with mercy and Grace. That is the true nature of God. And as we come to approach the communion table this morning too. You know, it's the same reason we can approach the communion table with confidence knowing that what Christ accomplished on the cross he did. So that we could feel that outpouring of God's mercy and God's grace.

So as we come for communion today, it may be a great relief to many of you that I'm we're going to shift back to the way we used to do communion where we will have real bread.