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HopeLives365

Christian Martin

When Jesus Said Do Not Be Afraid

Welcome as you join us together in this time of worship.

And though the church, lowercase C is empty, the church, capital C throughout the world continues to worship our creator from wherever you may be.

And so whether you're around the breakfast table in the West Coast, or you're in your living rooms in the east, or if you're in your bedrooms at the end of the day in the far east, wherever you may be, God's presence is with you as it is with us.

And you know, even though the church has left the building, the body of Christ continues to worship in spirit and in truth.

And so we, as we gather around the Word of God and prepare to open the Scriptures.

I invite you to pause and bow your heads with me as we pray together just now.

Our Father in Heaven, truly Lord, Your Word is indeed living and powerful.

And today, Lord, right now, this very moment, I pray that it would be Your Words that I speak, that it would be your words, and that they would not return to you void, but that your words would accomplish your purpose, and that it would give us courage and hope in this time of need.

And so we thank you that your presence is here with us.

You know, It's a frightening time for the world and for our country in particular.

As news agencies have confirmed that we are now the country with the most reported positive cases of COVID-19 in the entire world.

And just yesterday, 402 deaths were reported.

You know, for this reason, for this reason alone, We find ourselves in a country, in a world that is gripped with fear.

And for this reason we are strongly encouraged and in some cases mandated by state and national authorities to isolate ourselves and to just stay home.

Yet the deaths per day, particularly in the last 3 weeks, continue to climb drastically on a daily basis.

And who would have thought just 3 months ago when we were celebrating New Year's Eve, in fact at New Year's Eve this past 3 months ago it was a very popular theme to celebrate the roaring 20s.

It was a throwback to the early 20th century.

And who would have thought that today we'd be in the midst of a roaring worldwide pandemic with cities and entire countries shutting down.

We find ourselves throughout the day constantly looking at our devices, trying to find out what is going on.

We're looking at headlines, we're reading articles, we're watching conference briefings coming from the White House, and we're trying to tune in to be able to get answers to the question, what is gonna happen next?

And for many people, the uncertainty, the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus is the hardest thing to handle.

We just don't know exactly what to expect and how bad things are going to get.

We're asking the questions, When will I get back to work?

Does the virus really spread with the handling of cash, with gas pumps or shopping carts?

This pandemic has the world on edge on a daily basis.

And the isolation and even the lockdowns have caused many people to feel trapped.

I don't need to tell you today that the world is a scary and uncertain place to live in right now, with the dread of severe and frightening symptoms.

But I'm not just talking about the symptoms that give us a cough that goes so bad that it makes us feel nauseated or the high fever that just saps our energy completely.

I'm not just talking about those symptoms, I'm also talking about the symptom that many, many people are exhibiting right now and that is the mental impact of fear.

As it is for Carrie Welch, for example, she runs 2 businesses in Portland, Oregon.

And so when the governors ordered all the restaurants to be closed in order to contain the coronavirus outbreak, she had no choice but to lay off several employees as several businesses across the country had to do.

And as a result, her world suddenly collapsed.

Nearly without warning, she said, we have suddenly gone through The worst week ever, she said.

Fear is not only sudden, but fear is unexpected.

Deidre Wilkins was a 42-year-old hospital worker in Georgia, 1 who had no underlining health conditions.

She was unexpectedly found dead in her home with a four-year-old child crying next to her body.

It was later confirmed that she had coronavirus and It's believed that she died 12 to 16 hours before she was found.

People are panic buying everything from toilet paper to ibuprofen.

You go to stores now and entire shelves are cleared, empty.

They're dragging masks out of shelves as if there's no tomorrow.

In fact, sales of firearms have increased.

Tragically, the US suicide rate has already increased every year for the last 2 decades.

But now, now, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is seeing a spike in volume.

Mark Galey, He's the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, stated this, we originally thought that COVID-19 cases would be doubling every 6 to 7 days.

But now We see cases doubling every 3 to 4 days.

In fact, Los Angeles cases have tripled in the last 6 days.

And meanwhile, fear continues to be more contagious than the virus will ever be.

Fear is the bully in the neighborhood who lives next door.

But apart from this global pandemic aside, fear comes in different shapes and sizes.

Career dilemmas, conflicts around personal values, problems and intimate relationships.

Then there's the blue van in the forest and the park, the part of the street without lights, radiation from our cell phones, catching asthma from touching that orange plant.

A whole plethora of bizarre and irrational fears overwhelm us.

And the question that I ask myself as I observe society around me, that is, has fear come to define us as a society?

As Bible-believing Christians who believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and we pray for Him often.

Can the fruit of the Spirit and fear grow together?

Can they co-exist in the life of a Christian?

Can 1 have joy and be afraid at the same time?

Can we have peace and be filled with dread?

You know, in my years of ministry, I have never seen fear calm the storms of life or make anyone dare to attempt great things for God.

It was Florence Nightingale who said, how very little can be done under the spirit of fear.

But imagine with me, If there was such a thing as a fear magnet, fear magnet.

I'll never forget the day when I was an eighth grader at Burden Avenue Academy in Arlington, Texas.

And 1 day I decided to go to school with 1 of my most powerful largest magnets.

It was quite heavy and bulky and I stuck that magnet in the front pocket of my jeans.

Then during the day I carried it with me and during 1 of my classes I walked up to my teacher's desk.

And as I came closer to his desk I felt an irresistible pull from below my waist.

And I found myself suddenly stuck to my teacher's computer case.

Needless to say, I might have done some permanent damage.

Well years later we still laugh about that.

But imagine with me though if we could have a fear magnet, a fear magnet.

And if we could Take that magnet and hover it over our hearts and remove every shaving of insecurity.

Hover it over our hearts and remove Every shaving of fear, every shaving of dread.

What would remain if all that was pulled out?

Imagine a life that dares greatly knowing that with Christ, I can do all things through Him.

Imagine a life that is so fully convinced that God is able to perform that which He has promised.

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When Jesus Said Do Not Be Afraid

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