I Will Feel Forgotten

Psalm 13:1 | January 31, 2021

What’s the hardest thing in life?

I mean, outside of trying to cut back on honey buns and chocolate covered bacon. 

What’s the next hardest thing?

Waiting. 

• Waiting for the water to boil
• Waiting for the air fryer to warm up
• Waiting for your computer to update
• Waiting for your windshield to de-ice
• Waiting on hold with the phone company
• Waiting on the garbage truck you got stuck behind

Philosopher B. Douglas Paisley once noted that he didn’t mind his time waiting on a woman.

But that seems to be a shallow stereotype these days when you consider all the beard and moustache products out there.

Most ladies can go out to dinner and binge watch a whole season of The Mentalist before some guys are through oiling their beards. 

Life is full of waiting.

You know what the hardest thing about waiting is?

The waiting. 

Waiting is a part of life and there is no way around it. 

But sometimes its not just hard to wait. 

Sometimes the waiting is hard.

• Waiting for a deposit to clear
• Waiting for a job interview
• Waiting for test results
• Waiting for a spouse to make some effort
• Waiting for a child or grandchild to pull their life together
• Waiting as someone you love is dying

Sometimes waiting is desperately hard. 

So, what can we do in the waiting?

King David was having a hard time waiting. 

What did he do?

And how can what David did about 3,000 years ago help you today?

Let’s find out. 

Listen to Psalm 1, verse 1…

1 How long, O LORD?

How does David deal with his hard time of waiting?

He talks to God. 

But he doesn’t just talk to God, he laments. 

Lamenting is how a Christian deals with the reality of deep pain and hurt and discouragement and depression and anger and confusion and fear while at the very same time dealing with the reality that God is good and great and infinite and just and merciful and faithful and loving.

Lamenting is an action where we feel like God’s promises are extremely slow, but we know that they are exceedingly punctual.

Lamenting is an action where we feel like God’s promises are extremely doubtful, but we know that they are exceedingly true. 

And why do we know these things?

Because in and through his birth and life and brutal execution and resurrection, Jesus, the Messiah, has secured that the answer to all of God’s promises are, “Yes and Amen – Yes and so be it!”

And yet, we find David here saying…

• “How long, God?”
• “What are you doing?”
• “Why are you not changing things?”
• “Why are things not getting better?”
• “Why am I still stuck waiting in this mess?”
• “Why are you not answering my prayer?”

And he was praying.

I fear sometimes we think that God is just supposed to read our minds and do what we want and when he doesn’t we hold some kind of silent grudge toward him and maybe we quit giving money to the church and then we quit going to the church and then we kind of quit thinking about God except on Christmas and Easter and even then just for a little bit.

But what we will find in David’s life is that he was full of questions – he’s got 3 just in the first verse. 

And questions are good!

When you stop asking questions – when you think you either have all the answers or you just don’t care anymore – that’s when you are on the highway to the danger zone.

If you have a problem and no one else can help and you refuse to talk to God, your problem just got more serious. 

David is full of questions – he is lamenting. 

In his book “Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy”, David Vroegop says this…

David Vroegop

To cry is human, to lament is Christian.

Someone might say…

“I don’t cry, so, I’m not going to lament either.”

To lament is Christian.

As believers, we need to lament over the sin and evil in our nation and around the world.  

As believers, we need to lament over the sin and pride and arrogance and pettiness inside the church.

As believers, we need to lament over the killing and taking of life whether it be unborn children or desperate teenagers or strung-out adults.

As believers, we need to lament over the unreached people in the world that do not have access to the eternal, life-giving message of Jesus.

Don’t let pride and arrogance and indifference and busyness keep you from lamenting – to cry is human, to lament is Christian.

Some of us are afraid to lament.

We think that Christians always have to look on the bright side and put on a happy face. 

Yes, it is true, the gospel calls us to rejoice in the Lord always and again we say, “Rejoice!”

But our rejoicing is in the Lord, not in our circumstances. 

When we are struggling to rejoice, we can lament.

Remember, this is David.

He was once described as a man after God’s own heart.

David won more national championships in lamenting than UCLA won in all sports combined. 

We don’t know for sure, but if we piece a few things together we think David might have been in his late 20’s when he wrote this, and it seems like he was hiding out from King Saul who was trying to kill him.

Why was he trying to kill him?

Because when he was just a young ruddy lad, God sent the prophet Samuel to go and appoint David as the next king and Saul wasn’t big on giving up his throne. 

So, it had been maybe more than a decade since David found out he was going to be king, but he still wasn’t.

And now the reigning king was trying to make sure that would never happen.

And how is David responding do all of this?

• “How long, O Lord?”
• “What’s taking so long?”
• “Why am I not king?”

Weeks ago, we sang these words…

Phillip Brooks

O little town of Bethlehem,

how still we see thee lie!

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

the silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth

the everlasting Light;

The hopes and fears of all the years

are met in thee tonight.

Phillip Brooks wrote that song.

He normally was a calm man, but one day he was super agitated, and a friend asked him what the trouble was and Brooks replied, “The trouble is, I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t.”

You know how long the people had been waiting for that everlasting Light to shine in Bethlehem?

Specifically, about 735 years. 

In other words, many people did not see in their lifetime the promise of God with their own eyes – but the promise still came true. 

I fear that as Christians we have spent this past year being angry and afraid over getting what we want in a kingdom that will not last forever.

Yes, this is our time, and we should be doing all we can to love and serve the people in our lives and the country where we live.

But we must not forget the words of the one we call Savior and Lord…

John 18:36

My kingdom is not of this world.

So, yes, we go to school and we work and we raise families and we shop online and we shop local and we pay taxes and we tithe and we give to the poor and we give to missions and we plant churches and we go on mission trips and we vote and we run for office and we build patios and we wash cars and we exercise and we cut back on honey buns and chocolate covered bacon and we do hundreds of other things, but as Christians we never stop asking ourselves this question…

How can I make a difference 735 years from now?

What am I doing today to help people see the only King and the only kingdom that lasts forever?

Here’s one thing you can do – you can lament. 

You can learn to pursue God with your questions and pursue God with your pain.

You can help your spouse and your kids and your grandkids and fellow church members and complete strangers hear and see and know what it means to be desperate for God.

And you can start today. 

And you can also start Tuesday night at 6:30.

We don’t plan events at Holland Avenue.

We plan opportunities. 

• Opportunities for you to pursue God
• Opportunities for you to encourage believers
• Opportunities for you to engage unbelievers

If you are not used to lamenting, we don’t have a magic wand to wave over your life this Tuesday night to make all of this real. 

But we do have an invitation to give you – an invitation to start taking some steps toward lamenting – some steps toward being desperate for God.

Who or what in your life right now is causing you to say, “How long, O Lord?”

• An apathetic spouse?
• A difficult spouse?
• A desire for a spouse?
• A rebellious child?
• An overbearing parent?
• A parent that ignores you?
• A work issue?
• A health issue?
• A government issue?
• A state or local issue?

Come join us Tuesday night – adults, students, kids.  

• Let’s discover what it means to lament
• Let’s discover how to ask God our questions
• Let’s discover the rich joy of being desperate for God

David knows what that means.

Listen to his next two questions in verse 1…

1 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?

This is such a real prayer.

• “God, you promised that I would be king.”
• “Like, there was a little ceremony and everything.”
• “Samuel passed by all my older brothers and picked me.”
• “Why am I running and hiding, God?”
• “Did you forget about your promise?”
• “Did you forget about me?”

Have you ever felt that way?

Like God has forgotten about you – like he has abandoned you – and he doesn’t care about you or your family or your job or anything else in your life?

I don’t have any national championships like David, but I’ve got some conference championships in lamenting. 

I may have shared this with you before, but for the first 3 decades of my life, I was the guy that woke up every morning saying, “Yea, Lord, we greet thee! Born this happy morning! Let’s go! What are we going to do today?”

I truly don’t ever remember being in a bad mood, but somewhere between 35 and 37 I got my first taste of lamenting – and I’m not sure I even remember why. 

But there was darkness, and it would not lift. 

I mean I didn’t sit in the closet all day in the dark.

I only did that on the 3^rd Tuesday of the month – just kidding…kind of.

I was still working and serving and helping and living every day, but there was a lot of “how long” in my heart and my mind and my prayers.

I remember the first time the darkness started to lift – I was sitting in the waiting room about to have my teeth worked on by my dentist friend Art Bruce. 

Now, some people would say that going to the dentist is when the darkness starts, but Art has always been a fantastic dentist.

As I waited that day I was looking through a little book.

The little book is called “When the Darkness Will Not Lift” by John Piper. 

I had been reading it for about 2 years, but nothing was happening…until that day at Art’s.

I don’t even remember what I was reading, it was a passage of Scripture on one of the pages and it just kind of happened.

That feeling that God was being slow or uncertain about his promises switched.

My heart and my mind and my soul had a moment when the exceeding joy of my salvation took over and the exceeding reality that all of God’s promises are true grabbed my thoughts and my emotions again – the darkness lifted. 

It came back about 3 years later and lasted for months and months.

But I remember where I was when it lifted again. 

I was sitting in a booth in the downstairs part of the hibachi place in Tryon, North Carolina.

It was the middle of the afternoon and I was having some chicken and mushrooms and I brought the same little book along with me – and the same thing happened.

I read this passage at the bottom of one of the pages. 

2 Timothy 2:19

The Lord knows those who are his…

And on the top of the next page, before I kept reading, I wrote this note…

Me

12/14/09 – I’m sitting here in Tryon fighting for joy in Christ instead of completely checking out.

And I wasn’t thinking about “checking out” checking out.

I was probably thinking about checking out of ministry.

Here’s the take away from all of that – that little book directed me back to the Bible and the Bible is one of the kindest things God has ever given us.

Why?

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness…

Every single of one of us become a part of that “some” at one time or another – we feel like God is being slow.

Someone said that God knew we would feel like he was being slow and that’s why he gave us the Bible – to show us over and over again through the lives of men and women and boys and girls covering a span of about 4,000 years that he is actually right on time every time.

I saw a story about a well-known Bible teacher that said he never had dry spell in his spiritual life. 

In fact, he said, ““Brother, if you expect nothing from God, you will get it every time!”

That’s catchy, but it is also dangerous, because it is not consistent with what we see in the Bible. 

David had dry spells. 

Times when he felt forgotten and abandoned by God. 

Times when he cried out in prayer, “How long, Lord?”

I was reading this week about Nicholas Wolterstorff who was a philosophy professor at Yale University. 

His son Eric died while he was mountain climbing in Austria – he was only 25 years old. 

Nicholas wrote a book called “Lament for a Son” – it’s been observed that he didn’t write the book as a philosophy professor, but as a loving father grieving the loss of his son.

Nicholas Wolterstoff

I shall now look at the world through tears. I shall now look at the world through tears and perhaps see things that dry-eyed I could not see.

That is the beauty of lamenting – being able to see things that you might not see, or you might miss. 

Like what?

The Apostle Paul said it this way to the folks in Rome…

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

At just the right time, God demonstrated his own love toward us, he demonstrated that he has not forgotten us or abandoned us, but rather, while we were yet sinners, before we were born, before we ever had a single trial or trouble or tragedy, before we ever had a reason to accuse God of moving slow, before we ever had reason to lament, Christ died for us.

Christ died for us.

Christ died for you.

And now, in a sense, the Savior is waiting for you.

Message by Dow Welsh

January 31, 2021

© Holland Avenue Baptist Church

Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

When the Darkness Will Not Lift (download book)

eso What's the hardest thing in life? The hardest thing in life. I mean, besides cutting back on honey buns and chocolate covered bacon. Besides that, in addition to that, what's what's the other hardest thing in life? The hardest thing in life is waiting. Yeah, waiting one of the hardest things that we do on any given day. It's hard for us to wait for the oven to preheat. We have toe wait for the air fryer to warm up. We have toe wait for the computers to update. We have to wait for our windshields right now. To de ice, we have toe wait on hold with the phone company. We have to wait behind the garbage truck that we got behind in traffic. Philosopher B Douglas Paisley once noted that he didn't mind having toe weight on his woman. Didn't seem to be a problem for him, But, you know, that's kind of an old shallow stereotype, because have you seen all the beard and mustache products that are out there? I mean, really, the average woman can go out to dinner, come home and watch a whole season of the Mentalist before her man is through oiling his beard. So this is a whole other world that we're living in now. So the typical waiting just doesn't apply, but waiting. Israel, all of us have toe. Wait. It doesn't matter who you are, no matter what's happening. Waiting is a part of life for every man, woman, boy or girl. Our life is full of waiting. There is no way to avoid it. And sometimes the waiting is not just something that's hard to do. Sometimes the waiting itself is hard. It's difficult. It's painful. We're waiting for a check to deposit. We're waiting for a call back on the job interview. We're waiting for test results. We're waiting for a spouse to make some effort. We're waiting for kids or grandkids to kind of start pulling their life back together. Or we're waiting prayerfully in the difficulty as we watch someone we love dying, waiting could be hard. Waiting can be desperately hard. So what do we do in the waiting? How do we live? Inside of the waiting King David had a season of life where he was having toe Wait. It was tough. It was hard. It was difficult. But there was something that he was doing something he was doing in the waiting. And what does King David from 3000 years ago? What? What is it that he did that has anything to do with you today? How can what he did in his waiting help you in your waiting? Let's see if we could find out. We're looking at Psalm one, Verse one. David writes this. How long? Oh Lord, what did David do in the waiting in the waiting? He talked to God, but he didn't just talk to God. He questioned God. This is known as lamenting the type of questioning that he's doing. Lamenting is how Christians grieve. Lamenting is how Christians deal with difficult things. Lamenting is how Christians deal with the hard stuff and lamenting is this thing where we feel the pain? The reality of the pain is really so. We feel the reality of the pain and the confusion and the hurt and the anger and the discouragement and the depression and the fear. We feel all of that. And at the exact same time, we know the reality that God is good and gracious and mercyful and just and faithful and loving. all of them at the same time. In lamenting lamenting is this action where we feel like God is being extremely slow? But we know that he is exceedingly punctual, lamenting is this action where we feel like that the promises of God are doubtful? But we know that the promises of God are exceedingly true. How do we know these things? How do we know that those things were really? But we know those things? Because in and through his birth, his life, his brutal execution and his resurrection, Jesus has made it possible that every promise of God is yes and Amy? Yes, and so be it. Jesus has made it possible that all of God's promises are true. And really And yet we find David knowing that God had proven himself over and over. We find David saying What? How long? God, what's going on? God, why have my circumstances not changed? Why are things still like this? Why are you not moving? Why am I stuck in this mess? God, why are you not answering my prayer? We're having these questions. Ever felt that way? Well, please. No, he's praying. Don't miss that. He's taking this question to God. Sometimes I wonder if we kind of live as if God's just supposed to read our minds, which you can. But God, you're supposed to kind of read our minds. And then if he doesn't do what we want, we create this little silent grudge against him, you know? And maybe it starts off, you know, just kind of, Ah, silent grudge. We're just a little a little frustrated with God. He's not answering my prayer, but then we take it a little, little more. You know, maybe maybe we quit giving money to the church. Or maybe we quit attending church. Or maybe we just kind of quit thinking about God except for Christmas and Easter and even then just a little bit. And we move away and we move away because we feel like our questions are not being answered. Questions are good. Questions are great. Dave is taking his questions to God. He is prayerfully pleading and asking God. So it's not great for us. Toe step away. We need toe Step in when you stop asking questions. When you stop pursuing God, when you feel like either you've already got all the answers or you just don't care anymore. That's when you're on the highway to the danger zone. That's when when you refuse to pursue God, when you refuse to go after God, when you refused to ask God when you refuse to pray, that's when serious trouble begins to come. David's full of questions. He is lamenting in his book, Dark Clouds. Deep Mercy, Marc VRE GAAP says this to cry is human to lament. It's Christian to cries, human to lament. It's Christian. Someone might say, Don't cry. I'm not a crier So I'm probably not going to be a lament, er, but again, don't miss the last part of that. To lament is Christian to pray in such a way that you feel the pain. But you know, God is true. That is Christian. That's part of what it means to be a Christian. So if you're a Christian, you need to be a lament. Er, you must be element. You need to in some way lament of sin and the evil, the injustice that's in our world, our country, our community, even our homes. You need to lament the pride and the arrogance that is inside of the Pettiness that's inside the average church across the world. You need to lament that lives are being killed. Lives are being taken, whether it's an unborn child or whether it's a desperate teenager or whether it's a strung out adult. You need to lament that there are places in the world where people have never heard the name of Jesus. They've never heard any of the information that we here Sunday after Sunday, that we have access to of the 17 Bibles on ourselves at home. We need to lament that we have great news and it hasn't gotten to those places. And we need to be part of getting it to those places Christians need to be. Lem enters. It's part of who we are. We need to take our questions. We need to take our hurt. We need to take our pain. We need to take our anger. We need to take our confusion on. We need to take those things to God. We need to lament some people think I'm afraid to lament, you know, I mean, hey, I'm a Christian. I'm just supposed toe put on happy faith, you know? Look, it's true. The gospel does call us to rejoice in the Lord always and again we will say rejoice. But the rejoicing is in the Lord. The rejoicing is not always in the circumstances. The rejoicing is in the Lord. Sometimes we struggle to rejoice, Which is Do we have a hard time rejoicing? So when we're struggling to rejoice, weaken, lament because lameness is kind of like rejoicing because we're still pursuing God, remember, this is David. OK, this this is the one that it was once said. He's a man after God's own heart. David had some national championships and lamenting he was a lament. Er it was part of who he waas. Now we don't know for sure, but if we pieced together a few things, it's very possible that David wrote this song when he was in his late twenties. He's in his late twenties. He's he's kind of hiding out. He's running from Qing Song because King Saul was trying to kill him. Now, why in the world was King Saul trying to kill him? Well, when David was just a young ruddy lad, God sent the Prophet Samuel over to appoint him to anoint him as the future king and so King Saul wasn't keen on giving up his throne. And so he's chasing after David. So it's been, I don't know, maybe a decade, maybe a little more since David found out he was going to be king. But he still isn't king, and Saul is doing everything he can to make sure that that's not going toe. So how does David respond to this unique hard season of waiting in his life? He says. How long? How long, Lord, why is this taking so long? Why have these things not materialized? A few weeks ago, we saying the words of this song, A little town of Bethlehem How still we see thee live above thy deep and dreamless sleep. The silent stars go by yet in thy dark street shyness, the everlasting light, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee Tonight. That song was written by Phillip Brooks. He was a pastor and, generally speaking, was pretty calm guy. But on one day he was extremely agitated and a friend said, Hey, what's the trouble? And Brooke said, Here's the trouble. I'm in a hurry, but God is not been there, right? Just curiosity question. How long do you think O little town of Bethlehem had toe wait before the everlasting light was shining in their streets? How long did they have to wait? Well, specifically according to the prophecy 735 years, 735 years Bethlehem had toe wait before everything came to pass. Which means that when the prophecy was announced Hey, something great's happening in Bethlehem. No one there ever saw it. They never saw the light with their own eyes. I wonder how many of us it's Christians have spent the past year so angry, so frustrated, so afraid so confused about what we don't have in a kingdom that will not last forever, that we have taken our eyes off the kingdom that last forever. Look, we're alive now. It's not an accident. We're supposed to be here. You know, we weren't supposed to be born in another time. This is our time. We need to do everything we can tow, love and serve the people We live with. The people that we work with, the people we go to school with the people in our country, the people in the world. We need toe live our lives in such a way that were helpers and servants making change, making things good, making things right as much as we can. But we must also remember the words of the one that we call Lord and savior. And his words were this and John 18. My kingdom is not of this world. Our encouragement is in the kingdom of God when everything in our kingdom is falling apart when we're having toe weight in our kingdom. When there's difficulty in our kingdom, our hope is in the kingdom of God. So yes, yes, we go to school and we go toe work and we shop online and we shop local and we vote and we run for office. We cut back on honey buns. We cut back on chocolate covered bacon and we do 100 other things. But as Christians, as believers of all that we need to do on a daily basis, we never forget to keep asking ourselves the question off the gospel. And that question goes something like this and relevance to Bethlehem. What am I doing today? That will matter. In 735 years, we need to own that for a second, so I'm going to repeat it. What are you doing today? That will matter in 735 years. Pretty big question. Here's one thing you can do. You can limit that. Lamenting Today has an impact 735 years from now if the Lord Terry's and even if he doesn't Terry. Because here's why. Lamenting is a picture of you pursuing God, pursuing God with your questions, pursuing God with your problems. And it's not just a picture of you pursuing God. The minting today has an impact on those around you. It allows your family and your friends people. You go to church with complete strangers to see what it means to chase after God, to see what it means to be desperate for God. And being desperate for God has an impact. People begin to see. I need God. They begin to see the most important question for me to answer in the universe is am I right with God or things right between me and God? So you're lamenting helps people find God you're lamenting. Helps you find lamenting. Helps us learn what it means to be desperate for God. And that's a great thing. And you can start that and you can start it again on Tuesday night at 6. 30 right here in this room. Join us for what we're calling desperate. Listen, we don't plan events. Alan Avenue. This is not a country club. We don't play on events, way playing opportunities. We plan opportunities for you to pursue God. We plan opportunities for you to encourage believers. We plan opportunities for you to engage with unbelievers. And if you don't know what lamenting is, we don't have a magic wand to wave over you on Tuesday night. And all of this is going to make sense. But we do have this. We have an invitation, an invitation for you to come and pursue God with us. Let me give the invitation a different way. What is that circumstance in your life or who is that person in your life that right now is causing you to say how long, How long? What's that thing happening in your life? Is an apathetic spouse? Is that a difficult spouse? Is that a desire for a spouse? Is it a rebellious child? Is it an overbearing parent. Is it apparent that ignores you? Is it a health issue? A medical issue, a school issue, a work issue and an issue with the government. An issue with the nation and issue with world. What is your How long? What is that? How long in your life? Right now, we want to invite you to bring your how long? With us. So that we can discover the concept of lamenting. We can discover what it means to take our questions and say here, God here. Like David here. How long? But together we might discover what it means to pursue God. What it means to be desperate before God. Adults, youth, kids, Come on. Tuesday night, 6. 30 here David knew what it meant to be desperate for God. Hey was there. He understood it more than Justin Som 13 to. So he's asking some questions. Look at his next two questions. Verse one. How long? Oh, Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? This is such a rial prayer! God! God! You promised I would be king. And now I'm running and hiding. Have you forgot me? Have you taken your eyes off of me. I mean, God, there was a little ceremony and everything. Like an anointing. I mean, like, Samuel passed over all of my brothers and chose me like this is a thing. God, why hasn't it happened? Have you forgot me? God, Are you ignoring me? Have you abandoned me? Are you just busy with other people and can't get around to answering my prayer and answering my prayer request? Never been there. I've never been in that moment like David, where you're like God, I think you've just forgotten about me. You just don't care about me. You've abandoned me. You're ignoring me. You don't care about me. You don't care about my family. You don't care about my job. My school. You just don't care about my life to you guys. I don't have any national championships like David and lamenting, but I got a conference championship here and there. I No lamenting. Not as much as some brothers and sisters in the Lord that I know, but But I got a little lamenting. I may have shared this story with you before, but when I for the first three decades of my life. I was that guy. I woke up in the morning. Yea, Lord, we greet the born this happy morning Where we going? Come on, let's go, Let's go, Let's go. I don't remember. I really can't remember having a bad day for the first three decades of my life. And then somewhere around 35 36 37 I just the darkness came. I get changed. Like I I started learning the concept of lamenting and I don't even remember all the details of how it started. But it was really there was darkness and the darkness would not lift. No, I wasn't sitting in the closet all day in the dark, you know? Not only did that on the third Tuesday of every month for the rest of the time, I was fine. You know, I did everything I needed to. Now I was still working, you know, I was still serving. I was still helping. I was still living my life. But I had a lot of how Long's I was struggling with a lot of how long's that I couldn't work through. The darkness would not lift. But I remember the day the darkness lifted. I was sitting in the waiting room at the dentist. Now some of you would say, Well, the darkness only starts when you get in the waiting room of the dentist. I got it. But my dentist buddy Art is fantastic, so I wasn't worried at all. But I had this little book that I was flipping through that day. I brought it with me this morning. Um, it was this little book right here. I have had the book for, I don't know, maybe a year, maybe two years. I can't remember how long and just had never touched have been in the darkness. Hit and I picked it up and And I was flipping through that book that day and and I remember that something began to change. It was almost in a moment. The book is a little tiny book. I think it's like 95 pages. 79 pages. It's called When the darkness will Not Lift by John Piper. You confined this free online Pdf form desire in God or go. But I'd had this book I had been reading through this book at the time for a year or two. It wasn't working like nothing was happening at all. But then that day, sitting in the waiting room, it's full of Scripture. I don't remember that day what Scripture I read through the book. But whatever I read, it just hit me. It was immediate, those feelings of pain and hurt and frustration and discouragement that God was being doubtful that God was being slow. Those things were very riel, but in that moment they switched and I began. Thio have exceeding joy in my salvation again in a moment, and I begin to see that the promises of God are exceedingly true and the darkness it lifted at the dentist that day. And then three years later it came back, and I remember where I waas when it came back. I have been struggling for months, and I just couldn't couldn't get free those How long's those? How long's they wouldn't disappear. And so I was toting this little book around with me, Samora and and then one day I found myself reading through it, making a lot of notes, as I had before. But then, the second time that the darkness lifted, I remember the moment I was in try on North Carolina at the downstairs part of the hibachi place, have a little chicken and mushrooms. That was in the middle of the afternoon having a Bible had this book had some some other notes I was studying and just reading through tons and tons of scripture. And on that day, the Lord just help the darkness lift again. And he helped it live through this passage that I read Second Timothy to 19. The Lord knows those who are hiss. And I just remember sitting in the booth that day going Okay. Okay. God, you haven't for gotten me. You haven't abandoned me because that's not possible. And I wanna read the note that I wrote at the top of the next page Before I kept reading, I wrote the date 12 14 09 And this was the note I wrote. I'm sitting in try on fighting for joy in Christ instead of completely checking out. Now, let me just make a note. I was thinking about really checking out, probably more thinking about checking out of ministry and, you know, going and selling doughnuts at the food truck or something, you know, But I just remember that day, and I remember that moment. Remember the power of God's word in my life in that moment and I made a note, I said, I'm going to keep fighting because God has not abandoned me. He has not ignored me. Lamenting is a beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, glorious thing because lamenting helps us remember over and over again that God is for us, not against us. And this little book, it could have been any little book, but this little book, it helped me go back to the Bible. It helped me read my Bible over and over and over again. And here's the thing. The Bible is the kind ist thing God has ever done for you. The Bible is the kind ist thing God has ever done for you, outside of salvation in Jesus. The most practically kind and wonderful thing that God has done for you is to give you the Bible. And here's why. Second Peter, Chapter three, Verse nine. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness. Look, every single one of us will be part of that. Some it'll happen. We'll have that day where we'll say God, you're being slowed. God, you're not answering my prayer. We will count God as slowness. And someone has said God knew we would think that God knew we'd be sitting at the hospital. He knew we'd be sitting in the dinner at home. He knew we'd be sitting in traffic saying, God, you're slow. God, you're not answering my prayer. And so God, in his kindness, gave us the Bible. He gave us the Bible so that we could keep looking at the lives of men and women and boys and girls over the span of about 4000 years and see and remember and know that God is right on time all of the time. He is so kind to give us his book so kind to give us the Bible. Heard a story this week about it well known Bible teacher who was asked after he spoke somewhere about how he dealt with dry spells in life. This guy was struggling. Went up to him after that. How do you deal with dry spells? How do you deal with those dry spells in the Christian life where you're not feeling it, where you're saying how long and the well known Bible teacher said this. I've never had a drastic And then he went on to say this brother, if you expect nothing from God, you will get it every time. Well, that's just catching, but it's dangerous. And it's wrong because it is contrary to the message of the Bible, because the message of the Bible is full of lamenting. It's full of people like David that had dry spells. It's full of some of the greatest leaders that have ever lived, humbling themselves and saying, I'm wrong. I did the wrong thing. I said the wrong thing. I lived the wrong way. I led the wrong way and begged and pleaded for God's forgiveness. That's leadership on the Bible's full off people who it'd over there see not the same of the country, not the sin off the politicians, not the sin off their neighbors but their sin. They looked in the mirror, and they lamented over their sin. And then they lamented over the scent of their neighbor, and they lamented over the sin of their country. They lamented over, they lamented, and they lamented, and they lamented, because they didn't know anything to do because they learned what it meant to be desperate for God. King David. I was desperate for God. King Solomon was desperate for God. Esther was desperate for God. Moses was desperate for God. Peter was desperate for God. Paul was desperate for God. Mary Magdalene was desperate for God own and on and on Weaken God to cry. His human to lament is Christian. It's Christian. David had draw spells where he felt abandoned by God. Where he said, How long, Lord, how long? Apostle Paul was writing to the folks at Rome. And he said this. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Sea lamenting helps you find yes. And this is gold at just the right time in history. Not too slow, not too fast. At just the right moment in history God demonstrated his love for us. God demonstrated that he has not forgotten this, that he is not abandon us. God demonstrated that while we were yet sinners before we were born, before we ever had a trial or a trouble or a tragedy before we ever had a reason to accuse God of being slow before we ever had a reason to lament before all of that, at just the right moment, Christ died for us. Christ died for us, friend. Christ died for you. And whether you are a believer or an unbeliever, a Christian or a non Christian in a sense, Now Christ is waiting for you.