From Lament to Victory: Framing Abandonment in the Shadow of the Cross

• Worship and Divine Calling [00:06:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between cultural reasons for gathering (tradition, music, friends) and the theological imperative of being called by God, citing Isaiah 41.
• Catechism and Assurance [00:17:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The congregation recites Heidelberg Catechism Question One, focusing on belonging to Jesus Christ and the assurance of salvation.
• Youth Confirmation and Faith [00:26:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the significance of raising children in the church, referencing Hebrews 11:1, and introduces 13 youth who are becoming full members.
• Baptism and Heavenly Rejoicing [00:34:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor frames baptism as a celebration of heavenly joy over repentance, citing Luke 15:7 and Matthew 28, and explains the church's 'open-handed' approach to the timing of baptism.
• Baptism and Faith [00:36:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the theological distinction between infant baptism and believer's baptism, using Naomi's baptism as an example of personal faith appropriation.
• The Fear of Abandonment [00:52:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies the fear of abandonment as a fundamental human fear, linking it to modern mobility and estrangement, and connects it to the Imago Dei.
• [Psalm 22](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+22&version=KJV) and Christology [00:50:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that Jesus did not merely quote the first verse of Psalm 22 but lived out the entire psalm, using an analogy of a 'cover song' to explain its significance.
• Emotional Honesty in Worship [00:51:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > Referencing John Calvin, the pastor describes the Psalms as an 'anatomy of all parts of the soul,' inviting raw emotional expression before God.
• Estrangement and Abandonment [00:53:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the prevalence of family estrangement and the fear of abandonment in modern, mobile society, linking it to the Imago Dei.
• Specificity in Emotional Expression [00:55:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using an analogy of country music versus rock, the pastor argues that specific details trigger deeper emotional responses, applying this to how the Psalms handle universal themes.
• [Psalm 22](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+22&version=KJV) as Messianic Prophecy [00:58:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor details how Psalm 22 contains specific details (piercing, bone dislocation, casting lots) that align with Jesus' crucifixion rather than David's life, identifying it as a prophecy.
• Objective Forsakenness of Christ [00:59:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues against minimizing Jesus' cry of forsakenness, asserting it was an objective reality of bearing the curse, which validates bringing our own troubles to God.
• Objective Atonement vs. Subjective Feeling [01:09:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that Jesus objectively bore the curse of abandonment on the cross, meaning believers never objectively experience God's absence, even if they subjectively feel distant.
• Community and Vows [01:13:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects Psalm 22's call to praise in the congregation with the recent children's vows, emphasizing that choosing community despite feelings transforms perspective.
• Communion as a Meal for the Wounded [01:15:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor interprets Psalm 22:26 ('the afflicted shall eat') as a foreshadowing of the Lord's Supper, specifically for those dealing with abandonment and difficulty.
• Redemptive Purpose of Pain [01:16:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that God does not waste abandonment, using his own church planting struggles as an example of how past pain can serve future generations.

• Sermon Illustration [00:28:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces 13 youth becoming members by sharing their names, hobbies (tennis, swimming, piano, cross-stitch, soccer, disc golf, Legos), and reasons for loving the church (friends, learning about Jesus, HLKP program).
• Sermon Illustration [00:33:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote that he was 23 years old when he first made a public profession of faith, noting that the youth have 'beaten him' by doing so at a younger age.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy comparing the rejoicing of Raleigh fans if the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup to the greater rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents, citing Luke 15:7.
• Sermon Illustration [00:37:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an ice cream analogy to explain the church's two-scoop approach to baptism: one scoop at infant baptism (parents' faith) and the second at confirmation/baptism (personal faith).
• Sermon Illustration [00:39:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about waiting 23 years to be baptized himself, contrasting it with the 13 children being baptized, including Naomi.
• Sermon Illustration [00:49:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy involving singer-songwriter Pierce Pettis and his song 'You Move Me,' which was covered by Garth Brooks, to illustrate how Psalm 22 is known primarily through its 'cover' by Jesus on the cross.
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references Malcolm Gladwell's podcast 'Revisionist History' and the episode 'The King of Tears' to explain how country music's specificity makes it more emotionally impactful than rock music's generality.
• Sermon Illustration [00:56:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor cites specific country songs like 'Don't Take the Girl' by Tim McGraw and 'John Deere Green' by Rick Trevino to illustrate the power of specific names and details in evoking tears.
• Sermon Illustration [00:58:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor lists specific Psalms (3, 51, 57) linked to specific events in David's life (battle with Absalom, adultery, fleeing Saul) to contrast with the lack of specific historical context for Psalm 22.
• Sermon Illustration [01:00:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor details specific parallels between Psalm 22 verses and the Gospel accounts of Jesus' crucifixion, including mocking, dislocated bones, darkness, casting lots for garments, and the final declaration 'It is finished.'
• Sermon Illustration [01:02:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor mentions the historical fact that crucifixion (piercing hands and feet) did not exist when David wrote the psalm, highlighting the prophetic nature of the text.
• Sermon Illustration [01:03:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references Peter's sermon in Acts 2, where Peter identifies David as a prophet foreseeing the resurrection and non-abandonment of the Christ.
• Sermon Illustration [01:04:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the modern cultural example of 'breakup songs' on Spotify by artists like Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo to illustrate how people naturally name their abandonment, suggesting Christians should do the same with God.
• Sermon Illustration [01:16:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his original plan to plant a church in Charlotte in 2007, which was sabotaged by another pastor, leading to significant relationship losses and feelings of abandonment before moving to Raleigh.
• Sermon Illustration [01:14:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the children's vows taken earlier in the service, noting their radical commitment to let commitments drive feelings rather than the reverse.

• Pastoral Charge [00:32:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor instructs the new members to actively read Psalm 22 during the sermon to identify a specific verse that applies to them personally.
• Pastoral Charge [00:31:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor leads the new members in reciting five vows of faith and commitment to the church.
• Pastoral Charge [01:06:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > To approach God's throne with confidence to receive mercy and grace.
• Pastoral Charge [01:18:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > Name feelings of abandonment, frame them in light of the gospel, and claim God's promises.
• Pastoral Charge [01:13:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > Move towards community and attend church even when feeling abandoned or unmotivated.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:06:38] I'll just be louder, okay. So we gather together as a people of God to worship, not just because it's tradition that goes back all of God's people's history, or to see friends, or family, or to hear good music, or to hear an inspirational message, even if all of those elements are true and do take place, the real reason we worship and we gather to worship is because we are called by God himself.
[00:07:09] or on page three in your bulletin, is taken from Isaiah 41, where God is speaking to Israel, to his Old Testament church, and by extension to us as the church. And he makes it clear in this
[00:07:21] that he is the one who chose, he's the one who calls, he's the one who saves, he's the one who helps. And remarkably, he even calls us friend, and he assures us that he's with us. So if you're
[00:07:34] able, please stand, and we will read responsibly this call to worship taken from Isaiah 41.
[00:07:39] I'll read the leader, and we can all read the bold portion together.
[00:07:43] The Lord said, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham, my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners.
[00:08:03] You are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off.
[00:08:07] fear not for I am with you be not dismayed for I am your God I will strengthen you I will help you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand you Lord hold our right hand we will not fear

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:08:27] for you are the one who helps let's worship him this morning as we live to weather the sun Whether the sun will shine, whether the skies will rain, I know that you are good, and this is the day you made.
[00:09:28] Whether in life or death, whether in joy or pain, I know the truth, this is the day you made.
[00:09:39] This is the day, this is the day you rejoice, rejoice in me.
[00:10:06] I can walk, I can walk in faith, you will protect my way.
[00:10:13] And this is a day you may Am a child of God The one who saved as made As we lift him Come and sing your praise For the Lord now reigns On the throne of grace
[00:11:11] Soon is the day He will bring us home And we have his hope For we are his own Is the day one more time this is the day come and rejoice confessing what we believe today we will use the

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:17:35] heidelberg catechism question one i'll read the question and we can all recite or read the answer christian what is your only comfort in life and death that i am not my own but belong with body
[00:17:52] and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves
[00:18:09] me in such a way that not a will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me
[00:18:27] of the eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him. Amen.
[00:18:36] As we continue to sing our song of thanksgiving, we will also collect tithes and offerings. This is just a time to, if you have a check or money, you can put it in the plate. This is what that's
[00:18:47] for but it's also a time to just reflect on the great provision and kindness and generosity that the lord has given us and if you are giving now or if you give online now's the time to just be
[00:18:59] thankful for that generosity that he's given us as we sing the ushers come forward and we'll continue

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:19:05] in worship the depths the depths of woe i raise to thee the voice of lamentation or turn a gracious ear to me and hear my supplication if thou iniquities does mark Our secret sins and misty stars.
[00:19:49] Who shall stand before thee?
[00:19:57] Oh, who shall stand before thee?
[00:20:00] To wash away the stain, grace, grace alone availeth.
[00:20:17] Our works of life are all in vain, in much the best life faileth.
[00:20:24] Be in thy sight, all must alike, confess thy might, and live alone by mercy.
[00:20:42] My fainting spirit, his promised mercy is my fort, my comfort and my sweet support.
[00:21:16] I wait for it My heart still trusteth in His mighty spirit Do thus, O ye of Israel, see Ye of the Spirit born indeed Till God of grace

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:22:05] Our sins and sore

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:22:23] His grace much more abounding Love the most need Our shepherd, good and true is he.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:22:40] He's got a seed to...

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:23:35] ...in the service today as we are now in the summer months,

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:24:08] but do take a moment to greet somebody new around you.
[00:24:14] If you are joining the church today as a community member, you can bring your kids right up front here.
[00:26:00] If everybody can take a seat at this time, thank you.
[00:26:21] So, when we raise children in the church, when we dress them up, when their babies get them baptized.
[00:26:31] We do so on the basis of faith.
[00:26:35] If you go to Hebrews 11.1, it says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for.
[00:26:40] It's the conviction of things that are not yet seen.
[00:26:42] And so as parents, when we baptize kids, raise them in the church, there's a future-oriented faith.
[00:26:51] These 13 kids right here, they serve as evidence that you were right to baptize them.
[00:27:00] You were right to raise them in the context of the church.
[00:27:03] You were right to believe in the gospel on their behalf because now these 13 kids stand before you as those who took the gospel that you believed on their behalf and they believe in this gospel for themselves.
[00:27:19] These kids have gone through a class called the Communicants class over a five-week period, after which they were examined by the elders.
[00:27:27] And as of today, they are now full or will be full community members of Midtown Community Church.
[00:27:32] They'll have access to the Lord's Supper.
[00:27:35] As full-fledged members of Midtown Community Church, they could also vote me out after today as head pastor.
[00:27:42] So if you want to hold a congregational meeting and kick me out, you could do that.
[00:27:47] But there's going to be a big fight on your hands, so I wouldn't recommend it.
[00:27:49] All right.
[00:27:50] I want to introduce you to these kids.
[00:27:53] I'm going to give you their name.
[00:27:54] I'm going to give you their favorite hobby and why they love their church.
[00:28:00] So in no particular order, we'll start with Anna Lynn Shower.
[00:28:04] You just raise your hand.
[00:28:06] All right, there she is.
[00:28:07] Hobbies are tennis, swimming, piano.
[00:28:10] Why does she love the church?
[00:28:11] Knowing families well from growing up in the church and getting to play piano at Christmastime, which was a true story.
[00:28:18] It was a great gift, and she played for us.
[00:28:21] All right, Raelynn Wright.
[00:28:24] Raise your hand.
[00:28:26] There we go.
[00:28:26] All right, cross-stitch and embroidery.
[00:28:30] Why does she love the church?
[00:28:32] Her friends and learning about Jesus in Sunday school.
[00:28:36] Aaliyah Wright, drawing and writing and learning about Jesus and HLKP.
[00:28:45] Would one of y'all tell me what HLKP stands for?
[00:28:48] All right.
[00:28:50] The Helping Little Kids Program.
[00:28:52] They started a program probably a little over a year ago where they are basically raising support for our ministry partners.
[00:28:59] And so they are probably some of our most prolific fundraiser for global missions that you will have in Midtown Church.
[00:29:07] So it's an awesome program that they've started.
[00:29:09] All right.
[00:29:10] Bennett Tinsley.
[00:29:12] All right.
[00:29:13] Soccer.
[00:29:14] What a great time to be a soccer fan.
[00:29:16] That's Anderson's favorite sport as well.
[00:29:18] What do you love about the church?
[00:29:20] He says the people.
[00:29:22] Lydia Wallace.
[00:29:24] All right, Lydia, she loves reading and, again, playing soccer.
[00:29:28] And why does she love the church?
[00:29:30] Being friends and having great friends here and doing HLKP.
[00:29:36] All right, Jackson Wachter.
[00:29:38] He loves all sports.
[00:29:40] And he loves learning about God.
[00:29:42] I mean, this is like the best promo that I could give for serving in children's ministry right here because so many of them talk so fondly about their experience learning about Jesus there.
[00:29:56] Dylan Cleary, all right, one of his favorite hobbies is one of my favorite sports, disc golf and swimming.
[00:30:04] And what does he love most about Midtown Church?
[00:30:07] Sunday school, especially when Mr. Master Snickerdoodle teaches.
[00:30:14] You can figure out who that might be.
[00:30:18] Josephine Gibson, all right?
[00:30:21] She loves building with Legos.
[00:30:23] We're going to do a Lego building event later this summer as a church.
[00:30:26] Why do you love the church?
[00:30:28] That she gets to be with other Christians.
[00:30:31] Adelaide Gibson, all right?
[00:30:34] She loves playing with her family and singing songs on Sunday.
[00:30:38] All right?
[00:30:39] Bennett Perry, all right?
[00:30:42] Bennett, she loves soccer and art and having a smaller church where everyone knows each other.
[00:30:49] Kate Perry, all right, reading and soccer again.
[00:30:53] Man, here I love soccer.
[00:30:54] And she loves the friends that she has here at church.
[00:30:58] Naomi Oliver, all right, gymnastics and swim.
[00:31:03] I really like this, the feeling of belonging and learning about Jesus, the feeling of belonging and learning about Jesus.
[00:31:10] And then finally, Hannah Wilber, all right, swim team and a family-friendly church that explains the Bible easier for kids and grownups.
[00:31:20] All right, so kids, I want you to turn towards me and I've got five vows for which you just need to say the words I do to these five vows.
[00:31:32] Are y'all ready?
[00:31:33] Okay, first one, do you believe that you're a sinner and that you need God to save you?
[00:31:40] Second, do you believe that Jesus is the son of God and you trust him to save you from your sins?
[00:31:47] Third, do you now promise with God's help to seek to follow and obey Jesus every day?
[00:31:54] Fourth, do you promise to help our church grow strong?
[00:31:59] And then finally, do you promise to follow the leadership of our church and to care for your fellow Christians?
[00:32:06] All right, so I don't know if you've ever seen a member installation before, but whenever we have a member installation, we typically, I'll do like a charge or Pastor Anderson will do a charge.
[00:32:15] And a charge is like an encouragement or a pep talk for you as new members.
[00:32:21] I am not going to give you a charge right here.
[00:32:24] I'm actually going to give you a charge in the middle of my sermon.
[00:32:27] And so your goal during the sermon is you can look over Psalm 22, that's our passage, and your goal is to figure out which verse in Psalm 22 is going to be specifically focused on you guys.
[00:32:39] And I'll bring it up in the middle of the sermon, So pay attention when it comes up there.
[00:32:43] But let me just say this.
[00:32:45] I am super excited for what Jesus is doing in y'all's lives.
[00:32:48] This is one of the great encouragements for me as a pastor, is to see people like yourselves get to a point where you decide to put your faith in Jesus.
[00:32:57] Does anybody know how old I was when I first did something like this in a church?
[00:33:03] 23.
[00:33:05] So you've beaten me, like, well over three times younger than I was.
[00:33:11] So, impressive for you guys.
[00:33:13] I'm really excited for you.
[00:33:14] I'm going to pray for you.
[00:33:18] Heavenly Father, many years ago, Jesus, you said to your disciples, the kingdom belongs to such as these.
[00:33:29] And we thank you for the privilege that we have here right now to say that Midtown Church belongs to such as these 13 children standing here right now.
[00:33:39] And standing up here today, they're all saying, this is my church.
[00:33:43] And Jesus, you are my Savior.
[00:33:45] And so I pray that you would give these children the courage to be leaders because they're friends, they're peers at school, the people they know in their neighborhoods, on their swim teams, on their soccer teams.
[00:33:59] They need to see kids who have the courage to lead.
[00:34:03] And so I pray that you would give them that courage that they would be leaders and that they would be the kinds of people who would lead people to you, Jesus.
[00:34:11] We thank you for their presence here in our church.
[00:34:14] We thank you for what you're doing in their lives, and we thank you for reminding us that it is good for us to raise kids in the church and to believe in the gospel on their behalf.
[00:34:25] We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:34:28] All right, let's give them a hand.
[00:34:33] All right, all of y'all can be seated, but Hannah, you can stay seated, but on that front row right there, and I'll bring you up in a second.
[00:34:42] Or Naomi, Naomi, sorry.
[00:34:44] All right, so we've also got a baptism.
[00:34:49] I want to begin by sort of framing the significance of what is happening for us today.
[00:35:00] If Bussey can stay hot and goalie tonight, we're going to win the Stanley Cup, and it will trigger the largest, greatest party Raleigh has ever seen.
[00:35:11] But I'd also like to suggest that rejoicing of a city over a Stanley Cup is nothing compared to the rejoicing that takes place in heaven when one person puts their faith in Jesus.
[00:35:27] And that's why we're here.
[00:35:29] Luke 15.7, Jesus put it this way.
[00:35:33] He said, I tell you that there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who do not think they have anything to repent of.
[00:35:43] So when Jesus instituted the sacrament of baptism in Matthew 28, It was His way of making sure that when a person puts their trust in the power of the grace of Jesus, the church should celebrate down here on earth
[00:36:00] as a response to what is already taking place in heaven.
[00:36:06] Jesus gave that command in Matthew 28 to go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[00:36:15] Now, at Midtown Church, the timing of baptism is what we call an open-handed belief.
[00:36:22] And so we let parents choose when that baptism will take place in the life of their kids.
[00:36:27] So some, the other 12 that joined today, they had their children baptized when they were infants, sort of as an expression of their faith and what they hoped God would do in the lives of their children.
[00:36:41] And so their first communion really serves as the opportunity for us to celebrate them coming to faith.
[00:36:49] But we also allow for parents who have a theological conviction that says they want to wait until their child puts their faith in Jesus to be baptized.
[00:36:59] And so we create space for both theological convictions.
[00:37:03] So another way to put it is all kids get two scoops of ice cream.
[00:37:08] She's getting both of her scoops, Naomi, right now.
[00:37:10] The others got them when they were first born, and the second one was today.
[00:37:14] And so today we are baptizing Naomi Oliver because she has made the decision to take the faith of her parents and to make that her own faith.
[00:37:26] And so this is a really special day for her.
[00:37:29] There's two things that are really being said in this sacrament.
[00:37:32] Naomi's saying one thing, and then God's saying something else.
[00:37:37] So Naomi, first, is saying that I want to be identified not just as a churchgoer, but as a follower of Jesus.
[00:37:45] And I want to do so in the context of other followers of Jesus.
[00:37:51] But second, in the sacrament, God is actually saying something to Naomi.
[00:37:56] He's saying to her, you're mine.
[00:37:58] I've got you.
[00:38:00] And I'm going to put the mark of God's grace on you.
[00:38:05] What does baptism signify?
[00:38:06] We use water because it represents the body and blood of Jesus Christ that was shed forth as the power to wash away all our sins.
[00:38:15] For the believer, it speaks to our adoption as children of God and having access to all the benefits of that relationship, including access to the Lord's Supper.
[00:38:26] Thirdly, it also speaks of one's inclusion in the visible family of God that you have brothers and sisters all around you, right?
[00:38:35] Not just a mommy and a daddy.
[00:38:36] Naomi, if you'd come forward at this time so you can stand right here and so I just want to declare that as an applicant for baptism into the church of God which is a sign and seal of our engrafting into Christ
[00:38:52] and our engagement to be the Lord's the elders have examined and approved Naomi Grace Oliver who's cordially welcomed into the fellowship of the household of faith I'm going to pray for you and then we'll baptize you
[00:39:05] Heavenly Father This really is a beautiful example of your grace and the lives of your people.
[00:39:16] As I mentioned earlier, it took me 23 years before I had the courage to stand up in front of a group of people and get baptized.
[00:39:25] And so it is incredibly impressive to me to see the work of grace in all 13 of these kids and certainly Naomi here.
[00:39:33] And so we thank you that the baptism that we're doing right here, right now, that it would be an encouragement, not just to Naomi, but she would not just remember this moment, but that this would remind all of us of our own baptisms
[00:39:46] and of the power of your grace in our lives and a reminder that for all the rejoicing that could ever happen in a city over a Stanley Cup, it compares nothing to the rejoicing that takes place in heaven when one person puts their faith in you.
[00:40:04] And so we pray that this sacrament would be towards that very purpose.
[00:40:08] In Jesus' name, amen.
[00:40:10] All right.
[00:40:13] Naomi, Grace, Oliver, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:40:29] Amen.
[00:40:30] Let's give a hand.
[00:40:32] All right.
[00:40:33] You can take a seat.
[00:40:41] All right.
[00:40:42] So welcome to Midtown Community Church.
[00:40:45] We've got a lot going on in the service today.
[00:40:48] My name is Lindsey Williams.
[00:40:49] I'm one of the pastors here.
[00:40:50] If you turn to the Midtown News section, page 11, there's just a list of things that are going on in the life of our church.
[00:40:58] But one thing I really want to especially draw your attention to is we do have the opportunity as well to just recognize two girls who have grown up in our church over the past 10 years
[00:41:10] who just this week graduated from Broughton High School.
[00:41:14] and so the first is Ashlyn Schlosser who after graduating from Broughton High School is going to be heading to UNC Wilmington to study there and then Madison also graduating from Broughton is going to be attending Clemson University so if you got any connections Wilmington or in the
[00:41:35] Clemson area make sure to connect with them. Amazon lost my shipment or my gift for you guys So I'll get that to you as soon as we find it on behalf of the church.
[00:41:45] But I just want to say we're super thankful for your family and for the presence that you all have had really over the past 10 years.
[00:41:53] It wasn't too long ago that you stood up here, and you ladies have turned into some incredibly remarkable women, and we're really excited about what God has in store for you as you go to college.
[00:42:03] So make sure to give these two ladies a hug before they leave and go off to college at some point this summer.
[00:42:09] So, all right, other announcements.
[00:42:14] Kickball this Wednesday at 7 p.m. at North Hills Park.
[00:42:19] So I sort of want to treat this as a Cary versus Raleigh kickball game.
[00:42:24] That is sort of my design.
[00:42:26] So you've got to show up if you want to participate in our first annual kickball event.
[00:42:33] This is for kids of all ages.
[00:42:36] So we'd love for you guys to join us under the lights, North Hills Baseball Field.
[00:42:41] We've reserved the spot so it's dedicated for our use.
[00:42:45] It should be a great time.
[00:42:46] Hope you all can join us this Wednesday.
[00:42:48] And then this is not in the bulletin, but as I mentioned earlier, there's a big hockey game tonight.
[00:42:55] And so we're all going to go over to the home of the Killingers.
[00:42:58] You all good with that?
[00:42:59] Katie?
[00:42:59] Great.
[00:43:00] All right.
[00:43:00] We're doing it.
[00:43:02] Courtney told me ahead of time.
[00:43:03] Katie did not, but she gave me the thumbs up.
[00:43:06] So if you want to watch the Hurricanes game tonight with the Killingers, their address is 8708 Morning Dove Drive.
[00:43:16] Or Morning Dove Road.
[00:43:17] Morning Dove Road.
[00:43:18] So if you want to watch the Hurricanes game tonight with friends, join us there.
[00:43:24] You can also text or email me if you don't remember the address that I just gave.
[00:43:28] We'd love for you to join them tonight for the Hurricanes game.
[00:43:31] That is it for announcements.
[00:43:34] I believe Jason's going to come pray, and then we'll jump into God's Word.

[00:43:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:43:44] Let's pray together.
[00:43:46] Jesus, you said that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened.
[00:43:55] Heavenly Father, we thank you for how your kingdom grows, how your ways are not the ways of this world, they're not our ways, and how your power is perfected and made known in weakness, in our weakness, and sometimes just strange ways.
[00:44:12] Lord, we're thankful for how the yeast of the gospel worked in the hearts of the young children that just stood up here to bring them to a place where they can embrace the gospel for themselves.
[00:44:23] We thank you, too.
[00:44:25] I think, as Pastor Lindsay already mentioned, but we thank you, Lord, for our own individual stories about how you worked, often quietly and in the background, to bring us to saving faith in your son, Jesus.
[00:44:37] Lord, we pray for your Holy Spirit to continue to do this work in our own hearts, in our homes, in our neighborhoods, our jobs, our schools, and this city.
[00:44:47] Our mission statement is to transform the places that we live.
[00:44:52] And so, Lord, we pray that you would do that just like Levin does in Flower.
[00:44:57] And Lord, we pray now that as your word is read and preached that we would receive it as the food that it is, that it would nourish our souls so that we can better glorify and enjoy you,
[00:45:07] our greatest calling, our chief end.
[00:45:09] And it's in the name of Christ, our Savior, we pray. Amen.

[00:45:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:45:12] This is taken from Psalm 22.
[00:45:31] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:45:34] Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?
[00:45:38] O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
[00:45:44] Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel, and you are fathers trusted.
[00:45:49] They trusted and you delivered them.
[00:45:51] To you they cried and were rescued.
[00:45:53] In you they trusted and were not put to shame.
[00:45:56] But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
[00:46:02] All who see me mock me.
[00:46:04] They make mouths at me.
[00:46:06] They wag their heads.
[00:46:08] He trusts in the Lord.
[00:46:10] Let him deliver him.
[00:46:11] Let him rescue him.
[00:46:12] For he delights in him.
[00:46:16] Yet you are he who took me from the womb.
[00:46:18] you made me trust at my mother's breasts.
[00:46:22] On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
[00:46:28] Be not far from me, for trouble is near.
[00:46:31] There is none to help.
[00:46:33] Many bulls encompass me.
[00:46:35] Strong bulls of Bashan surround me.
[00:46:37] They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.
[00:46:44] I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
[00:46:47] My heart is like wax.
[00:46:49] It is melted within my breast.
[00:46:51] My strength is dried up like a potsherd.
[00:46:55] And my tongue sticks to my jaws.
[00:46:57] You lay me in the dust of death.
[00:46:59] For dogs encompass me.
[00:47:01] A company of evildoers encircles me.
[00:47:04] They've pierced my hands and feet.
[00:47:06] I can count all my bones.
[00:47:08] They stare and gloat over me.
[00:47:10] They divide my garments among them.
[00:47:12] And for my clothing they cast lots.
[00:47:15] But you, O Lord, do not be far off.
[00:47:17] O you my help come quickly to my aid deliver my soul from the sword my precious life from the power of the dog save me from the mouth of the lion you have rescued me
[00:47:32] from the horns of the wild oxen I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will praise you you who fear the Lord praise him all you offspring of Jacob glorify him
[00:47:47] and stand in awe of him all you offspring of Israel for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him.
[00:48:01] From you comes my praise in the great congregation.
[00:48:04] My vows I will perform before those who fear him.
[00:48:09] The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.
[00:48:12] Those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
[00:48:14] May your hearts live forever.
[00:48:16] All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
[00:48:22] For kingship belongs to the Lord and He rules over the nations.
[00:48:27] All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.
[00:48:31] Before Him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
[00:48:37] Posterity shall serve Him.
[00:48:39] It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
[00:48:44] They shall come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. This is the word of the Lord. So one of my secondary goals in our sermon series that we just started is to introduce you to music on my Spotify playlist. Last week,
[00:49:08] I made mention of One Hit Wonders, the band Chumbawamba. Today, I want to talk about another musical artist that I've been following him for about three decades at this point. So does anyone here listen to the singer-songwriter named Pierce Pettis? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. Anybody?
[00:49:30] All right, there's one. I mean, Kerry, you could raise your hand too. You've listened to me listen to him. Okay, so he's got a really small cult following. I'll acknowledge that. I've seen him in concert probably half a dozen times. And he always, in his concerts, plays this one song.
[00:49:50] It's called You Move Me. And he'll always intro this song by telling the audience that this one song has almost single-handedly paid for his entire musical career. And the reason why is It's not because of the song's appearance on his 1996 album.
[00:50:10] It's because two years later, there was a country musician that you may have heard of, a guy named Garth Brooks, and he decided to cover his song on his 1998 album, Sevens.
[00:50:24] And the royalties that Pierce Pettis got from this Garth Brooks version has basically paid his home mortgage for the past 30 years. Psalm 22 functions in a very similar way.
[00:50:42] We know this song more because of who covered it. So the opening line that I read, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Y'all know this, right? This is one of the seven
[00:50:55] last sayings of Jesus on the cross. But here's what I want to suggest this morning, is that Jesus didn't merely cover verse 1 of this psalm.
[00:51:07] That when Jesus was on the cross, he had the entire 31 verses of this psalm at the top of his metaphorical playlist.
[00:51:20] And I'll give my evidence for this in a minute, but Charles Spurgeon, he calls Psalm 22 the photograph of our Lord's saddest hours.
[00:51:32] that it's the fullest record that we have of his dying words.
[00:51:39] So as I mentioned last week, John Calvin, he calls the book of Psalms an anatomy of all parts of the soul because there's not a single human emotion that is not represented in this book as a mirror.
[00:51:55] And so the Psalms are an invitation to bring all of our emotions, no matter how raw they are, before God.
[00:52:03] But more than that, the Psalms are about letting God retune those emotions that we bring before Him and to submit them to the Lordship of Jesus.
[00:52:16] And so each week, we're going to look at a different emotion that is reflected in the Psalms.
[00:52:21] In the world of psychology, there's this general belief in what is called fundamental fears.
[00:52:29] Fears that are universal to the human experience.
[00:52:33] there's debate on whether or not there's three or four or five of them.
[00:52:39] But no matter what number you think there is, the fear of abandonment is always included as one of the fundamental fears that every single human being deals with at some point in their life.
[00:52:53] And so what Psalm 22 does here is it invites us to consider this fear of abandonment.
[00:53:01] Now, I think there's like a number of reasons why this fear is strong in us.
[00:53:07] Now, on the one hand, statistics seem to indicate that things like childhood abandonment are much less common globally today due to a lot of laws that have been put in place.
[00:53:19] But on the flip side, studies have also shown that estrangement from family members has never been at its highest.
[00:53:28] that a quarter of the U.S. population deals with some form of estrangement from a family member.
[00:53:39] This feeling of abandonment, it's also attached to people who've gone through divorce.
[00:53:44] It happens when a friend moves to another city, when they move to another church, a new gym, a new place of work.
[00:53:53] We are more mobile than we have ever been, which means I think this fear of abandonment has never been more prevalent.
[00:54:01] I would say that the reason abandonment seems to hit so close to home for all of us is actually because of God.
[00:54:13] It's because we were created to be in relationship with other human beings, right?
[00:54:18] This is the Imago Dei.
[00:54:19] The image of God in all of us means that you and I were hardwired for relationship, and so that's why it's painful for all of us whenever people leave in some capacity.
[00:54:33] Psalm 22, and this would be true for the other psalms as well, is both a mirror and a window, right?
[00:54:40] It reflects back to us our feelings of abandonment, but it's also a window into how we might bring those very feelings under the lordship of Jesus.
[00:54:52] So the sermon outline this morning, I think it's on page nine of your bulletin if I'm not mistaken, it's a really simple outline.
[00:55:00] I will warn you, it makes me sound like I'm a prosperity gospel preacher.
[00:55:04] I'm not.
[00:55:05] But nonetheless, Psalm 22, it invites us to name it, frame it, and claim it.
[00:55:12] All right, so first, we're called to name.
[00:55:15] We're called to name our abandonment.
[00:55:16] I'm going to spend the majority of our time on this one point.
[00:55:18] So one of my favorite podcasts over the years is called Revisionist History.
[00:55:25] Does anybody listen to that?
[00:55:28] Okay, a couple of people.
[00:55:29] that features this guy named Malcolm Gladwell, who's a sociologist.
[00:55:33] And he basically reexamines overlooked and misunderstood history.
[00:55:39] My favorite episode, if you want to give it a try, is an episode called The King of Tears, where he explores the origins behind country music's ability to produce tears in its listeners.
[00:55:52] And so he makes a convincing argument that country music can make you cry more than any other musical genre.
[00:56:01] And he explores in this episode, why is that the case?
[00:56:06] Well, Malcolm boils it down to one word, specificity.
[00:56:14] So country music is uniquely designed to make you cry because its lyrics, more than any other genre, are often very specific.
[00:56:26] They don't just sing about cars, but specific car models, Not just women generically, but a specific woman that they were in love with, specific times of day, very specific memories, very specific places, right?
[00:56:40] They hang deep, universal themes like heartbreak and grief on these razor-sharp details that are very personal.
[00:56:50] I can give you tons of examples.
[00:56:52] Don't Take the Girl by Tim McGraw, right?
[00:56:55] Like, take Timmy Thompson, take Bobby Johnson, take my best friend Bo, take anybody that you want, but whatever you do, don't take the girl, right?
[00:57:07] You could do the Rick Trevino song, John Deere Green, right?
[00:57:10] John Deere Green on a hot summer night, he wrote Billy Bob, Love Charlene.
[00:57:15] Listeners typically are unmoved by generic sadness.
[00:57:22] Tears require specific emotional triggers.
[00:57:26] So, in contrast, let's take rock.
[00:57:29] I love rock, but it doesn't typically make you cry like country music does.
[00:57:34] And the reason why is because it relies on broader concepts that appeal to a larger audience.
[00:57:43] And the result is that rock just doesn't make you cry like country.
[00:57:48] Now, if you want to understand why is this the case, well, in the podcast, he says, take a look at the top 50 songs of all time in both genres. So in rock, the top 50 songs of all
[00:58:01] time are spread across all of the U.S. and much of Europe. But the top 50 country songs of all time are spread across seven or eight U.S. states. That's it. It's just in the Bible Belt. And so
[00:58:18] because country music is a more tight-knit community, they can afford to be more specific, which means the songs are more likely to make you cry. So this is sort of a long way of saying that
[00:58:31] the Psalms are designed to be played to country music. They hang deep, universal themes like abandonment on razor-sharp details that are very personal. If you look at the Psalms, you'll notice that they are attributed to many specific events in the life of David.
[00:58:58] Psalm 3, that's based on a story in David's life when he was going to battle against his son Absalom.
[00:59:06] Psalm 51, we sang that last week in one of our songs.
[00:59:10] And that was a song that David wrote after he was confronted with his own adultery.
[00:59:15] Psalm 57, that's a psalm that was written by David when he was running away from King Saul.
[00:59:22] So that's just to name a few of the examples.
[00:59:24] But here's where Psalm 22 is very surprising.
[00:59:30] Most historians have been unable to connect the details of the psalm to any recorded event in David's life.
[00:59:39] They cannot place this psalm to any specific event.
[00:59:47] What makes this psalm compelling is that it does connect very specifically not to David's life but to the life of a man who walked this earth about a thousand years later.
[01:00:03] You already know verse 1.
[01:00:05] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[01:00:07] Let's take verse 7.
[01:00:09] It says, all who see me mock me.
[01:00:11] They make mouths at me.
[01:00:13] They wag their heads.
[01:00:14] If you go to the Gospel of Matthew, we're told, and those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads.
[01:00:22] This is when Jesus is on the cross.
[01:00:24] Verse 14, this is an interesting one.
[01:00:26] When David writes, all my bones are out of joint.
[01:00:32] So ancient scholars have determined that when a crucifixion takes place, it was quite common for it to result in the dislocation of one's bones, predominantly their shoulder joints.
[01:00:45] In most cases, they would be dislocated.
[01:00:49] And if you go to the gospel accounts, we read that the soldiers went up to each of the three criminals to break their legs to quicken their death.
[01:00:58] When they got to Jesus, they did not break his legs because he was already dead.
[01:01:04] But Jesus' bones were most certainly out of joint.
[01:01:10] Verse 2, David, he says, Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer.
[01:01:16] and by night, but I find no rest.
[01:01:19] If you go to Matthew 27, verse 46, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and then we're told that at that very moment there was darkness over the whole wind.
[01:01:29] So Jesus cried out both day and night when he was on the cross.
[01:01:35] Verse 18, David writes, they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.
[01:01:44] Matthew 27, verse 35, it says, And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.
[01:01:54] If you go to the very end of the psalm, verse 31, David writes, they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn.
[01:02:06] There's a lot I could talk about there, but then it says that he has done it.
[01:02:13] The last words out of Jesus' mouth, this is in a different language, Greek versus Hebrew, but was more or less the declaration he has done it.
[01:02:21] It came in the form of, it is finished.
[01:02:24] Now, I think the most interesting connection of all is verse 16.
[01:02:29] Verse 16, it says, they have pierced my hands and feet, which we know is precisely what happens during a crucifixion, right?
[01:02:40] But here's what makes this, I think, crazy, almost a little bit eerie.
[01:02:46] Crucifixion didn't even exist when David wrote the psalm.
[01:02:53] There was no torture device that involved a piercing of one's hands and feet at the time that David wrote the psalm.
[01:03:02] David is describing a type of torture that didn't exist for another 400 years.
[01:03:10] Psalm 22 is one of the most significant messianic prophecies in all of Scripture.
[01:03:18] One pastor said if I was going to try to convert somebody from the Jewish faith to Christianity, I would go straight to Psalm 22.
[01:03:27] This is why Spurgeon called it a photograph of Jesus' saddest hours.
[01:03:33] There's a moment in first century church.
[01:03:37] You'll find this in Acts 2, verse 30, when Peter was preaching the gospel to Jewish leaders.
[01:03:44] And he said this about David.
[01:03:47] He said, being therefore a prophet, King David, knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ
[01:04:02] that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
[01:04:08] Peter is suggesting that this is what Psalm 22 is.
[01:04:13] This is the moment where David saw into the future.
[01:04:16] David was given a window into the suffering and the abandonment of his own Savior, whom he had never even met.
[01:04:26] Here's how this applies to us.
[01:04:29] Jesus himself is showing us how to name our abandonments, the real losses that we experience relationally, the estrangements, the divorces. You know, Jesus used the Psalms to name his feelings of abandonment very specifically. Now, in some ways, we already do this whether or not you're a religious person,
[01:04:56] right? We all have songs on Spotify that help us to name our abandonment, right? They're called breakup songs. Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, they've made tons of money on breakup songs.
[01:05:09] But what is being suggested here is that we're invited to bring all of those same feelings of abandonment and to bring them into God's presence.
[01:05:20] But we don't check those real issues and feelings at the door when we walk into church on a Sunday morning, right?
[01:05:27] This is where we actually are called to bring our deepest and most heartfelt emotions.
[01:05:34] God doesn't want you to leave anything in the parking lot, in your car, or at home when you come to church.
[01:05:41] Furthermore, until you have brought your troubles to Jesus, I would suggest you haven't fully dealt with your troubles.
[01:05:53] Hebrews 4, 15 and 16, it says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
[01:06:07] Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.
[01:06:14] Right, so the difference between becoming bitter and becoming better when we are going through these really difficult emotions and loss of relationships, the difference between those two all hinges on whether or not you bring those feelings before Jesus or not.
[01:06:34] All right, so first, you name it.
[01:06:37] Second, you frame it.
[01:06:39] All right, so let's go back to verse 1, the most well-known verse in Psalm 22.
[01:06:46] It says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[01:06:50] So this word forsaken, it's actually a word that is used predominantly in connection with covenant language, contract language.
[01:07:04] A covenant is basically the word or the concept that was used to describe the very special relationship that God had with the people of Israel in the Old Testament.
[01:07:16] And so when this word, forsaken, is used, it is meant to communicate being cut off from a relationship.
[01:07:25] It's suggesting that a breakup has taken place in that relationship between God and that person who has just declared that they've been forsaken.
[01:07:37] And this is in many ways another reason that this psalm is actually more likely a reference to Jesus than it is to David's own life.
[01:07:46] Because if you notice in the psalm, the psalmist suggests that he's an innocent party, right?
[01:07:51] He's the victim of other people's sins, and yet he's forsaken by God.
[01:07:58] And this would not be true in the context of David.
[01:08:03] It really only makes sense if the person who's actually really authoring the psalm, the person who's the subject of the psalm, is Jesus himself.
[01:08:15] Now, there's probably some people who over the years have been uncomfortable with this idea that Jesus would declare, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[01:08:25] And so in terms of trying to take the edge off of those words, Some people have suggested that, well, Jesus was just being honest about his feelings.
[01:08:35] Like, objectively, he wasn't forsaken by God on the cross.
[01:08:38] This is just how he felt in that moment.
[01:08:41] And he was just being true to his feelings.
[01:08:43] Others have said, well, Jesus is just trying to quote the Psalms.
[01:08:47] He's trying to give us an example that we should try to apply these Psalms to our lives, even if they don't specifically or directly fit our specific circumstance.
[01:08:57] However, the earliest followers of Jesus suggest that Jesus did in fact experience objective forsakenness on the cross.
[01:09:13] This is what the Apostle Paul said, Galatians 3.13.
[01:09:18] He said, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming what?
[01:09:23] A curse for us.
[01:09:26] This really gets at the essence of atonement.
[01:09:31] that Jesus bore our hell in order that we might share it as heaven.
[01:09:37] And so what I would suggest is that the degree to which we minimize Jesus' objective abandonment by His heavenly Father on the cross, we are actually minimizing our heavenly Father's enduring presence in our lives.
[01:09:55] Our confidence that God will not hold His sins against us is precisely because of our confidence that what took place when Jesus declared, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[01:10:08] That he was actually saying that was what was happening.
[01:10:12] And so to frame this psalm properly is to suggest that we can use the lyrics of Psalm 22 to help us name our horizontal feelings of abandonment that we experience.
[01:10:27] but that we will never have to actually recite verse 1 for ourselves.
[01:10:35] We'll never have to do it because Jesus did it for us.
[01:10:40] Now, there may be times, I've felt these times, where you feel as if God is distant.
[01:10:47] So those feelings can be real.
[01:10:50] Nevertheless, we will never experience objectively the absence of God in our lives, regardless of how we feel in a given moment.
[01:10:59] We may struggle to feel his presence, but because of what Jesus did on the cross 2,000 years ago, objectively, the Father's love will never be absent from our lives.
[01:11:12] And this is one of the reasons why I mentioned last week that your emotions are like your dates partner, but they are the dates partner that should never take the lead in the dates.
[01:11:26] Psalm 22 invites us to bring those real feelings of abandonment before God.
[01:11:32] And yet, on this side of the cross, it invites us to celebrate the fact that we will never have to worry about being abandoned by our Heavenly Father because Jesus prayed, verse 1, and he lived out, verse 1, on our behalf on the cross.
[01:11:49] All right, so Psalm 22 invites us to name our feelings of abandonment, to frame those feelings in the context of the objective reality of what Jesus did on the cross, and finally, to claim the promises of God.
[01:12:07] So when you look at this psalm as a whole, you can really divide it into two parts, and it hinges on verse 21.
[01:12:17] So verse 21, right in the middle of it, this is sort of the hinge point for the entire psalm.
[01:12:24] And so it starts off, he says, Save me from the mouth of the lion.
[01:12:30] And then everything changes.
[01:12:32] He says, You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.
[01:12:37] And from that moment forward, verse 21b on, everything changes.
[01:12:46] And he starts to see all the goodness that's taking place in his life.
[01:12:50] And I would say in the context of what Jesus was doing on the cross, he was seeing the goodness of God even while he was enduring the cross, before he declared, it is finished.
[01:13:03] Verse 22, he says, I will tell of your name to my brothers, and in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you.
[01:13:11] The evidence that you've properly framed your feelings of abandonment in light of the gospel is that you choose to be present with God's people.
[01:13:21] Right?
[01:13:21] Those simple motor movements of moving towards community precisely when you don't feel like it, that is what will ultimately transform and change your perspective on life, and it will transform your feelings and your heart
[01:13:38] and the way that you live going forward.
[01:13:41] Look at verses 25 and 26, especially if you just joined the church today.
[01:13:48] It says, from you comes my praise in the great congregation.
[01:13:53] My vows I will perform before those who fear him.
[01:14:00] The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.
[01:14:03] Those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
[01:14:08] So earlier in the service, we had children do something that I think is incredibly countercultural.
[01:14:14] It is radical in our day and age.
[01:14:17] These kids took vows.
[01:14:20] They made a commitment to not let their feelings drive them.
[01:14:27] But they're going to let their commitments drive their feelings.
[01:14:32] This doesn't mean that kids should be dismissing their feelings going forward.
[01:14:36] We should take them very seriously.
[01:14:37] But they're choosing to submit those feelings to something greater than themselves, and that's to Jesus.
[01:14:45] And this is a radical commitment in our generation, right?
[01:14:48] It took me 23 years before I got to that point.
[01:14:52] And so I just want to say, for all of y'all who witnessed the kids who just joined the church, we need to learn from their example.
[01:15:02] Take stock of the fact that at this young age, they are making a commitment to make vows and to make commitments.
[01:15:12] And I'd also acknowledge this.
[01:15:14] If you go back to the verse I just read, knowing that there's so much of Jesus' fingerprints here?
[01:15:21] I mean, what does that verse 26 make you think of in light of the cross?
[01:15:26] It says, the afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.
[01:15:30] Those who seek Him shall praise the Lord.
[01:15:32] I mean, is this not a connection to the Lord's Supper?
[01:15:36] The sacrament of communion is in verse 26, and it's a communion for who?
[01:15:42] For people who are afflicted.
[01:15:43] for people who deal with real abandonment and real difficult issues, right?
[01:15:50] Communion is a meal for the wounded warrior in all of us.
[01:15:55] Look at verse 27, where it says, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nation shall worship before you.
[01:16:07] Here is what we can take from this verse.
[01:16:10] God will not waste your abandonment.
[01:16:15] If you are able to name some area in your life, presently or in the past, where you've experienced abandonment, what this passage communicates is that God will not waste it.
[01:16:30] So most of y'all know Midtown Church started in 2009.
[01:16:36] The process of getting to Midtown Church from Charlotte to Raleigh started really in 2007.
[01:16:44] And my original plan was to plant a church in the city of Charlotte, not Raleigh.
[01:16:51] That was my original plan.
[01:16:53] But there was a pastor in the city of Charlotte who was intent on sabotaging my efforts to plant a church every step of the way.
[01:17:03] And so when I think to this idea of abandonment and the feelings, I felt it most acutely in 2007.
[01:17:12] because 2007 was the year that I realized that I had to leave Charlotte if I was going to follow God's calling on my life.
[01:17:22] I lost more relationships in that one year than my 50 years on this earth.
[01:17:30] But it's great.
[01:17:33] I hope I never lose this perspective that when I come to church every Sunday morning, I get to be reminded that God did not waste my abandon.
[01:17:45] He never wasted it.
[01:17:47] You know, that verse 31, it says, It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
[01:17:56] They shall come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn that He has done it.
[01:18:03] Right?
[01:18:03] The kids who just joined here today, they did not exist in 2007 during my darkest moments.
[01:18:11] But boy, did God not waste my pain.
[01:18:13] And I just use this as an example, right?
[01:18:16] what happened for me, what I was able to see.
[01:18:18] This is true for you.
[01:18:20] God is not going to waste your abandonment.
[01:18:23] Whatever experiences you've had, a loss of relationship, a friend who's moved away, estrangement from a family member, a divorce, whatever it may be, what Psalm 22 tells us is God will not waste it.
[01:18:38] We should be a people who are able to name it, frame it in light of the gospel, and claim God's promises to work not only for our own good, but for the good of those around us.
[01:18:52] Let me pray.
[01:18:55] Heavenly Father, knowing that this was the songbook of the Old Testament, I just want to wonder if when the Old Testament church sang Psalm 22, this had to have been one of the most confusing songs
[01:19:13] that they would sing in their church.
[01:19:16] It just didn't really make sense to them.
[01:19:18] And it might not have actually made a ton of sense to David, but boy, does it come alive for us right now.
[01:19:29] Because we can look at Psalm 22 in light of what you, Jesus, did 2,000 years ago.
[01:19:36] And so, Jesus, I pray that this psalm would just give us courage, courage to name our fears, to frame them in light of the finished work of Jesus on the cross, that because of that, there may be times where you feel distant,
[01:19:52] but you are never absent from our lives regardless of what our feelings feel at a given point in time.
[01:19:59] And so I pray that you would give us all confidence that no matter what sorts of fears of abandonment we've experienced or will experience, that you will not waste those abandonments but that you will use them for our good
[01:20:12] and for your glory.
[01:20:14] And in Jesus' name, amen.

[01:20:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:20:16] Amen.
[01:20:16] Why don't we stand and sing our final song together?

[01:20:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:20:19] Because you were forsaken I'm accepted You were condemned I've been well Spirit is within me

[01:20:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:20:55] Because you died and rose Let's do that again, I'm forgiven I'm forgiven

[01:21:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:21:04] Because you were forsaken I'm accepted You were condemned Spirit is within me You are my king.

[01:23:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:23:14] I took it out, but let's put it back in.
[01:23:17] Let's sing to Jesus.
[01:23:47] One more time.

[01:23:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:23:48] Addiction comes from Deuteronomy 31.8.
[01:24:39] It is the Lord who goes before you.
[01:24:44] He will be with you.
[01:24:45] He will not leave you or forsake you.
[01:24:48] Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed.
[01:24:51] Amen.
[01:24:52] Go in peace.