It's Not Your Book!

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PIC - Covid 19 closing sign

So it’s time for you to tell the truth: Is anybody else having trouble with their “social distancing?” I got one email this week from someone who said something like, “I’m an extrovert—this social distancing is driving me nuts!”

What’s going on with people and fire alarms? Why do so many people die? It’s because research shows that we usually do not respond when a fire alarm rings. Instead of leaving the building immediately, we wait for more clues and assurances that we can trust our lying ears or our lying eyes. Psychiatrist Stephen Grosz says of this:

After 25 years as a psychoanalyst, I can't say that this surprises me. We resist change. Committing ourselves to a small change, even one that is unmistakably in our best interest, is often more frightening than ignoring a dangerous situation. We don't want an exit if we don't know exactly where it is going to take us, even—or perhaps especially—in an emergency … We want to know what new story we're stepping into before we exit the old one.

I have to admit, Even me, Mr. Introvert, has been having trouble obeying this whole social distancing thing. I guess maybe it’s my sinful nature, but when somebody tells me I can’t do something that just makes me want to do it more. Any other time, I would love to avoid Walmart like the plague (or the coronavirus!), but now I’m finding excuses to go.

You can sum it up like this: We do not trust what we do not know. We hesitate when we hear the fire alarm because we don’t trust that it is the real deal and, even if we know it is the real deal, we hesitate to take the fire exit because we don’t know for sure what potential danger we are heading into.

Why don’t I want to obey? Well, I guess some of it has to do with the fact that I just refuse to believe that things are as bad as they say they are. When this whole thing first started, the numbers of cases were miniscule and all of us were scratching our heads asking, “What’s the big deal?” We knew that staying home with the kids, shutting down Firestone, not being able to go to Western Sizzlin and get the best burger in town and especially going without this (hold up toilet paper) was going to get old really quick.

But then the numbers started to go up. Then we got the first case in Wilson and our resistance began to fade. What’s wrong with us? Why don’t we believe it when we hear the warnings? Why do we not believe what we are told when it comes to emergencies?

But then the numbers started to go up. Then we got the first case in Wilson and our resistance began to fade. What’s wrong with us? Why don’t we believe it when we hear the warnings? Why do we not believe what we are told when it comes to emergencies?

Maybe that’s why you have a fire drill. People practice what they will do so that, when the time comes, they already “know the drill” you might say and it gives them confidence to take action if it becomes necessary. And that’s all because you really don’t trust what you do not know.

You see it in fire alarms. In one famous case, a fire alarm went off in a Supper Club in Beverly Hills. Instead of leaving immediately many victims actually stopped to pay their bill on the way out the door. 177 people died. Why do we hesitate? A psychiatrist named Stephen Grosz sheds some light on this. He says:

After 25 years as a psychoanalyst, I can't say that this surprises me. We resist change. Committing ourselves to a small change, even one that is unmistakably in our best interest, is often more frightening than ignoring a dangerous situation. We don't want an exit if we don't know exactly where it is going to take us, even—or perhaps especially—in an emergency … We want to know what new story we're stepping into before we exit the old one.

You can sum it up like this: We do not trust what we do not know. We hesitate when we hear the fire alarm because we don’t trust that it is the real deal and, even if we know it is the real deal, we hesitate to take the fire exit because we don’t know for sure what potential danger we are heading into. You just don’t trust what you don’t know.

BACK

What about you? I bet you have trouble trusting situations or people whom you really don’t know. While that is a reality for your physical life, it is also true spiritually: Some people don’t trust God because they do not really know Him They may have some vague concept of God, and they may even pray to Him for help at times, but because they have never connected with Him in a real relationship of any depth, they really have trouble trusting Him.

That’s why I believe we have passages of Scripture like . In these verses, the Psalmist combines some truly incredible promises about God with some deep insight into His character. Believing the promises of these verses hinge on the ability of the reader to grasp what the writer is saying about God and who He is. I believe this is intentional because the psalmist, and the divine God who inspired him knows this one unalterable fact: You will not trust God if you do not know God.

NEED

And I believe you and I need to hear the message of today. If we miss what is being said here, we will leave “blessings on the table.” I truly believe that. If we miss the opportunity to know and trust God, there will be many opportunities for deliverance that we will miss as well. You see it throughout the Bible. In , for instance, the writer there says that the Children of Israel, through their unbelief, LIMITED God. Wow! What a terrible thing to do. To dwarf God’s action in your life through your own doubt. We need to learn how to increase our dependence on God so that He will increase His work in us.

And that leads to an even more important reason why we need to hear the message of . You see, if I fail to know God so that I trust Him and I limit what He does in my life, I not only will miss out on His deliverance, I will also miss out on a powerful opportunity. I will miss the opportunity to worship him and allow His deliverance to become an opportunity for praise.

The answer that overcomes these dangers is trust. Learning to genuinely depend on God and trust Him when it seems like things are hopeless. It is having our faith increased so that we increasingly depend on Christ. But how does that happen? How can you and I see our trust in God grow? Well, our trust is increased when we:

Our trust is increased when we know our deliverer.

So follow me: As Christians we believe that:

· It is our trust in God that moves Him to act in our lives.

· And we said that if we are going to trust someone, we must know them.

· So you can say that the way to see God really deliver you—really show up in your life is to KNOW HIM. We have to know our delieverer.

But that brings me to this obvious question: Just what is it that we need to know about God if we are to come to trust Him and see Him work?

That’s where comes in. This psalm teaches us a lot about God and His promise of deliverance. It teaches us first that God protects us. Look at 91:1. It says:

Psalm 91:1 NKJV

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Our deliverer hides us.

The secret place is a place of complete safety.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I love that. We see right off the bat that God’s deliverance hides us in a place of unconquerable safety. I say that because who the guard is: It is God Himself. We dwell in the secret place of the most High . . . under the shadow of the Almighty. And let me tell you something friend. If God’s guarding the door ain’t nobody coming in! It is a place of unconquerable safety.

I love that. We see right off the bat that God’s deliverance hides us in a place of complete safety. I say that because who the guard is: It is God Himself. We dwell in the secret place of the most High . . . under the shadow of the Almighty. And let me tell you something friend. If God’s guarding the door ain’t nobody coming in! It is a place of unconquerable safety.

The secret place is a place of undisturbed rest.

And it is a place of undisturbed rest. In v4 we are given another picture of this “secret place. We are told that He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge. This picture was referenced by Jesus when, looking at the city of Jerusalem which had rejected Him, he said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Do you hear the yearning in His voice. He is wanting to do more than merely protect us. He wants to have a relationship with us. The “secret place” speaks of a connection with God that is real and deep. God is not running a homeless shelter where bureaucratic hirelings dribble out impersonal handouts. He is intimately connected with us.

The secret place is a place of growing intimacy.

And that intimacy is not static. It is a growing intimacy. Notice the verbs in v1 again. It says He who DWELLS in the secret place of the Most High, SHALL ABIDE in the shadow of the Almighty. There is a progression here. The man who begins to dwell in the secret place of God’s protection begins to realize just how much our God can be trusted and he never wants to leave that place. As His intimacy with God grows, His trust in God grows. God protects Him. The trust that comes from knowing God begins when we start realizing that our God really will protect us.

Our defender fights for us.

He delivers us from hidden traps.

But our great God doesn’t just play defense. He doesn’t just protect us, He fights for us. In fact, in this psalm you can see eight specific things that God delivers us from. He delivers us from hidden traps. V3 says,

But our great God doesn’t just play defense. He doesn’t just protect us, He fights for us. In fact, in this psalm you can see eight specific things that God delivers us from. He delivers us from hidden traps. V3 says, Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler. We are not familiar with this term, but a “fowler” was someone who caught birds by baiting traps and lying in wait

Ps

Psalm 91:3 NKJV

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.

We are not familiar with this term, but a “fowler” was someone who caught birds by baiting traps and lying in wait .

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler. We are not familiar with this term, but a “fowler” was someone who caught birds by baiting traps and lying in wait

Pic - Las Vegas Strip

God knows where the hidden traps of life are and he delivers us from them.

He delivers from medical danger.

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He delivers us from hidden traps and he delivers us from medical danger. V3 continues (Surely He shall deliver you) from the perilous pestilence. A “pestilence” was a disease and a perilous disease would be one which could cause severe illness to the point of death. And then

He will deliver us from dangerous doubt.

And then He will deliver us from dangerous doubt.

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V4 ends,

Ps

Psalm 91:4 NKJV

He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

And then He will deliver us from dangerous doubt. V4 ends, His truth shall be your shield and buckler. The picture here is probably of the shield that soldiers could employ on the battlefield which would surround them and keep them safe. God will be faithful to keep His word and honor His promises to us. We do not have to doubt.

The picture here is probably of the shield that soldiers could employ on the battlefield which would surround them and keep them safe. God will be faithful to keep His word and honor His promises to us. We do not have to doubt.

His truth shall be your shield and buckler. The picture here is probably of the shield that soldiers could employ on the battlefield which would surround them and keep them safe. God will be faithful to keep His word and honor His promises to us. We do not have to doubt.

He delivers us from debilitating fears.

Psalm 91:5 NKJV

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,

Psalm 91:5–6 NKJV

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

And he also delivers us from debilitating fears. V5 says, You shall not be afraid of the terror of night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. The terror of night and the pestilence that walks in darkness speaks of the fear we may have because of the deceptiveness of our enemy. They are those attacks that come against you when you are not expecting them. The Lord will deliver you from those. The arrow that flies by day and the destruction that lays waste at noonday speaks of the fear you may have of the power of your enemy. The Lord is more powerful than the mightiest of your foes. He will deliver you. He delivers from debilitating fears

And He delivers from overwhelming odds.

Psalm 91:7–10 NKJV

A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;

Ps 91:7-10

Even if everyone else is falling around you, God promises to deliver you.

He delivers you from natural dangers.

Psalm 91:11–13 NKJV

For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

God will deliver you from all enemies, all diseases, all disasters, and from all odds. He will deliver you.

Now, when you really come to KNOW that. When you really understand God’s attitude towards you and me; when you grasp how intimately involved He is in the most minute details of our lives and how intricately He is watching us, it begins to build your trust in Him. Hey Christian! Nothing is getting by Him. He’s not pushing the maximum limits of His abilities trying to manage all the details our your life. Why, He hasn’t even broken a sweat. He is in control and He is fighting your battles for you. And if you don’t trust Him, it’s because you just don’t know Him.

ILL

Pic - Country Airport

Late one night, a man in Slim Cornett's church was showing Slim around a county airport in rural Mississippi. "This switch lights up the runway," the man said as he flipped it. "Then, let's say there is a plane in distress up there. I would throw this switch and turn on the search lights."

As the night skies lit up, a small plane materialized out of the darkness and landed. Slim and his friend watched in amazement as Franklin Graham, son of the famous evangelist, stepped off the plane. The pilot had been flying Franklin back to school in Texas when the electrical system shut down, leaving them stranded in the Mississippi night without lights or radio or any means of guidance. From out of nowhere, the search beam had come on and guided them to the landing strip.

As Franklin's mother, Ruth, tells the story, earlier that evening before they left home, Billy Graham had prayed for the Father to protect and guide his son and the pilot. Hey, He will give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone.

APP

You see, it is vital that you get what is teaching here because when the difficulties of life come, you can begin to think that your situation is too difficult for God to manage. I mean come on now. You might say with your mouth that “God’s got this,” but when it comes right down to it, living as if that is true can be difficult. Doubt invades our minds and we begin to question. It is during those questioning times that we need to remember that, while this may seem hard to us, it is certainly not too hard for God. In those moments of doubt, we need to be reminded of all our God can do and has promised to do. Our trust is increased when we know our deliverer.

And I know that you may still be here saying, in some cases, “But I do know God. I even believe that He can intervene in my situation and do mighty things, but, honestly Rusty, I am in the middle of something right now that needs God’s help and I have prayed and I believe He can work in this, but nothing is happening. Is there something that I must do to see God’s deliverance activated in my life? As a matter of fact, the answer is “yes, there is.” There is something you must do if you are going to get to know God and trust Him so that you depend on Him and He delivers you. You see, not only must you know your deliverer, you must

Our trust is increased when we love our deliverer.

EXP

The psalmist describes what you and I must do if God is to deliver us. Read v 14. It says

Psalm 91:14 NKJV

“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.

Now if I were to ask you this morning, “Do you love God?” most of you would probably say “yes.” But the love spoken of here has an intensity to it. It literally says, Because he clings to me because of His love for me. The picture is of a shy, frightened child flinging it’s arm around it’s strong father and holding on for dear life. And the intensity of that love is further described in what follows.

Because he has set His love on Me, THEREFORE I will deliver Him. Now if I were to ask you this morning, “Do you love God?” most of you would probably say “yes.” But the love spoken of here has an intensity to it. It literally says, Because he clings to me because of His love for me. The picture is of a shy, frightened child flinging it’s arm around it’s strong father and holding on for dear life. And the intensity of that love is further described in what follows.

An intense love pursues intensely.

V14 goes on to say, I will set him on high because he has known My name. To know God’s name is to know God’s character. Learning God’s character involves fleshing out the character of God in the circumstances of life as you, through the leadership of the Holy Spirit, meditate on and apply His word. You pursue Him intensely, devouring His word until you begin to see Him more clearly than you’ve ever seen Him before. The result of all this intense pursuit is that you will love Him as you’ve never loved Him before. This kind of love pursues intensely and then it also . . .

An intense love communicates intimately.

COMMUNICATES INTIMATELY. V15 SAYS:

Psalm 91:15–16 NKJV

He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”

I hope I am not reading too much into this, but I sense a real intimacy in these verses. God is speaking here and He seems to enjoy sharing the fact that the person who wraps His heart around Him and clings to Him will be taken care of. When the danger arises and things are going wrong, God, the one whom he loves and who loves him will step in and deliver him. There is something about this intimacy of their relationships that is real and effective. There is genuine love there, going in both directions.

And here’s the key point. That love flows out of the fact that the psalmist decided that He would set his heart on God . . . that he would cling to God like a shy child with His Father. I am reminded of that chorus we used to sing, “I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, No turning back, no turning back.”

The person who comes to love God like this has past the point of no return. He has totally sold out to God and is clinging to Him.

Pic - Space Shuttle

Ill

ILL

If you ever paid attention to a shuttle launch you would hear a very interesting phrase. If you listen carefully, you will hear them say, “Negative return.” That’s significant. According to NASA’s official website, negative return occurs when the space shuttle is flying too far down range and too high to return to the launch site in the event of an engine failure. It also means that, for the astronaut, they are now to the point where they are assured of making it into orbit, which is the whole point of the launch in the first place.

Applied to this passage, God is saying that it is only by crossing the point of negative return—clinging to Him and letting go of the option to turn back, can you actually do what you were meant to do and really step into the realm of protection and deliverance that this psalm speaks about. You see, you must be in a relationship with Christ that gives you the confidence to totally let go and trust Him. You reach that place as you intentionally pursue Him and intimately communicate with Him.

APP

Now I realize that saying all of that makes it sound a little bit like it is your responsibility to decide to love God, as if that love began with you. You love God and He responds to your love by delivering you. But please hear me! That is not it at all! There is nothing about you that would love God if He didn’t love you first. Any love you have for Him is simply a response to the love He already showed you. The Bible says it like this: We love Him because He first loved us. And if you find it hard to get to a place of “negative return” in your Christian life; if you find it difficult to sell out completely to give your life to Christ, it is probably because you haven’t yet realized just how much He loves you.

APP

And I know that you may be saying, “Well, Rusty, that is just the problem. I don’t feel very loved. In fact, with all that is going on or has gone on in my life, I feel like God hates me. You might say that God is the great deliverer, but you couldn’t prove it by me. I’ve lost everything. I’ve lost my job, I’ve lost my marriage, I’ve lost my child, I’ve lost my reputation. I feel like God hates me.

Well, I must tell you that if you are looking at the circumstances of life as your measuring stick, you might, indeed, feel that way. But if you look at your circumstances to find God’s love, you’re looking at the wrong place. Do you want to know how God demonstrates His love for you. tells you precisely how. It says that

Romans 5:8 NKJV

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That’s how His love is shown. When the chips were down and you were on your way to hell, Christ went to the cross, stretched out His arms and died for you. And when I see that great sacrifice that God made when He sent His only son for me, it causes me to trust Him because I know that if He has given me His Son, He will freely give me all things!

That’s how His love is shown. When the chips were down and you were on your way to hell, Christ went to the cross, stretched out His arms and died for you. And when I see that great sacrifice that God made when He sent His only son for me, it causes me to trust Him because I know that if He has given me His Son, He will freely give me all things!

ARG

And, again, I know that some might say, “But that is just the point Rusty, He hasn’t. God hasn’t given me all things. In fact, there are some things which I really need that it doesn’t seem like He is giving me and I don’t know why. Honestly, reading this psalm isn’t helping my faith at all, it’s hurting it. It seems like God has made some promises here that just aren’t true. He isn’t delivering me.”

Well, let me just admit right up front that if you don’t understand the context and intent of this psalm, you might really be discouraged because it seems like God isn’t keeping His promise. That’s why, if you are going to have your trust increased, you must not only know your deliverer and love your deliverer, you must also

Our trust is increased when we trust our deliverance.

Exp

Now you will have to admit that this psalm makes some pretty incredible promises. It almost seems like the person who is protected by God becomes some kind of super hero. I mean they can go into battle with bullets taking out a thousand or ten thousand all around them and they will not even get a scratch. They can walk up to a lion, kick it in the teeth and never even get clawed. They can walk through a den of King Cobras, step on them directly and never get bitten. It’s almost like the psalmist is saying that following God will make you into Superman.

It doesn’t take very long for a believer to discover that they might be a lot of things, but Superman ain’t one of them! So what is going on here? Is this the Word of God or not? Why does this chapter promise us such lofty things when we often don’t see such lofty things happen? I mean just admit it. Many Christians DO die in battle. Many Christians died in the twin towers on September 11. 21 Christians were just recently beheaded by ISIS. Where was when all of these things happened? Is it just not true?

I think you begin to see the beginning of an answer when you read one of the times is quoted in the New Testament. In , Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. You’re familiar with the story. You remember that Satan throws three specific temptations at Christ to try to trip him up. One of those temptations quotes . Do you remember which one?

Well, there was one temptation in which Satan carries Jesus to the top of the temple and invites Him to throw Himself off. And then Satan quotes 91:11, For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways lest you dash your foot against a stone. Now understand that what Satan was asking was not something that would have cost Jesus followers. Quite the contrary. For Jesus to have jumped from the top of the temple into the great crowd below without getting hurt might have caused the people to be brought to His side. It was a short cut and Satan offered it to Him to keep Him from the cross. Now, as much as we believe in , we would not have wanted Jesus to be delivered from the cross because, when He died, He saved us forever.

So here’s the point: applies to us when we are engaged in doing those things God has ordained for us to do. If I need to be in battle and have everyone else die around me while I survive, I will be protected. If God must cure me of an incurable cancer or disease in order for me to bring the most glory to Him, if I trust Him, He will cure me. If I need a million dollars by next week in order to do what God has called me to do, God will provide it for me, but it is all in the context of His will.

You see, the only way to walk this life of true trust in God is to stop predicting or demanding our own outcomes and trust God for His. The protection and deliverance of God comes in the performance of His will. Sometimes, it is His will for us to suffer or to die. That’s why we are told to take up our cross and follow Him. Sometimes God is glorified most by delivering us from trouble. Whatever the outcome, there comes that time in our lives when we must be willing to let go and trust God like the three Hebrew children and say, “God may deliver us or He may not, but we are still going to follow Him! Our trust can increase when we come to the place that we are willing to take the deliverance that God has ordained for us; when we truly trust His deliverance.

APP

So let me just close with three quick applications and a story that I hope will tie it all together.

Increasing my

My greatest deliverance is that outcome that helps me know Him better.

First: Increasing my trust in God requires that I know Him better, but I sometimes can’t really know Him better until He knocks all the props out from beneath me and He is all I’ve got. It is in those moments that I really get to know Him. That just means that my greatest deliverance is that deliverance that helps me know Him better.

My greatest deliverance is that outcome that helps me love Him more.

Second: Increasing my trust in God requires that I love Him more, but growing in my love for Him often means that He must take all the things that compete with Him away from my heart. That just means that my greatest deliverance is that deliverance that actually gets rid of all my competing loves and causes me to love Him more.

My greatest deliverance is that outcome that helps me surrender to Him completely.

Third: Increasing my trust in God requires that I trust His deliverance, not insist on my own ideas of what that deliverance should look like. By the way, you will not really learn to trust His deliverance until things don’t go the way you think they should go. In those moments you learn that your greatest deliverance is that deliverance which causes you to surrender to what He IS doing, not what you think He SHOULD BE doing.

VIS

PIC - Burnhams

John and Kay Tallman had prayed daily for hostage missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham during the Burnham's captivity in the Philippines. As missionary colleagues, they interceded for the Burnham's safety and release. When word of Martin's death arrived at New Tribes headquarters in Sanford, Florida, the Tallmans were stunned. They had asked the Lord to cover them with his strong and mighty hand. Yet, as details emerged about the ambush in which Gracia was wounded and yet freed, it was obvious that God answered their prayer.

In a prayer letter to her supporters, Kay described the final hours of the Burnham's captivity:

Martin and Gracia and the guerrillas had been on the run for about 7 days with little or no food. Both felt this was the end. Neither would get out alive. They had been running in terrible weather, tropical torrential downpours, slipping and sliding and falling. Martin strung a hammock for himself and Gracia on the top of a little knoll. Then they prayed together—the last thing they did together. You know what they prayed through this whole ordeal? "God, thank you for the privilege of serving you. Please help us to serve you with gladness."

Then the bullets hit. Gracia was hit first and rolled down the hill away from the fighting. Then Martin was hit and rolled down right beside her. By God's own hand he laid Martin down; right by his precious bride of 19 years. They were together until he drew his last breath.

As I poured out my heart to the Father I said, "God, this isn't how I would have written the last chapter."

And his very gentle reply was, "Kay, this isn't the last chapter."

As I shared this with an older friend from church, she added, "And it's not your book!"

I tell you Christian, all of us need our faith increased. All of us need God to build our trust in Him, but that will never happen because things go the way we think is best. Our trust is increased only when we know our deliverer, love our deliverance and trust HIS deliverance.