Dwell under the shadow of the Almighty

Let's go to the word of the Lord in Psalm 91. It is a precious psalm and I recite it many times in my prayer time. I have memorized it years ago and it has been a source of strength for my life and I want us to meditate on it this morning. Also as part of our… this psalm is good because it kills two birds with one stone or gives life to two birds with just one piece of bread. One is that we are talking about emotional and spiritual health, how to live healthy lives and prosper in the midst of a hostile world, and that we need to find practical advice in the word of the Lord to have a healthy life.

Number 1 is like part of that series, and secondly, the events that have affected the world so much this weekend, what's happened in Paris with these terrorist attacks where 120-odd people have been killed and it's probably going to go up quite a bit. more since many people were seriously injured. And this event has obviously moved the world for very obvious reasons, and it's up to us too. And I know that we come to a service like today, some naturally feel a little affected by something of this nature and we think of our own nation and the threats against it as well. But that is not strange to God or to the history of humanity, and the word of the Lord has good antidotes, good remedies for fear.

In Psalm 91 the psalmist says:

“…He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to Jehovah, my hope and my castle, my God in whom I will trust. He will free you from the hunter's bond, from the destructive plague, with his feathers he will cover you and under his wings you will be safe..."

Why don't we stand up. Let's all read it. Let's read it as a statement of trust in the Lord. We are going to wait for each other, we are going to do it in unity. We are going to start from the beginning and we are going to declare it in the name of the Lord with conviction in our hearts and as a confession of faith and trust in the Lord. Let the message of this psalm penetrate your sensitivity and banish all fear and anguish. We are going to read it with a strong voice, like an army that is declaring the truth of God against the lies of the enemy.

“…He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to Jehovah, my hope and my castle, my God in whom I will trust. He will free you from the hunter's bond, from the destructive plague, with his feathers he will cover you and under his wings you will be safe. Shield and lengthen is its truth, you will not fear night terror, nor arrow that flies by day, nor pestilence that walks in darkness, nor mortality that destroys at noonday. A thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come to you. Surely with your eyes you will look and see the reward of the wicked, because you have put the Lord who is my hope, to the Most High for your habitation evil will not come to you, nor plague will touch your dwelling. For he will command his angels over you, to guard you in all your ways, in their hands they will carry you so that your foot does not stumble on a stone. He will step on the lion and the asp, you will trample the lion's cub and the dragon, because he has placed his love on me, I will also deliver him. I will put him on high because as much as he has known my name, he will call on me and I will answer him. I will be with him in anguish, I will free him and glorify him, I will satisfy him with long life and I will show him my salvation..."

Give the Lord a round of applause. Amen. That is a precious promise that God has for us. Read that psalm and be filled with that confidence that the psalmist expresses through it. Brother, I want now to go into preaching.

Brothers, fear and anxiety are two of the great enemies of man in the 21st century, modern man. The 20th century they called it and it still applies very well to the 21st century, the century of anxiety. Today, psychiatry and psychology and everything that has to do with counseling is a billion-dollar industry because there are so many people, sleeping pills and tranquilizers and all these things, which are part of modern life, because anxiety , fear are things that overwhelm and fill modern sensibility.

The terrorist attack that we witnessed in Paris on Friday illustrates this, that terror, that night terror that the psalmist speaks of in Psalm 91, terror is part of the culture in which we live. In fact, terrorism is a genre that is actually more of the 20th century and late 19th century, the modern time, when modernity comes into human history is when terrorism really starts to rear its head, as a technique of destabilize societies.

We have the first, the anarchists in the 19th century, anarchism, wanting to create disorder. Anarchy means that, lack of order. The use of terrorism as a technique to destabilize societies arises with the modern mind as well. For example, the First World War in 1914 was started by an act of terrorism, where a member of the Austrian nobility was killed by a terrorist, an anarchist to cause a conflagration, a conflict between the nations of Europe. And in fact it was successful and it was one of the events that it provoked, although there was already in Europe at that time it was like a tinderbox and the war was known to come at some point. But this terrorist attack, this assassination of that member of the nobility started, it was like the spark that ignited the First World War.

And throughout the 20th century and in this time terrorism has been growing and becoming a part of our life where very small groups, a single individual, for example, as we see here in the terrorist attack in Boston, a couple of years ago , where two crazy guys with virtually no apparent connection to any other system of major terrorism, simply decided to become two weapons that destabilized our city. We remember the terror, Boston was locked down, it was closed, you could feel the silence that was in the whole city as a result of only 2 people who could take an entire nation hostage.

And terrorists know this and groups like ISIS when they can't do what they want, because it's one of the things that's happening right now in the Middle East, how ISIS started… ISIS this group that has started this act of terrorism and has been beheading so many people and causing terror in all parts of the Middle East. When ISIS finds out that the Western nations are arming themselves against them and have stopped their advance to some extent.

They at first came up so surprisingly that they caught the whole world by surprise and they quickly spread through Iraq and Syria, and they occupied a lot of strategic territory and they thought that they were already going to establish the eastern caliphate that they call throughout the Middle East and continue with conquering the world because that's what they want to do. The Muslim mind wants to recapture the former glory they had during the time of Muhammad and when they conquered a good part of the world. But then the same thing happened, the West got its act together and after centuries of ascendancy and irresistible Muslim conquest, they finally halted the advance of the Arabian empire.

Because Islam and its desire to conquer the world is not something new. Centuries and centuries ago they almost reached it, that's why you see in India, in the Middle East, in Indonesia, in many parts of Asia, Islam exists, it's not only in the Middle East area, because Islam spread like a army of war and always Islam expanded because of the war, it was through the war subjugating nations and imposing its empire. They did it in Europe too. Nowadays we don't speak Arabic because in the 15th century the Spanish stopped the northward advance of Islam in a part of Spain that I don't remember the name of, and that's where they stopped and that was like the brake. Until then Islam stopped because they were going to continue expanding to the north, towards France and other countries.

So, the western world, and I say these things so that you are also a little informed about all these things, because we think, this is something new. No, this already comes from centuries and centuries ago. So Islam, the Arab world was really the aristocracy of the world, it was the United States of its time. The Islamic world had acquired incredible power and a totally dazzling culture. But it stopped and the West, which was known then as the barbarians compared to Islam, began to arm itself and use science and technology and they were able to stop the Islamic advance. And then Islam entered, and the Middle East entered a time of great darkness and a great lack of technological and intellectual progress, until today it is a rather primitive world, you have to say it that way, in many ways, but they have always He wanted to recover that pride, that ancient glory, and he resents it.

Resentment is one of the key elements in the Muslim and Arab mentality. It begins with Ishmael, the first son of Abraham, from whom the Arabs descend. They know that it is. Because of their envy of the second son, who is Isaac, where the Jews come from and that jealousy, that envy, that sense of rejection is what is at the heart of Islam and at the heart of the Arab world, it is resentment , low self-esteem, the sense of being despised by the world.

If you allow yourself to be governed, brothers, by jealousy, envy, resentment, a sense of offense, the same thing will happen to you that has happened to the Muslim world, which is a world possessed by hatred and the more they hate, the more hate they generate and the more they kill each other and the more they eat each other and the more incapable they are of progressing, because at the heart of that culture is rebellion, there is hatred, there is envy, there is resentment of progress and the blessings from others.

The healing of the Muslim people lies in forgiving and forgetting hatred and resentment and seeking reconciliation but I don't want to do it and that is why they will continue sowing hatred because hate sows more hatred and more resentment. And what we have today is a culture that is trying to solve… all these groups that are as strong as ISIS and other groups like that, trying to recapture the former glory that they lost almost 7 centuries ago and come back again, and fundamentalism , the idea that many of these men that by going back to the original foundations of the Qur'an and what gave Muhammad and his warriors the original glory in conquering the world, that they have to go back to the old path in a sense. They are as fundamentalists as we are. We are going to go back to the old path, they are saying the same thing, we have to go back to the Koran, we have to go back to the fundamentals of our religion and our faith.

That is why I do not subscribe to what they say that Islamism is not a religion of violence. It is a violent religion and these men know it and that is why they want to return to the violence that gave it its original glory, Islam, and that is why they kill the way they kill and use violence as a weapon because in the heart there is resentment , there is hatred, there is resentment, there is envy and there is a sense of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. These people still live in the Old Testament.

Many say, well, Christianity also has its violence and look at all the things there... Yes, it's true, but what Christianity also has is that it has the New Testament and the Old Testament that both dialogue with each other. There is a lot of violence in the Old Testament, it is true, but Christ came precisely to give humanity a fuller perspective of the heart of God. And when Christ, you have heard that you live an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, referring to the Old Testament, but I tell you, love those who persecute you, bless those who curse you, have mercy, grace. So, I find in the pages of the Bible, although there are things of violence because it was a time for humanity... but God has always wanted to take humanity through a process of growth and development. And Christ came to bring the perfect revelation of God to man and that is why he speaks so much during the New Testament about love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, patience, the fruit of the spirit, kindness, goodness, peace, these values that are the hallmarks of Christianity.

In the old Bible, in the New Testament, there is a complexity and nuance that there is not in the Qur'an. All the revelation, all the word, which is what we have to see, the different texts of the Bible talking to each other, shading each other, is what gives us this synthesis that is finally Christianity, which is a religion, a faith of grace, of love, of mercy, although it also has its historical elements in the past, and neither does it totally eliminate the use of violence, because we live in a fallen world, in a sinful world as well, and there is a place for violence as well, but not the vengeful, bloodthirsty violence that we see manifested in ISIS and in many of the Muslim world and the Arab world.

I've gone too far but I just wanted… that's nice, I'm not going to charge you for what I'm talking about now for you, but it's good to understand these things to understand where we are and we could talk a lot more about it to understand that this has his story. This is nothing new, violence is a reality of the world and of the history of man, only that today it is manifesting itself in a very concentrated way, and this is also part of the fulfillment of the times.

But is all this terrorism and what is happening in the world part of God's plan? Maybe I am not going to get to everything that I wanted to say about a word of trust and faith, but I also want to tell you why this is very important, is that I believe that God is also allowing Islam and Islamic terrorism to discipline the nations modern, to also remind them of their fragility and to humiliate the arrogance of the modern secular, rationalist man who believes that his technology gives him tranquility and peace and that he can do without God for his well-being.

One has always seen this, that God uses and God allows. I'm going to say God uses, because I don't want to excuse God, God uses these harsh and brutal and violent nations to discipline his people. He used the Assyrians, he used the Babylonians, he used all these nations that we see in the Old Testament to discipline his people and to bring them to a knowledge and a confession of their need for God.

I believe that at this time, in the 21st century, Islam is being used as the hammer of God against Europe and against nations like the United States, arrogant and full of rational pride, to remind them of their inherent fragility. And many more things will come in this time. We have to prepare for many things, but not be filled with fear or terror. We have to live confident lives, brothers, get out on the streets. I don't want to sound like President Bush, buy, like in that time when he said that dad, let's go buy. No, we don't have… but if we live natural, normal lives, never let yourself be overwhelmed by fear, because these are things that have another background.

God is using, God is in the middle of history. God is moving in the middle of history. God is in control of history, and these things that are happening are part of God's process to discipline the nations. France is a totally secularized, arrogant, proud nation. When have you heard that president mention God in one of his speeches even at this time? It is a secular nation. France has terribly rationalist blood and God is hammering these nations, liberals, and he is going to force them to abandon many of their liberal principles in order to protect themselves because Islam is a plague, it is a plague that has entered those nations and God has blinded , I believe, to many of these nations about the things of their well-being to make it even more difficult. Because now Islam is in the heart of Europe and they will not be able to get it out. The Muslim world is in there and these people hate the West. They are going to continue doing their things, their trickery.

A fortress is required, a strong West is required and Europe unfortunately is not, because they have abandoned the source of moral and spiritual strength that is God. Another piece that I'm going to other areas.

Again, that terrorist attack in Paris on Friday illustrates many of these things. As never before we feel the fragility of life in the 21st century, the dangers that are all around us, the many things that are out of our control. Today we are all well informed about germs, viruses, the many diseases that are in the world, the violence that is in the city, the gangs, the gangs right here in the city of Boston, in the nation of United States. United, all the time on the news, while we ate dinner, we see that so-and-so killed 30 people, that a man entered a university and killed 30 students, that there is a sniper in a tower shooting young people in a university. That is part of our daily diet.

We see wars in the world all the time on the news. Weather hazards that are supposed to destroy the world, melting northern ice, terrorism, fluctuating economies, rumors of economic depressions and economic disasters, that's our diet. As we never need the message of the word of God, that the children of God can enjoy a sense of security, permanence, and protection that others who do not know God cannot enjoy him.

And that is what I see in this psalm. The psalmist says in psalm 91 that he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide under the shadow of the omnipotent. There are several points that I see in this psalm. The first thing I see is that it says that the one who inhabits. Pause for a moment on the word inhabit. Inhabiting means, the one who keeps his mind, he keeps his heart, his life fixed, focused on God, in his word and in his Kingdom. Living for myself, in the shelter of the Most High, means that, like staying inside. And I believe that it is not so much physically, although God surrounds us in everything, but it is the person who keeps his mind, his thoughts, his values, his affections focused on God, on his word, on his Kingdom, on his teaching, on his power, in his person, the one who continually meditates on this, then can enjoy that sense of divine protection, that security, that confidence in the midst of death threats around us.

Only by this continuous abiding, this continuous dwelling, meditating on the things of God can our mind be filled with the sense of divine presence and promote in us the sense of trust and security in him. When you cannot tell your mind, “Mind, be calm, I want to sleep, stop this fear, this anxiety,” stop cursing the anxiety and focus on God. Find a good psalm and recite it. Put on some good music that reminds you of God's love and peace. When your head won't let you sleep, pray and you will see how there will come a time when you fall asleep and you don't even know when you fell asleep.

On many occasions I have felt anxious and what I do is instead of tossing and turning here in bed, I pray. Listen to me, and I don't know, but for me praying is better than any sleeping pill, that's like it doesn't fail. A few minutes later I lose consciousness and I don't remember when I fell asleep. And I think part of it is because when you're praying and you're keeping your mind on the Lord, the endorphins and all the peace-inducing chemicals start flowing, those declarations of the good and positive things of the Kingdom of God start working in you. your chemistry, physiology and quiet your spirit, because you are dwelling, dwelling in the presence. That continuous remain.

I like the word from Isaiah 26:3, a verse I have also memorized. By the way, one of the most beautiful things, if you want to have peace in your heart and spirit, memorize good verses from God's word.

God is talking to me lately about memorizing the Bible more because those verses you don't have to go to the Ipad, you don't have to go to the Bible, you have it there, they will be running in your subconscious. There is a verse in Isaiah 26:3 that says;

"...You will keep in complete peace - everyone say complete peace - to him whose thought in you perseveres..."

When your mind wants like a wild animal to shed itself behind anxiety, pull it back and center it back on God. Keep your thoughts on the Lord. If you can meditate on something, meditate on God, meditate on the values of the Kingdom of God, meditate on good things. What do you spend your time on? What do you invest your thoughts in? Invest your life and your thoughts in positive things, that fill you with the peace of God, that build you up spiritually, that strengthen you spiritually.

Many of us suffer from so much anxiety, not always, because that is very complex, but many times because we are filling our heads with all things. Before going to bed we watch the news, that 300 were killed in such a place, that there is a war in such a place, then we turn off the television and go to sleep. just imagine. What is going on in our subconscious? Meditate on positive things so that your mind slows down and you are ready to drift off to sleep.

But it is important to persevere, to keep our mind, our thought in the Lord. By the use of the word also...

A second thing, number 1, focus, stay, dwell, stay on the values and things of the Kingdom of God. The second thing I see here, he says, the one who lives in whose shelter? Of the Most High, he will dwell under whose shadow? Of the omnipotent They are two very strong words, Most High, omnipotent. They are two words that speak about the great power of God.

By the use of these words the writer already implies his high concept of Jehovah, of his power, of his superiority over all other forces. The people who are so intimidated by what is happening at this time, I think part of it is because they have taken their eyes off the God who rules history, the God who is in control of ISIS, is in control of the United States, is in control of France, it is in control of Africa, it is in control of all the continents.

The Bible says that the earth is like a ball in the hands of God. In fact, he says that the earth is his footstool, God is the Lord of history. These men can do what they want but in the end they have to get into God's plan and God is in control of everything that is happening, none of this is by accident. God is bringing all this world economy and human history and everything, we know that God is bringing it all to an end and we are witnesses of that. And you know what? We are part of the team that wins at the end of the novel. That's the beauty, that God is in control of everything and you have to keep your eyes fixed on a God of power, a God who controls history.

It is important to be saturated with the sense of the glory, the power, the magnificence of the God we serve. Think every day about that powerful God that you have. Fill your mind with the God who is in control.

The psalmist says in another psalm, "my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth." It is not just any God, it is the God who created the universe. I see many times in scripture this invitation to when we are in trouble, in tribulations, in anguish, to look at the power of God and concentrate on that power of God because what the devil wants you to pay attention to is him. power of him and what he's doing, how he's wagging his tail at you. No, look at God and tell him to go there to do what he has always done. Forget about him. Bless God and invoke the power of God over your life.

Over and over again I see that invitation of the word to forget about our fragility, to look at the power of God. Psalm 40 says:

“…You do not know, you have not heard, you have never been told from the beginning – a rhetorical word – you have not been taught since the earth was founded, he sits on the circle of the earth, whose inhabitants are like locusts. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, unfolds them like a tent to dwell in. He turns the mighty into nothing and those who rule the earth he does as a vain thing..."

No president, no prime minister, no king is in power of the world. God is in power. They are minuscule, they are insects before the presence and power, compared to the might of God.

"... as if they had never been planted, as if they had never been sown, as if their trunk had never had root in the earth, as soon as it blows on them they dry up and the whirlwind carries them like stubble..."

ISIS, Al Qaeda, all these groups are going to decline, they are going to disappear. Others will come but they are not eternal, they are not as powerful as one can see it. Al Qaeda was a big thing a few years ago and nowadays people don't even talk about Al Qaeda as much today. Now the new gunman is ISIS. And the devil will never get tired of actually throwing other things away. That's why we can't let ourselves be so distracted by their tricks.

In that same psalm there is a very beautiful verse, verse 27, psalm 40 that says:

"...Why do you say, O Jacob, and do you speak your Israel saying 'my way is hidden from the Lord and my judgment has passed from my God'?"

Never hesitate, never add to worry and fear and terror saying, oh, God has forsaken me or this is going to happen, disaster. Says:

“…Have you not known, have you not heard that the eternal God is Jehovah, who created the ends of the earth? He does not faint or get tired with fatigue and his understanding is not reached by anyone..."

That power of God, you never join in despair and fear. Set your eyes on the Lord, he is infinite and that infinite power of God that has been in favor of us, that is what guarantees our security. So there are two things there, you have to battle against fear, anxiety, anguish. Number 1, keep your mind, keep your thinking, keep your emotions focused on God always. Meditate on the word, the values, the sounds, the harmonies of the Kingdom of God. And secondly, fill yourself with that sense of the great power of God, cultivate that sense of the might of God. Read and meditate so that your mind is filled with that powerful sense of God that you have, who can protect you from any evil, no matter how powerful it may seem.

Number 3, another point that I see here in this psalm is the power of positive confession in God. That is why when we are here and I decided that we should sing that chorus "I have a voice in my soul" many of you, the least you have is joy in your soul on a day like today, some of you at least, I do not want neither be exaggerated. We come a little off, with reason for what we feel. And some may feel like it's violent, I myself sometimes feel, it's violent. I have joy in my soul at this moment, it may even seem irreverent.

But you know what? I have learned in life that precisely one of the things we must do when we are afraid, anguished, sad, is to use the confession of the word of God to go against it. I can't rule what's going on inside me but I can rule what my mouth says, I can rule the type of music I'm going to choose to play at home when I'm depressed or sad, I can rule what I'm going to do, yes I stay tucked in bed or I jump into the tub for a soaking bath that wakes me up and gets me going in the world again.

I say that there are two types of evangelicals in the Kingdom, there is a type of evangelical, I am going to say it with all the respect that I can, there is a whole sector of the Christian world whose music, its worship is conditioned by the time, the circumstances and for example, if something terrible has happened... that they celebrate a lot. It is very difficult to explain this nuanced as I want. But that music, his music can be a little gloomy, a little gloomy. When you think, for example, of all the great music of Bach and Mozart and the whole Western world, you see a lot of that music in a minor, low key, because of course the world is sad and it's gloomy, and a lot of that music reflects the pain of the world.

For example, on a day like today the easiest thing to do would be to sing muted choruses, sad choruses, and very soft choruses. Sometimes I want to throw a stone at the devil himself in the forehead, with a good Pentecostal chorus of those rajatablas, crude that violate all my sense of rationalism and aesthetic elegance because I believe that those crazy Pentecostals know something that many of us don't We know about the power of saying things in the name of the Lord, brutally and openly. I believe in that, brothers, and I believe that many times you have to declare what God is even if your heart does not feel it.

Give yourself an electric shock singing a chorus that scares you when it comes out of your mouth and that will help you take off and receive the joy of the Lord. I believe in that, brothers. Instead of throwing myself into singing something dull and sad, that obviously has its place. There are moments when you also have to declare the thing of God in the midst of your sadness, throw a stone at the devil with a good Pentecostal choir.

Why am I saying this? Because in this psalm the psalmist says, "I will say to Jehovah," that "I will say" speaks to me of the power of the positive word. We have to learn to speak with confidence and to declare positive things about our lives and our minds, as an antidote to fear, even when we feel the opposite. This sends a positive message to our brain, our neurology and our emotions and calms anxiety and fear. Yes, it may seem violent, like a medicine that tastes sour or bitter many times when you take it, but your body reacts.

For example, the psalmist in psalm 42, “Why are you downcast, my soul, and are you troubled within me? Wait on God because I still have to praise him, my salvation and my God."

He's down, he's sad, he's upset, he's depressed but he says, wait, I can't go on like this. My soul, my neurology, my emotions, why are they like this? Wait on God because I know that at some point I am going to get out of this and I still have to praise him and I am going to say, my salvation and my God.

When you are immersed in your depression, in your sadness, in your struggle, in your fear, say, I am going to get out of this, do not see yourself condemned to stay there so make yourself a tent there all gloomy to live inside your sadness. No. Say, I'm going to get out of this in the name of the Lord. I will not die, I will live and declare goodness... and speak to your soul, speak to your mind, speak to your brain, why are you moping and troubled within me? Wait on God. You have to tell yourself that many times in your life. Wait on God, even if it takes time, wait for him because he is coming and he is going to fulfill his promise. Use your mouth, speak to your mind, speak to your heart, speak to your emotions, fight, don't give in to depression, don't give in to fear. That's what the devil wants. Declare with your mouth even if you don't feel things, by faith and work that way.

There is a fourth thing. Then also use positive confession. Focus the mind on God, focus the mind on the power, the greatness of God. A fourth point, the psalmist says, “my God in whom I will trust. I will say to Jehovah, my hope and my castle, my God in whom I will trust."

My God. We have to put our trust in God and not in ourselves. That is one part of a single mechanism. Taking our trust away from ourselves and putting it in God, the two things have to go together. Taking away your self-confidence has to be something active and determined that you do. The hallmark of every man, of every wise woman is that they do not trust themselves, they are very aware of their fragility and weakness. What's more, one cultivates a sense of fragility and delicacy in the face of the brutality of the world in which we live.

Paul said, "I have learned that when I am weak then I am strong," because then I am going to rejoice in the weaknesses, in the insults, in the sufferings, the sufferings. There is something powerful in cultivating your sense of your fragility and putting your trust in God, because by placing our trust in God we take it away from ourselves and put it exclusively in him.

The son of God knows that he is a perishable creature and like a child he needs his Father's protection at all times. Paradoxically, in the cultivation of our own fragility, the sense of our own fragility, our evanescence, our transience, - here is a Sunday word - when you cultivate that sense of your own fragility in contrast to the absolute power of God, in that there is great protection and great strength.

In the psalm before this 91st psalm, there is the 90th psalm that also says that, because that psalm is a declaration of the power of God:

“…Lord, you have been our shelters from generation to generation…”

But there is also an invitation to meditate on the transience and fragility of man contrasted with that power of God. The psalmist says in verse 3:

“…You return to man until he is broken and you say to him, “Return, sons of men,” – verse 5 later says, speaking about humanity – “You carry them away as with torrents of waters, they are like sleep, like the grass growing in the morning. In the morning it blooms and grows and in the evening it is cut down and dries up…”

The psalmist says here, "with his feathers..." that image of God is surprising, "with his feathers he will cover you and under his wings he will be safe..."

A chicken. I know that a lot of people got upset a long time ago when I talked about the chicken. That sermon will never be forgotten by you. But he is in good company, here God is compared to a chicken. Chickens can be quite ferocious. Have you tried to take a chick from a hen? Many of us have bites that we remember from those chickens, when you try to take a chick from it. Chickens can be fierce in their love and tenderness for their chicks.

It says, "with his feathers he will cover you, under his wings you will be safe." It is a wonderful image of the maternal love of God that surrounds us, covers us, protects us. God is fierce in his protection of his chicks, which are you and me. And that's important.

The Lord Jesus Christ also spoke, he says, "oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem how I wanted to cover you" as a hen covers her chicks. The tragedy of Jerusalem and of Israel is that they have always been too self-sufficient. Look at them still, all that they are suffering there. And it says, "and you did not want to, and that is why now your city is left deserted and your walls are going to be broken down." As it happened with Israel, with the Roman destruction in the first century.

But the Lord wants to cover us as a hen covers her chicks. The Lord loves you. The Lord loves you with a fierce love. It is also important that we meditate on God's love for us. When you enter the Kingdom of God, when you shelter under the wings of Jesus Christ, God covers you with his motherly love. The love of God is a mother's love, not only of the father but of the mother as well.

When we are possessed by the sense of God's great love for us, this too becomes an antidote to anxiety and fear and also becomes a source of power and protection. Our active faith in God's protecting love attracts that protecting love and makes it real in our lives. Think of the love of God and fill yourself with that sense, saturate yourself with the sense... God loves me, God is love, in fact, God loves you with an invincible love and he knows your struggles, he knows your sufferings, he knows your tears, he he knows your anxiety, he knows your sins, he knows your weakness, he knows every minuscule event in your life and he is with you, he loves you, and he suffers with you too, I would say.

When you are suffering, do not wonder where God is because God is there next to you and inside you suffering with you, and perhaps he is crying with you too. God's love is such a powerful love. Fill yourself with that sense of God's love and God loves you and will love you, because like the prodigal son even if you leave him and fail and make mistakes, God's love will never leave you. When you repent it will be there like the father receiving the prodigal son, ready to wrap your hands around you again.

A sister told me today, I bless you for that, she told me, "Pastor, I love you so much because when I stopped coming to church for a long time and I came back..." she came to ask for forgiveness, I told her, "Sister, you never … this church is always your church, it will always be your church, ready to receive you at any time.” That is my policy always. I'm not going to be here saying, oh, you unredeemed sinner, why did you leave? Now come and sit in the last seat 10 years. No, amen, welcome. Glory to God, this is your house, we love you. Come and rejoin.

I believe that, the love of God is like that. We can leave it for a while, for whatever, but God's love is always invincible. He is there with us, he is with you. That love will fiercely protect you at all times.

The sixth thing that I see in this psalm is that this powerful confidence that this psalm illustrates, that confidence that I see here is not ignorant of the reality of the danger and the power of evil in the world. It is not an ostrich that puts its head in the sand and realizes that if it does not see the danger, then it does not exist. No. It is an informed trust, it is an intelligent trust that knows, that lives in the valley of the shadow of death. The psalmist is aware that evil is a very powerful reality around him. In fact, he names many types of evils in this psalm of which he says, God will protect me from all of them.

When we declare this it is not that I am ignoring, no, the world is a terrible world. We can go out and perish out there right now and that's a reality. All this that I am saying does not ignore the fact that our life is a contingent life and that we inhabit a terrible world. In fact, the psalmist speaks here and says:

"... you will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor the destruction that destroys at noonday..."

He also speaks of the lion and the asp: "... you will step on the lion and the asp, on the lion cub and the dragon..."

He takes time to illustrate and list all the dangers in the world. And I am sure that each one of us, if we had time, could see that each one of these images is an image of aspects of the evil that moves in the world, the night terror. What a poetic, beautiful expression! The night terror, the nightmares, the anxiety, that heart of yours that races when you wake up at 2 in the morning and it's beating like it wants to get out of your chest. The night terror.

In those times when the psalmist moved, an enemy army could come at night and take a city or take a village, destroy it and kill everyone. The night terror that moves like that. The mortality that at noonday destroys, war, destruction, an earthquake. The arrow that flies by day, a blind arrow, a blind cancer that develops inside you, that cell that becomes cancerous neither hates you nor loves you, something simply got misled and began to reproduce disobediently against you and can kill. It's an arrow that flies by day blind, it can come and bam… get inside the seams of your armor, like King Ahab did. Someone fired a bolt and it went into him blindly.

And that's how it happens many times, there are arrows in the world that can get into you, but he says, "you will not be afraid" of that arrow that flies by day, the pestilence, all the plagues of our times, the viruses, all things. The lion, the lion cub, the asp, the devil, the demons, the destructive powers that want to destroy man. You are going to trample, you are going to walk on them, you are going to rule over all of them.

Latest on this. This psalm is not, therefore, an absolute promise that we will never suffer disaster or tragedy or disease or some kind of physical or spiritual evil or attack. I am not guaranteeing here that you will not suffer illness or some tragedy, simply what this psalm does is that it points out that that security, that confidence, that defense is what I call the natural and normal inheritance of the children of God. For himself that is the basic inheritance. It is the default condition of the children of God.

That is the base, the platform from which there can be exceptions and from which you can get out but that is where you have to keep your eye on it. Don't worry so much about so-and-so who was diagnosed with cancer, don't worry about so-and-so who was hit by a car, don't worry about the one who was robbed of his house, don't worry about the one who has a diabetic condition, that you take your eyes off the God who says, “I am with you. I love you, I defend you, I declare health over your life."

Because many times we look at all the things that exist, because then we stop praying, we stop declaring, we stop trusting. I believe that the basic, fundamental, normal posture of the children of God is sufficiency, health, goodness, protection, care, joy, peace, that is the inheritance. And that is why over and over again the psalmists and in all the word of God one sees that, the promise of God.

Think about that, concentrate on that, and if evil comes into your life, if economic problems come, if illness comes, if tragedy comes, if loss comes, there are many other things that the word of God also promises you. What can you do in that time? And for me one of the most beautiful things of all is that even if these things come into our life, our soul is safe with the Lord.

If right now there is a terrorist attack out there in the street, look, I already have my passport stamped, something that we are not, we are not undocumented for the Kingdom of God. We have all the documents in Christ Jesus and that must be a source of great security for us, brothers.

If something happens because it happens, because it happens in this world full of evil, I am confident in the name of the Lord. My soul is safe, my eternity is safe with God. I am going to die of something, and at some point I am going to die, but I have the greatest insurance of all, the blood of Christ that covers me and guarantees an existence totally devoid of all contingencies in eternity.

That is the inheritance of the children of God. So, the Bible says not to fear those who can kill the body but can do nothing to the soul. ISIS cannot touch your soul. ISIS can take your life and cut off your head, but it does not have a knife that can decapitate your soul. That is in the hands of God and when they decapitate you since your head was cut off, life would come out for the world and your martyrdom would be like the martyrdom of Christ, and it would give more vitality to the world. The devil is beaten wherever he wags his tail. He is completely defeated. Christ totally defeated him, and our faith, our security in Christ, that is the last card we play.

If all the other cards failed us, the last one is, my life is safe in Christ Jesus. If we die for him we die, if we live for him we live. Whether we live or die of the Lord we are. Hallelujah! That is beautiful. So, where is the problem? What's the problem, child of God? Trust in your Lord. Amen. And do not allow any devil in this world to take away the gaze of that loving, powerful, faithful God that you have, who loves you with eternal love. Amen.

Don't give it importance. There is a degree of importance to what has happened but fill yourself up... and when these things happen raise your head because the day of your redemption is near. Stand up. Thank God.

Oh, Lord, thank you. Father, this morning we drink a few pills from your medical cabinet of the word and decide peace in our hearts. We remember France, we remember those families, Father, who are in pain right now, who have lost their young. Lord, have mercy on them. We pray for that French nation and we grieve with them and we bless them, Father. We bless the very foundations of that nation and we ask that its leaders be endowed with divine wisdom to lead their people well and that the churches in France, Lord, receive the word, the pastors, the priests, receive the word of God for his people, hope and may those French leaders look to you and receive some spiritual nourishment at this time.

That what the devil has wanted to use for destruction, you turn into life for that nation, Father, that in their sense of fragility they can turn towards you and seek you, Lord. And we also ask for mercy for those Muslim Arab nations, who need to know the Christ that we know, the only one capable of removing them from misery and poverty and humiliation.

Have mercy on them, Father. Let there be a day of reconciliation and an awareness of what truly ensures the prosperity of nations, which is not hatred, it is not war, it is not death, it is not oppression, it is not exploitation, but the love of Christ Jesus who gave himself on the cross and who in his crucifixion released the power for the redemption of humanity.

Today we receive new strength from you, Father, encouragement, joy, peace, hope, optimism for the future. Thank my Lord. Thank you because you are in control of history and we declare it, your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven without any resistance, Father. I bless this people, Lord, install your spirit in them, in their families, in their homes. Thank you, in the name of Jesus. Amen. I bless you, my brothers. The grace of the Lord be with you.