Fear Not — Carter Conlon

Fear Not: God’s Promise to Abram

Some of you have come in tonight and you need a word from the Lord. Now here it is. Fear not. That's it. Fear not. Fear not. Genesis chapter 15, please, if you go there. Father, thank you because you are the God who gives supernatural strength.

You give us a new mind, a new heart, and a new spirit. That's what you promised to us. Oh God, help us to lay hold of this, to embrace it, for there's no other strength will get us through the times that are ahead.

It has to be your strength. And Lord, I thank you for the anointing to speak this clearly in Jesus name. Genesis 15, 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram.

I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. After these things, now a lot of things that happened before God came to Abram and told him not to be afraid. Everything actually in Abraham's life, if you want to go back just a little bit to chapter 12, started out in chapter 12 in verse 1, three chapters in this book previously, where it says, The Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country and from your kindred and from your father's house unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curses thee. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Now what an incredible promise. You imagine, you imagine if God appeared to you and said that to you tonight.

Well actually he has in Christ. The same promises of Abraham are yours in Christ. There's no doubt about that. I could conclusively prove that in the scriptures tonight. And Abraham headed out just as you and I, I don't know when it was, we have 63 new believers in Christ baptized tonight.

And all of those that are coming in now every week, coming to Christ, coming, starting this journey out with incredible promise. Now we declare the scriptures to you and tell you that you're going to have a new mind, a new heart, a new spirit, a new direction.

You're going to become the person that God destined you to be in the earth, whatever that should mean for your life. And so Abraham heads out and with this increase, I'm going to bless you and make you a blessing.

I'm going to stand with you and I'm going to speak against, and this is the voice of God saying, I'm going to speak against those that speak against you and I'm going to bless all the families of the earth through you.

Now the promise of God to Abraham was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and subsequently through his body, which is the church of Jesus Christ, which is who you are. You are an extension of this promise that God made to Abraham.

Fear as the Christian’s Greatest Enemy

But after he left this place of his altar, as it is, as you and I left ours, mine was back in 1978, I don't know when you came to Christ, he was soon confronted by what I believe is every person's deadliest enemy in the body of Christ.

Now you might think lust is your enemy or lying tongue or you might think a lack of provision or such like, but no, those are not your greatest enemies. Your greatest enemy is fear. It's a weapon that the devil uses, that he's used, he's wielded it and taken a lot of people out in this battle to live for God.

Abraham, look, in this journey, as it is between chapters 12 and chapter 15, he had to endure famine in the promised land. Now he's given this incredible promise of God only to find himself within the physical borders of the land of Canaan, and suddenly there's no food.

And the Scripture said it was a severe famine in the land. And fearing as it is for his provision, and that's my conjecture on this, he headed down into Egypt only to be confronted by the fear of losing his life because he had a very beautiful wife.

And the common practice of the kings of these foreign nations, when they saw a beautiful woman, they took her into their own harem, and if she happened to be married, there was no problem, they just killed her husband and suddenly she was available to be married again.

They didn't seem to have any trouble with that. And Abraham knew that going into Egypt, and so he feared for his life, and he said to his wife, now listen, tell them you're my sister so they won't kill me, and then you'll be safe, although she'd be in Pharaoh's harem, and I'll be safe.

And he just feared, he gave in to fear. And then later on, you see him having to endure separation from members of his own family, lots, herdsmen. Lot was his nephew, and he began to have a lot of cattle and increase, and his herdsmen began to fight and argue with the herdsmen of Abraham, and so subsequently there was a separation of family.

And many of you have had to go through that, even in the few short years some have known Christ. You found that people that were your family or like family have suddenly rejected you and gone their own way, and you find yourself in measure alone.

And then after this, even Abraham had to go through what would be a small-scale war, because his nephew was taken into captivity with all his family by some other kings, and Abraham armed his whole household, a few hundred men, and went and pursued them.

And it was, in a sense, he was in a battle, which was a mini-war, but nevertheless, it was still a war. And so Genesis chapter 15 tells us it was after all these things, after all these things, or after these things, then God comes to him and says, Abraham, fear not.

I am your protection, and I am the one who is your reward. In other words, what I told you I was going to do, I'm going to do. God does not lie. Every promise in this New Testament is yours as a believer in Christ.

You read this book until it reads you. You think it through until it becomes your mind, and you begin to realize who I am in Christ Jesus, or because of Christ Jesus within me, who now God says I am. And he is my protector from all of the things that the devil will try to throw at me to tell me that I am not what God says I am, and I'm not going where God says I'm going.

I'm not going to achieve what God says I'm going to achieve. And the Lord says, no, not only am I your shield, but I'm the one who spoke it into your life, and what I said I'm going to do. That's the amazing thing about God.

Thank God. Now in Genesis chapter 12, because he feared for his safety, and that's really the bottom line of most of our fears, is we fear for our safety. We fear not having enough to eat. We fear not being able to pay the rent.

And at the root of it all is that we're going to shrivel up and die, even though it's not going to happen. But he indirectly took the promise of God and put it into a place where it could not be fulfilled.

That's what fear does. He took it, see the promise of a son, and through that son was going to come a lineage as numerous as the stars of heaven, which would be of course the patriarchs and etc etc of Israel, which would lead to Jesus Christ, to the church of Jesus Christ.

But this promise, this seed, had to go through his wife, Sarah. And because of fear, he took his wife and put her into a place where the promise could not be fulfilled. She was in the harem, actually, of another man's house.

Fear Turning God’s People Back from His Promises

And how many times do we see this in Scripture, repeating itself over and over again? The ten spies, and a little later on in the Scriptures, who are people of men of renown. They have ability that's been God-given of millions of people.

They've risen to the surface as, in a sense, potentially the twelve more prominent men in the nation. They're sent in to the promised land of their time, only to turn back because of fear. Even agreeing that the promises are true, what God said about the land is true.

And they brought back a report in that sense, but they said, we can't take it because there's giants there. They're bigger than we are, they're more advanced, they're more skilled, and we feel like grasshoppers.

And fear turned them back. Think of Saul's army, the army of Israel, supposed to be appraised to God in the earth, trembling on the hillside because one giant comes out every morning and taunts them. And it could be any one of the giants that are taunting the church of Jesus Christ again in our generation.

But because of fear, they were unable to glorify the name of God in the earth. All they could do is sit there and hide behind their own armor when they're supposed to be using it to fight. The disciples of Christ who were in a boat, he had just said to them, let's go, we're going to the other side.

In the midst of the storm, fear starts to overtake them. And even though they had the promise of safety, they had the Word of God. You and I, tonight, we have the Word of God that we're going to make it to the other side.

We have the Word of God that we're going to be provided for. We're going to be protected. We're going to be empowered. We're going to be given vision and wisdom. We're going to be given courage to stand when ordinary men and women can't stand.

We have all this Word of God, the God who created this entire universe, by the spoken word of his mouth. I actually believe he didn't even have to speak. He could have thought and the world would have appeared.

The incredible power of God. And who are we to tell God he can't take us through? Who are we to tell God he can't pay the rent? Who are we to tell God that he can't give us the strength to be what he's called us to be?

That's why fear is potentially the greatest enemy of the church. Fear is like a polluted river that flows right through scriptural history alongside this crystal clear stream of the Word of God that refreshes and empowers and envisions.

There's this polluted river of fear that travels like a snake right through scriptural history. From the fear of rejection in the Garden of Eden when God came down and Adam and Eve hid themselves in the bushes, to the fear of provision, to the fear of personal harm, to the fear of loss, to the fear of death, and everything else in between.

Fear is a polluted river that seeks to ruin your life and ruin the testimony of Jesus Christ in you. It's one of the greatest enemies that you'll ever fight. And ironically I personally believe it's the only enemy as a sincere believer in Christ that has the power to defeat you.

Nothing else can defeat you. No human voice, no instrument that's found in this world, not any devil, not any power. There's nothing that has the power to defeat you. I give you power, Jesus said, over serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall, nothing he said, shall in any means hurt you.

So the only thing that can defeat me is when I start to believe it can defeat me. That's what fear is. Fear is the bridge that Satan needs to make inroads into the Christian life and bring you and I to the place where we're standing there motionless and trembling, looking into the mirror, looking to our own resources to fulfill what could never be done in our own strength.

Fear, Courage, and the Call to Serve God

Oh one day soon we're going to stand before the throne of God. Now we'll stand there as believers in Christ. If you've trusted in Christ, yes you can fall short of what God wants your life to be and still make it to heaven.

But we'll stand at the throne and we're going to see the numbers of pastors and missionaries and believers in Christ and even government leaders who turned back out of fear when great deeds for God and good for humankind had already been given into their hands.

I remember a few years ago two senators from Washington were sitting in Pastor David's office with Pastor David and I talking about their grave concern for the future of this nation and they said many of us share this concern in the Senate and in Congress and some of us have begun to pray and then afterwards asked us, they said if we will gather some of these members of Congress in the Senate will you come and speak to us and Pastor Dave said we'd be delighted to come.

But they didn't do it for political reasons I believe. What a shame. I believe one of them has already gone on to glory. I bet you anything tonight that he wishes he had called that prayer meeting. But I think of the numbers who turned back when great great good could have been done out of fear of rejection, fear of ridicule, fear of what fallen men think, fear of their future, fear of their own careers, fear of somehow ending up on the losing stick when you and I are already living in Christ on the winning side.

Now Paul the Apostle understood this so clearly as in his final days he knew he was about to go to the chopping block as it is but in his final days he was passing the torch to those that were coming after him and he said to a young man called Timothy said I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God which is in you by the putting on in my hands and tonight the Lord Jesus Christ would say to you everybody here when I called you I called you with a holy calling and my hands came on you and there was something given to you by the Spirit of God that nobody else in this world can fulfill but you.

It's a unique calling and only you know what it is and God knows what it is. Paul said to Timothy 1 Timothy 1 7 for God's not given us the spirit of fear but a power and of love and a sound mind power within us to triumph.

The Spirit of Power, Love, and a Sound Mind

I don't have a thought process about God living inside of me. I don't have a feeling about God. I have the living Christ inside this human vessel. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives inside of you.

If you're a believer in Christ you have the power of God. You have God living inside of you. I don't know how else to say it. You have the power to triumph. You have the love that's the understanding that you and I are loved by God and the ability to let God's love for humankind begin to flow through us.

And it is that love that John the beloved Apostle said that conquers fear unafraid of your face because I love you unafraid of rejection because I love the people I'm speaking to God help us in this generation to stop cowering before men and a sound mind that sound thinking to know that what we are called to do is true and it's right.

We don't have to cower because of people's snickers. And because somebody says you can't doesn't mean you can't. In verse 8 he says don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me his prisoner but be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.

In other words Timothy don't let fear triumph over the testimony of Christ in you and don't turn back because some who have gone before you have seemingly suffered. Yes people have suffered in body for the cause of Christ.

When my wife and I got saved there was three or four of us used to have a Bible study and one of those young ladies that got saved at the same time as we did about ten years ago died as a missionary in Africa.

And I know that people can suffer because of the cause of Christ. But Paul said we're in 2nd Corinthians 4 8 we're troubled on every side but we're not distressed. We're perplexed but not in despair. There are times Paul was saying that we didn't quite know what to do.

Remember in Asia he said we we were we were pressed down to the point where we despaired of life but not in despair. Because as long as God lives I live. You know I have the personal conviction that I am until he says I'm not.

My days are in his hands not in the devil's hands not in anybody else's hands. My days are in his hands. Paul said we're persecuted but not forsaken. We're cast down but not destroyed. Yes we have to go through hardship.

Anybody that tells you otherwise has never. Certainly doesn't. Well they certainly don't know their Bible. That's for sure. That's all I'll say about that. But in verse 8 he's telling Timothy let the power of God carry you through to the finishing of what God in Christ has called you to be and to do.

And he says according to the power of God verse 9 who 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 us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

God’s Sovereign Purpose and the Believer’s Perseverance

Before the world began. God saw you here tonight. Before the world began he purposed something for your life and provided the grace that means the strength the favor of God to accomplish it. And he gave it to you through Jesus Christ before the world began.

That's how sovereign and supernatural the church of Jesus Christ is. Who can stand against the elect of God. Who can lay anything of any charge against us. What mountain can be raised. What valley can be dug that can stop us.

What height can be erected. What. What trance. What loneliness can be brought into the world. What angels can stand against God in his people. I think the devil himself trembles tonight to hear such a word that somebody might lay hold of this and say in Christ I can do all things whatever God has called me to be.

I'm gonna be though I have to go through seasons of famine though I have to go through rejection by those who love me though I may give in to fear from time to time. I know whom I have believed and I trust that he's able to keep that which I've given to him against that day.

I know I may fall but every time I fall he'll raise me up again. No one can triumph over the plan that Christ is destined for you. No one not angels not powers not principalities not things present not things to come not height nor depth.

Nothing. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate you. Fear not. After all these things he said to Abraham fear not. I am your shield and I am your reward. What I told you I'm going to do.

I'm going to do it. That's always been the miracle of the gospel. That's always been the wonderment of being part of the church of Jesus Christ. God help us in our time that we tried to figure out how to do this through our own minds and our own strategies something that God himself determined to do through you and me.

And you might think yourself smart tonight but I don't think I'm smart. I'd rather be found among the foolish the nobodies the nothings of this world in this generation that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

God’s Promise Survives Human Failure

I can see Abraham standing outside the gate of Pharaoh's court saying oh God through my fear I lost the promise. And that's where the devil would try to come. That's one of his last ploys. He said well you had a promise you see.

But you lost it. You gave it up and somebody else has it now captive and you can't get it back. You see the Pharaoh happens to be the most powerful military ruler on the earth at the time. And he has a harem.

And there's probably hundreds if not more soldiers guarding that here. There's no way that Abraham can get back Sarah. And without Sarah there's no promise. There's no fulfillment. And the devil is right there.

Abraham go back to her of the Chaldeans. Or Abraham just get lost and go home. Just give it all up Abraham because you because of fear you've lost the promise. Imagine how incredulous it must have been when suddenly in Pharaoh's house everybody breaks out in sores.

Everybody there's a loathsome disease comes on the whole place. And Pharaoh certainly suddenly saying hey what is the cause of this. And finally somebody comes forward says well you got another man's wife in your harem.

And Pharaoh says now get get this woman out of here give her back to her husband. And not only that give him horses and give him goats and give him cattle. How do you think he got off. How do you think he got it so much provision that he had to a lot had to part.

It all came from Pharaoh it even in spite. See this is the point. In spite of your mistakes the plan of God has not stopped for your life. Do you to the Lamb of God. Sarah is divinely returned in spite of Abraham having given into fear.

It's suddenly the gate of what looks like hell opens and out comes Sarah. And the promise is just as beautiful as it's always been just as real. You imagine the joy that must have been in his heart. You imagine the dancing the leaping as not only Sarah comes out of the gate but innumerable cattle and horses and goods and provision for the journey.

Because it's not by might it's not by power. It's by my spirit says the Lord. Psalm 34 let me close with that this evening. David said I'll bless the Lord at all times. My praise shall continue. His praise shall continue to be in my mouth.

My soul shall make her boast in the Lord and the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.

They looked to him and were lightened their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear him and delivers them all.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man the trusts in him. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God not. Times Square Church. Fear not. Fear not. These days we're living in no matter what report comes on the news no matter what negative thing is coming down the pike.

The Word of God to you is fear not. You're gonna glorify Christ in this city. You're gonna glorify God in the earth in your generation. The plan of God is as real in your life tonight as it's been the day God first whispered it to you in spite of our failings the plan of God has not failed.

He still is going to glorify his name in spite of what we've done. He's going to bring glory and he's going to do it through you and me Lord glory to the lamb of God. Glory to your name Jesus glory to your name.

Glory to the name of God. Glory to the name of God. Glory to the name of God. Hallelujah glory to your name Lord bring glory to your name. Thank you Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Lord. Bring glory to your name, O God, in this generation. Bring glory to your name in my home. Bring glory to your name, Lord, in our city. Bring glory to your name in the workplace. O God, bring glory to your name.

And do it through us, Lord. This is the plan of God for this generation. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I want to give an altar call tonight for those that are afraid. Fear not. Fear not. I'm your shield and your exceeding great reward.

Fear not. He was about to have a visitation of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, just a little bit ahead down the road. And Christ was going to come and say, Now the promise is going to be fulfilled. Now you're going to have a son.

His name is going to be Laughter, because you're going to be so filled with the joy of the Lord for what he does that all you can do is laugh. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Glory to the name of Jesus.

I look forward to the day when I'm going to dance in the streets of New York City and say only God could have done this. No one else but God could have done this. Glory to the Lamb of God. Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory to the Lamb of God.

Nobody but Jesus could have done this. Nobody but Jesus. Nobody but Jesus. Glory, glory. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. If you're afraid tonight, I'm going to encourage you to come to this altar and give him the sacrifice of a trusting heart.

Say, Lord, I trust in you. I believe in you. I stake my life on you, Lord Jesus. You will not fail me. You will not forsake me. And, oh God, bring Sarah back to me again. Bring back the promise of God into my life, Lord.

With provision and with joy, bring back into my heart the promise of God. Let's stand together, please. You make your way down here as we rejoice together. Now listen carefully, those that have come to the altar tonight.

Standing as the Bride of Christ

Number one, you are nothing that the devil says you are. Number two, you are not bound by what your own heart says you are. Number three, you are everything that Christ says you are. Hallelujah. Now one day soon, soon, really, really soon, you and I are going to be at the throne of God.

Now we're not standing there to be judged as unbelievers. We're standing there as the bride of Jesus Christ. And we're going to have time in that waiting room, most likely. And we're going to turn to each other and you're going to say, I got to tell you what God did to my life.

I got to tell you how he took me and how he gave me courage to go through the doors he was calling me through and how he never forsook me and never put me to shame and never caused me to walk into somewhere and be embarrassed because I didn't have the strength.

But the moment I opened my mouth, God filled it. The moment I reached out my hands, God's compassion was in them. The moment I set my feet on a path, God's strength started to carry me and started to lift me.

Why don't you rehearse tonight what that's going to sound like? Turn to some people and tell them. Just tell them what God's going to do. Go ahead and do that. Come on, just go ahead and do it. Tell somebody what God's going to do through your life.

Praise God. Yes. Hallelujah. I got to tell somebody.