The Lord our Rock

[background music] The Church's fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. Omnipotent God, Omniscient God, You are the only one, There is none like You. Omnipotent, Omnipotent God, Omniscient God, You are the only one, Jehovah, There is none like You. All other gods, All other gods, Baba, they are mere works of men. You are the only one, Oh, there is none like You. All other gods, All other gods, Baba, they are mere works of men, Jehovah, You are the only one, Almighty, There is none like You. All other gods, There is no rock like our rock, They are mere works of men, Jehovah, You are the only one, Almighty, There is none like You. All other gods, All other gods, Baba, they are mere works of men, You are the only one, There is none like You. I want to thank our God again for another opportunity, for another privilege again to be in His presence. We want to appreciate Him for His great mercies. We want to thank Him again for another opportunity that we are in His presence for another singles club. We are grateful to the Lord for all who He is and for all that He is. We thank Him for His love and for His mercy. We said indeed our God is great. We want to thank Him, we want to bless Him. We give Him all glory, we give Him all honor, we give Him all adoration. We thank Him for who He is. Blessed be His holy name for His mercies and for His love. We thank Him for all that He is. We bless His holy name. Indeed, we thank Him for another time in His presence. We want to appreciate Him for all that He is. We want to say, "Lord our God, we are grateful." We thank You, we bless You. We give You all the praise for another opportunity to be in Your presence this first Saturday of the month of February. And as we gather unto Him, we trust in the Lord that it will be a time of refreshing, it will be a time of mercy, it will be a time of encounter with the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ. As we gather to Him this morning, our brethren who are joining us on Mixlr, wherever you are joining us this morning, for some reasons, we are not able to gather on Telegram. We are gathering only on Mixlr for this singles club. So if you have been joining us on Telegram for singles club, please for this particular Saturday, only our Mixlr channel is open. We want you to please join us on our Mixlr channel wherever you are this morning. And as we do so, I trust that the Lord will meet with you. It will be a time of refreshment and blessing in the name of Jesus Christ. As we pick it up from where we left the matter first Saturday in the month of January where we look at the hope of His calling, we want to move on from that point today. Let us have a word of prayer. Almighty God, we are grateful unto You. We thank You for Your mercies, we thank You for Your love, we thank You for Your grace, we thank You for all who You are and all that You are. We bless Your holy name, our Father. We say be Thou exalted our God in the name of Jesus. Lord, as we look into Your word again this morning, particularly for our singles yet to be married, our matured singles, our young people, bachelors and spinsters, as we look into Your word this morning, Lord, we pray. Baba, let Your word, oh God, be unto us a light. Let Your word be a lamp to our feet, a light to our path in the name of Jesus. Lord God, we pray. The scripture says the world pass away and its lusts thereof, but he who does, that person who is concerned about doing the will of God, abides forever. Lord our God, as we look into scripture this morning, we pray, may the generation of young people that will listen this morning and that will later download this message and listen to this message, may fire be ignited in their heart, in their soul, to be pursuers of the will of God, to be seekers of God in the name of Jesus. Thank You, eternal Father. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. For today’s meeting, we’ll be looking at a very vital topic which is based on Psalm 27: The Lord, my Rock. Yes, all other gods, they are mere works of men. He is the only Lord and there is none like Him. All other gods, they are mere works of men. He is the only Lord, there is none like Him. And I pray that as we look at the Lord our Rock this morning, may you be blessed as you listen in the name of Jesus Christ. Psalm 27, I take it from verse 1. Psalm 27:1-9: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked come against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and my foes, they stumble and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war may arise against me, in this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy upon me and answer me. When You said, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to You, 'Your face, Lord, I will seek.' Do not hide Your face from me; do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation." This is a psalm that I believe is a very, very popular psalm, Psalm 27. I just want to look at a few things in it as a basis for instruction this morning for our young people. It’s more like an exposition of Psalm 27 between verse 1 and verse 9: The Lord My Rock. I just pray that may the Lord be your rock in the name of Jesus. Everywhere, every area of your life, I pray may the Lord be your rock in the name of Jesus. Now the psalmist was speaking, he said, "The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?" When the Lord is your light, when the Lord is your salvation, He becomes a rock that gives you confidence. When the Lord is the one who gives light to your darkness, when the Lord is the one who gives you instruction on what to do and how to do it, when the Lord is the one who directs your path, when the Lord is the one from whom you always take your bearing, and you always go where He says, and you always follow where He leads, and you always take instruction from the Lord, honestly, the person has nothing to fear. Anybody who fears the Lord, who heeds to the Lord, who listens to the Lord, who takes his bearing from the Lord, who takes instruction from the Lord, honestly, the person has nothing to fear. If you look at the same thing in Proverbs chapter 1, look at how the book of Proverbs puts it in chapter 1. Just trying to make you see that if God is your fear, then there is nothing else to fear. If God is your fear, He becomes a rock that gives you so much confidence. When God is your light, when He is the one that gives light to your darkness, He is the one who gives instruction, when you always go where He said, and you always follow where He leads, I’m telling you, you become so bold. The Bible says the righteous they are bold as lion. When the Lord becomes the rock of a man, when the Lord is the light and the salvation of a man, the Lord becomes His rock of confidence. The Lord our rock. Look at Proverbs chapter 1. Look at what it says about I’m just trying to make you see that when God is a man’s fear, there is nothing else to fear. Look at what it says. It says from verse 23: "Turn at my rebuke. Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you." When you are somebody who turns at the Lord’s rebuke, when you are somebody who listens to the Lord, when you are somebody who yields to the Lord, as a young man, as a young woman, if you are an individual who yields to the Lord, He says "turn at my rebuke." When you are somebody who turns at His rebuke, to say, "No, don’t do that, do this way." You are somebody who yields to His instructions. What happens is that He says, "Surely I will pour out my spirit on you, I will make my word known to you." You see, it becomes your light, it becomes your salvation. He will make His word known, He will pour His spirit upon you. Now, on the contrariwise, look at the other side of the story. He was speaking in verse 24 to another categories of people: "Because I have called and you refused. I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded." You see, they didn't turn at the Lord’s rebuke, they didn't follow His instruction. He didn't pour His spirit upon them, He didn't make known His word to them. He’s not their light, He’s not their salvation. "Because you disdain all my counsel and would none of my rebuke." Are you seeing that? "I also will laugh at your calamity." He will not be your rock. "I will mock when your terror comes. When your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then you will call on me and I will not answer. You will call on me, I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel and despised every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them and the complacency of the foolish will destroy them. But whoever listens to me"—Hallelujah! Hallelujah!—"whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secured without fear of evil." May you be secured! I pray may you be secured. May you be secured without fear of evil in the name of Jesus. For whoever listens to me, whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secured without fear of evil. Why? The Lord becomes their rock. May the Lord be your rock. May the Lord be your rock in the name of Jesus. Everywhere. May the Lord be your rock in the name of Jesus. He said they will be secured. When a man is secured, divine security, money cannot buy it. I don’t know in this situation that we are today in this nation. I don’t know what more we need than something like this. I don’t know what more we need than to have divine security. Where the Lord is saying that because you have listened to me, you will dwell safely. When the Lord is saying that in the midst of all the kidnappings, in the midst of all the killings, all the banditry, in the midst of the case of unknown gunmen, in the midst of all these killer headers, in the midst of armed robbery, in the midst of the wickedness that has abounded in this nation and is still abounding in the nation, in the midst of all of this, what a great peace, what a great rest, what so reassuring for the Lord to say you will dwell safely. What a great good for the Lord to say you will be secured without fear of evil. May the Lord be your rock. May the Lord be your rock in the name of Jesus Christ. So when the Lord is our light and our salvation, it brings so much confidence upon our heart, so much confidence in our approach to things, in our attitude to life, so much confidence in what we do. It brings so much confidence. That is what the psalmist was saying in Psalm 27 when he said that the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Look at that in the NLT. "The Lord is my light and my salvation, so why should I be afraid? The Lord protects me from danger, so why should I tremble?" NIV: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold, the rock, of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" So much is the confidence that the psalmist said, "When the wicked come against me to eat up my flesh." When kidnappers come against me to eat up my flesh, when killer headers come against me to eat up my flesh, when unknown gunmen come against me to eat up my flesh, when armed robbers, when wickedness, I don’t know so many things can fill into this gap, that’s what I’m just trying to say. He’s talking about in the days of evil, in the days when evil abound, when wickedness is everywhere. He’s talking about that kind of situation, that’s what he’s saying here. "When the wicked come against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and my foes." What will happen to them? "They stumble and they fall." They will not know what makes them to fall. They just find that they fell. And they will be wondering what is going on. And they gather themselves again, they will try to come against me but they will fall again. [speaking in tongues] because the Lord is my light, the Lord is my salvation. And that is where I pray that may the Lord be your light. May the Lord be your salvation. May the Lord be the rock of your life in the name of Jesus Christ. Look at how he went further, he said, "Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear." You remember Elisha, when the host of Syria encamped against him, he did not fear. His servant that was afraid, all he needed to pray was "God, open his eyes to see." That’s all he needed to pray. And when the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw chariots of fire all surrounding them, the young man held his peace. I am praying, I’m asking the Lord for you, I’m praying this morning also for my own life, that may we climb to this pedestal. May we be people who fears the Lord, who love the Lord, who are constrained by the love of God to live for God. Because when we are like this, he said, "Though an army may encamp against me, my heart will not fear, though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident." In what? The Lord is my rock, the Lord is my light, the Lord is my rock, the Lord is my light. He said go ahead to tell us the pattern of his life. He said, "One thing I have desired of the Lord." And I pray, may you as an individual also desire this one thing. This one thing that made the Lord our light and our salvation. He said, "One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." I don’t know whether you are getting something here. That what brought the psalmist to where the Lord became his rock is what you are seeing in the verse 4. What brought him to the point where the Lord became his rock was that at a point in his life he made up his mind that one thing I desire. "God, this is the one thing I seek from You. If You want to bless me, bless me with this one thing. If all other blessings are not available, make this one my blessing." He has at a point in his life cried to the Lord for deliverance. He has cried this way and that way. He has made up his mind and said "God, it is You that I will seek. I will not seek any other thing." And that is the secret of the matter that we are discussing. It is the men who intentionally and deliberately seek the Lord as the one thing. The one thing we mean here is that it becomes the first and the primary thing to seek. All other things are secondary. The Lord becomes the first and the primary thing to seek. Some things other things may come as second, as third, as fourth, as fifth. But the first, foremost and primary thing must be the Lord. When a man’s life is like that, the man is able to say, "The Lord is my light and my salvation." Because as he dwells in the house of the Lord to behold the temple, the Lord said, "I will show you my way. I will teach you my word, I will expose to you my word." May this be your portion in the name of Jesus. He went on to say, "For in the time of trouble." I always tell young people there will always be a time of trouble. No matter how much you love the Lord and walk with the Lord. Even if they call your name peace inside peace of inside peace and the man of peace, there will be one day that there will be trouble. Trouble is something that is designed to make the believer’s life a better life. So one way or the other there will be trouble. But when the Lord is your rock, when the Lord is your rock, when the Lord is your rock, he says "in the time of trouble, He will hide me in His pavilion. In the secret place of the most high, He will hide me. For He will set me upon a rock." You see what the psalmist is confident about? He's so confident that anyhow, anyhow the matter wants to turn, anyhow, anyhow it’s going to be, the Lord will show up for him. I pray may the Lord show up for you. But then we must make up our mind to seek the Lord. We must make up our mind to follow after the Lord. We make up our mind to turn at His rebuke, to heed His counsel in the name of Jesus. Then he went on in verse 6: "And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies." May your head be lifted up above everything today that is holding you captive. Whatsoever is holding you captive, I pray this morning, may the Lord lift you, lift your head above them. Whatsoever thing has held you bound all your life, I pray this morning, may the Lord bring deliverance, may the Lord bring salvation, may the Lord pull you out of the pit. May the Lord lift your head, lift your head above your enemies round about in the name of Jesus. Whatever is holding you down, it may be something spiritual, it may be something physical. Whatsoever it is. Some of us it is some habit, pornography, some of us it is immorality, some of us it may be a lie, I don’t know what may be holding you down, I don’t know what is that deficiency in your character. But what I’m trying to make you see is this. When you begin to give attention to the Lord, when you begin to give attention to His instruction, when you begin to say, "Lord, be my light, be my salvation." When you begin to say "God, You are the one that I follow." When God becomes that, you want to dwell in His temple to seek the Lord, what I’m trying to make you see is that the Lord will lift up your head above everything that is holding you down. He said He will lift up my head above my enemies all round about. "Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord." Look at the testimony of the psalmist. May this be my own and your own testimony in the name of Jesus. And then he went ahead to make us see a very, very crucial thing again. He said, "Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice." Because in the day of trouble, the Bible says the name of the Lord is a strong tower. It is the righteous that run into it and they are saved. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and they are saved. What I’m trying to make you see is that in the day of trouble, it becomes important for us to run, to run into the Lord, to run into His power, to run into His name. That’s what the psalmist is trying to make us see here. He said, "Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy upon me and answer me." What he is saying is that "God, when trouble comes and I say 'Baba! Lord!' the Lord will show up." When I cry to the Lord. The Bible says the effectual fervent prayer of the upright, of the righteous availeth much. When we begin to live correctly, when we yield our life to God, when we follow His instruction, when we turn at His rebuke, what I’m trying to make you understand is that you are making yourself a formidable person in the place of prayer. If you want to be a formidable person in the place of prayer, one of the ways is you must be somebody who is able to live a life that is worthy of His calling. You will see that as we go on. Look at what the psalmist said. "Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. When I cry with my voice, when I cry to the Lord, You will hear me." I pray when you cry with your voice, may the Lord listen. Before you speak, may the Lord hear. While you are yet speaking, may the Lord answer in the name of Jesus. But there is the place of duty. What is the duty? Look at what it said: "When You said, 'Seek my face,' my heart said to You, 'Your face, Lord, I will seek.'" Are you seeing that? When the Lord said seek my face, what did your heart, what did your own heart answer? Young man, young woman listening to me, when the Lord says seek my face, what is the answer of your own heart? Because sometimes people begin to say, "I don’t understand, it’s like I pray, I don’t know, the Lord did not hear, I don’t even understand." Many of it that you don’t understand, you may not be having the correct antecedent. There are antecedent, there are background story. For every standing, there is the under. There is something under that give a standing. There must be an under before there can be a standing. Before you come to the place of standing in prayer, what is your under? Look at the under-cover of David. Look at the under-cover of this psalmist. He said "Lord, remember when You said seek my face, remember that my heart also answered Your face, Lord, I will seek." Your face, Lord, I will seek. That is, Lord, You know how I have placed You first. Lord, You know how You are the one that I seek. You know how I have done everything to please You in all that I do. You know, you see when men who live unto the Lord also have the Lord for their rock. May you live unto the Lord. May you live unto the Lord. And as you live unto the Lord, may you have the Lord as your rock in the name of Jesus Christ. And that is why the psalmist can say: "And when my heart is overwhelmed, please lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Oh Lord, that is higher than I." That was the psalm of David. David said, "Hear my cry, O Lord." I’m putting that psalm through a song. "Hear my cry, O Lord. Hear my voice, O Lord. Attend unto my cry. From the ends of the earth will I call unto Thee. And when my heart is overwhelmed, please lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Hear my cry, O Lord. Hear my voice, O Lord. Attend unto my prayer. Oh, from the ends of the earth will I cry unto Thee and when my heart is overwhelmed, O Lord, please lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Oh Lord, that is higher than I. And when my heart is overwhelmed, O Lord, please lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Oh Lord, that is higher than I." That was the psalm of David. The point I’m making is that people who have God as their rock, there is an antecedent in their life. And I’m showing you this antecedent in the life of David. He said, "Lord, remember when You said seek my face, my heart also answered Your face, Lord, I will seek." What is the answer of your heart to seeking God’s face in your life? Where is the position of God’s kingdom in your life? Where do you place God? When you place God in the right place, He becomes a rock, a rock of your salvation. That is why the psalmist can say in the last verse that we are looking at today as we are trying to round up this morning. He says, "Do not hide Your face from me." Of course, because it was a face that he has always sought. He has always been seeking that face. He always look for that face. It was not in the day of his trouble that he’s calling it. No! That face, he has always been somebody who daily sought the Lord, daily seeking and following after the Lord. He said, "Do not hide Your face from me. Do not hide Your face." Of course, when You said seek my face, my heart has said "Your face I will seek." The face I’ve always sought, the face that I’ve always been following after. Lord, do not hide that face from me. I pray may the Lord look upon you with mercy. May the face of the Lord shine upon you. May the face of the Lord shine upon you. "Do not hide Your face from me. Do not turn Your servant away in anger. You have been my help." Are you seeing it? "You have always been there. You have been my help. Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation." May this be your own testimony too. May this be your own testimony in the name of Jesus. I pray for every young man, for every young woman listening to me today. May the Lord be your rock. Let us have a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank You for this morning. Our God, we give You praise. Our God, we bless You. Oh Lord our God, we just commit our young men and women into Your hand. Lord, the day we are in is really, really, really hard, perilous, wicked and harsh. Indeed, the world grope in darkness. Oh Lord God Almighty, I pray that even though darkness cover the earth and gross darkness the people, may Your glory rise upon us, upon our young men, upon our young women. May Your glory rise upon us. We will not walk in the darkness of this earth. We will not walk in the darkness of the world. We will not walk in the darkness of life. Rather, we will walk in the light of the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Let’s share the grace together in fellowship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever more. Amen. God bless you. I trust the Lord we’ll meet again first Saturday of March. If you have been blessed, please don’t come alone for that of next month. Come with somebody. Tell somebody to join us online. And I trust God that next month then we’re going to be both on Telegram. We’ll all be able to gather together both on Telegram and on Mixlr. It’ll not be Mixlr alone like this. The Lord bless you. [background music] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God’s word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission hit. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday 5:00 PM, adolescent and singles club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM, marriage forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM, family life seminars, regular school outreaches and every day counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite the Rejoice filling station along Igerre Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.