Be Fearless: Week 3 | March 29, 2020

United States of Anxiety | Pastor David Hughes

Welcome and thank you for joining us for the Church by the Glades podcast. If you would like
more information about church by the Glades, including service, times and directions, visit CB
glades dot com Way. Hope you enjoyed today's message. What's up chur
ch by the Glades on
New Friends in Church by the Glades were about 9 10 people in the room right now trying to
honor those those thresholds right now. Keep everyone safe, but thank you for logging on right
now if you're new. My name is David on one of the
pastors at C B G. Let me begin the
conversation that the study of God's word this way today when I was a kid, I loved hide and go
seek. Yeah, I get it. Not an Olympic sport or anything, but I enjoyed hide and go seek. I was
pretty good at it. In fact, this
one time I was playing with my my big sister. Now my sister is 2.5
years older than me, and she's really smart. I mean, has a PhD got like, one being whole
academic career. So her being older and being really smart, she typically have an edge. But this
on
e time we're playing with her and her friends. I I don't remember how old I was when I was
small enough, my hiding place I chose We had two bathrooms in my house growing up. So one
was Mom and Dad, the master, the other one the rest of family shared. I wen
t to that, that
family bath, and there was a hamper in there, a hamper with, you know, the towels and stuff.
And I crawled inside the hambro small enough, lay down on some damp towels or kind of cool.
And I was really quiet. And I hid so well that I obviou
sly won the game because they stopped
looking for me. After a while, I was in there for, like, hours. Um, makes me think of this. Don't
you wish? With the world spinning out of control the way it is right now, you could just go
someplace and just hide. Jus
t hide, feel safe, maybe take a long nap and come out when things
were normal again. So So where do you hide? Where do you find your sense of safety security
right now? Because that's all changed. I'm not sure where you're watching this right now, but
our
main campuses in the U. S. And about 3.5 weeks ago, everything changed for Americans.
And before that, we found our security and things that no longer seems so safe. Like maybe you
found your security and your job. You had job security. It's a great thing.
But now your job is
threatened to your job is not there. I mean, unemployment is skyrocketing right now. Do the
virus. Uh, maybe you found your sense of safe for security in the stock market. Come on. Oh,
my gosh. As it's going right now, I can't retired
from about 102 years old. Uh, and then all kinds
of crazy Internet schemes like to keep yourself safe from coronavirus. You know, things popping
up with the last few weeks. I was reading some some things down. I saw gargling gargling
bleach would get rid o
f coronavirus. Um, by the way, no, these air, true eating, garlic, drinking
tequila, uh, smoking crack, even. Look, none of those work. No, there's a work, right. Bleach
gets rid of your stains, not the virus. Uh, garlic gets rid of vampire is not the viru
s. Tequila gets
rid of your judgment, not the virus. And crack gets rid of your freedom and your money. So stay
away from all those things. But we're all looking. How can I stay safe? No. We're gonna find a
sense of security. Here's what I probably shouldn
't admit here in the U. S. About a week and a
half ago, as cases were being reported, the last state report anyone infected was the state of
West Virginia. So I've never seen a map on the news. Every state was affected except West
Virginia, and I probably
shouldn't have, but I took a little sense of, ah, of security in that
because I've lived my whole life in South Florida. I've got up here since I was three, but I was
born in West Virginia. So I thought maybe maybe that's it. Maybe West Virginia people. We
have something in our blood. Maybe it's something about, you know, that rugged outdoor
living, maybe clean air. Maybe in West Virginia, we we date our first cousins. Maybe in West
Virginia Is generational consumption of moonshine. Just just make okay. I'm
kidding. If you're





watching in West Virginia, I'm kidding. I'm one of you. I love West Virginia. Don't log off. I love
West Virginia. Come on, Country roads Take me home to the place I belong West Virginia
Mountain Mama, Country roads Take me. Yeah, Okay,
So I've never sung on the stage in 21
years. That's that's That's the first here. But if you don't log off, I promise not to sing again for
another two decades deal deal, but not knocking West Virginia. West Virginia is awesome, but
people aren't even saf
e in West Virginia. So where do you go? Because now it's everywhere.
Now it's every now. Now the whole map is covered, right? And and people are freaking out.
People are stressing out. This welcome is every welcome to the United States of anxiety. Stress
a
nd fear is pervasive in this nation right now. And so where do you hide? Where do you feel
safe? Where is your biblical word? Where is your refuge? Where is your refuge? Hey, do me a
favor here in this room with like, nine people. More importantly, at home
. Would you say that
word when I say three, would you just say the word refuge? Ready 123 Refuge. It's a great word
shows up in your Bible approximately 90 different times. What does refuge mean? What? I
actually looked it up. The definition I found was th
is the condition of being safe or sheltered
from pursuit, danger or trouble? We need a refuge. And in times when I feel stressed and I
don't feel safe, I have found if I will press into God's promises, they made me secure. They
made me feel better. They he
lp alleviate my stress. So let me show you a great promise. Found
in Psalm 46 Psalm Psalm 46. If you looked it up with the Bible, go ahead and find that. If not, I'll
put it right there on the screen as you watch this online right now. Psalm 46 a little ba
ckground
on the Psalms. The Psalms. What number one is the biggest book in your Bible? There's 150 of
these things called Psalms. It's a word for the worship music of Israel. So we have the lyrics, the
songs that the people of God saying There's many years
ago at the Tabernacle in the temple,
and there's so insightful they're divinely inspired and I love the heart of the author In Psalm 46
he says in verse one and following Get rid of Read the highlighted word if you will out loud. God
is our refuge. Great
job. Now look at this part. I love this. A strength and ever present Help in
trouble. Get ready because this is our This is our declaration right now. This needs to be our
battle cry right now with so much panic uncertainty with the whole world spinning ou
t of
control. Here's as God's people, people faith. Here's where we stand Ready. Therefore we will
not fear. So how can we keep our heads when everyone else is freaking out? How can we stand
our ground when everyone else wants to run and hide? How can we r
ecognize? We don't have
to fear the way the world fears see embedded in this verse is a principle. The reason we could
do that is we have a safe place, A place to hide our God is our refuge. So what do you want to
hide when things go crazy when everything
is falling apart? Because, man, it is crazy town out
there, right? Now you look at what? Gosh, You know, the market has crashed. Businesses are
closing. Uh, the government's trying to find the right answers. Uh, medical professionals are
seeking solutions.
By the way, if I could stop right now and celebrate medical professionals
Thank you so much. Yeah, to all the doctors, nurses, technicians, people in hospitals. Come on.
Louder, man. You are the heroes right now. Thank you. I know you're retired. You're e
xhausted.
You're putting yourself at risk. Haven't seen your family. You have to strip off your clothes and
shower the moment you get home. But thank you so much for everything that you were doing.
We were so, so very, very grateful. What do we do? Where d
o we find a safe place? This idea of
refuge is a great idea. So again, there's a definition there I've shared with you. But also the Bible
develops this idea Even the same song. Let me show you another word. It's almost a near
synonym. It shows up in the s
ame song. Final versus time. Verse 11. It's on the screen right





now. The Psalms closes by saying this. The Lord of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our
stronghold stronghold. The Bible might say Fortress. Also a good translation, but a refuge or
stron
ghold, um, makes me think of the Bible character David. Actually, David wrote a bunch of
the Psalms. Actually, David, the whole guy who killed the Giant, later became the best king in
Israeli history. Hey, didn't write this one, but this is so clearly refl
ecting his circumstance
because David went through a time of his life when he was on the run somewhere, like after
Goliath, he kills Goliath. He becomes an instant celebrity. If you recall people writing songs
about him, he gets a job working for the king.
He lives in the palace. He's leading soldiers into
battle. He's racking up wins. Then, all of a sudden, his boss, his employer, King, saw who's kind
of a paranoid, jealous, insecure guy begins to believe him as a threat, tries to assassinate him
twice, an
d David has to leave everything behind. He worked so hard to achieve. He leaves his
home. He leaves his career, leaves his possessions, he's a newlywed, just got married, has has
to leave his new bride, who he loves very much. Everything is stripped from h
im taken from
him. His wife is given to another man, and he finds himself having toe live in a stronghold taking
refuge. Not not in the fortress, but in southern Judea, near the Dead Sea. That topography that
region is mountainous. It is severe there, the
steep cliffs. And they're these caves in the cliffs.
Those air called strongholds. And David due to no fault of his own. He been loyal. He was
innocents because someone else jacked him is taking refuge in a stronghold. The Salma says,
God, that's what you
are from may I find my sense of safety, security. I feel protected as I take
my refuge in my relationship with the living God, that God of Israel, the God of Jacob. You are
my stronghold. Look, times are crazy right now, Miss weird out there, everything is
broken. It
changes. Lisa and I were just talking and Pastor Raul as well. Just, you know, anytime anyone
makes a prediction more than about three days from now I just laugh because everything is so.
I have a colleague of mine, man. They shot like, six wee
ks of sermons. And, man, he's so smart
and stuff But I'm like, How do you know that would even be relevant? It is changing so quickly,
and it's bad. There are people who are sick. There are people who are dying. It seems like it's
getting worse now. Nothin
g is more annoying, though, when things are bad. When things were,
you know, falling apart in your life and some, like super spiritual person comes you and says But
hey, praise God anyways. Trust Jesus. It could always get worse. That person is so annoying
.
Okay, I'm gonna be that guy. It could always get worse. As bad as it could get worse, let me
show you Working through the psalm he pronounces his confidence in God Verse one. But as
we keep reading and look what happens, the Lord is our refuge and streng
th An ever present
help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth give way and the mountains fall
into the heart of the sea. Though the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their
certain things were bad. I mean this this is like
a big budget Hollywood disaster movie. This is
one we're like, Will Smith is right up and save the day or Bruce Willis on a rocket mean the
mountains are are falling apart. The seas are foaming. I mean, creation is uncreative itself. Yet
he still finds sa
fety in God. So right now I know we're all worried. We're all stressed that
stressed out. Remind yourself if you have a relationship with the living God through Jesus
Christ, he's your safe place today and over the next few days take refuge in your God. Hi
de
yourself in your God. Now what you're doing that? What should you do as you're hiding
yourself as your president, your relationship with God is he's becoming your safe place. What
does that look like? Well, let me give you four quick things proactive th
ings to do to take refuge
in God. Based on this passage number one, I would say and read Psalm 46 sometime. Hopefully





today. Psalm 46 gives us four different ideas. First ideas. This need to be still to be still. Stay
with me. Be still. Let me put Verse 10
on the screen right now. And typically you guys read
loudly. This wouldn't go ahead. And you kind of whisper the word, if you will It's appropriate on
the screen, he says. Be be still and know that I I am God. Now if you go to church by the Glades,
we're
not known for this kind of vibe. Our church, without apology, we celebrate. We're
passionate, were enthusiastic. Our services are allowed. We turned the volume, and I love I
love. We press into that. I love. We're out of balance. That's that's decide. We l
ean, too. But
there's certain times in the spiritual life you gotta be quiet. And maybe one of the positives in
this this tough time is it's forcing you to be quiet. You're quarantine, you know you're there in
your home. Use that time pressing to God's wor
d if you never really read the Bible before you
got time. Now, if you have not read the Bible before, start with one of the four Jesus stories.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Pick one. Read a few chapters every day. Spend a little time in
prayer before and aft
er you read. What do you say? Talk to God the way you would talk to a
respected friend. I don't need to use funny church words, man. Just talk to pour out your heart.
In fact, that time in God's word, in prayer, I call my quiet time. It's hard to find quie
t some time.
If you can carve out a place, get quiet, let God speak to you. Um, there's certain things that God
could only teach us when it's quiet. So it says in verse 10. Be still. Here's the second thing. Grow
grow and I say three. Say the word grow 123
grow, Yeah, you got to grow Okay the same way
There's certain things that God only teach us when we're quiet There's certain things got really
teach us when there's pressure. And so God wants you to have God muscle spiritually send you
because why he has
these blessings for you to shoulder in your future. If you're not strong
enough to bear the load of the pressure, you may not be strong enough someday to bear the
load of the blessing. So God will use the pressure to ramp up your spiritual growth. So let m
e go
back and think about David. So David probably didn't write this song. He wrote a great many
during that season, his life between killing the giant being an instant celebrity, you know,
before he became the king at age 30 he's living in the outlaw of f
utures. If he's on the run, he
said, when these strongholds King Saul in the Army there after him. He's a wanted man and it's
desperate times and I guarantee you. David prayed and cried out and ask God for help and for
answers. And God gave no answers. And
I wonder, when that was happening in David's life, if
we could see what was taking place in the heavens, I wonder when that was happening. Mighty
angels in Heaven like looked down from the corner of heaven looking down from the edge of
heaven and saw Davi
d their suffering. David alone and the Bible kind of teaches that God gives
Angels charge of us. Maybe David's Angels, like God, let us go get him. That is your boy. He iSS
suffering. He's hurting. Let us go rescue him. He's being treated on and God says n
o. Stand
down. I hate he's hurting. I hate he's being treated unjustly, but I'm raising up a future king God
and kings have to be resolved. Kings have to solve problems. Think quickly on their feet. Kings
gotta be tough minded. I hate he's under pressure,
but he's growing. You can use this time to
grow. God, whatever you were trying to do in my life, Whatever. Perfecting whatever rough
edges you're trying to stand off during this season, I want to grow number one. Be still number
two. I want to grow number
three. I wanna know. Want to know? I actually count this time.
Ready? 123 No, I want to know certain things about God. I want to know that my God is gonna
provide for May my God's gonna resource May and Verse one it calls. God help! God's gonna
help right
now again, One of the issues for a lot of people is is a job. Um, you lost your job.
You're fearful you're gonna lose your job right now. You own a small business, and, gosh, uh,





your income is dried up. Now, I mentioned, you know, last week. Uh, no. Jesus
never promised
to make you rich. And Jesus never promised you a job. But what he does promise to meet your
needs to resource your needs Now, typically, though, he does. That is through a job. He works
through our work. But sometimes God is so creative. He
works outside of the typical order. So
God will resource, you will keep his promises every single time. And you actually see that here
in this passage, Verse four. Now I got to set it up. Verse four is God's promise to Resource is
people. Now it's gonna b
e symbolic. He's gonna use the imagery of water. Now again, the Bible
is for you, man. God put you in front of, ah, computer screen or they're on your smartphone,
Uh, gave me this word to give it to you. So if you're open, if you're receptive, the word of
God is
not just powerful. It'll be personal. But as much as God wrote this for us, the original audience
where people lived a long time ago, Different context, different culture. And so the original
recipients of this passage some 46 where people who lived
in Israel the climate is arid, their
desert dwellers, and so water is huge. You know, water is life. So when you see water or a body
of water described, the bible often symbolically represents God's resource is or God providing
the things we need for life
. So it's the case in Verse four, look at Verse four on the screen. Right
now, it says, there is a a river body of water whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy
place where the most high dwells. There is a river whose streams make glad the city o
f God, so
a river is symbolic here for provisions again, context in the ancient world, we're talking about
being safe and secure. If you want to be safe and secure as a city, you'd have two things. A wall
had have a large, strong, thick protective wall, an
d you had to have a water source. You'd have
an internal spring or river flowing within the city walls every near the city walls and you'll find
time and time again. You see a great kingdom or empire. The capital has both those things. So
the Egyptian empi
re, the thieves was the main city, and the river that ran by thieves was the
Nile. In the Syrian empire, the capital city was Damascus. The far part river ran through
Damascus, Uh, Neineva, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Mighty Empire. Violent empire.
The
tributaries of the Tigris ran through the capital city. The Babylonian Empire Babylon was on the
Euphrates. Jerusalem has no river has No, it is not on the Jordan River is not near the Sea of
Galilee. It's kind of in the arid region. There's not a spr
ing inside the city at this time. So what
God is saying is Guess what? My people of Jerusalem, I'm your river. I will resource you the
people of the world. They trust other things. But I have You'll provide The resource is for your
life. I may not make you
rich. You may not have a job right now, but I will meet your needs. I am
your river. Be still grow Know that God's gonna take care of you and forth and finally ready for
number four rate for number four. I'll wrap this thing up. Number four Keep your eyes
open.
Keep your eyes open when you hide. I want you to hide in the Lord He's gonna be a refuge
When you hide Keep your eyes open. See some people that hide, they hide They do this. They
kind of they kind of ball up, man. They get small because they're int
imidated. They close their
eyes and they hide right to get small. Don't do that. If you're in a stronghold, gotta be looking
and keeping your eyes open during the safe place. But keep your eyes open. Watch. I mean, as
we're going through the season right n
ow, as you take your security in your relationship with
God is you press into God, um, as you're hiding and keep your eyes fixed on Jesus that Jesus be
your focus. Keep your eyes fixed on your savior is vital during this time with so much confusion
with ev
erything going crazy out there with the circumstances so fluid, they change every single
day. I wanna keep my eyes fixed on God and his word Keep my eyes fixed on my savior Jesus
Believing his promises for my life If that happens, we're gonna be OK. So you
know, people are





asking us questions right now. Questions church leaders get like some church families. Ask. Hey,
what about Easter? We're just a couple of weeks from Easter, the biggest celebration of the
Christian calendar. We celebrate the Resurrection
couple thoughts well, church by the Glades.
We celebrate the resurrection every Sunday by the way, But yes, Easter is a big deal. So what
are we gonna do for Easter? Answer is, I don't know yet. We're praying. I mean, we're not just
starting from scratch.
We've kind of mapped out three different battle plans based on what's
taking place, so I don't know, but I know this is gonna be amazing. So make sure you're
watching online. Maybe we could get together. Maybe not. I don't know, but we're gonna come
up wi
th something. If you're new to church by the Glades. Don't believe me. Please. Goto
archive on our YouTube channel and check out Easter from past years. What our team puts
together, I'm bragging on the team. I'm bragging, not me. What they put together. Fo
rget the
sermon. What they put together with music with worship, with dance, with creativity. With
video, it will melt. Your face is like an award show, man. It's like Broadway to go back and check
it out. So go ahead and do do Easter. A little early. We m
ight have to push Easter kind of late. I
don't know. My birthday happened this week. This is actually a terrible week for a birthday. I
might re celebrate my birthday in May, right? We might just move the whole calendar around,
By the way, when check us ou
t, check out Christmas. Check out Christmas Online. Our
Christmases past year was amazing. Going to have Christmas and March. Check out Christmas
today at Church by the Glades. And in fact, if you do, make sure you stop. There's a couple of
incredible mome
nts, but there's a moment with dance. I love dance. I can't dance. I don't
dances while I sing right? How albums that I can't clap on beat. But I love people who can
dance. We have amazing dance teams, a church by the Glades and, gosh, they're so good.
The
y're so talented. Uh, you should see them do this stuff. And during the Christmas event, one
of our young dancers volunteer named Ashley uh, she do This dance was kind of hip hop, and
then it moved to ballet. She's classically trained, and we had great stu
ff. Every single campus at
Sample Road at Lake Worth, the dancers were amazing, but here on this stage, Ashley was
mind blowing. She's a beautiful young woman. She's so elegant, and she started to rotate pure
wets. In fact, I think I have video of her watc
h. Watch how talented, How athletic, How how
beautiful and how many times that girl spent around. I counted over a dozen and I lost count.
So here is my ever try to spin in circles a dozen times. How does she not get dizzy? How does
she not fall over how i
n the world where there's actually a technique that dancers do is called
spotty? And when they're rotating Pyra wet time and time again? You notice her head snaps
around quicker than her body on what she's doing. She's finding something. An eye line. She's
finding something in the room somewhere. That way she is spending attorney. This thing is
stable. She puts her eyes fixed on something that is rock solid A something or someone. So
she's spinning around and around and around again. Her eyes on something t
hat is fixed. A Z
This world is spinning out of control. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus on our savior. Alright, Fix
your eyes on Jesus. The author and perfecter of our faith Our rock, our fortress, our refuge
You'll be okay. So these are weird times, right?
now, But your God is with you. In fact, two
different times. It says for seven and 11 that God are mighty God is with us. That's a very big
deal. In fact, speaking of Christmas, one of the early Christmas prophecies Jesus called
Emmanuel loose. Translatio
n. God is with us, so I know. Right now we're practicing social
distancing. That's a great idea. Stay 6 ft away from other people. Great idea. I highly
recommend it. But God does not do social distancing. He's a God who is with you. So as you





hide in him,
you are not hiding alone. My God is with you. The Gospels, the anti distancing
gospel. He is present with you right now. If you here watching this without a relationship with
Jesus Christ, What a brilliant move to make today Jesus is simply a prayer of fai
th away. He
would love to invade your life with his grace, his love, his power, his purpose, his piece. He's
just waiting for you to say yes right now They're people would love to talk to you or even text to
you about this. If you'll just go ahead right no
w and text on your phone the word salvation to
9548664443 Someone respond to you right away. Church by the Glades We're gonna make it
through this time. Just make sure everyone is freaking out. Doesn't know where to hide. You
have ah, hiding place. You hav
e a refuge. The god of heaven. You have a savior, Emmanuel,
Who is with you at this time? Let me pray with you. Bye, Cam. Father. God, Thank you so much.
Do this time freaks us out. Scares us, frightens us. You've got this because you've got us, Father.
We
don't need to hide in some place. We hide in a person. We take our refuge in our savior and
our redeemer. Lord Jesus. Thank you. Your faithful. We make this prayer in your name. Amen.
Church by the Glades You be fearless.