Finding Strength in God's Sovereignty and Presence

"The first three verses in the first three verses counselors have come to David the King and they've said you've gotta flee the foundations are being destroyed there are there are assassins about people have infiltrated the palace there's gonna be a coup and so you just need to get out of town David however knows that as the King the worst thing he can do for his people was to just flee and therefore he refuses to panic and in verse 4 he explains exactly how he is able to avoid panic he says two things he says the Lord is in his holy temple the Lord is on most heavenly throne that's a reason for the mind and a reason for the heart the hold keeps you from panic let's do the reason for the mind first the Lord is on his heavenly throne now God is ruling the world there is a plan that's what Dave is reminding himself of." [00:43:29]

"We are like we modern people especially are like the child in a car who's got a little toy steering wheel that he attaches to the glove compartment he thinks he's steering the car even though the parent of course is actually steering the car steering the car and we are like that especially we modern people because we think that we're in control of the world and therefore if the world gets out of control then the world is out of control if if we can't control it then it's out of control however God is always in control there's always a plan now this is not a comforting idea it's not a comforting idea unless there's a little bit of humility." [01:03:14]

"I remember when we were moving from Philadelphia to New York City many many years ago and our children are very young and I do remember talking to one of the children who was very upset about the fact they were gonna leave their playmates behind and it's very difficult when you're a 40 year old to talk to a five or six or seven year old and explain yeah you won't have your playmate but we're going to a way better place you're gonna have a way better life we're gonna have a terrific stuff that's gonna happen to us but there's almost no way for a 40 year old to say to a little child something that would console him at that time know the difference between God and you and me is infinitely greater than the difference between a 40 year old and a four or five six year old and therefore when God in a sense comes and says there are some things happening right now but I want you to know there is a plan there is some way in which in the long run I am working everything out for my glory and for your good we don't understand it anymore than the little child does but here's the thing you will get no consolation from the idea that God is in control if you don't humble yourself to say I am a child and of course there might be some things that God would know that I wouldn't know and so first of all if you're willing to humble yourself like that then the idea that God is on his heavenly throne that is a that's something for your mind that will calm your mind but then there's also something for your heart the Lord is in his holy temple see the throne of God is infinitely remote he's up there but the temple is here with us and the temple was the way for you to have fellowship with God and even in David's day there was a temple you could go to the temple a psalm 27 David says I go to the temple to see the Lord's beauty but in the Old Testament the reality was if you are a worshipper you never did see the Lord you didn't see his glory you weren't right in his presence because that was behind I was I'm the Vale and that was over the the mercy-seat and the only person who was able to go back into the Holy of Holies was the priest high priest once a year on Yom Kippur taking the blood of the atoning sacrifice and so really you didn't actually have that kind of access you weren't able to really get into his presence you weren't able to really sense his love on your heart but now you suddenly get to the New Testament and something has changed because in the Old Testament Moses said show me your glory and God says I can't it will kill you but in John chapter one it says about Jesus Christ we beheld his glory glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth how could that be well the answer is when Jesus cast the money changers out of the temple in John chapter 2 he said tear this temple down and I'll build it back up in three days and he was talking about his body and what does that mean he's what he's saying is I'm the temple on the bridge between deity and humanity I am the great High Priest I am the great sacrifice because of my death on the cross because I paid for your sins the veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom that's what it the Bible says happened at the moment he died and now you can actually go right in and you can see his face and you could sense his presence through prayer through faith in the gospel to the Word of God and you can actually know his presence because the Lord is in his holy temple and his holy temple is Jesus Christ himself the final temple the true temple if you have that fellowship for your heart if you've got that understanding of God's sovereignty for your head you can face anything." [01:49:40]

"I can understand how some bad things are the result of people sin but when something like this happens well the point of actual fact nothing like this has ever happened but when something of a natural disaster kind of thing happens then how can you say that God's really caused a lot under it got everything out of control I don't understand it I mean this is the question that comes up people say they can't understand how you can say God's in control whenever why if he'd be in control why do you let this stuff happen now the problem is you're channeling a lot of different people yeah obviously I'm the one that answers this is a big secret so now letting it out to the world I'm the one that answers the gospel the correspondents a gospel might calm and so email so you'll love this answer hmm the answer depends it depends on where the person is coming down see there's a more there's a more philosophical way to ask that question there's plenty of people who have a who rightly have a a true intellectual philosophical question about suffering and evil they're saying if you have a good God an all-powerful God how can you how could such a God allow all this and there are very good philosophical answers and I would go there if I didn't feel a person who was asked me that question was actually having a lot of suffering and his or her life at the moment there's a in the last 30 or 40 years the in the in the world of philosophy there has almost been a laying to rest that objection almost I mean that is there's still plenty of people who who emotionally feel like I can't believe in a God who would allow evil and suffering but the philosophical objection has come down to this and that is that if there is a God who is omnipotent and and all good and all-powerful that God might have and probably does have reasons that we can't conceive of a why he hasn't a lot hasn't stopped it yet so here comes the suffering you have the God of the Bible as as eventually going to stop it but he doesn't hasn't done it yet and there's a Alvin Plantinga and a number of other philosophers have done a wonderful job writing very fairly difficult to read books but are very very closely reason that basically say you can't assume that because you can't think of a good reason why God would allow evil and suffering that there can't be a good reason that we just can't perceive and I was trying to get at that way about the child and the father's right plank it was that was basically trying to channel Alvin planting as arguing so philosophically it doesn't mean there can't be a god it can we can struggle just like Jobe did but Jobe struggled with the fact that he was suffering but he never said well there can't be a god on the other hand if the person who was asking me this question is actually suffering quite a bit themselves I wouldn't go there because that's just not what they need I would go to the cross I would say look without showing too much disrespect to all the other world religions we're the only religion that has a God who actually came and involved himself in suffering in order to save us and therefore we don't know what we may not know what the reason for your suffering is but we know what the reason for your suffering isn't it isn't that God doesn't love you didn't john stott have a thing about that i could never believe in a God who didn't suffer and then there's that well there's a poem by yo-yo Edward Shillito I believe can you remember it okay well if you me remember it you're better off than me because I can just remember that it exists I can't but Edward Shillito he said this he said it's a poem and speaking to Jesus he says the other gods were strong but thou wast weak they rode thou didst humble to thy throne to our wounds only God's wounds can speak and no God has wounds but thou alone and that's I think how you talk to a suffering person and say I don't know why God allowed this but I do know it's not that he doesn't love you." [01:59:40]