Do Lord

HAVE YOU EVER HAD ONE OF THOSE DAYS? ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHEN YOU 
WANTED TO SHOUT PSALM 13: 1

H0W LONG, O LORD? WILT THOU FORGET ME FOREVER? 
How long will thou hide thy face from me?

One of those days when you just want to proclaim from the top of your lungs, 
Psalm 13:2-3

HOW LONG MUST I BEAR PAIN IN MY SOUL, AND HAVE
SORROW IN MY HEART ALL THE DAY? HOW LONG 
SHALL MY ENEMY BE EXALTED OVER ME? 

Our lives are lives of seasons, there are snow storms, there are hail storms, there 
are rainstorms and there are doubt storms. A doubt storm often rolls into people’s 
lives when they have watched the news or read a newspaper. Sometimes the 
doubt storm rolls in when something bad has happened to someone they love or 
during my third quarter of Hebrew in seminary. Often when a doubt storm erupts 
one may find them self having a flurry of questions and doubts about the necessity 
of what is going on and or the pain that is occurring that seems often stupid, 
useless and unnecessary.

Have you ever felt that way in your life? Maybe it is something, or someone in your 
life at work or in everyday living. Maybe it is watching those whom you love grow 
up and become more independent. Maybe it is loving another to feel hurt in 
disbelief that God could care about you and let you be hurt.

Psalm 13:4

lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him;” 
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

It’s all about the word “hesed” which is love that will not separate, for God’s love 
may discipline us, it may withdraw from us for a while to test our faithfulness but 
we are never beyond the reach of God’s Hesed. 

In the Bible Moses is Scriptures example of a servant of God showing hesed to the 
people of God. Showing hesed, love that is not separated from God, was the burden 
of Moses’ life and ultimately the victory of his life.

Our lives are a lot like Moses who during his exile tended sheep in the wilderness 
with meager benefits as was his responsibilities. But the encounter at the burning 
bush, Exodus 3: 2-5, changed Moses life forever as he received the responsibilities 
of a Pharaoh with the wages of a poor person. 

Moses showed the people of God the hesed of God by intervening for them and in 
doing this staying faithful to his call from God. We are also called, as was Moses to 
lead, to direct, to walk among others.

Walk so that others may know the truth, the truth that this world is not what it is all 
made to be. This world is not how one shall enter into the streets of gold that wait 
in heaven. One only enters heaven when they have asked Jesus Christ to forgive 
them of their sins and invite Jesus into their heart and soul.

His name is Joey; he is quite the sight to see with his protruding muscles, tattoos 
and booming voice as he towers over those before him. At one time he was feared 
among those who knew him, feared for his anger, his strength, for what he could 
do to you that could result in a permanent life changing paralysis.

I met Joey at church as we gathered to praise and worship God’s name with joy and 
excitement. Yes Joey had come to know what it meant to have joy and excitement 
in his life, not from hurting others or from addictions, but from coming to know 
Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. 

One evening Joey approached me and told me that God had told him he was to sing 
at the church service and he was to sing How Great Thou Art. I stood before Joey in 
awe thinking, WOW GOD WANTS YOU TO SING, BUT YOU CAN’T SING BECAUSE 
YOU DIDN’T SIGN UP. You see I met Joey in the maximum-security unit of the 
Summit County Jail.

I was pastoring there and the only way an inmate can participate in worship is to 
sign up ahead of time, which Joey did not do because God told him he was to 
sing. Defying the rules and listening to the voice of God Joey did not sign up to 
participate and I did not pay attention to the rules either. Joey stood before those 
gathered, inmates and guards, in the gym church sanctuary and with a deep 
beautiful African American bass voice sang the words, 

“O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy
hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power
throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God
to thee; how great thou art, how great thou art! Then sings my soul, my 
savior God to thee; how great thou art, how great thou art!”

When one feels hesed in their life, God’s unconditional love, how can one not feel 
safe? Feel that in this great big world they are not alone for they are surrounded 
and protected by the arms of God.

The very God who watched as His only Son, our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ as he 
stood in the Upper Room with His disciples and took the bread, broke it and said, 
“Take, eat, this is my body broken for you. Eat this often in remembrance of me. 
And then Jesus took the cup and said unto His disciples, this is my blood shed for 
you, take drink this often in remembrance of me.”

If you ever wonder in your lives the words, “Do Lord, O do Lord, do you remember 
me? Do Lord O do Lord, Do you remember me way beyond the blue. I’ve got a 
home in glory land that outshines the Sun.”

I am here this day to say unto you that the Lord doesn’t remember you…for the 
Lord knows you. 

Jeremiah 1: 4-5

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I 
formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were 
born I consecrated you; (set you apart for special work) 
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

This morning we rejoice in the baptism of Tyler Morgan who is the son of William 
and Nicole. Nicole is the niece of my lifetime friend Kim Janek who many of us 
know with her husband Greg from the Terre Haute UMC.

If you are ever wondering in your life if God has forgotten you, or why he hides His 
face, or does he realize your pain and sorrow? If you ever wonder in your life how 
long will the enemy be happy and until my eyes lighten remember? Remember the 
joy of David as he came to realize the truth in his life. 

Psalm 13: 5-6

But I have trusted in thy steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice 
in thy Salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt 
bountifully with me (he has taken care of me).

The Lord knows you for you are His and in that be grateful. “I took Jesus as my 
Savior, you take Him too….” While He’s calling you!

Let us raise our palms to the sky as we enter into prayer.

Father, May I trust unto you, trust in thy mercy and rejoice in thy salvation. As this 
service comes to an end may we all remember the service has ended but the call 
to servant hood has just begun. That’s what this service is for to prepare each 
and every one of us to go out into the world and to lead others to accept 
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and to know the joy of that 
internal blessing and peace and that the best is yet to come for 
those who believe. I come to the garden alone while the dew 
is still on the roses. And the sound I hear falling on my ear, 
the Son of God discloses. And he walks with me and he 
talks with me and he tells me I am His own. And the 
joy we share as we tarry there none other has 
ever known. Blessed be your name Father.
Amen



07/03/05 JWM


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