(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right. Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. We're glad you're here. We've enjoyed reading the comments and as always, you know, if you find this message blesses you, if you do us a favor and just share it with somebody would greatly appreciate it. We want to do everything we can to help spread truth. Now I just got done preaching a sermon about sheltering. Has anybody ever come up to you and said, you know, you seems like you really shelter your kids or you seem like you were too sheltered in life, or maybe you've talked to somebody that said, you know, I don't like to shelter my children too much because from what I've seen, people that go to fundamentalist churches and shelter their kids, they grow up and they just go ham, right? If you've heard that or you've dealt with that, the sermon is going to unpack how to respond to that. And I'm going to say this, if you're not sheltering yourself and those around you, then you're exposing and endangering yourself and those around you. Enjoy the message. God bless. All right. Amen. Psalm chapter number 91. Look at verse number one. So the Bible says he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. So what we're going to talk about today is sheltering. Who's ever heard this or who's ever had this said to them, you know, you seem really sheltered or you've been too sheltered or your kids are too sheltered and blah, blah, blah. Well, that's what we're going to talk about today. Yeah. You know, if you're paying attention, you just read that chapter, you can probably figure out that sheltering is not a bad thing. So we're going to call this the anti-sheltering campaign, the anti-sheltering campaign. Now, obviously from our own people, you know, we don't have an issue. Hopefully we don't have an issue with our own people saying, you know, you're, you're, you're too sheltered or things of that nature. But I'm starting to hear this a lot out in the community. Okay. And what's funny is like when I first moved here and I'd meet teachers out in the community, they'd say, Oh, how come you don't send your kids to school? Idaho has the best schools. Now when I meet teachers, they're like, yeah, get them out, like get them all the way out. Like I'm a teacher and I'm telling you, get those kids out of school as fast as you can. But yet we have Christians now out here like, Oh, does everybody, is that one of those churches where everybody homeschools and everybody like really shelters the kids because I don't want my children to grow up ignorant in the world, you know? And it's just like, you have no idea what you're talking about. And of course, they always play this card, right? They always say, well, okay, explain this to me. Why is it that when kids grow up homeschooled and sheltered and protected, they go ham later on in life. And I'm here to tell you that is not always the case. That is not always true, but there's a reason that type of thing does happen. And one of those is obvious. We have free will. Some people are just going to do whatever they want to do. And there's not a whole lot you can stop. You stop with those people. But with that being said, I want to have you guys, keep your place there in Psalm chapter 91 and go to Proverbs chapter number 29, Proverbs chapter number 29. And what's funny is that I grew up in the public school system, you know, only went to church for a very short period of my life. I was a bus kid in an old independent fundamental Baptist church for a while where I got saved and here I am today. Okay. So not all hope is lost if you grew up without a certain amount of sheltering or you had issues growing up, you know, obviously that's not always the case, but, um, I'm here to tell you that sheltering is not a bad thing. What does it even mean to shelter your kids to shelter yourself? Okay. This sermon is not just about sheltering kids. It's about sheltering our own selves and those around us. And so what I'm going to say this morning is this. If you're not sheltering yourself and those around you, then what you're doing is you're exposing and endangering yourself and those around you. You can't have it both ways. It's one or the other, either you're abiding under that shadow of the almighty or you're exposed and endangered out in the world, which is obviously not a good thing. Okay. Psalm chapter number 61. Look at verse number three. This is the verse on the bulletin. It says this, for thou has been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. Okay. Sound like a bad thing. Does it sound like a, like a bad verse? Absolutely not. Okay. Right. For thou meaning God has been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. We need protection. We need shelter and it starts with us. It starts with us realizing that and understanding what it is and what it is not. If we're going to be successful at this thing. Now go to Proverbs. Did I already tell you to go to Proverbs 29? Okay. So I never, sorry. I read for you. Psalm 61 is still good. Okay. I meant to do that. Stay right there. Proverbs chapter 29 because what you're going to see here is that God's protection comes in the form of what he calls his rod. Okay. His correction and his reproof, which is also a form of correction. Okay. Just a little bit different. Obviously the rod is his chasing. The Bible says that he chasineth every son whom he receiveth. And of course the reproof is this built in correction that comes from the word of God. And that leads to something. Okay. That leads to the secret place that leads to this protection that God offers. Look at this right here in verse number 15. So the Bible says this, the rod and reproof give wisdom. Okay. So how do you, how do I, how do we get wisdom from God? The rod and reproof. So when you're reading the Bible and something stings you and you're just like, Oh man, that is me. Okay. Don't put it down and not go back. Don't get triggered. Don't get offended. Just roll with it. Accept the fact that you need to make the change in your life because that is the only way that you are going to get wise to get wisdom. Remember knowledge puffeth up. Okay. Knowledge produces arrogance too much. Okay. And the cure to that is to be seeking after wisdom. And unfortunately there is a little bit of pain involved in that process. So verse 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom. Now look at this, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Obviously, you know, this was me as a child. You know, my parents, I was an eighties kid and this was kind of common in culture back then, even for church kids, you know, people were more trusting. People knew their neighbors. So they thought and you could just kind of get away with going outside all day. I would leave a note for my mom on the table like nine o'clock in the morning, went out to the woods with these kids and wouldn't come back to lunch if I was hungry or go to somebody else's house for lunch and come home for dinner or when it got dark out. I did that forever as a kid. All of us did that, you know, and as I increased in age, started getting more ideas. Wow. Well, you know, turns out I can throw rocks pretty far. It turns out we can actually hide pretty well. You started doing mischief and going to court, getting in trouble, bringing my mom to shame. But this principle is the same for us. Even if we're not children. Okay. If we just float through life, we're saved. We're like, that's good enough. I'm good to go. Okay. That's true. You're not going to hell. That's true. You're going to lose your salvation. But the question is, are you sheltering? Are you protected? Go back to Psalm chapter number 91. So that's a good picture there. What is shelter? It's the guarding, the defense, the preservation, the protection that God provides us, which we in turn provide for our children and honestly, those that are around us as well. Okay. That is what it is now. What's the point of doing it? Well, number one, it brings us to shame. Hey, if we don't, it exposes us. It endangers us out in the world. Now look at this next one here from verse three, Psalm chapter number 91. So the Bible says, surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noise, some pestilence. Okay. So again, verse one, what do we learn? We need to abide under the shadow of the almighty, the secret place. I'm going to show you how to get there. Okay. That's what we need. But this is the why, because the enemy is out to get us. Now, think about this for a second. You know, yesterday when we were on our way to Kuna, we're kind of looking at some of the churches that are out on the side of the highway, and one of them is called Awakened Church, Giant New Evangelical Church. And there's many more like those springing up. What are they doing for God? You hear how quiet that is? That's what they're doing for God. Okay, zero, absolutely nothing. You say, why are you bringing us up? Well, because somebody is doing something for God. Okay, and who doesn't like that? The enemy, the fowler, the one who wants to bring on this offensive, noisome disturbance, this pestilence. He wants us out of the picture, right? The church has got a twofold mission, and we talk about this every single day. It's to evangelize and to edify. The devil has the same mission only in reverse. He wants to stop us from edifying and stop us from going out there. Okay, and when we realize that, we internalize that and say, oh, okay. Right. We need God's shelter and his protection so that we can continue on with the mission that he's given us like good soldiers. Now back up again to verse number one. So it says here, verse one, it says, he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Look at this, he that dwelleth in the secret place. He said, oh, God keeping secrets? What does that mean? It means secret, meaning, for example, the Bible describes, I think it's somewhere in Ezekiel, but the Bible describes a child in the womb as being in the secret place. Now, obviously, we all know when someone's pregnant because there's obvious evidence or they let you know, but you can't physically see inside of there. It's secret. It's unknown. It's the same thing with us when we acquire wisdom and we're going through this process. We're moving in to the secret place of God where we know what's going on. We have truth. We're not keeping secrets from people, but everyone else looking at us, looking from the outside in, they can't understand why we're happy under persecution, why we can tolerate protest, why we could tolerate persecution, why we can tolerate bad things happening. And it's because we have learned to be content in whatsoever state that we're in because we're dwelling in the secret place. OK, now go to Psalm chapter number 25. If I haven't told you to go there already, in Psalm chapter number 25. Let's look at this. So again, if you're saved, obviously you're in Christ. OK, the Holy Ghost dwelleth inside of you. But again, the question now is, are you working to dwell in the secret place of the Lord? Let me show you how to get there. Psalm 25, look at verse 14. The Bible says this. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show them His covenant. So what that means right there is that just anybody who hears the word of God. OK, there's going to be some level of fear. They're going to be like, oh, yeah, I realize like right now I'm currently not believing this, I don't understand this. I'm on my way to hell. Right. They come to that realization. They believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They get saved. They have that fear. God has shown them His covenant. So everybody who is saved, everybody who is born again, has the ability to work towards now this secret place. Go to chapter 27, same book, Psalm chapter number 27. So the secret of the Lord is with all of us that are saved. OK, but look at this. Verse number five says, for in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. Just for a quick illustration here. I mean, think about the life of Saul. OK, ordained to be king over the nation of Israel, started making very unwise decisions. OK, when the day of trouble came upon him and his sons in his household, was he placed into the secret parts of God? Was he placed into that pavilion or did God deliver him up into the hands of his enemies? You already know the answer to that. God allowed him to be destroyed because he was unwise. Still saved, but unwise. What about David? Hey, yeah, David got chastened. David learned that rod and reproof up until the last day on Earth. However, when trouble came his way, God always worked it out for him. OK, God brought him into this pavilion, which is why he's writing this here. Now go to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter number one. Look down at verse number seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So, again, the only way you can get towards that place of wisdom is what that's what we need to abide in the secret of the Almighty is to start to acquire knowledge. Again, I'm not going to go into the secret of the Almighty. It's to start to acquire knowledge. Again, I'm not bashing knowledge. We need that. But it starts with the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The Bible says, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. King Saul was definitely a great example of that. So, again, just because you're saved, don't think that you're just automatically placed into the secret parts. Wisdom is something that we need to actively inquire, actively seek. And we're told that time and time again in the Bible. Go to Proverbs chapter number nine. So we see this, OK? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but it's also the beginning of something else. Proverbs nine, verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. So we have the fear of the Lord brings what? It's knowledge. The fear of the Lord brings what? Wisdom. OK, this combination that we so desperately need. Now back up a chapter and go to chapter number eight. Same book, Proverbs chapter number eight. And these there are some things listed here in verse 13 that we need to all understand and all work towards to maintain that place of wisdom here. Look at this here. Proverbs eight, verse 13. So the Bible says this. The fear of the Lord is two. OK, here's what it is. Here's what it looks like. And this is what most people miss, what most people have no idea even exists in the Bible. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance in the evil way, in the froward mouth. Do I hate? How many so-called Christians today can honestly tell you that they hate evil? Some of them might say they do, but can they explain to you what that even means? How many of them today that you talk to will hate pride? Again, you hear that silence? Yeah, there's a reason for that. That's how many will tell you. Oh, I was somebody sent me a clip the other day. Man, I forgot who it was. It might have been a Joe Rogan thing, but it doesn't matter. But basically it was some Christian apologist. And he was just like, you know, I'm not trying to be rude here. Jesus loves these homosexual people. And it's just like you're a leader in the church that you go to. And you could say you claim to have the fear of God and you say things like that. What does this say? The fear of the Lord is to hate the following. Number one, evil. Number two, pride. Number three, arrogance. And then God tells you why. He says the evil way in the froward mouth. Do I hate? So we learn to hate what he hates. And what does that produce? That produces wisdom, that produces understanding. That is what gets us into the secret place of God. Right. I mean, how many people look at us? Right. And say and people say this to me all the time. Even people I work with, they're just like, oh, man, I saw the I don't want to be offensive, but I looked up your church and you got a one point five or a one point six thing on Google. Like, aren't you terrified? Aren't you scared? And that's like, no, I'm actually excited. We actually like that. It doesn't harm us a bit. In fact, we've even had visitors and people, you know, leave us more reviews and friendly comments saying, hey, this is awesome. This is great to see you're still around and you have this game. This is God's business, not man's business. Now, this was man's business. And we were a new evangelical. I'd be panicking right now. I'd be definitely worried. But because we're serving God, we don't care what Google says. We could care less. Now, leave your place there. Go to John Chapter 15, the Gospel of John. John Chapter number 15. So, you know, after going through these verses, very simple, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. So with every believer, this is possible for you. Once you acquire the knowledge, it transforms into this wisdom and you understand, I need to learn what is evil so that I can hate it. I need to learn what is prideful so that I can hate it. I need to understand and recognize arrogance so that I can hate it. Like God hates it. That moves you from your current position into the secret dwelling place of God that Psalm 91 one is talking about. OK, now here's another example of why we need the shadow of the Almighty. You know, we were told about the fowler. Hey, the person who snares birds is trapping us. We get that's the enemy. We get that's the devil. Look at this here in verse number 19. What Jesus says is if you were of the world, the world would love his own. Let's stop right there for a second. And because everybody like, oh, you know, you got to have some world in your kids lives. My first question is, what do you mean by that? What do you mean by that? Hey, make them clarify what they mean by that, because some people just mean like, oh, well, they should be allowed to use squirt guns out in the yard and have, you know, play games or whatever. OK, that's cool, whatever. But that's not what they mean. Most of the time, they're like, what they really mean is you need to let them go to the movie theaters by themselves. You need to let them spend the night at so-and-so's house. You need to put them into public school. You need to basically insert them into the world. And what did Jesus say? If you're saved, if you're in Christ, the world hates you. Bottom line, there ain't no change in that. The world hates you, OK? And again, so people say this to you, right? Oh, you seem too sheltered. You seem really, you know, sheltered. Your response right off the bat needs to be, what do you mean by that? I need the specifics. Explain that. I'm not trying to be rude, but just please explain to me what you mean by that. And then what you should say is, well, yeah, that's great. I'm actually still sheltered. I still go to the word of God. I'm still trying to prove what is acceptable unto God. OK, that's the idea here. So again, verse 19, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. So when you're at work, when you're out here in the world, because we're not of the world, we're in the world, we're ambassadors. We're here for a mission. We're here from our nation of Israel, the Israel of God. We're here working and we're trying to educate people. We're trying to teach truth. So when you see the people in the world that are lazy, that are bums, and they're getting the praise from the boss, they can do no wrong. Do not let that bother you. You cannot let that bother you at all, because you understand Jesus told you the world loves their own. They're going to take care of their own. They're not going to take care of you. In most cases, they are not going to take care and you have to be OK with that. Look what he says next, but because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you, meaning all believers who accept him. OK, this isn't Calvinism here, but I have chosen you out of the world. OK, so when you get saved, what does he do? Takes you out of the world. The Holy Ghost dwells inside of you and you are a new creature instantly. There's something different inside of you. And I'm not saying that, you know, to seek evidence for salvation, you guys know what I mean here. He says, therefore, the world hateth you. There's something about you, even if you're in your most backslidden state, like Saul. OK, just let's just say, say you're you're you're a Corinthian. You know, somebody who's just a modern day just just completely like whatever. If they're saved, the world is still going to hate them. OK, they might think that they're buddying up to the world, but there is spiritual warfare that you and I cannot see. And that spiritual warfare somehow, some way, some shape and some form, they can detect that you're saved, they know that you're saved. And and because of that, they are going to seek to make your life miserable. And because you're in that backslidden state, what you're doing is you got your head trimmer out and you're basically just carving big old gaps and entries in your hedge of protection that God wants to place upon you. But when we start doing that, we start cutting down our hedge of protection. OK, we allow more avenues for the enemy to get to us and then life becomes extremely, extremely difficult. So this is why we need to be sheltered from the world. This is why we need God's protection. And this is why we need to produce that onto our children and those that are around us. Now, go to 1 John, chapter number two. 1 John, chapter number two. And we're going to put this together here, so what people will say now is like, well, you know, eventually what you're going to do, especially because your last name is Jones, is you're going to go out and build a community and have everyone drink Kool-Aid. Yeah, people say that stuff all the time. And of course, that we know is not true whatsoever. Uncle Jim has plagued me for years. OK, there is, remember, we talked about this, why did some people who seemingly are sheltered go ham later in life? We're going to work towards that. We're going to build towards that right now. So pay attention. 1 John 2, look at verse number 15. Remember, people have free will. What does the Bible say here? Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. He's not saying you're not saved. That's not what he's saying, saying. But if you love the world, meaning the world has you. Everybody tracking, the world has you, meaning when the world calls and it's Sunday and you're like, you know how to go to church and the world calls, hey, let's do this, this and this, you're like, cool, I'm out. And when that's your mindset. There's a problem here. Now, obviously, there is a thing that I believe, obviously, that we know that people are providentially hindered. They have jobs and things that they can't. That's not what I'm talking about. That's totally different. We can't expect everyone to have a schedule that permits them. You know, people come into this thing and they start to understand, hey, these guys are preaching truth and I want to be here. But they can't all the time. That's totally fine. That's OK. OK, we don't ever want to say, well, the reason why you're not here three times a week is because you love the world. You don't know that. Right. We don't necessarily know that. But we do know that when they have a love for the world, this might be difficult because we don't have anybody in here that kind of meets this right now. I'm thinking of people in the past, but I don't want to bring them up right now. But you get the point, OK? If we love the world, then the love of the Father is not in him. The love of the Father is not in us. So look at verse 16. And you're going to see there's a difference between loving the world versus using the world here in just a minute. Verse 16, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. We know somebody that used to come to a church like this and they had a bunch of accolades, degrees and certificates and things like that. And this person's like, well, you know, I want to just be a housewife and then just do things godly. But we noticed this person wasn't willing to give those things up. So as time would come for those certificates to expire, those certifications, we noticed that she would always go back and renew them. Right, renew them because they're good for another three, four years or whatever the case is. And we just kind of wonder like, hmm, that's that's you're saying this, but you're doing this. Everybody tracking, you're saying this, but you're doing this. And that means something. That's red flag territory. That means you're going somewhere. Your mind is somewhere else. I hear this, but you're doing this. I hear this, but you're doing this. It's going to make sense here in a second. Verse 17, in the world passeth away and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. So all John's saying here is we just got to have the right mindset. OK, we don't want to love the world. We're not out of the world. We're in the world and we need to learn how to properly use the world. OK, now go to first Corinthians chapter number seven. So anyways, what you're going to find out here very soon is that the reason why a lot of people, I believe, go ham is because they were grown or they grew up with parents who said one thing and did another when nobody was looking. So check this out here. First Corinthians seven. Look down at verse number 31. Bible says this, and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away. That's what we want. That is how we want to operate. We can use the world. And there are ways to use this world that are very wise, that are very beneficial and even some forms of entertainment. You know, I got a message. I think it was last year. It was a picture of some brothers and a pastor at a baseball game. And they were like, would you ever dare to go to a baseball game? Pastor, I know you're above this. I didn't even respond. Who am I to judge another person's liberty? It's ridiculous. What are you, the entertainment Nazi? Going to a baseball game is now satanic, you know, and then this is this kind of goes back to another sermon that needs to be preached eventually on liberties. But I don't want to digress into that right now. The point is, we need to learn how to use the world. You know, there's nothing wrong. We're talking about yesterday. There's nothing wrong with going to Topgolf and smashing golf balls. There's nothing wrong with even trying to hit the truck that scoops them up. I think it'd be funny. It'd be hilarious. There's nothing wrong with that. OK, there's nothing wrong with playing chess or checkers. OK, it always goes back to this. Does the world or do those things have you or do you have control of those things? OK, we're allowed to have some enjoyment in this life. And it's always funny when people want to pit pastors against each other or, you know, oh, well, this church allows this and it's just like, just go away. Just leave me alone. Leave me out of it. I'm quiet for a reason. I don't want no part of this. What is wrong with you? We are allowed to use the world. Obviously, if something is blatantly sinful in the Bible, we're not going to do it. You're not going to catch us at bars. You're not going to catch us at a private parade. You're not going to catch us doing a lot of things that are clearly laid out in the Bible of sin. OK, but if you've got some great magical formula where you can prove all the checkerboard goes back to it, it's just like, just go, OK, when you start seeing people stretch these things out to make their commandments, you know, the doctrine of commandments. It's like you need to run away or try to help them if you can. We are allowed to use this world. OK, you're allowed to go to work. You are allowed to earn a living. You are allowed to go to the grocery store. So, yeah, but the grocery store sells booze. Yeah, which one doesn't, though? Which one doesn't have sodomites? Which one doesn't have worldly music blasting from the ceiling? And again, do those things have you or do you have those things? That is how you move forward in life. And it doesn't mean that you're not sheltered. So go back to Psalm chapter number ninety one. Let's continue on here. So we've got the why we understand very clearly why we need to shelter. We understand even the how. OK, let's look at a little bit more of this, though. Psalm chapter number ninety one. So verse one, he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall. This is a guarantee. You've got the secret with you. You know how to get it. What do you do? Fear the Lord, which brings knowledge, brings wisdom. How do you do it? You hate what? Evil, pride, arrogance, because God hates the forward mouth and the things we talked about here. OK, so he that dwelleth in the secret place to the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, so people are going to start to notice things about you and why doesn't that bother you? Or how did you get out of that mess? How did everybody stab me in the back and you're out on top? I don't get this. It's because you're seeing the shadow and that shadow is a mystery unto you. It's a secret unto you because you're not there. You don't understand. Verse two, I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God. Now look at this in him. Will I trust in him? Will I trust? You know, a lot of times we're going through life and I've experienced this. You know, it's like, man, you know, is God coming after me like he's trying to beat me down? I don't get it. But we need to understand and trust him. You're God's child. You're royalty. That is true. That is the reality. And so think about it. God is so great that even when you're in your most baxllen state, he's chasing you for your own benefit. For your own profit so that you can get better. So what do you have to be angry about? What do you have to fear? You've got nothing. You've got no reason to fear. OK, in him will I trust. Look at verse three. Surely he shall. When you see that word, that is guaranteed. He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. Verse four, he shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings, shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Notice what it says, his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. OK, when we go around teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men, OK, that is when something happens. That is when we start to step into dangerous territory. OK, that is when we go from sheltering to controlling. See, and we still call it sheltering. That is when the problems start to arise. Now, one last thing that I want to go over here real quick before we transition. Go to Ephesians chapter six real quick. Ephesians chapter number six, and we're going to look down here at. Verse number four. I want to give you one more one more quick blast here, if you don't already have something for people that are like, homeschoolers are weird or, you know, people who go to Baptist churches and have all, you know, fundamentalists, right, they're just weird. And it's just hard to talk to. Why? Because I don't want to talk to you about some show on TV, because I don't want to talk to you about how Great Biden is. You know, what do you mean by weird? You know, that's what we need to clarify here. And but just in preparation for Father's Day, look at verse four. So Paul says this, and he fathers provoked not your children to wrath unless you have a redhead, which is very funny. But bring them up. That's in the Greek, by the way, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. OK, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Now, I remember it was several years ago. This should be the show on TV called I think it was called The Doggers. Anybody ever heard of the Dogger family? Well, if you is that what it's called? It was OK, a lot of those people, a lot of a lot of their children, obviously, when they grew up, they went liberal. OK, they went liberal, went to liberal churches, new evangelicals and things like that. And so I've had people email me and say, oh, you and your church. But that's where you're headed. That's where your kids are headed. They're going to go crazy. No, not really. And well, they're Baptist, and that's what happened to them. I had a friend in California that happened. This happened to him out Solening, where someone tried to use the Dogger family to attack his church, to attack Verity Baptist Church. And it's just like, what are you talking about here? OK, when you watch that show and you really dig into the life of the Doggers, here's what you're going to find. Somebody was saying one thing and doing something else over here. And what you're going to find in the middle is that the rod and reproof were missing on a lot of levels. OK, go up to them today and say, hey, do you hate evil? Oh, yeah, we hate wicked. We hate that we don't like evil. What is evil? What is it? Let's talk about pride. Let's unpack that for a moment. Do you hate them? No, God doesn't hate anybody. What they're telling you is I don't understand the fear of the Lord. And if somebody does not understand the fear of the Lord, they don't get that. They are not properly sheltering. And so what has to happen then is that creates a gap. And guess who's going to fill it? You're going to fill it with doctrines and commandments of man and things that are just not right, not true. And what that leads to is not sheltering, but it leads to controlling, which leads to some things that we're going to look at here in a moment. But anyways, back to the verse here, OK? And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. When the word of God and the truth, despite how you feel, despite what the world says, when this is paramount in your life and in your family's life, you have done all that you can do. This is providing proper shelter. So when people say, you know, but how do your kids learn like the truth, right? They need to go to public school so they can be exposed to real life situations and so on and so forth. It's like, have you ever heard of soloning? I mean, look, when you go soloning, you get to see all walks of life, you get to see the wealthy, you get to see the middle class, you get to see the poor, you get to see the crazy, OK? Our kids have more experience. Our people have more life experience doing that than any psychologist, than any sociologist, than any teacher in any public setting anywhere. You go soloning faithfully for a year and you're going to be levels above most people when it comes to understanding personalities and seeing what really goes on in the world. But furthermore, our church preaches the whole counsel of God. You ever heard of Genesis 19? You ever heard of Judges 19? OK, we teach those things. If that don't expose you to what the realities of evil look like in the world, then I don't know what does. I guess public school today would do a good job of that. But they're going to promote those things as good. Right. And we don't need that. We don't need to to go down that road. Now go back or not go back, but actually go to go to Genesis chapter number 42. Let's really start to dig into this. Can you be too sheltered? Can you be too sheltered? What does that mean? And I'm going to say this again, if you're not sheltering yourself and those around you, you are by default exposing and endangering yourself to those around you. OK. And those around you is what I meant to say. OK, Genesis chapter 42. This is the story in the Bible about Jacob, his twelve sons. You guys, you guys know this guy, Jacob loved who? He loved Joseph more. He favored him, favored him above all his brethren. At one point he was the youngest brother and sold him into slavery. He came back, told his father he'd been devoured by a wild beast. Well, in the process of time, God's taking care of Joseph over in Egypt. Now he can speak Egyptian and he's basically the prime minister. He's number two. He's the second guy in charge. Well, famine has set into the region where Jacob and his brethren are. And so they realize, hey, we need to go and get some food here. And we heard that there's food in Egypt. OK, and what this story is going to kind of show you is you're going to get to see here that Jacob actually does overprotect his youngest son now, whose name is Benjamin. And that is going to have some evil consequences on their family. So let's just quickly look at this here. Look at verse number one of Genesis 42. So it says, Now, when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do you look one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down thither and buy for us from thence that we may live and not die. Sounds reasonable. Sounds great. OK, verse three. Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob, sent not with his brethren, for he had said, Lest some paired venture or less paired venture mischief befallen. OK, and you can't blame him. I mean, he lost his son, Joseph, and he doesn't want to take that chance with the younger. I get it. I understand that here. OK, but look at verse number seven. So after the meet up here, it says that Joseph saw his brethren and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them and spake roughly unto them. And he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew him not. Now, skip down just for sake of time. So basically, Joseph says, Hey, I think you guys are spies. And he's speaking through an interpreter. So they've got no idea that it's Joseph. OK, they think he's just an Egyptian guy here, second in charge. But he's listening to what they're saying. So what he does, look at verse 13. And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father and one is not. That one is not is who? That's Joseph. So his brethren are explaining the family situation to him. Verse 14, Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying ye are spies. OK, so he's really putting the heat on him, putting the pressure on him. Verse 15, Hereby ye shall be proved by the life of Pharaoh. Ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither. Now we've got a problem. Joseph wants to check on his youngest brother, but he also wants to kind of put some fear into these guys because of what they had done unto him. So it goes on. The story goes on. The brethren go back and they're like, hey, the leader of the land, he spoke very roughly to us and he wants to see Benjamin, he wants to see the youngest. And of course, Jacob's like, why did you open your mouth? Why did you guys even tell him you had a younger brother? Well, what business do you have even doing that? OK, and so again, Jacob here is being overprotective because of what had happened to him prior. Can't really blame him. But when we're overprotective or we're controlling, which is where we're going with this, it can provide some problems. Verse 26, actually verse 27 says, And as one of them opened the sack to give his ass provender in the end, he spied his money for behold, it was in his sack's mouth. Verse 28, and he said unto his brethren, my money is restored and lo, it is even in my sack. And their heart failed them. And they were afraid, saying one to another. What is this that God hath done unto us? So basically, Joseph packed up their bags with all the corn and put their money back into it and blessed them. And they went back. So after the process of time here, you guys know the story. All the food runs out. Now it's time to go back to Egypt. OK, but Jacob's like, I'm not going to allow Benjamin to go. OK, it's not going to happen in Rubens, like, hey, you know, you look at verse 37 and basically Rubens, like speaking unto his father, saying, hey, you know, you can give my life for his life. If something happens to Benjamin, you can take my life. And, you know, Jacob's just like not having to look at verse 38. And he said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he is left alone if mischief befallen, by the way, in which he go, then shall you bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. So here's the idea. OK, when we as parents are too controlling, too overprotective or what's called helicopter parenting, what that does or the reason for that that I see here in the Bible is really selfishness. It's really selfishness. What the brethren are trying to tell Jacob is like, look, if we don't comply, we're not getting food. It's that simple. If we don't comply, no food. He's like, I'm not having it. I'm not doing this. Later on in Chapter 43, Judah finally convinces and he finally convinces his father to let him go. And you know the story. OK, basically, Joseph continues to mess with him and eventually he reveals himself to his brethren and all is well and good to go. So here's the point. If Jacob would have held on to his overprotective actions, the whole family would have starved. The whole family would have been compromised. So thankfully, Judah was able to talk some sense into him. So I'm going to say this as well, overprotection can make you think that your idea is right without seeing its side effects, OK? Again, Jacob needed two of his sons to really put the heat on him to convince him. Otherwise, I get, look, we were all there. And the prime minister, the second in charge, said, if you don't send the youngest son, we're all through. We're not eating. That's it. He had to comply. OK, so what I'm going to say is this. When sheltering lacks mentoring, it becomes controlling. But yet people still call it sheltering, and so then they just default and say, well, you know, sheltering your kids is what's wrong with the world and it prevents liberty and it prevents freedom. And this is why people go crazy and hog wild. No, the reason why people go crazy and hog wild is because they think they're sheltering, but what they're doing is they're controlling, they're overbearing. OK, they're not understanding what the fear of the Lord is, which is to hate evil, pride and arrogance. Three simple, very basic things. But the more that you learn to understand what those mean from this book, the better you are, the more you are able to dwell in that secret place. Look, we know people who came into this thing like with teenage kids, OK, and said, hey, here's what the word of God says. We're going to make all these changes. Their world's turned upside down. And you know what? To this day, they're thriving in their churches. They're doing well. They're having kids and everything is good to go. OK, I know people seriously, people who came in to our style of churches with 14, 15, 16 year old kids and said, now we're going to start to shelter. Now we're going to work to dwell under the secret place of the Lord. And guess what? They're prospering today. They're doing how can that be? They haven't gone ham. They haven't gone crazy. How can that be? It's because they did it right. It's because they went to this as opposed to another person's opinion in teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. OK, it all goes back to this. You got to dwell on it. You got to think about this. It's knowledge and it is wisdom, understanding what those are. That is true sheltering. When you pluck any one of those away. Now, what you're doing is you're now you're no longer sheltering, but you're extracting that mentoring, which is basically controlling. What does this lead to? At least anxiety. It leads to oversensitivity. It leads to depression and the inability to protect oneself. We're almost done. Go to Judges chapter 18. Two versus Judges, chapter number 18. We went over this a few months ago, the story here of a certain Levite who's basically a priest for hire. Whoever is the highest bidder got the most dudes. I'm your guy. I'm your man. And it centers around the tribe of Dan. The tribe of Dan have not found their permanent dwelling place yet. So they've scouted out a place. OK, and I want you to notice about this place that they find. There's a people group that dwell there and they think they're sheltered. OK, they think they're sheltered. They think they're protected, but they're not. Something happens to them. Look at verse seven. So basically, the tribe of Dan, they send five men, five spies. It says this. Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people that were there in how they dwelt careless after the manner of the Zaidodians, quiet and secure. And there was no magistrate in the land. Right there. They defunded the police. They're like, we don't need them. We're good to go. We are not going to have any dealings with anyone. We're going to take care of ourselves. You know, just don't come here. It's only us. And so no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in anything. So what does that mean? No rod, no reproof, no wisdom, no instruction, no fear of the Lord. What does that lead to? I wonder. They were far from the Zaidonians and had no business with any man. That's what the real cults do. And when they say, we're not going to have any business with any man. We're so separate from the world, we're not even in the world anymore. OK, that's when you need to perk up and be like, wait a second. That's some real Jim Jones stuff. Like we need to move to an island. We're so separate. You got to be careful, guys, and watch out for these people. We're so separate. We're not even I don't even go outside because it's so worldly. Stay inside my building. Be careful. Skip all the way down to verse 28. We're done right here. So obviously the children of Dan saying this, OK, these guys have no protection. There's no cops. They're just doing whatever they want to. They just want to be left alone. Now, we'll mop them up here real quick. Verse 28, and there was no deliverer because it was far from Zion. So no fellowship, no people to back them up. And they had no business with any man. OK, that's being too sheltered. And I'm just using that word tongue in cheek. That's really controlling. They're controlling their own situation. They're so controlling of their own people that they absolutely refuse any outside help, any wisdom, any correction, anything from anyone else. OK, they're not getting smarter. They're dumb. And so it says, and they had no business with any man. And it was in the valley that lieth by Beth Rehob. And they built a city and dwelt therein. OK, so again, it goes back to this. Why, why did they fall? They, quote unquote, were sheltered. This is how most people that say they shelter, shelter. Oh, we just don't, you know, we don't talk to anyone outside of our our church, no one. We're not going soloing because there's crazy people out there. We're not talking to, you know, we're not inviting people to church. If God brings them in, that's cool. If they start to get along to go along, they start to do well, then maybe we'll we'll make friends with them. And that's when you're going to have trouble. Because what you're doing is you're sheltering, right? You're sheltering lacks mentoring and it becomes controlling. Hey, that's it. When you have that mentality and that's what you're doing, you're not sheltering anymore because you've lacked the mentoring that comes from the word of God. You're no longer abiding or dwelling in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You're not bringing your kids up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You're bringing your kids up in your own fears, in your own made up world, in your own crazy, hypothetical situation. And you're completely pushing the word of God out and you're still calling it sheltering and you're not. And so people grow up in that and they start to see things and the curiosity gets them and they start to say, wow, you know, maybe my parents are wrong and they just go completely nuts. That's how it happens. OK, but it also leads to other things like depression, oversensitivity, all these things that we've talked about. But anyways, the bottom line is this. If you're not sheltering yourself and those that are around you, then you're exposing and endangering yourself and those that are around you. So, again, don't let people bully you and say, oh, you know, you're too sheltered. You don't know. What do you mean by that? I'm not as worldly as you and that's a good thing. OK, no, we need to stand up tall and explain to those people, hey, my goal for me and even for you and for my family is that we would dwell in the secret place of the Almighty so that we can live under his shadow so that the world looks at us and like, why aren't you going down? Why aren't you mad? I keep attacking you. I keep doing this stuff to you and you don't fall. Why is that? OK, that is the status that we as God's people need to hold on to and project and live in so that we can be successful in the kingdom of God. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for your protection and your sheltering of us and being very clear on what it is and what it is not. I pray you help us to remember these things and abide by them. And I pray you bless the soul winning after the service, Lord. Bring us back again safely tonight. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. All right, one more song and then we'll be dismissed.