When we're going through a lonely patch in life, the most common response, is introspection. We withdraw into ourselves and have a pity party about how terrible things are. Well, as it turns out, that's absolutely the worst thing you can do, because it just makes things worse. What we really want, is something that makes things better, right?!

Loneliness – that deep hurt inside, that rises out of the painful realisation that we're not connecting with other people. And a key part of that downward spiral of loneliness is a sense of powerlessness, a sense that we're not good enough, or worthy enough, or important enough to do anything about it.

That's why this week we're looking at dealing with loneliness. I really believe that if God is God, He doesn't want us to be lonely. If you've missed any of these programs this week on loneliness, I'll let you know at the end of the program how you can listen to them again online. You know when we're lonely the last thing we think we can do is to help other people, but amazingly reaching out turns out to be very much a part of the solution.

Go and stand in the local shopping centre and just watch for five or ten minutes, you see people rushing around, doing stuff and not connecting. Now my local shopping centre is a really large, new, flash shopping centre. And you almost never see people stop and recognise each other and connect. A century ago and more, communities had like the village square, you know that green patch and the houses were all around the village square and families connected. That's been replaced by the shopping centre, the shopping mall. The connection and community have been replaced by lots of lonely people wandering around aimlessly, in and out of shops.

Here's a tough reality … the world is not going to stop and help you or me just because we're lonely. Let me say that again – the world, the way it is today, is just not going to stop and help you and me because we feel lonely. It's true in many families, it's true even in many churches, not all but in many. That's painful but it's not our fault, it's not your fault, it's not about you or me, it's just the way the world is.

Probably, this is not what you want to hear if you happen to be feeling lonely and powerless right now. But the fact is that Social Darwinism is alive and well. It is a jungle out there and it's all about the survival of the fittest. It's not that people are horrible; it's not that people don't want to help; it's not that everyone is nasty; it's just not a neighbourly kind of world anymore. People are too busy.

Great, so now what? If I'm lonely in a world where everybody's too busy to stop and connect with me, what's going to happen to me now? With loneliness, with a sense of being desperately alone and not connected with people, comes a sense of helplessness – I can't do this; I can't change this; I'm no good; no one's going to want me. Now that's understandable but it should be temporary. Unfortunately, the further people go down that downward spiral of loneliness, it sets in and becomes permanent. Some people just plan on being perpetual victims for the rest of their lives.

Maybe you are walking through loneliness right now? Maybe someone that you know is walking through loneliness right now? And this sounds particularly tough. It is, it has to be. Here's the rub, maybe being the victim would've worked thirty or forty years ago. But it's not going to work today. No one has got time. Bottom line, wallowing won't work and that's a good thing.

It's a good thing because if you're someone that's lonely, one of the biggest needs that you have is to get over self-pity; is to get over that sense of powerlessness; is to get over this reality that "I can't do anything and it won't work". What you need is to reach out. Maybe you know someone who is lonely and who feels powerless, they need to take this step and reach out. They need to connect.

If you're lonely you have this deep need but how, how do you do that when everyone is just too busy? Comes back to something we were talking about the other day – loneliness gives us a time and a space to discover who we are, what we enjoy, what we're good at. Maybe that's basketball or maybe you're like me and you're vertically challenged and you'll never be any good at basketball. Maybe your gift is sitting down and talking to people and making them feel better, drinking coffee. Maybe you've got a coffee ministry coming up, maybe your gift is serving.

We don't discover these things until we've had time and space in a period of loneliness to explore them. I truly believe that's true. It was true in my life. I had some things I was good at but I never really had time to develop them and to nurture them and to come to grips with them. Me, I discovered in that time that I was good at story telling. So, in the period of loneliness we have time to discover our gifts and what we're good at. And we can now go and take those gifts and add value to someone.

Busy people don't notice victims. Busy people do notice other people who add value, that's one side of the equation. The other side of the equation is lonely people need to develop their self-esteem and they can do that by adding value. I don't know about you, but it seems to me, like those two things are made for each other. When Berni was lonely and single again ten years ago, God was doing stuff in my life so I ended up going to a church. It was a little church in a place called Oyster Bay, in the southern suburbs of Sydney, in Australia.

There were only about 30-35 people in this church and I went along all broken and lonely and not knowing whether anyone would ever think anything of me again. And I discovered they only had one piano player. Well, I can play the piano and so I practiced and practiced and practiced and I ended up playing the piano during the services. And people noticed that I seemed to be good with words and so I was asked to lead worship. And so the pastor of the church asked me to preach. I'd been a Christian for five minutes and this guy said to me, "Hey Berni, why don't you get up and preach one Sunday?"

All of a sudden, I discovered I could contribute to other people's lives using my gifts. Have you noticed I'm still doing that? Right now, I'm doing the thing that I discovered when I was lonely. Isn't God fantastic, isn't God just wonderful? And that was great for me; I needed to have a sense that I could add value to other people's lives. Wallowing won't work, adding value will.

Jesus was just a crummy carpenter. He was misunderstood, misinterpreted, mistreated. He often went to lonely places to pray, but that loneliness didn't debilitate Him; that loneliness didn't stop Him from doing what God had called Him to do. That's the picture, that's the model!

Are you in a world that's too busy to notice that you're lonely? Well get up, take up your cross and follow Jesus – not to be served, not to be the victim – but to serve. And as you take the gifts that God has given you and you serve other people with those gifts, you're going to bless your socks off. You're going to do things in your heart and your soul and your spirit that you never dreamed that you could possibly do, because God is a God of grace.

You get up and follow Him and watch out what God does with that.

When loneliness strikes, it can be the bleakest, darkest, most inhospitable place on the planet … in the universe! If you've experienced loneliness, you'll know what I mean. But in that loneliest of places, at that loneliest moment, as things turn out, you and I – we are never alone.

I wonder on a scale of 1-10 how content you feel in your relationships; zero is desperately lonely, ten is stunningly fulfilled.

This week, we have been looking at loneliness from A Different Perspective. Because loneliness is a disease that is afflicting people in plague proportions, more work, more money, less time with the family, less time being part of a community. So we have a silent social pandemic that is sweeping the globe. The question is, what to do about it?

Yesterday, we talked about the first of two people who can help you with loneliness – that person is you. If you missed that program, you can listen to it again on our website, I'll let you know how you can do that at the end of the program.

Today, I'd like to introduce you to the second person who can help you with loneliness without ever having to make a phone call, or open the front door. This man, a carpenter by trade, knows all about lonely places and what to do with them.

Have you ever thought about Jesus being lonely? Now here is the Son of God who becomes a man … little boy, grows up as carpenter's apprentice with his Dad and He becomes a carpenter. And then His public ministry begins around age 30. He has a dozen or so close disciples, many more who follow him around, huge crowds, who flock to see him and hear him speak and be healed by him. There are people clamoring to get a piece of him. This Jesus had rock star status.

There was one time He healed a leper and said to the leper, "Look, just go and show the priests, don't tell anyone". (Yeah right!) Luke in his Gospel, (Luke 5:15, if you want to look it up), Luke writes this after the healing of the leper:

Even though He told the leper not to tell anyone, obviously the leper did. And the news about Jesus spread more and more, so that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Isn't that amazing? By choice, Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. That word lonely means solitary, desolate, uninhabited places, to pray.

Jesus knew exactly what it meant to be lonely. Here is the Son of God, He has been with God and in God, and part of the God Head, part of the Trinity for all eternity – Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He steps out of that and becomes a man. He was surrounded by people who didn't understand. God was doing a new thing through this Son of His, Jesus, a new thing of grace. Jesus would go to the cross and be beaten and reviled and crucified and killed. The religious hierarchy, they hated Him, they plotted against Him. In fact, they were so threatened by this radical Jesus, eventually, they killed Him. The disciples (well most of them, most of the time), they just didn't get it. Jesus was misunderstood, misquoted, misrepresented and mistreated.

Jesus, of course He experienced loneliness. He was called to do something radical that people didn't understand. Imagine being surrounded by these twelve Disciples who, who you know will be the foundations of the church when you go. And for the whole time, they just didn't seem to understand. Every now and then, they'd have a flash of insight but most of the time they didn't get it. Who did Jesus have to talk to? Who was His peer? Who was His equal? Who was His support? He experienced everything that you and I have to experience and loneliness is one of them.

Jesus has been lonely in a crowd and He makes a decision, a decision of choice. He withdrew often to a lonely place and prayed. Why did He do that? Well, despite His superstar status, the one relationship that gave Him His strength (to give out all that He gave out) – the one relationship sustained Him, the one relationship that gave Him wisdom and love, and grace – was the relationship with His Father, God (in that lonely place).

I mentioned yesterday that I went through a lonely time in my life about ten years ago, when I went through a marriage breakdown and divorce. And I experienced loss, and betrayal, and hurt, and fear, and loneliness … what a poisonous cocktail! I was in a new city with new people around me, a new empty house. And I remember meal times, sitting down at the dinner table that used to have a family around it, and now there was just me.

At the dinner table, my aloneness became so desperately lonely. And in that lonely place, I got a growing sense and a knowledge that Jesus was there. And I prayed, I talked, I listened, I read, I learned who I was and enjoyed my own company (I talked about that yesterday). That was great, but in that dark and lonely, and desolate, isolated place there was one light shining – and that light was the presence of God. That light was Jesus in that place with me. A Jesus who Himself had experienced the loneliness, who himself had prayed in lonely places.

"Berni what do you mean, what did it feel like? How did you get that?" Well, the best way I can describe this is, in the bitterness of betrayal with a fear of the future, lamenting the loss, in that bitterness of fear and lament, the sweetness of His presence was so piercingly sweet. I just knew He was there. It was such an incredible joy. It took my breath away. In the lounge room, in the dining room, in the kitchen, the bedroom, God's presence, His presence just filled the place. Wherever I went, whatever I did, He was there just whispering in my ear, "I love you, I will never leave you, I'll never, never forsake you". And that was ten years ago.

Now that I talk about this, just like it was yesterday. As I speak about it, it's though, I am there. And I remember the pain and I remember the enormous joy of God's presence in the middle of that loneliness.

Have you noticed right now that He's here? Why am I going through this? Why am I so lonely? What's going on? Why is it so dark? Why is loneliness so painful? Why can't I do anything about it myself?

Well, God didn't cause your loneliness. God didn't cause my loneliness. But when I was there and when you're there, He is there. Because in the middle of that loneliness, sometimes that's the only place that's quiet enough for us to hear Him. Sometimes that's the only place that He can get our attention. Sometimes (as much as it hurts), that place of loneliness is a place that Jesus Christ touches us, and reaches out, and loves us in a way that we cannot … we cannot miss or mistake.

Loneliness can be the biggest opportunity that God ever hands us. It was certainly the biggest opportunity that He ever gave me. And that time that I had with Him, during that lonely period, I remember as if it was yesterday.

I have a wonderful life now, but I remember that time. And even now, in the dark times, He sustains me.

Loneliness isn't an easy thing to deal with when it strikes. When we're alone, it seems as though there are no answers, no solutions. But actually, nothing … could be further from the truth.

Whether you live in China surrounded by 1.3 billion other people, or the Pitcairn Islands (in the Pacific), surrounded by just 44 other people, you can feel lonely. We can be desperately lonely in a crowd yet be delivered from loneliness by just one other person.

Today, if it's okay with you, we're going to continue looking at the whole question of loneliness.

I'd like you to meet the first of two people who can help you with loneliness, without you ever having to pick up the phone or open the front door. We'll meet the second one in tomorrow's program.

Today, we're going to meet the first one. Someone you've known all your life, someone who's with you constantly, every minute of the day – that someone … is you!

The problem with loneliness, it's not so much in being alone, we all want to be alone (sometimes). The problem is feeling alone. The problem is feeling that terrible sense that I'm not connected in a meaningful way with another person. It's painful, you can get angry, you can get distressed, you sense this loss. And the other thing about loneliness is that often, it's accompanied by a sense of powerlessness. We end up in a passive state.

I remember ten years ago being single again. One minute, I was surrounded by a family – you go out, you go out with your family, go out with your wife. The next minute, not only is there the pain of a broken relationship, but you see all of these other people in relationships. I truly hated seeing couples together; their enjoyment seemed to hurt me. You know, you see a man and a woman walking hand in hand down the street. And I'd just been through what I'd just been through and it was painful seeing them enjoy themselves. You feel so powerless when you feel lonely.

I felt like a second-class citizen, I felt like a failure. It's like it wasn't okay for me to be alone. It's a state that I felt I couldn't change. Have you ever felt like that … "I'm the only one?"

I'll let you into a secret, we all do that sometimes. We're not Robinson Caruso. Everybody at some stage in their life feels devalued because they're lonely. We feel rejected because we're lonely. Part of the loneliness trap says, "I can't function unless I have other people around me."

Well in part that's true; we certainly all need to have meaningful relationships with other people. But the idea of "I can't function without other people," misses something. It misses an opportunity – an important opportunity.

When we go home, you know at the end of the day or (I used to do this when I was going through my lonely stage where I was on my own) at the end of church, you know I'd go home on a Sunday and all these other people went home with their husbands or their wives or their children. And I went home alone.

When we go home, whether we go home to a family or whether we go home alone, you and I are home in our space, maybe people there, maybe not. Whether there are people there or not, it can be a lonely place. Well for me there were no people there at the time. And what I discovered in that place was to my surprise … I enjoyed my own company.

Now that might seem trivial and trite to you. But in my life where I'd been a busy business person and working long hours and working hard and having people around me all the time. Here I was, at age 36, alone for the first time (in a very long time). All of a sudden, I had time and space to figure out, "Berni, you enjoy your own company."

The first thing I had was time to think, time just to sit at nights and let the imagination roam across the hills. Time to dream, time to hope, time to contemplate the day, time to plan for tomorrow. What an incredible gift! And even though we all do that to some extent, you know something, when you're on your own (particularly when you feel lonely), it's somehow sharper, somehow it's more important to be able to do that. It's so evident in a lonely place that time to think and imagine and dream and hope and contemplate is a wonderful gift.

And it was in the middle of that … that I learned to turn the TV off. It was still. It was quiet. And in that place I discovered I liked myself.

It's one of the biggest gifts I ever received out of that time of loneliness. And you know this is a habit that has never left me. Today, I'm wonderfully, happily married to the most beautiful, lovely women on the planet and have a wonderful family. Yet, I still draw away into my own space – into that quiet peace to enjoy me, to spend time with me, to discover who I am, to think and dream and hope.

We are created in the image of God. And God looks at us and He delights in us. So why shouldn't we delight in ourselves? Why shouldn't we like ourselves?

The second thing that … that period of loneliness gave me was time and space to do things I had never had time and space to do in the past. I discovered I really loved walking. I've always played the piano but I'd never had time and I relearned the playing of piano. I love to read, I love cooking. Some people say, "Well, it's not worth cooking for one". What they're really saying is, "I am not worth it, I'm not worth cooking for". Yes you are!

The third thing was that I decided I liked my own company. And the step that precedes that – I liked me. It doesn't mean I can't improve. It doesn't mean that there aren't some things that I'd change. But basically, in that time alone, I decided I like me. That brings some serious healing. I realised I wasn't a second-class citizen. I realised the real joy of discovering me.

Now, there was another inseparable part in that healing process … another person that we'll talk about tomorrow, when I introduce you to the second person, who can help you and me in a period of loneliness, without ever picking up the phone or opening the front door.

Loneliness … absolutely, we need to get connected meaningfully with other people. But a time of loneliness is a huge opportunity to connect meaningfully with ourselves.

Have you ever been travelling through a lonely patch? Maybe, you're travelling through one now. Go look in the mirror. You are a beautiful person. You are so wonderfully hand-carved by God. You have some abilities and talents and humour in you that other people don't have. And sometimes God takes us through times of loneliness to help us to discover that.

It's no substitute for relationships with other people; it's no substitute for having family and friends around. But you know what I think? I think for us to really enjoy our relationships with other people, to really connect with other people, first – we need to connect with ourselves.

If God is God, if God made you and me the way we are, if God delights in who you are and who I am, isn't that a valid thing that we should delight in who we are? Isn't it a wonderful thing to have time and space to enjoy our own company? To think, to go and do things and develop skills and develop talents that sometimes we never realised we had?

I learned to play the piano when I was a young boy and I'd almost forgotten, and I relearned that in that time of loneliness. And it's such a wonderful blessing.

You are made by God … go on take the opportunities He gives you to discover yourself.

Loneliness. When we experience it, it's as though we're the only one on the planet that's lonely. I guess that's the definition of it – because we feel all alone. But the truth is, that loneliness is a global pandemic. And it's time we did something about it.

I was doing some research the other day on world populations. And discovered that the current world population is just a tad under six and a half billion (6.5 billion). Every second that ticks by sees that number grow by another 2.3 people. So in one year from now, there will be an additional 75 million people added to our number. By 2050, they're saying there should be around 9.2 billion of us.

The most populous nation in the world is China, with just over 1.3 billion people. But what's the least populous nation? It's the Pitcairn Islands, and it has exactly forty-five (45) people in it. Amazing!

Yet, with a world population that's never been higher, loneliness is running at epidemic proportions. There have never in all history been more people on the planet. Yet, as people we have never been more lonely. Doesn't that strike you as odd?

My hunch is that it's just as easy to feel lonely in China surrounded by 1.3 billion people, as it is to feel lonely in the Pitcairn Islands surrounded by just another forty-four (44) people. Why is that?

Well, it's important for us to understand that loneliness is different to being alone. We all choose to have some time alone. One of the things I love to do on the weekend, is just read the paper over a cup of tea or coffee on Saturday morning. And you know something? As much as I love my darling wife and my beautiful daughter, I love to do that on my own.

So being alone is not loneliness. Loneliness is that feeling of being alone and being sad about it. It's like a painful awareness of a lack of meaningful contact with other people. You feel empty inside, it's like there's a hole in your chest. You can be utterly desolate and lonely in a crowd and yet, be delivered from that loneliness by just one person. That's the China/Pitcairn Island's thing.

In the developed world, single person households have increased from 10% of all households in 1950 to around 30% today. So almost one in three households that you drive past or walk past only have one person living in them. The Boston Globe reports that 36% of people, over one-third, feel lonely. But have a listen to the impact, the statistical impact, of loneliness.

People who are isolated by health are twice as likely to die over a period of a decade as those who are not isolated. A study showed that the more isolated men are up to 25% more likely to die of all causes, at any age, versus non-isolated men. Isn't that amazing? And the odds for women are up 33%.

Living alone after a heart attack significantly increases your risk of dying. People with heart disease have a poorer chance of survival if they are unmarried or don't have a partner to assist them. Women who are alone and have breast cancer live half as long as those who do not.

What does that all tell us. What does that tell you?

Well, I think they're compelling statistics and they point to a crisis of loneliness. Why are we so alone? I mean those figures tell us we need one another. We need other people around us. Being alone is a precursor to loneliness. Why? Well, the more money we have the more choices we have. Divorce rates are up for a whole range of reasons, but one of them is the fact that women can now be financially independent. They have a choice, whereas 50 or 60 years ago there was just no choice to divorce.

Single parents, well those numbers are up too, they have a choice to be single. In those circumstances, relationships become less enduring. The less we feel we desperately need each other for physical survival, well, the less enduring relationships become. Why not end a marriage? Why not terminate a long-term relationship?

You think of a subsistence farming community, I visited some not long ago in India. And what really struck me in the subsistence farming communities was people, by and large, people were well dressed; looked pretty happy, were pretty healthy even though they had very little. You go to the cities, however, where they don't rely on each other in the same way to produce the food together so that they can survive, those people were not happy. They were not well connected. They were poorer.

And so there's this amazing breakdown that's happened over the last century as our economies have "developed" (I use that word in inverted commas!) where we tend to be far less connected. We use cars instead of public transport.

In the past, before people could read and write, we needed each other to learn. We needed each other to communicate; well we don't anymore because we can read. We watch TV, we get isolated from one another. We use the internet.

A man who I really respect, a man by the name of Peter Webb, I heard him speaking at a conference once. I used to work with him in the Information Technology Industry. And he made the observation that every radical invention or development in communications technology has been designed to let us communicate from further and further away.

Just think about that for a minute; every invention in the communications industry has been designed to let us communicate from further and further away.

You think about it … before there were telephones and internet and satellites and all the stuff we have today, if you wanted to communicate with someone you had to see them face to face, or at least you had to be in earshot of one another. Then we invented letters and postal systems. Well, maybe it took two years for a letter to travel from England to Australia but it was an amazing invention. You could write and maybe months later someone would pick that up and read it, and you could communicate.

When two-way radio and telephone came along, all of a sudden you could talk to someone without the displeasure of having to look at their faces. Have you ever wondered why video-phones have never happened? Because we don't want to see the person! We enjoy the fact we can talk without looking at them.

And now with email it's even better because we can type something and tic-tac at different times of the day and night right round the world and be a long way apart and yet – communicate quickly.

And so the nature of our world is a slow downward spiral in community. It's a gradual slide to isolation, punctuated by the odd critical life event, like divorce or death or retrenchment.

We have a misconception about loneliness. We think that being alone equals loneliness. I'm not alone therefore I shouldn't be lonely. That's simply not true. And sometimes we say, "Well it doesn't effect me, I'm okay". Are you? We often don't use the label lonely but you stand back and you think about it, are you? If you go through a crisis like divorce and you see a happy couple enjoying each other, you feel lonely.

I heard the other day of a woman who was dying of cancer whose husband left her when she was in remission. And two of her best friends came over with their new baby and she said to them, "I don't ever want to see you again, because I can't bear to see you so happy." And if it's not a crisis, maybe it's just a dull ache.

But stand back and really examine our hearts. Are we lonely?

Maybe, that guy's right. Maybe, I am. Maybe, the pain and resentment and sadness I feel is because of no real connections.

Come on! If it hurts, are you lonely?

The rest of this week we'll be looking at what to do about loneliness – from A Different Perspective. I really hope you can join me.

When you're travelling through the dark days in life – it's one thing for someone to say to us "Don't worry God will come through in the end." But it's another thing entirely, when we discover the refuge of the Lord.

I want you to imagine that you're out one night walking along a dark and lonely street and all of a sudden you see some drunk and unruly men coming towards you, they're swearing and they look to be wielding knives. You take a quick look around and there's not another soul in this street and just then you see a house to your left, you look in the window and you see a family sitting down to dinner. What do you do? I know what I'd be doing, I'd duck in, I'd knock on their front door as quickly as I could and I'd ask them if I could just step inside until those men disappear, wouldn't you?

Now there's a name for that, it's called, "seeking refuge". It's not a sign of weakness, it doesn't mean that somehow we're a loser, it just means that in that dark and dangerous place we just need somewhere that's safe; we need a refuge. The problem is that in this world, when we're going through difficult times in dark places, so often it doesn't seem to be a refuge to be found.

Refuge is a word that appears over and over and over again right through the Bible. In fact just in the Psalms it's used 48 times and of those, 46 times "refuge" is talking about God himself. Have a listen to just a few, Psalm 36, verse 7:

How priceless God is your unfailing love. Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Psalm 62, verses 7 and 8:

My salvation and my honour depend on God. He is my mighty rock and my refuge. Trust in Him all times O people, pour out your hearts to Him for God is our refuge.

And in Psalm 119, verse 114:

You are my refuge and my shield O God; I have put my hope in your word.

Now I'd like to spend a bit of time looking at this, this "refuge" thing today because when we're going through tough times in dark and dangerous places, a refuge is exactly what we need.

Over these last two weeks on the program we've been working our way through a series in, just around Psalm 34 called, "Dark Night, Bright Light". This psalm is written by King David with the wisdom of hindsight. Having been through lots and lots of dark and dangerous places, here in this Psalm David praises God because what he discovered is at the end of them all God showed up and delivered him; God came through. No matter how grim or how dark or how dangerous it appeared. That's great stuff and if you have some time, can I really encourage you to get aside and have a really good read of this short psalm, Psalm 34.

But it's one thing for David to pen Psalm 34 and tell us his experience and say, "you know what I discovered? I discovered God delivered me every time." That's cool David, that's really great but it's so easy for us to respond to that and say, "well that's fine for you Davo; brilliant. Glad that God came through for you but right now I'm in a dark place and I'm petrified and the fact that God showed up for you doesn't help me much." That's a pretty natural human response.

When we send out an S.O.S. to God it may well be that God will come through some time but what about the mean time? Well, have a listen to the end of this psalm of David's, Psalm 34.

We're just going to read the last few verses, verses 19 to 22 because in the very last verse God answers that question for us. Let's have a read:

The afflictions of a righteous man are many but the Lord delivers us from them all. He protects all his bones, not one of them will broken. Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems His servants; no-one will be condemned who takes refuge in Him.

There it is, that word "refuge". It means to flee to Him for protection; literally to resort to Him. Now we understand that in a physical sense, that little story that I started off with at the beginning of the program. Well it makes sense that in a dark and dangerous place we would want to flee to some sort of refuge. But when something in our lives is scary, when you've been diagnosed with cancer or your finances have fallen in a heap or your marriage seems to be falling apart or one of your kids is on drugs, what does it mean to take refuge in God then? That's a good question because this is where the rubber hits the road.

Well, here's what happens when we take refuge; we feel safe, the fear is gone. That's the point, along the journey through a dark place in life we want to know that we are safe. The story at the beginning of the program of you or I walking down a dark and dangerous street and seeing these drunken youths coming towards us with a knife, the idea of being able to knock on the door of a family and go inside means that you are taken away from the danger and that you experience the peace of safety. That's what refuge means.

The way that God best explains this through any part of the Bible is through a passage that I come back to again and again and again and again. The apostle Paul wrote it about 1,000 years after King David wrote Psalm 34, he's locked in a Roman dungeon on death row and he writes these words in Philippians chapter 4, beginning at verse 6:

Don't be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Don't be anxious about anything, take it to God and put your trust in Him and pour your heart out to Him and say, "thank you God that you're here; thank you God that I'm going through what I'm going through but here's my need and I'm afraid and I need you to help, "and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

You see, that's refuge language, that's protection language. We experience fear in our hearts and in our minds, do we not? And you see, this is the other meaning of the word "refuge"; to put your trust in someone or something. Out there in a dark place, I put my trust in you God. I just go to you and I pour it out and you know what happens, God does something, He fills us with His peace. Have another listen:

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

God's peace. Now it doesn't make sense, that's why it surpasses all understanding, it defies human reckoning and logic and the only way I can describe it because I've been in that dark place time and time and time again, is it's like a light. Darkness is scary and God comes and shines His light, His bright light, this refuge where He protects our hearts and our minds from the fear and the light shines inside, the light that says, "you just know that He's there", and the darkness isn't scary anymore.

God is in the refuge business; God is in the light business. When it's dark, when it's scary we can come to Him and pour our hearts out and He will put His protection around our hearts and our minds and give us refuge. We just end up knowing that He will deliver us. Dark Night, Bright Light.

It's tough when bad things happen to good people – especially when we see good things happening to bad people – God what is going on here? Why are you letting this happen to me?

There are times in life when bad things happen to good people and perhaps you're someone who believes in Jesus and you've been living your life the best way you know how and just day after day walking with Him and all of a sudden – whamo! Something happens! The sky turns dark and all of a sudden you're in one of those dark, black times that we can go through in life.

A time of loss or pain or sickness or whatever it is and you kind of look around and think, "What is going on here God? I mean I know I'm not perfect but everyday I just get up and I just do my best and I walk with You; now this!"

My hunch is that there are a few people who relate to what I just talked about and so I want to deal with that today because when bad things happen to good people it's such a shock and it seems so unfair especially when we take a look around and we see that there's a whole bunch of good things happening to some really bad people out there that we know. What is going on God?

King David, as I've said over these last couple of weeks, is a man who went through a lot of dark times. You read about his life and sure he made some mistakes but right from the beginning God had him picked as a man after His own heart and yet he lived through so many dark and difficult times, scary times, on the run for his life. Battles with enemies that it looked like he was going to lose and God showed up just at the last minute.

You take a look at his life and if you weigh his life, kind of on our human scale of justice you'd probably come to the conclusion that, well David wasn't perfect but he was definitely one of the good guys. He tried with all his might to honour God even though some days he blew it big time. And I'm sure if David looked at his life he'd come up with the same conclusion and yet this man went through so many difficult things, so many dark and lonely times. Times when people criticised him, times when he was in fear of his life, times when he felt that God had deserted him.

So God, what's going on? Why is that? I mean this guy was a good guy, how come bad things happen to good people? Now I'm not sure I can answer all those questions, God is God and He decides those things but as we walk through Psalm 34, which is what we've been doing over the last couple of weeks, it's a Psalm where David looks back on those dark times with the benefit of hindsight. Let me share with you David's own wisdom, this is what he writes is Psalm 34, verses 15 to 19. It says that:

Eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them from them all.

Well David doesn't even bother with the "why" question does he? When we're hit with those dark times the first question we utter is, "Why me God; why me?" Right, and the second one is, "How long is this going to go on for God; how long?" Well David doesn't carry on with any of that. He looks back, he accepts the sovereignty of God and after all he's been through in his life, he draws this obvious conclusion. Verse 19 of Psalm 34:

Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers us from them all.

In other words; stuff happens, it just does. Jesus kind of put it this way, He said:

Your Father in heaven causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good and He sends his rains on the righteous and the unrighteous.

In other words; good stuff and bad stuff happens to good people and bad people.

There you go, it's just the way it is and it seems to be a rule that the more a man or a woman turns their lives to following hard after God, to walking in the footsteps of Jesus, the more afflictions they suffer. It's such an incredible contradiction; on the one hand God wants to bless us, He does. All the way through His word, the Bible tells us, He wants to bless us. On the other, when we set our hearts like flint to follow after Him it seems like all hell breaks loose, the world just doesn't want us to do that.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

Many! One of the promises of God and you don't hear many people shouting hallelujah to that promise do you? But the Lord delivers us from them all, His eyes are on His people, His ears are attentive to their cry. We cry out; He hears us and He delivers us from our troubles.

You know what I've learnt, He doesn't always deliver me the way I expect Him to, the way I want Him to, when I want Him to. Sometimes we want Him to do one thing and He does almost exactly the opposite. Sometimes, you know, we cry out to Him and we even go to Him in faith and we say, "Lord, I believe you're here and I believe you're going to deliver me from this." And things go from bad to worse. Sometimes we want Him to do A and He gives us B. "What are you doing God?"

And sometimes it seems like His solution and His answer means that we lose and someone else wins but in the wondrous fabric of His mighty plan for our lives, He's so much more interested in our character and who we are and our relationship with Him than He is about our perceptions of comfort and need. He's so much more concerned about His glory shining out into this world than He is about some of the things that, at the time, we think are important but in the bigger scheme of things they're really not.

The apostle Paul puts it this way in Romans chapter 5, he says:

Suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and it's a hope that never disappoints us because Gods love has been poured into our hearts through His Holy Spirit.

And the longer we walk with God, the more afflictions we have to suffer, the more we discover the truth of King David's words in Psalm 34. The Lord hears our cry, He delivers us from our troubles, He is close to the broken hearted and He saves those who are crushed.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him from them all.

That is an awesome thing. Now I don't know what afflictions maybe you're walking through right now and can I just encourage you; put away the "why" question, put away the "how long" question and just listen to the word of God again.

The Lord is close to the broken hearted. He saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers us from them all.

I've only been walking with God now for just on 13 years but I look back and I see the things I've had to walk through, I see the afflictions. Even when those afflictions, can I tell you, have come from my own mistakes and I'm living out those consequences and just somehow, in His own good time, God works it so that I learn and that I heal and that He delivers me from this stuff and even if I have to lose my life serving Him I have all eternity to rejoice in Him.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers us from them all.

As we travel through those dark days in life – it's easy just to let go and compromise who we are and what we do – we sin to save our skin. But I believe that God wants to challenge us about that very thing today.

Last week and again this week on the program we've been stepping our way through a series that I've called "Dark Night, Bright Light" because we all travel through dark patches in our lives. I certainly have and I know that you have too and maybe you're even in the middle of one right now and so we've been spending some time with King David in Psalm 34 where he shares some of the wisdom that he's discovered in the middle of his many, many dark days.

Yesterday we saw that it really makes a difference what we do in those dark places, it's so easy to give in and just let things slide and use our difficulties as an excuse for letting the darkness smear the way that we think and speak and behave.

Well today I'd just like to stick with that idea for a bit longer because David goes on to talk about that and he throws the gauntlet down to you and me with a challenge. A challenge about how you and I behave, how we live our lives when those storm clouds come rolling in over the horizon and it's a challenge that I'd like to share with you, for you to think about in your life.

Psalm 34, as I've said a few times over these last couple of weeks, is King David writing down the wisdom he learned from God in his dark times and as we've spent this time in that psalm over the last couple of weeks I hope that you've been blessed as I am as we work our way through the wondrous word of God. Imagine, the God who created the whole universe speaking to you and me through His word, through something that was written, well about 3,000 years ago.

We're going to move on with the next few verses of this Psalm today because they contain a specific challenge, a challenge to you and to me. Have a listen, Psalm 34 beginning at verse 11:

Come my children listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

See sometimes we wonder, well how do we live out this fear of the Lord? Do I just kind of sit in the corner and tremble? No, it's not that at all. David, remember this David who is speaking to us from his own difficult dark experience is throwing down a challenge. He's teaching us how to live out the fear of the Lord. Quite simply, if I were to paraphrase what he was saying it's this. He says, "Do you want to live a good life, I mean do you want to live a great life? Well, here's how to get it – by living out the fear of the Lord through what you say and what you do."

Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Now you and I are different, we're all different; we're all prone to different forms of the same thing that God calls sin. For some people it's grumbling, others it's gambling or lying or stealing or carrying around hatred in our hearts and speaking it out behind peoples backs. Gossiping or sexual sin or, you name it the list goes on. Over eating, getting drunk, closing ourselves off from people that we love, over and over the list goes on and my hunch is that each one of us knows which one or two are our particular sins, the ones that we're prone to and here's the challenge.

If we're in a dark and fearful place, a place where there's a temptation to stop doing good and to do evil instead, the challenge that David is throwing down here is turn away from that, do good. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

You know that's what it means in practical terms to fear the Lord, that's how we live out the fear of our Lord, with our lives by living it out His way. See, we delude ourselves, we somehow imagine that in that dark place God can't see what's going. Well wake up; listen to what the apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Church, to Galatia in Galatians chapter 6, beginning at verse 7, he says:

Look, don't kid yourselves, God can't be mocked; you're going to reap what you sow. If you reap to please your sinful nature, from that nature you're going to reap destruction but if you reap to please the spirit then from the Holy Spirit you will reap eternal life.

Don't become weary of doing good because just at the right time you're going to reap a harvest if you don't give up. Just so, as you have the opportunity, do good to everyone especially those who belong to Gods family.

Now this was written about 1,000 years after David and he's saying the same thing in a different way, he's saying look, in those dark places it's so easy to grow weary of doing good, it's so easy to deceive ourselves, to think that we can somehow pull one over God. Don't be deceived, God can't be mocked, a man reaps what he sows and if we don't grow tired of doing good; isn't it so easy to grow weary of doing good when life's tough. You know, when everything's against you and your emotions are down, when the whole world seems to come after you with a pick axe, you know.

The temptation is to behave badly but Paul's saying what King David said 1,000 years before; don't grow weary of doing good. Just keep doing good, just keep standing there for God, just keep living your life for Him. Don't use the difficult circumstances and the dark places as an excuse and just at the right time, just in Gods time we will reap a harvest if we don't give up.

You see it's very much in that dark place where the devil wants to tear us apart, that's the place where we need to be vigilant, to bow down our lives, to fear the Lord with our lives and just go on faithfully doing the right thing day after day after day. And His light will shine in that place, it has to, that's who He is.

God honours those who honour Him and in those dark places when we, step by step, just follow after His ways what we discover is His light shines in that place and that is such a precious and awesome and mighty thing, it changes us like nothing else on this earth. That's why David starts his Psalm off with such gusto and praise because he knows this stuff works through his own experience:

I will bless the Lord all the time; His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; that all those who are afflicted will hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; lets exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. If we look to Him our faces will be radiant; never covered with shame. This poor man called and the Lord heard him; He saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them.

Come on taste, see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him will have no want. The lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing. Come my children listen to me; let me teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

When you're travelling through dark days in life – it's pretty normal to be afraid. But something that King David discovered in his many dark days, is that a right fear – the fear of the Lord, has some real plusses.

When we're travelling through one of those dark patches in life, you know those difficult times we all go through, we're liable to experience fear and that fear can be debilitating. But on the other hand, there's a good side to fear, it's an inbuilt protection mechanism.

Last week on the program we spent some time with King David in one of the many psalms that he wrote, Psalm 34 and we're continuing on with that this week because this man David is telling us what he learned about God during all those dark and dangerous and fearful times he had throughout his life.

And without giving it all away, David discovers that the fear of God has some real benefits. Sounds kind of weird doesn't it? Christians talk about the "fear of the Lord" all the time but what does it really mean in those dark and fearful times and how can it possibly help me? They're good questions so stick with me over the next few minutes as we discover what David learned the hard way.

We're going to be taking a bit of a closer look at this, this part of Psalm 34 because that's how we learn what God's teaching us through David's wisdom. I'm going to pick it up, just 3 verses, beginning at verse 9. It says:

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him have no want. The lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing. Come children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

I love this because it's a place where God gives us solutions to our problems. You see it's not good enough for Him to just wrap us over the knuckles with a ruler when we've done the wrong thing. We need to know how not to repeat the mistake and that's what this piece of wisdom is all about. Let's just look at verse 9 again, David writes:

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him will have no want.

See, this fear of the Lord has two parts. The most obvious meaning is to be afraid but it also means to reverence and honour God. I want to talk about those today because they're important. You know it's really easy to imagine that somehow God is just our buddy, like any other friend and to be sure, He is our friend.

But God is also an awesome God and ultimately He will see justice done. There will be a day of judgement, there will be a day when we have to make an account before Him for all that we've done and all that we've said. Jesus made that really clear in Matthew chapter 10: 28 we can read what He said. He said this:

Do not be afraid of people who can kill you your body but can't kill your soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Let's never lose sight of that, there are consequences to rebelling against God. And if we just wantonly go on stealing or lying or grumbling or hating or undermining or whatever it is and think to ourselves, "Well that's okay, God's my buddy." Then let me make this clear; we are completely missing the point. Yes Jesus died for your sins and mine, absolutely and when I get something wrong I go to God and I admit it and I say, "Lord, I just got this wrong. I'm sorry, I don't want to go there again, please forgive me." And He does because of what Jesus did for me on the cross, He paid that price.

But this attitude is one that comes, to tell you truthfully, out of the fear of the Lord. A casual attitude towards God, that thinks we can keep on sinning, is not on. He won't honour that, why? Well because if you believe in Jesus, His plan for you is to be holy, in other words clean and pure and set apart exclusively for His use. Listen again to verse 9 of Psalm 34:

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him will have no want.

See, we are not our own; you put your faith in Jesus you are bought at a price and God has this awesome plan to use you just as He pleases and the devil knows that. That's why when times are tough, when we're travelling through a dark place the devil wants to smear us with his darkness. Here's the deception; things are difficult right now therefore I have to bend the rules to set things right.

Money's tight, well I have to lie on my tax return, I have to steal to provide for myself. The boss is giving me a hard time, well I have to go stab him in the back to get things right. A husband or wife isn't everything they should be, I have to start looking somewhere else to find someone who is everything they should be. The devil will play that rubbish over and over and over again until we swallow it hook, line and sinker.

Gods answer is exactly the opposite:

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him will have no want. The lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing.

God's way is to say, "Don't go out there and reject me and provide for yourself." God's way is to provide for us. Not all our wants but all our needs. Fear the Lord, fear His judgement and honour Him and reverence Him with what we think, what we say and what we do and God will make sure that we have what we need. That's a step of faith, it's so much easier to think I can just go out there and do it for myself.

What a huge opposite God's way is to our natural inclination. You know what He wants to hear us say? Yes, times are tough, yes, money is tight but I will fill out my tax return honestly. I won't claim expenses for my company that are really personal rather than company expenses. I don't care how tough things get financially I am going to fear the Lord because I am bought for a price and I am holy and I am set apart for Him and His word says that in those dark times, if I fear Him I will have no want. When I seek Him with all my heart I will lack no good thing.

Do you see how different God's way is, the way of faith, the way of putting our trust in Him. See how different that is from the world's way which is look after number one, do whatever it takes and remember David is teaching us this stuff having been on the run from King Saul who wanted to kill him for years, sleeping in dark caves fearing for his life. This is what he learned in this dark place and that's why he's telling us this stuff. Verse 11:

Come my children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord, living that out is what we choose to do when it's so tempting in those dark places to be smeared by the devil's darkness. The fear of the Lord is standing in the middle of this earth afraid but deciding to trust in God's provision.

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him have no want. The lions may well grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing.

Sometimes we travel through dark patches in life – and in those difficult times, it's tempting to let that darkness smear how we think, what we say and what we do. And yet how we behave on those dark days – is so very important

It's great to be with you again this week. I'm not sure if you were able to join me last week but we began a new series called, "Dark Night, Bright Light" and it's one that we're continuing on again this week on the program. We all travel through dark times in life, times of loss or loneliness or sickness or sadness or depression, the list goes on. Now I'm not suggesting that we're all a bunch of losers, I don't mean that, it's just one of the realities of life that dark times are something that we all have to travel through.

Jacqui, my wife, was talking to a long time friend of hers, her children are growing up and there's lots of challenges and problems and she's exhausted. A dear friend of mine whose son committed suicide, he and his wife are still reeling from that and another friend who's been retrenched, well he's in his fifties and it's hard for him to find a job.

This stuff happens; dark times are difficult because it's dark and so often we can't see where we are or where we're going. I've had them, you've had them, that's life and that's why we're talking about these dark times again this week on the program.

And it's not just about the darkness but also the bright light that shines in those dark places. Jesus said these amazing words:

I am the light of the world.

And one of the things we saw last week is that He is in the 'light' business and that's good news for anyone going through a dark patch. The very first thing that God created, Genesis chapter 1, was light, a trillion, trillion stars at least. That tells us something about Him; God is definitely in the "light" business, hallelujah don't you think?

Last week we spent some time with King David in Psalm 34 and we're going there again today. This man David had more than his fair share of dark, difficult and lonely and scary times. That's why what he has to say is so useful; his wisdom comes from what he learned about God. So this psalm is kind of a retrospective with a benefit of hindsight, he's looking back on the dark times, on his fear and when God showed up. Let's read the first part of that psalm again right now; this is what he says:

I will bless the Lord all the time; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let all those who are afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let's exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered in shame.

This poor man called and the Lord heard him; He saved him from all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

See, David's saying God is a god who shows up in the dark times and delivers us. Now David isn't telling us that off the top of his head, it's from his experience. He spent such a long time, so many years on the run from Saul who was trying to kill him. In dark caves, in lonely places. David had fought so many battles where he was hard pressed and he should have been killed but God was there for him and one of the things that we touched on last week was fear; bad fear and good fear.

Bad fear is the fear that David talks about in verse 4 of this psalm:

I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.

But he also goes on to talk about good fear in verse 7:

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them.

Fear of the Lord is something we're going to have a look at some more today because it's what this next part of Psalm 34 is all about. I want you to come with me now as we read just the next 5 verses of this psalm, verses 9 to 14 which is where we're going to spend a bit of time together today. He writes:

Fear the Lord, you His holy ones for those who will fear Him will have no want. The lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing. Come my children, listen to me; I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days; keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

This is a really important part of the psalm. The first part told us all about God and what He's like, it's fantastic, we looked at that last week. This second part though; it's about the part that we have to play during those dark times.

I want to tell you something about darkness; people will do things in the dark that they won't do in the light. Think about it, we're much more careful about where we walk and what we do out there in the dark, in the night time, than we are in the day time. Robberies, muggings, murder; they're all more likely to occur under the cover of darkness. And the same is true in our lives. Dark times, well they're the times we're far more likely to do things that we know are wrong.

Let me just give you a few practical examples. A husband and wife, they're going through some tough times in their marriage and their eyes start to wander, they start looking around. That's how adultery begins, instead of holding on to each other, holding close and working through the issues.

Or perhaps there's conflict at work; someone's just not treating us well and we're feeling under pressure, it's really getting to us, you know. The boss is just being horrible so we take that as an excuse to justify being lazy or stealing something or gossiping behind their back or not servicing a customer properly so that the company will lose some money.

Or perhaps money's really tight, we're under real financial pressure and we're tempted to lie and cheat on our tax return or when that shop attendant gives us too much change and makes a mistake; ah we just slip it into our pockets. Do you see how easy this stuff is?

In the dark times, in those hidden places the temptation to do wrong is far greater than when times are good. No-one notices it, after all times are tough, I have to look after number one, I have to look after me. I have to justify myself or protect myself or provide for myself and that's how we rationalise this stuff. Do you notice the central theme running through all that? Me, myself and I.

Darkness is a time when we're afraid and in those times we can end up being tempted to turn away from what we know is right because no-one will notice and besides we just have to. The devil loves it, he's so delighted by this. Have a listen to what the apostle John says:

This is the message we've heard from Him and declare to you. God is light; in Him there's no darkness at all. If we claim to be walking with Him and yet we walk in the darkness, we lie and don't live in the truth.

And so over this week we're going to look at the wisdom that comes from David's own experience in those dark times. What he learned about what to do when temptation comes in the darkness. You know how we rationalise this? I have to sin to save my skin; when I'm afraid I just think I have to do whatever it takes, no matter what the consequences are, to save my own skin.

You know – when we're travelling through one of life's dark patches, it's so easy for someone else to say – "Well, just take the problem to God." But there's only one way to find out if that's good advice. Suck it and see.

Over these last few days on the program we've been looking at those dark patches in life, those times that we all travel through that we'd rather not and we've been sharing in some of the experiences of King David who had more than his share of dark times in life and as he writes about that in Psalm 34, looking back on what he's leaned in those times, he makes this simple yet profound statement:

I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.

And maybe, maybe you've been travelling through one of those dark times and you hear what David has to say and perhaps you've heard the little that I've shared of my own darkness's and you think to yourself, "Well that's okay for someone like David or for that guy on the radio. Maybe God would show up for them but I don't think this stuff is for me." Well here's the rub; unless we seek we never find out whether it is or not and so today I want to share a very specific invitation from God, an invitation that is seriously for you.

This week on the program we've been looking at some of the debilitating darkness's we travel through in life, you know those really tough times when we're hurting or we've lost something or someone's hurt us. You know those dark times in life and we've discovered that God is very much in the "light" business, He's in the business of shining His light into our darkness's, taking our fear and replacing it with His radiance. Perhaps that's why King David writes – it's in Psalm 18, verse 28:

It is you O Lord who lights my lamp. The Lord my God lights up my darkness.

And again in Psalm 139, verses 11 and 12. He writes:

If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light will become night around me', even the darkness will not be dark to you O God. The night will shine like day for darkness is as light to you.

See, you get this impression that David is an incredibly seasoned traveller through the darkness's of life and we know that he spent years on the run from King Saul who was trying to kill him, we know that David went through so many wars and battles where he could have died and where he would have been afraid and the people grumbled and sometimes turned against him.

He's been through dark places and then some and he's learned some stuff that God would have us learn, each in our own way because you're not David, I'm not David. So let's head back to this psalm that we've been looking at, Psalm 34, verses 7 and 8 just to see what it is that David learned. This is what he writes, he says:

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.

Now there are two things in here that we need to get into. The first is that bit about the angel of the Lord, look at verse 7 again:

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them.

Angels have a bit of a funny symbology these days in our society, we stick them on our cards and they're fluffy little creatures with wings but you just take a short study of the angels that God describes in the Bible and what you discover is they are a fearsome lot.

Often God uses them as messengers and He sends them to talk to someone and invariably when an angel confronts a person the very first thing they say is, "Don't be afraid." And then they deliver a specific message to Gods people to protect them from trouble and often they appear as fearsome beings to protect Gods people. I'm going to read you a little passage from 2 Chronicles chapter 32, verse 20. It says this:

King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this and the Lord sent an angel who annihilated all the fighting men and the leaders and the officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace and he went to the temple of his god and some of his sons cut him down with a sword.

See, get it? This angel equals serious protection. You see presidents and prime ministers and kings and queens, they get around with their bullet proof glass cars and they're security contingents. They got nothing on an angel of the Lord and you might say, "Berni, do you seriously believe in angels?" Absolutely! We can't see them but when we fear God, when we reverence Him and we belong to Him, He sends His angels, listen to what David says:

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him.

He sends His angels literally to lay siege around us to protect us. How does David know that? Because he's experienced it and that's exactly what he says in the next verse. He says:

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.

This is an often quoted scripture and often out of context, this "taste and see", "suck it and see" scripture. When you're in the darkness, when you're afraid try this thing, this thing that David is talking about. It's like an invitation to you and me from God today. For goodness sake taste and see that the Lord is good. You can stand back in your darkness and say, "Well you know I just don't believe that God's going to do anything for me."

David said, "I turned to the Lord and He answered me, He delivered me from all his fears and now He is giving us the invitation of God." Go on, taste and see for yourself that the Lord is good. You will be blessed when you take refuge in Him. "Come on try it!" I can hear the spirit of God saying through His word today. "Come on try it because when you take refuge in Me you will be blessed", is what God's saying.

I don't know about you but God has seriously spoken to me and I encourage you to take Him at His word today. He is in the light business and it's something that David discovered through long hard experiences in darkness. You know the last thing we want to do is to turn to God. "Taste and see that the Lord is good", He is in the light business and David knew that and David travelled through dark times and he cried out to God and God always delivered him and that's why he comes out the other side of that singing Gods praises specifically for you and me to hear.

I will bless the Lord at all times (he sings), His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in God; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Come and glorify God with me; let's exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. When we look on Him our faces are radiant; never covered in shame.

This poor man called and the Lord heard Him and He saved him from all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them. (Come on) Taste and see that the Lord is good for blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."

I want to encourage you to join me in taking God at His word. If you're going through a dark time at the moment, cry out to God, go and see Him and He will answer and maybe one day you'll be travelling through a dark time and the Holy Spirit will just remind you of what you heard today. You see it's no coincidence that you and I are together today. When He does, follow that call, open your heart.

I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.