Priceless Possessions

Q: What does the Bible say about God as our refuge?

The Bible describes God as our refuge and strength, emphasizing His constant presence and aid in times of trouble. In Psalm 46, it is stated that ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ This illustrates how believers can find safety and security in God amidst the chaos of life. A refuge is a hiding place, suggesting that when troubles arise, we can turn to God for protection and strength. The psalm reassures us that even in the most tumultuous situations, such as ‘the earth being removed,’ God remains steadfast and unshakeable. This highlights the importance of resting in God’s presence, as He is always there to support and uphold us, regardless of external circumstances.

Q: How do we know that God is our strength?

We know God is our strength through His promises and the testimonies of His faithfulness throughout Scripture. The assurance of God's strength is profoundly evident in Scripture, as seen in verses like Psalm 46:1, where it's declared that ‘God is our refuge and strength.’ Believers can observe the consistent accounts of God's faithfulness in the lives of His people, reminding us that even in our weakness, His strength prevails. The Apostle Paul echoes this understanding when he states, ‘For when I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Corinthians 12:10). This paradox showcases God's ability to manifest His power through our vulnerabilities, further reinforcing the truth that our strength lies not within ourselves, but wholly in God.

Q: Why is trusting in God's presence important for Christians?

Trusting in God's presence brings peace and assurance that He is always with us, enabling us to face difficulties without fear. Trusting in God's presence is vital for Christians as it provides peace and assurance in tumultuous times. Psalm 46 emphasizes this by declaring that God is ‘a very present help in trouble.’ Recognizing His omnipresence helps believers remain calm amidst chaos, as they can rely on His promises of support and guidance. Furthermore, the assurance of Christ's presence transforms our understanding of trials; we are reminded that we are never alone in our struggles. As God is present with His people, this relationship fosters an unwavering confidence that sustains us even through life’s greatest adversities, reinforcing the truth that we can indeed be still and know that He is God.

Q: What are the 'priceless possessions' of God's people?

God's people possess priceless gifts such as refuge, strength, grace, and His everlasting love. The ‘priceless possessions’ of God's people include a deep sense of refuge, strength, and assurance found in Him. As outlined in Psalm 46, believers have access to an unfailing refuge that provides safety from sin, temptations, and fears. Additionally, God’s eternal love and grace—depicted as gifts for the unworthy—offer believers significance and security. His love does not depend on our actions but is a constant source of comfort. These treasures are not just for our moments of need but serve as an everlasting foundation upon which our faith is built, showcasing the depth of God’s commitment to His people.

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, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. There is a river, the streams,
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she
shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that
right early. With the heathen raised, the
kingdoms removed, he uttered his voice, and earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the
Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh
wars to cease unto the end of the earth, he breaketh the bow
and cutteth the spear and sundered. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among
the heathen, and I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts
is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge."
The title of my message this evening is Our Priceless Possessions,
possessions that are priceless that we as God's people have.
Now, God's people are confident people. They're confident people.
They're not confidence in themselves. They're like Paul. We have no
confidence in ourselves, no confidence in this flesh. We are confident
of this one thing, though, that he which hath begun a good work
in you, he shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Our
confidence is in somebody else outside ourselves. It's in the
Lord Jesus. And I can't help but be skeptical
about those who act as if God's went out of business whenever
something happens. And they get upset and afraid
and feel like God done just went plum out of business, like, you
know, I don't know where I'm going to do, what I'm going to
turn to, how I'm going to handle it. But here in this psalm, we have
the confidence of the Lord's people in their God. And this
psalm tells us about the confidence God's people have in their God.
Yes, they have troubles. Yes, they have troubles. Yes,
they have fears. Yes, they even have questions.
But they don't fall apart whenever something happens. They don't
excuse themselves by just saying, I'm just weak. In fact, the weaker
we are, the more we look to the Lord. Our Lord Jesus said His
strength is made perfect in our weakness. So when we really,
really get weak and we know it, then our strength is made perfect.
His strength is made perfect in our weakness. I'll get it
right in a minute. But here are some priceless possessions for
us. and some blessed things for us to look at. The first thing
is, look at our refuge. An infallible refuge there in
verse 1. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Now, a refuge is a place you
go and hide. Hidden in God. Paul says, you know, you are
dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. When Christ shall appear, we
shall also appear with Him. But what a hiding place, what
a glorious refuge is to be in God Himself. God is our refuge. And not only is He our refuge,
but He's our strength. Now you keep this and look with
me at Deuteronomy 33. Deuteronomy 33. Hid in God. You know, they had the cities
of refuge. And whenever somebody was in
trouble, and the manslayer got after them, somebody's going
to kill them for something they had done, and they had cities
of refuge. And if they would run and get
inside those cities of refuge, they were safe, as long as the
high priest existed, as long as the high priest lived. And
beloved, we, have a hiding place, a refuge that we go and hide
in, and that's in God Himself, in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Look what it said here in Deuteronomy
33 and verse 27. The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms, and He shall thrust out
the enemy from before thee and shall destroy them. Now, refuge
is not only a hiding place, but it's also a place of safety,
a place where you hide from enemies. And I'll tell you, there's so
many things that we need a refuge from. We need a refuge from sin. It's in God. We need a refuge
from the wrath of God. The safest place to hide from
God is in God himself. I mean, the wrath doesn't have
been expected. We need a hiding place and a refuge from our temptations. from the world. And we certainly,
certainly need a refuge from our inabilities, from our fears
and our troubles. And that's why he said he's a
prayer present help in trouble. And oh, what a hiding place we
have in him. And I'll tell you not only that,
but he says God is our refuge. Let me tell you some of the things
we hide in about him. He's our refuge. We hide in his
love. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love and with cords of loving kindness have
I drawn thee. His love is eternal. There never
was a time that His love does not depend on us at any time,
in any circumstances. And you say, well, I love the
Lord, but listen, it don't matter no much to it. He loves us. It's
His love for us that makes us secure. It's His love for us
that gives us the refuge. It's not our love for Him. It's
His for us. If I love Beloved, I'm nothing,
anything in our life, whatever we do, whatever we say, however
we act, has no effect whatsoever on God's love for us. None whatsoever. And oh Beloved, we hide not only
in His love and His eternal, we hide in His grace. Hide in
His grace. It's all a gift. He gives us
His grace. And I read something the other
day, and I was telling Gary about it this morning. One of the best
definitions I ever read about grace, about Abraham Booth. And
he says this. He says, Grace is only for the
unworthy. If there's any worth in you,
then you're not going to get grace. Grace is only for the
unworthy. That's the great definition of
grace. Grace only comes to people who have nothing. Grace only
comes to people who don't know nothing. Grace who comes to people
who are helpless and unable to do anything for themselves, to
save themselves, to uphold themselves. And, beloved, we hide in His
grace. We hide in His mercy. God's not
giving us what we deserve. We hide in His power. to uphold
us, to protect us. And look over to Psalm 62 here
about God's power. I wanted to use this this morning,
but got too carried away about some other things. Who am I to
sit here in Psalm 62? And I think it's verse 11. Oh,
He's our refuge. We hide in His power, His power
to uphold us, to protect us, and even protect those we love. Lord, you take, we have to commit
them to you. We give them over to you. We trust you with them.
Look what he said here in Psalm 62, 11. God has spoken once,
twice have I heard this, that power belongs unto God. All power belongs unto him in
heaven and earth. And you see, beloved, you and
I, we're eternal souls. Our spirit and our souls need
an eternal refuge. A temporary refuge won't help.
You find people all the way through the scriptures trying to find
a refuge. Adam and Eve tried to find a refuge in a bush. Then
they tried to find a refuge in a fig leaf. You find the Pharisees
trying to run the refuge in the law. You find men trying to find
refuge in the morality. You find men trying to find refuge
in the hypocrites. They find men trying to find
a refuge in a thousand things. But our souls, we're eternal
beings, and our spirit and soul needs an eternal refuge. And
here, beloved, is an eternal refuge, a place of safety from
the things that can truly hurt us. God is our refuge. What can
hurt us more than anything else? Sin. And who put it away? God provided
the satisfaction and the remedy for it, and then let us hide
in Him from it. So you see, we have an infallible
refuge. God is our refuge, and He's our
strength. And then look what else is said
here in verse, back over here in Psalm 46. Look at this, at
the present possession. Oh, and a refuge, an infallible
refuge, always be there. Very present help. And then look
at this confidence that we have, immovable confidence. He says,
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, though
the mountains be carried into the midst of the seas, though
the waters are uproar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling down? And therefore we will not fear,
though the earth be removed. And let me tell you something,
it will be removed. It will be removed. God said
He'd take this heaven and earth and fold it up like folding up
an old garment. And when the earth is removed,
Our soul is still safe, for it dwells in God, and this earth
will be removed. Now, you keep Psalm 46, and look
with me, Hebrews 12, just a moment. You remember where James says,
you know, that we look for a new city, I mean a new heaven, wherein
dwelleth righteousness. And the heaven and earth that
now is shall melt with a fervent heat, and this earth will be
destroyed, and everything in it will go with it. There'll
be a new heaven. The heavens you're looking at
now, there'll be another one. There'll be a perfect, sunshiny,
glorious day throughout all eternity. Won't even need the sun, because
Christ will be the light. And we'll have a heaven and an
earth, and we'll live on an earth, beloved. Wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Everybody there will be righteous in the righteousness of Christ.
Everybody will be perfect. Everybody will be set. Everything
will be just right. He's not going to renovate this
earth. He's going to make a new one.
And you think paradise, where Adam and Eve was, was something.
When Christ comes and makes this new heaven and new earth, this
new earth here will be better than paradise was ever, where
Adam was at. But look what he said here. He's
going to move it. He's going to be removed. When the earth
is going to be removed, look what he said here in verse 26,
talking about hearing the voice of God. Whose voice then shook
the earth. When God spoke on Mount Sinai,
it shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also the heaven.
I shake heaven and earth. And in this promise that he made,
And in this promise, in this word, yet once more, he signifies
the removing of those things that are shaken. Everything that
shall be shaken will be removed, as the things that are made.
Now watch this, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. How many things can be shaken? This earth gets shook all the
time. Earthquakes, floods, famine, And our little old world really
gets shook up every once in a while. But watch what he says. Wherefore
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Everything
else is going to be moved. But we're in a kingdom. We're
in God. We're in Christ which cannot
be moved. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. And
so that when the earth is removed, our soul will be saved. Now back
over again, look what it says, that our house is built on a
rock. You know, our Lord Jesus said, He that heareth these things
of thine doeth him alike unto a man who dig deep and build
his house, his foundation, on a rock. This world is in a tumult. The foundations are crumbling.
And let it fall. We will not fear. And look what
it says here. In verse 3, you go, The waters
thereof roar, and the mountains shake with a swelling dove. That's
what happened in the flood, you know. The waters began to roar,
and the mountains began to shake.
And God said, Our God is the God of the mountains, He's the
God of the valleys, He's the God of the rivers, He's the God
of this heaven and earth. And all water-sweet rest we have,
no matter what goes on in this world and how it shakes and how
it trembles and how it's in autumna, we'll not fear, because God is
our refuge. And then look what he says in
verse 4. Look at this supply we have. Oh, what a blessed,
precious thing here. There is a river. That's the
first thing. There is a river. Now, it's not just like any kind
of a river. These fellows like to go down the river and float
the river and catch fish. This is a different river. The
streams for us shall make glad the city of God. You do that
here, don't you? The holy place of the tabernacles
of the Most High. Oh my, there's a river. And the
streams that come out of that river, it flows down from the
very throne of God itself. comes out of God's blessed throne,
comes down from God, and it comes down and it makes glad the city
of God. That river flows, all we need
comes from God. The river flows into the city
of God. We need forgiveness. It flows
to us. We need justification. It comes to us. We need perfection. It comes to us. We need wholeness.
It comes to us. We need assurance. Here it comes.
And it flows from the throne of God who sits on God's right
hand, on Christ. And let me show you Psalm 36
and 8. Let me show you this real quick.
And then we want you to look at something else. Oh, Psalm
36 and 8. And oh, listen to what it says,
they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house,
and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. Look at Revelation 22.1. Oh,
there flows as a river, a river. You know that the scripture says
that we should be as streams planted by the river. It's in Revelation 22, verse
one. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and the Lamb. It comes, oh my, flowing right
out from the gospel. Flowing from the throne of God,
where Christ sits on God's right hand. Flows through the gospel,
as we hear the gospel. Flows through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Lord stood in that last day,
that great day of the feast and said, if any man's thirsty, let
him come unto me, and I'll give him the drink. He told that woman
at the well, If you knew the gift of God, you would have mastered
Him, and He would have given you a drink of living water."
And, oh, beloved, and here is this river that flows, and it
makes glad the city of God, makes glad the people of God. And then
He leads us beside the still waters of His glorious will and
purpose. And we drank from the rivers
of God's eternal truth, these rivers of truth that eternal
and steadfast and immovable. And I'm telling you, men can
come up with everything under the sun to trust in. I read an
article yesterday. I may put it in the bulletin
next week with this fella, this Steve Jobs that died. He says
that there's lots and lots of doors going to heaven that gives
you life. And he said that there's all
these different doors But he said, they all end up at the
same place. No, ain't but one door. Ain't but one. Our Lord said, I'm the door.
Just one. Ain't no half a dozen doors,
just one door. And folks don't like that. This is the tolerance
age. You know, we need to be tolerant. Need to be tolerant.
Well, I wonder how tolerant they'd think Christ was when he looked
down and said, how are you going to escape the damnation of hell,
you generation of vipers and serpents? You hypocrites. Oh, you look like a beautiful
sepulcher. You look, oh my, you go out and look at you and you're
just gorgeous. But you know what you got inside
of you? Rottenness and corruption and dead men's bones and all
beloved. And we drink from the rivers
of God's eternal truth. If it's new, it's not true. And
if it's true, it's not new. Now, that's just the way it is.
And let me just keep that. Let me look at Isaiah 32, talking
about a refuge now. in a place to hide, in a river,
in a city. Look in Isaiah 32, verse 2. All we need, there's a river. Thank God there is a river. And
the streams. See, the river, all these streams
that come from the river go out, make us glad, come through the
gospel. And it says in verse 2 here,
Isaiah 32, And a man, and a man shall be as a hiding place from
the wind, a covert from the tempest, now watch this, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weird
land. You ever come and feel real,
real thirsty, you know, you know that you have this spiritual
thirst? Lord, I'm thirsty, I really need satisfaction, I really need
such a friend. And you come and you hear the
gospel, or you pick up the scriptures, or you get a hold of something
somebody said, and it just satiates your soul. It takes that thirst
and it quenches it. And all we have to do is thank
God for this priceless possession. Then look what else is said over
here that we have. We have an unfailing comfort
in our God. Look what he says in verse 5.
Talking about this city of God, the river where the streams make
it, our prayer presence, our refuge. He says God is in the
midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her. And that right early. You know
what that means? That means just as quick as you
get up, He's right there to help you. Early in the morning. The
heathen raged, the kingdoms removed, the utterings voiced, the earth
melted, the Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is
our refuge. And oh, what a comfort. God shall
help us. Help. Help. You hear folks hollering for
help all the time. They get in trouble and they
holler help. Will you come here to help me? I need your help.
I can't do this by myself. God shall be your help. And then look what it says. He
uttered His voice. He uttered His voice. And then
it says the Lord of Hosts is with us. Do you know who the
Lord of Hosts is? That means He's the one who controls
all the armies in heaven. God's got a host, great, great
host. He says He's in the armies of
heaven. He's the Lord of the host of
all the armies that's in heaven. You know, our Lord said, I could
call twelve legions of angels to come and save me. Twelve legions
of them. Thousands upon thousands. I could
call twelve legions of them. That's just a part of the Lord
of hosts army. And then He says here, first
of all, God is for us. God is for us. God is in the
midst of her. He's among us. Gary, when he
prayed, he said, that Lord, wherever two or three are gathered together,
there you are in the midst. God is in the midst of her. How
do we know God's among us? That's a good question. How can
we know God's among us? Everybody claims that God's among
us. Everybody says God's here. But
how can we know without a shadow of a doubt that God's among us? How do we know? Did we find Him or did He find
us? Did we call on Him or did He
first call on us? Did we get our life from ourselves
or did He give it to us? Did He find us when we was lost
or did we find Him when we was lost? Did we open our hearts
or did He open it? And that's the long and the short
of it. Did God do it all? Does God get all the glory? Or
do we get some of it? And that's an infallible proof
if God's in your midst or not. If man takes any part, any part
in his salvation, if church takes any part in anything they do
to get God's presence in their midst, then, beloved, if they
take anything to themselves, then God's not in their midst.
You can write that down. God's only in the midst of his
people, his church, those that he bought with his precious blood,
and those he said, James, like you said, he's on the trail of
his sheep. My sheep, hear my voice. I give unto my sheep eternal
life. I give my sheep eternal life,
and they shall never perish. George, if you're in the Christ,
tell us plainly. I've told you who I am, but you
believe not because you're not of my sheep. And I tell you, this idea of
getting people hemmed up and not leaving people alone, leave. God'll do what He will with them. I can walk up to anybody and
say, well, are you saved? Do you know the Lord? And if they don't or they ain't
comfortable with that question, they'll start humming all around,
and I can talk them into something. But when I've talked them into
something, somebody else will come along and talk them out
of it. Or some trial will come along, and away they'll go. But
where God is at, where God's in the midst, where the power
of God's at, where His presence's at, where the truth is at, I
mean, beloved, leave people alone. God will get His sheep. I really believe that with all
my soul, with all my heart. And me and Ruby, we've been talking
together on the phone. God's in the midst of us. Talking
to Peggy the other day. God's in the midst of us. Talking
with Ruth Crabtree, which means God's in the midst of us. You don't have to have a whole
bunch, but God's in the midst of His people. He's among us.
And ask yourself that. Is God among us? Do I know Him? If I bow to Him, if I submit
to Him, do I really know that He is God? And beside Him there
is none else. Do I know that He's got the power
to save me or damn me? Do I give Him all the glory for
everything that goes on? If I ran on my neck there, I'd
say, God, do you give Him the glory? Huh? Oh, my. God is in us. God is for us.
When Jacob was at Bethel, And he laid that rock down there
to lay his head on that night. And he saw that ladder ascend
up from earth to heaven. He saw them angels going up and
down on that. He woke up the next morning.
He says, God is this place. And you know what Bethel means?
It means the house of God. That's what it means. And then
it says God's in the midst of her. And then he says this. And shall help her, and that
right early. Let me ask you this, has He ever
failed you? Has God ever, ever failed you? Huh? That's what He says, He's
a very present help. I mean, you get up in the morning,
He'll be present. You need Him in the middle of
the day, He'll be present. You need Him at night, He's ever
present. Has He ever failed you? And the scripture says here,
in verse 6, He sent the heathen, raised the kings, and He uttered
His voice. And oh, beloved, He moves the
earth. Don't you think His voice can't move our hearts? Can't
move our wills? Can't move our hearts, our souls,
our minds, our understanding? And He utters His voice, and
He comes and He speaks peace to us. He speaks comfort to us.
Sometimes He utters His voice and He rebukes us. But bless
His name, at least He speaks. And He speaks to us in His Word.
And oh, and then it says there, In verse 7, the Lord of hosts
is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge,
that God of electing grace. Look over with me in Exodus 33.
The God of Jacob is our refuge, that God of electing grace, that
God of sovereign mercy, that God who loved Jacob. In Exodus
33 and verse 14, oh, he's our continual protection. We teach our little old kids
to say, Lord, now lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my
soul to keep. If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take. These little babies, these little
children, it's one of the first prayers we teach them. That's
a good prayer for us. Oh, Lord, I'm laying me down
to sleep now. You protect me. You keep me through
the night. And if I don't wake up here,
Take my soul to be with you. Take me to be with you. Take
me into your home. Wouldn't it be something to falsely
go to bed one night here? And they come in to get you out
of bed, and you're done in the presence of the Lord. I can't help it. You say, boy,
you're a fool. No, that makes my heart rejoice. That makes
my heart rejoice. I'm telling you to think about
it. You go to sleep. Go to bed one night. And they
come in and get you up the next morning, and there you are. And
you're one of the Christ's people. You've trusted Him for years.
And next thing you know, you wake up and the first thing you
see is the face of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. No wonder, Brother
Henry says, Lord, take me home tonight. Take me home tonight. But look what He said here in
Exodus 33 and verse 14. Moses, you know, he got to go
out of Exodus. He got to go back, go to the
promised land. They're going through the wilderness.
And he said, Oh, Lord. He said, My presence. God spoke
to Moses and said, My presence should go with thee. Watch this.
And I will give thee rest. Now, watch what he said here.
Watch what he said. He said unto him, If thy presence go not with
me, go carry us up thins. If you don't go with me, I don't
want to go. I don't want to go to a place where you ain't. I
don't want to go no place, do anything, but you don't protect
us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Now, look back over with me then. Psalm 46. Oh, what blessed possessions
we have. God our refuge. God our supply. Our unfailing
comfort. Our hiding place. God in our
midst. And then look at this assuring
prospect here. Verse 8 and 9. Come, behold the
works of the Lord, and what works God hath done, what desolations
he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto
the end of the earth, and he breaketh the bow, and cutteth
the spear in sundry, he burneth the chariot in fire. Come, behold. Come, behold his works. Come,
behold the desolation he's made. And come behold the wars he makes
to cease. Now this is, you look backward
and you look forward. In this verse of Scripture here.
He hath made the earth desolate. And then he maketh wars to cease. And beloved, this is a backward
look and a forward look. And come behold his works. Come
behold what he did for us in Christ. And when he says here
he made desolation, let me tell you some things he made desolation
of. He makes desolations of men's works. I mean, he just desolates
them. Desolates them. Desolates their
ways. Adam, God drove him out of the
garden. He rejected Cain. He destroyed
Sodom. He brought Jacob to nothing.
till he says, this is the Lord. And how many nations has God
brought to desolation and took away the gospel of Christ? How
many nations are desolate? And our nation is very quickly
becoming a desolate nation. Desolate, not desolate of religion,
not desolate of priests and rabbis and tabernacles and monuments
and buildings, but desolate of morality, desolate of grace,
desolate of anything that's right, just, holy, and true. But I tell
you, beloved, He makes whole nations desolate. And I tell
you, He'll make your works and my works desolate. And you better
hope He makes them desolate. Makes you say, oh, what? In my hands, no price I'll bring.
And He will yet make men and their arrogance and their pride
and their boasting to be desolate. All the things that they think
they've accomplished and all the things they're thinking they're
doing, boasting, all of it will be brought to desolation. And
bless His name, He makes wars to cease under the end of the
earth. And I tell you where He made wars to cease at, under
the end of the earth, everyone had come in and conquered their
heart. The war is in our heart. He brought peace to us. There's
no more war between us and God. And these wars have ceased for
all who are in Christ. And when the Prince of Peace
comes in our hearts, and one of these days we ourselves will
dwell in the blessed place of peace for eternally. And then
look what else happens. And you know, this morning I
brought this message from here, but I'm going to look at it a
little different tonight. Look what he says. Be still and know that
I'm God. And boy, what a peaceful attitude.
Be still and know that I'm God. What peace, what comfort, what
a... To be quiet, to be peaceful,
to be restful. To know that God, does God change
because we're in tough circumstances? Does he change when we're afraid?
Does he change when we don't understand why? And, oh, he says,
oh, that's a peaceful attitude. Be still. I'm God. I'm God. How can we know He's God unless
we be still? And it's when we're still, really
still, that we truly learn to know God, when He brings us to
be still. You remember when Elijah had
to run from Jezebel. And then the famine come, God
fed him with the ravens, had the ravens bring him bread, and
he sat down there by the brook, and he had plenty of water. The
brook went dry, the bread dried up, and he went up in a mountain,
got in a cave. And boy, he wanted to hear from
God. Boy, here comes this big earthquake. He got up and said,
Here come these horrible, horrible winds, this great storm. Come
through there and the wind and the rain and everything just
blowing by that cave. And he stuck his head out and
said, God's gonna speak. And this storm, the storm went
by and the earth shook. It got just as still and as quiet
as it can be. And that's when God come and
spoke to Elijah. When he's still. When he's just
as still and calm. And beloved, our strength is
in our setting still. Let me look in Isaiah 30, verse
7, just a moment. Isaiah 30, verse 7. For the Egyptians shall help
in vain, and to no purpose, Therefore have I cried concerning this,
their strength is to set still." Your strength is to set still.
To set still. That's what they said to Moses.
Moses told all the children of Israel, he said, stand still
and you'll see the salvation of the Lord. Hush. Listen to God. Be still and know. And then look at this glorious,
glorious result, triumphant result. He said, I will be exalted among
the heathen. That's us. He's been exalted
among us. Even now. How high is God to
us? How high is God to us? How glorious is He to us? How
blessed is He to us! How exalted is His name! How
exalted is His glory! How exalted is His person! How
exalted is His word! How exalted is He Himself! How
high is He to us! He's exalted in the earth. He's
exalted as our refuge. He's exalted as our strength.
And we attribute all to Him. And then it says this, And he
shall be exalted in all the earth. And one of these days, everybody
on the earth will know who God is. Every single soul that ever
lived on this earth will know who God is. He'll be exalted
among all. Even all the nations who never
had any clue who God was, He's gonna bring them all up. Nations
gonna stand before Him. And he's gonna be exalted before.
He said, I made you a nation. I made you that king. I gave
you that life. All you had to do was look up
and look at them stars and know somebody made them. All you had
to do was look at these mountains and know that I created them.
They didn't make themselves. Where'd you get your breath from?
Where'd you get your life from? And every eye shall behold Him,
every knee shall bow, every single soul that has ever lived on this
earth, except the people that are exalted
among right now. And oh, beloved, it's not honoring
to Him. And we don't exalt Him whenever
we complain or find fault. Just to rest in Him, be quiet
in Him, be still in Him.

Priceless Possessions

What does the Bible say about God as our refuge?

How do we know that God is our strength?

Why is trusting in God's presence important for Christians?

What are the 'priceless possessions' of God's people?

Sermon Transcript

About Donnie Bell

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Priceless Possessions

What does the Bible say about God as our refuge?

How do we know that God is our strength?

Why is trusting in God's presence important for Christians?

What are the 'priceless possessions' of God's people?

Sermon Transcript

About Donnie Bell

Comments

More from Donnie Bell

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Donnie Bell

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book