When Fear Follows with Pastor Andrew Richardson

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Well, good morning, MetaCurch.

How are we doing this morning?

We feeling good?

Man, I want to welcome you all here today.

As I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking, you know, uh, I grew up in high school uh listening to Pastor Clayton uh preach, and he he encouraged me uh and has really been a big part of my story.

So I love uh getting to be here.

And how many of you know uh that God is doing something special at MetaCurch, right?

God is doing, yeah.

Sometimes when you're a part of something for a while, you maybe begin to lose track.

But y'all, 78 people were baptized last weekend.

Like, come on! Like, God is doing something amazing.

It is awesome to be here with you all.

Uh, God is using Pastor Clayton and your pastors uh in an absolutely amazing ways.

So I'm excited to be here with you.

But how many of you know this?

That when God is doing amazing things, that means everything in your life is perfect, right?

No, right?

The exact opposite.

Oftentimes, after we have what I call these spiritual high moments, right?

Maybe it's Easter weekend, maybe it's getting baptized, maybe it's really experiencing the Holy Spirit or experiencing God through worship or through a message.

We hear that, but then oftentimes things begin to get difficult.

Things begin to creep in.

So have you ever noticed how it doesn't take much to go from feeling great to feeling gripped by fear?

Maybe you just check your bank account and suddenly you're wondering if you're going to get through the month.

Maybe you get that, hey, can we talk text?

And you're like, what is going to happen?

Right?

Or maybe you're lying in bed and you're exhausted, but your brain decides uh that let's go through every worst case scenario ever to exist before I can go to sleep.

Like right now at 2 a.m.

Isn't that crazy how it works that after these amazing moments, fear creeps in, and oftentimes fear doesn't just come in like a crashing storm?

Oftentimes, fear follows us in the little moments.

You have a great night and then you wake up and it's there.

You try to move forward, but fear is right behind you, whispering, what if you fail?

Whispering, what if they leave?

Whispering, what if you are not enough?

What if you are not going to get the job?

What if you are not ever going to move out of the parents' house?

Fear is a whispering, all of these fears to you.

It doesn't matter how strong you are, how much faith you have, how great things look on the outside.

Oftentimes fear follows us.

And can we get really straight here today, MetaCurch?

Really honest?

It's easy to come to church, especially after amazing moments, and to check our fears, our anxieties, our doubts, our worries out the door.

Come in here, hear great worship, hear hopefully a great message, uh, and then leave and pick those right up when you leave, never leaving changed, never leaving transformed.

And I truly believe that God today wants us to get honest and real and not just check those fears at the door, but bring them to the foot and the feet of Jesus.

Can we do that today?

Can we be honest?

That is why today, the title of my message is When Fear Follows.

Will you pray with me?

God, I want to thank you for the amazing work that you have been doing.

For the work of your spirit moving here at MetaCurch, moving here throughout the city.

And God, I want to praise you for that.

God, I pray today that as we get into this topic of fear, I pray that you bring only what you can truly bring, and that's the spirit of comfort and peace.

God, I pray as we unpack this message that you speak to us in a way where we leave here different than when we walked in.

And God, we thank you, we love you.

And in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So today we're gonna be looking at Psalm 27.

Uh, the verses will be on the screen, but if you have your Bible, you can already get there.

In Psalm 27, but before we get into Psalm 27, we have to know the context of what's going on here.

So this was written by a guy named David.

Maybe you are familiar with David, maybe you know of his highlight reel, right?

He was the shepherd boy who took down Goliath.

He was the man who became king, and he was also known as a man after God's own heart.

But don't let that resume fool you.

His life was not perfect, it was actually far from perfect.

Yes, he had victories, but he also had seasons of fear, seasons of failure, and seasons of what we're gonna look at today of honestly just survival mode.

And in one season of his life, he has worked his way up to be in a position where he's over the armies and he has major influence.

And this was during the reign of a king named Saul.

So David is working his way up, and the king is Saul, and the people loved David, but Saul did not.

The Old Testament scriptures say that Saul was jealous of David, even getting to this point.

We see in 1 Samuel 19, it says this Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David.

So when I say he didn't like David, that's what I mean, right?

Like he literally ordered to kill David.

So the same David, the one who killed Goliath, the same David, the one who eventually became king, that same David finds himself in a fearful situation right here where he is getting chased after, where people are wanting to kill him.

So we're going to look at that here today on how he responds in this fearful situation.

So when I say uh this idea of fear following, it is quite literally following him.

He is literally being chased by Saul and his army.

And I believe from Psalm 27, we're just gonna walk through this whole Psalm today, and I believe God is gonna speak to us how we can respond, what we can do, what we can believe when fear follows us.

So let's look at the first verse.

Psalm 27, verse 1.

Psalms 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I whom should I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life.

Whom should I dread?

This is great, right?

Because what happens is David first starts by expressing who God is.

And so more about the Psalms.

What I love about the Psalms is it's almost like we get an inside look in David's diary.

It's like we know what's happening in 1 Samuel in the Old Testament, but here it's written by David during this season, so we get a real honest, authentic look about what he is thinking, what he is feeling, and what he is experiencing in this moment.

And he starts by declaring who God is.

How many of you know when life is difficult, the first thing you want to do is just list all of the horrible things happening.

Oftentimes when you meet up with a friend and you want to catch up, it's not always life's going great.

It's like everything that is horrible, right to start.

We're just used to that.

But here, what he does is he declares who God is first.

And the reason that's important and what it shows us is this a proper view of God combats fear.

A proper view of who God is, a proper view of God combats fear.

So when fear follows, start by naming who God is before you name your fear.

Start by naming who God is before you name your fear.

He was able boldly to declare who God is, and he expresses who God is through three words.

And first, he says, light.

He says, light.

And what this means and what this really signifies is more of a joy, a light that shines through the darkness.

A light that comes through in the difficult season and brings comfort and brings joy and brings light.

Think about that one person in your life that whenever the circumstances are horrible, that person just brings a light into the room.

Do y'all know what I'm talking about?

That person that just brings joy.

So he starts by saying, God is light.

And then he goes to salvation.

And what we have to know about salvation is it just means to be saved from something.

So when we know or we view salvation as becoming right with God and inheriting eternal life, that is one salvation.

But in Old Testament, it can literally mean to be saved from something physically.

So what David is saying here is that God, you are my light, but you are also my salvation.

You are also saving me from physical harm.

You are protecting me in the middle of the situation.

And third, he says, stronghold.

This can be used to refer to a literal place of safety, like a mountain or a fortress or a city.

It is a place where when you are there, you are safe.

You know you are protected in the stronghold.

So this was David expressing who God is to him.

So my question is who is God to you?

Maybe you walked in here and you were new to faith.

Maybe a friend recently got baptized or had an amazing time at Easter.

So they're like, come to Metachurch, Pastor Clayton's gonna be there, and then I'm here, and you're like, okay, maybe we'll come back another week, right?

But you come in here and you don't quite know what you think.

But what you have to do is to properly know who God is, you have to get real and ask, who is God to you?

Is he your light?

Is he your salvation?

Is he your stronghold?

Because what happens is get this when we know who God is, we can speak that over our situations.

For example, I don't know how I will pay my bills, but my God is my provider.

I have no strength to get up today, but my God is my strength.

All the people in my life have failed me, but my God will not leave me.

When we know who God is, it combats fear, it allows for us to push through situations because we have our perspective on something higher than just the fear that is following us, because that is who my God is.

Whom shall I be afraid?

It's getting real.

He chooses to look to God and speak who he is: light, salvation, stronghold in the middle of a fearful situation.

And what's interesting is these are unique names or ways to describe God, but they actually speak exactly to David's situation because scholars believe that while he was uh being chased, that he was literally hiding in caves.

So this idea of God being light, God being salvation, and God being a stronghold is the actual reality for David.

He looked to who God is, and what we can learn is that when different fears arise in our life, our first response is to recognize who God is.

And please hear me on this.

This does not mean that we ignore our problems.

How many of you know the much better than everyone Christians that walk around ignoring what is actually going on in life?

This does not mean ignoring our issues or our situations.

That does not just show how God strong is.

What does show how how strong God is is confronting those issues through faith.

Is admitting that there is fear, admitting that there is a difficult situation, but I'm going to in faith declare who God is.

Let's keep going.

Psalm 27, 2 to 3.

When evildoers came against me to devour my flesh, my foes and my enemies stumbled and fell.

Though an army deploys against me, my heart will not be afraid.

Though a war breaks out against me, I will still be confident.

So what we see is that David just doesn't just express his views about who God is, but he then acknowledges that the enemies are after him, but they are no match for God.

He is showing confidence in who God is.

The reason this is important is because it is easy to show confidence in life, but it is one thing to show confidence when things are going difficult.

Maybe when life is good and the bank account is full and you're going on vacations and your relationships are great and the kids are good and all of that.

Yeah, I have faith, I trust you, God, but what about when all of that is gone?

Where is your confidence?

He is revealing that his confidence is in the most high God.

It's easy when life is going good, but what about when fear follows?

What about when the bills are stacking up?

What about when the relationship falls apart?

What about when the doctor calls you with the news that you weren't expecting?

Here's the truth confidence in God isn't proven when life feels safe.

It's proven when life feels scary.

I'll read that again.

God, confidence in God isn't proven when life feels safe.

It's proven when life feels scary.

See, David didn't just talk about who God is, he didn't just declare who God is.

No, he placed his confidence in him.

And what this does, the situation that he is in reveals something.

How many of you misplace things often in your life?

Yeah?

Anyone anyone misplaced their phone or keys all the time?

That's why you're late today?

It's okay, I understand.

But we do this with confidence.

We misplace our confidence, we put it in the money, we put it in the job security, we put it in our own ability to control everything.

And what happens is when we place our confidence in something that is not God, whenever life hits, whenever fear follows, it reveals.

It reveals where we have placed our confidence.

And the truth is, placing your confidence in all of these other things might work for a season.

It might make you really successful.

It might make you someone that a lot of people want to be around.

But it what happens when that goes away is your confidence in God.

Who are you really trusting?

Are you trusting in something that will fade away?

Are you are you trusting in the God who is eternal and never leaves?

Are you trusting in things of the world?

Are you trusting in the person of Jesus who does not leave you, who does not fail you?

Where is your confidence today?

Because when fear follows, it will expose what you really have been trusting in.

Please do not misplace your confidence.

That's what David does here.

He declares who God is, and then he then places his confidence in God.

So we see when fear follows, to place your confidence in who God is, but he doesn't stop there.

Let's keep going.

Verse 4 through 6.

I've asked one thing from the Lord, it is what I desire to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple.

For he will conceal me in his shelter in the day of adversity, he will hide me under the cover of his tent, and he will set me high on a rock.

Verse 6 Then my head will be high above my enemies around me.

I will offer sacrifices in his tent with shouts of joy.

I will sing and make music to the Lord.

When he is surrounded and being followed by fear, when he is being hunted down, he doesn't ask God for a bigger army.

He doesn't ask God for a better hiding spot.

God, if you could just give me some intel on where to go, I think life will be better.

No, he asked for one thing: let me dwell in the house of the Lord.

And what this we see here is that this presence that he is seeking is where there is safety.

And David is talking about the Jewish tabernacle, which in his time was where God's presence dwelled.

And what they knew about this Jewish tabernacle was that if they could get there, there was safety in that there was complete security in the presence of God.

But this idea of having safety in the sanctuary where the enemies could not reach him, it caused David to then reflect and realize where he was, that he still was seeking outside of the sanctuary.

He was still seeking God's protection and presence.

And what this means for us today is that it is amazing that we know that through the work of Jesus, that through the power of the Spirit, the Spirit now lives and dwells in every believer.

So we do not have to go around wondering where God's presence is.

God's presence is not just here on a Sunday.

God's presence is not just when we're praying or reading, God's presence is with us wherever we go.

If we were in the car, if we were at work, if we were at school, that is where God's presence is.

If we dwell in his presence.

And what I want to encourage you to do, and please hear my heart, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty.

Man, the the pastors up here just telling me that I need to read my Bible more, I need to seek God's presence.

No, what I'm trying to get across is that there is something special when inside of us fear rises.

Our first response after naming who he is and placing confidence in him is to say, God, I just want more of you.

My life is a wreck, but I just want more of you.

Everyone around me is gone, but I just want more of you.

I just want to dwell in your presence.

There is safety, there is peace, there is protection, and ways that we can do that is through reading the scriptures, ways that we can do that is through praying, ways that we do that is through coming to attend a service like this or hanging out with an amazing community that encourages you and supports you.

But we have to seek his presence.

How many of you have someone in your life that whenever a horrible situation arises, this is the first person you talk to?

Anyone have that person in your life?

Maybe they're next to you.

Uh, maybe you wish they were next to you instead of the person that's next to you.

Just kidding, right?

But y'all know, whenever something happens at work, you get that text from a friend that says, we really need to hang out, and you know what that means is something bad happened.

You probably all have that person, and if I can just be around that person, I don't have to explain everything right off the bat.

I just know that being with them allows me to breathe.

Being with them allows me to calm down, allows me to get a different perspective.

Being with them is where I feel safe.

And what David is doing is he is he is explaining that that is who God is to him.

And that is who God is to us.

That being around him allows us to breathe, it brings safety, it brings peace, it brings comfort.

What if when a horrible situation arises, yes, we still reach out to friends and trusted community?

That is amazing.

But what if we also go?

I just need to be in God's presence, I just need to worship for a little bit, I just need to pray for a little bit, I just need to get in God's presence.

Let me dwell in the house of the Lord, let me dwell in God's presence, and that's what it boils down to is craving God's presence when fear tries to take over.

Craving his presence when fear tries to take over.

Not saying that all of the problems will disappear, as you know, after you hang out with that friend, does that mean all of your problems are gone?

No, but there is something inside of you that feels lighter, that feels better.

What I'm trying to get to today is that that is found in God.

That He is the light, He is the salvation, He is our stronghold.

We can put our confidence in Him and we can crave His presence when fear follows.

Let's continue, verse 7 through 9.

Lord, hear my voice when I call.

Be gracious to me and answer.

My heart says this about you.

Seek His face, Lord.

I will seek your face.

Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servants away in anger.

You have been my helper.

Do not leave me or abandon me, God of my salvation.

Now, this is interesting.

Y'all notice there's a little bit of a shift in tone here.

He started in verse 7 by saying, Lord, hear my voice.

And the vibe I kind of get from this moment is it's kind of like that 1 a.m.

cry out conversation to God.

Y'all know what I'm talking about where everything is going wrong, and you just cry out to God, God, hear me.

And from this, we gather that there might have been a moment, there most likely was a moment right here where he did not feel like God was answering his prayers.

None of us have ever felt that before, right?

God Answers every single prayer.

Life is perfect.

That's a joke, by the way.

It's okay.

I'm not trying to act like I feel like that sometimes, right?

But he says in verse 7, hear my voice when I call, be merciful to me and answer me.

He is crying out to God.

He is getting real with God.

David does not fake it, he gets real.

He isn't pretending, and faith isn't pretending you're not afraid.

Faith is bringing your fears to God.

What David does is he chooses to seek instead of seek.

He very clearly was in a fearful situation.

It's not like it just all went away right here at verse 7.

No, this is important for many of us because we find ourselves in a situation where we feel like God isn't answering.

God, where are you?

God, I need more of you.

You were here for my baptism.

You were here for my marriage, my relationship.

But where are you now?

God, answer my prayers.

And he very easily could have fallen down crying and giving up.

But instead, he gave it up to God.

He could have very easily continued crying and given up, but instead he gave it up to God.

And here is a point that we need to get.

When you feel like you're sinking, choose to seek.

When you feel like you are sinking, choose to seek.

Man, please please hear my heart for the people listening here today.

For those that feel like God has left you, for those that feel like you are alone and there is no hope.

And maybe you are in a situation right now where no one else around you knows this, but you are done.

You you are exhausted.

You cannot keep going anymore.

And your cry every single night is God, hear me and please hear my heart if that is you.

This is a safe place for you.

Pastor Clayton wants you to know that this is a safe community for you, no matter what you are going through, to feel loved and accepted and belong and to move forward in your faith, right?

This is a community for you.

But my encouragement is to keep seeking God.

There are people in your life that need you.

There is your family, your friends, your community that needs you to keep seeking instead of giving up, to give it up to God and say, Lord, do you hear me?

Lord, I need you.

Are you here?

And I wish I could say that when you leave here today, all your problems are going to be gone.

And I wish I could say that.

I wish I could say that for myself.

But I can say this with confidence that God hears you, He sees you, and that when you draw near to Him, He draws near to you.

So be real with Him.

Don't just bring to Him the pieces that you think He might want to see.

No, He wants the real you, the honest you, the imperfect you, the scared you.

He does not want the fake you, He just wants you.

So cry out to God.

Now we're gonna move forward a little bit to the last couple verses here in verse 13 to 14.

And again, this tone shifts back.

So he got real, he got open, he got honest, he still had that confidence in him.

Let's see, verse 13 and 14.

I am certain that I will see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart be courageous.

Wait for the Lord.

So what David does here is he wraps everything up with a nice little bow on top, and he is reminding us that his confidence is not in his circumstance, it is in the goodness of God.

He is still in a fearful situation, he is still on the run, but yet he can say, I am certain that I will see God's goodness.

See, that is not denial, that is not just turning away from your problems.

No, that is faith.

That is declaring that my situation right now is not good, but I know that my God is, and I know that I will see God's goodness in the land of the living.

Then he gives this command wait for the Lord, be strong, let your heart be courageous, wait for the Lord.

And maybe you were listening to this and you go, No.

Andrew, I am done waiting.

If we were to get honest, maybe that is how you feel right now.

I do not want to do that.

I do not want to wait, but we live in a world where waiting feels like wasting.

Where if you wait, then everything is just going to get worse, right?

We don't like waiting in traffic.

We don't like waiting on the text back.

Even when those bubbles pop up, you're like, what's gonna happen, right?

You see the read receipt and the bubbles and the bubbles go away, and you're like, oh my goodness, and I can't do anymore.

We definitely don't like waiting on God when fear is breathing down our neck.

And maybe if we talked, you would say, Andrew, I've tried waiting for 10, for 15, for 20 years.

It's been too long.

I'm tired, I'm frustrated, I'm done.

But here, this biblical waiting isn't passive.

It's not sitting in a corner, twiddling your thumbs, hoping that everything will just magically get better.

When he says wait for the Lord, he's not talking about doing nothing.

He's talking about standing firm.

He's talking about holding on to hope that when everything inside you wants to give up, to trust in God, to see that maybe I cannot feel it right now, but with a different perspective, I can see that God is still moving, right?

Waiting on the Lord is saying, I don't see a way out, but I know the God who makes a way.

I I don't know how I'm going to get through these waters, but I know a God who parts the sea.

I don't know how I'm going to survive this fire, but I know that there is a God with me.

I don't know how I'm going to handle this diagnosis, what's going to happen in my family, but I know that there is a God with me.

Waiting in faith is not being in denial, it's putting our trust in Him.

That is what it means to wait confidently on the Lord.

And what if, meta church, we became a people that said, no matter my situation, I'm gonna wait on the Lord because I know I know it does not look good.

I know it does not look great, but I know that God is here, God is in control, He is moving, He is working, and there is nothing in my soul that can do this on my own.

So, God, I'm waiting on you to move.

What if we cried out to Him like that?

It's not weakness, it's faith and action.

Notice He says, be strong, let your heart be courageous.

Why does he say that?

Because waiting takes strength, it takes courage to trust God's timing when fear is telling you to panic.

So maybe today you're in this season where fear has followed you for too long.

You're tired, you're worn out, you're ready to give up.

But hear me.

Don't mistake waiting for God's absence.

Because waiting is often where God does his deepest work within us.

Say that again.

Don't mistake waiting for God being absent, because in the middle of our waiting is where God does the deepest work.

What if we zoom out a little bit and think about the situations in our life that we would say were absolute trials?

Chances are, if we talked about it, you could you could see that God was actually doing something there.

That God was actually teaching you something in that moment.

But what if right now we can say, like David, we could declare that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Not maybe, not hopefully, not I I guess, but I will.

So when fear follows, declare who he is, crave his presence, be honest with him, and wait with confidence.

I want to get honest with y'all.

Uh, this isn't just a message uh that I'm passionate about, something that has really hit me recently.

Uh so November 14th of last year, uh, me and my wife welcomed our beautiful baby girl into the world.

And her name is Riley, and she's absolutely amazing.

And it was a beautiful day, but if I can be honest, it sparked a very fearful season.

Right as she was born, uh, she came out not breathing.

And as a parent, that's not what you expect, right?

And as she came out not breathing, the the NICU team rushed in, and all I remember is it's honestly a blur, but I remember there being like five to ten nurses and doctors rushing the room, and me and my wife were looking at each other like, what is going on?

And they're telling us that she can't breathe.

My wife barely got to hold our baby before she had to give her up so they could get her to breathe.

And then finally, uh I followed them as they went to the NICU, and they're like, We're gonna have to run tests, we're gonna have to keep her hooked up, and I'm in this elevator with my baby girl hooked up to oxygen, wondering what is going to happen.

And as we get there, they they tell me, multiple doctors walk in, they tell me she's okay, she's gonna be good.

We got oxygen, we're gonna have to do some things so so she can start eating.

And I was like, okay, uh, when can we go home?

Like, that's cool that y'all have that uh figured out now, but I want to take my baby home.

And they go, okay, maybe we don't know, but maybe soon.

But okay, a couple days pass.

When can we go home?

Couple weeks passed, then a month, then 35 days of being there with our baby in the NICU.

And and what's hard, and maybe you're a parent here that has experienced it, but you you just want to take your baby home.

You just want to go home and to hold her, and it was very hard to hold her in the NICU because she had all of these wires on her, and I just wanted to take her home, and then we had to go home so we could eat, we could rest and we could eat, and then it barely happened.

We were barely there at home because we just wanted to be with our baby, and I was crying out to God, where are you?

And as a pastor, as someone who has helped people walk through difficult seasons, I was not having it.

God, where are you?

You've been with me, you you've been with me through through amazing seasons, but where are you right now?

And multiple times when I've walked through people in seasons like this, uh I've quoted a scripture that is a good scripture.

It's Romans 8 28.

For God works all things together for the good of those that love him.

But in that moment, I was not about it.

Honestly, didn't read my Bible much.

I for sure didn't step into church in that moment.

I was not gonna leave my baby.

But then we had some friends that were amazing, they were there with us so much, and and this particular friend, she uh had the same situation happen with her daughter several years ago.

Uh, so she knew what it was like.

So she came to us and she had about 20 different scripture bracelets like this that she had uh prayed over, and she had brought them and she had prayed over them, and she had a specific one she wanted to give to me and one to my wife.

And of course, guess the one that I got was Romans 8 28.

Of course, right?

And as she gave me that bracelet, and I wish I could say when I put that bracelet on, I like floated and I was like, This is amazing, right?

God, like I I wish that would have been the case, but I put it on kind of mad, kind of like, why did you spend money on bracelets?

I'm not gonna wear them, right?

But then this was the verse I held on to without opening my Bible.

This was the verse that got me through.

And I share this with you because it was a couple days after that, after having this bracelet on, after having this verse, something that I meditate on, it started to click that this situation might not get any better, but God is still here.

It started to click that maybe I now have a choice to make.

Am I going to let fear lead me, or am I going to wait on the Lord?

Am I going to trust that He is here in the hospital room, that He is here in the situation, that He is healing my baby, that He is being, that He is with me and my wife?

Am I going to trust that God is bigger than my circumstance, that God is bigger than my situation?

And I'm not here to tell you that your situation is going to get easier because it got difficult for me as well.

But I'm here to say that from experience, I had a decision to make.

Am I going to seek or am I going to seek?

Man, and I am excited to tell you here today that my baby girl is thriving.

I think we have a picture of her.

Look at that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

God didn't take away our fears in the season.

And to be honest, this is a journey.

She has many medical appointments, she had some heart defects, so many things that we have to work out and talk about with doctors, and it's going to be a long season.

But what that showed me, and what this journey is currently showing me, is that God is here with me.

That when fear is following me, I have a choice to make that I can declare who God is, that I can put my confidence in him, that I can crave his presence.

And I can't tell you the amount of times that my short car rides to the hospital, because we did that so often, is where God showed up.

That's where his presence was, that he is with me.

So where are you today?

How is fear following you right now?

Maybe it's fear about your family, your health, maybe it's a fear about your calling, what God is calling you to do.

And I cannot promise you that your fear will magically disappear, but I can promise you that you do not have to let fear lead you.

Imagine if today we decided to choose to seek God instead of sink, to be people that trust in Him, have confidence in Him, to see the goodness of God.

And y'all listen, this is the reason that we can have confidence in God.

Because of Jesus.

See, when Jesus came to this earth, he didn't just come to make life a little better.

No, he came to defeat the greatest fear of all death itself.

Our Savior Jesus came down to this earth, recognized that we had this sin death, and said, I love you so much that no matter your fears, your anxieties, your doubt, your shame, I'm going to take that on the cross.

And then when he died on the cross, he then walked out of the grave, proving once and for all that fear does not have the final word, our God does.

Because of Jesus, we yes.

Because of Jesus coming to this earth, we do not have to face fear alone.

Because of Jesus, we have hope, not just for eternity, but for right now.

And if you feel like your fear has led you too far, I want you to know that God is calling you here today.

And if you have never made this decision to put your trust in Him, in Jesus, not in religion, not in trying to be perfect, but in Jesus, today is an opportunity for you.

Let today be the day to stop letting fear lead you.

Instead, follow the one who defeated fear.

Follow the one who brings life, peace, and freedom.

So as we close today, uh we're going to pray.

So right now, wherever you are, if you could go ahead and bow your head and close your eyes.

And if you've never had a moment in time where you have had made this decision to trust that Jesus is God, to trust that He paid the ultimate price for your sins, to trust that there's nothing in ourselves that can be good enough, that can bridge that gap between us and God, to trust that Jesus is the only one that has made a way.

If you are ready to make that decision today, I want to ask you with everyone's eyes closed, if you are deciding today is the day, could you just raise your hand with everyone's eyes closed?

And by raising your hand, you were saying, I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

And for those that raise your hand or raising your hand, Jesus sees you and he accepts your faith, which means that you have been given eternal life.

And I want to say this prayer that simply acknowledges the decision that you made.

And for those that are raising your hand, I want you to pray this prayer with me.

And I want to ask all believers as well to say this prayer with me.

If you could repeat after me, Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you were God, that you died for my sins, and I believe that you rose again.

Thank you for loving me and for forgiving my sins.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

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Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.