That place of refuge is generally one of four places.
(1) WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PARENT. For those of us who are
blessed to still have our parents around, we may FLEE TO THEM in times of difficulty.
Why? Because, when we face the difficulties of life, we want to have someone on our side, and we know that our parents will always be there for us.
Illus: A crowd stood on the outside of a prison, waiting for the execution of a serial killer to take place. Angry people stood with placards that read, “Fry him!”, and “Kill him!” But off to the side of the protesters was a woman, standing practically alone, with a handkerchief in her hand, and with tears streaming down her face as she was telling a reporter, “They do not know my son, he is not as bad as they say he is.”
We all know that our parents are on our side, and we generally FLEE to them, because we know if no one else will be on our side, they will be. WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PARENT and then-
(2) WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PAL. We go and see them, and pour our hearts out to them, because we do not want to face the problem we are facing alone.
Illus: Scott Peck, in Leadership magazine, said, “Often the most loving thing we can do when a friend is in pain, is to share the pain--to be there even when we have nothing to offer except our presence, and even when being there is painful to ourselves.” - M. Scott Peck. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 2.
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW MANY FRIENDS YOU HAVE?
If you really want to know who your friends are, look around you when things are going rough. It will be your friends that will surround you. Proverbs 17:17, We read, “A friend loveth at all times...”
What a joy it is to have a friend today, and to know that we will still have that same friend tomorrow. Truly the Word of God is right, “A friend loveth at all times”. Not just sometimes, when it is convenient or beneficial, but ALL TIMES.
And when things start to go hard for us, and we need a place of refuge, we waste no time seeking out people that we know to be our friends.
When difficulties come, WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PARENT, or WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PAL. But also-
(3) WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PLACE. Many of us have a place of refuge that we flee to in times of sorrow. We can be burdened down with the cares of this world, and escape to some isolated place with nature, and it is amazing how our large problems can diminish so fast. Many times this is even better than fleeing to a friend.
Why? Because a friend might mean well, but they might give us some bad advice, and not know they are doing it.
However, many times when we can get alone in some isolated place, and take the good brain God gave us, and begin to think with it, things begin to clear themselves up.
When difficulties come, WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PARENT, WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PAL, or WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PLACE, but also -
(4) WE MIGHT FLEE TO A PERSON. The psalmist knew that person to be the Lord Jesus.
The Psalmist had a place of refuge that a lot of folks do not know anything about. He mentions this twice in this Psalm:
• In Verse 2, We read, “I will say of the LORD, He is MY REFUGE AND MY FORTRESS: my God; in him will I trust.”
• In Verse 9, We read, “Because thou hast made the LORD, which is MY REFUGE, even the most High, thy habitation.”
The greatest place we can go when we face difficulty, is to the Lord Jesus. THE LORD IS OUR REFUGE! He is our place of protection when we are confronted with danger. We all need to find this place of refuge we have in the Lord. Why? Because we all face:
I. Times of Destitution.
Through the ages, God’s people have suffered in so many ways. Look at Hebrews 11:37, We read, “They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.”
People live in destitution in two ways. For example, some live in destitution when it comes to-
(1) MATERIAL THINGS. That is, they live their whole life and
do not have a thing to show for it…HOW SAD!
Destitution comes to us in many ways, such as:
• A LIFE OF SIN
Perhaps through booze, drugs, and gambling they have been stripped of the fine cars, clothes and the beautiful home they once had. When they die, no one has to be concerned with going to a probate judge to divide their wealth, because when they are buried, practically everything they own will be buried with them.
Then, others live in destitution because of a-
• A LIFE OF NO DISCIPLINE.
That is, some will always live in destitution because they do not have any discipline when it comes to money. They work hard every day, but they do not have anything to show for it.
Many suffer destitution due to MATERIAL THINGS.
Then there are others, who suffer destitution when it comes to-
(2) SPIRITUAL THINGS.
That is, they may have been saved for 20, 30, 40, or 50 years, and they have not grown in the Lord in the slightest. THEY DO NOT HAVE ANY SPIRITUAL GROWTH TO SHOW FOR THE MANY YEARS THEY HAVE KNOWN THE LORD JESUS SPIRITUALLY.
Every man who has been the pastor of a church for a long time, can look across his congregation, and he will see people who are destitute when it comes to spiritual things. THEY LACK SO MUCH SPIRITUALLY! When they stand before the Lord Jesus at the Judgment Seat of Christ, they will have nothing to lay at his feet.
But, there are times we Christians have not wasted our lives. We have done everything we know to do, and still we find ourselves living in DESTITUTION CONCERNING MATERIAL THINGS AND SPIRITUAL THINGS.
David was a man that truly loved the Lord, but a good portion of his life was spent in caves, and hiding from King Saul. He knew what it was to live in DESTITUTION.
David could see others, who did not profess to be saved, doing a lot better than he was.
But look how God spoke to him in Psalm 37:1-9, We read, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.”
Something we Christians must always keep in mind is this - THE ONLY HEAVEN LOST FOLKS WILL HAVE IS HERE ON EARTH.
But, what we have laid up for us in heaven, is a thousand times better than what the richest man on earth has, and we are going to be able to enjoy it FOREVER!
When times of destitution come our way, we are thankful unto God, that in Christ we have a place we can flee to .
Also, we have a place of refuge to flee to in-
Il. Times Of Desertion.
All Christians have to face desertion. This is one of the hardest things in this life that we have to face. People that we thought love us, prove they do not care a thing about us.
• Jesus Himself knows what it is to face desertion. When He needed His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, in one of the most trying times of His life, His disciples deserted him like rats on a sinking ship.
• Paul faced this time of desertion, he writes from a jail cell, “Demas, hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.”
• Elijah faced desertion.
In I Kings 19:10, Elijah said, "I, even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away." This was not true, but Elijah felt like everyone had deserted him.
BUT, HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS AS A CHILD OF GOD….It is impossible for you to be alone if you are a child of God. The Lord Jesus said, “…I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” NEVER! NEVER!
When we stand for RIGHT, many times we feel that we are alone.
• When you go on that job, and there is cursing and dirty joke telling, and everyone is laughing….you know what it is to feel alone.
• When you boys and girls go to school, and all your class mates are rebelling, cursing, smoking, drinking, doping, and wearing seductive clothing, you know what it is like to feel alone.
• When Pastors, all over this nation preach this Bible, and it starts to get next to some who are not willing to live right, and they start a campaign behind his back, to see how many they can turn against him, he knows what it is to be alone.
We need the Lord in TIMES OF DESTITUTION, and we need Him in TIMES OF DESERTION.
But also we need Him in-
III. Times of Departure.
The prophet, Amos, gives us the motivation for living the Christian life, he says, “Prepare to meet Thy God.” This is something we should be doing every day.
But the problem is, as we are preparing to meet God, we are filling our lives with the wrong kinds of things. And when we fill
them with the wrong kind of things, we do not have room for the right kind of things, and we are not ready to meet God..
Illus: One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students, and he used an illustration with those students that we need to consider.
As he stood in front of the group of high-powered over-achievers, he said, "Okay, time for a quiz!” and he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth Mason jar, and set it on the table in front of him.
He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks, and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.
When the jar was filled to the top, and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class yelled, "Yes." The time management expert replied, "Really?"
He reached under the table, and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?"
By this time, the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered.
"Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar, and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.
Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted.
Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water, and began to pour it in until the jar was fiIled to the brim.
Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?"
One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if your try really hard you can always fit some more in.”
"No," the speaker replied, "That's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is, if you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."
When times of difficulties come into peoples lives they flee to PARENTS, PALS, PLACES and there is a place in our lives for
them. But what is essential is that the big rocks have to go in first. And what is essential in our life is that WE LEARN TO FLEE TO CHRIST FIRST, NOT LAST.
One of these days, everyone here is going to depart from this life.
BUT HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS!
One day we will face the biggest crisis we ever will have to face, death. WE ARE PREPARED FOR THAT, BECAUSE, WE HAVE LIVED OUR LIVES MAKING HIM OUR PLACE OF REFUGE. When that time comes, we can not turn to our PARENTS, PALS, or our FAVORITE PLACE OF REFUGE.
When that DEPARTURE TIME comes, HE IS OUR PLACE OF REFUGE. In verse 2, the Psalmist said, “I will say of the Lord, He is MY REFUGE AND MY FORTRESS; my God; in him will I trust.”
We have a place of refuge in this life and forever.
Psalm 23, the Psalmist say, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Conclusion:
We have a PLACE OF REFUGE! In this life and the life to come.
I. IN TIMES OF DESTITUTION
II. IN TIMES OF DESERTION
III. IN TIMES OF DEPARTURE
Note: You can hear Dr. Odell Belger preach many of these sermons on Youtube. Just type Youtube Lykesland
