As I Pant for Water

Intro:

The past four weeks have been incredible with what God has been doing. Each week has led into the following one and it is not something I planned. God planned it. I have started each week not knowing what I was going to be preaching and by the middle God would start to put something on my heart.

Maybe you have been coming the last four weeks and have felt God doing something but you are still looking for more. Maybe you have been seeking something and God has been saying to keep pressing in and to keep seeking. Maybe you are here and you have been encouraged but are still recovering from things that have happened or are recovering from the typhoon still. Maybe you have felt nothing. Maybe you are in a dry season in your life right now and you are seeking to be refreshed and filled.

If you have felt any of these things then today’s message is for you. The writers of (The Sons of Korah) wrote about this type of season in your life. So that is where we will be today, is in . The title of today’s message is “As I Pant for Water.”

today

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,

BOOK II

,

,

For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food

day and night,

while people say to me all day long,

“Where is your God?

Maybe you are or have been in a place where you are searching for God and cannot find Him. You are searching for and encounter or intimate moment with Him and it seems He is not there. You long for the Lord to the point it hurts but you do not find satisfaction. This is a real thing in your walk with God. It is not abnormal to feel this way at times. Often as Christians we seek to feel the mountaintop experiences. I seek it often myself. We have those moments where we’ve made it to the top of the mountain and it feels awesome and we want to stay there but as soon as the moment comes it quickly leaves as we start our descent back into the valley because it is time to go.

Often as Christians we seek to feel the mountaintop experiences. I seek it often myself. We have those moments where it feels like we made it to the top of the mountain and we want to stay there but as soon as the moment came it quickly leaves and we start our descent back into the valley.

Maybe you have been heartbroken by

So how do we respond to this?

Point 1: Remember God

4 These things I remember

as I pour out my soul:

how I used to go to the house of God

under the protection of the Mighty One

with shouts of joy and praise

among the festive throng.

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

6 My soul is downcast within me;

therefore I will remember you

from the land of the Jordan,

the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

The writers of this Psalm write that they will remember anchors that God placed in their lives. They remember going to the house of God where they would celebrate Him and shout praise with so much joy. They remembered the good times.

We need to rememebr the good times with God. When I get in my lows I try so hard to remmerb all the times God ahs showed up in my life. All the thigns I can recount, which are so numerous it is hard to remember, where so wonderfdul and meant the world to me. Things that may not even be a big deal to other people but meant so much to me.

For example, my number in hockey was 17. That is my number. As a freshman making the varsity team (which was a miracle in and of itself) I prayed so hard that I could have that number and when the time came for the new varsity players to pick their numbers, the coach let me go first! I said 17 so quickly too. That number was mine and to this day I still have my high school hockey jersey with my number on it. It meant so much to me. It was all God.

Remember the things God has done for you. It will make you smile but it will also make you remember that God is still there and present in your life.

Point 2: Lament to God

Lament to God-Pour Out Your Heart

Pour Out Your Heart to God

7 Deep calls to deep

in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

have swept over me.

8 By day the Lord directs his love,

at night his song is with me—

a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God my Rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?”

10 My bones suffer mortal agony

as my foes taunt me,

saying to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

Maybe you are here this morning and you are feeling like this. You are crying out to God. Maybe you are angry with God. It is okay to lay everything out to God. Don’t mock God but he is big enough to take what you really feel. He does not want you to pretend with Him like everything is fine and fake it in prayer. Be real with God.

We are still recovering from the typhoon and people are still rebuilding their houses. Maybe you are weary from that. Maybe there are other things going on in your life that only God knows about and that is wearing you out. Maybe you are in such a dry place in your walk right now you are panting for water looking to be refreshed by God.

I talked about being on the mountaintop earlier. You see we cannot live on top of the mountain, not yet anyway. The hard work of what God is calling us to do is in the climb from the valley and descent back into it. This is how we grow in our faith as well. If we stayed at the top we would never grow in our faith. We would actually go the other way and become lazy. I think this is why God does not allow us to stay there. When we climb up and down the mountain we need to depend on God to get us there. I have noticed that when you have mountaintop experiences you really feel God swoop in and lift you up. You are not thinking about your dependency on God but are taking in what He is doing to and for you in that moment. This is great but if this was the norm permanently then I think we would in our current form begin to not appreciate it and be like Samson where we lose appreciation for what God is doing and think that God can’t let us go back into the valley. We would become entitled to what God does in those moments and maybe even addicted to it. Rather than seeking God we seek an emotional high.

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Point 3: Hope in God

Lastly, hope. We need to hope in God. Look what the writers say as they end this psalm (it is a repeat of what is said before),

11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

It seems that the last month God has been speaking to us about the difficult times in our walks. We need to run our race, keep our eyes focused on Jesus and our heavenly rewards, have heart, be victorious and overcome, and hope in God.

I want to encourage you this morning that God is going to refresh you. Whatever the reason is that you are panting for water, searching for streams to refresh you, God is going to strengthen you. He is going to revive you. Maybe you are in a valley in this season of your life and God feels so far away. The water is coming. It will not last forever. God is stretching you and growing you but there is a plan and purpose behind it. Praise God despite what you are feeling regardless of the circumstance.

There was one time a few years ago I was going through a lot at once. I was getting hit hard and this one particular night God asked me to praise Him when I did not feel like praising Him. God started to ask me questions and you know when God starts asking you questions there is about to be some revelation for you. He said, “do you love me?” I said “Of course Lord you know that I do.” He asked “Am I a good Father?” I said “You are the best.” God asked, “Do you believe my Word?” I said, “of course.” God said, “See, when you are praising me you are proclaiming truth. It is not based on your emotions but on truth.”

Maybe you are feeling guilt about a past sin. I want to encourage you this morning that you don’t have to live in your past failures and mistakes. There is a difference between a Godly sorrow and Godly guilt versus guilt from the enemy. Godly sorrow or Godly guilt is the Holy Spirit convicting you telling you that you did something wrong and that you need to as for forgiveness. Once you do, it’s done. You are forgiven and you don’t have to worry about God bringing it up.

I have a sweet white hoody back in NH that I love. This thing is nice. When I first got it tried not to get any crumbs or spill anything on it so I wouldn’t ruin it. I even ate cheetos and did not get any cheese finger marks on my hoody. I went so long without getting anything on it until one night at a family get together. My niece was sitting next to me eating pizza and french fries and accidentally put her ketchup laced fingers on my shoulder. I was not happy to say the least. I worked so hard to keep that thing clean and then my niece touched me. I took it off right away and threw it in the wash. My niece felt very bad after that and was afraid to approach me. After I calmed down I reassured her I was not mad and that it was ok. The thing was, for months after that she would randomly tell me that she was sorry that she did that. I would keep telling her that it was ok and she did not have to keep bringing it up. She was forgiven. It is like this with God. We can always approach God and when we do He does not want us to keep bringing up our past sins as if we just committed them. I am bad at this. I am very hard on myself when I mess up and am constantly asking God for forgiveness for things that have already been taken care of. He tells us the same thing that we don’t have to keep bringing it up and to just move forward. He loves us and His love covers us. We don’t have to live in fear of condemnation. Scripture says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

There is a devotional that I read the other day that speaks to this and I want to read it to you. It is not too long.

God Is Faithful: A Daily Invitation into the Father Heart of God March 14: Through Every Battle a Victor

God promised that you would come out of every battle a victor, crowned by His strength. “Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power” (Psalm 21:13).

The Holy Spirit drives out all fear from us—fear of falling, of being cut off from God, of losing the presence of the Holy Spirit—by implanting in us His joy. We are to go forth rejoicing, as David did, because God has assured us we will prevail.

So few Christians, however, have this joy and exceeding gladness. Multitudes never know rest of soul or the peace of Christ’s presence. They walk around as if in mourning, picturing themselves under the thumb of God’s wrath rather than under His protective wings. They see God as a harsh taskmaster, always ready to bring a whip down on their backs. So they live unhappily, with no hope, more dead than alive.

In God’s eyes, our problem is not sin, it is trust. Jesus settled our sin problem once and for all at Calvary. He does not harp on us, “This time you have crossed the line.” No, His attitude toward us is just the opposite. His Spirit is constantly wooing us, reminding us of the Father’s loving-kindness even in the midst of our failures.

When we become focused on our sin, we lose all sight of what God wants most: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.… He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). This verse says it all. Our God is a rewarder, and He is so anxious to shower us with His loving-kindness that He blesses us way ahead of schedule.

This is the concept our heavenly Father longs for us to have of Him. He is saying, “I want to assure My child that I have forgiven him through My Son’s cleansing blood.” He makes a way for us to emerge from every battle a victor.

B.

Whatever the circumstance, hope in God. Your soul may be downcast and weary. Hope in God. You might be so dry right now. Hope in God. You may be sitting here having just thought a few days ago “I don’t know if I can keep going?” I want to tell you this morning to Hope in God.