Finding God When You Need Him Most - Experiencing God When You are Gripped by Fear, Part 2

Have you ever experienced fear so intense that you couldn't move, that you couldn't breathe, maybe had a panic attack? Or does fear show up in your life differently?

Tightening of the stomach, headache, insomnia, sweaty palms? You know, we all experience fear, but God has an antidote for fear, and today, that's what we're going to talk about. Stay with me. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry featuring the daily Bible teaching of Chip Ingram, and in this program, he'll pick up where he left off last time in his message, Experiencing God When You're Gripped by Fear. Today, he reminds us that no matter how intense or troubling our circumstances might be, God is with us, and he promises never to leave us. But before Chip gets started, if this is your first time listening to Living on the Edge, or you want to learn more about what we do, go to livingontheedge.org.

There you'll find tons of resources on a wide range of topics and countless programs to enjoy. Okay, let's join Chip now as he continues our series, Finding God When You Need Him Most, from the book of Psalms, chapter 46. His presence has a unlimited supply, like a river that has streams, and it flows, and it flows, and it flows, and it flows. Unlimited supply. And you say, well, Chip, where do you get this stuff that, how did you get that from this? Unlimited supply of joy, protection, deliverance, security, where'd you get that?

Let me show you. Look at verse four. It said, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells. Did you pick up the contrast between streams here and what the water was like in verse three? How were the waters in verse three? They were chaos. They were foaming.

It was unsteady, unstable. And by contrast here, there is a stream. There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God. What's the city of God? It's Jerusalem. I think there's reference here to the earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly Jerusalem. But taking it at his historical value, there's a river that makes glad the city of God. See, Jerusalem wasn't just a city that David picked out and thought, this would be a nice place for a capital.

It was strategic. It is like a fortress. Man, there's rocks, rocks, rocks, rocks, and then the city, and then all these huge walls, and then there's a river. And in ancient days, they would have battle after battle after battle. And the key was to have a fortress that your enemy couldn't overtake you in. But the one way they could overtake you, even if you had a great fortress, is if you didn't have water supply.

If you had a fresh water supply and plenty of food, you could stay in there forever. And so for a Israelite's ears in that day, he's painting a picture of this outward opposition. There's danger.

There's the enemy. But even while all that's happening on the outside, there is a stream. It's the rivers of Siloam in Jerusalem. There is a stream that makes glad the city of God.

It's all happening bad out there, but in here, it's safe. Now there's a spiritual implication as well, because not only is that literally true, but the city of God is used for scripture of where God dwells and God's presence. In Isaiah chapter 8, the same phrase for the stream of God or the river of God is identified with his presence. And then in Revelation 22, it talks about the throne of God. And guess what flows from the throne of God that gives life? A river. You see, in Old Testament imagery, he's telling these people in the midst of their trouble, God's presence, a stream, a river that flows from the very heart of God, from all of his infinite resources, it flows to his people in a place where they're protected and there's unlimited supply. So what's it do? Notice the first phrase. It makes gladness. The streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells.

Now I hope you're saying, Chip, are you really telling me that in the midst of great adversity, I mean pressure and trouble and fear, that God's presence could actually give you joy? Yep. I went into the ICU and a fellow named Will South is having surgery. He's having a quintuple bypass. His arteries not only need to be opened, but they have dried out and deteriorated so they had to replace.

It's like a total plumbing job. And then they explained all of it to Will and they said, do you still want to go through with the surgery? He said, well, sure. He said, you need to understand that the chances of success for this surgery is less than a total heart transplant. He said, well, sure. He said, the options are if I die, great, I'm going somewhere and I've had seven strokes.

I'm ready. I believe God wants me to do it. And so I went in, you know, kind of thinking, this is probably my last time medically speaking, unless God does a big thing here. This may be the last time I ever see Will. And I'm, you know, thinking, you know, I'm uptight and boy, I want to encourage him. And his wife Sarah's there. And what do you say?

Tell you what, I read Psalm 46. And I got about two or three minutes out of trying to encourage him and help Will. And, you know, he said, hey, how's that Ryan? Boy, I just love that kid. How's your wife? You shouldn't be here.

Your schedule is so busy. You know, I'm thinking Will. And then there's this big smile. He said, isn't Jesus good?

I don't mean in a phony way, but just, you know, isn't it just an honor to be in the presence of the living God? I said, yeah, Will. He said, well, you know, tomorrow I am so hungry. I want some eggs over medium. They said I can't have any tonight, but I told them tomorrow after I get out of this intensive care stuff, man, I want some eggs over medium. Well, hey, Chip, you got a lot to get going on. I will see you later.

Why don't we pray? I came home that night. I said, honey, I met someone who not only knows God like few people I know, but he really understands the reality of heaven and eternal perspective. It was a privilege. It was a privilege. God's presence gives you gladness, even in the midst of your greatest trouble.

But it goes beyond that. Notice he says God is within her. She will not fall. God provides protection and security.

He will help her at the break of day. And for us, that's just a little phrase. But out of Exodus 14, 27, that little phrase would have clicked into the mind of an Israelite.

Wow. Break of day. Remember when Moses led us out and they were coming, we were at the Red Sea and God opened the Red Sea at the break of day. That little phrase, he prayed and it closed back up.

It's a picture of deliverance in the midst of your greatest fear and trouble. God will deliver you. He'll deliver you. He will be your security. He will give you what you need. He will protect you and sustain you.

What? One moment at a time. I got to visit Paul and he had a colon surgery, had cancer and I mentioned his name so you can pray for him.

And they were hoping to get to it early and they didn't get to it as early as they'd like. That cancer spread to his liver and we're all praying very diligently. I think it was a day or maybe two at the most after the surgery I got a chance on a Saturday morning to visit with Ian Vickie. And I got to witness the presence of God giving protection and a sense of security in a vivid way. And I asked him, you know, how are you really doing? And you know, he's got that smile and I like that smile sort of, he smiles sort of with his, without his teeth, you know, like that. That's one of Paul's and with his head tilted a little bit, he said, you know, considering where we are, you know, we're okay.

I said, Vickie, well, how are you doing? And you know, not in all the specific words, but basically they communicated God's given us grace. We have peace in the midst of a hard time.

We're just going to live one day at a time and God will give us what we need one day at a time. You know what that is? That's someone who says the presence of God is within me. I will not fall. He will deliver. He will help. The opposition may be strong.

Nations are not poor. Kingdoms fall, but he lifts his voice and the earth melts. All those metaphors, all those pictures, there's joy in the midst of God's presence. Even in trouble, there is protection. There's security. There is peace. But where does it come from? It comes from his presence.

Let me show you how powerful this is. Now there's the imagery of river, but five times in these four verses, I circled them in my text. It says, notice what it says, the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells. Circle that. That's number one. God is within her. Circle that.

That's number two. God will help her at the break of day. Circle helper.

He has to be there to help her. Skip down to verse seven. The Lord almighty is with us. Circle that.

Literally it's for us. It means he's there. The God of Jacob is our fortress.

A fortress is a high positioned place where enemies cannot reach and where you are protected and it's impregnable. All of his resources, he's the God of hosts. All of his armies are available. All of his strength, all of his power is available to meet you where you're at. That's what he's teaching.

And notice who for. He's not just the God, the Lord almighty, he's the God of Jacob. Did you ever wonder why that's in here? The God of Jacob. Why not the God of Abraham? Or the God of Isaac?

Or at least the God of Israel? I mean when they changed his name. Do you remember who Jacob was of the three patriarchs? He's the not very good one.

His name means literally the grasper of the heel or deceiver. Jacob's the guy who couldn't get it right. Jacob's the guy that was always messing with people, lying to people, manipulating, jockeying for position.

Jacob was the guy that was always doing people in. I believe there's a clear message here. See down in my heart, I feel like oh God's presence and his power and all this stuff I'm talking about, oh that's really good for those people that live up here. But I'm here.

But you know what? It's a message of grace. He's saying I'm the God of Jacob.

I show up for manipulators and schemers and people that are living double lives and hypocrites and people whose lives aren't together. In fact, God will actually use your time of greatest need often to do the most radical transformation of your heart, to identify some pride that you didn't want to look at before. But I'll tell you what, you hurt so bad, there's nothing else to do but look.

To look at your priorities like never before, to look at your relationships like never before, to look at your values like never before. And most of us learn to trust not because we're noble and we're godly and have it together. We learn to trust because there's no other option, because we just hurt so bad. But unfortunately when some of us hurt, instead of running to God, we run from Him. And so notice finally He's going to teach us how does it work?

How specifically can you enter in? And in verses 8 through 11, God's calling us to experience His presence. What I've told you is what's true. The first three verses are the what. It's a promise. Verses 4 through 7 are the why.

It's the reason. The reason you can trust Him is His presence is available for you right now where you're at regardless of your circumstance. Verses 8 through 11 now are the how. It's an invitation. How do you enter in and experience His presence?

Let me read it and then we'll make some comments. Two commands. The first one, come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations He has brought on the earth. He makes wars to seas to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow. He shatters the spear.

He burns the shields with fire. Second command. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in all the earth.

And then the refrain. The Lord Almighty is with us, or literally He's for us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. We've learned we don't have to be afraid because God is for us. We have learned that God's presence provides an unlimited supply of joy, protection, security and deliverance even in the midst of our most severe adversity. And here we learn God implores us to come and experience His presence in our time of greatest need. He implores us. He invites us. He commands us.

It's available but you've got to come. There are two commands and two things we're told to do at the end of this psalm. Here is you and your problem and here is God with His resources. There's two things you have to do for your problem and you to be interconnected and experience His resources. Number one, command. Come and see the works of the Lord.

You've got to come. You've got to come to Him and you've got to see. The word see here is very interesting. It means not only see objectively with your eye but the word is used throughout the New Testament for a seer or for a prophet. It's the idea of looking at life with the inward eye, the spiritual eye, looking at the facts but drawing back from the facts and saying what is God doing? What could God be doing?

Come and see. What are you to see? The works of the Lord. Now what did that mean to the Old Testament saints? What were the works of the Lord? They would come and see and in their trouble and they're surrounded by an army or someone's threatening their life or their children has a disease and they would open up the Old Testament and say now let's see. The works of the Lord, Genesis, God created all there is. Exodus, He delivered the people. David, He made him king. We had battles with the Philistines and they would recount the works of the Lord, His faithfulness in the past.

That's why notice the phrase. It says the desolations He's brought on the earth. Hey, He's delivered us in the past. God's come through for us in the past. The way we get an accurate view of God first of all is from the scriptures.

But we have to go back. The reason we need to read the Bible is to get a clear picture of who God is and what He has done in the past He is eager to do in the present. But notice how the tense of the verb changes. It's from what He did do. It says how He makes, present tense, wars to cease, the ends of the earth.

He breaks the bow. It's not only a picture of His works in the past but the confidence that one day He is the warrior king. The warrior king with all power and His hosts and His armies and He's going to bring about justice and He's going to take care of all of life.

And the invitation is you come and you look and remember who God is. What He's done in the past and what He's going to do in the future. He's going to bring peace. He's going to take care of everything.

How do we do that? Well, first of all I think, I don't know where you're at but if you think you can experience the presence of God without being a person of His word, you are mistaken. God does not reveal Himself in a vacuum.

His words are life. When you hurt, open His word and read and cry out in desperation and I guarantee you He will speak to you. When we hurt we spend way too much time on the phone.

We spend way too much time listening to talk radio. We spend way too much time on the internet trying to find out what are all the details of the diseases we're fighting, the situations we're hearing about and trying to figure out how we can make it through this on our own. Research is good but the works of the Lord are in the Scripture. The second thing you need to do is recount the works of the Lord in your own life. One of the reasons I keep a journal is because I get discouraged a lot believe it or not.

I get discouraged a lot. And you know what? I keep a journal and I write down my prayers and I'll tell you what, about every three or four days I go back four or five days or sometimes a month and I look at check mark, check mark, check mark and a little in red and the date and how God answered, God answered, God answered, God answered, God answered, God answered, God answered, God answered and what He did in my past He's going to do in my future. That's how you come and see the works of the Lord. And you get up next to people who've seen God work in their life and you rub up against them and you talk with them and you pray with them. At the end of the service we're going to give people a chance to come together and to pray and get help. You know what will keep you from doing that?

Your pride. Some of you are desperately hurting and God would want to reveal Himself by another person and get you connected and loved today. But some thought about what someone might think if after the service you walked down in the front and just met with someone or went in the prayer room and prayed will keep you from experiencing God.

It's a shame isn't it? Well there's a second command. Not only are we to come and see the works of the Lord, we are to be still and know that He's God. Now this is a passage used in lots of texts as a very devotional kind of nice. Be still and know I am God. You know all the devotionals be still. Now meditation is great. Getting quiet before the Lord is wonderful.

That is not what this passage is teaching however. Literally this word be still means cease striving. Stop. Knock it off. Get your hands off the deal.

Hold off. Surrender. See when we're in trouble our tendency is to go and try and find the Israelites went to found a foreign power to deliver them.

And we jockey and we manipulate and we try and cut deals and we try and do you know God I'll do this if you'll do this and we play all these games and God says when you're in real trouble I'll tell you what you will meet me on my terms. Be still. It's the same kind of phrase that remember when Jesus was in the boat and the disciples said don't you care that we're perishing Lord what are you going to do? And he said peace be still.

The waves went like that. That's the idea of this word. It's when you say I'm going to stop. I'm going to quit pretending. I'm going to know that He's God. I'm not God. I'm going to know He's bigger than what I fear. He's God.

Not a paycheck. He's God. Not another person who's not responding right now. He's God.

Why? He will be exalted in the earth. He'll be exalted among the nations. He is sovereign. This is a picture of the righteous warrior judge in control. Stop and wonder. Practically this means for us you pray.

A prayer of absolute surrender and dependency and where you take all the chips of your life all the cards all the hidden things in the closet you open it all up you push it all to the middle of the table and this is what it means to be still. It's yours God. I give. You call the shots. I need you in whatever it looks like.

I'm in. And when you do that the Lord Almighty will be with you. The God of grace the God of Jacob. He will be your fortress. Chip will be right back with his application for this message experiencing God when you are gripped by fear from his series Finding God When You Need Him Most. It's been said adversities in life are a lot like experiencing storms on the ocean. Either you've just faced one you're facing one now or you're about to face one.

Sounds depressing right? So how do we prepare? As Chip studies a few key chapters from the book of Psalms he identifies several tools God's given us to develop courage strength and hope in us regardless of the circumstances. Let me encourage you to get more plugged in with this series by visiting livingontheedge.org that's livingontheedge.org. Well Chip's with me in studio now to share a quick word. Thanks Dave before I come back and talk about some application to today's message you know Christmas is right around the corner and I don't know about you but I have given books to people things I really want them to read and I find that I give them and they're big and they're thick and they're really important and the people that I want to read them usually don't read them and so at Living on the Edge we're doing something special this Christmas to help you get something impactful and encouraging into the hands of those that you love that you want to encourage spiritually but you realize some big book they're probably not going to read it. We have four mini books one is on discovering your divine design a second one is about what does it look like to be a dad a third is for moms or sisters about precious in his sight I mean how does God really see a woman and then the last one is called the art of survival for that person that just feels like the world has crushed them there's no hope where is God in the midst of it and we put these four little mini books they take maybe 45 minutes or an hour to read they're small but what we've seen is they've produced great impact in the lives of people if you don't know what to get some people for Christmas and you want to have a spiritual impact but not come off too strong I think these small books will be a real winner Dave why don't you tell people how they can get them be glad to Chip well I can't encourage you enough to get these four mini books your divine design portrait of a father precious in his sight and the art of survival and right now we've bundled all of these together and discounted them just in time for the holiday season go to Living on the Edge org or call triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 to learn more and if you're wanting to gift these to someone in your life place your order by December 12th to receive them by Christmas again to order this mini book bundle go to Living on the Edge org or call us at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 app listeners tap special offers well chip today you reminded us that God's presence sustains us every moment of every day when we trust him well now that sounds great but how does that actually work well take a minute if you would and unpack how we can practice trusting God today that's a great question and although God is mystical it's not a mystery about how this happens pray this prayer father I feel very afraid concerning blank you know my marriage the future my health whatever it is so today I choose to give you my fear and I demonstrate my trust in you by blank some sort of activity some you know where you take a step because faith isn't passive it's not just okay you know I hear people say all the time oh just give it to God and I want to scream how what I mean yeah just give it to God you know I've give it to him 14 times and took it back 15 and so one is pray and where you declare okay I'm naming the fear so I know what I'm afraid of and I'm going to demonstrate I trust you so let me give you three specific ways and they're in Scripture and they help me number one when I'm afraid I go outside because I like to be up early in the morning I have a good cup of coffee and I stand outside and I stare at the stars and I just remember this says come and taste or see the works of the Lord and I look out and I just tell God you know something I don't know how we're going to and I fill in the blank and whether it's personal or with the ministry or someone I'm concerned about but I don't know how and I'm afraid and I just say if you made all of that okay okay if you made all of that at least we got someone can handle this the second thing I do is I get in his word and I say it out loud like Psalm 46 open your Bible and read it out loud be still and know that I am God he's a very present help in time of trouble say it out loud and then number three you got to get with someone and not just whine and complain and vet oh I'm afraid and what's going to happen there's a time for that but you need a friend to say look I know God's big I know he's in control but I'm having a hard time overcoming this fear would you pray with me or would you would you look at Psalm 46 with me could we study together something that would help me believe and renew my mind because my problem is not my fear my problem is I don't believe that God is good and powerful and sovereign and I need your help and you ask a friend to do that so look at the stars open the word and find a friend. Just before we close I want to thank those of you who make this program possible through your generous financial support if you found this program helpful but haven't partnered with us there's never been a better time because when you give a gift to Living on the Edge from now until December 31st it'll be matched dollar for dollar and making a donation is easy just go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003 that's 888-333-6003 or go to livingontheedge.org app listeners tap donate. Well until next time this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.