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. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.

Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry motivating Christians to live like Christians. Well, in just a minute, Chip will pick up where he left off in our series, Finding God When You Need Him Most. Today, he'll remind us that God will never leave or forsake us, especially when we go through challenging circumstances. So if you're ready, let's join Chip for Part 2 of his message, Experiencing God When You're Gripped by Fear.

If you have a Bible, go to 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? How did you get that from this? Unlimited supply of joy, protection, deliverance, security.

Where did you get that? Let me show you. Look at verse 4. 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 3? How were the waters in verse 3? 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 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, you know, 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 an 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 inside 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 is 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 know, you shouldn't be here.

Your schedule is so busy. You know, I'm thinking Will. And then he goes, 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, well. 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 and 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 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 and that cancer spread to his liver. And we're all praying very diligently. And 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 he and Vicki.

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. I like that smile.

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, Vicki, 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 help her. 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. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll return you to today's message in just a second. But let me quickly ask you, do you often find it difficult to read and understand God's Word? If so, join us at the end of today's program as Chip talks about our useful resource, Daily Discipleship with Chip. This tool has helped tens of thousands of people study the Bible and develop a deeper connection to God. Stick around to learn how to sign up.

Well, with that, let's rejoin Chip for the remainder of his message. 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 cease 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 that 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.

And 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 what? 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 host 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 walk 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? 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 you, 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 and 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 surrender. 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. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and the message you just heard, experiencing God when you're gripped by fear, is from our series, Finding God When You Need Him Most. Chip will join us in the studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. Through this study in the book of Psalms, Chip will help us develop a biblically grounded perspective toward our most difficult circumstances and experiences. Hear what God wants us to know when things aren't going well, and why we can absolutely trust His promise to be there for us, again and again and again. To catch up on this entire series, listen through the Chip Ingram map or at livingontheedge.org.

Before we go any further in this program, here's Chip with a quick word. I'll be right back with some specific application from today's message, but I want to share something with you that's very personal to me. When I was a young Christian, I really struggled to understand God's Word, and I really struggled to get into it on a daily basis. There were so many names and places I couldn't pronounce, but I knew it was really important to get in God's Word and really let Him speak to me.

And I thank God for Dave Marshall. He was a bricklayer, an older mentor who came down to my dorm room when I was in college and met with me and showed me how to read the Bible and study it for myself in a way where I began to hear God's voice. He actually started speaking to me, and it wasn't like a mystery. It took time, and it took discipline, and I needed Dave to show me how. And I want to invite you to get from me what Dave gave to me. I want to mentor you in what we call daily discipleship. It's a free video tool where I literally mentor and study the Bible with people, I mean individually.

I'll never speak for more than about 10 minutes, and then I'll ask you to study on your own for another 10 minutes. Let's dive deeper into God's Word and build a life-changing habit of meeting with God. Check it out, Daily Discipleship with Chip.

Thanks, Chip. So if you're looking for a practical way to deepen your faith, let me encourage you to sign up for Daily Discipleship with Chip. This free video resource will help you learn more about God and His Word. To sign up for any of our Daily Discipleship series, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org.

That's LivingOnTheEdge.org. Have listeners tap Discipleship. Well, Chip, today you reminded us that God's presence sustains us every moment of every day when we trust Him.

Now, that sounds great, but how does that actually work? 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? You know, what do you mean? Yeah, just give it to God.

Hell, I'd 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. Great advice, Chip. Before we go, I want to quickly thank those of you who regularly give to Living on the Edge. You're making a big difference in helping Christians live like Christians. But if you're benefitting from our ministry and haven't started giving yet, let me encourage you to join the Living on the Edge team. You can do that by setting up a recurring donation at LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. Again, that's 888-333-6003, or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. At listeners tab, donate. And thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.