Sermon
Comfort in suffering is found in the God who suffered
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Good morning church family. Today's reading is from Psalm 22, so will you turn to Psalm 22 in your Bible or your app?
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So this is to the choir master according to the dough of the dawn, a Psalm of David.
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
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Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night but I find no rest.
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Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
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In you our fathers trusted, they trusted and you delivered them.
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To you they cried and were rescued, in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
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But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
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All who see me mock me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads.
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He trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him.
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Yet you are he who took me from the womb, you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
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On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
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Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.
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Many bulls encompass me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me.
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They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.
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I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
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My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast.
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My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws.
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You lay me in the dust of death.
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For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me.
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They have pierced my hands and feet.
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I can count all my bones.
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They stare and gloat over me.
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They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
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But you, O Lord, do not be far off.
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O you, my help, come quickly to my aid.
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Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
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Save me from the mouth of the lion.
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You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.
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I will tell of your name to my brothers.
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In the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
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You who fear the Lord, praise him.
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All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel.
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For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
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and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him.
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From you comes my praise in the great congregation.
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My vows I will perform before those who fear him.
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The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.
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Those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
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May your hearts live forever.
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All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord,
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and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
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For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
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All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.
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Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
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even the one who could not keep himself alive.
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Posterity shall serve him.
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It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
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They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
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that he has done it.
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I wonder if I asked you the question,
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what the worst time in your life is, what you would say.
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Have a think back.
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What is the worst, what is the thing that you would point to
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as the worst time in your life?
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I think I have a few contenders.
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One might be when the band Evanescence split up.
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Half of you are probably like, who on earth is Evanescence?
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The other half are probably like, Matt, they got back together.
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Yes, I know.
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It's not the same.
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Maybe it's the time, and this one still hurts.
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KFC took wicked wings out of the zinger box.
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This half of the room knows what I'm talking about.
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Everyone else says KFC is terrible.
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You shouldn't eat it, Matt.
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Yes, that's true.
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But now I go into KFC, I'm just lost.
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I'm like, what do I, it used to be such an easy decision.
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Now what do I order?
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I don't know.
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Maybe it's anyone over the last 15 years who supports a Newcastle-based team.
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The Jets, the Knights, there is a lot of suffering there,
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if you're anything like me.
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That's been painful.
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Maybe it's the time I broke my arm when I was eight.
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I rode a bike into the back of a garage.
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I didn't break my arm that time, so I did it the second time,
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and that's when I broke my arm.
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That was quite painful.
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I don't know why I repeated it again.
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You'd think I'd take the warning from the first time.
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Maybe it was COVID recently.
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COVID was a pretty tough time for a lot of people.
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It was tough for me in some ways.
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I'm sure for some people here, varying impacts of suffering there.
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Maybe it's the time I found out I was being made redundant.
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I had just had Arthur.
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My son's about eight years old.
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The week he was born, my company shut down, the whole company.
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Now, having a new baby, first baby, that's a pretty stressful experience,
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I'm going to say.
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Maybe it's the time that a good friend of mine in Bathurst died.
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There's a guy that I had built a relationship with.
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He was about 80.
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We were great friends.
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I saw him multiple times a week, and he passed away.
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Thankfully, he was a Christian, but that was a pretty painful time.
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Now, that was something that I didn't enjoy going through.
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Maybe it was that time that my dad died when I was six.
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Maybe it was that time that my daughter died a year and a half ago.
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It's a fact of life, isn't it?
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If you live past a certain age, you will have suffering in this life.
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And, in fact, it seems like the older you get,
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suffering doesn't get any easier.
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The list just gets longer.
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I'm sure there's people in this room who kind of be like,
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Matt, we can spend the whole day,
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and I can tell you about the myriad of things that I've been through in my life.
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But I wonder how you deal with suffering when it comes.
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When you are going through those deep, dark places,
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where do you go for comfort?
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Who is it that you look to?
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Where do you find comfort in suffering?
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If I'm honest, I think I'm someone who probably actually tries to ignore it
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and pretend like it's not there.
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If I don't think about it, I won't have to deal with it.
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Hopefully it'll go away.
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I won't have to deal with the pain.
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That's my kind of normal reaction.
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But there's people who are at the complete other end of the spectrum.
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Like, all they can think about is the pain and suffering that they're in.
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Every waking moment is thinking about it.
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They're consumed by it.
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And for some people, that becomes their whole life,
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and their personality is thinking about the suffering they've been through.
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For some people, it's drugs and alcohol.
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For some people, it's pushing hard into work.
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For some people, they might tell one single friend,
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one family member and confide to them,
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you know, actually what?
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You know, it might look like I'm doing well,
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but I'm actually really struggling.
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For others, they'll cry on any shoulder that they can find with their suffering
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and communicate with those people and tell them how hard things are.
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Where do you go and what's your reaction in suffering?
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Where do you find comfort when you're thinking about suffering?
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Today we're going to look at Psalm 22,
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and it is one of the deepest expressions of suffering in the Bible.
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It is one of the deepest expressions,
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the most heartfelt expressions we see of someone going through suffering.
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But the question I want you to think about is,
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where do I find my comfort in suffering?
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When things are really hard,
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and of course I'm not talking about KFC Wicked Wings,
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when things are properly hard,
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where do you go in suffering?
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I'm going to pray,
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and then we'll get into the meat of the talk.
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Dear God,
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I just pray that as we're here today,
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I pray that you would challenge us through Psalm 22.
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I pray that you would speak to us,
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that we would be challenged.
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I pray that you'd help me to speak clearly.
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And God,
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I pray that we would be drawn to your glory and majesty in suffering.
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Amen.
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Okay,
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so if you've got your outline,
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the first point on the outline,
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David's words tell us that true comfort in suffering is found in God alone.
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See,
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Psalm 22,
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it's probably written by David,
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it says by David,
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that's probably who wrote it,
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about 3,000 years ago,
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and it's actually a song.
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I don't know if you realise that,
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kind of says to the choir master,
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it's to the tune of Doe of the Dawn,
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which to be honest,
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sorry,
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yeah,
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that's what it is,
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isn't it?
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Yes.
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Doe of the Dawn,
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which sounds like a bit of a boring tune,
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to be honest to me,
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but I'm sure it was amazing.
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We actually have no idea what this tune sounds like.
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So if someone wants to make up a tune,
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and put the words into this,
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go for your life,
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no one can tell you it's wrong.
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I won't try,
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it'll be like barbara black sheep or something,
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that I'll fit it into,
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it won't work at all.
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But a look at Psalm 22,
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confronts us with this horrible picture,
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of David going through this intense,
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intense suffering.
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He's in the deepest,
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darkest place.
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Let's read through some of what David says in Psalm 22,
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if you've got it open.
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Psalm 22,
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it's what Beck read for us before,
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we're going to start at verse 1.
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My God,
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my God,
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why have you forsaken me?
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Why are you so far from saving me,
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from the words of my groaning?
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Oh my God,
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I cry by day,
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but you do not answer.
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And by night,
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but I find no rest.
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But I am a worm and not a man,
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in verse 6,
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but I am a worm and not a man.
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In verse 14,
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I am poured out like water.
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In verse 17,
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I can count all my bones.
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I think it's fair to say here,
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that David is not having a good time.
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This is someone who is expressing,
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the deepest of agonies.
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He's in a world of pain.
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So much so that I,
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I don't know about you,
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but I almost get the feeling like,
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these words don't properly,
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they just cannot possibly,
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express what David is really feeling,
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at this moment.
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I am a worm.
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I am scorned.
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I am despised.
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I am mocked.
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There's definitely something going on here,
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where people are kind of after him,
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and,
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and,
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you know,
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really oppressing him.
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I don't know if you can,
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can connect with these bits.
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All my bones are out of joint.
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I don't know if you've ever had a dislocation.
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That's pretty bad on one place.
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All my bones are out of joint.
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My heart is like wax,
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and my tongue sticks to my jaws.
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You lay me in the dust of death.
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So this is someone who is describing the lowest of lows.
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Someone who is totally at the end of everything.
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He can just not see the end.
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It is black.
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It is dark.
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And I think that's something that's true of suffering,
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isn't it?
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When you're in proper deep suffering,
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it can feel like there is just no way out.
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And so what does David do in this terrible place?
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What do we see in Psalm 22 that he does
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when he's going through this terrible suffering?
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Well,
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he speaks of the character of God,
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doesn't he?
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David,
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in Psalm 22,
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tells us
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that true comfort in suffering is found in God alone.
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And the temple of this psalm,
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it's quite interesting.
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I don't know if you picked it up,
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this kind of back and forth.
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Three times it happens where he goes,
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wow,
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this is terrible.
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I'm going through this immense,
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terrible thing.
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But God,
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you are great.
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But this is just,
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I cannot handle this.
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This is just too painful.
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But God,
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you are amazing.
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You are good.
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And it happens three times.
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And it kind of,
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as you go through,
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the bits get longer and longer,
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where the third explanation of suffering
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is this long passage.
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And then the third explanation,
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dwelling on God's goodness,
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is the longest of all.
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And it's kind of like David's battling.
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If you've gone through suffering,
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you might even recognise this tempo.
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When you're in suffering,
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it kind of feels like it comes in waves.
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You have this really dark,
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difficult place
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when you're just in despair.
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And then it'll go to hope for a little bit.
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And then you'll come back to despair.
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And it kind of,
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there's no rhyme or reason
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for how long you're in each one.
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But that's kind of what we see here.
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And we're going to read some of it.
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Mainly the part where David rests on God.
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But we're going to start at verse four.
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In you our fathers trusted.
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They trusted and you delivered them.
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To you they cried and were rescued.
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In you they trusted and were not put to shame.
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Verse 22.
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I will tell of your name to my brothers.
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In the midst of the congregation,
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I will praise you.
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And then we're going to skip a little bit.
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For he has not despised
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or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.
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And he has not hidden his face from him,
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but has heard when he cried to him.
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From you comes my praise in the great congregation.
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My vows I will perform before those who fear him.
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The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.
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Those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
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May your hearts live forever.
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Then we're going to skip to verse 28.
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For kingship belongs to the Lord
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and he rules over the nations.
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All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.
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Before him shall bow all who go to the dust.
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Go down to the dust.
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Even the one who could not keep himself alive.
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Posterity, which means all future generations,
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shall serve him.
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It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
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They shall come and proclaim his righteousness
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to a people yet unborn,
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that he has done it.
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See, why does David find true comforting God?
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It's because God is a good God.
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God is a good God.
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And he's a God that has the power to deliver on that goodness.
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He's done it time and time again.
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David can see this throughout all of history.
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He says it in Psalm 22.
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My ancestors could see it.
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The ancestors could see it.
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I can see it.
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All future generations are going to see this.
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God is a good God.
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He delivers on his promise.
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In verse 31, he is a righteous God.
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The suffering, though, it's still just as sharp, isn't it?
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In fact, the suffering throughout Psalms,
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it's not like it kind of gets less until it's gone
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and he's going, actually, this is great.
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It gets, in fact, if anything, worse and worse.
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But a completely good God with complete control
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means that there is a good plan behind suffering.
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Even if it doesn't seem that way,
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even when the suffering is terrible like it is in Psalm 22,
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God has a good plan.
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I wonder how many of you,
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when you're thinking about buying stuff,
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look at review sites.
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Do many people do this?
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A couple?
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Google?
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Facebook?
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YouTube videos?
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I do it all the time.
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If I am trying to buy something,
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probably over a couple hundred bucks,
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I will look at it as much as I possibly can.
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I think what I'm trying to do is work out
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where does the realm of public opinion
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sit with this brand or product or company.
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I did it recently with a couple of things.
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I've done it with, actually, these pair of shoes.
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I watched far too many YouTube videos
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of people cutting open this particular brand of shoes
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to see what was inside.
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Where does the public opinion sit on this brand of shoes?
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Look, that's maybe just a bit of a weird thing.
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Maybe you're just like,
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man, honestly, you're talking about Google and Facebook.
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But I look at heap of review sites.
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I want to see what people have to say.
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I think what I'm trying to do is establish,
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essentially, a track record of the company or the product.
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Is this something that people have had a good experience with?
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You know, how does it go over time?
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What was the service like?
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Another one was I had to get a driveway redone.
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Our driveway was destroying our car.
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So we had to get a new one.
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So I went onto Facebook, Google,
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trying to understand, you know,
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is this concrete going to turn up?
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Are they going to do a dodgy job?
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Are they going to, you know,
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give me what they said they're going to give me?
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So I did a lot of that.
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But again, same thing.
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I'm trying to establish,
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what is the track record of this company?
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Is it going to, you know,
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based on the weight of history
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and what people have experienced,
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is this what's going to happen for me?
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And so I love reading review sites.
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How does David know
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that comfort in suffering is found in God alone?
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How does he know it in Psalm 22?
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It's because he can see the track record of God, isn't it?
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He can see that God delivers every time.
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He is 100% perfect.
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He is a good God who every time in history has been good.
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He is by nature good
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and he has the power to deliver on that goodness.
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He always has and always will be a good God.
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And so David says,
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I trust you.
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I find comfort in you.
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See, David's words tell us that true comfort in suffering is found in God alone.
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But it's not just David that we rely on, is it?
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I mean, don't get me wrong.
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David is amazing.
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He wrote a lot of the Bible.
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I'm not having a diss on David.
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But there is a lot more that we rely on.
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You see, Jesus' actions on the cross also tell us that true suffering is found in God alone.
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Now, Psalm 22, for those of you who are particularly astute and know your Bible well,
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should remind you of probably the most great example of suffering in human history.
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It's probably one of the most famous sayings of suffering in the Bible.
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So much so that probably even some people in this room will know it in the original language.
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If there was ever a line that should make us feel the gravity of suffering,
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it's this one that we find in Psalm 22.
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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And of course, that's what Jesus says is hanging on the cross.
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It is one of the most famous lines in the whole of the Bible.
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And in fact, the words in Psalm 22, I don't know if you've realized this,
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they are the exact words that Jesus says on the cross in Mark chapter 15 and Matthew 20, 17.
Mark 15 chapter mention
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And that's not a mistake.
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See, Jesus is pointing at Psalm 22 when he's on the cross and says,
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this is where I am at.
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If you want to know what I'm going through and know what I'm thinking and understand my emotions,
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read Psalm 22.
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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And it's amazing that a psalm written probably a thousand years before Jesus,
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I was hanging on the cross is what Jesus points to.
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And when you actually start to look at it in that light,
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I think Psalm 22 starts to take on a bit of a different texture.
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It's actually quite amazing.
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When you start looking at it in that way, you go, okay, David's suffering,
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but actually maybe he's writing about something else here a little bit.
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Maybe this is not just about David's particular suffering.
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Maybe, and in fact, I think this is David also,
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not that he probably knew at the time, talking about Jesus' suffering.
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And there's a couple of reasons for this.
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One is the obvious one that Jesus points to it.
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He clearly references Psalm 22.
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But there's some other bits in this passage.
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Let's look at verse 6.
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Verse 7.
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Scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
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You remember all the people in Jerusalem wanted to kill him
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by the time that he was on the cross.
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Verse 7.
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All who see me mock me.
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They make mouths at me.
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They wag their heads.
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He trusts in the Lord.
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Let him deliver him.
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Let him rescue him, for he delights in him.
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I mean, we know where that's from, don't we?
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We've seen that.
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Right before Jesus dies, everyone's making fun of him.
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Verse 16.
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They have pierced my hands and feet.
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Now, I don't know of any time that David had his hands and feet pierced.
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They divide my garments in verse 18.
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They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.
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See, Jesus is saying, this is where I am.
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Psalm 22.
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The suffering that I'm going through is Psalm 22.
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It's the deepest, darkest depths of anguish.
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We can in part understand Jesus' suffering by looking at Psalm 22.
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And in that suffering, Jesus tells us that true comfort is found in God alone.
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See, he finds comfort just as David did in God's character and goodness.
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See, he knows his father's track record.
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Just like David, he knows the track record.
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He knows that his father is always good.
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He knows that his father will always deliver him.
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His father has the power to ensure that he can deliver on his good plan.
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So when David says in verse 24, for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
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and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him,
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Jesus says, that, that is what I know.
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And in verse 28, for kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
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All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.
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Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
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Posterity shall serve him.
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All generations shall serve him.
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It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
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They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.
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Jesus says, that, that is my father.
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See, Jesus knows that his father is a good God.
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Jesus knows that his father is good and that he has the power to complete his good plan.
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Jesus knows that on the cross, God has a good plan for his suffering.
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I don't know if you've ever connected with a song at a time in your life,
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and it's kind of become an anthem for that period of your life.
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I think this often tends to happen in teenage years for some reason.
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Probably like Black Sabbath or Metallica, or that's like the grungy version.
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For some people, I'd be like Taylor Swift, One Direction.
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Don't admit to that if that's you.
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But some people.
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Maybe it's the Bee Gees.
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I don't know.
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Whatever it is.
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I have a vivid example of this happening in my life that I can remember.
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It's when I was moving from Newcastle to Bathurst for uni.
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So I was 18, fresh out of home, on an exciting new adventure,
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and I was staying at a friend's house.
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I'd just been dropped off by my mum.
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I was lying in bed at night.
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I listened to this one song for an hour, lying in bed.
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I know that's a little bit of a weird thing to do.
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But I had these feelings that I was kind of going through at the time,
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and it was these two almost conflicting emotions.
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One was this great excitement and great hope.
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You know, I was kind of 18, going out into the world,
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getting to make all my own decisions, kind of, you know, becoming an adult.
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I wasn't a kid anymore.
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And I was kind of excited for this new adventure that I was going to be going on.
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So there was that emotion.
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But then there was also this other emotion that I don't have a great word for.
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It's kind of like nostalgic grief almost.
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You know, I wasn't a kid anymore.
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I wasn't going to see my school friends very much anymore.
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I was leaving behind siblings that I'd spent my whole life with.
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My mum, who I love very dearly, I wasn't going to, you know, have the same relationship with again.
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So I had these two kind of contrasting but complementary you.
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It was a bit of a weird mix of emotions going on.
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And I found it expressed really well in this song called The Lark Ascending.
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Now, it's quite a famous piece of music.
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It's a classical piece of music.
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It goes for about 15 minutes.
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If you get a chance on the way home to listen to it, you should definitely listen to it.
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It's by a guy called Ralph Vaughan Williams.
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And it's this piece of music where this violin kind of goes throughout the whole piece.
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And in some parts, it's this really high up in the clouds, you know, amazing soaring piece of music.
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It's exciting.
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It's kind of like a lark, a bird, flapping around happily going, yeah, this is the best.
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But then there's these other points in the song where it becomes really kind of slow and purposeful
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and almost kind of like someone going through grief.
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And I found that night that this was the song that I found could express how I was feeling.
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And I sat there and listened to it for an hour in bed.
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And I think if you wanted to know what I was going through at that time in my life,
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I can point to that song and go, you know, listen to this.
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It will tell you everything you need to know.
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Well, that's what Jesus is doing in Psalm 22.
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When he's on the cross and he points to Psalm 22, he's saying,
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that's what I'm experiencing.
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That's what I'm feeling.
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On the one hand, this incredible grief, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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But also communicating the comfort that he has in the goodness of his father.
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You know what I find a bit interesting about Psalm 22 is it doesn't lessen the impact of suffering.
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I kind of get no sense that in Psalm 22, either David or Jesus have, you know,
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they kind of reach out to God and then the suffering is instantly gone.
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In fact, we know with Jesus that that didn't happen.
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He's on the cross.
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We know what happens after he says this.
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He dies.
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But I get no sense that these two reaching out to God means that the suffering goes away.
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In fact, it's probably just as sharp as it ever was when we're reading through Psalm 22.
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I wonder what form you think comfort should come in from God.
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Perhaps you've gone through tough times in the past.
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Perhaps you've been in suffering.
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Perhaps you've been in dark places.
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I wonder if you reached out to God.
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And if you did, I wonder what kind of comfort you expected from him.
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I think it's a bit of a pattern that people think that if I reach out to God, if I trust him enough,
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somehow the pain will go away.
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Or somehow the circumstance will be removed.
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I won't have to go through this anymore.
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He'll take it away from me.
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I wonder if that's been you before.
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Or if you kind of think like that.
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You know, if I really reach, if I properly strive to God, you know, somehow I won't feel this pain.
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You know, if he truly cared, he wouldn't let me suffer like that.
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You know, if he really cared, he wouldn't have let my mum suffer like that.
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If he really, truly gave comfort, you know, I wouldn't have been in that depressive state for five years.
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I wouldn't have gone through that.
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If God truly cared, my son would not be sick like this.
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If God truly gave comfort, then I wouldn't be broke.
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Come on, God wouldn't want me to go through this.
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This cannot be God's plan.
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If he really cared, he would not have let my child die.
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What type of comfort do you expect from God in suffering?
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See, we have no idea.
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We have no idea why we're going through the suffering that we're going through sometimes.
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I have no idea why God would let you go through that thing that you've been through.
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But I know that our God is a good God.
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He does everything for our good.
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He has a perfect track record.
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He's a good God who has the power to deliver on his good.
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And so no matter what's happening in your life,
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no matter what suffering you've been through, you're going through right now,
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God has a plan and it is good.
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You might not be able to see it.
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But God has a good plan.
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I mean, imagine for a second if God on the cross,
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my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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And God goes, actually, yeah, why am I doing this?
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Off the cross, there you go.
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Suffering absolved.
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Imagine where we would be.
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I'm sure the apostles, you know, standing there watching Jesus die on the cross,
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I'm sure none of them thought that was a good plan of God.
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I guarantee none of them thought this is what is, yep, fantastic.
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Loving this.
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Imagine for a second if God had taken Jesus off that cross,
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we would be the ones forsaken by God.
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See, Jesus and David tell us that comfort in suffering is found in God alone.
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But the reason we can find true comfort in God alone is because he suffered for us.
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Jesus on the cross is one of the greatest expressions of goodness through suffering.
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It is the greatest expression of goodness through suffering in the whole of human history.
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God demonstrated his love for us through this, that when we were still sinners,
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Jesus died for us on the cross.
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Romans chapter 5, verse 6 to 8 says,
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you see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
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Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person,
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someone might possibly dare to die.
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But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.
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While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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Jesus willingly suffered being forsaken by God,
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so that we didn't have to be forsaken by him.
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Isn't that amazing?
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This is the goodness of God.
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This is the love of God.
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That although I forsook God, I rejected him,
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we all rebelled against God.
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We wanted nothing.
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In fact, we said, I would prefer to die than to recognize you as God.
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Even though we did that, God looked and he said,
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I will suffer and take the punishment that you deserve so that you don't have to.
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See, the worst suffering that anyone has ever experienced pales in comparison to what I've been through.
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The worst of the worst torture, the worst of the worst despair,
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was experienced by Jesus on the cross.
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Jesus, the son forsaken by God, the father on the cross.
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And so when we hear,
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my God, Jesus cry out in agony,
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my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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We see his heart and mind on display in Psalm 22.
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We recognize that pain as terrible.
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We recognize that pain as just deep and dark.
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But we will never fully understand what Jesus went through on the cross.
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Psalm 22, you can read it a thousand times.
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We will never properly understand what happened and the suffering that he went through.
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We won't understand it because Jesus died for us.
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He experienced the suffering that we should have experienced.
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This is the God where true comfort is found in suffering.
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In the God who suffered for us and demonstrated his love for us on the cross.
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We know that we have a good, good God.
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My God, my God, why have you forgiven me?
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Because of the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross.
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So when you're in the middle of true suffering,
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find comfort in the goodness of God.
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Find comfort in the God who suffered for you.
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Not through a change in circumstance.
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It might not be that your pain is relieved in the time.
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It might be, but it might not be.
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Find comfort in knowing that no matter the circumstance,
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you have a good God who has the power to deliver on his goodness.
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He has a perfect track record.
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He has demonstrated his goodness time and time and time again.
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Shown most powerfully through Jesus' death on the cross.
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When it feels like you're being crushed by suffering.
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When it feels like you have nowhere to turn.
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Find comfort in the God who suffered for you.
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When all is said and done, why am I going through this, God?
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Why are you putting me in this place?
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God, why am I going through this?
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How can this be?
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Why would you allow this, God?
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The answer is, I don't know.
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I don't know why God's put you there.
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But we have a good God who loves us.
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So much that he would suffer the worst suffering and die the worst death to demonstrate his love for us.
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True comfort in suffering is found alone in the God who suffered for us.
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True comfort in suffering is found alone in the God who suffered for us.