When Your Soul Is Running On Empty | Carlos Velez | Calvary Church

A white-tailed deer drinks from the

creek.

I want to drink God, deep draughts of

God. I'm thirsty

for God alive.

I wonder, will I ever make it, arrive

and drink in God's presence?

I'm on a diet of tears. Tears for

breakfast, tears for supper. All day

long people knock at my door pestering,

"Where is this God of yours?"

These are the things I go over and over,

emptying out the pockets of my life.

I was always at the head of the

worshipping crowd, right out in front,

leading them all, eager to arrive and

worship, shouting praises, singing

thanksgiving,

celebrating

all of us,

God's feast.

Why are you down in the dumps, dear

soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix

my eyes on God, soon I'll be praising

again. He puts a smile on my face. He's

my God.

When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse

everything I know of you, from Jordan

depths or Hermon heights, including

Mount Mizar. Chaos calls to chaos. To

the tune of white water rapids, your

breaking surf, your thundering breakers

crash and crush me.

Then God promises to love me all day,

sing songs all through the night.

My life is God's prayer.

Sometimes

I ask God, my rock-solid God, "Why did

you let me down?

Why am I walking around in tears

harassed by enemies? They're out for the

kill, these tormentors with their

obscenities taunting day after day.

Where is this God of yours?

Why are you down in the dumps, dear

soul? Why are you crying the blues?

Fix my eyes on God. Soon I'll be

praising again.

He puts a smile on my face.

He's my God.

Clear my name, God. Stick up for me

against these loveless, immoral people.

Get me out of here, away from these

lying degenerates. I counted on you,

God. Why did you walk out on me?

Why am I pacing the floor ringing my

hands over these outrageous people?

Give me your lantern and compass. Give

me a map so I can find my way to the

sacred mountain, to the place of your

presence.

To enter the place of worship. Meet my

exuberant God. Sing my thanks with a

harp. Magnificent God.

My God.

Why are you down in the dumps, dear

soul?

Why are you crying the blues?

Fix my eyes on God.

Soon I'll be praising again.

He puts a smile on my face.

He's my God.

So, good morning.

What I just read

was Psalms 42

and 43 from The Message.

It's actually the Psalms we're going to

be studying about today.

And I for some of you is that like you

were kind of like, "Okay, this is

awkward.

It's uncomfortable. I'm not sure what's

happening."

You're trying to figure out how to get

up and walk out

discreetly.

And I kind of wonder like what would

happen if I actually prayed a prayer

like that?

Shouting out to God in front of all of

you, "Where are you, God?"

Like how would you respond to that? That

would be kind of awkward for us, right?

And the reason it's uncomfortable is

actually the culture we live in, the the

northeast suburban culture of America we

live in, we have a hard time with

emotions, don't we?

I mean, we're okay with anger.

Tolerate that.

But sadness?

Tears?

Grief?

How do we do with that?

Are we good with that?

I cuz cuz I tend to think what we

normally do is we do one of two things.

Either we hide that sadness or we

deny that it exists. We we we pretend

it's not there.

Putting on a mask

and smiling and saying, "I'm okay."

Right?

Or

we might do the opposite. We tend to

want to wallow in it and stay there

and actually let it control us.

And neither one of those are good

responses to sorrow or grief. So, what

do we do

with that sorrow? What do we do with our

sadness? What do we do when our soul is

on empty?

The Bible actually gives us another

alternative. It gives us another option.

It's called

lament.

Lament.

Lament is a prayer that honestly

expresses grief, sorrow, regret, and

confusion before God.

It refuses to hide pain,

but it also refuses to let pain have the

final word.

Paul Miller uh is one of our uh people

in our church. He's he's one of us.

Uh but he's also made a tremendous

impact on God's kingdom uh in the world

of prayer and in discipleship. He's

written books. He's done uh seminars on

the praying life. In fact, we've done

them here. We're going to do them again.

And he makes an interesting observation

about lament and the Psalms.

He points out this, nearly 1/3

of the Psalms 1/3 of the Psalms

are laments.

And that tells us something important.

Tells us something important.

God expects us to bring our pain to him.

But it's uncomfortable for us at times,

right? Cuz lament at times, it can sound

almost disrespectful, right?

Like what I just read, "Where are you,

God?" That almost sounds like Are we

allowed to Are we allowed to pray that?

I'm not sure what Are we allowed to pray

that way?

But lament isn't unbelief.

It's actually the opposite. It's faith

refusing to let go of God.

Again, I I love how Paul Miller

describes lament. He says this,

"Lament connects God's past promises

with my present chaos."

I love that. Lament connects God's past

promises to my present chaos. And we see

that so beautifully in Psalms 42 and 43.

And the reason I read to you two Psalms,

the reason I read to you Psalms 42 and

43 is because traditionally and

historically it's been understood that

those are actually probably one song

originally.

They're probably one song. There's no

heading on Psalms 43. They have the same

kind of rhythm, same language, same

themes.

They have the same chorus that is

repeated over and over. Why my soul are

you downcast? It says, "Put your hope in

God."

And it's like that repeated refrain acts

like the chorus of the song. You know,

like when we sing songs there's a chorus

that we just sing over and over again.

That's

that's the chorus of the song.

Of this Psalm.

And what's going on in here? This chorus

is expressing a truth.

What is it saying? It's saying the

writer is spiritually

thirsty.

He's emotionally exhausted and he's

longing for God's presence.

His greatest problem is not difficult

circumstances.

His greatest problem is that he feels

distant from God.

And the chorus that we see gives us

these three movements [snorts]

that tell us how we are to operate when

our soul is running on empty.

So, here's the big idea today.

The big idea for the whole summer

summer. No.

The big idea for the whole sermon

is this. Through Jesus, we can bring our

hearts to God.

Through Jesus we can bring our hearts to

God, okay?

And we're going to look at how this

Psalm of lament does that and the way

that it expresses that in this setting.

Okay? So, here's the first setting of

lament. The first thing that we need to

understand about lament. Laments are

actually an expression of our longing

for God's presence.

It's expression of the longing for God's

presence. Let's go back into the Psalm.

And we'll read it the version that we're

normally used to reading.

Psalm 42:1

Psalms 42:1

As a deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living

God. Where can I go and meet with God?

My tears have been my food day and

night, while people say to me all day

long, "Where is your God?"

These things I remember as I pour out my

soul, how I used to go to the house of

God under the protection of the mighty

one with shouts of joy and praise among

the festive throng. Why, my soul, are

you downcast? Why so disturbed within

me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him, my savior and

my God.

That's a beautiful opening picture,

right? It's a picture of this deer next

to to a creek or a river. Like it's just

It's this beautiful picture.

Right?

It's also a desperate picture.

This picture isn't a deer just

peacefully sitting next to a brook or

creek or river in the grass

enjoying the breeze.

This is a thirsty deer.

This is a deer with great thirst, and if

it doesn't get water, it will die.

It will die. That's the picture that

we're actually getting.

And the psalmist says, "This is what my

soul feels like."

My soul feels thirsty.

And he isn't asking for circumstances to

change. He's asking for God.

His greatest need isn't relief. His

greatest need is communion with God.

There's a scholar named Robert Alter. Uh

he's one of the best Hebrew scholars.

He's not a Christian, but he's one of

the best Hebrew scholars. And he has a

commentary on Psalms and he says this

about this these Psalms. He says, "The

dominant emotion of this Psalm isn't

suffering.

It's longing.

The deepest need of your soul isn't a

different circumstance. The deepest need

of your soul is God.

The deepest need of your soul is God.

And if you look at the Psalm, what

happens? This longing is accompanied by

remembering, right? What does he do? He

remembers when he goes and he sings. He

remembers when he goes and he celebrates

and when he's with people and and and he

remembers these times of worship.

But that remembering doesn't bring him

joy.

Actually, that remembering

just actually brings him more pain.

And maybe you're in a a season like

that. Maybe you're in a season where

you're just feeling dry and and distant

from God and and you're just thirsty and

but you remember times when God felt

close. You You remember times when when

your prayers just felt like they reached

God or or when you worship just felt

like it was more heartfelt. And you just

you just feel dry right now.

And what we need to understand is this,

that the writer teaches us something

important about memories.

Memories

were not meant to trap us in the past.

It's They're meant to remind us

that the God who was faithful then is

still faithful now.

God who was faithful then is still

faithful now.

And and here's what happens with the

remembering. When we understand that,

remembering becomes fuel for hope.

Remembering becomes fuel for hope. We'll

talk about that hope in a little bit.

And we have to grasp that.

We have to grasp that.

And the reason we have to grasp that is

because often times we try to satisfy

our thirst in incorrect ways.

Right?

It's like if you're thirsty and you

really need just a really cold glass of

water to satisfy that thirst. But you

know what you do instead?

You drink Mountain Dew.

That's a mistake anytime.

First of all, Mountain Dew, they can't

even figure out what flavor they're

supposed to be. Like what's the deal

with Mountain Dew?

But second of all,

it might make your your mouth wet,

but it's not going to satisfy your

thirst.

You're going to eventually need to drink

water.

But we do that with our spiritual

thirst. We drink spiritual Mountain Dew

all the time. Right?

We try to satisfy

our thought our thirst with other

things.

We try to satisfy it with success or or

maybe relationships or entertainment or

possessions

or achievement. And all of these things

are good.

But good gifts

make very poor saviors.

Okay?

Good gifts make very poor saviors.

They can never satisfy the deep longing

that we have, the deep longing that we

need.

The deepest longing of our soul.

And the writer acknowledges that.

He acknowledges the thirstiness of So,

what does he want? He wants to be where

God is.

He wants to be with where God is. And

here's here's here's something that is

so awesome that we have to remember.

Today,

we don't have to climb a mountain or go

to a temple

to get to God's presence.

Because of Jesus, we have access to

God's presence directly.

Directly.

And here is where this thirsty soul is

even more important and so awesome.

Because what does Jesus say?

Jesus says, "If anyone thirsts,

let him come to me and drink."

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me

and drink. The thirst of Psalm 42 is

ultimately

given an answer, and the answer is

Jesus.

And so when we look at lament, what we

need to understand the first stage of

lament, the first reality of lament is

that actually we are longing for God.

We are longing for God, but not only are

we longing for God, in the lament, we

actually bring our pain to God.

We are bringing our pain to God.

Let's look at again at the Psalm verse

6, 42:6. My soul is downcast within me.

Therefore, I will remember

you. He's talking about God. Okay, he's

framing all of these things in in

regards to God. I will remember you from

the land of the Jordan, the heights of

Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to

deep in the roar of your waterfalls, all

of your waves and breakers have swept

over me.

By day the Lord directs his love. At

night his song is with me, a prayer to

the God of my life. I say to God my

rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why

must I go about mourning oppressed by

the enemy? My bones suffer mortal agony

as my foes taunt me, saying to me all

day long, 'Where is your God?'"

Why my soul are you downcast? Why so

disturbed within me? Put your hope in

God.

For I will yet praise him, my savior and

my God.

That is an honest prayer.

If you would even go even in the verses

we read earlier, what what does he say?

"My tears have become my food."

What do we get in the verses we just

read? Deep calls to deep. Why have you

forgotten me? My bones suffer mortal

agony as my foes taunt me. Where is your

God? This is a deep, honest prayer. It's

not a polished prayer. It's an honest

prayer.

Again, Paul Miller, when he's talking

about lament, says that they oftentimes

begin with an emotional dump.

I was thinking about that. I was trying

to think it through like what what like

what's an

What does that look like? This emotional

dump.

And I started to think through and I

thought of one of my kids.

And

she used to do this when she was

younger.

And then she still did it when she got

older.

And she still does it as a young adult.

She'll do this.

When she's not happy, when she's

starting to feel upset inside, she'll

come to me and she'll let out those

feelings.

Like this.

NO!

>> [screaming]

>> I'M ANGRY! IF YOU think I'm

exaggerating,

I am not.

This is actually toning it down.

And she's like, "I'm angry!" and she'll

begin to tell me of all the reasons why

I am the source of that anger.

And she will begin to

continue on in this rant towards me.

And it always ends the same way.

She is angry. She is stomping her feet.

She is ranting and raving until the

point

where she throws her head into my chest

and starts to cry.

Because all she needed was a hug from

her dad.

Why do I tell you that story?

Because I like embarrassing my kids.

Actually, why do I tell you that story?

It's actually a prelude.

It's the story before the story.

About 3 years ago,

things were pretty bad

for me. Like it just like inside I was I

wasn't feeling good. I was

I was feeling dry. Things were hard here

at the church. Things were hard with my

family. And my family was going through

stuff. And and I remember where it was

just all building up one day. And then

and then my kid went through something

and it was just so painful for them. And

and my kid is hurting. And I just I just

I couldn't take it. Like I I just I just

had all these feelings. I get in the car

and I start to drive away. And and and

these feelings are just like just just

like stewing inside of me. They're

bubbling up. And then I finally I just

shout out, "I can't do this anymore."

And I began to shout at God. And

actually, I didn't shout at God. I want

to be honest with you. I screamed at

him.

To the point where my throat started to

hurt.

And I was like, "Why aren't you

helping?"

And I would say things like, "Where are

you?" I'm just screaming and screaming.

And if you drove by me that day and I

disturbed you, I apologize.

Cuz it was a scene. But I was just

screaming at the top of my lungs. I was

it just it just it was so overwhelming.

Everything that was going on. And I'm

just screaming at him, "Where are you?"

And in the midst of those screams,

he reminded me of that kid

the picture of her burying her chest or

her head in my chest.

And it's as if he was saying,

"I'm right here.

I'm right here.

Do you need a hug?"

And I began to sob.

I began to just cry and cry and cry.

Here's what you need to understand.

Did my circumstances change in that

moment?

No.

Actually, some of them got worse.

There was still a lot of pain.

Did I feel better in that moment?

No.

I was still hurting.

I was hurting a lot in that moment.

You know what changed?

Where I brought that pain to.

Where I brought that hurt to.

I was hurting,

but I was in the arms of the Father who

loves me.

That's what changed.

And here's what you need to understand.

I screamed at God.

And more than likely,

I've blocked out some of the things I've

said because it was probably very rude.

But here's something that you need to

remember.

God would rather have a raw, honest

prayer

than a fake, polished one.

God would rather have your raw, honest

prayers than fake, polished prayers.

Paul Miller describes lament, and he

gives us a pattern of this biblical

prayer, and he says that you focus

inward, honestly acknowledging what's

happening in your own heart.

And then you focus outward, recognizing

the brokenness around you, but you don't

stop there. You focus upward and you

remember who God is and you what he says

is true.

And that's exactly what this Psalm

models.

And notice something else about this.

The psalmist never stops talking to God.

He never does.

He doesn't understand.

Throughout the whole Psalm, he doesn't

understand. He doesn't have answers.

But he keeps praying.

That's called faith.

That's the difference between

complaining and lamenting.

Complaining walks away from God.

Lamenting stays in the conversation with

God.

It stays in the conversation with God.

And then again, look at look look what

the psalmist does. He refuses He refuses

to just listen to his own feelings.

He begins talking to himself and he

begins to teach himself and remind

himself of truth. And he reminds himself

of truth as he reminds himself to put

his hope in God.

And and he has all of these questions

that he asked and also are asked of him.

And one of the hardest questions that is

asked of him is from these enemies that

they say, "Where is your God?"

"Where is your God?"

Mocking him.

We still ask those questions today,

don't we?

We still get those questions asked us at

times today, don't we?

"Where is your God?"

"Where is your God?" After that

diagnosis?

Where Where is your God now that the

marriage has fallen apart?

Where is your God when grief is

overwhelming you? Where is he?

And what's awesome about this Psalm is

that the writer never ignores those

questions.

What does he do? He brings those

questions to God.

He brings them to God. That's what

lament is.

Lament is connecting God's promises to

today's pain.

And I was thinking through the Bible and

I was thinking about these these honest

prayers these raw vulnerable prayers

[snorts] of lament these these prayers

of just honest pain before God and and I

was thinking of them and then I

remembered my favorite example of a

lament.

My favorite example of a lament in the

Bible.

It was a really beautiful raw honest

prayer.

Prayed in the garden.

In the book of Matthew.

Matthew chapter 26

Matthew 26:36

verse 36 and Jesus went with his

disciples to a place called Gethsemane

and he said to them, "Sit here while I

go over there and pray."

He took Peter and the two sons of

Zebedee along with him and he began to

be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said

to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with

sorrow to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me."

Going a little farther, he fell with his

face to the ground and prayed,

"My Father, if it is possible, may this

cup be taken from me.

Yet not as I will, but as you will."

Do you hear echoes of Psalm 42 in Jesus'

prayer? There's this raw raw emotion.

He's overwhelmed with sorrow to the

point of death.

You see, honest sorrow and deep faith

can exist together.

Faith isn't the absence of struggle.

Faith is speaking God's truth in the

middle of our struggle.

And shortly after this prayer in a

garden, Jesus prays another prayer of

lament. He prays this prayer while his

arms are outstretched on a cross and he

cries out, "My God, my God, why have you

forsaken me?"

You see, Jesus enters the deepest

laments imaginable.

And because he entered our sorrow, we

never suffer alone.

We never suffer alone.

You see, that's where laments are meant

to get us to.

Again, we understand laments are

actually our longing for God and his

presence, and we bring our pain to God,

but ultimately what happens is that as

we do that, we need to remember to

preach the hope of Jesus. Laments about

preaching the hope of Jesus. Look at

Psalm 43. "Vindicate me, my God, and

plead my cause

against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me

from those who are deceitful and wicked.

You are my God, my stronghold. Why have

you rejected me? Why must I go about

mourning oppressed by the enemy? Send me

your light and your faithful care. Let

them lead me. Let them bring me to your

holy mountain to the place where you

dwell. Then I will go to the altar of

God, to God, my joy and my delight. I

will praise you with the lyre, oh God,

my God. Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him, my savior and

my God."

Again, three times in the Psalm we hear

the same refrain. "Why, my soul, are you

downcast?" And and and

what happens is that the writer begins

to talk to himself. Instead of listening

only to his feel feelings, he begins to

remind himself of things that are true.

And what you need to understand is that

sometimes you have to remind yourself of

what's true before your feelings catch

up.

Sometimes you have to remind yourself of

what's true before your feelings catch

up.

You you Our culture tells us to follow

our feelings. Just follow what feels

right.

And what scripture tells us is that

feelings are real.

But they're not always trustworthy.

And instead what the psalmist does is he

preaches God's word to himself. He is

remembers what God has said and what he

has done and he begins to believe

everything before he feels different.

And notice this, he doesn't deny his

emotions, he acknowledges them and then

he redirects them. That's not

pretending,

that's faith.

And that's the movement in this psalm.

In Psalm 42,

the psalmist remembers and in Psalm 43

he prays, "Send your light

and your faithful care." He's not

looking backward anymore, he's asking

God to lead him forward.

That's what hope is.

Hope isn't wishful thinking. Biblical

hope isn't wishful thinking. It is a

confident expectation rooted in God's

character and his promises.

It is a confident expectation rooted in

God's character and his promises. And

here's the deal, our hope has a name.

Our hope has a face. Our hope has an

empty tomb.

Our hope is Jesus.

And the remarkable thing about these

Psalms

is that the circumstances haven't

changed.

The circumstances haven't changed. The

questions are still there. The pain is

still there.

But there is something that has changed.

Hope has arrived.

That's what lament does.

It doesn't change our circumstances.

It changes where we take those

circumstances to.

You see this Psalm begins again. What

does it begin with? That picture of this

thirsty soul.

This thirsty soul.

You see at the cross

Jesus cried out, "I thirst."

I thirst and he entered into the deepest

suffering.

The deepest suffering.

So that we could come confidently

into God's presence

and never be thirsty again.

He was forsaken so we would not have to

be forsaken.

And because of that one day every lament

will one day become a praise.

Every tear will be wiped away.

Every question will be answered.

And here's what we have to understand.

If we understand that hope and we can

cling to that hope, okay?

Then we need to understand this

question.

What if the very place

that feels empty today

the very place that feels empty today

becomes a place where you discover God

more deeply.

Sometimes it's in our desperation.

Not despite it. It's in our desperation

that we discover that God is enough.

That God is enough.

And we look with expectant hearts to the

day when Jesus will return and make that

hope full.

And until that day, we keep bringing our

hurt to God. We keep longing for his

presence. We keep bringing him our pain.

We keep preaching the hope of Jesus to

ourselves. Because here's the deal, the

thirsty soul finds living water in

Jesus.

The hurting soul finds comfort in Jesus.

The wandering soul finds light and

guidance in Jesus. The lonely soul finds

a family in Jesus. The hopeless soul

finds hope in Jesus.

And when we understand that,

that's when we can humbly and honestly

say the last words of Psalms 43.

Psalm 43,

put your hope

in God.

For I will yet praise him,

my savior

and my God.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you

for your love. We thank you

that we can bring our hurt and pain to

you. We thank you that we can

just throw ourselves in your arms and

just

be honest about our pain.

Not denying our pain, not letting our

pain

control us, but actually giving you our

pain.

God, that's not always easy for us to

do. So, I ask you that you would make

your love very real to anyone who needs

to do that.

Anyone who's hurting that needs to

actually just run to you

and throw themselves in your arms and

bury their head in your chest and sob

and just bring you their pain and let

them

be able to do that.

And bring your comfort and your peace

and your love

and an awareness of your presence.

Bless them, Lord.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.