Sermon Tone Analysis

! *Under His Wings*

!! by Bill Hybels

/Text:/ Psalm 91:1–16

/Topic:/ What are comforts of Refuge

/Big Idea:/ God is a refuge for his children in times of danger and distress.

/Keywords:/ Comfort; Distress; Refuge

 

*Introduction:  *

·        God reached down to provide refuge for those in need when he established six cities of refuge.

!! -     /Joshua 20:23/

!!!!!  

!!!!! Physical refuge relieves the frightened.

·        /Illustration:/* *A father and son lost in the Italian mountains during a blizzard discover a protective cave.

!!!!!  

!!!!! Spiritual refuge relieves the burdened.

!!!! ·        God’s character is to shelter his children.

-          /Illustration:  Hybels uses the analogy from Psalm 91 of a mother hen sheltering her chicks to illustrate the refuge under the wings of God./

!!!! ·        Refuge with God results in new strength to press on.

!!!!!  

!!!!! Hurting people need a refuge from their distress.

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*We must seek the refuge of God.*

!!!! ·        To find God’s refuge we must first learn dependence on him.

/-     Psalm 91:15/

·        To know the peace of refuge we must pour out our hearts to God.

/-    Psalm 62:8/

*/-     /*/Illustration:  Jeremiah’s persecution, desperate pleas, refuge, and return to ministry illustrate the necessary step of opening our hearts to God./

* *

*Conclusion: *

·        God provides an eternal refuge.

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* *

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! *Under His Wings*

!! by Bill Hybels

 

God is a refuge for his children in times of danger and distress.

In certain parts of the ancient Middle East, where populations were spread out, societies weren’t well organized, and judicial systems were few and far between, people kept the law and order by a rather aggressive form of tribal crime and punishment.

For example, if someone in your family lost his or her life at the hands of another person, your family would call a meeting.

You’d discuss the situation, then appoint someone who became known as “the blood avenger.”

This person would become the representative from your family whose job would be to track down and kill the person who killed your family member.

Then a celebration would ensue.

Justice had been done.

A problem arose in the middle of that culture, however.

There was no provision for accidental homicides, for unintentional deaths.

In the Old Testament books of Deuteronomy and Numbers and Joshua, we see God step into this situation.

He addresses the problem by establishing cities of refuge.

Joshua 20:23 says, “…to designate the cities of refuge as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood.”

God established six cities.

They were spread out for easy access.

They all had paths going their way and signposts pointing to the city of refuge.

If a person committed an unintentional homicide, he or she would take off running.

If the offender go to the city of refuge before the blood avenger tracked them down, they were safe inside the gates.

After a time, a fair trial would be held.

If the person were innocent, he or she would be set free.

If the person were guilty, the blood avenger would do his thing.

But look at what God provided in the middle of this situation.

He provided a place to run to, a shelter, a hiding place till a fair trial could be had.

And look what God named these cities--cities of refuge.

The idea for these hiding places, these shelters, flows out of the very heart of who God is.

It is bound up in the nature and character of God to provide safety and refuge to people who are feeling oppressed or hunted down.

It is in the heart of God to provide safety and refuge to people who are running fast but wearing down.

It is in the heart of God to provide safety and refuge for people who are hearing footsteps and who desperately need a hiding place.

Have you heard some unfriendly footsteps in your life recently?

Are you under enormous stress right now?  How many of you feel as if you’re being tracked down, as if there are some unfriendly people or forces that you just can’t seem to escape?

If I asked how many of you came here this morning thinking that about the greatest gift you could receive would be a temporary hiding place, a secure and safe place just for a time, I bet a lot of hands would go up.

You need to understand that our God is a refuge-providing God.

He delights in that role.

He only asks that you would avail yourself of the refuge that he provides.

!!!!!  

!!!!! Physical refuge relieves the frightened.

A month or so ago, there was a story in the news about an American soldier and his son who were on a skiing vacation in Italy.

There was a blizzard.

They lost their way and went down the wrong side of the mountain.

They were lost for eleven days.

People gave up hope that they would ever be found alive.

But by the end of the first day, the father and his son had found a little crevice, a couple of feet high, tucked way back in under the rock.

If you asked that man and his son after they survived that ordeal for eleven days, what a physical refuge felt like, they’d say it felt like that cave.

There was shelter from harsh elements.

There was a protected environment where they could regroup and recuperate and reorganize.

There was safety and security in that place, from which they could eventually plan their best approach for getting rescued.

Sailors know what a physical refuge feels like.

The open sea in a violent storm is as hostile an environment as exists on this planet.

When a sailor steers his boat into a small, well-protected harbor, he has found shelter from the harsh elements, an opportunity to recuperate and reorganize a safe place from which to plan the next leg of the voyage.

You can’t stay in the harbor forever.

You must continue your journey sooner or later.

But every sailor knows the full weight of the words of the old hymn that talks about “a shelter in the time of storm.”

!!!!! Spiritual refuge relieves the burdened.

Psalm 46:1 says, “God is a refuge.”

He is a temporary shelter from the harsh forces or realities that are pressing in upon you and wearing you down.

It feels like a protected environment, in which you can rest and recuperate temporarily, a secure place from which you can plan your next move.

One of the most beautiful pictures of this is Psalm 91:4: “He will shelter you under his wings.”

What a picture.

Have you ever seen little chicks hopping around chirping, pecking, doing chick stuff?

All of a sudden, the chicks and the mother hen all become aware that there’s a predator in the vicinity.

The mother hen lifts both wings simultaneously, and within just a few seconds all the baby chicks disappear under them.

They hide there.

They’re sheltered there.

They regroup there.

The chicks say to each other in the darkness, “My heart, my heart.

Did you see the size of the teeth in that wolf?”

But they’re okay under the wings for a time.

Eventually they have to crawl out to face the real world, but for a time there’s nothing quite like being sheltered under wings.

This is very near the heart of God.

It is bound up in the very character and essence of God to provide a kind of hiding place for his children under his wings.

Just like God provided cities of refuge for those who were running from blood avengers, today God delights in spreading his protective wings and in folding his frightened, weary, beaten-down, worn-out children under those wings.

He says, “Hide here for a time.

Get out of the danger for a time.

Regroup.

Rest.

Renew your strength.”