Fear Is Toxic | The Cure Week 4

Fear is our instinctual response to the unknown. The bump in the dark, the bad diagnosis, the life threatening event. Yet for many of us, fear has become a liar, holding us back from the joyous life God has for us. Join us today as Brian teaches us how to overcome fear.

  • 00:00:04
    - Americans are more fearful than we have ever been before.
  • 00:00:08
    Fear is not only an irrational thing,
  • 00:00:10
    but fear is also a spiritual thing.
  • 00:00:12
    It's a spiritual entity that is plaguing us
  • 00:00:16
    and we need cured of it.
  • 00:00:19
    - Navigating our current reality can feel like
  • 00:00:21
    a dangerous and terrifying jungle
  • 00:00:23
    full of snakes ready to bite.
  • 00:00:26
    But today, we find the cure.
  • 00:00:31
    - Hey, welcome to Crossroads.
  • 00:00:32
    My name is Kyle.
  • 00:00:34
    I'm the community pastor for Crossroads Church online.
  • 00:00:36
    Today, we're talking about a topic
  • 00:00:38
    that I believe could change your life.
  • 00:00:40
    Today, we're talking about how to get free from fear.
  • 00:00:43
    If at any point in today's experience
  • 00:00:44
    you want help with that,
  • 00:00:46
    I would love you to reach out to me.
  • 00:00:48
    This is my email address.
  • 00:00:49
    I'll do my best to get back to you within 24 hours.
  • 00:00:52
    Or if there's a need you have in your life
  • 00:00:54
    that you need more immediate help with,
  • 00:00:55
    you can go to Crossroads.net and just click the chat icon.
  • 00:00:59
    Let's get started.
  • 00:01:03
    - Deep in the South African wild, the black mamba snake
  • 00:01:05
    is one of the deadliest in the world.
  • 00:01:08
    The snake's fangs act like a hypodermic needle,
  • 00:01:10
    injecting venom quickly and efficiently.
  • 00:01:13
    It only takes two drops of venom to spread toxic poison
  • 00:01:16
    throughout the bloodstream.
  • 00:01:19
    Luckily, if you act quickly, there is a cure
  • 00:01:21
    and you can survive.
  • 00:01:23
    First, a tourniquet is used
  • 00:01:24
    to stop the spread of the poison through the body.
  • 00:01:27
    Next, oxygen and respiratory support is given
  • 00:01:30
    because the heart and lungs are weakened
  • 00:01:32
    from the spread of toxins.
  • 00:01:34
    Finally, the antidote to the venom is injected
  • 00:01:36
    directly into the bloodstream to neutralize
  • 00:01:38
    and eventually overcome the poison that is being spread.
  • 00:01:42
    Now, while few of us will actually ever encounter
  • 00:01:45
    a black mamba, maybe even more dangerous
  • 00:01:47
    are the toxins we encounter every day.
  • 00:01:50
    Navigating our current reality can feel like
  • 00:01:52
    a dangerous and terrifying jungle
  • 00:01:54
    full of snakes ready to bite.
  • 00:01:56
    And just like a snake venom travels through our bodies
  • 00:01:59
    and attacks our organs, the poisons of racial injustice
  • 00:02:02
    and polarizing politics that assault us in our news feeds
  • 00:02:05
    and social media accounts can quickly spread
  • 00:02:08
    through our minds and hearts to damage and shut down
  • 00:02:11
    our healthy thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and actions.
  • 00:02:15
    The good news is that while deadly, there is actually a cure
  • 00:02:19
    to everything toxic in our lives,
  • 00:02:20
    an antidote within our reach that will restore health
  • 00:02:23
    and vibrancy to our minds and hearts.
  • 00:02:25
    Just like treating a deadly mamba bite,
  • 00:02:28
    we can cut off the poison of fear
  • 00:02:30
    that tells us there is no such thing as peace,
  • 00:02:32
    and turn instead to the cure of the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:02:35
    When our bodies and souls are shutting down
  • 00:02:37
    under the stress of daily life, we can fill our lungs
  • 00:02:40
    with life sustaining support from the Bible, the Word of God.
  • 00:02:44
    And when it feels like our broken hearts will never heal
  • 00:02:47
    and there is no hope, we can inject ourselves
  • 00:02:50
    with the truth of God, the antidote that will neutralize
  • 00:02:53
    the poison affecting our entire world.
  • 00:03:00
    - Hi, I'm Brian,
  • 00:03:01
    welcome to Crossroads and Week 4 of The Cure.
  • 00:03:04
    We're going to talk today about fear and anxiety
  • 00:03:07
    and finding a cure for that.
  • 00:03:09
    Have you ever noticed, it seems like we have
  • 00:03:12
    more insurance policies than ever
  • 00:03:14
    to mitigate the things that we're afraid of.
  • 00:03:17
    We take more medications for anxiety than ever.
  • 00:03:21
    We have more paranoias and psychoses than ever.
  • 00:03:27
    It's because, I believe, that we're more fearful as a country
  • 00:03:31
    than any country has ever been at any point in world history.
  • 00:03:34
    Studies and surveys are pretty unanimous
  • 00:03:37
    that conclude Americans are more fearful
  • 00:03:40
    than we have ever been before.
  • 00:03:41
    Barry Glassner,
  • 00:03:43
    who is the president of Lewis and Clark College
  • 00:03:45
    and the author of The Culture of Fear:
  • 00:03:47
    Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things, he says:
  • 00:04:03
    We have all kinds of safety nets inside of our culture,
  • 00:04:06
    more hospitals than we've ever had before,
  • 00:04:09
    more drugs to help us than ever we've had before,
  • 00:04:12
    more knowledge than we've ever had before,
  • 00:04:14
    and yet we're more fearful than we've ever had before.
  • 00:04:16
    Why is that?
  • 00:04:19
    I believe it's because fear is not only an irrational thing,
  • 00:04:22
    but fear is also a spiritual thing.
  • 00:04:25
    It's a spiritual entity that is plaguing us
  • 00:04:29
    and we need cured of it.
  • 00:04:31
    The Bible talks about fear again and again
  • 00:04:33
    and again and again and again.
  • 00:04:34
    IT has been said that there's 365 verses in the Bible,
  • 00:04:38
    one for every day that comes against fear.
  • 00:04:40
    Now I've read the Bible a bunch of times,
  • 00:04:42
    but I've never actually tabulated all of them.
  • 00:04:45
    So I'm just believing other people there's 365.
  • 00:04:48
    I might actually do it someday myself and go,
  • 00:04:51
    "Now wait a minute. I only count 361."
  • 00:04:55
    I'm not sure exactly how many, but there is a bunch.
  • 00:04:57
    Here's a couple:
  • 00:05:06
    So fear and love cannot co-exist.
  • 00:05:11
    Where there is love, it casts out fear.
  • 00:05:16
    Where there is fear, there isn't room for love.
  • 00:05:30
    - Whenever I'm around somebody who's afraid and paranoid,
  • 00:05:34
    I know I'm around somebody who's not connecting with God
  • 00:05:37
    because God doesn't give us paranoia.
  • 00:05:40
    He doesn't give us fearfulness.
  • 00:05:44
    That's not one of the spiritual attributes He gives us.
  • 00:05:47
    He doesn't give us stress.
  • 00:05:50
    He gives us love. He gives us power.
  • 00:05:54
    He gives us self-control.
  • 00:05:56
    I want you to be able to control your emotions.
  • 00:06:00
    I want you to be able to have the power to cast out fear,
  • 00:06:04
    and that is understanding the love of God
  • 00:06:06
    and that He cares for you.
  • 00:06:07
    Let's pray before we get more into this.
  • 00:06:10
    God, I know this is a plague that's across our culture.
  • 00:06:13
    I know that we need cured.
  • 00:06:15
    I know that we need help.
  • 00:06:16
    And I know You can help us and I believe in You for that.
  • 00:06:20
    And I ask You to do Your work of love
  • 00:06:23
    that casts out all fear inside of Your people today.
  • 00:06:27
    I pray these things according to character
  • 00:06:30
    and identity of Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:06:35
    - God can absolutely do that for you.
  • 00:06:37
    He can cast fear out from your life.
  • 00:06:41
    But I want to be clear, that will only happen when
  • 00:06:44
    you trust Him with the thing you're experiencing fear around.
  • 00:06:47
    If you're having fear around your career,
  • 00:06:49
    trust Him with your career.
  • 00:06:51
    If you're having fear around the future of your marriage,
  • 00:06:53
    trust him with your marriage, follow His directions.
  • 00:06:57
    The same is true of your finances.
  • 00:06:58
    You can experience freedom from fear in your finances
  • 00:07:01
    when you trust God with your finances,
  • 00:07:04
    that means trust and follow His direction.
  • 00:07:06
    His direction is clear: He invites us to test Him.
  • 00:07:10
    He actually says in the book of Malachi, "Test me.
  • 00:07:13
    Just give me 10% of what I've given to you
  • 00:07:17
    and I will show up and I will bless your life."
  • 00:07:20
    I know that sounds self-serving to hear from a church.
  • 00:07:23
    And so we've actually designed a way for this to happen
  • 00:07:25
    risk free for you
  • 00:07:27
    and to eliminate that part of the equation.
  • 00:07:29
    We have something we call the Tithe Test.
  • 00:07:31
    We invite you to trust God,
  • 00:07:33
    follow His direction around money,
  • 00:07:35
    to give 10% away for 90 days.
  • 00:07:38
    And if you don't see God show up and bless you in those 90 days,
  • 00:07:41
    we'll give you all of your money back.
  • 00:07:44
    Hundreds of people have done this and seen God show up.
  • 00:07:46
    I'd invite you to be one of them.
  • 00:07:48
    To see the power that happens
  • 00:07:49
    when you trust God with your finances,
  • 00:07:51
    you can go to Crossroads.net/tithetest
  • 00:07:54
    to get started.
  • 00:07:56
    And hey, if you are one of the people
  • 00:07:57
    who is trusting God with your finances
  • 00:07:59
    and you're working your way towards a tithe,
  • 00:08:01
    I want to say well done and keep going.
  • 00:08:03
    If you're one of the folks who is at a tithe,
  • 00:08:05
    you're part of we call our Blue Team.
  • 00:08:07
    The team of self-declared tithers at Crossroads.
  • 00:08:10
    To you I want to say thank you, thank you and well done.
  • 00:08:14
    Let's jump back in with Brian and learn more about fear.
  • 00:08:23
    - Here's some of the oddest fears that I've run across:
  • 00:08:27
    Decidophobia, the fear of making decisions;
  • 00:08:31
    nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone.
  • 00:08:35
    It's probably fear that just about all of us have.
  • 00:08:37
    Ablutophobia, the overwhelming fear
  • 00:08:41
    of bathing, cleaning, or washing.
  • 00:08:44
    You don't want to be around someone has ablutophobia.
  • 00:08:46
    They stink too bad.
  • 00:08:47
    And finally, the most intriguing:
  • 00:08:55
    It's right here. You can look at it right here.
  • 00:08:57
    It's one of the longest words in the dictionary.
  • 00:09:00
    And ironically, one of the longest words dictionary
  • 00:09:04
    is for people who have a fear of long words.
  • 00:09:10
    You see this long word, you just get freaked out,
  • 00:09:13
    trembling, sweatiness, dizziness, fainting, dry mouth,
  • 00:09:17
    trouble breathing, avoiding actual reading
  • 00:09:20
    and educating yourself because you're afraid of
  • 00:09:22
    coming across a long, long word.
  • 00:09:25
    Now, these are all fun and awkward.
  • 00:09:28
    But when fear actually hit your life close,
  • 00:09:31
    it really is a bummer.
  • 00:09:33
    One example for me, just recently.
  • 00:09:35
    I have a guy who set me up out west on an elk hunt
  • 00:09:39
    on some private land.
  • 00:09:41
    And going out, it's a massive, massive amounts of elk
  • 00:09:45
    that were on this land.
  • 00:09:46
    I think I have a picture here for you.
  • 00:09:48
    Massive amounts of it and so needed
  • 00:09:51
    and the government said okay to come out and thin the herd.
  • 00:09:54
    So I'm going out there, I'm all excited.
  • 00:09:56
    I take my gun, I've got to make sure it's sighted in.
  • 00:09:59
    The problem, though, is you need ammo to set your gun in,
  • 00:10:03
    problem, it's very hard to get ammo.
  • 00:10:06
    Gun ammo is selling at faster rates than ever before.
  • 00:10:09
    There is a massive, massive ammo shortage.
  • 00:10:12
    If you've ever thought about shooting a gun
  • 00:10:15
    and you don't have ammo, forget it.
  • 00:10:16
    You're not going to shoot a gun for quite some time.
  • 00:10:19
    Why is that?
  • 00:10:20
    Because everyone's sucking up all the ammo,
  • 00:10:22
    because there's a Democratic president,
  • 00:10:24
    and everybody who has guns and also on the right
  • 00:10:26
    is going, "Oh, no. Oh, no.
  • 00:10:28
    Oh, the Biden administration is going to take away all the ammo.
  • 00:10:30
    So let's just get all the ammo we can.
  • 00:10:32
    Buy at all. Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy"
  • 00:10:34
    So they suck it all.
  • 00:10:35
    Concurrently, there's been ten million new gun owners
  • 00:10:39
    in America just in the last year.
  • 00:10:40
    Not ten million new guns for people who already had guns.
  • 00:10:43
    Ten million brand new gun owners.
  • 00:10:45
    And all those people wanted ammo.
  • 00:10:48
    Shares of Smith and Wesson and Ruger,
  • 00:10:50
    which are the two top U.S. manufacturers, have soared,
  • 00:10:53
    131% and 59%, respectively.
  • 00:10:57
    So our fears are causing us to buy more guns,
  • 00:11:00
    buy more ammo, buy more.
  • 00:11:03
    And I can't hunt my elk. That's not right.
  • 00:11:05
    No, I can actually can.
  • 00:11:06
    I found enough to do my elk, but I'm just saying
  • 00:11:08
    everywhere we look in our culture,
  • 00:11:10
    everywhere we see the marks of fear.
  • 00:11:13
    In week one, we talked about needing a cure for sin.
  • 00:11:16
    And the pure sin we saw in the first story of the Bible
  • 00:11:19
    was Satan coming as a serpent or a snake
  • 00:11:24
    and tempting Adam and Eve to do something
  • 00:11:27
    God didn't want them to do and sin flooded into the Earth.
  • 00:11:32
    Now, that serpent story,
  • 00:11:34
    that snake story is a significant one.
  • 00:11:38
    The next significant snake story comes in the book of Numbers.
  • 00:11:43
    And what's happened up to this point is
  • 00:11:45
    the nation of Israel has been in slavery in Egypt.
  • 00:11:48
    They get led out of slavery by Moses.
  • 00:11:51
    And crazy things happen,
  • 00:11:53
    like miraculously a body of water parts
  • 00:11:58
    and the nation of Israel is able to go through
  • 00:12:00
    ahead of the nation of Egypt, who then later gets drowned.
  • 00:12:04
    God provides for them.
  • 00:12:05
    He causes water to come out of rock.
  • 00:12:08
    He causes manna to fall from heaven
  • 00:12:12
    to meet their needs every single day.
  • 00:12:16
    And in the midst of all of these amazing things,
  • 00:12:19
    the nation of Israel still struggles with fear.
  • 00:12:22
    Numbers 21:4-9 tells the story, it says:
  • 00:12:53
    God gets a bit angry with the nation of Israel,
  • 00:12:57
    despite all the ways that He has blessed them, they're not happy.
  • 00:13:01
    He says, "Okay, I'm going to teach you a lesson."
  • 00:13:03
    And He sends all these slithering snakes,
  • 00:13:07
    poisonous snakes into their midst
  • 00:13:09
    and they start biting the nation of Israel
  • 00:13:13
    and people start dropping left and right.
  • 00:13:18
    Let's get to the solutions side, shall we?
  • 00:13:21
    What do you do to cure fear?
  • 00:13:23
    There's some things here in this that relate to us today.
  • 00:13:27
    Number one: look at past provision.
  • 00:13:30
    Look, in the past at all the things
  • 00:13:33
    that you were afraid of in the past, that didn't happen.
  • 00:13:39
    Look, in the past, of all the ways
  • 00:13:41
    that you thought you would make it and you made it.
  • 00:13:44
    Look in the past that the ways that God has provided for you,
  • 00:13:48
    the food that he's given you.
  • 00:13:50
    Very few of us have ever been hungry
  • 00:13:52
    without intentionally wanting to be hungry
  • 00:13:54
    to lose weight or some such reason.
  • 00:13:56
    Look at how you've never completely been dehydrated
  • 00:13:59
    and in a hospital because you couldn't get adequate water.
  • 00:14:02
    Look at how God brought the right job
  • 00:14:04
    at the right time for you.
  • 00:14:05
    Look at how God has given you maybe a family
  • 00:14:08
    or a circle of friends.
  • 00:14:09
    All of us have pains and troubles and things
  • 00:14:11
    that we needed to have or wanted to have and didn't have have.
  • 00:14:14
    But we're all here right now, right?
  • 00:14:16
    It's because God provided something for us way back when.
  • 00:14:19
    And the nation of Israel was not looking at
  • 00:14:22
    what they had been blessed with, they were just frustrated
  • 00:14:25
    with what they didn't have in the moment.
  • 00:14:27
    And these fiery serpents come upon them.
  • 00:14:30
    I love this phrase "fiery serpents".
  • 00:14:32
    What's being talked about here?
  • 00:14:35
    I think what's being said is when that snake comes
  • 00:14:38
    and bites on you, which as we said in week one,
  • 00:14:41
    I'm not a snake fan. I'm not a -- I don't like snakes.
  • 00:14:44
    I've gotten over that fear for the most part.
  • 00:14:46
    I still don't like them, but I'm not freaked out about them
  • 00:14:49
    like I used to be.
  • 00:14:50
    But I've never even been bit by a snake.
  • 00:14:52
    I can't imagine what that would feel like,
  • 00:14:54
    let alone a poisonous snake.
  • 00:14:55
    I think what happens is when that snake comes up
  • 00:14:58
    and puts its venom inside of you,
  • 00:15:00
    it's like a fiery sensation.
  • 00:15:03
    That's what's meant by "fiery serpents".
  • 00:15:06
    When you have fear and anxiety, it is like a fiery sensation.
  • 00:15:12
    Your adrenal glands open up, you get on edge,
  • 00:15:16
    you get butterflies in your stomach.
  • 00:15:17
    There's a there's an actual physiological expression
  • 00:15:22
    of that fear that you have.
  • 00:15:24
    The Nation of Israel need to look
  • 00:15:26
    at the past provision of God
  • 00:15:29
    in order to not have the level of fear
  • 00:15:31
    that they had at this moment.
  • 00:15:32
    Now it continues on, verse 7-9, it says:
  • 00:16:08
    Kind of a weird thing, right?
  • 00:16:11
    The thing that has bit them, the thing that they're afraid of
  • 00:16:15
    is now the very thing they have to look at.
  • 00:16:19
    By the way, this is where the symbol
  • 00:16:22
    for the American Medical Association comes from
  • 00:16:25
    or where you might have seen this
  • 00:16:27
    on your insurance documentation, it's that staff
  • 00:16:30
    or that cross with a snake around it.
  • 00:16:32
    It traces back to to this story.
  • 00:16:35
    The very thing that had bit them,
  • 00:16:37
    now Moses makes a replica of it
  • 00:16:39
    and they have to look at the very thing that bit them.
  • 00:16:43
    That's the second thing to do to cure our fear
  • 00:16:47
    is look at the thing that scares us.
  • 00:16:51
    I'm right now in a pretty scary place for many of us.
  • 00:16:54
    It's reminiscent of an alley, a dark alley.
  • 00:16:59
    And dangerous things happen in dark alleys.
  • 00:17:04
    Some of us have maybe had something
  • 00:17:06
    really awful happen to us in a dark alley.
  • 00:17:09
    You know what I counsel people with who have had that happen
  • 00:17:12
    whether in a literal dark alley or a metaphorical dark alley
  • 00:17:18
    is an order to get over that thing,
  • 00:17:21
    eventually you've got to go back down the dark alley.
  • 00:17:25
    You've got to go back down and stare in the face
  • 00:17:28
    the thing that freaks you out.
  • 00:17:29
    The Nation of Israel has got to stare the snake in the face.
  • 00:17:36
    One of our most powerful presidents
  • 00:17:38
    who spoke against fear
  • 00:17:40
    was Franklin Delano Roosevelt during World War II
  • 00:17:43
    when he addressed the American people and he said:
  • 00:17:52
    Or actually the way he said it is:
  • 00:17:53
    (impersonating) The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
  • 00:17:59
    It's a well-known statement,
  • 00:18:01
    and it was powerful in mobilizing our country.
  • 00:18:04
    But check out the rest of his sentence:
  • 00:18:20
    Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.
  • 00:18:25
    How many of the things that you and I have been afraid of
  • 00:18:29
    have ever happened?
  • 00:18:31
    How many of the things that have freaked us out
  • 00:18:34
    have ever happened?
  • 00:18:36
    Whenever I go on a motorcycle trip,
  • 00:18:37
    I regularly get onto a motorcycle
  • 00:18:39
    and I think, "Oh my gosh,"
  • 00:18:40
    as I'm packing my motorcycle I think,
  • 00:18:43
    "I'm going to have a major accident, maybe die."
  • 00:18:45
    And then I go whoa, whoa, whoa.
  • 00:18:47
    I think this every time before I go on a motorcycle trip.
  • 00:18:50
    And I never have an awful catastrophe happening.
  • 00:18:54
    It's nameless, it's unreasonable the fears that we have
  • 00:18:58
    and they paralyze us.
  • 00:18:59
    That's why I'm saying it's a spiritual thing.
  • 00:19:02
    It's like there's a spiritual entity
  • 00:19:04
    that's trying to paralyze us, trying to shrink us down.
  • 00:19:07
    A spiritual entity that was trying to shrink down
  • 00:19:10
    the Nation of Israel's relationship with their God.
  • 00:19:14
    I've been freaked out about snakes,
  • 00:19:16
    but I've never been bit by a snake.
  • 00:19:18
    A snake has never done anything to bother me.
  • 00:19:21
    Why am I afraid of that? Why? Why was it that a fear?
  • 00:19:24
    Weird, really, really weird.
  • 00:19:27
    We have to look at the thing, look at the thing and say,
  • 00:19:29
    "No, I'm going to choose not to be afraid of you
  • 00:19:32
    or I'm going to look at you until I'm not afraid of you."
  • 00:19:35
    The more you look at a snake, the more you're,
  • 00:19:37
    "Oh, interesting how they're moving.
  • 00:19:38
    Okay, wouldn't want to kiss one,
  • 00:19:39
    but not freaked out by one either."
  • 00:19:42
    The final thing is look to God to free us.
  • 00:19:46
    Look to God.
  • 00:19:47
    Psalm 34:41, it says:
  • 00:19:56
    So I can get deliver from my fears when I seek God,
  • 00:20:00
    when I actually look to God.
  • 00:20:03
    The Bible can be very confusing for some of us,
  • 00:20:06
    but if we hang in there,
  • 00:20:08
    there's some really cool things that happen.
  • 00:20:10
    The story we've been talking about is an Old Testament story.
  • 00:20:13
    That is it was talked about before Jesus came around.
  • 00:20:16
    That's all that's in the Old Testament.
  • 00:20:18
    And Jesus and what happened after Him
  • 00:20:20
    is in the New Testament.
  • 00:20:21
    And very frequently the things that are over
  • 00:20:24
    in the Old Testament, the things the New Testament,
  • 00:20:26
    they actually come together and they borrow off one another
  • 00:20:29
    and they lean on one another.
  • 00:20:31
    So Jesus was Jewish, he had Jewish heroes,
  • 00:20:33
    and all of them understood fully this old story
  • 00:20:37
    of lifting up a serpent, looking at it
  • 00:20:39
    and being healed whenever they looked at it.
  • 00:20:41
    And Jesus tells them this in John 3:13:
  • 00:21:03
    Jesus is the Son of Man.
  • 00:21:06
    Now the people who He was talking with
  • 00:21:08
    didn't fully understand what he was saying.
  • 00:21:10
    But now us, with our retrospective scope,
  • 00:21:14
    looking back in retrospect, I can see exactly He was saying.
  • 00:21:17
    He was saying this, "Hey, friends,
  • 00:21:19
    remember we had to lift up that snake and they --
  • 00:21:22
    and our forefathers and foremothers got healed by it?
  • 00:21:24
    Well, here's the thing, here's the thing
  • 00:21:26
    I'm going to become the snake and I'm going to be lifted up
  • 00:21:31
    and whoever looks on me can be healed."
  • 00:21:36
    Jesus actually becomes our sin.
  • 00:21:41
    He becomes sinfulness itself.
  • 00:21:43
    He becomes a snake that's on a cross, all of my sins,
  • 00:21:48
    all of your sins, all of my fears, all of your fears,
  • 00:21:51
    all of my selfishness, all of your selfishness
  • 00:21:53
    is put on His back. It is crucified.
  • 00:21:56
    And when we look to Him
  • 00:21:58
    as our cure for our spiritual condition
  • 00:22:01
    and our fear and our problems, we can find healing.
  • 00:22:08
    Fear is spiritual and the healing is spiritual,
  • 00:22:12
    and His name is Jesus.
  • 00:22:15
    Fear has crept its way into all of our lives on a daily basis.
  • 00:22:20
    Almost every decision we make is based on fear.
  • 00:22:23
    Should I not date? Who should I marry, should I not marry?
  • 00:22:27
    Should I wear mask, should I not wear a mask?
  • 00:22:29
    Should I buy a gun? How many guns should I have?
  • 00:22:31
    Should I go there, should I not go there?
  • 00:22:32
    How much insurance should I have?
  • 00:22:34
    How much in savings I have, should I not have?
  • 00:22:36
    It's just one fear driven decision after another
  • 00:22:42
    if we're not careful.
  • 00:22:43
    And we do doom scrolling on social media,
  • 00:22:46
    we're just looking for bad news.
  • 00:22:47
    We're looking for, wondering what's out there.
  • 00:22:49
    We have our radios on, our TV's on on 24/7 news.
  • 00:22:53
    Why?
  • 00:22:54
    Because we want to make sure if something bad's happening,
  • 00:22:56
    I know that it's happening, oh no, and I'm prepared.
  • 00:22:59
    And you're just prepared to be more fearful
  • 00:23:01
    is what you're prepared for. You're not more prepared.
  • 00:23:03
    You're prepared to be more fearful.
  • 00:23:05
    This is in and through our society.
  • 00:23:07
    It's a problem. It's a huge problem.
  • 00:23:10
    And you've got to use a spiritual cure
  • 00:23:13
    to come against this spiritual problem.
  • 00:23:16
    You can't do what everybody else does
  • 00:23:18
    or else you'll have what everybody else has,
  • 00:23:20
    which is more fear.
  • 00:23:21
    There is a cure, His name is Jesus, and He's come to help us.
  • 00:23:34
    So look at the past provision,
  • 00:23:36
    see how God's blessed you in the past.
  • 00:23:38
    Look at the thing that you're afraid of
  • 00:23:40
    and tell it, "I own you. I'm not afraid of you.
  • 00:23:43
    I'm looking at you."
  • 00:23:45
    And then look to God, talk to Him.
  • 00:23:48
    Now, these are all things to do,
  • 00:23:50
    but there's another little beautiful section of scripture
  • 00:23:52
    that gets us on the proactive, on the going forward,
  • 00:23:55
    instead of just on the mode of, "Oh, I shouldn't be afraid."
  • 00:23:58
    No, we need to go forward into something,
  • 00:24:00
    not just keep from doing something.
  • 00:24:03
    The Book of Philippians 4:8, it says:
  • 00:24:33
    Do you want peace?
  • 00:24:34
    We're going to have to practice different things.
  • 00:24:37
    What kind of different things?
  • 00:24:39
    Well, the things that are true,
  • 00:24:41
    the things that are honorable,
  • 00:24:42
    the things that are just, lovely, commendable, excellent.
  • 00:24:47
    You choose what you look at.
  • 00:24:50
    You can choose whatever color you want to look at,
  • 00:24:53
    whatever thing it is you choose, where your eye goes.
  • 00:24:56
    So your eye either goes to the thing you're afraid of
  • 00:25:00
    or your eye goes to something that's wonderful,
  • 00:25:03
    that's lovely, that's beautiful, that's excellent,
  • 00:25:07
    that's honorable, that's of God.
  • 00:25:10
    And when you see what you want and then you go that way,
  • 00:25:15
    you practice that thing, that thing which hopefully is of God,
  • 00:25:21
    there's a peace that transcends understanding
  • 00:25:24
    that is with you.
  • 00:25:26
    And that peace will stamp out,
  • 00:25:29
    that spiritual presence of God will stamp out the thing
  • 00:25:34
    that you need cured of that fear, that angst, that anxiety.
  • 00:25:41
    It is a spiritual problem, ad God gives us spiritual answers
  • 00:25:45
    with practical things to do in the midst of it.
  • 00:25:48
    That's what we've wanted for you.
  • 00:25:50
    We want you to be cured of all the things that are ailing you,
  • 00:25:53
    all the things that are so prevalent in our culture.
  • 00:25:56
    His peace is real.
  • 00:25:58
    It can be with you if you go the right direction
  • 00:26:01
    and you look at the right things.
  • 00:26:04
    Now we're going to do something right now t
  • 00:26:06
    hat is going to be a practice of going some place.
  • 00:26:10
    We're going to actually worship,
  • 00:26:12
    which some of us are actually afraid of.
  • 00:26:14
    Like, "Oh, I don't want to sing in front of other people.
  • 00:26:17
    I don't want to sing in my living room.
  • 00:26:19
    I feel uncomfortable. I don't know."
  • 00:26:20
    I know it makes you a little anxious,
  • 00:26:23
    especially men, it makes you anxious.
  • 00:26:25
    It shouldn't. Just think about it, engage with it.
  • 00:26:29
    Let your heart go there
  • 00:26:30
    and see if God doesn't meet you in a very profound way.
  • 00:26:34
    Let's pray right now.
  • 00:26:35
    God, I pray for Your peace to overwhelm,
  • 00:26:42
    Your presence to overwhelm and crush the evil one
  • 00:26:46
    underneath our feet, to crush the fiery serpent
  • 00:26:50
    who is trying to make us be afraid, so very afraid.
  • 00:26:54
    I believe that You are the truth.
  • 00:26:56
    I believe that You are honorable and lovely
  • 00:26:59
    and excellent and praiseworthy.
  • 00:27:01
    And we give You our praise right now
  • 00:27:04
    because we're deciding, God, to look at You
  • 00:27:07
    and not at our fears, because you're worthy.
  • 00:27:10
    I pray these things according to the name of Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:27:16
    Let's sing together.
  • 00:36:29
    - It's amazing how much fear can affect our life
  • 00:36:32
    and incredible the kind of freedom that God offers us.
  • 00:36:35
    At Crossroads we exist to help you find that freedom,
  • 00:36:38
    to guide you to the adventurous life that God made you for.
  • 00:36:41
    And we're about way more than just this experience.
  • 00:36:44
    There's an entire community that you can get plugged into.
  • 00:36:47
    We're developing new ones all the time.
  • 00:36:49
    If you want to know about those, go to Crossroads.net/new
  • 00:36:53
    and sign up for our weekly newsletter.
  • 00:36:55
    It's the place to find out about all the latest
  • 00:36:57
    and greatest opportunities available for you.
  • 00:37:00
    All right. Thanks for joining us today.
  • 00:37:02
    We will see you next week.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. The questions below are for the weekend of March 6 & 7, 2021.

  1. What is the oddest or most awkward fear you have? For example Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, a social phobia, with an ironic twist with being one of the longest words in the dictionary, is the name for a fear of long words.

  2. Fear plagues our culture. It could show up with our health, in our careers, our relationships, and government. Discuss as a group how fear has impacted you.

  3. Read 1 John 4:18. When we begin to trust God around the thing we have fear for he will cast fear out of our lives. What’s the place in your life that you see fear show up in most often? If you had to guess, why do you think that’s the place for you? (Try not to answer “I don’t know” — just give it a guess. This is a good place to explore.)

  4. Read Philippians 4:8-9. Take two minutes and reflect where you’ve been fearful or anxious about something in the past that didn’t come true. What happened? Looking back, can you see God’s provision in this circumstance? Share with the group one step you can take to put into practice looking away from the area that is causing you fear and looking towards God instead.

  5. Close your time together in prayer. Here’s an example if you need it. “God—cure us of our fears. We trust that you are a protector and provider, and that we can bring everything to you. We ask that you do your work of love that casts out fear inside of us today. Amen

More from the Weekend

God says we will see blessings in our life when we trust him with our finances. To learn more about the 90 Day tithe test click here.

0 people are discussing these questions

(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

You must include at least one person

Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


Mar 6, 2021 37 mins 28 sec

Recent Series