Do Not Fear

Key Elements

In Isaiah 41:10-13, the prophet Isaiah wrote to comfort the Jewish exiles in Babylon (100 years before the exile) reassuring them that God had not forgotten them and that He would ultimately bring them back to Jerusalem.

Main Idea: As Christ followers, we can face the overwhelming circumstances of our lives not by denying our weaknesses but by anchoring ourselves in our relationship with God.

I want my audience to remember that God is with them and His presence in their lives overcomes all fear.

Intro

Some of my favorite videos to watch are scary prank videos. I can get lost for hours watching people play pranks on others that just scare them out of their minds. And some are just videos like husbands and wives jumping out at one another and then there are people who get way more into it. They dress up as clowns and other crazy characters and go all out all for the purpose of creating fear in the hearts and lives of others. In that aspect, fear can be funny, fear can make you laugh, after you get over the initial heart attack.

But when comes to the fear and anxiety that most of us deal with in our daily lives, fear is no laughing matter. We live in a day and time where anxiety and fear reign. Studies show that anxiety disorders affect nearly 1 in 5 Americans. We face financial fears, health fears, relational fears, and when we look at the world around us, not knowing what the future holds, it can cause fear to dominate our lives. Even as Christ followers, we’re not immune to fear. We wake up at 2 am with racing hearts and racing thoughts. We scroll through our social media feeds and feel that feeling in the pit of our stomach. We look at the circumstances we are facing and think, “How is this going to work out and when will it end.” We all deal, on some level, with fear.

And this is nothing new for the people of God. Fear and anxiety has been something that God’s people have faced for centuries. And as we open our copies of God’s Word to Isaiah 41 this morning, we get a peek into fear and anxiety in the nation of Israel. Isaiah 41 was written to a people, the nation of Israel, who had every human reason to be afraid. Surrounded by powerful enemies, facing the threat of being conquered by the nation of Babylon and being exiled from their homeland, they felt small and insignificant. They were facing overwhelming odds. And it’s into this fear-filled context that God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, 100 years before the exile, encouraging them and offering them hope against their fear. God used this prophet to reassure His people, Israel, that they were not forgotten by their God and that beyond the exile, He would ultimately bring them back home and restore them as a nation. God speaks some very simple but powerful words, “DO NOT FEAR!” It’s not a pep talk or a motivational speech, it is a command that is grounded in reality. The reality that God is with them and His presence in their lives overcomes their fear.

And this is the same command He gives us today. As we are tempted to be overcome by fear and anxiety, by all the things that are going on in our lives and in the world around us, God says to us “DO NOT FEAR!” He commands us to not be afraid. Not because the fear isn’t real or the anxiety isn’t overwhelming, but because our God is present and is with us and His presence in our lives overcomes our fear as well.

Message

So, as we look to the truth of God’s Word today, here’s the main idea of our message: As Christ followers, we can face the overwhelming circumstances of our lives not by denying our weaknesses but by anchoring ourselves in our relationship with God. God says to us, “DO NOT FEAR!”

You see, when we understand Who is with us, what He promises to do for us, and how He holds onto us in every situation of life, fear loses its power.

And today, as we look at Isaiah 41:10-13, we see three unshakeable truths that dismantle the fear and the anxiety that has a tendency to grip our lives:

1. God’s presence is greater than our fear. (vs. 10)

Now, as we walk through this passage of scripture today, we are going to see some very simple but powerful truths. And as I was preparing this message for today, I kept really trying to over complicate the points of the sermon. I was thinking and praying about the three main points and as I would type them out, I would get to the end and hit the BACKSPACE button because I thought they were too simple. And then, I realized, sometimes God’s promises to us are simple; and in their simplicity we miss the power of what God is promising us in our relationship with Him. What I mean by that is, we are looking for some kind of deep, intellectual thing for God to show in His Word when the truth of His Word is right there in front of us and it’s as simple as trusting in Him.

And that’s what we see here in vs. 10, God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel and He’s proclaiming a simple but powerful promise to them and that is “DO NOT FEAR!” It’s a command, really. He’s not telling them “Try not to be afraid,” or “Do your best to be brave.” No, God is commanding His people to HAVE NO FEAR! And He follows that, immediately, with the reason why. You see, the foundation of living without fear in this life is not found in us. It’s not found in how courageous we are, or the circumstances we are facing, it’s not even found in our ability to muster up enough bravery in the moment. The foundation of not allowing fear to grip our lives is found in one amazing reality: that God is present with us and His presence is greater than our fear.

The word for fear here is important. It’s the Hebrew word that literally means “dread, it represents a fear caused by a situation or a person that is to the point of being paralyzing.” It’s not just being afraid but it is a feeling of being gripped by something that has such a strong hold on you that you are crippled. Do you know that fear? Have you felt that kind of fear in your life? A fear that seemed so powerful that nothing you could do would shake that from your life? And that’s what the people of Israel are dealing with here. They are surrounded on all sides by their enemies, they are gripped with the reality that, at some point, they will be overtaken by their enemies. And it’s in this moment, that God uses His prophet to speak a simple but powerful truth to them that He is sovereign, that He is in control of every situation, and that He uses every moment of life to accomplish His purposes. And because He is present in their lives and among them, they have no reason to be afraid.

And today, God says the same thing to you and me. He reassures us that He is sovereign, that He is in control of every situation, and that He is using every moment of lives to accomplish His purposes. And, if we know Him as Savior and Lord, we can be confident that He is present with us and that His presence is greater than our fear.

And how do we know this? We know this because...

a. God is with us.

Look at vs. 10, He says “Do not fear,” Why? Because “I am with you.” God says, “you don’t have to be gripped with fear and anxiety because of WHO is standing beside you.” And not only is God standing beside us but we can be sure, because He promises this in His Word as well, that He will never leave us. You see, fear in our lives has a tendency to thrive in isolation. Think about it, when are we most afraid? It’s when we are alone or we think we are alone. Fear and anxiety has a tendency to make us think that we have been forsaken and that there is no one there. And that we are the only ones experiencing what we are experiencing. But once we realize that we are not alone. Once we focus in on the reality and the truth that God is there and the people of God are there. It changes everything for us. Once our hearts and minds are open to the truth that the creator of the universe, the One who holds all power and authority, is present in our lives, hope rushes in and fear begins to fade. It doesn’t mean that the problem you are facing isn’t real or the situation will turn out exactly how you want it to; it means that there is no situation that we face alone. God says don’t be gripped with fear because I am with you.

God is with us and...

b. God is for us.

He continues with His promise to His people and He says… (vs. 10b) As if it wasn’t enough for God to say it once, He says is again. He reinforces His promise by saying “Do not be afraid.” Some translations say “dismayed.” It means to “look this way for a solution and to look that way for a solution, not really knowing what to do.” God is literally saying, “Don’t look around at your situation or to others for your solution to your problems, that only creates more fear and more anxiety,” He is saying “Look to me, lock eyes with me.” Why? “Because I am for you.”

He says, “I am YOUR God.” This is personal, relational language God is using here. He’s not just A GOD. He is THE GOD who is YOUR GOD-personal, committed, and promise keeping. God says “you are mine and I am yours.” And even though things may look bleak and hopeless, don’t look around you at what you are surrounded by, look to Me the promise keeping, covenant keeping God who is for you. When we read these words, we get a sense of God’s unending love for His people, His unending love for you and me, and the desire He has for us to trust Him with our present and to trust Him with our future.

And this is the antidote to our fear and our anxiety. It’s the presence of God in our lives, who overcomes and drowns out our fear. Will life bring hard things? Yes. But God will be present in the midst of all of it. When we face sickness and a shocking diagnosis-God is there; When we are in the midst of difficult situations-God is there; When we are under financial pressure-God is there; and When we are up against the impossible-God is there.

Do you feel surrounded by hopeless, overwhelming situations today? Have you been focused on those situations or those people and going this way and that trying to figure things out? Look to God. Lock eyes with Him. Focus on His presence in your life. And today, if you’ve never surrendered your heart and life to Him as Savior and Lord, and you don’t know God’s presence in your life; today, you can know the presence of Almighty God that is greater than our fear.

God’s presence is greater than our fear because He is with us and He is for us.

Not only that, also...

2. God’s power is greater than our weakness. (vs. 10)

Again, another simple truth that we all, as Christ followers, know but forget or at least take for granted in our lives. You see, God being present with us is an incredible truth, but that’s not the end of His promise to us. He also tells us that His power is greater than our weakness. He continues in vs. 10...

So, there’s a shift that happens here. God tells us WHO He is, that He is with us; and then He tells us WHAT He does. And He does that with three promises. God moves from presence in our lives to action in our lives, from being near to us to actively empowering us. And this is crucial for us to comprehend because we can know that God is with us and we can still feel inadequate for what we are up against. We look at the situations we are up against and we have a tendency to automatically go to inadequacy. We think, “I can’t handle this, I’m not strong enough, this is going to be the thing that takes me down.” And the truth is, we are somewhat right. We don’t have what it takes, in and of ourselves, to handle the stressful situations of life. But God does and He never intended for us to face anything in this life in our own strength. These three promises from God are Him saying to us, “I have what you need, but I need you to be completely and totally dependent on me.” And that’s where the nation of Israel had gotten to in their lives. They had rebelled against God, they had forsaken worshipping Him and turned to false Gods. And now they are surrounded on all sides by their enemies. They eventually will be overtaken and exiled to Babylon. But even in their exile, God promises later in the Book of Isaiah, that He is with them and one day they will return to their homeland. They will be rescued. And although the immediate context here of this scripture and this promise in the Book of Isaiah is speaking of the destruction of Babylon and the return of the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem, the ultimate fulfillment of what Isaiah is saying will be found in Jesus Christ the Messiah. You see, the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah 41:10-13 is found in Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave.

And what God promises the people of Israel is the promises He pledges to us. Each of these promises are a commitment from God to supply what we lack. He doesn’t chastise us for our weakness, He promises His power to us that is greater than our weakness. Let’s unpack these three powerful promises...

a. God fills us with His strength.

He says, “I will strengthen you;...” The word “strength” means “to fortify or embolden.” It’s a term that refers to warriors being equipped for battle. Having what they need to ensure victory over their enemies. It’s God saying to you and me “On your own, you don’t have what you need, but I will supply that for you.” This is in the active voice. So, God is saying “I am in the process of giving you what you need to for the battle ahead.”

It’s the same sense we get from what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:13 “I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.” That no matter what he faces in this life, God is the one who gives him the strength to face it.

This reminds me of a situation we all face as parents. Our kids are out doing what they do (practice, hanging out with friends, whatever). And all of a sudden you get the text or call from them that their phone is on 1%. And why is that? Because they forgot to charge it and they are without a charger or a cable and none of their friends have one either. And, as a parent, a little bit of anxiety sets in because what if their phone goes dead and they can’t get a hold of you? But then they find a charger. And immediately everything changes. Their phone is still at 1% but the anxiety is gone because they are now connected to a power source that has supplied what they need.

God is that source of power for us. Without Him, we lack the strength we need but with Him, connected to Him, we are filled with His strength.

God fills us with His strength and...

b. God sustains us with His help.

He says, “I will help you;...” Now, how many of us have a hard time asking for help? I think we all do. Because if we have to ask for help, it means we are weak. This past week at the community revival, I was speaking with a pastor who gave the message on Sunday night and it was about hope. And I was thanking him and letting him know that God had used his message in my life to bring me hope. And he said that the greatest struggle he has as a pastor is asking for help. And he’s right. We don’t like to ask for help, we like to be the one who helps others.

But the truth is we all need God’s help. And sometimes, God will allow things in our lives to get us to the point where we have no choice but to ask for it. This is God’s active assistance in our lives. This is God intervening and sustaining us when we get to the end of ourselves. God sustains us with His help-He provides resources, He provides wisdom, He provides people, He provides endurance, and sometimes He provides deliverance.

Have you been trying to handle things on your own? Have you been depending on your own resources? God says, “I will help you, all you have to do is ask.”

God sustains us with His help and...

c. God holds us in His hands.

I love this part, He says in vs. 10, “I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.” What a beautiful picture this is. In the Ancient Near Eastern culture, the right hand represented power. It represented authority. This is God keeping His promise to His people Israel. It’s the covenant that God made with Abraham centuries before in the Book of Genesis that He would be their God and they would be His people. And all throughout Israel’s years of rebellion, God had never broken His promise to His people and He had never let them go. He was still holding on to them.

You see, this is the God who loves us. This is the God who created us for relationship with Him. And when we surrender to Him as Savior and Lord and place our lives in His hands, God holds us in His hands and He promises to never let us go.

This word “hold” literally means “to uphold.” It means to support and to keep from falling. It’s the picture of a child learning to walk and the parent holds them to keep them from falling. And if you know Jesus today, this same powerful right hand holds on to you as well. And if you don’t know Jesus today, God is waiting to take you by the hand and walk with you the rest of your days.

Think about it-the hands that hold on to you are the same hands that created the universe in seven days, that parted the Red Sea, that were pierced with nails for our salvation, and that holds the keys of death and hell. And when we feel weak and powerless in the situations of life, these are the same hands that hold us and lead us and guide us.

God’s power is greater than our weakness because He fills us with His strength, He sustains us with His help, and He holds us in His hands.

Our final truth is this...

3. God’s protection is greater than our opposition. (vs. 11-13)

All of this leads us to this final truth. Everything God has promised up to this point gets bookended here in vs. 11-13. Look at what He says...

Think about every time you face fear and anxiety in your life, it usually finds it’s origin in some sort of opposition. And that was the source of fear for Israel here in the Book of Isaiah. They were surrounded by their enemies. They were being opposed on all sides. Everywhere they looked there was opposition. And again, God addresses what their facing. And the amazing thing about what God says here is that again it’s personal. You see, what we need to understand is that when we belong to God, our battles become His battles. We we face opposition, that person or thing not only stands against us but they stand against the God who is in us.

And in facing opposition, here’s what we need to realize...

a. God defends us against our enemies. (vs. 11)

Look at vs. 11 again… This isn’t about revenge or arrogance against our enemies. This is God defending us. Because we are His, that means His honor is at stake. He promises Israel that ultimately they will be vindicated, that God will raise them up and ultimately their enemies will be swept away. And this is not because of anything they will do on their own, it is because God fights for them. Not only is His honor at stake but His justice will prevail. Ultimately, God will vindicate His people.

And the same is true for us who are followers of Jesus. God defends us against our enemies because His honor is at stake and His justice will ultimately prevail. Now, there are times in our lives where it doesn’t look like it. We look around and it seems like our enemies are winning the battle. But faith calls us to believe that God is defending us against our enemies.

So, you don’t have to defend yourself obsessively, You don’t have to retaliate, just remain faithful to God.

He also...

b. God surrounds us in our battles. (vs. 12)

Vs. 12… God promises that Israel’s enemies will be so thoroughly dealt with that when they look for them they won’t find them. Notice, God isn’t speaking of Israel’s enemies in a threatening way. He’s saying they will disappear like they were never there. There will come a time when Israel will look around for their enemies and there will be none to be found.

And the same truth exists in our lives as followers of Jesus. Because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross and His resurrection from the grave, we are protected from our enemies. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because our greatest enemies aren’t human. It might seem like it but in reality, all our battles are spiritual. And because of the cross of Jesus Christ, sin has been defeated, death has been defeated, and the devil has lost his authority. The cross has reduced our enemies to nothing and in the midst of the battles we face, we can be confident that God is surrounding us and fighting for us. So, we look to Him and we run to Him knowing that we are protected and surrounded by Him.

And,...

c. God reminds us He is there. (vs. 13)

He comes full circle with His promise to Israel and to us. It’s like He wants to make sure we’ve heard Him. He says in vs. 13...

“I am your God”-you belong to Me; “I hold your right hand”-notice here He says “He holds our hand” before He said, “I will hold on to you” but here He is actually holding our hand. Our security isn’t based on our hand holding God’s, it is based on His hand holding ours, because we have a tendency to let go but God will never let go of us; and again, “do not fear, I will help you.”

It’s all a reminder that God is there. That He is present in our lives, that He is powerful in our weakness, and He is protecting us against opposition. What does this ultimately mean? It’s peace that makes no sense, strength that we don’t naturally have, and protection that we didn’t earn.

God constantly reminds us He is there.

Closing

“Do not fear!” In the midst of the battle when you’re tempted to let fear and anxiety take hold of you, remember Who fights for you. Don’t be driven by fear but be anchored in faith because God is there and He promises to never leave us or forsake us.

So, maybe you're here today and you realize you've been trying to face life without God. You've been carrying fear and anxiety alone. The gospel is good news: Jesus came to take hold of your hand. He died on the cross to deal with your greatest enemy—sin—and rose from the dead to prove death has no power. He offers you not just help, but adoption. Not just strength, but relationship. Not just presence for a moment, but His Spirit dwelling in you forever. So, if you've never given your life to Christ, today is the day. Put your hand in His. Trust Him not just as a distant God, but as YOUR God.

Maybe today, you’ve already taken that step as a Christ follower and you’re in the grip of fear and anxiety. Come to this altar today, kneel before your Heavenly Father and ask Him to fill you with His presence that drowns out fear.