Fear Not
by Darrell W. Johns
October 31, 2021 · Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (Lithia Springs, GA)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Psalm 34:3-4, 2 Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 12:28-29, Proverbs 28:1, Psalm 53:4-5, Job 3:25, Acts 1:8, 1 John 4:18, Psalm 56:4, Psalm 118:6, Proverbs 29:25, Matthew 10:28, Hebrews 2:15, John 10:10, Philippians 1:21, Numbers 14, Deuteronomy 6, Genesis 18:19, Luke 1:50, Psalm 100:5, Deuteronomy 20:3-4, Luke 21:26-28

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/darrell-w-johns--fear-not
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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psalm 34 3 o magnify the lord with me and let us exalt his name together i sought the lord these are the words of king david i sought the lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears second timothy chapter 1 verse 7 for god hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind i want to preach on this theme today fear not would you lift your hands in faith to the lord right now and thank him for the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind maybe you didn't hear me would you lift your voice and would you thank the lord for the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind lord i i lift my voice to you and i thank you o god amen you may be seated in the fear of the lord fear they say is a natural emotional response to a perceived or real threat to one's security or general welfare scared half to death fear can be based on a real threat or a perceived threat that is not real in the bible fear can mean a reverence for the lord fear can also in the bible mean terror or dread when king belshazzar saw a hand riding on the wall he was terrorized by the hand of god writing the judgment of persia the bible said that when he saw that new living translation his face turned pale with fright his knees knocked together in fear and his legs gave way beneath him i would say that he was afraid when the soldiers who guarded the tomb of jesus saw the angels there the bible says that they fainted and they became as dead men they were filled with terror or fear but we've learned recently that fear can be a good motivator it was fear that moved noah to build an ark i preached on the fear factor of faith on august 1st of this year fear of hell can motivate you to turn from your sins to god and we should be afraid to go to hell fear of meeting the lord as an unprofitable servant as a one talent man or woman who has not developed our talent for the glory of god should make us afraid to meet god in the judgment seat of christ more than anything as i've already said the fear of being separated from god forever in the lake of fire is a real fear it is not just a scary sermon to preach it is not just some theme of the old testament but jesus spoke of hell quite often and the writer of hebrews said that because we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved we should serve god acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our god he said is a consuming fire so fear can be a good motivator and sometimes we need to separate our rational fears from our irrational fears or our phobias if the tornado has been detected barreling down on your neighborhood fear is not a bad thing fear would be natural and fear should move you to action like it moved noah to build an ark but if you live in fear that one day a tornado might be headed toward your neighborhood then that is not a rational fear that is a fear a feeling of fear or an irrational fear of phobia that needs to be overcome i don't want to spend a lot of time today on phobias but you know there are lots of them and i guess psychologists say they fall into several categories the fear of animals the fear of the natural environment like heights or thunder or darkness the fear of blood injury or medical issues the fear of situations that are out of your control or things that might happen like the fear of elevators or driving or flying and loud noises they say is an innate natural fear they surveyed 8 000 people and came up with common fears i don't really want to as i said drill down into them but the fear of heights and flying and spiders and lightning and thunder the fear being alone the fear of crowded space is the fear of blood the fear of water the fear of snakes the fear of animals the fear of public speaking which many preachers feel every time they get up to speak the word of god if you've ever had a scary dream in your life and woke up you probably realized maybe buried in your subconscious is a fear that you felt or was lived out in that dream but it was a dream on this sunday fifth sunday of uh in our year in our every quarter we have our children's ministry workers and our children here but maybe it's a memory for you but many of us remember a time at least i remember a time being a kid and waking up from a scary dream and trying to get to my parents room and sneaking into the foot of their bed now it's never worked for me to crawl into my kid's bed if i had a scary dream but it's usually the other way around i've been planning to preach on fear today for a little longer than normal last week i made a note of something brother lehman said that there are some cases when fear is and this is an acronym a false evidence appearing real something you feel afraid of that doesn't really exist something that is scary when i was a little boy my dad took me hunting with him he was a bowhunter archery and i have a vivid memory i don't know how old i was but i think probably somewhere between five and seven years old and we were in inverness florida in the sandy soil and my dad showed me a bear track in the sand and all he had was a bow and i had nothing i didn't even have a sling and i remember being very very afraid my dad prayed for me and i felt my fear lift there years later years later maybe toward the end of my dad's life he passed away in 2015. we were talking about that i said dad i remember a day when i was hunting with you in inverness florida and you showed me a bear track in the sand he said what do you mean a bear track i said you showed me a bear track he said no daryl i i made the imprint with my hand of a bear track to show you what a bear track looks like i thought you know dads do some dumb things but i'm not sure that was the wisest thing to do now son this is what a bear track looks like i lived my entire life until a few years ago believing with all my heart that there was a bear in them thar woods it was not a real fear phobias are scary but they're not necessarily real the bible says that sinners live in fear proverbs 28 1 the wicked man flees when no man pursues him he's paranoid he's afraid that something or someone is chasing him when there is nothing at all but the bible says in that same proverb but the righteous are as bold as a lion fear not if you're on the lord's side you didn't have to fear that which you think may be chasing you because god is on your side amen psalm 53 4 speaks of the workers of iniquity they have no knowledge they've not called upon god this is an interesting verse on 53 5 they were in great fear where no fear was there was nothing to be afraid of but because they live separated from god they live in terror of something that does not really exist so i wonder are you running today from an unfounded fear amen i i felt drawn to the words of david there are so many scriptures about fear in psalm 34 and 4. this is the story when you read what in my bible is like verse 0. it's just kind of a an overview of the psalm it was written by david when he fled from the presence of saul and he feigned himself to be crazy in front of abimelech and david said i sought the lord and he hurt me and delivered me from all my fears amen it does not say some of my fears he delivered me from all my fears amen i am praying that today god would help us overcome fear and the spirit of fear amen praise god now seems to me that fear is the devil's faith faith and fear are both multifaceted but you could say that faith is believing that god will do what he said he would do but fear is believing that the worst will come true job said the thing that i so greatly feared is come upon me amen so fear is the devil's faith he traumatizes by fear what you fear can be drawn to you fear is a powerful emotion amen in case you've forgotten today is halloween and i'm not going to preach a lot about halloween amen i guess you could say that fear is fun in some cases roller coasters haunted houses people that watch scary movies i don't i don't they release this time of the year the halloween has a history that is both christian and pagan all saints day and woven in with pagan practices we we host a fall festival to create a safe wholesome alternative to halloween but in the same way that jesus was no more powerful on any easter sunday than he is any other time of the year the devil is no more scary or evil today than he is any other time of the year amen but don't ever doubt that satan pounces on natural fear that there are people that do celebrate this day as a day filled with evil so i just want to say to parents that i think we need to exercise caution and how we celebrate a day like this and we need to make sure that we don't create trauma or fear that piles onto our kids in a world that is already fear filled amen for i saw the lord and he hurt me and he delivered me from all my fear amen so my message today is to fear not amen fear not amen if you have fears that you face a fear of something that happened in the past happening again i pray that the lord today by the holy ghost not just through words that i'm preaching today but we believe that the word of god is in spirit and power amen that it is not just a word but it is the sword of the spirit that the spirit directs the word and the spirit works with the word and if you will have faith in god today i believe that the lord will deliver you from all your fears the bible the phrase fear not king james bible is used 63 times in various contexts not all in the context of my sermon but in his word the lord did not want us to be focused on fear but to be filled with faith amen fear can be a spirit second timothy 1 7 for god paul wrote to his son in the gospel has not given us the spirit of fear now commentators vary in their interpretation of what paul meant by the word spirit should it be a capital s or or a small s is it an attitude or is it a real spirit but we know that he's given us the holy spirit that is not a spirit of fear so god's spirit is not a capital s-p-i-r-i-t a spirit of fear but it is a holy spirit of power the word in the greek is here's dunamis just like acts 1 and 8 but you shall receive power after the holy ghost has come upon you when god filled you with the holy ghost he did not give you a spirit of fear but he gave you a spirit of power amen i wish you'd personalize this today and say god has not given me the spirit of fear amen he's given us a spirit of power holy ghost power and if you're not filled with the holy ghost then maybe you can be filled with the spirit of fear but if you are filled with god's spirit that spirit is not a spirit of fear it is my experience and observation with people and scriptural settings that satan piles on to natural problems amen you may experience the temptation of lust but a spirit of lust can attach itself to a person a person can tell a lie or they can have a spirit of lying there can be spirits that attach themselves to unsaved people and i do believe that saved people can be attacked by spirits but we are not given those spirits they cannot fill you they cannot control you because we are not filled with a spirit of fear but we are filled with a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind [Applause] satan cannot possess a person who is filled with the spirit no wonder paul said don't be drunk with wine where it is excess but be filled with the spirit amen praise god praise god we are filled with the spirit of power and then paul said and of love we are filled with the spirit of love first john 4 18 there is no fear in love amen but perfect love the love of god the love of god that is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost the love of god that you've received when you were filled with the holy ghost he's not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and of love the holy ghost is a spirit of love and perfect love casts out torment back to this verse first john 4 18 because fear has torment fear has torment that's why when you wake up from a scary dream or when you've been traumatized in some way there's a fear of a repeat of performance of going by that place again by seeing that person again by having that same trauma again amen i'm not preaching against you if you struggle with fear i'm here to help you with the word of god and the power of love that jesus christ can come into your life and cast out fear because fear has torment he the feareth is not made perfect in love god has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind amen a sound mind some say a self-disciplined mind a mind that does not run rampant with fear like bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ that this perfect love casts out fear and can help us reign in thoughts that are not aligned to the reality of god's word god has given us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind amen praise god amen you will not have a fear people if you're filled with the fear of the lord amen the bible is very clear about this in psalm 56 i i want to just clarify my little sub point right now there are some people that live in the fear of people of other people but psalm 56 4 said in god i will praise his word and god have i put my trust i will not fear what flesh or what people can do unto me psalm 116 and 6 the lord is on my side it's been a long time since i preached on this thought but the lord is not ambivalent he's not on both sides the lord is on the side of his people amen so i can say that the lord is on my side he favors me he helps me he equips me the lord is on my side and because he is because i know that they're more than be with me than they that be with them and that there's a superiority of the power of god in my life the lord is on my side the rest of that verse i will not fear what man can do unto me proverbs 29 25 the fear of man brings a snare and you live in fear people regardless of who it is it brings the snare but whoever puts their trust in the lord shall be saved jesus taught us in matthew chapter 10 verse 28 and fear not them he's talking about people which kill the body because throughout the ages god's people have been persecuted and martyred for the name of jesus christ and jesus knew that it would happen but he told us to not be afraid of the person that can merely take your life but we are to fear the one amen who is able to kill the soul amen so fear not him which is able to kill the body i want to review this verse but are not able to kill the soul because the soul is what really matters but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell so when you have the fear of the lord you do not have to succumb to the fear of people amen he delivered me from all my fears the fear people there is also the fear of dying it is a real fear if you die lost in your sins it is the worst case scenario for anyone and satan's plan for your life is to subtract from you until there is nothing left before christ the writer of hebrews tells us that all their lifetime they were subject to the devil to the one who had the power of death that is the devil and that jesus came to deliver us who through those who through fear of death or all their lifetime subject to bondage hebrews 2 15 if you're taking notes but jesus came to deliver us from the fear of death amen if you are in a right relationship with jesus christ you do not need to fear death but i have witnessed people godly people saints of god as they left this life and they did not always leave this life in peace they did not want to face the unknown that fear of death i've shared this before i'll name a name of a godly person in our church brother jack smith who had colon cancer that spread to his liver they thought he would live six months he lived five years i had the privilege of standing in his room with his family as he breathed his last breath but he was there struggling for breath we prayed over him as a family and in that prayer i did not plan this i did not premeditate this but i believe the holy ghost gave me an unction to pray this way i said i rebuke the fear of death and when i prayed that prayer he breathed the breath exhaled and he passed from this life into the next i just want to tell you that while death is unknown well death is a stranger death is not to be feared for after this life is the promise of eternal life amen [Applause] jesus said in john 10 10 the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy that is satan's design on your life and he will make you live in fear of stealing and killing and destroying you but jesus said but i am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly i'm preaching to you today that the lord can deliver you from the fear of death amen he can deliver you from the power and the fear that will try to paralyze you paul wrote about this in philippians 1. he said there isn't nothing i'm going to be ashamed or put to shame he said i've got a lot of boldness in my life philippians 1 21 4. for me to live is christ and to die is gain if we feel like death is lost then we will fear death but if we understand what the bible teaches that when it is our time god's time to take us home that to live is christ and to die is gain paul said it is better for you if i live i can teach another day help you another day help save another soul but he said as for me it is better if i would die and be with the lord he said i'm kind of torn between wanting to stay to help you and wanting to die and be with the lord david was afraid of people if david rather would have been afraid of people and if david would have been afraid of dying we would not have the story of david and goliath that the three hebrew young men were more afraid of men and dying and peer pressure than the lord that we would not have the story of the fiery furnace and how god delivered them if daniel would have been more afraid of the king's commandment of men and dying than he was the judgment of god that he would not have prayed but if he would not have prayed and given into the culture and would have become a law we would not have the story of god delivering daniel from the hungry lions in the den but because they were more afraid of the lord and they had faith in god we have the story of people who were delivered from their fear of death and i do not know what the future holds for you or me or the church or our country but i can tell you that people throughout the ages who fear god more than death fear god more than people are our heroes of faith and god can deliver you from all your fears and god has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind fear of people fear of death fear of the future you do not need to be afraid what's going to happen tomorrow our next year or the year after i share many of your concerns about our culture the moral decline what is taking place in our culture in our schools but i felt directly led to the lord to encourage you to not be afraid of the world that your children are facing amen i'll elaborate on this in just a moment but when the children of israel were facing wandering in the wilderness numbers 14 tells us about this they said it would have been better if we would have died in egypt than to die in this wilderness they said the lord has brought us into this land to fall by the sword we're here in the wilderness and god brought us out to kill us here that's great faith right he just went through the red sea pharaoh's army was drowned now you're complaining and worried and fearful and then they said that our wives and our children should be a prey it'd be better to return to egypt let's make ourselves a captain and let's go back and when the faithless people of israel were facing this scary wilderness filled with unknowns filled with camping and breaking camp and god led them by day and by night but they never knew whether they would be on a campsite for a day or a week or a month or a year just at the voice of the lord they were learning to be led by the spirit but the lord told them that your carcasses you unbelieving generation you're going to die in the wilderness everybody 20 years old and upward you're gonna die in this land because of your lack of faith except for joshua and caleb but he said let me tell you something about your children your children your little ones that you thought were gonna be a prey i'm going to bring them into the land of promise and they're going to know the land that you despise i thought the lord gave me a word of promise that it doesn't matter about the wilderness that we are facing as a culture or as a church our god that brought us out will bring us in our god that brought us through everything that we face growing up will protect your children will be with us [Applause] it is natural for parents and grandparents to worry about the world in which their children will be raised the bible is very clear that as we approach the end of all things the world will grow worse and worse perilous times and i believe strongly that we need to do what we can to protect our children from fear from the indoctrination of secular humanism in our children's lives if your children go to public school you should get involved join the movement to take back the education of our children our children do not belong to the state any state they belong to god and their parents [Applause] whatever path you choose that you feel is best for your children that's your business the church is here to support that i'm not here to preach for or against any form of education but i'm here to tell you that we should do everything we can to protect us we have a biblical mandate deuteronomy 6 to raise our children in the fear of the lord to bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the lord to train them up in the way that they should go to teach them diligently to talk about the things of god in all of life amen but the greatest danger to your children's faith is not the devil and it is not the world the greatest danger to your children's faith is the lack of your faith [Applause] if you're filled with fear they will be filled with fear if you acquiesce to the culture they will acquiesce to the culture if you're a coward they will be a coward if you're not if you're ashamed of the lord they will be ashamed of the lord if you cut corners if you have duplicity in your life if you're one thing in church and another thing at home the lack of your faith is the greatest threat to your children's faith the lord said of abraham he i know abraham he will command his children in the way after him abraham is going to stand for faith he will be the father of the faithful so today i am challenging every parent to stand up for truth and to raise your children in the fear of the lord we do not have to be afraid of the culture of the future [Applause] amen mary came to her cousin elizabeth's house elizabeth prophesying said that the lord's mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation psalm 105 for the lord is good his mercy is everlasting and his truth they endures to all generations you may remember but i used to be a youth pastor and i've been a parent i still am but kids are grown i've lived through all of those concerns i've watched the decline of our culture but i have a promise from the word of god that he gave me years ago it was right there all the time that is truth endures to all generations even till the last generation so while i am concerned and i want to protect i want to be careful i will not live in fear i will not let my faith cave in to the pressure of this world amen the greatest asset you have is your faith in god that it does not matter what happens in this world we are god's people we are looking up our redemption is drawing nigh fear not fear not [Applause] so buy the truth and sell it not do not sell out to the convenience culture and do not let culture cancel you shove you in a corner shut you up and quiet you down always maintain a good spirit a right spirit but do not cave in i'm repeating what i've just preached that israel's problem was not the dangers of the wilderness it was the weakness of their parents faith the greatest asset you have and the greatest liability is your faith and the greatest liability you have is your lack of faith you don't want your babies to face peer pressure you don't want your children to have to live a separated life so you're going to make allowances for them so they can blend into the world don't you understand if they never learn to stand up they will fall in this culture they will fall before temptation and wherever you draw the line that's where the battle starts so why don't you draw a line where the bible draws lies and why don't you stand for a truth so that god will stand with you amen when israel was facing the battles god was preparing them for the battles they would face in canaanland rather the lord told them amen the lord is with you he brought you out of egypt and when you come to the battle the priest the spiritual leader is going to speak to the people and he's going to say to the people hero israel you approach this day unto battle against your enemies let not your hearts faint later he says they're more than you there's bigger and better than you are but he said do not lay your heart faint fear not and do not tremble neither be terrified before because of them for the lord your god is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you in other words the lord said i know when you go to canaan they're more equipped than you are they're bigger and better than you are but it is not about you it is about your god and the same god that brought you out of egypt the same god that kept you in the wilderness will allow you to conquer cain and le if you will have faith in god jesus speaking of the end time in luke 21 said that men's hearts would fail them for fear looking after the things that are coming on the earth and the powers of heaven are shaken and the son of man shall appear with great power and great glory and but then he said when these things begin to come to pass he didn't say to find a cave to hide he said then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption is drawing nigh amen i want you to know that our hope is in jesus christ and he will keep us throughout every generation until he comes back again for us first timothy one and seven for god for god has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind david said i sought the lord he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears years ago i heard a story in a class in school i don't know about the veracity of this but this lady was talking to a counselor and she was telling the counselor about a terrible dream that she had repeatedly a repetitive dream she said i dream and in my dream there is a gorilla that is chasing me and it gets bigger and bigger and this gorilla is chasing me so the counselor said this is what i'd like for you to do when you dream that dream again i want you to have this in your mind i want you to tell yourself this i i believe you can inform your subconscious right but this is a story i want you to stop running from that gorilla and i want you to turn around and i want you to start chasing that gorilla so the story goes like this that as she stopped in her dream and turned around and faced her giant face that gorilla i started chasing it then it got smaller and smaller and smaller sorry for this application but this woman said that it became my mother now in most cases it was probably the fear of your father or the fear of someone who abused a person but this is the story that i was told that there was something inside of her that has great fear when that fear got bigger and bigger and bigger and it was chasing her many people have had dreams of being chased and you couldn't run fast enough and all of the dreams that people have but in this story that i was told this woman faced her fear chased her fear and brought it down to size and then she could deal with why are you afraid of your mother i do not know what fear you are facing but today it is time to stop running from it to turn around and face that fear and chase it down with the name of jesus christ for god has not given us the spirit of fear fear that would attach itself to natural fear normal fear that god has given us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind today i want your prayer to beat what david prayed and said i sought the lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears let's pray right now right where we're seated in jesus name i pray oh god thank you jesus i feel compassion in my spirit like jesus is reaching to someone today that has been patterned and bruised by life and now has turned into fear and a spirit of fear has tried to attach itself to you to intimidate you to paralyze you but today i am praying that god would give you deliverance over your fears [Music] jesus name right now lord god [Music] you