(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The passage that I'd like to focus on is actually in verse number 10 where the Bible reads, and he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Now, what I want to talk about tonight is fear, and that's actually the first time in the entire Bible that the concept of fear is ever mentioned. And notice that fear comes into play right after, you know, in regard to man, that is. Fear comes into play right after man has committed sin. That's what causes him to be fearful, and, you know, all of a sudden he's afraid of God because he knows that there's a punishment coming and there's a judgment coming for his sins. Now, fear is a huge subject in the Bible, and I'm going to deal with some different aspects of it tonight, but it's a really often discussed subject in the Bible. I mean, just the word fear itself is used 400 times, not to mention the word afraid or fearful or fear. Just the word fear is used 400 times, just as a noun. So this is a subject that the Bible deals a lot with. And I'm just going to give you a small sampling by way of introduction. Now I'm going to get into some specific topics. But you'll notice that when you go through the Bible, you see, every time that fear is mentioned, it's negative. The only time it's ever positive is when God's commanding us to fear God because that is who we should be afraid of. And, you know, Adam had every reason to be afraid here because he committed sin and he's got to face God for that sin that he's committed. That was the cause of his fear, but notice that the fear came as a result of sin. You know, if man in a perfect world was living a perfect life, he'd have no reason to be afraid of God. But because of our sin and because every single person is a sinner, fear has entered into the world. And there are two kinds of fear that I see distinctly in the Bible. There's fearing God and then there's fearing anyone else. And whenever we're fearing God, basically God's telling us that's the right thing to do. We ought to fear God. We ought to have a fear of the Lord. And then every time that fearing anyone else is mentioned, it's always negative. God's telling us not to fear. He said 63 times this exact phrase, fear not. 63 times. 53 times he said, be not afraid, or something similar to that. And then on and on. And I'm just going to give you a small sampling here of verses that tell us not to be afraid. Just from the book of Psalms alone. There's a huge number of verses, and it's all throughout the Bible. But in Psalm 3, 6, you don't have to turn them. It says, I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about, David said. Psalm 27, 1, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Verse 3, though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. Psalm 46, 2, therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. The Bible says in Psalm 23, of course, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Psalm 56, 3, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust, I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Psalm 56, 11 says, in God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Psalm 112, 7, he shall not be afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. I mean, you get the idea? It's just one book in the Bible. He says in Psalm 118, 6, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear. What can man do unto me? And then he said in Proverbs 3, verse 24, when thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid. Thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. And I could go to the four Gospels and just show you Jesus over and over, telling his disciples, Fear not, fear not, be not afraid. I mean, this is a big subject in the Bible. This is an important subject that we need to get down tonight, and we need to eradicate fear from our lives. It has horrible consequences. And I'm going to go through and show you some of the negative effects of fear in our lives in the Bible. Turn to Genesis, first of all. Genesis chapter number 26. And while you're turning there, I'll read you some verses that tell us that we should fear God. Because all those verses tell us not to be afraid. But there are even more verses, multitudes of verses, telling us, yes, you should be afraid of God. You should fear the Lord. He said in Luke chapter 12, I'll just give you one example. There are a ton of scriptures. But he said, I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body. And after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear him which, after he had killed, had power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. So on and on, there are tons of verses in the Bible, Solomon said over and over, Ecclesiastes, for example, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding. He said, by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I'm saved. I know I'm going to heaven. Why should I fear God? You know, there's a lot of punishment that God can bring to your life here and now in this world. You know, right now, God can chasten and God can chastise you. God holds your breath in his hand. God holds your life in his hand. And God can punish us on this earth as his children. It's just as my children fear me. They ought to fear me because they know that Dad will punish. If they commit disobedient acts in my house, they're going to be punished. And they fear that judgment. They fear that wooden cooking spoon or that paint stirrer. They fear it because they know that the wrath of Mom and Dad is there to punish their disobedience. And so the bottom line is we should fear God, but we need to get the fear of man out of our life. It will cause us all kinds of problems. Now, the first thing it's going to do, Genesis 26 says, it'll cause you to lie. Now, nothing will make you a liar more than fear. I mean, almost every lie that people tell, they tell it because of fear. They're afraid of getting in trouble. They're afraid of getting caught. They're afraid they're going to get fired. They're afraid they're going to get busted. And fear will lead us to tell lies more than anything. Look at Genesis 26, for example, verse 6. It says, And Isaac dwelt in Gerar, and the men of the place asked him of his wife, and he said, She is my sister. Now, he's lying. He's saying that his wife is really his sister. And the reason that he told that lie that made no sense, I mean, he was in a friendly place. Everybody there was friendly to him. There was no reason, but look at the next words. For he feared to say, She is my wife, lest said he, the men of the place, should kill me for Rebecca because she was fair to look upon. So right there, fear has motivated him to lie just to try to protect himself. And really, he's causing other people to lie because he's telling his wife to lie also and say, Hey, this is my brother. You know, this is my sister. And that's exactly what Abraham did. Same reason. He was afraid. And so fear is what causes people to lie. And so we need to stay away from fear, number one, because it will lead us into lying. You know, when you do something wrong, when you mess something up on the job, you know, just tell the truth about it. Don't try to lie and cover it up. And, you know, of course, the saying goes, Oh, what a tangled web we weave when at first we practice to the sea. Because what happens is you'll tell one lie, and then you'll usually end up having to tell another lie to cover up that lie. And then you have to tell another lie. And then you just get in the habit of lying in life. You know, if something breaks on the job, you need to just come forward and just say, Hey, you know, I'm sorry. It was an accident. I broke this. And, you know, it may lead to bad consequences, but in the long run, God's going to bless you for telling the truth. God hates a lying tongue. Lying's a bad sin. But usually it's a fearful attitude that will cause us to lie. Think about Peter. Remember when he lied? Remember when people came unto him, when Jesus Christ would be led away to trial, and they said, Hey, weren't you with him in the garden also? And, Oh, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know who that is. He was lying. Why? Because he was scared. He was afraid. He should have had the boldness right there that the Spirit of the Lord gives, and he should have said, Yes, I was there in the garden. Yes, I believe on Jesus Christ. And he should have been giving them the Gospel. He should have been preaching the truth to them. Instead, he's running and hiding. And look how irrational fear could become. We're actually a damsel. That doesn't sound that scary. I mean, a damsel comes to him and says, Hey, you were in the garden with him. No, no, I wasn't. He's afraid of a little girl, you know, or a young teenage girl or whatever the age. He's afraid of her. Why? Because that's what fear will do to us. It'll make us... It's always irrational because God said, Hey, if God be forced, who can be against us? If the Lord is on my side, what can man do to me? Why be afraid of anyone? It really doesn't make any sense, but, you know, fear can reduce us to where even a girl is sending us running scared, like in the case of Peter. And Peter was a great guy, but fear took over. We see Isaac lying and causing himself all kinds of problems in Genesis 26 because he's afraid. But not only that, turn to Matthew 25. Fear will also hinder us from serving God like we should. Nothing will slow us down. So first of all, fear can cause us to sin. But not only that, fear will hinder us from serving God. It'll stop us from doing what we need to do for God. See, people are afraid to preach. You know, they're nervous, they're scared, and they're afraid to get up and preach. Or preachers are afraid to preach what needs to be preached. You know, and they'd rather get up and give a vague message because they're afraid to just get up and just tell it like it is because they're scared of what somebody's going to think about it. And I guarantee you the biggest problem in 99% of the churches across America that are actually saved, that are actually Bible-believing churches, you know, whatever, I guarantee you the biggest problem could be just summed up in one word, fear. I mean, if we looked around at the independent fundamental Baptist churches across America, the ones that are actually preaching the Gospel, and you know, there are a lot of them. But there aren't a lot preaching what needs to be preached today in 2011. I mean, we can look around the Phoenix area, we can look around the state of Arizona and find a lot of independent fundamental Baptist churches that are believing the Bible, that are doing some kind of soul-winning, that believe that salvation is by grace through faith. But why is the preaching so weak? Why is the congregation so worldly as a result of the weak preaching? Why is it that they are so different from what they ought to be as a church and the preaching is so different from the preaching that we read about in the Bible? One word, fear. The pastor is afraid to preach what needs to be preached. And God needs to give us that boldness to just get up and preach his word and let the chips fall where they may. And fear is the biggest problem today in the pulpits of America. Fear. You're scared. And I think that people can handle a lot more than these pastors alone. You know, I think these pastors sometimes are scared of their own shadow. I think if they got up and really just cut loose and preach, you know, I'd like to think that the people in their church would rally. They'd rally. They'd be excited. But no, they're scared. They're afraid. They don't want to try it, you know. In Matthew 25, verse 14, it says this, For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several abilities, and straightway took his journey. So he's leaving these guys behind while he goes on his journey and he's giving them money. He's investing his money. And he wants them to do something with that money. He wants them to multiply that money. He wants them to, you know, build something with it. It'd be like if I were a wealthy man and I were going away and I said, hey, I'm going to give you $10,000. You know, I'm going to give you $5,000. I want you to start some kind of a business with that. You know, I want you to use that money. Because, you know, it takes money to make money, right? I want you to use this money to start some kind of an enterprise and do something. I'm going to give you this loan because when I come back, I want to get a return on that. I want to get a part of the profit. You know, I want you to do something with what I'm giving you. And God is basically saying here, that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. And it says, likewise, verse number 16, it says, Then he that had received five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents. So this guy multiplies it into another five. You know, he goes down to the stock market or does a little trading. You know, hopefully it wasn't insider trading. He's doing some kind of trading there and he, you know, multiplies it into five. Verse 17, likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. So he multiplied his money also. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. After a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I've gained five, I've gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said unto them, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold, I've gained other two talents beside them. His Lord said unto them, Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew that thou art an hard man, reaping, and by the way, we ought to know that about God. But it says, I know that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not struck. And I was what? I was afraid. And when it hid thy talent in the earth, lo, there hast thou that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful, slothful means lazy, he said, you wicked, lazy servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not struck. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he hath. He says, you lazy, wicked servant. He was gone for a long time. This guy is his servant. This guy is supposed to be serving him, working for him. It reminds me, you know, I've been in the fire alarm business for years, and sometimes I would have employees, and you know, it's like you drop them off at a job, right? And I've literally had this happen like exactly what's in this story. I've lived this story. You know, you drop somebody off, and you explain to them, okay, here's some stuff to do, do this, do that, do that. You know, I've got to go. I'll be back, you know, because I've got to run and do this other service call, or I've got to get parts, or whatever. And you line somebody out, and you that work in construction type say, you know what I'm talking about, you know, you line somebody out and you leave. And then I remember, I've come back before, and you know, nothing's done. And it's like, well, I was afraid that I would do it wrong. So I just decided just not to touch anything. You know, it's like, but that's not what I told you to do. You know, I told you to do it. You know, try your best, get something done. I'll just say, well, you know, I just decided to wait till you got here. It's like, well, you know, I'm paying you. You know, I don't want to pay you to sit here and wait because you're afraid to try something, you know. And you know, people make mistakes and do stuff wrong, but you know, at least try, do something. Don't just not work while I'm gone. And you know, that's the way it is with Jesus Christ. He's gone. He was on this earth. He had his disciples. He was supervising. He said, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. He left this world. He said, as the Father sent me, so send I you. And he said, occupy until I come. Occupy as in occupation, as in do something, as in work. And he left us here on this earth, his disciples, we're today his disciples. And he said, you know, do my work. Serve me. Do this job until I come back and Jesus Christ will come back one day. And in the meantime, we're supposed to be working. But people say, well, I just didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't really know, you know, soul winning. I didn't want to do it wrong, so I just didn't do it. You know, I was afraid that I wouldn't know what I... I was afraid somebody would ask me a question and I wouldn't know the answer. So I just didn't go soul winning. I mean, I've literally heard people say that. You've probably heard people say that. You know, well, I just don't want to go soul winning because I'm afraid somebody will ask me something that I can't answer. I'm afraid. I'm afraid I'm going to miss. You know what? Just get out there and do something for God. Don't let fear stop you. And today there are all kinds of people that would go out. They ought to go out and knock some doors and preach the gospel, but they're afraid. They ought to be out behind a pulpit, preaching God's word from the pulpit. But they're afraid to preach. You know, let me tell you something. The first time I went out soul winning, I was afraid. You know, the first time I did the talking, man, I was so nervous. And literally, probably for the first year or two that I went soul winning, literally the first year or two. Every time, I was always nervous walking up to that first door. You kind of hope they weren't home, you know? And I've been out for years. Now, today I'm not afraid. But, you know, in the early days, I was nervous. I was afraid. And I got over that. I built up the boldness to do it. But at first I was afraid. Usually after I got through the first couple doors, then I'd have the confidence and I wasn't afraid anymore. But let's face it. Your average person today is a little fearful about knocking that door. You know, not everybody, just as a people person that just gets out there and, Hey, how you doing? I mean, it's something you have to work at. But, you know, this is something we need to work at, eradicating fear. Praying to God that He would give us boldness, which is the opposite of fear. That we would speak the word of God with boldness. The first time I got up to preach, I was extremely nervous. And for years of preaching, hundreds of times I'd get up to preach, I was nervous. I'm really nervous right now. But anyway, I've been nervous many times getting up to preach because it's nerve wracking. Everybody's looking at you. You're preaching to a crowd. You get up here. You know what? But you can't let fear stop you. If God wants you to preach, you need to get up and preach. You need to go out and win souls and not let fear stop you. Fear paralyzes. Fear paralyzed this man in this parable where he didn't do anything. He just buried it and wasted years of this guy's time. I mean, look, do you think he wanted to leave that money behind with that guy? He could have left it with somebody else. That's why he finally took it away from the guy and said, You know, give it to the guy who's got 10. He's going to do something. He's going to use it. But fear will paralyze. You know, and by the way, also on another, you know, we'll tie into this morning sermon of all about marriage that I was preaching about. You know, we can get into the subject of marriage. You know, a lot of guys are never going to get married because they're afraid to talk to any ladies. You know what I mean? And that's something that's going to paralyze you. You know, you're going to be single for the rest of your life unless you get over that fear of, you know, talking to somebody. You know, and then ladies are the same thing. You know, you've got to talk to somebody. You've got to meet people in order to get married someday. And so you guys that are single, you can learn how to accomplish it. But anyway, you know, you need to get out there and talk to somebody and not be afraid. But, you know, let's get into the thing of the family too. Many husbands won't rule their home because they're afraid. They're afraid of their wife. They're afraid of that rolling pin. You know, they're afraid of what's going to happen if they really put their foot down in that house. But, you know, we can't live in fear. You've got to take the lead in the home, men. And, you know, leadership takes boldness. Leading in the church takes boldness. Leading in the home, leading in business. You know, you've got to have boldness and fear will paralyze you from being the leader that you need to be. Because part of being a leader is stepping out in faith. Part of being a leader is taking chances. Part of being a leader is getting out and doing something when there's a little risk involved. You know, you look at these guys. There was a risk in putting their money out there, their 10 talents, their 5 talents. There's no risk. If you bury it in the backyard, risk-free. But you also wasted your money. You wasted your time and you wasted your master's confidence that he placed in you. And so that's part of being a leader. And if you're ever going to lead the home, men, fear is not an option. And even for the mother and the father in the home, leading the children, don't be afraid. I've heard of so many people say, well, you know, I can't spank my children. By the way, the Bible commands us to spank our children. You know, and I'm not talking about abuse or anything. I'm talking about just a biblical, just, you know, in the pattern area that God created for that purpose. You know, give them a spanking. And you know what, the Bible is so clear on that. I will not compromise that whatsoever. Children are to be spanked, lovingly disciplined by parents. Corporal punishment is a command of God. You spare the rod and you spoil the child. You know, the Bible commands us to spank our children over and over in the Book of Proverbs. And that's another servant of itself. But a lot of parents are afraid to spank their children. Yet they're afraid to obey God. God, the one who runs the whole universe that has all the power given unto him, they're afraid to obey him because they feel like they might be disobeying, you know, some CPS worker. You know, I'm sorry, but every CPS worker can drop dead as far as I'm concerned. I'm sick of it. Because you know what, it's a wicked institution and they have no right invading people's homes and telling them how to raise their children. It's wicked. It's ungodly. It's government way out of balance. And there's all kinds of big cases of CPS workers who basically have gone in and taken away children and they're literally just adopting them out to people and they're taking bribes and everything. It's kidnapping. That's all it is. It's kidnapping. You want to know what the Bible says about it? King Solomon had a situation where there was a prostitute that had her child there and he said, give her the child for she's the mother thereof. It doesn't matter whether she's a prostitute. It doesn't matter. If it's her child, God gave her that child and our government is wicked. And then you say, why didn't you tell them to drop dead? You know, because the Bible says that all kidnappers should drop dead. That's a biblical doctrine found in the book of Exodus. And so they're wicked as hell and they're working for our evil government to come in and take people's children away. And you look at it and you say, whoa, but two people are abused. Well, you know what? If somebody is really committing a crime, then they can be arrested by the police. Why do we need this other agency to come in without a trial, without a jury, without a warrant, without any kind of oversight, without being found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? No. They can just march in and just take the kids away and no recourse. No habeas corpus or no legal process of law. No due process. Take away our freedoms. Oh, but we swear it's for the children. And it's wrong. But are you going to live in fear of that? Because I'm not. I'm not going to live in fear of them. I'm not going to be afraid of their terror. I know that I'm raising my children right. I know that I'm not abusing them or doing anything wrong. I know that I'm obeying God and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I know that my children are the happiest, healthiest children I've ever seen. And so, therefore, I'm not going to live in fear, oh, man, I'm afraid. But then the children get older. And parents literally become afraid of their own teenagers. And they're scared to stand up to their teenagers. And it's really a sad thing when you see teenagers mouthing off to their parents. If I would have mouthed off to my parents like that, I mean, my dad would have punished me so bad. I was afraid to do it. But today the parents are afraid of their children. And then the children get into school sometimes and they tell them. If you're being spanked, tell them. Who was it that we were talking about this earlier? Was that you that told me about that? I heard a story about somebody who called CPS because their parents wouldn't let them go to a dance at the school. Because they were against all the rock and roll and all the stuff that goes on at these dances. And so the principal called CPS. You know, oh, we've got a real case of abuse here. They're not allowed to go to the prom and sing YMCA and do all this garbage that the world has. That's the world we're living in today. But I'm not going to be afraid of that. I'm not going to sit there and be like, oh, man, what if my teenager turns on me? Well, then I'll turn on him. And the bottom line is this. We ought to fear God alone and just obey Him on raising our children. Whatever the age. And then here's what happens. Then they turn 18, right? And they turn 18 and then people think, well, we have to let them do whatever they want because if we don't, they'll leave the house. And then they'll move out and then we have no control over them. Look at the prodigal son story. When that prodigal son wanted to go out and live a sinful life, you know what Dad said? He was an adult. He said, don't let the door get you on your way out, son. That's not in the King James. He basically told them, don't let the door get you on your way out, son. You didn't go chasing after them all away. Maybe you can live a little bit riotous living right here at home and be supervised. No. But today we have parents who are afraid to crack down. And look, if somebody's living in my home, they're living according to my rules. You know, I don't care if my child's 18, 19, until they get married and leave the house, they're living under my rules. And they're not going to live a life of drunkenness or fornication. They're going to go to church. I'll drag them to church. I'll bring them to church. But let me tell you something. Today parents are afraid. Oh, I'm afraid that they're going to turn on me if I don't put my foot down. Hey, put your foot down. What are they going to do about it? Leave? All right, see you later. They'll be back once they hit the pig pen, as the prodigal son did. You know, sometimes you've got to let people hit rock bottom. And I've seen it so many times in my life where young people will go out and start living a simple life. And the parents will keep propping them up and keep giving them a place to stay and keep buying them groceries and paying their bills. And propping them up. You know what? You've got to let them hit the pig pen and hit rock bottom so that they come back with their heart in the right place. The Bible says the prodigal son came to himself. And when they come to themselves and realize, hey, wait a minute, the way of the transgressors is hard. I think I'm going to go back to what's right and live a righteous life. But you see, parents are afraid to do that. And so we have never... You know, this is a good rhyme. Don't rear by fear. You know, when you're rearing your children. Don't rear by fear. You know, just have the boldness to put... And by the way, if you take care of it at this age, you won't have to worry about it at this age anyway. If you don't spare the rod when they're this tall, you won't usually be having those kinds of problems when they're this tall. But you know, whatever the age, wherever you're at with your children, draw a hard line in the sand and run that house. And if they don't like it, then see you later. You know, because that's where your children are going to respect you. And they're going to know that you're going to be consistent. And they're going to know that when five years later or two years later they do hit the pig pen, they're going to know you'll always be there and you'll be the same as when they left. I thank God that people... There have been people who left our church and then came back. And you know, they find us years later and they know that when they walk in, they know that we'll still be the same. And here we are, the same. And if they come back five years from now, we'll be here, we'll be the same. And you know, not everybody who likes what's preached here. You know, and a lot of people could be... And I could just be afraid of losing people and afraid to offend people. But you know what, I'd rather people just know that I'm consistently up here preaching the same thing. I'm not going to change, I'm not going to water down, I'm not going to compromise. And you know what, that's going to do more in the long run right there. Just having the boldness to just stay the course and go straight down the line. And as a parent or as a pastor or as people, that's how we need to live. Don't let fear enter in and stop you from doing what God has commanded you to do. Go to 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. We were there this morning, we're going to go later in the chapter this time. 1 Peter 3. And look, this is an important sermon because we're living in perilous times. Our world is becoming more and more dangerous. The Bible says that knowing this, that in the last days, perilous times shall come. Dangerous times. And you know, we are living in a day of abusive government. We are living in a day of wicked influences on our children. We are living in a day where there's a lot of danger in the world that we live in. Our country is only going to get more and more dangerous in the next few years. We don't know what's going to happen, but I think some very bad things are going to happen in the next few years, the way things are going. Are we going to go through that period fearless, trusting in the Lord, keep doing what we're doing, keep soul winning, keep preaching, keep reading the Bible, keep raising our families the way God wants us to, or are we going to be scared and paralyzed by fear and just try to exist? No, the Bible says the wicked flee when no man pursues it, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. Look at 1 Peter 3, verse 12, it says, For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But, and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror. Neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. Fear of God, not fear of them. He says in verse 16, having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. Go to Revelation 2. He said in 1 Peter 3 there, Look, you might suffer for righteousness' sake, but don't be afraid, because God is the one that can keep anyone from harming you. God can protect you. God can keep you safe. Don't be afraid of it. Don't be scared. And we live in a really fearful society, as evidenced by the insurance industry. You know, everybody's so afraid of all the bad things that are going to happen, that they have to take out, like, ten different insurance policies. You know, because, you know, just in case, you know, they have to have insurance for everything that possibly could go wrong, just to be covered. You know, and then they get a big umbrella policy that covers everything else. And then they got the, you know, the terrorist policy, you know. Whenever I get insurance, you probably know about this. Whenever I get insurance, I always have to sign this thing that, like, it doesn't cover terrorism. What if I wanted to cover terrorism? Do I just pay a little extra? You buy it, and there are people that buy it, huh? Are there people that pay for that? So Amanda's in the insurance business, you know, and everybody signs a little thing, well, you know, acts of terrorism are not covered. But she's got customers saying, hey, we need that. What if terrorists do attack my house? What if terrorists do attack my car? I need to be covered. You know, I mean, the chance of a terrorist attacking you is, like, less than the chance of being struck by lightning. You know, do you have a policy for that? A lightning strike policy? You know, I'm sure it's covered, you know. I mean, I have a life insurance policy, you know. Give my wife peace of mind. And I've got a life insurance policy, and it even covers suicide. I mean, it covers everything. And the salesman, he told me when I was getting it, he said, if a herd of elephants come crashing through your house, it's covered. He said, if you commit suicide, it's covered. He said, everything is covered. He said, there's nothing that's not covered. Even terrorism is covered. If Osama bin Laden blows you up, your wife is covered. And so we live in a society, you know, I'm joking around about the insurance, but it just shows, you know, in the previous generation, you know, or maybe a little bit back further than that, you know, insurance was not even something that existed in this country. It wasn't even something that, you know, if you ran into hard times, you know, you saved up, or you relied on family and friends or church, and you figured out a way to get through it. But today, we just have to have all this coverage, and we have to be covered. You know, this is my insurance policy right here. This is the most important insurance policy. And, you know, you've got to read the fine print, you know. But this is the insurance policy right here. But we live our lives afraid of everything, and we're scared that this is going to happen. What if this happens? And, you know, that's just a what if society. It's like ladies that are growing up, they're told, you know, well, you know, what if you get divorced? You need to have a career to fall back on. You know, and that's what I teach them. Just everything is just a fear. What if my marriage doesn't work out? What if my kids don't turn out right? And people ask me, oh, what if your kids grow up and do this? I don't go through life wondering, well, what if my kids? Train up a child in the way he should go when he's old and out of the car. I'm not sitting here being afraid of what my kids are going to grow up and do. I'm not going to go through life afraid that my marriage is going to fall apart, afraid that Faithful Word Baptist Church is going to fall apart, afraid that I'm going to get struck by lightning or run over by elephants or that a terrorist is going to come get me, like we talked about with the insurance man or that I'm going to commit suicide. You know, I'm not afraid of any of those things. We ought to just live a life where we have boldness. We trust the Lord. We trust God. He's going to take care of us. We live our life each day by serving God, obeying Him, and whatever happens, happens. You know, just let it come to pass. Look at Revelation 2.10. It says, Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried. He said, look, don't be afraid of things that you're going to suffer for Christ. He said, some of you are going to be cast into prison. It's just a fact. He said, and ye shall have tribulation ten days, be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He says, don't even fear death. Don't even fear imprisonment. Don't fear what man can do to you. I hold you in the palm of my hand. As he said in Revelation chapter 2, he said that the seven stars were in his right hand, and the seven stars were the angels of the seven churches. Basically, those preachers that he called the angels of the seven churches, the pastors of those churches, he said, I am holding them in the palm of my hand. And so there's nothing to fear. The Bible says the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. If I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. And so we have no living fear because God is the one who can protect us from anything. You know, bad times are going to come. You're going to have health problems. You're going to have financial problems. You're going to have problems with people. You're going to have problems on the job. Instead of fearing those things and biting your nails every day, wondering what's going to happen, you need to just cast all your care upon him, for he cared for you, the Bible says. He said, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God. Did you get that? The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds to Christ Jesus. We're going to live a life of peace, not of fear, because we've told God what we need, we've told God what our problems are, and we just trust him that everything's going to work out okay. The Bible says, take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto the days of the evil earth. And how many times have you been afraid of something, or nervous about something, or dreading something, and it didn't even happen? I mean, every time we're just, you know, something's a week out, and you're just afraid, and you're nervous, and you can't sleep, and you're dreading it, and then, oh wow, it didn't even happen. The situation changed. You waste your life just afraid and scared. You know, man, just get out there and do something with your life. Serve God, and don't be afraid to do it. Now, I want to close by saying this. Go to Acts 18, but I want to close by saying this. You need to really get this drilled into you, this subject of fear. It's so biblical. I mean, it's mentioned in practically every chapter of the Bible. I mean, over, like I said, even the noun fear, 400 times. Afraid is mentioned, you know, I think almost 100 times. I mean, just, oh, you're going to see this hundreds of times in the Bible, probably a thousand mentions, you know, if you add up all the different ways that he phrases it. Probably about a thousand mentions of fear in the Bible. Big subject. As you go through life, you're going to experience fear. You're going to feel fear, because you're human. I'm human. You're going to be scared, and you know what? You always have to do is stop and think, wait a minute. What am I afraid of? Am I fearing God here, or am I just afraid of phantoms? You know, am I just afraid of man? And I tell you what, you ought to just get this in your heart, get some of these verses memorized, and quote some of these verses to help you deal with fear. You know, you get in a situation that's dangerous, and I've been in some dangerous situations. I've been in some dangerous places. You know, South Chicago, you know, that's a dangerous place. I remember working in South Chicago at night. There was a lot to be afraid of. I mean, there was a lot of legitimate fear there, okay, of legitimate enemies and legitimate crime. You'd hear the gunshots, and people are looking at you, and they're looking at your stuff, and they're looking at your coat, and they're looking at your car, you know. And there's some legitimate fear there. But you know what? I found myself saying, I would say, wait a minute. Fear is not from God. The Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear, but a power and a love know the sound of light. And I would just quote these verses. When I would feel fear come over me, I would just quote the verses. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. And you know, those verses will help you overcome fear. And if you look in the Bible, there were people who faced some pretty scary things. I mean, going into battle against an enemy that outnumbered them. I mean, 300 guys pursuing an army of thousands. You know, that's a legitimate fear right there of death. Of being slain by the sword. And that's not a pleasant way to be killed, by the way. You know, being run through with a sword. Look at David, facing Goliath. I mean, he's looking death right in the face right there. You know, as long as you just read the story, oh wow, cool story, he defeated. You know, it wasn't an arm wrestling match. You know, this is like if you lose, your head is going to be chopped off, because that's what Goliath threatened to feed his dead carcass to the birds. He would have just hacked off his head with one swoop of that sword. You know, would you have that boldness? Would you have the courage to face up with this champion with no armor? He's wearing a brass helmet. He's wearing a coat of chainmail. And would you be willing to face up with no armor and no weapons, but just a sling? Running toward him and slinging the rock out of the sling while running and think you're going to hit the target. But you know what he said? The battle is the Lord's. You know, and so many people in the Bible, they went into battles like that all throughout the Old Testament. And often they said, you know what, hey, we might perish, but if God's with us, God can keep us alive. God can give us the victory here. You think of Jonathan and his stand against a huge host of Philistines, two men. Jonathan and his armor bearer, we don't know the number of how many, I don't think it tells us the number, but Jonathan and his armor bearer, they slew 20 men, and there were more than that in the group. It was some kind of a regiment of men that were up on a hill. He fought literally an uphill battle. He ran up the hill and defeated like 20 enemies, two guys, because he gave God the glory and he trusted that God was going to give him the victory. But you know what, it took boldness to do that. And today we live in a fearful, spineless, wimpy society where even men today are afraid of their own shadow. You know, if you can't face the rolling pin, how are you going to face the life? You know, how are you going to face the host of the Philistines or the Moabites or the Ammonites? You know, men in the Bible who God used were men of boldness. They had courage, valor. They weren't afraid. Why were they not afraid? It wasn't just because they just had a reckless, you know, just disregard for their life. You know, there's a word in German, leisensmude. It means like you're tired of life. You know, it's just somebody who's just really reckless and takes a lot of chances. It's like, what is wrong with you? Are you just sick of being alive? And you know, that's not what it was in the Bible. It was just that they knew that God's in control, that God can protect them, God can take care of them. That's the attitude that we need to give in our life. We need to have boldness, courage to do what God... I'm not talking about taking foolish chances or doing dumb, crazy things, you know. I'm not saying, yeah, let's go jump out of a plane and whatever, you know. What I'm saying is things that God commanded us to do, like preaching, soul winning, standing up for what's right, raising our family the way that he told us to, we need to have the boldness to do those things and not let fear cripple us and let fear paralyze us. Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have the word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God, and for this teaching on fear. I couldn't even scratch the surface because there's so many hundreds of verses tonight. I can only turn to several dozen, but God, I pray that you would please just help us to get fear out of our lives, help us to really have the fear of God. We ought to have the fear of the Lord, but help us to get this other fear out of our life, just being scared all the time of man and what man can do to us. Help us to live a life of boldness and courage and not a life of fear. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.