2026 01 25 - Our Playing Scared - Popp

Grace, peace and mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. When Dave went Herb Brooks and how he yelled a lot, I was afraid he was going after me. Yesterday I coached two basketball games, first time in a while, and I thought I was gonna lose my voice. All good yelling, of course, but we get excited.

And as a coach, one thing I try to help my players do is learn to not play with a fear. A fear of an opponent, a fear of playing mistake, playing with mistake or making mistakes, a fear of getting injured. When we play with fear, we play hesitant. When we play with fear, we're not good teammates. Comes from either a lack of preparation.

Doubting yourself. There's a lot of things. The more they do it, the easier it gets. Right?

As I read Psalm 27, it made me wonder, how can any of us as God's people ever play in fear in this world? So we're going to get into that a little bit today. We're going to look at David's 27th chapter of the Book of Psalms. We see his confidence in God in these first six verses. And then David transitions to a prayer.

Let's break down how David bragged about his God and why he had no fear. Now, if you read in the bulletin that as we gatherport, you saw Luther's take On this Psalm 27, basically a blueprint, he called for Christian living. This bold declaration of our faith, really it's having no fear. All right, the first two and a half verses. The Lord is my light of my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Whom shall I be afraid when evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes. It is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.

Now, just in case you're wondering, I'm going to put David's words in perspective a little bit here. You all know David. I had the opening picture when he slew Goliath. That was around 1024 B.C. okay, go way forward.

Almost 30 years after we get the whole David and Bathsheba Uriah thing. That was about 993 B.C. psalm 27 was written in nine. Around 979. Right.

So that was still 14 years after all that, then. Married, children. Solomon is certainly around. He dies seven years later. Again, if that gives you perspective of David's timeline, I want you to understand where he's at when he is writing this.

And again, this is still almost a thousand years before Jesus comes into the world. So let's again. Talk about this a little bit. The Lord is my light and myself. Oh, I had pictures as I gave that whole speech.

Forgot to put through those. Yes. Okay. She's like, my pictures. I'm glad I wasted those.

Okay. So the Lord is my light and my salvation. Right. This is this idea. I love that lighthouse effect.

Where do we turn when we can't see anything else?

Really, the lighthouse is probably better here in Jacksonville for those of you that sail, than when we use sheep and pasture. Examples right. From the Bible. The lighthouse helps keep our eyes on where we need to be, where the focus is. The Lord is the stronghold of my life.

Here we see this idea of with God's protection, what do we have to fear when we allow him to be in charge of our lives? And really my foes will stumble and fall. This idea, it talks about eating flesh, right. What they're really talking about here is lies and gossip, Right? When it says the evildoers assail me and eat up my flesh, they're talking about how they're going to talk about us.

Any of you ever had anybody talk poorly about you?

If you don't think so, they did. You just didn't know it. Right. We all deal with that. The 8th Commandment is one that I know.

Especially now in day and age of social media, we certainly fail often. My heart shall not fear again, when God is for us, who can be against us? We trust in God to be the leader. So we get through those first two and a half verses and we see where David again toward the end of his life talking about what he has dealt with, that God is the one he is going to turn to. And then he makes some statements and I kind of broke them up through this I will statements.

And 3B 6 and 8. I'll just read those 3B says the war rise against me, yet I will be confident. Verse 6. 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. In verse 8, you have said, seek my face. And my heart says to you, your face. Lord, do I seek. This is that part of that I will statement that I will be confident.

David has been to war. David has faced Goliath.

When David says, I will be confident, have no fear. He has faced more than we ever have.

I will offer sacrifices. Now again, this is lifting our head up to victory. Who gives gets the victory. And I will sing to the Lord this idea of what we are here doing this morning, offered sacrifices, lifting our head up to the Lord. This is part of that worship, that relationship, that desire to be here.

Hopefully not an obligation. If you are here today and you feel it's not an obligation to your spouse, to your family, To whatever reason, I want to stretch and ask you to start thinking about the blessings that come from this. I want to free you up, to look forward to coming and worshiping and being with God in His presence, receiving that forgiveness, absolution, praising his name.

I will seek your face, right? That desire to be with him, to know him, to be in his word, your face. Do I seek again? I'm so glad you guys came this morning to be here in his presence again to offer this, to seek Him. We seek God usually during our struggles and battles.

The question is, do we always turn to him first or turn to him as a last resort because we were not able to do it ourselves?

It took me to this idea of why we worship, right? Why we pray, why do we offer sacrifice? Why do we offer our tithes? I want you to listen to the verses. Because just as I had the I will, now we have the he will verses.

Verse 5 says, he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the COVID of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. These are some great verses, right? Hide me in his shelter and conceal me in his tent.

Really, both of these kind of go hand in hand. This idea of it's in his tabernacle, not hidden away somewhere where you're not going to be found. He's not saying, here, come hide in my attic where nobody will find you. It's in his house, in his dwelling place where he has already prepared a place for us. That is the secure place we will have.

There is safety with God in the protection of his home we will not have on this earth. He will lift me high upon a rock. This idea of not just, Hey, let me put you up here until everything's safe, and I'll bring you back down off it. It's a place that's not on this earth. We're talking about heaven again.

This idea of true security where our place is set. He will lift us up out of the reach of any trouble. Nothing can take away your place with the Lord in heaven. Well, yeah, one thing is you. You can take it away.

Be very clear. There's nothing and nobody and no temptation, no devil that can keep you from the Lord.

We see the idea of no fear here. We see What I will, as David was talking about things he will do for the Lord, talk about what the Lord did for him. Then we get to this last part. I called it thy will, right? Because we talked about I will and he will.

And I thought a lot about how sometimes we still live in this world where we struggle to pray Thy will, not my will. We know what we want, we know what we desire. That's human nature. God has blessed us so much, we have those sinful, selfish desires. I shouldn't say it that way.

Sometimes we have godly desires. Hopefully not a bad thing. But again, praying thy will. What will thy will look like? What will the Lord do?

I want to look at verses 4 and 7 here at the end. Here. One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after. Let me read that again. One thing have I asked of the Lord, that 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 of his temple. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me if it be thy will. Right? Be gracious and answer me.

Really. This is the start of David's prayer here in verse seven. I went to verse seven first because. Because again, as we see that prayer, verses 7, all the way through 14, he starts off his will for relationship with the Lord, his desire. Again, this is before Jesus has come, died, rose again, made sure everybody understands he has defeated sin, death and the devil.

And yet he already has that desire. He says, I ask, right, may I dwell in the house of the Lord? This isn't as a priest, right? This isn't in the temple. It's in his presence.

To be in the presence of God.

We've had some funerals lately. And again when somebody has professed their faith in their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and gone to be with him.

Yes, there's a jealousy I have. They are with the Master, where we all will be someday in desire to be. Hopefully. It is a desire that you have and that I believe and trust in God's plan. Plan.

Our desire to worship, right? This idea of trusting in God's plan, this idea of again Thy will, the trust is a hard one for us. I put up a couple ones we know, right? Trust the Lord with all your heart. Lean not in your own understanding and always acknowledge Him.

He will make your path straight. I love Psalm 3, 5 and 6. It's a great reminder. We need all the time. And man does that Work in so many different situations.

Try it from a flat tire to a death in the family, to cancer to a child acting up to a fight with your spouse.

And really, I did put Jeremiah 29:11, since it does say trust in God's plan, but I should have found one that also had verses 12 and 13, because I think we forget about 12 and 13. Yeah, he knows he has plans for you to prosper and not to harm you, give you hope in a future. But if you continue to read 12, 13, when he says, when you seek me, when you come to me, when you pray to me, when you have that relationship, we will walk hand in hand. People, forget that part. Try to do it on your own.

It doesn't go well.

As you look at Psalm 27, we see David's understanding this declaration, his desire to make very clear whose he is, who's in charge, who he trusts, why he's safe, and then his prayer. I do want to take just a minute and read you those last five verses. I know it wasn't part of our reading today, but this prayer is just so wonderful. So I'm going to finish it so you can hear it. Hide not your face from me.

Turn not your servant away in anger. Oh, you and I just gotta stop there. Remember, this is the David who told Nathan, whoever did that should have to face four times the trouble and should be killed. You know, when he got called out on Bathsheba and Nathan's like, what was you? David basically already proclaimed himself to die.

The Lord didn't take him, but he did take his son. This is the David praying this here. I'm going to reread that verse 9. Listen again. 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.

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. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord.

We see the blessings of God many, many times.

We've also seen a lot of ugly sin in this world. We've seen division.

I love the way David. Dave. I went formal on it the way Dave did the children's message this morning with the division of red versus green only to show they're the same team. I'm feeling a lot of division in this world. It hurts.

I don't like it. Uncomfortable. In all the different ways we can be divided, we hear all the time, sheep and goats, wheat and chaff, heaven and hell. But the fact is, God desires every single person to join him in heaven on the same team. May we reach those and help those.

We help them see this idea of Psalm 27 that we have the fortress.

Psalm 27 is David's powerful declaration of God's power. And he's reminded that we need not fear anything because we never face problems alone. Lord, help us to live a life of confidence, praising you and offering sacrifices to you as we seek your face day after day, until we spend eternity in your presence. Thank you, God.

Let's remember. Thank you, God. Let's remember. Turn to him. Let's help our brothers, sisters in Christ, our family and friends.

Point, share. Seek him when they struggle to trust in him to be that fortress, that lighthouse. Same team. Thank you, God. Amen.

Amen.