Most of the world today, and more specifically, our country, would have to say, yeah, I’ve been living in fear.

And they are in fear of lots of things, actually, with all the goofy nonsense it’s that’s happened over the last a week or so, as far as the presidential election goes and, and all that sort of a thing, really going all the way back to November. Obviously, with the issues and the problems with the election and, you know, too many people put their faith in the government and too many people put their faith in other people.

And even Christians, So many Christians say, well, if we just get this person in office, then they’re going to pass all the laws, and they’re going to do everything just right for us. And if this other person gets in, it’s going to be the end of Christianity as we know it. And then we’re going to be all incarcerated and shut down.

They’re going to take our Bibles away from us and all this other stuff. In reality, the truth is someplace in the middle. And you know, it’s not the end of the world that they certified the election for Joe Biden, it’s not my preference, but it doesn’t matter what my preference is.

I cast my vote, and it is what it is. But it’s not the end of the world. It’s not the end of the world for Christians. It’s not; all hope is lost because Donald Trump didn’t get a second term. If you put your hope in Donald Trump, you got some problems, right?

If you put your hope in Donald Trump or Joe Biden or anybody else, any other political person, any other person on the earth, really, whether they’re political or not. You have some problems you have some issues. And, of course, you’re going to be living in fear. If that is where you’re putting your hope, and that is where you’re putting your trust.

Well, the government can never decide what they’re going to do from one moment to the next. And they’re really not concerned about doing what’s best for you. I know that they convinced you that they are. I know they’ve convinced you that they have your best interests at heart, but they don’t. You know that they don’t, because when you look at even this bill that they voted to send everybody six hundred dollars or whatever it is that they did.

And that, that bill was like 2,500 pages long or something like that. And, you know, It had all kinds of other stuff in there. You will never be able to convince me that any one of those senators who did or did not sign the bill read all 2,500 pages, you know, how many pages? 2,500 pages are?  It’s  A bunch!

You, you, you know what a ream of paper, you know, the size of a ream of paper, that’s 500 sheets, that’s 500 sheets, right? So there’s five of those, five of those, both sides, with a bunch of legal jargon, and they have all this other stuff mixed in there and all this cause they’re trying to get their agendas, whatever their agendas are and all that they don’t have your best interests at heart, you know, who does? The Lord Jesus Christ, and as a Christian, you shouldn’t be putting your faith and your trust and your government.

You shouldn’t be putting your faith and trust in any other man on the earth or woman. Okay. You should put your faith and trust in the Lord. Jesus Christ. That’s what we have here in Joshua, chapter one. Right? So we have Joshua here. So Joshua was Moses’ right hand, man.  Moses cannot go into the promised land because he smacked the rock where he was supposed to talk to it.

So the Lord brought him up there on top of the mountain and said, Hey, take a look. This is everything that the Israelites are going to have. This is all their land grant; this is everything that they will be able to have and get, and you can’t go; why? Because he disobeyed the Lord, there are consequences

 when you disobey the Lord, there were consequences. For Moses.

 So then Joshua takes over from there, right? And then Joshua takes them over into the promised land, and then they’re coming up against Jericho and it, looks scary, and it looks like there’s no way we’re going to be able to be victorious in this situation and all that kind of thing.

And then the Angel of the Lord comes to come to Joshua. Of course, the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ. So Jesus comes to Joshua.

Don’t be afraid

So don’t be afraid if you’re a Christian in here today, don’t be afraid about what the news media is going to do and what they’re going to say. They’re not going to do what you want them to do. And they’re going to say what you don’t want them to say, just Mark it down.

That’s what it’s going to happen is what always happens.

They’re not even interested in giving you the news anyway; they’re interested in formulating a story. For you, a story that has drama and good guys and bad guys, and, and they, they want to propel the stories that they want to elicit an emotional reaction from you. They don’t just want to give you the news.

If they wanted to give you the news, it would be like, you know, a bullet format. It might be like an outline like this is what happened. This is what so-and-so said. This is what the other person said. This was the outcome. That’s the news. That’s not what they’re interested in. They’re interested in twisting everything up and turning it into something that it ought not to be.

Case in point when Donald Trump made his concession speech and all the mess that happened on January 6, when those people were storming the Capitol and all this stuff, you will have a tough time convincing me that a lot of that stuff wasn’t planned out.  Nobody in their right mind can say that they did not know. That, with all these thousands of people that were coming to Rally in Washington, DC, that they didn’t need to have extra cops there. Everyone knew that this was a volatile situation, right? You can’t convince me that they didn’t realize that, and that they weren’t prepared for that.

It’s ridiculous. If the authorities weren’t, they all need to be gone. Start over. It’s silly to even believe that that’s the case. You know, there are other people whose whole purpose in life is to get away with what they can get away with. And they see an opportunity. Hey, all these people are getting together and doing this thing. Hey, let me get together with them and let me get in there so I can make a mess and I can do what I’ve always wanted to do. And that’s what happens, right? That’s what happens. Get all this mess, you got all this, all this disaster, everything else. And then you get your new president-elect Joe Biden go, goes on, and does an interview and all this stuff. Right. And in his interview, he brings race into it where race was not even an issue on January 6; nothing racial occurred on January 6.

But Joe Biden, he has to bring race into it. He says, well, you know, you can never convince me if that wasn’t black lives matter. Then there wouldn’t have been a lot more cops there. Well, what do you mean? Got to bring that into it? That has nothing to do with anything. He’s just trying to incite racist issues where one didn’t even exist.

That’s what he did. The news from that point on, all they could talk about was all the atrocities in history, and how terrible and awful the race relations are and everything else.  They were not even talking about the fact that a bunch of people, quote unquote, stormed the Capitol.

That’s all the news media is after.  They are not trying to give you the news that tells you right there, that was on the news, but that’s not news. It’s not news because it didn’t happen. He’s making an assumption based on facts that never occurred. That’s not news, that’s an opinion, a stupid one, but that’s an opinion.

That’s not news, but that’s where all the news, all the news papers, and shows, and that’s what they are. There shows. That’s where they all went because that’s all they’re after. They’re trying To keep you scared. They’re trying to keep you in fear because if you’re in fear, you allow them to take control.

Rely on the Lord Jesus Christ

If you’re in fear, you’re going to rely on somebody else to fix your issues and to fix your problems. And we’re supposed to rely on somebody else to fix our issues and our problems, but that person is the Lord. Jesus Christ. Not the government, not the media, not anybody in between, just the Lord. He’s the one that told us not to fear.

Why? Because he’s with us, whithersoever we go, everywhere we go. He’s with us wherever we go, no matter who’s president, wherever we go, no matter who has, the Congress or the Senate, no matter who the justices are, no matter who your boss is, no matter whatever else is going on.

It’s the Lord. It’s the Lord. Right. So, have you been living in fear, the TV show that aired back on NBC back from 2001 to 2006? I loved this show. It was called fear factor, fear factor had Joe Rogen in it. Right. And I’ve seen some, some like repeats and stuff. Like I think it like on Hulu or something. One of those, I don’t know. There are so many different streaming shows and all that nonsense anymore anyway. But I was watching some of them, and he looked like a little baby. You ought to go back and watch some of those; he looks like he’s like 16 years old or something. I don’t know how old he was, but he looks like a little baby face.

But anyway, so it was a show called fear factor. Right. And they did these things where they wanted to see, see if you could overcome your fear or whatever. Right. They always have a danger element. Right. You’d have to do something really dangerous. You know, what, whatever that might be,  like, having a car hanging from a crane up in up in the sky, and you have to climb through and climb over all over the car and get in on the other side of the car or something goofy like that.

And they’d be spraying water on you while you’re doing it. So you could slip and fall. You know you had a harness on; I really don’t understand why these people were scared. You’re like, I’m afraid I’m going to fall. You have a harness on;  if you fall, you’re going to be fine, I mean, it’s no big deal.

You’re not going to fall, as long as the bungee cord does its thing. Next, they would have a Physical challenge. The second thing is usually some sort of a mental challenge, right? Either make you eat something disgusting. It has something to do with animals or something like that.

You know, they make you lay in a coffin and put like, you know, spiders all over you or something, or, or snakes or, or what have you, and see, see if you can last through that and all that kind of thing. Now that’s something we to be scared about because the harness ain’t going to save you from that.

But then they have that, and then you make it through that and all that kind of a thing. And then they would have a real extreme stunt at the end. Like you would have jump over buses in a car or something. I don’t even know. Just something really, really scary.

They would always whittle it down to one person left. Right? And then that one person, when, they won the competition, this is what Joe would say. Joe would say. Evidently, fear is not a factor for you.

My hope is that as we look at this subject here today that at the end, you could also say fear is not a factor for me.

There are a lot of phobias out there. Here’s just a short list of some phobias.

cyber phobia

That’s a fear of computers. I don’t even know how in this day and age, somebody can survive and have a fear of computers, but those are people that have a fear of computers. Not that they don’t want to use them. But they’re actually afraid of the computer. I don’t know if they think it’s going to suck them in like into Tron or something, and they’re not gonna be able to get back out, but they have a fear of computers.

 Ecclesia phobia

A lot of people that you know suffer from ecclesia phobia. That’s a fear of the church. You hear these people. Oh, I can’t go to church. If I walk in, the roof’s going to fall in  and other nonsense, things like that.

Afraid, afraid of the church. What are you afraid of the church for? What are we afraid of going to church for? What do you think is going to happen? You going to get abducted?

Luna phobia

They’re afraid of the moon, I guess they think that the moon will come and get them. 

Phobo Phobia

Phobophobia is a fear, of fear. They’re scared of fear. I’m scared of getting scared. I don’t want to get scared cause I’m scared to get scared. Well, you’re already scared. So what difference does it make? People are afraid of all kinds of things.

The fear of the Lord

You know what you’re supposed to be afraid of? You know, we’re supposed to have a fear of the Lord. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom; you say, Well,  why do you fear the Lord? Well, you fear the Lord. See, you don’t have to fear the Lord, you say, well that doesn’t make much sense.

Well, it doesn’t make any sense to be afraid of being afraid either, but people are okay with that. Fear the Lord. So you don’t have to fear the Lord. Fear, the Lord, knowing how big a powerful he is and how sovereign he is and how much control he has and what it is that he can do.

Look, he doesn’t force anyone to come to him. Religions do that, but the Lord doesn’t do that. The Lord gives you free will.  You have the option you can come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Except Him as your personal Lord and savior and have heaven to look forward to, to have your sins forgiven and have a relationship with your creator.

Or you can reject the Lord, Jesus Christ, do it your own way. Do whatever you want to do. But the consequences are that you’re going to spend eternity in hell, and you’re not going to have a relationship or fellowship or anything of the sort with your creator. He just tells you what the consequences are.

So you fear the Lord, so you don’t have to fear him, you fear him because you know what he could do. You know that there’s a penalty for sin, and you know that you don’t want to pay that penalty. So you fear the Lord, you fear the judgment of the Lord. So your fear keeps you from going that direction; that’s fear of the Lord.

That is what it means to have a fear of the Lord. It’s not just a reverential, like, we hold him in reverence; you should hold the Lord in reverence, don’t think that I said, you don’t have to do that because you do.

Why? Because you fear him because if you don’t, there are consequences,  and you don’t want to pay for those consequences. Trust me on that. You don’t want to pay those consequences.

If you are living in the Spirit of fear, you are not exercising the Spirit of God that he's put in your life.

Not everybody is a child of God. You understand? Not everybody is a child of God. You are a child of God through The Lord Jesus Christ. That’s how you become a child of God. And once you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior, you have his Spirit, and his Spirit is dwelling in you. Still, you have the option and the ability as a Christian.

And when I say a Christian, I mean, somebody that has saved somebody put their faith and trust in Jesus, not just somebody who believes that there’s a God somewhere. You believe there’s a big God somewhere, but you don’t know who it is. Well, whoopte do for you? The Bible says that thou believest there is one God? Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. It doesn’t do the devil any good today. Just to know that there’s one God, anybody that’s not a fool understands or realizes that there’s a God. Anybody who says that they don’t believe that, they’re lying.

You go knocking on doors to invite people to church, and they answer and say something like this:

  Oh, I don’t believe in God. I’m an atheist. You know what I say? I say, that’s okay. I don’t believe in atheists.  I don’t believe there are any true atheist. It’s an excuse. It’s somebody that is trying to scare you away. They’re trying to get you to live in fear. Oh no, he’s an atheist. Oh, I better getaway.

They want you to live in fear. I don’t believe in atheists; let them get to someplace, let them get, let them get cancer or something. Let them get in a bad car accident or something awful. Terrible happens to them or somebody that they love in their life. And there, they’re going to decide that they think there’s a God, they’re not really an atheist.

They just say that to try to scare you off. You believe that there’s one. That’s not what I mean by Christian. I don’t mean just mean somebody who believes that there’s a God. A Christian is somebody who is like or as Christ. Somebody who’s put their faith and trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ in him alone for their salvation. That’s what I mean when I say Christian, just so that we’re all on the same, Page.

Two natures of the believer

As a Christian, you have the Spirit of God living within you. But if you’re living in the Spirit of fear, you’re not exercising that Spirit of God. You have two natures once you, once you’re saved you, you have two natures.

You still have the old nature. Right? The apostle Paul calls it the body of sin, and in some places, He calls it the flesh. He calls it the old man. Lots of different names for it, but it is all the same thing. It’s this body that you’re in, and it’s a sinful body, and it’s your old nature. And you still have that old nature.

You can still walk in that nature. That would be carnal. Now, if you’re carnal, even as a Christian, if you live carnally, you can’t please God. So if you live in fear, you can’t please God because that’s carnal. Doesn’t matter what else you’re doing. If you’re doing it in fear and not fear of the Lord, it’s carnal, and it’s not pleasing.

Even if the act itself in any other context might seem like it would be a pleasing thing, but it’s not because of your Spirit. You have to watch your Spirit. What kind of Spirit do you have? Do you have a spirit of fear? I hope I can help you with that here today.

The Apostle Paul writes here, and he says for God hath not given us the Spirit of fear. But of power and of love and of a sound mind, God did not give us the Spirit of fear.

You were created

The Lord created you, you are not here merely by happenstance. It wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t, it wasn’t some big, you know, big bang. The Lord created you. He created everything. He created the world. He created the stars. He created the moon and the sun and everything in between and as the sun, as the song says rather, he did all that in seven days, but he’s still working on me.

The Lord isn’t giving you the Spirit of fear.

 So the Lord Jesus Christ said, don’t let your heart be troubled. Don’t let it be afraid. He’s not giving you the Spirit of fear.

Again, Jesus says these things. I have spoken unto you. That is me, you might have peace in the world. You shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

John 16:33

Who wants you to be in fear?

You know that the Lord doesn’t give you the Spirit of fear. So if you’re living in the Spirit of fear, you need to ask yourself this very important question.

If the Lord isn’t giving you the Spirit of fear, then who is? Who wants you to be in fear? Who likes you to be in fear? Well, the answer is pretty simple. It would be your adversary.

 Your adversary is seeking to devour you. He wants to devour you. That’s why he gives you the Spirit of fear.

  He wants to devour your peace. He doesn’t want you to have peace. You have the peace of God. If you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the peace of God. That is a possession that you have, you have, but most Christians, unfortunately, don’t exercise it. That’s why the apostle Paul had to tell us that you have to let the peace of God rule and reign in your heart.

You have to allow it to rule and reign. It’s there. You can’t allow something to happen if it’s not available. So it’s available, but most Christians, they, they leave it aside. Most Christians, they don’t, they don’t avail themselves of that blessing. And that’s what your adversary wants. He wants to devour the peace of God out of your life.

He can’t take the peace of God away from you. You have peace of God through the Lord. Jesus Christ. You have peace of God through the fact that you’ve been justified and redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He can’t do anything about that, but he can devour your ability to live in that peace.

He wants to steal that peace away from you. He wants you to live in fear. That’s why he wants you to live in fear. So you don’t have peace. You know, if you’re in fear all the time, you don’t have any peace; there’s no peace in fear. It’s not like, Ooh, I’m so scared, and that makes me feel so good. That doesn’t happen. If it does, something is wrong with you; it doesn’t give you peace to be in fear.

Anxiety makes you all anxious and everything all the time that’s not of the Lord. It’s of the adversary he’s trying to devour the peace of God. He’s trying to devour your opportunities to share the peace of God with anybody else. He wants to devour your testimony. He wants to devour your testimony.

He doesn’t want you to have a testimony. He can’t do anything about your testimony. He can’t change your testimony. He can’t make you lose your testimony in as much as it’s no longer valid, but he could make you live in fear so that you don’t share that testimony. So that you don’t share the good news with anybody else.

Why? Because you’re scared. You’re afraid. He keeps you afraid, thinking that you’ve lost your salvation. You can’t lose what you didn’t earn, but he’ll make you believe that you lost it. So you’re not going to share it with anybody else. Because if you don’t know for sure if you have even got it or not. So if you don’t know if you got it or not, you are sure in the world, aren’t going to go around, sharing it with other people that tell other people, Hey look what you can have.

I’m not so sure if I have it or not, but you can. That doesn’t even make any sense. Right? So that’s why he tries to keep you in fear of your salvation. He wants you to be afraid of other people. He wants you to be fearful of those people. Well, you can’t share your testimony with that person, or they won’t be your friend anymore.

You can’t hand that person a gospel tract. They’re not going to like it, and they’re going to be mean to you in there. And they’re gonna, they’re going to snarl at you, or they’re gonna wadd it up, and throw it at your face. Most of the people that you run into, they’re not your friends anyway.

Some of these people. You’re probably never going to ever meet again for the rest of your life. So even if it makes them mad, what skin is that off your back? How is that really going to affect you? It’s not gonna affect you at all, but you know, what will affect you? What will affect you as if the Lord impressed upon your heart, that you should hand a gospel tract to somebody and you decide you’re not going to because you’re afraid of how they might respond.

It doesn’t matter how they respond, but it does matter what the Lord thinks. Fear of the Lord. So you don’t have to fear the Lord, but don’t have a spirit of fear when it comes to other people. The adversary wants you to have that Spirit. He wants to completely drown out your testimony. He wants to occupy your mind with fear, all the what-ifs.

What if this happens? What if the future doesn’t work out the way that I thought it was going to work out? What if the stock market crashes? What if the wrong person gets voted in? Well, what if the wrong person gets the promotion? What if so-and-so decides they don’t like me anymore. What if somebody finds out about my past that I’m not always been the person that I am today. What if somebody finds that out? Get over it.

Shady past

Paul knew all about having a bad past. He said that before he was saved, he persecuted the church. He said before he was saved, he compelled people to blaspheme before he was saved, he said that he was zealous to do things contrary to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 Paul knew all about having a bad past. If you allow it to, your fear will stop you in your tracks and keep you from doing anything for the Lord. That’s what your adversary wants to happen. Don’t live in the Spirit of fear. God, doesn’t give you the Spirit of fear, but he does give us these other three things found in the same passage.

Three ways to combat fear

He gives us these things to combat the Spirit of fear. He hasn’t given you the Spirit of fear, but he has given you the Spirit of power. A power that will enable you to serve him. He’s given you the power to serve him, not to cower in the corner. Not to be afraid to share your testimony but the opposite.

The Spirit of Power

So that’s what the adversary wants you to do. The adversary wants to keep you quiet. The adversary wants you to be afraid that, Oh, you just don’t know enough. You don’t know enough scripture. You haven’t memorized enough scripture. You know that you don’t read the scripture enough.

Well, you know what? Just get that fixed and read the Bible every day, 15 minutes a day. That’s all it takes. Read the Bible 15 minutes a day. And you could read through the entire Bible and in a calendar year, 15 minutes a day, that’s all it takes 15 minutes.

That’s all; you don’t have to feel bad about not reading the Bible every day. Just do it. Then you don’t have to feel bad about it anymore. You don’t have to have fear. Well, somebody’s going to ask me, have you ever read the Bible all the way through? And you have to say no, if you’re going, to be honest, and that scares you well, then fix it.

Read thru the Bible! 15 minutes a day. That’s it. You say, I just don’t have time. Well, I’ll tell you what,  you show me your calendar, and  I guarantee you, that I can find 15 minutes in your day.

Spoiler alert. It’s going to be first thing in the morning. Get up earlier. I don’t like to get up either. I hate getting up in the morning. It’s awful. I should be thankful that I can because there are people that can’t; I don’t like to get up early in the morning either. I don’t want to get up any earlier than I have to either.

It’s called discipline. It’s something that you force yourself to do. It’s beneficial. Just do it. The adversary wants you to be afraid by putting thoughts into your head that you don’t read your Bible enough. You don’t know the Bible well enough. You don’t have enough verses or any verses memorized. So, memorize some scripture.

  Memorize some scripture, we a plan for that, and it is only one verse per month. I mean, that’s low. I mean that’s, setting the bar really low. Just one verse every 30 days.  That’s setting the bar really low. But it’s a starting point. It’s a starting point, you know, and we have those twelve verses that we’ve already picked out and everything else for you to memorize and if you come up to one, because some of them, I guarantee you already know anyway. All right. You coming up to one that you have already memorized, Great, Pick a different  one.

You could squash that fear. That’s in your control. You have the power. The Lord has given you the power. He’s given you the Spirit of power. To overcome those things. He gives us strength.  Look with me over in Ephesians chapter three,

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19

The Lord has given you the power to serve. He’s given you the power to know some things. He provides us with a spirit of power to build our character.

He gives you the Spirit of power, and because you have that Spirit of power, you can rejoice in the hope that the Lord gives you. You know, rejoicing in hope is the opposite of living in fear.

You can rejoice in hope. You can have hope when it looks like There’s no hope. Every place you look, everybody’s like the sky is falling. They’re all like chicken, little, the sky is falling. The sky is falling. The sky is not falling. The Lord is still in control. He’s still sovereign. He still has you in the palm of his hand; he’s still giving you the power, the Spirit of power.

You can rejoice in hope you can be patient through tribulation. You can be patient as you go through the bad times of life because you’re going to go through bad times in life. You’re going to have times when your health isn’t what it ought to be. You’re going to have times when your Spirit isn’t what it ought to be.

  You’re going to have times when your family isn’t what it ought to be. You’re going to have times when people are just flat out being mean and obnoxious towards you. Still, you can have patience through all that stuff because you know, in the end, you have hope, you know that you’re putting your faith and your trust  and your hope and everything else in the Lord and not in all those other people in all those others circumstances, the Lord has given you the Spirit of power.

Spirit of Love

 Not only that but the next thing that he says there in second Timothy chapter one, that he’s given you the Spirit of, to combat the Spirit of fear is he’s given you the Spirit of love.

He has given you the Spirit of love. If you’re saved today, he has given you the Spirit of love. Some of us may have more trouble expressing the Spirit of love than other people, but he has given you the Spirit of love. You care about things, and you care about people that before coming to Lord Jesus Christ, you really didn’t care about. He’s given you a heart for things that you never had a heart for before.

He’s given you the Spirit of love. Love is one of the fruits of the Spirit. You find it over there in Galatians. Chapter five it’s a fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit of love.

Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints; That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Romans 15:30-33

He said, I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake and for the love of the Spirit, for what? That ye strive together with me in your prayers, toward God. He’s given us a spirit of love for one another. That we’ll strive together with one another, that we would band together with one another.

It’s why he says that not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of Some are, but as the day approaches, we’re supposed to gather together more and more, not less and less.  People these days, they want to gather together less and less. They say things like, Well, I can read a blog post. I can watch somebody’s live stream, live broadcast, or whatever, and I don’t need to go to church.

You need to go to church more and more as the day is approaching. Not less and less. They say, well, I go on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night. That’s the minimum. People who think that they’re a profitable servant, when is all they do is what exactly what they’re asked to do that Jesus said that’s not a profitable servant, that’s an unprofitable servant, an unprofitable servant does exactly what they’re asked to do.

A profitable servant does more. You want the Lord to look at you and say that you’re a profitable servant, then you need to do more, not the bare minimum. People do that all the time. They barely show up to work. They barely, they barely punched the clock and hardly do the very bare minimum of what it is that they have to do not to get fired.

And then once a year, they expect a raise! For what? For just showing up for barely squeaking by and not getting fired; you think that you deserve a raise for that? People go to the Lord the exact same way. Bare minimum as, as little as they can possibly get away with. And then they, they expect the Lord just to throw all these blessings on them, pile all these blessings on multiply his blessings upon them, bless everything that they touch, make all the relationships just perfect. Make their finances just right. Make their job the best job in the world. Make their kids just the most perfect kids that never do anything wrong. Let me know if you meet anybody like that. I mean, it’s not mine. Mine are grown. I mean, they were that way, but they’re not kids anymore. So, all right. He has given you the Spirit of love.

The Lord hasn’t given you the Spirit of fear. He’s given you the Spirit of power. He’s given you a spirit of power. He’s given you a spirit of love.

The Spirit of a Sound Mind

 And finally, he’s giving you the Spirit of a sound mind, our minds need to be renewed. He tells us that in Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:23, and in Colossians 1:21, all three of those places, the apostle Paul reminds you that your mind needs to be renewed.

The Lord has given you the Spirit of a sound mind. You can have a sound mind, but to have a sound mind, your old mind needs to be renewed. Your mind has been delivered. Your mind has been rescued in your mind has been protected by the Lord.

But you have to allow that to happen when you’re tempted to fear, you need to depend on God’s word. That’s what’s going to give you the Spirit of a sound mind is the word of God. It’s going to give you a sound mind. You’re going to know what’s true and what’s not true because it’s here. You have the truth. Jesus said, sanctify them by, by truth. Thy word is truth. The word of God is truth.

CNN isn’t truth, Twitter isn’t truth, Facebook isn’t the truth. The Epoch Times isn’t truth. The word of God, Now that’s the truth.

Your mind and your emotions can be protected from all the illogical and ridiculous and absurd and crazy thoughts that come, come into your mind. It could be protected from all that. If you’ll concentrate on the word of God, he’s given you the Spirit of a sound mind; you need to allow the word of God and his power to work in your mind.

Cast off fear. You know, we’re commanded in the Bible over 59 different times to cast off fear. You think the Lord wants you to get that?  He knows that you have to deal with fear. He knows that fear exists. He knows it’s a thing. He knows. It’s a battle that you have to face. He knows all about that. He was tempted in all points like, as we are tempted, he understands our infirmities. He understands our limitations. He understands who we are more so than we even realize who we are. 

So he’s told us over 59 different times in the Bible to cast off fear. Because fear is a problem. You need to cast off fear.

You don’t have to live in fear

If you exercise these three things that he’s given you, the Spirit of power and Spirit of love, the spirit of a sound mind, and Cast off the Spirit of fear, then you too will be able to say fear is not a factor for me.

Don’t let the world and the circumstances and everything else going on and all the turmoil and everything else. Don’t allow that stuff to put you in a box. Don’t let that stuff to put you into a place where you’re living in fear. You don’t have to live in fear.

It’s a choice that you make. It’s a choice that you make. You’re going to live in fear, and you’re going to go, you’re going to go along with your adversary. Well, why would you want to go along with your adversary? People do it all the time. You go along with your adversary, or you can put that off, and you can live in the Spirit of power and the Spirit of love and the Spirit of a sound mind.  And you can cast off that fear.

 That’s only available to you. If you put your faith and trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ. So if you’ve never done that, I beg you, get that taken care of today.

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and has helped you to develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.