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This is my Sunday message from this past weekend where I spoke at a ladies retreat about the Faithfulness of God! Show Notes: How many of you feel stressed at some point on most days? How many of you are afraid or worried at some point most days? I am the oldest, and like many oldests, I am not a risk taker. I am very risk averse. Is it going to be dangerous? Let’s avoid it at all costs. Is it going to give me an adrenaline rush? That sounds terrible; why would I want that? I used to be afraid of so many things. (list) I felt like my whole life was lived in fear. A few years ago, I learned some things that totally rocked my world. First of all, fear is wrong. It’s not just unhelpful or unhealthy. It’s morally wrong. It’s sin. Isaiah 41:10  Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 2 Timothy 1:7  For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 1 John 4:18  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. Psalm 34:4  I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 23:1-6  A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ... Proverbs 29:25  The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. Joshua 1:9  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Psalm 56:3-4  When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? Philippians 4:6  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. There are over a hundred direct commands against fear in the Bible. (And by the way, stress and worry are just other forms of fear.) That’s a lot of verses! And that’s not even close to all the verses about fear. That’s just the direct commands. God takes fear very seriously, way more seriously than we do in our first-world culture. I think fear and gluttony are the two sins that Bible-believing, born again believer—in this country especially—practice without even realizing that what they’re doing is wrong. And we not only do it, we endorse fear. We grow it in our kids as we bubble wrap them and hand them a cell phone so we can always know where they are. I think we dismiss fear as unimportant because we don’t understand how offensive it is to God. We think it’s just our problem, that it only affects us. But when we are afraid, we are saying to God, “I don’t trust You. You are not big enough to handle this.” And that’s offensive! Think about it like a child standing on the edge of a drop off. You’re standing there ready to catch them. You tell them to jump. But they shake their head ‘no.’ That hurts a little, right? Because you know that what they’re really saying is, “I don’t trust you. You might drop me.” When things get out of our control, we become afraid, because we don’t trust that God’s control is bigger than ours. Here’s how it works. Let’s say I’m walking through the woods at camp and there’s plenty of light outside. Even if I’m not trusting God, I’m not really afraid because I know these woods and because I can see anything that might be out there. If there’s a downed branch, I can go around it. If I see a skunk, I can avoid it. But what happens when the sun goes down? Suddenly I can’t see. Things are out of my control. Anything could happen. A tree could fall on me. A skunk could walk in front of me. I could get lost. A bear could eat me. Anything could happen! But even though my control is gone, God’s isn’t. He has a plan for my life, and if getting eaten by a bear isn’t part of it, then it’s not going to happen. And if it is, then I’m okay with that. It’s a little harder to say that when it’s not something that results in death. Let’s me honest, I’d rather be eaten by a bear than sprayed by a skunk. One ends in seeing Jesus, the other ends in something of a living hell for awhile. But let’s also be honest and ask, “When it was light out, did I really have that much control in the first place?” No, not really. But it was enough to keep me thinking that I could handle anything that came my way. It was enough to keep me trusting my own power and wisdom instead of God’s. So why am I talking about fear when the topic this weekend is the faithfulness of God? I’m so glad you asked. It’s because everything that we have been learning the last two days is the answer to our fears. God’s faithfulness is a beautiful truth, but if it doesn’t change us, it’s worthless to learn it—and honestly, we haven’t really learned it if it hasn’t changed us. I think the biggest application of the faithfulness of God is that we don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to worry. We don’t have to be stressed out. Because how many people really enjoy being worried or stressed? Nobody, right? We get over it because we think it’s necessary. I hear parents all the time say things like, “I’m your mom; it’s my job to worry about you.” And that sounds cute at first, but it’s really not true. It’s a mom’s job to care for and love her children, but worrying doesn’t have to be a part of that. Can you imagine if God were to say the same thing? “I’m Your Heavenly Father; it’s my job to worry about you.” We would hate if He said that! Because it implies that He can’t handle anything that comes our way. Now, we can’t handle everything that comes our children’s way, which is why we worry, but we do know who can. And we can go to Him in faith and pray for our children. That is far more effective than any amount of worrying.  But it’s not always that simple, right? Fear is sneaky, and we are forgetful, like I talked about last night. It’s hard for us to connect the truths that we learn to our everyday life. It’s like there’s a disconnect a lot of the time that we have to be deliberate in breaching. So I’m going to give you some tools. First of all, we have to be on our guard against fear. If it’s wrong, we have to be willing to fight it, and we’re going to need God’s help, because this is not an easy battle. I believe fear is the number one weapon Satan uses against us. If he can keep us afraid, he can keep us quiet, unobtrusive. Those who are fearless are bold; they don’t care what may happen to their reputation, their bodies, their families—not because they don’t care about those things but because they see there is a God who is more important than those things. Jesus said in Luke 14:26-33, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” He's not talking about actually hating, because in other places, the Bible says that if you say you love God and hate your brother, you’re a liar. Jesus is talking about priorities. If you can’t be willing to risk your family, your reputation, and your comfort for the sake of Him who called you out of darkness and into His glorious light, you can’t be His disciple. So step one is pray. Be on your guard. Be watching for the signs of fear. Are you worried? Stressed about something? Are you being overprotective of something or someone? If you find yourself acting out of fear, you need to figure out what it is you’re actually afraid of. Name it. This might be easy, or it might take a little work. In preparing for this weekend, I had to fight a little bit of stress about how long it was taking me to get my messages done. I was afraid that if I didn’t do well, I would never be asked to speak anywhere ever again. I was also afraid that if I asked for a little time off at work, my director would think I’m not really committed to this camp and make me feel bad about it. Once you identify the fear, you have to figure out the lie that fear is built on. There were a few in there for me. First of all, I constantly have to fight the lie that my worth is based on what people think of me—specifically, I want to be known as someone who is wise and has a lot of biblical knowledge. So if I wasn’t prepared enough and bombed this weekend, you all would think I didn’t know what I was doing, and that would plummet my self-worth. That’s lie number one. Another lie I was believing was that God can’t use things that go badly for good. If I put my best effort into preparing and it still went badly, there’s a reason for it (even if I didn’t put in my best effort, there’s still a reason, but the reason might be as simple as to teach me a lesson on working harder and starting earlier). If I fail, it doesn’t stop God’s plan from moving forward. And if He wants me to be a successful speaker and author, it’ll happen. Another lie I was believing was that what my director thinks of me determines my value. Should I work hard at work and not ask for unnecessary time off? Absolutely. But if God has called me to something and I could use a little help with that, I shouldn’t be afraid to ask. If he had said ‘no,’ God would have provided. Okay, so we identify the fear, then we figure out the lie(s). Next we figure out the truth. What are the truths that counter those lies I was believing? The truth for the first and third ones are that God determines my value and worth not you or my director or anyone else. I am not worth more when my podcast gets more downloads. I am not worth less when someone reprimands me, whether that reprimand is legitimate and deserved or not. God says that I am made in His image, and I have been bought by the blood of Jesus. I am righteous, priceless, worth it. The truth for the second lie, that my mistakes could somehow stop God’s plan, is that God is sovereign. He controls the past, present, and future. His will always comes about. I can’t mess it up. The final step is to preach these truths to myself over and over until they sink and in make a difference in my head and heart. I forget. I know these things are true, and the more I tell myself them, the more they sink in and the longer I go before I forget them again, but I still forget. I still need to be reminded. So do you. What are you afraid of? What are you telling God, “You’re not big enough to handle this,” about? He wants you to trust Him. He’s not mad at you for not trusting Him; He loves you and wants you to give Him your fears and anxieties. He is faithful. He will only ever do what is good for you. You can trust Him. I encourage you as you go from here to tell someone the biggest fear you’re dealing with right now. I’m confident everyone has at least one. Tell each other the truths that combat those fears and stand with each other to remember those truths when it’s the hardest. God… is all powerful knows all things is present everywhere is sovereign does not change is holy is just loves me God… Finishes what He starts Keeps His promises Does not waver in His love for us Can be trusted Is the standard for faithfulness Trust Him.