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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
As we continue praying the Psalms today, we come to Psalm 70. Please, god, rescue me. Come quickly, lord, and help me. May those who try to kill me be humiliated and put to shame. May those who take delight in my trouble be turned back in disgrace.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Let them be horrified by their shame for they said, We've got them now. But may all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you. May those who love your salvation repeatedly shout, god is great. But as for me, I am poor and needy. Please hurry to my aid, oh god.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You are my helper and my savior, oh lord. Do not delay. By a way of reflection, notice the urgency of David's prayer. Verse one, come quickly. Down there in verse five, please hurry to my aid.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And then at the end of that verse, lord, do not delay. He longs for God to act quickly, which again is, a tension for us as Christians as you find yourself today moving according to your pace, according to your schedule, according to deadlines that you must deal with. Time is relative when it comes to God. And there is a way in which he has a patience about him that we also need to embrace for our own lives. But I love that God's patience never silences us to say, God, would you get here?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:God, would you get here and help me today? I love that he invites us to consider that there is joy and gladness for those who search you even in the face of maybe dealing with people who are difficult to love, who maybe wanna seek your harm. There is still an invitation for you to search for God today and to find joy and gladness in his presence. But I also love verse five that I wanna I want us to zone in on. But as for me, I am poor and needy.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Like me, maybe you struggle to just acknowledge and humble yourself enough to say, god, I am in need today. Maybe you grew up in a situation where your neediness was a problem for other people and so you would like to project that you got it all together today. But Jesus invites us in prayer to be honest with the reality that we are needy people and God is not bothered by our neediness. In fact, I'm reminded of how Jesus instructed us to pray in the Lord's prayer, give us today our daily bread. You and I have daily needs, and I think it's profoundly free for us to just say in prayer, God, I am poor and needy.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I did not wake up feeling, full, fat, and blessed. That's not me today. I am poor and I am in need. Would you meet me in my neediness? And and in so doing, realize that God is not bothered.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He's not exhausted with you. He doesn't grow tired of dealing with your neediness. And so, Jesus, by way of your invitation, we hear you now inviting us to respond with these words, I am poor and needy today. Would you come? Would you fill us with your spirit?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And as we ask for our daily bread to be met, would you meet us? Would you help us with the neediness of our family relationships? Would you help us with the neediness of our job, with the financial needs that we have, with the physical burdens that we carry? We are needy today, god. We open our hands like beggars and we say, god, would you meet our needs?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Would you fill us? And we know that the confidence we can take is because of Jesus and what he's done for us on the cross. If he has given us life over death, then what is keeping us from believing that he won't also meet our needs? And so, Lord, we look to you with hope now. In Jesus' name, amen.