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

I want you to keep your finger here in Psalms 49, but flip to Proverbs 21 real quick, Proverbs chapter 21, and look at verse 31 there in the Bible. In Proverbs 21, the Bible says in verse 31, the horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. And the title of the sermon tonight is, Safety is of the Lord. And I want to talk about the concept of safety in the Bible, so you can kind of flip back to Psalms 49 if you would. There's a lot of different ideas when it comes to safety and what that kind of means, but I think when it comes to being a Christian, a lot of times people like to go to an extreme. They like to say, well, I'm only going to just trust in the Lord just completely, like it's no part of me, I have nothing to do with anything, it's not what I do, I shouldn't work hard, I shouldn't try to do anything, it's just all of God, it's all Him. And then there's other people that would go to the other extreme and say, well, it's all me, I don't really need the Lord, I don't need His help. We see in the Bible there's got to be a little bit of a balance. That's why I like this verse, it's kind of a theme verse for this sermon. The horse is prepared against the day of battle, meaning what? The person's done some work, the person has prepared themselves, the person is ready, the person has done some work, but the safety's of the Lord, meaning what? Even though he's prepared himself, even though he's done the work, his heart isn't in the work, his heart isn't in the horse, his heart's on the Lord for his safety. He's trusting in the Lord ultimately, but he's not lazy and slothful and deciding, well, I'm just going to hope for divine intervention and everything. As I go and live my life, I'm just putting it all on God, I'm not going to try hard, I'm not going to try and put protection in my own life, I'm not going to try and put boundaries and rules in my own life, I'm just going to let the Holy Spirit lead me wherever I go, I mean just kind of this nonsense or the opposite where people don't even give any credence to the Lord. They're not actually looking at the Bible, looking at the promises of God's word, trusting in his word is their ultimate safety. And when we talk about the word safe, what does that mean? I think I looked up in the dictionary some of the definitions that the dictionary gives us and it kind of parlays with a lot of different ways that the Bible uses this word. But the first definition says free from harm or risk. So meaning that if you're safe, there's nothing that's going to harm you, there's no risk of you being injured, you're safe from danger. The second definition said you're secure from the threat of danger, harm or loss. So in some ways, not only are you just safe from the fact that it'll happen, you're safe from even being threatened or even having any potential, you know, damages coming at you. It says an obsolete definition, which I thought was interesting, is it says a mentality or moral faculties. So saying someone's like of a sound mind or someone is safe and sound, kind of going beyond just their physical well-being, but even just a mental well-being. And then another definition said not threatening danger. So I think all those definitions from the dictionary are very consistent with what we're going to be looking at and kind of what the Bible uses that word in a lot of ways. But look in Psalms 49, look at verse 5, says, Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels encompassed me about? They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for it. Now the first point of my sermon, the first area that I want to focus in on the safety is that of financial safety, financial security, talking about money in the Bible. Now in today's world, this is probably one of the biggest areas that people put their trust in. They rely on. That's why when you go to the Fund Center Church or you go to some other big church, they're constantly talking about money. They're constantly talking about how you can get more money, how you can be more financially blessed, how you can have more goods and wealth and possessions in this life. They're constantly appealing to people's desire and love to have more money. Why? Because it makes them feel safe. It makes them feel comfortable. It makes them feel like they're not going to be harmed. There's no risk. There's no danger because they have lots of money, because they have houses and lands and they have plenty of bread and food and clothing. Oh, now I can feel safe. Now I can feel safe because I have all this money and all these riches and all this wealth. That's why you can go to the churches today. That's what they primarily teach them. They're saying, well, if you tithe, you'll get more money. Well, if you come to church more often and you're following God's commandments, he'll bless you more and give you more money and more goods. Hey, come to our seminar called the Dave Ramsey Seminar and learn how you can have more money and you can have more wealth and you can have more moolah and more goods and more possessions. They're always appealing to the money. Why? There's a lot of different reasons, but one is just the safety that comes with the idea of money. The world says that having a lot of money, you're safe, you're secure, you're protected, you're not going to have any danger, you're not going to have any harm. Look at verse 16, be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased. For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall not descend after him. The Bible makes it clear that money is just value. It has no point, has no eternal value and the Bible does not teach that we should trust in wealth in any way. It actually preaches against that many times over and over. I can't even show you every verse just in this point. This point is so big, talking about safety in the Bible, there's so many verses, there's so many stories, it's constantly about trusting in the Lord is what the Bible teaches over and over and over. But I just want to highlight some of the verses and talk about financial safety. Go to Luke chapter 12 if you would. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6 17, charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. The Bible says that the pastors, the preachers, the men of God, they're supposed to charge the rich people. Say, don't trust in your money, don't trust in your riches. Why? Because they're uncertain. We see businesses today, they go out of business, they fail. We see rich people become poor. We see money fails often. Countries go under, countries like Russia, that were so like a big superpower. They're competing with the United States. They're one of the big, you know, countries, they have an economic disaster and they destroy their country. Now they're nothing. Riches is uncertain. You can't trust in money, you can't trust in that because it's vanity, it'll just go away. You need to trust in God who gives you richly all things to enjoy. People think that money gives you all the pleasures of this world, right? You can go to the store, you can buy all the fancy clothes, you can go and get a steak dinner every single night, you can buy the fancy house and the fancy car. People want the money, why? Because they think that's how they get the pleasure, that's how they get the joy. But the Bible says that God is the one that gives you all things to enjoy. Bible says in Proverbs 29, the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso put of this trust in the Lord shall be safe. If you want to be safe, financially secure, financially safe, it comes from trusting in the Lord not in how much money you have, not in how much money you make, not in how much money and goods and possessions and things you have because they could all disappear the next day. We see Joe was like one of the greatest men of the entire planet. He had thousands of sheep and oxen, he had servants, he had all these goods and in one day and one moment, it's gone. It's all taken away. Our goods and stuff is not going to last forever. They're not something to trust in. It's not, well today people go to one another and say, well how's your portfolio? Are you diversified? Do you have money in gold? Do you have money in the stocks? Do you have money in this company? Do you own any property? Do you have commodities? Are you hedging your funds? Are you doing, I mean they have all these ways to probably protect themselves with money. All the insurances and all the different stock programs and all the different goods and things that you can own. People owning different kinds of companies, hedging against those companies, buying stock options, buying options against your options, doing all kinds of things. Why? Because they're trying to protect themselves with money. They want to feel safe with money. That's where they're putting their trust. Look at Luke 12 verse 16. And he spake a parable unto them saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself saying, what shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, this will I do, I will put down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods and I will say to my soul, soul, thou has much goods laid up for many years, take thy knees, eat, drink and be merry. But God said unto them, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required to feed, then who shalt those things be, which thou has provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. That's a key phrase to get in your mind, not being rich toward God. If you want to have riches, have the riches of everlasting life, have the riches of eternal value, have the riches towards God, not of this world, not the money. You can be safe with the riches of God because they're not going to rust. They're not going to corrupt. They're not going to have a stock market crash. They're not going to be an economic, you know, deflation or inflation. No, they're secure in heaven where your father is. You can have those rewards and you can be rich towards God. This guy laid up all this treasure for himself. He had all this money. He was diversified. If you look at verse 18, he said, my fruits and my goods. So this guy's got a lot of different stuff going on. But guess what? He lost it all because he lost his life. He lost his soul. And then whose goods are they going to be now? Just some other person. Just some other person that doesn't, he doesn't even know probably. Look at verse 22 and he said unto the disciples, therefore I say to you, take no thought for your life. What ye shall eat, neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them, how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit, if ye then be not able to do that thing which is least? Why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow, they toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these, if then God so clothed the grass which is today in the field, and tomorrow's cast in the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye doubtful mind, for of all these things the nations of the world seek after. And your father knoweth that ye have need of these things, but rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be ye not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms, provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be awesome." That was a lot to read, but it's so important. All these verses tying in one to another. He's saying, look, don't tear for all the things of this world, what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And he says, if you can't even, you know, clothe yourself as beautiful as I clothe things, then why do you think of things that are even more, you know, harder to get than that? Seeking for the, to feed and do all these things, he's going to provide those things for you. He knows what you need. And today, people are putting all this stock in how much money they have, and what their job is, and how much money they make. They think because of all that, oh, I'm always going to have food on the table, I'm always going to have bread, I'm always going to have clothing, I'm always going to have a nice house. But you never know when that can be all taken away. When some natural disaster comes in and just wipes out your entire area, like Hurricane Harvey, like all kinds of things, like Hurricane Katrina, like earthquakes, like all kinds of natural disasters. If you look in the Bible, there's natural disaster after natural disaster after natural disaster by the hand of God. Why? God floods the world. God causes a famine on Egypt, then God cuts all the plagues on Egypt, then God parks the waters and destroys all the Egyptians in the water. We see natural disaster, famines, and earthquakes. We see in Jeremiah's day the great famines of the Lord. We see constant natural disasters from the cover to cover. We go into Revelation, there's some natural disasters there too. We see, you know, the star coming into the water, turning the water into bitter, you know, tasting like wormwood, and we have all kinds of natural disasters in the Bible. We see Jesus Christ calming the storms, walking on the water. We see Jonah in the midst of the, the torrible, you know, tempest or, or water. We see Paul traveling across into Rome in all kinds of storms, and God's hand is always in these storms. He's always there. We see when great natural disasters happen, it's a lot of times by God's hand. We see that God's the one involved. God can come. We see with Job, when it talks about his goods, it says a great wind came and destroyed all of his goods. Sounds like a tornado, sounds like a hurricane, sounds like something. He lost it all in one day. You can have a great business and all this money and all this houses and all this wealth and it'd be gone tomorrow. Why lay up things that could be gone tomorrow? That's not safety. That's not safe. But look what he said in this verse. He said there in verse 33, he said, provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. He's saying, look, if you lay up a treasure in heaven, it's there for you. When the Bible says, if you give a cup of cold water in my name, he shall surely not lose his reward. You're not going to lose that reward because God's not, there's no one up in heaven stealing it. There's no one up in heaven corrupting it. It's all perfect up there. Why not lay up yourself treasure in heaven? That's where there's safety. There's safety in the riches towards God. There is no safety in the riches of this world and the money of this world and having tons of goods. Now, I don't think that it's necessarily wrong or a sin to store money in a bank. So what do you mean by that? Well, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes three, there's a time to give and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away. We even see with Joseph, God's giving him, you know, instructions on how to lay up goods, but it's for a specific purpose. He's not just laying up a whole bunch of treasures and goods just because, just because he wants to or he's going to feel really safe in it. No, there's a specific reason. He knows there's going to be a famine in the land. He knows he needs to do that to survive. He knows he's making provision for himself. He's being a good steward of the things that God has given unto him. You see, with David, he laid up many goods in the preparation of building God's house for his son Solomon. Was that a sin? Was that wrong? Was that wicked? No, but there was a purpose. The purpose was to build the house of the Lord. He wasn't just laying up a whole bunch of gold and silver and precious stones to put his heart and his trust in that. No, he was still trusting in the Lord. And I don't think that there's anything wrong with necessarily saving money or piling up money for a specific reason. Maybe you want to buy a house one day. Maybe you want to buy a car. Maybe you need to go on a trip. Maybe you need to make some kind of provision. There's nothing wrong with saving up money to buy those things, to provide those things. But we shouldn't be laying up money as our safety net, as our ultimate, well, I was just going to have a lot of money in the bank just because. Now, I'm not saying you can't have, you know, a few paychecks in the bank just to have, you know, so you can't, you can float your paycheck and just have normal revisions being a good steward. I'm not saying you should just live by every penny, like you got to spend every single penny of your paycheck at every time and just, I have no money until my next paycheck comes in. I'm not saying that. I'm talking about laying up, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars in the bank, and you have no purpose for it. You have no reason for it. It's just, well, just in case, just if I have it. No, the Bible says to charge them that are rich in this world to be ready to distribute. If you have those riches, if you have those goods, you should have a purpose or a plan for them. Why? Because at the end of your life, it's going to go away. You're not going to have it. Why not lay up treasure yourself in heaven? Why not take those goods and sell them and give them to the poor and then have treasure in heaven? But if you don't really believe you're going to have treasure in heaven, you're not really saved, then you're not going to do that. You're not going to want to do that. If you believe he's a rewarder of those that, you know, follow his commandments and do his will, then you're going to want to sell your goods. You're going to want to use that money. Now, obviously, God gives us free will. God gives us, you know, he has a lot of things in the Bible like free will offerings. He doesn't command us to just give all our money to the church or give it to somebody. He wants you to decide to do what you want with your money. Now, of course, the Bible does say that we should tithe and the tithe is the Lord, it's not ours. But you could lose your job, you could have an absolute disaster, wipe out your entire area. There's so many what ifs and people want to lay up a bunch of money as their safety net. They have to have the 401k, they have to have the social security income, they have to have all these, you know, plans and devices and insurance and all these things, because that's where their safety is. Their safety ultimately is an end following the Lord. They feel more secure having a million dollars in the bank, going against God's Word, than following his commandments and having no money in the bank. I would rather have no money in the bank and know that I'm trying to follow God's commandments than being in obvious sin and have infinite number of money in the bank. Who cares how much money you have in the bank? God can take your life the next day. Safety is of the Lord. We need not have it in riches. Go to 1 Timothy 6, if you would, when it talks about God, it says in Psalms 50, it says for every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills. God has plenty of money. If you seek him, if you're following his commandments, he'll make sure you get the things you need. You'll get the clothing, you'll get the food, you'll get the houses, you'll get the stuff that you need if you follow his commandments. He'll provide for you. He's the richest person I know, the Lord Jesus Christ, everything sits. I think even just, it doesn't really matter how much money you have, I don't think there's a one-fit-all program. Every single person has to make the exact same level of income, the exact same amount of money, it's all perfectly distributed. In Exodus, I don't want to have you turn there, but it was talking about people gathering the man. I'll read for you, it said, and when they did meet with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. It was talking about when they were gathering the man, some would gather much, some would gather little, but none of them had lack. I see the same thing with God in the Bible. It doesn't matter exactly how much money you make. I think if you're following God's commandments, you won't have any lack. He'll make sure you're providing, he's providing for all your needs. Says in 1 Timothy chapter 6, look at verse 1, let as many servants as are in the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine which is according to God in us, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and stripes of words where have cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmises, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself, but godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Having food and raiment, let us be there with content, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and fall after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and has professed a good profession before many witnesses." Now I think when we read this section of scripture, some people, they extrapolate from this that it's wrong to be rich, that it's wrong to have money, it's wrong to be wealthier than others. That's not what the text is saying. In verse 10 it's saying, for the love of money is the root of all evil. You don't have to have a lot of money to be in this sin. You can be dirt poor and be guilty of this sin, desiring to be rich, desiring to have lots of money. Putting all your faith in the money, that's the sin that the Bible's talking about. That's why we can see, Job was a perfect man. God did everything, he followed them, he was very wealthy. Because why? His trust wasn't in his funds, his trust wasn't in his money, his trust was in the Lord. He didn't have the love of money. He got along by working hard and following God's commandments and God blessing him. We see Solomon became very rich. Now some of the things that he did may have been wrong. He shouldn't have been multiplying gold and silver and getting goods out of Egypt as an Old Testament commandment, but God said that he was going to bless him and make him very wealthy. God said he was going to do that for him. God obviously isn't going to do that to you if he thinks it's a sin. God doesn't tempt any man with evil, the Bible makes that very clear. But you don't have to have any money to love it. And we see a lot of times the people that love it the most usually don't have any. That's why they love it. They just think that that's going to be so great as they get all this money. They're always playing the lottery, they're always trying to get some get rich quick scheme. The Bible says in Proverbs 28-20, a faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. The Bible says it's wrong to want to get a lot of wealth and a lot of riches quick, to get it hastily, to get it speedily, to just have it flow in automatically. No the Bible says if you want to have riches or wealth, that it should be done by working hard, by putting your nose in the grindstone, by going out and working by the sweat of your brow, by being righteous, by doing things that are right, not charging usury, and being liberal too. The Bible says being a liberal person that giveth out and being very kind and generous. That's how the Bible says the people of the Old Testament and the people that had wealth got that way, is by following God's commandments. But not everybody's going to be rich and I don't think it's necessarily sinful to be rich or to have money. The Bible doesn't say that it's wrong to have money, it says to charge them though that they don't trust in it. Charge them to be ready to distribute, charge them, warn them that you shouldn't be loving your money, that you shouldn't be trusting in it, that it's all going to perish, that when you die you're not going to have any of those riches in heaven. So you might as well use it all for God's glory now. Why not get on your knees and say, God how can I use this money to help you now? Go to James chapter 5, we'll finish this point. I don't believe that God wants everyone to be dirt poor and some people think that. There's some churches you go to and you're exalted if you're super poor by having no money. I remember people in my school, they would say, well my pastor's the greatest pastor because he doesn't make any money and he's always super poor and he can't afford a car and he can't hardly afford any food and he's just super, he has no money. That's why I know he's a man of God. Like that doesn't make you a man of God just being poor. Beggars are poorer than he was, that doesn't make them godly, that doesn't make them righteous. Being dirt poor doesn't just automatically make you godly or make you righteous. Now you can be the godliest person on the planet and have no money. Money is in itself kind of like works with salvation, has no part. I mean in and of itself there's nothing necessarily wrong with money but there's a lot of temptation, there's a lot of snare with money. It's probably one of the most dangerous things, that's why it says love of money is the root of all evil. But look at James chapter 5 verse 1, most wealth is gotten by corruption, it says in verse 1, go to now you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are mothy. Your gold and silver is cankered and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days, behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fro, crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered in the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton, ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter, ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore brethren under the coming of the Lord, behold the husband waited for the precious fruit of the earth and had long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. Now when it talks about money in the Bible many times it's very negative. It's very negative because it's just a very strong temptation for most people. Why? Because it replaces God. If you have a lot of money, oh I can have all the food I want, I can have all the clothes I want, I can go and do whatever I want, I can be whatever I want, I can have power, I can have wealth, I can have all the things that I desire from the lusts of the flesh. That's what they want. They want from the money and the money will give them a lot of those things but it won't give them joy, it won't give them peace and it does not give them safety. They think that with all their money they're going to have safety, no they're tossing and turning in their sheets, they're so afraid of losing their money, they're so afraid of someone stealing their money, they're so afraid of someone killing them for their money, they turn and toss, they can't even sleep because they have so much concern for that. But if your safety is of God, if your safety is of the Lord, then you can sleep with peaceful sleep no matter how much money you have, zero or tons. Go to Leviticus 25 and read my second point. We need to have God as our safety net, God is where safety is, it's not in our money, it's not in our riches, it's not in what we have and if you ultimately realize, if you get it in your brain that you can't take it with you, then you don't want to lay up money in the bank. I mean the only reason to lay it up would be for a specific reason or because you're saving to buy something or you needed to do something, but why would you keep it in the bank if you know you can't take it with you? You got to do what? You spend it all. Anybody that goes anywhere, if they say, hey, we're going to give you a free thousand dollar gift card to spend in the store, but as soon as you walk out you lose it all, you're going to spend all the money. I mean it's just common sense. If God gives you riches on this earth and you realize he can't take it with you, then you can spend it for God's kingdom. Give it to the poor, give it to the church, give it to an evangelist that actually preaches the gospel. Do something good with the money and go follow Christ. Why? Because the riches aren't going to benefit you anything in this life. It says in second Kings chapter 18, I'll read for you this one place, it says, Now behold thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which of a man lean it will go into his hand and pierce it. So the sparrow king of Egypt unto all that trust him. So people often want to trust in their money, but not only that, they want to trust in people. Why? For their physical safety. They're just so afraid of dying, they're so afraid of war, they're so afraid of disease, they are afraid of the natural disasters and the storms today. So they put their trust in man. They put their trust in the rulers of this world and the princes and the presidents and the kings and the dictators and all of the government. They put their trust in man to save them, but when God looks at them, he says it's foolish. It's like a bruised reed. It's like a splinter that you're getting, you know, jabbing into your hand. It's only making things worse. You shouldn't be trusting in man, trusting in him. Look at Leviticus 25 verse 18. It says, Wherefore ye shall do my statutes and keep my judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land in safety and the land shall yearn your fruit and ye shall eat your fill and dwell therein in safety. So again we see that word twice. He's saying, how do you get saved by the Lord? By following his commandments. Bible says in Psalms 146, Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, and whom there is no help. Now when it says son of man there, in the Old Testament it's just talking about people in general. It's not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and it's saying you shouldn't be trusting in the rulers of this world in man. We shouldn't be trusting in the President of the United States to solve our problems. People today, they think, well, if we just get the right president, America will be great. America's problems will be fixed. We can have safety. Look at all those terrorists over there and look at all the people building nukes and look at all this warfare and all this famine and all this disease and all this people that want to attack us. We better have a good president. We better have a good man in charge. That's where we're going to have the safety. We can't let so-and-so be in the office, otherwise we won't be safe. What does God say? He says, if you follow my commandments, then you'll dwell safely. You want to know how America could be safe today? It's by following his commandments. It's not by trusting in man, it's not by trusting in the government, it's not how big an army we have and an air force and a fleet of navy and all these bases across the world. God thinks it's all vain and foolish. It's nothing to him. He could take the smallest of nations in this planet, if they would follow his commands, and wipe us out in an instant if he wanted to. When you look at the children of Israel as they're coming into the land that God had given them, he said, talk about the heathen of the land, he said they were mightier than them. He said they were stronger than them. They were better fighters. There was more of them, but guess what? The Lord fought for them. The Lord went in and destroyed them. The Lord is the one that won the battle for them. We see today, I don't care how big America's army is, or how much, you know, they say, oh well you got to praise all the military and all of them, because they are the ones that give you freedom. They are the ones that give you the right and the liberty to walk down the street and have life. No, the Bible says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And you know why I have freedom? You know why I have those things? Because of Jesus Christ, because of what he allows me to have. Now I wouldn't rather live in any other country on this planet. I think America is probably the best place to live. But you know, it feels like it's living in Babylon still. It feels like it's still living in a very wicked place. It feels like all the nations of the earth have turned aside and have turned away from God's commandments. But any country in this world that decides, hey, we're going to lift up the Bible, we're going to lift up God's word, we're going to follow his commandments, they're going to have safety. They're going to, they don't have to have a big military. They don't have to be worrying about all the foreign affairs and all the contracts and all the agreements and being part of the United Nations and having all these things. No, if you follow God's commandments, you'll dwell on the land safely. But if you don't, God can destroy you with anything. He can bring some natural disaster. He can wipe you out with his enemies. Say, oh, the military keeps us safe. No, it doesn't. Not at all. I don't believe that for a second. So that doesn't sound very patriotic. Well, I guess I'm not very patriotic because you know what? I think when our country just invades other countries and bomb them and kill all their innocent women and children and getting all their affairs that we have no business in. Guess what? It makes them want to terrorize our country. It wants them to cause war in our country. It causes our government to make all these stupid laws and big brother. It makes me feel a lot more unsafe. Our military doesn't make me feel safe. It makes me feel very unsafe. You know what would make me safe is if our nation's leaders would stand up and say, we need to follow the Bible. We need to get back to the Bible and follow God's word and follow his commandments. Safety is of the Lord. Now, of course, the Bible says the horse is prepared against the day of battle. I believe in having a military. I believe in having some type of defenses. We shouldn't just let our land be open. I'm not, you know, I lock my doors at night. I don't just leave the door wide open, but safety is of the Lord. I'm not trusting in that door being locked. I'm not trusting in my security system. I'm not trusting in my windows or my doors or my neighborhood or some gate somewhere. You know, if someone lived in the gated community, you just hot the gate. If somebody wants to knock down your door, it's not hard. If someone wants to pop open a lock, they have the clippers. They can pop it open in a second. If someone wants to get in your house, they're going to do it. I mean, I don't care what kind of security system you have. So you have to have your safety in the Lord. Not in man, not in man's devices, not in man's wisdom. We see today, they're so afraid of the Muslims, they're so afraid of the terrorists, they're so afraid of war. We should be afraid of God. We should be afraid of Him pouring out His wrath on us with those people. Usually He used the enemies of them to destroy them. I'm not afraid of them because of who they are. I'm afraid of them because we don't follow God's commandments, because we don't follow His word. That's where you get safety. I have a lot of other verses that just say that over and over. Just read the Old Testament. It's constantly saying, if you follow my commandments, you'll dwell safely in the land. Go to Acts 27, if you would. We see man today, he wants to trust another man. He wants to trust in the president, he wants to trust in the government. That's what makes him feel safe. People today feel safe. Oh, now we've got a Republican in office and he's going to fix the military and now we can feel safe and now we've won the war on terror and now we're in control and now we can rest safe. That's just a joke. Safety comes from following God's word. You know, people even have this with doctors today, the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 16, I'll read for you, it says, an ace in the 30th and 9th year of his reign was diseased in his feet until his disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. We see today people just go to the doctor just hoping to hand them a pill or pop them some kind of, you know, injection or do some kind of surgery and oh, now they're going to be great. They don't want to just follow God's commandments, follow his word, live a healthy life according to God's word. No, they want to drink and smoke and commit all kinds of fornication and wicked adultery and disease and eat junk and be like, just give me a pill to fix all my diseases. Now, if you follow God's commandments, he said in the Old Testament, he wouldn't put any of the diseases he put on Egypt on them. You don't want the diseases to follow his word. It's the same thing over and over and over. You want safety with your riches, with your financial security, follow God's commandments. Seek the righteousness that comes from God. You want safety in the area of your physical well-being, whether that be warfare or diseases or anything, follow his commandments. It's the same plan over and over and over. That's why he gave us the whole Bible so that we could guard ourselves in every area of life. So we can have safety from the Lord in every area of our life. In Acts 27, look at verse 44, looking at Paul here, it says, in the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship and so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land. I just want to highlight that one verse because I want to talk about kind of the whole journey. We don't have time, but sometimes people say, well, if I'm safe, like if I have safety from the Lord, does that mean I'll never have any suffering or I'll never have any tribulation or I'll never have any persecution or everything's going to be roses for me? That's not, that's not what the Bible teaches. When we look at Paul, he wants to go back to Jerusalem and he's going to preach the word and he sees drug out by the people and they want to stone him. They want to kill him. And then the Romans come and they do what? They arrest him. But you know what? He's safe from them killing. Now if he was arrested, most people wouldn't think that being arrested is somehow safe, but that was the provision that God gave him to make him safe from being killed from those people. Then what do we see? Then he travels up north and he stays there for years in prison and people are coming testifying against him wanting to be killed, but he stays safe from that death in prison. Now some people wouldn't think that prison is like great or being safe, but it's a form of safety that God's providing for him. Why? Because then he travels on a ship and they see they're going to go in the winter when they shouldn't go. And there's these all these storms and all the people on the ship, they're greatly afraid. And Paul says, look, none of us are going to die. We're all going to be safe in the midst of the storm. And we see even the people of the ship, the guards, they want to kill all the prisoners. And we see God even provides the safety for Paul and they don't kill the prisoners. They let him escape under the shore. We see him get on the shore and the snake bites his hand. Doesn't sound very safe, but yet God provides safety. He's not killed from the poison of the snake. So we see safety doesn't necessarily not come with tribulations, doesn't necessarily come with afflictions, but we see God's providing him safe passage all the way into Rome to preach the gospel, to get his word through and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Go to 2 Timothy chapter four. The Bible says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. The last part of Acts is so interesting. Paul is going through all this, what seems like a rough time, but God's keeping him safe. We see Joseph was in prison for a long time, but maybe it was just keeping him safe from something bad happening. If anybody ever played Monopoly, you know, when you play Monopoly at the beginning, you don't want to go to jail because then you can't buy properties and do all this stuff. But then there's a point in the game where it switches, where everybody has all these properties and they have all these hotels and they have all this stuff and you land on boardwalk. It's over. And you know where you want to go? You want to go to jail. You're safe in jail. It's funny, but that's how it is. We don't know if Paul was outside of jail, he was going to suffer the affliction of the Jews. He was suffering the affliction of so many people that wanted to stone him and kill him. The Bible said that men had sworn an oath not to eat until they had killed Paul. That's serious business. What if a group of men said, we're not going to do anything but try to kill you. We're not even going to eat until we kill you and put you to death. Put me in jail, Lord. Save me. Keep me safe. So we can't get this twisted, weird idea that nothing quote unquote negative will happen to you. Obviously, nobody wants to be in jail. I don't want to be in jail, but maybe that's the safety that God's providing for you in that moment. And if you're following his commandments, he'll keep you safe, even while it might seem to be a persecution or some type of affliction, he can keep you safe. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 16. At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge, notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me into his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. We see at the end of his life, he said, look, I was delivered of the lion. Even though what? He was constantly in jail. He was in bonds. He was going through this long journey to get to Rome, but that's how God decided to get him there. And it was through that we have a whole bunch of chapters of the Bible that are some great chapters. We see that even though you may suffer persecution, it's going to be of the Lord. Not everybody necessarily ends on what would seem like a good note. We have people like Stephen following God's word, and he ends up being a martyr. He dies a martyr's death. We see Jonah, he's afraid to preach the gospel. He's fleeing from Nineveh. He's scared to go to Nineveh, so then he gets caught in a horrible storm, and he's swallowed by the world's belly. We see a guy in the book of Jeremiah named Uriah, the son of Shemaiah of Kirjat Jiram, who was afraid of the king's commandments, so he fled into Egypt, and then they chased after him, and they brought him back, and they killed him. Now I want to contrast that with Stephen. We see Stephen was bold and was preaching the word of God and died a martyr's death. Now I don't believe for one second that Stephen looks back on his life and is disappointed he did that or is upset. He's like, I'm so glad I stood on the word of God and I died the martyr's death, and I have eternal rewards in heaven for that. So even though maybe something bad would happen to you in the future, something that would violate what would seem like being safe, he's never going to look bad on that encounter. But we see Uriah, he was afraid of dying, so he fled into Egypt. Why? To be safe. And then what happens? He gets drugged back and killed. I guarantee he wishes he could have done it over, he could have just decided to stand bold there and die then, or maybe God would have delivered him. We see safeties of the Lord, and if you die following God's commandments, you'll never regret it. It'll never be something you're, oh man, I wish I hadn't done that. No, for some reason you don't have true safety and you die a martyr's death or you die on the work of the Lord. You would never look back at that and think of it negatively. But when you decide to fear, you have the fear of man, you have the fear of Satan, you have the fear of whatever, that's when your safety can depart and bad things can happen that you will regret. Jonah, I'm sure, whatever he was afraid of in Nineveh was not as bad as being in that whale's belly. He likened it unto being into hell. I don't think it was fun to be in the whale's belly where it's burning and dark and he has no idea. I mean, we know that it was three days, but he had no idea. I guarantee after two days he was thinking, this is like an everlasting punishment. This is so horrible. He didn't know when it was going to be over. That's got to be a horrible feeling. And whatever he was afraid of in Nineveh, I'm sure he was like, I wish I had gone to Nineveh. I wish I had been there. And we see by God's revision, he repaired the fish to take Jonah to Nineveh. Interesting. He takes him by that vehicle. So it's actually a way of safety because he could have just drowned in the water. So we see even through his affliction, he's safe to go back into Nineveh. If you're following God's word, following his will, he'll keep you safe to accomplish his will for your life. I'll just read for you. It says in Psalms 33, a horse is a vain thing for safety. Go to Proverbs 31 if you will. We see there's so many people today like Rabshakey, that's what I call him in the Bible, Rabshakey. He comes from the Assyrian army and he wants to shake the confidence of the people that sit on the wall. He wants to say that they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss. He wants to put all the fear on you. Today's world wants to put a lot of fear on you with all these Muslims and all these nuclear bombs and all these terrorists and all these government, you know, big brother things and all this wickedness. He's coming, he's like, God's not going to deliver you out of that. God's not going to protect you. Where's your God? The evolutionists, they mock at God, they hate God. They say, have any of the professors at Devil's State believed on him? It's just, it's just a trick to try and deceive you, to try and get you to shake your confidence. He said, neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord. Have your safety in following God's word, not in man, not in who's the president, not in how big your military is, not in how much money you have. Trust in the Lord. My third point is we need to have mental safety. You could be not really necessarily worried about money. Maybe you don't have any. Maybe you're not really worried about physical ailments. You could be struggling mentally. You could not be in a safe place mentally. Bible says in Proverbs 31, 11, the heart of her husband does safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil. Now, what does that mean? It means he doesn't worry about her going out and spending all the money, about wasting all of his substance. He has some type of mental safety with his wife. You can be physically safe. You can, you can be an insane aside, covered with padded walls. They strap you up. You can't even kill yourself. There's no danger of your physical wellbeing, but you know what you're in danger of losing your mental health, losing your mental stability, losing the sound mind, losing the safe part of your brain. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 12 if you would. You know, I think you say, well, what's an example of this? How do people lose their mental safety with the Lord? I think a lot of times it comes with something tragic, comes with something terrible. It comes with something horrible, like the death of a loved one, like the death of a family member, like the death of a child, like the death of a spouse. I think that's probably the worst. I mean, having, losing a child or having a miscarriage or losing a spouse or losing a family member can be really tough mentally. It can be very devastating. It can be very tolling. We see David's comfort with the Lord's word. Look at 2 Samuel 12 verse 19, but when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said unto his servants, is the child dead? And they said, he is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and came to the house of the Lord in worship. Then he came to his own house and when he required, they set bread before him and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, what thing is this that thou hast done? Thou hast dispatched and weep for the child while it was alive, but when the child was dead thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, while the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in under her and lay with her. And she bare his son, and he called his name Solomon, and the Lord loved him. Now the thing about this story is it's pretty tough, you know, and as it comes to child bearing, it's just inevitable that several women may go through a process of losing a child, or maybe you lose a child through other causes, or maybe you lose a family member that was really close to you, or a brother, or someone young, and it's very difficult. There's a lot of different ways that people can handle this. Some people can have a bad, a bad thought towards God. They can stop having their trust in God. They can stop being confident in the Lord that this is going to be his will, that you're going to be able to come out through it. We see David did not have this problem. David moved on, and it says that he comforted his wife, and they had another son. What if David had gotten so angry at God, he decided not to still trust in the Lord with his heart and with his mind, and said, I'm not going to have any more kids. If you're going to take a kid away from me, why have any more kids? What if he just got angry at God and charged God foolishly? Then we would have never had Solomon, the wisest king to ever live on the face of the planet. He was separated from Jesus Christ, but of boarded women, the Bible says that Solomon was the wisest of men. Because what? David moved on. David decided to still have his faith and his trust and his safety in the Lord mentally. He decided, you know what, this was God's provision, and we see even in that process that it was the result of sin that he lost the child. Now I don't know why miscarriages happen or why bad things happen or why we lose people. I don't believe that it's always necessarily the result of our sin or other people's sin. Things happen. Look, we all are appointed to die once, everybody's going to die somehow. So it's not necessarily that we can just always point no. And I don't think God gives us the knowledge of why all miscarriages happen or the untimely birth of a woman or the loss of a child or the loss of a spouse or these horrible tragic things that happen. But even if they did, we need to learn from people like Joe, we need to learn from people like David who decided to move on and still worship the Lord, still put their safety and trust in the Lord. Even though bad things were befalling them, even though terrible things were happening, David can be comforted with this unsolved. Joe can be comforted with his next 10 children. The Bible says that his end was greater than it was before. Joe, it talks about it in the New Testament as having patience. If he had always gone his whole life, just always having great riches and great wealth, we wouldn't have this great story about the patience of Joe. We never got to see how deep his character was, get to see how how much he was going to follow God's commandments because Satan's like, look, of course, he's going to follow you if you're blessing him and doing all these good things. But what if you turned on him? What if bad things happened? If we still follow you, we see that he did. I don't think Joe looks back and thinks of it negatively, even though the loss of a child is so horrible. It built so much character. It built the patience. It tested him. It tried him. And we see that people that go through these things, oftentimes, if they have the right mentality, if they keep their safety and trust in the Lord, it'll make them stronger. It'll have more character. I've never gone through something that tragic, so I can't completely empathize. People that have done that, they have more depth to them. They have more character. If they can move on and follow and keep going in God's word and have more safety and more confidence and more trust. I mean, if you lose all of your children and all your goods and everything and you're diseased and you're still following God, what can the devil do with that? But take your life. At that point, I mean, you've basically proven, hey, I'm going to follow you no matter what. Some people don't always go to that extreme of being tested and tried, but we see that God wants to see our confidence. He's glorified the fact that people would still follow him, even though all the bad things would happen to them. Go to Psalms chapter four, if you would. What kind of wrap up? Bible says in Philippians three, finally, my brethren, rejoice the Lord to write the same things to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concession. Today, people, they're so worried about all the terrorists, they're worried about North Korea, they're worried about the war in Syria, they're worried about World War Three, they're worried about all these carnal things. You know what we should be worried about? False teachers, false doctrines, people going to hell, all these spiritual wicked leaders, the Satan deceiving the minds of them which believe not. We need to be worried about the sodomites and the pedophiles. Today, Americans, they don't care about the sodomites and pedophiles that are in their neighborhood. They're worried about all these Muslims that live across the planet that aren't going to ever see or talk to. They're not afraid of someone coming into their nursery, into their school and molesting their child. They're worried about some boogeyman, they're worried about some stupid thing. We need to be aware of the things that God told us to be aware of, then we'll be safe. You know, if we got all these freaks and perverts and degenerates and all the people that God condemned to death out of our country, then we'd be safe. It used to be in the 1950s, children could go walk down the streets and play in the streets and ride their bike and feel safe, but now you can't. Why? Because you've got all these perverts and freaks and deviants because you're not following God's word. Because you're not putting to death the people that you should be putting to death. Instead, we're always worried about the boogeyman and people across the sea that aren't causing any harm to our nation. Why are we meddling with strife not belonging to us? Taking a dog by the ears. Stop it. Beware of the real dogs, the sodomites and the perverts and the pedophiles. And don't put all your trust in man, don't put all your trust in money, don't even put your trust in your circumstances. Decide in your heart and your mind, I'm just going to have that safety in the Lord no matter what my circumstances, no matter what's going on, I'm going to follow His word. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. You know what keeps us safe? The Bible says in Proverbs 11, where no counsel is the people fall, but in the multitude of who counsels their safety. We need more men of God to stand up in this nation and preach the word of God, to preach the commandments, to preach against sin, to preach against the dogs, to preach against the false teachers, to get rid of all this wickedness, to be like Jesus Christ and to point to the fig tree and get it to wither and cast us to the mountain and to the sea, get all these stupid false doctrines like Calvinism and all these false ways of salvation and all these reversions of Christianity and cast them into the sea, get them out of our nation and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we'll have safety. That's how we'll dwell in the land safe. The Bible says in Ezekiel 22, and I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap of forming the land, that I should destroy it not but I found none. We need men of God to stand up and stand in the gap. We need men like Aaron who would stand in the gap of the wrath of God and preserve the people. That's how you have safety. We need men of God to stand in the gap today, but if you can't find it, God's going to destroy you. He's not going to think anything special about you. He destroyed all the heat and wine because they weren't following his commandments because of all the wicked abominations, all the same abominations America does. We're not anything special. God doesn't think we're great. He says, if you're mighty, you think you're great, I'll destroy myself. I'll come in with the hornets and everything and I'll just destroy myself. Look at Psalms chapter 4. Let's read this entire Psalm and we'll finish. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness, thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. O he sends him in, how long will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity and seek after leasing, Selah, but know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call unto him, stand in awe and sin not, commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still, Selah, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. There be many that say, who will show us any good? Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us, thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that the corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. The only safety is the safety of the Lord. You want to be safe? Follow God's commandments. Follow his word. Trust in the Bible with your whole heart, with your whole mind, with your whole body, with your money. We need not be worried about all the things of this world. We need to be worried about the safety of the Lord. We need to be afraid of the consequences of our sin. We need to be afraid of losing God's favor. We need to be afraid of not trusting in God. We need to be afraid of not being in his hand, not even being saved. We need to be afraid for all the people in this world that aren't saved in this nation. And we need to be afraid of God moving against us, God fighting against us. If God before us who can be against us, if God's against us, we're in trouble. We need to put all of our safety in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible says the horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. We should do our part. We should follow his commandments, but ultimately all of our trust should be in the fact that it's from God. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Father for your word. Thank you so much for giving us safety. Thank you for allowing us to have freedom and safety to come by following your word and following your commandments. I pray that we would not trust in uncertain riches, we wouldn't trust in princes, we wouldn't trust in our own wisdom and our own heart and our own mind and our own circumstances. We would just hold you with our heart, trust in you and you can preserve this nation not because of our righteousness but because of yours and because we want to follow after you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.