You can choose to reject the lie that fear controls your future and instead embrace the truth that you are a child of God. Start by memorizing promises like Psalm 4:8 to remind yourself that safety comes from Him, not your own control. When anxiety rises, commune with the Lord and let His word subside the fear.
Welcome to The Real Church Podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
*Father*, I thank you for this amazing congregation of mighty men and women of of you. Some of them don't even realize it yet, but they are. And Lord, I pray that today they walk out of here encouraged and with a deeper understanding of your love for them. They walk out of here encouraged with practical tools to overcome *fear* in their lives. We rebuke fear and every distraction be gone in the name of Jesus.
*Father*, we give you the rest of this service. We give you all of this. We give you this church. It's yours. It's not mine.
It's your kingdom. Thank you Jesus for what you're doing. Thank you for what you're gonna do. Amen and amen. Alright.
So we have been looking at the monsters of the mind over the last few weeks. "Monsters of the mind" that attack our faith. First, we looked at the monster of doubt, and we saw that we can move forward despite our doubts because Christ reminds us of who he is and who we are in him. Next, we looked at the monster of depression, and we saw that we don't have to live in a state of depression anymore, but we can live in a state of joy. And we gave some real practical tools on how to walk that out.
And today, we're gonna be diving into, dissecting, looking at, and how to overcome the monster of fear. Webster's dictionary says, fear is an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. And just to remind you guys, you can pull out your phones, go to www.realchurch.us, click on this Sunday, click on view sermon notes, and follow along with all of our sermon notes. So once again, that's realchurch.us this Sunday, view sermon notes. Put that up there for you guys.
Anyway, so fear, Webster's dictionary says, it's an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. Right? Something that hasn't yet happened yet, but we're anticipating something bad happening. Number 2, anxious concern. It's interesting that anxiety is connected with fear in Webster's dictionary.
A lot of times we I'll get there. Number 3, profound reverence and awe, especially towards God. We'll talk about that. I don't know if we'll get to that today because of time, but we might get to that next week. Number 4, a reason for alarm.
If you go down on Webster's dictionary, their their website page, you scroll down, you get a lot sometimes some more simple definitions. I went to the English learner's definition. It said, fears, to be afraid of something or someone. It also said, to expect or worry about, to be afraid and worried. And I just find it interesting that anxiety and worry are connected with fear as part of the definition of fear.
A lot of times, we live lives full of anxiety and worry. We we joke about it. I'm just an anxious person. Or, you know, I'm a in Louisiana, we say I'm a worrywart. I don't know if you guys say that Yeah.
Maybe you deal with anxiety and constantly worry, and it seems to be in our culture a normal part of our world. But question is, should it according to his word? Is there should we live in anxiety? Is there an antidote to our worry? Should we live in a state of *fear*?
And if not, how do we deal with it when fear takes over? Let's go to Romans-8. We're gonna start in verse 14. Says, for those who are led by the spirit of God are the children of god. Everybody say, I'm a child of god.
Good. The spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Now, there's an implication in that verse. It does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. The implication would be that you used to live in fear but you don't have to live in it now.
Couple people got it. We do not have to live in fear for our safety. We do not have to live in fear for our marriage. We do not have to live in fear for our future. We do not have to live in fear of the unknown.
We do not have to live in fear of pain. We do not have to live in fear of regret. We do not have to live in fear of sickness. We do not have to live in fear of death. The spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again.
Today, I'm gonna challenge your assumptions because we assume a lot of things because of what we've always been taught. We've always been taught, well, don't get your hopes up. Right? *Faith* is a substance of things hoped for. The Bible says get your hopes up.
We've always assumed, hey, fear is not a bad thing. Fear is a good thing, but I want to challenge your assumptions in life with what his word says. And then you'll have the choice today either to reject what his word says and walk out and continue living in fear, or take the practical steps that we talk about today from his word and choose to not live in fear anymore and choose to reject it anytime it comes in your mind. The choice is yours. Alright.
Roman chapter 8 verse we're gonna start in verse 14 again. For those who are led by the spirit of God are the children of God. The spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship, and by him we cry, Abba, *father*. Amen.
My wife says when she prays a lot of times, she'll say, daddy god. It's this close, personal, amazing relationship. By him, we cry, "Abba Father", we cry, daddy god. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of god. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of god and co heirs with Christ if we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Now just a little bit of review, we are heirs of heirs of God and co heirs with Christ. An heir of what? Right? We're an heir of his kingdom. Remember, Luke-12:32.
It says, the father has has been pleased to give you the kingdom. If you're a son or a daughter of the most high king, then the father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. We're to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added. We don't seek all of these things, and a lot of times that's where fear comes from because we seek all of these things, and then we don't get it, and we're in control. And when we feel out of control, we're fearing the worst thing that might happen.
So what is his kingdom that we get? Remember, chapter Romans-14:17 says, his kingdom is not a kingdom of of, you know, meat and drink, but it's a kingdom of righteousness. Everybody say righteousness. Righteousness. Of peace.
And joy. Righteousness, *peace*, and joy. Now what is righteousness? Once again, righteousness and I I almost remind you of this every single Sunday. And Peter writes that he he's gonna continue to as he's writing to the to the church, he says, you know what?
I'm not ashamed to continue reminding you of these things, and I will continue until the day approaches all the more. Why? Because you need to understand. I need to understand. We need to constantly be reminded of the kingdom that we have received now because sometimes we tend to forget.
It's a kingdom of righteousness, of peace and joy. peace and joy flow out of righteousness and righteousness is right standing with God. Because of what Jesus has done for you, Jesus has credited his righteousness to your account. You believe in Jesus. Jesus paid the price.
Now you look to him and when God sees you he sees you as 100% in right standing with God. Not based on what you have done or haven't done but based on Jesus and your belief in him. Now because of that, because you're in right standing with God, then no matter what you're going through, you can see your heavenly father, your "daddy God" standing right next to you, walking with you in the midst of the trial, walking with you in the midst of the darkness, walking with you no matter what you are going through. And because you see him next to you, you can have peace and joy. Amen.
You can have *peace* when everyone else says you should be anxious. You can have peace when everyone else says, you should be worrying. You can have peace and joy. Amen. And it comes from understanding your standing with him and understanding that he's standing right next to you.
We don't have to be afraid. We can reject fear and have peace in the presence of our enemies. *Jesus said, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives, expecting something in return, wishy washy, flaky. You can never take their word* as their word. You can't just do a handshake.
You have to have a written agreement, and still you can't trust people. Some people. Not knowing who to trust. No. Jesus says, I am that I am.
I am the word of life. I knew you before the foundation of the world. I have called you by name. Peace I give to you. My peace is what Jesus says.
My peace, God's peace I give to you. So don't let your heart be troubled. Meaning, don't let stress, don't let anxiety, don't let fear, don't let worry plague your heart. Do not let your heart be troubled. Why?
Because Jesus has given us his peace. Don't let your heart it goes on, don't let your heart be afraid. Do not let your heart be in fear regardless of what you're going through because Jesus has given you his peace. So we don't have to have anxiety and worry. We don't have to let our heart be afraid.
Why? Because he's with us in the middle of our mess. He says, I'm with you when it seems that your enemies are about to overtake you. As a matter of fact, I have prepared a table before you in the presence of your enemies. Let's go to Psalms-23.
20 third Psalm. It says, the Lord is my shepherd. I I shall not want. Another version says, "I lack nothing". Now wait a second.
All I see there's a there's a lot of people and and they're they're saying is, well, hold on. All I see is lack. I like this. I like that. I like this.
I like that. I like this. Well, you're focused on what you don't have instead of focusing on what you do. And when you focus on the fact that he's standing right near you, you realize that the the God of the universe is on your side and with you. You can trust him for what you do and what you don't have, and in your heart you can say, I lack nothing because you're not seeking after all of those things.
You're seeking his kingdom anyway, and you can trust that his will is best for you. Let's get there. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul.
Vacation is good, but vacation doesn't refresh your soul. *Jesus* does. Your heavenly *father* refreshes your soul. The Holy Spirit refreshes your soul. Spending time in his presence refreshes your soul.
Realizing that he's right there with you refreshes your soul. He guides me along right paths, or he leads me in the way of *righteousness* for for whose name's sake? Jesus. For whose name's sake? And there's where a lot of anxiety and worry come from.
It's because our focus is our namesake. I need this. I want this. I I I but if I don't get this, I won't. But if I I should have this promotion, I should have it's not about you.
You're not the center of the universe, so don't live like you are anymore. It's not healthy. *Jesus* is the center of the universe. We live for his name's sake. We are created not to live for ourselves.
We're created to live for him and it's better that way. Yeah. It's good for you. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 1 version says, and I love that version. I grew up knowing that version.
This says, even though I walk through the darkest valley, even though circumstances look like it's coming against me, it says, I will everybody say, I will. I will. Fear no evil. Fear no evil. 1 more time.
I will. I will. Fear no evil. Fear no evil. I'm making a choice.
I'm making a mark in the sand. I refuse from now on to fear no evil because why? For you are with me. Fear is faith in the wrong God. Fear is belief that something that hasn't happened yet that is bad for you is going to happen.
*Fear* is faith in circumstance, in a terrible circumstance for you. When God says all things work together for good for those that love you and are called according to his purpose. All things. But but but wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on. What if pastor, what if she dies?
Come Come on. But what if I get sick? Come on. But but what what if I die? What if I what if I lose my job?
But what if I don't have money to pay my rent? All things. Everything works together for good. Change your what ifs to even ifs. Yes.
Even if I lose my job. Even if she dies, even if I lose my spouse, even if I'm gonna continue following you because I know you're right beside me, and I can trust you that you're good. And this is going to even the worst thing possible is going to work out for my good because I trust you regardless of the situation. When you live life like that, you don't have to fear anymore. I'm losing my voice.
You can have peace. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. And here's the key guys. This is the key.
You know what allows you to have *peace* in the presence of your enemies? Do you know what allows you to have peace despite the circumstance? When you're walking through the darkest moments of your life, even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'm reminded of Phil Landry. 3 months from dying, tumors metastasizing all over his body. He understood this.
That was 5 years ago. Here he is. He's sitting right there. The key, the answer to living a life with no fear is in the midst of whatever you're going through, whenever you're whenever everyone else says that you should fear and ever whenever everyone else says that you should be anxious and whenever everyone else says that you should live in worry or you should be worried about this or or concerned is the easier version. I I I get it.
But yet the word says, he prepares a table before me in the midst of those circumstances. And what he's doing is he's wanting me to look and see the table that he's prepared before me despite the circumstances and choose to "sit at the table" and commune with him in the midst of the circumstances. That's the answer. That's the key. It's communing with your heavenly father despite what's going on around you.
The example of that not happening is Peter. He's walking on the water, and and he's he's at first, he's focusing on Christ, and he's walking above it, but then he gets distracted by what's going on, and fear and anxiety and worry begins to hit, and he begins to sink because he stopped communing with his father despite the circumstances. With Jesus. It was Jesus. Anyway, I misspoke.
So despite what you're going through, the answer is to commune with him. He has prepared a table before you in the midst of all that. So the question is, are we going to try our best to defend ourself with our focus on all that and sink like Peter in the midst of the storm or are we going to focus on him and commune with him, sit at the table and eat with our daddy god despite what's going on around us? Because 1 results in fear, worry, and anxiety. The other results in rest and peace despite what's going on.
I think that there are a lot of us who have been so focused on the problem that we have allowed fear to paralyze us, and the father is asking us to sit and commune with him despite of that. Why? Because when we're communing with Him, what we're doing is we're getting into His word. We're getting into His presence. We're shifting our focus.
Right? So we're submitting to him all of our fears, of our anxiety, all of our worry. Right? So in doing that, we're remembering his promises for us. And in spending time communing with him despite our circumstances that everyone else says should be causing fear, this is what is happening.
*James-4:7* says, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. It says he will flee from you. Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Someone only flees from someone that they're scared of. Ain't that amazing?
Someone only flees from someone that they're scared of. So why would the *devil* would the enemy would the enemies that are attacking you be scared of you in that moment? Because in that moment what you're doing is you're reorienting your focus to your Creator, understanding who he is and understanding who you are despite the circumstance. And by doing that you are resisting the enemy because you're putting your focus on what he says about you, and you're realizing the authority that he's given you because he is in you. That's what the devil don't want you to realize.
That's what the enemy doesn't want you to realize. He doesn't want he wants to constantly make you forget who you are and think that you're nothing but a filthy rotten sinner and hurt and and can't do anything about it. No. No. You are a mighty man or woman of God who's filled with his promises and filled with his presence and when you understand and you walk in who he says that you are, the enemy is scared of you.
Maybe not in my squeaky voice, but he's scared of you because he's scared of the Jesus in you. 1 John-4:17, in this world, we're like him. So we are to commune with him despite what's going on. So I gotta wrap this thing up. So what happens when we fear?
Because this is like a lot of hoorah and awesomeness. Like, hey, let's but we need some practical, like, what do we do now? So so how do we how do we put this into practice? How do we walk this thing out day in and day out? Let's go to 2 Timothy-1:7.
Heard somebody say it. It says, for the spirit of God or the spirit God gave us does not make us timid or another version says the spirit for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, of power, and of a of a sound mind. So he has not given us a spirit of fear. So the spirit of fear is not from God. See, God doesn't fear.
There's no fear in love, and God is love. And we're to be imitators of God, therefore we are not to imitate fear, we're to imitate love. Right? God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power of love and a sound mind. Now that word sound mind is also translated as sound mind, self control, self discipline.
It almost has this connotation, this sense of a militant discipline to remain focused. Right? What are we focused on? He's given us a spirit of power, of love, and a sound mind. So it's like we're disciplining ourselves to remain focused on the sound of Christ.
I'm reminded of second 2 Corinthians-10:5. I wanna read that. I want you to see it. Says, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. That's what I'm doing today.
I'm demolishing a lot of people's assumptions that it's okay to worry, be in anxiety, and live in fear. And we "take captive every thought" to make it obedient to Christ. So what happens then is when fear comes into our mind, when fear attacks us, we don't accept it as our fear, as my fear. No. We take captive that thought, and we take it make it obedient to Christ to what he says about us in the middle of the circumstance.
We are disciplined, self controlled to have a sound mind with his power and love that he has given us. Let me show you what that's like in my daily life. I'm gonna be a little bit vulnerable with you. You might laugh at this. In 2007, there was a movie that came out called mister Brooks.
You might seen it? Yeah. Okay. It was a psychological thriller, serial killer type of movie. Okay?
My wife and I watched it about 2008, 2009, so about 10 years ago. When we watched it now you gotta be careful what you put into your eyes, ears, what you taste, what you smell, what you touch. You gotta be careful because that influences your thoughts. Right? Advertisers know that.
That's why they pay millions of dollars to get stuff in front of your eyes because they know that if they influence your thoughts enough and if you think about something enough, it will change how you feel. And then American culture is duped because you think, if I feel this way, it's who I am. No. You just thought about something enough because it was put in front of your eyes enough. And so you think it's who you are, and the next thing you know, it affects your heart, and you begin to speak that way because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
So what happened here is we watched this movie, and it's about the serial killer, you know, unlocking people's doors and at night, in the middle of the night, and coming in and killing the people. And it's terrible. And I let this into my eyes. Right? Just didn't think anything of it.
Next thing you know, I didn't realize it, but after I watched that movie, every bump in the night I thought it was I had this irrational fear of the serial killer coming to get me. You know? Here I'm a grown man. I hear a bump in the night. I told you you'd laugh at me.
But I had a bump in the night and next thing you know, I'm waking up, getting my pistol, walking around the house. What's going on? I am I'm a country boy. I'm from Louisiana. Right?
Don't bump in my house at night. I'm sorry. No. But so so this fear is affecting my rest, my sleep. Right?
It just is. I try I fight it. I'm like, there's nothing there, but I still I gotta I gotta get up and go. You know, I hear this thing in in this because of what I allowed into my mind, and now this lie, I believe that there's something out to get me, and it can affect me even more. And it affected me for about good 6, 7 years.
So till about 4 years ago. Yeah. I can, you know, it was not every night, but a lot of nights. You know, I'd get up a couple times a night because of this fear. And I just knew this was not from Jesus.
It's not from God. It's not okay. And man, I have some prayer warriors in my corner. You know, I have this amazing 70 I don't know, 78 year old lady back in Winnsboro, Louisiana who prays for this church. She prays for me.
You know, the Bible is very clear. It says, confess your faults 1 to another, pray for each other so you may be healed. And I think either she she like, God told her and she told me this or I confessed it to her. I'm not I don't remember which 1, but both have happened. And anyway, she gave me a verse.
*Psalms-4:8*. She said, hey, this is a promise for of God for you. And I'm gonna tell you it's a promise of God for you too. What is Psalms-4:8? It says this, and she prayed for me by the way, and I was healed.
I was healed of the fear. So it was no longer my fear. I no longer accepted it as me. I realized that I'm not to walk in fear. God has not given me a spirit of fear.
Right? And when she prayed for me I was healed, but that doesn't mean the fear didn't try to attack me again. That doesn't mean the fear didn't try to come back. That doesn't mean I didn't feel fear the next night after she prayed for me, but she gave me this verse. *Psalms-4 verse 8, in peace I will lie down and sleep for you alone, Lord, make me "dwell in safety"*.
Amen. That's the exact opposite of the fear that I was having. Right? Now what was my problem? It says, in peace, I will lie down and sleep for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.
My fear was because I thought I was in control of my safety. And when I felt out of control, I was afraid. I was fearing a circumstance that had not yet happened, a potential bad circumstance to mine or my family's health, the definition of fear, worry, anxiety. But what are we to do? We are to trust him with our safety.
We are to trust him with our life. So when I when I give him control instead of me control, and I trust that he's good and he has good things for me, I can let that fear go. And I can let that anxiety go, and I can rest because I'm in right standing with him, and he's standing right near me. And I can have peace. Hebrews-4:11 says, make every effort to enter into that rest.
It's a rest he's already given. Anyway, so what did I do? Next next time I'm laying in the bed, and I hear this bump in the night, and I have this fear, turn to this word, I read it. In peace, I will lie down and sleep. I'm communing with my savior.
In *peace, I will lie down and sleep. For you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. Father, thank you that you make me dwell in safety. It's not up to me anymore. I'm gonna trust you, and I'm gonna lay here and let this fear* subside because my focus now is on you.
And you know what? The fear left. Then I was able to rest. It doesn't mean it didn't come back. 2 weeks later, tries to get me when I'm weak.
Go back, commune with the Lord in the middle of it. In peace, I will lie. I have to know his word. I have to know what he says. I have to know what his his promises are and commune with him.
Because if I don't, guess what? The Bible says my people perish for lack of knowledge. Get in the word. Just hearing it from me on Sunday morning is not enough. Know what he says about you.
Understand his goodness. Don't go from your assumptions. And so I overcame that fear. And he's constantly reminding of his me of his promises.
Thanks for listening to the Real Church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or would like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching real church clear water or visit us online at www.realchurch.us. If you'd like to play a part in what we're doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
Go to realchurch.us and click the give button. Whether you're praying, giving, or serving with Real Church, you are playing a part in every life being changed. Thank you. Until our next podcast, be blessed. We'll see you next time.