Turn your Bibles, if you would, to II Timothy chapter 1. We've been looking at some of the great words of the Bible, and we've looked at the sweetest word in the Bible, the word grace. We've talked about the costliest word in the Bible, and that's the word redemption. We talked about the most agonizing word in the Bible this morning, and that's the cross. And tonight I want us to look at the most paralyzing word in the Bible. Look in your Bible, 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7. Notice the Bible said, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear. Do you realize that fear will paralyze us? It will. That it can so affect our lives that we stop living life. That we just give up on life. That we allow fear to so enslave us and put us in bondage. We're afraid to go out of our houses. We're afraid to breathe. We're afraid to go here or to go there because of some situation or circumstance in our life. And I believe that Satan has worked through this current crisis and he has placed upon us as Americans a spirit of Now, I believe there's a difference between caution and fear. We're going to look at that here in just a moment. I can be cautious but not fearful. There's a difference. And we're going to look at that. Notice the Bible says, "...for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and wisdom." and of love and of a sound mind. I want to talk to us tonight about how to deal with fear. Father, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for the sweet spirit of Your people, Lord, as they've gathered around their... telephone to listen or maybe their computer or phone or whatever to be able to view the service. Lord, I believe that you have something for us tonight. I pray that we would tune in to you. that we would let You speak to our hearts and challenge us from Your Word. I pray, Father, that as we look into the Bible that You have answers for our fears, and I'm thankful for that. Help us, Lord, to put Your Word to work in our lives that it might deliver us from the spirit of fear that Satan wants to enslave us with and paralyze us with. And Lord, I pray that You might release us from that as we're obedient to You, and we'll thank You for it. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Well, we're looking at this matter about fear, the most paralyzing word in the Bible, this matter of fear. And the Bible has a lot to say about fear. I began looking up how many times fear was used in the Bible, and I found the word fear Fear and one of its derivatives is used nearly 400 times in the Bible. The word afraid is used 189 times in the Bible. So really, over 589 times God deals with this matter of being fearful, having fear, being afraid, the fears of life. God has something to say about fear. Now, fear is simply a fact of everyday life, but not all fear is bad fear. Did you know that? There is a fear that is healthy, it's productive. As a matter of fact, there's some good fear. We would use the word caution. Also, fear in our own lives. How about the fear of God? Boy, I tell you what, that's a good place to start, isn't it? I believe if we have a fear of God, it's going to take care of the wrong kind of fears in our lives. Listen to Deuteronomy 6, verse 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him. Now, the fear of the Lord doesn't have the idea of cringing before God. It's not the idea of being afraid of God in that sense, but it's bowing before Him in a reverential awe. It's God. and I'm being so caught up with God and having a love and respect of the awesomeness of my God that it moves me that I have a fear of the Lord. I believe it's the natural response of faith to the awesomeness and the greatness and the magnificence and the matchlessness of our great God. Fearing the Lord and loving the Lord go hand in hand. Somebody said the person who fears Him most loves Him best. I'm reminded of a young teenage girl that was being egged on by her friends to partake of some type of alcoholic beverage for the very first time. And she kept telling them no and turning them away and all of that. And one of them began to mock her and snidely remark. She said, what's the matter? Are you afraid your daddy's going to find out and hurt you? She said, no. She said, I'm afraid that my dad will find out that I drank it and it'll hurt him. You see, I believe the fear of the Lord is not being afraid of God hurting me, but a fear of me hurting the heart of my God. You see, the fear of the Lord has a way of keeping us close to Him. The Bible said, "...by fear of the Lord men depart from evil." For him, when I love God, I believe Joseph of old. When Potiphar's wife made advances toward him in a very seductive manner to cause him to commit fornication and sin against the God of heaven, he said, How can I sin and do this great wickedness before God? He said, listen, nobody in the house may not know it, Potiphar may not know it, but God will know it. See, that's the fear of the Lord. It's a good fear. It's a healthy fear. I believe it's something that will keep us from that that's destructive spiritually in our lives. You see, one of the problems I believe in our world today and why our nation is so upside down is because there's no fear of God before their eyes. I believe we just ought to have a fear of the Lord. Proverbs 19.23, The fear of the Lord tendeth to life. Proverbs 10.27, The fear of the Lord prolongeth days. Now we're moving into what we would understand as a sense of caution. that can protect and preserve our lives. You say, preacher, are you afraid of the virus? No. But I'm cautious that I don't want to be sick. You don't want to be sick. I want to follow whatever guidelines. I don't want to be reckless with my life. I don't want to do that. But that's no different than somebody saying, that they lack speed and they break the speed limit and they're running 100 miles an hour down the highway. Friend, listen, that's reckless with their life. I believe there ought to just be a sense of caution. When I fear God, I will have a sense of caution in my heart. And God has built into us that sense of caution that would keep us from being reckless with our lives, our family, our future. As a matter of fact, it is that caution that will keep us from getting too close to the edge of a cliff. I'll never forget. I was visiting Nicaragua in the middle of the mid-90s and the missionary told me, he said, I want you to go up. We're going to look at a live active volcano. And so we went up there and we hiked up through this area and come to the top of a mountain and we come to this big crater. I mean, there wasn't any guardrails. I mean, there was nothing there. I mean, you just was looking down into an active volcano, and I'm just going to tell you, I didn't get too close to the edge. I had a few folks with us, they were leaning over it, taking pictures. I said, listen, I stuck my camera, I stayed as far as my little T-Rex arms. would reach over that thing and take a picture of it. You know what I'm saying? And bring that thing and put it in my notebook. But I'm just telling you, hey, I wasn't going to get too close to the edge. You say, why? Because I love my wife and she needed me and I wanted to get back home to her. That's why I didn't want to do that. That's caution. Caution. Young man, young lady, you ought to have some caution in your life. Did you know that? ought to do that. Keep us from doing foolish things. You know, it helps us put the cell phone away while we're driving down the highway or whatever. Just good, smart, common sense caution that God's built into us. Many years ago a president, Franklin Roosevelt, said, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and that's simply not true. as long as there are things out there that can harm our lives and the lives of those we love, that we have something to fear in a cautious manner. But you see, while there may be good caution in the fear of the Lord, that's not what God's talking about in this verse. He's talking about a paralyzing fear. He's talking about the spirit of fear. Notice again in our text verse tonight, "...for God hath not given us the spirit of fear." There is a difference between having caution, between experiencing some fear from time to time, and being controlled by a spirit. of fear. The spirit of fear is the controlling power of fear. The spirit of fear can take over our lives and dominate our minds in such a way that God never intended. One of the things that I learned from this verse of truth is that God does not give us a spirit of fear. That if you're overtaken with a spirit of fear that it's dominating you and controlling you and paralyzing you, that didn't come from God. That didn't come from God. Notice that 1 John 4, 8, the Bible said, Fear hath torment. That means it can victimize and neutralize and monopolize and paralyze our lives. It crowds into our minds and it pushes out legitimate thoughts and right thoughts and it begins to dominate our thinking and it can distract us mentally. It will destroy us emotionally and it will defeat us spiritually. It's these kinds of hurtful fears that are handling us when we ought to handle them. Now the word fear in our verse comes from a word, we get our English word phobia. Dictionary catalogs over 700 different kinds of phobias that people have. There is acrophobia, which is the fear of heights. There is the claustrophobia, the fear of tight spaces. There's demophobia, that's the fear of crowds. There's phobophobia, The fear of fear. Everyone experiences fear at different times. Financial fears, marital fears, parental fears, fear of sickness, disease, tragedy, death, and even fear of the uncertainty of the future. And these fears, for the most part, come and go. They don't dominate us. But when we face crises in our lives, or we allow fear to begin to take hold of us, and it grips us, that is the spirit of fear. that immobilizes us and enslaves us and it paralyzes us and it keeps us from God's best in our life. It brings us to a standstill, and that's when fear becomes a destructive force that God never intended in our lives. Friend, I'm just going to tell you, it's clear from the Word of God that God is not the source of such fears, and that Satan uses the paralyzing grip of fear in your life or my life to neutralize us and paralyze us spiritually. It becomes a great deterrent in our lives. As a matter of fact, it will keep people from doing what God wants them to do, from being what God wants them to be, from experiencing God's best in their lives. As a matter of fact, He wants to rob you of life. Can I just tell you that when you're obsessed with fear, it'll smother the joy of Jesus out of your life. There are some folk that they're so caught up with. And I'm just going to tell you, if all you're doing is taking in a diet of news headlines, minute after minute, hour after hour, glued to it, reading everything you read, listening to everything in the community. I'm just going to tell you, it's not going to be long that a spirit of fear can take control of your life and your thinking. and it will dominate your thoughts. And before long, you're more concerned with that than your God and your family and life itself. It'll keep you from experiencing God's best and the showering of His blessings upon you. Let me just say this, and it's worth jotting down. When you focus on fear, you forget about God. Can I say that again? When you focus on fear, you forget about God. And friend, can I tell you, God is the answer to our fears, isn't He? I want to give you some... You say, preacher, I've been battling the spirit of fear. I want to give you some thoughts tonight. And I know I spent a lot of time on the introduction just talking about fear and what it is and how it works and the spirit of fear that can so dominate us to the point that it controls our life. That we become a fearful person. And that we live in constant fear of things. And friend, God never... That's enslaving. That's bondage. And God never intended you and me to live that way. Let me give you some answers for your fears tonight. How to deal with fear. That most paralyzing word in the Bible. Number one, admit your fear. Admit your fear. Just voice it. Just say it. Too often we want to hide it. I'm not saying you need to put it on social media and say, hey everybody, here's what I'm afraid of. But just be honest with yourself, honest with God and say, God, I am controlled with the spirit of fear. It is dominating my thinking. It's robbed me of the blessings of life. It's keeping me from your best in life. God, it's controlling me to the point that I have anxiety and nervousness and depression, and it's just, God, it's overwhelmed me. I'm glad, friend, that when life overwhelms you, it can't overwhelm Him. I'm glad that, listen, when the waves are over our head, they're under His feet. Amen? But just a minute, that's what David did. Psalm 56 verse 3 is a great verse. David said, What time I am afraid. Do you know the most spiritual man in the Bible? A man after God's own heart dealt with fear. You see, sometimes we're afraid to admit it. We just sort of close ourselves off. We just try to shrink back away and we disassociate ourselves from those who are closest to us and we begin to draw back in fear and allow it to control us and grip us. And David said, what time I'm afraid. Hey, there's times all of us are afraid. But I don't have to let fear dominate me. I begin by the admission of the fact that I'm fearful. I begin to confess that fearfulness to God because I can promise you that if fear is dominating me and controlling me, the Spirit of God is not controlling me at that moment. So David said, what time I am afraid. But then not only do I need to admit my fear next, I need to activate my faith. Now you know what? This is sort of like unless you're left-handed, for you that would be doing this right-handed, but I'm naturally right-handed. So sometimes when we begin to obey principles, when fear has overwhelmed us, we're giving in the spirit of fear, after a while we let that define us. We let that label us of who we are. And that's not who we are. Because God didn't give me that. Okay? That's not what God gave me. Alright? I recognize that. I admit it, but I don't accept that, that that's who and what I have to remain. That may be what I am for that moment, but thank God, in Jesus, I don't have to stay that way. There's an answer. Amen? I can be set free just as He can set me free from sin and this and that. He can set me free from my fears. But it's going to take some obedience. And when I begin to activate my faith, it's like riding with my left hand. It may feel awkward at first. But when I begin to apply Bible principles to my life, it's not long that that begins to define me. That's what begins to feel natural. That begins to control how I feel. You see, what it is, is you're letting feelings control you and not faith control you. And that's the difference. God's answer for my fears is faith. Listen to what David said in Psalm 56 verse 3. He said, What time I am afraid, I will. trust in Thee." He didn't say, I might trust in Thee. He didn't say, I could trust in Thee. He said, I will. That is a determination. That is saying, I'm going to do the opposite of what I feel. I'm not going to let this control me. I'm not going to live my life this way. I'm not going to allow Satan to use fear to paralyze me in life. God, when fear begins to try to grip and take its icy hand and grip my life, I will trust in You. I'm going to trust You, God. Somebody said fear lives next door to faith. Fear and faith fight for the mastery of the soul. When you focus on your fears, I said this earlier, you forget about your God. But when you focus on your God, now watch this, you forget about your fears. You say, Preacher, I just don't have faith. Let me tell you how you get faith as a Christian. You say, Preacher, how do I get that? You get it from this book called the Bible. The Bible said that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. You see, many times when fear is gripping me on the inside, that means that this Bible, this book, is not filling my heart and my mind. I'm not pondering. I'm not spending time in the Word of God. I'm not activating and growing my faith. One of the best things that you can do to dispel thoughts of fear and thoughts of anxiety and thoughts of depression is to begin to fill your heart and your mind with the Word of God. You say, Preacher, how can I do that? Write down Scripture. I mean, just start in Psalm 1. Get you a notebook. And when fear begins to grip you, just start writing the Word of God. It'll amaze you how God will begin to minister to your heart, how His Word will get inside of you. You say, Preacher, I'll be writing the Bible all the time. I tell you what, it ain't going to hurt anybody. It's a pretty good prescription. But you're going to find that when fear begins to grip you, why don't you get a grip on your fears by allowing the Word of God to get in your heart and life. And you see, so often what we want to do is just go cringe in a corner when God said, I want you to get hold of My book, I want you to get hold of My truth, I want you to live out your faith in Me because I'm in control of your life. That's what He's saying. Can I remind you, God hath not given us the spirit of fear. One of the first things I do when I admit my fear is I activate my faith and I say, God, this isn't from you. This is not what you've ordered for my life. This is not how you want me to live. God, you have something better for me. Do you know what God says more than anything else in His Word? Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. You know over a hundred times God tells His children to not be afraid. I want us to look at a wonderful verse tonight. Turn to your Bibles. Hold your place here. Turn to the Old Testament book of Isaiah. This verse no doubt has been floating through social media. Probably many of you in some form or some fashion have seen it, read it. But I want to draw your attention to it tonight. I want to spend just a little bit of time with it. Isaiah chapter 41 and verse number 10. Every Christian, if I was to start somewhere of writing the Word of God and getting in my heart, I would write this verse till I memorized it. Till it was a part of me. Notice Isaiah 41 and verse number 10. Fear thou not. There it is. Did you know God didn't say it would be a good idea if you quit being afraid? God didn't say, I'm just making a suggestion and give you a little bit of advice. Don't be afraid. No, God's commanding you, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Fear not. Fear thou not. Don't be afraid. Now here's why, okay? For I am with thee. You see, number one, I admit my fear. I'm battling fear. I just come to grips with it. God, I admit fears. Here's what my fears are. Lord, I know it's not right. I've got the spirit of fear in my life. I confess that to You as a sin. I've allowed this fear to crowd out faith and crowd out You and to crowd out the things of God, to crowd out my family, to crowd out right thinking. I've allowed it to paralyze me, Lord, and You want to mobilize me. So I admit at what time I'm afraid. That's what David did. Then he activated his faith. I will trust in thee. Why? Because God hath not, Paul said, given us the spirit of fear. It didn't come from God. So thirdly, I acknowledge my Father. Fear thou not. Why? God says, for I am with thee. Can I tell you I don't have to be afraid? Because God, He said I am. That is in the present tense. He didn't say He might be with me. He didn't say He'd be with me some of the time, part of the time, most of the time. Thank God He's with me all the time. God said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Friend, I don't have to feel Him to know He's there. God has promised I am with thee. Why don't you claim that promise tonight? Friend, if God's for you, nothing can be against you. He said, fear thou not for I am with thee, be not dismayed. That word, because when I am full of fear, it brings dismay in my life. What happens is I become, we get alarmed to the point we panic. That word dismayed means to break down in courage. It means to lose heart to the point that I am drained. I can't function, I'm dismayed. I become to the point that life is overwhelming. I don't even know how to live it anymore. He said, Be not dismayed. Why? For I am thy God. You know what some of us need to do? We need to quit looking out and start looking up. Well, preacher, I tried that and I don't feel any different. Why are you wanting to live by your feelings rather than by your faith? Why do you want to let your feelings dominate and dictate rather than letting your faith dominate and dictate? You see, you're being a victim of your feelings of fear rather than being a victor by faith in God. And friend, I'm just telling you that God has something better for you. He said, I want you to admit it. I want you to activate your faith and then I want you to acknowledge that I'm your God and I want you to live like it. For I am thy God. Friend, listen. It's one thing for me to say, He's my God. It's something else for God to say, I'm your God. For God to claim me. It's one thing for me to claim God. It's something else when God claims me. I will strengthen thee. Do you realize that there is a strength outside of ourselves that God has given us to live life with? That means that, friend, whether I feel like it or not, I can either be fearful or faith-filled. I can be fearful and I can shrink back. I can let Satan rob me of life. Or I can by faith forget my fears and in spite of my fears take the next step and say, God, I'm trusting You. You'll strengthen me. You'll enable me. That word strengthen means to empower. It means to embolden. It means to enable. Friend, when we begin to live out God's Word, He releases His power in us to live life successfully for Him. Notice this next phrase, Yea, I will help thee. Wow! That word help is more than just the idea of rescue. It's the idea of succor. It's the idea of me coming to God and God gives me that that I need. God said, I'm going to help you. Friend, listen, I have a helper in life. I may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. You say, preacher, I don't think I can be what I ought to be. I don't think I can be the wife I ought to be. I don't think I can be the husband I ought to be. I don't think I can be the Christian I ought to be. I don't think I can do this. Friend, let me just tell you, friend, in Him you can. We need to quit saying, I can't, and start saying, in Him I can. Why? Because I can do all things, not some things, not most things, but all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I'm living on a different level for Him. Listen, for the moment you got saved, I don't have to live life on this lower plane. I can live life on a different plane because I have Him. I'll help thee. Listen to this, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteous. You know what that means? That means God has my hand. The right hand in Scripture is the hand of power. It's the hand of strength. It's the hand of stability. He said, I'll uphold thee. I like that. I thought about this when I thought about He's my God. He's my shield. He's my rock. He's my refuge. He's my high tower. He's the one who strengthens me and helps me and upholds me with the right hand of His righteousness. The psalmist said that a righteous man may fall seven times, but he'll not be utterly cast down. The Lord holdeth him up. Friend, there may be times I trip and stumble, but I'm glad God holds me by my hand, aren't you? I thought about that. You know, when our children are little, they'll come to us. I need to stay still. I'm starting to move around a little bit too much. Let me get back over here and stay still. That way they don't have to chase me around, alright? And let me just mention that When we hold our children's hand, a lot of times they'll take our hand and they'll put their little hand in our hand. You know, it doesn't always fit. And I know what I used to and I know what a lot of parents do. We're getting ready to cross a busy highway. Here's caution. Okay. And there's the caution because we're fearful that little child may pull away or their little hand may slip out of our hand. And we'll reach down below their hand and grab them by the little wrist. And oh, they'll be walking along and they might sort of stumble, but you know what? They don't actually fall. Why? Because I'm holding them up. The parent's holding them up. And friend, there's times that I walk through life and there's times I stumble. There's times I might lose my footing, but friend, God said, I'm upholding you. Hey, I'm glad I'll never fall in Him, aren't you? Isn't that a blessing tonight? Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Now I want you to notice that little word yea. You know what that means? Yes. Yes. God said, don't be afraid, because I'm with you. Don't be dismayed. Don't dishearten. Don't lose courage. I'm your God. I will strengthen thee. Yes. I will help thee. In that moment when you need me, I'll help you. Yes, I'll uphold you. You may trip. You may stumble. But I'm holding you, dear child of God. Friend, listen, let's just be safe in His hand. Amen? Thank God. Acknowledge my Father. Now notice what He's given me back in II Timothy 1 and verse 7. Instead of fear, let me show you what God's given you. This is yours. Okay? The spirit of fear is not mine. That's not of God. But here's what God's given me as a birthright of His child. Three precious gifts in this verse. Alright, you ready? He's given me, number one, the power to conquer my fears. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power." That word power speaks of a power that's inherent in the Christian. You say, but preacher, I feel so powerless against my fears. Friend, it's not your power, it's God's power. Greater is He that's in you than He that's in the world. God isn't just with me, He is in me. And God is greater than my fears, and therefore I'm to face and fight my fears in His power and not my power. Let me give you a couple of verses to write down. Psalm 27 verse 1, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? You know what he's saying? When God is for me, pray tell, what can be against me? You say, preacher, that virus is out there. Friend, listen, the worst that virus can do to any child of God is take our body. It can never take our soul and our birthright in Jesus. But the reality of it is that God can keep us. I'm not saying that that means that if I trust God I'm never going to get sick, that nothing bad is ever going to happen in my life. I can't live life that way. I just need to live life every day trusting the Lord to care for me and love me, to be cautious in the ways I need to be cautious, to be obedient to the Word of God, to fear Him and place the rest in His hands because it's out of my control and He's in control. And boy, I tell you what, such freedom in living life. I'm reminded of the great Stonewall Jackson who was a great Christian. And he was on the battlefield and one of his lieutenants came to him and he said, General, he said, how is it that you can have such peace in the midst of the battle? How is it that you can seemingly be untouched by all that's going on and seemingly impervious to the bullets and the cannons and the gunfire and everything? How is it? And he said, here's what he said, he said, my religion taught me to feel as safe in battle as I do in bed. God has determined the time of my departure. I need not worry about it. I need not trouble myself with that matter." He said, I just leave it with Him. Isn't that amazing? Friend, he said if men would equally trust God, all men would be equally brave. Isn't that amazing? Just let God take control of your life. Trust Him. Listen to Psalm 34 verse 7. The angel of the Lord encampeth, that means he encircles round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. You see, the fear of the Lord removes all other fears. Friend, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. God has given us the power to face, fight, and vanquish our fears. Somebody said the man who can kneel before God can stand before anything. I want you to jot this down. Glance at your fears, but gaze at your God. Glance at your fears, but gaze at your God. He's given me power to conquer my fears. Now watch this. And of love. He's given me love to calm my fears. Jot down I John 4.18 in the margin of your notes or your Bible. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. Now the perfect love here is not my love for God, but God's love for me. Romans 5 says, The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. I am to keep myself in the love of God. I have an all-wise and loving Heavenly Father that cares for my life and calms my fears. Nothing is going to catch my God by surprise. I was blessed this morning before I ever came to church. I was watching the morning news and I was looking at some health care, showing a video clip of some health care workers on top of Vanderbilt Hospital as they were gathering together in prayer before God as they went into the front lines of battling this unseen enemy. in our land. And you know what? They could be fearless because they were trusting, they were faith-filled in their God. And friend, listen, God loves me. You say, well preacher, there's times that bad things happen. Absolutely, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't love me. That doesn't mean that God's not in control. You know there's times that God closes one door just to open another door to blessing. I don't always understand it. I don't always comprehend it. But friend, listen, God, if He closes one door, He's opening another door that's a hallway or a pathway to greater blessing from Him. And that's what I need to look to and trust. When fear dominates us, it leaves no room for Christ to comfort us. When fear dominates us, it leaves no room for Christ to comfort us. And then notice, He's given me power to conquer my fears. Love to calm my fears. God loves me. He's in control. Nothing can harm me apart from God allowing something into my life. And if He does, He's going to give me the grace to see it through. Friend, He's going to sustain us. He's going to help us. He'll see us through. and then of a sound mind, and of a sound mind, a sound mind to confront my fears." That word sound mind literally means the saving of the mind or having a right mind or mindset. You know, it's interesting the other time this word sound mind is used, or phrase sound mind, it's used of the maniac of Gadara that had a legion of demons. And you remember how that he would come out of the tombs like a wild man? He had tried to terrorize the countryside. And they tried to bind him with chains and they couldn't and fetters and they couldn't. And he would run through the tombs and cut himself and scream and terrorize that community. And then Jesus came and He saw him afar off and He went running to him and He bowed before him. And the Lord cast the demons out of him and He saved him. You know what's interesting? The next scene you see this man who was a wild man the moment before. He was a man who was terrorizing the people around him. And here's what the Bible said. And he was sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind. Sound mind. Somebody said, well preacher, I just feel like I'm losing my mind. I'm afraid I'm losing my mind. You know, I've got good news for you. If you feel like or you're afraid you're losing your mind, that lets me know you're completely in control of your mind. People that have lost their minds don't even know it. They think they're in the right mind. Okay? And that's what we need to understand. We need a right mindset toward our fears. Much of what we are afraid of, even right now in this crisis, is not based on reality. Can I say that again? Much of what we're afraid of is not based on reality. Now I'm not saying a virus isn't real. I'm not saying that people aren't dying. I'm not saying that there's not some places in America that people are facing some very difficult and hard times and we need to pray for them. I'm not saying that at all. But if we're not careful, we'll allow the media and headlines and gossip and what we hear, we'll let it begin to so dominate our thinking and we'll begin to imagine things that aren't real. Did you know that? Or we'll begin to fear things that will probably never happen in our lives. Did you know that? And we'll spend all of our time being controlled by that fear rather than just living my life in the peace and the calmness and the harmony that God can give me as I rely and rest in Him and His person and His truth because God has not given me the spirit of fear but of love a power to conquer it, love to calm it, and a sound mind to confront it. I want you to jot down Psalm 53 verse number 5. There were they in great fear where no fear was. No fear was. I remember when my children first got their license. Boy, that was a fearful time for me. I allowed the spirit of fear to get in my heart. I did. One of the biggest fears that I had was a police officer come knocking on my door to tell me that one of my children was in a car accident or maybe their life had been taken in a car accident. That was a great fear that I had when they first started driving. And I remember that every time I'd hear a siren, I'd be thinking, wondering if my child was coming from that direction. What time was it? What was I hearing? Oh no. And I began to allow that to dominate my thinking. It began to control me. It began to put a sense of panic in my heart every time. I was constantly concerned and fearful about that. So much so that it began to dominate my thinking. And I remember I was talking to my wife about it and she told me, she said, Honey, you're going to have to give your children to God. You can't control everything that goes on in their lives, honey. Give our children to God. He can take care of them. And no amount of fear, no amount of anxiety, no amount of worry that you have is going to solve or stop anything that may happen in anybody's life. You know, I began to think about what she said. That was one time that she became the preacher and I became the congregation. She gave me three points and gave the invitation and I walked down the aisle. And I remember a time when I just released my children to God. And I said, God, they're yours. I gave them to you when they were small. I'm giving them back to you now as they move into adulthood. And Lord, I can't protect them. I can't be with them everywhere they go. But God, you can. Would you put a hedge about them? Would you protect them? God, they're yours. And you know what? A sense of calm began to take hold of my heart. And it released those fears. because I began to trust in my God in an area that was out of my control. Christian, many things in life is out of our control, but it's not out of His control. And that's why I need to trust Him. In many instances, the icy hand of fear grips our hearts when there's nothing to be afraid of. Or that the fear is something built up in our mind and it's not reality. During times of fearfulness, God has not given us During times of fearfulness, God has given us a sound mind to enable us to analyze our fears in the light of His Word and see them for what they really are. You know, a lot of times we're just running from shadows. Did you know that? We are. Somebody said, fear not. Faith answered. And no one was there. Fear not. Faith answered. And no one was there. What time I'm afraid, David said, I will trust in thee. He voiced it. He said to all the world, there's times I'm afraid, but when I'm afraid, God, I just want you to know I'm trusting you. Isaiah 12 says, Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation. You know, one of the best ways to get rid of your fears is to sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord. You'll either live your life in the grip of fear or you'll live it in the power of faith. Charles Spurgeon said this, and I close, The past you need not fear, Christian, for it is forgiven you. The present you need not fear, for it is provided for you. And the future you need not fear, for it is secured by the living power of Jesus. God says that He's not given us the spirit of fear, but Christian, He's given you power and love. and a sound mind. Live in His power. Claim His love and let Him calm your mind and deliver you from fear and help you to live your life by faith. Let's pray together. Father, fear paralyzes us, but faith in You mobilizes us. Lord, there's times that we allow our fears to cause us to forget our God. Forgive us of that. Lord, I know that the uncertainty