Ep 162 | Cover to Cover 41 | Pastor Chris Ryan | Oct 11, 2026

Hello, this is Pastor Ryan Clark.

You are listening to a message from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

Oh Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praises in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Ugh.

The other day I did something that our preaching professors recommended that we do regularly back when I was at the seminary.

As a way to keep our skills sharp, to see where we need to improve, I sat down and I listened to and watched a video of myself preaching.

And I'll tell you what, it was a tough listen.

I'm being very serious when I say I had to turn that bad boy off after just a few seconds.

I could not stand listening to the sound of my own voice.

God bless you, St.

John's family.

I don't know how you listen to this voice for 20 minutes in a row.

It's incredible.

Of course, I'm not alone here.

Most people don't like the sound of their own voice when they hear it in a recording.

Now, do you? Which is a shame, because there is no voice that we listen to more than our own.

Sure, we hear our own voice when we talk to other people, but we hear it the most when we talk to the person we talk to the most, which is ourselves.

A recent study found that 96% of people admit, admit that they talk to themselves aloud every day.

Anyone amongst the 96% out there? Yeah.

Even more common than talking aloud to ourselves is an internal monologue of some sort.

Another study found that 25% of our waking hours, the average person is actively talking to themselves internally.

You're thinking thoughts in your own voice.

Now, if that study is true, and I have no reason to believe that it's not, and the average person sleeps eight hours a day, that means we spend four hours a day talking to ourselves internally.

That's 28 hours a week.

That's 1,456 hours a year.

That's right around 60 days or so.

Hey, we talk to ourselves a lot, don't we? Is it any wonder a famous pastor once said, "No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do."

But here's a question: Are you saying anything to yourself that is actually worth listening to? In fact, are you saying things to yourself that are even true? We're doing a two-year Bible read-through together as a St.

John's family, and this week we came across Psalm 42.

Well, in Psalm 42, we encounter kind of an awkward scene.

We walk in on the psalmist having a good old conversation with himself.

But as we listen to this monologue performed in our presence, it can be highly transformative if we do the things that he does.

If we talk to ourselves in the same way that he talks to himself, it will be transformative in our walk with the Lord through this life.

Let's see what I'm talking about here.

We'll start with Psalm 42:5, where the psalmist says, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?" You gotta picture the psalmist looking in the mirror, and he's asking himself, "What's going on? Why do you feel the way you do? Why are you so blue? Why are you so upset? Why are you so sad right now?" By the way, this is the most common way that people talk to themselves.

Psalms 42:5

We'll call it processing self-talk.

You all do this.

Processing self-talk is when you walk into a room and you don't know why you're there, and you say, "Why am I here right now? What is going on? What are you doing?" Or maybe you're like me and you lose your keys all the time, and you say, "Where are my keys right now? I had to have them when I walked through the door, right? I got home.

I really had to go to the bathroom.

Oh yeah, there they are on the bathroom counter."

That is processing self-talk, the most common kind of self-talk there is.

Right behind that in second place is what we'll call motivational self-talk.

You probably do this too.

You look in the mirror and say, "You got this.

You're the man.

You go, girl," whatever it is.

And third most common self-talk is the opposite of whatever motivational self-talk is.

It's when you look in the mirror and say not so nice things to yourself The psalmist, he's processing.

He's trying to figure out why am I so upset right now? And it becomes pretty obvious if we look at the first four verses of Psalm 42.

He says, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?' These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One, with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng."

He's looking around and he feels like God has totally abandoned him.

It can be kind of a depressing thought, right? He wants God's presence.

He's panting for God like a deer pants for streams of water.

He's thirsting for God's presence.

He wants to know where he can meet with him because he can't seem to find him anywhere.

He's been going through some tough times.

He says, "My tears have been my food day and night.

I'm going through a lot of trials.

I need your company, God.

The company I have right now, they've been pretty miserable.

They've been asking me, 'Where is your God?' They've been taunting me.

Yeah, I know it used to be so good when I would meet with you.

I used to go to your house and worship you in spirit and truth.

I used to have so much joy in my heart.

I used to be surrounded by other people praising your name, too, but that was then, and this is now.

Where are you, God, and why have you forgotten me?" It sounds like the psalmist is going through a pretty difficult time, doesn't it? He's in a spiritual funk or maybe even a spiritual depression.

He's looking around and he's thirsting for God, but it seems like he isn't there.

He feels defeated, like, and with that defeat, that God has abandoned him.

He looks around and says, "God used to be good, but that was in the past.

I'm not sure he's so good anymore."

If you are telling yourself things like that It's time to be very careful because you're probably in a spiritual depression too, and how you talk to yourself when you feel this way is very important.

Because newsflash, what you're saying to yourself, it might not be true.

The truth is we don't always say true things to ourself.

So don't just sit back and listen to the things you're saying.

See if what you're saying is actually true.

That's what the psalmist does, by the way, and he comes to the conclusion that what he's saying to himself, that God has abandoned him, that it's false.

He says, "I'm gonna put my hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my savior and my God."

And the reason he concludes that what he was thinking is false is because he begins to remember God.

He remembers all the things that God has done for him.

He remembers the promises that God has made to him What specifically is he remembering? I don't know.

It doesn't actually say.

He doesn't tell us.

But I've got what I think is a pretty good guess.

There are 150 Psalms, and they are written by a variety of people.

73 of them are written by David.

One of them is written by Moses.

Some of them, we don't know who wrote them.

Well, 11 of the Psalms, including Psalm 42 that we're looking at today, are written by a group of people called the Sons of Korah.

Hey, see me after the sermon for your gold star if you can remember who Korah is from the Old Testament.

In case you don't, he's someone that we meet all the way back in Numbers 16.

In Numbers 16, when the Israelites are out in the wilderness, we watch Korah go up to God's chosen leader, Moses, with a group of people, and he says, "You know what, Moses? I think I could do a better job leading Israel than you're doing.

And all of these people here, they agree with me.

So why don't you just step aside and let me do what I need to do and lead the Israelites?" Well, God doesn't take too kindly to Korah suggesting that his chosen leadership in Moses isn't good enough.

And so after giving Korah a chance to repent, we get a rather scary scene of judgment.

We watch as God opens up the earth, and it swallows up everyone who's associated with this rebellion that Korah led.

Everybody who's standing in close proximity to Korah is taken into the earth.

Now, you know who was standing right next to Korah when this happens? His children.

And as we read Numbers 16, it seems like judgment has happened to them as well.

But later on, we find out that although they were standing there, God preserves their lives out of his grace and mercy and love for that family.

And not only does he preserve their lives, we find out that later on he has given them special positions of honor.

And by the time we get to Psalm 42, the sons of Korah are actually the lead musicians in King David's court, this really incredible position to hold.

And so I'd imagine they're remembering things like that, the blessings that God has given to this family that they don't deserve, and they're remembering how good God has been to them.

And then they say, "Hey, wait a second.

God hasn't abandoned me.

He's always with me."

"By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me."

What you just watched the sons of Korah do is live out 2 Corinthians 5:10.

2 Corinthians 5:10

This is absolutely our verse of the day today, and we're gonna be talking about it for the rest of this sermon here.

They demolished arguments and every pretension that set itself up against the knowledge of God, and they took captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Doing this is extremely important when our thoughts are spiraling out of control.

It's a four-step process that we watch the psalmist go through.

The first thing that they did when they realized their thoughts were spiraling out of control is hit the pause button.

They took a deep breath, and they asked themselves, "Is what I'm thinking actually true?" How can you tell when your thoughts are spiraling out of control? Well, think about it.

Is your mind absolutely racing? Are you experiencing physical symptoms from a negative thought that you're having? You're breathing faster.

Your heart's beating faster.

You're getting upset, angry, sad, depressed.

When that is happening from a negative thought, hit the pause button as fast as you can and ask yourself, "Is what I'm telling myself actually true?" That's what the psalmist did, and he came to the conclusion that what he was saying to himself wasn't true at all.

And so he didn't let that unhelpful and toxic thought stay in his mind.

He replaced that thought with a true statement from scripture.

God hasn't abandoned me.

He's with me by day.

He's with me by night.

He never leaves me nor forsakes me.

And a lot of time, this process of taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ is something that we're gonna have to repeat.

Take a look at Psalm 42:5, and then a whole six verses later, take a look at Psalm 42:11, and you will note that there are zero differences in the words.

Psalms 42:5 Psalms 42:11

Why did he say this verse again? Because he had to go through the process again.

All of a sudden in Psalm 42:9 and 10, he is spiraling out of control after he got his thoughts under control and captive and made obedient to Christ.

Psalms 42:9

And so he has to walk through that same process again.

Like anything that God gives us and tells us to do, he tells us to do this for our own good, and it's something that is going to take practice and God's help to get good at.

And so actually, we're gonna practice this process right now.

Let's look at an example that maybe you've experienced.

Let's say you're struggling with a sin.

It's a sin that you have repeated again and again and again, and last night you committed that sin again, and you wake up in the morning and you start thinking thoughts like this: "Wow, God must be done with me after that.

He's been patient with me, so patient with me.

He's forgiven me again and again, but I should know better by now.

He is probably done with me.

That bad choice, it was too big.

He has pulled his love away from me."

When you start thinking thoughts like that, you're probably gonna experience some physical symptoms from your mind racing.

You're getting upset.

You're getting angry, sad, depressed.

What should you do? T- you should hit the pause button, and you should take a deep breath and then ask yourself, "Is what I'm thinking actually true?" And how are we gonna tell what is true? Well, we're gonna compare it against God's word, which is truth, and we're gonna compare it to what Jesus has to say, and Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.

And so when it comes to the thought that God no longer loves me and has left me to my own devices, is that actually true when we compare it to scripture? Absolutely not.

Romans 8:39 says that nothing will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Romans 8:39

Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

In other words, Jesus went to the cross and died on it just for you, knowing every single sin that you would ever commit, knowing that you were gonna make that mistake, knowing that you were gonna make that mistake again and again and again.

Nothing you do surprises him, right? He doesn't look and say, "Wow, I didn't know he was gonna do that.

If I had known that, I wouldn't have died for him."

No, he goes to the cross and he dies knowing every sin that you would commit just for you because he loves you and he wants you to never be separated from him.

He loves you and wants you to not perish, but experience eternal life, a relationship with him that starts now and lasts forever.

And so all of a sudden, you say to yourself, "Well, he's not done with me.

He loves me.

He forgives me.

He wants to be with me forever, and what I was thinking, it wasn't true, so I'm gonna refuse to let that unhelpful, toxic, and untrue thought stay in my mind.

Instead, I'm gonna fill my mind up with a true statement from scripture."

In this case, it might look like saying to yourself, "Hey, I made a real mistake and I need to confess it, but God's love for me, guess what? It is not based on my perfection.

His word says that nothing can separate me from his love, and in Christ, I am fully forgiven.

And then if I need to, I'm gonna repeat that process again."

Like I said, it's something that takes practice to get good at.

It takes God working through you to get good at this process, and let's practice it one more time here.

Let's say you walk into a social setting, a big social gathering, and no one acknowledges that you walked into the room.

No one looks up and says, "There he is.

There comes trouble.

It's good to have you here."

No one acknowledges you at all, and all of a sudden your mind starts racing.

You say, "Hey, nobody cares that I am here."

And then it really starts racing.

"There must be something wrong with me.

You know what? I am useless.

I'm worthless.

I'm completely unwanted," as our thoughts get more and more out of control.

You start thinking things like that.

You're probably experiencing physical symptoms from your racing mind.

You're getting angry, upset, whatever it is.

What should you do? You're gonna hit the pause button, and you're gonna take a deep breath, and you're gonna ask yourself, "Is what I'm saying to myself actually true?" And then we're gonna compare it against the truth that is God's word, and we're gonna find out very quickly that what we've been telling ourselves isn't true.

We're not worthless.

We're not unwanted.

God says in Isaiah 43:4 that, "You are precious and honored in my sight.

Isaiah 43:4

And because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you."

You're so valued by God that He gives His Son in the great exchange for you And you're not worthless, right? God's word says that you are his masterpiece, and that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

And so seeing that that thought that we were thinking isn't true, we're gonna refuse to let that unhelpful or toxic thought stay in our mind, and we're gonna fill our mind with a true statement from scripture.

In this case, it might look like saying, "Hey, even though no one in this room has fully noticed me yet, God knows me, and he loves me dearly.

And he says very clearly that I am his masterpiece, and that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and that he values me so much that he died for me."

And then, if I need to, I'm gonna repeat that process again, because a lot of times we let those toxic thoughts right back in, don't we? Hey, we're having a good time here, aren't we? How about one more, right? Another example.

Let's say you're looking at your bank account, and you're looking at the bills that have come in, and ends don't seem like they're gonna meet, and your thoughts start to spiral.

You say, "Wow, we're gonna lose everything.

Everything that I've worked so hard for.

We're struggling, and God has forgotten me.

He's left me alone in my misery here."

You start thinking thoughts like that, oh, you're gonna have some physical symptoms, right? You're breathing harder.

Your heart's beating faster.

You're getting upset, anxious, nervous, whatever it is.

What are you gonna do? You're gonna hit the pause button, and then you're gonna ask yourself, "Is what I'm thinking, is the words I'm saying to myself actually true?" And it turns out that once again, you are not speaking the truth to yourself.

God has not forgotten about you at all.

In Isaiah 49:15 it says, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."

Isaiah 49:15

Whenever Jesus looks at the nail holes in his hands, he remembers you.

He absolutely has not forgotten you, and he's gonna take care of you.

In Philippians 4:19 it says, "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19

So that thought we were thinking about God abandoning us and not taking care of us, we're gonna see that's not true, and we're gonna refuse to let that unhelpful and toxic thought stay in our mind.

Instead, we're gonna fill our minds up with a true statement from scripture.

God loves me, he always remembers me, and he is taking care of me, meeting every single one of my needs in Christ Jesus.

And then if necessary, we're gonna repeat that process, aren't we? Like I said, it's quite the process, and one God gives us and tells us to do for our own good.

And so with all of that mind, St.

John's family, my prayer for you this week is this: if you need to practice this process, may God work through you to do just that.

May you not cringe at your own voice, the thoughts that you are thinking, but rather may you take them and make them captive and obedient to Christ Jesus, comparing them to the, God's word, which is truth, comparing them to the words of the way, the truth, and the life that is Jesus Christ.

And may you experience his loving words again and again.

May you do this in Jesus' name, Amen.

You've been listening to a sermon from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

If you would like more information about St.

John's and any of our ministries to our community and beyond, you can go to our website, www.

stjohnsbuffalo.

org.

Thank you and God bless you.