I had been doing a series, as you know, it's called The Mighty Fortress, just kind of Psalm 46, three-part series. Our Hiding Place, His Residing Place, Our Abiding Grace. This morning we'll look at that. Let me ask you a question. Has anybody here seen The Music Man? The movie or the play? Yeah. Do you like it? You like musicals? Yeah, you're too young. Who likes musicals? Anybody like musicals? Yeah, yeah. And Hello, Dolly, another one. I love that, too. One of the neat things about musicals or a good symphony of sorts is that it builds to a crescendo. I mean, as the play goes on, there's a lot of great music and stuff. But they keep that showstopper for the end, right? So when you leave that theater or the movies off, the last thing you remember is being like right up here, okay? And so it was with the Sons of Korah when they wrote this psalm. It builds. It's a three-part song, as it were, or psalm, and broken by the salas or the pauses. And each part of that has a different focus. And so this morning, we're going to look at that crescendo as it were. It's somewhat different. As you look through the first two, up to verse eight, up to verse seven, rather, that's all in third person narrative, if you notice that. And then all of a sudden, we begin to go into first person as we get from eight to 11. And actually, verse 10, which I think is the hallmark of this whole psalm, the capstone, the cornerstone, the most important part of it, is, be still and know that I am God. And that is an imperative. And it is God speaking first person. Speaking to be still and know that who is not I am God speaking in the first person to you So this is a very it's it's a exciting Message that we have in the text. Let's hope that God will allow us to do it justice here this morning So let's go before him in a word of prayer, please and we follow again. We just thank you that we can be here to To hear your word, priest, Lord, I pray that you go before me, touch hearts, that they might find something in the message this morning that speaks to their heart. Lord, this is about changing lives, so Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit go before them and just prepare their hearts and souls. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to look at three aspects of God's grace and representations of His divinity that will help us to know God. The first one we're going to look at is God's demonstration of His divinity or His common grace in verses 8 and 9. In verse 8, He says, When he makes that statement, he's speaking to believers, and so the assumption is that we haven't beheld the works of the Lord, that we don't necessarily understand what are the works of the Lord. It's a command. If we, sometimes when we go through life, we don't often say, wow, God did that. Well, it's great. God is doing this. Well, God is doing that. We often just live our life, and we're totally unaware of the works of the Lord. So he says, come behold the works of the Lord. Then the very next thing he says in 8b is, who has wrought desolations upon the earth? Do we attribute the bad things? We often attribute good things to God. Like, I get a check in the mail, unexpected. Thank you, Lord. That was great. Get good news from the doctor. Thank you, Lord. That was great. Get bad news from the doctor. Do we go, thank you, Lord? We have a car accident, so we thank God. Do we believe that God is in any way having anything to do with that? Do we understand that God is in charge of everything? because that's what we see here this morning. Common grace is not only about the good things, but it's about all things that God gives us. If we for one moment take the position that God is not in control of everything in the universe, good or evil, and we cease to believe that God is God, He's no longer omnipotent. When we think of the term omnipotent, we often think in terms of intensity, of power. Hence the question, can God make a rock too big that he can't pick up? Who's heard that? Anybody got the answer? You know what the answer is? No, I'll get into that some other time. But we ask that question, why? Because when we talk about omnipotence, we are thinking about God's power, His extensivism. He can do everything. But we forget, is omnipotence, the term omni, the prefix omni, means all. All. It's talking about length rather than strength. Quantity rather than quality. And we often forget that God is in charge of everything, good and bad, that happens in the universe. God can only be God when he's in control of everything, good or evil. He's not the author of evil, but he does use the evil that's in the world for his purposes. You know, in science today, they use bad things for good purposes. Botulism. You know, like from a can of soup that's been in there for 86 years, right, that the top is bent like this and you know it's gonna explode if you drop it or something. Yeah, botulism is in there, we know that, so we don't need it, we throw it out. But what do they do with botulism? Botox, right? See, it looks good now. It's not that I use it, but no, but botulinum is used for Botox and for medical treatments and so on. Leeches, eww, leeches. They are blood-sucking little things, but yet they use them for medicine. More and more now they're using them for medicine, especially in burn victims where they don't want to touch them too much. Snake venom. Medicines and anti-venoms come from snake venom. So if man can make good out of evil or bad, what do you think God can do with it? Do you remember Joseph speaking to his brothers when he said, you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good, right? We need not protect God from the idea of evil. Oh, no, God had nothing to do with that. That's the devil. No. Because the minute we do that, we take God out of being in control of everything. When God's not in control of everything, we're in a really bad place. We're going to talk about that a little more as we go on. He talks about desolations on the earth. In 8b, it says, who has wrought, speaking of himself, meaning me, has wrought desolations in the earth. He unequivocally states that he has brought desolations to the earth. Not like he's allowed. It says who has what. Brought. Brought's an active verb. It means that he did something. That he brought desolation. Oh, God doesn't... He has nothing to do with the hurricanes and the tornadoes and the earthquakes. That's not God. That's Satan, who's the prince of the power of the air. No, that's God, allowing Satan to work sometimes. But that's God, and we need to understand that. Satan is only allowed certain power over the earth. It's given to him for season, but it's never out of God's ultimate control. In John 16, 11 it says, in concerning judgment, because the rule of this world has been judged. Who's the ruler of the world? Satan. And who's judging the rule of the world? God. God is sovereign. He's sovereign over every disease, every mishap, every tragedy, every desolation on the earth. When we see havoc and desolation, it's not out of God's reach, it's under his control. We need to remember that. It's done, Satan only acts within God's permission. And when troubles come upon the earth, it's either God brings it or he allows it to happen. We must understand that about God. And he goes on, he says, and he makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He ends wars. God not only causes destruction, but He causes peace too. He not only causes desolation, but He brings peace to the earth. Isaiah 9 says, For a child is born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. He is the Prince of Peace. Not only does he have control over the evil, but he has control over mankind to bring peace to you. Suppose God was not one who was in the business of bringing peace to the earth. Suppose, do you think we'd still be here? Do you think man lived through it? Now, we've had lots of centuries and millenniums, as it were, to devastate each other. And believe me, we've tried. And now we have the power to do it. When we think about the Iron Curtain coming down and all of that, and we think about the Cuban thing, we think about all the things that happened in our century, if God's hand wasn't in that, they may never happen because man's heart doesn't lend itself to peace, but to war. And would we still be here if God's hand wasn't in there bringing peace to mankind so we would not destroy ourselves? He tells us right here, he does. Then he says, he breaks the bow and he cuts the spear. He takes away man's ability to fight from time to time. He makes things not work, makes things impossible. He breaks the bow and the spear. Let's talk about common grace for a second. In the realm of common grace, we often think of rain, sun, the ability to grow things, and actually more rain than sun recently, but truthfully, common grace encompasses just about everything that happens in the world. It's actually the... Common grace is in spite of the world. God gives grace to the world to those who blaspheme him, to those who malign him, to those who don't believe in him. In spite of them, thank you so much. Instead of, I talk too much and I get dry. God brings His common grace on the earth in spite of the world, not because of it. It's actually because of us in that while we're still here, while His plan for the church is still active, there's common grace on the earth. And when his plan is done for the earth, when we are, the church is taken out of here, and the tribulation comes, then the common grace, there'll still be a certain amount of it, but the plan is gonna change at that point. But right now the world enjoys common grace, and I think having great, I think the Bible says, a great deal to do with us. And it can be shown, just a point, it can be shown through his goodness and the things that would seem to be evil too. And I once heard R.C. Sproul, anybody like him? I like R.C. Sproul. Certain things I don't like about R.C. Sproul, but a lot of good things. And I was listening to this teaching tape and he was talking about he had been giving a seminar someplace one time and And the pastor of the church said, R.C., when you're done with the seminar, can I take you to this woman's house who has been a fan of yours for so long, but she's been deathly sick, on the verge of dying? And she can't come out, and she'd love to see her. So he said, OK, I'll go. So he goes, and he meets her when he's talking to her a little bit and praying with her a little bit. And she says, you know, I watch a lot of TV evangelists. And one of them said to me, and it just gave me a lot of peace in my heart, one of them said that the reason that evil and sickness and stuff happen in the world is not because of God, but it's because of Satan. And it's Satan that's doing this to me. So R.C. Sproul didn't really say anything to her then because, you know, it wouldn't have been the right thing to do. But what he did say, and which is the truth, is that she was taking the only hope she had out of the picture. See, Satan, what's Satan's big power? deception, right? He lies, he's deceiving. Does he have a lot of physical power? No, not unless God gives it to him. So if the power is given to Satan over evil and over sickness and dying, can you expect to have any blessing come from that? Can you expect to get well? Does Satan want you to get well? No. So if you take it out of God's hands and you give it to Satan, you're in a world of trouble. And see, that was where she was. Now, the evangelist probably meant the best. He meant to take the heat off of God, as it were. But God is always in control of everything. We need to understand that. In 1 Samuel 18, 10, it says, now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul. And he raved in the midst of the house while David was playing the harp with his hand, as usual. And the spear was in. Saul's hand. The point that I wanted to make, and maybe I went over too fast, was that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon him. Was that evil spirit given by God or permitted by God? Does it matter? The point is that there was an evil spirit that God permitted to come upon Saul, to be used by God for his purpose in Saul's life. Do you remember in the beginning of the book of Job, in the first chapter, Job, Satan's like hanging out with the angels, right? And God says to Satan, yo, have you thought of my son Job? My servant Job, have you thought about him? And Satan's like, no, it's just him hanging out. And God says, yo, have you thought about Job? He went to him. He initiated the conversation. Satan wasn't thinking about Job. God said, have you thought about Job? Oh yeah, now I think about him. Okay. And then, and so, hence the whole book of Job came. God's the initiator of this. Do we understand that's who God is? God's in full, complete control, and His power is worked out in everything that happens in our life, good or bad. Now listen to Morris, and I've just, we'll certainly be praying that it works out well for you. But God's in control no matter which way that goes, no matter which way anything goes. If my son is unsaved and if he gets saved, that's God's purpose. If he doesn't, that's God's purpose. We have to learn to put our trust in God and do what we're supposed to do in the meantime. Pray and witness and do the things that we need to do. Keep our health up and all that. And we do what we can do and God does the rest. We need to understand that about God. It's often said that if God allows pain and suffering on earth, then he can't be a loving God. How untrue that is. He's a loving God who's prepared a home for us. This is just a passing through. Now, we'll have nice lives and have fun and this stuff maybe, but we're just passing through. We're here to do the work of the kingdom. And this is not our home. He is a loving God who's prepared a place for us. And people suffer because those who are children of God, they suffer because God has something to teach them for a time. And then he will heal. And that one will either take the suffering away or bring you home with him. But God is in control of that. You need to know that. And the second one we want to look at is God's declaration of divinity, his saving grace. In verse 10, he says, cease. Now, in the New American standard, it has striving in italics, which means that word is not really there. But it's implied. Cease strivings. Cease from trying to make things happen. The King James, and the one I think is a cool verse, is be still. Be still and know that I am God. The word that is used to cease or be still means to stop, to become weak, to fail, to fall, to give up, to let go. And imagine that. Imagine God saying, become weak. How many of you want to become weak? Raise your hands. We don't want to become weak. We're Americans. We want to become what? Strong. Okay? We go to the, you know, I'm working out now, you can see. But, would you look at that. It's in our nature. It's in our nature to be to be the leaders, to be strong, to take care of business, or to worry about taking care of business. Sometimes we can't take care of business, so we sit and worry about it. But it's all about us taking care of things and doing things, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. That's who Americans are, amen? Is that who God wants us to be? No. He wants us to cease from striving. Does that mean that we are to just kind of sit around and do nothing? No, we're going to get to that in more detail. I want you to do me a favor and turn, if you would, to Matthew 20. Matthew 20. Verses 1 to 6. is the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. Matthew 21 to 6 says, for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into the vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in a marketplace. And to those he said, you too go into the vineyard, and whatever is right, I will give you. And so they went. Again, he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing, and he said to them, why have you been standing here idle all day long? And they said to him, because no one hired us. And he said to them, well, you come into the vineyard. And when the evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to the foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first. And those hired about the 11th hour came, each one received a denarius. And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more, and they also received each one a denarius. And when they received, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, these last men have worked only an hour, and you've made them equal to us. who have borne the burden of the scorching heat of the day. I meant 1 to 12 is what I meant. But he answered and said to them, friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? 13 is what I meant. The point is that they were figuring their worth was having to do with their labor. They saw their worth having to do with the labor. And I've got to ask you, isn't that what we do? You know, we pat ourselves on the back when we count ourselves to be a hard worker and worthy of something. But that's not what the vineyard owner was looking for. He rewarded people based on their following the call. They responded to the call. Come to the vineyard. And they came. didn't matter when they came, come to the vineyard, and they come. So the person who gets saved the second before the rapture, is he going to heaven, or where is he going? Heaven. If Hitler were to get saved, where would he go? Heaven. See, there's no difference. It doesn't matter how hard you work, what kind of a nice person you are. The value is, do you respond to the call? Are you obedient to the Lord? That is the basis on which we put our faith. And sometimes we have real trouble with that. Sometimes we think, I was talking to a friend the other day who was having some trouble finding work, and he was really struggling. He purports to be a Christian, and yet he's questioning God. Where is God in all of this? And I said, God has a purpose. There's a lesson here. Learn the lesson and you'll get, it'll take you through this. Well, I don't know. I see miracles. And why does he just give me a job? I don't know. I can't answer that. I can only say, do you trust God or you don't trust God? Because even if he never gets a job, one time, and I said this here before, one time, my pastor, I was having trouble. I was struggling financially. My business was failing. And I thought I was going to lose my house. And so I went to my pastor, hoping I was going to get some good encouragement. And after we talked and we prayed a little bit, he said, you know, Jim, God may want you to lose your house. That's not what I wanted to hear. That's not what I went there for. I was expecting some real spiritual stuff that would like, you know, get me over this and make me feel like, wow, this is great and everything's gonna be okay, but that's not what he had for me. And then I went out of there, I have to say, maybe a little miffed, I don't really remember exactly, but I know in a day or two, as I mulled that over and prayed about it, I realized maybe that's true. Maybe I just need to be in that place where I don't put any hindrances on God. Whatever you want from me, God, that's what I'll do. And I think so too often we want to solve the problem our way and not God's way. God says, be still and know that I am God. Now, when he says that, he has a plan for us. Jeremiah 29, 11 says, for I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, not for calamity. There will be, God has a plan for us. God's in control. Sometimes we need to just be still. I want you just for a minute, and really just about a minute, I want you to just be still. I want you to think of nothing but God. Be still and know that I am God for just a minute. Just think of nothing but God. That was 15 seconds. How many thought of anything but God? No? You also have gone and got alone? Well, you're good. Because it's very hard for us to do that. It's very hard for us to focus. It's very hard for us to be still. I was going to be still for a minute, but then I figured maybe you'll go to sleep. And then when I open my eyes, I'd be in trouble. It's very hard in this society to be still. You know, like, have you noticed that commercials on TV are like, there's no more one minute commercials? There's a one minute, actually it's like 10 minutes, but there's like 10 second spots in there. Because people can't focus for that long anymore. We only, adults are said to have a best 15 minutes of attention, so I already lost you. 10 minutes ago, OK? I know you. Not you guys. Not you guys. But the focus is that we cannot be still. We have to find that place. Remember when Jesus went away to the mountaintop to get away and be alone and pray and fast? And then he went out to the garden the night before to pray and to fast? We have to find a place where we can get alone and pray and fast. And that's my drive over to work every morning is where I do it. And hopefully you'll find that place where you can be still. It says, we still know that I am God. And the implication is not you. OK? Be still and know that I am God, not you. This message, I call the saving grace at this point because it is the saving grace that allows us to know that He is God. The world doesn't know that He is God. And He's saying to you, be still and know that I am God. Why does He say, why is the implication not you? Because we want to live our lives, as we talked about a few minutes, we want to live our lives doing things our way. We have an outcome in mind in every situation, and we want it to work out that way. And if it doesn't work out that way, there's very few of us that actually mean when we say, oh, whatever God wills. How many really mean that when you say that? Some, but most of us are saying, yeah, whatever God's wills, as long as it lines up with what I want. Yeah, we do pray that way. We do. And I've done it many times. And so, there is that issue. Be still and know that God is God. And what does that mean? It means that He holds the outcomes. We have to go into a situation understanding that He holds the outcome. And we have to just let it go? Whatever the outcome is going to be, it's going to be. And we have to understand God has it in His control. And that's something that we have to keep reminding ourselves, that He is God. I was thinking of an illustration for this, and I remember we were talking about ships not too long ago, and in the Navy, I remember the deck where the helm of the ships, and they had this instrument in there called a, I'm sorry, it's called a telegraph. Anybody familiar with ships? There's a thing in there, it's called a telegraph. You've seen them. They got the handles on, it's a round brass thing and they go ching, ching, ching, ching. And it's got like half and full and quarter and like that and stop, all stop. And since the invention of the powered boat, since the invention of the steamboat, they had used, there was no connection directly to the motor from the helm. You got a connection to the steering, either through rope or hydraulics, but there's a connection to the rudder. But in the helm, there's no connection to the engine. Because in the steam engines, when they wanted to get some steam, they'd have to have guys shoveling coal in there. So what do you have, like a rope on a guy? You know, like pull the rope and a guy shovels it. So they had this telegraph that made bells ring down there. And then they had another one down here that echoed what was done up here so they could see. And then the head engineer would ring back so the captain would know that he got it. Telegraph. OK. Up in the helm, the captain's got the boat there, control of the boat. Down in the engine room, they can't see anything. They're stoking the fire and getting that steam up and doing what they're supposed to be doing. Well, that's us. And God's up in the helm. He doesn't come down and make his presence known to us. He just signals. He works through our life. He gives us signals of things we're supposed to do, and we do respond to Him. But we don't know what's going on because we're below deck, so we can't see out the window. But He sees out the window. He knows what's coming. So we have to learn to be obedient. Now, if we stop putting that call, and we went up to go look out, we're going to just, we're going to, something's going to happen, you know, because we stopped doing what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be down here doing that trusting God and depending on Him. See, that's who God is. God is going to lead us and direct us, and we just have to be obedient to respond to Him. And that's the relationship that He wants with His church, that we would love Him and follow Him and obey Him. And when we do that, He promises that He's not going to run us aground, that He's going to bring us to our destination. Isaiah 49, 23 says, those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame. Those who, with hope, wait upon the Lord will not be put to shame, will not be unhappy at the end. What an amazing thing to think about. If we just hopefully wait upon Him, it's going to work out just the way it's supposed to. Trust me. And you will not trust in vain, God says. And finally, God's defense of His divinity, His sustaining grace, 10b to 11. Let me get back to my text. I'm looking in Matthew and that's not working. It says, I will be exalted among the nations. God says he will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. He is going to be exalted. It's not like maybe. You know, when we put our hope in God, that hope is not like, oh, I hope, I hope. It's like putting all our trust in God. It's not hoping for anything. So, God says He will, underline will, He will be exalted. It will happen. And you don't have to worry about it. You know, one of the things I want to talk about in the beginning, and I missed my text, and that's one of the things I do, I have a tendency to go over things, is the stray bullet theory. There is a theory that, and I'm just going to backtrack that because it's important. If somewhere, if God's not in control of everything, if somewhere in the universe there's a stray bullet, a stray molecule, something that is out of God's control, God can't make a promise to you. Do you understand that? If there is something that he's unaware of, that he doesn't have control of, he can't promise to bring you to heaven with him. He can't say, I will be exalted in you, because he doesn't know. At best, he may want you to be in heaven with him. He may hope you're in heaven. He may do everything to get you to heaven. But if something, some molecule that he has no control of comes in and messes things up, then you're without hope. But God is God, and he's sovereign over every single thing in the universe. And that's why he can say unequivocally, I will be exalted in the universe. I will be exalted in the earth. It's going to happen. Stay tuned. And not too distant future. The courts may take God out of our nation, but that's because the nation has taken God out of the courts. When we remove God from our politics, does that mean he's not God anymore? If you go to read the Psalm 2, you don't have to turn there. Psalm 2, 1 to 4 says this. Why are nations in uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us tear their feathers apart and cast away their cords from us. But then, it says, he who sits in the heavens laughs, and the Lord scoffs at them. Let's take this God feathers off these bonds. Let's take this. Get rid of God. We don't need God. And God sits in his heaven and laughs because what? He will what? He will be exalted among the nations. He will be exalted in the earth. Say what you want. Do what you want. But in the end, it's going to be exactly the way I want it. And we have that hope. That is our secure hope. that God will be exalted again. Don't for a minute ever think that because the world is going to destruction in a hurry that we need to be frightened. Au contraire, because right now, I feel more, how should I say, energized about God's power and His promise, because I look around what's going on in the world today, as I look at the nation's politics, the world politics, what's going on in the world today, The Bible's unfolding day by day. The end times prophecies are unfolding much faster than they ever have, much clearer than they ever have. And I'm energized. God is coming. And he's coming for his church in the not-too-distant future. Don't sell your property. You can't anyway. Don't go sit on a rooftop. But we can be excited. I was at a chamber meeting. a week or so ago, and I was talking to this guy who happened to be Jewish. And I said, my trust is in Jesus Christ. I don't worry about the... He was talking about world politics. I don't worry about my trust in Jesus Christ. And he goes, oh yeah, I know about that. Yeah, my wife is a Messianic Jew, and she's trying to get me to... And I've been reading, I've been reading. And I said, why are you doing that now? He says, because I hear what you're saying. I see what's going on in the world, and I want to find out for myself. So I'm going to try to get a book to him when I can. But people are open. People are thinking. This is a great opportunity. We live in a great time. And we shouldn't be afraid. We should be out there telling people about the Lord. Well, just by the way, it says, and finally, our verse says, and the Lord of hosts is with us. Verse 11, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. We've heard that before. in verse 7, but God repeats it one more time here to wrap this up. Because again, this verse was the capstone on Psalm 46. And one more time, God gives us a reminder that He is with us, just as He was for Jacob. And He is our stronghold. And what better last words to finish this great chorus of triumph of God over all than to remind us that the same God who provided refuge and strength and help and comfort and peace to Jacob is still in the business of doing that on our behalf. The Lord is with us. And by way of conclusion, we're just going to wrap up. God has declared himself to be our hiding place when we are in those tight places. Remember the tribulation, the word means tight places. God is our refuge when we're in times of trouble. He's our ever-present help, our very present help, right there when we need Him. Because He has declared that we are His residing place, that He resides within us and He brings comfort to the Holy Spirit. He is our peacemaker, like the stream, the peaceful stream. That's who God is in us, that He brings peace to us and comfort to the Holy Spirit. And to find this morning, we found that the God is God, no matter if it's in a desolation or peace, that He is God. of all and over all. He is God and we are not. If we're still then there's a good outcome for every situation. We have to learn to wait on God's outcome and not try to inject our own. We need to learn to trust Him in the midst of knowing that he will see us through the storms and not around them. We need not try to get around the storms, but trust God through them, so that we can learn something and be a witness to others as we go through the storm graciously and understanding God is there. We can be a witness. You can't be a witness. I just want to tell you something. Your life will never be when people say, oh, how do you witness to me? Oh, I witness to people in my life. Oh, really? You go to a job. You drive a nice car. You go home to your nice neighborhood. You sit there and watch a nice TV. How do you witness with your life? You know how you witness with your life? When you're dying, okay? James Boyce, I was talking to somebody, James Boyce, the pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church down in Philadelphia, godly man, godly man, wrote all kinds of books, really loved the guy, used to go down to conferences down there, and he got up to the pulpit one day, he says, I'm dying of cancer, I got about three months, and this will be the last conference that I'm at, and you know, he finished his book, kept doing what I was doing, and he went home to be with the Lord. A dear friend of mine, Bill Hollins, that maybe some of you know him, he just, you know, to the very last minute, loved the Lord and went home to be with Him and had a good, good testimony all the way. You want to know when you aren't, when your life is a witness, when you're in the midst, when you're in the midst of it, and God is still your captain. And you're still putting your hope and your trust in Him. That's when your life is a witness, not when you're just doing your daily things. Then you need to open your mouth. But when you live like God really means something, when times are tough, that's the witness. So how can we live a life that is secure in God? that's lived in trust and not fear. Well, these are some things I've put together, some suggestions. First of all, in every situation, understand that God will be exalted. The outcome will come. God's outcome will come. Just trust in that. Remember that. Every day, remind yourself, God has a plan for us. It's not for our destruction, but for our best, like he had for Israel, Jeremiah 29, 11. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, Acknowledge Him and He will guide your path. You need to put your trust in Him and acknowledge that He is part of it. That's the idea, is say, God is doing this. God's in the middle. Whether it's bad or good, God's doing this. Acknowledge Him and He's going to guide your paths through it. Understand that our flesh will always make us believe that what we want is best for us. Am I right with that? When you're in the midst of something, and things are troubling, you're going to say, well, I just wish I could get that raise. I wish I could get this. You know, I need to, you could, God, what are you doing? When is this going to happen? And your flesh is going to make you think you're right to challenge God. It's going to make you think you're doing the right thing. In the reality of the situation, you're not, and you have to understand that Satan is the one who is So putting those things in your ear, and you need to just trust God through these things. It's not the flesh. Put the death, the deeds, and the thoughts of the flesh. And then finally, stay connected to the source. One of the things we do in tribulations and trials is we don't run to God for refuge. We run away from God. We run away from God. And when we do that, that's when we begin to get that distance. We stop coming to church regularly. We stop doing the things that we need to do. We stop praying. We need to stay connected. So one more comment about God's abiding grace. All that we've spoken about today has been about His abiding grace. In fact, the last three times I've preached, it's all been about His grace. His grace in His providing refuge, providing the Holy Spirit. and providing just a common grace over everything, good or bad. And I need to ask you something. Have you received His grace? Is there anybody here this morning who says, well, yeah, I know about God, but I don't know God. I don't know if I would have died today if I'd go to heaven. And we just ask you that today, make today a day of salvation, not tomorrow or not the next day. We're not promised tomorrow or the next day. We're only promised now. right now. And so before you leave here today, if you haven't got that settled, talk to me or one of the elders or deacons or anybody we can talk to around here and get that settled. Perhaps you've been in church for years and you've never really understood that God is God and not you. Jesus says, come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I am gentle and humble in heart, and I'll give you rest to your souls. For my burden is light and my yoke is easy. Come unto me, he says, and that's really the message of this psalm. Come unto me, put your trust in me, learn from me, and I will give you rest unto your souls.