4 Ways to KILL the Spirit of Fear | Fight The Good Fight | Pastor Josh Howerton

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free now. Enjoy this Bible teaching. All right, man. Lake Point family. It's going to be a good day. It's going to be a good day. Hey, can we celebrate something real quick? Ladies and gentlemen, football is back on TV in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, man. Ready for the temps to drop and pads to pop. All right. Hey, if you've got your Bibles, head over to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy. We are in week two of a series we are just calling Fight the Good Fight, Fight the Good Fight. What we're doing in 2 Timothy, heads up, the entire year it just hangs off this one phrase, I am a disciple. Everything we're doing is just about us being disciples of Jesus. Disciples, watch this, are followers of somebody. You cannot follow somebody without taking steps. What we're doing during this series is, here's all we're doing.

I just got a conviction that if you baby Christians, you get baby Christians. What we're doing during this series is we're just grabbing the Word of God. We're opening it up to 2 Timothy. We're just going line by line because the book of 2 Timothy is a book written by a disciple named Paul whose age started with a five or a six. He's taken this young fatherless kid from a broken home named Timothy whose age started with a two or a three. The whole book is him just going, Timothy, let me disciple you. Heads up, last week, what we said on the first week of this series is if your age starts with a five, six, seven or up, you need to have somebody in your life, some people in your life whose age starts with a one, two or three so that you can disciple them and lead them towards Jesus. If your age starts with a one, a two or a three, you need to be looking for people whose ages start with five, six, seven, eight so that you can go, man, this is what it looks like to follow Jesus. Your age starts with a four like me, probably need a little bit of both. You figure it out. What we're doing during this series, we're leaning into this. Now, I do want to celebrate you guys. We got these little 2 Timothy journals. Here's how crazy you guys are. We sold out of these in no time last week and then we sent you an Amazon link and you sold out all of Amazon, all of Amazon from this thing. No joke. There was a few minutes this week. Here's how nuts y'all are. There was a few minutes this week where this dumb little $7 2 Timothy journal was the number one selling Christian book on Amazon because of you guys. Okay. So we got a few more of those at all the campuses.

Grab one on your way out. Now let's get right at it. 2 Timothy. Today we're going to be talking about overcoming a spirit of fear. Now I got to get a running start into this thing. You Bible nerds are going to love this. If you like the Bible, you're going to like the next three minutes. If you don't like the Bible, why are you here? Okay. So here's how this goes. The book of 2 Timothy is written by Paul writing to a young guy named Timothy who is the pastor at a church called Ephesus. If you're new to your Bible, when you read the book of Ephesians, that's the letter that's written to the church at Ephesus and you go to Ephesus today. Here's Ephesus. Let's go Indiana Jones. Here's Ephesus today. Let's get in there. Look just like this. A little more wear and tear today. Ephesus. This is where this church was. Now, when you read Acts 19, you'll read about Paul lecturing at, quote, the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This is the lecture hall of Tyrannus. You can stand there. This is me standing there. And the Bible says in Acts 19 that Paul lectured there day by day at the lecture hall of Tyrannus. Now my point is you can go to these places. The point is, listen to me, all this stuff is real.

The Bible really happened. It's not a story. It's not a fable. It's real. Jesus died on a real cross for the real you and if you give him your life, he can really change it forever. This stuff happens. Okay. Now the gospel comes out in Ephesus and I said last week it was so many people start getting saved that all these people who made idols in this place called the Agora. This is the Agora in Ephesus, like a little farmer's market. And all these idol makers were here and they couldn't sell their idols anymore. And so there was a big uproar. Now to this day, what's interesting is you can go to Ephesus and you can see physical evidence today in Ephesus that the place was infested by demons. Literally. I took this picture in Ephesus last year. This is literally it right here. So there you go. Just a haunt of demons. Okay. Take that down. I really did take that. Now in the Agora, they all want to kill Paul because they can't sell their stuff anymore. Look here. You're going to see this crane. That's not going to go to the crane. Go back. You're going to see this crane. That crane is not original to the first century, heads up.

What they're doing is they're restoring something. Now go to the Bible verse. Acts 19 says when all the people, they want to kill Paul and it says they grab him and they rush him to the theater. Go back. to the picture, this crane is there restoring that theater. Here's a picture of the theater, so here it is. Now this theater in Ephesus, it's bigger than the AAC, sees 25,000 people. So I want you to imagine this. Massive mob wants to kill the apostle Paul, and here's the big idea, Paul was fearless. Paul was not controlled by a spirit of fear, but by a spirit of power and of love and of a right mind. And so the apostle Paul was the type of dude who he would look out at a crowd that wanted to kill him and through his spiritual vision and the leadership of the spirit of God, he was not controlled by a spirit of fear at all. And he would look out at a mob, and what the apostle Paul did in Acts 19, there's your homework, is he saw these people wanted to kill him and he thought to himself, thank you for assembling to hear me preach, let me tell you about Jesus. And so he stands forward and he does this. Now, Timothy would have seen this, little Timothy, Paul's disciple. Timothy would have seen this.

Now Paul leaves Timothy at Ephesus. Timothy becomes a pastor there and he's the pastor there until he's 80. He's called the Bishop of Ephesus. Okay, Timothy's there. We know that Timothy struggled with a spirit of fear. How do we know this? 14 times in the book of 2 Timothy, by the way, by the way, watch this, watch this. This is the whole book of 2 Timothy. That's it, whole book right there. You can read it in a long bathroom session. 14 times in the book of 2 Timothy, Paul encourages Timothy, Timothy endures suffering. He tells Timothy in 1 Timothy, don't let anybody look down on you because you're young, Timothy was insecure. In 1 Corinthians 16, here's your little Bible nerd thing. Timothy's gonna go to Corinth and Paul tells the Corinthian church, put Timothy at ease because Paul knew Timothy was at dis-ease. He struggled with a spirit of fear. We also know this, Timothy apparently got so nervous when he got out to preach that his stomach will get all jacked up. I got preacher friends, this happens too. So what Paul tells him, we'll get there in a few weeks in 2 Timothy later,

he goes, hey man, I know you got problems with your stomach. You need to take a little wine to help with your stomach. Sorry, Baptist, that's actually in the Bible right there. Take a little wine. By the way, I like to fish and I'm Baptist, grew up Baptist. So I like this little joke. Do you know why you always take two Baptists to go fishing with you? Because if you take two, they won't drink any of your beer. You take one, he's gonna drink all of it. That's it, there's your joke. Baptist will get that joke. So Paul tells Timothy who struggled with fear, he said, hey man, little Tim, you have not been given a spirit of fear, but you've been given a spirit of power and of love and of self-control. And here's what I love. Little Tim grew up to be big Timothy, full of the spirit of God. And he grew up from being timid to being a fearless Timothy. Church history tells us he stays, the pastor, he was called a bishop. That's what he called it back then. The bishop of the church at Ephesus till he was 80 years old.

There is evidence today of the outpouring of the spirit that happened through Timothy's fearless ministry at Ephesus. I love this so much. To this day, when you go to the city of Ephesus, you look on the ground, you'll see this little graffiti on the ground. You've heard of an Ichthus, that little Jesus fish on the back of a minivan. It didn't start as a Jesus fish. This is the original Ichthus. I don't have time to explain it here, it's in the podcast. That's the original Ichthus. And all over the city, all these Christian businessmen and women, they would etch it in front of their little farmer's market booth so they could send a signal to the other Christians in the city. Hey, I'm on team Jesus too, I'm with you. And the Christian businesses would help each other. We ought to be doing that still. They would help each other. Church history tells us Timothy grew up and when he was 80 years old, he dies in the exact same way he sees the Apostle Paul almost die in Acts 19. Timothy sees a big mob and they're worshiping this demonic false God, Artemis. And he tries to stop it.

And they have a big mob and they want to kill Timothy. And Timothy, when he's an 80 year old disciple, Timothy remembers what his spiritual father did. This is the power of spiritual fatherhood and spiritual motherhood. Timothy remembers the leadership of his spiritual father and he remembers what Paul did. And Timothy sees this mob when he's 80 years old that wants to kill him. And he thinks, you know what? Good time to tell people about Jesus. And at 80 years old, he stands up, throws a haymaker for the kingdom of God, tells a mob about Jesus. They beat him, they stone him, they leave him for dead. Church history tells us he survives for two days on his deathbed and then he dies. Why? Because little Timothy grew up to become a fearless Timothy controlled by the spirit of the living God. And he laid his life down for something that mattered. Amen. Way to go, Tim. So this is what happened. Now, what I know is that the spirit of fear might be the number one problem in America today. Now, let me explain something. We're gonna talk about the spirit of fear. There's a difference between feelings of fear on you

and a spirit of fear in you. Feelings of fear on you, that's normal, that's natural. God gave you that stuff. Feelings of fear on you, that's what keeps you alive. When bears are running after you, that's fine, that's all fine. Spirit of fear in you is when fear gets inside of you and it begins to control you like only the Holy Spirit. It's supposed to control you. So when fear begins to tell you where you can't go and where you can't go, what you can do and what you can't do, when fear begins to tell you when you can sleep and when you can't sleep, when you can obey God and when you can't obey God, now that's not feelings of fear on you, that's a spirit of fear in you, and that doesn't come from God, why? Because we know that perfect love casts out fear. So this is what the apostle Paul tells Timothy. Now what I know, fear might be the number one problem in America today. What's interesting, if you're in my generation and down, you are growing up in the most anxious, depressed, anxiety riddled generation in the history of history, even though you live in the safest society in the history of history. Okay, listen, kids are putting on more gear to ride their bike today than astronauts wore to go to the moon in the 70s.

So let's be honest, if you have ever struggled with a spirit of fear in your life, would you please raise your hand, raise your hand. Only people didn't raise their hands are people who are too afraid to, okay? That's my point. So here's what Paul does. He disciples Timothy on how to overcome a spirit of fear. Now watch this, you do it in four ways. Here we go, I'm gonna do them quick. Number one, you overcome a spirit of fear by adjusting your expectations. Adjusting your expectations. Bible says this in this next verse. Paul says, therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord nor of me as prisoner. Watch this, but share in suffering. That is the opposite of everything you are a disciple to do in America for the gospel by the power of God. Number one, you overcome a spirit of fear by adjusting your expectations. Now, some sermons are the sermons everybody loves and they applaud you, the sermon's not even done and they're posting online about how encouraging it was and amazing. The next four minutes are gonna be whatever is the opposite of that. But again, what I've learned is if you baby Christians,

you get baby Christians. My job is not to tell you what you wanna hear, what makes you happy. My job is to tell you what this word says, okay? 14 times in 2 Timothy, endure suffering. Let me read you some of them. 2 Timothy 2.3, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 3.12, indeed, all who desire. Now, here's a promise from the Bible. I never saw your grandma eating this on a doily. I never saw this on the coffee cup. I never saw this promise. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Here's what you gotta understand. Now, why I say this, you gotta understand this to overcome a spirit of fear because what happens to people is they become a Christian, they think it's gonna be all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns pooping Skittles and everybody's gonna applaud you. And then that's not what happens and it freaks you out a little bit and it misses with your expectations. You think you're doing something wrong, a spirit of fear gets inside of you, must be doing something wrong,

you back off of following Jesus. So here's why I say this, man. What you gotta understand is when you became a Christian, you were transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And some of you don't understand this yet, but the Bible says the whole world is lorded over by the father of lies. And the Bible calls Satan, it's called Satan, the little g God of this world. He's the one that's in control of all the world systems and everything that's going on in here. Satan is, so check this out. When you bent your knee to Jesus, transferred from this kingdom to this kingdom, you didn't just get God as your father, you got hell as your enemy. The birthmark of a believer is a bullseye. So this is why, listen to me, some of you, you've never gotten this in your spirit. You've been listening to TV preachers that are lying to you. Sometimes you will suffer, not because you did something wrong, but because you did something right. Sometimes you will suffer not because you did something or said something hateful, but because you did or said something that was loving. This should not surprise us, brothers and sisters,

fellow disciples of Jesus Christ, this shouldn't surprise us. Josh, why shouldn't it surprise us? I thought this is, why wouldn't it surprise us? Because we literally have verses that say things do not be, like, do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. So what you got to understand is Jesus, listen, Jesus is not just the prince of peace. He will also be the point of conflict in every relationship you have with somebody who's not following him. So you must adjust your expectations. This is why, now, here's what happens. What Paul's telling Timothy is, hey, man, endure suffering. You may go, well, why would I do that? Check this out. I tell my kids this all the time, a little parenting axiom. I say, hey, children live by their feelings and desires. Adults and Christians live by their convictions and commitments. Children live by feelings and desires. If you live by feelings and desires, you're always gonna avoid suffering. But adults and Christians live by convictions and commitments, and when you get some convictions. is up in your life, when you get some commitments up in your life,

now all of a sudden what you got is you got some things that are worth suffering for, worth living for, worth dying for. One of the things that I pray all the time, I got this from my preacher. It's a preacher I listen to every Monday, Joby Martin. There's a prayer that I pray is when life and ministry get hard, I'm gonna shoot you straight. Sometimes it does get hard. Sometimes it does get hard. But what I pray is Lord don't lighten my load, broaden my shoulders. Lord don't lighten my load, broaden my shoulders, why? Because I got some things in my life that I've pre-decided they're worth suffering for, living for, and dying for, because I wanna leverage my life for something that actually matters. This is what Paul says to Timothy. Listen to the language how he disciples him. He goes, hey man, share in suffering, why? Watch, for the gospel. There's your mission that's worth living and dying for by the power of God who saved us and called us to a holy calling. Hey, you got a holy calling. Everybody else got normal callings. You got a holy calling. You're gonna follow Jesus.

You're gonna point people to Jesus. Not because of our works, but because of his own purpose. I got a purpose that makes the pain worth it and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. Now, let me say one last thing and move on. That right there is what made the Apostle Paul savage. Brother was savage. If you wanted to intimidate the Apostle Paul, listen, man, that man was a capital P problem for you. Fearless man. You read Acts and how they try to intimidate and make Paul afraid to steer him. Nothing works. So they say stuff to Paul, they're like, hey Paul, we're gonna torture you. And he's like, well, I do not consider that the sufferings of this present world are worth being compared to the glory that will be revealed in me. Do your worst. Like, oh, that didn't work. Well, hey Paul, we're gonna put you in prison. Great man, I'm gonna convert your guards. Hey Paul, fine, we're gonna kill you. Man, would you please, that'd be so great. To die is gain, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That'd just be amazing.

Well, fine, Paul, we're gonna let you live. To live is Christ. Literally, it does not matter. There's like fear could not get a handle on Paul. Why? Because he was so focused on his purpose, his mission, his convictions, his commitments. And listen, he budgeted in the losses he knew would come when he began to follow Jesus. And he knew at the beginning it was worth it. So listen to me. This is what Paul says in Philippians 121, most savage verse in the New Testament. He looks at the people trying to intimidate him. And here's his response. To live is Christ, to die is gain. In other words, let me live, I'm gonna tell everybody about Jesus. Kill me, I'm gonna go hug Jesus. Heads I win, tails you lose, suckers. That's what Paul's saying. Heads I win, tails you lose. So listen, Lake Point Church, we are disciples of Jesus Christ. We have pre-budgeted in the potential costs. Why? We don't follow Jesus just because he makes life better. We follow Jesus because he is better than life. That's why we follow Jesus, okay? Number two, you overcome a spirit of fear

by knowing whom you have believed. Watch what he does right here. Now check out this verse. Next verse, in which now has been manifested through the appearing of our savior, Jesus Christ. That's whom we believe. Who, I love this language, abolish death. Ha ha, abolish death. Back in the 20s when they abolished alcohol, what it meant was that's illegal here. No jurisdiction here. When they abolish slavery, that's illegal here. No jurisdiction here. What he's saying is Jesus Christ is a death abolisher. Wherever he reigns, death illegal there. No jurisdiction there. You will have no reign on your mortal bodies, the book of Romans says. He abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, the good news, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. And listen, I just need you to hear verse 12, which is why I suffer as I do. You need to know this. The more publicly you are associated with teaching this book and preaching the gospel, the more you will be opposed. I have experienced a teeny bit of that. He says this, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed.

Why am I not scared of this? Watch this, because I know whom I've believed. I know whom I've believed. And I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. So you overcome a spirit of fear by knowing whom you believe. Now, here's what I'm driving at. What will get you enslaved to a spirit of fear is you'll look at the size of your problems, you'll compare the size of the problems to you. Notice that your problems are bigger than you, you're gonna be led by a spirit of fear. What Paul does, he's like, hey man, I'm not comparing the size of my problems to the size of me. I'm comparing to the size of my problems and my circumstances to the size of my. and I'm noticing that he's bigger than them and that breaks the spirit of fear off you. This is what the Apostle Paul is doing. Now, I'm gonna give my favorite example of this, your homework is 2 Kings 6, 2 Kings 6 homework. My favorite example of this Old Testament is a guy named Elisha, most spirit-filled dude in the Old Testament. There's a time when the nation of Israel was at war with the Assyrian Empire, the largest empire in the world. And all the Israelite generals, they're all scared.

They're like, ah, we're all gonna die. Their army's bigger than our army, we're all gonna get killed, it's gonna be nasty. So Elisha, he gets a word from the Lord and he rolls up to these terrified spirit of fear generals and he's like, hey, the spirit of God's telling us to go to Samaria. And they're like, you're crazy. That's terrible tactics. What are you talking about, preacher? You got no military experience? Terrible battle tactics. He's like, well, sometimes terrible battle tactics are great kingdom of God tactics. I'm gonna go with that. We need to go to Samaria. So they do. Well, the next morning, the generals wake up and they look around and all along the horizon, they're surrounded by the Assyrian army that's bigger than their army. Spirit of fear starts to get all up in them. So then they're all trembling, spirit of fear. They run right over to Elisha's little tent. You can read it later, it's so awesome. They run over to Elisha's little tent. They're like, Elisha, Elisha, you liar. You said this is where we should go. We're all gonna die, look out there. Elisha gets up, rolls out of his tent,

looks around at the Assyrian army, just yawns. Got his bathrobe on, he's in his fifties. Let me go to the bathroom first, you know, first thing. Gets his little Nespresso. They're all freaking out. Yeah, he's totally chill. And they're like, Elisha, Elisha, what are we gonna do? And then Elisha rolls up on one of the generals and he looks in his eyes and he just prays this. He says, Lord, open their eyes. And the scales fall off the general's eyes and they look at the horizon again and they see that yes, their army is surrounded by the Assyrian army, but then they look past that and they see the Assyrian army is surrounded by the angel armies of God and chariots of fire. And they realize in that moment that the Assyrian army is bigger than their army, but God's army is bigger than the Assyrian army and it breaks off the spirit of fear on them. They know him whom they believed. Here's the point, man, you gotta get this. God fights your battles. If the Lord be with you, who can be against you? God fights your battles. See, you gotta get this down deep inside of you. This is why, listen, this is why what we're doing in here right now, I just wanna get this, man. Does everybody understand this thing where we gather and we sing the songs and pray the prayers

and read that book? Does everybody understand? This is not a game. Does everybody get this? This is not a game. Psalm 34 says, oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. When we get up in here and we sing the songs and we pray the prayers and we read the verses and we worship the Lord, then all of a sudden, the supernatural starts to happen in this place. It's like it becomes a thin place, a place where heaven and earth begin to meet and I will watch it happen while I'm preaching and I will feel it happen inside of me as I'm preaching and people will walk in scared and they'll walk out fearless. They'll walk in addicted and chains will break off in here. Marriages will get restored in here. Addictions will get freed in here. Salvation will happen in here. Why? Because when we exalt his name together, we know him in whom we have believed. Something happens, man. And you just gotta know this. Listen, let me just, I'm worshiping while I'm preaching right now, man. He says he's the death abolisher. When you know him and you get face to face with your God, man, you know Jesus.

Something like, ugh, it just solidifies in you and you get face to face with Jesus and you're like, that's who he is. He's the death abolisher. That's a chain breaker. He's a serpent crusher. He's a grave robber. And when you get that, you look at your problems and you're like, man, greater is he that is with me than he that is in the world. It breaks off the spirit of fear. Okay? This is what he says. Now, number three, you break off the spirit of fear by setting your mind on, watch this, the sound words of God. Watch how Paul disciples Timothy. He says, follow the pattern of the sound words. I'm talking about the words of the scriptures that you have heard from me and the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Now, listen, why does he say sound words? This is really important, track. Why does he say sound words? Because when a spirit of fear, let me do it like this, actually. The Holy Spirit will get inside of you and he will be a prophet inside of you that prophesies truth and sound words.

A spirit of fear will get inside of you and it will be a false prophet that prophesies lies and unsound words and unsound thoughts in your head. This is why when you start being gripped by a spirit of fear, does your brain ever just do this? And you go right down the worst case scenario of everything that could possibly happen, and then you get to the spot. Listen, have you figured this out yet? That when you're gripped by fear, you're not seeing nothing straight. You're seeing nothing straight, man. We say this in my family to my kids all the time. I'm trying to disciple them to not be led by their emotions. Our little phrase in our family is, hey guys, we don't see things as they are, you see things as you are. Whatever state your spirit is in, that's how you see the world around you. And when a spirit of fear gets inside of you, it starts prophesying unsound words, unsound thoughts, unsound predictions, and you're led by a spirit of fear. I'll give you an example of this. So in 2021, I had this little medical issue, it was a little weird, I'm not gonna tell you about it. Don't let your brain go to the worst places. I need to find a better way to word that. And so I had it, I didn't know what it was. So I was like, I just, I was like, I don't know what this is, I'm gonna Google it.

Can I just say, I think the spirit of fear controls Google is what I think. So I Google it, 30 seconds after Google, never, ever, ever, ever do that. 30 seconds after Googling it, I'm not joking, I am 100% convinced I'm gonna die a slow and painful, very early death. My kids are growing up without a dad. Jana's gonna marry some new, better guy in like two months after I'm gone. She's gonna meet a guy in finance, six, five, blue eyes, all this stuff, she's gonna find all the things. And then I'm like, I'm having these little visions of man, Jana just staying up late at night with some other dude talking about how much greater it is to be married to him than me. And I was like, it takes me like four seconds to get from one Google search there, why? Because the spirit, listen, because fear is a liar. Fear is a liar. You know what actually happened? Here's what actually happened. I don't know how else to say it, I'll just be honest. I got a colonoscopy and nothing was wrong and I've had the best four years of my life. That's what actually happened, okay? That's it. Fear's a liar. Jana does the same thing. I'm gonna tell on Jana.

One of our kids, we call it one of their weird things. You know how your kids would just do things, you're like, that's so weird, why you do that? We call it, we'll say they did one of their weird things. She's doing one of her weird things. Jana will see one of our kids do one of their weird things. Hudson's in the front yard, peeing in the grass, waving at cars. Jana, all right, I see you, brother. And here's what, Jana's brain just goes. In four seconds, Jana's like, do you know who else? Peas in yards, drug addicted, mentally unstable homeless people. Hudson's gonna become a drug addicted, mentally unstable, it's like, okay? Now here's my point, fear is a liar. The spirit of fear will lie to you. It will lie to you, and listen, I'm serious right now. You do the same thing as me and Jana, don't you? Don't lie to me, you do the same thing. Because fear is a liar, and what the apostle Paul says is when a spirit of fear gets inside of you, starts prophesying unsound words in your heart and in your mind, listen, you gotta fight the good fight to get your mind off of unsound words and onto the sound promises of the living God. When you get these little voices in your head, it's like, oh, everything's gonna go terrible, everything's gonna be wrong, you need to fight to get back here and go,

no, no, no, he has plans for me and a hope and a future, and his plan is not to harm me. You gotta get in here when little voices get in your head, and it's like, starts bringing up your past, and oh man, look at all the stuff you've done, and oh, some of you, it happened in this service. I wanna pull the mask off the spirit of fear. You were worshiping earlier and you lifted your hands for the first time, and this little voice gets inside of you, who do you think you are? I know what you, you know what you did this week? You think somebody who did what you did this week is gonna come up in here and be the hands and the air guy, you hypocrite, can I tell you something? Listen, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, and where grace abounds, we have more reason to worship, not less. When all these little things get up inside of you, you gotta fight the good fight of faith in between your ears and get your brain on the sound words of the living God. I'm gonna give you a diagram, show you what the spirit of fear does. I love diagrams, okay? I'm gonna shoot you straight. Here's all the stuff you worry about. Spirit of fear does this to you. Now, can I tell you something? 95% of the stuff you worry about,

it's not even possible. It's not, like, listen, I'm telling on Jana a little bit. Jana will leave a blanket warmer on in our house. We'll be one block away, and Jana will remember she left a blanket warmer on in our house. She is completely convinced the entire house will burn down before we turn it back and get there. I'm like, babe, that ain't even possible. Check this out, that's spirit of fear. Stuff you worry. Now, next one, here's the stuff that even could possibly happen, but then watch this. Here's the stuff that actually does happen. Now, will you pause and just take this in for a second? The stuff that actually happens, and then you spend your entire life thinking about this stuff, listen to me, because fear is a liar. It will lie to you. This is why Jesus and James in the Bible say things, do not worry about tomorrow because sufficient for the day is its own trouble. This is why James says, don't worry about tomorrow for you do not know what tomorrow will bring. Do you know why 95%, here's 95% of the fear you have. Something will happen, you will worst case scenario, reverse engineer everything from there to what could, worst case scenario, and then you'll think about the worst case scenario

and think, man, I could never make it through that. You hear about a divorce, I can never make it through that. Burying a kid, man, I could never make it through that. Miscarriage, we've done that in the Howard family. And before it happens, you think, man, I don't know if I can make it through that. Bad cancer diagnosis, we've done that in the Howard family too. And you think, I'll never be able to make it through that. And then you're in today, and you're thinking about tomorrow, and you're like, I'd never be able to make it through that. Can I say something to you? Of course you can't, you're not there yet. Hey, Bible scholars, help me out. Help me teach a rumor quick. When does the Bible say new mercies will come? His mercies are new every morning. Do you know when your loving heavenly father is gonna give you the mercy you need to walk through the valley you're in? The morning you need it. And you'll wake up that morning, you'll wake up that morning, and that morning your heavenly father, he will supply all you need for everything you have in Christ Jesus. And so when you wake up that day, he'll give you what you need for that grace. And yea, though you walk through the valley

of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil for he is with you. His rod and his staff, they comfort you. And listen, I've walked through some valleys before, and I'm gonna tell you, here's what ends up working out, is you can't imagine how it'll work, but when you're walking through that valley, it's like every single step, Psalm 23 becomes true. Every single step you take, you can hear two footsteps behind you. Because Psalm 23 says that every second you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, it says, surely goodness and mercy, goodness and mercy, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and then I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That is how you make it right there, man. You set your mind on the sound words of the living God, and you fight to get them off of the unsound words. Now, last thing right here. I'm not even gonna preach about it because this is a sermon next week. We're gonna finish this sermon in a way that's crazy. And for real, you're gonna be like, that's crazy. I'm not doing that. Just roll with me. You win, you break off a spirit of fear, you overcome it by being surrounded by godly people. I'm gonna preload next week's sermon. Listen to me.

Some of you have been converted to Jesus Christ, but you have not been converted to the family and the body of Christ, and you cannot live a godly life surrounded by ungodly people. You can't do it. It's impossible. Watch what Paul does right here. Check this out. Paul finishes discipling Timothy by reminding little Tim what happened to Paul. So watch this. Paul says, hey, Timothy, you're aware that all, I love this, that all who are in Asia turned away from me. I think there's a little spirit of fear, liar thing going on right there, because when I read that, I'm like, really, Paul? All who are in Asia turned against you? There's a lot of people in Asia. I don't know if 2 billion people turned against you, but this is what Paul says. Among whom are, then, here's what he's doing. He's getting ready to name the guys that betrayed him. Now, I'll be honest, the little jerk for Jesus in me, I think the Apostle Paul was getting ready to say, two men deserted me. And then I think the Holy Spirit went, uh-uh, you put those guys' names down. I want the church for the next 2,000 years only reading those two traitors' names.

I think he looked kind of awesome. So he goes, among whom are Phagellus and Hermogenes. If you're looking for baby names, they're very available. Verse 16, may the Lord grant mercy. There was one guy, one guy. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus. For he often refreshed me, and he wasn't ashamed of my chains. What Paul's saying there is Paul's going, hey, man, I'm in prison. prison, everybody hates me, I'm getting ready to receive a death sentence, it's actually puts you in danger to be associated with me, but there was one guy who went, I don't care what the world says, that's a man of God and I want to be with the Spirit of God for the man of God, and this one guy on a syphilis, he's not ashamed of Paul's chains, but when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me and earnestly found me. Can I ask you this question? When you, when the spirit of fear leads you away from paths of righteousness, do you have a band of brothers or a band of sisters in your life who will search for you earnestly, find you, and then drag you back to the sound words of Jesus Christ? You got that in your life? Because Paul's going, I wouldn't have made it without that one dude on a syphilis, I wouldn't have made it, that's what he's saying. Verse 18, may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and you well know all the service he rendered me at Ephesus. Now, what I'm gonna do right now, for real, tons of you guys, you've never done a church thing before in your entire life, and when I say it, you're like, that's crazy, I'm not doing that. And I'm just gonna warn you, what is saying that to you is a spirit of fear. Spirit of fear. So Paul goes, I wouldn't have made it without on a syphilis, and then at the beginning of the passage, what he said is, fan into flame the gifts of God, how? By the laying on of hands, people praying for you. So I'm asking you to do something that may feel weird, but do not let the spirit of fear keep you from doing

something the Spirit of God wants you to do, we know this from the Word of God. So I want to do what the book says, to pray for people to be set free, so they can live free from a spirit of fear in their life. So men, at all of our campuses, may sound crazy, don't care, at all of our campuses, if you right now are struggling in any way with a spirit of fear in your life, I want you to stand up right now. Let's do it right now. Come on, man. Let's see some courage. Okay. Wow. Stay standing. Hey listen, well done. Well done. Sometimes all it takes is one person who's willing to stand with you and pray for and with you, and so the person in my life that has done that more than anybody else is Jana. Jana's my considerably more attractive onosiphorus, and so I'm gonna have, she's just a grace on her life. I don't get it, there's a grace on her life to pray for people with a spirit of fear, and so I'm gonna have Jana come out, and what I want you to do is, I know this sounds weird, but we don't care if it sounds weird if we got Bible verses for it. Okay. So what I want you to do is, at all of our campuses, if you are close to somebody that's standing, would you just, just like it says, would you just reach out and maybe gently put a hand on their shoulder, and don't touch me in weird places, I don't want to hear about it. Put a hand on their shoulder, and if you need to stand up to do it, that's fine, and if you're not, would you just extend a hand out towards them, and I want Jana to pray for you to be set free from a spirit of fear. Father, thank you so much for each, each one of these people who are willing to stand up and admit that they need you, and they need to be set free from the spirit of fear, Father, and because of their faith, Lord, I just pray, and in your goodness, you are good, you are good, loving Father, and I pray that in the name of Jesus, you will set them free from the spirit of fear in their life, Lord. I pray that it will have no dominion over them, no control, because you are bigger, you are larger, and you are in them, Lord. It is free, for freedom, you've set us free, and I will pray that they will walk in that freedom, and that they will know that even though that there are hard things that come into our

lives, and, and you, you, there are trials, there are waters that we will, we will be in, there are fires that we will be in, but Lord, just like the book of Isaiah says, that you are in it with us, and I pray that today they will take that away with them, that they know that you are present, and you are active, and you will never leave them, nor forsake them, Father. I pray that you will just give them the faith to just keep their eyes upon you, and to know that you are with them through it all, and they're never alone, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.