Fear: Defeating The Beast Within

Take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to Isaiah 8. This is our third installment in our Fear and Worry series. And I want you to know that these are not just meant for you, they are meant for me. God in his providence often brings things into our lives that can cause great anxiety. And I have been thankful for the Lord and his ministry of his word to me as I've studied and prepared for you.

But that's the way it always should be. Honestly, you don't preach a sermon to anyone else until it's been preached to you. And so I'm praying that God will give you great hope in this series as we talk about fear and worry, that you will have much more confidence, that you will have much more faith, that you will not fear, but be and do what God calls you to do.

And so we're going to look at that again this morning. So you follow as I read Isaiah chapter 8, verses 11 through 15. For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.

Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken. They shall be snared and taken. Let's pray.

Father, would you guide our thinking now? would you help us as we consider what your word has to say to us? We live in difficult times. We are faced many times with difficult things. And yet, Father, you have told us not to fear, not to dread, but to consider the Lord as holy. So would you do that to us today? Would you work that in our hearts as we look at your word and help us, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. You know, the world around us tries to convince us that fear is a problem that attacks us as if it comes to us through the events we face or it something that we just cannot control like an illness And so you hear of such things, and this has even become part of our vocabulary, but it grows out of this misunderstanding of fear. We hear of things like phobias.

We hear of panic or anxiety attacks. We hear of panic disorder, as if these are things we cannot control. But fear is not a monster that possesses you outwardly, but rather it is a monster that is born within you and resides in you and must be slain in your heart. It is an emotion you must learn to control, and you are responsible before God to do that.

But as we begin, let me caution you again. I cannot give you a spiritual remedy that miraculously transforms you from fearful to courageous. There is no magic bullet. There is no wiffle dust. There are no quick fixes. There are not ten steps to conquering fear.

So that you walk out of here after a wonderful sermon on fear some Sunday, and suddenly your fear dissipates, and it's no longer a problem for you. There is, as I grew up watching, no one standing in front of you saying, Come to the altar. Give your fear to God. and suddenly you're no longer fearful. God has chosen not to work that way. Remember what we said the first week.

This is a matter of spiritual growth. This is a matter of learning to walk in wisdom. What we talk about and what you learn will become effective only if you work it into your soul every day over a period of time. If you are willing to invest the time to do what the Bible says to do, you will see fear begin its retreat. You will be equipped to do battle against this monster You remember how the Apostle Paul describes how we grow These are words that are very familiar to us here You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, which is created to be like God, after true righteousness and holiness.

God has chosen not to suddenly make our sins disappear sometimes he does that most of the times he does not why is that the case I do not know but God has chosen not to suddenly take sin out but for us to do battle against it it may be because he wants to learn us to trust him more. It may be because heaven will be that much sweeter to us after the battle is over. However, he has told us that we are to fight.

He has told us that we are to grow. He has given us the means of doing that and calls on us to put them into practice. And so that's what we need to do and that's what we're going to do as we look at these things. So listen carefully, listen carefully and then prayerfully ask God for the grace and the strength to change your thoughts and your actions biblically and to keep at it until the monster starts losing his grip.

So today we'll look to the scriptures and see some very biblical, practical means God has given you for fighting the beast. Now I should have said this before I started the sermon, but there are notes in the back if you want them. OK, so you can follow this and keep track of all these things. I feel compelled to do that because I'm just giving you steps, not 10 steps, by the way, but just giving you means of dealing with fear.

OK, and thinking about them. The first thing we need to do is defeat the beast in your mind. Of course, this is the case because fear is something inside of us. Fear is something that grows from within. Not something that comes to us from the outside. But it comes from our own hearts.

And so this is where we need to start. Defeat the beast in your mind. How do we do that? Remind yourself that God runs the world. Remind yourself that God runs the world. In Daniel chapter 4 verses 34 and 35 You notice I haven put any scripture reference down At least I giving you something to write down Daniel chapter 4 verses 34 and 35 This is the testimony of King Nebuchadnezzar after he has been humbled from his great pride And at the end of chapter 4 he says this about our God.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him what have you done what is Nebuchadnezzar telling us there he's saying whatever's going on in the world is going on according to the will of God and no one can stop him from doing what he chooses to do. No one can stop him from that. Well, how do you remind yourself that God runs the world?

I would say to you, list all the passages you remember that focus on God's involvement in the world generally and in your life specifically. Memorize. Memorize scriptures that deal with fear. Meditate on those scriptures. Use them when you are confronted with fearful situations. And listen, lastly, record how that memory verse changed you this week.

This is an assignment I give in counseling all the time. By the way, counseling is nothing more than teaching the word of God in a very specific way. This is like counseling, except it's much broader. I'm not aiming at, well, I'm aiming at a particular problem now, but often the homework I give is memorize this verse, and I want you to record how this verse changed your thinking and your actions this week.

And when you do that, you know right away, okay, I've got to write this down. Which means what? Which means you've got to think about it. Which means you're going to actually take action with it. Okay? So I would say, write down how that memory verse changed your thinking and your acting this week.

When you're in that fearful situation, what did you do with that verse or those verses that you memorized? How did you call them to mind? Meditate on them before you get to those situations. What is this saying? For example, what we just read in Daniel 4. I'm coming up to a fearful situation.

What am I going to do? I'm going to remind myself with this verse. You know what? God's in control here. God's doing his will. Okay?

He is in control. He's running the world. Here's another way you can remember, remind yourself that God runs the world. Memorize songs that help you remember and sing them. Okay? Some of you are smiling right now.

I can tell even though you've got your masks on. Because you say, I'm a terrible singer. Right? Sing it anyway, when you're by yourself. I love William P. Smith is a biblical counselor out in the Philadelphia area.

And he wrote this. He wrote this in one of his little booklets. I love it. When I was mugged for the third time in West Philadelphia, can you imagine getting mugged three times? When I was mugged for the third time. You know, God does these things to people who are biblical counselors on purpose. okay by the way just so that you don't think like i'm the only one gonna you guys are counselors too so just keep that in mind when i was mugged for the third time in west philadelphia i found myself fantasizing about carrying a gun to ward off another attack i no longer felt safe worse now listen does this not sound in this doesn't sound true to you worse god seemed impotent God seemed impotent.

Why? Where are you, God? I've been mugged three times. Where's your power now? Right? Isn't that how you feel when you're afraid?

God, where are you? He goes on. A well-oiled piece of metal offered to take his place, promising more tangible security than he had provided. Doesn't that sound like us? Doesn't that sound? Where are you, God?

A gun would be better. He keeps going. I've got to quit commenting on what he's saying. knowing I needed something that would offset my distorted thinking, I began singing to myself, this is my father's world in my devotions. And as I walked down and, and as I walked down the sidewalk, so he's singing in his devotions, he's walking or he's singing as he walks down the sidewalk.

I found special comfort and strength in the line. And though the wrong seems off so strong, God is the ruler yet. so memorize songs that help you remember these truths and sing them here a third way of reminding yourself that God runs the world Creeds and catechisms Creeds and catechisms. These provide short, power-packed reminders of God's sovereignty.

Later on in our service, we're going to make this confession. I'm going to read it to you right now. You can confess it on your own later. It comes from the Heidelberg Catechism. It's the very first question in the Heidelberg Catechism. what is your only comfort in life and death that i with body and soul both in life and death am not my own but belong unto my faithful savior jesus christ now what does that say when i'm facing terrible situations distresses troubles difficulties things that cause my anxiety what do I need to remember?

I belong to Jesus. He owns me. I'm his. Who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins and delivered me, delivered me from all the power of the devil. The devil can't do anything to me unless God allows it. Now listen, this is the key part of This first question.

And so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation. All the things that happen to me are subservient to that great salvific plan of God to bring me to glory. Yea, that all things... Or I read that. Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life. and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto him.

Memorize things like that and carry them with you in your mind to remind you of these great truths. So remind yourself that God runs the world. Alright, here's the next. Meditate often on past occasions of God's faithfulness to you in all your troubles and distresses. Think back about all those times that God has been faithful to you when you have faced things.

This is what helps me a great deal. When I am just up against it and there's great anxiety. One of the things that really helps me is to say Tim how many times have you been here How many times have you been in a situation like this What happened God proved himself faithful. Even in those situations where things went south, went worse than I expected, look what God did in all that.

You remember his faithfulness. Turn to Psalm 77 again. This is just exactly what the psalmist is talking about. Psalm 77. It was our scripture reading. In verses 4 through 9, you know, you hold my eyelids open.

I can't close my eyes. I'm so anxious. I'm so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, let me remember my song in the night. Let me meditate in my heart.

Then my spirit made a diligent search. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? start his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? God, where are you?

I'm scared to death of this and you're not delivering me. Somehow it's not working out. Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten to be gracious to me? Lord, this thing is tearing me apart. I'm so scared.

Where are you? Right? That's exactly what he's talking about. But then what does he say? Has he in his anger shut up his compassion? Doesn't care about me?

By the way, you know how we normally think about God caring for us? God, you're going to take this difficult thing away, so I don't have to face it. That's how you show your compassion. You make my life easy. That's where our problem is. But this is what he does.

In anger, have you shut up your compassion? Then I said, I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the most high i will remember the deeds of the lord yes i will remember your wonders of old i will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds your way oh god is holy what god is great like our god you are the god who works wonders you have made known your might among the peoples you with your arm redeemed your people the children of jacob and joseph do you see what he does here lord have you have you forgotten about me i'm so afraid and then he says well then i started thinking about look at all the great things God did in the past to me and to our people right no you not you haven shut up your compassion I just forgotten how faithful you been so here what you do You write out a list of those times when the Lord has delivered you from similar situations and keep it with you as a memory jogger. If that's what's necessary, write it out a card, a three by five card, both sides if necessary, of the times when God was faithful and put it in your pocket.

And if you're subject to fear so much, remember to pull that out when you're starting to fear and look at it and look at it. I remember what comes to my mind right away is I remember a very difficult situation we were facing here. It was right after my stroke. And I'm not sure, but I think that is the first time I ever experienced what's typically called an anxiety attack.

And I think it was, frankly, I've never experienced it. I think it was because at that time, it was right after I had that stroke, I was really weak physically. And my body reacted. and we were facing a real difficult situation. I remember being in the hallway on the phone, walking back and forth, and suddenly this feeling came over me. I can't even begin to describe it.

It's like, it was like I'm hitting a wall and physically I just can't go on and my body is just doing this really strange stuff. I'll never forget that. And I think back at that time and say, do you remember how God worked through that situation? Remember how God worked through that situation? He got you through. He got everybody through.

It was something that was, it was just, it was very difficult. And yet God worked in that. God worked through that. And I remember that when I think about the Lord's past faithfulness. And not only then, as you meditate on past occasions of God's faithfulness to you, anticipate God's faithfulness being demonstrated now in your present circumstances. Anticipate that he'll be faithful again.

Now again, may not be faithful the way you think, but think on the past. Even though situations that seem to go south, how did God bring you through? What did he do? Right? Here's another one. Identify and remove the idolatrous lust from your heart.

You remember what we saw two weeks ago, that all sin starts with a desire, an idol of the heart. something that I want, something that I give my allegiance to, right? Identify and remove the idolatrous lust. Now, don't look at lust. Some of you may be new here. Lust doesn't mean sex stuff. It doesn't just mean that.

Idolatrous lust is an idolatrous desire. For example, if you have the desire for the approval of man, you really want people to think well of you, then you will be the kind of person who will be guilty of such sins as avoiding conflict instead of solving problems. You avoid conflict. you will be willing to compromise because you don't want to lose the favor of man you'll be the willing and again this is what the world calls peer pressure we can call the approval of man why do teenagers do often what they do it's because they don't want to lose the favor of all the people there they don't want to lose the favor of the cool kids they don't want to lose the favor of another group there's people at school they don't want to lose the favor but that's not only a teen problem is it it's everybody's problem to a certain degree so that's what we mean by desire and idolatrous lust I have this desire for man's approval there could be other things involved as well but remember what Jesus says he says take up your cross daily what does that mean it means crucify your desires crucify those things that aren't in line with what Jesus wants so take up your cross daily and follow me.

Do what you're supposed to do. Crucify those desires and do what God calls you to do. Well, you say, how do I find that out? In order to find out your idol, remember that idolatry is a two-sided coin, right? Here's heads. Here's heads.

An inordinate desire for fill in the blank. and an inordinate desire for fill in the blank. That's heads. Tails. An inordinate fear of losing fill in the blank. If you want to know what your idol is, just dive deep into your heart and say, what is it that I really want? Or what is it that I'm really afraid of losing?

Ask yourself these kinds of questions. What is it that you desire so much that the thought of losing it strikes terror in your heart? What is it that you desire so much that the thought of losing it strikes terror in your heart Or in this situation you face what are you afraid might happen Okay? Here's another question. If it actually happens, what might you lose?

Health? Possessions? Relationships? Reputation? Peace? A feeling of security?

Success? What is it? Fill in the blank. I like what John Flavel said. He is an old Puritan. He wrote this, The more you are mortified, the less you will be terrified.

It is the strength of our affections that put so much strength into our afflictions. That is to say, the more you are mortified, the more you put to death, the more you put to death those desires, the less you'll be terrified. The more you're mortified, the less you'll be terrified. It is the strength of our affections. What does he mean by that? Affection means I'm giving my loyalty to something.

I'm giving my love to something. This is valuable to me. I'm going to go after it. That's affections. It is the strength of our affections. I have a great affection for the approval of man. that puts so much strength into our afflictions what happens if i lose it right i love that quote all right next remember that whatever makes you afraid has no power independent of god the great great great way of seeing this in action is to look at john chapter 19 verses 10 and 11.

This is Jesus standing before Pilate. This is Jesus standing before Pilate. Chapter 19 verses 10 and 11. So Pilate's asked him a question and Jesus won't answer him. And so in verse 10, So Pilate said to him, You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you an authority to crucify you.

Don't you know how much power I have? I can let you go or I can kill you. What does Jesus respond with Verse 11 Jesus answered him you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin Right Jesus says to him, You're powerless unless God gives you the power. Unless God gives you the ability to do what you're threatening to do.

You can't touch me unless God says so. You see? Isn't that amazing? Whatever it is that you fear, it's powerless to do anything without God's permission. Whatever you fear is in God's control. Get examples.

You fear enemies. What does God say? Psalm 23, verse 5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. He set a table for me in the presence of my enemies. I'm going to have a great feast while they're standing there looking.

All right? Authority. Maybe you're afraid of authorities. Proverbs 21.1. The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes.

Right? Maybe you're afraid of trouble and affliction. Psalm 34, 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. So you see, nothing has power over you independent of God. I love what Lou Priola says, and I put this in your notes.

This is a wonderful, wonderful quote. For most Christians, especially those of the Reformed position, us right we believe in the sovereignty of god right the difficulty is not the sovereignty of god but the goodness of god you get what he's saying we who believe in the sovereignty of god if god's running everything what are we worried about here's what we're worried about we're worried about that what god thinks is good for us is going to be painful for us and we just would rather avoid that altogether. God, you're not good.

You're not good. All right? God, you're not good. That's our problem. Now, of course, being great Reformed Christians that we are, we would never say that out loud. But that's what we, that's how our thinking goes.

Somehow there's just this little bit of an inkling that God is sovereign, but he's not good. I think that's really important for us to see. That could have been another major point in this. Remember that God is good, right So if you want to make it another point in your notes God is good God is good He not playing games with us Everything that happens to us he has good intentions By the way, God's intentions aren't just I hope it happens.

They happen. God's intentions for us are always good, always good. This is what I need to remind myself many, many, many times. next consider the connection between fear and undisciplined thinking second timothy chapter 1 verse 7 second timothy chapter 1 verse 7 listen to what god says For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control. Have you ever noticed that when you are fearful or anxious, your mind runs at 100 miles an hour all over the universe? You're saying, well, this happens and that, and then, okay, what about this? And then this, and then this, and then this. Your mind is running all over the place.

I'm speaking out of experience here. when you're worried and you're laying awake at night in bed your body is still what's your mind doing what's your mind doing you know what it's doing it's running it's running it's going everywhere it's going everywhere it goes down paths that you never dreamed of it's going everywhere your mind is undisciplined fear calms down when you discipline your mind well how do you do that well think about purposely discipline your mind by reminding yourself that god runs the universe you say okay stop now and start thinking about this memorize your verses your songs and your catechisms do it memorize it so you have something to think on when when you start to worry or fear meditate on pull out your memory jogger of god's past faithfulness spend time thinking about those tell your mind we're going to think about this now by the way you have the power to do this Recall that nothing has power independent of God. Meditate on the scriptures that speak to you of fear. Bring your mind down.

Get it to think about these things. Fear will calm down as you take the time to discipline your mind. Lastly, learn to live in the fear of the Lord. Learn to live in the fear of the Lord. psalm 34 verse 11 psalm 34 verse 11 come oh children listen to me i will teach you the fear of the lord everything we said up to this point may be reduced to this principle live in the fear of the lord learn to live in the fear of the lord i remember years ago someone saying to me this the one fear that casts out all other fears is the fear of the Lord.

Now you say, so I'm terrified of this, so you want me to be terrified of God. No, that's not what we're saying. What we're saying is fear is holding God in great awe. Now, of course, there is a little element of, and I should be afraid sometimes, but that's not, right? That doesn't fill out the whole definition. Here, let me put this in your mind, because this really helped me a lot.

This is from Ed Welch. Ed Welch, of course, is another biblical counselor who has a lot of books out there and stuff. But one thing he said really helped me grasp this idea of the fear of the Lord. Listen carefully to what he says. The basic idea is that what we fear controls us. Rather than being controlled by things and people in creation, we want to be controlled by the creator. so rather than being controlled by things in creation all these things these events these people these possibilities we need to be controlled by the creator now listen to what he says this helps me understand fear of the lord you could almost substitute love for the lord for fear of the lord but fear emphasizes that god is not like us he alone is god and has all rights to our lives Fear includes awe and amazement that attract us to him The fear of the Lord runs to the Lord rather than away from him because we need someone much grander than ourselves Isn't that good?

He says, you can almost substitute fear of the Lord for love of the Lord, except the difference is this. Fear of the Lord emphasizes how God is different than us. And he's a great God with marvelous power and infinite wisdom. and he's grander than anything we could imagine. And if we fear that, we'll be attracted to him because he's grander, more glorious than we are.

He can do anything, you see? So learn to live in the fear of the Lord. Now, conquering fear is not just left for the inside, okay? We need to defeat the beast not only in our mind, but we need to defeat the beast by your actions. Defeat the beast by your actions. All right?

Justin read for us Matthew 22, 34 to 40. So let's look back there again. they're trying to trick Jesus and they ask him what the what the greatest commandment is and Jesus clearly says in verse um 37 and he said to him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind this is the great first commandment and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Learn to obey the first and second commandments.

Learn to obey the first and second commandments. So you're walking by, you're with your closest friend and you're walking down the street and you walk by a house of strangers that have a big picture window in the front. As you walk by, you look inside and you see this, what looks like a family reunion. Everybody's sitting around the table eating a great meal together.

And your friend says to you, why don't you go inside and introduce yourself? And you're going, what are you, crazy? I'm not going to embarrass myself like that. I'm not going to intrude on them. What a stupid idea. That would be embarrassing.

But what if the roof was on fire What would you do then Would you say oh it would be too embarrassing to go in there What are you going to do You going to bust down the door You going to run in there interrupt them and say get out Your house is on fire What are you doing there You loving them Right Love overcomes that fear Which brings us to the point in your notes The most effective way to rid yourself of fear is to replace it with love Replace it with love make it your goal to please or to love God rather than to expel your fear you see what we're saying here don't worry don't talk about getting rid of your fear don't put the emphasis there put it here I am going to make it my goal to love God and to love my neighbor obey God regardless of your fear obey God regardless of your fear love others regardless of your fear don't let fear interfere with loving your your neighbor change the way you talk to yourself change the way you talk to yourself learn to focus not on the consequences of the action, but rather on the pleasure that your obedience brings to God and the ministry you have to others. Focus on that. Focus on that.

Listen, this is where faith comes in. You can obey God regardless of your fear. You can love others regardless of your fear because you believe, believe god is pleased and you believe that it produces joy you believe that it produces joy obedience to god regardless of whether you fear or not is going to produce joy in you i'm reminded of this um in hebrews chapter 12 i think this is a key verse for us to remember when we when we need to exercise and we always need to exercise faith and our obedience.

Because we're either, you're either believing the lie of fear, or you are believing the promise of God. At the root, in one of the favorite sermons I've ever preached, and you don't even remember it, but one of my favorite sermons is the one about Abraham not living by faith. And I say in that sermon and it stuck with me you run down any sin to its root and you will find a lack of faith That you didn believe God at the moment Look what it says in Hebrews 12.

I think this is very, very, very instructive to us. We're to look to Jesus, verse 2, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. How did Jesus make it through those terrifying hours? Those terrifying hours of trial and the horrific experience of crucifixion.

How did he get through those? I don't know about you, but I think I'd be terrified in that situation. How did he get through? He looked beyond it and he saw what God had promised him. I'm going to exalt you. I'm going to raise you.

And I'm going to seat you at the place of ultimate power and authority and honor. I believe you, God. I believe you, Father. And therefore I can do this. And that's what you need to remember. You can love God regardless of fear.

You can love your neighbor regardless of fear. Because you believe that God has something good for you. You see? You must believe that. you ought to change the way you pray Lou Priola writes this this is how you ought to pray Lord if I have another fearful or painful experience I'll just have to endure it I'm going to trust you to do what is best for me I'm going to obey you regardless of the consequences I'm going to love others whether or not I experience pain or fear by doing so God help me.

God help me. That's how you need to pray. All right. Start fulfilling responsibilities you neglected because you have been so preoccupied with fear. Start taking concrete steps of fulfilling responsibilities that you have neglected because you have been so preoccupied with fear. Act on the knowledge of loving God and loving neighbor.

This is just an extension of what we're talking about. What are the things you've neglected because of fear? Start there. Again, Priola, don't let the monster you created in the laboratory of your mind keep you from loving. Don't let the monster you created in the laboratory of your mind keep you from loving. Commit yourself to fulfilling your God-given responsibilities, whether or not you have another experience with fear.

How do you do that? How do you do that? Listen to Jay Adams at this point. As you set out in obedience to God, filled with the task at hand, thank the Lord for whatever progress you have made. Focus on the loving activities that you are going there to do, not upon the fear experience you are trying to avoid. Don't allow yourself the all-too-expensive luxury of thinking about the fear experience.

Don't think about trying to stop it. Think about serving God and about using your gifts to help others. So instead of thinking about the fear you may experience, think about what you're going to do. Put your mind on that. I'm going to love my neighbor. I'm going to speak difficult truths.

Right? You need to start asking yourself in these situations, what small step do I need to take for someone else's sake? Just a small step. What small step do I need to take for someone else's sake? Write it down and then do it. Small step.

All right? Last. entrust yourself to god and do good first of all in trust turn over to first peter chapter two first peter chapter two this is about jesus verse 21 for for to this you have been called because christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so you might follow in his steps he committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly now faced with certain deadly dangers jesus lived in the reality that his father ran the universe okay he lived in that reality When you look at Jesus when you look at Jesus he moved toward frightening things because he believed that God had set the boundaries for the situations and for him When you read for example in the book of Luke I think it around chapter 9 of that large gospel I think it around chapter 9 Some of you are the type, you're going to check me out now. I think it's around chapter 9 where Luke says, starts the story of Jesus' trip to Jerusalem in order to die.

And it says, He set his face like flint, and he walked into his death. He went into his death. You never see Jesus running around trying to protect himself. Okay, what are they doing over there? He's going to send a couple of his disciples. Go see what the Pharisees are doing.

I've got to understand what they're doing. He doesn't ever do that, does he? He's not trying to figure out. I mean, there were times they were going to try to throw him over a cliff, right? There were other times where they picked up stones to stone him. He's not trying to put up barriers to protect himself.

Isn't that fascinating to see? When he stood before Pilate, he did not bow and scrape as if his destiny depended on this one individual. Did he? He entrusted himself right here. He entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He did not attempt to control his fate, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

Now, do you see that? I mean, I look at Jesus. This was brought to my attention as I was studying and reading for this. It was brought to my attention in a very powerful way. Never do you see Jesus walking around trying to protect himself. Never.

He entrusted himself to his faithful creator, or to him who judges justly. and so you follow his example entrust your soul to your faithful creator right now what frightens you right now what frightens you your boss a difficult decision angry people coming after you entrust yourself to your faithful god did god take care of jesus and we might look at that and say How? They nailed him to a cross. Is that the end of the story?

Not at all. He raised him from the dead, didn't he? He vindicated him. He vindicated him before them and exalted him to the place of glory. Entrust yourself to your faithful to God so you can say oh God folks are angry with me and they want me defeated but you walked with your son walk with me I know that you will never leave me nor forsake me I can trust you and then continue doing good look over at first Peter chapter 4 verse 19.

Peter, you remember in this book on suffering, on things that ought to scare us, if you will, ends up his book nearly near the end with this wonderful summary statement of everything that he said in this book. It's 1 Peter 4 19. Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. again look at Jesus rather than worrying about what others were up to he was consumed with how to glorify God and to serve his people not with how to guard and protect himself he continued to do good entrust yourself to your faithful creator and continue to do good so it must be with us instead of looking at self instead of looking at fear jump in to do good so that all around you can see your savior and glorify your God.

Do good. You know, because Jesus did just that, what happened? He died, he was raised, and he rescued us from fear. Listen, fear has been defeated. Fear has been canceled. Its tyranny is overthrown.

So when you choose to do good, rather than let fear dictate your response, you find that in the doing, the fear evaporates. The power of fear has been canceled. You need, in response, to step out in faith, and fear will not control you. Its power, its tyranny, has been beaten, defeated, canceled at the cross. So listen. do not pray for God to eliminate the fear in your heart, determined to do what he says after the fear is gone.

Don do that Don say God take away this fear and you determined then that you do what God says when He takes the fear away That's not how it works. You have to step out in faith. You step out in faith. That is, believing that as you follow God's commands, despite your feelings, you will find the fear leaving. Don't say, God, take away the fear, then I'll do what you tell me to do.

Say, God, help me to do what you're going to do. And you're going to find that the fear starts falling away. Don't wait for fear to go away before you act. Rather, act expecting the fear to lose its grip. That's how you must operate. I remember reading 2nd Timothy 1 7 for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love no but of power and of love and of self-control I remember sitting in that office or this office whichever one it was in the old days and there was someone going to come to see me which always terrified me.

And I would say, God, what's with this verse? What's with this verse? There's people going to come and see me. They're going to lay some things out out here, and I'm going to have to give them answers. And I'm terrified. Folks would walk in, we'd dive into it, and Guess what?

Nothing. At that point when I'm loving them, the fear is gone. And I learned something from that. Isn't it interesting that in that verse God says, He's not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of what? Love. And of self-control.

And so I say to you, don't wait for fear to go away before you act. rather act expecting the fear to lose its grip. See, this is about faith. You believe God. If you want to defeat that beast called fear, then begin with your heart. Begin with your mind. Remind yourself who runs the world.

Meditate on God's past faithfulness. Identify your idolatrous lust. Remember that nothing has power in you. of God. Consider how an undisciplined mind produces fear. Learn to fear God. Begin with your heart and with your mind.

Continue the battle by your actions. Learn to obey the first and second commandments. Start fulfilling responsibilities you neglected out of fear. Entrust yourself to God and do good. This is how we go after fear. I pray that God will help us all to do that. let's pray father help us now to do these things that your word has told us to do we are yours we belong to you even in our mistakes you're working for our good even in the things that we fear you're working for a good so help us not to fear in such a way that it incapacitates us rather help us by faith to step out in obedience so that our fears will disappear.

Help us, we pray. In the name of Jesus, amen.