Do The Work (Contemporary Worship 9/6/2026)

The work of Christian faith begins with the wounds of the heart. The question is not whether wounds come, because grief, expectations, loss, oppression, and disappointment do come. Psalm 42 gives language for the place where the soul cries, “Why have you forgotten me?” and hears the taunt, “Where is your God?” The wound can become the very place where the adversary attacks, presses lies into the heart, and tries to cut off the nutrients of life.

The contrast between hardening up and turning toward God is a real one. The spirit of the world says, “You will not cut me there again,” but the psalmist brings the pain to God, his rock. Psalm 42 turns wounds into worship: “Hope in God, for I shall again praise him.” The answer given to “Where is your God?” reveals the orientation of the heart.

The word work names the call plainly: take the wounds of the heart, orient them toward God, remain in him, and know him. Matthew 6:21 exposes the problem beneath so many storms, because the heart follows its treasure. Relationships, money, power, status, and bright shiny things cannot carry the weight of the desire made for God. God himself is the answer to that deep need.

Luke 8 places the disciples in a boat filling with water while Jesus sleeps. Christ does not shame the cry for help, because bringing terror and honesty to him is not wrong. Christ’s question, “Where is your faith?” calls the heart beyond panic toward a posture of remaining. Faith can say, “Either stop the storm, wake up, or I’m going down with you.”

John 15 names Christ as the true vine and the Father as the vine dresser. The pruning hand of God can hurt, but pruning is not the same as harsh evil poured into a life. The branch cannot make itself grow, just as a gardener cannot force a plant to pull nutrients from the soil or make the sun rise. The branch has one job: remain on the vine.

Remaining requires daily repentance, stillness, and the refusal to graft sin into God’s will. Psalm 46 says, “Be still,” or, “Cease in your striving and know that I am God.” The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, calls the heart toward the presence and personhood of Christ. Knowing God is not merely knowing about Jesus; knowing God is living open to his Spirit, receiving his peace, and leaning into the One who supplies what is needed.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Wounds can become places of worship [30:47] Psalm 42 does not deny the deadly wound in the bones or pretend that mourning is small. The psalmist carries the question of God’s absence directly into God’s presence. Hope begins when pain is no longer used as evidence against God but is offered to him as an honest cry. [30:47]
• 2. Treasure determines the heart’s direction [32:29] The heart follows whatever it treats as indispensable. New cars, relationships, status, and control eventually reveal their inability to bear the weight placed upon them. God’s presence and promises alone can hold the desire that worldly things repeatedly fail to satisfy. [32:29]
• 3. Remaining is serious, daily work [41:14] Christ does not call the branch to manufacture fruit through anxiety or effort. The branch remains, receives, repents, and trusts the vine to supply life. Stillness is not spiritual laziness; it is the surrender of striving that tries to make life happen apart from God. [41:14]
• 4. Pruning is not abandonment [38:33] The Father’s pruning hand removes what does not belong, even when the cutting hurts. The pain of being pruned can tempt the heart to believe that God has placed a pane of glass in its path. Faith chooses to remain when the loss is real and the reason is not yet clear. [38:33]
• 5. The enemy attacks wounded places [49:13] The adversary aims lies at the exact places where the heart is already bruised. Thoughts of worthlessness, insignificance, lovelessness, and meaninglessness seek to take a person out at the root. Christ’s life must be received there, because the vine supplies truth where the enemy tries to starve the soul.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [24:41] - Doing the Work of Faith
• [26:20] - Give God One More Try
• [28:32] - Wounds and the Question, Where Is God?
• [30:26] - Turning Wounds Into Worship
• [32:09] - Where Your Treasure Is
• [34:14] - The Storm and Where Is Your Faith?
• [37:43] - Remaining in God
• [38:03] - The True Vine and Pruning
• [41:38] - Be Still and Cease Striving
• [45:12] - The Holy Spirit Helps Us Know God
• [49:13] - Resisting Lies at the Wound
• [50:24] - Bearing Fruit by Leaning Into God

Bible Reading

Psalm 42:9–11
“I say to God, my rock: ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?’ As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’ Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” [28:32]

John 15:1–2
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” [38:10]

Luke 8:23–25
“And as they sailed, he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’” [34:14]

Matthew 6:21
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” [32:19]

Psalm 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” [41:47]

Observation questions

1. In Psalm 42, what painful experiences does the psalmist name before he tells his soul to hope in God? [28:40]
2. What two questions are asked in Psalm 42 and Luke 8: “Where is your God?” and “Where is your faith?” What situations bring those questions forward in each passage? [35:49]
3. According to John 15:1–2, what are the distinct roles of Jesus, the Father, and the branch?
4. What examples of “treasure” are named as things that people may expect to satisfy the deepest desires of the heart? [33:41]

Interpretation questions

1. Psalm 42 shows a person speaking honestly to God while also calling his own soul to hope. How can grief, doubt, and praise exist together without pretending that the pain is small? [30:50]
2. The disciples wake Jesus because they believe they are perishing, and Jesus asks, “Where is your faith?” Why is crying out to Jesus in fear not the opposite of faith, even though fear still needs to be brought under trust? [36:00]
3. John 15 describes pruning as something the Father does to branches that bear fruit. How might a person distinguish between God’s pruning and the evil or harm that happens in a broken world? [38:43]
4. Matthew 6:21 connects treasure and the heart. Why do relationships, money, control, status, or possessions become especially dangerous places to put ultimate hope? [33:46]

Application questions

1. Is there a wound, loss, disappointment, or unmet expectation that has made it hard to believe God is near? What would it look like to bring that wound honestly to God rather than hardening around it? [29:53]
2. When a storm comes, what is the first place the heart tends to look for safety: God, control, another person, money, distraction, or something else? What might it mean to say, “Lord, I am going down with you,” in that situation? [39:02]
3. What “bright and shiny” thing is most likely to capture the heart right now? How has that treasure shaped emotions, decisions, or relationships? [49:52]
4. Is there an area where striving has replaced remaining—trying to force growth, control an outcome, or earn peace? What small practice of stillness could help create space to know that God is God this week? [42:04]
5. Remaining includes daily repentance. Is there a habit, attitude, hidden sin, or way of treating others that needs to be brought into the light so that it is not being grafted into God’s will? [42:27]
6. What lies tend to speak loudest at wounded places—for example, “I am insignificant,” “No one loves me,” or “My life is meaningless”? What truth about God’s presence and care needs to be received in that exact place? [49:19]
7. Where might God be inviting a person to stop trying to produce fruit through pressure and instead lean into Christ as the true vine? What would trusting him to supply what is needed look like in a practical way this week? [50:43]