In this sermon, the speaker focuses on three key points from Psalm 27. The first point is that sometimes we receive an evil report about ourselves, which can discourage us. The speaker references the story of the 12 spies sent into the promised land, where 10 of them gave a negative report, causing the people to doubt and weep. The second point is that we need to listen to the voice of God and put away the voices that condemn us. The speaker emphasizes that God has promised us victory and we should trust in His word. The third point is that we should not compare ourselves to others or let our own failings and struggles discourage us. Instead, we should focus on God's faithfulness and believe in His promises.

I want to share with you a message from Psalm 42, and I believe I have an answer for somebody's question this morning. And the question is, why am I so down? Why am I so down? Yes, I know that somebody's got that question in their heart. That's why the Lord gave me this word. Father, I thank you, Lord, that you tell us that the entrance of your words gives light, gives life, shows us a clear path forward. I thank you, God, that you send your word to dispel darkness, confusion, improper thinking. Your word indeed is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. And so may I have the privilege of unlocking your word this morning, and God, subsequently trusting you to unlock every prison in every heart and every mind, and God, setting your people free, that we might all together go forward in you. And Lord, we thank you, God, with all of our heart. I thank you for the anointing this day of your Holy Spirit on these words in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 42. As the deer, starting in verse one, pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, where is your God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that kept the pilgrim feast. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you discriated within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, and from the heights of Hermon, and from the hill Mizar. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with the breaking of my bones, my enemies reproach me, while they say to me all day long, where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you discriated within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God. I love the fact, first of all, that the songwriter of this particular worship song, a psalm, I love the honesty in it. And it tells me two things. Number one, God is not offended by honesty. He's not looking for us to play games with him. He's not looking for religious hypocrisy. He's not looking for you and I to have to plaster on some kind of a goofy smile on Sunday morning, and come to the house of God and pretend everything is all right, if it's not all right. He's not offended by honesty. As a matter of fact, he's so unoffended that he allowed it to be penned and become part of the holy writ of scripture, to teach us, to instruct us so that we may learn from him, learn something about ourselves and learn something about God as well. The psalm is to sing, what happened to my former joy? He says, I remember these things in verse four, I pour out my soul within me. I used to go with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept the pilgrim feast. It's the type of the new believer, the believer saying, God, where did my joy go? What happened to me? I remember the days when I would come to your house and it'd have to be a flood or famine to keep me. And even flood and famine couldn't keep me from your house. And I just, I was, when the doors were open, I was there and I was a part of prayer. I was a part of praise and I was so thankful, so grateful. And, and I just felt your presence everywhere around me. And in me, I had so loved your presence so long for your presence and couldn't wait for the doors to open to come to the house of God. Couldn't wait to get up in the morning and open my Bible and maybe spend those few minutes before the busyness of my day would begin. What happened to it? Where did it go? How did I lose this? Why am I so down? And verse seven, deep calls unto deep, but the noise of your waterfalls, all your waves and billows have gone over me. I had such deep need in those early years in my life. And I would, I came into your presence and you began to just pour out of who you are upon me. And I literally was swimming in your presence, but now I'm, I hear the noise of the waterfall. May I put it that way? I'm in church this morning and the praises of your people. It's like a waterfall literally is. It's like, it's like a cascading waterfall falling down into a deep ocean or deep river. And yet I used to swim in it, but now it seems to be just above me. You ever been like that in the house of God? Everybody's praising, everybody's shouting and Cheryl singing about how the faithfulness of God and you'll never be. And, and you're, you're raising your hands, but it's like the whole presence of God is a foot above your hands. Your, your waves and billows used to swallow me, but now they're, they're kind of rolling above my head a little bit out of my reach. Why is this happening in my life? And why am I so down now? I want to speak to you about three possible causes of this. It's not, it's not exhaustive. Obviously I'm not going to even talk about physiological reasons why you can be suffering from discouragement, but I want to talk about the three things that God spoke to my heart from this particular Psalm, which are just three of several. Number one is that you are receiving an evil report about yourself. It's in your heart. You see in the days when God was bringing his people out of captivity and into a place of promise, he sent 12 spies into that land and 10 of them came back and the 10 who came back said, it is everything that God says it is. It's a land with supernatural provision. It's, it's a, it's, it's, it's beyond description. The grapes, there's, there's so much fruit in that land that just one bow of grapes, we cut it down and we had to put it on a, a beam literally between two of us to carry it back to show you. It's, it's amazing. The fruit that's in that land, it's, it's supernatural. The fruit in that land, there's no doubt about it. However, it's not for you, for somebody else, some other time, but not you. Not now. The scripture tells us that the 10 spies, they gave the children of Israel, an evil report of the land, which they had spied out saying the land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people whom we saw are men of great stature. There, we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak that came from the giants. And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight. And so we were in their sight. And the end result is the congregation lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night. And there are 10 voices saying, no, you can't go in. No, it doesn't belong to you. There's two voices that are speaking. And you actually three, there are two men and the voice of God speaking together. Yes, you can go in. Everything I've promised you is yours. It's not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord, you will not win this victory by any of your own strategy. You will not win it by your own exuberance. You'll not win it by pressing through the way people climb the corporate ladder in a secular society. You will win it because I have told you it's yours. There's no other reason I've told you it's yours. And it's so important that you put away those other voices, the voice of your own heart that condemns you, your own heart that says, who do you think you are to believe for these things? Who do you think you are? You know, your failings, you know, your struggles, you know, your trials, you know, what goes on in your mind and all these other things. And, but the Bible says that even if my own heart condemns me, God is greater than my heart. And add to that, you have the demonic voices coming at you from seemingly every side saying it's true. The promises of God are true, but not for you, not for you because you're too weak, not for you because God has found some inexplicable flaw in your life. And because of it, he's not able to take you in, not for you because you have no education. You don't come from a good home. You don't have a background, not for you because of what you did in your past before you came to Christ, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But I remind you this morning that the devil himself is a liar and he's the father of all lies. Let me suggest to you one thing. He wouldn't tell you these things if they, if they were true, it's, he can only lie. Can't speak truth. When he opens his mouth, he can only lie. And the fact that he goes out of his way to tell you and every devil of hell goes out of their way to tell you, you will never become what God has intended you to be is because you will become what God has intended you to be. When you step over that line, you open this book and say, God, not by might, not by power, but by your spirit. Oh God, I will become everything that you've promised that I will be. I believe this book, Lord. I believe that when you died and were raised again from the dead, that you took captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And that includes me. You gave gifts unto me. You gave me abilities, Lord, to do things that I could never hope to do in my own strength. You gave me power to go where I could never hope to go by my own ingenuity. And you gave me a calling by which you choose to glorify your own name through this earthly physical vessel. And so I choose today to believe the report of the Lord. I choose to believe God's report. Another cause of spiritual despair in a follower of Christ is because you've been drifting. You came in with youthful exuberance. May I put it that way? It was untested. It was untried. And thank God he lets us go through these seasons. When we first come to Christ, he lets us, you know, half of what we're doing is wrong, but he lets us experience his joy anyway. And we come in and we, we can dance and we can sing. And just like little children, there's, there's a time to correct. And there's a time not to correct. There's a time when they're too young to say too much, but then there's a time when they start to get just a little bit older. In verse four, he says, I remember these things. I remember when you would appear before me. I remember God these times when I would come into your presence and you would literally swallow me in your presence. It was amazing. You were pouring out into my life. I remember these things. I pour out my soul within me. Now here's the clue in verse four, for I used to go with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. I used to go. That's so many people's testimony now in the body of Christ. I used to go. I used to be, I used to have, I used to love. Everything becomes, I used to do something. And just like Solomon, former King of Israel, he's given a task on the earth. The manifested glory of God and a place of prayer and worship is given to him to maintain in order to maintain that place. He's given giftings of God like you and I are, which are not of himself. They're of God. He's given a wisdom that the Bible says that no man before or sense apart from Christ, obviously has ever had wisdom like Solomon had. And the whole reason this was given to him was to glorify God on the earth, to see God glorified. He was given this ability so that God himself could answer prayer and be glorified. And he started his, he started his ministry as it is in simplicity, started in personal prayer at night. And in that time of personal prayer, God would appear to him twice. As a matter of fact, God appeared to him and said, ask of me what you would have, and I'll give it to you. He could have asked for anything and God would have given it to him. He asked him of course, for wisdom. He said, God, I, I'm young and I don't know how to come in and go out among your people. Please give me wisdom. And it's so pleased the Lord that he had not asked for the life of his enemies or such like that he gave him wisdom and riches in abundance and in honor. He gave him more than he could even hope for or ask for. Kings came from all over the earth. They brought presents to him and he had thrones of ivory. It was there. It just couldn't get any better. The presence of God that was emanating through his life. When they dedicated the temple that God gave him the wisdom to build, he had a scaffold built and he knelt on the scaffold and raised his hands to heaven and prayed that God would be glorified in the earth by answering prayer. When strangers and foreigners and people, even, even the people of God, when they were overwhelmed would come into his presence and God would be glorified by answering their prayer. God was so pleased with this man, Solomon, that the, the present is presence came down into that temple so powerfully that everyone was on their faces. People couldn't stand. Even the priesthood couldn't stand and minister because the glory of the Lord had filled the temple. Can you imagine having a ministry like that deep call a thunder deep Solomon could obviously I remember when your waves and your billows rolled over me. Can you imagine being in that temple in the presence of God? I remember when I was young, once going to a church, it was in revival in Canada. And I remember that they started the service. People were trying to get into that building. They were coming by bus loads. The presence of the Lord had come into that sanctuary. And I remember they, the person who was moderating the service got up and he said, please, everyone stand. And the whole sanctuary student and all of us immediately fell on their knees and began weeping presence of God was in the sanctuary. Oh, I remember those days. Amazing. I'd never, I was young in the Lord. I'd never experienced anything like that in my whole life. Then suddenly Solomon, he just got bored. He got bored with familiarity. It's, it's part of the struggle of humanity of all of us. That's why people get bored with their marriages. They get bored with their jobs. They get bored with driving the same route into work every day. They just, we have a tendency to get bored and we want to do something new. And that's exactly what happened to Solomon. It's, it's almost unthinkable that this man with all of this calling on his life, he just began to drift and it's easy to drift. Matter of fact, it can happen. So gradually you're not even aware it's happening until one day God just seems to be so far away. And you come into a service like this, a sanctuary like this, and the worship is so familiar, but you can't seem to touch it. It's just a little bit above your hands. It's above your heart. It's above your head. And you're wondering, God, why, why the reality is he's created a thirst in you to draw you back again. That's why you don't forget the Psalmist begins by saying as the deer pants for the water Brooks, so my soul pants for you, Oh God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? In other words, God, when, when will you come to me again? I don't want to end up like Solomon at the end of his life. He said, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Matter of fact, in Ecclesiastes chapter two, he said, therefore I turned my heart and I despaired. Verse 17. He says, I hated life. Verse 18. He says, I hated all my labor. You imagine starting out the way Solomon did and ending up hating life, hating your labor, hating everything that your hand has done and realizing everything apart from God is empty. No matter how much it seems to be appealing at the time. What a tragedy when Solomon left the house of God and he didn't come back. But thank God you are here today. You are here. You have an up. He was supposed to be the wisest man that ever lived. But I'm telling you, you're smarter than him today because you were here and he never came back. And the third reason. Is that the Lord is calling you to something which you have been unwilling to consider. Sometimes I've had it happen in my life more than once. Suddenly it seems like the hand of God just lifts from you for a moment. And he's so out of reach. And because we wouldn't consider him otherwise, he's trying to speak and we're not listening. And so he creates this moment in our heart where we're out of exasperation. God, where are you? What are you doing? What's happening to me? And we look at that verse and it says, deep calls unto deep. Now we look at it in a different context. It's the deep need of God, may I put it that way, calls out to the deep resource he's planted inside of you. It's God calling out to God in a sense, because you have the Holy Spirit inside of your physical temple, your body, and God is calling out that you might rise up and glorify him in a way that you've not yet considered. You've pushed it away. He's been calling you to something that you're not willing to consider. This has been the story of my life has been God calling me to do things that I'm never qualified to do. He's taken me to countries and places that I've not been qualified to go. He's stood me before presidents and the governments who said, give us a word from the Lord. I've never been qualified to do what I do. But if I had in the natural, listen to the voices around me or listen to the voices of my own heart, I never would have gone. But there was another voice. And quite often it's through thirst. Quite often it's through that question, God, what are you doing in my life? And suddenly he says, now I'm glad we're here. Now let's talk about something. I'm going to set before you an open door and I want you to go through it. And don't ask any questions. You'll know it's me. Just go through the door I set before you. Don't worry about how you're going to get there. Don't worry about how you're going to win the battle. Don't worry about the resources. Everything that you need will be given you on this journey. You don't have to worry about it. For many here today, for many in our generation, your zeal was once youthful, but now he's calling you and I to a place of maturity. Not because we get a tingly feeling in the presence of God, but we follow him because we know it's the right thing to do. There's a point. I mean, it's, it's, it's nice. If my little grandchildren were here, they'd come running on the platform today, Papa, Papa, they put up their hands and I picked them up and it's so cute. But if they were 20 years old, it's not cute anymore. I remember I went to a service one time of men, a men's meeting and they were all running around. They're all my age running around going, daddy, daddy. I remember standing there thinking, good grief, man, grow up, grow up. You're called to be a son or daughter. You're called to be co-rulers with Christ. We're called to rule and reign with him. There's a point where childhood has to be put away. And we start serving God because we know it's the right thing to do. Not because we're coming in looking for some tingly feeling in his presence. Not because we need to be coddled one more time, bounced up and down in the air. So we get to call him daddy. Great for those moments when you first came to Christ, thank God for those moments, but there's a point of maturity where that goes away. Now our joy comes from entering into the work of Christ, which is the saving of the lost. It's becoming sons and daughters of the kingdom of God. Not just that first felt joy of salvation, but our joy will now come when we rejoice with the angels over every soul that repents and comes to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It's that transition in the Christian life where we stop living for just ourselves and we start living for the benefit of others. That's what we teach at our Bible school, by the way. That's where the lasting presence of God is found in a Christian's life. We look away from ourselves. We look away from the mirror. We stop coming into the house of God just to say what's in this for me today. We get rid of the consumer mentality that seems to want to permeate this generation. And we say, Lord God, I want to be involved in your work. Give me the giftings and the callings, the ability. Give me wisdom to win the loss. Give me a heart for those that are unlovable. My God, make me a son, make me a daughter in your kingdom and let my joy come from your work. The joy of winning someone to Christ, the joy of discipling them in Christ, the joy of rolling up our sleeves and getting involved in the work of God. That's where at a certain point, a transition has to be made in the house of God, or we just draw back or we just say, God, where did you go? Why is my joy gone? And the Lord says, I want to give you a deeper joy than you've ever known before. I want you to know the joy of the father when he covered his prodigal son and he empowered him and he put shoes on his feet and he struck up the band and killed the golden calf and began to dance before the whole of his house. I want you to know a joy that's deeper than just coming into the house and saying, daddy, what's new for me today? What new present do you have for me today? I want you to know the joy of being a son or a daughter of God. Hallelujah. Why are you cast down on my soul? Verse 11 of Psalm 42. Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my God. I will. The Psalmist has a determination in his or her heart to say, God, I will praise you again. I'm not staying in this place. I'm done with this. I'm done with this dryness. I'm done with just being thirsty and never having anything to drink. I'm done with this. I'm done with the voices that keep saying, where is your God? I'm going to show you devil where my God is. Hallelujah to the lamb of God. And my testimony is no longer going to be. I used to go with the multitude. I'm getting back on the bus and I'm going back to the house of God. I'm going to get involved in the work of God and I'm going to pray and I'm going to believe, and I'm going to speak and I'm going to teach and publish and defend the gospel of Jesus Christ. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. That's the cry of the heart that will get the victory. I see so many people over the years, they, they come in like a wave as it is this rushing onto the shore. So glad of their salvation. So glad of the moment. So glad of the presence of God. So glad of, of feeling forgiven. But you see, a wave will rush in on the beach and then it will go back onto the, into the ocean again. And the only water that actually stays on the shore is the water quite often that's on the feet of somebody who's standing there. And when you and I rush into the house of God, it's Jesus Christ who's standing there waiting for us. And those who simply just by faith, just lay hold of him, say, God, I may not fully understand it all. And, and my thinking might not be clear even in what it means to be a Christian, but, Oh, Jesus, I'm not going to let you go. I'm not going to let my joys just erode and go back or sink in the sand or go back in the ocean for God. You, you said you came to give me life and to give it to me more abundantly. Isn't that what you said, Jesus? And so I'm, I'm just thirsty. You, you stood up on the day of the feast and said, if anyone is still thirsty, let him come into me and drink. You said, he who believes on me out of his inward parts will flow rivers and living water. And so God, I'm not content just to be thirsty as a son or daughter of God. I'm going to praise you again. I'm going to praise you again, but for a deeper reason than I've ever known. Thank you father for bringing your word this day for somebody here simply needs to get up and come back to you. Thank you, Lord God, that you will put to flight our enemies that try to keep so many on the wrong side of the promise. I thank you, Lord, that you will help those who are drifting away from you, from your work, from your house. I thank you, God, that you will give us the grace to be willing to consider something you're calling us to that we've not been willing to consider before. Oh Lord, as the Psalmist said, I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my God. And I father, I thank you for this with all my heart this morning in Jesus name. Amen. I have a very, very simple altar call this morning. If you're discouraged, you're down, you feel like pastor, you've just preached my life. I swear to God, you've been parked in a car outside my house and my workplace. And you followed me on the subway to work every day. You've just preached my life, but you've also given me an opportunity. God's word has this day to find a deeper joy than what I've previously known. And by God's grace, I'm going to get up and I'm going to go there. I'm going to trust you, Lord. And so if you're discouraged today, I just want the privilege of praying for you. It's that simple. Friends, I just recently yesterday read an article where this writer was encouraging us on these two great, this weekend of shopping. He was challenging those that could hear not to shop. He was saying that not, not shut down the shopping because if you have need of it or it's Christmas and you're buying gifts, but he was talking, wanting to challenge people who are shopping for the sake of trying to fill the need and fill the emptiness and fill the void. What have we become as a nation? Why do we continually put things in our spirit that never satisfy only to our hurt, only to what's important in the human spirit and what nourishes a human spirit, all that has been taken away from us. And we're filling it with junk. We're filling it with stuff that don't matter. It's all vanity and nothing, nothing is satisfying us. Could it be that the Lord himself has poured out a spirit of thirst on us? Is it possible? He's so longs for us and he's poured out a thirst. And all of a sudden where we used to be satiated with stuff where, where the junk and the stuff was enough, it's not anymore. We can consume and consume and consume and nothing satisfies and a deep satisfaction and a growing loss of wellness. A growing loss of joy is coming over all the earth. Maybe all this city because it's God himself going, I've created you for something so much better. You've tried to satisfy and get satisfaction from things that will not satisfy. We can spend hours lost in nothingness. We've got to say, God, I thank you. Is this thirst from you? Because I believe if I will look up even for one second, you will help me turn away from the glut and which does not satisfy, which does not nourish me, does not nourish your relationship with you. And thus with my help, with your help, I can turn out and give to others and not be consumed by myself. Could it be? He loves us so much. He's creating a thirst for himself, but we, we, we haven't recognized how this is so of him. And so I just believe today that God is going to help us shut out the voices that say not for you and you will never change. And life is as it is. And Jesus came the favor of the Lord is life. The favor of the Lord is life. And he's creating a thirst for his life, life, real life, life that nourishes the human spirit that is able to know what's important and be able to give our strength to what matters and not live such an empty existence that all we do is shrivel and die in the face of his goodness. No, he loves us too much. Hallelujah. And I think his favor is thirst. And so Lord, we just thank you. We're thirsty. Oh God, for something perhaps we've not partaken of for a while. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you. You're not pushing us away and pushing us out the door. Thank you. You love us so much Lord, shut down the voices that say nothing will change because Lord, you are a, a risen savior. Everything changes with you. You are resurrection, your life. And he that believes in he, though he were dead yet shall he live. And he who believes in you, you though he lives, he will not die. Thank you. Oh God, this promise of life belongs to us. And Lord, we just ask you now to remove that, that spirit of Solomon Lord off us. Oh God, we, we becoming so easily bored. Lord, we may be gorging on things in our spirit, Lord, that Lord, that if that don't satisfy. So thank you. Oh God, that you Lord, no Lord, you understand us so well and you're giving us hope today. So dry up the thirst for other things. Oh God, we ask you to help us. So God, thank you that you, that nothing will satisfy. You will dry up every well of the enemy. You will dry up every well of the enemy. You will dry it up. Oh God. Hallelujah. Lead us. Oh God, to the right places on the internet where there's life in teaching. Lead us, put books in our hands. God, let us, oh God, partake of wells Lord, that there's living water, that we will have enough to satisfy our thirst and the thirst of so many. And then Lord, we have a call in God. So many in this place have been created to run and they've been caged. Oh God, we've been caged. We've been created to run. Oh God. I thank you Lord, that you're causing us to consider our ways because you're a way maker and where there was no opportunity to serve you, you will make a way for us. So God, you will make opportunities. Thank you Lord. You will cause us to open our mouths in the workplace. So God, because the thirsty are there. Thank you. We will be increasingly satisfied with you and your word. And we will have water to share and it will be living water. And we, a joy we never thought possible in a long time will come to us because Lord, we are connected to you and we're living for the benefit of others. Thank you for shutting down useless wells. Oh God, in our lives. Oh God, thank you for shutting the doors of that which does not satisfy because you love us so much. You're creating a thirst for yourself. Oh God. And we respond to it. So this day, oh God, we have hope. Oh God, we have hope because we are hearing you're taking us back to what truly satisfies, what truly satisfies. Oh God, this is not of us, but this is of you a token. We are considering how much you love us. So God, we go rejoicing this day because you're drying up the wells of the enemy. Lord, we're not going to shop just to shop. That won't meet a thing. We're not just going to go Lord to those old wells anymore. They don't satisfy. Thank you by your spirit. You're drying them up. Thank you. This is a new day to consider you. And we will be abundantly satisfied by what you are offering and who you are. And I pray a new release of vision and calling on these people. I pray this church would open doors of opportunity for ministry. I pray, oh God, we would rise to the call on our lives. We know we are not able, but you are well able, oh God. And you will give us the land. I thank you, oh God. You take the weak, you take those who feel they can't, but you will intertwine your strength and your salvation in ours. And we shall rise with Jesus Christ because he is alive and he is moving in this generation. Thank you for changing our thirst and satisfying us with which will always satisfy your life and your presence. To God be the glory in every thirsty person that's looking to this well to be satisfied with water that will not ever stop satisfying us, oh God, a living water that will bubble up within us. We thank you for this word. Lord, we receive it, oh God. We don't just, we don't just hear it, but we receive it as the people of God and your power will seal it in our lives. And all God's willing people said, amen and amen. Father, I ask in Jesus name that you touch every heart, you touch every life, everyone who feels like you've just been above them and not through them and in them that they would feel your presence and new and a fresh this very moment. God, as we lift our hands and begin to worship Lord, that you would sweep over us. My God, Lord Jesus Christ, thank you. The entrance of your words gives light. We give you praise and glory in the mighty name of Jesus.