The River ChurchSermons

Patrick Bicknell · 7 Jun 2026

Patrick Bicknell · Sunday, 7 June 2026 · 36:52 · 5,691 words

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Psalm 62 is examined to uncover what it truly means to wait on God. The sermon shows that waiting is not passive inactivity but a quiet, trusting submission to God’s control, especially when facing life’s “Red Sea” moments. It stresses building your whole hope on Christ alone, remembering that God’s promises never fail, even in suffering. The speaker encourages listeners to examine their foundation and to trust God’s sovereign plan, no matter the circumstances.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

rock 26 wait 35 foundation 22 trust 32 built 13 storm 9 psalm 27 sea 11 hope 24 alone 16 silence 9 red 9

Topics

Salvation 7 Faith 6 Hope 5 Suffering 2 Sin 1

Scripture referenced 19

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 62 0:04 Psalms 62 0:46 Psalms 62:1 0:49 Psalms 62:1 0:59 Psalms 27:14 1:48 Psalms 37:7 1:57 Psalms 46:10 2:03 Exodus 14 6:09 Exodus 14 6:20 Psalms 62 10:02 Psalms 62:2 10:02 Psalms 62 10:52 Matthew 16 21:42 Psalms 62 25:00 Psalms 62:8 25:00 Psalms 77 34:41 Psalms 77:7-9 34:41 Psalms 77 35:20 Psalms 77:7-9 35:20

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

0:00
But we are continuing through our Psalms series.
0:04
So if you have your Bible, go ahead and open up to Psalm chapter 62.
0:07
As we go through the summer, we are going to be studying through the book of Psalms.
0:11
So, so glad to be going through it.
0:13
Before we jump into it, I want to pray and just ask that the Holy Spirit would move through us this morning.
0:20
So Lord, we love you.
0:22
We thank you for this time to be gathered together to worship your name.
0:27
And Lord, we pray that it be your Holy Spirit that is opening hearts and minds in here.
0:33
That you would speak through me.
0:35
That it be your words, your thoughts.
0:37
And that we would leave here glorifying you.
0:41
So God, we love you so much.
0:42
We praise all in the very precious name of Jesus.
0:49
We are following, we are starting in verse 1.
0:51
If you have your Bible, you can be following along with us.
0:54
You can also download the River Church app.
0:55
We have a Bible app in there.
0:58
And you can follow along on screen.
0:59
But picking up in verse 1, it says this.
1:09
From him comes my salvation.
1:13
So there has been a reoccurring thought in the Psalms.
1:16
If you've been with us this summer as we've been studying through the Psalms,
1:19
there's been this reoccurring thought that we've been seeing through almost every Psalm that we have studied.
1:26
Now, if you haven't been with us, I'm going to reread some of those verses again.
1:29
But I want to dive into this idea this morning.
1:32
Because I haven't really been able to sit on it or to study as deeply as I wanted to.
1:37
And I think this Psalm is a great idea.
1:38
It's a great place to do it.
1:39
But it's this idea of waiting for God.
1:43
Being still before the Lord.
1:48
In some of the Psalms we've studied, Psalm 27 verse 14 says,
1:52
Wait for the Lord.
1:55
Wait for the Lord.
1:57
Psalm 37, 7.
1:59
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.
2:03
Psalm 46, 10.
2:04
Be still and know that I am God.
2:08
Now, it's all throughout the Psalms.
2:11
But those are just.
2:12
And a few that we've been studying this summer.
2:14
This idea of waiting on the Lord.
2:18
Being still before God.
2:20
Trusting in him.
2:21
And so really what I want to dive into this morning is, what does that mean?
2:25
Because I believe we can read some of those verses.
2:28
We can hear, wait on God.
2:30
Wait on the Lord.
2:31
And there's many different thoughts that come to our mind.
2:33
What does it mean?
2:35
Clearly it is an important theme that the Psalmist wants us to hear as we study through this wonderful book.
2:43
Before we really get into it.
2:45
Before we really look at what it is, what we must know is that this isn't a call to passivity.
2:51
This isn't a call for us to as Christians or if we believe in Jesus Christ.
2:56
This isn't a call for us to just sit where we're at.
2:59
Don't do anything and just say, I'm waiting on God makes me think of kids.
3:05
So Isaac, our nine year old son, does this all the time.
3:11
Dad, can you come help me with this?
3:15
Yeah, buddy, for sure.
3:16
Just give me one second.
3:16
Just wait for me and I'll help you out.
3:18
And what happens the second he hears?
3:20
Wait for me.
3:24
He doesn't try any longer.
3:25
He's going to sit there exactly where he is because dad's going to come and dad's going to take care of it.
3:31
Sometimes we can be like that as Christians.
3:34
We read these verses as wait on the Lord.
3:36
We go, all right, awesome.
3:38
I don't have to do anything.
3:41
God says, wait on me.
3:43
So I'm going to sit in my place, in my comfort.
3:45
And that's what I'm going to do.
3:47
And I'm going to sit here.
3:49
Rather, what this psalm is talking about, it is a call to trust in God.
3:54
As you follow him, it is a call that no matter where you're at, what stage of your walk with the Lord you're in, whether you've been following God for five minutes or 50 years, it is as you follow him, as you serve him in the church, as you love him in your personal devotions, as you're in your workplaces and things are difficult or loving those hard family members that don't want to receive the gospel.
4:20
What do you do?
4:21
You trust in God as you're following him in those moments.
4:24
You still live out this life that Christ has called us to live.
4:33
And I believe in this verse, there's a word that helps us get great insight to what this means.
4:39
Go back to verse one.
4:41
He says, for God alone, my soul waits in silence.
4:46
I think this word is so important here in this verse.
4:50
I was reading a commentator this week, and he says, the silence intended is, in short, that composed submission of the believer.
5:04
In the exercise of which he accepts in the promises of God, gives place to his word, bows to his sovereignty, and suppresses every inward murmur of dissatisfaction.
5:18
I think that word is so powerful there because as we try and follow God and things don't go how we want them to.
5:25
How often does that happen to us?
5:27
We're praying for things.
5:29
We're laying our heart out to God.
5:30
God, this is what I want.
5:32
Let it happen this way.
5:33
And when it's not going how we want it, what happens within our soul?
5:38
In our souls, does God really care for us?
5:45
Those lies begin to creep in.
5:48
And so this waiting for God as we're following him, we're trusting him, but in silence, what we're doing is we're quieting those murmurs within our soul.
5:55
And it's that submission of the believer in the God of the universe and saying, I trust in your control.
6:04
And so no matter what comes in my way, I'm going to wait for you in silence.
6:13
There's a couple of verses.
6:14
There's a couple of verses that I think helps give a real life example of what this looks like.
6:20
So next is chapter 14, where we're at here in this story.
6:24
God sends Moses to Pharaoh saying, let my people go.
6:28
If you want a fantastic illustration of the Exodus story, I cannot recommend more.
6:38
Those of you who know, you know.
6:40
Go and watch that this afternoon.
6:42
All right.
6:45
But here, the story of God freeing the Israelites from slavery.
6:50
And so God works all of his wonders.
6:53
He does all the plagues displaying his power.
6:56
And Pharaoh finally bends his knee, says, go ahead, leave my kingdom, leave here.
7:03
And they begin to walk away.
7:04
But then Pharaoh's heart turns again and says, no, I'm going to hunt them down.
7:07
I'm going to kill them.
7:09
And so there's millions of Israelites walking in the wilderness and they approach the Red Sea.
7:16
Now, we read these as kids and we see them in the little illustration kids Bible.
7:20
We see a little lake.
7:21
It's like God split that little pond.
7:23
And let these people walk through.
7:25
Saw a video of some guy who's at the Red Sea.
7:28
And he's like, this is basically an ocean.
7:30
Look at this.
7:30
You cannot see the other side of it.
7:33
So they get to the Red Sea.
7:34
This army's pinching in on them.
7:36
And out of millions of people, they're going, what's going to happen?
7:40
We're supposed to trust and wait on God.
7:42
What do we do?
7:43
Moses stands up before them and he says, fear not.
7:49
Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.
7:55
For the Egyptians whom you see.
7:57
And remember, they're pressing in on them.
7:59
They are running to them with their horses and chariots.
8:01
He says, you shall never see them again.
8:04
The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent.
8:12
It's God who is working on their behalf.
8:17
And what did they have to do?
8:22
See the salvation and walk on through.
8:25
The God whom you serve does this.
8:28
The God whom you lay your heart before, he will work for you.
8:31
He will bring about.
8:34
And so when we approach our Red Sea, and I don't say this lightly because one of my pet peeves is
8:40
trying to place ourselves in the biblical stories.
8:44
This is a different context and I don't believe that's the best way to interpret passages.
8:49
I think we're meant to see God's character in it.
8:52
But I do think there's some validity here.
8:54
In our life, there's moments where we feel we're approaching the Red Sea and enemies are caving in.
9:00
Whether it's enemies from the outside.
9:03
You're trying to live out your faith in a workplace that is hostile.
9:07
You're trying to love a faith that is hostile.
9:08
You're trying to love a family member who just keeps rejecting over and over again.
9:13
Maybe it's your own sin struggles that are bringing it about.
9:18
I just cannot quit this sin.
9:20
What am I going to do?
9:23
When we're in those moments, we fear not.
9:25
For God is on our side.
9:27
We fear not.
9:29
For we wait on the Lord in silence.
9:31
We trust that he is going to work in our moments.
9:34
He is going to sustain us.
9:38
We see the salvation that he works out for us.
9:40
And truly, I believe it is a call to see the foundation.
9:45
The foundation that you are built on.
9:47
In those moments in life, when we need to wait on the Lord in silence,
9:51
we look back to the foundation of our entire life.
9:55
What is our foundation?
9:57
What are we rooted on?
9:58
What are we standing on?
9:59
That is what we go back to.
10:02
And I think verse 2 in Psalm 62 shares that.
10:05
So continuing on, he says,
10:09
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.
10:15
I shall not be greatly shaken.
10:18
So as we continue to dive into this,
10:22
the idea of what it means to wait on the Lord,
10:26
to understand how we wait for the Lord,
10:29
what this is meant to do,
10:30
we must know what our trust is built on.
10:34
And really, I should say, who it is built on.
10:39
Where does our trust lie?
10:41
What is our faith built upon?
10:43
What is the foundation of this?
10:47
Now, this thought of verse 2 is almost echoed clearly in verses 5 to 7.
10:52
So going down just a little bit in Psalm 62.
11:01
For my hope is from him.
11:04
He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.
11:08
I shall not be shaken.
11:18
David here just continues to pour out his heart,
11:22
continues to talk about where his foundation is built.
11:28
four times the word only or alone has been written.
11:39
He alone is my rock and salvation.
11:42
For God alone, oh my soul, he only is my rock.
11:47
Many commentators call this the only Psalm.
11:51
That this only or alone word is really the soul of this Psalm.
11:57
It calls our minds to what we are meant to trust in.
12:01
What we are meant to put our hope in.
12:05
There is no other.
12:06
There is no other hope.
12:07
There is nothing else that we build upon.
12:10
There is one thing, and this Psalm makes it emphatically clear
12:14
what that one thing is.
12:18
And I will say, how you feel about these only verses
12:27
When you read those verses in here,
12:29
only God, he alone, he only is my fortress and my rock,
12:34
and you go, wait a minute.
12:36
What about my money?
12:40
What about the successes I've experienced?
12:43
What about my freedoms?
12:44
Whatever it may be, if you try adding something to it,
12:46
if you try adding something else to that,
12:47
how you feel about these only and alone verses
12:54
Because if we try and add into this foundation,
12:58
we are missing the point.
13:01
And what is trying to be conveyed in these verses
13:04
is a core belief of ours as Christians.
13:09
A core belief for us, which is faith alone.
13:13
That's it.
13:14
We have faith alone in one thing, Christ.
13:22
As I thought about that, right,
13:24
sometimes I can be fearful to go,
13:25
man, I'm putting my faith in one thing.
13:27
Why don't I have backup plans?
13:30
How many of us in our life have all sorts of plans
13:32
for every situation?
13:34
We're thinking through every sort of thing.
13:38
I want control over every area.
13:40
This psalm tells us there's one thing
13:42
that you put your hope and faith and trust in.
13:45
And mind you, that doesn't need to be a scary thing.
13:48
Because what we put our faith in,
13:50
it's not some dead leader like every other religion
13:53
of the world.
13:54
It is not some vain idol that's not following us
13:57
into the other side of eternity.
13:59
It is not some vain thing that is dead
14:01
and cannot give us support in these moments.
14:03
We put our faith in a risen Savior.
14:07
We put our faith in the Son of the living God
14:10
who died on the cross for our sins,
14:13
came to the world and lived perfectly,
14:15
and is risen again in power,
14:17
and forever is interceding for you,
14:23
Very God.
14:25
This is the Christ we put our faith alone on.
14:29
It is a core belief of ours,
14:31
and it is being shared here in this psalm.
14:41
Something else within you that you do
14:45
to give yourself hope, safety,
14:49
or is it only in Christ?
14:52
There is no room for another to have our allegiance.
14:58
If the first only wasn't clear enough,
15:04
to write this knows how we as people,
15:06
are, you know, willing ignorance.
15:09
I'm gonna avoid that first only verse.
15:19
only is our fortress, only is our salvation.
15:24
When we consider our life then,
15:26
we have to look at it and go,
15:28
what are we built on?
15:30
Now we can say all sorts of things,
15:32
and I'm guilty of this myself.
15:35
I'll say all the time, yes,
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God is only my rock and my fortress
15:39
while I'm standing on a stage on a Sunday morning
15:47
oh my gosh, I need to figure this out.
15:48
This is all on me.
15:51
I don't run back to the foundation
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of what I'm supposed to be built on in Christ.
15:58
In essence, it will reveal what we wait on,
16:02
what we're rooted on and found,
16:05
and I will show what we wait on.
16:08
Now I think this is where the idea of foundation
16:13
knowing what our foundation is.
16:19
So if you wanna go with me in your Bibles
16:24
Jesus here in the Sermon on the Mount
16:30
why it is so important
16:47
everyone then who hears these words of mine
16:50
and does them will be like a wise man
16:53
who built his house on the rock
16:55
and the rain fell and the floods came
16:58
and the winds blew and beat on that house,
17:01
but it did not fall
17:02
because it had been founded on the rock.
17:06
And everyone who hears these words of mine
17:08
and does not do them will be like a foolish man
17:11
who built his house on the sand
17:12
and the rain fell and the floods came
17:15
and the winds blew and beat against that house
17:18
and it fell and great was the fall of it.
17:23
Jesus here in this parable is giving this picture
17:29
One that is built on the rock,
17:32
this bedrock, this foundation that is solid
17:34
and that is secure.
17:36
And so that means no matter what comes,
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this house is gonna be standing there.
17:41
And then the other one is gonna be standing there.
17:42
And then the other house built on sandy ground,
17:49
I always wonder what this looks like.
17:52
And I was seeing a video this week
17:53
of the 30th home in North Carolina since 2020
17:57
has just washed into the sea.
18:00
People building homes right up on the shoreline in the sand.
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If you thought this wasn't true,
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it's happening right before our eyes.
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30th home, I'm like, that's crazy.
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And just watching the video just falls
18:17
and away in the sea it goes.
18:19
I don't know if they go and catch that.
18:20
I hope they do.
18:20
But in both,
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both of these cases,
18:25
both of these homes,
18:25
there's one thing that's similar.
18:35
No matter what our foundation is,
18:38
we are going to go through storms.
18:41
No matter who we are,
18:43
where we come from,
18:44
how much money we have or don't have,
18:46
from the richest of us to the poorest of us
18:48
and everyone in between,
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storms are going to come.
18:52
And that is why I think the Psalms are so helpful,
18:55
especially a Psalm like this,
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talking about what our hope is supposed to be built on,
19:00
what we're supposed to wait on,
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because either you're in the storm now
19:05
or you're going to be in the storm.
19:09
I would love to stand up here and tell you
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storms are never going to come.
19:13
I would love to say if you follow Jesus,
19:19
Let's party until we're on that side of eternity.
19:21
But it's not what happens.
19:30
For some of us, it could be health issues.
19:41
where there's no hope.
19:41
There's no more pain and tears.
19:45
Health issues that range all over the place.
19:48
And the pain that comes with that.
19:52
A little bias to that.
20:01
We know prices of everything keeps going up.
20:04
For some reason, that paycheck always seems to stay the same.
20:07
Am I going to pay my bills?
20:09
What am I going to do?
20:11
Another thing happens.
20:14
Kids need to go to the doctors.
20:16
Whatever it is, what do I do?
20:21
What I'm trying to follow you and my heart is just broken.
20:25
I can't do it.
20:27
I don't know how to get out of this.
20:29
What do I do?
20:30
How do we sustain to go back to the Red Sea?
20:35
How do we wait at the Red Sea when this is happening?
20:39
When every enemy is caving in and fears there's no way out.
20:43
How do we sustain in those moments?
20:46
How do we wait for the Lord?
20:49
The only chance for you to sustain and to stand firm
20:53
is to be founded on one thing.
20:56
I'm going to keep harping on this because the psalm does.
20:58
Only.
21:00
One thing.
21:01
If you aren't firmly rooted and founded on the foundation of Jesus,
21:06
you may last for a while or many seasons.
21:10
That sandy, shaky foundation may get you through certain times,
21:13
but at some point it's going to fail.
21:16
There's only one thing that's going to sustain you to the end
21:19
and carry you through death to the other side of eternity,
21:24
and it is Jesus Christ.
21:26
He's the only one that will sustain us through it all.
21:29
Christ is this rock we're talking about
21:33
and we need to see that it is so important
21:35
because Jesus had another interaction with his disciples talking about this.
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Jesus looks at his disciples, he stops,
21:50
and he asks him the all-important question
21:52
that the entire world is wanting to know.
21:55
Who do you say Jesus is?
22:00
He asks him that, and this is the only question that matters for us.
22:04
May we never forget that.
22:06
Even if we believe Jesus is our Lord,
22:09
how important this one question is.
22:12
Who do you say Christ is?
22:18
Come on now, come on, preach, boy.
22:21
But Peter gives the response like our little man here that we need to have.
22:36
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
22:45
for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,
22:48
but my Father who is in heaven.
22:50
And I tell you,
22:51
you are Peter,
22:52
and on this rock I will build my church,
22:55
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
22:59
There are some who think this verse is talking about Peter being the rock,
23:03
but Peter is not our rock.
23:05
Our finances are not our rock.
23:09
Our success is not our rock.
23:10
Our jobs are not our rock.
23:12
Our spouses and family members are not our rock.
23:15
Jesus is talking about the confirmation that Peter gives in verse 16,
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He is the Son of the living God,
23:23
and that is the only rock,
23:25
that we have in this life.
23:27
That if you put your faith in Jesus
23:30
and see that he truly did die for you,
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he truly went to the cross and rose again,
23:35
you have this rock forever.
23:37
And please hear my heart in this.
23:39
If that's not you this morning,
23:41
I hope that it would be.
23:43
I hope that you would hear of this rock.
23:46
I hope that you would hear of this solid foundation
23:48
that will never give out on you.
23:50
I hope that you would set aside every vain idol in your life,
23:54
everything you're going back to salvation for your fortress,
23:57
and that you would,
23:58
see Jesus loves you so much
24:00
and wants to be the salvation for you forever.
24:07
Because he is it.
24:10
And what's amazing is just as this is true for salvation,
24:15
it is true for every moment in our life.
24:22
he doesn't leave us there.
24:28
In every moment and in every storm and in every trial,
24:31
that we would have hope and trust to know
24:33
that when we wait on the Lord,
24:35
when we silence those murmurs within us,
24:38
we are going to be standing firm
24:40
because Christ is our rock.
24:51
So what does waiting look like?
24:55
I think this is a very important question,
24:58
one that I thought about.
25:00
Go to verse eight in Psalm 62.
25:05
Trust in him at all times, O people.
25:09
Pour out your heart before him.
25:12
God is a refuge for us.
25:21
My wife was out with some of her friends,
25:23
so I had some time just by myself.
25:25
And I started getting convicted as I,
25:28
I started thinking about my sermon
25:29
and where I was wrapping it up.
25:32
Didn't fully have a thought of where it was gonna go.
25:36
I had an idea.
25:38
And every idea that I kept thinking of,
25:40
I felt was gonna be leading us astray
25:42
because I was moving into an area
25:46
that I don't think scripture talks about.
25:50
And it would be easy because it's what we wanna hear.
25:53
I'm not gonna stand up here and tell you
25:56
every time you go through a trial,
25:59
every time a storm comes,
26:01
that everything will work out exactly how you want it to.
26:05
There are many pastors preaching that,
26:08
saying things like,
26:11
breakthrough is right on the other side.
26:16
Just keep waiting, your breakthrough's coming.
26:19
Or this valley is preparing for you
26:21
a mountaintop that you can't even imagine.
26:28
to prepare you for the next season of plenty.
26:33
I started getting convicted as I felt my heart go in there
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because that's what we wanna hear.
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And there's many pastors with podcasts,
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that are preaching this to itch your ears.
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And I wanna tell you from me,
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if that is what you are hearing,
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turn it off, put the book down.
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Because the truth is,
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sometimes things don't work out how we want them to.
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And that is a big distinction.
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It's always gonna work out how God wants it to,
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but it may not work out the way that we want it to.
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And the truth is that sometimes we get to the Red Sea
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and it doesn't split.
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to the point that it takes their life from them.
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And it is happening all around the world
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even right now.
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We may not prosper financially in this life,
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but does that mean we stop trusting God?
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No, because verse eight says at all times.
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This means at the times when you are in a storm
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and it doesn't work out the way that you want it to.
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The times when you are in a storm
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and God does come and show up and pulls us from it.
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Or at the times when we're on the mountaintops
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and things are going great.
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In all times, we trust in the Lord.
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Our circumstances do not,
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or how we want it to be done and it not happening
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does not dictate our trust.
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Our trust is built on God.
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Look through all of church history too.
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exactly how you want it is not what church history says.
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Even just as recently, there was a very famous apologist.
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I would encourage you to go look up some of his stuff.
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He was a Muslim living in the Middle East
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And what he did was,
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what he would share in his story,
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what that meant was complete exile from everything you know.
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Your family's gone, your land is gone,
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your friends are gone,
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but he had an encounter with a real Jesus,
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believed Jesus did die and rise again
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and he was gonna give his life to follow him.
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And so he goes and he travels all around the world
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in around his 40s, maybe mid 30s, I forget the age,
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People are being saved.
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If you're gonna look at a life and say,
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that's what you're supposed to do, he's doing it.
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And I remember seeing a video and it moves me
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every time I think about it.
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Days before he's dying, he's praying to God,
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Lord, I know you can heal me.
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I know that you can heal me,
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but I trust in your will either way.
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And that man passed away,
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but he was received instantly into the arms of the Lord.
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and they will not bow to that.
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to throw them in the fire.
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And it's one of my favorite verses.
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They say, no, our God can save us.
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But if not, he is still God worthy to be praised.
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So we will not bow to you, oh Nebuchadnezzar.
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knowing they're hostile,
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but knows they need the truth of Jesus Christ.
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And he defends it so amazingly
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and gives one of the best sermons
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And what's his reward?
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but he is received instantly into the arms of the Lord.
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So what are we supposed to do?
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What does waiting look like in suffering?
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If we have this thought
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with our health,
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then we are setting our hopes on a vain thing
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that will not last for us.
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If that is what we hope in,
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then we are setting ourselves up for failure.
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What do we do in suffering?
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We do what verse eight says.
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We hope and trust in God at all times.
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And what we do as followers,
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Because even if I don't have health in this life
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or wealth in this life,
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I don't care
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because I know what awaits me.
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This life is momentary and it is fleeting.
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Everything in this world is going to rust away
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But I am with Christ forever
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because Jesus died for me.
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Jesus rose again so that I may be saved.
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And he's gonna see to it
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that I am received in glory at the moment
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that I am saved.
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That's what my hope and trust is in.
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And I hope the same is for you too.
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Look to the eternal things.
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Understand what your prize is.
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This fallen world is living for so many things
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that feels like prizes.
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You could accumulate all the money in the world
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and what's gonna happen to you the moment that you die?
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For those preachers that preached it all the time,
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all that prosperity you have is not going to save you.
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Only one thing will.
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That is it.
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So what does it mean to wait on God?
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To hope in God?
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It doesn't mean, God, I will wait on you
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as long as you fix this situation.
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God, my hope is in you as long as my sickness goes away.
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As long as things go how I want them to go, God,
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I will trust in you.
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It means, God, I will trust and hope in you
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because your plan is greater.
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Oh, that we would be a people known for suffering with Christ.
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and it changed the way I look at suffering.
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That we would be a people where our faith and trust
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in the midst of suffering, when it comes,
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that it would be so strong, no matter the circumstances,
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so that this world that is trusting all sorts of things,
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that is trying to set their hope and trust
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on all sorts of things to get them through their situations
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and when they inevitably fail,
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they would see us, the people of God,
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who are firm and rooted on the foundation of Christ,
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who are going through suffering,
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but have that hope and trust every single day.
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Every single moment, so that they would see us and go,
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there's something different with them.
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I want that hope and trust.
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That we would be able to be a people
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who go through suffering, but who have the joy of the Lord.
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Who would never forget how good our God is.
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I'm gonna wrap up with Psalm 77, verses seven through nine,
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and just leave you with these few questions.
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Because as I say these things, I know it's not easy.
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And please know, you have a church here who loves you,
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who wants to help you.
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Me as your pastor, please hear from me.
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I wanna help you through your suffering.
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If you're struggling, don't come in here Sunday mornings
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and just put that mask on.
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Be real with us.
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We'll help you out.
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But these questions always seem to help me,
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and I wanna leave them with you, and we'll wrap up.
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Psalm 77, verse seven through nine.
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Are his promises at an end for all time?
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Has he in anger?
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And so if you ever begin to doubt that,
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go to these questions.
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He never has, and he never will.
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Lord, we love you.
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And I thank you so much for this opportunity this morning
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to preach your word.
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So thankful to know that who we wait on,
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who our trust is founded on,
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is the almighty of the universe.
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And the hope that we have will never be put to shame
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because it is founded in Christ.
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Please be with every broken, hurting heart this morning.
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and a joy to sustain them through every moment.
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Lord, we love you.
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And we pray this all in the very precious name of Jesus.