God is Interested in Refugees

Ps. 9: 9,10 46:1 (read)

• Dictionary Refuge: ” a shelter, a place that provides protection from danger and distress.
• God is my refuge. In him I find that place of peace and protection from this world.
  During times of instability, he is my strength and shelter.
• When problems and trials come my way, its God that fights my battles for me.
  He enables me to be an over comer!!!
• Does anyone know what I/m talking about this morning?
  He’s the reason I keep on living, he’s the reason I exist!
  He is my everything!!

***********************************

• Today, we hear the word “refugee” quote often.
  When a war or another country invades, the people flee for their life.
  They run from their homes and run into the mts and woods to escape harm.
  If they flee into another city or country for safety, they are called “refugees”.
• This morning! There are refugee camps in Pakistan and surrounding countries around
• Afghanistan that house 1,000s of people that ran for their life’s when America
  began bombing the Taliban government.
• There are refugee camps in Israel, Africa and Central America, war torn countries all over the globe today.
• They are a displaced people. They are a people w/o a country.
• They seek peace and safety in a better place.
• God loves refugees this morning!

**********************************

• Heb. 11 tells us Abraham was a refugee. (read vs. 8-10, 13-16)
• Whether you realize it or not , you are a refugee.
  You use to belong to this world and all its sin but when you became born again,
  you left the world behind.
• You fled from sin and judgement and ran into the church for safety.
  The Lord met you here and filled you with his presence.
• It was here that you felt peace and security.
  It was here that you found hope for the future.
  Jesus became a refuge for our souls and we became a refugee.
  God loves refugees!
• Heb. 11 points out that if we look for the opportunity to return back to this world, we will find it. But we must be like Abraham that wasn’t looking for a hole in the fence.
  -he had his mind on another place, a place called Heaven.
  -that New Jerusalem that was built by God himself.
  “wherefore God was not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for
  them a city”
• *For those that honor the Lord by living as “strangers and pilgrims” in this
  life and yearn to be with God in another life, he will acknowledge them
  and call them his children
• God loves me and you this morning because we are his children.
  We are refugees from this world on our way to glory!
• Prov. 18:10 “The name of the Lord is a strong tower that the righteous runneth into and is
  safe”
  
• II Sam. 22:50 “He is the tower of salvation and showeth mercy to his anointed”
• This church stands a place of refuge for the hurting and abused of this world to find healing.
  -we are the paramedics that must mend them back to health.
• What would it be like if someone sick or was involved in a accident, went to the ER, but
  no one waited on them?
• What would it be like if they did shake their hands and found out their name but never
  paid any attention to them?
  (They’d only get sicker and eventually die, right there in the waiting room)
• This church is a “waiting room” , we’re all here to be healed and delivered from our sins.
  We’re waiting for God to come back and take us home to Heaven!
• What would it feel like if while we were in the ER, that the nurse tried to poison us or actually took a knife and stabbed us in the back when we weren’t looking?
• *Church, we must be careful, how you treat someone when they come in those doors.
  -they need immediate attention! 1st) Your attention!
  -2nd) they need Gods attention for he is the great physician!
• Your encouraging words can bring health or your fault finding words can become as poison unto them.
  -if you talk against the pastor or sp. leadership, you are spreading “sp. anthrax”
  among the church body.
  -if you are nice to someone’s face but then talk against them, you are stabbing
  them in the back.
• *Someone has said unfortunately “The church is the only army that kills its wounded”
  This is a place of refuge! Its not a “clubhouse” for members only!!!
  This place is a ER Waiting Room, where the sp. sick can be forgiven and find hope.
• We are in the Lords Army, lets not kill one another, but lets encourage one another!!!
  John 14:1-3 (read) Heb. 10: 23-25 (read)
• The Lord is coming soon and I want everyone in here to go w/ him!
  (Tell neighbor: “I want you to make it”)
• We cant’ leave anyone behind sick and unattended to.
  We can’t have blood on our hands from back stabbing” and expect to go to Heaven.
  We have to help one another to get to “the other side”.
  -If someone isn’t here today and tonight, you need to get on the phone
  and ask them what you can do to encourage them.

*****************************

• OT tells us about 6 “Cities of Refuge” that Moses ordered to be set up as a place of safety. -Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer, Ramoth, Golan
• If someone accidentally killed someone, it was a accident, they were innocent!
• There were 6 walled cities designated that this person could run into and they couldn’t be
  prosecuted by the family.
• They would present their case to the local officials in that city and they would find a place of safety until it was OK to return back home or the trail came about.
• Joshua 20: 1-9 (read)
• These 6 cities were evenly placed thruout the country so everyone would be near one.
  If someone killed someone unknowingly and not premeditated, they went to one of these cities of refuge.
• In the heat of revenge or in the excitement of an argument, men would often harm one another, not meaning to kill one another but it happened.
• But once blood had been shed, more blood had to be shed.
• So one accidental killing, led to more killings so in Numbers 20, Bible tells us Moses stepped in and created these Cities of Refuge.
• These “cities of refuge” allowed time to collect evidence and facts in the killing.
  So the one that did the killing would get a fair trail.
• The “avenger of the blood” or as its said today “blood relative” couldn’t do anything to them as long as they remained in the walls of the city.
  The Heb word for avenger was “goel” which meant redeemer or kinsmen!
• It was perfectly legal for the “goel” to chase after the person who killed one of their relatives and kill them before they reached the city of refuge.
• The goel would try to trick the person to come out of the city.
  -He would send false invitations or papers saying he was wanted in his home town.
  -He would pay others to try and get the person to go outside the walls for a hunting
  or pleasure trip.
• If that person stepped outside the walls of the city, the kinsmen redeemer, the goel, the blood relative could legally slay them.
• The Devil will try his best to get you out of the church.
  He will whisper anything just to get you to stop serving God.
  He wants you to step out of the church just for a moment and “he’ll get you”.
• Don’t let him trick you by staying home from service.
  When you stay home during service, you’re getting robbed of Gods blessing.
• Don’t let what some says or doesn’t do keep you out of church.
  Don’t’ let anyone get between you and God.

*********************************

• “Family Feuds” are an old way of life to some folks!
• The most famous one in America was the Hatfields and McCoys in W. Virginia.
  -My family went down there a few yrs ago and saw a two hour outdoor
  dramatization of the whole story.
  -Each generation would grow up hating the other family across the mt and they would kill each other if they ever saw one another.
  -Before it was all over with 65 people had died.
• Briefly, in 1861 issues that led to the Civil war divided families in eastern Kentucky.
  It led to brothers enlisting in the war and fighting against one another. (North/South)
  After the war, many of these men or family members returned home hating each other.
  Hotspots and friction flared up often and life in the mts was never the same.
• The Hatfields and McCoys happened in Tug Valley.
  Tug Valley was the dividing line for Pike County, Kentucky and Logan, Cty. W.Vir.
  -1st fought each other in the Cival war
  -then one accused the other for stealing his pig
  -then one of the Hatfield boys got one of the McCoys girls pregnant and didn’t
  marry her.
  -they fought over the timber, they fought over the coal
• Today, there is life size statue in Sarah Ann, W.Vir of William Anderson Hatfield, also known also “Devil Anse”.
  Bible says the Devil “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour
• II Cor.2:11 “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his
  devices”
• I hope I’m making sense here today.
  This church is a “city of refuge”
  
• The name of Jesus is what we can call upon and find a place of safety.
• The Devil and the world is after us, to judge and try us for our sins but God has provided a Spiritual ER, a waiting room, a place of deliverance for our souls.
• Jesus paid the price for our salvation on Calvary but the devil wants to deceive us in these last days.
  -he wants us to get caught up with our jobs our hobbies, our problems, our flesh,
  whatever he can use to trick us
• Bible says in Matt. 24:24 that in the last days that even “the very elect shall” be deceived
  if possible.
• So this morning!
  Some call him Savior, some call him Redeemer, I just call him Jesus because he’s my
  closet friend.
• If you think no one loves you and no one cares, I know a man who can, his name is Jesus.
• I can’t walk on water or calm the storms in your life but I know a man who can.
  I can’t cause the blind to see or the lame to get up and walk again but I know a man
  who can.
• I can’t take a broken heart and fix it.
  I can’t take a soul that is sin sick , wash it up and make it white as snow but I know a man
  who can.
• He is here right now, you can touch him. His name is Jesus!!
  He’s here right now listening closely for your prayer
• Some of you are hurting and in pain.
  Been wounded from time to time.
  You can look into your eyes and see the “yearning and emptiness” for more of God.
• There is a refuge and his name is Jesus.
• Maybe from you’re at, its hard to see but Jesus has a heart for refugees.
  God is interested in refugees this morning.
• Believe me when I say:
  You can get past your past,
  You can walk away from those painful memories,
  You can stand upon the Word of God
• You don’t have to be alone and afraid this morning
  Jesus is here and he loves refugees.