{"id":12097,"date":"2022-04-24T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-24T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/?post_type=ctc_sermon&#038;p=12097"},"modified":"2022-04-26T09:29:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T13:29:43","slug":"surrounded-by-enemies","status":"publish","type":"ctc_sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/sermons\/surrounded-by-enemies\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrounded By Enemies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-gdm-google-drive-embedder-viewer\"><iframe width='100%' height='100' frameborder='0' scrolling='yes' src='https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1ldiLOg_60aUu1fLGqQkNWHnt4T7VLEJh\/preview?usp=drivesdk' allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n<h4><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Read<\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Psalm 10<\/p>\n<h4><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Consider<\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">This Sunday, we start a new sermon series entitled \u201cHow Are You Feeling?\u201d, exploring a different Psalm each week over the next number of months. The book of Psalms comes from the greek word <em>psalmoi<\/em>, which means \u201cpoems sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments\u201d. This collection of poetry\/songs\/prayers were meant to focus the gathered people of God to worship and praise Him in a way that engaged their circumstances and emotions. After all, what is a song that doesn\u2019t have feelings or resonates with our lives? Definitely not one that you would include on your Spotify playlist (or for those from a different generation, your mixtape!).<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The psalms were especially relevant historically and continue to be so for us today as they parallel the many circumstances we face in life: difficulty and danger, sickness and the fear of death, failure, sin and defeat. At the same time, they also sing about joy, deliverance, victory and triumph, always reminding us of God\u2019s attributes of love, goodness and power.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">In our passage for this week\u2019s sermon, deep emotions of abandonment and the absence of God are expressed by King David as enemies to Israel close in on them and ravage a nation. The author crafts Psalm 10 in the movement of expressing his despair, naming the injustice, pleading for deliverance, and ultimately surrendering his life and country into God\u2019s hands. The moments when we feel that the Lord is absent can form and mature us deeply when we can hold onto who He has always revealed Himself to be and His faithfulness to fulfill His promises for us.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Reading (or singing) through the book of Psalms inspires us to trust God as we worship and surrender to Him. We hope and pray that this sermon series will draw you into a deep encounter with God and that you\u2019ll experience how He meets you in those feelings and emotions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Pastor Jon Nip<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Pray<\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Gracious God,<br \/>We confess that there are moments in our lives when you feel distant to us, even as we earnestly seek you, and that those seasons can be difficult to endure. Forgive us when at those times, we have turned our hearts away from you and sought to control our own lives. Teach us to hold onto you and be reminded that nothing can separate us from your love, even when we feel an absence of your presence. Holy Spirit, we surrender ourselves to the way you will form us in the periods of waiting, woundedness, and despair and would you use these experiences to comfort and encourage others who are going through the same feelings.<br \/>Amen.<\/p>\n<h4><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Diving<\/span> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Deeper<\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">What do your emotions and feelings reveal about your heart and your relationship with God? How might the Holy Spirit be ministering to you and speaking into your life through them?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">How might periods of feeling that God is distant be a part of how He is present and at work in your life? What types of fruit and treasure might be produced as we learn to wait on God to act and reveal Himself?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">What hope do we have that Christ has defeated death, cares for the oppressed and fatherless, and will one day call into account all the wrongdoing in the world and pour out His justice? How can His promises sustain us today while we feel oppressed and wait for His promises to be fulfilled tomorrow?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Read Psalm 10:12-18 again slowly and consider how you may hold onto who God is, even when you feel distant from Him?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">How can we live closer <strong>WITH GOD<\/strong> in our lives?<br \/>How are we being <strong>TRANSFORMED<\/strong> to be more like Christ?<br \/>How is the Holy Spirit empowering us to imitate Christ in what we <strong>DO<\/strong> this week?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psalm 10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":12099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","ctc_sermon_topic":[],"ctc_sermon_book":[55],"ctc_sermon_series":[524],"ctc_sermon_speaker":[358],"ctc_sermon_tag":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/12097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ctc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12097"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/12097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12112,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/12097\/revisions\/12112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_topic?post=12097"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_book?post=12097"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_series?post=12097"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_speaker?post=12097"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_tag?post=12097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}