Focus Your Eyes, Shrink Your Fears

1:11Scary stuff. But for most of us, the most frightening thing is people and what they might do to us. People are the cause of more pain and suffering. The natural disasters, diseases, And financial calamities put together. People can hurt us in innumerable ways. They can hurt us emotionally, spiritually, mentally, physically. And we all know it firsthand. The person who has suffered least in this world has still suffered at the hands of enemies, family members, even friends.

2:02In this fallen world, there are plenty of things to be afraid of. And fear is one of the most powerful emotions that we experience as people. And when we feel afraid, we often become hyper-focused on whatever it is that's scaring us. That becomes a cycle that's hard to break out of. You feel afraid, and so you focus on the thing that you're afraid of. As you focus on whatever it is that's scaring you, it becomes larger and larger in your mind, which causes you to focus on it more and more, which causes it to grow larger and larger yet in your mind.

2:46You ever been there before? You got some fear, whether real or imagined, it might have to do with the weather or your health or your physical safety or your finances or anything. And as you Focus on the fear, you become more and more anxious about it. You start to think, well, what if this happens? What if that happens? What am I going to do? What will happen to me? What will happen to my family? What will happen to our church? What will happen to my company?

3:22The longer this goes on, the more fearful you become. We've all been there before. And so, the question is: how do you break out of that cycle of fear? How do you keep your fears from taking over your life? Well, friends, this summer we've been studying the Psalms. We've gone through several of them already. We looked at Psalm 2, which is a messianic or royal psalm. We looked at Psalm 4, which is a psalm of lament.

3:54We looked at Psalm 15 last week, which is a wisdom psalm. And today we come to Psalm 27, which can be defined as a psalm of confidence. And we know from the superscription, the writing just above Psalm 27, that King David wrote this Psalm. We don't know the exact context, but it's clear throughout the Psalm that David is afraid. And that makes perfect sense because David's life was often in danger. He had enemies outside of the nation of Israel, of course, but he also. Had a lot of enemies inside of the nation of Israel, even enemies in his own house. David's life was constantly under threat.

4:41And so, what does David do when he feels afraid? You come to see in the Psalms that he doesn't try to act tough and pretend he's not really scared. He does not minimize his problems or pretend that they don't exist. Now, what you find David doing in Psalm after Psalm is he shifts his focus from his very real problems to his very real God over and over again. And in Psalm 27, David not only communicates confidence in God today, but he cultivates confidence in God for the future.

5:29What an example that he sets for us when we are afraid. Friends, we can communicate confidence in God today, and we can cultivate confidence in God for the future as well. That's what David is modeling for us in Psalm 27. Here's what we're going to see in Psalm 27: Our fears shrink when we focus on God. Our fears shrink when we focus. On God. And I want to move through the text using a series of questions directed at the heart.

6:10The first is, who is God to you? The second is, what will you ask God? The third is, why will you ask God? And the fourth is, what will you do now? So let's think about that first question. Who is God to you? If you look at the first three verses of Psalm 27, you see that David is scared. Fear is a prominent theme. It's mentioned three times in the first three verses. And we know that if David is afraid, there is something to fear.

6:46This, after all, is a man who has struck down lions and bears. If they fought back, he reports that he caught them by the beard and killed them, as you do when attacked by a lion or a bear. So whatever the threat is, if David's afraid, it is real. There is a real threat in his life. And it seems clear that people are the threat to David's life. If you look at verse 1, David asks, whom shall I fear?

7:20Of whom shall I be afraid? In verse 2, he refers to evildoers, adversaries, foes. People who assail him to eat up his flesh like wild animals seeking someone to devour. And in verse 3, he refers to an army encamped against him to make war. So it is people, it's these evildoers, these adversaries, these foes who are the cause of David's fear. And people are the most frequent cause of our own fears as well, aren't they? Bad weather only occurs once in a while.

8:07Diseases may or may not afflict us. Financial trouble is largely avoidable. People are the cause of most of our fears because we're around them every day. And so we are around sinners every day. And sinners tend to sin against us. Like and subscribe for more great content. People are the cause of most of our fears. We're afraid of what they might say to us, what they might do to us. And David is afraid. So what does David do? He focuses on God.

8:49He focuses specifically on God's character and God's work. Look at verse 1. David focuses on God's character here. 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? The Lord was David's light. He was his light. He brought him all the things that we associate with light, joy and peace, safety and clarity and truth. The Lord was David's salvation.

9:32I want you to notice there that to David, it wasn't just that God would save him, like God would be the one who throws him a life preserver. God is David's salvation. And God is David's stronghold. You can picture an impregnable fortress, a castle that you can run into and you can pull up the drawbridge and you are safe from your enemies. So David focuses on God's character. And then he focuses on God's work. Look at verse 2. He says, when evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

10:18So here, David is thinking back on the past. He's thinking back on all of the times that he had enemies that were trying to destroy him. And he remembers that every time these enemies attacked him, Every time they tried to take his life, it was them. They stumbled and fell. And so David focuses on God's character and his work, and what happens. Look at verse 3. His fears shrink back down to size. He says, Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

10:59As David focuses on God's character and God's work, his fears, which are so large at first, shrink back down to size. That is what happens. That doesn't mean his fears aren't real. That doesn't mean his fears are unfounded. It just means that his very real fears shrink back down to size as he focuses on his very real God. Brothers and sisters, we know who God was to David. He says, The Lord is my light, my salvation, my stronghold.

11:42But I wonder, who is God to you? You can study the Bible and you will see all over scripture that God says that he is light, that he is salvation. Salvation, that he is a stronghold. You will find that all over the text, and you can know that objectively in your mind that that is who God is. But it is a different thing entirely to know God personally as your light, your salvation, your stronghold. Who is God to you?

12:29Because that is the ultimate question. You are not going to turn to God in your darkest moments when you feel afraid, when you feel anxious, if he is not your light, your salvation, your stronghold. Just because he's David's, just because he's your husband's, just because he's your wife's or your roommates or your child's, that does not mean he is your light, your salvation, your stronghold. That's what he must become. Because that's the kind of God you turn to when you feel anxious and afraid.

13:10So I hope he is that for you, or I hope that he will become that for you today. Because when he does, you will ask him for things. And that takes us to that second question. What will you ask God? Look at verse 4. David says, One thing have I asked of the Lord. That will I seek after, 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 inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make a melody to the Lord.

14:24I want you to imagine that God has granted you one wish. I don't think this is too much of a stretch because God actually comes to King Solomon and he does that. He says, ask what I shall give you. And so I want you to imagine that God has done the same thing to you. He has come to you in a vision, in a dream, just like he did for Solomon, and he says, ask what I shall give you.

14:56What are you going to ask for? Now, probably you're going to ask for whatever is related to your greatest fear. It may be your health, it may be your finances, maybe something to do with relationships. You want to wish that problem away. But here's the thing: no matter what you ask for, it solves exactly one problem in your life. So you may pray for something related to your health, but what are you going to do about money?

15:41You may ask for financial security, but what are you going to do about all those relationships that are strained in your life? Whatever your request is, it's going to solve exactly one problem. So for David, he could have asked God for an unbeatable army, or he could have asked God for limitless riches or a cloak of invisibility or whatever. But look at verse 4. What does David ask for? He says, One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, 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 inquire in his temple.

16:32Now, why in the world would David ask for that? Let's not be hyper-spiritual this morning. Let's just say what we're thinking. Why would David ask for that? To kind of like go to a permanent church service. Remember, whatever David asked for was going to solve exactly one problem in his life. His other problems are still going to be there, growing larger and larger in his mind. But if David asks for the presence of the Lord, if he asks to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, then any and every other problem in his life automatically gets right-sized.

17:20That's the result of that. Our fears shrink when we focus on God. David knew that God would hide him in his shelter in the day of trouble. He knew that he would conceal him under the cover of his tent. He knew that he would lift him high upon a rock, upon a firm foundation, as we saw in verse 5. David knew that by keeping his eyes fixed on the Lord, his head would be lifted up, that he would experience victory, and in that victory, he would be able to worship God for what he had done in his life. David understood that. The wisest thing that he could ask for, the best thing that he could seek, is to dwell in God's presence all the days of his life, to gaze upon God's beauty and to inquire in his temple, because that puts every other fear in perspective.

18:21I presented that to you as a thought exercise. Like, what would you do in the event that God said to you, you can ask for anything that you want. But here is the wonder of it all. God has already said this to you. Look at John 16 on the screen. Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

19:06How about that? Ask and you will receive. That is pretty amazing stuff. Jesus tells us to ask, and the Father will grant our request. Now, there's an important caveat thrown in there, isn't there? He says, you have to ask in my name. And that doesn't mean we have to tack in Jesus' name. On to the end of every prayer. You know, from personal experience, if you do that, that does not guarantee you get what you ask for.

19:38So, what does it mean to ask in Jesus' name? It means to ask in line with His character, in line with His commands, in line with His will. It is to pray the kinds of things that Jesus Himself would pray for and does pray for. Those are the prayers that will be answered every single time. But, friends, we can rest assured that when we ask and seek to dwell in God's presence, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple, our prayer will be answered. God is perfect, His beauty is unimaginable, it's worth gazing at. But God is spirit, He doesn't have a body like men. And so, the way we gaze upon the Lord, the way we fix our eyes on Him, is to fix them on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, the one who is the exact imprint, according to Hebrews 1, the exact imprint of God's nature, the radiance of the glory of God. We fix our eyes on Jesus.

20:56So, if God is your light and your salvation, if He is your stronghold, then you're going to be your To ask to dwell in his presence, to gaze upon his beauty, to inquire in his temple, because God is beautiful. And that takes us to the third question: why will you ask God? Look at verse 7. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, Seek my face. My heart says to you, Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. O you who have been my help, cast me not off, forsake me not, O God of my salvation. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

22:04The first thing you notice in these verses is that David has shifted from talking about God to talking to God directly. And the first reason that David does that is because he's been invited to do so. In verse 8, David recalls that God has said, Seek my face, and in response, David says, Your face. Face, Lord, do I seek? He goes on to say, Don't cast me away, don't turn me away, don't cast me off, don't forsake me. And David can make those requests with confidence because God has been his help and his salvation, as he states in verse 10. Even if David's own parents were to forsake him, I think this is hypothetical. There's no biblical reason to think David's parents forsook him. But even if they did, he would have the Lord. The Lord would take him in. And so David goes and makes his requests because he's been invited to do so.

23:12Look at verse 11. David says, teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. You see the second reason that David makes his requests of God, and that's because he needs wisdom and help. God is perfect, and so his ways are always best. We are ignorant. We are beset with sin. Our paths are not straight. We are tempted to do all sorts of sinful and foolish things, particularly when. When we're afraid, and so David asks for wisdom. He asks God to teach him his way, to lead him on a level path. He asked God not to deliver him over to his adversaries, which is what will happen if David makes foolish and sinful choices, if he doesn't go on that level path.

24:20And so David asks God because he needs wisdom and help. And now look at verse 13. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. David makes his requests of God because David trusts God. David had faith that God would not abandon him in eternity. You're probably familiar with Psalm 16:10. Put that on the screen for you. David says, For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy ones see corruption.

25:03David had faith for eternity. But, friends, David also had faith for today, which is why he says that he believes he will look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. The Apostle Paul wrote that if in Christ we have hope for this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. In other words, if the Christian faith is only good for now, that is a pity. Thankfully, it's not. It's good for eternity. But, friends, I think that what David is showing us here is that the reverse is also true. That if we only have hope in Christ for eternity and none for today, that's a pity as well.

25:57But David says he believes that he will look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And so trusting in God means that we are assured about the things that we hope for in eternity. That is definite. But we also have confidence and hope for our life today. That's the good news of the Christian life. Brothers and sisters, God is our light, our salvation, our stronghold. We ask to dwell in his presence and gaze upon his beauty. And we ask those things because we've been invited to do so, because we need God's wisdom and help, and because we trust God.

26:42So many Christians, and maybe this is true of you, they see themselves as uninvited guests before the Lord. Or maybe even worse, as unwanted guests. Like God the Father doesn't want to talk to you, he doesn't want to hear your requests. He doesn't want to know. Know about your fears, what's making you anxious. But he does. You've been invited in. We need his wisdom and his help. And look at this promise that we get from James chapter 1.

27:18If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. Oh, friends, whatever you're facing and you don't know what to do, God says, if you ask, wisdom is yours for the asking. If you just ask, he will give it to you. And we ask ultimately because we trust God. We trust that his invitation is genuine. We trust that he'll give us the wisdom that we need, and we trust his character and his promises.

27:58And so the final question before us is: what will you do now? What will you do now? Look at verse 14. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. Waiting might be the hardest thing we do in this life. Nobody has ever liked waiting. This is thousands of years ago, and people are complaining about waiting. But at least people in previous generations had more practice with it. You had to wait for the crops to grow.

28:49You had to wait for your loved one to return from a long journey. You had to wait for the mail to come and the phone to ring and the dial-up internet to connect. Life, in some respects, was an exercise in waiting. But our generation doesn't have to wait for anything. Last weekend, the washing machine broke because it was Saturday. And all bad things in a preacher's life happen at 5 o'clock on a Saturday. But within minutes, I had gotten on YouTube, diagnosed the problem, ordered the part. It came 18 hours later, and the washing machine was fixed within one day.

29:44What a world. We don't have to wait for much of anything. And so when we do have to wait, it feels even harder. That challenge is multiplied by degrees when we're afraid, when we're scared. That something bad might happen to us or to people we love in the waiting. That's the reality for plenty of us in the room today. We have fears, both real and imagined, about things that could happen. We feel afraid about what might happen to us or about what might happen to those that we love.

30:25But we also believe that God is our light, our salvation, our stronghold. And He has invited us in and He has promised to give us wisdom. We believe that we can trust Him, so what should we do? Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. Brothers and sisters, in the midst of our fears, we wait for the Lord. We fix our eyes on God. We pray to Him in faith. We ask for wisdom in faith. We go on serving in faith. The Apostle Paul said, We walk by faith, not by sight. So true. But I think what we can say from Psalm 27 today is the way that we walk by faith is by setting our sights on the Lord.

31:24When we focus on God, our fears shrink. And friends, we have a perfect illustration of this in Matthew chapter 14. Jesus and the disciples have just had a very long day of ministry. They tried to go across the lake for a little RR, but the crowds were so excited about Jesus and his teaching and his miracles that they ran ahead and they were waiting when they got off the boat. You can imagine how they felt. But Jesus, of course, full of compassion and love, he ministers to them all day. Gets to the end of the day. They're hungry. Jesus feeds 5,000 men plus women and children from a few loaves and fish. So it's late at night.

32:18Jesus tells the disciples, get in a boat, go back across. You guys go get some rest. I'm going to stay behind and dismiss the crowd. Well, the disciples are sailing across the lake. It's choppy. It's hard. The wind's against them. They're not making much progress. And between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., remember they're going to rest. Between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., Jesus comes walking to them on the water. They are terrified and they say, it is a ghost.

32:49And Jesus says, don't be afraid. It's me. So Peter says, truly boggles the mind. Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water. I'm thinking to myself, well, if it's a ghost, what do you think he's going to say? Sure, come on out, it'll be fine. But this is what Peter does, and he walks out on the water to Jesus. And I want you to look at Matthew 14 at what happens next.

33:20But when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? You see, friends, Peter was scared. All of the disciples were. And when Peter focused on Jesus, he had faith to walk out to him on the water. But the moment he took his eyes off of Jesus and he started to focus on the wind and the waves, the wind and the waves grew larger and larger in his mind. He became afraid and he started to sink.

34:16But the second that he puts his eyes back on Jesus and he says, Lord, save me, Jesus puts out his hand and raises him. Rescues him. Brothers and sisters, when we take our eyes off of Jesus, our fears grow larger and larger. We start to sink in the midst of our doubts. But the second we look back at Jesus, the moment we focus on him, our fears begin to shrink because we are looking at the one who is greater than all of our fears, the one who is all-powerful and eager to save as soon as we ask.

35:03And so, if you are a Christian and you are afraid this morning, something having to do with your finances or your health or a family member's health or a relationship or your job or whatever it might be, it could be the case this morning that your fear is growing larger and larger and you are becoming more and more anxious because you have taken your eyes off of Jesus. He invites you this morning to fix your eyes back on him.

35:39Because when you do that, your fears are going to shrink. They are not going to go away. But they will shrink back down to the appropriate size. So that you can take those things to the Lord, who is your light, and your salvation and your stronghold. But some of you, you've never put your eyes on Jesus to begin with. You've never fixed your eyes on Jesus in faith. It's not that you've taken your eyes off of him, your eyes have never been on him before.

36:18And so, whatever your fears may be, you need to understand there is nothing scarier. There is nothing scarier than the prospect of standing before a holy God as a sinner, as one who has not kept his perfect commands, as one who has not led a perfect life, as one who has sinned in many ways, and we all have. There is nothing more frightening than that. Because God is a perfect judge. He does not grade on a sliding scale. He holds every one of us to a perfect standard. And so your only choices are to point to yourself and to how hard you've tried to be a good person or to point to Jesus and say, Lord, would you accept his perfect life in my place? Would you accept his death on the cross in my place? Would you accept his resurrection from the dead in my place and for my sins? And God promises that he will do that. If you look to Jesus in faith, He will count Jesus' righteousness to you, and he will count your sin to Jesus.

37:38And so, if you've not fixed your eyes on Jesus, my friend, we invite you to do that today. Put your hope in Jesus, your trust in Jesus, your confidence in Jesus. Fix your eyes on him, and he will save you. That's our hope and our prayer for you this morning, that God would become your light, your salvation, and your stronghold today. Let's pray. Father, we confess how sorry we are for taking our eyes off of you again and again.

38:44I think about my own reactions, and I'm sure my brothers and sisters in the room as well, we think about our reactions to things that happen to us, to bad news that we receive. To things that are legitimately scary. And you would think we had no hope. You would think we had no God, no Savior, no one to look after us, that we were all on our own. Oh, Lord, we are sorry that we have lived that way. And I pray for any Christian who is struggling to fix their eyes on Jesus this morning. Lord, would you help them to do that? Would you help them take their eyes off of their problem, off of their fear, and put their eyes on Jesus, who will never leave us or forsake us?

39:45I pray that their fears would shrink as you become larger and larger and more beautiful in their hearts and minds. And God, we pray for those among us who are not yet believers in Jesus. We pray this morning that you would become their light, their salvation, and their stronghold. God, we pray that they would run to Jesus in faith and receive him. Lord, thank you for Psalm 27. Thank you for the confidence that we can have today and the confidence that we can have in the future.

40:26You are a great God. And greatly to be praised. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.