1. Connect – Care Equip – Reach

2. Connect – Care Equip – Reach
Refuge

3. Connect To build and nurture, “through the Holy Spirit, a community of believers in an ever-growing intimate relationship with one another which is grounded in our ever-growing intimate relationship with God and Jesus Christ.”

4. Connect …an ever-growing intimate relationship with one another which is grounded in our ever-growing intimate relationship with God and Jesus Christ.”
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Psalm 34:8
“There is nothing on the part of God to prevent the godly…from arriving at the knowledge of his goodness by actual experience.” Calvin’s Commentary on Psalm 34:8

5. In His Refuge, We Connect – Part I Psalm 34

6. I. Those who take Refuge in the Lord testify to His blessings
When the Lord’s people seek Him, they experience His deliverance (verses 4-7)
“4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.”

7. I. Those who take Refuge in the Lord testify to His blessings
When the Lord’s people seek Him, they experience His deliverance (verses 4-7)
“4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.”

8. I. Those who take Refuge in the Lord testify to His blessings
When the Lord’s people seek Him, they experience His deliverance (verses 4-7)
“4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.”

9. I. Those who take Refuge in the Lord testify to His blessings
When the Lord’s people seek Him, they experience His deliverance (verses 4-7)
When the Lord’s people experience His deliverance, they must share this experience in continually praising and glorifying Him together (verses 1-3)
“‘Taking refuge’ in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord.” New English Translation Commentary

10. II. Those who take Refuge in the Lord walk in His ways
“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless” James 1:26

11. III. Those who take Refuge in the Lord trust in His redemption
The Lord is our Refuge because we need His deliverance (verses )
Those who take Refuge in Him will be redeemed, not condemned (verses 20-22)
“For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken’” John 19:36

12. John use of Psalm 34:20
“John’s use of the psalm seems strange, for the statement in its original context suggests that the Lord protects the godly from physical harm. Jesus’ legs may have remained unbroken, but he was brutally and unjustly executed by his enemies. John seems to give the statement a literal sense that is foreign to its original literary context by applying a promise of divine protection to a man who was seemingly not saved by God. However, John saw in this incident a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate deliverance and vindication. His unbroken bones were a reminder of God’s commitment to the godly and a sign of things to come. Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end of the story; God vindicated him.” New English Translation Commentary

13. IV. Taste and See that the Lord is good!
Offer the Lord a pleasing living sacrifice
“present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” Romans 12:1
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” Matthew 15:19-20

14. IV. Taste and See that the Lord is good!
Offer the Lord a pleasing living sacrifice
Be a place where His deliverance is needed and testified of to His glory
Make it evident in our worship that He is our Refuge

15. Being a Refuge of Christ’s Kingdom