This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to our look at Psalm 26 to 30 this week. We're in day
two, looking at Psalm 27 together. Psalm 27 contains the Spirit-inspired words
of David on how to fracture fear.

And if you look at David's life, David had plenty of good reasons to fear. But
David learned through his life that fear never helped. And Psalm 27 talks to us
about how he, this great leader, who faced so many fearful situations, how he
conquered fear.

And really, it's all summed up in the first verse. Psalm 27, verse one says,
"The Lord is my light and my salvation. "Whom shall I fear?

"The Lord is the stronghold of my life. "Of whom shall I be afraid? " Verse one
gives us the three ways to recognize who God is that defeat our fear.

God is my light, God is my salvation, and God is my stronghold. Let's take a
look at that together. First, God is my light.

If you're afraid of the dark, what do you do? You turn on the light. The dark,
I'm thinking of it now, is this world of unknowns, a world of hidden danger, the
world of tomorrow that you might be afraid of.

God brings light to our darkness. The Bible talks about the fact that God is the
one who brings light from the very beginning. Let there be light.

And throughout the Bible, God brings the light of day, the bright dawn that
dispels doubts. He brings the light of life. Instead of loss, he brings life.

He brings the light of instruction, of understanding and not confusion. He
brings the light of his face. In creation, even in the cross, he shines his face
upon us.

His joyful smile rests on us. In verse four, David writes, "One thing I ask of
the Lord, this is what I seek, "that I may dwell in the house of the Lord "all
the days of my life, "to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord "and to seek him in
his temple. " Seeing the light that God has given us, that light that dispels
our fear, it's a matter of where I allow my mind to dwell.

It's a matter of where I set my gaze. And here David talks about dwelling in
God's house, in his presence. That's not church, it could be church, but that's
not talking about just church.

That's the presence of God in every corner of your life. So I want to encourage
you right now to invite God's presence into the dark corners of your life and he
will begin to defeat your fear. Invite God's presence into those dark corners of
your life and he will begin to defeat your fear.

You dwell in God's house and you gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, David says.
There's a lot that is ugly and evil in this world. We don't have to lie to
ourselves that those things are not there if we're going to conquer fear.

When you gaze at his beauty, you see that it has the power to outshine even the
greatest evil. And David writes here that we need to seek him in his temple. Do
you just go to church or do you seek God at church?

When you seek God, he will give you his light and that is what conquers our
fears. In verse eight, my heart says if you seek his face, your face, oh Lord, I
will seek. The Lord is my light, number one.

Number two, the Lord is my salvation. If you're afraid of life's dangers, and
there are a lot of dangers in this life, you have a rescuer. When you're afraid,
remember, Jesus is your rescuer.

He has rescued us from ourselves, he's rescued us from our sin, he's rescued us
from death, he's rescued us from this world. Now, there's no doubt that
Christians suffer in a dangerous world, just like unbelievers suffer. Couple
weeks ago, I was looking at a list of the most dangerous places and cities in
the world and I couldn't help but notice how many I had been to as we went to
help pastors and churches over the years.

But we needn't fear, because our ultimate end is rescued, no matter what happens
to us in our circumstances, in our lives. Our ultimate end is that Jesus is our
rescuer. It doesn't matter what circumstances might be against you, he is your
rescue.

In verse five, for in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling,
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle, and he will set me high upon a
rock. Now, he doesn't say here that the day of trouble will never come, that's
not how he rescues us. He says that when the day of trouble comes, and he
assumes it will come, and it does in our lives in this world, God will be there,
he will show up, no matter how difficult the trouble is, he is there to rescue
your heart and soul.

Doesn't matter what circumstances, he's your rescuer. And it doesn't matter what
people may be against you, he is your rescuer. In verse 10 and 11, though my
father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.

Teach me your way, oh Lord. Lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
Now, there is bad news and good news in these verses.

The bad news is we do have days of trouble. We live in a world where fathers and
mothers sometimes forsake their children. We do have oppressors.

But the good news is God sets me high upon a rock, the Lord will receive me, he
leads me on a straight path. The good news breaks the power of the bad news
because he's our rescuer, and that's why we can defeat fear. God is my light,
God is my salvation, and then number three, the Lord is my stronghold.

In verse three, though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear. Though war
break out against me, even then I will be confident. If you're afraid of life's
enemies, you shore up your defenses.

And David faced many enemies through his life. We face enemies too. You face
enemies in your life.

You face critics and cutthroats and gossips and competitors. But the truth is,
that's not your real enemy. Your real enemy is the evil one.

Your real enemy is the one who causes them to criticize and gossip and compete
in unhealthy ways. Your real enemy is Satan. Oh, great, you're thinking right
now.

Now I do have something to be scared of. No, you do not. Satan is your enemy,
but you have a proven defense even against the evil one.

Listen to verses 13 and 14. I love these verses. I am still confident of this.

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, wait for the
Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Your proven defense is to
wait on God because he is your stronghold and he will win in the end. Now, God
says to wait, to not give up.

In the Bible, what we translate as wait for, the same word can be translated
trust in. We think of waiting as passive. It is not in the Old Testament.

It's an act of trust in God. We certainly do live in a world where it is dark
sometimes, where it's dangerous sometimes, where we have enemies. But we also
live in a world where we have light, where we have a rescuer, where we have a
defense.

Before we end, I want you to look back with me at verse one. And as I read this
verse again, I want you to notice the word my. The Lord is my light and my
salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be
afraid?

My, I think, is the most important word in that verse. It means you have a
personal relationship and trust in God as the one who can defeat your fears. It
is not enough to just know that God is the light, to know that God can save.

Is God your light? Is he your salvation? Is he your stronghold?

As we pray these next few minutes, you may be facing a fear right now in your
life. You need God right now. Let's pray that he would be our light and
salvation and stronghold.

Would you pray with me? And in prayer just say, God, I receive the truth. I
accept the truth right now about who you are.

And I say before you in faith that you are my light. And I invite you into those
dark places in my life to be the light that only you can be. I say in faith
right now that you are my salvation.

And although it seems like nothing can rescue me out of this circumstance,
nothing can rescue me out of this relationship that is breaking my heart. You
are my salvation. You are the one in the end who's going to be my rescuer.

And God, you are my stronghold. No matter what enemy is coming against me, even
the evil one, Satan, you are stronger. Greater is he who is in me than he who is
in the world.

So I lean on your strength right now. In Jesus' name, I pray this. Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to look together at Psalm 28, which talks about what to do
when you're desperate for help.