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#111
A Rock Higher Than I(11/01/04) Message
by Dr. Robert H. Schuller Last Sunday as I sat here beside the pulpit, Robert, my son, was reading the scripture lesson of the morning and some words in the scripture reading felt like a thunderbolt went through me. I've lived with those words all week, and want to speak to you this morning on these powerful words from Psalm 61:1-2: "Hear
my cry, O God. Attend to my prayer. From the ends of the earth
I cry out to you. WHEN MY HEART IS OVERWHELMED, LEAD ME TO THE
ROCK THAT IS HIGHER THAN I." (Psalm 61:1-2) Who said
these words? Why did he say them? Where was he coming from? Well,
the author is David and it is the same David who was a shepherd
boy. He loved walking through green pastures tending his sheep.
He loved to play the harp. Then he came to the attention of King
Saul who had all kinds of neurotic problems. And King Saul requested
David to play his harp for him. You know the story. Samuel, the
prophet, tells King Saul that David is to be the next king. When
David became King he inquired if any of Saul's household was still
living and Mephibosheth, the lame son of Jonathan, Saul's grandson,
was hiding, fearing that the new king would kill him. But King
David sent for him and said, "Do not fear. Your father, Jonathan,
saved my life. Therefore, you shall be my guest and live in my
palace like one of my own sons. That's
who David was, a wonderful person until
he got control and power. It has often been said, "power
corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." And if
you want to read the rest of the story of King David, read Samuel
II. I do not want to read it from this pulpit because it reads
like a soap opera. There is sex, violence, deception and duplicity.
It is awful. Read what this wonderful little shepherd boy became
when he got power, when he began to believe he was in control.
David
now had power and he no longer depended so reverently, mystically
and quietly on the Almighty God for his strength. He already had
it! Nor did David need to depend on God for power. He had it!
He didn't need to depend on God for success! David was a success! Now where
does that change in attitude lead David? It leads him into trouble.
And in trouble finally in prayer, he is asking God:
"Lead me, Lord. Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."
(Psalm 61:2) What was
David's problem? In one word I would call it overwhelmed.
"My heart is overwhelmed." (Psalm 61:2) Have
you ever had that overwhelmed feeling? What was David overwhelmed
with? He was the king! Overwhelmed
by Temptation First,
David was overwhelmed by temptation.
There has never been a king who did anything worse than David.
When he saw the beautiful Bathsheba, he wanted her for himself
so he had her husband assigned to the front line of battle, where
the odds of him being killed were substantial and, in fact, it
happened. And so Bathsheba was widowed and David took her to be
his wife. He was overwhelmed with this temptation. Today I think
our culture finds many people overwhelmed by this kind of temptation.
It is all around us. There
are all kinds of temptations and when David was overwhelmed by
temptation, he became overwhelmed by guilt. Overwhelmed
by Guilt You can
never read a more penitent piece of poetry than Psalm 51 when
David cried out to God: "Create in
me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me."
(Psalm 51:10). Whenever you feel guilty, and you will, so do I,
read Psalm 51. It is so therapeutic. "Lead
me to a Rock that is higher than I." When David
failed to hold on to the rock of faith he was shaken into sin
through temptation. Yes, you and I need to hold on to the Rock
of faith through temptation ... and we need a Rock that can guarantee
that we can be pardoned! Religion
through the centuries has offered all kinds of solutions to guilt.
But many of these perceived solutions are unstable. Most of them
depend upon us paying a price. It is what is called, in theology,
"salvation by works." That
does not work because there is no grace. It was Martin Luther
who had a terrible problem with guilt. And he did everything the
church said you should do. He followed the rituals and he followed
the church law. Finally he was still as guilty as hell so he walked
up the steps on his knees praying for forgiveness. There he was
led to the Bible verse, "By grace you
are saved through faith, not of yourself, it is a gift of God."
(Ephesians 2:8) Do you
feel guilty today? Meet the God of mercy and love. "Lead
me to the Rock that is higher than I ... All other ground is sinking
sand." Overwhelmed
by Grief David
was overwhelmed by temptation and then, of course, guilt. And
then David was overwhelmed by grief.
Yes, he got the beautiful Bathsheba and she lost her child. Their
first-born died. Then they had another son named Absolem, who
also died a pitiful death later on. Always
there is some guilt mixed in with grief. I used to do a great
deal of pastoral counseling in my first years here. Through the
funerals of our beloved church members I have often seen grief
mixed in the grieving. Most of that guilt is undeserved. But in
this case, David's guilt was deserved. David
was overwhelmed by grief. "Lead me to the Rock that I can
hold onto." A wonderful
friend and member of this church sent me a beautiful true story.
Ben Hadley is one of our 3,500 volunteers. He writes that one
Friday morning he was on tour guide duty and there were no visitors
on campus that morning, but then he saw a man walking toward him.
Ben could see that this visitor was not a possibility thinker.
He approached Ben and didn't look very happy. Ben asked if he
ever heard of the Hour of Power. He said, "Yea, I watched
it once." Ben said, "Would you like a tour? ..."
"Sure ... but let me tell you right up front where I'm coming
from." Ben writes
in his own words, "I said, 'lay it on me,' He spent ten minutes
telling me everything that was wrong here ... What disgraceful
expenditures, etc., etc. He laid it all out. I said, 'Well you
know, I've been around here for 32 years and believe me you're
not the only one who's found fault with this ministry. Why don't
we take a walk around a bit and see if I can change your mind.'
And the man scoffed and said, 'You'll have one tough time.' I spent
one hour and 45 minutes with that guy. The miracle was nobody
else joined us. Usually there are groups coming through all the
time, but we were alone for that entire time. He was kind of impressed
when I told him this entire ministry started with a young man
and his wife who had $500 and a little organ they pulled half
way across the country. They had a dream to build a church to
tell people that God loved them. 'Would
you believe that this church started in a drive-in movie theater?'
I said. He smiled a little and said, 'You're telling me things
I really don't want to hear.' We continued on our tour and I told
him about the Arboretum where we have such beautiful weddings.
Then there are the funerals. Christmas parties for the little
kids whose parents are in prison. And how once a year we turn
the campus over to the 7th Day Adventist Church for their celebration
packed full with thousands of their young people. I took
him to the patio, looked up at the Tower of Hope and said, 'You
know, in the many years I've been a tour guide volunteer, more
than one person has told me they are alive today because somebody
in that Tower picked up a telephone when they dialed New Hope.
They're alive today!' Then I
pointed out the Walk of Faith and told him how many people, some
whom we don't even know, paid to have a Bible verse carved in
granite and put in the sidewalks so people can't even walk around
here without the possibility of reading the Bible. Then I
showed him the Crystal Cathedral, saying, 'You know one Saturday
afternoon about 22 years ago the Cathedral was just finished and
my wife and I met a young man with his wife, and that man told
us he didn't belong here, but he had to show his wife the place
that put food on their table when he so desperately needed a job.
He was a glazier and said he helped put all the Cathedral windows
in place.' The next
stop was the Good Shepherd statue where I told him that one time
we found a note of confession placed at the feet of Jesus. Then
he volunteered, saying, 'you know, that was probably from someone
who had carried a weight of sin for years, and when they laid
it at Jesus' feet, they left here as if a ton of weight had been
lifted from their shoulders.' Then he told me how many years ago
his 9 year old son died of cancer and he said, 'I became totally
alienated from God.' He was
still overwhelmed by grief. Then
the man continued, 'I can hardly believe what's been happening
to me since I entered this place earlier this morning.' I replied,
'Wow, let's have a prayer.' Just then his cell phone rang and
it was his wife. Her meeting was over and she wanted to get together
for lunch. And so as I said goodbye to him, I prayed that he and
his wife would be blessed and always sense the presence of Jesus. When we
finished praying, he showed me the goose bumps on his arms and
said, 'You know I think it represents the Holy Spirit.' And I
said, 'You're right' and I showed him the same goose bumps on
my arm. Some of
you are still overwhelmed by grief. Subconsciously you think you
pushed it away. But it's doing damage. And then
overwhelmed by threats. Yes, David
had his enemies, but the real threat to David's life was his own
sense of power and control. He had to have it. He had to be in
charge. I am reminded
me of a story I read in Readers' Digest, the November 2003 issue.
"A husband and wife got into a quarrel. They both went into
a pouting streak where neither would speak to the other. This
silent treatment went on for days where neither one would speak
to the other. But one night the husband was going to bed and remembered
that he was going to go fishing early the next morning. He had
to get up at 5 AM, but he didn't want to give in to their quarrel
and be the first to give in, so he instead of speaking to his
wife, he left a note on her pillow. Wake me up at 5 AM tomorrow.
The next morning he did not wake up until 9:00. Wow! Was he mad!
Until he saw the note on his pillow. "It's 5 AM, time to
wake up." Overwhelmed
by Possibilities Overwhelmed
by projects? ... by people? ... by problems? ...
Overwhelmed by possibilities? That's been the biggest problem
in my life. I was talking to my 14 year old grandson, Nicky Coleman,
recently. Nicky is super talented. He sings in many musicals and
plays. He has been a frequent soloist here at the Cathedral. I
said, "What are you going to be Nicky? You could be a performing
artist, you have an exceptional voice. You could be a professional
actor, no doubt about it. And I know you are interested in art,
and architecture. You could be a great architect." Overwhelmed
by a collision of insecurities "Lead
me to a ROCK that is higher than I."
Maybe you're overwhelmed by a collision
of insecurities. You worry, "where is my money going?
How much did I lose? Will I have enough? More ... more ... more.
When is enough, enough? Where does this spirit lead? To greed,
yes, and that does not produce joy. The Bible teaches us that
if we give 10% of our money to God, we don't have to worry about
the other 90%. But if you don't give the ten you will never be
satisfied with whatever you keep. It is a decision you have to
make. Overwhelmed
by a collision, conscious and unconscious? A lot of our overwhelming
insecurities are not conscious, but subconscious. Will this marriage
hold? Will it survive? Will my children turn out okay? How about
my grandkids? How can they grow up in this kind of a world without
becoming morally corrupt? Perhaps
you worry, maybe consciously, or surely unconsciously, about the
ultimate insecurity, called death and dying.
Nobody talks about that. It's not happy news. Oh ... but it is
happy news if you know Jesus Christ, because here for sure I can
give you a Rock that is eternal. Hold on to it. "Lead
me to a ROCK that is higher than I, Lord." That was
David's prayer. Question, was the prayer answered? How was it
answered? When was it answered? Read Second
Samuel 22. Yes, the prayer was answered, and David found a Rock!
It was a solid island in a story sea, an unshakable, stable, solid
foundation of rock for his faith, which carried him through to
the happy ending. The
poet David said it so beautifully in the beloved words of the
23rd Psalm. That
is the faith I offer to you! That is my Solid Rock! "On Christ
the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Amen."
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