Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of seeking God's presence and the shelter He provides amidst life's challenges, drawing parallels from the story in 2 Kings 6-7. He highlights the desperate situation in Samaria during a famine, where the king and the people were in despair, while the lepers, recognizing their hopelessness, found salvation and sustenance by surrendering to God. The sermon encourages believers to approach God with anticipation and faith, rather than seeking refuge in worldly distractions. Beach Jr. reminds the congregation that true nourishment comes from God, who opens the heavens to provide for those who trust in Him. He calls for a deeper relationship with God, urging everyone to recognize their need for Him as their ultimate shelter.

That he'll be able to put each one of these Nuggets of truth in its proper place in your heart and in your mind so that he can use it to meet that Particular need that you have this morning as I say oftentimes the Holy Spirit wants us to learn to come to church to meet him, and I trust that as your Christian life continues on and as you continue to walk with the Lord you have a increasing desire and anticipation welling up within your soul to arise on Sunday mornings and Wednesdays when we can come together and to anticipate meeting God We have for too long come to church anticipating meeting something other than the Lord and When our hearts are desirous to come together and meet God When we want to come to church Determined like our dear brother Jacob who now is in the presence of God with the determination I will not leave until I receive a blessing I've got to I've got to receive something from the Lord Then my dear friends we will indeed experience that very thing That we've longed for Psalm number 31 Psalm number 31 Beginning in verse number 19 How great is your goodness which you have stored up for those who fear you Which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you in The shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men in Your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues Praise be to the Lord for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city In my alarm I said I am cut off from your sight Yet you have heard my cry for mercy when I called you for help Love the Lord all his saints the Lord preserves the faithful But the proud he pays back in full Be strong and take heart all you who hope in the Lord There is a place of refuge a Place of safety that the Lord wants to reveal to you and I The Bible says in verse number 20 in the shelter of your presence you hide them Dear friends it is my prayer That the Holy Spirit Will reveal to you that glorious blissful place of the shelter of his presence May I suggest this morning that the shelter of his presence is available to every blood-washed believer The shelter of his presence is a lovely place to dwell in The Bible says we are in the world, but we are not of the world But I suggest that it is impossible to be in the world and not to become of the world Unless you find the shelter of the Most High as your abiding place The Shelter of the Almighty is a strong place a place where you are hidden him and My dear friends in this particular scripture the Bible says that the shelter of God's presence Hides us from the intrigues of men and in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues Where can you run from the accusing tongue? Where can you run and be safe from even accusing someone else with your tongue? Where can we go to be sheltered? from the evil pernicious Intrigues of men Where can we go to be safe from the spirit that now is in control of this world? Where can we be safe? How can we be preserved blameless in the sight of God in a crooked and Perverted generation, how can we shine as lights? How can we be the salt of the earth? May I suggest the secret is to find Jesus Christ as your abiding place as the shelter That covers you turning to psalm number 55 psalm number 55 Beginning in verse number 1 psalm number 55 beginning in verse number 1 Listen to my prayer. Oh God do not ignore my plea Hear me and answer me My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught At the voice of the enemy at the snares of the wicked For they bring down sufferings upon me and revile me in their anger My heart is in anguish within me Now many of us have had a heart of anguish Many of us have faced distressing situation But May we learn from the scripture this morning this dear heart as we read on verse 5 fear and trembling have beset me horror has overwhelmed me and All too often we as the psalmist in verse 6 have said I Said all that I had the wings of a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. I Would flee far away and stay in the desert I Would hurry to my place of shelter far from the tempest and the storm Here the psalmist was looking for a way out How many have ever looked for a way out How Many have wished you had the wings of an eagle so you can fly away And Find this Shangri-La Where you're on your couch unhindered and unmoved by troubles and distresses We want to avoid the situation That's one way we cope with things we don't like Sometimes I tell my wife that I'll do the dishes for her And then when the minute comes down to it I find myself reasoning. How can I avoid this situation? And then I'll hear a voice are you ready to do the dishes and I get my rubber gloves And I do them, but I must admit at times I'm tempted to avoid the situation because at the moment of confrontation I Just lose heart. Oh That I had the wings of an eagle then I could fly away How we so imagine ways in our mind to avoid things that we don't like Do you have the wings of eagles in your imagination this morning Hoping wishing trying to find a way to fly away from your present situation Now you might have some roses in it, but all there's always a thorn somewhere isn't there? That's true isn't it Doug Roses Have thorns don't they and By golly the minute we get up close enough to a rose to smell it the thorn pricks us in the nose Right and we start bleeding, and we say God. How come I just can't have roses. Why do I have these thorns I? Mean to pick up the rose you've got to be careful We try to avoid the situation I Said all that I had the wings of a dove. I would fly away and be at rest verse 7 I would flee far away and stay in the desert I would hurry to my place of shelter After trying to avoid the situation we then begin to deny its existence We Deny its existence by Finding our own place of shelter concocting Whatever it is that enables us to successfully Pretend that it's no longer there We may get lost in the television Or preoccupied with a book Or increasingly interested in a hobby that we haven't thought about for 15 years We're looking for a shelter We're looking for a place of rest. We're weary. We're tired What's your place of shelter That you have flown to on your wings Our place of shelter inevitably Produces depression despair despondency anger the works of the flesh and We become most miserable don't we I Going to verse number 16 Here's God's alternative to looking for wings Friends I'm asking the Lord to write these words upon the tables of your heart though they appear to be quite simple and elementary you will discover That these are the foundations by which you will Overcome in this world Verse number 16, but I call to God and the Lord saves me Evening morning and noon I cry out in distress and he hears my voice He ransoms me unharmed from the battle waged against me Even though many oppose me God who is enthroned forever will hear them and afflict them Here the psalmist after having spent a time in Contemplating how he may run from the situation that he was confronted with Finally came to the end of his road He came to the end of himself he came to the end of his journey, and he looked up and cried out to God and found a shelter in the Lord Psalm number 17 Keep me as the apple of your eye hide me in the shadow of your wings From the wicked who assault me from my mortal enemies who surround me Notice here hide me in the shadow of your wings Psalm 18 beginning in verse number one. I love you. Oh Lord my strength The Lord is my rock My Fortress and my deliverer My God is my rock in whom I take refuge He is my shield and the horn of my salvation my stronghold I Call to the Lord who is worthy of praise and am saved from my enemies Dear friends it is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you this morning That you would discover the sublime truth of God becoming your rock When God is your rock though you are on sinky ground you will stand for the Lord upholds those Who stand upon the rock The Lord is my fortress It's funny these words does seem to be describing things that you would associate with battle Struggle Distress How shall you know the Lord as your rock lest? He leads you into quicken sand quicksand How Shall you know that he is your fortress Lest you find yourself in a place of Great distress He is my deliverer Shall we know God is a deliverer without finding ourself in the need to be delivered No not at all My God is my rock in whom I take refuge He is my shield and The horn of my salvation my stronghold I Call to the Lord who is worthy of praise and I am saved from all My enemies May God help us this morning to run to him and Find that he is able to sustain us Beware my friend beware of The temptation That assaults you of Looking for eagle wings and Flying away avoiding denying pretending But come to him Fall before him be weak and he will revive your soul strengthen you and encourage you Let's just have a word of prayer before we move on Father we thank you and praise you That you have revealed yourself as a rock in a weary land Lord make known unto us this morning the certainty of Who you are and that in whatsoever state we find ourself You are sufficient Lead us to the rock Where we can be strong to the shield Where we can be guarded to thy presence where we can be hid Shepherd us Lord We so need the God this morning Amen, I wish I could sing that song Jesus is a rock in a weary land a Shelter in the time of storm, but he is I would invite you to turn your Bibles to 2nd Kings 2nd Kings chapter 6 While you're turning your Bibles to 2nd Kings chapter 6 I'm going to read a scripture in Amos Amos chapter 8 you could be in 2nd Kings chapter 6 Amos 8 verse 11 the days are coming declares the Sovereign Lord when I will send a famine through the land Not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east Searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it in that day The lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst They who swear by the shame of Samaria or say as surely as your God lives Oh Dan or as surely as the God of Beersheba lives they will fall never to rise again The Prophet Amos describes a day when there would be a famine in the land but it's a spiritual famine a famine That causes the strong and the mighty to faint and to fall We're going to read this morning. I'm going to be reading from the new international version as I always say if you have a different version And you can't follow along in your Bible and hear my voice at the same time without getting confused and just listen if You can find we're going to read a story And then we're going to simply bring out Certain points of that story that correlate to what God is doing in our life today Okay, now. This is a good story. It's exciting so I trust that you'll listen carefully second Kings chapter 6 beginning in verse number 24 beginning in verse number 24 some time later Ben Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and Marched up and laid siege to Samaria There was a great famine in the city and the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for 80 shekels of silver and a quarter of a cap of seed pods for five shekels as The king of Israel was passing by on the wall a woman cried to him help me my lord the king The king replied if the Lord does not help you where can I get help for you? from the fleshing floor from the wine press Then he asked her. What's the matter? She answered This woman said to me Give up your son so we may eat him today and Tomorrow we'll eat my son So we cooked my son and ate him the next day. I said to her give up your son So we may eat him, but she had hidden him Now friends this sounds gross, but the fact is the famine was so severe that people were turning to this So we're getting a picture of the severity of the famine in the land Verse 30 when the king heard the woman's words he tore his robes. He should have torn his heart But he didn't He tore his robes. We're always tearing the wrong thing aren't we he should have rent his heart and not his garment as He went along the wall the people looked in there underneath. He had sackcloth on his body He said may God deal with me be it ever so severely if the head of Elisha Son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today Now Elisha was sitting in his house and the elders were sitting with him the king sent a messenger ahead But before he arrived Elisha said to the elders don't you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head Look when the messenger comes Shut the door and hold it Shut against him is not the sound of his master's footsteps behind him While he was still talking to them the messenger came down to him and the king said this disaster is from the Lord Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? Elisha said hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says about this time tomorrow a say of flower will sell for a shekel and two says of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria The officer on whose arm the king was leading said to the man of God look Even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens could this happen You will see it with your eyes Answered Elisha, but you will not eat any of it Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate They said to each other why stay here until we die if We say we'll go into the city the famine is there and we will die and if we stay here we will die So let's go over to the camp of the Armeans and surrender if they spare us we live If they kill us, then we die. Let's get the setting very quickly. We've got a terrible famine in the land We've got the king who is angry at Elisha as if it's Elisha's fault Then we've got the king and a messenger talking to Elisha Telling him listen, what's going on here Elisha? There's a severe famine and Elisha said listen About this time tomorrow say a flower will sell for a shekel and two saves a body for a shekel at the gate of Samaria Elisha was saying listen, there's going to be food tomorrow but the king's servant didn't believe it and now we've got four lepers and They're ready to die and they come up with a plan We got to do something so they went into the camp of the enemy verse number five at dusk They got up and went to the camp of the Armeans when they reached the edge of the camp not a man was there for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army so that they said one to another look the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives the men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents they ate and drank and carried away silver gold and clothes and went off and hid them They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also Do you see here? Here's a bunch of lepers Eating and enjoying The good food now, let's follow the story here verse 9 When they said to each other we're not doing right This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves if we wait until daylight punishment will overtake us Let's go at once and report this to the royal palace So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them we went into the Armenian camp and not a man was there Not a sound of anyone only tethered horses and donkeys and the tents left just as they were The gatekeepers shouted the news and it was reported within the palace The king got up in the night and said to his officers I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us They know we are starving So they have left the camp to hide in the countryside thinking they will surely come out And then we will take them alive and get into the city Now is that why they left their camp? Absolutely not Absolutely not The Lord drove him now One of his officers answered have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city Their plate will be like that of all the Israelites left there Yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened So they selected two chariots with their horses and the king sent them after the Aramean army He commanded the drivers go and find out what has happened They followed them as far as the Jordan and they found the whole road shrewd With the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong fight So the messengers returned and reported to the king Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans listen to this so a say a flower sold for a shekel and Two says of barley sold for a shekel as the Lord had said now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate and The people trampled him in the gateway and he died Just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house It happened as the man of God had said to the king about this time tomorrow a say a flower will sell for a shekel and To say a flower two says of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria The officer had said to the man of God look Even if the Lord should open the floodgates of heaven could this happen the man of God had replied you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it and That is exactly what happened to him for the people trampled him in the gateway and he died Now that was a long story But I like to read the Bible. How about you? Maybe you say I like to read it, but I don't like to hear you read. Oh, I'm sorry I'm sorry There's nothing much we could do about that. Hey, the Word of God is precious. I mean, I see Jesus in this story It's 25 after I Know I don't have much time and I told you I'm not gonna preach lengthy, but I want to bring out some points now This is a rhetorical question Those who were here Wednesday night and heard the teaching on Gideon How many read it? I don't want you to raise your hand Now see if you take advantage of these opportunities you will learn You will learn now second Kings chapter 6 and 7 Read it when you get home read it tonight read it in the morning and The Lord will quicken the story and Minister to you. I want to bring out some things the Lord shared with me and then We'll let you go we have a terrible terrible famine here and In the midst of the famine we have Seven characters. I want to mention the seven characters and explain Very briefly characteristics about these characters First of all, we have women women who are eating children this speaks of the total desperate and despondent situation of the entire city and This is truly what we find today spiritually speaking The state is totally desperate and despondent in the world today We have a king Who was God's King and he was angry at God blaming Elisha for what had happened? He was blaming Elisha for what had happened Now remember the Bible says that famines came to the land why? Because people turned from God now, we've got a king's official who heard Elisha say that the famine would end and that he would have something to eat and He didn't believe And Elisha said to him listen, you're going to see with your eyes, but you're not going to eat Then we've got four lepers These lepers were outside the city. They had no hope they were desperate and they decided That there was nothing that they could do but surrender and the Lord saw That they had accepted their hopeless helpless state and went before him and When they surrendered the Lord provided food for him then we've got Elisha the man of God who predicted that God was going to end the famine and Lastly we have the multitudes of people after having heard That there was food in the gate of Samaria they went trampling and Running in order to buy some food and Trampled over the one Who didn't believe? Now we have an incredible picture here remember I read in Amos that there's a famine in the land today a famine of hearing the word of the Lord and in this story we see that God honored Four lepers Who had given up and the food was made available to them and it was through them That the multitudes were fed May I suggest this morning that we too are lepers Helpless hopeless in desperate need and There is a famine in the land. It's a spiritual famine. It's a drought and while some people Are trying to find substitutes and eating things that they shouldn't be eating That's what the women were doing. They were eating children Then Elijah or the king of Samaria. He was angry and he was tearing his clothes Blaming it on the Prophet See there's a lot of things going on in the midst of this great famine, but Elisha, but but the foot by the lepers were outside the city and And God saw and as they moved and Surrendered God provided food for him and there's food being provided today for us friends in Christ there's food and I want to encourage you this morning. Like I said, I don't want to get into this very Deeply I want to encourage you this morning ask the Lord to feed your soul To minister to your heart through the word Remember the King's official He stood in the presence of Elisha and Elisha said listen the gates of heaven are gonna open God is gonna provide He only saw it with his eyes, but didn't partake And there's a lot of people like that today who are seeing it with their eyes, but not partaking jump in Find the Lord as a place of shelter in your life Meditate on this let the Lord quicken it to you Meditate upon it Are you willing to associate and be like a leper? Outside the city They said listen, we're gonna die no matter what we do Do you see your state that helpless and that hopeless? Do you see the need for God and that intensity? I hope so Because listen you can you can go around the miracle round of religious activity and You could find all kinds of different rides on the merry-go-round some go up and down some stand still Some to horns you can find all kinds of places to go and have a good time But when the rubber meets the road, do you know him? Do you love him? Are you seeking him? Do you see the helplessness and hopelessness of your situation and are you taking action by giving up? That God may give you food Let's be like the lepers this morning and not like the man who saw with his eyes But was trampled on and never partook this story speaks to us today God is opening up the gates of heaven and he's pouring out food But it's going to the lepers and to those that believe and trust in him Go to his word Find in him what you need remember that second Kings chapter 6 and 7 read it Anyone have anything they want to share Let's collect comms