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The Resting Place
We are a community of believers coming together to establish a new wineskin of renewal in the Midwest. Come and join us as we adventure into the unknown, with hands open to following the wind of Holy Spirit, and hearts hungry for community and to experience an outpouring of the love of the Father.
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The Resting Place
Faith Amidst Seeming Defeat ft. Luke Fulcher
What happens when a worship leader experiences crushing spiritual darkness? In this profound teaching, Luke Fulcher examines Psalm 88—the only lament psalm in Scripture with no resolution or happy ending—and its mysterious author, Heman the Ezrahite.
This episode of The Resting Place podcast offers startling comfort for those navigating challenging times. Heman was no spiritual novice but a designated worship leader in David's tabernacle, described as "the king's seer," yet he wrote the Bible's darkest prayer. God not only tolerated his raw complaints but preserved them as worship for generations to come.
Luke uncovers three threads of hope woven through this psalm: Heman never renegotiated who God was, he continued crying out despite feeling unheard, and he maintained the belief that his purpose still mattered. Most remarkably, though Heman questioned if God would "work wonders for the dead," the biblical record shows he ultimately led worship when God's glory filled Solomon's temple so powerfully the priests couldn't stand.
For anyone struggling with doubt or darkness, this message brings liberating truth: your faith doesn't require perfect mental certainty to be effective. Like the father who cried, "I believe; help my unbelief," we discover that honest faith—even when mixed with questions—is still faith God honors. Your regenerated nature is inherently designed to believe, even when your mind struggles to process disappointment.
God doesn't need your religious pleasantries during difficulty—He invites your unfiltered honesty. The fastest way to breakthrough might be admitting exactly where you stand rather than where you think you should be. This message offers a spiritual roadmap for those navigating difficult seasons, showing how to stay present until glory breaks through.
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Thank you, baby. Keep strumming for me. I better be careful because I'll have Lance just pick for the next two hours and just sit here. Um, I want to make this comment before we get transitioned too far. There are times when the Lord will come and He'll drink in what we're offering In terms of praise, in terms of worship, where we're offering Him something, and he's going to come in and he's going to receive of the offering. But there are also times, likewise, that he comes close and offers us a drink, and I feel like today was one of those times where he came and his presence blew in, if you could discern what was happening. His presence blew in and offered us a drink and I've been weighing kind of I feel it just right there. I've been weighing, I've been weighing kind of what to say in in that and asking the Lord if there's anything he'd like me to expound on. And I believe he told me he wants us to be. I want to say this politely as I can. I believe he wants us to drink deeply Every day and there's such a thing.
Speaker 1:This is going to sound sacrilegious, but there's such a thing in the world of addiction, as a functioning alcoholic who has to have a drink in order to function. It's not that the drink keeps them from functioning. It's that their body has been so accustomed to metabolizing alcohol that they don't feel right unless they've had a drink of alcohol, that they don't feel right unless they've had a drink of alcohol. And I believe the Lord is asking us to come into such a state of dependence on Holy Spirit that we don't function right without Him drawing near, without him drawing near Finding the river that he makes us lie down near to and drinking deeply. I hear that invitation for us as a family. I hear that invitation drink more deeply, drink more frequently and drink more deeply. Drink more frequently and drink more deeply. Drink more frequently and drink more deeply. Drink more frequently and drink more deeply. Drink more frequently and drink more deeply. More frequent drinks and deeper drinks. And the more you drink, the deeper you'll go.
Speaker 1:There's a story of a man in the Toronto revival. I heard Dutch teach this when I was in ministry school and this man had a past that was not great and carried a lot of shame around with himself. And there's someone listening. You're going to hear this podcast later on. You're not listening right now. You're going to hear this. You're going to play it back later. You're dry as a bone. You're dry as a bone. You're dry as a bone. Your spirit is dry and you're thirsting for something different. And the Lord's inviting you right now to go ahead and take a really deep drink and as you open yourself up, the flood of goodness and mercy from the Lord is going to invade your spirit, man, and you're going to find yourself overwhelmed in the presence of Jesus.
Speaker 1:I feel like Pat Robertson at the end of his program giving words of knowledge over the TV. Huh, interesting, interesting, interesting, interesting, interesting, interesting, interesting. This man had a really sordid past and was carrying around a lot of shame. And he's at the Toronto Revival and hadn't experienced much and was still kind of hungry for the Lord to touch him in a way that was significant. And around midnight or 1230, he goes into a. They were so good about that, they'd just keep it open all night long if they needed to.
Speaker 1:And um, eventually this man goes into a vision and people saw him. He was like crawling around the floor of the altar space, like smelling the carpet, because in his vision vision he was crawling through a field of roses and wildflowers and smelling the wildflowers and roses. And he comes to a river and Jesus is standing in the middle of this river and he's throwing things into the river and he's like I wonder what Jesus is doing. So he draws near to Jesus and he's throwing things into the river and it's like I wonder what Jesus is doing. So he draws near to Jesus and he says Jesus, what are you doing? But as soon as he gets close and asks the questions, he sees what he's throwing into the river and it's pictures of this man's past, things that he had done, that he was ashamed of. And Jesus is tossing them into the river and they're being washed down the river. And Jesus said oh, I'm just getting rid of some trash, why don't you join me? And the man joined Jesus in throwing these pictures of his deepest shame into the water and watching them wash away. His life was never the same. Life was never the same same Life was never the same. And I believe Jesus is standing in the river today inviting us to take a really deep drink.
Speaker 1:Luke, you need to figure out how to finish this book, because the Lord is going to give you your next one very soon. You're not done. You're going to write a book on the atonement before too long. You'll write a book on the atonement before too long and it will be the marriage of two seemingly contradictory things, where you find life in the tension of two seeming contradictions and marry them together and you bring an absolute. I'm telling you, I feel the Holy Ghost. You bring an absolutely paradigm shifting, not theory but truth about the atonement into the earth through this book. It will happen and it's going to.
Speaker 1:It's going to impact men who have attained PhDs in theology. They'll they'll get a hold of your book and it's going to impact and functionally change the way that they teach on the theories of the atonement because of what the Lord's about to show you, the way that they teach on the theories of the atonement because of what the Lord's about to show you. I'm telling you, I see heaven opening over your mind and I see the Lord. Where we've had discussions in the past, where we try to marry, kind of, some of the seeming contradictions of what about this and this and how do we find the middle ground. The Lord's going to give you the middle ground and he's going to say write the book, because what it will then do, it's going to be a bridge for liberal theologians to come into the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just judge that if that bears witness with you and if it does, I want a writer's credit. Ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Speaker 1:The blood will never lose its power. The blood will never lose its power, and there's something of the efficacy of the blood of Jesus that has been lost, that needs to be regained. I could sit here and swirl out for a long time, but I'm going to let Luke do this. But what we're going to do is I want to bring to everybody's remembrance. I've asked y'all to prepare a gift for Luke, as he's come all the way from Alabama to be with us, and y'all have been faithful givers and I'm very thankful for how faithful y'all are in giving. There's a couple of ways that we can do that. And if you're listening to this and you're not listening today it's Sunday, the middle of Father's Day, so you're busy and you catch this later in the week If you'll send a gift in to our website therestingplaceiacom is that correct?
Speaker 1:There's a little giving tab there and they can earmark it, or there should be something where they can make a note. Huh, there's a memo line where you can make a note on it. And if that's how y'all want to do that too, that's totally fine with us. You don't have to have a paper check or cash. Get online therestingplaceiacom. There's the giving tab, there's a memo line. Earmark it for Luke Fulcher and everything that comes in.
Speaker 1:We'll make sure Luke gets. We're going to make sure Luke gets an honorable gift anyway, because that's who we are. We're going to make sure Luke is well taken care of, because that's who we are. But we're inviting y'all in because generosity is a value of the kingdom and y'all have done so well in this and I'm so proud every time we bring someone in we have. Our little family has done some things that have been mind-blowing to me in the area of giving.
Speaker 1:Last time Luke was here, his mind was blown. So let's blow his mind again. Let's do that. Do the very best you can. Don't do anything dumb, don't not pay your light bill or not feed your kids, but give the very best that you absolutely can, and if the Lord drops a number in your heart, just give it. It's one of the ways he brings increase to his people is through generosity. It's this crazy thing where the more generous you are, the more he'll give to you to be generous with Um. So I'm going to have Luke come, and if you have check or cash, that's fine too. Just when he's saying something you really agree with, just throw it at him. That's sort of a joke, but I mean I'd be cool with it. So would Apostle Aaron, so I have apostolic reference for it being okay. All right, lucas, why don't you come on, get yourself situated. I've got a water for him. I'm going to leave it tightly closed. You can open it when you want, because I don't want you spilling it by accident.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right. All right, thank you, bud. All right, guys, I guess y'all can go ahead and open your Bibles to the book of Psalm, chapter 88. We will go there momentarily. So glad to be back with everybody here.
Speaker 3:It was an amazing time last year. I left extraordinarily blessed and hopefully y'all did too. A couple of y'all acted like you remembered what I said. So that's kind of unusual for a guest speaker. I've got to say People care. Oh, my God, people actually care. I spent the year teaching seventh grade, so I'm not used to people caring. When I was saying anymore, uh, I kind of kind of forgot what that feels like. Uh managed to avoid any abject heresy. Evidently he got invited back, so that's good, all right. So, um, anyway, I hope, uh, you know one.
Speaker 3:One thing about our little family of churches is we're not famously very good at meeting people's expectation for holidays. So our pastor in South Carolina once preached about Jezebel on Mother's Day. So that's a true story. Shout out Johnson, dorn, my God. So I hope y'all are expecting a nice little polite Father's Day message, because we're not doing that today, okay. So anyway, in fact, once we're a couple of verses into this, you're going to be like why in the world is he talking about this? But we'll get there. We'll get there, all right.
Speaker 3:So today we're going to look at one of the most obscure authors of Scripture that we have. We know a lot about a lot of the men that wrote parts of the Bible, but there's a couple of these little psalmists that we don't know too much about. I'm going to dig into this one little psalmist who is relatively obscure, a fellow by the name of I think I'm pronouncing this right, I'm not 100% sure, but we'll roll with it by the name of Haman the Ezraite, of Haman the Ezraite, and there's actually a couple, there's two men by that name inside of the narrative of David and Solomon. So there's a little bit of division about which it is that wrote this particular psalm. I'm going to speak as though it's the one that I believe it is, which was a court musician in David's court. If it's the other guy, a lot of what I say will still be relevant to his story too, because all we know about the other one is that when God's telling everyone how wise he made Solomon, he says and he gave Solomon wisdom even greater than Haman. And so I'm like okay, the guy must be pretty smart if that's the standard by which Solomon's being judged. So, no matter what I do, there's similarities about either man's experience, whether I'm preaching about the right one or not.
Speaker 3:But Psalm 81 and verse 1, it says this. It says night before you, let my prayer come before you, incline your ear to my cry, for my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to the grave. I am counted with those who go down to the pit. I am like a man who has no strength, adrift among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more and who are cut off from your hand. You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths. Your wrath lies heavy upon me and you have afflicted me with all your waves. You have put away my acquaintances far from me. You've made me an abomination to them. I'm shut up and I cannot get out. My eye wastes away because of affliction.
Speaker 3:Now, if you know anything about the Psalms, you know this is one of what they call the lament Psalms, which are these songs where the psalmist begins by pouring out his heart to the Lord and making his oftentimes a very honest and sometimes even shocking complaint to the Lord, and David does this often. And usually you read the Psalms and you feel like they're almost schizophrenic because they immediately are followed by some sort of amazing proclamation of praise and trust and faith. And you know, we see a Psalm like the one that Jesus quotes on the cross, psalm 22, where he begins the Psalm by saying my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But then, when you get to the end of the Psalm he's talking about all the nations of the world are going to come streaming in to worship the Messiah. So you're probably reading if you're reading Psalm 88 for the first point, we're about halfway through it You're probably thinking okay, here comes the pivot, where everything's about to get encouraging.
Speaker 3:And then here's what happens, verse 9. Lord, I have called upon daily. I have called upon you. I've called upon daily. I have called upon you. I've stretched out my hands to you. Will you work wonders for the dead? Will the dead arise and praise you? Shall your loving kindness be declared in the grave or your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Shall your wonders be known in the dark and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness.
Speaker 3:All right, we've got one more chance here for this to get encouraging all of a sudden here. But to you, I've cried out, o Lord, and in the morning my prayer comes before you. Lord, why do you cast off my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? I have been afflicted and ready to die. From my youth I suffer your terrors. I am distraught. Your fierce wrath has gone over me and your terrors have cut me off. They came around me all day long like water. They engulfed me altogether.
Speaker 3:Okay, we've got one more verse. This has got to get encouraging sometime soon, right? So what's the last verse say? It says loved one and friend, you have put far from me and my acquaintances into darkness. The end well, my god. Well, my God. That's rough.
Speaker 3:So there's a few questions here. One is what is happening with this man and two is why in the world did this make the Bible? Why did God put this in here? Because probably the middle class American evangelical inside of your brain is saying what are we doing? Learning this on Sunday, I came to get encouraged, but there's an interesting thing here. First off, a couple things to notice before we start sort of explaining uh, the why here.
Speaker 3:The psalms really existed as essentially, as the hymnal for the tabernacle of david. Now, now you know, some of some of them were written later. Some of them were written again during the exile, so this isn't true for all of them, but the for most of the psalms, the use that they were set to was corporate worship around the temple. And so not only did this psalm which the most depressing songwriter you can think of I mean jason isbell, if you know who is sitting here thinking I don't know man, that's a little raw, I don't know if I'd write that down, you know, god not only says we're going to preserve this, they said let's hand this into the worship team and have them sing that around the arcs around the Ark of the Covenant, like what? And so before we start to go into the whys and wheres of all that, let's try to see.
Speaker 3:You know, what could be going on with this man. Well, we look at his story. It doesn't really tell us anything about what it is that is driving Haman to this place. It doesn't really give us the situation, and I actually am grateful for that because it makes it a little easier to relate it to. Whatever brings you there, there, but I want to see that there's, we can sit here.
Speaker 3:That kind of the religious mind can come up with like four or five immediate reactions of this must be what's wrong with this guy? Oh, he must not have, he must not have a good christian support system, he must not have a family or anyone he can lean on. No, actually, if you go into the genealogies, he is the grandson of samuel the prophet. His now his dad was a bit of a problem, which is why israel wanted a king in the first place. But you know, his grandfather was samuel, the one who anointed david, the one who started the schools of the prophets, the one who reintroduces prophetic government to israel. That's his grandpa, okay, well, maybe it must be that he's, you know, out of order, out of alignment, doesn't have spiritual government. No, actually, he was appointed to his position by David himself and he was serving under Zadok. Alright, maybe, maybe he just maybe he just doesn live well enough and doesn't spend enough time in the presence of God. Well, as a matter of fact, let's go read what his job description is in the book of first Chronicles uh and uh 15.
Speaker 3:It begins to uh, tell us a little bit. Uh, this is the first time that we see this man. And it is the story of when David brings the ark into Jerusalem. And the previous time that they had attempted to restore the ark to Jerusalem, someone had touched the ark and been killed. And so, as a result, when David finally decides to bring the ark back, this is after the ark had blessed the home of Obed-Edom that this time David decides we are just going to stop and we're going to sacrifice a cow or a goat or something every six steps for the miles walk back into the city. And one of the other passages goes into all the detail about what they did. And there's one of the other passages goes into all the detail about what they did. This is the same moment where David is dancing before the ark and his wife judges him and gets her womb shut for it and the whole thing. He is there for that and this is the first time that we see him.
Speaker 3:It says that let me see if I can find the particular verse here. Let me see if I can find the particular verse here. So it says that this is chapter 15. It talks about let me find the exact verse here. But he begins to list out the musicians that he has appointed and he begins to give the job description to these various ones. This is 1 Chronicles 15, 15.
Speaker 3:And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders by its poles, as Moses had commanded, according to the word of Yahweh. And then David spoke to the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers, accompanied by the instruments of music stringed instruments, harps and cymbals by raising the voice with a resounding joy. And so the Levites appointed Haman, the son of Joel that's the same man, we believe, that wrote Psalm 88, and his brethren, asaph, who wrote actually several Psalms his brother did. And of their brethren, the sons of Merari, ethan, and it goes on to list several more men as you go down to verse 26,. It says so.
Speaker 3:It was when God helped the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. They offered seven bulls and seven rams, and David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who bore the ark, the singers, and Shaniah, the music master, with the singers, and David also wore a linen ephod. And thus all of Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets and with cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and harps. And then chapter 16 is actually telling the story of when they had this worship service, and Haman is among the people who was there for it, as they're blowing the trumpets and leading the ark back into Jerusalem, and they share a psalm that his brother Asaph played, that David wrote and it says here in verse 37 of chapter 16, 1 Chronicles, it says so.
Speaker 3:He he being David left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to minister before the ark regularly, as every day's work required, and Obed-Edom, with the 68 brethren to be gatekeepers, and Zadok, the priest, and his brethren, to be priests before the tabernacle of Yahweh at the high place that was at Gibeon, to offer burnt offerings to Yahweh on the altar of burnt offering regularly, morning and evening, and to do according to all that is written in the law of Yahweh, which he commended. Israel, and with them, h, haman and Jeduthun that was his other brother and the rest who were chosen, who were designated by name, to give thanks to Yahweh because his mercy endures forever, and with them, haman and Jeduthun, to sound aloud with trumpets and cymbals and the musical instruments of God, and then the sons of Jeduthun were gatekeepers. So literally this man's job is to stand in the tabernacle of David day and night, beating cymbals and singing and proclaiming that the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever. That is what this man is doing for a living when he writes Psalm 88. And then you're like, okay, well, maybe he's in some alignment, maybe he's got good people around him, maybe he's in the presence of God, but maybe he just doesn't. Maybe he hasn't really learned how to hear God or gets any kind of direction from the Lord.
Speaker 3:Actually, if you go to 2 Chronicles, it describes him and we'll look at this verse later on but it literally describes him as Haman, the king's, the Lord's seer for David. This man actually had such an ear for God that David would go to him for advice. So there's no. And the thing is, in his whole story we see all kinds of compromise and all kinds of biblical character stories. We can go through the list of all the things David did wrong, the things Noah did wrong, the things all these people did wrong. We see nothing that Haman's done wrong. We see no reason why he should be lacking something. And yet at some point he gets to the place where he writes the only lament psalm, that never turns and says oh, but I trust you and I know you're going to deliver me. The only one that just ends on really is this it and yet.
Speaker 3:So what is happening here? So, first off, we don't know, really know why he got here, but we do know that there's no easy religious fix for what got him there. We can't point our finger and say that there was some obvious missing piece, that it's all his fault, and I think it's actually important that god actually took this piece of writing, that he did and said I'm going to make sure that this gets memorialized in the worship book of Israel, that people can remember this, which sounds like he's complaining, which sounds like he's saying I'm going to remember, I want them to regard this as worship and them to hold on to it for generations to come. Now I do want to say, though, as you go through it, though, there's a few little things that I think we can learn from what he wrote here. I mean the fact that God even accept not only did he accept this, and I think it's interesting, because we see stories where people in the wilderness right are grumbling and complaining and saying God, are you going to leave us? And God's like, okay, I'm going to smite you with snakes. Yes, exactly right. So why is it that Haman is able to say what he says and not get struck? I think there's actually something, and we'll see as we go through this. There's something that God appreciates the fact that, whereas Israel grumbled and griped from a distance, he actually went into the presence and said okay, god, here's what I'm thinking. And he actually was able to say okay, god, I actually trust you enough that I can say what I think, and trust that you actually cared enough to hear it, which takes an awful lot. And so, as you begin to go through, I want to say, though, that, as we go through, there's three things's, three things in the Psalm, though, that make me say it's not quite as hopeless as it sounds at first blush. So the first thing. The first thing is right there.
Speaker 3:In the first verse, it says oh God, oh Lord, god of my salvation. That's the, that is how he begins to address god, and nothing else that he says sounds faith-filled. Nothing else that he says sound like he's uh, uh, trusting for something to come around, but we see from the bat that he did not negotiate who god was or what his name was from the start. He still said you're. You're god of my salvation. He didn't try to go create his own salvation. He didn't go try to come up with some way to get himself out of whatever mess he was in.
Speaker 3:And when I say salvation too, keep in mind sometimes we create theological meanings for words and then read them back into times that the Bible just uses them as a word, right? So the Hebrew mind of this particular time and place is not thinking of salvation in terms of going to heaven when you die, right? That's just not what he. He's talking about. You're the God who's going to get me out of this mess. Is what he means at this point in time.
Speaker 3:Right, we're going to see later on in the text that you know, at this point in time, there's, the Jews are maybe not even as 100% convinced about life after death as they should have been. Yet, you know, as the, as revelation is progressing and that was an open theological question when Jesus shows up, it's, you know, the only time, almost the whole thing, that he took the Pharisee's side on something. But, uh, so so Psalm 88 at the beginning, he says oh Lord, god of my salvation. He's not renegotiating who God is, because he's frustrated with how God's handling his situation. And this is an interesting thing, because this is actually an act of faith on Haman's part in the first place, because a lot of times faith can actually.
Speaker 3:You know, it's this weird tension because on one hand you know the fruit of faith ultimately is always righteousness, joy, peace, and yet at the same time, faith will get you into situations where you're frustrated that you wouldn't have been frustrated if you hadn't had faith. If there are some things where it would. If you would have just passive, just acquiesced to whatever happened, you could have gone on with life and coped. But because you believe something God said, you put your foot down and you put yourself into a fight that other people would have just said, okay, fine, I give up. And so we a lot of times.
Speaker 3:One of the things that has been a problem with how we've taught faith sometimes is that we've made it this really happy face thing, that it is always this kind of plastic thing, that it means you're like always cheering up, can't have, never. And and the thing is, if you look at any, you know faith teacher, if they told the whole story. I know there were times that they were struggling, you know, I know there were times, but we emphasize, you know, the miracle at the end and we say, okay, you know everyone, just be happy about everything you know. And the reality is that getting there has some difficulties along the way and it's important that he does not let the questions that he has get him of a mind to think of God as something other than his Savior, as something other than the place I'm going to get my help from, and so from the beginning, he doesn change his uh mind about who god is. He doesn't create some theology about all the reasons god can't do it or god isn't interested in doing it.
Speaker 3:You know, one of the worst things you can do after dealing with a disappointment is try to theology, create some theology about why it couldn't happen. And then you know and try to say, well, god can't really be who he said he was. So he's absolutely confused, he's absolutely perplexed, he's so in the dark that he feels like God has brought all these things on him. I don't even know. I believe this is an inerrant record of what he was feeling at the time. I don't think it requires us to think that God really was judging him for something, because we don't see any evidence that he had been in any great sin or anything like that. I just believe he's in a place where he's like Lord. You know, you're the one who can fix it. You know all the things you led our fathers out of Egypt. You think you can just spare a minute and do something for your worship leader here in the tabernacle? So then you know and so, but in the middle of all that, he doesn't say, he does not let him start, he does not let himself begin to negotiate who God is.
Speaker 3:The second thing is that is encouraging is the fact that he continues to come. So, even in verse one, I've cried out day and night before you. You know, that's a little bit of a frustrated like God. I've done this, remember. You said to ask anything in my name and he'll be done. I've done it. I still don't see it. What's going wrong? But then what's verse two? Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry. In other words, I'm not done talking. Yeah, I'm not done crying out. I mean, jesus asked us to. He says ask and keep asking, seeking, keep seeking, knock and keep knocking. And so he continues, he continues to come, and he goes on. Verse nine he says again lord, I've called daily upon you, I have stretched out my hands to you. That's an expression of worship. I keep doing this, I keep worshiping. You know, I'm coming every day to work and saying it again the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever. And so we see this over and over. He says I've done it, I've done it, I've done it. And yet he keeps saying but hear me, and I'm raising my hand to you, and he's not stopping Now.
Speaker 3:I remember, I remember, years ago, uh, I might mention this again in a minute about between uh, he actually mentioned it again last month, but between 15 to 18 years ago. I remember, uh, uh, apostle Damon preached a message called the fight for faith, where he talked about, uh, thomas and John the Baptist. And how, you know, john the Baptist has this moment right where he is in prison and he's frustrated that Jesus is not doing all the things he expected Messiah to do, and perhaps, including getting him out, perhaps. And he is frustrated. He actually goes so far, he being John the Baptist, the one who pointed to Jesus and said you know, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And now he's sending messengers to Jesus saying are you the one or do I need to look for another one? Was I wrong about you being Messiah? Because you're not doing very Messiah-like things that I can see.
Speaker 3:And Jesus sends a kind of a rebuke back to the messengers, saying tell John. Basically, he says, tell John to stop being so selfish. The eyes, the blind eyes, are opening. The. You know the lepers are being cleansed. You know the uh, the uh, the cripples are walking. But yet he turns around to the public who were in front of him and begins to brag on John in the middle of it and says of of all the men born of women, there's never been one greater than John the Baptist. So Jesus is seeing, he gives John the critique that he needs at the moment, but he actually has never changed his opinion of John and he's publicly praising John to everybody else. Why don't you go into the wilderness to see A reed shaken by the wind? No, you say right. And then so John has this moment of doubt and we don't spend the rest of our lives calling him, doubting John.
Speaker 3:But Thomas gets really offended at the death of Jesus, can't believe. These people are telling me that Jesus has come back and I wasn't in the room and I know that if I believe this, I have to expose my heart to the pain of being let down again, because I thought he was about to rescue Israel and then he got crucified. And so Thomas is in this place where he doesn't believe and we've wanted to label him for that forever, but what he does is he continues when Jesus shows up and shows himself to Thomas and there's the famous story where he says put your hand in the nail marks and so on. Where was Thomas? He was in the room with Peter and James and John. Thomas, he was in the room with Peter and James and John, and if there was one place that I wouldn't want to have been, if I was still believing Jesus was dead and hurt that he wasn't there, it would have been around all those people that remind me of what it was like. But he, but he stayed, but he continued to stay in the room until eventually you had the moment where where God walked through his wall and and Jesus stepped through that wall and you know, and let him put his hand there. And this is just this incredible thing about staying Apostle uses.
Speaker 3:The language is the kind of the money quote of the sermon, that what do you need when it hurts too much to believe? You need a God who can walk through your walls. He actually revisited that a little bit about a month ago, on one of the recent Friday nights. But so Haman, here is in that place where he is remaining in the room. He is continuing to come day in and day out. He's presenting his case before the Lord and I don't know what he's dealing with and I don't know what's led him to this place, but he's not going to let it stop him from coming.
Speaker 3:And then a third thing is that. So there's this really interesting part of this, that this is part of this verse. It's from enough emotional distance, it's almost funny. But when you're living through it, I promise you it wasn't. But it's this part here it goes into, because he says at the beginning, verse three, he says my soul is full of troubles, my life draws near to the grave. You know, we don't know, was he sick? Was he having crisis in his family? Was there something war going on? What was happening? We don't know, but he is considering himself to be functionally a walking dead man as far as he's concerned. And he says here in verse 10, he says will you work wonders for the dead? Will the dead arise and praise you? Shall your loving kindness be declared?
Speaker 3:Put it in the context of remember what this man's call was, that he was one of the worship leaders of the tabernacle of David, which, I remind you, this is David sets up this tabernacle where the people gather around the presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant in violation of the Mosaic Law, mind you, because David actually saw Jesus in a vision, was able to prophesy his great-great-grandson coming to the throne, and he was able to get to some things before Jesus came, that other people in the old covenant didn't see. And so he realizes, you know, we can actually set musicians around the tabernacle and we can worship right in the presence of this thing that's supposed to kill. That just killed a guy a couple chapters ago. And so for 40 years, israel is enjoying this preview of the new covenant, where the prophets are going to say, during the exile, when they talk about the new covenant coming, they're going to say that God's going to rebuild the tabernacle of David that's fallen down, even though Solomon's going to build a temple that's prettier, right. God's going to say I'm bringing back the tabernacle of David because that's what the new covenant is going to be. And so he is living in the greatest outpouring of glory that was ever available in the old covenant.
Speaker 3:And he's in the middle of that, while he's going through this which is crazy, but what's really crazy? And he's been given this position as one of the worship leaders. He's one of the drummers, he's one of the songwriters, he's one of the singers position as one of the worship leaders. He's one of the drummers, he's one of the songwriters, he's one of the singers, he's leading the choir and his Lord, your good, your mercy and dearth forever.
Speaker 3:And in the middle of all that, he says you know, god, you called me to lead your people in worship and you know what I can't. You know when I can't do that, it's when I'm dead. I can't. I can't go lead the nation and worship is going to change the whole direction of salvation history here. If you kill me first, any of you ever felt like that? Listen, I can't go to the nations and go preach the gospel. I can't go bring the gospel of the kingdom to the Midwest. If you kill me, you have to keep me alive if this is going to work. You're the one who told me I didn't ask to go lead the people, and so you're the one who said put a symbol in my hand and said go lead the people. And I can't do it if I'm dead. God, and he's, he's just straight. If you want me to accomplish the thing, you put me here, you're going to have to come through for me, because I can't do this. And what's crazy about this and this is the third little shred of hope is that God actually gives Haman the opportunity to ask a question that Jesus is one day going to get to answer. Because the question is shall the dead arise and praise you? Will you work wonders for the dead? And Jesus becomes the ultimate answer to the question yes, I will Flip with me, if you would, for a minute to the book of 2 Corinthians. I felt a little wind on that one.
Speaker 3:If you go to 2 Corinthians excuse me, that's 1 Corinthians my bad. If you go to 2 Corinthians and verse 8, paul says this, for we do not want you to be ignorant brethren of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us, in whom we trust that he will still deliver us. That's 2 Corinthians 1. Now Paul is placed in a similar situation to Haman here, but he's on the other side of Jesus and so he sees some things that Haman couldn't see, because Haman looks at the situation and says God, I can't do the thing you've called me to do if you kill me and you've left me as good as dead. And Paul is feeling the same way in 2 Corinthians 1. And here's what he says. He says that we had the sins of death in ourselves, but we didn't trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. Because on the other side of Jesus, paul could feel like he was dead. He could feel like he was despairing even of life and know God will work wonders for the dead. It can look as dead as it can look. Jesus is the answer that the situation is not beyond reach.
Speaker 3:Second, I was in the middle. I don't know. This was maybe maybe eight, nine months ago. I was in the middle of one of the most difficult stretches of life I've ever had and I was in a prayer meeting and I felt a witness to go, start read, just to open up to second Corinthians and read Didn't know why, I just felt. So I start reading second Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and read Didn't know why, I just felt. So I start reading 2 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians is interesting. It's an interesting book because it's actually one of the most potent books of the scripture.
Speaker 3:It's from 2 Corinthians that we learn that any man that is in Christ is a new creature, that the old things have passed and all things have become new. It's in 2 Corinthians that we learn that he who knew no sin became sin in the flesh, that we might, through him, become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That's where we learn that, even as Moses' face shone under the lesser glory of the law, that the letter kills, but the spirit gives life, and so we should expect to reflect an even greater glory in the new covenant as our, as the veil is taken away in Christ and as we begin to learn that we were living epistles and that um and so forth, as uh second Corinthians begins to teach us about uh, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and how the outward man is perishing but the inward man is being renewed day by day and we are, as in a mirror, beholding the image of God being transfigured from all of these. It's from second Corinthians that we learned that the uh, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty, through God, for tearing down strongholds, and uh casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ, and all of these incredible revelations that Paul is writing. And if you go read the book Paul, you can feel the tear stains on the parchment that Paul is writing on, because the situation he writes into is a church that he planted, that he fathered, that he gave birth to, has betrayed him. He's been maligned, he's been slandered, he's been abandoned by his own spiritual children who are accusing him of all kinds of oh, he's too high and mighty for us, he doesn't care these people that he has labored for, and you can feel the pain he's having to deal with all this nonsense while he is facing persecution to the point of fear of his life. He's having to deal with all this nonsense while he is facing persecution to the point of fear of his life. He's out there risking his life for the gospel and the people he's led to the Lord are leading a whisper campaign against him. And you can feel this as you're reading Over and over 2 Corinthians.
Speaker 3:In the middle of all of these things, in the middle of all this revelation, you see words like sorrow, you see words like anguish, you see words like trouble over and over again. And it's in this place that Paul has to say that we're hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed. We're perplexed but not in despair. This is chapter 4, verse 9. Here we are persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. He goes in I believe it was earlier in that chapter where maybe it's in the next one where he talks about uh, you know, outside were pressures, inside were fears.
Speaker 3:Now we think of paul and we think of the guy who tells the ephesian church in his farewell speech, he's talking about all these difficult things and says none of these things move me. Yeah, right, that's how we think. We think of that Paul a lot and we think of the Paul who talks about how, all the things he endured and this is actually in 2 Corinthians, at one point where he talks about all the times he's been shipwrecked and the times he's been beaten and so on, and he presses on to the goal. We think of Paul as a sort of unflappable guy, but at one point, before he gets there, he goes through a season where he says he was despairing even of his own life. Now, three chapters later, he says we're perplexed, but not in despair, so God's brought him out of that place. But guess what? It doesn't mean that everything he's still confused a little bit, he's still perplexed, he's still hard pressed. It doesn't mean that life for Paul has suddenly been perfect.
Speaker 3:And it was in the middle and, as I'm opening that chapter in the, in that prayer meeting that day and and you know, I was going through a lot of difficulty and it was sort of if any of you I don't know if this is just a function of kind of growing up in like faith, pentecost or what it is but anybody ever feel like, when you're having a difficult time, that it means like're away from God somehow because you're sad. You're sad and therefore you might as well be in sin because you're in sorrow. We treat it like it's the same thing, and I began to see how Paul, in the middle of what sounds like it, could have been one of the greatest presses of his life it certainly sounds. If you read 2 Corinthians, you certainly get the sense that this might be one of the highest pressure situations that Paul's ever been in, and it's in that place that he's bringing forth all these incredible revelations that are still fueling the kingdom thousands of years later. You know, where would we be if he never writes chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians? And what is he going through when he writes it? He's hard-pressed, he's perplexed.
Speaker 3:I think one thing that Paul saw that maybe Haman didn't have the angle to see yet from the other side of the cross, was that Paul said he knows I can go through all of this. I saw when Jesus went through the worst suffering you can go through, and I saw what God brought through it. And so I can face all this with a certain confidence that Haman still questions if you kill me, what happens next? But Paul is able to see. In the midst of this he sees that God's working it for an eternal weight of glory. Right, right, I'm going to go ahead, and I was thinking it would take too long to go here, but I will.
Speaker 3:We sometimes have this idea, right, that we so. Faith, the scripture says, is a gift of God. Right, it's Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 1, it says that faith was the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. The very fact that we got saved in the first place was a gift of God to help us believe. Yes, but for some reason we have this instinct that when trouble comes, we feel like we have to bench press our way into faith by God believing hard enough. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 3:And I had an interesting thing happen a few years ago, so five years ago. My father passed away out of cancer, very unexpected. He he got sick. From the time he got diagnosed to when he died was only like six weeks and it was almost no time to even wrap our heads around it. You know, and um, you know he was, you know, less than 60 years old. You know terrible situation. And you know, if I don't know, if you remember those old does Seckis commercials about the most interesting man in the world, the, the actual most interesting man in the world was my father.
Speaker 3:Um, it's just a wild. Had this absolute wild story he'd been in like abject, you know poverty growing up and then he kind of, you know, went into like being drug muscled for a minute and then he gets saved, while he he's like running from a biker gang that he thinks is gonna kill him and he's like let me go home and tell mama goodbye and ends up getting drugged to meeting in a church high on heroin and then winds up, you know, getting saved. And then you know my mom was singing the altar call song as he got saved, wound up marrying the girl singing the altar call song as he, after he walked and then he got like so turns his life around, that like he ended up like God ended up making him like a millionaire working in finance and then he ended up being falsely accused of some stuff with the business partner was involved in and ended up in prison unjustly and then he walked out of that, you know. Then he walked out of that situation pretty shattered and you know when it kind of fell away, you know kind of lost his trust and you know, and when he was kind of backslidden some things he didn't backslide into bad little middle-class habits, you know. And so so we've had this wild story, you know as well. And so for years you know, 20 years we've been praying for him to sort of get back to the place of who he was or how he remembered. And then you know, and I remember, when he gets sick, like my first instinct is okay, this, this is, this is rough, but uh, I actually I think this will be the, this will be the thing that brings them back. This is where it's all going to turn. You know, it'll going to make them come face to face with everything we're going to. Everything's going to be all right After once through it, everything's going to be great, and then that's not how it goes.
Speaker 3:And then, and I was so convinced, I had so many list of reasons, of things I thought God had said, and I was so convinced that that God was about to turn it around that we kept praying for a couple of days after he was dead, because we figured, you know, and uh, cause we said, hey, god didn't lie, he could raise the dead, you know, so we're believing, even for even at that point. And so, obviously, you know, after all of that happens and you're running according to the script. This was supposed to work because we believed as much as we knew how to believe, you know. So you know, obviously I'd spend the next year having a little bit of a crisis of faith, not in the sense that I was ever going to leave Jesus, but just like do I really trust you to take care of things? Do I actually believe these prayers, things Do I actually believe these prayers matter? Can I actually believe these promises?
Speaker 3:And so we're about I don't know a year into this and we were having a church service at our church in South Carolina and we were outdoors because of pandemic reasons, which was a sore displeasure because our church was next to a chicken processing plant and every so often the wind would catch and we would be in the middle of church and I'd be like, oh, what's happening? So we're out here. So we were outside during one of these days and actually Pastor Bryn Waddell, who's the associate in Mobile, now he's a lead pastor in Charlotte, north Carolina at the time he was guest speaking and he came in and he preached this incredible message about where Paul there's this story in Acts where Paul is in prison, right and unbeknownst to Paul, a bunch of people are conspiring to murder him. And so God providentially arranges things so that one of Paul's cousins happens to be around to hear the whispers of Paul's assassination. And so Paul's cousin is able to go to people in high places and someone in the Roman government rules in his favor and they move Paul out of his prison cell and spare his life. But at the time that Paul is taken out of his prison cell, he doesn't know where he's going. Yeah, and right before you know, he had been given a promise that he was going to go preach the gospel to Rome, which was a big deal because the city was functionally the capital of their world. And so he's going to bring the gospel to Rome. And then he's in prison and now all of a sudden he's getting carted off in the night.
Speaker 3:And Pastor Brin preached this incredible message about God's moving you in the dark. And you're in the middle of this great you know you're in the middle of darkness, but God's moving things in a way that's going to fulfill the word. And I'm sitting there like knowing that, like you know that at any other period of my life I'd have been like up and hucking and bucking and shouting. I would have been running laps around that, that church, I'd have been just fanning, I mean, you know, running on tops of the backs of the pews. Just, you know, right, I would. You know I would. And I'm sitting here, I'm like god, I just don't have it in me to chat with this like I don't know. I don't know, are you really gonna? Are you really doing anything right now? You know, are you really taking care of any of this?
Speaker 3:And so he ends up giving an altar call for people struggling with faith. So I answered the altar call because I felt like I was struggling with faith. So I'm standing there in the altar and I hear the Lord speak one of the clearest and strangest things I've ever heard, which is that I was standing in the altar, I was crying, I was like, oh God, I don't believe you, I don't know what's going on here and I feel the Lord say you believe God. It's like no, no God, I don't. I know you're supposed to be omniscient, but let me explain.
Speaker 3:The man of God gave the altar call for people who don't have faith. I answered because I don't, I'm just trying to explain, and this is how it works. And I began to hear again like an echo. You believe God? No, as a matter of fact, god I don't. You lied. You said that we could lay hands on the sick and we'd see them recover. And we laid hands on him a bunch of times and he did not recover. I don't believe you. And I heard it again that you believe God. And I heard it again that you believe God and after about like the fifth time, I started to actually say, okay, this must be something.
Speaker 3:And what I began to learn, and kind of what that kind of sent me into, is this realization that a lot of times see one thing that we need to understand about regeneration, which was a gift of God that came of faith, not of works, as anyone should. Both we were saved by grace through faith. The faith was a gift and that means that your new nature, your regenerated nature, you are a faith being. Your nature is to believe. Doubt is not natural to you. That's why it doesn't feel good when you have it. We a lot of times labor under the impression that we're naturally doubters and we're trying to work ourselves into being faith people. We believe that we are doubt people by nature and that we're trying to work ourselves into being faith people. We believe that we are doubt people by nature and that we're trying to work ourselves into being faith people. But the reality is our born again spirit man, our nature, is that we're faith people. That's who we are.
Speaker 3:And so think about it when everyone the most famous verse of the faith movement right was Mark 11, was it 29, ben, I can't remember. But the verse where he says you know, if you have faith, have faith in God, whatsoever you ask that you shall receive. Most scholars agree that that verse should have said have the faith of God, meaning it came from outside. It's not that you had to put faith in God as an act. It was. You had to have God's faith, which only comes as a gift in the first place. But you have it, or else you wouldn't have been born again 1122. Right, you were only born again because you received faith that came from outside of yourself as a gift of Holy Spirit. And that same Holy Spirit is also how you grow, how you use your faith in any other area of life.
Speaker 3:And so what I began to see is that a lot of times we think that we don't believe because there's still mental static up here and we want to associate ourselves with it. We want to lay claim to it and say this is me. I'm full doubt, I'm doubting time. I don't. I don't believe all this stuff. I've got you, know I. What's the problem with me? I have all these promises I haven't seen and I'm still frustrated about them. And why is this? If I was really a man of faith, I'd be at p and we have all these questions about ourselves.
Speaker 3:But the reality is, uh, that stuff is not what's. Your faith is actually more real than your doubt is. I'm not saying you're dead. I'm not saying it's important that you don't partner with doubt. It's important that you don't water those seeds. There's there's some tending to the mind. There's some value in you know, memorizing and confessing the word and trying to drive out those remnants of things. There's value in that. But the reality is God being able to use your faith is not dependent on every last little piece of mental questioning being driven out of your.
Speaker 3:You don't have to be in 100 psychological certainty before god will answer your prayer, or else we would all be up the creek. You know how many times. You know if, if you hear enough stories about people that laid hands on the sick and saw incredible things happen. You'll hear stories over and over. I was at the end of the day, I was exhausted, I didn't have any faith left, I believe. But somehow, and if you go, we'll go one more, one more scripture and I'll begin to bring it around here.
Speaker 3:But mark uh nine here, but Mark 9. Mark 9 and 14, it says and when he, being Jesus, came to the disciples this is right after this is Jesus is coming off of the Mount Transfiguration. And when he, jesus, came to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them and scribes disputing with him. And immediately when they saw them, all the people were greatly amazed and running to him, greeted him. And he asked the scribes what are you discussing with them? And then one of the crowd answers teacher, I brought you my son, who has a mute spirit, and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. And so I spoke to your disciples, but they could not cast it out. That they could cast it out, but they could not. Now let's stop and put ourselves in this man's position. That he brings this boy to him, uh and uh.
Speaker 3:The other gospels will. The parallel accounts will let us know that, whatever this, the spirit has this uh boy not speaking and has him going into all these contortions and rigidity and so on. It also has caused him to throw himself into fire and into water. And the problem is, imagine if your son had a spirit in him that every time he gets around fire and water he's trying to throw himself into it. And imagine the toll that it would take on you to have to watch and tend to.
Speaker 3:And this is not a world where you can go get a case of water at Sam's Club, a world where you can go get a case of water at Sam's Club. This is a place where, if you need water to drink to live, you have to go to a well or to a body of water and draw water. You don't have running water in your house where you can give him a nice little shower. If you need to wash, if he's going to bathe, he's going to need to be in the water. You don't have an electric oven. If you're going to cook food, you are going to have to light a fire. You don't have heat. If you're going to be warm at night in the winter, you're going to have to light a fire.
Speaker 3:Now, this being their situation, imagine if their son, every time he's around fire and every time he's around water, wants to commit suicide, hurling himself into it. And what it would take out of you as a parent to try to guard this every moment of your life. And then, on top of that, you're dealing with the condemnation of how you, as an Israelite, allowed your son to get demon possessed. How did that even happen? So that's the situation this man is in when he goes to the 12 disciples of Jesus, the people, jesus's direct spiritual sons, the 12 disciples of Jesus, the people, jesus's direct spiritual sons, the ones who have been following the Messiah around for three years, learning all of his things, and Peter and James and John, and Bartholomew and Nathaniel. None of them can do a thing. And that's where Jesus steps in.
Speaker 3:And Jesus steps in in verse 19. He says he answered him and he said oh, faithless generation, how long shall I bear with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me. So then they brought him to him, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
Speaker 3:And so he asked his father how long has this been happening to him? And he said from childhood, and often he has thrown himself both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. I want you to hear his voice when he says if you can do anything. The doubt's already wearing on him. Man, just from time, this has been your life for this long. From childhood you've had to do this, dealing with your son foaming at the mouth. If you can do anything, please have compassion on us. So he's asking, first off, can you do it? And the second thing do you care, do you have compassion? Two questions Do you have compassion and can you do anything in the first place? So verse 23 says so.
Speaker 3:Jesus said to him if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Now, out of context, that's an amazing thing to be told when you're going through life and everything's going well and someone says you know, if you believe, you can have anything. All things are possible to him who believes. Well, bless God, hallelujah, we can begin to lift her, we can pray for anything and it'll be done, this is awesome. But when you're that man and you're told can you do anything? It says if you believe that phrase, if you believe, I bet, haunted that man. Immediately You're going to tell me that me being able to fix this kid or this kid being able to get fixed is dependent on whether I can believe. And then meanwhile my mind has been beaten up for 10 years by trying to keep this kid from burning himself to death. And you're going to tell me if I can just think happily, if I can just believe, if I can just let go, brother, this is going to work, but I love what the man says.
Speaker 3:Verse 24,. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears this Verse 24, immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. And at this point did Jesus say sorry, I need you to have not a creeping doubt left in your brain before I can do anything. Did Jesus say, no, I need you to do penance for all the times you grumbled and complained, all the years where you wondered or was no, what Jesus says?
Speaker 3:When Jesus saw that the people came, came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to a deaf and dumb spirit I command you, come out of him and enter him, no more. And then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly and he came out of him and he became as one dead, so that many said he is dead. But jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. And when he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately why could we not cast it out? So he said to them this kind can come out by nothing but prayer.
Speaker 3:So we see that Jesus didn't give a lecture about all these ways. He just said you gave your heart enough to say. When he said, I believe, help my unbelief, he acknowledged there's some stuff up here that isn't where it's supposed to be yet, but I'm trusting you enough to know that you can help me with that. I'm trusting you enough that I can receive something from you. I believe that you can help me in my unbelief. And really that's all Jesus needed to hear, because faith wasn't supposed to come from inside of us anyway. It was supposed to come from the Holy Ghost. It was a grace in the beginning. So let me I'll end with this Let me take you real circle back around to our friend Haman, back in the Old Covenant and just see how this ends up, because in 2 Chronicles 25, excuse me, almost done, actually, let me see, maybe it's the here, excuse me, maybe it's 1 Chronicles Hold on, yeah, yeah, there we go.
Speaker 3:There we go, because in 1 Chronicles 25, here's what it says about Chronicles Hold on, yeah, there we go. Because in 1 Chronicles 25, here's what it says about Haman. And I don't know where all these things are in the timeline. I don't know how early he was into his worship-leading career here when he had whatever crisis prompted that psalm, but here's where it ended 1 Chronicles 25, 5, it says In all these, excuse me, he said.
Speaker 3:In verse 1 it says, moreover, david and the captains of the army, separated for the service, some of the sons of Asaph, of Haman and Jonathan, who should prophesy with harps, stringed instruments and cymbals, and the number of skilled men performing the service was. And it gives you a couple classic Old Testament verses where it lists 18,000 people's names. And then then it says in verse four, it says of Haman, the sons of Haman, and he begins to list 14 sons that Haman had, and here's what it says about them, verse five and all these were the sons of Haman, the king seer, in the words of God, to exalt his horn. For God gave Haman 14 sons and three daughters, and all these were under the direction of their father, for the music and the house of Yahweh, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and so, literally, how does his story go? It ends with him in the temple, with being given 14 sons who were leading worship together with him in the tabernacle of david, and it specifically says, specifically says of them that god gave them those to exalt his horn, which is, you know, that's prophetic language of the old covenant for to honor him, to bring him to a place of authority, to bring him to an exalted place, and notice that there is where he is called the king seer, in the words of God, that even David would begin to go to this man for wisdom and then watch.
Speaker 3:The last time he shows up is in 2 Chronicles 5-6, where it specifically lists him by name as one of the people that is in the building when the ark of God comes into the temple of solomon and we have heard the story our whole lives about how the ark is dedicated and the and the, the singers, begin to cry out saying, uh, the lord is good and his mercy endures forever and the shekinah, glory of god, begins to fill the room so completely and so thoroughly, with such power that the priest cannot even stand to minister because he sticks with whatever, whatever and whenever his crisis was.
Speaker 3:Because he continued.
Speaker 3:He ends up in the place where he gets to be, in the room, when the shekinah comes and leaves him and his brother and his 14 sons with him under the weight that they can't stand under, with their cymbals dropped on the floor, their trumpets are dropped on the floor and the cloud is so thick that they can't move, and the presence of God begins to sit with Israel in a way it's never set before, and he was able to be there for that because he endured in a moment where he said Lord, where are you, ben?
Speaker 3:If you have any thoughts about how to wrap this, I think I'm about done here, let me see. Yeah, I don't know what we're supposed to do. I think that's about it, but I just want you to see one the fact that it was okay for him to be as honest with God as he was, and God accepted that as worship and left it in our psalter. But also because he hung around, we get to see how he ended up and we get to see what Paul says on the other side. Will God work wonders for the dead? Yes, he will have at it there, bro.
Speaker 1:I don't really have anything to add to that. I don't think these children are getting a bit restless on us, so I'm mindful of the restlessness of the kids as well. I hope you heard what he said when he said it was okay for him to be as honest with the Lord as he was in that Psalm. And the Lord so revered that man's honesty that he made sure that ended up in our Bible Almost like the Lord was giving us a roadmap for how to deal with difficulty. Yahweh in his wisdom saw a seer who was going through some internal difficulty and said there are going to be people in the generations to come who are going to need help navigating challenge. And he didn't edit Haman's thoughts, he didn't dovetail it into oh Lord, he didn't have somebody add in. But oh Lord, you're going to bring the breakthrough, like we like to do in church. He left it there and said it's really okay with me for you to be honest with me in difficulty, but the only requirement is that you be honest with me. That's the only requirement In this book that I'm beginning to read. I say beginning to read because I'm notorious about reading about a chapter and then coming back to it about a year later. So in this book I'm beginning to read, beginning to pray, our dear Orthodox brother I'm going to pull it over here because I need to see his name Anthony Bloom. That's how long it's been since I opened it is. I need to look at it again, lou, you know my struggle.
Speaker 1:I'm sure he says to us there there are a couple of ways in which God is absent in our prayers, and one of the ways in which God is absent in our prayers is when we approach him as an imposter. So I think one of the challenges in the moment of being challenged or having our faith challenged and I loved what Luke said when he said faith will put you into a scenario that leads you into challenge your faith will put you in the middle of a fight you didn't pick. Faith will pick a fight for you. That's the title of a book. I'm not going to go down that road. I was going to make fun of about 15 different things and then I decided not to right there. The only way, one of the ways that God is absent from us in our prayer and in our seeking, is when we approach him like an imposter.
Speaker 1:One of the challenges of navigating difficulty is to hold the balance of being extremely disappointed and not feeling like you have to be religious in your approach to God. He doesn't need, he doesn't need you to say I know it's going to be okay, he doesn't need you to recite religious euphemisms or religious things that would make you feel better about the fact that you're bringing your heart to the Lord and your heart being in a difficult place. It may be a whole lot of complaining, it might even be accusation, but the quickest way to get him to stop dealing with you in that scenario is to then add in your religious duty of but I know you're God and you're good and you're good all the time and God's good and God's good all the time and it's going to be okay. Yeah, that's true, but that's not honest to you at the moment and I'm not giving you permission to feed your depression or feed your anxiety or feed your trouble, but I am giving you permission to lay it before the Lord and say this is exactly how I feel and I'm going to contend this.
Speaker 1:Luke, because he stayed, he was able to be there when the glory wasn't just able to be there, he was able to be leading the people in worship, ushering in the glory of ushering in the glory of the Lord. That was so thick that the priest could not stand to minister. He was leading the people in worship into that moment. I'm going to contend this Because he stayed. I'm going to say because he was honest before the Lord in that season of his life, he was able to remain until he ushered in the glory of the Lord. The ability to remain hinged upon his honesty with the Lord in that moment of difficulty, and that's so applicable to my life right now, luke that's extremely helpful to me and I'm thankful for the word you brought.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and I know there are a few of us that are navigating some challenging waters and if you'll take this and meditate on it, this will help you File it away for a time. If you're not going through a hard time, I'm so happy you're not going through a hard time. I'm glad there's no challenges. File it away and come back to this when the challenge begins to come, because what this will do is it will give you a roadmap. So it's like having a raft guide on a whitewater river. It's going to help you navigate the whitewater when the challenge gets there. It's going to teach you how to avoid capsizing and getting turned over.
Speaker 1:That's what this message is for us. So it says that the early church, what they do, they remained in the doctrine of their apostles, or something thereof. They were continually rehearsing the apostles' doctrines. Part of that was because they didn't have any doctrines and so they were getting them as the apostles got them. But one of the ways that you honor the gift that Yahweh brings to you that's Shout hallelujah, sis, it's about over, it's my air horn, it's done.
Speaker 1:This is my last comment. One of the ways that you honor the gift Yahweh brings to you is that you meditate on it and you don't just hear it once and let it go. Keep it in front of you and take the treasure the Lord highlights to you from it and give weight to it. And if you'll do that, this particular message from Luke will be help for you in your faith life. So I think that's all I have to say. Luke, we're thankful man, thank you.
Speaker 1:Y'all give Luke a round of applause. We're going to do the religious thing where we clap my God, oh, clap offering. Before Give a clap offering and then make sure we give a money offering. We're not just going to clap. We're going to clap and here's some money. That hit me in the right spot. All right, we're going to be back next week. We're going to, uh, find a good rhythm for these Sunday gatherings, but, um, this was our first Sunday. We'll be. We'll be back next Sunday and then we can release the children. We're going to let them go. Um, there is a bouncy house out there that they can jump on, but there is water in it, so if you don't want them to get wet, maybe don't let them jump on it, cause they're going to end up claiming or really getting pushed one. We're still a little bit unclear on what actually happened, but we love y'all.
Speaker 1:Oh, one more announcement. One more announcement. One more announcement. We are going to have and I want you to start preparing for this and start thinking about people to bring to this we're going to have we had a, uh, a one-year celebration, uh, on the anniversary of our first year of beginning our gatherings. Um, well, we did that last year. I'm leading that into saying we're going to do that again this year. We're going to do that on our set. We haven't set a date for it yet, but we'll have like a two-year celebration and I'm considering going two days with this. I'm considering going Friday and Saturday, or Saturday and Sunday. Probably Friday night, saturday night, I'm considering going.
Speaker 1:So start getting your mind wrapped around that we're going to bring a guest in I've still got to confirm with him, but we're going to bring a guest, a guest in to help us worship the Lord again. It's CJ. Cj is going to come back. Cj is coming back. Cj is coming back. He and I were texting this week and I was like, hey, buddy, you want to come back? And he's like I was just about to text you that it was about time for us to get back together and I said, yes, CJ, yes it is, it is time. I feel the witness of the Lord in my heart, um and um. So we're going to confirm with him on dates and then I'll get that to you as quickly as I can.
Speaker 1:Two things, two things with that. Start thinking about people to bring with you, to people that you know that are suffering with infirmity in their body. Bring them your entire neighborhood, bring your whole building. Bring your whole building, lucy. Well, we're going to. Probably we're going to. I'll let you know. We've got a venue in mind for where we're going to do it. It has a kitchen with it, so we'll probably share a meal there too. Anyway, cj is going to be back with us, so start wrapping your mind around that, start praying about who to bring to that and start now planning to give an offering to that. So I made a vow to you that I would always let you know when we're going to have special guests. We can start planning to give. So plan to give when cj comes and anyway, that's going to be it. We love y'all and for those of you that have been viewing with us, I don't know if we have any viewers, but we're thankful you came get it off. Get it off, turn it off.