Be Still, and Know That I Am God

Good morning. Greetings of love to each of you. It's been very rich to be here so far this morning and deeply blessed.

Thank you for each one that has shared various things. I've sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit here today in every part of this and I trust you have as well to consider our choices, our amazing God, who he is, and then in the various testimonies and songs, things that were shared to understand the relationship that he has with us and that he wants to have with us and draw us into his presence. And I pray that the continuation of this service can be that.

Brother John, it's good to have you here. I saw you this morning and I knew that I'd seen you. You look so familiar, but I couldn't have said who you are.

And I'm glad you're here. Live stream is great. Physical presence is a thousand times better because you can feel you can feel the Holy Spirit.

Maybe you can through a live stream to a certain extent, but not like we can when we fellowship together. Had we known you were coming, we might have made you get up here, but you snuck in without us knowing. So I'm glad you're with us and can worship with us today.

It's clear that we've been impacted deeply as a congregation and it's right that we have been by the passing of Grandma Rachel. Many of the things that have been shared today clearly tell me that that has been on your heart as it has been on mine. And it's right for us to consider that.

And it's right for us to mourn. It's also right for us to celebrate. As Brother Victor shared, the aspects of her faith that give us not just a faint hope, but a lively hope that we will see her again.

And therefore, we sorrow not as those that have no hope. Yesterday, as I was there at Grandma's house and helping the family after she had passed to begin the funeral preparations and all of the physical details that need to be paid attention to. But there was laying on her coffee table in the living room, a puzzle.

It was a puzzle with really big pieces. And it was interesting looking. And young Rachel told me that one of our sisters, and I won't say who she is, so I don't embarrass her.

But one of our sisters had sent that puzzle throughout this past week, one letter per day and wrote on the back of each letter, the big letters, a very lovely message of encouragement and inspiration on the back of each puzzle piece. And Grandma Rachel was putting this puzzle together through the week. Of course, as she weakened, she couldn't put the pieces together herself anymore.

So young Rachel was putting it together. And I think it was yesterday, either Friday or yesterday when the last piece arrived. And on the front of the puzzle was the verse, Be still and know that I am God.

That was a lovely thing to do as a gesture of love and encouragement. And I hold that out to you as an example of the things that the body of Christ ought to do for each other. There is so many has been so many examples through this week of loving service in the face of of this need.

And I bless every one of you that has played a part in those things. But I had been pondering that verse anyway, as I was considering the message for today. And when I saw that and heard the story behind it, I knew what I needed to preach on here today.

And so that's the title of my message taken from Psalm 46. And you can turn there if you will be still and know that I am God in this call that we have from God. And it's not just a call, it's a command to us.

And it's such a secret to so many of the things that we've been giving testimony to and desire to experience in our lives. And yet there's a great tension in the stillness that God calls us to. There are moments in life when everything changes in a flash.

And, you know, in the loss of grandma, we knew it was coming. We knew she was up in years and we knew her body was beginning to fail. And so we knew this would happen sometime, but still the finality of that moment.

And for me, the defining moment this week was, I think, Tuesday when Rachel called me and said, Carl, can you stop in and check on grandma? She's not doing well. And as I knelt by her bed that afternoon and she could still converse and we spoke and she smiled at me. But I could tell her body was failing and I had a distinct sense that it wouldn't be too long.

And I asked her, grandma, are you ready to go? And she gave me that smile that she so often had when she sat back here and she said, yes, I'm ready to go. We sang a few songs about heaven. And she said, I'd really like if you could sing in German.

I don't know German. Clara and Rachel tried to sing a few songs in German and but they were too broken up. We'd get three words in and then they'd begin to cry.

And finally, grandma lit out in a song of her own in German. I didn't know what the words are. And with her, with the rasp in her voice, because her organs were already beginning to fail.

She sang that song loud and clear. And I still don't know exactly what the words are, but I asked the girls to translate for me. And it was something to the effect that I am done with this world here below and heaven is where I want to go.

I left there that afternoon knowing that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. There's something so special about someone moving on to eternity. When their hearts are in that place and we never know when those life defining moments are going to come our way.

You know, sometimes they're sudden and none of us would welcome those times when we stand maybe in the waiting room outside a hospital emergency room and the doctor comes out and says, I'm sorry, we did everything we could. We tried, but life is gone. Or a police officer stops at your door and says, there's been an accident.

And those words are a precursor to news. None of us wants to hear, but it happens and it happens to people. There's a lot of things as brother Uri was saying this morning, that we can make choices that are going to affect the outcome of things in our lives.

And we need to consider that. But there's other times when things happen that we cannot control and no choice we make is going to impact it. Certainly when we lose a loved one, and especially if we lose them suddenly, it is those times.

None of us here have experienced much persecution of any sort, much less torture. Well, I guess brother Uri has. He, I think, spent time in the communist prisons in Ukraine.

And I think he understands torture. But you don't have to. You can put yourself in the shoes.

You don't have to imagine too much if you will just get out your martyr's mirror and read some of the stories of saints many years ago who were tortured desperately for their faith. It's incredible what a human being can do to another human being in the name of control. And for a person who finds themselves on the suffering end of that control, it's a desperate feeling.

And depending the depth of the torture, it can leave a person scarred and traumatized in ways that are hard to recover from physically and emotionally. And we don't experience torture in this country, thankfully, or at least it's very rare. Sometimes there are crime incidents that can include elements of that.

But there are cases of abuse and sometimes even among our own people, which in the flesh angers me deeply. How can these things once be named among us? But they happen when a person who has a selfish, carnal heart attempts to control another person, forcing them to do things for their own purposes and ends. And there's many forms that can take.

I have no idea if any of you here have ever been subjected to anything like that, but it can leave you in this dilemma, the tension of stillness before God, when we cannot control and do not understand the things that have happened. And in that moment, when we face those types of crises, something inside us begins to race. Our mind searches, our heart panics, our spirit reaches for something to hold on to, and we can feel desperately alone, desperately helpless, desperately hopeless.

But brothers and sisters, it's in those moments. It's in those moments that God speaks not loudly and not harshly, but clearly. And this is what he says.

Be still and know that I am God. And that's what I'd like to explore this morning. What does that look like? He doesn't say it when life makes sense.

He does say it when life falls apart. And I believe this morning that all of you have probably experienced some things in your life that would fit that definition. If you think back, maybe some of you are going through things or have something like that in your life even today.

And certainly when we lose a loved one, it leaves a huge hole. And it can take us, well, there's a sense in which we never recover from the loss of a close loved one. And I've never lost any immediate family.

My father is the closest. I guess he would be immediate family, but not like my wife or children. I still deeply miss my father.

He left a hole in my life and my grandparents, but I cannot imagine. And I've tried to think about what it would be like if I would lose my wife or one of my daughters or one of my sons. I don't have brain capacity to consider it.

My heart would say that I would want to die as well. But it is the emotional human side of us that responds that way. And we'll look more at that tension a little bit later on.

I'd like to just read this chapter now, if you have your Bibles open to Psalm 46. Let's read this and consider we're going to spend most of the time in the first couple of verses and the last few. But there's a lot here in the context of the whole chapter.

So it's Psalm. So I would like to read it. 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 seal. And we really ought to follow those seals and stop and think for a half a minute about what he just said. Think about that.

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.

The heathen raged. The kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice.

The earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge seal.

Stop and think about that. Come with me. Behold the works of the Lord.

What desolations he hath made in the earth. He may get wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cut the spear in thunder.

He burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen.

I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge seal.

Stop and think about that. Let's just stand for prayer before we move on. Father, thank you for the presence of your spirit in this place today.

Thank you for the call that you have already placed upon our hearts in so many ways. And as we consider this scripture, this beautiful song and the call that you give to us to be still and know that you are God. Father, I pray that each one of us could hear that in a personal way today and whatever struggles or difficulties we're facing, whatever thing feels too big for us, that we today could understand how you want us to release that to you and be still and know that you are God.

I just pray that you will minister this to our hearts today by your Holy Spirit, as only you can. And I commit these moments to you in Jesus name. Amen.

You may be seated. So I'd like to first of all, look at the context of the command here in the first few verses. And first of all, verse one, God is our refuge and strength.

Just those words. A refuge speaks of a place where you can go and hide when you need to escape something that is dangerous or difficult. If there's a a a tornado coming, you want a refuge, a place where the wind cannot tear apart.

Usually it's underground somewhere. If there's a war going on and bombs are dropping, you want a refuge, which is a place that is safe. A refuge is a place of safety in the midst of danger otherwise.

And that's the context that he lays out here as he gives us this call in this truth. God is to be that refuge for us. And he's a strength for us when we don't have what it takes ourselves.

He's a strength for us when we don't we don't feel the strength in ourselves to face whatever it is. A very present help in trouble. And notice that this is not written in the context of a quiet meadow or some of the beautiful weather like we've been having here recently when the sun is shining and the birds are singing and the flowers are blooming and, you know, the trees are budding and you can go out and set an environment like that.

And it's it's not hard to feel happy. It's hard to feel unhappy because all of your environment around you speaks of peace and joy and blessing and life. And it somehow soaks into your spirit.

Now, there are times in life when we can face things that are difficult enough emotionally that even that beauty around us at a time like that cannot sink into our spirit and we can't receive it because we are we're bound with the difficulty of whatever it is that is surrounding our heart and spirit. But the context of this psalm is not that kind of a pretty picture. It's actually written in the middle of collapse.

And the language is very picturesque. The earth being removed, the mountains being carried into the midst of the sea, the waters of the sea roaring and being troubled. You know, I've never been in the ocean at a time when you get these 50, 60, 70, sometimes 100 foot waves that can sink the biggest ships.

But I cannot imagine the terror that must strike the human heart at being in conditions like that. Knowing there is nothing you can do, knowing there is nothing but sure destruction ahead of you. That's the picture he's painting.

We live up in Schuylkill County. We've got mountains and we love them. They're beautiful.

They're also, how should I say, a symbol of stability. Come what may, we can always look out the window and the mountains are right there where they were yesterday and where they were 20 years ago and 100 years ago. What would it be like if we woke up one day and that mountain is not there or is moving? I can't imagine what that would feel like and is headed into the sea.

I mean, the world would be turning upside down. Everything as we know it would be insecure and what's moving next. But that's the picture that the psalmist uses here to give us the context for this invitation and command to be still and know that I am God.

It is complete chaos. And I believe this is not just poetic exaggeration. It certainly is poetic and it's very descriptive as he's painting this picture.

But I actually think he is conveying what is to us sometimes emotional reality. None of us have ever seen a time when physically the mountains uprooted and moved into the sea. But we do experience times emotionally when it feels that way.

There is nothing around us that is secure. There is nothing around us that we feel we can relate to and count on. And we have the turbulence emotionally that he is depicting here.

But right in the middle of all that noise, right in the middle of all that shaking, right in the middle of the fear that goes along with that insecurity, God doesn't still the storm always, but he speaks to the soul. He speaks to the soul. And his invitation is be still.

Brothers and sisters, that is an intentional choice. We can't control the circumstance, but be still, he says. And I believe the truth is this many times before God changes our situations.

He wants to settle our spirit to rest in him and true peace. You've often heard the challenge to the artist to write, to portray a picture of peace. And we think of that picture of the sun and the butterflies and the flowers.

Sure, that's peaceful. But you often know the artist depiction that won the whatever award for being a picture of peace. And it was the bird that's nesting behind the roaring waterfall because God wants to bring peace to our hearts.

In the midst of those difficult situations, whatever they are, when it's too much for us. And he can. And sometimes he does change our circumstances.

As we read over this, come behold the desolations he have made in the earth. He make it worse to see cease. There's some of us in this room, maybe all of us that would like some words to cease right now.

And if we could tell God what to do, we would tell him to cease these wars and he could do it. He could. And I don't want to wax too philosophical here, but one of life's great questions and one you will often encounter from critics who are struggling with the reality of a God, a loving God is why do evil things happen on earth? Why do wars go on? Why do innocents get killed? Why do children get killed? And you notice how the news media often picks up on those stories when children get killed in an act of war, because it tugs at our hearts.

Very difficult for our human minds to rationalize. Why doesn't God step in and protect those children? Why doesn't he cause those wars to cease? But the same thing could be true when an innocent girl is facing a rapist. Why does God allow something like that to happen? And our hearts can wrestle with those truths.

I'll come back to that in a moment. But God does not always overrule evil. If God did always overrule evil, do you know we could not understand love? Because love is experienced when there is an overcoming of the evil.

Many examples in our lives that we can think about that. The Amish school shooting at nickel mines is one of them. Love is experienced in the face of evil.

And if God always did what we wished and stopped the war and stopped the rapist and stopped the evil that happens, there could be no true love understood. And so God ministers to us in the face of those things. And again, more could be said there.

But I need to move on. He wants to settle our spirit in him. So what does being still really mean? Well, the first thing it means for us, I believe, is stop striving.

There's something inside us when we face the grief, the frustration, the desperation of those moments when something is happening that we cannot control and we do not like it and we wish that it would be different. And maybe after we face a loss and this happens often in the grief process. And, you know, what is it, five steps or seven steps of grief? I've studied them, but I forget what they are right at the moment.

But we go through those phases. Sometimes it's denial and we replay those things in our mind and we think, no, it really couldn't have happened quite quite that way. Maybe if we maybe it's a conversation with somebody that happened and we ended up feeling very, very hurt and very discouraged and very.

And we would like to replay that thing and rewrite it somehow in our mind, we search for answers that don't exist and our minds can literally go into overdrive trying to recreate this into something that we can be OK with. And we can completely wear ourselves out emotionally in that process. Some doors just don't reopen again.

Some conversations just cannot be had again. Some losses cannot be undone. And in that painful place, God doesn't say, figure it out.

Try again. You'll do better next time. He says, be still.

It's what he calls. And the reality is this, brothers and sisters, we need to stop trying to carry what only God can hold. There just are many, many experiences in our human existence that we do not have and we will not have what it takes to deal with.

Sometimes it's on behalf of another person. We need to stop trying to carry what only God can hold. The first secret of being still and understanding what it means is just to be willing to stop striving.

We'll talk a little more practically later, a little bit later on. The second thing we need to be willing to do is release control. And this is very hard, I believe, for all of us, but some of us more than others.

As human beings, we are wired to be in control of our circumstances. We like to know, Caleb, when we stretch ourselves out financially, that I've got my ducks in a row and I can make my payments and this is all going to come together. And I have no doubt you spent an extensive amount of pencil time planning all those things out.

So we do. We want our lives to be in an orderly thing that we can feel secure that we know what's coming next. And that's not wrong.

But when we face situations that are beyond our control, and it doesn't matter if it's something that is our fault or something that we absolutely had nothing to do with that we cannot control, doesn't matter what the loss is. Losses are a way of reminding us we really are never in control to begin with. We can make our best plans, we can try our best way.

But at the end of it all, we've got to trust in our heavenly father. And that's really where this comes down to. If we want to understand what it means to be still, be still and know that I am God.

We must be willing to relinquish control. And that is so scary. Because God, can I trust you? If I let go, and so many times we hang on tighter, and maybe we hold it closer, because we can't trust letting it go.

But to know God, to understand the stillness that he calls us to, we need to be willing to let go. When we realize that we were never in control to begin with, that can either break us, or it can draw us closer to God. And that's a choice we're going to make.

I don't know about all this philosophical stuff of the longest distance known to human and the shortest distance known to human. It is philosophical, it is and that's okay. I like that too.

I like philosophy. But the reality is that step of faith, that choice of faith is a heart that says, God, I will choose to let go and let you. Stillness is where control finally loses its grip, not because everything is okay.

But because I am willing to trust the one who said I am. Number three, be still and know that I am God quiet the inner noise. You know, I've heard people say that grief can be so loud.

It pounds inside you. There's the questions. There's the regret.

And these this applies in broad, many broad ways. Not just losing a loved one. There's fear.

What happens next? There's loneliness. If we've experienced something traumatic and difficult, we can feel like nobody understands. Nobody knows.

And again, coming back to the issue of abuse, my heart breaks for children who experience abuse at fairly young ages, and then will cover that secret for so many years. And the emotional crippling that that does to a person because they're afraid. Many times they've been told by their abuser not to tell.

Do not tell anyone. It's wicked. And that child will grow up with that crippling, that crippling element emotionally in its life, until it arrives at a time and a place where God can can bring that out.

The loneliness that we can experience, we can be all by ourselves, emotionally in the middle of the crowd. And you can even be in a quiet place all alone. And your heart will be roaring inside you with all these questions.

Some of you know what I'm talking about. Even in silence, your mind is not quiet. But I want to tell you something this morning.

And this truth just grips my heart. God does not compete with our noise. As long as we're letting our hearts be filled with all of that emotional noise.

God's not competing with that. He's waiting. He's waiting.

He's saying, my son, my daughter, be still. Be still and know that I am God. He waits for that moment when I'm willing to become still enough to hear his voice.

And I know where I speak this morning. I can think of specific times and places in my life where God waited for me. And he will wait for you, too.

He doesn't try to shout louder than the noise that's going on in your heart. He doesn't compete with your arguments, but he waits until we're willing to be still. And then we come to the invitation.

No, no, that I am God. What does that mean? Stillness is not the end. Stillness is not just an emptiness.

It's actually a gateway to a fullness. It's a gateway to blessing. It's a gateway to so many things beyond the stillness is only a mechanism to open that door.

So what do we know when we know that he is God? One of the first things we begin to understand his sovereignty. And this is easier than for some than others. Again, the Amish as a culture are very strong in this one, being able to accept anything that happens as the will of God.

It was the will of God. So a young wife gets murdered up here in northwest Pennsylvania, young Amish wife, a couple of years ago, maybe a year and a half ago with young children, young husband. It's one of those times, but culturally they have ingrained in their people the sovereignty of God.

And there's a place to go with this terrible thing that happened. And I'm not lifting up the Amish as some kind of a super spiritual group. Some of them aren't even born again that we know.

But yet, culturally, they have this acceptance of God as sovereign. And I want to tell you this morning, it's a secret that comes with being still and learning to know that he is God. It's accepting the sovereignty of God.

And we see it here in the psalm in the midst of all this chaos and confusion that the psalmist was depicting poetically, the mountains being moved, the waters roaring and being troubled and the heathen raging, the kingdoms moved. But he utters his voice and the earth melted. It's a foundational acceptance of the fact that there is a God who is overall and he might not stop me from being thrown into the burning, fiery furnace.

But he's sovereign and he'll be there with me in it. There's something so strengthening when our heart comes to that place and the reality is when life is out of control, God is not. And if you ever meet one of those people who seems to function in the midst of incredible chaos around them and they're settled and they're solid and they are not shaking and they are not quaking.

I tell you, they've come to understand this principle. They've come to know God and his sovereignty and let that become an anchor for their soul. And every one of you who has been a Christian for any time can look back at times in your life when, you know, God did things for you.

You know, God moved in your heart. You know that God was there. You know that God was present.

Can I tell you something? The same God that held the world together yesterday for you is the same God who is holding you today. What changes is our feelings. What changes are is our awareness of the circumstances.

And like Peter, when he got out of the boat and he and he looked at the waves. He went down. That's what happens to us.

We get our eyes off of him. We forget that he's sovereign and he actually is in control of our lives. And we look at our circumstances and we become overwhelmed.

So knowing him is knowing his sovereignty and realizing that the same God who was faithful to me yesterday is the same God who wants to hold me in this difficulty that I'm facing, whatever it might be. Number two, we know his presence and this is beautiful. Verse four here says there is a river.

The streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. The holy place of the tabernacles of the most high. When we know his presence in a personal way in our lives, where God speaks to us and God is real to us, we have a river of life coming into our being that can give us what it takes.

He is with us. God's not just a high and lofty idea. Of a deity who lives in some far off place, God wants to be very real in a personal way in your life.

He doesn't just exist when we meet together here on Sunday mornings. This should just be the icing on the cake. If you all come to our worship services and you bring with you the presence of God that you've been walking in all week, that's what results in some of what we heard here this morning in open sharing time.

God did this for me. God is showing me this. God is you fill in the blank.

But that's one of the things that we come to when we know that he is God. He becomes personal to us. And yes, we may feel alone.

In a human way, when we go through these difficult things, we may feel like no one understands. But when our soul becomes anchored in the fact that he is with us, it's like the fourth man walking in the fire. Number three, we know his character.

And this is really where faith begins to take hold. Verse eight says, come and behold the works of the Lord. What desolations he has made in the earth.

And you can certainly look through history at time and place. You can study it in the Bible and you can consider it in in more recent history since the Bible was written in the life and the existence of the saints of God. And you will find those times when God miraculously did things here and here and here and here.

And it was God. And there's no other explanation for it. Any other attempt at explaining the outcome defies human logic.

Behold the works of the Lord. Now, I will tell you, when we're going through those times of trauma, emotionally, whatever it is, grief and pain will attempt to rewrite our picture of God. It is out of those times of struggle that we ask the questions, if God really loved me, why would he allow this? And those why questions are the ones where Satan uses to trip us up and bind us into a place where we shrivel and shrivel and shrivel.

If God really cared, how could this happen? But in stillness, you begin to remember that God is good. He's been good before. And he's good now.

In stillness, you begin to remember that God is faithful. He's been faithful before. And he's faithful now.

In stillness, you begin to experience that God is near, especially to the broken hearted. Come and know his character. Be still and know.

Point four, a couple of points about walking through pain and loss with stillness and knowing God. And my first point is, face the reality of your grief or loss. It doesn't do us any good to live in denial.

Whereas men are predisposed to do be tough guy. I won't cry. I follow it up.

Nobody can do anything to me to break me. There's no shame in tears, brothers. You know, Jesus, in fact, the shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept.

You know where it was? Most of you do. At the grave of Lazarus. Why did he weep? I believe he probably missed Lazarus on a personal level.

But I don't think that was the only reason he wept. In fact, it says there that he saw the sorrow that Lazarus sisters had. He saw the sorrow that the other friends of Lazarus who were Jews had.

And he wept. He had compassion on them and he wept. So there was tears of empathy there as well as loss.

I'm not going to tell you how to grieve, but I am going to say tears are healthy. And when you're feeling the pain and frustration and anger and desolateness of some difficult thing in your life, whatever it might be, it's OK to feel that and acknowledge its presence, because when you feel it and when you acknowledge its presence, it actually makes it possible for you to give it to him. As long as you live in a place where you've got this compartment over here, where you're going to put all this bad stuff and you don't think about it and you don't talk about it and you're going to toughen your heart, not going to let that get a hold of me.

Well, it's still there, brothers and sisters. And trust me, Satan knows it's still there and he's going to find times in your life that he can go back and bring something out of there to affect what's going on in your life today. The best thing is to face it, to feel it, to grieve it, and then you can give it.

Face the reality of it. And, you know, I love that song. I thought about singing it, but I don't think I can.

I wish I was as good as Daniel Canniston at singing in the pulpit. But God sees the tears of a broken hearted soul. How many of you know that song? A handful of you.

Often you wonder why tears come into your eyes and burden seem to be so much more than you can stand. But God is standing near. He sees your falling tears and tears are a language God understands.

When grief has left you low, it causes tears to flow. Things have not turned out the way that you have planned, but God won't forget you. His promises are true.

He's still a no. Tears are a language God understands. God sees the tears of a broken hearted soul.

He sees your tears and he hears them when they fall. God weeps along with man and takes him by the hand. Tears are a language that God understands.

It is OK to face your grief and loss. It's OK to feel the struggle within grief. And, you know, I alluded earlier to the fact that grief can pull us in different directions emotionally.

And I've heard people speak about this. My own mother has spoken about this. You know, one day I feel encouraged and I'm rejoicing in the Lord and it feels like God is helping me to face the loss of my husband.

And the next day it feels like God is far away. Our emotions mess with us and grief pulls you in two directions through those emotions. It can be towards God and it can be away from God.

It's OK to feel that struggle, but choices need to be made as we feel. That tension, the difference of whether grief is going to predominantly carry us away from God or bring us closer to God is going to be found in one word stillness. Be still and know that I am God.

If on those hard days when things don't feel good, we can intentionally and purposefully by an act of our choice, still our hearts before God, we can defeat the enemy in wanting to bring doubt and discouragement, despair, hopelessness and all the things that work out from those negative emotions. He can be defeated, but it's by a choice to be still and know that he is God. And then the spirit will move you closer to God again.

And thirdly, how to walk through pain and loss with stillness. Hear the invitation of God in the midst of that. God is not asking you to understand everything.

God is not asking you to figure it out. God is not asking you to find someone else to figure it out. But he is asking you to allow him to come and be with you in the midst of whatever it is you're facing and dealing with.

Most of you know the story of Horatio Spafford, but I'd like to I'd like to illuminate it again. And it's good for the children among us to hear these stories. And repetition doesn't hurt.

So if you know this story, be refreshed and be encouraged as you consider again how this illustrates what we're talking about here, especially in this point, hearing the invitation of God. Horatio Spafford was the author of the familiar song that we sing when peace like a river attendeth my way. But that song was born out of a man.

Who by choice in his heart was willing to be still and know that he is God. In November of 1873 Horatio Spafford. He was a successful American lawyer.

He was a church elder in the Chicago area and a friend of evangelist D.L. Moody. And he sent his wife, Anna, and their four daughters, Annie, who was 12, Maggie, who was 7, Bessie, who was 5, and Tanita, who was 2, 2, 5, 7, and 12, and his wife sent them ahead of him on a trip to Europe. They were going to go together as a family, as I recall, and then some business needed to be dealt with and he had to stay behind.

He was going to follow them a short time later, but he sent them ahead on a ship to Europe. While he stayed behind to handle unexpected business matters, their ship, the SS Ville du Havre, however you say that, Havre, I'm not French, was crossing the Atlantic when it was struck by an iron sailing vessel. And the collision caused the ship to sink rapidly, killing 226 people, including all four Spafford daughters.

Anna was found unconscious, his wife, floating on a piece of wreckage and was rescued. And when she reached Cardiff, Wales, she sent her husband a now famous telegram containing only two words, Saved Alone. Was that telegram one of those moments from Mr. Spafford? Horatio immediately boarded a ship to join her.

And according to accounts, when his vessel passed near the location where his daughters had drowned, the captain pointed out the approximate spot. Spafford looked at the place where his daughters had drowned and then he returned to his cabin and he wrote the opening lines of what would become the well-beloved hymn. When peace like a river attendeth my way or when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.

Do you think that he understood what it was to be still and know that I am God? That's not denial, brothers and sisters. That is a soul that has learned to be still in the presence of God. There's so many stories of others.

How many of you have read the history of George Mueller and his work in the orphanage? Hands up high. I want to actually see. OK, good number of you.

That's good. If any of you have not, I challenge you to read his biography. It's a powerful story of a man who learned throughout his life to be still and know that I am God.

But there's so many instances where God worked absolute miracles for that man. One of the famous ones, when he had the orphanage running and I don't remember exactly how many children were there, but it was a lot of mouths to feed and he had no food. He had no money.

They sat down for breakfast one morning and he had no food to give to these children. And he led the children in prayer and he thanked God for the food that they're about to eat, knowing he had nothing to give them. Got finished praying and moments later, there was a knock on the orphanage door and a baker was there with enough fresh bread for all the children.

And a few minutes after the baker, a milkman knocked and he had enough milk for all the children. Do you think that he was just some special kind of a person or a saint as the Catholics like to make them? Or was he a man who understood being still and knowing that I am God? I challenge you this morning. Stillness is not weakness.

It is anchored confidence. I want you to think about that. What does stillness look like? Stillness is not doing nothing.

It is simply rest of the soul and trust in the providence of a loving God and anchoring in that. Sometimes stillness is staying still by choice, saying nothing. But we're listening for the voice of God.

It might look like tears falling, inactive suffering of spirit or physical body, but still listening for the voice of God. It might look like not having answers and no matter where I turn, there's no way out of this mess. But refusing to let go.

It's the greatest of all actions, faith actions, really. Why? It's because in that stillness, brothers and sisters. When we're willing to know that he is God, what does he say he will do? I will be exalted among the heathen.

I will be exalted in the earth. He does it through your life and mine when we're willing to be still and know that he is God. What testimony of your life can be written like George Mueller? Be still.

Know that he is God and you will learn. So, as we consider the contrast of striving in our human efforts versus stillness. There's two ways to walk through pain.

And it's not a matter of if you're going to experience pain in your life. It's a matter of when and how much. And I can't predict that.

I would guess that most of you have some level of pain that you are already wrestling with or have gone through that you can think about. But there's two ways to walk through those times of pain and loss. One is striving.

And it's exhausting. And it leaves you feeling empty. Just drains you.

The other is stillness. Surrendered. And sustained.

The first one leaves you drained. The other one leaves you held. Held in the loving arms of a God who has enough and who says I am.

And the most powerful testimonies to me to read of believers is when God didn't fix it. He didn't quench the fire, but he walked with them in it. That's how evil is overcome, brothers and sisters.

So in conclusion this morning, the storm may not stop for you today. The loss is still real. The silence may still feel heavy in your heart.

But God is still God. You know, we see an illustration in young children that can illustrate what God is inviting us to. In fact, I experienced it practically here.

I don't think Russell's going to mind if I embarrass him a little bit. But Russell's my oldest grandson. And I love spending time with all my grandsons.

But a month or so ago, we were at an auction together. And you know how auctions can be. And this was a farm auction up there in Schuylkill County.

And there was way more people there than I thought there would be that Saturday morning. I went thinking maybe we'd find a few good deals. Well, there was no good deals to be had because there was hordes of people there.

And all of them were looking for good deals. And so, but anyway, I digress. We were at the auction.

Steve was there. And of course, we found each other. And Russell wanted to be with me.

And we were walking through the auction. And it's chaotic. The speakers are loud.

The auctioneer is shouting all kinds of funny things. And there's people everywhere. There were so many people as we're walking through the crowd that if we got separated by even a few feet, we could get lost.

He did get lost one time, right? And when he got lost, he was afraid. He was immediately crying out, where's dad? Where's grandpa? And then we walked over to the food tent to get some food. And you know what that little boy wanted to do? He wanted his hand in grandpa's hand.

And we walked through the crowd. And he wasn't afraid. He was secure.

But that's what God wants to do for you and I. We're not going to avoid these difficult experiences. We're not going to avoid the chaos. But there is a hand that we can hold as we walk through them, if we will.

Nothing around us that day for Russell, nothing changed in the environment. The auctioneer was still shouting. The people were still everywhere.

But everything inside his heart changed. And that's how it is for us. So some of you this morning are tired.

Maybe not physically. But emotionally. Maybe spiritually.

A deeply soul level kind of tired. I know what that feels like. Maybe you've been trying to hold it together.

Trying to make sense of it. Trying to carry what is too heavy. But I believe today God is asking us not to carry that anymore.

He's simply saying, my son, my daughter, would you be still and know that I am God. And I'd like if we could just take a few moments to pause here together. Maybe a half a minute or so.

I'd like if you could close your eyes and think about your own life. Maybe there's something very real for you today as you're hearing this message. That you know what it is.

But I'd like you to make a choice to lay it down. Whatever it is. You don't have to fix it and you don't have to understand it.

Just today know that he's calling you to be still and know that he is God. Lay it there and ponder God and his resources to apply to your situation. Father, this morning I pray for every broken heart.

For every weight that is too heavy to carry. For every pain that seems to have no answers. And I thank you that you have resources enough.

To meet us in all of those situations. Would you bless every heart that is here today? You know us, Father, better than we even know ourselves. And I pray that you would draw us to yourself.

And I pray that you would teach us what it means to be still and to know that you are God. And as we learn to do that, would you exalt yourself? Not us, but yourself through our lives and show this world what it means to be a true Christian. When we learn to be still and know that you are God.

Father, I commit this to your this word to you today. And I just pray you bless all of us as we ponder these truths together. In Jesus name, Amen.

Thank you for your attention. I will at this time dismiss those that go to music class. Children and teachers, please go slowly.

No running. Thank you. The rest of us, let's turn in the hymns of the church to 521.

And Mark, where are you? Can you give me a pitch? Be still and know that I am God. Oh, fellowship meal, invite everybody to stay. And as we mingle, let's not move quickly from this sort of atmosphere where we're drinking in the word and in the spirit to just surface things.

Let's take these things with us and have genuine fellowship. Amen. We all know what the weather was like this week.

We all have access to the forecast. Nothing wrong to chat about it a little bit, but there's more to talk about. Politics won't fix the church.

And we're all probably busier than we should be. We can talk about practical things, but let's be intentional to edify one another. Is there anything anyone that would like to say anything here yet? Add to it, testify for the Mark.

I want to bless Carl and Yuri for both messages. I mean, a lot can be said, but one of the things that had come to my mind last night when Yuri had brought up that, you know, the two groups, a family that had been raised in a good, godly home, and another family that probably hadn't. You didn't see evidence of that.

And you see them, you know, languishing in the sin that they, at least that this man was in, the alcoholic there. And you see the gap, and I've seen that gap many times and wondered why. And what I don't count in the equation or don't figure in as far as the equation is God's ability and willingness to meet someone where they're at.

And I, you know, in my early Christian life, I had heard that phrase more in the context of meeting someone when they're at, when you're witnessing or evangelizing. And there's good to that. It can be taken too far.

But God does it well, meeting us where we're at, to somebody that feels like he only has one talent. God's willingness to forbear and give grace, wisdom, and strength to somebody that hasn't grown up in a good home. And it's, we see it, I don't know if a scripture comes to mind, but we see in the New Testament, that if we understood, you know, the heathen cultures in which, from which a lot of these new believers came from, a lot of these families were, a lot of these homes were a mess.

And God was able to work, and he's able to work with us as well. And willing. Amen, brother.

Thank you for bringing that out. The person in the worst of situations that gets a hold of the grace of God, grace is enough. And the person in the best of situations has enough of a sinful tendency within to take him down.

We all need the grace of God. Anyone else, raise your hand. Brother Steve? Yeah, my heart's full this morning.

And I've been encouraged and blessed. And I want to thank every one of you who shared with us. Also, I guess this past week has been a week of loss.

There was a second soul who went home. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for Ben and Heidi Cook. But he is also home with Jesus as of this past week.

And I know it was a long, hard battle for him with his cancer, but he's home. I had messaged his brother, Ethan, and just expressed condolences, told him everything and prayed for him. His response, I've been thinking about, because he said, Steve, I miss him like crazy, but I'm thrilled for him.

I'm thankful that that's his testimony. But anyway, yeah, this week, this coming week, I guess, is a time that we'll wish we could be two places at once because his funeral is also on Thursday. And we plan to travel out to try to be there.

So to the family of Grandma Rachel, I'm not sure if you're listening, but we wish we could be here too. We can't. So my thoughts and prayers are with you also.

But yeah, also, I mean, don't stop praying for Ben's family. If you think of it, his wife and girls are now facing life alone. They have family around them, lots of love and support, but I'm sure they'd appreciate your prayers.

So if you think of it, that'd be great. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this message.

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