Experiencing God's Presence - When Fear Paralyzes

J. R. R. Tolkien once wrote, Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. We're in the middle of our series, Experiencing God's Presence. And if you've missed any part of Chip's teaching from the book of Psalms, catch up through the Chip Ingram app. You can listen to our most recent broadcasts, look through our helpful resources and more. So check it out today.

Well, there's a lot to get to today. So here's Chip with his talk, When Fear Paralyzes. I'd like to begin by asking you to open your Bible right now.

Do it on your phone. Second Timothy chapter one, verse seven. Many of you know this by heart for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and self control, right? We all know that God has given us a spirit of power within us, a spirit of self control, a spirit of love. Now here's the question. If we don't have a spirit of fear, why do we struggle so much with fear?

In fact, I jotted down. Fear is a sudden feeling of anxiety, agitation caused by the presence or the nearness of danger, evil, or pain. To feel frightened or timid, apprehension, terror, or this sense of dread. Can I ask you something? What do you fear right now?

Is it the future? Economics? Job? Family issue? Your health?

One of your kids? Maybe you fear your marriage isn't going in a good direction or maybe some of you fear you'll never get married. But what do you fear? Here's all I want to say. It's one thing to intellectually understand that we don't have to fear. It's another thing to actually experience God's presence in times of fear.

We're human. We're all going to have emotions of fear, apprehension, anxiety, dread, and we're living in a world where we have more opportunity maybe than ever before to fear. But I think it's one thing to say, well, God hasn't given me that spirit. It's quite another to know how to experience his peace and his power and his love when you do fear.

I think the epistles and much of the New Testament are didactic and they tell us what's true and how to take steps. But the Psalms are a place where normal human beings like you and me with the ups and downs of life, with fears and anxieties, what they model for us is how to connect with God, how to experience him when we're really hurting. Psalm chapter 46 is a song of hope and confidence in life's darkest moments. It's very interesting structure. If you want to look at your Bible, you'll notice that there's a stanza and then a musical phrase, sila, and then another stanza and another musical phrase, sila, and then a third stanza. And sila just means to pause, to reflect.

Here's what I want to do. I want to walk through the Psalm and just give you some highlights about what it's saying and why. And then I'm going to develop four very specific practical life principles so that we can experience God's peace in times of fear.

Verses one through three. If you'll look on your outline, God is our source of hope. Not another person, not a change in circumstance, not money that we need. God is our source of hope. God is our refuge and strength and ever present help and trouble. In fact, literally, you might in your notes there, you might where it says God is literally it is God is for us a refuge and strength and ever present help and trouble. Therefore, what's he say? We will not fear. And then he takes these things that are just the most stable things in all the world. Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. In other words, he says the things that we think of is the most stable, right? He goes, if all of that would be removed, God and God alone is our source of hope. Notice he says he's for us a refuge. That's an external defensive position.

You know, it was this high place where you could be here and your enemies couldn't get to you. But he's not only that, he's a strength. It's it's the ability down inside of us when we don't think we can make it, when we don't have the will, when we're afraid to take the next step. He says not only is of refuge and a protection from things on the outside, he's a strength on the inside.

And I love this next phrase, ever present help. It means he's enough in every situation. And the idea of this word is that he's ready. God is for you.

He's ready. He says, I will protect you from the outside. I'll give you strength on the inside. Therefore, you don't have to be afraid. And in essence, all the rest of this in verses two and three, you don't have to be afraid no matter what, no matter what circumstance, what pandemic, what economic issues, what relationships, you don't have to be afraid. God and God alone is your hope. I think of Romans chapter five verses about 35 to 38.

Most of us know that passage well. You know, if God is for us, who can be against us? And he goes on to say, not life nor death, nor powers nor principalities nor things present nor things to come, nor any other created thing can separate us from the love of God. I just want you to know that if you put your hope in, well, maybe after this, then something good is going to happen.

If you put your hope in a person, they're always going to disappoint us. God is our source of hope. Notice the next stanza. He says, God's presence is the reason we have hope. It's not just that he's out there somewhere. It's that his presence, the manifestation of his grace, of his presence, of his reality is the source of our hope. He goes on to say, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells. God is within her and she will not fall. God will help her at the break of day. Nations are in an uproar, kingdoms fall. He lifts up his voice.

The earth melts. The Lord almighty is with us. Literally the Lord almighty is for us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. This very interesting imagery, you know, Jerusalem is the city of God. And he's going to talk about there is a river that makes glad the city of God. And it's a picture of God's presence. In fact, look at each time he dwells.

He helps her. He's within her. He's our fortress. He's for us.

He's with us. You see, in this passage, he's saying it's God's presence in battles that happened against Israel in that time. And the reason that Jerusalem was such a formidable city, it's way up high. And when they would do battles, what they would do is they would take dirt and they would sometimes circle a city and then they would build ramps and for months, sometimes even years to overtake a city. And a city, when it ran out of food or ran out of water, then it was done.

Jerusalem was thought to be impregnable because not only was it really, really high, but there was a river that ran inside of the city, the Siloam. And so it's this picture that in the midst of everything, it's God's presence is like a river. You know, you think of the book of Revelation and what is it that flows from the throne of God that gives life to everything, right? There's a river. It's his presence.

It's his life. Isaiah chapter eight talks about a river with reference to the presence of God. What I want you to know is that God wants to be with you.

He is with you. Now the question is, how do we experience it? What is verses one through three? Why is verses four through seven and how to experience verses eight through 10.

Notice there's two commands. Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.

He burns the shields with fire. So what he says is that word come and see, that word was used for the inward eye or a seer. It was a way of seeing not just the external things, but seeing what's really going on. It's a picture of calling Israel.

You want to see and you want to understand you need to look in the rear view mirror. You need to remember what God did and all those deliverances in the past. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll get you back to today's message in just a minute. But first, are you in need of a spiritual shot in the arm? Do you feel like your walk with Jesus is stale, maybe even a bit stuck? Well, join us after the teaching as Chip highlights a resource we have that'll help you reconnect with God through his word.

You don't want to miss it. Okay, here again is Chip to continue our series, Facing God's Presence. Command number two, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I'll be exalted in the earth. The Lord Almighty, that's right, Yahweh, the Almighty, the all powerful one is literally for us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Be still and know that I am God.

You know, for years and years and years, I kind of thought that that was just a devotional thought. But it's not be still and just be quiet. What he's really saying here is cease striving. Stop manipulating. Quit it right now.

Quit looking to this person. Quit trying to make this up on your own. It's really a picture. Remember when the waves were crashing over the boat and Jesus says, be still.

It's a command. Stop right now. And what God is saying to you and me in the midst of our fear, the midst of our anxiety, I want you to surrender. I want you to just stop trying to squirm and scheme and figure a way to make your life work right now.

I want you to trust me. In fact, four very clear life lessons flow out of this passage. The first one is we don't have to be afraid because God is for us.

Sounds pretty simple, but I meet a lot of people. I meet a lot of pastors that don't really believe God is for them. If you like down deep that maybe God's arms are crossed and you don't quite measure up and why didn't you do that and why didn't you do this. This passage says God is for us. He's a place that we can flee to when there's external danger. God deliver me, protect me.

You're my refuge. He gives provision from within power to endure. Recently I've been studying the New Testament and the epistles especially and where James tells us to endure and the apostle Paul says to Timothy, endure like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. It's a little Greek word, hupo meno. Hupo means to be under. Meno is stress or pressure.

Together it has the idea of seeing something through to the end or you can imagine weights coming down on someone and they're walking with those weights but they refuse to give up. It's translated sometimes persevere or endure. Do you know sometimes the will of God for your life and my life especially in times like this is not that anything gets better. It's that you endure.

You know you read those epistles of the apostle Paul writing to the son and the faith. You are with me during the persecutions. You've watched my life, my character, my faith, my love endure with me over and over and over and over.

Endure. Trust God. God's agenda is to make us more and more like Jesus and sometimes the way he does that is by allowing us to get in situations where we get desperately desperately dependent and his will is not that he's going to take us out of things but he's going to give us just enough grace for today. In fact sometimes just enough grace for this moment. Just enough grace for the next moment and you say oh Lord I can't make it to tomorrow and he would say you're right. Tomorrow's not here. There's no hypothetical grace out there but just hang in there. Trust me for this moment and little by little by little he says I'm a very present help. You know what keeps us from experiencing God's presence?

Often it's doing it ourselves. You know I'm going to make this happen. I'm going to help God out. I'll do this and God says you don't have to be afraid.

I'm for you. I have unlimited power. I have unlimited grace.

You know sometimes just could you rest? Could you lean back and could you believe that the all-knowing all-powerful Savior of the world is for you? He wants to help you. He's available. He's ready. He cares about you.

He loves you. No matter what the circumstance. The second life lesson is God's presence. Are you ready for this? Provides an unlimited supply of joy, protection, security, and deliverance even in the midst of our most severe adversity. That's a long sentence isn't it? I got all of that out of verses four through seven.

I'm going to say it again. God's presence not intellectually agreeing but I mean his actual presence that we experience provides unlimited supply of joy, protection, security, and deliverance even in the midst of our most severe adversity. Streams in the midst of the city of God.

Streams when there's battles everywhere. The supply of life-giving grace in the midst of our challenges. Note the repetition of all the times and in that little section where he says God is with us. He's for us. He's with us.

He's for us. What does God's presence do? It brings us joy.

It gives us perspective. I'll never forget as a young pastor there was an older older man you know white hair probably very late 80s maybe even older and every Saturday night we had a Saturday night service and then we had two or three Sunday morning services and Will would come and he would pray with me every Saturday night. Very very godly man. Had very significant health issues and when Will and I would pray it was just like the presence of God showed up like you could almost reach out and touch and feel him and Will had a pretty challenging life and over the years he'd become this prayer warrior and he could enter into God's presence and when I would pray with him I learned so much and I forget he came to a time where he went to the hospital and they were going to do a quintuple bypass. This is a guy in his 80s and the doctor said are you are you sure you want to go ahead with this and Will says yeah I'm I'm ready. He said well the chances of this coming out okay are less than a total heart transplant. He said we're gonna take I mean all five and we're gonna do all the plumbing in your heart and you're not a young man and I'll never forget Will looked at he said well the worst thing that can happen is later today I could be in the very presence of Jesus and just smile and then he turned and I you know went to comfort him and thinking I wanted to help him and he said to the nurse now by the way if there as soon as I get out of surgery is there any way I could get some scrambled eggs I really want some scrambled eggs just I mean it was as though you know he was kind of walking across the street or go pick up a key for his car he was so calm and it was if I die I'm in the presence of the Lord if I don't I'll have more years and so I went and I you know it was real nervous because I thought he'd be probably not gonna live through this and I'm a young pastor and I really want to help him and I want to pray with him and I said two or three words of encouragement and he looked at me said Chip you know you don't need to be here talking with me your life is really busy there's lots of people you need to help you need to go help those people I'm doing fine by the way if I don't make it through this I'll see you in heaven and it wasn't trite it wasn't made up what I want you to know is that yes I understand that fears are real but if you and I keep projecting things about how things are going to be economically if you allow the grind of all the things that are happening and focus on all what you can't do you're not going to experience God's presence you're not going to experience his power and you won't experience his joy God wants you to know his presence can provide everything that you need third life lesson is that God implores us to come and experience his presence in our time of greatest need come and see the works of the Lord for Israel that meant every single time when they get in a big jam did you ever notice what they do I mean if you would just go through and read all these Psalms and I mean when someone is really in a bad spot what do they do they go all the way back and they say oh Lord it's really hard now I don't know if we're going to make it but you're the God who parted the Red Sea you're the God that delivered from Pharaoh you're the God they always go back to that great deliverance and then they recall the mighty acts of God one of the things that I started a number of years ago is I started a journal that's for some people maybe that's not for you but in my journal I when I have fears I can either let them rattle around in my head and they grow right you stay in there and what about this well if that happens then what about this and well if and instead I have learned when I begin to fear I take my journal and I write a little box and I turn my fear into a prayer request Lord I'm deeply concerned about my health and my wife's health and one of my sons who's sick right now I'm entrusting him to you will you please help me and I put a little box Lord I wonder what's going to happen to people that I love that don't have a job right now it looks like the economy is going to be very challenging would you please give me your perspective Lord I'm deeply discouraged right now and I'm afraid of and all I can tell you is when you write that out and then when God answers in my journal I go back when I start getting discouraged or fearful and I have little boxes with check marks and in a different color pen I put the date of when they're answered and then I write underneath that how God delivered now sometimes I don't have a check mark I have a line and the line goes as far as I know God didn't do anything I'm not trying to say that everything always works out our way but he says come and see the works of the Lord you know something you could do is get your family around you or two or three close friends and just go back to the day that you were saved go to the very beginning when you trusted Christ as your Savior and then start thinking through all the things he's done in your life I mean I think of a time when one of my sons was in ICU and I begged God for his life and God delivered him I just have multiple times and so do you he says come and see the works of the Lord and then second he says be still know that I'm God cease driving one of the things that fear does is it paralyzes and then it immobilizes and it always has you projecting into the future when you see striving here's what you do Lord I surrender I don't know the future I don't know what you're going to do in my life I've laid out all my concerns before you and I'm not going to try to work this out on my own I commit this to you I'm in desperate need and God promises when you come surrender to him he'll encourage you he'll bring you life he'll bring you help the fourth lesson is God's presence sustains us moment by moment as we learn to trust him I love this last line the Lord Almighty is with us or literally for us the God of Jacob is our fortress there's always been something about this psalm that has been super encouraging to me you know God's our refuge I get that his presence is available I get that come and see the works of the Lord cease driving I get that but did you notice this little refrain the God of Jacob the God of Jacob you know why didn't he say you know the God of Abraham or the God of David or at least remember his new name the God of Israel who's Jacob Jacob is the conniver Jacob is the manipulator Jacob Jacob is the guy that was always working things his own way and and I think his name is here for a very important and special purpose I think there's many times we don't feel worthy of God rescuing we don't feel worthy of his presence coming in and helping us we feel like we've messed up too much we've blown it he may help other people but how could he help us and I think he wants us to know the Lord Yahweh Almighty right the all-powerful one the Lord of hosts is for us for you he's for you he's the God of Jacobs the God of manipulators the God of failures the God of people who struggle the God of people who make promises to God and don't keep him but he's the God that when you come back and say Lord I'm sorry this time has been really challenging I need your help I don't deserve your help you know often when I pray I I talk to the Lord and there's times where I know I so don't deserve something I phrase it like this Lord this is a lot for me to ask but if it would be pleasing to you I know what it's like as a father and how I care for my sons and my daughter and if it would be pleasing to you you don't have to do this of course but it would mean a lot to me if you could help me in this I mean and in light of some other things I certainly understand if you know I just need to endure it but it would mean a lot see I think sometimes we make God this impersonal force that's far away what he wants you to know is he's with you he's for you he's a refuge he's life and he wants to help you Lord Jesus you know all across this globe every person struggle and fear anxiety father would you help us be men and women who have a peace and a calm could we be like Martin Luther who turned this psalm into a song a mighty fortress is our God a bulwark a refuge Lord would you be that to us right now in Christ's name amen This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and you've been listening to Chip's Message when fear paralyzes from our series experiencing God's presence finding hope for your troubled heart to learn more about this ministry or our many resources go to livingontheedge.org or check out the Chip Ingram app well our Bible teacher Chip Ingram is with me now to share a quick word thanks so much Dave do you feel overwhelmed right now have circumstances or events or maybe a relationship have you feeling very anxious how do you break out of it well Living on the Edge we've come up with a counter-attack and we call them truth cards each card has a lie that we're tempted to believe and then the truth is from the book of John and on these cards you read them over slowly and meditate and what you find it will break the pattern in your thinking and allow you to have the peace that God wants you to have for example a common lie when I'm afraid and anxious about the future and chaos in the world it proves I'm not a good Christian then you flip it over and here's the truth fear and concern about world events and personal challenges is normal Jesus understands and promises always to be with us John 14 one these cards will help you discover how to break the pattern of lies and experience the truth amen Chip well to order your set of our Gospel of John truth cards go to livingontheedge.org or call us at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 as you read through and meditate on these 21 cards you'll expose the lies we've bought or fallen into and replace them with a rock-solid truth of God's Word to learn more about this helpful tool visit livingontheedge.org or call triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 app listeners tap special offers well before we go let me take a quick second and thank the generous people who support this ministry every month your faithful gifts help us inspire Christians to live like Christians now if you haven't partnered with us would you prayerfully consider joining the Living on the Edge team you can set up a recurring donation at livingontheedge.org or by calling us at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 that's triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 or visit livingontheedge.org app listeners tap donate we'll listen in next time as Chip wraps up his newest series experiencing God's presence finding hope for your troubled heart until then this is Dave Drouy saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.