The Psalm of a Struggling Soul | Pastor Paul McGee

Thank the Lord that he is a healer.

Hallelujah, Jesus. Hallelujah, Jesus.

He's a master Craftsman, made us as a masterpiece, and he is

excellent at restoring masterpieces.

Amen. I'm thankful for the Lord

tonight. Amen.

Take the wounds. And He did.

The Bible says he was wounded for our transgressions.

He took the wound so that we could just be left with the

scar. Hallelujah.

He took the wound. I was here tonight as she was

practicing and I was wrecked in my office.

I actually sent a picture to my wife.

On my little map. There is just a puddle of tears

because I know the story of life and I know that He can make all

things new. Amen.

Can you just raise your hands right now?

I'm here to tell you tonight, there's hope in this room.

There's hope in this room. I don't care where you've ever

found yourself in life, you've never found yourself beyond his

reach. There's hope here tonight.

I feel hope in this place. Jesus.

Jesus, Hallelujah, Lord, Hallelujah, man.

I feel the Holy Ghost. Rebecca, I set my office today

while that was going on, and I relived every conversation in 25

years that we've ever had evangelizing calls that had

every situation of life. And I'm thinking, God is so

good. God is so good.

I don't even know what to do here.

Do you have anything on your heart, man?

I just feel the Holy Ghost, Sir Mammoth, this is the first time

you felt the presence of the Lord.

You're feeling that because he's wooing you.

He's wooing you. He's, he's drawing you.

That's, that's God's spirit drawing you.

I feel his drawing right here, right now.

He's drawing tonight, Hallelujah.

If you feel like a hopeless case, if you feel far, just

beyond his reach tonight, he's still touching you right now.

He's still touching you right now.

Hallelujah, you Jesus. Come yet, Slorn.

Yet, Slorn. Hallelujah.

I can't tell you while you're walking through this valley.

I can't tell you just how long you got to stay.

I can't tell you why your heart feels so unsettled, but when

this all will change. But I can't tell you there is

something you can lean on. It's a promise that won't be in.

Then it won't break. It'll keep you when your future

feels uncertain. You're not out of grave when the

darkness overwhelms you and your fear just won't subside when

your questions outweigh answers. All those long and lonely nights

through, you gotta keep on moving.

He is with you in the valley of despair.

He won't live in life. With you, when you think you

just won't make it, he's right there.

When it looks like hope is lost, you're going to find out he's

nothing lost and thankful. So keep hold it on, keep hold

coming on is when the darkness, all the wealthy and the man just

won't subside. When your questions our way

answers On those long lonely nights when you got to keep on

moving. He's with you in the valley of

the star. He won't leave me alone.

He won't leave me alone. I can't tell while you're

walking through this valley. I can't tell you just how long

you've got to stay. I can't tell you why your heart

feels so unsettled or when this song will change, but I can't

tell you there's something you can lean on.

It's a promise that won't be in then you won't bring keep you

when your heart feels so unset off 'cause you're not out of

grace, Yeah, 'cause when the darkness overrounds you and the

fear just won't subside. When your questions outweigh

answered on the long and lonely night and you got to keep on

moving, He is with you in the valley of despair.

He is with you when you think you just won't make it.

He is right there when it looks like hope is more.

You're going to find out he's nothing lost and thankful.

So keep hold it on. Keep hold it on because when the

darkness all throughout you and the pier, this won't subside.

When your questions our way answers over the long and lonely

night, bring your God to keep calm, moving.

He is with you in the valley of despair.

He won't leave him 'cause there has never been a moment.

There will never be a day he's not strong enough to rescue,

he's not strong enough to say. When the darkness overwhelms you

and the fear just won't subside. When your questions outweigh

answers on the long and lonely night for you Got to keep on

moving here with you in the valley.

This man, he won't leave it alone.

He won't leave it alone. Fear just won't subside when the

questions outweigh answers on those long and lonely night for

you got to keep on moving. He is winking in the valley of

the Spire. He won't leave you alone.

He won't leave. When will the rain stop falling?

When will the sunshine to drive my tears away?

I'll roll to your promise. Give us all the skies and rain.

Lord, I need you. So when will the rain stop

falling? When will start to dive my tears

away? I hope to your promise, even

though the skies are. Rain Lord, I need you.

Today, when will? The.

Rain stop only when will the sun shine To dry my tears away.

I'll hold to your promise even though the skies are green,

Lord. I.

Need you. So when will the rain stop

falling? When will the sunshine through

to drive my tears away? I'll hold to your promise even

though the sky would rain. Lord I.

Need you to live? Hallelujah, Jesus.

Amen. Thank you Lauren.

Yes, God. Amen.

Sweet, sweet spirit in my soul. Hallelujah, Amen.

We are so glad to have Amen, Kyle with us and Brenda with us

tonight. Amen Years ago, passed.

Now, Carl used to come here, here and there, he would pop in

and they've been gone for some time.

And in that period of time that they've been gone, he's lost his

father and such, but he's back in the area, Amen.

So we're probably going to be seeing more of him, Amen.

And that'd be tremendous. And glad to have his mom with

us, too, Amen. So glad to have them both

tonight, Amen, with us this evening.

And Carol, it's good to see you, Amen.

I see your little face pop up on Facebook sometimes in a little

bubble. Carol's watching, Amen.

But it's good to see you in person tonight.

She said she really got kidnapped today by her daughter

and granddaughter. And so she's held hostage here

tonight. I told her we'd call the

authorities after church was over.

And then we're so glad to have her, Amen, her sweet face here

tonight, Amen. If you'll stand with me, we got

some time for the word tonight. Amen.

I'm going to pick up this Kleenex.

I might need it. Amen.

Amen. I want to turn to Psalms 119.

And if someone's getting nervous that I'm going to read the whole

chapter, I want to set your nerves at ease.

Amen. It is a lengthy chapter, Psalms

119 is, but I want to read the very last verse.

Few weeks ago I was reading this chapter and the last verse hit

me and gave me a perspective on the whole chapter that in my 40

I wrote. I am now seven years of living.

It just never hit me before you know how have you ever had that

happen with scripture? Read something that 1020 many,

many times and like something just grab you that never grabbed

you before. What I believe the last verse of

Psalms 119 is, is actually the viewpoint that the whole Psalm

needs to be read through. I'm going to read it to you

tonight in the King James Version.

I'm going to read it to you in the version that I was reading.

Whatever this hit me. Amen.

Psalms 119, the last verse of the Psalm 176.

Psalmist says I have gone astray like a lost sheep.

Seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments.

I was reading the contemporary English whenever I read this,

said I am your servant, but I have wandered away like a lost

sheep. Please come after me because I

have not forgotten your teachings.

You'll just give me a little while tonight with the help of

the Lord. I want to minister this tonight.

The Psalm of a struggling soul. The Psalm of a struggling soul.

Hallelujah. Can we pray right now?

I know we've been doing a lot of praying and worshipping, but

just one more time. Spirit of the Lord touches

afresh tonight. God through your word.

God, your word, Lord is powerful, Lord, it can give hope

and healing and strength and correction.

Lord, all those things I pray, O Lord, tonight, God, help it,

Lord, to find us, Lord, or find someone tonight, Lord.

And the page is a scripture. God will not fail to thank you

and praise you, Lord, for what you accomplish in this place.

Still yet in the name of Jesus Christ that I pray Hallelujah in

the church, say Amen, Amen. You may be seated tonight.

Amen. Bear with me here just a little

while this evening. By verse count, Psalms 119 is

the longest chapter in the Psalms.

For that matter, it is the longest chapter in the Bible.

It contains 176 verses. It is what's known as the Datic

Psalm, which means that it teaches us something.

As a matter of fact, the Psalm is an alphabetic acrostic.

What that means is there's 22 sections in this Psalm.

Every section is for a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet,

and in each section are 8 verses, and each verse starts

with that same letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

And if you come along in your Bible reading plan, I hope that

most of you do, some of you might come up on Psalm 119 and

think 176 verses. I might just break that up over

a few days, you know. But nonetheless, if you do

divide it over a few days or if you tackle it all at once,

however you decide to read it, you are constantly as you are

reading this Psalm, you're hearing about God's law and

you're hearing about God's commandments and his precepts

and his statutes and you pick up on things of love for the law

and, and obedience to his commandments and also things.

Like devotion to God's word, you hear this over and over again

and if you just do a surface reading of Psalms 119.

It can almost be this towering a piece of literature of

perfection as it would seem you you read this and you're

thinking man, how can someone love the law and his

commandments and precepts and all of these different things

that much it's it's almost I almost put it in class like a

Proverbs 31 whenever you read it and it speaks of the Proverbs 31

woman you know through the years Proverbs 31 has been the place

for a many Mother's Day sermons and even any radio programs used

to carry this the Proverbs 31 ministries program on their

frequencies. And we read about all these

different traits of this woman in this particular Psalm or

Proverbs 31. And and as you read them, you're

wondering, can this be a literal woman, you know, that's being

described here? And you may feel even a little

intimidated as a woman as you read it because you're reading

about all of her success and you're thinking about your own

failure in light of her success. And, and most likely we feel

like sometimes the finish line, if you're a lady reading Psalms

31, like the finish line for you is always going to be ahead of

you because what's painted in those verses, the scripture

almost seems unattainable. It almost seems unreachable.

I mean, when you just read, if you'll let me just give a

general here what's portrayed. There is a woman who never

sleeps. She's always working.

She always pleases her husband and children.

She makes food for her family and for her maidens.

She buys land and she plants a vineyard and harvests it.

She makes clothes for herself and her family.

She's mindful of the poor and the needy.

She sells goods that she has produced.

She exudes kindness and she operates in wisdom.

Always. She brings honor to her family.

She has a reverence for God. She's admired and very

influential in her community. She remains strong and

productive and dignified throughout her life.

And and if you start saying that and you look at yourself and you

look at that, it's like, whoo, I don't know if I'll ever reach

that. But it's common to folks that

it's unlikely that this is a a traits of just a single woman,

but the rider is really looking at several women in life and

picking cherry picking the the the most admirable traits of the

women and putting them all into one for the idealistic woman,

right. Amen.

That would fulfill all of these. It's it's a portrayal of

excellence and it's derived from from observing all these real

women's lives and just picking certain attributes and traits

from them, just bringing about a a idealistic, well-rounded, 100%

perfect lady. And the women are probably never

going to reach that. Amen.

You all right? And it's not their Bishop to

shame women. It's not their to pressure

women. It's there, of course, to try to

inspire women that although they may never embody all of those

traits, Amen constantly throughout their life and every

season of life, that maybe they can touch on them at different

moments in their life and something to aspire to.

When I read the Proverbs 31 and I read Psalms 119, I believe

there's something else. As I read through there and I

read about the law and the commandments and all of the love

and the obedience and the admiration for this, It's it's

almost like some spiritual giant here that that can keep all the

crossing of the TS and the dotting of the I's that that is

just enamored with the law. It's like, is there anything

else that this person has going on in their life?

It's it's like a flawless dedication, it would seem to

God's law. There's so much much talk and so

much interaction, Amen, in contemplation about the Word of

God that one wonders, does this person have other things in

life? Amen that they do.

And so when you read it in its totality and read every verse

just on the surface, you can almost feel a little small in

your own Christianity because of what you're reading there.

It's not making you to aspire to it.

You feel challenged by it and belittled by it.

Amen. Because it almost feels like it

is unreachable. But the very last verse of the

Psalm, in my opinion, really provides the true tenor of the

whole chapter. Because for 175 verses we've

been assuming something. Oh, the love and the affection,

the admiration that this person has for the law and the

commandments and the precepts of God.

And we've read through 175 verses.

That's a lot. We've read through them very

quickly. I need to get through my chapter

reading for the day and we read through it very quickly and as

we read quickly our our viewpoint has just lassoed on

the fact of this is a keeper of the law.

This is a lover of the law only to find out at last that this

Psalms, this psalmist who's writing and pinning these words,

cries out at the very end and says, I have wondered, I have

strayed. And God, if I can't find you, I

need you to find me. We're hearing the words.

Just stay with me for a little bit tonight.

It's going to take me just a little bit.

But we're hearing the words, really, of a person who at one

time was a devoted servant unto the Lord, but now in the present

time, he's standing in need of rescuing.

He's standing in need for God to reach down.

He's standing in need for God to find Him.

Folks, in my whole life, I've read a Psalm 119.

Amen. I've missed so many things about

this Psalm. Hey, man, it's a great

storyline. It's like many books that you

would read. There is a overarching

storyline, but there is a real storyline within the story

that's being told. And I've missed so many things.

I've read the affection. I've read all of the compassion

that this person has for the Word and commandments.

Hey man. And as a result of that we got

some great quotable verses from Psalms 119.

We have verses like thy word. Have I hid in my heart that I

might not sin against Thee? We have words like thy word is a

lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

We have some like wherewith shall a young man cleanse his

way? By taking heed thereto.

According to thy word. We have stuff like great peace

have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.

But while I'm reading all of this, there is a deeper story by

the one who's writing this, who's saying, you know what?

I'm in a period of time in my life right now, but I'm in a

struggle. I have some doubts.

I have some confusion in my relationship with God.

And he tips us off to stay with me.

He tips us off in the Psalms to this by the tenses of the verbs

that he uses in the song. I missed it for 47 years.

I've missed it because there's sometimes in the Psalm he's not

talking about his devotion, he's talking about other people's

devotion. And there's many times in the

Psalm he's talking about his past devotion, but not his

present devotion. There's places in the Psalm he's

talking about hoping to have a future devotion, but he's a man

in a struggle right now. That's the deeper story.

Look if you will, at the 1st 8 verses of Psalms 119 because the

psalmist is describing to begin with what others have done.

Look at the verses verse #1 he says blessed are the undefiled.

He's not grouping himself into that category.

He said blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in

the law of the Lord. How do you know that, Pastor?

Verse 2 Blessed are they. Blessed are they that keep His

testimonies, that seek Him with the whole heart.

Verse three. They also do no iniquity.

They walk in His ways. Verse 4.

Thou has commanded us. He's omitting that at some time

in the past that He had heard the same commandment as they.

He says they we, we have been commanded to keep thy precepts

diligently. Verse 50 that my ways were

directed to keep thy statutes. He said that my ways were I'm

hoping I I feel like a failure right now and having upheld

this, he says, but I wish that they were presently directed in

keeping your statutes. Verse 6 Then shall that's the

future. Then shall I not be ashamed that

when I have respect and to all thy commandments I will praise

thee with uprightness of heart. When I shall have learned by

righteous judgments, I will keep thy statutes.

Oh, forsake me not utterly. Here is the writer.

Hey man, he, he's Speaking of they, and then he speaks of us,

and then he begins to speak of himself.

Hey man, he often speaks in the past about where he once was,

and he speaks about a hope for the future.

Hey, man, he writes things like this concerning past and in the

future. Just walk with me here a little

bit. Verse 9, How can a man cleanse

his way? Verse 10 I have sought.

I have sought that. That's that's like a, a a

present perfect. I'm not trying to get into all

the grammar, but when you have the word have with a word,

that's a past tense participle have sought that's in the past.

That's a action that took place in the past, but it has a

present connection. He says I have sought, but he

says let me not wonder. That's a present statement.

Wonder is present. Let me not wonder.

He said I will meditate. Verse 15, verse 16, I will

delight. Verse 22, I have kept.

Verse 23 Thy servant did meditate the past.

Verse 26, he admits it already early.

He says I'm in this struggle here.

I have declared that's the past. I have declared my ways.

But in the present he's saying teach me thy statutes.

In verse 30, he says I have chosen back there.

Verse 31 I have struck stuck back there.

Verse 32 I'm not going through them all.

If anybody's getting nervous, he says, I will run the way of thy

commandments when thou hast enlarged my heart.

There's times he's talking about where he has been and where he

hopes to be again someday. But in the present he's in the

struggle. In the present his feet has not

kept the path. In the present he has feared off

the path. In the present, he's saying,

God, I can't get back to where I fled from if you don't pursue

me. When I read the present tense,

it's given us a pulse of where the rider currently is.

And some of the present tense verbs in this chapter are like

verse 25, He says, My soul cleaveth unto the dust.

It's like verse 28, My soul melteth for heaviness.

You want to know where he really is.

Read where the present tense verses are.

That's where he is right now. He says verse 57, Thou art my

portion, O Lord, He's coming to an understanding.

Verse 2094 he says I am vying notice his cry save me.

I've read it so many years brother short Amen.

As a man that had it all together as a man that had

everything just right, keeping the law, paying the law.

But what I have here is a man that remembers a day when he had

it more together than he did in the present and he said God I'm

in a struggle right now and I need divine intervention.

I'm trying to preach to somebody tonight.

I don't know where you are in your relationship with God.

It might not be a perfect Rd. without any bumps and everything

is exactly where it needs to be. But you can join a voice with

the psalmist tonight and say I remember former days and I have

a future goal but God, it's going to need some divine

intervention in my present. Listen to me.

He's not describing the memory, He's not describing a hope with

these, He's describing the present.

When he speaks, he says in verse 35, Make me to go in the path of

thy commandments. That's a presence, tense

statement. You know what he said.

Let's put it in these words. Force me Lord Verse 99.

Thy testimonies are my meditations.

He knows this because in the past they had been.

He's trying to get back there. The present petition verse #12

Look at it. Teach me your statutes.

Verse 18 Open thou mine eyes. Verse 36 Incline my heart all

present tense. Verse 133.

Order my steps in thy word. So I read typically the whole

Psalm in one setting. When I read this this pastime,

Sister Sheila and I came to that last verse where that Psalm was

said, I have gone astray. Then I went back and reread the

Psalm to the eyes of one that was struggling with his faith.

Whatever he said, I've gone astray like a lost sheep.

I'm going to preach here in just a little bit.

He's trying to cry out to God and say, God, I can't seemly

through everything that I've I can't find you, but I need you

to find me. It's here and there that the

writer speaks of his enemies. He constantly speaks well of the

law, yes, and it's benefits, but usually always in past tense.

But at last he's omitting God. I'm a wanderer and I've wondered

like a lost sheep. And God, I want to be retrieved.

I want to be found. I've not forgotten your law, but

I'm having a hard time keeping a hold of your law right now.

Hallelujah. You know what I think is

beautiful? This is you're just delving into

the brain of of your pastor here tonight.

Most Psalms are attributed to David, although not all Psalms

were written by David. And what we know, we certainly

certainty is that we don't know who pinned Psalms 119.

Some suggest Daniel, some say someone named Scribe, whatever

the person is anonymous but not unrelatable.

That's right. What that does for me, Brother

Fred, is this, whether past or present.

Here's a man that had loved God deeply.

He wants to love like that again.

He had delighted in the Word. He had some battles with some

enemies. He had sought purity and

understanding, even revival. He suffered affliction.

But he's far from perfect. He has no identity as an

individual and that gives me hope for the Mason because

that's left open because you know what that does for me?

That tells me with no identity, no association and nationality,

race or anything applied to this, you know what I can do

then as individual. That allows him to be me.

That allows me to find my story and my struggle and my times of

wandering and my times of doubt and my times of giving up and my

times of shaking the dust off my feet.

If you've never struggled in your Christian walk, hold on,

you will. That's not being a pessimist,

that's being a realist. You will.

There'll be a day that you'll struggle.

There'll be times when things are not as clear as they were

when you first received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

There'll be times that you're, you're firm and you're

resoluteness, Amen. Will not be there as much as it

had been at other times. There'll be times that there's

things that you thought you would never doubt about, that

will encroach upon your mind and your thoughts, and you will

doubt. You may question the very thing

that you used to be so rigid about.

There will be a time that it will come.

Amen. We are Wanderers at past.

We are lost sheep at best, but in our vacillating back and

forth just like he did, we got to come to the the epiphany that

we want to find our way back. Hallelujah, he says, God, I want

to get back to where I hate every false way where I can

clearly say, like I once said, I love the law and I love the Lord

and I love his ability to do what he can do in my I want to

pay with a broad brush right here, brother McGee, you're

you're talking to the wrong people because we're all here

tonight. You can struggle on the Pew.

Let me even take it a step further.

You struggle on the Pew before you struggle at home.

This person kept God's testimonies.

This person sought God's commandments.

This person meditated on them day and night, the statutes of

the Lord. This person rejoiced in the law

like it was a precious treasure. But he also wondered, and he

straight from the very truth that he wants treasured.

He remembers, and he admits that he remembers and knows all the

teachings that he had been taught, but he feels a little

bit immobile about being able to trace his steps back toward

those founding truths. To his cry.

Bishop is 1 of desperation. I read it again from the CEV.

His cry is please come after me, please come after me, he says.

I am like a lost sheep. I've got myself to where I am,

but I can't get myself back to where I was.

Please come after me, he says, present tense.

Seek your servant. What's amazing about this is

whenever He states those words, that shepherding terminology in

the Hebrew language, the exact same verb that Ezekiel used in

Ezekiel 34 where God promised to seek his scattered sheep.

It's as though the writer is saying I'm like a lost lamb.

I'm like a lost sheep, and if I am God, then you got to be the

Good Shepherd. Someone say Amen.

Sheep don't just get in their minds someday.

And I'm not telling you because I've ever been a sheep, but I've

read people who study sheep. Sheep never just get in their

mind that they're just going to leave the phoad someday, they

say. Sheep wonder due to distraction.

They nibble their way into trouble.

There's a little tuft of grass where they're grazing, and they

go and they eat on it, and then they see another tuft.

And so, concentrated on those, they don't realize they're

getting further away from their fold or further away from their

shepherd. They just begin to wander and

stray by distraction until there's another tough, until

they're so far away from the flock that that sheep then

finally becomes lost, step by step, without even realizing

anything is wrong. From the very beginning, Isaiah

said it like this. We all like sheep.

He didn't say like wolves. He didn't say like any other

animal. He said we all, like sheep, have

gone astray. Wandering for a sheep is rarely

intentional. It's accidental.

I don't know if anybody's going to help me here.

And it's incremental. It's a notice.

See, sheep are unlike dogs. They can't track their way home.

Sheep are not like horses, Tracy.

They, they can't orientate themselves.

They're they're not like birds that's able to navigate by

generations of instinct. That's in their DNA and their

genealogy. No, it is founded that sheep

have no sense of direction. They have no internal compass.

They have no ability to retrace their path or their steps.

So if they get separated, they have to depend upon the shepherd

to pursue them. That's how the story of the

shepherd. That said, I'm going to leave

the 99 and I'm going after the one lost sheep because it can't

find its way home by itself. It

and the lost sheep, no guidance. And we're the folks.

I'm, I'm not trying to be brutal here.

I'm just telling you about the nature of a sheep.

If it's separated, even just a short distance, it's incapable

even of returning on its own until it is found again.

And once a sheep is aware of its aloneness, their natural

response is to freeze in place. Their natural response is to

start bleeding. Hey man, not bleeding, but bleat

eating, crying out. And they often collapse in fear.

And there's other places that I read that say that many times

they wander that much more frantically when they realize

they're disconnected. And within days or even hours, a

lost sheep will stop eating. A lost sheep will become

dehydrated. Because as Psalms 23 proves, he

leadeth me. Besides still they'll become

dehydrated, they'll become listen to me, they'll even

become just within page. Hey man, they'll become weighed

down by their own wool, what their own shelf is producing.

They won't be able to carry the load of it because they need a

shepherd to shave it. Bible says if there's a sheep

that gets cast. A cast is whatever a sheep is on

its back, all fours in the air. The a shed a sheep or lamb.

They cannot restore themselves to their feet by themselves.

If it is past, it requires a shepherd to get the sheep back

on its feet or it will die. The lost sheep is defenseless.

They cannot defend themselves. They cannot outrun their

predators. They don't have camouflage as

other animals have camouflage. They cannot climb to safety as

other animals. They can't even make a

threatening sound. So when the rider says in the

last verse, I'm like a lost sheep, you got to understand the

desperation of that cry, he said.

I'm not going to make it unless I have some help.

I'm not going to make it out of it.

My God. My God, honey, I'm asking for us

tonight just to be honest with ourselves about where we are in

our relationship with God. And if you're a struggling soul

here tonight, you need to cry out with the highest voice of

desperation and say, God, I'm not going to make it through

this if you don't seek me. If you don't,

He cannot save himself. If the shepherd does not search

for him, if he does not find him, if he does not lift him, if

he does not carry him, he will not be returning because sheep

don't return home. Shepherds return sheep home.

For 175 verses our stranger has sought God through His Word and

His law, and he ends with 176 urgent that God would find him.

My hope, God, is that you would pursue me.

You remember the New Testament story.

The Bible says that a rich man came to Jesus and he asked him.

He said, basically, what good things shall I do?

Which commandment should I keep for this eternal life?

The rich man had the wrong questions.

It's not what you can do. It's not what you can keep.

You have the wrong question. God's longing for a hunger that

says I've sought, but I need you to find me.

I've pursued till my legs have been weak, but I need you to

walk and run toward me. What was it folks?

I understand even the prodigal, The Bible says when he came to

himself, he made a measure of distance home.

But Please remember that when he and he was in close enough

proximity to the father's house, Dad didn't stay on the porch for

him to make the whole journey. The Bible says that he ran.

Amen to that young man. And fell upon him.

Why? Because it takes a pursuit of

the shepherd for the sheep. So he he seeks the word and

wants to live by the world, wants to lighten the word.

But he struggles with weakness and he fights with some enemies

and he's failed more than one time and he understands he needs

some mercy. Psalms 119 is not a victory

parade. It's life, moments of devotion,

moments of longing, but equally moments of weakness and moments

of dependency. It's the pursuit of a imperfect

man longing for the perfect pursuit of him.

His confidence don't, don't lie, and his personal devotion or

discipline Not at all. But it's in the shepherd that

will never stop seeking his sheep, wandering sheep, even

lost sheep. As I read through Psalms 119 and

I have this beautiful acrostic of the Hebrew language, each

letter Amen, and all these sections and these meditations

and devotions of God's law and commandments.

Standing behind all of that is a trembling voice saying, I have

wondered like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, Lord, if you

can stand with me tonight, we can bow our heads in this

place. If you find yourself wandering

tonight, if your devotion has slipped tonight, clarity has

dimmed, you might say, well, Rhythm McGee, how do I gauge

that? Well, let's take a pulse.

Think about when you first came to the Lord and take a pulse of

your worship, your devotion, your prayer, all the things, and

stack it up to that initial experience after you've had it.

And how valiant and how exciting and how exuberant you were to go

and do and give yourself, ask yourself the question, have I

went beyond that point or have I fell from that point?

What am I doing all right in that though?

I'm telling you tonight, if you say what, brother McGee, I, I, I

see that this fading and there's going to be ebbs and flows of

that through your Christian journey.

But whenever you feel that that that ebbing away, that's not the

moment to hide. That's not the moment to

pretend. That's not the moment to put on

a performance. You've just become the person of

Psalm 119 and you need to lift the same prayer.

Lord, I've wondered. Lord, I've wondered, come after

me, pursue me, seek me. Lord, draw near to me, restore

my steps. If I've lost my ardent affection

toward you, God, restore that. Because here's what I can

guarantee for you tonight when you lose your taste of seeking

Him out, he's not even nor ever will lose his taste for seeking

you out because the one who calls you to keep his word is

the same God who carries you back to his word.

So as the Psalms ends in that last verse, it's not the words

of some some some self assurance that the Psalms had.

No, it is the words of a man at a place of surrender.

I need the shepherd to come after me.

You may have been coming here for some time now.

You might find yourself just going through the mechanics and

the motions of all of the dynamics of Christianity and

churchhood. But maybe it's been a while

since you've just really lost yourself in His presence.

Maybe it's been a while that hunger and desire has driven

you, but it's just been prefunctiary, right?

I just do because that's what you do when you're here.

Sir, ma'am, you need to cry out to the Lord tonight and say I

need the Shepherd to help my struggling soul.

I need the Shepherd. I've kept past tense.

His law. I've had affection.

It was laid upon me. Past tense.

I hope to get there again. But God, tonight I need you to

teach me your ways again. Tonight my soul melteth.

Tonight, God, I'm a struggling soul.

I'm like a lost sheep and I can't find my way.

If you go help me. Come on, Sir.

Ma'am, I know, I know it's brutally, you know, a vulnerable

place whenever we just got to get, you know, honest with God.

But God loves our honesty. He loves our honesty Tonight you

said, brother McGee, I just can't find my way.

You got to cry out to God so he'll find his way to you.

Get honest with the Lord tonight.

Get honest with the Lord tonight.

Have you found yourself sitting and just enjoying the music and

the songs as though you're at a concert or entertainment place?

More than engaging with what's being sung and allowing the

lyrics to fall up on your ears, especially when they're directly

from the Word and touching your heart.

What are you saying? You might be a struggling soul

tonight, and we all will meet those spots, but it's

recognizing. Let the shepherd pursue you.

Let the shepherd pursue you. I'm going to ask as many as will

to come forward because I know how vulnerable it is to step out

on our own. So if we collectively come, I

don't know if you're coming because you need to come or you

don't need to come. No one knows any different.

But I'm asking if you'll just come.

Meet me in the altar tonight. Meet me in the altar tonight.

If you stand, you kneel. It matters not to me, Amen.

Heaven knows, but I want to break, if you will, this motive.

I'm not going to take a step for it.

I don't want people to see me all that.

I get it, Amen. But if all of us come, then no

one knows, but heaven knows. But I want you to be honest with

God in your prayer. I want you to be honest with you

with God in your conversation. Come on, Sir.

Come on, ma'am. Young, old, middle-aged, single,

married. It matters not.

Here I am God. Hell, I'm O Kochaye.

God. I was going to win the world

whenever my soul got caught on fire.

Hallelujah, and I was born again.

I've been noticing lately, God, that the fire has grown dim.

I've noticed lately, God, that the fire has drawn them.

I'm a struggling soul. I'm a struggling soul.

I'm your servant. But I've wandered away like a

lost sheep. Please come.

Please come after me, Lord. Because when the when the robber

meets the road. I've not forgot your law.

I've not forgot your statutes. I've not forgot your

commandments. I've not forgotten about.

I know, but I need you to find me.