“Fear Not, For I Am Your God” Conclusion

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 929 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: But His Word which doesn’t change, spoken by One who cannot lie says, I’ll never leave you! I will never forsake you! I don’t see a condition in that, do you? I don’t see where God says, if you will just keep on trying, I’m gonna reward your efforts. I’m there to cheer you on. It’s up to your strength, but I’m gonna just encourage you. No! That’s not it. I am with you!

That’s why David could face a giant. That’s why all the heroes of faith in the Old Testament could do what they did, not because of who they were. They’re people like us. But they’re people that heard the voice of God and believed in Him more than they believed in everything else around them.

And that’s God’s Word to you and to me today because every one of us, as I said, is facing things in our lives right now you wouldn’t even want to tell somebody. But there are struggles. And the Word of God is to people who have struggles and questions and burdens in their lives, and obstacles and mountains. And they’re facing things that…they’re putting a smile on their face, but there’re struggling on the inside. God wants to say, don’t be afraid! I’m with you.

( congregational amens ).

I love you. I’ve called you. I’ve chosen you. That’s your anchor this morning. That’s my anchor. That’s God’s Word to you, not just to these people thousands of years ago. This is God’s Word today, this morning. Praise God!

“…Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed…” (NIV). Now, dismayed…that’s a person who just throws up their hands and says, ain’t no use. That’s our way of putting it. You remember how God warned Joshua not to be dismayed. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed. He knew Joshua was going to face situations that if you were to look at them humanly, they would be utterly impossible.

But the question is how do we react to what is humanly impossible? Does it cause us to say, there’s no use, I give up? Or do we say, I’m looking at my God. My God has promised and on the basis of His promise, I’m gonna stand in the face of this and say, I can go through. I can get through this. God will bring me through. Nothing can defeat me. Something may work on me. Something may accomplish something in my life. It will because God’s gonna use every circumstance in our lives to accomplish His purpose. We know that from Romans 8:28. But that doesn’t mean it has to defeat us, because God has promised!

If you’re leaning on your own strength, you’re gonna fall in the mud, but God’s gonna pick you up, too. Praise God! Don’t be dismayed. What is it in your life? Is it a personal weakness? Is a personal need? Every one of us has got them. There’s not a person here who has arrived. Anybody here that’s completely like Jesus? All you have to do is kind of step over to the other side and nothing will change. You’re already there. No! Every one of us has got needs that look to us, seem to us to be insurmountable. Well guess what? That’s why we need a Savior!

( congregational amens ).

That’s why I need a Savior. I need somebody who has all power and who’s on my side and who loves me and who’s determined to accomplish what He said He’s going to accomplish. He is able to save completely those who come to Him through Christ because He ever lives to pray for us. Where does the ability come from? Does He say we are able? He says He is able--He is able to do.

You know, we can look at circumstances around us and say, oh my God, this is just fatal. This situation is fatal. This condition is fatal. It’s not. We have a God who is able to deal with every kind of thing that affects His purpose. We have a God, and we need to stop looking at things that loom up before us, and we need to start looking at our God, and saying God is able. Lord, our eyes are upon You.

Think of the prayer of Jehoshaphat facing an army of overwhelming proportions. There was no human way they could have defeated that army. And God so gave a victory, they didn’t even have to fight that day. All they had to do was send the choir out in front of the army to praise God, praise Him for His goodness, and God took care of the other army. And all they got out of it was about three days worth of hauling good stuff back home. I tell you, we serve a great God!

( congregational amens ).

But you remember Jehoshaphat’s prayer? It was a prayer that came from somebody who humanly speaking had no answer. He said, Lord, look how they’ve come to cast us out of your inheritance. Lord, we don’t know what to do--we don’t know what to do. Are you in that place today? You don’t know what to do--you just don’t know what to do. Well, what does the Lord say? You just look to Me. Are you in darkness, you don’t have any light for your situation right now? What do you do? You stay on…stay on your God, look to Him, declare your faith in Him. Say Lord, I don’t know what to do. I am trusting in You.

Our eyes are upon You, Jehoshaphat cried. Oh I tell you, there was a man that did exactly what we need to do. He didn’t do that because he was somebody great, somebody strong. He did it because he was weak and needed God, just exactly like us in that respect. God is a God who reaches down to the weak, to the lowest of the low, to the weakest of the weak. He’s not drawn to the strong and the mighty and the proud. He’s drawn to those who need Him. He has the kind of a heart that reaches down--all the [way] down to where you are, and me. Thank God!

Oh, we need to stop listening to every other voice, and start listening to the voice of God. If you’re lying in a puddle of self pity and dismay, get up! Stop looking at your circumstances. Stop looking at your feelings. Stop going by all of that. Start looking at your God. Say, God, I trust You. I know this may be dark. I know it may be painful. I know it may be difficult. It looks impossible. It is, as far as I’m concerned. But God, nothing’s impossible with You. I’m trusting in You today.

“Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.” He is your God this morning. He’s not just some God out there somewhere. If He has called you and chosen you, He is your God, and my God. We have a right to come to Him. Doesn’t Hebrews 4 tell us that we have the right to come freely before a throne of grace? Not a throne of justice, where we have to deserve what we get…a throne of grace, where people who are in need of something they don’t deserve can come freely. Oh, thank God! That puts a whole different complexion on life, doesn’t it?

But God goes on and He says, “I will strengthen you and help you.” Are you weak this morning? Thank God if you are! The song we sang…“Let the weak say I am strong.” Now how could…that sounds like playing games with yourself. It sounds like psyching your self up. This is not a psychological game. This is reality. If God has made Himself known to you, you have every reason to look up in His face and say, Father, I thank You. You are my God. I am weak, but You have promised to strengthen me.

The strength that you and I need is not something we have to muster up from deep within. You’ll find quickly that you’ll run out. And when you run out, that’s when God begins. God hasn’t even gotten involved when you’re trying to struggle and work things out. You need to say, God, You work it out. God, there’s no way I can face what I’m facing, but I need You and You are my God. You have promised to strengthen me. I am weak, but I need more strength than I have. But you promised to strengthen me.

Does God have enough? Is He gonna run out? I’ll tell you, you look back a couple of chapters…one chapter actually and you’ll find a God who made the heavens and…holds everything in place, calls every star by name. I guess He’s got enough power, He can spare a little to help us. He’s promised, hasn’t He? Well, if you’re god can lie, then you just go right on being dismayed. Mine tells the truth, and He loves me. I look in mirror I can’t find any reason for that except for His own goodness and His own purpose. He responds to the weak.

“I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Boy, how many times do we fall? The Lord not only upholds us, He picks us up. And other times when we would fall, God is the one who is holding. How many times have you and I gone through situations where we didn’t see any way we could get through. We come to the other side and say, somehow God has helped me. I did not have what it took, but God brought me through. That’s meant to encourage us, to remind us that we have that kind of a God who strengthens the weak, who lifts up the weak.

All you have to do is go forward to chapter 42. This is a continuation of the same prophecy and talks about the servant. See not only do we have a God somewhere out there, He sent His Son to walk among us. And this is a description of how He reacts to people. In verse 3, He said, “A bruised reed he will not break,” Do you feel bruised this morning? Do you feel wounded? Do you feel like everything’s about to fall apart, and you just don’t know how you’re gonna make it? You think, God looks at me and He’s disgusted. He’s called me out. He’s told me so much, and here I am such a weak, broken failure. How in the world could God want to have anything to do with me?

Well, I tell you, a bruised reed He won’t break. You may be bruised. It doesn’t mean He’s done with you. He is One who can heal. He is One who can restore. He is One who can bring something out of nothing. He calls those things which be not as though they were, because He has the power to bring things into existence if necessary.

( congregational praise ).

Praise God indeed! “And a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” Now you’ve got the imagery here of a candle. A candle is supposed to be lit. The wick is supposed to give off a nice cheery flame and give light, and that’s its purpose. But now here’s one little candle, its tiny, little spark just kind of smoldering there, and the wick…you can barely see the smoke coming up from that. Now the way we would suppose and the way the devil would paint God is that He’s a God who would say, the heck with you. You’re worthless. There’s no light. You’re not serving the purpose that you were made for.

( blowing sound ).

Out you go. That’s not our God. Don’t listen to the kind of a god that the devil wants to paint-- the picture that he wants to paint. We have a God who is tenderhearted and compassionate for the weakest of the weak. If your light has diminished to the point where it’s just a tiny smoldering spark, God is not gonna snuff you out. He is gonna do what it takes to fan that into flame and to bring you back to a place where the light will shine once again. It will be His glory. It won’t be yours.

( congregational amens ).

God is not one to just snuff you out because you’re weak. Praise God! Does this mean something to you? Praise God! It means something to me.

( congregational amens ).

Because I get in that place and so do you. We all get there. We think we’re just on the verge of losing everything and God is saying, don’t worry. Underneath are what? The everlasting arms! Do you think you’re going to fall and nobody is gonna be there to catch you? God is saying, I’ve got you. Don’t worry. It’s okay. I haven’t forgotten about you. I know you go through high places and low places, but I’ve got you. I called you. You didn’t call Me. You didn’t seek Me out. I called you. I chose you. I’ve got a purpose and it’s gonna get done. Don’t you worry, I’ve set my love upon you. We are a part of what God is doing by His choice not because of our merit, not because even of our choice, in a sense – in the sense that we initiated something, that’s what I want to get across.

All…now here He talks about opposition. Now whether it comes from people or devils or circumstances or whatever, “All who rage against you…” And they do. “…Will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.” Why? “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand.…”

You know we might go through this life and not see this, but there will come a day when we will look back. In fact, the man who prophesied this, ended his life under the wicked reign of Manasseh by being sawed in half. But I’ll tell you, he’s looking down now and he’s alive. And where are those that opposed him? They perished. I’ll tell you, whether God allows us to triumph in this life or the next, don’t worry. Nothing can destroy those that God has called because they are His, because they have a life that cannot die. These bodies can die. But there’s a life that God has put inside of His chosen people, that’s His life. Praise God!

I hope when God calls you, you hear His voice and you say, yes, and you humble yourself, and respond, because He’s One that you can put your trust in. So this is the one, “I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” There it is again. There must be reason God says don’t fear so many times. Do you suppose it’s because we are prone to it? We naturally are afraid of everything. Don’t sit there and pretend you’re somebody strong, and smart, and brave, and all of that stuff. You’re like everybody else. We are afraid on the inside. We feel our inadequacies.

But you know the very people who feel their inadequacies, their weaknesses, their unworthiness the most, are the very ones that God has called. It is a characteristic of God’s chosen people to feel those things. That’s not an indication God is not interested in you. That’s an indication that God has given you a consciousness of your need. That’s what causes you to reach out to Him and put your trust in Him. That ought to be shouting ground if you feel your need.

( congregational amens ).

Because you have a God who has promised to meet that need…who is able to do it, He’s willing to do it. He’s promised to do it. We have solid ground to stand upon today. So He says, “Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel.”

Do you think He’s talking to the unbelievers that He prepared for destruction and wrath? No. He’s talking to the little remnant of His people. That’s the only ones who really, in His mind, had the title ‘Israel’. That was the real Israel. There was a nation that people called Israel. This was Israel, this faithful, little small remnant that He talked about in chapter one. Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. God had preserved a remnant. Otherwise, He would have destroyed the nation just like He did Sodom and Gomorrah.

But now they’re feeling their littleness. They’re feeling the fear that whelms up. They see what looks to them to be a hopeless situation and the devil is pounding that thought into their minds and so God says, don’t fear. Don’t be afraid. I’ll help you. Don’t be afraid, O worm Jacob. Every one of us, so far as eternal things is concerned we are as helpless as a worm is in the natural order of things. You just step on it and squish.

But oh, thank God, we have a God who says don’t be afraid. You may be a worm so far as natural things are concerned. You may be little. Didn’t Jesus say, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (KJV). Why is He giving us the kingdom, because we’re something? No, because it’s His good pleasure. Thank God. This rests in His character, in His choice, folks.

( congregational amens ).

Don’t’ let the devil put the burden on your shoulders as though you’ve got to somehow rise to this thing and somehow you’ve got to measure up and achieve and all that stuff. There is a striving we do, but it’s because He’s chosen us, not in order to be chosen.

( congregational amens ).

It’s a response to the grace of a loving, all-powerful God. Thank God! “Don’t be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel.” (NIV). Why? Why not? Why shouldn’t I be afraid? I am a worm. I feel my weakness. It says, “For I myself will help you, declares the Lord….” It even adds the word, “declares the Lord.” He just wants to make sure we get it. He doesn’t just say the words but He puts a label of a declaration of almighty God behind it. God wants us to learn to reckon on what He said.

“…Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” Now He makes a promise, “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge…” Now this was something they understood in their agricultural economy. “…New and sharp, with many teeth.” That’s quite a transformation from being a worm to being something that’s strong and able to chew up the ground and prepare it for planting…go through all the hard places and tear out all the roots and whatever had to be done. This is something that has some strength, that has some iron in it. Now how do you get from one to the other? Does He say, you make yourself into that and I’ll cheer you on?

( clapping ).

Hooray, good for you! No. He says, I will make you. We are trusting in Him to do a supernatural work in us that we could never do in ourselves. That’s the kind of a God that we serve today. “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth.” He goes on to describe, “You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.”

Come down to verse 17, “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst.” Do you feel that kind of a need this morning? It says, “But I the Lord will answer them.” There’s a God who’s looking upon your heart and your need today, and He’s saying I’m gonna answer you. I hear your cry. I know about it. There’s nothing goes on in the most secret place of your life that I’m not aware of and that I’m not concerned about. It may not feel like it. It may not look like it, but I’m gonna answer you.

“I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together.” That’s not where you normally expect to find those kinds of trees is it…out in the desert somewhere? But I’ll tell you, God can fix it where that works.

Now why is all this? “So that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.” That’s what we’re gonna know. We’re not gonna get to heaven with any illusions that we did it, that we deserve to be there. We’re gonna say, God, You did it from start to finish. My heart may have been experienced pride and this and that and the other, but it was all an illusion. It was all a lie. You are the Doer. I am here because You chose me. I’m here because You love me. I’m here because You called me. You may have called me from the ends of the earth, the most unlikely places You brought forth a people. You chose them, and You never gave up on them, even when they were about to…that flame was about to go out, You didn’t give up. You brought every single one of them through. And You are our God, and we give You praise. Praise God! Praise the Lord!

( congregational amens ).

Praise the Lord!

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