Hello again and welcome to the program. We're here with a little strength for today. We're going to talk about fear. The word fear is in the Bible 400 times. The word fight is in the Bible 107 times. We need a fight against things that would cause us to be afraid. In 2nd Timothy 4, verse number 7, Paul said, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. He also said in 1st Timothy 6 and 12, Fight the good fight of faith, whereunto thou art also called. We're all familiar with the story of David and Goliath, as recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 17. Goliath would come out and challenge them to fight. And in verse number 11, we read, when Saul, that is King Saul, and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. As we said, the word fear is in the Bible 400 times. Feared, past tense is in the Bible 74 times. Fearing eight times. Feareth. 20 times and afraid 193 times. 63 times the Bible says fear not, it says neither be afraid three times, be not afraid 28 times. Well, the Bible says a lot about fear, but it also says a lot about faith. In 1 Samuel 17 verse 32, we read in David, little teenager, said to King Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go out and fight with this Philistine. Now David had some faith, while the army and King Saul were afraid. Also cowering in the cave was a man named Eliab. Verse 28 tells us Eliab was the eldest brother of David. And when he heard David speak unto the men, His anger was kindled against David. Now if you're going to have some faith, you're going to find somebody, and unfortunately it's going to be among the family, I mean the Christian family, in this case it was his actual family, who was against David and said, why comest thou hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and thy naughtiness of thine heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle." Well, that was not true. He came down there to bring his faithless brothers some food. But if you're going to stand and fight for the faith, you're going to have people, and unfortunately it's going to be Christians many times, that are going to be giving you a hard time. And so how should we handle these critics? Well, Sometimes it's a good idea to listen to them. Sometimes it's needed, like Galatians chapter 2 and verse 11, we read, But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. Sometimes it's just people who are criticizing you because they don't have enough faith to fight the good fight. And sometimes we need to listen carefully to our critics. And so concerning the subject of fear, we see that quite a bit in the Bible. It's a reality. But the next thing we see here is we need to fight against the fear. And in order to do that, we need to have faith like David did. We need to be aware of the faithless giving us a hard time. And also we see David's foundation for his faith, and that is in verse 37. We read David said, moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. He gives all the credit to the Lord. So this little teenager in verses 45 and 46 goes out against the Philistine. In verse 45 we read, David said to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord. He went on to say, This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand, and I will smite thee and take thy head from thee. Well, I'm sure Goliath was laughing until that stone hit him in the middle of the head, and then David took Goliath's own sword and cut his head off. Well, we're going to be in one group or another. We're going to be with Saul, the king of Israel, and all the Israelite army hiding in a cave. They were dismayed and greatly afraid. Or we're going to be with David and win this battle. And we're talking about the battle of fear. And we all have that problem. We're going to look at it more deeply in the next program. You're sure new at this.