"Seeking God in Every Storm" - 2 Samuel 22:1-4

How can King David help us seek God in every storm?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Oh, Cedar Street, I love you so very much, and it's a joy of my heart to be with you here this morning. As we uh we are now in the month of June. I'm not sure how that happened. It happened quick, and it seems like it's getting quicker and quicker. Uh but we're getting towards the end of our sermon series. Again, if you're here for the first time, that's okay. You'll jump right in. Uh, we're in 2 Samuel. Gonna finish it out here this month. Got maybe two messages after today before we get to the end of this book together. And it's been a journey. We've started in 2 Samuel 1. We've gone through a lot of the high notes, and we've learned from King David. As you can see on the screen, our series is entitled Faithful and Flawed, and our subtitle is David, a man after great faith who ran after God's own heart, was a man of great flaws who ran after God's amazing grace. Now, in the in the last three months, we've looked at how he points to God's kingdoms and God's kingdom, God's promises. He shows us true worship, he shows us true gratitude, he shows us what grace is all about. And then, of course, we see in chapter 11 the downfall of his ministry when he sinned against Bathsheba in adultery and then with an accomplice to murder and with her husband Uriah. And we see the stages of sin and the spread of sin and the solution to the sin and how scars come from our sins. But then he points of how God disciplines us and how God loves us and what the gospel is all about. And today, now this has been a heavy series, but today I hope will be just a stream of encouragement to you. We need this once in a while. As you look at 2 Samuel chapter 22, verses 1 through 4, our title here this morning is Seeking God in Every Storm. Seeking God in Every Storm. And I want to say that what I'm going to say this morning is probably something that you already know. It's something that you've heard many times. But I'm going to try to get as practical as I can, and I'm going to ask you, are you actually in your life seeking God in the storms of your life? Or is that just a concept that gives you comfort for a moment, but not something that you actually do? I'm not here to cause guilt. I want you to experience the peace that can come only from God. Now here's the deal. I've said it many times, I did not invent this statement, but you know this is true. While you are here on this earth, one of three things is happening. You're either coming out of a storm, you're getting ready to go into a storm, or you are right smack in the middle of it right now. That is true for every single person in this room. Also, those watching on video and those that are listening to this podcast, you cannot avoid it in a broken world with a three-headed enemy known as the world, the flesh, and the devil, with a fallen nature that we are trying to put to death, and the Spirit of God that we're sowing to and asking God to grow us and to change us. That process here on this earth, it's beautiful and it's messy. And we're going to be in storms, and that's going to happen. Now, the good news is there will come a time in God's heavenly kingdom where you will have faced your last storm forever. But we're not there yet. You know, Jesus, while he was here on this earth, he promised all his followers two things. How do I know this? In John 16, 33, Jesus promised us two things. He said, I have said these things to you that in me you have may have peace. That's the first thing. And you're like, Oh, I like peace. Peace is good, Jesus. But then he says these words, in the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. So he says, You can have peace, but you're gonna have tribulation. You're like, Jesus, it's gotta be one or the other. No, he's saying, In me you can have peace in the midst of the tribulation. Peace for the Christian is not the absence of pain and conflict, it's the presence of a Savior. That's the difference. But I'm gonna tell you as we look at this passage and we see this beautiful song of David, who's praising God for deliverance in the midst of his storms. What I want to say is there are many of us in this room who believe this truth, who actually receive comfort when they're listening to a sermon or they're scrolling on social media and they find a Christian meme or a little 60-second YouTube short or Facebook reel or Instagram post that is from another believer telling us how Jesus is working in our lives. We get this dopamine hit, and we really do think that we are seeking God, and we really do think we've trusted in God, but we really aren't. We like the idea of God, but he hasn't become the savior and reality of our life. And I'm going to talk about practical things that prove that you are truly seeking God in the storm that you are in right now. So, what's our big idea as we look at 2 Samuel chapter 22, verses 1 through 4? We see this beautiful song of David. In one sentence, here it is. David's song of deliverance from his enemies shows us specifically how we can seek God in every storm. I'll say it again. David's song of deliverance from his enemies shows us specifically how we can seek God in every storm. So if you want to know more about this, turn with me, if you would, to the book of 2 Samuel. If you're new to the Bible, it's after 1 Samuel and it's before 1 Kings. And if you don't have a Bible with you today, that's okay. Grab the Pew Bible in front of you or beside you. We'll be on page 322 in your Pew Bible. And if you would stand at this time, out of the reverence to the reading of God's holy, infallible, inerrant, and fully sufficient word. We're going to read this beautiful song of deliverance. Now it's 51 verses long. We're going to read just the first four, because if you get the four, you'll understand all the fifty plus. So we're going to read the first four verses together and then unpack this with God's help. Hear God's word to us, starting in verse one. It says, And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said, The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. Let's pray. Lord, we've learned a lot from David. He is a man of great faith who ran after your own heart. He's a man of great flaws who ran after your grace. And Lord, we see your heart and your grace on display in this passage. Lord, I don't have to guess. I can look around this room and I know that we are in the midst of raging storms. Some of them are relational, some of them are financial, some of them are physical health, some of them are vocational. We're dealing with real things, Lord. I don't have to guess. I can feel it in the room. And yet at the same time, the answer is always the same. It's you. You are the one that we're called to seek in every storm. You have a purpose in every pain and every trial. And David helps us to see three areas that we really can lean into you and seek you no matter what we're walking through. So help this to be an encouragement to the soul, Lord. But I pray more than that that it would be practical, that we would actually do the word, that we would respond like David and run to our prayer closets and be specific about how it is that you can help us, that we can depend on you, we can be guided by you, we can be delivered by you. Be with us right now. I pray, speak to our hearts through your word and your spirit, I pray right now, in Jesus' name and God's people said Amen. You know, before I walk through the text, I want to say something that I found this week that I thought was just beautiful. So if you were to originally read this book when it was written in Hebrew, it was actually one book. It's just called the book of Samuel. In English, we split it out into 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, but it was written as one book. Now it's a long book. But the beginning of 1 Samuel in chapter 2 is this beautiful word of praise from Hannah, who was barren and God gave her a child, Samuel. Okay, we looked at that last summer. And now we're getting to the end of this book, and we see a word of praise from David, thanking God for deliverance from all of his enemies. So when you think of 1 and 2 Samuel, you think of this very long book of all these trials and all these tribulations and all these hurts and pains and storms, yet at the beginning they're praising God, and at the end, they're praising God, and so may it be for the story of our lives. We praised God when we began our Christian race. Most of us in this room are in the beginning or in the middle of it right now. But if we praised him in the beginning, and there's plenty that praised him in the end, you and I can praise him right in the middle. We can seek him in our storm, and we can praise him even though we don't know exactly how every storm is going to work out. David shows us how. Now, here in chapter 22, again, this is a beautiful passage. And perhaps as I was reading the first four verses, you're like, man, that sounds familiar. It's almost identical to Psalm 18. Psalm 18 has a couple of different changes because Psalm 18 is made for public worship. Of course, the book of Psalms were the prayers of God's people that were sung publicly in worship, but he's using the same words inspired of the same Holy Spirit here in 2 Samuel 22. And he's praising God for continual deliverance in his life. Now think of the life of David. We've been talking about it for months. I mean, David started out as an outcast of his own family, a shepherd out on the field. And then he was anointed the future king of Israel by the prophet Samuel, but it took decades for him to take the throne. Saul was seeking after him, seeking to kill him, and he was on the run for a very, very long time. Then he takes the throne, and everything goes really well until, again, the world, the flesh, and the devil get a hold of him, and he commits adultery as an accessory to murder. And then he's going through all kinds of trials and tribulations. That includes the death of his sons, one who was seeking after killing him. And then we saw last week that he had to hand over seven sons of Saul to be killed for the sin of the king that came before him, King Saul. So all of these trials and tribulations inside the family, outside the family, running for his life, wondering what was going to happen next. And yet God brought him right to where he was at this moment. And in this moment he said, Lord, it's been messy. Lord, I've contributed with my own sin. Lord, my enemies have been great, but you are greater. You have delivered me. You have brought me where you are, where I am right to this moment. And guess what? The same is true for every single one of you in this room right now, or listening and watching right now. Every one of you's been through a ton. Ken, in the 16 years I've been here, I don't know everything, but I know a lot about many of your stories. I've been in your living rooms and watched you weep. You've been on my couch in my office and I've watched you weep. You've been in my house, and some of you have watched me weep. Right? We've been through a lot together. These things are real, but you know the common denominator for all of us? We're still here. Right now. We are still here. And if you're in this room, you're still here seeking God. Praise God for that. He is still at work in your life. The best is yet to come. But we can thank him for everything he has done to bring us to where we are right now. And where we are right now says that he's still doing a good work, and he who began a good work will see it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So David can show us how we continually seek him before, during, and after every storm. So I want to jump right into this. Number one, seek God in every storm as your true dependence. Seek God in every storm as your true dependence. Now I'm going to look at keywords. Now perhaps you see these in the Psalms a lot, but I want to make them super practical. If you've not read the Bible or if you've glossed over these things and not thought about them, look at verses two through three and underline, if you're if you're a note taker, just keep underlying, underlying the times that he says, my rock. He said, The Lord is, there it is, one, my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, and here it comes again, my rock and who might take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior, you save me from violence. He's taking all of these natural metaphors of the earth and he's using them over and over and over again. He's repeating it over and over, and he's saying who God is and what God has done in his life. And the first thing he says about God is, God, you are my rock. What does it mean that he's a rock? It means that he's a firm place for you to stand in full dependence in the midst of a storm. Now, let me say this. When you read in the Psalms and in other parts of the Bible, when they talk about these storms and they use these physical metaphors, for us in 2026, with all the technological advancements we have today, we don't really feel the weight of it the way we should. And here's the reason why. David, I want you to think about David. Think about when Saul was chasing him. He was in the wilderness running for his life. Now, if you were in a desert wilderness and you were walking by dry riverbeds where there hadn't been a drop of rain in weeks, and then the bottom drops out of the sky, then you would know what David is talking about, searching for a rock in the storm. When those dry riverbeds all of a sudden receive flash floods, there's raging torrents. And all of a sudden, you're trying to find a place that's high enough and safe enough that you are not going to drown in the storm. That's why he says in Psalm 61, which is one of my favorite Psalms, in verses 2 through 3, he says, From the end of the earth I call to you and my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. He's saying, I need to find in the midst of this storm a place that is dependable, that I can put my feet on, that is not going to move, and a place that's high enough that I'm above the waters and I can get perspective on everything that is happening in my life. That's what it means when it says the Lord is our rock. And guess what I know, even though I don't know everyone in this room, you need a rock in your life. You and I need to put our feet on solid ground. And I'm telling you, you can't be your own rock. This is not pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality. This is this storm is bigger than me. This storm is something I cannot control, so I need something bigger than this storm. I'm gonna climb high enough to a place that's firm enough, and I'm gonna put my feet on the rock. Now, how do you do this practically? Again, maybe I'm sharing this with you and it's a word of encouragement, and you're like, Lord, you are a rock in my life. Or maybe, again, we're in a scrolling generation. Many of you are scrolling and you see this verse on a meme, or you see this verse, again, on a 60-second video clip on one of your social media platforms, and you like it, and you send it to five people. And when we do that, okay, there's nothing wrong with that. Praise God that with all the garbage out there, there's also good godly content. And I've seen a lot of really good godly content that friends and family have shared with me over the last couple of years. But reading that, liking it and sharing it, coming and hearing a sermon and taking a note or two, is it good that you're doing that? Absolutely. You're laying a strong foundation, but you haven't actually put your feet on the rock until you get down in prayer with God. Until you take your troubles and name them specifically and wrestle with God over them and hand them over to Him and walk in trust and faith in what He's doing in your life. Until you cultivate a prayer life where you are putting your feet day after day in a rock that is higher than you, then you're not going to taste and experience the fullness of this passage. And can I say this? I know how difficult prayer is. Gosh, if there's one thing I regret in the last decade plus of ministry is how in my own personal life I've overcomplicated prayer. Can I tell you a couple of key practical things that have helped me? Because if you're in this room, maybe you struggle with prayer. I've learned to try to make it as simple as possible. All right, now I've noticed over the years that women tend to be much better than men at journaling. If you're a journaler, I think it's a great thing to get pen to paper and all those anxieties and thoughts in your mind and heart, get them out. When I was I was a writing minor at Georgia Southern, and one of my writing professors said, write yourself clear. You ever walk around feeling anxious and you don't even know why you feel anxious? You just you just feel anxious because there's things rolling around in your mind and heart that you're not in control of, but you think you need to be. And until you get them on paper and look at them and say, This is beyond my control. There's nothing I can do with this, but I can pray this specifically to God and cast this on Him because He knows what to do with this. That's when He becomes your rock. Now, if you're in this room and you're not a journaler, I'll make it even more simple. Start with small blank index cards. Okay? Little three by five index card. I like to use ones that are blank so I don't have to follow the lines, and I can write as small as I want and get as much as I can on the card. Sit quietly. Now put the cards and a pen where you would typically sit and watch TV or relax with a phone or a tablet, whatever. Wherever you would typically be, pull out a card and just write down the areas in your life that you are really anxious right now, the things that are out of your control right now, the things that are really frustrating you right now. Name them and then slowly go back and pray them specifically to God. This is what we're supposed to do. In 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 6 through 7, the Apostle Peter says, humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. This is one of my big convictions. If you will not be specific with God in prayer, you will not receive specific peace from God, and you can't trust that you're going to receive specific answers from God. We have a specific God who names every hair on your head. He knows you and loves you more than I could put into words. But you and I need to spend time with him and we need to be specific. This is one of those things. There's just so much anxiety because all these things are rolling around, and instead of getting real with God and naming them and getting them out and praying them and lifting them up to him, we numb it. We get distracted with entertainment. Or we feed ourselves Christian content, which is good, but we have the illusion that we're trusting him and we're just being entertained by him. Prayer makes the difference. Anybody can study theology, but it's the faithful that take that truth to the prayer closet and they wrestle with God in prayer. David is a man that did this, and that's why he could say, He is my rock. He's the place where I put my feet on solid ground. So that's number one. Seek God in every storm as your true dependence. Let me say this before I go on to number two. I have a few index cards. One of them is things I intercede for others. On the other side are things that specifically I'm asking God to do in my life. And then I have one card that's just financial needs. And I have a card right now with 10 what I would say significant issues in my life that I need financial support. And I'm watching God, because as I stand here today, I don't know how any of those things are going to be met, but I'm watching that when God deems fit, He provides. I have it on my card, Lord, whatever it takes, provide what is needed on time in full, that I will not have to pay a penny of interest or ever withhold my tithe. And I'm watching one by one. Now I wish I could pay all ten at once and just have just kick my feet back, but I've learned that. God is more interested in building our faith than he is building our savings account. Now, there are some of you right now that don't have those needs. There are some of you that your dependence is not a rock. It's a 401k, it's a 403B, or it's a checking account, or you can write a check for anything right now. That's you, praise God. Guess what I know? Your problems are different than mine. I don't envy people because I know everybody's got problems. Your problem may not be financial. You may have a relational issue with somebody that you cannot resolve, no matter how hard you try. And God says, You're gonna depend on me one way or the other. Get your feet up on this rock and let's pray about it together. That's number one, seek God in every storm as your true dependence. Number two, seek God in every storm as your true defense. This one's big. Whoo, I'm gonna get practical on this one. All right, not only does it say that he is our rock, keep reading. In verse 2, it says, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, underline that. And my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge. My shield, underline that. And the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, underline that, and my refuge, my savior, you save me from violence. So when I say defense, he says, a fortress, a shield, and a stronghold. Now, most of you probably know what a fortress is. Okay. Think of a big firm stone castle that you can run to for safety. I think we know what a shield is. A stronghold is just another word for a fortress. It is a big, sturdy building that you can run to and receive defense from when you're being attacked by an enemy. These things provide refuge, they provide protection, and they provide defense. God wants to be your defender. Guess why that's so hard? Your flesh wants to do his work for him. We specialize in saying, God, I'll take care of this. I got offended, you put me in my place, you're gonna find out something about me. And we may smile and laugh at that, but I guarantee this: when you are your own defense, you will lack peace the rest of your life. I've never seen somebody, whether it be a text message, a social media post, or a phone call, or even a face-to-face confrontation. I've not met anyone who, with anger and pride and arrogance, puts somebody in their place because they were attacked and walks away completely at peace. God will not allow it because that's not your role. You do not have permission from God to be your own defender. God wants to do that in your life, but you and I've got to be quiet. We've got to let Him do the speaking for us. How do I know this? I got words, I got the word of God to back me up. Romans chapter 12, verse 19. All right, listen to these words. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. The problem that we have right now is not that we're not standing up, it's that we can't close our mouths. To the one that prays fervently for God to speak on our behalf and then stays quiet long enough to actually let Him speak, you will see God defending you and seeking vengeance on your behalf, but until you can learn to be quiet after you have prayed, you won't taste and experience this. I know this from experience. I've had a lot of defeats and I've had a few victories. And I can tell you in my defeats, I've gone home and I've said to myself, Bo, why did you say that? And the answer is my pride. If there's one thing in my life that I am the most disgusted with at this point, I would tell you it's this. It is my pride. It is my desire to affirm myself. It is my desire to set the record straight. It's my desire to defend every time that my honor has been attacked or my way of leading has been attacked, and try to explain why I do what I do and affirm, and every time I do that, God's showing me this pride like scum at the bottom of a pond that's being brought to the surface. And it's like God saying, Bo, don't you think I let this happen? Don't you think I let you hear what this person said about you? Don't you think I showed you how these people don't think you're a leader? Don't you think I've showed this to you for a reason? Now, are you gonna try to affirm yourself or are you gonna rest that my love for you is not dependent on how good or bad a leader you are? I love you because you're mine. Now you let me speak on your behalf, or are you gonna do it for me? Same is true for you. The same is true for you. Anybody can open their mouth and blow a bunch of hot air. Anybody can pound keys, anybody can march in protests. It takes a real man or a real woman to get specific in prayer, fervent in prayer, day after day after day, and then quietly let God seek the vengeance. That's what he says in Romans, is what he wants to do. We just can't keep quiet. That's the world right now. Everybody's just yelling at each other, and nobody's getting anywhere. Nothing is getting accomplished. Let God let God speak. Now you do the speaking in the prayer closet, but you let God do the speaking for you in public and watch what will happen. Watch what will happen. That's number two. So seek God in every storm as your true dependence, as your true defense. Third and finally, seek God in every storm as your true deliverance. Now, here's the words to think about as we look at the final part of verse two, three, and four. Again, going back to verse two, at the end of the verse, he says that God is my deliverer. And then in verse three, he says he is the horn of my salvation, my savior. And then at the end of verse four, he says, I am saved from my enemies. The Lord is our deliverer. He gives us earthly and eternal deliverance. And it comes in different ways. The earthly deliverance that God gives us is deliverance from the temptation of evil. Listen to what it says in 1 Corinthians 10 13. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. I'm telling you this, I have met with many people that when they talk about their temptations, they say, There's absolutely no way I'm ever gonna be delivered from this issue. And I know my God can do anything whatsoever. I'm not saying that it happens instantaneously. I'm saying the same thing for the first two points is the same answer for the third one. It comes through continual, steadfast prayer. Over and over and over, going back to the rock and asking for God's help and fighting with the word of God, by the way. Now, I've said this I don't know how many times in the past two or three years, and I'm gonna keep saying it because it's the single most powerful tool that God has given me. Psalm 84, 11, it's a canvas in my office. It says, the Lord is a son and a shield. He bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold to those who walk uprightly. And I've turned it into a breath prayer, a prayer that I can recite in one breath when I'm right under attack. And here it is. God, give me the grace to wait in obedience for your very best. Give me the grace to wait in obedience for your very best. I can't, in my own strength, have the self-control to not do what God is not wanting me to do. I can if God helps me. But I have to be specific. Jesus, give me the grace to wait in obedience for your very best. And I'm gonna say this, I've had some real defeats, but I've seen God give me self-control I've never had. It's a fruit of the spirit. It doesn't come from your flesh, it comes from the power of God to overcome the temptations. And I'm gonna tell you this, I don't care how old you are, your temptations will change, but they're always gonna be there on this side of heaven. Don't ever think they won't be. They always will be. You're just gonna exchange one temptation for another until we go to be with the Lord. That's our earthly deliverance. What about our eternal deliverance? Oh, I claim these words today. I know you've heard them a thousand times, but don't let it ever get normal or just natural. This is supernatural. Romans 8:1, there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ. When the world, the flesh, and the devil bring to your mind all these sins and remind you of the things that you've said and thought and done or left undone, and you feel like you're about two feet tall. Don't ever forget, not one of those sins will keep you from the love of Christ if he is your Lord and Savior. Not a single one. There is no sin so great that his grace is not still greater. Now, that does not mean that we should not take sins seriously, because even if you're still saved, you could really lose an opportunity to fulfill your mission and have intimacy with God. That's why confession, like we did this morning, is something I do in my private prayer life on a daily basis. Because I just don't want anything to get in the way of my passion for him, my intimacy with him, and the power that he wants to give me in his grace to do what I cannot do myself. His power is made perfect in our weakness. And again, it happens through prayer. So let me sum this up. One sentence. To seek God in every storm, hear Jesus calling out to you. It is I do not be afraid. To seek God in every storm, hear Jesus calling out to you. It is I, do not be afraid. I get that from John 6.20. The Lord gave this to me about a week ago in devotion, and maybe one day I'll do a whole message just on this verse. But what I've been doing in my own devotional time in the mornings is I've just been going slowly through the Gospel of John and just finding key words and praying them back to Jesus and just sitting there with him because I want this truth printed deeply in my heart. I want to say that devotion time is not Bible study time. It's not trying to find out the context and the background and all. Those things are important. Bible study is good, but devotional time is taking that truth, praying it back to God, and sitting with it and letting him press the truth of God deep into the recesses of your heart. And I was reading this passage in John 6. Most of you that have ever read the Gospels know this story. There's a storm at sea, these fishermen are terrified, and then Jesus is walking on water back to the boat, and they were terrified. And let me just say this you and I would be terrified. And the waves are raging around him. And I've read it a hundred times, but what God spoke to me when I when I discovered this passage the other day, I always heard it as, it is I, do not be afraid. In other words, I'm the guy, I know I'm walking on water, but I'm not an angel, I'm Jesus, I'm, you know, you know me. But what I felt the Lord saying to me as I was reading this passage was, are you gonna look at me? Or are you gonna look at the storm? Are you gonna look at the waves that are filling into the boat? Or the Savior that's walking to the boat? And are you gonna recognize whatever storm? Now people have a tough time with this, but hear me clearly, whatever storm you're in, God already knew it and he allowed it because he has a purpose for it. Sometime in our storms we think God is as surprised as we are. What kind of God would we serve if even he was not in control of the storms? My Jesus knows how to tell the waves to be still. But he also knows how to tell the waves when to rise up again. And maybe you're in a storm because Jesus knows this is the only way that your eyes are gonna be on him, because when the waters are calm, your eyes are on the waters and not on the savior. So, whatever you're in right now, as we enter into a time of prayer, you have a choice. Are you gonna look at the storm or are you gonna seek the Savior? The Savior who let the storm happen, the Savior who's with you in the midst of it, the Savior who has a plan for it. Are you gonna look at the storm or are you gonna seek the Savior? Because this storm may lead you into the most intimacy that you have ever had with Him. And I will tell you this every storm that I've been through to lead me to where I am right now when I walk with Jesus is totally worth it. Do I want to go back? No. But like David, I can sing a song of deliverance because I know with the storm produced, and that's how we seek God in the storm. So as we pray, seek him right now. Let him speak to you right now. Oh Lord Jesus. Everybody in this room is in a different place. Lord, as I look around this room, some are in a good place, and that's good. They've come out of a storm, and maybe the sun's out right now. That's good. We need times of sunshine. Some are getting ready to go into a storm and they're hearing this word right now, and they don't think it's for them, but it's gonna smack them right in the face tomorrow morning or next week. And some are in this room right now or watching this video, we're listening to this podcast, and they don't know how this storm is ever going to end. David went through more than we can ever understand. And yet he sang a song of deliverance. He saw you as a rock that he could depend on. He saw you as a tower and a fortress that would defend him. And he saw you as a savior who would deliver him from all storms. So, Lord, as we pray, help us to see you instead of the storm. Help us to cling to you, help us to be specific with you in prayer. Cast our anxieties on you because you care for us. Listen to you when you speak to us. Let you do the talking in our life. Be with us right now, I pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.