Fearious | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

Grab your Bibles with me and turn to the book of Second Timothy, chapter 1. Second Timothy chapter 1. Man, it it felt good to step off a plane and find myself in the 80s today instead of the hundreds. Left Strong Tower Youth Camp. I think it was the hottest week hottest week of our of our year. and uh we uh headed up to Washington DC and it was even hotter there. So I believe it was around 104. I stood I stood my I had two daughters with me that braved out the heat and we we were bound and determined to get in and see the president speak and watch the fireworks and um we stood I don't know five hours probably literally literally literally in a line. Number one, we we first got in the wrong line. Um there was probably I don't know 30 40,000 people in a line and I just assumed it was a line to get in. So we stood there for about 20 or 30 minutes and I heard somebody talking about, "Yeah, you got to have a badge to be in this line." I'm like, "Badge? Where do I get a badge?" And so I said, "All right." They said, "You got to go four blocks this way and seven blocks that way." And I was like, "All right." So, we got out of that line and we walked I can't even tell you how many blocks. And lo and behold, there was a line. There had have been 150,000 people in that line. And I'm not I'm not I am not exaggerating. It went, if you've been to Washington DC, it went as far as you could see, probably two two sections wide of just people between these these barriers for probably, I don't know, 10 15 blocks. And my daughters and I were literally standing right here. The metal detectors were right there. And somebody came running and said, "EVERYBODY HAS TO GET OUT. Storm 70 mph winds are coming." I'm like, I'm like looking in the sky like we got like air force is coming over. Like there's no 70 mph winds anywhere. So needless to say, we did not get in, but we got to see the fireworks and I guess that's what matters the most. But we got to we were there. We were there amongst amongst the fun 250 years and celebrated celebrated our our nation. But oh man, it was so good just to step off a plane today in about 82°ree weather. I felt like it's winter time. You know what I'm saying? It was cold. It was just felt so good. But man, no place like home. There's no place no place like home. Just just for a few minutes. I don't want to take a lot of time. It's about 8:00 and I I hope to I don't want to go 30 maybe 30 minutes 35 minutes if you'll if you'll just stick with me but just want to give a Bible study tonight. Second Timothy 1:7 says for God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Anybody thankful for that? And then turn with me to to Psalm chapter 56. Psalm chapter 56. It's the 56th Psalm. And I just want to read um let's read verse three and four of this psalm. It says, "What time I am afraid I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word. In God I have put my trust." He said, "I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." Will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Let's put our Bibles down. Come on, let's pray. Father, we love you, Lord. I'm so thankful, Lord God, to be back in your house, Lord. I'm so thankful, Lord God, that I'm with your people, Lord, with my brothers and my sisters. Lord, I pray and I believe, Lord, tonight I somebody has come into this house, Lord. And I believe this word is for them, Lord. God, I believe it's more than one person. I believe that everybody's going to be able to relate to this. But God, I pray you would anoint me. You'd speak through me. And Lord God, you would use me tonight, Lord God, to help somebody, to add value to somebody's walk with you. And Lord, I'll forever give you praise and I'll forever give you honor for it. In Jesus name we pray. Clap your hands one more time and give God praise before you're seated. You may be seated in the house tonight. We began the week or I should say the weekend we began uh of course uh the 4th of July we began in in inner DC area but we were truly there uh for the fact for the matter of a conference a a KUFI conference a Christians united for Israel conference. We were invited and I wanted to kind of see what that was all about. I went over with this group uh to uh Israel this past year and it was such a life-changing event when they began to tell us about a conference that they have every year. Uh I was very interested and so they they brought our entire pastoral team in and were very very kind to us. Um and just in seeing what was happening I um it was life-changing. I'll be honest with you. Um I listened. I I learned um I was inspired and I want to help listen and I hope you feel this way too but I want to help fight the spread of anti-semitism. I I I love all people and this this is not just about the Jewish nation. I I love all people. I I want to I want to fight the spread of hate towards any culture of people. But there's something about God's people that all throughout the Bible and I'm not going to go through and and we heard some great preachers and we heard some great speakers and some uh everything from podcasters to to to just uh people been on uh you've seen a lot of them on Fox News as as they've talked over this this this topic. Uh but but began to move me and I was so deeply moved by so many stories and so many testimonies. But one thing has stood out above everything else. And that is the fact that the Jewish people refuse to allow fear to have the final word in their life. They refuse to allow fear to have the final word. And I did not say that they never feel fear, but instead they have figured out how to control the fear. And so in your in your hearing, my title is this. It's it's it's a madeup word. It's not in Webster's dictionary, but is it is simply this furious. Furious. Kind of spelled a little bit different than we normally would pronounce furious. This is this is this is furious. And I'm going to explain it in a moment, but I I want to talk about fear. I I want to speak about and teach about how we can control fear. But but think about the the Jewish people. And and please understand that this is what's on my mind. And this is all I've heard the last three days is is stories of of what they have fought through, the persecution that they have suffered, them being driven out of their homes. I I've been to Poland. I I've been to Germany. I've been to the death camps. I I I've been to the World War II all the all the places that were were horrific and the way they were treating over six million Jews that were exterminated in just one war. not not in a lifetime, but just in one war. Uh a nation that's hated by by every country that surrounds them. They're attacked and threatened with destruction. And yet they are still here. >> If nothing else tells you that they are the people of God, you got to look and see what they've been through to see where they are today and know there's something different about those people. We may not know any of them from Israel. We may not know uh them personally or know their names, but I promise you they are still standing and they refuse to disappear and they refuse to coward down to fear. So I just want to tell I'm going to tell a couple stories that I heard this week. But the THE FIRST STORY THAT I WANT TO TELL YOU about that gripped me so strongly was a story of Dr. Sheila Nazaren. And you've probably even on Fox News, she has been on Fox News many times. She's been on the news many times and a and she was born into a Jewish family in the country of Iran and if you can only imagine as a as a little girl they were very persecuted and and their family realized that they were no longer safe within their own country and so father left first but then mother and then their daughters would have to follow along behind. And here we have Sheila and her mother and her sister as they escaped. They escaped in the back of a pickup truck laying down under burlac sap sacks of corn of grain. They they they laid down and and she called it. She said it was like a puzzle piece. They had us they had us so tightly uh pieced together within the bed of that truck and then they had p uh hundreds of pounds of corn was upon them so heavy that that even people that checked the truck would not move the corn because they didn't want to lift the corn off the bed of the truck. And so they felt safe although they were so uncomfortable and they traveled hundreds of miles to get out of Iran. She would tell the story how in the back of that truck they would have to spend the night in the desert and and how cold it was at night in the desert and there she is just a a young girl, two little girls and their mother along with others who finally escaped over the border into Pakistan and and they were re reunited with their family and they were made refugees to America and thank God listen thank God for the United States of America that we still take refugees into our nation. >> We still take people that have no hope where they're living, who are persecuted where they're living. I thank God. And I know I know that last Sunday I preached about America, but I'm so Listen, I I could not be more proud of our nation, but here is this little Jewish girl who had to hide and grow up and hide her identity. And uh I believe that that that now as she is now in her probably 30s that that that she has now learned how to stand up for herself and and she now has learned how to use her voice to speak openly against anti anti-semitism. and she goes to universities and she encourages Jewish students at our American universities not to hide who they are but simply to gain the approval ju just to gain the approval of others. She said you can't hide you you can't hide behind your identity. You got to be proud of who you are. You got to stand up and fight for what's right. And although you may be persecuted and talked against and and and and that is one thing with our culture that I that I am ashamed of is that our universities are pumping out this idea of anti-semitism. And it's not coming from America, I promise you. But a lot of these universities are being backed and being funded by Middle Eastern nations that are so anti-Jewish nation and they're funding these these different departments. And because they're being funded, they have a they have a part in who is hired and who is teaching and what is being taught. And it's a scary thing that that here in America, I'm not talking about overseas, I'm talking about here in America, there is hate being taught from lecture stands in university classrooms. But here she is. And and I'm so glad that we have people uh like this woman who who is willing to stand up. This this Dr. Sheila Nazarene who is willing to stand up and say we cannot fear what others think about us, feel about us, or even do to us. We got to be who God has created us to be. >> It moved me. It moved me so much when I looked into her eyes as she was speaking and I saw no fear. It moved me so much when I was in Israel and I was there not too long after they had bombs and missiles dropping. It was not too long after their borders had been uh taken by by the enemy and they still had smiles on their faces and I felt no fear. Brother Brandon, I felt no fear. my wife. Now, my wife and I, we're a little different. We're a little skittish when we go overseas. We we visited Lebanon. And as you know, Lebanon isn't exactly warfree either. And uh what they had not told us was Lebanon was celebrating their New Year's holiday, and it wasn't anywhere near our New Year's holiday. And uh and um we were eating at an outdoor restaurant and all of a sudden somebody started lighting up fireworks and I looked over and my wife was on the ground. She had slid out of her seat onto the ground and and and and I'm one main issue that I personally have with my personality is I underreact. I'm the type of person if I hear gunfire I I I don't hit the ground. I kind of look around like, "Oh, who's firing a gun?" Like I Anybody else like that? Some of y'all are overreactors. I'm an under reactor. Don't have a heart attack around me. Nothing emergency. If Brother Bruce, if the fire alarm goes off, that means nothing to me. All right. Some people are running for the door. I'm going to walk around looking for smoke. You know, it just means nothing to me. I'm an I'm an underreactor. So, here I am sitting in my seat. She's on the ground and the missionary is dying laughing. And then he informs us those are fireworks and we're celebrating a new year. I'm like thinking it's nowhere near January 1. Why are we celebrating a new year? But the fact of the matter is in Israel when those things happen, it's nothing to them. It's no big deal. Matter of fact, there there's a certain uh uh siren that goes off in in the cities and they know they have exactly eight seconds to find shelter. The kids are in the playground playing. If if it goes off, those kids are taught from a very young age, this is if that if that alarm goes off, this is where we go. We think it's a big deal to have fire drills at the at at the school. They face that every day, but it's not a drill. It's real, but there's no fear. And and that's if if if anything else, if I took away from this conference and going to Israel was they don't have fear. Because let me let me tell you what what fear really truly wants. Fear wants your lifestyle. It it WANTS TO INFLUENCE EVERY decision that you make that I make. It it wants to control our future. It wants to convince us to organize our entire life around what might go wrong. Because that's what fear is. Fear, it has to do with the future. It's not even the present. It's what's going to happen, what what's to come. And it wants to mess with our future. But Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God hath not given us this spirit that I'm preaching about, the spirit of fear." Because feeling fear is not the same as choosing fear. How many know we're going to have fear in our life? There's there's nothing wrong with fear feeling fear. The issue is when you choose to be afraid. But David said in Psalm 56 and3, "WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID, I will trust in thee." David did not say, "I've never been afraid." He said, "When I'm afraid, I'VE ALREADY MADE a decision. I'VE ALREADY DECIDED WHAT I'M GOING TO DO. I'm going to TRUST IN THE GOD WHO CAN COME THROUGH WHEN I need him to come through. FEAR WAS THE FEELING, BUT TRUST HAS GOT TO BE THE CHOICE WE MAKE. >> Fear may be your first reaction, but it doesn't have to become your final decision. >> Yeah, it might be the first thing. And I get it. Things Oh, things come up. Things happen. Oh, I'm talking real legitimate things happen in our life. I don't want to downplay because I realize bad things happen and things that are scary spiritually and physically in health and in your job and in your family. But we don't have to make fear our final decision. >> You can feel fear WITHOUT FOLLOWING FEAR. YOU CAN hear fear without obeying fear. YOU CAN FACE SOMETHING FRIGHTENING WITHOUT ALLOWING FEAR to govern your life. Which brings me to my title, furious. Furious simply means to become furious. F U R I O U S. Furious about unwanted fear, undesired fear, unwelcomed fear. Come on, SOMEBODY. UNINVITED FEAR, unsolicited fear, UNNECESSARY FEAR. IT'S THE MOMENT THAT WE DECIDE I REFUSE to allow fear to take over my life, dictate my life, >> DRIVE ME OR STOP ME. Fear has taken enough it's stolen enough peace. It's it's cost people enough sleep. Fear has influenced enough decisions. Can I get a witness in this place? It's this it's delayed enough obedience. IT'S CREATED ENOUGH IMAGINARY TRAGEDIES. >> Imaginary tra not tragedies. Fear has caused imaginary tragedies. Things that you come up in your mind. When the Bible says that God has not given given us a spirit of fear, but he's given us a sound mind. Listen, if you allow fear to rule, that takes away your sound mind. And all of a sudden, you start coming up with things that that that God never intended you to come up with. and and life never intended you to have to face. But in your mind, you you just replay those things over. Well, what if this happens? Well, what if she does this? What if my daughter DOES THAT? OH, WHAT IF MY HUSBAND DOESN'T DO THIS? AND YOU START TO HAVE THESE THE THE FEAR TO OVERCOME YOU WITH IMAGINARY TRAGEDIES. And I began to I began to study this thought and I began to say, "God, I will not spend the rest of my LIFE BEING CONTROLLED BY SOMETHING THAT GOD DID NOT GIVE ME. >> I will not allow FEAR TO DETERMINE THE SIZE OF MY LIFE. I WILL NOT ALLOW FEAR TO MAKE DECISIONS that belong to faith." >> COME ON. HOW DO YOU BELIEVE WE NEED TO HAVE FAITH OVER FEAR? >> Faith has got to always BE OVER FEAR. THERE'S GOT TO BE SOMETHING THAT DRIVES US. I'm going to preach about it tonight. But we're going to study three stories that take place in the Bible. And each one of these stories deals with a different kind of fear. Because there's different kinds of fear, but they also teach us how to resist it. Here's the first one. I'm I'm moving. Here's the first one. It's a story of a of a man named Bana. Bae. Now, listen. Everybody's heard of of of the great story of David and Goliath. But the story of Bana is very similar because few people know about this man who went down into a snowy pit and fought and killed a ferocious lion. His story teaches us our first lesson. We got to number one stop building our life around what we're afraid of. Look with me in 2 Samuel 23 and 20. Somebody's doing a little play on words on this whole around because this lion is is in this pit. Bible says in Bae the son, he he had a father and he was a son of a valiant man who had done many acts. He slew here, watch this right here. He slew two lionlike men of Moab. Now, we heard this preached not too long ago about about these giants. These giants of of Moab. We we we learned that these giants were close to eight feet tall. I I believe there were seven some were seven feet 10 inches. And and this Banayiah, he slew two of these guys. And then it says, oh, and he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in the time of snow. Hidden in the list of David's mighty men is this man named Baniah. AND THE BIBLE GIVES US THIS INCREDIBLE DETAIL ABOUT HIS life that he went. Did you see this right here? He went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in the time of stone. Come on. You got you got to think about this scene that that the Bible is narrating right here. This this is this is a lion there. There there's a pit and it's it's PROBABLY AN ANIMAL TRAP, which simply means that the lion is not happy. And I'm sure the lion is very hungry. has probably been down in this pit, this trap for a while. And the Bible says that IT WAS IN THE TIME of snow. So, not only is there a mad lion, but now we are in the winter time and and and and this is a treacherous season and getting down into a pit without a lion in snow is probably not an easy thing, but getting down into a pit that has a lion in it, this this is this IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT. BUT I LIKE HOW THE BIBLE says he went down because it brings us to our first truth about resisting fear. Fear often controls our lives through avoidance. Follow me on this one right here. When we think about fear, we usually we usually picture somebody panicking uh somebody having a panic attack and a and that they're driven by fear. But fear doesn't always look frightened. Sometimes fear looks reasonable. Ah, I'm just waiting for the right time. I I'm just not ready quite yet. Maybe someday I'll get to it. I NEED TO TO THINK ABOUT THIS just a LITTLE BIT LONGER. SOMETIMES THOSE STATEMENTS are legitimate, but there's also times when people are waiting and people are just trying to avoid a fear they have in their life. I'm going to give you some examples because delay can sometimes be fear. Wearing a respectable disguise. Proverbs 29 and 25 says this, "The fear of man bringeth a snare. But who so putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." You see this right here? I'm kind of pulling these together because the Bible calls fear a snare. or that that that's a trap. Y'all see THIS RIGHT HERE? SOMETHING THAT restricts movement, something that that captures something that limits freedom. THE BIBLE TALKS about fear and causes it calls it a snare. Restricts movement. What we continually avoid will eventually define the boundaries of our life. Watch this right here. If I'm afraid of rejection, I'M PROBABLY going to avoid new relationships. Talk about what we fear, we avoid. IF I'M AFRAID OF FAILURE, I'M PROBABLY GOING TO AVOID NEW OPPORTUNITIES. I'm just going to settle for the same old same old because I I'm nervous around new things and and I I'm afraid that I I might fail at trying something new. I'm afraid of criticism. So therefore, I'm going to avoid leadership at all costs. I don't want to see the boss. I I sure don't want to see the the the the big boss. And so I don't want any criticism. I don't want you to tell me what I'm doing wrong. So I'm just going to avoid leadership. If if I'm afraid of being hurt, I'm going to avoid vulnerability. If I'm afraid of what people think, I'm going to avoid obedience. Eventually, my life is NO LONGER BEING DETECTED by purpose. It's being directed by avoidance. Fear does not have to destroy us. It can keep us from developing. Come on, think about that. You know, I believe the enemy uses fear a lot. And sometimes we we think that it has to be some great all struck fear that that that causes us to be afraid to go to church or or or be afraid to raise our kids uh in in the doctrine of of the word OF GOD OR OR WHAT HAVE YOU. BUT IT COULD BE AS SIMPLY AS simple as JUST MAKING US BYPASS things that would actually develop us spiritually. Fear. Fear causes people never to realize greatness. We can spend years learning where the pit is uh and carefully making sure we walk around it. We can become so skilled at avoiding anything that makes us uncomfortable. Oh, come on somebody. Sometimes we just got to get out of our comfort zones. We got to get out of the things that make us feel comfortable and make us feel all all good inside and fluffy inside. WE GOT TO GET OUT OF THOSE, YOU KNOW, SOMETIMES I I I TAKE invitations to speak at places that, you know, just absolutely scare me. And I remember the first time that I was asked to go preach in a prison, I was scared to death. I didn't know what to think. But thank God I accepted it because I thought, you know what? I got to I GOT TO LEARN TO DO HARD THINGS. Learn to do things that aren't easy cuz that's what develops me. Shoot. I remember man walking in that place. We had about 300 inmates and man, when we walked in, they were mean mugging us. Oh my goodness. Oh, listen. I was like thinking of every every film I'd ever seen, every every movie I'd ever watched that that had anything to do with prison escapes or prisoners or or or jail fights and fuds and everything that happens. I was thinking, "Oh my god." Because they TOLD US WHEN WE WALKED IN, THEY SAID, "Whatever happens, if a riot breaks out, we're locking the doors and you cannot get out. Sign the dotted line." I was like, "Oh my Well, here we go. take your cell phone away. It's not like you can call for help. Oh my word. But I I will say this, when we walked out of that place, those same men that were mean mugging us were begging us to stay longer, come up with tears. And now we had already baptized, I don't know, a hundred and some of them. And man, we had probably 75, 80 get the Holy Ghost. And they were just coming up and just tears coming down. Man, they had tattoos on every piece and part of their body and every bit of epidermis was covered by color. They had tears coming down. Please don't go. Please stay another hour. Can you please just stay another hour? We're enjoying this so much. This feels so good. SOMETIMES YOU GOT TO GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. IT'S A WHOLE LOT easier to to preach to y'all tonight than to go to a nursing home. Brother Kyle Long, wave at me. You told me something years decades ago. He would go into a nursing home and the only the only nursing home that had an opening for a preacher was the Alzheimer's nursing home department. And so, Brother Long told me, he said, "You know what? I go in and I preach to the same people every time, and I got to introduce myself to the same people every week. Every week, I get up there and they look at me and they say, "Who are you?" The same people. I got He said, "I had to say, "My name is Brother Kyle Long. It's so good to preach to you. I was here preaching to you last week." and they look and they're like, "No, I don't think you were." Brother Long, thank you. Thank you for stepping out of what's easy and stepping into something where you say, "Well, what does it even matter? They don't even remember who I am." I'll tell you what matters because every time he would preach memories, they they were from a long time ago of their childhood growing up in church and going to church with mom and dad 20, 30, 50, 70, 80 years ago would come to their memories. And he said, "I would see tears coming down." And they knew that they had to be saved. They knew that there was something more. And they felt the same Holy Ghost we felt. WHAT AM I SAYING? I'M SIMPLY SAYING SOMETIMES THERE'S GOING TO BE a pit of fear and it's going to be the easy thing to WALK AROUND IT AND TO AVOID IT. BUT SOMETIMES FEAR IS WHAT CAUSES US TO DEVELOP. >> And God, I want to be developed like Bana was developed when he went down. Matter of fact, Joshua 1:9, it says, "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, WHETHERSOEVER THOU GOEST." GOD SAID, "I'M GOING TO BE WITH YOU." COURAGE IS NOT CONFIDENCE IN THE ABSENCE OF DANGER. IT'S CONFIDENCE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD. >> COURAGE IS NOT SAYING, "I DON'T FEAR." COURAGE IS SAYING, "I KNOW WHO'S WITH ME WHEN I FACE FEAR. I DON'T HAVE TO BE AFRAID." I DON'T HAVE TO STAY IN CONTINUAL FEAR, BUT GOD IS WITH ME. Fear asks, "What if something GOES WRONG?" BUT FAITH ASKS, "Who is with ME WHEN IT GOES WRONG?" ISAIAH 43:1 SAYS, "But now thus sayeth the Lord that created thee, oh Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have deemed thee. I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by name." God said, "Thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee." When you go through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walst through the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. God did not say there wouldn't be water. God did not say there wouldn't be rivers or fires. HE SIMPLY SAID, "I'M GOING TO TAKE YOU THROUGH IT." THAT'S WHY WE LOVE TO SING THAT SONG THROUGH THE FIRE. BECAUSE THE PROMISE IS NOT THAT THERE WON'T BE A TRIAL, BUT THAT GOD IS GOING TO HOLD OUR HAND THROUGH EVERY TRIAL, through everything THAT GOES WRONG IN OUR LIFE. IF WE COULD JUST KEEP HOLD OF THE UNCHANGING hand of God, he said, "I will be with thee." So verse four, first kings 4:4, but I the son of Jehovah was over the host and Zadok and Abiahar were the priests. What this simply means right here, what I want to bring out is because he was not afraid to fear the pituh and fear the lion. Over time, he became courageous. And in being courageous, God developed him into a leader that he was over the whole army. It was no longer just he fighting a lion, but now he is over the host of the army. The the man that once was seen in the pit is now leading the army. Because we understand that private courage uh DEVELOPS THE CHARACTER REQUIRED FOR PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY, private courage, you build courage privately so that you can go out and do great exploits for the Lord. James 1 and3 says, "Knowing this that the trying of your faith workketh patience." You see that right there? The trying of your faith. It doesn't say your faith workketh patience. It's the trials that your faith goes through that workketh patience be. But let patience have her perfect work that she may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. Listen, some challenges are not MERELY OBSTACLES. GOD uses them to develop something in us that comfort can never develop. >> You know, sometimes we ask God, listen, this is important right here. Sometimes we ask God to re remove the very thing he's using to develop what we need developed. Come on. We can we can pray, "Oh God, please, oh God, take the lion away. God, please take my issues away. Please take this sickness away. Please take this trouble away." And the whole time God has placed it there right in the pit in front of you so that you can learn how to be courageous and overcome things in your LIFE AND DEVELOP FAITH AND HOPE IN YOUR WALK WITH GOD. Somebody clap your hands IF YOU'VE GOT HOPE ENOUGH TO BE COURAGEOUS uh even when it seems impossible. That's where this this whole this whole word furious comes in because we're so sick and tired of having fear in our life. We're furious that fear is trying to overtake our life. And that's what I believe has to take place. Uh we cannot be content with us. We can't we can't learn to live with fear. We've got to be furious. Uh we've got to make a decision. I refuse to have fear in my life. So I move quickly on. I move quickly on. I'm going to get the next two very quickly because these are also important. I don't have time to read about it, but in 2 Kings chapter 7, there were four lepous men who stood or who sat in the gate of Samaria. Syria had besieged the whole city of Samaria. Nobody, the Bible says, nobody came in. Nobody went out. They were trapped. They were in a trap. They were starving. Crazy things were taking place. Uh donkekeyy's heads were being sold as food. Uh a nasty tasting chickpea called dove's dung was being sold as if it was lobster or filet minang at Ruth Chris. Cannibalism was taking place where mothers were were eating their own babies. AND OUTSIDE WE FIND four lepers. Outside of the madness of this city, we find four starving lepers. Lep men. Men, you know all about leprosy. If you study the word of God, it was it was the disease of the Bible. It was the disease that everyone feared. They had fingers missing. They had noses missing. Oh, their skin was falling from their faces. Uh they looked horrendous. They were going through the worst of the worst of diseases. But they were caught between two terrible realities. Behind them, everyone was starving. WHERE THEY SAT, everyone was starving. And in front of them was the enemy army. And here they are sitting at the gate. And one of them began to ask the others questions. And this question changed everything. He said, "Why sit we here until we die?" And that question is a theme of the entire story, the entire miracle that took place that I don't even have time to preach it on was simply this. You've got to make a decision. IF YOU'RE GOING TO DIE WHERE YOU SIT, YOU'RE EITHER GOING TO BE CONTENT WITH DYING OR YOU'RE GOING TO GET UP and do something about it. You say, "Well, uh, the outlook is not is a little bleak WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE outlook of of decision number three." Cuz we know decision one is you get eaten. If you go back in the city, cannibalism is taken over. And oh, if we sit here, we're going to be nothing but skeleton and bones within within days. But the only option we truly have is to go into the Syrian camp and to hope that they have mercy upon us and they give us something to eat so we don't die. And so here we are. They go into the camp and they find oh they find NO ONE BECAUSE GOD HAD gone before them. And this is what I want us to understand. We can fear things in the future, but if WE BELIEVE IN A GOD THAT'S going to get there before we get there, >> we have nothing to be afraid of. If God IS IS IN ETERNITY, GOD IS ALREADY WHERE WE'RE about to be. >> Pastor talked about this not long ago that he's in OUR PAST. HE HE'S never left our past. He's still there. He's still in your time of trouble. When it happened, the very moment, the very day, the very the very hour in second that it happened, GOD IS STILL THERE. But he's also in our future and he knows what's about to take place. AND HE'S ALREADY STANDING THERE WAITING ON US. HE'S already there saying, "Come on. I know. I know everything looks I know the Syrian army is the most well-known army of the day. I know they've GOT THE GREATEST FIGHTING POWER AND the greatest weaponry of the day. But I want you to know I'm already here for lepous men and I'm already waiting for you. I just want to see if you got enough faith to get up uh off the gate AND OFF THE STEPS OF THE GATE AND WALK OUT TO the enemy's camp. But I'm preaching about being furious because we cannot settle for the cards that have been dealt to us. We got to say, "Oh no, I refuse to sit still. I WILL NOT WAIT. I WILL MOVE. I will get up." Because the third choice was the ONLY CHOICE THAT HAD CHANCE. ECCLESIASTES 11:4 says, "He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." And this is speaking to farmers. And what it's simply saying is, uh, if you're waiting for the wind to be perfect before you sew, YOU MAY NEVER SEW YOUR CROP. AND IF YOU'RE WAITING FOR THE WEATHER TO be perfect BEFORE YOU GO OUT and reap YOUR CROP, YOUR CROP IS GOING TO DIE IN THE FIELD. A GOOD FARMER IS GOING TO SAY, "WEATHER COME WHAT MAY, I'VE GOT TO GET OUT. I'VE GOT TO SEW. I'VE GOT TO WATER. I'VE GOT TO PLANT. I'VE GOT TO MAKE SURE THAT THERE'S A CROP IN THE GROUND. Because if there's no seed IN THE GROUND, THERE'S GOING TO BE NO HARVEST. AND IF I DON'T GET OUT AND HARVEST, YOU ALL KNOW THIS. THE CROP IS GOING TO DIE IN THE FIELD. THERE'S A PERFECT TIME. AND WE got to realize that it may not feel good or look good. But there is a perfect time for us to get up and do something with our life. Uh and refuse to have fear in our life. UH IF YOU REQUIRE PERFECT CONDITIONS BEFORE YOU ACT, UH YOU'RE PROBABLY NEVER going to act. Uh fear loves to TELL US WAIT UNTIL EVERYTHING IS CLEAR. WAIT UNTIL YOU KNOW EXACTLY what is GOING TO HAPPEN. WAIT UNTIL THERE'S NO RISK. WAIT UNTIL YOU FEEL completely confident. But again, if you wait for that moment, you're probably never GOING TO GET UP and do anything. You're going to die right where you sit. But Proverbs 3 and5 says this, "Trust in the LORD WITH ALL THINE HEARTTH and lean not unto thine own understanding, BUT IN ALL THY ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct THY PATH." FAITH DOES NOT REQUIRE ME TO UNDERSTAND THE ENTIRE JOURNEY before I take the next step. Oh, it's Psalm 119:105. It says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway." Listen, a lamp does not give you enough light to see 10 feet in front of you. Sometimes a lamp is meant to give you JUST ENOUGH LIGHT TO TAKE THE next step. I'm talking about biblical lampsh. I'm talking about fire. I'm talking about they just had that the LAMP TO THE FEET. ALL that was was saying, "God, I can't see too far into my future. I don't know what even tomorrow holds. But as long as I can see the next step, I'm going to take that next step." And again, God is saying, "I'll get there before you do." You just got to have enough trust in me to believe that I'm going to be there when you get there. These four lepers, they came in came into the camp and God had already taken care. God had turned on the loudspeakers of heaven. HE HAD TURNED ON THE SUBSUH, if you will, of heaven. AND HE HAD CAUSED THERE to be a rumbling and a shaking to go on to where the Syrian army thought that the Israelites that they had brought in the armies of Egypt and and all the surrounding armies and THEY THOUGHT UH WE ARE IN TROUBLE. THEY'RE ABOUT TO SURROUND US. They're about to overtake us. Uh, and they fled for their lives. The Bible says they left the food on the fire. They left those chickens as they were rotating, rotisserie chicken on the fire. They left them just rotate. They left them there. And those men came in and they began to eat and they began to take the gold and the silver and all the garments that they found. But oh, I like how the story ends because they didn't just keep it themselves. They made sure everybody back in Samaria had food and had riches. Oh, I thank God that the people that are watching us uh go through things, they can say, "If they made it through, I can make it through. IF THEY DIDN'T FALTER, I DON'T HAVE TO FALTER. IF THEY DIDN'T GIVE UP ON GOD, I DON'T HAVE TO GIVE UP ON GOD." I want you to know that our children are watching our every move. They're watching our every step. Listen, they're bright. I'm not just talking about teenagers. I'm talking about your six and seven and eight year olds. They're bright enough to realize when mom and dad are going through stuff. Uh when grandma and grandpa are going through stuff. And they're also bright enough to realize when you still make your way to church. Uh when you still see THE HOUSE OF GOD AS being your strength, UH AS BEING YOUR COMFORT, WHEN THEY STILL SEE YOU WITH YOUR HANDS LIFTED, UH AND YOUR HEAD TILTED BACK. EVEN WHEN YOU MIGHT HAVE CANCER IN YOUR BODY OR YOUR SPOUSE MIGHT HAVE CANCER IN THEIR BODY AND THERE YOU ARE PRAISING GOD AND YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR grandchildren see it and it gives them faith and it gives them hope that when they go through things of life and believe me they're going to go through them, they're going to say, "If mom and dad can make it through, I can make it through." And that's what I believe these four lepers are are such a beautiful story in the word of GOD BECAUSE IT'S NOT just a miracle of God scaring the enemy away, but it's all these lepers saw of people that were dying inside of the walls of Samaria. And they said, "If we don't go and save them, nobody's going to save them." And they overcame their fear to get into the enemy's camp. And they also overcame their fear to COME BACK TO A CITY OF SAMARIA THAT HAD CANNIBALISM GOING ON. AND THEY SAID, "Come and see. There is a campsite filled with food." God, help us to be furious uh and not allow ourselves to be complacent uh and just wait around and see what happens. But God, I believe you want to do great things through us. stand to your feet in this place tonight. I I I've got another story, but I'm going to have to save it for another time because I've already gone too far. But I do want to say this. I I know there's people under the sound of MY VOICE, AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE going through. I don't know why. I don't know why you in fear. And but I know there's reasons. I know there are things taking place. I know that there's people all over this place who are facing marital issues. And you're wondering, the fear is within you. Will she come back home? Will he come back home? I know there's people in this house today that you have you have sickness in your body and you fear, will I ever have health in my body again? Or will I always have this pain every day when I wake up? I know there's people here that fear. They wonder themselves, uh, WILL WE EVER BE ABLE TO MAKE ENOUGH MONEY to make the ends meet? Oh my god, I've got more bills than I've got paycheck. OH, WILL THERE EVER BE ENOUGH? Will I ever make enough to get out of the debt that I'm in? Oh, I know there's fear. There's fear. There's fear of people in this place. You're even wondering, maybe some of you younger ones are wondering, "Oh, I don't know. I I've been looking for a spouse. I've been looking for a special someone, and I I just can't find a special someone." and and you've got fear maybe inside of your heart and IT'S CAUSING YOU TO TO close up and it's causing you to say, "I don't even know if I can be social anymore." Some of you have unsaved children and there's fear inside of you thinking in your mind, "I just don't know if they're ever going to come back home." And it's real fear. It's fear that keeps you up at night. It's fear that that bothers you. dudes fear that you go to prayer time and you can't even have a you can't even have a a a good prayer life because everything you think about is your kids. But I want to tell you one more story that I heard this week in closing. This man's name is Yer Horn. Year y a i r year. He got up and and his English wasn't wasn't great. He had kind of broken English. Brother Denver, he was so funny. So funny. I mean, I'm I'm talking it felt like I it almost felt like like a comic was up there just entertaining us. And he said, 'I guess you're wondering why I'm so funny. And he said it in really broken English. He said, "I figured out that when I was in a tunnel for 498 days, dark." He said, "I I couldn't even see the people that I was being held captive with." October 7th, he was taken from his kaputs, taken on the back of a motorcycle with a gun to his head. He said, "The reason why I use humor is because we figured out if we couldn't laugh, we couldn't survive. He said, "We just learned how to find humor in everything." He explained that during captivity, he would tell himself, "I should be a dead man right now. I should I should be a dead man right now." But he said every second that he remained alive, he said, "I looked at every second as a gift." He says something so simple, but some reason it just it that's one of the reason why I feel God gave me this message. He said, "You must never lose hope." He said, "That can never be an option. And he he began to almost preach to us because he said fear is so much more than just an emotion. Fear wants our hope. It wants to act. It wants to just rip the very hope because if fear can convince us then nothing will ever change. If fear could convince us that nothing good is ahead, and come on, I'm talking about somebody who is be a hostage in a tunnel. He said, if fear can make you believe that your darkest moment is your final chapter, he said, then it can control every day of your life. But scripture says in Lamentations 3 and 21, I feel the Holy Ghost because I believe I'm ministering to somebody right here. says, "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Because of his compassions, they fail not. They are new every morning. GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS. The Lord is my portion. Saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. Sometimes hope REQUIRES US TO REMIND ourselves of of what fear wants us to forget. Did you see what it said right here? It said, "I've got to say to myself, I've got to look in the mirror, Brother Kano. I've got to look in the mirror and I've got to command myself to have hope." Because if I allow fear, it'll tell me there's no hope. I'm hopeless. There's there's no future. But if I will allow God to be where I'm headed, to be a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway, IF I JUST BELIEVE THAT GOD WILL REMAIN FAITHFUL, THAT GOD is not abandon me, that God is still able to bring me through. If I can still believe that God is working, then I know the next chapter, oh my God, I know the next chapter of my life is going to be okay. Because if I have hope for the future, oh my God, hope is what defeats fear. I said hope is what defeats fear in our life. If we could just have enough hope to HAVE ENOUGH FAITH. GOD, give us enough hope to have enough faith right where you stand. I want to make this entire place an altar. I want you to lift up your hands and I want you to speak into yourself and to your own mind and say, "I will have faith. I'm going to go down into some difficult pits and I'm going to do some impossible things uh that are going to develop my faith. Uh they're going to develop my ministry. Uh I refuse to allow fear to make me avoid things, oh God, that you're trying to develop in me. UH GOD, I'M GOING TO BE LIKE THE FOUR LEPERS THAT decide uh why sit HERE UNTIL WE DIE. WE'RE GOING TO GET UP AND GO DO SOMETHING. UH I'M NOT going to wait around and see what happens. I'M GOING TO GO DO SOMETHING THAT'S GOING TO CHANGE MY LIFE FOREVER. Come on, somebody. Psalm 56 and3. WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID? I will trust in thee. I WILL BE FURIOUS. I WILL be furious. Uh come on. Come on. Come on. Fear has had enough of your peace. Uh fear has had enough OF YOUR SLEEP. UH FEAR HAS HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR THOUGHTS. Uh fear HAS HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR DECISIONS. UH FEAR HAS HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR PAST. UH FEAR MAY BE IN YOUR PRESENCE BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO GIVE IT CHARGE OR CONTROL. YOU can rebuke it in Jesus name. COME ON. FEAR HAS A VOICE BUT YOU DON'T ALLOW IT TO HAVE THE FINAL WORD. YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE HOPE NO MATTER WHAT. YOU'VE GOT TO have hope. Come on just for a couple minutes. Let's pray for hope. God give me hope. God give me hope that defeats fear. God want to be like these Jewish people. Lord God, Lord God, they face so much. Uh, and yet they have no fear. I have no excuse. There's nothing that could happen to me. There's nothing that could happen in my family that would ever compare to what these people have been through. But God, somehow they have a smile on their face. Uh, somehow there's hope in their eyes. Somehow there's a twinkle in their eyes. Uh, somehow they have joy. I WANT JOY, LORD GOD, EVEN IN THE MIDST of suffering. Come on, somebody. I wish you would pray for our shutins right now. I wish you would give I WISH YOU WOULD GIVE THEM JUST a little bit OF TIME OF YOUR prayer and say, "God, I pray for the Zhenders, God, who are shut in or aren't able to be here, God. I pray that you would strengthen their minds, God. Give them hope in Jesus' name. I pray, Lord God, for brother Burkhead. I pray for Brother Bill Burrkett. God, I'm believing, Lord God, you're going to give him hope. Uh I know, Lord God, he feels he's in his 90s and he's wondering what's left of my life, but God, there's so much, Lord God, he is your child. You love him and care for him, God. I pray that that fear, Lord God, would be gone in Jesus name. Come on, somebody. I help I hope you could help me pray over fear. I PRAY THAT THERE'S FAITH THAT that defeats this fear that people are feeling. But God, you are with us. Listen, if you're with us, uh, who can be against us? Uh, if you're for me, uh, who can be against me? Uh, IF YOU'RE ON MY SIDE, NOTHING, I SAID NOTHING can defeat me because God, you're able to do exceedingly abundantly above all I can ask and or think. And that's not just monetary blessing. That's talking about God. You're going to help me overcome fear that I would never BE IMAGINING THAT I could overcome. But God, you're able to help me to overcome it. One more time. Lift up your hands as high as you can. Come on. One more time. Just love him in this house. Oh, come on. Great is thy faithfulness. Come on. Can you say that with me? Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness, oh father, I'm so thankful, Lord God. You've never forsaken me. You've never failed me. And because of that, you make it easy, oh God, to have hope. You You make it easy, oh God. Oh, thank you. Yes. Yes. Come on and tell them. Come on and tell them. Come on and tell them. Say, "God, I refuse to be hopeless. I refuse to be hopeless. Woo. I will be furious. I WILL be furious. Great is thy faithfulness. Oh God my father. Come on sing with me. For there is no shadow of turning with thee. For thou changes not. Thy compassions they fail not. Come on tell them as thou has been thou church forever will be. Come on sing. And great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. In all I am needed, thy hand has provided. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faith. fulness Lord of to me. Somebody clap your hands if you're thankful for his faithfulness in your life. Who am I that you are mindful of me? Thank you, Jesus, for your faithfulness to me, Jesus. Because you've been faithful, I don't have to fear. Because you've been faithful, I don't have to fear. Because of your goodness and your graciousness, God, I never have to fear. Oh, clap your hands one more time if over dismissed in Jesus name. Clap your hands and thank him for his faithfulness. I apologize I kept you way longer than I wanted to, but pastor would be so proud of me for that sacred hour of 9:00 is coming shortly. God bless you. Dismissed in Jesus name.