Do not fear, nor dismay

Deuteronomy 1:21. At the moment only this verse but there are treasures locked up sometimes in the most humble and simple packages that we find in the Scriptures, and today is no exception. Declares the Word: "See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or dismay."

Here the people of Israel are coming to the Jordan after forty years in the desert, and Moses in this prophetic message is reminding the children of those who perished in the desert why it took them forty years to get here. In other words, the entire Book of Deuteronomy is as if it were a retelling of the Lord's promises and preparing this generation of the children of those who perished for the new reality of the land that the Lord had promised their parents, now to deliver it to them. them. And now in a series of prophetic messages that we know as the Book of Deuteronomy, the Lord explains to them why it took them to get here.

What can we learn from this? That it is important to know about our ancestors, and not only about our ancestors but also about us, if we want to conquer the land that the Lord has promised us. There they are.

And Moses explains why it took us forty years to get here. The Lord with a strong hand brought their parents out of Egypt and brought them to this place, the land that God had promised them, just waiting for God's people to go up and conquer it. And despite what God had done for them, despite the promise that God had made to them, even with God before them as he was in the desert, their parents did not enter. They were stopped and defeated, not by the Amorites or the Canaanites but by much more dangerous enemies.

And this morning we are going to dedicate ourselves to knowing these enemies. Two thousand five hundred years ago a Chinese philosopher, Sun Tzu, who was a general and a philosopher of the art of war wrote a book entitled: The Art of War, a book that is still read today in the military academies of The United States and other countries still study this book by Sun Tzu. And one of the first principles of this book, one of the fundamental principles of this book is this: know your enemy, know your enemy.

Unfortunately, perhaps fortunately, it is the only reason the Lord gives me the credibility to still share this message this morning, they are enemies that I have known. What's more, the irony is that, even preparing this message this morning, which I am sharing with you, the irony is that I had to have brushes with these dangerous enemies. They were not defeated by the Amorites, they were not defeated by the Canaanites but by fear and discouragement. Fear and discouragement.

Declare the Word again. "See, the LORD your God has given you the land; go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you; fear not." The Hebrew word there is: yare, nor faint, the Hebrew word there is: do. Because it is important? and God knows: it would not be very wise to try to impress them with my Hebrew, it is enough to fight with the Spanish this morning than to try to ride on the Hebrew, but here we go in the Name of Jesus (laughter).

Why is it important here? Do not be afraid of these words: fear, nor be dismayed: act. Have you seen on many other occasions: "do not be afraid or be dismayed, for the Lord your God will be with you"? yare and haza are interesting. These two Hebrew verbs appear, they appear in the same verse, they appear together in Scripture no less than seventeen times. Isn't that amazing? they appear together in the same Scripture seventeen times. They are not always translated as fear or faint, but they do appear many, many times in the Old Testament.

But beware, for the first time here. The first time we see yare and haza together is here. Now I don't know about you my brother, but if I see that the Scriptures repeat something so many times, it will be for a reason. If again and again in the Book of Deuteronomy, in the Book of First Chronicles, in the Book of First Samuel, in the Book of Ezekiel, in the Book of Jeremiah, in the Book of Isaiah, in the Book of Malachi, scattered throughout the Old Testament, if these two words appear together as a thought so many times, it will be for a reason. Something the Holy Spirit is trying to communicate to His people. And it translates: fear, terror, fright, even the state of being stunned or perplexed. Don't faint.

In many ways the Reina Valera translates that word very poetically and very appropriately. In non-Sunday Spanish, ordinary Spanish, when we talk about someone having fainted, what do we think? (fading sound) right? he loses consciousness, loses his senses and someone has to carry him, right? very very close. Do not fear or dismay.

In English when that word hazad is translated, into English the word they use when translating it is interesting: shatter, shatter. Wow, shatter that is, break to pieces, crumble, undone, leave astonished. Or as another concordance translates it and this is interesting, it is: lose the ability to win, lose strength, lose the ability to succeed, lose courage, lose courage, or in other words: discouragement. In English, the new international version in English translates that word: discouraged, and therefore, in this message, I believe that this word communicates very well the message that I believe the Holy Spirit wants to convey to us this morning.

Discouragement, a state of discouragement or happiness, in a state of happiness one becomes paralyzed, our ability to dream is even paralyzed; that is, our dreams become bubbles and burst in the air. Our ability to anticipate anything good is lost. Our dreams are shattered, they fall apart. Fear, fear, terror, wonder. And then it follows: do, the state of. And if none of that is enough, as we say in the neighborhood: "geek" one, freeze one. First you get terrified and then you freak out, in that order.

Brother: when we think well "do not fear or dismay" do not yare, do not do, avoid it, it is not natural, think well. It's natural. Apart from God's intervention, the natural state of the human being is fear and discouragement, that is our natural state. Interesting. The first time we see yare, this Hebrew verb and although fear is mentioned in the Scriptures, the first time we encounter this word, yare, and even the word fear, is in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3 verse 10.

Genesis chapter 3 verse 10. For the first time the yare is presented to the human race in the garden of Eden, and he, that is, Adam, answered: I heard your Voice in the garden and I had yare, and I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid. After the fall, my brothers, when we lose sight of God, what can we see? losing sight of God Adam finds himself naked, he sees himself naked for the first time. Not the state my brothers of walking without clothes, but the state of being defenseless, he felt for the first time without cover, open to the elements, fragile, ashamed.

And God asks him interestingly, and who told you that you were naked? because God is our cover, is our cover. When we lose sight of God and who we are with and through Him, what is left? what can we see? If we already let God be seen, the only thing left is to see our nakedness, to see our fragility, to see our smallness, to see our history, our record of failure, don't you see it from time to time, especially in moments when it is about to collapse? undertake something challenging? the first thing you see is your history, the first thing you see is your record, you failed that time, this time again, you have a history of failure. You see a hostile world that can devour us in a moment; I won't get out of this alive.

My brothers, there are thousands of ways to die, do you know? there are thousands of ways to die, there are hundreds of thousands of ways to fail, hundreds of thousands of ways to fail. And our nature in fear is to fixate on that, fixate on that. In the law of physics that tells you: it is impossible for a human being to walk on the water, thank you Jesus, but I am going to stay on the boat, which prevents us from walking by faith.

And if we allow our fear to turn into discouragement in that moment you freeze and fall apart, everything that God had in mind for you collapses, everything that God had in mind for you is paralyzed in that moment of reason. Do you know why? fear like faith is born from a vision of the future, is born from a vision of the future.

Knows? Meditating on these Scriptures all my life I have thought that the antonym of faith is doubt, but I have discovered that it is not. Moreover, doubt is integrated into faith, it is integrated into faith, it is part of faith. What's more, I dare to say that the true opposite of faith, the true antonym, is fear and discouragement. Many of our brothers defeats or disasters, or delays are not due to a lack of vision; Many times they tell us: it's because you lack vision, brother, you lack vision, no, you are very capable. The human being is a being that by nature, we are made in the image and likeness of God, and our God sees things that are not as if they were, and so are you.

The Lord has put that ability in your spirit to see things that have not happened before they happen, that is called vision. His defeat or delay is not the result of a lack of vision, but a vision darkened by fear, what does Pastor mean? You already see yourself burning that exam or struggling to get the money for tuition and you decide better not to study. Ah, I study, you're crazy! from where, the youngsters are going to eat me like bread, as these people said. You see yourself, you get discouraged and that's as far as your dreams of studying came from.

You see, you see the bankrupt business, you see it as if it had already happened, as if it had already happened. Now you see the business bankrupt and you decide better to avoid danger and not undertake anything, stay with your $8 dollar an hour job at McDonald's, if you work at McDonald's, if you own McDonald's forgive me, it's for effect, you prefer to stay there sure to undertake something out of fear. You see that they reject you, that they reject you and you prefer not to risk loving anyone or making friends, or calling that sister or brother you haven't spoken to in years before they pass into eternity, out of sheer fear.

You prefer to live with that in your consciousness out of sheer fear, unbelievable. The irony, my brothers, is that we participate in our own defeat, this is the irony, we participate in our own defeat. Under fear and discouragement, instead of thinking or planning, or analyzing, or sensibly measuring our words and actions, the instinct to survive seizes us, hence terror is born. That's where the fear comes from. The instinct to survive seizes us and we say and do things that we would never imagine being able to say or do, barbaric things.

Many times under fear, we say or do things that we would never imagine. But sister, what were you thinking!? "But Pastor, I thought he was going to leave me, I was scared and I told him that!" but he really left. In other words, we sin, under fear, we do things, we say things, and we carry out through our words and actions precisely what we have, precisely what we have, and that was what happened to the children of Israel.

Let's go back to Deuteronomy chapter 1 and look from verse 26, why the parents of this generation did not enter the Promised Land. Verse 26, Moses recounts to his sons: "Yet you did not want to go up" or his parents, but you know what? us, is speaking to the people "you did not want to go up. Before you were rebellious to the command of Jehovah, your God, to go up and conquer the land, and you murmured in your tents." In other words, this was not something that they even said in public, this was something that the Lord heard, perhaps even within their hearts, that He heard in their private moments that He revealed to Moses. "And you murmured in your tents, saying, Because the Lord hates us." Wow where did that come from? "The Lord hates us and has brought us out of the land of Egypt where we were slaves, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us."

Where does a people who have seen the God of glory manifest himself in so many ways come from, how does it occur to them to say something like that? they were afraid, they were afraid. They are fatuous words that we say under the influence of fear. Verse 34: "And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was angry; and he swore, saying, No man of these, of this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers." Being at the door of victory, they themselves closed that door. The confession of his lips that were born of his fear and discouragement.

I do not want to think, it is preferable not to think about the moments, I am going to talk about myself, in the moments that I am on the edge of the Jordan, at the door of victory, and due to fear or discouragement that door closes. Maybe you have a similar story. You who are a servant of the living God. You who serve a God who has never been defeated ever. You who serve a God that Satan respects and before whom the demons flee. How is it possible that this happens to Israel, this people so preferred by God? we just forgot.

Under the influence of fear, under the paralysis of yare and haza we forget. And it is important, brothers, when you see that fear and astonishment, discouragement approach you, do not forget: like them, we forget what God has done for us. Three things: we forget what God has done for us, we forget what God has promised us, and we forget that God is with us.

First, we forget what God has done for us, second, we forget what God has promised us, and third, we forget that God is with us. We're going to break down each one of these and by doing this, we're going to be looking at these enemies of terror and discouragement, and we're going to take away the what? That's right (laughs) That, glory to God. Amen, that cat is not going to scratch anyone else, glory to Jesus.

Firstly: we forget what God has done for us. Let's see verse 29 my brothers, verse 29 to 33: "Then I told you: do not fear or be afraid" yare, do not have yare of them. There he is talking about, they are terrified by the Amorites and the children of Anac that the witnesses saw there and the walled cities that seemed to go up to heaven, this disturbed them. And Moses pastorally tells them: don't be afraid, don't be yare, don't be afraid of them. "The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes." They see ten plagues break out on Egypt, they see the sea part and they pass dry, they see manna fall from heaven, they see water gush from the rocks, they see their enemies fall before the Ark of Jehovah, they saw this. All this God had done for them, "according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes."

Do you remember your desert and what you saw there, what God has done for you, what He did for you? "And in the desert you have seen that the Lord your God has brought you as a man brings his son." Some translations translate: bring as "carry", carry, as a load, look how precious, "as a man carries his son all the way you have walked until you reach this place" he never left you, he never abandoned you, He brought, carried you up to here, up to here, up to here, at least up to here God carried us. So far we have seen His feats. So far He has a perfect record of working on our behalf, up to here, and even with this you did not believe Jehovah your God.

"Who went ahead of you where you will camp" that is, He was not happy that they lay down where He wants, He chose their place for camp night after night, "with fire at night to show you the way where you walked and with fire at daytime." The antidote to forgetting what God did for us is this.

My brother, I implore you: remember what God has done for you. Remember what God has done for you in this way, giving thanks, giving thanks. Has God done anything for you worthy of praise? Can you name one thing that God has done for you worthy of praise? I hear many amens, but if you are here, if you listen to me, if you can still understand me, if you have the ability to reason and breath in your lungs, God did that for you, and there is still hope. And the vast majority of us can confess that God has done much more for us, much more, right? The one who healed us, the one who took us out of a life that wasn't worth it.

Excuse me, Pastor Samuel is kind of a crybaby. The one who gave children to the barren and put the orphan in a family. God has done a lot for us, God has done a lot for us. The same God who did feats for you and with you continues to do so today, continues to do so today. "Behold, the hand of the Lord has not been cut off from saving, nor has His ear been stopped from hearing, says the Lord." Giving thanks, even in small things as I have shared on other occasions, even in small things; the bread on your table, that is not just any rite. Make it a time of praise and worship, two, maybe even three times a day giving thanks to the Lord.

Number two: we forget what God has promised us, we forget what God has promised us. Let's go back to verse 21, our base verse at this point and state that verse: "See, the LORD your God has given you the land." How interesting, they are still seeing the land from afar, those cities are still occupied by a hostile enemy, they still have work to do. But the promises of the Lord are: Yes and amen. And in the mind of God when He promises something, it's done, it's done. In the mind of God, when He promised something, it has already crystallized in the mind of God. Everything else is details, everything else is processes, everything else is a machinery that God has already taken over that machinery, each step will be in your favor. We are going to learn something along the way but for God, what is done is done.

He is using the present for something that is still future. "The Lord your God has given you the land" it says there, "go up and take possession of it as the Lord the God of your fathers has told you" and for God that is enough. For God that is enough. That He says it and He does it for Him is the same. And then he adds: do not yare, do not fear, nor dismay, nor act. To this generation that was about to enter the Promised Land, the Lord makes these promises. Furthermore, let's go back to Deuteronomy 28 for a moment.

Again, the entire Book of Deuteronomy is like this pet-talk, a pet rally. That is a tremendous Biblical pet rally before the team takes the pitch and is going to tell them: you are going to knock down those Germans, don't worry, goal after goal. If there are Brazilians here, don't worry, the Lord still has in mind what He is going to do. A tremendous pet rally here in front of the Promised Land.

To this generation that was about to enter the Promised Land, the Lord makes these promises, this applies to you my brother. And the Lord declares: "It will come to pass that if you listen attentively to the voice of your God" my brothers: mark your Bible, record these promises. At home before going to bed, open your Bible again to Deuteronomy 28. If you have a cradle baby, recite it to him, he doesn't understand, that's fine, recite it to him over his spirit. If you have a baby in the womb speak to the womb and declare these words to him or her, declare these words: "It will come to pass that if you listen attentively to the voice of Jehovah your God, to keep and do all his commandments that I prescribe you today "He's just looking for a people who will pay attention to him and believe his promises, and who won't forget about him. That's our part of the deal.

Our part of the covenant is to believe it and not forget His promises. "And to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will also exalt you above all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings will come upon you, and they will overtake you. If you hear the voice of the Lord your God, you will be blessed. you in the city, and blessed are you in the field; blessed are the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your beasts, the young of your cows, the flock of your sheep; blessed will be your basket and your kneading trough, your dispensation in other words, will have provision. Blessed will you be when you come in and blessed when you come out." You go to the right, the Lord blesses you, you go to the left, the Lord blesses you. You stay, the Lord blesses you, you leave, the Lord blesses you. Wherever you go, the Lord blesses you.

"The Lord will defeat your enemies who rise up against you. They will come out against you one way and flee from before you seven ways. The Lord will send his blessing upon your barns and on that which you have laid hands on, and he will bless the land that you The Lord your God gives you. The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he has sworn to you when you keep his commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is called upon you and they will fear, not you, the God who is above you, the God who supports you, the God who is invoked in this house;" Verse 12: "And the Lord will open his good treasury, heaven, to send rain upon your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hands, and you will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow; and the Lord will give you " because? "And the Lord will make you the head, and not the tail, and you will be above only, and you will not be below, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today to keep and do, says the Lord."

That would be enough. We can live a lifetime if that's all the Bible we get, but my brother: the Word is a treasure trove of promises. The Word is a treasure of promises, record them, record these promises, confess them. Moses told this people in chapter 6: "Write them on their foreheads" that is, on their brains, "on the doors of their homes." I don't know about the other inhabitants on Central Street in Summerville, but these promises apply here. "Engrave them on the hearts of their children", so many promises. "A thousand will fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand. No weapon formed against you will prosper."

"In the world you will have affliction" says the Lord "but take heart, I have overcome the world" promises! Don't let the enemy erase these promises, open the Word, know the Word, personalize the Word, make it yours. Confess it, declare it and you will see something interesting. When you begin to confess the Word of the Lord and when you begin as part of his, it is no longer merely a confession, and his very brain, the wiring of his mind adjusts to the reality of the Word, and the Word becomes more reality than his circumstance. The Word will become more real than the cuckoo that terrifies and frightens you, it becomes more real and you will see something incredible. Instead of the world threatening you, the Lord begins to shape the world around you. Nature obeys the Word. Record these promises.

And number 3: we forget that God is with us. In Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 8 again there appears yare and haza. “And the Lord goes before you” Deuteronomy verse 31:8, “He will be with you. Jehovah goes before you, He will be with you, He will not leave you or forsake you, do not fear or be intimidated. Psalm 23 declares that the Lord dwells in the praise of His people. I recommend my brothers: become a worshipper, cultivate the Presence of the Lord. Create the habit of cultivating the Presence of the Lord.

And what do I mean by this? In the morning before your first conversation, before making your first decision, with your cup of coffee in your hand and the Word of the Lord on your lap, cultivate the Presence of the Lord. Then in the course of the day worship him. During the day that your soul seeks the Lord, seek him, if possible by listening to Christian music.

I know that we work in different places and sometimes it is difficult for us, but it is possible to plug in Christian music or even a recorded message if it is permissible. Live and don't stay there on the outside, live examining your heart. Live examining your heart and your mind, and your space around you wondering, is this an environment that attracts the Presence of the Lord? Will this be an environment where the Holy Spirit will feel at home? one avoids gossip and lawsuits, one measures his words and attitudes, thinks carefully before sending that hot email, why? so as not to offend the Lord and remove His Presence from you. See the Lord and His Presence as a resource without which you cannot live and do everything possible to attract His Presence.

Brothers, I warn you that there will be moments, perhaps even entire seasons of your life in which you will not feel, in quotes, you will not feel the Presence of the Lord no matter how much you cultivate it. Not because there has been sin in your life by the way, and your heart will tell you if it is so, but there will be times when you will not feel the Presence of the Lord; not a problem, do not fear, do not be discouraged. It is enough to know as Deuteronomy 31:8 declares, it is enough to know, feel it or not, that He goes before you. It is enough to know that he is with you, that he will not leave you, that he will not forsake you.

Now my brethren, that's a good transition to this last piece of advice, this last thought. President Franklin Roosevelt once declared, I don't know if you have heard this saying in English: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" and with those words he gave encouragement to the country American during a time of great crisis, the depression, the Second World War, but he only told part of the truth. We do have something other than fear to fear, and if we are going to fear something or someone, fear God, fear God.

Knows? everything was created for a reason. Fear is part of the praise and worship due a holy people to a holy God. The irony is that we fear things that are not worth it, and what is worth fearing, many times we lack to fear a holy God. And this is interesting, there are treasures in the Word when one begins to investigate.

I told them that in Deuteronomy 1:21 it is the first time that it is seen in the Word I will do and do. The last time these two words are seen together is in Malachi chapter 2 verse 5, the last Book of the Old Testament. Interesting because it completely changes. When fear is addressed to God, the whole context changes, the same words: yare and haza, the only difference is the Presence of God.

Look at this: "My pact with Israel was of life and peace" shareh and shalom "which I gave them so that they feared Me" yare, "and they were afraid" hahad "of Me, and before My name they were humbled" hahad . When you see that word humiliated, it is the same word: act. Precious. "So that he would fear me", or better, fear me in reverence.

My brothers: when we see the glory of the Lord, when we recognize who He is and who we are in the light of His glory, the reality that God is fearsome dawns on us. Have you heard that word? that God is fearsome, or worthy of fear in Spanish. But in English the word: fearful is better translated: awesome, awesome, that same word yare, awesome, worthy of awesome, fearsome. It is the idea that the angels hide their faces from Him, the angels hide their faces from Him because He is fearsome.

The demons flee before Him because He is fearsome. Death and hell are subject to Him because He is fearsome, He is awesome, our God is awesome, worthy, worthy of fear. "And before My name he was humbled" do.

My brothers: our instinct, as Adam did, is to hide from Him. Without the mercy of God, it is better to hide from the Presence of the Lord. Do you know why? Confronting us with His glory while we are dust appropriately provokes feat, one faints before the Presence of a holy God, or dies, or dies. As Isaiah exclaimed upon meeting the glory of God.

"Then I said: woe to me that I am dead, because being a man with unclean lips and living in the midst of the people that have unclean lips, my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of Hosts." But here in this passage the Lord declares: "My covenant with him was life and peace." My pact with you is life and peace. That word peace is the word that many of us know: shalom, shalom.

Shalom involves much more than just peace as we understand it or just tranquility, or the absence of anxiety. What's more, shalom often hoards anxiety, but it represents this: a state of balance, a state of blessing, with God in perfect control. For the Hebrew, the state that describes God: in perfect control. As we declare in the Our Father: "Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." What we are asking the Lord for is: shalom. We are asking for Him to rule our lives.

When God assumes His place in our lives any other fear seems silly, any other fear seems silly fear what? With God on the throne of his life before you, what are you going to fear, my brother, defeat, the opinions of the people, the death that the Lord defeated on the cross of Calvary? If you are going to fear something, fear this, learn to fear this, make this your fear and with this we conclude, if you are going to fear something, fear this: the terror that He hides His Face from us. That the idea of the Lord hiding His Face from us is something inconceivable.

If we should fear something, it is to live even for a moment without Him, to live even for a second without Him. Lord: as David declared, do with me what You want to do, reduce me to ashes but Lord: do not take away Your Holy Spirit from me or take away of me Your Presence. If you are going to fear something, fear that.

But other than that my brother there is no room for fear. If you achieve that, Lord, God, where are You? does my heart please You? are you near me Lord? Can you look at my face in glory? Lord where are you? does my heart please you? are you close to me we are in dialogue Spirit of God, let this be your constant conversation with the Lord. Concentrate on that and you will see how fear has no power over you.

Now I do say this: without God, without the Spirit of God, without that relationship with God we are all Adams. The only thing left is our relationship with a hostile nature, the only thing left is terror and discouragement. All this depends on a living relationship with the Lord. Let's stand up.