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The River ChurchSermons

Lee Hotchkiss · 5 Jul 2026

Lee Hotchkiss · Sunday, 5 July 2026 · 46:35 · 6,972 words

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Lee Hotchkiss turns to Psalm 121, the Songs of Ascent, reminding us that believers are pilgrims in a hostile world and this world is not our home. He urges us to stop hiding behind pride, admit we cannot handle life alone, and look to God as our constant help. The message highlights that God never slumbers, serves as our shade and protector, and provides an eternal solution. Listeners are invited to pray honestly, share struggles with fellow believers, and trust God rather than self‑help.

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.

playlist 17 basement 9 slumber 9 teenage 6 probably 18 face 16 trial 10 furnace 6 today 30 hill 9 psalmist 9 help 27

Topics

Prayer 4 Faith 2 Freedom 1 The Gospel 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1

Scripture referenced 19

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

Psalms 21 4:06 Psalms 120 4:06 Psalms 20 4:17 1 Peter 2:11 12:12 Psalms 120 13:55 Psalms 120 14:01 Psalms 121 17:46 Psalms 120 18:21 Psalms 120:1 18:21 Psalms 120:1 18:21 Psalms 120:2 19:01 James 1 21:22 James 1:1 22:30 Psalms 121:2 23:24 Psalms 1 31:27 Romans 5:8 38:26 Psalms 121:4 38:54 Psalms 121 41:41 Psalms 121:8 42:28

Transcript

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

All right. So technical difficulties are part of life, right? And can we dim those lights a little

bit? Because I feel visually impaired right now. So something's... There we go. That's wonderful.

Thank you so much. I'll introduce myself and explain why I'm up here a little early. So my

name's Lee Hotchkiss. I actually attend the Holly location and blessed to be here with you guys

today. This is the only location that I have not been blessed to be able to speak at of the

Nine River locations. And so when Pastor Caleb called me and said early last week,

would you like to go preach at Wall Lake? And I thought, absolutely. What an opportunity to be

able to say... You know, we talk about this all the time is the river is nine locations and one

body. And so for me, it's an absolute privilege to be able to come and share the gospel with

you. And I think it's a great opportunity to be able to come and share the gospel with you.

But get to meet you. I have a new friend here on the second row who is the longest standing member

in this church by far. Oh, yeah, look at that. So just really excited to be here with you guys

today. And I think it's so interesting when we think about technical difficulties and things

like that. Like when we read through the Bible, they didn't have big screens and they didn't have

fancy music. They just simply worship the Lord. And that has happened for hundreds and hundreds

of years, thousands of years. And I think it's a great opportunity to be here with you guys today.

And we have the ability to utilize these things, but an understanding that ultimately we are just

here to worship Jesus Christ because he is our Lord and our Savior. And we are blessed to be

able to do that. And happy 4th of July weekend. I was watching fireworks on a lake at our friend's

house until about 1115 last night. And I said, hey, I have got to get out of here. I've got to

drive an hour in the morning and preach. And my friend looked at me and said this,

good luck keeping them awake. And I thought, wow, what kind of comment is that? So my ask of you

guys today is if you're feeling tired and you want to close your eyes, don't. And then I would say

if you have a neighbor next to you who is getting ready to close their eyes, feel free to pinch back

of the arm. Works wonderfully. Hurts a ton, but I promise you they won't close their eyes again

for the rest of the message. But let's pray and then we'll jump into Psalms today. Dear Heavenly

Father, I thank you, Lord, that this is the day that you have made. I thank you, Father God,

that we can rejoice and we can be glad in it. Thank you, Father, for the freedom and liberty

that we have in our country today to worship you in spirit and truth, that we can worship you freely

in public, in our churches, at our homes. I thank you, Father God, that you have given us that

right and that ability. Thank you, Father, that you are worthy of all things. Thank you, Lord,

that today we would reflect on you, that we would have an intimate relationship with you,

and that we would understand that that is what matters. Just pray for everyone here today,

Father God. I pray for all of the river locations. I pray for all of the churches in this community

that they would seek your face. In Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said amen. All right,

so we've been going through...

All summer, the book of, and we say this, I've heard, I've listened to multiple messages. So we

say the book of Psalms, or we say the book of Psalm, right, with an S on the end. It has an S

on the end, but I hear different people say it every different way. We're really looking today

at Psalm 21. And coming off of Psalm 120, I like to read scripture prior to and after

the scripture that I'm actually focused on. And we see here in Psalm 20, we see these pilgrims or

these people taking this pilgrimage. And during that, the next 15 psalms are what we like to call

the songs of ascent. And so what you have is these people are pilgriming up to the top of a mountain

to worship God.

And they're singing these songs to celebrate different things that God has done in their

lives. And they're celebrating the three major feasts. And I like to picture these things when

when they're headed up to the hilltop is they are singing their playlist, right? And so let's go to

modern day technology. What is your playlist? And I was looking through my playlist this morning,

and I have a playlist titled worship. And I have a playlist titled running.

And generally, the worship playlist is involved with my running playlist. I know it doesn't seem

super motivating. It is to me. And I like to run as I listen to worship. I have a favorites playlist

that are the songs that I play the most. I have a golf playlist, okay, that has a variety of

different songs. Every song you could imagine. I played my golf playlist yesterday at 630 in

the morning as I was out there. Part of why I'm so tired today. I have a playlist that has been

shared by my teenage daughters to me because those are the songs that are cool. I have a playlist that

has been shared to me by my teenage daughter's friends that send me songs that I need to listen

to, right? Things like that. And so I have all these playlists that I listen to. I'm sure you

guys do as well. And as I look at these people traveling, singing these songs of a sense,

this is really their playlist. These are things that they're singing out to God and they're

remembering. Things are bringing to remembrance. They're focusing on what God has done and they're

getting ready to go up and celebrate either the Passover, which was God's protection as he led the

Israelites out of Egypt or Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks as God has given Moses the laws and they

were celebrating that or the Feast of the Booths with God's protection of the Israelites in the

world. And so I have a playlist that has been shared to me by my teenage daughters. I have a playlist

that has been shared to me by my teenage daughters. I have a playlist that has been shared to me by my

into a 48-minute drive sometimes. But these people are traveling anywhere from two to seven days,

and they would travel 15 to 20 miles a day to take this pilgrimage to go and worship God.

And there were long journeys filled with lots of different risk, tons of risk. It gave them time

to reflect on what God had done. I'm just going to give a confession here today is I feel like

personally in my life, I do a really good job of focusing on what is in front of me, focusing in

the situation at hand, focusing at maybe the problem at hand. One of the things that I do not

do a good job is reflecting back and looking what God has done, like the full resume of my life

of what God has done. I want you guys to think about that. If you have children or grandchildren

or

just you're married or you're unmarried, just thinking about your life. A lot of times my wife

and I, we've got an adult child with a baby and one on the way, and we have two teenage girls,

and we have puppies and cats and everything else. We are really in the mix right now.

And a lot of times when you've got a million things going on, you probably have four or five

things going really wrong. That's just the reality. There's always something going on. And so very

often what I find myself is very focused on what the problem is and what we can do about it. And man,

I can't believe we're in this situation today. I can't believe we're dealing with this. Or maybe

one of my daughters makes a dumb decision. You guys ever have a teenager make a dumb decision?

I never made a dumb decision in my entire life. Anybody here ever made a dumb decision as a child,

teenager? So I'm the only one that's never made a dumb decision. That's perfect. So instead of

the truth of that probably is I lived my entire teenage life and probably young 20s life only

making dumb decisions. And so very often we're in a situation, and I'll say to my wife, I'll be like,

let's look back at what God has done for us. Let's look back at the full resume. Let's look back at

the fact that things are amazing if we look at the entire story. Today stinks. Today is difficult.

The next six weeks are going to really stink. The next six months are going to be an adjustment. But

look what God has done. Look at our beautiful children. Look at the fact that one of our,

he's not that beautiful. He's a guy. So look at our studly son who now has two studly

grandsons coming. Like look at all of those things that we had to come through to

get to this point. God has been good. And I think as we walk through the

songs of ascents, you will begin to see these people that are singing to God because they

need to focus on what God has done. They need to focus on him. We see this psalmist as he's

on his journey upward to worship God in chapter 120. He's really saying this, like,

this is a hostile world. This is a world where I don't belong. He says, I seek peace,

and they want war. He's realizing that this world is not his home. What he's really realized is what

all of you, all believers should realize here today. Yes, we celebrate a country that is 250

years old. And I'll tell you right now, I am absolutely blessed to live in this country.

You are absolutely blessed to live in the U.S. of A. You are absolutely blessed to live in a place

where you can worship your God freely, where we don't have to be underground or hiding or

trying to skirt the fact that we can truly worship our God openly. And that's an amazing thing. But

the reality is, is this world is not our home. First Peter 2.11 says this,

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners or as exiles, abstain from the passions of the flesh which

wage war against your soul. The NIV translation calls us aliens and strangers. Like, that's who

we are as Christians. We are aliens and strangers of this world. What I mean by that is, this world

is not our home. And that's what this psalmist is looking at his situation as he's on this journey,

as he's on this pilgrimage, walking this same path that Jesus had walked. He said, this is not my home.

Like, this is a dangerous,

this is a dangerous place. This is a place where I don't belong. And as believers, we have to realize

that this is part of the plan, but it is not our purpose. We should not fit in to this world. We

should stand out. We should understand that we'll experience trials and tribulations. This world is

not your friend. It is at enmity with God. This world is not in support of what biblical truth

says. That's the reality. And so you will face harshness and reality in this world outside of

just regular stuff you have to deal with. And it will continue to, to change and become more

anti-God. That's the reality. And so when I read Psalm 120, that's not even the text we're getting

into. When I read Psalm 120, this psalmist is saying that like, hey, this world stinks. And he's singing out. And at the end of 120, we see the psalmist

transition into our text today. 121. The dialogue begins to change from the world is cruel. This is

not our home. We have troubles on every side. Where does my help come from? That's where he

begins to change. He realizes I cannot do this on my own. I'm going to pause right there. This is,

this is one of the struggles that I have faced my entire life right here. I don't want you to know I cannot do this.

I cannot do it on my own. I don't want to admit that I could not do it on my own. I'll tell you right now, I could be living absolute turmoil inside. My house could be an absolute disaster. My household, everything going on. And I would walk in here on at Walt Lake on a Sunday morning. And I would say, Hello, how are you today? And you'd say, Great, how are you? And I'd say, Wonderful. I'm so happy to be here. And inside, I am in a absolute

mess and a disaster. And I know that I need help. But I'm too, too prideful to say, Actually, Pat, I'm a hot mess. You see, if I'm experiencing a time of great, great success, or everything's going great. And Pastor Pat says, Hey, Lee, how are you doing? I am just absolutely joyful to be able to share with him. In fact, we had a conversation this morning, because a lot of things are good. And, and I was talking about a grand

baby and a grand baby on the way. And he was talking about his nine year old son and his son that just nine months old. And all these things are going on. And actually, what we talked about was all good things. What my conversation should have been was, Hey, Pat, what, what's really going on in your life that stinks? Because I know there's 54 things. I counted how many people were here today. No, I'm just kidding. I know there's, I know that there's a lot of things that that he's dealing with. And there's a lot of things that I'm dealing with in a very

often as Christian believers, what we do is we focus on the things that are good, because we don't want to bring those things into their lives. The reality is, like the psalmist here, we need help, we need help. And as I walk through this, I'm going to tell you right now, the world will give you a lot of ways to find help a lot of ways to cope and deal and figure things out. And they've made they've made millions of dollars selling those things.

Because they know that you need help. And here we are, as Christians, we say that we are a family of believers. And we keep those things to ourselves. And we struggle. And we go through these cycles time and time again. And we, you know, we read this book, it's called the crazy cycle, we, we have a problem, we try to figure it out, we think we figure it out, we don't actually deal with it, we have a problem, we try to figure it out, we think we figure it out, we don't actually deal with it, we have a problem. And it just goes on and on.

And on and on and on. In Psalms 121, I'm going to read the entire text, it's only eight verses. It says, I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day.

Nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep you going out. And you're coming in from the time from this time forth. And forevermore. We like the psalmist are on this journey. We see in in chapter 120. He says this world's a hot mess. In 121 verse one, he says, I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? As you study on this, you'll see in verse one, I see a

psalmist saying, starting the song. I wish I could sing. I was almost going to try there. I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? In verse two, I believe you've got other pilgrims that are singing back to him. So you have a brother or sister in need saying, I lift my eyes to the hills. I'm a hot mess. And I need help. And I'm admitting it in front of my friends. It wasn't just

probably traveling by himself. He's got people with him. Where does my help come from? He's a better man than me because he's asking for help. It's okay to be a hot mess. You're probably speaking to somebody who's a hot mess or has gone through these trials and tribulations that you're facing. That is what the body of Christ is for. We all serve a purpose. The hills that he's getting ready to walk through represent danger and exposure. Whether

that be to the elements. This wasn't Michigan on a summer day. Or potentially people who were going to try to rob them or beat them up for whatever reason. And he knows that he is going to face trials and tribulations. And the Bible is not just a historical book, but it is our absolute guideline. I think sometimes when I read the Bible, I think about it as being like, this is so old.

Like, this is, they're like, it's hard to relate to sometimes because you think, all right, they're walking 90 miles. It would take me an hour and 40 minutes to drive it. Like, I've never walked 90 miles in my life. They did this all the time to go celebrate these feasts. But the reality is this. They're going on a journey. So are you. They are facing trials. You're going to too. And if you're one of those people who say, honestly, I'm not going to face trials.

Well, let me read a verse to you. James 1 to 1, 2 through 4. It says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Right here, you're going to face trials of many kinds. I have trouble relating this a little bit. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds.

I think of that as like, oh, wow, I'm going through trial. Wow, God must be ready to do something or break through. The reality is I think, man, this stinks. But we have to understand that we are on this journey in a land we don't belong. We are foreigners or sojourners to this country. And because of that, we are going to face trials and tribulations, which will build our faith because we have a purpose much greater than watching fireworks on a lake at 11 o'clock at night.

That's just the reality. Now, that's part of the journey, but that's not the end point. To me, verse 1 is not a declaration of confidence, but more a declaration of vulnerability. He's gotten to the point where he says, I need help. Where does my help come from? Faith is not about pretending the road is safe. It's recognizing that you are not enough on this walk. You're not enough. You're not strong enough. You're not tough enough. You don't

have it figured out. You're not old enough. You're not smart enough. You're not enough. And until you

get to that point, you'll continue to wonder, why me? Why am I struggling? Why is this so difficult?

Because the Bible says it's going to be. Psalms 121.2 says, this is how I read it. So they're

singing a song. Pat, do you want to sing back and forth with me right now? Okay. Didn't think so.

Good. I'm glad you said no. He says, I look to the hills. Where does my help come from? And then I

see other people singing back, right? This is a group of people. My help comes from the Lord

who made heaven and earth. It seems to be a response. Notice there, my help comes from where?

The Lord. It doesn't come from tradition. It doesn't come from somewhere in the hills.

It doesn't come from medication. It doesn't come from human strength. It doesn't come from

circumstances merely changing. You know, that's sometimes the fix that we really

think that will be the best. If we just stick it out, it will get better.

That's not where help comes from. Your help comes from the Lord. If we learn to rely on

other help sources, we will find ourselves at some point lost and confused. When I was 31 years old,

my father passed away. I was blessed to have an amazing dad, right? That kind of dad that

you wanted to kind of build off who you wanted to be as a dad. He was my best friend.

We did everything together. He taught me good things and probably bad things, right? I think

that's what all dads do. He was a pastor and he still was wild. And I relied on him for a lot of

things in life, meaning he was kind of my go-to call. Hey, dad, the sink's stuck, right? We didn't

have chat back then. Chat's probably way smarter than my dad now. And I can just put it in Google

and say, how do you unplug a sink? But back then it was, hey, dad, my sink is clogged. What do I do?

And he'd say, normally one of two.

You do this or I'll be right there. And next thing you know, he'd come in the door and we

probably would talk for 45 minutes and maybe we fix the sink, maybe we didn't. But eventually,

you know, we'd get the problem solved. So when I was 31, my dad passed away very young,

unexpectedly. And my brother-in-law and I had our, we had purchased our first house a couple

years earlier. And eventually we outgrew that house. It was a duplex. And so he lived downstairs

with my sister and I lived upstairs.

And it was really cool. And eventually it became a rental. And so we had a rental that was,

I wouldn't say very successful, but that's not really part of the story. It was one of those

rentals where everything was always going wrong. And what I learned quickly, at least with my

experience, is my renters would call me at any time of the day, middle of the night, whatever.

And I mean, it could have been for the littlest reasons or the biggest reasons. Like, hey, our

renters would call me at any time of the day and say, you know what? It's just this fuse. You just

open this fuse box and you hit this button. And they'd say, oh, no, I'm not comfortable with that.

So at 1230 in the morning or whatever, I'd have to drive 20 minutes to the rental and hit a button

and wave and smile and go on. And so it was middle of winter. My father had passed,

I believe, in January and probably a cold February afternoon, actually middle of the night,

probably 12 o'clock in the morning. And I was like, oh, my God, I'm going to die. I'm going to die.

It was 12 o'clock at night. Renter called. It was a real issue. Furnace is out. And I said,

you know, OK, I'll be right there. That's a big deal. And drove to the basement and

drove to the basement, drove to the house and walked to the basement. It was a one of those

Michigan basements. Maybe you guys have them. Terrifying bats. Like, you know, everything that

like just touches your neck. You freak out because it's a spider or a bat or something is attacking

you. And went to that basement. It was it was really, really, really, really, really, really, really,

really cold. Couldn't get the furnace figured out. And just out of natural instinct, I picked up my

phone and dialed my dad's number. And as I dialed his number, it hit me for the first time. He's

gone. Never going to answer that phone again. And I broke down in that basement like the the

furnace was the least of my concerns. And I began to just weep in that basement because he was my

go to guy. And I realized I didn't have a go to guy. I didn't have a go to guy. I didn't have a

go to guy anymore. I had lots of friends, but nobody that I was going to call it two in the

morning and say, hey, I need you to show up to this nasty basement with bats everywhere and help

me fix this furnace. And so I began to cry and I began to cry out to the Lord on a February middle

of the night in a nasty basement, freezing cold. And on a side note, I'm not super techno like I'm

not super savvy with furnaces and stuff like that anyway. So I'm just like way overwhelmed. And all

of a sudden, I just felt this ultimate peace. And I don't know what it was, but I just knew

immediately as I begin to cry out to the Lord what was wrong with this furnace. And I don't know if I

hit a button or I put wires together or what it was. And I just watched this fire up. And I looked

up and I thought, you're my go to guy. You've always been here. You've always walked alongside

of me. You've always been a part of the plan. What I had done was relied on my earthly father, which is fine. But I

didn't realize that my heavenly father was always part of the plan. He was always there. And it

reminds me, I read this week of the, you guys have seen it, you probably, 95% of you probably

have it hanging in your house, that the footprints in the sand plaque, where a guy says that I had a

dream. And he's talking to God and he said, I had a dream. And there was two sets of footprints in the sand. And at the very best times in

my life, there were two sets of footprints. And that was you walking with me and guiding me. But in the

worst times in my life, there was only one set of footprints. Why would you leave me in the worst

times of my life? And God answered back and said, son, during the worst times in your life, those

were my footprints because I was carrying you. And I thought, oh, like that's what we need to hear. That is the solution. And in verse two, the song

and the psalmist are singing back, my help comes from the Lord, creator of heaven and earth. Why do they throw in their creator of heaven and earth? Because he's in charge of everything, top, bottom, and in the middle. You know what God created? Breath in your body. He taught you how to breathe, how to think, how to walk, how to talk. It all came from him. There's nothing that started and there's nothing that will end without him involved. And sometimes we try to leave him

out of the equation because we're so smart, we can figure it out ourselves. Let me tell you today, that will never work. As a believer in Jesus Christ, who has given my life to him, I need to know that he is the truth, the way, and the life. He made everything. He made every mountain. He made every path. He made every hill. He made everyone that causes troubles and doesn't cause troubles. He's in the mix of it all. Psalms 1

21-3 says, he will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. It doesn't mean that we won't stumble. It doesn't mean that we won't fall. It doesn't mean that we won't face hardships of many kinds. In fact, the Bible, as we read earlier, tells us that we will. But he who keeps you, you'll see this word throughout all eight verses. He's your keeper. He keeps you. He who keeps you will never slumber. What does that mean? He doesn't

miss a step when we do. He's always aware. He's omnipresent. He's here today. He's at the church

next door. He's down the road. He's all over. He's present. There's moments when I feel like he's

asleep or you feel like he's asleep. Maybe it's a diagnosis. Maybe it's a failed marriage. Maybe

it's a messed up marriage. Maybe it's something with your child. Maybe you've lost your job.

Maybe there's an unclear future. God, wake

up. He's awake. The Bible says he never slumbers. His time is not your time. I had to learn that

at a very young age because I'm the type of person, I'm a type A personality, and I want to know

what's going on, when it's going on, how it's going to happen, and what the end result's going

to be. And God, as he's grown my faith, I've realized he's the type A personality. He's going

to control. And because I'm a type A personality, he's never going to let me know anything. He might

tell my wife what's going on, but he's

never going to tell me what's going on. They just trust, trust, believe, believe. I'm in control. I

do not sleep or slumber. I struggle with that because very often in life, I'm a performance

driven person. I really expect results. I feel like I need to make the right decision in order

to stay in God's good grace. I struggle with that big time. I kind of feel like my outcome is determined

by me doing everything right. And if I do something wrong, then God's going to turn

his back on me and kind of make me earn it back. I struggle with that. The reality is that is the

farthest from the truth of understanding what your Christian walk actually is. But I'm going

to tell you right now, there are people here today who deal with that like, hey, I did something

wrong last night. Therefore, God has removed his hand from my life. The reality is this. You can't

get away from God either way. I used to always give this analogy. Would your life change tomorrow

if you just spent a day with Jesus? Hey, I'm going to spend a day with Jesus. What would 8 a.m. look

like when you woke up? What's the first thing you do? And Jesus is sitting next to your, sorry if I

messed up the camera. Jesus is sitting next to your bed. Hey, Lee, good morning. What are we going to do

today? Is Facebook going to be the first thing you flip on and make sure you've got all your daily

prior to waking up in the morning, right? No, of course not. Jesus is sitting here. When you go to

breakfast and you cook your breakfast and you're getting ready to eat it, you're going to forget

morning prayer over breakfast the other day? Jesus is sitting at the table. I don't know what that

prayer would sound like. I'm praying to him, but he's right there. I'd probably say, hey, you want

to take this one, sir? But you probably wouldn't say praying over your dinner just for dinner time,

right? You probably would think we should probably pray. We're going to really watch our P's and Q's

here today. And when you drive by, you're going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like,

you're driving to work. My favorite thing to listen to is 97 won the ticket. I'm a big sports

fan. Probably would pop worship music on that day because Jesus is sitting there. So I make sure he

knows what I like to listen to. Or maybe what I would do is just have conversation with him. Maybe

I'd spend my 30-minute drive to work just like telling him everything I ever wanted him to know

and wanting to hear what he had to tell me. A lot more important than Mike Valeni on 97 won the

ticket. When that guy cut me off on the way to work and I got ready to put my hand out the window,

bless you, my brother. Of course it would be. I'm not doing anything like that in front of Jesus.

When I had a long day at work and I got home at night and the kids are wanting to tell me 75

different stories about who knows what, and my wife's had a tough day and wants to just kind of

unload on me a little bit, would I just blow her off and say, hey, give me some time? Or would I

probably show what a husband should be in front of Jesus? This mindset that we live two separate

lives. We live a life that is a worldly life and a life that is on Sunday morning spent with Christ.

It is a real distorted mindset. He walks with us and he seeks to talk with us. We serve a God that

the Bible says stands in the door and knocks. He is at my front door knocking, just waiting for me

to open it up. And I'm too busy watching the World Cup or whatever. Folks, it's not about being

performance driven. It's about simply just being real with your Lord and Savior and letting him

know that you're struggling or you need help or you need guidance or you just want to spend time

with him because he's always available. He does not sleep, nor does he slumber. Romans 5, 8 says,

but God demonstrates his life for us. And while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, right?

There was no performance part of the plan there. We were a hot mess and he still sent his son to

life. Had nothing to do with me. Had nothing to do with you. It had everything to do with him.

Psalm 121, 4 says, behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. They're really

driving home the fact here, like he is fully aware. We see what you're going through. He's

fully understanding of your situation. God is different than man. God is different than us. My

promise. We got a new puppy at home. His name's Augie. He's a dachshund. My daughter's dream dog.

She saved up her money. She bought it herself. Augie is taking over the house. All eight pounds

of him. He runs the show. My daughter is a really good dog mom. But every once in a while, she says,

mom, dad, I want to go hang out with my friends or something. Can you watch the dog? And you know,

it's still a puppy, so he needs to have constant attention. They eat and chew everything. And

I heard her say to my wife, hey, can you watch Augie for a couple hours? My wife says, sure,

no problem. She's doing something in the kitchen. Well, I'm watching Augie.

Over on the corner of my eye and watched him. And he went into his crate and went to sleep. And I

waited like 35, 45 minutes. And I said to my wife, hey, how's it going watching Augie? And her eyes

just bugged out of her head. And she said, oh my gosh, I forgot I was babysitting the dog. Where's

he at? Where's he at? Where's he at? And I said, he's over there sleeping in the crate, right?

She was slumbering. She was sleeping. She was not doing her duties. That is who people are. That is

all short. People will always fail you. But God is constantly involved. He's constantly in the mix.

He is the mix. He's everything. Verse five, it says, the Lord is your keeper, your shade on your

right hand. When I read that, the first thing that came to my mind, my wife's like, what does that

mean? I was like, he's my right hand man. He's there. He's on my right hand. Really, what they

would use as the analogy back then is shade was protection. Shade was protection. Shade was

protection because the elements were so brutal. And very often in war, you would hold your shield

with your left hand. Therefore, even though you had a weapon, your right hand would be exposed.

And so the Lord is your shade and your protector from your weak spots. The psalmist is just singing

out like, this is the God that I serve. This is why I can survive this journey. Not because of

who I am, but because of who he is. In Psalm 121, six and seven, it says,

day and night, he's sustaining. He's consistent. He's constant. If you've ever been a part of this

world for more than five minutes, I think that qualifies everyone in this room. You realize that

the sun is going to be hot. The climb is going to be brutal and that the enemy will always be

present. Like troubles don't go away. We might have a good day, but eventually tomorrow,

what we need to understand as believers is that God is always here. Finally, in verse eight,

it says, the Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

And this final verse is what brings me the most peace. Whereas I understand as a child of God,

that God did not send his son as a temporary sacrifice, right? We see that all through the

Bible. No, he sent Jesus Christ, his one and only son as an atoning sacrifice to cover for all of

eternity. It says from this time forth, forevermore, he is not a temporary solution. He is

the eternal solution. And that is the God that we serve. And if anyone here today is of the,

of the, the camp of this, of man, my life is really tough right now. He is the solution.

Your, your body of believers here today, your, your peeps, your people, your, your fellow brothers

and sisters, be real with them. I'm going through hard times right now. Completely certain things in

my life turned upside down unexpectedly. He is the solution. He is the answer. He is Jehovah Jireh,

my God, my provider, my God, my protection, my God, my banner. All of these self-help,

self, anything that starts with self, throw it out the window. As a believer,

he is the solution. Will you pray with me today? Dear heavenly father, I thank you for this day.

I thank you, father God, that you are such a real God and you allow us as believers to

simply be that real with you. Father God, I pray that we could have an intimate relationship with

you, that we would understand that you are in control, that you are real today, that you are

that your word is living and active, father God, sharper than a double-edged sword, penetrating our

soul and our spirit, our bone and our marrow, and that we would be impacted by you, father God,

that we would understand who you are and what you have done for us. Lord, I pray for everybody here

today, sincerely, father God, that they would seek your face. I pray for the hurts. I pray for the,

the rejections that they've faced or are facing. I pray for their, their

heartaches. I pray for their, just the turmoil that they may or may not be experiencing today.

And I pray, father God, that they would seek your face. Lord, I pray that we would be a body of

believers that would turn our eyes to you, that we would look to the hills and we wouldn't ask

where our help comes from, but we would know that our help comes from you and knowing your son.

Lord, I just pray for a true relationship for everybody here today.