Fear — Carter Conlon

Times Square Church. Thank God for His presence. Thank the Lord for that. You have the leadership of a substantial ministry. We have a fellowship on Wednesday from noon to 2 p .m. We pray from 12 to 1.

We worship together. Then we have lunch. Just encourage each other. There's no charge for this. We encourage you to come out and be part of that. Praise God. Remember also the fast at the end of this month.

The Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, the last three days of January. We're fasting for the future of Times Square Church. We'll also be praying for the city, for the safety of our city. Please put that down on your calendar.

If you can't be here in person, you can stream the services from 7 to 9 p .m. You can join with us online. It's time to pray, folks. It's time to pray. If ever there was a time, it's now. I would like to speak to you this morning on the topic of fear.

Fear and the Promise of God's Protection

Just simply fear. Psalm 121. If you want to follow along with me, because we'll have to turn quickly, you can also put a marker in 1 Samuel 13 and 2 Timothy 1. Psalm 121, 1 Samuel 13, and 2 Timothy 1.

Father, I thank you with all my heart for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. You're the only one that can give life. You're the only one that can make your word come alive. There's no amount of human zeal or exuberance that can make any difference unless you anoint it.

And so, God, I'm asking you in Jesus' name to anoint this word. It is your word, Lord. It's written down. It's in the text of Scripture. It was given by divine inspiration. Now inspire it to our hearts.

Let our hearts burn with the truths that we're about to read, to speak about, to discuss, to share this morning. I ask you, God, for a touch from heaven to be on me. Lord God, you've got to stabilize our hearts, each of us now.

You've got to prepare us for the days ahead of us. Help us, Lord, to hear this today. Help me to speak it. I ask this in Jesus' name. Psalm 121. I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence comes my help.

My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper.

The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore.

Fear in the Last Days

Jesus himself, the gospel of Luke chapter 21, spoke about a time coming on the earth when people's hearts would begin to fail them for fear. When everything seems to be spinning out of control morally, politically, geographically, socially, and even the heavens themselves will begin to give a witness to the soon return of Jesus Christ.

It will be in the natural, a fearful time to be alive. And we're having to live through some of the beginnings of sorrow in our generation. A religious madness beginning to sweep the earth and an Antichrist sentiment.

On the other hand, beginning to sweep many nations that formerly knew something of the presence of God. But now we see the enemy coming in like a flood, defying everything that is godly and everything that is good and propagating what is evil.

And literally is in the days of old commending that all men everywhere should bow down and worship this new society. It is a fearful time. The Psalmist without doubt is living at a personally fearful time in Psalm 121.

Looking to God Rather Than Human Help

Now the first two verses of this are not really correctly translated in the King James translation. Most commentators agree that the more proper translation of this would be, shall I look to the hills for my help?

No, my help comes from the Lord. You see in that society, when an enemy would come in and besiege a city, there was no telegraph. There was no internet. There were no cell phones. And when the opposing force seemed to be overwhelming and they would surround it, it would besiege and literally starve out a city.

The city would sneak out emissaries and these emissaries would go to family members of the tribes that were related to them. In the case of Israel, foreign armies in some cases and say, will you come and help us?

Will you come and defend us? And the watchman would stand upon the walls of those cities and they would scan the hills. They would scan the horizon looking for a messenger, perhaps coming with good news, looking for dust rising from behind the hills.

It would indicate some army somewhere has heeded the call for protection and they're coming or perhaps an army itself coming over the hills. And of course that would cause a measure of rejoicing in the city of thinking that help had come, but there is a time in this Psalmist life where he said, I'm not going to look to the hills for my help.

I am surrounded. It's a difficult day and I recognize something that men would be wise to understand that there are times and seasons where nothing on the natural horizon seems to be available to offer any help or any comfort.

Nothing of human strategy, nothing of human effort, nothing of human ingenuity can offer the help that we need in our day. This Psalmist had reached a point of believing that only God can offer true peace and comfort in certain troubled times.

We would be wise to heed his words. I will not look to the hills because my help doesn't come from man. It doesn't come from strategy, not by power, not by might. I will look to the Lord from whence my help comes, the maker of heaven and earth.

Saul's Fear and the Failure of Leadership

I cannot overstress the point of you and I not giving into fear in the days in which we live. Fear is a more powerful weapon than you and I realize. Fear robs the heart, the human heart of its God given courage.

It'll take fear, will take all the words that God's ever spoken to you and over you and robbed you of them. In first Samuel chapter 13, there was a king called Saul. He was anointed to lead the people of God.

He was anointed to conquer. He was given promises, powerful promises, not just for him, but for his subsequent generations. This man had a future, but his future was based on an embracing an internal embracing of the word of God that was given to him.

And it's something he could not do. He just simply, it's not that he couldn't hear it. It's not that he couldn't, he hadn't experienced the presence of God for the scripture tells us that at one point in his life, he fell on the ground and he began to prophesy along with the prophets of that day.

There was a supernatural empowerment of God came on his life. He was given a word for his future. He was given authority was given power. It was assured that God loved him. But yet in the midst of all of this, there was a resident fear in his heart that he could never overcome.

I think he had a, a deep inner sense of inadequacy and never had the sense to look away from himself. It was always about himself. It was always about his lack, even though he was taller and seemingly greater in stature than many people around him.

He still had this problem of looking within for the resolution of the enemies that were becoming against him. And it did happen. He won some victories just like you and I have. We've won victories in the past.

You're here today because a victory was one that you entered into and believing God. There are people sitting here today. You'd be dead and in hell. If you hadn't turned to God, you have walked away from drugs.

You've walked away from, you've walked away from captivity. You've, you've known victory just as Saul did in the beginning of his life and ministry. But suddenly an enemy came in like a flood. The Philistine army rose up, always bent on captivating the testimony of God.

And when Saul saw this army and looked at his own strength and realized his own personal strategies would fail him. The scripture says in first Samuel 13, seven, he was still in Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling.

You see a fearful leader will be get a fearful flock. A fearful father will lead a fearful family. The fearful husband will be get a fearful wife. You get my meaning in this. If you let fear get into your heart, the people who follow you, the people who are looking to you, the young ones, they see fear in your heart and you claim to know God and you claim to have the spirit of God on you.

You read the scriptures and you claim to believe that everything in the hand of God is safe because God declares it to be so. But yet in your day-to-day actions, in your day-to-day speech, there's a measure, a great measure of fear that's in your heart that's given away by your conversation.

And even though people will still follow you, but they will follow you trembling because they will take their cue as to whether or not they should trust God from that, which comes out of your mouth. Fear takes away the assurance and confidence that victory comes when we move forward in unity with God.

In first Samuel chapter 13, beginning at verse 10, it says, now it happened as soon as he had finished presenting the burned offering that Samuel came and Saul went up to meet him, that he might greet him.

And Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, when I saw that the people were scattered from me and that you did not come within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered together at Mcmash, then I said, the Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal and I've not made supplication to the Lord.

Therefore, I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, you've done foolishly. You've not kept the commandment of the Lord, your God, which he commanded you for now, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but your kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart. And the Lord has commanded him to be the commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord has commanded you. Fear got into his heart.

He was given a word that word should have established him. It should have settled him. He should have placed his confidence on the word that God had given him, but he couldn't do it because fear was in his heart and fear will always make people do religious things.

They will do religious things, but they're not birthed in God. And when even religious action that we take is not birthed in God, there is no power behind it. There's no strength behind it because even though it looks holy, God did not prescribe it.

You've done foolishly much foolish religion comes out of fear, fear of provision, fear of tomorrow, the fear of not being adequate, not being up to the challenges of the time produces a foolish religion.

Fear-Driven Worship and Obedience

Fear leads to a form of worship. That's abandoned the power of truth. And here's where we really see what happens when fear is in the hearts of the people in first Samuel chapter 15, beginning at verse 24.

It says, then Saul said to Samuel, I've sinned. For I've transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord.

But Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe and tore.

So Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the strength of Israel will not lie or relent for he's not a man that he should relent.

Then he said, this is Saul. I've sinned yet honor me now, please before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may worship the Lord, your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul worshiped the Lord.

I want you to notice the difference in this kind of worship. This is a worship that I call force of will, instead of a thankful heart. This is a kind of worship that comes in, grabs hold of the hem of the garment of God and demands that God honor it demands that God be in it.

It's a worship that produces a lot of sweat and a lot of human energy. Worship with me is the cry of Saul. The Lord is no longer with him, but he wants to have a pretense before the people that God is with him.

And he wants to somehow assure his own heart in its fear that he's not been abandoned by God. I don't know what that worship looked like, but I'd love to see it. I'd love to be there to see him approach the altar and put a sacrifice on it and raise his hands.

And maybe it was filled with promises. I'll be a better man. I'll do better. I will one day love you with all my heart. I will obey you. I'm sure it was full of human effort and full of the force of will, but what a difference between this kind of worship and the worship that comes from a heart that has been walking with God, a heart that believes God, a heart that trust God, a heart that comes into the house of the Lord and the choir doesn't have to hit the right note and the band doesn't have to hit the right tune.

A heart that has been walking with God comes into the house of the Lord. I'm not looking for some exterior sign of the reality of God. I come into the house of God and say, thank you, Lord for walking with me this week.

Thank you for giving me this courage to believe you. Thank you for flowing through my life in abundant and supernatural power. Thank you for carrying me through the valley of the shadow of death. Thank you for walking with me through the flood and through the fire and through the heat of the sun and through the dark of the night.

Thank you God that I'm not abandoned. Thank you Lord that I don't have to lean on my own human reasoning and human strength and human will. Thank you God that you have bought me with your blood. I belong to you.

Your Holy Spirit is alive inside of me and you've given me promises. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Glory to the name of Jesus. The true worshiper does not need some kind of a sensory experience around them to worship God.

The true worshiper can worship on the bus and in the subway and on the street and in our homes and in our beds and when we get up and when we lay down and at the dinner table, the true worshiper has a deep abiding confidence in God, in his or her heart, no matter the circumstances.

Paul's Call to Courage in Difficult Times

I will not look to the hills for my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Paul wrote to Timothy. In the book of 2 Timothy is Paul's parting words to this young disciple. And Paul was speaking to him throughout this particular letter about hardship, about the last days, about the difficult times that are going to come upon the earth.

When humankind turns unspeakably evil, when good is evil spoken of, when evil is spoken about as if it's something good. And Paul warns about these days. Men be lovers of themselves, boasters, proud, blasphemers of God, disobedient, unthankful, unholy, unable to retain truth, incontinent, can't retain truth, having cast off the natural affection of life.

Paul warns about these days and he says, it will all be wrapped up in a form of godliness that denies the power of God. A form, fearful people coming into the house of God likes all virtually demanding that God joined them in their form of worship, but their lives are a denial of the reality of the power of God.

For the power of God is evidenced in your steadfastness and in mine. The righteous are as bold as a lion, but the wicked flee when no one pursues them. There is a huge difference between those who walk with God and those who don't.

And we will soon know it in our generation. Those who walk with God have a confidence inside. Those who walk with God are not overthrown by the speech of the evil. Those who walk with God are not dominated by their circumstances.

They have an inner power of God that carries them, sustains them, walks with them. As Paul said in the book of Acts in him, we live and move and have our being. Those who walk with God have a light in their eye, no matter how dark this world gets because their citizenship, although we are called to be good citizens on the earth, we have something beyond this world that awaits us.

Something unspeakable, something full of glory, something so life-giving, so satisfying, so eternally glorious that we don't lose heart and we don't lose hope because of the things that seem to be spinning out all around us.

But Paul speaks to Timothy in first Timothy and gives him a contrast to all of this. In first Timothy chapter one, verses six to nine, Paul says, therefore, I remind you, stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power and of love and of a sound mind. Folks, you got to speak that verse to your heart over and over and over and over again in the coming days. God has not given me a spirit of fear, but a power and of love and of a sound mind.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings of the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a Holy calling, not according to our own works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

God's Touch, Calling, and Spiritual Empowerment

God touched you when you came to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the hand of God came on you. God touched you. If you don't know that, then it's possible you've never had a relationship yet with the living God.

When God touches you, you know, he has touched you. You know that there's a seed of life has come into you. You can hear the click on the prison doors as they suddenly unlock. When God touches you, there's an oil from heaven comes into your heart.

When God touches you, your mind begins to change. Your heart begins to change. You're given a new spirit. When God touches you, impossibility suddenly becomes possible. When God touches you, all things are passed away and all things become new.

Oh, thank God. And Paul said to Timothy, you stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. When God touched you, he gave you a gift. He gave you a touch for the scripture says, God's not given us the spirit of fear, but a power.

You have the power of God within you to be all and fulfill all that we are called to do. God put inside of you the power to do something for his glory and for his namesake. And I'm telling you this morning that when God opens the door, no one can close it.

When God's touch, when the touch of the Holy Spirit came upon you, it doesn't matter what comes against you. You can stand and you can say, as the apostle Paul once did, it doesn't matter whether it's, let me just find it here.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. As it is written, for your sake, we're killed all the day long. And we're accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

But yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. I am persuaded neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

God gave us the power to do what he called us to do. And it says in verse nine, he saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our words. It's not something we have to do in our own strength, but it's according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power. You have the power to do everything God called you to do and to be everything God called you to be. And don't let anything else get into your heart.

Don't be turned from it. Don't be turned from it by what you hear with your natural ear and what you see with your natural eye and what you're inclined to perceive with your natural mind. No weapon formed against you can prosper.

And you have the right to condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. You have a righteousness. You have a calling that comes from God. It was not given you by man, it was given by God. He's not given us a spirit of fear, but a power and of love.

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

First John 4, 18 tells us there's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. I am perfected in the love of God. And so are you. God loves you so much that he surrounds you every day, all day. He's concerned about you every moment of every day.

He has a plan to take you through every moment of every hour of every day. He longs for the day when he can come and take you home, that you can be with him for all of eternity. You are secure in the love of God.

Jesus himself said you're placed in the hand of the Father and no one can take you out of the Father's hand. You are secure in that hand of God's love. There is no fear in that love. There's no fear of tomorrow.

There's no fear of provision. There's no fear of the heat of the noon day or the terror that can fly by night. These things do not cause fear in the heart of the genuine believer. For you and I exist in the hand of God.

He will carry us through flood, through fire, through trial, through difficulty. Whatever it is we have to go through, he will carry us through and one day just deposit us at the throne of grace. Oh, thank God.

Oh, thank God. Oh, thank God. I'm not afraid of tomorrow because I am till God says I'm not. And when I no longer live here to be absent from my body, I will be present with the Lord forever. Until that day, I have determined in my heart that I will let his love abound towards me.

I will not close myself off to his love. I will not focus on my failures. There's no point in it because he's covered me anyway and given me a righteousness that's not my own. It belongs to him. He looks down upon my life and upon your life and he sees us as clean as God is.

If you are in Christ, you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. God looks at you and I through his son and says, I see no fault in my son. I see no fault in my daughter. Yes, you struggle. Yes, you have trials.

We all do. But God looks at you and says, I see no fault. You are covered in the righteousness of my son, Jesus Christ. There's no fear when we know we are loved of God. And then we are free to love in turn.

Love for Enemies and the Transforming Power of Grace

By the power of Christ within us, we are able to love even our enemies. That's the evidence, I believe, of the reality of God. We can love even our enemies. I feel sorry for people who do violence even in the name of God because there's a hell awaiting them.

They have no idea of the depth of the torment. I feel sorry. And I try to see with the eyes of God now and say, Lord, just show me that man, show me that woman standing in their right mind preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God, you saved Paul. He was hauling people out of their homes, killing them, commanding them to blaspheme the name of God. But you saved him and you made him a great apostle. And we're reading from his words today.

And if you can do that, you can touch anybody today. You can touch people all over the world. You can turn situations around. He's given us power and love and a sound mind. Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 3 says, You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts in you.

You'll keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has stayed on the things of God because he trusts in you. David, the psalmist, said in one of his psalms, Though the mountains tremble, though the seas overflow their borders, I will not be afraid for my heart is fixed.

I will trust in God. And folks, we've got to settle it now, for the days ahead are not going to be easy. They're going to be difficult. And fear is going to abound on every side. I was speaking with a minister recently about my age.

And in the midst of our conversation, his eyes welled up with tears. And he looked at me and said, Pastor, I'm so afraid. I'm so afraid for the future. I'm afraid for our society. I'm afraid for what we're becoming.

I'm afraid for our children. I'm afraid for our safety. And I started thinking about it more and more. I said, oh God, you've got to help us now. You've got to help us to get the word of God so deep within us.

God's Purpose Cannot Be Overcome

Paul faced all kinds of adversity, yet he was not a man who was afraid, for he knew that all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to his purpose. He knew the testimony in his life could not be triumphed over.

And even when he was put in jail at the end of his days, even when all he could do was take out a quill and some parchment, he began to write letters to his friends. How could he know? He had an inner knowledge that I cannot be triumphed over because the spirit of the living God is within me.

And God has set my life apart for a divine purpose, and it cannot be taken away. It cannot be threatened away. It cannot be locked away. I know people might be looking through the window of his place of captivity and watching this great apostle just writing some letters and shaking their heads and say, oh, tsk, tsk, what a tragic end to such a life that had such potential.

And that's what people in the natural see. But Paul didn't see that way. He knew there was something divine in what he was doing. He knew he could not be captivated. He knew the word of God inside of him could not be bound.

And he began to write letters to his friends, to Timothy and others. He wrote letters to some of the churches. And by God's grace, hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people have been encouraged, strengthened, given hope, and brought to redemption through the letters of Paul.

I tell you, the word of God cannot be bound. The kingdom of God cannot be stopped. Let men do what they will. Let the heathen rage. Let the kings of this earth come together. Let them stand against the Christ and against his people.

But the Bible says that God will have them, will sit in the heavens and laugh for the futility of what they're trying to do. There's a testimony inside of you that cannot be bound. There's a power inside of you that cannot be denied, unless you choose to deny it.

There's a grace and a glory in your life. There's a divine purpose to your life. No matter the threats that come your way, no matter what society presents, no matter how evil the day gets, I tell you, folks, light doesn't shine until it gets dark.

But when it gets dark, the light begins to shine. That's why the psalmist said, do not look to the hills. My help doesn't come from there. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved.

He who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The Lord, the sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night.

You may have to walk through the heat of the day and the fearfulness of the night. But the scripture says, the Lord will preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. You and I are eternal beings.

We are bought by the blood of Christ. And no matter what happens on the earth, heaven will soon be our home. We will one day soon be gathered at the throne of God. We will remember this day. And you and I in our hearts will say, thank God I made the choice to believe him.

Thank God I settled it in my heart and said God is faithful. He's not a man, he cannot lie. And every promise he's made to me is yea and amen. I am not going to be afraid the days of my life God has in his hands.

He will preserve you. You're going out and you're coming in from this time forth even forevermore. He has my future in his hand. He has my present in his hand. He has my purpose in life in his hand. He has the end of my life in his hand.

He has beyond the end of my physical life in his hand. It is all in his hands. Not just for now, but forever it's in the hands of God. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Glory to the name of Jesus. Glory to the name of Jesus.

Therefore I will not be silent. I will give glory to him in the strength of God's Holy Spirit that he has put within me. I will speak his word wherever it can be still heard. I will stand in the grace of God and for the glory of God and for the souls of men.

Glory to the name of Jesus. John chapter 10 verses 27 and 28. Jesus said these words, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My sheep hear my voice and I know them. I know them. I know them and they know me and they follow me. I know in their heart they won't turn and they know in their heart that I will not turn from them.

They know I will not fail. I know them and they know me and when I speak they know my voice and I give them eternal life and they will never perish. It doesn't mean our physical bodies won't die. These are only the shells that carry the real person.

You know that right? And even if we lived in peace and prosperity for the next 50 years most everybody here will be dead by then anyway. It's only a shell. It's only a shell. And one day we cast it off and we're free.

No more sorrow. No more sickness. No more sighing. No more death. We're going to see the king. When God says you won't perish it doesn't mean your physical body won't go through trial. It doesn't mean he made these promises to his disciples but yet many of them died for what they believed in.

He wasn't talking about a physical preservation. He was talking about the totality of who you and I are is secure in the hand of God. Until then you should just say what I do. I am until God says I'm not.

It's that simple. My days are in his hands nobody else's. He knew the day I would die the day I was born. He knew when my last would be. It's all in his hands and that's I trust him. I trust him with all my heart and no one will snatch us out of the hand of God.

Choosing Trust Over Fear

I want to give an altar call this morning and it's going to be simple. Lord I trust you. I trust you Lord. To put away everything that weakens me. In my situation where I live now and what I'm going through and the struggles in my mind I make the choice to trust you Lord.

I make the choice because it is a choice it's not a feeling. It's a choice. I choose to trust God. I choose to believe that you won't fail me. You won't forsake me. I choose to believe you have a divine plan for my life no matter what I see in the mirror or others say you have a plan.

I believe God that you'll give me the power to love even my enemies. I believe Lord that you will establish my thoughts in your word so that I will not be knocked off the path that you have for my life.