WEBVTT - Beth Jones - Oct 17 - 8:30 am 0:00:01.030 --> 0:00:04.510 Hi guys, I'm Beth Jones, and welcome to The Basics 0:00:04.590 --> 0:00:08.560 with Beth, where learning God's Word is a joy. In 0:00:08.660 --> 0:00:11.780 every message, we will do our best to teach you 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.560 the Bible basics in such a way that it strengthens 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:20.659 your faith foundation. In addition, I want to empower and 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.800 equip you so that you have confidence to share these 0:00:24.930 --> 0:00:29.030 Bible basics with others. So lean in and listen with 0:00:29.070 --> 0:00:32.170 your heart. If you'd like to know more about our ministry, 0:00:32.210 --> 0:00:37.449 just go to thebasicswithbeth.com and get all the scoop. With 0:00:37.690 --> 0:00:41.920 all of that said, now let's jump into today's message. 0:00:44.260 --> 0:00:47.760 All right, week number two, you make me brave. And 0:00:47.780 --> 0:00:49.920 so we're going to talk about something specific. How many 0:00:49.940 --> 0:00:52.240 of you were with us last week? And we talked 0:00:52.300 --> 0:00:55.760 about the whole idea of part of the bravery, the courage, 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.440 the confidence God wants to give us comes out of 0:00:59.060 --> 0:01:01.820 us being close to the Lord. We draw our strength 0:01:01.860 --> 0:01:04.720 from our union with him. We abide in the secret 0:01:04.780 --> 0:01:07.390 place of the Most High. And it's there that we 0:01:07.420 --> 0:01:11.509 find stability and courage and bravery. We talked about praying 0:01:12.030 --> 0:01:14.970 last week, about praying for some things in our communities 0:01:15.010 --> 0:01:17.360 and our own lives. that he would come to us 0:01:17.420 --> 0:01:19.360 as the rain, the Bible says, and we would just 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:21.780 be strong in the Lord. So that was last week. 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.319 This week, we're going to talk about this. We're going 0:01:24.340 --> 0:01:28.440 to talk about look around, angels are at work. We're 0:01:28.459 --> 0:01:31.990 going to talk about this invisible realm of angelic help, 0:01:32.030 --> 0:01:35.009 the angelic host, and how that factors into us being brave. 0:01:35.370 --> 0:01:38.950 Go ahead and get your Bibles out. Psalm 91, let's pray. Father, 0:01:38.970 --> 0:01:40.950 thank you so much for your word. Thank you, Lord, 0:01:40.970 --> 0:01:44.090 that your word is true. Your word is the reality. 0:01:44.860 --> 0:01:46.840 We thank you, Lord, that there's so many things going 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.130 on in your kingdom, the invisible world that's not seen 0:01:50.150 --> 0:01:53.250 with our natural eye but is very real and very 0:01:53.290 --> 0:01:55.890 much seen by you. I pray today, Lord, you'll open 0:01:55.930 --> 0:01:58.370 up our eyes, our spiritual eyes. Let us see what 0:01:58.410 --> 0:02:01.210 we need to see. Connect the dots for us. Lord, 0:02:01.250 --> 0:02:03.970 strengthen our faith and help us, Lord, not just to 0:02:04.010 --> 0:02:06.990 be hearers of the word but doers because your word 0:02:07.030 --> 0:02:10.350 said it's the doers that are the blessed ones. And 0:02:10.370 --> 0:02:12.910 that's what we want, Lord. We want blessings from heaven 0:02:12.950 --> 0:02:15.470 to be upon your people. We thank you for eternal 0:02:15.570 --> 0:02:17.870 fruit that will be the result of our time together. 0:02:17.910 --> 0:02:21.470 In Jesus' mighty name. And everybody that agreed said? Amen. 0:02:21.490 --> 0:02:23.810 All right. Psalm 91. Like I said, we mentioned it 0:02:23.850 --> 0:02:25.690 last week. Verse 1 we talked about. But we're going 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.079 to jump down to verse 11. And this is where 0:02:28.100 --> 0:02:30.440 it begins to talk about this whole idea of angels, 0:02:30.500 --> 0:02:33.800 the angelic host. It says, For he shall give his 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:38.180 angels charge over you. He being God shall give his 0:02:38.380 --> 0:02:41.790 angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. 0:02:42.340 --> 0:02:44.850 In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you 0:02:44.910 --> 0:02:48.890 dash your foot against a stone. So the reality of angels, 0:02:48.910 --> 0:02:52.290 we see in Psalm 91, which is the soldier's psalm, 0:02:52.330 --> 0:02:55.750 the protection psalm. Many of us know it. We see 0:02:55.770 --> 0:02:58.010 this reference to angels and what they do in our lives. 0:02:58.060 --> 0:03:00.100 So let's talk real quick about what do we know 0:03:00.139 --> 0:03:02.880 from the Bible, what angels are and what angels aren't. 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:08.060 We know from the Bible angels aren't fat, chubby cherubs, 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.110 the ones you see in the greeting cards. You know, 0:03:11.150 --> 0:03:13.769 playing harps on clouds in heaven. We know that's not 0:03:13.810 --> 0:03:17.490 the Bible picture of angels. It's quite different. So we 0:03:17.510 --> 0:03:19.810 know that's not the case. But we do know there 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.420 are over 300 references to angels in the Bible. We 0:03:23.460 --> 0:03:26.720 know that angels are created beings. God created the angels. 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.060 And we know they're spirit beings, which we'll talk about. 0:03:30.580 --> 0:03:33.320 The word angel in both Hebrew and Greek, the word 0:03:33.540 --> 0:03:38.000 angel means messenger. They are messengers. They're spirit beings and 0:03:38.060 --> 0:03:43.230 they are messengers. God's messengers to us here on earth. 0:03:43.610 --> 0:03:46.510 They reside in heaven. We know that from Luke chapter two, 0:03:46.890 --> 0:03:49.860 they reside in heaven, but they are dispatched. They are 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.920 on assignment to do things on earth and they move 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.760 at lightning speed. And we'll see some examples of it 0:03:56.780 --> 0:03:58.460 here in just a minute, but we know that they 0:03:58.500 --> 0:04:00.620 are sent to earth to give messages. And we see 0:04:00.660 --> 0:04:03.780 that in the Bible. We see an angel, a couple 0:04:03.810 --> 0:04:06.750 of angels came to give a message to Abraham back 0:04:06.810 --> 0:04:11.280 in Genesis and We see in the New Testament that Zachariah, 0:04:11.380 --> 0:04:14.770 Elizabeth and Zachariah in the Christmas story, the angel Gabriel 0:04:14.830 --> 0:04:17.450 came to give a message to Zachariah. We know an 0:04:17.730 --> 0:04:20.870 angel appeared to Mary to give her a message that 0:04:20.910 --> 0:04:23.250 she was going to be carrying the Savior of the world. 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.860 We know angels appeared to Joseph in a dream. So 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:28.640 in his case, it was in a dream. In Mary's case, 0:04:28.700 --> 0:04:32.400 it was in her room. But in Joseph's case, in 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.200 a dream, angels appeared and told him about what was 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.760 going on with Mary. Okay. We know in the New Testament, 0:04:37.779 --> 0:04:40.370 if you keep moving towards the New Testament, the letters 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.150 to the churches, we know the Apostle Paul in Acts 0:04:44.150 --> 0:04:46.750 27 was in the storm of his life, and an 0:04:46.950 --> 0:04:50.210 angel appeared to him with a message. We know in 0:04:50.230 --> 0:04:53.570 the book of Acts that Peter was in prison, and 0:04:53.610 --> 0:04:55.520 we know the church was praying. They were having a 0:04:55.580 --> 0:04:58.820 prayer meeting, praying for Peter to be released from that prison. 0:04:58.860 --> 0:05:01.040 He was being persecuted for his faith. He was in prison, 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.400 and they were praying, and we know that in answer 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.580 to the prayers, God sent a messenger, an angel that 0:05:05.910 --> 0:05:09.210 that came down to the prison, woke Peter up. This 0:05:09.290 --> 0:05:12.950 angel got inside the prison, appeared to look like a man, 0:05:12.990 --> 0:05:16.200 a human being, woke Peter up, and said, come on, 0:05:16.220 --> 0:05:18.479 let's get out of here. And the angel unlocked the 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.940 prison doors and walked Peter out until they got into 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.580 an alley, and then the angel disappeared. When Peter showed 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.600 up at the house where they were praying, they were 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.460 in shock. They're like, somebody said, Peter's at the door. 0:05:30.490 --> 0:05:31.969 And they said, no, it can't be Peter. It must 0:05:31.990 --> 0:05:35.289 be his angel. They said, no, really, it's Peter. I mean, 0:05:35.310 --> 0:05:37.870 here they were praying for Peter to be released. Then 0:05:37.910 --> 0:05:40.930 Peter was released, and they didn't even believe it. But 0:05:40.950 --> 0:05:42.560 it was an angel that was sent to help with 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.240 that mission. We know in Philip's life, in the book 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.060 of Acts, that angels were sent to bring a message 0:05:50.100 --> 0:05:52.180 to Philip. So we see it throughout the Bible, Old 0:05:52.300 --> 0:05:56.320 and New Testament, before, during, and after Christ went to 0:05:56.339 --> 0:05:59.020 the cross. And so the question is, what relevance does 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.360 that have to you and I today? What does God 0:06:01.380 --> 0:06:02.980 want us to know about angels? What does he want 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:04.910 us to believe? And what does he want us to 0:06:04.990 --> 0:06:08.469 do or to say in cooperation with his word for 0:06:08.510 --> 0:06:11.370 the dispatching of angels in our lives as needed? So 0:06:11.390 --> 0:06:13.470 that's what we're going to talk about as we get 0:06:13.510 --> 0:06:17.349 into this. Go in your Bible, so Psalm 34. And 0:06:17.380 --> 0:06:19.219 let me tell you a couple other facts about angels. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.040 Another big fact about angels is how many are there? 0:06:22.540 --> 0:06:24.860 How many angels are there? Well, we know from Daniel 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:28.839 there are 10 million times 10 million, 100 million at 0:06:29.020 --> 0:06:31.130 a minimum. We know in the book of Revelations, it 0:06:31.150 --> 0:06:34.070 says millions upon millions. We know that in the book 0:06:34.089 --> 0:06:39.050 of Matthew, Jesus tells us that every child, and then 0:06:39.130 --> 0:06:41.550 even as they grow up into adulthood, but as a 0:06:41.630 --> 0:06:46.580 child has an angel that represents them and cares for 0:06:46.620 --> 0:06:49.260 them and guards them and stands before the Father in heaven. 0:06:49.860 --> 0:06:52.060 And there's no indication that once you go to heaven, 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.680 you lose your angel. And in fact, the Bible tells 0:06:54.820 --> 0:06:57.690 us that it's the angels that escort us from earth 0:06:57.790 --> 0:06:59.850 to heaven. You can read all the stories in the 0:06:59.890 --> 0:07:02.810 Bible about when people left their body on earth, they 0:07:02.830 --> 0:07:05.630 were escorted. If they were going to heaven, they were 0:07:05.670 --> 0:07:09.370 escorted by angels to heaven. And so you could do 0:07:09.410 --> 0:07:12.700 the math and go, okay, so if you calculate all 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.340 the people that have ever lived on earth, that would 0:07:15.380 --> 0:07:19.720 be billions upon billions, right? And if everyone has an angel, 0:07:20.780 --> 0:07:23.110 then that's a lot of angels. In other words, in 0:07:23.150 --> 0:07:26.150 the Bible, there's a story in the Bible where Elisha's 0:07:26.230 --> 0:07:29.500 servant was being fearful about a battle they were in, 0:07:29.620 --> 0:07:32.440 and Elisha prayed. He said, God, show him. Open up 0:07:32.460 --> 0:07:36.070 his eyes. Lord, show him that there are more with 0:07:36.410 --> 0:07:39.830 us than with our enemies. And the Lord opened up 0:07:39.870 --> 0:07:41.550 the eyes of his servant, and all of a sudden, 0:07:41.590 --> 0:07:44.710 he saw the host, the heavenly host of angels on 0:07:44.730 --> 0:07:48.630 the hillside, the mountains around them, and he saw, wow, 0:07:48.670 --> 0:07:51.350 it's true. It's the invisible realm. I don't see it 0:07:51.390 --> 0:07:53.740 with my natural eye, but it doesn't make it any 0:07:53.770 --> 0:07:56.540 less true. It is a reality, and it was like, whoa. 0:07:57.050 --> 0:08:01.010 The mountains, the hills are alive with angels. And they're 0:08:01.030 --> 0:08:03.710 surrounding us and there's more. That's the point. There's more 0:08:03.730 --> 0:08:08.060 that are with us than are with the enemies that 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:10.140 would come against us or come against Christ or come 0:08:10.180 --> 0:08:12.480 against his church. And you just need to be reminded 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.860 of that. We're talking about you make me brave. Well, 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:19.230 one thing that makes you brave is when you know 0:08:19.610 --> 0:08:22.730 what you know. When you don't know what you don't know, 0:08:22.770 --> 0:08:25.190 it's hard to have bravery and courage and confidence. But 0:08:25.210 --> 0:08:28.250 when you begin to understand, there's a whole invisible realm 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.260 that is for you. God is for you. He is 0:08:31.300 --> 0:08:34.580 not against you. If God is for us, who can 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.740 be against us? And you start to dwell in that reality. 0:08:37.780 --> 0:08:40.040 You start to allow that to renew your mind to 0:08:40.059 --> 0:08:43.980 what is an absolute fact. There are more than enough angels. 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.579 And particularly, you and I each, we'll see in just 0:08:46.620 --> 0:08:50.070 a minute, have a guardian angel. that has been assigned 0:08:50.260 --> 0:08:53.030 to us. And we'll talk about that here in just 0:08:53.070 --> 0:08:56.650 a moment. All right, go over to Psalm 34, verse 0:08:56.650 --> 0:08:59.370 7 and verses 9 through 15. Let's talk about this, 0:08:59.410 --> 0:09:02.910 another reference. This is really a reference to that guardian angel. 0:09:03.270 --> 0:09:07.370 It says, the angel of the Lord encamps all around 0:09:07.470 --> 0:09:11.410 those who fear him and delivers them. Jump down to 0:09:11.429 --> 0:09:14.410 verse 9. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints. There 0:09:14.510 --> 0:09:17.000 is no want to those who fear him. The young 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.640 lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.120 Lord shall not lack any good thing. Come, you children, 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:25.520 listen to me. I will teach you to fear the Lord. 0:09:26.059 --> 0:09:28.319 Who is the man who desires life and loves many 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.059 good days that he may see good? Keep your tongue 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.660 from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.900 evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The 0:09:38.220 --> 0:09:40.780 eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his 0:09:40.940 --> 0:09:43.640 ears are open to their cry. So we see something 0:09:43.660 --> 0:09:47.069 about angels here and he tells us, The angel of 0:09:47.110 --> 0:09:52.520 the Lord's ability to be activated is somewhat contingent on something. 0:09:52.620 --> 0:09:54.660 So let's see what he said back to verse 7. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.760 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who 0:09:58.820 --> 0:10:03.320 fear him. and delivers them. So we have a guardian angel, 0:10:03.340 --> 0:10:05.260 and I'll give you another verse that Jesus mentioned this 0:10:05.300 --> 0:10:06.580 in just a moment, but I want you just to 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.970 see there is such a thing as an angel of 0:10:09.990 --> 0:10:13.110 the Lord, from the Lord, that encamps round about you, 0:10:13.429 --> 0:10:17.110 that guards you. But notice what it says, guards who? 0:10:17.410 --> 0:10:20.170 Those who fear him. So let's just talk about that 0:10:20.210 --> 0:10:23.030 for a second because it's an important one in terms 0:10:23.110 --> 0:10:26.590 of the activation, if you will, of the angelic help 0:10:26.670 --> 0:10:30.099 that God so wants us to experience. The rest of 0:10:30.130 --> 0:10:33.040 this psalm really defines what it means to fear the Lord. 0:10:34.179 --> 0:10:35.900 What does it mean to be a person who fears 0:10:35.980 --> 0:10:38.760 the Lord? It doesn't mean that you're afraid of the 0:10:38.820 --> 0:10:44.060 Lord in that sense. We're not afraid of the Lord, 0:10:44.900 --> 0:10:48.970 but we have a healthy, sober respect and reverence and 0:10:49.250 --> 0:10:53.370 awe for the Lord. He's God. We are not. We 0:10:53.410 --> 0:10:59.390 have a heartfelt reverence for the Lord and for his word. 0:10:59.690 --> 0:11:02.230 And it goes on in this passage, verse 9, it says, oh, 0:11:02.309 --> 0:11:04.650 fear the Lord. Okay. There's no want to those who 0:11:04.700 --> 0:11:07.410 fear him. There's no lack to those who fear the Lord. 0:11:08.150 --> 0:11:10.819 Verse 11, come, you children, listen to me. I will 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:12.699 teach you to fear the Lord. Now he's going to 0:11:12.740 --> 0:11:14.860 tell us how to do this, how to fear the Lord. 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:17.800 and have the benefit of this angel that encamps round 0:11:17.860 --> 0:11:22.160 about those who fear the Lord. He says, who is 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.830 the man who desires life and loves many good days? 0:11:25.030 --> 0:11:27.770 Another version says, how many of you want to love 0:11:27.890 --> 0:11:30.930 life and see good days? That's what it says in 0:11:30.950 --> 0:11:33.730 this version of this verse in Peter. It says, whoever 0:11:33.750 --> 0:11:36.730 wants to love life and see good days. How many 0:11:36.750 --> 0:11:38.809 of you are that? I am. I want to love 0:11:38.929 --> 0:11:41.599 life and I want to see good days. And that's 0:11:41.630 --> 0:11:43.720 a part of fearing the Lord. He says, whoever wants 0:11:43.740 --> 0:11:48.690 that Keep your tongue from evil and your lips that 0:11:48.710 --> 0:11:52.390 they speak no deceit. Depart from evil and do good. 0:11:52.470 --> 0:11:55.050 Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord 0:11:55.070 --> 0:11:56.969 are on the righteous and his ears are open to 0:11:57.010 --> 0:12:00.040 their cry. What is this idea of fearing the Lord? 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:01.860 How do you know if you're fearing the Lord? The 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:06.820 litmus test. The litmus test to know if we're fearing 0:12:06.900 --> 0:12:09.250 the Lord is what is coming out of our mouth. 0:12:10.300 --> 0:12:13.600 Whoever wants to love life and see good days. Listen, children, 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:15.660 I'm going to teach you how to fear the Lord. Now, 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.350 here it is. Whoever wants to love life and see 0:12:18.380 --> 0:12:22.589 good days, let him keep his tongue from speaking evil 0:12:22.929 --> 0:12:25.970 and his lips that they speak no deceit. What does 0:12:26.010 --> 0:12:29.810 that mean? It means that our mouth, our words agree 0:12:29.830 --> 0:12:32.730 with God's words. There's a story in the Old Testament 0:12:32.750 --> 0:12:35.840 where God sent the spies into the promised land. God 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.819 had promised them the land and said, go in and 0:12:38.860 --> 0:12:42.200 check it out. He sent 12 spies. 10 spies came 0:12:42.250 --> 0:12:44.699 back and said, oh, we can't take that land. There 0:12:44.740 --> 0:12:47.420 are giants in the land. We are like grasshoppers in 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:49.550 their sight. There is no way we can do it. 0:12:50.220 --> 0:12:53.080 Two spies came back and said, we are well able. 0:12:54.100 --> 0:12:56.150 We are well able to take that land. Let's go 0:12:56.230 --> 0:12:58.310 in and possess it at once. And do you know 0:12:58.350 --> 0:13:01.650 the Bible says that the Lord said the 10 spies 0:13:01.690 --> 0:13:04.110 that came back full of doubt and unbelief, do you 0:13:04.150 --> 0:13:07.840 know the Lord called that an evil report? And they 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.790 never went into the promised land. But the two spies 0:13:10.830 --> 0:13:13.230 that came back full of faith, those were the ones 0:13:13.270 --> 0:13:16.109 who feared the Lord. And those were the only two 0:13:16.170 --> 0:13:19.120 that went into the promised land. The angel of the 0:13:19.170 --> 0:13:22.020 Lord encamps round about those who fear the Lord. How 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:23.840 do I know if I fear the Lord? If you 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.840 want to love life and see good days, keep your tongue. 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.960 And all the people said, keep your tongue what? Full 0:13:31.980 --> 0:13:34.760 of God's word. And sometimes, who knows, you have to 0:13:34.820 --> 0:13:38.740 do that by faith. Sometimes you would rather complain Sometimes 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.590 you would rather murmur. Sometimes you would rather grumble. Sometimes 0:13:42.630 --> 0:13:46.130 you would rather talk doubt and unbelief, something completely opposite 0:13:46.150 --> 0:13:49.570 of the word. I mean, seriously, honestly, you can't believe 0:13:49.610 --> 0:13:51.829 how many times we're shaking hands at the door after 0:13:51.890 --> 0:13:54.929 the message. Hey, how are you doing today? Oh boy, 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.450 things are hard. It's really tough. Well, it might be 0:13:58.510 --> 0:14:00.610 hard and it might be really tough, but there should 0:14:00.630 --> 0:14:04.150 be another phrase at the end of that. Something like, 0:14:04.330 --> 0:14:06.949 but I know the Bible says God is for me. 0:14:07.510 --> 0:14:10.569 Who can be against me? There needs to be some 0:14:10.809 --> 0:14:14.819 faith coming out of our mouth if we want to 0:14:14.900 --> 0:14:19.440 experience the reality of this invisible realm, this angelic realm, 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:24.660 if we want to be brave. And all the people said, 0:14:25.940 --> 0:14:29.150 you're going to have to do something. Somebody else is 0:14:29.270 --> 0:14:31.930 not going to speak words for you. You are going 0:14:31.950 --> 0:14:33.850 to have to speak words. And we're kind of stirred 0:14:33.910 --> 0:14:36.530 up about it because so many people live in defeat 0:14:37.050 --> 0:14:40.980 and they're just waiting for the God tinkerbell dust to 0:14:41.030 --> 0:14:44.200 hit them. They're just fatalistic waiting on something. No, listen, 0:14:44.540 --> 0:14:48.540 God is waiting on you. God is waiting for you 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:53.280 to fear the Lord. Get his word in your heart. 0:14:53.340 --> 0:14:57.260 Get his word in your mouth and see some supernatural 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:04.170 things happen. And all the people said, amen. So go 0:15:04.370 --> 0:15:08.070 over to Hebrews 1. Let's look at this. I'll give 0:15:08.090 --> 0:15:11.510 you an example back in the Old Testament. This is crazy. 0:15:11.870 --> 0:15:15.840 There was a story in the Old Testament. God, there 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.600 was two guys, Balaam and Balak. Balak was the king 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.580 of Moab, a nation. There was an evil kingdom. They 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.300 were coming against Israel. And he said to a guy 0:15:25.340 --> 0:15:28.560 named Balaam, he said, hey, come on over. I want 0:15:28.580 --> 0:15:33.050 you to come over and curse Israel. And so Balaam 0:15:33.090 --> 0:15:35.110 was getting ready to go visit with this king, but 0:15:35.150 --> 0:15:37.190 he wasn't going to curse Israel. But the Lord said 0:15:37.210 --> 0:15:40.530 to Balaam, don't go. I don't want you going. You 0:15:40.570 --> 0:15:44.350 don't curse who I have blessed. Well, Balaam just decided 0:15:44.370 --> 0:15:46.510 he's going to do his own thing. So Balaam starts 0:15:46.530 --> 0:15:50.260 to head towards seeing Balak. He's riding his donkey. And 0:15:50.380 --> 0:15:52.910 on the journey, the donkey starts to push him in 0:15:52.930 --> 0:15:55.630 this narrow pass. The donkey starts to push him up 0:15:55.690 --> 0:15:59.090 against the rock. And Balaam starts beating his donkey. And 0:15:59.890 --> 0:16:03.380 then the donkey just lays down underneath Balaam. And Balaam 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:08.960 just starts beating the donkey. And eventually, the donkey starts talking. 0:16:11.100 --> 0:16:14.780 The donkey says, why are you beating me? Quit beating me. 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.440 I stopped because there's an angel in the middle of 0:16:18.500 --> 0:16:22.960 the road and he won't let us pass. A donkey talked. 0:16:24.330 --> 0:16:29.710 And this is not Shrek. And the donkey saw in 0:16:29.750 --> 0:16:32.530 the invisible realm, he saw an angel. And then the 0:16:32.550 --> 0:16:34.670 Bible says the Lord opened up Balaam's eyes and he 0:16:34.730 --> 0:16:37.580 saw the angel and got the message that he was 0:16:37.620 --> 0:16:39.260 not supposed to go see this king. And there's a 0:16:39.260 --> 0:16:41.700 whole other story to it. What are we talking about? 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.920 We're talking about the reality of this invisible realm. In 0:16:45.540 --> 0:16:47.940 this next verse I mentioned to you, in Hebrews 1, 0:16:47.940 --> 0:16:49.720 this is in the New Testament. So what do we 0:16:49.740 --> 0:16:55.310 learn in the New Testament about angels? Hebrews 1, verse 14. 0:16:55.290 --> 0:16:57.190 I'll read you a couple of versions just because this 0:16:57.250 --> 0:17:00.850 is such a good verse. In the New Living Translation, 0:17:00.890 --> 0:17:05.840 it says, Therefore, angels are only servants, spirits sent to 0:17:05.900 --> 0:17:10.020 care for people who will inherit salvation. In the Message Bible, 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:13.100 that same verse says, Isn't it obvious that all angels 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.580 are sent to help out with those lined up to 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.760 receive salvation? In the New King James, it says, Are 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.369 they not all ministering spirits? Talking about the angels. Are 0:17:22.390 --> 0:17:25.449 they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister or 0:17:25.490 --> 0:17:29.410 to serve for those who will inherit salvation? So there's 0:17:29.470 --> 0:17:32.530 three things we can see from this verse about angels 0:17:32.550 --> 0:17:37.050 that are important for us. Number one, angels are powerful spirits. 0:17:37.660 --> 0:17:42.520 They are spirit beings. And at times, they are manifested 0:17:42.619 --> 0:17:45.119 in the natural realm. At times, we can see them 0:17:45.140 --> 0:17:48.850 with our natural eye. God allows us to see. And 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.310 they can appear as men. We see examples of that, 0:17:51.350 --> 0:17:53.010 you know, as I mentioned already in the Bible, we 0:17:53.030 --> 0:17:55.310 see some examples of that, where they look like men. 0:17:55.369 --> 0:17:58.850 In fact, Hebrews says, hey, entertain strangers because you never know, 0:17:58.869 --> 0:18:02.950 you could be entertaining angels unaware. And so at times, 0:18:03.030 --> 0:18:05.220 they can look just like a person. But they're on 0:18:05.260 --> 0:18:08.020 assignment to do something that heaven wants them to do, 0:18:08.100 --> 0:18:11.860 and most of the time with a message. So there 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:16.060 are spirit beings that sometimes appear to the natural eye 0:18:16.100 --> 0:18:18.410 as men. Also, sometimes if a person sees them either 0:18:18.430 --> 0:18:20.090 in a dream or in a vision that God would 0:18:20.109 --> 0:18:21.850 give them or opens up their eyes to see something, 0:18:22.510 --> 0:18:25.090 the Bible calls it the discerning of spirits. What that 0:18:25.130 --> 0:18:28.689 is is God allows somebody to discern supernaturally. He basically 0:18:28.710 --> 0:18:30.970 takes a veil off your eyes for a second, and 0:18:30.990 --> 0:18:32.970 you are able to discern just for a minute to 0:18:33.130 --> 0:18:35.880 see into the invisible realms. It's one of the gifts 0:18:35.940 --> 0:18:38.460 of the Holy Spirit. And it's given as he wills 0:18:38.580 --> 0:18:41.300 for his purposes. But when that happens, a person sees 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:43.419 angels looking like angels, like how you and I would 0:18:43.460 --> 0:18:46.560 picture angels. Bright white, you know, the Bible describes them 0:18:46.580 --> 0:18:50.100 with bright white color and gold sashes and kind of 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.500 how we would picture an angel. We know from the 0:18:52.540 --> 0:18:55.659 Bible that some angels, the cherub and the seraphim angels, 0:18:55.780 --> 0:18:59.060 have wings. We know there are archangels. We know that 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.870 not all angels have wings. We know from the Old 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.929 Testament how big are angels. We know From the blueprint 0:19:06.990 --> 0:19:09.830 God gave to Moses and to David concerning building the 0:19:09.869 --> 0:19:13.709 tabernacle and the temple, we know in that blueprint, the 0:19:13.780 --> 0:19:15.659 size of the angels they were to make out of 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.659 wood and then overlay with gold. So these were not 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.560 real angels. This was just like statues. But God is 0:19:21.580 --> 0:19:23.800 the one that gave the blueprint. And God doesn't ever 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.380 do anything just because. So he's probably trying to communicate 0:19:26.420 --> 0:19:29.619 something to us. In that blueprint, the angels were 15 0:19:29.619 --> 0:19:33.520 feet tall. And their wingspan was 15 feet as well, 0:19:33.580 --> 0:19:35.439 seven and a half feet for one wing, seven and 0:19:35.460 --> 0:19:37.860 a half feet for the other. So we know just 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.419 in those, you know, statutes when they made the temple, 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.830 we know the size of angels. It was a picture 0:19:43.869 --> 0:19:47.750 of God saying, hey, look, angels are big. They're big. 0:19:48.050 --> 0:19:49.930 And there's a pretty good chance they're bigger than that. 0:19:50.060 --> 0:19:53.260 in real life because we know anytime somebody had a 0:19:53.580 --> 0:19:56.419 visitation or a message given to them from an angel 0:19:56.869 --> 0:20:02.669 they bowed down in trembling like it woke them up 0:20:02.750 --> 0:20:04.550 and the angel would make them stand up and say 0:20:04.570 --> 0:20:07.409 hey don't worship me we don't worship angels we worship 0:20:07.450 --> 0:20:12.450 God Angels are just messengers, spirit beings sent to serve. 0:20:13.170 --> 0:20:16.030 Number two, what else do we know? Number two, angels 0:20:16.310 --> 0:20:22.560 minister to and serve humans. These are God's ministers, servants 0:20:22.890 --> 0:20:29.160 sent to serve humans. Humans don't serve angels. Humans don't 0:20:29.260 --> 0:20:34.180 worship angels. Humans worship God. Humans pray to God. But 0:20:34.300 --> 0:20:37.380 God has an angelic host he dispatches on our behalf 0:20:37.660 --> 0:20:40.180 And there's ways we can cooperate with God so that 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:44.869 it happens or doesn't. But angels are sent to serve humans. 0:20:45.170 --> 0:20:50.189 Number three, angels serve those who are or will be saved. Now, 0:20:50.210 --> 0:20:53.370 that's an interesting one. Notice what it says. These ministering spirits, 0:20:53.390 --> 0:20:56.729 these angels are sent to help those lined up to 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:02.060 receive salvation, those who are heirs of salvation. That's you. 0:21:02.100 --> 0:21:04.619 That's me. Those who are Christians, those who are believers, 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.800 those who are saved and saved. In part, what they do, 0:21:08.340 --> 0:21:10.680 part of what God has angels do is help us 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:15.619 experience all the things that go with salvation. Salvation is 0:21:15.700 --> 0:21:17.980 more than just getting your name written in God's reservation 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:22.270 book in heaven. The Bible definition of salvation, to be saved, 0:21:22.570 --> 0:21:24.370 has to do with a whole lot more. It has 0:21:24.380 --> 0:21:29.429 to do with temporal and eternal blessings, being rescued, being delivered, 0:21:29.790 --> 0:21:32.889 being set free, being healed. I mean, there's so much 0:21:33.170 --> 0:21:36.470 that goes with the word salvation that And it's interesting 0:21:36.510 --> 0:21:39.450