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The scripture reading for this morning is taken from Psalms 3. Would everyone please stand while I read this passage?
Lord, how many are my foes? How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me, God will not deliver him. But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the one who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep. I wake again because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side. Arise Lord, deliver me my God. Strike all my enemies on the jaw. Break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. This is the word of God.
Good morning everyone. Okay, the screen is not working today. So I'll have to look one or to the other. Okay, first um today, oh no, next week. Next week we're looking at praying his beauty and we have a brother William to preach praying our doubts part one Dr. Peter praying our doubts part two Dr. Peter the week after that. All right. So we shall begin. We have a lot to cover today. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our father, we come before you acknowledging that we are a people with many fears, doubts, and anxieties. And sometimes, our father, we don't know what to do with them. It's like a cloud over our heads. And yet, Father, we know that you have written much in your word to teach us how we should process that before you. Father, we just ask now for your spirit to be our guide. Speak to us, we pray and ask that you will teach us how to bring our fears and anxieties to you and to trust you with them. We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay. Good morning once again. Good. Okay. Good. All right. Um I'll just start straight away. Right. I'll look at the time start at 9:20. Let's see. Um I'm just calculating. So 10:05 is the last. Now, um there are times in my life that I have trouble falling asleep. Last night was one of them. Um whenever you prepare a message, you will always have that. Um no matter how many times you do it. And I think it's the same for a lot of us. There are many different times in life that you have had sleepless nights. At least you have had it before. It's it's not something that's unfamiliar to to us, right? And it can be for various reasons. For me, one of the reasons is because of my family, right? I'm worried about their health, worried whether my grandmother's going to be alive tomorrow. Worried whether my parents, you know, whether there any ailments are going to hit them or my wife, you know, etc. So, you you tend to worry about people who are closest to you, your loved ones, friends. When I was a student, I worried about exams all the time. And then I say once I'm done with university, you know, that's it. That's the last of my worries and I'll never have to worry again. and it just morphs and transforms to another one. I worry I lose my job. I worry I can't find a new job if I lose my job. What happens if I can't find a job? Because, you know, AI is coming over and it's taking all away all our jobs. There's all sorts of things that we worry about. And it's not just with jobs, it's also with retirement. Okay? So, I work so hard only to see my money disappear because of inflation. And then you'll be worrying about what am I going to invest my money in so that I can, you know, at least one day not ever have to work again, you know, and that's what you think and worry about. And for me, I I worry about oversleeping sometimes, especially on a Sunday morning because this is my greatest nightmare.
No name provided. Uh but uh imagine if I receive this text in the morning. We have fears. We have anxieties. All sorts of them. And that keeps us up awake at night. All right. And today we are going to read Psalm three. And Psalm 3 tells us a lot about how God wants us to process our fears and our anxieties before him. And King David was the author of this psalm. And he knows what it's like to be afraid. It wasn't written in a moment of peace while he was you know in you know in a a great time where there is calm and repose. No such thing. He was writing this while he was running away. Literally running for his life. And we'll see why. His own son Absel had betrayed him. His kingdom was collapsing and his people were turning on him. So what does he do? He prays his fear. And we'll see this in Psalm 3 when we read it again. But first, how did David get here? David was someone who was God's chosen, God's elect king, and then suddenly now he's on the run for his life. So, let's go through a quick recap of David's life. And it's in 2 Samuel 11:15 uh to chapter 11 to chapter 15. We're not going to read the whole thing. I'm just going to run it through your minds for those who are not familiar. At least you have the context, at least the backdrop. So, King David was God's very special king. He was one of the best kings of Israel. And in fact, he was called by God as or or you can say described by God as a man after God's own heart. There was no other king that was described like David. David was special and yet he was a colossal sinner. He was colossal failure at the same time. God has given him peace in all his kingdom, you know, and and sometimes when you have good times, you get a little itchy, right? So what happens? We first talk about David's sin, his downfall. where this all start and it starts with a woman called Basheba. So in and at this time you know David has you know people outside going out of his kingdom but yet he stays in this palace and then suddenly there is a woman that was bathing across the street as it were on her rooftop and David can see her bathing. Now now you ask me why is a woman bathing on the on the housetop? I also don't know. All right, she shouldn't be doing that. I hope none of us do that here. uh I think you will be in the news very soon. Okay. So the news reached David. David liked what he saw and as king he says call her you know summon her to come to me you know and then he had uh an affair with her. He slept with her and the issue came about when you know you think that's not bad enough you know you know drama Minguini you know it gets worse you know it's like Korean drama you know this one this one is really really you know Jewish drama okay I can put it that way but she got shea got pregnant right she she comes to the king and says I am with child you know and then you know king was like oh no what am I supposed to do now you know uh this wasn't supposed to be made known to the public now David was also a man. He was king, but he had his weaknesses. He had his sins, right? And in this particular scenario, David decided, I'm not going to admit to it. I'm I'm just going to try to cover it up. You know, I'm going to get her husband to go and, you know, try to to sleep with her so that he can mask, you know, that someone else has slept with the wife. So, he asked the the husband come back. The husband's name is Uriah. And he came back all the way from the wall at the front, you know, and then he says, you know, go and see your wife. and says, "No, how can I do such a thing when my fellow soldiers are fighting out on on the front lines? I I I can do no such thing, you know, and then he would not go even to his house, you know." So David decides, I'm I just must get rid of him, all right? You know, otherwise it's going to be a problem, you know, and and I'm just going to marry Bethsheba after that. So he plots a way to to murder Uriah, who is Bashibba's husband. And in an ironic twist, he writes a letter and gives it to Uriah and sends him forward to Joab, who is his general. And in the letter, it says there, "Put Uriah on the front line. Make sure he's in the hottest part of the battle. Make sure he dies." This is just what David said. You know, you read that in in 2 Samuel. And and lo and behold, of course, you know, if you are in the front line, you know, you would you would be taking all the arrows and and be hit, right? And so Uriah dies in battle and and David thinks all is well you know okay you know everything has settled now but he comes along this um prophet called Nathan and this thing greatly displeased the Lord of course because he not just committed adultery now he's also guilty of murder and he's hidden no one no one seems to know about it right you know you know what God says he says I'm very displeased I'm I'm very sorry soly angry at this and he sends Nathan Nathan says tells him a parable and accuses him and say, "You are the man." And then David realizes what he did was really wrong before God. And that's where, you know, you read on Psalm 51, you know, how, you know, against you and against you only have I sin. He he realized he sinned against God. Why he didn't realize, I'm not sure, but he he came to at least really understand what the problem was. And he admitted that he sinned. But as with all sins, right, there are consequences. David was forgiven. God says, "I forgive you." All right. I have put away your sin, but there will still be consequences. The child that Beth Sheba bears will die. And the sword will not depart from your house. The sword that was brought upon Uriah, he says it will not depart from your house. He's going to be the start of many of David's problems. So, there are consequences in life. Sometimes when we do something wrong, there are legal consequences. Sometimes we say the wrong things to our close loved ones and we have familiar problems. There are familiar consequences and in this case there were truly relational consequences with David's family. Now that brings us to this dysfunctional family in part two. David had many wives and he had many children. All right? And one of the sons names was Amnon. That's the one on the left. And then on the right you have two children from another wife called Abselom and Tama. Now Abselom is a son. Tama is a daughter. Now Tama was known to be someone very very beautiful. All right. How beautiful? I don't know. She's beautiful. Okay. Um and Amnon the half brother was so infatuated and lusted after his halfsister Tama. All right. God seems to use the things that happened in David's life to reflect upon him. He sees her. And to cut the long story short, Amnon tried to seduce Tama, couldn't and instead he just rapes her anyway. It's a tragic turn of events and she became a woman who of course was traumatized. She was desolate. She was destitute and Abselum took care of her. So David was furious and but but he did nothing about it because he was in a position where he couldn't judge such a problem. He already committed sexual immorality in the chapter before and and the chapter after you know now this happens in his family. So instead Abselum decides to take things into his own hands because he's so so angry at Amnon and he just decides to avenge his sister and he actually kills his half brother Amnon. He murders him. So you can see right the two sins that David had. Number one was sexual immorality and murder. Same thing is happening in his family right now right in front of his eyes. And Abselum then of course runs away right. I mean you know he killed his own half brother. He's worried and he comes back eventually but there was no reconcilation between him and his father. So Abselum was described as a very handsome man, very charming. You know apparently this particular wife must be very good-looking because both the children are also very good-looking. Okay. I don't know. Maybe that's genetics. I I think he was described as having long hair, you know, very quintessential macho gigach, you know, you can say. Okay. Anyway, Abselum steals the hearts of the people. You know, he actually goes out. He's the consumer politician. Goes around telling people, you know what, my father can't judge. I tell you, I'll be the judge. I will make sure that you have justice in your life. And everyone starts to follow. After epsilon internally, there is a coup. Within four years, David was losing power. Instead, Absol saying, "I'm going to be king now." He declares himself king in Hebron. And it was a coup against David. And David realizes that if he doesn't run away now from Jerusalem, he's going to die because his son is going to kill him. And he's bringing armies, you know, he has already political military influence and he's coming after King David. So, David ran. David decided to run. And we are told about many things that happened during David's running away. Now, David was at a point now where he had lifethreatening, family disintegrating and career shattering issues. He had real fears. People were really after his life. He was not just going to lose his life. He was going to of course if he survives lose his family and lose his power as king. Very real problems and it is against this backdrop that Psalm 3 was written. A psalm of David when he fled from Abselum his son. Now that is there inspired word of God in the Hebrew as well is just sometimes offset by one verse in the Hebrew scriptures but it is there. It is the inspired word of God when he fled from his son Abselum. And he writes this, "Oh Lord, how many are my foes? How many how many are my enemies? Many are rising against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But you, oh Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head." I cried aloud to the Lord and he answered me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept. I woke again for the Lord sustain me. talking about sleep. This is really David on the run for his life. He can sleep and then wake up again. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, oh Lord, save me, oh my God, for you strike all my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be on your people. That's the word of God. So fear can really point us two ways. towards or away from God. And Psalm 3 tells us that it doesn't have to drive us away from God. It can drive us towards him. It teaches us how to pray honestly when we are fearful. Turn our panic into peace and for our trembling into trust. There are two ways we can respond with our fear. So, I'm going to ask you the same question this time, but I'm I'm not going to answer. I want you to think about your fears and your anxieties. All right? They may not be life-threatening. Some might. All right? Um but most of them aren't. Have you ever laid awake at night staring at the ceiling, you know, seeing the fan go round and round and round, too despondent, too anxious, too fearful to sleep? Maybe it's because you said something funny at a party and, you know, everyone was laughing at your expense and you just can't get out of your mind. You say, "Oh, no, they're still thinking about this. Even 20 years later, you know, they're still laughing at me." Maybe or maybe you are afraid you know that you know you're just a new parent and it says you know I wonder if my kid will ever turn out all right whether you know in this world full of sin you know full of wickedness and evil will will my child be okay or or maybe she your your child is already of age and and there's nothing you can do about it and and they seem to be going wayward. What if you know you can't sleep because again you have job worries you know is it enough that I'm making what if inflation is eating into my food until I can't eat anymore what will will I have enough for tomorrow you know not just you know you know for for simple necessities in life even for my own food will the terrorists affect you know what our prices are in our food you know not just food about things that I buy you know if I want to buy that car now I can't buy anymore the house is also going up in price properties are going up everywhere No matter where I turn, interest rates at least going down now, but you know, overseas interest rates are higher. And what happens if stocks goes down? You know, what happens if they cut the the Fed rates again? You know, with all that's going on in the US, you know, what about, you know, the Federal Reserve, what is Jerome Power going to do? You know, what if, you know, I look at my retirement accounts and it goes to zero, you know, all the stock starts burning and all that. Have you ever stayed awake up at night and just look and see your dream shatter right in front of you? Sometimes we feel that our dreams are just there. What happened? You know, five years ago, I never thought that this would happen. Five months ago, I didn't even imagine I would be here. I thought I wouldn't be single when I grow up. I thought I would already be have someone by now. I thought I'll be married happily. And even if I'm married now, maybe why is it that I don't have children yet? Why is it that, you know, I'm barren? How is it that I, you know, and then you lay awake thinking, how, you know, am I going to get past this? You what if I never ever have a child? where I don't have a legacy in my life. Or you're waiting for that biopsy report from the doctor, you know, telling you whether your health is okay or not. Or maybe perhaps it's an ailing father that you have or a sick sister or maybe you're worried and know you're awake at night because you're worried someone might come in to rob your house or even if just say your husband's away. You know what what's happening? You know what? So many different things that you can be worried and anxious about. There's no end to that list. You can always say, "Why am I so anxious? Why am I so depressed? Will I ever be happy again? And sometimes these thoughts will just go round and round and just keep you up at night. And as a Christian, you're doubly guilty now. I feel guilty because as a Christian, I shouldn't be fearful. I should be fearless. Didn't Doesn't the Bible say that, you know, we should be a fearless people? You know, why is it that I'm so fearful now? I seem to not just betraying my own thoughts and emotions. I'm betraying my own God, too. So, Psalm 3 tells us what we can do about it. Four things we can do about it. The first one is pray our fears. Remember who God is. Stop listening. Start preaching. And trust God for his blessing. Four things that Psalm three will tell us how to do. Pray our fears. Remember who God is. Start listening. Stop uh stops listening. Start preaching and trust God for his blessing. So first one, how do we pray our fears? Let's see you in the text. Now before we jump to the text, I'm going to ask you to think of um and imagine yourself in this situation. All right, you're going for a very special dinner. All right, say I've saved enough money, you know, in this inflationary environment, cost adjusted basis, you know, I can actually go for a really nice dinner to celebrate my birthday. All right, so I decided to bring my family along. All right. And then I you know we take them to a very nice place and it's expensive you know has a great view you know I expect it to be a perfect evening you know and I decide to call you know the the most expensive thing but you know I've saved so long for it you know one month's worth of my salary and then I call this lobster wow you know I can't wait to enjoy this lobster of mine and I expect it to be really delicious and nice you know and I already you know dug into it tasted really good you know it's so savory so juicy so full of flavor and then suddenly After that, I lift up and I spy something right at the edge over there. I see a cockroach. I censored it because some of our viewers here may be a little, you know, um, viewer discretion advice. Okay. So, I'm going to ask you, what would you do in this situation? All right. You don't have to tell me your answer, but how would you respond? I'll bring you back to your SPM. Now, MCU question with ABCD. What are you going to do? All right. A don't complain and pretend there's no cockroach. The cockroach is not there. B complain to your friends about the food or your family is there. You know this uh food not coach you know actually really bad. You know it's such a lousy restaurant blah blah blah. Or complain to the restaurant owner about the food. Say hey you know your food you know got cockroach in there. Or you're going to complain to your friends about the restaurant owner. This restaurant owner I don't know how to run a restaurant. Okay. Thing what are you going to answer? All right. C. Okay. Thank you, Mary. Okay. C. All right. Very important. Okay. Why? Because how you responds uh how you respond reflects how you actually respond to real problems in life. When life gives you a cockroach, are you not going to complain and pretend there's nothing wrong? Or you going to complain to your family and friends about your fear? Maybe your church elders as well. Or you going to complain to God about your fear? Or you going to complain to your family and friends about God and say, "God has done nothing here. He gave me a cockroach in my life, right? We we can possibly do that." And of course, you know, you know the right answer is C. Right? You know, but but how come we can't seem to do that? Now, it is blasphemy to complain about God, but it is faith and trust to complain to God. I repeat, it is blasphemy to complain about God, but it is faith and trust to complain to God. Most of the time we will always try to target our prayers at our friends and our family, you know, and tell them about our problems. Do we tell God about our problems? That's the target of our prayer. And God is actually very upset when we don't put our trust in him. And in fact, he writes about this about Israel because Israel was a rebellious people. And he says about them, "Woe to the rebellious children, Israel, who take counsel." You're looking for counsel. You're looking for advice. You're looking for people to give you instruction, but not of me. They devised plans, but not of my spirit. They have not asked my advice. Instead, where did their trust lean on? Their trust was in the strength of Pharaoh. Their trust was in the shadow of Egypt. They would rather trust Egypt than to trust their God. And God was of course upset. It's misplaced trust. You shouldn't be placing your trust in these things. God saying trust me. Now you'll be questioning and saying you know means I don't need to buy insurance policy. You know I don't need to go see doctor. No God uses secondary means. He does. He uses doctors uses efforts wisdom and insurance policies. But w to us if we lean on these things the way that the children of Israel lean on Egypt. They're not trusting in God. They are trusting in these things instead. And sometimes these things can fail if you trust God. Sometimes God can bring about other ways and means to work. Now we learn about God's grace in that chapter further down. Isaiah chapter 30:18. The Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you. Occasionally, you know, it's like a child. You know, sometimes, you know, you try to help a child, you know, hey, you know, you need help with this. No, no, no, no. I don't want I'm not going to listen. I'm going to I'm just going not going to listen at all. And then, you know, but but suddenly, you know, real trouble befalls and you're just and you know, he or she comes to you in tears, you know, despondent, crying, you know, mommy, daddy, you know, would you please help me? And of course you will, of course you will, right? You're waiting for that conversation. And and God, he's likewise also waiting for the same conversation. That's why therefore the Lord will wait so that he may be gracious to you that you can learn to trust him. Now we learn about the target of prayer. Let's learn about the topic of prayer. What do we pray about? What did David pray about? He is very simple and you look at the text how many are my foes my enemies there are so many they're all rising against me you know many are saying oh my soul there is no salvation for him in God you realize there are two things here number one he's talking about life-threatening circumstances about the foes that are willing to take his life there's his fear as he were made there many saying of my soul he's actually anxious about his identity there was a threat to his life to his identity for who he is he has no solution to this by the way At least he suggests to God to go and try to destroy them, but that's all he can do. And he just prays that that's it. He brings it to the Lord as is. You know, sometimes you write in your your agreements, you know, as is basis or, you know, lock, stock, and barrel. You know, so lock, stock, and barrel, you know, just give everything to God. He was praying his fears, everything that he was afraid about. What about the tone of prayer? Now, this one's quite interesting, right? Not just target, not just the topic, but tone, right? You strike all my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. Like, oh, that doesn't sound very Christian. Like, I want to make sure my, you know, this neighbor of mine, he, you know, did this to me. I make sure, you know, this happens to him or David sounds very revengeful, right? It sounds, wow, you know, it's makes me uncomfortable. But the psalms are a raw expression of human emotion and you realize that God doesn't tell us to suppress our emotions. Emotions are hot in the psalms. They are raw. They are intense, you know, and make us uncomfortable. So sometimes you say there are many approaches to our emotions. Now let's talk about the psalms. Let's talk about how the world sees this. Right? Sometimes you say we have a stoic approach to emotions. No, keep a stiff upper lip. You know, never mind. Just pretend that you don't have emotions. Just deny them. You know, as a strong man or strong woman, you know, you shouldn't have these kind of emotions. you shouldn't be sad, you shouldn't be depressed, you know, you shouldn't be worried, you shouldn't be anxious, you shouldn't be fearful, you know, just pretend they're not there. That of course doesn't work. But there's another approach. The secular approach to emotions will be what we call CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy. I think some of you might have heard this before. God before psychology is his favorite topic. Okay. So, cognitive behavioral therapy says that all our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are all linked. You know what we think affects how we feel and act. How what we do affects how we think and feel and what we feel affects how we think and act. So just change what you think. So just think happy thoughts you know just happy thoughts. It's okay. You know I'm going through a tough time. Just happy thoughts. Now the problem is this with this approach. If I'm a photographer and I decide to go to you know Africa and this happens right and you just say never mind you know I have a problem. I have a big problem. You know I'm very fearful. remember happy thoughts you know just think happy thoughts it's okay happy thoughts I don't think that will end well right yeah that's the problem with you know just thinking happy thoughts you know you're just you know ignore ignoring it all together approach is the mindfulness approach to express your emotions you know just accept it all just make sure you live it out experience it fully you know express your emotions you know towards others you know vent it if you can you just express it fully as and is how it is. All right. The problem with this approach is if I'm really really angry, really really angry at someone, you know, this person did this to me, you know, in school, you know, he stole my burger, you know, and all that, and then you decide, you know, I' I'm going to take things in my own hands and that's how you get to go on the news, right? So, these approaches don't actually work. One is one is to suppress your emotion, one is to try to change your emotion and one is try to just express your emotion. All of these don't actually work properly. The Psalms approaches our emotions a little differently. Right? The Psalms doesn't say that we should be under aware or overwhelmed by our emotions. We shouldn't be stuffing our emotions, neither bowing down to them or denying them or venting them. We should be praying them. We should express to God not with a gun but to God what we feel. So our fear may be like a storm in life that is really pushing us in many different directions. But our prayer is like an anchor to God to hold us so that we do not drift. So that's the first one. We have to pray our fears. Now the second is that we have to remember who God is. Very important to remember who God is. And this is one of the best parts of this psalm. Verse three, the most important. Remember who God is. But you, oh Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lift of my head. Now, the most important thing whenever you have a problem in your life, that one word that starts in verse three, Psalm 3:3, but all right, we can always use this for the worst. But the Bible tells us to use it for the better, right? But you, oh Lord. So he says, "I'm going to bring you into my problems. It sounds very unfair if I try to bring my wife into my problems, right? You know is that's your problem. Why are you bringing me in?" But God wants to be in your problem. Okay? Because there's something he can do about it. So but you, oh Lord, are a shield about me. There are three things that describe God here. He's a shield about me. He is my glory and he is the lifter of my head. Three things that we're going to consider in this part of remembering who God is. So number one, a shield about me. This is what it looks like. The Lord a shield about me. Now, we always think that a shield is a bit like the one on the left, right? You know, you hold, you know, that sort of shield on your hand, you know, and you only protect a certain part. No, the the the word used is a shield about me, around me. So, it's it's not just, you know, one protecting one portion, it's every portion. Now, it's it's hard to imagine, but those were the days where you can move forward with this shield. You can't really do very much of it, but you can tank the arrows as it were. You can take the arrows that are coming towards you. And when you in ancient warfare, the the shield provides protection, but it doesn't take you out of the battle. It doesn't remove you from the battle. David is not saying God prevents all dangers. He's not saying that God is with me in the midst of the danger, in the middle of it, in the thick of it all. So, it doesn't mean that there are no arrows. It just means that no arrows will destroy you. Now, I'm going to ask, who knows what this ship's name is? W so fast already. Uncle the Enterprise. Are you Are you a Star Trek fan? Nice. You like Star Trek? Is it John? Jong Go. Okay, I'm going to ask who likes Star Trek. Only one. Wait. Whoa. Let me try again. One, two, three. Okay. A few more. Oh dear. I hope you all know what Star Trek is because this explanation relies on the understanding. Okay. In at least at least this is in the um quite I think 1970s, right? when it first started. You still have your modern day Star Trek, but those were the days you had this guy. Okay, maybe some people might know him. No, William Shatner. Wow. Okay, Anna really likes Star Trek. Okay, never mind. At least if no one else gets it, he will get it. Okay, so William Shanner, he's he's 93 now. Okay, it just reveals the age. Anyway, he you know, in those days, right, he's in the ship, right, in USS Enterprise, right? in Star Trek, you know, when they feel there's a threat coming, you know, the Captain Kirk will say, you know, um, raise deflector shields and then suddenly it goes and then after that, there's this shield right around the USS Enterprise, you know, there's a shield, you know, that deflects all incoming, you know, energy beams and rays, you know, pow, you know, and and and they're protected. And and this is the idea behind a shield around or about me. That's the idea behind it. All right. The shield that God has doesn't cover only certain parts. It's everywhere around you. But that begs certain questions and and we'll see what that means. Sometimes God shields us from the from trouble. He prevents it from happening. That's the one we we love the most. I don't need to go through the trouble or God shields me from it. But sometimes God shields us in trouble. All right? So in the midst of it all, you know, God is still protecting us along the way. The most difficult one to understand is how God shields us through trouble. How does God use the trouble, the suffering that we have to shield us? Now, that is the most tough one. How is it that if I have cancer, God is shielding me? How does that make sense? So, let me tell you a story about Joseph. I think we all know about Joseph, right? you know he went from the pit you know his brothers betrayed him and then he went to slavery and from slavery after he went to work in Portifer's house and then he was you know um the pivot's wife made advances on him and he says no and then he was a false accusation he went to prison and eventually he went to the palace became the second most powerful in command you know and he actually was there to you know tell the king you know there's a famine coming you know save all this grain etc etc and in Genesis 50:20 he makes a very astounding statement. He tells his brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me." You meant evil. But God meant it for good. God meant it for good. Part of God's shielding is through our suffering. So if Joseph never went through all of that suffering, none of those people will actually survive the famine. None of his family will. But God meant it for good. God's shield wasn't the absence of trials, but his presence in them. That's the difference. So, Romans chapter 8, I think we all know this verse very well. At the risk of oversimplifying it and misquing, all things work together for good for those who love God. So, when we suffer, God is not absent. He is at work. He's shielding. He's shaping and shifting things for our good. So, trust the process. And the pain sometimes has a purpose. God's shield isn't always visible, but we know that it's always there. And if you have trouble trying to understand this, look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the Lord Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. He didn't remove the suffering of the cross. But it is through that suffering that God brought salvation. God gave us a shield through the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was that that was our shield. He's not just a shield. He's also our glory. Now, what does that mean? Right? What does it mean? David is calling out for help because God is his bo, his honor, his reward, his pride, his glory. So we don't only pray to God for our fears and deliverance from it. We we remember and we believe that he is our boast, our glory. Do we ever boast about God? We most of the time we boast of our children, grandchildren, things we do, sports teams, you know, Arsenal versus Liverpool and our favorite food and all that. But do we ever boast about God? Do we ever find our glory in him? Right? Why would David say you are my glory unless something else was his glory? I'm scared. But now you are my glory. You know, there's something else I found my glory in. But no, no, no. I'm not going to look at that anymore. I'm going to look to you for my glory. Something else must have been. Maybe it's because I'm a popular king, you know. But is he now? Maybe I'm a good father, but but is he now? His own son is trying to kill him, right? Maybe I have this great moral record. Not really anymore. I have the power as king. No, not really anymore. He was maybe finding his glory and locating his glory in all these things. Moral record, families, love, approval of people, etc. So the word glory really means weight, significance, security. So if I find my weight, my significance, my security in any of these things, that will make me be someone who is very vulnerable to circumstances. Why? I'm going so so David says I'm going to relocate my glory because those things they don't exist for me anymore. Right? I'm going to relocate it. It's not the approval that I'm seeking for. It's yours. It's not you. It's not them that I'm serving. It's you that I'm serving. It's not their love that I want now. I want your love. So, he re channels his glory as it were to God. And what about us? Sometimes, you know, yes, it's good to be talented. It's nice to have a spouse. You know, it's nice to have children. But if you're obsessed with them and you find your glory in them, remember these things are finite. Finite things are vulnerable to circumstances. Things that are within this realm of time and space, they are vulnerable to circumstances. They can change. So you will always live in fear. And God says, if you locate your glory to me, relocate it to me because I am infinite. I'm not finite. I don't live in time and space. I live beyond time and space. It's an anchor that is beyond this world. If you say God is your treasure and your great reward, you will be able to anchor yourself through those circumstances. Now, God is a lifter of our heads as well. Now, when we say lift of our head, not the kind where, you know, you're trying to remove your head from your shoulders like what Abselon was trying to do with with David. In this case, God says, "I'm going to approve you. I look on you with favor. I look upon you with approval, with acceptance." So do you believe that if we are in Christ, God is for us and he will lift our heads as it were when he is drooping down. So if God before us, who can be against us? Romans chapter 8 verse 31. Now those are the two first two. We have two more and they are shorter ones. All right? And we're going to end soon. Stop listening, start preaching. Like this is the most controversial one. You'll be thinking, what do you mean by stop listening, start preaching? you know should I come up to the stage next and be you know here next Sunday you know instead actually no it's stop listening to ourselves and start preaching to ourselves now what does this mean it's tough to understand but you'll see in a second so how do you preach to yourself but not listen to yourself instead of listening to all the voices internal voices telling you about your fears now preach to yourself about God and his promises remember how David did it you oh Lord are what? My shield, my glory, the lifter of my head. So when you're lying awake at night, you know, tossing and turning something full of fears and doubts and anxieties, you start hearing things. What kind of things do you hear? You start to hear things like maybe tomorrow will be worse than I can possibly imagine. You know, nothing will ever get better. I will I'll never be happy again. You know, there is no hope in this situation. You know, gone kiss. I really don't know what to do anymore. God maybe maybe he's against me. Maybe he's playing with me. Maybe he's toying with me. You know, I don't think God really loves me. I think he wants me to be miserable. I think he wants me to be sad. These are the thoughts that you will listen to. Right? So that's why we hear when you listen to yourself. So you have to stop listening. Start preaching to yourself. What do you mean by start preaching? You're not telling yourself about the internal thoughts. You're telling yourself about things which are true about God. And the Psalms are full of this. David says, "Rejoice, oh my soul. Take refuge, oh my soul." You know, "Sing, oh my soul." We sang this morning, "Praise the Lord or bless the Lord, oh my soul." He preaches to himself over and over again. So if he listen to himself, he says, "Yes, God will not deliver you." But if he preached to himself, he says, "The Lord is my shield. He is my glory and he's the lifter of my head." A lot of times our anxieties are about tomorrow. Matthew chapter 6:34. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow. This is how you're going to preach to yourself. All right. This is a trial as it were. For tomorrow will worry about his own things. Sufficient for the day is his own trouble. This is another way to read it. Live one day at a time. Don't worry about tomorrow because God will take care of your tomorrow. You realize what anxieties are. Anxieties is really about living out the future before it gets here. You know, you're living out the future before it's here. We borrow tomorrow's troubles. Can I make it through Monday? Can I make to next week? What about next month? What if this happens? What if that doesn't happen? You ask these questions over and over again. And you realize this. You shouldn't be doing that because you're living on something for tomorrow. The Lord says you may have troubles tomorrow, but you know what? You'll find tomorrow new mercies. Why are you living on Thursday's mercies? Don't live out Thursday's troubles when you haven't gotten to Thursday's mercies. Don't live out all the things that could happen in 2026 when we are here on 28th of September 2025. Why are we thinking about next year so much? Not to say we can't plan, but why are we worrying about that? Sufficient for the day are today's troubles and tomorrow whatever happens new mercies. Preach to yourself. Then you can be like David. You can lie down and you can sleep like David did and not be afraid because the Lord sustained me. Now that brings us to our fourth point which to me I think is one of the most important. Trust God for his blessing. Do all the three above and then trust. All right. Pray your fear. Remember who he is. Start preaching to yourself and then trust. How do you trust God for his blessing? Right. Verse eight says, "Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be on your people." He's trusting that God's blessing is going to be on him. We've talked a lot about all of the above which says, "Well, that sounds great, but you know, but all this stuff about trusting in Lord, you know, about calling out to his deliverance is great, but don't you realize he doesn't always deliver?" Sometimes God doesn't deliver. That friend of mine, you know, was a Christian, prays all the time, you know, had cancer and now she's gone. How come God doesn't always deliver? You know, this doesn't seem to add up. Some people go to sleep at night and then they don't wake up. You know, doesn't that happen? Enemies do triumph, right? Why, you know, God may not be actually shielding us as he promised. What God does not promise, he does not promise that if we just believe hard enough, pray long enough that our lives will be free from suffering. Actually, it's the opposite. If you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior if you follow him, you're going to take up a cross and that is suffering. Let's look at what God does promise. He what he promises is this is that he will protect us infallibly from the worst kinds of harm. Eternal harm, separation from his love, care and compassion. And I like this particular passage because you come to see how contradictory it is. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. And some of you they will put to death. Luke chapter 21. You will be hated for all by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. You will die but a hair of yours will not perish. A hair will not fall down without me knowing. What does it mean? He's not promising you enemies, you won't have suffering. But God is promising one thing that absolutely nothing will befall you that is outside my will. He's promising that nothing will befall you that is outside my loving care for you down to the very hairs of your head. God protects every hair though we lose our heads. Now for those of us who are bald or balding, um I'm sure God has accounted for those hairs. So don't be afraid, okay? Don't need to fear. But but but what does it really mean? If we were to suffer or die physically, which is the worst thing that could possibly happen in any of our scenarios, in our heads on our fears and anxieties, the worst that could happen is I die. Right. Right. Death, yes, you know, is bad. Right. But if we die or suffer physically, we are eternally secure in God's hands. Not a hair is going to perish one day. Our life, our true life, which is our soul, is safe. And God is saying that he will vindicate his people even in death. They will not ultimately perish. It's a beautiful hope we have as Christians. At this moment in time, we may not understand what we're going through, but God says that he has a purpose. So trust the Lord for his deliverance means we trust the Lord for his blessing. Not a hair of your head will perish is not about avoiding physical harm or suffering but about God's total sovereignty and care even through suffering or death. So it is a call to trust to endure to remain faithful knowing that our eternal destiny is secure. That's where we find our glory isn't it? So I'm going to ask how do we know that we can trust God in our circumstances? How do we know? Before we sing our final song, I want you to talk about Donald Gray Barnhouse. And this is an Anglican. No, sorry. He's a Presbyterian preacher in Philadelphia. Okay. He his wife, first wife, died in 1944. And he had a six-year-old daughter at that time. And he had a real difficulty working through his own grief. And the hardest part was how to comfort this daughter of his and explain the death of his daughter to the of his wife to the daughter. And one day they were standing by an intersection. He and his daughter were standing there waiting for a light to change. And then suddenly there was a really really large truck coming along you know and sped by and then you know she was frightened briefly blocking out the sun and the little girl was afraid. And then the father decided to ask to comfort her. He picked her up and asked, "When you saw the truck pass, it scared you, but would you rather be struck by the truck or the shadow of the truck?" And she says, "Of course, the the shadow." And then he says, "When your mother died, she was only hit by the shadow of death because Jesus was hit by death itself." And that's what it means in Psalm 23. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, death is not going to have a real true hold on us. Physical death, yes, just for the time being, but eternal death uh separated away from God. That is not what we're going to partake of. If we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it will just be the experience of the shadow of death. So, how do I know then that we can trust God in our circumstances right now at this moment? How do I know that I can trust him? How do I know? I know because I look at his circumstance. I look at his character again. The three things that we were looking at. He's a shield about me. My glory and lift of my head. How can I know that he is now my shield? He is now my glory or he's now the lifter of my head. I know because he has already done these things. He was a shield about me. He shielded me from God's wroth. I stand sheltered under the cross because it was there that that I needed the greatest protection. Whatever I face now may not be as great as that and I can be assured that it will never be as great as that protection. He became my glory because I can boast that I cannot I don't have to fear my fears and anxieties anymore. The worst of it, which is death, has been already overcome. And because he lifted my head at Calvary, how did he do that? He bowed his head and cried, "It is done. It is finished." He cried, "My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why have you forsaken me? So that I will not be forsaken." That's when I know he is my shield today. He is my glory today. And he's the lifter of my head today. God never promised to remove us from every fear, but he promises to shield you, to be your glory, and to also be the lifter of your head. The cross proves it. The resurrection guarantees it. That's why we know that we can trust him. So like Job, though he slay me, even God is going to kill me, yet will I trust in him. May that be what we can say as we are going to sing this song together. Let's consider the lyrics. Grand Earth has quak before. Moved by the sound of his voice. You know how powerful God is. The seas are shaken and stirred that can be calmed and broken for me. God has the power and in fact he used that power at Calvary to calm the greatest earthquake and the greatest stormy sea. The stormy sea of sin. So let my so let go my soul and trust in him. Trust him. Why? Because the waves and winds still know his name. God is still empowers. God is still in control. Trust him. And through it all, keep your eyes on him. My eyes on you. My glory is in you. You are the lifter of my head. You are my shield about me. And through it all, we can sing it is well. So pray our fears. Remember who God is. Start preaching to yourself and trust God for his blessing. Let's bow our heads and pray. Father, we thank you that we have a God who hears, who listens. You have spoken Hezekiah before and said that I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. And I give you thanks, God, that we today can bring that fear and anxiety that is in our hearts to you. And know that you will care for us. That we can learn to remember that you are our shield. You are our glory and you are the lifter of our heads. And therefore, Father, we can truly trust you and know that whatever befalls us is within your purposes and that we can just continue to obey you despite our circumstances and have that joy and peace that overcomes our understanding. We pray, Father, that you'll help us to pray our fears to you, to leave our anxieties at your feet, and cast our cares to you. And we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Shall we stand to sing? It is well. As indeed, if we have our eyes on the Lord, it is well with me. Psalm 38. We'll consider that again. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be on your people. and all of God's people say, "Amen." Thank you all. That concludes the service. Have a blessed Sunday.
