June 7, 2026
Hope for the Thirsty
Pastor Ricky Smith

Sermon Notes

Real faith does not run from the dark; it brings God into the dark.

Psalm 42
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. 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. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. 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.

I. The Honest Cry – Bring Your Thirst to God
II. The Honest Fight – Preach Hope to Your Own Soul
III. The Honest Wait -Trust the God Who Has Not Forgotten You

The thirst you feel in your soul is not random. It is not a malfunction. It is the echo of the image of God in you.

Next Steps

• I confess my sin and turn to Jesus as King for the first time.
• I choose to be intentional and walk with others through dark times.
• I commit to journal moments God showed up in my life.

Deep Dive

1. Read Romans 5:3-5 together. Paul says that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. How have you seen that progression in your own life or in the life of someone you know?
2. How can the deepest pain in your life actually drive you toward God rather than away from Him? What makes that counterintuitive move possible?
3. Verse 8 says, “By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me.” Where have you seen God give sustaining grace even before changing the circumstance?

Springboard

1. When you think about the storms you have walked through in your own life, what did you tend to run to first for refuge?
2. What does that reveal about what you actually trust most?
3. Read Isaiah 25:4. How does this passage expand your understanding of God as refuge?