Latest / Grace Primitive Baptist Church - Houston, TX / Psalm 34:15 The Ears of God are Open | Elder Mike Moseley | 03-15-2026

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Psalm 34:15 The Ears of God are Open | Elder Mike Moseley | 03-15-2026 · Grace Primitive Baptist Church - Houston, TX

1:10
SPEAKER_00: With us throughout.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Be active in prayer.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: Realizing that the Lord hears your prayers.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Now that leads straight into what's on my mind this morning.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: I want to continue with things we've been looking at.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: Kind of as a foundation, we've been thinking about our God, the true and living God.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: He is truly God.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: There is none other.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: He is living.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: He is real.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: He is there in heaven right now.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 115, again, as kind of a basis for these thoughts.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: Because as I've told you before, the these things are on my mind, and I'm still here because of the danger I fall into about acting like those that have false gods.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean is, we I don't have any idols that I've created or anyone else has created that I bought that I put on a pedestal.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't have those natural things that I look to and think they're gods.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: I have things in my life, and we all do, that we can put our focus on instead of God, and that we make that like God, and that's what idolatry is typically thought of as.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: And so as we read in the Psalm 115 about their idols in verse 4, their idols are silver and gold, the works of men's hands.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: They we we tend to think it's they.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: That's a they problem.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: But this for us, for me, is to realize that I fall victim to a very subtle idolatry that is just as bad.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: I don't think anything else, you might say, yeah, Brother Mike, you have some idols in your life that get in the way.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have things, but really I don't have idols of silver and gold, works of men's hands.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't have those problems.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Whenever I think something else is more important, I place it in front of God, then I'm making that an idol.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: And I recognize that.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of more blatant.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: But if we read about their idols, how they have, they, that they there is mouths, or is the idol.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: The idol has mouth, have mouths, but speak not.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Eyes have they but see not.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: The idols have ears.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: They have ears, but they hear not.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: They have noses have they, but they smell not.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: They have hands, but they handle not.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: Feet have they, but they walk not.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: But we can understand what he's saying.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: This statue has these semblances of these things, but they can't use them because they're not alive.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Right?
4:10
SPEAKER_00: The contrast is that our God is alive.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: As he says above that, wherefore should the heathen say, verse 2, wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
4:24
SPEAKER_00: It's like, why would they say that?
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Why would they say that?
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, one reason the heathen might say that is they look at the external situations, and if you looked at Israel at times in their situation, they might think, Where is their God?
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Look at it their the trouble they're going through.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the heathen might say, Where is their God?
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Because they're going through all these tribulations.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: That the danger is when I say, Where is now my God?
4:54
SPEAKER_00: When I fall into that trap of thinking my external situation tells me God's not there.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: Do you see how that makes me like them as an eye like that's idolatry in a subtle way?
5:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm starting to think God's not there.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm starting to think God can't see, God can't speak.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've already tried to preach on this, on God speaking to us, God seeing.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to talk about the ears, God hearing us this morning.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: Because the problem is when I think God can't hear me, then I'm thinking he's like an idol that has ears but can't hear.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to be an idolater.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to lack my faith in God.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to not sanctify God in my heart.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: So to realize this, I have to put a focus on God has ears and he does hear.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to um to do that, look at a few other places in Scripture that talk about this.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 35, this one ties in with his eyes as well.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 35, the psalmist writes, um, and he starts the psalm with, I will bless the Lord at all times.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: My his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof and be glad.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: And then uh verse four says, I sought the Lord, and I'm in verse, I'm in Psalm 34 the whole time.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Why don't somebody tell me?
6:51
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you doing, brother?
6:53
SPEAKER_00: I was reading 34, but I like uh verse four.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: So we'll read 34, verse 4, and then I'll go to 35 where I thought I was.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Uh verse 4 says, I sought the Lord, and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: Now that's uh we'll come back to that.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: This is past tense.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, This happened.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: I sought the Lord and he heard me.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, how'd he hear me?
7:18
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 35, where I should have been reading in the first place, um, he starts off with, plead my cause, O Lord.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: He's calling out to the Lord.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Now, he's doing that because he hear, the Lord hears him.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Um I completely lost where my.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: No.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay, y'all are gonna have to please forgive me.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 33.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: There's there's literally like 18 Psalms I've looked at here.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 33.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: It's just above 34, so that's why I was on this page.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Beh uh, verse 18.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18 says, Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: I probably read that a few weeks ago, talking about the eye of the Lord, the Lord seeing us upon them that hope in his mercy.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere in here is um it's in Psalm 34.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: All along.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: All along it's in Psalm 34, but I should have read further.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 34, verse 15 says, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay, maybe if the Lord will bless us, we'll tie all of my ramblings together here.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: He's calling upon the Lord, saying he'll bless him at all times, saying, I called upon him and he heard me.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: He's third, Psalm 35, he's saying, Plead my cause, O Lord.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: He's he's calling on him for deliverance.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: And then I said in 34, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: I know I read that a few weeks ago, but the eye of the Lord is not all that he has focused on you.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: We spend a lot of time talking about how he sees you going through your troubles.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: He sees what you're going through.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: But this verse, the eye of the Lord is upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry, tells us he also is not just watching what you're going through, but he is attentive to your cries, to your needs.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: He has ears and he hears what we speak to him.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Now, how do when do we speak to him?
9:40
SPEAKER_00: We think, well, prayer, right?
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is the way of speaking.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: But now I don't know if this is anyone else's issue, but I bet that it is.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: I have uh quite a, I don't think it's bold for me to say this about any everyone else.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Everyone else goes through the same problem I do.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And that is my prayer life is not like it ought to be.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean is I I do not pray as often as I should.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: I do not pray as I should.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: And we know that scripture tells us none of us pray, we know not what to pray for as we ought.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like sometimes I don't even know what to pray for.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: But I will let that be an excuse to not pray.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Or I say, I don't pray enough, and then I say, well, yeah, none of us pray enough, and then I'll let that be an excuse to not pray.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes I think I'm praying, but I'm actually just thinking about what my problems are.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, there is a difference between thinking about your trouble and praying.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: There's a big difference between worrying about something and praying.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: What is the difference?
11:18
SPEAKER_00: Praying is actually talking to God in a conversation and believing He hears you.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I only am thinking about things, I'm only talking to myself instead of praying to a God that hears.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Now, just think about this.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Like, here's the analogy.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: I could have something I need to tell my wife, to tell Ann.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: And all day long I'm at work, right?
11:55
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking, I gotta tell her this, right?
11:57
SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking about it, and I'm telling her, as it were, in my head over and over, right?
12:03
SPEAKER_00: She cannot hear me talk to myself, especially when I'm at work.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: I could talk out loud, she couldn't hear me.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: But when I get home, if I don't actually open my mouth, because she's not a mind reader, she cannot know what I was thinking.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't talk to her.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: I just thought about talking to her, but I didn't talk to her.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Right?
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, you might say, Brother Mike, there's a big difference with that, right?
12:34
SPEAKER_00: And there is, there is a big difference.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: She can't possibly know what's in my head.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: And yet, God, we know from what we read just a few weeks ago in Psalm 139, that he knows our thoughts afar off.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's not a word in our tongue, but lo, thou knowest it altogether.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: He says, You have searched me and known me.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: God knows the innermost thoughts and intents of your heart.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: He knows.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: That does not mean that God does not call on us to talk to him.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Just because God knows what we stand in need of does not mean we shouldn't be praying to him.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: He has told us in so much scripture to call upon him, and we're told that when we call upon him, he hears us.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: And again, what does that mean?
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Actively addressing God with our concerns.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: Prayer should not be, and it is too often for me, me thinking internally about everything.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: But it should be, as it were, even though I may not say it out loud, actually saying to God things, thinking that I'm talking, realizing that I'm talking to a living God with ears that hear.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: When I pray, I too often am praying within myself.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a, and I won't turn to the plates, but there's a parable God uh Jesus tells and teaches a lesson about this, but I usually focus on the lesson one way, probably the right way to really focus on it, but I want to notice something else.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: He says there are two men that went in to the temple to pray.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: There was this uh Pharisee, and there was this poor man.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: This poor man named Lazarus.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: No, that was a different parable, but uh I don't think he gives them a name.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: There's a rich man, Pharisee, that goes in to pray, and a poor publican, that's what he was.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: He was a publican, very despised among the people because he was a traitorous tax collector for the Romans.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Um that's what a publican was, by the way.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: It's a Jewish person who helps the Romans collect taxes from their fellow countrymen.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: So they did not like them very much at all.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: So you got this rich man, Pharisee, he goes in and when he prays it, Jesus tells us his posture and his um tone of, he tells us pretty much everything we need to hear about this guy.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: He says he stands there looking up to heaven and saying out loud, he says, he says things like, I thank thee, God, that I'm not like other men, and I tithe you know twice a week, I give, I do this and that, and all the things that I do, I do.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: I do these things.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: He says, even like this publican, he literally, as it were, points out this publican and says, I'm thankful, God, that I'm not like that God.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: And the publican, we we hear that he is bowed down humbly, he can't even lift his eyes up to heaven, is what Jesus says.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: But he smokes himself on the breast, hitting himself, and he's saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says, I tell you that this one, the publican, he went home justified rather than the other.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: And I focus on that, and that is not wrong to do.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Let's focus on the humble man who can't even lift his eyes up to heaven.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: He knows he's a sinner, and he's asking for God to be merciful.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: And that should be our posture, absolutely, in our prayers.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: But I but I want to focus on this other bit right now this morning.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: It says that that rich man prayed within himself.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: He prayed to himself.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: I wish I could turn to it right now.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: It talks about specifically that he he was praying like to himself.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: He was talking within himself.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: He said, God, I thank thee, but he was not talking to God.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: It tells us his real talk was to himself.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: Whereas this, even though he's looking up, he's looking in.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: He's looking at himself.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: His prayer was all about, I'm thankful that I do this and I do that, and I'm better than others.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Wrong attitude, but also wrong audience, right?
17:22
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to himself.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, this poor man, attitude was right, posture was right, but he also was talking to God.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Even though he was not looking up, he couldn't even lift his eyes up, he was talking to God when he said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I want to focus on that part this morning on who was being addressed for real, not just in word, but in deed, is to realize that some of the things the rich man said were not wrong per se.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: It is not wrong to be thankful for the blessings you have.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: It is not wrong to be thankful that God has allowed you to do some things.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Like to thank God that that you have the ability to tithe or to, you know, we don't believe in tithing under the law, but to thank God that you have the ability to give, that's not wrong.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: To thank God that you're not in a situation that other men are in that are that's uh like that you're you you have blessings that some I am thankful for the home and the family and the job and all those things I have.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: And it's not wrong to be thankful for that.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: But the attitude that man had was not, I thank you, God, that you have blessed me so abundantly.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: It was I am thankful, and we know that from Jesus' words.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: He was talking about himself to himself.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: That poor man was talking to God, praying for God to help him.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference, and that should be our prayer is uh to a God that we know is hearing, and that he is here, that he does hear.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: He says, I cried unto him and he harmed me.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: I sought him and he heard me, because he said, This is a true statement, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: I um which psalm?
19:36
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 3, Psalm 18, um.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go to Psalm 18 first, and then I want to look at Psalm 3, but I just kind of put the bookmark in that mentally.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 18, David writes this.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, as a context for this psalm, David wrote this psalm after he had been delivered from all of his enemies and Saul, who was seeking his life.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: David has been, it's the end of the story.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: David has been delivered from his troubles, and he writes this psalm.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he starts the psalm off with, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: My God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler, that's a shield, by the way.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: My buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3 says, I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: The sorrow of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: The sorrows of hell compassed me about, the snares of death prevented me or went before me.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Prevented in Scripture means went before.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: Um.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: Then he says in verse 6, In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him even into his ears.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: This is past tense.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, This is where I was and what I did, and here's what the Lord did.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: That I called upon him, I cried unto him, and he heard me.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, we won't read all the rest of this stuff, but this is what he has done, what God has done for him.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Remember the context.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: The troubles are over.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: He's telling us about when he had prayed to God and God had heard him, and now he's been delivered.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you, it is very easy for us sometimes to look back at the end of it all and say, I see where the Lord delivered.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when you pray to God, and then when you have the answer to your prayers, and it's obvious, you can look back and say, I know God heard me.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: But I want to show us some other things about this is what we have to remember going into prayer in the first place.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: That God hears us all the time, and every time we pray, he hears.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: There is never a time that he doesn't hear.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: And God is answering prayers in ways we don't even know.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: That the answer to our prayers is not always at the end, and the answer to the prayer is not always what we asked for.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: But in all cases, God is answering prayers.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: He's hearing and he's answering.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: We can't, again, we must remember that our prayers.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Life will only improve.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Our conversation with God, that's what prayers.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: Our conversation with God will only improve when we remember actively that He is alive, He is on His throne, He does hear.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: And when we fall into the trap of not thinking He hears us, then we stop talking.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: When we stop talking to Him, then we're acting like the heathen that says, Where's the God?
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Where is their God?
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Where's my God?
23:37
SPEAKER_00: We're acting like the heathen that says, He has ears, but He can't hear.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: We would never say that about Him, but that's what we're acting like.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: So let's go back.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: He does hear, He does answer in all cases.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 3, remember that Psalm was after the end of the story.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: He's already been delivered.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: He knows God heard him.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Why?
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Because he's been delivered.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: He cried out to the Lord in his distress.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: The Lord delivered him from his distresses, and now he knows God heard his prayer.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 3.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 3, he writes, Lord, how are they increased that trouble me?
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Many are they that rise up against me.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Many there be which say of my soul, there is no help for him in God.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Salah.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: So that means pause for a second.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Think about what you just read.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: When you read Salah, that's what you should do.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: Think about what you just read.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: This is in the middle of a trouble.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: As context of this, I mean think about the tense of the verbs.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Lord, how are they increased that trouble me?
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Many are they that rise against me.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Many there be.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: This is present tense.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: He is saying, I am in the middle of a trouble right now.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: And just for context, historically this psalm was written after and while he had fled from Jerusalem because his own son, Absalom, was going to come and kill him and take over the kingdom.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: That last psalm was after he had already been delivered from when the king and his father-in-law Saul was trying to kill him, but God had already delivered him from all of that.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Saul was now dead and he was the king, and he's writing this psalm about the end of the story.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: I prayed to God and he heard me.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: How do I know?
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Because the trouble's over.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: But this psalm, he's praying actively.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: This is in the middle of a prayer time.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: This is in the middle of the trouble.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: He has had to flee in the middle of the night so his own son didn't kill him.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine a bigger trouble than this.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: And he says, This is the trouble.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: There's so many people against me right now.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Many are they that say, now, not only are they against him, here's what they're saying.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: They are saying there is no help for him and God.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: This sounds a lot like the heathen that say, Where is now their God?
26:21
SPEAKER_00: This is not David's attitude.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Let it not be ours.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: There is no help for him and God.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're saying.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: But he says this, but thou, O Lord, art a shield for me, my glory and the lifter up of my head.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: He says, right now, actively, in the middle of this trouble, this is what you are right now, God.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: It's not what you were.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: I can see it now.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: I look back and I know that you were my shield.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: No, he's saying, now, you are right now.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: I know this.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: You're my shield.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: And the lifter up of my head.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: Again, he's not saying in this case that he's going to look up to heaven in a boastful way.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: He's not changed, his posture is still like the publican, bowed down before God.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: But here, this lifter up of head is, as I mentioned earlier today, to look up to the hills, to look up to where deliverance comes from.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Not to look sideways at the trouble, not to look inwardly as if we have to do deliver ourselves, but to look up to where God is.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, how does that happen?
27:39
SPEAKER_00: God is the lifter up of your head.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: He recognizes this, that we need God to help us to look up to Him.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: That's something we actively should pray for.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: God, help me see you.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Look, help me search, seek for you.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: Help me look for you.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Because this seeking Jesus, seeking God in our lives is what we're commanded to do, but it is not something we can do on our own strength.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking that we by our own strength or our own merit or how our own faith it is by your faith, but that faith was given you by God.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: So ultimately it's God that's we need help to seek him.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: Then he says this, verse 4, I cried, past tense, I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Say law.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: Pause again.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: He's in the middle of the trouble, but these words sound just like Psalm 18, when he was at the end of his trouble.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: At Psalm 18, all the deliverance had already come, and he says, I had cried to the Lord and he heard out of his temple.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: Here he says, In the middle of the trouble, I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me out of his holy hill.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: How can you say that?
29:15
SPEAKER_00: How does he know that God has heard him when he hasn't yet been delivered and he's still praying actively for the deliverance?
29:26
SPEAKER_00: I think the next verse is really telling about that.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 5, I laid me down and slept.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: I await, for the Lord sustained me.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: And that in the middle of his trouble, he says something interesting.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever gone and you have gone through troubles, I don't have to ask if you've ever gone through troubles.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Every one of you have gone through it.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had a sleepless night?
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had troubles where you can't stop the thoughts going through your head?
30:02
SPEAKER_00: You can't stop the worries.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: You can't stop thinking about all the things you're going through.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: And I promise you, none of you have gone through what David was going through at this time.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: And yet we've had things keep us up.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: They've kept us up all night.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: We've had those same anxieties.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: We've all had those worries that have been sleepless nights.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: And here, David says, I prayed and God heard me.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: And how was he basing that on?
30:35
SPEAKER_00: It isn't because he's been delivered yet from the trouble.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: I think he's basing it on the fact that in the midst of this trouble, somehow, he was able to lay down to sleep.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: He was able to find some sort of peace, even still in the midst of this trouble.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: He says that I awoke.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever think about it?
31:00
SPEAKER_00: No, and I don't mean just say it, because I say it, but do I ever think about it?
31:05
SPEAKER_00: Every single morning that I wake up is proof that God has sustained me yet another day.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: Which is proof that God is with me and God has heard me.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: Every morning is a memorial of the grace of God in my life.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: And I just don't always recognize that in reality.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: That as he says in Lamentations, his mercies are new every morning.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Says, um, great is thy faithfulness.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: God is faithful to his promises to hear us and to be with us.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: And I don't always recognize the reality of that.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, when I don't think about the reality of that, I don't talk to God like I should.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Call upon him and rest in the knowledge that he hears our cries, that his ears are open to his people.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: Here David rests comfortably and peacefully in the middle of troubles that are greater than I can fathom.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: He rests peacefully after having prayed and understanding that God heard him.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: God is listening to his people.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: And the answer to his prayer there in the short term was peace.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: David wasn't really praying for peace.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: You understand?
32:41
SPEAKER_00: David was not calling out to God to help him sleep.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: David was calling out to God to deliver him from the trouble, and the answer he got in the immediate was peace.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: So that he laid down and slept.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: That is sometimes the answers to our prayers that we don't recognize.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: Like I have a prayer and I'm praying it actively for God to do a particular thing, and the answers to my prayer isn't the thing I'm asking for, but it's the peace that every once in a while I'm able to feel.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: As it says in Scripture, peace that passeth understanding.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Now I can't even understand how I have peace right now.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: I can understand why I have peace, but not how.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: It's because God has granted that peace.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul went through this in his life.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: We all, you remember that Paul describes in Corinthians a thorn he had in the flesh.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: That's a metaphor for a particular trouble he was going through that was really painful for him.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Now, people talk all the time about what that thorn is, and I have my opinion, but it doesn't matter for what I'm talking about now, so I'm not going to mention it.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I had a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure because of the revelations.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: He had been given such revelations.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: We understand Paul was given the revelation of the truth in a direct way from God that he wrote most of the New Testament.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: That we don't have even that kind of knowledge and revelation.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: We have his that we are thankful for.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: But Paul also talks about, though he uses the third person, he says, I knew a man once, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: God knoweth.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: He says, Such a man was caught up into the third heaven, paradise, and heard things unlawful for man to utter.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it whether Paul was in the body or out of the body, he didn't know, but he did know where he was.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: He was in God's throne room of heaven itself.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: And he people said he saw things.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say he saw things, he heard things unlawful, like he couldn't tell you about it.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Like the human tongue cannot tell the words of the glory that he heard round about him.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: That was the revelation that he ultimately talked about right before this thorn story.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: So he said, but I had a thorn in the flesh.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: Like a messenger is of Satan to buffet me, to keep me down, lest I be exalted above measure for these revelations.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: And he said, For this thing I beseech God thrice.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: He said he prayed to God three times.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: Now I do not believe that Paul going through this amazing problem, the painful experience, whatever it was, that he only offered up three short little prayers.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: What I believe he's saying is that he spent at least he spent three agonizing nights about it.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: Like, because I've had a prayer that afterward I realized, was I just saying words?
36:28
SPEAKER_00: But I've had prayers, I and I'm sure you have too, times where I was in deep agony, that I was smiting my breast, that I was actually feeling everything I was saying.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: Now I believe Paul was in that case.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: I believe that Paul was talking to God, that he was crying out in distress, that he was speaking to a God that he knew could hear him, and he was speaking like speaking to someone that can hear him.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: That he was doing this with great intent, great fervency, great energy, and that it was probably a night-long prayer, like a long prayer.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: And it was three different occasions.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Now, I used to read it, and it said that God said, God did not say, I'll take away that thorn.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's almost, it seems opposite.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: God didn't even address the thorn.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: God didn't even talk about the thorn.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul specifically said he prayed that the thorn be removed.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: And God does not say no.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: God says, My grace is sufficient for thee.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: Now that you might say, well, that is an implied no, right?
37:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it was.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: I really don't know.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: We don't know from the text if the thorn was ever removed or not.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: Paul does not say, and so the thorn was never removed.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: Paul does not address the thorn anymore.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: See, God didn't address the thorn, and Paul doesn't address the thorn.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: What God tells him is that whatever you're going through, Paul, my grace is sufficient.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: That's not like, well, it's just barely enough.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: It's it is exactly what you need.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is content with that.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is able to move forward in his life and his service to God.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: And it's like the thorn doesn't matter anymore.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not even talked about.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: So I contend it was still there, but that's not the point.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: The point is the thorn stops being the point, and the grace of God starts being the point.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: So I used to think, well, after he prayed three times, then God answered him, My grace is sufficient.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: But I actually think differently now.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: I think that the answer each time was, My grace is sufficient.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: See, God answers all of our prayers, and he doesn't sit there silently waiting till we prayed enough.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: It's not like Paul had to pray three times to get the answer.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: Every time Paul prayed, the answer was, my grace is sufficient.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: What that informs me, that view of it informs me of is one God hears and God's answers.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: The same answer every time, and that I still need to go back again.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: Because if Paul prayed an agonizing occasion and God answered, My grace is sufficient, and then here it is another time, and Paul prays the same prayer because he has the same problem and God's answer is my grace is sufficient, and then again that happens, then what that tells me is one, his grace is always sufficient.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: That's always the answer to every one of our problems and every one of our prayers.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Two, that we're gonna have to do that over and over.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: We will never be in a place where in this life where we do not need to call out to God in our distresses and that he will hear us.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, there's occasions where he did deliver exactly from the trouble David went through, and David knew it, and he could look back and see.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: And we see this occasion where he's calling out to him in the middle of the trouble, and you know what?
40:38
SPEAKER_00: In both cases, God's grace was sufficient.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: God granted unto them exactly what they what he needed: peace in the middle of the trouble, a final deliverance from the trouble.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: We have to recognize that God hears and answers our prayers, and that he's hearing it actively.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, um, there's an occasion in Daniel's life, the the prophet Daniel, where he was praying, and um I'm gonna like we'll look at this occasion.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 9.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: And Daniel's prayer, you have to understand his context.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: Daniel's prayer, he is in captivity.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: He and all of Israel have been taken captive to Babylon.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, they're not in their homeland, they are in this heathen land.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: Heathens are all around them saying, Where is now their God?
41:45
SPEAKER_00: They're still crying out to their God in their distress.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: They're in the middle of the troubles.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: But Daniel, in his prayer, and I won't read all of his prayer, um, I will just um like pick out um maybe a couple of our at the beginning of the chapter 9, he Daniel says, verse 3, and I set my face unto the Lord to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sythog and ashes.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: Posture, attitude, contriteness, repentance.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: Daniel understands that what he's what he says, um, verse 4 and verse 5 says, And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and I made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keep in the covenant of mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'll just stop reading this, but as you read this, you recognize that he understands that Israel placed themselves in this position.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: He knows that it's because of their sins that they are in captivity, and he's confessing that to God.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm just gonna skip to the end of his prayer, verse 19.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: No, verse 18.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: 17.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I keep going back now.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: I'll just start verse 18.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: O my God, incline thine ear and hear, open thine eyes and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, hearken and do.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: Defer not for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: So he ends his prayer asking God to hear him, not because they're so good, but he knows they're there, but their sins are what put them in this position, but he's still praying out for mercy and for God to hear.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20 says, And whilst I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: Yea, whilst I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: And he informed me and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: He says that while I was praying, while I was yet speaking, this the angel, the messenger of God, Gabriel, who he had already seen once before in a vision, came to him.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: And notice what Gabriel says in verse 23 At the beginning of thy supplication, the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to give him a vision.
45:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, the vision is not my supplementation.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: Subject this morning.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: But he said, Daniel says, While I was talking, the answer came in the form of a messenger who came to give him the answer.
45:21
SPEAKER_00: While he was praying, the answer came.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: But Gabriel said, At the beginning of your supplication, at the beginning of your prayer, the commandment came, and here I am.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: God told Gabriel to go at the beginning of Daniel's prayer.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: And Gabriel gets here and at the end of his prayer while he was still talking.
45:49
SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah chapter 65, verse 24, God says, and it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: Not only should we remember that God does hear, he always hears, and we should actually actively talk to God, we should do it internally, not necessarily out loud.
46:28
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be seen by anybody else, but we should strive to be conversing with God in an active way.
46:39
SPEAKER_00: When we do so, we have to be talking to him, understanding that he does hear and that he always answers.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: That his answers are based on his great mercies, which are always there, his grace and mercy, which is new every morning for us, that he hears and the answer comes.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: We just need to listen for it and look for it and hear it.
47:07
SPEAKER_00: The answer is not always the end of the trouble.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: It is sometimes at peace in the middle of the trouble.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: Daniel's answer here did not, Gabriel did not come.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: And if you read what comes after, he did not come and say, pack your things, we're leave in captivity.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: He does tell him deliverance is coming.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: And it's a great picture and foreshadowing and prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah who would come and be cut off for his people.
47:41
SPEAKER_00: The deliverance that we need is not always seen in the external circumstances.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: But the deliverance is always, 100% of the time, that God's grace is there with you, that his grace is sufficient for what you're going through, that you can lay down and sleep if you really understand that he does hear you and he's there with you.
48:09
SPEAKER_00: And then when you wake up, you should recognize that the Lord sustains you, that he does hear, he does answer, and he's listening right at the beginning.
48:20
SPEAKER_00: Like he does not start listening after we've prayed long enough.
48:25
SPEAKER_00: He does not only answer after we've prayed enough times.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: He tells Daniel, I heard you when you started, and I sent the messenger.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: He tells us in Isaiah 6, 5, while they're yet speaking, I will answer.
48:40
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's like I don't listen to my children until they've said my name enough.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: God is not like that.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: So actively pray for the things that we need.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: Talking to a God that has ears and you know he hears.
48:55
SPEAKER_00: Recognizing that he's listening right now, he's already hearing you.
49:00
SPEAKER_00: And what he's saying is his grace is sufficient.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: When you're laying down at night and you're worried or you're scared, pray to God.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: Talk to God.
49:16
SPEAKER_00: I have found that when I talk to God rather than myself, I find that peace.
49:24
SPEAKER_00: When I'm not finding the peace, I'm probably not talking to God.
49:28
SPEAKER_00: But that's I close with that and I ask the Lord bless this in spite of me.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: If it if it is a blessing to give God the praise and glory, and we'll stand and sing a hymn.
49:40
SPEAKER_00: If there's anyone that wishes to join Grace Church, you have that opportunity now.
49:45
SPEAKER_00: We'll stand and sing um I'm sorry, two nine zero.
49:50
SPEAKER_00: We'll stand and sing number two nine zero.