Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

Guest (Male): He's a Holy One. He's the Prince of Peace. Oh, He is the Lord of Lords. He's the great I Am. He's a Holy One. He's a Holy One.

Guest (Female): He's a Holy One. He's a Holy One. He's a Holy One. He's the great I Am. He's a Holy One.

Guest (Male): He's a Holy One. Oh, He's a Holy One. Oh, He's a Holy One. Oh, He's a Holy One. He's the great I Am. He's a Holy One.

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: You have to be persuaded. You have to be convinced of the certainty of who God is and of your relationship with Him in order to be confident in all of the challenges that life throws our way. I'm going to talk about one of them this morning. Join me now in a moment of prayer.

Father, we thank You for loving us, for blessing us, for bringing us through another week's journey, for watching over us and keeping us safe, for allowing us to rest last night and to rise early this morning with our hearts and minds on You. Thank You for the service of worship that we have been able to participate in. We pray continually for Your abiding presence.

Be with us throughout this day, in every service and in every place, wherever You lead us, whatever You give us to do. We thank You in advance. Bless now Your word. Speak it so clear. Bless each person to hear what we need and to walk away from here with our heads up and our hearts encouraged. Speak, Lord, Your servants are listening as You bless the words in our mouth and the meditations on our heart, that it may be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to take you this morning into the Old Testament book of Second Kings, two chapters, chapters 18 and 19. I would not encourage young preachers to try to cover this much content, but it's all one account and so we need to be able to understand it. I want to pick up the reading in chapter 19 and I'll just read three verses: verses 5, 6, and 7.

The word of God reads, "So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said unto them, 'Thus shall you say to your master: Thus saith the Lord, be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.'" This is the word of God for the people of God.

I want to preach from the question this morning: Why am I so afraid? How many know that fear is real? It's a serious emotion and it can do some devastating things to us. We fear a lot of things. We all try to act bold and bad, but the truth is that there is that emotion that lives. We've got anger; anger lives. It's a secondary emotion that hides back here but can come to the forefront. We don't walk around just always so afraid, but the truth is we can be afraid.

When I think about the Christmas drama, I always think about the shepherds. The Bible says they were abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And suddenly, the angel of the Lord appeared. The angel always said the first time he showed up, "Fear not." Why? Because he knew that they were scared. If one showed up in here now, we couldn't have the second service. They'd have to clean up in here. I just want you to understand that fear is real. When you try to be the kind of person to do the right thing, you're going to find yourself coming under attack.

This text really talks about another one of Judah's kings, and his name was Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a good man and he came to the forefront in Judah at a strategic time in its history. The northern kingdom, those of you that are Bible Old Testament people would know that by the time you come to Second Kings chapters 18 and 19, you would know that the kingdom of Israel has been divided into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom is known as Israel and the southern kingdom is known as Judah.

The northern kingdom has its kings and by this time, the northern kingdom has been carried away into captivity by a nation more powerful than they called Assyria. Assyria, because of its recent control of the northern kingdom, became in a real sense the neighborhood bully. They began to throw their weight around and began to threaten smaller nations. Of course, during this time, Hezekiah becomes king.

He became king when he was 25 years old and he reigned in Jerusalem for 29 years. The scripture says of him that he did that which was right in the sight of God. I just want you to know when the right man and place business pick up. When there is godly guidance, godly results will follow. Hezekiah spent his entire ministry and life as a king trying to right the wrongs that had been done.

The previous kings, they had gone so far away from God that one of them had even closed the doors of the temple and had put up idol gods in the temple, and they were worshiping all of those strange deities. Hezekiah came along and he cleansed the temple. He brought back the worship of the true and living God. That's when the troubles are going to come. When the trouble comes, it doesn't come lightly. It comes with a heavy dose and it comes with the design to cause your heart to melt.

What was this trouble? This same nation Assyria, under a new leader now. Ten years earlier, they had been under the leadership of Shalmaneser and he had been the one that had carried the northern kingdom into captivity. But now a new king, Sennacherib, is the king of Assyria. He's got two or three bad boys that are his commanders. They call one of them the Rabshakeh.

The Rabshakeh came down into Judah right near the city wall. You've got to understand these Assyrians, they looked like Assyrians; they didn't look like Jews. They were up there in their garments and their war horses and they came with a mighty host. They're out there and the Rabshakeh calls out the king, who is Hezekiah. But Hezekiah didn't go out. He sent his representative Eliakim and Shebna and Joah went out.

The Rabshakeh was talking noise in the language of the Jews. Eliakim said, "Look man, don't speak like that. Talk to us in the language of the Syrians. We understand the Syrian language so that the people don't have to hear what you're saying." Now, I don't want to say what the Bible says, but the Rabshakeh said, "I came so that all of y'all could stew in your own dung and drink your own pee." That ain't the word that's there, but it was designed to frighten the people.

And it did. It frightened the king and it frightened every one of those people in Jerusalem and Judah because they knew, "Uh oh." The Rabshakeh kept talking. He didn't not only say, "I came to make you stew in your own stuff and to drink your own stuff," he said, "But look at our record." He said, "We have wiped out all of the other nations around you and how is it that you're going to stand against our might? Who you going to trust? You going to trust the Egyptians?" He said, "My master is even willing to give you 2,000 horses if you can find the men to put them on." He said, "But I know all of them are scared."

Fear is something, man. It can paralyze communities. Just recently, I was looking at the national scene because when I see the text, I see the contemporary parallel to today's circumstances. I was reading about New Orleans and how ICE has come into New Orleans and really trying to terrorize the people there. The Hispanic population said, "We're not going to go to work and we're not going to send our children to school," because people are genuinely afraid.

This man who y'all have elected is like this Assyrian king who's trying to inflict fear in a time when everybody ought to be filled with joy. What I came to tell you this morning is we cannot allow anyone to rob us of our joy. This joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me and the world can't take it away. That's what you've got to know. You've got to know that things are happening every day and they are being done with the intent of striking fear.

Do you know the reason behind it? The reason is because in the new year 2026, there's supposed to be a mid-term election. The design is to try to keep from having a mid-term election so that the Republicans can remain in power and Donald can remain President of the United States. You just mark my word, all kinds of stuff is going to come out. That's why these troops are being sent in all of the cities, especially Democratic cities, to try to strike fear in people ultimately so that he can declare martial law and then elections can't go away.

I just want you to understand what's happening. I don't want you to think that I'm just talking about Hezekiah who lived all those years ago and this does not apply to you. Yes, it does. Because the same kind of thing that happened in causing this massive fear to sweep over Judah is happening to America.

But I like what Hezekiah does. Hezekiah said, "I know that I'm afraid." He knew he was and he acknowledged that he was afraid. He asked himself the question, "Why am I so afraid?" And then he thought. He said, "I know what I can do. There's a prophet in town and his name is Isaiah. I can send a group to represent us to see what the Lord will say."

That's what we better learn. We better learn that God has something to say about this situation. God has something to say about your situation. You know, every year about this time, I've got to be honest with you, a little fear creeps over me. I'll tell you why. Because it was on the 10th of December, 22 years ago, that my mother went to be with the Lord.

Every year about this time, there is this sneaky, eerie feeling that begins to come and I have to fight against it. Now, I know I'm not by myself, but you can deny if you want. There was a whole year one time, just before, and I don't mind sharing my age because I know who I am, but I remember when I was turning 63. That whole year, I was afraid because my dad died when he was 63. I was so glad when I turned 64.

Are y'all hearing me? Now, you can look and you can try to pretend that you're all of that, but I'm just trying to help you understand that there are folk in here today who know what this fear is that I'm speaking of. Sometimes we don't even want to go to the doctor. I ain't going to ask the men to raise your hand. We don't want that man to start talking about them numbers and telling us about our portions.

Fear is real. Ladies, I'm not going to bother you, but you know you don't want those puppies mashed. You don't want them telling you, "I found something that's uncomfortable." Fear is real. Regardless of what is used to manufacture that fear, it does some crazy stuff to us. It caused people to do crazy things. This Rabshakeh and Sennacherib was trying to prompt Israel into reacting to the news that they intended to invade their nation.

But Hezekiah said, "I want to hear what God has to say." So he sends his men to Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah said, "You go back and you tell Hezekiah your master that you don't have to be afraid of what this man is saying. You don't have to give into the blasphemous talk that he's talking against God." See, the Rabshakeh was telling them, "Don't y'all listen to Hezekiah. Don't let him make you think that this God can deliver you out of my hand."

I don't care who threatens you and what threatens you, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think according to the power that is at work within us. That's Holy Spirit that's been given to the Christian. Hezekiah had a choice. You always have a choice. The choice was: Is he going to believe what the Rabshakeh and Sennacherib say? Is he going to believe the threats that we're going to wipe out your nation and we're going to turn you over, turn you out, turn you loose, turn you upside down? Whatever the threat was. Is he going to listen to that or is he going to listen to the word of God?

God said it ain't going to happen. God said, "I'm going to send a rumor." God said he's going to hear a voice. God said that I'm going to make him and his own men kill themselves. But the choice was put before Hezekiah. I submit myself to you this morning that the choice is before you. You can choose to become paralyzed with fear and you won't be able to enjoy nothing. You won't go out and buy no gifts, you won't go to the store, you won't do anything because you will become so paralyzed.

Every time I used to see a blue light, I'd be watching through my rearview mirror. That's when I was a boy when I was 16 because my daddy had well-warned me that if they stop you, you very well could be in trouble. Because we came up in an era where we didn't have a black police chief and we didn't have many black police officers. As a matter of fact, when I started driving, it wasn't no black police officers. And so to see one coming through places like Midfield, man, you just better creep. Because if they pull you over and you out there on that road by yourself, you might not get home. Somebody know what I'm saying.

So fear is real. Sometimes when I go now, I have to go armed with the Holy Spirit. No matter what you say, I'm understanding that this is just your opinion. This is not necessarily the word of God. I remember coming out of that doctor's office, so help me, and he told me, "Man, I see something and we're going to have to have surgery. We're not sure about how this thing's going to come out." I said to myself at first, "Whatever this is, I'm just going to take it home to glory."

But then I went home. I said, "Let me hear what the Lord has to say." I got on my knees and I began to pray. God spoke again. God said, "I'm here to help you. I want you to go through this process so that I can keep you strong." Are y'all hearing me? Sometimes God will give you the choice whether or not you're going to believe this or you're going to believe what the Lord says.

Is there anybody who has dared believe God? I dared believe God. I dared believe Him when He said, "Don't let them put that stuff in you. Don't take chemo, don't take radiation." Here I am, signed, sealed, and delivered. I just want you to know. Now, I'm not telling you what to do. You have got to listen to God yourself because God has a plan that's different for each individual. But the point is you have a choice.

You can listen to what Sennacherib says or you can listen to what God says. We've got Sennacheribs everywhere. We've got folk who threaten you every day. You've got circumstances that defy God's will. But God has promised He was going to wipe them out. So that's what you've got to believe. I just believe it. Anybody holding on to a promise this morning?

There is a sneaky promise that God has spoken to me that I can't reveal just yet, but I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. All I'm trying to help you understand is you have to grow to the point of your relationship with God where God can speak to you and God will tell you something that would be unique for your life. It would be a definition; it would be defining. That's what God does and that's what God did.

I believe the prophet's voice. I believe what God had to say. That's all I want to get across this morning is when you begin to pray, Hezekiah prayed. When he prayed, then God revealed to him, "Go to the prophet, send word to the prophet, hear what God has to say about it." Then when he heard what God had to say about it, it became a matter of choice: Am I going to believe what the Lord has said?

That's America's challenge. That's Greater Shiloh's challenge. That's my personal challenge. Now, you can choose to be fearful about everything and you can listen to everybody. You've got to be careful who you listen to because the world is full of "Ain't it awful?" people. You probably never met "Ain't it awful?" people, but every other word, "Ain't it awful? Ain't it awful?" "Ain't it awful?" people will kill your spirit. They will jack you up and they will make you think your makeup ain't on right. "Ain't it awful? Your wig ain't on straight. Ain't it awful?" They will mess you up.

But get in your own mirror and look at your own self. When you know, then you don't have to worry. You really don't. You have to ask yourself: Am I going to be afraid of this? Am I going to be afraid of that? Whatever this is. You know what I learned? I learned that there are some things that are God's business that are not my business. When it's God's business, I don't have to worry about it.

There are some things I don't want the Lord to tell me. There are some things I don't need Him to tell me. You keep that to Yourself, God. That's Your business. Old lady one time was talking—she was first lady of a church—and there had been a lot of gossip in the church. They interviewed her and they asked her, "First Lady, what you think about what they saying?" She said, "I don't think nothing about it." They said, "Why don't you think about it?" She said, "Because they wasn't talking to me. Since they didn't tell me, it wasn't my business."

So there are some things. If God has not spoken it to you, it's not your business. I'm not going to be afraid. I choose to stand up. I choose to stand out. Hezekiah chose to do what's right. I'm going to do what's right. I want you to do what's right. I don't want you to get lost in the shuffle. I don't want you to get lost in the craziness. I don't want you to get lost in the foolishness and thinking that you have to do something. You don't have to do anything but hold on to God's unchanging hand, believe His word, stand on what's right, do what's right. When you do the right thing, right results follow.

The thing about doubt and fear is it can grip you. When you choose, look at the alternative. We've already talked about believing God and that's what Hezekiah chose to do. But there is a moment where you do look at what Sennacherib's got to say and that's when doubt builds. You can say, "You know what God, he is right. Assyria did take the northern kingdom captive. They have defeated the Egyptians. They are taking over the neighborhood. They are the new bully in town. They do have all of these soldiers. We only have 3,000 soldiers. They've got 185,000. God, he does have a point."

It can mess with you. But I like what God said: "Don't worry, boy. There's going to be a rumor tonight." God sent a whisper in the camp. The Assyrians, 185,000 of them, turned on each other and they began to kill each other with the sword. When the children of Israel came down to where the Assyrians were the next morning, they were all dead because the Lord had done what the Lord said He would do.

Everybody ever seen God work? I mean, can you imagine when they got to the place and they looked down there and they looked at all these folk? They had to say, "God, You bad." I've had to say, "God, You bad." When I look around, I say, "God, You bad." Sometimes I look at given situations in my own life and I have to step back and say, "God, You bad."

When I got up this morning, I said, "God, You bad." Anybody know He's bad? Just how bad is He? He's bad enough to wake the sun up to march it across the blue ether, set it down behind the western hills because God is bad. When I see grass, it's usually green. This time of year it's brown, but God is bad. Trees lose their leaves because God is bad. Hang around a couple more months and they'll all be filled again with brand new leaves because God is bad.

When I go fishing, I don't pull snakes out, I pull fish out because God is bad, baby. When He's on your side, when the Lord is with you, then you learn to say, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, whom shall I be afraid?" You learn to say, "When the wicked, even my enemies, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though war should encamp against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and inquire of in His temple. For in the time of trouble, He shall hide me. In the secret of His pavilion shall He hide me."

I choose to believe God. I choose to stand on His word no matter what it is, no matter who says what or what circumstances come my way. I know God and I know what He will do. I will stand up for right. I will stand on the truthfulness of His word and I will believe Him no matter what. Amen. Amen. He's been too good.

See, the purpose of going through what you go through is to give you confidence that when it comes up again, the same God who was with you yesterday is the God who's with you today. The God who's with you today will be the God who will be with you on tomorrow. Now, you might not know about tomorrow, but you know about yesterday. Anybody look back at yesterday? Anybody know that it was God who brought you out, it was God who brought you through?

Listen at what these Hebrew boys said later on in the history of the same people when the southern kingdom, Judah, was carried captive. They carried these young boys: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The king of Babylon tried to get these boys to bow down and told them, "Boys, if you don't do it, we're going to put you in the fire." The boys said, "Listen, O King, let us tell you something. We might not be able to stop you from putting us in the fire, but the God we serve, He's able. He's able to do anything but fail."

Isn't He able? Anybody know He's able? He's able to wipe tears from your eyes. He's able to make your enemy your footstool. He's able to bless your life. I know He is. I'm so grateful. I am so thankful for all that God does. We ought to just bless His name. We ought to bless Him today. Somebody ought to want to praise Him. I don't know what you came to do, but it ought not be just to look at somebody else. I want to be a witness. The Lord has been good. The Lord is good. The Lord has brought me. The Lord is blessing me and the Lord will bless for all He's done.

Anybody want to know for all He's done? For all He's done? Can you just touch somebody and say, "For all He's done?" That's why I want to bless His name. I want to bless His name. Anybody want to bless Him? Anybody want to praise Him? Anybody want to honor Him? Anybody want to tell the world: I don't have to work. I am not going to be afraid. I'm going to stand on what God says no matter what tomorrow holds, no matter who holds it, no matter what they do, I'm going to be all right. I want you to be all right. I want you to know you can be all right no matter what. Come on, let's take this thing on up.

Come on, I just feel like praising Him. If you want to praise Him, stand on your feet. All I want to do is bless Your name. We're going to open the doors of the church right now. Somebody might want to come. Somebody might want to give their life all the way to God. Come on, this is your moment. Doors are open.

Can you imagine Hezekiah when they got to the place and they looked down there and they looked at all these folk? I choose to bless the name of the Lord. As I bless His name and praise Him for who He is and for what He has done, then my fears leave and my praise replace my fears. That's why I praise. That's why I pray. That's why I give His name glory because instead of being afraid, I praise my way through. Are y'all hearing me?

Thank You, Lord. It's powerful right there. You can't beat thanksgiving. You can't beat God blessing when we praise Him. Fear is real. Now, you can choose to be choked by fear or you can choose to turn loose and praise the name of the Lord. I choose to praise Him. Amen. Thank you so much.

Let's bring it on to communion now. We're going to enter the service of the Holy Communion and we're going to break bread together on our knees. Amen. Let us pray.

Communion gives us this moment. If you had been in ancient Egypt when the death angel came and passed over your house and saved your firstborn, I don't think you would have been quiet. I think all of those people blessed the name of the Lord. All of these years that this process has been going, people have been blessing the name of the Lord. God wanted us to have a reason to praise Him. So He went to the cross and He took our sins and He was crucified. His body was made to bleed. His body was broken and His blood was shed so that we could be included in the family of God.

Jesus anticipated that. So when He was with His disciples on the night that He was betrayed, He took bread, and He blessed it, and He gave it to them and broke it and said, "Take and eat, this is My body that is broken for you." In the same way, He took the cup and He said, "This cup is My blood in the New Testament; drink ye all of it." Then He told them the meaning: "Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord, you do show forth My death. You do remember what I have done for you."

That's a reason to bless His name. That's what takes away my fears. That's what keeps me grounded on solid ground. I've been in some situations. I've been in some uncomfortable things, but the Lord has been right there to guide me through it all. That's why I want to praise Him. God bless you. Service ends in an informal way by asking you to stand and shake hands with someone nearby.

Outro Voice: Hope you enjoyed the broadcast. You have been listening to a message from the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church where we are reaching the world for Christ. Located at 2135 Jefferson Avenue Southwest, Birmingham, Alabama, 35211. For a copy of this message, you can reach us at 205-925-9750 or 9751, or visit us on the web at www.greatershiloh.org. For another uplifting message, we invite you to join us for our next broadcast.