Jesus’ Invitation to Trust Him
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Prelude:
Backfield Reimagined Update
Noah’s Ark made it’s way from PA to Spokane safely
Large playground structure is in place
Swings go in next, including bark and rock
Our Early Learning Center now has 43 enrolled children with others applying.
This week our team went to Lilac Plaza and provided a BBQ for around 100 residents of Lilac and Upper Terrace retirement homes.
Starting next month - a group of men from MOVE Ministries will teach 28 Cubans on how to build a church in 12 days. Our church provided half the money to build this church. Lord willing, Paul Didier and I fly down to Cuba in November for the church’s dedication and a potential project that Paul will be helping with - installing solar panels at our flagship church in Guanayhay, about 30 minutes from Havana.
Finding Refuge in the Storm: Lessons from Psalm 91
I have titled this message: Jesus’ invitation to trust him.
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Jesus invites us to trust him…which isn’t always easy.
Introduction
This week, our family experienced what every parent fears most - a phone call that changes everything. We were gathering with our staff for a retreat when we got the call - “Addy was in an accident and not doing well.” Our hearts sunk and we began to cry. My daughter was in a head-on collision, and for over an hour we didn't know if she was dead, alive, not going to make it. But she did. By God's grace and mercy, she lived, and it was nothing short of a miracle.
As I walked the halls of Sacred Heart Hospital this week - halls I've walked many times before for pastoral calls, surgeries, and family emergencies - I found myself not as the pastor offering comfort, but as a father desperately needing it. In those corridors filled with fear, tears, and deep pain, God taught me lessons through Psalm 91 that I want to share with you today.
Psalm 91 isn't a promise that we'll never face the storm - it's a promise that we never face it alone. What I am about to share with you is not revelatory but it is foundational to the life of an apprentice of Jesus. Your walk with Jesus…IT…IS…EVERYTHING.
Prayer
I have five lessons learned or relearned that I want to share with you and at the end of each lesson, I am going to lead us in prayer. The prayer is invitation to trust Jesus more deeply with your life, if you have children - your children, your health, your job, your future, your family.
1. Prayer: A Lifeline, Not a Tool (Psalm 91:15)
He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
On the way to the hospital, in that hospital waiting room, and beside our daughter’s bed - I discovered/rediscovered something profound about prayer. I have always known the power of prayer. But when your daughter's life hangs in the balance, prayer becomes what it was always meant to be: a lifeline.
Prayer isn't about changing God's mind; it's about aligning our hearts with His will. It's not a tool to get what we want, but a way to stay connected to the One who holds all things together.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
As I prayed differently this week - not demanding healing but surrendering to His sovereignty - my prayer language changed. Scripture became not just words on a page but oxygen for my soul. Walking with Jesus became less about asking for outcomes and more about finding His presence in the uncertainty.
The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.
Let us pray: Father, forgive us for treating prayer like a transaction at times - instead of a relationship and communion you have created prayer for. Teach us to come to You not just with our requests, but with our hearts wide open, ready to be changed by Your presence. May every ache of our hearts come before you. Help us to find in prayer not just answers, but You. Amen.
2. Treasuring the Moments We Have (Psalm 91:16)
With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.
Life changes on a dime. One moment your daughter is texting you about her day, the next you're racing to the hospital praying she's still alive. This week reminded me not to take for granted the people God has placed in my life.
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.
How often do we rush through our days, missing the divine appointments right in front of us? How many conversations do we postpone? How many "I love yous" do we assume can wait until tomorrow?
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Your time spent with others matters. Every conversation, every shared meal, every moment of presence - these are not just experiences, they are investments in eternity. The people in your life are not interruptions to your agenda; they are the agenda.
Let us pray: Lord, open our eyes to see the precious gift of the people You've placed in our lives. Help us to stop rushing past the moments that matter most. Teach us to love like time is short, because it is. Give us the wisdom to invest in what lasts forever. Amen.
3. The Sacred Art of Slowing Down (Psalm 91:1)
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
This week taught me something I thought I knew but had only truly practiced when life caught up to me - the sacred art of slowing down. Walking with Jesus is not a rushed pace, or even something to be conquered. It requires a slowness that demands great intentionality.
Eugene Peterson captured this truth perfectly when he wrote:
"Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. It is essentially laziness. It is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing. It is filling our time with our own actions instead of paying attention to God's actions. It is taking charge."
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
In the hospital, there was nothing to do but wait. No sermon to prepare, no meetings to attend, no programs to manage, no strategy to develop. Just sitting. Just being present. Just dwelling in His shelter. And in that forced stillness, I was once again reminded in all my spiritual busyness, when Jesus says,
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
We live in a culture that equates busyness with importance, speed with spirituality. But the God who spoke the universe into existence is the same God who rested on the seventh day. The Jesus who could have accomplished His mission in moments chose to walk dusty roads for three years, taking time for conversations, meals, and moments of rest.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Embracing little moments - really embracing them - requires us to resist the tyranny of the urgent and choose the priority of the eternal. It means putting down our phones during dinner conversations. It means taking time to actually see the people in front of us instead of rushing past them to the next task.
The hard thing Peterson speaks of isn't managing our calendars better - it's learning to pay attention to God's actions instead of being consumed with our own. It's choosing to be present in this moment instead of already mentally living in the next one.
Let us pray: Jesus, You never hurried, yet You accomplished everything the Father gave You to do. Forgive us for confusing busyness with faithfulness. Teach us the sacred art of slowing down, of dwelling in Your presence, of paying attention to what You are doing instead of being consumed with our own agendas. Help us find You in the stillness. Amen.
4. Sovereignty and Surrender (Psalm 91:3-4)
Surely he will save you from the fowler’s (Spurgeon connects this to pleasure, profit, advantage) snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
In crisis, our natural instinct is to take control. We want to fix, manage, and manipulate outcomes. But this week reminded me of a hard truth: I have no control over my daughters, the church that I pastor, my wife, or the circumstances that crash into our lives.
But I do have control over one thing - how I respond to God in the midst of whatever He allows.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God's sovereignty means He is still on the throne even when our world feels like it's falling apart. Surrender isn't giving up; it's recognizing that His hands are better than ours, His timing perfect even when it doesn't feel like it.
Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’
Even in the most painful circumstances - the diagnosis, the accident, the uncertainty - we can trust that our God is working all things together for good. Not that all things are good, but that God is so powerful He can bring good even from the worst situations.
Let us pray: Sovereign Lord, we confess our desire to control what only You can control. Help us surrender our tight grip on our circumstances, our loved ones, our plans. Teach us that true peace comes not from controlling outcomes, but from trusting the One who holds all outcomes in His hands. Even in our pain, help us rest in Your sovereignty. Amen.
5. Everyone Has a Story (Psalm 91:11)
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
Walking those hospital corridors this week opened my eyes to something I thought I already knew - everyone has a story. Behind every room number is a family in crisis, a heart breaking, a story unfolding.
I saw new levels of fear in the eyes of elderly ladies with dementia, struggling to understand their surroundings. I met a young man, all alone, having to say goodbye to his brother dying in ICU. I watched nurses overwhelmed by the weight of caring for so much suffering day after day.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
But here's what amazed me most - Jesus' presence was all over that place. In the nurses who cared for my daughter so well. In the strangers who prayed for us from other churches and communities around the world. In the young man we were able to pray with as he grieved his brother. The prophet Isaiah says this about our King Jesus:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
God's mobilizes his people according to his purposes. He did that for my daughter - a brother in the Lord and WSP Officer was sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. God moved His people into place. God sent his protection not only supernaturally but also as he mobilized the church - police officers who wear their badge with honor, people wearing scrubs, people carrying cleaning supplies, and God’s people sitting in the waiting room praying.
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Let us pray: Compassionate God, open our hearts to see the stories of pain and hope all around us. Help us to be Your hands and feet to those who are hurting. Give us eyes to see beyond ourselves and hearts that are moved to action. Make us instruments of Your love in a broken world, and help us recognize Jesus in the faces of those we meet. Amen.
Conclusion
Psalm 91 ends with this promise:
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
This isn't a promise that we'll never face trouble - it's a promise that we'll never face it alone. My daughter's miracle wasn't just that she survived the collision; it was that in the midst of the crisis, we found God to be exactly who His Word says He is…
God is our refuge and strength, an 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,
Church, whatever storm you're facing today, remember this: You serve a God who is sovereign over every detail, who hears every prayer, who numbers every tear, and who promises to work all things together for good for those who love Him.
Don't wait for crisis to teach you what this week taught and reminded me.
Pray as if your life depends on it - because it does.
Love the people in your life, like every day might be your last together - because it might be.
Surrender control to the One who actually has it.
And remember that in your darkest valley, you are surrounded by His presence and His people.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Our God is the God of miracles - not just the miracle of survival, but the miracle of His presence in our pain, His peace in our panic, and His purpose in our suffering.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank You that You are our refuge and our fortress. In our storms, remind us that prayer is our lifeline to You. Help us not to take for granted the precious people You've placed in our lives. Teach us to surrender our need for control and trust in Your sovereignty. Open our eyes to see the stories around us and to be Your hands and feet to those who are hurting. And when we walk through the valley, remind us that we never walk alone. In Jesus' name, Amen.
