What Do I Do With Fear?

What do I do with the fears that impact my life? Join us as we seek to answer that question with the truths shown to us in Psalm 27.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Kid Jewell. I'm the counselor here at Westside and get the privilege of sharing God's word with you this morning. And we are working our way through. Well, I shouldn't say it like that because there's 150 of them. We are preaching in Psalms this summer. And uh it would take a while to work our way through all of them. Uh the 150th alone has 150 verses, so but we are in the book of Psalms. Um as Braden and Micah both had mentioned when they shared the word with us, the Psalms are kind of the song book or the hymn book of the Old Testament. If you grew up in church, uh back when we still had hymnals in the in the racks in front of us, that you'll be familiar with when I talk about a hymn or a in the church I grew up in, we called them psalm books. Um but in those books there would be hundreds of different songs that people had written. And the psalms are like that, and they cover several hundred years, several different authors. And we're gonna look at another psalm of David. Uh Brayton pointed out last week. So far, all the ones we've covered have been Psalms of David. Uh there's a good reason for that. He wrote 75, we're giving credit for 75 of the 150 Psalms, so it makes sense that some of those would stand out to us. For years growing up, I wanted to write a song. It was like I just had it in me, I wanted to write a song. And I would sit down every now and then and try to write a song. It seemed like nothing ever came of it, like I just couldn't make it work. In 2007, I finally wrote a song and completed it. Two verses and a chorus, a refrain, the whole works. Uh since that time, I've written or co-written about 40 songs. Now, before you get impressed, I didn't say anybody singing those songs other than me, right? And I didn't say anybody. Well, there are some people who like them. My mom likes them, Michelle likes them, and she better because I sing them all the time at home. But here's the thing that I've noticed about songs that I've attempted to write or write, or songs that I love, songs that really speak to me, they come sometimes out of the deepest and darkest times of hurt. In those moments when things are really painful. You think about some of the great hymns that have been written in the past. They come out of darkness and deep sorrow and pain and suffering. And today we still sing them. Songs like It Is Well With My Soul. Songs that really speak to us in times of sorrow and sadness. Psalms are poetry. This is poetry in Scripture, and it reflects the feelings that we feel, feelings like fear and anger, regret, sorrow, joy, peace, love, and longing. And the psalms have always been a favorite for people to run to, to go to. When they're struggling, when they need comfort in seasons of loss. We find connections in the Psalms because in the Psalms we find real human feelings, raw feelings. I've had the privilege in pastoring to pastor some people that I would call real characters. I hope you know what I mean by that when I say characters. There's a few characters around West Side. I won't call any names, but there's some characters in our church. But one such character that I pastored, that I had such love for, was a guy named Carl Henry Ford. Now, if you've got a name like Carl Henry Ford, you're a character. Well, that's a good start, right? But Carl Henry Ford was an elementary school principal, retired, who attended the church that I pastored in Glendale. Wonderful guy. And he had all these funny sayings that he would say all the time. And one of the ones that he used to say that really stuck with me, he'd say, Preacher, that scares me to death, and I ain't scared of nothing. And I thought about that as I began to prepare this message. The things that scare us to death. The things that really bring into our lives real apprehension and fear, worry, even anxiety, and how we struggle to get our way through those. The truth be told, life is scary. If you haven't figured that out already, you will. Life will throw some very scary situations at us. And as much as we may try to play it safe and avoid the risk, life can turn it on us so quickly and put us in a panic quicker than we can imagine. It's probably the reason that as a counselor, the number one thing that I deal with without question is anxiety. And anxiety is just an abiding or ongoing sense of fear. And the reason so many people struggle with anxiety, when you begin to sit down and listen to people as they tell you their stories, you begin to hear stories about people who have been through terrible things, some of them for years and years upon years of their life, and life has taught them to be afraid. And so where most of us kind of stay, you know, in a healthy area of two or three in anxiety, you know, make sure we get that water bill paid and we get the things done we're supposed to do. For a lot of people, anxiety stays up around six, seven, or eight because life has taught them to be afraid. Fear is a very real thing that has a great impact on our lives. But we're not the first persons to deal with this, right? There are many examples within the Bible of men and women who face perilous circumstances and enemies who desire to hurt them and destroy them. And one such man is King David. The same David that as a teenager killed a giant with a sling and a stone. David is, as I mentioned earlier, is given credit for writing 75 of the 150 Psalms. David's beloved Psalms are among the most well-known passages from the Bible, but they tell us the story of a man who knew what it was like to deal with fear. Who knew what it was like to deal with real threat in his life. Those same psalms also tell us where David found his safety and his security. The particular psalm we're talking about this morning, Psalm 27, David is obviously being threatened by an enemy. We're going to read it together. Psalm 27, begin reading in verse 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and my foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army accamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent, and he will lift me high up on a rock. Now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. And I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, Seek my face. My heart says to you to you, your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. O you who have been my help. Cast me not off. Forsake me not, O God of my salvation, for my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, O Lord. Lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violets. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. May God bless the reading of his word. The driving question behind my thoughts this morning is this. What do I do with the fears that impact my life? What do I do with the fears? And it's not if I have fear, because if you don't have any fear, as we would say over in Carlisle County, something ain't right, right? You've got there's there's a natural sense of fear that comes. It partially keeps us alive. Yesterday, Michelle and I were down in Paris just driving through town, and I don't know of the person, I don't know what was going on, but one car decided to come across five lanes into our lane, and I don't know how in the world we missed them. But by the grace of God we did. But we both said afterwards, my heart is beating out of my chest. That's real fear. And there are scary things that come into our life. What do we do with the fear? We could do, like my friend Carl Henry, to say, I ain't scared of nothing. But that'd be a little crazy. You're probably not the right response. So what do I do with it? The first thing I want you to notice in this text that the psalmist did, what David did, is I want to realize that the power of God is bigger than what I fear. The presence of scary things reminds us where our real security lies. The presence of scary things reminds us of where our real security lies. I want to know how many of you grew up on veggie tails. Ah, several of you. You know that great theologian, Junior Asparagus? Right? You remember God is bigger than the boogeyman, he's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV. Even as a kid, we know to be afraid of things. We experience fear. And although I don't know specifically which enemy inspired the writing of this psalm, David, like us, faced conflict with people, with really scary people who wanted to hurt him. Could have been King Saul. It could have been his son Absalom when he was angry at it. We don't know who the enemy is, but we know the enemy's real. When someone asked the question, Whom shall I fear? You can bet there's something that's causing fear, right? It's kind of like the person who gets on Facebook and says, I don't care what anybody thinks of me. Well, why did you post it for your 25,000 friends then, right? You do care. That's why you just said it. And when David says, Whom shall I fear? What he's saying is, there's something in my life to be afraid of. There's something that I'm facing, there's something that is making my heart feel uneasy. David uses two words to describe God in opposition to his fear in this text. The first thing he says is, God is my light. Now, what is the opposite of light? Obviously, it's darkness. And I know there's a lot of young parents in our church and grandparents in our church, and you know that your children do what my children did or my grandchildren do. When you put them to bed, what's the first thing they say? Make, well, other than I need a glass of water. Can you please leave the light on? Can you crack the door? Can you leave the closet light on? Because darkness brings with it a sense of uncertainty. It brings with it a sense of fear. And David says, the Lord is my light. It is God who makes things seem clear. It's God who brings illumination into my life in these times of struggle. But he also says, God is my salvation. Now, the word salvation is not a word that we typically use a lot. We don't just kind of throw it around at the lunch table with people at work. It's kind of a word that's kind of part of our Christian ease, part of our church talk. But it reminded me when I was a kid over in Carlisle County, and we were in church, and back in the tradition that I grew up in, whenever a person accepted Christ, if they wanted to become a part of the church and would be baptized at the end of the service, you would come down front, take the preacher by the hand. At the end of the song, the preacher would say, This is Ken, and he's been saved, and he wants to be baptized, be a part of our church. Well, a fellow came forward in the service, his name was Milo. Milo didn't grow up in church, so he wasn't familiar with all the Christian needs that we speak. And so the Milo to the church, and he says, Milo, tell the church about the time when you were saved. And he paused for a moment. He looked so confused. And he said, Well, there was a time I fell off of a tractor and I was in front of the tire, and my dad pulled me out of the and everybody looked so confused. Now, here's the thing that I want you to get. Milo got it. Milo understood what it meant to be saved. He didn't know what the preacher was talking about. But he understood what it was like to be snatched from the jaws of death, to be rescued from devastating circumstances, to be saved. When the psalmist says the Lord is our light and our salvation, what he's saying is he is the one who's going to save me. He's the one who understands the peril that I am in. It don't matter what we are going through or how bad it seems, it's very important for us to understand it is God that we turn to. David is acknowledging that the world is a scary place and that people can be cruel and people can be dangerous, but God is bigger than anything that you and I are going to face this week. Anything. And that's where his faith rested. Notice his words in the following verses as he describes his enemies. They are evildoers. They're adversaries, they're foes, they're an army. These are all words that speak about situations where there's great threat, great harm. If you know the story of David, you know that his life was literally in danger many times. You and I cannot avoid scary things in our lives, but we can rest assured of this. That God is bigger, God is stronger, God is wiser than anything we will face. The Apostle Paul reminds us also something that we need to remember. That our enemy is not flesh and blood, it's principalities, his powers, it's rulers of this dark age. It's a spiritual war that we face. But I think it's important for us to realize that every enemy we encounter, every true enemy that you and I ever encounter is first an enemy of God. And he can handle whoever we face. Secondly, in answer to that question, what do I do with my fears? I recognize the presence of God as the gateway to true safety. I recognize the presence of God as the gateway to true safety. The presence of God reminds me that it's not my job to protect myself. That's his job. He's the one who's got this. In response to these scary situations, David's request is to be close to God. Notice what he said in verses 4 and 5. One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the days of trouble, and he will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high up on a rock. Isn't it interesting that his response is not to take up arms, but his response is, I want to get into the presence of God. David understands that the safest place on the face of the earth is to be deeply in the presence of God. And whatever I face, it's an intimate relationship with God. Now let's go back to our children and think about our children at bedtime. Some of you are going through this because I've heard you talk about it. Can't keep them out of bed with us. Well, we have to be in their bed. It's like constantly. Why do our children want us close? Because everybody knows the boogeyman hides under the bed, right? He's going to get that leg. They don't care if the boogeyman gets our leg as long as he doesn't get theirs. But if you've had children, grandchildren, you know. When you're trying to go to sleep, they got a hand on you somewhere, right? Or maybe a leg over the top of you. They have to be touching you. But if they're touching you, typically they'll go right to sleep. There's something about the intimate relationship of the protector, of mama or daddy in the bed with them, holding them with a hand on them that lets them know everything is alright. It's no different for you and me in the presence of God. When we move into an intimate relationship with God, not just something that's cold off in the distance, but when we really get to know God for who he is and we move into his presence, that he covers us. He overshadows us with his presence. And there's safety in that. Whatever we face, whatever comes our way. Some of you have had things happen to you in the last week, the last six months, the last year that you never dreamed or you feared would happen, maybe, but you just hoped it would never be you, and it's happened to you. But what you've discovered is that it's in that intimate relationship with God that you find real safety. Not in stressing or worrying or fighting your own way, but fighting his way. Moving into his presence. One of the things that I've come to hate, I'm at that age where I yell at the TV. Anyone else occasionally, or at least speak out at it. Michelle knows I hate this. I hate it when I'm watching a TV show or a movie, and there's a mom or a dad or a husband or a boyfriend or girlfriend that say, I will never let anything bad happen to you. I promise. They lie. They lie. I can't stop bad things from happening to you. I wish I could say to my kids and my grandkids and my wife and my mom and the people I love, I wish I could say to them, nothing bad's ever gonna happen to you, but I've lived too long. And I know that's just not true. And fact of the matter is, I can promise you this you live long enough, bad things are gonna happen to you. Welcome to church, right? Positive and encouraging Caleb this morning, right? But that's reality, that's life. Bad things happen to good people and bad people. That's life. What do we do with it, Ken? We move into the presence of our Savior. We learn. To walk with him. We learn to dwell with him. Though painful it may be and scary it may be, when I know that he's got it and he's got me. And I know that whatever I face, I can get through. Because my God's bigger than the boogeyman. He really is. Thirdly, I want to read a verse too before I move on. James 4. James is right of the church. He says, the very presence, it's the very presence of the protector that removes the fear. Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Now he's talking about obviously how to deal with sin, but there is a core truth here. The closer we get to God, the closer God gets to us. I looked it up one time, I think it's somewhere between 10, 15 times in Scripture, the Bible says, seek me and you will find me. God is not hiding from us. He wants us to come to him. He's coming to us. He wants us to be in his presence, and it's in his presence that fear is defeated. It's not in cleverness, it's in the power of his presence. Thirdly, I exercise the praise of God as my weapon against fear. Look in verse 6. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy, and I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Praising God reminds me of all his strength and power and love for me. It's in the praise that I remember these things. Once David turns his face toward God, he begins to focus on the goodness of God and the power of God, and worship and praise begins to flow from his lips. I want you to notice something that happens in this psalm. It happens in a handful of Psalms, mostly David's, but he will be talking about God, and in the middle of the Psalm, he stops talking about God and starts talking to God. He goes from first person to second person. So he stops talking about God. Now he's talking to God. He is going to lift up our head. He is going to be the one who rescues us, and he does this in praise. And he does the same thing in Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. But in the middle of it, he changes. You make me lie down in green pastures. There's something that happens when we begin to truly praise God for who he is. There's this little exercise that we do in when I do marriage retreats, where I have couples that for a moment we'll do this thing, we'll have couples who have them turn toward each other in private, away from everybody else, and just say nice things about each other. Just look, I call it knee to knee time, right? Look at eyeball to eyeball, knee to knee. I want you to say nice things to each other. And usually, to a lot of people's surprise, when that happens, when people begin to do that, the tears begin to flow. There's something about praising somebody. There's something about stopping and recognizing the goodness of somebody, being very specific in that praise that begins to move the heart. And when you and I move into the presence of God and we begin to praise God specifically and talk about the specific things that He does in our life or that He's done in our lives, it begins to move us in worship toward Him. Praise is my weapon against fear. Why? Because I'm beginning to remember how powerful and how strong and how faithful God is. And I'm beginning to remember all of his promises and the way he has gotten me through every situation I've ever gone through in my life in the past. That's why I praise him. And I just keep praising him. I can't always trust my feelings, but I can trust the facts. And the facts are that God is good. He's good. And it's in the middle of that praise that becomes a weapon against my fears. Because it reminds me of passages like Romans 8 that says, nothing can separate me from the love of God. Nothing. Nothing is going to separate me from his goodness. Praise is such a powerful thing. In 1979, there was a Christian band called the Imperials. Anybody remember the Imperials? I knew David would know the Imperials. Well, I had to sneak and listen to them because we didn't listen to rock and roll, Christian rock and roll, the church I attended back in those days. Inside joke, I guess. But there was a song they wrote called Praise the Lord. And the lyrics went something like this when you're up against the struggle that shatters all your dreams, when your hopes have been severely crushed by Satan's manifested schemes. And you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears. Don't let the faith you're standing in seem to disappear. Praise the Lord. Just praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. God inhabits the praise of his people. Praise the Lord. There's something powerful when we just begin to speak the words of praise to God that moves us into a sense of safety and security. Fourthly, how do I deal with these fears? I know God's way to fight by knowing God's word. Notice what the psalmist says in verse 11, teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. God, I need to know your way. Knowing God's ways happens through learning God's word. When we talk about learning God's word around here, we're not just talking about it in the sense of a box to check. We're not talking about as something we get a star on our chart for. The reason that we want people to be in the scriptures, to be in the word of God and to know the word of God, because it's in the stories of God. It's in the word of God that we hear the stories about God and we see the power of God and see how God has worked in the people of God to accomplish his purposes. It's in those stories that reminds us that no matter what we go through, we're going to be okay. But if I don't know the word of God, if I don't know the ways of God, how am I going to know how to respond when I'm going through my storm? How am I going to know how to respond when I experience that loss, that suffering, that pain? What am I going to know? How am I going to respond to that? You see, I can always go back to the scripture and find somebody who's had a similar experience and learned something about how to respond to the goodness of God. But if I don't know the word, how am I going to know to do that? So when you think about studying the scripture, realize it's just sometimes it's just tucking it away back in there. Someday you're going to pull it out when you need it. David wanted to know the ways of God. Why? Because of his enemies. He wanted to know how to respond in a way that honors God. The psalmist says, Here, I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. About 2011-2012 was some of the most difficult by far to this point. I hope it's the last. I hope it is the worst. But that was one of the worst years of my life. I remember thinking, and probably even said it out loud, I don't know how I'm going to get through this. I just like this, this is so crushing. This feels too big. And this verse, I printed out on a piece of paper, much like I have it up here today, and I cut it out in a small strip and I taped it to my computer monitor. And it stayed there for six years. I was working at the time at Carlisle County Schools. And on my computer screen every day. People say, What's that verse? There was that, and then there was, I'm a number five, and I'll tell you that story someday in the future. But that verse was there. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Real hope and real safety are firmly planted on the foundation that God is good. And sometimes, folks, we really have to listen to ourselves talk and ask ourselves the question, do we really believe that God is good? The psalmist did. He believed that God is good, and therefore, because he believed that God is good, he believed there would be a time when he would see the goodness of God in the land of the living. And what that meant was not someday off in the future after this life, but right now. I believe that God is good, and we're going to see the goodness of God right here amongst us where we live. There are dark times of life, there are hard times in life when sometimes we wonder, will I ever see the goodness of God again? Will I ever feel God again? Will I ever feel okay? Will I ever feel normal? Will I ever not feel afraid? These words by the power of the Holy Spirit have been preserved for us for thousands of years to remind us we will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. Then he says, wait for the Lord. Oh, I don't want to wait again. I want it right now. Right? I don't want to wait. Wait. Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. The prophet Nahum in chapter 1, speaking the word of the Lord, he is laying out the judgment of God in no uncertain terms. I mean, he is speaking boldly about what God does to his enemies and what he's going to do to his enemies. And while you're reading those words, and there's almost a little shiver in your spine as you read them. But in verse 7, Nahum says, the Lord is good. I mean, after saying all that, he says, the Lord is good. He's a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in him. Your Lord is good. If God, the God of Scripture, the creator of the universe, is your God, you need to know He is good. And whatever you face, He's good. And He's got to get you through it. David had faith in the goodness of God. He trusted the character of God. There's another verse that has come, another psalm that has come to mean a lot to me. That's Psalm 46, 10. It says, be still and know that I'm God. Be still. You see, the nature is when we're afraid, when we're fighting anxiety, when we're fighting fear, when we're fighting enemies, the nature is, what do I do? I got to do something to defeat this enemy. But when he talks about being still and knowing God, he's talking about being still in the presence of God. It's learning to just wait on the Lord. It's learning to be in that moment and say, okay, God, we're going to see how you're going to work this one out for your glory. Be still and know that I am God. If you're a parent, you know what it's like to say to your children, trust me. How well does that work with your three-year-old? Trust me. Your seven-year-old. Trust me. Your teenager. Trust me. Wait, be patient. We'll get there. I want it now. God, I want you to do something now. I don't know what you're going through right now, what you may be going through, but I know the one thing that is oftentimes needed is just to sit and wait on God and watch Him do His work. My life and now my ministry and counseling has taught me one thing that I honestly didn't realize how much I didn't know. Is that every Sunday morning, sitting in these seats, you and I are surrounded by people. And it might be the person sitting within arm's distance of you. You may or may not know their names. But there are people who are sitting in this sanctuary this morning who are bearing burdens that are unimaginable. Say, Ken, how do you know that? Because sometimes when people are given a safe place and a safe space, they'll share with you the things that they're going through. And I'll be reminded every Sunday morning when I come in this place and I look around this room that there are men and women, teenagers, children who are carrying fears and sorrows and losses that you and I cannot imagine. There's a reason we call this or used to call it a sanctuary. A sanctuary is a safe place. And it's safe because it symbolizes the presence of God. God's people coming together. What do we do? We praise him. We worship him. We look at his word. We talk about him. We remember his faithfulness. We remember his kindness. We remember what he's done throughout the ages. And in that we find the comfort that gets us through whatever it is that we're facing at this moment. So what are you facing? What kind of stress, what kind of suffering, what kind of fear do you have right now? Is it a doctor's report? Is it trouble in your marriage? Is it trouble with your child? Is it trouble at work? Trouble with someone you love. What are you facing? What do you do with it? What are you gonna do with it? He invites you into his presence. He invites us all into his presence. If I could give you a word of advice that comes from difficult times, run to Jesus. Run to Jesus. It's the safest place you'll ever be. Will you bow with me for prayer? I wonder this morning. No way for me to know what God is speaking to each person who's here this morning. I learned a long time ago it's sometimes not even what I think I'm saying that God is speaking. Because I don't know where you are, and I don't know exactly what's going on in your life. But I know at times it can be very scary. The Lord is our rock. The scripture tells us the Lord is our fortress. He is a very present help in times of trouble. This morning, do you have the faith? Do you have the courage this morning to just lay it at his feet? It could be you're here this morning. You do not know the Lord in a personal way. You've never surrendered your life to him. And you need him when we talk about salvation, you need him this morning as your personal rescuer, your personal savior to rescue you from the penalty of your own sins. This morning, if you will trust him with all your heart, repent, turn away from your sin, and follow him, he will save you. You might be a church person, you may be a believer here this morning, and you're really struggling. Really struggling with something and you've been trying to rationalize and figure it out, but maybe this morning you just need to give it to him. Let go of it. Move into his presence. Father, we bow our heads because you are the king and the creator of this universe. There is no one more powerful or greater than you. Yet you came to earth in the form of your son, Jesus. You made a home here with us. You showed us in Jesus what you look like. You invited us to be your children. You rescued us through the cross and through the resurrection. There is nothing more powerful than what you did on that day. So God, whatever it is we need from you this morning, I pray that every man, woman, boy, and girl in this place will have the courage to lay it at your feet. I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.