Introduction:
Today is our 2nd Sunday of the month of April with a theme “Know God, Know Courage” and we have our theme verse found in Isaiah 41:10. Allow me to give a short exhortation of this verse that will give us encouragement and upliftment that we need.
This is the 1st Sunday after we celebrated Resurrection Sunday wherein we declared the victorious work of Christ in the cross. Let us see what happened after Jesus has been resurrected. We take note that Jesus has promised to them the Holy Spirit who will guide them and strengthen them. John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever”. And after that, in Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And true enough, in chapter 2 we can see how they were filled with the Holy Spirit empowering each one of them to fulfill God’s plan for all of them.
We also take note that when Peter received the Holy Spirit, the old Peter who is proud yet not brave enough to stand with Jesus during His trial, is not the same Peter as he stood up and delivered his 1st preaching about Jesus in verses 14-39 of Acts chapter 2. Now what could have happened to Peter and to other disciples when the Holy Spirit came upon them? It is one of the result of the power of the Holy Spirit and this is courage.
Courage in Tagalog “katapangan”, according to Philippine history, courage is by nature one of the attributes of the early Filipinos like Lapu-Lapu, Raja Sulaiman, Humabon and the likes. This is also evident even in our history during the colonization of the Philippines under different foreign lands. We never ran out of heroes to defend our country. And until today, Filipinos are considered one of the courageous people. Ex. OFW who is willing to sacrifice his/her own family for the sake of their future.
However, we also have natural fears like phobia. Some are afraid of water, heights, space, etc. But what about the fears we have when we have worries, problems, trials, sickness, and even death?
Courage within us will automatically comes out whenever it is badly needed, especially if our lives or the lives of our loved-ones are at stake. And the Bible speaks about a courage that comes not from us naturally but comes from God. You see, man has many limitations and sometimes if we are in a situations that it is on our limit already, our courage is not enough to carry us through. But if we can have courage that is coming from a Great Source like God, then this courage is limitless.
Today, a great promise and assurance we will need to claim and accept so that whenever we are in danger, or in a limited situation we can still have courage to continue. Let us open our Bible in Isaiah 41:10:
“Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
What a great verse! And from these promises of God we can see that there is nothing to fear because of:
1. His Presence in us – “fear not for I AM WITH YOU”
We have nothing to fear because God’s presence is in us. When we think that God is absent, or doubt whether or not He is with us, when we are anxious and frightened . . . we need to stop, as the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God!” We need to do the same, be still and know that God is God and He promises to be with us. Exodus 14:14 NIV “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” This is the great difference of the courage that comes from God and not man. In God, we He will be the One fighting for us and we only need to be still.
With that in our spirit, heart and mind – we can hold fast and be confident to the fact God is with us. If God is with us, if we really believe that, then we can stand on the foundation that we will not be overwhelmed by life. In order to face our fears, the first thing to remember is that God is with you. David reminds us in Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me”. Those are great words of comfort when we’re going through the difficult times of life. We don’t fear because we are confident God is with us. And in Matthew 28:20, after giving the Great Commission, Jesus promised His presence when He said “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” When you’re filled with fear, remember this truth and declare it out loud: I will have no fear because He is always with me! Romans 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Nothing! There’s nothing to fear when we are with God.
The only problem is that we never know or aware that God is on our side, unless you know who God is.
Illustration:
Years ago in the Deep South, a Baptist church was struggling over whether or not to allow a black gentleman to join their church. He had been their janitor for years and decided he wanted to be part of the church family. A special vote of the congregation was called for as the church pondered the issue of integration. Finally, the vote was announced and the janitor lost his bid to be a member.
Late that evening, the old gentleman was sitting in his porch swing thinking about how he had been rejected by the church. He said, "Lord, I don’t understand them folks. I tried to join their church......but they voted me out." About that time, the Lord spoke from Heaven and said, "Don’t worry about it, my child. I have been trying to get into that church for years. They won’t let me in, either!!"
That is why our theme for this month “Know God, know Courage”, which means we need to know Him first before we can understand the courage He is giving us. It all leads us to the second reason why we have nothing to fear.
2. His Possession which is us. – “be not dismayed, for I AM YOUR GOD”
His possession is us! He owns us as we were created according to His likeness. God made us because He owns us and we must know that He is our God!
One of man’s limitation result is to be dismayed or discouraged “masiraan ng loob”. We can see a great example of being dismayed is Prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 18 to 19 when he battles all the prophets of Baal and Asherah in Mount Carmel. He victoriously fought every one of them by asking God to burn the altar made of woods and bull for the Lord while the prophets of Baal could not even light a fire to their altar.
He surely made a statement to all the false prophets that God is with Elijah and He is the true and only God! But after that victory, in 1 Kings 19:3 he fled for his life after the threat of Jezebel over his life. Verse 4 we can see that after a long journey, he prayed that God would take away his life “it is enough! Now Lord take my life for I am no longer better than my fathers”.
Look at Elijah after a great victory came a shattering report of discouragement. He instantly forgot the excitement of God’s victory and was immediately replaced by fear and dismay! If only Elijah did not forgot who God is and who is with him all through out his battles. He will never get discouraged! Why did Elijah said to God, “I am no longer better than my fathers” Because he remembered God who promised to his ancestors like Moses in Exodus 20:2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” And now here he is telling that he can’t have faith like that of his own father.
This is one of the problems we are facing when we get distracted with all the sufferings, trials we are experiencing, we forgot who owns us. I remember Thomas, who was distracted by the death of Jesus and the distressed of hiding themselves from the Jews and Romans who killed Jesus, he was full of doubts because doesn’t know Jesus that much. He said in John 20:28 “my Lord and my God!”. He knew Jesus because he had seen Him but blessed are they that believed yet not seen. Why because those who did not need to see Jesus would rely on his knowledge about Him.
God wants us to know Him more so that base on that deeper knowledge of Him comes deeper relationship with Him! Know God, Know His Courage. Are we dealing with a shattering discouragement, or are we in a situation that you are discouraged and dismayed? There is nothing to fear for HE IS OUR GOD!
3. His Power over us. – “I will strengthen you”
Another great promise of God aside from the fact that His presence is with us and He owns us is that His power will strengthen us. This is one thing we need to learn from God and that is to lean on His strength. Zechariah 4:6 “not by might, nor by power but by the Spirit says the Lord”.
In 1 Samuel 30:6 we hear this about David, ”And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. It wasn’t David’s strength, it was God’s strength.
You see, another negative emotion we can have is distressed. Distress means “extreme anxiety, sorrow or pain”. The loss of a loved-one, loss of job, loss of financial capacity or even receiving a bad report from a doctor can give us so much distress. Like David, though he is a king and a respected leader of Israel but he experienced so much distress in his life even when he was the subject of his former king Saul who wanted to kill him and even when he is the reigning king of Israel, distress is part of his life.
A popular worship song was composed because of David’s desire to empowered by God Psalm 73:25-26:
25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
26 My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
We need to learn to lean on God to strengthen us. As we just saw it can’t be our strength that gets us through the tough times, it needs to be God’s strength and power. Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:13
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” And in his last letter in 2 Timothy 4:17, Paul wrote “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.”
How many times are we able to say that we have been strengthened by the Lord. That strengthening comes when we’ve built up that relationship with the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit so that when trouble comes our way, we know the way out. But sometimes, we still need God’s help to give us that strength..and we need the next reason why we have nothing to fear..
4. His Primary Aid to us – “Yes, I will help you”
How priviledge we are to know that we have a God who is willing to extend His helping hand on us. He says here with affirmation by using the word “Yes”. That is the reason why God ascended in heaven so He can send the Helper who is the Holy Spirit to be with us so He can primary help us in times of need.
John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever”. Hebrews 13:5b-6 “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”6 So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
His primary purpose is to be there in times of need. The Lord is so gracious to help us during times that we never know what to do, but God is there because He promised us not to leave us nor forsake us, nobody can hurt us! Yes, we can be hurt by some people whom we thought we can depend upon but they are there only to disappoint us that whenever we need them, they too could not help us. Why? Because they are only human with limited source to help us. But when we learn to depend on God, and learn to have faith on Him then we can declare what David says in Psalm 121:1-2 “1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
When we feel lost and no one to turn to? Lift up our eyes to the mountain of God from where help comes from.
Illustration:
So, being much younger than I am today I stepped out of the boat thinking I could rescue my buddy by dragging him to safety. I stepped out of the boat and the water was only about 3 feet deep. My friend was still padding with an oar, throwing water about 10 feet high and barely missing my head with each stroke. I held on to the boat until our friends in the other boat threw us a line. To this day, when I see one of those friends, we still have a big laugh.
We all have been through deep water as in trials, troubles, sickness or death of a loved one. Many times it seems our feet don't touch the bottom, but God says it shall not overflow thee. Sometimes we think we are in deep water and we are going to drown, but when we step out on faith in our Lord Jesus, we find the water is only 3 feet deep
Do we need somebody who can help us carry that load, God can carry that heavy load you are holding right now because of..
5. His position to hold us. – “I will uphold you with My righteous right hand”
God will not only be with us, own us, empower us, help us but hold us up with His righteous hand. The word “uphold” means to hold up or grasp, to support. The idea is similar to the word undergird which means to make secure underneath. We are upheld by His “righteous right hand.” This is His promise that He will not let us go away from His righteous hand. He will not allow us to go beyond what He planned for us.
Throughout scripture, God’s “right hand” is the symbol of His power, His protection, His love and His grace. When God said “I will uphold you with My righteous right hand”, it means nothing can touch you, nothing can move you, nothing can hurt you anymore, nothing can throw any bad things on you. Because His right hand uphold us. That is His position over us, to carry us eventhough we are not worthy because of our sins, yet He forgives us, He upholds the law of God which His love and mercy over us.
That is why when we have a “right hand” in an organization, this means a trusted one, a partner, a confidant, a friend. Sometimes we need a right hand in our Christian walk, but you know what, God wants to be your right hand also. Look at verse 13 of Isaiah 41 as it says “For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.”
Verse 10 speaks of God's right hand upholding us – and verse 13 says God will hold our right hand.
Taken together, these two verses present a powerful picture of a parent and a child. The Father's mighty right hand can defeat any enemy, but in his left hand HE is holding His child's right hand. And another picture of a Father who helps His child to walk uprightly that is why He hold His child’s right with His own righteous right hand. What a great picture of a loving Father to us..
I picture God holding us as we face Him, just as a parent would comfort their child, God looks at us, and we look at Him and we see His love and power and we experience His comfort.
Conclusion:
There is a popular logo in the world “No Fear”. God wants us not to fear anything because of His Presence, His Possession, His Power, His Primary Aid and His Position over us. I like what Pastor John Piper said in this verse:
• I am your God – over you.
• I am with you – by your side.
• I will strengthen you – from inside of you.
• I will help you – all around you.
• I will uphold you – from underneath you.
Friends, God is over you, by you, inside you, around you, and underneath you. This means we can’t hide from God once we are His children..
DADDY, ARE YOU THERE?
Oh how blessed it is to know that when the times of pain come and when our hearts become broken, we have Someone to whom we can turn that will give us Strength and that will keep us Safe. Only Jesus does that!
A little girl and her father were returning from the funeral of their dearly loved mother and wife. Some kind neighbors invited them to spend a few days with them so they wouldn't be alone in the house with all its sad memories. However, the father decided it would be better to go home. That night the father placed the little girl's bed next to his, but neither could fall asleep. Finally the child said, "Daddy, it's dark, I can't see you. But you're there, aren't you?" "Yes, dear, Daddy's here right next to you. Go to sleep."
The little girl finally dropped off to sleep. In the darkness and the depth of sorrow, the father in tears said aloud, "O Heavenly Father, it's so dark, and my heart is overflowing with sorrow. But You are there, aren't You?" And immediately there came to him this passage in Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Exodus 14:14NIV “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Sing “Still”
