SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome again to this live stream.
SPEAKER_00: You're all very welcome back in here into my study at home, and hopefully those weeks are numbered.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, before we get into uh Psalm 46, thank you, Lisa, for reading.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, before we get into that, I do want to explain just a little bit of the uh the timetable going forward and uh when it is that we hope to resume live services.
SPEAKER_00: We've been working hard uh at this behind the scenes and uh praying uh for God's wisdom uh in that.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for praying with us.
SPEAKER_00: And what we are uh what we're looking at is uh resuming in the middle of August.
SPEAKER_00: We are uh not rushing in to being together for uh a number of reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Uh first is we want to make sure that uh that every necessary precaution is uh being taken uh before we arrive in person.
SPEAKER_00: And that means that we are uh researching and ordering uh lots of PPE things like uh perspect screens that will uh sit in front of me and uh Ben, whoever's leading worship, that we can uh lead from behind, preach from behind so that I don't have to wear a mask.
SPEAKER_00: We've been working out our socially distanced seating in the hall, uh the one-way system in through the front doors and out through the back.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it stands uh with foot panels uh that allow you to get hand sanitizers.
SPEAKER_00: So we are uh in the process of basically putting together a large shopping list for all of those things, so every precaution is being taken.
SPEAKER_00: Second reason why we're not rushing into it is that the building is not our own.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so DCM, we've been in uh in good communication with them about the use of the building.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that they've taken the opportunity to do over the course of lockdown is to do some significant uh works in the building.
SPEAKER_00: The place will uh look different uh when you go there.
SPEAKER_00: The uh the false ceilings that were in the hallway or in the kids' room uh or in the cafe, they've all been taken away and the original uh vaulted ceilings have been uh restored and they look beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they're also now working in the hall uh to repaint it, and so they've asked for a little bit of time while they can complete those works.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the third reason uh why we're not rushing into it is because we know that uh September is a busy season at the best of times.
SPEAKER_00: This August into uh September, October is uh going to be very busy, very different, uh, as we continue to try and uh adapt to the changing environment.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in order to serve you all well, one of the things that Ben and Duncan and I uh need is we need to rest.
SPEAKER_00: This has been a difficult season uh for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it has been a tiring season uh for your leaders, I'll be honest.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we're going to take uh July uh just to take some time off.
SPEAKER_00: And so what that means is that Peter will be preaching uh live next week to be praying for for him, and then for the following three weeks, there will be three pre-recorded sermons.
SPEAKER_00: Each of us, uh Ben and Duncan and myself, are pre-recording this week, and uh we will uh upload, and those will be uh streamed on Sunday mornings, but we won't be here live uh as it as it were.
SPEAKER_00: So this will allow us then to kind of have overlapping uh holiday time, something that's which we never uh uh are normally able to do.
SPEAKER_00: What we then hope to go to is that on Sunday, the 9th of August, we will have a dress rehearsal service.
SPEAKER_00: On Sunday, the 9th of August, myself and Ben and Duncan and the setup team uh will all arrive in the building, all necessary people for setting up, and we will set up the the chairs the way they would, the sound equipment the way it would, the uh the music stuff, all of the PPE will be set up as though people were arriving.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it will just be a dress rehearsal.
SPEAKER_00: We will stream live from the building on Sunday the 9th with a small group of people.
SPEAKER_00: If everything goes well and we are content, what that means is that from Sunday the 16th, uh we will invite you to join us, and you'll be doing that in a way uh in which you you register for service.
SPEAKER_00: We'll probably do two services with an hour in between them that'll allow us to clean, and you'll register for one of the two services and uh and come along and sit in your household socially distant uh groups.
SPEAKER_00: If things uh if we think that things still need to be tweaked, we will do another dress rehearsal on the 16th and then uh from the 23rd go live.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but assuming all goes well, we hope to be back when by the middle of August.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we'll send that all out by way of uh text update.
SPEAKER_00: I might even shoot a uh a video uh so that you can watch that uh again.
SPEAKER_00: I know that was quite a lot of information uh at the very start, but if you do have questions, uh you can email those uh to us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you can uh WhatsApp on the on the socially distant group if you're if you're in that group and and ask those questions there.
SPEAKER_00: But for now, why don't we have a look at Psalm 46?
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray uh and you can pull it up again on your phone uh or have it there in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, we do pray uh that you would establish our steps as we seek to move forward uh to being uh live in uh you know face to face together again, uh, that you would keep us uh safe.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray now that as we come to your word, uh that it would do the work for which you have purposed it, uh, and that you would uh change comfort and challenge our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know we looked at this and together uh in the first week of lockdown?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you remember that.
SPEAKER_00: It was in the uh the first Wednesday afternoon prayer time, you know, it was kind of organized quite uh impromptu, quite suddenly, uh, because we felt that we needed to be together to to pray, and that's what gave birth to our our three times a week prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember those?
SPEAKER_00: And uh we looked at this app back when everything was a bit disorientating.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't know how long we were going to be in this season, we didn't know how long the virus was gonna last in our society.
SPEAKER_00: Back then there were conflicting messages.
SPEAKER_00: People uh some people weren't all that mothered, some people were very anxious, some people were very fearful.
SPEAKER_00: But there was this feeling, wasn't there?
SPEAKER_00: I know this is our saying goodbye to uh to some of you that this is all going to be very short-lived, uh, that we'd be back together before we knew it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we reassured one another, you know, saying, you know, it'd be so great when we're all back together again, kind of thinking that we'd all be back together again in one large, in one large group.
SPEAKER_00: And so we looked at this, Sam, and we read these words.
SPEAKER_00: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Since then, I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that things have changed quite a lot.
SPEAKER_00: So that the world has changed utterly.
SPEAKER_00: We now do things that we didn't do before.
SPEAKER_00: We now know what it is to cue for groceries, to wear masks out and about and on public transport, to be suspicious of uh every cough and every sneeze.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you hear a person coughing a couple of aisles over in Tesco and you just run for the door.
SPEAKER_00: It has taken some things from us, taken the ability to embrace one another.
SPEAKER_00: We're quite a huggy church, and so that's gonna be hard.
SPEAKER_00: The COVID cases might be dropping in Ireland, but it feels like the the new normal is gonna be here with us for a while.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like the cautiousness, maybe even the fear and the uncertainty, is gonna linger.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it feels like.
SPEAKER_00: So perhaps what 17 weeks later?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Sam 46 looks a bit different.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it looks more necessary, more precious.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to walk out of lockdown and not be crippled by fear, I think we need Sam 46, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, it's not just our new COVID world.
SPEAKER_00: We all face suffering ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We all face those life-shaking events: sickness, sudden grief, distress, illness, loss.
SPEAKER_00: What are we to do?
SPEAKER_00: How do we read Psalm 46 in a way that is actually spiritually nourishing for our souls?
SPEAKER_00: In a way that actually builds resilience for the future and helps us to face the chaos and uncertainties and sufferings that we are going through.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I love about this, Sam, is that it actually meets the reality of chaos head on.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible always does that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't say, oh, well, you know, it's just a natural part of life.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say, oh, you just got to resign yourself to it.
SPEAKER_00: Or it doesn't get you to pretend like it's not there and uh escape and deflect.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to suffering, the Bible meets it head on.
SPEAKER_00: That's such a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's such a good thing because it means that it sees the problem head on and is able to offer a precise solution.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist shows us a world that is deeply unsettling.
SPEAKER_00: Read on with me.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and form foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
SPEAKER_00: Selah.
SPEAKER_00: Parenthetically, selah means take a pause.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's good when you're reading the psalms if there's a selah to actually take a pause.
SPEAKER_00: Take a breath.
SPEAKER_00: You know, to you know, through the psalm, there are three places.
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately the culmination of the psalm is this call, uh this invitation to stillness.
SPEAKER_01: But before that, the psalm is already even in its form, in its liturgy, saying take a breath.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the evocative images that we have read.
SPEAKER_00: It captures something of how it feels to be in the midst of suffering and chaos, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't it feel like when you're in suffering that the earth is giving way?
SPEAKER_01: What does suffering do?
SPEAKER_00: It takes away foundational things.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like it's now opened up.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like perhaps you're you're you're reaching out to grab hold of something and yet it slips from you.
SPEAKER_01: And you overbalance.
SPEAKER_00: The mountains are moved into the heart of the sea.
SPEAKER_00: What does a mountain symbolize in poetry like this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, a mountain symbolizes permanence, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And so if you've got a mountain that's moved into the sea, it means that the the whole landscape of what you thought was true has changed.
SPEAKER_00: The whole geography of your life has shifted permanently.
SPEAKER_00: Things have suddenly and unexpectedly crumbled, and now the terrain of your world looks utterly different.
SPEAKER_00: The seas roar and foam.
SPEAKER_00: The seas in the Bible have all are always symbols of chaos and disorder.
SPEAKER_00: It was said of the uh of the ancient Israelites, the ancient Israelites were uh were great soldiers, bad sailors.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you wanted a good sailor, you went to Felisia, the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: They were they were the sea people, Israelites, good soldiers, not too good as sailors.
SPEAKER_00: So they were scared of the sea.
SPEAKER_00: The sea always occupied in their mind this this place of chaos, of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that as well.
SPEAKER_00: You look out over uh a stormy sea in uh in Dublin Bay or down in uh in Wicklow or wherever.
SPEAKER_00: You look out of the stormy sea and you might appreciate its awesomeness as you're standing on the shore.
SPEAKER_00: Where's the one place that you don't want to be?
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be in a little boat in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_00: There it's terrifying and unpredictable, and so what this sound was getting at is in those roaring seas, will the little boat of your life capsize or not?
SPEAKER_00: Will the little boat of your life have enough ballast, enough weight in its boat that when the big waves come up, that it stays upright?
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever feel like you're capsizing?
SPEAKER_00: And then later on in the so we've had lots of natural images, and later on the Sahama talks about human conflict, and there in uh verse uh six, the nations rage, the kingdoms totter.
SPEAKER_00: Verse eight, come behold the works of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He has brought desolations on the earth, he makes wars to cease, he breaks the bow and shatters the spear.
SPEAKER_00: There's this human conflict, this global level conflict of nation against nation.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to look too far today to see the the warring nature of the world.
SPEAKER_00: You see, countries like America, a country uh divided.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the countries that that we forget about because they're no longer reported on our news cycle.
SPEAKER_00: We forget about places like Syria, we forget about regions like Kashmir.
SPEAKER_00: We forget parts of Africa that are left, forgotten by the West and left to the reign of warlords.
SPEAKER_00: So, in the midst of all of this chaos, sorry this has not been particularly uplifting of late, but it's good, it's good to acknowledge this before we get to the solution that Sam offers.
SPEAKER_00: So, in the midst of all of this chaos and all of the chaos that you are going through, all of the chaos that you will go through, all of the chaos that is going on in the world, what do you need to believe?
SPEAKER_00: What do you need to cherish and hold on to and build your life upon so that you won't capsize, so that you won't get swallowed up by those shifting sounds.
SPEAKER_00: What do you need to know?
SPEAKER_00: You need to know that God is your only refuge.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know that that sounds ethereal, something that the Christians say.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to explain why that's good, but look what the psalmist says: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of chaos, in the midst of destruction and uncertainty, the psalmist celebrates this truth, this truth that is unchanging in the face of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: God is your refuge.
SPEAKER_00: There are many things that seek to substitute themselves as a refuge for us.
SPEAKER_00: There are many things that we run to.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself now where do you run to when things get difficult?
SPEAKER_00: Some run to the arms of a lover, some pour themselves into their work, some medicate with substance or sex.
SPEAKER_00: Others simply turn up the volume.
SPEAKER_00: Turn up the volume on Spotify, on Netflix, on Audible to drown out the world.
SPEAKER_01: Some get sucked into bitterness and resentment.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a a thorny comfort to that.
SPEAKER_01: Some will run anywhere but to God because they blame him for the chaos in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: In doing so, they fail to appreciate that there is no place more secure, no helper more skilled, no comfort deeper than the comfort that he alone can provide.
SPEAKER_00: No what the psalmist is saying: it's not that God provides a refuge, it's that he himself is the place of refuge.
SPEAKER_00: That when all your strength is gone, he is the one who supplies more.
SPEAKER_00: To be very present uh means to be proven, uh tried and tested, or God is refugeed in strength, a tried and tested help in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist kind of has half an eye looking back to God's actions in the world.
SPEAKER_00: He sustained his people before, he saved his people before, he'll do it again.
SPEAKER_00: Christian, suffering Christian, look back, look back to how God has helped you in the past, look to how he has sustained you in the past, look to how he has been that tried and tested helper in the past and trust him again.
SPEAKER_00: If you are, excuse me, if you are so confronted by your grief that you cannot see any of those things, can I invite you to look not to a past experience of your own, but to look to the cross and the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus, to look to God suffering for a needy world in order to make it new, and triumphing over death and grief and pain and suffering and anguish.
SPEAKER_01: Look to those things and see that He is tried and tested.
SPEAKER_00: I said just a moment ago that saying that God is your refuge consigned.
SPEAKER_00: A little bit like something Christians say.
SPEAKER_00: What does it actually look like for you to take refuge in him?
SPEAKER_00: And why is that good?
SPEAKER_00: First, to take refuge in him is to mean that means that you are a citizen of an unassailable city.
SPEAKER_00: Read on in the Psalm verse four.
SPEAKER_00: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
SPEAKER_00: God is in the midst of her.
SPEAKER_00: She shall not be moved.
SPEAKER_00: God will help her when morning dawns.
SPEAKER_00: The nations rage, the kingdoms taught her.
SPEAKER_00: He utters his voice, the earth melts.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord of hosts is with us.
SPEAKER_00: The God of Jacob is our fortress.
SPEAKER_00: Selah.
SPEAKER_00: If you are taking refuge in God, you are a citizen of an unassailable city.
SPEAKER_00: In the ancient world, it was possible to, in fact, common, to lay siege to a city, to surround it on all sides, to cut off its supply lines, to starve the people out so that eventually then their defenses are brilliant to get through the walls and sack the city.
SPEAKER_00: That was common.
SPEAKER_00: It is much, much harder to sack a city that has a river running through it.
SPEAKER_00: That is why the Sama says there's a river whose waters, whose streams make glad the city of our God.
SPEAKER_00: There's a river running into the city, which means a couple of things.
SPEAKER_00: One, it cannot be surrounded on all sides because there's a river down the middle.
SPEAKER_00: And it means that it's constantly being supplied with water, maybe even fish.
SPEAKER_00: It's an unassailable city.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to see an ancient example of an unassailable city, you look at something like the city of Nineveh.
SPEAKER_00: In Iran, you can Google image pictures of that.
SPEAKER_00: You run to a relationship into the arms of a loved one, and they are taken away from you.
SPEAKER_00: You find that the walls of your refuge are broken down.
SPEAKER_00: You pour yourself into your work and you find that job is lost.
SPEAKER_01: You are sacked.
SPEAKER_00: But if you run to God and your citizenship is of the city of God, that is that heavenly city, it means that your identity, your security, your sense of place and belonging, your meaning and significance is secure in a way that no degree of suffering can take away.
SPEAKER_00: It means that you can endure suffering and still know who you are, still know that you are loved by God, still have a hope that transcends the circumstances that you find yourself in.
SPEAKER_00: And so to take refuge in God is to be a citizen of that unassailable city, to put your security in something that cannot be taken away from you.
SPEAKER_00: It means, secondly, that God is guarding the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: See, God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.
SPEAKER_00: God will help her when morning dawns.
SPEAKER_00: As a citizen of earthly cities, it's now mostly nation states, but uh back then it was city states.
SPEAKER_00: Uh as a as a citizen of an earthly city, you have certain benefits, right?
SPEAKER_00: You have certain privileges, uh, rights, the right to the right to vote, uh the right to freedom of assembly, those, those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: In the earthly city, those benefits can be taken away from you.
SPEAKER_00: You can lose those.
SPEAKER_00: You can lose your your rights, your freedoms, your income.
SPEAKER_00: But God guards the Christian in the heavenly city, and what that means is that all of the benefits of being a citizen of heaven are yours no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: All of the benefits of being a Christian are yours no matter what suffering comes upon your life.
SPEAKER_00: What are those benefits?
SPEAKER_00: What are the benefits of being a citizen of that heavenly city that God is guarding?
SPEAKER_00: That you're justified by faith, declared innocent before a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is secure with him.
SPEAKER_00: You're adopted, you are now a child of God, and he will see to it that he brings you through whatever suffering you are going through, refined like gold, purer, stronger.
SPEAKER_00: It means that God isn't just your boss or your king, he's your father who loves you.
SPEAKER_00: It means that you have the Holy Spirit in you, transforming you, reminding you of who you are, binding your heart to Jesus, uniting you to him, reminding you of the hope that you have, assuring you that God has not abandoned you.
SPEAKER_00: Are you a citizen of that heavenly kingdom, that heavenly city?
SPEAKER_00: How do you become one?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you come one, you become one through faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to his disciples in Luke chapter 10, Luke 10, verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: He says to his disciples, do you not rejoice that the demons submit to you, the unclean spirits that they submit to you?
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That is, that you're on the citizenship roll.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't do anything to earn it, they did it because, or it was possible because of who Jesus was, because of their faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: How do you get to be part of that unassailable city?
SPEAKER_00: No, that doesn't mean that you don't go through suffering.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that that suffering doesn't come upon your life, but what it does mean that that even though suffering does occur, that you endure, that you are able to persevere, that your hope is not taken away, that comes freely to you who trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, what it means for him to be our refuge is that God will most assuredly bring justice and peace.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one who says, first ten, be still and know that I am God.
SPEAKER_00: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Often our anger or our anxiety is fueled by what by not knowing what will happen in the future.
SPEAKER_00: Not knowing whether or not the injustices that we see or have experienced will be put right.
SPEAKER_00: What the psalm assures us is that the injustices will be answered.
SPEAKER_00: What the psalm assures us is you know where the future is going.
SPEAKER_00: The future is going to a place where the Lord will speak and he will bring chaos and warfare and injustice and pain and suffering and grief to an end.
SPEAKER_00: He will be exalted in the nations.
SPEAKER_00: That's where history is going.
SPEAKER_00: He will be seen as supremely good and supremely glorious.
SPEAKER_00: All those petty despots, all those petty kings and rulers and presidents will be a footnote to history in comparison to the exalted Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's where history is going.
SPEAKER_00: And so, because the reason why that's good is because so much of our anxieties are caught up with not knowing the future.
SPEAKER_00: But the Christian on that wide angle lens does know the future, knows that God will be seen as glorious, and you will reign with him, you will be part of that heavenly city in all of its fullness when God brings warfare to an end, suffering to a close.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what is our response?
SPEAKER_00: What is the response that this psalm demands?
SPEAKER_00: That the psalm invites you to it's there again in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Be still be still and know that he's God.
SPEAKER_00: Or clouding skies on a summer's day.
SPEAKER_00: Be still and know that I am God.
SPEAKER_00: But actually, in the context, it's quite different, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of there's a lot of clamor, there's a lot of tumult and noise to the mountains are being thrown into the sea, the seas themselves are roaring, they hear the crash of the waves, the nations are raging, they're shaking their fists and their swords at one another, there are bombs exploding, there are chariots rumbling down the streets, there are bows with arrows zooming past your ears, and in the clamor and noise, and blood and sweat, God comes and says, be still.
SPEAKER_01: In that sort of way.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what they're like, um, but apparently um parents get frustrated from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that if I were to be a frustrated parent, I might say is sit still.
SPEAKER_00: And you can think that God is doing that.
SPEAKER_01: You can think that God is saying, sit still, but that's not what it says.
SPEAKER_01: It says be still.
SPEAKER_00: God is not trying to control you, he's trying to console you in the midst of life's trials.
SPEAKER_00: He's not impatient with you in your suffering, he's not frustrated at you in your anger, in your questioning.
SPEAKER_01: He's not impatient.
SPEAKER_01: He's not frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to be compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to he's trying to in a sense take you by the shoulders or take your face in his hands and say, Stop, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Keep your eyes on me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: I hear you.
SPEAKER_00: I see you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to fix this.
SPEAKER_01: Trust me.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I am God.
SPEAKER_00: It's so tempting, isn't it, when you watch something scary to say, don't be scared.
SPEAKER_00: Being scared is a very right human emotion.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to be scared.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might be scared right now about what the future might hold for you, what you're going on to in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I won't say don't be scared.
SPEAKER_00: But I will say keep your eyes on the hero.
SPEAKER_00: When your children are watching movies and they're scared, don't say to them, don't be scared.
SPEAKER_00: Say, watch the hero.
SPEAKER_00: Watch what he's going to do.
SPEAKER_00: Watch how he will put things right.
SPEAKER_00: Watch the hero.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to be scared.
SPEAKER_00: But God is saying, watch me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what I'm going to do.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how I'm going to fix things.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the manner in which I will exalt myself among the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Because it won't be with bow and spear.
SPEAKER_01: It will be with nail-pierced hand and crown of thorns.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Be still, look at me, and know that I am God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a challenge here, isn't there?
SPEAKER_00: Because one of the things that verse 10 means when God says, I am God, is it means that you're not.
SPEAKER_00: Fixers like me have a hard time with this.
SPEAKER_00: But you can also fall into the trap of thinking that you're God when suffering comes upon your life and you immediately begin to resent him.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps what you're saying at that point is, or perhaps your view of God at that point is, he's really here to make my life plan go the way I want.
SPEAKER_00: If COVID has taught us anything, it's taught us that life plans don't work out the way we want.
SPEAKER_00: It's taught us that life plans need to be written in pencil.
SPEAKER_00: But when he says, I am God, yes, he's saying, and you're not.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's saying, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: He's also saying that your circumstances are not.
SPEAKER_00: Your circumstances are not God.
SPEAKER_00: This season that you're going through is not God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to control you forever, it's not going to define you forever.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be Lord over you forever.
SPEAKER_00: It won't last forever.
SPEAKER_00: Only God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: What you're enduring won't define you.
SPEAKER_00: Only God gets to do that in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It won't define you.
SPEAKER_00: And God is powerful enough to turn that suffering for your good and the good of those around you.
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe as we prepare to come out of lockdown, perhaps some stillness is called for.
SPEAKER_00: To be still, to find some time to reflect on the good things that you've been given, on the blessings that you have, biblically speaking, as a Christian, the blessings that you have in your own life.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have been given lots of time to reflect, and it's been deeply beneficial.
SPEAKER_00: How are you going to be still post-lockdown?
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're terrible at slowing down, we're terrible at stopping, we're terrible at being still.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're facing this uh this new season of going back out into the world.
SPEAKER_00: Are we just going to forget all that's happened over the last 17 or 18 weeks?
SPEAKER_00: We're just going to park it all, or are there lessons that we want to take through?
SPEAKER_00: Other spiritual rhythms that we want to uh to carry forward with us, other ways in which we have been still that we want to keep going so that we continue to remember God's goodness and his power?
SPEAKER_00: How will you do that?
SPEAKER_00: How will you remember?
SPEAKER_00: How will you remember Jesus who stepped into our world and was exalted, lifted up between heaven and earth on the cross, who stepped into our suffering-soaked world and spoke peace to the raging seas and calmed the hearts of the anxious disciples?
SPEAKER_00: How will you remember the one who died so that you could live?
SPEAKER_00: The one who now sustains you through the trials that you face and reminds you of your heavenly citizenship.
SPEAKER_00: How will you look to him?
SPEAKER_00: How will you look to him with hope in your eyes that one day he will be fully exalted and that you will reign with him?
SPEAKER_00: That is the promise of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Run to him.
SPEAKER_00: Run to Jesus, the refuge of your soul, the one who will strengthen you for every difficult day.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: But necessary ones.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would bring comfort.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would draw those people, draw us all into the comfort of your refuge.
SPEAKER_00: Enable us by your strength, sustain us by your power, renew our hope, renew our joy.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us of that heavenly citizenship and cause us to persevere until we reach that heavenly city and behold your glory face to face.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Please do join us uh in.
SPEAKER_00: In a few moments' time after the after the song for virtual tea and coffee, uh, I'm going to schedule that Zoom call now and I'll post the link into the chat window.
SPEAKER_00: But for now, let's sing together.