It is fantastic to be here with you guys this morning and to see what God, by his grace, is doing here at the church I visited a long time ago, and to watch God just multiply disciples here is really super encouraging. If you read through the book of Acts, there's this phrase that the author, Luke uses all throughout it. It's this, and the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples increased. And I get that vibe when I walk around here. The Word of God is increasing, and we're seeing the numbers of disciples increase, which is what we want for the glory of God. So, I praise God for the work that he's doing here, and I praise God for the pastoral team. I'm very thankful to Pastor Bobby. Do you guys know how blessed you are to have Pastor Bobby? Give him a shout out right now. I admire Pastor Bobby. He is a great leader. He is an excellent preacher. He can get people to do things that they don't want to do, like you've seen that before, right? I've ended up in like chicken suits and videos in order to just do something that he wanted me to do, simply just because he's so good at doing that, actually, probably one of the highlights of my ministry. Okay, does anybody out there…this is a long time ago…anybody remember the Preach Off? Is anybody out there? Okay, this is a deep cut. I don't know where it is on the internet, but I know it's there somewhere. Pastor Bobby and I preached a sermon at the same time. It was a Preach Off. Okay, go find it. I won't tell you who won. You'll have to watch the video, but it was one of the highlights, because it was such a gospel-centered sermon. And I love doing that.
And I come with greetings from Compass Bible Church Tustin, where you have brothers and sisters there who love you and pray for you and are encouraged to do the same things, committed to the same gospel ministry that you guys are. We're just experiencing God's kindness as well. We just want to give him the praise and the glory. Will tell you a little bit about it, but just so many exciting things going on. We're watching God increase his Word and increase the number of disciples. So, we just recently got a building. It had been a season, and a search for building for a long time, and God was very kind. He provided a building for us. And so, we got the opportunity to do a Camp Compass. Got to do our first Camp Compass in our building last year. It was such an exciting time, because before you have to do it in a school. Now we get to do it in our own building, but we're in a business park as well. So, we just go all out. We get ready to do it, sign the kids up, and we start Monday morning. We're doing it in the middle of a business park. Our games are outside. We've got bull horns. Kids running in parking lots and other businesses looking at it. One woman looked out her window and goes, oh, there's a Kids Camp over there. Oh, I've got two kids. They're doing nothing this summer. She gives us a call Monday afternoon. Hey, can my kids come to that? We said, absolutely, bring ‘em on over. So, she brings her kids over. She picks them up, and she notices, oh, you guys do biblical counseling. I've got some things I'd like to talk about, can I come in? Well, sure, absolutely. So, she comes in, realizes she's not a Christian, repents, puts her faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and now her and her family are at our church just simply because God blessed us with the building. We're seeing great things. Yeah, we can clap for that. I like these people here. They're clappers. I like that. I like that. And we rejoice when God does those amazing things, he puts the right people in the right places at the right time. Because we believe God to be sovereign over all things, and it's easy to do that when we're talking about the exciting things.
But do you believe the same things about the hard things? See, because if you've been a Christian for a long time, you know it's not all smiles and roses, is it? Jesus told you that he said, “In this world you're going to have tribulation.” So when Jesus says something, you know it's going to happen. “Take heart. I've overcome the world.” That's great. That's leading up into John 17, which you guys are about to study. But those tribulations are coming, and they're hard. The storms in this life hit, and what do we do? See, to get to that moment, to have a woman that we would have never come across unless we were put in that building, in that location. To get to that moment was not always through smiles, but sometimes through tears. You see, we plan a church. We seek God's grace and kindness, and then about three years in, there's just relational conflicts that hurt the church. Then we get hit with COVID. We didn't have a building at the time, so we can't even get together, to have fellowship with the body of Christ. We have to park ourselves in cars, and I have to preach through the radio just to be with God's people. And we're going, God, is this what you want? Why are we here? Then, in this kindness, we at least are granted a field so we can sit next to one another, but now, literally in the elements with rain and wind, for a year and a half people what you sit in on and do Sunday morning. People have to show up four hours early every week to set it up. God, we're trying to make disciples. Why is this happening? Then we get into our building, signed a ten-year lease, and go, man, we can't wait to transform this into a church. And so, we go to the city and say, can we use this as a church? And they deny us because of what we teach. God, what's going on? Do you know the answer? He's making you more like Jesus.
What happens when we go through the storms of life, if we handle them properly, is God brings sanctification. But if we mishandle them, nothing good comes from it. This morning, I want to help you handle those storms. Turn with me to Psalm 62 in your Bibles. Psalm chapter 62. You just sang it a moment ago beautifully. I'm going to read it for you the entirety of the Psalm 62:1-12, and listen to how David instructs a number of different people in this psalm to handle the storms and struggles that come into our lives. Psalm 62, starting in the first verse, says this.
To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah. Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.
Adversity, if we handle it properly, will drive us to awe and adoration in God, but adversity, handled improperly, will lead to apathy in relationship with him, and will lead to an increase in an appetite for the things of this world, idols. God puts the trials in our life so that he might sanctify us, our hearts, our minds, our desires to find only him. And so, when the storms hit, when the struggles come, when the trials are there, when the difficulties appear in whatever form they take, in the form of a relationship, in the form of a job, in the form of a loss of a friendship, a loss of a life. I've spoken to two people in the last twenty-four hours who have lost significant people in their lives. We don't know when the storms hit. What do we do? Oh, we follow the road map that David left for us. Did you hear these opening words? “For God alone my soul waits in silence.” That is so good, and that's what you and I need. We don't need to be tempted to go to the things of this world, to seek refuge in them. How many times did David say, God is my refuge? And to be very sure, the only way you know the strength of a refuge and its durability is not when the sun is shining, but when the storm hits, and when that storm hits, you’d better know that your refuge is going to get you through it. God alone is that refuge.
So, how do we seek him? Put it down this way. Number one on your outline, when the storms of life hit, I want you to “Get your bearings.” Okay, number one, get your bearings. I need you to get your bearings when the storms hit. Because have you ever been on like a roller coaster, you get off and you feel just discombobulated, right? Things are a little shaky. Have been taken on deep sea fishing trips before. I call them sea prisons, because you're just out there and you can't go anywhere, and the boats rocking back and forth. And when you get on land, it's like, whoa. I got to get my bearings, like things are not are not level. And so, when the storm hits, what we need to do is make sure that we have our bearings. And the psalmist helps us. David here helps us, because he says you're going to get your bearing by importing and focusing in your mind what you know to be true.
Write that down for letter A: “By establishing what you know to be true.” Get your bearings by establishing what you know to be true. This is how David does it. “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.” You see, David is going to make sure that on the throne of his heart there is no thing, no person, no idol that tries to rival God. There are no rivals, no contesters to where the heart can find satisfaction. Satisfaction, sustenance, security is found only in the Lord. So, David says, “For God alone will my soul wait in silence.” I won't seek it anywhere else. I can't find it in any different place. It must come from God and God alone. David is assured in his mind what he knows to be true, and on the seat of his heart is this God alone can satisfy. See, that word alone could be translated only. Spurgeon, when he wrote on the psalm, said, this is the only psalm, because he knows where God comes to those who seek him only. When you seek him, like what did David say? One thing I've asked from the Lord, one thing I will seek.
If you get to know me after the service, I'm sure as we talk, you'll find out that I am a baseball fan. I love baseball. Grew up playing baseball. Loved it. Got some boys. We have five sons. Two of them are tall. They play basketball. The other ones are short, they play baseball. Works out that way, but I just grew up and I'm a Detroit Tigers fan from Michigan, so I love… Well, we got some shout out for the Tigers here. Yeah, see, it's been a rough go for us for about ten years. Oh, but the last two have been really good. Okay, it is so fun to cheer for a winning baseball team. Angels fans are going to love it later when you get a winning baseball team. I don't want to spoil surprise, it's when your team has more wins than losses. And you really enjoy going to games. It's fun. You'll find out about it later. It's just really good to be a Tigers fan now. So, train my boys to be Tigers fans, but also try to help them with their game. So, from time to time, if you're a baseball parent, on Instagram, you're going to get baseball ads and you're going to get baseball tips, some things that will be helpful. Hey, here's hitting tip, here's throwing tips. But one came through that struck me. It was a tip on how to run the bases, right? One of the most basic things that they really don't train anymore. Everything's about analytics now, and pitch angle and how can you do this? No, just teach the kids the fundamentals. Drill those into them and let them do those things. Excellent. Teach them how to run the bases. So, a coach said, hey, I was having struggle teaching my kids to run the bases, and they would make the mistake that you cannot make when you run a base. Okay, you think of the bases ninety feet apart, a square base. Coaches, good coaches, will tell you, never hit the middle of the bag. You can't hit the middle of bag when you're running the bases. One, you have cleats, and those cleats aren't going to puncture it. It could slip off of it. You could lose your footing. You're not going to advance as best. But also, it's not the best angle to take. And you want to take the shortest distance between two points. So instead of hitting the middle of the bag, what you want to do is you want to hit that corner, that ninety-degree angle. So, you’ve got to run in such way that you're going to hit the corner. Run the second base, you're going to hit that to hit that corner, and it's going to propel you to move forward. But his kids didn't care what he said. No matter what he said, they kept hitting the middle of the base. So, this brilliant coach said this. He goes, hey, kids, give me your cell phones. And he took the cell phones and he put them in the middle of the bags. Guess how many kids stepped on the middle of the base? Zero. Why? Because he put what they loved most in the middle, and that drove everything else they did.
I need you to think of that base as your heart. And what you put in the middle is what you most desire. And if you've got God there, like the psalmist is saying, you will handle these trials appropriately. If you do not, if you put something else that is there, then you're going to be driven by what is not true, not satisfying, cannot be your refuge. So, I need you to get your bearings by establishing what you know to be true. That's what I told you letter A was establish what you know to be true. So, make sure that you know this to be true about God, that when I say God is refuge, I know that for my soul, everything about me to be satisfied, to feel safe and secure. I find that only in God, the psalmist, in Psalm 24 which is David as well, said, those people who don't succeed, they lift up their soul to what is false. And that's what the idols, the drawing of this world, wants you to do. When the storm hits, get apathetic, to chasing God and go after what this world offers. But if you lift up your soul to what is false, you will not handle it. There won't be sanctification, but only struggle. But when you say, God alone is the one I love, and he is the one that I'm going to pursue, and I know that he has me now, I'm walking in the right steps, getting my bearings through these trials.
If you've been an education at all, educational training, teacher, administrator, or maybe at some of your jobs, they have a paradigm out there. It goes like this. It goes, “know, think, feel, do.” Some people have it out there, trained at their jobs. Know, think, feel, do, like to change, take that and change that last one to “act”. But if you think about it this way, you're getting your bearings in your trials. You’ve got to go with what you know to be true, to impact the way that you think, to instruct the way that you feel in order to act the way that God wants you to. But what does the devil want you to do? Like all good things that God creates, he wants to invert it, and when the storm comes, he wants you to go with what you feel, first. Let that impact the way you think, and then let that skew what you know, and then lead you to unrighteous action. You have to get your bearings and say, no, I know this is true about God. I can either let my circumstances impact the way that I view God, or I can let God impact the way I view my circumstances. And the Bible is replete with examples that says you don't start with what you feel. That's where you’ve get to start with what you know. What does the Apostle Paul say? “I know whom I have believed him, and I am persuaded that he is faithful to keep what I've committed to him.” On that day, Paul is not confused, is not twisted in his mind, where his hope is. I know this about God, and I will not be moved from it, because in God alone am I satisfied? Is that where you are? It's where we should be. Where else are you going to find joy? Psalm 16:11, “In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand, pleasures forevermore.” We say that here. What about when the storm hits, when it gets us to think, oh, you should enjoy this life. You're entitled to something. You go do this. That's exactly the scheme of the enemy to get your soul to be lifted up to what is false. But know when God alone is our fortress, our stronghold, our rock, we are secure, and when we know that. Listen to what the psalmist says, “I shall not be greatly shaken.” That's a good word this morning. Just write these two passages down. We don't have time to turn there. Psalm 17:5, I'll read it for you. The metaphor of walking with God and not stumbling throughout the Psalm. Psalm 17:5 says, “My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped.” Psalm 17:5, and then write down Psalm 37:23-24, which says this. Psalm 37:23-24, “The steps of a man are established by the Lord when he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.” God holds you. What did we just sing? He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast, for my savior loves me so, he will hold me fast. I know I won't fall. I know I won't stumble. A righteous man falls seven times. Oh, but he gets back up because God's got him.
You guys studied the book of Romans recently. Years ago? How many years? Nobody knows. Ten years, two years, recently? Two of my favorite verses in all of the book of Romans, Romans 14:4-5. “Who are you to pass judgment on a brother? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” God has you right where he wants you for his purposes and his glory, you have to establish what you know. But notice what the text says. Verse 3, “How long will all of you attack a man, to batter him like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?” Okay. He just said, “My soul waits in silence.” This doesn't sound like silence. This sounds like sighing. See, because the Bible is in no way promoting Stoicism, which is making some comeback in the popular culture, as if we're supposed to be impervious to the things that happen to us. Oh, you can see parallels between Stoicism and Christianity, but Stoicism is to promote the man. Christianity promotes the glory of God. And so, what David does here, when the storm faces, I'm settling what I know to be true. But now let her be. This is what he does. He assesses the troubles that are facing him. Let her be.
Write that down: “Assess the troubles that face you,” and as you assess the troubles that face you, you will rightly understand them, and you will rightly understand yourself, and that will help you navigate the storms of life. Assess the troubles that are facing you. Do you hear the lament in his tone? “How long,” right that's through the Psalms. “How long O Lord,” have you cried that recently? God, why am I going to stop crying? When will this hurt go away? God, I don't think I can do this anymore. That's life. We live in a fallen world where the kingdoms of this world are worse. The Kingdom of the Lord. We live as if Jesus is King. We know that he is sovereign over all, but he allows these things to come into our life, and they batter us down. Listen to the analogy, a leaning wall, a tottering fence. If you guys were over there preparing for Camp Compass, and you saw somebody set up a display and it was leaning or tottering, you'd know, I have to make this secure, because it's vulnerable to falling. This is King David, who looked a giant in the face and said, I'm going to throw a rock in your forehead. Okay. Okay, this is the same David, and now people are battering him down and he's crying. Do you understand you are not sufficient? You are not able. This is your precarious situation. And David's under no delusion is that he's going to do it without God. You have to assess those troubles. If you don't do it right, I think one of two things is going to happen. If you don't handle or assess these things right, you will either overestimate the power of the trial and then in self-pity, consider yourself a victim, leading you to find hope and refuge in other things, or you'll swing the pendulum the other way. And if it's not self-pity, oh, it's going to be self-promotion. I am the master of my fate. You can't tell me what to do, and you'll handle it by underestimating the power of the trial. See, when you assess it, you get what is actually facing you, and then you understand what's true about yourself. David here knows the truth that the other psalmist says, I'm nothing but dust, right? That's just who I am. So, he's assessing it here, because nothing would the enemy love than for one of those two things to be true about you, underestimating the power of the trial leading to self-promotion, or overestimating the power of the trial and leading to self-pity, and you playing the victim.
Do you guys remember when Star Wars was good? You remember that, yeah, four, five and six, right? That's episodes four, five and six. Just that. Just so good. You put them together. Then we had some abominations with one through three and some horrible graphics with bad characters. And then seven through eight, they swung and they missed, and we just had four, five and six. It was so good. Now, to be fair, seven, eight, and nine, very good visuals. Looked a little weird and one through three, some of the things, job of the hut, looks weird, but man, seven through nine, they got it down because they have computer generated graphics. Now they're so advanced. I mean, everything's now done green screen. People are dressing up in green leotards, jumping around doing light saber things to make it look really cool. They just do so many things there. Remember George Lucas, though he didn't have any of that. Actually, remember episode five , Empire Strikes Back? The enemy has these things called AT ATs. Do you know what an AT AT is? Just ask a nerd, I mean, Star Wars fan, and they will tell you what an AT AT is. They'll give you the specs, the details, and then you'll find out why they have no friends that, because they just spend time just talking about that. But you know the scene, they're on the ice planet, and they're going around to face the enemy, the little rebels. They got no hope. They're just going to fight the enemies. They’ve got these little speeder ships going around, you know, shooting, and it's doing nothing to this massive, giant walking Imperial Guard that could just simply crush them if it stepped on them. So, through these miraculous maneuvers and different things, they actually get one to fall down. But just think in terms of looking up and seeing what is probably a seventy-foot, massive Imperial Walker going around you. These ceilings here have to be 25, 30 feet, so double this, and that's just what's walking in front of you, and you go, Oh, my goodness, this enemy is so big. What are we going to do? Do you know in real life, how big those AT ATs are? Two inches tall. Lucas used what was called forced perspective with a camera to embellish how big the enemy was and make you think it's more powerful than it is. That's exactly what Satan wants to do to get you to self-pity. This is so big I can't do this, or I don't deserve this. And if you do that, you play a victim.
Can I help you this morning, Child of God? If you are here saved by the gospel, you are never a victim, ever. What did Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God who gives us victory in the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” If you were a sinner, saved by the grace of God, brought out of the clutches and ensnarement of what sin and death is by the resurrecting power of God, you are not a victim, and you should never play it, because who gets the attention when you play victim? You do, oh, but God deserves it. You're not a victim, but David's going, you're not so great either. It's not you who's going to overcome this. How? The psalmist says, “With our God, we shall do valiantly.” It is he that will tread down our enemies. I’ve got to properly assess what's going on here. Did you note the strange way that people are trying to get at him. This is a relational storm coming in his life. People plan to thrust him down. He's the King, the highest that they can get. They want to take him down. Notice this. They take pleasure in falsehood. You could have one of those relationships, somebody, oh, you're my friend. I care for you. I love you. They stab you in the back. They bless with their mouths. Inwardly, they're against you. So, what do you do? Do you seek comfort somewhere else, or do you go to God? And we don't, for the sake of time, have any ability to go there, just write down Nehemiah 1 and 2 where he encapsulates this first point so well. Nehemiah 1 and 2, he has a struggle. He's saddened at the glory of God being mocked because Jerusalem is torn to pieces. And he weeps and mourns for days, but then read his prayer, he informs himself who God is. And then chapter 2, he goes and assesses the situation, and he just gets a lay of the land, doesn't talk to anybody, goes, what's got to be done now? Nehemiah was bolstered, fortified by what he knew, and then he went and assessed it. I'm assuming, if you've been a Christian for a long time, you're tracking with me. If we were a Southern Baptist Church, we got a few people here saying, amens. I like that. You would say, Amen Pastor Elliot, what you're saying, is true. This is good. But I think this is where a lot of us stop. Oh, but this is not where the psalm stops. Look at verse 5, “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence for my hope is from him.”
Guys, you have to look at the details and see the massive shift that just took place in the Psalm. If you miss this, you will not have the ability to navigate through the storms of life, because there are many similar themes that were going on in verses 1 and 2 that we see right here. Listen to it, “For God alone my soul waits in silence.” David is making a declaration as to what is going on through this trial to people so he knows my hope is only in God. But is David talking to people here? No. David is talking to himself for God alone. O, my soul. This is no longer a declaration. This is a demand of what God has created in you to worship him. Heart, soul, mind, and strength belong to God. Before you were saved, you gave it to something else, some lesser god. Now that you're saved, everything goes to the glory of God. Psalm 16 says, “The sorrows of those who run after other gods will be multiplied. But when our soul seeks satisfaction in God, oh, it finds rest, but it doesn't just stay there. You've got to do work .
Number two, on your outline: “Get to work on your heart.” Get to work on your heart. The heart, the soul, the immaterial portions of who you are make up the mission control center of everything that's about you. And so, as we said a moment ago, we don't want to go, feel, think, know, we want to go, know, think, feel. This is what I know to be true, and I'm established in this that's going to impact the way that I think, which means I will instruct myself in how I'm going to feel again. Christianity is not Stoicism. There is great joy in worshiping God, there's deep sorrow. All of it is shepherded under the sovereignty of God. If you let your feelings be sovereign and dictate what you do, you will not honor God. You are prone to wander that way. But when I do what the Bible says, and I begin to make demands of what I have the control over in any situation, trials come. You don't control those. God does. God allows you to work through his Spirit and his Word, to shepherd your soul to find rest in him.
So, you get to work on your heart letter A: “Through soul instruction,” through soul instruction. And until you learn this, you're not going to navigate the trials well, guys. Who learned this in church history, the Puritans. Okay? I'm not one of those guys that's like, yeah, the Puritans, they do everything right. Okay? Puritans, they're sinners, just like us. We don't do everything right. They don't do everything right. I don't have, like John Owen tattoos. You know, I'm just not like a big Puritan guy. It'd be ironic, I guess, because Puritans wouldn't like tattoos if I did it anyways. I'm just not that guy that says Puritans do everything right. But what they get right, I want a champion, and they get this area so right? You read the Puritans, they say verses like Proverbs 4:23, “Keep watch over your heart with all vigilance from it flows the issues of life.” They say that's the key to Christianity, because they know I can't be enticed by the world around me. I have to speak truth to my soul so that my soul knows where to go for rest. And that's exactly what David's doing. The Puritans don't make it up. I'm not making this up. God, through David, is saying you've got work to do. You're trying to imprint the information that you have, that you've said, I know this establishes me. I want to imprint that on my mind and my heart, to impassion me to live for God regardless of my circumstances, and that's what David is doing. For God alone. Oh, my soul, I'm demanding that you wait in silence because my hope is from him.
Now notice that subtle change from salvation to hope, which gives us insight into what hope is for a Christian. It's not a wishful Ooh, maybe this will happen. It is a worshipful waiting that says, I know God's going to come through. I don't know when, but when he does, it will be glorious, and I can be calm in the midst of a storm when that happens. Do you guys watch the Olympics? I think it was last year. Do you remember that dude? And when I say that dude, I think you know the dude I'm talking about. That dude, that's all he did. Go look him up on the internet. There's a guy literally in the Olympics, like, t shirt and, you know, shorts and just this closing eye, just shooting, winning all the awards they have these young millennials and like leather and like scopes, and like doing weird twisty things, trying to do all these cool things. This guy, who steps up and goes just calm, the calmest you've ever seen. Everyone's like, it's so calm. They interviewed him afterwards, and he said, Oh, if you knew what was going on in my heart, I had raging storms in there. It's this interesting juxtaposition of watching somebody calm-handle the storms. That's what we're doing in trials. We're trying to just stay true to what we know, and not allow the chaos within us to gain control of our hearts, but keep God there so that as we're calm, our hearts then begin to become my soul. You're going to wait in silence. Why? Because I know. Notice the word again, “only” there is no other savior. He's my rock, my salvation, my fortress. Listen to this change. I shall not be shaken. Oh, I love that. What did he say earlier? I shall not be greatly shaken. What's he saying? Now, there's no way this is stumbling me. Is that because David believes he's great? No, David knows he's a leaning wall, a tottering fence, but he knows that when God is my refuge, when anything comes against me, now I stand confidently and say, bring it on, not because I'm going to be able to defeat you, but because I know God will win, and I'm going to trust him, so I will not be shaken. That is confidence that worships God. How do we take what we do Sunday morning, when we're singing songs and we feel so connected to God, and then translate that to Monday through Thursday to Saturday? How does that happen? When you tell your soul, no matter what comes God's getting the glory, and when you instruct it that way, oh, now we have hope. Because I read this book. I love it when this happens.
Thirteen Things Mentally Strong People Do, thirteen things meant to the strong people. It's like a self-help, you know, promote yourself. Good book, like that secular book, and it's so funny. I read those downtime to get great sermon illustrations. Henceforth, I'm going to give you a sermon illustration from it. It's so funny. They will present some truth in these books, as if they're coming up with the greatest thing in the world. And I'll read it, and I'll go, oh, you just took that from the Bible and rejected God. That's all you did. You just stole some truth from the Bible and didn't give credit to God. So that happens all the time. I'm reading this book, Thirteen Things Mentally Strong People Do. I'm reading the first one, I'm like, oh, that's in the Bible. Oh, that's in the Bible. I don't see any Bible verses here. You're acting like you created this. Then it gets to this one. Ready? Thirteen Things Mentally Strong People Do, they coach themselves. God said that two thousand years ago. You think you created that. No, you didn't create that. God knows that. That's how you get success again. Back to baseball. What do they tell you when you go up to bat, you've got to have good self-talk. Tell yourself you're going to do this over and over again. It's about you. We're not instructing our soul about how great we are, but how awesome God is. And now we're worshiping, now we're living for the glory of God. Now I enjoy in the midst of a storm. How can James say, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various storms trials,” right? How do you do it? Because I know this is not here by some random chance. I know this is here, guided by God.
Listen to Psalm 71. I love these words, Psalm 71, verses 20 and 21. Listen to this. Psalm 70:20-21 says this, “You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again.” Who's the one bringing the storms? God is and he's going to revive me through them. So, I trust that when it comes I'm not lifting my soul up to something that's false. I'm going to talk and say, no, God's going to get me through this. And guys, you don't have to be a theologian to make this happen. You don't have to have some master's degree from some fancy university to do this. You can be saved and be able to do it. Because what do you know if you're saved? Jesus died on the cross for my sins. They no longer enslave me. Jesus rose from the dead. I have new life in him. The Gospel grants me access to the Holy Spirit, and I know my God is able.
I was watching a sweet story. You know, you watch some trash online. There is a sweet story, I saw a kid named Bridger. He's a three-year-old in Colorado, coming home with his grandma. They parked, not in the driveway, little distance from the home, and they got out, and they were walking home. As the grandma got out and shut the door, she tripped, and at 78 years old, I can't remember if it was ice or not, fell, hit the ground, hurt her side and hip, could not get up. So, the three year old comes around and finds grandma on the ground, and there are no neighbors around. It's dark. You're in Colorado. Who knows if there are animals around. This is a precarious situation. Grandma goes, I don't have my cell phone with me. Classic grandparents, right? They never have their cell phones with them. Sorry, grandparents, you just don't have your cell phones with you. Bring them. I don't have my cell phone with me. It's in the house. Bridger, I need you to go walk and get it. This is a three year old in pitch darkness walking by himself to get into the house. Bridger is obedient, and he's walking along the way. On the side of the house, they have a camera, one of those ring cameras that records the sound. And little Bridger is walking by, and you know what he's saying the entire time. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. What does Bridger know to be true? You have to talk to yourself. He's three years old. That's his instinct. We don't say, don’t be scared. We say, God's got me, don't be scared. We say, Jesus is victorious. Don't be afraid. We say this, “Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.” Do not be afraid. Soul, do not let your affections and your devotion go to what does not deserve it. God deserves it, and so if God deserves it, let my soul be satisfied there.
And that's exactly what's going on in this trial to present you something that is better than what the world can offer. It's knowing God and who he is. Notice what he said. Says, “He only is my rock, on God rest my salvation and my glory, my mighty rock, my refuge, is God.” He knows him. What is eternal life? John 17:3, “that they may know him,” and you’ve got to love him, and you’ve got to walk alongside him. Now it says this again. Notice it says, “On God rest my salvation and my glory.” My salvation and my glory. Some people translate it to be “my glorious salvation,” and I think that could be a proper translation of it, but I don't think that's what David's hinting at here. I think David, as I read the Psalms and then other books of the Bible help me understand, oh, that's not exactly what is being said here. I don't think it's trying to describe the type of salvation. I think it's making a declaration as to what the goal of salvation is, which is God, on God, or in God rests my salvation and glory in the Hebrew. Rest is not there. It's just on God, my salvation, my glory. So, it's showing that God is the object that I'm going after. That's what I get when I get to the end of a trial, I get God, and that's what I need. What did Augustine say? “Our soul only finds rest when we find rest in him.” So, he's the goal. He's the object. That's where we're going. That's what we want to know, God. So, I will go whatever you want me to go through, God, “even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I won't fear any evil.” Why? Because I'm great? No, because you are with me, and your right hand guides me.
We won't turn there, but write down Psalm 106 verse 20, this is one of the reasons why I think it's God being the goal, the destination. It's what you get, not a description of the salvation. Psalm 106: 20 says, this is what Israel did. They exchanged the glory of God for an idol, and that's what happens. So, the trials come in, and if we don't instruct our souls, what's going to happen is we're going to give in to these hardships. I would like you to turn with me to this one, Jeremiah, chapter 2. This is what I think David is trying to communicate here, Jeremiah, chapter 2. Book of Jeremiah and a lot of the Old Testament shows that Israel, when they faced the storms, when the struggles came, they didn't do what God wanted them to do, and so they ended up in a lot of hard places because of their sin. Listen to how Jeremiah, chapter 2, verses 11 to 13, Jeremiah is rebuking the people for not responding the way they should. 2:11 says, “This has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods.” I love the clarity with which he speaks. He knows idols are nothing. Listen to this sad line, but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. What is the people's glory? Yahweh, that's their glory. He summarizes who he is by the attribute of glory. “My people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled. O heavens at this. Be shocked. Be utterly desolate, declares the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. They've forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” If we don't instruct our souls, we'll be tempted to lift up our soul to what is false, and it will never satisfy. Why do we fall for it? Oh, because we start with what we feel, and now idols are tempting if I'm just going with what I feel, and the trial is getting me to just react this way, and I want to feel better, or I want my life to be easier, or I'm looking for these circumstantial changes, then yeah, I'm going to go with what the easy, pleasing appetite is right there, and I'm going to go after it, but if I start with what I know I won't fall for it.
Have you guys heard of the Museum of Failure? Super interesting museum. It's a museum a guy curates, I think it travels from place to place, and all it does is just find what was supposed to be the next IT product, and then it failed, and they put it on display to show the failure of it. So, this will date some of us in the room. You remember New Coke? Some people don't, because it doesn't exist anymore, right? People, old heads in the room, they realized, oh, okay, there was something called New Coke. You know what happened? Coke was brilliant. Hey, we're the number one brand. Everything's going well for us. Why don't we change everything up and get worse? That was their plan, essentially. So, they came out with New Coke, and within like weeks, they were getting hate mail, going, we hate this stuff. So, they came out with Coca Cola Classic, which is just the old stuff that was working, and they got rid of New Coke. New Coke was a failure. So, you can see, go to the Museum of Failure, you see cans of New Coke. They also have this thing called the Sound Burger. You know, that's going to be bad, just the poor marketing, with a Sound Burger. Remember records, those massive things? This was a portable record player to wear like a Walkman. It's like putting this on your on your belt, and walking around, plugging in something there, and you're going to walk around like, leaning to the side, because you have this massive thing there. Obviously, didn't catch on. It's a failure. It's in the Museum of Failure. There's no profit in it. Let's say you and I become buddies after the service. We share affinity for the scriptures. We love the Tigers. We go to lunch. We have a great time. We go, hey, let's go hang out again. I go, let's go check out the Museum of Failure. Say we're walking around, we're looking at the different pieces. We roll up on the Sound Burger, and I go, hey, I got a great idea. Let's go to the bank, get all of our money, invest everything we have in this product right here. I think we're going to score big. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. I hope you would tell me you're an idiot, you're dumb. You know, this does not profit. It is a failure. Why would you invest in it?
So, Christian, when you're tempted towards idolatry in the storm, what does this say? They've changed their glory for that which does not profit. Don't be a fool and invest in what you know is a failure. If you start with what you feel, that's where you'll get, but if you go with what you know, you're going to turn to God. Go back to Psalm 62 that's exactly where David goes. Notice he has instructed his soul. So, we get to our hearts by instructing our soul, then let her be through prayerful unburdening. Notice verse 8 goes to prayerful unburdening. When we do that, it helps our hearts stay focused on God. Trust in him at all times. O people, pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us again. Note the perspective changes. He started declaring to people, then talking to his enemies, then his own soul. Now he's amidst a group of people, going, guys, we’ve got to trust God. This is one of the fantastic things about God, getting you through a trial. At the end, you get to praise him by saying, guys, we can trust him. He got me through. I've seen it happen before. We’ve got to trust in God. And when you trust in God, you worship him.
Now, trust has many wonderful components. Here are two that I think are fantastic. Trust has a reliance component, where when God says something, I can rely on it. That's how anyone is saved. Remember Genesis 15:6. Abraham trusted God. He believed God, “and it was counted to him as righteousness.” What was he doing? God said, this is going to happen. Abraham goes, okay, I believe that, I rely. I trust. There's a reliance component to trust. But do you know what I love about trust? There's also a defiance component to it. And when you are confronted with sin, I hope you, by faith and for the glory of God, defy what is offered to you. We won't turn there, write down Hebrews 11:23-27. Why? Because that's the faith chapter. Without faith, it's impossible to please him, because those who come to God must believe that he exists and is a rewarder of those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6. It's the faith chapter. But in this section, verses 23 to 27, Moses is confronted with either going after pleasure and security in Egypt or being with God's people. And it says, “By faith he chose rather to be with the people of God.” And the reproaches of Jesus than to go to the passing pleasures of sin. Trust defies what you offer me. I am not interested in you're getting nowhere with me in God's kindness. The other night, I was with my boys, and we were approached by somebody preaching a false gospel, and I looked him in the eye and said, you can talk to me till you're blue in the face, but I will never give up trust in a holy God who has saved me through Jesus, and I defy what you're saying. It's wrong, and you can't get to heaven any other way than through Jesus. There's a defiance component. You're a soldier. You fight by faith. And I defy what's coming against me to even offer me something that I'm interested in, because I know what is right, and God is impacting my thinking. So, I feel this in my soul. You can't give me anything that is lasting. Do you fight by faith? What does Ephesians tell you about the shield of faith? It “wards off all the flaming darts of the evil one.”
So how do we exercise faith? We pour out our hearts to God. How does your prayer life go during trials? It should increase. You shouldn't run from him. To exercise faith is to it's just a beautiful phrase, pour out your heart to God. It is very hard to cling on to the promises of God when you're clutching burdens, but God says this, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and at the proper time he will exalt you. Casting all your cares upon him because God cares for you. God, the maker of heaven and earth, cares for you, and he loves you, and he's saying, “Come and unburden yourself to me.” Remember Hannah? 1 Samuel 1. Devastated, wanting a child, she poured out her spirit to Yahweh, same word. You want to handle those trials, you better be going to God that way. And when we do that, we see great success. We don't have time to turn there. Psalm 43 says the same thing. Psalm 43:1-5, God is my great joy. And he says, “Why are you cast down on my soul? Hope in the Lord, and I'm going to worship him.” This is how we navigate through it.
Back to Psalm 62. There is one more section that helps us here. Verse 9. “Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.” Now, in this section, there are a lot of moving parts, but I think we can encapsulate it if we think through the terms this way. So, if I'm navigating the storms and struggles of life after I've gotten my bearings and I got to work on my soul, I lastly, want to “Glory in Gospel assurance.” Glory in Gospel assurance. And when I do that, when I glory in Gospel assurance, I ground my hope in God, and I am renewed in strength to live for him, because nothing does that like the gospel. Remember that from Isaiah 52:7. Isaiah 52:7, it tells you to go publish the good news, the gospel. And what is the good news that they tell you to proclaim? Your God reigns. That is what we do. We glory in that. And what we see here in verses 9 and 10 is that the enemies that we face ultimately are insignificant.
Letter A: “Remember your enemies’ insignificance.” Listen to how the psalmist talks about him here. Those of low estate, okay, if you're having a struggle against somebody ,low man on the totem pole, the janitor of a company, those of low estate, they're but a breath, they're nothing. And those of high estate, the CEO of the company. Guess what? So, he's a delusion. He thinks he's important. He's nothing in the balances, they go up together. They are together lighter than a breath. We think of the Hebrew concept, the glory of God, the Kavod, the weightiness of God. So, the balances, the weight, shows the worth, and the worth is down here in the glory of God, your enemies, they're lighter than a breath. Remember Ecclesiastes? Everything is meaningless. Heavier. Same word, it's nothing. They're nothing. So then, because they're nothing, don't get out of the trial through your own concoctions and schemes. Verse 10, “Put no trust in extortion.” We just said we’ve got to trust in him. Set no vain hopes on robbery. We just said hope is in God. If God has your riches increase, do not set your heart on them. We're talking about instructing our hearts. Your enemies and their ways mean nothing to God. How do we know that? Because we know the Gospel is true. Let her be through rejoicing in God's strength and steadfast love. I love how the psalmist ends up here. He says it in verse 11, once God has spoken twice? Have I heard it? When you see that set up in the Bible, you'll see it from time to time, something like you remember in Proverbs, Proverbs, chapter 6, I think it's 16 and 17. “There are six things the Lord hates, yes, seven that are an abomination to him.” When he gives you that thing, it's trying to lead up to look at the last number to prepare you for it. So, he says, once, God has spoken, twice have I heard this. And then we're met with two attributes of God. So, it's trying to get you to think of these two aspects of God. And when we face a trial, these two attributes are so fundamentally calming and assuring, they are our refuge. Once has God, has spoken twice. Have I heard this? That power belongs to God. He's omnipotent, he's strong, he's mighty, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
There is power and love found in God. If God is only power and not love, we've got a despot that we can't run to and who's going to destroy us. But if he's only love and not powerful, he'll be nice to us, but he's impotent against trials. The God of the Bible is both all power, all love, and when we see that combination in the Gospel, that's how we know when we're saved, there is no one who can snatch us out of the hand of God. His power is indomitable, his love is unceasing. So that's why we rejoice in the Gospel.
Then he ends with this. “You will render to a man according to his work.” I had the privilege of growing up in a Bible teaching gospel believing home parents; just an encouragement to you out there, teach your kids the scriptures, get them involved in churches like this that are going to put the Scriptures on their heart and their minds. And from a very young age, my parents told me of my need of a Savior, how Jesus' work on the cross is sufficient, the only sufficiency to save me from my sins and to give me the righteousness I need to stand in the kingdom of heaven. And because my parents taught and modeled that so well from the day that God saves me on in God's kindness, I have never once doubted God's love for me, because I see it in Jesus. So, when I see passages like this, I'm never like, ooh, what's going to happen if God's going to render to a man according to his work? Why? Because I know what was paid for me on the cross. And so, the judgment that will come to Christians in the New Testament, we see passages like 2 Corinthians 5, Romans 14, judgment of commendation for the good work that I do for his name. I'm not fearful that that's going to separate me from the love of God, because I know I have that in Christ Jesus, and nothing can ever separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. But make no mistake about it, every single person in this room will stand before God, and he will render to you according to your works.
Turn with me to Romans 2:6. You're going to see this exact same phrase show up there. In Romans 2:6-11. So many of the themes that we've just talked about show up here in this text, Romans, 2, 6 through 11. “He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.” If you are here, hidden in the blood of Jesus, it's the safest place you can be. And you know that when you suffer, you are in the arms of God, and nothing can separate you from that love. But if you are here this morning, and you've never bowed the knee in repentance and faith to Jesus, I'm here to tell you, have no hope or foundation. There are two types of people in this world. Jesus says, Those who hear my Word and do it, and when the storms of life come, my life doesn't collapse because I'm founded on the rock. But there are those who think they're wise, but they're fools. They hear God's word and they don't do it, and their house is built on the sand. Which one's your life built on today?
Let's pray that it's built on the rock that is Christ. Let's go to him right now and ask that you give us the grace to live for him in the midst of whatever storm may come, God, we trust that you are great and greatly to be praised. There is, as Isaiah said, no one like you, Father, please help us to long for you, to know that our hope is only found in you, and to never be distracted by anything in this world. God, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, none of that is from the Father. Help us to be wise, to know that the Father who loved us enough to send his Son to die for our sins; wants us to know joy and satisfaction in this life and the next, and it's found only in him. So may we trust you and live reliantly and defiantly for your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.