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Confidence in the Chaos
14 Plays21 days ago
Psalm 46:1-11
Recommended
Transcript
Doomsday Mindset and Global Chaos
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How many of you know somebody like this? Run for cover! SOS! Mayday! Mayday!
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Code Red! Duck and cover! You're all in danger! for cover! Run for your life!
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Run for cover!
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Run for your life!
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Run for your lives. The end is near. The sky is falling.
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The Democrats are in office. No wait, Trump is in office. The sky is falling.
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The Republicans are in office. The sky is falling. Trump is fighting with Elon Musk. The sky is falling.
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The good old US of A that we grew up with is now going to hell in a handbasket. The sky is falling. Putin is on the move and the war in Ukraine is still going on.
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The sky is falling. There's volcanoes erupting off the coast of Hawaii. Tsunamis in Indonesia, fires in California. The sky is falling.
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The 401k is up. Nope, it's down. The stock market is in a tailspin. The economy on the verge of recession. The sky is falling.
Chicken Little and Anxious Living
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How many of you all know somebody like this?
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If you're shaking your head no, odds are you're that person today.
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You're who I affectionately refer to as a chicken little. If that's you today, I want to lovingly tell you two things.
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First, it's exhausting being around you.
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And second, that's not the way God expects you to live. Especially during the storms of life, especially during chaotic times.
Introduction to Psalm 46
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And we'll see that in Psalm 46 today.
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Hopefully when you came in, as Kim mentioned, you picked up an outline, you picked up a bulletin as well.
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In the outline, we'll see the very first part we're going to cover is the chaos in life, both in nature and in nations. Second, we'll see that that chaos is contrasted with the city of God.
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And third, we're goingnna look at what is the proper mindset for people of God during chaotic times, and we'll answer the questions, in which way can I demonstrate my trust in God during the storms in life? Friends, that's the direction we're going today.
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um One of the reasons I hand-picked this psalm, as well as Psalm 148 a couple of weeks ago and Psalm 103 that we'll be looking at just after Father's Day, they're they're structured, they're written in such a fantastic way.
Interpreting Biblical Text Like Art
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I just feel like i have I have to include them, I have to point them out. I've been asked this before, Pastor, why are you so fixated on the grammar and the syntax? Just read the Bible to us.
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Well, I counter that with if you had ever gone to the Louvre in France and you looked at some of the beautiful paintings, by the masterpieces by these wonderful artists.
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And if I simply said, look at all that paint on the canvas, and then I moved on. right them The curator at the museum, his job is to show you the painting.
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and describe all the intricacies of the painting. Look at the brush strokes, look at the lighting, look at how real it looks. Look at Mona Lisa's eyes, how they follow you around the room.
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Friends, this is why I point out beautiful structure, beautiful writings in this particular psalm in the one last week. This week you'll notice it's a double chiasm. And if you're new to chiasms, they are a particular method that the...
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Old Testament uses to highlight certain parts of the scripture. They're structured in just this way. It's not by accident. The author took his time very specifically to highlight certain things.
Psalm 46: Confidence in God's Protection
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You'll notice verse 1 says, God is our refuge. And then right in the middle, verse 7 says, He is our stronghold. And then it ends with, He is our stronghold, He is our refuge.
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it's on It's on purpose. he He structured it just this way to tell you that right in the middle of the storms of life, God is our refuge.
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He's our stronghold. Psalm 46, y'all, is very typical of other psalms in the Bible. It is written by the people and for the people of Israel.
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It was sung long time ago before it was ever written down. And so they would sing these and and they would hear the Ming song to them in the midst of storms.
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When the enemy was knocking on the door, literally wanting to overthrow them, they're singing these songs to each other. it's It's to well up something within them. And so while we were singing here today,
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I felt this sense of the Holy Spirit welling up within me, of appreciation. And friends, this is what Psalm 46 is. It is ah confidence that wells up within us that God has not forgotten us in the storms of life.
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He is there to protect us. He is there to provide for us. And unlike Conley's sermon last week, This is only two points this week, y'all. Two points in one application. And it's only one part of one application. It's going to be very short and very sweet, but it's right to the point.
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Psalm 46, let's read it together. Psalm 46, all 11 verses, starting verse 1. God is our refuge and our strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.
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So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge.
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A river brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of the Most High. God dwells in that city. It cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it.
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The nations are in chaos and their kingdoms crumble. God's voice thunders and the earth melts. The Lord of heaven's armies is here among us. The God of Israel is our fortress.
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Come, see the glorious works of the Lord. See how he brings destruction upon the world. He causes wars to end throughout the earth. He breaks the bow and snaps the spear and he burns the shields with fire.
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Be still and know that I am God. I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world. The Lord of Heaven's armies is here among us.
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The God of Israel is our fortress. Friends, it's beautifully written. It's beautifully crafted. And in the face of Israel's long history of attacks and the storms of life, God is reassuring them here, i am with you.
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He starts right here in verse 1. I am your refuge. Your stronghold, your protection, your safety, you may say.
God as Refuge Amid Chaos
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Verse 2 says a very present help. A help easily found. A help that you don't need to go out and search for. I like the New Living Translation. It says, always ready to help.
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God is always ready to help in the storms of life. We simply need to turn to Him. We don't need to search him out. He's ever-present. He's ready to go.
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He's ready to help. You don't need to call on him. He's ready there, waiting.
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I like this picture. If you look two times, it talks about the mountains. Verse 2.
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It says, while the earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea, let the oceans roar in them and foam, both a very picture of chaos itself. It says, let those mountains tremble as the waters surge. The very mountains are things we think of as something stable.
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You never hear of a mountain crumbling. When was the last time you heard of a mountain crumbling? But it says here, the very things we put our safety in and we think are stable, says God simply wipe those off the map if he wants to.
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Because he is our stability. He is our rock. He is our refuge.
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The foaming, the ocean, which you know we've often said the sea in the Old Testament is all about chaos. Chaos.
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When the earth is changing before your eyes and the chaos of life is happening right before you, we're reminded in verse 2 to what? Do not fear.
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Right, because friends, our natural inclination when the storms of life come is what? Fear. All that money I made in the early In 2008, just like that.
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The good old stock market decided to pull a fast one on to everybody and redistribute that wealth. And all the CEOs got wealthy and all the rest of us didn't.
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It's easy in that moment to go, oh God, what am I gonna do? Wow, I thought I had this much, now I don't. Boy, I'm in a fear, how am I gonna start to pay the bills?
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I got a house note. I got two cars. I got kids in college.
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Our natural inclination is one of fear, but he says, friends, you don't need to fear when everything around you is crumbling. Psalm 23, verse 4 also says, he said even though I walk through the valley the shadow of death, I fear no what?
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Evil. I fear not the chaos of what's happening around me.
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For you, the Lord, are with me. Psalm 27, similar, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom should I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life. Who should I dread?
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He's reminding the people of Israel, but friends, he's reminding you and I that when those storms come, and they will come, whether it's a loss of your finances, it's a loss of your job, or it's a loss of your loved one, he is still right there with you.
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He is your, everybody say it, refuge. Try it again. Everybody, he is your refuge. If you're taking notes, that might be a good one to write down. I simply put this when it comes to the storms of life.
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I use these words, unrest, war, poverty, extreme ideological divides that we see on TV today, not just here in the U.S., but all around the world.
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The UK trying to figure out how to live life outside of being in the European Union.
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Ukraine still fighting with Russia. Everybody who's around the Ukraine wondering if they're next.
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Not to mention the Middle East.
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Iran, Syria, Israel, Gaza.
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You know i complain frequently about my neighbors that play loud music and late late at night. They play loud music over there, y'all. I don't know if you know this. I sound like a broken record. But I thought to myself the other day, as I watched the rockets being shot back and forth between Israel and Gaza, can you imagine living among that?
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No, we can't. And so when I hear words like peace in the Middle East, it's almost laughable. now, the chaos of what's going on.
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Friends, that war has been going on for thousands of years. It really has. Yet amid all the conflict, both of nations and nature, we see a pause right here. And and you'll see it in your Bible also. Look with me.
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Right there at the end of verse 3. Yours may say interlude. Yours may use the word selah. This is a pause. a pause for the musicians as they were singing to literally pause.
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So it's a literal pause. It's a literary pause. It's a break to contrast all of the chaos that was talked about before, about the mountains crumbling and going into the seas, all the chaos, all the storms of life.
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And it says, but break, take a break, take a breather, and look at verse 4. Verse 4 says, a new thought, a new part
Joy and Safety in God's City
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of the song.
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but a river brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of the Most High. God dwells in that city. It cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it.
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Do you see the contrast between the storms of life, the chaotic events? Yet inside of this city, which is the city of God, it's his possession.
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You're there also as people of God. You are his possession. It says, even though the outsides may roar, the waters may roar, the oceans may roar, the people, the nations may, the actual word here is uproar, right? Because we'll see not just nature,
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causing problems We see nations and people causing problems. It says, outside of all that turmoil, there is a safe space for God's people because He Himself is there present.
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He's in their midst. He dwells in that city. It's His city and His people who dwell in within that city will never be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it.
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So even if the mountains are crumbling into the seas and the sky is falling...
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It's not so for God's people. They're not to be afraid. They're meant to be what? Joyous. When was the last time you were joyous in the storms of life?
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When was the last time you thought, wow, this is pretty bad. I'm really going through it, but boy, I'm joyous about it. Friends, we have a choice. Verse 6 tells us that the chaos of nature is no match for God.
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The chaos of the nations is also no match for God. Verse 6, look at me, it says, He simply raises His voice. I like the New Living Translation. It says, God's voice thunders.
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It thunders and the earth, what? Melts away.
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How can it not melt away? He's the Lord of armies. He's with His people and He's in His city. You know, the the biggest one of the biggest misconceptions that I've often heard, those people who study the book of Revelation, seriously, will will agree.
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Many people think the battle of Armageddon, right, this big battle at the end of times, is a literal battle. Like there's all these demonic forces and all these angelic forces, and they're going to duke it out.
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Friends, Revelation 19, 14 says this. Jesus, who wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in finest and pure white linen, follow him on the white horses. Now listen this.
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From his mouth came what? A sharp sword to strike down the nations. Friends, there's not a big battle that happens. He speaks it, and it melts away.
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That's what happens in the end, just so you know. there's not He's not dragging Satan all around. He's not body slamming Satan. He speaks it and it's over.
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Did you know that? Friends, this is the same way the psalmist is reiterating this. In the middle of the storms of life, he simply speaks it and it goes away.
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Now, what I put in my notes this week as a reminder to myself, I just wrote the word He. in capital letters, not me. This is very important distinction, and I've mentioned this from the public before.
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He's the only one who has this faculty to speak things into existence and to speak them out of existence. Friends, you and I do not have that faculty. I heard somebody just the other day that we were we were out
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congregating with, I'll just put it that way. And they simply said, I need to rebuke the devil and I'm going to tell him so and so. And they said this. And I thought, you're wasting your breath.
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You don't have that faculty, friends. You don't have the ability to speak something out of existence.
Trust in God's Control and Protection
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And you don't have anything, you can't speak anything into existence. That is a new age philosophy.
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That's not biblical theology. says that he spoke and it melted away. From the very mouth of God, he ends the battle. And so I put today, maybe you need to hear this.
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Maybe you're this morning in the middle of a battle. Maybe you're here today thinking that battle's too great or you suffer too much or your family has gone through too much or the storms of life are too fierce.
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Friends, I'm here to tell you that the Lord of heaven the Lord of the armies, the God of the universe, who is with you in that storm, that storm is nothing to him.
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He simply can speak that out.
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No storm is too great, no battle too great, no enemy too fierce for the Lord of Lord and the King of Kings. He is both the Lord of hosts and it also says he the God of Jacob, meaning he is the personal God.
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He's not some far off God out that you're praying to out in the heavens. No friends, he's there with you right in the middle of the storm and it's his people. And I circle this in my notes.
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You're his possession if you're in Christ, right? You're his possession and he protects that which is his. You just simply need to call upon him.
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There's no need to panic, there's no need to fear, there's no need to cry out to your friends and family that the sky is falling.
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He's in control. God's in control. So I just put as a smiley face to myself in my notes, which is often a symbol, am I going to say it or am I just going to think about it to myself?
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But I'm going to say it this morning. Some of you need to stop worrying.
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Some of you need to stop worrying. God is in control. And you need to have a certain confidence that he is in control. And the way we demonstrate that confidence, we'll see here in just a couple of points.
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It's really easy. It really is.
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He invites us, verse 8 9, to come see his handiwork. Literally, verse 8 and 9 starts this way. Come and see. Come and see the glorious works of the Lord. See how he brings destruction upon the world.
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That's the world in chaos. He causes wars to end throughout the earth. He breaks the bow and the spears. He literally breaks down the instruments of war. Nothing is too powerful for him.
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Nature is no match for him. Nations are no match for him. We are his very people. So if those things, if nature and nations are no match for him, what problem, what storm is so big that he can't take care of?
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He says, don't worry, don't be afraid, but verse 10 tells us, and I know many of y'all simply have verse 10 somewhere in your house, somewhere on some plaque, somewhere on some platitude, somewhere, and you've probably read this and recited this verse and never knew the context in which he's saying this.
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He's saying, because God is so big and so in control that he can control nature and nations, don't worry stop worrying don't live in fear stop crying that the world that the sky is falling instead be still
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by the way being still is not passive that's an active it's an active verb still in the midst of chaos be still when the sky appears to be following be still When you just lost a loved one, be still.
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I like theologian H.D.M. Spence. Simply wrote this. He said, as a general rule of thumb, God requires you and I, those of us who are in the family, to cooperate with him.
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We are fellow workers with God. But get this, he says, there are times and there are occasions when you must stand at a difference and let God do his thing.
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Somebody needs to hear that this morning. Stop meddling in what God can handle for you today. You simply need to let him do that. ah put, let God be God. How simple is that, but how difficult that is sometimes for us just to let God be God.
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Friends, he's the king. He's the Lord. He's sovereign. He's got it all under control. What can you possibly add to that equation?
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So if we're not to fear during chaos, what are we what are we supposed to do?
Resting in God's Sovereignty
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If we're supposed to be still, I just put it as another word, we're supposed to rest.
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This is the take home this week, by the way. How do we demonstrate that we trust God in the storms of life? You rest. You be still. And you know He's in control.
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What does resting look like? Well, Matthew 11, 28 says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you... Say it.
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Rest.
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Psalm 37, the psalmist writes, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. So a byproduct of resting is waiting patiently. Some of you need to wait patiently.
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Trust in God's timing that he has it all under control even in the storms. He's still in control.
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Psalm 62 verse 1 says, My soul finds rest in God alone. My salvation comes from him. True rest, true salvation is only found in God. How do we respond properly in the storms of life? We rest.
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We rest, and I just simply put, and this this is why you're like, I can't believe the pastor's done already, because I just want to put the opposite side of this story. What does it look like not to rest?
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It looks like reacting. And friends, too often, as the body of Christ, we react instead of resting. What does that look like? Well, I'm glad you asked. In your work life, you lose your job.
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Instead of confidently knowing that God is going to take care of you and find you further employment somewhere, what we tend to do is we start calling people that we know. Lord, what am I going to do?
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The bills are coming. What am I going to do? Can you believe they fired me? I was only sleeping three days out of the five.
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We easily revert to being a chicken little.
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we overreact. The sky is falling. And I was reminded of this just yesterday as we as we were walking, marching for Jesus down here.
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You know, this is a multi-church effort here in Cameron. They invited us, and we had some seven, eight people from our church to go. Just march. And i and i I told Brother Ronnie as we were walking, I said, you know, sometimes...
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It's good to be seen. Sometimes optics matter in the body of Christ because quite often we're just quiet and we go about our business. And so the worldly people don't know we have numbers.
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And so all you hear is from the media and the TV, nonstop, worldly things. And I think sometimes we have to stand up and be counted. Sometimes optics matter. So how does this look like today? Well, I'm gonna tell you.
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It also matters if you react or overreact. And you get out and you start crying to your friends about how you don't know what the next step is or what God's doing in your life.
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What kind of message does that send to your friends? Your believing friends. How about your unbelieving friends? Wow, I don't want any of that Christianity thing. She's acting just like I would.
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Wow, that Christian God, he he doesn't look like he has it under control. Look how afraid he is. Right? It's optics, friends.
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So some of it is self-speak, some of it's talking to ourselves. I'm going rest. I'm not going to overreact. And then some of it's also how we respond to other people. When you lose that job, when you lose that loved one, the words that come out of our mouth and how we respond and not react really matter.
00:27:37
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Friends, may we be a people in the middle of life storms who could simply be still, and everybody say it with me, rest.