Well, good morning, church! Man, I am so glad to see you this morning. Come on, y'all should be in a good mood today! Did y'all hear about tomorrow? We got a cold front coming tomorrow! Come on, somebody! It's gonna be 96 degrees tomorrow. It's gonna be incredible! Whoever's living right, we thank you! Keep it up, please. We appreciate it.
Listen, I am so glad you're here this morning. I'll give a special shout-out to all of our first-time guests and those that are watching online. So come on, church, can we welcome all our first-time guests and those joining in along with us? Man, we are so, so glad you're here today! What an awesome time to check out our church.
We have several incredible things that are coming up. First, for all the ladies in the room, we have our Women's Conference coming soon! Come on, where you at? September 22nd and 23rd! So for all the ladies, if you love to party and worship Jesus at the same time, this event is for you!
All right, so come and be a part of that. In all seriousness, for all the ladies in the room, if you're really looking to learn more about God and pursue Him and grow into the woman He's called you to be, this is a great event to do that. You're going to get to worship, you're going to learn some things, you can get to meet some other women as well, and just be encouraged in your faith. So we want to invite you to sign up for that as soon as you can.
The other big thing that's happening in our church life—you saw just a moment ago on the screens—we have groups that are about to launch! Come on, you're excited for some groups, am I right? Listen, as we always say here at High Ridge Church, God does not just desire for us to show up and sit in rows; He also desires for us to sit in circles. That's where we get to discover our faith.
Because if you want to discover what real faith looks like, you can't just hear what's taught from a platform. You need to be able to sit in a circle and ask questions and talk about the hard things, and that happens in groups.
So just remember, there are some things in life you just can't do alone, and faith is one of those. We want to encourage you to consider signing up for groups. Look, I know school just kicked back off, and a lot of people are busy. Here's what's awesome about what's happening here at our church: we have so many groups, so many options for you. I just want to encourage you not to say no because of your busyness before you check out the options that we have for you.
We have groups happening all throughout the week at different times throughout the day, all different types of groups, all right? So before you say no, at least go and ask questions or go online and look at what our options are to see if you can find a group that works for you.
All right, well, if you have your Bibles this morning, go ahead and turn with me to Psalm chapter 22. This is where we're going to spend some time this morning—Psalm chapter 22. And as you're turning there, I'm going to pray and ask the Lord to speak to us this morning.
Lord, we thank you so much for today, and God, I just thank you for the opportunity to come into your house, to worship you, and to learn more about you. So Holy Spirit, I invite you into this place, and I ask that you would use my voice to build and encourage your people for your glory and for your namesake. In Jesus' name, and everyone said, "Amen."
So I came across this crazy story the other day, and I thought, man, I've got to share this with our church. Now, in this particular story, there's a woman—we're going to call her Susie Q because they didn't disclose her name for some reason. So we're going to call her Susie Q. Everyone say, "Susie Q." She is our main actor in this story. By the way, this is a true story.
So Susie Q decided to go on vacation to Iceland. She gets to Iceland, and she begins to tour the country. One day, she decides that she's going to get on a tour bus with a bunch of strangers and go on a tour of certain parts of Iceland. So they're driving around, and they go to the southern part of Iceland. I think it's the volcanic region. The bus stops, and all these tourists begin to get off the bus. They're taking photos and looking around.
Well, Susie Q decides this is a good time for her to go and change clothes. Now, if you've done any amount of traveling, you know that when you're on a plane or you're in airports or on a bus, sometimes you can just start to feel yucky and smell a little bit, you know what I'm saying? And you can't always take a shower. So one of the ways to feel fresh is to just go and change your clothes. That's exactly what Susie Q did.
So she goes and changes her clothes, and by this time, the tour is about over. Everyone gets back on the bus. Susie Q gets on, and she realizes that the tour guide begins to freak out a little bit. Turns out someone's missing from the tour. So they unload all the passengers, everyone goes out, and begins to look for this missing woman.
Now, it can't be that hard to find her. I mean, it's Iceland; it's not that big, right? And there's not that many people. So they're looking around, checking the restrooms, and they can't find this missing woman. Finally, they think they need to call the authorities. We've got to get others involved in this; this is serious; we're missing this woman.
So they put a description together: it's an Asian woman, she has a black shirt on, she's about yay tall. That's all they knew. They didn't know her name; they just knew she was missing. So they go on for hours searching. Finally, the Coast Guard shows up, and at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning—this search started on Saturday—at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, the Coast Guard's there, they're getting their helicopter ready because they're getting ready to do a search even within the ocean.
And so Susie Q is standing there, and at 3 a.m. in the morning, some of the people from the group come up to Susie Q, look her in the face, and realize she's the missing woman! Susie Q, the whole time, had been looking for herself! That's why they didn't give us her name. How embarrassing, right?
Have you ever been there before? Have you ever been looking for something, and it's been with you the whole time? You start yelling at your spouse, "Where'd you put my keys?" and they're in your hand. You ever been there before, searching for something that's been with you the whole time?
If you're taking notes this morning, the title of my message—and I worked hard on this one, so I want you to write this one down—the title of my message is this: "God, where are you?" In fact, if there was one question that I think resonates with the American church right now more than any other question, it's probably that one right there: "God, where are you?"
In fact, right now in our current climate of 2023, there are so many things happening in our lives. There are personal things that are happening, there are cultural things, political things, things within the school system, things within our finances and our economy. There are things happening everywhere around us. In fact, right now, we feel like our faith is being attacked on all fronts.
And what's happened to a lot of us as Christians is that we're asking the question that we're asking probably more than anything: "God, where are you?" This past week, I was driving in my truck, and I was listening to worship music. I heard this song come on the radio that I've heard before, and for whatever reason, the Holy Spirit caused me to tune in more than I typically do.
I began to listen to the opening lyrics of this song, and it was written by a man named Zach Williams. I'll give you the title of it later, but here are the opening lyrics to this song, and I want you to see if these resonate with you as a Christ follower right now with what you're experiencing in your world. It says, "When I can't find the words, when I can barely breathe, falling on my knees, when I can't feel you near and I can't hear you speak."
You know what's so interesting to me is that we as Christ followers have been saved. We have been found. We were once lost, and now we are found. But what's interesting to me is how Christians can still experience seasons in their life where they feel lost.
I think for many of you in this room and some of those of you that are watching online, if you were honest with yourself, you're here now. You know you love Jesus, you know that He saved you, you know that He's good, you know that He's real, but for whatever reason, it feels like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. You feel further from God right now than you've ever felt before.
And despite the fact that you have been saved, you have been found, you feel lost. So as I was thinking about this this week and as I heard these words, if I'm just honest with you, when I heard these words on the radio, man, I just broke down. In fact, when I was listening to the song, I was headed to the coffee shop to work on my message, and I thought, "I can't go to the coffee shop; people can't see this!"
So I went home because something happened in my soul when I heard these words, and I just felt overwhelmed with this reality that despite the fact that I'm a pastor and despite the fact that I've been following Jesus for over 15 years, I've been in ministry now for High Ridge for 12 years, and I've dedicated my life to following Him—like I left my friends and my family in Louisiana to come to Texas to pursue Him.
I left you guys and my loved ones and my friends here in Fort Worth to go to Graham to pursue Him, and then I did the same thing to Graham to come back here because He told me to do so. I've committed my life to doing whatever He asks me to do, and I love Him. And yet, like many of you, I can still find myself in places and seasons where I'm asking the question, "God, where are you?" Because I can't see you, I can't hear you, and I can't feel you.
And there are some of you here today; you feel the same way. As I was processing these emotions this week, the Word reminded me of King David in Psalm chapter 22—some very powerful words. This is a famous passage, by the way. If you go study the crucifixion of Jesus in Matthew chapter 27, it references Psalm 22 very often.
But here's how this Psalm opens up. Here's what David says. Now remember, the Bible says God says that David is a man after His own heart. David made some mistakes, but he was a good man that loved God and pursued God. And yet here we see him saying these words: "Listen to what it says: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
In fact, for some of you that know the story of the crucifixion, these words sound familiar, don't they? If you remember when they nailed Jesus to that cross, after He'd been hanging there for six hours, drowning in His own blood, at some point He speaks a phrase in Arabic. When you translate that in Aramaic, when you translate it, it's this passage—it's Jesus saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
What is the point? Here's what I want you to hear and see this morning: I know that we can feel that God is far away as believers. I know that we can ask that question at times, "God, where are you?" And I'm here this morning to remind you that when you feel that way, you're not alone.
When we study Scripture, we see great men and women who had seen God do things that we could only dream of—seen Him do incredible things, without a doubt know that He's real and that He's powerful and that He is the God of creation. If they can still find themselves in their life asking these questions, I want you to know, listen to me, friend, you're not alone.
And the reason I want you to know that is because the enemy wants to isolate you. Because if he can make you feel that you are alone and that there's something wrong with you because you feel this way, then he can isolate you, and he can get you off the journey and the path that God has for you. You are not alone.
So what I want to do today is I want to answer three questions about God's presence because that's what we're yearning for, isn't it? You're here today not so that you can get a self-help message to become a better person. You are here today because you want more of God. Because you believe and know that it's in His presence we experience healing, it's in His presence we find purpose, it's in His presence we find fulfillment, and His presence is where we glorify Him.
You're here because you want more of His presence. And for those of us that are honest and feel that we are far from God, we're asking the question, "God, where are you?" It's because we are not feeling His presence.
So I want to answer three questions today about His presence. The first question I want to answer is this: What does God tell us about His presence? Again, if we want to answer this question, we've got to go to the ultimate source of truth. Can I remind you, church, and those that are watching online, there is such a thing as ultimate truth, and it is called the Word of God.
He is the creator; He is the designer, so He gets to define things, and He gets to reveal or unveil truth to us. And listen to me, friend, despite what culture tells you, you can know truth because we can know God's Word.
So when the subject of presence—if we're going to understand more about His presence—then we need to go to His Word. Here's what we see about God's presence in Psalm 139. The writer says this: "Where shall I go from your Spirit?" Now notice that "Spirit" is capital S; that's referring to the Spirit of God, not your spirit. "Where shall I go from your Spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me."
So according to this one passage that is speaking about the presence of God, here's what we can know to be true: again, according to the source of ultimate truth, God's presence is everywhere. Everyone say, "Everywhere." God's presence is everywhere. In fact, the theological term for this is omnipresent. We know that God is omnipresent; His presence is everywhere. He is not confined to time and space. God's presence is everywhere.
Now, this is interesting because sometimes even in church we hear prayers like, "God, bring your presence," "Holy Spirit, usher in your presence." In fact, I think I've probably said that on this platform, and I'm not necessarily saying there's anything wrong with that. I think the heart behind it is we want to experience more of His presence.
But I'm here today to remind you that no matter where you go as a Christ follower, God's presence is there. That's the beauty of Christianity and our God and Him being the creator of the heavens and the Earth—that we can experience His presence everywhere we go. Amen? Not just at church, not just in a room full of believers as we sing and study the Word, but in your home, in your workplace, in your schools, in your relationships—we can experience His presence everywhere. Amen?
We also see God's presence defined as this in the Bible. Isaiah 41, verse 10, God says this: "Fear not." Man, I love this verse; this is a powerful verse. "Fear not." So why should we not fear? "For I am with you." Listen to me, friend, you've lived on this Earth long enough to know that you're going to experience the temptation to walk in fear. We're going to experience fear, but we don't have to choose to live in fear.
And here this verse reminds us that we don't have anything to fear. Why? Because we're smart? Because we're strong? Because we're rich? Because we're pretty? No, it's none of those things. We have no reason to fear because our God is with us. "Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
So according to this passage, we know not only is God's presence everywhere, but for His sons and daughters who have surrendered their life to Jesus, His presence is always—everyone say, "Always"—with us. He's always with us. Fascinating! The God, the one who gets to define His presence, says, "Listen, I'm everywhere, and I am always—for those of you that have surrendered your life to Jesus, who believe in the power of the death, burial, and resurrection, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I am always with you."
So this past week, as I was studying this idea of God's presence, I do what I often do when I'm message prepping. I go and try to do a word search through the Bible because a lot of times I want to know, "Okay, this idea of presence, this word, how often does it appear in the Bible?" And so this particular time, for the first time in 15 years of message prepping, I ran into a problem I've never seen before. I could not get a straight answer on how often this idea of God's presence appears in the Bible.
It's the first time I've ever run into this. In fact, one of the responses I got from one of the sources I thought was awesome, and I wrote it down because I want to read it to you because it's powerful. Here's what it says: This particular source replied with this: "The concept of God's presence is mentioned or referenced throughout the Bible in various forms, but it's challenging to provide an exact number due to the diversity of ways in which it's discussed. The term 'presence' itself might not always be used, but the idea of God being with His people, guiding, comforting, and interacting with them is a central theme in the Bible."
So out of all the sources that I tried to go to, to try to extract how often do we see God's presence talked about throughout the Bible, they could not give me a straight answer. Why? Because it's one of the central themes of the entire book! You cannot separate the Bible from God's presence because it's that intertwined.
And listen to me, friend, God desires that to be true for our lives as well. What we know about God's presence is that He is everywhere, and for those that love His Son, that have a relationship with Jesus, He is always with us. Now, that's good news, is it not?
But we still have a problem, don't we? Because though many of us say, "Okay, great, Zach, I hear that. God, I hear you. I do believe that you're all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, and I do hear that you're with us always," but we still have a problem because a lot of us find ourselves in seasons where we feel that God is far away from us.
So here's the next question that we must answer: What causes us to feel far from Him? Because we have a contradictory thought here, don't we? Wait a second! So God is everywhere, and He's always with His children. He will never leave us, and He will never forsake us because of the powerful work of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus—not because of you, but because of His Son. That's a promise we believe to be true.
But on the other hand, we have this contradictory experience that we feel as human beings that, "Okay, I know that to be true, but here's what I'm experiencing: I feel far from you, God. I can't hear you, I can't feel you, and I can't see you." So how do we bring balance? How do we reconcile these two opposites?
Well, the question that we have to answer is: Why do we feel far from God? And here's what I think. If you study the Scriptures, you find that there are three different reasons for why a Christ follower, a saved person, can feel far from God.
The first one is this: sin. Sin can make us feel far from God. Again, for those of you that are new to church or watching online, sin is simply missing the mark. So God has perfection there. God is a perfect, holy, righteous God, and we're to hit that perfection. The truth is, as humans, we cannot; we miss all the time. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that every single one of you sitting in this room—whether you believe in God or not—you would all be willing to admit you've missed the mark before. You've sinned; you've messed up.
And what happens to us as Christians is that when we sin—sometimes unintentionally, sometimes intentionally—we feel that there's a distance that comes between us and God. And for some of us, it's because we have the wrong understanding of this. See, what you think is that God treats you like your parents may have treated you or maybe how you treat your children, which is when they disobey, what do you do? Get away from me! When they disobey, what do you do? Go to timeout! When they disobey, what do you do? You send them to their room!
And what we do is we take a human concept of discipline and we apply it to our heavenly relationship with our Father. And listen to me, friend, it's not true! God doesn't treat us that way. When you sin and when you mess up, God does not send you away. I'm not saying that there are not earthly consequences for your decision, but what I am telling you is that the eternal consequences have been paid for through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. God does not tell you to get away from His presence when you mess up.
So what happens is when we sin, we experience sorrow, and for a lot of us, that sorrow turns into shame and guilt. And then what happens is the enemy of your soul, who the Bible refers to as the great accuser, he comes in and he begins to accuse you: "You don't really love God; look at what you did! You're not really a Christian; look at that thought you just had! You're not really a great husband; you're not really a good mother!" And he comes in, and he pounces—he jumps on, if you will—the sorrow, the guilt, and shame that we experience.
And so what happens is the reason I say one of the reasons we can feel far from God is our sin. It's not because of the way that God treats us; it's because of the way we treat Him. So when we sin, the sorrow, we begin to believe the lies of the accuser, and we run from God instead of running towards Him.
So sin can cause us to feel as if God is far away, and then we begin to believe the lies of the accuser, and that can also make us feel as if God is far away. Another thing that causes us to feel as if God is far away is we lose perspective. This happens so often for us as Christians, especially depending on what storms and valleys we're experiencing in life and what's happening in our world.
A loss of biblical—everyone say "biblical"—perspective can cause us to feel far from Him. So a few years ago, my son Arrow, who's eight now, at this time I believe he was four years old. We were doing what rednecks love to do this time of year: we were preparing for hunting season. It's getting time to fill the freezer. So a few years ago, he was four years old during the time we were out on this piece of property, and we were doing a bunch of work. We were cutting limbs, cutting trees, filling feeders—doing all the work that goes into harvesting one of these animals.
So we're out there working, and I realized that I needed to move my truck. So I just jumped in my truck for a second and just moved it just a few feet out of the way so we could continue to do this work. When I did this, my four-year-old little son lost his mind! So I did what any parent does when your child's in turmoil: I pulled my phone out and I filmed it for your pleasure.
So I want to show you how my son responded in this moment to me getting in my truck and moving it a few feet. Check this out.
[Video plays]
"What are you doing? I wasn't gonna leave you! Hey, show me your happy face! Show me your happy face!"
My kids will be in counseling one day because of that phrase! Listen, let me say this real quick: that weapon in his hand was not a weapon of mass destruction; it's a Red Ryder BB gun, all right? It might put your eye out or sting a little bit, but my life was in no shape or form threatened at that moment. I am a responsible parent; we are working on gun safety, all right? Let's just get that out of the way.
But it's such an interesting video, right? Because when we laugh, it's cute. Somebody's like, "Oh, that's so sweet!" But I mean, his reaction is ridiculous, isn't it?
But see, for that four-year-old little boy, he allowed his worst fear to get the best of him in that moment. And his worst fear in that moment is that his daddy was going to leave him. What happens to so many of us in this room—listen to me, friend—what happens is that we allow the worst fears in the season that we're facing—losing my spouse, losing my children, losing my job, what's going to happen in these elections, what's going to happen with these interest rates, what's going to happen to my company, what's going to happen to my health, what's this diagnosis going to be?
And what happens to so many of us is we allow the worst fear in that season, in that moment of our life, to cause us to lose perspective of our reality. And I'm here today, friend, to remind you that your reality is this: your God is everywhere, and because of what Jesus has done for you, He will never leave you. He will never leave you.
So here's the last question, friend: How do we experience more of His presence? See, the last question is the one we just answered: Why do we feel like He's so far from us? And I don't know if you noticed, but I gave you sin and believing the lies of the enemy, and the last is lost perspective.
Here's what I wanted you to see: when we feel far from God, listen to me, friend, it's not Him; it's us. Which means that we have the opportunity to do something about it. See, a lot of you, you feel far from God, and you're waiting for Him to do something. Can I remind you? He's already done something! He sent His Son Jesus to come and suffer and die on the cross to make a way for you to be in His presence. He's already gone all the way for you and I.
So as Christ followers, when we feel far from Him, now it's on us to do something about it. Here's the good news, friend: you can do something about it!
So again, the question is: How do we experience more of His presence? How do we feel more of His presence? Here it is, friend: draw near to God. Draw near to Him! In fact, James 4:8 says this: "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you."
Isn't it interesting how the passage didn't say, "Hey, God's going to draw near to you, so then all you need to do is draw near to Him"? No, no, no! It's talking to Christians! So these are people who are far from God, who have experienced God. The answer is on us! We draw near, and when we draw near, He draws in!
Because remember, He's already gone all the way! Okay, Zach, that's great! How do I draw near to God? It's simply this: time! Everyone say, "Time!" Time with His Son Jesus, time in His presence, time in worship, time with His family.
This is why groups, friends, are so important! This is why church is so important! If you feel distant from someone in your life, what do you do? You increase the amount of time you spend with them! When I feel like my wife and I are disconnected, you know what I do? I take her on more dates! I clean the house a little more! Can I get an amen from the women? Sometimes, not all the time!
What's the point? When I feel distant from my wife, I don't put it on her; I do something about it! When you feel far from God, you can do something about it! Spend more time with Jesus! Are you spending time in His Word? Are you reading? Are you growing in your knowledge of who He is and how incredible He is? This is a lifelong journey!
May I remind you, spend more time with His family! Hey, listen, if you want to be a part of Zach Ryder's life, if you want to love me, if you want to do life with me, and you want me to do life with you, you better love my wife, and you better love my children! If you're going to love Jesus, you better love His bride!
on Nov 05, 2023
