The singing of the doxology by the PCC student body begins Pensacola Christian College Chapel. At each chapel service, students have an opportunity to receive spiritual exhortation and enrichment during a time of music and meditation on God's word. This podcast shares selected recent chapel messages from guest speakers, faculty, and staff. Welcome to the PCC Chapel Podcast. I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 46. It's where we're going to start this morning, Psalm 46. And I've got three things that I want to share with you today. Three things that hopefully will be a help to you. Three things that I know you will need sometime in your college days here at Pensacola Christian College. Three things that you might need this semester. Three things you might need this month, this week. Maybe you need all three of them today, I don't know. But three things that I know you'll need them. And the reason I know you'll need them is because I needed them when I was a student and they were a help to me. And so I wanna be a blessing to you and just share some truths. The three things I wanna share with you is be still, Stand still and sit still. I was studying for a message at our church about just a couple weeks ago. We had just had a death in our church of a lady who was in her 70s and was in great health and just had a heart attack. And her husband shared with me that through the time of waiting and wondering if she was going to recover, the Lord impressed upon him, Psalm 46, to be still. And I got looking at that. And that's where this message, as I was praying about what to preach for College Chapel, that's where this message came out of was, as I was looking up different things, I ran across a quote by Warren Wiersbe. And he said, you know, it's good that we take advantage of the instruction of God to be still, stand still, and sit still. And I read that quote, and I said, I'm gonna investigate that. And that's where this message came out of. And so, Psalm 46 this morning, I want you to begin here with me, these three truths. First of all, it says, be still, verse number 10, it says, be still and know that I am God. That's a very important truth. This is, if you will, the stillness of surrender. The stillness of surrender. In this Psalm, they're seeing all kinds of upheaval. Verse one says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. The idea is that we need to be still and know that He is God, even when our world is in chaos. And if I know anything about college, my world became very chaotic when I came to college. I was in a new place, experiencing new things, and I was not prepared to be here. You see, I graduated from school in, this is gonna sound bad, but 1982. I know, I'm old, I get that. But 1982, and then I did not come to college until the fall of 1986. So there was a four year displacement there that just like the children of Israel, I was wandering in the wilderness and the Lord got a hold of me and gave me a new direction. And so when I came to school, I was not coming straight from high school. And truth be told, I was not a great student in high school. Then I went to a public school. And so, when I got here, boy, they actually expected me to do work and learn things, and that was a shock to my system. And so, there was times when my world was in chaos, and I had to learn some things. This is the stillness of surrender. The idea here is the stillness, this word carries the idea of being still and releasing or surrendering or allowing God to be still. to be God. Stopping our war-like activity, stopping our, pushing our agenda and allowing God to take care of things that are beyond our control. When the, when the earth is shaken and the mountains are cast into the sea, what are we going to do because we can't control that? Little like 2020, amen? We don't know how to control these things, but we know the one who is in control of all things. And that's why he says here in Psalm, he says, verse 8, come behold the works of the Lord and what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease and under the end of the earth he breaketh the bow and he cutteth the spear asunder. He burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still and know that I am God because He is a very present help in trouble and He is a refuge, a resting place. In the midst of the storm, we can be still in His presence and be protected and be sheltered in the midst of the storm. I want to encourage you. You're probably going to experience some kind of storm. You already have. You've experienced a hurricane and possibly another one. But I'm not talking about just the storms that blow in off the Gulf. I'm talking about the storms that blow in from your life, the difficulties that you might face, the scheduling and the trials. And you need to take time to be still. The year was 1985. I was 20 years old. I had graduated from high school. I was working at a seasonal job. I had no direction really for my life, and the one direction that I believed God was directing me toward was not one that I wanted to be involved in. And so, I did everything I could to stay in motion, to stay moving, to just do what I could to not be still long enough to listen to God. I was still going to church every Sunday. I mean, I've been going to church since nine months before I was born. I've been in church all my life, an independent, fundamental Baptist church. And I was still going to church, but I did not want to submit to what God had for me. I did not want to surrender to what I believed He was doing, and so I tried to keep myself distracted. I was on my way home from work on a Thursday afternoon, and the radio in my car was broken, so I couldn't distract myself. And I was alone in the car with just me and the Holy Spirit. And my life was truly in chaos because I was resisting and I was rebelling with what God wanted. And finally, the Holy Spirit said, you know, Bruce, you can do what you want to do, but I'll let you go and don't ever ask me for anything else again. And growing up in church and trusting the Lord as my savior at a very young age, I knew that's not the decision I wanted to make. And so right there in the car at 60 miles an hour, I surrendered. I said, God, don't kill me. If you don't kill me before I get home, I was two miles from my house. I said, God, if you don't kill me before I get home, I'll do what you want to do. The reason I was struggling is because I knew that when I got home, nobody was going to be home. See, my dad died when I was 11. My mom was going to her Thursday night Bible study. My sister was going to be at work. It was just the three of us. And so, I knew that when I got home, I was going to be alone. And whenever I was alone, God was working on me. And I didn't want to be still enough to listen. My world was in chaos. I can't tell you all that was going on, but it was in chaos. And it took a moment, and God forced me to come to a place where I would be still. You see, being still isn't that you're immobile. It doesn't mean you have to go to a mountaintop. It means that you have to be willing to be quiet enough to listen to the still, small voice. and be still, and then surrender. Say, God, it's no longer what I want. It's no longer my agenda, it's yours. Maybe you're here because it was somebody else's agenda, and you're still not really on board. You're still kind of resisting, and you're still kind of wrestling. Hey, I encourage you, be still. With the stillness of surrender this morning, and let God have his way. So we have the stillness of surrender this morning. That's be still and know that I am God. By the way, you take some time this week and read that statement. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. Where you place the emphasis may depend on what you're going through. You need the sovereignty and the security of an almighty God. You need to know that He's God, not you. You need to know by experience and know by faith and conviction that He is God and He is overruling all things. Secondly, I'd like you to turn to Exodus chapter 14. Exodus chapter 14, here's where we find that phrase, stand still. Exodus chapter 14, you know the story, the children of Israel have left Egypt. Moses had brought them out, and if you read verse one, they are right in the place that God leads them to, and they are in the place of difficulty. They are basically in a trap. They've got the mountains on one side, they've got the Red Sea on the other, and they've got Israel behind them. triad of trouble, or the triple threat, if you want to call it that. And they are right there in the midst. And verse number one of chapter 14 says, and the Lord spake unto Moses, verse two, speak unto the children of Israel that they turn and encamp before Pirhathoroth. And He gives them the very specific details. And I want you to go, and I want you to stop right there. They were in the place that God wanted them to be. They were there for the purpose that God had them for. Look at verse number four. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after thee, and I will be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. Maybe you're right in the place where God wants you. for the purpose that God has you. And you say, but Brother Barker, I'm in a perilous situation here. I don't know what I'm doing here. I don't get it, I don't understand. Well, I would encourage you to stand still. You see, be still is of release and surrender, but stand still is of standing attention. The standing still is the idea of you've got an enemy over here. You've got a difficulty over here. You've got an adversary behind you. What do I do? Where do I go? And it's like a quarterback whose pocket is collapsing, and he doesn't know what to do. And he's getting the happy feet. He doesn't know if he can just scramble or throw the ball away or try to complete the pass. And when he takes his eyes off of his receivers and puts his eyes on what's happening around, he's going to get the happy feet, and he's going to want to flee, fight, or just faint. Are you there? If you're not, you might be sometime in your college career. And I want to encourage you, don't flee, don't fight, but refocus. And that's what it means. Stand still, it means standing attention. And maybe God is bringing you to this place and in this spot for this purpose to get us to say, OK God, I'm in a trap, I'm in a situation that I can't get out of, what do you want me to do? He wants you to stand still. and listen for instruction." You see, it says, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Verse 14, notice what it says, and the Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace. When we wait on God and we stand still and wait for — at attention and wait for instruction, that's when God can do the work. The year was 1986. I was a freshman. It was November. It was November 16th, as a matter of fact. I'll tell you how I know that for sure in just a moment. But it was my freshman year here at PCC. It was shortly after getting my midterm grades back. Now remember, I was out for four years. I wasn't a great student, and midterm grades came in. And the question that came to my mind is, God, why did you bring me here? What do I think I'm doing? My cousin, one of my best friends back home, I found out at Christmas time when I got home, he says, yeah, he said, we were all taking bets on how long you'd last. I said six weeks. And in November, I thought, boy, I've lasted longer than a lot of people thought I would. I guess I'm just folded up now and go home because I don't know what I'm doing. I think my grade point was like 1.8 or something after my midterms. It was pitiful. I thought, wow, I am struck. What am I doing? Why did I think I could come down here and even attempt to do this? Well, the reason why is because God called me to do it. God led me to do it, and I surrendered to His purpose. And so it was November 16th, I was trying to decide what to do. And we had recently had a speaker, well at the beginning of that year he'd challenged us to read a proverb a day. That's how I know it was November 16th. I was in Proverbs chapter 16. And I was reading along and I came to verse nine and it jumped off the page, slapped me on both sides of the head and said, did you get that? You ever have those experiences? When you're reading your devotions and all of a sudden the Lord says, hello, hello, it's me calling, this one's for you. When that happens you better underline them, you better memorize them, because that's not the only time you're going to need them. Proverbs 16.9, eventually I realized, you know what, that was my life verse. A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directed his steps. And I read that verse, and it was like the Holy Spirit said, you are where you're supposed to be, you are where I've wanted you to be all of your life. Don't blow it now, stand still. Don't run, don't flee, don't fight. Stand still, pay attention, because I'm about to show you my salvation. Hey, college student, don't get the happy feet one or six weeks in. Stand still, because God has a plan. He has a purpose. He brought you here for a purpose, and remember that. You see, right out of high school, I decided I was going to go into the electronics field. I enrolled in an electronics school. I was there for over a year. You're going to think this is funny. I think it's hilarious. I got kicked out of an electronics school. I did. And yet I made it all the way through PCC, went on staff, and was here 13 years. And I didn't get kicked out then either. You know why I got kicked out? Because I was in the wrong place, and God had to get my attention. But when I came here, and I was thinking I was supposed to leave, God said, no, no, no. A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. Here's an interesting fact. It was November 16th, just so happens to be. That was my dad's birthday. And the verse is verse 9, just so happens that was the day my dad died in 1975. And when I realized that, I thought, you know, Lord, that's pretty obvious. You see, I was going to be a farmer. My dad was a farmer. I had planned to be a farmer. He died when I was 11. We had to sell the cows. We had to sell the farm. All that went away. And when I read Proverbs 16, 9, I realized, you know what, God had a plan, and he had a purpose, even back then. One that I didn't understand through high school, one that I didn't realize I was bitter about all the way through high school, and it wasn't until I came here, and I got alone with God, and I was willing to be still, and then stand still, once I surrendered. then I was willing to submit. You see, this is the standstill of submission. You can surrender, but then you have to submit. You can be still and surrender, but then you have to stand still and to submit to God's purpose for your life. And maybe you're here, grudgingly, and you don't, you're not sure. I encourage you. Since you are here, be still and stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. So we've got the stillness of surrender. We've got the stillness of submission. And number three, I want you to see the stillness of assurance. Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Ruth, the book of Ruth chapter three, Ruth chapter three. Again, you know the story. Here Ruth, that Moabitess woman who was part of an arranged marriage, she was arranged to be married to Malian and he died and it was all a mess and then her mother-in-law went back to Israel and so she went back to Israel and she was going with her no matter what and she made the decision to surrender to the God of Israel. And then when Naomi said, go back and don't follow me, she said, no, I'm going to stand still. I'm going to continue to follow and submit to God's purpose for my life, and that is to care for you and to be with you. And as you read the book of Ruth, from the very beginning it just kind of goes downhill. Call me no more Naomi, call me bitter. It's a depressing book at the beginning. And then her hap, the Bible says, her hap was to go to the field of Boaz. Your hap is to be here at Pensacola Christian College. Your hap, in other words, God has brought you to this place at this time for this purpose. Don't look at it as something that he's doing to you, something that he's doing in you. It's something that he's doing for you so that he can work through you. And that's what happened to Ruth. And so you know the story, Naomi says, hey, Boaz, he's a good looking fella, he's available, why don't you go propose to him? Ladies, I'm not necessarily recommending that, but it worked for her, okay? So chapter three, she goes, you know, the threshing floor and that whole business, and Boaz is very careful. He doesn't want to injure her reputation. He's very careful and he protects her reputation and sends her away. In the end of chapter three, she comes back, look at verse 17, or look at verse 16. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, who art thou, my daughter? In other words, are you married or aren't you? Are you still my daughter? And she told her all that the man had done to her. And she had said, these six measures of barley gave me, for he said to me, go not empty unto your mother-in-law, verse 18. Then said she, sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall. Sit still. Sit still until you know how the matter will fall. You know, be still is the stillness of release and surrender. Stand still is the stillness of attention and focus and submission. Here is the sit still of remaining in God's purpose. The idea of this word still is to abide, to remain, to stay. To plant yourself in one spot until you know the end of the story. You see, that's important. To plant yourself in one spot until you know the end. The year was 1988. It was the end of my sophomore year. You see, being out on my own, I wasn't a wise, I worked for four years before I came to college, but I wasn't wise. I wasn't planning to go to college necessarily, so I didn't save up a bunch of money. And so when I came to college, every year was a struggle. Every exam I had to go see Ms. Cooper and explain how I was gonna pay my bill so I could get my exam permit. God bless Ms. Cooper. What a gracious lady she was. And she had pity on a penniless, pitiful preacher boy. And I'll tell you, God just gave me favor and grace in her eyes. And every year it was a different story. Every semester it was a different method, but God provided. The end of my sophomore year, you see my sophomore year I had gotten a job off campus. I came down, it's the beginning of the fall, I had a vehicle that year, the only year I had a vehicle, and I worked at Sam's. The blessing was I got a job, I was working 25 to 30 hours a week off campus. Yeah, that was a blessing. That meant that I missed supper Monday night, Tuesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. because I was working. I'd go to work at 3.30 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, depending on my schedule. I'd work till 9 or 10, come home. The blessing there was I was a Geritol Hall student. Yes! And so that meant that I could come home, stay up all night and study. And I would pop popcorn and eat peanut butter and crackers. And quite often I would fall asleep in the study hall and somebody would wake me up in the morning on their way to breakfast at 6 a.m. I lost 30 pounds. I looked, as someone described me, I looked like I had been through the war. I got home and I was wondering, how in the world am I going to pay for the last two years of college? There's no way that I could go through this again. There's no way that I could survive another year like this. And there's a bunch of ways that God provided. I had purchased a vehicle when I was working with the idea of fixing it up. you know, having this really cool car. Then I went to college and it just sat there. And that summer, God brought somebody by and offered me basically what I paid for it to purchase it. And that's part of how I provide it. But when I got home and I was so depleted and so gaunt looking, there was a family in my church that came to me. And they had been friends of my dad. And they came to me and they said, hey, we appreciate how hard you're working, but we don't want you to die before you finish college. So we're going to do something. We want to help you. He said, for the next two years, we're going to take you on like a missionary, and we're going to support you for $100 a month until you get through college. And I couldn't believe it. You see, the end of the spring semester, God had given me a verse, 1 Thessalonians 5, 24. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. And I had no idea at the time. I thought that meant that I would get through the semester. But that summer and then all through my junior year, it became very evident that that verse meant that God was gonna get me through my college four years. Because I was willing to stand still and to remain where God called me and wait until I could see the end of the matter, God provided an answer. You know, here for Ruth, it's an amazing answer. She waited. You see, her want was to marry Boaz, but then she found out there was a kinsman redeemer who was closer. She found out that there was somebody who was a closer kinsman and she might have to marry him. What? She had already been in one arranged marriage, did she want to go to another, to a man she didn't love, didn't care about? She was surrendered, she would be submissive, but she really wanted a certain outcome. And so when she was willing to be still and she waited, she got the assurance that God had a plan and He had a purpose. Can I encourage you? Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. And if you don't need that verse today or tomorrow, you'll need it somewhere along the line in these four years. And maybe you're a senior and you say, I don't know what I'm doing after I graduate. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. He's been faithful these last four or five or six years or however long it's taken you to get through. He's been faithful and He will be faithful. And He already has an answer. I'll close with this. We were here for 11 years. I was here 11 years on church staff. Great, I didn't want to leave, but God made it abundantly clear He was calling me to pastor. I didn't know where. I made the decision in January, but I had no idea where God would call me. And the beginning of July of 2003, I still didn't know. Hadn't really had any prospects. I'd sent out some information, but didn't know. July 1st of 2003, I was diagnosed with diabetes. And I was gonna be done in 25 days with my job, my health insurance, everything. I was gonna be gone. I had no clue. Talk about wanting to run. You talk about wanting to flee. You wanna look up and say, God, what are you doing? But I was willing to stay still, be still, and stand still. And by the end of July, I knew exactly where I was going. And I've been there the last 17 years. And God has taken great care of us and done amazing things. And we've seen people saved and encouraged. We sat at a table Sunday night. We were able to take all of our graduates and some kids from our school that are here. And I just looked around that table and I said, God, you've been so good. I wanna encourage you. sit still, or excuse me, be still, surrender, stand still, be willing to listen for instruction, and submit to God's will and direction, and be still, stay where you're at until you know God is moving your eyes. You've been listening to a message from Pensacola Christian College Chapel. You're welcome to pass this sermon along to others. Please don't charge for it or alter it without written permission from Pensacola Christian College. 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