All right, if you have your Bibles tonight, you should. Let's turn over to Psalms chapter 12. Psalms chapter 12. And y'all love that song, Count Your Blessings. God has blessed our lives so many different ways. We may be going through different storms and trials in our life, but if you look close, you'll see where God's blessed you in this life. You sure will. You sure will. I bet if I went around this room right now, I'll bet everybody in this room could tell me something that God has blessed you with in your life. And I can give you one right now. The good Lord has blessed me with this girl right here. That's right, with my sweetie. So I thank the good Lord for her. She gets pretty tough sometimes, Sister Becky. Yeah, yeah. Then I have to wonder then, but no. No, I know God's blessed me with him. Thank the good Lord for Sister Pam. All right, in Psalms 12, we're going to read these eight verses, but I'm going to preach a message tonight, and the Lord gave me this message for us here tonight. The Lord gave me this message, and when the pastor asked me to preach, And every time, whether I know I've got to preach in a week or two or whatever, or whether a pastor calls me up and says, like you did, do Wednesday night, I always pray. I say, God, please, Lord, give me the right message. Lord, you know who's going to be at church, Lord, tonight. You know who's going to be there. And so, Lord, please give me that right message. And so this is the message the Lord has given me for us tonight. And the name of this message is, simply just two words, is help, Lord. Help, Lord. And so read with me right here in Psalms, chapter 12, verses 1 to 8. It says, to the chief musician upon Shemineth, Psalm of David, and then he says, he begins it and says, help, Lord, for the godly man seeth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. they speak vanity everyone with his neighbor and he's talking about the lost now and they speak vanity everyone with his neighbor with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak the lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things who has said with our tongue uh with our tongue Will we prevail? Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? That's just like the lost asking those questions. Who is Lord over us? As for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. Now there's the Lord speaking. He says, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever, the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. And so let's pray and then we'll get on with this message. Lord, I thank you, Lord. for the reading of your word, and Lord, I thank you for what it says to me, Lord, as a Christian. I thank you, Lord, that I'm on your side and you're on mine. And I thank you, God, that I've got your word, and it's a pure word. It's purified seven times, and Lord, and you're gonna preserve it to every generation. And so, Lord, what you say in your word is true, was true when they pinned it down. is still true now And in Jesus name I pray, amen. Now right here in Psalms 12 we find in the first verse that the Psalmist David was considering what was going on, and if you read the verses again, among the children of men. The background of this particular Psalm took place in the life of David when he was fleeing for his life from the wrath of Saul by Saul's command in 1st Samuel 22 19 and we're not going to go over and read that you can later if you want to but by Saul's command in 1st Samuel 22 19 all the priests in the city of Nob had been slain along with their families their wives and children along with their families and even including their livestock because these priests had aided David. So no doubt David felt tremendously responsible for what had happened. And David writes in this psalm about a godly ceasing from the earth and the fateful failing from the children of men. Now perhaps there are no two words in the Bible that express the depths of human need and the height of hope any more than these two words in verse one where he simply says help lord how many times have we tried to get people to to see their need but they but they failed to see that their only their own their hope their only hope in life and in eternity is in the lord jesus christ how many times in this Christian life, when we, the family of God, have been in the middle of some dark, stormy night of personal problems, of health problems, of family problems, and even in spiritual problems, where all we could say in a prayer was help. Boy, we've probably everyone been there. Everyone, if you've been saved any length of time at all, you've been there. You've been there, and the only thing you could say is, Lord, help me. Folks, whenever we see our need and we cry out to our God, then we witness what God alone can accomplish in our lives. God is so good to us as his children, and he makes our lives what he desires for them to be if we would but let him. In that process of living this Christian life, God gives us many blessings that will serve as pathways of help if we would but have a little faith and stay faithful. And so I'm going to preach about these pathways that God gives us. And so to see our pathways of help, there's three things that we must realize. Number one, the first thing that we must realize as Christians, to see these pathways that God's gonna give us to help us in this life, the first thing we need to realize is that our help is in God. that is where our help is. Nahum 1 7 says the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him. The Bible says in Psalms 12 1 says help Lord and the word of God also says in verse 5 for the oppression of the poor for the sign of the needy and then it says now will I arise saith the Lord. So what we must have in our lives and in our country is a crying out to God for help and a sign of the needy that will stir the Lord to arise and do something in our lives and in our land. Our help, folks, is in the Lord, plain and simple. We should be crying out to God every day as true believers the help that we so desperately need in this country and in our lives personally. I mean, the only hope for our nation and for our homes is a real heaven sent revival, a touch from heaven. That's the hope for our homes and it's all in God. God illustrates this for us in the book of Habakkuk so that he can show us and teach us something of vital importance for our lives and for our church and for our families and even for our country. Habakkuk was living on the eve of the captivity of the nation of Judah, and there was a great trouble in the land in his day. The trouble was not that the Babylonians were coming to take them captive. It was that God's people had forsaken the Lord. Habakkuk finally prays to God for revival, and he says in Habakkuk chapter three, verses one and two, he says, O Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive thy work. in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known, in wrath remember mercy. So we must as a people that name the name of Christ as our Lord and Savior and as a nation that was founded on Christian principles and the word of God, we must realize that our help is in God. and Him alone. Psalm 62 verses 7 and 8 says, In God is my salvation and my glory, the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. And then he says, Selah, that means think about it. So there is nothing which God cannot accomplish. And we need to realize that in our lives as believers, that God can accomplish more than we can think. He can touch that person that we're praying for the hardest. He can touch that person that is lost and He can touch them with the gospel message and He can give them the grace and the faith that they need to get saved. He can do that. We need to keep praying for them. We need to keep trusting God because our help is in God. That's where our help is. And then, number two, we need to realize that our help is in God's word. You know, 2 Peter 1, 19 says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. As Christians, one of the most cherished things in our life should be the word of God and the reading and the study of it. just cherish it. God, you've given us your word and you've put it in my life. Hey, there's people overseas in foreign countries that they don't have a Bible. They may have a page or two, or they may not even have that, and they pray, God, give us a Bible. I know whenever Brother Austin was up at Commonwealth up there in Kentucky before he come come home to Lighthouse. He got to doing a ministry with the Chinese. There were some Chinese up there and he sent off and got a bunch of Chinese King James Bibles and he'd give it to them and he said that they would take that Bible that he just gave them and they would hold it like that and they couldn't believe that they had a copy of God's Word. Folks, our help is in God, and our help is in God's Word. There are many things in this Christian life that we need to cherish, like prayer, trust, faith, hope, joy, the family of God. And we did, and me and Pam do cherish y'all. Boy, we was missing y'all bad when we was down in North Carolina. We couldn't wait to get back here to Simpsonville. And so you cherish the family of God and the love that we have for one another. The touch of God's hand, we cherish that. And the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us, we cherish that because He helps us each day we live this Christian life. But the one thing we must cherish above all else is God's Word. Psalms 119, 103 says, How sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Jeremiah 15, verse 16 says, Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. For I am called by thy name, O Lord, God of hosts. Folks, we live in a world and sadly in a country that is constantly looking to oust the Word of God from society and from our daily lives. This sad fact is why we must, as Christians, resist those trends in our nation and in our daily lives. If you look at Psalms 12, verses 2 to 4, again, it says, speaking of the lost, they speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor, With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. And boy ain't that, that's a good, that talks about what the people that are around us today that are lost in a world that doesn't know God. I mean it's a sad thing. I've seen pictures of young people out there online and they're holding up signs and they're saying going to hell and proud of it. How much crazier and dumb can you be? I've even seen other pictures of a guy holding up a sign that says, if Jesus comes back, kill him again. But that's the world that we live in. So we need to be cherishing our Bible. But right here, the Word of God even speaks to people that are around us today. And I'm going to read it again. They speak vanity everyone with his neighbor with flattery lips and with a double heart do they speak? The Lord shall cut off all flattery lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Who have said with our tongue we prevail, our lips are our own, who is our Lord? So the Bible says in Psalms 12 verses 2 and 3 that these wicked people that they speak and they speak with a double heart full of pride, and a double heart is hypocrisy. They are saying to us, the lost world is saying to you and me as believers, whatever we say goes. We are the final authority, not you Christians, not that Bible. We recognize no authority but our own. And let me tell you this, they are wrong. They are wrong. In verse five through seven, the Lord contrasts their words with his word. And notice the Bible says in Psalms 12, five to seven, for the oppression of the poor, for the sign of the needy. And then I like this, and this is the Lord speaking. He says, now will I arise Sayeth the Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. And then he says, the words of the Lord are pure words. It's silver, tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. So living in the midst of wicked men, we must have the word of God. Isaiah 40 verse 8, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. So our hope is in our God. Our hope is in God's word. If we did not have God's word for direction, and for instruction, and to build our faith, we would be a very weak people spiritually, surrounded by the wicked in this old world, if we didn't have the Word of God. Yes, we're surrounded by them, but I'm so glad I've got God's Word, right, in my life. I've got more copies of it, you can shake a stick at the house. But I mean, I'm so glad I got it. It is the strength and the sustenance that we get from God's Word that enables us to carry on as believers. I mean, hey, you get down in your life and you start looking other places other than the Word of God, and then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit directs you back to that Bible, you just start getting stronger and it lifts you up and it helps you because it is God's Word. So it is the strength that we get that enables us to carry on, that we get from His Word. And we cry out from deep inside us, we cry out in times like that and we just say, help Lord, help, help Lord. And we know that our help is in God and we know that it is also in His Word. But the third pathway of help that we have that we've got to realize. We need to realize that our help is in God. If we realize that, we'll turn to Him in our life. Whenever things go wrong, things go south or go north, I reckon it all depends on where you're from. But anyway, but when things don't go the right way, man, we need to realize in our heart that our help is in our God, our God. And then we need to realize that our help is right here in His Word. That's where our help is. But then as I was getting this message ready, I was thinking about all the years that have been saved and the different Christians I've been around. And I got to thinking a lot about y'all folks. Because the third place, the third pathway of our help, the third thing that we need to realize is that our help is in God's people. That's where our help is. Look, you go out there and you talk to somebody that's lost and you say, you say, pray for me. They couldn't get a prayer through. But you talk to a saint of God and say, Miss Maury, pray for me. Hey, I ain't worried about her getting a prayer through. She'll get through. Amen. Or any of y'all other ones. You know, our help is in God's people. Luke 8, 21 tells us so clearly who God's people is. And it says in Luke 8, 21, and he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren, so that's the family, that's family. My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it. So a Christian is going to hear the word of God and they're going to do it, they're going to be obedient to it. Hebrews 2 to 11 says, for both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. So the Lord Jesus, because of his death, because of his burial, because of his resurrection, he has made it possible that all who get saved in this life are in the family of God, no matter where they come from, or what part of this world they live in, all Christians are brethren together serving the cause of Christ. This fact is one of the main reasons why loving the brethren is so very important in this hour that we live in. It's why it's so very important in this Christian life. There should never be anything between two Christians that would cause hurt feelings, bitterness, and division. I know of a church back home there in Chatham County, North Carolina, where the pastor's wife and the Sunday school teacher, they've been at odds between themselves for years. bitterness, unforgiveness, and it's done nothing but just hurt that church. Even whenever I first took Lighthouse, I had one family in there, in Lighthouse, and part of them sat over here on this side, and part of them sat over here on this side, and this part over here This lady, she was kind of more well-to-do. Her and her husband had an air-conditioning company, so they done pretty good financially. And this side over here, they didn't do too good financially, but there was always bitterness. There was always, now the husband was dead over there, so it's just the wife left, but this side was always jealous of this side, and this side, and there was jealousy, and there was envy, and there was bitterness. And I could preach about the love of God and it'd roll off their backs like water off a duck's back. And a couple times I had to say to them, you stay and you stay, we're gonna have a talk. And so we'd have to, I mean, it'd get right down like that. But there should never be, there should never be something between two Christians that would cause bitterness or hurt feelings or unforgiveness and division in a church. Because God don't bless that stuff. God don't bless it. God in His Word uses some very strong language concerning loving the brethren. and he demands of us, the family of God, that we love one another. He says in 1 John 3, 14, we know that we pass from death into life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. And then the Lord Jesus said in John 13, 34, 35, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And then he put such importance on it. And he says this, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. If you will not love the family of God the way God says in His Word, at the most, you're proving that you're out of God's will and you're living with sin in your life. At the least, you're proving that you've never been supernaturally born again. But I want you to notice Psalms 12 again and read verse 1 again. Psalms 12 verse 1 simply starts off, Help Lord, for the godly man seeth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. Folks, God wants us to realize through David what David is saying here that we need godly men and women. It's almost as if David pleads from his heart and he says, Lord, what we need is godly men. We need faithful men, men who will stand on the principles that God teaches us from His Word. Folks, this is the true need of the hour, not only in our lives personally, but also in our homes and in our nation. There's some missionary friends that we have back home. They actually moved to Brunswick County and bought a house because me and Pam lived there, and they'd done that about the same time we were moving here. So we got to see them when we went home. But he's a great missionary. But he just preached in a church in Kenston, North Carolina. Matter of fact, he called me a week or two ago, and he said, Brother Robert, if you want to pastor a church, there's one out here in Kenston. North Carolina, and he said, you can come out here and pastor this church. And I said, no. I said, good Lord's got me out here in Centerville. I ain't a budget. So I'm staying right here. I said, if God wants me to pastor a church, he'll show me one out here. But here's the reason I'm mentioning that. That pastor died. Now, and he died of COVID. He had COVID, and then he had COVID pneumonia, and he was fully vaccinated and all that stuff. But then he had a heart attack, and he died, 53 years old. But it's only his wife left, okay? The people that he had in that church, he has one man, there was one man left in that church, and the rest were ladies. But the one guy, he wasn't kinda on up and up. But now they're gonna sell that church, and they're gonna disband. When they ought to just keep going for Jesus. They ought to just keep on going for the Lord Jesus. So even though that's a sad truth and it's something that the Lord just brought to my mind as I was getting this message together, but they need to keep that thing going no matter what. Keep her going. Keep her going. But this is the true need of the hour, not only in our lives personally, but also in our homes and in our nation and in our churches that we love one another. Often when we are honestly looking at ourselves through the Word of God, we see something going wrong in our personal lives, in our family's lives, and even in our world. And we declare many times from a broken heart, this or that is the problem. But let me say this, if you can understand what I'm about to say, God can help you. And here's what I want to say. If we can see that the heart of any issue is the problem with the heart, If our hearts are right with God, our lives will change for the better and our lives will conform to what the Word of God teaches. for us as believers. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. So the bottom line about salvation in the word of God is no change, no salvation. That's why whenever somebody professes that they're saved, many times I go out and I knock on doors there in Brunswick County, and I would knock on the door and I'd say, sir or ma'am, do you know Christ as your personal Savior? And they would say to me, oh yeah, I'm saved, I'm a Christian. And I would say, well great, that's fantastic. I said, then I would say this, I would say, tell me how Jesus changed your life when you prayed your prayer for salvation. And sadly, I never had too many give me a good answer. Matter of fact, I can't think of one. But anyway, but if a person is saved, their life is gonna change. And if a person is truly saved, we're gonna love the brethren. So the heart of any issue and the fix for most any problem in our lives and in our church and in our families is that we need faithful men and women who will rise up against what is wrong in their lives and in our nation and declare that they will live faithfully for Jesus and by the word of God together with the brethren. In God, in God's Word, and in God's people who will stand and be faithful and obedient, we find our help. We find our strength. We find the encouragement that we need to keep going for the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we need, we must have, and we must be godly, faithful, Christian men and women if we are ever going to make a difference in the lives of people that are around us. We need to live godly lives in our homes, in our churches, and on our jobs. We need to be faithful to God in every sphere of our lives. We need to be so far removed from sin and wickedness that we never bring a reproach on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by how we live or by what we say and do. The wicked, vile age that we live in should bring us to our knees crying out to God, help Lord, please help. Because that's what's around us. So folks, God is our help and God is our strength, but he will only help us if we do things his way and obey what his word teaches us as true Christians. God will not compromise. That's why whenever And I know I've told you every time I reckon I've got up and preached how we found this church. I went out online and I found this church and I read what the church stood for, what the pastor stood for. And I didn't even have to come here. I didn't even have to come here the day that we moved our stuff here. I didn't even have to come for the first service to realize that this is where God wanted me and Pam. I just drove around the parking lot. And I told Pam, I said, yep, this is where God wants us. And we've been here ever since. Why? Because I knew this is where God wanted my life to be. So folks, God is our help. And God is our strength. But he'll only help us if we do it his way. Now, you may ask, and maybe somebody's watching online, and they're thinking, they're thinking, preacher, I see. I understand. I know what you're saying. But how do I start getting back on the right path and start living a godly, faithful, Christian life before my family? Well, I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you. Here's how you do it. Here's how you do it. You start with 2 Corinthians 13 and 5. You start there, where it says, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith, prove your own selves, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. So the first thing we gotta do is we must pass the test of being saved. It's right there. And then you continue on with 2 Chronicles 7, 14, where he says, if my people, which are called by my name, so he's talking about his people, us, talking about Christians, talking about saved people. He says, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, so we got to humble ourselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. He says, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin. and will heal their land. So you begin, you start with 2 Corinthians 13 5 and pass the test of being saved, and then you continue on with 2 Chronicles 7 14, getting things right with God as a Christian, and then live every day of the rest of your lives," living Romans 12, 10, where he says, through 21, he says, be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints, giving to hospitality, bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not, rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep, be of the same mind one toward another, mind not high things but Condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you. Live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome evil, overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. So we spend our lives living those verses as best we can. And then if you can do this, if we can do that, then you'll end up in heaven one day. You'll end up in heaven standing before the Lord Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ because you got born again in your life and you'll give an account of faithfully living for Jesus. And then hearing those two precious words from the lips of our Savior, well done, well done. You know, I don't expect the Lord to say to me, say when I get there, Robert, you were a great pastor. I just want him to say, well done, just well done. I know some preachers, they wanna make a big name for themselves and all that, but I just want the well done. Well done. And I will close with this verse, Romans 14, 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God, so that every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Now, I've given you three points, you know, three points, so I'm gonna give you a poem. I'm gonna give you three points, I gave you three points, now here's the poem. Now the poem is What I Think of Jesus. And it goes like this. If asked what of Jesus I think, though still my best thoughts are but poor, I say he's my meat and my drink, my life, my strength, and my store. my shepherd, my trust, and my friend, my savior from sin and from thrall, my hope from beginning to end, my portion, my Lord, and my all." Well, wouldn't that be something if we could all have that in our hearts as believers and just keep on going for Jesus no matter what? Hey, help Lord. And you know what? He does send us help. And he'll send you help, my brother. He'll send you help, my sister. Just when you think there ain't no help or just when you think you can't find no help, he'll send it. You just lean on the Lord and you trust him. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Don't quit. Do you hear me? Don't quit and keep going for Jesus. Amen. All right, let's pray. Lord, I thank you, Lord, for this message. Now, Lord, I preached it as best as I could, and I preached what I felt in my heart that you wanted me to bring, Lord, for this night, Lord, to this group of believers. Now, Lord, I pray, Lord, that you take the message, Lord, and you drive it home to our hearts. Now, I know we're not going to remember everything, but, Lord, I pray, Lord, that we'll remember that our help is in you, our help is in your word, and our help is in our brothers and sisters in Christ. So Lord, help us to remember that as believers tonight, and in Jesus' name I pray.