In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith emphasizes the importance of giving thanks and showing praise to God. He encourages listeners to experience the joy and fulfillment that comes from witnessing God's work in their lives. Pastor Chuck highlights the greatness of God's works and the depth of His thoughts. He also emphasizes the significance of spending time with God in the morning and at night, expressing gratitude for His loving kindness and faithfulness. The sermon concludes with a mention of a DVD titled "Halloween, Innocent Fun or Spiritual Deception," which aims to educate and equip Christians about the origins and potential spiritual implications of Halloween.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that mold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today The broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be focusing on abiding in God's presence As we pick up in the 91st Psalm Beginning with verse 5 And now with today's message Here's Pastor Chuck Smith Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night Nor for the arrow that flyeth by day Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday The Lord will watch over me The Lord will keep me He will protect me Night and day He is watching over me I don't need to fear I don't need to be worried about What evil might befall me Because the Lord is taking care of me He's watching me There are people who have all kinds of phobias They even have a phobophobia That's the fear of being afraid Fear can destroy But you don't need to be afraid When you're dwelling in the secret place of the Most High Because the Lord is your fortress He is your refuge A thousand shall fall at thy side Ten thousand at thy right hand But it shall not come nigh thee That person who has made God his place of dwelling His life is hid with Christ in God What security is ours? Only with thine eyes shalt thou see and behold the reward of the wicked Now because you have made the Lord Which is my refuge Even the Most High, your dwelling place, your habitation There shall no evil befall thee Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways And they shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot Against a stone God is in control Of the circumstances of my life And all things that he allows To take place within my life Are for my good Now I can't always see that When I'm in the midst of a trial When I'm in the midst of a problem I can't always see the end result I can't see what God is working out or seeking to work out in my life And I am prone at times To sort of complain unto God Because of my circumstances Because I am judging Before I see the final outcome But at this stage it looks bad And so I am prone to make my judgment At this particular point Not waiting for the full cycle Not waiting to see what will be the end result And that is of course a tragedy that Befalls many of us And that is of prejudging Before we have all the facts And there are so many things as I look back in life That as I was going through the experience itself I thought that God had deserted me I could not see any possible good That could come from the situation It looked all bad to me And there were times when I would really Express unto God My doubts And then in time as God worked the whole thing out I saw the wisdom, I saw the plan I saw the whole picture and I said wow Wasn't that wonderful what God did in my life All things work together for good God only allows that to come to my life Even of the hardship and the trials Only to work out a good purpose in me God never tests to destroy Often I believe that God tests us To prove to us How much we have to rely upon Him If you think that you're strong and independent in a certain area God will give you a real testing in that area Where you realize hey I can't do it And so I cast my cares and my trust upon Him again Shows me my weaknesses Now it is interesting that it declares He will give His angels charge over thee In the New Testament Hebrews it talks about angels And it says that they are ministering spirits Who have been sent forth to minister to those that are heirs of salvation Angels are a special creation of God They are spirit beings They dwell in the presence of God They are of different ranks, authorities, powers There are times in the Bible where the angels appeared unto men And talked with men I would not discount the possibility of an angel appearing to us We are told in Hebrews that we should be careful To entertain strangers you never know but what you might be entertaining an angel without knowing it We've heard speak of guardian angels but Perhaps this scripture would be the basis for that He will give His angels charge over thee To keep thee in all thy ways To bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone Now Satan knows the scripture And often times seeks to pervert the scripture And this is one scripture that Satan sought to pervert In the temptation of Christ As he took Jesus up to the pinnacle of the temple And looked down at the pavement below some 300 feet And he said why don't you jump from here For it is written he will give his angels charge over thee To keep thee in all thy ways Why don't you jump? Prove the scriptures And Jesus said it is written again Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God So the importance of comparing scripture with scripture Not taking just a half of a scripture or a passage And trying to build a doctrine on it It is important that we balance the scriptures And it is important that we not just Put ourselves in jeopardy to prove God's power I don't think that God wants us or intends that we should just Go out and live recklessly and carelessly Well his angels are going to take over me Don't worry I don't believe that God intends us to deliberately jeopardize ourselves Just to prove a scripture Surely Jesus indicated that When Satan suggested that he jump and just trust the word of God The angels to bear thee up But that would be tempting God Or testing God And you're not to test God in that way Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under your feet Now in this psalm Beginning with verse 14 God responds And God speaks more or less in the first person here Beginning with verse 14 The psalmist has been talking about that person Who has determined to make God his dwelling place Determined to live in that fellowship with God Living in the secret place of the Most High And thus God responds himself to that person And he declares because He has set his love upon me Because you love God God said I will deliver him I will set him on high because he has known my name He shall call upon me And I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honor him What glorious promises God is speaking now to you who have set your love upon him You have really come to the place where you really love God The promise of deliverance Exaltation The answers to prayers The presence of God in trouble The deliverance and honoring And then with long life Will I satisfy him and show him my salvation So the blessing of walking in fellowship with God And living in the secret place of the Most High This psalm is entitled a psalm or a song For the Sabbath day It is a psalm that is filled with praises It was sung on the Sabbath day And then it was also sung on the second day of the Feast of the Tabernacles And it is a psalm that just extols the Lord Is filled with praises to him It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord And to sing praises unto his name O Most High unto thy name O Most High Singing praises unto the Lord It's a good thing We remember when Jesus was ministering here on earth There were ten men who came to him who were lepers And they wanted to be healed Now according to the law if you were healed of leprosy You had to first of all go show yourself to the priest He would examine you And then he would put you in a house for seven days kind of a quarantine And examine you again And if at the end of the seven days there was no sign of any further leprosy Then you would be declared clean from your leprosy You would offer the sacrifices that were required And you could return to society So these ten men had come to Jesus and sought healing And so Jesus told them to take the first step towards restoration He said go show yourself to the priest And so they headed off for the priest to be examined by the priest The first step in the restoration into society As they went they discovered that they were healed And one in seeing that he was healed Did not continue to the priest but came running back to Jesus to give thanks And Jesus said were there not ten who were cleansed of their leprosy Where are the nine Only this one has returned to give thanks And he said to him go thy way Thy faith hath made thee whole He received more than just a physical healing By giving of thanks he was made whole It's a good thing to give thanks to the Lord I think that so often we take the goodness of God for granted I think that it is a tragedy that we Many times fail to acknowledge that work of God And to give him thanks for what he has done One of the things that God declares will perpetrate his coming wrath In Romans 1 When they knew God they glorified him not as God Neither were they thankful There is so much that God has done For which we should be giving thanks to God continually To sing praises unto thy name Going around the house, driving down the road I enjoy just singing praises to the Lord Songs of praises filling my heart It creates such a great atmosphere Songs of praises unto God It can lift you out of depression It can give you encouragement and strength Just a good thing to do it To show forth his loving kindness in the morning And his faithfulness every night Now it was felt and is felt by many that Those are the best times to spend time with the Lord First thing in the morning and the last thing at night Just to give thanks to God for a new day Just to commit your life afresh to him Lord here I am Accomplish in me your purposes this day Fulfill your will Lord I present my body to you Use me Lord however you desire today To declare his loving kindness in the morning And his faithfulness every night Last thing at night Lord you have been good You have been faithful, you have watched over You have kept me And now Lord I commit myself And so morning and evening And that's when the Jews usually prayed Every morning, every night Upon the instrument of ten strings And upon the psaltery Now the psaltery is sort of a lute These are the instruments that they used in the temple worship He's not talking about in your house now Most of you are not musicians And it wouldn't be so good to give thanks With an instrument that you can't really play Upon the harp with a solemn sound And so it's talking about worship in the sanctuary It's stringed instruments, they use those In the accompaniment of their praises You know I think it would be great If somehow, someway We could have a video of David's worship in the temple I mean he really went for it He went all out, gung-ho You know in his worship of God And I think that sometimes we get rather stood and stuffy But I would like to have seen David And have heard the instruments, the choirs and all that he had I'm certain that it would be an extremely moving experience Now the reasons to give thanks To show his loving kindness, verse 4 For thou Lord has made me glad through thy work Watching God work is such a thrilling thing Thou has made me glad through thy work I will triumph Lord or rejoice In the work of your hands I will exult, just overflow With the works of thy hands For Lord how great are thy works And thy thoughts are very deep We'll return with more of our verse by verse venture Through the Bible in our next lesson As Pastor Chuck Smith continues to guide us Through the study of the Psalms We do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy For that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting One of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you With the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again our toll free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience You can order online anytime When you go to the wordfortoday.org And while you're there Be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs And so much more Once again that's the word for today online At thewordfortoday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address Which is the word for today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters Of this station with your correspondence And now before we close out today's program I'd like to remind you that Don Stewart Is joining us all this week in the studio To help answer some of the many questions we get On the subject of Halloween And Don, this listener would like to know What the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages Had to do with Halloween The Roman Catholic Church Wanted to get rid of all pagan influences Part of the problem was The worship and celebration of Samhain On October 31st Kept going on in the Roman Empire And so at that particular time What they decided to do is change One of the church days, one of the holidays All Saints Day To make it on November 1st And so instead of celebrating Samhain On November 1st, the people of the empire The pagans could celebrate All Saints Day So All Saints Eve became All Hallows Eve Or Halloween Which celebrates the hallowedness Of the saints from November 1st And so the evening before All Saints Day Instead of a day where they worship Samhain, the lord of the dead And all the druid worship What they did is supposedly acknowledge The saints of the Christian Church Yet the people didn't go for it They still kept the vestiges of Samhain Of this pagan, druid, Celtic holiday Where they would worship the dead They would acknowledge the dead Became mixed with the living And so here and again lies the problem The Christian Church Instead of eradicating the belief Instead of not acknowledging this day Actually changed a church calendar day All Saints Day From May 13th to November 1st And therefore the eve of that Became All Hallows Eve And it became a day when supposedly the saints were recognized Thanks Don And we'll be looking forward to hearing more from you tomorrow As we learn how witches Came to be a part of Halloween And now on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you Who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith Continues his verse-by-verse venture Through the Psalms That's right here On the next edition of The Word for Today And now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith With today's closing prayer Father we thank you That you have been Our dwelling place That our lives are hid With Christ in God And Lord it is our desire That we might love you With all of our heart And soul and mind And strength And we pray Lord we just Pray that you'll Help us To remain steadfast Unmovable Using the time That you have given us wisely In things that will count For eternity In Jesus name Amen Hey let's go to that house Yeah the lights are on Wait you got more candy than I did No I didn't Yeah you did Trick or Treat Pastor Chuck and Don Stewart have released An informative DVD entitled Halloween Innocent Fun Or Spiritual Deception This DVD will educate and equip you With helpful information about Halloween To defend the faith As a Christian Should I be Involved in things That have the origin I don't think there's anything wrong with People dressing up as Witches with black hats Or goblins Ancient Celts would go about House to house wearing masks Pretending they were the dead relatives Of the people of the house To order this Halloween DVD hosted by Pastor Chuck and Don Stewart Call the word for today At 800-272-WORD Or visit us online To watch a preview At thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California