When Afraid, Trust In God

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May 3, 2023

Scripture Reading and Sermon For 04-30-2023 Scripture Readings: 1 Samuel 21.10-12, Matthew 10.26-33 Sermon Title: When Afraid, Trust In God Sermon Scripture: Psalm 56 Pastor Andrew Beebe

00:08: Please stand Old Testament scripture reading this morning we found in 1st
00:14: Samuel 21 10 through 12 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and and went to Achish the king of Gath and the servants of Akish said to him
00:26: Is not this David the king of it the land did they not sing to one another of him and dances?
00:31: Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands and David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Akish the king of Gath New Testament reading this morning is found in Matthew chapter 10 verses 26 through 33
00:49: So have no fear of them for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known
00:55: What I tell you in the dark say in the light and what you hear whispered proclaim on the housetops
01:00: And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body and hell
01:09: Are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father
01:14: But even the hairs of your head are all numbered fear not Therefore you are not you are of more value than many sparrows.
01:23: So everyone who acknowledges me before men I will also acknowledge before my father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men
01:31: I will also deny before my father who is in heaven. You may be seated Good morning
01:47: Thank you for your singing if you'd open up your Bibles to Psalm 56, please the 56
01:54: Psalm Psalm 56
02:29: To the choir master according to the dove on far off Terebinth's a mictum of David when the
02:35: Philistines seized him and Gath Be gracious to me.
02:41: Oh God for man tramples on me all day long and attacker oppresses me
02:46: My enemies trample on me all day long for many attack me proudly when
02:54: I am afraid I put my trust in you and God whose word
02:59: I praise and God I trust I shall not be afraid What can flesh do to me?
03:06: But all that all day long they injure my cause all their thoughts are against me for evil they stir up strife
03:14: They lurk they watch my steps as they have waited for my life For their crime will they escape and wrath cast down the people's
03:23: Oh God You have kept count of my tossings or my wanderings
03:30: Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back and the day when
03:38: I call this I know that God is for me and God whose word I praise and the
03:43: Lord and Yahweh whose word I praise and God I trust I shall not be afraid.
03:49: What can man do to me? So I must perform my vows to you
03:55: Oh God, I will render thank offerings to you for you have delivered my soul from death
04:01: Yes, my feet from falling that I may walk before God in the light of life.
04:07: Oh Father in heaven your word is sure It is timeless There is truth to be had to understand and to apply
04:20: The implications are endless Lord. You have one truth and boundless implications. Oh Lord, let us not
04:26: Be slow to hear or let us not be Dull of hearing But rather let us seek the
04:35: Spirit who applies to us ears that can hear Father in heaven, we know that sin is a great enemy and it is in the way
04:44: We rather would do other things but to hear your word and apply it. Oh God in heaven.
04:49: May you Send your spirit to apply the work of Jesus even to us now that our sins would be forgiven through our repentance
04:58: And looking upon Jesus and that you would give us ears that hear truth
05:04: And Lord just to hear truth and go on about our day is vanity Let us rather hear your truth and live out your truth.
05:13: Oh Father, we're in desperate need of your help And so we ask humbly before you as the one who is our strength help us in our time of need
05:22: Thank you for being a God who hears us is intimate with us through the covenant of grace
05:28: May you be praised now as we preach your word as we hear and listen And as we live our lives in light of it in Jesus name.
05:36: Amen well, we're back in our study of Psalms and we've been grabbing hold of major themes in the
05:45: Psalms and One of the major themes that we had that we've had throughout the Psalms is it will guide you to proper and true
05:52: Worship of God this world is filled with false worship our hearts Naturally want to go to worship that is false and boring and wrong directions
06:03: But God's Word is faithful and true and in the Psalms We have a guidance for our hearts and minds to guide us into proper worship to our
06:12: God And we see that and we've been seeing that proper worship or proper relationship with God is not just one -dimensional
06:20: But what as we said it involves all of our emotions that we experience in life in our life we experience a whole litany of different emotions that God has given us and They all are supposed to come together ultimately to worship our
06:37: God in a full -bodied way as we've been seeing here in the Psalms and Here and again just to remind ourselves
06:44: It's so easy for us like the world to get the negative emotions to say I don't want that instead
06:49: I'm gonna grab hold of the emotions I want like happiness and think that's where my worship is to be found
06:55: Well, certainly our worship is to be found in happiness But we cannot deny the other emotions that God has given us but instead we need to look at them all as under the
07:04: Lordship of Jesus Christ and Working for our greater good to understand him more and enjoy him more.
07:10: Yes, even sadness will do that in obedience to Jesus But here we have a different kind of emotion that's located in the
07:18: Psalms that even that is supposed to submit to our Lord Jesus Christ for the greater good of his glory in Our worship to him and that is to be afraid
07:27: That when we are afraid that is used by God that emotion that fear is even used by God to glorify
07:34: God to enjoy him forever And that's something that needs to be
07:39: Dominating your mind as you experience your life is every single emotion and thought you have you need to say how can
07:46: I make? this bow to the King of Jesus and Even when you're afraid that comes forth even when you're afraid that can bow the knee to Jesus and you could see
07:57: God working and even in your fear What does it mean to be afraid?
08:06: It is a state of fear it is a state of fear driven by weakness and self and Strength and something else that can cause you harm you get that fear is a or being afraid is a state of fear driven by your weakness and Driven by the strength that is in something else that you see can cause you harm.
08:33: I Remember as a child I was afraid of many things and One of the things
08:39: I was really afraid deathly afraid of his art was thunderstorms and in Especially at night when
08:45: I was supposed to be in my bed alone Thunderstorms terrified me because I couldn't help but think me little self was gonna get eaten by just whole by the thunder.
08:55: I Had a certain sense of my of my weakness and the power of God's display of his thunder
09:03: I Remember the only thing that really brought me comfort was a lie that my dad told me that he got really nice Really nice roof and that roof any lightning or anything that strikes it
09:14: It can just deflect it every single time and so I was I remember I just being fearful over that my dad told me that and that gave me a sense of security because of the strength of our roof a
09:28: Child that hears a scary noise Right has fear of its own weakness. And so what does it do naturally it goes to its strength that goes to its mother or father and in there it feels secure and Psalm 56 we are going to learn how to handle our fear to locate to see that it's only pointing to our
09:49: Weakness so that it actually builds us up in our worships as we go to the one who is able who is strong and so here in Psalm 56
09:59: We see and we need to locate what makes David afraid What is the nature of his fear in Psalm 56 because we're gonna be able to see our own fear in that And it's
10:09: Psalm 56. It's different from the last Psalm We went in you remember the last Psalm We were at is Psalm 51 and and the major issue was the sin that David had in himself that he needed
10:19: Jesus to take care Of you remember he says have mercy on me. Oh God for I know my transgression and I need forgiveness
10:26: Well here this psalm is a little different he says be gracious to me. Oh God in verse 1 for man tramples me and so The emphasis is not on sin within his own heart in this song, but rather it is an enemy on the outside That's causing him fear
10:43: We see David's circumstance it tells us in the prelude there Whatever you want to call it in which it says this is was written when the
10:51: Philistines seized David and Gath So if you look at 1st
10:56: Samuel 21 and verse 10 and we read it earlier. You'll see the situation
11:02: That caused David to write this psalm 1st Samuel chapter 21 verse 10 and David rose and fled that day from King Saul and he went to Achish who is the king of Gath and the servants of the king of Gath of Achish said to him is that this
11:30: David the king of the land? and did they not sing to one another of him and dances
11:36: Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands and David took these words of Achish to heart and he was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath See David the situation here is that David is fleeing from King Saul And why is why is
11:55: David fleeing from? Saul it's because Saul knows the
12:01: Word of God that was proclaimed to him from Samuel that says that David would be king of Israel and would replace
12:10: Saul And one thing we can see about monarchs in history is that just as much as they like their own reign
12:17: They love the idea of their son reigning after them And so with that knowledge that King David or David would be king would replace him that dynasty
12:27: Replace them and as Saul saw David acting in a mighty way by the
12:32: Lord, right? David was seen victory in victory Saul hated David So because of David's not his sin
12:40: But because he was faithful to God because he was anointed by God because of the
12:46: Word of God David had an enemy in Saul and So he had to flee he had to run away and where he flees and he runs away to is a place
12:58: It's like being in the middle of a rock in a hard place because he goes to Gath and Gath had many it was a was where the
13:07: Philistines were and David was a mighty warrior and guess who he was killing a lot of in the name of God Philistines so there he is fleeing from one enemy in Israel and he has to go to another enemy in the
13:21: Philistines and If we know our history really well who was from Gath There's a major figure from Gath and he might have had some family around.
13:33: It didn't like what happened years ago Goliath was from Gath we know that Goliath was a champion of the
13:40: Philistines champion of the city and He's arrayed to battle the Israelites and here comes little
13:46: David and he says who's this uncircumcised on Someone who's not in covenant with God at all.
13:53: He doesn't have the strength of God He doesn't have the Word of God on his side Who is this that's taunting the
13:59: Israelites to circumcise those who are in covenant with God? Who is this and because of that great truth of the
14:04: Word of God he goes out and he knocks Goliath on his behind knocks off his head
14:11: We need more men like David just lobs off his head. He says here it is The point what's the point
14:18: I'm getting at Well, David is afraid in this situation. Why not because of a sin
14:23: But because he's faithful to God It's because the
14:29: Word of God the Word of truth has created an enemy for David and now he's in a situation where that enemy is loud vicious and dangerous and he's afraid and He is afraid his faithfulness to God has created an enemy to him all around and in that situation
14:47: He finds himself afraid He says verse 1 and 2 be gracious to me.
14:54: Oh God for man Tramples on me all day long an attacker Oppresses me my enemies trample me all day long for many attack me proudly
15:07: Says man a man attacker an enemy. It's God's enemy. Who's now David's enemy
15:13: Tramples and oppresses me all day long and they proudly do so driven by dark forces
15:20: You see God's enemies Has become David's enemies and God has ordained a situation here in David's life that causes him to be afraid of them
15:37: David's not the only one Who has dealt with negative
15:43: Circumstances because of his faithfulness to God is he this is a timeless truth
15:49: That God's people because of their faithfulness to Yahweh because of his word standing firm on it creates enemies around and it creates fear because of the loudness and power of that enemy
16:04: We even think of Jesus our Lord who in Hebrews 5 7 the writer to the
16:15: Hebrew says in the days of his flesh Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
16:20: To him who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverence you see even Jesus Encountered very negative circumstances only because he was faithful to God Jesus was hated in this world because of his faithfulness to God what made him hated was his faithfulness to our
16:38: Lord Or to our God I should say him being our Lord It's not just unique to David or all of history, but it's true in our day, too
16:49: Paul says in 2nd Timothy 3 12 indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus might be persecuted no will be persecuted if you are faithful to Christ and Are consistent to him you will in some degree face persecution from a world that hates
17:11: Jesus hates God and Wants to destroy it. It's because it's led by the prince of the power of the air
17:21: Who has one mission in mind and that is to destroy Christ or destroy his church?
17:27: They don't know they're being used as pawns for that end but that is what they're being used for and so they have a
17:34: Hatred of God's Word of his truth and everyone who would stand on top of it
17:43: We live in a fallen world directed by Satan who hates Jesus and his followers from Abel to John the
17:53: Baptist From Stephen to the martyrs of today. This has been a timeless truth and just because we live in America Doesn't make us free from that It is a common theme
18:12: To see his hatred the world's hatred on display in every age It is common to be afraid of it in a certain way as we'll discuss
18:23: But when used rightly it will turn into greater worship for you like it did for David Individually We might have our own anecdotal stories of how times we face an enemy because of our faithfulness to God You might have your own stories whether at work or whatever in which you were faithful to God and it created enemies around you
18:46: And these enemies in some degree or other got louder and louder and louder and louder and stronger and stronger
18:52: Which perhaps caused you to be afraid My own is boot camp
18:59: Where there's many wicked people there and to be faithful to God makes you stand out like a sore thumb and so in that there was this period long period of which
19:09: I had to look like a fool for the sake of Christ It is not easy
19:15: It's not pleasant to be in that state and we all might have our own stories to some degree and Some of the
19:20: Saints of the past and even currently face this with even their own life But even beyond the anecdotal stories of being faithful to God and having enemies as a result of it that grow and fester
19:33: We all see what's going on in our culture today We all to some degree watch the news and we all see what's going on across our nation and it is mind -blowing
19:46: To see the strength of the enemy the growth of it and just the last Generation and to see how powerful they are getting and I don't think we need to be afraid to say terms
19:59: Now when I say the leftist ideology I don't mean to say that our answers are found in conservatism or the
20:04: Republican Party That makes me throw up almost as much as the leftist ideology
20:09: But the point of the matter is we cannot be mistaken to see that the enemy of our day the enemy of the church is
20:15: No doubt the leftist ideology the leftist philosophy It is a great hater of God his word his church and the family
20:25: And all of their many forms that they take on they share a common identity of wanting to destroy
20:32: God his word his church the family whether it be the LGBTQ plus Who promises this is true love or the fourth wave feminists who promises?
20:42: This is true equality or critical race theory that promises. This is true justice They all have one thing in common.
20:49: They hate God and they hate his church It's all a work of the
20:55: Prince of the power of the air with the aim to destroy you and your confession The church has always has had its enemies
21:04: The church has always been had an enemy that had as its leader Satan that had its purpose to destroy the confession of the church
21:12: It is not anything unique And as we see the growing influence a growing power of this leftist ideology, of course
21:20: There's many other enemies including the sin that's within you. But nevertheless, there is the sin that's without It can grow it can fester if This was just a fringe movement.
21:32: We might be able to ignore it. But as we can see it is grown exponentially in the past Even few years
21:43: When it has taken over whole cities state governments and even the White House, it can be very terrifying to see it on display we can begin to relate with David who says a proud enemy attacks me all day long and as the beast grows bigger like Like David we can become afraid
22:09: And I think a lot in our a lot of people in our church today. They see the news
22:14: They see what's happening. And I think they respond in fear more than they would like to admit
22:20: Whether it's bitterness and hatred of all those who make up of that system Wanting to just argue and wanting to just knock them over with the conservative club or Republican Club rather than wanting to preach to them the good news of the gospel or Whether it's trying to just avoid the word in general
22:39: Because of the scariness of them hating the word and everyone involved with it. Well, I just won't say the word I will camouflage it.
22:45: I'll try to avoid it and we cannot act in fear when we're faced with the same enemy that the church has been faced with from the beginning as The beast grows bigger like David we can become afraid
23:00: And so here we have teaching from David who is faced with the enemy for his faithfulness
23:06: He's faced with the enemy the growing enemy He's been stuck between a rock and a hard place and he teaches us what he does
23:14: He says when I am afraid in verse 3 when I am afraid I Put my trust in you
23:24: Since when I am afraid This is what I do I put my trust in you
23:31: You see our fear needs to drive our trust and the one who is trustworthy
23:38: When our weakness is causes fear We need to trust in the one who is stronger
23:48: Like a child that runs to its mother The weakness of the child acknowledge and he goes to the one who is stronger
23:56: So in our fear when these things are scary and they're big and they seem to be attacking
24:02: Everything away of life. We need to in that initial fear go to the one who is stronger
24:09: Now the question needs to be asked. How do you know that you are trusting in God and your fear? How you know that's taking place?
24:16: Well, look what he says in verse 4. He says in God whose word I praise So he says when
24:21: I'm afraid this is what I do I put my trust in God and he says in God whose word
24:27: I praise How do you know that you are trusting God in your fear when the word?
24:34: That created these enemies of yours Becomes your comfort when you are afraid of those enemies.
24:40: You see what I'm saying the very same word that made David's enemies hate him
24:48: The word of Yahweh his truth was the same word. He went to for comfort when he was a fear of his enemies
24:56: So instead of making distance with the word in order to try to appease his enemies He rather goes to the word and grabs hold of it even more
25:06: And what a relevant truth for us When we stand upon the word of truth and the enemies of God hates it
25:14: What do we go to when we're in fear of those enemies we go to that same offensive word for our comfort
25:25: So what does this look like? So when the world says I choose my own identity
25:33: When they have their own system of thought when they have their own understanding And that system of thought the understanding says
25:40: I can choose my own identity The word we confess says no your identity is a sinner before a holy god
25:50: And so the world in response to that truth has murderous hate and return Or when the world says
25:57: I need to be confirmed in my own desires We answer no you need to repent of those desires
26:05: When the world says salvation is being true to myself and doing whatever makes me happy following my own idols
26:14: We tell them salvation is denying yourself picking up your cross and following jesus
26:20: This is truth And as we are faithful to God's word, they are enraged against it and whoever believes it and so whenever We are afraid
26:33: We take comfort in that same word not shying away from the offensive word but growing closer to it
26:39: I'm a sinner Saved from the slavery of my wayward desires since I bowed the knee to the lord
26:45: Jesus and he will never leave me nor forsake me what can flesh do to me?
26:50: See that same word that we hold to That creates enmity with the world.
26:56: It's the same word we go to for comfort My jesus has changed me from that and he will hold me he will keep me
27:03: What can flesh do to me in light of the stronger jesus? Look what he says
27:11: When i'm afraid I put my trust in you in god whose word I praise And god,
27:17: I trust because of his word. I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
27:22: You see that when I am afraid And then you got the meat and potatoes there I put my trust in you and god whose word
27:29: I praise that's my trust And god, I trust I shall not be afraid when i'm afraid
27:34: I shall not be afraid is what he's saying When I am afraid when I follow it the proper route of god's word being my trust being my confidence.
27:42: I shall not be afraid So it's not bad
27:48: It's not wrong For you to have an initial feeling of fear or afraid when you see the world acting as they do
27:57: When you see the world acting as they do on the news when you see them hating truth hating your way of life
28:04: There's nothing wrong with having a certain feeling of fear as you see that That fear the initial feeling of fear is actually a good thing because it causes you to recognize your own inherent weakness
28:17: And then it needs to cause you to go to the one, you know, who is stronger. That is god And so you see god works you being afraid for you to acknowledge your weakness
28:27: See your weakness experience your weakness and know that but there is one who is stronger. That is yahweh
28:33: I shall go and find my shelter in him It's like again the child who hears a scary noise and right away flees and runs
28:42: And where is he fleeing run to to the one who is stronger his mom or his dad? It's the same thing for us when the when the things of this world draws fear within our heart our
28:52: First response needs to go and when i'm afraid I go to god and his truth and I find shelter there
28:59: I shall not be afraid So the initial fear drives our weakness
29:04: But it also acknowledges the strength that's found in our god and it creates a and I shall not be afraid response in us
29:15: You need to respond by reminding yourself the strength of god That's exactly what david is doing here
29:23: He has the hatred of the world on him for his faithfulness to god He has them wanting to destroy him
29:31: And he says and when I have the natural response of fear as I see that they are stronger than me
29:36: I find my comfort in god, and I shall not be afraid the
29:46: Psalm kind of continues this and it's it's kind of like a song In which you have verse one chorus verse two
29:53: Chorus, right and the two verses are similar and the chorus is similar The two verses have the same theme the same teaching and the chorus has the same teaching
30:03: But it kind of expands a little bit and that's what we have going on here We had that's the first verse right man has made me afraid my enemies
30:11: Whose god's enemies have made me afraid because of my faithfulness to god And in response here's a chorus when i'm afraid
30:17: I put my trust in you and god whose word I praise and god I trust I shall not be afraid what can flesh do to me and now he's going to go back to verse two now
30:26: And he repeats the same kind of theme. He says all day long. They injure my cause All their thoughts are against me for evil.
30:34: They stir up strife They lurk they watch my steps as they have waited for my life
30:39: For their crime while they escape and wrath casts down the peoples of god
30:45: So we have that same kind of theme in which david is acknowledging why he's afraid because he has great enemies
30:50: Who are looking for his life who hate him who hates his truth who hates his word And so they hate david, right?
30:59: So verse two is much like verse one And so then he goes back to the chorus if you look but he has a couple of notes before it
31:06: Which I I want to explain the the second chorus again because I think it gives weight And understanding to verse eight and nine look at that second chorus
31:13: It's the repeated words only something a little bit added from the first chorus. Look at verse 10
31:19: He says in response to this and god Whose word I praise And the lord whose word
31:26: I praise and god I trust I shall not be afraid What can man do to me you see
31:32: I think there's an added note there, right? It's the same chorus, but he adds in an extra sentence in which he says in yahweh or in the lord whose word
31:41: I praise When you see the word lord when you see yahweh That is god and his covenant name
31:49: Okay, that's that's how god has expressed himself through covenant And that's important here that that's his covenant name because to be in covenant with god to be in covenant with god
32:01: Means that though your sin creates an eternal distance between you and god Through covenant with god through forgiveness of sins god draws near to you that makes sense
32:14: When you see god's covenant name think of although my sin drives a distance between me and god
32:20: Through his covenant through the eternal covenant through jesus christ. There is a
32:26: Forgiveness there is a reconciliation or god draws near There's a second aspect that I want to highlight before we look at eight and nine is that by this covenant god
32:38: He has promised me victories He's promised me victory in the end
32:45: And so whenever we think about our god and being in covenant with him We think about being near to him because of his work and we think about the fact that he has promised us victory in jesus
32:58: And I think this is what's going on in david's mind as he's considering the enemies all around him and their hatred and their power
33:04: Against him in this time I think he's considering his covenant god who has made a covenant with him
33:10: And it's creating peace within him in that moment and peace because he knows what's in the future because of that covenant he has with god
33:19: Look at verse 8 in that nearness that god has with him Look at verse 8
33:25: And think of the nearness right and when you're in covenant with god he draws near to you in jesus
33:31: He says in verse 8 in the midst of his being afraid Of his enemies all around he locates the nearness of god.
33:41: He says you have kept count of my tossings Another word
33:46: I mean because you think it might be like him tossing around in bed being nervous or something But I think the better translation all the other translations that has wandering his wanderings
33:55: He's been he's a wanderer because of the hatred of saul. So he's wandering about he can't be in israel He's wandering you have kept count of it.
34:02: He says This isn't hidden from god. God is very near to david and god knows what he's going through because of this situation
34:09: You have kept count of my tossings put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
34:17: It's one of the most poetic and beautiful expressions that god when he has a saint before him who is shedding tears
34:24: Because of him being afraid of his enemies around it's not like god is distant from that but he is quite aware of what he's going through Even right then we had to make immediate implications to you if you're in happy covenant with your god
34:39: He knows intimately what you are going through and he keeps track of every one of your tears
34:44: Because one day he will dry every one of those tears in the completion of jesus christ and what he brings us in glorification
34:52: But nevertheless, I think we need to highlight the fact that david was in covenant with god That means god was near to david
34:59: He felt that in the fact that even as he was afraid and he shed tears in his wanderings
35:05: He knew that god was intimate even in that in verse 9
35:12: He says then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call this I know that god is for me
35:21: So david says I will have the final victory because my god is for me Now if you look at the divinite covenant, you look at the word
35:30: That samuel brought to david even at the beginning before the covenant was displayed We see that god has said you shall be king
35:38: You will rule in other words I am for you This is what i'm going to do for you And so as david is going through this period of fear because his enemies seem to be overly strong for him
35:48: He cannot handle them He relies on the fact that he's in covenant with god the one who is drawing near to him and the one who says
35:56: I will Give you victory So even whenever the enemy looks terrifying, there's no victory to be had
36:02: But David relied upon the covenant he has with with god or the promise that god has given him and says
36:09: I will have victory I know that god is for me And so I think it's within this this context of Of david relying upon his covenant relationship with god
36:22: In which he then says in god whose word I praise and the lord and yahweh whose word
36:27: I praise the word of the covenant The word of promise and god I trust I shall not be afraid
36:34: What can man do to me? We need to see
36:39: That of course the covenant made with david And the nearness that brought him close to him
36:46: Was a covenant that was pointing to the new covenant Was a covenant that was pointed to jesus christ and how he would bring about a covenant with him and his saints
36:55: And so in the same way we have yahweh we have our covenant god We have a god who has made promises
37:03: We have a god that has drawn has came near to us through jesus christ We have a god who has promised us great things in scripture promised us victory in scripture
37:13: And so as we see our enemies as they grow as they get more scary as we know that the future is uncertain
37:20: We don't know what's going to happen in our nation. We don't know what's going to happen in our culture We have no idea and this draws many christians in fear
37:28: And it causes them to be Trying to go in their bomb shelter and just wait it out
37:34: Instead we need to grow confident in what god is doing in his covenant that we will have the final victory
37:40: That he is near to us and he's not distant I think this is exactly what paul is getting at In romans 8 31 that in jesus we have victory
37:56: In romans 8 In jesus we have the covenant And that covenant is he's he's near to us.
38:03: He's never distant No matter what's going on circumstantially in your life. He is still near to you
38:10: And we see this victory this nearness This confidence we can have in jesus because of this covenant in romans 8 31 through 39
38:21: Look at what the apostle paul says in romans 8 31 He says what shall we say to these things?
38:28: If god is for us again, what can man do to me? What can flesh do to me who can be against us?
38:35: He who did not spare his own son But gave him up for us all How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
38:44: Jesus if you are in christ You have already received all things in christ
38:49: There is not Paul talks he says every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places has been given to you in ephesians 1
38:56: There is not one thing the father withholds from you And so let that be the answer to your heart as you are afraid.
39:03: Oh god, what is going to happen to me? You've already been given jesus. You've already been given everything.
39:09: What can man possibly do to me? He can't take away jesus from me And this needs to be the answer to our fear
39:17: He says in verse 33 Who shall bring any charge against god god's elect it is god who justifies you see the christian
39:26: Is the one who says my greatest issue is the fact that i'm separated from my god And my greatest solution is the fact that jesus has brought me near And so if my greatest problem has been fixed in jesus that no charge can be laid against me
39:39: What can man do to me? They can't charge me They can't bring guilt upon me. Jesus has done away with it
39:46: He says in verse 34 who is to condemn christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised who is at the right hand of god who indeed is interceding for us
39:57: Who should shall separate us? from the love of christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword
40:09: As it was written for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered
40:15: But no in all these things, what does he say we are more than conquerors Through him who loved us
40:22: He says for i'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height
40:29: Nor death nor anything else in all creation Will be able to separate us from the love of god in christ.
40:36: Jesus our lord So there is this sense in which because god has he has come near to us through jesus christ
40:44: He answers all our fears because we have been made right with him in christ So no matter how much the enemies rage no matter how much they hate his word his truth that we stand on That word that creates enemies
40:58: It's the same where we go to remind us that I have been made right with the father that no matter how dangerous they appear
41:04: They cannot take my status away for being in union with my covenant god because of jesus christ
41:11: So in our fear We rely upon that and so when we're afraid we will not be afraid because of that basic fundamental truth that we have as christians
41:23: Your god keeps track of your wanderings of your tossings. Your god keeps every tear of yours in his bottle
41:31: He's intimate with you. He is close to you and he has promised you ultimate victory Does that mean that you won't go through scary times?
41:38: No you will But in it you see the victory is jesus's And you go with that confidence in him and so you shall not be afraid
41:49: So he says in verse 12 the implications the result the summary Is it gives proper worship just like we've been saying a lot with psalms
41:57: Is that these emotions as we take them to god and remind ourselves of the truth We take it to him and it promotes proper worship
42:05: He says in verse 12 because of this god who is for him that even though his enemies are strong god is stronger
42:11: He relies upon that. What can man do to me? David says He concludes because of this
42:16: I must perform my vows to you Oh god, I will render thank offerings to you.
42:23: He says now that i'm Confident in my security because of his word because of his truth, even though my enemies rage
42:30: I'm confident in my security this creates a thankful heart in david There is something to be said that whenever you hear of a storm or Tornado outside going on and you go into a tornado shelter and you feel secure you feel extra thankful When you know the storm is raging outside and you know for sure
42:50: I am safe within this shelter each battering wind and No longer is it a source of dread and fear but it's a source of thank you god that I am protected
43:00: And so we know that ultimately it's the same thing as we know that jesus ultimately has control of our hearts
43:06: Our lives are everything he will ultimately give us everything we need in christ in the end
43:11: Ours is the victory We know that no matter how much the storm rages we are secured in him
43:18: And that feeling that contrast of danger yet security in jesus creates a thankfulness in our heart
43:24: Oh god, thank you that I have such a security It created thankfulness in david's heart and it gave it
43:31: It drove him to say I must perform my vows to you Or I must live obediently to I must show my thankfulness by the way.
43:41: I live my life to you It's the same thing that paul says in romans 12 Right by the mercies of god
43:48: Be a living sacrifice to god because of what god has done for you in jesus Now your life is to be a living sacrifice for jesus
43:58: It's the same thing for what david's saying here since you have done all these things for me. I will respond as being
44:06: Performing my vows or being a in the new covenant language a living sacrifice for the lord
44:12: He says because you have delivered in verse 13 my soul from death Yes, my feet from failing that I may walk before god in the light of life
44:22: So it's amazing that this Terror that david is going through this thing that has created fear in him ultimately because he relied upon god becomes something
44:32: That causes him to walk in the light of life The contrast of death and life and as he walks through obedience to god
44:39: It creates this this resolve within his heart and I shall walk in life And so god uses our fear to remind us of our strength in him and we walk confidently in that strength
44:51: Resolved that oh my god loves and cares for me and takes care of me Again, this is what god does for his covenant children for his people he allows
45:04: The enemies to come He allows them to be scary He allows them to Locate our weakness as sheep ready to be slaughtered
45:14: So that we would in our fear run to our father who is our strength Run to his promises who tells us we have the victory
45:22: Run to him. It tells us that he comforts us. He knows what we're going through And he tells us to be patient to wait upon his victory
45:31: This is what god does in our fear, but you see when we in our fear We rather watch more fox news
45:39: Or in our fear, we rather put our hope in the next republican candidate. He'll Solve our problems.
45:46: All that does is it drives our fear further and it causes us to be ineffectual for the lord. Jesus christ
45:53: We are blessed when we have godly leaders, but our hope is not found in that But rather in our fear we remind ourselves of the covenant that god has made with us through jesus christ
46:04: And we know that ultimately what can man do to us? And in that that gives us the confidence to face the world
46:10: To tell them the gospel to tell them the truth and love and to be confident that jesus christ all things are under him
46:17: So rather than putting our fear our trust in other things that just drives our fears more we put our trust in god
46:25: Who in him we will not be afraid in him. We will do valiantly because we are Fighting for the lord.
46:31: It'll cause us to be able to give the gospel and truth and love it'll cause us to be Bold yet loving to a dark world who needs truth badly
46:41: It'll cause us to act in a way that is full of truth In life, let us pray god in heaven.
46:47: I thank you lord that we do we do not need to be a victim Of our fears As david faced many enemies because of his faithfulness to god.
46:58: Oh lord We're not short on enemies in our own day We have many who hate your word
47:05: And those who are faithful to it They want to stop it And god, we don't know how
47:13: Big they will get We don't know what your plan is Lord, they they could get to the point to where they take control of everything
47:21: They could get to the point in which because of your gospel and reformation your gospel
47:28: Changes them. We don't know what is on the horizon other than the fact that you have promised us ultimate victory in jesus
47:35: That although they may kill the body because of our Confession Because we profess jesus.
47:43: They cannot destroy the soul That we will ultimately be glorified with our lord and in that we along with david say what can flesh then do to me?
47:52: I'm, thankful for the truth for the word Although it creates enemies for us who hate the word
47:58: It's the same word lord that comforts us that we go to when we are fearful of that enemy It's the same word that promises victory.
48:05: It's the same word that promises closeness to you You know what we go through, you know, what's on the horizon.
48:12: It's not far from you You are not distant, but you're a god who deeply cares.
48:17: So let us tell let us remind ourselves of these truths When we see things on the news, let us not grumble and complain as if god is not in control
48:27: As if you're not in control, but let us rather resolve that he is in control that you are in control And that you are doing great things even now
48:35: That jesus will have the victory and so let that give us the courage to go out and be faithful with your word And in love and truth speak this word
48:43: And may you do your work to bring about people out of darkness to your marvelous light Thank you for the confidence we can have in jesus.