Faith vs Fear

Last Sunday we started a series called Faith Versus.

And uh if you weren't able to watch the live stream last week or listen, we talked about faith versus foolishness.

And I thought that was a really important place to start because sometimes, especially for those of us who are who are Jesus followers, we're believers, it's easy for us to use faith as an excuse to make unwise decisions.

And we we do something foolish and we just say, well, I have faith that God's gonna get me through it.

And faith, mature faith.

Mature faith is not foolish behavior masked by faith.

That is not the way that Jesus lived out his faith.

And again, I encourage you to listen to that if you weren't able to last week.

It's an important conversation.

But today we're gonna talk about faith versus fear.

And obviously that's very pertinent right now.

It's very relevant to our world because it's not hard to see how much fear there is in the world right now.

But we don't want to live in fear.

We want to live with faith.

And so, you know, it's funny, I've been thinking a lot about fear and the typical responses to fear.

And scientifically, we actually have three kind of pre-programmed responses to fear.

This is how we just react biologically when we're in a in a situation where we feel fear.

And and those three things, you've probably heard it before, are fight, flight, and freeze.

Fight, flight, and freeze.

And so I've been thinking about what my typical response to fear situations is, and uh, and I also asked some of the guys to think through theirs.

And so, like Matt, I'll start with you.

Um if if you had to pick one, I'm sure that you respond in all three of those sometimes.

But like if you had to say more more likely than not, are you a fight, flight, or freeze person?

I'm probably depending on the situation, I'm probably more of a freeze because I overthink things.

Like I'm freezing to think everything through, but I think it through to the nth degree, so I'm just frozen for a long time.

My sinful response if I feel backed into a corner is is to puff up and like get frustrated and stuff like that.

But like, yeah, you so fight.

More or less, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Hey, Courtney, actually, how about how about you?

Uh mine is probably a combo of freeze and flight.

It's hard to do both of those at the same time.

You know, like I freeze, and yet she does it.

And then I don't want any part of that.

I don't want so I freeze and run away.

No, I get it.

I get it.

Alex, how about how about you?

What's your typical um I don't know, I had a hard time trying to like actually come up with something that like I felt like was accurate, but I feel like at some points I'm probably the same as Matt, with like, I just like, if I think this just right, I'll be I'll be good.

Yeah.

And then at the same time, I might I might be like, no, I like I'm gonna, you know, fight me right now.

Yeah, fight me.

Come on, bring it.

Yeah, yeah, okay, okay.

I I kind of wish fight was mine.

Like I I feel like I think as a guy I would feel pretty like awesome if I could be like, oh yeah, when I when I'm afraid, I fight.

Like I the fight in me comes out, but I'm totally a freeze person.

Um and I've actually had some times in my life where that came back to bite me in pretty major ways where I froze out of fear and regretted it tremendously.

The one that that sticks out to me the most is probably something that happened to me back in 1999.

So if you can go back in time with me in your mind to 1999, you know, um if you remember 1999 well, there were a few major things.

Like uh The Matrix came out.

That was like that was pretty life-changing.

I saw The Matrix in theaters, thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

Uh if you were listening to the radio in 1999, you're gonna be listening to like, well, depending on, I guess, what you listen to, but but it's like Britney Spears and InSync were were dominating the airwaves.

Uh Bill Clinton was facing impeachment, all kinds of things going on in 1999.

But probably the most significant thing that happened to me in 1999 is that I turned 16.

Uh so I was born in 83, 1999, 16 years old, and that meant I got my license, I got my car, and uh and like Matt, what was uh what was your first car?

My first car was the Nighthawk.

What is it?

What is a Nighthawk?

I don't know what that is.

Let me tell you.

Okay.

No, I'm just kidding.

It's not exciting, it's just a Han Civic, but 2005 Han Civic.

That was my first car.

And I get that one got totaled, I got T-boned uh like a couple months after I got it, and then I got a replacement Nighthawk, which is the exact same year model, everything like that.

So it lives on.

And that's what you drive now.

That's what I drive now.

So you have only ever driven one model of car.

If you've driven one car, but right, right.

As far as your own personal, yes.

You've had two cars, but they're the same.

They're the same car.

That's pretty awesome.

Yeah.

That's pretty awesome.

Alex, what was your first?

I think I remember when you turned 16.

I knew you at that time.

But what did you get?

My first car was a 2008 Honda Civic Coupe.

Okay.

Sweet.

I loved it.

What what do you drive now?

You drive a you have like an SUV.

Ooh, that's awesome.

My first car, 16 years old.

I had a 1995 Ford Mustang.

Uh and uh now, hold on, like just so you know, it wasn't a GT, it wasn't a V8, it wasn't like a muscle car.

And it wasn't red like the picture.

I couldn't find the color that I had.

It was it was like turquoisey teal.

I don't know how to describe it.

At night, it looked like a really deep blue, but in the daytime, it had a greenish tint.

So it was really like, you know, two cars in one.

Um but that's what I had.

My parents were super generous and they they bought that for me.

The problem though is that I was not a good driver because there is no such thing as a 16-year-old who's a good driver.

And by the way, if you're watching this and you're 16 and you're like, no, I'm a good driver, no, you're you're not, because you're 16.

You've only been doing this for a while.

There's no way you can be good at something when you first start doing it.

That's not how life works.

And so I turn 16, I get this car three weeks later, I end up uh, I didn't total it, but it was it was as close to total as it could possibly be.

So what happened was I'm I'm driving and I had I had a green light to turn left and I had to cross some lanes of traffic to do that.

And I guess I just wasn't paying attention or whatever.

Uh and so I I start to turn left, and all of a sudden I notice a car coming towards me.

And I have some time.

Like I actually, had I, had I had I been a person that was like fight or flight, I guess, either of them, I would have either reversed it or I would have gone forward.

But I just I just sat there.

I completely and totally froze.

And turns out the car that was heading toward me was a 1970-something El Camino, uh, which if you've never seen an El Camino, it's kind of like this weird Frankenstein of a car and a truck.

Uh it's a car that no one ever asked for uh and no one ever needed.

But uh, but they made it anyway.

And uh and they're made of like, I mean, the 70s, you know, they're making cars a little bit more sturdy than they do these days.

And so if you've ever wondered, and guys, maybe you have, or maybe you haven't, I don't know, but if you've ever wondered what what wins between a stationary 1995 Ford Mustang and uh an El Camino traveling at a decent rate of speed, I'll go ahead and answer that for you.

El Camino wins in a in like a landslide, an absolute landslide.

And so I'm sitting there, I don't know what to do, hits me, and and I'll never forget that day.

Like I remember that that hour of my life is forever encased in my mind.

So I called my mom first, and she asked if I was okay.

That was her first question.

She said, Are you okay?

I called my dad, and his first question was, Was it your fault?

Um, which it was.

And so that was a fun conversation.

And that all happened because I froze.

Because out of fear, I just I froze.

That's what happens when we're afraid.

We freeze or we run away or we fight, and oftentimes to our detriment.

I actually want us to look at a story in scripture, and I'm gonna be reading off the His Hands Mobile app, by the way, if you have that.

I want to look at a story in Scripture, a very famous story of Jesus, where we actually see all three of these fear-based responses.

All three of them happen really at once.

And so if you have a Bible with you, uh turn to John chapter 18, or if you have the His Hands Mobile app open, it's right there in the message.

John 18 · chapter mention

And so I'm gonna be reading John chapter 18, verses 1 through 11.

John 18:1–11

It says, After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples, and he entered a grove of olive trees.

Judas, the betrayer, knew this place because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples.

The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and temple guards to accompany him.

Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.

Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them.

Who are you looking for?

he asked.

Jesus the Nazarene, they replied, I am he, Jesus said.

Judas who betrayed him was standing with them.

As Jesus said, I am he, they all drew back and fell to the ground.

Once more he asked them, Who are you looking for?

And again they replied, Jesus the Nazarene, I told you that I am he, Jesus said.

And since I am the one you want, let these others go.

He did this to fulfil his own statement.

I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.

And then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest's slave.

But Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword back into its sheath, shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?

And so this is the story of Jesus being arrested.

And one of the cool things about the Bible is that we oftentimes get the same stories from different vantage points, from different angles.

No different than if you had something that happened that was really intense and multiple friends of yours were there, they all might have a slightly different version of what happened because it happened from their angle.

And so when we read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we get Jesus' life and many of the events in his life through through different sets of eyes.

And right here in this one account, in John's account, we see two of the normal fear-based responses.

Number one, we see fight.

Simon Peter, one of Jesus' closest friends and disciples, he pulls out his sword and he ends up chopping a guy's ear off, which is both gross and cool because if you keep reading, Jesus actually heals the man's ear.

Um I have a, I have a, I would imagine that Peter was not aiming for the ear.

Like he was probably going for a kill shot and just he missed.

But but Jesus ends up healing him.

So there you have it.

Peter, though, he responds with fight.

He's afraid of what's going to happen.

So what does he do?

He draws out his sword.

And we also have freeze, because Peter's the only one who does something here.

What are the rest of the disciples doing?

They're just there.

They're just standing there, probably frozen in fear.

We don't have it spelled out for us, but we can infer that because we can, is it infer or deduce?

We can do one of those two things.

We can either infer or deduce, or maybe they're just synonyms.

I don't really know.

But either way, we can we can recognize the fact that if Peter's the only one who's fighting, the others are just there.

They're just they're frozen in fear.

If we look at Mark's account of this, we see we see another response.

Mark chapter 14, verses 46 through 50.

Mark 14:46–50

This is Mark's version of the story.

Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him.

But one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and struck the high priest's slave, slashing off his ear.

Jesus asked them, Am I some dangerous revolutionary that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me?

Why didn't you arrest me in the temple?

I was there among you, teaching every day.

But these things are happening to fulfill what Scripture says about me.

And then all of his disciples deserted him and ran away.

So here we have Jesus being arrested, and he's with his closest friends.

He's with his disciples, and we see all three fear responses.

We see fight, Simon Peter draws his sword, we see freeze, the rest of the disciples, they're just standing there, and then ultimately we see flight.

They all just run away.

But if you notice, we also see a fourth response.

It's a response that isn't, isn't it?

It's not biologically programmed into us.

This isn't something that happens out of instinct.

It's something that we have to develop and learn.

We see a fourth response that's far more rare, but also far more powerful.

And we see it if we go back to John chapter 18, verse 4.

John 18:4

Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him.

And I want you to think about that for a second, what that really means.

Jesus fully understood what was awaiting him.

He knew that he was going to be crucified, he knew that he was going to be tortured and beaten, he knew that he was going to be humiliated.

He understood everything that he was about to face.

It says Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them.

He stepped forward to meet them.

Now he didn't step forward to fight them.

Peter responded with fight, not Jesus.

He didn't freeze.

It doesn't say that Jesus fully realized everything that was about to happen to him, so he just he waited.

And it wasn't flight.

It doesn't say that Jesus fully realized all that was about to happen to him, so he he ran the other way.

Jesus fully realized all that was about to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them.

He is responding not with fear, but with faith.

And as followers of Jesus, we have this opportunity not to respond in fear, not to have uh fight, flight, and freeze be what defines us in hard times, but we can actually respond with with faith.

We can have a whole different response available to us if we if we follow the example of Jesus.

He had faith.

And when you have faith, you have the ability to meet your fears head on.

You have the ability to face your fear.

And Jesus does this.

And I think sometimes it can be easy for us just to say, well, yeah, he's Jesus.

I'm not Jesus.

And so, I mean, of course, Jesus responded this way.

Jesus probably didn't have to deal with fear at all, and that's actually not true.

Fear is not a sin.

Feeling afraid, that's a feeling.

And Jesus absolutely dealt with fear.

In fact, Scripture says that Jesus dealt with everything that we deal with.

He just didn't sin.

And so Jesus absolutely dealt with fear.

In fact, he was dealing with fear right before this happened.

If we rewind a little bit, we'll look at Matthew's version of this, Matthew 26, verses 36 through 39.

Matthew 26:36–39

This is Jesus praying, and this all takes place moments before he's arrested.

Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane.

And he said, Sit here while I go over there to pray.

And he took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed.

He told them, My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death, stay here and keep watch with me.

And he went on a little further, and he bowed his face to the ground, praying, My father, if it's possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.

A few more verses later, verses forty-two through forty-six, it says, Jesus left them a second time and prayed, My Father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.

And we when he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn't keep their eyes open.

And so he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again, and then he came to the disciples and said, Go ahead and sleep, have your rest, but look, the time has come.

The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Up, let's be going.

Look, my betrayer is here.

And so right before Jesus responds with faith by going out to meet his betrayers, the ones arresting him, he's praying.

And he's praying through fear.

He's afraid, he's he's genuinely concerned.

It says he's anguished, he's distressed, he is full of anxiety and worry at this moment about what's about to happen to him, and he prays to the Father, God, if there's any other way out of this, if there's any way that I can I can skip this part, please let me know.

But then he he relents and says, Of course, though, your will, not mine.

Jesus felt fear.

He just didn't respond out of fear.

He didn't run away, he didn't freeze, he didn't fight.

He stepped forward with faith.

And Jesus, he's our ultimate example.

If you've been a Jesus follower for long, I hope you've learned and realized that you are part of the family of God, that God has adopted you into his family.

Scripture says that when we put our faith in Jesus, God adopts us as his very own sons and daughters, and he gives us the Holy Spirit, his actual spirit in us to give us a deposit of sorts, to seal us and help us understand.

No, no, you are my child.

We are the sons and daughters of God if we've given our life to Jesus.

And that makes Jesus our big brother.

And he's the ultimate big brother, and he's an example for us to follow.

Jesus shows us that if we if we live life the way that God intends us to, we don't have to respond out of fear.

We can respond out of faith.

And I want to take just a few moments and actually look at what Jesus specifically did.

The way that Jesus behaved in this situation, because it really gives us a blueprint for how we can respond in this situation, which is so crazy right now in our nation, and in every situation, we can respond with faith, not fear.

And I think there's there's three specific behaviors that we see in Jesus here.

Number one, if you want to respond in faith, you have to deal with your fear.

You actually have to deal with your fear.

It's very easy to find ways to avoid dealing with things.

We're all masters at avoidance a lot of the time.

In fact, I was talking to a good friend of mine on the phone this last week, and he and I are very similar.

I love this guy.

He's a great friend, he's a tremendous Jesus follower, loves the Lord, serves here at church.

Awesome guy.

And he was talking about how he just kind of makes jokes and uses humor as a way to deal with all of his anxiety right now.

And I kind of challenged him on that because I'm I'm the same way.

And I said, you know, but before you say that, just understand that I've I've said that a lot about myself as well, that I use humor, I joke around a lot to deal with my anxiety and fear.

But I've found the older I get that that's actually not me dealing with it, that's me, that's me avoiding it.

I use humor, I use jokes to avoid having to actually deal with my fear.

I just kind of kick the can down the road a little bit and I'll deal with it later, haha, make a joke.

We're all really good at avoiding our fears.

In fact, right now, all of us have this opportunity.

We can all face the fears that we have, or we can we can find things to distract us from the fears.

I mean, a lot of us right now are spending a lot of time at home, and there are plenty of things to fill your time.

If you want to be distracted, you know, there's Disney Plus, and there's Netflix, and there's there's a million other things out there that can just give you something to do to take your mind off of the fear.

And there's nothing wrong with doing that in small moments.

But the simple truth is, distraction isn't going to solve your problems.

Avoidance isn't going to solve your problems.

If you have legitimate fears, you have to deal with those fears.

Jesus dealt with his fear.

He dealt with it.

And if we're going to respond in faith, we've got to deal with our fears.

And I think a big part of that is actually naming them.

Give your fear a name.

Like be honest about it.

What are you actually afraid of?

Are you afraid of death?

Are you afraid of sickness?

Are you afraid of suffering?

Are you afraid of lack?

Afraid of not having enough?

Are you afraid of loneliness, of being abandoned?

What are you actually afraid of?

If you're gonna deal with your fear, you have to name it.

You have to give it a name.

Jesus was dealing with the fear of death, the fear of suffering.

And he dealt with it.

How did he deal with it?

He he went to God in prayer.

He dealt with his fear, not with distraction.

He didn't just go for a run or something like that.

Not that there'd be anything wrong with that, but that's not what he did.

He dealt with it through prayer.

And so, for example, in Philippians chapter 4, 6 through 7, we're told not to worry about anything.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Another way to say that would be do not be afraid of anything.

Instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need, and then thank him for all that he's done.

Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I love the way that the message version of this puts it.

It says, Don't fret or worry.

Like, don't be afraid.

Instead of worrying, pray.

Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.

Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down.

It is wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Jesus dealt with his fear.

He dealt with it, he took it to God in prayer.

And if we wanna deal with our fears, we should do the same.

Number two, you've got to take your fear to someone greater than your fear.

You've got to take your worries, take your anxieties, take all of your fears to someone greater.

Notice that I'm saying someone and not something.

Something that we've actually said at his hands for a long time.

This comes up in a lot of our conversations.

You've heard it on stage a hundred times if you've been here in the last few years, is that we believe that we need someone, not something.

Look, we can just be honest, a lot of us have have put more faith than maybe we should have in things.

And we're we're realizing right now in this season that those things, they don't really hold up.

Those things are not as secure as maybe we thought they were just a few months ago.

If we're gonna deal with fear, we've got to take our fear to someone.

We've got to take our fear to someone greater.

Like I said a minute ago, you've got to name your fears, but then you have to recognize that there is a name that is above all names.

You give your fear a name.

You call it whatever you need to call it death, sickness, suffering, lack, loneliness, whatever it is.

Give it a name, but then recognize that there is no name on this earth greater than the name of Jesus.

None whatsoever.

Philippians chapter 2, verses uh verses 9 through 11 say, Therefore, God elevated him, meaning Jesus, to the place of highest honor, and he gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Jesus is the name above all names.

So name your fear, and then speak the name of Jesus over that, because Jesus is greater than that fear.

And so if you're afraid of lack, Jesus is your provider.

Jesus, God, he's the one who provides for us.

So you you can say, you know what, God, I'm afraid right now.

I'm afraid of not having enough.

I'm afraid of not having enough money if something happens to my job right now.

I'm afraid of not having a retirement because of what's happening in the market.

I'm afraid of not having enough toilet paper because I only bought 13 packages when I went to the store last week.

Whatever your fear is, that may have hit a little too close to home, I'm sorry.

But but whatever your fear is, name it, and then recognize that Jesus is above that.

Jesus is your provider.

You can trust him.

If your fear is loneliness and being alone, then go ahead and say that I'm afraid of being alone right now.

A lot of us are single, and right now we're kind of cooped up by ourselves.

That's very difficult.

But guess what?

If you belong to Jesus, you are never alone.

You have the Holy Spirit with you all the time.

God will never leave you, He will never abandon you.

Look at Psalm 23, one of the classic scriptures.

And it tells us that even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil.

Why?

Because our God is with us.

So you can name your fear, you can say, I'm afraid of being alone, but but Jesus is greater than that.

So you speak the name of Jesus and you recognize that he's over that fear.

Suffering, sickness, whatever it is, Jesus is above that.

Jesus is our healer, he's our protector, he's our shield.

And you know what?

He knows what it feels like to suffer.

And we can look at Jesus and understand that suffering is temporary, but God's goodness is forever.

So if you're afraid of that, you name it, and then you name Jesus over it.

Even if it's death, by the way, and one of the beauties of Jesus is that we know, because he died and he rose again, we know that Jesus is above even death.

It does not say that at the name of death every knee will bow.

It's at the name of Jesus.

And that means that at the name of Jesus, even death itself has to bow down.

Because Jesus is the name above all names.

If you want to respond in faith, you've got to deal with your fear, but you've got to take your fear to someone greater than it.

Don't just deal with your fear on your own.

Don't just handle this yourself.

No, no, take your fear, be like Jesus, take your fear to God the Father.

Your fear to him and let him displace the fear that's in your life.

And finally, number three, you've got to understand if you want to respond in faith, that faith has to be tested.

Faith has to be tested.

James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4 say, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

James 1:2–4

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

So let it grow.

For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Faith has to be tested.

It has to be tested in order to mature, in order to really be solid.

And right now, a lot of us are having to deal with our faith being tested.

We have to ask ourselves, what have I put my faith in?

No, no, like really, what have I put my faith in?

Have I really put my faith in God?

Am I really trusting in Jesus right now?

Or have I been living with my faith ultimately placed in something else, something less?

Let your faith be tested right now.

And understand that that's happening.

Romans 5 through through 5 says, we can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.

And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because He's given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Right now we are going through some testing.

Our faith is being tested.

And if we stay true, if we if we keep our eyes on Jesus, if we recognize that he is the only foundation worth building our lives on, our faith will develop endurance.

And that endurance is going to strengthen us, it's going to give us a confident hope that does not lead to disappointment.

Some of us right now we have to we have to do some soul searching.

I've had to do a lot of soul searching in the last few weeks and say, okay, is my faith really on Jesus?

Or have I have I put my faith in something less?

Have I put my faith in my own plans?

Because I kind of thought I knew how the next couple of years was going to go.

And those those plans have gone away.

Have I put my faith in in some other aspect of life, in my finances, in my career, in my government, whatever it is, if you put your faith in anything less, right now your faith is being tested.

And this is an amazing opportunity to relocate your faith and make sure that all of it, not half of it, not a third of it, but all of it is placed on the name of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

We have an opportunity to respond right now, not out of fear, but faith.

It doesn't happen automatically.

Flight, freeze, fight, those are automatic responses.

Those are biological.

But faith is a spiritual response.

Jesus actually said that whatever is born of flesh, John chapter 3, whatever's born of flesh is flesh.

John 3 · chapter mention

But whatever is born of spirit is spirit.

And right now we need we need God to birth in us a spirit of faith.

It's not something we're gonna have on our own, it's not something we can we can muster in our own strength.

This is something that only comes from God, and this is a time in our lives right now to let our faith be tested, to take our fears to someone greater than those, our God, Jesus Christ.

Take our fears to Him.

It's a time for us to actually to deal with our fears and name them and recognize that they are not greater than Jesus, and for us to put everything, like go all in, put it all on Jesus.

Here in a moment, we actually have someone that's that's making that decision to go all in with Jesus and get baptized.

Her name is Sue, she's awesome.

But before we get to that, we're going to we're gonna worship a little bit more.

And we're gonna sing a song that's all about the fact that as followers of Jesus, we don't have to be afraid.

We don't have to be afraid at all.

I want to encourage you, if you're watching this and you've never given your life to Jesus, you can do that right now.

Like you don't have to wait, you don't have to show up in a church building to do that.

Right now, right where you're at, you can put it all on Jesus.

You can go all in with him and say, hey, you know what?

From now on, my faith is in you because I don't want to respond in fear.

I don't want to be worried.

I don't want to have fear and worry be what's driving me right now.

I need a different response.

I need faith.

You can trust him.

If you've already been following Jesus, you can trust him more and more and more.

Every single day, just give him more and more and more and trust that he's never going to leave you, he's never going to abandon you.

He is the name above all names, and there's nothing in this world, there's no situation, there's no circumstance, there's no disease.

There's nothing.

There's nothing that will ever be greater than Jesus.

And we can put our faith there and put it all there.

Let's pray.

Father God, thank you so much for for this day.

Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity to let our faith be tested, to let it develop endurance and strength.

Lord, we just pray that you would you would use this situation in our lives to strengthen us so that we come out the other side of this stronger than we've ever been before, wiser than we've ever been before.

And Lord, that's only going to happen if we recognize that you are the only one we can depend on.

Lord, we don't want to be people who respond right now out of fear.

There is plenty of fear in the world.

We don't need more of it.

But faith, Lord, that's something we do need.

And faith can only come from you.

So, Lord, help us deal with our fears and anxieties in a way that we never have before, Lord, and help us take those to you and trust that when we give our fear to you, you give us hope.

You give us faith.

You give us peace.

Those are the things that you promise to give us.

And we pray in your name, Jesus, that we would make that exchange today, that we would give you our fear, that we would give you our anxiety and our stress and our worry and our need for control.

And instead, Lord, we would receive from you the faith, the hope, the confident hope, and the peace that you promise.

We love you, Jesus.

Help us remember we have nothing to be afraid of.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.