If you got your Bibles, will you turn to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. If you got your Bible, isn't it good to be out to church tonight? There's some folk I've been visiting this week would love to be where you are tonight. And there's some other folk. that we're having some struggles with a lot of folks. I look down the second row, and every time I look, I miss Denny and Connie. They're probably listening today, and Denny and Connie, I want you to know I love you. Denny is getting a little better. Connie's hurt her leg and her hip and her back, and you pray. And then Larry Curry, he's a little bit better today. There's just so many. And then also, I wanna give you a report. Last night, I got a call about 9 o'clock last night. Brother Jim Mars, he had a stroke. He's in Thomas. He's not doing well. And they did extensive tests today, and I want you to pray for that family and just a lot of people that's going through it tonight. And you just don't know. Trouble comes, don't it? Somebody help me preach. Turn to Psalm 27. Stand with me with your Bibles open. I believe if you'll follow me tonight and try to stay with me, open your Bible, stay there and just let it minister to you tonight, I think we'll be able to help you in your life tonight, in your Christian life tonight, and in your struggles tonight. And this is one of my favorite Psalms in all the word of God. Let's look at it and we'll read all 14 verses. The Lord, is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? For the Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes come upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumble and fail. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war shall rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord, that which also I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion and the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices. Sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yeah, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer me. And when thou saidest, seek ye my face, my heart, said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek? Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake. Forsake me, O Lord, of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Whoo! Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are rising up against me and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. And he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say. on the Lord. Our Father, as I tried to do an exegesis and a proper exposition of this passage, I would that you'd help me. I understand there's probably people in the auditorium that's going through struggles. And I know there's people that's listened to me by way of a live stream. that are in the midst of trouble. They can't even be here tonight. Some of them is because of their sickness. Some of it's because of some sorrow. Some of them is because of some insufficiency. But God, I pray for them right now. both faith that are here and faith that are listening by the way of live stream, that you'd be a help to them and we'll praise you and honor you in Jesus name for his sake, amen. I'll give you the title in a moment. Now, you that are Bible students, when you read through the book of Psalms, and I love the book of Psalms, I will not lie to you, it is sometimes difficult, Chad, to locate the time that was being discussed in these passages, especially in the life of David. Because David, some of what happened in Psalm 27 happened to him when Saul chased him all over the land. It happened to him when Absalom, his own son, turned on him. So when you study these passages, it's not always so easy to say, well, that was when it happened. However, by doing some study and reading after some men, I love Spurgeon. Spurgeon probably, in his book, The Treasury of David, has some of the best teachings on Psalms that you'll ever study. And here's what he felt. He mentioned that David was pursued by his enemies. He mentioned, if you study it real carefully, that he was put out of the kingdom. He mentioned that his own father and mother put him out. And he also mentioned in verse 12 that somebody slandered him. So what I've done, I try to put all those together to try to come up with a context or time. And here's what I think it was, Chad, though I could be wrong. There was an evil man that was a servant of Saul named Doeg. How many's ever heard of old Doeg? Doeg was an evil, wicked, and I'm gonna just say it like it is, backstabber. Just a literal, wicked, backstabber. And I want you to know, ain't nothing worse than having a bike stab around you. I'd rather somebody look me in the face and say, I don't like that. Instead of coming around your back and slashing you, then looking in your face and say, oh, I love you. If somebody don't like something I do, disagree with what I do, just look me in the face and say it like he said, instead of going around my back and slashing me. Somebody help me preach, that wasn't part of my sermon. but that's good preaching. I'm gonna tell you what, friend, I'm one of them guys, you, listen to me, you're an honest broker and you love God, you come to me and say, well, I don't understand that, I don't understand that, we're gonna talk it out. But most people ain't like that. I'll tell you what most people like, they wanna put one in your back, talk to everybody, down you, then, then, watch you bleed. Them people are the ones that don't want no help. Them people are the ones you could do a lot, you could do without them. Doeg was one of them. Now let me go on with the context. I'm about to get ahead of myself. Here's what happened. You remember when David went down to Nob, you remember? Nob, Nob, N-O-B, okay. You might call it Nob, might call it Nob. Remember when he went down, when he was running, and he went down there and he was hungry. and the king, the priest, Ahimelech. He went down there to the Ahimelech. He said, I'm hungry. Give me five loaves of bread. Well, here's what happened. Ahimelech said, I ain't got no regular bread. Am I right? He said, I ain't got no... He said, you know you... He said, David, you're down here by yourself and you do know you're threatening me and I'm in trouble being around you. Just read it, chapter 21, chapter 22, first Samuel. Go on and read it. So, here's what he did. He went out. He said, I ain't got no regular bread. So he gave him five loaves of shoe bread that they used in the temple. I'm right. Hallowed bread is what he called it. He gave the man of God hallowed bread. By the way, when we read the rest of the chapter, it cost him too. It killed him and killed most of the people of the priest. And Doeg went out and did destruction toward him. Now, let me, can I keep on going here by way of introduction? I love preaching the Bible, don't you? Line upon line and precept upon precept. Now, this is the setting. David was hated. David was in trouble. David was having problems. And there's four things by way of introduction. I'll show you, you might wanna note them down. In verses one through three, I see the direction of his confidence. He said, the Lord is my light and my salvation. I want to say this to you. Then look at verse three. And though a host shall encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise up against me, in thee I will be confident. So first of all, I want you to notice the direction of his confidence. Now, I want to clear something up. The Bible does say don't put in confidence in man. Now, here's what that means. You do not want man to be your only hope. However, sometimes we take that wrong. That doesn't mean that we don't have confidence in men. I'll be quite honest with you, if it wasn't for certain people in my life that I got confidence in, I probably would have a lot more trouble than I do right now. But that's not what he's talking about. He said there's somebody higher than man. There's somebody when a man can't help you, When somebody of authority can't help you, there's a God that rests above everybody, where you need to direct your confidence in. Ladies and gentlemen, some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but I'm gonna trust in the name of the Lord, for the name of the Lord is a high tide. Amen. Or what I'm trying to tell you, if you direct your confidence to him, you'll be all right. Then verses four through six, I ain't got to be sermon yet. I see the devotion of his character. He was devoted to God. I want you to know something, God don't want to play second best to anybody in this room. He don't want you to be devoted to something else other than Him. He wants your whole trust. Somebody help me. Everything you got, her, God and sin. You know what? I'm gonna preach this. I'm gonna say it. There's a lot of people talk this junk. I call it cheap junk talk about faith. Oh yeah. They talk that game. Oh, I'm living by faith in Jesus above, trusting and abiding in His grace until they get their back against the wall and they don't trust Him. Come on, they don't trust Him for them and they don't trust Him for you. I want you to know something. I want you to know something. You put your devotion in Him and your character in Him, He will not fail you. Am I preaching? I'm still in the introduction camp. See, we need to be devoted to God. Hook, line, sinker. If I'm gonna sink in the sea, I'm gonna sink holding on to his unchanging hand. But I ain't gonna sink. David said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken. Going seed, begging, praying. Hey, hey, listen, we're God guides, God provides. I ain't done this, my sermon yet. I'm just trying to teach you how to outline the Bible. You keep that up, honey, I'll preach till midnight. One more, my Lord's all you gotta do. In verses seven to 10, I see the disturbance of his comfort. It's one thing to direct our confidence to God, one thing to be devoted, have our devotion of his character. But I want you to know something, there's also gonna be times when you have the disturbance of his comfort. You're gonna go through trouble. Somebody help me pray. And then verse 13 and 14, I see the display of his courage. But I'm interested in that thing called the disturbance of his comfort. And I want you to go back to verse five. Are y'all there? For in the time of trouble, He shall hide me in his provision. Here's what I wanna preach on. Hear me out when trouble comes. Not if it comes. No, when it comes. Can I be a little transparent now? I don't wanna miss preaching all this, but I think I can get most of this out in a couple minutes. Sometimes you think you got trouble until you see people that's in real trouble. Now, your preacher tries to be there for you or one of my staff when you're hurting. That's our job, we wanna be there. I will tell you what hurts me. And I'm not gonna lie to you, this probably hurts me more than anything. If somebody gets disappointed in me, or disappointed in the church, when they don't tell us what's going on. They expect us to be able to know what's going on. I've heard about people getting sick. And they didn't call the church office. They didn't call the pastor. I didn't find out about it for three or four months later when they tell some member. But they mad because I ain't been by. And I gotta be quite honest with you. This church is large. And most of my business has gotta be targeted where the need is. I like to be at all y'all's house every day. I think if I was, I'd be 850 pounds because I eat too much when I go to church members' houses. But this week, because I do this every year, I try to go to the shut-ins and the widows and widowers and pass out fruit baskets. They're not, listen to me, they're not. They're nice. It's not the fruit basket and how it tastes. It is that somebody wanting to come and love on you a little bit and go out of their way to care. And it was raining on Monday, Tuesday, I'm telling you, and it was cold today. My bones hurt. But today I got really, I mean, it's become emotional all week, but today, man, I just, it, you know, we all have trouble. I mean, I'm facing some things and I have trouble, but I went into some homes this week or today, and you know, to get old, and this ain't a joke. Some of you getting close to it, so you better listen to me. to get old and be alone at the same time. You can criticize somebody like that, but I want you to know something, friend, that's hard stuff. I went into one with her today, or actually two that broke my heart. Tonight, I'm still upset. One of them, she had a garage door break down, and they're getting it fixed. And then one of them, Barry, I would have got you to help them if I just knew about it. She had a, they had a, I guess, a short in her sump pump and called somebody in. And you know, they couldn't go up through the floor, so they had to go up through the rafters. You know, you've done that stuff. Run a wire over and put a circuit in. You know what they charged that little widdle lady? Barry, they charged her 800 bucks. on a fixed income. Barry, you could have done it for 50 bucks, and you would have, if I'd have called you. And my heart broke, that woman cried. She looked at me, I don't mean to just say this. She said, do you notice something not here? Michael, tell you, do you notice something not here? I said, oh, I did notice, she didn't have a Christmas tree yet. She said, you wanna know why I ain't got no Christmas tree up? Because ain't none of my grandkids gonna be able to come and see me. And I just don't wanna look at that tree and no baby around. That's trouble. Then another dear lady had, you know, if you ever get by yourself and you got 24 hour care, you gotta have your confidence in that care. And you know a lot of these people out there that's caring for people like that will rip people off. And I seen that today. Woman just wept her eyes out. He said, I don't know what your trouble is tonight, but I do know this, when it comes, I got a God that'll do four things for you. Lord, I finally got to preaching. Let me show you what he'll do for you. In verse four and five. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that what I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Listen to this, number one, for in the time of trouble, he shall hide me. He will become your refuge. He will become your secret place. When nobody else can help you. When nobody else can hold you up. And nobody else can come when everybody and everything is coming against you. The psalmist said that he will hide you. because he is your refuge. Verse five, he said, not only is he your refuge, he is our rest. What is that rest? It's a safe place. I want to tell you what, if you ever hide out with God, you're in a safe place. Hey, listen to me. You trust Him tonight. Hide yourself in Him tonight. Get where He is tonight. You'll find out it'll be a safe place. It'll be a solid place. It'll be a secret place. Boy, there's been some times in my Christian life where I felt like If I go over here, there was something going to get me. When I go here, then this was going to get me. And I couldn't, Micah couldn't hide. And then my God, my Jesus, my cliff of a rock, My rose of Saron found me a place to hide. I was able to scooch real up into his pavilion. Whoa, and ain't nothing could harm me and nothing could hurt me because I was hiding out in Jesus. I was hiding out in God. I want you to know when trouble comes, when trouble comes, you can hide out in him. every once in a while, and I hope nobody takes this wrong. What'd she say? What'd you say? I want all of you to know every once in a while, now I'm not alone, you're here too. Every once in a while, I know it's, don't get upset at this. This may not be the most politically correct thing to say. I don't wanna be around any of you. I just don't. I love you, but I don't wanna look at you all the time. I just wanna go somewhere where I can hide out. Not because I'm running from nobody. Not because I'm mad at nobody. It's just because I need to feel safe. I need to feel that somebody watching out after me. By the way, it would be good for some of you to every once in a while, get away from the noise. and find you a place to get along with God. Just get away from the noise. And I ain't saying all the noise is bad, but some noise will just confuse you, you'll hear it even though it may not be bad noise, but distracts you. All right, all right. Let me go, anybody getting any help? Number two, look at verse seven. When trouble comes, he'll hide us. In verse number seven, hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer me. Number two, not only will he hide us, he will hear us. Thank God, he'll hear me, he'll respond to me. Call up on me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Today, I was trying to get ahold of somebody and they was trying to get ahold of me. And it took me 11 hours to get a hold of them. Because I wanted to talk to them. I wanted them to listen to me a little bit. I wanted them to hear me. 11 hours later, I finally got in touch. Somebody ought to get on your mule and shout. I don't have to take 11 seconds to go to Almighty God. because I got a hearing God. I got a God that just loved to hear from his children and he responds to my voice. My oh good Lord Almighty. Hey, hey, he'll hear your prayer. Listen to me, there's some time we pray and he answers, then we start doubting, well why in the world did, wait a minute, I've been wanting to do that, and I wanted to pray, and I wanted this answer, and here it is, and you get spooked. Listen to me. You ought to thank God His line's not busy. He hears you. 7.4 billion people on the planet, and He hears you. That's when trouble come, number three. I'm almost done, look at verse number nine. Y'all there? Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Listen to this. Thou hast been, say it church. Leave me not, neither forsake me, Oh God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Number one, or number three, not only will he hide you, hear you, he'll help you. Now I want you to know something. There ain't one time you ever come to my office that I didn't listen to you. But there have been a few times you come in my office that I didn't have your help. I couldn't help you, because it was outside my realm. But, oh, hear me, there ain't nothing outside of his realm. Whoa, somebody shout glory. What will he help you with? He'll help you, first of all, with what battles us. I want you to know something. I have a lot of battles, and I ain't gonna lie to you. Some of my battles is battling with myself. Well, God bless you, I'm glad you're more holy than I am. And then not only what battles us, but what bothers us. In David's case, it was the grief of war. and then what burdens us. You know, God will help you with your battles, with your bothers, and with your burdens. I found out something, I'm on the winning side. Somebody help me preach. I'm on the winning side. I've been doing what I'm doing at the same church almost 42 years, and I don't lie to you. I've made my mistakes. But I'm one of those guys, I'm a little transparent. I don't care to tell you if I make them. I just make them. But I want you to know something. It's kind of good. I could look back in 42 years of ministry, And I could tell you about nine crisis periods in my life in this ministry, nine crisis period. Nine things that could have took me out, Twain, if it wasn't for one thing, the Lord helps me. It wasn't me, it wasn't my intellect, it wasn't me figuring it out, fixing it, no. It was a God that says, okay, okay. I know you love me. Sometimes you're a mess, but I know you love me. And let me take care of this. I've got it. I got your back. I got your side. I got your front. I got it all. Can I ask you something? Won't you do this for me and for yourself? Won't you let God help you? Just let him help you. Don't you try to help at all times. Don't you hinder him from helping you. And by the way, he may help you in a way that seems mysterious, but he's got your back. Somebody help me. Lastly, I wanna make an illustration about that one, but I only got four minutes left. Look at verse number 10. Before I go any further, well, no, no, no, no. Let me do this. Number 10, I'll close. When my father and my mother forsake me, and that actually happened to David, then the Lord will take me up. He will hide us. He will hear us. He will help us. But this is my favorite. He'll hold us. He'll just hold you. You know my wife every once in a while. And I don't do this enough, but every once in a while she just stops me and says, please stop what you're doing. I'm hurting. Would you just hold me? Just hold me. And I'll get a hold of her and I'll just put my arms around her, put my cheek next to her cheek and just hold her. And she feels real safe. Real confident. Isn't it wonderful when the God of the universe comes down and holds us? He holds us in our forsaken position. You know, you may not go through this, and I hope to God that you never go through this, to where your mom or dad forsake you. I mean, just say, I'm done with you. I'd rather have my booze than you. I'd rather have my boyfriends than you. And they just forsake you. I want to tell you the saddest story of my 46 years of ministry. It is no one that you can relate to. And I was told to give this illustration. Have I ever had it in my message? if it fit my message. Several, several years ago, not a member, not somebody came here regularly. Somebody had come in and gone, but they come and seen me. And they were not, they were from up North. And you know all this pedophilia and stuff that's going on in the Catholic church. Y'all know that. This dear girl, when she's 13 had that happen to her. And you know what happened? Her mother allowed it. Her actual mother allowed it and made excuses for it. She come to my office ready to kill herself. And I took her to that passage. When father and mother forsake thee, I will lift you up. And she got saved in my office. She is somewhere down south, and I don't even know where I haven't seen her for 20 years. But you know what? My God came close to her. And you know, maybe it ain't out and out forsaken like that. Maybe it's just mom and dad just don't understand you. You think that don't happen, you're wrong. When I got called full-time ministry, but I'm gonna tell you why. My dad, my mom said, go man. My dad said, you crazy. You'll starve to death. Don't do it. Work and preach, but don't go out and depend on churches to take care of you. And here's what I told my daddy. I said, they may be the vehicle to take care of me. but they ain't the one to take care of me. It's God that's gonna take care of me. Somebody help me preach. And I'm almost done. I said that, didn't I? And then he has a forever promise. There's some of you hurting tonight. You know what his promise is? I'll lift you up. I'll lift you up. I'll hold you. Just won't you come up here and let me get a grip on you. Let me hug on you a little bit. Come and hide yourself in my pavilion and I'll lift you up. I'll lift you above the circumstances. I'll lift you above the trouble. I'll lift you above the heartache. I'll just be there for you. You know there might be somebody here and there may be somebody on livestream. You're listening to me right now on livestream. Bow right there by your TV set or your computer and just say, Lord, lift me up. Lord, help me. Lord, hear me. Lord, hide me. I need you, Lord. And there may be somebody in this auditorium. You've been one of them kind men or women Let's try to do it yourself all these years. And you're not better for it. You're actually worse. Why don't you tonight come around the altar and say, Lord, hide me. Hide me and hear me and help me. Please do it. But hold me. Stand. Just come around the altar if you want to. You may be in some kind of trouble. You come and pray, and we'll dismiss in a minute. Father, thank you for your good word of God tonight. Help folk who are hurting and going through it, just come and have a little prayer to you tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Sing, and let's, we'll go. Help me over, y'all. People are coming. Amen, keep coming, keep coming. Listen, listen. Why don't you tonight come and lean on His everlasting arms? Say, I need you to help me. I need you to hear me. I need you to hide me. That's right, keep coming. This service is for you tonight. Yeah, my ass. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Let me pray. We'll dismiss. Father, thank you for the good service. Thank you for brother Josh and the good word from him. The great songs tonight that touched my heart. But Lord, there's folks in here in trouble. Help them. Hide them, Jesus. Hear them, Jesus. Help them, Jesus. But hold them, Jesus. There'll be some go by their bed tonight in tears, God. Wondering how they're gonna get through tomorrow. You hold them real good tonight. In Jesus' name, for his sake, amen. God bless you and goodnight.