# Sheltered Christianity

Category: Peace & Assurance
Key Passage: Psalm 91
Speaker: Anthony Aaron
Date: June 7, 2024

That is a blessing. Happy birthday, brother. And what a great, great addition to hunters are to our church family. Praise God, four of them. Faithful, hardworking, great spirit. We appreciate it very, very much. I am excited about Brother Anthony preaching for us tonight. He’ll do a great, great job. And what a blessing to have just great young men in her church. What a blessing. Praise the Lord for it, not wanting to go contemporary and left field and just wanting to stay down the old paths and want to do right and stand for the Lord and walk in love. I praise the Lord for the family and got a little boy coming. I was asking, what’s his name? Timothy is coming and Ms. Cotor’s due and bite of all.

I think if I remember right, three weeks after the election, that’s kind of the way. Is that right? September 10th. Oh, so it’s a lot quicker than that. Okay, so November 10th. And coming, and it’s coming. That’s exciting. And what a great privilege it is in our church to have young families. And we pray for that for years. And we thank God for them. And thank God for the errands. What a blessing they are. And I’m excited about preaching for us tonight. I appreciate him just keeping things going while I’ve been gone. And I’m so thankful for them. And let’s give him a warm Brotherford County Baptist welcome. Would you do that? Thank you.

Amen, amen, amen. All right. He is due on November 10th. So we’ve talked about if he does come early and he comes on November 3rd and somebody happens to win, we might change his name to Donald. So who knows? But if you got your Bibles, let’s stand. We’re going to turn to Psalm chapter 91. Psalm’s chapter 91. And we’re going to look at a couple of verses here. We’re going to read the chapter through.

So those that haven’t read your Bible yet, you can count this today. You’ll be okay. You’ll be okay today. But Psalms chapter 91, we’re going to start there in verse number one. Read through to verse number 16. The title of my message tonight is Sheltered Christianity. Sheltered Christianity. And we’re going to look at these verses here. The Bible says in Psalms 91, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, and him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers. Under his wings thou shalt trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow 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 side, but it shall not come nigh thee. What a great promise so far. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Very key verse there. Verse number nine, because thou hast made the Lord, which is thy refuge, even the most high, thy habitation.

There shall now evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against the stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he had, sorry, because he had set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. This is God speaking. I will set him on high because he hath known my name. We have a God that knows your name. That’s not the message, but it’s such a great truth. Verse number 15, He shall call upon me.

And I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life, will I satisfy him and show him my salvation?

God, we are so thankful for you, Lord. Thank you that you’re not just some big figure out in space or that we just think about and read about, Lord, but you are a personal God. And, Lord, you want us to find refuge, find shelter in you. And I just ask you, just help the message to get across tonight. Please keep the distractions away and Lord help us to be able to learn something from your word this evening. I see things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thank you so much. You may remain standing. No, you can sit down. I’m just kidding. I’ve always wanted to say that. Preachers just kind of, you just automatically assume, all right, he’s done, you know, all right. Anyway, but when we hear the word sheltered, how many people pictured some…

…some scrawny little kid with big glasses and his pants all the way up to his belly button. And just some kid that was homeschooled, kind of a little quirky. Anybody picture that when I talk about being sheltered? All right. That’s my middle school picture, if you were to look at that. But that’s not what we’re talking about here today. We’re talking about sheltered Christianity. That’s the title of my message today.

But the shelter in the definition, and I like to look at Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, kind of gives us the closest to what the Bible talks about. But the word shelter means to defend, to protect from danger, to secure or render safe to harbor. Think about that. I’ll read that one more time. To defend. To protect from danger, to secure or render safe to harbor. The Bible uses here in Psalms 91, it used the word refuge, synonymous with shelter. But what is the idea? It is a place to defend, to protect from danger, to secure, to render safe to harbor. That is a harbor for us.

And God is warning us, he’s telling us here in Psalms 91, he’s telling the psalmness. He says, hey, if you come to me, look at verse number one. He that dwelleth in this secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge of my fortress, my my God in him will I trust. That’s what God wants of us. God wants us to put our trust in him. He wants us to find refuge in Jesus Christ in God. God’s picture of someone who is sheltered is completely different from the sheltered that we have a view of.

Tonight we will have a Bible study on God’s view of sheltered Christianity. What does God view a Christian? This is what God wants us as Christians to be sheltered Christians, to have sheltered Christianity. So we’re going to look at a couple of things. I want to start off by a kind of a little bit of a history story. How many know World War I? You know what I’m talking about? All right, some of y’all were there. No, I’m just kidding. But I’m just kidding. Ms. Joyce, she’s already left. I’m just kidding, Ms. Joyce.

But World War I, World War I was the start of what they called trench warfare.

That was where they would build trenches, elaborate trenches, sometimes just deep, fortified trenches. And what they would do is they used these trenches. It was not a vacation spot. It was not a place where somebody signed up to the Army and they said, hey, put me right there. That’s where I want to go, right in the trenches. Put me right there. Because there really wasn’t much success that happened with the trenches. Both sides were dug deep. And, you know, one side would advance a little bit and then they would come back, just not a lot of advancement on the trench warfare side.

But imagine the scene, if you will. You’re a soldier and you’re in this trench. You’re in this trench. You have an enemy that you’re facing. You have somebody that is out to kill you. You look around and you have fellow soldiers that have died. Fellow soldiers that are going insane. You’ve got blood all over the place. You’ve got water that’s coming through. You’ve got to watch for diseases. You’ve got to watch for trench foot. You’ve got to watch for people shooting. You have a fear for your life. There’s just a stress that comes being in this trench. And this stress alone, just the stress, would drive somebody insane. It would just drive them crazy.

And that’s exactly what was happening. They found out the British forces were finding out, hey, we can’t leave somebody down there too long, or they’re just going to go crazy. And that’s exactly what was happening. They were going crazy. They were standing up and just running out in the field because they literally lost their mind. And what did they try to do? They understood that there was a problem here. But the British forces soon realized that they could not keep a man in that situation for more than about five days because they were just losing too many men, specifically from getting shot, but just losing their mind, getting diseases in that trench.

So what they did is they began to switch out the men about every three to four days to bring those men, and they brought those men back to camp. They brought them back to base. What was the purpose of that? When they got to camp, they were examined, they were given nourishment, they had their wounds treated, they were given an update on the war, and then given reassignments to get back into the fight. That camp, that base, that shelter, if you will, was a place where they were brought out of the battle, they were brought out of that stressful situation, and they were given these amazing things that happened while they were at camp.

Once those practices were implemented, the morale of the soldiers began to increase. Because there was a point where these soldiers, they didn’t think it was ever going to end. They didn’t think that there was an end in sight. They just thought, man, the enemy is still firing. We’re not going anywhere. I’m still in this trench. Man, it’s pointless. What’s the point of going on? And these men were losing morale. And what did they have to do? They started implementing this system where they would bring them back to camp and take care of their needs and get them back on the front lines. And that helped greatly.

Us, we as Christians, we are in a fight. We are in a battle, a spiritual battle, yes, but even now the closer Christ gets to his coming, we’ll start experiencing things that are happening in California and Portland, things like that, where the church is physically being attacked. It’s no longer, you know, yes, we talk about the spiritual battle, we all do face the spiritual battle, but it is coming a little bit closer to home. We’re not talking about a foreign field here. You know, we’re not talking about North Korea or China. We’re talking about America.

If you hold your church service in California, they’re just going to shut your water off. They’re just going to shut off your utilities. That’s what’s happening here in America. And we are in a battle for Christianity. We are in a spiritual warfare.

Now, there’s a couple of things that I want us to notice about being a sheltered Christian, being a sheltered Christian. There is a safe haven. There is a place for us as Christians where we can go to. And I want us to notice some things about a sheltered Christian. The first thing is this. We’re already there at Psalms 91. We’re going to read a couple of verses here. But a sheltered Christian is a protected Christian. A sheltered Christian is a protected Christian.

Look at verse number three. This is talking about somebody that puts their trust in Jesus. He’s their refuse, your fortress. Look at verse number three. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers. This is a promise here. This is not something, well, maybe it’ll happen. This is what he’s saying. He shall cover thee with his feathers. 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 arrow 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 their right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Look at this verse number eight. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Now, a sheltered Christian is a protected Christian. A sheltered Christian is a protected Christian. There is a safe haven in Jesus Christ. There is a safe haven when we go to God for shelter, when we go to God for protection.

The Bible says in Psalm 61, verse number one, it says, “Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of thy wings.”

There is an amazing truth here for us as Christians. It says there, my heart is overwhelmed. This guy, he didn’t lose an arm in battle, but his heart is overwhelmed. And he goes to God for refuge. He goes to God for the shelter. Thou hast been a shelter for me. There is a protection that’s there.

How many times can you think throughout your life that you have been so close to death? How many times can you think that you’ve been so close to being physically harmed? Man, I’ll tell you something. I think I have time for the story here. But yesterday, all right? This is amazing. Yesterday. This is kind of what spurred the idea for this message. But yesterday, preacher, you’re already intense. I’ll save it for the end of the service. No. But yesterday, we’ve got the new property. And I went to mow on the new property. And we’ve got these three piles of wood that some tree service dropped off very nicely for us, just in random spots all over place. But anyway.

But we’ve been trying, we want to have a service on the property in October. And so we want to get those areas cleaned out. And so preachers told me, hey, can you, can you burn all that out while you’re mowing and why you’re wheat eating and things like that and said, okay, we’ll work on that. And so yesterday, man, I was playing down. I was going to do it. I talked to the fire department and they came out, they sent somebody out. We got a burn permit. And I was waiting around for him. And I had my little fire extinguisher, and I had the three piles. I mowed around it so I could show him where we were going to be at. And he comes down and he said, okay, it looks good, it looks good. And he gave us the burn permit. And then I thought, how am I going to start this fire? I didn’t even think that far through, all right? I knew how to put it out if it did start, but it didn’t just automatically, you know, random combustion.

But so I was trying to find out how to start this fire. So I drove back to the church. And I’m like, all right, what am I going to do to start this fire? So I’m like, all right, oh, we got some, we got, maybe I’ll look for some matches. I’ll try to find some matches, put some cardboard together, and I’ll light it from there. And I look around, we didn’t have any matches around here, but we had one of those little click lighters, a little gas lighters. And so I’m like, all right, I’ll take that. And I couldn’t find any cardboard or anything to use.

And so I went to the shed and we’ve got a gallon of gas. You know, it’s a great gallon of gas. And so I grab that gallon of gas. I’m like, I’ll just pour just a little bit of it and then it’ll be fine. It’ll be okay. I’ll try to light a stick and I’ll kind of push it over there and it’ll be great. So I go to the biggest pile and I pour a little bit of gas in there. Okay, maybe a little bit more of gas. I was like, all right, this is going to be great. We’ll get it light up real quick, and it’ll just start burning. I’ll be able to mow while it’s burning. It’ll be okay. And so I grabbed that little lighter. I had my gas can, and there’s a little guy riding his bicycle along the highway, and, you know, I wave at him. And here I am with the gas and a lighter.

And I pour the gas onto the pile. And then I go to light, you know, just a little small area. I kind of poured it, and then I, you know, made a little line down to the bottom. And I tried to like that the end of the line, but it just wouldn’t light. And I’m like, great, what am I going to do now? And so I picked the gas can back up. That’s a smart idea. So I picked the gas can back up, and I go to pour more gas onto the flame. And where I was trying to light, it lit. And boom, it came right in front of my face. And I looked down, I’m like, wow, man, that was so close. And I looked down to my shirt, and I’ve got fire on my shirt.

And I’m holding the gas can, I’ve got the little lighter, I throw the lighter, I’m smacking the fire off my shirt, and then I look at the gas can, and there’s about a two-inch flame coming from the gas can. And I’m like, oh, that’s not good. So I throw the gas can down, and I run to go find that fire extinguisher so I could put it out. But praise the Lord. Nothing else happened. All right, it was good. A fire extinguisher worked. I got it off of the new shuttle bus. So if anything, it was worth it for that. But it worked off of the new shuttle bus, and I grabbed that fire extinguisher. And as I was pulling the pin, I said, please, Lord, help this thing to work. And so the flame, I was able to put the flame out of the gas can, and it was all good to go after that.

But I say that to say, God has protected us. God has protected us so much. I’ll tell this real quickly, but I was doing a home renovation project on Monday. And I was trying to put two of our countertop. They had quartz countertop. We bought it on Craig’s List, and I’ve done a lot of cutting on it and piecing it together. And so I was going to glue two pieces of the countertop together. And so I grabbed two ratchet straps, and I put my glue in the middle of the two pieces, and I started ratching it down on the ratchet straps. And I got one side done.

And then so I go to the second ratchet strap, and I start to push down, and it was good, but it wasn’t good enough. Any man had been there before? You’re just like, man, just let me get one more good hoo-ha in there. We’ll be okay. And so I grab that ratchet strap, and I’m leaning down. I’m trying to give it all I can. And I go to pull that ratchet strap, and that ratchet strap comes right off that countertop and hits me right here in the nose. It starts to swell, and it had some bruising after that. But I think, man, the Lord protected me, because if it wasn’t just an inch up, I’d have probably had permanent eye damage. If it wasn’t just a little bit lower, I’d have probably had my nose snapped off. Who would have known? There’s charity watching Daddy get his nose snapped off.

But what I’m telling you is this, look, God has protected us from so much. And those are probably more funny stories, but they’re personal for me. God has protected us? And a sheltered Christian is a protected Christian. How many times has God protected you just today? You think about when we get into a vehicle, when we get into a vehicle, we take the risk of maybe getting into a car an accident. We take the risk of running off the road. And I’ve had several of those, but I don’t have time to get into that. But we take that risk.

And God, when we are sheltered in Jesus Christ, we are protected. God protects us. God wants us to be protected. The Bible says in 2 Samuel 22:3, “The God of my rock, and him will I trust. He is my shield and my horn of my salvation, my high tower, my refuge, my savior, thou savest me from violence.”

The battle, when you think about a shelter and being protected, this was, the battle is still going on. The storm is still going on. The trial is still going on with your life, but there is a shelter, a safe place where we as Christians can go in the morning time or whenever you have your walk with God and we get alone with God. We go to God and say, Lord, would you cover me with your wings? Lord, I want to be protected. I look out there and I can’t face these trials. I look out there and I see a sea of mess. And I don’t know what to do, Lord. Would you please just protect me? And God has a shelter for you. God has a place of refuge for us. A sheltered Christian is a protected Christian.

This doesn’t stop the battle. Being in the shelter does not stop the battle, but it enables us to see how many times God has protected us. How many things God has kept us away from in order to help us to grow? This is where we get to see the warning labels that God has placed in our lives. You know, so many times when I was about to light that fire, there was a little voice in my head that said, don’t do it. And I said, and I tried to click it, it wasn’t clicking. I’m like, well, maybe I shouldn’t do this. But, you know, it’s the same thing with our lives, is God wants to protect us. So when we go to that shelter, God pulls us away from the situation, and God lets us see the way he sees it, and let us see and go, man, there is some warning labels in my life. Maybe I’m getting too close to a certain area that I’m going to start sinning. Maybe I’m getting too close with an attitude of maybe anger or lustfulness. I’m getting too close in an area, and God says, look, I want to show you some warning labels. I want to protect you as my child.

So the first thing, a sheltered Christian is a protected Christian. Secondly, go ahead and look at Philemon, verse number 20. I didn’t write this one out. Verse number 20. And so a sheltered Christian is a protected Christian. And then a sheltered Christian is a refreshed Christian, a refreshed Christian. Look at verse number 20 of Philemon.

The Bible says, “Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord. Refresh my boughs in the Lord.” This is talking about Paul, he met a man, a servant that ran away, and he sent the servant back. And what did he tell him? He said, look, “Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord. Refresh my boughs in the Lord.” Refresh my boughs in the Lord.

When my brothers were growing up, we would go on a bus route in Texas. All right, has anybody ever been to Texas before? Okay, it gets hot every now and then up there. No, I’m just kidding. It’s scorching hot. And we would be on that bus route. It got to the point I started bringing a beach towel so that I could wipe the sweat off because I was just, we were melted. And we would get home after the bus route. And, you know, sometimes we would stop by and get an icy. And we would suck down that icy 44, 64 ounces, whatever it was. We were sucking it down. And then we would get to the house. And we were in a trailer, and man, you know those floor vents. Those are God’s gift to busy, sweating people, all right? We would spread out through the house, me, my two brothers and my dad, and we would just lay on top of one of those floor vents with that air conditioner going. And, you know, what God does for us, a protected Christian is a refreshed Christian.

God doesn’t want us to just be consumed in the battle that we don’t step back and be refreshed, refreshing our soul. This is where the Christian mends their wounds. This is where we rejoice. This is where we get spiritual nourishment and we get encouraged. The Bible says in Matthew 11, “Come unto me all you that labor in a heavy laven, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

You need a time to refresh your soul. If you don’t, you’ll be defeated. If you don’t, you’ll be discouraged. You know, I can see the faces of Christians, and I can tell who hasn’t been to the shelter. I can tell because you’re discouraged. You’ve got a negative mindset about everything. Why? Because you haven’t been to the shelter. That is where God says, hey, come unto me. Come to the shelter. Because I’m going to give you rest. I want to refresh your souls. That’s exactly what it is. When you feel, sometimes I’ll go about my business and I’m working and working. And I’m like, man, I just feel negative. I feel like, man, that just suppressors. I’m discouraged. Like, man, I’m never going to be able to get everything done. And then I have to step back. Lord, would you please refresh my soul? Lord, would you bring the joy back in serving? I don’t want to just serve just to serve. Would you give me joy again? And the Lord does that. The Lord wants to replenish your joy. He wants to replenish you as a Christian.

The Bible says this in Hebrews 6:18, “That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” You know, God has hope for us as Christians. We look in this world for hope and you’re not going to find it. But when we go to God in that shelter, we go to God under the shelter of His wings, God gives us hope. He says that there is hope that we can hold on to. Refreshment in the shelter of his wings. There is refreshment. There is a chance to see what’s going on in your life and to have refreshment, to be encouraged again. Sheltered Christian is a protected Christian. A sheltered Christian is a refreshed Christian.

Here’s the third thing. A sheltered Christian is an informed Christian. A sheltered Christian is an informed Christian. Go ahead and turn to Psalms chapter 31. This will be the last place I have you turn. Psalms chapter 31 and we’re going to look at verse number one there.

An informed Christian. Very important. The Bible says in Psalms chapter 31, we’re going to just read one through four. The Bible says this, “In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust? Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be thou my strong rock for a house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, thy namesake lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me, for thou art my strength.”

Debt verse number three, lead me and guide me. You know what’s important about going back to the shelter? Just like in the military, you go back to home base for what? To know where you need to go. You go back yesterday to get your wounds mended, but then you get new assignments. You got to say, where am I going to go? Where am I going next? What’s going to happen here? And that’s exactly what we as Christians. We go to that shelter. We go to God to God to be informed. We go to God and we look at God and say, Lord, why is this happening in my life? How do you want me to give you glory in this in my life? And God gives us that information. God guides and leads us to where we need to go. That happens when we get sheltered in Jesus Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I hate the rain, okay? I just hate it. I hate rain. Anybody like that? All right, I love what rain does, but I just hate rain, okay? I want it to be sunshine all the time. But I don’t like the rain. Ms. Cotora knows that as well. And so sometimes, I don’t know if she does this on purpose, but we’ll pull up on a Sunday night or whatever, and we’ll walk inside the church as a family. And usually when it’s raining, that’s the time she just wants to enjoy. Wow, look at this, honey. We’re walking the church together. Come here, Elaine. Woo! It’s like, honey, we got to go. I got to get out of this rain. And the rain comes. I don’t like rain.

But you know, sometimes when you’re out, and the rain’s coming down, and it’s pouring down. And, you know, if you’re ever at a park or something like that, and you try to find a safe place, you go to inside a building or you go under a park pavilion. And, you know, typically what I do is if it’s raining real bad, I pull out my cell phone. And while I’m in that sheltered place, I pull up my cell phone, and I look at my weather app. When is this rain going to stop so I can start living my life again, all right? When is this rain going to stop so I can go back outside?

And you know what Jesus does? He lets us see our trials from his point of view. He lets us know, hey, you’re going through a storm right now, but don’t give up. It’s almost done. You’ve almost learned what I want you to learn. Look, we go to God and we say, Lord, there’s a trial in my life. There’s a storm. I don’t know what to get through. I don’t know if I’m going to make it. And Jesus says, look, this is what I want to teach you. This is what I want you to learn. And we get to go to God and we say, in that shelter and say, Lord, wow, that’s it. I need to grow in that area. Man, that’s where we go to God. We ask what we need to learn. Where do we need to grow?

You know, also what God does is he shows us when we get to see our life from God’s point of view, he shows us what areas we need to work on. You know, just like in a war, you get back to base and you look at, all right, the enemy has come in this area here and they’ve taken over this area. We need to fight back. We need to push back. Or maybe, hey, I can see some areas over here. We need to defend over here. And that’s exactly what God shows us. He says, look, you know what? You’re slipping in an area. Let’s get that back together. Let’s attack this area. Maybe you need to set some guidelines for your life. Maybe you need to set up some strongholds for your life. Man, that’s where we go to God. God gives us that information. God shows us. God doesn’t want to just leave us hanging and let us be rogue Christians where we just run around. Well, I think I’m in the Lord’s will. All right. I think I know what I’m doing. No, God wants to show us, hey, you know, that’s why the Bible, you get to read some things in the Bible. It’s like, wow. That’s what I needed today.

You know, man, I run across somebody, maybe a family member, wow, you know what, they need some help in this area. And I’m able to look at God, from God’s point of view, I’m able to look at those trials, look at that storm in my life, and be able to push forward. He leads and he guides us. He knows what’s best for us. He wants us to follow his will. We’ve got to let him lead us. We’ve got to let him guide us. We get our battle plan, we get our game plan from headquarters. That’s what a sheltered Christian is. A sheltered Christian is a protected Christian. A sheltered Christian is a refreshed Christian, an encouraged Christian. And a sheltered Christian is an informed Christian.

What are some shelters that you have in your life? What about your walk with God? The Bible says in Psalm 62:8, “Trust in him at all times, you people, pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.”

Say la. God wants us to go to him in our walk with God and be able to be refreshed. Because why? He’s our refuge. He knows you’re going through trials. He knows that you’ve got attacks that seem to be coming from all over the place. And he wants to help you. Pour out your heart before God in that walk with God time. What about church is another shelter? The Bible says in Psalm 73:17, “Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their end.”

You know, the verse we read about in Psalms 91:8, it says, I got to see the wicked, not being affected by the wicked, but I got to see the wicked, and I got to see their end. You know what, that’s what God does for us. He lets us see that. When we get into this sanctuary, when we get into this refuge, God lets us see, man, hey, you know what, they may look like they’re flourishing, they may look like they’re succeeding, but they’re going to have an end one day. And that’s where we go to our shelter, the church, we go to the sanctuary of God.

What about scripture meditation? Having some scriptures that you meditate on and think about. Memorize. The Bible says in Psalms 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.” That’s what I’m talking about here. We need to have some shelters in our life, some places of refuge. When the devil comes to tempt us, we have a refuge to run to. We have a place to go to.

What about some good friendship? The Bible says in Galatians 2:11, this is Paul talking. He says, “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face.” This is Paul talking. He came up to Peter. He said, look, what you’re doing is wrong. You know, you’re staying away from the Gentiles. You need to focus on what God told you to do, preaching the gospel to the whole world. And Paul withstood him to the face. And he said, look, you need to change. The Bible says, because he was to be blamed. That’s what Paul says.

You need to have some good Christian friends in your life, people that appoint you to Christ, people that when you think all is lost, you can go to for a refuge and say, hey, I need some encouragement. Hey, brother, would you help me pray for this? That’s what friendship is for.

What about some principles? The Bible says in Jeremiah 6:16, “Thus sayeth the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old past, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall have found rest for your souls. Rest for your souls.” That’s what this shelter is.

When we set principles in our life, when we say, look, I’m not going to go here. What did Jesus do on the sermon on the mount? He looked after those people and he said, you know, the Bible, the Old Testament law says thou shalt not kill. But if you have hatred towards your brother, it’s just like you killed him. What was that? That was a principle. That was a guideline to keep him to keep him from killing somebody. So I don’t even want to go down that road, so I’m going to avoid even having anger towards my brother. What about the lust after a woman? I don’t want to commit adultery, but if you look at a woman to lust after her, the Bible says you’ve already committed adultery in your heart. What do you do? You set guidelines in your life. I don’t want to go down this road, so I’m going to set a guideline, a boundary in my life to where I don’t go down that path. And that’s what a shelter is. A principle is a shelter in your life.

The Bible says in Luke chapter 13, verse number 34. It says this, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. This is Jesus talking, which kill us the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee.” This is what Jesus says. “How often would I have gathered thy children together? As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not.”

Jesus looked at the children of Israel and said, I am a shelter. I am a refuge. I’m a high tower. I’m a buckler. I’m a shield. Come to me. And the children of Israel didn’t want any part of it. And what about us as Christians? When we’re faced with things, when we have enemies attack us, when we feel like the world’s going to come to an end, where do we turn to? Jesus is standing there with arms wide open, ready for us to come to him. And he says, I want you to come under my wings. I wanted you to gather you like a chicken gathers or little chicks. But ye would not. He would not. Will that be said of us?

Will that be said of us today? Would we, would Jesus, when we get to heaven, said, look, I wanted to give you shelter in your time of storm, but ye would not. He would not. Will you be a Christian that goes to the shelter for protection from the heat of the battle to refresh and replenish your supplies and then go out and lead and, led and informed by the great commander? Come to the shelter. Come to God’s shelter tonight. Let’s pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for what you have done for us. Thank you, Lord, that you are a shelter, Lord. You never say that in the Bible that there’s a requirement. There is a standard that we need to live up to, to be able to get your shelter. God, you give it to us freely. And I thank you for that, Lord. I thank you that you want us to come to you. I thank you, Lord, for the protection that you provide, the provision that you provide. Lord, and the information, Lord, you want us to learn, you want us to grow. And I thank you, Lord, that we can come to you. Lord, in whatever time it may be, but we can come to you alone and talk to our Creator and get alone with you in that shelter. Thank you, Lord, for that. Thank you for this message. I ask these things. Would you please stand where you’re at? Our heads are about, rise, your clothes. Would you please stand right where you’re at? Be a great night to come to get into the shelter.

He’s waiting. He’s got arms wide open. He’s got security, comfort, protection. We’ve got it all available for you. Would you come tonight? Our instruments are going to play. Would you come? Would you come? Would you come? Just get close to him. Make it a habit. Now’s a great time during the invitation just to draw night of him. That’s great. Some are coming even now. Our instruments will play. Let’s just come. That’s right. Come on. That’s good. Great time. Just make it a habit during an invitation. Just to draw night of him. The name of the Lord is a strong tower of the righteous, runneth into it, and are safe. Let’s just run to that tower tonight. Doors are right open. He longs to be what you need. He’s got everything you need waiting for you. Let’s just draw night of him.

It’s a wonderful promise. Let me just, I believe it’s Psalm 145:18. I believe it is, “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.” It’s amazing promise. And it’d be nigh to you. Just come to him, get to him. He’s refuge and protection and strength, refresh him. You got to bless you tonight. Would you say amen?

And thank you so much, brothers. A great blessing, great message. And it was a help. And I hope you got help from it.

Original File: Sheltered Christianity - Brother Anthony Aaron