Main passages: Psalm 91; John 15:5; Philippians 3:12; 1 Corinthians 1:30

Outside, Outer Court, Holy Place — Where Am I?

I want to share about the different positions we can be in as we follow Christ, and I begin with the tabernacle, whose structure and worship were Pastor Finney's themes on the first two Sundays we came to IFGC. The tabernacle had three regions: outside, the outer court, and within that the holy place and the Holy of Holies, where God's presence dwelt. People stand in the same positions toward Jesus: some have only heard His name; others have come closer and are satisfied with experiencing His power.

Think of the circles around Him: thousands ate the bread, 500 saw the risen Lord, 120 waited in the upper room, 70 were sent out, 12 were called — and three, Peter, James, and John, went with Him up the mountain and a little farther in Gethsemane. Let us check again where we are, and not be complacent, as if we had come close enough. We have not reached even the tip of what God has in store for us.

A Psalm of Relationship, Not a Mantra

Psalm 91 is probably the most quoted psalm after Psalm 23, because we want God's protection. But it risks becoming a mantra, as if repeating it worked some magic. There is no magic in the psalm; it is a psalm of relationship. Read it as three movements: verses 1–8, a declaration; verses 9–13, a response; verses 14–16, God's own affirmation.

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalm 91:1). Its protection is not upon everybody who reads it, but upon those who dwell there — those connected to Him. His shadow is like a mother bird's wings over her young — like the cherubim over the mercy seat. And the response tells us why the blessings come: "Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge" (Psalm 91:9).

"Because He Holds Fast to Me in Love"

My key verse is God's affirmation, verse 14: "Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name" (Psalm 91:14). I first noticed this in my Malayalam Bible: "because he is attached to me, because he is clinging on to me, because he has fastened himself to me in love." I went back to the Hebrew, and the word is chashak — to love, to be attached. "I love Jesus" is not a casual statement.

We all like His deliverance; we all want Him to do things. But are we attached to Him in love — or singing His praises from a distance on a Sunday morning? As John Piper put it in a clip I heard: many want a good life and all the normal things, and no hell — that is the only reason they come to God. But a branch connected to the vine needs nothing else: "I am the vine; you are the branches" (John 15:5). Connected to Him, I don't even care whether He delivers me — what is good for my life is already given, in His time.

I want to mention three things about this clinging — this joining, this connecting, this fastening.

First: It Is His Doing

This clinging is, first of all, His doing. Even the desire is His: "for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). "And because of him you are in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 1:30). A branch does not go looking for a vine to jump onto; He placed us in the vine. That is why our decisions keep cooling down, one after another. We did not love Him first; He loved us first.

So Paul, counting everything rubbish for the knowledge of Christ, presses on to apprehend what Christ apprehended him for: "I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own" (Philippians 3:12). He first laid hold of us, and He will not let go — we are engraved on His palm, with His everlasting arms underneath.

Second: There Is a Cost

Standing in the outer court is easier; coming close, wanting to do His whole will, is the cost of discipleship. A few weeks ago we heard from Robin on carrying the cross: many came as onlookers, some for the bread, but only a few as disciples.

What do I give up? The right to defend myself; the right to my pleasures and my plans — without regret or resentment, because He is my greatest joy. I give up the desire to be right all the time, to have the last word — and I say this about myself first, I who search the internet afterward to prove my point. And the hunger for praise — there is only One worthy of it in the church. Let Him alone receive the glory.

No Record of Wrongs

I also let go of resentment. We hold our hurts forever — imagine if Jesus forgave us like that! He forgave us completely; He keeps no list against us. But our nature remembers the good we have done and forgets our bad, and remembers the bad others have done and forgets their good. So we nurse a record of wrongs — recorded, saved, backed up, uploaded to the cloud. That self on the throne needs to die, so that Christ's life may come forth. In His presence, those records go away.

Third: It Happens in Private

Finally, this clinging is individual. Our Friday night prayer together was wonderful, and the "one another" commands are lived out in the body — but dying to self happens in private, in long time alone in His presence. I confess this is the first thing busyness eats in my own life, and God has been correcting me in it.

That is why Paul did not say, "We have been crucified," but, "I have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20). In private, in my helplessness, I call out to Him about my nature, and He does the deep work: self broken and melted, Christ's life springing up within — ashes for beauty, mourning for the oil of joy, sackcloth untied and exchanged for joy.

Come Closer

Are we willing to pay the cost? We may have lost many years seeking things the wrong way — years in which, knowing the grace of God, we openly or secretly rebelled. Shall we ask Him to be Lord of our lives again? I do not want to stand on the sidelines; I want to come closer and closer, because I desire Him more than anything else. "He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (1 Corinthians 6:17).

So I closed by leading us in surrender — hands lifted, eyes closed: Lord, I let go of my plans and desires; I want to hold fast to You in love. And I prayed: help us leave behind the worthless things and come to You, the author and perfecter of our faith; teach us Your fear; make us the body You want us to be.

Let Us Cling To Him in Love (Sunday, Aug 23, 2026)