Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 19, 2020 | He's Still* Got The Whole World In His Hands - Physically

Transcript

April 19, 2020 | He's Still* Got The Whole World In His Hands - Physically · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for joining us and uh being here.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, this is a time that we will never forget in our entire lives, this time of pandemic and quarantine.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: We're told that it's going to change things forever, that it's gonna change how we do business, it may change how we do school, it may change the economy.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_03: Frankly, I I don't know about that.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know about uh permanent changes in school and economy and business, but I do know that it seems to be changing me.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um we don't own a dog, but my wife says that I'm changing into one.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh uh that uh I roam the house all day looking for food like a dog, that uh like a dog I keep getting too close to strangers, and uh like and like a dog, I get really excited when we get to go out in the car.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: So uh but I asked my son this week, uh I asked him casually what the weather is gonna be like this weekend, and he said, it doesn't matter, Dad, you're not going anywhere.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: So um it is changing things.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: The best thing for me about staying at home is cleaning out the refrigerator, especially the moose tracks ice cream, but that's uh changing me as well.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I feel mostly sorry for I've got it easy because I'm not a homeschool parent.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: And those of you who are homeschool parents, uh I'm sure are struggling.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's really flipped the whole computer thing, hasn't it?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: Because it used to be that the computer was your kid's best friend and it was your worst enemy.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: And and now what happens that since a lot of school is being done on computer, but the kids are getting completely bored now with that and tired of that, you're the one that's uh commanding them to open their computer.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: Kids, it's time for school, and the kids are getting going, Do I really have to?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, the moment school's over, you tell them to close it and you put it under lock and key again.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: So um, by the way, um I think I heard somewhere that tomorrow is National Homeschool Tornado Drill Day.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: So lock your kids in the basement until you give the all clear.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: How does that work?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: You're welcome.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: So uh I get to introduce a new series today called He's Still Got the Whole World in His Hands.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: It'll be a three-week series uh investigating what the Bible says about this physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: And today, on uh April uh 1.9, I'm going to open you to the first of three Psalms in the next three weeks, and it's Psalm 9.1.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, by the way, I would really love it if you could chip in and help me with this series during these three weeks.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um our titles, he's still got the whole world in his hands.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's a song you know.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and you know what I think would be cool is if your family, maybe, or maybe you and a friend or whatever got together and you sang this song and uh and taped it and then sent that into us, and and maybe we we can use that.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: I or maybe your kids could hold up artwork.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: He's got the whole world in his hands that that they came up with.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: But listen, let me give you an example of that right now.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I I'd like you uh would you guys play uh Jeremiah I had Jeremiah already uh do this.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: Take a look at this.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: One, two, three, he's got the whole world.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: It is else, he's got the whole world.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: It is else, he's got the whole world.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: It is else, he's got the whole car.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: We still got the home.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, TBC family.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you enjoyed that, and we would love for you to send in a version of your own.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Just gather your family together, make up a verse or two, send it over to Covids at discover tbc.com.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Really looking forward to seeing you guys.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: That was pretty cute.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: So uh you'll notice, by the way, that Pierce did not help out at all.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: So if you've got a family where where one of the members doesn't sing, doesn't want to take part, just show them Pierce and say if they'll just bounce up and down, uh, they don't have to do a thing.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: So uh that'll be cool.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: If you'll send that in, we would love to use some of that.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: So let's go to our first of three psalms.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: The other two will be 57 and 121, by the way, if you want to work ahead.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: And this is what I'm calling the coronavirus psalm.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I decided that after looking at I was just stunned as I was reading through the Psalms this week and deciding to pick them.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, this is the one I found.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_03: I was struck.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: The very second word in Hebrew of this psalm is the word shelter, which has become almost as common a word in America today as social distancing.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: Forty-four, I think it is, out of the 50 states have a stay-at-home or shelter in place order.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: And so we have a shelter, psalm that talks about shelter.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then, more than in any of the other 149 psalms, this psalm emphasizes a plague, pestilence, virus, not one, not twice, but three times we have in verse 3 and 6 this emphasis, which is why scholars think that there was some sort of a plague or a pestilence uh going around, the disease going around at this time.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I want to take you today to this psalm, which is a famous psalm.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's a beautiful psalm.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: And by the way, the other reason that that I think this is a perfect psalm, uh coronavirus psalm for today for the series, is I found it this week after picking it that Young Life International back on March 13th had picked this psalm and urged all of its staff around the world to read this psalm, uh or pray this psalm, I'm sorry, every day.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_03: 91 for 91 days.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: They they urge people to pray this psalm for 91 days through June 11th.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so, by the way, I would urge you to do the same thing.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: Except, let's join Young Life this week in doing that.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: So, today, tomorrow, next day for seven days, uh, pray this psalm.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: I promise you, from knowing this by personal experience, if you'll pray this psalm out loud, these 16 verses are among the brightest, most positive, most happy verses in all of the Psalter.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: So if you'll pray these, you'll be really happy you did.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: Psalm 91, the coronavirus Psalm falls basically into three parts based on the personal pronouns.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_03: Just if you take a look at it, you'll see in the first two verses, use the first person uh singular pronoun, I, me.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: So it's all about uh the Lord is my shelter.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: God is my shelter.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: Verses 3 through 13 in the middle is God is your shelter.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's all about you.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: Final three verses, God breaks in, speaks up, and says, Hey, I am your shelter.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: So uh that's the three basic parts of the psalm.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: As you read it this week over and over, as you read it out loud in prayer.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: Notice these distinctions.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna follow those as we go through.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: So, verses one and two, God is my shelter.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: Listen to these amazing words.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: In these two verses, the number four is the key number because we have four names for God, and then we have four kinds of shelter.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: Look at the four names for God for just a moment: Most High, Almighty, Lord, in all caps, and God.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: Three of these, the last three of these, we studied last fall in our names of God series.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_03: And the four words in Hebrew, the word the most high is Elion.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: Say that out loud with me.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: El Yon.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: The name for Almighty, you may remember we studied is Shaddai.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_03: This is just Shaddai, not El Shaddai, but just Shaddai.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: Lord is Yahweh.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_03: You remember that, the personal name for God, used more than any other, but all the other names put together.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: And Elohim, which is God.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: Now, just as a review, this word Shaddai is maybe my favorite.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's the key that unlocks the picture of the psalm, because Shaddai, uh uh, scholars argue for a long time, they now believe that the word basically originated from Abraham's hometown in Ur of the Chaldees out there in Babylon, way in ancient times, and it had a picture of a mountain behind it.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: It comes from the root of a mountain.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_03: But it's translated in the Old Testament as Almighty, but it'll help you to picture it as a mountain.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: By the way, I love this picture.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: If you're watching this, uh, that's a picture that I took from a small plane.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, when I was in Kathmandu, Nepal, some of us from TBC went over and had a ministry there in the capital city of Kathmandu.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: And we rented a plane because uh the smog and so forth uh is is so bad that from the capital city you can no longer see their pride and joy, Mount Everest there.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and um, so we rented a plane and got close.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: By the way, if we'd waited just five, six years to today, we could have seen it.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_03: Because with the shutdown of business and cars and everything else, they're really thrilled.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: Today, they can actually see Mount Everest clearly from Kathmandu.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a picture of a mountain, and this is the the great uh Mount Everest, which gives you a sense of grandeur.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know that I've ever felt uh more of a sense of awe.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_03: Those of us on this plane were just silent.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: We were just amazed at the grandeur of this mountain.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: And this psalm says that that's who God is.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: That's who the Almighty is.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: He is that kind of a mountain.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: I grew up, I was very fortunate to grow up in Portland, outside Portland, Oregon, on the Mount Hood side of Portland, Oregon, northeast side of Portland.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: Mount Hood is part of the Cascade Range, and it one of the largest, tallest mountains in America, in North America, and it just towered over us and gave us such a sense.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: We were, in a sense, sheltering in the shade of Mount Hood, and it gave us such a sense of beauty and security and grandeur and awe.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I have that privilege, but I think all of you know what it's like to come across the state of Kansas, let's say, into Colorado, and then you drive, and all of a sudden you begin to see through the haze uh the tall uh Rocky Mountain range.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the picture in this psalm.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: And notice the first two names for God go together because the first name was Al Yon, and that's the most high.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: So we have the most high, the Almighty, the mountain, the towering mountain, and God says, God says, he who finds his shelter in the most high will rest in the shadow of Shedi.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_03: I love that phrase, shadow of Shedi.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: Just a wonderful phrase.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: Now the other two names for God in verse 2 go together as well.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yahweh and Elohim.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yahweh's the God who is here for us.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: Remember, the very personal God, which is of course exactly what we need right now during this physical fear of catching the virus.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: He's here for us, and he's the creator of the world.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: Elohim, the word used for God in Genesis 1.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: So he's in charge of all the chemical processes and the entire world.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: So God is still, he's still got the whole world in his hands.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: He's in control.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: Now, the four words for shelter uh that connect with the names of the four words for God, and notice what they are.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: Shelter, by the way, in the King James in your old version, it said he dwells in the secret place of the Most High.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: So, shelter actually, the Hebrew word means a place that is invisible or unseen to the enemy.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: We are facing a virus today that we can't see, and it's very frustrating.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_03: It can't be pinned down.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: They haven't found a vaccine yet because they can't really nail it down, because they can't see it.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: They don't know, we don't know how really how far away a sneeze, you know, can infect, how how fatal those invisible particles are, and so forth.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: But but that's what God says, you know, I've got a shelter, an unseen shelter for you from the unseen disease that is attacking you.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: Then we have the word shadow, and and of course, this is speaking really in a hot desert land of Israel, of the cool shadow that happens when you are in a hot desert country, and maybe if you've gone to Israel with me, you know what it's like?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's so hot and so deserty down there near the Dead Sea.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: And so then you hike and you're just dripping with sweat.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: And all of a sudden, as you're hiking up the trail to what's called Engedi, you enter a shadowy place because the hill towers over you, and there is a blessed waterfall of uh coming down, and you say, I understand why David hid here from Saul.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: He hid in the shadow, the refreshing shadow of Shaddai.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so I will say of Yahweh the Lord, he is my refuge.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: This means this is a place of protection.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh a refuge is a place you go to be protected.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: So we have a uh a place that's that can't be seen by your enemy, a place of coolness from the heat, a place of protection, and finally says, and my fortress, my matzada, my God in whom I trust.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: This is uh a place that is impregnable, a place that can't be defeated.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: And and it reminds you, the Hebrew word reminds you, matzuda reminds you of matzada, there in this hot place, which uh which Herod saw, King Herod in Jesus' day, remember, uh the the the Herod who who died when Jesus was four years old.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: And he built a castle, a fortress, a three-level palace up here a thousand feet high on Masadah because he wanted it to be impregnable.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: Now, the Psalm 91 says, God is my refuge and my Masada, my God in whom I trust.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: Now, Herod did never, never really did flee to Masada, to this fortress for safety.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_03: But when the Romans were uh conquering the Jews in 70 AD, this is where the zealots, the final holdouts of Israel, ran to Masada and they hid out on top of this almost impregnable fortress with those steep walls where Herod's palace was, and uh, and they hid out there.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: And then, of course, as you know, the Romans built this ramp, and when they saw that the next morning they would be defeated rather than become slaves, they killed themselves, all 900 plus of them that night.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: And today, uh, Israeli paratroopers swear their allegiance, they take their oath, they take their vows on the top of Mazada, and they shout, never again.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Mazada could fall, this semi-impregnable fortress, but God says, No, I will never fall.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: And so we say, He is my Mazada, my God, in whom I trust.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: So here are the four uh shelters, and here are the four names for God in verses one and two.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: This is the theme of the psalm.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: This is what you have to know about the psalm, and that is that uh uh we dwell in the shelter of Elion and the shadow of Shaddai, the refuge of Yahweh and the fortress of Elohim.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely wonderful.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: If I was to boil all that down to one takeaway, it would be we need to shelter in the shadow of Shaddai.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's the theme of this psalm.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: I want you to say that out loud with me wherever you are.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_03: Shelter in the shadow of Shaddai.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: And the last line of Psalm 91, verse 2 is that means trust in God.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: So then we get to verse 313, where he turns and says, God is your shelter.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: And we have these wonderful statements.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, if you'll shelter in the shadow of Shaddai, look at what God will do for you.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: He will save you from the fouler snare and from the deadly pestilence.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_03: These are two invisible enemies.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you'll find refuge.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: Notice all of a sudden we have a second picture.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: The first picture of God's protection was that he is our mountain.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: He is the Shaddai where we shelter.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: A very masculine uh idea.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: And now we have a very feminine idea.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: The second picture he gives us is he is our sheltering mother hen.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: I had the privilege of growing up uh on a small farm, and we had a lot of chickens.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: We had a lot of hens.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them uh we pinned up, some of them we had in a shed, and it was easy to find their eggs.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them we uh we didn't know they were called free-range chickens, but that's what we had.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: And and sometimes to our surprise, we'd go out to milk the cows or whatever in the morning, and we'd find, we'd find a hen, and trailing after her, stumbling after her would be newborn chicks.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: Two, three, five, seven, nine, twelve.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: And and they would be stumbling after her, and we would just be astonished.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the picture that we have here.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: He'll cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you'll find refuge.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: And if one of our little brothers or sisters would come bumbling out of the house and scream, oh, look at the little chicks, and run after them to pick one up.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_03: And if Mama Han sensed they were in danger, she would cluck and she would raise her wings, and all those little chicks would run under.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: And amazingly, no matter how many chicks there were, she could cover every single one of them and protect them.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the picture God gives us of how he is our protector.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: Not only is he our towering mountain, our shadow of protection, so strong, what a fortress, what a mountain stronghold, but he's also our sheltering hen who will cover us with his wings, and under his wings we'll find refuge.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_03: The last line, by the way, people sometimes wonder why does it say his faithfulness will be your uh shield and rampart?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's because uh the picture is that that he will go even to death to save us.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: There's a story that didn't happen to us on our farm, but a story Pastor uh tells of going to a farm of one of his people in Minnesota.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: Farmer was so upset, his barn, everything had burned down.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: They had brought in their hay, unfortunately, put it in wet.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: Put your hay in wet.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: Those of you that are farmers know that uh the pressure of the hay and so forth, it can spontaneously combust.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so there had been a fire and burned everything down, uh, the barn and everything.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: They pulled some of the burned timbers away from the concrete uh foundation.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: But as they were walking, they saw a lump, a blackened lump ahead of them, and the farmer stopped and frustrated.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: He said it even it even burned, it even killed the uh our our hen, our barn hen.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: And and frustrated, he kicked at uh the hen and it rolled away, and all of a sudden, out uh from underneath the barn burned carcass uh came three little chicks.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: She had basically given her life, roasted to death, and faithfulness to them to save them.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_03: And you have to be reminded of what Jesus said the last week of his life.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: He stood on the Mount of Olives, looked down at Jerusalem.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: This is in Matthew 23, if you want to look it up, and he says, Oh Jerusalem, O Jerusalem.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: How often I would have been a mother hen to you, and like a hen would have covered you with my wings, but you refused.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: They refused, they rejected him.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: They put him to death.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: And as a result, you and I, in his death, run out from underneath his wings and find eternal life.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: So God is our sheltering hen.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_03: Verses three through six, by the way, emphasize unseen dangers.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: What we saw, the snare, the trap that you don't see, the pestilence, the virus.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then he says, you won't fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, the plague destroys at midday.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: Notice the emphasis on time here.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: Night, day, dark, darkness, midday.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: We freak out a little because we don't know when the virus might strike any of us.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: At night, during the day, this week, whenever.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know whether or not there's going to be a second wave.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know a lot of things.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: But he says, you don't have to fear night, day, darkness, midday.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: Now, by the way, notice how confident he is.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_03: He says, you will not fear the terror of night.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: How can he say that we won't fear the terror of night?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well, again, again, let's connect that with the first two verses.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: If you will shelter in the shadow of Shaddai, listen, friends, this psalm is actually a challenge.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's wonderful of wonderful promises, but it is especially for those of you who have sheltered in the Shaddai, who've come to Him as your personal Savior.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: And for those of you who are believers, who are not who are not trusting in man or trusting in the world, but you have put your trust in God.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: You are sheltering in the shadow of Shaddai.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: And then you know what?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: You won't fear all of these terrors by day or by night.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: Verses 7 through 10, he says this shelter is extremely personal.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's for you.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: These are single, uh, these are uh uh uh pronouns that are not plural, they're singular.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: He says, a thousand might fall on either side of you, ten thousand at your right hand, but it'll not come near you.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: And and you think of maybe William Wallace or some other soldier, you know, standing there, and everyone else has died around him, but he is but he is he has survived, and that's the promise here.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: He says, if you'll make the most high your dwelling, even the Lord who is my refuge, then no harm will befall you.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: Now I confess to you that I begin to have some, this is where you know you're going, wow, I feel like it's promising too much, right?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_03: And then all of a sudden it gets even worse.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: In verses 11 through 13, he says, he says, This is your miracle shelter.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: God is your miracle shelter, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: They will lift you up in their hands so you won't even strike your foot against the stone.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_03: Come across a stone, the angels lift you up, move you over the stone.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: And this is where you say, I mean, really?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, is this true?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_03: This is really hard to believe, isn't it?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: Especially then when we look at other psalms and we find that in other psalms we find the psalmist saying things like, How come, how come the righteous suffer and the unrighteous are always healthy?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: How come the 10,000 people are standing up all around me and I'm going down?
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_03: So we we have to balance this against the fact that uh in the Old Testament we're told that God's desire and God's heart for his children is the same as your heart for your children.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: That is prosperity and safety and everything good.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: But this God, who holds the whole world in his hands, still for his unknown reasons will allow his dear ones to sometimes suffer.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: And that's why, of course, that's why, when Satan came to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ, and Satan quoted these verses, he'll command his angels, Lord, follow me, take you up to the pinnacle of the temple.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: You can jump off because the angels will guard you, they'll lift you up in your hands, you won't suffer.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: Jesus' reply was to say, basically, you're ripping this these sweeze words out of context.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_03: You're taking this guarantee out of context.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: God can do anything, God can do everything.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: God has a heart for his children such that he would always save us.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_03: But in God's will, God will sometimes allow his own dear children to suffer.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: And then Jesus himself, to prove it in a sense, went to the cross.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_03: He went to the cross to prove that you don't always get a long life.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: He went to the cross and proved that God will allow his dearest, most beloved ones to suffer, that God will allow a virus to come to his own people sometimes, but yet these promises are valid and they're true to show us God's heart.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_03: And if somehow someone you love should get the coronavirus and die, you can say confidently that that has not lessened God's love for them.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: You can say confidently that that could not have come to them unless it first came to the loving hands of a God who says, all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called for his purpose.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_03: All right?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: So he's our miracle shelter.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then finally, God concludes in verses 14 through 16 by saying, I'm your shelter.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_03: Because he loves me, says the Lord, I'll rescue him, I'll protect him, and so forth.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_03: I have a friend who's a professor and a leader of an international evangelistic ministry.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: And he grew up uh in a very Christian family in India, and uh on their birthdays, their father recited Psalm 91 over each of them, and when he got to the last three verses, he inserted their name.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so he said, uh, when he got to this, he said, Because Ramesh loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue Ramesh, I will protect Ramesh, for Ramesh knows my name.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_03: Ramesh will call upon me and I will answer Ramesh, I will be with Ramesh in trouble, I will deliver Ramesh and honor Ramesh.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: You might try that.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: As I read this psalm in prayer out loud yesterday, I decided to insert my name there once.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: And and and you'll find that it is touching to realize how much God loves you and how much God wants to do for you in this time.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_03: All right?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_03: Now, let me ask you a question, just a really blunt question.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_03: Why should we shelter in the shadow of Shaddai?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_03: When we have all of these medical experts and when we have all these scientists, and when we are being deluged with all this information on television and everywhere else, why is it that we should leave all of that, in a sense, in our hearts, and why trust God to be our towering mountain and sheltering hen?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_03: And the answer to that, I think, is clearer than it has ever been after we've been listening to experts for months now.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_03: The answer is because as we look around us, we see the folly of trusting in man.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: The towering mountains that we've trusted in so far have let us down.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: The sheltering hens that we've run to are not protecting us.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: When we look around, we find that everyone around us is putting their trust in human experts.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: And you know what?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: Those experts have often been wrong, or even as often, they disagree flatly with each other.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: Remember back in January, at least February, when we heard about this Chinese virus, didn't you feel like I did that we're safe?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_03: Because in America, we've got the experts.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: We have the best medical experts, we have the best scientists and so forth, we've got CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, we've got FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to put the quietus on this the moment it gets close to us.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: We're protected, it can't hurt us.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_03: And now that we've dwelt in the shelter of the scientists and rescued, rested in the shadow of medical researchers and statisticians and politicians for a couple of months, aren't you stunned at how wrong they have been so often and how often they change their minds and have to change their predictions and how many questions they still can't answer?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: And here we are on the sidelines watching these proud pontificators pretending that they know it all, and concealing oftentimes the faults or misleading statements they made just a month ago, and watching them like fighting children scream and yell at each other because they disagree with each other on nearly everything.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: Now, and some of the things you and I can discern, right or wrong, some of the news we know is false, like the like that statement that the virus was caused by cell phone towers or by a foreign attack or by a plot by Bill Gates.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: We know that it's wrong after Samaritan's Pearce and Franklin Graham set up a temporary hospital in Central Park to treat coronavirus patients.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_03: We know that national paper was wrong that ran a hit piece against it saying it was substandard care and discrimination.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_03: About 10 days ago, the New York Times ran this ridiculous, ridiculous hit piece which blamed evangelicals for paving the way to coronavirus hell, unquote, by denying science, by looking to faith healers and miracle cures instead of the medical experts.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_03: It was like it was vicious and stupid slander.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: It was like Nero blaming Christians for the fire for Rome's burning, that we were somehow responsible for the virus spreading because we don't trust the scientific experts, you know, and that we should put our trust in experts and put our trust in man.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_03: And yet this week, just one week later, in the same newspaper of record, the Times, there was an amazing article pointing out that the scientific experts either can't answer or disagree with each other about nearly every important question.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: So uh, and it listed like 50 straight questions, the most important questions of all that the experts can't answer.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know how many people have been infected with COVID-19.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know the full range of the symptoms.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know why some infections develop into severe disease and others don't.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know uh for sure how the coronavirus first emerged.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: We we we don't know how much China is concealing from us and lying to us.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know what percentage of adults or children are asymptomatic.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know for certain if the virus is gonna subside when the sun comes out and we have a lot of warm weather.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh CDC says it's gonna subside.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: They're really bullish on that.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_03: Other experts say no.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know about immunity.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know about whether or not you can be immune after you get it, or if all of a sudden, you know, you can catch it again.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: You know, a lot of disagreements.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know about treatments.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know about which treatments are fully effective.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_03: We are told that there's not gonna be a vaccine for 18 months.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, then we hear about hydroxychloroquine, which I've taken uh for malaria when going overseas, that that helps some, but we don't know how much.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_03: And then suddenly we get this great news in the last week or two that that there is uh there's a drug that that stemmed the Ebola virus called Rimdesivir, and Rimdesivir is it holds a lot of hope, but nobody really knows about the treatment.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: So there's just so much we don't know.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: And and just this last week, here's an example of how do you know you know what you know.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_03: Remember hearing that ventilators were absolutely vital, and if every hospital didn't have enough ventilators, then more people would just fall over dead.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: All of a sudden, there's a you know, there's a major article, you know, by uh Johns Hopkins Hospital and so forth just this last week that said they're discovering that ventilators really aren't as useful as we thought, and it would be better to use the uh the the the the pregnancy massage tables because they like make people lie flat.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: And same with a mask.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_03: An article comes out this week saying, you know, we're all wrong about masks.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_03: We told you everybody should wear a mask just two weeks ago.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: So basically, all I'm saying is this we just don't have answers, despite the fact that we have all the medical experts and scientists in the world and we're told to trust them, and you and I, I don't know about you, I'm listening to everything they say.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: But you know what?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_03: If you put our trust, if we put our trust in man, then we are not listening to God, and we find ourselves angry with each other, we find ourselves frustrated, we find ourselves confused, we find ourselves, and I'm not knocking the experts, I'm just saying, you know what?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: They themselves are now admitting they don't know.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: So what do we do?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_03: And the answer is this.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_03: I'll close with this.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_03: You trust in God, you shelter in the shadow of Shaddai.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: Let me put it in one sentence.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: We listen to man, but we trust in God.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, listen to man, to the experts, but trust in God for three reasons.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_03: Number one, he's still got the whole world in his hands.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: The sovereign God holds absolute sway over the sun and the rain and the wind and the stars, and yes, over the virus and over nations and over locusts and so forth.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_03: The second thing I'd say is what this means to shelter in the shadow of Shaddai is you need to make sure you trust God for salvation.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_03: One thing we can say for sure is that this is a wake-up call from God.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: Every time a disaster strikes, it's God saying to the world, you think you've got the world in your hands, but you don't.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's out of your control.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_03: I've still got the whole world in my hands.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: Come to Christ.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_03: There are so many people that are going to say, I trusted Christ.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_03: I came to faith during the coronavirus, during the pandemic.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_03: Do that.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's a wake-up call to get ready for Christ's return.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_03: And finally, third, if you are a believer, trust God for your health and for your life and for your happiness and for your peace and for your rest.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_03: Shelter at home, yes, but far more important, shelter in the shadow of Shaddai.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_03: Friends, I don't know what the future holds for us.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_03: We live in confusing times, but I do know this that although life is uncertain, God is certain and he still holds the whole world in his hands.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_03: Forty years ago, 40 years ago, someone never suspecting that it would be a memorable song sat down and pinned a song called On Eagle's Wings, taking it right out of our psalm, Psalm 91.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_03: The words go something like this You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord, who abide in his shadow for life, say to the Lord, My refuge, my rock, in whom I trust.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_03: And the chorus goes, and he'll raise you up on eagle's wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of his hand.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'm asking Jeremiah to lead us in that song after I pray.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_03: Would you pray with me?
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_03: Heavenly Father, I pray that in the uncertainty of this time that we would be the kind of people who shelter and trust, not in our ability to discern which medical experts are right and which are wrong, but in you, our towering mountain, our sheltering hen.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_03: It is a hot desert of a world that we live in right now, Lord, and we look for your cool shadow, Shaddai, your high mountain hideout, your angels, your sheltering wings.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: We believe that you still have the whole world in your hands.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_03: Would you show us your power and your protection, Shaddai?
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_03: We pray it in the amazing name of Jesus.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.