Deut 20:3+4. And he shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.' 
Today we are dealing with a passage that we should have embedded into the very core of our beings as the Children and the people of God! It is a truth that needs to so invade our every thought and consideration because of how all-encompassing and refreshing and encouraging and joyful our hearts and spirits should be in the reality of the truth that the Lord God Almighty, Jehovah, goes before us! He is with us! This is a bedrock finality which is to invest itself into the every manner in which we deal with others, with ourselves, and with the Lord! There is absolute surety and His guarantee of His victory and our salvation because it is not set on us or dependent upon our might and our abilities. It is all accomplished and sure and finalized in Jesus Christ, now, today and forevermore! 
While this is nothing new to any of us, it is a fact of our assurance in Christ that we need to have recounted to us over and over again. This is because we have this human tendency to lose sight of that upon which we do not purposely and consistently set our eyes each day of our lives. 
Sadly, there are so many well-meaning Christian believers who do not fully immerse themselves into this wondrous and awesome and triumphant reality of who we are now in Jesus Christ. They believe, or they are taught, or they assume that our salvation is in danger of being snatched away from us at every turn. Or they think that we will only receive that which we fight for tooth and nail, one on one against the enemy. There is a constant conflict that manifests itself in doubt and fear and the sense of impending doom. 
This is not the face of Christianity as it is to be seen in Jesus. It is the face of sadness, and despair, and frustration, and banality, which this world plasters over the eyes of those who lose sight of the victory of Jesus Christ. Christians are paraded forth as losers and as dull and boring and always depressed in the view of this age’s taunts and vicious lies and deceptions. And many believers allow themselves to be so duped by those falsehoods and take those depictions as their own struggles in this world.    
    	Add to all of this the manifestations of what this realm uses to try to enslave all those on earth with fear and trembling and doubt and anxiety. It does so with the expressed purpose to delude people into seeking some avenue, any avenue of dealing with the pressures and the apprehension and the terror and panic other than turning to the Victory of Jesus Christ. 
The wars and the rumors of wars and the economic pressures, not to mention global warming scares, etc. all mesh together to cause people to lose hope and to run away into anything that will dull and hide the pain for a while. That is why drug use, illicit sex, schemes to defraud, murder, robbery, suicide, and the myriad of so many other vile and perverse and despicable activities are rampant. Some are even accepted and promoted as normal in this day and age. 
This course of action is highlighted as the futility of humanity by which the ungodly seek to escape their misery in Job 36:21. Job 36:21, "Be careful, do not turn to evil; For you have preferred this to affliction. 
To counter this utter sense of despondency and terror, we want to spend some time encouraging ourselves in that which is the truth of our life in Christ. We need to bring to the forefront again the fact that God is our Victory and He is our Savior! We will spend some time in both the Old and the New Testament rejoicing in Him. We want to revel in the triumphant course of those who know the truth and do not walk in the dread of the ills of our deceived society.  
With our feet solidly grounded in the truth that we have absolutely have nothing to fear in this age because we have the Lord - Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent - as our everything, we can walk in the peace and the assurance and the confidence that He has us well in hand. All things are under His Supreme Sovereignty. He will take marvelous and incredible and loving and gracious and merciful care of His own now and always! 
We begin with Ex 14:13+14, as the Children of Israel found themselves threatened by the chariots of Pharaoh on the one side and the Red Sea on the other. They had no place to go. They were trapped. They were panicked with the utter fear of annihilation. All seemed absolutely impossible and desperate. That is when Moses reminded the people of the fact that the Lord was guarding them. This was the Lord God Almighty, the I Am, who had kept them safe from harm throughout all the plagues of Egypt. He had done all those miraculous acts to bring about their release from slavery. They had nothing to fear because God was going before them.
Ex 14:13+14, But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent." 
    	Notice the fact that the people were to stop their fear and their panic and their desperation. They were to be silent before the power and the majesty of the Lord’s deliverance. God would show Himself Sovereign now as He had shown Himself sovereign over Pharaoh in Egypt, the most powerful of man of that time. 
The deliverance of the people was not an issue with Moses because he knew the Lord would save His people. Maybe the manner of deliverance, the parting of the Red Sea caught even Moses off guard at the time, but he knew that God would make a way where there seemed to be no way. 
	When the second generation of the Children of Israel was ready to enter into the Promised Land, again we hear the encouragement of Moses in Deut 31:6. He confidently encouraged them to go forth under the banner of the Sovereign Lord God Jehovah. They had nothing to fear as long as they were obedient to Him and honored Him as their Lord and their God. 
Deut 31:6, Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you." 
   	Notice the wonderful reason given for the fact that we should never be afraid or tremble when it seems that everything is going against us. When we are faced with all the terrible and dangerous news of the day; when all the earthly props and stays upon which we have based our hopes and dreams are destroyed; when the storms and gales assail and buffet us with utmost and violent fury and rage; when everything just collapses and we are sitting on the ash heap of what we used to cherish, like Job, with the dogs licking at the sores festering on our bodies; when every person we used to count on turns their back and snickers at our plight; then, especially, we can absolutely hearten ourselves with the reality that God will never fail us or will He ever forsake us! He will always be our Salvation and our up lifter from the plights and terrors of this age.
      	What Moses declared all those centuries ago is still the truth of Our Lord God Almighty. He never gives up on us, even when we give up on Him. He never leaves us without the indwelling presence of Himself, the Holy Spirit. No matter what assails us, He holds us and He comforts us and He guards us and He provides for us. 
It may seem that we are losing everything of value on this earth. But the truth of the eternal ages is that He abundantly lavishes upon us the full treasury of Heaven in His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Our Savior! We may not have much in the eyes of this world, but in Christ, we have everything that is of value, eternal value, life everlasting! He will never fail us or forsake us! What a glorious reality with which to comfort ourselves in the midst of the fieriest of this age’s conflagrations and upheavals. 
	Consider the following truth. What is the worse that man can do to you or to me? If we are killed by someone that means that we will be in the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Keep this in full view; death is not to be sought. We are here to serve the Lord as His ambassadors of what life is really about, the spiritual essence of being God’s creation. 
However, when the Lord deems that our life is to come to an end, be it by disease, or old age, or sudden illness, or some act of man, it means that we are instantly in the arms of our Lord. We will no longer be subject to all the tribulations and all the pains and the atrocious viciousness of this world order. We have nothing to fear in death because it brings us to our true home at the time that the Lord so chooses to do so! There is no reason to be in dread or despair when we are assailed by the thugs of this age, be they real or imaginary. We count on the Lord in His triumphant victory over death once and for always!
	Consider what the Lord told King Hezekiah through His prophet, Isaiah in 2 Kings 19:5+6. Hezekiah was facing the world’s most powerful force of that day with almost no army in the face of overwhelming and innumerable forces of Assyrian violence. Yet, when Hezekiah cried out to the Lord, the Lord answered in the following manner which indicated that the Lord would deal with the atrocious sacrilege and irreverence of that Assyrian king.
	2 Kings 19:5+6, So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master, 'Thus says the Lord," Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 
  	The Lord then, through the use of unsettling rumors caused the King of Assyria to rush back to his home, leaving Judah and King Hezekiah in peace. While that Assyrian king was worshiping before the idol of his own making, he was killed by two betrayers. All was in line with the fact that it was the Lord dealing with those who were so threatening to His Holy Name. It was the Lord Who fought the battle for Hezekiah and for Judah and it was the Lord Who brought to pass all that transpired. 
	We often times forget unto Whom we are brought in our relationship with Jesus. We are brought into the very family of the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. He holds the whole of the universe in place. He orders the life and death of all things. He moves heaven and earth to do His will and nothing can stand against Him. This is the One Who so cares for you and for me that He works and works and works again to cause us to know the full measure of His so great love and grace in our lives. 
As we learn to trust and to obey Him, so we come into the increasing measure of understanding His Omnipotent protection surrounding us. He moves entire nations to do that which will bring forth the history as He has designed it. He also moves in the hearts of even those who are considered our enemies for the Lord’s plan and purpose to be accomplished. He freely deals with all those who surround us and would try to subjugate us.  
	Some of those will be become positive experiences in their interactions with us. Some may be much like being besieged by the foul king of Assyria, causing us to call out in utter reliance upon the Lord for the sake of His testimony in our lives. However, there need be never be a time of fear or depression or frustration or anguish or despondency, because we have the Hand of the Lord completely covering our every moment on this earth!
	Consider the following from the Psalmist in Ps 3:4-8. Ps 3:4-8, I was crying to the Lord with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God! For Thou hast smitten all my enemies on the cheek; Thou hast shattered the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; Thy blessing be upon Thy people! Selah. 
	This deals with one of the major issues that affects us when we are in despair and fear and trembling over the cares and the concerns and the worries that so easily beset humanity on this earth. Oft times, when all the walls seem to be pressing in upon us, when there seems to be no way of dealing with the stresses and the strains and the pressures of this earthly life, sleep is not to be found. We toss and we turn and our minds refuse to shut down, making every detail even more magnified in our frustration and worry and dread of what the next day will bring. We cannot find any peace in our minds or in our hearts because we imagine the worst throughout the night hours.
	In this Psalm, when the Lord answered the cry of the Psalmist, he was able to find that sleep because there was that assurance that the Lord sustained him. The Lord will sustain us. Our heart needs to be set in the fact that God is our salvation! With Him going before us, faithfully proving Himself over and over again, we have nothing to fear! Even though the odds against us seem to be so vastly overwhelming, just like with Hezekiah, The Lord God Almighty will always prove Himself in victory as Our Savior and Our Lord. We find our rest and our peace in Him, therefore we can sleep peacefully, even through the most violent of storms.
	Again hear the Psalmist, this time in Ps 27:1-3, as we consider this a wonderful anthem to hold in our hearts and in our minds as each day progresses. No matter whether the day is filled with the glorious fruit of our salvation, or the great demands of holding onto the Lord with every fiber of our being against the crashing waves of assailing forces, we have nothing to fear or to cause us dismay.
	Ps 27:1-3, The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident. 
	The world is filled with war and rumors of war. There is no doubt of that. However, as dreary and sad and heart-breaking as the powers of this age are with the every effort to dismantle our hope in Christ, we will not fear! The One Who is with us is greater than any force arrayed against us. This truth will be our encouragement as we continue next week, Lord willing. So be it.    
And he shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.' Amen.

I need to let you know that I mislabeled last week’s benediction. I announced it as Rom 8:29 when in fact it was Rom 8:31. 
This morning’s benediction is Josh 21:45. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass. Amen.