Well, good morning. So I'd like to start this morning with a couple quick tips from me to you on how to tell a good lie. I'm just trying to give like, you know, practical tips. Trying to keep this something you can, you know, learn a life skill. So, no, I'm kidding, obviously. Please, no one lie. I'm sure there's several Bible verses that discourage that kind of thing. But if you were gonna lie, here's how you should do it. Um I'm not a particularly polished liar, but I have some practice in college. Um as as background, I grew up in in lots of choirs uh as a musician, and probably from like second grade all the way through college and even uh a few years beyond that, I was always in some kind of choir that would rehearse at least uh once a week. And so, you know, you'd practice all year and then you'd you'd go on tour for the summer. So basically, um my childhood was like a big long episode of glee, you know, a TV show. Actually, it wasn't at all like that. That was a lie. I'm sorry. Um come to think of it, maybe I'm actually a pretty good liar. So uh you seem to buy right into that. So you'd practice all year, and then for a week or two in the summer, you'd go on tour, get a tour bus, and go all around the nation, and you'd sing at a different church, different city each night. So growing up in like the 80s or 90s, believe it or not, it was not uncommon that after you give a concert in the church, that people in the church would take a couple kids home and you could stay in the house. And you'd come back the next day, would save you having to uh you know buy a hotel room for a hundred different people. So it was kind of like a lottery, you never know what you were gonna get. Some nights would be really fun, and you know, you got like fun people, professional chef with a game room and silk sheets. And other nights it would be, you know, a little more uncomfortable, like culture shock. You guys are weird, we're kind of tired, we're going right right to bed. So the tradition was the next morning when everybody comes back to uh the church and you get back on the tour bus and you're about ready to go to the next town, that you'd take turns, everybody would come to the front of the bus and you'd get on that like loudspeaker CB thing, and you'd tell everybody about the night that you had, your your adventure. So not everybody would do this, but if you had a particularly you know adventurous night, you would want to share your story. So, fast forward to my college years, I was good friends with this one guy. Uh we would frequently be roommates, and we got tired of not having particularly good stories to tell. So the simple solution to this uh was just to lie. So we always confessed it at the end, and it was all in good fun, and uh they were Christians, they had to forgive us, no big deal. So here's what we learned. If you want to tell a good lie, three good tips you gotta keep in mind. Number one is you want to start with what's real, actually. You want to start with uh some real details and you know, kind of pull them in and gain some trust that way. And then when you make that pivot, you know, to that thing that's you know like untrue, then you actually want to go big with that. It's not what you would think. White lies make for boring stories. So go big. It's actually easier to sell a big lie than a small one. And then finally, the third tip is uh don't do it alone. You know, best to have an accomplice. So we would do this together and go to the and kind of reinforce one another, and I would start, and then he'd grab the microphone from me and embellish something else, and we kind of improv it and maybe only argue over really small things, and that helped to sell it. And so, you know, an example might be uh, you know, our evening started simple enough, you know, this guy in his late 40s, he threw our luggage into the back, you know, his trunk of his late model White Buick, and we're making small talk travel traveling down the road, and that part would be true, and then all of a sudden, this guy gets a call on this radio thing, and I'm sitting in the passenger seat, and he reaches into the glove box, pulls out this siren, slaps it on the hood, and we're in hot pursuit. And everybody else on the bus would be like, clearly your evening was more exciting than mine, you know? And so to summarize, you want to start with what's real, give some details, suck them in, and then when you make the turn and go for the lie, go big, and then finally don't do it alone. You know, have an accomplice. But it was all in good fun, you know, everybody enjoyed being tricked because it only lasted for a moment. But this morning we're gonna look at a different kind of lie. There are other lies that we experience in life that uh are not so funny, and the damage that these lies do, it lasts for decades. And these lies can begin with some truth. And so it's easy to be sucked in, but the actual lie is really big. I mean, it's audacious, it's a big leap. But even if a few people start to repeat that lie, then it's it's reinforced, it's difficult to challenge. So the big lie that we're gonna look at this morning is that you've been abandoned by God. Or if he hasn't abandoned you, he's the kind of guy that's just looking for an excuse to do that. And if that's the way you feel this morning, then please know that's a lie. And God the Father loves you, he's not scared away, and he's the one actually that is pursuing you. He's the one that's crying out, where are you? And what we're gonna see this morning is that Jesus is a tremendous example for us of how we should cry out to God in those moments when we feel abandoned. So the message series is on famous questions by Jesus. Um I've seen various lists here. I think there's probably about 135 different questions that Jesus asked in the Gospels. So, among all 135 questions, the one we're gonna look at this morning is probably the most emotionally charged question. It's gut-wrenching. And this is a question not that Jesus asked his followers, it's not a question that Jesus asked anybody in the crowd following him, it's not even a question that Jesus asked any of us. This is a question that Jesus asked directly to his father while he's hanging on the cross. Jesus asked this question, and it's in a couple Gospels, it's in Matthew and Mark. We're gonna look at it in uh in Matthew. So to set the scene, Jesus is hanging on the cross, and it's so difficult for him to speak, and there's this jeering mob that surrounds him, and they're accusing him of being abandoned by God. God doesn't love you anymore. If he did, he would rescue you. And it's at this moment that Jesus speaks. So let's start in Matthew 27, verse 41. The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. He saved others, they scoffed, but he can't save himself. So he's the king of Israel, is he? Well, let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him. He trusted God, so let God rescue him now, if he wants him. For he said, I'm the Son of God. And even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way. At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. At about three o'clock, Jesus called out in a loud voice, Eli Eli, Lima Sabak Thani, which means, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling out for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. But the rest said, Wait, let's see whether Elijah comes to save him. So I know. Fun topic, right? Yay. Just imagine how I felt when God said, This is a question you need to talk about. But please fight that urge just this morning to kind of emotionally check out. Because everything that Jesus says is a gift. Like we talked about a few weeks ago, every word is a decision. So Jesus is hanging on the cross. He is, his heart is literally about to burst. His lungs are, it's hard for them to work, to breathe, much less find the energy to speak. And this accusation of the crowd, but yet he musters some of the last ounces of his physical energy so he might say these words. He only said seven sentences on the cross across all the gospels. So what's going on here with this really difficult question? And I love that Jesus asks real questions. You know, Jesus is not just the guy that has all the answers, although he is. Jesus is also the one that knows how to ask the right questions. So before I get into this too much detail, let me commend a good book for you. If you want to uh dig a little deeper, this is the uh Beyond an Angry God by Steve McVee. Uh it's the same, or McVeigh, the same uh book from the conference that was held at his hands a few weeks ago. He actually has a chapter in the book uh dedicated to this sentence by Jesus. And he says it so well, so much more detail than I can get into this morning. But the logic, the way this normally goes, uh, you maybe have heard this, would be, okay, first of all, Jesus said this, so it must be true, which you can't argue with that, certainly. And then so God abandoned Jesus, question mark, and that's where we struggle. And then, so then I guess maybe there's another verse in the Bible that might explain that. And so it's at that point that sometimes I think we too quickly will go to a verse kind of like Habakkuk 113 is often given. And in that verse, it starts like this uh Habakkuk is talking to God, and he says, Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So the kind of the simple version of this, like a lot, the logic a lot of people have, is that Jesus is taking the sin of the world on himself at the cross. And at that moment, God the Father's eyes are too pure, and so he has to turn away, you know, in some mysterious fashion. And that turning, Jesus feels. And so that's why he makes this cry. And so this morning it's not at all my intention to debate, you know, like theories of the atonement and all that stuff. Uh as fun as that might be. But but I only want to mention that one verse because I actually want to talk about Habakkuk as the opposite example. And even if you read that one verse, the full verse, that's just the first half of the verse, then it almost says the exact opposite. The full verse there in Habakkuk 113 says, Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, you cannot tolerate wrongdoing, but why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? So there's more to the story. This is mystery and this is tricky. Habakkuk is complaining before God. He's saying, hold it. This is not who you are, right? You can't do this. Let me tell you what you can't do. And why are you even allowing these people to exist? In his case, it's the Babylonians. And you need to act. God, you need to show up. The whole book of Habakkuk, it's a really short book, quick read, just a few chapters. And it's basically alternating stanzas between Habakkuk complains, God responds, Habakkuk complains, God responds. And finally, in the end, Habakkuk is humbled before God. And he says, I will wait for your salvation. Because when God responds, he says, You've got to be patient. There is a plan, and I am at work, but it's not something that you can see right now. And eventually that's where Habakkuk ends up. And he says, I'm going to wait on the salvation of my God. And at the very end of Habakkuk, kind of in parentheses for us in English, it says that this entire book is to be read and sung as a prayer, accompanied by string instruments. So it kind of starts like a song of complaint, but in the end, it's revealed to actually be this beautiful song. Even the complaining part is a beautiful song. And that's the mystery. And the Bible's full of these songs of complaintslash hope and joy. And Psalms is full of them too. And maybe the most famous of these is what we're going to look at this morning. It's a psalm, Psalms 22, and it was written by King David. And so in this psalm, it has the same kind of structure. King David is struggling before God. What are you doing? And he'll do that for a couple verses, but then on the other hand, he's remembering God's faithfulness. And so it quickly becomes this song of hope in his affliction. So you can see if we go to Psalm 22, let's see how this starts. Now, understand also, in Jesus' day, they had not yet gone through like the Old Testament and divided it up into chapters and given each a number. And, you know, and then divided the verses out. So if you are quoting a psalm, what was common was you would quote the first verse of the psalm and treat it like a title. And then everybody would know which one you were talking about. And so notice how Psalm 22, first couple verses, begin. Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief. So I think, and this is just me, and I realize the whole rest of the message is premised on this, I think Jesus is quoting this verse exactly, because he does it exactly. It's the only time, actually, in any of the four Gospels that Jesus does not call his father father in a very personal, direct way. He says, My God, my God. I think because he's exactly quoting this verse. It's difficult for him to speak. This is maybe the only sentence he can muster to make a response to this accusation. And so he exactly quotes this to point us to the entire chapter. He's saying, Yes, I do feel this. I feel abandoned and I'm struggling. I feel crushed, but I'm in good company. And he's remembering this psalm, and it's an encouragement to him. And that psalm, it's got this back and forth in it. So if we're going to look at the psalm, you've got to look at both sides. And even the very next verse there in Psalm 22, already it moves to hearing God's faithfulness. Starting in verse 3. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. Our ancestors trusted in you, and you rescued them. So it's back and forth. Psalms 22 is actually a cry for the presence of God, if you read it on as a whole. It starts as a complaint, and then it's revealed to be actually a song of hope. And it was also originally written to be sung. David says it's supposed to be sung to the tune of Doe of the Morning. So musically, you have to imagine all these verses this morning sung to some song about a deer, you know, like bounding over the mountains, like Song of Solomon. So this is a song of hope. In verse 11, it says, Do not stay so far from me, for trouble is near, and no one else can help me. So this is the afflicted one, Jesus, crying out to God. And then in verse 19, O Lord, do not stay far away. You are my strength. Come quickly to my aid. So Psalm 22, especially if you keep reading in that chapter, it's all about Jesus. It is uncanny. Which is amazing because that Psalm was written a thousand years before Jesus ever walked the earth. And it was written a thousand years before Jesus, crucifixion was not even a normal method of execution, didn't even exist as far as we know historically. But yet, look at some of the details given in the middle of Psalms 22, maybe to explain why Jesus would be remembering this psalm while he's on the cross. Starting in verse 7. Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads, saying, Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him. So a thousand years even before, the psalm anticipated the accusation of the crowd. And then starting in verse 16, My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs, an evil gang closes in on me. They've pierced my hands and feet. Think how strange that sounded for a thousand years until it exactly happened. I can count all my bones, my enemies stare at me and gloat. They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing. Which is exactly what happened at the cross. So Jesus is remembering this. And so we do this when we talk. Sometimes we say several things all at once. You ever had one of those emotionally charged conversations with your kids? And they make some big accusation, and you just don't love me, and you care, and you're just trying to make me uh and you say, you know what? I'm not really going to get into this. I'm not in a frame of mind to do that right now. But I will say this. And you just maybe give them a sentence for if you really have ears to hear, maybe a while from now, you'll remember this. So I hear this as like one of those statements by Jesus. He's saying at the same time, yes, I feel abandoned and I feel crushed, and this is so difficult. But I'm also remembering this psalm is taking place right now before your eyes. And this is happening. And I'm remembering by faith how good my God is. And I serve a God who comes to the rescue. So Jesus knows what he's doing. This is the song that's on his mind while he takes the sin of the world on himself and puts it to death forever. You are my God. So the question is: what's the Father's response in all this? So if we look at it from the perspective of Psalm 22, as an interesting detail that's given in verse 23 in Psalm 22. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, honor him. Revere him, all you descendants of Israel, for he, God, has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one. He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help. So this is a mystery what's going on on the cross. But the trick is, when you look at the cross, we can't forget Christmas and the incarnation while we look at the cross. This is a mystery, and I don't want to try to act like I understand this better than I do, but yet, 2 Corinthians 5.19 says, in Christ, God was in Christ. The Father was in Christ at the cross, reconciling the world to himself. So how does that work? God feels everything that Jesus is going through, and he feels crushed and abandoned, and he says, like King David, like this psalm. And even in that, at that moment when the sins of the world are on Jesus and he's putting them to death forever, he has every reason in the world to not speak. And he could have just stayed silent and still died for the sins of the world, but yet he says, I want to speak. And he cries out and points us to this psalm. My God, my God. That's the cry of faith. But that's not our default move, is it? That's not our default move that when we feel absolutely crushed and abandoned, that we turn and cry out to God because you're my God in faith. Our default move is the other way. We want to run away from God. We make the assumption that we've scared him away. And he doesn't want anything to do with me. But that's the move that we've been making from the beginning of time, all the way back from the fall in the garden. If you go back to Genesis 3, this is right after the fall. And let's look at Adam and Eve's response. When the cooled evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. And then the Lord God called to the man, Where are you? So that's what we're familiar with. We all know that move. Oh, what I've done, and we're the ones doing the hiding, not God. God's the one, he knows what they've done, but yet he still is having that evening walk in the garden. And Habakkuk's like, You can't do that. You can't take your walk. You don't know what they've done. But yet, God, he comes pursuing us, and he's the one calling out, Where are you? But we want to hide. Right before Jesus was crucified, he told his followers, he said in John 16, Jesus answered them, Do you finally believe? In fact, you're about to make a run for it, saving your own skins and abandoning me. But I'm not abandoned. The Father is with me. I've told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world, you will continue to experience difficulties, but take heart. I've conquered the world. So whatever's going on here in this statement, Jesus, I believe, is deeply assured that his Father is going to come to the rescue. Jesus knows he really has to die because the sin of the world is on him and it must be put to death forever. My sin and your sin, not his. He didn't have any. And that, I'm sure, felt like the worst possible death. But even in that, Jesus cries out by faith, even regardless of how I'm feeling right now, you are my God, my God. And I trust you, you have to come to my rescue because I have no other hope. The only thing Jesus complains about, he doesn't complain about being nailed to a tree, or almost all of his friends abandoning him, or the mocking crowd, he complains before God. And he takes that turn and pivot and says, You're my only hope. You come to my rescue because death is here. And we serve the God that shows up. And Easter's the proof of that. Jesus says, You're my God, and he comes to the rescue. It's ironic, I think, that those that are around the cross, they misunderstood what Jesus said as being a cry for Elijah. He says, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabak Thani. I no idea if I'm saying that right. But that first part, Eli, Eli, my God, my God, they thought, well, maybe he's crying out for Elijah. And I think they're mocking him, actually. But Elijah, if you remember, he's the Old Testament prophet of fire. He's the guy that in 2 Kings he assembles all the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mount Carmel, and he sets up two altars. He says, Let's have a contest. You set up your altar, and I'll set up a second altar to my God, the God of Israel, and you guys pray all morning and have your God call down fire. And so they do that for hours, and they get nothing. And then Elijah prays, and this is what Elijah prays to his God. This is uh, or 1 Kings 18, 37. Says, O Lord, answer me. Answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have brought them back to yourself. That's the move of God. He brings us back to himself. And we're like Habakkuk, and we say, No, you're not authorized to do that. You don't know what I've done. And he says, There is a plan. You gotta wait. Jesus is the plan and the cross. So they misunderstand, they're mocking him because there's this expectation in Israel that Elijah is gonna come first and he's gonna announce the Messiah. That was in the Old Testament. But they're looking for this prophet of fire. You know, Elijah's the one that ascends into heaven in a chariot of fire. So they want Elijah to come back and call down fire on all their enemies and like burn up Rome and everybody else. And since John the Baptist doesn't do that precisely, they missed that John the Baptist fulfills that in Elijah. So they say, okay, well, this is this should be fun. I guess he's calling out to Elijah. If Elijah comes and rescues him, then I guess we'll all probably get burned up, but you know, ha ha ha. But they miss it because Jesus is not crying out for Elijah. Jesus is crying out like Elijah. He's crying out to the God of Elijah. God, you need to show up. You need to show up on Easter. You need to show up now in my hurt. Let the God who shows up, let him be God. That's what Elijah boldly cries out by faith. And Jesus does the same. David says, I feel crushed and abandoned, and feels like you're a million miles away. But as king, this is my place to stand before you and know you are my God. Do not be a stranger. Let the God who shows up. You know, some people I've read, they believe that as Jesus, as he shouts this first verse of the psalm, that he continued praying through it there on the cross. And we're totally guessing at that. Obviously, we don't know that. But it would be in character for Jesus to do that. And it was in character for him to use Scripture in the face of temptation. And right in the middle of Psalm 22, it talks about the afflicted one being thirsty. And that's one of the other seven things Jesus said on the cross. He said, I thirst. So that's kind of right in script. But it's also, I think, most interesting how Psalm 22 ends. The last few verses, it says, All the rich of the earth will feast and worship. All who go down to the dust will kneel before him. Those who cannot keep themselves alive, posterity will serve him, future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn, He has done it. And that last phrase, He has done it, if I understand this right, in the Hebrew, that's actually just one word. He has done it. And it can be translated a couple different ways. It can be either He has done it, God has done it, or it is finished. And that happens to be the last thing that Jesus says right before he dies for the sin of the world. It is finished. He has done it. This song has been completed. And that's the loving God that we serve. I know this is mystery, but it's that move that we want to honor this morning. That move of even when you feel crushed and abandoned and hope is lost, and I feel like at death's door, Jesus is the model for us. That we turn by faith and say, My God, my God, do not be a stranger. And we pray, like in the spirit of Psalm 22, King David, you need to come to my rescue. That bold cry, like Elijah did, Jesus inspired that in the king and in the prophet. Jesus says, God, come to my rescue. But that's not the move that we're used to. We're used to hiding in shame and thinking we're doing God a favor for that. Because we know what we've done. But he already knows. And he says, I love you and I want you to come before me. Jesus is our model on how to cry out boldly to God. Worship team, if you want to start coming back up. Jesus is our model on how to really boldly speak truth in the face of that serious accusation that you've been abandoned by God. Three quick tips I think Jesus would give us on how to speak truth boldly by faith. The first one is, and these might sound familiar, is you need to plant yourself in what's real. What's real, I really do feel crushed, God. I feel abandoned and I feel the weight of this, and that's where you are. It's okay. God encourages us to talk to Him like that. But then as you make that turn towards what's true, then by faith, you gotta go big. I mean, don't just speak it like Jesus. You shout it out. You are my God, my God. And you need to not be a stranger because you are my only hope. My hope is in you. And then finally, the third tip: don't do it alone. You find as many people as you can to sing to God and you cry out before Him. And don't run away from other people who feel like they're abandoned and they're struggling and are crushed. You love them in the same bold way that God has loved you and embraced you back to Himself. Stand up, we're gonna sing one more song. And I want to pray for us before we sing. And I want to pray us through the lyrics of this tune we're about to sing, because I think it summarizes really well the hope that we have in Him. Let's pray. Jesus, our hope is in you. Our every hope is in you. You are because of you, we are steadfast and not moved. We are anchored and we are never shaken. You bring hope to the hopeless. You share your home, God, with us, the orphans. You are joy. Let hope arise this morning, God, because you rose. Let hope rise up in us. You're the God that shows up. In the name of Jesus. Amen.