The Lord’s Presence Casts Out Fear (Psalm 27)

Good morning, Church. My name is Devin Wirfield, and I

serve here as the pastor of Children and Families, and

I get the privilege and honor to preach to you

this morning. And I hope that your hearts are ready

and you're ready to hear from the Lord. So if

you'll open up your bibles to Psalm chapter twenty seven.

Every year during the month of November, it's Jonathan's goal

to preach from the Book of Psalms. And the last

couple of weeks we haven't been because we wanted to

finish acts in the right spot. We didn't want to

leave you hanging at the end for the middle of

a chapter. And so this morning we're going to start

our two week series on Psalms. And so this morning

we get Psalms twenty seven, and I'll tell you a

little bit about the context in just a second. But

as I have gotten older, I've you know, felt fear

increasing little by little. And last week I wasn't here.

My family and I we went to Myrtle Beach over

Veterans Day weekend to have a little time away. And

actually BCA gave us Thursday and Friday off last week,

so that wasn't on purpose, but we got it off

because there was no water. So but we took advantage

and we went to Myrtle Beach and we were in

a hotel that had like fourteen stories and we were

on the twelfth story. And so our hotel had a

balcony that looked off to the beach. And one of

the things that I never used to be afraid of,

but now I'm a little more afraid of is heights.

And so as I stepped out on the balcony, this

like feeling of fear started coming over me. Right, it's

this weird sensation maybe. I mean, I'm sure if there's

if I, you know, asked for your hand, you would say, yeah,

I'm kind of afraid of heights too. But it's this

weird sensation that like the closer I get, my eyes

like looked down, and I feel like my feet are

gonna come out from underneath me. That's what it feels like.

For some reason, like my my feet never spontaneously come

out from underneath me, but that's what I feel like.

I feel when I get closer, They're just gonna come

over and I'm gonna go right off the ledge. And

so that fear will keep me back from the ledge.

I can even like maybe reach out and touch the

manister like or the whatever that's called in front of

me and say, like, this is gonna keep me safe, right,

And maybe I tend to do that. I try to

like use facts to to calm my fear, right, like

the fact that my feet never just you know, come

out from behind. And then I would reach out and say, okay,

this this rail is sturdy, and it's not you know,

there's no give. I can look at the floor and

I can see that the floor is not you know,

piecing away or something like that. So I can try

to use these these facts to calm my fears. But

sometimes there's there, right. And so this morning we are

going to look at Psalm twenty seven where King David

is praying to the Lord in the midst of fear,

and I'm going to show you how he uses God's

presence to calm those fears. And so in Psalm twenty seven,

if you'll stand this morning, we'll start by reading reading

the passage. Psalm twenty seven says of David, 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 when evildoers assail me, to eat

up my flesh, My adversaries and foes, it is they

who stumble and fall. Though an army in camp against me,

my heart shall not fear the war arise against me.

Yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked

of the Lord, that I will seek after, 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 inquire in his temple. For he

will hide me in his shelter. In the day of trouble.

He will conceal me under the cover of his tent.

He will lift me high upon a rock. And now

my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all

around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices

with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody

to the Lord. Here, O, Lord, when I cry aloud,

be gracious to me and answer me. You have said,

seek my face, My heart says to you, your face, Lord,

do I seek? Hide not your face from me, Turn

not your servant away in anger. Owe you, who have

been my help cast me. Not off forsake me, not, o,

God of my salvation. For my father and my mother

have forsaken me. But the Lord will take me in.

Teach me your way, o Lord, and lead me on

a level path. Because of my enemies. Give me nod

up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses

has risen against me, and they breathe out violence. I

believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the

Lord and the land of the Living. Wait for the Lord.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for

the Lord. Let's pray, Father, God, as we look at

your word, we pray that you would be here with us,

that you would have mercy on us, that we might

behold wonderful things in your word as we open our

eyes to read it this morning, Father, we pray that

you would help us to understand your word through the spirit,

and that we would apply this word to our lives. Father,

that we can live more glorifying and honorable lives before you,

in obedience to your word and your desire for our lives. Father,

we thank you and praise you in Jesus. Amen, it

could be seated so this morning, what I want us

to take away in Psalm twenty seven is that as

Christians we find confidence over fear by seeking our God's presence.

And so I'm sure there are many different ways that

you and your life have fear, right, And I ask

you to think about what ways bring you fear, what

elements of life bring you fear. I was thinking as

a parent or a grandparent. You often worry or fear

about your child and whether they will be safe, whether

they will be provided for, whether things will go well

right for their lives. And lots of times we can

make changes or make decisions to make sure that they

are safe, and that we try to calm our fears. Right,

But there are certain things that are out of our

control and they might happen regardless of what we do, right,

and so this fear can help motivate us to take

precautions or to make decisions to maybe mitigate certain outcomes,

change what might happen. But there are some things that

have to be left up to the Lord and his sovereignty. Right.

Those of you who are retired, maybe you are fearful

about will I have enough to provide for me and

my spouse until we are no longer here? Right? That

might be a fear or maybe you're investing in your

retirement for retirement and you're worried about the economy. Will

my investments reach you know, the amount where I don't

have to work until I'm really really old, right, And

so these these fears any of us can have in

various different ways. Maybe it's a fear of giving getting

in a car accident. I'll tell you. When I was younger,

I used to fear driving over bridges because I thought

has someone inspected it? Recently? There was this one bridge

in you know, Rule Ended, Oklahoma, and it was a

wooden bridge and it had like two two like tire

tracks that you have to drive over. And I was

always worried, like, if I'm off to a side, is

it a weak spot and my car is going to

go through? Right? Sometimes when I fly on the airplane,

I like this thing is going through the air and

I feel I have to remember, like God's hand is

underneath the airplane the whole time that I'm in it,

because it could just you know, fall down out of

the sky. So there's all these fears, and so King

David is going to express his fears here. Before we

do that, I just want to tell you. Psalm twenty

seven is written by King David, and many scholars consider

it a lament. It's a lament psalm. That's the genre

of psalm it is. And so I wanted to give

you four elements to look for in a psalm of lament. First,

there is the lament, and in that lament it's like, Lord,

I can't do this. Lord, it feels like you're not here.

This is too much for me. Have you ever been

there before? So if you have, you have lamented. Maybe

it might be lamenting other things in life, and maybe

you're not in prayer. Maybe you're just lamenting like woe

is me? These things have gone wrong? Right, It's kind

of like complaining a little bit, right. But in prayer

we see that the psalmists they lament before the Lord,

and so there's a place for this, like feeling of

I can't do this, this is too much for me.

I don't know what to do, Lord, help me, right,

So we have that lament. Next is a petition, a

request before the Lord, and it might sound something like, Lord,

please hear me, please answer me, come to my help,

Lord say me. It's that request for help. It's that

yearning for the Lord to intervene. The third element is confidence.

It might be a statement of I know that the

Lord is in control, he is my help. It's stating

to the Lord and reminding self that there is truth

that I'm relying on. I'm not going to continue to

fear in like there's no hope. And then lastly there's

a vow, and that vow could sound like I will

praise him or I will serve him all the days

of my life. Right. And so those are the four

most common elements in a lament psalm. And those four

elements can be in any order. Doesn't necessarily have to

follow that order that's listed on the screen, but those

are the four. So as we go through Psalm twenty seven,

I want you to try find those elements in there,

because David uses all four of them. So, starting in

verse one, we see David 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? We see here first that David says, the Lord,

my God, the Lord Yahweh is my light and my salvation.

And in my study I learned that this light in

salvation are two words that mean the same thing. Here, Okay,

that this the Lord, he is my my salvation. And

when we think of salvation, we think of salvation in Jesus,

salvation from sin right, and also in we see this

light versus darkness. And so I think David is saying

here first like the Lord is my salvation from sin. Right.

So he's saying as as a man who trusts in

the Lord, who obeys the Lord, and who knows him,

the Lord is my salvation. The Lord is my salvation.

And first and foremost he has changed my life from

death in sin to life in Jesus. He knows that

the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is

his savior. He knows and he's put his faith in Jesus.

That it's no longer him that lives like it's no

longer him living in his sin. He has given his

life to the Lord, and he serves the Lord and faithfulness.

And so, first of all, when when we're talking about salvation,

when we're talking about this putting our trust in the Lord,

or when we're thinking about fear, I think the biggest

fear that we have as humans is the fear that

we will be separated from God forever. Right, And so

David says, the Lord is my salvation. I no longer

fear death. I no longer fear sin because God has

given me a way out of my sin, and the

punishment that I should deserve that I do deserve. And

so he's saying, because the Lord is my light and

my salvation, whom shall I fear? He's looking for God's

presence here to rescue him from that fear. Psalm eighty

four ten through eleven emphasizes the presence of the Lord,

casting out fear, being the light. It says, for a

day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of

my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For

the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The

Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he

withhold from those who walk uprightly. So the Psalmist here

in psalmighty four says, the Lord God is a son.

He brings light, and in his presence I would rather

be because he doesn't withhold anything good from those who

walk up rightly with him. Right. The Psalmist is describing

what it means to be in the presence of God,

to have salvation from sin and reconciliation with God. Even

the New Testament considers Jesus to be the light. John

eight twelve says again, Jesus spoke to them, saying I

am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will

not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

We see that these two ideas of light and darkness

are put against each other. They are contrasted. The ones

who don't know Jesus are in darkness. The ones who

do know Jesus and serve him are part of the light.

They walk in the light. And so David says, the

Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Right,

It's a rhetorical question that says, I don't have anybody

to feel afraid of, because the Lord is my light

and my salvation. So David says, since I have found

life and salvation from sin and evil, I shall not fear.

He has experienced the Lord's presence. One commentator said, the

confidence of the Psalmist lies not in his own abilities

or in the strength of his forces, but in the Lord.

That's where David finds his strength. Here. I want you

to picture a life jacket. So a life jacket we

use when we are going into deep water where often

we can't see the bottom, and so there's this you know,

concern that if I fall below, no one will be

able to rescue me because they can't see me. Right,

And so we have this life jacket that we put

on that helps us or really provides us this salvation

from death in the deep waters that no one can

see through. Right. So just like that salvation in Jesus

is like like when I'm in water, I trust in

this life jacket to save me, to provide rescue. Right,

Just like that putting our faith in Jesus rescues us

from from death and punishment of sin. Right. So just

like putting on that life jacket, I trust it to

keep me safe in that water, I trust in Jesus.

I put my faith in Jesus to keep me safe

and free from my ultimate deserved destiny, which is death. Right.

And so when we put our faith in Jesus, just

like David has done, we're no longer in danger of death.

We trust Jesus to be our Salvation Church. We are

like David. If you're in this room and you belong

to Jesus because you have put your faith in him,

you're like David in that the Lord is your light

and your salvation. When we are tempted to fall into sin,

we must not fear. We only have to trust in

the Lord, because he is our salvation. We repent of

our sin. We trust Jesus's sacrifice on our behalf, and

we walk in confidence that his perfection was enough to

save us. The Lord Jesus is our salvation. Next, David continues,

he says, the Lord is the stronghold of my life,

of whom shall I be afraid. We're going to come

back to that verse two. He says, when evil doers

assail me, to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes,

it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army

camp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war

rise against me, Yet I will be confident. So we

see here he's listing these two like situations when circumstances

seem like they're too much, when fear should keep him

from surviving, or fear should keep him down, keep him doubtful. Right,

he says, these evil doers are coming against me. My

adversaries are coming, an army is encamping against me, the

war is rising against me. He's giving these situations or

these circumstances when it seems like things will be too much. Right,

continuing in verses five and six, he says, in the

day of trouble, and then the fourth lines or sorry,

he will conceal me. So you see like he is

running to the Lord in this day of trouble, or

when evil doers come, and he says that the Lord

will hide me in his shelter, he will conceal me.

That's because David trusts that the Lord is his security.

The Lord is not just his salvation, but the Lord

is his security, his safe place when things come at him,

come to attack him. Right, we see that there are

maybe individuals that are coming to attack him. Right, we

have to view this from King David's perspective. He's the

king who is the commander of this military of Israel,

and people would come at Israel to attack them, and

it was his job to protect them. And he would

envision these attackers coming, right, attackers coming to assail him,

but not just like individual attackers but whole like armies

or nations coming against his people, right, So it's almost

like there's hand to hand combat when when an individual

would come at him, or an individual would would would

come at one of his soldiers. But also there's this

military campaign from another nation that would come at his

nation as well. So he's saying, whether it's this small

individual who's against me personally, maybe persecuting me or pursuing me.

David was pursued by Saul, right, Saul was coming against

him often, and it was it was a I'm versus

you situation, right, And so David is familiar with all

of these situations when people would come against him or

nations would come against him. And so we see that

in the midst of those situations, David trusts in the

Lord to be his security. Verse five says, for he

will hide me in his shelter. In the day of trouble,

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent.

He will lift me high upon a rock. And so

we see David is trusting in the Lord to be

his security when things seem like they're out of control.

Several times in my life, I guess in the last

few years when I've owned a home, I've considered getting

an alarm system from my house. And usually it's when

like simply Safe sends me an email about sayal they're having, Right,

I think I just got one yesterday, and so I'm like, well,

maybe we should get it because it'll make us safer. Right,

the doors will ding when someone comes in, or like

if we're not home and someone tries to come in,

the alarm will go off and and they'll be scared away.

But I feel like my main priority is like when

I'm a home sleeping and if I don't wake up,

like and someone tries to come in my house, that's

my biggest, you know, moment when I'm considering an alarm system.

But I have to admit to you that every time

I've considered it, I've gone to my basic motivation. Do

you know what it is? It's fear. I say, I'm

afraid that someone might come in my house, so I'm

going to get an alarm system to keep us safer.

And I struggle with that. I go back to what

am I trusting in to keep me and my family safe?

And for me, I'm not saying alarm systems are bad overall,

but I'm saying that my heart revealed to me that

I wanted this other thing to keep me safe, that

I wasn't trusting in God's plan. I wasn't trusting in

I'm gonna do everything that is common sense. Lock my doors,

make sure my windows have locks on them, and then

I'm gonna trust that God is going to wake me

up in the event of an emergency, that he's going

to defend people away from my home so they don't

come in my house. Right, And so I had I

got down to the nitty gritty my heart and say, no,

the only reason I want to buy an alarm system

is because I fear, and I have no reason to fear,

because God's word says that whatever happens to me is

for my good if I belong to him. And so

maybe one day we'll get one. But I'm going to

remind myself that it's not the alarm system that's keeping

me safe. Ultimately, it's my God who's keeping me safe.

And David says, the Lord is my security. I can

do everything necessary to train my men to prepare for battle,

but ultimately it is the Lord's plan for me that

keeps me safe. So I shall not fear, because my

God is my security. He will hide me in his shelter.

In the day of trouble, he will conceal me under

the cover of his tint. He will lift me high

upon a rock. Verse six says, and now my head

shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me.

And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts

of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

And so what do I do when I am faced

with this fear that overwhelms me? I think Verse six

tells us the answer. I will offer in his tent,

in his tent sacrifices with joy, I will sing and

make melody to the Lord. Is that not drawing near

to the Lord's presence for rescue and for safety, for security.

It's the Lord's presence and me drawing into that that

calms and reminds me that I shall not fear. I

have nothing to be afraid of because my God has

provided for me. My God is with me. He is

near me. We see David crying out for the Lord's presence,

and verse seven, here, o, Lord, when I cry aloud,

be gracious to me and answer me, for you have said,

seek my face, and David says in his heart, he says,

my heart says to you your face, Lord, do I seek.

David knows where the where fear is cast out. It's

in the presence of the Lord. As he seeks the

Lord's face, he says, hide not your face from me.

Paul also has relied on God for his safety, his security,

and Second Corinthians one, verses eight through ten, he says,

for we do not want you to be unaware, brothers,

of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were

so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of

life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the

sentence of death. But that was to make us rely

not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he

will deliver us. On him. We have set our hope

that he will deliver us again. See Paul's relying on

God's faithfulness to deliver him from this fear of death,

or this this sense that they were despairing of life itself. Right,

Paul and his disciples had this fear, and so he says,

we're not relying on ourselves, but on God, who has

proven himself faithful, who has risen the dead. Right. And

so I want to talk to us about our fear

and our lives. How do we fight our fear that

comes in life. We've talked about parents and grandparents about

you know, fearing for your child's safety or fearing for

your retirement. Students, how do you feel? How do you

fight fear of relationships, fear of social situations where you're uncomfortable. Right,

there's this fear. I remember when I when I was younger,

there was this Okay, I'm going to point out something

that we use all the time, right, So this fear

of being alone. What do you do? Pop out your phone.

It's going to keep you, like not feeling like you're isolated. Right.

I remember walking through college campus one day and I

was by myself. I was on my way to my class,

and for some reason that day, like I felt insecure

and I felt vulnerable, and I didn't it felt like

people were gonna see it, right, they weren't, really, Like

looking back, no one was going to tell what I

was feeling. But I remembered like pulling out my phone

and I didn't have any messages to read or anything

I didn't have. I wasn't doing anything. I pulled out

my phone and I was like flipping, like where can

I go? And it dawned on me like I'm pulling

out my phone to distract me from this like social

anxiety that I'm feeling, this vulnerability that I'm feeling, right,

and so I realized, like, man, why do I have

my phone out. It's only a crutch at this moment

to make me feel like I've got something to do,

or like someone's texting me and I'm important. There's this

fear of like what other people are gonna think of me,

and that's really mostly in my head because no one's

thinking about you. It's this insecurity that we have, right,

and so we might pull out something like our phone

to entertain us or make us seem like we have

something to do, right. I think David teaches us that

the Lord is our security. We don't need anything else.

We must be confident in him and in his presence

in our lives to assure us of who we are

and who he has created us to be. David continually

seeks the Lord and his presence to minimize that fear

that temptation that sin has placed in us to feel

like we don't belong or like we have to control

every possible situation so that we can control our lives.

So the Lord is our salvation, the Lord is our security.

And then lastly, the Lord is our stronghold. In twenty

seve and verse one, you see the second part says,

the Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom

shall I be afraid? The Lord is the stronghold? What

does that look like? In verse four, David says, one

thing have I asked of the Lord that I will

seek after, that I may dwell in the house of

the Lord all the days of my life. So he's saying, like,

forever I know that I will be with the Lord.

And he's saying, this is the constant hope, this is

the constant rock that I can stand on, like I

will know that I will be with the Lord forever,

all the days of eternity. And so he's saying, like,

this is something that I can stand on, this is

something that I can always keep as my anchor in

my life. That I will dwell in the house of

the Lord. And he says, why to gaze upon the

beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple,

see that relationship between him and the Lord. He wants

to look at the Lord's glory. He wants to observe

his majesty and be overwhelmed that this good God loved

him enough to bring him home to be with him forever.

That casts out fear. And then he says, I want

to inquire in his temple. I want to converse with

my God. I want to say, God, tell me all

of the beauty that you are and all the things

that you've done. He wants to hear about this God

in his temple and his dwelling place. And so David

keeps the Lord as his stronghold. Look at verse Look

at verse ten. He says, for my father and my

mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

I think he provides this hypothetical maybe situation, or maybe

it's an eventual thing in life. But like he says,

even if my father and my mother abandoned me, the

Lord will be there for me. The Lord is my

strength and my salvation. And I want to point out

something right here, jumping ahead in my notes a tiny bit,

but I think it's poignant. Right here, raise your hand.

If you have relied on your parents many different times

in your life for advice, for counsel, for baby finances, Right, Like,

the refrigerator breaks down and you're like, Dad, how do

I fix it? Right? Your car runs out of gas

and you're like, oh, man, I should have mom, Dad,

didn you bring me a gallon of gas because I

didn't fill up in time? Right? Maybe Dad, they're talking,

Oh yeah, here's another one. You start a new jobs

for us who are younger? What's at W four? And

what do I need to put on it? How many?

How many am I claiming? I have no idea what

this means. I remember my dad teaching me how to

use turbo tax in the first year, you know, like

I think he was in the driver's seat, he was

doing it. I was watching. The next year, I had

no clue how to file my taxes. Right, And so

there's all these times when we say, like I gotta

call my dad or I got to call my mom.

But how many of you in this room don't have

your mom and dad anymore? Where is that stronghold? Now?

I think God has given us those parents, and we

know that they are wise and we know like God

has blessed us with those opportunities, but someday that won't

be there as that stronghold. I think, while they are

here on earth, like God's blessed us with that, But

one day we know that that will no longer be

an option. Right, those of you who have lost the

loved one recently have probably thought how many times have

I thought, Oh, I'm gonna go Oh, man, I can't

call my dad, I can't call my mom anymore? Right,

And so there's this fear that's like, how am I

gonna get through life without calling my parents to figure

out these things? How am I gonna call my mom

to pray with me on the phone because this situation

right now is too much for me to handle. Do

you know what David says, says, the Lord is my stronghold.

I draw nearer to his presence to find a hope

and to get rid of fear. The Lord is the

one who promises that that goodness, he says, seek my face,

Seek my face, and that fear will disappear. The Lord

wants to be your your salvation, wants to be your security,

wants to be your stronghold in this life. The desire

for God's presence arises out of a need. Sometimes that

need is we need to be sure. God says, I'll

make you sure because I love you. Imagine the scenario

that you're so full of seeing and savoring your Savior

that you don't worry about anything else in this world.

You are confident that nothing can separate you from God's love.

Doesn't Paul tell us that In Romans, he says, who

shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation

or distress or persecution. Notice there's lots of fear in

all these or famine or nakedness, or danger or sword,

as it is written, for your sake, we are being

killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep

to be slaughtered. Paul says, No, in all these things,

we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels,

nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation

we be able to separate us from the love of

God in Christ, Jesus our Lord. Isn't that good news? Church?

Nothing can separate you from God's love because Jesus has

paid the penalty for you. And when you trust in Jesus,

you will no longer fear, because he is your salvation.

He is your stronghold, the anchor in life. When everything

seems like it might go wrong, you can say, I

trust in the Lord, whom shall I fear. Since we

live in a sinful world, there will always be pain

and suffering and temptations to fear. But Paul says in

Second Corinthians four, we are afflicted in every way, but

not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but

not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. Always carrying in

the body the death of Jesus so that the life

of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. Paul says,

we carry with us that death of Jesus, so that

the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies.

So we can see that Jesus didn't just dine and

it was over. He rose from the dead and defeated

death on our behalf. So we can remember that Jesus

has power and he wins over those things in life

that bring us fear. We remember that he died to

set us free from sin from fear, So we give

up that fear and instead find our security in the

one who purchased it for us and what Christ has

done for us. And so this morning, if you're here

and you are struggling with that fear in your life

and you don't know how to get rid of it,

you continue in fear, without hope or without peace, or

maybe you're exhausted by trying to figure out how to succeed.

Have you trusted in Jesus? Have you trusted in Jesus

that he casts out fear for those who trust him.

Our sin separates us from God and we could never

do enough to return to him. And God knew that,

so he gave his son to die for us and

set us free from sin and death and fear. Being

far away from God causes us to fear because we

trust in our circumstances and our abilities to make things right.

If that's you this morning, I invite you to give

up trying on your own to create security and safety

and to trust in Jesus. That means confessing that you're

a sinner and you're in need of God's saving grace,

trusting that Jesus took that punishment for you on the cross.

So as I close this morning, I want to invite

you to do that. If you've never placed your trust

and your faith in Jesus, this is going to be

the time to do that. If you're a Christian here

this morning and you're struggling with fear, it's because sin

has crept in and you're tempted to rely on your

own abilities and not on God to protect you and

provide for you. Do that work with him. So I'll

ask our worship team to come up and we will

during this next song here we will worship him. Worship

the God who has provided for us, who casts out

fear when we trust in him. Would you pray with me,

Father God, we see the hope and your word. We

see that we need you when fear comes. And so Father,

we ask now that you would work in our hearts

from your word that like David, we wouldn't fear anyone

or anything, because the Lord is our salvation, our anchor

is firm in Jesus. We thank you for giving that

hope and that peace to us. In Jesus name, we

pray Amen Jesus, pain and all to him.