# Fear Thou Not

Key Passage: Isaiah 41:10
Date: June 7, 2024

Isaiah chapter number 41 and once you find that would you say amen?

Good deal, good deal. You’re still turning though. You said you had it. You’re still turning now, you know.

Isaiah’s a… Ms. Mickey just found it. Some of these slower people, you know. The book of Isaiah is a great book. It’s interesting. Some call it the little Bible. There are 66 books in the Bible. There are 66 chapters in Isaiah. The Old Testament, the first part, if you believe, of the Bible, 39 books, the first 39 chapters of Isaiah, is looking into oncoming captivity. They had been a sinful nation, the nation of Israel. And the first 39 books are about coming captivity. And then chapter number 40, which would be the beginning of the New Testament, if you’re comparing the two, is looking past captivity and really in some blessings and some things that God will do, some wonderful promises. And so just a wonderful book. And we’re in chapter number 41, so to be that looking past captivity. And really just one verse, I felt like the Lord had laid on my heart just to focus on one verse this morning. And, you know, if you want a Baptist preacher to finish early, have food prepared. Amen?

And so we’ll read the verse. We’ll pray and be dismissed. How about that? Y’all like that? But just one verse for a second time. We’re just going to focus only it. This verse, he is talking to Israel as a nation, as one nation, as an individual nation, if you will. And that’s the beginning, but then really he is speaking to you.

And if you’re a child of God, if you’re saved, you’re one of God’s people, you’re one of his chosen, if you will. You’re born again, born into the family of God. You’re Jewish spiritually through Jesus Christ. And so God is speaking to you this morning. And I want to try to make this as God’s speaking to you. As you read this verse, just one verse, I want you to kind of imagine you’re setting before God. God is speaking to you. To you directly. No one else is there. It’s not in you. You’re in the midst of a bunch of people. Just you and God, you’re setting there. And God is speaking to you. As I read this verse, I want you to think of that. That’s the truth of it. And I want you to kind of imagine that, if you will, in your mind.

By the way, Brother Kent, you’ve got a visitor with you also. We failed to recognize your guest. I apologize. Would you introduce your guest for us? Yes, sir, yes, sir.

She’s been with us before, but good to have her again. That’s great. Good, good, good. I’ll hope y’all stay after for the meal also. In about five minutes we’ll be eating. And preachers lying too, you know. But Isaiah 41, would you look down in verse number 10, if you would please? Isaiah 41, 10, if you’re able to, would you please stand just out of respect to the Word of God? We’d like to show it the respect it is due. Isaiah 41, verse number 10. Now you think, is you and God, you and God, you’re facing him, he’s facing you, and God is speaking to you. And this is what he says right here in his word. Isaiah 41, verse number 10, fear thou not. Can you imagine God telling you that? A lot of fearful things in our day and time. A lot of fearful things in the news. Can you imagine God telling you fear, thou not? Maybe you’ve got financial problems, work problems, health problems. Can you imagine God looking at you and God’s saying fear thou not?

Then God goes on, he continues his talking to you. He says, for I am with thee, be not dismayed. For I am thy God, I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Have you pictured God saying that to you? Have you done that? You pictured that? It’s the truth he is. He’s saying that today from his word to you.

Would you read it with me one more time? I’ll just read it. And I want you to picture that. Picture God speaking to you as you’re facing him. He’s facing you. God’s speaking this to you. Fear thou not, for I’m with thee. Be not dismayed. For I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Would you pray? And ask the Lord, would you do this? Would you ask the Lord to make this great promise real and personal to you? Would you do that as we pray together? Father, Lord, we come. Lord, there’s no way I can take this wonderful promise you gave to your people and make it real to every single person and applicable to their lives. The Lord, you can. So, Father, I ask today, would you send your spirit in a unique, special way? And Holy Spirit, would you apply this promise to every single person here this morning? Our young folk are older. Lord, all of our people, would you make this promise that you gave us real to them? And we’ll thank you, Lord, for what you do. In Jesus’ name I ask.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. 63 times the Bible says these exact words, fear not. 63 times. Now, I want you to think about that. Then eight times the Bible says fear ye not.

The passage we just read is a little different than both of those. The passage we just read four times the Bible says this. He says, fear thou not. There’s a little difference. Every word in the Bible is very, very important. That’s why we just stick with the old King James Bible because every word is important. Some will say, well, these and the vows and ye and all that. And I understand what they’re saying if they don’t really study a little bit, but here’s the importance of it. When he says eight times, fear ye not, ye is plural. It would be like if God was speaking to a crowd of people, maybe at a rally or something, and God say, hey, fear ye not. But that is not what the Bible says here.

The Bible here says fear, thou not. Thou is singular. Let me help you out if you’re a country boy like me and you have a hard time remembering all those things. Anybody out there like that? Some of you raise your hand, you were too afraid to say amen out loud though, you know. And the snuff would come out. No, I’m joking about that right there. But this helps me if it’s a ye or a you. It’s got that why. And that’s plural, too, or more, see. But if it’s the T, it’s singular. See, and it’s just got the one straight T with the cross. Anybody, anybody hillbilly like me out there? Did you get that? It helped you. Yeah, I hope it helped me. Nobody taught me that. My hillbilly brain got that thing. That helps me remember it, you know. I need helps all around me. But here’s the thing. This is not God speaking to a great crowd of people and saying, hey, fear you not, this is God talking to you as an individual.

I look at Dave and Skylar. They’re about to leave for college. And David is going to work in Christian education and being an athletic director type thing. Skyler is going to raise all the winning racehorses. She sees all those. And she’s not going to bed on it, but her owner will pay her more. And she’s going to build the new building for soon, right? But she is. She is going to college for that. Now, it would be God setting down with David. And God, setting down with Skylar and talking to them. And God saying to them directly, fear thou not.

I look out and I see Miss Barb and what a great testimony she’s been since Brother Larry’s been home and she’s a widow. It would be God setting down with Miss Barb and other widows or widowers. And God’s saying directly to you, hey, fear thou not. That’s why I want you to picture God speaking to you directly to an individual.

I see Brother Ricky and Brother Ricky’s health is not good and he drives a school bus and with all the COVID going around it’d be very easy to be very fearful. Now I’m not saying don’t be wise about it and you have the freedom to make your choice of what is wise to you or to have the freedom to make that choice. Right? And that’s your choice, by the way. If someone wears a mask in our church, hey, they have that freedom not right. I’m glad they feel free to wear one here. You don’t have to, but they ought to have the right to wear if they like to wear it. I’m glad someone is this morning. Praise the Lord, it feels like you need to, and I’m so glad he feels like he has a freedom to do that here. But here’s the thing I like to say, God sets down with a man like Brother Ricky. He’s already had it, and his health is not good. And God would sit down with Brother Ricky that has fear or you that has fear had a grandfather called me last night and and his great grandson had been exposed and only like a grandparent can do he’s like oh i’m concerned you know and here’s what i’m saying if that is a concern a fear if you will be wise do what you think you ought to do over that but god sets down with you and he says fear thou not

Every individual, I don’t know what your concern is, maybe it’s over your grandchildren or your children. I look at it so many, has wayward children. I don’t know what it is in your life, but God looks down directly to you and he says, fear thou not. God’s speaking to you. As an individual, single parent, God speaking to you. Can I raise good, godly kids? Can I raise children like an adult? Yes, you can, my friend.

I’m simply saying, God, I look out and sometimes young adults, they say, well, I ever, ever meet the right one for me. Now, if you’re Michael over here, you never will. I have just no hope for you. And I’m teasing him Michael over there. He’s like, what in the world do I do, you know? I’m teasing me, Michael, I don’t know why I pointed you out. But fear can come. And, oh, you see it. Sometimes in young ladies will I ever meet the right one. Sometimes young men. Can I just say, God, speaking to you, fear thou not.

Every individual, whatever your situation is, I see Miss Ruthie that lost her son. She has others, but she had taken care of him for years and years and the loneliness. God’s setting down with someone like Miss Ruthie and saying, hey, fear thou not.

I know many of us, and I understand the concern. I’m with you on a concern for our country and the leadership and the blunders and the mistakes and the flaws, just multitude of them. And so manifested in Afghanistan here recently, and I understand as American, some of us can just say, what are we going to do it if we’re not careful or live in fear? But as an American, God sets down with you as an individual. And he talks to you personally and he says, fear thou not. Would you get that?

God telling you this morning, can you imagine God Almighty talking to you directly saying fear thou not. God’s not given us the spirit of fear for Him, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And we’re not to be children and people that are just living in fear.

Can you imagine as God, he’s in control, and he’s the almighty omnipotent God. He’s the ones who just spoke the world in existence. He flung the stars out in space and hung the moon on nothing and created this vast universe. And can you imagine as God Almighty looks at his people and we’re living in fear? And God said, don’t you trust me? How many times does God talk about trust, he wants our faith, he wants us to believe in him. And God Almighty says, hey, I’m so mighty, I can handle any of these issues. And if we live in fear, for that’s not pleasing to God.

I love the songs for I’m sheltered in the arms of God. So let the storms rage high, the dark clouds rise. They don’t worry me. For I’m sheltered in the arms of God. You say, what if I die? Well, friend, heaven’s pretty good. Praise the Lord, no mortgage payments up there. Somebody say, amen. No pain, back pain, knee pains up there, amen. How many will be the Lord Jesus Christ, friend? We’re not to live in fear. We’re to fear. One thing God, that’s what we’re to fear. Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. Fear thou not.

I love the song. Many things about tomorrow. I don’t seem to understand. But I know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand.

If we’re not careful, that fear, it is very strong in our nation right now, in our area right now. And if you’re not careful, it’ll just kind of, it’ll kind of just seep over into your life and you’ll be living in fear. And God says, fear thou not.

Now let’s keep going on this verse, would you please? Just keep your finger there. We’ll go back to it a lot. Notice what he says there, verse number 10. If you’re there, would you say amen? Isaiah 41.10, let’s keep reading. He says, fear thou not. For I am with thee. Boy, I like that. God doesn’t send someone to your age, someone to help you. He says, I’m going to go help of myself. God doesn’t. He doesn’t just kind of assign this to someone else. He says, no, I’m going to go help him.

Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Have God’s with you, everything’s going to be all right. I mean, he’s not going to delegate that one. He’s going to come take care of it.

I was born in Chattanooga. Amen, I’m a Tennessee boy. I believe Erlanger Hospital. My mom was there. She probably knows it was Erlinger. Was it Erlinger? I thought it was. Isn’t Erlanger? As a little fellow, we lived in… Dad was going to Tennessee Temple University. We lived in the trailer park called Powell’s trailer park. It was actually just right south of the Tennessee, Georgia line. And we lived in Georgia for a little bit there. And Powell’s trailer park. And here’s the thing, this trailer, it had an issue. Here’s the issue. The living room, kitchen, dining room, all that was up front. And then down the long, I mean, if you’re a little boy, it must have been 40 miles long, the hallway. And the only restroom was down there way down that hallway. Okay. Now there’s some bedrooms before the bathroom, you know, and then at the very end of the master bedroom and all that. And here’s the thing, little fella, you know, you got to go to the bathroom. You know how it is. And she says, well, it’s down the hallway there, you know. Well, the only problem was, you know, my dad was one of those guys. His parents was raised in the depression. And you turn a light off when you leave a room. Anybody know what I’m going to talk about? If you didn’t turn the light off when you’re at the room, something’s going to happen and you ain’t going to like it. My dad always had this medicine. I didn’t like dad’s medicine. And so all the lights down the hallway were off and the lights in the bedroom and bathroom was off. And mommy, I got to go bathroom. And she’d be like, hey, you know, you know the bathroom is, boy, you know. Dad would say, boy, she would, you know. But, but hey, that. But there’s monsters down that hallway. You understand what I’m talking about. I mean, there’s rooms on the side and those doors are open. Those monsters come out and grab you as a little boy walking down that dark hallway. Anybody know what I’m talking about there? Oh, you’ve been there before.

I mean, I want to go. I mean, somebody needs to go down there and turn that light on, but I’ll go down there in a light of the hallway, you know. I mean, wow, that thing’s dark. And so I’ve got an older sister. She’s the oldest of the siblings and then an older brother. And one of them, typically, mom’s back there telling stories right now. Hey, I’m telling their story now. Come on now, you know. See, the mom’s trying to preach at me now. Look at this now, you know. And here’s the thing, man, I didn’t want to go down that dark car. You can see she was sending me to get down there, boy. No, she didn’t do that. She didn’t do that. And someone, one of my siblings, mom, I don’t know, would go down that hallway with me. And we get down to the restroom there, you know, and turn a light on. Have things good.

Now look, I don’t know what’s going on your life. For some, it’s a pretty dark hallway. But God doesn’t send you down the hallway. Well, don’t fear. You’re all right. Just go. He said, no, no, let me go down the hallway with you. Fear thou not. For I’m with thee.

God says, I’m with you. Friend, when fear starts coming in there and say, wait, say, I don’t have any reason to fear. God’s with me. If you’re a born-again Christian, if you’re saved, blood-washed, friend, he’ll never leave you nor forsake you. He’s always with you. Fear thou not, for I’m with thee. He’s going to go with you down that hallway. He’ll always be there.

Now let’s keep reading. Let’s keep reading in this verse here. We’re in verse number 10, Isaiah 41, verse number 10. He says, fear thou not, for I am with thee. Now look at this for rest. I did not understand this for years. He says, be not dismayed. I read that verse. That word, I’d even, I believe, memorized it in some verses, but I’d understand what that word dismayed means. I didn’t get it.

When we were on vacation a couple weeks ago, we were in a little bitty town where they had a river gorge, and you could zip line over this river gorge. What’s the name of that town? Saluda. Saluda, North Carolina. And… And you zipline, and it was the best I’ve ever been on zipline, several hours long. Actually, you ziplined, I think, 11 different lines, and then you repelled down three different places, and you walked across the swinging bridge. And here’s the thing, when you’re all hooked up and you’re ziplining down, I didn’t mind that. That’s a blast, you know, that’s great. But you would land on this platform that is built in the trees. I’m talking about way up of the trees. One of the guides said 85 feet up. I don’t know that it was that high. But, you know, 50 feet or 85 feet, either way, this boy is scared half to death. And here’s the thing. This platform is built. It’s just a wooden platform, maybe six feet out, all the way around the tree, typically. And it’s a wooden platform and you’re standing on, now the honest truth, this is parentheses, don’t tell anybody by this part here. But they actually have you hooked up the whole time, you know, so you’re safe. But something about standing on this platform. And then the wind starts blowing in these trees when you’re at, you understand the whole platform swaying. This boy don’t like that stuff right there. I mean. I mean, sweet Alabama, if I fall, it’s all over. I’m going home, you know. And we’re way up there, and this thing’s swaying.

And then, or for three of them, you’re supposed to repel down. Now, it wasn’t, Brother John, he’s really repelled. He was 101st, you know. This repel was, they hook you up to this rope. It’s already designed, and it’ll lower you. You don’t have to do a thing. It just slowly lowers you. And my mind knew that, but my motion sure didn’t know that. I mean, and here’s the thing. This thing starts swaying, and a couple of them would stand close to the edge. Not this boy, uh-uh. I mean, I’m hugging the tree over there. I’m listening to all the instructions. Yeah, I get all that, you know. I mean, I’ve got to be hanging on to something, you know. And I’ve learned, I’ve learned from our men’s kayak trip. We usually do that about every other year. And at the end of that, we jump off this this bridge into the river, the brave ones. I’m joking with you on that all right now. Some of them do. Every year I say I’m not going to do it again. But anyway, but I’ve learned from that, don’t get up there and stand it. You just just keep, once you keep walking, keep walking, walk off. Because once I stand there on the edge, it’s a good chance it’s not going to happen. And so on the zip line, you know, you’re supposed to repel down and they hook you all up. Here’s the first thing that happened when they’re like, they’re standing over on the edge and they’re hooking people up. You’re already hooked the one thing. They hook you up here before they release you there. But they’re like, come on over here, we’ll hook you up. And I’m like, uh-uh, you come on over here and hook me up. Brave pastor you got, you know. And then they hook you up. And I’ve learned, I mean, once I started walking, I mean, I just keep walking. I mean, because if I stand on the edge, things are not good, you know.

But there was one lady in our group, I don’t know, maybe 10 people in her group, 11, I don’t know. But one lady, she was about like me. She was very, very, I mean, scared half to death, you know. And she went out to the edge. They had her all hooked up. And then once you get the edge, you’re like, you know, this don’t look good. I mean, it’s just, it’s just, and the three times you’re repell, I think every single time, she would just, it would take a while. I’ve heard some people in her party, I think there was four of them, they said, I don’t, I didn’t know if she’s going to do it or not. I mean, there was a while, everybody’s just questioning, is this lady going to jump off or not? She would just freeze, and she wouldn’t go move. The guides were smart enough not to push her off because she had probably had a heart attack. They’d been alive, you know. They just kind of let her, and she’d stay there for a while, and finally she jumped off.

Now, in that time, maybe if it took her three minutes, five minutes standing there before she jumped off, just frozen in fear. That’s dismayed. When he says, fear thou not, for I’m with thee, be not dismayed. That’s frozen in fear. You see, that’s sometimes on the Lord, Brother Patrick mentioned it. Sometimes when you’re at the gas pump and the Lord says, won’t you give that person over there a gospel tract, all right? And you know what happens? I don’t want to jump off there. And you get frozen in fear. That’s dismayed.

When the Lord says, hey, I want you to obey and I want you to start tithing, giving offerings, you’re like, whoa. And he just froze for a while. That’s dismayed. When the Lord says, I want you to go try to make things right with an individual where there’s issues and a lot of hurts and scars. But I’m leading you. I want you to go try to make this thing right. And out of past issues, you just freeze. That’s dismayed. When the Lord leads you, maybe to a ministry he liked for you to do. Maybe start a neighborhood Bible club every Thursday evening. You invite the kids of the neighborhood over and have a Bible study and give the gospel to them. And the Lord has clearly led you there, but you’re like, man, I can’t do something like that. That’s dismayed.

That’s what God’s saying. He said, look, fear thou, individual, fear thou not. For I’m with him. Be not dismayed. Don’t freeze in fear. Some people have a hard time of confronting. And I’m not saying every time all the time you’re supposed to confront, but maybe God has led you clearly to deal with a situation. You have to deal a little bit with confrontation. And you’re like, I’m not a guy. You’re a lady that likes to confront, but God’s led you there and sometimes some issues needs someone just to go confront the person or the situation in the right spirit and right attitude. And yet sometimes we just, oh. And God said, no, no, no. And I want you to be dismayed. Fear thou not, for I am with me. Be not dismayed.

I think of someone, my wife, I think it’ll be the only one in our in here that’ll know, but a person that’s had so many issues and pains and their past and they need healing, but they never really will face their issues. And we spoke and they said, look, I don’t want to go there because I know the pain that’s there. And God from time to time over the years has kind of led them to go on this journey and get some healing and deal with it properly. And yet when God does, they just kind of freeze in fear that. No, no, I’m not going to go there. That’s what God’s saying. Fear thou not, for I’m with thee. Be not dismayed. Don’t freeze and fear.

The children of Israel did that. God said, I want you to march into the promised land. Notice the promised. It was promised in the promised land. It was a land flowing with ice cream people. Milk and honey, come on now, is that ice cream or what now? You got to study this Bible out, I’m telling you, it’s good stuff in there. And if you study it real closely, it’s talking about chocolate chip cookie dough, amen? For some of you it might be meant, chocolate chip or whatever. But what happened? They sent in the spies, and 10, we can’t do it, two we can do it, and they froze. They were dismayed. And a sad situation, they wandered 40 years and died natural causes in the wilderness, didn’t enter in because they were dismayed. Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed.

Then he noticed this phrase. We’ve got to hurry along. Notice this phrase. Back over there, if you would, please. That verse, verse number 10, fear thou not. For I am with him, be not mismade, for I am thy God. Oh, praise the Lord for that. And God said, don’t you realize I’m your God!

I like what David said. He said, I’ve been young, now I’m old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. If God is your God, the God of the Bible, Jehovah God, Jesus, if He’s your God, friend, he’s going to take care of you. He’s got you. You’re in his hands. Satan can’t bring anything in your life unless it comes across God’s desk for approval. He’s got it. The closest you’ll ever be to God is when you follow on the leading that it gives you. Don’t get dismayed. You follow him. You’ll be closer to him that way than ever. You always get closer to him, following him as adventures he gives you.

And then he makes these three statements. Let’s just get him real quickly here. He makes three statements here in this verse. They’re amazing statements. For I’m not God. You’re with me? You’re with me in this verse here, verse number 10. Would you read with me the next four words, what God says to us, I will strengthen thee? How many of you you say, man, the older I get, the more that means to me. Anybody out there like that? Oh, yeah. Even young people, though, you get weary, you get tired, you get wore out, I’m running that energy. And God says, I will strengthen thee.

I mean, I’m like you. I went to my doctor a while back, blood pressure medicine, typical stuff. That’s all I’m owned besides cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, that’s all, you know. But no, I went to the doctor and just blood pressure medicine, and they were changing it, periodically they’ll do that and just normal stuff. And I said, give me that medicine, that’ll give me a lot of energy. And she said this. She said, you know, I have more comments just like that, more questions about that than any other thing. Everybody wants more energy. She said, by far, that’s the biggest thing I do. And God says, I will strengthen thee. Praise the Lord for that right there. God, God says, hey, I don’t want you to live in fear. Don’t be dismayed. I’m going to be with you. I will strengthen thee.

How many ever heard this statement? Haven’t you heard this statement? He’ll never put something on you you cannot handle. You ever heard that? Come on, the rest of it didn’t raise your hand. You’re lying in church. Come on, now raise your head. It’s very common, and I understand it, I probably used it before myself. It actually comes from 1st Corinthians 10.13, but can I just maybe get a little technical with you for a second? I don’t know that it means exactly that. This is what I believe it means. When you do something, do have something a little bit stronger than you can handle, God will give you the strength so you can bear it. I know that’s a technicality, but every once I know about you, but I just feel like that’s more than strength I have to handle it. And that may be true at that moment when I get there, God always gives me the strength. That’s what he’s teaching. And it goes along with the verse here. I will strengthen thee. Well, I like that.

Let’s keep going. What else does he say here? This verse number 10, would you help me out? We’ll read the next couple words here. Well, let’s get this, what is it, one, two, three, four, five. Let’s get the next five words, would you please hear. We just read, I will strengthen thee. Here we go, yea, I will help thee. Boy, I like that. It’s kind of like God answers your question. You know, God, you’re going to strengthen me? Yeah. I’m going to help you. It’s much broader than just strength.

God, you see, here’s a neat thing about it. It doesn’t matter what kind of help you need. God’s got it. God need wisdom. He’s omniscient. He’s got all the wisdom of the world. He knows everything. Someone’s head has it ever occurred to you that nothing’s ever occurred to God. So I need marriage, marital help. Well, God’s the one that created marriage. Praise the Lord, he made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, amen. But, friend, it doesn’t matter what kind of help you need. Our daughter’s car is broke down, and boy, do I ever need mechanicking help for sure, you know, it’s been in the shop and everything and still not running. God’s the master mechanic. I mean, it just doesn’t matter what kind of help you need. God, and he said, look, I’m going to strengthen you. Yay, I will help thee. Any issue. God’s guided, friend. He knows better than anyone about every subject. He says, I will help thee. What a promise.

Let’s keep reading here. Let’s keep reading. Let’s get this thing here. Verse number 10. He said, I will strengthen thee. Yay, I will help thee. Let’s get the, oh, let’s just finish the verse out. Would you do that with me, please? Here we go, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Let’s all be honest. Let’s just kind of take the mass, the facade off for a little bit. You know, we all have fell about a million times. I appreciate that one honest person, whoever that was, I don’t know. All of us, I’m kind of like the number one. We’ve all fell about a million times. Isn’t that the truth? God says, you know what? I’ll uphold me. It’s his right hand of righteousness. By the way, if you’re a born-again Christian, that’s another reason why the Bible teaches you cannot lose your salvation. Because you didn’t get your righteousness from yourself. You got it through Jesus Christ if you’re saying. My righteousness. God says I’ll uphold you.

You ever been walking somewhere and you trip and fall? What’s the first thing you do? Who saw me? Come on. You’ve been there. Praise Lord God walks with us and he uphold you.

You know, I got to finish out the sermon with the grandson’s story. Amen, our grandson was just here. And being grandparents is wonderful, isn’t it? I mean, if we could just bypass being parents and go to grandparents, that’s been a good thing, you know. But our grandson, 14 months old now, he’s Ryan, he’s walking. But here’s the thing, he can crawl faster than he can walk right now. And if you’re crawling, you have no fear of falling, so why not crawl, you know. And so typically he’ll walk here and there, you know, and he really wants to. But typically if he really wants to get somewhere, he’ll just kind of fall down on purpose. And he’ll say, man, he’ll take off. But here’s what he likes. It has nothing to do with us spoiling him. Honestly, folks. Okay, maybe a little bit there. You know what he likes, though? He likes it if you hold on to him and then he walks. And it kind of takes away the fear. And grandma and grandpa help him get where he wants to go because we spoil him rotten. And God says, I’m going to hold your hand. You’re going to fall. Every one of us fall about a million times. That’s why there’s no room for pride when you’re close to God. The honest truth is he carries us all. And God says, I don’t want you to live it in fear. Fear thou not, for I’m with thee. He goes down the hallway with you. Be not dismayed. Don’t get frozen when God leads you to do something. Don’t be on the edge standing there forever. And God says, hey, I’m your God. Have you forgotten? You’ve got the God of the universe as your God. And he makes those three wonderful statements. He said, I’m going to strengthen you. I’m glad for that strength. Amen. In fact, his strength is made perfect in weakness. He said, I’ll strengthen thee. Yay, I will help thee. What’s your weak area? That’s God’s strong area. So how do you know that? Because every area is God’s strong area. He says, I’ll help you. He’s got all the help. He says, yay, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

You said, what if God leads me to, I’ve heard this, what if God leads me to witness to someone and I say the wrong thing, friend, my right hand will uphold me. It doesn’t matter when God leads you. You’re going down that back. Friend, God’s leading you. Your father, he’s got you. I will uphold thee with the right hand. Hey, you can be like my grandson. You can get over where you want to go pretty quick because God’s got your hand.

Original File: Fear Thou Not - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday AM 8222021