Let's pray together before I step back.
I'm going to be surrounded by you.
This feels really good.
I feel safe now.
Covered.
This is a refuge.
Thank you, Lord, for the refuge of the
city of God, because our God is our
refuge and strength.
And because of that, we cover one another,
we protect one another, we bless one another.
You promised to edify your church, to build
up your church, to build your church.
And the gates of hell will not prevail
against it.
Thank you, Lord.
We're standing here some 2,000 years after
those words.
Your faithfulness endures, and your mercy endures forever.
Thank you, Lord, in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen, amen.
If you have your Bibles, let's turn to
Psalm 46.
Not, you can read along here, it's a
little different translation.
It looks as though it's been the end
of the world here.
Every time it rains, we get this beautiful
manna, you know, that falls down.
And we're just going to leave it there.
But there we are.
We've got some manna here on the carpeting.
And we've been vacuuming it up this morning.
It's just good stuff falling down out of
heaven, right?
Well, this is number six in our series
on the Psalter, the prayer book of the
Bible.
This is a psalm, Psalm 46.
It's called in the categories of psalms, a
song of Zion.
And it's a communal psalm.
It's a communal prayer.
The city of God is Zion, Jerusalem.
Typologically now in Christ, in the scriptures you'll
see throughout the New Testament, that Zion is
referred to as the heavenly Jerusalem.
We read about it this morning, coming down
out of heaven.
Where heaven and earth shall one day meet.
Thy kingdom come on earth as it is
in heaven.
That's the prayer of Jesus.
We pray it all the time.
And it's happening, I believe, incrementally.
It's incrementally coming down until it touches each
other.
Amen.
And so it's the heavenly Jerusalem above coming
down.
Now, as it were, at the end of
the age, this psalm is talking about perhaps
the end of the age.
To unite with a renewed earth.
You see, the church is God's dwelling place
now.
The church is the temple of God.
The temple was right fixed in Zion.
And it's the dwelling place of God.
The temple of his Holy Spirit.
And so that's the importance of all of
the first person plurals in this psalm.
We, us, our.
And so read this psalm as your own
declaration.
Your own declaration that our God reigns.
Our God reigns over all circumstances in our
lives.
Our God reigns over all circumstances in your
life.
And is the sovereign lord of all history,
the alpha of history and the omega of
history.
The beginning of history and the end of
history.
Verse one inspired.
Anybody know what verse one inspired?
A mighty fortress is our God.
Luther's so clung to this song.
You know, Luther had a hard time.
And he was in hiding much of his
life.
And when he would get under the pile,
as it were, Luther would just say this
code word, the forty six.
You know, oh, it's happening in the end.
It's not Murphy's Law for him.
It's the forty six.
There it is.
The psalm has three sections.
It's called three strokes, if you're thinking poetry.
Last week, we talked about what voice was
speaking through Psalm 35 and we concluded that
it was the voice of Christ as in
Psalm 22.
It's the voice of Christ praying through today.
This is the voice of the church, the
holy city, the same voice who prays our
God is our refuge.
It's a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth
give way, though the mountains are moved into
the heart of the sea, though its waters
roar and foam.
Though the mountains tremble and its swelling, this
is describing perhaps apocalyptic doom.
This psalm is perhaps the end of the
age.
Earth gives way, mountains tremble and all is
swallowed up into the heart.
I like that into the heart of the
sea.
That Hebrew word there for sea is Yam.
And that word is an ancient Semitic word
meaning sea.
It's the name of the Canaanite god of
rivers and sea.
Yam was also the Canaanite deity of the
primordial chaos.
He represented the power of tempestuous sea, untamed
and raging.
And this is how the ancient Hebrews viewed
the sea.
It was a symbol, it was a metaphor
of chaos.
And God is our refuge and strength.
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear.
Fear is a powerful word, isn't it?
Fear is a powerful force.
We could read this today as just another
verse of poetry, or we could connect with
this and wonder, how does fear affect my
life?
How does it rule in my life?
How does it influence my life?
You see, God is our refuge and strength
and we are his refugees, we are his
refugees and we pray and sing.
We will not fear in the midst of
our fear.
We will not fear in the midst of
our fear.
I want to bring this into Paul's understanding
of fear in the New Testament.
First, Timothy one, seven, and he is ascribing
fear not as a mere emotion, but as
an evil spirit, something like Yom to the
ancient Hebrews.
The sea was metaphorical of something dark and
chaotic.
And we will not respond to the emphasis
of what Yom brings upon us, that chaos
wants to overtake us, wants to rule over
us.
It's a principality in power, as it were.
Paul is saying God has not given us
a spirit of fear.
So he goes right through the emotional cause,
the circumstances of our lives, the anxiety that
we may have and we may ascribe to
chemicals in our brains or circumstances in our
lives that cause this great sense of anxiety.
Paul says behind all of that is something
very, very dark and it can be likened
to Yom right into the heart of the
sea.
We will not fear.
He's not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power, of love and a sound
mind.
When we're fearful, when we're anxious, we don't
have that.
We don't have that soundness of mind.
Right.
It's irrational in a sense.
Fear is irrational sometimes.
And it's so powerful, it can overtake us.
Anxiety comes in so many ways.
I just did a quick scan of anxiety
because I've experienced anxiety in my life.
Throughout my life, I've experienced anxiety, depression.
It comes in so many specialized forms.
In America alone, recent statistics report.
That there's six point eight million people who
suffer with general anxiety disorder.
There's six million who suffer with panic disorder.
There's 15 million who suffer with social anxiety
disorders.
There's 19 million who suffer specific phobias.
There's two point two million who suffer with
obsessive compulsive disorders.
And then there's seven point seven million who
suffer with post-traumatic stress disorder.
It says, though, in that article that anxiety
disorders affect one in eight children as well.
This is an enemy.
You see, the spiritual forces behind our fears
are addressed by Jesus, who prescribes He says,
don't be anxious about your life.
This is the Sermon on the Mount, and
so often we just view this as hippie
Jesus in his sandals saying, hey, don't worry
about anything, man, just it's all going to
work out.
Right.
It's not quite hippie Jesus.
It's the one who is speaking prophetically about
what would happen on the cross, spoiling principalities
and powers, breaking the power of the very
spirit of fear, giving you a spirit of
power, love and a sound mind that's in
our inheritance.
And that is within our reach as we
incrementally.
Take the kingdom with violence, the kingdom of
God suffers violence, this is violence, anxiety and
fear, the kingdom of God suffers violence.
And the violent ones take it by force,
this is spiritual violence that we're talking about
now, we've got to get in the game
of spiritual violence because we don't have a
choice.
It comes at us, see the statistics there.
And God is saying, I am your refuge
and strength, a very present help, the words
of Jesus, I will be with you always,
Emmanuel, God with us.
Do not be anxious about your life.
And here's some of the things that cause
anxiety.
Jesus said, what shall we what shall you
eat or what shall you drink?
Red or white, right?
French, Napa, whatever.
Yeah.
Causes great anxiety in our culture.
I used to live in Napa, so I
was a part of that whole thing.
Oh, my God, what winery we're going to
go to today, you know.
Do not be anxious about your life, what
you shall eat or what you shall drink,
nor about your body.
Wow.
Well, we could just go home and chew
on that one.
We are so anxious about our bodies, right,
and the Lord, we said many moons ago,
many sermons ago, the Lord is for the
body.
In fact, he loves it so much after
it dematerializes, he's going to go arise, come
forth.
I love your body so much that we're
all going to be raised to newness of
life in Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the
life.
But it's interesting that Jesus throws that in
about eating and drinking and about your body.
Yeah, he knows what you'll put on your
clothes.
Your heavenly father knows that you need them.
And here's the here's the simple remedy that
Jesus is giving, and there's I mean, this
is so much deeper, but.
Seek first the kingdom, sit down and think
about what am I prioritizing in my thoughts?
You have to order your thoughts, too.
You can't seek first the kingdom if your
thoughts are still given over to anxiety of
many kinds.
This is very difficult to seek first the
kingdom.
And he's saying, put that first.
And his righteousness and all these things will
be yours, they're going to be added to
you.
And so that's that's a trust thing, isn't
it?
I have to do that by faith.
Now, how do we hear that without it
causing more anxiety?
Now, I'm anxious that I'm anxious, I'm not
supposed to be anxious and darn it, I'm
anxious about that now.
This preaching is not doing me any good,
it's just all getting me up in a
knot.
We hear all this challenging stuff from Jesus
and now I'm worried that I can't pull
it off.
Oh, my gosh.
The spirit of fear talking to us right
there.
It's funny because this condition of great fear.
He refers to, oh, you have little faith,
great fear, little faith.
Don't be anxious about anything, great anxiety, little
faith, oh, you have little faith.
And this is coming from the compassionate Lord
who is not meant to give a message
of faith that some kind of disordered faith
message.
This is just right down meat and potatoes
raw.
Can you trust me?
Can you just trust me so that anxiety
dissipates in your life?
I'm not trying to simplify this too much,
so don't hear me that way.
How did David, if you look through the
rest of the Psalms now, we'll just move
on because how did David deal with this?
How did he overcome crippling anxiety?
Psalm 34.
I wrote a song about this a long
time ago and he began Psalm 34 saying,
I will bless the Lord at all times.
At all times.
When the mountains are falling into the sea
and all of that, I will bless the
Lord at all times, his praise shall continually
be in my mouth.
This is a discipline, poet, prophet, king type
of Christ.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make her boast, my soul
shall make her boast in the Lord and
the humble shall hear thereof and be glad.
When we hear this, oh, magnify the Lord
with me.
Can anybody say it with me?
And let us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord and he heard me
and he delivered me from all my fear.
Thank you, God.
He knows how to deal with fear.
And the first thing is not empowering the
anxiety and the fear, but empowering the greatness
and vastness of God.
That's how it starts.
I'm going to bless the Lord at all
time.
I will bless the Lord.
Our will is involved in this endeavor.
I can remember when I came under panic
attacks and I've shared this with you before
and it's going to throw it in really
fast and Psalm three, six, if you if
you're looking at another song, if you're looking
at your Psalter, Psalm three, verse six.
It was in nineteen seventy nine and I
was asked to be the campus worship leader
on our campus and we had a meeting
called Vespers and we celebrated Holy Communion and
it was just amazing.
And then the campus worship leader asked me
the following year, would you lead this?
And I said, sure.
And because I'd been a professional musician, I
was so overly confident.
Right, that, yeah, no problem.
And so the first time I got up
to lead the worship and I I'm not
a fearful person, I'm not insecure about playing
when I'm playing, when I'm practicing, people can't
get me to play now because I'm not
I don't have any calluses, but that's my
excuse.
Amen.
But I stood up to sing and I
opened my mouth and it was a panic
attack came right upon me.
And so that week, you know, I just
I sang like that the whole time that
night.
That's my that's my debut.
Right.
This is the great new worship leader that
I go through the campus like, you know,
going to class and so, you know, so
shamed, you know, and then, you know, it
went on for three Sundays and then all
of a sudden I was really desperate and
I was reading this very, this very Bible
that I bought on that campus in 1979.
I mean, this thing is just like, look
at this.
It's crazy.
But I pulled it out today because it
was on my desk and and I turned
over to that Psalm three and I dated
it.
Vespers, 1979.
Oh, man, you know what you want to
know what it says, it says, I will
not fear the ten thousands drawn up against
me on every side.
That's all I had to read.
And all of a sudden it became large
print Bible and it dissipated the fear.
And I never had another panic attack when
I stepped up to worship.
That is where the word becomes the word.
The living word comes on the scriptures and
it has power to deliver us.
I sought the Lord and he heard me
and he delivered me through all my fears.
That word, that one scripture became a sacramental
connection between me and the Lord where deliverance
happened to me.
I believe it with all my heart.
That's my story, I'm sticking to it so
good.
I just encourage all of you to do
this, to to allow the word to become
the sword of the spirit.
Ephesians six.
Take up the word of God and that
word there is not logos, but it's Ramon.
Take up the rhema of God, the spoken
word, you speak the scripture in faith to
those principalities and powers like fear and anxiety
that come to you.
It's good.
It's really powerful.
Now, I'm not a you know, I'm not
a psychologist or a psychiatrist, so there are
a lot of other reasons for anxiety and
fear and all of these things that I'm
not trying to oversimplify.
Yeah, just get out the scripture.
But it works for me because I didn't
have the kind of stuff that I needed
medication for.
Sometimes we may need medication and work through
this, but supplement it with this as well.
That's what I'm saying.
Don't neglect this along with what's needed to
get you free.
Amen.
I can remember moving here and I battled
for five long years with depression from two
thousand four to two thousand nine.
So severe anxiety.
I got out of the ministry, I was
in ministry for 18 years as a vineyard
pastor in in San Francisco Bay Area.
We moved here, sold our house, bought a
couple of houses down south, and we just
said, you know, we're going to start over
again.
I'm going to get out of ministry.
I'm going to pray.
I'm going to seek the word.
I'm going to see what he has for
me in this new season.
And I knew I was a mess emotionally,
so it's good to remove yourself when you
can see that enough, you know, where someone
else doesn't have to do it, you know,
it's like I volunteer, I volunteer, I'm out.
So I did that and I didn't know
how long it was going to be.
It was five long years.
Of anxiety, depression, darkness, this didn't think I
was going to come out, oh, magnify the
Lord with me, let us exalt his name
together.
I sought the Lord for five years and
he heard me and he delivered me from
all my fears, we're crazy enough to plant
a church.
Amen, it's awesome.
Something jumped off of me and I got
my life back because I felt like giving
up that I didn't give up.
You know, you got to do it afraid,
you got to do it depressed, you got
to do it in whatever shape you're in,
do it.
Don't wait till the depression leaves that you
don't need to do it right.
You got to do it afraid.
You got to serve him afraid, you got
to serve him in fear until it leaves,
because, you know, the spirit of fear doesn't
like that.
He's going to get tired because he's going
to stop getting all the attention.
Right.
C.S. Lewis, right before screw tape letters,
those little things that hop on your shoulder
and start speaking to you.
Spiritual warfare.
I mean, Lewis could see that.
Well, there is a river.
In the midst of all this, the good
news is there is a river whose streams
make glad the city of God.
The holy habitation of the most high, the
thing is, is that Jerusalem doesn't have a
river.
Zion doesn't have a river flowing through it,
so we must be talking about something else.
You know what I think he's talking about?
Out of your innermost being, Jesus said in
John 738, out of your innermost heart is
another translation shall flow rivers of living water.
Whoever believes in me as a scripture has
said out of his heart will flow rivers
of living water.
Now, Jesus said this about the spirit whom
those who believe in were to receive, for
as yet the spirit is not being given
because Jesus had not been glorified.
I just love that this stream is at
once the prime evil river of paradise, the
holy font of baptism and the water of
eternal life.
The Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of
life instead of our lives overtaken by fear,
falling into the heart of Yom, plunging us
into the dark waters of chaos.
Those who trust in God are made an
indestructible new temple, a heavenly indwelling of the
Holy Spirit poured into our hearts, crying, Abba,
Father, the spirit of adoption has come to
deliver us from all of our anxieties.
And he's given us a down payment.
He's given us a foretaste of the Holy
Spirit.
I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, we ain't
tasted nothing yet.
Oh, yes, there is a river whose streams
make glad the city of God, the holy
habitation of the most high.
God is in the midst of her.
She will not be moved.
She's not going to be shaken.
I will build my church and the gates
of hell will not prevail against it.
That means you not the institution.
That means I will build my people.
Build edified support, raise up the joy of
the Lord is our strength.
Amen.
The Lord of Hosts, you know who that
is, you know how to translate that.
The Lord of Hosts is with us.
The God of.
Angel armies.
The God of angel armies, the Lord of
Hosts, all the company of heaven.
To myriad and thousands upon thousands of angels
in Hebrews 1221, it speaks of we've come
to this heavenly Zion.
That's where we're at right now, we're before
the throne of God, getting ready to say
worthy is the lamb who has taken away
the sin of the world.
Amen.
Emmanuel, God with us, has redeemed us and
reconciled us to abide in the very communion
of heaven, both now and unto ages.
We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem.
The communion of the Trinity and all the
company of heaven come, behold, the works of
the Lord, how he is, and this is
what this is the translation I'm going to
do some work on because I just caught
it, but it got me on verse eight
here in the ESV, so I'm going to
have to go back and check this.
Come, behold, the works of the Lord, how
he has brought desolations on the earth.
It doesn't seem to fit there with what
comes after that.
And verse eight in our Coverdale translation this
morning, which just goes way back, the Lord
of Hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Come, verse nine, I'm sorry, and look upon
the works of the Lord.
What awesome things he has done on earth,
not desolations.
And so I'm going to take that to
the bank, I'm going to have to check
that.
So work with me, Bill, on that.
OK, a scholar out there so you can
help me with this.
But this song is not talking about, you
know, desolations on the earth other than the
transformation of the old heavens and earth being
transformed into the new heavens and the earth.
And he he's going to break every mode
of violence, he's going to break the bow,
he's going to shatter the spear, he's going
to burn the chariots.
God is not a God of violence.
The cross is the nonviolent act of a
holy savior offering himself for the sins of
the whole world.
Who does the violence?
We do the violence to him.
It's not God the father doing the violence
to him, we crucified him and he calls
us to a different way.
In a nutshell, it's be still.
In the midst of all this, be still.
No translation to see striving the literal in
the Hebrew is put your hands down like
that.
We can't cause the Lord to be exalted
throughout the earth, we can ourselves exalt him,
but put your hands down, be still in
the midst of earthquakes and tsunamis and urban
violence and discouragements and anxieties and feel that
I am God.
Brothers and sisters, we've got to know something.
We got to know him and we check
in with our feelings without knowing who God
is.
And we that's the way it feels.
That's the way God is.
Our feelings do not inform us about who
God is.
Be still and know.
It's good to feel, you know, I'm a
feeling being, but I have to check my
feelings at the cross and exchange that for
truth because my feelings lie to me all
the time.
Sometimes they tell me the truth.
So we walk in discernment with our feelings,
be still, and when you get still, you'll
start hearing the lies come.
That's why we don't like silence and solitude,
because we can't get the monkey mind.
Under control, right, that little thing up there
is just running thought stream of consciousness.
I just get my pen and paper out
and just write those things down until there's
nothing good to write, because some of those
things are good, like, oh, I forgot to
do this, forgot to do that in prayer.
You know, you get these amazing insights when
you try to be still.
Then put that phone away, man, because no,
no, no, don't don't use your phone.
Don't use the scriptures on your phone when
you're trying to be still.
Right.
Because it's just that's an addiction we'll talk
about later.
Right.
But it's just like, oh, gosh, I'm just
so pulled to that phone.
Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in the earth.
Put your hands down and realize I am
and I will.
I am God.
I mean, I am not God.
And all the striving is us trying to
be God.
Be still and know that I am God.
And Michael, you are not God.
We don't get that.
We'll go crazy trying to be God.
That's big.
That's a big job description.
I just want to be God.
You'll give me the desires of my heart.
I want to be God.
Ridiculous.
I know.
The Lord of Hosts is with us.
That word in Hebrew, Emmanuel, with us.
Emmanuel, what does that sound like?
Emmanuel, who needs to be with us?
El, God in Hebrew, Emmanuel, El, who's he
talking about?
Jesus, I will always be with you.
Emmanuel, God with us, the God of Jacob
is our fortress.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let
us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord and he heard me
and delivered me from all.