Finding Peace in Jesus: Refuge in Times of Trouble

Reverend Fred Proctor shares a personal experience of encountering troubles in his daily life.

He explains that as a Christian, one can still face problems, but has the advantage of going to the Lord in prayer for help.

The reverend shares Bible verses to support this idea, including Psalm 37:39, which states that the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, who is their strength in times of trouble.

He emphasizes that God created all people equally and that we are all precious in His sight, regardless of skin color.

opportunity to welcome you to brighterdaybaptistchurch.com. This is Reverend Fred Proctor, pastor. We're glad that you are here. I just want to let you know how glad that we are that you are visiting. This is a virtual church, brighterdaybaptistchurch.com. and it's a virtual church. You say, what is that? Well, it's a church, but it doesn't have a building. We meet online. And I just want to tell you, and I'm thankful that we're now having, We have about 2 million visitors each month to brighterdaybaptistchurch.com, and we're on about 100 and some channels, and we just want to say welcome. Welcome to Brighter Day Baptist Church. And we started this church when COVID shut everything down, and then I've just kept it going, and our son Eric, he preaches, he sings, he's a webmaster, he builds the websites, and I do the promoting. So we're glad that you're here. I want to tell you that we have started a prayer list, And if you have a prayer request and you would like for us to announce it, you can send us your prayer request to brighterdaybaptistchurch.com at gmail.com. brighterdaybaptistchurch.com at gmail.com I have a few names that I want to put out to you and ask that you pray for these people. Melvin and Judy Johnson. Melvin has some problems and they can't figure out what it is. A very godly man and his wife is my sister. Melvin and Judy Johnson, please remember and pray for them. My brother, who's two years older than myself, Travis Proctor, he's going to have to undergo some tests, I think, concerning his heart, but he is a very active person. He hikes all the time, has a hiking club, and I'm not sure what the problem is. I just was told that he had something to do with his heart. So please remember and pray for Travis Proctor. Also, for Mr. Randy Kent and his wife, Shane Kent. Randy, I've known him and all of his family almost all of my life. And Randy had a stroke back a few months back, and they didn't think he was going to live, but he did. And it didn't paralyze him, but it affected his memory as far from the time he had the stroke up until now. He has no remembrance. Before the stroke, he remembers everything. so please pray for Randy Kent he was not too long ago he was on Facebook every Sunday teaching a teaching a class about how to be a Christian how to live a Christian life he is a deacon I think at his church he was a song leader and so Remember Randy Kent and Shane Kent and all the family. Also his mother, Agnes Kent. I know her. She's about, I think she's about 98 years old. She's in a nursing home, and she's a very godly woman. And I want you to remember and pray for her, for all the Kent family, for Sammy Kent, Randy Kent, and all of that family. They certainly need our prayers. And for all of the sick, all the sick, or many, many people who are sick and having problems. I have a niece. I don't know her last name since her husband was murdered. He was a federal officer, and he was gunned down. in Burke County, North Carolina. But it's my sister, Brenda Compton, and her daughter, Amanda. Amanda has cancer. She's had cancer for a long time, but now it's in her brain. And I'm asking that you remember and pray for Amanda. I know her as Amanda Crisp. So please pray for that entire family. God can do all things. He has all power to do all things. We have seen great and mighty miracles, and we are not one of these name it and claim it. our church is a conservative southern Baptist Church we know that God lives we know that he can do all things but we also know when you pray you have to pray Lord according to your will you can't just demand and say you will do it you You humbly ask, and if it's God's will, he will do it. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for this opportunity to once again to spread the gospel all over the world. Lord, we know that we're going into every part of all the world, and we are carrying out the Great Commission. Lord, the last thing that you said before you went back to heaven, you gave us the commission. You go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I'm praying, oh God, I'm humbly, earnestly praying that millions of people who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior will accept you as their Savior Lord and you will certainly save them I pray for all these that we have mentioned that are sick and afflicted Lord I know that you can do all things I know that you made us and you can fix us, but it's according to your perfect will. I humbly ask for healing according to the perfect will of God. And I humbly pray and ask that you will just bless this service, Lord, as it goes out now to all the world, all over the world. I pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. For, Lord, without you, you are the power, the power that came there at Pentecost. And I just pray you will take charge of this service. Touch the hearts and lives of people. Help us, O God. Many, many people are depressed or discouraged. I pray that you will help them. Strengthen them, O Lord God Almighty. And help us to know that we serve you, the risen, living God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for it's in your name we pray and ask it. Amen and amen. Now, I'm going to read from different places. We use the King James Version of the Bible. What you use is between you and God, but we use the King James Version. and I want to give you some verses that help in troubles. You know, sometimes things just happen. I'll share a little personal experience with you here where I live. The air conditioning went out and I worked on it and it's still out. but this was yesterday it's one of those days when things just it's almost like when whatever can go wrong will go wrong so the air conditioner is out my phone wouldn't work because it said it is overheated two different times I put it in the refrigerator and that still didn't work so I put it in the freezer compartment of my refrigerator and left it in there. And it finally started working. And then I went out, got in the car. I needed to go to the store, and it was just a click, click. And I just had the car serviced this week, and it's almost a new battery. I'd never done that. And one of my grandsons was here, and he said, let me see the key. He went out, and it started. Perfect. And I don't know what it was, but it's one of those, listen, I think a lot of people think, well, if I become a Christian, I won't have any problems. Yes, you will have problems. The Bible said that man that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. the fact that you become a born again Christian doesn't mean well now I'll never have any more problems yes we have problems because we're here on this earth we're in this body but we have something that the world and when I'm talking about the world I'm talking about those who do not know and have never accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, we have something that they don't. And that is that we can go to the Lord in prayer. He will help us. I'm going to read some different verses of Scripture and try to expound on them a little bit. Listen to this, found in Psalm 37, verse 39. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in time of trouble. Yes, we all have trouble. I would just for a moment ask you to reflect on all the trouble that's going on in the world. Or to bring it down closer, look at all the trouble that's going on in the United States of America. Every way that we look, there's trouble. There's rioting in many big, large cities. People are rioting, and they're saying, well, that we are a racist nation. and we as white people hate all others. That's a lie. That's hatched in hell. That is a lie. We don't hate people. It has nothing to do with what color your skin is. God made us all. God created us all. And we're created in his likeness. Yellow, black, red, and white. We are precious. We're all precious in his sight. So we see this lie being put forth, and it's, oh, it's all because we are a racist nation. No, it's not. Then, I don't know, this Antifa and Black Lives Matters, and we see them busting the windows in stores and going in and looting and stealing, and then in places like Chicago and New York, they're just shooting people. Down, it's worse than a war zone, and nothing is being done about it. So we could look at that. We all have troubles. America truly is in trouble. And I'm saying that we must have a revival in America. When I'm talking about a revival, I'm talking about us as Christians. People that have never been saved cannot have a revival. They don't even have Bible, let alone revival. So it's up to us, up to us to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll read this verse again. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in time of trouble. Thank God for that. Now, Psalm 146, verse 8. the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind the Lord raises them that are bowed down the Lord loveth the righteous he loves us we that are born again he loves us all he loves us all John 3 16 tells us that that called the gospel in a nutshell For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life the gospel in a nutshell. Now, he loves us all, but he loves us because we have confessed our sins to him and said, oh, Jesus, something like this, Jesus, come into my life and save my soul because I don't want to die and go to hell. And he will do it. And he loves us because we're his children. in the book of Nahum, that's spelled N-A-H-U-M, Nahum, you don't hear that mentioned, but it's a book in the Bible. Nahum chapter 1 verse 7, The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. He knows everybody. He knows everyone that trusts in him. You know, I just want to pass this along. There's an old saying amongst many of our family, it blows my mind when I think about it, but it's a fact. You know, there's been a great deal of progress made as it relates to the DNA. Now that DNA is a word that's about as long as a railroad track, so they just call it DNA, but it's in here, it's in every person. and in every adult there is approximately one trillion cells a cell is a something that makes up every all of our bodies and it's so small you have to have a microscope to see it but they have been they have made a good bit of progress and so the scientists and those that are studying that have taken a single sale opened it up and in that one sale the information about you everything about you in that one sale if they were to put it in writing. And they said there's no way because it would take 600,000 books to contain the information out of that one cell. Now remember, they tell us in the adult body there is at least one trillion cells. That's spelled with a T. And every cell is different. Think about that. Think about how great and mighty is our God. That he has done all of this. And yet he knows us. he knows us when we accept him we become his child our names are written in the Lamb's book of life and he knows us he knows all about us in the book of the psalm I'm thinking it might be psalm 137 but there's a great psalm in there about how wonderful we are made. It talks about us. I want to say I thank God that the Supreme Court struck down this Roe v. Wade and we need to pray and put a stop to abortion. That's murder. I'm pleased and so thankful that this was a big step that many people had prayed for. But God knows us. God knows everything about us. And when we, you see, people, they become boastful. And so we are, we're so far in our generation. We're so far ahead of what the other generations, you know. We, the smartest people. in the world stack themselves up against God there is absolutely nothing they're not even recognized as a spot of dust nothing God's ways are so much higher than our ways he knows everything he is omniscient That means, and omni means a circle. You get on a circle and say, well, I'm going to walk until I come to the end. You'll never come to the end of it. Because there is no end to a circle. So God is omniscient. That is science, omniscience, omniscience. He knows everything. And I don't understand it. I cannot comprehend how great that God is. He's always known what is always known. and he never learns anything new. The whole point that I'm saying is God knows everything. He knows about the problems that you and I are going through. He knows about the troubles and the situations. He knows about it. I'm going to read this verse from Nahum 1, verse 7. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. Thank God he knows and he knows how to fix it. Psalm 37 verse 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Sometimes we think, I am so low, oh God, what am I going to do? Well, God knows about it. And he will help us. Psalm 32, verse 7. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Thank God. Thank God that we have a hiding place. You know, Corrie ten Boom, that Dutch Jewish lady that helped so many in the Holocaust it was called a hiding place God is our hiding place He helps us He will listen Whatever your problem whatever your trouble is tell it to Jesus That was the song I must tell Jesus. I must tell Jesus. I cannot bear these problems alone. Jesus can help me and Jesus alone. Hallelujah. Then in the book of Psalm, again, 42, verse 11, he asks the question, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Then he gives this, Hope, hope thou in God. Put your hope in God. And he says, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. All the situations that we are going through, this is speaking to Christians. He said, yet, or yet, shall I praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. psalm 73 verse 26 my flesh and my heart faileth but god is the strength of my heart and my portion forever god will help us god draws us to himself and he says come unto me all ye that are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest and then he tells us cast all your cares upon him for he cares for you there is no one that cares for you like the Lord Jesus Christ then from Psalm 91 and if you don't I would ask I would suggest you that you read this Psalm read it at least once a week Psalm 91 verses 10 and 11. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. You're not going to fly all to pieces because he takes care of us. I'm going to hurry along because I've got to close out here in a second Psalm 31 verse 23 he says O love the Lord all ye his saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer that don't mean a person who's filled up with worldly pride but we're proud to know that we're born again. Thank you, God. Job, chapter 5, verse 19. You know the story of Job, what he went through. It's mind-boggling. But here's what he said in Job, chapter 5, verse 19. He shall deliver thee in six troubles. yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee all of the troubles that Job went through God delivered him God helped him and his latter end was greater than his first now Psalm 9 verse 9. The Lord also will be refuge for the oppressed. A refuge in time of trouble. A refuge. You know what a refuge is? Yeah. Refuge is for animals like bear sanctuary. And I've heard this enough from people who hunt. Bear hunt. When the dogs get after a bear, the bear runs into the refuge. They've learned that. Except, I think, for just certain times of the year, you can't shoot a bear in a refuge. So they run in a refuge. And I think probably deer also know about this. I mean, they don't know it like we do, but they understand, hey, there's safety right over there. And they learn it. God is our refuge. God is our help. God, listen, I want to say something. God loves you. God loves you. He proved it by going to the cross, Calvary's cross. I'm going to ask you if you've never asked Jesus Christ to come into your life and save your soul I want to ask you pray a prayer something like this you don't have to pray this exact prayer but something like this oh God I'm a sinner we must confess that we're lost if you don't realize and know that you're lost you'll never ask for help but you are the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God oh God I'm a sinner I'm lost and I need to be saved I know I can't save myself I trust you to save me Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. And I give you my life. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen and amen. Jesus will save you. This is the great news. This is the good news. The word gospel means good news. The greatest news. And God will save you. because He loves you. God will help you. You that are Christians and going through times of trouble, I pray you'll call upon Him. Ask Him. Just do it. That has been, we, my son and I, Eric, said this, we're going to be preaching and it's a thing. Do it. Just do it. Do it. Don't put it off. Do it. How long will you put off until you call upon him? Call upon him and you will see the results. Thank you for being here. And God bless you and all of yours. See you next time on brighterdaybaptistchurch.com.

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