Out Of The Depths

TITLE: Out Of The Depths 01072013

TEXT: Psalm 130 1Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD; 2Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. 5 I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

INTRODUCTION

ILL. Calvin Coolidge went to church on a Sunday without his wife. When he returned from the service in the afternoon she wanted to know what the pastor preached about. Coolidge told her, “Sin.” Thinking that this wasn’t much of a description of the sermon, she pressed her husband for more details. Being a man of few words with his wife, he responded, “Well, I think he was against it.”

A. As God’s people we can expect hard times and challenges to our walk of faith as we traverse this earth below for Jesus’ sake. One of the most painful challenges we face will be the challenge sin poses.

1. The guy in our scripture today knows he is in trouble. He knows that God is his only source of deliverance from that trouble. But as he looks at his own life, he realizes that he is not completely spotless—he is not without sin.

2. Maybe the trouble he is in is partially his own doing.

ILL. I knew a great guy. Had a wife and 2 1/2 kids, 2 ½ cars with payments, a dog and ½ a cat, a mortgage. --The average American Joe with the average American debt. He had the average American Job making $49,500 annually. He was in a mid-level management position with American Widgets Inc., which produced and sold the average American high quality widgets which everyone in the world seemed to be buying in the 1990’s. He had been with the company quite a while and had done quite a good job over the years. He would get the average pep talks and corrections from his superiors everyone should expect to get if you work with or for anyone. But one year, the bottom fell out of his division of the widget market. He had never experienced lack-luster sales in all his years with the company and didn’t know the remedy to the situation. He had a team working with him who were equally as clueless. They read, they researched, they studied charts and actuaries. They cut costs, increased productivity and retooled the factory. There were others who worked with him, but he was in charge of that division. And, their team response to the problem did not prove adequate. The result—failure. The problem was complicated. There were many factors, many individuals, contributing to the failure (Not to mention, they found out later, there was a guy, working behind the scenes, gunning for my friend’s position, manipulating the facts and figures which were already poor enough). The company’s response however was simple. My friend had to go—He was the guy in charge—he was fired.

3. The point of my story is this: It is most difficult to justify yourself when you have at least some fault in the matter. In almost every situation, all of us, almost always are to some extent at fault. --Sometimes even 100% at fault.

4. How in the world can a man with unclean hands ask a holy God for help—for deliverance from his trouble, when he understands, at least to some degree, “I am getting what I deserve!”?

5. Let me take that a step farther. The sad truth is we all deserve far worse. Think of the most horrible trouble you have ever been in. Maybe it was standing before a judge who was about to pronounce you guilty. Maybe he was going to levy some big fine or sentence you to some time. I’ve been there. In that moment, do you know what pounded through my mind? The truth!

6. The truth is I deserve to stand before a very harsh judge and hear the words, “Curtis Scott Ghan, you have read and are well aware of Romans 6:23 ‘...the wages of sin is death...’ I therefore sentence you to death—eternal death—complete separation from God forever!”

–Hell Fire!!! That’s what I have earned and deserve! –That’s what you have earned deserve! –That’s what every sinful person who has ever lived has earned and deserves!

7. How dare we stand before a holy God and ask for deliverance from any sort of trouble if it is even a fraction, and it almost always is, part of our own making?