Where Is Your God?
Griffith Baptist Church – 1/18/09
P.M. Service
Text: Psalm 42
Key verse: Psalms 42:11 - Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Premise: When the world asks us where God is in our dark times, there is an answer for our souls that the world will never be able to refute.
The Introduction
1. The Thirst for God – 42:1-5
2. The Triumph of God – 42:6-11
Two days after the 9/11 attacks on our nation, Anne Graham Lotz was being interviewed by Jane Clayson on the CBS early show and was asked, "I’ve heard people say, those who are religious, those who are not, if God is good, how could God let this happen? To that, you say?"
Lotz replied, "I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection. We need to turn to God first of all and say, God, we’re sorry we have treated you this way and we invite you now to come into our national life.
That is how the world is. Where is God when everything unravels?
When things go awry in your life, the world may ask, “where is your God now that you are going through this.”
The sad part is that sometimes we feel so low that we entertain giving legitimacy to the question.
NEVER DO IT.
Here is a Psalm that speaks of the longing for God.
This is not a Davidic psalms but it is inspired Scripture nonetheless.
In answer to the question, “Where is your God?” the answer is an emphatic “Right here.”
But what should your outlook be when you feel that way?
Four truths to satisfy our longing.
Body
1. When You Are Dry, He Is Your Living Water – 1-2
A. A preacher told this story from His childhood - One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me and my brother who is four years older than I am. I was maybe 3 and one half years old and had just recovered from an accident in which my arm had been broken among other injuries. Someone had given me a little ’tea set’ as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys. Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news and my brother was playing nearby in the living room when I brought Daddy a little cup of ’tea’, which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was ’just the cutest thing!’ My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up, then she says to him, ’Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get water is the toilet?’ ....Mom’s know!
B. The deer runs till there is nothing left and draw strength from the cool stream of water
C. We run dry sometimes:
i. Our spiritual energy is drained
ii. It is inevitable that we will get thirsty
iii. We cannot keep going without refreshment
D. John 4:13-14 – Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
E. Our thirst is quenched:
i. By taking the time to stop and be with Him – spend time in His presence
ii. By the Word (Eph. 5:26)
iii. By Worship (2b - when shall I come and appear before God)
2. When You Are Despairing, He Is Your Lasting Hope – 3, 5-7, 11
A. Look at the Psalmists words of despair:
i. Tears 34/7 (3a)
ii. Mocking of the heathen (3b)
iii. Depression (5a, 6a, 11a)
iv. Overwhelmed feelings (7)
B. Do you ever feel like this?
C. But there is hope as seen in 5b and 11b)
i. Present hope
ii. Future hope
D. Cling to the promises of hope:
i. Godly strength - Psalms 31:24 – Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
ii. Joy - Proverbs 10:28 – The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.
iii. The Scriptures - Romans 15:4 – For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
iv. The Return of Christ - Titus 2:13 - Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;
3. When You Are Defeated, He Is Your Lifting Praise – 4, 8
A. It can be all in how you look at it - Sometime ago, a traveling evangelist was riding along and singing to himself a song called, “I’ve Been Redeemed.” A fellow passenger heard him and began to sing along. When they finished singing the evangelist asked the stranger if he had been redeemed. The man said, “Yes, praise the Lord.” So the evangelist asked him when it was. “About two-thousand years ago,” the man replied. The evangelist was astonished and thought the man was a little crazy. He asked, “Two-thousand years ago?” The man replied, “Yes, sir; but I’m sorry to say it’s only been about a year that I’ve known about it.” — George Cavanagh
B. The Psalmist remembered his former days of worship with others in the temple
i. The joy of worshipping with others
ii. The joy of the feasts
iii. The joy of singing
C. Sometimes, we feel defeated.
i. Discouragement from without:
a. Satan
b. Unbelievers
c. Circumstances
ii. Discouragement from within:
a. To high expectations of ourselves
b. Wearing ourselves thin with too many commitments
c. Pride – Proverbs 16:18 - Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
D. There is something about praise that restores us and turns the corner on our defeats:
i. Worship together (4b-c - I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise) – the worst thing to do in defeat is stay home from church. – Psalms 122:1 - I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
ii. Occupy your mind with God’s lovingkindness (8a - Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime) – Psalms 63:3 - Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
iii. Fill your lips with songs of praise to God (8b - in the night his song shall be with me) – Acts 16:25 - And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
iv. Pour your soul out in prayer between you and God alone (8c - prayer unto the God of my life)
4. When You Are Derided, He Is Your Listening Savior – 9-10
A. The Psalmist felt the put downs of the worldly crowd
i. They mocked God
ii. They mocked the existence and the relevance of God
iii. They mocked the availability of God
B. We are going to get it from the world too:
i. John 15:20 – Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you;
ii. 2 Peter 3:3 - Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
iii. Never be surprised
iv. The more you bear testimony, the more you will receive sneers and jeers
C. God still listens, especially when we are hurt by the derision of the enemy:
i. Notice, God is still the psalmist’s Rock (9a)
ii. There is honesty in going to God with how we feel because He understands.
a. After all, look how His Son felt – Isaiah 53:3 - He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: . . .
b. His Son prayed in agony to the Father
c. This questioning to God is not out of disrespect, but out of trying to understand our suffering.
d. Spurgeon said, Faith is allowed to enquire of her God the causes of his displeasure, and she is even permitted to expostulate with him and put him in mind of his promises, and ask why apparently they are not fulfilled. If the Lord be indeed our refuge, when we find no refuge, it is time to be raising the question, “Why is this?” Yet we must not let go our hold, the Lord must be “my” rock still; we must keep to him as our alone confidence, and never forego our interest in him.
iii. He listens to the cries of His children – Psalms 34:4 - I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Conclusion:
Do you feel God right beside you or does He feel distant?
Do you long for His embrace in your life?
Do you seek the only water that can quench your thirst forever?
