Encountering God // How to get the help that I need // Pastor Josh Evans

We love you and it's in your name we pray.

Amen. Here today before we jump into the scripture. And if you're new here or visiting with us today, this might be brand new information to you. And you might have 100 questions after you're done.

And that's okay. I'll try to answer a few of those here. And but if you have any other further questions, you can always come in and see me at any time. But a couple of months ago, we came before the church and we started talking and we really loved it. We launched a campaign called Forward in Faith, we called it Forward in Faith. And the reason is, is if you know, we have not only a church here, but we have a Christian school as well. And, and both are growing. And both could really use another facility in order to accommodate the growth that that God is bringing to our ministry here, our Christian school here, we have about 570 students were completely maxed out.

We have 48 kids on a waiting list. And we believe God wants us to take a step forward in faith. And so we launched this campaign, talked about it, about what that would look like, showed some pictures and everything like that and started the pledge campaign for people to commit to give and things like that.

Well, that was two months ago. And I wanted to give you a little bit of an update. A few of you have asked me and so I wanted to talk just briefly before the message about kind of where we are and what is happening. Because I want to show you that things are moving, but these things are and can be tedious. If you've ever been a part of a large construction project. There's a lot of little details that you have to iron out before you can just see the results if you would.

And so if you're like me, I've not been a part of this a whole lot in my lifetime. So I look at this like as soon as we say yes, and as soon as we agree and as soon as you know some of that money's coming in, can we not just go out here and knock some things down and get get things moving? Well, for a construction company, there's a whole lot of small details that have to go into that before we can get up to that plan.

And so I want to give you a little bit of an update what's been happening behind the scenes over the last couple of months, by way of introduction. So first, I wanted to say, right now our site plan is still being finalized. And I'll give you a little bit of information about that we showed you guys a site plan for what the site is going to look like it's a quarter of a mile down the street. And when we were working on that, when we started sizing some things together, like ball fields, our ball fields weren't the exact size that we wanted. And so when we started putting all that together, we had to adjust a few things out at the property on the site plan. And that's where we are at currently. So we had to do a little bit of backpedaling on that to get the plan exactly right.

You say, what does that mean? Here's why that's important for you to understand before we can move this project into a construction phase, we have to have the site plan completely sealed and completely correct and accurate for what we're planning to do. And so for us, we're trying to be good stewards of what we want, because what we decide to do on a site plan now could affect what we want to do 15 years from now.

And so it's important for us to take the time and be as tedious about this as we possibly can. And so that we can get that exactly right. And so we're supposed to have the one of the last revisions to that to us this week. Another thing that we have done is we met with a potential contractor that we would like to use. And we are currently reviewing his estimate, he sent it out to all of his subcontractors, and and they gave us an estimate of what that's going to look like. For us to move forward with the project, we met with the bank about a month ago for approval, and we should be good to go. But they are waiting on final numbers in order to give us the final quote when it comes to the interest and all that kind of stuff.

And and one thing that we're trying to do as well, and I'll talk about the money side in a second, but we are working up a financial plan in order for us to pay for this. This is we call it fate for a reason, right? It is a it's a step forward. It's a big leap forward.

It's not just a step. I feel like we should call this like a jump forward in faith or something. And it really is for us and and I want you to know every single person in this room has has been like, for this and and for this and and we need this. This is what God is leading us to. We've been like that as a church, we purchased this property back in 2008.

So it's been kind of birthed into leaders before myself and birthed into the church before me. And I'm just kind of coming in and trying to get this thing moving in the right direction. But I'll tell you this, everybody's been so supportive, complimentary, you're for this. But I'll tell you this, when you stop and look at what we're trying to do as a monthly payment of what we are going to be taken on, we have to be good stewards and and plan this thing so that we have the money and we know where everything's coming. You know, if you meet with the bank, one thing that the bank doesn't just want to hear when they're trying to approve us is, hey, listen, God's going to provide, right?

The bank's like, okay, we believe that maybe a little bit, but we need a little bit more than that. And that's what we're trying to come up with now is a financial plan that that gives us the cushion to be able to, to pay for this thing on a monthly basis, because it's a lot of money from the financial aspect, we did start a pledge campaign to get us there. We did start this years and years ago. And, and we just kind of reiterated that. And so we started with a little over 400,000 in our building fund. And so that's where we kind of started.

And we were able to grow that. And so over the last two months, here's basically where we are, we've had 165 pledge cards turned in that's family units who have agreed to give money for phase one, which is the next 15 months, that's phase one of what we're trying to do. One time gifts equaled a little over $161,000.

And then our monthly pledging is just under $20,000 a month, which comes out over the next 15 months, if you break that down, which is a commitment of about 255,000 committed monthly over the next 15 months, which brings us to about $435,000 on total commitments from the from the cards. And over the last two months, we have seen already over $100,000 given in two months to the campaign. That is something that we can praise God for. And I'm grateful for that. But I'll tell you this, there is a long ways to go on this.

And I say that I can paint this I can spend this as good as possible. But I'll tell you this for us to see this thing through. We are it's going to take the generosity of God's people leaning into this as much as as possible. And so you say what is the the next step for us? Well, first of all, that site plan has to get finalized for us to take a step forward in the right direction.

And so we are currently working on that. And for us to go to the next phase and to actually for you to see, you know, trees come down and stuff like that, you have to get this site plan finalized, which does affect the building layout that we are working on, because it had to be a slight adjustment to the building in order to fit everything that we feel God wants us to have on the property. Believe it or not, we're developing a little over 20 acres.

And when you throw in ball fields, a gym, classrooms, and an auditorium, those 20 acres go fast and quick. And so we're having to put all of that on there. And then you say when when is everything going to happen? So as soon as we get the site plan finalized, and we get that in our hands, we can actually take that straight into the construction document phase. And once we get those construction documents in place, we can actually start to to get this to the contractor to where they can do the bids and or the permits and we can start the actual project from the contractor that we talked to, we're still on target to hopefully break ground by the end of this calendar year. They said if we can get this site plan to them, so I still am praying I know this is a big step of faith for us, but I'm praying that at least we can start clearing the property by the end of this calendar year. And so that's what we're trying to do as we continue to move forward in faith together.

And you say how can how can you help? Many of you pledged and you put a card together a commitment card, you turned one in and that kind of thing. I'll tell you this, if you have committed to something and haven't started giving towards that, we really need you to start doing that. This is a financial step of faith for us. And so if you pledge and haven't started, go ahead and start this month. And we would really appreciate that many of you started with one time gifts, which are awesome. And we are so grateful for that.

And we need those. But for us to see this thing through, we're going to need a lot of families in here who are willing to pledge and give on a monthly basis. Because it works like a house. You know, many of you have bought houses.

I know when we we built a house in Florida, when we were living there, and you have to prove to the bank to get the loan that you can pay for it. It's no different for us. Okay. And then once you're in it, believe it or not, every single month of my house, I got this letter in the mail saying I had to pay something.

It blows my mind why they don't, they don't trust me apparently. And so I'll tell you this, once we're in this in a few years, that's what it's going to turn into us. And our mortgage payment is going to be a lot more than any of your houses.

Okay. And that's what we have to be ready to take on and we have to be ready to pay for. And so for us, we are being good stewards to try to get this thing done.

I think our timeline is still within reason of where we can get this thing going. But it is going to take a step of faith for us to do it. And then the last thing I want you to do is to keep praying.

It's the main thing. Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. We need it.

And you need to pray for wisdom. There's a lot of little small details that are being done behind the scenes that we need done quickly. And we ask that you just lift us up in prayer, the leadership up in prayer as we move forward through this process.

So things are still moving. I know after two months, some of you are like, hey, when is those trees coming down? When is things coming down? Listen, we are working on that and getting that. And I'm hoping that by the end of this year, you can see some actual movement and and stuff that your eyes can see that God is working. But right now we are behind the scenes kind of getting some things finalized for us to get it into that. Do you have any other questions?

I know I talked fast and they're probably you probably got 10 questions in your mind already about that. You can always ask me afterwards and we can we can talk about that, about where God is is leading us. But Psalm chapter number ninety one here this morning, I know we have a lot going on today. We got, I believe, seven families joining the church at the end of the service.

And so it's kind of a big day. We try to pack in as much as we can into every Sunday. And so that's what we're doing here today.

Baptizing forward in faith update, as well as people joining at the end of the service. And so we're going to try to pack all of this in. I'm not going to be too long winded here today.

That's kind of a joke. And because I say that Abby's always like, hey, stop saying that unless you really are going to do it. OK. And so but we have been in this series and encountering God, a series through some of the Psalms that have really honestly, in a lot of ways, some of these have just impacted me on a personal level. And I'm just excited to be able to share and study and be able to proclaim what I believe each Psalmist is trying to tell us. And I hope that this series has been encouraging to you. I've said throughout this series that the Book of Psalms is a book that we relate to so much, because many of you and all of us really have experienced difficulties and painful moments in life.

You have you have lived in valley experiences in your own world, in your own life, in your own family. And so I think it's easy for us to relate to a book like this because many of the Psalms are written from those valley experiences or from caves where where all these bad things are are happening to the Psalmist. And they're lifting up their song in praise and in prayer to God. And and it helps us. In fact, Psalms speak directly to some of the most practical questions that we ask, some of the most practical questions that that you have about faith, about God, about life. The Book of Psalms really speaks directly to that. And today's question is is difficult.

And I'm sure you've asked this and it's this. How do we respond when life just doesn't go our way? How many of you have had some circumstance in your life that that did not go your way?

Raise your hand. OK. A few of you. There's a few of you in here who just are like, man, everything's gone my way. And so, listen, all of us have had something in our life that has happened that did not go our way. And it might be something spiritual. It might be something that you prayed for and it didn't happen. You might have prayed for healing and it didn't happen the way that you wanted. Or you prayed that you could get a job and and it didn't happen or you prayed for a child and that didn't happen. Or you prayed for a relationship to happen and that didn't happen. And it might be something that you prayed for and it did not happen in the way that that you wanted it to happen. And how do you respond when that happens in your life? Well, Psalms Chapter number 91 actually speaks to that idea just a little bit.

And we're going to dissect this here together and I'm going to give you a few thoughts. But the book or the book, the Psalms here in Psalm Chapter 91, the psalmist is unknown. In fact, many commentators, you know, kind of differ whether this be a psalm of Moses.

Many of them think that is probably the most traditional view of who wrote this is Moses. But but it could be a number of different psalmist who have wrote this. But this psalm is one of the most popular songs.

I mean, we sang about it just a few moments ago here today. And when you read this psalm, here's what it's going to appear to read like. If you trust God, nothing bad will ever happen to you.

Listen, that's why when we read this, it's going to bring up a lot of questions in your mind. And that's what we're going to talk about here, because when you read it, it's almost like the psalmist is saying that that you have this like angel around you protecting you from every bad thing that happens in your life. But we all would know and the psalmist would agree that all of us have bad things that happen in our life. So that can't be what the psalmist is trying to mean.

And so let's look at this together. Psalm 91, verse one, it says this. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. What a great verse. If you mark in your Bible and some of you might not, but if you do, you need to mark that verse.

Some of you need to memorize that verse. If you dwell in the secret place of the Most High, you will abide, live 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 thee from the snare of the fowler. In other words, He shall deliver you from those who are trying to hurt you. Then He goes on and He's going to deliver us from the noisome pestilence, which is basically plague and disease, sickness.

He's going to deliver you from all of that. He shall cover thee with His feathers and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the error that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh unto thee.

In other words, God's protection, it has no limits. When He mentions a thousand shall fall at thy side, He's talking about a large, large number. In other words, He's saying, hey, listen, it doesn't matter who comes against me, God's protection can handle as many that comes against me. Verse A, only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. In other words, the evil can't touch you.

The plagues can't touch you because you are walking and dwelling in the secret place. For He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. In other words, He's going to give us angels watching over us. Verse 12, they shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. In other words, that you're going to have an angel looking out for you and watching over you so much to the point that you're not going to even stub your toe on a stone. Which I tell you, I've stubbed my toe in the middle of the night, so I don't know if I agree with this verse entirely. You see what I'm saying is a lot of times this passage is so confusing and when I studied it, you know, I knew a lot of these verses because we sing about them and we sing, so the psalmist has to mean something deeper than just that you're going to be protected from everything bad that comes into your life because this psalmist had bad things that would happen and every psalmist had things that happened in their life that did not go their way so he has to mean more than that. Verse 13, thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under your feet.

In other words, you're going to be able to walk upon or walk on top of all the things that hurt you, all the things that can pierce you, all the things that can destroy you, you're going to actually be able to live above that. Verse 14, because he hath set his love upon me. By the way, this is interesting, a transition verse here in this passage 13 to 14. Verses 1 through 13, the psalmist is crying out and praying out to God and then in verse 14 it shifts to where God begins to speak his word to the psalmist.

So you have the psalmist speaking 1 through 13 and then in verse 14, it's like God is now speaking to the psalmist from his own voice and so he says this, verse 14, because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, God, I will answer him.

Aren't you thankful for that? I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. Let's pray together and we'll dive in. Father, we love you. God, I thank you for your word. I recognize today, Father, just like every other Sunday, that when I stand up here and try to share your word, God, I ask that you would guide every single word that I say this morning. I pray that you would lead and guide every thought that I have here this morning.

There's nothing that I can say that can change a person's life here in this place today. Father, I pray that you would just hide me behind the cross and that the only thing that people hear is the voice of you speaking to their heart today. God, I pray that you would speak to our lives, give us something today from your word that could encourage us, inspire us, and comfort us in our walk with you. For it's in your name we pray.

Amen. So when you read this psalm, I said earlier it can appear to read as if if you trust God, nothing bad will happen to you. And we all know that that is not true because for you and I signing up, I mean, Jesus says in the New Testament to follow him, and as you're following him, you've got to take up your cross and follow him. In other words, what Jesus was saying when he said that is sometimes you have to leave behind everything and you would agree that when you choose to follow Jesus, sometimes the journey is hard. Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes things don't go the way that you want them to go.

And here, if you're not careful, you can read this first and I'll tell you this. There's a lot of preachers that you probably have heard at some point in your life, maybe on TV or on the radio or whatever, that might interpret this as to say that, hey, if you trust in God, everything's going to be great in your life and your life's going to be full of just blessing and prosperity and all of these things. And you might have heard it preached that way, but I'll tell you this.

That is not exactly what he's trying to communicate to us this morning. What he's trying to communicate, the psalmist is saying this, is that as you go through trouble, as you go through difficulty in a relationship with the Father, you have everything that you need to face trouble head on in your life. You can see that in verse number 15.

When God is speaking back to him, you know what God's saying? God doesn't say your life's going to be free from trouble. It doesn't mean that you're going to walk through life and you're not even going to but stub your toe on something.

It doesn't mean that you're never going to have anything bad happen in your life. And in fact, God says, verse 15, I will be with him in trouble. You see, the psalmist understood that you are going to have trouble.

In fact, you can see that through any person who chose to follow God in their life, you can see that they're going to have difficulty. Look at Job. You remember the story of Job? Job had trouble over and over and over again. Every time Job turned around, something bad was happening in his life. And listen, did he do anything really to deserve it?

No. We don't find Job's life at the beginning of his life saying, wow, you need to try. God wasn't telling the enemy to try Job because Job is living a wicked, filthy, carnal life.

You want to know why Job had all those bad things happen to him? Because he was living a good life. He was living a godly life. He was living a life trying to please God in his life. And the enemy comes in and takes everything from his life. You can see that the psalmist can't be saying that you're not going to have anything bad. How about Stephen in the New Testament?

Remember Stephen? He gets appointed there in the church and he's trying to serve the Lord and preach Jesus. Acts 7, what happens to his life?

Gets stoned to death. You think he would stand here and say, hey, trust God. If you trust God, nothing bad is going to happen into your life?

No. In fact, his story is just the opposite. The apostle Paul, beaten with rods multiple times and shipwrecked. I don't think the apostle Paul would stand here and say, if you choose to follow Jesus and you choose to trust in Jesus, everything in life is going to go your way. Or how about all of the apostles in the New Testament? Every single one of them lost their life and were martyred because they chose to follow Jesus. You see, the message of Psalm chapter number 91, it's not that you will be protected from every bad thing that happens into your life.

It's actually just the opposite. It's promises that God has promised to you and to me as children of God that will give you everything that you need in life to face whatever trouble that comes your way. That's the point of Psalm chapter number 91. So you say, what does he give us? First of all, he gives us this. He tells us that if you are going to get the help that you need in a relationship with God, you have to remember the character of God.

You've got to remember the character of God. You probably all have somebody in your life that when they speak, you kind of lean in and listen, right? Maybe a voice of wisdom. It might be a parent. It might be a grandparent.

It might be an aunt or an uncle or whatever. And when they speak, you kind of lean in and listen. You take it more seriously, right? Why? Because of the person that is saying whatever it is that they're saying.

They have a proven track record that allows for you to trust what they say. And it's almost here in Psalm chapter number 91 for the psalmist is he starts this psalm recognizing who he is talking to, recognizing the very character of who he is talking to. And let me tell you this, is when you're dealing with difficult circumstances, one of the most encouraging, comforting things that can help your soul out is this, is for you to recognize who you get to address and who you come into the presence of. It's important for us to remember the character of God. You say, what does he mention here? He mentioned several names of God that I want to mention real quick here this morning. The first one is mentioned here in verse number one of Psalm 91, the Most High. This was a Hebrew name, El Elyon, all right? And this is a name of God when he says, he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, El Elyon, the Most High.

You say, why is this important? I want you to see the character of God that this psalm is lifting his song up to him. This name of God, it speaks to the supremacy of the deity of God. In other words, this is one of the strongest names of God that talk to how majestic and how marvelous our God is. Psalm 83, 18 says that Jehovah God is the Most High over all of the earth.

Let me tell you that when you are walking through a valley experience, I want you to remember this. Not only is your father the creator of all, not only is he over all of the earth, but he is the King of Kings and he is the Lord of Lords. He is over all and by him, all things consist. You see, our God, he is the Most High.

He goes on as well to say this. He mentions the name the Almighty. This is El Shaddai.

We know this because there was a famous song put out years ago called El Shaddai. He is the Almighty God. This name of God that the psalmist mentions has the idea of God is the sufficient one.

The sufficient one. This is where we get the idea that God actually can meet every need that you have in life. Every need that your soul has in life can be met in a relationship with the Father. It's not going to be met in another relationship. It's not going to be met with money.

It's not going to be met with a new career or promotion or a new school or a new friend. It's not going to be met in that. It can only be met in him. He is mightier than the mightiest and he can satisfy you like none other. Verse 2, he also mentions the Lord and that is the name Jehovah. That is the name Jehovah. It's the most common used name of God especially in the Old Testament.

And here's the thing. It's the self-existing one. When the psalmist lifts up his praise in this song to God and he mentions these names, I don't want you to just look over names like the Most High and the Mighty and Lord. I want you to understand what the psalmist meant by each one of those. He's talking about the one true God. This name of God, Jehovah, is for the God.

It's talking about his sovereignty and goodness over all. This name, in fact, this is an interesting thought. This name is so great and used by the children of Israel so much that here's what's interesting is they would not even speak this name because they did not want to say it incorrectly or disrespectfully.

Can you think about how far our world has come from that? They didn't even want to lift up this name because it's such a strong name talking about God's sovereignty and goodness over all and many Jews would not even lift this name or say this name out loud for fear of saying it disrespectfully. The Lord Jehovah, he goes on to mention, my God. He is my refuge, my fortress, my God. You say, what name of God is that?

That's Elohim. Here's what that name of God means here in Hebrew is it means that he has strength with unlimited power. In fact, you can see this name of God mentioned in Genesis 1 and verse 1 because it's plural. So when it says in Genesis 1, 1, it says in the beginning, God, it's talking about the plurality of God where you can see at the very beginning the Trinity is listed right there at creation, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

At the beginning of time before anything else existed, God was there. So I want you to understand this is that the reason I mention these four names of God that the psalmist mentions, it's easy for us just to read through those things, but when you stop and look at what each one of those mean and why they are important, it takes our eyes off of the problems that we have and it places our eyes on how big God is. You see, that's what the psalmist is trying to say. He's saying, listen, there's going to be times in your life where life doesn't go your way.

There's going to be problems. There's going to be times you pray for something and God doesn't answer the prayer the way that you wanted. And he says, but if you want to move through those difficult moments of your life, here's what you've got to do. You've got to remember the character of God. You have to remember Him and when you get your eyes on Him, the only response for you is it makes your life smaller.

It makes your life so small because you realize how big He is. And when you realize how big God is, whatever it is that you are going through becomes smaller. You've got to recognize the character of God, but secondly, you've got to live in the presence of God. Here he mentions some interesting, you see in verses 1 and 2, the nearness between Him and the Father. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. So he mentions this phrase dwelleth in the secret place. You know, this is why some commentators think that this is Moses who's writing because Moses, just a psalm before Psalm chapter 90 that we looked at last week, the oldest psalm that we have recorded, it spoke of God as a dwelling place. It's almost as if Psalm 91 is piggybacking off of Psalm chapter 90 when it says that He is our dwelling place. It signifies where someone lives, the home of man. Believers should be at home in Him. His presence should be the place that you want to live in. And then he goes on to say that we will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Now, when you think of a shadow, they're right next to the person, right? Right? Have you ever been playing golf and you're about to putt or you're standing there and you're about to putt and somebody's shadow is right on the hole?

How many of you have ever been there? Okay. Listen, that's frustrating. You're like, man, move your face, move your head.

You know, it's like irritating. But a shadow implies something that is right there. When you take up a new job, usually they put you with somebody and they say you need to shadow this person. It signifies that you are going to be right next to them all throughout the day.

You're going to be right by their side, in other words. Now, in this day, a shadow implied a lot of different things. In fact, it implied shade. It was hot during this day. And there wasn't a whole lot of shade. And so any time them or they could get into a shadow, it would be a little bit cooler, right?

We're coming up to the summer. And I tell you, it can get hot, right? And so if you ever are spending your hot day like at a ball field, right, you want to be where there's some shade, right, because you don't want it to just bake on you all of the time. And so when he's saying that he is in the shadow or he's under the shadow of the Almighty, it's implying a nearness that the psalmist has with the Father. It's in other words that you are so close to him that he is shielding you from the sun that is coming and trying to bake you.

You see, he's so close, it provides nearness. You have to be in the presence of God. Number three, you've got to deepen your trust in the protection of God. You've got to deepen your trust in the protection of God. Listen, he protects you. And this psalm is a psalm of protection. If you look in verse two, you can see the personal pronouns, these possessive words that he uses.

He says he is my refuge, my fortress, my God. You can see the possessive sense of what he's saying. He uses this word my, my. Now, you only can say that if who you're talking about is actually yours, right?

So I was thinking about this. Who is my? Like, who do I say that about? And I was like, okay, I work with Pastor Bailey. We're together every day. But when I talk to people, I don't say, hey, this is my Pastor Bailey, right?

That would be weird. That would be really strange if I start to say, hey, I want to introduce you to my Pastor Bailey, right? But when I was thinking about this, I was like, okay, so if it's not people I work with, it's not all of these people, it's none of you really, it's my family, right? I say my kids or my wife.

They're the only thing that I can really speak to that about because they're mine. We're together. And so here you've got to understand, don't miss this, God is yours. He's not just a rock, he's my rock. He's not just a fortress, he's my fortress. He's not just a refuge, he's my refuge. And you've got to recognize the psalmist is saying, listen, when I go through difficult times, it's good to know that he's not just some refuge from the people that went on before me, he can be a refuge for me right here. He mentioned several things, a refuge, that means shelter. Then he goes on a fortress, that's a place you run for safety. Then he says, his wings, you're under his wings. This is my favorite one listed here, his wings. In other words, he's saying that he will protect us like a mother bird protects her offspring with her wings.

Think about that. What imagery is the psalmist saying that it's like a mother bird is going to protect their young with their wings. Their wings are what shields them from anything else, what shields them and protects them from everything else.

You say, what does that mean for us? One of the best descriptions of this is found in the tabernacle. I'll tell you, we need to study the tabernacle because it's fascinating to me to see all the similarities between God and what is found in the tabernacle. In the tabernacle, you know this, there was an inner chamber called the Holy of Holies.

This was an extremely exclusive place. In fact, the only person that could ever go into that part of the tabernacle was the high priest. He could only go into that part of the tabernacle once a year on a day that we call the Day of Atonement. Inside there, it was a sacred place and inside it was the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was the place where God would meet with the high priest. The high priest would come in there and he had killed these animals and he would put the blood of the animals over top of the Ark. It says that God rested there and this is where his presence was. In his presence, he would meet with them.

Here's what's interesting. Upon the mercy seat which sat upon the Ark of the Covenant, there were two cherubims, these angels, on either side. On both sides of this, there are angels facing towards that with their wings out. When the high priest comes in there and he kneels there by God's presence, remember the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat's on top of that. This is where God would meet with the priest and the priest would come in there for the sake of the entire nation of Israel. All of their sins were placed into this room and when he would take the blood of these animals and he'd put it on top of this Ark and right in front of the mercy seat, he would pour all of this blood there.

Here's what's interesting. The covering of the angel's wings would actually cover that up right there. When the psalmist mentions that we are covered under the wings of the Father, he's not just saying that he's going to protect us from things. He's saying that he's already protected you from the greatest thing and that is the judgment and wrath that you deserve. You see, when he's talking about being under the shadow of the wings, it's not just like, man, I guess I'll leave here and an angel will stop me from stubbing my toe on a rock today.

It's not that. No, he's saying that I am fully protected under the wings of the Father because God has completely covered my sin once and for all. So when you see the wings of the Father, don't just lean past it. Give God praise because he has covered you. Look, his protection, it's not always keeping us from trouble, but rather sometimes it's protection through the trouble. I say that all the time because I really believe this. Sometimes God, he's not keeping us from the flame. He just wants us to remember he's there with us in the middle of the flame. And sometimes we get closer to God during the problem than we ever would avoiding the problem. You know this. We say it all the time. We grow sometimes more in valleys than we do the mountaintops.

So don't look at the valley as a bad thing. Look at it as an opportunity to be reminded of how good God is and how close God is to you. The final thing is find satisfaction in the blessings of God and we'll be done. Verses 14 through 16, you can see here that God speaks to him and he says this, I will deliver him. I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. He says I will deliver him again. I will honor him.

I will satisfy him and I will show him my salvation. Listen, when life does not go your way, you can find satisfaction in the blessings of God. Hey, this didn't work out for you, but aren't you thankful you're delivered? This didn't work out for you. Aren't you thankful you have his presence with you in trouble? This didn't go out the way that I wanted. Hey, guess what? You can still honor him.

Hey, this didn't go well. Hey, all your satisfaction is found in him and he has saved you. You see, we sometimes have our eyes on so many earthly things and for things to go our way and we forget all the blessings that God has fully given to you in the midst of this. We all have something to praise God for.

We all have something to give him glory for. In closing, there's a book that I read years ago and it's a good book. It's on the life of Jim Elliott. It was put out by his wife, Elizabeth Elliott and many of you know his story or a lot of you probably know his story, but Jim Elliott got burdened for an Indian tribe in Ecuador and he got burdened for this and this tribe was extremely hostile, violent. They would kill one another all the time and there's been movies put out about this, but Jim and four of his friends decided that these are the people that God wants to use them to reach. So they begin to do something.

It's bizarre to me what they did. One of them was a pilot, one of these missionaries, so he would fly the plane and as they went in there, there was no Bible in their language and they knew that they were dangerous people, that they would kill people with spears and stuff all the time. So in order for them to kind of build a relationship with these hostile people, Jim and his four friends started to do something that was interesting. They would take the plane and they would fly over that part of the tribe there in Ecuador and they would drop needed supplies for them out of that. And they would drop these different supplies communicating to them that they are actually there to help them, there to assist them, they're there for them, to show them that one day when they come that they're not there to hurt them. So they would drop these things out of this bucket from the plane and then they would pull it up and everything and so they did this numerous times before they finally felt that it was time for them to show up there. And finally, Jim and his four friends, they landed a plane on a sandbar right there in Ecuador right near the tribe and when they got out and they were faced with the first interaction with these people, these hostile people that they have dropped buckets for, that they have prayed for, that they had actually learned their language.

In fact, Jim would stand up in the plane and he would shout as they dropped supplies, he would shout phrases, positive phrases to them to show in their language, he would learn this and so he would shout all these positive things like God loves you in their language and all these different things. And so if anybody was going to think, hey, these guys up in this plane, they really care about us, they've been here for our good, they can help us and so after a while they landed the plane there and you know the story, that they were faced with this Indian tribe who came out and immediately as they got off the plane speared all of them to death right there. After that, Jim's wife, Elizabeth and the rest of the ladies, they waited and they never heard back and so they sent some search people over there and they came back and they said we found all of the bodies, one of them had apparently rushed down the river there in Ecuador. Elizabeth Elliott and her family, obviously broken, I mean these people killed their husbands, they were so burdened for those people because they believed this is who God had placed them on their life to reach.

They decided that in a few months we're gonna go and we're gonna live with these people. One of the actual pilot who would fly the plane, his son, he actually went there and lived and grew up, he was a child when he got the word that his dad had died and then next thing you know, months after that his mom is moving them there to Ecuador to live amongst the same people that had killed his father. And he grew up with them. In fact, the man that killed his father, the man that put a spear through the driver of that plane actually became a friend of this young boy and they actually called him uncle and his kids grew up calling him uncle. The man that killed his dad.

I say that to say this, that book that Elizabeth wrote about her husband, you know what it's called? The Shadow of the Almighty. Straight out of Psalm 91, when you read Psalm 91 you think, that's the last title I would ever think for a man who showed up to tell people about Jesus and got speared to death.

Why on earth would they ever call it that? Because that seemed like the opposite of God's protection, right? It's like, man, where was God when that happened?

I think for us, the reason she entitled that book is that Elizabeth Elliot was convinced that the refuge for the children of God was not from suffering and death, but through it. Some of the chapters of our lives may be painful, but if you hold on, you will find that through it all He has been working all things for your good. You see, they didn't think, man, we're exempt from the problems of life.

No, they would say that sometimes we need to go straight through the problems and it's in the middle of the problems that we can find. God's grace is still sufficient and God's presence is all that we need. Can you bow your heads with me?

Heads are bowed, hearts are lifted in prayer. I don't know where you're at here today. I don't know what your story is here in this room. I don't know if maybe you're in here today and you say, pastor, things haven't been going my way. Let me tell you this, everything you need is in a relationship with the Father. Everything that you need in life is found in Him. He can satisfy you, His presence sustains you. Everything that you need is found in Him. It's found in Him.

You say, pastor, my life is kind of a mess and things have not gone the way that I wanted them to go. If that's you today and that's your story, can you slip up your hand high enough for me to see it, long enough for me to recognize it? Thanks, I see that hand. Hands up, yes, I see that hand. Listen, I see that hand.

Listen, hands going up. Life, it doesn't always go our way. But all I want is for you to be reminded today in the midst of that that you are sheltered under the protection of His wings, the Almighty's wings. Jehovah's wings are over you, protecting you. It doesn't mean that nothing bad's going to happen into your life.

It only means that He's going to teach you something and do something in the midst of your life through the pain. Let's do this. I'm going to pray for you. If your hand went up, I want to ask you to come. Would you stand with me? Heads bowed, hearts lifted in prayer.

Everybody's standing, nobody looking around. Father, I pray that you would help every person in this room who their life has not gone the way that they wanted. God, I pray, Lord, that they can find everything that they need in you this morning. We love you, for it's in your name we pray. Hey, listen, heads are bowed, hearts are lifted in prayer. If your hand was up and you say, man, my life, it did not go the way that I wanted.

It did not go the way that I wanted. But listen, I want you to be reminded, you are under the shelter of the Almighty. His wings are over you.

His wings are over you, protecting you and shielding you from everything that could ever come your way. Amen. Amen. You can have a seat here this morning in the presence of God. And I tell you, I want to remind you about a couple of things. Don't forget, if this was your first time with us here today, we appreciate you being here. And I encourage you to take one of those new here cards and you can pop out to the welcome center after this. And we would love to meet you, greet you, connect with you, and also get a free gift in your hands as our way of saying thank you for being here. And then also VBS, parents, register your kids.

They do not want to miss it. It's preschool through sixth grade and they can attend. And then also we need volunteers, okay. We're going to have a lot of kids there. We need everybody serving from the youngest to the oldest. So please serve. And there's a place for you. You can fill out one of our forms out in the welcome center.

Or you can do that online. And we would love for you to be a part of that. Well, listen, I'm excited to be able to introduce. We do a thing here at our church. You hear about it called Starting Point. And Starting Point is an opportunity for us to just talk about our church and membership and what that looks like, talk about who our church is and our vision, our mission, our doctrine, everything.

We kind of address all of that at Starting Point. And last month we had our largest Starting Point that we have ever had. And we had about 35 adults come to that, which is pretty incredible. And I am grateful for that.

And so super exciting. Many of them wanted to join today. And I'll tell you this, standing in front of you can get very intimidating and scary. And so it helps that there's a bunch of them up here. So it will be easier for them, but I want to introduce them to you. And then what we're going to do, because there's so many of them, is that we'll introduce them all. And then we'll take a motion, you know, from the floor to receive them into our fellowship. We'll do that all together at the end.

I think that'll be easier than each one kind of through this thing and go from there. But I'm going to ask Keith and Nancy Bird to come here. And, Keith and Nancy, everybody's talking about you. Keith and Nancy, everybody say hey, Keith and Nancy.

All right. And I'm so excited to have them come forward. Many of you would know Keith.

Keith is Ms. Ella Bird's son. And we are so thankful for that. That's the only reason why I'm bringing them up here today, because we love Ella, I'm just saying.

So kidding. But I am so grateful for them and their testimony. And they've been coming for a long time now. And we've been able to connect with them.

I'm super excited about them. And then I'm going in a certain order here. So the Kites, I'm going to bring you guys up. And we're just going to start over here. So if you guys want to stand over here. This is Jonathan and Jessica and Gunnar, Grayson and Gwenna.

All right. And their family is coming. This is the Kite family. And I'm also – I'm excited about all these families. But I met you guys when we were playing baseball at Arcadia.

My son plays down in Arcadia. And we had kids on the same team. And so we love that. And they've been coming now for about a year and a half.

She teaches in our school. And they've been a huge blessing to our ministry. And we are super grateful for them and their family being a part of that. Next I'm going to ask Carl and Robbie to come.

If you guys want to come up here. This is Carl and Robbie Davis. And I'll tell you, if anybody knows me better than anybody else in this room, it is this family probably. And this is actually Matt Davis' mom and dad. And so I grew up with them.

Matt and I went to school together. And so I knew them from a very young age. And so that's what surprises me more than anything else, that they're willing to come to our church. And so I'm like wow. And so it just shows God's grace.

But I'm so grateful. They through some series of events moved out here to Winston-Salem and been looking for a church. And Matt started coming here with his family and they started coming. And they've plugged into our ambassador class. And it's been so cool to have them. And then we've got the Whiteheads.

Where are the Whiteheads at? You guys can come on down. We've got Jason and Keeby Whitehead.

Then we've got Maisie and Maddox as well. You guys can stand right here together. And I appreciate you guys. And it's always good to see people who have made a decision to follow Jesus, get baptized and everything. And then come for membership here today. This is a school family. And so they've been coming, been a part of our school for a while.

And so we are super grateful to have them with us. And then John and Taylor are going to come. Taylor, you're kind of already a member I guess.

And so this one's real special to me as well because, Taylor, you were in my youth group when I was youth pastor here. Once again, I'm surprised she's back. But she's here. And her family, Ms. Tanya Wasser and Brooke and all of them, it's so good to have them. And excited to see what God is doing in their life. And then the Coopers, where are you guys at?

You guys got to walk the long walk over here, okay? This is Scott and Dawn, Aiden and Natalie. And, Aiden, good to see you, buddy. And so I appreciate them as well.

We had an opportunity to chat for a long time. They came to our prayer walk. But they've been coming to our church for probably six months or more. And they are another school family, so kids in our school.

And just excited to have them be a part of this. And then Ms. Robbie Stifle is coming as well. And she's the last one here today. And saved, is it the best for last? Is that right?

All right. So we got Ms. Robbie Stifle. And I'm so grateful to have Robbie. She's been attending for a long time. And what's really interesting about this, I wish, honestly, we don't have the time, but I wish I could go through and share everybody's story of how they came to faith in Jesus. But Ms. Robbie came to our starting point. And she came to starting point.

And so we're talking about everything. And one thing that I do in starting point, because I've led membership class for a long time, salvation, I want everyone to understand the gospel as clear as day and understand that. So we actually share the plan of salvation there for anybody who maybe is unsure. And we go through that, go through baptism, what baptism is. And at the end of that, when we give them a chance to take a step with our church or ask any questions or whatever, Robbie got up, found Pastor Bailey and said, I'm not leaving here until I have a salvation testimony. Pastor Bailey took her to the side there at the basement of our house, led her to the Lord. And today we got to celebrate her getting baptized today. And so... And listen, all glory to him.

That has nothing to do with us. And we are just so grateful for God, how God is adding to our church. And we couldn't be more happy to have all of these families here with us here today. And so we got a formal side to this.

Can I have a motion to receive them? Right back here, Jerry, second, Roger. All in favor, say, amen. All right, very cool. You guys did it.

That wasn't too bad, was it? Everybody's so nervous about that. Like what if somebody says oppose? I don't know what we'll do.

I'm leaving if somebody does. But it is so good. And here's what we do because anytime we have people joining our family, church is a family, okay? And I say this, it's not a country club.

It's not a just us and nobody else kind of thing. We have our doors open wide for people. Anytime you have people like this that come in, it's important for us to welcome them into our fellowship and into our family. And so what I'd love for you to do, let's all stand at this time. We're going to be dismissed in prayer. You guys all have to stay, by the way. I want you to come down front, introduce yourself.

Yes, there's a lot of them. You're not going to be quizzed on their names, so don't get nervous. But I would love for you to just come and welcome them into our church family as we dismiss here today. Let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Father, we love you. God, we thank you for your word. I thank you for what you've done in this place today. Bless your people. I thank you for all of these new people who have come to fellowship with us and to join our family. God, I pray that you would just put a hedge of protection around every single one of them, their families, their children, and that you would just grow them to be more conformed into your son's image and that we would just grow together as a family. Father, we love you, for it's in your name we pray. Amen. You're dismissed. Come down front. Make them feel welcome. Amen.