Salt + Light Fort Worth

Well, welcome to church.

Um, happy soul.

Yeah.

I think one of the things about faith
that, um, it's hard to miss is that

sometimes there's a tension between.

Things like this and sending kids to camp.

And, and that's just life, right?

We, we take the, we take
the suffering with the joy.

So I, it's not lost on me that we
read the darkest psalm in the Bible.

Um, to start off, so if you don't
know me, my name's Gabe, uh, I'm

the janitor here at Fortress.

I was, uh, I was working late one night
in a classroom and I was exit eating, like

real hard, breaking down a tough text and.

Ben came in the back door and
he's, he watched me and he's

like, this guy's a genius.

He's like, man, I gotta have
you preach at my church.

And so here I am.

It's a goodwill hunting joke
at 10 in the morning on Sunday.

Um, well we've been walking through the
Psalms and different prayers from the

Psalms and I get to preach on help today.

Um, the Bible is full of help, prayers,
in fact, it's the most prayed prayer.

I didn't know this.

It's the most prayed prayer.

In the Psalms, some, some version
of asking for help, right?

There's prayers of
petition, uh, supplication.

We're praying for other people.

There's prayers of lament, uh, there's
prayers of anguish and agony and

anger, aching prayers, and all of these
take some level of effort to make,

make some some level of willingness.

So do you, do you ask God for help?

Start my.

Clock here.

I forgot to do that.

Um, God does indeed help us, right?

He helps us by provision.

He meets our physical needs.

He helps us through other people by
prayers and words of encouragement,

or also meeting physical needs.

Sometimes you are the
answer to someone's prayer.

Sometimes that's how God helps.

He guides us, right?

When we make big decisions
or when we need wisdom.

We ask him for help, and he
helps us through suffering.

He helps us not only through
suffering, right, to get to the other

side of suffering, but he helps us.

By way of suffering, and
that's hard to understand.

Some days are just Psalm 88 days, right?

Some days you've got nothing left in the
tank except to ask God where he is been.

Feels like darkness is
your closest friend.

Like you didn't sign up for this, right?

Like you, this isn't what you
ordered out of the God catalog.

Um.

I love Andy Squires.

He's a singer songwriter that I, I follow.

He is a writer and he had a, a newsletter
this week and the title was, I Asked

God, I prayed and asked God for a
life of self care and European travel,

and all I got was a crucified Christ.

He's obviously being
tongue in cheek there.

Um, but suffering's a part of life.

I don't claim to know a
lot about life, uh, yet.

But I know that to be human
is to endure suffering.

In this world, nothing can
be certain except death.

Taxes and s Suffering.

Yeah, suffering.

That's the answer.

And so we pray, right?

We pray because one of the main
ways that God helps us is through

prayer, but sometimes we just
don't have the words to pray.

Uh, I talk a lot about
this in liturgy, right?

When I'm writing our liturgy, and
sometimes I, I try to help us all

understand that you don't have to
come to God with some laid out.

Vision, uh, of, of need.

Sometimes you just don't have words.

And so we turn to the scriptures for help.

Um, and as I was prepping for this
sermon, I, I noticed a phrase.

I've seen it a a million times
since I started reading the

Bible when I was younger.

Um, it's all over the Psalms.

It's all over the Bible.

It just jumped off the page this time.

I had seen it.

I knew it, but it, it didn't, didn't
call out to me like it did this time.

It's the phrase for the sake.

Of your steadfast love.

Psalmists are always praying this
in times of overwhelm, always

using this phrase, Psalm six, four,
turn, oh Lord, deliver my life.

Save me for the sake
of your steadfast love.

Psalm 44, 26, rise up.

Come to our help.

Redeem us for the sake
of your steadfast love.

1 0 9 21.

But you owe God, my
Lord, deal on my behalf.

For your name's sake.

That's another very similar phrase,
because your steadfast love is good.

Deliver me.

Some of these prayers come from
the psalmist being surrounded

by slander, by enemies.

Sometimes they're just from places
of deep shame and lament and grief.

On Psalm 88 days, we just don't
have a lot to stand on, right?

So the psalmist here when he prays, save
me for the sake of your steadfast love.

He's appealing to God's
character, not his own worthiness.

He's asking God to act in
accordance with God's own nature.

And you can do this too.

Help me, not because I deserve it,
but because that's who you are.

Sometimes these prayers point back
to God's covenantal faithfulness

with his people, right?

You've promised to be faithful and
loving, so please act according to that

promise, according to your steadfast love.

And sometimes it's an appeal
to God's reputation, right?

When we pray this way, we're not
testing God, we're just relying on God.

We're simply saying we are.

Weak.

We need your help.

So that phrase for your
namesake is the psalmist.

When they pray that they're saying,
act in a way so that others see

that your love is unshakeable.

Preserve your reputation
among the nations.

And because of Jesus, we can approach
God with this kind of confidence.

So do you, do you pray it rescue me?

Not because I'm good,
but because you are so.

Be who you've promised to be.

I read this week, I'd never seen this.

Martin Luther said that prayer
is not something we do to

overcome God's reluctance.

It's laying hold of his willingness.

Isn't that beautiful?

I don't want a God that will change
his mind on the whims of human emotion.

God is, is the same
yesterday, today and forever.

He is unchanging, but when
we pray, we lay hold of his

willingness to act in our lives.

So take it.

Take it.

But what about the times
that God doesn't answer you?

What about the times when we
cry out to God on those Psalm

88 days and we just get nothing?

Right?

Did you notice that?

That was the Psalm 80 eight's a lot
longer than that, but um, I didn't

wanna overwhelm you too much, so
I just gave you the end of it.

Darkness.

Is my closest friend.

There is no resolution at
the end of Psalm 88, right?

There's nothing there.

It's just silence.

And so what do we do
with that desperation.

When we cry out to God, when we, when we
carry our desperation to God and the only

thing we hear is the sound of the wind.

What do we do with that?

Now you might know the,
uh, the story of job job's.

A faithful man.

He's a good man.

He's not a sinless man, but
he is an innocent man, right?

He, he follows God.

He's obedient.

He takes care of his family and his
farm hands, and his, his workers.

And one day, excuse me,
Satan shows up to God.

And Satan says, God, job, job only
loves you because you're so good to him.

He loves you because you've
blessed him, and that's the only

reason that he's faithful to you.

So take all that away
and he will curse you.

God says, okay.

And Joe loses everything
in the span of a day.

He loses his farm, he loses all
of his livestock, and he loses

10 children just like that.

And he doesn't curse God.

He's faithful.

He says The famous line the Lord
gives and the Lord takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

He remains steadfast.

So Satan goes back to
God and says, okay, fine.

Well take away his health.

And he'll definitely curse you.

God says, okay, just don't kill him.

And then Job gets covered in sores
from the bottom of his foot to the top

of his head, and he sits in sackcloth
and ashes and he scrapes the skin with

the clay shard some effort to comfort
himself or to clean himself, whatever.

Nasty situation was going on
there, and yet he remains faithful.

He doesn't curse God.

And then his wife shows up, right?

His wife says, job, are you really
still trying to maintain your integrity?

Curse God.

And die.

I think if we were to get pregnant again,
Allison would say that to me, probably

first, God and die.

Um, now I don't agree with her advice.

Right.

I don't think it's good advice.

However, I would like to note,
I don't think history has

been very kind to Job's wife.

A lot of theologians have
called her the mouthpiece of

Satan, or the devil's advocate.

I think she's a woman who.

Lost 10 kids.

She's, she's suffering just
as much as job is, so I don't

blame her for how she feels.

I.

But he doesn't do it right.

Job doesn't do it.

He does curse the day
he was born, by the way.

However, like the next chapter,
he is like, Hey, it'd be better

if I'd just been born dead.

At least I would be at rest.

So wipe it from the book, Scott.

I just wish it never had happened.

And then job's, friends show up and
for 29 chapters, we are party to this.

Back and forth between Job and his
so-called friends, and it turns

out they're not great friends.

What they say to Job, the wisdom that
they impart to job is essentially

job, you must have sinned, right?

Bad things don't happen to good people.

Job.

You did something to cause all of this.

And job defends himself over and
over and over again for 29 chapters.

He says, I am blameless.

I am innocent.

Where is God in all of this?

Do you relate to him?

He's asking such a human, a
profoundly human question,

where's God when I'm hurting?

Where's God when I'm hurting?

And as the story goes on, job
starts to lament the worst

thing about his suffering.

It's not that he lost his
kids or his possessions, it's

that he doesn't see the Lord.

He says he does great things,
too marvelous to understand.

He performs.

Countless miracles.

Yet when he comes near, I
cannot see him when he moves by.

I just don't see him go.

If I go to the east, he's not there.

If I go to the west, I don't find him.

When he is at work in the
north, I don't see him.

When he turns to the south,
I catch no glimpse of him.

Job is utterly alone,

but still, he doesn't stop praying, right?

He pursues God while he suffers.

Chapter 24, he asks about
the wicked in the world.

He says, God, what about them?

Right.

They're out there doing evil
deeds and they're not punished.

Where?

Where is my justice?

They get away scot free.

What about me?

And then in chapter 31, he starts
to break a little bit, right?

He makes his final protest to God.

If I had lied, God, this would make sense.

If I had deceived, absolutely.

If I had committed some sexual
sin, yes, of course I would get it.

If I had been unkind to my servants or
stingy with what I have, if I had refused

to help the poor, if I had oppressed the
orphan, if I had worshiped the sun or

the moon or rejoiced when disaster struck
my enemies, then absolutely surely, God,

you have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Surely you haven't been paying attention.

And then he demands answers from God.

Job gets bold with God.

He says, let the almighty
answer me, meaning answer me.

Let my accuser write out
the charges against me.

You better deliver to me on a
piece of paper what I have done.

I would face the accusation proudly.

I would wear it like a
crown for I would tell him.

Exactly what I would, I've done, right.

He's saying if it's really true, then
you prove it to me and I will admit

defeat and I will confess everything.

So do it.

And then God shows up.

But that's next week.

No, I'm just kidding.

Um,

do you know how God answers job?

Do you know what God's response is to him?

All my BSF ladies are like,
yeah, yeah, we know it.

Let's get into it.

Says to job.

Where were you when I laid the foundations
of the Earth, when I measured its

dimensions, tell me if you know who
laid its cornerstone As the morning

stars sang together and all the angels.

Shouted for Joy

says Job.

Do you know where light lives or
where darkness makes its home?

Can you show them the way
back when they get lost?

Have you ever commanded the mourning to
appear or the dawn to rise in the east?

Do you know where the
gates of death are located?

Tell me Job if you know.

So instead of answering him, God
takes job on this tour of the cosmos.

And a tour of all creation.

It goes on a lot longer
than I've read there.

And by questioning job, God is saying
Job, the world was not founded on justice.

It was founded on wisdom.

It says Job.

It doesn't say it, but
this is my interpretation.

There are forces that work here, job that
are so much greater than you understand.

I am in control of anything that your
finite brain can perceive and everything.

It can't says, job, I pay attention
to you on a cellular level.

I pay attention to you
on a molecular level.

I know everything going on in
your life and I'm intimately

aware of your suffering.

So job repents.

So surely I spoke of things
I did not understand.

Things too wonderful for me to know.

And God restores his fortunes to him.

Job's, friends, his, his real
friends show back up and they

mourn and they grieve with him.

Remember, he still lost everything.

He still lost his kids.

They put gold rings on his fingers.

They give him money.

God gives him back his livestock.

He gives him back a huge fortune and new
children, and he lives to be a hundred.

He lives another 140 years and the book's
over just ends kind of like Psalm 88.

It's over.

We don't ever really get a true
explanation for job's suffering, right?

But we get a new belief about
God through job's suffering.

You might be tempted to think
that this is the reward, right?

That, that all the things he
got back are the reward for

his suffering, but it's not.

If we blink, we will miss it.

It's job 42 verse five.

Remember job's chief complaint
a few a few minutes ago.

When he repents, he says, I had
only heard about you before, but now

I have seen you with my own eyes.

God is job's reward.

It's not the material things
that he receives, but it's God.

His relationship with God deepens.

He gains some new level of understanding,
some peace of understanding about

how God works in the world, and
he learns to trust that God.

Is in control.

See, suffering gets you God,

that's hard to understand.

Suffering gets you God friends.

The silence of God in your
life is not the absence of God.

The silence of God is where faith
begins when, when the silence

of God is all we get, we can
receive it, not as abandonment,

but as an invitation to press in.

I love Walker Percy.

Uh, I love, he's a writer.

He, he said that when we experience
the silence of God, it's the moment

where we either abandon the search or
we risk everything to say, here I am.

So will you do that?

God showed job that he was in
fact present in his suffering.

And there's another figure in scripture
you might know about who faced the

silence of God when he asked for help.

In the Garden of Gethsemane,
Jesus is with all of his friends.

They're getting sleepy by the way.

Do you know Gethsemane means oil press?

It's, it was a grove of olives.

It's the place of pressing right where
a great stone would roll over olives

and extract all of the oil and Christ
retreats to a separate space, and he is.

Oppressed, right?

He knows he's going to die.

He prays to God, my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me.

Silence,

but he remains faithful, nevertheless,
not my will, but yours be done.

Jesus.

He's utterly alone, and then he
is arrested on false charges.

He's kept up all night at a mock trial,
and the next morning he is crucified

and on the cross he experienced
the total abandonment of God.

See, job only thought he did.

Jesus really did.

But as you know, it wasn't the end
of the story, and it's just like

suffering is not the end of your story.

Job was restored.

Jesus was resurrected.

Jesus was the true and better job.

We have a suffering savior who was
broken at Calvary, so you wouldn't

have to be Jesus faced the abandonment
of God, so you will never have to.

And having defeated death, the wounded
healer, don't you love that name?

For Jesus, the wounded healer.

He gives us his spirit.

He upholds us with his
promises until we get to glory.

So when you have to suffer, I repeat.

When you have to suffer,
you can hold onto him.

You can trust that he's in control,
that he will never leave you.

He says, I will be with you to the end.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

I will work everything together for you.

Are good.

So friends, when the,
when the diagnosis comes

or when the diagnosis comes back,

or when you think you'll never get
through this phase with your kids,

or when the bills pile up too high,
you can step into that suffering.

It's not gonna be easy.

Never said it was gonna be easy.

Jesus never said it was
gonna be easy, right?

But you can know that he's with you.

And with the psalmist in
Psalm 73, you can pray.

Whom have I in heaven?

But you.

There's nothing on earth
I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but
God is the strength of my heart and my

portion forever suffering gets you, God.

I remember the um.

A couple weeks ago, Matt mentioned we
were talking about the tragedy in South

Texas and we were, um, praying for,
for folks and just taking a Psalm 88

moment to be like, man, life is rough.

And Matt referenced
Philippians four seven, right?

Says, don't be anxious about anything, but
in everything by prayer and supplication.

Submit your request.

To God and the peace of God, which
surpasses understanding will guard your

hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

It doesn't say the healing of God.

It says the peace of God.

And, um, there's a woman.

Who I think embodies this.

I, I, I think we can see
what that looks like.

Um, at least in one person.

Her name is Johnny
Erickson, tota Jo, JONI.

It's pronounced Johnny.

You might know who she is.

She's a writer, speaker, painter.

She's brilliant, brilliant human being.

And when she was 17, she was swimming.

And she misjudged the, uh, depth of
some water in a lake, and she dove

in and snapped her neck, crushed
several vertebrae in her back, and

immediately she became quadriplegic.

And so since that time, she
has been bound to a wheelchair

and she has had cancer twice, and she
gets chronic lung infections and she

gets sores on her legs and on her back
because she is pressure sores, right?

She's stuck in a wheelchair,

but man, if she has not made.

So if, if Christ has not made
so much of her suffering, so

I have a video, a short video.

I just want you to see her
and, and hear her talk.

She's gonna tell you in four minutes what?

It's taken me 20 minutes to tell you.

So let's watch it.