Stop Letting Fear Control You | 04/22/2026

We open wide the doors.

We say let the King of Glory come in.

Let the King of Glory come in.

Let your presence come in.

Let your goodness come in in Jesus' name.

Hallelujah.

Oh, come on, keep lifting your voice all over the room.

Come on, can you just give him a hallelujah?

Hallelujah.

Come on.

We thank you, God.

You're running in this place today.

We're gonna give you our best praise this morning.

Oh come on, can you lift your voice one more time?

Hey, come on! Let me see your hands up.

Come on, see this.

See, I'm shaking, I'm shaking all the heaviness.

Come on, I'm dancing out of my regrets.

I'm throwing caution to the wind.

No, I am not ashamed to praise like it's heck.

Don't say it's foolishness.

What I say it's worth her is heck.

I can't forget what Jesus did.

No, I am not ashamed to praise like the sweetness.

Where are those chains that once help me?

I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free.

My sin is gone.

How can it be?

I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I so love.

Look at what the Lord has done.

I'm never going back to the way I was.

Hey, I'll see I'm just cause I feel it.

I'm free, I'm free.

Take up, I'm free, hey.

I found a friend that never quit.

No other love as good as this.

I don't care what you want to say.

Hey, I'll never be ashamed to praise like this.

Where are those shapes that can't tell?

I think I'm free.

I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, so that the Lord has I'll never go back to way.

I'll see, I'll dance can I be I'm free, I'm free, but yes, you took the cross and you broke your body.

You shed your blood, now the sinner can sing.

My dad is pain and my record is clear.

I couldn't do it, so you didn't sing it.

You took the cross and you broke your body.

You shed your blood, now the shitter can dad is pain and my record is clear.

I couldn't do it so you took, you took the cross and you broke your life.

You shed your blood, now the shitter.

My dad is paid and my record is clear.

I couldn't do it so I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it so he did it for me.

I couldn't do it so he did it, hey, yeah, yeah, I couldn't do it.

Hey, where are those chasing that one?

I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, my sin is gone, how can it be?

I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, hey.

Look at what the Lord has done.

I'm never coming back to the way I'll see, I'll dance cut, I'll be, I'm free, I'm free, take that cut, take the cross, and we forklified, you shake your time, hey, my daddy's pay, my record is good, I couldn't do it, let's just take it up, you should be put in, you should die, hey, I'd say, I'll be curious, I could show you, I could show you, I could show the world, I've never come on here and say, Look at what the Lord has done, I'm never come on back to the meeting, sing it, look at what the Lord has done, I'm never going back out.

Come on, keep singing it, hey.

Look at that, I want you to say, look at my back to the way.

Hey, look at my back to the way that I lie.

Come on, can you give them a shout of praise?

All over the room.

Oh, come on, we take you for freedom.

We take you for freedom.

I'm never going back to darkness.

Hey, come on.

Can you see your hands up?

Woo!

This twenty car is a river the clip that this flows, there is a fountain that drowns sorrow.

There is an ocean deeper than fear, the tide is arising, rising, close to there is, there is a current stirring deep inside it's overflowing from the heart of the flood of heaven, crashing over us.

The tide is rising, rising, shake or shake, rising, rising, up from the crowd.

We feel it now, push, up from the crowd.

We feel it now, we come alive in the river.

We come alive in the girl, we come alive in the river.

We come on street again, but we come alive, we come alive in the river, we come alive in the river.

We come alive in the river.

We come alive in the Come on, see where it's a current, there is a current, stirring deep in shy, it's overflowing, singing from the heart, the flood of heaven, crashing over us, the tide is rising, rising, sing it again.

Hey, there is a current, stirring deep it's shy, it's overflowing, from the heart of God, the flood of heaven, crashing over us, the tide is rising, right?

Sheep bursting in virtue, up from the crowd, we feel it now, pushing, up from the crowd.

We feel it now, we come alive in the wheel.

We come alive in the wheel, we come alive in the river, we come alive in the wheel, shit.

Break up the prison journey.

Set all the captives free, call shit.

Spring up a love, spring up a well, spring up around in me.

Oh nothing, nothing can shop and joy.

Hey, we're dancing in the streets, around in me.

Oh, break open, break open prison doors, save open captain, hey, yeah, spring up the world, swing up the world, spring up the world in me, show that the club, nothing to stop the show, we can give the shit, swing up the wall, swing up the wall, spring up the wall in me, swing up, spring up, spring up the road, swing up the world, spring up the road in me, spring up the world, swing up the world, the boy, we come alive, we come alive in the line, we come alive in the river, we come alive from together, we come alive in the river.

Let me hear you.

We come alive, we come alive in the river, we come alive in the free.

Come on, see, break open, break open present doors, you know, set all the captains free up the well Bring up the well Bring up the L in me up and present the doors this morning.

Set all the captives free up the will Bring up the will Bring up the Lord, uh, for Him to be relief.

Relief I want to encourage you this morning.

Sometimes, even if you don't feel I'm not saying we're all jumpers, I'm not saying we're all gonna run around the church, but sometimes the situation in your life that you're dealing with requires praise for those prison doors to be opened.

I want to encourage you this morning that as we go back in this praise, that you'll be like Paul and Silas, who were setting their bound in chains, but didn't look at the circumstances, and they allowed their praise to open up those prison doors.

Heavenly Father, we just declare this morning that our praise is opening those prison doors, situations we've been looking for answers to, our praise is releasing the answer.

We declare this morning in the name of Jesus.

Wake up, wake up, wake up the door, show the screen, scream up, swim, spring of the fool, spring of the wheels of the light of the light, we got the shop, we can show the show, we can die, we come back in the year, we come out in the way, we come back, come back, we come and die, we come and die in the wheel come alive in the wheel Oh we do, we go, we go Come on, put your hands all over the rim.

Oh, we take you by live in you, Jesus.

I'm alive in you alive because of you.

In the name of Jesus, this is a house of miracles, we bring, we bring everything to the feet of Jesus, everything in the name of Jesus.

This is a house of miracles, there is resurrection high calls in the blood runs through our rain, your kingdom triumphs for hey, even the call is great, causing everything.

This resurrection, power, your blood runs you are to do your kingdom triumphs, oh even Even the concept, come alive in the name of Jesus, come alive in the name of Jesus, this is the house of miracles, we bring, we bring everything to the feet of Jesus, everything in the name of Jesus, it's just allowed to miracles, again, to each come alive, in the name of Jesus, come alive, in the name of Jesus, it's just alive, miracles to the feet of Jesus, everything in the name of Jesus.

This is a house of miracles, it is a house of miracles.

Come on, he's still moving mountains, he's still part of Jesus, it's still making a way for you and me.

Come on, shit I still, and I still believe your knowing, I still believe your speaking, God, I believe your work, all things for God.

I fix my eyes on heaven, God, I receive your holding, God, I believe your work, all things for God's chill, I still believe you, I still believe that in the name of Jesus, come alive, in the name of Jesus.

This is a house of miracles, we bring everything to the head.

We say come alive in the name of seeing it.

Come alive in the name.

This is a house of miracles.

We pray everything.

Everything in the name of Jesus.

This is it again.

Come alive.

Come alive in the name of Jesus.

Come alive in the name of Jesus.

Truly, she's singing the word of God.

This is a house of miracles.

And I want to tag on to what Garna said as Catherine preached about worship last week.

God has a way that he wants to do things.

It's not up to me to say how he wants to do it.

It's up to the word of God.

And as we read the word of God, there's an economy of heaven that he wants to teach you about.

And everything, just as he says, we bring to the feet of Jesus.

Maybe you don't like the way God sells it out.

But that's how we come to him.

The way he wants to.

I'm prophesying to you today.

It's time to take a step forward into the way God wants to do it.

Not your opinion.

Not the way you always thought it's going to be done.

It's how he wants us to praise.

It's how he wants us to worship.

It's the culture of heaven that we're bringing to earth.

And that's what he's saying to you.

Are you ready to step into the economy of God and the culture of heaven and fight the way he wants to fight in Jesus' name?

So with that, we just say what she said is we bring everything to the feet of Jesus this morning.

We bring every addiction to the feet of Jesus this morning.

We bring every suicidal thought to the feet of Jesus this morning.

We break off, I'm hearing this this morning, a spirit of pornography, pornography addiction.

We're bringing it to the feet of Jesus this morning.

Whatever it is that you're facing, we bring financial instability to the feet of Jesus this morning.

We bring marriage problems to the feet of Jesus this morning.

Can we just begin to lift up our voices all over this room?

We're bringing everything to the feet of Jesus, to the command of Jesus, to the authority of Jesus this morning.

It's a house of miracles, we bring away, we bring everything to the feet of Jesus.

Everything in the name of Jesus.

Come alive.

So come alive in the name of Jesus.

Come alive in the name of Jesus.

This is a house of miracles.

We bring We bring everything to the feed of Jesus.

Everything in the name of Jesus.

This is the house.

Oh my god, we bring we bring.

We bring everything to the fear of Jesus.

To the name of Jesus, we bring everything.

God has been all things for the fixed.

God have believed you.

All things are good.

All things are good.

Evidence is all.

She overflow.

Overflow in this place.

Fill our hearts with your love.

Your love to us us.

You're the reason.

You're the reason we came to encounter your love.

Your love surrounds us.

Overflow crossing.

Overflow in this place.

Fill our hearts with your love.

Your love surrounds us.

You're the reason we came to encounter your love.

Your love surrounds us to the top.

Your love surrounds us.

We need your presence.

Oh, hear eyes in head.

There's no sickness in head.

There's no pain in head.

There's no depression in head.

Oh, we say here as in head.

Overflow in this place.

Feel our hearts with you all love.

You are love.

That we have been buried with Christ, that we are now able to be resurrected with him as well.

But I have this sense.

Will you go ahead and share your word, then I'll share.

So I just had a real strong sense during worship that the Lord is really trying to break open some living waters in people and rising up a new faith to lay hold of all that he has for them, and that there's a call in some people's hearts to rededicate their life back to the Lord.

And the baptism waters represent leaving Egypt in the water, leaving the old things in the water and coming out.

And just like when Moses led the Israelites through on dry land, only what was of God made it through on dry land.

Everything else was covered in the waters.

So I just feel like I need to release that in case some who are here hadn't planned on baptism, but you can't push down what the Lord is stirring up about leaving Egypt behind in the waters.

Some of you have had some Egyptians chasing you for a long time, and we're here to decree that this morning that those issues, those frustrations, those struggles are being drowned in a watery grave this morning.

Amen.

But along with that, I don't know if it's you need to come up here right now.

We're about to go into the song that we've been in.

But I feel like I saw this picture of how many of you have heard the story Pilgrim's Progress.

It's this picture of this person making his way to heaven, but he's carrying until he encounters Jesus.

He has this burden of sin on his shoulders, and he finally makes it to the cross, and this burden falls off of him.

And I see this picture, it's not that some of you haven't accepted Jesus, it's that maybe you guys have still been struggling with some things, and it's created this burden on your back.

And I feel like there's an invitation in worship this morning to come back to the cross, to come back to the feet of Jesus, and whatever you've been trying to carry in your own strength, I see the Lord removing that burden, and there is a new season that Generations Church as a family is stepping into, and in that new season, we decree those burdens are not going to go with you into this next season.

So, whatever it is, I'm gonna ask you, can you by faith come up to the altar this morning?

I'm here.

My burden I know is is fear.

I'm fearful sometimes of the future.

I like to control things.

So I'm here at the altar this morning, and I'm saying fear has to bow its knee to Jesus.

I'm here at the altar this morning and saying God is in control of my future.

But whatever it is, I'm gonna ask you, can you by faith come forward right now?

Come forward to the altar, and we're saying whatever burden it is that we've been carrying is not gonna be carried into this next season.

In Jesus' name.

Come on, let's just begin to sing.

Come on, every burden is lifting in Jesus' name, Spirit of God fresh on us.

We need you, Jesus.

We need you in this next season, Holy Spirit, your kingdom come, your will be done, you're using Spirit of God.

Every burden is lifting, every burden is lifting, all the burden of sin and shame has been nailed to the cross today.

Every burden is lifting, every burden is lifting, every burden is lifting by the power of Jesus.

It's the power of Jesus, it's the power of Jesus.

Can we just begin to say the name of Jesus all over this place?

Let's just begin to lift up the name of Jesus.

Oh, the name, the name, the name, the name.

Spirit of God, fall afresh on us.

We need your kingdom come.

Hear us.

We just decree that this is where cycles stop today.

We decree this is where cycles stop today.

We decree that this is where cycles of anger are broken in Jesus' name.

We decree whatever cycle that you have been in, we plead the blood of Jesus over this morning, and we will not stop contending until there is a bride walking in a bride walking in holiness.

There is a pure and spotless bride fit for Jesus.

We need your praise.

On earth as it is in heaven, cycles are broken, cycles are broken, cycles are poking, cycles are poking, cycles are poking, cycles are poking, cycles are broken, broken, broken, I know the power of the cross, I know the power of the cross, I know the power of the cross cycles are broken, broken, broken, broken.

Oh come on, just let the presence of God wash over you this morning.

Let the presence of God wash your way this snow this morning.

How brave is I bought.

See how great, how gray is our God, the name of all days.

He's the name of all names, and he's worthy of all praise, and my heart will see how the ray is our God, how pray how pray is our God, see with me how the ray is our God So will she how the ray how gray is our God but can wash her away nothing but the blood Jesus And what can make me whole again?

It's nothing but the blood in oppressions it is that makes me white as no other fountain.

It's nothing but the blood.

Let's just stay in this posture right now.

Just raise your hand if you need to get the communion element.

Let's just stay in this worship.

Romans chapter 6, verse 1.

Romans 6:1

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

Of course not.

Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Or have you forgotten that when you were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we also joined him in his death?

For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism.

And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.

And we know, we know, say we know, that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives.

We are no longer slaves to sin.

For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin.

For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin.

And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him.

What a beautiful privilege this morning to recognize the power of the cross.

What a beautiful privilege this morning, all over this room, to take a moment to remember when each of us went down in a watery grave to be resurrected to newness of life.

We remember when sin lost its hold.

We remember so just take a moment to remember right now.

Remember when compromise was buried in those waters.

Remember when shame and confusion were buried in those waters.

Let's go ahead, thanking Jesus for what he's done.

Let's go ahead and take the bread all over this room.

What a privilege to count ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ.

What a privilege that we had a moment to remember when sin no longer had a hold on us anymore.

And every time that sin comes tries to come back, every time that shame tries to come back, every time that cycle tries to come back, every time a failure happens, we get to repent and pick ourselves up and remind ourselves of the day that we died with Jesus.

So go ahead and by faith, because of his blood, we have victory, overwhelming victory.

Because of his blood, we have overwhelming victory.

Go ahead and take the cup.

Oh, it's you.

Amen.

What do you do when Jesus is still in the room?

How about you go ahead and look at your neighbor and greet them and say, Welcome to Generations Church?

We are excited that you are here.

Amen.

Do you feel the presence of God in this place?

My goodness.

I'm gonna do these announcements very quickly so Pastor David can come on up and preach.

Our first announcement, everybody say voting.

I know that can be an uncomfortable word for a lot of us, but it's not.

Voting is a very kingdom principle, and we believe in voting here.

And we're simply encouraging you.

I'm new to this area.

Is voting coming up soon?

Voting is coming up soon.

Yes, and it's here, right here.

You can get you can open your phone and open up one of these if you scan it, and you can go if you're not registered to voter or anything, just go ahead and do that.

Voting is important.

It's it's we believe in voting here, amen.

Our next slide.

Say woman's floral workshop.

Or you can do that, yes.

You can yell at me, that's fine.

Women's floral workshop on Tuesday.

Uh, we're inviting women to sign up today for Church Center or the QR code.

Those are beautiful flowers.

There's a QR code right there.

You can sign up for it.

What they're gonna be doing is teaching you about flowers.

Amen.

That's awesome.

I guess how to arrange flowers.

It's for women, not for men.

Men don't try to sign up, it's for women.

Now, men's act on.

Can the men make some noise real quick?

That's what I'm talking about.

We have men's acts on.

We're gonna be throwing axes at each other, and I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

Where's Joey?

Joey's putting this together.

We but we're gonna have men's and a cookout, so you can sign up right here.

Go ahead and sign up for that.

It's gonna be amazing.

And then ladies, oh, ladies have a lot of stuff.

Say, ladies' tea.

Oh, the ladies are excited about tea.

I don't know what kind of tea you're gonna be drinking.

We're talking about drinking tea night, right?

Not like trying to get the tea.

Yeah, we rebuke gossip in the name of Jesus.

Anyway, we're talking about drinking tea together.

So you can sign up for ladies' tea.

Those are announcements.

But before we do our announcements, we heard, I need brother Ty to come onto the stage.

We heard that somebody had a birthday.

Somebody have you can drop that beat.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, birthday, birthday, birthday, hey, hey, hey, uh-huh.

You don't ever quit, got wisdom for my days.

It's a perfect fit from the both fit flow to the jokes that you drop.

Yeah, one of those gonna shine, smile, yeah.

Still, we're flying keeping the fancy.

So we still wanna find you as a humble church, screaming, happy birthday, baby.

Good morning, that was awesome.

I was praying, I said, Lord, please let them recognize and remembrance my birthday and show up.

And they did.

Thank you.

Thank you.

How's everybody doing?

What?

Oh, she said, get that picture off.

That picture was not AI, by the way.

That was really me.

It's really good to see you all.

It's really good to be back.

I was not here last week.

I was sick, and I had a man cold.

Very serious, very serious.

Halfway demonic, in my opinion.

Women, you don't you won't understand.

But um, my wife came and preached.

I want to give her a shout out.

I literally come to her in the morning of Sunday, right?

She's like got baby getting him, and I said, Hey, can you preach?

And she said, Okay, I'll do it.

And she killed it.

She's a powerful preacher.

And I just want to give a shout out to you all, too.

You all have been so encouraging to me.

You know, everyone was coming up saying she's better than you, David.

And so, thank you.

Never letting her preach again.

She might start her own church or something.

But seriously, it was a powerful word, and I love you, honey.

She's been in mom land.

You know, we have a one-year-old.

This is our first child, but the Lord is calling her to start speaking more.

She speaks a lot, she travels all over, but I'm excited to start hearing you more preaching here, bringing the fire of God and all the things.

It's not a competition, okay?

No.

But I would be winning if it was.

I'm joking.

Lord, I just thank you for this day, Father, and I thank you for your faithfulness.

I thank you for what you're doing in this place, Lord.

And I recognize the assignment of today, Lord, and we just say, Holy Spirit, that we recognize your presence here, Lord.

We put ourselves in attention to what you're doing.

We thank you, Lord, that you sent your son Jesus to die on a cross.

Lord, do what you want to do today, Father.

Have your way today in this place, Lord.

I thank you that you see every single person here, that your eyes are on them, Lord.

That you've called them, you've created them.

And we ask that your will would be done in their life, Lord, and I thank you that you're bringing freedom to the captives, Father.

I thank you that you're bringing clarity, Lord, where there's confusion.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you, Lord.

I thank you that you're bringing clarity where there's confusion in the mighty name of Jesus.

In the mighty name of Jesus.

Everybody said amen.

Okay, so I was planning on doing like a whole series on the charismatic spiritual things, hitting some of these topics that maybe, you know, we participate in, but maybe we're not fully sure about it.

You know, charismatics a lot of times can be a little bit insecure in our world because we have to do things and we practice things that we can't fully explain.

And I'm here to tell you the word of God is very clear about this.

You can be very confident, but the Lord had different plans today.

And my job is not to have all the answers, it's to follow the one who does.

He says, I want to talk on fear.

Let me go ahead and tell you this because we have been trained in America to approach church with a consumer mindset.

What I mean with by a consumer mindset is that people come to church and they treat it like a business, that you're the customer, the church here is the business, and we're here to serve you.

That is the opposite of what the word of God wants the church to be.

I want you to know that.

And because we've had pastors and leaders that are insecure, they they think to them success is a full church, butts in every seat and good, healthy giving, okay?

So, what do they do is that they respond to the customer.

Because in business, the customer is always right.

But in the church, God is always right.

Regardless of what people think, regardless of whether they say, I'm gonna give you a bad review, I'm gonna stop coming.

Understand that the way the church was meant to be was meant to be a place of truth.

I don't know why I was saying all that.

I was going somewhere, and my mind just stopped on me.

It's the man cold, it's not fully gone.

What?

Oh, yeah, we're gonna talk about fear.

So, yeah, that's so funny.

My brain does it sometimes.

Man, I was hitting something, but we're hitting this thing of fear, and so the church has not really been the church.

I'll say this in America because of fear.

And when I say the church, I'm not talking about just pastors and I'm not just talking about the organization of a church, but I'm talking about us as the church.

And I want us to understand something is that fear is very real, fear is very powerful, and even as I stand up here, there's a lot of expectations you may come in with thinking, oh, David's got his life put together, David doesn't have these problems, David's not fearful.

Let me tell you something.

I'm very fearful.

I struggle with fear in many different areas of my life.

And what's amazing to me is that as we're we're we we use this language about revival and contending for revival.

And the idea is that we're contending, we're running after something, we're trying.

Like if there's an aspect of us like partnering with God, we want to answer the call to partner.

If there's something that we're meant to do, we just want to do it, even if it's hard, even if we don't understand it.

During this whole you know, last few years, I've realized that I'm fearful.

I I care what people think.

I have a I've had a fear of man that's controlled my life.

Like I care what people think, like I will do things and not do things based on what I'm thinking people will think about it.

I've had I I have I have a fear of failure.

When I do something, I I want to make sure that it actually works.

I don't want to fail.

So even there's even some things that I feel called to do, and I don't do because I don't want to fail.

Fear is profound.

And so, even in this last little, this little segment, okay, this last few months, okay, the Lord's been breaking fear off my life.

He's been breaking fear off my life.

And so I started studying this thing in fear.

The Lord said, I want you to look at fear, I want you to study this.

And as I study this, I started to get really mad because I started to realize that a lot of my life and a lot of my years have been wasted by believing something that's not actually true.

A lot of opportunities have not been taken in my life because I just believe stuff that's not real.

Fear is a part of our natural design, okay?

God made us, He made us biologically to have fear, and the idea is it's a survival mechanism.

Like if there's danger, that we're aware of danger in our body, our brain are what's amygdala?

Is that the name for?

Amygdala.

Close enough.

It actually is part of your brain, it'll produce chemicals in your body, adrenaline, cortisol.

It'll make you actually be able to move quicker, be stronger in the moment to react to like predators, danger, threats.

Okay, it's it's it's fear is part of God's natural design.

Okay, it's not I'm not saying it's horrible or bad to have fear.

Yeah, it's natural, and now there's different levels of fear.

Now, fear is a very complex topic.

There's not there's different levels, okay.

We have fear, but we also have dread and we have anxiety.

Those are different levels.

There's different parts of the brains that control that, and they actually perform different functions in our body.

They're actually by design to help us survive.

Now, now, anxiety is something where it scans around and it asks the question, what is possible?

What could happen?

Okay, so it's not this thing of like, oh my gosh, I'm afraid, but it's still aware.

Okay, wait, there's a potential threat that I need to be aware of.

Maybe I need to be prepared for something that could happen.

Are y'all following this?

Anxiety itself is not bad.

It's natural, okay?

And then you have this next step of dread, where anxiety says what is possible.

Dread is this next level that says what is probable?

What am I expect?

There's something coming in the future that's maybe negative, that's maybe dangerous, that puts me in an uncomfortable place, and I'm dreading that.

And maybe some of you you've had have you ever had to do something that was like maybe a week or two from now, and you're and you know it's coming, and but you're already feeling uncomfortable.

Maybe you had to public speak or something in a week and you're like, oh gosh, here it's coming.

But the whole week building up to it, you're kind of miserable because you're just nervous.

That's called dread.

This is a scientific thing.

Let me go ahead and throw out two things, okay?

So I said the amygdala, but anxiety and dread are actually triggered in our body.

It produces real chemicals, okay?

It's a biological, physical thing.

It comes from what's called the bed nucleus of the Stria terminalis, BNST.

And what it does is that if you've ever been afraid, if you've ever been like scared and the adrenaline comes up and your heart starts beating, like in a second, and all of a sudden, like maybe you're like able to do something you weren't able to do, you got more strength, you could all of a sudden run like three miles or something.

That's fear, right?

Cortisol, adrenaline.

The BNST is different, okay?

So fear is this quick like reaction.

If you were constantly in a state of fear, you would probably die.

You can't take adrenaline that much, right?

Are y'all following?

But this other thing is more, it's long, it actually has longevity to it.

It puts us at a state of tension, it puts a heaviness on us, and vigilance where we're like, okay, we know something's up.

I can't rest, I'm not at ease.

There's danger, there's a threat, okay?

And and it's and it actually manages, it can last a long time.

It doesn't just fade away.

I want you to hear this.

We can live from a state of fear and vigilance where our body is chemically not at rest.

We have anxiety, we have dread.

Are y'all following this?

It can it can hinder our health, it can affect us mentally, emotionally, it can affect us spiritually.

This is profound.

The statistics for today says that people live and operate from a higher level of anxiety than any past generation.

We live from this thing of what could happen.

This could happen.

I could lose everything.

Something could come me.

This dangerous thing could happen.

My kids, my family can get hurt, and it's always, and we're always sitting there, and we're never at ease or rest.

And that BNST, that thing in our brain, is always pumping.

It's pumping those chemicals, okay?

I can't be at rest.

And then all of a sudden, we start to believe what could happen, and we start to believe, oh, it will happen.

And then all of a sudden, now we're into dread, and now we have even more heaviness in our life.

And all of a sudden, we're not we're not waking up with the joy of the Lord.

We don't have the peace of God.

Our lives, we're not peaceful.

We're like, oh my gosh, it's gonna happen.

Oh, I know it's gonna happen.

And all of a sudden, we're controlled by fear.

And we come into church and we hear about the joy of the Lord, the peace of God, and we sit there and we nod our head, and we're like, that sounds nice, that's not my reality.

I started asking God this because I found out I found that I live from a place of dread.

I'm an analytical thinker.

I live life where I think about every possible scenario that could happen and I plan for it.

How am I going to respond if this happens or if this happens or if this happens?

What I've got to have a plan in place, and my mind is always going on the negative thing that could happen, and I don't actually live from a place of peace.

I come up here and preach, say peace of God, but deep down in my heart, there's a thing of dread.

Oh my gosh, this is not gonna work out.

Oh my gosh, this is and what if this happens?

And what if this happens?

And I'm always like scanning the ground, and there's not this rest.

And then you throw the fear of man in there.

Oh my gosh, people are gonna see me, they're gonna know I'm a fraud.

They're gonna see, oh my gosh, people are gonna reject me.

My wife's gonna leave me.

We have these thoughts though, and we're never at rest in peace.

Our lives are consumed by fear.

Do you know that fear will convince ourselves I'm just operating from wisdom, so we never make decisions, we're always planning and we're stuck in a loop.

Always planning, never doing.

Oh, I'm just trying to use wisdom.

No, you're not.

You're not taking opportunities, you're not stepping out of the boat because you're controlled by fear.

You see, fear alone, you know what fear is?

It's a it's a feeling that comes from a belief.

Fear is a feeling, a felt thing that comes from a belief, a perspective.

I believe this, so when I look and I scan my life, I start to feel it.

Now, listen, fear can be real, but fear fear can also be imaginary.

You know the Bible says that the wicked run away even though no one's chasing them.

They're afraid of things that's not actually real.

You know, I've had many days and hours wasted of my life being afraid of something that wasn't actually real.

It was a Thing I conjured up in my mind.

I started studying as I got mad.

I got mad.

I had the fear of man.

Let me be less absolute because God's still working on me.

I had a major breakthrough this year when it came comes to a fear of man.

Major breakthrough.

And God did this wonderful thing where I started asking for years.

I said, Lord, if you're calling me to be a pastor and you're gonna bring revival, you're gonna have to take a fear of man out of me.

Like I care too much what people think.

And I was praying it every day.

I was like, you've got to do it.

And so he did it.

You know how you know how he broke that fear of man?

Do you know how he broke a fear of rejection?

He had me be rejected.

A lot.

The Navy SEALs have training that they will do.

Okay, y'all know what the Navy SEALs are?

They do a training.

It's actually, it's not part of their training, it's part of their like enlistment to try out to become a Navy SEAL.

They do this thing where they have it, they they tie up their hands behind their backs and they tie up their feet and they throw them in ten feet of water.

And they make them stay in the water.

And they have to do drills where they swim to the bottom and they like grab their goggles with their teeth, and they have to stay in there for like five minutes floating, and then all of a sudden they have to swim a hundred yards just keeping their feet.

This is this is crazy.

This is crazy intense.

What this does is this sort of serves two purposes.

This causes them to train themselves of how to handle the fear of drowning by actually putting the actual experience of drowning in front of them.

They break the fear, or they train themselves how to handle the fear because when people are drowning, they'll go they'll become chaotic.

Have you ever seen those movies?

They just they stop thinking, they start trying to act, and they start doing stuff, they can cause other people to drown.

So what they do is they put them in the situation where they're experiencing drowning.

And what they teach them is how to stay calm.

Let yourself float to the bottom, and then get your wits about you and push yourself up instead of just uh and wasting your oxygen.

But it also helps them weed out the people that can't handle this fear.

And it causes drownies to be reduced by like 40%.

It's crazy.

God will do something with us where when He's trying to break fear in our life, He'll have us encounter the thing that we're afraid of.

And then we go through it, and all of a sudden we're like, wait a second, I'm still here.

Wait a second, God's faithful.

Y'all hearing this?

Fear is a powerful thing.

And let me just say this that not all fear is bad.

In order to be a good Christian, you have to have fear.

You have to have a fear of the Lord.

Now, the negative kind of fear is not the same as the fear of the Lord.

Very different.

When we talk about the fear of the Lord, we're talking about reverence and awe.

Reverence is like a deep respect.

It's just it says, Lord, that I believe you are who you say you are.

And I believe that you're trustworthy.

You'll do what you say you do.

I believe it, and I apply that belief to my life.

I don't just say it in church because everyone does it.

But in my heart, I believe you're real, I believe you're capable, and I believe that you're faithful.

I trust that.

I apply that to my life.

I make decisions based on my trust in you.

A fear of the Lord.

And then there's the word awe.

We get awesome.

It's that thing of wonder.

It's recognizing that God is bigger than we could ever fathom.

We can't comprehend it.

He's more powerful.

We get that that word awesome.

God, he ran from heaven above with with and power and love.

God is an awesome God.

When the dun the enemy putting on the wrist.

Thunder in his footsteps and lightning in his fist.

And the Lord wasn't joking when he kicked him.

He's awesome.

He's awesome.

All powerful.

Faithful, trustworthy.

And he wants this one simple thing for his children to believe it and actually live like they believe it.

And if you look at the Bible, what's amazing is that the Bible is this great love story from the creator of heaven and earth where he's simply telling his children, do not fear.

I am with you.

And I'm mad because I look at this and I realize, even though I'm in a Christian and even though I'm raised in church, I still believe lies and I live from lies and I govern my life from lies instead of having a fear of the Lord, of trusting him.

And I've allowed the enemy to rob years of my life, to rob opportunities of my life.

Because I believed lies.

If we're going to have revival, church, if we're going to experience the breakthrough and the power of God moving, God is going to have to break fear from us by teaching us to fear him more.

It says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

The word here, spirit, is not talking about evil spirits, it's talking about God's spirit.

He's describing his spirit, and he's saying, My spirit is not like this.

My spirit is not going to cause you to be fearful.

Fear is very odd.

It will cause us to run away or do things, or it'll cause us to simply be paralyzed.

Have you ever experienced this where all of a sudden you just got fearful and you're like like a deer in a headlight?

Fear will cause us, okay.

Fear itself is the feeling, right?

Fear becomes bad when it begins to control us.

We can all have fear, we can all have the these thoughts.

We can perceive danger, okay?

The Bible even says count the cost, okay?

But but when fear starts to actually determine and control me, it when I'm supposed to do something and I don't do it because I'm afraid, that's when this becomes sinful.

And and other people, when they get fearful, they'll actually do, they'll get they'll become busybodies.

I've got to fix this, I've got to make sure this doesn't happen, I gotta like set all these things in my life, I gotta guard myself because I'm afraid, and God didn't call you to do that.

And then sometimes we just get paralyzed, we don't do anything.

We experience pain, trauma, betrayal, loss, and we just get paralyzed, and we're stuck in life.

That's a posture of fear.

On the other end of what God's doing in our life, think about this power.

What is power?

It's the ability to do things that we're not able to do.

God calls us into something and we look at it and we're like, I can't do that.

And we get afraid and we back off.

I don't have enough resources.

I get afraid, I back off.

I don't step into it.

Power.

That comes from him.

He's not telling you to have all the answers.

Some of you, and the Lord's been put, he put this on my heart.

Oh my gosh, some of you here today.

God's calling you to into business.

He's calling you to have a business, he's calling you to start a business.

Maybe you have one, and and and you're called into this thing, and it's so intimidating.

And all you see is failure.

You're afraid.

Well, and you're like, what if this?

What if this?

What if this?

And the Lord's like, just go.

I'm going to help you.

I'm going to give you the ability to do that thing that you're not able to do on your own.

Do not fear.

Joshua has this thing in chapter 1, verse 6.

Let me read this to you.

God tells Joshua, they're about to go into the promised land.

Y'all are familiar with this story.

God leads them out of Egypt, okay?

He's taken them to the promised land.

This is a land flowing of milk and honey.

That's saying that this is a good land.

This is a land that's hills and valleys, it's very fertile, there's rains, it's beautiful.

It's a place of promise.

It's God's promise.

It's his breakthrough.

It's his place of provision.

They're going to go there, and he's going to be their God.

He's going to be their people.

They're going to serve them.

It's going to be amazing.

We have these desires in our life.

Lord, I want to serve you.

And I want to trust you.

And I want you to take care of me.

And I want you to bless my life.

And he says, okay, I'll do it.

Because I know the plans that I have for you.

It's a plan of a hope.

It's a plan of a future for your life.

And I'm going to lead you to it.

He takes Joshua and to the people to this promised land.

And the first time they come there, they send 12 spies.

This is a tragedy, you all.

Listen to this.

They send 12 spies to scout the land and they come back and they're like, okay, that land is the bomb.

Literally what they said.

They bring like the fruit there.

They get like this great great branch that's massive.

You can read about this in Numbers 13.

Massive.

They need multiple guys to carry this thing.

They're like, look at this thing.

It's awesome.

Everything God said it would be, it is.

But then the spies, these 12 spies, they also said, but there's enemies there.

There's enemies and they're massive.

And they got fortified cities.

There's this whole thing, you know, you can study this, you know, this thing, talk of giants.

And they're literal, they're literal giants.

What's interesting, and we don't actually know this for sure, okay?

But think of like probability.

They think that the average height of a man in Joshua's day was probably around 5'4.

They weren't very they weren't as tall as our, you know, Paul and Pastor P would have been giants.

They were 5'4.

You're like 5'3, right, honey?

Stand up.

This is around the average height of a dude back then.

I mean, this could have been Joshua's height.

I would have been seen as a mighty warrior.

You still are.

Why'd you laugh at that?

Thanks for the support, church.

It's my birthday week.

So these giants, they found some bones.

They found some like women's bones that were like seven feet tall.

But we don't have it, we don't exactly know how tall.

Okay, they talk about ox bedding was like you know, all these cubits.

I don't even know the exact feet.

It was just but the idea is that these giants could have been around seven to nine feet tall.

Now, if you think about someone her height, that's massive.

Imagine, and then they don't have like all this, you know, AK-47s, helicopters, choppers, bombs, you know, like this is hand-to-hand combat arrows.

So imagine how intimidating this is, okay?

This is the land that God's called you to, but it's filled with people, and some of those people are dangerous.

And the Lord's like, here you go, my promises are yes and amen.

You're like, whoa.

They come there the first time around, they could have gone right into the promised land, and they get afraid.

They get a bad report.

The report's not a lie.

Some of us, you know, what we do is we don't like to look at the report.

I mean, like, the report's not a lie.

This is very true.

This is reality for them.

Your land is full of enemies that are bigger than you, that you're not gonna be able to face on your own.

And God says, I want you to go in.

And now you're not gonna go share land, you're going to take them out.

You're going to kill them.

And you're going to own this land.

The word possessed means this is my land.

We're not coming to a compromise.

They get afraid and they refuse to go in.

We we see in Deuteronomy, we see in numbers, the Lord's very, he's very upset about this.

I want you to hear this, because this is where I've made excuses in my life because I I feel justified to not obey God because I'm afraid.

God doesn't see a fear as an excuse.

Anxiety today, can I go ahead and say this to maybe some of you?

This is gonna hurt your feelings.

People wear anxiety as a badge of honor.

Oh, I struggle with anxiety, so I'm not gonna do anything.

It's a badge of honor.

Instead of just saying, hey, I struggle to actually trust the Lord, I struggle to be in his word.

I'm so filled with things of the world that yes, I struggle with fear.

Fear is the opposite of trust and belief.

God does not coddle them in their fear.

Oh my gosh, you I understand there's giants, and I understand that you're afraid.

So, you know what?

You don't have to go in.

No, he says, You have disrespected me.

You have dis you have rebelled against me.

You know what he does as a generation that doesn't go in?

He says, You're never gonna go in.

He goes back into the wilderness, you're gonna spend 40 years in the wilderness so you all can die off.

You don't get the blessing.

God is offended by fear.

He doesn't coddle us.

The world could coddle us.

Oh, I'm handicapped.

God doesn't do that.

I came to this thing where I got I started to realize, Lord, this is disobedience.

The fact that I'm even trying to act on these things that I fear.

I'm sorry, Lord, forgive me.

Some of you don't need another pill, you need to repent.

I've been trusting in the wrong things, and I've been trying to make a medical excuse about it.

You want to be set free?

Get a fear of the Lord.

He means business.

He says, Am I not the one that took you out of Egypt?

When Pharaoh and all of his armies, the leaders of that land, were trying to raise their fists at me, I broke them down, plague after plague, and then I took life, showing how powerful and mighty I am.

And then when you're in the wilderness, when it was cold, I had a pillar of fire come to keep you warm.

And then during the day, when it was too hot, I brought clouds of shade over you to keep you cool.

And then there was no food.

I just made food happen.

Am I not able to protect you to set you free?

And you can step into a land where there's some little giants and you refuse to go in because you're afraid.

You're disrespecting me, you're not, you're fearing these little things more than your big God.

Have I not proven myself?

And we come into our lives today, and God's calling us into breakthrough, and we get fearful and discouraged because everything doesn't happen our way.

We're trying to control our lives, evaluating the scene of saying, instead of saying, Lord, I trust you that you're the God of tomorrow.

I cannot do anything about tomorrow, I cannot control the outcomes, but I trust you, Lord, because your word is true.

And your word says that if you're for me, who can be against me?

And your word says an overwhelming victory is mine, but yet I scan my life and I would and I choose to be fearful and I choose to not believe in your goodness.

And so instead of stepping in the promised land, taking on your enemies, you back off, you compromise your life, and you wonder why you're depressed, and you wonder why you have no joy, and you wonder why you have no purpose.

I'm not talking about how big your bank account is.

You can be suicidal with a full bank account, you could be depressed with a full bank account.

I don't care how many people you have in your life that love you, you can feel alone with family all around you.

He's taking them into promise, and it's fear withholding them.

So he tells Joshua this be strong and courageous, for you're the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them.

He's not telling this to Joshua because Joshua's going to struggle with fear in the future.

He's saying this to Joshua because he's afraid right now.

He's afraid.

He sees the giants.

Listen, courage does not mean that we don't have fear.

If you don't have fear, you're an idiot.

Hey, watch this! Famous last words of Manny.

Courage, if you look at how I looked at this, this was this made me chuckle, Pastor Pete.

I I was like, what does be strong mean in this verse?

So I looked up strong.

And then I said, What does be what does courageous mean?

I looked up be strong, you know what it means?

To have courage.

And then I went to courageous, and I was like, what does that mean?

It says to be strong.

And I'm like, but if you look up the modern definition, if you go to the deck, the dictionary of if you look up the modern definition of courage, it actually says to do what you're afraid of.

That means you can't be courageous if you don't have fear.

That feeling of it's think of the feeling.

Courage is I feel this, I perceive danger, I perceive the threat of loss, I perceive the threat of failure, I understand that, well, you know what, people may not approve of this, I understand that people may not think as highly of me if I go forward in this, but I'm still gonna do it anyways.

And we got this word of God, and if you look at this word of God through the lens of fear, you realize God's trying to teach us something.

Jesus says, Listen, I want you to deny yourself.

Because you know what fear does?

It causes you to become recluse into yourself, to self-preserve.

Oh, I got hurt and I got betrayed.

I can never trust again.

God doesn't tell you to do that.

Fear tells you to do something.

Oh, I can't trust again.

He says, you know what?

Let it happen again.

How about trust me with your heart in my mighty hands?

How about trust me with your identity?

How about trust me with your success?

But no, we'll get afraid and we'll start acting out.

Courage means doing the thing you're afraid of.

But it also means strength in the midst of pain.

God does this thing, and people, this is where people get tripped up on Christianity.

I come into it and I think God's gonna solve all my problems.

I think that some of the Jewish people that didn't make in the promise land, they thought God was just gonna put it in their laps.

Just you some of you are praying and you're believing for breakthrough, and you're praying for prodigals, and you're praying for your lives and your marriages and your families to be healed.

You're believing God for a good future, you're believing breakthrough for your careers.

Some of you are walking around so empty, and you're just asking God for meaning in your life.

And he's answering those prayers, but he's bringing you to the edge of the promise.

And he's saying, Don't be afraid.

Why?

Because on the other end of your on the right in between you and your promise is things you're afraid of.

God is not giving me a spirit of fear, but a power, love, and a sound mind.

This is God's calling for Joshua.

It's one of responsibility.

Some of you understand the fears that come when you have responsibilities.

The moment I had a son, there was another level of fear that was produced in my life.

I've had to battle this.

Oh, I don't want anything to happen to my son.

I've got more responsibility.

God's placed responsibility in the calling.

Joshua is responsible for the people.

It's not just his life.

And not only that, it is that part of his calling is it comes with a met a met like a standard of success.

It's not just, hey, go in the land, but possess the land.

Take on these enemies.

That can make us fearful.

Oh my gosh, there's expectation on my life.

Oh, what if I fail?

I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna say something to you, and if you hear this right, this is pro this is gonna deliver you.

This is going to heal you.

This is gonna give you confidence, but I want you to hear this.

Okay?

The moment that you become a child of God, the concept of failure no longer exists.

Chew on that.

The moment that you become a son or daughter of God, the concept of failure does not exist anymore.

It's no longer failure.

We perceive failure because we try to measure the outcomes of our life.

We try to create expectations.

If my life is going to be good, it has to look like this.

The Bible says don't make plans unless you're God willing.

When we operate from fear, we try to control outcome.

We don't have the ability to control tomorrow.

Do you understand this concept?

If you start a business, you can't control customers to come to your business and buy stuff from you.

All you could do is do your best to have a good business and trust the Lord with the outcome.

When we live in fear, we try to control the outcome.

It's something we'll never be able to control.

And so when the outcome doesn't happen the way we think it should do, what do we do?

We think I failed.

And we retreat.

There's not a concept of failure because when God brings us in, he puts us into a cycle and a process of formation.

Catch this.

Are y'all with me?

I know it's a little warm in here.

Work really hard to stay awake.

Because you need this.

When we fail, that's God's way of forming us.

It's his way of teaching us.

So none of it is actually failure, it's formation.

Thomas Edison, we've all heard this example.

He he tried a thousand different ways to create a light bulb and then finally created one.

They asked him, How did it feel to fail a thousand times?

He's like, I didn't fail a thousand times.

I figured out a thousand ways not to make a light bulb.

So the moment he tries that first one, I don't know what he did, but he tried to make a light bulb, it didn't work.

He didn't be like, Oh my gosh, I'm a failure.

What I was afraid would happen, um, it happened.

So I'm gonna give up.

I'm a failure.

He said, Okay, that's not the way to do it.

And all of a sudden, that one thing, that that thing that many people will call a failure, will led him one step further to success.

And you need to understand something is that when you're trying to define your future, you're gonna see yourself as a failure.

But all of a sudden, when you trust the God of the future, you can say, Okay, I'm gonna take one step.

Oh, that didn't work.

God, thank you for teaching me.

I'm gonna take one more step.

That didn't work.

Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness, and you're gonna get further and further, and that's where the Bible says overwhelming victory is yours.

He is faithful to form us, he is faithful to finish the faith that he started in us.

He's faithful.

If he's given you a promise, then start stepping.

Stop letting fear control you.

Some of you, I'm gonna I'm gonna hit some home, I'm gonna hit home right now with some of you.

God's called you to pray and contend for your family and your future, and all of a sudden you define what does it have to look like?

What's the timeline?

I'll pray and fast for one year, but if it doesn't happen, then God failed me.

How about let the Lord have that schedule?

How about trust him?

Some of you, you you you struggle with getting man's approval, and man, I just want people to treat me the way I think I need to be treated.

And then you have things in your mind that you want to do with your life, and you've not you've been frowned upon, you've not been received.

You say like, oh, well, I've been here and they reject me.

I was at this job, they didn't reject me, they didn't let me have this role.

But the Bible says promotion comes from so you don't have to contend and fight for it, you just be faithful.

I trust you, Lord.

I trust you with my future.

But what we do is we come and we start fighting our way through trying to make a name for ourselves.

That's not how God called us to act.

And then we carry this thing, it's a fake fear of the Lord.

It I'll I'll go ahead, I'll go ahead and tell you, I'll identify this for you.

It's the people that come out and they're like, I don't care what man thinks, I only care what God thinks, and then they're a jerk to everybody, and that caused division, and then they're not willing to yield or submit to leadership and honor people in their life.

That's not a fear of the Lord.

That's an angry fear of man trying to prove that you're not afraid of man, but you are.

Because if you were really afraid of the Lord, if you really cared, you'd want to live for his approval.

So you're you know what you would do?

You would be humble, you would serve others, you would put others' interest above yourself, you'd walk in honor from what God's established in your life, the leadership.

But instead, you're like, I don't care what man thinks, and you rebel and push back.

That's not a fear of the Lord.

That's you trying to make a name for yourself, trying to force your way in, trying to make God's plans for your life established.

Abraham tried that, it didn't work out.

I got a promise is not happening on my timeline.

Let me enforce this.

That's a fear decision.

God's calling you to do something.

Oh, I just need to plan.

Let me take some time.

Let me pray about it for two years.

Maybe he didn't ask you to pray for two years.

That's your fear and hesitation.

One of the best ways you can learn in life is to simply do something.

You're stuck in a loop of decisions.

Stuck in a loop.

Let me just read some more books, let me do this, let me do this, let me just wait.

How about just do something?

That's one of the best ways you'll learn.

He tells Joshua to be strong and courageous, for you're the one who will lead these people to possess all the land.

Joshua's afraid.

God's calling some of you, you're afraid.

God's calling, He's convicting you right now, and you're afraid.

You know what one of the fears is?

Is the fear I think it's called autonomy.

What if I lose myself?

I've I've made this life.

I see myself this way.

What if I lose that?

That's what God wants.

Give up your life to find it.

Give up yourself to find yourself.

Stop being afraid.

Oh no, it's just the devil, right?

We're blaming demons for everything.

Do you know the Bible says that the demons know there's one God?

Do you know the Bible says that demons are very afraid?

You know what they're afraid of?

God.

To the point of trembling.

Okay, so in Mark chapter 5, Jesus gets out of the boat, and there's a guy who has demons, okay?

Mark 5 · chapter mention

Demons so powerful, they would physically manifest through him in strength and power.

The people would try to hold him down, they would chain, he would literally think about it as an actual human breaking chains.

They would chain him up, he would crush the shackles, no one could restrain him.

He hung out in like the graveyard.

He and he and when Jesus gets off the boat in his region, this guy runs up to him full of demons.

You know what he does?

You know what the demons do?

Bow down before him and plead with him.

The demons fear and tremble.

Your spirit of fear that you're struggling with is afraid of the God inside of you.

And all God's doing is waiting for you to fear him more.

Listen, I understand there's enemies in my life, and I understand that there's risk, but my God is bigger and my God is mightier.

That puts a different confidence in our life.

Okay, it's not like we're just all of a sudden unaware, don't care.

We perceive the threats, we perceive the danger.

We know, hey, if I step in and try to do this business, I might lose some money.

But I trust that the God that owns a cat on a thousand hills is faithful to provide.

But instead, we make excuses after excuses.

I'll give you another one.

This is discouragement.

This is one I feel like people are paralyzed in life.

And it's not because you perceive what's possible, it's because you've already perceived hurt, pain, and loss.

And you, this is what you conclude.

If it happened to me back then, then it's gonna happen again.

So why try?

Discouragement will paralyze you in life.

I was betrayed, so I can never love again.

God did not call you to do that.

And we make excuses, fear-based excuses for why we disobey.

I tried to start a business and lost a lot of money.

God's not going to take care of me.

Who told you that?

Maybe God was trying to teach you how to endure.

Maybe God was trying to get you over the fear of failure and the fear of loss.

Maybe he's trying to teach you a lesson.

And we have these callings on our life, church, to be the body of Christ, one body, many parts.

And the body of Christ is not complete because a lot of the bodies are too fearful to step in and just be the part.

Lord, save us from fear of God.

Break it in our life.

He's not gonna hand you the promise.

You're gonna have to contend for the promise.

You're gonna have to obey.

God didn't just go kill their enemies, he called them to fight.

And for somehow, some way, when they fought, the strength of God was going through their veins.

It's the strength that all of a sudden can have a teenage boy kill a giant with a simple stone.

And some of you need to take up your slingshot.

Some of you need to take your spear, take your sword, step into your promise, and let the power of God work through you.

Stop being afraid.

Or let me say it this way: stop letting fear control you.

And because I'm seeing I've seen what this has done in my life, and I'm sick of it and I'm over it.

I'm over living a life that that doesn't trust the Lord fully, overcalculates, overcomplicates life, wakes up on Monday with dread.

Oh my gosh, this is not gonna work.

I'm tired of it not having the joy of the Lord, and I'm tired of seeing people not walking their calling because they're afraid.

I understand you've had failure, but you know what?

That's just a formation to what God is doing in you.

We disqualify ourselves, we act a fool trying to make our way into life.

We don't handle relationships well, we have relational fears.

Listen, you've been hurt.

Open up your heart.

Trust the God who is able to protect and preserve your heart.

Let yourself love again, let yourself find community at home.

Stop trying to take care and fend for yourself.

Trust the God who is able to protect, to protect you.

There's a big thing about business owners, okay?

We're not, we're not listening the Lord is doing something in people's hearts.

I need you to hear this.

He's calling some people to walk to step out of the boat.

He's not calling for you to have all the perfect plans.

Some of you are gonna mess up, you know what, but you're gonna learn from it and you're gonna keep going.

And God is wanting to bless your life, He's wanting to bring breakthrough in your life, but He's also wanting to finance the move of God that is coming, the revival, the harvest.

And some of you need to step out of the boat.

Step out of the boat, step out of the boat.

And he says, Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

King David, the giant killer, struggled with anxiety.

He understood.

He said, Lord, I'm fearful of things.

I'm I've got fears in my life.

Lord, search it.

Point out to me what's offending you.

I've been doing that this week, church.

I've been doing that for the last months, years.

I've been saying, God, I am tired of being afraid.

And letting that control my life.

Search my heart, Lord.

Show me the things in my life controlling and dominating my life that keep me from stepping into your promise, your will, and your ways.

Father, in Jesus' name, I speak over this church right now.

Every person under the sound of my voice, every person watching online, and I say this prophetically that they are no longer controlled by fear.

I say that they are like Peter stepping out of the boat.

They're like David coming against the giant.

They're like Joshua stepping into the promise.

And I prophetically declare this: you will step into your promise.

You will step into that place of purpose, you will step into that breakthrough that God's promises are yes and amen.

And I rebuke the lies of the enemy, the spirits of fear that try to keep you bound and a slave to fear.

And we repent right now collectively, Lord, for the areas where we've not trusted you, where we've not feared you more.

Understanding that you're a God who's faithful to provide.

You're a God that said you'll do it and you'll do it.

You're a God that's faithful and able to protect from every single danger, from every single threat.

That you're able to, Lord, but you're also a God of success, Father, and that all we have to do is simply follow you in your word, Father.

Peace in the name of Jesus.

If you're getting baptized, I would like you to go ahead and get ready.

If you didn't sign up to get baptized, but you want to get baptized today, you can do that.

Go ahead and make your way over to this side.

Baptism is a symbol that says I'm not gonna be governed by the fear of man.

Baptism, did y'all hear this?

It's a symbol.

It's an outward symbol that says I'm not gonna be governed by the fear of man.

I'm gonna be a follower of Christ, no matter the cost.

Lord, I thank you for this day, Lord.

Thank you for your faithfulness, Father.

Before we get going, if there's someone that wants to be baptized today, you've made a decision to follow Jesus and you've never been baptized.

I want to invite you, you're welcome to come up.

We have towels.

I think we have some extra t-shirts as well.

But this is a moment to say that I'm I'm I'm following Christ, that the old me is dead, and now I'm alive in Christ.

I've made a decision, I've made up my mind, I've counted the cost.

If you would like to do that, you can just come on over here.

We welcome you to do it.

If you, you know, and I don't even know, if you said, I want to get rebaptized, maybe you've been running away from the Lord and you said, you know what, I just want to, I just want to reclaim my life for him.

You're welcome to come up and get baptized again.

Alright.

Come on over here.

Dr.

And you get baptized.

No, I'm scared.

Let's get the first one on up here.

Okay.

Step, step right down then, right?

What is your name?

Carrie.

Sorry.

Uh Carrie Crutchfield McCray?

Or McRae Crutchfield, I guess.

Jesus, if you want to follow him.

You've made this decision.

This is not a game for you.

You say, I'm gonna follow Jesus, I'm gonna trust him with my life.

So, Carrie, according to your profession of that, I'm gonna baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son, who is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

If you would, you can just cover your nose.

Sit down.

Sit down, uh-huh.

You got it.

Tell us your full name, Elijah Austin.

So, Elijah, you've committed your life to Jesus Christ, and you and you've committed to be a follower of him no matter the cost, no matter what it, no matter what it does in your life, you say, Lord, I trust you with my life.

And that's what you're saying in front of these people today.

Okay, because of your confession, I'm gonna baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son, who is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, if you can just cover your nose, but and his dad is here with him also.

Um let me just say this.

Um, his parents, they came from another church, that they've they're pastors.

Um, and this is a this is a big deal.

Their son, I've seen the character of him, he's a man of God, so this is a big deal.

This is not a game for him.

How old are you?

He's 14, so I'm gonna baptize him now.

Is it meaningful anybody?

Sit down right there.

Tell us your name, Everly Fully.

Everly Grace Edy.

Everly Edy.

Alright, Miss Everly, so you've you've decided to follow Jesus and commit the rest of your life to him.

Yes?

Yes, you have.

So, by your confession, your profession in front of everybody here, I'm so proud of you.

You were so brave.

I'm gonna baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son who is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Can you put your hand and plug your nose?

There you go.

All right.

So, Magnolia, if you you've made a decision to follow Jesus.

Okay, because of your decision and your confession in front of all of us here, I'm gonna baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son, who is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

If you can't just plug your nose.

She said, whoop, right out of the water.

Anyone else?

All right.

Does anybody want to come up here who did not get baptized and you want to get baptized, you want to make a step, you weren't planning on doing this?

Let me go ahead and take a minute and invite you to come if you'd like to.

Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness.

Thank you for your mercy and your grace, God.

All right, church, um, we love you.

This was a this was a beautiful day today, and I'm grateful for what God is doing in our lives, in our hearts.

I want to speak God's peace, his protection, but I also want to speak breakthrough and success over your life.

Um, okay, I got a nudge from the Holy Spirit.

Let me do this real quick.

Um, if the Lord has called you, um bear with me just a couple minutes.

If the Lord has called you to start a business of some kind, or you already have a business, I would like you to come up here to the front.

Um, Andrew and Tamara, we all come up to the front too.

The Lord specifically told me to do that for you all.

Get up here.

Yeah.

Yes, thank you, Jesus.

Now, altar team, I want you to come behind them.

This is profound what God is doing.

God is going to raise up people to fund um the harvest, the revival that's coming.

This is not just our church.

This is going to hit a lot of churches.

This is going to hit our world.

I don't have all the answers, but God is raising up people and He's making a way where there seems to be no way.

Some of you have been resisting the Lord, and you've been in seasons where it's gotten harder and harder, and the Lord's saying, I need you to let go.

You're trying to control the outcome.

I need you to trust me and obey.

It may not look like wisdom in man's eyes.

I don't care.

Lord, I thank you for the business owners that you've called in this place today, Lord, the ones that are going to step out, and we speak the success of God over their life in the name of Jesus.

And we just rebuke the fear and the hindrances and the opposition that is hindering them, that is causing delay, Lord, that has placed a cap, Father, above their lives.

We break it off in the name of Jesus.

We break it off.

And I to Marin Andrew, I just I specifically heard this.

The Lord says, I have called you.

I need you to make steps of faith.

Not not it's not little faith.

I'm calling you to take steps of big faith.

You keep having my voice in your ear, but you're trying to tame the lion.

I need you to let the lion free because I'm going to really sustain you and bless you.

I'm going to do a mighty thing through you, but this is not going to be you governing it.

It's going to be letting me be who I am in your life.

So I'm going to bring it forth in the name of Jesus.

I'm going to bring profound blessing over your life.

I'm going to bring it, says the Lord, in the name of Jesus.

So we break off every spiritual entity, every spiritual lie.

When he said that over them, other people said, That's for me.

That's for me.

That wasn't just for them.

If that was for you, raise your hand.

What he just prophesied.

Receive that right now in Jesus' name.

It's time to step out and the big faith.

And you know God's speaking.

Pastor David just said it.

Receive it in Jesus' name.

Go ahead and say, Lord, I'm going to follow you.

I'm going to obey you.

You know what?

Now you don't have to you don't have to repeat what I'm saying now.

You don't have to feel bad because you've had fear.

That's natural, and sometimes that can be spiritual.

Let's just say this with me.

Say, I repent for coming into agreement with the spirit of fear.

And Lord, they've just repented, so we just break off the ties and the hold of spiritual fear right now.

There are spiritual assignments that.

Try to intimidate you, that try to put visions.

It's even thoughts.

Some of you have thoughts.

You see yourself losing, you see people getting hurt.

You see things not working out.

I break that right now in the name of Jesus.

We don't receive that in the name of Jesus.

I'm here to tell you, even though fear will try to tell you this is going to happen, you don't have to receive it.

So we break it off in the name of Jesus and we say, let the fruit come forth, God.

Let the faith come forth, God.

And everything that the enemy has stolen, God is going to return more.

Everything that the enemy has stolen, God is going to return in the mighty name of Jesus.

I just love the kingdom in this concept, you know, breaking off failure.

If there's going to be failure, it's going to be failing forward in Jesus' name.

So this is not going to be a step back.

And so I just want to agree that God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind.

And I even ask over the people in this room, Lord, that you would just grace them with strategy, that you are a God of strategy, that you are a God of more than enough.

I ask, Lord, that you would suddenly start waking them up in the middle of the night with dreams and visions and plans.

And I even ask, Lord, that you would begin to just pinpoint the burning that's on the inside of them that is pointing them to purpose and pointing them to vision and pointing them to the plan of God over their lives.

And so we just say, turn up that flame this morning.

Turn up that clarity this morning.

Turn up that clarity of purpose.

And with purpose, we thank you, Lord, that you are a God of strategy.

So we release strategy in Jesus' name, God's strategy.

My man over here in the hat, backwards, front row, right here.

Yeah, the Lord says, um, this is for you.

And he says that there's a thing on you that it's he's giving you strategy almost like a sniper.

And you see a lot of reasons and possibilities why this can't happen.

The Lord says, I'm gonna open a door for you that I'm not open for others.

And I understand there's lots of people trying this and trying to do this, but you're not going to fail, you're gonna succeed.

So stop looking to the left and right.

I need you to follow me because I'm gonna open doors.

And I want the Lord just, he's gonna give you peace and confidence.

And the Lord says, this is not up for you to make it happen.

It's simply up to you to obey, and I'm gonna teach you, teach you, teach you.

And the Lord says, I'm doing this over your life, so we speak that over his life, Father.

Blessing, and even I feel like there's a breaking of generational curses, a breaking of poverty off of your life.

So we break that off in the name of Jesus.

It's always gonna be like this.

I'm always gonna walk in this.

I rebuke you, you lying spirits.

We break that off.

We bleed the blood of Jesus Christ over his mind and body.

And I thank you, Father, that generational assignment is breaking off of him in the name of Jesus.

It is breaking off of him.

Listen, a spirit of poverty has nothing to do with the size of a bank account.

It's the mentality.

I'm always expecting this, I'm expecting this, so we break it off in the name of Jesus.

Kudra Mashi, Kiyanda, Cassie, and Tyler, put your hands out to receive, because the Lord says, I am doing a new thing, and you're part of it.

I'm going to sustain you and bless you.

But I have called you into this.

You are starting something, and I'm going to sustain it.

I'm going to bring breathe success upon your life more than you can fathom.

So step out, step out of the boat, and trust me with every aspect.

Try, try, try.

And if it doesn't work, keep trying and don't stop because I'm going to open the doors and I'm forming you both into what I've called you to be in the name of Jesus.

John 14, 27 says, Jesus says, as I am leaving you with a gift.

Some of you need to get your gift back that was left for you thousands of years ago.

He says, I'm leaving you with the gift.

Peace of mind and heart.

Peace of mind.

Lord, I'm going to do everything that I know to do, but I trust you with the outcome.

Woo! Even when the outcome doesn't look like success, it is.

Because you're forming me.

Joey, that's for you too, my brother.

Man.

Okay, come on up here, man.

Come on.

No, right up here.

Mike, come around to Pastor Paul, come around to him.

Micah, come around to him.

Just stand right here.

Such an anointing on this man's life.

Lord, we we rebuke every assignment, every lie of deception over his life, every word curse spoken, every curse that he's coming into agreement with.

I bind you, I rebuke you.

I plead the blood of Jesus over his life and his future and your promises.

And we say, fear you're not going to control him in the name of Jesus.

Did he fear of man, fear of needing approval, fear of rejection, fear of failure?

I rebuke you and I say, get off of him in the name of Jesus.

I speak success over his life.

I say that doors are opening that he never thought would open, Lord.

I thank you, God, there's confidence and there's boldness, Father, to step out of the boat in the mighty name of Jesus.

In the mighty name of Jesus, Lord.

We rejoice over his life.

We rejoice over the calling of God on him, Father.

We rejoice over the breakthrough in the name of Jesus.

Yeah.

Yes.

Thank you, Jesus.

I feel the fire of God on him.

Come up here, my brother.

Come on up here.

He's already a business owner.

And I just hear the Lord saying, I'm taking things to the next level.

Come up here, too.

I'm taking things to the next level.

This is not just going to be a financial thing.

This is going to be a thing of influence and reach.

There's a ministry upon you all, and I'm going to make room for that.

The things in your heart, I'm making room for that.

I'm going, I this is what I feel.

I'm going to make way for more funds, but also more time.

I'm going to free up time, but I'm going to bring in more funds.

I'm going to bring expansion.

Don't overthink it.

I don't know if this has already been stern in your heart.

I'm going to expand things.

I'm going to expand, but I'm also going to free up more time to do what I've called you to do.

In the mighty name of Jesus.

So we say, Father, they're stepping into their promised land, Lord.

We say that they're stepping in.

We say, oh, and I just hear this.

You're giant slayers.

Giant slayers in the name of Jesus.

Giants over the land.

Giants over the region.

Even just I see it as a mother and a father, a spiritual mother and father bringing sons and daughters into purpose.

Say, Come into the promised land with us.

Come into that land of milk and honey.

I'm going to make a way because I didn't call you to be consumed.

I didn't call you to be too busy and not have time for what I've called you to do.

I'm going to make a way.

So follow my still small voice.

And I even think the Lord's going to give you dreams, and you're going to wake up and say, Hey, I had a dream I saw us doing this.

That's the Lord talking.

Thank you, Father.

And I also hear too, your wife is going to be a voice of wisdom.

There's going to be times where it's a yes, and there's going to be times it's going to be no.

And I feel like I hear her, she's going to provide wisdom and clarity.

When you ask the Lord for clarity, he's going to use her sometimes to bring that.

Thank you, Father.

In the name of Jesus.

Isn't God good?

Love you, brother.

Man of God.

Let me finish this verse.

He gives it, I'm going to give you peace of mind and heart, and the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.

Stop looking to the world for your peace.

Stop looking to the world to solve your problem of fear.

You're not going to find it, it's not going to make sense.

You don't need another self-help book.

You need the power and the presence of God.

And this is how he finishes this verse.

And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.

So don't be troubled or afraid.

Don't let fear control you.

Don't let fear failure.

Some of you are discouraged because you've already defined your future.

How about lett God, the God of hope, define your future?

The one who controls it all, who made it all.

So I say peace and joy in the name of Jesus.

We love you all.

Isn't God good?

Let's give a shout to God.

Lord, you're so faithful.

Worthy is the name of Jesus.

Worthy is the Lamb, the faithful one, Lord.

You're faithful, awesome, and mighty.

Thank you, Jesus.

Listen, I hope you all have a wonderful day.

We love you, church.

If you're new here, I hope you leap blessed, set free.