Resting on the Rock

Well, let's take our copies of the Word of God, and I want you to go to Psalm 62. I don't know, it was two or three weeks ago when my wife was reading this Psalm, and so she sent it out to all the family to be an exhortation and an encouragement, and as I really, this time that I've had away from the pulpit, I haven't been away from overseeing some things as I tried to stay on top of the COVID issue in the church family. Even though I was not preaching, but nevertheless, I didn't allow myself to dive into hard study.

I wanted just to have a little break from that. I just want to do some light study, as you may have heard it expressed before. Pastors have to have seasons when they take off their work boots and just put on their slippers when they open the Word of God, let God speak to them. But anyway, Pam had found this and shared it, and I just began to meditate on it, and I thought, I'm going to preach that when I go back. And so that's what I'm going to do, and it's Psalm 62, verses five through eight. David is writing to the Lord, and he's writing to himself, and he's in a time of turmoil.

He's in a place of deep distress and anxiety. Here's what he says, verse five, my soul wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest, the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.

Trust in him at all times, O people, pour your heart out before him, God is a refuge for us. I've entitled the unpacking of this text, resting on the rock. He uses that metaphor for his Lord twice in this text. So I thought since he emphasizes it significantly, we ought to emphasize it in our exposition of it. And he begins in verse five with that simple phrase, my soul. Now here he's speaking directly to himself, my soul wait in silence for God only. So here David is talking to himself.

Let's go further than that. Here David is preaching truth to himself. You know what that is? That's biblical counseling. Did you know that you are your primary biblical counselor? Your small group leader is not, your elder is not, your preaching pastor is not.

You are the primary biblical counselor in your life. And so there are times, now listen to me, there are times when the circumstances around us divert our attention and we begin to think on things that are not true. And we have to preach to ourselves and get our thinking back in line with the truth.

Well, that's what David is doing here. This treacherous season, this devastating setting he finds himself in has caused him to grow in fear and anxiety and lose his focus on what is true. So he preaches truth to himself. So he says, my soul wait in silence for God only.

Now the idea of waiting here is the idea of resting and that's the word I would like to use for a moment. David is telling us that he himself needs to rest in God in his present circumstances. Brothers and sisters, if we do not continually reset our rest in him, we will soon wonder from him and wonder from his rest. By the way, are you listening this morning?

Say amen if you're listening. When you come to church on Sunday, you know what it is? It's reset Sunday. Amen, you're resetting your rest, you're resetting your focus, you're resetting your faith where it ought to be.

Because Fox News and all the rest of that stuff has gotten you off center during the week. And so every Sunday is reset Sunday. We have to do that. If we don't do that, we begin to drift over this way or we begin to drift over that way and begin to place our confidence in other things. And that's idolatry. Brethren, don't allow anything to drag you away from the sure anchor of your soul. Let your anchor sink deep into the immovable rock of Jesus Christ. Now Christ established you in himself, and he provides both the chain of grace and the anchor of faith for your soul. During this earthly journey, we must continue to work to maintain what he has established.

Are you hearing me? He established you in him that is to rest in him. Now as we go through this earthly pilgrimage, we fight the good fight to keep getting back up on the rock and put our hope and rest and confidence there.

We want to maintain what he has already established. In addition, we remind ourselves that it is a grace gift that we can repent and return to our original rest. How many of you walked into this church house this morning?

Don't raise your hand, I know how many. How many of you walked into this church house this morning and you're not really resting on the rock? My hope is from the word of God and the power of his spirit, you'll climb back up on there before you walk back out the door. And leave here, confident, joyous, sure, resting in the rock, which is Christ. He gives you the grace that you can do that.

You can come back to him. I don't mean in the sense of losing your salvation and gaining it back. I mean in the sense of depending on him and trusting in him like a child of God should. It is a grace gift that we're able to work as a continuation in this journey of sanctification, work to abide in that true rest that is only found in him. Now I'm going to use the book of Hebrews several times because the book of Hebrews is such a powerful parallel to this psalm and the truth of the psalm.

Because in Hebrews, the writer is writing to the Jewish believers, trying to purge them off of the old order in which they tried to trust in or put their rest. And he keeps telling them, it's not Joshua, it's not the patriarchs, it's not Moses, it's not the moral law, it's not the ceremonial law, it is Christ you must trust in. He's the one who gives you the true rest from your burden of, am I going to be accepted before my God?

And from that burden of, will God take care of me in these difficult days? For example, Hebrews 4, 10 and 11, for the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his. He said, you know how God rested on the seventh day? When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you've rested from any concept of work or looking to your own ability to gain peace or contentment in this life and in this journey. Therefore, verse 11, Hebrews 4, therefore let us be diligent, there it is, be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following in the same example of disobedience, referring to those of the old dispensation who did not see the truth of the promised coming Savior.

They looked to themselves, they looked to works, they looked to the moral law, they looked to the ceremonial law, but they didn't look to the promised Savior Jesus Christ. Now, the book of Hebrews in this text is probably referring to the initial moment of conversion, entering that rest when you're first saved, but it includes the continuum that is once you believe on Christ and rest in him, now your job is by God's grace to continue to believe on him and to continue to rest in him and that's what David's talking about. When he says, oh soul, wait upon God only, rest in God again. Can I charge you church this morning? Can I charge you in the earnestness of Christ and in deep love for you, are you resting in Christ? Pastor, what's gonna happen here? Pastor, what's gonna happen there and what's this group gonna do?

What's this virus gonna do? I don't know, but I can rest on the rock in the middle of it. You see, this is a rest that is fit for us. It is a rest that is designed for his children, his church. It's a rest for those whom he calls his called ones or his chosen ones. Others who don't believe on Christ, they do not find rest in him. His rest is not fit for them.

They do not have the proper connectors to connect to him and his rest. It is the new birth that fits us to him so that we do not find rest unless we are drawn near to him. Listen to this. One sure mark that you're redeemed one is that you are always restless when you are not resting in him. You drift away from Christ.

You know what you'll find? This thing starts bothering you more. This event starts troubling you more. This issue over here starts giving you anxiety and despair. And what's God telling you? He's telling you, you belong to me. You're never gonna find contentment in that stuff.

You're gonna find contentment in me alone now that you're mine. So you have to reset your rest back on Christ. Now again, the primary emphasis of our text is not the initial point of conversion, but it certainly includes that because if you've never entered the saving rest, you cannot enjoy the sustaining rest of God. Hebrews 3, 11 and 12 reminds us that we're not to have an evil, unbelieving heart because he said those with an evil, unbelieving heart, listen to this, God says, I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. Unbelief equals no rest. So we remind ourselves that you either enter his rest now or you will enter his wrath later.

No neutral ground in there. Now saving rest is that moment of surrender to Christ when we put all hope in Christ. Now listen, we put, now listen, we put all hope in Christ and rest there.

It's not I put all my hope in Christ, plus, no, it's not plus. Your justification is that you put all your rest in Christ and you stay right there. Now for the Jews, again, thinking back over to the New Testament book of Hebrews, they're being written to purge them off of resting in Moses and the law and the things of the old order and to only put their rest in Christ. On one occasion, he talks about how Moses was not their rest.

And that's what they were prone to do. And that is a metaphor for us who try to put our rest in everything in the world and everything around us. We put our rest in our husband, we put our rest in our job, we put our rest in our income, we put our rest in our grandchildren, we put our rest in the scientists and the doctors.

Thank God for all of those. That's not where we should put our confidence. That's not where we should rest. These Hebrews who were putting their rest in Moses, that was like sleeping on a bed of sharp rocks with a blanket of briars and bramble as you're covering.

It's not a good place to rest. For example, Hebrews 3, 5 and 6. Now Moses was faithful in all of his house as a servant.

House is a metaphor. He was faithful in the assignment God gave him. What was this assignment? To do a certain thing for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. That's Christ. Moses gave his law and Moses established his truth to all point to Christ. And Moses and everything Moses taught and stood for is, if you will, exhausted, finished in Jesus Christ.

We bring all of our sin, therefore, and all of our shortcomings, not to Christ, not to the law, I'm sorry, not to Moses, and not to the law, but to Christ and we rest there. Jesus said, Matthew 11, 28, "'Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.' If I give you God's moral law this morning, by the way, it's true and right, and I'll say, you put your confidence there, you know what you're gonna find?

You're gonna be focusing on that law, striving to fulfill that law, and you're gonna be weary and heavy laden." And Jesus said, well, that's good because when you get weary and heavy laden, maybe you'll look to me and you'll find the real rest for your souls. Christ has granted us divine rest, and we should rely upon it. Now, I'll tell you again this morning, for the 10,000th time, the majority of those in our age, and really in any age, who consider themselves Christians are not, because they've not entered his rest. They're working to please God, they're working to obtain a blessing, they're doing this sacrament or that sacrament or this religious ritual or that religious ritual, this ethical renovation of their life or that ethical renovation of their life, trying to please God, and they're not resting in him.

That's why Jesus said in Matthew 11, 29 and 30, "'Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, "'for I am gentle and humble in heart, "'and you will find rest for your souls, "'for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'" Now, he continues in verse five, he says in the second phrase there, "'For my hope is from him.'" My hope is from him. Now, the King James uses the word expectation. Actually, it could be either word, but I like that concept of hope being our expectation. I hope in, I'm expecting certain things if I hope in something. How many of us today have our expectations inside out?

How many of us today have our expectations upside down? We expect that there's something we can do. There's something we can perform. There's some work.

Again, some ritual, some religious exercise. But when you put, now listen to me, when you put your hope or your expectation in anything other than Christ, you're actually putting your expectation in you, not in God. Now, I'm thankful for our scientists and for our medical professionals. By the way, we owe a deep gratitude for our medical community. We owe a deep gratitude and we ought to pray for these dear folks who've been overwhelmed in some ways. Now, they tell me they're getting a handle on it now, but it's been tough.

It's been tough. We're thankful to God for them, but our hope is not them. Our hope is not science. Do I need to even tell you that our hope is not Joe Biden? And our hope was not Donald Trump. Our hope is not a conservative Supreme Court. Now, I voted for all those things and it was right, I think, to do those things, but that's not my hope. I'm not looking to them expecting my salvation, expecting a cure for the problems of my life.

Our hope is in Him. You know, it's the humanist and the secularist and the materialist. We have a group in our country today who are ranked materialist. They don't believe in any external objective truth or authority. Everything is just what we have down here and the end of life is just stuff in this world and that's where godless socialism and Marxism comes from. But we're not like the materialist and we're not like the secularist. We don't hope in man.

We hope in God. Someone says, well, pastor, I tried to serve the Lord. I tried to be faithful, but I failed.

Well, can I ask you something? What did you expect? Did you expect you could do it?

Did you expect you could perform it? The psalmist said, remember our expectation is in God. My expectation, now listen to me, my expectation is that Christ will succeed where I fail. Christ was faithful where I'm unfaithful. Christ is righteous and I'm unrighteous. My expectation is in him, not in me.

True salvation is the execution that is the putting to death of all expectations from anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ. And the psalmist said, I had to get my heart back there. This morning, are you anxiety-ridden? Are you troubled?

Are you losing sleep because you're looking at stuff out there? Then preach to yourself like David and get your expectations at rest again on the metaphor David uses on the rock. That's a great place to rest. Y'all better amen me a little bit this morning. I'm going to get upset with you. This is too good to sit there and look at me like a calf at a new gate.

It's good stuff. Good stuff for the child of God in a weary land. That I'm not going to get mad at you.

Might hurt my feelings a little bit, but I'm going to get mad at you. Now again, the context of Psalm 62 is David facing a terrible predicament, most likely an enemy that's threatening him personally and threatening to overrun his kingdom. But the parallel for us is that we as believers need to continually be putting to death all of our expectations in anyone and in everyone other than Christ in these trying days particularly. And if you're weak in resting on God, can I remind you that prayer and faith birth a righteous expectation in God? How's your prayer time? How's your time in the Word?

How's your time seeking the Lord? One of the things that troubles me as a pastor when we pull back on our services is, I know you guys, because I know me. The problem is you leak.

It gets in there, but then it leaks back out. And you need to come here on Sunday and get reset again. Get, if you will, anchored in truth again. Now, talking about expectations, there are three things that I want to say right here.

We'll pop these up on the screen. Three things that I want you to remember. Number one, and David in effect is saying this to himself, we can rest our trust in the substance of what's to come. I don't know what's going to come. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I can trust God has ordained something and I can trust whatever it is is right. Secondly, I rest in and I trust the timing of when it comes.

I don't know when the answer's going to come. I don't know when the end of this or that or whatever it is you're concerned about today is going to happen, but I know God's timing is perfect. Number three, I know that I will receive all that he's promised.

And there's so much he's promised. All things work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purposes. I know that's going to happen. All things are not good, but God will work them out for the good of his children. I know I'm going to get that.

I know that's true. John said, we don't know what we're going to be like in the eternal state, but we know we'll be like Christ. That perfected glorified form that he has, so many promises. So let's turn to him, let's cry out to him. Let's seek him and let's rest in him, knowing that he loves us and he will answer us with the right substance in the right timing and everything he's promised, we will receive. No matter the circumstances, all of us as children of God, listen to me, live in a victorious patience, a victorious patience. We don't know what's going to happen there.

We don't know what's coming over here. We wait to see what God does in patience, but in victory. This is where David was striving to stay.

And this is where we all must strive to stay. We put all our expectation on the rock. You say, well, pastor, what's going to happen? Well, I'm leaving that to the rock.

I'm leaving that to the rock. He knows what's best, he knows what's right. Now look at verse six.

He only is my rock and my salvation. This is something of a crescendo to verse five. In a sense, David's moved from primarily wrestling with the truth. David's moved from primarily struggling with resting to now primarily resting.

What's a great movement to make? He's come a ways in his trust. When he says he only is my rock and salvation, it's as if David is saying, how could I think of any other confidence but him? He is the only rock and the only rock is my salvation. Now we can say he's the rock of my salvation.

I'm not saying that's incorrect, but it's more than that. He's not just the rock of my salvation. Listen to me, he's the rock, period, whether it ever saved anybody or not. He's the rock who chose in love for us to become our salvation.

What a security David says we have. You see, if God is your salvation, that's a godly, strong salvation. And that's what you and I embrace in glory in, that those friends of ours who belong to those groups who teach a work salvation will never know. Their salvation is not a God's salvation, it's a man's salvation, but ours is a God's salvation. He is our hope and our salvation.

Again, the context, David's referring primarily to being saved out of his predicament, but that includes the fact that he is a saved one in how he stands before God already. Think about our salvation from the fact that it's a God's strong salvation. God is omniscient.

He has all wisdom. It means my salvation was formed in the great wisdom of God. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere at one time, which means my salvation is secure anywhere and everywhere.

I may be for time and eternity. God is omnipotent, which means that my salvation is secured and kept by the almighty power of God. David is afraid. So he looks to these truths afresh and he preaches them to himself. He's reminding himself what a security we have in God. David looks to God's salvation in the trials he faces and we should look to God in the trials that we face. What a security.

Now think about it. In our salvation, we're saved from God's wrath and more than that, he didn't just save us from that wrath, he saved us to become his friend. And even more than that, he saved us to become his precious child.

What a security. We're also saved from our enemies and that gets more to where David is. Our enemies are God's enemies. God's enemies are our enemies and God has promised to save his children from those enemies.

Isaiah 52, Isaiah 54, 17. No weapon that is formed against you will prosper and every tongue that accuses you in judgment, you will condemn. That's powerful. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication is from me declares the Lord. Now continuing on in verse six, second phrase, he says, he's my stronghold.

The word stronghold could be translated fortress. Again, I like the King James word defense. He's my defense, which is what a stronghold is. It defends you from those who are trying to hurt you. He's my defender, but listen, he's more than that.

He's my defense. He is a faithful God and he is faithful as the Christ. When Jesus became the Christ, of course, in one very real sense, he always was the Christ, but the Christ was the office of ministry the father gave him to secure the children. And Christ was faithful in that office.

He is righteous and faithful and will carry out all that is needed for my protection for both time and for eternity. So notice what else David says in verse six. I shall not be shaken. Now that's not where he was at the beginning of verse five.

He's moved forward in his faith. I shall not be shaken. Matter of fact, look over at verse two. In verse two, what does David say? Last phrase, verse two, I shall not be greatly shaken. David says, I know God's gonna help me, but I'm still insecure.

I'm not gonna be greatly shaken. But he keeps talking truth to himself. He grows in his strength and his faith. And now he says, I will not, not greatly, I will not be shaken.

The security he's gained in this. And all it took was for David to hear the truth about his Lord and savior and his faith grew to this new plane. And I wanna remind you again, that preaching of the word is essential. If you and I are going to reset our rest in him and rest in him in perilous times, I often wonder what folks do if they go to these churches that are about 70% pop psychology and about 30% of those scriptures splashed here and there. What do they rest in?

Where do they get their strength from? Faithful preaching is essential for the church to find their rest in Christ. Then he moves on to verse seven. On God, my salvation and my glory rest. Now, there could be some debate about just, what does this mean on God, my salvation and my glory rest?

Couple of thoughts here that I think these two thoughts are actually complimentary and they always connect together. That is, first of all, he could be saying, and he probably is including this, that he glories in God's salvation and God's saving of him. Isn't that true?

It's always true. A man of God, a woman of God, always glories in the God who saves him. I think that's part of what David's saying, but I think there's more than that. That David is saying here, whatever salvation comes to me in this present distress, whatever way God comes through, I'll leave that to God. Didn't Jesus model that perfectly for us? When Jesus on two occasions implored the heavenly father, and in effect says, is there another way other than the cross? And then quickly Christ aligns himself with his father's will.

Because in the Gospel of John, after he says, in effect, is there any other way but the cross? Then he says, but that's what I came down here for. I'm back in line with whatever your will is, that's what I want to line up with. David is saying, if you will, that's what I want to line up with.

David is saying, my salvation rests in whatever God thinks is best. Is that where you're resting today? I don't know about you, but the presidential election didn't turn out the way I wanted it to turn out. And I'll be honest, can I just be honest this morning? I had a little Trump fatigue. It's hard to have a president who supports basically everything you believe in from a truth and principled perspective, but who personally has more pride than Satan himself, maybe. And is always so antagonistic, just handled himself wrong in so many ways.

And you young men out there, there's some good things to learn from President Trump's tenacity, his determination, his courage, but you don't have to be the kind of man in his personality and his style that he was. So yeah, I had a little Trump fatigue, but I didn't want Joe Biden. Who in the world knows what Joe Biden believes? He's been everywhere.

His position's been all over the map in his almost 50 years of political career. But I'm telling you something, my hope's not there. God might bring the church a type of salvation through a ruler and a leader like Joe Biden. That's what David says. David don't know what's going to happen next.

But he says, I play it with it. Listen, David, what's going to happen? David said, I don't know how God's going to come through, but I'm leaving that with the rock. The rock's going to take care of that. Now, another aspect here in verse seven, he says, on God, my salvation and my, personal pronoun, my glory rest.

Rest is implied, the New American Standard Translators put it in for understanding. But I think what David is saying here, if this enemy prevails over me, if they triumph, and if they crush my kingdom and destroy my monarchy, then I could go down in history as a great failure to God's nation Israel. My glory would be crushed in the dust. Or, if I could go down in history in the dust, or, God may somehow come through and I still get the victory here as king. I don't know, but I'm resting my honor and my glory in the rock. I go to work. I try to stand on the truth of God's word. It causes me difficulties. It brings some persecution.

It may cost me my job. I don't know, but I'm leaving that to the rock. The word glory at the end of this verse can be translated to honor or dignity. Whatever dignity or honor I have in the world's eyes after this predicament is over, that's up to the rock. And I'm resting right there.

Resting right there. I don't think any of us have as much to lose in the tribulations we're facing as David did in his. David says, I'm leaving everything that may come out of this concerning my honor and glory to the rock.

And we can leave whatever comes out of our difficult season to the rock also. Now, Paul taught the same thing I should say, but used a different metaphor. In Ephesians 6, 13, the last part, he says, and having done everything to stand, and then verse 14, stand therefore. Verse 13, having done everything to stand, then verse 14, stand. In other words, I'm going to keep my stance, my position as a honor, and a disciple, and a committed follower of Jesus Christ. When it's easy and when it's hard.

When it's in season or when it's out of season. We know for certain, as Jude said in Jude 1, 24, that to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless and with great joy. By the way, that's coming no matter what the time is. By the way, that's coming no matter what they do.

That's coming. Now, verse eight, we're circling the field. Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.

Here's the point. David is implying God's heart is set on his children, and his children should set their hearts on God. You remember Jeremiah 31, three? What a powerful verse. Jeremiah 31, three, the Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

Therefore, I have drawn you with loving kindness. The context is the children of Israel were saying, now God helped us in the past, and God was with us in the past, and God came through in the past, but we're not seeing anything out of God anymore. He may have just abandoned us. He may not care about us anymore.

And God speaks to the problem and says, wait a minute, time out. I've loved you with an everlasting love. The greatest assurance we have that God will never stop loving us is that God never started loving us.

He's always loved his children. God's always had his heart set on his children, so we should set our hearts upon him. That's what David is saying when he says, pour out your heart to the Lord. You may think that when you're troubled and when you have anxieties and when you're in trouble, and when you have anxieties and when you're discouraged, and when you're fearful and you start praying and you start crying out to God that somehow God's disappointed. No, you're pouring your heart out to him.

You're on the right track. You just need to keep pouring enough truth in there until you start, listen to me, listen to me until your emotions catch up with the truth of who you are in Christ. Ladies, are you listening to your pastor? Your emotions are not Lord, Jesus is Lord. And sometimes, like David, we have to talk to our feelings, say, hush feelings, believe what God says is true, and you quit believing what you think is true. Am I the only one that has to do that?

Am I the only one that struggles with that? Doesn't it encourage you that, oh, great King David struggled the same place, but he worked his way toward resting on the rock. He says in here, trust in him at all times, at all times, the good and the bad, verse eight. So this is what the psalmist was learning to do, and we could say past tense, learn to do, and this is what we must learn to do.

I want you to note the personal pronouns in this section. Look at it again, look at verse five. My soul waited in silence for God only, for my hope is from him. Verse six, he only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold, I shall not be shaken. Verse seven, on God my salvation and my glory rest. He is the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Then he goes to the plural pronoun to include all the children of God, pour your heart before him, for God is a refuge for us. That's 12 personal pronouns, 10 personal profounds and two plural pronouns.

And here we have this great emphasis on that it's personally ours. I was in Southern Africa on one of our mission trips, and I was traveling in an automobile, and we came upon this massive transportation device. It was this unbelievable, I just can't describe to you how large and how long the machine was that was being brought down that rural rugged highway through Southern Africa, because there is nothing but a rural rugged highway through Southern Africa, North to South. And it went through town, and at best it would go maybe three or five miles an hour. It probably had over, I remember counting, and I can't remember exactly, it had over 100 wheels on the thing. It's one of those contraptions where there was a driver in the back and a driver in the front. The thing was so big and so long, and they would just creep through the curves.

It was just an amazing thing. And I thought to myself, how much money must it have cost to build that machine? And how much money must it have cost to transport that thing? It was a great mining machine. They would put it down in the mine shafts.

And to my best understanding, most of the world's diamonds and gold comes from the mines in the Southern region of the continent of Africa. And there must be a lot of wealth in those mines. But what is that to me if my name's not on the title deed to any of those? No, my name is on the title deed to the one who calls himself The Rock. That's where we're anchored. That's ours.

Greater than anything and everything the world could possibly ever give to us. Having that personal assurance, he's my rock, he's my confidence, he's my expectation, he's my stronghold, he's my salvation, David says. Spurgeon says, grasping that personally is the honey in the comb.

Isn't it though? It's a great way to say it. Then he ends verse eight with God is a refuge for us. Pour your heart out to him because he's a refuge for us.

It means he's a shelter. I don't know if you've heard about it. There's been a movement in our country in the last few years where they're providing safe spaces, particularly on college campuses. And these safe spaces are designed so that individuals who feel marginalized can go to that safe space where only others who feel marginalized will be. And they can go to the safe space and discuss their marginalizations. I read that it's basically the feminist and the LGBTQ and whatever letters they've added lately. A movement that started this safe place concept.

I thought about that. Someone said that 100 years or so ago, our 18 to 25 year olds were getting off landing craft on the beaches of Normandy. Today's 18, 25 year olds get their feelings hurt and have to have a safe place. What kind of weak, fragile generation are we raising?

I understand maybe you school teachers could help me hear that they're starting to do that in the grade schools. Because you know, there might be an eight year old who decides they're transgendered or something, so they'll need a safe place. This is the kind of bizarre, dog chasing the tail, vile nonsense that happens when a culture becomes godless.

And they don't look to the objective truths of scripture, they look to their own ever fickle, ever changing emotions and sentiments to find out what's right and wrong, good and bad. But it reminded me that we have a safe place. No, let me change that. We have the safe place. We have the safe place. We have the safe place. We have the rock as our safe place. That's what David say.

You see, Satan's a counterfeiter. He lies to you about what your problem is, tries to make you a victim when you're really not, then he lies to you about what a safe place is. The rock, the rock is my safe place. What a safe place we have, a refuge, a shelter that we have. And by the way, you want to try, you want to know who the true victims are? Throughout the ages, the true victims have been the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. John 15, 19, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you. 1 John 3, 13, do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. Those are the real victims. But I don't need the federal government to give me a safe space with a service dog and a stuffed animal.

Why? My safe place is the rock, Jesus Christ. And you can't take him from me. And he's not somewhere, he's everywhere. Oh, what a refuge we have.

What a safe place we have. He's omnipresent, he's everywhere I go. He's omnipotent, he could destroy any that oppose me, and he's eternal.

I have him through this life and for all eternity. You see, God is in us and God is with us. And one day the seed of that truth will blossom in the new glorified eternal state, and the entire universe will then be our safe place, our refuge. Now we see it through a glass dimly, but that didn't make it less true.

But then we'll see face-to-face, we'll see it all. John Gresham, the famed American novelist, wrote a book a while back that I read, and it was called The Painted House. And in the book, The Painted House, Gresham goes back to his childhood and he says up front, he said, a lot of these things are accurate to what actually happened. He said, I've embellished some to make the story of the novel. But he grew up the son of a poor farming family in Arkansas, and his father and his father-in-law were together trying to work out the crops and somehow live and eat the next year. Now I may have got the characters a little wrong, but the point of what I'm about to say, I'll get right. I do know for sure that he says in the book that on one occasion, his father and his grandfather were standing in the area of the house, and his grandfather were standing in the edge of the crop field and the sun was about to go down and they were just staring out across there not saying anything. And John Gresham, the little boy, looks at his mom and says, mom, what are they doing?

She said, they're trying to find something to worry about. Well, if you were a small farmer back in those days, you could probably sympathize with their predicament, but that's the way many of you are. You almost get up in the morning trying to find something to worry about, but those two men in that novel were standing on tilled soil, loose soil. That's good for crops, but it's not a good place to stand when the storm comes. We don't stand on tilled soil. We don't stand on shifting sand. We rest on the rock. Listen to me, child of God. Listen to me, child of God. God will keep us, grow us, mature us, and increase our pleasures and our joy until he gets us home. Now you rest right there. Rest in him. How many of you came in needing to reset your rest this morning? Rest on the rock.