How Do I face My Fears? Transforming from Fear to Faith

Jonah and the whale

One day, a teacher was talking to her first grade class about whales when a little girl had a question.

Little Girl: “Do whales swallow people?”

Teacher: “No, even though they are much bigger than a person, they have throat pleats that filter their food of krill and plankton.

Little Girl: “But Mrs. Thurston says Jonah was swallowed by a whale.”

Teacher getting angry: “Blue whales cannot swallow people.”

Little Girl: “Well, when I get to heaven I’ll just ask Jonah if he was really swallowed by a whale.”

Teacher, still red with anger: “What if Jonah went to hell?”

Girl: “Well, then you can ask him.”

Dearly beloved, if we believe the Word of God is Inerrant, Jonah was swallowed by a large fish and it had to be a very fearful experience.

Answering Life’s Greatest Questions: Finding Truth in a Confused World

This morning we will be addressing our fears. Fear is real. Fear is something that plagues every one of us at some point and time or another.

Genesis 3:8 “8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

Oh dear friend, we discuss that failure, that missing the mark, that birthing of the adamic nature that has plagued us since the beginning of creation, but as well, Fear was birthed in that same sequence. From that point in time we, like Adam and Eve have been cursed with fear, insecurities, anxiousness, and apprehensions and the list goes on.

Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

When I think of that great merciful, gracious verse of our Lord, conversely God uses fear in positive ways in our lives. Amen?

Fear comes over us to tune us in or draw our attention to danger that is lurking. Fear is the great alert to something that is potentially dangerous or off kilter.

Children at the youngest of age will learn to run toward Mom or Dad to find a safe haven during times they are scared.

This morning we want to meet our fears head on and learn that fears can be transformed into deeper abiding faith.

Now turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Psalm 46.

Psalm 46:1–3 “1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah”

Psalm 46:7–9 “7 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah 8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has made desolations in the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.”

Psalm 46:10–11 “10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah”

Prayer

Oh gracious Lord, we thank you that Your Word does offer us direction. Your word does bring comfort, Oh Lord that Your Word is the way, the truth, and the life. Lord, speak life words to us today. Lord, fear is real. Oh Heavenly Father, there may be one here today that is trapped, that is consumed in fear, anxiousness, uncertainty. Lord, would you Word bring liberty to the captives this day. Amen.

Message

This morning as we study the 46th psalm, theologians term this a “Zion” psalm. It is a type of psalm that celebrates God’s presence and protection in Jerusalem (and by the way, Jerusalem is referred to as Zion). A Zion psalm reveals the sovereignty of God and His role as refuge of His people as spelled out in this psalm today.

Furthermore, we read a heading at the top of the psalm, “To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song for Alamoth.” This was a song the Israelites would have sung in the temple. A Zion psalm brought encouragement and comfort. The song ministered to the people’s soul.

We sing songs of comfort today don’t we. We sing songs that lift our countenance as well. We sang praise affirming songs of the power and majesty and splendor of our King this very day and so did the people of Israel.

The Sons of Korah were of the levitical priestly line that led worship and the Song of Alamoth from:

1 Chronicles 15:20 “20 Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with strings according to Alamoth;”

Reveals that the song was sang with stringed instrument accompaniment.

God’s Protection is Our Refuge VV. 1-3

Psalm 46:1–3 “1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah”

Firstly, we learn from this psalm an important truth.

“God is our refuge (shelter) and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Let’s read this psalm for what it is and what it’s not. The reason God is our refuge is because He will time and again fulfill the role of refuge our lives. He is a refuge or a shelter because we are in need of a shelter.

Do you know why fear is so debilitating? Beyond the pragmatic clinical aspects we know about depression, anxiety and the likes of how it physically affects our health, but do you know that fear holds you back spiritually from taking steps of faith that you know God is calling you to step out and do?

Fear can paralyze us and keep us from moving forward

2 Examples:

Moses sent spies to spy out the land. Do you remember Joshua and Caleb’s response?

Numbers 13:31–33 “31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.””

Numbers 13:30 “30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.””

Numbers 14:7–8 “7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’”

Peter walked on water as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. The minute he focused on his circumstances he sunk.

Matthew 14:30 “30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!””

The psalmist does not at any point reveal within this psalm that God is always guaranteed to remove the objects of our fears. The promise is that God will be our shelter in the midst of the struggles we find ourselves in.

The emphasis of the psalmist’ heart is the presence of God.

Please listen very closely.

The psalm reminds us of the presence of God, not the absence of problems.

Through the Word of God we learn that its not if, but when we will encounter struggles in this life.

Job 14:1 “1 “Man who is born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble.”

Jesus is speaking to the disciples in John 16:33 “33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.””

Listen to me Jesus is saying. Men, you will be in the world. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. You will be persecuted. You will have tribulation. The world will be the world, but I will overcome the world in you. The world is still the world, but Me living in You has overcome the burdens of this world.

Jesus as well said these words:

Matthew 6:34 “34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Life is not the absence of trouble, it can be the presence of the Triune God of the Universe at work in our lives that brings us comfort.

“God is our refuge and strength.:

Refuge-machăçeh,

 makh-as-eh'; or מַחְסֶה machçeh; from a shelter (literally or figuratively):—hope, (place of) refuge, shelter, trust.

Strength-ʻôz, strength in various applications (force, security, majesty, praise):—boldness, loud, might, power, strength, strong.

Psalm 57:1 “1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by.”

Let’s not grasp a false theology and think that Jesus is our answer to removing every struggle in our life away and that if He doesn’t he doesn’t love us. That is a false theology. God will walk with us through every struggle and be our stronghold.

Psalm 59:16 “16 But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble.”

Some theologians have earmarked this psalm as motivated as a time in the prexilic period of Israel around 701 BC. A force was growing with great speed and was creating the world havoc. You can read about King Sennacherib and the Assyrians dominance found in 2 Kings 18:13-19:37. Also, 2 Chronicles 32:1-23, and Isaiah Chapters 37-39.

Again, we do not know what event motivated this psalm, but it could have been this event as any they faced.

If you were to read about the credentials of King Hezekiah, we quickly realize that bad things happen to good people.

2 Kings 18:3–6 “3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.”

Yet this foreign group, the Assyrians were making havoc for Israel. They had captured the Northern Kingdom in earlier years and this played on the hearts of the people. King Hezekiah attempted to appease Sennacherib by giving him financial tribute in gold and silver and literally took all the gold off the door of the temple to compensate and that was not enough. Lastly, Sennacherib attached Lachish in brutal fashion and impaled the people and took them captive. With Lachish gone, Jerusalem stood alone.

Psalm 46:2–3 “2 Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah”

The psalmist describes scenes of earthquakes, hurricane or tsunami type of gale force actions that describes matters that are out of our control. The people of Israel at the moment in this great conflict felt helpless and hopeless within their own power. They knew that Assyria was a force they could not reckon with in their own power.

Oh dearly beloved, there are people all across this room that are facing situations that are out of the scope of your control. Within your own being you do not have answers to the problems you are facing. When you look at matters on paper it does not add up.

Listen to me this morning, I do not want to say in any way that if you will deepen your love for the Lord and that you will read the Word and pray and give of your time and talents and abilities and that you are engaged in worship that all your problems will go away.

What am I saying is that if you give your matters over to the Lord He will be your shelter and your strength to walk through whatever it is that befalls you. Amen.

Think of it in this way.

If you will saturate yourself in the Lord, He will be your shelter and your shield, He will not be necessarily the great separator. The problems may stay, but the presence of God will overcome your fear.

God’s Presence is Our River VV. 4-7

Psalm 46:4–7 “4 There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. 6 The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. 7 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah”

In Point 1 we stated that we saturate ourselves in the Lord in times of great struggle. He is our shelter, our shield, our strength, but does not mean that we are totally separated by the difficulties we face.

In Point #2, let’s be reminded that God is the great supplier of those things we need to walk through what ever we face.

Oh dearly beloved, a river is life giving. Moving water brings oxygen, moving water cleans out contaminants, moving water and sunlight brings plankton which brings bait fish, which brings bigger fish which brings larger predatory animals and the circle of life evolves. A river is not stagnant and a river takes a direction. It is not a cess pool. A River moves the impurites out and is self cleansing as the water is filtered through the sands and the rocks of its surfaces.

Oh listen to me dearly beloved, the Lord is a river of resource to carry you through your fears and provide answers that many times He is the only one who can supply.

“There is a river who streams shall make glad the city of God”

God can make you glad when things are bad.

Ill. Tubing in Helen Ga. Been tubing many times, but I was never rolled and rolled and rolled so many times and rubbed against the rocks and beat up as that particular occasion and I do not believe the water was 2-3 ft deep. I quickly realized the power of moving water.

Do you feel this morning that you are in a turmoil beyond answers. I remind you that the moving waters of the Lord has the power to overcome every fear you have. There is a story in the Bible that no one was literally able to tame until Jesus came along.

In Mark 5:1-20, the story of the demoniac among the Gadarenes.

Jesus came to the other side of the sea

He met a man at the tombs-unclean spirit

dwelt among the tombs, no one could bind him. Chains broken, shackles pulled apart, night and day among the tombs cutting himself with stones.

Mark 5:6–8 “6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” 8 For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!””

Jesus called the unclean spirits out and they begged to be sent to the swine. As you know, the swine ran violently down a hill into the sea and drown.

Listen specifically to what Mark 5:14-20 says:

Mark 5:14–20 NKJV

14 So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. 15 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 16 And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine. 17 Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region. 18 And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. 19 However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” 20 And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.

Listen closely, the demoniac was instructed to go home and “go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”

Ill. Mike and Lori were at a Doctor’s office this week and I do not believe they will mind me saying this. They were sharing the testimony of the life change Lord has experienced in her body healing and sharing of God’s gracious healing act in her life.

Listen to me, in point 1, We saturate ourselves in the Lord and He is our shield, our shelter, and our strength, not necessarily the great separator of the realities we face.

But listen here in point # 2, He is the supplier, the great river and we are to saturate others with the life giving blessings He has performed in our lives as we face the turbulence, the tribulations, and the high seas we find ourselves in.

God’s Peace is Our Rest VV. 8-11

Psalm 46:8–11 “8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has made desolations in the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire. 10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah”

You notice I left you hanging on the story of Israel and Sennacherib. As Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story.

Sennacherib had one of his spokesman taunt King Hezekiah.

2 Kings 19:11–13 “11 Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’ ””

King Hezekiah of Judah and Isaiah prayed to the Lord about the matter and the Lord heard their fears.

2 Kings 19:32–37 “32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. 33 By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,’ Says the Lord. 34 ‘For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ” 35 And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 37 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.”

Israel was able to go out that morning and see first hand the works of God in the battle of the Assyrians. As well, God wants you to span your life and look back and see where time and again God has supplied you bountifully.

“Come behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth.”

There have been major times when things over these 150 years looked very bleak for this church. This church has been carried just past a civil war, through the great depression, through two world wars, and the list goes on and it still stands. Many pillars of this congregation could say, oh yes, there were some scary times for this church and we just got down to a handful of people, but the Lord’s promise is that there will always be a remnant.

Psalm 46:9 “9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.”

The psalmist stated that God removes war and instruments of war.

One of the greatest fears man has is the fear of death. It is proven statistically.

It is a valid fear. There is a war raging inside man. There is a battle for our soul. Fear gets the upper hand until we address that great conflict. The conflict manifests itself in many ways. Fear has a consuming way of taking over a person.

Time and again, our dear Savior said to people time and again, do not be afraid. 67 x in the gospels Jesus or the Angel Gabriel said “do not be afraid.”

Oh listen to me dear brother or sister, Jesus is the answer to every fear you have.

John 14:27 “27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Oh listen to me, the Revelations states “God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”

Jesus came to wipe every tear from your eye.

Romans 8:38–39 “38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

John 10:28–29 “28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”

I want to give the invitation. Let’s follow the psalmists lead here.

Psalm 46:10–11 “10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah”

God is our refuge, He is our River, he is our Rest. Let’s pray.