Singing in the rain

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I likened our team to a toddler , um, whose unsteady and shaky steps when they grasp hold of their father's hand become more sure and steady well central church. It is with great joy that I, along with all of the pastoral search team, give this morning all glory to God for humbling our hearts, for directing this team steps and for uniting our spirits behind the selection.

But first and foremost in him, God truly did a work in the search team and again, it's with great joy, but I announced that the pastoral search team unanimously and enthusiastically recommends Matt Shackleford is the next lead teaching pastor of central church. You've heard before

He'll be the first to tell you that he is not perfect. But the pastoral search team, we see Jesus and Matt . I see Jesus in mat , and that's my prayer this morning that your spiritual eyes be opened , that YouTube will see Jesus and Matt as he shares from God's word. And so again, on behalf of the pastoral search team, thank you for the opportunity to serve the body of Christ.

May God bless Matt and his family and central church as we continue to walk in these good works, which God has prepared in advance for us all the while tightly holding on to our heavenly father's hand. Thank you.

. Thank you Brad [inaudible] .

The sheep are not mine, not pastor mats , but they're gods and we're entrusted with the care and feeding of God's people. And B as we know, if you're in that role, you're God's representative and God has a very high standard for how we are to do ministry, how we're to love people, how we're to teach. Correct. And all of the things that God's word says where to do so is great. My great pleasure to share this with you, that Matt fully understands that role. He has a heart for that.

He is equipped for that and he has a love for that. So with that said, Matt, you're up. Thank you brother.

We ask now that you'd speak, father, I, you know, all the thoughts and all of the well, the things that I'm thinking right now and Lord, I just pray that you'd help me be laser focused and I pray that you would direct my mind to Christ. I pray you'd direct my mind to the scriptures and father, I pray that that may be even just all the spotlights would be taken off of me. And , and I pray that your son, Jesus Christ would shine.

And I pray that Jesus Christ would be the greatest treasure and the greatest pleasure in all of life for every single person at central church. Father, I , uh , I pray right now that you've given us a responsive heart to what you have for us in your word. Father, the answer is yes. Now tell us what you want. The answer is yes, we want to respond in obedience to your word. And so speak. Now, I pray you just use me as your conduit for what you want.

And we pray all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our savior. Amen. Amen. Well, let's take your Bibles. Let's open to Psalm 46 this morning. We're in Psalm 46 as you're turning there, there was a hilarious story that came out in the Galveston press a while back about a parakeet named chippy, the owner, a , I don't know if you have birds or if you've ever had the experience of having a bird, but the owner hated , uh , cleaning out the bird cage .

And so the owner came up with a genius idea to speed up that process. She took her canister vacuum and took the attachment off on the end to sort of clean things up on the bottom of the cage and it was all going great until the phone rang. And when the phone rang, she turned, move the hose up and it was by, by chippy. Chippy was gone, realizing what happened.

The owner rot went to the canister, vacuum, opened it up, took the lid off, and there was chippy in a big pile of dirt and suit and crumbs. And it was quite a moment. She took that poor bird , uh , ran it over to hot water. The water was a little too hot. And so she turned on the cold water and rinse it off. And then chippy was just shivering. And so she took chippy by the feet and started blow-drying this little bird.

And uh , as that happened, she took the bird, put it back in the cage, everything's fine, fluffed him off . It was, it was great. And um, a while later, the person at the Galveston press who filled it , the story , uh, called the owners just to check in, Hey, how's , how's chippy doing? And , uh, I , I wrote this piece about your bird. I just wanted to see how everything turned out. And the owner said, well, chippy looks okay, but chippy doesn't sing much anymore.

And uh , she just sort of sits there and stares. And I love that story because, you know, I think, I think for us, I think we understand what's going on in the life of that bird. I think all of us realize we're a lot like chippy. Life is traumatizing. Life is difficult. Life is hard. And it's that way because we're living under a curse. We're living under a curse condition known as the fall and we feel it every day , don't we ? It's the fall that threatens to take away our song is traumatizing.

You feel it when you go to the doctor and you fill a diagnosis or you hear that diagnosis from the doctor, you feel it when your , your friends are lost to death. You fill it with a sick child, you fill it with a lost loved one. Maybe it's as simple as a difficult day at the office, a difficult week, month, year. Maybe. For some of you it's been just a hard life. We know what it's like to be traumatized.

We know what it's like to go through difficult days because life is just, it's just disappointing sometimes. My cousin Caitlyn just had her first baby, such a great time and the baby was born and they realized that the heart was so deformed. The doctors had to sit down and say, we need to have surgery on this child, but we want to be honest with you. We don't even know where to start. It's that bad. We all feel those moments that threatened to take away our song, don't we?

So today what I want to do is I want to preach through some 46 a sermon. I've entitled singing in the rain. And uh , my goal for you today is to get back your song. I want to help you in a traumatizing world and a , this is a powerful Psalm and it shows that no matter what you're going through, no matter what your difficulty is in life, God is more than sufficient for the troubles of life and the trials of life. God is more than sufficient. But we need to know our God.

Your best hope for me today is to tell you something of who God is. And that's what Psalm 46 does. So let's do this. Let's take our Bibles in our hands. Let's stand together in honor of God's word. We're in Psalm 46. I'm reading from the ESV and we'll just read through the whole song . Psalm 46 starting in verse one we stand in honor of God's word. Chapter 46 verse one 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 sailor, 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 kingdom's totter. He utters his voice. The earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress sailor. Come behold the works of the Lord. How he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes war cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear and 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 sailor friends , so reads God's word. Let's receive it this morning with joy.

You may be seated. Psalm 46 is a very personal and very powerful passage to me just because of my life's history. Back in 2013 my wife was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and we were in the hospital not knowing what was going on for a couple of weeks where we laid in a hospital bed asking God, why, why have you let this happen? Why has this been allowed to come to our doorstep?

And as we read the Psalms, as we read the Holy scriptures, we , we came to Psalm 46 and this was a very personal, a very powerful ministry to our hearts in the middle of a very difficult place. This was a Psalm that gave us our song in the night and not just for us, not just for us. For many in church history, Psalm 46 has been especially powerful. In fact, it was Martin Luther. He used to who had all sorts of troubles in his day.

He used to say to his good friend, Philip Malenka , and he would say, come Phillip , let's sing the 46 and they would raise their voices and they'd sing. You know it. A mighty fortress is our God, right? A bulwark never failing and they'd raise their voices and they would sing of a God who never fails his people. This has been a powerful song for God's people and it's powerful because, because it shows that God is more than enough for all of our problems. Notice how clearly it feel .

Take your Bible and just look at the text . Notice how clear the divisions are in this text. You see it? Notice there's three main sections. All of them are ended with the words sailor. Say lets one of those untranslatable words. It's just transliterated. Just sailor . We think it's probably, I was telling someone just this week, we think it means something along the lines of praise Yahweh. Hello , Ja , praise the Lord or think about the Lord or meditate on the Lord or it's a musical interlude.

Or it could be a lot of different things. It could mean snorkel. All right. We don't know what it means, but we think it means to praise God, to praise the Lord. Some things to think about, to think about the Lord, and there's three very clear points that come out of these three very natural divisions. I'm going to give you the whole sermon right here. You ready? Point number one, God is a refuge in disaster. We're going to see that today.

We're going to see that in verses one to three in verses four through seven. God is a resource. When you're empty, anybody empty this morning. It's my prayer that as we get to 0.2 , God will fill you. God will remind you that he will be a resource to you in your trouble. Point number three, God is a ruler over rebels. Does it? Does it feel life's out of control? Does it feel like things are out of your control? Does it feel like you have enemies surrounding you?

We're going to see that God is ultimately sovereign over all things so as people can rest. That's where we're headed this morning, so let's get into it. Let me do this. Let me start with the setting before we get to our main points. I think I need to help you understand what were the circumstance , excuse me. What were the circumstances surrounding this song? Well, it seems to be a national emergency. This seems to be a period in Israel's history of national emergency.

This might have been there nine 11 where the entire nation is under attack. In fact, many commentators, including Calvin said that that this was the time around seven Oh one and seven 22 where [inaudible] attacked the people of Israel and he swept through the land conquering city after city after city. This was a national emergency.

They came on the land like locus and [inaudible] ended up attacking 46 cities in Israel just destroying them one by one, just marching through the lands, one city right after the other and they were brutal and they were violent. In fact, Habakkuk records that that, that these Calla DNS , these Assyrians, they would, they would take people and they would lead them away like fish on a, on a, on a chain like fish on a hook and and history records.

They would sometimes put hooks into the jaws of their captives and dragged them away into captivity and were told that 200,000 Israelites were led away into captivity. This was a national emergency. This is, this is dark times and there's one city left. It's the city of Jerusalem where Hezekiah is on the throne as the King and Sinatra comes at this moment that's recorded three times in scripture. We know this is a big event because it's recorded at three different books of the Bible.

Second Chronicles 32 second Kings and Isaiah all record this, this moment of disaster. Snack rib comes to the final city in Israel. He comes with an interpreter so that the people could hear and he said something like this. He said, you think that your God is going to save you? I've conquered every other city, conquered countless cities before Jerusalem. There God didn't save them. What makes you think you're going to be any different? He was saying that there is no stopping me.

That's the context. This is a moment of , uh , ultimate despair. These are the darkest moments of King has a Chi as life. It's that moment when he knows his life is on the line or the story goes on. It's a great story. You ought to go back and your devotionals this week and read about it. What happens next is second King says that King has a Kaia . After hearing [inaudible] and his threats, he goes away and second Kings has that beautiful line. He spreads the matter before the Lord.

It's almost like, like he takes the letter from King [inaudible] and just says, Lord, look at this. Look at this. I can't defeat this. I can't solve this problem. Lord, you're going to have to do something, and the story goes that that night, in fact, the very next day, God sends an angel in the night, one angel, one angel and one angel smokes 185,000 Assyrians and Israel wakes up the next day to the battlefield. There's just bodies everywhere and God destroys that .

That army that was sieging Jerusalem. That's the story. That's the context and I want you to just write this down. If you're taking notes. This song was written to celebrate and to remind us that security is not peace from my enemies. It's the knowledge of my God. That's what I want to do for you today. That's the best thing I can do for you is help you understand who God is. And if God is fighting for you, you have no stress, you have no anxiety. So let's start.

Let's just work through those three simple points. Number one, if you're taking notes, we need to know that , that God is a reef resource in disaster. Verse one says, God is a re a refuge and God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. That versus it's a diamond mind of terms. Uh , it is a , you can look through here and there's just amazing terms. The first one is refuge. Refuge. That's what God is. He's a refuge to his, his people. The word there is Masada. Masada.

How many of you have been to Israel? Anyone, if you have you been to Israel? How many have you been to Massada you have, okay, I have a few pictures. Let me put one up. This is a picture of Masada. This , uh , it's a plane. It's a Mesa and it's about 1500 feet above the rest of the area. And I , Ashley and I, we climbed Masada and it , there's something called the snake path and it kind of works its way up the mountain. It's a very narrow path in order to get to the top.

And that snake path was said that it could be defended by about three soldiers with bows and arrows. And so you had to go single file line. This was truly a fortress. It was said that for four years they had enough food and water for 900 people to survive there plus some food and water. They had abundant food, abundant water. It was truly a fortress. It's a safe place. That's the word we're dealing with. God is a fortress. God is a safe place. Look at the next word.

Strength, strength, and it's it's strength outside of ourself . Look at verse one it says, God is our refuge and strength. That's the saying that he is your source of power. Don't depend on yourself. Don't trust in yourself. Exodus 15 says, the Lord is my strength and my song. When we run out of power, when we run out of strength, we discover that God has abundant strength to go to work for us. Notice he takes it a little bit further.

God is a very present help and could translate that a a found help. Um , I have little kids and they love hide and go seek and I'm really good at hiding. And what I love to do is go and hide and my kids will come and try to find me and, and sometimes they can't find their dad. And so I have to kind of make noises and I have to reveal myself to my children and come out into the open. And that's what our heavenly father is like, except he doesn't hide. He makes it obvious he's right there.

He's a found help. He's a , an ever present help. And he's an easy help to find. That's so encouraging. In the midst of our trial, God never hides for from us. God never hides himself away from us. He's always near always that heavenly father ready to provide help. And notice when the next term it's in trouble. God is a help to us in trouble. Now I, I know that , uh , there are many false teachers out there. There are many prosperity gospel teachers out there.

I see those guys on television all the time and they'll say, if you'll just follow Jesus, you'll be healthy, wealthy, and happy. Everything will go well for you. They're on TV all the time. How many of you have seen them? Every time I flipped through the channels, I just want to stab myself in the eye with a fork. Uh, because that is not the gospel. It's not the gospel. In fact, here we see the truth that God will preserve us in trouble, not from trouble. Has a Kaia had to discover that.

Do this. Take your Bible open to second Chronicles. Let's go back and look at, part of has a Kaia story. Second Chronicles 31 tells us just a little bit more. This is so fascinating. In verse 22nd Chronicles 31 verse 20 says, does has a Kaia did throughout all Judah? And he did what was good and listen to this.

He did what was good and right before the Lord and faithful before the Lord, his God and every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments seeking his God he did with all his heart and prospered . Is this a good thing or bad thing? This is very good, right? He is. He is following the Lord with all his heart, all his mind, all his strength. He's loving God. Next verse.

Look at verse one of chapter 32 it says, after these things and these acts of faithfulness, [inaudible] King of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities. That just seems out of place, doesn't it? He was faithful. I mean this guy was serving God. He was, he's a good guy. He's, he's bringing in reform into the people of God and I feel like it should say after all of his faithfulness, God rewarded him with a long life, good health and long vacations.

That's not what it says. And theologically, you and I have to come to the place where we understand that none of us will be exempt from trouble, but God will be faithful to you in trouble. David wasn't spared the Valley of the shadow of death, but God was faithful to him through the Valley of the shadow of death. Shadrach, Meshach, Bendigo, they weren't saved from the fiery furnace. They were saved through the fiery furnace.

There's other people throughout scripture who are, who are reminded, who are reminders to us that, that God doesn't spare us from the difficult things of life just like other people. But he's faithful to us in trouble theologically. That's where we have to be. I remember a sermon Jesus preached about the two houses. Maybe you remember this. Remember the house that was built on the rock and then there's this other house that was built on the sand, right?

And the storm comes and the house on the rock stands and the house on the sand falls and great was its fall. And that's the reminder that , uh, sometimes we think about this. Like if I just build my house on Jesus, I'll have no problems. I have no issues in my life. But remember, the same storm hits both houses. Both houses have to go through the storm. You are not exempt. But for those who are in Christ, for those who have built their house on the rock, God is a faithful God to his people.

He will carry you through. Sometimes God will calm the storm, but most of the time, God calms us in the storm. We need to remember that. Look at verse two. Look at the extent God was a refuge for Hezekiah. In verse two it says, therefore we will not fear. Here's the big therefore , because this is true about God, we won't fear. Now that's amazing to me because there was so much to fear. When you go to Israel, you discover all these cities, these 46 cities, they're actually really close together.

As the cities are, as [inaudible] sweeping through the land, you can hear the battle cries. You can hear the marching of troops, you can see the smoke going up into the air. It's a scary moment. And your cities next, they just conquered the other city. Yours is next. There's a lot to fear and yet in verse two there's a shout of defiance. We will not fear. Why? Because he knows something about God that transcends his present instability. Look at verse two look how bad it gets.

And this might speak to some of you cause you could say I am in the middle of the worst disaster. You could imagine. Maybe that's why you're here this morning. God wants to say this to you. Look at verse two though the earth gives way though the mountains be moved in the heart of the sea though its waters roar and foam though the mountains tremble at its swelling. This is the worst scenario you could possibly imagine.

In fact, I remember growing up in Oklahoma and we had these big tornadoes that would come through and and my family would drive through the cities after those tornadoes and you can't even imagine the devastation, the broken huge trees just snapped in half and we'd , we'd go through and we'd see that this is far worse. This isn't just a windstorm . This isn't just a tornado. Even the mountains aren't safe. The mountains themselves are being cast in the heart of the sea.

There's no stable ground anywhere and he's saying even in the middle of all that, God will be an unmoving refuge for you. You need to hear that man of God, man of God. Are you listening? You need to hear that whatever you're going through, woman of God, child of God, you need to hear that today, that God is a safe place to hide. You needed to let him be your refuge. Don't hide in your wealth. All the money in the world can't get you out of the hospital. Bed. Can't sustain you.

Don't hide in your plans. God may change your plans . Has a Kaia , has both an army and walls and he does not trust either. He trusts God. He lays the matter before God. He turns his panic into prayer. That's a great thought for us this morning, so that's our first point. God is a refuge in disaster.

There's a second point this morning, know that God is a resource when empty God is a resource when empty or any of you here filling empty this morning, feeling like you can't go on feeling like your tank is out of gas. He keeps us going. Look at verse four there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the Holy habitation of the most high. This river is a a assemble throughout the old Testament and the new Testament of God's faithfulness and God's satisfaction for his people.

In fact, didn't Jesus say to the woman at the well in John chapter four that that that you ought to drink of me? He said, whoever drinks of me, I will give him water and he shall never thirst again. John seven at the feast, Jesus stands up and said, is anybody thirsty? Let him come to me. Let him drink. This is the reminder that God is satisfaction, that Jesus Christ can be your satisfaction even when the entire world and the scenarios around you are so dissatisfied .

Now, historically, I think this is probably a reference to Jerusalem's water supply. Uh , Jerusalem is kind of a unique city. If you've ever been there, you know this. It's one of the only ancient cities in the world that's not built near a river. They had a river in Babylon. They had a , a river where the Persians were at, and where those kingdoms existed in those massive ancient cities, Jerusalem has no river.

In fact, when Sinatra pulls up to the Gates, he's probably thinking to himself, this is going to be the easiest siege I've ever had. They've got no water supply. They've got nothing to keep them going. In fact, when they run out of water, they just , they're just going to hold up the white flag and surrender. It'll be over. So what this is probably referencing is something that has a Kaia did something called Hezekiah's tunnel.

If you've ever, if you've ever been to Israel, you can actually walk through, here's a picture of Hezekiah's tunnel. You can walk through it. It's about waist deep and, and has a Kaia set his men to task to dig this tunnel from the [inaudible] spring all the way through Jerusalem. And there's one little area where they took a wrong turn and it's kind of fun to walk through that.

Um , but it's, it's a hundred and uh , or it's 1,777 feet long and it's this underground river that goes and brings water into the center of the city of Jerusalem. It was a secret water supply. So Nacro had no idea that they had. I think that's probably the , uh , the context. I think that's probably what this is referencing the image there that God will, will be like that to you whenever you go through your trial. God will be like that secret water supply.

When life is so dissatisfying, he will be like a spring welling up inside of you giving you satisfaction that the world can understand. God will be like that fresh drink of grace every day to you when you think you can't keep going. Some 73 whom have I in heaven, but you. Oh God, there's nothing on earth I desire besides you, my heart, my strength may fail, but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. So when you think like you, you can't face another day of trouble.

God will be like that river. He will sustain you. Look at verse five. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. Verse six and seven 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. Saylah that , uh , that phrase is a reminder of all the satisfying resources God has to offer. Lord of hosts, Lord of armies, Lord of angel armies. Remember one angel took down 185,000 Assyrians.

He has an army of angels at his disposal for his people. He will satisfy the hearts of his people. We need to know that. So man of God, discouraged today, woman of God, discouraged child of God. Discouraged God will be faithful to sustain you. When you lose your job, he'll be faithful to sustain you. That product will son. He will be faithful to sustain you in your loneliness and in your diagnosis and he will continue to satisfy you in the midst of pain. Who's this for?

Is this for the strong Christian just for strong believers. Did you notice that phrase, the God of Jacob? It's twice in this passage, God of Jacob. Well , I asked myself, why do you, why did he say God of Jacob? Why not God of Abraham, the man of faith? Why not? Uh, why not someone else? Why not some other more godly person than Jacob? Jacob was a bit of a scoundrel in the old Testament.

Uh , I had an old professor who used to say, if I was picking neighbors , I'd much rather have East saw than Jacob. Esau was kind of like a nice guy and Jacob was the liar. He was the deceiver. He was the manipulator. What does it say, God of Jacob, when Jacob was so weak? I think what this is doing, and this is reminding the people of God, that his resources are for the failing and for the weak and for the faithless. It's for you and for me.

When Nicholas was the first czar of Russia, he used to make these secret trips to his outposts. He would , uh, he would dress up kind of like undercover boss. He would, he would put on the a captain's uniform or a lieutenant's uniform and it's kinda dress up and he loved to visit and sort of examine the camp from the inside out without them knowing that he was coming. One of those outposts.

There was a young man and , and this young man was a friend to the emperor, a friend to the Zahra , I should say. And uh , his dad's position got him a really cushy job, really nice job. He was in charge of payroll. He was in charge of giving everyone their weekly wages. And so he had a safe in his room and he had the, he had the ledger in his room and, and uh, he was there in charge of paying bills.

But , but I'll tell you, being out on the battlefield, being out on the front lines, it's a very lonely place. And well, as soldiers do the soldiers, they typically start gambling at some point. And that's exactly what happened with this young man. He got caught up in gambling and well, when he lost his own money, he started losing the government's money, started dipping into the safe.

You'd go into the safe and he'd take a few here and a few coins there and, and he'd wind some, he would lose some gamble some away. He'd make a big wind . But over time, the amount just , uh, started dwindling that he had in the safe. He always intended to pay it back. I always hoped for a big win and he was always hoping to pay it back. And, and uh, at a particularly low moment, he got wind that , uh, he , he heard that, that the czar was coming to visit his camp.

And so as soon as he heard that he ran back to his room, he , uh, pulled the ledgers down and he opened them up and he opened the safe up and he pulled out all the coins that were still in the safe. And, and he, he added up the difference. And he, he wrote down the number from the ledger and he wrote down the amount that he was having. And the amount of had to have was so far off from what he really had. And he looked at the number and it was an, it was an enormous amount.

It was , um , well, it was too much to pay back. It was an impossible debt. He knew that, that when the soldiers came and inspected his job and inspected the books, he knew, he knew that , uh, he would be arrested. He'd put in jail , be put in jail for the rest of his life, maybe, maybe executed. He knew that his father would be incredibly dishonored and , uh , this young man just couldn't face that. So he was looking for a way out and he decided to kill himself.

He , uh, open the drawer of a desk, pulled out a revolver and opened another drawer and he pulled out a drink, started drinking. He decided that at midnight he was, he's going to take his life, escape it all as he was sitting there counting down the minutes, he , uh, just sitting there drinking and took up a pin , almost, almost thoughtlessly. And he just started riding on the ledger. And , uh, he wrote a very pathetic sentence. It was a great debt who can pay? And he knew the answer.

He, no one can pay the debt that IO. So as he kept drinking, he ended up passing out on his desk and on in his room. And, and uh , wouldn't , you know, at that very night, Nicholas, the czar of Russia did show up. Everyone was asleep. It was midnight. And uh, and Nicholas saw light on right back here. He saw it in the distance and he said, I wonder what's going on, who is up at this hour? So he got up and he walked over to that young soldiers room and he saw a sight he'd probably never forget.

He saw a man passed out with a gun, a pile of gold and the ledgers. And he thought this, well, this is something I need to investigate. He walked over behind the, the young man kinda got behind him and looked over his shoulder and he saw what was going on, the difference between the gold and the ledger. And then he saw that young man's pathetic line that he wrote a great debt who can pay. Oh , that was quite a moment, especially when the czar looked down and he recognize this young man.

He recognized that this was the son of a very dear friend of his. He did something, he didn't call the guards. He did something very unusual. He showed mercy, picked up that young man's pin and he wrote in just one word, Nicholas . Then he stamped it with the signet ring of the czar and he just left, walked out. The young man around, one o'clock came to, he woke up and sort of looked around and he said, Oh, it's past midnight. I'm going to go ahead and do it.

He , um, as right as he was about to do it, he picked up the gun. Then he saw that a phrase, a great debt who can pay and underneath he saw something else. He saw Nicholas and then he saw the seal of the czar and he thought to himself putting two and two together. Nicholas must've been here and Nicholas is promising that he will cover my great debt and provide everything that I need.

So he went to bed and Nicholas the next morning had paid it all true to his word down to the penny, and he found all this peace trusting in that King. Isn't that the gospel? Isn't that what Jesus Christ does for guilty sinners every single day? Isn't that what Jesus does? When we put our trust in him, Jesus has promised to pay our debt and an aside, part of that is he has promised to satisfy us in himself. Dear friends, the best thing you can know is knowing who your God is.

He is a refuge, but he's also a resource to you who has promised to satisfy the desires of your heart in himself. There's one final truth that will help us get our song back. Number three, he's a refuge. He's a resource and he's a ruler. Know that God is a ruler over rebels. Look at verse eight this is where we'll end. In verse eight it says, come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. This is the reminder that God is absolutely sovereign.

This is the reminder that when life feels out of control, God is sovereign. God is more than enough to meet your needs. God is more than enough to be over and above every situation you think that is out of control. In verse eight he could be talking about two different desolations. Maybe it's all the cities that were destroyed, those 46 cities, or maybe it's all the debt of Syrians that are on the battlefield, 185,000 dead bodies, and the point is God is sovereign over your calamity.

People of God. We've got to pick that up whenever you're going through. You have to understand that that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He works all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. God even now is working things for your good that feel very bad, but they're being worked for a peculiar sense of glory. In verse nine it goes further. He makes war cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the Bo , he shatters the spear.

He burns the chariots with fire. This is the reminder that there are no panicked moments in heaven, only plans that that's helpful and our moment of need when we get the diagnosis of cancer. The God has a perfect plan for us and he's a ruler of all the things that feel out of control. When our enemies attack us, when our children walk away from church, God is a ruler and God is sovereign. We need to preach that to ourselves and one another. Even the devil is God's devil.

As Luther said, God is a sovereign ruler over all enemies, so trust him. How do we apply this? Let me give you just three quick applications you should write down as we close. First of all to sing again, you must be born again. Did you notice in verse 10 God speaks? He gives an altar call to the enemies of God. That may be for you this morning if you're lost, if you're here and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, he could be speaking you at this very moment.

This may be the very reason you're in this room is to hear the gospel and God gives an alter call to you right here. He says this, be still and know that I'm God. This isn't the language of the monastery. This is the language of the monarchy. It's a command. It's not contemplated. Be still and know that I'm God. It's a command. Literally it's have have weak arms, have drooping arms, put down your weapons of warfare and bow the knee to your sovereign King.

It's an altar call and I just beloved, I just want to say to you if, if you are not a Christian, if you're not walking with the Lord, maybe you're a son or daughter of a family. Maybe you've been coming to this church for a long time, but you know in your heart of hearts it's just not real. Could God be speaking to you right now and saying it's time to bow the knee.

Stop striving, stop striving, repent of your sin, and turn and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that like Nicholas , he has paid debt for you and the moment that you repent and believe, God will save you, God will wash you white as snow. You'll be white as snow from the top of your head to the bottom of the sole of your foot. You'll be saved once you do that today.

Once you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today, second application point, you and I, if you are in Christ, ought to leave this place. Very dependent. Dependency is required from the people of God. We need to turn our panic into prayer. We need to do what has a Kiah did in second Kings. We need to spread our matters before the Lord. It's that you and I would stop seeking our, our refuge and and our refreshment in other places and we'd start going to the Lord and saying, Lord, you must hide us.

You must be our refreshment. We must. We need something outside of ourselves. We need to hide in you. Number three, I think this passage very pointedly reminds us that we need to know who God is. When you know who God is, you'll start to lose your anxieties. If you have a man size God, you will have God-sized anxieties. We need to know who God is. And that's the point of Psalm 46. It reminds us that our God is a refuge and a resource and he is a ruler. Therefore we can trust him.

So you and I ought to go on a desperate search of knowing God, knowing the gospel and preaching who he is to our burdened hearts and knowing that because God loves his son, you'll also love his people as we close. I , uh, I met my wife Ashley , uh , 16 years ago and we've been married 14 years now. We have three kids. And uh , I still think back to the first moments when I met Ashley's parents. Now that's a , it's kind of an awkward moment, isn't it?

When you meet the parents of the , the woman that you love. I remember going to, I remember going to a Ashley's mom's house for the first time. It was a , it was a good distance to travel. And , um, Ashley introduced me, she said, mom, this is, this is Matt Shackleford. And I think she hit her disappointment pretty good. Uh, when she saw me for the first time, she said, Oh, well , welcome, welcome. Come on in. Come on in.

And , and we gathered around in her living room and , uh, over the next, you know, few minutes I would meet grandparents and I would meet parents and, and uh , we had a great time just getting to know each other. But after about 20 minutes of being there, her mom said to me, Matt, are you , uh, are you hungry? Um, I wanna, I wanna show you something. She walked me over to the fridge.

She opened up the refrigerator and it was just stocked, all the deli meats, everything you could want, a mountain Dew and a lot of different Cokes in the bottom. And she just had it ready. And she said, wow , you're here. Anything you want, just go for it out of the fridge. And I think to myself, this is amazing. I've been here 20 minutes and I own the refrigerator. This is phenomenal.

And then , uh, and then I've been there for a while longer and I've, I've traveled a good distance and, and Ashley's mom said, you know, when you come here to visit Ashley, we're excited to see you in the other part of the house over here. There's actually a spare bedroom and a , it's over here in this part of the house.

And, and uh, it's a very comfortable room and , and that's got a TV and you can go in there and you can just relax and, and , uh , so that you don't have to travel such a great distance back and forth. And, and , uh , we love that room and we , we want to just give that to you when you're, when you're here. And I thought to myself, I've been here 20 minutes, I own the refrigerator and I've got my own room. This is outstanding.

And then I met her dad and her dad came to me and said, Hey, I've got giants and Cowboys tickets. Would you like to go? And I thought, this is outstanding. I've got the fridge, I've got my own room, and now I'm going to see the Dallas cowboy, the Dallas Cowboys play live. This is amazing. Now I think about, I think about that , that first interaction with Ashley's parents. What made the difference? Why is it that I had all those benefits?

I imagine trying to get those benefits without knowing Ashley. Like what would happen if I like knocked on the door? Hi, I'm Matt Shackleford. Gail would say, so what? Right now she's a sweet lady. I think she would give me a sandwich. Um , dear, dear lady. But I don't think I would've gotten the room and I , I certainly don't think I would've gotten the Cowboys tickets. What made the difference? This is what made the difference. I was accepted in their beloved Ashley.

Ashley was a daughter to them. I would become a son to them. What they would do for her, they would do for me the way that they loved her. They would love me. What was hers became mine. What was mine became hers. That's what it's like to be a Christian. You see, Psalm 46 brings us back to the gospel, that when you become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, his benefits become your benefits. And just as God loves his son and has promised to care for his son, he will be that committed to you.

This passage is that this passage teaches us to sing, seeing because we have a God that has opened the door for a refuge. We have a God who has become our resource that will satisfy us sing because he rules over all and nothing is out of place. There's not one Adam in all of existence that's out of place and God's sovereign will so you can rest and you can sing because just as God loves the son , he will love you.

The hymn writer said it so well near, so very near to God, near or I cannot be, but in the person of God's son, I am as near as he dear , so very dear to God, more dear. I cannot be the love with which God loves his son. Such is his love

It's that right now in your heart of hearts, you'd repent of your sin. You trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You'd believe the gospel that Jesus has paid for every sin you've ever committed and you turn to him in faith I that he would be your savior, but not just your savior. Your Lord wants you to do that now. Or maybe there's someone here today and you're struggling. You're , you're here and you've experienced an incredible hurt, feel exhausted. You don't know where to hide.

Why don't you just ask the Lord to be your hiding place right now, once you hide in him. Father, we thank you for this time and your word. We thank you how it speaks to us. Everything we need right here in Holy scripture. Father, pray that you'd create a desperation in this room. I pray that the people of God would be desperate for you today and we wouldn't leave this place self-confident the father. We'd find all our confidence and all our strength outside of ourself in you.

May you be that satisfying river to the people of God this week. May you be that refuge. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.