Cited to show that no temptation or struggle is unique to any one person
13 No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Referenced for Jesus telling his followers they will have trouble in this world but to take heart because he has overcome the world
1 “I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble.
2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.
3 They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.
4 But I have told you these things, so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
6 But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment;
9 about sin, because they don’t believe in me;
10 about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more;
11 about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
12 “I have yet many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.
13 However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.
14 He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you.
15 All things whatever the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine, and will declare it to you.
16 A little while, and you will not see me. Again a little while, and you will see me.”
17 Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;’ and, ‘Because I go to the Father’?”
18 They said therefore, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he is saying.”
19 Therefore Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask him, and he said to them, “Do you inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me?’
20 Most certainly I tell you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
21 A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow, because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world.
22 Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
23 “In that day you will ask me no questions. Most certainly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
24 Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.
25 I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. But the time is coming when I will no more speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
26 In that day you will ask in my name; and I don’t say to you, that I will pray to the Father for you,
27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God.
28 I came from the Father, and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.”
29 His disciples said to him, “Behold, now you are speaking plainly, and using no figures of speech.
30 Now we know that you know all things, and don’t need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
32 Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
33 I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
1 Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
3 and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already.
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them.
6 We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
8 He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.
9 By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.
16 We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
17 In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
Referenced twice, once for parents teaching children as they go about daily life, and once woven into the yoke metaphor about walking together
1 Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it;
2 that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you; you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.
3 Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.
5 You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
6 These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;
7 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
8 You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
9 You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates.
10 It shall be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and goodly cities, which you didn’t build,
11 and houses full of all good things, which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out, which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full;
12 then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
13 You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name.
14 You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you;
15 for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God; lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
16 You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.
17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.
18 You shall do that which is right and good in Yahweh’s sight; that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers,
19 to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken.
20 When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean?”
21 then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand;
22 and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes;
23 and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers.
24 Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today.
25 It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Dustin Flueckiger, a friend of Pastor Brad's from Dallas, brought the message on March 23. He preached from Psalm 86, a lament psalm written by David, and his central point was this: when we bring our need to God, God brings himself in relationship, and life in union with Christ deepens.
What was said
Dustin opened with a story about traveling to Coronado Island in San Diego during a season of travel nursing. The place was breathtaking at first, but after weeks of long hospital shifts, the beauty faded into the background. He used that to name something he thinks happens in the Christian life: the awe and wonder we felt when we first knew God slowly wanes, not because of anything God has done, but because we quietly stop bringing our needs to him and start relying on ourselves instead.
He argued that the church in America has been shaped to prize independence and to see neediness as a problem to fix. Psalm 86 pushes back on that. David opens the psalm with "I am poor and needy" and keeps that posture all the way through. Dustin pointed to David's three-year-old daughter, Elle, as an illustration: when she grabs his beard to get his full attention, she is not doing something wrong. She is doing exactly what she was made to do. Being needy before God, Dustin said, is not what is wrong with us. It is what is right about us.
Working through the first seven verses, Dustin traced how David pleads with God honestly, calling on the Lord by the covenant name Yahweh, appealing to their existing relationship, and voicing hurt, loneliness, and fear without embarrassment. He noted that a third of the Psalms are laments, which he called instructive about the breadth of human experience. He also pointed to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as someone who was "truly God and truly human," who had real needs in his humanity, who asked his disciples to pray with him, and who modeled what it looks like to voice a need and then submit to the Father's will.
In verses eight through thirteen, David pivots. Having stated his needs, he begins recounting who God is. He lists God's works, his uniqueness among all so-called gods, his steadfast love, and his power to deliver. Dustin drew on a definition of love that Pastor Brad had used in an earlier week, that love is a constant, others-focused pursuit of the highest good of the other. He pressed the congregation not to apply that only in the abstract, toward the world in general, but to receive it personally: God pursues each person with all of his attributes at once.
Dustin described the final section of the psalm, verses fourteen through seventeen, as a dance. David weaves his stated needs and God's character back and forth, voicing a need and then evoking a quality of God, then voicing another need, then naming another quality. Dustin said this pattern matters because there are two errors a person can fall into. One is too much focus on the need, which collapses into self-absorption. The other is too much focus on God's character while never actually voicing the need, which produces what he called a rote, intellectual, hollow admiration that does not touch the heart.
He closed with the image from Matthew 11 of the yoke. A young ox is paired with an experienced one, fixed together, learning by going where the older one goes. Dustin said that is a picture of what the spirit does: he fixes us to Jesus, and we learn from him as we walk through ordinary life. He asked the congregation to name, in their own minds, a specific sentence that finishes the phrase "God, what I need from you is..." and then to tell someone that sentence, because God uses his people to carry grace to one another. That, he said, is why the church exists.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Dustin talked about how the breathtaking beauty of Coronado Island gradually faded into ordinary background noise the longer he lived there. Have you noticed something similar happen in your own relationship with God? What do you think caused it?
Dustin said that being needy is not what is wrong with us, it is what is made right about us, and he pointed to his three-year-old daughter as an example of unashamed neediness before her father. What makes it hard for us as adults to bring our real needs to God with that same kind of honesty?
Speaker 2Thank you, Judy. Let's give a hand for Judy. That's just some beautiful stuff. I've been playing guitar for a year and a half or two and a half years, and I know how long it takes to sound good. And that's you can tell there's some beautiful experience right there.
Everybody, welcome to First Baptist Church. We're delighted you're here. I see a bunch of regular faces, but we have some guests today. I'm delighted you're here. We are without Carl, Ray, and Mike this week, so we didn't have the band in the first service.
So it's a little interesting, but we have these delightful volunteers who came and shared some music. And once you all stand up, we're gonna worship together, and we'll come back for announcements in just a moment. Alright. We've got a couple announcements for you all this morning. Let's see if we can gravitate over that.
There'll be no Awana this week or next week, so you all can take a break. I know we've got a bunch of the volunteers here who can take a little sigh. You deserve a break. Thanks for all you do, but also help us finish strong this year too. VBS twenty twenty five has been announced.
We need volunteers. We would love to have you sign people up. If you need help signing up for that, let me know, or the information is on our website. And we're already looking for folks to to get involved. And the missions moment this week is for Paco and Didi.
Many of us remember them. They were here a few years ago, and they are now in Spain. We just like to be able to pray for them. They are ministering to some folks there, trying to start churches, trying to get people connected and kind of in a spiritually dark spot. They're finding it kind of difficult to be there and get people moving.
So let's pray for them real quick. Lord God, thank you so much for Paco and Didi and their enthusiasm for you and their love of you and their joy to spread that with people, Lord God. I just pray, Lord, that they'd start being able to see some success, Lord, that they would just find traction on the ground, Lord God. That you would spread your word and that they would have other people that could come around them, Lord God. And that you would just enliven the churches in that area and that people would come to know you and have a chance to, Lord.
And I just pray that you'd bless this family, provide for their every need, Lord God, and just help them to find that momentum, Lord, in your holy name. Amen. And if you ever want any more information about the missionaries that we support here, feel free to go to our website or ask some of our lovely missions volunteers. For any more information, feel free to check the church website. You can go on there and find information about how to sign up for our weekly emails as well.
New part of the weekly email, in case you're part of the many of us who don't read it and just perceive it each week, We're adding some new bits to it too, including a benevolence moment where I try to let you know what's going on with the benevolence count. And then also we're adding a volunteer section because there's a lot of stuff that's needed week to week here and outside the church. And if you have something where you have a specific need, we'll try to put it on there as well. So encourage folks to read that if you would. And in the meantime, why don't you all stand up, greet each other for a moment, and these lovely volunteers will bring us back to some music.
Thanks for being here.
Speaker 3So I'll invite the ushers up.
Dustin FlueckigerGreat.
Speaker 3Alright. So reminder, same as we've been saying. If you're new to this church, if you don't if you're new to this Jesus, please don't feel the need, the socially implied need to put anything in these plates. But also at the same time, for those of you that know Christ, it's not just our financial resources that we give, it's our time and our talents. Let me pray accordingly.
Father, thank you for the way that you've blessed this church and the people in it. God, I pray that you would do a work in our hearts that we would recognize that all good things ultimately come from you. Would you help us live with open hands, with open hearts? Help us to love you and love our neighbor accordingly. So we pray that you would bless what goes into these plates.
We pray for our time together. Amen. Jeff, Rhett. Thank you, Judy. Alright.
So don't worry, I'm not teaching today. I wanna invite my friend Dustin Flueckiger up. Dustin's been a friend of mine based out of Dallas for some time, and we had the opportunity to hear from him today. So everybody be kind in welcoming to Dustin, and I'm so excited for you to hear what he has to say. But in the meantime, I wanna pray for you guys and pray for him.
Father, thank you for my friend. Thank you for the words of truth that he has for us today. I pray that you would bless him with what you want him to say to your people, to your flock. And God, I pre pray for each and every one of us that listen today that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see the glorious beauty of you and your truth. We may we be drawn nearer to you today in the blessing of this time together.
And all God's people said.
Dustin FlueckigerAlright. Can you hear me? Yes. We on? Alright.
Very good. Hey, guys. I'm Dustin. I'm in from Dallas. I wanna share a little bit.
Let's see if this is working here. Am I hitting the right button? Let's see. I turn it off. There it is.
Psalm 86. We're gonna be talking about the neediness of man and the faithfulness of God. But before I do, wanna share the best thing about my life, which is this this crew. Alright. We are swimming in children, guys.
My wife my wife, Callie, we've been married almost fifteen years, and we have Rose, who's nine, Isla, who's seven, and Jude, dude, he just turned six. And then Elle, our little three year old, is in the back there. And then baby Opal made it here in October, and so she's five months old, almost six. And so she's everybody's favorite right now. It's really fun.
My buddies call it having five kids being buried in joy. You can choose to be joyless. You're gonna be buried regardless. So you're stuck there. I wanna tell you a little bit about some of the careers I've had.
I've I've been I have a career in sales. I've got a career in nursing. And when I was in nursing, I did some travel nursing out in California. And we were relocated to a area in California in San Diego. And not just in San Diego, but on an island off of San Diego called Coronado Island.
And it is gorgeous. Okay? When you get there, I had never been there. So when we packed up the little van and my two little kids, we we went there, and they were placing us in on the island. And you come in order to get there, you have to go over this big winding bridge.
You can see it right there. There's there's sailboats under there. There's battleships being worked on. There's it's half residential, half navy, and so the the jets are doing their flybys. It just screams America.
The sun's setting, there's palm trees. It is a real treat. And in that moment, I wasn't how people ask like, are you a mountain or a beach person? Like I realize who I'm sitting with here, okay? There's some mountain people here.
In that moment, I became a beach person. It was beautiful. It was breathtaking, awe filled. I was floored. I was floored.
And and while my wife, all day, she would bop around with the two little kids, you know, we were a three minute walk from the beach, and so she lived in this little Pleasantville. It was it was wonderful. But I would go on the bridge on the other side to go back and work in the pediatric ICUs, which is where I was. And, you know, thirteen hour shift or whatever, and I would come home. You know, I'd leave there, it was dark, and I'd come home, it was dark.
And slowly but surely, the beauty of that area, the breathtaking nature of it, the awe striking beauty started to fade. It just became less. And I don't think I'm alone there, and there's a reason that I start there with that story about things fading. The things closest to us tend we tend to take for granted, and they fade. It happens with nature.
It happens in relationships. And specifically, it happens in relationships with the relationship that I'm talking about is with God. That slowly, the the awe and the wonder and the the breathtaking nature of God when we were saved, that spark starts to wane. Not of any of God's fault but of but just that we walk away from our neediness and so that's what we're gonna talk about today. We need to recapture.
We have a great need as the church in America to recapture the the awe and wonder of God in our lives And if if God the Father designed us and the Son redeemed us and the spirit now indwells us, God should not be boring at all. And yet at times, if you're like me, we tend to move from the breathtaking to the to the boring, the beautiful to the blah, and the awe to the and so I wanna submit to you that one of the ways that we can recapture this is by embracing our neediness. Okay? Quick poll. How many people in here love feeling needy?
No. That's the laugh of familiarity. Right? We all we all know we don't. I do not.
I certainly don't. We have a massive difficulty with that in the church in America today. We have been taught to rely on ourselves. We've been encouraged and probably idolized independence to be self made. But church, when we bring our needs to God, he brings himself in relationship, and that is what we really need.
Big needs? Yes. The sufferings, the the grief, the pain. It's not hard to cry out to God when you're in those seasons. But I'm talking about the small things, the day to day life.
I was joking around. I I lost I lost Brad's truck yesterday. I couldn't find it. I was driving it over here, I forgot where I parked. And I'm like, Lord, help me find the car.
I don't know where it's at. To give me the words to say. You know, I don't know what to say right now. I need your help, Lord. And then, vulnerably, just as I'm speaking, Lord, help me to give a message to these people to encourage them.
I I'm I'm talking about a practical down to earth spirituality in which we encounter God in the mundane and familiar parts of life, which leads us to our big idea for this, and you'll hear this over and over again. I'm gonna try and make it really clear. I think clarity is really kindness in messages to help people grasp the main idea. This is the whole nut the this is the sermon kind of in a nutshell here. Is that when we bring our need, God brings himself in relationship and life in union with Christ deepens.
Okay? That's our big idea for the day. That is that is what we're gonna be talking about. We are where we're headed is we're gonna be in a psalm. So if you have your bibles, you could turn into Psalm 86.
Psalm 86. Psalm 86 is written by King David, and the best thing about Psalms is that that they are actually given to us by God as prayers to just pray back to him. I mean, kinda rigged the system. He's like, you don't know what to pray? Just open this book up and pray some Psalms.
Because Psalms is so chock full of the human experience. The emotional range of our existence in this life is captured in these songs and prayers in the Psalms. These are this Psalm 86 is what is called a lament Psalm. Okay? There's about a third of the Psalms are laments, which is instructive.
Right? Psalms are basically come or I'm sorry. Laments are basically complaints to God done in trust. Okay? Did you know that God gives you permission to complain to him?
There it is. He does. He invites it. Okay? And so I'm gonna pray for us, and then I'm gonna read the entire Psalm, and then we'll take it line by line.
Okay? Sound good? Alright. Father, I do pray that you would minister to us in this time. Lord, we don't deserve it at all.
By your good plan, father, you sent the son to save us and to give us the spirit to then draw us into relationship with each other as a church and we thank you for that. So would you minister to us as a church today? Amen. Amen. Okay.
So, I realized that the font is a little small. So, I'm gonna read it as we go. Okay? You can follow along with me. This is out of the ESV.
Okay, I can't even see it from over there. Incline your ear, oh Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you, you are my God. Be gracious to me, oh Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, oh Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, oh Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding and steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, o Lord, to my prayer and listen to my plea for grace. In the day of trouble, I will call upon you for you answer me. There is none among you.
There's none like you among the gods, o Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, o Lord, and shall glorify your names for you do great and wondrous things. You alone are God. So teach me your way, oh Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.
I give you thanks, Lord, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love towards me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. Oh, God, insolent men have risen up against me, a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. But you, oh Lord, are God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Turn to me and be gracious to me. Give you strength to your servant, and to save the son of your maidservant. Show me a sign of favor that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because of you, oh Lord. You have helped me and you comforted me. And so we're gonna walk through this verses one through seven is basically when we bring our need, verses eight through 13 is God brings himself in relationship, and verses 14 through 17 is life in union with Christ deepens.
Okay? So David is going to show us that we are designed to relate to God and others through our neediness. He unashamedly sees himself as dependent. Over these seven verses that we just read, the first seven, you're you're seeing him plead with God, not just wanting something but knowing that he needs something from him. Verse one even says, incline your ear, oh Lord, and answer me for I am poor and needy.
That whole there's like the whole thesis of this talk in that in that first verse. Incline your ear to me is, hey, here's what I need from you. Oh Lord, L O R D capital, that is the the the God who has a name that's Yahweh, right? He calls you. He says, I have a relationship with you.
And incline your ear to me. I have a need. I need you to listen to me. It's very much like what some of my one of my kids does at home. Elle, who's my three year old.
She when I'm I have a spiritual gift. I don't know if it's a spiritual gift or not. When all five kids are talking and at the same time, it starts to sound like the peanuts a little bit, like, and I just like white noise drown it out. And so my daughter, who's three, could be next to me going, dad, dad, dad, dad. And my wife will like drop a pan, she'll be like, for the love, just answer your child.
And I'm like, I just didn't hear it. And what she will do when she wants my attention is she will at times grab my beard and just pull me down. Look at me in the eyes, dad. And I think, you know, she's like, hey, I'm hungry or I have a need. I I need you to listen to me.
I wanna tell you about a bug I saw or whatever. It's unashamed so. And she is poor and needy and knows it. And I'm here to tell you that there is nothing wrong with that. That is what is right with her, not what's wrong with her.
And somehow, we forget that. Kids are very instructive. You can tell where my all my time goes. Verse two, preserve my life for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God. David is saying, am I not yours? Very much like El, my daughter. Hey. You're my dad.
I can talk to you. Are are am I not yours? Don't we have this relationship where I can come to you? You're mine. I and and I'm yours.
I trust you. I've done no wrongs here. I'm on your side. Save me. He's pleading pleading with God, and he's also kinda calling his identity as a son into it.
But I would say pleading with God is pretty vulnerable. It takes great courage to admit your need, to admit the truth about you. But he does it with great confidence. David David, has what I call a healthy shame, if there is such a thing, healthy shame, which is a right sizedness. He's not overinflated going, I demand your ear.
He's not underinflated going, I don't have the the the identity to even approach you. He's right there in the middle, right sized. He is right sized. He's saying, am your son, and I can ask you anything. He continues in his neediness in verse three and four when he says, be gracious to me, oh Lord, for to you all the day do I cry.
Gladden the soul of your servant for you, oh Lord, do I lift up my soul. Basically, he sounds hurt. He sounds sad. He sounds lonely. He sounds fearful.
He's saying comfort me. Pay attention to me, Lord. Be with me so that I'm less lonely. Now, I don't know how many times he's been on the run from getting killed a lot. Probably more than we had we can count.
Probably more that's even in scripture. But David was on the run often, and I can almost just hear a plea of like, when's it gonna end? When's this turmoil gonna end? When's this grief? When can we turn the page on this?
And I've worked with people long enough in ministry to to know that the majority of the people in this room fall into that category. If a third of the Psalms are laments, that's instructive in terms of the human experience. I think one of the greatest lies in the church today is that no one understands or experiences what you experience. And I think when you start sharing notes with others, you realize that you are just like them. Now CS Lewis has a quote when he talks about people around a campfire when they become friends over the phrase, you too?
Oh, you too? Me too. Peter Scazaro out of he's out of New York, out of Brooklyn. He he says that we walk around comparing our insides to everybody's outsides and thinking everybody has it together but me. And yeah, first Corinthians first part of first Corinthians ten thirteen says, no temptation has overtaken you except for what is common to man.
Right? We are not unique to this human experience. We are kind of in it together. Our God came down, put on flesh, and to experience what we experience to help us know that he knows what we're going through. He can relate.
Jesus experienced all of that, sadness, hurt, fear, anger, gladness, loneliness. He was sad to see the state of those imprisoned by sin. He was hurt by those who betrayed him. He was fearful about the cross, asking the father if there was another way, but not my will, but yours. In a lot of ways, this psalm is a prayer from the Garden Of Gethsemane.
He was truly God and truly human. We usually emphasize the God part, which we should. There's nothing wrong with that. He retained his sinlessness and deity, but we would do well to understand that a transcendent God from somewhere else, right, entered into our experience and lived it perfectly and still had needs in his humanity. He took a nap on the boat when he was tired.
He ate when he was hungry. He had needs. He asked his disciples to pray for him in the garden, and they didn't, and he was hurt by it. But he was okay with being needy in his humanity. Verse five, basically, he says that you can do this thing.
You can make you can turn the page on this grief. He says, for you, oh Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. He's like, I'm doing the thing. I'm calling upon you. Please help me.
Verse six and seven more of the same. Give ear, oh Lord, listen to my plea for grace. In the day of trouble, I call upon you for you answer me. Here's where David does an important move. He pivots.
Okay? Did you notice the last part of that verse? For you answer me. It's not that you will answer me. He is going, you answer me.
He starts to move into how God has listened to him in the past. They have this relationship that's ongoing, and he starts to evoke God's character into his plea. It's very challenging to have a relationship with someone if you're not willing to talk about what you need. You're designed and remember, that is you being needy is not what is wrong with you, just like Elle. You being needy is what's made right about you.
And so you're designed intentionally by God to be needy on God and others. And if we do not state our needs, it's really challenging to have a relationship. It's almost like, okay. So, I'm talking to her about being a nurse. I was a nurse prior.
Right? And imagine going to the ER with a broken leg and walking in, and what do they say to you when you walk in? What's your emergency? Right? And what if you went in there with your broken leg and you were saying, I know you've got skilled people back there, doctors that are trained, you've got imaging that can diagnose this, you've got medicine to help.
I believe you can do it. I trust you. That's why I came here. Imagine that person's face, they'd be like, k. So why are you here?
No. You would go, I'm in so much pain. I'm about to vomit. Give me some medicine. Put me out.
Put me down. Put me out. Whatever. Help me. Just help me.
You don't care. You know that they can help. You showed up there because they know that they can help. You tell them what you need. I would go so far as to say that the savior doesn't mean much to you if you don't know what you need saving from.
Obviously, he saved us for self from a salvation standpoint, and we rejoice in that. Praise God. But what is he saving you from today? If it's true that he saved he saved you, he is saving you and will one day save you. That's called sanctification till glorification.
Right? Justification, sanctification, glorification. But are you good until you just get to heaven? What's the comforter comforting you in today? What is the counselor guiding you in today?
What is the helper helping you with today? And so I think if you want really good theology, you must have lived experience with that theology. Otherwise, it just stays stuck in your brain. That's what I call experiential knowledge. Okay?
I don't call it that. Other smarter people than me call it that. The things that David is talking about that he will talk about in eight through 13 about the character of God are going to pop in his heart and in his mind because he just stated his neediness. He's like, this is what I need from you. David and that takes courage like we said.
David had that courage. That's why the scripture refers to him as a god after a man after God's own heart is he just was unashamedly going to God. It was very, very honest, honesty with his neediness before God and so, I'm going to ask you guys to do something. This is where we're going get out of the lecture and into the lab a little bit. I am going to ask you just to close your eyes for a minute.
It's going feel like an eternity for a minute up here. It feels like that more for me than probably you. But for a minute, I want you just to close your eyes, and I want you to search yourself to ask, what do you need right now? What do you need? I don't know what you need.
It may be around relationships. It may be around finances. It may be around fears. It may be around uncertainties, guilt. I have no idea, but you do.
And so I want you to just process that and then reduce it. Take it from an ethereal thing down into a sentence. God, what I need from you is fill it in. Okay? So take a moment and just be still.
Those are the things that God wants to talk to you about. Now that we've uncovered our needs and you have that in your in your mind and in your heart, we get to move on to do exactly what David does next. He's kind of our Sherpa on this guide. And so he's gonna move into God's character. And so when we one of these two here.
There we go. When we bring our need, God brings himself in relationship, and life in union with Christ deepens. So point two eight through 13, he starts with the first eight saying, there's none like you. There are no works like you. I was just talking to Bob about him looking at that mountain out of his house every day, being the reminder that God's handiwork is at display.
David saying the same thing. There's not, I mean, I'm looking at your world. There's nothing like you, God. There's no, you created it. You made us.
You sustained us. The fact that we're all here is evidence that he's sustaining us. Verse nine, all the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, oh Lord, and shall glorify your name. He rightly understands the purpose of the Israeli people, that they were blessed to be a blessing to the nations, that all people this is the Abrahamic covenant. This is Ezekiel 38.
This is first Kings eight. This is hey, all of the people will come to know you through this work, and we see that happening in the church as it moved into Acts two when the spirit descended and and the church began and spread and is is spreading and we even get a glimpse of it in Revelation 21 where every tribe, tongue, and nation will be together worshiping king Jesus in spirit and truth in the new heavens and the new earth. David now starts to evoke God's character. He says, you are great and do wonderful things. He starts just just throwing at him.
You're powerful. You're transcendent. You are all knowing. You're you're all the omnis. Right?
When we talk about God at God's attributes. You're omnipresent. You're omnipotent. You're omniscient. All of the things.
You're immutable. You never change. And you are love. First John four, you are love. So all of these things that you are God, you do all of them in love.
Brad did a really good job of using the definition of love a few weeks ago when he said it is a constant others focused pursuit of their highest good as far as it can be obtained. He's always pursuing us, always pursuing us. So I I if you're like me, I I can tend to go, yeah, he's doing it for the world for sure. But for me, yes for you. He loves you with all of those attributes for you personally.
He has the thing that we need. He can bring real help. It's actually his presence that we want. So he begins to inject some hope into this plea as he continues. He says, teach me your way, oh Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Unite my heart to fear your name. It's a wonderful memory verse there. I don't know if you've ever seen this. This is what's called Edgar Dale's Cone of Learning. He was a psychologist, and he kind of measured how do we how do we retain through different modes of learning, okay?
The top two, I would say, looks a lot like lecture, okay? He says through reading and hearing of words, so lecture and reading, we retain the least, Okay? Through experiential things like the lab, we learn the most. We retain the most. But don't let that discourage you from the reading and and hearing because I'm pretty sure that's why we're encouraged in scripture to continually meet with and come week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade to come and sit under the teaching of the word of God because it's formative.
It is formative, but we forget. That's why we continue day after day as long as it's called today. We wanna because our sinful nature will harden it and will be deceitful towards it. So he, he shows us that we retain the least through reading the lecture, but it seems to say in this verse of teach me your way, oh Lord. Like, you're going to teach me.
You're going to walk with me. It seems to have this active dynamic relationship language between us and him. And so as we walk through life confessing our needs to Him, He meets us in real relationship in the lab, not just the lecture. And He teaches us as we go about. He puts His arm around us and walks with us.
It's very much like Deuteronomy six, where parents are encouraged to teach their children, and how they're encouraged to teach their children is all of the precepts. But also as you get up and as you sit down and as you go about the way, you're teaching them in the lab to marry up all of the lecture, okay? There's this dynamic relationship. Likewise, he promises to teach us day by day as we are being transformed from one degree of glory to the next. Verses twelve and thirteen, he says, I give thanks to you, oh Lord, with my whole heart, and I'll glorify your name forever, for great is your steadfast love towards me.
You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. So David is saying, as I ponder how you have met my needs in the past and continually give you thanks for your character, I give you glory because of your love towards me is steadfast. It never changes. You've done a great work in saving me. So we're going to go back into the lab again.
Okay? Take a moment, another minute, and I want you to close your eyes. And now knowing that God knows the sentence that you just had in your head and in your heart around what you need, start to thank him for the ways he has showed up in your past, where his character has been faithful to you. Okay. So you can do that now.
So when you bring this need to him, he brings himself in real relationship. And your life with Christ, in union with Christ can deepen. And so when we move into point three here, verses 14 through 17, that life in union with Christ deepens, David now aware of what he needs and having voiced them honestly to God, God meets him and they begin to do this dance together in scripture as he pens this last section. As he writes it, I'm gonna read it just kind of straight through, but you're gonna see I'm not gonna exposit it, but just watch for the weaving of his needs and God's character. He's gonna take part one and part two and kind of start to bleed them together.
Okay? Oh, God, insolent men have risen up against me. A band of ruthless men have seek to save my seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. He's needy. I have needs.
But you, oh, Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, character. He's dancing back and forth. Turn to me, be gracious with me. Give your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant, needy. Show me a sign of your favor, needy, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, Lord, again, the personal God, Yahweh, have helped me and comforted me, character.
He starts to do this real dance within scripture, and I think that's really important. The dance is really important for the Christian life, and I'll tell you why. There are there are two errors that can be made when you lament, or when you make sense of your world, or you complain to God and trust. One is there's too much focus on the need part, which can lead to a lot of self focus, navel gazing or just I'm not good enough or worthy enough to to approach him. It can be too self focused.
That is definitely an error. Or there could be too much on the God piece. Okay? Without ever voicing your needs, we can tend to get into this rote, intellectual, hollow admiration of God that doesn't ever really touch our hearts. Almost like we're trying to convince ourselves of something.
Now let me ask you, like, we wrap something up in a, well, but God's good. Yes. That is true. I'm not saying he's not. Please hear me.
I'm saying, what makes him good about that? Or are you just trying to convince yourself? And that's okay. Sometimes we need the help of others to do that. And so but this is different.
David is doing something different. He is dancing back and forth between what he needs and what God's character is. And so remember, this is a lament psalm. This is around 50 of them to make sense of the world that we see and what God says is true. And for the believer, we are not promised to have an easy life.
Jesus tells us in John 16 that in this world, you will have trouble, not maybe, not if you just like hedge yourself well, you will. But he says, take heart for I have overcome the world. And that means that there is nothing in this world that can separate you from his love to the very end, But not just to the end of life, today, he is with you, that you can take your needs to him right now like we did, and his spirit will take that sentence that you put in your head. He will take it. He'll even interpret it to even be better than what you prayed and bring it to your mediator, king Jesus.
And king Jesus, at the right hand of the father, will tell his father, and the father will dispense grace upon grace upon grace to you. Because he wants to he wants to be with you and he loves you. It's like it's like oxen in in Matthew eleven twenty eight through 30 when he says, hey, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. Sounds pretty needy. And I will give you rest for your souls.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and lowly at heart. He's using this metaphor about oxen being in this relationship and this shared experience of this Deuteronomy six walking together. And a young ox and and and an old ox are usually put in the same yoke in order to break in the young ox, the young ox. And the young ox doesn't need to just haul off and do what he wants. The old ox, he's learning from the old ox.
And so he goes where the old ox goes. And he learns from him. They are fixed together, which is a spiritual reality. You are fixed together with Jesus by the power of the spirit. Now, if that is not your reality and you don't, you're not fixed with Jesus in the yoke, we would plead with you today to put your trust in him.
God had you in mind, you specifically in mind before the creation of the world, and he desired you into being created. You were not here by chance. But we were born into a sinful line and have also sinned by choice in our lives that have separated us from a relationship with God. He did not leave you there because he's good and merciful. Jesus, the son of God, came to this Earth, truly God, as to be sinless and truly man as to atone for him and take your punishment from walking away from him.
He died in your place. He rose again, defeating sin, Satan, and death. And ascended to be at the right hand of the father saying, if you put your trust in me as a gift by faith alone, I will save you, and I will seal you with the Holy Spirit to guide you into relationship with us again. He will yoke himself forever towards you and save you. That is good news.
So if you know him, the only application on this point is to just tell somebody what that sentence is that you had around what do you need. Because for reasons I can't explain, and I don't know, it's a mystery as to why God chooses to use his people to be the means of dispensing that grace from the spirit to each other. That's why he gave us the church. That's why he gave us fellowship with one another. Because when you bring your need to him, he brings himself in relationship and life in union with Christ deepens.
And so I got off the plane here Thursday, and I was floored, absolutely floored. I was most beautiful this is probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. And it was cloudy and like sleety, and I still haven't seen the top of the Grand Teton. And yet, I think you won. I think I'm now a mountain person.
It was breathtaking. It was beautiful. It was full of awe. But I know if you're like me, those peak moments with God or anything else start to fade. They just will.
And they specifically fade because of nothing God has done, but because I stopped asking for help. I stopped surrendering. I start living independently. And he would beg us to come to us, to come to him because he made us that way. Remember, being needy is not what is wrong with you.
It is what's made right about you. So bring your need. He'll bring himself, and your life with Christ will deepen. Can I pray? Father, I do thank you for these people.
I I don't know them, and I would like to, but you do, and you know how to help them. So will you please, Lord, beg, meet them in their need, deepen their relationship with you. In Jesus' name, the power of the spirit. Amen.
Speaker 3Can we thank Dustin for his time and preparation
Dustin Flueckigerand sharing that with us? Thank you, buddy. Thank you, Dustin. You trust him? Yes.
Let's do it. And may we just be great examples throughout this week. Amen. Amen.
