Living By Faith In World Full Of Fear
Life's Fearful Valleys
Psalm 23:4
Today I am going to begin a new series called "Living by Faith in a World Full of Fear". Everywhere we look today, we see the evidence of this spirit of fear.
In fact you can go to www.phobialist.com and find literally hundreds of things that cause fear in humans. Such as
Ablutophobia- Fear of washing or bathing.
Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens
Aulophobia- Fear of flutes.
Bufonophobia- Fear of toads.
Chionophobia- Fear of snow
Chorophobia- Fear of dancing
Claustrophobia, many of us have this.
Dentophobia-Fear of the dentist
Ecclesophobia-Fear of going to church
Ergophobia- Fear of work
Homilophobia-Fear of sermons
Kathisophobia- Fear of sitting down.
Optophobia- Fear of opening one's eyes.
Pentheraphobia. Does anyone know what that one is? The fear of your mother-in-law!
And even though every fear is not a phobia, they do illustrate what an overwhelming culture of fear there is in society today. We literally live in a culture of fear. The fear of crime or financial collapse and health concerns are very real.
Now I think it is important to remember that there are two kinds of fear. One the one hand, there is a positive kind of fear. It is that thing that God built into us that keeps us from playing with rattlesnakes or urges us to go to the cellar when a tornado is approaching. God built that into us, so I think we would have to say not all fear is bad.
But there is also what the Bible calls a "spirit of fear". It is that thing Satan uses to rob us of the joy and the power and victory that God wants us to have. When he wrote to the Romans, Paul called it a bondage and reminded him that it wasn’t from God.
Romans 8:15
It’s not where God intended us to live as His children. So we know if it didn’t originate with God, it has to come from Satan. That is the kind of fear that we will be talking about over the next six weeks.
What I’ve done is try to think in terms of very real fears and concerns that all of us have to deal with and my desire is to just get this study down to a very practical level. I’ve identified six basic events or situations that can bring fear to our life and those will be our focus.
And I want you to keep in mind that the principles I will share with you are not limited to these six particular subjects. Even though I may not deal with your particular circumstance, I am trusting that the Holy Spirit will use it to help you where you are.
One of those is the future. Many are paralyzed by what is awaiting them out there tomorrow.
There is a fear of commitment. We see that expressed in the statistics on divorce and job turnover and church attendance and we’ll look at that. Many fear failure. For others it is loneliness. And perhaps one of the biggest fears is the fear of death.
And unfortunately, for the vast majority today there is no fear of God. So for the next six weeks we will be seeing what God has to say about “How to Live by Faith in a World Full of Fear”.
I want to begin today at the 23rd Psalm. Now most of the time, we hear this psalm read at funerals. I don’t suppose that is all bad, but the truth of the matter is this is not primarily a funeral psalm. It is actually a life psalm. It has much more to do with our daily walk with God and how to walk in victory over fear than it has to do with death. It is a description of a believer's walk with God. In fact, any child of God could have written the 23rd; David just beat us to it.
Let’s read the entire psalm and then focus on verse 4.
They tell me that over in Israel there really is a valley called the Valley of the Shadow of Death. And it is called for two primary reasons. One is that was a place that down through the centuries became notorious for its attacks. Robbers would hide and attack travelers and would often be killed in this place. But as you can tell from the picture, it is also a place of shadows. And much of the time, the valley is dark.
But that shading also contributes to the protection of the grasses so that when other pastures have long since burned, there is still vegetation available here. So during the summer time, the shepherd would take the sheep down in to that valley and there the sheep could find pools of water to drink and lush, green grass to eat.
Now I would suggest that valley is an accurate description of the life of every believer. In many ways, we are surrounded by a world of fear. There are all kinds of reasons to worry and fret. But at the same time, just as the valley was a place where the sheep could flourish, so is your life an opportunity to flourish and prosper under the care of the Lord.
Notice first of all
I. The Fact of Life's Fearful Valleys
Right off the bat, we must admit there are some valleys in life. David said, though I walk through the valley. He didn't say if I walk through the valley, he said you will walk through the valley. All of us will go through dark valleys. All of us will go through fearful valleys. No matter who you are, no matter what your situation in life, you will go through fearful times. Let me give you some words to keep in mind about this times. First of all,
They are inevitable. They are a fact of life and no one gets excluded from the experience of fear.
We are going to have fearful valleys in life.
They might come in the form of discouragement, or depression. It might be doubts or darkness. But just know this: life's fearful valleys are a fact. If you are in a valley today it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you or your walk with God. It doesn’t mean you are failing as a Christian. It doesn’t mean you have no faith. it just means you are human.
Life's fearful valleys are also inconvenient.
Have you ever had a flat tire at a convenient time? There is not convenient time to be sick, there is no convenient time for a divorce, there is no convenient time for a financial collapse or a business failure, and there is no convenient time to have a difficulty in your life. There is no convenient time for your life to crumble around you and yet that is the way life's fearful valleys are. They are very inconvenient and they happen very unexpectedly.
Life's fearful valleys are impartial.
The Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust. Did you know that fearful valleys come to the saved and the unsaved alike? You may have thought that if you got saved that you would never get sick and never have problems. Maybe you thought if you gave your life to Christ your worries would be over. My friend, we still live in a body of clay and we still live in a fallen world and we will go through the fearful valleys of life. They are impartial.
Then think about this: Life's fearful valleys are also impermanent. They do not last. David said, though I walk through the valley.
As an old black preacher I heard one time said, his favorite verse was, “And it came to pass. It didn’t come to stay. It came to pass.”
Thank God it did not come to stay, it came to pass. And thank God, He doesn't leave us in the valley; He brings us through the valley! And that is what David is talking about, they are impermanent.
Then know this: Life's fearful valleys are instructional.
God doesn’t waste a single experience in our lives. He has something to teach us in the fearful valleys of life. Generally, the great lessons of life are not learned on the mountaintop but rather are learned in the valley. When everything is going right, when everything is going good, when everything seems to be perfect are not the times when you learn the deep lessons of God. When you grow in the faith, when you mature in your walk with Him, it is in the fearful valleys of life that you are walking with Him, that you learn that His rod and His staff can protect you and comfort you and sustain you.
Many of you today are going through one kind of fearful valley or another. Every person here is dealing with one kind of anxiety or one kind of phobia or one kind of fear or another. Not one person is exempt. And yet in the midst of it all, God is trying to instruct us. God is trying to teach us. God is trying to get us to look to Him.
When Billy Graham went to Bible College, he left home. He was going to be away from home for the first time. He wrote his mother a letter and he said, mother I am in Bible college, I am studying the Bible, I am taking Bible courses, but mother, I am going to prayer groups, I am going to church, but I have never felt so far away from God. I can't sense God's presence, I can't feel God, and I don't know that God is doing anything in my life, what should I do? She wrote him back and said son, when you can't feel God and you can't see God, when you don't have any evidence that God is in your life working, that is when you need faith most of all. That is when you have to walk by sheer faith. And that is when you can grow more than any other time.
My friend, that is exactly why you go through those valleys that are dark; those times when you cannot see. You don't see God's purpose, you don't see God's plan, you don't see God's power, you don't see God's peace, and it is just dark. But those valleys can be instructive because God is there. It is there we learn to trust Him.
So there is the fact of life’s fearful valleys.
Then think about
II. The Foe In Life's Fearful Valleys
David said, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."
Now notice he didn't say there is not evil; he said I will fear no evil. He understood there was evil out there. There were dangerous enemies in the valley. But because the Lord was his shepherd, he didn’t have to fear them.
You and I have an enemy as well. The Bible says our enemy is Satan. He is a reality.
Listen to 1 Peter 5:8
He is just looking for that person who has opened their life to sin, he is looking for that young person who has disobeyed so that he can get in. He is looking for that young adult who has yielded so he can get in and wreck their life. He is looking for that senior adult that has grown complacent in their walk.
Satan is walking about; he is seeking whom he may devour. He is real; he is out there; he is on the watch.
But notice our response. We are to be sober and vigilant. The idea is to be alert and watchful, but not fearful
Think about David, the author of this 23rd psalm. What a man he was. He is described as a man after God's own heart. He wrote most of the Psalms, he was a warrior, he was a shepherd, he was a King, and he was a poet. One of the greatest men of history, and yet David himself walked through many fearful valleys.
Think about the fearful valleys that David was brought through. God brought David through the valley of separation.
In Psalm 13:1, David wrote, "how long wilt thou forget me O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long will I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily?"
Then he wrote in Psalm 22:1-2, "my God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me? And from the words of my roaring, O God I cry in the daytime but thou hearest not and in the night."
Sometimes we feel separated because we’ve sinned. David knew that experience. This is David, the man after God's own heart and yet David's sin had isolated him from God.
But there are sometimes when you are right in the middle of God’s will and walking with God and still feel separated. Jesus did. There on the cross as obedient to God as a sinless Son would ever be, and yet He knew that feeling of separation. In fact it is this 22nd psalm that He quotes in that experience.
And yet even though David had experience that separation in chapter 22, what is he writing in the very next psalm. “Yea though I walk through the valley, I will fear no evil”. Why not? Because You are with me. David knew what it was for God to bring him through that valley to the other side.
And then God brought David through the valley of slander.
When King David was a young man, he killed Goliath the giant. He went from being a zero to being a hero. They began to sing his praises in Israel. King Saul was jealous so he began to spread lies about David. He said David is the enemy of Israel, David doesn't really love Israel, and he is out here with the Philistines. David is a spy. David is an enemy, he has to be destroyed.
And King Saul began to hound David and to get his army to try to find David and kill him. And David had his name slandered from one end to the other.
In that same 22nd Psalm, listen to what David said in verses 6 and 7
Saul slandered David when it wasn’t true. Then when David sinned with Bathsheba, he gave Satan the opportunity to slander him when it was true. .
Satan loves it when a believer messes up because he runs in to the presence of God and accuses the believer before God. And he says, God did you see what that believer did? I thought they love you, I thought they belonged to you, did you see that sin they committed? Did you see that attitude they have? Did you see them gossiping? Did you see them with that horrible attitude? Did you see them committing adultery? Did you see them disobeying you God? Satan loves to go before God and slander you to God.
And when David sinned with Bathsheba he committed adultery and later on committed murder to cover up his sin of adultery, David opened the way for Satan to slander his name and the name of God.
David became a laughing stock. “Look at the man after God's own heart! Look at what he has done. He was supposed to be the man of God, look at the man who wrote all these hymns, look at what he has done.” Satan loves it when a believer falls.
And yet God brought David through the valley of slander.
And God brought David through the valley of sin.
I’ve mentioned already David’s sin with Bathsheba. He committed adultery; he lied about it and eventually committed murder to cover his sin. His actions set off a chain of events that almost destroyed his family. They left a daughter raped, a son dead and a little baby buried in the family graveyard. In fact, all of Israel was affected by his sin. What a dark and terrible time it was.
In Psalm 51 you can read David's cry. You see process of David's repentance, his contrition, his confession, his forgiveness and you understand the depth of sin in a believer. When you sin it may hurt your children, it may hurt your family, it may hurt your church and it may bring reproach on you that can never be reversed. Read that psalm and you can begin to grasp a little of what sin can do.
But you also get to see the depth and the mercy and the love of forgiving God and what it can do. You see that where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound. And God brought him through that valley of sin.
God brought David through the valley of sickness.
Now people get sick for a lot of different reasons. Ultimately we have sickness because of the fall in the Garden of Eden. But a lot of things precipitate that sickness in our lives.
Some people are sick because of self; they just have bad health habits.
Some people are sick because of service, they have just been in the battle for God and they have labored and worn their physical body out.
Some people are sick because of Satan and the attack of the devil upon them.
Some people are sick because of the Savior, that is for the glory of God.
And some people are sick because of their sin. That was the case with David. David became sick and ill because of his sin. His sin brought guilt and guilt brought anxiety and anxiety brought emotional illness and emotional illness brought physical illness.
And David was physically sick because of the sin he had committed. And He writes in Psalm 51 about his physical sickness and he cries out to God saying, “Will you not heal the bones that you have broken?"
And his request is “Make me hear joy and gladness”. God bring me through, and God did! He brought him through the valley of sickness.
God brought David through the valley of sorrow. Psalm 51:10-12 David cries out about the sorrow that he goes through.
As I mentioned, David’s little baby diead. This child was the love child of Bathsheba and him. And even David prayed for his son to live, the baby didn't live. The baby died and David rose up and he washed himself and he put on his finest clothes and he went to the tabernacle.
He went to the house of God and he worshipped. And he gave praise unto God. And he said I give praise unto God even though God did not heal my boy because I cannot bring him back to me, but I can go to him.
His baby was in heaven as is every baby who dies before the age of accountability. David was brought through sorrow because God gave him knowledge that his baby was with the Lord. And God brought him through that fearful valley.
Listen to what David wrote in the 62nd psalm:
1 I wait quietly before God,
for my victory comes from him.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will never be shaken.
3 So many enemies against one man—
all of them trying to kill me.
To them I’m just a broken-down wall
or a tottering fence.
4 They plan to topple me from my high position.
They delight in telling lies about me.
They praise me to my face
but curse me in their hearts.
5 Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.
6 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will not be shaken.
7 My victory and honor come from God alone.
He is my refuge,
a rock where no enemy can reach me.
8 O my people, trust in him at all times.
Pour out your heart to him,
for God is our refuge.
Listen! I want to remind you there is an enemy out there. He walks about seeking whom he may devour. But you also have a God who loves you and is committed to you, and the Bible declares of Him, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” Just keep your eyes of Jesus and your faith in God, and there is no enemy that can touch you.
Last of all I want to talk about
III. The Faith For Life's Fearful Valleys
So how do you make it? If these experiences are inevitable and if the divil has a target on your back, how do you deal with them successfully?
The simple answer is faith. But maybe you’ve noticed it’s a whole lot easier to talk about and preach about than it is to practice. So let me give you some very practical steps for developing faith for life’s fearful valleys.
First of all, we develop our faith by acknowledging God's presence.
Look at what he said, "thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me".
He was acknowledging God's presence. Now there are some real fears and there are some perceived fears. Often times we defeat ourselves simply by imagining the worst. It’s bad and it’s awful and it’ll never work out and the situation is not nearly as bad as we perceive it to be.
And the way we deal with that is to acknowledge the presence of God. I mean, if God shows up, everything changes. Right?! Can you imagine having to be frightened if you are in the company of God? Guess what? You are! He’s right there with you!
I was visiting with a young man recently about atheism. And although he is not in church himself, he was really frustrated that people would choose not to acknowledge and believe in God. I told him that was a sad situation. But then I said what is even sadder is those who acknowledge God but then live like there is no God. Practical atheism is much more prevalent than theological atheism. He sat quietly for a moment and then sad, I guess that would describe me.
In fact, it describes most of us. We sing and teach and preach and come to church. God is on the throne. How Great Thou Art. Jehovah Jireh!
Then get out the doors and fret and worry and stew and cry and moan and live a life that demonstrates absolutely no trust in God. For all intents and purposes we are atheists!
David said, I walk through the valley”. To walk here means to calmly, deliberately walk in the Hebrew. Yea, though I calmly, deliberately walk through the valley. I don't have to rush, I don't have to run. I am not trying to get away from some enemy because God is with me. The presence of the Lord is there. I am not afraid because God is at my side.
Listen: if you have God at your side, if God is with you, that is enough to give you strength, to give you calmness, to give you victory in God's fearful valleys.
So first of all, acknowledge God’s presence. Then you can develop your faith when you appropriate God's promises.
Look at what else he said: "your rod and your staff, they comfort me."
Let’s deal with the staff first. What was the shepherd's staff? The shepherd's staff was that stick the shepherd used it to direct the sheep. When the sheep would fall off the cliff, fall down on a ledge, the shepherd would reach down with the crook in the end of that staff and he would lift the sheep back up.
Now to me that pictures how Jesus, through His mighty power, keeps us on the right path in our life. And when we wander off the path, the shepherd reaches down and through His mighty promises, through the promises of His Word; He puts us back on the right path.
So in the midst of the dark valley, as we deliberately walk through it, we appropriate the promises of God and through the staff that is the Word of God, we are sustained.
Now if I want to be comforted by the staff, if I am going to appropriate God’s promises, I must know God’s promises. Therefore, I’ve got to spend time in the Word and get it into my life. I must consume it.
Then once It’s in there, once I’ve consumes it, I’ve got to let it back out. I’m talking about confessing and repeating those promises. Why? Are we trying to convince God? No we are simply finding the comfort of God through His word. You’d be surprised how much calmer you’d be if instead of calling your friends and crying and whining about how bad everything is if you would just spend some time reminding yourself of the promises of God.
Then I am to continue in the Word of God. The sheep wander away; they are notorious for wandering off the path and getting away from the fold.
But if I continue in the Word of God, the Word of God will keep me on the right path, it will keep me from going to the left or right in a world that is so crooked that it doesn't know up from down or right from wrong. I want to continue in God's Word because it is the only thing that doesn't change; it is the only thing that will keep me on the path. It is the only thing that I can depend on. So that’s the staff; through it, I acknowledge God’s presence and it comforts me.
And then I must assume God's power, and that is where the rod comes in.
Now the rod is different than the staff. The rod is a smaller stick than the staff. The staff is the long stick with the crooked end; the rod was made of a limb perhaps with a knot it in. Or maybe at the joint of the tree, it sort of made a club. And it was shorter. The shepherd used the rod for protection. With it, he could ward off the beasts when they would come after the sheep.
With that rod, he would "whap" that bear or lion up beside the head and he would protect his sheep with that rod.
Now the rod represents authority or power.
Now the Bible says that all authority is given to Jesus. That’s what He Himself said in Matthew 28. "All power/authority is given unto me."
And then He makes this most remarkable statement. “Go ye, therefore”. He said, “I am going to invest this power in you. I am going to give this authority to you.”
In Luke 10:19, Jesus said to His followers, that is you and me, I am going to give you authority over all the power of the enemy. He also said, I am going to give you the keys to the kingdom. Whatever you bind shall be bound, and whatever you loose shall be loosed. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, will be loosed in heaven."
Listen: I have a mighty rod today. The name of Jesus is my rod. The name of Jesus is my authority; the name of Jesus is my power, the blood of Jesus that He shed on Calvary's cross. And today when I walk deliberately and calmly through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil because as I do that, I appropriate God's promises and I assume God's power because I have staff and the rod of God.
Now when David wrote about shepherds as he did here in Psalm 23, he knew what he was talking about. He had risked his life many times for his sheep.
When David went up to fight Goliath, they said, you can't fight him; you are a little ol' teenager. Some of these big men have tried to go out there and fight Goliath and they are afraid of him, what can you do as a kid?
He said I kept my father's flock down there in the valley. And when the bear came out, I killed the bear. When the lion came out, I killed the lion. He said if the Lord God can use me to kill a bear and a lion, He can use me to defeat this giant who is blaspheming the name of our God. And David every day put himself between danger and those sheep that were entrusted to him.
Now I want you to listen to me dear child of God, and then I’ll be through: Jesus loves you far more than David ever loved his sheep. And He stands between you and danger. And for Satan to touch you, he has to come through Jesus and Jesus is not going to let anything come through Him.
The only way the devil can get to you is to come through Jesus Christ. How do I know that He loves you more than any shepherd ever loved his sheep? He said, my sheep hear me and I know them and they follow me. They hear my voice. He said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. He said the good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.
How do I know that He loves you more than any shepherd ever loved his sheep? Because He went to Calvary and He laid down His life and He shed His blood and He took upon Himself our sins. He became sin for us on the cross.
The shame of sin, the stench of sin, the filth of sin, the condemnation of sin, He paid the price on the cross. He stood between us and the fires of hell. And He still stands there today. Therefore I can say with David, “The Lord is my Shepherd, and even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for He is with me and His rod and His staff, they comfort me.”
Praise God for our Shepherd.
Let's bow in prayer.
