THE PERSISTENCY OF TRUE FAITH, JOY AND PRAISE
REVISED 05-02-2006
This morning I want to talk about the persistency and growth of true faith, joy and praise. My sermon has two points:
First, true faith, joy and praise persist and grow even when trials and troubles seem unnumbered.
Secondly, true faith, joy and praise persist and grow even when prayers seem unanswered.
First, I want to illustrate this from two passages of Scripture.
Then I want to give two illustrations: one of trials and troubles, and one of unanswered prayer.
First, the Scriptures: all of Psalm 42 and two passages from Habakkuk.
(Psa 42:1 NIV) For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
(Psa 42:2 NIV) My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and
meet with God?
(Psa 42:3 NIV) My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
(Psa 42:4 NIV) These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
(Psa 42:5 NIV) Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and
(Psa 42:6 NIV) my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon--from Mount Mizar.
(Psa 42:7 NIV) Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your
waves and breakers have swept over me.
(Psa 42:8 NIV) By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me-a prayer to the God of my life.
(Psa 42:9 NIV) I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?"
(Psa 42:10 NIV) My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
(Psa 42:11 NIV) Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
(Hab 1:1 NIV) The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.
(Hab 1:2 NIV) How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?
(Hab 1:3 NIV) Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
(Hab 1:4 NIV) Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The
wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
(Hab 3:17 NIV) Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
(Hab 3:18 NIV) yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my
Savior.
(Hab 3:19 NIV) The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.
I want to illustrate how troubles and trials seem unnumbered by reading a children’s book called Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE,
HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY
BY JUDITH VIORST, ILLUSTRATED BY RAY CRUZ
I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
At breakfast Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray car kit in his breakfast cereal box and Nick found a Junior Undercover Agent code ring in his breakfast cereal box but in my breakfast cereal box all I found was breakfast cereal.
I think I’ll move to Australia.
In the car pool Mrs. Gibson let Becky have a seat by the window. Audrey and Elliott got seats by the window too. I said I was being scrunched. I said I was being smushed. I said, if I don’t get a seat by the window I am going to be carsick. No one even answered.
I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
At school Mrs. Dickens liked Paul’s picture of the sailboat better than my picture of the invisible castle. At singing time she said I sang too loud. At counting time she said I left out sixteen. Who needs sixteen? I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day.
I could tell because Paul said I wasn’t his best friend anymore. He said that Philip Parker was his best friend and that Albert Moyo was his next best friend and that I was only his third best friend.
I hope you sit on a tack, I said to Paul. I hope the next time you get a double-decker strawberry ice-cream cone the ice cream part falls off and lands in Australia.
There were two cup cakes in Philip Parker’s lunch bag and Albert got a Hershey bar with almonds and Paul’s mother gave him a piece of jelly roll that had little coconut sprinkles on the top. Guess whose mother forgot to put in dessert.
It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
That’s what it was, because after school my mom took us all to the dentist and Dr. Fields found a cavity just in me. Come back next week and I’ll fix it, said Dr. Fields.
Next week, I said, I’m going to Australia.
On the way downstairs the elevator door closed on my foot and while we were waiting for my mom to get the car Anthony made me fall where it was muddy and then when I started crying because of the mud Nick said I was a crybaby and while I was punching Nick for saying crybaby my mom came back with the car and scolded me for being muddy and fighting.
I am having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, I told everybody. No one even answered.
So then we went to the shoe store to buy some sneakers. Anthony chose white ones with blue stripes. Nick chose red ones with white stripes. I chose blue ones with red stripes, but then the shoe man said, We’re all sold out. They made me buy plain old white ones, but they can’t make me wear them.
When we picked up my dad at the office he said I couldn’t play with his copying machine, but I forgot. He also said to watch out for the books on his desk, and I was careful as could be except for my elbow. He also said don’t fool around with his phone, but I think I called Australia. My dad said please don’t pick him up anymore.
It was a terrible, horrible no good, very bad, day.
There were lima beans for dinner and I hate limas.
There was kissing on TV and I hate kissing.
My bath was too hot, I got soap in my eyes, my marble went down the drain, and I had to wear my railroad-train pajamas. I hate my railroad-train pajamas.
When I went to bed Nick took back the pillow he said I could keep and the Mickey Mouse night light burned out and I bit my tongue.
The cat wants to sleep with Anthony, not with me.
It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
My mom says that some days are like that.
Even in Australia.
AT TIMES TROUBLES SEEM COUNTLESS AND OVERWHELMING, EVEN FOR CHILDREN.
I want to illustrate how prayers at times seem unanswered by telling the rather sick joke about the man in Jerusalem. There is a terrible joke about a television news team that was taping at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall.
Every day they saw the same elderly man praying, morning, noon and night, in front of that famous structure. On their last day their curiosity got the best of them, and they asked the man: “What is it you pray for so fervently?" The old man thought for a moment and said, "I pray for health, for happiness, and for peace in my land."
"I see," said one of the reporters. "You don’t look very healthy.
Are you happy?"
"Not really," said the man.
"And your homeland is in turmoil," said the reporter.
"Do you really believe that your prayers are heard?"
The man replied, "Sometimes I feel that my prayers are heard.
But sometimes I feel that it’s like talking to a wall."
Sometimes the psalmist felt that way. Sometimes Habakkuk felt
that way. But in spite of it, their faith and joy and praise to God persisted.
Let us read again the Scriptures of hope and affirmation found in
the third chapter of Habakkuk.
(Hab 3:17 NIV) Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
(Hab 3:18 NIV) yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my
Savior.
(Hab 3:19 NIV) The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed
