Bible Study 2024-09-05-#203

The speaker starts by thanking God for the opportunity to gather and learn about Him. They express gratitude for being part of the family of God and being equipped with everything they need. The speaker then shares their recent travel experiences and mentions an incident of turbulence on a United Airlines flight. They reflect on the current state of the world and express a desire to understand what God offers in the midst of chaos. The speaker then discusses Psalm 91, emphasizing the importance of dwelling in the secret place of God's protection. They explain that being in God's shadow means being close to Him and receiving deliverance from various threats. The speaker encourages listeners to take refuge in God's Word and to seek fellowship with other believers. They emphasize God's love and care for each individual and the importance of trusting in Him. and opportunity to gather around your word and learn more about you and learn more about our lives in you, grafted into the true vine, that we are one with you, Lord, that because of Jesus' sacrifice and his death, his burial, and his resurrection, we are now able to call you Father, and you call us your dear children. We are in the family of God, we are the body of Christ, we are the church of Jesus Christ, and we thank you, Lord, that you equip us with everything we need for life and for godliness to do your will, and you work in us to will and to do everything that you called us to do, everything that your word represents. You have equipped us with your precious Holy Spirit and your word to guide us, to lead us, to show us things to come, and to lead us into all truth. Today, Lord, as we study your word, we ask that you open it up to us, that you open it up to our eyes, the eyes of our understanding, that you open it up and plant it into our hearts, that it may take root and grow. We thank you, Lord, that you do all things well, and that nothing will hinder us from receiving today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. So, I've just been traveling to Chicago for my family reunion, and we traveled earlier in the month to Little Rock, Arkansas, which was an adventure in and of itself, since there are no direct flights from LAX to Little Rock. We flew into Denver, and then we flew into Little Rock, and on the way back, we flew into Dallas, and then we flew into LAX. So I've been, I feel like Johnny Cash, I've been everywhere, man, I've been everywhere. And right before we left, there was some kind of event on a plane, I think it was a United Airlines flight. We flew Southwest. A United Airlines flight had some kind of extreme turbulence, and some people were hurt, and if I'm not mistaken, I think they had to land as a result. So that kind of put me in the mind of, oh no. And I'm certainly glad that my wife did not see that news report, because she gets a little nervous about flying, and I'm serious. So to see that would have been pretty bad. And then to see what's happening around the world, to see what's happening in different countries, strife and people trying to have negotiations and peace talks, and it's just a lot going on, it's a lot going on. Seeing people that, in those airports, we met different people, different walks of life. We met a couple who didn't, they were going near Little Rock, Arkansas, where they live was about two hours from Little Rock, so they had to fly into Little Rock and then drive another two hours, which I could not imagine. And just all these different people, walks of life, people that you may see or hear about on TV or radio, but now you get to meet and talk to these people. I just say, Lord, what do you have for us in the face of all that's happening? All these gun violence and people doing things that's just not good to each other. Whole countries, whole governments against each other for selfish reasons or whatever the reason, even if it's patriotic reasons, and just as citizens and especially as children of God, what does God offer us? And so the Lord put on my heart Psalm 91, and I just want to talk a little bit about Psalm 91. I know personally I've used it as an anchor to let me know that God is aware of what's happening. He has been aware of what was going to happen from the foundation of the world. And this psalm in particular talks about his protection of us, his promise to be an assurance that we can trust in him under the condition that we do trust in him, that we do, as the psalm says, abide in him. Let me read that psalm here. I'm reading from the New King James Version. It says, he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge. His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord who is my refuge even the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stump. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high, because he has known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. So this psalm is talking of the protection of the Almighty, the assurance of that protection, the assurance of that protection, how that protection is all-encompassing, protecting us from many different things, and that it is our proximity to God that allows us to participate and receive protection from God. You'll notice in the first verse it begins with, He who dwells, okay, and that this is not just He who happens to be in the secret place, or He who happens to visit the secret place once a week, that's not what it says. It says, He who dwells in the secret place. That means you live there, you take up residence there. Okay, day in, day out, this is your position spiritually, that you're in the secret place of the Most High, and that you abide under the shadow of the Almighty. And we know clearly that any time you're in something's shadow, you are near to that something. Near to that something. To be in the shadow of the Almighty is to be right next to the Almighty. And we understand that the Psalms are in the Old Testament. They are prior to the work of Jesus Christ to set us at liberty, and to join us together, and grasp us into the true vine, so that we are all one church, one body, together. In this time, God was distant, and man had to approach Him, and had to stay near Him, to stay mindful of Him. Like we see in the book of Joshua, where it says, This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That way, you are going to meditate in it day and night, observing to do all that is written in it. And not only observing what's in it, but speaking it. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. What you read, what you learn, what the Holy Spirit reveals to you, you need to agree with by speaking it, and living it, and acting on it. Here we see, if the person is under the Almighty's shadow, he is protected, she is protected. Okay? And here we also see that there's various things. Look at verse 3. Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler. Many things in these times are designed to snare us, to hinder us from doing what God wants us to do, from going forward in peace, and in prosperity, and in just normal living. That there are threats to us. The way things are presented on the news broadcast, and other, you know, these are things that actually happen. They say to us that something bad can happen to you at any time, at any place. Okay? So, what we do as Christians, we say, well, we trust Jesus, we trust the Father, we trust the Holy Spirit to protect us. And we take to heart that this Psalm says, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty is protection. Not only protection, but deliverance. From the snare of the fowler, from the perilous pestilence. We just went through a pandemic that came, and suddenly, in 2020. And we had to deal with that for a couple of years, three years, four years. Some are still dealing with this pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will take refuge. What's important to note here is that you need to take refuge under the shadow of His feathers. You need to take refuge and stay close to the Father through His Word. Close to Jesus, who is the Word. Close to the Holy Spirit by spending time listening to Him quietly. Spending time listening to Him as you read the Word, as you listen to the Word, as you participate in church services, or Bible studies, or simple fellowship between believers, and you're sharing the Word. These are all ways that we remind each other of the greatness of God, of the wholeness of God, of the completeness of God, that nothing happens that He doesn't know about. And we see time and time again in Scripture how God knows the hairs on your head. They're numbered. God knows when any animal falls, when a sparrow falls, when a bird falls. God knows each and every occurrence because it is important to Him. What happens to you is important to Him. He knows every detail about you and loves you completely, so much so that your future steps are ordered. And it's up to us to lean on Him, to find out, to flow with Him, to find other believers who are flowing in the same way that we are, who believe what we believe, and we can help each other, increase each other. Iron sharpens iron. The Word that He's given you and the Word that He's given the other believer, you come together. God knows how to make paths cross in His perfect timing. He knows how to make you hear a word. It may be you overhear a conversation. It may be you see something on television. It may be a billboard that was meant for one thing, but God speaks to you through that phrase or image in another way, in another way based on things He's already been dealing with you about. God will use it if we will stay close to Him, if we will seek Him, if we are looking to Him every day in every way where we live, work, learn, and play. We seek Him. We stay under that shadow. We know that God is speaking. God is leading. God is moving. As we continue to pray and stand, having done all to stand, we stand therefore because we trust Him. He is the strong power. He is the Father who delivers, who sees ahead and makes provision, who knows the end from the beginning, and who has designed for each one of us. I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future, the King James says, and an expected end, not a calamitous end, not a we don't know what's going to happen end. No, he said an expected end. Hope that God's word is true, that God's word will prevail in our lives, in our circumstances and situations because we trust Him. We are not walking our own path. We are not walking away from God, but we are staying close to Him under the shadow of the Almighty, under the feathers of His wings. And no matter what happens, you look at verse 7, it says a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, at your right hand, but it will not come near you. We need to stay faithful. We can't go by if things calm down around us and things are okay. That's not the measure. The measure is we trust God. We, on purpose, get closer to God through His word, through prayer, through fellowship, through the Spirit, through quiet time, through time of service in the name of the Lord, through the church or through just whatever, through the Lord saying go across and greet your neighbor. Say, you know, smile at a stranger, you know. You never know when God asks you to do something, when God leads you or unctions you to do something. You don't know what He's done behind the scenes in that other person's life for that day or that week or that, you don't know. But simple obedience can do great things. You may never know until you get to heaven just how much your simple obedience affected other lives and other hearts. So it's important for us to know that God has us, that God has, He's not surprised by anything that's happening. And if we can stay in step with Him, the path that He has us on, He leads us beside the still waters. He makes us to lie down in green pastures. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemy, a table of plenty. And He anoints our head with oil and our cup overflows so that we have plenty and more to give. This is His kingdom way. This is what we trust in. This is His word that will not return to Him void, but will accomplish what He set it out to do. And this 91st Psalm is set out to let us know that He has us. He has given His angels charge over us. If we stick close to Him, consistently be with Him, dwell in the secret place. You can't visit it once a week. You can't visit it every now and then. Early in the morning will I seek you. First thing every morning, last thing every night. I look to you, Lord. You are the center and circumference of everything I have, everything I do, and everything I hold dear. And I walk in that way. Amen. Amen. Amen. Be encouraged. Be encouraged. Amen. Thank you, Earl. You're welcome.