Peter Roselle: Christians Glow Brighter When Culture Grows Darker (Psalm 11:3-4)

• This is a profound portion of Scripture in the Psalms. We would know it probably more from the first way I’m going to read it, but then the message unpacks it in a different way. Psalm 11:3-4 says, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” And I’m just going say, redefining marriage is destroying the foundation of a society, okay? You can’t do that, that’s a sacred item to the Lord. That’s a sacred thing, we are created in God’s image, male and female, he created them, right? You can’t change the definition. That’s what marriage means, that’s what the covenant is, okay? So no law that gets passed is going to change that.

00:43 - Sorry, I don’t agree with abortion either. The law that got passed and said that was okay. It’s not okay with me, right? Those 60-plus million babies. And Lisa in the front row here is going to be talking about another partnership our church has with a group called First Choice. And they’re pregnancy centers. They let pregnant women come in and get, what’s the machine called again, I’m sorry, an ultrasound, and the statistics are just off the charts, that if a pregnant girl is considering whether or not to abort, if they see the ultrasound, change their mind.

01:16 - And if you watch the movie “Unplanned”, which I highly recommend you do, you will get a whole other level of conviction about the church’s role of just passively watching as all this stuff is happening and not doing anything about it. And the reason the girl in “Unplanned” got saved is because a Christian was on the other side of the fence and built a relationship with her. And loved her in the midst of it instead of telling her she was going to burn and die, she found out her name, she asked her questions. They were both pregnant at the same time. And this girl that worked there I guess got convicted that wow, this seems like such a contradiction. And you know, the lady that plays the boss in the movie does a really good job of making you hate her.

02:01 - That’s a good actress, you know? You’re not supposed to hate anybody but, she takes the role really seriously and this is what I’m talking about. See, when the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? And then David says, this is what we do. You remember that the Lord is still in his holy temple, all right? We don’t get shaken from that foundation. God is still in control, alright? And it could all be raging around us, that’s not going to move us. In fact, you will shine brighter if the darker it gets in the culture, the Christians are going to shine brighter.

02:33 - So it’s going to be easier to bring the truth when there’s so much confusion. But be grounded in love, right, and stand firm on that love, that we look at that other person and we’re not wrestling against them. It’s the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness that are controlling them, so we pray for them and we say Lord, what’s the combination to the lock of this person’s heart? How do you want me to approach them differently than anyone else I would ever approach? Because they’re different than any other person I’d ever approach. Fearfully and wonderfully made, just confused about this particular thing that we’re talking about. And if there was ever a time people are confused and have thousands of other world views that they can tap into, it’s right now.

03:17 - But you’re carrying the supercomputer in your pocket. Yes it could be used for evil, but it can also be used for an amazing amount of good. Use it for the good, use it to forward people videos. Use it to forward anointed messages. Use it to help people learn the Bible in a way that’s along the way, 10 minute video is not hard to watch when you’re in your car, well you don’t watch when you’re in your car, you listen. Listen in your car, I’m going to have the police here coming after me.

03:47 - All right, pull over if you want to watch. All right, so this is what the message says. It just takes it a little bit longer than what I did in 3 and 4 there, I’ll go back to Verse 1. And it’s the psalmists, very honestly, Psalm of David, he did this often. He just poured his heart out to God, and he didn’t care if he was politically correct in the way he said it.

04:10 - And he was talking about how fear was trying to grip him, and what was he going to do, how was he going to counter that fear? He said, “I’ve already run for dear life straight to the arms of God.” (Peter chuckles) I love that. So why would I run away now when you’re telling me to run to the mountains? Remember that in Nehemiah when the enemies came and they tried to scare him and they said come and hide in the temple. He said who do you think you’re talking to? Would a man such as me run and hide in a temple? You think I would’ve left the palace and come here and back down to some threat from the enemy? I serve a greater God. I’m not going to run and hide from anybody. I’m on the winning side, I’m not going to run and hide, but it’s tempting sometimes, right? And David’s saying rhetorically, “Why would I run away now when you’re telling me to run to the mountains? The evil bows are bent, the wicked arrows are aimed to shoot under cover of darkness at every heart that’s open to God. Sound like today? Believe it.

05:14 - The bottom has dropped out of the country. Good people don’t have a chance.” Run for the hills, no, not running for the hills. “God hasn’t moved to the mountains,” don’t you love that? That’s what David says, “God hasn’t moved to the mountains, his holy address hasn’t changed.” He’s in charge as always. His eyes are takin’ everything in. His eyelids unblinking, examining Adam’s unruly brood inside and out. Not missing a thing. He tests the good and the bad alike. If anyone cheats, God is outraged. Fail the test, and you’re out. Now you can argue with Eugene Peterson whether that’s the right way to look at that verse.

06:05 - (Peter chuckles) We know that if we fail the test in this dispensation that there’s mercy, that mercy triumphs over judgment. But look, if you believe that your life is a mission for the Lord, I believe it is, then we don’t want to fail, right? That’s not the idea here, we want to succeed. And when we do fail with another person, if we don’t reflect the love of God, if we speak the truth but it’s not in love, well you don’t really fail with God because he never says I’m done with you. Failing means you’re done, right? No, that’s not the case here. But are we learning from it? Or are we just pulling back? And the word passive and Christianity was never supposed to go together, all right? There’s nothing that you read in the Bible that you would succeed if you were passive.

06:53 - Read the Book of Acts, read the Gospel of Mark, every chapter, demons are being cast out, people are being healed, Paul’s going to get riots, everywhere he goes, there’s a riot. When was the last time there was a riot where you were? ‘Cause you were there, right? That’s a great conviction. I remember being in Covenant Chapel when we first started renting that place. We were a new church and we were doing an all night prayer meeting, and it’s kind of in a neighborhood. It’s a converted house. So there’s all homes around it and we were doing a 24-hour prayer meeting.

07:25 - And people are bringing drums in and banging drums they’re blowing shofars, and somebody said well what if the neighbors call the cops? And you know, we weren’t trying to be rude to the people around us and I said, man, if ever there was something I’d want to be arrested for, it’s a 24-hour prayer meeting. You know like, that’s exactly what’s missing in the culture. So I’m not looking to be a bad neighbor to anybody, but look, if somebody’s got a problem with it, this is what we do, but you don’t have to be rude about it. But I’m serving God. And I don’t have to apologize for that. You know like, the dollar bill still says In God We Trust. Last time I checked, let’s pray it stays there.

08:07 - That was in 1956, that’s when we took on the national motto of America is In God We Trust. You would not know that by the school curriculums that are being passed today. I’ll leave that one alone till another day. .