Do Not Fear

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the Sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Men, turn with me, if you will, in your Bibles to Exodus. Exodus chapter 14.

What's that noise? What's that banging? Exodus chapter 14. Beginning to read at the fifth verse. Exodus 14.

I'm reading from the New American Standard tonight. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart towards the people. And they said, what is this that we have done that we have left Israel go from serving us? So he made his chariot ready and took his people with him and he took 600 select chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly. And then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, his army, and they overtook them by the sea. Verse 10.

As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened. So the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. But Moses said to the people, Do not fear.

Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. King James, I think it says, stand still. Actually, they couldn't do anything else.

Stand still, stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever, because the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. Note in that verse, do not fear.

That's the title of my message tonight. Do not fear. Now, when the children of Israel left Egypt, their exodus, their liberation, their freedom was very short-lived.

They may have thought that they had been done, or was done with Pharaoh forever, but it was not to be. Or seemingly in their minds it was not to be, because in verse 8 it says that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel, as the sons of Israel were going out boldly. They were going out not only boldly, but they were going out, I'm sure, with great excitement.

But that boldness very quickly turned to fear. The liberated people became the chased people. And can you imagine their discouragement, their disappointment, their despair when they get just a little ways out after all of the years of bondage, the moment that they had so long waited for, get into the desert and they hear a familiar sound, a sound that they had heard before.

It was a sound of horses' hooves. It was a sound of chariot wheels. It was a sound of the whips lashing against the horses.

It was a sound of the riders, the soldiers or the officers who were barking their commands to the horses. All the sounds that they had heard throughout the years of their oppression. But it was more than the sound of horsemen and chariot.

To them it was the sound of their oppressors. Now in front of them was this massive body of water. There was no place to go to the right or to the left.

Behind them was this marching enemy, the power of the enemy represented in the horsemen and the chariots. And they are caught in the middle. It's called, you've heard the expression, being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

That's where it came from. That's where they were. They were between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Verse 10, As they drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and what they saw brought chagrin to them. And behold, can you imagine how they went from exhilaration? Can you imagine how their hearts must have knelt and must have fell after what joy and excitement? Yes, apprehension, yet joy there must have been. And finally they're being liberated, only now to look back and say, Oh no, oh no.

Behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became frightened, which was an understatement. So the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord. And what a bitter cry it was.

Do you know what bitter prayers are? The basis of a bitter prayer is not, Oh Lord, deliver me, but rather it's like this, Why, Lord, did you get me into this trouble? It's a prayer or a cry, not really a prayer in a true sense, it's simply a cry, a bitter cry of complaint, not a petition. Verse 11, They said to Moses, but they were saying it to the Lord as well, saying, You, you, you have taken us away to die in the wilderness. Why have you dealt with us in this way? I've heard prayers like that.

Lord, why did you even save me in the first place? It seems like I've got more troubles now that I'm saved than before I was saved. I've heard that. Now the basis of Israel's complaint was fear, and in the midst of their state of fear, the Lord gave Israel a wonderful promise, a promise that is as much ours today as it was theirs on that occasion.

Verse 13, But Moses said to the people, because he had heard a word from the Lord, and he said, Do not fear. Say it after me. I get this from you.

Brother Victor. No, no, it was the other preacher. What's your name? Bob.

Because he told me he did that one night. He couldn't think of my name. But Brother Victor, I picked this up from you.

Say it after me. Do not fear. All right, you got it.

Stand by. Do not fear. Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today.

For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you'll never see them again. Now so great was their fear that in verse 12 they said they wanted to go back to Egypt. Now I believe that was more of a sign of having given up in the face of fear than it was affection for Egypt.

You see, our fears turn us into strange creatures. Creatures of anger, creatures of complaint, vows of defeat, despair. We'll say things when we have fears come upon us that we later regret that we'd ever said.

But every child of God must learn to face his fears. And in the natural, they had reason to fear. But God addressed himself to the focus of their fear and gave them a command with a promise and said, you do not need to fear.

And I see Israel having a threefold fear that is common to us all. I believe they feared the past, they feared the present, and they feared the future. And that's what I want to talk about tonight.

First of all, there's the fear of the past. The horsemen and the chariots represented the power and control of Pharaoh which he had exerted over the sons of Israel during their years of bondage. And as they camped by the sea, you see their past almost caught up with them.

Verse 10, And as Pharaoh drew near the sons of Israel, look, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them. That was a familiar sight. And what flashbacks this presented to their minds because it was those same horsemen and those same chariots that they had seen day in and day out as they served Pharaoh.

They were symbols of his strength and power and control over them. And can you picture, I picture an Israelite back in that bondage and I'm sure that when they saw those horsemen coming they had a flashback of this and I can see one of them working down on their knees gathering straw. And along comes a horseman and maybe even with a whip upon their back and I can see that Israelite turning from crawling as it were almost in the dust and turning and looking up and seeing that soldier seeing that man, that rider on the horse and from that perspective it seemed like he's almost a giant a very imposing figure.

And perhaps the hearing of the sound of the marching chariots especially beating their whips, the horses because Pharaoh was now furious to catch up to them. And perhaps all of that sound was familiar and as they camped helplessly and defenselessly at the Red Sea all of the years of bondage and suffering and slavery and sorrow and oppression all of that is represented as they see those horsemen coming and it's a type of their past a type of their past catching up with them. Now let me ask you tonight are there similar sounds and sights of the horsemen and chariots of your past that breathe down your neck? Is there a fear of something in your past haunting you? Something that you see the ghost of your past hindering you in your walk with the Lord? If so, the Lord has a word for you tonight.

The Lord addressed Israel's fear and He wants to address your fear. You see, Israel feared that the past had not passed and what they thought was in the past was about to overtake their present. And the enemy you see will always try to bring our past into the present.

No sooner had Israel left Egypt that Pharaoh puts together these elite forces 600 of them out in the front followed by many others and he tries to bring Egypt they had left Egypt but now he tries to bring Egypt out to them. My friend, wherever you go, Egypt will find you or try to find you. And the worst thing about the sight of those chariots chasing them is it meant, at least they thought so it meant that they were really not delivered.

Their past was catching up to them so that in reality they figured they had no future they had no place to go and the past they thought was past was about to march right into the present so that they could not be a free people. And what also was in doubt was the whole meaning of the Passover when the death angel had come and had saved them when they looked and the blood was on the door post a most beautiful picture of the cross of Jesus Christ and I'm sure that they must have wondered why has the Lord saved us has saved our first born only to bring us out here and to destroy us out here and the very power and love and character of God was being brought into question in the face of Pharaoh's army. But notice what Moses said in verse 13 look at it again he said, do not fear stand and see the salvation of the Lord the Egyptians whom ye have seen today you will see them again no more forever now Moses uses the word I like the word that he used he said these Egyptians whom you have seen in other words Moses said you see them but he puts the situation in the past tense have seen and in Moses mind and in the light of the promise of the Lord the horsemen and the chariots are about to be a thing of the past God was about to build a wall between Israel's past and their present a wall between his people and the horsemen look at verses 19 and 20 it says and the angel of God whom had been going before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them so it became between the camp of Israel the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel and there was a cloud along with the darkness yet it gave light at night in other words it was light to Israel it was darkness to the Egyptians thus the one did not come near the other one all night now please follow me just as the cloud separated the two camps just as the cloud separated the camp of God's people from the camp of the enemy this my friend is a picture of the cross of Jesus Christ and the blood of Jesus that wants to separate you from your past and you not need fear that your past can invade your present or your present Christ breaks the bondage of the past with all of its bitter memories and the promise is to us this the Egyptians whom you have seen today you will never see them again forever Jesus wants to stand he's your cloud he wants to stand between you and your past and he said there's nothing that you need to fear in your past the past cannot invade your present the sins that we have committed the sins that were committed against you can be cut off and be buried in the sea of God's forgetfulness 2nd Corinthians 5.17 says therefore if any man is in Christ he is a new creature and with that comes this promise that old things pass away passed away behold new things have come turn if you will to Philippians the 3rd chapter Philippians 3.13 Paul addresses something here to the church Philippians 3.13 he begins it and he uses the word brethren in address to the church he says brethren I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet now I like that he said I ain't made it yet I haven't arrived there yet I haven't laid hold of all of Christ I've not arrived at perfection that's still, I'm still working on it but he said one thing I do know for sure forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead I press on towards the gold for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus now if you're still living in past regrets failures wrongs, fears you do not need to live there God never intended it Paul had a good forgetter he said the cross is a memory eraser at the foot of the cross he said there is a garbage can where you can dump your past and if you're living in the past it's because you choose to live there it's because you choose and you allow the past to invade your present and the reason the past invades our present is because we're not doing what Paul said he was doing he said I press on I press on towards Christ and if you're not pressing on yes your past will catch up to you the horse and the rider of your past sins will come and overtake you and haunt you and hurt you and invade your present they'll trouble you but Christ wants to put a wall between the past and the present look what it says back in Exodus when that cloud came in there and it stood between the two camps it said thus the one did not come near the other all night hallelujah and some of you if you have problems sleeping when you sleep you begin to go back into all the past oh remember that there's a cloud for you hallelujah the cross is able to come there so that the one did not come near the other all night the past does not have to destroy the present you know we have a thing today in the body of Christ a ministry called inner healing now there is a true biblical inner healing we have people that are getting healed here all the time by the word but there is a so called ministry of inner healing and inner healers and I want to tell you they are inner invaders because they will break down the wall that has separated your past and will bring nothing but fear and confusion and turmoil to you and about the only ones that are helped in the inner healing are the healers they get a certain sense of fulfillment out of it and in fact they go around looking praying on people that bring them into their past and in the process destroying the work of the cross of Jesus Christ because you see when the cloud of God's presence is gone then your past invades the presence and then that's the reason why is it all of a sudden this kind of ministry is suddenly needed in the body of Christ it was not needed when I grew up in the church you know why? because of the absence of the preaching of the cross and the faith in the word of God and therefore all kinds of substitutes are needed to try to heal people of their past and everything that I see in the scripture says that your past can be passed hallelujah old things pass away now if you're involved in secular work maybe even counseling you may need to deal with people in their past or they may need to talk about their past because you're not able maybe in your situation to bring the cross to them or maybe they've not yet come to the Lord and so you can't say to them if they begin to talk about their past or they're still living in the past you can't just say to them well you're not supposed to do that you're not supposed to live in the past hey if they're not a believer not a Christian they don't understand this Paul wrote this and he said brethren you that know the Lord you do not have to have brethren Christians who are walking in the righteousness of Jesus Christ need not worry to live in the past to them all things become new hallelujah you know I've seen Christians who have struggled for years because they did not see the truth that their past can be buried to be born again is to make a clear break from your past because the old man dies at the new birth you know when the Lord began to speak to my own heart about repentance walking in repentance a few years ago he began to show me some things regarding my past and things that I needed to take care of and things that I needed to bring to the Lord and I did that and some of those things I grieved over them I remember one of the things I grieved about regarding television was two things number one was all of the time that I had wasted the time that I had wasted and I grieved over that lost time that I hadn't given the Lord I can never recover that grieved over it and then secondly I also repented and grieved over the things that I looked at and the things that I laughed at and the things that I had become accustomed to and there are other things in my life that I brought to the Lord I brought to the cross and I repented of it but you know the devil he's slick as soon as you do that as soon as you repent of the past or you deal with things that are still clinging to you from the past and by the way if you're still practicing sin you're not living in the past you're living in the present you're living in present sin but as soon as you bring it to the cross as soon as you repent of it and even you have a sense of grief over it the devil will come to you just like he did me and he intimidated me with it and he would throw it up to me but every time he did that I threw back to the devil what I call a Martin Luther you know one time Martin Luther tells a story of the devil he was in a dream the devil came to him at the bottom of his bed and opened to him a long long scroll and Martin Luther said to the devil what's that and the devil said this is a scroll of all of your sins and Martin Luther looked at that scroll and he started to laugh and laugh and laugh and the devil said what are you laughing at he said thank you for reminding me everything that's under the blood of Jesus Christ Hallelujah and so that's what I had to do I had to give the devil a Martin Luther we need not fear our past secondly we need not fear the present Exodus 14, 13 do not fear stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today now I want you to know how this was done God as you know made a wall this is a very well known story God made a wall out of the sea he put dry ground under their feet and he took them clear over onto the other side towards the promised land verse 21 and 22 look at it excuse me I'm still in Philippians I didn't go back it says that Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land so the waters were divided and the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on dry land and the waters were like a wall to them on the right hand and on the left now what a marvelous thing what a marvelous miracle but I do not believe that there was an absence of fear as they walked through that miraculous wall of water it must have been an awesome sight wonderful, marvelous and yet frightening the sound of the horsemen and the chariot was replaced with the sound of the wind holding back the waters like a dam and I can imagine that a lot of them you know had their eyes on that wall of water is it going to hold? I can see them maybe even pushing each other I don't know how orderly they went across there was a mixture of amazement joy as well as fear and apprehension is it going to make, are we going to make it? and I can just hear some of them saying some of you, some of you probably would say well it's probably another trick you know he brought us out this far and now he's going to bring us right out in the middle and then it's going to fold in on us but one thing is for sure they did make it all the way across the water stayed just long enough for them to be saved and it returned back just in time to drown the Egyptians and what a sight it must have been on the other side as they're now watching the horse's hoofs now are sticking up out of the water the chariot wheels are sticking out and they're seeing this tremendous sight of the soldiers and the chariot sinking to the bottom of the sea but I believe that this is a wonderful example of one of the other fears of God's people and I call it the fear of success you know it's possible to fear success now I'm not talking about material success I'm talking about spiritual did you ever pray let me illustrate did you ever pray for something pray earnestly for something that you wanted you needed something from the Lord you needed an answer to come from the Lord and then it came and you were surprised and you questioned God and in fact you probably it was right in front of your eyes and you probably didn't even see it I know that's happened to me I remember a specific situation and I questioned I gave the people that gave me the report I gave them the third degree and so forth and I think the Lord must have looked down at me and said man that guy is something else he prays I answer and then he just can't deal with the success or God begins to bless you and a fear comes on you and you say this is too good to be true this can't last this can't last something is bound to go wrong here and I guess the reason is because some of you have been told so long that it's not possible to live in total victory and you're enjoying a measure of victory in your life and you keep seeing the devil around the next corner fearing him and you fear even to enjoy the success and the victory that God has given you and one of the first things that the Lord had to do for the new generation of the children of Israel when they went into the promised land turn to Joshua chapter 1 this is the end of side 1 you may now turn the tape over to side 2 talk in obedience God will prosper you hallelujah Joshua 1 5 it says no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as I had been with Moses I will be with you I will not fail you or forsake you be strong and courageous for you will give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you do not turn from it from the right to the left so that you may have success wherever you go this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous then you will have success hey don't let anybody tell you anywhere that we're not success preachers we are only the emphasis is different what have I commanded you be strong and courageous do not tremble or be dismayed do not fear in other words for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go hallelujah you see the Lord guarantees his people those that are walking in obedience and holiness he guarantees present and future success will you believe it saints of God hallelujah now the Lord does not promise the absence of suffering or hardship or testing or trials but he does promise the absence of failure some of you have a hard time believing this you have a hard time you fear your even success that you're not going to make it but God says you can make it hallelujah lo I am with you always even unto the end Psalms just listen as I read these Psalms 77 and 8 has his loving kindness ceased forever has it ever ceased at any time has his promise come to an end forever has his promise ever failed in other words Psalms 84 33 says I will not break off my loving kindness from him nor deal falsely in my faithfulness my covenant I will not violate II Thessalonians 3 too but the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one hallelujah now turn back here again look what they did as they went across in spite of all of the fear that they weren't going to make it there's one thing that the scripture does say in verse 29 but the sons of Israel walked on they walked on dry land through the midst of the sea and the waters were like a wall to them on the right hand and on the left and my friend I say to you keep right on walking keep right on walking and they did and it says in the next verse thus the Lord saved Israel hallelujah now number three we need not fear the future verse 13 again it says for the Egyptians whom you have seen today you will never see them again forever so I see in this verse a promise that you don't need to fear your past you don't need to fear the present neither do you need to fear the future for example now there's a lot of things that we could talk about but we do not need to fear the evil tidings regarding the future I was sitting as I listened to David preaching Sunday night about sudden destruction and you hear this coming upon the nation is there rejoicing in your heart because the Lord is drawing near or is there a fear you know I'm amazed at the prosperity teachers who react against the preaching of judgment I mean the scriptural teaching that's very clear David made it very clear in the prophetic word Sunday night I'm amazed at their reaction against it and you know what it makes me wonder it makes me wonder if they have true faith or not maybe they react against it because down deep in their heart they're afraid they have faith for prosperity but not for adversity and when the judgments of God are poured out on the land we're going to really find out who the true people of faith are those who hold on to the whole counsel of God not just the promised blessings they are people who are not going to fear the future I believe we've got a people here that aren't afraid of the future hallelujah listen to what the word says about a people who cannot be shaken in their faith regarding the future you don't need to turn to it Psalms 112, 6 and 7 it says praise the Lord how blessed is the man who fears the Lord who delights in his commandments for he will never be shaken the righteous will be remembered forever he will not fear evil tidings his heart is steadfast trusting in the Lord his heart is upheld he will not fear I remember when David's book set the trumpet to my mouth came out my mother used to say to me she would read the letters and she said my goodness there's so many people that read that they're scared well it was an indication of where their faith was it says praise the Lord how blessed is the man who fears the Lord he will never be shaken hallelujah I remember one preacher said one time regarding these judgments and end time prophecies he said I'm not shaken because I've read the last chapter the Christians win the Christians win hallelujah Hebrews 12, 28 says therefore since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe hallelujah we are not shaken glory to God the future does not scare true believers of God but there's another thing in regards to the future that we need not fear and that is the fear of your own personal individual future and you know I could probably preach a whole message on the different kinds of fears that I have heard people express in personal counseling with them all kinds of different fears some of them you people have even said to me you know I don't even want to tell you this because you might laugh it may seem silly and yet they would express some fear that haunted them some for years and years or someone I recall a gentleman who someone in his family had a nervous breakdown suffered from mental illness and this individual lived all their life and the fear that that same thing was going to come upon them all kinds of fears that people have and I was sitting here just before the service worshiping the Lord and the Lord just put this on my heart for somebody here tonight you're newer in the Lord probably saved a year or less or around a year or so and God has begun to show you what it means to walk uncompromisingly before Him and maybe you're at a crossroads where you're going to have to make a decision regarding a career that you're going to have to lay that down and you know in your heart if you lay it down or you know that if you're going to serve the Lord fully you're going to have to lay that down but there's a fear that's within you it's a fear what's going to happen to me what am I going to do for a living and I want to say to you tonight that God wants to deliver you from that fear do not fear your future God will take care of you hallelujah there are those who carry the fear of catastrophic illness there are some people that are bound by by these kind of fears of some sickness coming upon them I've seen individuals who constantly live in every time they've got a pain they're sure it's the worst you know in our home we have a medical book that if something happens to our children or something happens to us my wife will go to the medical book and try to identify it I knew a family that had that medical book for a different reason every time they had something they were looking up they were sure it was the worst of the worst they would look up and they're disappointed in fact I've seen people they're disappointed when they find out it wasn't as bad as they thought it was so bound by fears and then there's a fear of the disciple Thomas it's what I call the blown out of proportion fear this is when you hear something has happened or something is going to happen and if it's on a scale of 1 to 10 it's a 1 or a 2 but if it happens to you you're just sure it's a 10 it's always a 10 in fact it's a 20 for you fearing the worst John 11 if you want to turn there you know the story when Lazarus had died and Jesus makes a statement of faith and he said let's go to Lazarus he's just asleep and Jesus of course is making a statement of faith Lazarus was really dead but Jesus said he's just asleep he was minimizing it because he knew that he was going to heal Lazarus but look what happened to Thomas in this situation you know he's called doubting Thomas not only because he said unless I see the nails prints of his hands I will not believe he's not only called doubting Thomas for that but also here's another illustration of let's see where did I say it was John 11 I can't find it now 11 16 thank you there it is I knew it was on the right hand side bottom corner I didn't know the verse but you know how you get that Thomas therefore said to his fellow disciples after Jesus said Lazarus is dead he said I'm glad for your sake that I was not there so that you may believe but let us go to him and Thomas therefore said to his fellow disciples he said yeah let's go with him let's also go that we may also die with him you know he probably had some illness that caused his death and you'd be sure it's probably still in the house and we'll get it as well and there's some of you if it's bad you're sure it's going to happen to you because you're like Thomas blowing things out of proportion seeing fear in every hand but God my friend doesn't want you to live with those kind of fear God hath not given us a spirit of fear but a power and of love and a sound mind hallelujah praise the Lord well let me close the answer to our fears is fear the answer to our fears is fear in the New Testament in the Greek the word for fear is a neutral word it is known as what is called a middle word according to the way it's used and the context in which it occurs it can have either good or bad meaning it can describe something which is useful and praiseworthy or it can describe something evil and contemptible in other words fear can be characterized either be the characteristic either of a coward the panic stricken or it is the characteristic of a man of faith depending in which direction he's looking and in the New Testament the word in Greek for fear is phobos and it's used 47 times in the Gospels and in Acts in not one case is it ever used in a bad sense in each case it describes the feeling in a man's heart when he is confronted with divine power and action it also describes the feelings of a man when he finds himself confronted with something or someone outside and beyond and different than himself and he becomes a man who is lost in awe and in wonder and in love and in praise in the presence of his creator and that's what the disciples for example when Jesus was walking on the water it says the disciples had fear when he stilled the storm it says they had fear when they saw when the crowd saw the demonic of Gadara had his many legions of devils cast out it says fear came upon them Zacharias feared when he saw an angel beside the altar that had come to make an announcement of John's birth the guards at the tomb are said to have feared when the angels rolled away the stone and in all cases this was the fear of the Lord because when they were brought face to face with the divine power of God there was a fear which was a reverence a fear that was a respect a fear that was a trust and a love and a praise Proverbs 14 26 and 27 says in the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence and his children and his children will have refuge the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may avoid the snares of death and you see at the Red Sea crossing this is what was happening God was giving his people an opportunity to turn the focus from fear of the enemy to the fear of the Lord instead of having a reverent fear or an irreverent fear for the enemy he was saying I want to give you a reverent fear for the Lord and a respect for the Lord and that's what fear is it's reverence it's awe it's respect it's trust excuse me it's trust in a wrong direction and every time you give in to your fears you attach a reverence or an irreverence to it that is not of God fear is putting faith in the wrong source it's giving place to the devil it's saying that the devil has more power than the Lord that's why the scripture why the term is a neutral term and some of you have had your faith in your fears long enough you've had your faith in the wrong direction turn it around and put it in the Lord the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom conduct yourself in fear during your time of stay on the earth Peter said and we have to choose who and what we're going to fear Proverbs 1 29 it says because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord and they did not accept my counsel but he that listens to me shall live securely and shall be at ease from the dread of evil my friend turn from your fear is faith in the wrong direction it's giving respect and it's giving reverence or irreverence to the enemy turn it around and put it in the Lord we must choose to live by or in our fears our dread or our panic or we choose to live in the fear of the Lord both of them are choices of faith or in whom we're going to trust and it's either in the Lord or it's in your fears or it's in the chariots that are coming but the Lord can deliver you from past present and future fears hallelujah that's what he was saying when he said to Israel do not fear praise the Lord let's bow in a word of prayer if Psalms 119 and 165 don't turn there because I'm going to have you turn to it