The Deepest Deep
Pastor David T. Elms Preached on 7/26/2026
0:0036:33
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Summary
Pastor David T. Elms explores Psalm 42, illustrating how to find God when life feels like a storm of 'black water and bruised skies.' He encourages believers to move first through faith and praise, trusting that God-the deepest deep-meets us in our most desperate hour.
Key points
- •The phrase "deep calleth unto the deep" is often misinterpreted as a spiritual climax, but Pastor Elms frames it as a weather report from a man in a desperate storm (Psalm 42).
- •Life often hits us with "black water" below and "bruised skies" above, where chaos we cannot understand meets chaos we cannot control.
- •The spiritual principle of movement: "You move first, then God moves." God responds to our choice to delight in Him, humble ourselves, and call upon His name.
- •Like the Hebrew children in the furnace, the storm you are in is not designed to destroy you; it is designed to introduce you as a servant of the Most High God.
- •Pastor Elms emphasizes that we must interrogate our own souls when we feel cast down, commanding ourselves to "hope thou in God" regardless of the current "weather report."
Scripture
Faith
Hope
Trials
Worship
Perseverance
Life application
When you feel overwhelmed by societal or personal chaos this week, stop and "interrogate" your soul. Physically step toward God by choosing to voice a praise report before you see the physical evidence of one, trusting that your movement invites His response.
Reflection questions
- In what area of your life does it currently feel like 'deep is calling unto deep' or that you are in a storm you cannot control?
- Pastor Elms mentions that 'prosperous' times can be just as trying as 'adversity.' Which season are you in, and how are you keeping God at the center?
- What does it mean for you to 'move first' in your current situation so that God can move?
- How can you preach to your own soul like David did when you feel cast down?
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Full transcript
0:00your time. I've got a word from the Lord for you today.
0:01Lord Jesus, speak to us.
0:04Allow the good word of God to heal, restore, renew,
0:09refill, and fill for the first time,
0:12people with the gift of the Holy Ghost that is the promise of the Father.
0:16We thank you for your word to heal us.
0:18Let your word be clear and succinct in my mouth,
0:23and let it flow to these precious people.
0:25In Jesus' name I pray,
0:27amen.
0:30I'm speaking today on the subject, The Deepest Deep, which by the way,
0:33Saturday we are having a parenting seminar.
0:36But there is no way David Timothy Elms is teaching this by himself,
0:41because I couldn't parent my beautiful kids without my lovely
0:45bride. So she will be as much, if not more of a
0:49part of that parenting seminar on Saturday as any part
0:53I have, and I thank the Lord for my children.
0:56The authority of my knowledge is built
0:59on my children,
1:02and I thank the Lord I've got children that I'm so grateful for.
1:07And they've had every decision in their hand to be able to make the
1:11unwise decisions, and it is a joy to watch your children when
1:15they begin to spread their wings and fly, not
1:19by your wisdom, but by theirs. Amen.
1:24I have been warned by my mentor
1:28when I first began to preach and pastor.
1:32He said, "David, don't fight the summer,"
1:35because summer is when people travel,
1:38and you can see how we're
1:41really crowded right now, but when people start coming back, I can't tell you how
1:44many are not here today because of the blessed summer.
1:48And I love it. I celebrate the fact that you're able to travel.
1:52It's not anything that I feel badly about.
1:54In fact, I'm not the kind of pastor that says you have to be home on Sunday to be
1:58in church. I have known those kind, and I'm not saying that they're
2:02wrong. It's good to get back for Sunday.
2:05But there's also something beautiful about taking a rest and
2:08taking a moment and being gone. I told my wife that we're going to take our
2:12vacation this year,
2:14and we're going to do it in October because I want to go
2:18when it's cool and the leaves are changing.
2:21So I will be taking our vacation in October, thank God.
2:25I'm looking forward to that. But until then, I'm just going to keep
2:28marching through that point. But the hardest time to pastor
2:32is June, July, and August. And
2:38June is easier than July,
2:41and July is easier than August
2:43because everyone is tired.
2:47It seems like they're not tired, but they've taken a vacation,
2:52and vacations wear you out.
2:55I know you're being real silent on me right now, but it's amazing how
2:59structure is fulfilling-
3:00Yeah
3:01... when you have order in your day.
3:02And of course, those with kids,
3:05uh-huh, I hear you.
3:08You're ready for school to start back.
3:09And the teachers that I'm honored to pastor,
3:12they're already ready.
3:15They're working and struggling and straining to get their classrooms ready,
3:19and here we are in the middle of it all,
3:22and everybody's tired.
3:24But guess what? God's still great.
3:26Yeah.
3:28I had, as a part of my parenting, a family day,
3:32and it was very important to me to have a family day where I took whatever I
3:36had, whether they were in the school or not, and took a season for
3:40them on that one day a week, and they knew it was all about us being together.
3:44One year for family day, I decided that
3:48I wanted to
3:50take my kids to Everglades National Park, and there
3:54was
3:55six of us, and so I rented two jon boats.
3:59If you've not been to Everglades National Park, you can rent jon boats out there
4:03and go fishing. And so I rented two jon boats, and we had gone to
4:06Subway and got packed up with Subway sandwiches.
4:09You know the great place called Subway?
4:13At that time, it was one of my children's favorite restaurants.
4:17I can't speak on behalf of my wife, but right then, we went to
4:21Subway, and we loaded up with subs and chips and drinks.
4:25And we went out to Everglades National Park, and the day was glorious
4:28and beautiful.
4:30We rented two jon boats, and we decided to proceed deep into the
4:34Everglades. And for
4:3730 to 40 minutes,
4:39we went into the depth of the Everglades.
4:41We noticed on the way out that one boat was exponentially
4:45faster than the other boat.
4:47And I was driving the fast boat. And so we would always stop and
4:51see any gator that we came across and all the excitement of being in
4:55the Everglades. You will never get bored out there, at least you better not.
5:00And so we went all the way out to an island, way out.
5:04If you know the map of the canals there, you know there's
5:08two or three initially, and then you can get into some fun stuff.
5:13So we got out into the fun stuff, and I pulled my jon boat up on the
5:16land, pioneer me, and the other boat finally come
5:20chugging up. Chugging up finally.
5:24And it pulled up, and we got out on the island after I cleared it
5:27from all the reptilian creatures.
5:30And we got it cleared out, and we opened up our
5:34sandwiches and began to eat. And
5:37out of nowhere,
5:40after watching a lot of working of the animal life
5:45and those peering creatures staring at me,
5:48I noticed a raindrop fell.
5:51Wow.
5:54I looked up, and the sky looked as if it was bruised.
5:59And the clouds were rolling, and so I told the kids, "We better
6:03head back."
6:06And I told the other boat, which Jordan, my nephew, was driving with my
6:10two girls. I said, "You guys take the fast boat.
6:13Me and Melanie and Ethan will take the slow boat." Fast
6:17boat ran like a rabbit. Slow boat-
6:20Didn't
6:20... had the engine of an electric razor.
6:32The silence had been interrupted by a boom.
6:37And sliding from the horizon came a fast-moving
6:41storm.
6:43And
6:44I noticed
6:46the gators were sliding off the banks like they had a reservation at a special
6:50restaurant.
6:52Yeah.
6:53The rain moved from a gentle nudge to a hammering-
6:58Sideways
6:58... pound.
7:00The wind was blowing sideways, and they took off in the
7:04scout boat.
7:07Ethan and my wife got in the boat with me lovingly.
7:09My wife would not abandon me at this moment.
7:12She did abandon me, though, because she had a hoodie.
7:17And she pulled that black hoodie. The sight of
7:19her only mouth. That's all I could
7:23see was her mouth
7:26She was facing me because the wind and the rain was so strong, and
7:29the lightning. It was so bad. The rain
7:34was going sideways.
7:36The water beneath, if you've ever been to the Everglades, you know the water is
7:39black, okay? I don't know where you find black water, but there, the water is
7:43black.
7:45So you've got the black water below and the black sky
7:48above, and the lightning dancing and the thunder roaring,
7:52and- Yes ... I was going all that that little
7:56electric razor motor could go.
7:59Now, I'm not a
8:02Catholic, but I almost prayed the rosary.
8:08In our text, we read a verse of scripture where David is writing his
8:11Psalm.
8:13And he comes across a verse of scripture that you and I have quoted many times, at
8:17least I have quoted it, and misquoted it.
8:20Because it says in that scripture, he describes all these things going on
8:24around him, and then he says, "The deep-"
8:28"Calleth unto the deep." "Calleth unto the deep." Yes.
8:30And I, through my years of being around the church, have always thought, well,
8:34that's the deeper things of God calling to the deeper things of God.
8:38When I hear, "The deep crieth unto the deep," it must mean we're having a
8:42really powerful church service. Wow.
8:45And those that are really not just wanting the shallow end, they're
8:49ready to kick in. But that's not
8:53what David's saying. It is literally a weather report.
8:57It is a man in a storm. It's not poetry.
9:01It is a desperate man crying out, and he's literally saying
9:05that the deep beneath him has conspired with the deep above
9:09him, and he cannot hardly tell which way is up.
9:13He said, "The noise of thy waterspouts, thy billows,
9:17and thy waves," these are the things I'm talking
9:21about when I'm telling you that the deep is crying to the
9:25deep. It's not written from a library.
9:27It's written from a dangerous place. Lord.
9:31Have you ever heard when it rains, it pours? Maybe you've said that.
9:35David is in a place when he writes this Psalm where everything has
9:38come apart. His son has wrought
9:42a rebellion against him in the entire land,
9:47and he has lost the love of Absalom.
9:50An animal
9:52spirit had come over Absalom to come and take the palace from
9:57David. David is running from Jerusalem.
10:00He had a best counselor, his wisest counselor, his closest
10:04friend. His name was Ahithophel, and Ahithophel had
10:08defected to Absalom's side of
10:12the ledger. Mephibosheth was a child of
10:15Saul that David had honored and allowed to live in the palace.
10:19And Mephibosheth had left David and
10:23abandoned David and gone to the side
10:27of Absalom. And while he's leaving Jerusalem,
10:31a man named Shimei... How about these names?
10:33Okay, you probably don't want to name your children these names,
10:36okay?
10:39Shimei comes up to David and begins throwing rocks at him
10:43and kicking dust on him.
10:46Lord. And David is so down,
10:49he literally says to his helpers, who was willing to
10:53take Shimei out. He was willing to kill him.
10:56He said, "Don't touch him. It could
10:59be that he was sent by God." How low do you have
11:03to be- Wow ... to think that the people throwing rocks at you
11:08were sent by God?
11:10Now, I know you've heard this spiritualized and preached and proclaimed, but there
11:14are times we get the scripture and we twist it a little bit out of the place
11:18that it was written in.
11:20I heard about one saint who told her pastor she was so beaten down from
11:24family storms and from situations at work, she said, "I'm so tired,
11:28I'll almost be glad to get in the grave.
11:31Just to lie down and get in the casket.
11:34Maybe I can find some rest there."
11:37And then she thought a minute, she said,
11:39"But I'm afraid as soon as I get laid down, the Lord's going to come and I'm going
11:42to have to get back up."
11:48How low do you have to be
11:51when those who are throwing rocks at you, you say, "That could be of God"?
11:56How low do you have to be when you say, "The deep beneath me
12:01is conspiring with the deep above me"?
12:05It starts out so good that we've made a song out of the opening verse of this
12:09Psalm. As the deer panteth for the
12:13water, so my soul longeth after you.
12:17You alone are my heart's desire and
12:21I long to worship you. Y'all ready to sing it?
12:25You alone are my strength and my shield.
12:29To you alone may my spirit
12:33yield.
12:35It didn't feel like a song, though, when David wrote it. Right.
12:39Because we pluck verses out of place because we like
12:43the way it sounds.
12:45But this preacher on this morning is trying to get you to pluck that song
12:49back into a place where you feel like everything beneath you
12:53is black water, and everything above you is a bruised
12:56sky, and all you have is a weather report that says,
13:00"The deep is crying unto the deep, and the
13:04noise of the sound of the waters are overwhelming
13:08me."
13:09And here's what David said if you read it from The Message.
13:12It says, "I'm eating tears for breakfast, and I'm
13:16eating tears for supper. I go over and over it trying
13:20to figure out, how did I get here? I'm emptying out the luggage of
13:24my life. I was all- ... one in front of the
13:27worshiping crowd. I was even the one leading the praisers.
13:32I was the one who was eager to arrive at the house of God.
13:36I'm the one who said, "I was glad when they said unto me,
13:39'Let us go to the house of the Lord.'" But now, the chaos
13:43beneath me is crying to the chaos above me.
13:46Your swelling surf and your thundering breakers crash over and
13:50crush down on me. The storm below me is crying to the
13:54storm above me. And sometimes I ask God, my
13:58rock-solid God, "Why did you let me
14:02down? Why am I walking around in tears,
14:06harassed by my enemies?"
14:10Jesus.
14:10I've got three quick points to give you today, and then we're going to pray.
14:14Point number one,
14:16we are in a storm in this hour.
14:19We are in an hour where we are trying to figure out, as a nation,
14:22who we are. Communism once tried to come into our
14:26nation, and it was the '30s, the '40s, and the '50s.
14:30It went down for a season, but now if you know the
14:33situations around about us, communism is trying to make its way
14:37back in different clothes into America.
14:40And communism is always anti-God because it needs you owing the
14:44government-
14:45Right
14:45... not owing God. So communism has an agenda to
14:49remove God from the story and make the government your
14:53greatest provider.
14:56Right. Come on. Right.
14:58This is like the day in scripture where the Bible says, "Darkness
15:02came upon the face of the deep."
15:06Right.
15:07Chaos you do not understand is talking to chaos
15:11you cannot control. The deep beneath is calling to the deep
15:14above. Are the communists taking over?
15:18Is China, with its godless system of marking anybody who
15:21doesn't praise in the way that they prescribe, are they taking
15:25over? What can stop these politicians who's
15:29trying to take over our nation away from godlessness?
15:32And that isn't new, but it is with a different garment
15:36nowadays. What is the new status quo?
15:39Our children wonder if there will be a job for them when they get
15:43older. Parents who are children are going back to school.
15:46We wonder what is artificial intelligence going to
15:50do to a learning system.
15:52Right.
15:52Mama, is there anything on the screen that is real?
15:56And all of these things, nobody knows what is going
16:00on. And as a church, I have welcomed you to embrace
16:04tools, and artificial intelligence is one of those tools,
16:08but not even the professors, the academics, the politicians,
16:12or the power brokers know what is going to happen with
16:16this knowledge that is tumbling over itself.
16:20Every week, there's a new discovery,
16:24and all of that. The very men building it have told Congress they don't
16:28fully understand the thing they have made. And I know some...
16:32In fact, I talked to somebody who is a pastor friend of mine, and I said, "How are
16:36you handling AI?" He said, "I don't even talk about it." He said, "Because I feel
16:39like my people are already under such stress out in the world that they want to
16:42have one place where they don't talk about it." And maybe he's wiser than me, but
16:46my feeling is, is that I like using tools.
16:49That's the reason I have a phone. If you don't like tools, get rid of your phone.
16:54If you don't appreciate great tools, get rid of your car.
16:57I appreciate tools, and these are just new tools that we've got to learn how to
17:01operate in. I'll never forget when my uncle bought a nail gun.
17:04It was the first time that they ever had a nail gun, and he mocked anybody who
17:08used it because he said, "There's nothing like a claw hammer, and a bunch of
17:12uneducated, unskillful workers are the ones that need nail guns,
17:16those ridiculous things." And then it wasn't very long until I saw him going
17:19down the side of a house, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
17:23Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. He was the fastest man in all of
17:27town with a nail gun. I said, "Whatever happened to your claw hammer?"
17:30Oh.
17:33Right.
17:34So I am pro-tools. I think you all have heard that word
17:38before.
17:40I am pro-tools, but we get tired of playground
17:43shenanigans that come with collateral damage, and we're always
17:47trying to see where's the damage coming from because my
17:51kids, I care about. My marriage, I care about.
17:54My job, I care about. My income, I care about.
17:57What are we going to do, and am I going to be displaced?
18:01I can't tell when a job's going to be displaced, where the job's going to be
18:04displaced to, when it's going to be.
18:06There's a fog in our forecast.
18:09Right.
18:10I'll always remember when Ethan was at Bible college, and he had
18:14gone to spend the weekend in Denver, Colorado, and
18:18be with his cousins, and they were putting on a pulpit conference in St.
18:22Louis, Missouri. And Ethan was driving
18:25from Denver to St. Louis, and I was going to see Brother and Sister
18:29Lanciano. I was literally sitting in front of their house when my
18:33dad called me, and my dad said, "David, we just got a call.
18:36Ethan's in trouble." I said, "Really?" I said, "How do you know?" He said, "Well,
18:39we
18:40talked to him."
18:43I said, "He is. What has happened?" He said, "Well, the people said they're with
18:46the courthouse or the sheriff's office, and that he was caught with a
18:50DUI, and he's in jail.
18:53But because of it, don't call anybody else.
18:55You alone can help us." And my dad had been...
18:59He knew details. He knew specifics.
19:01He knew everything about Ethan's journey from Denver to
19:05Colorado, and I'm sitting there confused. What's going on?
19:09I couldn't comprehend it. I know sometimes kids can do something silly,
19:13and if Ethan had done that, I would've been forgiving and loving, and I would've
19:17bailed him out, and I don't think I would've told anybody, okay?
19:21Right. That's right.
19:23That's right.
19:24Because I got people's back, baby
19:29But I'll always remember, I called Shawn Raven.
19:31Lisa Chiquette's here today, which I love you, Lisa.
19:34God's doing an amazing work in Lisa's life. Yes.
19:36She's one of the top, top cops in all of Fort
19:39Lauderdale. Well, she's not anymore, okay?
19:42So don't chase her down with all of your needs, all right?
19:45Just let her be retired.
19:48But I called Shawn, who at that time I believe was a captain with Davy, and
19:52I told him, I said, "Shawn, listen. What's going on?
19:54Here's the thing." And he told me, he said, "David, it's
19:58a sham." Yep. I said, "How
20:02did they talk to Ethan?" He said, "They have people that talk kind of
20:06like they're drunk, kind of like they're in a certain sound,
20:09and they can confuse the grandparents.
20:12They prey on them." I said, "Well, how did they know he was going from where he was
20:15going?" He said, "They do research.
20:16They spend their whole morning researching Facebook page, Instagram posts,
20:20and they know all these things." Wow.
20:23And they are smart.
20:28What's that song by Michael Jackson?
20:31"Smooth Criminal." They're smooth.
20:32See, I'm so saved, I don't know these songs.
20:37I
20:39don't know these songs.
20:42Look at you, Don, smiling at me.
20:46"Smooth Criminal."
20:54Y'all act like you know that song.
20:58Preach.
21:00And that's not the last of it, and it's going to hit you, too.
21:04And when it comes, you're going to feel like, "My Lord, it's black water roiling
21:08underneath me. It's a bruised sky boiling above me.
21:11I don't know which way to turn. The water's going sideways.
21:15The noise of the water spouts are all around me.
21:18I don't understand the billows that are overshadowing me.
21:21God, how long, how long? I'm eating tears for breakfast.
21:25I'm eating tears at lunch. I'm eating tears at dinner time.
21:29Oh, Lord, how long, how long, how long?" How long?
21:34The deep of your need
21:36comes to a place where you call out to the deep of the deep,
21:40and that's the title of my message, is there's a deeper deep.
21:44There's a deepest deep because weather is momentary.
21:49The weather report can get you. Have you ever been listening on the radio?
21:53"This is a test.
21:55This is a test of the mutual broadcasting system,
21:59but this is only a test."
22:04Y'all don't even know about these days. You don't even have radios.
22:07How many do not even know what I'm talking about? Raise your hand right now.
22:11Oh. Oh, my goodness.
22:13I've got a pretty educated church. I've always known you were smart.
22:19This is a test.
22:23Pablo Cruise said it in 1977, "What
22:27you going to do when she says goodbye?
22:33What you going to do when she is gone?"
22:38Storms beneath,
22:40storms above, the billows over my head.
22:43Now, I know all of you are great at hiding your
22:47stuff,
22:49and you know I'm not the preacher that always preaches about the stuff
22:53because the goodness of God does lead people, and the goodness of God
22:56doesn't always keep you in your stuff because blessing is phenomenal. Right.
23:00Living for God is the best life that there is.
23:04He has come that I might have life and that more abundantly.
23:07We don't stay down when we come to him.
23:10He begins to elevate us up. But even in your place of
23:14blessing, you find out that there's heavier burdens in
23:18the middle of blessing.
23:20That's right. There's always a trial of adversity, but what people don't
23:24understand is how much greater is the trial of
23:28prosperity. Wow.
23:30And so when you come to that place and it feels like you're where David is, you
23:34got to understand first of all, that the storm of our hour was not
23:38meant to overwhelm you because my second point is you've got to
23:42move first,
23:45and then God moves. Amen. You say, "No, no, no.
23:49You know, God ought to know. He knows all that I need." No, you better read the
23:52fine print of the Spirit. Read the fine print in the Bible
23:56because the Bible says all things work together
23:59for the good to them that love God. And are called. What?
24:03To who? To them that love God. All things work together for the good
24:07to them who love God and are called according to his purpose.
24:10You move first, and then he moves. If my
24:14people.
24:16If my people. If my people, which are called by my name, you move, shall
24:20humble themselves. You move and pray.
24:23You move, then I will hear from heaven.
24:26Then I will forgive their sin. Yes.
24:28Then will I heal their land. You move, then God moves.
24:32Delight thyself also in the Lord.
24:36Yes. There is a truth in this house.
24:40People have worshiped today that are in the middle of the
24:44bottom of the valley. Yes. But they have learned, if I delight
24:47myself also in the Lord, then he shall give me the
24:51desires of my heart. You move, then he moves.
24:55I'm not waiting to praise him until I have the praise
24:59report. I know that I have in my hands the
25:02capacity to create a praise report
25:06because I know when the deep beneath me conspires
25:10with the deep above me, it is not the final message
25:14I am to hear.
25:16I have been young,
25:18but now I'm old.
25:20But I've never seen the righteous forsaken,
25:24nor his seed begging to bread. Call unto me,
25:28and I will answer thee. You move Then God moves.
25:32That's the reason at the conclusion of every service, we have an altar call.
25:36And I know it's not the custom in a lot of Christianity today, and I know your
25:40flesh twists and turns to not ever get in the aisle and come down here.
25:44But I want to proclaim to you there's a reason we do it.
25:47Because you move, then God moves. You've got to let him know,
25:51for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
25:55You call, and then he answers. But as many as received
25:59him, to them gave he... I need some folks
26:03that are here to receive today.
26:06I need some folks that are willing to be hungry today.
26:10I need some people who are willing to say in their spirit,
26:14"I have come to bless the Lord.
26:18I will bless the Lord at..."
26:20All times. When? All times.
26:24When? All times. You see the pattern?
26:28God is not a vending machine,
26:32nor is he a slot machine.
26:35Right. He's a father. Yes. And a covenant always must be
26:38signed with two signatures. You move first,
26:42then God moves. God told Elijah in 1 Kings 17,
26:47"Get thee to the brook Cherith, and there, at the
26:51brook, I have commanded the ravens to feed thee
26:55there."
26:57Many people don't see the there there, but there's a there there.
27:00Get thee to the brook Cherith. There were ravens
27:04flying with a GPS programming system.
27:08The ravens were not circling the whole map looking for a hungry prophet.
27:12If Elijah had set up camp anywhere but the brook Cherith,
27:16he'd have watched the catering company fly over
27:21because they had one address. The there that God said to be
27:24at. In the middle of your deep below, going crazy with the
27:28deep above, God said, "I know the way that you
27:32take. And I will be finished with you one
27:36day, and when I am through with you, God
27:40will turn you to gold." The algorithms cannot change your
27:44reality, Sister Elms. Come, musicians.
27:46The responsibility of loving God is the price of relationship.
27:50It's not a small thing to move first.
27:54It's the only thing.
27:55It's the only thing. We're not waiting to be
27:59safe.
28:00Delight thyself in the Lord.
28:03Commit thy way unto the Lord. Psalm said,
28:07"Fret not thyselves
28:10because of evildoers." In that Psalm, three times David said,
28:13"Fret not thyself." You know why he had to say that?
28:18We do it.
28:20Yes. Out there in the Everglades
28:22with that little motor,
28:24I'm telling you, I tried to make the wisest decision I could make.
28:28Here I am,
28:29big, bad, dad,
28:31and I have the slowest one. At least I gave the fast one to the others.
28:34They were gone, skedaddying. Is that a word?
28:38Skedaddy? Skedaddle? Skedaddle. Skedaddle?
28:42Skedaddle. I make words.
28:44Skedaddle.
28:46My wife was looking at me through that hole.
28:50And Ethan was hunkered down. Behind you, yeah.
28:53And I had to be strong, looking where we were going.
28:58I don't know how you did it. And I'm telling you what, I literally had to put on
29:01sunglasses so I could keep my eye open.
29:03It was that cold and hard coming down on
29:07me. I was trying to get there, and I was saying, "Keep plowing, little
29:11engine. Keep plowing." Then lightning struck, and I thought, "You need
29:15to get to land." And I thought- Metal pole ...
29:17"You're no safer on land
29:20in these Everglades than you are in this water out here." Oh.
29:23"It's better for you to keep chugging and get home in Jesus' name."
29:27You know what I found out in that boat?
29:30I thought it was a family day, and I thought we only had six.
29:33But I found out that there were seven,
29:36because when I finally got back to Port Everglades, and those gators
29:40that I had passed-
29:42... were fine in that storm. They were loving it.
29:49It was so...
29:52You feel like you're doing that right now?
29:54Mm.
29:57You got a super fast car outside, but when your life shows up-
30:00Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ...
30:06You're trying so hard, but
30:09the business
30:15Trying to restore that relationship with your boy
30:19. You're trying to
30:23keep the family
30:32How long, O Lord?
30:36You know what David does?
30:38This is my last point.
30:40We're going to pray.
30:43Twice he says the same thing in this psalm.
30:51He interrogates himself.
30:54He does not deny the deep,
30:57doesn't deny the storm.
31:01He doesn't deny his depression, his despondency.
31:07He just
31:09talked to himself.
31:11"Why art thou cast down, O soul?"
31:19It seems like he's manic if you read the whole psalm as one, because
31:23he says something cheerful, and then he's right back in it.
31:28He's right back in that low spot.
31:33Midway through he says, "Hope thou in God."
31:38He gets to the last verse
31:41and he said, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
31:46Why art thou disquieted in me?" In other words, you're really being
31:50quiet down there,
31:54and then all of a sudden you're yelling.
31:59And then he said, "Hope thou in God,
32:02for I
32:04shall yet
32:06praise him."
32:08I shall
32:09yet.
32:10Some of you all need to come to this altar today
32:15and drag all of your
32:18bruised sky,
32:21and pull all of your swamp water
32:26up here with you,
32:28and say, "I shall
32:30yet
32:32praise God."
32:35With LXM, we have
32:37speech. In fact, they've got to present tomorrow because they preach in a few
32:40weeks.
32:41And I get them to work on enunciation.
32:44They've got to say things like, "The tip of the tongue, the lips, and the
32:48teeth. The tip of the tongue, the lips, and the teeth."
32:51They have to say things
32:53that help them
32:55learn and speak clearly. You know New York, you
32:59need New York. You know you need New York.
33:06But one thing I make them say that is deeper than just
33:12a tongue exercise,
33:16whether the weather is cold, whether the weather is hot, we'll be together
33:20whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.
33:28Amen. And while you're figuring out the weathers,
33:32God is the deepest
33:34deep.
33:37And he's saying,
33:39"Will you come
33:41and hope in me?
33:44All your things that are going sideways, upside down,
33:48roiling and boiling,
33:51will you make a new consecration
33:54to me?"
33:56Shall we stand?
34:02The Hebrew children didn't know what was going on when they were thrown into the
34:05fiery furnace.
34:08You know the story.
34:10You Bible readers really know it well.
34:13If you don't bow and bend
34:16and worship the image, we're going to put you into a furnace that
34:19is heated seven times hotter.
34:25And they told the king, Nebuchadnezzar,
34:28"O king,
34:31we're not afraid to answer you on this matter.
34:37Our God is able
34:39to deliver us.
34:43But if he doesn't,
34:45I'm still not going to bow."
34:47And you know what they found out in the fiery furnace?
34:53The furnace
34:54did not destroy them. Yeah.
34:57The furnace
34:59introduced them.
35:01They went in just three Hebrew children.
35:05They came out
35:07servants of the Most High God. Lord.
35:11I'm opening this altar today to anybody who's willing to say,
35:16"I need the Lord in the sunshine hour,
35:20and I need the Lord when the storm clouds roll.
35:23I need him.
35:25I'm coming to you, Lord.
35:27I will say to my soul,
35:30hope thou in God."
35:33If you've not received the Holy Ghost, come on down. Come close.
35:38There's going to be a lot of people that are wanting to come to the altar today.
35:42Come down as close as you can. Come as close as you can.
35:46If you need to sit, find a seat seat.
35:48But everybody that can, come as close as you can.
35:50We want to fill this altar with as many of those
35:55who are willing to bring
35:57the deep that is beneath you
36:00and the deep that is above you
36:04and say, "Oh God, the preacher can't pray it for me.
36:08Oh, Lord,
36:10I'm not too proud to tell you
36:13I've got to have you more than I've ever needed you before in my
36:17life.
36:18And I'm here to tell you
36:21I'm going to move, Lord, so you can move.
36:25I'm going to call out so you can respond.
36:30I'm going to hope in you."