Fear Not, Neither Be Dismayed — Carter Conlon

I have a message this morning for a specific person. You've come in this morning, you're in such a battle that it's do or die now. You don't know where you're going to find the strength to get through.

You know, as pastors, we're quite often talking about hard times ahead, and you're sitting here thinking, God forbid, if it gets any harder than it is now, I don't know what I'm going to do. Now, whether it's a depression you're fighting, whether it's just a fear of the future, whatever it is, this is for you.

And I promise you, we're going back to worship after this message today. And I do believe that God's going to bring gladness into your heart. Message is entitled Fear Not, Neither Be Dismayed. Deuteronomy, please, chapter 31.

Fear Not, Neither Be Dismayed

Fear not, neither be dismayed. Now, Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for the strength that you give to those that are weary. And Lord, those that have no might, you come, O God, and you confirm that which is your inheritance.

Today, Lord, I thank you that as I give my body to you, I yield this vessel to you, Lord, that you will come and overshadow my frailty. Lord, that you will speak through me, you will animate me. God, even the intonations of my voice will come from your heart and from your hand.

Help me, O God. I don't want to be in any part of this message. It has to be something birthed and delivered in the Spirit. Give us the ears to hear this, O God. I pray with all my heart today. Let your kingdom come.

Let your will be done. We ask this in Jesus' name. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verses 7 and 8. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage, for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.

And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee, he will be with thee. He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Fear and dismay, it's a condition common to all of us from time to time.

Now, there are struggles that are part of your life, they're part of mine. If we recognize them for what they are and know how God has given us a remedy to defeat them, then they will never take you down.

And the devil will always come against the children of God with these two weapons. They're actually very distinct, one from another, and I'll explain that in a moment. Now by definition, in the Old Testament, fear is an anticipation that we may suffer harm or that things might go wrong, and every one of us live there from time to time.

And dismay is a discouragement, it's when we feel beaten down, when we feel demoralized or we're in despair. Fear comes when we're opposed by something of superior strength to our own. We find ourselves suddenly in a battle, whether it's from the basics of being confronted by somebody who's going to rob you on the subway, to spiritual attack that comes into your life, and it's something that is opposing you, you are very, very aware that it has superior strength to your own.

That's the one common factor about fear. Now dismay comes when we consider our own resources. We look inside of ourselves and we come to the conclusion that we're not strong enough to fight the battle that is before us.

Now that's how the two work together. Fear is an opposing force coming against you, causing your heart to stand back and tremble just for a moment, and then dismay comes when you finally realize that I'm not strong enough to fight this, I thought I could defeat this.

Now some here are fighting with besetting sin, and you thought you could defeat this in your own strength. You thought that coming to church, listening to some messages, reading your Bible a little bit, giving your life to Jesus, which is a wonderful thing, obviously if you've done that, you thought that was good enough, and then suddenly you find out you're in a battle that is stronger.

There's something in your character, there's something that has found a lodging place perhaps in you, in your flesh, and try as you will, you cannot defeat this. And it's produced such a dismay in your heart that you're literally on fumes, spiritually speaking.

You drag yourself to church and you're just hoping for a miracle, just a touch, something's got to happen somewhere, something sovereign, maybe another truth, maybe just another how-to message that I can get through this, I don't know how I'm ever going to get through this.

It happens to everybody, it happens to pastors and pulpits, a despondency sometimes can settle on the heart, and here we are preaching faith, but ourselves fighting an inner despair, it can happen, and does happen, it happens to all people, it's common to everyone.

Fear and Dismay in the Battles of God's People

1 Samuel 17, 11, speaking of this, it says, When Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine, that's Goliath, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now, this is an army under a kingship that has lost touch with God.

They've not been inquiring of God. Their strength is not in God. They have ranks, they have armor, they've had training of sorts, they have a king that's head and shoulders taller and more handsome, I suppose, than all the people in the land.

He looks like a king. Yet they've not been seeking God. Remember when David brought the ark back into Jerusalem, he said, In the days of Saul they had not been inquiring of the presence of God. And so they are standing as it is on this cliff, overlooking a valley, and then on the other side there's an enemy that's threatening the very fabric of the society of God's people at that time.

And as they are being challenged, they realize that, first of all, this giant is bigger than any of us, and secondly, there's none of us here that have the resources to fight him. And that's, of course, where we can all get from time to time in our walk with God.

Think of the children of Israel under Moses, after they had come out of bondage for four hundred years, and they're coming into the promised land. This is a place, God says, I've prepared it for you, it's for you.

And they came to the shores, just like you and I do. You have an incredible inheritance in Christ, did you know that? Freedom is yours, victory is yours, peace of mind is yours, the soundness of heart is yours, strength of character is yours, all of these things are yours, just as they were, and even more in this generation, as they were for that generation.

They got to the shore, they sent in some spies from all of the tribes, and they went in and they came back. And what they had seen from their own mouths, they said, there's a land, yes, it's everything God said it was, but in that place, it's so big and we're so few, the land just swallows us up.

And we saw giants there, we saw the sons of Anak there, and they're so huge, we felt like grasshoppers in comparison to them. And they said, we're not able to go up against the people, for they're stronger than we are.

That's fear, fear, that's how the devil always operates, fear. Fear puts some big battle before you and comes against you with some booming voice in your mind, in your heart, in your conscience, and it says, you can't go any farther.

If you try to defeat this, you're going to end up a slave to it all of your life. Why don't you just make peace with it now? Why don't you just settle in your heart and say, this is the way things are always going to be.

You're always going to be angry, or you're always going to be selfish, or you'll always have a problem telling the truth, or you'll always be in a position of never fully trusting God, or your marriage is always going to be like this, it's never going to get any better.

Your children will go astray, give up praying because you're not going to be able to bring them home. And there's always this roar of the enemy against everything that God has ever promised that is going to come into your life.

And the congregation heard this report, they listened to this report, even though there are two other voices, Joshua and Caleb, but I guess they're being drowned out by the volume of the other ten who are coming in and just saying, no, can't be, big land, grasshoppers, giants.

And you have that war, and I have that war. You have it going on inside of you all of the time. It almost seems like the voice of the enemy gets as big as Goliath, and the voice of God becomes almost a whisper in the dust.

Joshua and Caleb are saying, no, their defense has departed from them, they're bred for us, let's go against them. We're well able to overcome it. But the people gave in to the louder voice. It's not the voice of truth, and it's not speaking for God, it's just in their heart and in their ears at that moment, it's louder than the voices that are speaking for God.

And Numbers 14, 1 says, all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. Fear gives in to dismay. The giants are there, we don't have the resources to fight. We're not going to win this battle, we're all going to go down and defeat.

And so all night they begin to cry. I know there are people here today that, you cried last night, and you know the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. You cried, you went to bed crying last night, you get up this morning brokenhearted, you weren't even sure you were going to come to church today.

How will I ever get out of this battle? How will I ever beat this thing? I thought I could. I thought if I read enough, I thought if I went to church enough, I thought if I tried hard enough, I would get the victory.

And suddenly I'm beginning to realize that the more I try, the louder that voice is getting that's opposing me, and I just don't know how I'm going to get through. And God forbid that they should get tougher than they are today.

Paul speaks of this in 2 Corinthians 7 .5, this struggle is being common to both he and those who are in his company on their journey. Paul said it this way, when we were coming to Macedonia, now keep in mind, they were called to the Spirit into Macedonia.

Remember that Paul had that vision of a man saying, come over, help us. So he and his company go into Macedonia, and just as Joshua was called to go into a place of promise. Now here's Paul's report, our flesh had no rest.

We were troubled on every side. Outside of us were fighting, inside of us were fears. Common, Paul says. Outside of us, there were battles, there were struggles, there were things coming against us, and inside of us, Paul the apostle said, were fears.

Fightings without fears within. But he also writes in 1 Corinthians 10 .13, there's no trial or temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. The devil will try to tell you, you're the only one who's fighting this.

No one else is fighting. Everyone else in Times Square Church lives in victory, except for you. You come into the sanctuary, and you see today how people worship God in this place. And there's this voice that says, you see, it's true.

Everyone's in victory, except for you. And you've just got this giant that's just in your mind, it's in your heart, comes against you, and roars against the life of Christ that's promised you, and you're never going to get the victory.

But you see, Paul says the temptation that's taken you is common to man. Common to man. Common. That means everybody goes through it. That means everybody goes through it, from time to time. Everybody has sudden fear that will try to grip their heart and grip their mind.

Everyone has times and seasons where we look inside and we get dismayed at how little of the strength sometimes and the character of God we find that we should have and don't have in certain areas of our lives.

But God is faithful, Paul says, who will not suffer you or allow you to be tempted above your able. God is faithful. He will not allow you. He will not allow you. He will not allow you. He will not allow you to be tried above that which you're able to bear.

He will not. If God is your God, this is for you. He will not allow you to be tried above that you are able to bear. But with the temptation will make a way to escape that you might be able to bear. He will make a way to escape for you.

God's Faithfulness in the Midst of Trouble

Now, how did God bring Paul through? And his companions in Macedonia, in 2 Corinthians 7, 6, it just says it's by the arrival of a man with a good word. He was a good man, his name was Titus and he had a good report and he had a comforting word.

And Paul starts out, he says, our flesh had no rest and we were troubled on every side and without were fighting and within were fears. Nevertheless, God, that comforts those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.

I was thinking of that when Pastor Nick came on the platform this morning when I was praying. I didn't know you were going to be here this week. I thought it was next week. And I was so comforted. He's such a friend.

He always brings such a good word. How much more of a friend is God? How much more in your struggle will God not come to you and bring you a word? It's not a zap at an altar somewhere, it'd be a word that God brings to you.

He says, I'm going to speak to you about your situation and I'm going to bring good words to you and these words will comfort you and they will give you good cheer. Now Joshua was, just as many of us feel today, was sent to accomplish a humanly impossible task.

There was a place on the earth of promise that had been set apart for the people of God. And he and the people were to go in and conquer everything that would try to keep them from obtaining what was rightfully theirs.

It's an impossible task, folks. We are sent into the scriptures, the life of Christ now, because if his victory is ours, we see the promises in the word of God, we read them, but it's really impossible to us.

I'm talking about you and I in the natural. It's an impossible place. You look in the Bible. I remember when I was a young Christian, I got into the word, I loved God's word with all of my heart. And I remember reading Ephesians 5, husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church.

Good grief. I remember reading that saying, how is that possible? How do I do that? As Christ loves the church, you think of the love of God, you think of this, this indescribable love of God for you and for me and that sent him to the earth to walk as a man, to go to a cross, to endure everything he had to endure from the spiritual ignorance as it is of his own creation.

And I'm called to love my wife in that capacity. How do I do that? I remember the Lord saying, no, you don't do it. You let me do it. I come to you and I will show you how much I love you. You you'll begin to understand.

You've got to open your heart to my love. You've got to let me come. You've got to let that perfect love of God cast out the fear that you'll never be able to go to this place. It's all God folks. It's all God.

It's all the grace of God. It's all the goodness of God. It's nothing of us. It's all of him. Now go ahead to Joshua chapter five. We're going to just see some of the very key elements that are required before we are able to go in and possess this place of promise.

Entering the Promised Land Through God's Provision

Joshua chapter five, we'll start at verse 10. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after Passover on leaven cakes and parched corn in the shelf same day.

And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land. Neither had the children of Israel manna anymore, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. Now they were about to be taken into an impossible place.

They're about to go into the promised land. And most of you know the story about a huge walled city called Jericho that occupied that place. It was the first battle. It truly was impossible for them to conquer it in their own strength.

There had to be something other than them and other than their strength with them to allow them to possess this. Now there's some steps to this. The day before they go in, they eat of the old corn and the manna ceases.

That means the old provision they had kept with them and the manna, that bread that had come to thus far for many, many years, faithfully had fallen to the ground. They had gathered it most every day, taken it home.

They'd eaten it. It was heavenly food. Really, it had sustained them. But suddenly it stops. Now, there are seasons in the Christian life where what used to satisfy you no longer does. You're quite satisfied to come into church.

You had John 3 .16. It was a pillar of scripture. You had Ephesians 2 .8 and 9. You had tapes. You read your Bible five minutes a day. You sang the odd song. You listened to songs of worship CDs on the subway.

In your mind, it was, oh God, it just doesn't get any better than this. Then suddenly, all of a sudden, the Bible goes dry. The worship songs are not doing it anymore. There's a troubling in your spirit.

It's like the old corn is gone. The manna that used to sustain you, you go out in the morning and you find that five minute scoop from the Bible is just not doing it for you anymore. You must consider that God might be leading you into something deeper than you've ever known.

To get you to move from one place, he's got to dry up the well, folks, or you and I will camp there and it might be a shallow well. It might be an experience in God that isn't deep enough to take you and I into the fullness of our inheritance.

And how does he get us to move? Because we're all campers by nature, you know. We'll all build a tabernacle in what we think God's supposed to look like and where he is and where we're happy and we'll just stay there.

We'll never move. That's just the nature of who we are. And so the Lord has ways to get us up and move us forward and they're quite often not pleasant ways. It creates a hunger. A battle comes against you that is so fierce it comes suddenly.

And you thought that your few minutes in the scriptures and your tapes were good enough, but suddenly you're in a battle. You can't win this with that kind of a relationship. And the Lord's saying to you, I'm taking you to a deeper place than you've ever been before.

Now you just get up and move with me. Now when the manna ceased, they had to go in. Now they either conquered the land or they starved to death, folks. There was going to be nothing in the middle. When the manna stopped and they crossed over into the promised land, it was victory or death at that point.

And if you're finding that today, thank God. I thank God. You know, some of the times that the Lord has had to move me from one place to another, spiritually speaking, they're not pleasant times. You find yourself out on the street just shouting.

You get so frustrated trying to just get rid, as it is, of the leading of God. That's an awful way to say it. But we do that. And finally, you find yourself just crying out, oh God, please, what are you trying to tell me?

And, you know, when we get there, sometimes it just, you know, speak very simply into our hearts. Listen to what Isaiah says. I'm just going to read it to you. And from chapter 43 verses 18 to 21, he says, remember not the former things and neither consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing. And now it shall spring forth and shall you not know it? I'll even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor me and dragons and owls because I've given water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen.

He said, what I'm about to do in your life is going to bless a lot of people around you. I'm going to give you a drink in a dry land. I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you water in parched places where others are starving to death.

But because of what I do in you, that there's going to be blessing come all around you because of it. This people I've formed for myself and they shall show forth my praise. God says, I redeemed you. I bought you with my blood.

I intertwined my name with your name. I'm going to bring you through. I have formed you as a people of praise. You are not a people who are to get through this in your own might, in your own effort and with your own thinking.

I'm going to bring you through and your songs are going to be about me. It's going to be about divine deliverance, not human effort. Nothing you did, but something that I did. Your song will be about Jesus, not about yourself.

Your whole story, your whole testimony will not be, look, I figured it out. I figured it out. I got the plan to get through and get the promises. Oh no, your story will be about meeting the giants and not knowing how to go forward until God's Holy Spirit came upon you.

Don't let your mind be entrapped by the old things. Don't think that going back is better than going forward because it's not. God says, I'm going to do a new thing in your life. I'm going to bring you into new strength, a new supply, a new depth, a new relationship, a new level, new trust, new understanding, new confidence in the promises and the power of God.

You're going through this battle because God is leading you into something new of himself. That's why you're going through the battle. God has not failed you and you are not the worst sinner on the face of the earth.

Put away the lies of the devil. You are right where God wants you to be. You're in the hand of the father. Jesus said, those who put their confidence in me, I place you in my father's hand and nobody can take you out of my father's hand.

That's where you are today. You're in the hand of God and God is leading his people. God is leading you. God is leading me. Hallelujah. In Joshua 5 again, verse 13, now Joshua goes, is moving in. And I remember the menace ceases and the old corn is gone and it's, it's, it's conqueror starved now really at this point.

And it came to pass when Joshua verse 13 was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said unto him, are you for us or for our adversaries?

Now here, this is interesting. Now, most every scholar agrees that this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. Now various reasons for that. I don't have time to get into all of that. You can get a concordance or a commentary and study that, it's fairly clear.

But he meets a man with a sword drawn in his hand. Now when Jesus, for example, was risen from the dead and he joined the men on the Emmaus road, it says he just kind of walked up and started walking with them.

And I see Joshua coming in as it is to the, this place that needs to be conquered. He's coming into this area of Jericho and here is, here is the pre-incarnate Christ who's standing, but he's standing with his sword in his hand and he's standing in such a manner that Joshua is confused.

Now Joshua is a soldier. He's done a lot of fighting. He knows what fighting is all about, but he's unable to determine if this man is for us or against us. You know, it appears perhaps on one side that he's against them because it says he's standing against them.

His sword is drawn in his hand. Now when a man's sword is drawn, there's a reason for that. His countenance speaks of something that says this far and no farther. Now Joshua is not a fearful man at this point.

Joshua walks right up to him, says, are you for us or are you for our enemies? Who are you for? Whose side? In other words, he didn't know whose side he was on. Whose side are you on? It was that simple.

Because I feel Joshua was prepared to engage him at this point, but of course, once he found out who he was, that all changed. Jesus said it this way. In Matthew 5, verse 25, he said, agree with your adversary quickly while you're in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge and the judge deliver you to the officer and thou be cast into prison.

Or in other words, put into a place of helplessness where you can't escape. Now there are certain times in your walk with God that God will become your adversary, but not for evil, but for good. He will stand in a sense and tell you, this is where you stop.

This is where you stop relying on yourself. This is where you drop your plans. This is where your ambitions die. This is where your self-image is thrown to the wind. You will not win this battle in your own strength.

Jesus said, agree with your adversary when you're in this, especially if it's God. If God is saying, this is not the way, this is not the plan, this is not where strength is found, agree with your adversary.

Because if you don't, you'll be cast into a place of helplessness where you can't escape. Agree with your adversary. You and I are all prone. We're prone to plans. We're prone to directions. We're prone to an image of ourselves.

We're prone to having this measure of 60 God and 40 me. We're prone to charting our own course and coming to church and saying, God blessed it. I know exactly what my life is supposed to be. And you find all of a sudden that the Lord is your adversary.

He's drawn his sword before you. His word is drawn before you. And you're not sure even who God is now. Is he for me? Is he against me? He's not stopping Joshua at this point for evil, but for good, knowing that flesh cannot go into this place.

Flesh cannot occupy this land of promise. Flesh cannot take any of the glory for what's about to happen. It's got to be all God and none of me. Verse 14, he said, but as the captain of the host of the Lord, I might now come.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said to him, what saith my Lord to his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy.

And Joshua did so. Loose your shoe. Now that's significant. Remember the prodigal son when he came home after really making a mess of the family name and the father met him on the road and first he gives him a robe, then he gives him a ring and then what does he do?

He puts shoes on his feet, which is symbolic of the fact that I've got a plan for you now. There's places you're going to go. You and I are going to walk together in this. You're going to represent as it is my house.

But the Lord said to Joshua, loose your shoe. Remember, Jesus said to Peter in John 31, when you were young, you dressed yourself, that would include shoes, wouldn't it? And you went where you wanted to go.

But as you're getting older, it's going to change. Someone else is going to dress you. You're going to stretch forth your hands and you'll be taken into places that you don't want to go and that you're not capable of going as a natural man.

Now, Jesus is standing before Joshua. We're talking about going into the promised land. We're talking about possessing what God has promised. And he says, loose your shoe from off your foot. Joshua, not your plans, not your might, not your strategies, not your power.

You remember the scripture, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. No, the Lord says, no, I don't need your plans. I don't need your might. I don't want your strategies and I don't need human effort.

Loose your shoe. I'm going to give you instructions. Now, think about it for a moment. The instructions are totally foolish to the natural man. Doesn't the scripture say that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing?

The ways of God are foolishness to those who live in the natural or are governed by that which is their own fallen nature that they feel has a measure of intelligence in it. He says, you're standing on holy ground.

It's a sacred place, an innermost place, a place where God and God alone is to be glorified. You're standing on holy ground in Christ. Praise God. Isn't it a better testimony to get to the end of this life and just say, it's been all God.

It's been all grace. It's been all goodness. It's been all mercy. It's been all glory. It's been everything of Christ and nothing of me. Isn't it wonderful if you get to the end and whether you preach to 10 or you're 10 million, it doesn't really matter.

But you get to the end of the journey and your children say, mom, dad, how did such change come into your life? How did you become the person that you became? And at the end of the journey, you don't have a list of books for them to read.

You don't have a stack of Proverbs. You don't have a whole list of how tos. You have only one name on your lips. Only one victory. Only one direction. Only one God. Hallelujah. You're standing on holy ground in Christ.

Take off your shoes. Take off your plans. Take off human effort. Take off everything in the flesh. All you can produce in the flesh is an Ishmael and then you have to support it for the rest of your life and try somehow to prove that God's been in it.

Take it off and begin to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Give God the glory when he opens the door, go through it in the strength of your God. When the giants tell you you can't, you pick up five stones out of a brook and go down to meet that giant and say, no, no, no, no.

You're challenging the honor of God. Jesus said in the book of Luke chapter 14, he said, what king going to make war against another does not sit down first and consults whether he's able with 10 ,000 to meet him that comes against him with 20 ,000.

He said, or else while the other is yet a great way off, he sends ambassadors and desires conditions of peace. Now, in other words, without Christ and his power, you will make peace with your enemies and you will let your enemies stay in the place that is rightfully yours.

You've been given the victory in Christ. You've been given a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit. Everything in this book is yours, folks. Everything in this book is yours. But if you're not willing to sit down and consult and say, do I have the power to come against an enemy that's much stronger than me?

And folks, you have to come to the conclusion, I don't have the ability. And he said, so likewise, whosoever he'd be of you that forsakes not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. Now, he's stating an absolute.

He's not barring anybody from the kingdom of God. He basically is saying it this way. If you don't forsake human reasoning, human plans, self-effort, if you don't let it all go, you can't follow me where I'm going.

You simply can't because it's a spiritual kingdom, folks. These are spiritual battles. It requires a spiritual victory. It requires a strength that's deeper than ours and more powerful than anything that you and I could ever be in ourselves.

Joshua, take off your shoes. You're unable to possess in your own strength what has been promised to you. Take off your shoes, Joshua. Stand in faith. And through the victory of Christ on Calvary, it will supernaturally become yours.

Take off your shoes. Take off all your efforts to gain the promises of God in your own strength. Take off all your plans of what you think your life is destined to be and give everything into the hands of God.