8-5-2018 The Means Justifies the End Psalm 46:10

Today we live in a very fast paced society, a rat race. It's a feeling often of being driven to the wall with activity--running behind and not being able to get it done. We can't even think about getting ahead. There's not enough time in the day, and if we do get time, we’re so tired and worn out that we feel like giving up. Welcome to 2018. We're in a state of physical, mental, and emotional overload. We are running at a furious pace, busy. Busier than any generation in the past. Even for those who are here and retired, you know that somehow your schedule never was notified that you are in retirement. It's almost as if, in the midst of all this, we hear the thundering voice of God, “Be still and know that I am God. That is our text: Psalm 46:10.

Transition:

There may be a few verses that will startle you like this and challenge you in your life. Psalm 46 was written during a time of trouble. The armies were gathering together. They were preparing for battle. There was a nervousness in the camp. The armor was clanging. Talk of battle was at hand. Now the enemy upon us, we are ready for war, to rise up, to grab our sword, to run into battle.

Scripture Reading:

Psalm 46 ESV

To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song. 1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. 6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. 7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. 10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

And now God gives this command to be still. How many ways we can apply it to today. The relevancy of God's word for us today. Probably no more timely message or challenge that could be for this hour to be still and know that He is God.

Transition:

Out of this whole Psalm, I want to zoom in on the one phrase from verse ten

Psalm 46:10 ESV

10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

“Be still, and know that I am God.”

It really comes in two commands. Very simple outline for taking notes: 1) Be still, and 2) know that I'm God. The first command to “be still” probably initiates within our hearts a response like, “Yeah right! How? How can I be still?

I. Be Still

It’s a choice. Everything in me--everything around me--is at such a furious pace that I haven't got time to be still. And you look at us today. We don’t know how to be still! The day of smart phones and tablets at fiber optic speeds, satellites, web pages for every single subject known to man. Has there ever been a generation so busy with plenty of activity and yet so shallow and empty? So what we've done is we've created the age of multitasking. “We're really good and advanced, you know, we can do 10 things at once!” And yet in our lives there is that horrendous shallowness. The hideous emptiness.

We tell our friends you can reach me by phone, fax, cell phone text, snap chat, Facebook Messenger, or even my own website blog. I've got answering services: call answering, call forwarding, voicemail, or auto-reply text and email. So I'm immediately available and burning the candle at both ends. Yet we're not as bright as we think we are. We’ve overloaded our lives and lost control.

I'm actually going to use a computer illustration: you may know that when you have too many applications running at the same time, it uses up near all your memory and processor power. The computer will end up crawling or even totally freeze up as you try your multitasking skills on the computer. And sometimes all you can do is shut it off (if ending tasks and killing processes doesn’t work). But that's what's happened. We've become so busy that we slow down anything meaningful until we shutdown!

Have you ever heard of a heart attack that is a heart beating too fast? I've always thought a heart attack was just when your heart stops/quits. Apparently there is a type of heart attack called arrhythmia where your heart doesn’t slow down. What happens in arrhythmia is your heart beats so fast that can’t pump any blood. It'll start racing way too fast. For most, a normal resting heart rate is 60 to at most 100 beats per minute, but the fastest human ventricular rate reported to date is 480 beats per minute. Your heart is then going so fast it can't pump the blood. And of course you can die. So one treatment is that they shock you and put you on a defibrillator. In fact, you can wear it on your side and put it by your heart so that every time your heart begin to race, this portable defibrillator shocks your heart.

That's what this verse is like. Some of you, like I've been so many times in my life, running so fast and so furiously, doing so many things, so filled with activity, God is shocking you this morning with this command: Be still.

YHWH wants to get your attention. You wonder how Christ in his ministry was never in a hurry. I mean if you were to give me an agenda for the next 3.5 years and say you have all of this to get done in 3 and a half years, I think I’d say, “where do I begin?” I’d probably begin in a frantic pace trying to get all accomplished but we’d never find Christ that way.

I mean can you picture it. “Would you guys just get in the boat right now? We’ve got to get on the other side of the sea--we should have been there yesterday! There are ten lepers I needed to heal and now we’ve just missed them!” Now I can see myself doing that. A lot of people do that. But Christ never did that. But in reality, what we'd become is a hurried, frustrated, impatient, angry, tired, worn out, embittered people who are unable to sit still. We are like the proverbial hamster, running on the wheel going fast, but going nowhere.

But think really, what a strategy for satan. He knows he may not get you to commit some horrendous sin to disqualify you. He knows that he may not be able to tempt you with laziness. But he will kill you a spiritual arrhythmia. He's going to let you be so busy and tempt you to go do more good things so your life becomes a mile wide and a fourth inch deep in order that there's no depth to your life, no relationship with the Lord. Make no mistake about the fact that satan is alive and well and attacking us at Grace! But YHWH knows! He knows this and calls us to be still, to trust, to love.

We see the verse is a call to a people of activity. People on the run. But not only is it a call to people of activity it's a call to people in futility. If you look at the words: “be still”. A literal translation of the Hebrew here is: “cease your striving.”PAUSE AND SAY IT AGAIN.a You know what that means? It's really an attack on the “make it happen” mentality. That's the age we live in. You get on an airplane, you see all the cups you can buy, all the posters you can buy “make it happen.” We are so prone to do God's work in the energy of the flesh and the problem is we never see it. We never realize what's taking place. It's almost like a drug--the activity. But Jesus said this, “for without me you can do nothing.” Nothing. That is an incredible statement. But we're so busy. How can it be? The deeds apart from Christ are nothing. In Ecclesiastes we read, “vanity of vanities.” In other words emptiness of emptiness. “I have seen all of the works that are done under the sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Emptiness. Would you listen carefully to this: “God is not impressed by what you do for Him.” Did you hear that? God is not impressed by what you do for Him. God is impressed by what He does for you, and in you, and through you.

And so this first command is one to gain attention. Stop! Be still! Cease your striving.

I still remember. When my daughter, Kayla was little, she would get up in my lap and start talking to me she grabbed my face. And she turned it over toward her. And she said Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy until she had my attention.

God wants your attention. He wants you to be still. See I can't be still, there's a war. The enemy is coming over, we've got a lot to get done! God wants you to be still.

Transition:

But it is not an idleness that He calls us to. It is an activity. He says, “and know that I am God.”

II. Know God

He is calling you to a meaningful dynamic life changing relationship with Himself. “Stop!” He says, “And look at me, and know Me”. And that's really the theme of the whole Psalm. “Stop! Look into My face, and know Me. He's talking about a relationship.

And really, if you think about relationships, you might say, “Yes, I have a relationship with the Lord. But consider that there is at least 2 aspects to any relationship: one is positional. When I got married to Mary. She's my wife-- we have a relationship that doesn't mean we get along. We do by the way-- I ought to clarify that part. But that doesn't positional title mean we inherently communicate. God wants more than just to say you're my child, or for you to say, “I'm saved! I’m on the way to heaven! I know God! He wants you to know Him more. In other words, it is a call to move past the superficial. It is a call to move past the intellectual. We're so filled with knowledge aren't we? We know so many verses. We can quote so many things. We know all of the right doctrine about YHWH, and how to live the Christian life.

But what kind of relationship do we really have? Be honest--admit it. For many of you the heavens are like brass when you pray. It has been a long time since you've seen YHWH at work in your life. A long time since you've seen His Word carving out in you and molding you into His image, changing your life, and teaching you, and guiding you. It's been a long time since you’ve seen YHWH answer your prayer--working in your life--revealing Himself to you. This comes by knowing that He is God by experience, not just head knowledge. You become empty without this time with God. Jeremiah 9:23-24

Jeremiah 9:23–24 ESV

23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

So Mary and I have three kids. Can I tell you what my greatest desire for them is? That they understand and know YHWH. understand me, I'm not just talking about salvation. My heart's desire is for my 3 kids is that they would know that God works in their life. He answers prayer, He convicts, He challenges, He works. And they can say I know God is real.

Do you realize how hard that is, when you grow up in church, your dad's a pastor, you go to a Christian school, you quote all the verses, you know all of the Bible stories? You are surrounded by Gody things all the time. But is God really real? Is He at work? So how do you know Him? Is this just mystical rhetoric? Is this some aspiration? Is it intangible that we really can't get our hands on? I don't believe so. Foundationally, the way you know YHWH is through Christ. Jesus is the only way. In salvation, it’s through Christ. And sanctification, it is through Christ. Answered prayer is because of Christ. And there's a theme that runs through the Old Testament that I think is a beautiful that is how we come to know YHWH. By waiting on Him. By waiting on Him. Now if we were to be honest, we should admit we don't like to wait for anything today.

When I go to the checkout counter of a grocery store. I'm looking at all of the lines--you do this. And first I look and see how long the lines are, then I look in the baskets to see how many things they have in their carts. And then I look and see if they're kind of slow or if they are fast paced type of people. You know what comes of that diligence? I always choose the wrong line.

I don't like to wait. You don't like to wait. But the way we know Him is by waiting on him. You find that fact consistent through the Psalms. It is not a call to be passive, It is not down in a chair in idleness.

But there are at least 3 activities we ought to do while waiting:

1) Learning more about YHWH

You're waiting, reading, studying, searching the scriptures for a life changing truth. When you wait on Him you are learning of who He is. All of His works, all of His desires, all of His ways, you are learning of His truth. When you open up your Bible in the morning and have your quiet time, you're not just trying to get the chapter done to mark it off on your chart.

You open up a book that reveals the person of Christ to know Him. You should say, “Lord. I'm searching to know You.” That's the first activity: learning from Him. Second is: listening to Him.

2) Listening more to YHWH

Yes, He is speaking to you. You might be saying, “well, He was speaking to certain people a long time ago” yes He was speaking to them, but to you personally also. God’s inerrant, infallible Word is still very relevant. God wants to speak to you through His Word. So the question then becomes: do you listen? Listening to Him is obeying Him. Listening to Him is responding to what He is challenging you with. Sometimes YHWH corrects you, confronts you. Sometimes He encourages you, but as you are learning you are listening to obey.

The third activity is: leaning upon Him.

3) Leaning upon YHWH

Depending upon Him in prayer. Leaning upon Him. Trusting in Him. It is faith, not worry, that we live by.

You might be saying right now, “Well, how are you ever going to get anything done when you're just waiting on God?” You won't and you shouldn’t. But He will. He will. And you stand back and see what He will do. It's pretty incredible when you wait on Him-- Lamentations 3:25

Lamentations 3:25 ESV

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Isaiah 64:4 ESV

4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

Time and time again we seethis illustrated. What was YHWH’s greatest work in the life of Noah. Was it when He shut the door on the arch and saw the salvation of the Lord? Or was the 20 years that YHWH was building a relationship of dependence.

What was the greater work with Abraham? was it coming into the promised land or was wandering in the wilderness in utter dependence for YHWH to provide? What was the greatest work? Was Joseph ruling over all of Egypt as God’s chosen leader and prime minister? or was in the prison when God was molding him to be the leader? What was the greatest work: Moses standing at the parted Red Sea? Or in the desert when YHWH was building a relationship. What was greater? David on the throne leading the armies of Israel? Or first in the caves running from Saul?

YHWH, I believe, is more concerned about the process—not the end result. According to the Bible, the end never justifies the means, but the means justifies the end result of a mature believer.

So What?

Are you anxious a lot? Are you a fearful person? God has a reason to bring you to the place of dependence upon Him.

You may be in the desert, in the caves, or in the wilderness--what are you going to do right now? You want an answer now, but God’s not so concerned about the answer. What He is concerned about is what He is going to do for you and in your life through your life becoming real in the moment while you wait. Nothing can happen until He has got your attention. So just be still while He guides you into the activity of knowing Him.

Conclusion:

Can you sit still for a moment? He might reveal Himself to you in a depth that you have never known Him before. The question is will you ever quiet yourself enough to hear His voice, and learn from Him, and listen to Him, and lean on him?

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