Psalm 91:5-6

1. Psalm 91:5-6

2. What is your greatest fear? • Are you afraid of someone breaking in your home and doing you harm? • Do you fear people saying bad things about you? • Are you fearful of getting a diagnosis of a terminal disease? • Or worse, maybe one of your children receiving a dreadful diagnosis?

3. Do you ever battle fear of natural disasters? • Are you afraid of death? • Wouldn’t you love to live with no fears? • NO FEAR—In Psalm 91:5-6, the Lord offers us a life that is free from fear. • If you have always wanted to live a life free from fear and worry, now is your chance.

4. 2 Timothy 1:7 – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (NKJV) • If there is a verse that speaks to our present time, it is this one! • Several thoughts: • If God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, who did? • The enemy! • It is the spirit of this present age.

5. 2. What does God offer us? • Love – why is that important? • When you are fearful, you only think of yourself & survival. • When a believer looks at the volatile times, he is full of love, giving and sacrifice. • It is not about saving yourself; it is about being pleasing to the Lord. Vast difference! • That is one reason why we are going to see real believers shining brightly in this hour.

6. Power – That is dunamis in the Greek, which is where we get the word—dynamite. • Think about it, fear paralyzes and renders you powerless. • But, you are empowered by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead! • Resurrection power!

7. Sound Mind – What a gift to have a clear, peaceful and sound mind in the midst of the storm. • When people are fearful, they are tormented by their thoughts. • Not a believer—we are full of the peace of God! • It is a peace that surpasses all understanding and guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus! (Philippians 4:7)

8. Now, you can see why God offers these 3 blessings! • This is how we can live a life with No Fear! • But, many ask how can you be so peaceful in the midst of the volatile world we live in? • Let’s begin by reading the verses we have already covered in Psalm 91:

9. Psalm 91:1-4 – 1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust Him. 3 For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. 4 He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.

10. We have learned several things from Psalm 91: • He who dwells in the Secret Place • I will say . . . • These 2 points are the conditions that we must meet in order to release the protective power that is found in the rest of the Psalm. 3. I will deliver you from the trap of the trapper 4. from deadly pestilence

11. 5. Under the protective wings of a mother hen you can seek refuge 6. His faithfulness is our shield [invisible] and bulwark [discernment]. • Let’s look at what other protective promises the Lord makes to us from verses 5-6:

12. 5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; 6 Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. (NASB) • Several Points: 1. This is 24 Hour Protection—both night and day! • God promises to be there 24/7—7 days a week, 52 weeks a year & 365 days a year, and He will even be there on that 366th day which comes every 4 years.

13. 2. All Evil – Not only do these 2 verses provide around the clock protection, but they cover every evil known to man. • WW II Illustration: Can you imagine the terror of running out of gas and having to land on the beach of an island that was occupied by Japanese forces? • The barge drifted over 600 miles, landed on the shore of this island at the exact place the plane had landed & within a couple of hours of their landing!

14. This leads us to our first point. • The promises in verses 5-6 are divided into 4 categories, and we are going to briefly look at each: 1.) 5a – You will not be afraid of the terror by night. • What is terror by night? • It literally includes all evil that come through man—kidnapping, robbery, rape, abuse, murder, terrorism and wars. • It is the dread of what man can do to you.

15. Do you remember when you were young being afraid of the night? • Do you remember the sounds, the creaks, and the fear of what you could not see or the fear of the boogie monster under your bed or in the closet? • Most kids have those fears, but many are still paralyzed by fears of different kinds as adults. • But, we can be free to live a life of NO FEAR!

16. God addresses this 1st because you need faith in God’s Word to overcome the fear of what man can do to you. • Fearcomes when you think you are responsible for your own protection.

17. On the other hand, faith is accepting what God has already done for you. • In this verse, God promises that you can be free from all fears. • But, you have to accept it in faith. • How can you do that? • I hate to keep repeating myself. • Remember that repetition is the mother of learning.

18. How are you saved? • If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved (Romans 10:9-10). • With the mouth you confess and with the heart you believe.

19. The principle is the same here. • This is the spiritual law of faith which activates the supernatural in your life. • The weapons that we use in the physical world are activated by our hands. • But, our spiritual weapons are operated with our mouth. • We must speak the promises of protection in faith.

20. I will say . . . If you believe and speak it, the devil is rendered powerless! • 1 Corinthians 5:7 – We walk by faith and not by sight. • We have to choose to believe God’s Word more than the terror attack or the fear by night. • God wants our faith in His Word to be more of a reality to us than what we see in the natural.

21. 2 Examples: Gravity is a law of nature, but the Laws of Aerodynamics supersede it. • When the proper amount of thrust is added to an airplane, it is able to fly and stay aloft in defiance to the Law of Gravity.  • In like manner, Satan’s attacks can be overcome by the Law of Faith. • Faith supersedes his attacks.

22. Or, take David before Goliath: • Fear – compares yourself to the giant. • Faith – compares the size of the giant to the size of your God! • God says that the earth is His footstool! • If God is for me, who can be against me? • No one! • I do not have to be afraid of the terror by night.

23. 2.) 5b – [You will not be afraid] of the arrow that flies by day. • An arrow is something that pierces or wounds us physically, emotionally, spiritually or mentally. • Arrows are intentional. • These are specific attacks by the enemy with the intent to harm you.

24. The devil knows your weaknesses, and he targets it. • He does not attack your strengths, but rather he attacks the area of your mind that has not been renewed by the Word of God. • Examples: • lose your temper quickly • easily offended • lustful thoughts • fearful • He attacks where he can inflict the greatest harm.

25. Ephesians 6:16 – In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. (NASB) • The arrows from the devil are fiery! • They stick and begin to burn everything around it. • Fear begins in the mind through thoughts (arrows). • But, the Lord shows us that we can lift our shield of faith to extinguish allthe flaming arrows of the evil one. • That doesn’t mean most but all! • Assignments against us can be cancelled through faith!

26. 3.) 6a – [You will not be afraid] Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness. • If you fight the fear of getting a fatal disease, then this verse is for you! • The 3rd category that God names is pestilence. • This is the only evil that He mentions twice. • Since God does not just put words in the Bible to fill space, there must be a reason for this.

27. God knew that deadly diseases and the fear of contracting one would run rampant in the last days. • Millions of people have acquired AIDS, malaria, cancer and other fatal diseases.

28. It is as if God is saying, I told you in verse 3 that you will be delivered from deadly pestilence. Did you hear Me? In case you didn’t, I wanted to restate it for emphasis! You do not have to fear deadly pestilence like everyone in the world does! • When I first started thinking about this, I wondered if I had the faith to believe God for this one. • But, God gently reminds us that faith is not a feeling, but it is a choice to believe what He says in His Word.

29. Germ Warfare — Ever since the War on Terror began, there have been scares about biological or germ warfare. • There is a fear that the terrorists could attempt to release a germ bomb that could potentially kill 1,000’s. • But, this fear and possibility did not catch God off guard. • 2,000 years ago He inspired the Apostle Mark to write: • These signs will follow those who believe . . . if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. (Mark 16)

30. The Greek word used for drink can be translated: • to drink, to absorb, to inhale, or to take into the mind. • God provides protection from airborne diseases & chemicals for those who will choose to believe it.

31. Contaminated Water – What about the fear of contaminated water supplies or food? • Whenever you hear me say the blessing, I usually pray from Exodus 23:25 – For God has blessed our food and water and has taken sickness and disease far from our midst, so we will fulfill our number of days in full health. • God has made the provision in His Word for all the evils that can potentially come our way. • All we have to do is to believe and confess them.

32. Let’s quickly look at the 4th category of protection: 4.) 6b – [You will not be afraid] of the destruction that lays waste at noon. • Natural disasters – Earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, mudslides, floods, hail and fire.

33. It is what the world calls acts of God. • They are not from God. • We clearly see this in Mark 4:39 where Jesus rebuked and calmed the wind and sea. • If they were acts of God, Jesus would not have contradicted God and rebuked what God sent. • We need to think about some of the goofy things people say.

34. But, there is no where we can go in today’s world where we are safe from natural disasters. • Just this year alone there have been devastating earthquakes, floods and deadly tornados. • The experts are calling for more disasters, but we can be free from the fear of natural disasters. • God promises to protect us from the destruction that lays waste at noon.

35. Youth with a Mission missions team during an earthquake in Pakistan. • Every extreme evil known to man will fall into 1 of these 4 categories listed in verses 5-6. • Terror of what man can do to you (physical) • Arrows—intentional attacks (spiritual & mental) • Pestilence—sickness, diseases and contaminated water • Destruction—natural disasters • God offers us deliverance from all of them.

36. Grand Island, NE miracle • We need to get to the point where we have more faith in God’s Word than in what we see around us. • Think about it: God does not make a promise that is out of our reach. • He has faithfully made all the provisions that we need to live life with No Fear!

37. Psalm 91:5-6