July 14, 2025 • 25 mins
A study in the book of Psalms, chapter 61.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to K Wave's Pastor Spotlight featuring the preaching and
teaching ministries of our local Southern California pastors. This week
we're pleased to bring you the Bible teaching ministry of
Bayless Conley, founding pastor of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos.
Bayless and his wife Janet started Cottonwood Church over 41
years ago. Today the church is led by their son
(00:21):
Harrison and
is located at 4505 Cottella Avenue in Los Alamitos. In
his message for today, Pastor Bayless invites us to join
him as he looks at Psalm 61. It's in this
Psalm we see that Jesus Christ is a secure person
and place that we can always run to in time
of need. Here's Bayless Conley with today's message called Lead
(00:43):
Me to the Rock.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
To open your Bibles please to Psalm 61. Psalm 61,
beginning in verse 1.
Hear my cry, oh God, attend to my prayer. From
the end of the earth, I will cry to you.
When my heart is overwhelmed that lead me to the
rock that is higher than I, for you have been
a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.
(01:09):
I will abide in your tabernacle forever. I will trust
in the shelter of your wings, Sela.
And the word Sila means slow down, means pause. Think
about what you've just read. Don't rush on to the
next thing. Reflect on that for a while. We're gonna
be reflecting on these 1st 4 verses.
(01:31):
Of some
61.
First, I would like you to notice in verse 2,
David said, when my heart is overwhelmed.
Not if
At times all of us feel the floodwaters coming into
our soul. I realize some have greater, you know, more
(01:56):
developed inner spiritual resources, and they can withstand greater assaults and, and,
and get through, you know, more difficult circumstances, but the
truth is every one of us will face circumstances that
are bigger than we are.
Every one of us will face circumstances that we cannot
handle with our own strength and our own energy, things
(02:19):
that are far too difficult, far too big for us
to deal with. Consider these words from the apostle Paulm,
writing to the Corinthians.
2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9, he said,
We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters,
about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia.
We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure,
(02:44):
and we thought we would never live through it. In fact,
we expected to die, but as a result, we stopped
relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God
who raises.
The dead
Paul himself said, look, we didn't know what to do.
We were at the end of our rope and beyond.
Thank God he learned a marvelous lesson, one that God
(03:06):
wants us to learn, that our trust should be in
Him alone when we feel crushed and overwhelmed and we
don't have the resources to deal with things. And here
in in Psalm 61 we find three figures.
that God uses to speak of his aid and His protection.
(03:27):
First, there is a shelter.
Secondly, the strong tower.
And thirdly,
He speaks of a tabernacle, a shelter, a strong tower,
and a tabernacle, all emblems of God's aid in our
distress and his means to protect us and sustain us.
(03:47):
But as well, these three things also reveal potential causes
for an overwhelmed heart, and there as follows, calamities.
Calculated assaults.
In Crossroads.
We're going to be dealing with all of these things today.
(04:08):
Let's look at the first one's calamities. That's what a
shelter shields us from.
Rain, flood, accidents, the calamities of life come to all
because we're living in a fallen world. Everything does not
operate in this world the way that God originally intended.
One day he's gonna make a new heavens and a
new earth where in righteousness dwells, and the King of
(04:31):
kings and the Lord of lords will rule, and everything
will be perfect, and everything will be right, but in
the main meantime, we are living in a fallen world.
Sometimes calamities and unexpected things happen.
And it was just about 6 months ago, my brother-in-law
went in for what we thought was a fairly routine
(04:52):
back surgery. There were complications, and he died on the
operating table.
None of us saw it coming.
It put the whole family in a tailspin.
We never even got to say goodbye to him.
It was very unexpected, very, very overwhelming.
(05:12):
You know, I think about my dad who's been in
heaven for a few years now. Dad was an interesting fellow. Um,
he was one of the most generous people you'll ever meet,
but he was not wasteful. My dad found it very
difficult to throw anything away.
I mean, if it was an empty pink can, he
(05:34):
saved it. You never know, that empty paint can might
come in handy. Even food that I wouldn't touch with
a ten-foot pole, he says, oh, it's still good, you know,
you just scrape this off and you can still eat it,
you know.
Dad just had a hard time throwing anything away, but
You know, he'd been through the Great Depression.
(05:56):
And as well, when he was a kid, twice, his
family lost everything due to floods, lost their home, lost
every earthly possession. One time they were rescued from the
roof of their house.
By someone in a rowboat.
He went through the trauma of that and it impacted
him on the inside. It was an overwhelming thing, you know,
(06:18):
as a child to lose everything you have not once
but twice, and, and that was something that marked my
dad and he carried it with him into adulthood. All right, secondly,
calculated assaults, which is what the strong tower shields us from.
He said, God, you're a strong tower from the enemy.
(06:39):
We do have an enemy. You realize we are in
a spiritual conflict.
Let me quote some verses to you. Ephesians 611 to 12,
Put on the whole armor of God that you may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,
for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rumors of the darkness
(07:00):
of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places.
First Peter 5:8, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary,
the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom
he may devour. Now listen, I'm not one that blames
everything on the devil, but the fact of the matter is,
(07:20):
we do have an adversary and some of your troubles
are the direct result of his activity.
He is against the church. He is against God, God's people.
The spirit realm is real, and we read through the scriptures.
We find Satan behind illness in certain cases. We find
him behind tragedy. We find him behind persecution. We find him,
(07:41):
you know, behind oppression.
And he has not changed. Jesus said the thief comes
to steal, to kill and to destroy. And some of
the things you may be experiencing and that I experienced
in my life are literally calculated assaults. They are the
result of the enemy's activity. And then we come to
(08:02):
the third one. It's a crossroads. You stand at one
of the intersections of life and you don't know which
way to go.
You're daunted. Perhaps even overwhelmed, did you consider what choice
to make. And this relates to the reference of his tabernacle.
I'll abide in your tabernacle. Often in scripture, it's called
(08:26):
the tabernacle of meeting because it's the place you go
to meet with God. It's the place you go to
hear from God, to receive guidance and strength and comfort
from Him. It was the place where God's presence manifested.
Under the Old Testament. I've talked talked to numerous people
in our church over the last 1.5 or 2 years
(08:48):
that weren't a great crossroads in their life. They said,
you know, they told me, pastor, either because of, of,
you know, personal health reasons or conscience reasons, they did
not feel at liberty to get a COVID vaccine, yet
their employer has said, if you don't get vaccinated, you're fired.
And then it's like pastor, what do I do? Do
(09:10):
I violate my conscience?
and get it, or do I lose my job and
trust God to open up other work for me? Or,
or do I, I go ahead and, and, you know,
take this risk with my health with something that I,
I know, what, what, what do I do? And don't
be quick to judge someone else's conscience, friend. The scriptures
talk a lot about conscience. It is a sacred thing
(09:32):
in the Bible to violate one's conscience is sin. So
don't be too quick to sit in judgment over another
person's conscience. And there's some people that have been in
great conflict.
What do I do? And they're literally feeling overwhelmed because
of those kind of things.
Or the parent that finds out that their seven year old.
(09:55):
Is being taught explicit sexual material in public school and
being taught things that run cross grain to traditional and
biblical morality. Let's say it's a single mom. She says,
what do I do? I can't afford to put my
kid in private school, and I'd homeschool, but I have
to work. If I don't work, we can't pay the
(10:15):
rent on the apartment and we don't eat.
What do I do? And if I go to the
council meeting and and raise my voice that they treat
me like a domestic terrorist, what do I do? Those
are not, those are not easy situations to be in, friend,
and sometimes standing at the crossroads of life.
can be absolutely overwhelming.
(10:39):
But thank God we have a tabernacle that we can
meet with God in.
The good news is God has a cure for everyone.
He can shelter us during our times of calamity. He's
a strong tower from the enemy, and thank God he
has a tabernacle where we can meet with him and
receive guidance and comfort and strength in our times of need.
(11:02):
In fact, you don't have to go far to find
his tabernacle. If you're born again, you're it.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
You're listening to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring Pastor Bayless Conley
of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. For more information, visit
their website at cottonwood.org. Once again, here's Pastor Bayless Conley
with more of his message titled Lead Me to the Rock.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
1 Corinthians 3:16, do you not know that you are
the temple of God and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you? But you know, as we read here
in Psalm 61.
There was actually some language that preceded, there was something
that preceded these, these illustrations of the shelter and the
(11:47):
strong tower and the tabernacle. Back up again to verse one.
Hear my cry, oh God, attend to my prayer. From
the end of the earth, I will cry to you.
When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock
that is higher than I. From the end of the earth,
I'll cry to you, when I feel like I'm as
far away from you and as far away from help
(12:09):
as I can possibly be, isolated, alone, and forsaken.
I will cry out and I will pray.
And it begins with a very general cry for help.
But it becomes quite definite and very specific. It all
funnels down to this. When my heart is overwhelmed.
(12:33):
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
You know, some years ago, I was meditating on Psalm 61.
I've been reading it all day, over and over and over.
I went to bed that night meditating on Psalm 61.
From the ends of the earth, they'll cry to you.
(12:54):
Lord, when my heart's overwhelmed, lead me to the rock
that's higher than I. I actually fell asleep thinking about it.
I woke up in the morning because I heard someone's voice,
and then I realized it was my own voice.
I was talking. I woke myself up talking.
And I was saying this over and over, I need
(13:16):
to see something, and I need to do something.
I need to see something, and I need to do something.
I actually looked around to see who was talking, it
was coming out of my mouth. I need to see
something and I need to do something. Can we say that?
I need to see something and I need to do something.
I need to see something.
(13:36):
And I need to do something. Lead me to the
rock that's higher than I. First, I need to see something.
That's talking about God, bring me to a new vantage point.
A place from where I can see farther. Lead me
to a rock that's higher than I am. I need
a new perspective.
But when David said, Lord, lead me to the rock
(13:59):
that's higher than I am, it's a prayer for a
new level of understanding, a new revelation regarding the purposes
of God, or the true nature of the situation, or
a look into the reality of your own motives.
Or perhaps the motives of others. Consider these verses in
(14:20):
Matthew 16. I want to begin in verse 13, Matthew
16 and 13. It says, when Jesus came into the
region of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who
do men say that I, the son of man am?
So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah,
others Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said to them,
but who do you say that I am?
(14:41):
Simon Peter answered and said, You're the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Jesus answered him and said to him,
Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood is
not revealed this to you, but my Father who is
in heaven. And I also say to you that that
you are Peter and on this rock, everyone say on
this rock.
And on this rock I will build my church, and
(15:03):
the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. On
this rock, I'll build my church. It's the rock of
the revelation that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
He's not just a good man who died as a
token for his fellow man. He was not just a
guru or a good teacher. He was not just a symbol.
He was his and forever shall be the living Son
(15:25):
of God. That is the rock.
That God builds his church upon and friend, any person
that does not have that revelation, they are not part
of this great body of Christ. They can attend a
church that doesn't make them a Christian more than sitting
in the garage makes you a car.
Jesus said you must be born again, and that only
(15:49):
happens when a person has a revelation. Peter flesh and
blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father
who's in heaven, and on this rock, this rock of revelation,
I will build my church. A friend, when your heart
is overwhelmed, you need to see something. You need a
fresh perspective, a new insight, a revelation from the Father.
(16:13):
You know, in our struggle with the city's redevelopment agency
when they tried to seize our property and acted eminent
domain locked us out of our property.
I, I cried out to God. God, you, you gotta
show me, you got, you gotta give me insight here.
And God took me to a higher rock.
(16:33):
And I saw some things that changed my life.
Let me tell you what I saw. First I saw
that God is not in a hurry.
And that he's working things according to the counsel of
his own will.
I saw how God sees and works things from a
long range perspective when I tend to be more focused
(16:54):
on the immediate.
I also saw God desiring to work on a much
bigger scale and weaving our lives and our acts of obedience,
no matter how small they are, into a plan to
bless multitudes and generations. And though me and my needs
(17:14):
are important to God and will be tended to by God,
they're not the main thing.
Yeah, God took me to a higher rock, and it
changed my life. I have not been the same from
that day to this day, and the way that I
view life and the way that I view ministry. It
affected my faith. It was very, very important that I
see it. Well, how do you get to the higher rock?
(17:36):
David cried out for you, pray, and noticed he said,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
He will lead you.
He will lead you to a place where you can
hear what you need to hear.
When you're feeling overwhelmed, God is a shelter and a tower,
and a tabernacle. But the fact is, you need to
(17:58):
see something. Listen to me. You need to see something
and
You need to do something. I need to see something
and I need to do something.
Reads, you'll be familiar with these scriptures, but let me
read them to you. Luke 6:46, Jesus is speaking.
(18:18):
But why do you call me Lord, Lord and do
not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to
me and hears my sayings and does them, I will
show you who he's like. He's like a man building
a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on
the rock. Everyone say the rock.
And when the floods rose and the streams beat vehemently
(18:39):
against that house and could not shake it, for it
was founded on the rock, but he who heard and
did nothing is like a man who built his house
on earth without a foundation against which the stream beat
vehemently and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that
house was great.
Protection against the forces that would destroy us and take
(19:03):
us out are the direct result or the byproducts of
our obedience of doing something. When I'm overwhelmed, when the
floodwaters seem to be coming into my soul, I need
to see something and
I need to do something. You need to see something
in your circumstance today. You need to see something and
(19:23):
you need to do something. If it's a matter of
unfulfilled obedience, something that God's already spoken to you about,
repent and get busy and start doing it.
When we were building
Our, our Sausalito property, how many go back with us
to the Sausalito property? OK, and quite a few of you.
(19:43):
Um, we, we've gotten the property and
I'm in the council meeting and, and we're trying to
get the permits, you know, to be able to build a,
a church building there. And there were 2 council members
that adamantly opposed us. I mean, adamantly opposed us.
And so, you know, I thought we're gonna get, you know,
(20:05):
OK for the permits in that meeting, but they, it
ended like, hey, this isn't looking good. We're gonna meet and,
and get together next week or maybe it was two
weeks later and uh address this again, but you just
need to know if things don't look good for you.
And uh, I obviously it was a bit disappointed.
And the next morning, the local paper came out, and
(20:27):
whoever the man or woman that wrote the article just
lambasted these two council members, basically called them God haters
and said they don't want God in our community, and
my flesh went, yes, yes.
I just thought, you know, crucify them. I just, you know.
(20:50):
Something in my flesh felt really good, but my, my
heart was saying something else.
My heart was saying, you know, this is not.
The Lord's way.
Oh, yeah.
So I prayed about it I said, Lord, show me
what to do.
And I felt like God, show me.
(21:10):
So I went down that day to City Hall and
asked if those council members were there. They weren't. And
so I talked to the secretary. I said, look, I'm
Bayliss Conley I'm the pastor trying to get permits. She says, oh,
we know who you are.
He said, Well, you know, the, the paper came out
today says, yeah, we know, we read it.
I said, I came down here just to tell those
two council members that I'm sorry.
(21:32):
I said, I, I feel like the, the paper treated
them unfairly. And, and they had, they had their reasons
for opposing us. I, I wouldn't have called them legitimate,
but they weren't God haters. They weren't trying to keep
God out of the community. It was, was unfair.
And so I said, please just tell them that, that
I'm sorry, you know, that that was written about him and,
and I, I don't agree with it. So, they said, that's,
(21:53):
that's what you wanna say? I said, yeah, please tell them.
So we get back together next time the council convenes,
and our two opposers became our greatest champions.
I mean, they were all for the church, and I mean,
they actually pushed the thing through and got the permits
for us.
God took me to a, a higher rock.
(22:17):
We need to do what the Lord tells us to do.
I got a letter from, from a television watcher. She
was in a terrible marriage. Her husband was unloving, unresponsive,
you know, just, just the, the love was dead in
the relationship. She's unhappy. She said he's, he's a, he's a,
a cruel man. She said, and I was just at
(22:39):
my wits end and I prayed, God, show me what
to do, show me what to do. And I turned
on the TV and there was Cottonwood Church.
And I was preaching from Luke 6:38. Give, and it'll
be given to you, good measure, press down, shaking together
and running over. We all know that verse, right? So,
so give and it'll be given to you good.
(23:03):
Yeah, we, we know the hurts.
And usually it's, it's taught in connection with finances, but,
but if you look at the context,
It says, be good to those who hate you.
And forgive.
And, and be compassionate. And she goes, that's it, that's it.
So this is all in the letter, she writes. She said,
(23:25):
so I, I've been doing that. I have been showing
kindness to my husband and mercy and love, and a
miracle has happened. God has changed my husband. It's like
I'm married to a different man. It is
Absolutely turned our marriage around. God will lead you. God
will lead me, lead me, lead me to the rock
(23:46):
that's higher than I. Give me a fresh perspective and
show me what I need to do. Friend, if you're overwhelmed,
God will help you.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
You've been listening to Pastor Bayless Conley, founding pastor of
Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos here on K Waves Pastor Spotlight.
Bayless will be returning tomorrow with a look at Hebrews
chapter 9 and a message called Treasures of the Ark. Again,
Bayless Conley and his wife Janet founded Cottonwood Church over
41 years ago with a commitment to faithfully and consistently
(24:22):
teaching the word of God. Today, Cottonwood Church's mission statement
remains bringing a living Jesus.
to a dying world. They're also known in the community
for the regular community outreach events. Cottonwood Church is located
at 4505 Cottella Avenue in Los Alamitos. Sunday worship services
are at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. With the holidays approaching,
(24:42):
you'll want to check out Christmas at Cottonwood, be here
for the Christmas Eve and candlelight services, and to ring
in the new year, you're invited to the New Year's
Eve service and worship night. You and your family are
welcome at Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. They're located at.
4505 Cottella Avenue. For directions and information, visit cottonwood.org. That's Cottonwood.org.
(25:04):
And be sure to look for Cottonwood Church on Instagram, Facebook,
and YouTube. We invite you to join us right here
at the same time tomorrow for another message from Bayless Conley,
founding pastor of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. We hope
you'll join us. Pastor Spotlight is a production of K
Wave Radio, sharing life, delivering truth, giving hope.
Welcome to K Wave's Pastor Spotlight featuring the preaching and
teaching ministries of our local Southern California pastors. This week
we're pleased to bring you the Bible teaching ministry of
Bayless Conley, founding pastor of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos.
Bayless and his wife Janet started Cottonwood Church over 41
years ago. Today the church is led by their son
(00:21):
Harrison and
is located at 4505 Cottella Avenue in Los Alamitos. In
his message for today, Pastor Bayless invites us to join
him as he looks at Psalm 61. It's in this
Psalm we see that Jesus Christ is a secure person
and place that we can always run to in time
of need. Here's Bayless Conley with today's message called Lead
(00:43):
Me to the Rock.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
To open your Bibles please to Psalm 61. Psalm 61,
beginning in verse 1.
Hear my cry, oh God, attend to my prayer. From
the end of the earth, I will cry to you.
When my heart is overwhelmed that lead me to the
rock that is higher than I, for you have been
a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.
(01:09):
I will abide in your tabernacle forever. I will trust
in the shelter of your wings, Sela.
And the word Sila means slow down, means pause. Think
about what you've just read. Don't rush on to the
next thing. Reflect on that for a while. We're gonna
be reflecting on these 1st 4 verses.
(01:31):
Of some
61.
First, I would like you to notice in verse 2,
David said, when my heart is overwhelmed.
Not if
At times all of us feel the floodwaters coming into
our soul. I realize some have greater, you know, more
(01:56):
developed inner spiritual resources, and they can withstand greater assaults and, and,
and get through, you know, more difficult circumstances, but the
truth is every one of us will face circumstances that
are bigger than we are.
Every one of us will face circumstances that we cannot
handle with our own strength and our own energy, things
(02:19):
that are far too difficult, far too big for us
to deal with. Consider these words from the apostle Paulm,
writing to the Corinthians.
2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9, he said,
We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters,
about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia.
We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure,
(02:44):
and we thought we would never live through it. In fact,
we expected to die, but as a result, we stopped
relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God
who raises.
The dead
Paul himself said, look, we didn't know what to do.
We were at the end of our rope and beyond.
Thank God he learned a marvelous lesson, one that God
(03:06):
wants us to learn, that our trust should be in
Him alone when we feel crushed and overwhelmed and we
don't have the resources to deal with things. And here
in in Psalm 61 we find three figures.
that God uses to speak of his aid and His protection.
(03:27):
First, there is a shelter.
Secondly, the strong tower.
And thirdly,
He speaks of a tabernacle, a shelter, a strong tower,
and a tabernacle, all emblems of God's aid in our
distress and his means to protect us and sustain us.
(03:47):
But as well, these three things also reveal potential causes
for an overwhelmed heart, and there as follows, calamities.
Calculated assaults.
In Crossroads.
We're going to be dealing with all of these things today.
(04:08):
Let's look at the first one's calamities. That's what a
shelter shields us from.
Rain, flood, accidents, the calamities of life come to all
because we're living in a fallen world. Everything does not
operate in this world the way that God originally intended.
One day he's gonna make a new heavens and a
new earth where in righteousness dwells, and the King of
(04:31):
kings and the Lord of lords will rule, and everything
will be perfect, and everything will be right, but in
the main meantime, we are living in a fallen world.
Sometimes calamities and unexpected things happen.
And it was just about 6 months ago, my brother-in-law
went in for what we thought was a fairly routine
(04:52):
back surgery. There were complications, and he died on the
operating table.
None of us saw it coming.
It put the whole family in a tailspin.
We never even got to say goodbye to him.
It was very unexpected, very, very overwhelming.
(05:12):
You know, I think about my dad who's been in
heaven for a few years now. Dad was an interesting fellow. Um,
he was one of the most generous people you'll ever meet,
but he was not wasteful. My dad found it very
difficult to throw anything away.
I mean, if it was an empty pink can, he
(05:34):
saved it. You never know, that empty paint can might
come in handy. Even food that I wouldn't touch with
a ten-foot pole, he says, oh, it's still good, you know,
you just scrape this off and you can still eat it,
you know.
Dad just had a hard time throwing anything away, but
You know, he'd been through the Great Depression.
(05:56):
And as well, when he was a kid, twice, his
family lost everything due to floods, lost their home, lost
every earthly possession. One time they were rescued from the
roof of their house.
By someone in a rowboat.
He went through the trauma of that and it impacted
him on the inside. It was an overwhelming thing, you know,
(06:18):
as a child to lose everything you have not once
but twice, and, and that was something that marked my
dad and he carried it with him into adulthood. All right, secondly,
calculated assaults, which is what the strong tower shields us from.
He said, God, you're a strong tower from the enemy.
(06:39):
We do have an enemy. You realize we are in
a spiritual conflict.
Let me quote some verses to you. Ephesians 611 to 12,
Put on the whole armor of God that you may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,
for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rumors of the darkness
(07:00):
of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places.
First Peter 5:8, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary,
the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom
he may devour. Now listen, I'm not one that blames
everything on the devil, but the fact of the matter is,
(07:20):
we do have an adversary and some of your troubles
are the direct result of his activity.
He is against the church. He is against God, God's people.
The spirit realm is real, and we read through the scriptures.
We find Satan behind illness in certain cases. We find
him behind tragedy. We find him behind persecution. We find him,
(07:41):
you know, behind oppression.
And he has not changed. Jesus said the thief comes
to steal, to kill and to destroy. And some of
the things you may be experiencing and that I experienced
in my life are literally calculated assaults. They are the
result of the enemy's activity. And then we come to
(08:02):
the third one. It's a crossroads. You stand at one
of the intersections of life and you don't know which
way to go.
You're daunted. Perhaps even overwhelmed, did you consider what choice
to make. And this relates to the reference of his tabernacle.
I'll abide in your tabernacle. Often in scripture, it's called
(08:26):
the tabernacle of meeting because it's the place you go
to meet with God. It's the place you go to
hear from God, to receive guidance and strength and comfort
from Him. It was the place where God's presence manifested.
Under the Old Testament. I've talked talked to numerous people
in our church over the last 1.5 or 2 years
(08:48):
that weren't a great crossroads in their life. They said,
you know, they told me, pastor, either because of, of,
you know, personal health reasons or conscience reasons, they did
not feel at liberty to get a COVID vaccine, yet
their employer has said, if you don't get vaccinated, you're fired.
And then it's like pastor, what do I do? Do
(09:10):
I violate my conscience?
and get it, or do I lose my job and
trust God to open up other work for me? Or,
or do I, I go ahead and, and, you know,
take this risk with my health with something that I,
I know, what, what, what do I do? And don't
be quick to judge someone else's conscience, friend. The scriptures
talk a lot about conscience. It is a sacred thing
(09:32):
in the Bible to violate one's conscience is sin. So
don't be too quick to sit in judgment over another
person's conscience. And there's some people that have been in
great conflict.
What do I do? And they're literally feeling overwhelmed because
of those kind of things.
Or the parent that finds out that their seven year old.
(09:55):
Is being taught explicit sexual material in public school and
being taught things that run cross grain to traditional and
biblical morality. Let's say it's a single mom. She says,
what do I do? I can't afford to put my
kid in private school, and I'd homeschool, but I have
to work. If I don't work, we can't pay the
(10:15):
rent on the apartment and we don't eat.
What do I do? And if I go to the
council meeting and and raise my voice that they treat
me like a domestic terrorist, what do I do? Those
are not, those are not easy situations to be in, friend,
and sometimes standing at the crossroads of life.
can be absolutely overwhelming.
(10:39):
But thank God we have a tabernacle that we can
meet with God in.
The good news is God has a cure for everyone.
He can shelter us during our times of calamity. He's
a strong tower from the enemy, and thank God he
has a tabernacle where we can meet with him and
receive guidance and comfort and strength in our times of need.
(11:02):
In fact, you don't have to go far to find
his tabernacle. If you're born again, you're it.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
You're listening to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring Pastor Bayless Conley
of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. For more information, visit
their website at cottonwood.org. Once again, here's Pastor Bayless Conley
with more of his message titled Lead Me to the Rock.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
1 Corinthians 3:16, do you not know that you are
the temple of God and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you? But you know, as we read here
in Psalm 61.
There was actually some language that preceded, there was something
that preceded these, these illustrations of the shelter and the
(11:47):
strong tower and the tabernacle. Back up again to verse one.
Hear my cry, oh God, attend to my prayer. From
the end of the earth, I will cry to you.
When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock
that is higher than I. From the end of the earth,
I'll cry to you, when I feel like I'm as
far away from you and as far away from help
(12:09):
as I can possibly be, isolated, alone, and forsaken.
I will cry out and I will pray.
And it begins with a very general cry for help.
But it becomes quite definite and very specific. It all
funnels down to this. When my heart is overwhelmed.
(12:33):
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
You know, some years ago, I was meditating on Psalm 61.
I've been reading it all day, over and over and over.
I went to bed that night meditating on Psalm 61.
From the ends of the earth, they'll cry to you.
(12:54):
Lord, when my heart's overwhelmed, lead me to the rock
that's higher than I. I actually fell asleep thinking about it.
I woke up in the morning because I heard someone's voice,
and then I realized it was my own voice.
I was talking. I woke myself up talking.
And I was saying this over and over, I need
(13:16):
to see something, and I need to do something.
I need to see something, and I need to do something.
I actually looked around to see who was talking, it
was coming out of my mouth. I need to see
something and I need to do something. Can we say that?
I need to see something and I need to do something.
I need to see something.
(13:36):
And I need to do something. Lead me to the
rock that's higher than I. First, I need to see something.
That's talking about God, bring me to a new vantage point.
A place from where I can see farther. Lead me
to a rock that's higher than I am. I need
a new perspective.
But when David said, Lord, lead me to the rock
(13:59):
that's higher than I am, it's a prayer for a
new level of understanding, a new revelation regarding the purposes
of God, or the true nature of the situation, or
a look into the reality of your own motives.
Or perhaps the motives of others. Consider these verses in
(14:20):
Matthew 16. I want to begin in verse 13, Matthew
16 and 13. It says, when Jesus came into the
region of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who
do men say that I, the son of man am?
So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah,
others Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said to them,
but who do you say that I am?
(14:41):
Simon Peter answered and said, You're the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Jesus answered him and said to him,
Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood is
not revealed this to you, but my Father who is
in heaven. And I also say to you that that
you are Peter and on this rock, everyone say on
this rock.
And on this rock I will build my church, and
(15:03):
the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. On
this rock, I'll build my church. It's the rock of
the revelation that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
He's not just a good man who died as a
token for his fellow man. He was not just a
guru or a good teacher. He was not just a symbol.
He was his and forever shall be the living Son
(15:25):
of God. That is the rock.
That God builds his church upon and friend, any person
that does not have that revelation, they are not part
of this great body of Christ. They can attend a
church that doesn't make them a Christian more than sitting
in the garage makes you a car.
Jesus said you must be born again, and that only
(15:49):
happens when a person has a revelation. Peter flesh and
blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father
who's in heaven, and on this rock, this rock of revelation,
I will build my church. A friend, when your heart
is overwhelmed, you need to see something. You need a
fresh perspective, a new insight, a revelation from the Father.
(16:13):
You know, in our struggle with the city's redevelopment agency
when they tried to seize our property and acted eminent
domain locked us out of our property.
I, I cried out to God. God, you, you gotta
show me, you got, you gotta give me insight here.
And God took me to a higher rock.
(16:33):
And I saw some things that changed my life.
Let me tell you what I saw. First I saw
that God is not in a hurry.
And that he's working things according to the counsel of
his own will.
I saw how God sees and works things from a
long range perspective when I tend to be more focused
(16:54):
on the immediate.
I also saw God desiring to work on a much
bigger scale and weaving our lives and our acts of obedience,
no matter how small they are, into a plan to
bless multitudes and generations. And though me and my needs
(17:14):
are important to God and will be tended to by God,
they're not the main thing.
Yeah, God took me to a higher rock, and it
changed my life. I have not been the same from
that day to this day, and the way that I
view life and the way that I view ministry. It
affected my faith. It was very, very important that I
see it. Well, how do you get to the higher rock?
(17:36):
David cried out for you, pray, and noticed he said,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
He will lead you.
He will lead you to a place where you can
hear what you need to hear.
When you're feeling overwhelmed, God is a shelter and a tower,
and a tabernacle. But the fact is, you need to
(17:58):
see something. Listen to me. You need to see something
and
You need to do something. I need to see something
and I need to do something.
Reads, you'll be familiar with these scriptures, but let me
read them to you. Luke 6:46, Jesus is speaking.
(18:18):
But why do you call me Lord, Lord and do
not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to
me and hears my sayings and does them, I will
show you who he's like. He's like a man building
a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on
the rock. Everyone say the rock.
And when the floods rose and the streams beat vehemently
(18:39):
against that house and could not shake it, for it
was founded on the rock, but he who heard and
did nothing is like a man who built his house
on earth without a foundation against which the stream beat
vehemently and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that
house was great.
Protection against the forces that would destroy us and take
(19:03):
us out are the direct result or the byproducts of
our obedience of doing something. When I'm overwhelmed, when the
floodwaters seem to be coming into my soul, I need
to see something and
I need to do something. You need to see something
in your circumstance today. You need to see something and
(19:23):
you need to do something. If it's a matter of
unfulfilled obedience, something that God's already spoken to you about,
repent and get busy and start doing it.
When we were building
Our, our Sausalito property, how many go back with us
to the Sausalito property? OK, and quite a few of you.
(19:43):
Um, we, we've gotten the property and
I'm in the council meeting and, and we're trying to
get the permits, you know, to be able to build a,
a church building there. And there were 2 council members
that adamantly opposed us. I mean, adamantly opposed us.
And so, you know, I thought we're gonna get, you know,
(20:05):
OK for the permits in that meeting, but they, it
ended like, hey, this isn't looking good. We're gonna meet and,
and get together next week or maybe it was two
weeks later and uh address this again, but you just
need to know if things don't look good for you.
And uh, I obviously it was a bit disappointed.
And the next morning, the local paper came out, and
(20:27):
whoever the man or woman that wrote the article just
lambasted these two council members, basically called them God haters
and said they don't want God in our community, and
my flesh went, yes, yes.
I just thought, you know, crucify them. I just, you know.
(20:50):
Something in my flesh felt really good, but my, my
heart was saying something else.
My heart was saying, you know, this is not.
The Lord's way.
Oh, yeah.
So I prayed about it I said, Lord, show me
what to do.
And I felt like God, show me.
(21:10):
So I went down that day to City Hall and
asked if those council members were there. They weren't. And
so I talked to the secretary. I said, look, I'm
Bayliss Conley I'm the pastor trying to get permits. She says, oh,
we know who you are.
He said, Well, you know, the, the paper came out
today says, yeah, we know, we read it.
I said, I came down here just to tell those
two council members that I'm sorry.
(21:32):
I said, I, I feel like the, the paper treated
them unfairly. And, and they had, they had their reasons
for opposing us. I, I wouldn't have called them legitimate,
but they weren't God haters. They weren't trying to keep
God out of the community. It was, was unfair.
And so I said, please just tell them that, that
I'm sorry, you know, that that was written about him and,
and I, I don't agree with it. So, they said, that's,
(21:53):
that's what you wanna say? I said, yeah, please tell them.
So we get back together next time the council convenes,
and our two opposers became our greatest champions.
I mean, they were all for the church, and I mean,
they actually pushed the thing through and got the permits
for us.
God took me to a, a higher rock.
(22:17):
We need to do what the Lord tells us to do.
I got a letter from, from a television watcher. She
was in a terrible marriage. Her husband was unloving, unresponsive,
you know, just, just the, the love was dead in
the relationship. She's unhappy. She said he's, he's a, he's a,
a cruel man. She said, and I was just at
(22:39):
my wits end and I prayed, God, show me what
to do, show me what to do. And I turned
on the TV and there was Cottonwood Church.
And I was preaching from Luke 6:38. Give, and it'll
be given to you, good measure, press down, shaking together
and running over. We all know that verse, right? So,
so give and it'll be given to you good.
(23:03):
Yeah, we, we know the hurts.
And usually it's, it's taught in connection with finances, but,
but if you look at the context,
It says, be good to those who hate you.
And forgive.
And, and be compassionate. And she goes, that's it, that's it.
So this is all in the letter, she writes. She said,
(23:25):
so I, I've been doing that. I have been showing
kindness to my husband and mercy and love, and a
miracle has happened. God has changed my husband. It's like
I'm married to a different man. It is
Absolutely turned our marriage around. God will lead you. God
will lead me, lead me, lead me to the rock
(23:46):
that's higher than I. Give me a fresh perspective and
show me what I need to do. Friend, if you're overwhelmed,
God will help you.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
You've been listening to Pastor Bayless Conley, founding pastor of
Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos here on K Waves Pastor Spotlight.
Bayless will be returning tomorrow with a look at Hebrews
chapter 9 and a message called Treasures of the Ark. Again,
Bayless Conley and his wife Janet founded Cottonwood Church over
41 years ago with a commitment to faithfully and consistently
(24:22):
teaching the word of God. Today, Cottonwood Church's mission statement
remains bringing a living Jesus.
to a dying world. They're also known in the community
for the regular community outreach events. Cottonwood Church is located
at 4505 Cottella Avenue in Los Alamitos. Sunday worship services
are at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. With the holidays approaching,
(24:42):
you'll want to check out Christmas at Cottonwood, be here
for the Christmas Eve and candlelight services, and to ring
in the new year, you're invited to the New Year's
Eve service and worship night. You and your family are
welcome at Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. They're located at.
4505 Cottella Avenue. For directions and information, visit cottonwood.org. That's Cottonwood.org.
(25:04):
And be sure to look for Cottonwood Church on Instagram, Facebook,
and YouTube. We invite you to join us right here
at the same time tomorrow for another message from Bayless Conley,
founding pastor of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. We hope
you'll join us. Pastor Spotlight is a production of K
Wave Radio, sharing life, delivering truth, giving hope.
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