He is Our Rock and Role

A word today to help you in those times of life when it feels like everything is going sideways. When everything seems to be going great and everything in life seems to be humming just as it should be, all of a sudden everything begins to fall apart.

The company that you were counting on, it goes really up. The marriage that looked solid, the health that you were proud of, all of a sudden your world begins to fall apart. Do what David did. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way.

Up next, how David responded when his world fell apart. It's part of Dr. Youssef's encouraging series from the Psalms, God Has the Answer, for every problem you face. Before he begins, a reminder that Leading the Way is listener supported. That means that Dr. Youssef and the worldwide team rely on God's provision through the generosity of God's people. So if you would like to stand with Dr. Youssef, call us and speak to a ministry representative. We're at 866-626-4356. And online at ltw.org.

More on that later. Right now though, words from Psalm 28 on Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. In Psalm 28, this prayer is really a song. If you look at it in the Hebrew language and how it's designed, it is really a song and has three stanzas in it. The first stanza is verses 1-2. David is placing a confident request. The second stanza is found in verses 3-5 and there he presents to the Lord a reasoned request. And thirdly, you find here that David in the third stanza, verses 6-9, a cause for rejoicing. You ready?

Let's go through them. The first stanza in which he presents a confident request. Now don't miss this important part about his confidence. He comes confident to God.

Where does his confidence come from? The rightness of his cause? No, it's very right.

Nobody can argue with that. Is he saying, God, look what I've done for you and you owe me something. That is self-righteousness. No, that's not what he does. But his confidence comes from knowing who God is. He says, to you I call, O Lord, my what? Rock.

That's who he is. So let me ask you, do you know why the Bible refers to God and later on the Lord Jesus as the rock? It's because a rock is a symbol of changelessness. A rock is a symbol of the immutability of God. A rock is a symbol of the permanence of God. A rock is a symbol of the invincibility of God. A rock is a symbol of the immovability of God.

Listen to me, no one can call themselves the rock except the Lord Jesus. Amen? But there's something else here that I don't want you to miss. This is the amazing contrast that you find in this psalm.

I want to explain that to you. David and his world are falling apart but God is what? God. David's world is crumbling but the Lord is what? The Lord. David's world was sliding, in fact his throne is sliding from under him but God is the what? The Lord.

David's power that at once seemed to be invincible and was victorious over all his enemies, all of them. But now he's on the run but God is what? The Lord. David's security is melting before his eyes but God is what? The Lord. David's subjects, they turned on him, even some of his friends but God is what?

The Lord. Let me ask you this, have you been there? Well some of you may be there now, going through it now.

So I want you to listen very carefully please. When everything seems to be going great and everything in life seems to be humming just as it should be, all of a sudden everything begins to fall apart. All of a sudden. The company that you were counting on, it goes billy up. The business deal that you have been working for falls apart.

The marriage that looked solid, the health that you were proud of, all of a sudden your world begins to fall apart. Do what David did. Do what David did. Go to the only one who's unchangeable. Go to the only one whose love for you does not ebb and flow.

Go to the only one whose stability toward you is unquestionable. Let me ask you another question. When your world seems to be collapsing in front of you, do you go to God or do you blame God?

I've been around long enough. The first thing people do is blame God. When you are betrayed by someone that you thought was near and dear to you, to whom do you go? Do you become angry with God for that betrayal?

He has nothing to do with it. When you find yourself in trouble because some of your own choices, some of your own wrong choices, do you cry to the Rock of Ages or do you falsely accuse Him of not protecting you from the consequences even of your own choices? David's confident request stems from knowing who God is.

Never once do you see here or anywhere else that David feels that God owed him something. In our culture today, everyone seems feel that they're entitled. There's an entitlement culture today. They feel that God owes them something. They feel that the government owes them something. They feel that their parents owe them something. They feel that the church owes them something. When it comes to God, please listen to me, He owes us nothing and we owe Him everything.

People with that entitlement mentality never accomplish anything great, never accomplish anything worthwhile. And David said, hear my cry, oh Lord, for what? For what you owe me? For what I've done for you?

No, no, no, no. Hear my cry for your mercy. See, David figured that if God is not hearing him and does not have mercy on him, he's as good as dead.

Now, beloved, I fully identify with that. I often say to the Lord, without your mercy and without your grace, I'm a dead man walking. There are times when I have completely blown it in my life and I go to God and literally I go on all four. I said, oh Lord, I don't have the right to ask for anything except your promised mercy. Lord, the only confidence I have is in your mercy.

Lord, the only assurance that I have is your mercy. When David pinned those great words inspired by the Holy Spirit, obviously he was sensing that God has been silent. Have you ever experienced the silence of God?

You might be experiencing the silence of God right now, but he has a purpose for that. And David is appealing to the Lord to break his silence and answer his prayer. And David is saying to the Lord, Lord, I am as good as dead if your mercy does not break your silence. And so David says he holds his hands toward the holy place. That is a symbol of the presence of God. He's lifting up his hands to the Lord.

This is a sign or a symbol of passionate expression to implore God. When Moses did this on the mountain, Joshua won the battle. When Jacob wrestled with God, God heard his cry. When Jesus sweated blood in the garden of Gethsemane, the resurrection took place on the third day. Secondly, he calmly reasoned with God.

Look at verses three, four and five. Listen to me. If there is a successful propaganda from every side, from education, from the media, from... If there is a successful propaganda that invaded the minds of this generation, it is this. Now we must never judge anybody about anything.

Right? Don't judge. Even the people of Manchester, England, after the horrific, the vile act of terrorism at a concert in Manchester, England, the next day in schools, the teachers said to the students, don't judge the terrorists.

Instead, sit down and write them a letter. And this propaganda across the globe, it's not just in America, this whole media campaign about not judging anyone about anything, no matter how vile it may be. Beloved, this is Satan's way of rationalizing and justifying all sorts of evil. I personally think that he's preparing the world for the Antichrist.

Now, if you cannot see the devil's authorship of this propaganda, I honestly don't know what to tell you. I read a story that absolutely shocked me. True story of a college professor. He was teaching his class about the evils of Hitler and Nazism. And while he was waxing eloquently, this young Jewish lady in his class, just think about this.

This breaks your heart. A Jewish student, she piped up and she said, who are we to judge them? See, that's where we are.

That's where we are. While the Bible from cover to cover encourages us to call evil, evil, sin, sin, whether it is committed by somebody else or is in our own lives. You see, if we don't know how to judge sin in our lives, then we have no right to judge anybody else. Hear me right, please, because the beauty about David's calm reasoning with the Lord is that he does not reason based on his self-righteousness, but rather based on the character of God. David already approached God by confessing his own sinfulness, but he does more than that.

Look at it with me. He does not begin his prayer or his song by asking God to judge the wicked. No, he doesn't begin there. He begins by asking God to keep him from being dragged into the wicked's evil schemes. John Wesley said something that I often quote, but for the grace of God, there go I. But for the grace of God, there go I. David is aware of his own propensity to sin. David is aware of his own propensity to behave like the wicked people do. And that is why he begins by confession that apart from the life-giving, sustaining power of God's word, apart from the life-giving, sustaining power of the Spirit of God, apart from the life-giving, sustaining mercy of God, he could have been swept away with the wicked. And he would have been among their ranks.

Don't miss what I'm going to tell you. When David was praying for justice, he was not praying just as an individual who believed in his Lord in the Old Testament. He was a man who walked with God. You read his Psalms and you see this. But he was not praying as an individual. There's a difference between you and I pray as individuals and the leader of a country praying. He's praying here as the king of Israel. He's praying here as the governor. You see, it's one thing even for the head of a state or head of a country to pray if he's a believer and he would pray and even forgive the sinners. And it's a whole different ballgame for him who placed an authority to exercise justice and to punish the wicked, as Romans 13 says. Now, evil must never, never, never prosper regardless of how you feel toward those who commit that evil.

And we must pray for their evil plans to be frustrated by God and to be destroyed by God. Sadly today, many under the guise of compassion, they can have more compassion toward the criminal than the victims. They want to protect the civil rights of the wicked more than those who suffered from their wickedness. They want to protect the rapist than the rape victims.

They care more about the rights of a child abuser than the children. Now, beloved, this is wrong. This is evil and we must never acquiesce to it. We need to pray that God will keep raising up leaders with a sense of justice and indignation against evil, for that's what God calls them to do.

Confident trusting, calm their reasoning, cause for rejoicing. All of us, whenever we get into trouble, whenever we get into a fix, we pray. We cry to the Lord, right?

We ask others to cry to the Lord and I will pray on my behalf. Great. Keep doing it.

Don't stop. But here's the thing that I have seen through the years. When God answers that prayer, most often person becomes exuberant, he becomes thrilled and delighted and they're really full of thanksgiving to God.

That's always the case. In the beginning, that exuberance in thanksgiving and gratitude to God with time, it begins to fade away, right? Every time God's gracious act of answering that prayer comes to memory, to mind, a person says, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Lord, I'm sorry, I thank you. I thank you for answering my prayers.

That's many months, many years ago. And then as the pressures of life, more challenges, more difficulties we face, that gratitude begins to wane. And then occasionally when the thought comes, it's oh yes, Lord, I thank you for what you've done back yonder. And then long time, long time after that prayer was answered and you're facing a new problem, crushing problem, instead of going to the Lord and saying, you did this for me one day, you're going to do it again.

Thank you, Lord. No, we go back and say, Lord, I know you did this back yonder, but what have you done for me lately? In Luke chapter 17, we read about 10 lepers, 10, all healed, all 10 of them. Only one, a foreign, a Samaritan, he was foreign to the covenant, that is not part of the covenant of Israel. Only one comes back and says, thank you, Lord. And then the Lord saves him. So it's not healed his body, but saved him soul eternally, which is a blessing of gratitude. Literally you can feel the emotions on the part of the Lord Jesus when he said, where are the other nine?

Were they not 10? Why is only this Samaritan comes back and says, thank you? Probably they felt that the world owed them something, but not David, not David. David actually began to praise God and thank God before he could see any evidence of answers to his prayer. And he began to praise God, began to thank God. Some years ago, I was praying about a certain situation and I prayed for a considerable number of years, not just for a few days, a few months. I prayed for a number of years and many times during those years, I felt discouraged and exasperated and I really wanted to give up. I knew in my heart that I'm praying according to the will of God. I knew in my heart, I'm praying my prayer is consistent with the word of God, but I become exasperated at times throughout parts of that period of time.

And then I'll never forget. I was sitting before the Lord and in prayer and the Lord laid it on my heart. Start thanking me for answering that prayer. Start thanking me before seeing any evidence that I'm answering your prayer. And I began to thank the Lord. I began to thank him in advance.

In fact, that thanks in advance went on for 18 months, at least 18 months. And my beloved friends, listen to me, the devil taunted me. Do you know how the devil does that? How can you thank God when everything is going contrary to your awaited answer? How can you thank God? But thank God he gave me the faith to persist. Isn't that a great God we have? Isn't that a great God we have? Give him praise. What a great God we have without that faith that he instilled in my heart.

I would have missed out on one of the greatest blessings. Look at verse seven. David said, my heart trusted. That's a past tense. I am helped. That's present tense. I will praise.

That's a future tense. Based on his experience and knowledge of God, what he saw, how God protected him from the lions and the bear, how God gave him power over Goliath, based on his history and testimony experience with God, based on that knowledge of the character of God, David's supplication turned into seeing God acting, which turned into a song and singing to the Lord. Beloved, I know most of you know this, but we don't live our Christian life in a vacuum. We really don't. We are here today as a result of where we were yesterday, where we'll be tomorrow, based on where we are today. Not only did David begin to praise God before seeing evidence of answered prayer, but David was interceding for others.

This is really important. People who only pray for themselves when they are in a fix or they are in trouble and they need God to help them, only pray for themselves or even just close family members. Only their needs, only their focus, and they never pray for other people. They miss out on an incredible blessing. It is a blessing that before God, I cannot verbally put it in words.

You have to experience it. Here I speak of what I know, what I experienced. Now this is not to undermine the authority of the scripture. This is to testify to the truthfulness of the word of God. Praying for others, interceding on behalf of others, upholding the needs of others before the Lord. This has a special blessing that you cannot put in words. Praying for God's work, praying for God's people, praying for the things that are dear and near to the heart of God. This blessing is something you cannot truly tell another person about because you experience it.

You have to personally experience it. And so David concludes this prayer, the song, by interceding for others. Save your people and bless your inheritance.

Be their shepherd and carry them forever. You're listening to Leading the Way Audio, the Bible teaching of Dr. Michael Youssef. Passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth on the radio through the podcast with the Leading the Way app and more, reach out at ltw.org or give us a call, 866-626-4356. Seeing all of the ways that you can listen to the solid teaching of Dr. Youssef reminds me of how far Leading the Way has come in more than 30 years of ministry. In the beginning it was a small outreach to people mainly in the Atlanta suburbs. Gospel messages with invitations to attend the Church of the Apostles.

That's where Dr. Youssef is the founding pastor. But as more and more people listened and as the church grew, it became evident that this passionate pastor not only had pointed words for the people of Atlanta, but also the world. So through the years, Leading the Way has become an international ministry, heard and seen across 6 continents in 28 different languages through many technology platforms. Many, many people have heard and responded to the Gospel, and we're so excited to see how God will use Leading the Way to reach the next generations. May we encourage you to be a part of it, consider a generous gift today, or learn how to be a part of Dr. Youssef's team of monthly friends. He calls these the frontline mission partners.

Learn more. Give us a call and speak to a ministry representative. We're at 866-626-4356. That's 866-626-4356. And online at ltw.org. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.