Empowered by Faith: Overcoming Fear with Love

Grace, that's the gospel, it's a gift from God that we didn't earn, don't deserve, it's salvation. Mercy, not getting what we do deserve, which is condemnation. And peace, we have true peace as a result of God's grace and mercy. So those are three steps that walk towards a peace with God that we don't have in this world. [00:09:15] (29 seconds)

It's tending that fire. It's keeping it going. We've got to do that with our faith, with our belief. We are not, as believers, ever to be in neutral because there's no such thing. We're either progressing, we're getting closer to God, we're moving up to a more mature relationship, more complete, more perfect in his words, which means complete. A perfect relationship with God. If you coast, if you put the gear in neutral, it's going to automatically start going backwards. You're going to backslide. [00:17:08] (30 seconds)

So, when we boldly step out in faith and speak the gospel, the Holy Spirit will give us power that we need. But we have to take the first step, that step in faith. He will empower us, but if you don't do the first step, he's not nothing to work with. [00:18:41] (17 seconds)

God does not call us to that spirit of fear. It's really, being shy or timid about your faith is down to selfishness. It's down to pride. You don't want someone to make fun of you. You don't want someone to think, oh, he's one of those crazy Christians, you know. He's, he's a loser. He's, he's not in step with, with how things are. He's not cool, however you want to say. But we need to learn to put our own feelings aside. [00:22:34] (29 seconds)

God wants his children to put his interest in front of our own. Something that is completely opposite of what the world tells us. Deny the right to yourself. Stop worrying about others think. And if you think about it, once you become secure and know that God Almighty, maker of everything, heaven and the earth, all of us, the universe, all powerful, like I said before, all knowing, succeeds at everything. He loves us no matter what we do or don't do, how, how things go. He loves his children and he's forgiving. He's gracious. He's merciful. So stop worrying about what others think. There's no place for, for fear of men once we know how, how strong our God is. [00:23:28] (54 seconds)

If we are fearful, we are rendered powerless. There is no love in fear and no fear in love. They are opposite emotions. We read in 1 John 4 .18, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. God's perfect love casts out fear. Because fear involves torment. When we cower back and we cringe and shut up and are quiet and withhold what God's trying to move us to share with somebody, it causes turmoil in our lives. Torment. It causes turmoil. [00:32:09] (41 seconds)

``Fear activates the power of the devil similarly to the way faith releases the power of God. If we're fearful, he's going to pounce on that. The enemy's going to pounce on that just the way an animal, you know, a cheetah in Africa will pounce on a wounded animal. It knows it's got it. It's got it where it wants it. If we're fearful, the devil, his power is increased. It's that same way and the way faith for us releases the power of God in our lives. Think of those two opposites. Fear activates the power of the devil similarly to the way faith releases the power of God. [00:33:11] (39 seconds)

So the Holy Spirit gives us courage or even a fearlessness, even in fearful situations. We see this in the book of Acts, when the apostles boldly preached the crucified and risen Lord Jesus and were imprisoned, they were beaten, they were threatened several times, I think, not to continue. You know, the Sanhedrin, the priest, the chief priest had him arrested, had him brought in, said, you guys need to stop doing this, and we're going to beat you, and we're going to let you go, and we better not catch you doing it again. Then we're back out again the next day doing the exact same thing. They did not care. They did not care what men thought, even if it meant their deaths. That is a spirit of fearlessness that God can give you. [00:36:38] (44 seconds)

Fear is eliminated by looking at God within us, not the problems before us. We need to look inside to the spirit that's inside of us of God and not see what's in front of us, not see the challenges we have, not see the danger we have, but cling to him, cling to what we already have inside of us. [00:39:01] (19 seconds)