Everything Starts with God!

Sermon Summary:

What do we do when everything feels like it is shifting beneath our feet? In a season where transitions seem to be everywhere, we find ourselves drawn to the opening pages of Acts, where a small group of disciples faced one of the most disorienting moments in human history. They had witnessed the brutal death of someone they loved and followed, and then watched him rise and ascend, leaving them to wait in uncertainty. What they did in that waiting holds a powerful lesson for us. They stayed together, they prayed, and they leaned into what they already knew while opening their hands to what was coming next. They had no idea that Pentecost was ten days away. They had no idea how God was about to move. But they trusted, and that trust became the foundation for everything that followed. The same invitation stands before us today. In our own moments of uncertainty, the call is not to panic or to force outcomes, but to stay together as a community, to pray, and to trust that what God has ahead may be more remarkable than anything we could engineer on our own. The Lord’s Supper itself becomes a symbol of this posture, a gathering of people from every background and story, united at a table that reminds us the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

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Sermon Points:

Key Takeaways:

• The disciples’ experience on “page one” of Acts models how believers should navigate transition: stay together, pray, do what you already know to do, and remain open to what is new
• The church is in a season of transition and is being called into a focused season of prayer leading into a fall emphasis on evangelism
• Psalm 46 opens with the name Elohim, deliberately echoing Genesis 1 and grounding the psalm in God’s identity as Creator and Sustainer
• God is described through three categories: shelter (refuge), strength (enabling power), and salvation (ever-present help in trouble)
• The chaos described in Psalm 46 — shaking mountains, roaring seas, warring nations — represents the totality of human instability, yet God remains unmoved and sovereign
• God transforms chaos into life, illustrated by the contrast between the raging sea and the life-giving river in verse 4
• “Be still” in verse 10 carries the Hebrew force of a command to stop striving and release control, recognizing that God alone is God
• Martin Luther’s hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” was inspired by Psalm 46, connecting the psalm’s imagery to the broader history of the church
• Prayer is the most central spiritual discipline because it places the believer in direct communion with the Father and acknowledges dependence on God’s power rather than human ability

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Scripture References:

Sermon Transcript:

Well, good morning, church.

Good, good. Just making sure y’ all are here today.

So I’m not sure how much time you have ever spent on the first page in the book of Acts. But I think one of the things that happens to us is we. We like to run on to page two to get to Pentecost and then read about all the exciting things that happened in the life of the early church. But I found myself recently drawn to page one in Acts. It’s a very interesting time in the lives of these disciples, if you think about it.

They had just witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus. And, you know, when you read the Gospels, the only apostle that’s mentioned there at the foot of the cross was John. But I like to believe all the rest of the disciples actually were somewhere and actually watched. And if you think about when Jesus died, Jesus death was not a gentle death. His body was not being handled by medical professionals in a very tender way.

Jesus didn’t die gently. At home, surrounded by his family and his friends, Jesus was brutally murdered on a cross. And these disciples, I believe, saw that. And I’ve often tried to imagine what that must have been like for them. You know, years ago, I was invited as a pastor to a preview of the Passion of the Christ at Prestonwood Baptist Church.

I was pastoring in Garland at the time. And I’ll be honest with y’. All. We got to a certain point in that movie, and I just closed my eyes because I. I was afraid that what I was about to see, I would never be able to get out of my. Out of my memory.

I wonder what that was like for these men and women, because I’m convinced that image was indelibly imprinted on their brain. Now I get it. Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Hallelujah. Right?

And so, yes, they saw the risen Lord, Acts 1. They’re hanging out with Jesus, and he then he commissions them, and then he leaves them. And at least when you’re reading page one of Acts, they don’t know what’s going to happen. And presumably he has left. And I’ve tried here recently in particular, to just experience that and try to understand what that must have been like.

It was a huge time of transition for these disciples. Well, what do you do during a transition when things are changing? Well, I’ve watched these disciples, and I’ve just tried to learn from them. Jesus commissioned them after his resurrection, and then he ascended to heaven. And then the Bible says in Acts 1, verse 14, that they met together, they stayed together.

So that’s one thing I noticed. And I think they leaned into what they already knew. So they met together. The Bible says they prayed together. And then the Bible says they decided we need to find a replacement for Judas since he betrayed Jesus.

And if you remember, they cast lots and the lot fell to Matthias. There’s some commentators who criticize the disciples about that. And they say, well, they acted too quickly because Paul was going to be the 12th apostle. Well, I do not believe that. I don’t believe Paul was the 12th apostle.

Paul didn’t walk with Jesus. In fact, these disciples say that’s one of the requirements to be one of the 12. You had to have been here from the beginning. And they cast lots. Well, some people criticize them for that.

But the reason they did that, y’, all, is because they were Jews. And that’s what you did. That’s what the priest did. That’s what they were told to do. So they just leaned into what they knew, and then they had to wait for the new.

Well, I’ve thought a lot about that in recent days because I’m convinced we’re in days of transition. I don’t know if y’ all have noticed or not, but y’ all know our world has changed quite a bit. There’s a great deal of transition around us. I would say this about our church. Our church is in a season of transition.

Y’ all know that. We’re looking for three staff members, a youth minister and a children’s minister, a discipleship minister. It’s a time of transition. And so what do you do as a church? Well, what I would say is, first of all, let’s lean into what we already know.

Let’s stay together. That’s what churches do. We stay together. In fact, here, in just a moment, we’re going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. This is one of the ways that we stay together.

We gather around these tables and we experience the unity and the beauty of what it means to be the body of Christ. We pray. These folks prayed. And so this is a time for us to be in prayer for God’s wisdom. And we continue to do the things we know to do, just like they did.

But then the other thing is, you open yourself up for what’s next, what’s new. These. These men and women had no idea what was next. They didn’t know what was new. But you know what?

The new turned out to be really, really awesome, didn’t it? They didn’t know about Pentecost. They didn’t know how they were going to share the Gospel with the whole world, but God gave them what they needed. And so I would just say to you, as your pastor, I want to invite you into a time of us staying together, praying together, doing the things that we know to do, and then opening up our hands for whatever God has for us in the future. And I believe that will be our best path as we move into the future.

And so today I want to invite you to this table. And so I’m going to ask our ministers who are helping us to come and our deacons to come, as we’re going to receive the Lord’s Supper here in just a moment. And we will symbolically come together as a church family around these tables. And you know, the beautiful thing is when you come to the Lord’s Supper, it really doesn’t matter who you are or what your background is or your ethnicity or your history, your language. The ground is level at the foot of the cross.

And we are all sinners in need of God’s grace. And we come to these tables with humility and gratitude. That’s what we all do. And we will invite you to that when here in a moment, our deacons are going to distribute these elements. And some of you may be new with us today.

And when the tray is passed in front of you, you’ll notice these cups are double stacked. So if you’ll just take one stack, one has the bread, one has the juice, and I’ll guide us through receiving those elements in a moment. But listen to this text. In Acts 1, in verse 6, Luke tells us this. They gathered around Jesus and they said, lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

In other words, what time is it? Is this the end? And he said to them, it’s not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of, of the earth.

These disciples want to know, is this the end? And Jesus said, let me reframe it. This is just the end of the beginning. Everything’s still in front of us. There’s so much left to happen.

And well, how in the world are we going to accomplish this task? We don’t know how to share the Gospel in all these other languages. But 10 days later, the Spirit of God knows how to do that. And he showed them and he gifted them miraculously. That was part of the New.

Praise God for the new. So today I want to invite you to reflect on that as we receive these elements. And let’s allow the Lord to draw us together as his people today, symbolically as we gather around this table. So as I said, in a moment these trays will pass in front of you and you’ll notice in the middle of the tray there are gluten free options if you need one. But if you know the Lord Jesus, you’ve been baptized, you’re invited to participate with us today.

So let me pray and then you’ll be served and then I’ll guide us through partaking the elements in a moment. But let’s pray.

Father, we’re grateful today for the church, for the beauty of doing life together in community, the privilege of being part of the body of Christ. I thank you for this church and for all that you’ve done in the life of First Baptist Arlington, for the history we have, the heritage we enjoy, that we build upon as we prepare for a future. But we thank you for our present reality, for who we are today, and for who we are becoming. We’re grateful. And Lord, as we gather around the tables today, we’re mindful of the fact that you do new things.

Your word says you make everything new. You even made the Passover meal new. And you breathed life into the future and you spoke about it through your word. And so today, may we lean in to whatever that future is you have for us. We ask you to draw us together as your people as we unite this morning in the celebration of this supper.

We pray your blessings on this bread, this juice as we receive it. And we pray that in Jesus name, amen. So I don’t know if you’ve wondered what it was like for those folks there who were still living on page one of the book of Acts. You know, they had to talk among themselves, right? Don’t you think?

They talked about the crucifixion. Wouldn’t you have most significant thing you’d probably ever seen in your life, trying to sort through what it all must have meant and then reflecting back on what Jesus had taught them. You know, that last part of that week, that Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then Sunday of the next week. A whole lot happened in four or five days, didn’t it? In fact, the whole world changed in those four or five days because God was doing something that they weren’t fully aware of yet.

They didn’t know it on the front end. And you know, my sense is you never do. You never know it while you’re living in it. That for all I know, this may be the most pivotal week in your entire life. You just don’t know it yet.

You just have to live in it and trust God with it. That’s what they did. And trust him with the future. So they couldn’t help themselves, I’m sure. But think back to that Thursday night.

What did he mean when he said those things to them? Well, it was becoming real to them. And I guess I wonder sometimes wonder what the first Lord’s Supper was like for them when they actually said, oh, yeah, wow, this is. This is really what he meant. Let’s be drawn into that moment today.

Jesus was there with his friends. And the night before he died, and he took the bread, and he said to them, after he blessed it and broke it, he gave thanks. He said, take and eat. This is my body.

And then he said, take this cup and drink it, the blood of the new covenant.

Amen. And amen. Well, I’ve thought a lot about that few days for these disciples as I prayed about our church, where we’re headed. We’re getting ready this fall to launch a whole season on evangelism, sharing the good news of the gospel with our community, and eventually in November, with our world. And so as we’ve been reflecting on that, I have felt led to lead us in a season of prayer.

And so for August, our theme is prayer for believers. It connects to what it means to flourish together as the people of God. It’s a little bit of a play on words because I want us to think about what is prayer supposed to be like for believers? To whom do we pray? Why do we pray?

Praying for believers and praying for more believers. So that’s what this month will be about. We’re going to focus on prayer. And as we gaze into the future for the fall, we’re going to launch a new opportunity for you on Wednesday evenings. Our discipleship lead team, Brad Echols leads that team, and Michael Glenn and Ashley Berryhill are on that team.

And at some point, our new discipleship minister will be on that team.

They are leading this effort, collaborating with the rest of our staff. So on Wednesday evenings, we’re going to begin a new ministry called the Table. It’s going to be a worship opportunity for you in the fellowship hall every Wednesday night. And it’s going to be a guided time of worship and prayer. And I’m grateful for the work that they’ve all done to get us ready.

And so to prepare us for it, we’re going to Spend this month focused on prayer, taking a deeper dive into what prayer is all about. So let’s get started today. If you have your copy of the old testament, Psalm 46 is our text and the title of the message today is Everything starts with God. So let’s look at this text. This psalm I’ve read many times in so many different settings, hospital rooms, funeral homes, in my own study, listening to people going through challenging times.

The Lord has just brought this psalm to mind over and over and over. There’s a reason for that. So let’s look at it. Verse 1 God is our refuge and strength, and ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear.

Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her and she will not fall. God will help her. At break of day, nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall.

He lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.

He breaks the bow and he shatters the spear. He burns the shields with fire. He says, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord Almighty is with us and the God of Jacob is our fortress. What a powerful word from God. So as we begin this conversation about prayer, I just want to share with you a few quotes that I have found in my research on prayer and let me just share them with you. The first one is from Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline. Of all the spiritual disciplines, prayer is the most central because it ushers us perpetual communion with the Father.

Meditation introduces us to the inner life. Fasting is an accompanying means. Study transforms our minds. But it is the discipline of prayer that brings us into the deepest and highest work of the human spirit. Real prayer is life creating and life changing.

Amen to that. Chris Hodges He’s a pastor in Birmingham and he’s written a book and it’s interesting, the title of the book says like worry first, panic first, whatever. And it crosses all that out and finally says pray first, which is the admonition. Here’s what he says. The most powerful force on earth is not nuclear, atomic, military based, or government led.

Amen the reason for that is every one of those instruments are in the hands of sinful people. The most powerful force on earth is God’s power in answer to the prayers of his people.

And then one other, Nancy Mares, her book Ordinary Time. Who one believes God to be is most accurately revealed. Not in any credo, in other words, any statement of faith, but in the way one speaks to God when no one else is listening. So here’s my question for y’. All.

What do you believe about God?

What would your prayers reveal about God and your view of Him? I mean, when no one else is listening but him, what will we learn about your theology? It’s incredibly important, I believe. So here’s what I want to do this morning in these next few minutes. I just want to encourage you in your prayer life.

If you are a deep prayer, this is going to be encouragement to you. If you’re not, it’s an invitation to you, to this God that’s revealed in Psalm 46 to help all of us understand who this God really is and why we should pray to him. So let me just begin with this. Everything starts with God.

That’s the first statement of my theological position. So if you got your Bibles open, look at it with me. Let’s start here. Look at verse one. I want you to notice how verse one starts.

It’s interesting. In Hebrew. Now, let me just say this as an aside. When I was in seminary and I was taking the Test for the PhD program at Southwestern, back then, you had to take a test over everything you ever learned in your life. It was ridiculous, okay?

So. But you had to go into a room for two or three days, and they would just one professor would come in and just put a piece of paper out for you, and you had an hour to answer the question, and all you had was your Greek, New Testament, your Hebrew, Old Testament, and a pencil. And that was it. And so the Hebrew professor came in and handed us all a piece of paper, and it said, Translate 1st Kings 20, 21, and walked out. So all I have is my Hebrew Bible, piece of paper and a pencil.

Well, it took me 20 minutes to find First Kings, to be honest with you. So I was operating at a disadvantage trying to get it translated. The good news is the titles of the books were written in Latin, and I could read Latin, so I found Regnum. I was fine, but I got accepted the PhD program, and I get a letter from the PhD committee that says, dear Dennis, congratulations, you’ve been accepted in the PhD program at Southwestern in the field of church history, here are the areas in which you excelled. Da da da da da da Then it said.

However, we would highly recommend that you find someone to tutor you in Biblical Hebrew.

So far, that hasn’t happened yet. So I’m still here. Just want y’ all to know. So I’m not a Hebrew scholar by any stretch, okay? My professor used to tell me Hebrew is the language of heaven.

I said, I’m going to be really quiet for a long, long time. So I’m going to get it all out while I’m here on earth, okay? But in Hebrew, look at verse one. Here’s how Psalm 46 begins. Elohim.

The reason that’s important is because that’s the name for God in Genesis 1. So this writer is a poet. And those of you that studied poetry, you know that every word is important in poetry. All the imagery is important in poetry. So it’s no accident that this writer starts off this poem with the name in the beginning God, Elohim.

He is hearkening back to creation. And so notice what this text says. Elohim. It’s an exaltation of God as the creator and sustainer of his creation. I believe the insights in this psalm going to encourage us in our prayer life with our God.

Now, we don’t know the setting of this psalm. Some Psalms, we know the historical context, we don’t know this one. We have scholarly opinions. Some people think this might have been Hezekiah and. Or it could have been Jehoshaphat.

It could have been when Sennacherib surrounded Jerusalem. We don’t know. But here’s what we do know. I want you to notice how bad it was, because that’s what he tells us. This is how bad the situation was.

Look at verse two. He says, the earth might give way, it may fall. And the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Now, can y’ all imagine anything more unmovable than the earth itself and mountains? And this writer says, here’s how bad it is.

The mountains are shaking. The earth itself is shaking. Then he says, look at verse three. The sea. The waters are roaring and foaming.

The restless, menacing sea. See, the Jews were not seafaring people when they looked at the sea. In their mind there be dragons. The sea was a mystery to them, and it represented darkness and evil. You ever read in the book of Revelation, it’ll say something like, and there was no more sea.

What they’re trying to say is all of that just goes away one day. The point is, in this Moment the writer is saying everything was shaken, he says, look at, look at verse 6. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms are breaking and falling. Everything has been shaken loose. In other words, somewhere somebody wrote a novel one time that starts with this line, everything that was nailed down is coming loose.

That’s what this writer’s trying to tell us. And so here’s what I want to ask you. Have you ever experienced that in your life? Have you ever been at a place where it just feels like everything shifting? It feels like the immovable things that the things you could trust and hold on to, all of a sudden you notice they’re starting to shake and quiver a little bit, that the very thing that you thought you could trust and hold on to all of a sudden starts to fall away and there’s just chaos all around you.

That’s what this writer is experiencing. And so let me invite you into that and encourage you in your prayer life, because this psalm is going to bless us with some insights that I think will help us to be better prayers. Okay? Are y’ all still with me? Alright, so I want you to notice why we can trust this God of Psalm 46. Who’s the God of the Bible?

Who’s the only God? Who is. Who’s our God? He can be trusted. The psalmist gives us some insights.

I’m going to give you three words that help describe who God is and what he does. The first one is the word shelter. God is our refuge. Why can you trust him? He’s our security.

Why do you go to Him? Because he’s our place of protection. So what normally happens when your life falls apart? What’s a typical reaction when everything gets shaken? I would tell y’, all, I think one of the reactions is fear.

We’re just afraid. And I get it. Phobia is a real thing. Do y’ all know I went on the phobia list. There’s over 500 of them.

Okay. And I’ve got them. I don’t have all of them. I just kind of got the top 20 of what Americans are afraid of. Let me just tell you real quick.

Number one, arachnophobia. Number one, fear. Fear of what? Spiders. Number two, acrophobia.

Fear of heights. Which is perfectly normal. Thank you, whoever said that? It’s one of the signs of psychological health, in my opinion. Third, aerophobia.

Fear. Flying. Number four, agoraphobia. Fear of open spaces. Claustrophobia.

Fear of closed spaces. Did y’ all know there is even a. How do you pronounce this? Hominophobia?

It’s the fear of sermons, right? Homiletics, fear sermons. Some of y’ all have it, and you should. And then, of course, clownophobia, which is one other perfectly normal phobias that normal people have. It’s not really called clownophobia.

It has a real name, but it is a real thing. Okay, that most normal people have fear of clowns. Don’t scare the children, y’. All.

But why would we pray to this God when it’s all falling apart? Well, he is our refuge. The psalmist said we’re not afraid. Did you see that? Look at verse two.

We will not fear. How many times the Bible say fear not? The psalmist says we’re not afraid. Even though it’s all falling apart, we’re watching it. Mountains falling into the sea.

We get it. We’re not going to be afraid because God is our refuge. He’s our shelter. That word, refuge. You know, the Psalms are divided into books.

Book two, Psalm 42 to 72. The word refuge appears in 25% of those Psalms. It’s a common word found in the book of Psalms. God is our security. God plus nothing is enough, and so he is our protector.

We’re going to face challenges and difficulties, y’. All. You live life long enough, you just are. That’s what this life is filled with. But we don’t have to be afraid.

We can run to God and seek him, and we can find him to be our shelter. That the writer of Proverbs says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. Proverbs 18, verse 10. The righteous who run to him will be safe. So let me just encourage you this morning when you find yourself in that place, do not try to do this on your own.

We don’t have to manage our lives alone. That’s not what the psalmist says. The psalmist says God is our shelter. Second, the word strength. We need power to live this life in a manner that pleases God.

I’ve watched you. I’ve lived life myself. Here’s what I know. God provides us with enabling strength that we need to reflect his glory. And that’s what this is all about.

Reflect his glory. What does the psalmist say? God says this. I will be exalted. I will be.

I’ll be exalted among the nations. Be exalted in the earth. One of the ways God is exalted is through you. Through you, reflecting his glory. And the only way to do that is for you to be strengthened by him.

Because you and I do not have what we need to manage this life in a way that honors him on our own. The good news is we don’t have to. I want you again, look at this text. I want you to look how powerful this imagery is. Okay, so let’s look at, look at verse two.

Here’s how bad it is. Everything is spinning out of control. Crisis is among us. As I said, we don’t know what was going on. It was just bad.

Everything’s falling apart. Y’ all know when the Jordanian, our new Jordanian friends were here, when we were hosting them for the soccer game and all that? I was asking a couple of them, we were sitting, having a Coke together and I just said, so what’s it like living in the Middle east, in Jordan? And one of the guys said, well, it’s difficult. I said, you know, I’m just thinking about what’s all.

What all is going on around you all. And you know what he said? He said, we have a saying in Jordan. I said, really? He said, we’re between Iraq and a hard place.

He said, can you identify with that? I said, I think I can. Is that how you feel? Like you’re between Iraq and a hard place? We find ourselves there sometimes, don’t we?

Not really sure what to do. And the psalmist says, well, here’s what you need to realize. In God’s hands, everything changes. I want you to look at how he points this out. I want you to look at verse 4.

The sea is raging, chaotic. But if you put water in God’s hands, look at verse four. It becomes a river of life. God takes the chaos of the raging sea and he transforms it into a life giving river because he’s God. And then God says through this psalmist, contrast my city with what’s going on in your world.

Mountains are falling, the earth is falling. But I want you to look what he says in verse four. The city of God that would have been Jerusalem to them where the most high dwells. Look at verse five. God’s with her.

And look at what he says in Hebrew. Here’s what he says. She will not fall. The same word that’s found in verse 2. The earth is going to give way, fall.

The mountains are going to fall. Same word God says, but my city won’t be falling. Everything else being shaken. What I have my hands on will not be shaken because I’m God and I’m with my people. You can trust me.

And then look at verse six. He lifts his voice. Have y’ all ever thought much about the voice of God. You think the voice of God has power? Come on.

Do you? You think the voice of God has power? You think creation responds to the voice of God? Of course it does. God says, I’m looking.

Nations are in uproar when I speak. They melt. One commentator says this about that text, that the voice of God is just as decisive in dissolving the world as he was in creating the world. That means God’s voice has power. And so God says, I’m not intimidated by all these nations that are at war.

Do you think I’m intimidated by that? He says, a matter of fact, I’ll just disarm them. Look at verse eight. Come and see. This text says old King James.

Behold. I love that word, behold. You know what it means here? It doesn’t mean to see with your eyes. That’s a different word in Hebrew.

This word means to see with a heart of faith. See in your spirit. Come on. Come look. Come look in faith at what God does.

And you know what God does? God just disarms the nations. He just does it with his voice. He’s not worried about what they might do or not do. Because his voice is powerful.

He will disarm them. You know why? You know why? Look at verse seven. Because y’ all know who he is.

He’s the Lord Almighty. Look at verse 11, just in case you missed it. He’s the Lord Almighty. He’s the Lord of hosts. What does that mean?

That’s really what the text says. Lord of hosts. Talking about hosts of angels, hosts of armies. Yes. He’s just the Lord of hosts.

And so I’m just here to tell y’, all, if you think your God ain’t strong enough for you, then you don’t know Him. I’m telling you right now, he’s strong enough for you and you and you and you and all y’ all put together and everybody else. Because he is the Lord God Almighty. Yeah, you say amen to that. It won’t hurt you.

I promise it won’t. You know he’s the Lord God Almighty. Of course he is. Of course he is. Now, one other thing.

One other thing. Salvation. He’s the God who saves us. We can’t save ourselves. We need help.

And I love what this text says. He’s not just a help. He’s an ever present help. He is God Almighty. And notice what this text says.

He’s an ever present help when. When in trouble. Because that’s when you know you need Him. He’s an ever Present help in trouble. That means he’s made himself available to you.

He’s ready, waiting on you to call upon him. He’s there. But the temptation is to do this all by yourself. I know. I get it.

I’m the same. I have that temptation. The temptation is, take life into your own hands. Rely on your own strength. Rely on your own ingenuity.

Rely on your own ability. We’re probably all guilty of doing that sometimes. But you know what? God offers you a very different kind of life. Because when you take life into your own hands, I can promise you it’s going to be difficult.

Joel Gregory is one of my favorite preachers. I’ve known Joel for many years. He loves to tell the story about the insomniac rooster. Y’ all know that story? The rooster crows when the sun comes up.

Wakes up the hens, the chickens, other animals in the yard. Wakes up the farmer. Well, this particular rooster did that for a while. And all of a sudden this rooster got to thinking, maybe I don’t crow because the sun comes up, but the sun comes up because I crow.

So he got thinking about it. All of a sudden he’s getting worried, and he’s afraid he might sleep through it all, and the sun may not come up for everybody. So he just couldn’t sleep anymore. So he just stayed up and went crazy. And they had to put him in a home for crazy roosters, which is the end of the story, okay?

But the point of the story is, if you think that you can manage this thing all by yourself, you’re headed for the home with the crazy roosters. Because you and I just cannot manage this on our own. We just can’t. And I’m going to show you how I know that. So if you got your Bible open, I want you to look at verse 10.

Here’s what God says. Be still and know that I am God. Now, I love how this really is worded in Hebrew because here’s how I was always taught this verse, that it was said quietly, be still and know that I’m God. That’s not the force of this Hebrew word. You know what this word means?

Stop it. Just stop it right now. Stop it. That’s. Be still, because God is watching you.

Try to do it all by yourself. And God finally says, enough. Stop it. Do you know what the image, the word image, the picture in that word, that Hebrew word, you know what it means? Put your hands down.

Put your hands down. Get your hands off of it. You ever said that to your kids? Get your Hands off of that. Have you.

Y’ all remember when they were little enough, you could just pop them? Y’ all remember those days? Y’ all can’t do that anymore. You young parents. I get it.

Y’ all can’t do anything anymore. I understand. Trust me. I know how it all is. I’ve had to listen to it.

But the bottom line is, you know what this text says? Stop it. And I love this, because you and I, we just. Man, we just. We got to do it.

And God says, why don’t you do this? Put your hands down. And then what does he say next? I’m God, not you. You see, I’m God.

Of course you’re supposed to do what you’re supposed to do. I get that. But there comes a point, y’, all, when you gotta just relax your hands and let God do what only he can do. And that’s when you discover, ooh, y’, all, he really is God. And it’s amazing what he can do.

In fact, he’ll save you. He’s a tower. He’s a fortress. That’s what this text says. That’s who he is.

That’s. That’s one of those high towers up in the mountains in the ancient world. And it was something you just couldn’t get to. That’s who God was to them. So y’ all call on him.

He’s worthy. We don’t really know what was going on in Martin Luther’s life. We know a bunch of things that happened to Martin Luther, the great theologian, German theologian, launched the Reformation. But somewhere around 1527 or so, as best we can tell, he was already excommunicated from the Catholic Church. He had some challenges with theologians around him.

He was persecuted, chased, had to hide for his own life. But somewhere along the way, around that time, he was reading Psalm 46, and all of a sudden, he sat down and wrote a poem. Y’ all remember it? He wrote this. A mighty fortress, our God, a bulwark, never failing.

I was standing out here in the old welcome center one day, and a guy came out of church. He said, Dr. Wiles, how are you? I said, I’m good. He said, what’s a bulwark? And I was like, I’m sorry, do what?

He said, what’s a bulwark? Just totally out of the blue. And I said, what do you mean? He said, we just sang about it in there in church. A bulwark.

What’s a bulwark? I said, ah ha. It’s a fortress. It’s a Shelter. And that’s what Martin Luther found.

A mighty fortress is our God. That’s who he is, y’, all. And you can trust him. So now I want to give you some homework, okay? And then we’ll be done.

We’re going to be focused on prayer in this next season. And so starting today, when you leave this morning out of this room, we have a. We have this ready for you. We all want you to get one families, get one of these. And what you’ll discover on here is there’s a prayer every week all the way through Thanksgiving.

And we’re going to ask Our discipleship lead team has asked us to do this. We want you to pray a prayer together as a family every day. It’s a very simple prayer. You can gather your kids around. If you have little kids, this can be your focus.

Prayer. We’re going to pray this prayer together this coming week as we learn this truth that we, that we’ve discovered in Psalm 46. So let me put the prayer on the screen for us. And so let’s go ahead and do it today. Let’s just pray this out loud together.

Let’s read it together. Lord, open my eyes to see your presence, recognize your work, and respond with gratitude and praise. Amen. So when you leave today, there’s a prayer for every week through Thanksgiving. Take that with you, put in your Bible, put it in your refrigerator, put it wherever you need to.

And let’s be together in prayer as we anticipate what God has for us. May it be so. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you today for your love for us. We thank you for so many things, Lord, you’ve been so good to us and you’ve invited us to know you and to pray, to come boldly into your presence.

And so I ask you, Lord, to teach us to pray. Help us to learn more about what it means to just be connected to you so that you truly can be exalted through us. And within the sound of my voice right now, there are those whose lives are very chaotic. I know some of them are facing challenging days, times of transition. Maybe it’s a new job, it’s a new season of life.

It’s a new grade in school. It’s a new situation in the family. It’s moving to a new place. It’s finding a new place where they fit. There’s just so many ways that things just change in our lives.

So in the midst of that, Lord, I ask you to draw them to yourself. Help them to not be afraid. Help May they find in you a refuge, a strength and a very present help in trouble. In Jesus name, amen.