Faithbase

Good morning we're back again in Psalm 18 and we're going to be starting with verse 4 now and before we start I want to show you a little something. I had a wedding anniversary here recently and my wife got me a new coffee cup. I drink a lot of coffee and this is the coffee cup if you can see that there. Kind of a bit of a tongue-in-cheek. I'm not a believer in big, I live in Bigfoot country, I'm not particularly a believer in satsquats or Bigfoot or anything. I don't have any doubt there was some point probably some kind of a snow ape. I remember when we were in, I was ministering in Denver, associate pastor of a church in Denver Colorado back in 1990 and early 90s and we went to the Museum of Natural History and they had the mammoth or mastodon bones, they had the giant sloth and I mean good grief you think about these massive furry creatures that used to walk the earth. I mean we think about the dinosaurs but don't forget there were also huge mammals so I think there could have been some kind of a snow ape. Legends passed down for generations and that's what we have today. So nothing to do with Psalm 18 but I was just drinking my coffee and thought about that satsquatch. All right let's begin with verse 4. The pangs of death surround me and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me, the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God. He heard my voice from his temple and my cry came before him even to his ears. Heavenly Father we feel at times that the pangs of death are surrounding us, that maybe we do have a health situation, we have a financial situation, we have relationship situations that that cause us great distress, can cause us great anxiety. The scripture says be anxious for no reason but we should cast our cares upon you in prayer Lord. So this morning if there's anyone who's praying with me today who is anxious, anyone praying with me this morning who feels the pangs of death surrounding them, the floods of ungodliness making them afraid. Lord there's a lot that the natural man looks at in this world and can say this is horrible, I am afraid. But Lord we stand as we talked about yesterday, we stand in the midst of the fortress of your protection, we are safe. The sorrows of Sheol may surround us and the snares of death may confront us but we know that we are safe. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for your rod and your staff they comfort me. Lord no matter what circumstance we find ourselves, no matter how bad it seems, you remain in control and we do not need to be concerned in our distress. I pray Lord God that we would never forget to call upon you, that in our distress we would call upon you Lord. You would hear our cry as we come before you in faith knowing that you are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, that you will hear our voice. Lord you hear from your temple, well your temple happens to be your people, that you are in our midst so it's not as if we have to cry out for you to hear us Lord God. By the power of your Holy Spirit you dwell within us and among us and so you are near at hand. Lord we know that you hear us immediately before we even come before you in prayer as we come before you in Jesus name you hear us and know what we have to say so your voice, our voice I should say, is heard and our cry comes before you even to your ears. Lord this is such a wonderful truth that when we come before you you hear us. We don't have to wonder if you are there, we don't have to wonder if our voice falls on deaf ears, that is never the case. It is always a matter of our Lord and God hearing us as we come before you in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord the only time we have to ever be concerned, the scripture says that our prayers can be hindered if we are in a situation of sin, specifically if husbands are at odd with their wives in some fashion, not been treating their wives properly or whatever. Lord I think the principle there is that if we have an unconfessed and an unforgiven sin that we have not brought before you that we have not set things right with our spouse or wherever it might be Lord God at that point you hold us not at arm's length but you hold us in in your grasp as if to say as a father made to a child as if to say you need to get this right and then we can proceed from here and so Lord God if we ever feel that you do not hear us let us look at our own hearts and ask the questions is there sin that is keeping me from coming before you with clarity and with understanding Lord God so I pray your blessings on us today as we cry out to you that our cries will come before you even to your ears and you will hear us and answer we pray these things with confidence as we pray in Jesus name Amen