WHEN YOU CRY FOR HELP...
I. PRAY WITH ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE IN OUR GREAT GOD.
A. We get to PRAY and LIVE according to God's Awesome CHARACTERISTICS and they are as follows:
1. Focus on God's ETERNAL RULE AND KINGSHIP.
a. God is Enthroned Forever.
-We are temporal, God is Eternal. Read Rev. 1:8
-God rules forever and rules over all things, including our afflictions.
-"God's Fame Endures to all generation"-Ps. 102:12b
-One writer beautifully says, "Our affliction will not thwart this unstoppably reality.
2. Focus on God's Compassion.
a. We can pray with confidence due to God's grace(Hesed-no strings attached) and God's favor.
Ps. 102:12-14.
b. This Great Psalmist believes his Great God will have compassion on Zion.
c. God will have compassion not because they deserve it, but because of His character.
d. The afflicted Psalmist in Ps. 102:14 reminds our Great God of the ruined condition of Jerusalem.
e. During times of afflictions we should remember the promises of God's word and not base our life on our feelings.
3. Focus on God's Sovereignty.
a. God's Sovereignty is absolute and forever.
b. Ps. 102:15
c. God doesn't need us to His Global Mission, but He does use us.
d. Through faith in Israel's Messiah, the nations will come to know the true and living God. -Isa. 60:3; 62:2)
4. Focus on God's Power.
a. God can and will always execute His plans and purposes.
b. Ps. 102:16
c. Zion's future and our future is totally dependent on God and God alone.
d. We have Hope due to God's Sovereignty and God's Power.
e. Let's remember God's power during our times of afflictions.
5. Focus on God's Humility.
a. The Psalmist's has great hope because he knows of God's divine humility.
b. This great sufferer says, "He will pay attention to the prayer of the destitute and will not despise their prayer." (Ps. 102:17)
c. Our Magnificent God always hears the prayers of His people.
d. He loving listens to a group of people who greatly desire deliverance from exile.
e. Our Great God listened to the cries of Israel for Deliverance from Egypt. Do you remember the Results?
f. Ex. 2:23b-25
g. We cry out to God. God Hears! God Sees! God Knows! God Acts!
6. Focus on our Great God's Faithfulness.
a. Imagine your Future in God's Hands.
b. Expect your Future to be in God's Hands.
c. Trust your Future to God.
d. Speak of God's Faithfulness as the Suffering Servant of God did.
e. Ps. 102:18-22
f. This Great Psalmist wants God to act so that the generations come to Glorify God.
g. This suffering servant of the Most High God wants his Suffering or Afflictions to benefit others. Is that your desire?
h. As one scholar said, "When we read the stories of Job, Hannah or the Exodus, we have the privilege of knowing how the story ends. But they didn't.
i. When you ask God to act on your behalf, don't make it all about you. Ask the Lord to act for the glory of His name, and so that others may hear of God's faithfulness.
j. For all eternity, the redeemed-from every tribe and tongue-will be TESTIFYING TO THE LORD'S FAITHFULNESS.
7. Focus on God's Unchanging Being and Purpose.
a. The Psalmist focuses once again on his own mortality and God's unchanging character.
b. Ps. 102:23-24.
c. He is weakened by his trials and feels the brevity of life.
d. But this Psalmist has a deep and dynamic relationship with God. He therefore, cries out for God to spare his life.
e. His prayer is simple, honest and genuine.
f. Thomas Watson said, "When God lays men on their backs, then they look up to Heaven."
g. Ps. 102:25-28.
1. In the midst of darkness, he stops and considers the fact that the pre-existent God created the world and sustains it.
2. He can sustain us in our trials!!!
3. If you ever want to give up please remember God never grows weary and never gives up.
4. Please remember God's Unchanging purposes.
5. God Never ever Loses!
8. Focus on God's Son.
a. Heb. 1:10-12
b. The Psalmist not only speaks about the Greatness of God to his generation, but he also spoke about something so great that he couldn't even grasp it entirely himself.
c. The writer of Hebrews cites Psalm 102:25-27 not with the Psalmist addressing God, but with God addressing the Messiah (Heb. 1:5-12).
d. Most scholars say, "Already before the time of Christ there were those in Israel who understood Ps. 102 to be messianic".
e. This Psalm is pointing to Christ, the afflicted one, who was wounded for our transgressions. (Isa. 53).
f. This Psalm Foreshadows the sufferings of a Great One.
APPLICATION
1. Anyone who is suffering, please take heart from this text.
2. Anyone who is suffering, please do not quit. Your suffering knows affliction.
3. Anyone who is suffering, please understand that Christ knows your sufferings.
4. Anyone who is suffering, please understand that Christ experienced all kinds of sufferings.
5. Anyone who is suffering, please understand that bore the wrath you deserved.
6. Anyone who is suffering, please understand He already took the greatest affliction for you.
7. Anyone who is suffering, please understand He rose from the dead, conquering your greatest enemies.
8. Anyone who is suffering, please understand He now gives us access to the Father, all0wing us to cry out for grace in our time of need.
CONCLUSION
1. Augustine said somewhere, "God had only One son without sin, but He has no sons without afflictions."
2. Don't be surprised by sufferings.
3. Learn to pray in the midst of it.
4. Learn to see Christ as your unshakable hope to endure it,
and your great hope for getting on the other side of it.
5. Rev. 15:3