When you know who God is and not just talk about who God is, but walk who God is, then guess what? You ain't never scared because you never lose sight of who God is and what God is able to do.
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford, junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us. As today we begin a new message entitled I Ain't Never Scared. And pastor, I think all of us have come up against circumstances in life that have rocked us, have terrified us, frankly. And you're scared. But you're saying when you have a right view of God, when you know who he is, no reason for that to scare you anymore.
No reason. And you know, we're emotional creatures. I'm not disregarding that. But our volition controls our emotion. In other words, something I know cognitively really overrides my emotional response to where I'd be tore up from the floor up. Now I'm signed up from the ground up because I'm being dictated by my volition. What I know about God give you a classic example. Okay, Hezekiah, Israel's being besieged, Judah is being besieged. And I believe it was the Syrians.
They're coming or us Syrians. It was one of them. It was the enemies. They were outnumbered, surrounded. The king sent a letter. Look at all the other nations, you know. You know what he did with that letter. You know what he did. He laid it out before the Lord, and he said. See what they're saying about you? Yup, man. And you know what happened? God sent one angel in one night who killed 185,000 Syrians or Syrians or whoever. They were.
The enemy?
Yes. And so that's what I'm talking about. You don't think he had some fear? Of course he did. But he understood who God is. And he said, oh, this really is not against me. Yeah. Let me tell you, that's what I do all the time, Steve. I evaluate, I say, did you do something wrong in this Pastor Ford? Uh, well, no, I don't see Holy Spirit. Will you reveal? Because sometimes I'm blind to my own sin. I'm ignorant to my own foibles and failures and faults. So reveal to me
I don't get anything. You know, I assume. Okay. And I lay it out before the Lord. I remember when, uh, this was years ago. Over 25 years ago. Our church almost split. Mhm. And it was because one person, uh, didn't feel like I was the kind of leader he wanted. Uh, you know, I'm more of a inclusive kind of leader. Yeah. You know, I'm not this kind of dictator person. I'm the pastor kind of person. I believe in shared leadership.
I believe the Bible teaches that. Sure. And so sometimes there's a danger in that, in that, you know, you're just one of the fellas. You got one vote like everybody else. So long story short, they meet to have a vote of confidence about going to the congregation, about me. So somebody calls me and says, you better get down there. They're meeting on you. So I go down there, I say, what am I going to do, Lord? I mean, I need to address this. So long story short, Steve. Guess
what happens. Say what? What? I get to the door to church. His wife is there. She has sunglasses on. She pulls him off and says. See what he did to me last night? Ooh. And I said, oh, wow. She said, I'm getting ready to go in here, so don't try to stop me. I said, I'm not going to try to stop you. She went in. The coup was done. Huh? It was done, man. The guys walked out, you know, and they were saying, this is the guy who wants us to have a vote of confidence about
our pastor. Yeah. Man, I say she's over to the Lord, man.
Yeah. Yeah. And now, anytime things arise, you can always look back to that and see how God moved. Gives a sense of peace now, doesn't it?
Say it man. Say it.
Well, I wish we had more time, but we do need to get to Psalm 27 and begin a message called I ain't Never scared. Here's Pastor Ford.
Now, anyone who's a connoisseur of good music, any connoisseurs of good music in the house. Okay, okay. Anybody who is a connoisseur and all you that raise your hand said that you are know that the best music comes from the 60s and the 70s. The best music. I don't care. Hey, listen, you actually had to know how to sing in order to cut a record. Yeah, yeah. As a matter of fact. And and listen, listen, we had nothing like they have today. Nothing like they have today. Really.
And I'm not saying all the today's music is bad. I'm just saying a whole lot of it is. Our music had a message. Mhm. And you could actually understand the words. Oh yeah. I mean I mean who could ever forget groups like The Temptations. Yeah. Who could forget groups like the Supremes. Yeah. How about Smokey Robinson and the miracles? Yeah. I mean, we had groups like that. We had groups who could ever forget the the bands like James Brown and the Fabulous Flames. Yeah. Look at that.
Some of y'all going back. Yeah. Or Frankie, Beverly and Maze. Yeah. How about Earth, wind and fire? And who could ever forget Teddy Pendergrass? And don't forget about Luther Vandross.
Woo woo woo woo woo. whoa.
And so we had that kind of music. As a matter of fact, if truth be known, uh, many of you children, uh, who are young adults don't know it. Uh, but when you were conceived, uh, that was some of the music that was in the background. Amen. And so, you know, I don't know much about today's music, but I know when my children would grow up, when they
were growing up, they're adults now. I always made sure what they were listening to so they could listen to it when they were out of my presence, because they would sneak into it. But in my house, uh, I would do a room raid. One of my kids told me, elder, uh, you know, don't I have any privacy? No, you don't have any privacy because you can't have your privacy. Living in my house. Yeah, yeah. There's nothing in here that belongs to you. Everything is in my name. So whenever
you start paying your mortgage and your own life. Buying your own clothes and your own food. Then you got the right to call something private. But as long as you're up in my house, ain't nothing private. So I would check out what they were listening to. Yeah, as a matter of fact, I got my oldest son back because when he got his first apartment, uh, he gave me a key because he had a key to my house. I gotta have a key to your house. So I went in. When he was at work, I turned on
all the lights, all the radios, all the TVs. Then I went into his refrigerator. Uh, deacon. I took his orange juice. I drank it all down. Made sure I had black marks around. Around the around the cup of the thing, then put it back in empty. He came home talking about what's going on in here, and I gave him the name of his two brothers he didn't know he had, but they always talked about him, I
don't know. Well, who did it? Not me. And so when I got grandkids, I did the same thing I said to one of my Our grand grandchildren, who shall remain anonymous. I said, let me see that iPod. Let me see that iPod. And so I could tell that I wasn't going to like what I heard because my grandchild said, oh, you want to, you want to, you want to hear my what? No, no, no, don't give it to me. Right. So I took it and I looked on there as a person I had never heard before.
It had a picture of him. His name was Bone Crusher. Yeah. And so I saw Bone Crusher said bone Crusher. Then I put the headphones on and my ears start bleeding. The profanity was so bad. Uh, and she looked at me. She said, is it going to be time out? I said, no, no, no, no, that's your daddy and your mama. Time out. I'm from the older generation. We didn't have time out. We had lights out. That's what we had talking about time out.
You just gotta do it low enough. But but even though that was in the late 90s when I, uh, confiscated that iPod, uh, there were four words that this guy was saying that I've never forgotten. And now, some 20 years later, I want to title my sermon the words I heard because I heard him say, uh, I ain't never. No. I want to know what all y'all good Christians doing. Knowing I ain't never scared. South side. I ain't never scared. I ain't never scared I ain't
never scared. I ain't never scared. And you know what? Bone Crusher wasn't the first one to say it. That's what I want to talk to you about today. David is saying, I ain't never scared. I ain't never scared. I ain't never scared. I ain't never scared. Listen to what he says. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I be afraid? The Lord is the strength of my life. Whom shall I fear? See what David's saying? I ain't never scared. I ain't never scared.
West side. Somebody say you liking that too much. Now you. Move on now. You ain't got your carnality out. And so David is letting us know in this Psalm. He wants us to understand this important truth. God will keep us from being paralyzed by fear when we trust him. In the midst of all that we're going through in our trials, our tests, and our tribulation. God says, I've got to get that fear out of you. Uh, because it will paralyze you. It will immobilize you. It will
keep you from what I have for you. When you go through what you've gone through. In other words, God says what you fear does and and your haters and everybody else. It keeps you from seeing God. It keeps you from seeing what he has for you. It blocks your vision. It keeps you, uh, under doubt and worry and all the things that keep us. And he says, listen, uh, but when you know who God is and not just talk about who God is, but walk who God is,
then guess what? You ain't never scared. You ain't never scared because you never lose sight of who God is and what God is able to do. Come on, let's give him a hand. And so here's the thing. Here's the thing. He he says, listen, our dependence upon God determines our demonstrations from God or, what we depend upon God for he provides when we trust him to do it. So David says, I ain't never scared. He gives seven
reasons I won't get to all of them. You know that. Uh, but listen to what he says in this Psalm in, in verse one. I ain't never scared because of my celebration about God. He says, number two, verse two, I ain't never scared because of the conquest, my conquest through God. Verse three he says, I ain't never scared because of my confidence in God. Verses four through six he says, I ain't never scared because of my communion with God.
Verses seven through ten he says, I ain't never scared because of my communication to God. 11 through 13 he says, I ain't never scared because of my counsel from God. And then he ends up in verse 14 with the icing on the cake. He says. The seventh reason I ain't never scared is because of my commitment to God. And so if you can get these principles and walk out with them, you could walk out in the parking lot, turn on your boom box and your ride bump it.
I ain't never scared. I ain't never scared. I ain't never scared.
As Pastor Ford, with the message taken from Psalm 27, I ain't never scared. And we're going to get back to this teaching in just a moment. If you ever have a question about something you hear on the broadcast, you can always ask Pastor Ford your question by coming to our website, Treasure Radio. Org. Clicking on the comment button, you can ask a question right there. And who knows, we might answer that on a future broadcast, but either way, we'll make sure that he sees that. Again, our website,
Treasure Truth Radio. Back to the message. Here is Pastor Ford.
So notice first of all, he says, I ain't never scared because of my celebration about Yahweh God. And so he lets us know some things. Let me show you. Imma drop em now. Push em. Notice what he says in verse one, two and three. Get it? In verse one, I'm celebrating God's provision for my present. Verse two I'm celebrating God's protection in my past. Verse three I'm celebrating God's providence about my prophetic future. Notice what he's saying. I got full coverage that God has me covered, that
he covered me. Right now. The Lord is the Lord is the Lord is in his person. He's present. But then you need to know. Verse two I know he protect me in the present because he protected me in the past, and because he's here with me right now, because he's always taking care of me in the past. I look to my future and I know everything's covered there as well. So I ain't never scared now. I ain't never scared then. I ain't never scared. Yeah. And
that's what he wants us to know. See? See, David wrote this psalm at a time when he was running for his life. And so, uh, scholars don't agree whether he was running from Saul or Absalom, if Saul. It was early in his life it was Absalom. It's later in his life. But who cares? You know, if you're running for your life. It don't matter whether it's family or foe. You running for your life. And so he's running for his life. And so what's the celebration about?
Because God's asking him the question that he may be asking you and I. David, you can praise me when you're ruling, but can you praise me when you're running? You can praise me when everything's going well. But how about when everything is going bad? And David is saying, listen, listen, I want you to understand something in this Psalm. I'm giving you this psalm because I want you to know that every time I get into adversity, I look and
see that I've got full coverage. But then I begin to realize that my good days I weigh my bad days so I won't complain. I'm going to praise him because my good days. You know that song, right? Well, Mother Carter went home to be with the Lord, and I funeralized her. I did her homegoing celebration, and one of the things I tried to do was this. I tried to get the family to see that her good days outweighed her bad days, because she was 88 years old.
And this is what I said to them to try to encourage them, like David is trying to encourage her. I said, listen, there's a song that says my good days outweigh my bad days, so I won't complain. I tell you, family, you should not complain because her good days outweighed her bad days. She was without Christ eight years, but she walked with Christ for 80 years, so her good days outweighed her bad days. She was sick for the last six years, but she was well for 82 years.
Her good days outweighed her bad days. God promised her threescore and ten, but she lived fourscore and eight. Her good days outweighed her bad days. For 20 years she was without her boo. Uh, Reverend John Carter. Uh, but for 36 years, uh, she was with him. Her good days outweighed her bad days. She walked with Jesus for 80 years, but now she'll walk with him for all eternity. Her good days outweigh her bad days. I said she's singing her song. When she was here on earth, she
sang her favorite song. What a friend we have in Jesus. Uh, about Jesus. But now she's in heaven singing what a friend we have in Jesus. Looking at Jesus, her good days outweigh. Listen, listen, will you take a walk down memory lane and count your blessings? Name them one by one. Uh. That you have been blessed by God no matter what you're going through. And even as bad as this country is, it's still the best country in the whole world. Aren't you glad you was born here? Mm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
that's what he's saying. What about you? You praise him when heaven's coming down. Yeah, but can you praise him when hell is breaking loose? Uh, yeah, yeah. You, you you pray for Big Mama to live. But she died anyway. Can you praise the Lord in spite of it? Can you yet give him a praise? Yeah. Uh, you got the interview, but you didn't get the job. But can you praise God, uh, that you are unemployed in the
midst of it? Can you praise him? Uh, you've been praying for healing, and, uh, we don't put so much oil on you. We could have fried ten crates of chicken. Uh, but you ain't healed after 20 years. Can you still get up in the midst of the saints and tell everybody I will praise him. See you pray for the child. But the child's still on drugs. You pray for your for your relative and they're still gay and they're still banging your house, still in foreclosure, your spouse still cheating.
The vision didn't go like you planned. But can you say, like the psalmist, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let's exalt. Are there any praises in the house? Are there any who will give him the sacrifice of praise? Amen. Amen. Yeah. The sacrifice. What do you mean by that? You buy at Payless, but you praise him like you got it
at Neiman Marcus. Yeah. Give him some glory. You drive a hooptie. Uh, yeah. Uh, but you drive it like you're driving a The Bugatti. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. You eat at Mickey DS every day, but you act like you eat at McCormick and Schmidt's every night. Yeah, yeah, you wear polyester, but you praise him like you're wearing Egyptian cotton. Yeah, yeah. Your unemployment is about to run out, but you're running around acting like you're the CEO of
a fortune 500 company. You live in an apartment in the projects, but you're walking with swag like you got a mansion in Winnetka. I wish I had some folk who understand how blessed they are, and can just give God some praise for how I am right now. You don't got to give me nothing else. You don't got to provide anything else. You done already done enough for me to praise you, to lift you up, to magnify you, to give your name the glory. I ain't never scared,
I ain't never scared, I ain't never scared. Mm. Yeah. Mhm. David would you understand. You want me to share with the congregation. God will often change the things around you so he can expose to you the things that are really in you. Oh somebody ought to be tweeting that. Now that's worth taking the cell phone out and tweeting that. Let me say that again. That's Tweetable moment there. I said, God will often change things around you so he can
expose to you what's really in you. See, all of us can talk a good game in church, but what about on the job tomorrow? Will you lift your hands and say thank you, Lord, that I got a job?
Up.
With a message called I ain't never scared. That's Pastor James Ford Jr. You're listening to Treasure Truth, and as always, you can download this program at our website. You can also stream the audio there. Just come to Treasure Truth Radio. We've all heard the statistic that half of all marriages end in divorce. I mean, divorce is painful. It's a messy process that nobody foresees in their future when they're saying their wedding vows. But as many know all too well,
divorces still occur. Now, there can be many causes behind the breakup of a marriage, but there's one way to stay on track, and that's by having a marriage that's built firmly on a biblical foundation. In the book Seven Reasons Why God Created Marriage, Pastor Ford draws on years of pastoral and counseling experience, and he unpacks the biblical framework that God designed for every marriage. This is a book that you'll want to own whether you're married, engaged,
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Request your copy when you call and give your gift. Our number is 888644 7660 or go online to Treasure Truth Radio.com. I'm Steve Hiller. Our producers, Amy Rios. Join us next time as we continue the message. I ain't never scared here on Treasure truth. A production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.