Psalm 46 | Subversive Spirituality

Listen to this week’s sermon, Subversive Spirituality preached by CrossTown Ministries, Pastor Eric Stites from Psalm 46.

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Welcome And Psalm 46 Reading

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 0:06

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Pastor Kenneth Dyches 0:22

Go ahead and stand for our prayer of illumination and scripture reading. Eternal God, the grass withers and the flower fades, but your word will stand forever. Holy Spirit, help us to love and trust your word. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. Our scripture reading this morning today comes from Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God will help her when the morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter, he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He burns the chariots with fire, or he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. This is God's word. You may be seated.

Crosstown Update And Gratitude

Pastor Eric Stites 1:54

Good morning. My name is Eric Stitz, and uh no, I'm not a pastor here, uh, but I am a pastor, uh pastor in our denomination, and uh lead a ministry called Crosstown Ministries. Uh every time, oh thank you. We'll keep the woo's going. Uh every time I come up here, you know, uh some of you have been here for uh many years uh and heard this story, and yet uh every time I come to the new city, uh each week I just see more and more people that uh I don't recognize. And so uh this ministry is a ministry that New City um launched, helped birth. Uh, and we are in the Paramour community, um just a few miles uh from here. Uh and the way we say it is we're cultivating a gospel environment where loved uh people uh love people. And um, I'm gonna take a moment just to give you an update because I'm up here and you can't stop me. So um, but uh we've been working hard sort of behind the scenes. Um, a year and a half ago, we purchased a building, uh, which has been an incredible thing. And also, like when you buy a house, you realize that there's things that you gotta work on and get it right. And so we've been doing that. Um, last time I was up here, I think this was the last time, maybe it was a couple times ago, I don't remember. Uh, but uh we had a sewer problem. Um, we're still working on that and getting it fixed, but we should have it fixed um uh by the uh end of the summer, uh Lord willing. But I'm telling you that because it's something you continue to uh pray for. Also, one of the last times I was up here, I told you all that we would uh let you know how you can help us. Um, we haven't done that yet, uh, but as we get to the end of the summer, I want to let you know that we'll have some things that you can help participate in so that we can get ready uh for the school year. So hopefully you'll be hearing about that uh in the coming uh weeks as well. Um and so as always, um I thank you all for uh getting to be a kingdom partner of New City. I don't take that lightly. Um, and so getting to come here and share the word with you uh truly is um a privilege. Um I also uh since we're talking about being still and knowing God from Psalm 46, there's a group of people um that are here today that I would assume are extremely exhausted because they've been hanging out with students for the last two weeks. Um and I'm saying this because I have two students uh who are there who got to benefit from y'all's love. But can we just thank uh everybody who uh helped uh you know I don't I don't take it lightly uh when other people obviously are caring and loving on my uh kids, and I know you as parents uh think the same, and I know that uh it was two weeks in a row for a lot of them of grueling work, and uh so just want to uh say thank you um so much to you all. It really uh means a lot to

Why Stillness Changes Real Life

Pastor Eric Stites 4:52

me. Um well, listen, uh in our ministry uh at Crosstown, I work uh under this uh assumption um that uh people can actually change. Um I know that might sound obvious or maybe not, I don't know, but uh but I truly believe that a gospel-centered life um leads to change, that when uh I know that uh when I know what will happen um when the end of life is here, that it actually changes how I live right now. Um even more than that, the the same Holy Spirit that wakes my uh heart up and regenerates my own heart uh to see my need of Jesus and to receive and rest upon him is the same spirit that's actually changing me every day from, as the Bible says, one degree of glory uh to another. And I'm bringing this up because sometimes in church um we sort of work under the assumption uh that the whole point is just to make sure we get to heaven when we die. Um and I often tell people uh in our community that sometimes we do that and then we leave people in hell on earth. And that's not okay. That's uh bad theology, if I can say it uh as such. Now, before you start writing me nasty emails, you can put your phone away, all right, because I do believe eternity is real. Um I do believe that being separated from God is the worst thing that could happen for any of us. And therefore, we do everything we can to invite people into the hope of this uh gospel that we share week in and week out here. But the question then is what is what is this life right now? Did God put us here just so we can ask Him in our heart and then be in heaven one day, and then I'm not sure what happens now, or is there more to that dash between the year you were born and the year that you would pass away? I believe there is. And I believe that we actually experience a foretaste of heaven here on earth. And I actually think Psalm 46 uh is showing us a little bit of what that is. It's taking us on a journey of what Ben uh has called a subversive spirituality. Um, as he put it, as we enter into this spirituality of the Psalms, letting them counterform us, we can step off the treadmill and learn to live a truly with God life. In Psalm 46, I actually think this treadmill is a little bit more like a river. Uh it's a little bit more uh like a river where we can uh either choose to surrender to a river of chaos or we can follow the river to the streams of stillness. The streams uh of stillness. I think Psalm 46 is sort of presenting us with this thing of uh every moment, moment by moment, am I going to uh choose that God is in control, or am I gonna continue to choose that I might be able to be in control? That's the thing that it puts um in front of us. Um, Ben has been up here, different uh pastors over the past several weeks have been up here, and I'm not gonna bore you with like more statistics, but we've heard over and over again that we live um in an incredibly anxious culture, and in a culture that we can't sit still, so much so that we gotta write books like The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. Um the author Brian Fickert, uh another uh elder in our denomination, wrote the wrote the book Becoming Whole, because he saw that as we were trying to help people, even in a community like the one that I serve, that what we were actually bringing people into was more anxiety. We weren't actually able to save uh and bring them out of a place of poverty, but we're actually bringing them into this culture of anxiety and never having enough. So we're we're trying to figure this out, and I believe Psalm 46 gives us a way forward. It gives us a way that God will get the glory, we'll be free to love, and in turn brings God more glory. So uh I have three points for us, and they're all around this idea of um a stream of stillness. So I want to start today. Um, you can uh turn in your Bible or get your worship guide out to Psalm uh 46, um, and we'll start in these first three

Naming The Chaos We Live In

Pastor Eric Stites 9:10

verses. But the first um thing I want to talk about is this ever-changing chaos. Ever-changing um chaos. The first three verses of Psalm 46 describe um a scene of utter chaos, right? And in the second half, it talks about mountains being moved into the heart of the sea, uh waters roaring and foaming, and though the mountains um tremble at the at the water, at the as the waters roar and foam. And so it's this it's this picture of all hell breaking loose. That the whole created order is just um falling apart. And so we read these words, and I I think sometimes as we read the words, we can just kind of go, oh, it's cute. Um mountains falling into the water, and it sounds kind of crazy. Um, every time I I I uh I come up here, I feel like I just went on an epic trip where I went on a hike. Um, so uh last time I was uh I think it was the last time I was up here, I shared uh about going on a on a hike to a 14er. Uh for those of you who aren't cool and don't know the hiking language. Um that's a 14,000-foot mountain. All right. Um, last time I hiked it with absolutely no um preparation. Um, and some shoes, maybe just a little bit more better than this. Uh, somehow made it to the top. Um, and you would think that I would have learned uh from last year that I should be prepared, but I did not prepare this year either and decided to do it again. But my son Sam and I um went uh to Mount Elbert um in Colorado. It's actually the highest peak uh in Colorado, 14,000 something feet, too many, it doesn't matter, it was a lot. Um and so uh we're hiking up this mountain um and uh we get all the way uh to the top. And I wish I had a picture uh of it for you, but I don't. Um but we get to the top, and we are literally looking down at all the peaks that we were just looking up at, right? I mean, it's a surreal moment uh to look and see that every place we're we're on level ground uh almost with all the other 14,000 foot peaks around us. And so it's at that point uh when I imagine uh what the psalmist describes as the mountains would be moved into the heart of the sea. I can't even fathom what that would be like. Uh and you can't fathom it until you've actually seen it, until you've been to a place where you say, This thing is absolutely immovable. This mountain's not going anywhere. The only thing moving is me, and hopefully not just falling down, right? The only thing that's moving is everything around it, but the mountain itself is not going um anywhere. It wasn't moving, it wasn't gonna yield, um, and it wasn't gonna make this hike any easier for us. And so when we read these words, we can take it lightly, but the reality is this is uh an incredible amount of chaos that Psalm 46 is describing. That mountains would just crumble and fall into the sea. And so, what is chaos? What is chaos? Chaos is, when you look at this, it's a place of confusion, it's a place of disorder, um, of a lack of any kind of organization. Everything just falling apart, things constantly changing, right? Uh, if you imagine that mountain, if I was now there were certain places on the mountain, it was so dry where we would put our feet, right, and the rocks underneath us would just sort of crumble and we'd start sliding back down um the mountain. That's chaos. That's the chaos that nowhere, no matter where I put my foot, I'm not really sure what's uh going to happen or if I've got a sure place to put it. I live in a two-story house. Um, and sometimes, uh, I won't tell you how often this happens to me. Uh as I get older, I feel like it happens a little more often. Um, I get to the bottom of the stairs, maybe it's at night. Um, I get to the bottom of the stairs and I think I'm on the last step. Uh, and so with full force, I put all my weight to come down on that last step because I think it's what? The ground. Only to find out there's one more step. Um, this is chaos. The idea that even I would think I know where I'm gonna put my foot. I know I can stand on this solid ground. That almost is worse. Thinking I know um that where I'm standing is on solid ground, only to find out um it's not. We look around us, can he even mention it today? We look around us and we see chaos. So we see wars uh breaking out throughout the world, Ukraine and Russia still going at it, the Iran-US-Israel um conflict happening, Strait of Hormuz. Um, there doesn't seem to be an end in sight uh to all of this uh conflict all around us, chaos breaking out. June 8th, right here in Orlando, apparently, I wasn't I didn't feel this, but there was an earthquake in Cuba. And people said they felt it here, right? In the middle of the state. And so when we see uh Psalm 46 writing about uh chaos breaking out, um, even here, uh, we experience it. Just a couple weeks ago, um, actually it was last week, I think, I uh went to the beach only to hear that the day before we got there, uh, two young men had uh been taken out by a riptide out to uh the farthest reaches and not able to swim. And one of them, uh a young man actually from Orlando passed away uh in the midst of this riptide. This is exactly what Psalm 46 is talking about. Waters roaring and foaming, and us having no place to put our feet. And so we know what it is to see this chaos. And so a question for you all this morning is what's yours? Uh what's what's your uh chaos? Uh I know for me uh growing up, um I had an alcoholic father, and so chaos felt like normal. Um, never really quite knowing what was going to happen, never really quite knowing uh where he would be at, what would be going on, what to expect from him, what type of emotional state he might be in. And so, as a young man, uh not knowing that uh creates fear, creates anxiety, creates uncertainty, right? Uh maybe that's you. Uh every day I see the chaos of poverty. Poverty creates a sense of chaos, uh, ever-changing uh living situations, not sure where I might be the next day or the next week or the next month, and what does that lead to? Not knowing what school I might be at, not knowing what uh friends I might need to make or what friends I thought I had that I don't have anymore, um, different houses, one paycheck away from another change. It creates chaos. Uh maybe it's the chaos of family dynamics. Um, a spouse who's essentially abandoned the marriage or is emotionally just not there. Um, what does that create? Kids who are making bad decisions, um, and you've worked your whole life to try to figure all this out and do all the right things. Um, chaos. Maybe it's the chaos of money. Where is it? Um, how much do we have? I don't even know. Um, what is enough? How do I get more? Um, do I really need that renovation? Right? The chaos of money. Um, the chaos of this, the chaos of your phone, um, social media, the the endless scrolling. Um, you know, I it's really sad, but as I get older, I feel like I can actually say back in my day um and not feel uh like I'm that old. But um uh my wife and I talk about sometimes that you know, back in our day, you actually had to go to the store, and what was at the store was what you had to pick from. On Amazon, I can literally search for the same exact thing and find 15,000 versions of the same one and read 15,000 reviews. I don't read any of them, but you can read 15,000 reviews and figure out which one is the right one. And while this sounds silly, this is why we're writing books about an anxious generation. Because we we can't figure it out. There's so many things out there, so many available things. Um, maybe chaos is just your dinner table. Uh maybe you have kids like I do, and we're trying to figure it out. Um, it's the chaos of bedtime, it's trying to bring to order um all of these things. Ever-changing chaos. So, what is your chaos? And now I have another question. What's your relationship with it? What's your relationship uh to the chaos um in your world? I've got some ugly truths, all right? Uh the first one is I think some of us are actually addicted to it. We're so used to it, we actually kind of like it a little bit. We're so used to this just being the norm that it it it almost feels good. It almost is our warm blanket. Uh we can gossip about other people's chaos. Can you believe they did this? Uh we can gossip about our own pet chaos. Can you believe I did this? I kind of like that. Um, and why? Because we don't have to slow down. When we enjoy when we when we live this way, we don't have to slow down, we don't have to reflect. Um we don't even really have to take any responsibility for all the chaos around us. We just kind of keep living into it. Just turn a blind eye, stick our head in the sand, and maybe it'll get better. I don't know. And I'm telling you, that's not be still and no. That's not that. Second ugly truth is that uh uh with our with the chaos in our world is that we've just surrendered to it. Um we're we don't feel like there's anything that we can do about it. Um this was me and my uh family with my my father was feeling like I can't really do anything um about this, and so surrendering uh to the chaos in my world. The third one, uh, ugly truth would be some of us try to control it. And the and the key here is we control it ourselves, um, in our own strength, and we try and try. If I control the outside uh chaos outside of myself, I can have stillness inside of myself. And that's a big lie. So, what do you feel um in these moments of uh chaos? The Bible tells us in Psalm 46, it's clear, that the uh that oftentimes we're gonna be afraid. That's why uh the second verse says, We will not fear, though the earth give way. Because it's acknowledging that when things feel like they are completely out of control, uh, we begin to feel afraid. And so when that happens, we protect ourselves, we turn inward. Uh, when we're feeling like this is uh happening, we can turn out and attack others when we're violated. I was in Israel um uh several months ago, and um our guide spoke of this type of thing where he said, uh, you know, you've heard of a cold war. Uh we actually have a cold peace. It's not really peace. We're all just sort of waiting for something to happen, right? And what is that rooted in? Fear. Fear. Fear of the chaos of everything just uh letting loose. Now, so what's your chaos? What is it? What does it make you feel in those moments? And now, what does Psalm 46 have to say about all that? Does it have um anything to say? Interestingly, um, in these first few verses, um, the promise is actually that there will be chaos. Uh it doesn't say that God's gonna make it go away. It doesn't say he's just gonna uh take the chaos and just uh put it away in these first three verses. He simply tells us the truth in verse one. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. You see, trouble is assumed, but where we turn when we're in trouble is the question. And so God is our refuge and strength. That's the truth. Um, and the truth I want to put in front of you is we all have a choice in the ever-changing chaos. For me, I didn't think I had a choice for so many for so many years. But the psalmist is letting us know no, you have a choice. Our God is the refuge and strength, an ever-present help uh in trouble. And so that choice is to find a strength that's not your own. It may not change the chaos, it changes how you see the chaos, it changes how you approach the chaos, it changes how you walk through the chaos. And so that's why it's important that we can name it because some of us are choosing chaos and we don't even realize it. And the psalm is letting us know there's another way to do it. This and so it's not a one-time thing, all right. This isn't this moment where I say, All right, I've chosen God, everything else is I I got it now. I know how to approach it. No, it's not just a let go and let God. This is a seasonal, a daily, an hourly, a minute by minute of where will I run? Will I run to the refuge? Evil doesn't want you to. Evil wants you to choose yourself, wants you to choose to fight your own trouble, to see chaos through your eyes, and in that way the enemy's won already. Once he gets us uh to do that, he's deceived us once again. The psalm invites us out of this. The psalm invites us out of this trickery, it invites us that you have a chain, a choice in the ever-changing chaos. You can run to the refuge. So listen, your choice uh is to run from uh the ever-changing chaos to the one who is the refuge. And so, in this uh uh river of life um that is presented in front of us, where there's the rivers that are uh the water that's roaring and foaming, uh uh God presents us with another option that you can get on this stream that's leading you to stillness.

The City Of God That Holds

Pastor Eric Stites 23:20

And so the second point that I want to make today is that the stream of stillness uh leads us to an unchanging city. Uh an unchanging city. So as we uh leave uh that the the roaring and foaming water that that can uh be destructive, uh we're invited to the stream of stillness, and verses four through seven say that what we find there is a city of God. See, Psalms 46 puts these two wildly different pictures in front of us. The first three verses is utter chaos, the world falling in on itself, and then verses four through seven, we have a city of God, and all of a sudden it's like everything's just going to craziness and just shh. And there's a place of stillness, of peace, of life and flourishing, of certainty. It's unshakable. The psalmist uses the word move several times here in these first several verses to emphasize that there's a difference. Everything else is moving and changing, even the things that aren't supposed to move and change. Where Mount Elbert, where I was standing on top of it, can just crumble and fall into the sea. All of a sudden we're faced with that shouldn't happen, but in God's city, this is a place that will not move, will not change. It's rooted, anchored, and grounded. There's chaos outside, but it's stillness inside. So he's inviting us, come, come here to this place. And how is that? How does God create a city where there's stillness? Is it because he's got bigger guns than the other guy? Uh is because he wrote the perfect peace treaty with everyone outside. Is it because he built a bigger wall that can keep everyone out? What does the Bible say? What is uh verse five says? The reason is because God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. It's nothing but the sheer presence of God in this place that would say, This is what brings stillness and peace. It goes on, it says that uh his voice in verse 6, he utters his voice, even though the kingdoms are fighting with one another, it's his words, literally his words, that melt um everything around it and bring that peace. Sounds good, right? I want to be in that place. Uh, but I'm not. I don't know where that city is, right? Uh where is it? Uh at the time of uh of the psalmist writing this, this would have been Jerusalem. Jerusalem was not a mighty city. Jerusalem was this kind of little place that didn't really have a lot of significance at the time. And so even in uh even in naming this as the place where God would uh would reside was would have been alarming. But it was it wasn't the refuge that came from the strength of this city, it was the refuge because God was there. So, what about now though? Do I gotta go over there to get to the city of God? I was just there. I was in Jerusalem. It's not it. That's not the city of peace right now, and the Bible doesn't see it that way. There are people waiting for a Messiah to come and reinstate this as a his holy city, but we know the Messiah has come. The kingdom of God is here. Not just the city of God, the kingdom of God. And so there's not an actual city we run uh to refuge. We're waiting for that day when there will be a new city. When there will be a new city that will come down out of heaven. That's what we're waiting for. That's that's the city we're waiting for, where there's a city of God, where there's a place of peace. Now, last time I checked when you walked in the doors, what's this place called? New city. Whee, it's an ambitious name. I remember uh 15 years ago uh when I was in seminary. Uh is that right? Yeah, that's a long time ago. When I was in seminary and New City was just a little church plant, um, where you did know everyone, Kenny, um, like you said. 15 years ago, right? I remember thinking, what's up with this new city thing? I remember turning to the book of Revelation, because when you turn to the end of the book, you find out that this is where it all ends up. A city where God says that there will be no more crying, there will be no more pain, that he will wipe away every tear for from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning. And he says, To the thirsty, I'll give water without cost uh from the spring of the water of life. That's the vision. That's where all of this is headed. And I remember thinking, that's where I want to be. And so what do we do? In the meantime, between uh where where the psalmist would say there's a city of God, and now we're here, we don't know where that city is. What is it? It's us. It's us. It's it's us, the gathering of uh God's people in this place. When we're gathered together and sent out, God is in our midst. So much so that when someone who is in the ever-changing chaos of the world is with us, they should experience him as refuge and strength and ever-present help and trouble when they're with us. So let me say it another way. God is using the church to get his life-giving water to a thirsty, chaotic world. You look at verse four. There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God. And so in verse three, water is this destructive force. Water is the uh the riptide that's taking young men out to sea to their demise. And all of a sudden in verse four, it's changed. Water becomes the source of life. You see, water for a city is is absolutely non-negotiable, especially in the ancient world. Couldn't survive without it. Needed it to drink, to grow crops, needed it to have life. And so the picture that the psalmist is painting is that even though everything else going on outside of the city is utter chaos, inside the city it is still. While everything outside is dying, the city of God has life literally coursing through its veins. And so he paints an even clearer picture of this river. Because this river doesn't just kind of flow on the side of the city, sort of meandering its way, right? It's a little bit like Orlando. We don't have a cool city flowing through the middle of the city. We'd be so much cooler if we had a uh a river right in the middle of us. The closest we get is Sanford, right? St. John's River, you gotta go all the way up there. It's not fair. But listen, this is not this is not what he's talking about. The streams, uh uh, the river, sorry, that that he is speaking of uh flows right in the middle of the city. But even as close as that is, you see, there would still be people who would get to have that riverfront property, right? Because there's only so much you can have of the river, even if it flows right through the city, you have some people building their houses right on it to say, I got mine. Right? You'd have people fighting over it, fighting for access to the river. We want to be close to the to the water, paying top dollar to have that riverfront uh property. We'd be arguing, we'd be paying for who has the rights to live there. But the river in the city of God is different. This river has streams. There's a reason both words are there. This isn't just another poetic way to talk about the river. Oh, it's a river and it has streams. Oh, it's nice, it's cute. No, no, no. The streams are actually the little canals that branch off from the river that bring that life-giving water to literally every little part of the city. It reaches into every street, reaches into every garden, every field, every home. And as one commentator puts it, literally reaches every heart of every person in that city. This is the city of God. This is the river that has streams that make it glad. So much so, the Bible says in this verse, this water is so good that it's not just water that helps the city barely make it out of trouble. It's not just water that helps it to suffer but still survive. The Bible says this water is so good that the people in the city are having a party while everyone outside is in chaos. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. So, in the middle of all the chaos, the people in the city are enjoying life. That's what it says. There is a joy they have inside, amidst the chaos outside. So now, hundreds of years after this was written, God uh put skin on. And he comes and lives on the earth. Jesus Christ Himself had some things to say about water. He speaks to a Samaritan woman at a well in John chapter 4, and he told her that there's a water that you're looking for here at this well that I have. And it's a water that when you drink of it, you'll never thirst again, he says. He told her that uh it's a spring of water that will well up uh to eternal life. Jesus cut out a canal that crossed every barrier that would have been known at that time that would have said this water should never get to her. It was a barrier, it was she's a Samaritan woman. He's crossing the social, religious barriers that should have never been crossed. She's a woman. He's crossing this barrier to speak to a woman and share with her. He is connecting her by cutting a canal so the waters of life can flow to her. Listen, as the city of God, the people who have God in our midst, what does this mean for us? It means that we get to participate with God and in digging out the canals that could connect others to the streams of God. We aren't the water, but God invites us to participate with Him in cultivating the ground that his streams of water can cut through. We oftentimes in our own home have talked about uh how our uh little island where we sit around to eat, um, which has grown increasingly small as the family's gotten bigger, so we're sometimes we're standing around the island. But over the years of ministry, it's been a place where uh people are invited to come and just share. Um, people who look different than me, people who are coming from different situations, different traumas, different hurts in life, and there's this common thing that seems to happen, um, which is that at the end of a long night of sharing, of eating a meal uh and all that, there's another stream of water, which is tears that roll down people's face as they share, share the brokenness of life, share the pain, share all these things. And so, in a small way, it's these places where the canals are cut, not because Kristen or me or our family is that water, uh, but simply because we get to participate with God um in cutting through and saying, here we are, come and see the refuge and strength, the ever-present help in trouble, that there's a river whose streams make glad the city of God. So, with us um today here at New City, I just want to encourage you that we get to participate with God and seeing those canals cut and crossing every barrier in our city so that those who don't know him would know him. So, the stream of stillness, it's in an ever-changing chaos that we have a choice to leave that and go to the one who is uh our our refuge and strength, the one who is the God of an unchanging city.

Be Still And Know God Personally

Pastor Eric Stites 35:45

Lastly and finally, the stream of stillness leads us to knowing God. Uh leads us to knowing God. That start the this stream starts in the chaos, moves to the city, and now we're presented with the truth of verse 10 that this psalm is probably most known for. Be still and know that I am God. It's the first time in the whole psalm that God actually is speaking personally, He's taking on the personal saying, I. It's been the writer speaking about God, but now it's God Himself speaking. It's incredibly intentional by the writer. As if he is saying, Hey, you don't just have to know God through me. You don't have to know uh uh through what I am telling you about him. You can actually know him. It's not him over there, it's God right here saying, Be still and know me. Know that I am God. It's a fundamental question. Do you know God or do you know about him? Sometimes our knowing God is knowing the right things about him, and of course that's important. We need to know who God says he is. But this this knowing here in this psalm is deeper. It's a knowing by experience, it's a knowing that looks at all that God has done, all that he is doing, and all that he will do, and resting in that. And God himself tells us how this happens. Be still. Be still. Now, I'll tell you right now, this is the hardest part of the whole thing. I'm not good at this myself. Because in the being still, there's this slowing down, there's this choice in our heart to move towards God as our refuge and strength and move away from the chaos. But see, stillness actually exposes the chaos inside. See, it's when we finally sit still that the chaos that's going on is revealed. And because of that, I think a lot of us are afraid to sit still. We're afraid to slow down. And it's when the lies of the enemy rear their ugly heads. When we sit still, is when we hear, am I too far gone? Am I beyond the reaches of God's grace? It's in that stillness where we ask, am I truly lovable anymore? Am I worth loving? Does the past mistakes and wounds that I have define who I am now? It's the lie in the stillness of there's something just wrong with me. It's the lie of I'll never be enough. It's the lie of I am what I do, or I am what I have not done. And so it's in this stillness that we find ourselves vulnerable. And in and it's an intimate place of our soul. And that's why it's tough to go there. It's why the enemy wants to beat us up while we are there. And the enemy would want you to think that God is also standing in judgment over you. Um, as these places in our lives are exposed, and and evil would even want to take it one step further, which would want to convince you that you can't share these places with God. That in doing so, you're gonna be pushed away. But that is not true, it's the opposite. It's sharing these places in this stillness that is the very source of their undoing. You see, because the second part of being still is that the word be still literally means to cast down. It means to let fall, it means to relax. Specifically, it's talking even of our hands. So, in other words, stop making an effort, stop putting forth exertion. So some of the translations even take it so far as that these two words are translated, cease striving. One commenters, one commentator says it's not just a nice, cute thing of oh, be still, it's almost a rebuke. Saying, Hey, slow down. You don't need to take control. Just look at me, God, and watch what I am able to do. You see, the same rebuke came hundreds of years later from the mouth of Jesus, the Messiah, God again with skin on. He got in a boat with his disciples who still didn't know what was going on, didn't really know who he was, and a horrible storm rises up on the water. Wind and waves are battering the boat once again, waters that are roaring and foaming. And the disciples are panicking, right? As would all of us, looking for their leader to figure this out. And where is he? Asleep on a cushion, passed out in the back of the boat. And they cry out to him, Don't you care? Don't you care that we're drowning? And Jesus gets up, seemingly probably slow, looks at the storm, and he speaks to it, rebukes it with those same words. Peace. Be still. The wind dies and the calm comes over the water, and he says, Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? And so Psalm 46 comes into clarity. We will not fear, though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved as the heart of the sea and the waters roar and foam. The disciples were confused, but they had a sense that maybe we're coming into contact with God Himself, our refuge and strength. And so I put forth to you today that Jesus has come so that he might be our refuge and strength. In John 16, he says, I have told you these things that in you, me, you may have peace. In this world, you'll have what? Trouble. There it is again. He's not taking it away. But take heart. I have come to overcome the world. And so we we can be still and know. We can behold the works of the Lord because it's not just looking at what he's done in Psalm 46, but we look at what Christ has done, killed on a cross for your sins and mine to be forgiven. Why? So that we can be reconciled with the Father, so that he could be with us. The Lord of hosts is with you, and so that we might cease striving. Jason Wilson is a leader. He wrote a book called Cry Like a Man. I recommend it highly, but he's also the director of something called the Cave of Adulam. Um that's a reference to when David was uh running from Saul, he ran to this cave. Um he was soon joined by 400 men who were desperate, in debt, and discontent. And so Wilson started this thing to meet men who were desperate, in debt, and discontent, and helped them to see the love of their father. And so he uses martial arts to teach about what's going on inside of their hearts and turns them to ultimately a relationship with the Lord. And Wilson himself speaks on what stillness is. He says, stillness to him is not passive emptiness or loneliness, it's presence made visible. It allows us to focus on the very present moment where we are. And so, as something to take with you, um he has a practice for stillness uh that he calls the four R's.

The Four R’s For Stillness

Pastor Eric Stites 42:56

So I wanted to give that to you uh to take with you because I don't think it's fair to say, be still and know that I am God, not knowing how does this work. So he he has four R's. The first is reflect, think about your day. Where did you choose chaos? Where did I choose chaos? Where was their anxious striving? And what does that bring up? Reflect. The second is to release it's what Jesus, it's what we are invited to do in Jesus, to cast our cares upon him. So taking those honest reflections and handing them over to him, ceasing striving, drop the weapons of control, and surrendering the outcomes to him. The third is reset, it's simply to say, I am not God, but you are God. And in the final is that we get that rest. To enjoy the safety of the Lord of hosts who is with you, experiencing his love for you, the love that culminated with Christ on the cross, announcing it is finished. And all that stillness.

Stillness That Frees Us To Love

Pastor Eric Stites 44:05

What's it for? Is this just uh a pop psychology so I can be a better person or be more calm, um, so I can be more happy? Is it ultimately about me? No. Psalm 46 redirects us. It's actually about setting us free to love. Stillness is a place from which I can truly love others. It's the type of love Jesus told his disciples that you'll know my, that you're my people by how well you love one another. Without this stillness, our love is just a worldly love. It's looking to be seen. It's a love that's looking to have it returned back to us, it's a love that's looking to get something in return. And so in this place of stillness, we're freed up to love. And in that place, we're free to return glory back to its rightful place. I will be exalted among the nations, God says. I will be exalted in the earth. You see, when we love uh from this place of freedom, of stillness, we get to return the glory to God Himself, who says, I am your refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. He will be exalted among the nations. He's the Lord of hosts who is with us, the God of Jacob, who is our fortress. Let's pray. Holy Spirit. We ask that you would uh now be the life-giving water and that Jesus spoke of the water that would well up inside of us to be eternal life. And Lord, where there are uh obstacles and in the way of that water reaching each of us in this room, Lord, would you uh be the river that has streams that make glad the city of God? That you would uh reach each of our hearts uh to know uh who you are, to know uh that you are the one who is in control, uh, to know that you are the one who is our refuge and strength. Would you be that for us now? In Jesus' name. Amen.