I Am Coming
Pastor Johnathan opens this message by returning to the ongoing series through the Book of Psalms, landing on Psalm 27 — a psalm written by David during a season of real and pressing danger. Enemies surrounded him, false witnesses spoke against him, and violent men came against him. Yet rather than collapsing under the weight of it all, David opens with a declaration of confidence: "The Lord is my light and my salvation — so why should I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1). Pastor Johnathan sets this ancient text against a very modern and urgent backdrop — a recent visit with dear friends from Nicaragua who are living under increasing government persecution for their Christian faith.
The stories from Nicaragua are striking. Friends Pastor Johnathan has known since 2009 — bold, field-tested believers — collected every phone in the room before they would speak about their government, terrified of being listened to. What was once a vibrant ministry of open-air worship, street prayer, and Bible distribution has been criminalized. Praying for someone on the street means automatic arrest and two months in jail. Playing worship music publicly carries the same penalty. Bibles are confiscated. In the years that Pastor Johnathan's team was active in the region, they distributed over 5,000 Bibles to 5,000 families — not knowing how precious those Bibles would become. The lesson he draws is direct: we need to be obedient now, because we don't know what liberties we could lose later.
From this, Pastor Johnathan pivots to a broader declaration about identity and freedom. As America celebrates 250 years of independence, he reminds the congregation that the greater freedom — the one worth celebrating every single day — began just over 2,000 years ago when Jesus rose from the grave. "Yes, I'm an American. Yes, I am a Texan," he says, "but before all that, I am a Christian." Quoting Saint Ignatius, he echoes the sentiment: "I wish not merely to be called Christian, but also to be Christian." And quoting Romans 1:16, he anchors the church in Paul's declaration: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." The church cannot afford to be a fear-driven people. The only fear that belongs to the believer is the fear of God — and as Oswald Chambers reminds us, when you fear God, you fear nothing else.
The heart of the sermon is built around three powerful realities from Psalm 27. First, Pastor Johnathan unpacks the significance of confidence as a spiritual weapon. He draws from Hebrews 10:35 — "Do not throw away your confidence, for it will be richly rewarded" — and makes the case that a wavering, uncertain believer gives the enemy an open door. Confidence in Jesus is what allows us to walk on the water with Him; losing that confidence is what sinks us. He also connects confidence directly to faith, citing Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." Confidence and faith are inseparable — when one weakens, so does the other.
Second, Pastor Johnathan addresses the nature of light and darkness. Jesus is the light — and light always wins. Darkness, he explains, is anything that refuses to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of His Word. Darkness torments, keeps people restless, floods the mind with destructive thoughts, and leads ultimately toward rebellion. He references 1 Samuel 15:23, which says "rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols." Darkness cannot understand the light, and it cannot overpower the light — the only way darkness gains ground is when we choose not to turn the light switch on. Drawing from his own testimony, Pastor Johnathan describes years of flipping an internal switch on and off — choosing numbness over vulnerability — and how the longer he kept it off, the harder it became to turn back on. The answer, he says, is staying connected to the source: "Because I am the son of the electrician, it stays on all the time."
Third, Pastor Johnathan outlines what living faith actually looks like in practice. Faith is obeying even when we don't understand — like Noah building a boat before he even knew what rain was. Faith is trusting even when we don't get what we want, holding onto the Promiser rather than just the promise, and seeking first the kingdom of God as Matthew 6:33 instructs. And faith is worshiping even when we don't feel like it. David, surrounded by enemies, still declared that the one thing he sought above all else was to live in the house of the Lord, to delight in His perfections, and to offer sacrifices with shouts of joy (Psalm 27:4-6). That posture — I will shout, I will sing, I will praise with music no matter what — is the model for the church today.
Pastor Johnathan closes by calling the congregation to active, courageous faith. "Waiting on the Lord" is not passive. It is not sitting at home on DoorDash waiting for Jesus to return. It is continuing to disciple, to proclaim, to go — even in difficult and dangerous circumstances, just as his Nicaraguan friends are still doing. The final charge echoes from Joshua to David to Paul: be brave and courageous. We are the blood-bought, adopted sons and daughters of the King of Kings. We are more than conquerors. Nothing can separate us from Him. And so, like David in Psalm 27:13-14, the posture of every believer must be one of confident, courageous, worshipful expectation: "Yet I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord."