Well.
Good morning. Flip side. All right.
This is the this is the second group.
So I know you guys are ready for today, Yeah.
You guys got the extra sleep in?
Yeah.
Some of you guys.
No, no. Sean, you didn't get extra sleep? No.
All right, here we go, then.
Real quick, man.
Just want to thank Pastor Carl.
And you guys, for some of you guys, I have, like, a family update.
And for some of you guys are going to be like, we ain't never heard of you.
So, haven't been hearing about, about three years ago.
Pastor Carl let me go.
And, I originally took over a, let you go as an FYI.
No, no, no, he didn't let me go.
He he he he blessed me out. There you go.
He blessed me out, and I went, and I took over a Korean Presbyterian church.
And I know a lot of you guys are like, dude, that guy is not Presbyterian.
Neither am I Korean either. So,
the coolest thing is that I was actually the English
speaking pastor of that church for two years.
Got to leave them.
And now we have planted a church, called Remedy Chapel.
And we are in Fresno.
Right across the street from Fresno City College.
So I got some updates for you guys.
My wife couldn't be here today.
Because, you know, obviously we got another church that we have to do.
So, I brought my my my my team with you here.
I got, my niece Olivia, who's, home from Cal Baptist
for about another month, and, and, my good man right here.
John, Nathaniel.
And we just wanted to come here to.
That's why the first time they ever got clapped for y'all.
Yeah.
Don't get used to it, but,
just wanted to come here today just to thank you guys.
The the way that you guys give and support excel in the man,
and the the way that Pastor Carl leaves this church,
it does more than you can ever imagine or think.
Not just locally, but you even saw the pictures of,
you know, over in different countries.
It's just an amazing job.
I, I'm, I'm grateful for the way that you guys support and give,
because we are a church that is reaping the benefits of, not just your giving,
but in allowing Pastor Carl to disciple me continuously as a pastor.
You know, I learn from him that most senior pastors,
tend to like, stop at that stage where nobody else.
They don't they don't they, like, stopped giving,
discipled or stopped getting mentored.
But I'm grateful that
I have this man to do that for me.
So thank you guys so much for allowing, his time
and his efforts the way that you guys serve and give and love on this community.
So I'm really appreciative to this.
This is home for me.
Again, for some of you guys are like, you know, who are you?
And if for some of you guys, you guys kind of remember me, you know?
You know, I'm only 350 pounds of Mountain Dew that used to be here. So,
And now I'm back.
So I thank you guys again for allowing me to be here.
I do have some updates.
Miranda and my wife are doing these pictures, so I don't know.
There we go.
I remember first service now. Okay.
That is me and my wife, my daughter Sharon,
who's now five months, and my son Mateo, who is three years.
Some of the guys that we're working with, children's.
Remember him? Yeah.
He he's only gotten worse. You know,
you know,
whenever we get updates from the kids ministry, every kid at.
Oh, they're doing so great.
But, you know, there's just that one kid, and it happens to be Mateo.
So please pray for my son.
This is our after.
This is the picture after our first baptism.
So this is the kind of crew,
yeah.
Solid people.
This is, kind of the demographic of what our church kind of looks like
because there, we have a lot of Fresno City College, athletes.
Because so we're right across the street.
So we get the football players, the ball players, and it's fun.
It's cool like that.
You can go to the next slide.
And this is, this is kind of how we look.
This is, Yeah,
this is what Sunday's look like.
We are not.
We are running out of a building called Every Neighborhood Partnership.
It's a local nonprofit organization in Fresno.
That partner churches with, local elementaries.
So we're using their facility right now.
And. Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's, I think that's it. Right? Cool.
Let's give that up after that. Yeah. Let's go to church.
Let's do some some scripture reading now.
That's cool. Just real quick.
Pastor Carl asked me if I wanted to use his tool,
and I said, I don't think you want me to break your stool.
Now, the funniest thing is that the store that was in that picture,
I actually broke that stool
right there.
So, Yeah, I won't do any sitting any time soon.
Got to make sure one is,
you know, big man certified. So,
we we we, so I'll be standing here today.
Is that good?
Amen. Amen.
Let's dive into the scriptures. As Pastor Carl said.
We will be, in the Psalm of 107.
And we will go through.
Again, just the, the what it means or what it is showing.
This is a a psalm of salvation, of thanksgiving.
And this shows, again, God's unfailing love for his people.
It brings the healing part to a lot of the the groups of people that are in here.
Now. There's four different groups that we will see in this Psalm.
And it is, one of the groups is those that have wandered or are those
that have been lost. Have you guys ever been there before,
especially before you knew Christ, right.
But you were wandering in. You were lost.
And then there's the the Solomon that will write about another group
that those that were that sat or sit in their darkness.
You guys ever been there before now?
Okay, man, I forget, you know, we're in the Ranchos.
You guys are good. Yes.
Here.
Nothing goes wrong out here.
You guys are good.
But he talks about the those that have
sat in darkness or sit in darkness.
The next group he identifies is the group that was full of their own foolishness.
Now, I think we all can attest to that.
Amen. Amen.
Those that are, just because of their own doing
was just stuck in their foolish ways.
And then he attacks the next group.
Well, he identifies the next group as those that are in the storm.
I don't know
about you, but I have in my life from time
or to especially before I knew Christ dealt with all four.
And now even being a Christ, Christ follower,
I still have gone through the motions of all four.
Sometimes, sometimes, even if you examine yourself enough,
even into the depth of probably all four together.
And again, this is not me.
This is just you.
An examination of your life to the scriptures
and our our base foundation will be verse 20.
So 107, verse 20. I'll read it real quick.
He sent his word and it healed them and delivered them from their destruction.
Now that is a a common theme that you're going to see throughout this
psalm as we walk through.
They were in the troubles.
God sent his word, or or God saved them from their distress, and he healed them.
God saved them.
He delivered them, and he healed them. God saved them.
He delivered them, and he healed them.
It's a common theme that you will see in the Psalm 107.
I think the next slide is,
Jehovah Rapha is
broken down to the God who heals.
And some of you guys might, just
might just need to feel some healing here today.
Might you just walk in some healing here today?
The cure the to make whole again.
And for those that don't believe, you may have to at least consider
walking through these scriptures with us here today.
But for the believer, this may just be something
that encourages you, or this may be something that reminds you
of God's faithfulness and his unfailing love upon your life.
Sound good?
Yeah.
Let's pick up in verse one.
I'll give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Amen.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so
whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
Now before you and I came to Christ,
for those that are believers in here before you and I came to Christ.
We were in the hands and we were in the grasp of the enemy.
We didn't know who Christ was.
For we live this life
in the way that culture in the world has taught us
to live this life.
And we were enemies of God
and the only thing that we deserved before coming to Christ,
the only thing that we deserve was the wrath of God.
Yeah.
Can you make that distinction?
See, to see the truth in that.
And knowing that before Christ, all I deserved in
my humanity was his wrath.
But there was no good separated from Christ.
It was good.
Understand it? Good. Yeah.
I know y'all heard that many times.
I'm not the first one to tell you guys that.
Pick up in verse four.
Now we.
Now we, identify the first group.
They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way.
They found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty.
Their soul fainted in them.
And they cried out to the Lord in the trouble.
And he delivered them from their distress.
They wandered in the wilderness.
Many will say that Solomon is referring to the Israelites
physically of how they wandered.
And they they they went out.
They tried to do their own thing because they were so rebellious.
They didn't want to do what, you know, they didn't want to be led.
And the manna wasn't good enough.
Like they wanted to find more. They wanted to go look for more and.
But you look at
yourself in this in a spiritual way
of this understanding of life.
And some of you guys are probably still in a place where you are
wandering physically and spiritually.
Some of you guys are probably just, you know, I, I go to church
because I know I'm supposed to be at church.
It's Sunday.
You know, football's not here.
There's nothing else to do.
So I might as well go to church.
Some of you guys, or even those that have come to know
who Christ is and have come to the faith, still, at times
find yourself lost within this whole idea
of Christianity.
And rather, it's your soul that wanders your mind that wanders your.
Your physical ness. Wanders.
Have you ever been in a place like that before?
Yeah.
Where you just wandered.
Where you went to try to find something to fill it.
And there was nothing.
And then maybe just for that, for that time period.
It felt good. It looked good. It was good.
But yeah, it it was left you so empty
and it led you back to square one.
What?
You're lost and you're wandering again.
It's kind of the cycle of life.
And a nonbeliever
where they are always come
looking for something, and then they find something that they think fulfills them.
And then they, they, they, they plant their feeling that in them. Bam!
Something happens that takes them out.
So then they're lost in their wandering again.
It's the cycle of the nonbeliever, because there's no foundation in their life.
There's
nothing that will continue to complete that void
because they are looking for something
apart from Christ.
Amen.
Thank you. Sean.
Verse seven, he led them in the right way
that they might find a city to dwell in.
Oh, man.
To give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful
works for the children of men.
Verse nine.
For he satisfy satisfies the longing soul,
and he fills the hungry soul
with his goodness.
He fills the hungry soul with goodness.
So many guys don't know how that feels, because you have never
felt God's goodness in your life.
Some of you guys have never experienced
that because you have yet to say yes to who Christ is.
And though culturally and worldly,
you may seem as a good person,
but for the believer we
know that there is nothing good apart from Christ.
So I can't be filled with goodness because my life.
Is an attached
and isn't tethered to the gospel of Jesus.
So for the nonbeliever, this life of my soul longing
will continue to be the case
until you attach your life
to the one that gives life.
Amen.
Amen. Open up to the.
Now we go into verse ten, where now we open it
up to another group that he's identifying here in the Solomon's.
The Solomon identifies verse ten, those who sat in darkness
and in the shadow of the death,
bound in affliction and irons,
because they rebelled against God's word of their belt,
against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High,
those that sat in darkness.
You examine your life enough, as Paul
would say, when you look at your life
and the years that you have spent sitting in darkness,
the years that you probably have set
wallowing in the depth
of difficulty and hardships in your life.
I was,
I was gone this past, the past weekend.
I work for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
So we got to take,
74 couples to Monterey.
Announcing that
I wish I was there again right now,
being by the beach.
We were at, Carmel, and we spent about four days.
We had a chaplain for the,
I don't know why I keep mentioning LA Chargers.
Come and speak to the coaches and their spouses.
We even had a guy that came in.
The financial thing is just what we do.
We provide these services to love on these coaches.
Because here's the thing.
And Pascale knows because he's a coach,
if you can change a coach, you can change a program.
And yeah, if a coach can be transformed by the gospel of Jesus,
watch that program be transformed.
Now, that doesn't always necessarily mean wins.
I'm focus on
that because that probably won't come.
Focus
on the goodness of God working through you and your players.
Right. So that's what we do.
And it was a great time.
Even one of the, couples got baptized in Carmel by the, you know, Carmel Beach.
You know, who wouldn't want to be baptized in Carmel?
You know, sand is so why it's beautiful.
Okay.
And then it's time
we came back home and I was excited about Monday.
I was like, oh, man,
you know, we're going to get after it, you know, got some rest in.
It was good weekend.
Wake up.
My garage breaks.
Right.
It's just totally it's it's hanging on by a thread on my.
And at my house now,
you know, if I have a couple people come see it, you know,
and they told me the price, I said, yeah, you can probably go home now. Hey.
Me and my knees get ready.
We're about to go to the gym
because you guys, I mean, you guys all see I need the gym
and my car takes a dump on a drive, like,
halfway around the block, and the engine just shut off.
I was like, oh, no.
Get back to the house.
And this is before 9 a.m..
I don't know about you, but I don't know.
I was just in that place of just like, just darkness.
There's just like this hardship going on.
So I just
I saw Pascal earlier today.
I was like, you know, I, I don't know if you've ever been there,
but I was just in a place, you know what God just added on
like it's I'm already there.
It's 9 a.m..
And again, these
are materialistic things, but, you know, there are things that I need
to live, right?
So I'm just like just just just just add it on. God.
I wake up the next morning with a sprained ankle.
Now you guys can example.
Now you can examine me.
Imagine the 350 pound dude relying on one leg
to operate life.
It wasn't good.
I barely got better on Friday.
Thank the Lord.
Right.
But it was just one of those things
where I was just sitting there and just wallowing in my pain
and the hardship that came.
I was just like, man, God, just pour it on, man man as well.
Yeah.
If it's if it's if it's going to happen and let it happen today, this Monday, this
this Monday shot. Anyways.
Just, just just bring it on.
Yes. Ever been in that place before?
Oh yeah.
Well we were.
Darkness is just like you're so comfortable with sitting in it
because the difficulty of life,
because of the heaviness of life.
So because those things are so real and they are.
And while they get into the emotions and the feelings around you and it
it causes this burden
and it causes people to just sit in their darkness.
And this is what the psalmist is trying to identify.
This group.
I don't know if you again, I don't know if you guys have ever been there,
but I know that for me, that was a hardship.
It was such a hard, hard Monday for.
But here's the understanding of this.
Jesus says in the Gospel of John, verse
eight through 12 or chapter in verse 12,
he says, Then Jesus spoke again, saying that I am the light of the world.
He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
So the believer, this is the believer can.
Although
emotions and feelings may feel the heaviness of the darkness of this life.
You and I as a believer, the carriers of the light of Christ
cannot walk in darkness.
Turn back to Psalm 107,
verse 12.
He said, therefore he brought down their heart.
They fell down, and there was none to help.
Here he goes again. Verse 13.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble.
He saved them out of their distress.
He brought them out of the darkness.
And the shadow of death.
He broke the chains into pieces.
Oh, that man would give thanks to the Lord
for his goodness and for his wonderful works.
To the children of men.
For he broke the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron into two.
Amen.
He saved them.
This is a common theme that you will see throughout one Psalm 107.
People are in distress.
God heals and he saves and he delivers.
Doesn't leave them there.
He delivers them from it.
People are in their foolishness. People are.
And people are in their wandering, in their lostness.
God saves them, heals them, delivers them.
People under darkness.
God saves them, heals them, delivers them.
Now we're going to talk about those that are foolish.
Anybody in here right?
Yeah.
Look at all the wives.
Look at their husbands.
Just caught up in some foolishness.
Now he identifies the group of fools
that are just stuck in their own ways
and just don't see no reason to be transformed by the gospel.
I just don't see no reason of why
they don't recognize that they need saving from their self.
You know, their own destruction.
Just caught up in their ways for so foolish.
In verse 17 he says, fools, because of their transgressions
and because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
Their soul abhorred
all manner of food,
and they drew near to the gates of death.
The destruction of yourself.
The foolishness of yourself.
It reminds me in the letter of, John in first John or second John.
I think it is where he talks about
these things of the world.
Right.
Don't fall in don't don't love the world, for the world is not of God.
For those that love the world are not of Christ.
Then he talks about the the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye,
and the what.
And the boastful pride of life.
And when I'm reading these scriptures, that's exactly what.
When I read Psalm 107, when I get the verse 17, I'm thinking
automatically those that live within the pride of their own life,
that think that they don't need no saving from themselves.
I think they all have like we all have it together.
And you look at it and you examine yourself enough.
Most of us, before we came to Christ, really believe that we had it
all together.
There was no missing piece.
There's no
there's no void.
Half everything we want live in America.
I think I heard Pastor Crawl say, what is it?
The life, liberty and the purchase of happiness.
It's what we live in.
So most people will never see themselves as foolish.
Because. Especially nonbelievers.
Because what am I foolish of?
I can provide and I can go and I can make things I can,
I can do things on my own, I can.
I don't need saving from myself.
I'm a good person.
What a foolish people we are.
And because of our transgressions and iniquities.
They were afflicted.
Then he cries out again in verse 19.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. Him!
He saved them out of their distress.
Verse 20.
He sent his word, and he killed them and delivered them from their destruction.
Now you and I both know as Bible scholars that we are.
When you hear that God sent His word and he killed them, automatically pops up.
The gospel account of John.
One verse one.
Right from the gates in the beginning was the word.
The word was with God.
The word was God.
In the beginning was the word.
Then you trickled down to verse 14.
The word became flesh.
And who was that?
Jesus.
Because our
because of our sinful, fallible nature.
God sent his word.
God sent his word
to heal his people.
And we know that to be through His Son
Jesus.
Jesus saves.
Jesus heals.
And God sent it out.
Other translations say that he saved them from the depth of death.
And most people will never recognize
the depth of death that they were in before they come to know Christ.
For you, as I said, for someone that doesn't believe in Christ,
you will never know the depth of depth
until you hear about this man named Jesus.
God's word was sent through his Son Jesus,
and if he killed them and he delivered them from themselves.
And he delivered them
from the penalty of sin and
the penalty that you and I
could not pay for.
This whole psalm shows God's unfailing love.
Shows the the reason
why us, as those that have come to the faith, shows why we have to live
this life from gratefulness and be thankful.
And it shows that every time we are in distress,
every time we're in our own screw up, every time we're in our own foolishness.
God saves, heals, delivers.
And for most of you guys, that's why you come to church.
That's why you're part of this.
Because you have stepped into the surance of knowing
that God healed
you and he saved you from destruction,
and he didn't leave you there, but yet
he delivered you from it
through the penalty that was paid on the cross
through His Son Jesus.
For some of you
guys, church, this was just a great reminder,
great encouragement.
But for those that have yet to come to the faith,
this was an insight of what the cross
and what the life of Christ really means.
Or at least you would have to consider
what we shared here today.
Because here's the knowing that I know.
That in my times of being lost and wanders,
I tried to find it in many things,
especially as a young man.
I grew up in church, but I knew how to play church.
Yeah, I ever been there before.
Kids.
We knew how to play church.
Don't think that you're the one that invented this,
right?
You go to church on a Sunday with your parents.
You know, you look jolly just so that you can go out there throughout the week.
All right?
My my mom, my my my my mom used to make me go to prayer
meeting with her Saturday mornings at 530.
Yeah.
You know why?
Because my brother was in prison,
so I, I didn't even, but it wasn't for me to pray for myself.
Those for me to pray for him.
And I'm just like, man, it's his fault, you know, just being so selfish.
This is why. Why I got to pray for him.
But I knew that that's what I had to do
in order to get away with other things.
Yeah, yeah, I know what I'm talking about, y'all.
Some of y'all know how to play church really well.
Really well.
And I knew that
in my lostness and in my wandering,
I was it was only leading
to the destruction of my life.
And then you think about the hardships in your life.
I knew that the times that I went through things,
where I sat in the darkness and I allowed the darkness,
there would be times where I would dwell in my darkness.
There would be times where I allow the heaviness
and the burden of this life to just sit with me
and just complain and just be angry
and just be mad at everybody.
And I would convince myself
that I have the right to be upset at everybody,
that I have the right to be mad at God
because of the darkness that I was wallowing.
And there was a time again,
before I knew who Christ was, were pride of life became everything about me
was. I'm actually
most athletes, especially y'all.
They're in here.
You're the only thing important is yourself.
Most people will talk about team.
This team that man.
They only really mean them.
No. Okay, that probably was just me.
And I was really?
Must have been a real conceited person.
But as an athlete, it taught me this.
The athlete culture is very much pushing the pride of life.
And that was my struggle for the longest,
for the longest time, even in coming to know who Christ was,
I still thought I was that important.
Even to the point
where I used to be like God.
You gotta thank me for what I'm doing for your kingdom.
I know most people
won't admit that, but I'm not too scared to admit that.
Because I'll tell you what.
This man took me under his wing
and he discipled me in a way.
That has brought me to the denial of self
and to the ending of myself,
so that Christ can live.
Amen.
And most of you guys, most people here, most people in general,
will struggle with the identity of who they are
because they find it in the place of wandering.
They find it in a place of darkness.
They'll find it in a place of their foolishness,
and they'll find it in the midst of the storm, and never
understanding the whole being of who Christ is,
and never coming to this understanding that he has
healed, saved, and delivered through His Son.
Amen.
Church.
Again, some of you guys, it's just a good encouragement.
It's just a reminder
for for some of you guys this will allow you
to come to the ending of yourself
that the scripture shared here today will bring you to this understanding,
the need for Christ in your life
as God draws his people in, His Son keeps them.
Amen.
May you all bow your heads.
Before I go into a prayer,
I just want to give the opportunity
to celebrate new life in Christ.
Again, for some of you guys, it's just a great reminder.
It's a great encouragement.
But for some of you guys, you guys have never accepted Christ as Lord and Savior.
You have never said yes to the knowing
of the ending of yourself and coming to the faith.
And you have wandered
and you have sat in darkness,
and you have chosen your foolish ways
countless times.
But the blood of Christ.
That brings the forgiveness of sin.
Is always available to you.
For what Jesus did on the cross.
Paid for your life
in full.
Because of the penalty
of sin, there's nothing that you can bring to the table
that adds to the salvation that is offered.
For those paid in its wholeness
to the death and the resurrection of Jesus.
I just want to give you the opportunity
for those that have.
A feel the conviction or the prompting on their heart as the spirit moves.
But if you want to give your life to Christ for the first time,
if you've never done it before and today you want to declare that.
I ask
that you just lift your head and look at me.
I'm now.
I'm understand
that you have made the greatest decision in your life.
And there are people here that want to celebrate with you.
Yeah,
I ask that after this service that you share that with.
What? The leaders here over this church.
I know the Allisons are up here.
I'm a pastor. Crawls available.
I'm available.
Praise God for new life.
Amen. Amen.
Church. Stand to your feet.
Let me pray this out.
Father God, I just thank you again.
We thank you that your word
is your word.
Father.
And there's nothing we can take out of it or add to it,
Father God, for it speaks for itself.
Well, we thank you that you have delivered us from our lostness.
We thank you that you have delivered us from the darkness.
We thank you
that you have delivered us from the storm, even if we're currently in it.
Father God, we know that the insurance of knowing that you would deliver us from
and Lord, we thank you that
you have sent Your Word through your Son Jesus.
To heal us
and to close the gap.
Father God, between God and man.
Lord, we thank you that the remedy
that you have given us, the cure
that you have given us to make us whole.
Is found in your Son Jesus.
So, Lord, we love you and we praise you
in your precious and in your holy
and in the matchless name of Jesus.
And all the saints say, now.
Let's.