Dr Charles Stanley - God is Our Keeper - Part 2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Know what.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Does the Bible say that God naps, that God takes
a break, that God sleeps, Thank God, he doesn't that
once in a while, when you're not praying and asking
for something that doesn't come to pass when we want
it to, we thank God.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Where are you?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, He's something, not asleep, He's something listening to what
we say. God is at no time, at no point
in time, is God unconscious oblivious to what's going on
in your life and mind. He knows every single thing
that is going on. He is Jehovah, God who rules
and reigns over this universe in every single one of

(00:35):
our lives.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Welcome to in Touch, the teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley.
The Bible assures believers that God will fulfill his promise
to provide our every need. But you might be struggling
right now to understand why He hasn't kept you from
the pain you're feeling. You'll hear a reassuring answer today
in part two of God Is Our Keeper.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, it was December nineteen hundred and seventy seven, and
I was exhausted, tired, weary, worn, discouraged, and a little
bit fearful.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
And I was.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Taking some time off, in fact, about three months, not
because I wanted to, but because I was forced to.
I was up in West Virginia, and on this particular morning,
I woke up and decided I'd take a walk. And
it was snowing, and I thought, well, I'm going to
walk anyway. I was hurting deep down inside and I
just began to walk, and I before I left, I

(01:41):
put a little Bible I had in my pocket in
my jacket and took off. And so I'd walked about
a mile or so, and I'd pray a little bit
and cry a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
And wonder what in the world was going on, and.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Wondering if I'd ever get back to preaching the Gospel again,
and having myself a real difficut go time, and telling God.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
What I thought and how I thought, and asking him
what in the world was going on while this was
happening to me.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
And I stopped and I pulled out that Bible and
opened it up. And when I did, I just opened
it up and said, Lord, I need I need you
to speak to my heart.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I'm not one to just say open your Bible and say, Aha,
that's what you're saying God, because you can turn the
Book of Revelation and talk about the beast, and then
you'll be in real trouble.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
So that's not the way to read the Bible.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
But on that particular day, God knew that I wasn't
particularly interested in reading anything specifically, I just just say
something God. I opened it up to the pastive scripture
that I want us to read this morning. And when
I read this chapter in the Psalms, I closed my
Bible and I thought to myself, Lord, all of a sudden,

(02:51):
my body weighs just as much. I feel just as heavy,
and just as tired, and just as worn out. But
somehow I knew that my heart was because God had
said something very very specific to me. Now I'm not
going to tell you what he said to me until
the end of this message, so you've got to listen carefully,
because I'm certain of this.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
He has a message here for you.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
No matter who you are and where you are, what
you're going through, there is a message in and I
want you to turn to the one hundred and twenty
first Psalm, and the title of this message is God
is Our Keeper one hundred and twenty first Psalm. That
more than likely you've read many, many times.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
And I want us to see.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
How practical this is, because God has something very specific
and practical to say to every single one of us,
no matter who we are. He begins by saying, I
will lift up my eyes to the mountains or to
the hills. From whence shall my help come? That's a question. Well,
my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip. He who

(03:54):
keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper.
The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The
sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon
by night. The Lord will protect you from all evil.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
He will keep your soul.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming
in from this time forth and forever. Now more than
likely the sawmist when he begins here by saying I
lift up my eyes of the mountains, he could have
been thinking one of a number of things, but probably
one of the things that he was thinking about was
this that in the hill country in the mountains, usually
the robbers and the vagabonds and the thieves, they would

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hang out there and taking advantage of innocent travelers who were.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Going their way.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
So it may be that he was looking at these
mountains with a bit of anxiety and wondering what was there.
I wonder how many of us have looked at under
our future and what we could see is uncertainty. What
we could see was maybe a bit of anxiety with
than our own heart, and wondered the same thing, God,

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what's there?

Speaker 3 (05:04):
What's out in the.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Future when we can't see it and we don't know
what's there? Well, he certainly must have had a little
bit of anxiety, because he said, where's my help coming from?
And then he says, my help is coming from the Lord?
Just an affirmation of where his real sight was. And
so he said, where's my help coming from? And I
wonder how many times you and I have looked around
at our circumstances and say, God, how are you going

(05:26):
to help me?

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Who's going to help me?

Speaker 2 (05:28):
How things going to work out in my life at
this particular point. Well, the Psalmist is certainly clear about that,
because immediately he says, my help is coming from the Lord.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Now, everything he.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Says from that point on rest upon the foundation that
he knows whose God is. You See, if I don't
know who God is now, I don't have a personal
relationship with him, and I don't know something about the
ways of God. How can I claim a promise of
God if I'm not certain who he is and how
he thinks and how he responds, And if I'm I'm
not really sure what he thinks about me and how

(06:02):
he relates to me, and how many of his promises
really a part of my life. That's why it's so
very important that you and I understand who is this
God whom we serve. What is he like, What are
his ways? How does he respond? What moves the hand
of God? What is it that God really and truly
thinks about us? How does he feel toward us? How
does he respond toward us? Well, the Psalm is certainly

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knew by experience, he says, Jehovah God, Jehovah God is
my helper. He is the one who created it all.
Therefore I can trust in him and depend upon him. Now,
with that in mind, what I want us to do
is to look at the rest of the Psalm and
apply to our life in a very practical way, because
he certainly sought in a very practical way, and the

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terminology he uses, and the phrases he uses.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Here.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Upon first reading, you think, well, what in the world
is that about.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
What he's doing.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
He is simply saying, these are all the ways that
God keeps me. He says, he will not allow you
a foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold,
he who keeps this rul will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade
on your right hand. Now what does he mean of that?
Simply this, he's our protector. When we think about the

(07:15):
ways in which he is our keeper, he protects us. Now,
Satan's attack comes in all forms. It comes in all directions.
Sometimes it comes from a friend, from an enemy, from
a family member, whatever it may be. But Satan is
always there to attack. He says, God is our shade.
That is, God has often called many things in the scripture.

(07:37):
God is our salvation. God is our strength. God is
our horn of plenty. God is our shield. God is
indeed our shield. And he says, for example, in Ephesians
chapter six, he said, and when he listed all the
armament of the believer, helmet of salvation, breastlet of righteousness,
he comes down to say, and above all, taking the

(07:57):
shield of faith, which is able to quench all the
fowery darts of the devil. When you listen, whether we
even before we leave home, during the day, wherever we are,
Satan is always treacherously seeking to devour the child of God,
seeking to do anything in his power he can.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
To trip us up, to cause us to hurt in
some fashion, in some way.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yet he says, God is indeed our protector. He is
always there, listen, warning us. That's why he gave us
the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us, to
give us warnings about things that we don't even see.
To give us listen, you'll have what people call an intuition,
That is the work of the spirit of God, giving

(08:41):
us a warning about something that's coming our way, or
giving us a warning of something that is close by.
When we are not aware of our circumstances, he is
always aware, and he stands by us side to protect
us in every single circumstance of life.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Does that mean that he will keep us from sinning?

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Not necessarily if we choose the sin against him, No,
he will not, But he certainly is there to warn
us and to give us the privilege of avoiding it
if at all possible. Then I want you to notice
something else about him. He says, he's shading.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Our right hand.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Sun won't smite you by day, noon, by night. That
means listen, no matter what's going on, God is always.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
There to protect us. Then he says he will keep
our soul.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
When he says he will protect us from evil, what
is he talking about?

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Does that mean that.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
He will keep us from sinning against him? Well, oftentimes
he does. When he will protect us from evil, he's
talking about you. See, one of the very ideas of
keeping is to restrain somebody. For example, how many times
in a given day does God restrain you and me?

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Only God knows that.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
He restrains us from thinking things that if we keep thinking,
we'rehead in the wrong direction. He restrains us, oftentimes from
saying things that would cause hurt and pain to someone else.
He restrains us from acting in a way that would
cause us to lose our testimony or witness for him.
God is a keeper, he says, I'm going to protect
you from evil. For example, he says, in frustrating chapter ten,

(10:15):
no temptation taking you but such as is common demand,
he says, But these temptations are listen common to man.
But God, who is faithful, will not allow you to
be tempted more than you are able.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
What's he doing.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
He's restraining us, that is, he puts a restraint on temptation.
He puts a restraint on the trials that he even
allows in our life. Why, because he loves us, and
because he's a caretaker, he knows how to put a
limit on what Satan can tempt us within test us
with So he is a restrainer. He's a restrainer of Satan,

(10:52):
and he's oftentimes a restrain in our life. God can
stir up such guilt in us, he can stir up
such conviction within us that that can, and that becomes
a restrainer from disobeying him and stepping out of his
willfa our life. He restrains us. He restricts us, He
guards us, He keeps us. Then, if you'll notice something else,

(11:13):
he says, the Lord will guard You're going out and
you're coming in one.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Of the ways that he keeps us. Now watch this.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
What in the world does he mean by going out
and coming in? What he's simply saying, by using that
terminology is he says, your entire life, every aspect of
your life.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
God is the keeper.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
He is alert, he is attentive, he is restraining, he
is ministering, protecting in every way. He says, you're going out,
you're coming in now, no matter where you are and
where you're working, where you're playing, who your friends are,
no matter what's going He says, you can count on me.
I'm your keeper. I'm going to keep you. You're going
out and your comings in now. When I look at

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all the things that God has said here, then here's
what I.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Have to ask.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
I said, No, wait a minute, I hear what you're saying.
That you're my keeper, you're my helper, you're watching over
me all the time. But God, I have some questions, Lord,
if that's true. I know some Christians who get sick,
who are invalids, who go through difficulties and trials and
heartaches and storms and life, and God, if you're such

(12:22):
a big time keeper, why don't you keep them?

Speaker 3 (12:25):
It looks like you haven't kept them.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Because if certainly, if you're a loving fathers they say
you are, and you're a loving keeper, why didn't you
keep them from this. You didn't have to let them
get sick. You didn't have to let this person get cancer.
You didn't have to let this person die at this age.
How do you explain that God? Is that a good question.
It is a good question, it's a legitimate question. What's
the answer, Well, listen carefully. God does not say that

(12:50):
he will keep me from pain and suffering and heartache
and trouble. He promises to keep me in it. He
promises to keep me through it, and he promises to
take advantage of every single heartache, every difficulty, every trial,
every tribulation, every persecution, every hurt, every disappointment. He promises

(13:16):
to keep me in it, and he promises to keep
me through it.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
He said, well, now, what's the difference. Here's the difference.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
He will enable me to walk through it. He will
enable me to step above it. He will enable me
to come out on the other side of that more
profitable than if I had aborided.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
For example, think about this for a moment.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
If troubles, trials, heartaches, and tribulations, if those things will
draw you into a deeper relationship with God, if you
begin to understand who he is, better, you begin to
experience his.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Love and to feel his love, and.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
You begin to understand the ways of God, and you
begin to have an intimate relationship with Him that is warm,
that is intimate and satisfying and fulfilling and assuring and comforting.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Let me ask a question.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
If avoiding the valleys and the difficultness and the hardships
would have kept you from gaining that, which would you
have chosen? Remember this that, listen, God only looks at
the circumstances of our life. He looks at the deep
inner meaning of those circumstances. He not only observes the circumstances,

(14:33):
he is involved in them. Because you see, oftentimes God
creates some of those difficulties and heartaches. He allows that pain.
Why not because He has forsaken us. And oftentimes when
we have pain that's so difficult we don't know how
to handle it. We say, God, where are you? If
you love me, you would not have done this. And
the truth is, because he loves us, he does allow

(14:55):
us this. But remember this, He's keeping me in it,
not keeping me from it, and keeping me in it.
You see, this is what Roman's eight twenty eight It's
all about. God is engineering all of our circumstances in
such a way they will turn out for our good
if we love him a callick on this purpose.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
I'll put it this way.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
He will take every single circumstance of life.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
And listen.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
We may be shut up to difficult in hardship, we
may be stretched beyond anything we can imagine.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Persecutors are deceitful. Friends.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
One thing for certain, my Father will take every bit
of that and work it for my good.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
My Father will take every bit of that.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
And conform me to the likeness of his son. My
God is in charge of every single solitary thing.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
You see. He is a keeping God. And what is
he doing?

Speaker 2 (15:48):
While you and I may be hurting with pain and wondering, God,
where are you? He is in the awesome process of
conforming us to the likeness.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Of his son. He's keeping us in it. Now.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
I want to go back to my beginning illustration, the
first of this sermon, walking down that path, cold, weary, worn, exhausted,
a little bit frightened and anxious and thinking, God, will
I ever get back? Opening his word, just flipping it
open to this passage that said God is my Keeper.

(16:22):
I read that passage and I thought I said, Lord.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
What are you saying to me? How can you be
keeping me?

Speaker 2 (16:28):
And I'm away from my family and away from the church,
the people I love, and here I am not sure
I'm going to ever get back. What are you doing now?
I won't ever forget as long aside. It's like the
Lord said to me, I'm just doing what I'd said
in that passage. I'm just keeping you, keeping me from
what I'll never forget this, keeping you from destroying yourself,

(16:51):
destroying your body, destroying your ministry, keeping you for what
I've called you to do, keeping you so that you
can preach the Gospel as long as I want you
to in the way that I want you to.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
All I'm doing, Charles, is just keeping you. I tell you.
I folded it.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Up and stuck it in my jacket and I walked
and my body felt the same pain, But my heart
was a thousand pounds loder.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
You know why, because.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
All of a sudden I realized that no matter what
I thought I had lost, God.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Was reminding me I hadn't lost anything.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
All that I complained about, all he was doing was
keeping me from myself.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
And I wonder what he's keeping you from.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
I wondered if deep down inside you've lost something in
your life and you've thought, God, how could you do
this to me?

Speaker 3 (17:50):
And he's keeping you from a lily destroying your life.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
I don't know where you are in life and what
you're facing, but one thing I know, you have a
loving heaven, a father who knows you by name. He said,
every hair up on your head is number. That's his
way of saying, I know everything there is to know
about you, past, present, in future. I have the best
for you. I'm a caretaker. I'm a keeper and if
you will let me, if you will allow me, I

(18:14):
will give you a life that is exciting, fulfilling, a
life of spiritual and emotional growth. And what you'll realize
is that all the time you are fretting and fuming,
I was just getting you ready for something better.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
God is a loving father.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
But you know what, until you trust Jesus Christ is
your personal savior, it won't work. Isawle us talk to
God not apart from his son Jesus. You see he
loves you, But listen to this. God cannot do in
your life what he wants to do if you deny
his only begotten son whom He's sent to die on

(18:56):
a cross and pay your sin debt in full, in
and ordered that gap that separates you from him would
be closed up by the cross and make you a
child of God. The moment you trust him is your
personal safe. You know what happens. God takes over as
caretaker and keeper of your life. And if you remember

(19:17):
he says this passage, from this time and forever more,
God will be your keeper.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Thanks for listening to in Touch, the teaching ministry of
doctor Charles Stanley. God does not intend for adversity, pain
or suffering to overwhelm us. Instead, he uses each trial,
each instance of rejection, every fear to teach us something
about himself for our ultimate well being. To listen again,

(19:54):
click on Today on Radio at InTouch dot org and
that's where you can learn more about how God strengthens
a believer's faith in and dependence on Is All Sufficient,
Ever Present Help. If you'd like to order a copy
of doctor Stanley's Complete Message, God is Our Keeper, open
the bookstore page to place your order.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Again.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
You'll find these resources at in touch dot org or
call one eight hundred in touch to write to us.
Address your letter to in Touch post Office Box seventy
nine hundred, Atlanta, Georgia, three zero three five seven. Could
your greatest strength be your downfall? That's the case more

(20:37):
often than you might think. The explanation is just ahead
in today's moment with Charles Stanley.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
You know there are a.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
Lot of places you can go to explore and take
in the sites on your own and have a really
great time doing it. But if you go with the
right guidebook, you can walk away with so much more insight.
The Field Guide to God's Presence is like that. It's
a tool use to enhance your relationship with God, and
it's not something to read once and put on a shelf.

(21:05):
It's a resource you'll continue to use for years to come.
Or to your Field Guide today go to InTouch dot
org slash store.

Speaker 5 (21:14):
Have you ever forgotten something God taught you when you
were reading the Bible? When we take note of what
God reveals to us, it helps us to apply it
to our lives. With the Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Journal,
you can keep track of your spiritual journey and be
transformed by God's truth. This journal features artwork of doctor
Stanley's thirty Life Principles lined pages for writing, a prayer

(21:36):
journaling section, and more. To order, call one eight hundred
in touch or go to InTouch dot org slash journal.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
You're listening to in Touch. God gives all believers specific
gifts and strengths, but it's not those assets that were
to rely on. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley, if.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
You'll think about this for a moment. Elijah, what was
his strong point? One of his strengths was courage. He
was fearless. I mean he took on four hundred prophets
of Baal and said, here's what we'll do. We'll find
out who is God. He had the courage to call
for a contest and declare that his God would absolutely

(22:25):
burn up and consume that altar because he would send
fire from heaven. That's what you call real courage and faith.
The next thing, you know, what does he do? Jezebel
sends him a message he's coming after him. He takes
off running. He's scared to death. His greatest strength was
suddenly an area of weakness. Moses, the Bible says, was
the meekest man on earth. What happens in a fit

(22:48):
of anger and temper, he smashes the Rock and Abraham,
what's he known for?

Speaker 3 (22:53):
What is Abraham known for? His what his faith?

Speaker 2 (22:57):
He's staggered outed the promises of God? What does he
do in a moment of weakness, in his strongest point,
in his unbelief and doubting God, he heads to Egypt
and gets himself in trouble. Don't ever take for granted
that Satan can't trip you up in the air of
your life and which you're the strongest, My friend, God

(23:19):
and God alone can protect us in every single circumstance
of life.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
That's why we all need.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Him listen, attentively watching over us, alert to every circumstance
of our life. We need him continuously. He says, he
is our shade on our right side. He's the one
who protects us when Satan comes after us.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Living under God's protection begins with trusting in Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sin. Learn more at in
touch dot org. And if the Gospel has changed your life,
and if this program has been part of your story,
please let us know tomorrow on in Touch. When you
feel desperate, what do you do? Friday's program encourages us

(24:04):
to respond to hardship by immediately crying out to God.
I hope you'll join us then for in Touch, the
teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley. This program is a
presentation of in Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on
this station through the grace of God and your faithful

(24:26):
prayers and gifts