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HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Winning Over Fear

When we are 1 with Jesus, we're not any longer paralyzed by fear or debilitating worry doesn't sap our energy.

My topic this morning is winning over worry.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to open the Word of God and come apart on this Sabbath to study your Word.

I pray that as we study, you would give us divine insights from your Word that would deeply impact our minds and our hearts so that we can live through the week in the triumphant grace of Christ.

Our lives are too busy to spend much time watching movies.

But occasionally, notice the emphasis on occasionally, like once or twice a year.

On a Saturday night, I'll find something on YouTube that really is inspirational.

And recently on a Saturday evening, we had a few hours of relaxation.

So I discovered the story of Corrie Tamboon and her sister Betsy.

Their story is the incredible journey of faith in Nazi Germany that details the experiences in a German concentration camp.

The movie produced by the Billy Graham Association, and you can realize as an evangelist that attracted me right away, titled The Hiding Place, It's a classic.

It talks about their struggle amid worry, fear, anxiety, and death.

It talks about their trust in a sovereign god in the midst of the conflict that they faced.

And Corey made this amazing statement about worry.

And as I thought about it, it just touched me in quite remarkable ways.

Worry is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow.

And that statement, worry, does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but It empties today of its strength.

And that statement, worry, does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it empties today of its strength.

Now, worry, anxiety, and fear impact us physically, they impact us emotionally, and they impact us spiritually.

He said, worry is that uneasy feeling of becoming overly concerned about a situation, a problem.

With excessive worrying, your mind and body go into overdrive as you constantly focus on what might happen.

Have you ever noticed that when you worry, your mind is always projecting on the screen of your mind the worst case scenario.

Worry enables you to look at the future, not through the eyes of faith, but through the eyes of fear.

Elevates your blood pressure, negatively impacts heart rhythms, produces stomach ailments, creates chronic fatigue, brings about muscle pain, and causes a whole host of mental phobias.

So I want to discuss with you this morning 5 biblical principles to win over worry.

Now I recognize that there are many approaches to worry.

There is a psychological approach where people seek counseling when they are overly anxious.

There are physical approaches to worry where you try to go out and get more exercise.

I'm not discounting any of those, but I want to look at 5 biblical principles that you can apply to real life situations when you feel overly worried that will lift you out of crippling fear, crippling worry, and paralyzing fear and life-altering anxiety.

Now these 5 principles increase our confidence in God, who knows our challenges, walks with us in our trials and gives us strength to cope with our fears.

You see, here's principle number 1 in overcoming worry.

Although I may feel worried, God is still in control.

Do my feelings determine God's sovereignty?

My feelings in no way determine God's sovereignty.

When I'm worried, is God still on his throne?

When I'm worried, is God still on His throne?

When I'm worried, is God still in control of the situation?

When I'm worried, has God forgotten all about me?

See, our feelings of worry don't determine whether God is in control of the situation or not.

God is still in charge, whether I realize that or not.

He's still on the throne, working for our best good and His glory.

He is still there with His guiding hand in the situation.

I may be anxious, but God is calmly moving behind the scenes to solve the problem.

I may be fearful, but God is still patiently at work.

In the Old Testament, Do you know that in the Old Testament, there are about 72 names of God?

See, we read in the Old Testament about the name God, but in the Hebrew language, there are at least 72 names of God.

They spoke to God's people of his divine sovereignty in each situation.

It means that on earth things may be in chaos, but there's God still on his throne and God is in control.

They spoke to his people of God's calmness in our anxiety.

God addressed his people with varied names in the Old Testament to give them confidence of his care, his guidance, in his power.

Just think about Israel wandering in the wilderness.

I mean, the desert sun could scorch them by day.

The challenges they faced were just amazing.

The deserts were quite cold in the evening.

They had confrontations with shortages of water, shortages of food.

I mean, how are they going to deal with that?

If you're wandering around in the wilderness and you've got a million and a half, 2000000 Israelites, you could be awfully worried about what you're gonna drink, awfully worried about what you're gonna eat.

They face challenges of being bitten by snakes, confronted by enemy tribes, but remembering God's names got them through.

Let's look at 5 critical situations, and let's look at some of the names of God in the Old Testament.

First, we're looking there at 5 names of God.

The name Elohim means the God who creates.

The 1 that cast the stars into space, the 1 that spoke in sun and moon and stars came into existence, the 1 that carpeted the earth with living grain.

And you look at Isaiah 40 verse 28, Have you not known, have you not heard the everlasting God?

Now you see where that word there is everlasting God?

He's the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth.

There's no searching of his understanding.

In those who have might, He increases strength.

So when we go through worry and anxiety, we think of the name of God.

Winning Over Fear

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