Slamming The Door On Fear
Facing the future fearlessly
Read Psalms 23:1-6
We love this passage of scripture, it has been and will continue to be an amazing source of comfort and assurance in so many different circumstances and situations.
In this message we really want to zero in on vs 4, it says... Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Literally when David speaks of the valley of the shadow of death, he is speaking about the terrors that one often experiences when they are standing on the brink of death itself.
No doubt in David's running from Saul, he often felt very near to death. And as a result David had learned how to process through his fears, and how to slam the door on his fears.
Somebody said one time that all fear is, is false evidence appearing real. As though the object of fear was just an illusion or an imagination. Or just a mist or fog that is driven away by the sun.
I wish that was true, but we both know in many cases it is not true at all. The object of our fears are many times more real than we even want to think about.
This is why I bring this question to you today, and I believe it's relative and important. How are we suppose to slam the door on fear, and face the future fearlessly when the things in our future that promote and gender fear, remain the same?
In other words, how do I rise above the reality and possibility of the manifestation of my fears.
Let me say this. You can tell someone, don't fear, don't be afraid, but does that eliminate fear when the fearful things in our environment remain the same? Of course the answer is no.
To slam the door on fear, is not just ignoring the object of our fears. To slam the door on fear you must give someone something greater than the thing that causes fear... That greater thing is the Word of God.
To slam the door on fear, you have to identify it for what it is, and what it does. You must consider fear as public enemy number one.
*Fear is a crippeling spirit, it paralyzes and neutralizes.
*Fear is a magnet that pulls you toward disaster. Remember Job said... the thing that I have greatly feared has come upon me.
*Fear is destructive in nature, because it is a child of the devil.
*Fear is the devils counter part to faith. In other words fear is faith in the devils power and ability to bring his will to pass in your life.
To slam the door on fear you must hate it. You must see it as the devil, trying to rob you of every precious thing in your life.
Fear is a sucker, it will suck every ounce of life right out of you. It will drain your soul of any hope that things could ever get better. It will wring you out like a dish rag.
If you don't conquer your fear, it will squeeze every drop of joy out of your life.
Tell your neighbor, today we're slamming the door on fear.
As I said, fear is a thief that will rob you of a thousand blessings.
*Fear is a child of the devil.
*Fear comes the same way faith does, by hearing words; but fear comes by
hearing words that are inspired by the devil.
*Fear robbed a generation of their inheritance.
*Fear almost took Peter to a watery grave.
*Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed.
*Fear robs the eyes of sight, and the heart of hope.
The Bible says that fear hath torment. 1Jn 4:18
Fear is a killer. It kills dreams and destinies. It throws a dark cloud of dispair over everything good.
"You must decide, I'm going to slam the door on fear."
How are you going to do this? Well what you feed grows. You must decide, I will feed my faith and starve my fears to death.
Sadly I believe in many cases that the church has done us a great disservice, by preaching to us a gospel of escapism, as though our love for God, and our faith in God, is going to protect us from going through anything.
You know I believe in telling it like it is. I believe there is too much puffing in the pulpit. "That's what car salesmen do to sell cars" They don't lie, but they embellish real heavy. Friends we don't need any embellishment in the pulpit, what we need is the pure unvarnished truth.
This is the truth, faith in God, and love for God doesn't guarantee us a problem free life. Faith in God is no guarantee that you'll never get sick. Or that your children will never get on drugs, or that you'll never suffer financially. And your love for God, and my love for God and faith in God, may not affect gas prices or food prices one bit.
Our faith in God does not promise us that we won't have a nuclear war. I don't want to scare you, but I want to be relevant today. These are issues we are facing in our country.
We have to learn how to live in the power and the authority of what God has said, not what we wish he said, or presume he said. The truth is, he never promised us that our faith would keep inflation from increasing, or that our faith would close the borders, and cut off the flow of fentanyl into this country.
He never promised that you wouldn't have a car wreck, or your house wouldn't catch fire, or the earth wouldn't quake under your feet, or a hurricane would never hit your life.
I hope you want to hear the truth today. Because I'm not going to stand here and hype you up with a bunch of feel good words, that paint a pretty picture of a perfect world, where everything always turns out out wonderful just because you're saved.
That's not real life. In real life bad things happen, even to good people. But what I am going to do is give you some Holy Ghost fire power, that will put a fight in your spirit, and some steel in your backbone, so that no matter what comes your way, you can look at any situation and say...
No weapon that is formed against me shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against me in judgement, I will condemn it. Isa 54:17
And you can say... When the enemy comes in, like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him. Isa 59:19
And... All things work together, for good to them that love God and who are the called according to his purpose. Ro 8:28
And... Ye are of God little children, and have overcome them, for greater is he that in you than he that is in the world. 1 Jn 4:4
And... 1 Jn 5:4... whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world, and this is the victory that over comes the world, even our faith.
*Noah's love for God, and faith in God, did not keep the flood from coming.
It didn't keep
*Joseph from being betrayed by his brothers, and being thrown into a pit.
*It didn't keep the 3 Hebrew boys from going into the fiery furnace, or Daniel
from being thrown into a lions den.
Somebody said Pastor, I thought you were supposed to encourage us. I am, but the difference between me and a lot of other preachers is this... I'm going to tell you the truth, no sugar coating, and no flavor added. And I'm not going to water it down just to pacify a bunch of woke sissies and christian snowflakes.
The truth is... what we see happening in our military, has been happening in our churches. Our military is turning our battle hardened men into wimps.
In this dark hour that we're in, we need soldiers not woke sissies, and snowflakes.
You and I need to know that facing the future fearlessly, doesn't mean everything is going to be peaches and cream. It doesn't mean that the devil is going to roll over and play dead. But facing the future fearlessly is about slamming the door on fear, and having the faith and confidence that no matter what comes or goes, if God be for us, who can be against us.
It's about knowing that whatever we have to go through, God is with us.
Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Isaiah 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
God never promised us we wouldn't have to go through anything, but he promised his presence would go with us, and he would sustain us.
One of the first keys to slamming the door on fear is to know that fear is not just a negative emotion. Fear is actually a spirit. That means that fear is a living personality that is seeking residence in your life. You must resist fear, like you would resist someone trying to break into your house.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.
Fear is always lurking and creeping around, trying to gain access to your life.
I Love the apostle Paul and the way he handled his fear... When it came time for Paul to die, history records that he ran to the chopping block. What was Paul doing? He was robbing fear of its power in his life. He was slamming the door on fear. He was treading down fear on the way to his execution. He was saying, you're not taking my life, I am running to give my life away, for the one who gave everything for me.
Let me be honest with you, I don't believe we're through the shaking yet. I don't believe we're on the other side of the storm. I believe we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we are still going to go through some turbulence.
This message is not about avoiding the turbulence, but how to ride it out and come out on top.
*No longer shall fear lord it over us, but we shall rule over our fears by faith.
*No longer shall we be held back by the fear of the past or the fear of the
future.
*No longer will we live in fear of covid, monkey pox, or any other disease germ or virus.
*No longer will we fret over our food supply, or toilet paper, or gas prices, because our God supplies all of our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
We will not be slaves to fear. We are slamming the door on fear.
In 2 Samuel 23:11-12 We read of one of David's 30 mighty men, his name was Shamma. One day he and some other folks were gathering lentiles in his pea patch, and a Philistine troop rushed in on them. All those who were assisting Shamma, fled in fear. But the Bible says that Shamma stood in the midst of the ground and defended it, and slew the Philistines, and the Lord wrought a great victory.
One man slammed the door on fear, and not only defended his pea patch, but also slew the Philistine troop that day.
Friends our faith in God is not an escape hatch to magically escape our fears. But our faith is actually the enduement of the supernatural grace and power of God, to confront our fears, and slam the door on our fears, and put them under our feet.
I don't know what's coming next on the world scene. I don't know if there is a nuclear clash in our future. It sure sounds like the powers that be in our country are leaning that direction. But it doesn't matter because I've slammed the door on fear.
According to the scriptures, my times are in God's hands. I understand that there are 365 fear nots in the Bible, one for every day of the year. Every single day you can slam the door shut on fear.
God's word does not promise us that the future will be trouble free. But it does promise us that the glory of the latter house, will be greater than the glory of the former house.
So instead of talking about the good old glory days gone by, and dreading the future... We should be celebrating that we are in the greater glory days, and the best is yet to come.
One of the greatest ways to slam the door on fear, is to...
*Celebrate where we're going.
*Celebrate that we haven't seen anything yet.
*Celebrate that God always saves his best for last.
*Celebrate that everything that God has done in the past, was just a warm up
for what's coming.
If Azusa, and the Revival in Wales, and England, and Brownsville were just warm ups, I can't wait for the main attraction.
I know that from a natural perspective our world is in a mess. But I believe that is proof positive, that something "Big" is on the horizon.
I believe that the stage is being set for a world wide shaking and revival on a scale that has never been seen before.
I believe this is another reason why the devil is trying to suck us into fear, so he can distract us from the greatest move of God that has ever hit this planet.
But say this with me...
*I'm slamming the door on fear.
*My times are in God's hands.
*Something Big is happening.
*I will face the future fearlessly.
*I will not run away in fear.
Like Shamma, I too refuse to be a victim of fear and run away, and hide, but I will stand my ground and fight, and expect a great victory.
