Freedom from Fear
Notes
Transcript
Fear can a powerful foe. We to need to learn these days from God's Word how to live a life without fear. And what a challenge that is considering that Doctors have identified over 700 kinds of phobias or fears.
For example: Acrophobia: the fear of high places. Claustrophobia: the fear of enclosed areas. Ergophobia: the fear of work. Demophobia: the fear of crowds. Gamophobia: the fear of marriage. Nosophobia: the fear of diseases. Phobophobia: the fear of fear.
And according to The People's Almanac .. the number one fear in the US is Glossophobia: the fear of speaking before a group. And don't think that Fear is restricted to age. Children fear being alone. Adolescents fear rejection. Young Adults fear failure. Older adults fear death or life without meaning. And rather than living the victorious life through faith we end up living the defeated life with fears.
In fact in Romans 8.15 Paul refers to those unhealthy fears as bondage. ''For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Adoption by whom we cry out, ''Abba, Father.'''
So .. with all of the fears we face in this life .. is it possible to live this new year without fear? I mean .. can we really be set free from the bondage of fear?
Let me let you in on the secret to living a fear-free year: Psalm 34.4, ''I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.'' Now there's a Bible verse to put to memory this year! ''I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.'' Well .. that is the key to freedom from fear.
Now take your Bible and join me in the Old Testament book of Psalms. If you'll take your Bible and open it close to the middle .. you ought to land in the book of Psalms. And once there .. turn with me Psalm 91. It's is here in this 91st Psalm that we find how to live free from those unhealthy .. unholy fears that rob us from living in victory.
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Let us take some key words from these passages and unpack their meaning.
“dwells” = habitation, to inhabit or to live in
Living Free from fear means to dwell and abide in the Most High.
Living Free from fear means to dwell and abide in the Most High.
Staying in the presence of God, living close to Him and near to Him.
We are trained very early in our adolescent life that we are grow into an adult and move out of parents home and live life on our own, to try to survive in world independently from our parents.
Spiritually we are not to live this way. We are to dwell, abide and live forever in the presence or in the shadow of the Almighty that wonderful secret place, the sheltered place of the Most High
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
Living Free from Fear means to trust in God completely
Living Free from Fear means to trust in God completely
There are so many scriptures that encourage us and remind us to put our trust in the LORD
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Look back at Ps. 91:2
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
Notice the personal “I” statement this is personal statement of faith. “I will say to the LORD...,” then he says “in Him I will trust.”
Psalms, Volume 2: (Psalms 42–106): An Expositional Commentary The Psalmist’s Personal Faith in God
This is the equivalent of the apostle Thomas’s confession of faith after Jesus had appeared to him following the resurrection and Thomas fell at his feet, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)
The word “refuge” in v.2 can mean shelter, but it isn't just any shelter, it is a source of assistance and security
The word “fortress” it is a fortified structure and place of safety in times of trouble. It is a mountain stronghold.
So here is the application: Is Jesus Christ your Lord and God? Have you placed your trust in the LORD? Is the God of the Bible your refuge and fortress in times of trouble?
These promises are for you only if He is the one you have placed your trust, the one you dwell in and abide in.
Psalms, Volume 2: (Psalms 42–106): An Expositional Commentary The Psalmist’s Personal Faith in God
Spurgeon wrote, “The blessings here promised are not for all believers, but for those who live in close fellowship with God. Every child of God looks towards the inner sanctuary and the mercy-seat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place; they run to it at times, and enjoy occasional approaches, but they do not habitually reside in the mysterious presence.”
Do you live in close fellowship with God? Do you rest in the shadow of the Almighty? Is he your place of habitual dwelling? The psalm is written to urge you to trust and cling to God in all circumstances.
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
From these two verse we can say...
Living Free from Fear means to know that the LORD will protect you.
Living Free from Fear means to know that the LORD will protect you.
Having stated his own personal faith in God, the psalmist now commends that faith to us. The most striking feature of these verses and also to those that follow, is the use of the singular "YOU” throughout, which is a way of saying that these truths are for each person individually. They are for you if you will truly trust or abide in God.
Verse 3 sets the tone for this section by saying that God will save the trusting soul from two kinds of dangers: first, the subtle snare of enemies, described as the trap a fowler used to catch birds, and second, death by disease or pestilence.
This does not mean that those who trust God never die from infectious diseases or suffer from an enemy’s plot.
It means that those who trust God are habitually delivered from such dangers. What Christian cannot testify to many such deliverances? Indeed, our entire lives are filled with deliverances from many dangers, until God finally takes us home to be with himself.
The words “deadly pestilence” (v. 3) and later “the pestilence that stalks in the darkness” and “the plague that destroys at midday” (v. 6) help us recall many instances of such protection.
Lord Craven, a Christian, was a nobleman who was living in London when plague ravaged the city in the fifteenth century. In order to escape the spreading pestilence Craven determined to leave the city for his country home, as many of his social standing did. He ordered his coach and baggage made ready. But as he was walking down one of the halls of his home about to enter his carriage, he overheard one of his servants say to another, “I suppose by my Lord’s quitting London to avoid the plague that his God lives in the country and not in town.” It was a straightforward and apparently innocent remark. But it struck Lord Craven so deeply that he canceled his journey, saying, “My God lives everywhere and can preserve me in town as well as in the country. I will stay where I am.” So he stayed in London. He helped the plague victims, and he did not catch the disease himself.
There is a similar story from the life of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. In 1854, when he had been in London only twelve months, the area of the city in which the young preacher lived was visited by Asiatic cholera. Many in Spurgeon’s congregation were affected, and there was hardly a family in which someone did not get sick, and many died. The young pastor spent most of every day visiting the sick, and there was hardly a day when he did not have to accompany some family to the graveyard.
Spurgeon became physically and emotionally exhausted and sick at heart. He was ready to sink under this heavy load of pastoral care. But as God would have it, one day he was returning home sadly from a funeral when he noticed a sign in a shoemaker’s shop on Dover Road. It was in the owner’s own handwriting, and it bore these words: “Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling,” a quotation from Psalm 91:9–10 (KJV).
Spurgeon was deeply and immediately encouraged. He wrote,
“The effect upon my heart was immediate. Faith appropriated the passage as her own. I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality. I went on with my visitation of the dying in a calm and peaceful spirit; I felt no fear of evil, and I suffered no harm.
The providence which moved the tradesman to put those verses in his window I gratefully acknowledge, and in the remembrance of its marvelous power I adore the Lord my God.”
Verse 4 contains two appealing images of God’s protection:
4 He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
first, that of a mother bird, sheltering and protecting her young (“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge”) and second, that of a warrior’s armor (“his faithfulness will be your shield and buckler”). The Hebrew word signifies something that is wrapped around a person for his or her protection; hence, it can mean “buckler,” “armor,” or, as in the NIV, a “rampart” or fortress.
Jesus appropriated the first of these two images for himself, saying as he looked out over the city of Jerusalem,
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Jesus would have saved and sheltered Jerusalem and its inhabitants, but the people were not willing. They would not come to him. They would not “dwell” in the shelter of the Most High. They cried out for his crucifixion instead.
As for the second image, we may recall God’s words to Abraham when he was returning from his attack on the kings who had raided Sodom and Gomorrah and carried off Abraham’s nephew Lot. Abraham had won the battle, recovering Lot, the women, and their possessions. But Abraham was in danger of retaliation by these kings. It was then that God spoke to him in a vision, saying,
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
That is what God will be to us, if we will trust him.
Living free from fear means...
to dwell and abide in the Most High
to trust in God completely
to know that the Lord will protect you.