Look at Psalm 27 verse 1, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and fell.
Though in host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident."
Psalm 3 says this, "I laid me down and slept, I awaked for the Lord sustained me."
I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round
about.
It's pretty easy to say that, but just picture yourself, you're in your house and ten thousand
people have surrounded the house, and they're all coming to get you.
Could you say, "Well, I'm not afraid of any of this, I'm in God's hands, I know that I've
done right."
I laid me down and slept, you know what, when you can go to bed at night and put your head
on your pillow and fall asleep and sleep like a baby, not because your life's perfect, not
because government agencies aren't on your back, not because everybody loves you, not
because you haven't been hated and threatened and are in peril every hour, you know why
you go to bed and put your head on the pillow and lay you down and sleep like David said
and with no fear, you know why?
Because you know, I did what was right and God promised to take care of me if I did what's
right and so everything's going to be great and let the chips fall where they may because
you know what?
It's up to the Lord what happens to me and he's going to protect me and preserve me under
his heavenly kingdom and you go to bed, look, your whole life might be falling apart, but
when you do what's right, you can go to bed at night, put your head on the pillow and sleep
like a baby and say, you know what?
I'm doing what I can.
I mean, I'm trying to serve the Lord.
I love God.
I did what was right.
You go to bed and you sleep peacefully.
And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus.
You know, you just pray to the Lord and say, Lord, here's what I'm going through.
Here's what's going on.
Go to Psalm 56.
We'll close with Psalm 56.
I've done what I can, Lord.
It's up to you now to protect me and you can have peace in your life and not live a life
of fear.
How do I overcome fear?
Well, first of all, you just overcome fear in the sense that even if you're afraid, you
do what's right anyway, even if you're afraid.
You do it anyway.
And as you develop a pattern of doing what's right in spite of fear, you'll start to realize,
"Hey, a lot of the stuff I was afraid of didn't even happen.
Hey, I thought I went out solo and it was going to be embarrassing and it actually was
totally normal and it went well.
Hey, I was afraid to get up and preach a 10-minute sermon.
I actually did okay."
And you start developing that pattern.
Secondly, you pray for boldness.
You pray for boldness.
And the Bible says, "In everything by prayer and supplication, let your request be made
known unto God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Look at Psalm 56 verse 2, "Mine enemies would daily swallow me up."
And try to put yourself in the scripture.
Just think about, this is your life.
Take it literally.
You're David.
You have enemies that just daily want to swallow you up.
You'd be afraid, humanly speaking, without the Lord and His Holy Spirit giving you boldness.
It says, "My enemies would daily swallow me up, for they be many that fight against me,
O thou most high.
What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
In God, I will praise His word.
In God, I have put my trust.
I will not fear what flesh can do unto me."
Every day they rest my words, and they're twisting my words.
I say one thing, they twist it like I said something else.
Their thoughts against me are against me for evil.
They gather themselves together.
They hide themselves.
They mark my steps when they wait for my soul.
I mean just imagine, people are just lying in wait.
They're conspiring against you.
They're laying traps for you.
They hate you.
Everything you say they're listening so they can twist it.
Shall they escape by iniquity?
In thine anger, cast down the people, O God.
Thou tellest my wanderings.
Put thou my tears into thy bottle, are they not in thy book?
When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back, this I know, for God is for me.
In God will I praise his word.
In the Lord will I praise his word.
In God have I put my trust.
I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
This is the message tonight.
We started out with a man, Zedekiah, who said, "I'm afraid."
Zedekiah, obey the Lord.
You're going to be fine.
Your family's going to be fine.
Your friends are going to be fine.
Your city's going to be fine.
But if you disobey, it's all going to be burned.
Everybody's going to be killed.
Everybody's going to be suffered.
I beseech you, obey the Lord.
I'm afraid.
Here we end on the man, David, who said, "You know what?
I will not be afraid."
And that's where we need to be tonight.
I will not be afraid.
You start out the sermon talking about the wrong guy that said, "I'm afraid, I'm afraid."
You need to walk out of here tonight, and this is the, you know, I mean, memorize the
whole chapter for crying out loud, but at least just memorize that one phrase, let that
one phrase sink into your ears.
I will not be afraid.
I remember when I was much younger, being in a really dangerous part of town at night
by myself working.
You know, my job had sent me into a real dangerous part of town at night, and I'm by myself,
I'm working.
What's the natural reaction?
Fear.
You know, the fear is real because you're in a really bad area, it's at night, you're
by yourself, there's a lot of crime.
And you know, I used to quote Psalm 23 to myself, and I would quote, "Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."
And when I read this passage where he keeps saying over and over again, "I will not be
afraid."
I almost get the feeling that he's trying to convince himself a little bit when you read
this passage, right?
He's saying, you know what, he's reminding himself with this psalm, you know what, God's
for me.
He's reminding himself.
He's asking the Lord, but he's also saying, you know what, the Lord's for me, I know God's
with me.
I'm not going to be afraid.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no one.
Look, you're going to have decisions that come in your life.
And you're going to be like, you know what, I know I need to start going to church, or
I know I need to start soul winning, or you know what, I know God wants me to preach,
or you know what, I know that as a pastor I need to preach the whole word and I've been
holding back a little, I've kept back some things, or you know what, I know I need to
submit it to my husband, or you know what, I need to start tithing, or whatever.
I know I need to start spanking my children, and you know what, the bottom line is, the
thing that's going to come in is this fear is going to creep in, and you have to just
remember this sermon and just remember all these scriptures and just say, you know what,
I will not be afraid.
Whatever decision I make in my life, it's not going to be based on fear.
It's never going to be based on fear, because it's never of God.
Look, we could turn to all 727 mentions if you want, of fear, afraid, and frightened,
and we could go through all of them, and you know what you're going to find?
Whenever people fear, it's wrong.
I don't care what you're fearing or why, it's wrong unless it's the Lord.
The Lord is the one that we fear, and Him alone.
Let's powerize the network.