Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. And tonight we want to deal with this subject: confidence when fear comes.
Now, in the morning, we learn where certainty is found. It's found by dwelling with Christ, dwelling with him in the secret place. We know that. But what happens when fear still shows up? What happens when danger doesn't disappear?
And what happens just day-to-day life? It's easy to say, man, I can be certain that, you know, God's going to be, okay, but let's just be honest how things hit us during the day. What do we do now? All right, we're going to begin in verse 5, and we're going to pray. And I'm just going to jump in.
Instead of reading the whole thing, we're going to cover each verse. And again, thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for all the hard work this weekend with the ladies. I look fantastic in here, and I appreciate all the work that's gone into that. And so they still have some work to clear stuff out.
So I appreciate it. Let me do also give you a quick update on our projects that we presented. to you at the beginning of the year. Very, very anxious to get at these things. We have had quite a process just getting a permit for our storage building down by the bus garage.
The slab is poured, and so we need to get that. If we can get that building finished, then we can get stuff from here to there so that we can start working on here. At this point, we don't really have anywhere to put stuff so that we can work on things, and so we're getting closer. And we are anxiously waiting. We've had a few updates to our plans, and I'm excited to show you, but I just don't want to keep showing you until I can get a permit, and I got a storage building.
All right, so we're going to cross one bridge as it comes. But we are very, very excited about many of the changes coming, and we'll keep you updated on that. Lord, we love you and we thank you for all that you've done. And Lord, it has been a busy week and weekend. A lot's gone on.
I think of funerals. I think of surgery some of our folks have had. I think of our choir singing, a revival on Tuesday night, preaching Tuesday night. I think a ladies' conference. It's just been a busy week.
It's been a lot going. And Lord, even on our end, I know Brother John and I have. 30 plus hours of travel time coming up tomorrow morning. And so, Lord, I just pray that you would give our people energy tonight and prepare them for another week to serve you. And I pray that you would refresh them supernaturally.
Lord, our flesh can be weak, but our spirit can be strong. And so, God, I pray you would do that for our families. I know that a lot are going through different things. I know you could always say that, but Lord, even in this season, I know specifically of some things. I know that.
Things are heavy on the hearts of some of our people. And Lord, I pray that you would. Give maybe some answers tonight through your word. And there's nothing new under the sun, but Lord, sometimes when we get into your word and we're just reminded of. Truths and principles and promises in your word.
It does nothing but help us.
So, God, I pray that you would help us tonight. We love you, and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, number one, I want you to notice in verse five and six the fears we face. The fears we face.
Now what's interesting in verse Verse 4: Hey, we're covered. We're confident. and we're cared for. And then verse 5, Thou shalt not be afraid. For the terror by night.
Wow, that took a turn pretty fast, didn't it? Notice this: nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. By this point, I'm kind of scared to leave the house. You know, this is a lot of good news in one verse. What are we talking about here?
Well, this is. A very comprehensive verse. Let me explain it if I can. It means that we can be confident. Of a number of things, and we can definitely be confident about the fact that we are covered.
By our Savior, and we are confident in His trust and in His care, and we are cared for. But things still happen. And things still come our way. People still disappoint. We disappoint ourselves.
Circumstance is out of our control.
So let's dig into it. Notice first, terror by night. These are fears, excuse me, that you feel. but you can't see. They're terrors.
By night, many of you, just me saying that, I know in your mind you're like, oh, yeah. Yeah, I've been there. That's when your husband or your wife say, what's wrong? And you say, I don't know. But I just feel something's wrong.
Um This is what I would call anxiety. This is depression. This is discouragement. There are terrors at times that you feel. But you can't see.
Now, I don't know about you. I'm very glad that I serve a God that understands that. Let me say that again. I'm very glad that I serve a God that is well aware. of how we operate.
of how our flesh is weak. Of how, despite the fact that there are things about us sometimes we don't even like about ourselves. But God is well aware, and here's the thing: He says, Thou shalt not be afraid. And you didn't say the reason you're not going to be afraid it's just not going to happen. I'm going to keep it from you.
No, no, no, no. God here says there are some things that are still going to keep coming. But you don't have to let those things grip you with fear when they do. He says, thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night. Again.
um feelings of anxiety, um feelings of Something's not right, something's going to go wrong. Just not even understanding why I just dread tomorrow. Those things can happen. Notice secondly, he says, nor for the arrow that flieth by day. These are attacks.
that you can see coming, but not until it's right up on you. It is hard to see an arrow coming through the air. But you can see it when it's about right here.
Okay? And is that an airplane? You know, kind of a thing. You have to understand in Bible days, these are Bible terminology, and it wasn't like nuclear bombs dropped back then. You know, you had conflicts, you have arrows flying through this.
What it means is this: they're harder to track. You're expecting the enemy to shoot at you. But you just can't always see it until it comes up on you. This is what I would call attack. This is accusation.
These are things that come at you, but they kind of hit you all of a sudden. You weren't necessarily expecting it to come that way. We wake up every day and we all know, hey, bad things can happen. There's none of you that if I talk to you, I say, hey, you know, now tomorrow morning you get up, bad things can happen. Every one of you says, yep, yep, well aware of that.
But it still is surprising and it's still a shock to the system sometimes when those things do happen.
So he says that you don't have to be afraid by the things that you literally feel but you can't see, and you don't have to be afraid of the things that might show up all of a sudden in your life. Listen, you can live paralyzed by these things if you allow those things to have victory over you. God doesn't say, I'm going to keep those things from you. He just says, listen, I can help you. You can trust me.
You are cared for. You are covered. And those things don't have to take over. Notice here what he says: nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. Pestilence.
Destruction. These are dangers and things, circumstances that you can't control. You can't control pestilence. You don't make the rain happen. You don't make a dry season or a wet season.
Notice here, it's literally what I would call fatigue. It's strongholds in your life. It is that you get weary, you get tired, and it literally, like it is like a pestilence, it just zaps you of your energy, it zaps you of your health. And he says, literally, you don't have to be afraid. These things do happen in your life.
And these things may come. These are fears. That we face. But here's what I think that you need to be very aware of: these are fears. That means that much of this is our perception of something, how we feel about something.
But I would say, most of these things, their bark is worse than their bite. You say, Preacher, what do you mean? Because a lot of times it's the fear of it that affects us, not the very thing itself. Yes, sir. Everybody got me so far?
Say amen. It means that, hey, you know what? I'm afraid I might get fired, or they're laying off people.
Well, you can spend a month worried about that, and you might not ever get laid off.
So, for a month, you have been affected by the fear of something, the fear that you face, not even the thing that you face. And guess what? Many times, what you're so afraid of for a month or two months, if it even does happen, you find out: well, life goes on. But it's almost paralyzed us with fear for so long. And so, what it means is that this covers visible threats, invisible threats.
This covers emotional fears, physical dangers. It covers private anxiety, public attacks. Fear is not selective. It comes at all times and at all forms. Fear does not check out at night.
and it doesn't ask permission during the day. In fact, I think fear magnifies itself at night. The fears we face.
Notice number two: the faith that stands. Look at verse 7. A thousand shall fall at thy side. And ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not Come nigh thee. What?
Only with thine eyes Shalt thou behold and see the reward. of the wicked. This is not denial. This is simply confidence in God's Sovereignty. He says here that listen, there can be things happening all around you.
And you might be inundated seeing just the effects of numerous things. But here's what God says: You can have a thousand fall by you, you can have ten thousand fall at your right hand. But it doesn't have to come naive. It doesn't have to affect you like it does everyone else. And by the way, as believers in Christ, Things should not affect us the way it affects the world.
who don't know Christ. Right.
Okay. Just want to make sure we understand that.
Now, notice this. Look what it says: a thousand shall fall, and ten thousand at thy right hand. It means this: others may fall. It's part of life.
Some of you sitting here, you've watched people fall. And I don't mean physically, although. It's kind of funny when it happens, okay? I must admit. It's not very nice, but You ever watch somebody fall and you're like, hey, you okay?
And once they're okay, then you start laughing about it. You know, it was just, you ever watched, nobody falls gracefully. They try to catch themselves.
Okay, I've spent way too much time on that. It is possible in your life. to see many people around you falling. But that doesn't mean you have to. And I want to speak a minute to many of you teenagers here tonight.
Just because you can watch friends make wrong decisions doesn't mean you have to make wrong decisions. Just because you've watched what some do and how it has affected their life. It doesn't mean that you have to do that. Oh, I know there's pressure out there, and I know there's temptation out there, and I know all those things, but you can watch people fall. And you can be around people that fall, but it doesn't mean it has to...
have that effect on you. You and I, I think sometimes we can become so overwhelmed and so overcome with fear of things. God says, wait a minute, you're my child. Wait a minute. You know What about me?
Don't you have me? Am I not your God? Have I not been faithful? And you and I need to quit acting as if God's not in our life. You and I need to quit acting as if he hasn't covered us.
As if he hasn't been faithful. It is possible to be around people that are falling and you still be able to stand firm. In fact, I think that's what being salt and light in the world is all about. that the world can watch How an average person would respond to something, but they see something different in how a child of God responds. The problem is, right now, many times the world sees us as Christians respond even worse.
Then the world does it things. You know, sometimes the world can get along with people better than Christians can. I mean goodness gracious. Listen, when everything around me is falling apart, I can stand. Here's why.
Because I'm not holding myself together. Because I have a Savior that's holding me together. My dad used to tell a story years ago. He went hunting with my grandpa, my dad's dad. And they were going pheasant hunting up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.
And they were trying to climb up a hill, and you know, my dad said, you know, here I was, somewhat still new at hunting, but I'm trying to keep the gun and keep the barrel from hitting the ground and getting dirty. And I got to keep the gun, but I'm trying to climb up this hill. And he said, my footing kept slipping, and his dad was above him, and he was climbing with the thing, and they're trying to get to a high spot. And so finally, my grandpa saw that my dad was struggling, and my grandpa looked back and he said, Dan, And he said, Give me your hand. And so, as my grandpa reached down, my dad went and grabbed my grandpa's hand.
And he said that my grandpa ripped his hand away and hit my dad's hand. He said, I didn't say, grab me, let me grab you. Boom, my dad, you know, put his arm up. And my grandpa grabbed my dad's hand.
Next step my dad took, my dad fell.
Now what would my dad have naturally tried to do? Catch himself. If he'd have been holding on to my grandpa, he would have let go to catch himself. And that's why my grandpa, wise enough to know, is like, you better not hold me because you'll try to, you let me hold you. And when my dad slipped, he didn't go anywhere.
You know why? Because he wasn't holding himself. My grandpa was holding him. And the reason you and I can face things and people can fall all around us, but the reason we don't have to fall is because you're not holding yourself up. And here's the issue.
Many times you think you are, and that's why you're so afraid. You think you've got to keep it all together. You think you've got to make sense of it all. You think that you have to perform, and you and I have to understand something. We are under his wings, as we talked about this morning.
We are covered. We are not holding ourselves together, and we're not holding ourselves up. He is holding us. And that's why he says, though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. We're not holding him, he's holding us.
Number three, I want you to see the fortress that we find. Look at verse 9. 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.
Now, I, for one, my opinion doesn't count a whole lot, as I've said, but. My limited knowledge as I read Psalm 91. Because of some other things in Psalms that Moses wrote, I tend to think personally, I think Moses wrote this, or at least a portion of this. Notice the language: Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. Little things like that, you go back to Moses as they were in bondage in Egypt, and God sent the plagues.
And hey, what happened to the children of Israel when they applied the blood to the doorpost? People around them were falling, but they were fine. Death was all around them, but they were saved.
So notice what he says here. He says, Because thou hast made the Lord. Which is my refuge. That Moses had said that about the Lord, by the way, even the Most High, thy habitation. Notice that.
This ties back to what we talked about this morning. Protection is conditional upon position. Let me explain. Not perfection, but dwelling. He says, because you have decided to dwell, habitation.
In other words, because you don't just show up to talk to God every once in a while, because you've walked with him, talked with him, created a relationship with him, dwelled with him, okay? Made him thy habitation, where I live, where I dwell, part of every area of my life. Notice what he says, there shall no evil befall thee. It doesn't say evil's never going to come at you. Befall thee means that it means that no evil is going to overtake you.
It means you're going to face it. But you don't have to fall from it. Notice this: neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. It's not about visiting God occasionally. It's about living with him continually.
Let me say this to all you here at Kerwin. Your level of peace is connected to your place of dwelling. Your level of peace in your life is directly equated and related to where you spend your time. Where you dwell? And may I say, if our whole life is centered around this world, we're not going to have much peace.
You can't live outside his presence. and expect to enjoy his protection. You cannot live outside of his presence and somehow enjoy his peace. It's under his wings. He is our habitation, the fortress that we find.
He says, listen, you stay close to me. Oh, things still come at you in life, but they don't have to overtake you. All right, what is a fortress? It's where we run to.
Okay, notice number four: I want you to see the forces that fight for us.
Now, I think in its own way, this is exciting. Look at verse 11. For he shall give his angels. charge over thee. to keep thee In all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up. in their hands lest thou dash thy foot Against a stone. You know, God's protection is not passive, it is active and it is assigned. You do understand, and I don't have time to give you a comprehensive lesson on angels. Um I made a feeble attempt.
at a series on angels, I believe on Wednesday nights, probably nine years ago. And I haven't in the past couple months because time has just been not there, but I have begun different things, putting together another series on angels. Because I feel like it, you know, could be much more exhaustive on that subject. But you do understand. That if you are a believer in Christ, look at me tonight, you do understand.
If you're here, you do have angels that have been assigned to you. You do understand that, right? You're like, what is their names? Larry, Moe, and Curly is... That's the name of mine, okay?
And every once in a while my eyes get gouged, you know, kind of a thing. Listen, we have angels. Unaware. You know, we always give bills radio. You have a radio sitting here.
There's all kinds of things in this building, you just can't see it. But if you turn your radio on and it has a way to transfer what's in here where you can hear it, you can hear good music, you can hear bad music, you could hear rock music, you could hear bluegrass music, you could hear all kinds of things. And if you could see the angels that are in here right now. There's more angels in here than people. Did you know that?
Some of you are like, hmm. What I'm saying is this, listen, listen to this, there are forces. that fight for us. And you need to remember that. Um Notice here.
He shall give his angels. charge over thee. This word charge over thee means that he gives them Divine command. It says here, notice in the second part of the verse, to keep thee. And all thy way.
This is to guard, to attend, to watch carefully. This is the Hebrew word here. It means that there are unseen forces working on your. behalf.
Now, here's what's interesting. Look at the verse. He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a what? This is quoted later in the New Testament by who?
Satan.
Okay. And Satan brings Jesus up on the temple, and he wants Jesus, if you just jump off the temple, you have a, he said, now listen, you know, angels are in charge, and they'll keep your foot. And of course, there's a cornerstone at the temple, and you jump over, and everybody will see if you just do that, then I'll, and here's Satan really mistreating and misquoting a passage. And you have to understand something. Of course, as Satan tried to tempt Jesus with this, we don't test God.
With his word. We trust God. With his word. Satan's trying to use his own words. To tempt, and guess what, dear friend?
You don't use the Word of God to try to somehow. Get God to do what you want. Yeah, right. You don't tempt him. You trust him.
with his word. And it means this, you're never alone like you feel sometimes. Um Some of you like, I just don't like being around people, but I hate to tell you, you got angels sitting around you all the time, okay? And if you and I, by the way, would live that way and understand that, we would probably do some things different. We would probably refrain from some things.
Um If you think about the fact that you're not alone. And I don't want that to be a negative. To me, that should be a positive for us as God's children. There are forces that are fighting for us. Look at verse 12.
They shall bear thee up. in their hands. lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Things in life happen. And I do want you to know that not always are you and I able to protect ourselves because as we know in the verses before, there are things coming at us that we didn't even know.
There are some things that are going to hit us that so unexpectedly we haven't had time to prepare. In fact, there's going to be things we don't even see, but we feel it. There's all kinds of things that can come at you. And I don't know about you. I need to know and I'm thrilled to know and I'm comforted to know that there are forces fighting for me.
And you need to understand that tonight. I want you to notice number five. I want you to see the foes that we overcome. Look at verse 13. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder.
The young lion. And the dragon shalt thou trample under All right, what's the what's the difference here?
Well We all know what lion is. This is an open, aggressive attack.
Okay, when a lion comes at you, you're going to know it. But an adder is a serpent. It's a snake. It's subtle. It's hidden danger.
Um You sometimes don't see it. And it can strike quickly, all right?
So, what is this verse saying? That God can give victory over both. God can give victory over what roars at you, and God can give victory over what sneaks up on you. Not only are you protected, notice what he says here. Look at verse 13.
Thou shalt tread upon. The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Do you understand? Listen to me. God says you're not only protected, you are empowered to overcome.
Yeah. Listen, you and I as God's children It is good to know that as we go around through life, we are protected. But do you understand? Our God does more than that. We're not just to walk around, oh, I'm protected.
No, we can overcome. He has overcome so we can overcome. It's not just that, hey, I'm going to protect you from the lion, I'm going to protect you from the snake. No, I'm not just going to protect you, I'm going to give you power to tread on them. Listen, Satan is bigger and more powerful than you, but he is not bigger and more powerful than you and God.
Okay. More I would say, number six. I want you to see the promises last that we claim. The promises that we claim. I love this.
Look at verse 14. Because He hath set His love. Upon me. Therefore will I deliver Him.
Now notice This is basically God speaking, this is what I'm going to do for you. Because you set your love, God says. upon me. God says because you Love me. I'm going to deliver you.
Look what he says. I will set him on high. because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me. And I will answer him.
I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. Wow. We just spent an entire chapter of everything that God is going to protect us from, but we find here that we don't just have protection, we have protection.
promises. I see seven powerful promises. And we're just going to spend about 10 minutes on each of them, and then we'll let you go tonight. That's a joke.
Okay. Some of you are like, I need deliver. Preacher, okay. Notice first promise, he says, I will deliver him. Second promise: I will set him on high.
This is God. promising to you. You make me your habitation. You hide yourself in my secret place under my wings. I will deliver him.
I will set him on high. Notice thirdly, he says, I will answer him. Fourthly, he says, I will be with him in trouble. We just heard all through the chapter of everything God's going to do to protect us from trouble, but the greatest promise is right there. He says, I'm going to be with you.
You don't have to face any of it alone. I will be with him in trouble. And then notice what he says next. He says, second time, I will deliver him. Which means this is double emphasis.
So he says, I will deliver him in verse 14. And then, if you notice in verse 15, he says again, I will deliver him. This is double emphasis. Notice the next promise, he says, I will honor him. God has no obligation.
Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web. at Kerwin Baptist Church.com.
Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin Broadcast today. God bless you.
