Soul Care: "Be Still and Know That I Am God"(Psalm 46:10)

Introduction

Preface

“Be Still and Know That I am God”

“Be still, and know that I am God”- Psalm 46:10a

In its most simplified form, our chief end, the main purpose for our lives, is to know God and to glorify Him by enjoying Him forever.

Knowing God By Communicating With Him

If we’re honest, many of us are probably waiting to hear the literal, audible voice of God. But the reality is that the majority of us probably won’t hear the audible voice of God in our lifetimes. Personally, as much as I’d like to, I’ve never heard the audible voice of God.

Reading the Bible

Do you want to Hear God’s words out loud? Read the Word of God out loud.

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.”- John 14:21-24

What’s the best way to hear from God? Read the Bible.

The Bible is the plumbline for all reality. As Martin Luther once said, “The Bible is the norm that norms all Norms”

Circumstances

List out the Keller questions to ask during our quiet times.

Grand weaver example?

Remembering what God has done in our lives in the past can serve as encouragement when it feels like God is distant.  In the OT, the prophets constantly pointed the people of God back to the Exodus to remind them of God's goodness and love for us.  The covenants remind us of the promises God has for us even when we don't feel it.  Maybe you feel like you haven't heard from God in years.  Remember what he has done in your past as encouragement.

Explain how God is the weaver of all circumstances.

Warn people to be careful not to just always be looking for something.  Test all conclusions with Scripture.

Anna Example: Last Spring, I had a situation in my life where I was forced to wait for an answer.  It's was an important situation with a big unknown.  I knew how I wanted the situation to turn out and I truly believe the conclusion I was praying for would glorify God greatly and work for the good of many including myself.  It was a major situation that would have brought about many life changes for me.  Over a month went by and there was still no conclusion to the situation.  I started getting anxious.  I hate not knowing the answer to things.  As an apologetics junkie and a perpetual researcher I always want to have the answer.  But in this situation, the conclusion of was out of my control and not knowing the answer was killing me.  I could hardly sleep or eat.  I literally lost 15 pounds because, in my anxiety, I just stopped eating much at all.  Early each morning I would go into a little, gorgeous stone chapel on Mizzou's campus and read the Word and prayer before anyone else was there.  I started reading through Hosea to prepare for a Bible study I was reading, and God absolutely rocked my world.  The main point of Habakkuk is this: Habakkuk is praying for God to act in a certain way that would glorify Him and be good for so many, and yet God tells Hosea He's not going to answer the prayer as Habakkuk wants.  God tells Hosea that he has a far greater plan than will be worked out for greater good and glory than Habakkuk could ever have imagined.  The plan would be worked out in a painful way but it would be far better and far more profound in the end.  (Read Hosea 1:5).  It was then that I began to put together all that had been happening in my life at that time.  This is exactly what was happening with me.  God was acting in a way like he had acted in Hosea's time.  Just like he was doing with Hosea, God was forcing Hosea to trust Him in a new and deeper way.  (Read the end of Habakkuk 3).  These verses became my mantra to praise God even if I didn't understand what was going on.  I got my conclusion to the situation almost immediately after this.  Sure enough, God worked out the situation in a hard, and painful way, but in the end, it worked out in a way far greater than I ever could have pictured.  Not only was God glorified in a greater way, it all worked out for my greater good!  Among other things, God had used this situation to force me to trust Him.  Without realizing it, I hadn't been trusting God as I should have been at the time.  With my job and all major future plans already set in stone, I hadn't been trusting God deeply in my day to day life.  He used this situation among 100 other incredible ways to make me trust Him more.

Always test what you think God is telling you with Scripture.  Ask Christian people in your life that love and care for you if they see God telling you this.  Always test it.  I tested my conclusions from the story with 10-15 people that are extremely close to me that we're accountability partners or pastors and they all affirmed it.  But I've had times where they haven't.

This practice means that we have to be consistently engaged in the Word and in prayer. If you slack on either you won't hear clearly or rightly from God.

Reading the Word of God

Test your conclusions.  Just a couple of weeks ago I asked Brad and Tim Overby about something I saw in Scripture because I wanted to make sure I was reading the text right because I felt like God was really teaching me in that text.

Overwhelming thoughts that wont' go away

Usually these will have no immediate benefit to you and won't necessarily relate to a selfish thought process you may have.  The thought keeps on reoccurring and can consume your thoughts.

Test the thought with Scripture.

Hearing the Word Preached.  Good Bible-centered preaching is a central part of the way God communicates to us because it centered around God's Word which is one of his most fundamental ways of communicating to us.

God can use family, friends, coworkers, and strangers to talk to us and speak to us.

Accountability groups. pastors, leaders, etc.

Just last week, I was in conversation with Tim Gibson because I thought there might an area of my life where I was blind to sin.  He was able to sharpen me and speak truth into that.  We need people like that in our lives.

Prayer

One of the most radical and profound things you could ever pray: Jesus, make me more like you.

Why Do We Have Hope?: Christ Alone

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!”- Revelation 5:12

Jesus As High Priwat

Slate Example

We live as if Jesus doesn’t love us.

Video

The greatest thing you could ever do for the health of your soul is to put your hope and trust in Jesus.

How Do We Have Hope?: Seeing Jesus

We can talk all we want about talking to God and knowing God, but the question we have to ask yourselves is this: Do we actually trust Jesus? Do we actually, in the deepest part of our hearts and souls believe he had saved us? This is not a time to put on a good face or to put up a fake facade. This is the most important question we could ever ask ourselves. If we aren’t actually putting our hope and faith in Jesus we don’t actually know God.

We so often use this language of, "I decided to follow Jesus". Look, I understand what people mean when they say that. I don't even think it's necessarily wrong. But I just think it's so imprecise and vague.

Here's the deal. There are millions, and millions, and millions of people whose Christianity is void of enthusiasm, lacks any kind of serious joy, is indistinguishable from secular life styles, and is nothing more than an emotionless routine who would say they've decided to follow Jesus.

But here's the thing: they've decided to follow Him one time. Maybe when they were kids at a church camp or because they wanted the pain to stop or because they didn't like the idea of being in Hell. They've all decided to follow Jesus, but it was one time, probably a long time ago.

But when you look at an earnest, God-saturated, Holy Spirit led, Jesus-obsessed Christian, you see someone that didn't merely decide to follow Jesus one time. They decide to follow Him every single morning. Every morning they wake up and decide to follow Jesus again. They decide to find their joy and satisfaction in Him.

How do you think a serious Christian fights sin? It's not by lame Christianese tactics. It's by deciding to follow Jesus afresh every morning.

When Satan throws the most excruciating temptations in their face, they don't appeal to a list of do's and dont's. They stand right up to Satan and proclaim, "Pornography, you can't have me! Lust, you can't have me! Lying, you can't have me! Cheating, you can't have me! Stealing, you can't have me! I already chose to follow Jesus this morning and I'm going to choose him again tomorrow morning, and the next morning, and the next morning still!"

Do you know how they're able to decide to follow Jesus every morning? It's because they're doing something far more prior and primary than deciding. They're seeing.

Really, when you come to Christ, you're doing something far more profound and central than deciding. At its root, your saving faith is not a decision, it's seeing and beholding the glory of Christ.

Before you could ever decide you have to see.

Christians, think about when you first decided to follow Jesus. Think about that tender and intimate time when you first encountered Jesus. Think about the joy and satisfaction you felt. Before you ever decide to follow Jesus, you were seeing the beauty of Christ: all-compelling, all-surpassing, all-satisfying.

I don't know if anyone has taught you this language, but that's what happened. And your fight for joy, as a Christian, isn't primarily going to church, or Bible study or PV College, it's preaching yourself the Gospel daily through the Scriptures so that you can see the beauty of Christ.

When you see his beauty, infinitely worthy of your affections, Satan is done for. He's lost because there's only one place you can be found: at the feet of Jesus, in awe of his beauty and glory.

For some of you here, I'm speaking a foreign language. You're saying, "What do you mean I have to see? I've never seen anything!" Maybe you've decide to follow Jesus one before. But maybe that decision wasn't motivated by seeing, but rather a move to please your parents or friends, or maybe it was motivated by an attempted at feeling better or avoiding their weird by scary idea of Hell. Whatever the case may be, you haven't seen.

Tonight we're not asking you to do decide. We're asking you to see. We spend hours and hours of time and energy every week not so you can merely decide, but so we can help you see.

When you finally encounter the unfiltered, unhindered, all satisfying glory and beauty of the Jesus of the Gospels, the question isn't "What's your decision?", it's, "What do you see?".

Do you see the excellencies of Christ?

Do you see the glory of his all-satisfying sacrifice to cover your sins and take on the death that you and I deserve?

Do you see the beauty of his perfect mediation that makes our prayers and confessions efficacious?

Do you see the beauty of his resurrection and resurrected body that gives us hope that through him that we too can conquer the grave?

Do you see the glory of his reign as the King of kings and Lord of lords, a reign so great that the mountains and tide obey his every command?

Do you see the beauty of his splendor that beckons even the very rocks of earth and the stars of heaven to sing songs of worship to proclaim his glory?

Do you see the beauty of his perfect love that made a way for the very people who mocked, dishonored, and hated him to be satisfied and in relationship with Him forever?

When you see it, you can never be the same.

If you're a Christian and yet feel like you haven't seen the all satisfying, all compelling, and all surpassing beauty of Christ in a while, we'd like nothing more than to pray with you that God would open the eyes of your heart afresh to see the glory of Christ.

And if you're not a Christian, you feel like you've never actually seen the all-encompassing, all satisfying joy and beauty of Christ, there's nothing more we'd rather do that pray with you that God would help open the eyes of your heart to see the all compelling, all surpassing, all satisfying, infinite beauty of Christ so that you would ever be the same.

Let's pray.

“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”- Psalm 27:4

Prayer