I Hear The Chains Falling

So I want to take a little bit different avenue this evening. The title is, I Hear the Chains Falling. I Hear the Chains Falling.

And if you haven't experienced this yet, I'm sure you have. The Christian walk is not easy. The life is not easy, especially with right now the fires going on.

We've got actually friends who go to a different church. Their daughter just barely got out, her and her husband, their whole house is gone. No renter's insurance.

Nothing. Literally, the clothes on their back. And then we also know you've heard about some of the people who passed away in Pasadena.

Family members of theirs actually go to this church. So I've been talking with some people today and my wife, and it just seems bleak to those people. And you've went through something maybe yourself.

Maybe a failed marriage, or failing health, or finances, or do you ever struggle with depression, anxiety, fear, uncertainty? And those things can trap you, can't they? If you've ever experienced panic attacks. And the Christian walk is not always easy. How many of you have heard of Charles Spurgeon? How many of you know he suffered with depression? Severe depression.

Back then they called it melancholy. And just things we've went through, but if we focus on, I can hear the chains falling, even though they're not yet. Maybe this could relate to someone caught in the chains of addiction, or bondage, or demonic strongholds.

You've got to get to a point where even though it's not happening now, you can see it happening. Faith, faith is actually the evidence of things not yet seen. Because as you focus on faith, you begin to encourage yourself.

Instead of living in that spot of discouragement. And so, Psalm 87, actually I'm not going to read 87, it's just a few verses that talks about the glories of the city of God. The glories of the city of God.

And it flows right into Psalm 88. And if you look at the Psalms, there's something to, not only what the author's saying, but what they're conveying to us today. And isn't it amazing we can read their words from 3,000 years ago? We can read their words from 3,000 years ago.

What they said, what God said, and we can use it to be encouraged. But the sons of Korah, the sons of Korah took a little bit of research, but God questions made this important distinction. The sons of Korah wrote what we're about to read.

And these sons of Korah, they appear to separate themselves from their father's legacy. Either they were old enough to distance themselves when Korah joined forces with Dathan and Abram, or Abiram, or they were too young for God to take action against them since they were not yet cognizant of their father's actions. So, some of you might be thinking, what does that mean? Well, there was something in the Old Testament known as Korah's rebellion.

And it was not a good thing. They rebelled against God's leadership. Korah did, and the earth swallowed them up, believe it or not.

The San Andreas Fault opened. You're actually sitting on that. Did you know that? You okay with that? Okay, well, it's your time, it's your time.

But, so the sons of Korah, I mean, there are a couple different Korahs that were mentioned, but they seem to trace it to these sons of Korah. So they followed the lineage of Korah, but he ended well, but these, or he ended badly, but these sons of his, they ended well. So they either did not participate in the father's rebellion against Moses, or they were too young and God did not judge them for it.

However, that one's a little tough for me because it says that all of Korah's household was consumed, but maybe somehow there were some that were spared there. So they're actually gonna write a psalm. And many times when you think of the psalms, you think of, okay, this is gonna be great.

It's gonna be encouraging. Well, this one starts off a little rocky and it doesn't get better, but I don't mind it because people are being honest. Don't you appreciate honesty? And that's what made this last political cycle so important is from X and podcasts and different things.

There was just so much more honesty coming out and exposing certain things. So let's read how it begins. Oh Lord, God of my salvation.

And he's reminding himself, or the sons of Korah are reminding themselves that God is the author of salvation. And it's a great prayer. You go into prayer saying, oh Lord.

It's a heart cry. Oh Lord, you are the God of my salvation. Really what you're doing is you're setting the, you're digging the footings for the foundation because everything else you're about to say is going to be built on that solid foundation that he is your salvation.

He is your rock. Don't you love when the scripture says that? The rock of my salvation. He is the rock.

And if you build your house on the rock and don't think a little stone sticking out. I always picture a half dome there in Yosemite. There's this huge rock and even God as the rock is not even comparison to anything we know of, but he is the rock of our salvation.

And he says, I have cried out day and night before you. Anybody been there? I've cried out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you.

Incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to the grave. I'm counted with those who go down to the pit.

I'm like a man who has no strength. I'm drifting among the dead. Shane, I thought you said the Psalms were encouraging.

Well, sometimes they are, but also this, believe it or not, in some ways encourages me because I know that God's men went through challenges. The book of Job, those who wrote the Psalms, David, Abraham, a lot of them, they all struggled with, Lord, is this your will? Why am I going through this? From losing a child to losing spouses to just being in the dark pit. And that's why David can write, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because the Lord is with me.

And I'm drifting among the dead like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more and who are cut off from your hand. He's in a bad spot. You laid me in the lowest pit in darkness, in the depths.

Your wrath lies heavy upon me and you have afflicted me with your waves. Now, I'm gonna get to this in a minute, but I wanna talk about it briefly. Sometimes when you read these things, the Bible is not clear on exactly what they're going through.

It doesn't say Psalms of the sons of Korah after God afflicted him because he was disobedient or because he rebelled. Sometimes we don't know. For example, a messenger of Satan was given to Paul to buffet his flesh, a thorn.

And we don't know what that is because you can apply it to whatever you're struggling with as well. And that's why sometimes the Bible is vague. It's not being vague because it doesn't wanna know or it's concealing.

It's so the application, I believe, can be universal. But when he says, your wrath lies heavy upon me, an unbeliever fills the wrath of God. That's why they get upset.

That's why they don't like you talking about the light. That's why they don't want the light of the gospel shined in their face. They fill that wrath.

That's why these atheists that are so upset, especially these famous atheists, they know that God's not happy with them. However, if you're a believer, and I believe this is probably, again, believers were different in the Old Testament because what they had to do is they had to believe, like Noah believed, Abraham believed, and the Lord counted it to him as righteousness and put it into his account because he believed in God. They were waiting for the Messiah where we look back and embrace the Messiah and have faith in what he did.

They had faith in what God was going to do. And so, although they didn't receive the Holy Spirit unless God poured His Spirit on them, did you know that? They believe in God, but they didn't necessarily have the Holy Spirit. That's why the Bible says, and the Holy Spirit came upon Samson.

And then the Holy Spirit actually withdrew. Remember, he got up to fight the Philistines and I love the King James. He wished not that the Spirit had departed.

He knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. And the Spirit came upon such and such and withdrew. And the Spirit came upon, it was just a time.

But for believers, you have the Holy Spirit until the day you die. And how that works when we're spiritual beings, I don't really know. The Bible's not real clear, but don't worry about it because it's a good thing.

But even with the Holy Spirit, certain things can quench and grieve. And when you're grieving the Holy Spirit, you yourself are not happy. Have you ever noticed that? So not only is the Holy Spirit grieving and you're having fun, it doesn't work that way as a believer.

When He's grieving, you're grieving. Because you know that there's something not right. And when you're quenching the Spirit, quenching the fire, your fire is quenched.

It affects all of your being. And so when He says, my point is, it took me five minutes, but your wrath lies heavy upon me. It could be He's experiencing the consequences of sin.

We don't know. But how many of you know sin can have consequences? And I don't know if you've ever been deep down some sinful rabbit trails, but the deeper you go, the more pain there is. Or He could have experienced sickness and He feels.

Sometimes if you talk to people who are very sick, and I have in the hospital, we have to be careful sometimes because they actually believe it's God's judgment. Why is God doing this to me? I feel His wrath. Or I feel He's not happy with my decision.

I'm not happy with my life. And they feel this wrath of God upon them. And as a believer, I don't believe you'll feel God's wrath.

You'll feel conviction. And the more you run from that conviction, the harder it gets. It's like you're doing pretty good and you're carrying a backpack with 10 pounds, and the more you run from it, the backpack becomes 30 pounds, 40 pounds, 50 pounds, and the more that sin will weigh down on you, the more you run from it and don't confess it, it begins to harden you.

And you have afflicted me with all your waves. In other words, this sense of coming over the person. You have put away my acquaintances far from me.

Have you ever been there where not even your friends are around? And that's hard because we were designed for fellowship. Even those of us who are more introvert, we still want fellowship from time to time. Usually it's on our terms though, right? We want to run back to the man cave sometimes.

We want to have a place to go where it's quiet. That's why it's so funny. In my house, they don't really understand that.

It's hard to have that quiet time with five kids. And my wife and social butterflies and people stopping by and coming over. It's a different type of life where we're at right now.

But it's good. I love to hear the kids running through the house. And many of you remember those sounds.

And so there's something profoundly meaningful that happens in our heart when the friendships and the fellowships have even gone. You have made me an abomination to them. So something happened to where this person, like in Job's case, these friends, they didn't want to be around this person.

And it's sad, but in the church, we've seen this a lot. Do you know when somebody falls into sin, that's the time you should actually encourage them and embrace them? It's not the time to put up your nose and I told you so. Now there are times when somebody is in unrepentant sin.

You've talked to them, we've talked to them, others. It's like, man, you're not wanting to change. You're happy in your sin.

You're happy in this lifestyle. And you're kind of mocking God. Because of that, Matthew 18, I've got to treat you as if you're not a friend and I can't have fellowship with you right now.

But the goal is restoration. The goal is not to point my finger at them and make them feel less than, and I'm arrogant towards them. It's like, because of this lifestyle, because of your unrepentant sin as a believer, I can't have fellowship with you.

Because what happens then is you act like nothing's wrong. Correct? All right, let's go to dinner, let's go to the movie, or let's hang out. And they don't feel the weight, the gravity of what they have done or are doing.

But he feels this way in verse eight, that you've put away my friends and you've made me an abomination to them. And I am shut up and I cannot get out. My eyes wasted away because of affliction.

So that could be the meaning, again, these Hebrew words are very interesting. My eyes wasted away, it could be like tears. It could be just the pain and the anguish through that.

And so he says again, Lord, I have called daily upon you. Lord, I've called daily upon you. I've stretched out my hands to you.

So you have this image here of him calling on the Lord, Lord, help me. Anybody else been there? I'm stretching out my hands to you. Will you work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise you? Shall your loving kindness be declared in the grave or your faithfulness in the place of destruction? In other words, he's saying, Lord, if you want me to praise you, I need to live.

I can't praise you if I'm destroyed, if my body is gone. Shall your wonders be known in the dark? No, I need to see the light. I need to have that energy, Lord, so I can glorify you and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness.

13, verse 13, but, how many times have I told you at some point you got to get yourself a but? No matter what's going on, but I will praise the Lord. No matter what's going on, but I will strengthen myself. But, no matter what, to you I've cried out, oh Lord, even though I'm going through this, I've found my strength, I've found my encouragement, but to you, Lord, I've cried out.

Life doesn't make sense. Life is confusing. Have you ever been in those spots where, what is going on? Lord, this is not supposed to happen to me or you.

Why these trials? Why these situations? Why these financial situations? Have you ever been there? And you have to remember, God's not concerned about money. He's concerned with your heart. So, many times when we go through things, we look at the wrong thing.

We should be saying, okay, Lord, what are you doing? What are you doing in my life? But, Lord, I've cried out to you, and in the morning, my prayer comes before you. In the morning, my prayer comes before you. That might be a good reminder for us to start our mornings with prayer.

Put prayer back on the calendar. And even through that prayer, he fought through it. He said, Lord, why do you cast off my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? I've been afflicted and ready to die from my youth.

I suffer your tears. I am distraught. Your fierce wrath has gone over me.

Your tears have cut me off. They came around me all day like water. They engulfed me all together.

It's like he was in water, and the water represented the terror and the things he was going through. This is a difficult psalm, isn't it? Pretty, pretty powerful. And then verse 18, the final verse.

Loved one and friend, you have put far from me and my acquaintances into darkness. Oh my gosh, what are we supposed to do with this one? Well, let's break down a few things. It won't be long.

Internal struggles are common as we fight back feelings and hurts and expectations and plans and deal with our own health issues. As anybody, as you get older, get used to it. The body doesn't operate like it used to.

Family struggles, even though, have you ever done everything you know to be right? And still, still things come out wrong? So we learn here the internal struggles, even for the writers of the Bible. They wrote the Bible. God said, I want the psalms in there.

This psalm, Lord? This one? Why didn't you kick this one out? Give me the happy ones. But see, that's also not realistic because if all you have is the fluff, you're never prepared for the fight. So like when Paul said, preach the word in and out seasons, exhort, rebuke, long-suffering.

In other words, preach the difficulties, preach the easy stuff. Preach the hard truths. It prepares a believer for all facets of life.

So as you go through the difficult times, these help to build the foundation. And again, this may indicate the consequences of sinful actions. Verse six and seven.

He might be experiencing results of his sin. But what's interesting though, we don't see him repenting. So it could be an affliction.

I mean, I looked at different Barnes commentary, pulpit commentary, Matthew, Henry, and they're kind of all over the place. Because when it's vague, we just don't know. But if somebody is going through this as a result of sin, the best way to get out of this is repentance.

They talked about Sunday, is it not? You acknowledge, Lord, this is wrong. I was wrong. I repent.

And I want those tears of joy to come back. I want those feelings of expressing my love to you to come back, Lord. And like David, when I read that the bones you have broken may rejoice, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me.

And he goes, and I will lead transgressors to you. Return the joy of salvation. David was in a really low spot.

And many Christians, let me tell you, what I used to do, I used to do men's conferences all over. And the main thing was men were living, Christian men were living in depression and guilt and shame, and they stayed there. They needed to break out via repentance and say, Lord, I want the joy of my salvation, that joy I used to have, that joy when I used to open the Bible and it came alive, and the joy of wanting to pray.

And when you're caught in sin, you don't want to do any of that. You want to run from that. You don't want to get into the Word.

You want to get out of the Word. You don't want to go to church. You want to avoid church.

And the key is, if this applies to you, simply repent. Say, God, I'm sorry. The prodigal son's ready to come home.

And then we also learn it's okay to question God as long as it leads you to a place of trust. He was questioning God, wasn't he? And I have before. But the key is that questioning doesn't lead you to a dark, bitter place of discouragement.

Because that's not good. The questioning, that's why I said, you become better, not bitter. The questioning though, when I'm questioning, my hope is, even though I don't get the answers, I draw closer to God.

And because of that, you know what, Lord, I don't know the answers, but I know the One who created me. And those questions, you kind of have to struggle through questions and ask God for more direction from time to time. But ultimately, I have found He doesn't always answer.

Anybody else find that out? Anybody else realize that I don't always get an answer to my prayers? Sometimes they're difficult and they're challenging and why is this happening? But then we also find His attitude, He didn't leave here in a very good spot, but His attitude determines altitude. You've heard that before. Business models use it and leadership training.

Our attitude determines our altitude. That's why I love Psalm 116. I will offer to the Lord the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

And most believe that that offer of thanksgiving is in spite of how they feel. It's actually not hard to give an offering. Remember, an offering has to cost you something.

It's not hard to give an offering if it feels good. It's not called an offering then. The point is, I'm gonna give you this offering of thanksgiving even when I don't feel like it.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, right? Sacrifice hurts. So I will offer to You, Lord, the sacrifice of thanksgiving and I will call upon the name of the Lord. That's the key, folks.

And then the final thing we learn here, resistance. He faced a great deal of resistance. Resistance must motivate persistence.

In other words, the more resistance that comes against the Christian, you persevere even more. The enemy wants to bring resistance to knock you back, to knock you down, to knock you out of the game. So that resistance, when you feel as a believer, that's my signal, your signal, your motivation to push against that, to resist against that and to keep persisting in your walk.

And like I said before, though David walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me. Let me tell you, this is one of the most challenging Psalms to teach, but it's wonderful to preach. You want to know why? Because the Psalms did not have chapters and verses.

They actually had books. And actually, if you go back to the Dead Sea Scrolls is where they kind of discovered this. So there's book one, book two, book three, book four, book five, I believe.

So it really didn't end here. The verses were added about 500 years ago. So 88, you have Psalm 88, Psalm 88, but really there wasn't 88, right? You're following here? The book is still going, but in our Bible, it says Psalm 89.

So let's put the last verse up there. And I came up with a little thing to help you remember. Everything will be fine.

Just look at 89, okay? So you get through chapter 88, and you're like, my goodness, this is depressing. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's wonderful to preach this verse.

Everything will be fine. Just look at chapter 89. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.

With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall be built forever. Your faithfulness shall establish my heavens, the very heavens.

So he went from the lowest pits of hell to now he's saying, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. I will make known your faithfulness. Some of you need to get a little I will inside of you.

You need to get motivated. Get some I will inside of you. I will set my face like a flint.

I will trust in Him though He slay me. I will praise Him in the storm. I will follow Him no matter where He takes me.

I will worship Him even when the circumstances scream defeat. And while you're getting I wills, why don't you get some I will not. I will not bow down to the false idols of today.

I will not defile my sanctuary, my temple. I will not follow false idols and false voices. And that's why you can say, I hear the chains falling.

I hear the chains falling in my life because I'm gonna hold on to God. And even Job, even Job, he said, even a tree has hope. Did you know that? A tree that's been cut down, even a stump has hope if it can just smell the scent of water.

Even a tree has hope. How much more a believer looking to God and God alone. I love that verse.

Oh come, let us worship. Let us bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.

We need to get our hearts right before God. And if you're bound in any type of sin or demonic stronghold, do you know addictions can take over? And you've gotta say, Lord, I don't feel it, but I can hear the chains falling. I can hear the perseverance that I need to begin embracing.

And I can feel, Lord, that I need to just keep moving forward. I can see it, although I can't feel it. Although I still feel bound, I still have these lusts or temptations or addictions or these issues in my life.

I can, Lord, I have faith in You. I can hear those chains falling. It all begins with thanksgiving.

Setting your face like a flint, trusting Him though He slay you, praise Him in the storm, follow Him no matter where He takes you and worship Him while you wait.