Part 2 of a message by Brad Selley, Pastor of Northwest Bible Church, speaking at Parkers Lake Baptist Church on Sunday morning, September 28, 2008.

People getting to the point where they feel despondent, needing answers, needing answers. Looking for education and that doesn't help. Looking for this and that doesn't help. Looking for that and that doesn't help. Where does our help come?

You know? I really, really have been challenged in my own life from the last few years that the help does not come from my resourcefulness. And as Americans, we are taught that that's really where it comes from. We're not taught that in the Word. I don't think any believer in this church, including myself, would ever say, "Well, really my help comes from if I can figure it out." But that's what we practice. We don't say that, but we practice that. We practice, "Let me get it together and figure it out and get some advisors and get some counselors and come up with a plan so I can work my way out of this." And I'm not suggesting those are negative things when we have problems—whether they be financial, whether they be related to our work, whether they be family issues, or maybe they are even a spiritual issue. But we're struggling with doubts and insecurities and all kinds of things.

David got it right with a longing gaze. Where does my help come from? From the hills, from the mountains, where God resides.

And then he has a longing question. Where shall it come? Well, really, no question about it. This question is followed up with number three, A Divine Answer. A divine answer. There's four things I'd just like to say out of the text here about the answer that he gives. Where will our help come? From where will we gaze and what will be delivered to us? What will happen? He really answers us in four distinct statements.

So on your outline, letter A, write this in: He is the creator. The underscore there is the. He is the creator, the One. He is the one that has sovereign control over all that is His. All that is His. He creates ex nihilo, meaning, "Out of nothing." He brings things into existence that aren't previously in existence. A lot of times... We think, anyway. I know I get duped into this idea, this false idea, that somehow I have some stake in the things that are in my life. But when it comes right down to it, all things are created by God. All things are created by God. Even the things that are difficult, like Hell. Hell—created by God. "Are you sure?" Yes.

I've got an even harder one—sin. "Are you sure?"

Now, it doesn't mean God makes us sin. But it means the very conceptual nature of sin has to come from somewhere. All things created by Him. He's the only one who creates. He's the only one who brings things that are no longer in existence to things that are in existence. You and I are not able to do that. We're only able to shuffle matter.

So, let's just say I'm really good at building something. Let's just say I'm good at building a house. And I pull together my pile of wood and my pile of tar and my pile of glass and my pile of nails, etcetera, etcetera. And I form and fashion and cut and paste and glue and nail and all the rest and glue gun and everything else and at the end of got a house. "Look, I've created a house!" No! No! No! I've only shuffled the resources that are already in existence to come up with something that is still in existence.

To create, by the very nature of it, is to take something that doesn't exist and to out of nowhere, ex nihilo, literally out of absenteeism. Bing! And now it exists.

This is what God has done for us. And David had a great grasp on it. This is the God who is able to help. Why?

Because sometimes we need help that doesn't exist. Sometimes we need help that doesn't exist. We can look and look and look and look, not only in physical ways, but in spiritual ways and emotional ways. Sometimes our needs are not met by things that already exist.

So where should we go? To the one that can create them. To the one that can bring them into existence, even though they don't exist now. That emotional hole in our heart, or that answer to the question that we just need in regard to our future or in relationship to what would happen if this were to happen or that were to happen or this problem were to continue, etcetera. What would happen if I lost my job? Or what is going to happen now that I have lost my job? Whatever the question may be, the answer may not exist. But God can create it. He brings things ex nihilo—out of existence into existence. And David realizes that is the one whom our focus must be on. When we have needs, that need is sometimes huge. But our God is able to create all and He has.

Not only has He created all that is in the heavens. And by heaven, we mean lowercase H here, not Heaven, as in the dwelling place of God, but heaven, as in the starry hosts. But He's also created all that is of the earth. Not only those things of heaven, but of the earth.

Might I just remind you. Maybe you've seen it. [end of track 3, 5:00] Recently, we've gotten some amazing pictures back from Mars. Have you seen this? Where the Mars lunar rover has scraped the surface of Mars and scraped away the dust and found a layer of permafrost underneath. You say, "What does that mean?" It means there is obviously water there, which also means that maybe, maybe you'll bump into a Martian up there. You know? And maybe there's some life and we could live there and all of that and everything else.

I have no idea if there's Martians out there and if there's some kind of living creature. But I do know this, He has created man in His own image and He has died on the cross for man. And we are special and unique in His design and creation. And because of that, we have a special place in His heart. Not to say that the rest of creation doesn't matter, but it is created for our benefit. And when we think about how huge our God is and how He can control all things, even those microbial activities that are happening on Mars with the permafrost. Even as He thinks of all of those things and controls all of those things, He thinks much larger as well.

I would just remind you that we have one, just simply one significant star in what we call our solar system. That, we call the sun. And in the sense of our small, little galaxy, called the Milky Way galaxy, which is one of the smallest of all of the galaxies, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions and millions and millions of stars just in our galaxy, to which we only see one in our solar system. And might I remind you that there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions upon billions of galaxies, each containing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions and billions of stars in each of the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of billions of galaxies in the universe. And the greater the telescope we make, the farther we realize it can reach and the greater we see an expanding universe that God has created.

And yet, that huge God is intimately aware of our very need, even if unspoken. Wow! No wonder David said:

2 My help {comes} from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.

No wonder he points out that God is the creator. Because sometimes our needs don't have an existent answer.