In a world adrift in moral chaos and drowning in the depths of deception, I am thankful that we have a rock in a hard place.
There is no solid ground in this world. There is no place to safely establish your feet where they will not slip. But there is only unstable and unsure ground. Things are changing all around us at an ever increasing pace. Sin is no longer considered sin. Wrong is no longer wrong. But the motto of the day is do what pleases you.
And so you see there is no solid ground in the world. There is no place to find safety from the cares of life. When things get too hard in this life there is no where to go to find shelter. People look for it in:
∑ immoral relationships
∑ bottle
∑ drugs
∑ working so there’s no time to even think
∑ material things
But it can’t be found in this world. Because things are constantly shifting back and forth. Just look at the things that our president has done - everyone is saying it’s not wrong what he did but it was wrong to cover it up. I want you to know it was wrong what he did, in spite of what the world says.
There is no solid ground in this godless society. But there is a rock in a hard place. There is a place we can find in Jesus Christ that will shelter us during the storms of life. There is a place next to God and it’s on the rock.
On the rock there is:
∑ security
∑ safety
∑ healing
∑ comfort
∑ peace
∑ shelter in the storms of life
There is a place for you next to God and it’s on the rock!!!! On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand.
Praise the Lord!!
For Kay Mitchell it had been a storybook marriage. But life has a way of shaking marriages. Theirs was what she had called a solid relationship. No one expected them to have problems. No one expected them to have difficulties. But after just five years that’s exactly what they had - problems and difficulties. The marriage crumbled, the relationship deteriorated, communication all but stopped and almost overnight she found herself staring at the papers from the court - DIVORCE GRANTED.
For Kurt Becker his convictions had been instilled into him by his parents. But life has a way of shaking our convictions. Just five words was all it was - “Just go along with it”. Kurt was a bellhop at a well-to-do five star hotel when he commented on how glad he was he kept such good records of his tips so he could accurately report them on his income tax. The other bellhops gathered around and the boss told him not to report his tips or he wouldn’t have a job and would be physically hurt.
Tim and Marcy Miller had a tremendous family. But life has a way of shaking families. In the small town where they lived everybody knew one another. They were on their way to their family vacation. They just had to stop off to get the results of the physical their oldest daughter had taken two days earlier. The receptionist Joyce didn’t greet Tim with the usual smile and humor but simply said “Dan needs to speak with you”. Tim’s heart skipped a beat. “What could it be, he wondered?” His life fell apart that day in the doctor’s office. His daughter Amy had cancer. Cancer? At first he didn’t believe it but then the reality began to sink in. Cancer!?!? Amy fought it as bravely as a seven year old could but she lost and was gone before her eighth birthday. Her battle was over but Tim and Marcy’s was just beginning.
I’m preaching about a ROCK in a hard place. There is a place for you next to God and it’s on a ROCK. The place next to God is always on a ROCK.
How many times have we heard the words:
∑ we have to lay you off
∑ I want a divorce
∑ it’s cancer
∑ there’s disease
∑ so and so has passed away
∑ there’s been an accident
Maybe I haven’t described your situation or the exact words but the pain you have felt from words just like those have seemed to rip your insides out. I want you to know that there is a rock in a hard place. There is a place for you next to God and it’s on the rock.
Luke 6:46-49
Jesus said don’t call me Lord, Lord if your not willing to do the things that I say. Don’t pretend to serve me with your lips only and not your heart. Don’t put on a show while here at church and then act a different way while outside of church.
But God said I would rather you be stone cold that for you to fake it. He said I would that you were either hot or cold but if your lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth.
And then he begins to relate this parable of the wise man and the foolish man. He says he that hears me and does what I say - he is like a man that builds on a solid foundation. But he that hears me and doesn’t do what I say - he is like one building with no foundation.
∑ The floods came to both houses.
∑ The storms rose up upon both houses.
∑ The rains beat upon both houses.
∑ The winds blew against both houses.
But it was only the house built upon the rock that was able to stand.
∑ I’m preaching to people who over the last couple of years have gone through storms in your life.
∑ You have had to face pressures that you thought would cause you to be crushed.
∑ You have endured what seems to be one unending night of your life and you have wondered will it ever be daylight again.
∑ Just when it seems you are getting to your feet something else knocks you for a loop.
∑ financial pressure
∑ family pressure
∑ pressure in your marriage
∑ pressure on your job
∑ you feel the squeeze that life has placed upon you
It’s a hard place but I want you to know there is a rock in a hard place. There is a place for you next to God and it’s on a rock.
The storms of life will come. The winds will blow. The rain will beat against your life. The flood waters will try to wash your life away. But there is a rock in a hard place.
For some of you it’s been a difficult time.
I can’t teach you how to build your life so you don’t have to face the storms. There’s no way to build so you don’t have any problems. But I can teach you how to build your life so you can make it through the storms. There is a way to build to endure the problems.
DIG DEEP AND BUILD ON THE ROCK!
The devil wants you to get so wrapped up in the storm that you miss the revival that he has for your life. He wants you so afraid of the winds that you miss the blessing. But this morning we are saying no way devil. I have a rock in a hard place and no matter what you throw my way I still have a place next to God that’s on the rock.
Psalm 15
Sandwiched between the Great Depression and the Second World War - perhaps the most trying one-two punch in our nations history - was an event that occurred on a bright spring day in 1938. March 5th to be exact.
If ever a nation needed a message of hope and assurance it was then. People ached for the strength to walk past the economic devastation they’d experienced, and they longed for the fortitude to face the personal, family, and worldwide challenges that lay ahead. That’s why they stopped that spring day to listen to one man speak. Actually it was a voice they’d grown accustomed to hearing each Sunday afternoon on his weekly radio “fireside chats”. Yet on this occasion - the beginning of his sixth year as president - Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a different kind of speech.
His opening words startled the reporters. In that trademark voice, h boomed: “I ask that every newspaper in the country print the text of the 15th Psalm. There could be no better lead to your story.”
With those words, the president pointed not only to the state of our country, but also to something deeper - to the state of our souls. If ever a nation needed to hear an echo of that message it is this nation today. And if ever a church needed to hear an echo of that message it’s this church today.
Psalm 15 tells us how to get on the rock.
There are ten things listed here in this Psalm and the Bible says if you do those things you will never be moved. You will be on stable ground. You will be on a rock.
I’m preaching today that there is a rock in a hard place.
Trouble
Psalm 27:5 - For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
Deliverance
Psalm 31:1 - In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.
2 - Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.
3 - For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.
In a pit
Psalm 40:1 - I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 - He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 - And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
Overwhelmed
Psalm 61:1 - Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
2 - From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3 - For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
4 - I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
Everything is shaking
Psalm 62:1 - Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
2 - He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.
Confused
Psalm 71:1 - In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.
2 - Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.
3 - Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.
Salvation
Psalm 95:1 - O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 - Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 - For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Substitute rock
Deuteronomy 32:31 - For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
Matthew 16:15 - He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 KJV) And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
18 KJV) And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Story of farm hand - I can sleep when the wind blows.
If your on the rock you can sleep when the wind blows.
There is a rock in a hard place. There is a place for you next to God and it’s on a rock. The place next to God is always on the rock.
