Refuge

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Amen.
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Open your Bibles today and turn to Psalm chapter 46.
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In a moment we're going to stand and read the entire Psalm.
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This past week I had the opportunity to preach another funeral service.
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When I preach a funeral service, I put notes in a folder for each service and I keep it on my computer.
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So I decided this week to do something I had not done before.
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I actually went through and counted how many funerals I have done in my time as pastor here.
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And when I got to a hundred, I lost count.
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Now that was not all of us because I do services for families in need.
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I've worked in funerals and around funerals all my life and so it's a blessing that God has given me the opportunity to minister to families in need.
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And I noted in all of the notes as I was going through each one, I was counting them and looking at the notes all the way back to years and years ago, I noted that in almost every funeral I have ever preached, I have read the first verse of Psalm 46.
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In almost every funeral I have preached, I have read the passage we are going to read today.
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And the reason is this is a psalm of comfort.
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It is a psalm meant to remind the people of God that though the entire world may seem to be collapsing around them, that God is still present with them.
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He is a refuge for those who trust in him.
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And as I was pondering this week on what our church needs, what we all need in this moment, as we struggle with the difficulties of events that have faced us recently both in the world and within our own fellowship, I thought of nothing better that I could preach than this psalm.
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So let us stand and read the 46th psalm.
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And I am going to read even the introductory words, which there are debates as to whether or not this is part of the inspired text, but I think there is evidence that it could be, so I am going to read it along with the rest.
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To the choir master of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song.
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God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.
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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.
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There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the most high.
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God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.
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God will help her when morning dawns.
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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, come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth, he makes wars cease to the end of the earth, he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the chariots with fire, be still and know that I am God.
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I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth, the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress, Selah.
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Father, as I preach your word, may you be glorified in it, in Christ's name.
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Please be seated.
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I am not particularly given to poetry.
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I prefer straightforward didactic writing, such as we find in the epistles of the Apostle Paul or the clearly articulated narratives that we find in the history books or the Torah or the Gospels, therefore, it probably comes as no surprise to many of you that as my time as pastor here, I have not preached much from the Psalms.
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But every Wednesday night, Brother Andy and I share the teaching responsibility.
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And over the last year and a half or so, Brother Andy has in his time been going through Psalms with us as a time of devotion.
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And I have been very encouraged by listening to him teach the Psalms to us on Wednesday night.
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And I find myself, especially as I get older, being drawn more and more to the Psalms, even though I myself, as I said, am not necessarily a poetic person.
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I appreciate the way that the Psalms tend to capture just about every emotional experience that we have in life.
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From joy to gladness to fear and anger, the Psalmist proves that emotion, hear this, emotion is not the enemy of faith.
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I want to say this again because I think this is confusing for some people.
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Emotion is not the enemy of faith.
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God did not create us to be Stoics.
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You remember who the Stoics were? They were the ones who believed that all emotional experiences were bad and they tried to limit their emotional experiences, anything, by trying to be as emotionless as possible.
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And in doing so, they created something called Stoicism, or the idea that someone is simply without the feeling of joy or happiness or anger or anything else.
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They are a Stoic.
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You've heard that term, the Stoic person.
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But if you read the Psalms, you will note there is no Stoicism in the Psalms.
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The writers of the Psalms, and many of them are David, but it's not always David.
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The writers of the Psalms, you can almost sometimes feel the wetness of the pages as you read because of the tears that are flowing from their eyes as they write these words.
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John Calvin said this, I may truly call this book, the book of Psalms, I may truly call this book an anatomy of all parts of the soul, for no one can feel a movement of the spirit which is not reflected in this mirror.
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All the sorrows, troubles, fears, doubts, pains, perplexities, and stormy outbreaks by which the hearts of men are tossed have been depicted here to the very life.
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This is how John Calvin described the Psalms.
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It is as if every emotion is described, anger, fear, doubt, distress, and we see that as we go through psalm after psalm after psalm.
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And today as we come to the 46th psalm, we find ourselves in one that can draw great emotion and I hope that it does.
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I don't preach for the purpose of emotion, but I do hope that this passage will draw from us a sense of urgency in regard to how we feel about God's presence.
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Because this psalm is about the presence of God and do we as a church believe God is still here or do we believe that God has left us? Do we believe God is still here or do we feel like the spirit has departed? In the Old Testament there was a time where the Ark of the Covenant was stolen from the people of God and as a result a woman gave birth prematurely and when she gave birth she named the child Ichabod.
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The word Ichabod is from the Hebrew word Kabod which means glory.
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Ichabod is the opposite of that.
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She named her child no glory because the glory had departed Israel.
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The Ark had been stolen.
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Can you imagine that you name your child after that, that you name your kid Ichabod because on the day he was born it was the day that the Ark, the presence of God had left? The psalm that we're going to look at today reminds us that God is still with us.
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Some psalms are connected to specific acts of history.
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If you're familiar with Psalm 51 you know that because in Psalm 51 it actually says this psalm was written because Nathan the prophet came to David when David had stolen the wife of Uriah.
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Remember that? And it tells us that Psalm 51 is the prayer of David, a prayer of repentance.
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So we know the historical context of Psalm 51 because it tells us that.
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But Psalm 46, our psalm for today does not give us a historical account to tie it to.
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However, tradition and history does tie this text to a historical account.
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And I want to share that historical account with you because I honestly this week as I was learning more about what happened in this historical account I was overwhelmed by what God did.
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I was telling Jennifer, we were talking about it yesterday as we were driving, I was telling her the story of what happened.
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You see in 722 the Assyrian army decimated the northern kingdom of Israel.
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And in 701, 21 years later, remember the dates go backwards as you go forward in time before Christ, so 722 the northern kingdoms are destroyed.
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In 701, 21 years later, King Sennacherib of the Assyrians wanted to lay siege to the city of Jerusalem.
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And as he was preparing his armies to breach the city walls of Jerusalem, King Hezekiah offered him money in exchange for safety.
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And if you read the story, these passages, this is in 2 Kings 18 and 19 and Isaiah 36 and 37.
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So if you want to write those down to read later you can read the whole account for yourself.
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But in 2 Kings 18 and 19 we have the narrative and then in Isaiah 36 and 37 we have Isaiah's version of the narrative but it's the same story.
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And what happens is, as Sennacherib is outside the city walls, Hezekiah tries to say, I'll give you money.
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He even took gold off of the temple and tried to offer it as a way to save his people.
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But Sennacherib would not be bought.
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He wanted Jerusalem as his prize.
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So Hezekiah went to Isaiah the prophet and Isaiah the prophet said, Jerusalem will not fall to Sennacherib.
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Jerusalem will not fall.
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I do want you to see this.
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Turn to 2 Kings.
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I'm just going to read a few verses.
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But I want you to see what happens.
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2 Kings chapter 19 and verse 32.
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I'll give you a second to get there, I know that one might take a minute.
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2 Kings 19, 32.
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Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a sledge or a siege mound against it.
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By the way that he came, by the same he shall return.
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And he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord.
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For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.
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So this is the words of the prophet.
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He will not come in here.
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He will go back the way he came.
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He will not even shoot an arrow.
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He will not lay siege to this city.
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Now look at verse 35.
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And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians.
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And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all the dead bodies.
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Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh.
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And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Cherezer his sons struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat.
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And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
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What's interesting is there's a historical piece of ancient artifact from the time of Sennacherib which writes of his victories, of the victories of Sennacherib.
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And the one that it does not say that he was the victor over, the one that he did not plunder and loot was Jerusalem.
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Now it doesn't say he lost 185,000 soldiers because they're not going to put that part in it.
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But this is how it happened, y'all.
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As the enemy of God stood outside the camp and they taunted, and if you read the stories, go home and read those passages.
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As you read the stories, they taunt them, your god cannot save you.
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Your god cannot do this.
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Hezekiah is lying to you because Hezekiah, he took his clothes and tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his head and he prayed to God for safety and they said, he is a liar.
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Hezekiah is a liar.
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Your god cannot save you.
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And that very night as the angel of destruction had brought death to all the firstborn in Egypt, the same angel of God passed through the camp of the Assyrians and killed 185,000 soldiers in one night to save the people of God from their enemies.
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Beloved, I believe that's the moment, that moment of deliverance, I believe that's the heart of this psalm.
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Now, I will say this, it might not be, because the psalm doesn't say that, but there is internal and external evidence that suggests that these events are tied together in history.
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But here's the thing about this particular psalm.
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Psalm 46 is not just about Sennacherib and Hezekiah.
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Psalm 46 is a promise for all God's people of all time.
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And I have a feeling that may be why it's not connected to only one historical event, but that every time God has been the refuge, every time God has brought safety to His people, every time God has stood up and been their defense, they can look to this psalm and say, God is our refuge.
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A very present help in times of trouble.
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So what I want to do today is I want to show you this psalm in three parts.
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This psalm has three parts.
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In fact, the great thing about the psalms is they often outline themselves, and they do that by using something called the Selah.
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If you notice at the end of verse 3, at the end of verse 7, and at the end of verse 11, there is a small superscript word, and the word is Selah.
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Or Selah, depending on how you pronounce it.
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That word, I don't believe it was actually meant to be read.
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I read it when I read the scriptures to you, but normally I don't.
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Normally when I read the scriptures to myself, I use the word Selah as to stop and reflect on what was just said.
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We don't actually know what it means.
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But there's a lot of debate as to the way that it should be translated.
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Jerome, when he translated the Bible into Latin in the 4th century, he translated it as Semper.
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Latin, Semper.
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You all know what Semper means.
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It means always.
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Because you think of Semper Fidelis, the Marine Corps motto, right? Semper means always.
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And there is some sense in which this word can mean forever or always.
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But I believe it actually has to do with the way that this particular psalm was to be sung.
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Notice at the beginning it says this is a song.
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And in song there are notations that tell us to stop.
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Like when we're singing, sometimes you'll hear us singing a song, and all the instruments will drop out, and we'll just hear the voices.
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We do that on purpose.
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That's not because everybody made a mistake and forgot to hit the note.
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That's part of the song is to rest.
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And I think the Selahs are musical notations, but I don't think it's just for the music.
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I think because this makes an impact.
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This is meant to rest not only our voices, but to rest our minds on this.
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To stop and think about what this is saying.
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Does that make sense? And so if we look at the Selahs as the three points in this song, then what we see is we see three truths being expressed in this song.
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And I have the outline for you.
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I didn't put it on the screen today.
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By the way, this sermon is very simple.
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It's just the title is Refuge.
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And the three subheadings, if you will, of this, number one is the presence of God in trouble, number two is the power of God in battle, and number three is the praise of God in victory.
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The presence of God in trouble, the power of God in battle, and the praise of God in victory.
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So let's look first at the presence of God in trouble.
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Look at it as it says.
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Psalm 46.1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
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Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
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That's the first verse of this song.
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That's the first verse of Psalm 46.
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Not in the sense of Bible verses, but I'm saying if you're thinking of it as a song, this is a thought.
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Notice it begins with God.
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Who is the God that is being spoken of here? This is the God of Israel.
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It will tell us later it's the God of Jacob.
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Why is he called the God of Jacob? Because Jacob is Israel.
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This is the covenant-keeping God.
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This is the God who created the heavens and the earth.
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This is the God who called Abraham from the land of Ur of the Chaldees, and he made him his man, and he made his children his children.
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And now we by faith are children of Abraham.
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So we are in covenant with this God.
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So when it says God is our, it's speaking about us.
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This is our God.
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And it says God is our refuge.
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Now what is a refuge? A refuge is a place of protection.
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It is a place of shelter from danger.
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In the Old Testament, they had something called cities of refuge.
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And what a city of refuge was, was if you were to kill someone accidentally, you would run to the city of refuge for safety, so that you would not be attacked and killed in response by the family of the person that you killed.
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So they had these cities of refuge that were there so that the person who accidentally shed blood would have a place to go to where he wouldn't have his blood shed in response.
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It was a place of safety.
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You guys remember that, right? You remember the cities of refuge? These cities were important because they were a place where people could go to find safety.
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The Bible says God is our place of safety.
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God is our place of refuge.
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What do we call this room? Yeah, some churches don't use that term.
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And I understand there's some argument about church architecture and how language is to be used.
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But normally we call this room the sanctuary.
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Why do we call it the sanctuary? Because biblically speaking, the sanctuary was where the presence of God was.
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And that's where some people take issue.
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Well, God's everywhere and God lives within us.
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We're the temple.
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This is not the temple.
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I understand that.
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The point, though, is the word sanctuary has come to be known something else.
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The more modern use of the word sanctuary is what? A place of safety.
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Think about it.
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What's a wildlife sanctuary? It's a place where animals are taken to be safe, right? Or if you say that man found sanctuary in the home of someone else.
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You know, he needed safety, so he found sanctuary there, right? Or when people are coming from other countries and they're escaping persecution, and we say we'll give them sanctuary here in the United States, it means we're giving them safety, right? But why is it that the sanctuary becomes connected to the idea of safety? Because of the presence of God.
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That's why the word is connected.
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Because where God is, is safety.
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If you are his.
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I will tell you this.
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If you are not his, where God is, is not safety.
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If you are not his, where God is, is fear and trembling.
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But if you are his by faith, his presence is safety.
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The New Testament tells us something even more.
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The New Testament tells us Christ is our refuge.
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In the book of Ephesians, it says over and over and over again, In him, in him, in him, in him we are chosen before the foundation of the world.
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In him we have an inheritance.
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In him we have redemption by his blood.
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In him, in him, why is it always in him? Because he is the refuge.
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He is the one to whom we run.
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He is the one in whom we hide.
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He is the one that when we are in him, nothing in this world can touch us.
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He is our refuge.
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And we who have fled for refuge, have a strong encouragement to set our hope on what has been set before us.
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That is what Hebrews 6.18 tells us.
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We who have sought refuge in Christ have hope.
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So we could say as New Covenant believers, Christ is our refuge and strength.
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For Christ is God the Son.
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And therefore when we say God is our refuge, we are speaking of the triune God.
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God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
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And in the Trinitarian God, in the God of Jacob, in the God of Israel, in the God who sent his Son in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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In that God we have refuge.
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We have safety.
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And we have strength.
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Notice it says that.
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It says God is our refuge and our strength.
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And by the way, if I keep going this slow, I will never get finished.
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So I might have to ramp it up just a little.
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But God is our refuge and strength.
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A present help in times of trouble.
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And recently I heard my brother, Dean Olive.
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He is a fellow fire pastor.
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You know we are part of Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals.
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And I heard Dean Olive preach on this text.
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And it was so beautiful.
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And he talked about this idea of God being present.
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And a present help.
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And just hearing his message was such an encouragement to me.
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Because I know this.
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I know sometimes I feel like I am a million miles away from God.
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Sometimes I feel like I have lost the connection.
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It is sort of like, you know how you get on your cell phone.
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And you can't hear the person on the other line.
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Because you have gotten out of the distance of the cell tower.
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Or you have gotten too far away from the Wi-Fi connection.
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And everything feels so far away.
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And you just hear clicks on the line.
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And you can't really hear the person.
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And sometimes you feel that way with God.
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And sometimes you feel like God is far away from you.
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But this verse tells us he is a present help.
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He is present with us.
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Why? Because he lives in us.
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I can't lose the Wi-Fi connection.
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I can't lose the cell tower.
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Because he is in me.
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And if you are his, he is in you.
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And therefore, he is a present help in times of trouble.
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And then it says, therefore, we will not fear.
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Beloved, think about what that says.
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Therefore, we will not fear.
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I am going to be honest right now.
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I am very weak.
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And I have been afraid.
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And I know that that fear is not from God.
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Because the Bible tells me God does not give me a spirit of fear.
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Therefore, when I am afraid, I have forgotten how close God is to me.
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And I have forgotten that he is my refuge.
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You see, the problem is we try to find refuges in other things.
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Some of us find refuge in bank accounts.
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What happens when it all goes away? Some of us try to find refuge in alcohol.
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That's no good.
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Some people try to find refuge in food.
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Been there.
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Some people try to find refuge in sex.
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Or shopping.
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Shopping is a real drug, y'all.
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You know, I'm going to start preaching another sermon.
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But it really is, right? What is our refuge? Because if it's not God, it's going to be something.
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We are going to run to something.
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We are going to run to something.
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And if we are running to anything but God, it's the wrong refuge and it will not satisfy.
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It will not be what we need.
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And it will not protect us.
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And we will not be safe if we try to find our safety in anything but God.
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I'm learning this, beloved.
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I'm learning this myself.
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I'm having to be reminded of this every day.
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God is the only one I can run to.
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He's the only one we can run to.
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He is our refuge.
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Therefore, we will not fear.
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I love that he says, Though the mountains be moved into the sea, Though the earth gives way, Though the waters roar and foam.
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Think about that.
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Imagine yourself.
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Imagine the writer of this psalm.
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He's saying this.
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Think of this.
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Right now, if the earth began to dissolve under your feet.
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We don't have mountains in Florida, so we've got to be a little...
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Imagine if all the pine trees were cast into the sea.
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We don't have mountains.
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Imagine if everything around us began to shake.
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Would we still trust in the Lord our God? That's what he's saying.
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He's saying we don't have to fear.
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If the earth begins to dissolve, what can it do to us? Nothing, for we are gods.
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If the mountains collapse...
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I remember years ago, I went to the Smoky Mountains.
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And we drove there all day.
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And so when we got there, it was night time.
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And I remember going...
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Driving through the mountains at night.
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If you've never done it, it's surreal.
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Because they often have lines of lights going up the side of the mountain.
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And so you cannot see the mountain, but you can see the shadow of the lights.
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So it looks like this giant Godzilla-esque figure is coming up out of the earth.
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And the psalmist is saying, what if that just came out of the earth and was thrown into the sea? I was...
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What's the word? I was scared.
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I was...
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I'll go with awestruck.
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I was awestruck just seeing it.
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And I felt overwhelmed just by being at the foot of this giant mountain.
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I couldn't imagine if it just was torn up and thrown into the sea.
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And that's what the writer is saying.
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He's saying if I'm standing on the earth and it falls out from underneath my feet.
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If I'm standing next to a mountain and that mountain gets tossed into the sea.
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And if that sea begins to rage like a boiling pot.
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I will not fear.
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God give me that kind of faith.
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Because that's the kind we need.
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That is the presence of God in trouble.
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Now let's look at the power of God in battle.
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Verse 4.
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Now I'm going to go through this relatively quickly because I want to say it.
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It says, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
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God is in the midst of her.
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She shall not be moved.
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God will help her when morning dawns.
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The nations rage.
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The kingdoms totter.
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He utters his voice and the earth melts.
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The Lord of hosts is with us.
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The God of Jacob is our fortress.
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Now it says here there is a river.
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One thing to note from just a geographical position.
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Is that rivers are very common in cities because they bring irrigation and hydration.
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You know Jacksonville is built on the St.
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Johns River.
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And there is a reason why people tend to build near water sources.
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But inside Jerusalem there is no river.
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There is the Kidron Valley right outside of Jerusalem's walls.
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Where the brook of Kidron or the Kidron brook is there.
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But there is no river inside the city.
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But remember I told you about Hezekiah the king.
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And Assyria is coming his way.
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You know one of the things that he did.
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Is he went to the spring of Gihon which is right outside the city.
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And he dug a 533 meter tunnel.
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So that the spring of Gihon would be flooded and come into the city.
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So that the people when they were being attacked would have water to drink.
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So that they wouldn't have to go outside the city walls to get water.
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So that they would be protected.
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And because Hezekiah was also pretty bright.
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He capped off all the other local springs.
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So that the men of Assyria wouldn't have any place to get water for themselves.
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So he was trying to not only protect himself by giving himself water.
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But also defend himself by taking away the water of his enemies.
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So that's why I think this psalm may have a relationship to that event.
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But notice in the psalm it says.
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There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.
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The holy habitation of the Most High.
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God is in the midst of her.
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You see the point here is not Hezekiah's aqueduct.
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The point here is not the springs or the Kidron brook.
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The point is that God's presence is hydration to the people of God.
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His presence is what strengthens us.
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His presence is the nourishment to our bodies.
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That is the point here.
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God is our river of life.
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Jesus said that to the woman at the well.
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Do you remember that? He said if you ask of me I will give you what? Living water.
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You see the water of God is not like a spring which will one day dry up.
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But the river of God is forever.
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And it never dries up.
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And it waters the soul.
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Notice also it says.
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God will help her when morning dawns.
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What happened the morning when Hezekiah, when they woke up and all the people of Assyria, they were all dead.
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This is again, I think it is connected to that historical event.
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I think there are some little points that remind us.
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God helped in the morning.
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At night they were afraid the army is going to pierce the walls.
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But no, in the morning 185,000 dead.
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God cannot be overcome.
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And God's people will stand.
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Psalm 30 verse 5 says this.
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Though the sorrows may last in the night.
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Joy comes in the morning.
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We may be in a dark time.
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We may be in a dark time for a while.
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But joy will come in the morning.
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God will be with us.
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And He will help us when the morning dawns.
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God will not abandon us.
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God is here with us.
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He is an ever present help in times of trouble.
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He is here still.
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Nations rage.
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Kingdoms totter.
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Earth melts.
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But the Lord of hosts is with us.
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And then we come to verse 8.
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The praise of His glory.
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Notice what it says.
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Come, behold the works of the Lord.
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How He has brought desolations on the earth.
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He makes wars cease to the end of the earth.
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He breaks the bow.
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That is the bow that the archer would pull back.
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If it is broken, it doesn't work anymore.
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God breaks the bow.
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He bends the spear.
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If the spear is bent, it will not guide through the air.
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It cannot be used.
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He burns the chariots with fire.
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And then He says this.
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Be still and know that I am God.
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I tell you what.
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I am the worst at that.
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I am the worst at being still.
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My wife gets on to me sometimes because she says I have a hard time letting my mind rest.
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And that is true.
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I really do.
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I tend to, in some way, form or fashion, always be working.
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Whether it is studying or reading or writing.
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And sometimes it is bad on me.
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It is not good.
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And I am not saying I should do that.
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I am just saying it is.
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And this verse reminds me.
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It should remind all of us that there are times to simply be still and know that God is God.
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It doesn't mean we can't do what needs to be done.
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We have to do what needs to be done.
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There are things that we need to be doing.
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But there are also times when we need to be still and rest in trust.
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When something breaks, we don't always have to run to fix it automatically.
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God is reminding us.
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Be still and let Him be God.
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We are not sovereign.
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He is sovereign.
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And even though we would probably do some things different, we cannot do anything better.
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We need to learn to place our trust in Him.
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And know that God is God.
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Verse 11.
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The Lord of hosts is with us.
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The God of Jacob is our fortress.
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Beloved, can you say that this week? Can you live that this week? Can that be your song this week? And next week? And the week after? But pastor, we are going through a hard time.
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Yes, we are.
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The Lord of hosts is with us.
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The God of Jacob is our fortress.
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But pastor, I got a bad call from the doctor.
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Yes, you did.
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And I am sorry.
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But the Lord of hosts is with us.
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And the God of Jacob is our fortress.
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But pastor, I am having trouble paying my bills.
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Yes, you are.
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But the Lord of hosts is with us.
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And the God of Jacob is our fortress.
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We got to continue to remember that.
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We cannot forget.
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For when we do, we will fall into fear.
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As many of you know, one of my favorite reformers is Martin Luther.
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I love to tell the story of Martin Luther's life.
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In 1527, Luther faced one of the most difficult times of his life.
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The Black Plague swept across Germany.
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And in the midst of that terrible ordeal, his own health fading, Luther found comfort in Psalm 46.
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It is said that many times in his darkest moments, he would go to his friend Philip Melanchthon, and he would say, Philippe, come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.
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Some of you may hear me say that to you in the weeks to come.
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Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.
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Luther said this, We sing this psalm to the praise of God, because he is with us, and powerfully and miraculously preserves and defends his church and his word against all fanatical spirits, against the gates of hell, against the implacable hatred of the devil, and against all the assaults of the world, the flesh, and sin.
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God miraculously preserves his church.
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Church, we have faced difficult days.
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No doubt we will face difficult days again.
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It is easy in the midst of difficulty to feel alone, abandoned, and defeated.
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But the promise of this psalm must be the chorus of our heart.
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God indeed is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in times of trouble.
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Some trust in chariots, Psalm 20, verse 7, Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God.
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Let us pray.
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Father, I thank you for this opportunity to be reminded who we trust, and to be reminded to repent if we have placed our trust in anything else.
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Lord, give us strength to trust in you.
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Lord, give us strength to find our refuge in Jesus Christ, the only one who deserves our complete and full trust, the one who came and gave himself for us.
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And Lord, if there are those here who do not know Christ, then I know there must be, for Lord, in a group this big, there are certainly those who do not know Christ.
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Maybe some who've been in church for a long time.
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It's so easy to play a role or to put on a mask.
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Lord, today let our masks fall.
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Let us be honest with ourselves and with one another.
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And if we need Christ, Lord, let us cry out today, Father, forgive us of our sins.
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Father, receive us as your own.
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Father, we bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in him alone.
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And Lord, if there are those who have prayed that today, Lord, let it be that their hearts are truly joined with yours.
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And Lord, let it be that the thoughts of their hearts would be the confession of their mouths.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.