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[ Music ] I must tell Jesus, I cannot remember, I heard him say, "Follow." I must tell Jesus. I must tell Jesus.

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Jesus can help me. Jesus alone. I must tell Jesus all of my troubles. He is a kind, compassionate friend.

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If I but ask him, he will deliver. ♪ Make all the troubles ♪ ♪ Quickly end ♪ ♪ I must tell Jesus ♪

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♪ I must tell Jesus ♪ ♪ I cannot bear ♪ ♪ I cannot bear my burdens ♪ ♪ Burdens alone ♪

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♪ Ooh, I must tell Jesus ♪ ♪ I must tell Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, Son of God ♪ ♪ Me ♪

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♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ - Amen, amen. We continue our sermon series based on the book of Psalms.

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Today we come to consider prayerfully Psalm 140. So lift up verses 1, 4, and 6. "Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent man.

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Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent man with purpose to overthrow my goings. Thou art my God.

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Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. The subject of the message-- listen, Lord, I'm hurting. These three verses, around which our message is woven,

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may be called petitions of a pilgrim. One of the privileges of prayer is that we can tell God all of our troubles. Whatever is bothering us, we can carry it

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to the throne of grace. And that's a marvelous privilege. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear.

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What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Many of the burdens of this life are too heavy for us to bear alone. So it is necessary for us to cry, "I must tell Jesus. I must tell Jesus I cannot bear these burdens alone."

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this particular hymn of faith the psalmist pours out his heart. He cries into the Lord out of the anguish of his soul. He's a lonely pilgrim. This particular song is identified with the life of David and David is the composer of many of our hymns, and a sense this may be considered a prayer hymn. It strikes a familiar

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note in the life of the pilgrim of the way. Here is one who takes his burden to the Lord. If we consider the experience of David it comes at a time when he's in deep trouble. Saul seeks to take his life. He's running hither and yon, seeking security and safety. There was a warrant out for his arrest. He's on the FBI's most

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wanted list. He's surrounded and confounded by the enemy. This enemy is evil at the very core. The action against David is not just the result of a tip tantrum, some unpremeditated act, Saul was given to outrages which erupted without warning like a volcano, but this evil which is arrayed against David is deep in the heart, it's the fruit of

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much meditation. The evil thoughts seek an outlet in violence. So David is in danger. He seeks deliverance. He cries unto the Lord. In other words he's saying listen Lord I'm hurting. I'm presenting to you an urgent request. But you see here is a petition that is made in an emergency. This is what he says, "Deliver

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me, O Lord, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent man who imagines mischief." Those violent people who imagine mischief in their heart and continually gathering together for war. Deliver me from them.

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The petition describes the individual from whom the pilgrim seeks deliverance as being given to imagining mischief. You know, every one of us in some way has been a victim of that, people who imagine, you know,

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that you're going to do things to them that you never dreamed of doing but they have all kinds of imagination. They imagine that you are someone that you really aren't. They just imagine that and sometimes the people who seem to know most about you are the people who spend less time with you and yet they are authoritative about

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you. And this is the kind of situation that the Psalmist finds himself in and so what What can you do when you find people who are always dreaming of things that you're saying and doing that you haven't thought about, always saying things about you that you're not guilty of?

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What is the way to get out of that? How can you be delivered? Well, he has to appeal to the Lord. And so he said, "Lord, I'm hurting.

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Listen to me. Deliver me from those who are hurting." And he said, "I'm hurting." And he said, "Lord, I'm hurting.

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Listen to me. Deliver me from those who are hurting." And he said, "I'm hurting." And he said, "I'm hurting."

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And he said, "I'm hurting." And he said, "I'm hurting." And he said, "I'm hurting." And he said, "I'm hurting."

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from those who bid on my destruction, who seek to destroy me, who imagine all kinds of mischief concerning me, deliver me from them. Now David was not just concerned about overcoming Goliath while he was concerned about that. He was concerned about winning a victory over the Philistine army, but Saul thought that David was trying to get his throne even when he was just a lad.

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there is no way we can keep the evil mind from imagining mischief. We must put that in the hands of God and that's what he's doing as he cries out, "Lord I'm hurting, I'm hurting, listen to my prayer." Now he's tried to run away and he has run until he has run out. He petitions to the Lord and in his prayer he says

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deliver me O Lord I need your help I need you to deliver me I am surrounded my deliverance depends upon you. Listen Lord I'm hurting the deliverance of God is liberation from our struggles and yet it's a kind of liberation that leaves us in the midst of the struggle and yet frees us from the struggle. It's a kind

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of liberation that you may call the liberation of love. It's the power that that God gives to accept persecution and not hate the persecuted. The liberating power of love

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is in accepting the enemy. Deliver me, oh Lord. Don't let me become embittered by the evil imaginations

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of the ungodly. Don't let me use the same weapons that are being used by my enemies to fight me. Deliver me, oh Lord, from envy.

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Deliver me from seeking revenge. Deliver me, oh Lord. Now we need to pray for deliverance from the enemy. from that which is detrimental to our welfare.

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We need deliverance from the demonic. An evil spirit came upon Saul at times. On one occasion when David was at the royal court, an evil spirit came upon Saul,

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he threw a javelin and now they missed David. So we need deliverance from the demonic, from the evil spirits. We need deliverance many times from ourselves.

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Left to ourselves, we are prone many times to destroy ourselves. We stew in our own juice. We do to ourselves that which is harmful to us. There are times when we are our own worst enemy.

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As Poco says, "We have met the enemy and he is us." So he prays to the Lord of heaven and earth. He asks for help. That is what David did.

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That's his petition. "Deliver me, O Lord." "Lord, I'm hurting. Listen to me."

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How many times do we find ourselves in this position as when we cry out for deliverance? And the second thing that he says here is, "Keep me, O Lord. I want you to preserve me. In the midst of the struggle, I want you to preserve me."

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You know, prayer is a continuous relationship of the finite with the infinite. The little I with the great thou. Prayer is not to be used as a kind of a fire alarm,

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something to be used only in case of fire, in case of some emergency. Forget about God until you have some crisis. That's not the way prayer is to be used.

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Not like that man who was on the roof of a house, and he was about to fall. And as he was on his way down from the roof, he cried to the Lord to deliver him.

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And as he went on down a little further after having made that cry, he was caught by a nail. And he said, "That's all right now, Lord, the nail has me." (audience laughing)

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Sometimes people forget, so soon, when God has miraculously intervened in their lives, David cries for deliverance, and he asks God to continue to be with him.

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Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Build a wall of protection around me. Preserve me from the violent man whose purpose is to overthrow my goings,

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the person who's stationed along the road I travel, whose design is to keep me from getting where I'm going, Lord, I need your help. I need you right now.

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The proud have placed a snare in my path. They have spread a net by the wayside. They have set themselves against me and I need deliverance from you. We all need God to deliver us.

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This third petition in the prayer hymn is, "Lord, you are my God. Hear the voice of my supplication. Lord, hear me." That's the uttermost plea here.

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Listen, Lord, I'm hurting. In one other way of putting it, Lord, are you really listening to me? Have you ever felt like that when you pray?

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And when you get through, you wonder whether the Lord really is listening. In the midst of all of the frustrations that we encounter, and in the midst of all of the circumstances

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that sort of surround us, and many times after we've talked with God we go back to the struggle and we come back and say, "Lord, did you really hear what I said?"

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- Yes, yes. - "The situation hasn't improved at all? "Listen, Lord, I'm hurting!" No doubt Paul felt like that when he had his thorn

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in the flesh, and he said three times, "I wish to go to Mount Nisman." No doubt as he went back, he said, "Now, Lord, it's gotten worse than it was!

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"I talked to you about it and I asked you to take it away, and you've left it there. Finally, the Lord spoke to him and said, my grace is sufficient in your weakness.

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Listen, Lord, I've heard it. That was the cry of the world in the first century, in the midst of the darkness of the times. Lord, I've heard it.

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But it was the cry of the Jewish people who had the heavy yoke of Roman oppression upon them. Listen Lord, I'm hurting. That's the cry, that's the cry today

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as peoples all over our world are suffering. They're suffering, some denied their basic freedoms. Many of them are hungry, many are suffering from disease and malnutrition,

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and they cry out in the darkness of the night. Listen Lord, I'm hurting, I'm hurting. We have our problems and we go to the throne of grace with heavy hearts saying, "Listen, Lord, I've failed."

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And we say, "Lord, did you hear me when I cried?" Well, that's the meaning of this Advent season, that the Lord answers, that the Lord always answers. You know, sometimes it seems like a long, long time,

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but the Lord answers. I was thinking just the other day how the Jewish people in Egypt suffered some 430 years. That's a long time.

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Look at the generations that came on the scene and died while they were still in Egyptian bondage, while people were still crying out, saying, Mr. and Mrs. Lord, we are hurting here in Egypt.

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When our people came to this country in 1619, from 1619 to 1863, really 1866, when we got our freedom here, it's a long, long time where people cried out in the darkness.

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And many of them went on off the scene, still crying, listen, listen, listen, Lord, I'm hurting. And some of us have had our own problems. And we've cried to the Lord about those problems.

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We've cried day and night. Listen, listen, listen, listen, Lord! I'm hurting! And the answer that you wait for, you wait and you wait.

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Well, the celebration of this season is that God answers. That God answers. hear the older people say when I was a boy that I know that that if I pray and pray right that you will answer my prayer. He always answers. May not be the

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answer we want but God always answers. He always hears the cries of his people and And he always answers. They cried, Lord, for many centuries they cried. And the people sat in darkness,

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but those people who sat in darkness finally saw a great light. They had a great light to shine upon them. And God came himself in the person of his Son

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in answering their cries. He comes. He comes to us wherever we are. That's good news, that he does come.

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The burden may be heavy, but he does come. And the night may be dark, but he does come. He comes, he comes, he comes, he comes. When he comes, he comes to those people who hurt him.

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Comes to the people who hurt him. And he comes in answer to that great need, the prophet had said, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me." There came one who manifested in not only word,

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but also indeed that prophetic word. And he said, in announcing his ministry, that the spirit of God has anointed me to preach the gospel to the broken high,

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To those people who are hurting, whose hearts have been broken by the cruel circumstances of human existence, the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the broken hearted, to the people who are hurting, to those captives who need to be delivered, those people who are hurting in the dark and dingy dungeons of this world, who are hurting to

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to comfort all who mourn, and to give them a word of joy in the midst of their suffering, I have come, I have come. Listen, Lord, I'm hurting. Well, there's a hymn that expresses

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the fact that he does come. It's an old hymn, we call it an old 100. It says, I love the Lord. He heard my cry and pitied every groan.

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That's the way he sort of ends this psalm. He ends this song with complete trust in God. I'm hurting, I'm hurting right now. And Lord, I want you to come to my rescue.

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I want you to deliver me. I want you to preserve me. I want you to be my God. No matter what happens, I want you to be my God.

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And you know, if we have that kind of confidence in God, all is well with us. When we cry, I know God will somehow come to the situation. He'll answer.

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He not only sees our plight, but he hears our cries and he heals our hurts. That's why we can say, "I love the Lord. He heard my cries and pitted every groan,

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and long as I live and troubles rise, I'll hasten to his throne. I love the Lord. He bowed his head and chased my griefs away.

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Oh, let me now no more despair while I have breath to pray. Listen, Lord, I'm hurting. Have you ever made that cry to God?

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And you know that somehow in the midst of it, he comes because he has his eye on every one of us. And he has sent his son to be with us in the midst of the human struggle.

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That's good news. That's the best news, to recognize that there is one with us in the struggle. I don't know how it is as we celebrate this season.

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Some of us may not celebrate it with perfect health. Some may celebrate it with dim eyes. Some may celebrate it with this ailment or that ailment. Some may celebrate it with this disappointment

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or that disappointment. But while you can lift up your voice in pride and praise to God, you can say, listen, Lord, I'm hurting, and know that God himself is with us in the struggle.

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- Amen. - It's the door of the church is open. He comes wherever you are. He comes right where you are.

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You can say in prayer, even me, as insignificant as you may feel many times, He comes right where you are. is lost. As you may feel, he comes to find you, to bring you into the fold, to comfort and caress you. I invite you to come to him now.

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♪ We are here ♪ ♪ O shall our blessings ♪ ♪ The waters gathering full ♪ ♪ And free ♪

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♪ 'Cause our thirst is old ♪ ♪ Refreshing ♪ ♪ Let some drops fall ♪ - Right you to come.

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♪ On me ♪ ♪ Cast me not, O gentle Savior ♪ ♪ Sinful though my heart may be ♪ ♪ I am longing for the Lord ♪

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♪ I'll make a for thy favor ♪ ♪ All thou'rt blessing, Lord ♪ ♪ Bless me ♪ ♪ Even me, Lord ♪

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♪ Even me ♪ ♪ Even me, Lord ♪ ♪ Even me ♪ ♪ Let small drops ♪

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♪ Of the ♪ ♪ Body ♪ ♪ Bread of heaven ♪ ♪ Bread of heaven ♪

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♪ Ever let me feed ♪ ♪ Be on thee ♪ ♪ Thine of heaven ♪ ♪ Thine of heaven ♪

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♪ Let thy blood ♪ ♪ At home for me ♪ ♪ Even me, Lord ♪ ♪ Even me ♪

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♪ Even the meek ♪ ♪ Even the meek ♪ ♪ Let the trust ♪ ♪ Of hope ♪

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♪ Holy ♪ [ Music ] [BLANK_AUDIO]