The Snare of the Fowler
PPT 1
Text: Psalm 91:3
Ps 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
Ps 91:2 I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!"
Ps 91:3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, And from the deadly pestilence.
This is my hunting sermon. Last week I mentioned the only person in the bible who was called a mighty hunter was Nimrod. He was a very evil man. Another hunter in the bible who was evil is a guy by the name of Essau. His daddy Jacob loved him and the venison he often made him. But his life is forever tainted that he could not control his physical appetites, and he is a sign post in the bible that says, you can lose your destiny if you don't control your physical appetites.
The greatest hunter in the bible is of course, God Himself. He came to seek and save that which was lost.
Ok so lets talk about the trapper or fowler this morning.
PPT 2, 3 (Two kinds of traps)
Some traps trap, others trap and wound severely
The sad truth is both put you under the control and domination of another. Think about that. Can you think of someone who is trapped?
PPT 4 (Trapped mtn lion)
Isn't there some part of you that has pity for this animal? How much more for humans trapped in drugs or other snares of the enemy.
The Trapper:
1. The trapper knows his seasons.
A. The snare is most effective in mating season.
Physical drives cause them to abandon normal watchfulness.
B. Winter is a time when hunger will drive the animal out in the open
PPT 5 (Hunter studying)
2. The trapper studies his prey.
Learns eating and mating habits.
Observes places the prey can be caught.
3. The trapper is a master of stealth.
PPT 6 (Turkey blind)
PPT 7 (Text, and pic cop hiding in plain sight)
Pr 1:17 Indeed, it is useless to spread the net In the eyes of any bird;
This is the first proverb in the book of Proverbs, as such it ought to give us extra pause to consider and meditate upon it. A proverb is a truth that is conveyed in a word picture that is handed down from generation to generation.
This particular proverb has been much debated, some say a bird won't land in a visible trap, but that simply is not true. Other the sense of it seems to be, is that a lot of people are stupid when it comes to traps.
In other words even if you show some people the danger of what they are doing, they will still not receive instruction from it.
PPT 8 (Text)
Pr 1:17 Nobody robs a bank with everyone watching,
Pr 1:18 Yet that's what these people are doing—they're doing themselves in.
Pr 1:19 When you grab all you can get, that's what happens: the more you get, the less you are.
In spite of the fact of the stupidity of man, the fowler still goes to great lengths to hide his traps.
Eat at beelzebub's. No such sign
Hunters put clothes outside for three weeks, don't wear them into the woods but put them on in the woods.
The trapper is most successful when his involvement is most invisible.
Point: "If I thought it was a trap I wouldn't go there". If I thought it was wrong I wouldn't do it. satan has worked overtime to see to it doesn't look like a trap, or to talk people into thinking wrong is right.
When Eve saw the fruit was good for food, and a delight to the eye, and it could make her a lot smarter, she was hooked. The fowler always emphasizes what appeals to us.
Salesman show you the car, the options, how good you look in it, and put off the price until the last minute.
4. The trapper adapts and varies his traps.
If you are an Achilles he goes for the heel.
If you are a vulture he goes for carrion.
If a hawk a trapped mouse.
Some he traps with animal desires
Some he traps with human curiosity, (hey what's going on there)
Some he traps with decoys
The fowler uses the power of example.
Decoy's others are doing it.
Don't ever let the devil use you as an example of a decoy for others.
5. The trapper gets the careless.
Don't be a moose head.
The traps are placed where you will walk, so watch where you walk.
Where do you walk? In church. Traps can come in church. Be sober be vigilant your adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
This speaks of how some animals are paralyzed by fear with a lions roar. Most of the time he jumps out of the bushes while you are eating lunch. Who expects an attack at lunch time?
6. The trapper has no joy unless he bags a prey and is willing to go to great lengths and make great sacrifices to get his prey.
Financial
physical
time sacrifices are irrelevant to the fowler.
Real fishermen will endure almost anything.
Fishermen get excited about nibbles. They learn to adapt.
7. The trapper's goal is to kill his prey.
The prey's goal may be the simply eating of corn. Your goal doesn't really matter.
8. The trapper almost always gets his prey, in his preys environment.
Hunters go to the woods. They don't get the prey to come to the suburb.
Men don't fall into sin in Las Vegas, they fall into in in their own back yard.
Lust when it is conceived, gives birth to sin.
Conception is that which is without joining with that which is within, and growing.
You won't sin in Vegas unless you opened your heart to it in Michigan.
II. The deliverance from.
PPT 9(Text and fire rescue professional)
Ps 91:3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, [and] from the noisome pestilence.
a. From:
God's people sometimes get caught.
God delivers all who call.
Surely is a powerful word.
No trap is God proof. He is better at rescuing than the devil is at trapping. There is no addiction that is God proof, there is no pit that hell can put a man in that God can't still deliver Him out of.
How?
1. The taste of the cage.
Ever seen a trapped animal squirm. He'll never go back there again.
Some learn from pain. Sometimes God lets us do some cage time, so that we will learn to avoid the enemies traps in the future.
2. By providence.
If this would have happened to me last week I wouldn't have been able to deal with it. Only eternity will tell of the land mines God kept us from.
3. By the help and work of the Holy Spirit.
God gives strength to turn from.
God gives conviction of a things wrongness and we turn away from it, before it gets us.
4. By the love of God.
The fowler wants to kill, Jesus wants to save.
The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, but I am come that you might have live and more abundantly. Jesus is a better hunter than the devil.
The fowler puts his traps in your path, God puts His word in your path.
Close: Surely He
Invisible protection from invisible dangers.
Guaranteed help from a faithful guarantor.
Wisdom to meet cunning.
An iron clad promise that shatters an iron fisted grip.
Pray for protection and deliverance from the fowler.
