08-20-2025 PART 1: Escapes From Death A Rescue with Purpose

Section 1

Psalm 68:20 declares, “Our God is the God of salvation; to God the Lord belong escapes from death.” The message centers on how God repeatedly spares lives—often unseen—because He is in the life-saving business. Illustrations include a soldier roused from sleep just before driving off a cliff and the speaker’s own early life spiraling through drugs, from marijuana to hash, cocaine, acid, and angel dust. The verse becomes a lens for interpreting these near-misses as divine rescues, drawing gratitude and awe toward God’s mercy and protection.

Section 2

The core narrative recounts a teenage moment on acid with a friend, disillusioned by the emptiness they observed in affluent homes and family failures, concluding that life had no point. After breaking into a neighbor’s house and finding a loaded .38, the speaker pressed the gun to his temple—only to be jolted by cars suddenly blasting up an embankment, followed by school janitors who intervened. Calmly engaging, they invited the boys inside, talked, showed them their creative work, and—without preaching—gave them reason enough to step back from the brink. The episode is presented as a literal “escape from death” orchestrated by God through ordinary people.

Section 3

Years later, the speaker reads the Psalm and understands: God had a calling from the womb and a purpose that would touch hundreds and thousands—possible only because the Lord said, “Not today” to death. The takeaway is pastoral and practical: be thankful for the unseen rescues, trust that everything works together for good, and recognize salvation as rescue. God’s goodness, grace, faithfulness, and mercy have preserved lives, families, and futures in ways we can’t imagine; therefore, we honor Him who delivers us from evil and grants “escapes from death.”