Draw Near | Sweet Security (September 29th, 2019) - Mike Armstrong

Psalm 91.

It's where we're gonna spend our time this morning.

Actually, just in the first two verses, really, of that psalm.

Now, uh, when it comes to uh some of the vehicles that I have owned and driven over the years, uh I have had the distinct pleasure of driving some serious piles of garbage.

I really have.

I was always the guy with the vehicle that my friends made fun of.

I was the vehicle that constantly let me and my passengers down.

I mean, I remember my very first car, maybe I've shared this with you before, but it was a 1986 Ford Ranger pickup, and uh it was the worst vehicle ever.

I don't even know how to say it any more clearly uh than that.

But it was the kind of vehicle, it was so old and it was so brutal, it was super rusty, and it was like, you know, part of it was black, part of it was blue.

It didn't look uh very good at all, but it was one of those vehicles where, I mean, when it rained, it wouldn't start.

You know, you'd have like moisture in there, and uh excuse me, it just wouldn't work.

And so, you know, I would get stranded in all kinds of different places driving this thing.

I remember getting a stereo installed in it at one point, and the guys that were doing that called me, and they were all nervous on their in their voice because the truck had somehow caught fire uh while they were installing it.

Um it was it was crazy.

I drove a 94 Mercury stable wagon, which was like twice the size of the truck.

And uh that thing was sweet.

You could sleep like a family of six in that thing real easy, but I mean that thing that overheated constantly.

I mean, I remember you know stalling out and being you know stranded in North York, like in the middle of the night, coming home from hockey one night.

Um, all it had transmission slipping issues.

I mean, I owned a I owned a vehicle once that had, you know, just constant sketchy brake problems and and uh headlights that constantly conked out and had to be uh replaced all the time.

I mean, um essentially it was impossible in these vehicles, and trust me, this is just the tip of the iceberg in the ones that I've had, but it was essentially impossible to feel safe and secure in these cars.

Now, have you ever noticed that as people, we are you know fairly obsessed with safety and security?

We really are.

From buying cars that you know, we insist have to have that five-point safety rating, right?

That makes us feel good.

And you know, they've got backup cameras and they've got sensors all over the place that you know, if anyone comes within like a hundred miles, there's you know, you know, dings and bells and sounds going off and all of that to just warn you and safety and all of that, right, to our to our homes, right?

Having these complex, sophisticated security systems, right?

Or at the very least, I'm sure that we you know lock our doors at night, right?

Because we care about uh safety, right?

We have phones, we've got computers with passcodes and you know, eye and and fingerprint scanners so that we don't get hacked, right?

We don't have our sensitive information stolen.

We feel very uneasy, and uh, and rightly so, I think, when our security is at risk and when we sense that it is.

Now, I mention all of this because uh one of the most powerful things that that happens as we draw near to the Lord is that we find such incredible security in him.

That's what we find as we grow in him.

I mean, that's what the that's what the psalmist found, that's what the psalmist experienced and wrote about in the psalm we're gonna look at today, in Psalm 91.

Right?

How in in life's adversities and and and trials and threats to our safety uh that we often feel, just you know, as those who live, and let's be honest, it's a it's a volatile world, right?

It really is.

Right?

How in the midst of our troubles, we can and will find sweet security for our souls as we draw near to the Lord and deepen our relationship with Him.

That's what the psalmist talks about, and I want to read this for us now.

And so why don't you follow along with me in our by in our in your Bible?

Again, like I said, we're gonna be focusing this morning on verses one or two, but I'm just gonna read the whole thing here, all sixteen verses.

It says this 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 he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge.

His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler.

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the dark in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague shall come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

On their hands they will bear you up, lest your stri strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent will trample underfoot.

Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him, I will protect him because he knows my name.

When he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him.

With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.

God, as we even read that right now, Lord, we pray that your spirit would be moving and working in power here this morning to encourage us and to get our our eyes and our minds and our hearts and our and our hope onto you.

God, we know that this uh world is a mess.

We know that our lives uh are messy and complicated at times, Lord.

There uh are certainly great moments and there are some difficult ones as well, Lord.

And I pray uh that in all of this, as we would see here this morning, that ultimately our security is found in Jesus Christ.

Lord, I pray that you would stir our hearts with affection, stir up our joys here this morning, get our eyes on you, knowing that you are good, knowing that you are there and you are with us in the trouble, in the difficulty.

Lord, I pray that uh we would have such confidence here this morning in you.

Lord, I pray that if there is anybody here who is uh feeling especially or very insecure in their own lives about anything, Lord, I pray that they would find their security renewed in you today.

And so, God, strengthen our church, draw us close to you as we come before you, our great and mighty Lord.

God, speak to us, we pray, in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, you know, I think it's probably safe to say that you need to be living under a rock uh to not know that there are all kinds of moments in our lives where you know things like anxiety and and fear and and pain can you know kind of invade our souls, right?

Maybe some of you are living uh in that kind of place right now, right?

And they pose, when that happens, it poses a uh a serious threat to our inner sense of security.

Right?

For you, maybe it's the the anxiety that that floods you as you sit down and try and get a handle on your family budget, you know, and you're you know, you kind of got the Excel spreadsheets open and you've got your banking apps open and you're trying to crunch some numbers and try and figure all of this out here.

And how are how are we gonna make this work?

And how are we gonna provide and pay for our bills and and you know and give our kids a good life and be able to do all of that?

And when you're not sure, it's just again that sense of security kind of evaporates.

It could be the stress of relational conflict.

And maybe it's a person or or people that you're you know used to being close with and that's been strained.

Or perhaps it's just this desire that you have to open up with people and to share what's really going on, but maybe you question and you wonder, can I really trust them?

Can I trust them with this information?

Can I trust my spouse even with this kind of this deeper part of me?

Or you know, will I be pushed away?

Will I be judged by the person?

When we feel that way, we don't feel very secure.

It could be the fear that gets lodged in your throat when you experience loss of some kind.

It could be the loss of a job, it could be the loss of a loved one that was just a rock for you and a particular type of anchor for you, and that person is now gone, and now I don't I just don't quite feel as secure as as I used to.

All right, these are the kinds of moments where you and I uh it becomes very obvious to us that we just we crave security, don't we?

We want that in our souls.

We just want to know in these moments that it's it's gonna be okay, right?

That there is hope out there, that I that I don't have to just walk through this alone.

Well, again, this this powerful sum shows us that that God is the answer here.

Right?

He is.

He is there, and he's our security right.

It's who he is, it's it's what he gives us, it's what you and I can grow to experience as our relationship uh with the Lord grows deeper.

And so uh let's look at our first thing here this morning.

If you've got your notes here, we've got two uh points to go through.

Here's the first one.

As I draw near to God, I discover sweet security.

The rest that comes from abiding in his matchless strength.

All right, well, if you would take a look with me here at verse one, here's what it says.

It says, He who dwells, okay, dwells in the shelter of the most high.

Now let's pause it right there for a second and unpack that first part there a little bit.

First of all, it says, uh, he who dwells, right?

He who dwells is the the person who sits or or remains, right?

That's what the word dwells there means.

Okay, you call your home, I think we talked about this a little while ago, but you call your home your dwelling place because that is your main base of operation, right?

That is that is where you live.

You spend a lot of time there.

It's where you sleep probably every single night that you're not away somewhere on vacation or on a business trip or something like that.

You sleep there, it's where you would have probably a lot of meals and you gather around the table.

It's the place that you raise your family and and see your kids grow up.

And it's a place where you would entertain guests and and have people, right?

That's your home, right?

It's your home is where you dwell, it's where you spend a lot of time.

Now, keep going.

This continues here.

It says, he who dwells, read that, in the shelter.

Right?

He who dwells in the shelter.

Now, shelter literally just means like a covering, okay, or or or a hiding place.

Right?

I was just on a canoe trip uh back in August with a bunch of guys, and uh, you know, what do you do when you first get to your campsite?

Like first thing, it's like go set up the tents, right?

Get that thing set up because I think there's a there's a sense of safety that comes in that and security, knowing that the tent is set up first thing, and that way if it if it rains and the weather turns sour, at least I have somewhere a shelter that I can go to.

Well, on this trip, uh, you know, we knew that the weather was the forecast was a little bit on the sketchy side, and so we went a little bit uh step beyond all of that, and we don't do this every year, but this time we decided to step up like a massive, massive tarp up in the trees that we could gather all of our food stuff and kind of create a kitchen under there, and that way if the weather opened up, we would have an even safer place, a better place for all of us to gather and be safe from the elements.

That's exactly what a tarp or or a tent does.

It's a shelter.

Now, keep going.

He who dwells in the shelter, okay, got that, of the most high.

Okay, now this verse here that we're looking at, just verse one, shows us two incredible, I think, titles belonging to God that that reveals to you and I some amazing truths about who he is and and what he's like, what kind of God he is, right?

That he is the most high, as it says there, shows that he is high above, he far exceeds and surpasses every other kind of authority uh in the universe.

Every jurisdiction, every other influence, every other ruler that has or does or ever will exist.

God is high above all of it.

It speaks to the to the position that God occupies, which tells us something, I think.

It reveals to you and I the special ability that God uniquely has to provide our protection.

Right?

He is the most high.

Now look at it again.

He who dwells in the shelter of the most high, what does it say next?

Will abide.

Okay, abide uh literally means uh to lodge or or to spend uh the night.

Okay, so similar word to the word dwell that we looked at.

Okay, so he will abide in the shadow, I love this, in the shadow of the Almighty.

Okay, now the word Almighty is just a picture of ultimate strength.

Right, right?

Like nothing, nothing touches him, right?

Strength that that far exceeds and surpasses is superior to all other forms of might.

All right, so you put even just this first part of verse one all together, and and what do you get really?

Well, well, it's saying that when when life is is coming apart at the seams for you and I, in the major and and minor ways that it does that for us, right, and you feel that that inner desperation inside of you welling up and you know, and you and you're stressed out and and and fragile and and shattered soul, right?

We feel that, right?

That desire for security, that desire for for safety and and protection.

Right, when this is happening, right, this verse is essentially saying, run to God and stay there.

Right?

That that that that's it.

Right?

He is where you find security, real security.

Right?

So dwell in him, right?

Uh dwell there, live with him.

Right?

He is your shelter when you experience the storm.

Right?

His shadow, think about what a shadow does, it shields you from the sun, right?

His shadow is where you find sanctuary from from scorching danger.

Right?

When you feel insecure and unsafe.

Listen, I know that a lot of this is not news to many of us.

Many of us have heard this before.

This isn't new information.

Some of you have read Psalm 91, it's a very well-known one.

Some of you haven't memorized even.

But when rubber meets road in your life, you wake up on a Monday morning, and that desire for security is either a faint whisper in your hearts, which I think it always is, or or maybe, depending on your circumstance and your life situation, it's a you know, it's just an outright roar of of desperation that seems to drown out every other desire.

The question is, where do you turn?

Where where do you turn?

Who or or what do you run to?

So what are the what are the things that that you tend to look to for your sense of security?

Right?

Think about that right now.

What are they?

Is it something like money?

Right?

That that's a big one for a lot of people.

As long as I have money, then I feel I feel at ease.

If there's any kind of anxiety in my life, it's about money.

Right?

Does that describe you?

Are you are you the kind of person that's that's constantly monitoring your your bank account?

Are you are you the kind of person that's you know that that's watching you know how your finances are doing?

And you're you're on that because for you, deep in your soul, you have this desire for security through money, through the things that money can buy.

Is it money for you?

Is it is it pleasure?

Sometimes when we're feeling insecure and in the storm of life, all we want is just to feel good.

Right?

I I I want I want pleasure.

And some of us we go to just outright foolish things, sinful things.

And we're trying to just backfill that that void in our hearts and in our lives because I feel so insecure and I just want to feel something that's that's good.

And in that, sometimes we make just straight up foolish decisions.

And we chase after extremely sinful things.

Other times they're they're not outwardly or outright sinful things, but they're still pleasure.

They might be appropriate types of pr pleasure, but even those can turn to sinful and and harmful when we want them too much, when they become idols.

Is is pleasure your thing?

That's what you run to when you feel insecure?

Maybe you just try to busy yourself.

I think a lot of people fall into that category.

I just want distractions, man.

I feel I feel kind of insecure, and so I'm gonna go busy myself with seemingly harmful things, certainly at face value they are.

It could be something like gardening.

Right?

I'm just gonna go, you know, lose myself in the garden in the backyard and just spend hours there busying myself.

It could be, you know, puttering around and tinkering in the shed or or or in the garage or just you know, wasting time online or in front of the TV, whatever it might be.

What are the what are the distractions that you run to because you feel a sense of security, at least temporarily, in that.

You guys remember back in the day, like in the mid-2000s when when iPods first came out?

Right?

That was when I was uh in youth ministry, and I remember parents always freaking out because uh, you know, how every kid had like earbuds in their ears constantly, and they were always listening to music, and it was always kind of a big deal back in the day.

And now it's less of a big deal just because everyone does it, right?

Like myself included, I always have earbuds in listening to different things.

But I remember talking about this, this thing would, this is what this would kind of come up in in youth ministry and talking to students.

I remember chatting with several students at multiple points, and some of them were very honest and very real and and transparent about what was going on sometimes when they did that.

So I'm not saying every teenager is like this, but some of them admitted and would just say that you know what?

I have the music in my ears constantly because I'm afraid to turn it off.

When I turn it off, then I'm forced to face my insecurities, I'm forced to face my problems.

In the silence is when those things scream at me, and because I don't want to deal with those, I just drown, I try to drown it out with music, and I've got my earbuds in 24-7.

Maybe for you it's not an iPod, it's not earbuds, it's not headphones, but what is your iPod?

What is the thing that you run to to try and bring some kind of security through distraction?

No, it's not just things like that that we look to for security.

Right?

God has also given us people.

Right?

People can can give us a measure of security, and and God has given us people to you know to help us and to encourage us and to point us in the right direction in life, which is so great.

Right?

But do you find that that sometimes your heart looks for ultimate security in people?

Do you find that people are your your only go-to, your number one go-to?

Maybe it's uh a member of your family.

Maybe for you it's your mom, and your your mom is that you know that wise sage and the person who has always been there for you, and you find that you you're you're constantly going to your mom.

It could be your it could be a grandparent, it could be your spouse.

I just go to them constantly.

It could be a friend that you have, you're so close with and you love them, and that's so great, but you're you just go to them constantly and only.

It could be anything like uh, it could be pastors, it could be your small group leaders, it could be great things like you know, great people like biblical counselors who can be so wise and help you, it could be your favorite author.

That you know, your favorite books, that you go.

Again, these can all be really good things.

I'm not saying that they're not.

They can be gifts from God even.

But here's the point of all of this.

Those people, right, and those things that we mentioned are not the most high.

You see that?

You get that?

No person can or ever will be as mighty as the Almighty.

Right?

Which means that they will never get you, give you the depth of security that your heart really desires and your turbulent life requires.

Right?

The Lord is our primary source of security.

But too many of us have made other things and other people our primary source.

And we've relegated God to just kind of being this secondary source that we go to once in a while or or maybe not even really at all.

So be reminded again that this verse here, what we're looking at in verse one, is such a picture of rest.

Right?

And where that rest is truly found.

I mean, don't you want that?

Don't you just want rest for your soul?

Right?

It's just it's churning and it's there's turmoil, and I want that security so badly, and I just want I want that peace and that calm and that that tranquility.

I mean, that's what I want in those, in the weariness, in those moments of dread and and fear, and when I feel kind of tormented and afflicted in different ways.

Right?

If that's you, dwell, right?

Abide in God.

In his shelter, in his shadow.

Right?

His strength.

You you can't tap that out.

Right?

It's matchless.

Nothing, and absolutely no one can ever touch that.

He alone is our true security.

That's where it's found.

You know, all of this kind of got me thinking this week about those times when I was a kid, and maybe you went through this as well.

I remember being really young and you know, coming home really late at night with my parents and my brother, and you know, it was a kind of a long day.

We might have been out, we might have been playing sports, we might have been hanging with friends or whatever it might be, and you know, we're exhausted, right, at the end of the day.

You know, and the kids, of course, they fall asleep in the back seat on the way home.

And I remember as a kid very vividly, you know, getting home, and you know how you're like kind of 85% asleep, but there's still like kind of some awareness.

And I remember, you know, that feeling of kind of backing into the driveway, and the car gets quieter, and and then finally the car turns off, and the vibration of the car just quiets, and and then the light turns on in the car as the door opens, and I would be kind of laying there in the backseat, so so quiet, and I would feel my dad kind of you know reach around and unbuckle the seat belt and and just kind of scoop me up and kind of hold me in his arms, and he would he would walk me into the house.

And I remember I remember I'm kind of semi-awake at this point, right?

I'm probably drooling down the back of his shoulder.

Right, but in that moment, you know, I'm I'm I'm so exhausted and I am so tired from such a long day.

And I remember how how great it felt to just rest in the arms of my dad.

Right?

It's just a sense and this awareness of how strong he was.

I I didn't ever question whether he was gonna slip on the front steps.

I didn't think that he was gonna drop me.

I knew that he was gonna, you know, place me gently into my bed.

I knew that I was, I knew that I was safe, I knew that I could rest when it came to my dad carrying me.

Again, that's just kind of what I got thinking about as I was reading this verse this week.

Right?

Our God is like that.

Only infinitely more so.

So will you draw near to him this week?

Will you do that?

Will you look for your security in him?

Will you take some time this week to kind of chart a plan?

I'm gonna get back into the word.

Maybe you've been away from it.

Maybe it was kind of a bad week in terms of you know your own devos and quiet time with the Lord.

But you know what?

I'm just gonna get into the Psalms.

Maybe it's gonna be this song.

You're gonna study this throughout the week, and I just wanna get close to the Lord again and remember the sweet security that's found in him.

Maybe there's some things in your life that you realize you tend to run to for security and for safety and for protection.

And you're gonna start to engage those those things with the Lord.

You're gonna bring him into that.

Yeah, Lord, I am running to security and money, I'm running to security and in just busyness or friends or people, and those people and and all those things can be can be great and be very helpful in life, but they're not the thing.

They're not the ultimate security.

Lord, you are.

Would you would you pray with him this week, to him about these things?

Would you, you know, as you meet with your small group one of the evenings this week, seek the Lord with the community that you're in.

Lord, would we find our security together in you?

Would you do this in us?

Would you do this in our church?

Right?

Nothing comes close to that.

Let's find our security in him.

Second thing here.

Last thing.

As I draw nearer to God, I discover sweet security.

The confidence that comes from trusting in his protection.

Take a look with me at verse two now.

Verse two says, I will say to the Lord, okay?

Notice the the confident declaration in these words here.

I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.

Right?

He's bringing it there.

He feels it.

Now the language here, I think there's some some similarities to you know to what we saw in verse 1.

You see the word uh refuge here in verse 2.

It's a place that you would go to for shelter.

We saw the word shelter in verse uh one, of course.

Shelter from danger, right?

That the Lord is my my fortress.

You see that in verse two as well.

That's that's obviously a picture of protection, right?

Protection during uh war.

Right?

That you that you would you would flee to the strongest, you know, sturdiest fortified city or castle available, uh, and I would find safety uh in that.

Now, I don't know about you, but do your kids uh make forts ever around the house?

I know my kids are young enough and they uh definitely make forts all the time, especially down in our basement.

Now, uh, is it me or uh do those forts always seem to lack a certain uh structural integrity, right, in the in the engineering, right?

It feels like I always hear them kind of arguing, like, don't touch it, right?

You can't touch it, or the fort is just gonna fall.

Right?

That's not the Lord.

Okay, the Lord is our fortress, right?

He is he is He is strong, right?

He's He's impenetrable, right?

Nothing is gonna, nothing's gonna touch that.

In God, there's no pillow holding up the corner of a blanket, right?

That's not it.

Right?

It's strength, it's bulletproof.

It's tough.

Nothing is gonna topple that wall.

It can withstand anything, all of life's arrows, right?

All of the problems that get lobbed at us, right?

The wars that we find ourselves in.

And because the psalmist has confidence in the strength and and in the security of the refuge and fortress that is his God, he says this.

He says, My God, right, in whom I trust.

This is a confident man speaking here.

Right?

He's making his proclamation.

This is a bold statement.

He's like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna buckle here, I'm not gonna lose heart, I'm not gonna grow weary or or grow faint.

Rather, because because he's drawn near to the to the most high, right, his his his refuge and his fortress, he's like, I'm gonna trust the protection of the Lord's matchless strength.

Right?

That's that's it, that's what I'm coming after.

Now, I think with all of that being said, I think there are some, or something anyways, really important that we kind of need to talk about, and I think really think our way through well and think through biblically.

And it's this if I could frame it in a question, it would really be this.

What does God protect us from?

Right?

Like what does God's protection really look like?

Right?

Maybe that's kind of been brewing under the surface of what we've been talking about in kind of in your mind and in your heart here this morning.

Because I think we would all readily acknowledge that we're not protected from a lot of things.

Right?

You know that.

I I know that as well.

We've all got problems that we're trying to manage on a daily basis, right?

We all we all experience apprehension about different things.

We we've all experienced pain of all different sorts.

Many of us have gone through things like heartbreak or illness and disease.

Some of us have had some serious injuries, right?

And we even know this, we're not even protected from death.

Right?

We're all ultimately headed towards that.

We're straight up not, we're not spared of these kinds of things.

But as you kind of look through and read through this psalm, it definitely says that God will deliver us from snares, and you know, we will not fear, and and and plagues will not come near us, it says, and and we won't even strike our foot against a stone.

Okay, but but we look at kind of the difficulty and the and the challenge of our lives, and and I think maybe you know, if we're really honest, we we kind of have a hard time reconciling these words in the text with just the reality of our lives.

I mean, maybe, maybe you've even thought, man, does God protect me from anything?

Even the last week alone, I can think of some arrows that have struck me.

Maybe you're thinking, man, this just doesn't seem to be my experience.

Am I doing something wrong here?

Or maybe you've even thought that perhaps God just isn't who he says he is.

Or he's not able to do what he says he will do, or even promises that he will do.

Well, I was reminded again earlier this week uh something that uh JD Greers, a pastor, uh, was saying, and I found it so helpful that Psalm 91 uh is what uh Satan actually quoted when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness.

And Satan, of course, is just the great twister of scriptures, isn't he?

He loves to warp and distort the Bible and and you know and use it against us, and I mean even use it against against Christ.

Here we see it.

Right, after Jesus had gone 40 days and and 40 nights without food, uh Satan meets him and he tries to convince Jesus to bow to him by tempting Christ with this kind of warped idea that of what protection and rescue really looks like.

That's how Satan came at it.

He was kind of like, you know, hey Jesus.

He says, God will command his angels concerning you.

Does that sound familiar?

Yeah, we just read it, Psalm 91, verse 11.

Psalms 91:11

And it's what Satan said to Jesus in Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

He goes on to say, on their hands, that's the angel's hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Again, Psalm 91, this time verse 12.

We see that in Matthew 4 as well.

And so Satan, he's trying to sell the idea that God will rescue, God will protect Jesus from all of his discomfort, right?

All of his, all of his misery, all of his pain.

Of course, we know that that God's will for Jesus was that he would endure much pain.

Right?

We know the scriptures, we know the gospel, we know that Christ would be crucified just a few years later, after this interaction with Satan.

We knew that he would suffer mightily on the cross, we knew that he would be betrayed, we knew that he would be mocked and scorned and beaten beaten.

Right?

We knew that Jesus would go through through all of this.

Why?

Well, to take the sins, the punishment of sins on himself so that you and I, if we would trust him by faith, if we would confess our sins, we would be forgiven.

Think about all the wrath of God being poured out on Christ instead of us.

I don't know, that doesn't sound like comfort to me.

It wasn't.

It was very painful.

But it was God's will.

And Satan, or and Jesus, of course, he doesn't fall for Satan's scheme here.

Because again, he knows that Satan's distorting Psalm 91.

Jesus knows what God's will is, he knows what he came to earth for and where he was headed, and he knew, uh, because he was God what protection is really all about.

And it's certainly not about being shielded and guarded from every instance of pain and sorrow and and harm and discomfort in this life.

It's just not.

So again, what is God's protection about?

And how can we trust him?

How can we trust that?

How can we have confidence in him?

Do you see how important it is that we would understand this, that we would not misunderstand this and have more of a Satan type understanding of what protection should look like instead of how God would have us understand it?

Well, to shed light on this, I want to share a story here.

I don't know if you're familiar with the story of Jim Elliot.

Uh Jim Elliot was uh a missionary back in the 1950s uh to the Hawani tribe in Ecuador.

Uh the Hawani were uh completely isolated from uh the modern world.

And uh, you know, they did not uh speak English, and uh they were very uh primitive, and they were absolutely known for their extreme violence and danger uh that they posed uh to outsiders.

But Jim Elliott and uh some friends of his had a real heart to uh take the gospel to this tribe, this tribe that had never heard of God before, let alone Jesus and the gospel.

And and so they you know started to make inroads with this, and they would fly their plane over the tribe, and they would they would drop like care packages uh down to the Harani uh tribe.

And so slowly but surely they appeared to be uh gaining uh the confidence of this tribe and starting to make a connection, and as the story goes, they were able to land their plane uh one one day on the beach, and as they go to meet uh the Harani tribe, they were met uh by about ten of their warriors, and Jim Elliott and his four other companions uh were all murdered by spears.

Their bodies were found uh much later drifting uh down the river.

Now, I don't know if you know the rest of the story.

I would encourage you to look it up sometime, and there have been movies actually made of this, and it's quite powerful, actually amazing what the Lord did through all of this.

The the pilot of the plane, his name is uh Steve, was Steve Saint, okay, and he was actually the first man to be killed on the beach that day, and it was Steve Saint's sister and and a number of others that in the wake of the death of these five uh missionaries, they continued the work and they eventually made in ground, and the Lord did an amazing work of saving pretty much this entire tribe and and reconciling them to God through Jesus Christ.

An amazing, amazing story.

And possibly one of the most incredible parts of it is that Nate Saint, the pilot, right, his son uh Steve ended up being baptized uh by the very warrior who was responsible for murdering his father.

The two of them ended up traveling around the world together, sharing the gospel.

Amazing, amazing stuff.

Now back to Jim Elliott here.

You might think it quite natural uh for Jim's wife to question God's protection.

Right?

After all, he died in a way that Psalm 91 says uh that we will be protected from, right?

Interestingly enough.

And the cool thing though is that here's what his wife, Elizabeth Elliot, uh wrote in a book that uh she later authored.

It was called Shadow of the Almighty, uh, which as you guessed it, it's about Psalm 91.

And in this uh quote, let's get it up on the screen here if it's not there already, I think we find this immensely helpful in terms of insight into what God's protection is really about.

Here's what it says it says the refuge of the people of God, refuge or protection, is not refuge from suffering and death, but a refuge through it, and a refuge from final and ultimate defeat.

Church, listen, you will not be spared from all of life's trials, all the pain, all the disappointment.

Some, surely.

I'm sure that we can all look back on the things that the Lord has spared us from as we think through all that could have gotten a lot worse, and the Lord was really gracious in those moments.

I think one of the most exciting things will be when we are in glory and we are face to face with him, you know, just kind of learning about the different ways that we were protected that we're unable to even see right now.

But listen, we've been protected probably more than we even realize.

But again, understand that God doesn't promise that we'll be spared.

What he's promising here is that he will be with us through it all.

Right?

He is our he is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Right?

That's Psalm 46, verse 1.

Psalms 46:1

I mean, he provides the grace that you and I need to endure and withstand when we are going through the war.

Right?

He is our protection in and through the battle.

And we can trust him with that.

Right?

Knowing that even in our suffering, as Romans 8 says, all things work together for good for us.

Even when it seems unfair, even when it seems heavy and harsh and brutal and all of that, we can trust and know that the Lord is working this out.

He loves us, he is for us.

On top of all of that, even, what God promises through a psalm like Psalm 91 is that that of ultimate protection.

Right, because of the salvation that that Jesus secured for for you and I, and that he gives us by his grace, because of his love, listen, we understand that as Christ followers, those who have been redeemed and have been saved, you know, we we can never be destroyed.

Right?

We will never be defeated.

No matter what happens to you and I in this life, no matter what happens to us tomorrow or in a year from now or or 10 years from now, we have to understand and realize and take joy in the fact that we are promised eternity, right?

With with God.

Our salvation is secure.

Right?

That is our greatest security.

And that is why we are confident now.

That is why we will trust him.

So, question for you, and I want to leave you with this will you trust him?

Will you trust him?

Will you take confidence in the fact that the Lord has his hand on your life?

Don't let your emotions lead you through all of this.

Allow the truth of God's word to lead you.

Anchor to that, hold to him.

Live under the shadow of the Almighty.

Find your refuge, find your strength in him.

That is where your security is found.

You can take confidence in this.

Knowing that, again, in an ultimate sense, he's not letting you go.

Never.

Not now, not a billion years from now.

What an awesome thing to consider.

What an awesome thing to think about.

I want to pray for us now that the Lord would stir us up here, not just in this moment, but even just this week.

Security that is found in Christ alone.