Faith Over Fear

Lord, thank you for today. This is a day you've made, we rejoice and we're glad in it. We thank you that you speak to us and that you love us, in Jesus' name, amen.

I want to start in a verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, I'll start in verse 1, it is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body, I don't know, whether out of the body, I don't know, God knows, such a one was caught up to the third heaven.

And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I'm not sure, God knows, how he was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one I will boast, yet of myself I will not boast except in my infirmities or in my weaknesses. For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool for I will speak the truth.

But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me. And lest I should be exalted above measure, abundance of revelations and so on, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. And concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect through weaknesses. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses and infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions and in distresses.

For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. I was thinking this morning about how it's in our nature to want to be great, to want to succeed, to want to become something, to want to be useful, whether it be for God or in this life. And we set goals and we have dreams.

But in all these things, sometimes the Lord allows us to enjoy some of these things. But there's times in life where we go through hard things, difficult things, things we don't understand. And we sing this song that he is the God of the mountain and also the God in the valley.

And we understand him to be the God who's good in the good times, but he's also good in the bad times. And to be able to remain steadfast and steady as she goes. You know, recently, this last week, we were on the ocean and you encounter turbulence and waves and the boat goes up and the boat goes down and you experience the highs and the lows.

But God is constant. And so he doesn't want us to get too high in the highs and he doesn't want to get discouraged in the lows. And that takes a deeper walk with him to come into that steadfastness in your faith.

Because I get very excited when there's a good report, something good's going on. And then when things go chaotic and bad reports come in and things are, I'm down and discouraged and things look hopeless, my emotions follow me down there. But the Lord wants us to remain steadfast in faith and not be crippled by fear.

Because our tendency is to be a realist. And when I'm seeing things bleak, I just call it for what it is. It's bleak.

But Jesus called those things that are not as though they were. So when Jesus went to a place where there was a girl who had recently died, the father left her there. And then when he was going into the room, they said, well, what are you doing here? The girl's dead.

And he said, the girl sleeps. And they laughed. He said, she's asleep.

He didn't see her as dead. Just like when Ezekiel saw those bones, his mind told him those bones can never live. But he didn't allow what his mind said to come out of his mouth.

He said, Lord, you know. And so faith has to overcome fear. Otherwise, we will not see the power and glory of God.

Now, there are times where we're crippled with fear. And when we're crippled with fear, we become faithless. Because fear is the opposite of faith.

And this is where it says, when we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. Now, even though sometimes we are faithless, God remains faithful.

And that way, we know that it's of him and not of ourselves. It's not performance-based. It's Christ-centered.

It's Christ-focused. And so, when he gives us a revelation, sometimes we think, man, I must be really doing well spiritually. I wouldn't have got that revelation.

And then he takes us through a valley. We're really struggling. And we're just calling on his name.

And he gets us through those trials. And we realize that through those humbling circumstances, he still remained faithful. He carried us through.

Paul is going through hard things. Most of his ministry, he'll go through somewhere. A bunch of people get born again.

And then some people will come and they'll start beating on him. Or he'll get in a shipwreck. And all of a sudden, he's in the ocean and he's not on the boat anymore.

He's in the water. Or he's preaching to these guys and a snake comes out and bites him. And it's like, shakes it off.

And it's like, okay, Lord, this is it. But I'm just going to keep preaching. And just trusting in the Lord at all times.

And not governed by, oh, now I'm bit by a snake. I'm done. Oh, now my boat busted up.

I'm done. Now I got in a car wreck. I'm done.

Now I find myself in this chaos. I'm done. No.

God is the God of impossible. He's the God of miracles. And so when what we see with our eyes and what we hear with our ears is not what we want to hear and what we expected to hear.

But the God of miracles doesn't call those things that we see and the things that we hear as though they are. It says, He did not judge by what He saw and by what He heard, but He judged with righteous judgment. That is where faith comes in.

Because it's what God's Word says is what is true. And whatever is experienced in the natural, those are lies. He calls those things that are not as though they are.

And we want to come into that revelation where if I'm going through something hard, I have to be able to say, you know what? I'm going to boast in my weaknesses. I'm going to exalt in my infirmities. Because you know what? God is working a character in me right now.

Because I can't just be a high on the highs and a low on the lows Christian. I need to become like Him. So when the waves were swamping the boat and the brothers were terrified, Jesus was at rest.

And He wants us to come into that rest so that when chaos breaks out, we are able to remain steadfast in tribulation, in troubles, in trials. That is where He wants to take us. Paul went through many things.

He had many revelations, but the Lord kept him weak and He kept him humble. Through these infirmities, he received grace. We all have a measure of grace, but there's more grace that we can receive.

He gives grace for grace, in fact. And he says in verse 9, I want to reiterate, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is perfected in weaknesses. His strength is perfected in our weaknesses.

For when we're weak, He is strong. Therefore, He actually says, I take pleasure in infirmities. James also says, I count it all joy when I face various trials.

Because we're able to see God manifest His power. Because as if what I can do and what Jesus can do equals a strong testimony, we've missed it. It's not my righteousness and His righteousness equals strong testimony.

It's His righteousness and my faith and trusting in what He says, that is what brings about the power and glory of God. Because He doesn't share His glory with us. We don't get 10% and He gets 90%.

We don't get 50-50. He gets all the glory and we just get in on it. We are vessels and instruments for His pleasure.

I've never seen a trumpet blow a beautiful sound with a wind. It has the ability, there's the notes, it takes a skilled musician. Same with the guitar, I've never seen a guitar play on its own without a musician.

And so it says, we are His instruments. We are like the jars of clay in His hand. He is the one who fashions and forms us and He is the one who fills us.

And when He asked Ezekiel about the bones, He said, Lord, you know. And so He said, preach to the bones. Now, God Himself anointed the man to preach.

But he had to open his mouth and God filled it. This is where faith comes in. If we open our mouth, God will fill it.

If we don't do anything, if we don't take a step of faith, then there's nothing that can be done. Our part is trusting in Him with all of our heart, not leaning on our own understanding. And if fear cripples you, you will never get up.

You will never move forward. Fear is an enemy of faith. Fear will cripple you.

Now, the men of God all experienced fear. Elijah experienced fear after a great faith victory over the false prophets. He got crippled by fear because he listened to the words of Jezebel through some reports, some bad reports.

And it sent him in a direction that was not good. Jonah got crippled by fear. And when God spoke to him to do something, thoughts came in his head and he went the opposite direction of what God's word told him to do.

He got crippled by fear. And he found himself in a bad way. Moses was there when God spoke to him and said, Go and speak to the Pharaoh.

He was crippled with fear. He said, I can't speak. I'm past the years of speaking.

And the Lord said, well then, I'll send your brother to be your spokesman. But God never gave up on these men. Even though Jonah was in the belly, he went and fulfilled the purpose and call to preach to Nineveh.

Though Elijah was running from Jezebel, he preserved him and he brought him out of the cave and he went and anointed Elijah for the ministry. Moses was obedient to the call and he went and he presented himself with his brother to the Pharaoh. There were others who were crippled with fear.

Let's look at one. At different times, the man David. Let's look in the passage of 1 Samuel, chapter 21.

David had recently in the last couple of years had a great victory over the Goliath. He was a man of faith. He was anointed king of Israel when he was a lad.

He came for a visit to bring provisions to his brothers and he heard the Philistine champion mocking his God. The Holy Spirit that was in him from that anointing stirred him up and he said, this guy mocks my God. And he became zealous to challenge the Philistine champion.

And through the power and the manifestation of the spirit, he took the champion's head and he gained a great victory. But soon after, when the people began to exalt him and sing a song, Saul has slain his thousands and David is ten thousands. Saul became angry with David and he began to throw spears at him and he began to seek to kill him.

And so in the process of time, Jonathan warned him and said, you got to get out of here because my dad has a secret plan, he's going to kill you. Because if you can't have first place like Cain wanted first place, the way to keep first place is to take out your brother. Cain rose up because he was angry and he was fearful of being second place, not first place, that he killed his brother.

And the same way Saul rose up because of jealousy towards David and he rose up seeking to kill his son-in-law who had received the anointing and the kingdom. Even though Saul was still king at that time, God had rejected him from being king, so the Lord was not with him. He was only there as a figurehead.

David had been anointed king. And so David flees from there and he goes to the priest and he's looking for provisions and short and long, he's asking for a sword and he said, the only sword that's here is the sword of Goliath. And he said, there's none like it, he said, give it to me.

He took that sword and he goes to the Philistine land. Now why is he going to the Philistine land? Because his father-in-law is going to kill him and he's fearful. The man who had defeated the giant has less fear of the Philistines than he does of his father-in-law Saul.

And he goes to the Philistine land and this is where the story takes place. And if we look in starting in verse 10, 1 Samuel chapter 21 verse 10, Then David arose and he fled that day from before Saul and he went to Achish the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David the king of the land? Now he was not king, but he had been anointed king, but they saw him as the genuine king because he's the one who had God's authority.

And did they not sing of him one to another in dances, saying Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? Now David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. The man who had faith went on the run and he got crippled with fear. Fear can rob you of the purpose and the call of God in your life.

You can get stuck if you get crippled with fear. You can have anxiety attacks. You can end up on medication, on antidepressant pills, because all your circumstances are looking so terrible rather than looking to him who can help, who can deliver, who can save.

And at different times, we can become faithless. David here had become faithless. He got crippled with fear.

But God was faithful and delivered him from the situation. Now David panicked and he resorted to his own resources to seek to save his life. Now that had happened many times prior where Abraham got crippled with fear and he said, say that you're my sister.

Otherwise, because you're a beautiful lady, they're going to take you and they're going to kill me if they find out I'm your husband. And fear crippled him. Isaac in the same way got crippled with fear and said the same thing.

Jacob, he knew that he had the call of God. The blessing and the birthright would be his and he had to deceive his father to get them. And then he himself went through deception because God is not mocked.

What we sow, we reap in order that we might learn of him. See, he always brings us round the mountain back to faith. The people in the wilderness were crippled with fear when men came back and gave bad reports and said the giants are in the land.

The land is fantastic, but we can't have it. And they cried because they believed the ten spies over the two, Joshua and Caleb, who said, yes, the giants are there, but God is with us and we should immediately go. They cried and listened to the ten rather than to the two.

Many times we look at the numbers. We say, well, there's more for them, so let's side with them. But God is not with the numbers.

You know, he can see a big church and he can say something like, you know, he's chosen one from a town and two from a family to bring them to Zion. Or he says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst. It's not that he's against the thousands, but he looks for the one.

Like when the crowds were pressing against him and then the woman with the issue of blood and she just touched the hem of his garment and he said, who touched me? Well, he said, everybody's pressing against you. No, he said, I felt power go out because there was faith there. And where there is faith, there is power for healing, for deliverance, for a miracle.

Shawn, the thing you don't remember about that testimony is we were driving and you were skeptical, as were others, about things that had happened with the church split. And we were driving the day before and I said, the spirit does never bear witness with you because when I speak truth to you, your heart is blocked. I said, maybe it's fear, I don't know, but you need faith.

And then the moment I shared that, the spirit bore witness. And I said, you see, you just received that not at the level of the head, but the level of the heart. See, that's where faith was born.

Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And that miracle came because you allowed the word to penetrate your heart and that miracle came. That is very much the beginning seat of faith that brought about the deliverance.

Because when you allow yourself to become vulnerable and you accept truth, regardless of what people have said, what the multitude have said, what the ten have said, and you trust what the Lord says, then your miracle comes. Because it's not by might nor by power, but by his spirit. Now David does something that I know he regrets and he's ashamed of down the road.

Like, how could I have done this? But he was desperate. And you know what? I've done things from desperation. You try to, you know, put on a good front or put on some kind of a front to get your way through a situation you don't know how to respond.

And it says in verse 13, so David changed his behavior before this Ackish king of Gath and he pretended to be insane. He pretended to be a madman. And he started scratching on the doors like he was in an insane asylum.

And he let spit run down his beard. And so he had this drool hanging like you would see a Saint Bernard with drool hanging down on his beard. And Ackish said to the servants, what is going on? This man is insane.

Why did you bring him here to me? Have I need of madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? And he sent David away. And he was spared. Now someone who was proud would boast in their cleverness and say, you know what, I come up with this thing real quick.

The Lord helped me to come up with this scheme to get my way out of this situation. But that's not what he does. If we look at Psalm 34, it is a Psalm that is written, many believe, regarding his situation there.

And it says in my Bible here, a Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech who drove him away and he departed. Now it says Ackish, but Abimelech is kind of like a term for the king like Pharaoh would be a term for the prince of Egypt. And so David starts off this way.

Because he flees from there and he goes into the caves of Adullam and there his family meets him. And there he begins to build his band of worthless rogues into his training to become mighty men. And 400 men who were in debt, disgruntled and couldn't get along with people came to David and he trained them and they became mighty men of valor.

And while he was in this cave, this song came to him and he was pouring out his soul to the Lord. And this is how he starts. He says, I will bless the Lord at all times.

Not only in the good times, but also in the terrible difficult times when it looks hopeless. And he said, His praise shall continually be in my mouth. We should praise the Lord always.

In everything give thanks for that's His will for us. That when we're going through good things, we would thank Him and praise Him. When we're going through hard things, we would find something to thank Him and praise Him for.

This is how you become steadfast, immovable and unshakable in your faith. My soul shall make its boast. In who? In His own craftiness? In His own wisdom? In His own might? No.

My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Let's magnify the Lord together with me and let us exalt His name together.

Look at verse 4. Let's key in on that. I sought the Lord and He heard me. This is when he's right in front of those guys and he was caught.

They had him. They had the guy who killed their champion. This town where he was, in Gath, that was Goliath's hometown.

And they recognized him that he killed their champion. And he's like, Man, this is not going to go good for me here. And to boot, he's got Goliath's sword strapped on his hip.

He's carrying Goliath's sword. He's in Goliath's hometown. And he's in trouble.

And he panics. And the Lord allowed that situation to show them that when David, when you're faithless and you're scratching on door posts and spits running down your beard, I'm going to deliver you. I'm still faithful.

Because I have a purpose and call in your life. When we go through things, times of unbelief and discouragement, God is still helping us. The anointing didn't go away.

The call hadn't disappeared. God took him through the situation so that he might learn something and refine his character through it. There's always something for us to learn.

Learning from our mistakes. I don't know. I don't learn from my successes.

Sometimes I boast in my successes. But I learn from my mistakes so we don't repeat them. I sought the Lord and He heard me and He delivered me from all my fears.

The man had fear. It said he was very scared when he was there. Why was he scared? You got to remember the time in his life.

He had no family with him. He had to leave his wife. He had no wife.

He had to leave Israel. He had no friends. He had nothing.

And Saul was coming for him. He was alone. All he had was the Lord.

And he panicked. And he was afraid. I sought the Lord.

He called on the name of the Lord. And the Lord heard him and delivered him from all his fears. I looked to Him.

They looked to Him and they were radiant and their faces were not ashamed. Verse 6. This poor man cried out. This is what we need to do when we get into a situation of fear.

And it might come to you. Fear might come to you. This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

Remember, it's a journey. And sometimes unbelief. Well, should I have or should not have? Should I be or should I not be? We walk by faith and not by sight.

And wherever we go, the Lord will be with us. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him. He'll direct your steps. Now, what's the key? Verse 7. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him.

And He delivers them. The fear of the Lord is that key. He wants us to fear Him.

Don't fear our circumstances. Don't fear what you're going through. Don't fear the future.

Don't fear what the doctor says. Don't fear what people say. Don't fear what the wise men tell you if it's not from the Holy Spirit.

Fear the Lord and it will go well with you. And you'll have a revelation of Him. Sean got a revelation.

He experienced the love of God that came. And it was later that day. We just left there.

You didn't feel anything. We went within half an hour. You experienced love coming forth for strangers.

For those who don't know Christ. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. That is the fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit.

The love that flows. It's tangible. Oh, taste and see.

Blessed is the man who trusts in Him. Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints. There is no lack to those who fear Him.

Let's look at verse 17. The righteous cry out. Now, he was crippled with fear.

He had done things that probably he shouldn't have done, but he did them. But the Lord helped him. He said, the righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord helped him out of his troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a what? A broken heart. That's a humble heart.

One that's yielded to the Lord. And he saves such as have a contrite spirit. Now, many, verse 19, are the afflictions of the righteous.

How many afflictions are you going to go through in your lifetime? Many. But the Lord delivers them out of how many of them? All of them. The Lord is with you in the trouble.

He's with you in the valley. He's with you in your struggles. He's with you in the dark days.

Trust in Him. Call on Him. Ask Him for help.

Cry out to Him and He'll hear you because you fear Him. He guards all his bones. None of them is broken.

Evil shall slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. But the Lord redeems the soul of His servants and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned. There's no condemnation in Christ.

We can repent if we sin. We have an advocate through Jesus, through the shed blood of the cross. But there's no condemnation in Christ.

If you're experiencing condemnation, like Sean mentioned, he had felt condemned. There was a blockage. He couldn't get to God.

That's because there's something hidden in darkness that we have not yet brought to the light. Right? It says this is the condemnation from John 3.19 that men love darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil. That's the condemnation.

That's why the judgment is there. But if you open up your heart through faith and you allow the light to expose those dark areas, just allow His word to penetrate those areas and confess them before Him, then you will experience the liberation of experiencing a state of mind where it's just as if you've never sinned. Your conscience is clear before God.

That's how you know the blood is applied when you know that you're forgiven. If you have to wonder or question, am I forgiven? There's something that you need to make right between you and the Lord. You need to allow the light of His word to shine and penetrate into an area of your heart.

And if you have conviction, act on the conviction and deal with it. If you don't act on conviction, it can become condemnation. A lot of people, we talk about, oh, people condemn and people condemn and people condemn.

People can condemn, but our consciences do a lot more condemning than people do. It says if your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart. Can't blame people for the condemnation.

It's God working, showing us. It's like a check engine light. You got a check engine light and you put a piece of tape over it because you don't want to see that there's a problem and you just keep going.

And sooner or later, the thing's going to blow up. No, it's better to know the truth because then we can deal with it even if there's a cost to count. It's liberating because then the problem can get solved.

May the Lord help us to understand His will and His ways. Don't allow fear to cripple you. Ask the Lord for faith.

A mustard seed of faith and call on His name and He'll answer you and show you great and awesome things that you don't yet know. If you don't have a testimony of seeing the power and glory of God in your life, ask Him to act on your behalf and watch Him work. You know, in my younger years, I would keep a journal and I would write my prayer requests down and then later on, I would see He answered all those prayer requests.

Sometimes quickly and sometimes after a year or two and sometimes after 12 years. But He is faithful. According to His word, He cannot lie.

And so remain steadfast in your faith. Trust in Him. Don't let the devil rob you.

In Jesus' name, Amen.