In 1989 a devastating earthquake flattened the country of Armenia, killing over 30,000 people in less than 4 minutes. In the midst of the confusion that followed, a father left his wife securely at home and rushed to his son’s school, hoping for the best but fearing the worst. When he arrived, he discovered to his horror that his son’s school had been flattened by the massive earthquake.
While surveying the rubble, he remembered a promise that he had made to his little boy. “What ever happens, I’ll always be there for you.” The situation looked hopeless, but he just couldn’t take his mind off that promise. He remembered that his son’s classroom had been in the back right corner of the building, so he rushed to that spot over there and started digging through the rubble. Other grieving parents arrived, crying for their children. Some tried to pull the man off the rubble saying, “It’s too late! They’re dead. You can’t help.” Even a police officer told the grieving Father to go home.
But courageously he proceeded alone because he needed to know for himself whether his boy was dead or alive and because of his promise. “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.” He dug for 8 hours, then 12, then 24, then 36. Finally on the 38th hour he pulled back a large boulder and among the remaining rubble he heard his son’s voice. He screamed, “Armand!”
The little voice answered him, “Dad, Dad, it’s me.” Then the boy added these priceless words: “I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that you would save us because you promised Dad. You promised me that that no matter what happened you’d always be there for me. You did it. You did it, Dad!”
I promise is a phrase that seems almost meaningless in this day and age. We’ve grown accustomed to hearing campaign promises cracking even before the election is over. Often when we make a promise, we do our best to keep it, but often we fail to do so. We don’t mean to, but it just happens. A Father tells his son that he’ll always be there for him, but then that Father has a massive heart attack and dies, leaving his son fatherless. He didn’t mean to do it, but the promise was broken because he was limited in power.
In the scriptures, we read about a loving heavenly Father who has made to you many precious promises. Promises that tell us that our needs our taken care of, that our sins our forgiven, that we will never be overwhelmed beyond our ability to bear, and he has promised the gift of everlasting life. What sets these promises apart is that God is the One who has made them. God has the power and the integrity to fulfill each and every promise He has made. And like a loving Father, God cares for each and every one of us and He has promised that whatever happens He will always be there for us. Even as the world around us quakes and crumbles, our Heavenly Father stands by His promises.
As we continue in our series “Who is like our Lord?” I want us to see that God is like a loving Father who cares for His needy children. Isaiah 58:11 says, "The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. "
If you will please turn to Psalm 9, the text that was read to you earlier, and we want to go through this text and be encouraged by God’s word. The first thing I want you to see here is that even in a turbulent world, God offers to us in Himself a sanctuary of refuge. Look at Vs 9. Psalm 9:9 “The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble.”
One of the first things you notice from that verse is the fact that we live in a difficult world filled with troubles and oppression. There seems to be so much to worry about these days. Rick Majerus, head basketball coach for the University of Utah recently captured the concern of our nation. He said, “Everyone’s worried about the economy this year. Hey, my hairline is in recession, my waistline is in inflation, and all together I’m in depression.”
The Reality is that life is hard. No where in scripture are we promised that it will be easy. Life is hard. Bad things happen to good people, to bad people, and everyone in between. Now, so far this seems pretty depressing. I thought this was supposed to encourage us…but before we get to the really good news, we have to face the bad news. I live in a real world, and I want a religion that deals with reality. Don’t you? I don’t want a religion that plays, "let’s pretend." I want a faith that can stand up to whatever the world has to give, and still come out on top.
And we live in a troubled world. A pastor who had just married a young couple turned to the groom and said, “Son, God bless you. You are at the end of your troubles.” A year later that same man returned upset and moaned, “What a year I’ve gone through! And you’re the man who told me that I was at the end of my troubles.” “Yes, I did. But I didn’t say which end you were at.”
If you are young and at the beginning of your life, than you may be naïve to all the trouble in this world, but as you get older you will see more and more suffering and pain. And the older you are, the more you have seen of this. There are wars and rumors of wars, there are abusive and corrupt people who oppress innocents, and there is the downfall of our Christian heritage in a decaying culture. The headline this week was that in Canada, Same sex marriage is now legalized. Darryl Dash is a pastor up in Canada, and he commented this week on the decision by his government. He said, “ Nevertheless, (this) may be a good opportunity to really come to grips with the fact that we don’t live in a Christian nation, and never really did.” That’s a depressing thought.
On top of all this, our troubled world is a hectic fast-paced world with such a high standard for success. Many of you live such high paced lives that you are literally burned out. You are running here and there and you are weary, anxious, tired and at your wit’s end. If that sounds like you listen to the words of Jesus Christ. Matthew 11:28 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
It is in God and God alone that you will find a refuge from this troubled life. The word refuge literally means a place of safety. And when you are troubled, God is your refuge. He is your place of safety. The One you turn to for shelter from the pain and strife. Much like when you were little, no matter how bad your day was, when you got into your mother’s lap and as she held you tight and rocked you back and forth, you knew everything was okay. In the arms of God we find that comfort, that love, and that protection.
And it’s often in those times of trouble that we turn to God. We know He’s there when times are good, but it’s often when things are not going well that we really turn to God for that refuge. It’s in desperation that we cry out to Him to protect and deliver us, and when we call out to Him He is always faithful and He keeps His promise. He will always protect and deliver you. Now let me clarify this. God will be your refuge, but the refuge does not protect you from experiencing the storm, but rather it protects you during the storm. In this life we will experience trouble, but God will see you through it.
In the storm, one thing a refuge will do is provide you with strength. Strength you did not have on your own. I have experienced in my own life and heard testimony upon testimony about how Christians have gone through awful situations, situations they thought they could never handle, but somehow they had the strength to get through it.
When Corrie Ten Boon was in her late teens, she witnessed Nazi soldiers arrest and torture an older Christian. She said to her dad, “I couldn’t stand that. I would wilt under persecution. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be faithful.” Her father said, “Corrie, God will give you the faith you need.” But she kept insisting, “I don’t have that kind of courage and faith.” Finally her dad said, “Do you remember when you were a little girl and we took rides on the train? I kept your ticket in my pocket. Do you remember when I gave you your ticket?” “She said, “Yeah, right before we got on the train.” “Right,” he said, “I kept it until you needed it so you wouldn’t lose it. God will give you the faith you need. He will empower you by His Holy Spirit according to your need.” Trust Him for that.”
Later when Corrie Ten Boom was arrested and persecuted by the Nazi’s, her faithfulness and strength became an inspiration to all Christians.
God will give you what you need. You can count on Him for that. And that’s the next thing I want you to really see from this text is that you can trust God. Look at vs. 10. Psalm 9:10 "And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. "
We live in a day when it’s hard to trust anybody. A Christian shop owner determined that he was going to run his business on Christian principles, in fact everything done within the store would be backed up with scripture. After seeing his employee charge a customer twice the normal price, he asked if he had a scripture to back up what he just did. He said, “Yes, she was a stranger and I took her in.”
We’ve all been lied to or taken advantage now to the point where we are cynical when ever somebody says, “Trust me” or “I promise”. Everyone is fair game. A number of years ago I was driving back from a meeting in Hattiesburg in the pouring rain when I ran out of gas. The next gas station was about 2 miles up the road, and I didn’t want to walk in the pouring rain in my dress suit, so I walked to the nearest house and rang the doorbell, and a woman opened the door just enough to see who it was and when I told her that I was the pastor of Clara United Methodist Church, she said, “We don’t have a phone,” and closed the door on me. Now I could see the phone line going into her place there, but I can’t blame her. I would be weary if I lived in the country and a guy in a suit rang the doorbell…he could be a politician.
But let’s suppose that that woman was a friend to one of our members. And that member spoke kindly about me, talking about how trust worthy her new pastor was and you could count on him, etc. If that woman had known that, then when I had said, “Hey, my name is Barry, I’m the pastor at Clara UMC,” then she would have said, “Sure, come on in. I’ve heard a great deal about you.” You see, the more she knew about me, the more she trusted me. And the same applies to our relationship with God.
Look at vs. 10 again. Psalm 9:10 "And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. ". The more we know the more we trust. Let’s suppose that you bought a new ladder. Now the ladder looks kinda puny, but you read on the box where it says it can hold up to 300 lbs, and a friend of yours had just bought one, and he weighs at least 215 lbs and it held him, so you have learned some information, plus some testimony that has enabled you to trust that ladder. So you gingerly step on to it and to your surprise it holds. Now you feel more comfortable, and three weeks down the road after you have used the ladder numerous times, you can now hop on that ladder without a second thought. You’ve learned to trust.
And when we read through out the scriptures about God, and when we see how He has been proven faithful in the lives of others, and when we by our own experiences find Him to be faithful and true, then we learn to trust in God as our refuge. We come to trust in the promises of God, and one such promise given here in this text is that for those who seek God, He will never forsake them. What a promise. God is saying, “You can count on Me. I won’t let you down.” God will always be there. That’s the promise He has made. No matter what you are going through, you are not going through it alone. God has promised, and even at those times when you don’t sense that God is with you, He stands by your side, guiding, comforting, and encouraging you.
The early American Indians had a particular way of training young boys to become Indian braves. On the night of a boy’s thirteenth birthday, after learning hunting, scouting, and fishing skills, he was put to one final test. He was placed in a thick forest to spend the entire night alone. Up until then, he had never been away from his family and the tribe. But on this night, he was blindfolded and taken several miles away.
When he took off the blindfold, he was in the middle of a thick woods and he was scared to death! Every time a twig snapped, he would think that a wild animal was getting ready to pounce. After what seemed like an eternity, and the sun began to rise the next morning; The boy looked around and saw flowers, trees, and a path.
And then, to his complete amazement, he saw the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow and arrow. It was his father. And he had been there all night long.
God is like that. Even when you don’t see Him, He’s there. He is faithful and true. He has promised, and He has kept His promise. He is our refuge in times of trouble, and you can trust Him on that. In the end we can say like that little boy: “I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that you would save us because you promised Dad. You promised me that that no matter what happened you’d always be there for me. You did it. You did it, Dad!”
Now if you have never known Jesus as your Lord and Savior then you are missing out on so much. I want you to know that God stands ready to be your Rock and your refuge. If you are ready to make that choice, won’t you please pray with me right now?
