A Guarded Refuge for Generations Unreservedly
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.
You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!
which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
The spirits of tolerance and control would have you and your family today. Pastor Mark Driscoll would define these two spirits as the spirits of Ahab and Jezebel - Ahab being one of passivity and tolerance, Jezebel being one of control and manipulation. Ahab was the seventh King of Israel, who ruled for twenty-two years, and did evil unlike any other of the kings before Him (1 Kings 16:30). He married Jezebel, a princes of the Sidonian King Ethbaal, and choose to make Baal worship and service the national religion and worshiped Asherah (1 Kings 16:31-32). Both prohibited by God (Dt. 7:1-6; Exodus 20:3-5).
Baal was the Canaanite storm god and bringer of rain, and the Chief of the Canaanite pantheon. Asherah was the Canaanite fertility goddess, and a sacred wooden pole or tree symbolized her. Baal was recognized as the sustainer of the fertility of crops, animals, and people. Followers often believed that sexual acts performed in his temple would boost Baal’s sexual prowess, thus contributing to his work in increasing fertility.
The worship of Baal was a constant temptation for the Israelites from the time prior to the conquest of Canaan until the Babylonian exile. It was especially tempting to the people when it was endorsed by the king, as King Ahab did. The Israelites began to worship Baal because of their denial, boredom, and listlistness towards covenant with God. Numbers 25:1-9 records Israel, while living in Shittim, whoring with the Moabite women who invited the men to their ritual sacrifices and feasts. At these feasts the men ate, sacrificed and bowed down to the gods of Baal. The men brought the practice back to their homes and idolatry flourished.
The place was known as Baal of Peor (Mount Peor that is).
Men, what are we bringing back, or allowing into the home, to cause the worship of God to be deadened and defeated? Are our hearts focused on the things of God, or the things of Satan and demons, since our salvation and sactification, and those of our family, are at stake, being a spiritual battle for our souls and the members of our families? Are we men whoring and worshiping a false God, or the true God, represented by the God, Gospel and person of Jesus Christ?
As we are aware, idolatry, was and is forbidden, for all people of God, including you and me as followers and disciples of Jesus. In Exodus 20:4, God states explicitly that one is not to make a carved image, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or on the earth. In Leviticus 26:1, God also states that one is not to make idols for oneself, erect an image or pillar or a figured stone of which you bow down to. Nothing cast is to be worshiped (Lev 19:4). We are to have no Baals before God (Exodus 20:3) or we will suffer the consequences (Exodus 20:5).
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Well, you might say, pastor I do not have any idols in my house, I have no images or pillars of stone, metal, or gold that I bow down to. Oh, what is the phone in your pocket that when it rings and beeps, catches and keeps our attention, day and night? So much so, that one can no longer carry on a social conversation longer than 10 minutes without picking it up, or checking some message. Can you worship God on a Sunday without checking the time? Can our children, our teenagers, praise God without nothing to dazzle the eyes? How about our eyes?
How much time do you think you spend on that screen? Or any screen for that matter? According to DataReportal, screen time world-wide average is 6 hours and 40 minutes per person, per day. In the US the average is 7 hours and 3 minutes per person, per day. 41% of American teenagers (age 13-18) spend more than 8 hours a day on some sort of screen. Children and Teens between the ages of 8-12, 5 hours and 33 minutes as of 2021. Do you think that number has increased or decreased today? And just so we do not feel left out middle-aged, pre-seniors and seniors, your numbers are 6.9 hours, 5.17 hours, and 5.2 hours per persons/per day. What does this all amount to? 2336 hours per year/per person/worldwide, America 2664.5 hours, and teenagers 2930+ hours per year. (Source - Backlinko.com, Last Updated March 11, 2023)
More importantly, health wise, people are developing Myopia, dry eyes, and other vision problems (
Yvette Brend · CBC News · Posted: Apr 23, 2023 2:00 AM MDT | Last Updated: June 23, 2023). Myopia is the condition that occurs when the eyeball elongates from front to back. This affects the eye’s ability to bend light, which enables sharp vision. This elongation increases nearsightedness, making distant objects blurry. Myopia is shown to progress faster in people that overuse screens.
Dry eyes is a chronically dry condition when the meibomian glands — a sebaceous gland that helps create protective tear film — become obstructed or atrophy. Meibomian glands secrete meibum, which is a specialized substance containing lipids that protects the eye surface. Without a healthy tear film, eyes become dry, sensitive to light and irritated. Research has linked staring at digital devices for long periods without proper blinking to degraded gland function. It is proven that when we look at our screens, our blink rates decrease. Blinking activates the gland that provides the tear film forcefield. Without blinking enough, the tear film forcefield weakens because the gland, the generator of the tear film forcefield can clog and become damaged. Without the tear film, our little windshield wipers, the eyelids, that have oil glands in them, have no oily tears, the moisturizing tears, to spread over the eyeball.
Not convinced yet, of the damage of an idol to you personally. According to Health Canada the average Canadians sedentary time was around 9.6 hours with 3.2 hours of screen time in 2018-2019. A child, 8.4 hours with an average of 3.8 hours of screen time. Physical activity wise - adults 27.4 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity; children 59.2 minutes/day. Physical activity like chores, work, voluteerism - 2.5 hours/week; physical recreation - 2.0/week. Activity that makes you out of breath - children 2.1 hours/week. Anything alarming?
The Canadian adults spends on average 3504 hours a year just sitting around! Canadian children 3066 hours a year! Children are engaged in 109.2 hours a year in an activity that makes them out of breath. Moderate to vigorous activity for adults - 167 hours a year; 360 hours per year for children.
Perspective: 2 hours/Sunday at church equals 104 hours a year spent at Church. 61 hours a year for devotions of 10 minutes a day. 183 hours a year if we have devotions to God for 30 minutes a day. We spend 2336 hours/year on our phones, tv, game councils, computers and a minimum of between 165-287 hours/year at church and personally worshiping God. An hour a day of devotions (365 hours/year) would put that number closer to 469 hours in a year of worshiping God.
Screens = 2336 hours/year Church (2 hours)/Devotions (10/30/60 min) = 165-287-469 hours/year
Are we sure we do not have any idols in our lives? Are we sure we are not worshiping false gods? Are we busy worshiping Baal or Yahweh? Who is your dwelling place? Who is our refuge?
The temptation will be to do nothing, or to tolerate the idols in our lives and be passive, like King Ahab, and lead ourselves and family down the road to destruction and iniquity because our God is a jealous God, He visits inquity [5771] עָוֹן ʿāwōn - punishment, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him (Exodus 20:5). Instead, be man of God, and tear down those idols that take God’s glory, and incur God’s steadfast love and care for those keep His commandments (Exodus 20:6).
Moses, while leading the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness, to the edge of the promised land of Canaan, spoke these amazing words,
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Is that so in your life, in your family? Would you want it to be so? Would you have the LORD God establish the work of your hands, the work of our hands (v.17)? Would you have the favor of God, the grace of God upon you? Would you see the glory of God, His splendor, His pleasantness? Then cast out the idols, make God, His will and commands, your priority. Give the LORD God supremacy in your mind, speech, and actions. Make God your dwelling place, your refuge, your habitat, your home.
King Ahab would not make God is home. Even though commanded, having an obligation as King of God’s people, Ahab refused to humble himself before Almighty God. So much so, he allowed Queen Jezebel to strike down God’s prophets (1 Kings 18:4). As the severe drought and famine in the land of Samaria continued, Ahab would not repent and change his ways about worhiping Baal and Asherah. He would not give God His glory due Him.
God’s prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, pronounced no rain or dew, which lasted three years (1 Kings 17:1;18:41-46). What is the significance? Baal is the supposed storm God and bringer of rain and fertility, Asherah, goddess of fertility. Which god is the true God? Baal or Yahweh?
The one who can make the other submit to defeat.
Which ‘god’ is actually God? The one who can make it rain and produce, or the one who can stop the rain and fertility? The 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah found out through their failed sacrificial offering and destruction at the hands of Elijah and Yahweh (1 Kings 18:20-40). The prophets of Baal and Asherah were returned to dust. What would you do it you were in King Ahab’s royal shoes? Return to Yahweh, return to God.
You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?
The fear of God [3374] יִרְאָה yirʾāh is meant to be viewed as a positive quality that acknowledges God’s good intentions so that one will not sin (Exodus 20:20).
Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”
It is to motivate and delight (Isaiah 11:2,3), and make a person receptive to wisdom and knowledge (Prov. 1:7; 9:10), produced by God’s Word (Ps. 119:38; Prov. 2:5). The fear of God is to restrain people from sin Gen 20:11; Ex 20:20; Neh 5:9) and give confidence (Job 4:6; Prov 14:26).
Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.
Not to mention, the fear of God is to help rulers - Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers - and cause judges to act justly.
The God of Israel has spoken; the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God,
he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God.
And he charged them: “Thus you shall do in the fear of the Lord, in faithfulness, and with your whole heart:
Do you believe that our Prime Minister fears God? Do our leaders fear God? How about our judicial system and judges? No, because if they did, they would bring rain and sun upon the people, at the appropriate and needed times. Should you believe a government, trust a government, or an institution, that does not fear God? Then why are we astounded and shocked when rulers, governments, and institutions do what is ungodly? Why do we put our hope and trust in men? and the constructs of men? Where is your dwelling, your refuge to be? In God, with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and by the guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit.
King Ahab shows us that to put our trust and hope in men is to be a fool. God says, in Jeremiah 17:5-8,
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Where did Moses put his trust? In God, to lead him and the Israelites to the promised land, released from the bondages of Egypt, through the barren wilderness of loneliness, weariness, and lack. In whom did Elijah place his belief and trust? Yahweh God. If Elijah said it was not going to rain, it did not rain, until he prayed to God it would. In whom was Moses and Elijah’s dwelling place? Yahweh God, Jehovah Jirah, the God of ‘I will provide’.
If we make God our dwelling place He will provide the riches, honor, and life that we desire.
The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.
Conclusion
King Ahab died in battle, while disguised, to hide who he was, so that he would not become the target. An indiscriminant shot took him down between his armor, and his blood was laped up by dogs, as Elijah prophesied.
And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Have you killed and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.” ’ ”
And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes washed themselves in it, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken.
All because Ahab would not make God his dwelling place. Instead of repenting of his idol worship, and leading the people to do so as well, he allows Jezebel to kill Naboth for his vinyard and intimidate Elijah. He is an enabeler of evil, a tolerator of evil. His soul has no home except in the Lake of Fire, promised so by God to those who hate Him and His ways (Mt 25:41).
God has promised to those who make Him their refuge:2 Tim 1:11
which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.
He that maketh the LORD God hIs dwelling place has the LORD God as his guard! The word guard [5442] φυλάσσω phulássō - means to watch, or keep watch; to preserve, kept in safety, keep or escape from violence; protect. God has said this to the one who makes his dwelling with God. What a promise! Do you take God at His word? Will you take Him at His Word?
He that makes the LORD God his dwelling place will have rest.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Rest for your souls. Maybe not relief from trouble, but rest for your eternal worry …salvation is yours if the LORD Jesus is yours.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
He that makes the LORD God his dwelling place will have a home.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Rev. Charles Spurgeon said, “The more God lives in the Christian, the better the Christian loves Him; the oftener God comes to see him, the better he loves his God. And God loves His people all the more when they are familiar with Him. Can you say in this sense, “Lord, thou hast been my dwelling place?” -The Glorious Habitation
Does the King of Kings occupy the center of your soul?
“The dearest idol I have known- Whate’er that idol be- Help me to tear it from its throne, and worship only Thee!” -The Glorious Habitation