Running To Win

Dave McAllister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith. Think of living in places where gunfire rages nearly every day. Fear, am I the next target? Terrorism breeds fear in everyone. And now that we're seeing it on our own shores, we need a way to face this fear with confidence. Today from Psalm 27, the recipe to do just that, stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is running to win with Dr. Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line.

Pastor Lutzer, your topic is living with fear and winning. It sounds like we can't escape it, only learn to deal with it.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know, Dave, I really do think that that is true. But I also want to emphasize that there are many different things that cause fear in our lives. You referenced terrorism, of course, the unpredictability of the future, but for many people who are listening, it's fear because they have cancer. It's fear perhaps because a mate wants to leave a marriage. Children are living in fear. And what we attempt to do in this message is to give hope and healing. As a matter of fact, at the end of this message, I'm actually going to be praying a prayer for those who are struggling with fear because I've discovered in my own life that fear can be very debilitating.

And the thing about it is it doesn't change anything. So how do we take our burdens and give them to the Lord? How do we see God in the midst of our fear? That's why I believe that this message is so very important. I trust all who have joined us will listen carefully. Control. We're told today that there are five or six fears. And actually I have to say that probably every one of us has at least one fear and maybe two or three fears. Oh, the list could include such things as fear of rejection.

It's amazing what people will do to be accepted because we fear rejection from friends, maybe even from a spouse. Young women sometimes marry unwisely because they fear that they may go through life without a husband. And that kind of rejection sometimes brings about unwise decisions. I know it's been said a thousand times, but I'll say it a thousand and one, it is always better to want what you don't have than to have what you don't want. Remember that and we have some testimonies of that right over here. We could open the mic and we could hear it directly.

Secondly, there's fear of poverty, economic uncertainty, fear that we won't have enough to live, that we will be thrown out on the street, that we'll lose our houses or our condos because we're losing our jobs. Fear of loneliness. Imagine being in a nursing home and nobody visits you and you're just there alone, just you and Jesus. Imagine the loneliness and the sense of rejection. Fear of sickness. I know someone whose wife would not go to the doctor because she feared that the test would reveal something. And so she didn't go and so she died from something that humanly speaking was quite preventable.

But the very idea of having a test, she'd prefer not to know what was wrong with her body. Fear of violence. We can now add terrorism. Terrorism, biological weapons, chemical weapons. We hear about the possibilities that are so horrendous that if that happens, I think we'll just want to just say, Lord, here we come. Let's not try to figure all this out. What about fear of death? That's a biggie. Fear of death. Martin Luther liked to tell the story about a Turkish army officer who promised his soldiers that if they died in a war that day, if they died in a war, they would go directly to sup with Christ in heaven by evening.

So many of them went and some of them died and some of them who lived came back and said to the officer, well, why didn't you go into the battle and get killed so that you could sup with Christ this evening? He said, well, I can't do that because I'm fasting today. Fear of death. Now I want us to know that the answer to the problem of fear is a new understanding and a fresh understanding of God. That's where it lies. And it's because of some misconceptions of God, we sometimes find fears that are coming into our lives that would not have to be there if we just understood God a little better.

King David, before he was the king, was hounded by King Saul. He was running from cave to cave. 10 long years this harassment continued and Saul intended to kill David. And David was running and actually he not only ran, but it so destabilized him mentally. This is King David. It's so destabilized him mentally that he actually ended up joining the Philistine army, the army of the enemy for a peace. It's amazing what harassment and fear can do and and you continue to run. And that's what was happening to David and it can happen to us.

But the Psalm that I've chosen today is one in which David got his sight straight. It's one in which he offers up hope because he's he's thinking biblically about God. Let's put it that way. Psalm 27. Psalm 27 is the Psalm and it was written when David was fleeing from King Saul. That's where most scholars place it. And as a result of that, you find that David here is rejoicing in God and he mentions at least four different blessings that come to those who are in distress. Are you in distress today? You've got four blessings coming your way and I want you to grab hold of all of them and walk out here today with all of these blessings safely tucked in your mind and heart.

That's the agenda. First of all, what David says is he says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? You know what a stronghold is? If you've been to Israel, you go to Masada. That's a stronghold. Huge mountains, steep cliffs. There's no way that you can scale those heights. And what happened is the Jews were able to hold out there as long as they had food and water for years and nobody could get to them. That's the stronghold.

God is our stronghold and we are in God. Now David goes on and he says some things that you and I can't say. In this Psalm, he he mentions some promises that that you and I can't claim. Notice what he says, when evil men, verse two, advanced against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attacked me, they will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear. Though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. The part that doesn't apply to us is when he says, when the evil people come against me, they're going to stumble and fall and they're going to vanish away.

That may not be true of us. When we preach the Psalms, we have to point things like this out. And the reason is because David could say this because God gave him a promise that he would be king. And so he had this in his heart that no matter what happened, he would live through it. But you and I don't have that promise, do we? Not even Jesus, who always did the Father's will. Not even Jesus discovered that as armies came against him, they all stumbled and fell. No, they nailed him violently to a tree.

They crucified him. So how does this apply to us to say that God is our protector, which incidentally is the first blessing? The first blessing is that God is our protector. It simply applies in this sense that there is no way that an enemy can get to us unless God permits it, unless God lets down the drawbridge and allows the enemy to attack us. No enemy can attack us without the permission, the express permission of God. That's how it applies. You say, well, why does God allow that? Why does he not just simply wall us off?

Why don't we just go through life without any enemies, without any attacks? Why don't we just why don't we just be secure in him and sing all the songs of praises all the way to heaven without any care or concern? Well, you know that God has a different agenda, don't you? It was Elizabeth Elliot who said, we cannot explain why God allows some people to suffer in many different ways. We can't explain that, but we do know for sure that he loves us with an everlasting love. He asks us to trust him until that time when the mystery of pain and his sovereignty will be unfolded.

So God has his purpose and part of that is going to become clearer as this message continues. But you and I don't have the right to tell God, we do not have the right to tell God how deep the knife might go into our soul. God is accomplishing something. But God shields us from so many different enemies that we don't even know about and he shields us from satanic attack. God is our stronghold. He is our protection. He is all that. But he allows the enemies through from time to time to teach us to trust him in ways that we would never get to know him were it not that we walk through the valley of those fears.

Second blessing, David says God satisfies us. Verse four, one thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling. He will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above mine enemies who surround me. At his tabernacle, I will sacrifice with shouts of joy.

I will sing and make music to the Lord. Now if this indeed was written when David was fleeing from King Saul, think of what David is saying is not only does God protect me and shield me, but God satisfies me. I get to go into the temple of the Lord as it were and I and I behold the beauty of the Lord and the Lord hides me in his tabernacle. The imagery is this, that in the Middle East, if you had a friend or someone who was even fleeing from an enemy, you could take that friend and you could hide him in your tent and the enemy could not get to him unless the enemy got to you first.

It was a sign of security, a sign of acceptance. It was guest rights, if you please. And David is saying, you know, that's what God does for me. In the midst of my enemies, in the midst of my fears, there is a sense in which I get to worship him and to enjoy his beauty in his tabernacle and he surrounds me about in the hollow of his hand and his heart. David says, in the midst of my fears, God actually satisfies me. It's not just that he protects me on the outside, but he gives me something within that is so fulfilling.

Thirdly, he says God accepts me. He accepts me. You'll notice as he continues on, he speaks about seeking the face of the Lord. That is so beautiful that that really needs a separate message. I will not comment on it, although perhaps at the end I'll say a word about it. But he says, Lord, you're saying seek my face, your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger because you've been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, oh God, my savior. And then he says, though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.

Now you have to understand David. David was the last born in his family and he always struggled with this sense of rejection. And you remember what happened? All of the sons of Jesse marched before Samuel and Samuel says, I can't figure this out, Lord, because you've not designated one of these to be king and and I apparently I've seen all the sons. And I said, no, no, you haven't seen them all actually. There's a there's a young one who's just tending to the lambs and the sheep. You haven't seen him, but there's no way that this boy of 17 could be the right one.

So so David has this this problem with wondering where he fit within the family, perhaps rejected by his older brothers and also maybe rejected by his parents. So he says even if my father and mother forsake me, I'm talking about abandonment issues. Those who do counseling like Pastor Milco and others, they know all about abandonment issues. If a child's been abandoned, it's very difficult sometimes to establish comfortable and wholesome relationships because there is this fear they're going to abandon me again. That's why by the way, the Church of Jesus Christ must become surrogate families for all the children who feel this sense of rejection and abandonment.

That is our responsibility to be mother and father and cousins and aunts to those children. That's what the body of Jesus Christ is for. But in the process, what we do is we we keep drawing them to God and to say that even though your father and mother have forsaken you and some of you who are adopted feel that way, don't you? The Bible says that the Lord will take you up. God accepts you and receives you and you'll never be caught in a child custody battle so far as God is concerned. You'll belong to him forever.

So David says, my major fear, which is the fear of abandonment, God is taking care of that because because even if my parents reject me, God will be there for me. You know, that's comforting, isn't it? You may fear the rejection of a spouse. You may fear the rejection of your parents and relatives and you may feel the sting and the hurt of betrayal. But God will be there for his people. The third blessing is he accepts us. The fourth blessing is that he will teach and lead us. You'll notice now I'm actually in verse 11.

Teach me your way, oh Lord. Lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise against me breathing out violence. We could read today terrorism. I am still confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. He says, God will teach me and God will lead me. Yes, through our fears God teaches us. God often times takes all of those support systems that we think are so important and those are taken from us and and all that we have left is God.

You've heard me quote the Puritans before, haven't you? When all that we have is God, we discover that God is enough. There is such a thing as comfort and rest and security in God. And David says that actually is the answer ultimately to those whom we fear and the whole fear issues that are so important to us. And he says, lead me, Lord. Keep me from the desire of my enemies. They've laid traps for me. There's some of you who tomorrow morning are going to be in a work environment where there are people whose sole desire is to get you to fail.

They want to see you fail. They want to set traps for you. They want to work it in such a way that that that you fail because it's so important to them either to get your position or else to feel better in relationship to you, full of envy. And then there are others of you who may be harassed and and who may be in difficult situations and David is saying, keep me from the desire of my enemies. Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes even though false witnesses have been raised against me.

And we find today that there are people all over the place who are willing to be false witnesses. If you get money, if you get prestige, if it helps you, false witnesses abound in our culture. Sometimes even in Christian circles, there are false witnesses that rise against us. So what David is saying is that, Lord, you're giving me these blessings not when everything is going well. You'll notice he says he hides me in his tabernacle, as I mentioned a moment ago, in the day of trouble. Not when you're healthy and well and when you get a windfall and when everything seems to be going in your direction, a very much in the day of trouble, God protects us, satisfies us, receives us, leads us.

And in that we can be confident. Now I began this message by saying that the answer to fear is for us to understand God and his relationship to what's happening in the world. And what I need to tell you is this that obviously from this Psalm we can see first of all that the bigger our God, the bigger our God, the smaller our fears and our enemies, the bigger our God. Because you see, when when David began to understand that the Lord was was omnipotent and that he was God, that's what instills confidence in us.

Do you remember the early church? They were persecuted. They were whipped. They were taken and they were put in jail. And when they came together for a prayer meeting, a marvelous prayer that was prayed in Acts chapter four, what did they say? Oh, sovereign Lord, we know that you are the creator of the ends of the earth. That's the way their prayer began. Why did they begin that way? They needed to remind themselves that their enemies who were persecuting them, that even those enemies were created by God and they were dependent upon God for their very breath.

Listen, the person who has you in his sights, the person who would like to destroy you, I want to tell you today that that person lives and breathes by the mercy of a sovereign God who could snuff out his breath and his life in one second. And so the early church said, Lord, you're the creator and because you're the creator, you really do have the whole world in your hands and you are in control. In control. There's a second lesson. And now we get to the biggie that I think is going to be very helpful for all of us.

Even when we are in the hands of wicked men, we are still in the hands of God. Even when we're in the hands of wicked men, as believers we are still in the hands of God. Who is it that crucified Jesus? Peter, when he was preaching to the people, said, uh you you crucified Jesus. Wicked hands crucified him and nailed him to a cross. Wicked hands did it. And yet when Jesus dies on the cross and gives us those marvelous seven sayings from the cross, what is the last one that he gives? He says, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.

Wicked hands can only do so much. Wicked hands can only snuff out your life or nail you to a cross or cause an explosion or cause a plane to go down. That's all that wicked hands can do. But when wicked hands have done the worst that they can possibly do underneath are the everlasting hands of God and those hands sustain God's people even when wicked hands do evil. Always remember that. You remember Jesus said some things about his hands. He says that as far as my people are concerned, he said, no one can pluck them out of my hands, he says, speaking of his people.

And then he says in the very same context, my father who gave them to me is greater than everybody and nobody can pluck them out of my father's hands. You have hands in harmony. You have the hands of the son and you have the hands of the father and both of them are holding on to God's people and they hold on to God's people even when God's people are thrown to the lions, even when they are massacred, even when they die in airplanes, they hold on to God's people. Those hands do not let go. I hope I'm making myself clear today.

What I'm trying to say to you is that the providence of God does not leave you just because somebody who is wicked attacks you or even kills you. You're still in the hands of God. My friend, in a moment I'm going to be praying for you because I can't help but think that there are many who are listening, who are filled right now with fear. Fear comes because of many different reasons, many different attacks against us. And I want to pray for you. But first of all, I want to let you know that we're making a book available for you.

It's entitled Famines, Deserts, and Other Hard Places. This book also will help you even as you think about your fears, as you are reminded of the fact that saints throughout the centuries have endured every calamity you can possibly imagine. And God took care of them. And of course, at the end they were in his presence. I want to encourage you today. For a gift of any amount, we're making this book available for you. rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And now let me pray. Father, I ask in the name of Jesus, all who have listened, I pray that you might enable all of us to bring our fears and to leave them at the feet of Jesus.

Help us to remember that his shoulders are strong. The governments of the world are upon his shoulders so we can trust him with our fear. I pray, Father, that we might all see you in the midst of our fear and be assured that you have not abandoned us. Encourage your people. And for those who have never trusted Christ as savior, we pray that at this moment they might believe on you and be saved. In Jesus' name, amen.

Dave McAllister: You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's road map for your race of life. In Psalm 27, David displayed unwavering confidence in God. We can as well, no matter what comes, since God knows what fears will confront us before we do. Next time, Pastor Lutzer brings more inspiration from Psalm 27. We'll learn to trust the God who has our circumstances in his capable hands. Plan to join us. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McCallister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.