SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of The Road at Chapel Hills.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Road Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: My heart is to empower you to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this message impacts you.
SPEAKER_00: You have your Bibles, would you turn to Psalm 91?
SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned last week, we're going to be in this great psalm.
SPEAKER_00: This is the psalm that many a soldier has prayed before he jumps out of an airplane as a paratrooper.
SPEAKER_00: Many a man going into battle and combat is love, Psalm 91.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis said it was one of the great psalms of the fortress nature and the refuge nature of Christ in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And we need that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a psalm that speaks of abiding in the shadow of El Shaddai, of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you know, I sit out on my porch in the evening.
SPEAKER_00: Most evenings in Black Forest, when it's kind of cool, I sit on my front porch because the trees, the trees cast a big shadow across the front porch, and I don't get that piercing sun.
SPEAKER_00: It shades me.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: It's about, you know, if I was in the sun, it would be maybe 91, 92 degrees.
SPEAKER_00: But then when I get in the shade, it's like 77, 78 degrees.
SPEAKER_00: Because the shadow, the shadow shields the sun.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're talking about the shadow of God, the shadow of Al-Shaddai and the secret place that God is in.
SPEAKER_00: And let me give you my thesis.
SPEAKER_00: My thesis today is this that if you abide in God's secret place, you will live under his protection, provision, and power.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_00: If you abide, if you choose to abide, it's your choice, in God's secret place, and I'm going to tell you there's three.
SPEAKER_00: I believe there's three areas called that we could call God's secret place, you will live under.
SPEAKER_00: You will live under the protection, provision, and power of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's an if then.
SPEAKER_00: If you abide in the shadow of the Almighty, you will receive his protection and provision and power.
SPEAKER_00: That also means that if you choose on a regular basis to not be in the secret places of God and to not be in the shadow of the Almighty, then you miss out on his protection, his provision, and power.
SPEAKER_00: Now you get some of it, obviously, because God's good and he's loving and he's kind and none of us are always perfect in this.
SPEAKER_00: But to the extent, to the extent that we can live in that secret place of God is the extent that we experience him in a deeper way.
SPEAKER_00: So look at Psalm 91.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start at verse 1, and I'm gonna give you a little overview of where we're going with this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna first talk about what I think are the secret places of Al-Shaddai, and then we're gonna look at the rewards.
SPEAKER_00: There's 10, I see ten major rewards for staying in the secret place of God in Psalm 91.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he says, He who dwells, he who abides, some of your Bibles say, in the secret place of the Most High shall abide or dwell under the shadow of the Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Almighty is really an important word.
SPEAKER_00: There's three names for God in Psalm 91 in Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: Elion, which means most high, Elohim, which means sublime God, and Shaddai, which means the Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a definition that I really like.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a combination of several definitions for Shaddai.
SPEAKER_00: It means mighty, unconquerable, almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty all-encompassing, folks.
SPEAKER_00: Unconquerable, mighty God, 50 times in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Some scholars say the word comes from an Akkadian word for mountain.
SPEAKER_00: This idea of a mountain, impenetrable mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Shaddai has a combination of She, which means who, and day, which means sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: It is the all-sufficient God for every need.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't think you could pick a better word than El Shaddai to say that's what you're searching for.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of you in this room are searching for Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be found in your 401k.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be found in the stock market, which has dropped 25% in the last six months.
SPEAKER_00: It is found in El Shaddai.
SPEAKER_00: Almighty God, unconquerable God, the one who always wins.
SPEAKER_00: The one who always has your best in mind.
SPEAKER_00: And if you will obey him, you'll walk in the abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good news.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think I'm convincing you of that.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's looking at me like, what are we having for lunch today?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's try that again.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it means: it means mighty, unconquerable, almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: It means all-sufficient for every need that you have in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Say amen if you understand a little bit of what I just said.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So those who dwell in the secret place of Al Shaddai will receive God's protection, his provision, and his power.
SPEAKER_00: Take it from the writer of Psalm 91.
SPEAKER_00: I believe this is David writing this, who's life radically changed just by bringing a bag lunch to a bunch of soldiers in a valley against Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, at that point, when he suddenly was exalted as the great warrior of Israel, it was like all hell broke loose for the next 17 years in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what he's talking about in Psalm 91.
SPEAKER_00: He found a protection and a provision in God like he had never known before as a sheepherder.
SPEAKER_00: And so God's going to do that in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You guys realize that there are things that God has for you to do, there are places he's called you to go, there's relationships he has for you to experience that will be scary, they will be frightening, they will be difficult, but he's calling you into it.
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't get Psalm 91 in our life, we can't go there.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants you to go there.
SPEAKER_00: He's got great things for you.
SPEAKER_00: He's got stuff you've never experienced before, but you've got to come to understand the shadow of the Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, and Him I will trust.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's what David's doing right here.
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching to himself.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you've got to preach to yourself to believe what you want to believe, but you're not believing it.
SPEAKER_00: But you got to hear your voice say to the Lord, He is my refuge, He is my fortress, in Him I will trust.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just gotta say it, folks.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just gotta declare it when everything in your emotions says that's not true.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm freaking out, I don't know what to do, and you have to just say that God is your refuge.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say, God, you're my refuge.
SPEAKER_00: God, you're my strength.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm gonna abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be under El Shaddai.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna believe that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna trust that.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta say it.
SPEAKER_00: There's power in declaration.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: I just know that psychology has been telling us this for years.
SPEAKER_00: That when you say stuff, when you make declarations and positive declarations, the difference it makes emotionally, even physiologically, is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And so I've come to be a big believer, as you can see at the very beginning of this, I'm a big believer in declarations.
SPEAKER_00: So I see this declaration of abiding in the secret place, saying it and entering into the secret place as key to your attitude, key to the freedom you experience that you already have.
SPEAKER_00: You already have freedom.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Jesus follower, if you're a Christian, you have that freedom, but sometimes you've got to say it to believe it to make it become active in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to give you three thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Here's three of the secret places that I see in scripture that I think are key to abiding in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the first one is found in Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna come back to Psalm 91, but turn to the left.
SPEAKER_00: Go to Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 22, 3.
SPEAKER_00: But you are holy, Psalm 22, 3 says, but you are holy, enthroned in or enthroned on the praises of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: When you praise God, God's enthroned in your life.
SPEAKER_00: When you worship God, God is enthroned in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Praise is one of the secret places of God.
SPEAKER_00: And when I think of secret places of God, church, I think in terms of God's manifest presence, not his omnipresence.
SPEAKER_00: His omnipresence, he's all here, he's all around us, but his manifest presence is where he comes, he expresses himself in something often that you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: It's in other words, it's it's you deciding to obey God and trust him, his manifest presence comes.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don't.
SPEAKER_00: We've had times in worship, praise and worship at the road, and I know this is gonna freak out some of you.
SPEAKER_00: It freaked me out.
SPEAKER_00: We had gold dust on the shoulders of everybody up here.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is about like a year ago.
SPEAKER_00: And then we had prayer meetings in the back here on noonday prayer where people would come out, they have gold dust all around, and there's like no explanation.
SPEAKER_00: That's a sign that makes you wonder.
SPEAKER_00: That is weird, man.
SPEAKER_00: But that's God.
SPEAKER_00: God did that.
SPEAKER_00: And did you hear me talk about it?
SPEAKER_00: Hardly ever.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't want people running after signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: I want us having signs and wonders follow us and run after us because we're obeying God.
SPEAKER_00: And so the secret places, listen, the secret place, number one, is praise and worship.
SPEAKER_00: When you come to praise Him, you're enthroning Him on high, but He's getting enthroned in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You're entering into a very, very secret place of God that He manifests Himself.
SPEAKER_00: So learning the habit of praise, perfecting praise in the midst of problems is a big, big, mature habit and discipline that can set us free.
SPEAKER_00: It's really hard.
SPEAKER_00: Take it from me.
SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to praise God when things aren't going well.
SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to go into praise when your emotions are just warring against you doing that because you're depressed, you're despairing.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, learning to praise God in the midst of despair is the way you break the power of despair.
SPEAKER_00: So that's number one.
SPEAKER_00: So I think praise is huge.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, prayer is a secret place of God.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a secret place of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, but when you pray, go into your room.
SPEAKER_00: When you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah says, Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me.
SPEAKER_00: I will listen to you.
SPEAKER_00: You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah continues, call to me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.
SPEAKER_00: So there's something about calling out to God that gets God's ear, that gets God's attention, especially in the secret place that no one knows about.
SPEAKER_00: No one knows you're there.
SPEAKER_00: You know you're there.
SPEAKER_00: God knows you're there, and you cry out to God for your wife.
SPEAKER_00: You cry out to God for your husband.
SPEAKER_00: You cry out to God in your singleness.
SPEAKER_00: You cry out to God in struggles that you have.
SPEAKER_00: You have same-sex attraction, you're struggling with that.
SPEAKER_00: You're struggling with pornography, you're struggling with lusting at work for someone who's not your wife.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, you you come to God and you cry out and say, Lord, would you begin to transform me?
SPEAKER_00: Would you change me?
SPEAKER_00: I give, I surrender this to you.
SPEAKER_00: God's there.
SPEAKER_00: That's a secret place.
SPEAKER_00: You're starting to abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna become your refuge, he's gonna become your strength, he's gonna become your power and your peace and your provision.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good news.
SPEAKER_00: This stuff works, folks.
SPEAKER_00: It works.
SPEAKER_00: So first, praise.
SPEAKER_00: Second, prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Now the third one's gonna surprise you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look at Psalm 62.
SPEAKER_00: So now I'll go to the right.
SPEAKER_00: Bring our back up toward Psalm 91.
SPEAKER_00: Go to Psalm 62.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those sermons.
SPEAKER_00: I heard this sermon in 1982 when I was in Tokyo, Japan, by a speaker and never forgot it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, most of you guys are gonna forget this sermon two hours after this service.
SPEAKER_00: But every once in a while you hear a sermon or you hear a message, and it's like, whoa.
SPEAKER_00: And it sticks with you for years.
SPEAKER_00: And so this this message, now the way I'm the way I'm unpacking it here is different than the way he did, but he really made Psalm 62 come alive.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 62 is, I think, the third secret place of God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Truly my soul silently waits for God.
SPEAKER_00: From him comes my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He only is my rock and my salvation, he is my defense, I shall not be greatly moved.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, my soul, wait silently for God alone.
SPEAKER_00: For my expectation is from him.
SPEAKER_00: He only is my rock and my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He is my defense.
SPEAKER_00: I shall not be moved.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting on God is a secret place of God.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting on God for something you've been praying about, waiting on God, that's something that's really hard, and you're waiting on Him in silence is actually a secret place of God.
SPEAKER_00: God is for the waiter.
SPEAKER_00: God is for the person who will not give up, who will take a stand in praise, in prayer, and wait on God.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna run, you're not gonna cut and run.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna stay there and you're gonna keep believing that God's gonna show up.
SPEAKER_00: That's a secret place of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I think God creates situations in our life where there's no answers, where there's no help, where it looks impossible, and he's forcing you to take a stand in him rather than run to the to the nearest uh situation that could take care of it just like that, but it might not be of him.
SPEAKER_00: So there's something about waiting on God.
SPEAKER_00: So the praise is a secret place of God, prayer is a secret place of God, and waiting in silence before the Lord is a secret place of God.
SPEAKER_00: God's there.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, He who dwells in secret place of the most high, El Shaddai, shall abide in the shadow of El Shaddai, in the shadow of Almighty God, the unconquerable Akkadian word is mountain of God in his protection and provision of our own.
SPEAKER_00: So, what happens when we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's the rest of the Psalm.
SPEAKER_00: So go back to Psalm 91.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 91 gives us what I think are 10 results or 10 characteristics of those who learn to abide in the shadow of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us have stuff in our life that we're waiting on God on.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody in this room has something you've been praying about, and God has not shown up yet, but you take your stand.
SPEAKER_00: You keep trusting him and keep believing him.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's some of the results.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think all of these are true at all times, but most of them are true most of the time.
SPEAKER_00: So, verse 3, surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, he delivers you from the traps set by people.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that people will bait you and set a trap to ensnare you?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if that's ever happened to you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, right.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as a Christian, as you walk as a Christian, you're gonna have more and more traps, and you know a trap has bait in it.
SPEAKER_00: And I've trapped, I've trapped muskrat, and I've trapped a lot of different animals, and there's always a bait.
SPEAKER_00: You have a bait.
SPEAKER_00: A muskrat, not so much, but you have a trap and you and it's to catch you, and it's there to kill you, is to destroy your reputation, is to destroy your walk with God, and the more and the stronger you walk with God, the more there's gonna be people that are gonna set traps to take you down.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does he mean by this?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I think he means.
SPEAKER_00: I think what he's saying is if you'll stay in the secret places of God, praise, prayer, waiting on God, in the word.
SPEAKER_00: God gives you wisdom about people who are out to get you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have a wife beside me that is wiser than I am, and nobody gets hired on this team without my wife's we're running it through Liz.
SPEAKER_00: Because Liz has got an eye for stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a saint in every criminal, and she thinks there's a criminal in every saint.
SPEAKER_00: And um, and so if there's any any motives and and what you know, you know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: You guys are all laughing, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You get that, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's true though.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of people that say they're Christians or say they're pastors, and they're up to no good.
SPEAKER_00: And they're out to set traps for you.
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta be careful.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be careful who you hang out with.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful of that.
SPEAKER_00: And don't and don't just throw that out and say, oh, that's the old self, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, sometimes it is.
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, a lot of times there's people out there to get you and they set traps for you and bait you.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and so I think that as we stay in those places of prayer, praise, waiting on God, you start to have a spirit-filled intuition about people.
SPEAKER_00: So, folks, you could solve a lot of your employment problems in your jobs if you would stay in the secret place of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think he'll speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: He says it here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, He will cover you and deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is really big because Israel at that time was entering the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: They were constantly around tribal groups all around them, very agrarian culture, tribes moving in and out.
SPEAKER_00: Israel was becoming more and more of a centerpiece on the trade routes to China.
SPEAKER_00: Diseases were prevalent at that time.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, Look, if you'll stay in the secret place of God, I'm gonna guard you even physically.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he emphasized it.
SPEAKER_00: This is actually the main point of Psalm 91, because look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Nor of the pestilence that walks in the darkness or the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: God wants us to be physically protected by him.
SPEAKER_00: This is really important.
SPEAKER_00: This was important for the crops at that time with the locusts, and it was important for Israel as they were being influenced by others.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you, man, I don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_00: I've tried everything, but when I go to China and when I go to India, I I throw up all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And I I don't have the antibodies of whatever it is that's in Calcutta or whatever it is in these cities that I go to.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't get deathly ill or anything.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for God's protection, but I do get sick at times.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's saying that, but there's an overall protection over us.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we went through COVID, gang.
SPEAKER_00: Probably 10,000 people came through the doors of this church over about a year and a half time.
SPEAKER_00: We had two people die.
SPEAKER_00: That was it.
SPEAKER_00: And we almost everybody got COVID.
SPEAKER_00: And then we got the antibodies.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're stronger.
SPEAKER_00: We had the protocol that Pam Holloway developed for us.
SPEAKER_00: 2,000 people were healed in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, and 8,000 nationally.
SPEAKER_00: That was using just God's ingredients, his supplements for us.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what the Lord said in Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_00: He says, and the Lord will take away from you all sickness and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them all on those who hate you.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
SPEAKER_00: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits.
SPEAKER_00: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.
SPEAKER_00: So there's something, minimum, I'm not saying everybody gets healed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying, I'm not, you know, becoming like this mega prosperity gospel guy, but I'm gonna tell you this: there's a whole lot more prosperity, and there's a whole lot more healing, and there's a whole lot more wholeness for those who abide in the shadow of El Shaddai.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what I think, part of it.
SPEAKER_00: They say, they say that 80% of illness is socio-psycho, psycho, or psychosocial, emotional.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why in Psalm 103 the association is made between forgives all your iniquities and heals all your disease.
SPEAKER_00: So there's something powerful about you learning to forgive yourself.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we can't forgive others because we can't forgive ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you are still carrying wounds from your childhood and from your past that you gotta let go.
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta forgive yourself, you gotta forgive mom and dad, you gotta forgive those that have hurt you.
SPEAKER_00: And there's sometimes issues with arthritis, there's issues with diseases in our lives that forgiveness would heal you of.
SPEAKER_00: Will you get rid of that bitter root in your life?
SPEAKER_00: And God will heal you.
SPEAKER_00: So there's something about being in the shadow of the Almighty, being in a secret place, that he gives us that power to forgive, which also leads to greater wholeness physically.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, he shall cover you with his wings, and under his wings you shall take refuge.
SPEAKER_00: His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, his truth is our shield against deception.
SPEAKER_00: 150, there's 150 passages in the Bible directly related to the last days and the end times.
SPEAKER_00: There's more about deception than any other topic.
SPEAKER_00: There's more about deception in the end times than there is about tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we talk and people, you know, chart out, you know, whether they're gonna post-trib or pre-trib or mid-trib or post-millennial or premillennial or whatever, uh preterist.
SPEAKER_00: I'm pan-millennial.
SPEAKER_00: It's all gonna pan out in the end.
SPEAKER_00: And so, but here's the deal, you guys the issue's not the tribulation, the issue is walking in truth, in truth, so you don't get deceived.
SPEAKER_00: And men and women, there's a lot of deception out there, especially with progressive Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Progressive Christianity is moving in a direction where you don't want to go.
SPEAKER_00: And I can smell it a mile away because I grew up in it.
SPEAKER_00: So I grew up in a Lutheran church that was very liberal.
SPEAKER_00: And all, you know, it's all got new names, but it's the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's just packaged differently.
SPEAKER_00: Yet in the 1960s it was the liberal church.
SPEAKER_00: In the 1970s and 80s, it was called postmodernism.
SPEAKER_00: Then it was the emergent church, and now it's the progressive church, all the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the deal: you get we've got to stay close to the word.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to make sure this is our foundation.
SPEAKER_00: We're basing our decisions, we're basing our lifestyle on God's word.
SPEAKER_00: I was a part of the vineyard movement.
SPEAKER_00: Loved the vineyard movement.
SPEAKER_00: But man, when they started moving into post-modernity and postmodern stuff, I was out, man.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm out of here.
SPEAKER_00: This is getting too weird for me.
SPEAKER_00: And basically that movement has been going downhill ever since.
SPEAKER_00: Makes no sense.
SPEAKER_00: But that it's because they don't make the truth their buckler.
SPEAKER_00: They don't make the truth their shield.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some vineyard churches do, but I'm not, but I'm saying overall, that church got in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: And every denomination, Lutheran, episcopal, wherever they've gone, they start going in that direction, they're in big, big trouble because they're leaving the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So listen, you guys, we've got to make the truth our shield against deception.
SPEAKER_00: So, three things.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, spend time every day in this book.
SPEAKER_00: Read it on your most boring days.
SPEAKER_00: Keep reading it.
SPEAKER_00: Read it, read it.
SPEAKER_00: Keep a journal.
SPEAKER_00: PBJ, prayer Bible, and journal.
SPEAKER_00: Open up, write down stuff God's teaching you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, my this is, I mean, Psalm 91, you can't see really good, but I got arrows and boxes and underlines everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: This Bible is my teaching Bible, so I don't usually use it in my quiet time, but it's a mess, man.
SPEAKER_00: This Bible is a mess.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going through it and I say, oh, gosh, in 1994, God spoke to me about this or that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's right there, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And so mark it up, mess it up, tear it up.
SPEAKER_00: It was Charles Spurgeon, great preacher of London, who said, You show me a torn-up Bible, and I'll show you a life that's not torn up.
SPEAKER_00: And so, first of all, time with the Lord, spending time in the word.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, avail yourself to newscast, avail yourself to people who are truth seekers.
SPEAKER_00: They may not be believers, but you've got to get your news from good sources.
SPEAKER_00: I like Mercola, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Mercola's articles on health.
SPEAKER_00: The Lunatic Farmer, great stuff on food.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Children's Health Defense with Robert F.
SPEAKER_00: Kennedy Jr., excellent stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Gateway Pundit, Tucker Carlson, Zero Hedge.
SPEAKER_00: These are all places where I get my news, and I'm not confused.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not confused.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a confused pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not confused because I listen to people who are not confused.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and they're consistent and they're truth seekers.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't, listen, it doesn't mean I always agree with their conclusions, but at least I know I'm getting truth and I can understand it, because truth is like, it is like a shield in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is also key to that.
SPEAKER_00: Taking that to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: He shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.
SPEAKER_00: So if we just take the first five verses, the reason we come to verse 5 of not being afraid is because we're doing the first four verses.
SPEAKER_00: He's bringing these together.
SPEAKER_00: So number four is God provides peace in times of terror.
SPEAKER_00: God provides peace in times of terror because we're abiding in the shadow of the Almighty, because we're making truth our shield, because we're not being ensnared by people, and we are walking in health in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And so this peace is important.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's really important for some of you because some of you, I would say probably most of you in this room, struggle with fear.
SPEAKER_00: You do.
SPEAKER_00: And I was not surprised by COVID-19 that so many people are so afraid of death, they'll do anything that they think are the experts telling them what to do so they don't die.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not afraid of death.
SPEAKER_00: So I have a hard time relating, I'll be honest with you, I have a hard time relating to some of you that are so fearful of death.
SPEAKER_00: I really am convinced it's better there than here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just so convinced of that.
SPEAKER_00: And that you catch bigger trout out up there and shoot bigger elk.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it's gonna be like.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm convinced that the peace and the joy that will be in the presence of the Lord is way better than in the presence of this life.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not fearful.
SPEAKER_00: But some of you are, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Understand that.
SPEAKER_00: And I need to pasture you in that.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, spend time in the secret place, and God will start to take that fear away.
SPEAKER_00: Start, you know, spend time with him.
SPEAKER_00: Start each, don't, I mean, don't start your day until you're in the word.
SPEAKER_00: Read the word, build up your, build up your spirit, build up your heart, build up your mind, be ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: Be ready to go when you leave the house because you're fired up for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Get a fiery heart.
SPEAKER_00: Give God a chance to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Go into the secret place.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not doing that, it will not come naturally.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about supernatural stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about be a champion Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about being a warrior.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be an average Christian that just kind of gets along, you are in so the wrong church.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, go to most churches.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just be average and sing a few little songs, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Be a Sunday Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be 24-7, fired up for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna always be, that's just not the way it works.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's hard, but I'm saying if you go with a mentality, I'm gonna be a champion, I'm gonna make a difference in this world, I'm gonna love Jesus while I'm a heart, soul and my mind.
SPEAKER_00: You will, you'll start doing it more.
SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, you'll experience his manifest presence, which is a secret place of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because these are really good benefits.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are mighty powerful benefits.
SPEAKER_00: Be anxious for nothing, but in all things through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is prayer with praise that takes away your anxiety and gives you a peace that is supernatural, and that is worth the effort.
SPEAKER_00: So go after it.
SPEAKER_00: Go after the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Go after him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, and it shall not come near you.
SPEAKER_00: Only with your eyes you shall look and see the reward of the wicked.
SPEAKER_00: Number five, he will reward you for your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: He will reward you with his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a capitalist.
SPEAKER_00: I am a Christian capitalist.
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that is that when you work hard at something, you get rewarded.
SPEAKER_00: Now, socialism and communism talks about equal outcomes.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing in this life that has equal outcomes.
SPEAKER_00: Not even heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You will be rewarded for what you did on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: God's gonna reward you for your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: This world may not reward you, but God will.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna reward you.
SPEAKER_00: It's there's no equal outcomes in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There's equal opportunity, but there's not equal outcomes.
SPEAKER_00: And so to the man or the woman that goes after the Lord and seeks him with all their heart, makes an effort every day to spend time in his word, there's going to be a reward.
SPEAKER_00: He promises that, and we believe it around here.
SPEAKER_00: He continues, and this one's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 11 and 12.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get this, but it's true, and I've seen it happen, but I don't have time to go into it right now.
SPEAKER_00: He shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.
SPEAKER_00: In their hands, they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone.
SPEAKER_00: I could tell you some Jesus stories that will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck that Liz and I have experienced overseas, and some of which we've experienced here.
SPEAKER_00: Where angels have shown up in the darkest times, the darkest places, the person is there, and then they return, we turn back, they're gone.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, we're talking about there's no place they could have gone except they were gone.
SPEAKER_00: They were angels.
SPEAKER_00: And God encamps, his angels encamp around those who fear him, who those will trust him.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll trust him, God will put angels on you.
SPEAKER_00: He will put angels, he'll put assignment on you from angels that protect you, that watch over you.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's really weird, sounds really mystical and all that, but I'm telling you, it's true because it's in the word.
SPEAKER_00: And it's also been our experience.
SPEAKER_00: So God will put angels around you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, you shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a lion, a cobra, a young lion, a serpent, you're gonna trample them under your foot.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I call that, number seven.
SPEAKER_00: He brings unusual victories.
SPEAKER_00: God will bring unusual victories into your life.
SPEAKER_00: I love when the servant from Isaac found Rebecca to be Isaac's wife at the well.
SPEAKER_00: He picks Rebekah, and then the family comes around Rebecca and they say this.
SPEAKER_00: May you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's like this militant warrior song to Rebekah to possess the gates of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, nothing shall by any means hurt you.
SPEAKER_00: Moses at the Red Sea, Daniel in the lion's den, David in Goliath, Peter in prison, Paul with a viper on an island, I could go on and on and on.
SPEAKER_00: God's got unusual victories that he still does today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you guys, in these last days, God's gonna put us in some situations where we need unusual victories.
SPEAKER_00: Where it's like, whoa, I can't believe that happened.
SPEAKER_00: When I look at the voter guy, when I look at the COVID protocol, when I look at all these things that we do around here, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: No church does that.
SPEAKER_00: But we did that, and we have unusual victories.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a great county.
SPEAKER_00: And we may be in a blue state, but I'm telling you, prosperity is gonna continue to grow and grow and grow in El Paso County because of people like you.
SPEAKER_00: Because we serve God, and God's got his protection and provision over El Paso County, and we will see his power, his peace, and his provision to the extent that the pastors and leaders in this county will abide in the shadow of El Shaddai.
SPEAKER_00: So, so we could see this whole state begin to really have scarcity, and I could see us having abundance in El Paso County.
SPEAKER_00: People are gonna start flocking to this county.
SPEAKER_00: I know they are.
SPEAKER_00: Unusual victories.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him.
SPEAKER_00: I will set him on high because he has known my name.
SPEAKER_00: God will promote you.
SPEAKER_00: God promotes those who promote him.
SPEAKER_00: You promote God, God will promote you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: He shall call upon me, and I will answer him, and I will be with him in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: I will deliver him and honor him.
SPEAKER_00: Number nine, God's gonna answer our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: God answers our prayers as we abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, number 10, verse 16, with a long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't long for a long life.
SPEAKER_00: I long for a productive life, a joyful life, a vibrant life.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting about Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is like the guy I go to when I think about this.
SPEAKER_00: So, number 10, he's gonna bless us with a long and productive life.
SPEAKER_00: It says of Moses in Deuteronomy 34 at the end of Deuteronomy, Moses was 120 years old when he died.
SPEAKER_00: His eyes were not dim, nor his natural vigor diminished.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think the more that we have a clear conscience when we go to bed at night, the more we stand on truth, the more we listen to truth, we take in truth and reject falsehood, the more vigorous your life will be.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you just feel more peaceful.
SPEAKER_00: You forgive people.
SPEAKER_00: You learn to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: You don't carry that weight of the traps of people that they bait you with.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of fun when you quit comparing yourself to others and simply live for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's a great sense of peace and tranquility when we don't care what other people think about us, we just do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: We just do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that we don't get counsel and wisdom when we're making decisions.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that, but I'm saying that we don't let our reputation guide us more than our honoring of God and what he's telling us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And with that, I think there is physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual stability in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.
SPEAKER_00: My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.