The following sermon by Nelson Atwood was recorded at Noble Park Evangelical Baptist Church. For more information, please visit their website at www.noblebaptist.org.au Well, I hope you have your Bible open this morning to Isaiah 41, and we're going to focus our thoughts just on those great verses in verses 8, 9 and 10. Let's pray again as we come to open God's Word and hear from it. Loving Father, we thank you for your very precious Word. Father, we thank you and we praise you, O God, that your Word is that which restores our soul, that comforts us, that teaches us all about who you are, that contains within it the Lord Jesus Christ, concealed in the Old Testament but revealed, explained and promised in the New Testament. Father, we thank you for the power of your Word. Father, we thank you that it was inspired by the Spirit of God who moved men to write and record your thoughts, your words, your will, your way to us. Father, we thank you that through the preaching of the Word, faith comes. And so, Father, we ask you this morning, as we often do, that you would speak loud and clear, that my voice would fall silent at the end of the pulpit, that your voice would speak to every heart in the room. Father, we stand in submission to your word. And Father, we ask you that your spirit would take the words of truth and apply them to each of our lives. Father, we would be moved to change, to seek the Lord, to fear not. to be not dismayed, Father, to rest and trust in you despite what's going on around us. We ask you these things in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. There are so many things in our world to cause us to fear. There's Taliban crisis in Afghanistan, there's the spread of COVID-19, there's global economic uncertainties, there's the China-US-Australia tensions, there's floods, there's fires, there's political unrest. There's a steady increase of ungodly, wicked laws being introduced to punish the godly and protect the ungodly. The ungodliness of sinful humanity is moving steadily from behind closed doors out into the open with government protections. Shameless, God-defying acts are committed now for all to see. There's personal health issues that can cause us to be fearful. There's financial, money and debt issues that can cause us to be afraid. Relationship stresses and troubles can cause us to be fearful. All these threats that we face can be used by the enemy of our souls to cause us to fear. So how can, how must we handle fear? And the goal of this message this morning is to give us the tools to deal with our fears, to encourage us all to not be afraid in these fearful times, to encourage us all to trust the Lord, to know His peace. So where does courage come from? Courage comes through acceptance and belief and trust in truth. Knowing, for example, that we are completely safe from any physical harm fuels our courage to step closer to a lion cage and to behold that fearful beast, but without fear. Knowing a guardrail is absolutely secure can give us the courage to step out onto the observation deck of a very high tower and lean over the edge, or not, in the case may be. Above all, Above all those other things, knowing and trusting the God of truth and the truth of God imparts courage to face pressures, stresses and worries. So what great truth does God give to encourage faith and defeat our fears? I've got four of them from this text. And they go like this. First of all, God is sovereign who chose us in verses eight and nine. Secondly, God is the shepherd who holds us securely, in verse 9. And God is personal, thirdly, who speaks to us and with whom we respond in prayer, also in verse 9. And finally, in verses 9 and 10, we want to see, as we wrap it up, that God is faithful, who keeps all of his promises. So first of all, remember that God is sovereign who chose us. I want you to notice the text in Isaiah 41, verses 8 and 9. The Bible says, But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the descendant of Abraham, my friend, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its furthest regions and said to me, said to you, you are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away. God chose Abraham and took him through many years of difficulty. He chose Jacob and took him through many years of difficulty also. He chose Israel to be his special people, not because of anything to do with them, but simply because he set his love upon them. To Judah, who are hearing these words as Isaiah is writing them, they're in exile, they're separated from the land and their people, their temple has been destroyed, all of that. To those hearing these words, it would have meant to them that they were not merely the people who are currently occupying the land of a territorial god. In those days, The people of the ancient Near East considered the gods as associated with the land they were occupying. So the god of the Moabites was over the land of Moab, and the god of the Amorites was over the land of whatever the Amorite land is, and the Babylonian gods were over that land. And God is reminding them, in exile, away in Babylon, that they are not just simply in some place under some other god. God had chosen them. He has sovereignly chosen and called Abram from Ur of the Chaldees. He has sovereignly chosen Isaac, not Ishmael. He has sovereignly chosen Jacob, not Esau. He has sovereignly led Jacob down into Egypt, and He has sovereignly left them in slavery under Pharaoh. But God also remembered and delivered His people Israel. God sovereignly used Moses to bring them out. God had chosen them to be his special people. He made them a kingdom of judges and priests and kings and prophets. I want you to notice in verse 9, he says, Abraham, my friend. That shows a wonderful element of love in God's sovereign choosing, God's actions of choosing and working in their lives. God has set His love on them. And, beloved, this morning, we who are in Christ, we who know Christ as Savior and Lord, He has set His love upon us. We who have Abram's faith are his descendants. The Bible says in Galatians 3, verse 26 and verse 29, verse 26 says, For you, us Gentile believers, are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And verse 29 says, and if you are Christ, we are, then you are Abraham's seed or his descendants and heirs according to that promise. So when he talks about the descendants of Abraham, my friend, he's talking to us too. That message goes both to them and to us. Like Abraham, We believe and trust the God who is able to keep promises. Like Abraham, we're justified by faith in God. And like Abraham, we glorify God by our faith, believing that God is able to keep the promises He makes to us. We're chosen by God just as surely as Abraham was. Ephesians 1 verse 4 tells us. God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He chose us, as Romans 8 tells us, to be conformed to Christ's image, and that conforming process takes place all through our Christian lives. Romans 8, 28 and 29, it's worth repeating, says, We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. We know that all things, including Afghanistan crisis, including COVID-19, including all those different stresses and pressures and worries, all these things are being worked together for our good to those who love God and so on. And listen, being chosen by God does not shield us from trouble. Abraham knew sorrow and difficulty for most of his life walking with the Lord, 25 years of waiting and looking and longing for God to fulfill the promise of his son Isaac. He had the sorrow of Hagar and Ishmael and the sorrow of losing Ishmael as he sent them away. Chosen of God, knew sorrow and difficulty through his life of walking with the Lord. By contrast to Ishmael, who knew great worldly blessing. We would look at these two men and say, clearly Ishmael has more blessing, but no, it's Isaac who is the one who's chosen. Jacob knew sorrow and difficulty and the continual discipline of God. In contrast to Etah, who also knew great worldly blessing. Jacob had to flee his brother's murderous intentions. He fell victim to Laban. And as you read the story, you have to kind of conclude that Laban was simply a better crook than Jacob was. They were both a bit crooked. But he fell victim to Laban. He later had to flee away from Laban. His father-in-law, who had murderous intentions against Jacob, he had to live. with Dinah's rape, his daughter's rape, and his son's rash actions. He lost Rachel, then he lost Joseph for a number of years. Listen, being chosen of the Lord does not shield us from difficulties, but being chosen by God reassures us that even in the midst of difficulty, we belong to God. We need never fear losing our God. So remember, beloved, as you survey the landscape of your life and you see issue upon issue, fear not, for you are chosen of God. You see problems piled high, fear not, you belong to God. You see causes to fear, to be afraid. Listen to what the writer says. Fear not, for I am with you. Fear not, I have chosen you. Fear not, He'll never leave you or forsake those whom He chose. He will help and strengthen and uphold His chosen ones. Be encouraged, beloved, to say, no matter what we see going on in the world around us, fear not, trust the Lord who chose us. I want you to notice that God is the shepherd who holds us securely. And you might not notice it right from the text, but you'll see it. In verse number nine, he says, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth. I have taken literally means to take hold of, to seize, or to grasp. The idea of that term is to take a secure hold of. To give you some illustrations of how it's used in the Bible, in Genesis 21 and verse 18, Hagar was told to hold fast to Ishmael, because God would make him into a great nation. In 1 Kings 1 verse 50, Adonijah who was fearful for his life, ran in and seized Holoff, took hold of the horns on the altar in an attempt to preserve and save his life. In Job 2 and verse 3, Job is one who holds fast to his integrity. There's a sense of security in that word. We're held onto. The Lord God sees onto. He took hold of and he holds fast to Jacob, who becomes Israel, and bringing them from far off places. God taking hold of them was his reassurance that he would deliver them from exile in Babylon and bring them back to the promised land of Israel. The wicked Babylonians could not take them from God's grasp. God's flock of Israel had been scattered into exile, but God the Shepherd would take hold of them and regather them and bring them back. God sovereignly delivered them to exile. He brings them back. Wicked pagan idolatry could not take them from God's grasp. The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Greek empires could not pry them from God's secure grasp. And brothers and sisters, the wonderful news is the same is true of us. God has chosen us and taken hold of us. In John 10 and verse 16, we're told that we are sheep gathered from another fold. So there is one flock gathered by one shepherd. In John 6 verses 37 and 39, we read that all that come, sorry, all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. In verse 39, This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing. He is holding us firmly in His grasp. God has seized onto us, taken a hold of us, and He will not let us go. John 10, verses 28 and 29, Jesus says, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hands. God will deliver us from this world and into His kingdom. We are not to fear. God has seized onto us and holds us and will not let us go. Nothing can pry us, pry you, or pry me out of his fingers. What's Romans 8 say? Wonderful passage. Who or what shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword We could add, or cancer, or COVID, or lockdowns, or isolation, or persecution, or ungodly pagan governments, or financial stress, or health problems, or relationship problems. Listen, nothing and no one can pry us from God's secure grasp on us. Fear not. There is no need to fear, beloved. God is securely holding on to you. Do not be dismayed, beloved. God is securely holding you. Remember, beloved, as you consider your life and you look and you see an issue upon issue, but God is holding you. You see problem plow on top of problem. But remember this. God is holding you. You seemingly have great cause to fear, but remember, God is holding you. He'll not leave you or forsake you. He'll not leave or forsake those He holds so secure. Fear not. He's chosen you. Fear not. He's holding tightly to you this very day. Notice, thirdly, that God is personal. He speaks to us. Look down again in your Bibles in verse 9. Look what He says. In verse 9 he says, You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called Miss Furnace, Regent, and said to you, you are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away. He said, he called and he said. What would that mean for the exiles listening to Isaiah? They're way off in Babylon and Isaiah is writing 200 years earlier and his message is for them. God had communicated and related to Jacob and Israel through Isaiah that God is the personal God. He has spoken to them, relating His mind, His will, and His way to them. God is not indifferent, unrelated. God speaks to His creation and He relates to us. The triune God is unchangeable in His person, His promises, and His purposes. And He also relates to us personally. So God's person can never change. God's promises, they are made, they are absolutely concrete, and sure, they cannot change. God's purpose is to gather all things under one head, who is Christ, can never change. But God does relate to us in a personal manner. He spoke in various times, in various ways to the Old Testament fathers by the prophets, and He also spoke to us in son. The Bible says in Hebrews 1, verses 1 and 2, that God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us in son, meaning the whole person of the son was God's revelation, God's communication to us. He has spoken to us through the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles. Every word of Scripture is spoken by the moving of the Holy Spirit. In 2 Peter 121, prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. God's Word, God's precious Word in Psalm 19 and verse 7 tells us it restores the soul. It makes wise the simple. In Psalm 130, in verse 5, it says, Our soul waits for the Lord and hopes in His word. In both cases, I'm sorry, Psalm 130 is a case of distress. And his soul waits for God to deliver him and hopes in His word. Those three benefits, restoration, wisdom, and hope provide the answers to our fears. It's God speaking to us through His Word that defeats our fears. It brings peace. It brings hope. And it renews our joy in the Lord. You meet people from time to time going through terrible difficulties. And one of the first questions you ask them is, how much time are you spending in God's Word? Oh, no, I haven't been reading much lately. I'm too busy, I have too many other things going on, and you know what the problem is? The greatest source of encouragement that you're ever going to hear is found in the pages of God's Word. The greatest source of hope that you're ever going to find is found in the pages of God's Word. And yet we're all bent up and twisted up and contorted up because of fear and trouble and stress. And the greatest source that we have, words of courage from our God, are being ignored. I would argue one of the great reasons, one reason why we fear so much is we're listening to the wrong voices. Isn't this true? You see what's going on in the world, you see what's going on in our own country, you see what's going on in our own lives and we start to hear the whispering voice of the enemy. Well, you couldn't be a Christian if you're in this. And, you know, if God really loved you, He wouldn't leave you in this kind of mess. And the little voice gets louder and louder, and pretty soon we've turned away from Scripture, and all we're doing is listening to the little voice in our ear that tells us and amplifies and makes much bigger the fears. And pretty soon that little boy, he said, my thumb is bigger than the sun, because he could look up and hold his thumb up to the sun and block it out. We're saying, yeah, but my fears are so much bigger than God. Because our perspective is all wrong. The reality is when we put down or put aside those fears for a moment and look to God in the scriptures, all of a sudden our perspective changes and we realize how infinitely greater our God is than our problems are and our fears are put into perspective. Listen to God, look to His Word, cry out to God for the answer, and then stand back and wait for the drop in your lap, right? No. You cry out to God for the answer, and then you go searching for it. Then you search diligently. Maybe the first thing you're going to find is, hey, there's sin in your life that needs to be dealt with. Things that need to be put right between you and God and you and somebody else. And when those moments happen, you hear that truth and you respond in obedience. God brings the peace. So we put God first and see our fears through God's perspective that peace comes. Listen to God. Look to His Word, cry out to God for the answer, and then go and search diligently, dig deeply for the truths of God, bearing His Word that will answer your fears. He not only, not only does He relate to us through speaking, He listens. Isn't that a wonderful thing when you have somebody who will just sit and listen? Sometimes people need to, they want help, they want counsel. and they want to take their mouth shut while they get that counsel. They don't want to hear you talk. They just want you to listen to them. And sometimes the greatest resolution happens is somebody just listens and we spell out all our fears. And sometimes just by talking about them, all of a sudden we start to see some clarity as to what's really going on. You know, we cry out and we pour out our hearts to God. He listens. The Bible says in Psalm 62 and verse 8, Trust in Him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before Him, for God is a refuge for us. How are our fears defeated? We pour out our hearts before God and we trust in Him at all times. God wants to hear. Somebody asked John Piper the question, What do I do if I'm really angry at God?" And he kind of stopped for a second and he said, well, tell him about it. He said, God is sovereign and all-knowing. He knows you're angry anyway. You may as well talk to him about it. You'll have to confess that anger later on and seek forgiveness, but you may as well go to him and talk. and speak and pour out your heart before Him. And as you do so, the Spirit of God will minister to your heart and bring to your own heart and mind the thing that's there and enable you to put it right before God and sort out those fears. Of course, you never forget two of the verses. Lamentations 2, verse 19. The Bible says, Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches, pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. He hears when we do that, and he brings his peace to defeat those fears. And of course, that great passage in Philippians 4 that we love, be anxious for nothing, but in everything. by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ. He defeats our fears with His peace as we pray. And notice something else. In none of those verses does it say the circumstances will change. But God will give us his peace. God will help us to put aside those fears as we trust in him. He defeats our fears with his peace as we pray. God has spoken to us, and so we listen. We listen to God's courage-provoking truth. We believe. We trust in God. We take Him at His word. He's called us through the Gospel message, proclaimed to us. He's spoken to us, and He still speaks. to us through His Word. He speaks to us through the fellowship of believers. Brothers and sisters in Christ, why is it so important that we have and we constantly, or use Acts 2.42, we persistently devote ourselves to the fellowship of believers? Because it's when we're around other believers. Why did we set this up today? I can see all your faces on a giant screen right in front of me. I can see the ones that are smiling. I can even see the ones that are falling asleep. So wake up if you're sleeping. I can see you. Why? Because for me to preach at that camera right there, there's no fellowship in that. But when I can turn a little bit and I can see your faces and I can see the recognition, I can see you're communicating to me even though your mic is muted. And you're letting me know whether you like the message or maybe you don't like the message. Or maybe the message is boring and it's putting you to sleep. But I can communicate. There's fellowship there. We spend time with God's people. We spend time in fellowship with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. And we can answer. We can bring Scripture to bear on each other's problems. I had a friend from a previous church track me down this week. And he came in, he poured out his heart all the situation going on in his life, and I said, you want my advice? And he said, that's why I'm here. I trust you. I want to know what you think about something. And so I told him what I thought. And he walked out. He walked in, his footsteps were pretty slow and heavy. He walked out, his footsteps were a little lighter and a little quicker. I got no great wisdom, but in the fellowship of one believer with another, both of us in submission to God's word and God's Holy Spirit, God sometimes gives. No, that's not true. God often gives wisdom and insight to a brother or sister who can help us sort out our issues and our problems. We need the fellowship of God's people because when we have fellowship as brother and sister, we're able to speak Scripture into each other's lives. We're able to put our arm around each other and pray with one another, and two of us gather together in that moment, lifting up our hearts to God to cry out on behalf of each other, his amazing encouragement of God to keep us going. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you need the fellowship of God's people. That wasn't my point, but I wanted to bring it out anyway. Listen, God has spoken and He still speaks through His Word. God has spoken and still speaks through the fellowship of believers. God has spoken and still speaks through the public preaching and teaching and exhorting of God's Word by God's men. He relates to us as He speaks to us and He relates as He listens to our prayers. And I'll say it again, I think one of the biggest reasons why we have fears or our fears become so great in our own eyes if we're listening to the wrong voices. Listen to the voice of God, and listen to the voices of God's people. God is faithful. He's chosen us. He's the shepherd who holds us securely. He is the personal God who speaks to us, and God is faithful who keeps His promises. Look at verses 9 and 10. Look at the statements that Isaiah makes as courage-provoking truths. He says, I have not cast you away. The end of verse 9. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I'll help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Look at all the characteristics of God that are portrayed there. I've not cast you away. That's the faithfulness of God to His people, even in exile. I'm with you. That's the abiding presence of God's Holy Spirit for us in our circumstances. God was with them in their circumstances. He says, I will strengthen you. That's the omnipotence, the all-powerfulness of God at work on our behalf. You say, I can't take another step. I can't get through. God will strengthen you. No, I can't face another day. My fears are too great. It's just too much. It's too dark. I can't do it. Listen. God will strengthen you to take that next step and the one beyond that and all the rest of the way to the end of your life. He says, I will help you. It struck me the other day as I was looking at that. That's the servant character of God in that. Jesus said, I did not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. He came to serve. He'll help us. When I was in the trades working as a carpenter, we had carpenters and we had apprentices and we had laborers. And occasionally I had somebody called the helper, a carpenter's helper. And he was the guy who ran around and held the end of the wood while you cut it, or maybe he was feeding the pasta up stuff to you, or he went and got things for you. But he was there to help you. to help the carpenter accomplish his work. Man, what a great encouragement to our hearts as we go through difficult days that God says, I will help you. I'll help hold you. He can command us and fear not because of all these things and so many more. And I'd love to take the time to unpack all those aspects of God's character in our circumstances, but we're just going to focus on one last one, that God is faithful. To Judah, hearing these words meant that although they are left for a time in exile, although for a time they're enduring God's disciplining hand and removed them from the land, God had not cast them away, He would be faithful to His people. God would regather them again into the land. Their sufferings, although difficult at that moment, would be resolved. This was not the end. God's purposes were not finished with His people. God is faithful to Himself and to His Word. He is absolutely faithful to us, for He cannot, the Bible says, deny Himself. God, having chosen us and gathered us and spoken to us, will not cast us away from His presence. Listen, beloved, no matter the fears you face, God is faithful to you, His chosen and securely held one. No matter the world events going on around us, God is faithful to us. No matter the ungodly laws that man may pass, God remains faithful to us and to Himself and to His Word. What is it? How is it that God is faithful? His attribute of unchangeableness makes Him faithful. He is faithful to Himself in His own nature, so He is dependable, because He does not and cannot change. How can we rely on a God who could possibly change? We can't. How can we rely on God who changes? He would be unreliable. What promise do we have if God could possibly change to put our faith in Him? How do we know God isn't just going to say, you know what, forget them and just snuff us out? No. Absolutely not. A thousand times no. A million times no. Because the Bible makes it absolutely clear that God is faithful to Himself, to His Word, and oh yeah, to us too, as a result of that. He's faithful. We can rely and trust in God because He does not and cannot change. Numbers 23 and verse 19. God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent. Has He said? And will He not do? He will. In Job 23, verse 13, the Bible says, but he, that's God, is unique. He's one of a kind. Who can make him change? God is not subject to outside pressures to change. Nothing can make him change. Whatever his soul desires, that he does. That's Job 23. Nobody. Not a man, nor angel, nor devil can make God change. In Psalm 119, verse 90, God's faithfulness endures to all generations. His faithfulness isn't just for the one behind us, or maybe ours, or maybe the one after us. His faithfulness endures to every generation. In Hebrews 6, verse 17-18, listen to these words. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise, the unchanged ability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation. What do we need when we're in fearful? We need consoling. What do we need when we're grieving? We need consoling. Where does it come from? It comes from the nature of God which is impossible to change and impossible to lie. We have enduring hope in God because He cannot change. In Hebrews 13, verse 8, the Bible says, speaking of the Lord Jesus, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 13, Christ remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. If Christ could change from sinless to sinner, then we could not trust Him. He would be unfaithful to His nature and His Word. But praise God! Praise God that Christ has the same divine nature as the Godhead does, and He is absolutely faithful. He cannot deny Himself, and He cannot change. We can trust, brother and sister in Christ, you can trust the Lord Jesus Christ, because nothing can make Him change. God is faithful, unchangeable, trustworthy. God's faithfulness to His people, Israel, is the reassurance, the rock-solid truth of His faithfulness to us. So because God is faithful, He did not cast away His people whom He chose and called, and He will not cast us away. He will be faithful to us. His Word to us. in the midst of the direst circumstances is reliable. Fear not. I am with you, unchangeably, faithfully with you. I am with you when COVID strikes. I'm with you in the hospital bed. I'm with you in the funeral home at the gravesite. I'm with you in the loneliness of crumbling marriages. I'm with you when you are isolated. I'm with you when you are deserted by loved ones. And when you are being laughed at and mocked and scorned, I am with you whether your finances are great or your debt is soaring. I am with you no matter what ungodly laws the government passes. Listen to His words, beloved. Let them wash over your soul. I am your God. Not only are we His people, He declares And that statement is a covenant vow-like statement. I am your God. You belong to Him and He belongs to you. If, as we have just argued, God is faithful, then when He makes that declaration to us, He is our God and He cannot lie and He cannot change. Those words take the strength of a covenant vow to us. We who are Abraham's descendants, because we have the same faith in God as Abraham had, he vows to be our God. To the next line, I will strengthen you. No matter how daunting, how steep, how windy, how narrow the road, no matter how difficult the walk becomes, and there are days when it seems like we can't take one more step in walking with Christ, He doesn't stand back and say, come on. You can do it. Come on, man. Suck it up. You can do it. No, you know what he does? Praise the Lord. Our God steps in beside us. He wraps His all-powerful arms around our waist, just under that ribcage point, and He lifts. And He takes the weight off our feet, and He walks for us in His strength. That's a wonderful thought, but I've got a better one. You never put your foot down. He's carrying you every single step of the way. I'll strengthen you. I'll give you the strength to keep going one more step, one more day, one more issue, one more hour. You just keep trusting, keep focusing on the Lord. He carries us all the way home. I'll help you. I'll uphold you. I'll hold fast to you. Listen, brothers and sisters in Christ, why should we not fear? Because God is sovereign. He chose us to be His own people. Why should we not fear in the world we're living in, the crazy things that are going on all over our world? Because God our Shepherd is holding us securely. Nothing can pry you out of God's fingers, Christian. Why should we not fear? Because God is personal, speaking and listening and relating to us. Why should we not fear? Because God is faithful, unchanging in His person, His purposes and His promises. He cannot deny Himself, so we should not fear. We should not fear because God is our Lord, our Master, and He commands us in a gentle but firm voice. Fear not. I am with you. Don't be dismayed. I am your God. Some of you are sitting, listening, and watching, and you're thinking to yourself, but yeah, I am afraid. Listen, great truth has to be received by faith. We hear these great truths and we receive them. We believe in God and them. And as we believe and throw ourselves on God, then we begin to experience that peace that God promises. So we hear that God is sovereign. And you know, the words that Jesus said to Mary, one of the sisters on the way down to the tomb, He said, Do you believe this? And you know, brothers and sisters, that's the greatest question of the New Testament, in one sense. Because all this great truth, all this solid, rock-solid, encouraging truth is ours. The question is, do we believe it? Do we take God at His Word? Do we see the Word of God? And we recognize in that Word that this is the absolute truth of God, who is truth Himself. And we say, God has said it. His Word makes it clear. I believe it. And I rest myself in God's care. The evidence, the truth of Scripture is that God is sovereign, choosing you. Do you believe it? Receive that truth by faith. God is a shepherd securely holding on to you. Receive that truth by faith. Do you believe it? God is personal, speaking to you. If I could give one piece of advice to you this morning, if you're really struggling with fear beyond everything else I've said, stick your finger in your ear to those fears and doubts and look to God's Word. I'll give you one other piece of encouragement. Read it out loud. You say, what difference does reading out loud or silently make? You would be amazed. A number of times when I start reading, and all those little voices, I don't hear voices, don't panic, and all the little whispers in my ear, you know, this and that and the other problem, and this distraction and the other one, I stop and start reading out loud, and the actual sound of my own voice reading God's Scripture, taking the words of truth and putting them into an audible sound that my ears can hear, my heart can hear, my mind can conceive. It's amazing how that drives away the distractions and all we hear is the truth of the Word of God. Why does Paul say, give attention to the public reading of Scripture? Because there's something Something powerful happens when God's written Word is spoken in an audible voice. Brother and sister in Christ, listen to the right voices. Read the Word of God out loud to yourself. You'd be amazed at how much it drives away the distractions and the fears. God is faithful. He made those promises. He has not ever once dropped him, dropped a promise, gave up on somebody, walked away and said, I can't deal with that guy anymore. Too much. Never once in all of human history, all of salvation history. And he's not going to start with you. God is faithful. He's keeping His promises, trusting Him. There is no need to fear, for God is with us. I came across these verses, by the way, hearing John Piper's story of how he went by faith to the Bible school. And he said this was the verses that every day, through all the difficulties of learning German and all this stuff, he had to go to Germany to do his Ph.D. And over and over and over and over again as he went to classes and he walked around, he learned and repeated these verses to himself. Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I'll help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. What a God we serve. Amen. Let's pray. Loving Father, we thank you and we praise you, O God, for your goodness and for your grace to us. Father, we thank you for these great promises of Scripture. You are the sovereign God who has chosen us. And Father, our human minds don't always, we can't work out how all that works. But we recognize that as a solid foundational truth of Scripture and we hold fast to it. We believe, O God, that You chose us. Father, we thank you and we praise you that you indeed are the Lord, our Shepherd, who holds us securely in your hands. Nothing will pry us out of your hands, out of your grasp. Height nor depth, angels nor demons, life nor death, all those things that Paul says in Romans 8.35, none of them shall pry us out of your hands. Father, we give thanks and we praise you, O God, that you are the personal God who speaks to us. Father, we thank you for the greatness, the majesty, the richness of your words, sweet like honey to our taste, infinitely valued above the greatest, rarest, purest gold. Father, we pray that we as the people would be listening to the right voices, hearing what Scripture would say. Father, we pray for those who are struggling this morning, that they would take the opportunity to pour out their hearts before you, to spill it all out like water on the ground. and allow, O God, for you to deal with them, deal with their hearts, bring to mind sin that needs to be confessed and forsaken, and encourage them with the truth of Scripture. Father, we give thanks and we praise you, O God, that you are faithful. You cannot change, for to change would mean you must deny yourself, and you cannot do that. Father, we give thanks that your promises are absolutely secure in Christ. All the promises of God, as the scripture says, are yea and amen in Christ. Father, we thank you for that great truth. Father, we ask you for your help this day. We pray, Lord, for those who are fearful, those who are struggling, those who are captured, ensnared, even enslaved by their fears. Father, we pray that you would drive those fears away as they look full into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we ask you these things in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.