Psalm 42

Psalm 42 is gonna be our text today.

Read that now.

Psalm 42

to the choir master,

a mask of the sons of Ko.

As a dear pants for flowing streams,

soul pants

my soul for you. Oh god.

My soul first

for god

for the living God.

When shall they come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and

night

All they say to me all the day

long, where is your god?

These things I remember is I pour out

my soul how I would go with a

t and lead them into procession to the

house of God with glad shouts and songs

of praise and multitude keeping festival.

Why are you cast down oh my soul?

And why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope God for I shall, again, praise in

my salvation and my god.

My soul is cast down within me. Therefore,

I remember you from the land of Jordan

and of Herman from Mount M,

deep calls to deep

at the roar of your waterfalls.

All your breakers in your ways have gone

over me By day, the Lord commands his

steadfast love, and 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 do I go morning because of the

oppression of the enemy

As with a deadly wound in my bones,

my adversaries haunt me.

While they say to me all the day

long, where is your God?

Why are you cast down oh my soul?

And why are you in turmoil within me?

Open God, fry shall, again praise him,

my salvation and my god.

This is the word of lord.

Father, I ask now as we continue

in our worship here this morning,

It's we return now to your written word

given to us

for all times sake.

I asked that your word would do its

intended effect that it would penetrate our hearts.

That you would settle our anxious thoughts now,

the murmur, the to dos, the things that

we have going on after service maybe,

wherever minds might be, may you just give

us a sense of stillness now,

and I ask that you would stir in

us our affection of faith

that we make come to know you

even more. You have something for us here

today. I'm convinced of that.

So lead us, open our hearts

Remove the distractions help us to hear

what it is you want us to hear.

For your glory, ask these things. Amen.

My name is Dan Sp. I'm 1 of

the pastors on staff here. And as you

just heard Red Psalm 42

as our text today as we continue in

our summer series, looking at various psalms.

And because of the song that we're in

today,

I wanna do just a really quick

overview,

very brief kind of introduction here before we

get into the text

and my heart as a pastor for you

all is that when you leave here and

you read your bible and you and you

see things, you have a understanding of what

these things are. So you don't just gloss

over things Mean the, that doesn't matter. It's

there. It matters.

So just a quick over quick, really quick

overview, probably unjust in some ways.

First, just a quick note about to structure

the book of psalms.

There's 5 books, kind of like sub books

that make up the whole collection of the

book of psalms.

And I won't get into all that today.

I just wanted to call it out because

when you come to Psalm 42, If you

look in your bible just above it, it

says book 2. And you might be wondering

that's weird. Why does it say that? Well,

there's 5 books in the book of Psalms.

That's how when they put them together, that's

kind of like the breakdown that they did,

the... When they pile, compiled this collection of

poetry.

In psalm 42 is a start of book

too. At at the end of each of

the book, there's actually a do

that comes right before you know, the the

next book. So in in Psalm 41, at

the end of the psalm, we read gillespie

be the Lord, the God of Israel from

ever last to ever lasting amen and amen.

Now this is just 1 example at the

end of each book There's other docs.

He'll say a about the same thing. This

is probably 1 of the shorter of them,

but but that's how each book ends. So

there you go, 5 books. And

And also by way of structure too you,

this the song kicks off kind of like

as some scholars, they look at different collections

within the within the book of psalms, so

that's another way kinda break the psalms down.

This is the el he psa,

psalms 42 to 83. And you're like, what

did you just say?

Yep.

I actually was like, can I say this

word?

El is where the root of that word.

It... It's translated God and are in bible.

That's the divine name. So this kind of

collection uses that word a lot. So that's

why they say like, oh, that's interesting. This

word this this hebrew word keeps repeating. There's

different ways we can refer to God and

this is the word that they use. Now,

I I take a moment to explain that

because in our bible today. I'm sorry. In

our in our psalm today,

the author not only uses this el word,

God, you know, several times throughout. But but

on 1 occurrence,

He actually pivot and he uses the word

y.

And you know you'll note that in your

bible. It says the Lord, small caps,

Y, that's the covenant name of God.

When you hear that name, it's it's reminder

of the covenant,

and when you're reading, and you see things

like that. I wanna just encourage you, always,

like, slow down and just pause for a

moment like that's interesting.

I wonder why he just did that.

And we're gonna look into that in a

in a few minutes.

The second thing to note by way of

introduction, is that according to first chronicles, the

Sons of Quo, who he he just heard

in that title. The Sons of Ko, we're

were temple keepers and and temple singers.

During the rains of David and solomon.

So if you're wondering, like, oh, that's interesting.

Said sons of cor who are they. That's

who there. They're in the temple with David,

and solomon.

Numbers 26 has them listed as 1 of

the 5 major levi families,

the core heights, and 1 comment adds that

they were the door keepers and singers and

performed more men chores.

But they're they're serving in the temple as

as the invites in the time of David

and Solomon.

The third thing to note 2 kind of

still in that same title area is a...

Is this word mask.

This is a a term that you'll see

some of the different psalms also have this

as well. This isn't the only 1. And

scholars believe that that map that mask was

meant to be an artistic or teaching song.

Some of you might have that footnote. It's

a lit word,

that's what Mask is. So as we come

to these psalms, as note that

that's what the scholars belief. That is the...

Use of that word.

Again, really quick overview, but these are words

that you're seeing in your bible, and I

want to inform you as you read your

bible.

And lastly, and and the most important thing,

by way of overview and introduction, it's important

to note that Psalms

are incredibly

artistic

and use different literary devices to communicate.

You see psalms are scripture that are meant

to be sung. They're they're actually their poetry.

That's their form.

And and in this song you'll see the

use of a parallel structure, for example, as

we work through the text. There's this lament

that happens in versus 1 through 4 and

then we get the refrain. And then this

lament that happens in versus 6 through 10.

And then we get this refrain again. And

if you connect psalm 42 and 43, some

scholars do that in some ancient manuscripts, they

kind of appear as 1 full lament, other

places. They're they're different. So we'll treat them

differently here today. But if you were to

connect them, that pattern continues. There's a lament,

and then the same refrain. So lament reframe,

reframe. Like... So there's there's a pattern. There's

a reason why

the author of the Psalm would do that.

It invites us in.

Psalm 42 also uses

emotional language

to help us draw truth and to make

its point.

That might make you uncomfortable. That's my home.

I love it. I'm very thankful for emotion

language. I'm very thankful for the psalms.

In 1 place in verse 2, it uses

gapping in, like, this repetition technique, which is

which is meant to slow us down and

and kinda of the fill in the blank.

There's a gaps, Like what's what's missing in

this gap? What do we do here? We

see this in verse 2.

It says my soul thirst for God for

the living God. Now we would, you know,

if we were to kind of dissect it,

we would say, my soul thirst for God

kind of my soul thirst for the living

God. You see that There's like, a repetition.

There's a we're meant to fill in that

blank. And notice it goes from God to

the living God. Like, there's as there's this

heighten, like, they're

intensifying that's taking place.

This technique is intentional and draws out deeper

meaning and feeling from the text and and

by the way, it's okay

to feel these texts.

I want you to know that. These this

is emotional. These these are psalms to enter

into with a sense of

emotion. In fact, they're intended to to do

just that. Psalm speak to every range of

human emotion and experience and And I said

they're they're they're like, a form of poetry.

They're they're meant to, like, evo something inside

of you. When you see them, you're not

just meant to just read them flat,

And if you if you take a look

at our Psalms artwork, Jeremy, if you could

put that back up again, the the psalms

where it says Psalms and and the artwork.

You could look at it, and you could

be like, oh, wow.

That's just like, a real, like, a bunch

of colors isn't that neat and move on,

or you can maybe sit with it for

a little while and be like, wow, that's

that's really interesting.

Look at the look at the movement

that I see in there. Look at the...

Are those colors coming together are those colors

kind of coming apart.

Like, there's depth there. Like, what... Like, what's...

There's something that is invoking something inside of

us? Like, stirring us inside of us, and

that's what psalms do.

And the aim of the psalms is to

stir a sense of wonder and odd who

god is.

As the author's pen these words as the

collectors put these psalms together. That's what it

was. It was all about going back to

the covenant that we have with our heavenly

father.

To quote my per my seminary professor, you

can approach psalms like an engineer, you have

to be an artist.

There's beauty

in these words and in this structure that's

meant to stir and en live in a

sense of awe and wonder.

This is what the psalms do. And my

hope is for all of us today, wherever

you are in your spiritual journey,

My hope is that this particular psalm does

just that stir this sense of awe and

wonder of god.

What we see in this psalm and psalm

42

is to follow Jesus is to have our

souls san

daily.

Let me repeat that. To follow Jesus is

to have our souls

daily

to have the holy spirit chipping away at

you every moment of everyday,

drawing you into this holy,

relationship with our heavenly father, making you more

like him,

nothing is neutral. Every moment forms you from

1 glory, or to another,

and we see in our text that this

is what the Psalm is dealing with on

a real level.

Start to trade off.

Verse 1.

Says as a dear pants for flowing streams

of water, so pants my soul for you

oh god,

as a deer pants. So when does a

deer pants?

Well, a deer pants when he's par desperate

for water,

maybe at the end of the day or

during, like, the hot moments of the day

during the heat, the deer might be pant

for water

or

a dear pants when he's being chased. When

the hunters are coming after him minute and

he's on a run. He's he's running for

its life,

and he's tired.

Both

are relevant in this psalm.

This is a psalm, a lament

of a dry parts soul 1 who has

for 1 reason or another allowed his soul

to run dry on the lord.

And

this psalm also speaks to the troubles of

the world pricing in on the psalm is

causing the worthiness of the soul. Both are

true.

So we have to do some work here.

If our souls are being san being made

new every day as we walk with the

Lord, then we have to ask there's 3

questions. What is the soul and why do

we care?

To? How is it being san

and 3, how do we quench the thirst

of our soul?

So let's jump right in. What is the

soul and why do we care?

The soul is the intimate part of your

person hood that is knit together with the

lord.

It's not separate from your body,

you are 1 continuous person, body and soul.

1.

When it comes to Understanding the soul and

caring for our soul, Dallas Willard is is

1 of the leading scholars here, though, he's

not he's not the only 1.

Richard Foster and is another 1 that comes

in my mind.

But I've... But I have 2 quotes from

Willard to help us.

He nuances a little differently in both of

So in the first quote, this is what

Willard said. He says soul

is here to find as the hidden

or

spiritual side of the person.

It includes an individual's thoughts and feelings, along

with heart or will. With its intents and

choices.

It also includes an individual's body, bodily life

and social relations, which and their inner meaning

in nature are just as hidden

as the thoughts and feelings.

Now that might be a bit much to

take in. And and his second quote, maybe

just a shorter summary, Nuance a little differently

though.

He says in renovation of the heart, he

says,

the soul is that aspect of your whole

being that correlates,

integrates and en live,

everything going on in the various dimensions of

the self.

That's what your soul is.

In that same place, I didn't add it

in the quote here. The the very next

words

in his... In this book he said the

soul is the life center of the human

being.

For believers,

the soul is that hidden

deep Wells spring of ourself that is ultimately

united with Christ.

It's where we are bound up and caught

up in our life with Christ. Where we

become 1 with Christ. We say it become

1 with Jesus. That happens at the soul

level.

And it's an act of the father's calling,

the son redeeming and reconciling us to the

father and the holy spirit live our faith

response.

But it's incredibly important to note that our

body is connected with our soul. As Willard

highlights.

This is where we can get to the

dangerous grounds, and I wanna tread cautiously here.

You're not just a soul

and separate body in your body doesn't matter.

Right? If you've seen Disney's or a Pixar

movie called soul, it's a very dangerous movie.

It's not good theology.

We're not just a bunch of souls kind

of roaming about looking for containers to fill.

Like, that's not what we are.

Though, to be fair to Disney, we probably

shouldn't go to Disney for our theology.

I know some of you probably seen that

movie, and you might be wanting to call,

that's interesting. No. It's not. Stop.

I wanna start with an understanding of our

soul because of the implications for this psalm

and for your own

spiritual formation.

In your life. What goes on in and

to our body

has an impact on our soul,

and thus, our spiritual health

and this is true by the way, for

believers or un believers. This isn't just a,

you know, Christian moment here.

The health of your soul will have an

impact on your body.

Our physical abilities, our emotions, how we live

the choices we make and so on

And this is what it at stake here

in this song. There's a disruption

in this psalm is soul. Mean, he uses

the word many times throughout this song.

That's causing a disruption in his relationship with

God? Why are you cast down oh my

soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

And he pens these words as a as

a personal lament himself. This is a lament.

This is unlike other lament in the altar.

This is this is a little different. This

is like a personal lament. He's coaching himself

as he calls out to God and notice

God never responds.

There's never a... And the Lord said,

or there's never any quotes like, you know,

in God, you know, kind of giving God

an attribution to these words, nothing.

As as if we're entering someone's personal journal

and honestly,

we're better off for it.

We see in in in the versus 1

through 4, we get a we get a

portrait of his soul. Right? It says, his

soul, his core sense of self is thirst

for god and what's worse is that instead

of having God to quench thirst, his tears

had been his thirst quench, day and night.

He feels far from God. When shall I

come and appear before God?

When will you reveal yourself to me in

a way that I can comprehend in, like,

a deep way

People are questioning and challenging my faith. Where

is your god? You hear that twice in

the song being haunted.

Where is your god?

He remembers when he used to lead people

to worship. He used to lead people and

like the worship, the the different

times of year that we go to the

jerusalem in worship. I was 1 of those

leaders, but not anymore.

I'm not able to worship anymore.

And later, he extends his description, he feels

forgotten by God. He asked why do I

go on morning because of the oppression of

the enemy and he says that he's being

tormented as if my bones have a

wound in them.

It's amazing rounds, we can cover in this

poet poetic language that would take

pages to write in other words. My bones

have a deadly wound in them.

From within his soul is parts, void of

God from without his soul is tormented by

his environment.

You see our bodies, and our souls are

connected. They're not separate. What we do with

our bodies and forms our soul care and

soul health, and our soul health influences our

body, as well. A par

tired

dry sole will find something to soak up.

It's like a dry bunch

just looking for something to kind of fill

it.

The psalm speaks to himself here. Why

Are you cast down oh my soul? It's

a self evaluation? It's a it's a self

diagnosis. It's like, why are you cast down

all my soul?

Perhaps all of us should do some self

diagnosis as well.

You see, as I keep saying, all of

life is

transformational You can't just watch a Tv show

and not be formed in some way.

All of life is transformational from 1 degree

or to another. Everything matters. Our spiritual lives

are constantly being formed in shaped by the

circumstances we're in. Your physical reality

matters, working out, sleeping, taking care of your

body.

The Tv shows you watch are the Youtube

channels that maybe you just mindless stream nonstop

and and they quantity of these things that

you're taking in, your relationship with others and

and the way that you are in

relationship with others.

Do you cross the line with your boyfriend

or girlfriend or even your fiance,

Fiance, not wife for or husband. You're not

there yet.

Or even what we allow ourselves to take

part in to consume to to drink to

eat to ingest in any form at all.

That matters.

Your emotional reality matters, what boundaries we put

on our emotions.

Do you have healthy boundaries and patience of

people?

Do we stunt our emotions? Do we over

express our emotions?

Do we grieve well

and do we grieve with others well?

When is the last time you allowed yourself

to have a good cry?

Your mental reality matters, the lies we tell

ourselves, the the books we consume, our media

feeds, we allowed to shape our thoughts What

is your thought life like? Do you check

your thoughts or challenge your thoughts?

Your your spiritual reality matters, tending to your

relationship with God,

participating in Christ centered

relationships with others,

allowing yourselves space to to wander and wonder

with God. And do you ever just allow

yourself to approach God in general with a

sense of, like, wonder and awe.

It's beautiful.

All of these are formative moments, nothing is

neutral.

We see this clear the galatians 5. The

works of the flesh and the fruit of

the spirit, both are at work us. Both

are at work on us, both are pulling

us

both are informing the health of our soul

and our relationship with God.

And this is where we find our psalm,

doing this self

evaluation, lament

the state he's in.

He's in a real hard place

and his all

is

unsettled.

But notice,

god,

who not speaking

is still at work?

So then our second point,

how is your soul san?

As you press in the psalm 42, what

you'll find that it's actually a portrait

of Christian life at large.

Something we can all relate to.

As there's mowing my lawn a few weeks

back by about 2 weeks ago now.

After another stressful point, something happened.

In the midst of life, stress just in

general with 0 margin. I mean, there's, like,

no breathing room right now.

There's no time for stressful things to happen,

which led to a minor breakdown from a

depleted soul

a aka, I was angry.

As I'm mowing my lawn,

I'm reflecting on Psalm 42,

and I had this, like, massive

Aha moment.

This psalm is a portrait of the Christian

life.

As you walk through the psalm, you'll notice

that there's is, like, up and down movement

throughout the somme. He he pivot from low

points in life to these high points of

faith and then back down again and then

back up again. And honestly, the more that

I talk to others, the more that I

see that this is true of life for

many of us or for all of us,

honestly,

And the faster you come to that realization,

the better off you will be. It doesn't

go away, but it's a good thing to

just kind of come into recognition of.

Take a look at the pattern throughout this

psalm.

Low. My my soul thirst for God. My

tears have been my food. They say to

me where is your god. And then this

high point. I remember when I used to

lead people to come in worship God with

shouts madness and joy, and then we get

this refrain. Why are you cast down,

Hope God, my savior. And then low. My

soul is cast down. And then hi. I

remember you across all my wandering and then

low. All your breakers have crashed over me

and then I remember your steadfast love, and

your song is with me and then low,

why have you forgotten me? Why do I

go on morning?

And then even lower deadly wound in my

bones, My avi adversaries are taunting me, and

then we get this refrain again. Why are

you cast down?

Hoping God? If you do connect 42 and

43 together, as I said, some scholars do,

this pattern continues. It goes right back to

high vin neo o God, the defending me,

you're to God and who I take refuge.

Low, why you've rejected me, High. Send out

your lights. You're you're at my God, my

exceeding joy,

and then the refrain again.

You see this is a picture of god

at work in

and on us.

San us.

This is what it means to live and

breathe as a accretion. And I wish I

was here to tell you, don't worry. It

gets better. It's gonna go away

just... I can't do that. The more people

I talk to that are older and wiser

me, the the more that they confirm that,

yes, this is this is life.

And we need it. Frankly,

If you've accepted Jesus at your Lord and

Savior, you will walk this life. There will

be this battle that goes on between your

body and your soul between truth and lies

between sin and wholeness is between external circumstances

and internal realities between temporal and and what

is seen and eternal and what is not

seen. There's always gonna be this tension to

walk as a christian is to live

and that tension.

This is why Paul said that the law

didn't set him free. The minute that he

was made aware of the law is like

Sin came a lot I've inside of him,

like, look at all these rules I can

break.

He felt this tension.

This psalm is a psalm of salvation. Or

better

of san vacation.

Now the hope is that you're actually being

san

as you live and as you walk with

jesus,

that you do heed god's work in your

life and on your life.

Making you more and more like him that

you pay attention to how God is at

work

because you will face enemies of all kinds.

Tangible and intangible.

You will feel that god has abandoned you

at times.

You will have these deep moments of intimacy

with God at times. You will know truth

about God. You will forget truth about God.

You will have ups and downs you will

have seasons in life some shorter and some

longer. And let me just emphasize that. When

I say times, I'm not saying, like, 5

minutes. Like, Joseph was 17 when his brother

sold them into say its slavery, and he

was 30 when they came back. That's 13

years.

But over time,

the tumultuous line of your souls response will

start to flatten out

and you'll start to approach a type of

steadfast with god.

You'll find the s and integral living that

comes from living a life of faith in

a long direction. And I know some of

you are there. I had the joy of

getting to hear some of your stories. I'm

amazed at the stories of faith, in light

of some of the hardest situations, cancer diagnoses.

And yet the way that people just continue

forward and other just hardships

What I'm not saying is that there are

people in here that that don't have any

problems or cares in a world. Nobody has

this kind of, like, fake, like, perfect life,

whatever you think that might be.

All of our souls are constantly being formed

to 1 degree or to another.

God is that work on us, san us,

all of us

every day.

And let me just add, we

sin full and perfect people

want that.

In fact, we need

that.

Let me show you what this looks like

in the psalm

versus 6 through 8 are some incredibly

profound versus in the psalm.

I won't say in the whole Bible of

maybe in the Bible. They're they're they're deep.

These are some deep words his brother pens

here.

They can lead to a lack of clarity.

I'm not sure Have a full graphs on

them. I mean, this poetry. Right? So I

wanna give you my best guess

as to what the Psalm is saying here.

We see in verse 6 after talking about

having a soul that is cast down

or a soul that is depressed. You can

use that word here. My soul is depressed.

The psalm calls upon his memory of god

immediately. Says, my soul is cast down within

within me. Therefore, I remember you.

First 6. Verse 7, he says, deep calls

to deep at the roar of your waterfalls,

all your breakers and your waves have gone

over me.

Immediately after this, he then uses this covenant

language. Right? What I called you to in

the beginning, pay attention to. Calling upon y,

the Lord.

He uses a different word for God here.

The small caps, the Lord, not God or

el,

and he also calls upon God's he. His

steadfast love, another covenant term.

So between this depressed soul that remembers God

and this soul that is remembers god's un

covenant

between these 2. Remembrance is

stands verse 7.

Deep calls to deep.

All of your breakers in your waves have

gone over me.

I've been sitting with these for a while.

These versus for a while,

and here's the best that I got.

When he says deep, calls to deep and

light of the context of this song,

I think he's continuing this remembrance

idea with his relationship with God.

So deep,

y God

calls to deep

my soul.

So we can say you lord,

call to my soul.

And in a relationship with God, the inverse

is true, my soul calls to you god,

deep calls to deep.

My soul is permanently knit to you God

in the hidden deepest parts.

In the place where no 1 can ultimately

touch our harm It is where you and

I are knit together in a covenant of,

steadfast, love,

persistent, love, continual love, steady un shaking,

unwavering love from the father.

It's where I call out to you and

you answer me. It's where you speak to

me

in a covenant

with the God of my life.

And this is where it gets hard.

Because it says, in that same place,

your waves,

and your breakers go over me.

But for my good,

they hit me externally

but they have this internal and in internal

consequence.

It's the san defined process.

These are god's waves and breakers wave after

wave. I'm hit, and it is suffocating.

And my enemies are taunting me as well,

my enemies are causing even more turmoil to

my soul and yet, your steadfast love. Your

covenant love. Your he is over me by

day and your song is with me by

night.

These 2 verses

go hand in hands.

God's breakers are crashing over me.

They're called they're called breakers. That's what they

do. They they break things

and yet,

god's steadfast love

surrounds me.

In love, God's breakers go over me,

and it's for my good.

This is 1 of those like Christian kind

of moments. We can all be like, yeah.

Right. I've heard this maybe before.

God's

breakers,

they break you.

This is not a isolated idea we find

in scripture We could look at Psalm 50

ones you, the lyric of a broken and

con heart is what god desires.

That's not easy.

You can look at Psalm 23. You god

leave me on paths of righteousness for your

namesake.

We can look at Joe 1, The Lord

gives and the Lord has taken away, blessed

be the name of the Lord. This what

Job says written chapter 1 of job there

by the way. There's still, like 41 more

to go.

For Hebrews 12 and the discipline of a

father,

or we could look at first Peter, the

book of James, Paul's life story,

This is a constant theme throughout all of

scripture, and this almost is describing it well

for all of us putting it to words

what many of us feel

drawing us to the attention needed for our

relationship with our heavenly father.

And he concludes verse 8 with a prayer

to the God of my life. In other

words, make it so, God.

Make me to know your love and to

sing your song no matter what the circumstance.

Help me to grow in my relationship with

you as your waves and your breakers crash

on me.

I asked a few people to read the

song and to give me their thoughts and

1 was a student heading into eleventh grade,

and I was like, what do you think

of this? And he said, well, it's really

confusing, which

I'm asking a student on summer break to

dive into ancient hebrew poetry,

probably a natural answer we should have all

expected.

Well then this young man after god's own

heart,

and this is true of him,

said that which stood out to him was

the test of faith.

It's easy to have faith when things are

going well,

but when life gets hard,

if you abandon faith, it makes you wonder

if you have real faith.

He's describing the san san simplification processing seen

in this song.

You see the life of god with contentment

that Paul talks about. That's that's not easy.

God's breakers and wage crash over us

But are we paying attention?

Are we doing the the soul check

desired?

Now for some of you, god's breakers

are probably like this video that we have

for you.

You may not have even noticed them if

you fell asleep there, wake up, come back.

Those are still breakers

They're still doing their intended purpose.

Are you paying attention?

Maybe you're choosing to ignore them and and

God's san work is being lost on you.

It's not good.

You're heading to Dangerous territory

For many of us,

god's breakers have been or maybe are currently

more like this.

You see

those breakers

lead to this.

That's just a a piece of niagara falls.

That's the tumultuous niagara or river that that

feeds into Niagara falls. It's a nearby an

area where I grew up.

I've spent a lot of time there.

There's a boat you can ride called the

maid of the mist if anybody is from

that area. You've been on it at least

once. It's like a mandatory field trip and

elementary school.

Everybody gets to go on it.

If you get a chance to go, Let

me encourage you do that, it's it's a

really fascinating, just talking about staying an on

wonder of God.

That's a separate note.

But the force of the falls. Like, as

the as the boat is kind of pushing

in, like, it takes your rate kind of

into the falls. So ones that you can't

see, like, oh, the far back the back

there, the big ones.

You kinda get into the into this... This

area, Now you don't obviously enter into the

falls, but the force of the fall are

pushing the boat back.

And there's like, so much mist that is

just rising up from these falls crashing down

it. Like, you get soaked. They give you

these plastic poncho that you get to wear

and you get to keep, it's wonderful. To

keep you dry. And the volume is just

ant. I mean, like, you heard just a

little bit of that river, like, if you're

standing at that river, like, it is so

much louder and then when you get to

the falls here. If you've never been, it

is just so

profoundly loud.

And when god's breakers are at that level

in your life, he's trying to catch your

attention.

He's calling to you. He's refining you

his breakers are breaking

you.

And yet,

he's still

with you.

He loves you

is covenant with you. He's promise that.

What's extraordinary that when John

gives us his description of seeing Jesus in

Revelation 1

In verse 15, we're kinda, like, jumping in

the middle of this description. In verse 15,

he pens these words. He says, his feet

jesus his feet were like burn bronze refined

in a furnace and his voice

was like the roar

of many waters.

Deep

calls to deep at the roar

of your waterfalls.

Perhaps the roar these waterfalls as Psalm is

referring to here is a voice of our

savior

calling to you,

san

you,

making you holy and right before a heavenly

father, breaking whatever never needs to be broken

to draw you back to him.

My wife last night a conversation. She said

it's good that we we come to the

Lord broken

because that just strengthens our dependence upon him.

We want that. We'd need him. We learn

need to learn to depend upon him,

and he's always with you. He's covenant with

you through his blood.

He loves you.

He's doing this for your good.

In this cleansing

work of our soul leaves your soul par.

Thirsty.

So third then, how do we quench the

thirst of a soul?

Well, sadly, many of us,

myself included,

answer this question incorrectly. Our soul, my soul

is thirsty for God, but I feel it

with so much other stuff. I just... I

numb it.

Maybe you do too.

Your soul wants water and you give it

your your iphone,

your job.

Your relationship with others.

Your idol, whatever they may be. Your selfish

is, your self ambition, Your busy schedule, Your

career success. You're your kids sports schedule.

You can fill in the blank many different

ways.

We run our souls ragged

pant like a deer that's been chased, only

worth ones that are doing the chasing.

This type of life is wearing to the

soul. It it drains the soul. It makes

you so tired at a soul level. It's

soul rot.

There's never enough

So we just keep trying. We keep doing.

Yet, we're never satisfied in our deepest longing,

our souls remain par

And we should stop right here

right now and repent from this.

See, this is idol tree at its core,

and yet oftentimes, it's actually socially acceptable and

and even encouraged.

And like a virus, it's spread to all

of us.

Other times, we we trick our sole satisfaction

with what we think are good things that

that don't actually quench our soul.

Like, I live a good life. I come

to church.

I tie. I volunteer. I'm in a life

group. I'm a good student

What are you feeding your soul

instead of having it satisfied

with god?

Because some of us are just flat out

soul tired.

There's this wear to the soul and it

seems like life demands don't allow any rest.

You just gotta keep going. There's there's there's

this tiring sense of living.

And you probably feel like God has abandoned

you when when actually, you've abandoned him.

These things don't satisfy the longing of the

soul. These are these are more like tears

that's a Psalm reference.

So what then?

We have to ask ourselves what is it?

What is it

that I truly thirst for in that deep,

like, that deep part inside of me. What

is it that I'm longing for?

That I'm thirsty 4.

In this psalm, there's this repeated refrain. Why

are you cast down all my soul and

why are you're in turmoil within me? Hope

in God.

For Shall again praise, my salvation and my

god

It's it's probably over simplistic, Maybe just a

little too easy, but there's only 1 ultimate

quench for a par tired soul

put your hope, your dependence,

everything in God, your salvation.

Psalm says it best. My soul, thirst for

God for the living

God.

And ultimately, this is true for all of

us.

Regardless of where you are on this journey,

your spiritual journey. This is true for everybody.

We are wired.

God designed us and innate inside of us

He has wired us for relationship with him.

What you need to know, we all here

need to know is that this living god

offers us living water

that will satisfy your soul like nothing else.

John 4, we read these words

Jesus having exchanged with a woman at the

well.

It's picking up in verse 10.

And says Jesus answered her If you knew

the gift of God and who it is

that is saying to you, give me a

drink,

you would have asked him

and he would have given you living water.

The woman said to him, sir,

you have nothing to draw water with.

And the well is deep. Where do you

get that living water from? Are are you

greater than our father Jacob? He gave us

the well and drink from it himself as

did his sons and his livestock.

Is this if she's saying the Jesus? She's

staying their face to face with Jesus? Is

this she's saying, are you greater than my

religion?

Maybe we do this.

Are you greater than my self ambitions? Are

you are you greater than my progress? Are

you greater than my social media feeds? Are

you greater than?

And in his mercy and kindness Jesus replies

her and to us today. He says,

everyone who drinks of this water.

Everyone who's filling their soul with all these

things

We'll be Thirsty again.

But whoever drinks of the water that I

will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will

become to in him a spring of water

well up to eternal life.

Jesus is the living water that can satisfy

your soul that that deep hidden place inside

all of us.

And and he's more than just a thirst

quench.

He offers rest

for your tired soul Matthew 11 come to

me and you will find rest for your

soul.

And a secure eternal relationship with your heavenly

father.

He is the final answer to the tired

parts soul.

And after you taste him,

you will want more of what he offers.

As George read for us taste and see

that the Lord is good.

And hopefully then,

you will have a soul that thirst for

god that hunger after God in a right

and healthy way,

so that you will experience even more of

him.

He's doing this work on you and in

you. He's drawing you to him,

but it all starts with a self examination

like the Psalm What is the thing that

you are giving your soul

instead of the water offered by Jesus?

What is it?

There's something. I'm sure if it challenge yourself.

We're not yet in heaven, so we don't

have a perfect life yet.

Write something down, now. What is it? What

is it that is just that you're just

distracting your soul with? Even if you think

it's a really good thing.

And repent even now.

Your soul is thirsty.

How are you satisfying it?

I understand clinging to Jesus

is not always easy in life's hard seasons.

When when his waves are breaking over you

and crashing you and breaking you, your your

natural inclination probably is not like Jesus. I

I want you.

We have to train ourselves though.

He's trying to catch your attention.

Sometimes you yourself are putting yourself in harms

way.

But through it all, our sovereign god is

at work chipping away drawing us to him.

Look at the psalm again. Every low, every

trial, every breaker

It's met with the psalm recalling how faithful

god has been in the past,

meeting his thirst.

A friend of mine who's no longer with

us. Used to always say, it's good to

look back.

Look back and see god at work in

your life. And remember those times

recall them and see God at work then

and how he is at work now.

Because God is always at work. Each moment

has spiritual significant on us and to us.

Every moment is

transformational.

He's at work wrong you to him san

you. For those in Christ, the father's steadfast

love is with you every day,

and as song is over you every night,

so put your hope in him.

Put your hope in Jesus and draw near

to him.

And if you're not yet a follower of

Christ.

Perhaps it's time for you to to do

a soul evaluation.

Your soul

also thirst.

And you're trying to satisfy it with something

that will never quench that thirst.

You're have to keep going back to whatever

that is over. And over and over and

over again.

It feels like progress but it's actually reg

egress.

What's stopping you from tasting this living water

from the living God right now.

The choice is yours.

So put your hope in God

and draw near to him.

Let me pray for us.

Father, I thank you

I thank you for your word.

I thank you for your promises.

I thank you for your your covenant

with us, the way that you love us

and I thank you

for the way that you relentlessly

pursue us.

And as I prayed during first service. I'm

gonna pray again here that my my guess

is were surrounded by a bunch of brothers

and sisters that somebody or maybe several of

us in here

are in the midst of just being broken

right now, that you are just breaking us.

And while my tender heart wants to say,

stop, you know, rescue them.

My pastor heart says, finish your job,

draw them back to you.

If you're in that place, may you receive

what God has for you, may you return

to him, may you be drawn into a

deeper relationship with him. He loves you. He

loves you. He's pursuing you, and it's 4

our good.

Help us to grow

and our san notification as you work in,

that you might become more glorified in our

lives.

We asked this in your name,

Amen.