Facing Fear: Trusting God Like David Against Goliath

Now because of it's completely out of my control, I should not get wound up about it. But what is my in my control you know what I you know what? If Jesus was coming tomorrow, what I would do? I would get myself right with God. I confess my sins. I'd make right anything, any secrets in my life, and I'd say, Lord, I need you. I'm committed to you. Now if Jesus was coming a thousand years from now, you know what I'd do? [00:38:23] (29 seconds)  #ControlYourResponse

I'd get myself right with the Lord. I'd make sure all my secrets are out. I'd confess my sins, and I'd follow Christ. The response is the same. And so the things that we can move on and control on is what's in control of our it's our belief system. It's our actions. It's our intentions. Those are things that we can control. We can't get wound up on things that are completely out of our control. [00:38:52] (24 seconds)  #BeliefDrivesAction

You see, David comes at this with a different tone. Goliath screaming and shouting. He's like, look at me. Look at my muscles. Look who I am. And David is like, hey. I'm not fighting this battle. David isn't worried because he knows who he is. In him, in himself, he's gonna lose, but he knows he's not going to fight this battle himself. How many people here this morning, you're trying to fight a battle yourself? [00:42:44] (32 seconds)  #FightWithFaith

And instead of thinking about just putting the Band Aid on it, you're like, we need an MRI. Call the orthopedic surgeon. And it's like a couple drops of blood. We overreact with fear. And in the same way, it is what keeps you paralyzed in your own fear. So make a move, a real action, practical action step, but then also know your mind will always jump to the worst case scenario first. Very rarely were that worst case scenario ever happened. It just doesn't happen. [00:45:32] (32 seconds)  #ActDontPanic

Sometimes it's as practical as like, hey. This stuff's causing me a bunch of anxiety. I need to remove the news app off my phone. I need to not think about the things that are getting me so stressed out. Because if really, like, what are you and I gonna do to fix that situation over there? Nothing. We can pray, and I do, and we need to continue to, but I'm not gonna move a lever that's gonna change the outcome of that war. So I can't get all wound up about it. [00:39:16] (28 seconds)  #LimitTheNoise

Interesting thing, peep not everybody in the old testament had the holy spirit. Only select few people, prophets, kings like David, anointed people. But then when the New Testament, because of what Jesus did, Jesus died, rose, and resurrected from the dead, providing a pathway for us. And what that means is that when you really genuinely with all your heart give your whole life to Christ, you are filled with the holy spirit. And that same spirit that was in David is that same spirit that's in you if you really believe and follow Christ this morning. [00:49:27] (39 seconds)  #FilledByTheSpirit

Our response is always the same. Our response is to pray. Our response is to trust, and our response is to take action on practical things in our lives and fear, but then we gotta trust God. And part of that is if you're wrapped up in your fear, you need to have other people be praying for you in your fear. And also, real practically, God uses fear in good ways. Maybe you're fearful today because you've never really given your life to Christ. [00:50:40] (27 seconds)  #PrayAndAct

The most practical, basic, but greatest freeing thing you could do is give your life over to God because he is in control of all things. I wanna pray for you today. And as we worship, our prayer team will be up on the sides. We wanna encourage you to come forward. If you're worried about something, you should pray for it. If you're tired of praying for something, you should have somebody else pray for it. Because it's real. God's power is real, and he will be with you in that moment to overcome the thing that you're fearing. Would you bow your heads with me? [00:51:08] (34 seconds)  #DontLetFearStealTime

In fact, one of the emotions that fears brings to us is it can paralyze us. If you've ever been caught in a moment of extreme fear, whether it's circumstantial or it's because of a person or something that you've heard, what quite often it does is paralyze you. It immobilizes you from being able to do anything. I've been here multiple times, and you'll sometimes lose part of a day just sitting worrying. And instead of doing anything, you're sitting and you're you're just getting wrapped up in your fear over and over again. Same thing happened with king Saul. [00:28:52] (34 seconds)  #FearBlocksThinking

But what if David didn't even know that was gonna happen? What if when he was walking up there and Goliath was walking up there, what if Goliath tripped, broke both of his legs and couldn't move, and then David just grabs his sword and cuts his head off? We don't know that. David didn't know that. What if he was walking up to Goliath, and Goliath's getting himself all pumped up, and he dies of a heart attack? That's just as plausible as a boy killing a giant with a slingshot. The whole point is it's not what David did, it's what God did. [00:46:26] (36 seconds)  #DontLetEmotionsRule

And what happens a lot of the times when we're not in control of an outcome, we get really fearful. For me as an adult, the things that cause and stir fear in my life are things that are out of my control. And so when things are out of my control, I can't control them, it causes me to spin out. I gotta be really careful of my emotions in that moment that they don't begin to dictate the right thing to do. [00:36:22] (25 seconds)  #FocusOnTheControllables

Now here's the the interesting thing. There's so many times we worry about things that we're completely out of control of, and we'll get spun up on things that we can't control of, and they be we begin to fix on things that we can't control of, but we gotta fix focus on things that we can control. So I'll give you a real practical example. Lately, in the last two weeks, right, Iran, the war that's officially happening. I mean, [00:37:02] (25 seconds)  #TrustTheTiming

World War three that will bring about the second coming of Christ? I've had this asked me multiple times in the last two weeks from people. So here's my response to this. Because Iran is Persia. The Bible talks about Persia all the time. It's the Middle East attacking Israel. There's all these prophecies about Israel. Here's my response. I don't know. Here's what I do know the Bible says. Jesus himself said, the day and the hour will be unknown. [00:37:48] (32 seconds)  #OurWeaponIsPrayer

And so the weapons that we have is what the New Testament says. Our weapon is not what we can do. Our weapon is what God does. Because the war that we're in is not a physical war. It's a spiritual war. You know what's funny about this Iran thing? They're not even calling it a normal war. People who are not religious at all are calling it a religious war because it's Muslims and Christians and Muslims and Jews. Who knows what's going on in the spiritual side and the spiritual realm of everything going on? [00:50:06] (34 seconds)  #UnderdogPerspective

But here's the problem and also the good thing. David, being so resilient, being this younger brother, sees that there is a solution. Now the older brothers also do have a point, though, because the older brothers are looking at David. He's the younger boy. He's 12, 16 years old. Goliath is nine feet tall. I'm sure at this point, they've seen Goliath crush full grown seasoned warriors. [00:35:39] (29 seconds)  #CourageOfTheYoung

This happens with king Saul. King Saul was so so afraid. He's so wrapped up in fear. David comes. We're gonna read. And David says, like, hey. Who's this guy who's defying our god? What are you guys gonna do about it? And what he tells king Saul is he says, send me. I'll go fight him. Well, the problem was David is a young boy. I have a 12 year old son right now, and I can imagine David was between probably 12 and 16 years old. [00:30:10] (25 seconds)  #FaithOverSize

Goliath is nine feet tall. And you have a 12 year old boy that comes to you and says, hey. I can fight him. You know what a sane person says? No. No way. But king Saul had the inability to think because he was so wrapped up in fear. You know what he says? And I quote, king Saul said, alright. Go ahead. What sane person says something like that? [00:30:35] (29 seconds)  #ParalysisByAnalysis

But it's because sometimes when we get wrapped up and paralyzed with fear, we have the inability to think. Or you might be one of those people who you overthink in your fear. And so you're up at night, you're thinking about solutions of trying to fix it, or or you're frozen in fear and you can't make the decision because you are trying to think through every single scenario, but you can't do that because it's endless. That's also being paralyzed in fear. [00:31:05] (29 seconds)  #SilentStrength