Episode 17 When Truth Silences Fear and Anxiety part 2

I felt the need to continue talking about how Truth Silences Fear and Anxiety. 

Life is filled with things that strike fear in our hearts and stir anxiety in our stomachs, making us feel sick in side. 

I teach from the lesson of Peter, who had the courage to walk on the water, but got distracted by the wind and waves around him. How we can learn from him, about the dangers of taking our eyes off of Jesus.

Then I read from Psalms 27, where King David wrote about being afraid, and trouble being all around and the lessons we can learn from him and apply to our lives. 

Fear is a Liar and we don't have to live with it and we don't have to live in a tizzy stirred up by anxiety. 

There is help and there is hope... and yes, that help and hope, is Jesus. 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello. Welcome to the Never Nothing, Never Nobody Podcast. This is a place for those who have felt unloved, felt like they were nothing and nobody, to learn the truth about who they really are and who God created them to be. This is a place to find hope for healing, to end your search for significance, and to find the truth that you were never nothing and never nobody. Welcome to episode 17 of the Never Nothing, Never Nobody Podcast. I'm gonna talk to you more about fear and anxiety, because this is a huge issue for most people. We put on a good face for many of those in our lives, but on the inside we're screaming in fear or eaten up with anxiety. The Bible says that anxiety in a man's heart or a woman's heart makes him or her sick. Life in our world today is filled with reasons to fret, worry, and be downright afraid. Wars, sickness, disease, crime, weather. We worry about our friends and family, especially about the kids. Our own or our nieces and nephews, or the little people that we just love because God put it in our hearts to love them. The news on our social media and news networks only intensifies the worry and the stress that we carry. God tells us to give our worries, concerns, and stress to Him. Psalms 5522 says, Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain you. What it's saying here is that the Lord, Jesus, will strengthen you, he will help you, encourage you, comfort you, and even carry you. He will hold you up so that you can get through anything and everything you have to. Matthew chapter 5, Jesus tells us to take his yoke upon us and learn from him, because he's lowly and gentle in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. We're not built for, nor are we able to bear the weight of all of our worries, stress, and fear. We need someone stronger and bigger than us to help us out. In this passage, Jesus tells us to come to Him, stay by His side, and He will help us. He will bear us up, and He will carry the cumbersome or heavy load that is burdening us. The Bible has a great story of what it's like when there's a storm surrounding us, beaten down on us, and we take our eyes off Jesus and focus only on what's happening. It's a story of when Peter walked on the water. For those who don't know, Jesus had sent his disciples to go ahead before him, and they had gathered in their boats and gone to the other side of this sea or massive lake. Um and Jesus stayed behind to have time where he prayed with God. Well, in what they called the fourth watch of the night, which would have been like after midnight, um they saw a figure on the water walking towards them, and when the disciples saw him, they were all freaked out and scared, for they thought it was a ghost. And immediately Jesus spoke to them not to be afraid, to be of good cheer. And then Peter said to him, Lord, if it's you, command me to come out on the water. Jesus said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord save me, and immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him. I wanted to share this story because it's a perfect picture of how we are. We step out in faith, we go to church, we get inspired, we get encouraged, and we hit the road running come Monday morning. But it doesn't take long for the stress and worries of the world to weigh us down and we take our eyes off of him. We hear the crack of the lightning and the boom of the thunder, and immediately our eyes are taken off Jesus. We notice how giant the waves actually are, and then we begin to become fearful that we're gonna drown and die. And we sink, just like Peter. But Peter showed us exactly what we're supposed to do. We don't beat ourselves up for being afraid. We call out help me and every time Jesus is faithful to reach out and to help us. Jeremiah thirty two verse twenty seven says Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. That's every living thing. Is there anything too hard for me? The question here is rhetorical, or goes without saying, because of course the answer is no. Nothing is too big for God. Nothing surprises him, and there is nothing he can't handle. We can put our full trust, reliance, and dependence upon him, and he will never let us down. I must confess that in the last few weeks I've taken my focus off the Lord, and I've allowed the wind and the waves of the storm all around me cause me to be anxious, upset, worried and afraid. Everywhere I turn I see bad things happening. I have family struggling with various kinds of mental illness or mental health issues, but what I see are demons picking on my family. It makes me mad, it makes me sick inside. I work with special needs people, and the demons are messing with them as well, manifesting in voices that have no person. There's no one there. They just hear the voice. Or demons masquerading as ghosts, or stirring up PTSD and anxiety, causing them to be unable to sleep. Someone I love very much confessed to me of having thoughts of and ideas of suicide and just being done with this world. This last thing is what made me fall to my knees and crying out on behalf of my loved one, behalf of my clients, and on behalf of my family and friends. Everyone all around me is being beaten up by a merciless bully, by the enemy of our souls. He's known as the devil or Satan. I want to rescue them, I want to fight for them, to defend them. I want to be like Jesus, driving out the money changers with a whip. I want to drive out these demons and chase them out of the lives of my loved ones. Maybe Jesus will use me as a vessel to do that, but in the meantime, it is simply a load too big for me to carry. I have to give it all to the one who can carry it, and to the one who can help them, who can sustain them, and who can carry them through. One thing that I must remind myself daily is that Jesus, our Lord and Savior, loves my people more than I am capable of loving them, and he alone knows how best to help them, uplift them, and carry them. We need to trust him to do what only he can do. I want to read to you Psalm twenty two. It's a psalm believed to be written by King David. It's the same David that is in the Bible story of David and Goliath. It reads The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked come against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes they stumble and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord, and that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle he shall hide me. He shall set me high upon a rock, and now my head shall be lifted above my enemies that are all around me. Therefore I will offer the sacrifice of joy in his tabernacle. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me. When you said seek my face, my heart said to you, Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Do not leave me or forsake me. O God of my salvation, when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a smooth path because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries. For false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence. I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. From the beginning of this psalm, David states that Jesus, the Lord, is his salvation, is his Savior, the one who will come to his rescue. This truth had rooted and grounded David in such a way he was then able to ask, Whom shall I fear? David was able to say that I have no reason to fear any person because I have Jesus on my side. The same Jesus that saves is also the one that gives us strength. The next question David asked was, of whom shall I be afraid? One thing that King David learned to do was to encourage himself. He was clearly wrestling with fear in this moment. He reminded himself that Jesus, the Lord, is his strength. This, David knew meant he could face anything and handle any situation because he knew where his strength came from. The one who was stronger and mightier than any enemy he had ever faced or ever would face. King David then reminds himself of the times when the enemy, be they spiritual or human enemies, had come against him, seeking to kill him. When the wicked and evil came against him, they had stumbled and fallen. When we're afraid, we can pray for our Lord to come and help us, and for the Lord to cause the same thing to happen to our enemies as he did to those of David's, causing them to stumble and to fall. King David then speaks to his own spirit, to speak to the fear that had been filling part of him, and said, Though an army encamped against me or around me, my heart shall not fear. I may have every right to be afraid. The way things look, I have a right to be afraid. Maybe I should be quaking in my boots, because there is a literal army surrounding me seeking to harm me or to kill me. But David determined in himself that he was not going to live in fear. He was not going to let fear control him. He was going to cry out to the one who could help him. And encourage himself to not be afraid by reminding himself of how big God is and what God had done for him in the past. We need to learn to do this too. We need to speak to ourselves and take control. And remember that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and of a sound mind. This means that no matter what gets stirred up inside us, no matter how we are fretting or shaking or quaking in our boots, we can have clarity of thought and have a mind that's thinking right, and to remind ourselves of this very truth. Jesus gave us his spirit, which gives us the power to overcome anything. Jesus' spirit, the Holy Spirit, even enables us to love our enemies and to pray for them. Then King David says, The war may rise against me. In this I will be confident. He is confident that he will not be afraid. He's not going to let this overtake him. He understands from whom his help comes. People, we are in a war. Not the kind of war King David faced. We don't have people trying to usurp our kingdom and steal it away from us or to kill us. Well, most of us don't have people trying to kill us. But we are in a war with the enemy of our souls, who seeks to steal, to kill, and to destroy whatever he can in our lives and in the lives of those that we love. The apostle Paul taught us how to fight in this battle, this spiritual battle. We need to put on the whole armor of God every day so that we can stand in the evil day against all the wiles of the enemy or the schemes of the enemy. We can be confident of the fact that the enemy who is seeking to harm us and our loved ones is a defeated one. Jesus told his disciples, I have given you authority over serpents and scorpions and over all of the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. This fact, this statement is true of every single person who has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and accepted the free gift he gave by paying our sin debt. He gives us his authority and his power. This should give every single one listening, every person who is a believer peace and hope in knowing that nothing shall by any means hurt you in the name of Jesus. For those of you who do not yet believe on Jesus for your salvation, may today be the day of your salvation. All you need to do is confess the Lord and Savior, Jesus, that He died for you, that He rose from the dead for you, and that He paid your sin debt, and you are forgiven. King David did not have the words of Jesus to use. To encourage himself, we do. King David knew his God. King David knew his Lord. In verse five of the Psalms he says, For in the time of trouble he, the Lord God, shall hide me. In the secret place of his tabernacle he shall hide me. Not only that, but he continued on in the verse six, and he says, He shall set me high upon a rock. Now my head shall be lifted above my enemies all around. The same promise that King David clung to in this passage is one we can cling to for our own lives and for those that we love. God knows when to lift us up high above our enemies, and when to hide us from them. When the Pharisees and religious leaders sought to kill Jesus before his time, God made it possible for Jesus to come and go in their midst without them even seeing him. God is our fortress and our refuge, to whom we can run for help and safety. When we are afraid of the terrors by night and the evil that lurks in the dark, God's word says in Psalms four verses eight I will both lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. This is a verse I often speak out loud or think to myself as I am laying down to go to sleep at night. I thank God that He does this for me, and I have no reason to be afraid. Usually I fall asleep very shortly after I speak or think these words. I highly recommend that you memorize that verse and do the same, or write it down and read it to yourself every night before you go to bed, and maybe read it to your children before they go to bed. King David then cried out to God. This too is something that we ought to do when we are overwhelmed by our fears and the stress that they cause us. We can be real with God about what we are thinking and feeling and ask him to come to our aid. God will show up. Jesus will show up every single time. David wasn't afraid to be specific in crying out to the Lord. We too can be specific in our prayers when we cry out to the Lord. David pled his case and asked God to do what only he could do. He asked God not only to teach him God's ways, but to make the path before him smooth and to deliver him from what the plan and the will was of those that were coming against him, and those who had borne false witness against him and sought to hurt him. The passage ends with great encouragement. David says I was in some severe dire straits. I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. David admits he was ready to give up. If he had not had faith in God and he had not experienced and could remind himself of the times God had faithfully come to his rescue and come to his aid, if he had not believed that he would see the goodness of the Lord while he was still living, not just the goodness to come in the promise of heaven, David would have given up and lost heart and lost all hope. Then King David actually thinks about encouraging whoever would read his psalm, and he says, Wait on the Lord, be of good courage. He, the Lord, shall strengthen your heart. Thank you, Jesus, that you are our Savior. Thank you that we can call on you in our time of need. We can cry out to you in the midst of our fear. We can cry out to you when we're fighting the sickness that anxiety causes, and that every time you will reach out your hand and you will help us. You will give us peace that comforts us and chases away our fears and anxiety. Your spirit within us will fight off the lies of the devil attached to those fears and anxiety. Thank you, Jesus, that we don't have to be a prisoner of fear. Thank you, Jesus, that we can have the hope that David had that we will see your goodness. Thank you that you're able to hide us from our enemies, and that you're able to lift us up above our enemies so that they cannot reach us. I thank you that you love those that we love far more than we are capable of loving, and we can entrust them to your care when there's nothing we can do to help. Lord Jesus, speak to those listening today. Calm their fears, remove those anxieties, and remind them to be anxious for nothing, but to bring everything to you through prayer so that your peace, the peace that passes understanding, can guard their hearts and minds in you. Amen.