Sermon Cloud

Cry out to God

Rely on God’s strength, not our own.

³⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!"

⁴¹ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ⁴² "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" Matthew 27:39-43 (NIV)

IN BULLETIN

⁴⁵ From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶ About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Matthew 27:45-46 (NIV) (also Mark 15:33-34)

Hebrew, Forsake –leave (alone), abandon, neglect, (ignore)

Greek, Forsake – desert (walk out on), abandon

1,000 years earlier, David felt the same way

Psalms 22:1-5 (NIV) PAGE 384
¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? ² O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. ³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. ⁴ In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. ⁵ They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

David predicted the suffering Christ endured

⁷ All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ⁸ "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him." Psalms 22:7-8 (NIV)

Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. Psalms 22:16 (NIV)

¹⁸ They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. Psalms 22:18 (NIV)

When I feel abandoned, I should cry out to God

¹⁹ But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. ²⁰ Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. ²¹ Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen. Psalms 22:19-21 (NIV)

I must remember the truth: God hasn’t abandoned me
God deserves my praise, honor, and worship.

²² I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. ²³ You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! ²⁴ For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. Psalms 22:22-24 (NIV)

NOT IN BULLETIN

²⁷ All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, ²⁸ for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. Psalms 22:27-28 (NIV)

Evil attacks us, but God supports us

2 Corinthians 4:8-11 (NIV) PAGE 802
 ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.

When I am weak, then God makes me truly strong

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV) ⁷ … there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.