Quietness And Confidence In Your Storm — Carter Conlon

Special greetings to everyone online with us today, to TSC Summit, and to the Bronx, and to North Jersey campus, and all of our TSC congregants online. God bless you today, and I trust that this service has already been a blessing to you and will continue to give you courage and strength for the coming days.

Praise God. Well, I hope I can encourage you this morning. As most of you say, God knows we could all use a little bit of encouragement at this time, now couldn't we? I mean, these days are tough, and we need to come into the house of God, and from time to time, as the scripture says, the Lord will confirm his inheritance when it gets weary.

Personal Struggles Amid a Storm

Turn to Psalm 95, please, if you will, before I begin to share on this message. So, Father, I just thank you, Lord, for the truth of your word. I thank you for your very present help in time of need. I thank you, God, that you cannot fail.

Your promises are true. Your power is sure, and Lord, your presence is constant and everlasting. So I pray today, God, that you would unlock something from your word that would encourage every heart that's gathered here, those with us online throughout the world, God, our campus churches, everywhere, Lord, that you would encourage us.

Give me the grace to speak this. Give me the wisdom. Give me the anointing of your spirit. God, I thank you with all of my heart in Jesus' name. Amen. Praise God. How many have had a tough week? Let me see your hands.

Come on. How many are not sure, but you think you had a tough one? Well, I'm going to start with a little bit of a testimony before I speak today, and it has a touch of irony in it, I suppose, when we get to last night, but this past week has been one of the toughest I can remember.

It's been a hard, hard week, and yes, pastors do have those. We don't wake up wearing a suit with our hair all in place, and we don't walk around. We do a lot of the day, but we don't walk around saying praise God is good all day.

I mean, we should, but we lead normal lives like everybody else. We go through our struggles and our trials, and this week has been one of the toughest I can remember in years. I've dealt with disappointments.

It seems like frustration after frustration started piling into my spirit. I've been through personal trials, suffered from fatigue. I felt in the middle of this week like a car that ran out of gas, but you just have to keep going because other people are dependent on you to get where they need to go.

I felt like the leader of a band who's run out of songs, but the parade still has 10 blocks to go. On top of all of this, six of my family members, four grandchildren, my son, my oldest son, and his wife were caught in the hurricane in Atlantic Canada yesterday.

Hurricane Dorian, for those who are not aware of it, was still a category two storm when it hit Nova Scotia. Trees are falling all over the place. Power is out. I'm on my cell phone talking to my son almost all day, back and forth.

When we couldn't talk, we were texting. While I was sitting at the table at home and putting the final touches on a message that God gave to me a week ago called, Quietness and Confidence in Your Storm.

Now, does God have a sense of humor or not? Now, I'm writing this down and I've got the secret chuckle in my heart because as I'm trying to make sense of what he's given me to speak, I'm worried. I'm honestly worried about my grandchildren, my son, and my daughter-in-law because this is not a lightweight hurricane.

I mean, trees are down everywhere. Roofs are coming off houses and power's out for almost everybody. Plus, you just add all the things that have been compounding throughout the week and you just get to the point where you are everything but quiet and confident inside.

I know it theologically, right? But inside, I felt like 10 sticks of dynamite were going off about every minute. But I started to read the Word of God and I started to study this at the end of one of the worst weeks in years.

Suddenly, the Word of God started grabbing a hold of my heart again. That's what I'm hoping will happen for you and for me today because we all have to go through stuff. I know you've got a lot of situations going on in your lives.

You've got things in your family, your home, on the job, just general fears maybe and malaise about the future. A lot of young people are really scared when you start talking to young people. They're really afraid of the future because they don't see one in some cases in their particular experience.

Psalm 95 and the Call to Quiet Confidence

And yet, the Bible calls us to be quiet and confident in the midst of our storm. So, what are the elements of that? I started looking at Psalm 95, which is what the Lord had given me early in the week and started asking Him, God, show me.

Where's the root of quietness and confidence in your heart when you yourself are in the midst of a storm? It can be a storm of just these storms that life seems to bring everyone's way. So, let's start reading at verse 1, Psalm 95, before I speak today.

Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God and the great King above all gods.

In His hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it and His hands formed the dry land. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.

For He is our God and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness.

When your fathers tested me, they tried me, they saw my work. For 40 years, I was grieved with that generation and said, it is the people who go astray in their hearts and they've not known my ways. So, I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

Verse 2 of Psalm 95 says, let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and let us shout joyfully to Him with songs. We actually sang a song like that today about the shouts of joy. Let the people of God, let them shout for joy, let them shout for victory.

I started thinking last night, what is it that we're supposed to shout when we come into the presence of God? What should we be singing so uproariously? What should we be declaring? It's obvious, sometimes we just miss it, but we are shouting back to Him our confidence in His promises that He has made to us.

That's what it is. We're not shouting because we've had a great week. We're not shouting because everything is going right. We're not shouting because there are no storms going on in our lives. We are shouting because the God who cannot fail, the God whose word created the universe out of nothing, the God that we have learned to love and trust, the God who has made His abode inside these earthen vessels has made promises to us.

So, in the midst of our storm, instead of questioning His integrity, instead of questioning His faithfulness, we make the choice to shout His promises back to Him. You have said, Lord, that no weapon formed against us is going to prosper.

You've told us that every tongue that rises against us in judgment, we have the right to condemn. You told us that we can tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing would by any means hurt us.

You told us we can speak to mountains and they have to move and be cast into the sea. You told us that even though we have to go through flood and fire, we will not drown and the flame will not burn us.

You promised us these things. You told us that we are kept in your hand, God, until the day we are deposited by your grace at the throne of Almighty God. So, we come in, not necessarily living in the reality of being without trouble, but we come in in the midst of our trouble and declare God to be good and declare God to be faithful and say, God, no matter what comes my way, no matter what I have to face, no matter what trials that we have to endure, you remain faithful.

You do not change. You are God and you cannot deny who you are and you will not deny who you are. Verse three says, the Lord is a great God, the great God and the great King above all gods. I love Pastor William every time he preaches here.

When he gets excited, you ever notice he always says that he's a great God, you know, and it just vibrates from because that concept has gotten a hold of him. He's not just God. He's the great God. There is no other God besides him.

He holds all power in his hand. He is the one who makes the sun to rise in the morning and makes it go down at night. He holds everything in the palm of his hand. He makes promises which cannot fail. Thank God for his greatness.

God’s Greatness and the Reliability of His Promises

Listen to what Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Give ear O heavens, and I will speak and hear O earth the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain and my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass.

In other words, Moses is saying to the people, I'm about to say something. Let it fall upon you like the dew falls upon the mountains. Let your whole being be touched by it. Let your heart be open to it.

And then he goes on to say, ascribe, for I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. All his ways are justice. He is a God of truth and without injustice.

He is righteous and upright. That's who God is. Praise be to God. In other words, you can trust him. He's a great God. If he said he's going to keep you, he's going to keep you. If he said he's going to make a way, he's going to make a way.

You don't have to, you don't have to pick up your own bootstraps. You don't have to craft your own plan. You walk with him because the steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord. That's what the Bible says.

God says, I will direct your path. I will be that voice behind you that says, this is the way, walk in it. I will be your strength. When your strength is gone. I will be the clarity of your thinking. When confusion wants to come in like a swirl, just get around your heart and get around your mind.

He is a great God. Not only do his promises not fail, but he's a great God. Remember in Acts chapter four, when the Christians were being threatened and when they turned to prayer, that's the first thing they turned to because they had that understanding.

They said, Lord, you are God. That's how they started their prayer. Who made the heavens and the earth who by the mouth of your servant, David has said, why do the heathen rage? Why do the Kings of the earth imagine a vain thing, thinking they can cast away the cords in a sense of who you are and what your people represented the earth.

They began to pray with knowledge of who God is, how great God is that he does hold everything in the palm of his hands. And verses four and five, the scripture says in his hand are the deep places of the earth.

The heights of the hills are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the dry land. In other words, he holds all things in the palm of his hands. He made everything by him. All things consist and are held in place by the word of his mouth.

Security in the Father’s and Son’s Hands

The day you came to Christ as your savior. My Bible tells me that you were planted in the hand of God and there is nobody. There is nothing. There's no circumstance. There's no opposition. There's no devil of hell.

There's no Valley. There's no mountain. There's no trial. There's no difficulty that can take you out of the hand of God. You are secure in the hand of God. And maybe there's going to be turbulence, just like you're in an airplane.

That's not going to crash. You might have to go through turbulence. You might get bounced around, but you're still in the hand of God. You're not outside of the hand of God. And one day, one day, not too far from now, that hand of God coming in for a landing at the throne of the father.

And that hand is going to open. And there you are. You were safe. You were secure. You were kept by the power of God. And don't let the devil ever succeed in convincing you that somehow you're going to be overpowered by your circumstance.

Why? Because God said you won't. Why? Because he's a great God. He's not just God. He's a great God. Why? Because he holds you in the palm of his hand. Listen to the words of Jesus in John chapter 10, beginning at verse 27.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. Now, keep in mind, this is God speaking.

This is God. This is God who formed the worlds by the words of his mouth. This is God. He is the beginning. He's the end. He's the final authority. This is God who determines the boundaries of everything that exists, how long they will exist, and where they will spend eternity.

This is God. Nobody is higher than him. And he says, I will give them eternal life. They shall never perish, and neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.

I and my father are one. Praise be to God. So this is how we come before God with thanksgiving. This is how we shout joyfully, even though we might be in the midst of a storm. Three reasons. Remember, he's a great God.

There's no God greater than him. He is the great God. He has made promises to us that cannot fail. And we are secure in the hands of God, of the father and the son, and no one, Jesus said, no one can take you out of my father's hand.

So that means no one. That means no circumstance, no situation, no trial, no heartache, no broken relationship, whatever it is that's come your way. No dream that you think you might have lost. Anything that's come your way to try to convince you that all is lost and all is hopeless and all is vain.

None of those things have the power to take you out of the hand of God. Praise be to God. And one day when you and I are deposited at the throne of the father, will we ever be thankful that we kept our confidence in him?

And we didn't let our confidence be weakened or cast away, as the writer of Hebrews says, in our time of trial and difficulty. Verses eight to 11, the psalmist says, don't harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as in that day of trial in the wilderness.

In other words, there were a people who knew the power of God in history, but they came into a wilderness trial. They came into a dry place, a difficult place, a place of fear, place of frustration, a place of enemies.

And they never could bring themselves to that place of quietness and confidence in him. He so longed, even Jesus said over Jerusalem, I've so longed to bring you all Jerusalem, Jerusalem, close to my heart and cover you, speak to you that you come to know who I am, but you wouldn't come.

And there's just that, that something in humankind that we want the knowledge of God, but we resist in a sense where that knowledge is going to quite often and ultimately lead us to. As of the day of the trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, they tried me and they saw my work for 40 years.

I was grieved with that generation. And I said, it's a people that go astray in their hearts. They've not known my ways. In other words, they, they, they've refused to believe that I am who I say I am.

And so I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. They failed to enter his rest folks. And I'm telling you, you and I, you and I have got to be in a place now where we're going to find our quietness and confidence in Christ.

Because if we don't find it, the days ahead are going to be rough folks. We're going to go through storms. This, this, this world as it is today, could go into any kind of upheaval almost at any moment.

And things that seem to be secure today can be taken out from underneath us. Then we're going to find out that by, have I allowed the spirit of God and the word of God to, to lead me to that place where I believe that God is great.

He is, there's no one greater than him, that his promises are true. And I am secure in his hand. Do I have, I let myself be brought to that place of confidence in him. In Mark chapter four, there's a classic textbook case of, of this particular scenario.

Jesus Calms the Storm and Leads His Disciples to Faith

When Jesus said to his own disciples, it said evening had come beginning in verse 35. And he said, let's cross over to the other side. So who's speaking these words, God, Jesus Christ is the son of God, fully man, fully God.

Now he's speaking to these 12 disciples saying, let's go to the other side. That should settle it. Shouldn't it? When God says we're going to go somewhere, that's where we're going to go. When he tells you and I, when he makes promises in his word to us, that's, that should settle it in every heart.

That's who God is. That's where we're going to go. Now, when they left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was. And other little boats were also with him. That's a type, I suppose, of we leave church on Sunday and we get in our boat and we head home.

And here's what happened to them. And a great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling, but he was in the stern asleep on a pillow. And they woke him and said, teacher, do you not care that we're perishing?

You ever said that to God? Where are you? Do you not care what's going on in my life right now? Then he rose and he rebuked the wind. Remember who he is, right? His words have all power, all authority.

He's the great God, not just a great God, the great God. He holds everything and everyone in the palm of his hands. Remember those three things. He rose and he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still.

And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But he said to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Now, here's the point. I've never seen it quite this way until just recently. It was that one statement. They had been walking with Jesus for quite a while now. They knew he could do the miraculous. He made claim to being sent by God, to having the power of God, to being the son of God.

They're in the boat with him going to the other side. They see that he has the power to stop the wind and the storm and the waves. And they said to him, who can this be? And what that speaks to my heart is that, folks, we can go to church for years.

We can read the Bible. We can study the Bible. We can be ever learning, but maybe never brought to the truth of who it is we're walking with. They still didn't know. They were three feet away from him physically, but probably 3 ,000 miles away spiritually at this point, because they still didn't know who he was, even though it was plain, it was clear.

He was the son of God. He was the Jehovah God that they had prayed to as a people group all through the Old Testament. They knew his power. They knew what he could do. And so what happens to you and I is that when we get into a crisis, and sometimes it's like a storm, it hits us from every conceivable side.

Now we end up in a place like the disciples were. We can either say, Lord, is there enough room on that pillow for me too as well? And say, your word's going to bring me through, so I'm just going to be quiet and confident.

I don't care how much water is getting in my boat. I'm going to trust you and I'm going to believe you. Praise be to God. Or we can wake him up and say, don't you care? And who can this be? And not really know who he is.

I challenge you with all my heart, you and I, in this hour, we've got to let the truth of who Jesus Christ is get so deep inside of us, so deep in every one of our hearts that we are going to go to the other side.

Now, in our case, the other side is the throne of God. It's heaven itself. We are going. When you receive Christ as your savior, he looked at you and said, let's go to the other side. He didn't promise that there would be no storms on the way.

Now he could have stopped the storm before it even started, but he chose not to. Do you understand? He's teaching us something through this. He could stop every storm in your life if he wanted to, but if he did, you'd probably forget about him and just go your own way.

And so he said, let's go to the other side. They get in as we are, and we're going to have to go through some rough waters. There's going to be somebody here today, you're, you're sailing smoothly like they were in book of Acts chapter 27, but you're, you're Euclidean is coming.

That storm that broke the ship in pieces and everybody's hanging on to wood just to get to shore. It comes to everybody at some point in your life, but till that day comes, or maybe you're in that day.

We, we must, you and I have to say, you are God. I put my life into your hands. I put my family into your hands. I put my children into your hands. I put my grandchildren into your hands. I put my health into your hands.

I put my future into your hands. Everything is in your hand. And though we may get bounced around and though there may be no shortage of voices attacking the credibility of our God, yet your speech cannot be stood against.

When you speak, it has to happen. You are the greatest God. There is no God greater than you. You are the great God. And we are in the hand of the father and of the son. And Jesus, if we could even just get a hold of this thought, who can open the hand of God when he decides to close it?

Who? What devil of hell? What power of darkness can open the hand of God? What trial can come our way? What tribulation? What trouble? That's why Paul, the apostle could say the words, no matter what comes our way, no matter trial or tribulation or all these things that are going to come.

Mountain, valley, difficulty. I am convinced that we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. We will never be overcome. And by the grace of God, as God's people, we will not cast away our confidence.

Though the seas roar, though the winds howl, though the mountains shake, though governments collapse, though economies fail, though it seems that our society is going mad. We are in the hand of God. Hallelujah.

Worship, Thanksgiving, and the Final Call to Trust

Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and let us shout joyfully to him in Psalms. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

We did that today. You say, why are you shouting? I feel like it. I feel like it. I feel like declaring that God is good. I feel like shouting the name Jesus into the heaven. Glory to your name. Glory to your name.

Glory to your name, Jesus. Now I'm going to conclude with these two verses, verse six and seven. One more time. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

Oh, come and let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. He is our God. Let us be there with thanksgiving. Let us be there with a shout of praise. Let us give God the glory that is due unto his name.

When this whole world is running around wringing its hands in every increasing measure, it's time for you and I to get into the hand of God. It's time for you and I to rediscover the goodness of our God, the faithfulness of our God, the righteousness of our God, the justness of our God, that everything he does is in justice and in truth.

Hallelujah to the lamb of God. Hallelujah. And so if we never had a storm, we wouldn't learn how to be quiet and confident in the midst of it. Just to be able to walk through our day, not having to rehearse all our troubles with anyone who will listen, but just keeping it inside and saying, God, I trust you.

I trust you. Matter of fact, Greg, if you could come to the piano, I wrote a song based on one of the Psalms of David a few years ago. And it was just a song that came into my heart one day. I was reading one of the Psalms and I saw this confidence and trust that was in the heart of David.

And I think that's what made him not only a great songwriter, but a great King. Yes, he had his storms. Obviously he had his storms like we all do, but that confidence in God was an abiding factor in his mind, his heart, his life that made him a man after God's own heart that we still talk about today with reverence.

And it seems that we're not even aware of his mistakes anymore. He made mistakes and he had storms, but he would always return to that place of confidence in God. It's called, I will trust in God. I'd like to sing it for you.

Maybe they'll put the words on the screen. Hallelujah. I will trust in God all of my day, though the seas may roar and mountains leave their place. The hearts of men may fail, tears on every face. Safely I will stand in God's amazing grace.

I will trust in God. I will trust in God. Come what may in Christ I say, I will trust in God. I will trust in God. Come what may in Christ I say, I will trust in God. Now we'll sing it Let it be your song now.

I will trust in God all of my day, though the seas may roar, mountains leave their place. Tears on every face. We'll stand in God's amazing grace. I will trust in God, I say, I will trust in God, in God, I say.

I'd like to just give an altar call. Just going to sing it again one more time, but I want to just give an altar call for people going through a storm. It's just a storm. You don't have to explain it to anybody.

You know what it is. And sometimes you don't even have words to explain. It's just demonic. How else can you explain it? It's just there. And you're going through a storm that's trying to just eat away at your confidence in God, eat away at the promises of God.

And sometimes we defeat it by something as simple as just saying, God, I trust you. God, I choose to believe that your words are true. I choose to believe that you're great and you operate only in integrity with me.

And I believe that I'm safe in your hand. I believe that you're going to take me through this turbulence and you're going to bring me one day to your throne. I believe that everything Paul said, everything I've put into his hand, I believe he's able to keep until that day that I appear in his presence.

Let that be your reality. And if you're going through a storm, let's just pray together. I just want to pray with you. Nothing deeper than that. Let's stand up in the balcony. Go to either exit in the main sanctuary in the annex too.

We'll wait for you. And you just make your way here too as well. You know, what weeks like this teach me again is that there's no big people. There's no little people in the kingdom of God. You can walk with God for 50 years and you still need him as much as the guy who's walking with him five days.

None of that ever changes. It's only in his strength. It's only by his promises. It's only in his faithfulness, not ours. Thank God for the experience that some of us have had over the years, but we still need him as much today as we did when we first got saved.

And I thank God for that. I'm only in the pulpit because I'm called to do this. No different than you are. Same struggles, same battles, same trials. We're not on this platform because we're any more spiritual than anybody else.

We're all in need of a savior, all in need of God's grace. And so by God's grace, I think we're just going to pray that we can all get in his hands now and all trust him to get through whatever we have to get through and go where we ever have to go because he's going to be faithful to us.

He's going to be faithful to you. He's going to be faithful to me, to everybody in this church today. He's going to be faithful. He can't be other than what he is. He's faithful. So father, I want to thank you today, God, for reminding us about who you are.

I want to thank you for just opening your word to me this week, not in a hammock, but in a storm. God, when I had to dig deep, I had to look and say, Lord, show me, show me, show me. Where are you in this word?

And God, you did. You brought your character out just like when a pond clears and suddenly you can see deep. You showed me, Lord, where you are and you showed me, God, your character again. You showed me that everything that I place in your hands, you are faithful to keep.

So thank you, Lord. Thank you. And I do thank you for bringing my family through the hurricane, Lord, and keeping them safe this morning. God, I thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for everything that's going on in this church.

Thank you for our Bible school. Thank you for our campus churches, Lord. All that you're doing, God, all that you're doing, Lord, we put it all in your hands. And Lord, we ask that we might be a people who could give you a shout of glory in this house always.

And it wouldn't become just a religious thing. It would come from our hearts. It would be something deep in each of us. We can all sing that song. I trust in you, Lord. I trust you, God. No matter what my eyes see or my ears hear, I trust you, Lord.

I trust you, God. And so, Father, I thank you. And I praise you for all of this. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Praise God.