Dealing with fear - Tom

Welcome to His Story Our Story, a fresh podcast series

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people from all walks of life share their journey as

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We pray that you are blessed and encouraged as you

listen to His Story Our Story.

For those of you who don't know me, my name

is Tom and I have the honor of sharing the

Word with us all today. I have a background as

a physio, but I also work here at church one

day a week as a pastor. So it's a blessing

to be with you all here today. And you might

be aware that Gary and Sarah aren't here today.

They've actually had a.

Week off and they are amazing lead passes and they've

had a lot on they've been through a lot, and

they give so much to so many. So yeah, Gary, Sarah,

we just love you, and we just pray that you

are refreshed and that when you come back you are.

Full of energy.

And I just pray this in Jesus' name, and Lord,

I thank you for this time of fellowship in your presence.

We thank you for your word. We thank you that

You're is the center point of our life. King Jesus

and your words. We want to feed on your word today.

We want to be nourished by your spirit and to

be grounded in the Father's love. We pray for open

hearts for revelation in Jesus' name. A man, guys, over

the last nine to twelve months, I've been on this

journey where of proclaiming the Lord's word in my life

and Mary as well. And what that has looked like

is I was drawn to Psalm twenty seven and so

it's been a scripture that Mary and I have been

declaring on a regular basis. Trying to do it in

the morning sometimes doesn't get done.

Then you know what it's like.

But it's changing my life and I've also felt some

ninety one over the evening. And so I've been meditating

on these scriptures for a.

While now, and it is changing me.

When we declare the Word of God over our lives,

it changes us.

So I pray that this is a.

Challenge and an encouragement for all of us to do

the same. And when I was preparing for this message,

I was initially I initially had an impression that I

was actually just going to go line by line through

some twenty seven. But just in the last twenty four hours,

I've really felt that the Lord wants me to focus

more on fear, and that it's his will and his

heart for us to overcome fear in our lives. And

so let's look at the Word of God and see

if what I'm saying is true. The Lord is my

light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord

is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I

be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me.

It is my enemies and my foes who will stumble

and fall though an army besieges me. My heart will

not fear though war break out against me.

Even then I will be confident.

It is God's will for our lives to overcome fear.

And you know, sometimes you pull up the scripture and

you read it and you know it's good, but it

doesn't sink. And one day I was declaring it and

then I had a picture.

What would it actually look.

Like for an army me of thousands who want to

kill me marching towards me.

What do you reckon that's going to be? Like?

I couldn't think of anything more terrifying. Like when you

land on Gallipoli or d Day, you land on a

beach and there's just machine guns going off and people

are being taken out, left, right, and center. I couldn't

think of a worse situation. What about in the ancient

times when civilizations and empires would each butcher each other

with swords, arrows. It was bloody, it was messy, and

I couldn't think of a more terrible situation to be in. Yet,

look at David's response. He begins by declaring who God is.

When Jesus says this is how you should pray, how

do we start our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

There's a consistency in the word of God that when

we approach God, we declare who he is, because who

he is is the truth, and when we're connected to

who he is, we can be changed and guided in

the circumstances that we face. And so what does it

mean when David says the Lord is my light and

my salvation. I think all of us understand light pretty well,

don't we. Like the other morning, at five thirty am,

it was pitch black and I was running down Port

Road in Port wa Llanga and.

I couldn't see a thing. It's not a nice feeling.

I don't like running in the dark, but I had

to get my run in before work, and I had

to go at that time. Light is a basic necessity.

We can actually see what's going on. And when we're

in darkness, we're susceptible, we're vulnerable, and so the Lord

is the one who is our lights. When you and

I talk about salvation, especially in the Western Church, we

often focus on being saved through the blood of Jesus

Our and like we're going to heaven. That's how often

we think of salvation. But the Hebrew word for salvation

here is called yes sua, and that in the Hebrew context,

it is a whole hearted salvation. Yes, it is being

saved from our sin, but it's also freedom, it's deliverance.

It also means prosperity, and that's prosperity both of your

soul and in having your needs met and enough to

be a blessing to others. It's salvation means safety. It

means salvation and saving. And who knows that Jesus's name

in the Hebrew, Yes, sure means God saves.

So when we declare the Lord.

Is my light and my salvation, we're not just saying

like he forgives our sins and we have peace that

we're going to go to heaven with him, And that

would actually be enough, if you think.

About it, that is all we need.

But it has an even deeper significance for you and I,

which is wholehearted. So how many of you know that

you don't necessarily need to go to a minister for deliverance.

You can declare the word of God over your lives,

because when you declare that the Lord is your salvation,

he will deliver you. The Lord is the stronghold of

my life. A stronghold is like a fortress. It's a castle.

It's robust, it has defenses. And so when you're in

the safest most inner chambers of a stronghold, you're pretty

safe unless the stronghold gets overrun. But who can overrun God?

So when you're in God's stronghold, you are completely protected.

Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear.

Can you picture that?

Imagine thousands waves of troops coming towards you, and he's declaring,

my heart will not fear. He's not just like ignoring

the situation. It's in spite of what is happening.

There's one who is above this situation.

So if King David can make this declaration when he's

going to war, what does that say about us in

our lives? Seriously, are we going to let things make

us fearful? If someone can say this proclamation in the

face of war and atrocity, how much more can we

say that in any situation we face, no matter how

significant it might seem to us or how small it

might seem to us in reference in comparison to going

into war, even though war break out against me, even

then I will be confident not in himself but in God.

Because the promise is that when the wicked advance against

us to devour us. When we declare who God is,

he will protect us and deliver us from our enemies.

And I think for so many of us, our enemy

isn't someone trying to kill us.

It's an enemy. The enemy is.

The attack on our mind that attempts to intimidate us

and to make us fear. So can we say that,

even though the petual prices are increasing, my heart will

not fear.

Though for many.

Of us maybe the election result was a bit discouraging,

But are you gonna let a government dictate your faith?

Or is your faith in the Lord who is our

life and our salvation. Do you think what's going on

in the Middle East is a surprise to God? Do

you think there's never been a war in the Middle

East before? It's happened all throughout centuries. And I'm not

saying that these situations it is alarming, right, the petual prices,

the cost of living it it can't It is tough.

I'm not saying it's easy. David's not denying his circumstances,

He's acknowledging them, right, But he has a choice. What

do I do? Do I trust in God? Is God

bigger than this situation? I'm facing or am I going

to go down a path of fear? What is your

choice in the circumstances and struggles that you're facing today?

So how do you know if there is a root

of fear in your heart?

Well, let me tell you.

The Bible says that the tongue has the power of

life and death, and those who love it will eat

its fruit. So my question to you is what is

your speech pattern.

In the last week? What is coming out of your mouth?

Are you speaking life that is consistent with who God

is and his word?

Or are you speaking an inferior reality? What is your

thought pattern like?

And we all get thoughts that we don't want, all

of us, maybe even right now you've got a thought

that you don't want to be there. But the Word

of God says, take captive every thought and make it

obedient to Christ by declaring the word of God. So

I believe that one of the key tests is what

comes out of your mouth?

And Jesus said, out.

Of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. So

if you constantly speak and negative word, your heart has

a root of fear. Do you look to see the

negatives in every person you meet? Do you look to

see the negatives in everything that's going around in the world,

and you fixate on that to the point where what

you're declaring is not saying, even though this what's going

on around me, I will be confident. You may have

a root of fear that needs to be plucked out.

Could you imagine.

If Jesus, in dealing with his disciples, focused on their flaws?

Is that how he discipled them?

Peter was fishing, just some ordinary bloke.

And what's the first word that Jesus says to him?

Follow me? He didn't say, Peter, We've got a long

way to go, boy, he says, follow me.

Into three years of observing and doing what Jesus taught

he lived with him. Do you think Peter had it

all together when he said, and I tell you you

are Peter, and on this rock I will build by

church like Jesus was prophetically speaking over him. And we

don't know all the conversations that they had behind closed doors.

I'm sure Jesus probably had to give him a bit

of a clip on the air occasionally and be like, mate,

what just came out of your mouth sucks?

But we don't see that. Jesus is a fault finder.

He's a prophetic king, and he had a destiny for

Peter that he faithfully s will come to pass in

Peter's life. What's another sign that fear is something that

you need to deal with? Constant anxiety For me, I

know anxiety through here, like I just feel this gnawing

and you can go and distract yourself day in day out,

but it doesn't leave. That for me is how I

interpret anxiety. What is it like for you? But if

you don't have inner peace, there's an anxiety from a

root of fear. That's something that the Lord has had

to deal with me a lot over the years. And

inner anxiety that you might not necessarily be able to see.

What about a fear of failure?

You know, there's so many different types of fear that

what might affect you might not.

Affect someone else.

But every single one of us is challenged with fear

in some regards. And when I was a child, I

was afraid of the dark and I needed my beautiful

mom to lie down with me to get to sleep,

and we would play some lullabias, Thank you Mom, and

I hoped that I'd fall asleep before she. I'm tired

of this kid, like I need to go and go

to bed myself. But that's not an issue for me now,

but maybe an there's other areas where I tend to fear.

So what I'm saying is all of us have to

do with fear on a daily basis, and what we

might have overcome in the past, a different type of

fear might tempt us in the future. That's why we

got to stay grounded. That's why we need to declare

on a daily basis, the Lord is my Light and

my salvation. Whom shall I fear? So so many of

us are worried. We have fear about failing. We don't

want to make a mistake. We don't want to let

other people down, we don't want to let ourselves down.

Sometimes were like, I don't want to let God down.

But my challenge to you, is that coming from the

truth of who God is and what he says about you,

what his will is for your life, or is that

coming from the flesh. And so we're dealing with that

F word today, fear. You can choose to fear or

you can choose to have faith. We're dealing with the

F word today. Do you have a fear of rejection,

and so much of that happens in our formative years.

How many of us have had disappointments in family, Comma,

Let's be real.

If you've had disappointments in your family, raise your hand,

look around.

You're not alone. Sometimes that comes.

From our environment that we grew up in or experiences

that we had. Fear of rejection from people. What about

fear related to health. You're just worried that you're going

to get sick tomorrow. You're worried that you're going to

get an injury, and unfortunately a lot of people think

so they get suicidal thoughts. That's coming from a that's

coming from a spirit of fear leading to a spirit

of death. This is a very real and important situation.

I guarantee that there's people in this room that have

had suicidal thoughts. But that is not what God is

saying about you. Your life means so much more to

Him than you realize. Fear of finances, we've all been

We've all been susceptible to that one. Don't lie, don't

even start. It is real, though, got to pay bills.

But do we trust in the name of the Lord

Jehovah Jirah. God is my provider, and so we are

absolutely feeling the heat of financial pressure right now.

So we acknowledge it. But do we say, even though.

The petrol prices are like three dollars for diesel.

Are we going to say, oh, I'm going to fear

or are we going to.

Say I trust that God will provide. And that doesn't

mean we just go out and just spend all our

money and be silly like we have to be good

words right, Maybe for some of us we do need

to start with the budget. That's a good start, But

ultimately our trust is in God and he says he

will provide if he dresses the lilies in the fields.

What about the birds? They need this, They need a

store in barns. They don't reap, but do.

They worry about where their next catch is coming from? No,

because the father looks after even the birds. Fear of

what is happening in the world? Are you fixated on

it all the time and without realizing you're actually being

driven by fear? Again, we acknowledge it, we pray in

I'm not saying just blindly ignore every situation we face.

We acknowledge it, but do we let it go into

our hearts through fear or faith. Because if you only

talk about problems in the world, but you're not discipling anyone,

you're not doing what Jesus said, go and make disciples.

Of all nations. One John four eighteen. There is no

fear in love. Wow.

But perfect love drives out fear because fear has.

To do with punishment.

The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

When we fear, we're not made perfect in love. So

what does that tell us? When we have fear, when

it's in our minds, when it's in our heart, all

of us even right now, probably fearing. We're being tempted

to fear things.

Do you know what it is?

It's a symptom. It's a symptom that we need more

of the Father's love.

Right, did you hear that? Don't overthink it, keep it simple.

The solution is to have a deeper revelation of love

in our hearts. Do you want me to convince you

if I haven't already? Paul Ephesians three fourteen to twenty one.

For this reason, I kneel before the Father. Sometimes we

just got to kneel before the Father, from whom every

family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Wow,

we're all brothers and sisters. Listen, carefully, listen from your heart.

I pray that out of His glorious riches, he may

strengthen you with power through His spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Come on, we can say the F word faith.

Come on, man, come on, it's not fear. It's through faith.

It's through faith in the Word of God. It's through

faith in who He is.

And when we speak faith, we are set free. So

I encourage you go out and start.

Saying the F word, just the right one.

Yeah. And I pray that you, being rooted and established

in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's

Holy people, to.

Grasp how wide and long and.

High and deep is the love of Christ, and to

know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be

feeled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Amen, let's do it.

Who here is a genius at mathematics? Can you raise

your hand. We've got some people at the back. I'm sorry,

I can't really see because of the light.

Can you tell me? Can you measure that? Please?

Can you tell me the answer to that question. Infinity?

What does that mean?

Yeah?

Do you know what that means? Sorry, I'm really simple.

My mind can't comprehend infinity, right, do you know how

I comprehend that as there's always more, there's always more

of the Father's love for you.

And me.

So each day, are we positioning ourselves to receive more love?

Or are we going to put a limit on how

much we think God can pour his love into our hearts?

Because there's a promise of freedom if we make a

choice based on the word of God and his promises.

But the reality in our lives is that if we

we get to the end of our lives and we

don't overcome fear, fear will overcome us and God will

still have grace and mercy on us.

I'm not saying if you never fear, you won't be saved.

Hear me out. I'm not saying that.

It just means we're not going to live from a

place of freedom from the Father's love. And if we're

not rooted and grounded in love, how can we truly

love others to the potential that God wants us to

love people? And so I'm convinced that if you have

received Jesus Christ, you have the Holy Spirit living in you,

so you are grounded in love. But we can still

have roots of fear. But we're called to be rooted

only and grounded only in love. So the answer to

how we deal with fear is we.

Declare the word of God.

But I read it and I've declared it and nothing changes. Well,

keep going, and do you know what's amazing.

That God wants us to also experience this together? You

may have power, together.

With all the Lord's Holy people to grasp how wide

and long, and high and deep is the love of Christ.

So if we profess faith in Christ but we don't

go to church, we're not going to experience the fullness

of His love. And I get we can get her

by the church. But when you stand face to face

with Jesus, He's going to ask you who did you become?

And you're going to say, oh, sorry, the church hurt me.

Let that not be you and me. Friend, could you

imagine the grief in Jesus's eyes if we said sorry,

the Church hurt me.

And if you are if you have been hurt by

the church, We're sorry.

But look at the truth of who God is in

his word. God has called us to be felled to

the measure of all the fullness of God. So if

you're not feeled to the measure of the fullness of God,

that's a symptom that you need more of Him. And

well done, you did that today, Well what about tomorrow?

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more

than all we ask? Imagine, is that your proclamation when

people hear the words coming out of your mouth.

Are you a man? Are you a woman of faith?

And you say God is able to do immeasurably more?

To our maths geniuses at the back, we can't measure it,

can we There's no equation for that. According to his power.

It's his power. We got to tap into his power.

That is at work within us. To him, it's for

his glory.

And I skipped bits of Psalm twenty seven and the

end says David says, I remain confident of this.

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the

land of the Living. Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Hey, church,

is this going to be our declaration when we get

out of these four walls? Tomorrow, when you're at work

and people are talking about the election, they're talking about

the fuel prices.

What is your declaration.

I remain confident of this that in spite of what's

around me, I will see God's goodness because that is

who he is. Is that our declaration? Because remember the proverb,

the tongue has the power of life and death. And

we will eat the fruit of what we speak, what

we believe, and what we declare, and the word of

God has the final authority. Do you know on Friday,

I'm just going to be honest with you. On Friday,

I was sitting there and I was like, I'm turning

twenty nine next week. Settled down, lads, big twenty nine

year old. If I'm going to be I just want

to be honest with you, guys. I just sat there

and I'm like, Wow, for the first time in my life,

I have so much clarity, Like in all my twenty

nine years of existence, I've never had more clarity in

my life.

And do you know why? Because God's this.

You can test what I'm saying, But I believe that

we need to have the right vision for our lives.

Like how often if you think about it, We just

sort of go through the motions in our life, but

there's not that real intention, that real vision, that real

purpose for life. And what I believe where the clarity

is coming is because God is putting my focus on

the return of Christ Revelation nineteen six to eight. Then

I heard this is John. What sounded like a great multitude,

like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals

of thunder shouting hallelujah for our Lord God almighty rains.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory,

for the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his

bride has made her self ready. Finallynen brighton clean was

given her to wear, and that stands for the righteous

acts of God's holy people. How many of us need

to come to the revelation that revival is not the

end goal.

Having a great shirt service is not their The end

goal is Christ's return.

So when we center our vision for our lives and

everything that we do, if our vision is Christ's return,

We're not going to be disappointed when we don't see

a revival when we thought it would happen.

Like two years ago.

How many of us know that in the New Testament.

The amount of scriptures that reference Christ's return his second

coming is double what is said in the Old Testament

about his first coming.

So the early Church believed and.

They wrote about a sense of urgency with Christ's return. Now,

what I think happened over at some point in the

last thirty to fifty years, the church became obsessed with

the study of eschatology, and though the intentions were pre

pure eschatology, it just means the study of the end

times and when Jesus is coming.

And so the church is fighting.

About their specific theological viewpoints. And while that's important, we're

forgetting to make disciples, and we're trying to predict when

he's coming. And we see the number six, and it's like, oh,

that's the devil's number.

Don't go there. But we're rooted and grounded in fear.

When there's a six. Oh my watch, it's eleven thirty four.

It's going to be eleven forty six.

There's a six. It's the devil's number.

But the Word of God says Jesus is coming back,

and all we need to do is make ourselves ready.

And what we need to understand is that if you

are a believer in Jesus Christ. You have a citizenship

in heaven, like your citizenship where you belong. Your home

is in heaven, and our tenure here on earth is

our visa.

It's temporary.

And the reason why we're getting disappointed is because we're

replacing the visa with the citizenship when our true citizenship

is in heaven.

We got a visa here.

No wonder you're so frustrated because it's not home. It's

a temporary place we need to live, like Earth is

a temporary place.

But I want live within fifteen minutes of the CBD

because it feels like home. But it's too expensive to

buy a house or red near the CBD.

Hey, we've all felt that, But our citizenship is in heaven.

We've got the priorities the wrong way.

And so.

When my end goal is the return of Christ, there's

two possible outcomes.

Either I die and.

Then I'm going to meet him, or he comes back

while I'm still alive. There's only two options for all

of us. So we know there's an end point. So

when we're going through tough stuff right now, we don't

need to get delusion because we know the end point.

Imagine you told me to go out for a run

and just run and just never stop. Well, are you

talking about one K, five K, ten k, or if

you say, Tom, I want you to run fifty k

and that might sound horrible and you might barely make it.

But at least in my.

Mind, I can set my GPS watch and I know

I just need to get to fifty. So, for our lives,

fifty is when we die or when Christ comes back.

So we know that whatever we have to go through

to get that point, there's an end goal.

But if we think.

That out the end goal is like an outpouring of

God's spirit and revival, then we're at twenty five K.

Not fifty K.

You don't just play a game of soccer, which is

ninety minuts and score a goal in the thirteenth minute

and just stop playing, Oh we've won.

You've got to play the full ninety minutes. And so

my challenge to all of.

Us is, in spite of the difficulties we go through,

in spite of the circumstances around us, remember where the

end goal is, and that is when we are face

to face with Christ.

And in order to not lose heart on that journey.

We got to be anchored to God every day and

acknowledge when we're struggling. It's okay if you have fear,

but please don't live your whole life with a root

of fear when the Father wants you to be rooted

in his love.

This is a message of grace.

While it is challenging, it's an encouragement.

You just have to be willing to deal with it.

And sometimes we just have to just.

Steal ourselves so we can get to the root.

Ps I'm twenty seven fourteen. Wait for the Lord. Be

strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. The

Hebrew there is like an expectant weight. You're not just like, ah,

is the bus going to show up? Is Jesus going

to show up? No, it's like Jesus showing up and

he can speak to us at any point. And you

don't need to wait for a profit to prophesy over you.

Although the gifts of the spirit are a beautiful thing,

all these beautiful gifts, the revivals, all that are beautiful,

but it's just a sign of what's to come. It's

a glimpse into the glory of Jesus's return.

So friends, we.

Love you, I love you and I want God's best

for you. My heart is that all of you discover

who God is and who you truly are, and you

live a life of significance. And I rebuke every word

spoken over you, or any word that you've spoken over yourself,

that your life will not amount to significance. Every single

that is my cry. I want the Church of Christ,

the Body of Christ, to flourish, and so I encourage

us to deal with fear and be full of love.

Thank you for joining us today for his story, our story.

We hope you've enjoyed this episode and have been encouraged

and uplifted. If you would like to learn more about

Walking with God or Southland Church in Pasadena, Adelaide, please

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