I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs, chapter 30, verses 1 to 6. Who's been reading the Proverbs here at Compass Bible Church, Huntington Beach? Oh, we're coming to the end. This is our last week to read the Proverbs. So, I was preparing to preach from this passage before I ever heard about any chemicals in Garden Grove, and wait till you see how this passage is exactly what we need to hear in our current evacuation situation. So, I want to talk to those who might be a little distracted in your thinking with all that's going on, even those watching online, where you might be tempted to look at other things while you're here in this sermon, and I want to encourage you to give this Word of God your full and undivided attention, because this is what we need to hear, not just all the time, but specifically in this space and time. This is a word that God has for us, so please lock in with me, and let's let our hearts be encouraged by the word of the Lord. And out of respect for God's Word, I invite everyone to stand up for the public reading of Scripture. Please follow along with me as I read Proverbs 30:1-6. This is the Word of God.
The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle. The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know! Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, grab your seat. I would love for you to grab in your bulletin a handout where you can see we have printed up this text of scripture. We have some questions to talk about Proverbs at your fellowship group this week, and there's some debate about how to translate verse one of Proverbs 30. It's written by this man named Agur, which means “to gather,” and it's an oracle, it's a word from God. And in verse 1, we'll throw it up here on the screen, there's an alternative translation where it says, “The words of Agur son of Jakeh, the oracle, the man declares to Ithiel, Ithiel and Ucal.” So, should they try to translate those Hebrew names, or are they names of people that Agur was actually talking to? So I don't know if you ever studied Proverbs 30, if you ever looked into the words of Agur, but if you start to read what the scholars are saying, there's a lot of conjecture about how to really translate verse 1, and if that sounds weird to you, why would Agur just be talking to two other men like Ithiel and Ucal? Well, we’ve got to get into the context of what's going on, because in the Hebrew scriptures we call it the Old Testament, but it's known as the Hebrew scriptures, and there were three different sections: the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and then there was a section called the Writings, and the Writings began with the Psalms, Proverbs, and Job. Those are the first three books of the Writing section of the Hebrew Scriptures.
And if you've heard the story of Job, Job had some terrible things happen to him. He suffered greatly, and his three friends came to him, and they were silent, and that was the good part of the book of Job. And then his three friends started talking, and that's when it really went bad, right? And so, the idea of Job having this ongoing dialog with his friends, well, maybe Agur is doing something similar here with Ithiel and Ducal. But the first thing that we can see that Agur clearly teaches us is in verses 2 and 3, where he says that he is stupid. He says, as it's translated here, he makes it very clear he doesn't have understanding, he doesn't have wisdom, he doesn't have the knowledge that he needs, the knowledge of the Holy One.
So, Agur is making it very clear in two verses that he knows he doesn't know, and I want you to get that down for point number one: “Know you don't know.” That's the example we see from this man. Know you don't know. He comes across with the humility that's reflective of the book of Proverbs, where we've learned things like, “Be not wise in your own eyes, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your” what everybody? Your “own understanding.” See, there's a real temptation, and perhaps it's peaking in our time that you know, or if you don't know, we know, and if we don't know, the internet most definitely knows, is what we might think. AI knows, ChatGPT knows is what people are acting like, people are acting like we can acquire the wisdom and knowledge that we need to solve all the problems in our life. And this current evacuation situation, it should be a helpful reminder to everyone here that we don't know, we can't control, we can't figure out, we don't know all the things about living in this world. And so, Agur is not, in his pride, trying to say he does know, he is embracing his lack of understanding, he is admitting that there is a knowledge that we all need that doesn't come from us or what we can observe. It is heaven sent, and it comes from the Holy One.
Go back to chapter 9 verse 10. Go back to chapter 9 verse 10, which is a key verse often quoted as a theme verse from the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 9, verse 10. If you've read through the book of Proverbs, you know the basic format. The first nine chapters are a flow of thought from the father to the son. Starting in Proverbs 10, all the way to 29 It's these short statements that we would usually call Proverbs. Well, here, right where it goes from the long flow of thought to the short statements, you get Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord,” or the fear of Yahweh, “is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” See, you don't really know until you know God is what the book of wisdom is teaching us. Real wisdom begins when you understand that God is Yahweh, He is the Lord, and He's the one who created us, and we have fallen short of his glory in sin. Our sin is going to lead to death, and after it's appointed for a man to die once comes judgment, and when you have your eyes open to see that God is going to judge you according to what you have done, that puts the fear of Yahweh into your heart, and the fear when you understand his judgment that is coming. That's the beginning of you being wise, that's the beginning of you knowing that he is set apart in his holiness and can have nothing to do with our sin.
And so, that's what Agur is saying, is you don't just figure that part out, you need that part revealed to you, you need to know God. And what Agur means, his name means “to gather,” and what I'm hoping you're going to be convinced of through our study of Proverbs 3O:1-6 is that Agur is familiar with other Scriptures. He knows some of the Proverbs of Solomon. He knows some of the Psalms of David. And he even knows the book of Job, and all of these sources have contributed to him writing what he writes in these verses. Go with me to Job 28. And in the Old Testament, Job's before the book of Psalms, even though in the Writings it came after Psalms. In our Old Testament, they put Job before Psalms, because Job was written before Psalms, and it was written before the Proverbs. And if you go to the book of Job, and I want to invite everybody, your job for the month of June is to read the book of Job. That's our summer book reading program, our summer book club that you're all invited to be a part of. Is that in the month of June, let's all read Job together, and if you read through the book of Job, Job interacts for a lot of chapters with those three friends, and even another guy jumps into the conversation.
And Job is a godly man, and look at what Job says here in Job 28:12 he says, “For where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living.” Where's the land of the living? That's right here with us. That's where? That's the planet that we're on. You cannot find the wisdom you need to know how to live your life just from observing things on this planet. That's what Agur is claiming. He doesn't have it, and Job's saying you can't even find it. And he begins from there to say, “The deep says it's not in me, the sea says it's not with me.” He's like, let's go here and let's go there. Let's see if we can find it. And then he says, in verse 20, “From where then does wisdom come? Where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air, even Abaddon and death, the place where you go when you die, they say we have heard a rumor of it with our ears. They don't even know God understands the way to it. and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”
Oh, I grew up in church, and they told me that was the theme of the book of Proverbs. Apparently, Proverbs is just getting it from the book of Job, and what he said, that when you understand you're going to be judged by God, you begin to fear God, and you turn away from evil. I don't want to keep doing the things God's going to judge me for. So, when I see who God is, it helps me to turn from the evil I was doing and to really have a new understanding that is given to me by God. So, are you still trying to figure out your own life? Do you still think the internet can answer all your questions, or are you looking for wisdom that is beyond human understanding? Are you looking for the wisdom of God that begins with fearing him and knowing that a day of judgment outside of this life, what we can see and experience right now, a future day of judgment is coming, and when you know that, now that is the beginning of wisdom. And so, I wonder, even if some of us here this morning are still thinking, I can figure out this life. Well, according to these ancient texts, no, we can't.
Go back to Proverbs, chapter 30 and look at verse 4. This is the main verse that I want to draw your attention to. Proverbs 30, verse 4, this might be a verse worth memorizing, and really putting before you where you can see it and think about it throughout the week, because what Agur does here is he gives us four “Who” questions. And if you're taking notes, will you circle or underline the word “Who” all four of those times, because he's going to give you four questions that are going to make you think thoughts about God, thoughts that are hard for us to understand beyond our comprehension about God. What I find is that we are way too familiar with God. We are bringing God down to our level, we're acting like I understand God, I know God. You’ve got to be careful, because the minute you start saying that you know everything there is to know about God, you have officially made yourself a know-it-all. Okay? And it's easy to happen at church, because at church you learn true things about the world, and it says in the Scripture that knowledge can puff you up, and so people start to learn some things about God, and then they can jump to I've got God figured out.
In fact, this last week we did this thing at the fellowship groups. I would really enjoy doing this, where we took what people are saying, and then we compared it to what the scripture actually says, and a lot of people said quotes that people say about God many things that we regularly hear people say about God, and then you look up the verse where supposedly that comes from, and that verse says much more about God than what people are saying. So, what people are doing, and you want to make sure you're not doing it, but it's happening. Is God, who's way up here, high and lifted up, hallowed is his name. They're bringing him down to somebody they're quite comfortable with and familiar with. And Agur, if you look at these four questions, he's lifting God up and showing us who God really is. Look at them with me.
He says, “Who has ascended to heaven and come down?” Who's gone into the spiritual realm and returned? “Who has gathered the wind in his fists?” Do you know where the wind comes from? Do you know where it's going? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who contains all the waters on the planet, who has established all the ends of the earth. What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know.” So, he asked, Who is like this? Who is like this? Who is like this, and he starts bringing up, like, how did the world get made? How did the waters get contained? Who controls the wind and decides when it comes and where it blows. And who can take you past this life into the things unknown, and then come back again and tell you all about it? And right now, at a time where many people are wondering what is going to happen, and what if this happens, and what should I do about this, when you don't know what to do. The answer is who.
Let's get that down for number two: “The answer is WHO.” Every single time you're at a place in your life where you're like, I don't know what's going on, what if this happens, or what should I do here? Start with who you do know. Start with whoever is in control. Start with who already knows what's going to happen. He made it all in the beginning, and he will control it all till he brings it to an end. Our God sits on a throne, and he rules over the universe that he made, and God knows what's going to happen, and so you want to trust in who, and not just be scrambling around trying to figure out what, and even this idea of referring to the “who” is something that Agur got from the book of Job. So, if you could turn back to the book of Job with me, Job 38, instead of 28 this time, and this is when God comes. Yahweh starts speaking, and this is something that is so important that everybody here, please listen to this. If I were to ask you, what is the book of Proverbs about? People would say it's about the wisdom of Solomon and how to live life skillfully. Okay, well, what is the book of Job about that? We're going to try to read after Proverbs. Oh, well, it's about this guy who suffered and how it was all taken away from him, and he said, “Blessed be the name of the Lord,” and it was restored to him. And what I want to say here today is, no, the book of Proverbs is not about King Solomon's wisdom. King Solomon didn't even live by his own wisdom.
The book of Proverbs is about the wisdom of God being revealed to man. The book of Job is not about Job. Job is not the main character. The human character is never the main character. Job is about a conversation going on between God and Satan in heaven, and at the end of the book, the main character shows up, and he tells you what to really think about this life. The main character of Scripture is no human being. The main character is God, and the main character in your life is not you, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Scripture is teaching us. The Scripture is teaching us who God is, and we're reading it like, well, what does it tell me to do? Like, the point in the Bible is me, but the scripture is revealing him. It's revealing a “who”. And so, when God shows up, these guys are saying all kinds of things in the book of Job. And then God starts speaking, and you're just like, yes, some of you, when you are reading the book of Job, you're going to wish he started talking way sooner than Job 38. Like, why couldn't he start speaking in Job 18, you know, or Job 28? Because these guys have all these different intelligent ideas about how the world works, and then God says this in Job 38, verse 1, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?’” What an opening line. Oh, you guys done talking yet? You guys done trying to search the internet for it yet? You guys done trying to figure it out? “Dress for action like a man. I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know.” So, if you're taking notes, make sure you get down Job 38:5, because notice that's a “Who” question. Who determined the measurements of the foundation of the earth? And then notice this line, “Surely you know.” That's exactly what Agur is saying in Proverbs 34, “Surely you know.” So, he's getting inspired by how God himself spoke in the book of Job, and God saying one of Agur's questions, “Who has established the ends of the earth?” That's what he's bringing up here. Look at verse 5. “Who determined its measurements? Surely you know, or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Oh, were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth, and all the angels in heaven rejoiced?”
I mean, he's bringing up these construction pictures where you have plans, and you begin with the foundation, and you build like we barely know how the world works, much less how it was constructed, how it was made, how God decided to put the sun here and the moon here and the planets, how he spread them out and the stars, how he arranged them. We have no idea the depth of the wisdom of God in the creation of the world, that's what he's saying. Then there's another “Who” question in verse 8. I love thinking about this one. “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? When I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed.’” See, how he's using, like the giving birth language to the waters. Do you know how water works? Do you know how it goes up into the clouds, and then comes back down to the earth? Can you tell water to stop, and it actually stays put? That's what God's saying. One of the things that God likes to say that he did, which a lot of people don't even think about until you think about it, and then you realize how awesome it is, is that most of our planet is covered in water, and God has determined the boundaries of the seas.
Now, my personal experience with water is usually I found that water is telling me where I'm going to go more than I'm telling water where it's going to go. Have you ever tried to paddle a canoe in a river that's moving at a speed? Have you ever been out on the high seas before, when they're really getting to rock and a storm is coming through. I understand a little bit that I'm not the boss of water, and if I'm not careful, water will tell me exactly where to go. And so, God's saying I can tell the waters what to do. I've been living here in Huntington Beach for over a decade now, and sometimes I like to drive down PCH, and I can tell you from personal experience that, for the last ten years, PCH has been in the same place every time I've gone there. And how does that work when you see all the water that's out there in the Pacific Ocean all the way over to Tokyo? How does that work, that all that water hasn't sloshed up and taken California out at least a couple of times in the last hundred years? Because God tells the water where its boundaries will be. That's what he's saying to Job, that's what Agur is referring to with these “Who” questions. These “Who” questions are supposed to elevate your thinking to thoughts that are actually worthy of our God.
Look at what he says in verse 12, “Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place?” Oh, wow, I thought the morning just kind of automatically happened. Isn't that what you guys thought? I just type in Huntington Beach sunrise and find out what time it is and plan accordingly. Someone's actually been telling every morning to happen. Wow, he's commanding life as we know it, and he's making it work on a level that no one can observe or fully understand. The answer to our questions is not a “What,” the answer is a “Who”. That's what Agur is saying. And in that, Agur has actually found wisdom. And so go back to Proverbs 30, verse 4 and look at his concluding question. Hey, what is his name, and what is his son's name? So, we know what his name is, YHWH. We know what his son's name is, Jesus. He says, surely you know. We actually do know. What might surprise you is, how does Agur know? How does somebody living at the time of Proverbs, which is hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus, how does he know that Yahweh has a son? How does he know Yahweh's son's name? So that's something we want to pay attention to, and the answer is right there in the next verse. Every word of God proves true. Agur, we're seeing that he knows he doesn't know, and as he knows the answer is “Who,” we're seeing that this man has been a student of the scripture. He clearly is familiar with the book of Job. He clearly knows Proverbs as he's writing in Proverbs. He has confidence in his source, where he finds out who God is by studying the Word of God.
Here's Psalm 12:6. Agur might have known this psalm of David. “The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times,” like gold or silver, or some precious mineral, when it's been refined in the furnace, and all the dross has been eliminated, and you get to what is pure, that is the Scripture. The Scripture, it has been proven to be true. Every word of God in here has been proven to be true. If you want to know who God is, the only sure way to know who God is is you’ve got to take a look in his book. And you're going to hear people say something very different. In churches of Southern California, you're going to hear people say, God told me to do this, have you guys heard that? Let's do that. That's one of the ways we bring God down. Oh, God told me, like, God's just casually filling me in on what he wants me to do.
I was in Trolly Coffee, opening up a can of Hallelujah Latte, and I heard this conversation going on where somebody said God told me to do this, and one of the other people at our church said back to them, "Oh yeah, how did he tell you? Did he audibly speak to you?” And as soon as they said that, I took a big old sip of my latte, and I was like, it just got spicy here in Trolly Coffee, and I was definitely dropping eaves on what the rest of this conversation was going to be. God told, yeah, sure, God told you, was he speaking to you from heaven? I was like, whoa, I like that, that's bold right there. You hear people acting like, well, God told me this, and God told me that. Do you have a chapter and verse to go with your God told me? What do you mean by that?
What people are doing is they're adding to the Word of God. They're putting things in God's mouth that I'm not sure God's going to actually agree with you that he said that, and you don't want to say God said something that he didn't say. You don't want to be proven to be a liar before God about his own words. People are not thinking seriously enough before they freely blurt out, God told me. Are you saying that he gave you wisdom from heaven in answer to your prayer? Are you saying that the Holy Spirit is leading you to a certain course of action that you're confident is from the Scripture? What exactly do you mean when you say, God told me? Because if you're just putting God's name on your feelings, I don't think he wants to cosign your personal feelings. And so, what does it mean that God told me? The way people are acting like they're going to experience God in some kind of feeling or some kind of movement or some kind of work. This is Pentecost Sunday, and so people are like, Holy Spirit, come upon me. No, the Holy Spirit did come on Pentecost Sunday in Acts, chapter 2, and everyone who repents of their sins and believes in Jesus gets a new heart, and God puts his Spirit in you. And the Spirit that is in you is in you all the time, every Sunday, every day, and the Spirit that's in you inspired men to write this book. And when you get your eyeballs in the Bible, the spirit will illuminate your understanding, so you can know God. That's how it works.
And people are chasing some kind of feeling, some kind of experience, and they don't sit down and really study this book, they don't spend time in it, reading it, praying through it, trying to figure it out. They just want to feel something, and they don't want to see God in the Scripture. And Agur says, I know who he is. You want to know how I know? Because every single one of his words are true, and he warns us, "Do not add to his words.” And he's perhaps referring to what Moses said in Deuteronomy, chapter 4, verse 2: “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” So, it makes sense that in the last book that Moses writes, Deuteronomy, he says, hey, I'm giving you the five books of the Law. Don't add to it or take away from it. Now, here's Agur. Agur is putting that same idea out there. Then, what does Jesus say in Matthew, chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount? He says, “Don't take away from the least of these commandments. Don't add to these commandments. I didn't come to abolish the law; I came to fulfill the law.” What does Revelation say? It says, you're going to be blessed if you read that book, but don't add anything more to it, and don't take anything away. God gave us exactly what he wanted to say in the exact space and time he wanted to say it, the Holy Spirit was inspiring the exact man that God wanted to write it. We have here the pure words of God. When you read this, you can say, God told me, and you can have confidence and certainty in who God is and what God wants you to do when you study the Scripture. And so, that's what Agur is saying. He's saying the answers to the fact that you don't know, and the answer to knowing who does know, they're all in his word, and you can trust in what his Word is saying to you.
Now, he says something in verse 5, which is so applicable to our current situation of evacuation. Look at verse 5, “Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” Praise God that I was already studying a passage that talks about taking refuge when many of our brothers and sisters at our church were told to go take refuge somewhere else besides their homes. Here's something Agur wants to make clear to you: God is a shield for you, and you can take refuge and find protection and defense in God being your shield. Here's something about God that has been revealed that can encourage your heart. If you hear it today, God is your shield. Go with me to Psalm 3:3, where David's going to write. David says a lot about God being his shield, and I'm sure that's where Agur got the idea from, is many of the Psalms of David.
Now, let's just talk about shields for a second, okay? Because we don't carry shields around anymore, okay? If you were at the grocery store and there's somebody carrying a shield through the cereal aisle, you would think something weird is happening at that grocery store. You might even go to a different store after that. Okay, if you saw a grown man carrying a shield around, you would think he's got some Peter Pan level complex going on, where he's still playing dress up and pretending to be some kind of character, and fighting with his sword with somebody. What's going on with that guy with a shield? Okay, so we’ve got to go back to the context of King David, who kills giants. In fact, Saul has killed thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands. We're talking about a soldier who leads God's troops into combat, and it's hand-to-hand combat, where you've got your offensive weapon and your defensive shield, and when other people are coming and trying to harm you and kill you, it's great to be able to defend yourself with a shield. That's what David is using, that common picture at their time, of a weapon to protect yourself, not to attack, but to defend And he's using that about YHWH. Look at what he says in Psalm 3:3, “But you, O Lord,” or YHWH, “are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.”
Now, if you want to talk about someone who was experienced in evacuation situations, can we talk about David for a minute? David was anointed king, and then the guy who was king wanted him dead, and David was on the run in the caves in the wilderness of Judah. He was on the run for years, evacuating because the king was trying to kill him. Then, later on, after David does become king, his own son Absalom decides there's going to be a coup d'etat and we're going to usurp the throne and we're going to take the kingdom from my father, and so, guess what David has to do? Evacuate the palace, evacuate Jerusalem. And he's on the run out there again, so he knows about it. And this is during the time that his son is coming and trying to kill him. His son apparently has been talking to other people behind his back, finding counselors, forming alliances, raising an army, and now they are coming to Jerusalem too. And King David, here's what he says. Look at this with me. Psalm 3. “Oh, Yahweh, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me. Many are saying of my soul, ‘There is no salvation for him in God.’ Selah,” which means pause. “But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to Yahweh, and he answered me from his holy hill.” Wow, you get the sense from David that his first response, his emergency call, is he calls on YHWH, his shield, to protect him when evil comes his way. And then what he says next is amazing. Verse five, “I lay down and slept, I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.” I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Wow, he has to leave the palace, he has to flee for his life outside of the city of Jerusalem. What's he doing out there on the run? Oh, he's lying down and getting a full night's sleep, that's what he's doing.
I know plenty of people, there's no army after them, and they're having a hard time getting a full night's sleep, and I wonder when people discuss with me, which happens regularly, while I'm trying this to sleep, and I'm trying this to sleep, and I'm trying this to sleep. I'm wondering, have you tried your shield yet? Have you called upon the Lord? Have you cried aloud to his holy hill and asked for help in your time of need? See, people have this idea, why can't God just take away all my problems? Why can't he take away all my temptations, all my trials? Why isn't God just going to do all this stuff and stop everything? No, that's not what the Scripture has promised you. That's not what's been revealed. God says that in this fallen world there will be temptations to sin and there will be trials of various kinds, and so, if people are looking for paradise, they're not going to find it in the here and now. But we, what we do have right now is a God who is our shield. And so there are many situations that are going to happen in your life where you're going to feel threatened, you're going to feel like it's dangerous, there are crises that are going to happen, and calamities that will come upon us. Let me ask you, do you know that God is your shield?
Now I want to ask you, if you're my brother or sister in Christ, I want to ask you a few questions right now. Number one, does God hold you in his hand? Go ahead, and you can answer these questions. Okay? Does God promise that he will be your keeper? Does God say, does Jesus actually say that the Father holds you, and he holds you, and no one is able to snatch you out of his hand? Okay, so let me ask you this question, then, are you ever really unsafe? I know a lot of people at this church that act like they're unsafe on a regular basis. They act like their kids are perennially unsafe when God has said, I hold you in my hand, I will keep your soul to eternity, and no one, and nothing is able to snatch you out of my hand. Do we have a shield, or are we in trouble? Because some of us are acting like we're in trouble, but we have a shield that protects us, that defends us. I have a shield about me. He's my glory, and he's the one who will lift my head in victory. I cry out to my shield, then I get a good night's sleep. That's the quote from the king who's on the run and evacuating. That's the kind of thing we need to hear.
Go to Psalm 18. Look at what he says in Psalm 18. Psalm 18 is David's song of victory. David, the servant of the Lord, writes this song on the day when YHWH delivered him from the hand of all his enemies. So, Psalm 18 is also in 2 Samuel 22:23. Towards the end of the story of David, you get this song. This is like the ultimate victory song of King David. After all the time Saul tried to kill him, his son tried to kill him, all the battles with the Philistines and the other nations, all the things that made up the roller coaster that is David's life. He says this starting in verse one, “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”
You ever see someone who's successful at something, and people will ask them, like on a podcast or some interview, what is your secret sauce? You see parents who have kids who are really going after God, and people ask them, how did you do it? You see somebody who made so much money in such a short time. People will ask them, how did you do it? What's your secret sauce? You see somebody who actually knows how to work the remote control and all the things it does, you're like, how did you do it? How did you learn how to do it, right? Somebody who's successful at something you want to know, and it's like, hey, what's your secret sauce? David is revealing his secret sauce to you. You want to know how I defeated all my enemies? Because I have a shield, I have a rock, I have a stronghold, and every single time I feel threatened, every single time they come after me, I call upon the name of YHWH, and he delivered me every single time. That's the song that David wants to spread across the world, that he wants to be written down for all people to read forever is that you have a shield.
Let's get this down for point number three: “When life feels unsafe, then use your SHIELD.” When life feels unsafe, then use your shield. And see, this is the second part of the statement. It says that YHWH is a shield in Proverbs 30, verse 5, “He is a shield to who to those who take refuge in him.” Okay, so Yahweh is most definitely a shield, but you need to learn how to use your shield. See, taking refuge is an active response, it's like a verb, it's something I found, a hiding place, and the hiding place is beautiful. A hiding place works 100% of the time. You hide there, you're safe. Yeah, but you’ve got to now seek out that shelter, you’ve got to now take that refuge, you’ve got to go to that hiding place. You can't expect the hiding place to just come to you and solve all your problems for you. And that's what people are doing with God. What I was bringing up earlier, where people are like, I'm tired of feeling anxiety. Why can't God just take away everything that makes me anxious? I hear people say things like that. I'm tired of getting angry. Why can't God take away all the things that make me angry? I'm tired of being tempted with this sin, why can't God just take away the desire for this sin? Scripture does not give us any of those expectations. Scripture says you are going to be tempted; it's going to happen for the rest of your life, you are going to go through trials that will test your faith in this world, you will have tribulations. There will be seven thousand gallons in Garden Grove. There will be relationship problems. There will be financial distresses. There will be health emergencies. They're all coming. That's what the Scripture says. It says persecutions, expect them. Disaster, prepare for it. And what are you going to do? You have to take refuge. He's not solving all the problems, he is the solution in the midst of the problems, though.
And so, this is an active response where he's not going to take away the anxieties, but you can take your anxieties, you can humble yourself under his mighty hand, and you can give all your anxieties to him, cast all your cares up to him. Because he cares for you, he will see you through every temptation, he will see you through every trial, and all the hard things that come your way. He will deliver you out of every single one of them. But you need to take refuge in your shield. This is an active response of you turning to trust God, and you pray to him, and you search his Scripture, and you get together with his people, and you demonstrate, I'm trusting the Lord, I'm taking refuge in him. Go with me to Psalm 2, and this is where I know how he knows he has a son. It's from Psalm 2, which I think he was familiar with, by the way. He says, what is his name, in the name of his son? Well, if you go back to Psalm 2, which the book of Acts says was written by David. And Psalm 2 is about when the nations are coming together and allying against God, and what is God going to do about these evil nations rebelling against him? Well, God says in Psalm 2, verse 6, “’As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.’ I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’” Oh, no wonder he knows Yahweh has a son. It's saying it right there in the Psalms that Agur is clearly studying. And notice, even YHWH says to his son that he's going to give him the nations, but what does he tell his son to do? Ask of me, come to me, seek me, find me. God wants you to come to him. Take refuge. In fact, look at what it says in verse 10. “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
Man, if you want to be blessed, if you want to be happy, take refuge in him, put your trust in Jesus. When you feel that temptation, pray to the Lord. When you feel that anxiety, pray to the Lord. When you're overwhelmed with what to do in life, go to the Lord, take refuge in him, seek the shelter in him. You know, on Friday, people started showing up here at church, and I hadn't heard anything. I was confused. I'm seeing people at church. I'm like thinking to myself, what day of the week it is. I'm not used to seeing these folks here on Friday, and I'm like, hey, what's going on? I see you hanging out here today. They're like, well, yeah, I came here because a police officer came to my house and told me it wasn't safe for me to be there, and so now we're posting up here. We got police officers going door to door, telling people to evacuate their homes, driving down streets with loudspeakers, saying you need to evacuate. People are like, hey, I'm bringing my dog to church. It's like, well, why are you bringing your dog to church? Well, I can't keep my dog at my house. Oh, wow. Okay, bring your dog to church. Yeah, and so they're showing up at church, and it's like I've been told to take refuge. Some of you experienced this, a scenario where authority is at your home telling you you need to leave your house, it's unsafe to be here, and I can imagine many things come to your mind in that moment. What will I bring? What will happen with the pets? Where will I go?
I hope there is one thing that is settled in your heart. I know where I'm going to take refuge right now. I'm going to my shield, he's my emergency call, he's my first response. You're telling me it's dangerous, you're telling me it's unsafe. I'm bringing out my shield right now. And yet, you're still going to have to figure out what to do or where to go, but it's going to be a completely different experience when you're doing it in faith rather than fear. And so, did you take refuge in the Lord, or did you just take refuge, because those are two different things, and the Scripture is saying, take refuge in him. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. You have to call upon his name, like David showed us. It doesn't just automatically happen. You have to trust in him.
Go to Psalm 18 again. Go to Psalm 18, and look here at as this psalm develops, as it climaxes, the epic psalm of how God delivered David out of all of his trials, from all of his enemies. And look at what he says in Psalm 18, verse 30, he says, “This God, his way is” what does it say, everybody? This God, his way is what can you after all the running through the desert and all the hiding in the caves and all the evil that people tried to do to this guy, yeah, but God was perfect through it all. God was blameless through it all. He wants everybody to know his way is perfect. And then look at what he says, “The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.” And right when I read that, I'm like Agur, that's where you got verse 5 from, right? I mean, that is exactly verse 5 of the book of Proverbs, chapter 30. Agur just copied it and pasted it, is what he did. Agur is doing some plagiarism here on a Sunday morning, because if it was true for King David, Agur saying it's true, he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. And so, if you're taking refuge right now, make sure in your heart you're taking refuge in him. And I don't know what your current calamity might be, because I know well we’ve got plenty of problems on every Sunday here at the church. We're going through all kinds of various trials. Do you believe that God's way is perfect? Do you believe that he is your shield who will defend you? Because if you believe that, he should be your first call, he should be your default response. Yeah, something bad is happening again. I know exactly where I'm going to take refuge. And make sure that you learn this way of faith rather than living in fear.
So, what we're going to do right now is we're going to take an offering, and we're going to take this offering because we said we would last week, because we were inspired by the poor widow who gave. So, we will be taking an offering, and we're going to sing a song inspired by the book of Proverbs. So, feel free to give if you're prepared, if you want to feel free to give to the offering, but while we have this song, I want you to pray, and I want you to know that God is your shield and that you can actively take refuge in him right now. Whatever is overwhelming you, whatever is causing anxiety, give that all to him, and let's hear what the Word of the Lord that is proven to be true says, let's take refuge. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, I just want to thank you for how you work this all out. You knew Memorial Day 2026 would be the weekend where there would be an evacuation around Garden Grove and the cities around there because of seven thousand gallons of chemicals, and you were not surprised by any of this, and you had us at Proverbs chapter 30 right on time. I pray, God, for everybody here today that they could not just hear this with their ears, but they could take this to heart, that when they tell me it's not safe, when I'm anxious, I always have a shield about me. I always have a place I can take refuge in you. And I pray that that would be true of us as this church, as this group of your people, that when something bad is going to happen, and you've told us it is going to happen, that we would not freak out, that we would not act like it's okay to panic, but that we would say, I know exactly what I'm going to do, I'm going to take refuge in my shield, I'm going to call upon the name of YHWH, and just like he has delivered his people through calamity after calamity throughout the entire history of planet earth, the earth that he made, the waters that he stopped, the winds that he holds. Oh, he's going to take care of me in this trial as well. God, I pray for everybody here that you could open their eyes to see that the only place they're ever going to be from here to eternity. Eternity is in your mighty hand, held fast, held firm, kept loved, that you are the God of all grace, and after we have suffered for a little while, you will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish each one of us for your glory forevermore. That someday we will join with King David, and we will say, "Many calamities, many trials, and many temptations I went through, but the Lord He delivered me out of them all, and as for this God, his way is perfect. It's blameless. Oh God, we need to hear that. We need to believe it. Some of us need to come to you right now, and we need to confess that we've been looking to the Orange County Fire Authority more than your authority. And God, we thank you for our governing authorities who are doing what they can to help us in this situation, but I pray that you would always be our ultimate authority that we look to, the one that we trust in, and what you say, that's what we're going to do, and believe. So, God, let us right now, in this moment, take refuge in you as our shield. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.