Sermon Central
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Salvation Is Death Series
Contributed by Colin Mcgeer on Jun 7, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: Hear it, and know for yourself. God will deliver you. In His presence, you can be secure. God's goal for our lives is His fullness. The Father draws us to Himself. Death is the doorway into a new life. You cannot miss it.
15 But He saves the needy from the sword,
From the mouth of the mighty,
And from their hand.
16 So the poor have hope,
And injustice shuts her mouth.
17 “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects;
Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
18 For He bruises, but He binds up;
He wounds, but His hands make whole.
19 He shall deliver you in six troubles,
Yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.
20 In famine He shall redeem you from death,
And in war from the power of the sword.
21 You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,
And you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes.
22 You shall laugh at destruction and famine,
And you shall not be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
23 For you shall have a covenant with the stones of the field,
And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
24 You shall know that your tent is in peace;
You shall visit your dwelling and find nothing amiss.
25 You shall also know that your descendants shall be many,
And your offspring like the grass of the earth.
26 You shall come to the grave at a full age,
As a sheaf of grain ripens in its season.
27 Behold, this we have searched out;
It is true.
Hear it, and know for yourself.”
This scripture in Job speaks of a son of God’s inheritance.
I have experienced God’s hand in my life for many years. I know that God has saved me from the sword. There are so many things in life that can go wrong. I was abused as a child by a visiting family member and could never tell anybody about it, especially my parents. Guilt and fear then became part of my life. I became a very fearful child. I feared most things, especially the dark. I had a close friend die in a car accident. So, whenever we drove in the car, I feared being killed in a car accident. There was hardly anything I did not fear.
One Sunday morning we had an oldish lady visit our Sunday school class. She used a flannelgraph story to tell us about a mother hen. The mother hen had told her little chickens that when a big spooky bird comes close to them that she would call her little chickens to run and hide under her wings. One off her little chicks decided that he was strong enough to look after himself, so when the big dark bird cast a shadow over their coup he decided not to hide under his mother’s wings with the others. He continued to pick up little bits of seeds and enjoy himself basking in the sun. Suddenly the fearsome bird dived into the coup and swooped up the gutsy chick and carried him away.
Our Storyteller then explained the first verses of Psalm 91.
Psalm 91 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
Then the dear old lady invited us to ask Jesus to live in our hearts.
I was the very first to respond and since then I have been a child of God.
I do know that I have lived in the presence of Jesus since then. Whenever I feared anything from that day, I quoted Psalm 91 and hid under the wings of Jesus. But never got rid of my guilt. Kept my secret deep in my heart.
I have learned that secret sin is the power of evil rooted deep down inside our lives. Although I believed in Jesus and lived to minister His word from a young age, I still carried one fear. I feared the judgment of people and never told anyone about my guilt.
This guilt affected my life and kept me in bondage for many years. Although I ministered and taught the word I battled with secret sins. I could not believe that I could ever be free of my past. You begin to believe that God’s mercy overlooks your weakness. I believed that God forgives and forgets each past action.
Sin in a Christian who fully loves God and others is the inability to define if they are succeeding or failing in God’s eyes. This understanding becomes a selfish desire to continue in sin whether it hurts or disappoints others.
