"Pits, Patience and Problems" Psalm 40 Sunday Evening Worship Service

If you have a Bible with you, and I hope that you do, open with me to the Old Testament and the 40th Psalm.

It's page 468 in the Pew Bible.

40th Psalm.

This Psalm, parts of which are shared almost verbatim with the solo five verses of Psalm 70, deals with expectation put on hold.

We commonly know that as waiting.

Before we get to the text, let me add my Happy Mother's Day to you, ladies.

We celebrate you today and your commitment to serving as God's instruments and bringing life into the world.

Nine months, nine months is a long time to wait to meet your child, and we know that waiting is really, really hard.

So happy Mother's Day.

We're so thankful for each of you.

Speaking of Mother's Day, I can remember being deployed in the Persian Gulf in our first year of marriage and waiting 11 days past Dehua's due date to finally receive a Red Cross message on Mother's Day weekend, exactly 40 years ago today, letting me know that I had become a father for the first time.

And my wife had become a mother.

Patience is really hard.

And as a society, we haven't done much to help ourselves practice the discipline of patience, or as I like to say, the discipline of delayed gratification.

Think about it.

We have one hour photo service at Walmart, same-day dry cleaning, 15-minute oil change at Jiffy Loop, instant messaging, Instagram, fast food drive-throughs, minute medical clinics, call ahead seating, movies on demand, microwave popcorn, overnight Amazon delivery, and fast pass at Disney World.

And perhaps you were even getting a little impatient because I was taking so long just to read that list.

Waiting is really, really hard.

You know, if we name the issue with the challenge, we we want results and we want them right now.

Or as one author quoted, he said, the hardest task in my life is to sit down and wait for God to catch up with me.

Waiting is hard.

And yet waiting and patience seem to be part of God's strategy for maturing each of us as Christians.

Waiting patiently is a skill that we need to cultivate it, and we need to cultivate it right now, immediately.

But in Psalm 40 and Psalm 41, they also actually record his deliverance.

The psalmist gets delivered in those two psalms.

Difficulty, even despair are found in Psalms 37, 38, and 39.

But grace, patience, praise, and triumphs soon to follow, especially in our Psalm 40 text today.

Psalm 40 here includes challenges, thanksgiving, and petition, or as the title of the message reads, pits, patience, praise, and yet more problems.

As perhaps a helpful preamble to our Psalm, we know from our reading of the Gospels and particularly the Gospel of John, that Jesus cautioned his disciples and us to expect problems and trials.

Think of what he said in Psalm 15.

Jesus said, If the world hates you, you know that it's hated me before it hated you.

He follows up in the very next chapter, John chapter 16, verse 33.

John 16:33

He said, In this world you will have tribulation.

But take heart, I've overcome the world.

Certainly, not unlike the disciples, you and I, we struggle with these world problems as well.

And Jesus' warnings, they're right on the mark.

We know that.

We will suffer tribulation.

In this world, we know that we do have trouble.

His ultimate comforting words of being courage, that I've overcome the world should be enough for us.

But we know that many who profess to know Christ still are impatient.

They stumble.

Some even fall away from the faith when they're faced with various trials.

Thus, if you and I will persevere with Christ, we must know in advance that when we're in the pit, we've got to learn, we've got to discipline ourselves to lean into God.

Rather than turning away from the Lord, we must lean more fully into Him for rescue from life's trials and life's pits.

Psalm 40 here tells of a man who was stuck in a slimy pit.

He was bogged down in mud and mire and patiently waited and then was rescued by God, who set his feet on solid ground, gave him a firm place to stand.

That man was none other than King David.

The psalm here, Psalm 40, falls into two sections.

The first section of ten verses, David tells us how he got how God had got him out of one of the pit, and he then sings God's praises for doing so.

But unlike fairy tales, David did not, nor do we, live life happily ever after.

Rather, we see that it's evident that from the second portion of this Psalm, starting in verse 11, that David found himself in yet another pit.

There's a cycle.

But he was patiently petitioning the Lord to deliver him from that pit as well.

Now's a good time, I think, to be clear about an important point, beginning in the beginning of this focused look at the text.

We remember that David was the beloved king of Israel.

He reigned powerfully and well for over 40 years.

He was installed, he was blessed, he was approved by God.

In fact, God calls him in 1 Samuel 13 a man after his own heart.

David was nearly always in close fellowship with God.

And he wrote almost half of the Psalms.

By his writings and his common speech, he regularly and faithfully proclaimed the grace of God to many others, including ourselves.

Yet in Psalm 40, he describes himself as having been mired down in a pit which even he was unable to escape from.

The point, I hope tonight, in some small way, that you and I can relate to the life of King David and make personal application of the text.

For we'll see here that even great leaders, presidents, pastors, paupers, and people like us recognize that muddy times may be the experience of even the greatest of saints.

Slimy pits, even the lot of kings and prophets.

Thus it may certainly be our lot as well.

Our Psalm 40 text reads as follows To the choir master, a psalm of David.

I waited patiently for the Lord.

He inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction out of the miry bog and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.

You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us.

None can compare with you.

I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

In a sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

Then I said, Behold, I have come.

In the scroll of the book it is written of me.

I delight to do your will, O my God.

Your law is within my heart.

I've told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation.

Behold, I've not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.

I've not hidden your deliverance within my heart.

I've spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.

I've not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me.

Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me.

For evils have encompassed me beyond number.

My iniquities have overtaken me.

I cannot see.

They are more than the hairs of my head, my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me.

O Lord, make haste to help me.

Let those be put to shame who disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life.

Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.

Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, Aha, aha.

But may all who seek you rejoice, be glad in you.

May those who love your salvation say continually, Great is the Lord.

As for me, I'm poor and needy.

But the Lord takes thought for me.

You're my help and my deliverer.

Do not delay, oh my God.

You know, in the context, there's no reason to think the words of a pit or miry bog, we don't think them as any more than metaphors here in this psalm.

King David did not experience mud or quicksand.

That was not his physical struggle.

These are metaphors.

We don't know what David was struggling with, the difficulty.

It's not named here, but it must picture a period in his life in which circumstances had trapped him so that he was unable, or we might say he was unable to free himself.

He would needed help, and he cried out for help.

This is the king of Israel crying out for help.

And if we were to fast forward to the last portion of the psalm, the last seven verses, we would see that the second pit that David found himself in was a direct result of his own sin.

And the many enemies that were trying to destroy him, he did it to himself.

David doesn't specify here in the beginning of this psalm exactly what the pits or the trials that he was dealing with.

Perhaps it was intended that we don't know the literal meaning of his first pit mentioned in the first few verses, because perhaps then we can see our own slimy pit that we are in.

Maybe we struggle in a pit as well that we're trying to bring, or we hope to bring, or we do bring before God.

Maybe our pit is the pit of sin.

Maybe it's defeat or discouragement or loss.

So maybe our pit is habits or addictions or circumstances.

As we seek to make understanding and application of this in our own lives, perhaps our pit is poor health or the loss of a job or the loss of former friends, or perhaps an unfaithful spouse or mate, rebellious children, or any other overwhelming problem.

As a word of caution, even if we profess completely to trust the Lord at most times, when you're in a pit, sadly it's not uncommon for a person to grab onto anything in a seeming way to escape, or even it means sometimes they will compromise their faith.

Don't do it.

Don't do it.

But let's be clear: this psalm is a cry to God for deliverance from really terrible circumstances.

The problem is deliverance may not be what we ask for.

God may deliver us in a way that he thinks is best for us.

And it may be done in his time, in his way.

We need to trust him for that.

In the prefix of the psalm, we we read how David committed this text and the meaning of this text to the chief musician, perhaps as his indication of how important these thoughts and these words were to David.

I want the chief musician to share these words of my struggle and the deliverance of God.

And then we see here right in the first three verses, the blessed results of waiting patiently for the Lord.

There is triumph in waiting patiently for the Lord.

He says in verse 1, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me.

Now, what's unfortunate here in the English is we don't see the original text in the Hebrew, which has an infinitive absolute in it.

I love the infinitive absolute because it speaks about the depth of the way that David waited patiently here.

It said he waited patiently, he was focused on waiting patiently.

He was diligently and earnestly and patiently, perseveringly waiting for God until God was then pleased to respond.

David was in a pit, but he was willing to wait patiently.

We don't know how long David waited, but no matter the duration, it appears that the results that David experienced were well worth his wait.

Secondly, we also don't know what David did while he was waiting.

But when we think about it, we can be personally proactive when we're waiting patiently for the Lord.

Think about all the time we have to wait upon God's movement in our lives.

Something we've laid before him, something we're struggling with.

We should use that time productively.

Probably as David did, as he was waiting patiently for the Lord.

We can continue to serve him by using our gifts.

We can pray, make our requests known to God, the scripture says.

We can study the scriptures to see if God's already responding to us in his word.

We can seek the counsel of trusted advisors.

We don't know what David did or how long he had to wait, but we can do what we know would please God as we are waiting.

Only you and I know what mud bogs us down.

We don't know what it was like for David here.

The question is: do we have enough trust in the faithfulness of God, his past kindness towards us, to be able to wait patiently, even if it's a long time.

David continues in verse 1.

He waited patiently, and he, God, inclined to me.

He heard my cry.

The word inclined has this picture of God leaning in to David.

David's laying his request before God.

He's patiently waiting, and then God, at his timing, leans in to David to remove the distance between the Lord and David.

God is the one leaning into David.

David felt that God was truly listening to him.

Again, we don't know how long David had to be patient, but the fact is the scripture tells us he was patient.

And likewise, we need to be patient as well.

We should note that it wasn't as if God was busy, that God was sleeping, God was not interested in David, but rather God was completely sovereign over the affairs of David's life.

As James reminds us in the New Testament, in the book that bears his name, in chapter one, it often tells us that sometimes God, through trials, is testing our faith.

He's testing us through trials to produce endurance.

And therefore, we are reminded to count those trials and the building of our endurance and patience.

We're to count them as joy.

Is it easy?

Absolutely not.

Are we to be obedient to it?

Absolutely we are.

David's patience resulted in sweet victory.

Look what verse 2 says.

And he, God, also brought me up out of a horrible pit.

He set my feet upon a rock.

God delivered David from his present crisis, which was like a mirrory clay, it seemed to him, and set him in a much better place.

He established his steps.

David's immediate prayer for deliverance was answered.

A just and welcome reward for David's faithful patience and persistence.

And by the way, I'm not saying that this response that David received here from God is normative or prescriptive.

In fact, I understand this only to be descriptive.

David is just telling us what happened to him.

Frankly, sometimes you and I pray for a situation in a circumstance or and God does not respond.

God does not respond in accordance with our desires or with our timeline.

But he's still God.

And what we know is that David waited patiently and trusted in God, and then God responded to David.

In fact, look what it says in verse 3.

Not only did he respond to David, lift his feet, put it on solid ground, but he also, it says in verse 3, he put a new song in my mouth.

A song of praise right back to God.

David's deliverance from a pit brought forth spontaneous praise.

And that song of praise, the scripture says, was actually given to him by God.

It was chosen by God.

One of God's favorite songs.

It was one of God's favorite hits.

It's a song of praise.

We are thankful, we should be thankful, that God gives us the ability to praise him.

He deserves our praise and we give it to him.

We all know that intense suffering often yields a greater appreciated deliverance and therefore a greater song of praise.

Just someday visit a cancer center and observe the joy and the praise of someone who's finally ringing out after their last chemo treatment.

Listen to the delight of a mother who's finally giving birth after a long and arduous labor, or about an innocent man who's been exonerated from a crime that he never committed.

God puts a song of praise in each of their mouths, and it's a wonderful thing.

And he continues in verse 3, he says, and many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

The deliverance and the praise that we see here that came from patiently waiting were enjoyed by David, but there were also an effective testimony to others.

People often watch how we patiently wait and how God responds to our faithfulness.

And the scripture says that others will see and put their trust.

Others are inspired by the patience we have and the way we trust in our great God.

As a side note, I can sh often think about how many times I've made hospital visits.

Perhaps I visited you.

Some of you visited me as I was in the hospital.

And we encourage one another.

I know as a pastor coming.

I encourage those in the hospital.

It's your turn.

For some reason, God has you here in this hospital at this time.

Be a testimony, be a witness.

The world is watching.

Those doctors, those nurses, those orderlies, the world is watching how you, as a believer, how I as a believer wait patiently upon God to overcome the physical struggle that brought me here to the hospital.

Not only did God answer David's prayer, but he also blessed him for his patient faithfulness.

Look at verse 4.

Blessed is the man.

There's that key word, blessed.

Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.

In verse 4, here we see no matter the trial or the length of the trial, when we, like King David, stay boresided on God for deliverance, the scripture says he was blessed.

And I think we'll be blessed as well.

The blessing may not be what we're we ask for, but the blessing is nonetheless from the Lord.

I love the way Spurgeon puts it.

He said, A man may be as poor as Lazarus, as hated as Mordecai, as sick as Hezekiah, as lonely as Elijah.

But if he trust in the Lord, none of his outward afflictions can prevent his being numbered among the blessed.

Verse 4 says, Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.

And these blessings seem to continue.

Look at verse 5.

David marvels in the thoughts of God towards him.

He says, You have multiplied, O Lord, my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards me.

None can compare with you.

I will proclaim and tell of them.

These are God's thoughts toward David.

Yet they are more than can be told.

Verse 5, I think, is a further expansion of what it gives us here in verse 4 about how we are blessed by God.

Think about it that the creator and the sustainer of the infinite universe would take time to focus and center, his thoughts on his minuscule people.

It's simply overwhelming.

But David says, because of that, I must tell everyone I know.

Do you know who thinks about me?

It's our great God.

The Psalm takes a little shift here in the next three verses, six through eight.

They take on a greater significance when they're also cited in Hebrews chapter 10 as a reflection of the greater David being Jesus himself.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Speaking about the insufficiency of the Mosaic sacrifices.

What God wants in response to being blessed by us is not the animal sacrifices of the Mosaic law.

Look what it says in verse 6.

In sacrifice and offering, you've not delighted.

God doesn't want those sacrifices.

He says, but you have given me an open ear.

In other words, David saying, God, you have opened my mind and my heart to understand what you really want from me.

He said, burn offerings and sin offerings you've not required.

Then I said, Behold, speaking of Jesus, behold, I come in the scroll of the book, it is written of me.

This is Jesus giving the ultimate sacrifice.

Jesus giving of himself.

Verse 8 says, I delight to do your will, O my God.

Your law is within my heart.

In response to God's deliverance of his life, David, his ears were open, his eyes were open, his mind was open.

David understood that God didn't want or need the animal sacrifices of the Mosaic system.

The open or obedient ear was what David and Jesus had offered to God.

God wanted a surrendered, willing servant rather than offered sacrifices.

And so David's desire was to follow the example of Christ, who delighted to do God's will rather than just doing it out of obligation, and there's a big difference.

Well, we see in verses 9 and 10 that a natural outflow of our being blessed by God and as a direct result of our obedience to God is our expression about God.

David was, and we should be compelled to tell others.

Look what it says in verse 9.

I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation.

Behold, I've not restrained my lips.

As you know, O Lord, I've not hidden your deliverance within my heart.

I've spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.

I've not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

Part of God's will for David, as a person, as Israel's king, was that he should praise the Lord.

Thus we see in verses 9 and 10, the psalmist says, I did it.

There wasn't anything I withheld from anybody that I was standing in front of.

I spoke publicly of your righteousness, your faithfulness, your salvation, your mercy, your truth.

This was part of the new song and the praise that came from David's deliverance.

David would not restrain his lips in offering his praise and his deliverance.

He told everyone in the congregation.

But David had praised God for his mercy and his truth, and he praised him for things that God had done in the past.

But now we'll see here at the end of the Psalm that he counted on those qualities of God to sustain him yet in the future.

He went from pit to patience to praise, only back to problems.

He kept himself in humble prayer before God, asking for a constant supply of God's tender mercies.

David wanted to present those new problems to God for consideration and for future mercy that he would need.

Look at verses 11 and following.

He says, As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me.

David knows that.

David knows that God has helped him in the past.

He certainly will help him in the future.

He says, You will not restrain your mercy from me.

Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me.

David had been patient.

Patient, patient, patient.

And God delivered him.

And now when the problems he's facing, yet again, the cycle has begun again.

He's again trusting in the Lord.

He said, Your faithfulness will ever preserve me.

And then he gets specific about them.

He says, Evils have encompassed me beyond number.

We don't know what it is that David is facing.

It sounds like some sin because it says, My iniquities have overtaken me.

These are his things he's done to himself.

I cannot see.

They're overwhelming him.

He said, They are more than the hairs of my head.

My heart fails me.

David went from the pit.

He had patience.

God rescued him.

And then he praised God.

But here he is, back in another pit with problems.

And he asked God not to leave him to his many sins.

He said, There were many more than the hairs of my head.

He wanted God to deliver him.

And he wanted God to be merciful toward him.

It should not surprise us that the psalm began with triumph and praise.

And here now it transitions to a desperate cry for help.

The cycle of the pit and patience and praise and problems seem to have come full circle.

As one author put it, are there any deliverances in this perilous and incomplete life, so entire and permanent that they leave no room for future perils?

Reminder, Jesus said in John 36, in this world we will have trouble.

Despite his many iniquities, David could and did rely upon the Lord for deliverance.

He skillfully phrased his request, not only asking God to deliver him, but asking God to take pleasure in his deliverance.

Lord, would you would it be pleasing to you to deliver me?

He had witnessed God deliver him before, that he knew he could ask boldly and he believed that God would be consistent.

It would please God to help and serve him.

Verses 14 and 15.

We see how God will respond and help him in his time of need.

David is praying, let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life.

He's laying out before the Lord what he's asking him to do.

God, there are people that are after me.

There are people that want to trip me up, to see me go down.

Let those be ashamed, put to shame, and disappointed, those that are attacking me and seek to snatch away my life.

He said, Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.

He said, Let those be appalled because of their shame, who say to me, Aha, aha.

They're mocking David, those, and David wants God to deal with them.

Yes, God had graciously delivered him.

We saw this in the first part of the psalm, but it seems like the threat remained.

And David prayed that God would dishonor his enemies and surely avenge his own elect.

And he says, as a result of that, he says, but may all who seek and rejoice and be glad in you, may those who love your salvation say continually, Great is the Lord.

Despite the problems that have now come full circle, David's reminding himself and reminding us that when you are connected to the Lord, you love his salvation, you will say continually, Great is the Lord.

You will magnify the Lord.

And by the way, to magnify the Lord does not make God any bigger.

God is as big as he will be, and as great as he will be.

But when we magnify him and say, Great is the Lord, we are making him greater in our own mind, in our own heart, in our own lives.

He says in verse 17 then, as for me, I am poor and needy.

But the Lord takes thought for me.

Then he says, You are my help and my deliverer.

Do not delay, O my God.

Finally, we see David here and secure in the truth that God cared for and that God thought about him.

David again appealed to God to be his help and deliverer.

He needed God to do this without delay.

And so do we.

Pits, patience, praise.

Now we've got more problems.

We're back in the pits.

We're patiently waiting for God.

We praise him when he delivers us according to his way and his timing.

And then we have more problems.

In this world, we will have trouble.

As long as the Lord tarries to come, this cycle here that David described for us in Psalm 40 will more likely be the lot of our life.

We live in a world that's not our home.

Satan is the God of this world, and so therefore, in this world we will have trouble.

We will be in the pit.

Will we wait patiently?

Will we praise him?

Because problems will again come again.

Like David, we have hope that God will emancipate us from our struggles, but we know that new struggles will come.

Well, friends, when we look at this text here, we we want to make application for our lives.

And as always, I think anytime we look at the scriptures, we've got to make application for both the believer and the unbeliever.

Maybe it's repetitive, you've heard this before, but the reason we make the application for the unbeliever, because Paul tells us in Romans chapter 1 and verse 18, even the unbeliever knows the truth, but they suppress the truth.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

They push it down, they push it behind them, they cover their eyes, they suppress the truth in their unrighteousness.

But they're still responsible to the truth.

And so, just as Ryan mentioned this morning, that one of the things we do is we we proclaim Christ and we're also warning every man.

We admonish every man.

We're telling them what they're facing if they should reject Christ.

We warn every man.

And so we make application, even in this text about the pits and patiently waiting, and then the praise when God delivers, and then the problems again.

We make even for the unbeliever, but the problem is with an unbeliever, is they go right from the pit.

There's no patience, there's usually no praise whatsoever, and they go right to the problem again.

And so they get in this very quick cycle of just anger and bitterness, and it continues to spiral down until eventually they seem to crash and burn.

We as believers, we go from the pits to we have patience like David, and we praise God when he delivers, and then we know that because of this world and we live, that we will have troubles yet again.

But the non-believer goes right from the pit to the problem, to the pit to the problem, to the pit to the problem, and bitterness is in the gap.

And what they really need is salvation.

So, friend, I'm not sure what brought you here tonight, or if there's ever been a time that you've come face to face with your own personal sin and realize that you must do something to alleviate the penalty that you will one day pay for your sin.

Because if there's never been a time that you put your faith and trust in Christ to pay for your sin, and you fall in that category is the unbeliever, the person who suppresses the truth in unrighteousness.

And one day the reckoning will come.

And perhaps even in your own dailyness of your life, you realize that uh I'm exactly what that man up there is describing behind the pulpit.

That I have been in the pit, and I am angry, and I'm I'm very bitter, and I don't see any way out.

And guess what?

Another problem is coming, and I'm now I'm in that pit, and my life is spanning all of these pits, and I can't get out, and I don't know what to do.

God offered David a way out.

God offered David to put him on solid ground.

And David responded with praise.

And so, friend, if there's never been a time that you put your faith and trust in Christ, I'm warning you.

I'm telling you that it's not going to get any better.

There'll never be a time that you're out of the pit on your own because in this world you will have trouble.

My encouragement to you would be to turn your life over to Christ, who literally pulled us out of a death's door pit and set us on solid ground.

We need to put our faith and trust in him and him alone.

For the believer in Jesus Christ, we read this psalm from David and we say, I relate to the king.

I can understand what David was speaking about and what he was going through.

I understand the fact that you get in these difficult situations, these pits that are sometimes overwhelming, and we just don't know what to do.

And what it causes us to do is to cry out to God.

And we patiently wait upon him to respond.

Again, we don't know how long David had to wait.

The scripture is unclear about that, but the fact is, he waited.

And remember that infinitive absolute, which how much he waited, he waited a long time and he persevered in his waiting.

He was a patient man waiting upon God, but God responded to his obedience.

It may not have been the way David wanted to be rescued, it may not have been in the timing that he wanted to be rescued, but the scripture tells us he rescued David.

And as a result of that, praise came from his lips.

God gave him a new song, and he told everyone he knew.

What a picture that is for each of us.

I won't say I know what pit or problem you're struggling with tonight, but can we agree that following the example of David here seems to be a successful way to go.

That we, like David, would be patient, waiting upon the Lord, that we would be productive in our patience, that we would be, as we discussed before, that we would pray, that we would just spend time praying with God, acknowledging Him who He is, acknowledging His faithfulness or life in the past, that we would serve, use our gifts, continue to serve, that we would read the Scripture and see maybe God has already provided a way out and answered me by way of the scripture.

Maybe we'd counsel with another brother and sister to see if what we're doing effectively is as we're patiently waiting for God.

And then as James tells us we ought to count it as joy.

That's a hard thing to count all of those trials and tribulations that God is sending our way.

Count them as joy.

But have we ever considered that God is allowing them or sending them specifically for our spiritual growth?

And you realize that the God of the universe, who made and sustains everything all at once, is specifically dealing with us individually by allowing us to go through some kind of a trial or some kind of a situation or some kind of a problem or a pit.

We're there right now.

And God is doing that, allowing that purposefully.

As he's still running the universe, he's focused on us individually and saying, I'm trying to get you mature in your walk with me.

That we would count that as joy.

And then when we he does respond, for us as believers, do we keep it to ourselves or we're willing to share with the congregation as David did?

Unashamed to share with the congregation and to tell what God had done.

And most importantly, perhaps that we would be in such communion with God that we would make our requests known to Him.

Paul writes about it in Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Be anxious for nothing.

But in prayer, supplication with thanksgiving, he said, make your requests, make your pits, make your problems, make your things known to God.

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, verse 7, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

I was getting ready to make my very first deployment.

We were not married yet.

I was a single guy living out in San Diego, going on my first deployment.

It was probably going to be a combat cruise.

We were going to some very difficult areas in the Persian Gulf.

I was new to the squadron, but I was pretty excited about going.

And I was in a small Baptist church out in San Diego, and at the end of the service, uh the pastor called me up, and he said, uh, we're going to pray over Lieutenant Junior grade Tom Joyce, who's about to leave on deployment.

So he invited the elders to come up.

Most of the congregation, it wasn't a large church, but most of the congregation came up, and for about five minutes they prayed over me, and everybody began to disperse.

And I was slowly walking my way out to my car, and this elderly woman who had been a missionary in Africa, a single woman for many years, came to me and she didn't say a word, but she had a folded piece of paper that she dropped in my palm and closed my fingers over it.

And she just kind of winked and walked away.

Well, I made a beeline from my car.

Make sure I could understand what was in that piece of paper before she left.

And I sat my car to open that piece of paper up, and it said, When in a fix, Philippians 4-6.

When in a fix, Philippians 4-6.

I wasn't as familiar with the text at the time, so I'm ripping through my Bible and watching her walk away.

This lady who'd been a missionary in Africa kind of looked back at me periodically.

She knew I was looking it up.

And that's what it said.

I was getting ready to go to a combat zone, and this woman sends me this little verse be anxious for nothing.

But in everything, through prayer, supplication with thanksgiving, make that request known to God.

And then I happen to keep reading in verse 7, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

We have no idea what kind of pit we'll be in tomorrow, what probable will come the next.

But we know the God who is faithful.

And he wants to deliver us in his time, according to his way, and for his glory.

Let's pray together.

Father, we're thankful for this passage in your canon.

We don't always understand all of the things that we struggle with, the circumstances that we walk through, the pits that we find ourselves in, the problems that come our way, but we're thankful that you do.

Lord, would you instruct us and teach us to be more patient in how we wait upon you?

Lord, would you give us more faith to remember the faithfulness that you have shown to each one of us before?

Lord, would you make us bold that we would be willing to tell of how God had lifted us out of that pit?

I pray too, Lord, if there's any here that are listening and they've never put their faith and trust in you and their struggle in the pits and the problems is making them bitter and angry.

Lord, would you draw them to a place where they would surrender and give their lives over to you?

And then, Lord, would you engage them with your faithfulness and your love so that they too would be a witness to the congregation and tell of the wondrous things that their God has done.

Thank you, Lord, that you love us.

Thankful that you are faithful to us.

May we continue to be faithful to you.

We pray this in the powerful name of Christ.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.