#Pursuing God when Life Sucks

Um listen, we've been a reference the conference in a

moment because that was amazing. But we have been on Sundays in a

series called the suit. And as you guys know who have

been here of late, I have been based on that on the wonderful

book by aw Tozer called pursuing God.

And I'm speaking to many of you, I know you've got and purchase

that book or indeed you can download it for free, it's a

PDF. It Was Written in 1946, all

right? And I know some of you have

bought some other books of aw Tozer, like the knowledge of

God, which is another book I can Recommend and I've been look, we

going through the chapters, hmm? And if you've missed any of

those talk to, you can catch up on our YouTube channel.

By the way, if you've got your phone here you go to our YouTube

channel and hit that subscribe button and don't forget to hit

that. Bell notification to get blah

blah blah blah blah blah. I need more practice but yet

Silo if you're online as well, you're clearly you may be on

YouTube. Click on that subscribe button

now, but you can catch up there or not what our app, on our app,

you can download that as well. And of course, we had a break

couple of weeks ago. We have the every generation

service which was amazing. And then last week, we had the

wonderful Steve Nicholson who was leading the conference and

he spoke on the holy spirit in you which was I watch from home

and it really was a fantastic talk.

I can recommend that. As well.

Now, rather than go to Chapter 3 of the pursuing God book, I'm

going to take a slight deviation and add in my own chapter for

reasons that will become clear later.

And the reason for that is a bit really coming out some personal

experience over the past couple of weeks, you know, I reference

that I've been unwell which I have been, I have to say, I was

really disappointed that after so many hard.

Weeks and months of planning for this conference.

When I was really excited to be there, I come down, Sick time

and sucks, and I was really looking forward to and then I

literally I'm in a couple of days before I started feeling

I'm well, you know, those aches and pains, you know, maybe I

should go to bed. I thought, maybe I'll be fine.

And then yeah, that was better. And I was really upset, big

gutted, quite frankly, and I thought, oh, well, my birthday

is next Wednesday, which was just last Wednesday.

I was my birthday. I thought, well, maybe maybe God

has been gracious and getting out.

The way so that I can have birthday because we had plans

have, you know, that was my birthday, you know, and I'm

close to now 250 than I was last year so we had something

planned. But no come come, my birthday.

I woke up. Steph was Ill in bed and Lucy

was home, ill Ellie was and so I played Nurse on my birthday.

Not feeling very well myself being on antibiotics.

And there wasn't, there was an element.

I've got to be honest. I was like, oh, this is rubbish.

You know, there's me darling. Do you need anything?

Eddie are you okay dialing? Hello.

It's my flipping birthday for goodness sake.

The steps that I'm really sorry that I can get out to get your

presents because I was at the moment ever.

And then we had other things going and I'll be honest with

you, as the saying goes, you know, life can sometimes serve

up lemons content. I've feeling very sorry for

myself and it got me thinking about the talk this this week

and in the subject of pursuing God and the question of how do

we deal with lemons? That pause was a good poison

them. How do you what do you do when

life serves you lemons? Well, of course, there's two

ways. The first way is a way that my

great-uncle John dealt with lemon.

So I have some family in North America and about late 90s.

I did my a-levels and I went traveling around the u.s. and I

went to visit my great-uncle, John in California and he lived

in a place called Toluca Lake, which is right next to the

Warner Brothers lot. There were filming friends the

time and next to Universal, To and as and how about I was 18,

19. It was just an amazing trip and

I traveled around the u.s. for a few months anyway.

My uncle was a bachelor and he lived a very he must be in his

80s now but he lived an extraordinary life.

He was an entrepreneur, he was a pilot, he survived a head on a

plane crash was in in hospital for about a year and recovered

from that. And he did, he had founded a

watch company that in the eighties was bigger than Swatch

and he would Regale me. I have all these Amazing Stories

and as a, as a budding, entrepreneur, as I was back

then, I would just listen to him thinking.

Wow, this is what an amazing life and the time that he would

date. So and so we'll go to so-and-so.

Parties will have a penthouse in Chicago and, you know, it was

like just the craziest thing, you know, he told me this story.

Once this does have a point by the way, we'll get there.

Eventually, he told me this story once about when he bought

this Cadillac. And in fact at the time, he had

a Cadillac as well as big Deville black thing beat Said,

Mark in the seventies, I bought this Cadillac and it was an

amazing car, but it had real problems, they said I called

Cadillac up and said, listen, this is a problems with this car

and they wouldn't deal with me deal with it.

So, I decided to drive around with the Cadillac with a lemon

in the back window with a big sign on the car saying, this car

is a lemon. Now between my hazy recollection

and his creative storytelling. I'm not sure how much truth got

through on this story, but as they say, don't let facts get in

the way of a good story, right? And it will serve its

illustration purpose in the moment he said.

And then what I did is, I rang them.

And I said to Cadillac, listen, I'm dry.

I've been driving around your car with a lemon.

In the back saying, this car is a lemon, I've called The Press

because next week, I'm going to blow the car up.

So that everyone knows that Cadillacs make lemons.

Now I can't remember what happened at the end of that

story. I rather hope that what he said

was and so I went and blew the Cadillac up, but I can't tell

you that for sure. All I can tell you when the

point of this story, other than to try and inject some humor

into this talk, is that you can blow up lemons, if you wish that

is one approach that you can complain and moan and try and

blame it up. Up or the second way is as the

saying goes, you can make lemonade well done.

So there's me, you know, lying in my bed thinking.

Well, I can either blow up and the genuinely the Lord brought

the story of the Cadillac to mind because I was complaining a

lot. And they'll and I felt like,

well, I can either blow this up or I can try and make lemonade

from this. And so, this talk is my version

of lemonade from my bad experiences.

I'm trying to make my experiences.

If in some way but actually there's something interesting

and important in this which is what do we do when life gives

you lemons or more specifically, how do we pursue God when life

sucks? And that's the name of this talk

pursuing God, when life sucks. Or another version could be

pursuing God, when life gives you lemons.

And I think, Joel joking aside, there is a lot of importance in

this title and lot of truth because it contains true, two

truths. The first one is this, that we

are called to pursue God. You know, whether life gives you

juicy oranges at the man from Del Monte says, a perfect or

lemons that are bitter and sour. We are called to pursue God.

You see pursuing God isn't dependent.

On the lemons or the oranges. If you get my drift, it's not

dependent on how we feel in our circumstances pursuing, God is

something we should be doing in spite of our circumstances and

in all situations and I don't know about you.

But when life is going well, somehow, that feels much easier,

doesn't it? Although when life is going

great, it has its own dangers. We can kind of forget, God

somehow. But that leads me on to the

second truth of this title when life sucks.

I think that we need to be honest with ourselves life does

stop sometimes. Isn't it?

You know, life does give us lemons.

I know that for some of you this morning you've experienced lost

this week. Someone in our own staff team

have lost her, father-in-law half the staff to him and not

here because they got covid from the conference.

This has been a tough week for many.

I've heard stories, you know, and we need to be real about it

as Christians. We can have this kind of this

kind of feeling that everything's fine.

When it you know it's not Jesus doesn't promise you a perfect.

It life. In fact, he says you will have

trials and tribulations, not the Great Tribulation, by the way,

that's something separate. But he says, you will have

troubles and so life does suck sometimes.

And so the question for us, then is in that place.

How do we pursue God? It?

Why don't we? Because I was lying in my bed

thinking. Well, you know, and I'll be

honest with you, follow me on Instagram.

I took it as an opportunity to go through some old photos and

just post them up as like. I know Lord I should be on my

knees praying for everyone in the conference right now, but I

just can't be bothered. Listen, apologies.

If you've got me on a pedestal, then this is the moment to put

me down, okay? I am as human as everyone else.

You'll be pleased to know but I'm being truthful and real with

you guys. You know, there are these

moments. We like not I just don't want to

pray right now. In that place.

Why don't we sometimes want to pursue God?

We blame him for things, don't we?

It's your fault. God, we think.

What's the point? I've prayed so many times and

I've been here before we just get tired.

And so the question that I want to address this morning with

what has been rather long introduction is, how do we

pursue God when life sucks? And I think for many Christians,

we've grown up in churches, which are best always look at

the bright side and at work, Worse.

Ignores it and says, well, if you're going through difficult

times, because your faith isn't big enough, And because of that,

those two things I don't think ice Christians know how to deal

with lemons in our lives, in a healthy way.

We don't know how to go to God when we've got lemons.

But what we under need to understand is God has given us a

way in which we can pursue him, when life sucks.

And it is true. Lamenting it is the place of

Lament. It is a Biblical way in which we

can pursue God, when life sucks and that is what I want us to

unpack this morning and, you know, lamenting is more than

just expressing our sorrow and our grief healthy though, that

is lamenting is, is more than just blowing a gasket and don't

we all feel like doing that sometimes when it just feels

like it's just too much. Lamenting is coming to and

talking to God about our pain and our sorrow.

And the men is, you see God's invitation to us to come to him

with our staff? With the purpose of Allowing God

to minister to us in that place and for us to have confidence in

God for our lives. That is the objective of a

Biblical lament. And I don't I haven't heard that

many sermons on lamenting. But I think we do ourselves a

disservice. If we don't understand the place

of lament, when we hit those lemons in our lives because a

lament isn't about blowing up the Cadillac.

A lament is making lemonade and coming to God with it.

And I would like us to read Psalm 13.

And this is going to be our text for this morning and, you know,

the Psalms are replete with laments and we're going to look

at two things. First of all, what happens when

we lament what happens to us as we go through the process?

And the second part of the talk is going to be around, how do we

lament? And we're going to look at for

the model of lamenting that we're going to read together.

So it's Psalm 13 will be on the screen and also be at home.

If your watching this will be on your screen and this is a

psalmist Psalm of David and that the title in my version ESV

says, how long O Lord. Let me read it.

How long O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my

heart or the day? How long shall my enemy be

exalted over me? Consider an answer me O Lord, my

God. Light up my eyes.

Lest I sleep, the sleep of death.

Lest the enemy. Say, I have prevailed over him

lest my foes Rejoice, because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love, my heart shall

rejoice in your salvation, I will sing to the Lord because he

has dealt bountifully with me. That is a lament.

And there are over 40 laments in the Psalms.

And of course, as you may know, there is a whole book called

Lamentations and the Old Testament.

And so let's look at lamenting what happens when we lament in

this way and as I said we're going to end with looking at how

you are to lament. The first thing when we lament

is that we recognize our humanness and gods godness, I

couldn't come up with any other word.

We recognize our humanness and God's goodness.

When we experience life troubles, we can often times

feel helpless, right? And I think there is a level of

disorientation that comes in when life gives us lemons as if

someone has pulled out the metaphorical rug from under our

feet because what that rug gave us with was this notion that the

wisdom that we have, is something that we have

cultivated ourselves and that we can hold onto that the strength

that we enjoy. Joy is something that is unique

to us that we have somehow built up for ourselves and you see

when Trouble Comes and we find ourselves.

Excuse me, without all of that. the reality of the fact that we

are, Created out of dust becomes very apparent.

But it's in that place. You see that?

The goddness? The bigness, the almighty Enos

the omniscience, the omnipresence of God becomes more

clear to us. You see the thing about troubles

is that the way you make lemonade out of troubles, is

that you respond in humility to God.

The way you make lemonade out of your troubles is by saying you

are the Creator and I am the created.

Would you forgive me? Lord, for thinking that I am?

God. There's nothing like troubles to

put the truth of who we are. And who God is into sharp Focus.

Number two. What happens when we lament is?

We surrender to him? You see, because of the Fall,

which was essentially was Pride to say, I want to be, like God,

Adam and Eve that was the decision.

We said we will take the place of God, and we will be like God

and that that that lie that propensity to be like God as I

referenced earlier, is something that we see around us and it's

something that even though as Christians we become a new

believer in Christ Jesus, we still have the flesh.

Shhhh battling against us. Who does not want to surrender.

To God lest we have to relinquish control.

But you see it's in the place. Of lamenting that we come to a

place of surrender. And we say, you know what, I let

go, I'll be honest with you. I think, for me not being here

at the conference, was a, when it was a very humbling

opportunity for me, I wouldn't say that I necessarily thought

that the conference couldn't go ahead without me, but I did

think that, isn't it great? That the senior pastor can be at

the conference and you might say, well that's fair enough

Mark you know, and I wanted to be then not least two.

To learn and to experience, you know, Steve's wisdom and all

that kind of stuff, but the conference was amazing.

And God turned up, even though I wasn't there, it's a healthy

reminder. And sometimes when we make

lemonade, we have to recognize We need to surrender and let go

of everything. The church, I had, what I just

let go of it. I felt so good.

I felt guilty. I felt like I'd let the staff

team down. I'm really sorry, guys.

I was the one that said we should going to go and do this

and I know we busted a gut to get it ready and I'm like, well

I'm not here now. Of course, the truth is.

It wasn't my fault when there's nothing I can do about it.

But there was this sense of guilt that I care.

And I said, you know, I've got to surrender God's bigger than

all that. Number two, what happens?

So we experience his love. You see, when you make lemonade

And we recognize how big God is and therefore we then surrender

to him, it is in that place of humility that he pours out his

grace upon us and it is in that place that we can experience his

tender mercy and his love. Now, it doesn't mean that you're

going to be healed instantly necessarily.

Well that does happen. It doesn't mean necessarily that

all of a sudden, the troubles, the experience is the lemons

disappear and God gives you loads of oranges.

But it means that, in spite of the lemons, you feel in your

heart, a peace, that comes from experience in the tender love

and mercy of God. But you see that comes as we

surrender to him and we allow him to minister.

You see the momentum is an invitation from God for us to

enter into his presence. And as we lament, it is an

invitation from us to God, to minister to us.

And you see, that's why lamenting is so important number

for we desire him more. You see what happens.

You see is as we experience his love and these are sequential.

Listen I don't to be prescriptive.

It doesn't have to necessarily in this order but I certainly in

my experience I've seen a bit of a sequence is it when you

experience his love, when you realize the humanness when you

realize that the world around us is broken and we prayed earlier,

didn't wait for the earthquakes, you know, we live in a broken

world all of a sudden, the reality as a psalmist said is it

Psalm 146 647 I desire. You more than life itself.

Oh God. How could the psalm is get to

that point because he had tasted the lemons of this world and he

was still kicking the honey of God.

And you see when you lament properly, when you deal with the

lemons and make lemonade in a Biblical way, the fruit of it is

that our heart starts pursuing God even more because you

recognize that the only thing that is stable, the only thing

that is good. The only thing that is loving is

not a thing but a person in Jesus Christ and, you know, I

often like reading Lamentations I often like reading Revelation

that scripture where God says he will wipe away every tear

because you know, we're here for butter a moment and then we're

going to be in the presence of God for all eternity.

And I got to be honest with you, there are days when I pray,

Lord, just come now. Maybe you're not like that but I

am. I've had it with this world.

Lord, I'm tired of it. I'm sick of it.

I don't want to turn the news on anymore.

I don't want to hear any more bad stories.

Would you just come now? Lord God because I'm flipping

tired. And maybe you're in that place

this morning, you like, you know what, I'm tired of it.

It's too hard. Now I don't want to come across

as being defeatist, that's not the point of this message

because as we come out to later in the Lamentations, the

objective of a lament and the endgame is not where you

started, but the point I'm trying to make, I guess what I'm

trying to do is rattle you a bit to get you to be honest with

yourself. I'm trying to be self-disclosing

so that you can deal with your stuff in a healthy way because I

know we have been For those who grew up in churches there is

that tendency as I said before, to deal with life troubles in a

way where we gloss it over, and if we gloss it over then it will

all be fine. And if you talk about the

problems then people think well you just haven't prayed hard

enough. I want to break you out of that

by saying it's okay to say life sucks.

It's okay. It's okay to say Lord I desire

you more than life itself because the psalmist did it.

It's okay to say you know what God you mean more to me than

anything else? Now what Happens in that moment

when you pursue God more than the world.

All of a sudden the world's problems don't seem as big

anymore. It's not that you say I don't

want to live in this world. You just say, you know what?

I can Rise Above This one I'm not of this world.

I'm an ambassador of Christ. I'm called to be a holy people.

I'm more than victorious in Christ Jesus because as Paul

says I can't all of this stuff all these trials and troubles as

nothing compared with the glory that's going to be revealed.

You see, Paul was able to Malala meant healthily because he

recognized where he was going and you see it as Christians if

we recognize, where we are going and have in our view eternity

and live in eternity, Then all of a sudden life troubles.

When we get those lemons, we can make lemonade.

Are you hearing me? Good.

You still with me good stuff. I got one more on that one.

I think I had five. Where are we up to?

We desire him or number? We bring people to Jesus and we

bring Jesus to people. You see, there's nothing like

when you Lament. You look at other people through

eyes of empathy. You know, I've experienced

mental problems, mental health issues in the past.

There have been many, many, many, many years ago.

I find it difficult. Get our bed.

I was on medication. I couldn't get myself out of it.

And when I speak to people, I think prior to that, there was

an element of me if I'm honest, which is like, just distract

yourself out of it. Come on, it's fine.

Mind over matter, you can sort this out.

But I do, I do recognize that as God allowed me to go through

that. I can pray and speak with people

who have had mental health issues in a way in which I

wouldn't have been able to had it.

Not from be me being having those lemons.

And you see in a place of lament, if you process it

healthily all of a sudden you can bring Jesus to people.

I've been there. I've been, I understand, you

know, sometimes people just wanted to say, I understand and

just listen without trying to solve their issues.

All right. Oh man.

Look at the time. Hmm, how do we limit?

We where was I right? What happens when we lament we

recognized our humanness and God's goodness.

Number two we surrender to him. Number three weeks appearances,

love number four, we desire him more.

And number five, we bring Jesus to others that leads me on to

the final part which is this. How do we therefore Lament?

Mark, that sounds fantastic. I love that idea.

I want to lament, right? Well, I know what you'll be

doing this afternoon. Well, I meant in Sunday.

Love it, right? Psalm 13 actually gives us 5.

Ways in which we lament and actually this framework, if you

look through this, I mean Psalm 10.

So I'm 7, there's so many signs that have this exact same

framework for a Biblical lament. Okay, you ready.

Number one, you have to get real.

Boom. Just going to drop a truth bomb.

You have to be honest and say like it is now I am I can't even

the Met most of the time because I'm not real with myself.

Stuff. Like that's true.

My darling. Now Steph is Health.

Healthfully processes, her emotions.

She can get real. A lot of the time you get really

really real. Don't you darling?

Me, I don't get really, really real because I just don't wanna

deal with it. Quite frankly and I, you know, I

just want to want to push it down as deep as I can because,

of course, it's safe there, isn't it?

No, it would just come up some other time when you least expect

it. Thank you.

So number one is be honest. And you know, let's be honest

with it. It's okay.

As Christians to say you're finding things difficult, it's

okay. We won't think anything less of

you. We won't think you're

unchristian, okay? Jesus, in The Garden of

Gethsemane. How real was Jesus, please.

Would you take this card yet? Not my will, but yours, we need

to get real and if you can't get real, you'll never be able to

lament because like the lament about number two, turn to God.

What did it say? Verse 1 in Psalm 13.

How long O Lord How long O Lord. We have to turn to him in those

moments of lemons and make a choice to call out to God.

Make a decision to talk to God about the pain.

Listen how long O Lord. Will you forget me forever in?

How long? O Lord.

Will you hide your face from me? How can I say that to God?

Yes. Did you know that God wants you

to be real with him? The point here when I lament is

that the person lamenting chooses to talk to God about

what is happening which leads me on to the second point is bring

your complaint to God specifically verse 2.

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my

heart or the day? There you go.

Be specific. How long O Lord do?

I need to be lying here? Sick how long O Lord do, I need

to be hearing about XYZ how long O Lord do.

I need to suffer this? How long a Lord does my child

need to go through this? And he goes on to say, the sum

is, how long shall my enemy? Be exalted over after over me.

Listen, this isn't about shouting to God about how

rubbish news. This isn't about being angry for

the sake of being angry. And that's it, a Biblical lament

is bringing our pain, humbly and honesty.

Honestly, to the Lord God Almighty It is this amazing.

I feel like sometimes it's amazing tension which is we are

invited into the very throne room of the king of the universe

and yet he invites us on his to his lap as a father.

Isn't that amazing? And I think sometimes we can

earn our on an error because we just come to him as such a mates

that we chat to him as if he's not the king Almighty or we come

to him as the king Almighty with so much reverence That we feel

like we can't be honest with him because he's not our father, but

we need to come to him. Honestly, and humbly and say,

Lord God, these are the problems.

I'm experiencing. You need to hear this God.

Number four. Ask for help.

So you've got real. You've turned to God, you bring

your brought your complaint. Now, you're turning your

complaint to help assistance versary.

Consider an answer me O Lord, my God, light up my eyes, lest I

sleep, the sleep of death less my enemy so I prevailed over

him. God wants to hear your specific

request for help, you know, I one of my favorite Psalms that I

often quote, when I'm in this problem in a problem is Come

speedily to Me. O, Lord, the psalmist said that

in Psalms 143 verse 7, Lord, would you come speedily and help

Psalms 143:7

me now? It is okay to be specific in

your requests to God. you know, sorrow if we if we try and block

the lemon To use that imagery. It can trap us in the place of

hopelessness. if we don't choose to lament biblically and instead

have a pity party and shout and Grumble at God and we never get

to the place in humility asking for God after we've acknowledged

to a years, Then what the fruit of that will be is that lemon

would give you hopelessness, but you see biblical lamenting as

you go through that, process of acknowledging God and ask him

for help. Hope comes in that place.

You see and you see the when you lament a fruit of lamenting is

hope. And trust in God, the fruit of

blowing up lemon is hopelessness and bitterness towards God you

get the difference. PC, we need to lament biblically

in order to get us from that place of hopelessness into a

place of hope, because it says, in the scriptures, hope deferred

makes the heart grow sick. Number five.

And this is the endgame. This is all, I'd like to invite

the band up. This is always a destination of

lamenting. Are you ready?

Choose to trust and praise. If you read all the laments in

the Bible, they end with something like this first five

and six but I have trusted in your steadfast.

Love my heart, listen shall rejoice in your salvation.

At the end of a process of Lent, lament you make a decision to

praise God in spite of the circumstances.

Now, if you try and Hotwire it and don't get real, If you try

and Hotwire it and not reach out to God, if you try and Hotwire

it. And not bring your complaint to

God. If you try and Hotwire it and

not trusting God and asked specifically and just go to

praise all the time. What will happen over time is

that you are just being mechanical in that and they'll

be no heart connection with God. If you're in that place of Life,

giving you lemons, we've got to praise God.

But some of you need to go through the process of lament

first. You understand.

It's really important. Praising God isn't about putting

a sticker or a plaster on it and ignoring the wound praising.

God, there is a spiritual Dynamic happens when we sick

seek God and put our trust in him.

But for some of us, as we have been given many, many lemons, we

need to go through that process of lamenting in order to be free

to, praise God. Like us to stand.

Like us to stand.