Irv Fujioka [00:00:00]:
So nice to see a bunch of you here in the sanctuary as well as those of you online. My name is Irv Fujioka and we will be processing Psalm 91, which is the protection prayer. Prayer of protection, you know, let's open up with a word of prayer, Lord. We know who youo are, Lord, and we ask Father that yout would continue to guide us on the paths of righteousness for your name's sake, Lord. And we ask Father that in this time of prayer that you would be answering the different prayers that comes up, Lord. And that you know you are the name above every other name. And there is no one that is as holy as you, Lord. And so we trust in you alone and our faith will not be shaken.

Irv Fujioka [00:00:56]:
So we thank you in advance for the things that you're about to do in Jesus name I pray so you know, I had my nephew that was staying with me last year during the summer and actually it was my grand nephew and he was stayed with me for about a month and he was figuring out what he's going to do in life. And about a month ago he texted me and says, hey Uncle Irv, I'm going to be a police officer. Which wasn't a surprise at all because his mother, who is my niece, used to be a police officer in Santa Barbara and her husband was also a captain of the SWAT team there. He retired and is now an investigative officer for the courts. My kids have two half sisters and one of the half sister is here in Honolulu and she just graduated from the police academy and she was stationed out in her first assignment out in Waianae and then they transferred into Kalihi and she is now, I think, walking the beat either in Chinatown or in Waikiki. And and so when I looked around I went like, what an apropos Psalm or protection prayer for them. And so I settled on Psalm 91. And so let us begin.

Irv Fujioka [00:02:33]:
I'm in the new King James. I'm in the King James Version. And it says, he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. So when you look at this sentence, it says dwelleth, which is like, you know, it's to live in some versions, but it is to establish a residence. Where? In the secret place. Where was the secret place? You know, in Old Testament times we found, we find that in the tabernacle there are different sections and the most holy place was the Holy of Holies. And in that tabernacle only the high priest could go in there. And it was just one time a year.

Irv Fujioka [00:03:24]:
And for the Jews, it's called Yom Kippur. And, you know, it was a day of atonement where the priests would go and offer sacrifices for the sins and forgiveness and do those things one time a year for the people. So it is the place of the Most High. And who is the Most High? He is our Creator. He is our living God. He spoke things into existence. And it goes on to say, I shall abide. And that's a stronger word than dwelleth.

Irv Fujioka [00:04:07]:
And it still. You can say live, but it is a remaining presence, a continuous presence that you are in the presence of the Lord. And it says, under the shadow of the Almighty. You know, we cannot see the Almighty. Moses could not see God's face. And I don't know if it was John or Paul that went to heaven. And he said, it was so bright that you cannot see the face of God. And so if we're just in the shadow, it offers protection.

Irv Fujioka [00:04:41]:
Isn't that great? We're just in the shadow of God. Verse 2 begins with I. That's you and me, us. We say of the Lord Almighty God, that He, the Most High, is my refuge, which is a place of safety. I was over at the city of refuge in Kona a few years ago. And it is a place of safety where you have no physical harm. It's a place of security and peace and, you know, from all kinds of mental as well as emotional, a refuge. And it says, my fortress.

Irv Fujioka [00:05:24]:
And, you know, as many times as I have read this psalm, especially in the beginning, I used to think that this was a psalm of battle, and it involved wars and stuff like that, you know. And when you say fortress, I used to immediately think of Shangri La. I mean, that's an Asian thing, but in the Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings, there was a place where the elves went. The king of the elves, man. And he went to a place called Rivendale, I think. And. And it was such a beautiful place with waterfalls and beautiful colors. Looked like the temperature was always all right.

Irv Fujioka [00:06:07]:
It was such a beautiful fortress. And that's the kind of thing that I think of. But yet when we get to heaven and somebody say, hey, man, where's Rivendell? You say, well, you know, maybe it's all right over there on all the fringes of heaven there. That little. See that little dot? I mean, heaven will just be such a beautiful place in itself, a fortress. He says, my God again. Again, the Creator. And in Him I trust.

Irv Fujioka [00:06:40]:
Now, this is an Expression of our faith. It's a declaration of our faith, right? And Hebrews 1:11 kind of, kind of talks about faith and you know, and it says that we trust that what we hope for will happen even when we don't see it. Faith. So we trust in the love of God, God's love. And you know, if this was the only two things that you could remember, could memorize. You got it. You know, I could actually stop right here, but I still got some time left, so let's move on. So verse three says, surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, you know, like the bird trapper.

Irv Fujioka [00:07:34]:
I don't know if it was easier to catch bird during that point in time. I mean, they're in the desert, right? And from the noisome pestilence. And I looked at the word noisome and I thought it was something to do with hearing and yet it's not. It is like a disgusting odor, you know, whenever you have different pestilence, especially in a war like culture. Number four says, he shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. And we see actually in, in when you, when you have those little chicks and, and whenever you approach them, the mother hen opens up her feathers and, and gathers them in. And you know, when it rains the same thing, they're gathered and protected by her feathers. And I have a shirt, it says Isaiah 40:31.

Irv Fujioka [00:08:35]:
And actually it talks about strength and endurance, you know, and it talks about how we're going to soar on the wings of eagles and that we'll run and not get tired and we'll walk and we won't faint. And so that's the kind of protection that is offered to us. His truth. And in some version it says, his faithfulness shall be thy shield and buckler. And you know, this number four verse, it kind of reminds me of the armor of God, you know, the protection from dangers that we do not see and things like harmful diseases. The armor of God, the belt of truth. Right, because we're talking about truth. The shield of faith, fake breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace.

Irv Fujioka [00:09:30]:
The sword of the Spirit, which is his word, and the helmet of salvation. You know, it provides protection and comfort. And the psalmist encourages us to trust God's word and take refuge in him. And so, you know, this warlike culture, they're freed from Egypt as slaves and they're attacked by the Amalekites. You know, it's a war like culture. And that's why I kept thinking this is a war battle kind of thing. And, you know, they had many battles and warfare from slavery to the promised land. They had to fight the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Philistines, the Moabites, and the Ammonites, and even, I don't know, maybe the termites.

Irv Fujioka [00:10:26]:
You know, there were many battles that they had to do. And I kept thinking they were slaves. I don't think they had a lot of weapons. And these other tribes were born for warfare, you know, but just by sheer number, you know, slaves had to become fighters. And maybe sticks and stones will break bones, right? And so we have next, in this, verses 5 through 7, it talks about fears both hidden as well as the visible ones, you know, But God gives his assurance. You know, it says, thou shalt not be afraid. No scared. You know, you see the stickers.

Irv Fujioka [00:11:16]:
No scared. Do not be afraid for the terror by night. And I can imagine in living in that kind of warfare culture, you be scared of different things, you know, nor the arrow that flies by day. And yet, you know, we see right now, how many of you ever had bad dreams or nightmares, you know, worries, anxiety? And Jesus even told his disciples, hey, you don't have to worry and have anxiety. I mean, you do all of that. It's not going to add anything to your life. No worry, be happy. So we have these things for.

Irv Fujioka [00:12:08]:
Nor for the destruction that wasted at noonday. Hey, earthquake. Hey, tsunami, come in. You know, I don't know if they had snake bites or water or food poisoning or whatever it was, but you know what? God always gave his assurance. Their clothes and shoes never Wore out for 40 years. They were always provided for with food and water. The assurance of God and his protection. Verse 7 is the one that I used to always that invoked all these battle scenes and wars.

Irv Fujioka [00:12:48]:
It says, a thousand shall fall by thy side and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come. And I can see and picture David and. And Saul and Jonathan, you know, they're fighting David, Saul killed his thousand and David killed his 10,000. You know, and you watch a samurai show or whatever, and you see all this death and destruction and people around like, wow, there's so much devastation going on. We right here in Hawaii, we're fortunate that we are isolated from battles and wars. We're not in Ukraine or Gaza or Palestine and have to fight these physical battles, but we have our pestilence. Our pestilence is in reality the moral decay of our society. You know, we have addictions and assaults every day.

Irv Fujioka [00:13:52]:
Misinformation lies, greed, pride. Many have no conscience. We got porn and sex trafficking and virus and diseases. You know, when I was a kid, actually even when I was a young adult, I don't have to worry about three things, heart attack, stroke and cancer. I don't know where all these new diseases came out from. You know, you have big pharma that provide vaccines, you know, and a lot of times it doesn't work. I mean, when we got a polio vaccine, you never got polio. If you got measles vaccines, you never got measles.

Irv Fujioka [00:14:30]:
If you had chicken pox vaccine, you never had chickenpox. You know, in fact, if you had a big family, if somebody had measles, you might as well infect everybody else and get it over with before for the whole family. But I don't know, follow the money trail. With big Pharma I kind of go like, well, I wonder if they produce some of this stuff. You get embezzlement and inside trading, all kinds of stuff going on. Politicians, I heard that, man, if you bought all the stocks that Nancy Pelosi bought, you'd be filthy rich because she had all this insider trading going on. She knew what was going to happen with Tesla before they even hit the market. But you know, they were supposed to be politicians.

Irv Fujioka [00:15:21]:
That government of the people, by the people and for the people. And in reality they've given it to the people. You know, it's just total decay, no morals. And we see that even though this is called the prayer of protection, it is also known as the Soldier's Psalm. And I mean, I can go into that, but it won't take too long. But it's also called the Soldier's Psalm because they give it to the soldiers, you know, and they use it before they go out into battle. But people, us here, your relatives, your friends, people with hazardous and life threatening kind of occupation, they need this prayer of protection. I truly believe that we need this prayer for our daily battles, whatever they may be.

Irv Fujioka [00:16:28]:
Am I making sense? Oh, very good. I thought it was sense to me. And God doesn't promise that we're going to be trouble free, you know, he doesn't say that, you know, we're going to have no terrors at night or the arrows and the pestilence, and that comes with everything. But God does provide and he is in control. He knows everything that's going on, every secret, every deed, and he has consequences. And verse eight says, only with thine eyes shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked Nlt says, it's more simply, it says, just open your eyes and see how the wicked are punished. And we see that all the time when people do wicked things. And finally they get their just due.

Irv Fujioka [00:17:32]:
Verse 9 says, because thou has made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation. And it's really a restating of verse two. This is a conditional statement. We make that choice when we abide in his trust with hope and faithfulness and love. Then we get consequences, good consequences. Verse 10 to 13 says, There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he has given his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. You know, in the Bible they only name two archangels.

Irv Fujioka [00:18:29]:
They name Michael the fighter and Gabriel the guy who gives messages. And yet this statement tells us that we have guardian angels. A nine. Great. And I really believe there's three instances in my life where I believe that the guardian angels were looking after me. Another story. Verse 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against the stone.

Irv Fujioka [00:19:07]:
This was quoted by Satan, Satan to tempt Jesus in the desert. Hey Jesus, come over here. Jump off that cliff and you gonna be alright. And Jesus used the word, the word of God. We are not to tempt the Lord our God. It goes on to say, thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. You know, we are given authority and power. We have that at our disposal because we have the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Irv Fujioka [00:19:58]:
And we need to use the power, power of the spoken word. And that is why it is so important to be memorizing these things and carry it in your hip pocket. You know, there's a lot of people who go to church and claim they are Christians, but they don't even know the word. I just came from a funeral service at my niece's mother who had passed away went to a Catholic service, you know, and I got a. They're all saying stuff, but I mean like they're not. They don't even know the Bible. I'm sorry, but you know, you got to know the Word. So we have here the last three verses which are not by the psalmist.

Irv Fujioka [00:20:58]:
It is spoken by the Lord Almighty himself. This word comes directly from God. It says, because he. That's us. Because he had set his love upon me, the Almighty, therefore will I deliver him. I, the Almighty, will set him on high because he hath known my name. Jesus he shall call upon Me, the Supreme Being, God Almighty. And I, the Lord will answer him, ain't that great? I will be with him in trouble.

Irv Fujioka [00:22:01]:
He doesn't say that you ain't gonna get trouble, but when you get into trouble, because we all get in trouble by ourselves, a lot of times he will be with us. I, the Lord God, will deliver him and honour him with long life. Will I, the Lord, satisfy him and show him my salvation, everlasting life. O Lord, thank you for this prayer of protection, Lord Jesus, thank youk for tearing the curtain away from the most high place with youh sacrifice, so that we can abide in youn love as we place our trust, faith and hope in youn, you, our refuge and fortress. Amen. So the only thing I have, I normally have different kinds of questions and stuff, but I don't have any questions. But I do have Psalm 91 in the NLT version. So guess we'll just leave it up here.

Irv Fujioka [00:23:23]:
And it's much easier to process but. And probably much easier to memorize. So if you have any prayer requests, send it in the number right here on the board, 808-793-5655. That's 793-5655. And if you have praise reports, then certainly send it in. SA we are back and we just want to lift all these prayers up. It's been eight days now. So we ask, Lord, that all of the unanswered prayers still be lifted up to you and that you would continue to just honor the faith with which it has been given.

Irv Fujioka [00:41:16]:
And so we pray, O Lord, that as we seek first the kingdom of God above all else in his righteousness, that all these things will be added unto us, Lord. And that's what yout told your disciples. I mean, Lord, if youf can take care of the flowers, Lord, and the birds, Lord, you can take care of anything. We know that yout are Jehovah, Yahweh, Jireh, the God of provisions. And so we ask, Lord, that you would provide for all the needs that have been lifted up to you. As we continue to place our trust and faith and hope in you, Lord, we ask you, the Almighty would cover us with your shadow as we abide in you. And so, Father, I place the public safety officers in your care. As you know, in the days that I look, whenever you look at the news, there is no respect for authority, Lord.

Irv Fujioka [00:42:36]:
But Father, we know that you can change things. You can change hearts and minds. And so we ask, Lord, that yout would go before us and turn this nation into a nation of God seekers of followers of youf, Lord Jesus. We pray, Father, that all the unanswered prayers will be answered. We pray for the neighbor who lost their father to an unexpected heart attack. Lord, would you quell the neighbor's spirit and would your blood flow through his veins so that you can bring a sense of comfort and peace knowing that you are in control, Lord, and the husband to comfort and see, see God's presence and seek him? O Lord, we know that when we seek you that we will always find you. So we thank you Lord, that you continue to pursue us and you are faithful even when we are unfaithful. So we ask, Lord, that you continue to minister to us, minister to those who have walked away and that you will help us to be the witnesses for those who do not know you.

Irv Fujioka [00:44:13]:
We pray for the children as they go back to school, Lord. This is the first week, Lord, you make me a substitute teacher and I need to get back there and spread the word of God to these children for they are lost, Lord, especially in this kind of society where we have this moral breakdown. So help me Lord, and give me the words, give me the heart, give me the patience and the forgiveness and the compassion that I will need to help and spread your love unto them. And I pray, Father, that as they return to school that things will be different, that they will know that you are there. So we just thank you Father, for all the things that you about to do as they come to you as their refuge, Lord. And because you are the fortress, Lord, and you are the faithful truth, we ask, Lord, that you would cover our weekend gatherings. I thank you Father, that you have been bringing a multitude of new people, people that I don't even I haven't even met. And I see their face.

Irv Fujioka [00:45:48]:
Faces, Lord, and also for those who are coming back, the friendly faces, the ones that have been missing, Lord, but yout have been leading them. You have been leading them to youo church home. And would you'd help us, the Dream Teamers, to make them feel welcome, Lord, and feel youl compassion and you'd love. Father, we just thank you Father, that you can continue to help us to embrace those who are coming. Would you help us Lord, to be the men and women that you have created us to be as we continue to place you first. I pray for all the pastors, Pastor Glenn, Enrico. We thank you that he has been referred to refreshed as he came back from Japan. And Lord, he honors his mother in law, Lord, and You say when we do that, that you give us long life.

Irv Fujioka [00:46:50]:
And so I pray, Father, that as he honors his mother in law and that. And that now is at his home. Lord, I thank you that she was well enough to travel. I ask, Lord, that you would continue to give her strength and even a boldness to continue to seek you. We ask, Lord, that you would continue to just watch over the ministry leaders, all of the different pastors, Pastor Jeff and his wife, Lord, and Pastor Mitch and Pastor Terrence and all the other pastors that are serving you. We ask that you would take care of all the ministry leaders as they so graciously, just unselfishly give of their times. You know, the ushers, the Levites, the children and, and all those that serve you. And Lord, I'm just so glad when I talk to them that they're not serving New Hope Kapolei.

Irv Fujioka [00:48:08]:
They're not serving the pastors, but they're serving you because they put you first, Lord. And so I ask that you would honor them and all of the life group leaders for they provide such a good place to socialize and just continue to seek you in their various life groups. We ask, Father, that those who are coming will get connected because we need to get connected. I know a lot of them come and they know you. They know you, Lord, and they have found their freedom in you. Just as Israelites left Egypt, they found a new freedom. But Lord, we also find a freedom from our sins. And isn't that a great thing, especially when we turn to youo, Lord Jesus? Help us to discover our purpose, Lord, you know, and, and we know that whatever we focus on, Lord, that is the Lord.

Irv Fujioka [00:49:23]:
And so we need to be careful. Help us, Lord, especially in this time of sports and football and betting on games. But would you turn them, Lord, and help them to focus on you, Father? And help them, Lord. Lord, and help us to make a difference because that's what yout have called us to do. So we just thank youk, Lord, as we lift up all of the members of this church. I pray, Father, that as they come that they will continue to feel welcome and that they will minister to those who have been lost and that they. And that they will witness to those who do not know you. So I thank you, Lord.

Irv Fujioka [00:50:12]:
We lift up a nephew who will be leaving for UNLV for his freshman year. I ask that his brothers are returning to Oregon and Texas for college. So I ask for traveling mercies upon them, Lord, and when they get there, I pray, Father, that you would surround them with the association of Christ followers that they need, Lord, help them to be in a community of Christ lovers. We just ask Father and Lord, my grandson, my oldest grandson just returned to Oregon. And so I ask, Lord, that you would continue to watch over him. He is a believer and Father, I know that as he continues to just place his trust and hope and faith in you, that you would recognize that and help him to lead a productive life, a life of Jesus and give him the kind of compassion and, and love and forgiveness and boldness that he will need to proclaim your name, Lord. So I'm just so grateful and appreciate all that you have done, Father. We just thank you, Lord, that I pray, Father, that there will be those out there that will take this Psalm 91, this, this Psalm or prayer of protection, Lord, and that they will use it every day when they right before they walked out of that door, Lord, or maybe they can do it while they're stuck in traffic, Lord, as they just recite your words and when they come home, help them, Father, to recite the words of the most High.

Irv Fujioka [00:52:18]:
And as we abide in your shadow, Lord, for you are our refuge and our fortress and we continue to trust in you. Father, this is only the eighth day. We have 12 more days of prayer that we're going to be lifting up to you. And so we continue to just ask the that you will be here. We know that you are in their midst and you know every hair of our head. For Lord Jesus, we know your voice and the voice of a stranger we will not follow. For greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. And so, Father, there are many more prayers.

Irv Fujioka [00:53:08]:
Those of you who may might be a little bit late and you want to send your prayers in, send it in. We'll still be praying for you. And again, boy, we had a good turnout here in the sanctuary. I pray that you will be coming here and just sharing with us this time in which we honor and praise the Lord our God. In Jesus mighty name, I pray Amen.