The English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is one of the most popular performers of our day, with more than two hundred million records sold worldwide. As of September 2026, he is the fourth-most-followed artist on Spotify. In 2025, Time listed him as one of the world’s one hundred most influential people.

He has been in the news recently, however, for less positive reasons.

The American rapper Macklemore opened for Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on September 4. He said, “A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘Free Palestine.’” He then performed his song “Hind’s Hall” about student protests at Columbia University. The song was named for Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in 2024.

He said the next day that he was not criticizing all Jewish people: “Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace, love, for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.” Ten days later, the promoters behind Sheeran’s tour announced that Macklemore would no longer be a part of it. This after they were notified by venues on the tour that they would not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore in the lineup.

Since that time, all of Sheeran’s other supporting acts have dropped out, including a group that plays with Sheeran during part of the show. Sheeran posted his own statement, blaming the promoter for Macklemore’s removal and maintaining that he refused to be drawn into a public discussion over the Gaza war.

He explained, “There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics—my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my show do not expect a political forum.”

For more on this story, see the first edition of In the Know, our ministry’s new newsletter by Conner Jones. But for now, Sheeran’s refusal to engage in the ongoing cultural conflict over Hamas and Israel points to my point: he tried to stay away from politics, but politics did not stay away from him.

“In the world you will have tribulation”

Unless you live in a monastery, you are forced to deal with the secularized culture in which you live. Even when I worked as a pastor and spent most of my days on the church campus, I ate in restaurants, went to movies, shopped in stores, attended our sons’ school and athletic activities, and built friendships with neighbors.

Such engagements often come with unintended consequences. For example, I was once criticized by a church member who saw me leaving a movie they did not think I should have seen (it was rated PG-13, by the way, but they objected to its objectionable language).

But by far the larger crises I faced came from within the church, not the culture. Over the years and our pastorates, we had to deal with staff members who misappropriated funds, had affairs, and otherwise behaved in ungodly ways. We sometimes had lay leaders whose personal agendas conflicted with those of their fellow lay leaders and the direction of the church. The denominational controversy embroiling Southern Baptists across the entirety of my adult life made its mark as well.

And there have been personal crises as well, from the deaths of my parents and father-in-law to the cancer diagnoses of our older son and youngest grandson, as well as personal health challenges along the way.

I say all of that to say that, as a person who has been highly privileged to live in America and to serve Christ while facing virtually no persecution for doing so, I have nonetheless experienced a bit of what Jesus meant when he warned his followers, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). Paul also told us that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

The question is not if but when we will face opposition and worse. And whether we will do what we should today to be prepared for that day when it comes.

“Apart from me you can do nothing”

In Psalm 91 we read, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lᴏʀᴅ, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’” (vv. 1–2).

Americans don’t know much about fortresses unless we happen to have served in the military in a context where they are essential. But they were common on the Western frontier as a way of providing security for settlers; my wife and I have toured a number of them in West Texas, for example. They vary in size and layout, but one thing they have in common is a high exterior wall with a single, fortified entrance.

Another fact all fortresses share is that their protection works only for those who dwell in their shelter. If you’re out on the prairie and a threat arises, the fortress can do you no good unless you hasten to get inside its protection.

The “shelter of the Most High” is different from wilderness fortresses in this respect: it is always available to us and as near as our next prayer. If we’re not inside God’s “shadow” and protection, it is because we do not believe we need what he offers. We dwell in the fortress of God to the degree that we recognize our need to do so.

And note that the one who “dwells” in God’s refuge is the one who experiences his providential best. If we run into and out of such protection as we believe we need his help or not, we are likely to be surprised by an enemy who is better at tempting than we are at resisting. When we are outside the fortress, we are immediately in danger. Better to dwell inside, to live in the shelter of the Spirit, to practice the presence of Jesus.

Our Lord made this point abundantly clear: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, my emphasis). A branch that is not connected to the vine is a branch that is dying. It may look healthy at the moment, like cut flowers in a vase, but it is severed from the only source that can give it life and therefore must die.

The peril of “tiny” sins and the path to intimacy with Jesus

Of course, Satan knows all of this. As a result, he loves to employ temptations that sever us from the power of the Holy Spirit in ways we do not recognize at the time. Sins that others do not see or consider to be especially immoral work especially well here.

People who write and read articles like this one are not likely to want to sin in horrific ways that harm others and dishonor the Lord. But “tiny” sins “grieve” the Holy Spirit as well and “quench” his work and power in our lives (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19).

This is why a spiritual inventory is so vital to our souls. Take time regularly to ask the Spirit to bring to mind anything you need to confess to your Father, then confess all that comes to your thoughts. Reading God’s word, praying to him, and worshiping him are likewise vital to strengthening our intimacy with the Almighty. Serving Jesus is an effective way to know Jesus—the more we give out, the more we can take in.

The key is to reject the self-reliance so central to our secularized culture for the Spirit-reliance Jesus encourages and enables (Matthew 5:3). If you don’t think you need to “say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust,’” guess where that message is coming from today.

 

 

Denison Forum