The Place of Safety | Rev. Jerry Mason

Welcome to the first episode Church podcast.

Our church mission is to love as God loves showing compassion

Every Soul, thus, winning those souls and equipping them to be

sent out to plant and to harvest.

Thank you for joining us today. And we hope that you are blessed

by today's podcast. Chapter number 18.

What a blessing it is to be in God's house today.

I am humbled and honored to stand before you this morning in

the absence of our pastor. If you are visiting today, I do

apologize. Please do not judge.

This assembly based on me, come back when pastors here.

Hey man, but we are so thankful to have you this morning.

The Book of Psalms chapter 18. And verse number one, Says.

Psalms 18 · chapter mention

This is starting in the actual verse but just just hang there

with me brother, Zach for just a moment, but in most Bibles there

is a heading or kind of a forwarding address to what is

about to be said. And those words I do not want to

overlook this morning because they kind of set the tone for

what David is saying. In Psalms chapter 18, it says to

Psalms 18 · chapter mention

the chief musician, a Psalm of David The servant of the Lord

who spake unto the Lord, the words of this song in the day

that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies.

And from the hand of Saul and he David and he said this is where

we pick up on the screen today. I will love thee O Lord my

strength. The Lord is.

My rock. And my Fortress, and my

deliverer, my God, my strength in whom, I will trust my Buckler

and the Horn of my salvation and my high tower.

I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so

shall I be saved? From mine enemies.

Bishop, would you take us to the Lord today in prayer and ask God

to speak? What he would have to be spoken

to us today? Amen.

I want to talk to you this morning on this subject.

The place of safety, you may be seated. 13 months ago.

We witnessed a colossal change and shift away from what we have

known to be normal. In all of our lives.

Life looked different. Life felt different. we went to

bed one evening and awoke to differences that, no living

person on planet Earth had ever witnessed It was overwhelming to

see restaurants closed businesses closed, and some

regrettably shut down permanently pictures of

families, and social media talking to elderly.

Loved ones through a glass window pane.

The death toll Rose each day. With no hope.

I watch the news everyday. I watched the numbers of new

infections and death at both the state and federal levels.

As a local business leader, I was a member of a global daily

Global briefing on the State of Affairs of our local economy as

well as our state and federal conditions.

As I continued to watch the news media, I continued to feel

oppressed by the complete and total lack of hope that I was

witnessing. Although, at the time, I did not

recognize it as oppression. It just kind of happened.

Because no hope was offered. Finally, about 12 weeks in.

I stopped watching the news except for maybe the weather.

Almost overnight. Most not all most of the

overwhelming fear. I was experiencing disappeared

But what I had not realized until about 8 weeks ago, when

pastor preached and indicting message to this church on how

far we are now from where we used to be as a congregation in

our worship. It was only then that I started

realizing the damage Bishop that have been done in my life.

The battle that I had been experiencing in my mind that if

anybody else knew it. It wasn't because I told them

because I wasn't recognizing it myself.

It just kind of happened. Fear had left its Mark while all

of you except for pastor myself and my wife, but the Alex, but

the Zack can sister melin. We're at home, trying to press

through the awkwardness of having Church in your living

room. We were here, trying to press

through the awkwardness of having Church in an empty

Auditorium. The change affected My Worship.

I've come to be transparent with you this morning.

The oppressiveness and heaviness of the world's condition.

Affected My Worship. Fear affected My Worship.

It also affected my fellowship. I started recognizing this about

eight weeks ago, that all of this oppressiveness in heavy

mindedness and mental anguish and anxiety, had put me in a

condition where I would come to church clock in and clock out at

the last a man and get to the car as fast as I could.

Now on the back side of the story we can see clearly.

I hope you can. I trust that you can see clearly

exactly how politicize the media exposure of the virus was now

hang with me here before you tune me out.

I mean, no disrespect to anyone affected by this, horrible

virus. I know firsthand that it is

real. I'm not here to declare

otherwise But it is clear to me that media fear Monger set out

to spend the story to fit a narrative of their own mission.

If you don't believe that recall, I would challenge you to

recall to your mind today. The number one story the day

after our presidential election, for the first time in months,

the media headline was not covid-19 It wasn't.

The Second Story, it wasn't even the third Story, the Twitter

trending topics. It had been the number one

trending topic on Twitter for months going, it now ranked the

eighth or ninth topic of Interest somehow.

The priority of importance shifted, my point today is not

to stir up your political passions.

My point, this morning is to reveal.

You how strategic your adversary can be at inciting fear into

your life? No matter what the headline is,

the headline topic may change, but the fear is at the

fundamental core of what he's doing, he wants to scare you

away from a relationship with God.

Somebody say, Amen. Fast forward to today.

Some 13 months after this beginning of colossal, change in

our nation. And in our world, you see a

world that is full of fear. Full of fear.

Fear a bounce and every corner fear is at the core of every

news. Headline, fear is everywhere.

You look, there are shootings stabbings and murdering of mass

scale on nearly a daily basis. The racial divide in this

country is worse now than it's ever been.

Let me tell you something this morning.

You can't fight racism with racism.

And I will declare to you this morning.

If you want to talk about lives, that matter.

Stop putting a color in front of it.

We need to wake up as the church today and realize that the enemy

is trying to back us into a corner where we're scared to say

anything. And I'll declare to you today

that this this fight is not about color.

If you think it is you've missed it.

This is not about this is a spiritual warfare.

It's not about race, it's not about equality.

Those are Buzz words that are used to get our emotions stirred

up but that's not what's at the core of the story.

It is a Onslaught attack from hell and the enemy of your soul,

in the enemy of my soul, wants to stir us up to the point that

we get nothing, but fear, and hatred inside of us, the church

needs to be the light in the Darkness.

Not another house of Darkness. Hatred and animosity of one

human being to another is at an all-time high.

But we need only turn to the word of God today in, see that

Isaiah prophesied? That there are those who will

call evil good. And good evil.

He says, and we have it in our society today.

Those who put Darkness for light, And Light.

For Darkness, you can't even rationalize what's happening

today. Some of the things that are

happening right in front of us are so blatantly evil and wrong

that, I scratch myself my head bishop and I think to myself.

How is this possible? How can the common man not see,

clearly with 20/20 vision. How evil and wrong that is And

the the answer to how it's possible lies in the word of God

that we are seeing unfolded right in front of us.

Of those who would call evil. Those who would put evil on

display and demonstrate it and stand back and talk about how

good it is. We're seeing that unfolded in

front of us. In the happenings of today, you

can't rationalize it because it's spiritual.

You can't rationalize it because it doesn't make sense because

it's a spiritual attack. It is a spiritual warfare.

And the words of Luke chapter 21 have never rang truer.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

When he wrote, and there shall be signs in the Sun, and in the

moon, and in the stars and upon the Earth distress of nations

with Plex City, the Sea, and the waves roaring men's Hearts,

failing them for fear, for looking after those things which

are coming on the earth for the powers of Heaven shall be

shaken. And then, shall they see the son

of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

And this is where our hope lies today, and when these things

begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads for your

Emption draw with not. Satan, your adversary is not

worried about you robbing the local gas station.

Hear me today? He's not cared.

He is not cared one bit about you robbing the gas station or

robbing your neighbor. The enemy of your soul today is

not worried about. You drinking yourself to a

drunken stupor, what he's worried about the name of the

game in 2021 is fear. If he can scare you.

If he can immobilize you. That's what he wants.

He wants to take away from you. And he doesn't want to do it.

He doesn't see the game has changed from when I was a kid.

When I was a kid, Sister Margaret growing up in the

church and listening to my dad, preach Sunday, morning, Sunday

night, Wednesday night, and Friday night.

When I was a kid growing up, if you wanted to walk away from

God, you didn't come to church. That's just the way it was.

Right wrong or indifferent people.

Who did not want a relationship with God or who were walking

away from the relationship with God.

They did so publicly stage front and center by not going to his

house. Now, that's a subject all in of

itself that I'm not here to touch today but what I am here

to say today is that through fear and through intimidation

and through the tactics of the 21st century today, your enemy

is not concerned about you now. Coming to church, he's concerned

about you. Coming to church and not getting

victory over your fear. He doesn't care us being in

church, hear me? I am not anti coming to church.

If that's what you get out of what I'm saying.

Then I'm doing a really poor job at saying it.

We need to come to the house of God, but the devil is not scared

for you to come to church. Come to church.

I think you scared the devil. I don't think that scares him

anymore because the 21st century church has gotten to the point

that unfortunately I say this with all due respect we have

gotten to the place where that we are comfortable coming to

church and comfortable not having Church.

God, help us today. And we one of the blockages, one

of the brigades to us coming to church and having church is

fear. It's mind games.

I may only be talking to myself this morning and if I am, sorry

for you. Thank you, God, for what you're

doing for me, but I'm telling you today, mine games are real.

And it's very difficult to get out of your own head.

It's nearly impossible without a move of God to get out of your

own way sometimes. That's why, that's why I've come

to tell you today. That if he can take away your

peace, he's going to do it. If he can take away your joy, he

will do it. If he can take, if he can

oppress you with fear, he is going to do it.

And in doing so if he can create enough mental, anguish and

anxiety, and fear in you and overwhelm you with worried, he's

going to do it and when he does it, he is going to take away

your worship. But they said, why do you keep

what? Are you keep referencing

worship? Because worship is where our

relationship with God is deepened.

Worship is where my relationship with God is demonstrated to him

that I believe he's worth my duty worship is where the

victory is won. Worship is more than a shout.

Worship is more than a dance, but worship should not exempt us

from dancing and shouting. Worship comes from a place in

the depths of the heart worship. Let's the heart overcome the

mind. Ladies and gentlemen, I'll

declare to you this morning. That if you lose your worship,

you will lose your relationship with God.

I did not realize how impressed I was.

I did Rip not realize Bishop today until 8 weeks or so ago

that I was simply going through motions.

My wife knew it the night that he preached it because it moved

me to tears sitting in the Pew because I was feeling.

So indicted, I was feeling. So, so convicted over where I

had been and I didn't even realize the journey.

Because he's so subtle. He's so subtle with what he

does. He's so slick when he lies that

he can trick us into believing that we're okay. but if you lose

your worship, if you don't maintain your worship, you will

not develop a deeper walk with God.

To your enemy. This is non-negotiable.

He will stop at nothing less than ownership of your soul.

That's what he's after. He's after full.

Ownership he is like, please forgive the carnal reference,

I'm sure anyone who watches television has probably seen

this reference before but he is like the the drug dealer.

That passes out a bag of drugs. And I'll probably I hope I get

the terminology here wrong because trust me I don't know

what I'm talking about hardly but he though give out freebies.

And then they'll Jack the price up to 25 cents a bag.

And then once they get good and addicted then it's five dollars

a bag then it's $10 and oh oh I'm sorry the price just went up

Market competition, it's 50 dollars a bag now, That's what

he does. It may not be by drugs, but it's

through some type of subtle activity that he comes in.

And this is a freebie and then he starts charging a price.

And the price is intimidation in our worship.

The price is intimidation. In our fellowship.

Me tell you something, we need each other.

We need we need each other and I have, I have recognized this

recently just for my own walk with God but we need each other

more than what we've ever needed each other.

And I'll say that. We need each other more than we

know we need each other. We need and I don't Pastor has

talked about it recently and I know in his heart we set the

Kinect theme for 2020 and then 2020 happened and when on his

heart is still connect and there is there is little things, less

powerful than are more powerful than the connection that we

have. When we come to God, I need to

connect with him and I need to connect with you.

But our enemy doesn't want that. Our scripture text and Psalms 18

finds David making a declaration.

He's making a declaration of how great and wonderful God had been

to him. All of you Bible readers.

Know how David ran from his ran for his life, from King Saul.

We don't have time to go deep into the story here.

But we need to understand today that David had feared for his

life. David have been anointed king by

the hand of the Prophet it's possible today, I can only

imagine in my mind's eye that David might have also been

afraid of disappointing God because of the anointing that he

had placed on him but yet in all of David's issues, the Bible

declares to us that God took care of him.

God had proven himself faithful to David.

Our primary focus today in this scripture text is less about

what happened to David in God's provision, although that's very

good and very great. My focus today in this message

to you is more about where God took care of David.

Less about the walk and more about the where for the Bible

declares in Psalms, 18 and verse 2, the Lord is my rock.

Everybody say rock. We're going to stop right there

and just focus on that portion of scripture.

The Lord is my rock. The word Rock here is from a

very particular word form in the Hebrew language.

It is se la. It is not the Salah that we see

in other. Farms versus that is just simply

a musical, rest pronounced the same different word.

It is a word that represents more than just your typical rock

or Boulder that you could imagine.

But it is the formation of what's known, as a craggy Rock

anybody ever heard of a craggy Rock?

I'll feel so much better because I hadn't either.

I had to look it up, craggy Rock.

It's, I don't know if it's fun to say or weird to say, but

nonetheless. That's what Salah in the Hebrew

stands for is a rock formation that is developed with Crags.

A Crag is a rugged, harsh, and tough formation.

They are steep high and uneven brother.

Zach if you could help me today and put up the photo, this is a

photo in the Judean desert of a craggy Rock.

And if you can just see here this is It's zoomed in, but this

is kind of high up lofty area and you can see it's not smooth.

It would be hard to stand on, right, because where you going

to put your feet. You might put a left foot there,

but your right foot, maybe over here, that it's not even ground.

It's firm. It's firm Like a Rock but it's

uneven. And if you've got balance

issues, it would be hard to climb.

I'd probably take two steps and fall backwards down the hill

because it's uneven, and it's not death, not easy to navigate.

Thank you, brother. Zach, God is Not only a rock,

he's not only the foundation on when we which we stand, but we

God delivers us when God puts us in a place that we need to be.

Sometimes we don't know that we are in the place of his

Deliverance just yet. We often try to rationalize God

and say, God, I thank you for Lifting me up above my enemy.

I thank you for providing for me and giving me protection, but

God, I can't move here. I can't navigate the situation.

This is not the right place for me.

This situation is too tough. These rock formations are too.

Rugged for me. These the cry.

Rags. And these rocks are too abrasive

and harsh for me to walk on. God, what are you expecting me

to do here? And the thing that we need to

understand today is that God requires total surrender and

total trust when he we need him to deliver us.

When God gets you to a place of safety, your feet might feel

uneven. You're standing might fit not

feel too firm. You might not recognize your

surroundings, but understand today that if God puts you

there, God will prosper you there.

Just trust God, trust the hand of God, your situation might not

feel secure. You might be facing hard

decisions. You might be dealing with a

broken heart today. Your life might not.

Look today what it looked like yesterday.

But if you will, hold on to God. And worship him and serve him.

God has got you in the place of safety.

God has got you in a place that you can't navigate it on your

own because he doesn't want you doing it on your own, he wants

you trusting him for the next step.

David sang in the Psalms 18 and verse to the Lord is my rock.

And my Fortress and my deliverer.

My God, my strength in whom I will trust.

Do you understand today what it means to trust?

Total trust. Complete Trust.

It requires. Everything.

Trust requires everything. Nearly three years ago I went in

for a routine surgery and as Pastor closed as prayer.

The last words that I said were God, I trust you.

And when I came out, I found out that I had nearly died three

times on the table. Vocal cords, slam shut.

Last words out of my mouth Sister Margaret and I meant

every one of them or God I trust you.

And, when I came out, I had asked them.

I had asked them. How would, I know when I wake

up? If the surgery went bad.

I asked too many questions sometimes probably but this was

a good one. How will I know?

and they said, It was a sinus surgery and he said when you

wake up, if things did not go as expected, you'll be surrounded

by a team of nurses, holding your legs and your feet.

So that you don't Go for the face.

Okay, fair enough. Because I want to know what to

expect. I hate surprises.

I'm a recovering control freak. I hate surprises.

Went into surgery. Come out.

And I don't know how long I was out.

I don't know how long all the happenings went.

But when I came out, how surrounded I wanted my head to

on the leash this arm to on this arm and a couple at the feet.

And whenever my eyes opened and I saw all those people, I said,

dear God, what happened? And the anesthesiologist did it

had gotten so critical the anesthesiologist, stood by my

side, the entire time. I was in recovery, waiting on me

to wake up to make sure that I woke up.

And she's patting me. And she say, you're all right.

You're all right. Trying to keep keep everything

down. You're all right.

What happened here? All right.

What happened your? You're all right?

They wouldn't tell me for a while.

I asked for my wife. You couldn't find her.

We don't have any record of her being here.

I got six people holding me down.

And they can't find my wife. And she's telling me, hon,

you're alright. Trust.

I told him I trusted him. I don't know if all that was a

means to an end for him to find out how much or not, I don't

know today, but what I can tell you is whenever I was in the ICU

ICU room for the next two days, guess where the struggle was?

Right here in my mind in between the ears.

And yes, what the enemy of my soul started telling me.

Look what trust got you? It was subtle, it was quiet but

he was speaking to me. It was it was so obvious that it

was almost Bishop. It was almost as if it were

audible, it wasn't. But it was that's how much in my

spirit. I could hear him saying look

what Trust. And laying there in bed.

I don't remember. It was the middle of the night.

I don't remember what time it was, but laying there in bed.

I remember etching out the words.

I rebuke you in Jesus name, Me tell you something church, if he

can steal your trust in God, he will take it away.

If he can steal your dependency on God, he will take it away.

I will say to you and I say this with respect to day, but the

reason in this is good not only for this assembly but for every

assembly, if you're listening today by way of the internet, I

will tell you that. If you are struggling in your

relationship with God and you have not yet, put your trust in

him. That that is exactly what he

wants from you. Just care for you to come to

church. It's probably a bit happier when

you miss but he doesn't care for you to come as long as you come

and you don't find a place of safety while you're here.

If we go back to verse to brother Zach, he's my Buckler.

That's a bit of a peculiar translation word, but it just

simply translates as Shield. Because what happens whenever I

put my trust in him. God puts a shield up, he's

protecting me. I don't always recognize it as

protection because I'm standing on craggy rocks, and I'm

thinking called, watch what you put me here.

God of all places. I thought you were forming.

Why did you put me here? He is for you.

He puts you there on purpose because your next step needs to

be designed by him. He puts you there because he

needs you to trust him for your next step.

It's the Horn of my salvation. He is my high tower.

I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised so shall I

be saved from mine enemies? we had, we had a What I would

say. Incredible season of worship

last Sunday. One.

Now I can only tell you how I feel.

All right. One that I believe was way past

due The only reason it happened. was because people, Continue to

push continue to press and begin to obey the voice of God.

You want to know where we start to lose our trust in God?

Sitting on a church, pew. Filling the worship in here. but

saying, it's not really me. They don't want to hear me

tonight. They don't, they don't want to

see me jump. They don't want to, they don't

want to see me. They don't see me, pray.

They don't want to see me cry again.

It's fear and intimidation tactic of the enemy.

And he's trying to, he's trying to transform the Apostolic

Church into something that we can't even recognize because

we're scared of the people that we supposed to love.

Tell me how much sense that makes.

We're supposed to love each other, right?

This is what we call our church family, right?

We're supposed to support each other, right?

We're supposed to be the arm in the elbow to help lift somebody

up, right? So why would be be scared of

them or their thoughts, or their actions?

If I worship Weekly in, it's not the people.

It's your, it's your Enemy. The person across the aisle from

you is not your enemy. The Devil is sometimes we come

into the house of God feeling hopeless, I'm about done.

But there is a place of safety here.

If you feel like you've lost what you need today, there is a

place of safety for you. There is a painting of a chess

player. Show the final move on the board

that have been made. The name of the painting

checkmate. Now, if you don't know anything

about chest today, let me explain briefly that checkmate

When you hear the words Checkmate from your opponent,

that means you have no other move left.

You just lost. Over the moon, a man, saw this

painting in an art gallery and it caught his attention.

He stared at the painting for a long while and then he, he asked

the attendant in the art gallery for a chair a table.

And a chessboard, The man. Gave the attendee, gave the man

a table, a chair, and a chessboard.

And he set that up right in front of that, painting called

Checkmate and he studied the painting longer trying to work

out what he saw on the board, that was painted.

He studied it and suddenly a smile came across his face.

He called for the attendee at the art gallery and he said,

please Don't get the name of the man who painted this painting

and call him. I am a world-class chess

champion. And after studying this

painting, I can tell you he still has one move left.

That's where I believe we are today.

If you'll stand with me this morning, if you are here today

and you have felt like you've lost ground with God and fear in

life have taken its toll on you emotionally, physically and

spiritually. I've come to offer you hope

today. You still got one more move.

Hope is not lost. We serve a god of Hope today.

We serve a god of Hope. Could you lift your hands this

morning all over this sanctuary and just in your own way, quiet

or loud. Just begin to talk to the Lord.

Begin to declare unto him that he is your hope.

He is your peace. He is your deliverance.

I've not come to a Checkmate today, I've come to a place of

safety and I still have a move left.

I still have something that I can do.

I still have a place that I can go to?

And that's the house of God. As many as would this morning.

Thank you for listening. If you would like more

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MC. Again that's fac MC, thank you

and have a blessed day.