Do Not Be Afraid

Fear is all around us, and especially in this, this day that we're living in. If you follow the news via newspaper, radio, TV, internet, there's a lot of scary things happening in our world. The one that's consumed us for almost two years now is this corona virus that's labeled Covet 19. It's consumed every news cycle. It's consumed our thoughts. We've seen frightening things. Fear is very real. We do need to be careful in how we approach the virus, but we cannot let it control us. We cannot let anything in our world control us because of fear and panic. But our God is in control. He controls it all. Even when you don't see it and you don't understand it, you don't realize it, you don't quite grasp how he's working, he is behind the scenes working it for good, if you'll let him.

Before Adam and Eve sinned, they had not yet experienced fear. They were in a perfect situation. They were given a garden full of everything that they could need, given free reign, and given authority and dominion over all, except for one thing: one tree in the middle of the garden. And that was not theirs; that was God's, and they were to leave it alone. But human nature, even before the fall, was created in such a way that we would always want more, want to have what we don't have. And so they took the fruit and they ate of the fruit. And then when God walked in the garden that day, as every day, they were not to be found. Why? They were afraid. Fear had come into their life and had taken control, and they no longer trusted God. Ever since that day, fear has been a part of our human existence, and it still causes people in our day not to trust God. But I'm here today to bring a message: Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.

There was one institution that did research on mental health, and they came up with a list of over 300 fears or phobias. A phobia would be an irrational, extreme fear over something specific. And the top 10 lists they came up — I came up with some pictures to use to show you these top ten. That might not be the top 10 for you, but in their study that's what they came up with. And one of them is the, p, the fear of public speaking, a mic in front of a crowd. I'm glad I don't have that fear. There's times in Madagascar I have to get up and speak before a crowd of 20-something thousand people, and if you have the fear of public speaking you would not be able to do that.

Another very real fear is the fear of death, and that is a real fear. I don't think there's anyone in here today that's just, you can't wait for death to happen, that says, "Yeah, I want some more." No, I don't think that's our nature. But it's not something that should cause us to be overly afraid.

911 brought about a very real fear in our world, and that's the fear of terrorists, terrorist attacks. And while there are places that are still hotbeds for that, I don't think most places have a whole lot to worry about that, but it's still a very real fear.

Now here's one that probably gets a lot of you: the fear of snakes. You don't like that one. You need to come to Madagascar and visit me. I've got a six-foot boa. Now I'm not too worried about that one, as long as it's not a poisonous snake. I'm not too, too afraid of it.

But this next one kind of gets me a little bit, and it's the fear of spiders. Now, we were just in Florida. We did Animal Kingdom on Friday, and we did It's Tough to Be a Bug or something like that. And they have, you know, things coming down from the ceiling. And one of the times it was some spiders, and next thing we know we saw a bright light on the right-hand side of the stadium, the, the theater, and somebody's making it, hightailing it out the door, because these little fake spiders come falling down and got red beady eyes and all of that. But for a long time, and I've overcome some of this, but even, even now, just seeing that picture, it kind of sends a little chill and up and down my spine.

The next one is the fear of heights. This is one my wife struggles from. It was very tempting — I didn't, but it was very tempting. I've got a picture from just a little over a month ago when we were in South Africa. Yes, we were in South Africa. I don't know, maybe we brought the Omicron with us. I, I don't know. I don't think so, but it's always possible. But we were there and we went and saw some of the sights, and one of them went into a gorge, rode an elevator down. Very beautiful. It was very enjoyable. When we came back up the elevator, at the edge of this gorge they have an observation deck around the top of the elevator, and so we walk around. Very nice. It's about three foot wide, and it's got a nice sturdy hand rail, and we go walking around it. And it's like, "Well, we've taken a lot of pictures, but no pictures of me, so here, get a picture of me." And I get over in the corner of the handrail, and I go like this. And I mean, we're hundreds of feet up in the air — it's probably felt like thousands to her. And I go like this, and she goes like this, because just the fact that I was at the edge, even though it was very safe in this high place, it caused her to almost curl into a fetal position. She got the picture, barely. But people have a real fear of heights.

There's some family that will not come visit us, because they have this next fear: the fear of flying. I'm glad I don't have that one, because I sure wouldn't want to take a boat to Madagascar. Fly, I'll fly wherever I go. I'm fine with that one.

Fear of confined spaces. Some people, you put them in a tight space — I've had to do an MRI a couple times now, and that's a tight space. When they put you into that tube — and they're not made for people my size, I don't know why — it kind of sucks you in as you get into that tube, and you have to sit there for 30 to 45 minutes while you're here. If you've ever done one, you know what I'm talking about. And some have the opposite fear to the confined space: they have a fear of open spaces. If you put them out in the middle of a wide open space, they, they'll freak out. They can't handle all the open space.

And of course, the, the tenth fear on their list was the, the fear of storms, thunder and lightning. And I don't like lightning hitting too close to me, but it doesn't bother me too much.

But I want to read a passage of Scripture that shows of some fear and a real fear. Mark chapter 6, we'll begin reading with verse number 45. Mark chapter 6, beginning to read with verse number 45. I'm reading from the ESV:

"Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when the evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass them, to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, 'Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.' And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened."

Fear. What is fear? It's the feeling of an anxiety caused by a threat, or at least a perceived threat, of danger. The disciples felt anxiety. They felt fear that day, because they were afraid they were going to sink and drown. And then they were afraid they saw a ghost. It was just so many things to be afraid of. But then Jesus walked into their situation. He said, "It's me. Do not be afraid."

What's in your life right now that you are afraid of? What is it that causes you to lose sleep, lose concentration, get all worked up? I don't know, but Jesus has a message for you today, which is the same message he had for the disciples almost 2,000 years ago: "I'm here. Don't be afraid."

In this message today we're going to look at three main scenes from this story and see the lesson that we can gather from each of those scenes. Scene number one would be Jesus praying on the mountain. Now, the Bible made it clear: he insisted that they get into the boat and go to the other side before him, while he stayed behind and dismissed the crowds. Now what crowds are we talking about? Well, the hint was at the end of what we read there: the loaves. Preceding this event was the miraculous event of the feeding of the five thousand. Five thousand people — well, really more than 5,000 people, 5,000 men. And if it's like Madagascar, if you got 5,000 men and you got about 10,000 women and half a million kids. And he said, "Okay, we're done with this. You've gathered up the 12 baskets. Now you guys get in the boat. You go to the other side. I'll dismiss the crowd." And then he went up to the mountain to pray.

While he was praying, he was watching. And we were told that when they were about halfway across the lake — now this had been hours. It's a trip that shouldn't take that long. It was only about eight miles across that lake. It should not have taken them that long to cross the lake. But here they are in the middle of the night, and they're only halfway across, struggling with the wind going forward and the wind blowing them back. And sometimes that's how our life is: you constantly are facing something that's coming against you, and you're right in the middle. When you're in the middle, where do you go? Turn around, go back? Well, you've gone too far to do that. But you keep going forward, and there's still something against you, and then you get all turned around, and you can't see the moon to navigate, the stars navigate by. And here they were, it's dark, cloudy. Fears seem to get magnified in the darkness. Have you noticed that? It's a whole lot easier to be afraid at night than it is to be there during the day, and a lot easier to be frayed in the dark than it is in the light. And here they were, struggling in a storm, and Jesus was on the mountain watching it all happen.

Now, he wasn't watching it with his natural eye. He was still a human. He didn't have supervision. He couldn't see, you know, four or five miles out into the middle of the lake from where he was, and physically see them in the middle of a storm. But he was God manifest in the flesh, and he could see where they were. And he was on the mountain praying. The lesson we get from that is that Jesus sees where we are, and he prays for us in our most difficult time. The disciples could not see Jesus, but the good news was that he could see them. When you're going through a dark struggle, you may look around and say, "Where are you, Lord?" But he knows right where you are, and he cares about where you are.

In our world today there's almost eight billion people. They may have bumped it over, I don't know. I don't know what — it's all estimates. Nobody's out there counting each head. It's all estimates as to how many are actually on the face of the earth. But we're around the 8 billion mark on this planet. And God, my God, thinks about me. He thinks about you. Not in general; specifically. And he knows exactly where you are. And as the psalmist said in Psalms 139, verses 17 and 18: "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you."

Well, you may be wondering, if Jesus really cared for the disciples, why did he bother sending them out into the storm? Why did he make them go through that? I got a question for you: Would you like to have a victory? You know what has to happen before a victory, right? It's got to be a fight of some sort, a struggle, a battle. You're not going to have a victory — these kind of victories — I, we were at the restaurant last night, and they had, I don't know, it's not WWF anymore, they can't call it that, it's WWE or whatever, it was going on one of the screens there in the restaurant. And it's so fake, it's just theater. Now, if you want to see a good fight, you watch something like the UFC, where it's real fighting. But what's always frustrating in any type of competition, whether it be fighting or something else: if you've got a champion that is supposed to defend their champion belt and they can't fight, so they vacate the belt, and the belt is assigned to someone else that never fought for it to win it. They're just kind of a lame duck champion, waiting for an actual time to prove themselves worthy of wearing that championship belt. It's not a victor. They got it by default. I don't want my victories to be that way, I just had them handed to me. But to have a victory, I've got to go through a fight, have to struggle, have to make it through. Then it means something.

So why did he let them go across in the storm that he knew was coming? It was so that they could have a story to tell and a victory in their life. He made them get into the boat. Jesus does not pray for us to avoid the storms of life, but he prays that we'll make it through that storm and come out on the other side. Hebrews chapter 7, verse number 25, says: "Consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Jesus lives to make intercession for us. So he may allow us, and may even send us, into some struggles. But he's watching. He's praying. He's on the mountain. But he doesn't stay there.

And that brings us to scene number two: Jesus walking on the water. Now, I had to scour and try to find a picture of someone walking on the water. It's not one of those that I could just go, "Okay, you take my picture while I walk on the water, and I'll just use that for my slide." It doesn't work that way. And I know this isn't really accurate, because it's daytime and it doesn't fit with the story, but this is the only picture I found in the time that I was researching of someone walking on the water. And probably supposed to be Jesus, I guess. He's the only one that can. So it's not completely accurate, but it kind of portrays what we're talking about: Jesus walking on the water.

He did something more than just watch them and pray for them, but he came to their aid. He walked on the surface of the water to do it. Now, we find this story also told in Matthew. And in Matthew's account of this miracle, Jesus arrives at the boat and Peter says, "If that really is you, bid me to come." And the Lord said, "Okay, come." And Peter gets out of the boat and takes a few steps on the water miraculously, and then he sees the problems and the struggle and the storm, and he starts sinking, and the Lord had to reach out and grab him and save him. Why is that not mentioned here in Mark? Why did they get left out? Well, if you've read about how the gospels were written, Mark was not one of the disciples, so he wasn't there. He didn't see it happen. It wasn't his account. But Mark wrote down what Peter had told him, maybe even dictate it to him. Whoa, why did Peter leave that out? There's multiple reasons, but two of them that I could readily come up with is: it could be embarrassing. "Well, you know, yeah, I took a couple steps, but then I started sinking, and let's just leave that part out. It doesn't look too good on my resume." Or maybe it was the other way around. If you, if you know anything about Peter's story, he was always the, the one cr quick to act and say things before thinking and do things before thinking, and this was another case of that. But he had kind of mellowed with age, and he, he could have said, "Well, look, you know, I did walk a couple steps on the water, but let's, let's leave that out, because it might sound like I'm bragging, and so let's not talk about it." I don't know. What if you really are that worried about it? Well, just make sure you make it to heaven. You can corner Peter somewhere on one of the streets of gold and ask him for yourself, you know what, "Why did you not let Mark write that in?" That I don't know.

But there are skeptics that scoff and say, you know, Jesus wasn't really walking on the water. They were close to the edge and he was walking on the bank. It's just foggy, and they could — I don't need to know Greek or Hebrew or any other language to tell you what I think about that: baloney. He walked on the water. He came to where they were in the middle of their greatest fear and said, "It's me. I'm here. Do not be afraid."

Let's go back to that dark, stormy night. Jesus walked by at the fourth watch of the night. Now, if you know how the, the Jewish watch system works, their day works, their day starts at 6 pm I know that's still in effect, because I like to buy things from B H, and they don't sell from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday, because they're Jewish and that's their Sabbath. So you can look, you can browse the website, but you can't purchase anything. You got to wait till 6 pm on Saturday. And at 6:00 pm begins the first, first watch, which goes to 9 p.m. Then the second watch goes to midnight, and the third watch goes to 3 a.m., and the 4th watch begins 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. So fourth watch of the night, after 3 a.m. They've been out there since sometime the evening before, before it got dark. They've been out in the water in the storm all night long, and they're only about halfway across, being tossed by the waves. And then this ghost comes, getting ready to walk by them, and they cry out. And Jesus says, "Hey, guys, it's me. You guys need to chill just a little bit and cheer up. Calm down. I'm here. Just 12 hours ago we've finished feeding how many thousands of people from a small boy's lunch, and don't you think I've got control of it all? What are you freaked out about? Why are you so afraid?" Maybe they were slow learners, because they didn't understand the lesson of the loaves, as the Scripture said.

Can you remember a time in your life that you were so afraid you didn't think you were going to make it? Jesus is ready to walk on water for you too, walk right into the situation of your life and take care of that situation, if you'll trust in him.

Which brings us to scene number three: Jesus calms the storm. They're out there, middle of the night, boat being tossed to and fro by the waves, and raining, and lightning and thunder, and they were terrified. Fear can be a powerful and destructive force. I, I would — I'm not a betting man, but I would be willing to bet there's probably a few of you in here that kind of have this warped sense of humor like I have, that every once in a while when you're on Facebook and those little videos pop up (and maybe I watch too many of them, because they pop up too often on mine) of people scaring other people, and the reaction that people have when they get scared — they'll do some of the dumbest things, and they actually, their reaction because of fear is a lot more dangerous than what they were afraid of. None of you are like that, but I get a laugh out of that.

The disciples were in the storm. Fear filled their minds. They were terrified. And Jesus prophesied in Luke chapter 21, verse number 26: "Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth."

We were driving the other day and had news radio on, and I had to end up turning that off, because it's — I mean, even the good ones like Fox News — just propagating the fear now. Like, I, I got enough of that. I don't, I don't need it amplified and turned up to the next level and hit again and again and again and again. Yeah, there's things to be afraid of. I'm still a little bit worried that before we get on the plane Thursday to head back to Madagascar, there's going to be an announcement that France is no longer expecting American citizens to fly through their borders, or Madagascar is going to say, "We're closing down again." That's very real. It could happen. But I'm not going to live in fear over it. Fear will make you do strange things, irrational things.

Let me lighten this up a little bit. There's a story about a hitchhiker in Spain. Now it's a story; I don't know if it's real. It could be real, may not be real. It doesn't really matter. Just listen to the story. The hitchhiker was standing on the side of road, hitchhiking, and a truck stopped to pick him up. Now in the back of the truck, the bed of the truck, was a newly built casket. And so the truck driver said, "You're welcome to ride back there if you want to." The guy said, "Well, I want to get where I'm going to go, so I'm not afraid of a casket. I'll get in, I'll get in the back of the truck and ride." So he got in the back of the truck and rode. And then it started raining. Well, he didn't want to get wet, so he opened up the casket, crawled into the casket, laid in the casket, and proceeded to go to sleep. A little farther down the road the truck stopped and picked up some more hitchhikers. It stopped raining, but the guy was sound asleep. He didn't know what was going on. And finally he woke up, and it was time to get out of the casket. There we go. He got a little bit of warp sense of humor just like me. I would have loved to have seen the video of them jumping out of a truck moving 50-something miles an hour down the road, because that's what happened. You see somebody open up a casket and start to get out, you're going to freak out too.

The disciples cried out. And the Bible says, when Jesus climbed into the boat with them, the storm ceased. It stopped. And in Matthew's account, they began to worship him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." Take a look at their fear. They were afraid the boat was going to sink and they were going to drown. They are afraid of going into the water, and the water going into them. That would be it. But do not miss this important truth: the thing that they were afraid of at that moment, that water, where was it, was under his feet. The thing that they were afraid of, he was taking a stroll on. And he was going to pass them by. Any problem, anything that's over my head, is already under his feet.

Ephesians chapter one, beginning with verse number 19: "And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, and not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."

You might say, "Well, that's nice, but I'm down here in the middle of this mess." Well, if you're in Jesus, the next chapter, Ephesians chapter 2, verse number 6, says: "And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Where am I? Well, right now I'm standing in the pulpit of Center Point, Murfreesboro. Where are you? Some of you are seated here in the congregation. Some of you are watching online. You're wherever you are. But that's not the where I'm talking about. Where are you spiritually? Physically, yes, we might be where we're at. But spiritually, if you have received the Holy Ghost, if you have received Jesus in you, then you should not be so afraid of what's going on around you, because if Jesus is in you, then you're seated with him in heavenly places.

Now, Paul in his writings and his epistles, he uses 70 times, over 70 times, he makes the first, uses the phrase "in Christ." Now, I know it's very popular for the Christian world of today, and I'm afraid it's kind of seeped its way into the apostolic Pentecostal world as well: people seem to use Christ way more than they use Jesus nowadays. Now, it's not an error, it's not wrong, but I want to let you know: his name is Jesus. You'll call his name Jesus. Christ is the English translation of the Greek term, which means the same thing as the Hebrew term for Messiah, or the anointed one. That is who he is, but it's not his name. But it's not incorrect to use the term "in Christ" or "Christ," because Paul uses it. And so he says "in Christ," talking about us being in Christ, over 70 times.

When we say that we're "Christ in us, filled with the Holy Ghost, filled with his Spirit, Christ in us," that talks about power: "You'll receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses," so on and so on. But when we say "in Christ," that talks about position. We're in him. And if we're in him, and we're seated with him in heavenly places, that should mean that our perspective has changed. You can take a coin, even the smallest coin, a dime, and it's all about perspective. You can blot out the sun with just a dime. But does that mean the dimes bigger than the sun? Not even close. It's all about perspective. So if we're in him, our way of looking at things should be the way he looks at things. And the way he looks at things, this problem that has you all freaked out, it's under his feet. He's just taking a walk. So we should not live in fear. Do not be afraid.

Now you can choose to keep looking at it from your perspective, but if you're in him, look at it from his perspective. And the message that he sent me here to tell you today: do not be afraid.

Remember when you were a child and you thought your dad could do anything? He was Superman. I'm glad my daughter still thinks I'm Superman, I can do anything. Kind of proved I wasn't this weak, as you get off one of them roller coasters. And roller coasters aren't nearly as fun at 51 as they were in your teens and early 20s, and even up into your 30s. And I'm like, "Okay, that's enough for me. I'm gonna let you all keep going, and I won't find a bench to sit on."

But when your father was there, it didn't matter what was going on. It didn't matter what was coming your way. You weren't afraid. And if we're in the proper position with Jesus, it shouldn't really matter what's happening around us. Whatever threatens us, it's just really not that frightening. "Hey, I've got him by my side. I'm in him. He's in me. I am not afraid." Your perspective determines the size of the problem. When you recognize that you are in Jesus Christ and you're able to see your problems from his perspective, it all changes.

John chapter 16, verse number 33, says: "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world." Where are you? Are you in him? Is he in you? If neither of those are true, it can start that way today. He can be in you when you receive his Spirit. You can be in him when you put on Christ. And your life can change, and all those things that were so frightening before don't seem all that frightening anymore, as long as you stay in the proper place.

Now, as I was preparing, I came across a graphic. And I can't use these kind of things in Madagascar, because it doesn't work. It's playing on the letters of fear. Well, fear in Madagascar is not F-E-A-R. It's tautra, T-A-H-O-T-R-A. Now be a long phrase to make that one work, and I don't know if it would work. But in English, fear, you have two choices, two meanings. You can forget everything and run — and that's some people's natural reaction when they're afraid, is just to run without thinking — or you can face everything and rise. I liked it, so I stole it. Got that off the internet. There are some good things there. But ultimately the choice is yours. But Jesus is telling you today: make the right choice. Do not be afraid.

As we begin this year, 2022 — somebody was playing on that in a podcast I was listening to, and even just the fact that you can play around with it kind of makes you worry a little bit, you know. We started 20 20, 20 20 vision, you know, we got all this kind of cool stuff. March rolls around, it all turns upside and down. We get rid of 2020 and was like, "Okay, we got a new year." And then it says 2021, W-O-N, 2020 won. I don't like that message, but it kind of seems that 2021 was 2020 part two. So now we finished 2021 and we're going into 2020 two. This is a song that will not end, T-O-O. I rebuke that. The world can do whatever it wants to do, but I'm not going to live in fear. I am not going to let fear control me in what I do.

As I told the MIT this morning, I wasted a lot of 2020 thinking it's almost over. The way they did it, Madagascar, it was two weeks. I got so tired of two weeks, waiting to see what the next two weeks would hold. And you get to the end of two weeks, "Okay, what's the announcement going to be?" And more of the same. So you wait two more weeks. I think it's almost over, and then more of the same. Weight two. And wasted 20 20, two weeks at a time. 2021, we were able to do some things, just not everything we wanted to do. And like my wife said, we accomplished things that we would not have accomplished have it, had it not been for COVID. But 2022, I've had enough of all that mess. I'm ready to see something happen. I'm ready to see altars filled once again with people seeking the Holy Ghost. They're in our conference center in Madagascar. I can't wait. I'm not going to live in fear.

Next week we'll be making our plans for this year. And even although there are restrictions that we'll have to follow, we're going to follow the least that we have to. I told our board, I said, "I'm ready just to say, open it up, do whatever you want to do. They can come lock us up if they want to, but we're going to have church. People are going to get saved."

But as you heard Sister Ashley tell you this morning, even 2020, with months of no church, there were still over 14,000 people filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I can't wait to hear what 2021 had. I'm sure there were more than that, because we had church most of the year, even if it was limited. And 2022, I expect record numbers, in Madagascar, in Murfreesboro, because that is his will. It's not his will for us to be afraid. But victory is mine. Victory is yours, if you refuse to live in fear.

So a simple message, nothing real deep and theological today: do not be afraid. Can we stand to our feet? I invite you, if you want to just spend a little bit of time around the altar, make a commitment to the Lord this morning. Say, "Lord, I've let fear kind of control me a little bit too much over the past almost two years now, but I make a commitment today, Lord, that I'm not gonna let it control me anymore. I'm not gonna live in — I'm yours. You're mine. You're in control. You will do what you want to do, and I'm going to follow right along, because I'm not going to live in fear anymore. Not in 2022."

Let's just go to the Lord. "Thank you, Jesus." I think it'd be good if we spend a little time in prayer, if you're comfortable with that, if you're going to come down to the altar area, or if you want to pray where you are. But let's pray that God takes that spirit of fear away from us. He's going to be God. And I think it's time for the church to be the church. We're not going to live in fear, but we're going to keep pushing forward with our mission here. But church, let's spend some time in prayer today.