A sharp and severe shock is coming to this nation — and many are still not ready. In this timely message from East Gate Church, Stewart Green uses Psalm 91 as the clear biblical template for how God’s people can prepare now, dwell in the shelter of the Most High, and not only survive but thrive when the shock arrives.
Drawing from the lessons of the First World War and the present spiritual condition of the nation, this sermon calls every believer to stop waiting for a better moment. The time to get match-fit, put total trust in God, and take the promises of Psalm 91 literally is today. Protection is real, but it is not automatic. There are qualifications. Those who choose to dwell, abide, and trust will experience God’s supernatural covering, peace in chaos, and provision when everything else fails.
If you sense that harder times are ahead and you want to stand firm rather than be caught out, this message on Psalm 91 will show you exactly how to prepare.
**In this sermon you will discover:**
– Why a coming shock is inevitable and why it will not destroy the nation
– How Psalm 91 functions as the practical template for protection and preparation
– The critical difference between those who merely know the psalm and those who dwell in it
– How to deal with fear, get right with God, and position yourself for supernatural peace
– Why the faithful remnant’s prayers are being heard and what restoration looks like after the shock
**Scripture:** Psalm 91
Introduction: Remembrance, Total War, and the Present Hour
So as we’ve already observed this morning, our act of remembrance, remembering the sacrifice paid by others. I want to understand that after that First World War, that was the first war, though, there was total war. They called it total war. Why did they call it total war? Because there was war coming from every single angle. It was the first war that really involved a full-scale civilian population. Up until then, most wars, however big they had been, only involved a professional army. But by World War I, we started to have conscription, we started to have young men, and women joining up and signing up, and then being signed up, regardless of whether they wanted to or not. And so what happened was the nation went to war, back then in 1914, to stand against the evil of the day that was going on.
And when you look back at history, you can see various stages of evil. And we are blessed to live in a country, I believe, that God has used over many years to push back evil. Have we made mistakes as a nation? Oh, for sure. Why? Because we’re a group of human beings, and all human beings are fallen, and therefore we will make mistakes from time to time. However, on the whole, and particularly with wars like World War I, we were used to push back evil. But the aftermath was destruction, there was lives ruined, hopelessness was everywhere all around this nation. And people asked, they began to ask, how will we ever recover? Could we ever rebuild? Can we ever move past this? How much of the population has been wiped out? How many people are now without a father? How many people are now without a husband? How many people are now without friends, without sons, without nephews, et cetera, et cetera? Could we ever see the light of hope again? And yet we did.
And so today’s message is kind of coming off the back of that and it’s a message of hope, but it’s also a message that’s very sobering. Why? Because just as we were in 1914 and through other conflicts, we are now in a very serious time as a nation. We are in very serious time now. Why? Because of the state of our nation and there are harder times still coming, I believe. Why? Because of a rejection of God. The ongoing rejection of God where we’ve gone our own way as a nation, where we’ve continually waved our fist at God and said we don’t need you, we’re all right, we know best. And I would say that that has not gone unnoticed by God.
However, it’s not all over because nor has the prayers of the faithful remnant. The prayers of the faithful remnant church that rise up for this nation that says, oh God, would you come back? Oh God, would you do something? Oh God, would you change the hearts and minds of the people of this nation? That actually those prayers have very much not gone unnoticed, and they will not go unanswered. And therefore, I believe, and I’m not the only one saying this at the moment, you can look up various people that are saying a similar thing just now, and we’re getting a sense in the spirit that there is a coming sharp shock to this nation as a result of the state of the nation, but it won’t last long. Why? Because God has already turned the tide in this nation, but the effects of seeing the tide turning take some time. So it can look like things are still going in one direction for a while, when in actual fact the tide has already turned, but it takes a while to undo that.
Have you ever had a ball of string or rope or something like that, and you pull it out of the cupboard, and oh yes, I’ve got some rope, and you pull it out of the cupboard and you pick it up, and you go, oh, look at the state of this, it’s all tangled up. And halfway through tangling up, it can feel like you’re kind of, I thought I was getting somewhere, but look at this, it’s still just as tangled, and if not, it’s even more tangled. But ultimately, the bigger picture is it’s gradually becoming untangled. And this picture, once this piece of rope is now completely untangled, and it’s one straight single piece of rope, it’s absolutely incredible. You say, oh, great success, you can kind of tick that off, I’m now a rope untangler. And so it’s like that with turning the tide, it takes time for the effects of the tide to be seen.
But why do I say that there’s going to be this shock judgment if you like but that actually it’s not going to be over it’s not going to destroy the nation why because I don’t believe that God is done with this nation I don’t believe that God is finished with this nation. I don’t believe that God has brought us this far just to say, okay, that’s it, it’s all over. I believe that there is a future for this nation if it wants to have it. But God cannot overlook what has and is happening in the land. And this coming shock to the nation is going to be very, very severe. And I want to say that very clearly and very soberingly this morning, because if we don’t prepare now, we too will be caught up in it. And so we must prepare, we must, as it were, get match fit for this coming season, so that we don’t just survive, but we thrive. Because I believe that supernaturally, God is going to equip his people in this season to rise above the circumstances, and we are going to see supernatural provision, we’re going to see supernatural blessing, and we’re going to see the people of God standing strong when all else fails.
And people are then going to look at the church, and they’re going to say, how is it possible that you are in a place of calmness? How is it possible you’re in a place of joy amidst tremendous adversity? How is it possible that you could be in this situation and we will be able to say but God and we will be able to stand firm on the word of God and we will be able to say because I put my hope in the Lord himself and and and some of us today maybe not in this room but maybe watching on another occasion I’m just not sure we’ll actually make it through if we continue in the state that we are in right now we need to change things right now and actually all of us need to take stock of what we need to do we need to take stock and we need to say hey let’s not wait until January to have that reset we can have a reset right now on the eighth of November why do we need to wait for a calendar to tell us to have a reset we might not have until January to have a reset and God has been speaking to us recently as a church here at Eastgate about unity in one sense but actually more about being right with God We heard about the, the, the, the highway to holiness, from, from, from Archie and Kenneth last week. I spoke about being right before the Lord, and Ar, and Arthur has spoken twice now on, to, to varying degrees on different themes around the whole idea of, of, of being, finding our place within the body, of being family, of being community.
And what this is actually saying is that, yes, it’s, it’s about going after unity, but it’s not going after unity for unity’s sake. It’s about being right primarily before God, and He’s challenging us, and I wonder, what have we done to respond to the calls that have come up over the last few weeks? Because when I last preached, I had told you it was a message I didn’t want to give, and, and I really didn’t, and actually I had to go home and reflect on it myself. You see, for there to be unity in the church, true unity, I’m not just talking about tacky, you know, let’s just plaster a word there and call it unity when there isn’t. For there to be true unity in the church, for us to be a family that is knitted together, that is all pulling in the same direction, that looks out, that cares for each other one by one, we must first be in unity with God himself. You see, in order to have, in order to have these horizontal relationships, we need to first have the vertical relationship with God in place first. And we can’t be in union with God if we’ve got mess and muck in our lives. But once we are in unity with God, unity will come in the church naturally because we’ll all be pulling in the same direction.
And so you might kind of have come to church this morning thinking, hey, it would be nice to have a, a really easygoing, nice, puff-me-up message, but I’m sorry, but we are in a time of war in the spiritual realm, and we need to be on a war footing as a people. So now I’ve kind of dragged it all down, as it were, and set the scene. How can we do this preparation? How can we find hope in place of hopelessness? Well, let’s turn to Psalm 91, which is where we’re going to base ourselves this morning.
Reading of Psalm 91
And we’re going to read Psalm 91. It’s a familiar psalm, I’m sure, to many of us. I’m believing that God is going to show us something new here this morning in this psalm.
Psalm 91. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you. No plague shall come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him, I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.
It’s an amazing text that.
Believing and Applying the Psalm: Qualifications for Protection
But I want to ask the question this morning, you see we can read these words, but do we really truly fully believe these words that we read here? Because yes, all right, although there’s a fair amount of poetry and poetic language going through this psalm, there is a literal meaning behind it of God’s supernatural protection for his people when they dare to place their total trust in him. And so I wonder, as we read these words, are we prepared to put it into action, or more importantly, are we prepared to take the steps required to get match fit for the coming season of trials in this nation, or are we just going to sit around and pretend that it will all blow over, or maybe it won’t be all that bad?
It will not, folks, because this coming season is going to blow you away if you’re not ready, if you’re not firmly rooted, if you are not sheltering in the place of the Lord, and you will regret it at that time for not taking the opportunity that we have right now, by the grace of God, to prepare for it. You see, this is a psalm of protection, but there are qualifications for that protection. The protection itself is not universal, and it’s not automatic. What do we mean by that? Well, there’s this qualification of if. It’s not he’s just going to look after you. It’s not that he’s just going to protect you. Because we have put the Lord first. Because we have chosen to trust in him, then he will protect us.
And we find this so often in scripture, you know that wonderful scripture, second chronicles seven fourteen, if my people. Not a lot of people can miss the emphasis on the word if. It should really be in capital letters. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways. You see, God’s after that, he says, then I will. But the verse doesn’t start, then I will. It starts with the word if. And so often in life, we miss this word if. God offers the opportunity for forgiveness, for salvation, for a new life in him, for everlasting life with him. If we turn to him. It’s not automatic. And so there’s a qualification. It’s not a complex qualification. It’s actually quite a simple qualification. But there is a qualification nevertheless. And this entire psalm really is about trusting God totally.
Historical Examples from World War I
And do you know, when I look back at World War I, there’s so many stories of this psalm being used by troops in the trenches who were finding themselves being divinely protected. I read the story the other day of a senior soldier who carried a Bible and had it always bookmarked with Psalm 91 that he read every single day. And he had a particular pocket stitched into his trousers just the size of the Bible so it could carry the Bible. Do you know one day there was a major attack against the trench that he was in and a bullet went straight through the Bible and it stopped at Psalm 91. Now, you know, the naysayers would sit there and go, yeah, but, you know, Bible, good quality, hardcover, lots of thick pages to get through, it would slow a bullet down. Hey, I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Maybe that is all true, but it’s not a coincidence that it stopped at Psalm 91 and not Psalm 90 or 92. You see, God knows exactly what he’s doing, and he does these things, and he allows these things to take place so that there is a clear message that points us literally in that point to Psalm 91.
And what of the 91st battalion, whose captain had his people, had his men recite this psalm every single time they were going over the top and, and launching an attack on the enemy, and do you know, I don’t know whether it’s actually verifiable, it’s important to say that, but as far as we can tell, not one single soul from that battalion was lost. Twenty million souls were lost in World War I, but the battalion that chose to put their trust in the Lord their God were saved, and they got home. And do you see the point is they were in the trenches they were in the midst of despair they were in the midst of hopelessness they were in the midst of a trial a severe trial but they chose to place their trust in God and in and as a result he blessed them with protection and they were able to go home at the end of the war they were able to see their families again praise the Lord because God is faithful these are not just empty words that we find on this page and indeed throughout all the pages of scripture they’re not just words of platitudes that sound nice and oh it’s all wonderful and hey just love your neighbor and that will all be good you know you hear people quoting that a lot at the moment this is not a government approved word salad These words are directly from the throne room of God Almighty, and therefore they carry power. They carry incredible power that we should be taking note of and putting into operation in our lives.
Structure and Exposition of Psalm 91
And so when we read this, the language itself is quite interesting, because it can, it can sound like a little bit of a call or response, or maybe a little bit of different voices going on. We’ve got first person, third person, we’ve got second person going on, but more probably that it’s, it’s these different aspects of the same person speaking from different perspectives as they work through what God’s protection looks like in their life for them. And the psalm has four sections to it. We’ve got the introduction in verses one and two, which sets the scene. It tells us what this psalm is about. The, in fact, the whole content of the psalm is contained within the first two verses, and then the, the rest of the verses expand upon the first two verses. And then we’ve got two sets of six verses. The first set is about the certainty of the overthrow of wickedness and evil. It tells us how evil will be dealt with. It talks about the reward of the wicked, or as we read the word, recompense of the wicked.
And do you know both, it’s interesting kind of, situation really that we find ourselves in here, because both the wicked and the righteous experience afflictions. But for the righteous people, that’s for us, for those who are of God, it teaches us, and it builds us up. But for the wicked, the afflictions punish them, and it pushes them down for the evil that they’ve committed. You see, the divine rule of God in the world is righteous, but righteousness, because of sin, because of evil, is not always seen. But ultimately we know and we see this through this psalm here that ultimately righteousness will prevail and it will be clear for all to see including those who choose to reject God they will not be able to say at the end but I did not know because they will see the divine protection and I believe in this coming season if we dare to put our trust our full hope and trust in Jesus alone that he will protect us and people will see and they will see the reality of what the divine protection of God looks like And then we have the second set of six verses where we have the assurance of the protection of God’s people. How God will protect us if, we already looked at that word if, we abide in him.
You see his triumph on the cross was total, it was complete, his victory over death was not partial, he didn’t fully, he didn’t just fully die in order to partially be raised back to life, he didn’t partially die so that he could be raised back to life and it could all be a ruse, no, he fully died and he is now today fully back to new life, why? Because he broke the power of death because the grave could not contain him and death could not keep him down and we thank God and we praise God that he broke that power of death for us today. You see, that wonderful hymn, it is well with my soul, the final verse, my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Somebody say praise the Lord this morning, because our sin, our sin, everything we ever did was nailed to that cross, and as a consequence, we do not have to carry the weight and the burden of that sin anymore. This is the glorious provision. This is the glorious privilege for those who choose to take the words of this psalm literally and place their total trust in God. And then we see the final two verses where the psalmist returns to the opening words, seeing this assurance of security from being in a place of refuge with God.
Authorship, Dwelling, and Trust
So who wrote this psalm? Well, obviously it’s God’s words, but who was the human that was used to write it? Some have, some have said kind of Moses, and others have said David. I would probably lean towards David. The, the, the language is, is quite Davidic, as it were. It’s quite similar to the psalms that we do know for sure that David wrote. And, and, and there’s points here when it talks about pestilence and disease, we know that David, had a period of time there, and so it’s entirely possible that he was writing at that point, and then he was talking about God’s divine protection, but not just the protection provision in the midst of that trial. But that’s for further consideration. What matters is that this is the word of God. Why? Because as I’ve said, the Bible might not be written specifically to us, but it is written for all of us.
And so as we walk through a few bits of this psalm, we see in verse one this word dwell, he who dwells. What does this word dwell mean? It’s not a common word that we necessarily use every day. I don’t know, you know, have you dwelt in the office today? It’s not a word that we just generally use. But what it literally means, it means to sit under, and not just to sit under, but to remain in place. How do we dwell? Well, we dwell in the place of God by sitting under his authority, by putting ourselves submitting to his authority, and by having our thoughts always and only on God alone. And that can look slightly different in different settings of life, but by and large, I look at the verse in, I think it’s Corinthians, where it says that we are to think on the things above and not below. Basically, what that means is set our mind on the things of God and not the things of this world. And that will then determine a huge amount of how we then operate.
Do you know I I looked up and it says this word dwell or a variation on the word dwell is mentioned in the King James Version it’s mentioned over a thousand times. Now that suggests to me that that God wants to kind of pin this word and he wants us to notice it because he wants us to dwell with him because his desire is for us to be in this place of intimacy with him. Why? Because that’s how we were created to be. And so in order to be protected by him we must learn to sit under his shelter. He who shelters. Second part of verse one there. Those who choose to put their trust in him he’ll protect. And what about verse two, a wonderful declaration? I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. It’s a declaration of faith. It’s a declaration of intent. It’s a declaration for all the world to see, this is my God. This is who the, who I choose to put my trust in.
And then we see the deliverance in verse three. It can be noisy all around us, but we will be in a place of peace and tranquility. Why? Because God will make it so. And what about fear? Well, it’s here again. Verse five, you will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day. Why? Because his divine protection will cause faith to rise up. And when faith rises up, it gives no space for fear. You see, God is not just going to protect us from the evil itself, but he’s also going to protect us from the fear of evil. Sometimes in our lives, I believe that fear itself can be far bigger problem for us than the actual problem itself. People, you know, it’s like people that have got a fear of flying. Well, how many planes actually crash? An extraordinarily small percentage. It’s kind of less than one percent, way less than that. But you see how the chances there of having a successful flight, extraordinarily high. But the fear then takes hold. So now all of a sudden it wasn’t there.
There was a player that used to play for some terrible team that happens to be top of the Premier League right now. They’re terrible because I don’t like them. that’s, you’ll see, my slight bias there. But, this player was called Dennis Bergkamp, and, and, was he called Dennis Bergkamp or was it someone else? anyway, don’t take my word for it on that name. It, that name just in my mind there. He had a fear of flying, and so every time this team was playing in Europe, they, he had to take a kind of a boat and a train, so he was missing out on training and then wasn’t match fit. Because he allowed the fear to take over that then affected his performance. And our performance, as it were, our condition in the Lord is going to be affected negatively if we allow fear to rise up and take over. But when we choose to dwell in the shelter of the Most High, when we choose to abide in his shadow, then he will protect us from the evil itself, and then we will start to have faith that rises up, that comes above fear itself. You see, there’s a hopefulness tone here. And so whilst I started by talking about this kind of time coming where there’s going to be tremendous struggle, I don’t know the specifics of what that looks like. I’ll offer a few suggestions in a moment there. There’s also hopefulness in the midst of the space of hopelessness.
And there’s a pointing here, not just to surviving, not just to coping, not just to just getting through or just getting by. Oh, hi Dave, how was your week? No, it was all right. As opposed to, how Dave, how was your week? Oh, oh, it was supernatural on Monday, did God did this, and on Tuesday God did this. You see the different perspectives. Totally transforms us. Because we can thrive in the power of God, even in the midst of trial. But more, there’s a confidence in the promises of God, and we too should be confident in the promises of Jesus today. Some of us perhaps need to take him more at his word and put our full trust in him and have more confidence in him. Because our job, as we see from this scripture, our job is not to worry about the protecting. Our job is not to worry about what that looks like and how that works in the practical senses. Our job is simply to abide in the presence of the Lord. Our job is simply to put our trust in the Lord and allow Him to do the rest by prioritizing His presence, by not rushing away, by not getting distracted. That’s why I’ve regularly suggested the best way to read the Bible is get a paper copy of the Bible so that you can go into a quiet place, whether that’s indoors or outdoors, and you can leave your phone aside and every other distraction and every other ping and buzz that goes on. Oh, what’s that? You know, it’s another level on Candy Crush that’s available or some other nonsense. You see, the devil wants to distract us, and the more that he can distract us, the less time we are abiding in the presence of the Lord.
So what we see here… Is that the scripture is again completely counter to the way the world thinks. Completely counter. It’s completely the opposite. And we too must learn to place our total trust in God by unlearning the ways of the world. A.W. Tozer in the pursuit of God says an amazing well he says many amazing things but he says that basically because we were made in in perfection because we were made to be in an intimacy with God we were made to be able to hear the voice of God in our lives on a daily basis and on an ongoing basis and and that should just be a kind of natural and default aspect of things and somebody says to me recently Actually, it was a long time ago, but in a different way. It says, Stuart, how do I hear the voice of God, the actual voice of God? How do I hear the voice of God? It’s quite hard to explain, because we’re trying to explain it in human terms, in the natural realm understanding. But what A.W. Tozer says is that we should be in that default position of hearing the voice of God by default. And what’s happened is all of the weeds of life and the things of the world and the ways of the world and the way that we communicate between humans or the way that we’ve come to communicate between us and understand each other has grown a divide between us and God. It’s put a blockage in the way that means that we can’t hear God. I don’t know if anyone’s ever had their ears syringed, but the minute you come out having your ears syringed, I’m told, I never have, but I’m told, there’s all of a sudden I can hear. If you’re struggling with your hearing and all of a sudden you get some really good quality hearing aids, all of a sudden I can hear. I can hear. You know, it’s amazing with the band here and the in-ear monitors. That’s how they hear each other. They’ve got these earphones in. And we can dial in the sound. And so this morning one person Says I can’t hear this singer and all of a sudden so I turned it up and then the person says oh yeah I can hear I can hear and there’s an innate excitement when you can hear and there should be an innate excitement in us when we can suddenly hear the voice of the Lord and that comes when we learn to unlearn the ways of the world and relearn the ways of God how do we do that through his word which is the truth but what of an apparent potential contradiction here the second section second the the first set of six verses talks about evil being dealt with and it’s going to be admonished it’s going to go but by the time we get to the third section and like hang on a second it suggests that we’re not immune from it so what’s happening here either we’re going to be totally protected and nothing’s going to happen to us or we’re not maybe there’s a contradiction there well actually it misses the point it misses the point because what’s happening here is there is a demonstration that god will deal with evil And he will protect us from the effects of that evil for those of us who put our full trust in him.
You see, we live in the world, we operate in the world right now, we’ll operate in a, in a fallen and a broken and a devastated world, but we are going to be protected by God when we choose to live for him. And it gives me strength to know that whatever may come my way, I’m not alone. It gives me strength to know that whatever situations I may face, I don’t need to face those situations by myself. And I certainly, thank goodness, don’t need to face those situations in my own way and my own understanding, because I can lean on God and I can say, hey God, I’ll just hand this over to you. He will go to battle for us. We don’t need to worry about it, we just need to rest in him, we just need to abide in his presence. Because it’s his nature, because he created us, he loves us, and he wants to look after us. It’s amazing. I don’t understand it. I don’t know why God would want to love me. I don’t know why God would want to care about me at all. I don’t know why he just didn’t really destroy me years ago in the normal course of things, given the amount of mistakes I’ve made in my life. But it’s his tremendous grace that says, do you know something? I’m going to give you what you don’t deserve, forgiveness and everlasting life. Praise God.
Personal Testimony and Biblical Examples of Protection
And when that sudden challenge comes in our life, the suddenly moment that we weren’t expecting, how we take these words on this page will determine how we respond in a situation. And as Christians, we won’t avoid the trials. We’re not immune from the realities of life today. And you never know exactly how you’re going to respond in a given situation until you’re faced with a given situation. Three years ago I walked into work one day and I was promptly marched off the premises having been suspended with various lurid allegations made against my name, made against my character. Allegations, actually some of them from words that were preached from this very pulpit. And throughout all of that I was praying, a number in this church were praying that my job would be restored, that there would be justice in this situation, that the allegations would be proven false and that everything would be kind of put back to normal and we’d be able to just kind of continue. But God had bigger plans. And my job at that point was not to try and work out what was going on, my job was to put my trust in Him. Was it easy? No. I tell you I can be a very upfront and confrontational person, I love a good debate and I love a good argument as well. People that is going to attack me, they can expect to be attacked back double the strength sometimes, right? Some people have found out the, the, the hard way that, including one person on Facebook this week, poor them. But the point here is in the midst of that situation, I can stand here before God and before you all and I can say I never lost my praise, I never lost my peace, and throughout that entire process, with one exception of one night, I never ever lost a wink of sleep. Why? Because I had a total peace in my heart. That whatever may come, whatever the outcome of this situation is, and there was fairly serious consequences and, and potential repercussions in various aspects of life, God was still on the throne. God was still in control. And so do you know what happens is they actually, they dismissed me. But sometimes you’ve got to walk through the fire in order for the power of God to be displayed.
You see, if Daniel had not submitted to God’s plans for his life and had not gone into the lion’s den, the power of God to shut the mouth of that lion would not have been displayed. Nebuchadnezzar’s heart would have not been changed. If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, okay, we’ll just bow down this once, just to shut you up. God’s power would not have been able to be displayed in that fiery furnace. They literally had to walk through the fire in order to come out to find not one lick of hair that was singed. Why? Because of the divine protection of God that was on their life. And so in that situation three years ago, I was dismissed on a Friday morning at about 10 a.m. By 10.30, I had a meeting with a general manager of another hotel lined up for the next morning. By 2 p.m. on the Saturday, I had another job on a higher pay doing the same role. And I don’t say that to band it around and throw it around, because all glory goes to God. Because that wasn’t anything to do with me. Because I did not ask for that job. I didn’t actually know what was going to come. I hadn’t given a second thought to another job, because in my little head, I’m thinking, hey, this will all just blow over. In the same way that when I said at the start of today’s sermon, some of us are maybe in a place where we think the current circumstances in this nation is all just going to blow over.
Signs of Coming Economic and National Shock
Let me tell you, the economy is totally about to collapse, and I mean seriously collapse. 2008 is going to be absolutely nothing. You know the, you know the, the ten, twenty, and thirty year gilt bonds that really protect and, and direct the strength of our economy, the, the current interest rate on those is somewhere between five and a half and five point eight percent. Do you know the threshold for a bailout, the threshold for an economic collapse is five percent. Why? Because that, once you’re above five percent on the interest payment, you, as a nation, we will not be able to afford the interest. So currently, we are not, as a nation, affording the interest, let alone paying back money that we owe to various people and institutions, we’re not actually able to service the interest. It’s just mounting up, and it’s mounting up, and it’s mounting up. Have you seen the price of fuel recently? Have you seen the fact that gas prices are going up twenty-seven percent in January, right in the middle of winter? Have you seen the price of groceries recently? I got two new tires on my car yesterday, hundred pounds more than it was twelve months ago. You see the telltale signs are all there. But so many just want to bury their hand in the sand and think that it will all just blow over and if it doesn’t quite blow over then maybe it won’t be as bad as it’s all being made out to be. Hey guys it’s going to be much worse than it’s being made out to be. And I don’t say that as a kind of shock jock I say that with all sincerity because I know because I’ve seen I’ve read it in the bible I’ve heard from the lord and I’ve weighed it up against what other people are saying as well and I’m saying no actually I can see what’s going to happen here. We need to be prepared we need to be ready.
And we see examples throughout the entire bible of people who chose to put their trust in god and they saw the divine protection in the midst of extraordinary trial. We see Abraham asked to sacrifice his only son Isaac and he’s at the point on that altar of about to plunge the knife into his only son. His only true son. And at that moment he hears a bleat and there’s a ram caught in the thicket. I don’t think we understand the prophetic significance of what happened in that situation. It was a ram and not a lamb. And what does the word thicket mean? The thicket means fawns. What exactly was it that was pressed into Jesus’ head when he hung on that cross? It was a crown of fawns. He was the lamb. He was the perfect lamb, the once and for all sacrifice. It couldn’t have been a lamb that was provided in place of Isaac back then because the lamb was Jesus Christ. It was a ram as a temporary sacrifice. And then what about Moses? In the middle of the desert, water from a stone, I don’t know, have you ever kind of tapped a stone before and had water coming out? Ha, thank goodness for that, now I’m no longer thirsty. That’s, that’s a miracle. That’s divine provision. What about the oh we’re hungry there’s no food here we’re groaning we’d better go back to slavery at least we got free meals a day wake up the next morning there’s all this manna provision Jehoshaphat faced mounting enemy armies coming towards him chose to place his trust in God put God first called the entire nation to prayer and fasting and then the prophet says you know what you need to do tomorrow morning you need to line up you need to stand firm and you need to put the praisers and the worshipers at the front and just see what the Lord does and what the Lord did is he turned the enemy against each other and the the Bible says when a house is divided it falls and that’s exactly what happened that day in that situation And in what of Paul? Paul in the New Testament there, he found a deep inner strength that came through the Holy Spirit that enabled him in the midst of incredible adversity and even being arrested and lying languishing in a jail and being tortured and ultimately executed, he was enabled to continue in in ministry. And the church itself grew in the face of extraordinary persecution. Why? Because people chose to put their faith totally in God alone.
The Eye of the Storm and Present Peace
You know it’s often said that the eye of the storm, right in the midst of the storm, if you’ve got a tornado that’s swirling around, the eye of the storm is actually a really calm place. Nothing’s happening there. If the tornado is not actually moving, see the problem is it moves, and so when you’re in the eye of a storm one minute, the next minute you’re in absolute devastation. But if the tornado was to just sort of come out, thump down and thump back up, those who were right in the middle of it, Would never notice because it’s just totally serene, it’s totally calm, it’s totally perfect. And it’s like that with us. For those who place our trust in God alone, everything can be swirling, there can be total devastation all around us. We can look to the left and see chaos, we can look to the right and see carnage, we can look in front of us and see devastation, we can look behind us and see destruction. But right here where we are will be a place what? In the shelter of the Most High, in the shadow of the Almighty, I will say to the Lord, my refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Oh, incredible. You see, when all else is total chaos around us, we’ll be just fine. But more than just fine, we’ll thrive. But we’ve got to learn to put our full trust and our hope in God today.
I remember back at the start of the COVID lockdowns, and I was working at a hotel in London, and it was really, really strange. We went from having 2,000 people or so thereabouts in the building each day to having four of us. And, and it was just really very odd in so many levels. We didn’t even have a lock on the front door, cause, you know, hotels don’t. They’re 24-hour operations. So we had to kind of build a lock for the door. And we were, how do you build a lock for a glass door? It was, it was madness. but I remember the front office manager coming up to me on, I think it was the second day, and she just went, Stuart, can I ask you a question? Now, I always panic when people do that to me in that environment, cause I think, oh my goodness, this could be about three or four hundred different possibilities here, and none of them I’m gonna like. And she says, why are you so calm? And I hadn’t thought that I was really all that calm. I’d never really thought that. I was just sort of carrying on doing life. I didn’t really participate in COVID. I just carried on with life. What was the bother? I didn’t see a reason to be worried. But the point actually here is, without sounding flippant, I had a tremendous inner peace that was already in me. So that when that particular storm of life came, I was right in the midst of the eye of the storm, and my place was totally serene, totally calm. So calm, in fact, I could have probably laid down in the middle of Trafalgar Square and had a snooze. You see, the world doesn’t understand how we are, but they will see how we are. And you want the world to see how you are, because that means that you’ve got Christ at the center of your life. See, we can have joy when depression surrounds us, we can have peace when chaos ensues, we can have life literally when death surrounds us. Doesn’t matter what the headlines say, it doesn’t matter what the newspapers say, it doesn’t matter what the doom mongers say, it doesn’t matter what your emotions urge you to think, it matters what God promises you in his word. And I read this word and it says, I’m going to protect you, I’m going to provide for you, I’m going to lift you up. You see, it matters because the words of this psalm tells us that. The words of the rest of scripture tells us that. It matters because God himself is sovereign, he’s in control, and he is above and beyond any form of temporary circumstances. And so you can declare the words of this psalm, just as they did in the trenches in World War I, you can declare this psalm over your life, your house, your family, your workplace, your business. You can declare the words of this psalm, and you can see, if you then choose to put it into operation and trust God, you can see that no evil will destroy you. Because God will what? Verse 11, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. So that when others are taken out by these coming tough times, by this coming shock, you’ll still be standing tall in the power of the Lord.
Call to Hope, Preparation, and Response
You see what looked like in 1918 total hopelessness, how will we ever recover? Turn to hopefulness, because people said, no, it’s not the end. And in a similar but slightly different way, the same can be true for you today as the nation heads again into a terrible period of time that is going to be pretty, pretty serious. That if we put God first, if we learn to trust in him, he will protect us, he’ll provide for us. So I wanna ask you in closing this morning, where is your hope this morning? Where is your hope? Where’s your faith? Who or what have you put your faith in? Or to put it a different way, who are you trusting in today? Are you trusting in the institutions of this world? Some of them have already been exposed for the sham that they are? Or are you putting your trust in the word of God, the unending, unchanging, supreme, sovereign word of God? You see, Jesus needs to be at the center of our life. And if it’s not, if, if it’s not the case, then it’s time to make him the center of our life. It’s time to batten down the hatches and prepare for the storm by getting right with God now whilst we have the opportunity.
I see this nation like a car at full throttle heading towards a cliff edge. But the driver can’t see because there’s a thick fog. And others around them can’t see because they can hear the car, but they can’t see it because of the thick fog. Others can see it, but they’re not doing much about it. And others still have got their head in the sand and they don’t want to see it. You see, whether we can see it, whether we won’t see it, or whether we can’t see it, doesn’t, doesn’t change anything about whether that car is going to go off the cliff. The point is, Jesus is going to deal with this nation. God is going to deal with the people of this nation that have brought tremendous corruption into this land. I believe he’s going to take out the government, both in Westminster and in Holyrood, is going to spectacularly all collapse. And that’s what I’m praying for. And there’s going to be a bit of what looks like chaos that’s going to ensue afterwards. It’s okay. It’s okay. Keep your peace. Hold fast to the word of God. Stand firm. Trust in God. Things are not going to just continue as they are. They won’t. And if you think they will, then you’re in for a nasty shock. You see, life is not just some kind of great big party. Church is not the extension of the world. Gather here for a couple of hours every Sunday and then a feel-good factor and then go back. And just kind of carry on in our normal lives. No, what happens amongst us here in the body of the church of God should fill us up, it should build us up, it should encourage us and set us in a place where we can not just get through the next week, but thrive through the next week. So that when we reach back together next Sunday, we’re not in a place of, whew, oh, I just made it. It was touch and go. We can get here on a Sunday morning and we can say, I’m ready, I’m ready for another week, I didn’t even need another top up, I’m still ready, I’m still going. I’m like the Duracell battery.
You see, there’s too much guff and nonsense in the church, too much feel good mumbo jumbo, too much false prophecy rubbish, your breakthrough’s just around the corner. Which corner? How many corners are there for these people? There’s so many corners they’re basically going round in circles. It is unbelievable. How on earth can we possibly expect some kind of divine and dramatic and supernatural breakthrough in our life if we are not first prepared to submit to God? How arrogant can we possibly be to say that we would expect God to bless us, to sort things out, and to straighten out the crooked paths if our heart is crooked in the first place? And worse than that, if we are not prepared to allow Him to actually deal with us. You see, Jesus is not meant to just be tacked on to the end of our lives. He should be our everything. So I urge you today, don’t be caught out. Act today. Turn to Jesus today. Turn to Him afresh. And you may say, oh, but Stuart, it’s okay, I know Jesus. Do you really know Him? Do you really know Him? Have you really read the words of this scripture? Have you really read the words of this psalm? And are you really putting it into action? Or are you sitting there saying, oh, I just don’t know. I mean, it’s just like life is just one battle after the next. And, and, you know, and I woke up this morning and to counter it all. Now my cat’s been sick all over the living room and whatever other rubbish comes up in life. Hey, these things are real. Yeah, absolutely. But are we going to be defined by this sort of stuff? Or are we going to say, do you know what? I’m going to start putting my trust. I’m going to start putting my hope in this word of God. I’m going to start taking this word of God at face value. I’m going to start saying, actually, do you know what? These words are the truth of God because they come directly from his throne room and therefore they carry power. They carry power to set free, to heal, to save, and to deliver. But not just that, to keep us going so that when the storm strikes, we will stand firm and we will say, it is well with my soul. We can. We will. If we first put Jesus first.
Closing Reflections on Psalm 91 and Prayer
And so we need to make the words of this scripture personal. When we come to the, the final few verses there, what do we find in the conclusion of this, of this psalm? It says, what will Jesus do? Because he holds fast to me in love. Okay? So because we put our trust in God, what will he do? He’ll deliver us, he’ll protect us, he’ll answer us, he will be with us in trouble, he’ll rescue us, he’ll honor us, and then what will he do? He’ll satisfy us with long life. How many people wants to die young? Good. How many people wants to die old? Two people. Okay, so the rest of you kind of middle age, or uncommitted. Oh dear, church is going to get wiped out soon. It’s I’m praying for, I’m praying for long life. I’m praying for the Lord to satisfy me with long life, but not just because I want long life, not because I want to reach a point where I’m old and decrepit and just existing. I want to be thriving. I want to be thriving through every moment of my life. Everyone sits there and goes, oh, well, you know, you hit this point and that’s what happens. You know, in this society that we’ve built up, we’ve got this idea that you kind of hit 60, 65, and then suddenly you do nothing and you just go and play golf. And then a couple of years later, you just drop dead. What an absolute apostasy. And I, no, I’m sorry, but, you know, it’s a nonsense. Guys, we’ve got to get right with the Lord. We’ve got to understand our place. We’ve got to understand our purpose. We’ve got to understand that even though we go through different phases of life, that doesn’t mean that we just stop. That doesn’t mean that we just suddenly, you know, put our slippers on and jogging bottoms for the rest of the, our existence and just kind of whoop, off we go. No. We gotta be pushing on, we gotta be pressing on, we gotta be pressing into Jesus, we gotta be standing there, because how can you stand there and say it’s well with my soul, and you’re in this decrepit place, and you’re living in a state of depression, and you think everything’s awful, and oh well I’m just sitting here and hoping that one day Jesus will just come and take me home, and we’ll all just be singing. No, God’s got a plan and a purpose for you right now, where you are, in the context that you are at, whatever stage of life, whether you are eleven years old, whether you’re a hundred and eleven years old. You know, we celebrated recently Christine’s ninetieth birthday, we celebrated Norman’s ninetieth a few years ago, there’s others in the church that are around that age, there’s some that are at younger age, some of you have been working for years, some of you brand new, some of you still studying, some of you doing all sorts of different things, and I’m beginning to sound like an auctioneer going through all those things, but the point is, God is on the move, he will, he will continue to move if we allow him, if we choose to put him first in our lives.
Guys, these are serious times. These are serious times. They’re sobering times. And many of us simply just don’t realize what’s around the corner. I don’t know exactly what this coming challenge looks like. I don’t know the specifics of it. I see telltale signs in the economy. I see telltale signs of civil unrest. I see signs of Islam causing even greater problems. We hear of wars and rumors of war. And you can go on. I’m not particularly bothered by any of it, because I know where my hope and my trust is. It’s time to get ready. It’s time to get match fit for Jesus. there’s going to be a great outpouring of his spirit on this nation. I believe it with all my mind, body, and soul. I believe it with every sinew of my body that he has heard the prayers of the remnant. I believe that he’s not done with this nation, but first he’s going to cleanse the temple. It’s going to be sharp, it’s going to be painful, but it will be swift. And then, my brothers, my sisters, the restoration will come. So let us seek the Lord whilst he may be found, that he would indeed bring strength, and strength as it says in that wonderful hymn, great is thy faithfulness. Strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine and ten thousands beside. Great is thy faithfulness.
So in closing, I want us to just reflect on these words of Psalm 91. I’m going to listen to a song I’ve put together that uses the words of this scripture, but I have personalized it for us. The words will come up on the screen, and as you hear it and as you read it, That actually it should be personal to you. It should be personal to all of us. That we can say that I am choosing today to put my full trust in God. I am choosing today to put my full hope in God. I am choosing today to put my trust in Him. And I’m choosing to believe that He is going to protect me in the midst of that situation.
So let’s pray and then we’re going to listen to that song and then we’ll wrap up.
Father we thank you for your word to us today. Father we thank you that we can have joy and peace in our hearts even in the midst of adversity. Lord I pray Father that ahead of what is coming to this nation I pray that you would cause us to search our hearts. And to be at right with you. I pray that you would cause us to take the steps that are necessary in our lives to prepare, to be prepared, to be on a right footing with you. I pray you take, you cause us to take the words of this Psalm ninety one and put it into action, to take a literal meaning of these words that when we choose to trust you and put our faith in you, you will protect us. You won’t let the enemy destroy us. I thank you Jesus for your wonderful promises. I thank you Jesus for the gift of new life. I thank you Jesus that you are the giver of life. We praise you, we thank you, we honor you, we worship you, we glorify your name. Thank you that you’re not done with us and you’re not done with this nation. And we pray Lord Jesus that this coming shock will be a short shock and that there shall be a great restoration. As people turn to you. Lord, I pray in all sincerity, do whatever it takes to bring people to their knees before your throne. Do whatever it takes, Lord. The shortness of pain is well worth it for everlasting life. So Jesus, I pray that you would cause us to examine our hearts today and to take these words and to reflect upon them. We ask all this now in the mighty name of Jesus.
