Fear Basics

Episode 1

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We don't know anything apart from him. Not really. So we thank you for the revelation knowledge that he brings to our heart tonight. We receive with it a wisdom, practical application. Holy Spirit, help help us even during the message to think about how this or that that you say to us applies to our situation. And then we also ask for understanding, which will help us get established in these truths. And give your word as seed the time to grow up on the inside of us and bear fruit some 30, some 60, some a hundredfold. We thank you by faith for what we're about to receive. We believe we hear your voice, the voice of our good shepherd. And even if we hear a stranger's voice, we will not follow it. So we thank you tonight for what we're about to hear and receive. We believe your word will have free course in this building tonight and on this campus everywhere. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. And go ahead and be seated. And this is what I heard I believe I heard God say to me this morning. Now, I I'll tell you this, I preface this with this. I had an hour and a half conversation with someone on the phone yesterday. It was unexpected. And uh and the man was he was he was in really bad shape. He was being tormented in his mind by uh by fear. And so I I I endeavored to help him over the next hour and a half. At one point I think I must have got so loud, Cindy came in from the back of the house to check on me, make sure everything was okay. But I I felt like there was a breakthrough uh toward the end of our conversation, and I was thank thanking God for it. And I went to bed thinking about it. But I really believe that what I'm gonna share with you tonight, even though uh some of the things I'll share with you, I shared with this person last night. I believe this is directed to you. I believe God has prepared it especially for you. Uh, it's our assignment tonight, and so there's something in here for you if you'll receive it. How many of you will receive if okay? So let me make the statement to you. I I don't know why I didn't put it in your notes, but you can write it on the back of your uh little worksheet there. Uh here's what I heard God say. He said, Fear will predict your future if you allow it. Fear will predict your future if you allow it. It is meant, I'll go over this again for you. It is meant to displace divine hope and rob you of experiencing and enjoying the Father's will for your life. Let me give it to you again. Fear will predict your future if you will, if you allow it. It is meant to displace divine hope and rob you of experiencing and enjoying the Father's will for your life. That's a lot to think about, and it's a lot to unpack, especially in just one um message. And I think this will just be a standalone message. Cindy and I are actually uh out of town next week. Uh Pastor Shirley's going to speak to you next week. Um so um, but even given that, I think that this is just one of those messages that I'm not working to build a series on, even though we could. Second Timothy chapter 1 in verse 7. Most of you probably, if you walk with Jesus at all for any length of time, you you're aware of this verse. You may have it memorized, it may have already ministered to you at some point in your life. But 2 Timothy 1.7 says, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. That's from the King James Bible. Let's all just kind of quote it out loud. It's in your on your worksheet. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Now let's make it personal, say, for God has not given me. For God has not given me the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. Now, what's interesting to me is that the word translated fear here is not the common one that appears a number of times in the New Testament. It is a standalone Greek word. It's the Greek word dealia. You don't necessarily have to remember that. You can find that in your concordance if you're studying this verse. But it's only used once in all the New Testament. And when I see something like that, you know, I go on an alert. I start saying, well, why is that? Holy Spirit, is there something else maybe that we need to know about this word or what Paul is trying to communicate to Timothy in particular? And will it help us? And I think that's the case, that Paul sensed something in young Timothy, and as his spiritual father, he uh he wanted to say some things to Timothy and help him right away because Timothy had just been made the pastor over a very, very large church at Ephesus, and he was overwhelmed. In fact, some who study, some theologians, believed that uh what was happening to Timothy could be described as uh mental breakdown, the term that term that we would use today. He was as close as anybody to experiencing a mental breakdown with all that was happening to him. The word delia there means timidity, it means cowardice here. The other Greek word, it should surprise you, is phobia for fear. And that's the common word used in other parts of the New Testament. But this is the word delia, and it specifically is referring to timidity or a cowardness. Okay? And I think again that that it was Paul's effort by the Holy Spirit, an assignment by the Holy Spirit, to help Timothy get hold of this before it was able to take root in him and really begin to hurt him, begin to shape his life, even take him out of again the future that God had destined for Timothy. Again, Timothy is young, he's young in ministry, been there, done that, as Paul writes. Uh as a wise spiritual father to Timothy, Paul knows that if he can help Timothy gain victory over the slightest dread, say that word with me, dread.

unknown 7:34

Dread.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

At work on the inside of him, that fear will never have a chance to grow up on the inside of him and defeat the purposes of God in him. This gentleman I was talking to was uh tormented by a number of different fears, and I had him talk about them, even tried to get him to write them down in one column. He sort of thinks that way. I've known him a long time. He's a very logical person, very reasonable person. So I said, well, let's just do this. Write down everything you're afraid of. I want you to say it out loud to me, but then I want you to write it down. Usually when we can get some things that are just boiling up on the inside of us or kind of hiding away in the recesses of our heart, we can get it in the open, out in the light. We can really begin to see it for what it is. And he needed to see what these fears were. Uh and as he began to do that, it became clear that none of these things had happened. And there was no evidence that he had, even natural evidence that he had, that would somehow support them happening. And I reminded him of a story that Rick Renner, a dear friend of ours, told years ago about his health. He uh began, he developed a knot somewhere on the back of his head, and he began to, you know, sort of press on it day after day and think more about it, and then he began to worry about it because apparently he had some medical history in his family of cancer, tumors. So that's what he began to think about. And the more he thought about it and the possibility of it, even though it didn't happen, hadn't happened, he had no evidence, no medical evidence at that point in his experience that would support a tumor or a cancerous tumor. It was just part of the family history. And so he began to lose more and more sleep over it and worry more and more about it, and uh finally went to a doctor and they examined him. They did a biopsy and it came back benign. And they they were able to handle it. Well, after all that happened, Rick was very apologetic to God. He just said, you know, God wasn't getting on to him about this, but he felt like he needed to apologize to God for not really trusting him in the situation, and pretty much more or less go immediately to the worst case scenario. And what was happening, and this is one of the points uh I want you to really get tonight before we leave, and it's the one we started out with. If we permit it, fear will predict our future. And so uh there are other places in the Bible that teach principles about this sort of thing I'm thinking about right now. As a man thinketh in his heart, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. I'm also thinking Proverbs chapter 4, there's several verses there that teach us that we need to protect our heart or guard our heart with all diligence. Say all diligence. That makes it very important. With all diligence, for out of it are the King James Version says issues of life. That word issues, again, is very interesting from the Hebrew language, the language of the Old Testament, and certainly the Proverbs and the Psalms. And it literally refers to boundaries that are being set. In other words, we have a boundary between New Mexico and Texas. If we were speaking Hebrew, we could use that same word that appears in Proverbs 4 for that boundary between New Mexico and Texas, or the boundaries that shape the United States of America or any nation for that matter. But what uh the writer of Hebrews is saying, or Proverbs there is saying, is that what we have in our heart and what we meditate on in our heart and what we think on in our heart is going to shape our lives. It's going to define our lives. We often, most often think that what's coming at us is what shapes our lives. That's what gets us blaming other people for our problems. Are you listen to me? People can make bad decisions and make your life harder, but ultimately God didn't give them the say-so over your life. He gave you the sovereign right to choose, even where you would spend eternity. You can reject Jesus, even in view of his love for you and what he did at the cross for you, and you can choose to go to hell if you want to. But if you choose to receive Jesus as Lord by faith, nobody can stop you from receiving eternal life. God has given you that ability. Don't let anybody shape your life. Let God shape your life, speaking into your life. God's going to get you thinking the right things about your life. He's going to work by the Holy Spirit to get you echoing what he's speaking over your life. Jeremiah 29, 11 is just one spot where he says the future he's given you is great and grand. And hope in it. It's good and not evil. Okay? And God wants by the Holy Spirit you to think on that instead of the alternative, which would be, again, to be afraid. That's just one alternative. But fear has that predictive ability. It can be a force at work in your life to literally lead you away from God's will for your life, your daily life, or God's will for your entire life, your future, your destiny, if you allow it to happen. Dread, worry, anxiety, those are just all words that describe seedlings of the phobias that end up and can end up tormenting us, because that's what the scripture says in 1 John 4, 18. We'll read that. I'll read that to you in just a minute. But it says that there's no fear in love or perfect love. But it goes on to say that fear has torment. And the word for torment is the Greek word colias. And it literally, this is again very interesting. I love the original language. You don't have to be a Greek scholar to study it. Just someone who will read and research and study. Because over time, you know this, over time, have you noticed that our dictionaries have changed? The meanings of words have changed over time. Words have been added, words have been taken out of our dictionaries. Well we kind of lean on for meanings, uh meanings of words. Well, the same is true about the original language of the Bible. There's been so much change in our culture, especially our Western culture, when it comes to this book, that some of the things that we've taken the word of God to mean, well, it doesn't mean at all. And so we have to be willing to say, oh, we're going to do the homework, and we're going to do the hard work, and if we really are interested, we're going to find out what this means and be a student of the Bible. Again, thank God we've all got the Holy Spirit to help us, to reveal things to us. But this word actually means to dominate. So the fear, the spirit of fear will dominate us if we let it. It will overshadow us. Watch this. It will make itself bigger than we are, or bigger than God is in our life. That's what this word torment actually means. It can be painful, you know, but it actually means to lord over. I just think that's important to know. How about you? That if we let the spirit of fear predict our future, it will dominate our future. It will make itself bigger than any promise Jesus ever spoke to us. It will make, it will make, it will overshadow the covenants that we have with God that are such a major part of experiencing our daily redemption and salvation. Amen. So we can't give it any place. Now let me read 1 John 4.18 from the Amplified Bible to you. There's no fear in love. Dread does not exist, but full-grown, complete, perfect love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror. For fear brings with it the thought of punishment. And so he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love, is not yet grown into love's complete perfection. The short version of all that is perfect love casts out fear. Well, where does perfect love come from? It's only got one source. It comes from God, right? It only flows from me as God is flowing from me by his Spirit. It only comes, shows up in you when you let God love through you. Again, the Spirit of God, the Bible says the Spirit of God sheds abroad in our heart the love of God. It's there for us to live by, supplied to us by the Holy Spirit. Amen. But that's perfect love. So only God's love can actually defeat. And I want us to get that, I want us to understand that because you can't, uh I'm getting ahead of myself here, I don't want to get too far ahead. But you're going to find out if you don't already know it, you can't negotiate with the spirit of fear and have victory over it. There's only one biblical treatment that we're given for the spirit of fear, and that is to cast it out. All right. That doesn't mean the spirit of fear, again, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I won't go ahead and say it here or repeat it later. That doesn't mean that if you're experiencing the spirit of fear, you're demon-possessed. It doesn't even mean that a demon is actually trying to make uh his way into you. Okay? The word spirit in the New Testament has a number of different meanings. But it can be a demonic spirit trying to take advantage of you. Thank God we have authority over all the forces of hell. Amen. How can you say that, Pastor? Because Jesus won that victory and we don't have to fight it again because he won it completely. Well, then what are we supposed to do? Enforce it. That's why you and I have been given that armor. Ephesians 6 talks about it, beginning with the helmet of salvation, ending with the lance of prayer, and a bunch in between. And we're taught to pray always with it, because that's how we deliver spiritual warfare chiefly, is by how we live our life and how we pray in life. Okay? And that's how we enforce. You've been given the name of Jesus as well. You've been vested. You know, none of our police officers leave to serve in our community without going through the academy and somehow proving that they've made themselves ready for the new responsibilities. They're not given a badge until they complete their training. You know, they're not authorized to operate in the name of the APD until they've shown themselves to be worthy and been proven, right? Well, God has given us, vested us with the name of Jesus, and we have the power and authority given by the Holy Spirit. Now that says right away we can't just do what we want to do with it. Amen. And some do. Some Christians try to do that. You remember the group of guys who tried to cast out demons? It's in the book of Acts. They tried to cast out demons in the name of Jesus who Paul preaches. Do you remember that? They took it on themselves to cast out demons because they'd seen it done by Jesus and the other disciples. They took it upon themselves to do it in the name of Jesus who Paul preached. Apparently they didn't have any personal experience with this Jesus who Paul preached. But I've seen people who profess to be Christians who go after the devil in their own strength, their own ability, and their own power. And there's only one end to that, and it's always the same ending, is they end up defeated. They end up uh you know, beaten back. So, but it's important to know those things, again, because fear ends up being one of our major enemies, again, whether it's just an attitude or uh you know, a certain position we take, or it is a demonic spirit. All right? It has to be cast out, and the only way to uh do that successfully is again, watch this, to accept, say accept. To accept, not try to figure out God's perfect love, but to accept it. This was the breakthrough I had with this gentleman. I had talked with him for some time. And then it just I know the Holy Spirit helped me to realize, but again, because I've known him a while, he takes a pretty intellectual approach to things. And he really does like to figure things out. And it's actually his whole occupation in life has been that. And so he has struggled, and he told me this, he struggled with just accepting what God has to say about things. Or even though he has biblical proof, he's used with work working with natural proof or feelings, the proof that feelings offer us. And so he struggles with some of the things I was trying to share with him, and then God said, say it to him this way it's a matter of accepting God's love, not trying to figure it out. Okay. You and I need to do the same thing. Even if that's not our primary approach to life, that's not. Our personality or the way we go about things, accepting God's love is the best approach. Because how in the world are you ever going to successfully figure out God's love? It's not like anything else we've ever seen or known. Nobody else can produce that again apart from what God gives. Amen. So perfect love, accepting perfect love, letting it affect us, letting it, you know, uh, letting it really, letting it speak to us about uh how God's position toward us and again his acceptance toward us. And you know, he wants us to accept what he says, he's accepted us. And when we do that, then we have the power, God's power and ability to overcome the spirit of fear, whatever form it comes in. Perfect love or God's love will put fear on the run every time. Without exception, perfect love casts out fear. The word cast is another wonderful word in the original Greek language. It actually indicates throwing something. Actually, the word is spelled B-A-L-L-O, Ball, balo in the Greek, and it means to throw something or to hurl something with great force. So, in other words, we don't patty cake with the spirit of fear. We don't try to reason with it, we don't converse with it. When we recognize it as the spirit of fear, we are to let God's love empower us, our faith in accepting God's love, to do one thing with it, and that's to cast it down and to put it down. Let me just throw this verse at you. It's not here in your notes. But 2 Corinthians 10, 3, 4, and 5. Scripture teaches us what to do with every thought that is in disagreement with what God is saying or thinking. All right, we're to do the same thing with it that we do with the spirit of fear. We are to cast down every imagination that would try to exalt itself against the knowledge of God. Now, how many of you believe we can actually do this with God's help? Now, it's a big question to ask yourself. Because if the word is preached and not mixed with faith, we won't enjoy the result. That's what happened to the Hebrew people. Hebrews 4 says it in one place. The gospel was preached to them just like it's being preached. Paul was talking about in his day, but they failed to mix it with faith, so they didn't enter into that provision or the rest of God, the peace that God was offering them. The same happens to us. God's word is preached. If we don't accept it, mix it with faith, then Satan can come immediately and take away the word. That's been so. The way that we hold on to the word is to open our heart and begin to exercise whatever faith we have. And if we don't have any, we're asking God for it. Right? Faith comes by the same word that God speaks. All right. But that means for most of us, not trying to figure it out. It means, okay, I'm accepting it. Why are you doing this, God? Don't try to reason it out. God does it because he's God. And the sooner we realize that, the quicker we move on and grow. Amen. So four things. Let's get into your notes there. Four things on your worksheet that I just want you to know about fear. And again, this could be a series of several weeks, but we're just dealing with it tonight. And there'll be plenty to think on by the time we finish. Four things. Fear is not just an emotion, but a controlling spirit if we allow it. It's not just an emotion, but a controlling spirit if we allow it. Something else I observed in this gentleman who's a friend of mine that I was trying to help on the phone. He was broken. His voice would break, crack. He would move from tears to not speaking clearly at times. Toward the end it was different, thank God. But as we move through the process, and it pained me that he was going through all that. And part of that is because he's trying to, listen to me, he's trying to fight or handle or manage a spiritual battle from his soul. And I'm going to say something to you. You were literally not wired by God to handle what life throws at us with your emotions. You're not wired by God to handle these things with your nervous system. Your nervous system will break down. That's what happens to so many people who are suffering mental health issues. They tried to handle it. Not all of them, but many of them tried to handle the conflict of life, the fears, the challenges, the tough parts, especially. Even when good things happened, they were worried they wouldn't last. You know? Satan had a victim and he made them a victim for life. But many of them tried to fight what was happening on a spiritual level from a soulish level. And you weren't built that way. You'll break. I don't care who you are, how strong you think you are, you keep handling spiritual battles from your soul, just your mind, your emotions, just trying to will it so. Those are the three parts of your soul. Your mind, your emotions, and your will. You keep trying to resource that place again and again and again. It won't take long. It'll start breaking down. And you'll start breaking down and breaking up. And you'll suffer, especially when it comes to your mental abilities to handle things. Okay. So in Scripture, here's the statement I wanted to make, or I made earlier. I need to make it clear to you. In scripture, a spirit can refer to a personality, but also can refer to an attitude. Disposition or influence that shapes how we think and act. That's actually in your notes. In scripture, a spirit, the Greek word is pneuma, can refer to a personality, but also can refer to an attitude, a disposition, or influence that shapes how we think and act. You know, we've talked about, you've got certain dispositions as I as I do. You know, some of it was how we were raised, growing up. We just, again, we go quicker to handle things this way than this way. You know. And so the spirit of fear can be a primary disposition for some people. They're afraid first. It's their first response. Again, even to reporting good news. Well, it won't last. You know, maybe you're one of those. Listen to this tonight. Especially carefully. You'll get some help tonight before you leave. Because God didn't just provide abundant life for you through Jesus, He wants you to enjoy it. And I've said it over the past few weeks more than once. Some of us need to be praying for more enjoyment when it comes to the Christian life. Scripture says He gives us all things richly to enjoy. Ask yourself the question: how much of this am I enjoying? Seems like it's a constant, I'm in constant turmoil. Well, it shouldn't be that way. Let's ask God for special grace. Amen. Let's get back on the enjoying side of things. So again, in Scripture, a spirit can refer to a personality, but can refer to an attitude, disposition, or influence that shapes how we act or think. I like to bring this up and state it because in the charismatic move, which I'm a part of, so much I've learned of God started back in the late 70s, into the 80s, which was really when the charismatic move began. If you don't know that, you can look it up. It's actually recorded now as part of history. But there was a time where it just seemed like anything that, there was a demon, let me put it this way, there was a demon on every doorknob. And every time something went wrong, a demon had to be cast out. Well, that's silly. But it's important to note that we don't ignore that. And we won't make it one of our points tonight before we leave. But it's not always a demonic personality. It can just be an attitude. It can be a disposition, all right? It can paralyze us from acting on our faith. All right. Fear, and let me just say this to you, and I find there's quite a bit of confusion about this. If I were to ask you what the opposite of fear is, what would you say to me? You would be wrong. If you said faith, you would be wrong. The opposite of fear is hope. Fear attacks your hope. The opposite of faith is doubt. And the opposite of belief is unbelief. Say it again. The opposite of fear is hope. The opposite of faith is doubt. And the opposite of unbelief or belief is unbelief. Hebrews 11.1 says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So when faith is taken from us, and fear paralyzes us and causes us to lose hope, but it also paralyzes us when it comes to exercising our faith. When that happens, we're in bad shape. Because the things we hope for, we don't have the substance to see them come to pass. In fact, you hear this in some people when they talk about hope. Because when you look up the definition of hope, especially the way it's used in the New Testament, it is a confident, joyful expectation. But when you talk to people, even Christian people, about this or that, and you say, well, what do you think? Well, I hope so. There's an element of doubt and even unbelief there. But that's not the definition of biblical hope. When God gives birth to divine hope, it's joyful. It's an expectation that guides you into your next steps and how you're viewing the future. Does it help you? Fear magnifies potential danger and again diminishes both hope and trust in God. It becomes the clouded lens through which we interpret our reality. My pastor used to say this years ago. He did a great series. If you know Pastor Charles Neiman, you would never think this of him if you know him at all. If you don't know him, it wouldn't matter. But after knowing him for some time, because he always appeared so confident about anything that he said or taught and the way he was living his life for Jesus. But he did a series on fear. It's back when we had cassette tapes. Does anybody remember cassette tapes? I've still got some. Nothing to play them on, but I've got cassette tapes. But he taught a long series on fear. And it was something that he had learned. And he cried out to God for help concerning. I would have never thought Pastor Charles had an issue with fear. But it's still one of the best series I've ever heard on it. But he he made a statement. He said, fear will attract demonic activity, the way that blood attracts sharks in the water. That if you're going to exercise fear, you're going to create a culture around yourself and also within yourself that demonic forces can take advantage of. I, you know, I was thinking about today, I just asked this question as I was going over some of this. Um I said, when have I been most afraid in my life? And uh I have had face-to-face confrontations with people who were demon-possessed, and we have cast those demons out of them. In my case, it happened, and I don't say this this is not boasting in me at all. I'm surprised sometimes when I hear the other people's stories about casting out demons. Because when when I, in Jesus' name, commanded the demon to leave this person, the demon left. And he didn't, you know, beg to stay, he didn't speak out loud, he didn't scream, he didn't want a big show of things. He just left, which I think is the way it's supposed to happen. Amen. But it wasn't in those times that I was afraid of most. I actually felt a demonic presence come on me. I went to get up one evening when we were at another uh address, we were living at another house, and I got up and I went to the restroom, and I absolutely felt a demonic presence come into that small area and just lean into my body. Now don't think I'm weird, don't disconnect. There's too many good things I've got left to say. Okay, I mean, please, I'm not an idiot. I don't, again, this is not something I reminisce about. But I asked the question today, and I can remember feeling that demonic presence leaning on my physical body, and it sent chills down my back. And I had to stop, literally just stop and gather myself and my emotions. And I just said, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. And he was gone. Tried to come back, I didn't talk to Cindy about this, tried to come back a number of times, similar circumstance. I got to where I didn't want to go to the bathroom. Now, you know, you can, I mean, you can imagine that would have been quite the disaster if I had not. But I finally got rid of it and it's never been back. I don't know what scares you. I don't know what frightens you. I'm going to tell you about an open door here in just a minute that we all need to be aware of. But again, fear magnifies potential danger. It becomes the clouded lens through which we see our own reality. Number two, in your notes, distrust. Put the word distrust. Distrust in God's nature is often the result of fear that has taken root over time, or, watch this, in a moment of trauma. Distrust in God's nature is often the result of fear that has taken root over time, or in a moment of trauma. You know, you can develop, say develop, you can say that word, develop. You know what that means. You can process your thinking in such a way, your experiences in life, such a way you actually can develop, again, a spirit of fear, timidity, cowardice, etc. Or something can happen to you. Like that car accident, I don't know if you were early to church, but there was a car just north of I-40 off tramway that was completely on its top. And uh that happened to be one of our church family members. They're okay. But there they were having experienced that. And uh it wouldn't surprise me if Satan would try to take advantage of what happened to them, to plant in them and torment the spirit of fear and open up a door for a personality of fear, demon personality, to uh uh disable them and get them to where they're afraid of driving anywhere. You know, going anywhere. That's how that sort of thing happens. Or it can't happen that way. Just be aware of that. If you've had that happen in your life, be sure you've shut that door. That you thank God you know he delivered you from it, you're free from it. Thank God it's in your past, and you're not worried about it happening again. In fact, you start declaring that you have the angels of God encamped around about you. And you're safe because you dwell uh uh in his presence in the secret place of the Almighty, like Psalm 91 says. Amen. Fear in this sense results in believing what is false about God. And that's ultimately what Satan wants to do, anyways. He wants us to diss God, he wants us to disrespect God, he wants us to believe that God is flawed. You know, that's what happened in the garden. Satan, through the serpent, was able to convince Eve first, deceive her. Adam was not deceived, but she was deceived, and because he was able to convince her that God was holding out on her, keeping something from her. In other words, she became afraid, like Pastor David has been teaching of being distant where his relationship with God was concerned, or that God was, he was afraid that God, she was afraid that God was going to hold out on her. And Satan made a move on her, made her afraid first, and then made a move on her. So again, fear, one of the other things that fear tries to do is get us to think poorly about God. Again, even that God doesn't love me, that's fear at work. Because you're made to be loved by God. One of the major reasons you were created was to have a relationship with God on the highest level. But fear will work to get you thinking that you're the exception. God doesn't love you, or God doesn't love you as much as someone, someone else. I don't know if that helps you, but it should. Um, you know, fear will get you to think God's not faithful, or he won't be faithful where you're concerned. God's not good. God won't use his power to help you. In every instance where fear is at work, the true view of God is distorted. I won't mention this young man's name. He used to be a regular part of our church family and quite involved. He had a bright future. We could all sense and see the call of God on his life. But uh I began to see on him uh just this spirit of fear. And it was, it became more and more evident the more time I spent around him that he was he was often afraid and sometimes just really afraid of what people thought about him, and it became dominant. You know, you can't live free and think and worry about what everybody else is thinking about you. Amen. And why in the world are you looking to a world that crucified a perfect man for your approval? How hopeless is that, right? So think you you need to be resting in what God, how God sees you. And that should be enough. Amen. You're not what scar your scars have made you in life, you are what God, Jesus' scars have made you. Amen. Amen. So um uh uh, so so we're about to close here. Number three, completely opposed to the spirit God gives and robs us of God's provision. Fear is completely opposed to the spirit God gives and robs us of God's provision. The word provision is the one you put in that. And here again, 2 Timothy 1.7, going back to that, we started with it, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So, whatever else you're getting out of that verse, get this. That Paul actually lines out three targets that fear takes. Our fear is uh pointed towards, directed towards. What are you saying? The spirit of fear will rob you of God's power operating in you. The spirit of fear will rob you of any sense. Of God's love for you. And number three, the spirit of fear will fear will rob you of mental health and soundness of mind. That's whatever else Paul is saying to Timothy about God not giving us the spirit of fear. This he's saying this too. He's saying, understand that these are three targets that the spirit of fear takes. Amen. Number one, God's power working in you. In other words, fear will actually make you abandon God's power if you let it, to trust in yourself more than you trust in God. Again, this gentleman, friend of mine, I'm trying to help. He kept saying that. He said, I am so, I didn't realize how dependent I've become on myself. He said, I've gotten to where I figured try to figure most things out. I don't even pick up my Bible as often as I used to. Easy to do, right? And fear would love to keep you there. All right. But also God's love for you. Why are you the exception? Why does God so love the world but not you? I mean, come on, we've been singing it since we were little big kids. You know, Jesus loves all the children, I guess except you. Wow. Figure that. Go figure that one out. No, God loves you. And he loved you before you were a child of his. And Paul says it this way, how much more? Now that you're one of his. Right? And again, also soundness of mind, mental. I don't know if you'll remember this or if you were in any of our studies when this we started talking more about this. I think it's almost two years ago now. Came into a new year, and God began to just talk to me about mental health becoming a greater issue. And that we were going to need to really apply ourselves from a spiritual place to help people. And I'm still believing God is giving us that power, that wisdom to help people who really are breaking down mentally. I'm not just talking about forgetting things. We all forget things. I'm talking about you can't get a good night's rest anymore. Or you wake up in a sweat. Or again, you can't enjoy some of the things you used to just, you can't even enjoy your kids because you're afraid of what happened to them. What might happen to them. You know, that's that's just not the way God intended for it. Amen. And he says, so what? Mental health. Satan is working on your mental health through the avenue of fear. All right. Resist the devil, and he will, say it like you mean it, he will flee from you, right? So, number, oh, let me tell you what the phrase sound mind describes. It describes a mind that is calm, disciplined, clear-headed, not panic-driven, and capable of reason. Again, describes a mind that is calm, disciplined, clear-headed, not panic-driven, and capable of reason. Number four, and we're done. Biblically, fear can be a part of our spiritual warfare. The spirit of fear, here's your uh word for uh the blank in point number four. The spirit of fear is not always at work from within us. It can be, again, in an attitude, a disposition. It can be if Satan finds a place in your soul. He can't completely possess the believer because your spirit is sealed by the Holy Spirit. But he can sure enough trouble your soul and enslave you to where you feel like you're possessed. Okay. But biblically, fear can be just be a part of our spiritual warfare. A spirit of fear can be an external demonic influence whispering lies or working to take advantage of us through others or our circumstances. We all need to be especially aware of how Satan works to take advantage of us again when trauma strikes. It doesn't mean every instance of fear is demonic, but the enemy often leverages fear to do things like make us doubt God's promise, pull us back from God's calling, or keep us from stepping out and obedience and doing what God said. Peter was the only other man to ever walk on the water except Jesus, that we have any record of. Fear could have kept him in the boat. You know? But he overcame it until it overcame him. Right? And what does that say to us? Or the good lessons in Peter's walk on the water, there's a ton of them. I'm writing a book on it right now. But one of the things we learn is that you can have faith working in you in a measure that will get you out of the boat, but that same faith in that measure won't keep you walking on the water. After Peter stepped out of that boat, his second most important step was the next one he would take. That would have kept him walking on the water. It would have kept his faith developing. But his second step, he began to sink because he got his eyes on other things other than Jesus, right? He stopped hearing, he started hearing the wind in his ears instead of hearing the word that Jesus spoke. And it only took one word. Come. Wow, that's how powerful God's word is, people. Just one word, come. And it got him out of that boat because he believed it. And if he'd taken another step, his faith would have continued to develop. And his faith would have been an enduring faith. Remember what I taught you about that. When Jesus said, Oh, yeah of little faith, he was lamenting his own position. He so wanted Peter. He wasn't criticizing, condemning Peter. Come on. He walked on the water. Give him some credit. I don't care if it was two steps or one step. He walked on the water. Give him some kudos, somebody. But that wasn't even his primary request. He didn't really want to just walk on the water. He wanted to be where Jesus was. And that's what Jesus wanted. He wanted Peter to be where he was. That's what Jesus wants for you tonight. He wants you to do life with him where he is. The way he would do it. Amen. And sometimes that takes a miracle. But it will always take faith. Always. So in closing, I want to give you something again that God has made real to me just in the last two years. I've been putting together a manuscript. I've had a publisher working the last year. It's coming out in December. I'm just so excited to get it to you. I wrote it during COVID when fear was such a big issue. And it's just a different look at the 23rd Psalm. And I'm very excited. We're really, really close. I just received an email today that it's about to go to print. And so we'll have copies available before December. But during that process of writing the book, the Spirit of God showed me some things that's in Psalm 23. Think about this. Six verses in our Bible, pretty much in the center of our Bible. Isn't that interesting? A truth that should be, truths that should be central to our lives in the center of our Bible. Six verses. It's just like those six verses are so jam-packed with revelation knowledge about God's character, what he's like, how he deals with us, how he helps us, and three areas in particular. And I want to hand those off to you tonight as we leave. Why don't you stand to your feet with me to kind of refresh you? You say, well, I want to write these down. I can't write standing. Yes, you can. These three areas are. There are three areas of fear. And I'm just saying basically, foundationally, you know, we could talk again, we could develop all of those. But three basic fears that all of us have to deal with in life. If we have breath, if our heart is still beating, if we're thinking at all, we're dealing with these in our life. And these are these this is the way I see them. Do you know what a trident is? It's a three-pronged spear. You know? And I see Satan with this trident of fear working to torment people and to destroy them. And the first one is the fear of being rejected or abandoned or alone. God just made us to be relational. In fact, just think about your human body. Think about the bones in your hand. Every bone, by God's design, appropriately touches another bone. It's joined to another bone. And when that something interrupts that, there's a lot of pain that goes with it, right? Because God made us to be relational. Our bodies are made that way. Everything in God's creation is like that. And what sin did is it made certain touching inappropriate. It took God's design and perverted it and made it inappropriate. And when that happened, pain, unbelievable pain, and sorrow and grief and tears, brokenness. We're released into what God saw one day as being good. But we're all made to be again loved. And we fear being rejected, abandoned our lawn. Number two, we fear being unsafe or powerless and always at risk. We fear being unsafe, powerless, always at risk. And number three, we fear not being cared for or having someone to look after us. Rejected, abandoned, and alone, unsafe, powerless, always at risk. And number three, not being cared for or having someone to look after them. But God's love manifested in three areas, basic areas, counter these sharp points of fear that Satan wields against mankind. The first one is his abiding presence. Say that out loud, his abiding presence. And you know, Jesus, you know, he's the only one I actually know. And I've lived a long time. Plan to live a little bit longer. Or maybe a whole lot longer. Just if for no other reason to make you miserable. I don't want to lose my thought here, and I almost did. Is that you know Jesus made this promise. He said, I will never leave you. In fact, if you'll pick up the amplified and read it from there, it goes something like this I will never know, never, ever leave you or forsake you. That's the commitment Jesus has made to you. Even if you feel like he's a million miles away, he's not. He's right there in you if you're a believer. And if you're not a Christian yet, he's right there whispering in your ear, working to counter all the lies of the devil that keeps you from him and relationship with him. So it's his abiding presence. It dulls and defeats one of those pointy uh spear, parts of the spear. The second is his unrelenting protection. We've got some great parents in the room, but none of us who have children are perfect. You know, and and I know we love our kids, but we don't love them perfectly. Only God does that. But um, I know that most of us, if not all of us, if someone were to go at our kid, would lay down our life for that for that child. We wouldn't stop to think about, oh now let me see, when's the last time that kid made me angry or upset me or disobeyed me? Let me let me second guess protecting them. You're all over the person or people or persons, or demons for that matter, who are trying to get hold of your kid. That's not a mama thing. That's a daddy-mama thing. That's in all of us who have kids. Amen? Well, don't you think that God who's perfect has covered you because he has covered you. Again, go read Psalm 91 before you go to bed tonight. You'll sleep better. Number three, and lastly, his comprehensive provision, his abiding presence, his unrelenting protection, and his comprehensive provision. His commitment to concern himself with all that concerns us is proven and it's unmatched. And all of those things, uh, actually, those six things, the three things that work against us, the three things that defeat them, are all in Psalm 23. And what uh you know what we love is the 23rd Psalm. The problem with the 23rd Psalm for most of us is we only hear that at funerals or memorial services to comfort people, and that's it's great. But it is a psalm for the living. The Lord is my shepherd. His provision is so great I shall not want. I shall say it. I shall not want. Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want. It just goes on and on. He talks about, yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And you need to learn some things about what that means because theologians have made it, have made so much stuff up, have so misrepresented those words of uh the psalmist David in the book we go into it. Because what he's really talking about is traveling through a certain space on an upward track to the top of the mountain. The shepherd is always leading you to higher ground. And the easiest way to get there sometimes is to go through what is referred to as the valley of the shadow of death. It just means dark shadows are in place, and there are enemies lurking in the shadows. And it's not that the good shepherd is taking you that way so he can cause you to suffer. It's the quickest way, it's part of the landscape. And I wish we'd see that today as Christians. That's what we're going through, God doesn't have some mysterious plan in place to grow us up and mature us. It's just part of the blooming landscape that we're in. This is a broken world. And even with that, the good shepherd, did you know the good shepherd goes before his sheep and plans out the whole route? He's perfectly aware of everything that's happening, and he's already set up safeguards, even in the treacherous places, to take care of his sheep. I love that about him. Amen. Well, I'm giving you too much about the book, you won't go out and buy it. So did you learn anything tonight? One of the things I'm most proud about, though, when that book comes out, and you you know what I would love for you to do is right now begin to pray for the release of that book. Because uh what I saw when I wrote it during COVID was because of the so much fear, my heart was just broken. People we pastored, Christians, non-Christians alike. And um I just felt like God wanted me to do more. And it's come out later than I wanted it to, but it nevertheless is going to be released. But what I saw happening in my spirit was it's a quick read. It's a little over a hundred something pages. But what I saw was I saw people being helped themselves, but they saw the value in it as a tool to give somebody else who was in a hospital bed, or who was suffering mentally, or who was just needing help. Not just bad times either. People who are just getting married. They need to know what Psalm 23 teaches them to help them in their marriage. Amen? And so forth and so on. So I'm excited about that. I would love if you would just begin to pray with us about a successful release. And I know you've heard people say this and they didn't mean it. I'm gonna say it and I do mean it. It really isn't about how many books we sell and the dollars we make. I have one thing in mind, and that's to get it into as many hands as I possibly can, to get them free from the spirit of fear and living in the peace that God gives. Amen. It's called the power of the 23rd Psalm. The power of the 23rd Psalm. All right, Father, in the name of Jesus.