How God's People Respond to Crisis

Happy Father's Day to all the dads in the room. Let me also say welcome to anybody that might be joining us online, weekend and week out. There are church on the movers who are traveling, or maybe some who can't be here this weekend for whatever reason. Welcome to you as well. And then also, I wanna say welcome to our men who are watching this at Dick Conner Correctional Facility as well as our ladies who are part of our church at Eddie Warrior. Can we put our hands together and welcome them this weekend? Glad to have you all. We are in part three of our summer series. We're just calling it Summer in the Psalms. We are teaching selected psalms. And this week, we're gonna be looking at Psalm 46. And we don't always do this, but I kinda started this last week. And what the heck, let's continue it. Would you stand? We're going to read God's word out loud together. We're gonna read all of Psalm 46. It's 11 verses. We'll put it on the screen. And you can say it out loud with me as we read the word of the Lord together this morning. Here we go.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah. This is the word of the Lord we all said. Thanks be to God, you may be seated.

What do you do when you don't know what to do? Where do you turn when life is just too much? When what you thought would never happen happens? When you get that diagnosis? When you get laid off from that job? When the relationship that you had put so much hope and faith into seems to be crumbling before your eyes? What do you do when the worst happens? Where do you turn? That's what Psalm 46 points us to. It gives us the answer for how God's people respond in a crisis. If you have your Bible open, you'll notice that there are three stanzas, three sections in Psalm 46. I'm gonna take a point from each section and we're gonna talk about that. How do God's people respond? How did these people respond in a time of distress, worry, fear, anxiety, grief, pain? How do they respond? That's what we wanna look at this morning. The first is this. We see that they consider their present circumstance in the light of God's promise and not the other way around. So I want you to notice how the Psalm is structured. The Psalm begins with a declaration of God's faithfulness. Look at it, verse one. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

This is the truth about God. This is who he is. And I love that this is where the psalmist begins because this is how God's people should respond to adversity. You don't begin with your circumstance. You don't begin with your situation. You don't begin with the diagnosis, however bleak it may be. You begin with a declaration of who God is. You remind yourself who he is. You view your situation through God's faithfulness. You do not view God's faithfulness through your situation. That's what we see here. They begin with a declaration of God's faithfulness. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. I love this phrase here, a very present help. The picture is of a God who stands at the ready to intervene in your situation. And I want you to notice how this is worded. It begins with a declaration of God's faithfulness and then the response, therefore we will not fear though the earth give way. In other words, we're responding to the earth giving way, the mountains being moved into the heart of the sea, the waters roaring. and foaming, the mountains trembling at the swelling of the waters, we respond to that through the lens of God's faithfulness, not the other way around. Now many scholars believe that this psalm was written in the time of 2 Kings chapters

18 and 19. We can't say that for sure, but there's some good guess that goes on there, some educated guess if you will. What happens in 2 Kings 18 and 19, and if you're not familiar with it, I would encourage you to go back and read it. It reads like a movie script. I wish they would make a movie of 2 Kings 18 and 19. It tells the story of King Hezekiah, one of the few faithful good kings of Judah. And during King Hezekiah's reigns, the Assyrians come to take Jerusalem. They put it under siege. Now in the ancient world, it happened. Cities would come under siege. You can imagine cities were walled and the armies would show up around, surround the city and try to work their way into the city. It's a horrible thing, a horrifying thing. In fact, I can't think of sort of any modern equivalent to what these ancient people faced, having a city under siege. But it was particularly bad if your city was under siege by the Assyrians. Because the Assyrians were known to be a particularly brutal and violent people. And they used their violence strategically. They would make threats to try to play mind games with you. They used fear like a weapon. And that's what you see if you read 2 Kings 18 and 19. You see the army of the Assyrians show up to surround Jerusalem. And then there's this character, the Rabshakeh is what he's called. He's given no name, but he's given a title. We don't even know what that word means, but we can kind of guess that it means something like an emissary, someone who kind of comes to negotiate. Do you remember in the Avengers movies, the grandma, I think he's called, shows up to say, hey, Thanos is coming and he's going to come and take over your planet.

That's kind of what this Rabshakeh was coming to do. Hey, Sennacherib is coming and he's coming to take over your city. Surrender now. Resistance is futile. That's essentially what he came to say. He would yell out to the men on the city walls, and he would tell of all the other cities that they had conquered, the walled cities with their gods, and how their people had prayed to their gods and their gods did not save them. We took this city, and we took this city, and we took this city, and none of their gods showed up. What he's doing is he's trying to strike fear into the hearts of the men defending the wall, and it worked. Eliakim, who was on the wall defending the city, yelled down on behalf of King Hezekiah. He was the one who would speak to the Rabshakeh. He yells down and he says to him, hey, let's continue this conversation, if you would, in Aramaic. See, they were speaking in Hebrew. The Rabshakeh was speaking in Hebrew. This was the native language of the people of Judah, and he wanted to have the conversation in Aramaic so that the men on the wall couldn't hear it. And I want you to notice this one verse, how the Rabshakeh responds. He says to them, has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, look at this, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine. He's trying to put a picture in their minds of the worst case scenario. Friends, this is how the enemy works. When you find yourself in distress, when you find yourself in a place that it feels like the bottom has dropped out of your world, it is easy for your mind to go to the worst case scenario, to imagine. The enemy wants to prey on your imagination.

He wants to get you to imagine things as they could be, how terrible, how awful, how bad it could be. How do we respond in these moments? We respond like Hezekiah responded. Twice, he turns to the Lord. First, he goes to the prophet Isaiah, then in 2 Kings 19 verse 14 it says this, Hezekiah received a letter from the hand of the messenger, so they sent a letter of threat and a demand of surrender to Hezekiah, basically surrender or else. He reads the letter and look what he does, he goes up to the house of the Lord and he spreads the letter before the Lord. He's taking his trouble to God. God, only you can do something about this and he begins to pray, oh Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made the heavens and the earth. First thing I want you to notice is, notice how he's praying. He's reminding himself of who his God is. Notice all of this. This is a description about God. You are the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim. You are the God. You alone of all the kingdoms. He's reminding himself of who God is. God hasn't forgotten who he is. God knows who he is. Who's forgotten? We do. We have to be reminded of who is on our side. Who exactly it is we belong to. That's how Psalm 46 begins.

Who is God? Oh yeah, he's my refuge and my strength. A very present help in trouble. You have to remind yourself of that. And not just once. Again and again and again and again. Because our minds have a tendency, do they not? Our fears have a tendency to turn to the worst case scenario. So what do you do? You continually remind yourself of who your God is. Verse 16. Incline your ear, oh Lord. And hear, open your eyes, oh Lord, and see. And hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. You know what I love? Is the threats against God's people here in 2 Kings 18 and 19, God takes personally. God takes your situation personally. That's the appeal that Hezekiah is making. Verse 17. Truly, oh Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands. He's not burying his head in the sand. He's not acting as if this enemy is nothing or as if they've accomplished nothing. He's acknowledging what lays before him. They've cast their gods into the fire. But notice this. But they were not gods, but the work of men's hands.

In other words, all of the other gods of all of these other cities could not deliver. But that was only because they were the work of men's hands. But that's not how you are. He continues, now, oh Lord, God save us, please, from His hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, oh Lord, are God alone. He takes his situation first to the Lord, reminds himself who his God is, who he serves and who he belongs to. And when you're in a place, when you've done all you can do, when all the options have been tried and exhausted and there's nowhere left to turn, when the bottom falls out of your world, when your kind of, I don't know, situational equilibrium is thrown so far off course, when exactly what the psalm describes, when it feels like the mountains have been thrown into the sea, the thing that you never thought would be moved has been moved, the thing that you never thought could happen has happened. When you get that phone call, when the diagnosis comes, when the worst happens and you don't know where to turn, what do you do? You turn to the Lord. All you can do is cling to him, his character, his promise, his faithfulness, his goodness. There are times in life,

and if you haven't lived long enough to experience it, you will. In this world, you will have trouble. When you find yourself in trouble, what do you do? You take heart in your connection and relationship to the Lord, his faithfulness to you. I got a phone call this last week, maybe one of the most meaningful phone calls of my life. My dad called me. He was calling to let me know that my son, Francis, had been working with him out at the ranch. And he was calling to just brag on Fran, to tell me how good of a job. I mean, he went on and on. When he did such an amazing job, he did everything that we asked him to do. He went above and beyond, his attention to detail. I mean, he just kept bragging on Fran. He was blown away at the job that Fran had done, working with him. And he was just ecstatic. Now, maybe you might think, yeah, that's nice. I mean, you know, proud grandpa. I get it, and it does, it feels good. But there's so much more. What makes it meaningful is when you know the rest of the story. Fran, somewhere around 13, 14 years old, became increasingly difficult for Heather and I to raise, to get through to.

And we could tell, somewhere in there, something just kind of went off. It wasn't like he was just in full-blown rebellion, but also, it felt like we couldn't get through. And increasingly, the problems got worse, and worse, and worse. We had suspicions about what might be going on, but we didn't have any proof, any evidence. Of course, you're wrestling internally with all of your emotions, like I don't wanna believe the worst about my son, but things are happening that seem strange. We couldn't get him to show up for many things. In fact, he would have trouble showing up for work, forget showing up on time. How about just showing up at all? And you ask yourself the question, as a parent, you know, it's like, is he ever gonna get it together? I mean, we're 18, 19, 20, like, is. Is this ever going to turn? I can remember sitting down with him and having conversations, like pouring my heart out to him, trying to get him to like, you know, step up, and hey, it's time to kind of grow up a little bit and mature and make different choices. And it just felt like my words, I don't know if you've ever been there as a mom or dad, but your words are just like hitting a brick wall, it's not getting through. And it was frustrating, like there were so many days

Heather and I would just, we would feel at a loss. Like, what are we doing? What can we do? What else can we do? And all you could do in that time is just turn to the Lord. All we could do is just pray, Lord, he's in your hands. Like, there were so many difficult conversations and so many difficult, you know, like thoughts that would go through your mind. And what we didn't know at the time that we would find out later, a different phone call would show up one day when we would find out exactly what had been going on. He had been using drugs for quite some time. And I remember Heather and I driving out to try to find him where he was that day. Not knowing, he hadn't been responding, I probably called him 50 times, just trying to get ahold of him. Where are you? His boss had called, he's not here. Where is he? We're looking for him. And we're driving out there uncertain of what exactly we're going to find. It's the most terrifying, I think, situation that you could probably be in as a parent. And in that season, I remember we would sit with pastors, we would sit with people that kind of had gone ahead of us, like in life, had been through similar things,

and they would say to us, they would encourage us, it's gonna be all right. The Lord is not done with Fran. He will turn. Just hold on to that promise. You've deposited things in him. The Lord will, I'm telling you, and they would just encourage us, and they would tell us stories about their sons or their daughters who'd come back to faith, and all that God had done. And in the moment that you'd hear that, it'd be like you wanted to believe, and kind of against hope, you're believing that that's true, but it didn't feel true in the moment. And so when I got this phone call this week that my son had shown up on time, that my son had done everything he was supposed to do, and this is not just like a one-time thing, right? Like Fran has, can I just like praise report? Fran's been sober for three and a half years. He's married, he's doing really good. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's,

he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's. But like, because of the grace of God's word, because of the love of God and of the pictures that we serve by faith we have we've been faithful to our family and faithful to my son. When it seems so dark that we had none else

and no one else to turn to. All we could do was cry out to the Lord and say, there's a place where there's nothing else for you to do but to turn to the Lord. And I am so grateful that I have him to turn to when I don't know what else to do. He can be my help. He can be my strength. He can be my refuge. I can entrust the deepest fears of my heart and my greatest pain and my biggest questions and my confusion to the one who can actually do something about it. The key though has to be your first consideration. In other words, rather than letting your mind and your emotions go on tilt when life turns sideways, rather than letting your imagination, and some of you, you need to learn how to take hold of your thoughts. You cannot let your mind and your emotions go where they want to go. You have to speak to yourself. I'll say it another way. You have to preach to yourself. To remind yourself, God is my refuge and my strength. A very present help. You may have to say it a thousand times in a day. So what?

Keep saying it. Remind yourself who your God is. This is what Abraham did. Paul writes about this. In Romans chapter four, look at what he says. In hope, Abraham believed against hope. In other words, when the circumstance seemed hopeless, he believed in hope that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, promised by God, so shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered the weakness of God. of his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. I love this, he considered Sarah's womb, he considered his own weak body, but more than that, look, he considered God's promise. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith and gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. What did Abraham do? He viewed his situation through the lens of God's faithfulness. He did not view God's faithfulness through the lens of his situation.

Circumstances come, circumstances go. God remains faithful, God remains the same. You don't allow your circumstances to dictate your feelings and confidence in God. It should be the other way around. I let my confidence in God dictate how I'm going to respond to these circumstances. We start with a declaration of who God is, our refuge and strength in a time of trouble. Number two, what we see is that they are nourished from within. That's what we see in the city. Look at verse four, it says this. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The picture here is of a city, and it was indeed a city under siege, the city of Jerusalem under siege, the holy habitation of the Most High. That's how the ancient Jews thought about Jerusalem. God lives in the midst of our city. They had a temple, the Holy of Holies. The very presence of God dwells here. That's how they saw themselves. So this would, on the surface, seem to be a picture of Jerusalem, God dwelling with his people.

There's only one problem. There is no, and there never has been, a river that runs through the city of Jerusalem. It was a real advantage for an ancient city to have a river in it, because a river is a source of life. It brings water. The water supply would come in through the river. Jerusalem's water supply came from a nearby spring, the spring of Gihon, and it made Jerusalem particularly vulnerable to siege because the water supply was outside the city gates. In fact, later, you can read, in fact, you could go to Jerusalem today and tour Hezekiah's tunnel. It was built so that the water could flow underground in a protected way and nourish the city from within, but their water source was outside the city, but here, what's being described is a city who has a stream of water that flows that makes glad this city of God. Now, the city of God is kind of imagery that gets used all through the scripture to describe God's people, God's dwelling place. In fact, in a kind of eschatological way, that just sort of means at the end of time. That's the picture of the city of God, the bride of Christ, the church, God dwelling with his people, and there being a river of life.

You can read in Revelation that flows through the midst of that city, that people, and this has both, I think, allusions to what was happening in this day and this time when this psalm was written, but also the psalms are given figurative language. Speaking of a spiritual reality, the spiritual reality here is God's withness, God being with them. Notice the emphasis on how God dwells with them, the city of God, the habitation of the most high, God is in the midst of her. God will help her when the morning dawns. In fact, here in verse seven, we get this declaration that the Lord of hosts is with us. The imagery of a river and the withness of God. Now I want you to hold onto that as we kind of fast forward or turn forward to the New Testament. When Jesus would cry out in John chapter seven, it says on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out and he said this. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the scripture has said, look at this, this is the promise, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And then in verse 39, John gives us the interpretation of what this statement means. Now this he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive.

Well, this is what happened on the day of Pentecost. Do you remember what happens on the day of Pentecost? Jesus had promised that the helper, the comforter, will come, wait in the city of Jerusalem until. he comes. And so on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit descends, the believers are filled with the Spirit, and the church is launched into being. And Peter gets up and he begins to preach. And as he begins to preach and declare Jesus, he makes this promise. He says, for the promise of the Spirit is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. See, in the Old Testament age, God dwelled with a specific people. And there was a geographic location where you would have to go to find him. He was in Jerusalem in that temple. But do you remember what happened when Christ died on the cross? It says the veil of the temple was torn in two. It's a symbol of the very presence of God leaving that holy of holies and would come to indwell you and me, believers in Christ. Scripture says in the New Testament, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So the picture that we have in the New Testament is this idea of God dwelling in and with us. This is the role and function of the Holy Spirit. Now friends, I cannot overstate the power of what it is and the significance of having the Spirit in you in times of stress, anxiety, turmoil, trouble, grief, pain, anger, frustration. We have the Spirit of God within us. And I want to remind you of that because I think so often we forget that the Spirit of the living God, the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, lives in you if you are in Christ. And you might say, okay, I hear you. It's nice and it sounds like a lot of church speak and a lot of spiritual kind of mumbo jumbo. How does that matter? What does that mean for me? Let me give you three tangible, practical realities that that means for you when you're in a difficult place. Number one, it means this. You are not alone. You are not alone in your pain. Here's what I've noticed. Pain is a lonely place. That's why we say misery loves company. Because often when you're hurting, when you're in grief, it feels lonely like no one can understand what you're going through. And that's so often the truth because we do. We feel this tangle of emotions. We want someone to understand us, but no one can really see what's happening in our heart. And I don't know if you're like this, but sometimes we get frustrated that other people can't understand what we're going through and don't respond in the way that we would like. And we get frustrated with their sort of clumsy

attempts to bring comfort to us. I remember years ago, we lost a team member here at the church, a dear friend of mine, Andrew Stone. Some of you remember Andrew. He headed up our production department and I worked closely with him for a decade. I loved Andrew, a dear friend. He collapsed on the job here at work. I got the phone call. Heather and I went quickly to the hospital. When we got there, the team was gathered in the little room. His wife was there. We were waiting to hear the report. Doctors came in and gave us the worst news that Andrew had passed. Of course, all of the emotions, the grief just begins to come out of this group of people that loved him so much. And I watched Heather do what Heather does. If you don't know my wife, she's amazing at just loving people who are hurting. And she's going around the room and just giving hugs and ministering to people. And as we were there for a while, just loving on that team and caring for them as best we could. Finally, we went home. At this point, honestly, I can say like I wasn't feeling a whole lot. It's not that I didn't care about Andrew. It's just that the emotions just weren't there yet. When I went home, it was my job to let the staff know. I had to write a message and just let everybody know, hey, here's what's happened. So I sit down at my computer in my office. I closed the door. I turned on some music. And I began writing, trying to put words to both who Andrew was and what he meant to us and explain the loss and what had happened. And it was then I just started feeling so much. And I was hurting. Heather was coming in and out of my office. I don't even honestly know what for. She was coming through there to grab something or need something. And I just remember feeling so mad, frustrated, because she didn't recognize that I was hurting. Everybody else got a hug. Where's my hug? Sounds petty, but that's how it feels when you're in pain. No one understands. No one gets it. You don't see. what I'm going through. Pain is a lonely place. Grief can be a lonely place. Can I remind you, you are not alone in your pain? The very God who knit you together in your mother's womb knows what you've been through. He knows the feelings that you feel. He knows the fear and anxiety that you carry.

He knows the pain and the grief. You don't even understand all the tangle of emotions. You don't even know what you need, but he does. Can I tell you that you can turn to him in your time of grief? Lord, minister to me. Sometimes he sends another person. Sometimes he'll speak a word of encouragement to you. Sometimes he'll send a sermon or a verse. He will minister to you where you're at. He knows you better than you know yourself. You are not alone. That's the first thing that having the spirit inside of you means. The second thing is it means that you are strengthened for the task. Often when you're facing the unknown and when it feels like the mountains have been thrown into the sea, you feel overwhelmed. That's what these moments are like. What do I do? I've never faced anything like this before. I never expected to face anything like this before. I can remember how I felt in 2020, three years into pastoring Church on the Move and it's not going well. I wasn't doing a great job of pastoring when the world wasn't on fire. Now the world is on fire.

And I'm having to pastor and lead and it feels like I can make no one happy. Everyone's mad at me. And I remember crying out to the Lord, lamenting to the Lord, why me? Why me? Why now? This is what I said, true story. My dad got 30 years of smooth sailing. That's not really true, but it felt that way. And I get to lead through this. I have no idea what I'm doing anyway. And now I'm supposed to lead this church through this. But guess what? Here's what I've learned. God does not bring you to the banks of the Red Sea to abandon you. If he's called you to it, he will grace you through it. So remember what you're facing. You are not alone. You are uniquely strengthened and empowered. And here's what I could tell you. True story is God is my witness. I would not today choose or want to go through anything like 2020 ever again. But here's what I could also tell you. If I had to, I could do it. Because I know that the Lord is with me. I have learned what it means that God strengthens you for what you face.

You may feel overwhelmed by this new reality that you're living in. You may be a mother with young kids and the biggest problem you got right now is raising these kids. I get it. I know that there are days where it feels overwhelming. The Lord is with you. He is with you. He's empowering you. The spirit dwells within you. If you have been called to it, you will be graced through it. Do you remember three times Paul said, I pray that this thorn in the flesh. He doesn't say what the thorn in the flesh was. We speculate, we have all kinds of guesses, but we don't know. All we know is that it was a thorn in his flesh. You ever had a situation in life where it felt like you were getting poked by a shark stick and you wanted it to go away? Paul prays three times. He says, take it away. And do you know what the Lord's response is? What does he say? My grace is sufficient for you. Sometimes God doesn't make your situation go away. Sometimes God strengthens you for your situation. The spirit is within you.

His role is to empower. That's his job. Call upon him. Remind yourself of who you have with you. You're not alone and you're strengthened for the task. Number three reality is this. Your chaos gets turned into order. Now there's this unique picture that we get and if you're paying attention, I didn't catch this. I saw this in a few different commentaries. I thought this was a cool picture. The picture of this person in distress, this people in distress begins with the mountains. Do you remember this? Being thrown into the sea. The waters roaring and foaming. This is the picture in the first three verses of Psalm 46. In other words, the mountains which shouldn't be moved are being moved and the waters which represent chaos. In the ancient world, waters are chaos. You don't know what's under there. You don't know what's down there. It's chaotic. Water represents chaos. The mountains which are sure, immovable are being moved. Sometimes that's what life feels like and chaos is overwhelming you. Here's what's interesting and here's what they pointed out. Is all that chaos water of the first. These three verses has turned into a river that brings comfort, nourishment, gladness

to the people of God by verse four, and this is a unique role of the Spirit. He can take the place of chaos in your life and bring order out of it. This is what He uniquely specializes, and we see this at the very beginning. Genesis 1 verse 2, the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep, chaos, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. What happens next? God says, let there be light. Creation begins to form and come forth out of chaos, and do you know God does that all the time in the lives of believers who put their trust in Him. The Spirit takes chaos. In fact, often what happens is the place of your deepest pain, God brings your greatest testimony. The Spirit can take all of that chaotic feeling and situation and turn it into a testimony of God's faithfulness. You are not alone. You are strengthened for the task, and God, you serve a God who specializes in turning chaos into order. The Spirit is with you. Number three, they fix their eyes on the victory that is to come. Now this week, I'll be honest, I've had some of you on my heart. I knew pretty early on when I started reading this psalm exactly what this was going to be and the situation that we're talking about here. You're talking about difficult, the worst of what life throws at you, brokenness, abuse, loss, grief, confusion, anxiety, and I know that there are going to be some of you in here who are on the other side of a battle that feels like it was lost. When you're hearing everything that I'm saying, you even listen to the song that we sang, you are good, you are good, you are good, and that bridge, you're never going to let me down. One time I was driving home with a couple of my kids from youth group, they had sang that song at youth group, you're never going to let me down, and I asked them, I just like

to ask them provocative theological questions, is that true? Will God never let you down? I can imagine there's a lot of people not in this building today because they feel like God let them down. I prayed, we had the whole church praying, God didn't show up. We asked, we didn't receive, we were told this, it didn't seem to happen. So maybe you're on the other side of loss, maybe you're fresh in the middle of like grief right now, or maybe that's just sort of in the rear view mirror, but you carry that pain, that wound with you, and you wonder how any of this applies to you. Because it feels like the promise of what God will do, but you went through the battle and it seems like, yeah, I got beat. God didn't show up for me. What word do I say and would the scriptures say to you? Well Psalm 8 addresses your very situation. Notice the end, the final stanza begins in this way, come, behold the works of the Lord. It's the only command in the Psalm, come, behold the works of the Lord. You're to come and gaze upon, to look, to consider what God has done. What am I looking at? What should I behold? Well, the answer is here, how he has brought desolations on the earth, not exactly what you think it would be. I mean, you might think that the works of the Lord are going to be all of these positive things, right? Come behold the works of the Lord, his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward those who serve him, right? But that's not what you find. You find him bringing desolations on the earth. Verse 9, he makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire.

What's the picture that we get here? The picture that we get here is God as a warrior king, fighting on behalf of his people. Now, if you read 2 Kings 18 and 19, that's exactly what you find. God does fight. 185,000 Assyrians die that night, and God's people are delivered. Sennacherib is turned back. God supernaturally intervenes, but that wouldn't be the end of the story of the people of God. There would be ups. There would be downs. There would be victories. There would be seeming defeats. How then should we process this? How then should we read this? How then do we take hope and encouragement from something like this, wars ceasing to the ends of the earth, breaking bows, shattering spears? What does that have to do with the pain that I'm facing? What it is, is a picture of God's judgment. In the Old Testament, God's enemies are pictured as nations, empires, peoples, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, Egypt. But in the New Testament, that picture begins to shift away from nations and to spiritual rulers. In fact, Paul says it like this. We do not wrestle, some of you know this verse, against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places. The promise here in Psalm 46 is not just of what God did do in 2 Kings 18 and 19, but what he will one day do. And in fact, one of the main encouragements

for God's people all through the scriptures, cover to cover, is that he will judge the earth. And what that means is that he's going to make things right. You say, how is that supposed to bring me any comfort? Well, stop and think about it for a second. When you're in pain, when you've been wronged, when something has been done to you, one of the most common, maybe the most common emotion is anger. Why? Because something has been taken from me. Something has been done to me. It shouldn't be like this. And we're often filled with anger and rage, and we don't know where to direct it. Some people end up turning it against God, but the promise that the Lord makes here is that he will deal with your enemies. The enemies that have flagged mankind from the beginning. The enemies, by the way, that we let in the door. I'm talking about sin, sickness, death, hell, the grave. All of the broken stuff, abuse, the evil things that happen to us, miscarriages, loss, death of loved ones. All of this that we face and endure in the here and now, the picture, or the scripture posits those things as enemies of God. And the promise is that one day he will deal with those enemies. In fact, the psalm ends with this declaration, God speaking, and you've probably heard this verse before.

Be still, know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Maybe you've attributed this, and by the way, notice it's in quotes. That means that it's God speaking. Be still and know that I am God. Often we recite this verse to ourselves, and I think that's good. Be still and know. Often our hearts get anxious, they get troubled. Be still, know that I am God. But there's a question about who this is addressed to. If you read the rest of the psalm, you remember it's the nation's rage. It's still a reference back to Psalm 2 we studied last week. The nation's rage, the kingdom's totter. Notice what's happening. It's these nations that are raging and moving, and there's all of this tumult like a storm. Do you remember when Jesus was on the Sea of Galilee and a storm came up suddenly upon them and the disciples panicked? And they go and they wake up Jesus and they say, don't you care that we're going to die? And Jesus stands up and what does he say to the wind and the waves? Peace! Be still.

It's as if he's saying the same thing here. How will he make the enemies, his enemies, be still? He will wipe them out. Now if you stop and think about it and if you're honest with yourself, that's ultimately what you want. When wrong has been done to you, what we want is vengeance. What we want is justice. What we want is the one who took something from us. We want them punished. That's why families who have endured the loss of a loved one at the hands of someone else who's killed them, murdered them, that's why often they go to the trial. They want to see justice. Justice should be done and that's what God promises. What's been done to you, what's been done to hurt you, to break your heart and to cause you grief and all the pain that you've been through, God says I will avenge you in the end. And this is the end of the Christian story. You may not know this. It's not escape to heaven and a consolation prize of a harp, a robe, and a crown. What am I gonna do with? It's a picture of God making all things new, of defeating death completely in the end. Can I read you the end of the story? Revelation 21, look what it says.

John writes, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away in the sea. All of that chaos is no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with you. man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God and what will he do he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more can I say that to you again death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away the promises that God will make things right what you've suffered in the here and now he will deal with it all is not lost you might say what yeah but it feels like the battle is lost we prayed and it didn't happen what would you say to me I would say this the story isn't over yet you haven't experienced the end yet it is still to come the good news of the gospel is not just Jesus died on the cross it's not just Jesus rose from the dead it is Christ died risen and coming again and he comes again to deal with death he comes again to deal with sickness he comes again to put cancer under our feet no more will we deal with the abuse and the suffering and the affliction of what we have been through in the here and now he comes to set us free forever and ever and ever and that's the future that's the picture that's the hope and here's a Paul said on that day all that you've suffered in the here and now will feel as though a light momentary affliction when you compare it with the eternal weight of glory you will see what God has been up to he will do it it's as certain as the Sun rising tomorrow so now though we grieve for a little while Paul says we wait we wait for the resurrection and for the new life and for the new day that is to come this is what our God

will do so what do I do what do I do in the meantime exactly what Psalm 46 8 tells you to do come come behold the works of the Lord come behold the works of the Lord when I'm filled with bitterness and I'm angry at the unanswered prayer and what I've suffered what do I do come behold the works of the Lord when I'm filled with worry and fear and anxiety what should I do come behold the works of the Lord the more you fix your eyes on him the more you are heartened from the inside out strengthened from the inside out your hope is secure nothing can touch you come what may life may not work out as I wanted to come what may nothing can stop the end of the story from happening the king is coming and he will make things right our hope is not in a president it is not in a government it is not in a future empire our hope is in a king keep your hope there fix your hope on that future and I'm telling you no matter what you may face in this life I'm not saying that it's all easy I'm not saying that you'll enjoy it I'm not saying that there aren't times where you'll feel confused and lost and wondering is God still with you what I can promise you this is you will get through it in the end God is with you he will never leave you or forsake you and the future is secure can I get an amen amen let's close today in prayer father thank you so much for your faithful promise what you will do you will deal with brokenness sickness disease death all that we suffer abuse the evils that have been done to us Lord some of us have suffered things from people who are no longer even living there's no way to make restitution now Lord you will do it no injustice will get by your your your your sight nothing will slip past you Lord you are the righteous judge our hope and confidence is in you we throw ourselves upon your throne of mercy in our time of need knowing that you hear that you answer that you respond we fix our eyes on you and Lord I pray especially for those who are in the midst of pain grief hurting their hearts are broken as this morning they're holding together the pieces of their life their shattered dreams and what they've been through Lord I pray for them specifically I ask that your spirit would be so real to them your presence would be manifest to them that they

would know that they are not alone but Lord you would strengthen their faith remind them of who you are and that they would yet see your goodness in Jesus' name. And for those of us, Lord, where life is good, we give you thanks and glory. We're grateful for the blessings that we have and for what you've showered upon us. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. We trust you no matter what. In Jesus' name, everybody said, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And for those today, maybe you're in a spot where you need prayer, or you could use a brother or sister in Christ to just stand with you and pray about the situation that you're going through. Our prayer team every week is down front. They stand right in front of where I'm at, all along the front of the stage. We would love to be able to minister to you in prayer. Now, maybe you're here today, and you say, I'm not sure I'm right with God. Or maybe you'd say, the Lord's doing something in my life. I feel like I wanna take my relationship with God seriously now, if that's you.

Our team down front also has this little guide. We just wrote this. It's called What Does It Mean to Be Saved? Short little book here that kind of walks you through what a life with Christ looks like, what it means to be a real Christian. No obligation, no strings attached. We would love to resource you with this little guide. So at the close of the service, if that's you, God's doing something in you, come forward. Talk to our prayer team. Just say, hey, can I get one of those books that Pastor Whit talked about? We would love to be able to give you one of these, all right? Stand to your feet. Once again, happy Father's Day to all my fellow dads in the room, and I hope you get to go out and enjoy your families today. I know that you will. We're gonna close with this blessing out of Numbers chapter six, and I would love for you to say it out loud with me as we close together today. Here we go. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you.

I love you. You're dismissed. We'll see you next week. Thank you so much for watching this message from Church on the Move Tulsa. We really hope it encouraged you to take a step toward Jesus. Church on the Move is a family of churches in Northeast Oklahoma, each with its own in-person pastor. We love our Bibles, learning and community, and taking steps toward Jesus. If you live in the area, we would love for you to join us in-person. For more information, check out our website at churchonthemove.com, or we've got a few videos we think you might like. Check them out here. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪