From Fear to Faith

Good afternoon, everyone. Good to be with you again here in North Canton. I've been up here so many times this year, it seems like, and speaking to the congregation, it feels like this is our second home, second congregation outside of Cincinnati to be attending as regularly as we do. I don't know that there is any other congregation we attend any more regularly, but it's good to be with you.

And we've been up with our family for Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has had a very good Thanksgiving. This is one of my favorite times of the year, if not outside of the Holy Day period. If not my favorite, it seems like we kind of get a chance to just relax, focus on the abundance that we have as a people in this land, and think about that, be with family, and everyone gets a chance to be with people that perhaps they are not with through the rest of the year and the traveling.

It is a good time of year, just before we enter into the dark months of winter, and that which moves on beyond. But I appreciate the opportunity to speak. Mr. Miller always let me know that I'm coming up if he chooses not to let me speak. I'm more than willing to sit and listen to him, and I let him speak. He's a very good speaker. We were together to feast in Jamaica this year, and John gave a very, very good sermon, excellent sermon, great content. In fact, it was so good that I had to write a whole new sermon as soon as he had finished with it, because he used every scripture that I was going to use two days later.

So he gave me an opportunity to scramble and write a whole new sermon, which probably worked out better the way it all works out. God has a way of those things coming, working out for the good for everybody. But we enjoyed being with the entire Miller clan down in Jamaica this year at the Feast of Tabernacles. I should mention just a little bit some of the matters that are going on at the office, the home office of the church down in Cincinnati. We are moving along into the year. The Council of Elders will have its quarterly meeting in a couple of weeks, and we are kind of looking back ourselves, very thankful for the position that we are in as a church right now.

We give God thanks for that. We also thank you for your generosity and your faithful support for the church and the work that is being done and all of its different programs. We recognize you and your part in that as well, whenever we do come together as a Council. But God has blessed the United Church of God, and we are able to pay our bills and have a few dollars left over as a result of that and to be able to think about expansion and plans and the matter of preaching the gospel and caring for the people that God has called.

One of the things that we are doing right now that I'm directly involved in as an adjunct of the media effort is we are going through a study. Victor Kubik, the president, has put together a small group of us to meet on a regular basis to look at our content of our media and our publications and content, really, in every way in which we express the truths of God and the gospel of the kingdom, whether it's on the Beyond Today television program, the Good News magazine, on the website, or in a message in a local congregation.

How we express the truth of God and the gospel is a very, very important matter and I think that God is leading us to look at that very carefully. We have a rather long and broad reach for an organization our size with the internet, with television, with a printed word. We have a lot of people who come to our website every month. We sometimes see people stay for a short period of time. They'll kind of bounce and then move on.

We have people come to services. We have people we frankly don't have as many as we would like to see. We know that God provides the growth, but we're looking at what we say and how we say it, making sure that we are engaging this world and our audience in a manner that is convicting and can be used of God to bring people to the truth.

And if somehow we're not saying it right, if we're not expressing it in the correct biblical way all across the board, then we want to correct that. And so we're looking at that and this is quite an involved effort unlike any that I've ever been involved with before in the church. But it gets down to basically what you see and hear on the Beyond Today television program or maybe on our internet pages. When someone walks through the door, we want to be sure that they hear the same thing in the same way. We had a retreat of just our media staff after the feast and we took an entire day to look at how it is we produce a television program and how we write it, say it in such a way, recognizing that it goes out to a very large wide audience around the world on the internet and television and does it...what are its qualities?

What's the tone? If a child hears an inviting voice from a teacher, from a parent, then they're going to begin to be engaged and listen to whatever that individual is saying to them. We're all like that. We certainly aren't going to be turned back by perhaps a voice or a tone that is not inviting, encouraging, extending a hand of help. And if we would come across in such a way that pushes people away because of the way we say it, that's not right. That's not biblical. And we have worked very hard, especially with Beyond Today and over the years, to develop a voice and a tone on the program that we hope will be inviting.

We did a program that will air next month called Living Beyond Today, in which we make a very direct appeal to explain what the Beyond Today program is, what's behind it, and to encourage the listeners to get up off the couch and to commit, do something with it. We even put in there a kind of an appeal to people who have been listening to us for many, many years. A very familiar message. And it is a little different than what we have done before, but we felt it was time to do that. And we are concerned that what we are doing reaches people and engages people.

That's probably the operative word we're dealing with right now, to the point where we can engage people, then, by the word in God's word, people can be convicted. And in time, as they are drawn to the truth, they act on it, God calls them to the body of Christ, then in time, their lives can be changed. Their lives can be changed by the truths of the Bible. That's what it's all about.

But there has to be an engagement at that first level that basically lets them know we're on your side. And we have a pearl of great price that God has given to us. We want to share that with you. And the way we extend that and put that out there is very, very important. So we are working toward that end, and it could be far-reaching in its implications in terms of education and how we express it at every level. So I just want to let you know that seems to be what has been on my mind more than anything else and where I am.

There are other things that are being done. Mr. Miller mentioned a number of the other programs that we have going on in the Winter Family Weekend, an educational tour next year, Ambassador Bible Center, and also the operations of the Church are continuing on quite well. I just had a chance to complete two weeks of teaching a different module this year on World News and Prophecy. I gave it 20 hours of instruction on World News and Prophecy, which has been a topic near to my heart over the years, and walked the young students through an overview of some prophetic topics that hopefully opened their mind on understanding Bible prophecy, the world we live in, current events, and how to approach these things.

I had surveyed the kids before the class started to find out some of the things they might know about the world, prophecy, and things like that, and found out what I thought I would find out, and that is that they needed to be instructed in that. Most people are not that at that younger age or they're not that informed about the world today.

I basically took a straightforward approach to a lot of prophetic topics and first steps with them. I think they responded quite well and hopefully they're a little bit smarter about the world they live in and how it relates to Bible prophecy. So the class is going along quite well this year and if anybody ever has a desire to certainly come to be a part of the Ambassador Bible Center, I would encourage that.

The application process is ongoing right now and can really be a wonderful opportunity for anyone who does that. So that's about all I can say about other matters, those matters that I'm involved with and a lot going on and appreciate your prayers and support and what is being done by the Church to serve the people in so many different ways. There's a movie I'm sure all of us have seen many times, so many times that we know probably the lines in it better than we know the street we live on at times.

It's called The Wizard of Oz. I began watching that when I was a kid. It used to be played every year on television and now of course you can watch it anytime you want if you have a copy of it or find it on television or on the internet. But the characters and story is so close to so many aspects of real life that it has been one of those movies that kind of transcended even Hollywood to become just a part of the American fabric of life because it speaks to a number of different aspects of human beings and human nature.

There's one character in the movie that we all are familiar with and it is the Cowardly Lion. For many, that Cowardly Lion is perhaps their favorite and most sympathetic. You remember the Cowardly Lion was scared of his own tail when he was first encountered by Dorothy on the road to Oz and yet with the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and Dorothy and Toto, they all set off to Oz and in his case, the Cowardly Lion, he wanted the gift of courage.

He wanted courage. And so they set off to find that. Now, the reason again a movie like that is something that we tend to identify with is because the qualities that those characters wanted and desired are natural qualities that we desire and should have as well. The Lion had his fears and who among us do not have fears? Who among us are not fearful at some point over some thing in some part of our life, past, present, or future?

Sometimes we might find ourselves going around and around chasing our own fears, maybe not chasing our own tail, but chasing our own fears or having our fears chase us in some way that we're not always aware and can't get quite a good handle on. But there's some parts of life that we perhaps always are going to be fearful about. We might be afraid of the past, maybe having the past catch up to us, something that maybe still lingers back there that we haven't dealt with, haven't mastered, haven't apologized for, haven't admitted or whatever it might be and thinking and fearing that it might catch up to us.

We can certainly be anxious about the present if we choose. And because we have certain matters of life that we haven't quite got a handle on and continue to plague us, and then we're apprehensive about the future. Sometimes we can be fearful, manage it. Sometimes we can be fearful and to get to the point where we just can't live. We are even afraid of living. And that's a very serious situation.

That's a very sad situation. If we ever get to the point where one is fearful of living, then you're into perhaps even a clinical situation called depression, if not just a mild depression about life.

And that sometimes happens as well beyond even certain chemical imbalances that can bring on depression, but because of, again, emotional insecurity, inferiority, immaturity that has not allowed us to properly deal with these matters. But we have been called to live. We've been called by God to master and to overcome our fears. And we of all people should be able to do that. This afternoon I'd like to cover some points with you to help tackle, deal with, and overcome sometimes the fears, large or small, that might plague us and keep us from operating at peak efficiency, maximum opportunity. I'd like to cover a few things that we need to know about fear, and then a few points about what we can do.

It is not rocket science. It is not complicated. And if you want to take this and form a little checklist, as David Hirschberger was encouraging us to do with certain parts of our life, you could do that to help deal with and manage some of these matters dealing with fear. But let's look at three points, first of all. Three things that we should know about fear in this matter in order to properly function and get a handle on some of the fears that are part of our life.

The first point is this, about fear. That fear, rather than faith, seems to be a natural part of life. Fear seems to be a natural part of life, rather than faith. But keep in mind that God has called us to come out of fear, and if we find that it is more natural at times to be fearful rather than faithful, it's not where God wants us. Christ did say that to His disciples, fear or not. I have overcome the world. He said, be not afraid. I have overcome the world.

The night before He was crucified. And if He has, His point was, then you can as well. And there's nothing that we cannot overcome if we have the proper orientation. But so much of just the normal part of life is one that fear is more natural than it is faith. It all started, as so many things did start, back with our first parents, Adam and Eve. If you turn back to Genesis chapter 3, we should notice something that we know is a part of that first story, but might overlook.

When Adam and Eve made the decision to take of the tree the knowledge of good and evil against the wishes and the instruction of God, giving into the deception that Satan did, something happened. And that's in the, oh, the whole scheme of life and human nature.

And certainly this did set a pattern that Paul later talks about in greater depth in the epistles. But with this decision, a whole course of mankind was set to take of a different tree rather than a tree of life, a tree that contained both good and evil and the knowledge of both. And it was not a way of life completely opposite of that that God intended. When they made that decision, something changed in Adam and Eve. And they recognized that they had, in a sense, crossed over. They crossed, maybe not beyond, but at least they had crossed a line. And they had disobeyed the being that was their maker, the one who was their father, God.

And they hid themselves. And as the story goes on here, God came walking in the garden in verse 8, and he was looking for them. And he said to Adam, and where are you in verse 9? And in verse 10, Adam replied, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself. God said, well, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree, which I commanded you that you should not eat? And then he goes off to blame the woman. We won't go there today. But he was afraid. Eve was hiding as well. They were both understanding that they had done something wrong.

And it's a comical story on one level, if you look at it. I don't know if you've ever, if you were a kid or if your children ever tried to hide, if you ever tried to hide from your parents, you know, you're in a place that you're not supposed to be. And you know, you're hiding, or you play hide and seek, and you walk in, you see the kids, you see their feet behind the curtain, and you pretend, where are you? Where is everyone? Well, you know, Adam and Eve trying to hide from God was kind of like a child trying to hide from the parent at times, and it's so obvious where they are that it gets comical.

But they were afraid. This is where it begins. I was afraid and I hid myself. When we begin to tune into the wavelength that Satan operates on in this world, it begins to produce different vibes. And Satan can use fear as a tool of robbing humanity of the very means for having a relationship with God, and that's what we see here. They made a decision to disobey sin and any type of sin at any level will hamper our relationship with God. And it can create fear. It can create hostility. But it hinders the relationship.

In this case, Adam and Eve said, you know, Adam said, I was afraid. He knew that he had done wrong. And because he was kept from taking the correct step of repentance, that fear hindered his relationship with God. And therein is some instruction for us as we look at fear and bring it back to our own level. To whatever degree we may be hindered by it as we go about our life.

If we let it, it can hinder our relationship with God. It can certainly hinder our relationship with other people, a mate, a friend, the ministry, the church. The church as a whole. Sin can do that.

I remember, I've told this story many times, so many times over the years, but I remember as a kid being in the church when I was very young, early teen years, and I was, you know, I was afraid of the ministry. Not that I had a bad minister. I had a pretty good minister when I was a teenager, but what I was afraid of is that they'd find me out.

And discover, because I thought, you know, the minister could read minds and could, you know, just pierce right through to you and see that you were a phony.

And there were times in my own personal life I wasn't quite hue and the line.

And I remember one day rounding the corner to my house and seeing what I thought was the minister's car out in front of the house. And I did a 180 and went to my neighbor's house for a couple of hours because I thought the minister was there to find me out. Well, it turned out it was a car that looked like the minister's and it wasn't the minister. But I was operating on guilt and fear.

And to that degree, it hindered a relationship there.

How many times have we let fear hinder our relationship with God or His people?

Because we cannot face a mistake, we cannot face a weakness, we cannot face ourselves, do what is right, repent and change, and put it behind us. And we, in that process, we master a fear and we recognize that, hey, we can beat it. We don't have to let it hinder that relationship. But there are so many of these matters that are such a natural part of our human life because it is a part of humanity and mankind's relationship with God. Fear leaves its mark on people in different ways. And we see through through Scripture fear being a part of the dynamic in certain relationships. If you look at King Saul, for instance, the first king that God gave to Israel, a man of large stature, looked seemingly great ability, stood head and shoulders above everyone, the leader of the first king. And yet because of his paranoia and other matters working on in his life, he began to fear David. When David came into the camp, into the court, and killed Goliath and proved to be an able soldier, he feared David. It manifested itself in his couple of attempts to murder him and David eventually had to flee the court. And he lashed out at David. And it also caused him to lose complete favor with God. Ultimately, it hindered his relationship with God. But we see it initially there in the relationship with David and his fear of what David was, certain matters that he had, bringing out certain inferiorities that he had. Elijah is another story of fear, even of a man who had done great things at the hands as a servant of God. After his greatest triumph of the defeat of the prophets of Baal, calling fire down upon a sacrifice, Elijah was afraid of Jezebel, the queen. We find in the story that he fled, caused him to run all the way into the desert, into a cave. Fear caused him to do that.

A completely unnatural reaction to a man, in a sense, at the peak of his power, the peak moment of his experience and of his life. But it was there. And just a little turn of events, a threat from Jezebel, and it surfaced and caused him to run. Now, God didn't abandon him. He went to the cave and he brought him out, showed him where he was, and he was still with him. And that even Elijah was not alone. But you see fear operating even at the level of a man who was doing great things there. Fear seems to be something that can be there and, in a sense, overtake one to a degree and cause irrational type of actions. In Luke chapter 19, we can turn to this one. And this is a parable which kind of broadens it to a lesson that we can learn in Luke chapter 19.

And verse 20, this is the parable of the miners, the talents of a nobleman who had gone off into a far country to receive a kingdom, and he left work with his servants to be done. And he came back and expected a return on what he had given. And he called them to an accounting. And down in verses 20 and 21, another came saying, Master, here's your mina, one unit of exchange. Here's your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. We could say a tin can, buried in the backyard.

And he said to him, for I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. So out of fear and irrational fear, he did something that, again, it was not normal. He hid the talent that he had. And in this case, one lesson we can draw about this is that he feared God in a wrong way, and we can, and not live up to our potential. This man did not take what was given to him and multiply it and live up to his potential. We can, if we have a distorted view of God in ordinate fear as being too austere and not loving and not kind and not forgiving and really not able to be a part of our life, then it will keep us from living up to our potential. And we can become a prisoner. Each of these examples, Saul, Elijah, for a moment, and the man in this parable, each became a prisoner in a cell in a jail of their own devising. Their withdrawal from God for a period became their jailer. Recovery from such a situation lies in confronting those things that we fear by taking God as our companion, obeying, following his instructions, and not letting it get the best of us. Do we walk by fear, or do we walk by faith? Is it more natural for us to at times be fearful and to shrink back, or is it more natural to be strong, be confident, be able and willing to step up, stand up, or step out when needed to deal with something in front of us, some part of our life, some situation that comes up there. God knows every one of us to the degree that the fears that we have and he stands there and he wants us to overcome them. God knows where fear will lead. It can lead to separation from him for a period of time, if not for a long period, if we allow it to do so. And he doesn't want that. In fact, cowardice and fearfulness is something that God will see will see eventually dispersed from among his children. In Revelation 21 and verse 8, we find that the conditions of those that are part of the New Jerusalem are people without fear.

In Revelation 21 and verse 8, verse 7 says, He that who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

In verse 8 he says, But the cowardly, or the fearful, the cowardly, along with any number of others who are caught up and entrapped in certain sins here, they shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Now, that should at least tell us that it is not a part of the natural order that God wants among his family. If Adam and Eve were afraid at the beginning, and that became a natural part of human nature, then if we look at this part of the story, the New Jerusalem, and those who are a part of that, then it tells us that we can deal with it. It tells us that we can overcome it.

And that's the approach that we should have, because fear can be banished. Fear can be overcome. We do not have to be shackled by fear. We do not have to allow it to separate us from God, from each other, from his church, for any length of time at all. Because this verse doesn't show us a negative, this verse shows us a positive, that God will remove it from those who will be a part of the New Jerusalem, from those who will be a part of his family forever, meaning that he will give us the help, and he will help us to move away from that. If we first understand that it is a natural part of this life, but something that we can overcome as a result of God and his help, facing fear is actually facing ourselves. And that can be done. That can help us move beyond our own insecurities. We need to learn to practice faith until it becomes a natural part of our life. Point number two about understanding faith. We need to understand and believe that God exists in us, that God lives in us. And if we believe that, then we can build faith and we can deal with fear, believing that God lives in us. Galatians 2, verse 20.

The apostle Paul makes a profound statement that each of us must come to understand, and I think Galatians 2, 20 is one of the foundational concepts that each of us must have as part of our life as we live as a Christian. He said in verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Is this verse part of your foundation of faith?

Can you, like Paul, say that you have been crucified with him, and it is no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you. And the life which you live in the flesh, you live by faith in the Son of God. I think about that verse a lot in regard to my actions and how I approach various things and to the degree of faith and confidence that I have as a Christian, because it is the reality. And if we truly believe this verse as a result of baptism, repentance and baptism, and becoming a part of the body of Jesus Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit, if we really believe that, then we will believe that verse. And if we believe and understand that God does live his life within us, that is the first great step in building faith and overcoming the fears of this life, because it can help us come to God's solutions.

God's solutions instead of ours when things go wrong.

We can become so familiar with God's mind in us that it becomes a familiar emotion, and fear becomes an unfamiliar emotion. And one of the steps to doing so is reading the Bible, reading the Bible, engaging it in a regular reading, study, thinking about moving through the Bible, and becoming so familiar with its stories, so familiar with its promises, so familiar with its lines and its statements that in time the mind of Christ is in us. It's there. It's there when we need to reach out for help, for security at a time of fear. Because we know the Scripture, we know the story, we know the example of a David, of a Ruth, of an Esther, of a Jesus Christ.

We know a psalm, we know a proverb that can give the wisdom. We know a place to go, and whether we've marked it, tabbed it, dog-eared the page, or have, by experience, written it in our hearts to where we know where it is, or it's just because it's your particular Bible and you can it'll fall open there and you know where it is on the page, whatever works.

You've got it down, because this is the foundation of our life. And we recognize it as the mind of God, that then what Paul wrote in Galatians there, chapter 2 and verse 20, where the life we now live, we live by the faith of the Son of God in us, because the Word of God is in us. And it's this word that is the means by which we can be convicted to a change. Christ said, but my words are spirit, and they are life. It's the Word of God, and it's the Spirit of God that we have.

And God's Spirit is just another way of saying what Paul said of Christ in us. And with that, as a foundation of our life, then we can begin to deal with the fears that are there.

Fear comes at times from broken laws regarding our relationship with God and His laws. And to the degree we are able to put that from us and away from us, we can deal with it and believe that God is in us and the power of God is with us. There's a statement in the book of Acts and one of the stories that we have to read a little closely about, otherwise we just skip right over it.

In Acts 4, and I think it is a key that goes along with what Paul wrote in Galatians 2 and verse 20.

In Acts 4, we have the ongoing story that began in chapter 3, where Peter healed a lame man as they were going into the temple in chapter 3. And this caused a concern and a stir among the Jews and they hauled Peter before the magistrates along with John. But the Jews couldn't deny what had been done. And this man who'd been lame now healed was still there staring him all in the face and a problem that wouldn't go away in their eyes. And what is said here in verse 13, after they had brought John and Peter in before the Sanhedrin and they basically told them in whose name they had done this miracle and it was in the name of Jesus Christ in verse 10. And it's because of him this man is healed and stands before you today and that it is in that name that there is salvation. A very powerful, strong, convicting message that Peter delivers before these Jewish leaders. And in verse 13 there's a key thought that we might just read over and not understand the full implications. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus.

Now think about that. Peter and John, yes, uneducated, untrained as the Jews looked at it. They had not gone through their schools. They had not been trained in the the law. They were fishermen from Galilee of all places. They were not from Jerusalem, the city.

And yet they stood before this tribunal of educated Jews, caught up in their full pride of their power, their knowledge, who they were. And these two men looked into their eyes and they told them the truth. They preached the gospel to them at that moment. And they had performed an undeniable miracle and they were testifying in whose name it was. There was no fear. And remember, it was Peter. This was the Saint Peter who earlier had run in fear the night Christ was crucified and denied him three times out of fear. This was the Saint Peter who had now done this and knew in whose name he had done it. And these Jews looked back on it. They were marveled, but they realized that they had been with Jesus. Because they had been with Jesus and they had seen him do miracles, they now knew what they could do. They were not afraid. And they were not afraid of whatever this group of Jews could do to them as well. And they knew full well what those Jews could do to them because they had seen what they did with Jesus. They killed him, engineered his death. They were not afraid because they had been with Jesus. Sometimes when we read through the scriptures, as we are reading it, read a little slower. Stop and ask a few questions about what you're reading and pause.

And think about the context. And a very simple statement like this at the end of verse 13, they realized that they had been with Jesus. You can open up a whole other dimension of understanding for us on this matter of fear versus faith. Are we? Are you? Am I? Together, are we with Jesus? Do we walk with him? Can we say like Paul that the life we now live, we live by the faith of the Son of God in us by the Holy Spirit?

Do we? Do we, as we go out the door tonight, as we go about whatever we're going to do tomorrow and then Monday when we're back at our jobs, do we live a life that reflects a life of someone who has walked and who walks with Jesus Christ in us? It's a very simple, direct question.

Don't ever be afraid to ask yourself that question. Have the faith to ask yourself that question and just come to an answer before your God because it is a key to understanding this matter of moving from fear to faith in our life. Psalm 27. Psalm 27.

And verse 1.

Psalm says, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is my strength, is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? This is a direct and a bold, confident statement by David.

When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and my foes, they stumbled and fell.

Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war may rise against me.

In this I will be confident. Two very strong verses to open this psalm.

The answer, of course, is we should be afraid of no one. We should not be afraid of anything.

If we're properly centered in our life upon God, upon His Son, and His life within us, we can deal with the fear that will come. So much of the fear that is there that sometimes doesn't even materialize in our life, because it is not a reality. Or because if we take the proper steps, we can deal with it. You know, sometimes fear operates with us because we have very, very large imaginations. And the most confident of God's people, and servants through the years, had this fear at various times. In the story of Moses, there is a story, there is a point early at the beginning in Exodus chapter 4 and verse 1, where Moses has this large job in front of him, this big task now that has been given to him by God. And at the very beginning of it, when he has been told that he's going to go back to Pharaoh and work through events to lead the Israelites out of the slavery there in Egypt.

In chapter 4 and verse 1, Moses answers and he says to God, but suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose they say, the Lord has not appeared to you. Verse 1 of chapter 4 is something that I can relate to, and perhaps we all can. And when we see it in the life of someone as large a stature as Moses, it should instruct us, but also give us a bit of confidence.

Moses did hear what you and I often do. His imagination was bigger than radio.

Moses was running his twisting that knob on the radio across the dial from left to right and hitting every imaginable problem along the way. What if they don't believe me?

I don't have a voice. God met every one of his fears and gave him answers to that.

But it illustrates an overactive imagination at times, which can lead to fear, inaction, hesitancy, on something that we know we should do, point of obedience before God, getting to the Feast of Tabernacles. I look back at my mother beginning to go to the Feast of Tabernacles in the early 1960s, a woman at that time with two small children, myself and my sister, going alone way off to a place called Texas for eight days through a place called Arkansas, of all places, because we lived in Missouri and to get to Texas for Missouri we had to go through Arkansas.

We'd seen Beverly Hillbillies and that was kind of frightful.

We didn't know about a lot, I won't go there.

I look back and I think, how'd she do that? But she got it done. She got the car packed up and she got us out of school and there's, you know, obstacles.

And this was from just a plain house life.

And story after story like that, when you look at what it takes for us to step out in faith, to obey God, to do what God says to do, to do what the church is doing and moving in a direction to obey God, at times these are big things. We look back and perhaps we take them for granted even today. But every time we do live a life of faith, there are any number of things that will come up and say, well, it won't work. I couldn't. I can't. The job, the school, the mate, the friend, life.

What? Whoa! What if? As Moses. What if? We used to have this tongue twister in Spokesman's Club. Moses supposes. His toes are roses. But Moses supposes a miss. Because Moses' toes aren't roses. What went on? Something like that. I can't remember it now. Well, Moses was doing too much supposing at this point. And God eventually provided Aaron and we know the rest of the story, but we can be like that at times. And this was a man who was quite strong and confident. We have to have a quiet, confident assurance that God is with us, that He's at our right hand, and that He is very near, and that whom shall we fear? What shall we fear? Nothing. The third point about faith is that we need to understand what God expects of us. We do need to know what God expects of us.

When it comes to faith overcoming fear, we certainly know we cannot control the future.

We cannot control people. We can't control what other people might do. We can learn to control ourselves. And when we do control ourselves, that can be an anchor. That is our foundation for whatever will happen in the future. In Micah 6 and verse 8, God says something that is quite profound here. Micah 6 and verse 8 tells us what to do. And these are proactive steps that can help us having a foundation for faith. Micah 6 and verse 8. We know this verse as soon as we read it, I'm sure. Verse 8 says, He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you.

But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Three very simple things that if we could do it, and would do it throughout our life, would certainly put us in pretty good graces with God and man. Look at these three steps as being proactive things that we can do. They're not defensive. To walk justly. Which it means to be free from deceit, free of lies. Lies can be something that cause fear. If there's a lie we haven't dealt with, if there's a lie that we've covered up, and then we've covered up, then we've covered up. And then we've covered up.

If there's a lie that we've covered up, then it can create fear. But to walk justly, blamelessly, like God said to Abraham, walk before me and be just. He said, in a just manner, free from deceit. Love mercy. Be loving and love to extend.

Forgiveness. Grace. Favor. Kindness. Which are all synonyms, perhaps, for mercy at any given time.

But to love to do that. We all certainly love it ourselves. We enjoy being forgiven when we mess up, when we forget to buy what we're supposed to have bought at the grocery store. And we come home, guys, and we haven't done it. And our wives are quite upset with us. We love, well, I know you've been busy. We love to be forgiven. But in this case, this is an action. Love to be merciful.

And to be a type of person that is like that means that we free ourselves from anger, from revenge, from wanting to get even, holy grudge. And we can banish that from us. And then he says, walk humbly. Walk humbly before God. Which can be very freeing because when we are humble, we are freed from an overemphasis on ourself and the self-imposed issues and problems that we bring upon our own life. And that leads, which leads to fear. These are three steps. There are three very proactive steps. And if we could master them, imagine the wear and tear and the fear we would avoid for ourselves. And a level of freedom in our own life that would banish worry and the fears that can come from that. To allow us, whenever we are confronted with challenges or important decisions, we can move, we can act in faith with a focus on the positive and trusting God to overcome the negatives that we might see there or the fears that we might have.

We can move in faith, we can focus on the positive, and we can trust God.

If we have learned to walk justly, to love mercy, and to be humble, free of ourselves, because we are focused upon God and looking at ourselves in that way. When we can free ourselves from ourself, we have gone to great lengths to accomplishing a life that is based on faith, confidence, hope in God, trust in God, as opposed to fear. A fear that can inhabit our lives in that way.

I was reading an article this weekend over on the subject of baby boomers, and I'm a baby boomer. Many of us are. And it was talking about, there's a whole lot of articles. I've been kind of doing some reading on baby boomers, thinking about writing some for the good news in the future. And I've been reading several articles, and this one caught my attention.

And the whole point of the author was that baby boomers invented the self.

Now, we can argue about that historically, but at least because we are in the now, right now, many of us are boomers. I was reading and I'm thinking, well, there's a point that he does have there. That we did invent the self, and it's all about us. Largest generation in American history, richest generation retiring at this point, and all the other issues that can be there. We just passed the 50th anniversary note of the assassination of John Kennedy. And if there was an event that defined the boomer generation, it probably was that event.

And caught up in even in that is a culture of self, self-importance that was one big lesson I kind of drew from kind of looking back over that 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination, because of the entire culture that was created after his death that we have lived with and kind of walked back through in recent weeks. It points to, again, a culture of self. Probably one of the biggest legacies that he did leave was that out of that event came a defining culture of the self into the 60s and 70s and today for a generation of Americans of which I and others of us were right at the center of. And it's that self that we have to come to grips with and dealing with, because it's at the end of the day, it's not about us, it is about God. And the self, if that's all we have to rely on and look to, can lead to a lot of phobias and fears and uncertainties about life, because ultimately conversion is about removing the self and placing a life of faith in God.

And when we get to do that, then we are really truly beginning to live. Let me conclude with three keys to building a faith that can move us away from fear. Very simple. So I've thought this through. The first is to hold your ground. Hold your ground. Don't retreat. Don't give up.

Don't back off. Hold your ground. God's answer to Moses, you know, what if his answer basically was you stay right there. You walk into that court. You stay right there. I'll be with you. I'll give you Aaron. I'll help you. Hold your ground, Moses. Hold your ground, Elijah. Don't back off. Don't back down. In 1 Chronicles 11, verse 12, there's a story of one of David's mighty men that tells us of something that the man did. 1 Chronicles 11, and verse 12. This is a listing of the mighty men of David here in chapter 11 of 1 Chronicles.

And in verse 12, he mentions a man, one of them named Eliezer, who was of the three mighty men, one of the closest of those around David, an inner circle. He was with David at Pasdemim.

Now there the Philistines were gathered for battle, and there was a piece of ground full of barley, and the people fled from the Philistines. But they stationed themselves in the middle of that field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory. They held their ground, and Eliezer led them. They held their ground. One man's action changed the course of this particular episode, this battle. Everyone else fled, but they held their ground, and he led them. Sometimes it just takes one person in a congregation, in a group of friends, in a family to hold your ground, to encourage and to extend faith and help people overcome a fear of whatever might be there at a time of sickness, at a time of loss, at a time of need when a critical decision must be made. Hold your ground.

Stand and don't retreat. Be proactive in that way.

When we stand our ground, God can put the fear in others toward us. Courage is not the absence of fear as much as it is the presence of God, Christ living his life within us, giving us that presence then to do what needs to be done. A second step is to take one day at a time.

One day at a time, which will enable us to move toward the future without fear. And is why, at the end of a long teaching on this in Matthew 6, Jesus essentially said the same thing when he told his disciples in chapter 6, verse 25, what you'll drink, what you'll eat, what you'll put on. Don't worry about certain things.

God takes care of the birds and the grass of the field and he'll take care of us. Don't worry, in verse 31, about what you're going to eat. But then, verse 34, he comes down to conclude this mini-sermon and he says, therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Take care of what's in front of us right now.

Live in the now. Live in the now. Forget about draw a line over the past, move forward and away from it. Plan for the future, but don't worry about the future. Make the decisions today and take one day at a time and live today. Live today.

And that will let us move toward the future without fear.

Third step, learn to be still.

Content and not over-anxious. In Philippians 4.

Philippians 4, beginning in verse 10.

Paul says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now I at last your care for me is flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lack opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. Paul had learned to live in the now to be content. He'd learned to be still. He said, I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And the key is what he said in verse 13.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He had learned that, and we can as well.

If we can learn to hold our ground, take one day at a time, and learn to be still, learn to be content. Keys to faith and overcoming fear, so that none of us are like the cowardly lion, finding ourselves in need of courage and chasing our tales of fear or having the tales of fear chase us. Let's learn to stand strong and be people of faith.