Not Afraid of Tomorrow | Nick Bodine

Come on guys, what an amazing time of worship. I am just so glad that we get to gather and worship His name every single weekend. I wanna give a shout out to all the men and women watching with our partnership with God Behind Bars. Can we clap it up for them? Let's give it up. We are just so, so thankful for you guys and you're just such an important part of our church. Yeah, we also wanna give another shout out to all those who just got baptized today. Let's give it up big for them, so exciting. Well guys, let's go ahead and give it a big one more time for Pastor Nick as he comes out and brings us a message of hope. Welcome, hope you guys are all doing well. Hey, wanna give a shout out to our Sunrise Mountain location and our Central Kingman location, Central Alliante, Central Summerlin. So glad you guys are all joining us by video this weekend. Hey, I wanna know, does anybody else have in their household, somebody that scares very easy? I saw this video of this wife who every time her husband was in the room just would get easily jump scared. And so he started filming each time and kind of put together a whole compilation of videos. We'll check out just a few of them here. Ah, this is bad. Ah, oh my God.

Ah. Matt. No, I'm saying Matt. Ah. Ah. Just, it's this very presence made her scared. I have a couple females like that in my household that just scare easily. And you know, fear, it never really announces itself, right? It doesn't show up politely. It doesn't ask permission. It doesn't knock. It just shows up out of nowhere. Maybe it's right before a conversation you need to have or right before a decision that's been sitting in the back of your mind. Maybe it's right before a step that you feel God nudging you to take. And fear, it shows up. And for me, it doesn't normally sound very dramatic. In fact, sometimes it can sound a little bit reasonable, even a little bit spiritual. It says things to me like, just wait a little longer. Just be wise. Don't rush that. Just make sure you're ready. What if this doesn't go the way that you were hoping? And I don't dislike patience. I don't dislike preparation. I actually love preparing for things.

I love making plans. And then I love making backup plans. Sometimes I'll even have backup plans for my backup plans. But here's what I've learned about the enemy, the devil, and how he uses fear. You see, the enemy, he doesn't want you prepared. So what he tries to do is he tries to get you stuck because he doesn't actually have to defeat you. All he has to do is just distract you, delay you. And I don't believe that fear is an emotion from the enemy. I actually think that fear, biologically speaking, is a gift. It's a useful tool that God wired into us. It's like our built-in alarm system that helps us notice danger or focus more quickly, helps us take action to keep ourselves safe. And so fear, it only becomes harmful when we start to let it take charge, when we let it control us, when we listen to it instead of trusting in God. So the way I would like for us to think about fear is think about fear like a smoke alarm. It's meant to wake you up, but it's not meant to trap you in the house. It's supposed to alert you to danger so you can act, but if you let it paralyze you, well, that's not helpful. That's not a gift. And that's how the enemy can use fear to hold us back. And I've noticed that fear, it usually shows up when something significant is right in front of me.

Maybe you've noticed that about yourself. Fear shows up right when something significant is getting ready to happen. And that's why this series that we've been in is called Not Afraid, where we've been diving into Psalm 23 and learning how it can be a powerful anchor for our faith. And Psalm 23, it's not written by someone who's never feared. It's actually written by someone who faced fear with complete trust in God over and over and over again. It's written by the Psalmist, David. And if you've ever read Psalm 23, which over the last three weekends, Pastor Judd's done an incredible job just walking us through verse by verse, Psalm 23, and all. God has for us in that. But if you read Psalm 23, you'll notice that it sounds very calming. It sounds very soothing. But what we have to realize is that it wasn't written by someone who lived a calming, soothing, peaceful life. Psalm 23 came from battles lost. It came from someone who experienced heartache and mistakes and loss. It came from moments where fear would have been the emotion that made total sense. And the same David who wrote the line,

who wrote the scripture, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid, is the same David who stood in a valley and faced a giant. A giant that everyone else was too afraid to go up against. And so today what I wanna do is, I don't wanna jump into Psalm 23 again. We've done that. Pastor Judd, like I said, did an incredible job of walking us through that. Go back, watch the last three weekends of this series on YouTube, on our app. But I wanna ask another question today, or maybe answer another question today. How did David get there? How did he become the kind of person who could actually live unafraid? Because I think if we're honest with ourselves, most of us want a Psalm 23 level of confidence, level of trust, but we don't necessarily love the Psalm 23 process. Like what it takes to get to that point, what it takes to get there. And so today we're gonna look at one of the most famous stories in the Bible. And not just to admire the main character, David, but to learn how God trains ordinary people to trust Him when giants show up in our lives. And my prayer today is this,

that by the time we walk out of here, we're not just familiar with Psalm 23. We don't just have portions of it memorized. But by the time we walk out of here, that it's something that we can start to practice. It's something we can start to live in our own lives. So if you have your Bible with you, turn with me to Samuel chapter 17. That's where we're gonna be today. Because before David ever wrote a word of Psalm 23, he had to learn how to face fear. And I'm gonna set the scene before we jump in. I want you to picture that there's this big valley. And on both sides of the valley, there's hillsides, there's mountainsides. On one side, God's people are lined up. You have the Israelite army. God's army on one side, you have the Philistine army on the opposite side. And every single day, a giant named Goliath, he walks out. He stands right in the middle of that valley and he starts taunting the Israelites to fight him. Not once, not occasionally, not every so often, every single day, morning and night for 40 days straight, Goliath taunts the Israelites. And then look at what it tells us in Samuel 17, starting in verse 10. When we get to the red word, say it out loud with us, but Goliath shouts out to the Israelite army.

He says, I defy the armies of Israel today. Send me a man who will fight me. And when Saul, which is Israel's king and the other Israelites heard this, they were what? They were terrified and deeply shaken. Now here's what's crazy to me. Israel is not outmatched here, not practically speaking. They're not outmatched in size. Saul, Israel's king, he's described in the Bible as a tall, strong, battle-tested man. That's why Israel loved him so much. That's why they trusted him. They're not outmatched because they lack soldiers. They had a giant, powerful army. They're not outmatched because God isn't with them. God has clearly been with them up to this point. They've had previous battles, previous victories where God showed up. He showed his provision. He showed his protection. His presence was with them. They only feel outmatched because they're afraid of what they see in front of them. And you'll notice the Bible didn't say they were just a little bit afraid. They were terrified. They were deeply shaken, which means fear had overcome the whole atmosphere. It convinced them that standing still was safer than stepping forward.

So for 40 days, you have a whole army who is frozen. No movement, no faith, no obedience, just fear on repeat. But then, a small, young, shepherd boy named David, he shows up. Not as a warrior, not as a general, not as a king, not even as a soldier. He shows up as a delivery guy, bringing his brother's lunch. He's the Bible's first door dash driver. And when David hears about this giant, he's confused. It's not like he looks back at his brothers, the other soldiers, and goes, oh, I see what you're talking about. That guy's big. That guy's strong. Yeah, I can see why you guys are all lined up here, scared. I'd be scared too, but this isn't my battle. Here's your PB and J's. I got to run. I got to go. No, David, he doesn't think that. He doesn't say that. He hears that there's this giant, and he says, why is nobody doing anything about this? David, this small, young, teenage shepherd boy is seeing the same giant that everyone else sees, but he's not feeling the same fear that everyone else is feeling. So the question is why? What's so different about David? And the answer is simple, but it's powerful. And that is that David didn't start with Goliath. David's confidence didn't start in this moment in front of a giant in the valley. So if we want to learn to have faith, to live a life without fear, to have the faith and confidence of David, to have a Psalm 23 level of trust in God, the first thing that David's example will teach us is to remember what God has already brought us through. Remember what God has already brought you through.

One of the biggest fears I've had to face over the last couple of years, I've told this a couple of stories from my biggest fear. That's teaching my oldest daughter, Avery, how to drive. That's brought my biggest fears so far. But church, the stories aren't done because just this last week, we are onto daughter number two learning how to drive. Quinn passed her online written test. She got her driver's permit, so she's going. We're back in it. Just when I thought everything had calmed down and we were safe, now we got a whole another one. And Quinn, she started off hot, almost giving me a heart attack. The other day, the other night she asked, dad, can I drive down to my friend's house down the street? Will you go with me? Drive down to my friend's house. It's not that far away and I can start to learn how to drive. I'm thinking, yeah, of course, of course we can. I'm going to be a good dad. My wife, Laura, is like, babe, I wouldn't. Like what? Do we need to get her a tank? Get to some big empty parking lot to teach her how to drive? No, we're good. We've got this. I've got this. And so we go out to the car and Quinn gets in the driver's seat. I'm standing outside the car at this point, just going over all the basics with her. I'm like, hey, this is how you put it in drive. This is how you put it in reverse.

This is the gas pedal. I kid you not, before I could go any further, Quinn put the car in reverse. It starts rolling out the driveway. I'm yelling, Quinn, stop. The car keeps rolling into the street. It's headed towards the neighbor's house. I'm yelling, Quinn, stop. Quinn, brake. She says, you didn't show me where the brake was. I'm like, it's on the left, the pedal on your other left, because now it's gassing backwards. I'm like, Quinn, stop. She stops just short of the neighbor's sidewalk, maybe one tire slightly on that sidewalk. And I'm like, Quinn, what are you doing? She looks at me. She's like, that was not my fault. I'm like, whose fault was that if that wasn't your fault? But she's kind of right, because I'm the genius who decided to start with this makes the car move and not with this is how you make the car stop. Always start with the stop, the brake pedal. And you would think that I would already have learned this going through this with one kid, but nope, we're right back at it. So what I'm asking for is your prayers. Prayers for me, prayers for Quinn, prayers in the year ahead. But the reason I was so afraid in this moment, other than not wanting to end up on more ring camera footage in my neighborhood, it's just, I had forgotten what the learning process is like. I had forgotten that we've already been here before. I forgotten that I had one daughter who learned how to drive and she survived. We all survived. We've got a history here and I forgot all of that.

You see, fear has a way of doing that. It narrows your focus. It erases context. It makes you act like this moment is the first time you've ever faced anything hard. That's exactly what's happening in David's story because when David starts talking about Stepping into this fight people around him the other soldiers. They start immediately questioning him They say things like who do you think you are? You're too young you're not qualified you don't have what it takes and Look at how David responds to them when they start questioning him in verse 34 He says this it says but David persisted and I love that It says but David persisted like why did he have to persist? Nobody else is volunteering and they're making him prove his case, but it says David persisted I have been taking care of my father's sheep and goats He said when a lion or bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth if the animal turns on me I catch it by the jaw and club it to death which stop right there for just a second This is not like little dogs and cats These are lions or bears something most of us would be afraid to run into in the wild David is catching them by the jaw and clubbing them to death I've done this to both lions and bears and I'll do it to this pagan Philistine, too For he has defied the armies of the Living God The Lord who what? Rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will what? Rescue me from this Philistine the same God who rescued me before he's gonna do it again Now don't miss this. This is not David bragging. He's not hyping himself up here He's not saying like I'm just built different than the rest of you. I'm just brave. I'm better than you No, David's saying I remember I Remember what God's already done. I remember the moments that no one else saw. I Remember the battles that didn't make the headlines. I Remember the times where God came through even when it when it felt impossible

And that's where David's confidence comes from from God's consistency in his own life Which raises an important question for us What if the courage you need for today you need for tomorrow is Connected to something God's already brought you through What if your own lion and bear moments they weren't random, but what if they were preparation? if David built courage by remembering what God had already brought him through Then I think one of the most practical things we can do when fear shows up is to stop and remember our own history for God So I want to ask you exactly that I want you to think about that in your own life. What are your bear and lion moments? What are the seasons you survived when you didn't think that you would or the prayers God answered that you didn't think he'd ever show up and answer Those situations where you look back now and you realize there's no way I got through that on my own What are those moments for you? I Think for some of you God brought you through a health scare. I Think through for others of you that God he helps you through a betrayal Maybe God carried you through a rough spot in your marriage He helps you heal after a divorce Maybe God provided when your finances were a mess Maybe he you held on to him and he saw you through even when you felt like all you were hanging on was by a threat The enemy uses fear as a way as of making us forget all of that Fear can make today feel like the first hard thing that we've ever faced It can try to erase our past First hard thing that we've ever faced It can try to erase our story erase our testimony Fear convinces us that this is this is the worst has ever been that this is much worse than the last time But David shows us something powerful What God has already done is evidence of what he can do again So here's something really practical. I'd encourage you to do this week Just write those moments down It doesn't matter if it's 1 2

10 just moments where God showed up in your life and not for social media Not to brag about not for anybody else just for you Because when fear shows up and believe me it will you're gonna have something to point back to David didn't walk into that valley ready to face a giant empty-handed He walked in carrying memories He walked into that valley carrying God's consistency in his life. But here's the thing, remembering what God has done, it doesn't just build confidence, it also builds faith. And faith leads to action, which means David didn't just remember the lion and the bear he stepped forward to face the giant. Which brings us to the second thing David teaches us about living unafraid and that is to take the step fear has been talking you out of. Take the step fear has been talking you out of. Have you noticed how we are really good at telling ourselves that we're gonna start some really important things in our lives? Like I'm gonna start just later, tomorrow. I'm gonna start eating better on Monday. I'm gonna start working out every single day next month. I'll have that conversation that I've been needing to have when things calm down, maybe when they calm down. And that time never comes, Monday never comes. And not because we don't want change, but because fear convinces us we just need a little bit more time before we make a move. Fear loves to dress itself up as I'll do that later.

And that's exactly what's happening in this story. For 40 days, God's people, they hear that same giant taunting them. For 40 days, everyone has the same opportunity to respond. For 40 days, they're like, we're gonna beat this guy. Just not today, we're not gonna do it today. Morning and night, day after day, Goliath, he came out, he challenged Israel. Same fear, same delay, nothing changes because no one moves. But then look what David says in verse 32. He says this, he says, don't worry about this Philistine. David told Saul, I'll what? I'll go, I'll do it, I'll go fight him. You see, David didn't wait for the giant to go away. He didn't wait for fear to quiet down. He didn't wait for the perfect conditions. I mean, he had just gotten there. I don't feel like he had time to assess the whole situation, but he stepped forward while fear was still loud. He took the step forward that fear had talked everyone else out of because faith doesn't wait for fear to disappear. Faith moves while fear is still loud. And here's the simple application for our own lives. What's that step you already know you need to take that you haven't taken yet? Like without the whole plan laid out, without a positive guaranteed outcome, just the next step. What is it that God's been putting on your heart personally? Is it a conversation you need to have?

Schedule it, have it. Is it an apology you need to extend? Maybe it's a healthy boundary you need to put up in your own life. Maybe it's an act of obedience that you feel God putting on your heart, a decision that you just keep postponing. Fear will always tell you just wait, but faith says move, move. I need you to hear something, church. Delayed obedience is still disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. We tell our kids all the time, we tell them if we give them something to do, if we give them a chore or we ask for something to be done, we say we want it done swiftly and completely. Meaning I want it done right away and I want it done to completion. People who trust God move when God says move. And here's where the story takes a really important turn because when David finally steps forward, someone else tries to help him, but then they try to give him the wrong type of confidence. Look at verses 38 and 39. It says, then Saul gave David his own armor, a bronze helmet, a coat of mail. David put it on, he strapped the sword over it and he took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. I can't go in these, he protested to Saul.

I'm not used to them. So David took them what? He took them off. Now, what I want us to understand is the armor wasn't bad. The armor wasn't evil. It wasn't sinful to put on armor. It wasn't silly. It wasn't stupid. It just wasn't his. It didn't fit. And it wasn't what David was gonna put his trust in anyway. Because to David, the armor represented human strength. It represented military power, experience. than in what had worked for somebody else. And I think David says something incredibly mature here. He says, I'm not used to them. In other words, he was saying, this is not where my confidence comes from. And that brings us to the third and final thing that David can teach us about living unafraid, and that is to trust the shepherd more than the armor. Because when fear hits, I think what we all do is we reach for that armor. Not literal armor, unless you just have some sort of awesome night suit at home that you love to get in, but emotional armor. The armor of control, the armor of preparation, the armor of information, the armor of backup plans, the armor of overthinking, of listing worst case scenarios, the armor of self-reliance.

We love to armor up with statements like, if I just knew every detail, well then, or if I could just get control of this, then, if I can protect myself through it all, then. But David shows us something powerful. He shows us that victory doesn't come from what you put on, it comes from who you put your trust in. Listen, David, his trust, it wasn't in the armor, it was in God, it was in the Lord. Which is when David, which is why, when David finally stepped into that valley, he declares out loud where his trust comes from. Look at verse 45, it says, you come to me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the what? I come to you in the name, in the name of the Lord of heaven's armies. That's dependence, that's trust, that's knowing where your victory comes from, right there. David's trust was in the Lord, it was gonna remain in him. A couple months ago, my whole family, we were having an incredible family night. It was my wife, Laura, and I, it was our three girls. We made dinner together, we were playing games together, we're laughing, we're making cookies. It's one of those simple, fun family nights. In the middle of all that, my youngest daughter, Cosette, her older sister, Avery, they're off to the side, laughing and being silly.

And what I didn't realize is that they were making a video to send to one of Avery's friends. And in this video, Cosette is sucking on a helium balloon, trying to suck all that helium and to do that high-pitched squeal voice. I think we've all tried that at one point in our lives. Well, Cosette had sucked all this helium in and without any warning, she just passes out. She fell straight backwards onto our tile floor. I'm standing there, I'm maybe eight feet away. I'm close enough to see it happen, but I'm too far away to do anything about it, to catch her. And when her head hit that floor, I can still hear that sound. I can still see the whole thing play out in my mind. Her body immediately went into a seizure. I ran over, I held her. As her body's convulsing, her eyes are rolling back in her head. And as a dad, this is one of the scariest moments that I had ever been through. One of the most terrifying moments of my life. I'm thinking that we might lose her. I'm afraid she's not ever gonna be the same. And the seizure probably only lasted like five to 10 seconds, but it felt like an eternity. It felt like forever. And when Cosette finally came to, she couldn't remember what had happened. I felt the back of her head, there's this,

and in that moment, fear just completely took over. I panicked. Now, normally in our family, I'm like the calm one, the steady one, but fear, it stripped all that away. I got intense with the rest of the family, telling them to leave the room. I started blaming her sisters for something that was no one's fault. I didn't know what to do. I rushed her to the hospital. I rushed her to the hospital. I rushed her to the hospital. I didn't know what to do. I rushed her to the hospital. We went through the whole check-in process. Then we got moved to the waiting room. And there we sat and waited. And all I could do was just pace around the waiting room. I was frustrated. I was frustrated with the wait. I was frustrated with the amount of people that had emergencies that night. I was frustrated that they didn't prioritize her situation and get her back. I was frustrated we were even there in the first place. We just had such a beautiful night together as a family. a family, and the whole time my fear was just filling that waiting room.

But then Cosette, my sweet little girl who had just been through something traumatic, she looked up at me and she said, Pastor Nick, my kids love to call me Pastor Nick instead of dad sometimes. I know what's coming after that, it's a conviction. And she said, Pastor Nick, we haven't even prayed yet. And in that moment, I felt about two inches tall because this little girl who had just hit her head, who had seized, who was scared herself about what just happened, who was scared seeing her dad fear so much, so afraid, she's paused and she remembered where our help actually comes from. She reminded me, her dad, the pastor, where our help comes from. I mean, here I am, I'm armored up with control. I'm armored up with panic, with urgency, with frustration, with fear. And she reminded me to trust my shepherd. Now that prayer didn't magically fix that whole situation that night. We still had a long time in the hospital that night. We had a December to journey of just a concussed little girl that couldn't cheer that much, but God had her, he healed her, she's good, she's fine. So that prayer didn't magically fix everything right away. But what that prayer did do is it re-centered my heart. It reminded me that I'm not in control, God is. And that's exactly what David understood.

He understood that God's not the backup plan. He's not the last resort. He's not who we go to when everything else fails. We have to remember who's actually in control. We choose trust over armor. We choose dependence over self-protection. We choose faith over fear. David, he didn't walk into that valley protected by man's armor. He walked in protected by his trust in his shepherd. And that's why years later, David could sit down and write the words of Psalm 23. Not as some poem that he would hope that we all Googled someday, or read at funerals, celebrations of life. Not some theory he had been working on. He wrote down Psalm 23 as his own personal testimony. And we've looked at it for the last three weeks, but I'm gonna read it for us one more time. And as I read, I just want you to listen. Listen with your own ears. Listen with your own life laid over this Psalm. Your own situations that God's shown up in. Whatever valley you're in, whatever giant feet you're facing, whatever fear you walked in here with today. Let's read Psalm 23. It says, the Lord is my shepherd. I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams.

He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. And even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff, they protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life. And I will live in the house of the Lord forever. I feel like that Psalm, I feel like it hits more. When you know the struggles of the one who went through it. This is the same David who fought those bears and lions. This is the same David that faced that giant in that valley. This is the same David that went on a run for his life, hiding in caves. This is the same David who was betrayed. This is the same David who had messed up and sinned and failed. This is the same David who knew incredible loss. He knew incredible grief. You see Psalm 23 is not wishful hope. It's trust built through experience. David lived unafraid, not because he was a strong person. but because he remembered what God had already brought him through. He took the step fear was trying to talk him out of, and he trusted the shepherd

more than he did the armor. I think for some of you today, the most important step you can take right now is to surrender your life to the shepherd. Psalm 23, it points us to Jesus. Jesus, he called himself the good shepherd, the one who laid down his life for his sheep, the one who walks into the valley for us, the one who defeated the greatest giant that we'll ever face, sin and death. He faced it on the cross for us, took our place. And maybe today fear isn't your biggest problem. Maybe separation from God is, but here's the good news. You don't have to clean yourself up. You don't have to know all the answers. You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to trust the shepherd. So if you're here today and you're saying, I need that kind of peace in my own life. I need that kind of forgiveness. I need a good shepherd. I want to invite you to pray this prayer with me. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you want to make that your statement of faith today, if you want to make that declaration, if you want to turn your life over completely and fully to Jesus, just repeat these words after me. But it's not about the words just being repeated. It's not about repetition. It's about you talking to God with your own heart. Just pray, God, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know you sent Jesus to forgive me of those sins. I believe he died on a cross. I believe that he rose from the grave. And that gives me the opportunity to spend eternity with you. God, forgive me of my sins. I named Jesus, my personal Lord and savior. And if you just pray that prayer for the first time, every head bowed, every eye closed, what I'm going to ask you to do is just take that step of faith. The same step of faith that David had to have the courage for when he faced that giant, and just slip your hand in the air, just reaching out to God saying, I'm going to follow you. I'm turning my life over to you. I know you're the good shepherd. I'm giving it all to you. Thank you for those hands. For every hand that we can't see online, reaching out to Jesus right now, for every hand inside prison facilities, for every hand in this room, God, I just pray that you draw so close you remind them what a good God you are.

For all of us, God, let us not forget the bear and lion moments in our own lives, the times that you came through, what you've done in the past. It's proof of what you can do again. So let us not be afraid to take steps towards you in our tomorrow. Let us look to you. Let us have a Psalm 23 kind of confidence, trust, and faith in you. It's all yours anyways. We give it all to you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.