The earth is a fear filled place. It is right that believers are being led to write books about it. It is right for preachers to preach on it. It is right for you to have an arsenal of books and tapes on it, to help you combat it. It is right for you to mark out in your Bible or to have lists of scriptures that help you in this fight. At all costs we must get rid of this label. It must be eliminated from your life.

1 John 4:17 – 18 (KJV)
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Fear: Public Enemy Number 1

• You know the FBI periodic updates its 10 most wanted list.  Today, we are going to unveil Public enemy No. 1 – and it’s a terrorist too! (for Christians).   Public Enemy No. 1 for believers is FEAR.
• Fear is the number one attack of the enemy that you will face on planet earth.
• Fear is the number one image that the enemy is going to try and fill your mind with.
• The enemy wants you to put the ‘I am afraid’ label on yourself.
• He wants you to confess fear.
• He wants you to use the words ‘I am afraid’ or some form of it.
• He wants you to say things like ‘you know, that just scares me to death’ as an expression because it those words help cement the image of fear in your life.

• God is extremely intent on its demise as we have over 125 scriptures with the simple phrase ‘Fear not’.
• Fear is the #1 Problem

ILLUSTRATION: Ann Landers
Ann Landers received 10,000 letters a month. (Dear Abby and Ann Landers were twins with the same job – both advice columnists. – Ann Landers passed away in 2002 without naming a successor.  The person that took over her job is Amy Dickinson ‘Ask Amy’ – is a believer.  Dear Abby is still around – the current Dear Abby is the daughter of the original.)  The number one problem above all others is fear.  People are afraid of losing their health, their wealth, and their loved ones.  People are afraid of life itself.

People Proudly Wear the Fear Label

• 90% of all chronic patients that see physicians have one common symptom – fear.
• They wear the label proudly
• They are afraid of death,
• They are afraid of failure,
• They are afraid of God,
• They are afraid of tomorrow,
• They are afraid of not having enough to pay the bills,
• They are afraid of being put out on the street,
• They are afraid of flying,
• They are afraid of closed in places,
• They are afraid of not finding a job,
• They are afraid of losing a job,
• They are afraid of the dark,
• They are afraid that their spouse is going to leave them,
• They are afraid that they are going to be all alone.
• They are afraid that their marriage won’t survive.
• They are afraid that they are going to die early.
• They are afraid of growing old.
• They are afraid of sicknesses like cancer, AIDS, etc.
  
• They are afraid of being robbed.
• They are afraid of being raped.
• They are afraid of being murdered.
• They are afraid that their children might not live.
• They are afraid that their children might not serve God.
• They are afraid of failure.
• They are afraid of rejection.
• They are afraid of heights.
• They are afraid of germs.
• They are afraid of water.
• They are afraid of public speaking, fear that your situation might not workout…. – fear
• This is part of the deception and plan of the enemy and unknowingly the media and the news services of our country and the medical community play right into the hands of the devil.
• You heard me right – the media is of the devil.
• With the help of the media, and the news services and the medical community we now have specific ‘fear’ labels that people are labeled with. They helped make them available so people can tattoo themselves with them!
• 3.2 million Americans ‘proudly wear the label’ that they have agoraphobia (fear of going outside) – 2011 (and that is just Americans – not the rest of the world)
• Between 15 and 30 million people in the United States have a specifically named phobia and there are 500 of those [specific phobias – from fearofstuff.com).
• that’s not counting all the people that are kind of afraid of stuff
• These are people that are really really afraid of a specific thing.
• Some of these 500 fears are really wild kind of fears. Here are some that you would just have to hear it to believe it.
• Fear of clowns
• Fear of wind
• Fear of escalators
• Fear of hair
• Fear of flowers
• Fear of beautiful women
• Fear of ketchup
• Fear of wealth
• Fear of the figure 8 (like being afraid of the number 13)
• Fear of technology
  
• Fear of heaven Can you believe there is a scientific name for this fear?!!!

Even Our Children are Vulnerable

• A nationwide survey of 2200 children ages 7-11 indicate these stats:
• 2/3rd of them are afraid someone bad is in the neighborhood waiting to break in to their homes
• ¼ of the children are afraid that they will be attacked or harassed by older kids
• ¼ of all children are frightened by the violence they see on TV
• They say children who watch 4 or more hours of TV are twice daily as likely to be afraid.

The Ultimate Root Of Fear Is Death.

Hebrews 2:14–15 (ESV)
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

• The annihilation of Satan at Calvary produced, according to the context of this verse, one startling fact – along with Satan himself being destroyed (rendered ineffective) – fear of death has been annihilated
• The ultimate root of all fear is death

Fear of Death is the Mother Fear

• The fear that has these 500 (phobias) children is the fear of death.
• Victory over fear of death is not just saying, “I am ready to die and be with Jesus”
• My mother-in-law was afraid of snakes. She was a preaching machine. If you saw her in the pulpit, you would get one idea of who she was and if you saw her in the backyard you almost wonder if this was the same women. I would tease her about that (I am a great one to do that anyway).
• So, you see we say we are going to stand and be ready to die for Jesus but only if there is not a mouse in the room!
• You can say that you are die and be with Jesus and still be afraid of specific stuff.

God Sees You As a Person Full of Faith and Courage

• He does not see you as fearful.
• What does courageous mean but to be:
• Adventurous
• Bold
• Brave
• Daring
• Fearless
• In 1Sam. 17 God gives us a picture of what courageous looks like.

1 Samuel 17:4 (ESV)
4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

• How many of you have had this story ‘David and Goliath’ read to you as a child?
• This story ought to be read to children because it teaches them that no one has to be afraid of giants.
• David and Goliath will put courage in your kids.
• But there are more giants in the Bible than Goliath

Deuteronomy 3:11 (ESV)
11 (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.)

At One Time, in Bible days, There were Giants in the Land.

• Now, when we say giants, we mean that literally – BIG people!
• The most famous Biblical giant was of course Goliath at 9 feet 91/2 inches tall.
• Og, king of Bashan, was a giant also.
• His bed measured 13½ feet long which put him roughly in the 12 foot tall category.
• You would exactly call him ‘shortie’ would you?
• Especially not now that we are learning not to put labels on people.
• Bible giants were people just like you and me.
• They were just abnormally tall by our standards.

Big Giants and Little Giants

• All the enemy that Israel faced were not the same size!
• All giants that you face in life today are not the same size.
• The Spirit of God spoke this into our hearts one day.

Tend to the giants where your faith is now.

• David did this exact thing that I am telling you to do.

David’s Encounter with the Giant

1 Samuel 17:32–37 (ESV)
32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.”

• This was Saul’s assessment, you can’t possible win this.
• But there was something that Saul did not know.

1 Samuel 17:34-35
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.

• David’s capacity to believe God increased, David’s courage grew in God because he practiced…
• on a short guy before he ever messed with Goliath!
• David killed lions and tigers and bears oh my!
• Before he ever dealt with bigger giants
• The end result was he became courageous instead of cowardly.
• Listen to David’s confession!!!

1 Samuel 17:36-37
36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

• I am telling you boldly that if you want to help get rid of the fear label, have some success whooping up on lions and tigers and bears oh my!
• You have to tend to the giants where your faith is now.
• You have to slay lions and tigers and bears before you ever take on little giants and you have to take on little giants before you take on big giants.
• You know as well as I do that in life there are big problems and there are little problems.
• All problems that you face in life are not the same size.
• Our minds have a tendency to fear the bigger problems
• We fear cancer more than a headache
• Because everyone knows that cancer is a bigger giant than a headache
• We fear bankruptcy more than a bill being a little short in a given month.
• Because everyone knows that bankruptcy is a bigger giant than a little lack here or there
• But I am telling you that you never totally get rid of the fear label, you will never get rid of the fear of big giants as long as you are willing to tolerate the little giants in your life.
• David could have let the lion have the lamb
• David could have let the bear have the lamb
• Why not let him have it, it’s just a lamb?
• It’s not like the flock couldn’t have gotten together and made some more lambs.
• I mean just let nature take its course or so they tell us.
• Survival of the fittest, is what they tell us.
• No, I am telling you that you have got to be willing to take the little giant on
• You got to become proficient at destroying him
• You have got to become an expert at annihilating little giants.
• You can’t just ignore him and hope that he will go away…
• Just because they are small.
• Just because they don’t cause a big impact
• Headaches don’t impact your life like cancer could.
• We treat little giants like flies, you know just shoo them away.
• We throw natural solutions at them
• It’s just a headache, so let’s take a pill – no big deal.

We Build a Tolerance in our Life for Little Giants

•  But is that what the Bible says to do?

Song of Solomon 2:15 (ESV)
15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”

• In order to keep from being spoiled, you have to learn to deal with small things.
• You have to learn to deal with little giants
• We miss valuable opportunities to understand God’s power when we ignore the opportunity to deal with small giants.
• We miss valuable opportunities when we ONLY throw natural solutions at little giants.
• I understand that God gave us the wisdom to come up with a pill to answer some problems.
• There is nothing wrong with a pill.
• But I am talking about understanding how to get God’s power to flow into problems because if I can get THAT worked out,
• If you can get God’s pure power ALONE to flow into a headache, you can get it to flow into cancer because it does not work any different – trust me – it is NOT any differently.
• Once, you get it you never have to fear sickness and you can ditch that fear label
• Because fear of death is the mother fear!
• There are other parts to this message, because of time sake, we can’t go any further.
• During the early 90’s I preached this in many churches during the itinerant phase of our ministry which was the full years of 1992 and 1993.
• I was in Ridgecrest CA., and a women testified after she heard this particular message in its entirety.
• She said, she wished she knew that she was supposed to do something with headaches when she was younger because now she was dealing with Parkinson’s disease.

Call to Action:

I am telling you, I am imploring please tend to the giants where your faith is now. If you will do that, you can begin to eliminate the fear label and pole vault yourself into faith.

Question: What are you doing today that you never thought you would be doing because you put God’s Word into practice and overcame a fear that you had? Would you please leave our thoughts in the comments section below?