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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
For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the psalms.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Grace and peace. As we continue in praying the Psalms, we are in Psalm 6. David writes these words beginning in verse 1.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:How long? Turn, Lord, and deliver me. Save me because of your unfailing love. Among the dead, no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I am worn out from my groaning. All night long, I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow. They fail because of all my foes. Away from me, all you who do evil.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:For the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish. They will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In Psalm 6, I wanna draw our attention to a few things. 1st, David shows just, I think, a freedom in his lament and his emotional anguish. You see there in verse 2, he says his bones are in agony. His soul is in deep anguish. And then he asked this question to God, how long, Lord?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:How long? It's clear there from verse 7 that what he's been weeping about has to do with what's happening to his enemies. So clearly, the way they're moving towards him, the way they're talking about him, whatever they're doing to to him has led David to just a place of lament and even tears. And he is unapologetic about his emotions. But I love there also in verse 8, the Lord has heard my weeping.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What a reminder for us today that our weeping is never wasted. Our weeping is always heard. And God, as we're told there in verse 9, hears our cries for mercy, and he accepts his prayer. I love the both and relationship that both David can say, how long, God? How long will this take?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And then also the confidence at the end. You have heard my prayer. What a gift for us and what attention to hold as we think about our own issues in life, the need for us to lament, to hold on to both realities, that God will work on God's timing, but he will in fact hear our prayers. And so what I think Jesus is inviting us to respond to today and what we hear Jesus saying to us today is that we need to make space for our laments. You need to make space for the things that are stirring your emotions, leading you maybe just to weep.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Like, his his couch was flooded. He says that my couch is drenched with tears. Do you feel like you have the freedom to express yourself emotionally in that way before God in prayer? Because I believe Jesus is inviting us in to make space for the things that we need to lament today. Maybe even the people who have wronged us, the things that we feel like are pushing against us.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What if we took a chance now in prayer to do that? Jesus, today we invite we hear you inviting us in, to this place where we can lament and freely name the things that are leading us to cry. And would you give us now the confidence and the courage by your holy spirit knowing that you hear our prayers and that you will have mercy on us? Help us, god, to wait and help us to even just with confidence and honesty say before you, how much longer, lord? How much longer do we have to wait?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So would you give us hope in the waiting as we know that you will hear our prayers and that our weeping is never wasted? Grace and peace, stay tuned for Psalm 7.