Psalm 107- I Will Not Settle!: Confronting the Spirit of Cynicism

I was talking to a very, what I have known to be, godly man recently, a man that God has used in the past. And as we began to discuss, he began to talk about, “You know, I’ve just kind of lost my fire. I’ve kind of lost my passion. I look at, you know, what’s happening in the world and the Church and academia and the media and the morals and the shift of cultures and some ideologies. And you know, I’m just going to do the best I can. But
I think it’s too far gone. I just think it’s too far gone and I have basically said I’m going to, you know, just do the best I can in my little portion of the world.”

And as I sat there and talked to him, what I realized, his fire was gone. His real hope was gone, his belief that God is a supernatural God who is the God of Nehemiah and the God of Esther and, you know, the God of the Grahams and the God of Bill Brights and the God of the Wilberforces and the God of people all through history who have swam upstream, not just against the culture, but oftentimes, up against sort of the prevailing cynicism of believers or followers that they just kind of settle and the goal is: I’m going to create my little world, I’m not going to make any waves, I’m not going to say too much, it’s not worth it anyway, why go through all of that?

There are some statistics that have been very, very disturbing. And they’re not statistics,
they’re realities. And I don’t say this in any kind of judgmental way. These are just facts, these are things that have happened over the last five to ten years, actually, some of the slide has been in the last couple decades. But as of today, the best research that I have read is about forty-one percent of all people who would self-recognize as a born-again follower of Jesus Christ, do not attend any local expression of a church. So, that’s four out of ten.

I understand churches have gone through rough times, I understand there are health issues. So, don’t hear that as some huge condemnation, but hear it as, wow, four out of every ten people that are followers of Jesus are not going to a local church anywhere. Thirty percent of the younger generation is now called “nones”, no Christian, no religious affiliation at all. And there’s a cynicism that there are so many things wrong that we just get overwhelmed. And so, this is not a message of doom and gloom and why don’t people get with the program?

This is a message about: how do we overcome the spirit of cynicism? And there’s just, I mean, waves of discouragement. I meet parents and grandparents that just, you know, “I don’t know what to do. I raised my kids like this and they don’t walk with God now. I see the direction of my grandkids.” And there’s just this cynicism or this little, I call it subtle despair like, well, I mean, this is the way it is.

I’ve got news for you. This is not the way it is. And I will tell you this, God is on His throne, God will work, God has promised to work, His promises will not be thwarted, and the issue is not God’s willingness. In every era like this, and this has happened so many times through biblical history, through our history, and in the present day. And what I want you to know is I would like you to declare with me: We can’t be bold and courageous unless we refuse to settle. And what I want you to know is you have to get a new view of God or a refreshed view of God and remember what He’s like and what He has done.

And my passage here is Psalm 107. There is a call, there is a command to: Don’t be silent. It is not enough to say, “I love Jesus, I have my personal faith, and I’m doing the best I can, I’m trying to be nice, I’m trying to be moral, I even read my Bible, I even give a little money to the Church or help some causes.” That’s not what it means, in the days that we’re living, to be a follower of Jesus. He’s calling out people to be warriors, difference-makers, cutting edge. And you say to yourself, Well, Chip, I just, I just can’t do that.

Let me give you a Word from God. Let me share with you a passage. It’s Psalm 107. And it opens up with a command and it ends with a warning. Listen carefully. And here’s the command, “Give thanks to the Lord,” why? “for He is good, His love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord,” that’s you and me, “say this, those He has redeemed from the hand of the foe, those He gathered from the lands, from east and west and north and south.” In other words, God is calling us, He is commanding us who are redeemed, like the old song says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”

You can’t be silent, I can’t be silent, I can’t have coffee shop conversations, I can’t be at work, I can’t be taking my trash out and having a little conversation with my neighbor and they bring up some world event or some situation or how bad this is and just sort of smile and go, “Oh, yeah, it is kind of rough. And, of course, I’m a follower, I’m a silent follower of Jesus.” Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Give thanks to the Lord; He is good. That’s
His character. He longs to bless, He longs to come in power, He wants to use you, you can’t be silent.

If you want to jot a little note or put this into your phone, I read a book just a few months ago by Erwin Lutzer, a man who has been around a long time, formerly the pastor of Moody Church, prolific writer, he’s still got unbelievable energy. And I had a chance, I was in North Carolina and I got to sit with him and he’s got this perspective of life. He is passionate, he is focused, and he has all this energy and I realized that he had taught, like, eight or nine sessions in a row in about four days.

And he had all this vitality and I just, it seems like he’s been around a long time. And I said, “Dr. Lutzer, like, if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?” He goes, “You know, actually, this weekend, celebrated eighty years.” I said, “Really.” He goes, “Yeah, I’ve got a brand-new book coming out, I’ve done all this research on what is happening in the culture,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he started citing things. I got the book, I read it, and I thought, This guy is more current than ninety percent of the pastors I know that are forty and under. Why? Why? He has refused to settle.

And that’s my prayer for you, my prayer for me, because we can be bold and we can be courageous when we give thanks that the Lord is good. When we begin to communicate: This is what He has done for me. And then when we remember: This is who He is, this is what He does. And so, now the psalmist is going to eagerly tell us that He wants us to call for help, He wants other people to call for help, He wants to go into places that we think God would never care, and He wants to rescue and He wants to forgive and He wants to restore and He wants to do it when people are ignorant, He wants to do it when they have willfully rebelled.

He is this loving, powerful God that wants to bring about dynamic, supernatural change, not someday and not in the past, but right now. And the psalmist, it’s a bit of a long psalm, but we are going to go through it fairly quickly where the structure is four specific scenes. The Spirit of God has taken David and He is going to give him four snapshots. And he’s going to talk about four different situations where people get rescued and where they were, how they respond, and then how God responds.

And what I will tell you is you don’t have to settle. God is doing today exactly what is in this passage. Are you ready? Scene number one: God wants to rescue the wanderers, the people that are lost, the people without purpose. Follow along, “Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle; they were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.”

In other words, they were desperate. He is describing possibly the wandering of the wilderness, but this particular Hebrew word isn’t so much for that, it’s more a picture of people that find themselves in life that are lost. What is my purpose? My relationships aren’t working out. I mean, why am I here? What is life all about? And in this particular case they find themselves where little by little by little their life is ebbing away. They just come to the point where: What is going on? I’m lost spiritually, I’m lost financially, I’m lost in my world, I don’t have a community, I’m discouraged, I’m depressed, I’m anxious. They are lost. And then they realize it. They realize their life is ebbing away, what do I do?
Notice what they did: “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. And He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.” In other words, He gives them community, He gives them purpose, He rescues these lost people. And then he says: Here’s the response I’m looking for. “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love, and His wonderful deeds for men. For He satisfies the thirsty and He fills the hungry with good things.”

And the thirsty and the hungry here, certainly there’s a lot of physical application, but most of our lostness is spiritual hunger. We are spiritually thirsty. There are just people all around us, like never before. I was reading an article about anxiety and depression and a high percentage either think about or have attempted suicide. And it’s a wave that has happened in the last five to seven years. And this is a secular article; I’ll never forget it. And he says, “The root cause,” and I’m reading this, I said, “Really?” He says, “The root cause is a lack of religion.” And I’m thinking, “Where is this guy coming from?” He says, “Once you remove religion, the higher purpose, the what-is-life-all-about, why you’re here - gets removed.”

And if there’s no true north, you have a whole generation of people, they may not have any religious affiliation, but that doesn’t change the need of: This is true. I want to give my life to this. This matters. Someone cares about me. There’s purpose in life, there’s a life now, there’s a life later. And what God is saying here is that He longs to rescue the lost. He understands the hurt and the key is when they cry out to Him in their desperation and their trouble.

And I want you to know today that God, when you find yourself in trouble, when you find yourself in distress, when you find yourself lost in any way for any reason, lost in your community, lost in relationships, lost in direction, cry out to God and be desperate. Lord, please show me what to do. I will do whatever You want, but please give me direction. And He promises: I’ll do it. And then after you cry out and He does it, He goes: here’s what I want you to do. I want you to give thanks to the Lord. I want you to praise Him, I want you to declare to other people this is what God has done for you.

And, see, what happens is you may not know it, I read some other research, seventy thousand people a day are coming to know Christ, globally. And, now, a lot of it is in southeast Asia, India, Africa. But here! I will tell you, I’ve got relationships with a lot of young pastors. There are churches and God is working in amazing ways even in America. It doesn’t make the news. Are there problems? A lot of problems. But, see, when you find some people that are bold, that are telling, “Hey, Jesus saved me.”
We have a group of friends that we partner with and they go to places that, “Oh, that march against this,” or, “That atheist group,” or, “You know, that museum over there where they are just taking all the things that America used to stand for and they are railing against it,” they go to those places. And if it’s a hot day, they might bring water or they’ll spend time and they’ll ask people about, you know, their lostness. “Are you lonely?” “Oh, yeah.” Everyone is lonely. “What is your purpose in life?” “I don’t know, I don’t have one.” “What have you thought about in terms of relationships? Do you have community?”

They just bring up spiritual conversations. And then they say, “You guys want a meal?” And they befriend them. And they’re not trying to get someone to pray a prayer. They actually care about the people and they invest in their lives. And then they have developed some places here and about a hundred cities around the world where you can come and hang out and have a meal and talk with people and hear their story and you listen to their story and pretty soon, they begin to ask, “What is with you all? Why do you care?” And they begin to share about God coming to this planet, fully man, fully God to love and to forgive and to restore and to find people that are wandering.

So many of them are wandering. You know, it breaks my heart when I hear Christians and I’m sure they are well-meaning. It’s like, “Those people and they believe that and that lifestyle and that’s terrible.” It’s like they are the enemy. No, they are the deceived. Jesus’ heart is would you please care for them the way I care for them? You know, we didn’t clean up our life before Jesus revealed His love to us. God wants us to help, to share, to care for those that are lost.

And then He wants them to give Him thanks and He wants them to say so. We have to be bold and courageous. Are you ready for this? Does it really matter what people at work might say? Does it really matter if one of your neighbors, “Oh, he’s a Christian. Oh! Oh! They actually believe that life in the womb is important, but they’re not political and they’re not angry. They actually believe that the family system was designed by God and actually their marriage seems to work really well. And they’re not down on anybody. In fact, they invite us over for dinner and they care for us and…”

People are just longing to meet Christians who – are you ready? Live like Christians. Scene number two. God longs to rescue those in bondage. “Some sat in dark, in the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains,” why? “for they had rebelled against the words of God, and they despised the counsel of the Most High.

So, He subjected them to bitter labor, they stumbled, and there was no one to help.” It says God wants to rescue people in bondage and whether that’s the bondage of an addiction, bondage of, you know, bad decisions, whether it’s the bondage of being oppressed in some way. But he says in this particular case, lots of people are in bondage, because they have rebelled against God, they have rebelled against His Word. You say to live this way, I’m going to live this way. You say do relationships like this, I’m going to do them this way. You say handle your money this way, I’m doing them this way. Forget it. And there’s consequences.

Part of the judgment of God, if you will, the passive judgment of God, is when I live my life or you live your life contrary to His Word, He allows the consequences of that to happen, not to punish us, but to get our attention. And then notice what happens to this group. He says, “They then cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.” They got to the point there was no one to help them, they couldn’t fix the relationship, they couldn’t break the addiction, they couldn’t get enough food, they couldn’t get a good job, they found themselves desperate, they said, “I don’t want to do life God’s way,” but in their desperation - and I’ve had this happen a lot in relationships with people, “You know what? I have never believed, I don’t know if there’s a God or not, but because my life is just absolutely imprisoned.”

And they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and He saved them from their distress. “He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and He broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord,” here’s the response. Why? “for His,” here’s our word again, “unfailing love,” steadfast, loyal, covenant love, “and His wonderful deeds for men. For He breaks down the gates of bronze and He cuts through the bars of iron.” I wish we knew each other better, I wish that we could, okay, I said it again, have coffee. And I wish I could just hear your story. Like, tell me your journey.

Tell me what is going on? Where are you at in life and where are you at with God? And then, I’m sure, because I meet a lot of people, you would probably tell me about some struggles and challenges and a brother or sister or someone with an addiction, a drug issue, a sexual addiction. All kind of different things. And then I hope you would say, “Chip, you seem a little bit older than me,” which is probably going to be true. “Have you ever seen God help people like this?” And I would lean back and I’d get a second cup of coffee and I would start to tell you story after story after story after story after story of the young man or the not-so-young man or the now friend that has been two or three, went two or three marriages. And, I mean, was life a train wreck. And how God, once they got to the point of, “I can’t do this.”

You see, some of those cliches are pretty true. When you hit rock bottom, the only place you can look is up. There’s a lot of truth to that. I have some good friends that work in the addiction arena and they tell me, “You really can’t help people until they come to the end of themselves.” I mean, they will con you, they will lie to you, they will promise anything. But if you get with anyone in a Celebrate Recovery or a Twelve Step or some sort of a counseling program where lives really change, everyone knows until you get to the point where you stop denying, stop lying, stop manipulating and just realize: I am helpless and I am hopeless to change.

If that’s you or if that’s someone you know, there is a God in heaven and there is a Jesus who is a Savior that longs to forgive and to restore and to break the chains and to help you. All you have to do is ask and then find a community of His people and get real and get honest and what you’ll find is He will use the power of His Word and His Spirit to little, by little, by little transform your life.

I have some good friends that work in the addiction arena and they tell me, “You really can’t help people until they come to the end of themselves.” I mean, they will con you, they will lie to you, they will promise anything. But if you get with anyone in a Celebrate Recovery or a Twelve Step or some sort of a counseling program where lives really change, everyone knows until you get to the point where you stop denying, stop lying, stop manipulating and just realize: I am helpless and I am hopeless to change.

If that’s you or if that’s someone you know, there is a God in heaven and there is a Jesus who is a Savior that longs to forgive and to restore and to break the chains and to help you. All you have to do is ask and then find a community of His people and get real and get honest and what you’ll find is He will use the power of His Word and His Spirit to little, by little, by little transform your life.

He has done it thousands, millions of times. And my call is for us where He has done that in our life to say so! To be bold! Everyone has their agenda. It’s America, right? I’m glad you can believe this, you can be of this part or that party, you can be alternative this, you can say this. Great.

Believe whatever you want. Christians! How about we be bold and courageous, winsome, loving, and kind and say, “Yes, those are a lot of ideologies, there’s a lot of issues, there’s a lot of ways to do life. This is our way. This is our way. And we’re not down on anybody. Jesus said, ‘Live this way.’ Jesus has done this for us. Jesus has transformed our life. This is who we are and what we are doing. We welcome you. We don’t judge you. That’s God’s job. We welcome you. We want to share with you what He has done in us.” You would be shocked how open people really are. Behind the façade, behind the anger, behind the dysfunction, behind the arguments, behind the polarization, behind all the politics.

I got news! These are regular people with real issues that are lonely, that are hurting, that are struggling, that have anxiety, that have depression issues, that have marital issues, that have family issues, that have financial issues. They don’t need someone going, “Ergh!” What they need is someone who says, “I have and have had those. I think it’s called being human. And everyone is looking for a solution.”

Some solutions don’t work very well. Some promise they will. And we can say Jesus, the Son of God, He came and He broke the power of sin. He destroyed the works of the enemy, He has prepared a place for us, and He has demonstrated, not by words, that He loves everyone.

And you can take it at your own pace, but I just want you know, as a neighbor or as a coworker or as a friend or maybe someone on a plane that I’ve never met – I just want you to know that He really cares about you. And if I can be a part of His process in helping you, I want you to know I will. I can’t tell you how many times I have found myself, and I travel a lot, it’s just part of my job, but I travel here and I traveled a lot of different countries and so I sit next to a lot of different people. And I don’t have a sign that says, “Hey, ask me a question! I’ll preach at you.” Mostly just I start asking questions and I say, Lord, if You want me to share, I want to be empowered, I want to be sensitive.

If this guy is like, “Hey, man,” he’s got a ton of work to do, he doesn’t want to be bothered, I want to respect that. I can’t even tell you the scores and scores of times where a little casual conversation, I mean, people from Muslim backgrounds, Buddhist backgrounds, Indian backgrounds, Hindu backgrounds, rich people, poor people, all kind of different colored people. You get to sit, you know, next to them. And what I find is they’ve got all the same issues I do and after a while I’ll ask a number of questions and they will eventually, not always, but almost always, “Well, how about you? I mean, you know, you married?” “Yeah.” “Got any kids?” “Yeah.” “Had any problems?”

“Sure.” “Well, how do you address them?” “Do you want to hear?” “Well, sure.” “There’s a little story to it, do you mind? Could I have five minutes to tell my story?” “Sure. You’ve listened to me for an hour.” “Well, I thought,” and you know, I’d begin to tell the story of success and, you know, being a basketball star and having a pretty girl and getting good grades and being all that would somehow fulfill me. And it came up empty and Jesus revealed Himself and, you know, it has been a journey and He changed my life and this is what He has done and I’m just a very regular guy who has been forgiven and saved and restored. And I don’t think it’s an accident, He probably put us together today because He loves you.

And I usually keep something, you know, I’ve written a few books and I pray every time before I get on a plane, Which book do You want me to take? And I put it in my briefcase and just recently was really, really cool. Got into a conversation, I was flying back, a tech guy coming back into San Jose. He’s doing a startup, he’s from Taiwan, and I asked permission to share the story. And he let me go on and on. And then he looked at me and he goes, “Hey, man, I kind of know this story. My parents are, like, really strong Christians and I know they are really praying for me. And I’m doing this startup and I haven’t been to church in a really, really long time. And I’m super busy and … And I just, I just casually said, “Don’t let that startup steal your soul.”

He said, “What?” “Yeah,” I said, “man, I’m with a lot of venture capital guys and startup guys and I watch how it just consumes their life. And I have watched them go through marriages and pain and all kind of stuff. You are young and you’re smart and…” And we had this conversation. Well, God led me that morning, I have a book called Spiritual Simplicity and the subtitle is: Doing Less, Loving More. And this is a guy who is a workaholic. And then I had another one called Discover Your True Self. And he married a girl from China and now she is here and having all kind of identity issues. I never met him, but I’m talking about breaking free and here we are and I realize, Wow! “God must really care about you.

This is your number one need and this is your wife’s.” And he goes, “Can I have them?” I said, “Sure.” So, I get up, I get those two down, jot a little... Do you know how exciting that is? In that moment. And I don’t do it all the time. Are you ready for this? I was bold and I was courageous and I was gentle, and by God’s grace, I was winsome. What is going to happen, I don’t know, but he turned to me and he said this, “I think the Lord has been trying to get my attention and I think my parents’ prayers might really be working.” I said, “Can you give me the book back?”

And I got it back and I just wrote my email and I said, “That’s my personal email. When you ever get where maybe you’re a little bit more serious, I am always available. You email me and remind me of this conversation and I’d love to meet with you.”Now, that’s a story, but that’s the story that is happening thousands of times. My question is, is that your story? And you don’t have to have a book. It might be a book that you have read by someone else. It might be something else.
It might be you have skills that are way outside that way better than what I have in other areas. But did you get it? God wants to rescue people from their prisons. God wants to help people that are lost and looking for meaning and purpose. And He wants to use you and He wants to use me. Scene number three. God longs even to rescue what the Scripture would call rebellious fools. “Some became fools through their rebellious ways and they suffered affliction because of their iniquities.

They loathed all food and they drew near to the gates of death. They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from all their distress.” Now, when the Bible uses the word fool, you need to understand it’s a technical word, if you will. I think it’s Psalm 14, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Now, what he’s saying here is fools are people, he’s not talking about foolishness. These are people that are saying, “I don’t believe in God. I’m an atheist or I’m agnostic.

I have a lot of people that I don’t like, but Christians are at the top of the list. They are narrow, this stuff about one way, I am against them. This is who they are talking about. He says they are rebellious in their ways. And then they suffer affliction, in other words, their behaviors and their sin are producing consequences that are devastating. So devastating they get to the end and they are either clinically depressed or they have broken relationships or they can’t eat or they can’t sleep, or maybe they have caught some sort of disease.

And in their trouble, are you ready? They hit rock bottom. They turn upward and they cry to God and what does He do? “He sends forth His Word and He healed them; He rescued them from the grave.” Their response, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of His
works with songs of joy.”

God wants to find lost people, God wants to bring healing and restore people and have them get freedom and then finally, God wants to take people that are far, far from Him and make [them] His sons and daughters. He wants to forgive them and He wants to cleanse them. And it is happening all the time. Jesus looked out and a bunch of, it was a Samaritan village. His disciples, you know, all Jews, they’re thinking, These people can’t be open. These people are anti-God. These people got the wrong doctrine, and some of them are really immoral.

And little did they know that the lady that Jesus had talked to the better part of the morning around noon, is someone that has had five husbands and is living with a guy.
Well, “she’s unclean!” Jesus said: You guys don’t get it. I came for her. And He shares the truth of living water and forgiveness. And she is far, far from God. She not only feels unworthy, but she’s in conflict theologically with the Jews. And God touches her heart and she goes and tells her friends. You know something? This man that I never met told me all these things about myself.

And a crowd is coming out of a city and here’s a bunch of Jewish boys following Jesus that think those people, they would never, they would never respond to the message of Yahweh - and now His Son. And there’s a revival that happens. And a whole revival happens through an immoral woman, through a group of people that would never, ever listen. I’ve got news, when trouble hits you, when things are hard and they are getting hard everywhere, when there is violence, when there’s a flood, when there’s a hurricane, tell you what, people are looking at life very differently. I spent some time - massive, massive floods, two hurricanes in the North Carolina area.

We had a chance to be a little part of helping those that are helping people. Everything from Samaritan’s Purse to spiritual issues and kind of helping pastors help people and mobilizing their churches to help others and we’re a tiny, tiny little part of it. But I was on the wire talking to one of the guys that, there’s a large radio station that the Billy Graham organization has and it reaches about seven states. And I said, “This is so devastating. You know, how is it going and what’s going on?”

He said, “It is more devastating than you can imagine.” He said, “Chip, we have never seen anything like it. The body of Christ coming together and people far from God, I mean, your home is here today, your home is gone tomorrow. Everything you have is here today, everything you have is gone tomorrow. And the only people coming to help are in love with this radical rabbi named Jesus.” He said, “We have people calling out to God, coming to Christ like never before, literally, even on interviews on the air asking how can they find God through Jesus.”

I want you to know the harvest is white. That’s what Jesus said to those disciples. Hey, people are ten times, one hundred times, infinitely more open. They are not the bad people, they are the needy people. And what they need to hear is some of the redeemed to - are you ready? - say so. Yeah. I was a prisoner, I got free. I was lost, I found a home. I was far from God and I am forgiven.

Scene number four: I love it. God longs to rescue us from the storms of life. One I just described. “Others were on the sea in ships;” these are sailors, “and they were merchants on the mighty waters. And they saw the works of the Lord, His wonderful deeds in the deep. For He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens, went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and they staggered like drunk men; and they were at their wits’ end.”

Literally, all their wisdom left them, the Hebrew text says, “And then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it came calm, and He guided them to a desired haven.”

Response: “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the council of the elders.” Are you seeing a pattern here? Each of these four situations finds people in different circumstance. Some are lost, some are imprisoned, some are rejecting God and finding themselves near death. Here, no one has done anything wrong.

In a fallen world there are hurricanes. We see them. There are tornadoes. There are tsunamis. And he says these professional sailors found themselves in a situation where, their wisdom melted or their wits melted. It’s literally, all their wisdom left them.
It’s gone. We’re in a situation that we can’t handle. Are you getting the pattern?

Problems caused by ourselves, problems caused by others, sometimes it’s just the world, storms that come into our life. The pattern is God either decrees or allows certain situations and some situations are made of our own folly, our own sin, our own rebellion.

But each and every time if we get to a point of: I have to look up, the trouble, I can’t handle. I am going to cry out to God, regardless of where I have been, what I have done, or what I believe. And He says: I will rescue you. I’ll rescue you. I’ll calm the waters.
And when you think about these four scenes, what you see is a picture of Jesus. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus came to set the prisoners free. Jesus came to the demoniac, the people far from God to heal and restore. And Jesus, when people were in crisis, even in a storm, He would speak His word and – what? Immediately it was calmed.

There’s this picture of desperation, turning to God, responding in faith, God’s intervention, and healing and then a call to: Don’t be silent. You know? It’s sort of the Old Testament version of: Be bold and courageous. Tell others what God has done for you. And then just in case they missed it, it’s very, very interesting how he is going to end this psalm.
He says, “He turns rivers into a desert and flowing springs into thirsty ground; and fruitful land into salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who live there. He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; there He brought the hungry to live, and He founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest. He blessed them and their numbers increased greatly, and He did not let their herds diminish. Then their numbers decreased and they were humbled by oppression, calamity, and sorrow. He who pours contempt on nobles made them wander in trackless waste, but He lifted up the needy of their afflicted and increased their families like flocks. The upright will see and rejoice; but all the wicked will shut their mouths.”

Listen carefully to what he is saying here. He has given us these four scenes and the pattern is very clear.

Things can be very, very, very positive and I can turn them to be very, very negative. Right? Fruitful to a desert. And then he says things can be very, very, very negative and I can intervene and I can make them very, very positive. And he says: And then there can be injustice and I can take princes and rulers and presidents and prime ministers and kings and I can humble them in a minute.

God is powerful. God is in control. He is not done yet. His purposes will not be thwarted. And He is still looking for men and women who refuse to settle. Men and women who will say, “I will not be overcome with this spirit of cynicism.” Oh, that’s just, idealism. That’ll never happen in our day. It’ll happen in our day when regular men and regular women and students take a step and are bold and courageous like those who have in the past, those that are doing it now, and God will work. It’s what He promised.

Notice the final verse is a warning. “Whoever is wise, let him heed these things,” what things? This pattern. God is control, not China, not the United States. God is powerful, not Hezbollah, or not Israel or not some ideology here or there. It’s not some undercurrent. There are all kind of things happening, but there’s an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing God who has a purpose and He’s going to fulfill it.

“Whoever is wise, let him heed these things,” this pattern, “and consider the great love of the Lord.” Behind it all is His passion to do – what? To find the lost, to free the prisoner, to just liberate the ridiculous fool and atheists, to know that they are loved and even in calamities to say: Let Me bring calm, let Me bring forgiveness, let Me bring wholeness.
We are ambassadors for Christ as though God were compelling us as His instruments to everyone in the world. Be reconciled to God. Those are Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5. If you’re a follower of Jesus, you are His ambassador, you’re His representative. And the white of harvest is all around us. Here is my plea, here is God’s Word to you and to me: He is powerful, He’s in control, and He has given you and me the job to be bold and courageous in one of the most strategic times in world history. Let’s not blow it.
I was talking to a very, what I have known to be, godly man recently, a man that God has used in the past. And as we began to discuss, he began to talk about, “You know, I’ve just kind of lost my fire. I’ve kind of lost my passion. I look at, you know, what’s happening in the world and the Church and academia and the media and the morals and the shift of cultures and some ideologies. And you know, I’m just going to do the best I can. But
I think it’s too far gone. I just think it’s too far gone and I have basically said I’m going to, you know, just do the best I can in my little portion of the world.”

And as I sat there and talked to him, what I realized, his fire was gone. His real hope was gone, his belief that God is a supernatural God who is the God of Nehemiah and the God of Esther and, you know, the God of the Grahams and the God of Bill Brights and the God of the Wilberforces and the God of people all through history who have swam upstream, not just against the culture, but oftentimes, up against sort of the prevailing cynicism of believers or followers that they just kind of settle and the goal is: I’m going to create my little world, I’m not going to make any waves, I’m not going to say too much, it’s not worth it anyway, why go through all of that?

There are some statistics that have been very, very disturbing. And they’re not statistics,
they’re realities. And I don’t say this in any kind of judgmental way. These are just facts, these are things that have happened over the last five to ten years, actually, some of the slide has been in the last couple decades. But as of today, the best research that I have read is about forty-one percent of all people who would self-recognize as a born-again follower of Jesus Christ, do not attend any local expression of a church. So, that’s four out of ten.

I understand churches have gone through rough times, I understand there are health issues. So, don’t hear that as some huge condemnation, but hear it as, wow, four out of every ten people that are followers of Jesus are not going to a local church anywhere. Thirty percent of the younger generation is now called “nones”, no Christian, no religious affiliation at all. And there’s a cynicism that there are so many things wrong that we just get overwhelmed. And so, this is not a message of doom and gloom and why don’t people get with the program?

This is a message about: how do we overcome the spirit of cynicism? And there’s just, I mean, waves of discouragement. I meet parents and grandparents that just, you know, “I don’t know what to do. I raised my kids like this and they don’t walk with God now. I see the direction of my grandkids.” And there’s just this cynicism or this little, I call it subtle despair like, well, I mean, this is the way it is.

I’ve got news for you. This is not the way it is. And I will tell you this, God is on His throne, God will work, God has promised to work, His promises will not be thwarted, and the issue is not God’s willingness. In every era like this, and this has happened so many times through biblical history, through our history, and in the present day. And what I want you to know is I would like you to declare with me: We can’t be bold and courageous unless we refuse to settle. And what I want you to know is you have to get a new view of God or a refreshed view of God and remember what He’s like and what He has done.

And my passage here is Psalm 107. There is a call, there is a command to: Don’t be silent. It is not enough to say, “I love Jesus, I have my personal faith, and I’m doing the best I can, I’m trying to be nice, I’m trying to be moral, I even read my Bible, I even give a little money to the Church or help some causes.” That’s not what it means, in the days that we’re living, to be a follower of Jesus. He’s calling out people to be warriors, difference-makers, cutting edge. And you say to yourself, Well, Chip, I just, I just can’t do that.

Let me give you a Word from God. Let me share with you a passage. It’s Psalm 107. And it opens up with a command and it ends with a warning. Listen carefully. And here’s the command, “Give thanks to the Lord,” why? “for He is good, His love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord,” that’s you and me, “say this, those He has redeemed from the hand of the foe, those He gathered from the lands, from east and west and north and south.” In other words, God is calling us, He is commanding us who are redeemed, like the old song says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”

You can’t be silent, I can’t be silent, I can’t have coffee shop conversations, I can’t be at work, I can’t be taking my trash out and having a little conversation with my neighbor and they bring up some world event or some situation or how bad this is and just sort of smile and go, “Oh, yeah, it is kind of rough. And, of course, I’m a follower, I’m a silent follower of Jesus.” Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Give thanks to the Lord; He is good. That’s
His character. He longs to bless, He longs to come in power, He wants to use you, you can’t be silent.

If you want to jot a little note or put this into your phone, I read a book just a few months ago by Erwin Lutzer, a man who has been around a long time, formerly the pastor of Moody Church, prolific writer, he’s still got unbelievable energy. And I had a chance, I was in North Carolina and I got to sit with him and he’s got this perspective of life. He is passionate, he is focused, and he has all this energy and I realized that he had taught, like, eight or nine sessions in a row in about four days.

And he had all this vitality and I just, it seems like he’s been around a long time. And I said, “Dr. Lutzer, like, if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?” He goes, “You know, actually, this weekend, celebrated eighty years.” I said, “Really.” He goes, “Yeah, I’ve got a brand-new book coming out, I’ve done all this research on what is happening in the culture,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he started citing things. I got the book, I read it, and I thought, This guy is more current than ninety percent of the pastors I know that are forty and under. Why? Why? He has refused to settle.

And that’s my prayer for you, my prayer for me, because we can be bold and we can be courageous when we give thanks that the Lord is good. When we begin to communicate: This is what He has done for me. And then when we remember: This is who He is, this is what He does. And so, now the psalmist is going to eagerly tell us that He wants us to call for help, He wants other people to call for help, He wants to go into places that we think God would never care, and He wants to rescue and He wants to forgive and He wants to restore and He wants to do it when people are ignorant, He wants to do it when they have willfully rebelled.

He is this loving, powerful God that wants to bring about dynamic, supernatural change, not someday and not in the past, but right now. And the psalmist, it’s a bit of a long psalm, but we are going to go through it fairly quickly where the structure is four specific scenes. The Spirit of God has taken David and He is going to give him four snapshots. And he’s going to talk about four different situations where people get rescued and where they were, how they respond, and then how God responds.

And what I will tell you is you don’t have to settle. God is doing today exactly what is in this passage. Are you ready? Scene number one: God wants to rescue the wanderers, the people that are lost, the people without purpose. Follow along, “Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle; they were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.”

In other words, they were desperate. He is describing possibly the wandering of the wilderness, but this particular Hebrew word isn’t so much for that, it’s more a picture of people that find themselves in life that are lost. What is my purpose? My relationships aren’t working out. I mean, why am I here? What is life all about? And in this particular case they find themselves where little by little by little their life is ebbing away. They just come to the point where: What is going on? I’m lost spiritually, I’m lost financially, I’m lost in my world, I don’t have a community, I’m discouraged, I’m depressed, I’m anxious. They are lost. And then they realize it. They realize their life is ebbing away, what do I do?
Notice what they did: “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. And He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.” In other words, He gives them community, He gives them purpose, He rescues these lost people. And then he says: Here’s the response I’m looking for. “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love, and His wonderful deeds for men. For He satisfies the thirsty and He fills the hungry with good things.”

And the thirsty and the hungry here, certainly there’s a lot of physical application, but most of our lostness is spiritual hunger. We are spiritually thirsty. There are just people all around us, like never before. I was reading an article about anxiety and depression and a high percentage either think about or have attempted suicide. And it’s a wave that has happened in the last five to seven years. And this is a secular article; I’ll never forget it. And he says, “The root cause,” and I’m reading this, I said, “Really?” He says, “The root cause is a lack of religion.” And I’m thinking, “Where is this guy coming from?” He says, “Once you remove religion, the higher purpose, the what-is-life-all-about, why you’re here - gets removed.”

And if there’s no true north, you have a whole generation of people, they may not have any religious affiliation, but that doesn’t change the need of: This is true. I want to give my life to this. This matters. Someone cares about me. There’s purpose in life, there’s a life now, there’s a life later. And what God is saying here is that He longs to rescue the lost. He understands the hurt and the key is when they cry out to Him in their desperation and their trouble.

And I want you to know today that God, when you find yourself in trouble, when you find yourself in distress, when you find yourself lost in any way for any reason, lost in your community, lost in relationships, lost in direction, cry out to God and be desperate. Lord, please show me what to do. I will do whatever You want, but please give me direction. And He promises: I’ll do it. And then after you cry out and He does it, He goes: here’s what I want you to do. I want you to give thanks to the Lord. I want you to praise Him, I want you to declare to other people this is what God has done for you.

And, see, what happens is you may not know it, I read some other research, seventy thousand people a day are coming to know Christ, globally. And, now, a lot of it is in southeast Asia, India, Africa. But here! I will tell you, I’ve got relationships with a lot of young pastors. There are churches and God is working in amazing ways even in America. It doesn’t make the news. Are there problems? A lot of problems. But, see, when you find some people that are bold, that are telling, “Hey, Jesus saved me.”
We have a group of friends that we partner with and they go to places that, “Oh, that march against this,” or, “That atheist group,” or, “You know, that museum over there where they are just taking all the things that America used to stand for and they are railing against it,” they go to those places. And if it’s a hot day, they might bring water or they’ll spend time and they’ll ask people about, you know, their lostness. “Are you lonely?” “Oh, yeah.” Everyone is lonely. “What is your purpose in life?” “I don’t know, I don’t have one.” “What have you thought about in terms of relationships? Do you have community?”

They just bring up spiritual conversations. And then they say, “You guys want a meal?” And they befriend them. And they’re not trying to get someone to pray a prayer. They actually care about the people and they invest in their lives. And then they have developed some places here and about a hundred cities around the world where you can come and hang out and have a meal and talk with people and hear their story and you listen to their story and pretty soon, they begin to ask, “What is with you all? Why do you care?” And they begin to share about God coming to this planet, fully man, fully God to love and to forgive and to restore and to find people that are wandering.

So many of them are wandering. You know, it breaks my heart when I hear Christians and I’m sure they are well-meaning. It’s like, “Those people and they believe that and that lifestyle and that’s terrible.” It’s like they are the enemy. No, they are the deceived. Jesus’ heart is would you please care for them the way I care for them? You know, we didn’t clean up our life before Jesus revealed His love to us. God wants us to help, to share, to care for those that are lost.

And then He wants them to give Him thanks and He wants them to say so. We have to be bold and courageous. Are you ready for this? Does it really matter what people at work might say? Does it really matter if one of your neighbors, “Oh, he’s a Christian. Oh! Oh! They actually believe that life in the womb is important, but they’re not political and they’re not angry. They actually believe that the family system was designed by God and actually their marriage seems to work really well. And they’re not down on anybody. In fact, they invite us over for dinner and they care for us and…”

People are just longing to meet Christians who – are you ready? Live like Christians. Scene number two. God longs to rescue those in bondage. “Some sat in dark, in the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains,” why? “for they had rebelled against the words of God, and they despised the counsel of the Most High.

So, He subjected them to bitter labor, they stumbled, and there was no one to help.” It says God wants to rescue people in bondage and whether that’s the bondage of an addiction, bondage of, you know, bad decisions, whether it’s the bondage of being oppressed in some way. But he says in this particular case, lots of people are in bondage, because they have rebelled against God, they have rebelled against His Word. You say to live this way, I’m going to live this way. You say do relationships like this, I’m going to do them this way. You say handle your money this way, I’m doing them this way. Forget it. And there’s consequences.

Part of the judgment of God, if you will, the passive judgment of God, is when I live my life or you live your life contrary to His Word, He allows the consequences of that to happen, not to punish us, but to get our attention. And then notice what happens to this group. He says, “They then cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.” They got to the point there was no one to help them, they couldn’t fix the relationship, they couldn’t break the addiction, they couldn’t get enough food, they couldn’t get a good job, they found themselves desperate, they said, “I don’t want to do life God’s way,” but in their desperation - and I’ve had this happen a lot in relationships with people, “You know what? I have never believed, I don’t know if there’s a God or not, but because my life is just absolutely imprisoned.”

And they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and He saved them from their distress. “He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and He broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord,” here’s the response. Why? “for His,” here’s our word again, “unfailing love,” steadfast, loyal, covenant love, “and His wonderful deeds for men. For He breaks down the gates of bronze and He cuts through the bars of iron.” I wish we knew each other better, I wish that we could, okay, I said it again, have coffee. And I wish I could just hear your story. Like, tell me your journey.

Tell me what is going on? Where are you at in life and where are you at with God? And then, I’m sure, because I meet a lot of people, you would probably tell me about some struggles and challenges and a brother or sister or someone with an addiction, a drug issue, a sexual addiction. All kind of different things. And then I hope you would say, “Chip, you seem a little bit older than me,” which is probably going to be true. “Have you ever seen God help people like this?” And I would lean back and I’d get a second cup of coffee and I would start to tell you story after story after story after story after story of the young man or the not-so-young man or the now friend that has been two or three, went two or three marriages. And, I mean, was life a train wreck. And how God, once they got to the point of, “I can’t do this.”

You see, some of those cliches are pretty true. When you hit rock bottom, the only place you can look is up. There’s a lot of truth to that. I have some good friends that work in the addiction arena and they tell me, “You really can’t help people until they come to the end of themselves.” I mean, they will con you, they will lie to you, they will promise anything. But if you get with anyone in a Celebrate Recovery or a Twelve Step or some sort of a counseling program where lives really change, everyone knows until you get to the point where you stop denying, stop lying, stop manipulating and just realize: I am helpless and I am hopeless to change.

If that’s you or if that’s someone you know, there is a God in heaven and there is a Jesus who is a Savior that longs to forgive and to restore and to break the chains and to help you. All you have to do is ask and then find a community of His people and get real and get honest and what you’ll find is He will use the power of His Word and His Spirit to little, by little, by little transform your life.

I have some good friends that work in the addiction arena and they tell me, “You really can’t help people until they come to the end of themselves.” I mean, they will con you, they will lie to you, they will promise anything. But if you get with anyone in a Celebrate Recovery or a Twelve Step or some sort of a counseling program where lives really change, everyone knows until you get to the point where you stop denying, stop lying, stop manipulating and just realize: I am helpless and I am hopeless to change.

If that’s you or if that’s someone you know, there is a God in heaven and there is a Jesus who is a Savior that longs to forgive and to restore and to break the chains and to help you. All you have to do is ask and then find a community of His people and get real and get honest and what you’ll find is He will use the power of His Word and His Spirit to little, by little, by little transform your life.

He has done it thousands, millions of times. And my call is for us where He has done that in our life to say so! To be bold! Everyone has their agenda. It’s America, right? I’m glad you can believe this, you can be of this part or that party, you can be alternative this, you can say this. Great.

Believe whatever you want. Christians! How about we be bold and courageous, winsome, loving, and kind and say, “Yes, those are a lot of ideologies, there’s a lot of issues, there’s a lot of ways to do life. This is our way. This is our way. And we’re not down on anybody. Jesus said, ‘Live this way.’ Jesus has done this for us. Jesus has transformed our life. This is who we are and what we are doing. We welcome you. We don’t judge you. That’s God’s job. We welcome you. We want to share with you what He has done in us.” You would be shocked how open people really are. Behind the façade, behind the anger, behind the dysfunction, behind the arguments, behind the polarization, behind all the politics.

I got news! These are regular people with real issues that are lonely, that are hurting, that are struggling, that have anxiety, that have depression issues, that have marital issues, that have family issues, that have financial issues. They don’t need someone going, “Ergh!” What they need is someone who says, “I have and have had those. I think it’s called being human. And everyone is looking for a solution.”

Some solutions don’t work very well. Some promise they will. And we can say Jesus, the Son of God, He came and He broke the power of sin. He destroyed the works of the enemy, He has prepared a place for us, and He has demonstrated, not by words, that He loves everyone.

And you can take it at your own pace, but I just want you know, as a neighbor or as a coworker or as a friend or maybe someone on a plane that I’ve never met – I just want you to know that He really cares about you. And if I can be a part of His process in helping you, I want you to know I will. I can’t tell you how many times I have found myself, and I travel a lot, it’s just part of my job, but I travel here and I traveled a lot of different countries and so I sit next to a lot of different people. And I don’t have a sign that says, “Hey, ask me a question! I’ll preach at you.” Mostly just I start asking questions and I say, Lord, if You want me to share, I want to be empowered, I want to be sensitive.

If this guy is like, “Hey, man,” he’s got a ton of work to do, he doesn’t want to be bothered, I want to respect that. I can’t even tell you the scores and scores of times where a little casual conversation, I mean, people from Muslim backgrounds, Buddhist backgrounds, Indian backgrounds, Hindu backgrounds, rich people, poor people, all kind of different colored people. You get to sit, you know, next to them. And what I find is they’ve got all the same issues I do and after a while I’ll ask a number of questions and they will eventually, not always, but almost always, “Well, how about you? I mean, you know, you married?” “Yeah.” “Got any kids?” “Yeah.” “Had any problems?”

“Sure.” “Well, how do you address them?” “Do you want to hear?” “Well, sure.” “There’s a little story to it, do you mind? Could I have five minutes to tell my story?” “Sure. You’ve listened to me for an hour.” “Well, I thought,” and you know, I’d begin to tell the story of success and, you know, being a basketball star and having a pretty girl and getting good grades and being all that would somehow fulfill me. And it came up empty and Jesus revealed Himself and, you know, it has been a journey and He changed my life and this is what He has done and I’m just a very regular guy who has been forgiven and saved and restored. And I don’t think it’s an accident, He probably put us together today because He loves you.

And I usually keep something, you know, I’ve written a few books and I pray every time before I get on a plane, Which book do You want me to take? And I put it in my briefcase and just recently was really, really cool. Got into a conversation, I was flying back, a tech guy coming back into San Jose. He’s doing a startup, he’s from Taiwan, and I asked permission to share the story. And he let me go on and on. And then he looked at me and he goes, “Hey, man, I kind of know this story. My parents are, like, really strong Christians and I know they are really praying for me. And I’m doing this startup and I haven’t been to church in a really, really long time. And I’m super busy and … And I just, I just casually said, “Don’t let that startup steal your soul.”

He said, “What?” “Yeah,” I said, “man, I’m with a lot of venture capital guys and startup guys and I watch how it just consumes their life. And I have watched them go through marriages and pain and all kind of stuff. You are young and you’re smart and…” And we had this conversation. Well, God led me that morning, I have a book called Spiritual Simplicity and the subtitle is: Doing Less, Loving More. And this is a guy who is a workaholic. And then I had another one called Discover Your True Self. And he married a girl from China and now she is here and having all kind of identity issues. I never met him, but I’m talking about breaking free and here we are and I realize, Wow! “God must really care about you.

This is your number one need and this is your wife’s.” And he goes, “Can I have them?” I said, “Sure.” So, I get up, I get those two down, jot a little... Do you know how exciting that is? In that moment. And I don’t do it all the time. Are you ready for this? I was bold and I was courageous and I was gentle, and by God’s grace, I was winsome. What is going to happen, I don’t know, but he turned to me and he said this, “I think the Lord has been trying to get my attention and I think my parents’ prayers might really be working.” I said, “Can you give me the book back?”

And I got it back and I just wrote my email and I said, “That’s my personal email. When you ever get where maybe you’re a little bit more serious, I am always available. You email me and remind me of this conversation and I’d love to meet with you.”Now, that’s a story, but that’s the story that is happening thousands of times. My question is, is that your story? And you don’t have to have a book. It might be a book that you have read by someone else. It might be something else.
It might be you have skills that are way outside that way better than what I have in other areas. But did you get it? God wants to rescue people from their prisons. God wants to help people that are lost and looking for meaning and purpose. And He wants to use you and He wants to use me. Scene number three. God longs even to rescue what the Scripture would call rebellious fools. “Some became fools through their rebellious ways and they suffered affliction because of their iniquities.

They loathed all food and they drew near to the gates of death. They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from all their distress.” Now, when the Bible uses the word fool, you need to understand it’s a technical word, if you will. I think it’s Psalm 14, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Now, what he’s saying here is fools are people, he’s not talking about foolishness. These are people that are saying, “I don’t believe in God. I’m an atheist or I’m agnostic.

I have a lot of people that I don’t like, but Christians are at the top of the list. They are narrow, this stuff about one way, I am against them. This is who they are talking about. He says they are rebellious in their ways. And then they suffer affliction, in other words, their behaviors and their sin are producing consequences that are devastating. So devastating they get to the end and they are either clinically depressed or they have broken relationships or they can’t eat or they can’t sleep, or maybe they have caught some sort of disease.

And in their trouble, are you ready? They hit rock bottom. They turn upward and they cry to God and what does He do? “He sends forth His Word and He healed them; He rescued them from the grave.” Their response, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of His
works with songs of joy.”

God wants to find lost people, God wants to bring healing and restore people and have them get freedom and then finally, God wants to take people that are far, far from Him and make [them] His sons and daughters. He wants to forgive them and He wants to cleanse them. And it is happening all the time. Jesus looked out and a bunch of, it was a Samaritan village. His disciples, you know, all Jews, they’re thinking, These people can’t be open. These people are anti-God. These people got the wrong doctrine, and some of them are really immoral.

And little did they know that the lady that Jesus had talked to the better part of the morning around noon, is someone that has had five husbands and is living with a guy.
Well, “she’s unclean!” Jesus said: You guys don’t get it. I came for her. And He shares the truth of living water and forgiveness. And she is far, far from God. She not only feels unworthy, but she’s in conflict theologically with the Jews. And God touches her heart and she goes and tells her friends. You know something? This man that I never met told me all these things about myself.

And a crowd is coming out of a city and here’s a bunch of Jewish boys following Jesus that think those people, they would never, they would never respond to the message of Yahweh - and now His Son. And there’s a revival that happens. And a whole revival happens through an immoral woman, through a group of people that would never, ever listen. I’ve got news, when trouble hits you, when things are hard and they are getting hard everywhere, when there is violence, when there’s a flood, when there’s a hurricane, tell you what, people are looking at life very differently. I spent some time - massive, massive floods, two hurricanes in the North Carolina area.

We had a chance to be a little part of helping those that are helping people. Everything from Samaritan’s Purse to spiritual issues and kind of helping pastors help people and mobilizing their churches to help others and we’re a tiny, tiny little part of it. But I was on the wire talking to one of the guys that, there’s a large radio station that the Billy Graham organization has and it reaches about seven states. And I said, “This is so devastating. You know, how is it going and what’s going on?”

He said, “It is more devastating than you can imagine.” He said, “Chip, we have never seen anything like it. The body of Christ coming together and people far from God, I mean, your home is here today, your home is gone tomorrow. Everything you have is here today, everything you have is gone tomorrow. And the only people coming to help are in love with this radical rabbi named Jesus.” He said, “We have people calling out to God, coming to Christ like never before, literally, even on interviews on the air asking how can they find God through Jesus.”

I want you to know the harvest is white. That’s what Jesus said to those disciples. Hey, people are ten times, one hundred times, infinitely more open. They are not the bad people, they are the needy people. And what they need to hear is some of the redeemed to - are you ready? - say so. Yeah. I was a prisoner, I got free. I was lost, I found a home. I was far from God and I am forgiven.

Scene number four: I love it. God longs to rescue us from the storms of life. One I just described. “Others were on the sea in ships;” these are sailors, “and they were merchants on the mighty waters. And they saw the works of the Lord, His wonderful deeds in the deep. For He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens, went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and they staggered like drunk men; and they were at their wits’ end.”

Literally, all their wisdom left them, the Hebrew text says, “And then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it came calm, and He guided them to a desired haven.”

Response: “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the council of the elders.” Are you seeing a pattern here? Each of these four situations finds people in different circumstance. Some are lost, some are imprisoned, some are rejecting God and finding themselves near death. Here, no one has done anything wrong.

In a fallen world there are hurricanes. We see them. There are tornadoes. There are tsunamis. And he says these professional sailors found themselves in a situation where, their wisdom melted or their wits melted. It’s literally, all their wisdom left them.
It’s gone. We’re in a situation that we can’t handle. Are you getting the pattern?

Problems caused by ourselves, problems caused by others, sometimes it’s just the world, storms that come into our life. The pattern is God either decrees or allows certain situations and some situations are made of our own folly, our own sin, our own rebellion.

But each and every time if we get to a point of: I have to look up, the trouble, I can’t handle. I am going to cry out to God, regardless of where I have been, what I have done, or what I believe. And He says: I will rescue you. I’ll rescue you. I’ll calm the waters.
And when you think about these four scenes, what you see is a picture of Jesus. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus came to set the prisoners free. Jesus came to the demoniac, the people far from God to heal and restore. And Jesus, when people were in crisis, even in a storm, He would speak His word and – what? Immediately it was calmed.

There’s this picture of desperation, turning to God, responding in faith, God’s intervention, and healing and then a call to: Don’t be silent. You know? It’s sort of the Old Testament version of: Be bold and courageous. Tell others what God has done for you. And then just in case they missed it, it’s very, very interesting how he is going to end this psalm.
He says, “He turns rivers into a desert and flowing springs into thirsty ground; and fruitful land into salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who live there. He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; there He brought the hungry to live, and He founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest. He blessed them and their numbers increased greatly, and He did not let their herds diminish. Then their numbers decreased and they were humbled by oppression, calamity, and sorrow. He who pours contempt on nobles made them wander in trackless waste, but He lifted up the needy of their afflicted and increased their families like flocks. The upright will see and rejoice; but all the wicked will shut their mouths.”

Listen carefully to what he is saying here. He has given us these four scenes and the pattern is very clear.

Things can be very, very, very positive and I can turn them to be very, very negative. Right? Fruitful to a desert. And then he says things can be very, very, very negative and I can intervene and I can make them very, very positive. And he says: And then there can be injustice and I can take princes and rulers and presidents and prime ministers and kings and I can humble them in a minute.

God is powerful. God is in control. He is not done yet. His purposes will not be thwarted. And He is still looking for men and women who refuse to settle. Men and women who will say, “I will not be overcome with this spirit of cynicism.” Oh, that’s just, idealism. That’ll never happen in our day. It’ll happen in our day when regular men and regular women and students take a step and are bold and courageous like those who have in the past, those that are doing it now, and God will work. It’s what He promised.

Notice the final verse is a warning. “Whoever is wise, let him heed these things,” what things? This pattern. God is control, not China, not the United States. God is powerful, not Hezbollah, or not Israel or not some ideology here or there. It’s not some undercurrent. There are all kind of things happening, but there’s an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing God who has a purpose and He’s going to fulfill it.

“Whoever is wise, let him heed these things,” this pattern, “and consider the great love of the Lord.” Behind it all is His passion to do – what? To find the lost, to free the prisoner, to just liberate the ridiculous fool and atheists, to know that they are loved and even in calamities to say: Let Me bring calm, let Me bring forgiveness, let Me bring wholeness.

We are ambassadors for Christ as though God were compelling us as His instruments to everyone in the world. Be reconciled to God. Those are Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5. If you’re a follower of Jesus, you are His ambassador, you’re His representative. And the white of harvest is all around us. Here is my plea, here is God’s Word to you and to me: He is powerful, He’s in control, and He has given you and me the job to be bold and courageous in one of the most strategic times in world history. Let’s not blow it.