-Transcript-
00:36 Thank you for joining me today. Great to be here. What a blessing to have you with us here today.
00:41 So thankful to God today for another day, another day to study His Word. His Word is so good, so true, so helpful for us. I need it.
00:51 Amen. And I know that you do too. We all do.
00:59 Amen. And we’re so thankful for you to be joining me here today and for the opportunity the Lord has allowed me to preach His Word here today. I don’t take it for granted.
01:05 We are in the book of Proverbs 18:10. A very powerful verse. The book of Proverbs 18:10.
01:09 Use this verse recently to encourage some young folks that we’re in a great hardship. As a young person there is a special kind of hardship because it is doubling or dovetailing with ignorance. And that doesn’t mean anything wrong with a child for being ignorant.
01:36 They’re a child. When I went through hardship as a child it was much different than going through hardship as an adult because as a child I didn’t understand.
01:46 Oftentimes I would assign myself blame whether right or wrong and then many times I would relieve myself of blame when clearly I deserved it.
01:54 But hardship as a child is difficult. And we sent this verse to some young folks. Proverbs 18:10.
02:02 The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
02:14 The righteous runneth into it and is safe. Oh what a beautiful verse here today. The name of the Lord, L-O-R-D, all capitalized.
02:20 Our God is strong. Our God has a very big focus in his word on names and his name. The name above all names.
02:30 The Alpha and Omega. The first and the last. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
02:36 The Creator. The Great I Am. Amen.
02:40 And there’s so much significance in his name. And I’ve heard wonderful preaching on the different names of God and how they apply to his characteristics or his traits. What we might call personality traits.
02:51 He’s a spirit so he’s above a personality. But traits of God. Oftentimes in our church house.
02:56 Our little church house. Our little storefront building here. We’ll sit down.
03:04 I’ll look out and see a bunch of wearied-eyed, wearied-eyed congregants. Those that have been battled. Been battling storms.
03:14 Been battle-tested I should say. Been through much. And I will say God loves you.
03:18 Let’s talk about who God is so you understand how he loves you. Because it’s one thing to understand you know when like someone says I love you right. If I walked up to you and I didn’t know you and I said I love you.
03:34 You may think oh that’s nice of him but he doesn’t know me and I don’t know him so I don’t really know what that means. Other than some kind of generic love like you see in a card or something. But God’s love is deep.
03:47 It’s strong. His love transcends time. It’s incredible.
03:50 His love was for us before we were formed. He knew us. You know before we were formed in the belly he knew us.
03:57 Before we were ever on this earth he died for us through Jesus Christ on the cross so that we could live. Amen. He supplied a way to save us in such a miraculous way through the cross.
04:10 Calvary. Amen. He loves us deeply.
04:16 He cares about us. Do you know how you feel when you really care about somebody? Is there anybody out there that you really care about here today?
04:20 I want you to think about them hurting. How would that make you feel? That’s how God feels when you hurt because he cares about you.
04:30 Example that I thought of there was a family member of mine that I care a lot about and that one was getting picked on a little bit by other people. Not necessarily in my immediate family but I was a witness to it and it was a little thing.
04:46 I think you know they’re all kind of chuckling but I saw the look on that family members face the anguish and the embarrassment and it hurt me because I cared about that person or care about that person so much and it just left a just a sore spot in me.
05:01 It was it was difficult to describe because it looked like it was nothing on the outside. You know it wasn’t like the person they were putting down was crying or anything but I just saw that they were hurting and it hurt me. Can I tell you here today when you hurt that God hurts.
05:16 That God feels your hurt. That he intimately knows that kind of hurt because he through the person of Jesus Christ felt all of this suffering. Went through all of these things.
05:31 Partook in all of these situations that you have to deal with. He was tempted in all kinds of ways that you are. He was criticized and mocked for being obedient to his father as you probably are if you’re following Jesus.
05:49 Certainly you are. He was ostracized. He was cheated on.
05:55 He was talked about. He was mistreated. He was punished for no reason.
06:00 He was done wrong time and time again and he was obedient unto God and part of the reason I believe he was obedient unto the father is this verse right here. Is the name of the Lord is a strong tower. Jesus understood the sovereign protection and nature of God.
06:09 That God is a strong tower. I think of like a prison tower. That big old tower is meant to be imposing right? It is also meant to serve a purpose.
06:19 To hold watch. God is imposing. He is all powerful.
06:23 What is it to God to do anything in this world? Again if you look at the biggest mountains on this earth. God created them. He can move them in just the blink of an eye.
06:34 He can do anything he wants. The solar system. They keep saying it’s billion of stars and billions of light years and now trillions and this and that.
06:42 God created it all just to show his majesty, his power, his abilities. He is all powerful. He is a strong tower and he does watch after those that love him.
06:53 Those that are his. He watches after them and he has that strength and Jesus I believe knew that. You know Jesus communicated that to Pilate when Pilate was asking Jesus why he was being silent essentially because that was part of the prophecy that he would not speak.
07:17 Amen. I believe out of Isaiah and so Pilate’s saying why aren’t you saying anything to defend yourself? Don’t you know that I could save your life or kill you?
07:23 And Jesus responds, I’m paraphrasing here, the only power you have is what my father gave you. He understands that all power of man on this earth is in subject to God and not just man but also principalities, demons.
07:34 They’re all subject to God.
07:39 Look through the Bible. Read your New Testament. See what the demons do when Jesus comes up.
07:45 Oftentimes we will focus on the healing that Jesus offers but those demons they are terrified. They first identify that he’s Jesus the Son of God and then they beg him, you know, cast me off into the swine or what are you going to do?
07:57 Because they know that he has power over them because God has power over everything. So the name of the Lord is a strong tower.
08:09 Jesus Christ knew that walking this earth and we have to understand that too. Paul comes to mind. What suffering Paul had to endure for Jesus Christ and yes he was a persecutor of Christians when he was Saul and not Paul before his Damascus experience.
08:22 But you know what? Once he was saved, amen, he became totally different. He became Paul, became a new man. He is responsible for the doctrine that we follow in our Bible because he is the Apostle to the Gentiles
08:36 and he went through so many hardships only because I believe that he also understood that the name of the Lord is a strong tower, that God himself allowed him to go through these hardships as a testimony to what God would preserve him through.
08:54 If you get into the nitty-gritty about how many times he was whipped with a cat of nine tails and how many times people typically were whipped that way and would die, he had threefold the experience that would kill most.
09:04 Shipwrecked, you know, again most people would be dead and he wasn’t. Stoned, most people would have been dead and again it’s a testimony, you know, that wasn’t coincidence that he kept a living.
09:15 That was God’s sovereign will and sovereign strength. And yes, God put him through the ringer, amen, but God also showed him heaven as the scripture says that he was called up there to the third heaven
09:25 and then he got to see it and there wasn’t lawful for him to see it because if he had explained what he had seen people would have inevitably started worshiping him
09:35 and making him into a deity and so forth and he would have gotten a big head he couldn’t have done that so he couldn’t spoken of it but God allowed him to see it because God wanted to show Paul his power in such a way not that much different than come to think of it than Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration
09:50 and God showed Jesus in on the Mount of Transfiguration Moses and Abraham and it was just incredible what happened there and so what do we see we see God’s power amen
10:03 God’s incredible power he is a strong tower imagine a tower that you cannot build and you cannot tear down you know people tried to pervert that the devil tried to pervert that by making the tower at Babel right or Babel however you want to say it and they were trying to reach the heavens
10:22 and that was a that was a joke to God that was a abomination to God and that that is as I understand it how we have modern-day languages because he had to split them all up before they did more evil as they all got together amen
10:37 and so God is the strong tower the Lord is the strong tower his name is a strong tower his name is protection his name is peace his name is a certainty that his will will be done
10:47 and then what do we see in the second part of this verse here in Proverbs 18:10 the righteous runneth into it and is safe now when I’ve read this before sometimes I think in my mind I’m just reading it quickly it’s the righteous running to it right like you would run to a safe place
11:03 you know you’d I’m running to you know I’m running to home because it’s gonna be dark soon or whatever it is but no the righteous runneth into it they get into that strong tower
11:15 and when you’re in the tower then you are then with the Lord and you are safe and so the idea here is the same way that the Lord Jesus explains like having that that mother hand
11:29 and taking the the Israelites and and God’s chosen people under his wings and you know and and protecting them under his wings and there’s other references in the Bible to God being a buckler shield
11:38 and mighty fortress all of these things describe God’s protection right present protection doesn’t say that people run to it or people think about it or people wish they could get there
11:51 it says the righteous runneth into it but what’s the precursor doesn’t say everyone runs into the tower it doesn’t say the wicked run into the tower and are protected you know the wicked would like that doctrine to be out there that they could live in their sin
12:03 and still run into the tower and be protected but and and maybe even go to church or practice some kind of good works and say oh I can run to the tower and be protected
12:12 no it says the righteous runneth into it and as I’ve described over and over again on this program we do not inherently exhibit any righteousness we are not righteous our works the Bible says are like filthy rags like a dirty gauze pad on nothing that we can do is righteous or good
12:32 you could say well brother Clark I went out and I fed the homeless last week was that not righteous well no if you did it for credit the Bible says you already got your reward the idea that are that we can be righteous without God is an affront to God you’re shortchanging God
12:49 and you’re shortchanging the work on the cross the righteousness that we have only comes through Christ Jesus and when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior then we are made righteous
12:57 and so when we I see this as when we live for God we are exhibiting his righteousness the Bible Jesus says in the word if you love me keep my commandments amen
13:07 in the and one of the commandments is love the Lord with all your heart mind soul spirit so forth how can you do that if you’re living in sin amen so you’re living righteously
13:16 and as you’re living righteously you run into the tower and then the final part of this proverb here Proverbs 18:10
13:23 and you’re safe it says the name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous runneth into it and is safe that means safe you know look how great is that we all want security we want safety we all fear what we don’t know
13:37 and God’s let us know that hey we won’t know the future other than what’s in his word but we will know this one thing will be safe we’ll be safe with Jesus Christ we’ll be safe with our Lord
13:47 and Savior why not turn to your safety to your high tower today turn to God for your safety for your protection stay close to him and watch as he works that gets rid of that spirit of fear and works that spirit of calm peace in your life that only he can do let’s thank him in advance for what he’s going to do
14:05 as we go to our high tower what a great God we serve
14:07 thank you so much for listening take care God bless and amen