7 Fears Defeated By Faith

7 FEARS DEFEATED BY FAITH

Ps. 91:1-13

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: ‘I MAY BE CRAZY’

1. A man was driving past the Insane Asylum at Rusk, Texas, when one of his tires began to vibrate badly.

2. He stopped, got out and looked, and discovered that all but one of his lug nuts were missing and his tire was about to fall off. He scratched his head, bewildered as to what to do.

3. A man behind the asylum fence said, “You got a problem?” He answered, “Yes, all my lug nuts but one are missing and I don’t know how to keep the tire from falling off.”

4. “Oh, that’s easy! Just take one nut off each of the other tires and put them on tight. You can drive like that until you can get some more lug nuts. You should be fine.”

5. “Wow, thanks! Are you one of the asylum employees?” “No, I’m a patient; I may be crazy but I’m not stupid!”

B. TEXT: PSALM 91:1-13

1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. 9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling,

10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

C. THESIS & TITLE

1. We’re going to look at 7 fears spoken of in Psalm 91, what they are, and the solution God gives us to eradicate them.

2. The title of this message is “7 Fears Defeated by Faith.”

I. SNARE: UNFORESEEN TRAPS

A. WHAT THIS FEAR IS

1. “Snare of the Fowler” (vs. 3) – a concealed peril (trap), adapted to our nature, attractively baited, it uses decoys especially crafted to attract us.

2. Usually only Satan is clever enough to employ this complicated strategy against us.

3. This is when we are blind-sided by some disaster from which we can’t escape. A sudden medical problem that puts us into huge debt; a business bankruptcy.

4. It could be yielding to a temptation only to be publicly exposed and our reputation ruined.

B. GOD’S PROMISE

1. God promises to preserve us from these situations, especially if we’re innocently trapped.

2. One way of extricating us is to provide a way of escape.

1 Cor. 10:13 says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

3. So this is often God’s way of delivering people from the snare of the fowler; He will break the snare and set us free!

II. CALAMITIES: INJURY TO OUR FAITH IN GOD

A. WHAT THIS ENEMY IS

1. Verse 3 calls this foe the “Deadly Pestilence.” The Complete Jewish Bible translates this phrase as a “plague of calamities.” In other words, a whole series of calamities that happen one after another.

2. Job is an example of this circumstance and we see that though he was a very strong believer, his faith in God was shaken and at times seemed to mock him for ever trusting in God.

3. Terrible calamities cause us to have a crisis of faith, for it appears that God either is unfaithful to His promise to protect us or He doesn’t love us individually.

B. GOOD SIDE OF THIS TRIAL

Usually the only recourse is to blindly trust God, IN SPITE of the circumstances. This is why these types of experiences CAN drive us into the arms of God as never before, and ultimately can make us even stronger than we ever were before.