Episode 46 - The Bondage of Fear

In twenty twenty one, Chapman in the University surveyed adults on ninety five fears.

It turns out that the majority of Americans suffer from tremendous fear. Many,

perhaps as high as eighty five percent of the population, live with a

sense of impending doom. This is a classic sound of clinical anxiety. The

survey follows trends every time and identify the new fears as emerge. Survey is

the nationally representative sample that gives us insight into what terrifies America. Fears are

ranked by the percent of Americans who report being afraid are very afraid. I'm

sure many of these numbers will be familiar with citizens of other countries as well.

So the top ten fears of twenty twenty two Number one corrupt government officials

at sixty two or number two people I love becoming seriously ill, three Russia

and using nuclear weapons four people I love dying, five of the US involved

in another World war, six, pollution of drinking water, seven not having

enough money for the future, eight economic financial collapse, nine pollution of oceans,

rivers and lakes, and ten biological warfare. That's a lot of fearful

people, isn't it. And then we have the many phobias that people live

with, like rachnophobia, fear of spiders, and acrophobia, fear of heights,

caustrophobia, fear of confine spaces, and so and so on. And

as the smallest of the many phobias people live with, some of the people's

lives are paralyzed by their fears. This is true of Christians as well as

non Christians. And today we're beginning any serious called breaking the chains. And

the purpose of these messages is to teach us how to break loose of the

bondage that we are in various issues that hold us back from living our lives

and the fullness of Jesus Christ. In this message, we want to talk

about breaking the chain of fear, and I'm going to give you four ways

that can be done. Okay, First, it's faith. When we accept

the Christ as our savior, we come to him by faith, and when

we place our faith in him, we're giving the promise of forgiveness and eternal

life. But as wonderful as as things are, we're given much more than

that. We're given a savior who will be with us forever. When we

have fears, whether rash nor irrational, to sign that our faith is weakening.

I don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying if you have fear in your

life, you're not saved, or that you're not a Christian. I'm saying

that in this one area of your life is struggling and need to regain your

trust in Jesus to be your leader in God. The first John four eighteen

that says there is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear

or fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears has not been perfected in

love. The perfect love that John talks about is the love that comes from

God to us cast out fear from our lives. How does it do this?

When we understand the love that God has for us, we have nothing

to fear because our future is settled and our present is guarded by the Holy

Spirit. There's nothing that will happen to you today, good or bad,

that God is not in it with you. While none of desire anything unpleasant

to happen to us. When we know that God as a part of our

every step or every breath, it leads us to allow on Him completely in

faith, God will cast fear from your life if you let him. The

song has wrote in song fifty six three, when I'm afraid, I put

my trust in You. Notice something here, the song is said to say

is never afraid, but when he is afraid, his trust is place in

God. In other words, he's handing that fear over to God. And

once that fear is given to God, there's no reason for us to dwell

on it anymore. So the second thing, we're gonna look at his focus.

Now. I know that what I just told you by faith is easier

said than done. That's the reason it is so difficult for us, because

we lack the proper focus. Our fears are based on what we see around

us. Our fears are based on what other people might do to us.

Our fears are based on an unknown future. Our fears are based on everything

but God. And that's the major problem. We've allowed our fear to take

over and to be the area that we're allowing our lives to focus on.

When our focus is directed in the right place, we can make the following

two passages of scripture our own life story. And here was thirteen six,

So we can confidently say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear

what can man do to me? And Some twenty three four. Even though

I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no

evil, for you are with me. Here, Rod and Staff, they

comfort me. Every time fear comes into my life, I need to replace

it with a focus on God and my relationship with him. Is God not

great enough to overpower our fears? Is he lacked the ability to deal with

the various situations we find ourselves in. What can man do to me?

Who are What am I afraid of? That is too big for God to

handle? We have to put all this into perspective and realize that we belong

to worship and are in an ongoing relationship with the creator of the universe.

My fear seemed mighty puny when I set them a side by side with Almighty

God. There's nothing you're facing today or tomorrow that is greater than the God

that you worship. So the third is prayer. God has given us the

perfect way to build our faith and place our focus on Him at the same

time. It's called prayer and God's wonderful grace and foresight. He knew that

we would need to have an open line of communication to him at all time.

And why we can use this means to reach God at any time.

It's especially helpful to us when we are facing fear and anxiety in our lives.

Philippians four six or seven. Do not be anxious about anything, but

in everything, but by prayer, not supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your

request be known to God, and the peace of God, which surprises all

understanding. Regard your hearts in your minds in Christ Jesus. Just as God's

perfect love casts out fear, our prayer and supplication to Him during our anxious

moments brings us as peace which will guard us in every way. You might

think, well, I don't know how to pray eloquently, or I'm so

upset right now that I barely have time to pray. Let me give you

a short prayer that you can pray at any time. Are you ready here?

It is God help me, That's all you need to say, Romans

A twenty six. Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, for

we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit

himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words to God. We have

placed our faith in God, we have placed our focus on. It's the

same God who hears our prayers, even when they are unintelligible. When you

are so anxious and afraid that your prayer comes rushing out and wouldn't make a

bit of sense to anyone listening. God hears, God understands, and God

answers some fifty five Verse twenty two. Cast your burden on the Lord,

and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

I can promise you this. As you cast your burden on the God

in prayer, you will literally fear, feel the fear and anxiety begin to

mold away. Anyone with experience in this situation will tell you the same.

God will take it away from you, and if it comes back, you

can take it to him again. He's always there for you. So our

fourth thing is power. In a recent book, Kenneth Bowell compares a soaring

eagle to Christians learning the sore through the power of the Holy Spirit. Any

right, God seems to like eagles. Thirty three Bible verses mentioned them.

He goes a true flying birds, meaning they get off the ground by fly.

They soared by thermals. Eagles begin flight training around four months old,

but even before that, at about two months, they stand up in the

nest and spread their wings when they feel gust to wind. They're training to

know the thermals. Thermals are the columns of air forms heat rises from the

ground. Because heat rises, these air columns push up and up, displacing

the cold air around them. By staying in the warmth of the thermal,

the bird continues to soar, and eagles have become experts in this and this

magnificent aerodynamic action. Gravity isn't deactivated. It's still at work, but the

higher principle overcomes gravity. Eagles dropped down when they step off a branch and

they start flapping my crazy. And once they're in the air, though their

wings don't have to work very hard, and while soaring these small friction of

the effort required to rise, they're almost at rest and can enjoy the pleasure

of flight. So when we first begin follow in Christ or practicing and spiritual

discipline, we're like eagles spraying our winnings. Once we start flapping, though,

we lift up. Maybe after a few tribes we're back down on the

ground, but too repeated practice, we finally saw. Also in Greek,

the Holy Spirit is called uma, which means current of air. Think about

what this means for us. We flap and flap, but eventually we catch

the current of air, and we saw that's how the Holy Spirit works with

our training. He's not only our coach, he's the power behind everything we

do. The Bible teaches us that every Christian has the Holy Spirit literally dwelling

them. God is not just the God up in heaven, that he has

taken up residence in your heart. Not only can you pray to him,

but he lives within you. And this spirit of God can take away any

fear in his eye. You might have through to close with Second Timothy after

one verse seven, when the spirit God gave us does not make us timid,

but gives us power, love, and self discipline,