-Transcript-
00:38 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:40 Welcome to the cafe. Hope you’re having a great day, a great week here at KJV Cafe. My name is Pastor Clark Covington.
00:47 I’m so glad to have you here listening to the broadcast. Don’t take it for granted. And here we are to get into God’s Word.
00:54 So we’re gonna dive right in. I have a blessing for you today. We’re in Psalms.
00:59 Love the book of Psalms. We’re in Psalm 28. It’s a beautiful chapter.
01:03 All the Psalms are so beautiful. There’s so many layers to the Psalms, is there not? I mean there is learning how to praise God through a word. There is the musical aspect that it was actually written as music.
01:15 There’s the Bible truth we learn in the Psalms. There’s prophecy that becomes fulfilled later on in the Bible. And we learn about God’s character in the Psalms.
01:23 And so Psalm 28:7. And we’re gonna do two parts here today. We’re gonna do, well we’ll do one part today and one part in the next episode here so we can take our time with it. It’s a short verse but it’s very impactful.
01:36 the Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth. And with mysong will I praise him.
01:49 So we see a little bit of a cause and effect here don’t we? The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him and I am helped.
01:58 Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth. And with my song will I praise him. So you see that therefore is kind of a turning point.
02:06 It’s saying this happened and therefore this is what I’m doing. But let’s start at the beginning. My power and protection.
02:15 We see here in Psalm 28:7. The Lord is my strength and my shield. Okay so my strength and my shield. When you think of strength what do you think of? Maybe you think of physical strength, mental strength, fortitude, stamina, all the above.
02:31 I think a way to kind of look at strength is looking at power. You know who or where do you turn to for strength? You know where do you turn to for strength? Where do you turn to for power?
02:43 And what level of strength is available to you when you turn there? You know often people will turn to think about this on a very simple level. You’re tired at work and you need strength to keep going.
02:57 What are you gonna do? You’re gonna go to the coffee machine. You know you’re gonna have a cup of Joe. You know we know about that here at the cafe.
03:03 You know what’s that gonna do? You’re awake for a little bit and then you you know or you get tired again. Okay the caffeine wears off. Or if you’re like me I’ve been drinking a lot of decaf lately there’s not really any caffeine in the cup to begin with.
03:16 So you’re not gonna get strength from the coffee. Or if you do it’s just for a little bit. Maybe people say well I want to get strength at the gym.
03:21 You know they want to become stronger or maybe working out will wake them up or make them make them peppy. Well that’s good for a season. But you know what with muscles you can grow them.
03:31 But then what happens when you don’t? You don’t go to the gym you’re gonna have atrophy right? And life would have it that oftentimes you get busy and there’s seasons when you can exercise maybe. And there’s seasons when you can’t. Or you’re too old and frail.
03:45 Or you have a pre-existing condition. For example I grew up playing sports my whole life. I was always a bigger guy but I always loved to play sports.
03:50 Loved football. Played lacrosse. Became asthmatic in my 30s.
03:55 So that threw me for a curve. I mean most of my 30s was somewhat limited with activities. I’d ride the bike and go walking.
04:02 But it wasn’t anything like it used to be. And so if I was trying to get my strength from coffee it’s not gonna last very long. My strength from exercise again it’s fleeting.
04:12 Even the Bible talks about what value is there in physical exercise. Not much but spiritual exercise there’s much. So the Bible even touches on that.
04:21 Some people they want to get their strength from music amen. I use the example recently on a broadcast about going to like a football game or a baseball or basketball game and they want to get the crowd pumped up and they’re playing really loud music and everyone’s jumping up and down.
04:35 And then what happens? The music goes off and everyone kind of settles back in.
04:40 You know so it literally the music stops playing amen. And and that doesn’t provide strength. So what level of strength is available to you? I want you to think about that here today because David is saying the Lord capital L Lord Jesus Christ is his strength amen.
04:55 Is Jesus Christ your strength? What strength is available from Christ? Is there a limit to the power that God has to bestow upon you?
05:05 Is there a limit to the strength that God has to give you? I don’t think there is. God’s power is unlimited. God’s strength is unlimited.
05:13 For God to create the world in the six days seems incredible to us and rest on the seventh but to him it’s a small thing. He rested to help us teach about the Sabbath and so forth. It’s not like he needed rest.
05:23 He has unlimited strength. He could do things here that would make you literally speechless. That is our God amen.
05:30 Throughout the Bible we see that. If you study nature you see that. If you look at relationships and people and the way that that God has made things so intricately even looking at the human body and the complexity of it it’ll leave you speechless but God did that times billions amen times billions with a B and that is God’s strength.
05:50 So when you go for strength what’s available to you at the outlet you’re going to? I just want you to think about that okay and protection the Lord is my strength in my shield. Is God your protection today?
06:06 Is he your protection today? You know David’s saying the Lord is my strength in my shield. Who or where do you turn for protection? What level of protection is available to you?
06:16 I mean think about this you turn to family for protection if you’re a child.
06:22 You know my kids they look to me or my wife when they want protection from something and we will do our level best but I personally as a parent of young children can tell you there have been times I’ve assessed my ability to protect them and realized it’s very limited.
06:36 two of them being almost twins or ten and a half months apart that’s a story for another day amen but I can’t always protect them I want to I desire to but I don’t have that ability to be two places at once amen
06:52 two of them having trouble swimming in different parts of the pool which one do you save I could go on and on but our protection is limited maybe you turn to family maybe you turn to friends maybe you turn to the world or the media maybe you turn to a counselor maybe turn to your intellect or learning what level of protection is available to you from these outlets
07:12 it’s all limited amen it’s all limited and that is that is a truth that even the greatest army in the world like our army we are still limited to what we can do to protect our citizens amen
07:25 we’ve seen that on our own soil in the past amen God is unlimited in his protection and David is claiming here he’s telling the congregation he’s letting everyone know he’s praising God by saying God is my protection and and here we understand that God has unlimited ability to protect you
07:46 now you saying brother Clark do you believe that God will provide protect protection for those that turn to him I do it’s in the Bible
07:53 that he’ll put a hedge of protection around those that trust in him amen that he’ll never leave us nor forsake us amen that he hears the prayers of the righteous amen that he delivers the righteous out of the many afflictions that they encounter
08:04 God is our protection it’s all over the scriptures amen so what level of protection is available to you where you’re turning because if you’re not turning to God you’re selling yourself short for power and protection
08:17 and then we see here my heart trusted in him my heart trusted in him you know the deepest part of me deepest part of you trusts him amen the heart speaks the deepest part of who we are it’s not talking about our physical heart it’s talking about our deep emotions our soul our spirit amen
08:37 let me give you an example work made me tired I’ll go to sleep that’s a surface emotion amen you went to work maybe you’re physically tired maybe you’re emotionally tired amen and you just go to sleep you have a physical emotion and you address it with a physical response my mom passed away my heart hurts
08:58 no thank God my mom didn’t pass away but I’m giving you an example of a much deeper emotion that is not surface level that is something that is in your heart amen the love you have for your mom the closeness you have to your mom the desire you have for your mom to prosper and do well and be in heaven and all these things amen
09:17 that is a deep emotion and here we see David addressing the deeper things saying my heart trusted in him and trusting trusting is what that’s faith right what does it mean to have faith it means to trust God at his word
09:34 trusting with the deepest part of you takes commitment I mean how else could you get there you know we don’t want to open up do we for right reasons a lot of times you know you’ve opened up in the past maybe you’ve trusted someone and they’ve let you down you’ve gone to places and you’ve tried to be trusting to people because you felt like that was part of the culture or the way people were acting and you get hurt
10:01 you feel sad you feel betrayed whatever it may be Jesus himself was betrayed and I’ve just finished preaching on Judas betraying Jesus and the Bible says that Jesus trusted Judas amen
10:13 even though he knew his heart he still offered that trust to him and so it takes commitment you know it’s not easy we want to be the captain of our own ship we want to be we want to lead our life
10:26 and if we keep that motto we will always sell ourselves short because we will never truly turn to God for his power and protection as long as we are thinking we can do it on our own
10:41 and in order to turn to God what do we have to do what’s that word you hear in church often we have to surrender and that is so hard to surrender
10:49 you know that’s almost the hardest thing we can do as Christians I think more so even than enduring what taking up our cross and going through the trials and tribulations that come when you live for the Lord and you forsake the sinful world as best you can and you set yourself apart that’s difficult
11:08 but probably what’s even harder than that is to say okay I’m gonna have faith and trust a God I cannot see or touch
11:17 I’m gonna trust that this God is real that his word is real and I’m going to trust him so much that I am going to turn to him for my power I’m gonna turn to him for my protection
11:29 and let me say here many people would intellectually agree with this they would say yeah that makes sense trust God have faith
11:38 right many people in the world will talk about trusting God I see again I mentioned sports earlier you see a lot of athletes that’ll have profane things on their social media profiles and they’re talking about how their their God’s got their back and they trust God
11:51 and it’s a total you know the Bible says by their fruits you’ll know them and so you see this and say that’s not right but that’s our culture amen our culture has taught these young men and women that that hey you can just live like you want and just throw God in the mix and water down the gospel and not recognize sin for what it is that’s our culture today
12:11 and that’s sadly some some of the modern church and I won’t you know I won’t go down that road here and I know I haven’t been to every modern church but I’ve seen a few of the sermons online amen of some of these monitors there’s some very good modern churches that are Bible believing etc etc I understand that
12:29 but there’s also many that are living and teaching this false doctrine of being yourself and being benefited by God without changing who you are
12:40 but here we see in the Psalm David wasn’t like that at all David’s saying I trusted God the deepest part of me trust God for my power and for my protection
12:51 and it is it is something that I’ve done and then we see here the result the result I am helped I am helped
12:59 when we serve a living God he helps now this is an understatement but it’s still a true statement when we serve a living God he helps when we live for God he helps it’s in his word amen
13:14 there is all types of examples of how God shows up for those that are living for him and you say well brother Clark anyone that’s saved is helped by God yes but if you’re saved
13:24 and you’re backslid you’re living in the world you got one foot in one foot out and you’re lukewarm the Bible doesn’t speak kindly to that you know the Bible tells me that God hears the prayers of the righteous
13:34 and that he’s far from the wicked so I know that if you are living as best you can as Christ would have you to live that God will hear your prayers
13:42 and not just hear your prayers but often answer your prayers and deliver you amen and so I want you to think about this we’re not gonna have time to get to the rest of the psalm today you have to tune in next time as we wrap up the study on this beautiful scripture here Psalm 28:7
13:58 the fruit of trusting the Lord but realize that when we make God our power and protection and we put our trust in him in the deepest part of our heart and we live for him we are blessed and we are helped amen
14:10 and that is a fact that is a Bible fact tune in next time thank you for listening take care God bless and amen