Christ Our Hideaway

What a joy it is for me to be with all of you this week, I cannot think of anywhere else I would rather be than here with you and I cannot think of anything that is more important for us to dive into other than what we are going to look at this week and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that your camp theme for the week is Hideaway and we are drawing that from Psalm 91:1 so tonight I want us to look at Psalm 91 and over the next few evenings, everything will connect to what we read in Psalm 91. Psalm 91 has certain implications to it. There are things that are required of us both before we can apply Psalm 91 and there are things that need to be continuously applied as we live out or embrace what we will read in Psalm 91 in just a few minutes. A question that I want to ask you guys from the get go is this: When life totally overwhelms you, where do you feel the most safe? Or maybe a little more direct: Where do you feel safe in general? You guys know that there are certain situations where if you want to be safe, there are things or places that you absolutely must go to. Take me for example, my biggest fear in the world is sharks. I am absolutely 100% terrified of sharks. The amount of nightmares that I have woken up from because a shark has almost swallowed me whole is more than I care to admit. Now if I want to be safe from sharks it makes perfect logical sense that I don’t go diving into the Australian coast without a shark cage or without a boat. If I have to be on the ocean and I’m surrounded by great whites, I need to stay on the boat right? That’s common sense! The problem is though that we have the tendency to be so caught up in our cares, in our worries, and in our fears that we no longer think logically. I don’t know if you have ever watched horror movies before, I’ll assume that many of you have, but have you ever notice how in so many horror movies that the characters just make really stupid decisions? You may have noticed a few years ago that Geico made a commercial about this very thing and the whole premise is, “When you’re in a horror movie, you make bad decisions.” The four characters in the commercial are trying to run from the masked killer and one recommends that they hide in the basement, someone else recommends the attic, and the one smart girl says, “Why don’t we just get in the running car?” And then the camera moves over to show a car ready and waiting to make the getaway. But the other character goes, “What are you crazy, let’s go hide behind those chainsaws.” It’s funny to us because we can’t imagine being that stupid. But my friends, how often we are and we may not even realize it. There are things in the world that overwhelm us, terrify us, and we act as if there is nowhere else that we could go to cling to safety but there is. There is a redeemer, there is a rescuer, there is a place where we can go and feel safe regardless of what is going in our lives or in the world around us. Where is this place? Let’s open up in prayer and then we will read Psalm 91. The Psalmist says:

Psalm 91 NASB95

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked. For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down. “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. “With a long life I will satisfy him And let him see My salvation.”

God our Fortress

I am encouraged just by looking at the words that have been passed down through the centuries without even diving too deeply into the text. This is a great reminder for us that this is our Father’s world. God not only created the universe; He sustains the universe. God is completely sovereign over His creation and everything is proceeding according to His will. These are things that we need to know but unfortunately we are human and we often forget this. Something that you are going to learn about me this week if you don’t know already is that I love looking at what other pastors and theologians have said and quoting them because I feel that there is a whole lot of wisdom that we can take from other Christians. You’re gonna learn that my best friends are dead men because most of the pastors I quote from have gone home to glory. John Calvin, the great theologian from the time of the protestant reformation, said of this Psalm, “The truth contained in this Psalm is of great use, for though many talk much of God’s providence, and profess to believe that He exercises a special guardianship over His own children, few are found actually willing to trust their safety to Him.” What Calvin here is saying is that while many of us may say all day long that we believe that God is in control of everything, our actions do not always reflect that and our minds seem to forget the full extent of what this means. In the first 2 verses of this Psalm, God is described as three different but very similar points of contact. In verse 1 the Psalmist describes someone who is in the shelter of the Most High and then in verse 2 he calls the Lord his refuge and his fortress. Now what do these three words have in common? Shelter, refuge, and fortress? What do you think of when you hear these words? You think of safety, you think of protection which we will get to more later, you think of a place that you can go to when things get rough. I don’t know if you know this or not but it was very common in the time that this Psalm was written that when a nation was being attacked by another nation, the citizens would run to a fortress or a stronghold or a tower because that was the most protected location in the city. The citizens would run to this fortress, this stronghold, because they trusted that they would be safe there. What the Psalmist is saying here for us is that just as we would run to a safe place when war is all around us, we must run to the Lord as the One who is able to be our refuge and our fortress. Something else that I want you to notice in these first 2 verses is that the Psalmist does not use the past tense. The verse doesn’t read, “He who dwelt in the shelter of the Most High did abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” No, what does it say? He who dwells, present tense, in the shelter of the Most High will abide, present and future tense, in the shadow of the Almighty. Do you see the difference? If we want to experience the fullness of what it means to have God as our refuge and our fortress, we must be continuously dwelling and abiding in Him. So, what do you think that this looks like? What does it mean to dwell in the shelter of the Most High? If we want to abide in the shadow, we must first be dwelling in the shelter so how does that happen? We need to be in close fellowship with the Lord. We need to eat, sleep, dream, live for Christ because that is the only way that we can constantly dwell in the shelter of the Most High. If you want the great blessing of abiding with the Lord, you must constantly be seeking Him as your dwelling place. A fortress does you no good if you aren’t dwelling in it when the going gets rough.

God our Protector

There is obviously tremendous benefits for us dwelling in the Lord, abiding in Him, and having Him as our refuge and our fortress. One that we have kind of mentioned is that the Lord is our protector. If you look at Psalm 91:3-13, we see that God protects His people and He does it in ways that we may not even be aware of. At the end of verse 4 we see that the Lord’s faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark. A bulwark is a defensive wall for a castle or a city. What the Psalmist wants us to recognize is that all salvation, all points of rescue from physical to spiritual comes from the Lord. God is our sovereign protector. There is one important point that I want you to make note of so let’s read Psalm 91:5-10 again

Psalm 91:5–10 NASB95

You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked. For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent.

Notice that the writer of this psalm does not say that all of these things will never come into the life of the person that abides in the Lord. He doesn’t say that the darkness of night will go away or that their will be no arrow or sickness or destruction or death. You might think, how is that helpful then? If these things still happen, how is God our protector? What the psalmist wants us to be aware of is that God is our protector IN these things and not necessarily always FROM these things. Can He protect us from sickness and war and death? Absolutely but that is not always His will. It may not always be His will that He protects us from these things but we that dwell in the Lord will always have Him and His sovereign love and protection in these things. If that’s confusing, let me try to take away or maybe add to the confusion with 1 other section of Scripture. In Isaiah 43, the Lord is speaking to Israel about the future deliverance from their exile in Babylon and this is what we read in Isaiah 43:1-3

Isaiah 43:1–3 NASB95

But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. “For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.

Do you see how this relates to what I was saying? The Lord doesn’t say to Israel, “I love you, you are mine, now you’ll never pass through waters or fires.” No what the Lord says is even though you are going to have to go through this, you never go through it alone. I Myself will be with you. These things still exist but you can go through them differently because you know the One that you are going through them with. If you were a soldier going to war, nothing would inspire you more than having your general go before you into the battle. There is just something about Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings running out before the army at the black gate to distract Sauron so that Frodo can destroy the ring that encourages people to endure. We can look at life like that. Before us are insurmountable odds that on our own we could not handle but then, there goes the King! And suddenly we feel like there is nothing that could possibly stop us. It doesn’t remove the battle but it changes our view for the battle. Now you may be here tonight and you may be wondering why on earth you should care about any of this. You may be here tonight and think, “Geez Brady, all of that sounds great but the problems in my life are far greater than what you or anyone else may realize. I have depression, I have worries, I have problems at home, I think a positive up look on life won’t do me much good.” Look, I know in this room there are a whole assortment of issues that we could go around and talk about. I may not know what you are going through but I will not belittle it. First know that God sees and God knows. Secondly, I want you to understand how Jesus ultimately does address the thing that you are going through and that the words of Psalm 91 are absolutely for you. In Luke 21, Jesus is warning His disciples about the future and really about His second coming. Here’s what He says in Luke 21:12-18

Luke 21:12–18 NASB95

“But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. “It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. “So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. “But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. “Yet not a hair of your head will perish.

Jesus just told His followers that they should expect persecution. He just told them that some will even be put to death for their faith and because the world hates Jesus. Despite all of this, Jesus still tells them that not a hair on their head will perish. Did Jesus forget what He literally just said? What does Jesus mean by this then? What He means is that he who has made Christ His savior will never lose what will truly last forever. How is Jesus able to say this? How is Jesus so confidently able to say that not a hair on the head of any of His people will perish? It’s because Jesus Himself endured the only thing that could harm you forever. Jesus endured the weight of sin and the weight of God’s wrath poured out on sin so that even if the world destroys our body, we are still safe for eternity. The worst thing that this world can do is kill you and then your soul goes straight to glory. Even the body that is destroyed will one day be resurrected! What Jesus is saying, what Isaiah is saying, and what the psalmist is saying are one in the same: while we may go through hard times, hard times do not take us out of the hand of God that holds us. He that holds you, holds you forever. This is why we can go through all of these issues that are brought up in in Psalm 91 with confidence because we know our God is with us and the only way that we can remain confident in these moments is by steadily abiding in the Lord. Look at in this way, when you have Jesus Christ, the storms of life may not go away but the fear that they are sovereign will. My son Benji is 5, he is a little bit of a scaredy cat to put it nicely and he does what I’m sure you did as a kid whenever there was a huge thunderstorm going on in the middle of the night. He feels scared when the power goes out, the nightlight goes off, and all he hears is thunder and wind. Now what do you think he does when this happens? He climbs into bed with mom and dad. Then all of a sudden, what happens? He goes right back to sleep. Did the storm stop? No it didn’t but his perspective on it did. Why? Because he now feels safe, he feels secure because in his mind, I’ve got my dad and I’m safe. Don’t you think that we can do that to our Heavenly Father? The storms crash all around us but bring it on, I’m in the presence and under the protection of the Lord my God. The very One that created the wind and the rains and the thunder is the one that I hold onto. Do you think that God looks at the things that on going on in this world and worries? I remember this great story that was told about the great British preacher of the 1900’s G. Campbell Morgan. He was preaching on prayer one morning and a lady came up to him after the service and said, “I only pray to God about the big things, I don’t want to bother Him about the little things.” And G. Campbell Morgan said to her, “My dear woman, everything we bring to God is little.” Do you see what he is saying there? He’s saying if God is in control of all things and if He can create everything with just a word, what could possibly be considered big to Him? Steven Lawson said, “Nothing can come into our lives unless it comes through God’s hands first. He can keep out any danger He chooses. Whatever He allows into our lives is there by divine appointment to work for our good.” One last thing that I want to mention is this: God is not only our protector, He’s our faithful Friend.

God our Faithful Friend

In verses 14-16, the perspective switches. We go from the writer of the psalm to God Himself. Here we see God giving us beautiful promises. Psalm 91:14-16

Psalm 91:14–16 NASB95

“Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. “With a long life I will satisfy him And let him see My salvation.”

What the Lord is saying here is that there is nowhere that His children will be able to go where He is not there. When we call He will answer and look right in the middle of those verses, “I will be with him in trouble.” The Lord is so closely connected to His people that rather than have them walk through trouble alone, He walks with them through it. He promises us that He will ultimately rescue us and that we will see His salvation. But if we want this, we have to call upon His name. We don’t get all of the promises mentioned in these verses if we reject the One that God has sent. These promises cannot happen without Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. If you don’t have Jesus, you need to get Him. If you are not standing securely on Christ, you will not be able to go through all the terrors that this world has to offer. You might be able to endure for a little bit, but at some point it’s going to fall apart. Can I tell you something real quick about what makes Christianity unique? Christianity is the only religion in the world where the God of that religion doesn’t say, “Suffer and you will earn my love. Work hard and I will love you.” What makes Christianity so unique is that it is the only religion in the world where the God of that religion says, “I myself will suffer so that you may see my love.” It is the only religion in the world where the God of that religion becomes so interconnected with our struggles that He Himself suffers. The suffering that we go through now will not ultimately subtract from the glory that is to come, it will ultimately magnify it. How can we cling to the promises of Psalm 91? By constantly abiding in the presence of Him that is far greater than us. Let’s go back to my shark example. It’s one thing if I’m out on the ocean, I’m surrounded by great white sharks, and I’m in a paddle boat. I’m probably safer in the paddle boat than without one but I’m probably still gonna be nervous. But let’s say I’m not in a paddle boat, I’m in a Navy battleship. Do you think I have much to be afraid about then? Not at all. The sharks are still there but my outlook is totally different. Why? Because I feel safe and secure in something significantly bigger and stronger than me. Do you see how this relates to Christianity? Or maybe let me explain it one other way: I have a recurring nightmare that I probably have 3-4 times a year and it goes all the way back to when I was a child visiting Universal Studios in Orlando. The reason that I am afraid of sharks is because back in the day, Universal Studios had a ride based on the movie Jaws. If you don’t know what Jaws is, it is a perfect movie and it just so happens to be about a giant man eating great white shark. They made a ride based on the movie and several times a year, I have this dream where as hard as I try, I cannot help but walking towards this ride and the shark is looking right at me and I can’t escape the gravitational pull that I am caught in. I try to get my family to help me but they can’t, and I get closer and closer to the mouth of this fake shark and I fall into the water and right when the shark is about to eat me, I wake up. Do you want to know what is great about nightmares? It’s the reality that when you wake up, you realize that you were never in any danger. And I’ll be honest, having that nightmare makes me a lot happier to have my wife their next to me. The suffering that we face in this world while painful at the moment, will one day become gloriously untrue. When we truly abide in Christ, we will see that there really was nothing to ever be afraid of. When you look at the world, when you look at the spiritual realm, God is not scared of anything and if He can govern the whole universe, He is more than capable of taking care of you. You feel safe on the battleship surrounded by sharks but you can feel significantly safer as you cling to the One that is in complete and total control of the universe, that is our one safe place and we have access to Him. He is our true faithful friend. Let’s pray.