Face the Giant | Jeremy Foster | James River Church

[Music] if you got your Bible Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 man I'm ready to preach who fired all the way up says this do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus this is a promise from God that if you won't be anxious for anything we can do a whole series don't just do not be anxious for anything I could dismiss you right now just don't be anxious for anything go and try that for the rest of the summer that's a challenging thing but it doesn't tell us just to not be anxious it gives us a formula everybody say a formula it gives us a formula on how to achieve the peace of God in our hearts and in our minds now there's a lot that this verse of scripture is saying and then there's a lot that it's not saying and I think that the misinterpretation of scriptures like this are the reason that a lot of people question their faith because they think that it says one thing when that's not what it says you ever learned a song and you learned it wrong and you confidently sing it wrong like you were just going in on your jam you just sing it and somebody looks at you like no don't I I'm embarrassed to tell you that I learned a Christmas song that all of y'all know I don't know why I started singing it wrong but I started to sing it wrong and I'm saying it wrong for years winter wonderland you know so walking in a winter wonderland later on will perspire as we dream that makes it makes sense you perspire by the fire right I don't know about y'all below holiday sure we're not beside a fire mine whoo I'm perspiring I'm perspiring by the fire and it rhymes later on we'll perspire by the fire but that's not what it says my family was like oh you're dumb that's not what it says it says will conspire later on will conspire by the fire I don't even know what that word means I had to look it up I looked it up I understand perspired that makes sense I looked up conspire here's what it means conspire means to make secret plans jointly to commit an unlawful or harmful act as in they conspired against them what kind of Christmas song is this kind of family darling I don't want to go any by conspired against me perspire fine makes my version makes more sense y'all but it doesn't matter how many times I sing it if it's wrong it's wrong I can sing it louder I could sing it longer I can make I can make explanation for why my version makes more sense but that's not what the author said and there are some of us who will try to make this book say something that it didn't say and then when it doesn't happen the way that we thought it was going to happen it creates what I call an expectation gap and now we believe that God didn't live up to his word no he just didn't live up to your expectation of what he was going to do he didn't say that he was going to do some of the things that you thought he was gonna do he never promised you that he would get you out of every situation he never said that I love this would listen the Lord will never put on you anything more than you can bear brother he'll never give you more than what you can carry that that ain't anything God said so you're like okay is he in the word paster he's been on a sabbatical maybe he's just forgot in the Bible because some of us have that as a magnet on our refrigerator you know God will never let you have anything more than you can bear and that that's in the Bible but it's not contextually accurate the context is temptation he will never tempt you or allow you to be tempted God will never allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear but he will provide a way of escape but you'll go through things it'll crush you or if you don't relieve me let me just cite Paul as an example Paul was in prison Paul lost his head like literally they cut his head off like God's gonna be lady laughs were really loud about that Lord just right now give her peace in her spirit Jesus here at North Campus dear at West Campus be glad there's a maniac in that section of us I'm kiddin ma'am I'm sorry I don't know you it's my cousin y'all she's here know that listen John the Baptist I would love to tell you he made it through he didn't make it through it was more than what he can bear he died in prison but he had peace in the midst of pain here's what this verse of scripture says it says in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will not guard your situation will not get you out of everything that you go to I'm preaching to somebody on a Sunday morning will not take care of all of your problems but it will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus what does that mean I'm gonna go through pain I'm gonna go through heartache I'm gonna go through tough times and in the midst of all of that Jesus Christ it's going to be right there with me not just saying I'm gonna get you out of everything he's saying I'm gonna go through it with you there's an expectation gap sometimes though when we deal with fear we deal with doubt we deal with depression we deal with anxiety if God doesn't do it exactly like we think he should do it causes us to question our faith we all deal with fears in fact some of these here's two people deal with their hilarious and terrible I looked them up a blue - phobia it's the fear of washing or bathing some of you have that just don't raise your hand and worship okay just keep them down okay Aled AXA phobia is the fear of opinions what do you think don't tell me husband's right now are like say that again alle doxa phobia baby garages I'm scared of what you think I have a fear this is my favorite one said I haven't put on a screen sesquipedalian that's the fear of long words that guy's a jerk whoever that guy was this main man you ever been afraid of something like just we all have fear I remember a few years ago I got invited to go on a missions trip to the war-torn country of Hawaii I know I know guys come on you don't have to applaud somebody's got to do it you know and I was like hearing my lord send me and I went and it was awesome and we had a great time and they and they told me after I'd finished finished speaking a couple of guys came up and said you seem like a very adventurous guy would you like to go spearfishing and I was like yes I would because I like fishing and I love Spears I've never thrown one but yes that involves both I'm in and so we went to this beautiful beach it's called billionaire's Beach on the big island there's only 30 people allowed on this Beach at any one time and the reason it's called billionaire's beaches because billionaires own homes everywhere on it and and they let us in and and we went out on the beach and it was amazing and I was fired up listen I didn't tell him like because I'm kind of a like if you asked me to do something yes I'm in I may not know how to do it but I'm in and I've only been snorkeling like a couple of times you know what I mean so I have my snorkel stuff on before we are like right when we got out of the car I put on the flippers I put on the mask I had the snorkel hanging down here you know but the mask was over my nose so every time I breathe I was like a walk out there and they had a guide for us and the guide was a Puerto Rican guide and and he was just wild and crazy and he said ok ok ok ok guys listen to me very carefully it's like ok he said the water that we are getting ready to go into you need to understand this tiger shark water he could tell I was nervous he was like it's ok it's ok preacher is ok we see anything bigger than 10 feet you let me know we get out of the water I was like brough I see a big turtle I'm gonna be Jesus walking on the water ok y'all I couldn't enjoy the trip at all it was beautiful I mean the mountain rising out of the water the water was so clear you could see 60 feet down all I could hear was dun dun dun dun that's all I could hear I was like Jesus the duck I'm rebuke these sharks right now in the name of Jesus put him on him I don't know where he is but I've got a purpose and my calling I couldn't enjoy where I was because I was afraid of something that never happened I wonder how many of us are living in fear and maybe when I read the list of fears you're like yeah but I don't have any of those fears those are weird fears but maybe you have one of the following for maybe it's a fear of loss maybe you're afraid at some point you're going to lose your marriage you're going to lose your finances you're going to lose your place in life or maybe it's it's losing your youth or losing your opportunity every infomercial that you've ever seen is based on your fear of loss if you don't act right now this deal will go away in the next 19 minutes if you play 199.99 you get not only one vacuum cleaner but two vacuum cleaner something like it got a have one right now that's weird but the fear of loss the fear of failure fear of failure can paralyze us from starting any new endeavor I want to start a business but I'm afraid I'll fail I want to expand my current business but I'm afraid it won't work out I want to go back to school it's like the guy talked to I was like man maybe you should go back to school he's like I'm 40 you know goodbye to skulls like well in in four years you're still gonna be 52 you'll just be 52 with the degree you know domain so might as well go back but it was it was this fear if I don't know if I could do it I don't know if I could make it through this fear of failure reaching out to somebody just for a phone call some of us are afraid that it's not gonna work out the way we wanted to listen if you have the fear failure here's here's your symptoms procrastination excessive anxiety not following through with goals low self-esteem perfectionism only trying things that you know you can do good at the fear of failure some of us it's fear of rejection are afraid that we're gonna be rejected by other people in fact that's why I'm we're the single people raise your hand if you're single where's the single people that just hold them up high single people that's what you're working with look around there are people that are afraid they're afraid to even go talk to somebody listen where I grew up in the days when you had to have game you're on I mean we couldn't Facebook stalk somebody when I was growing up cuz Facebook wasn't around you couldn't snapchat somebody you had to really chat you know what I mean but there are people that are afraid they're afraid of rejection do you realize that I deal with marriages at times that someone is so afraid of rejection that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in their own life I'm afraid that my spouse will reject me I'm afraid that these people will reject me so I begin to preemptively reject them and now it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy maybe it's the fear of the unknown I don't know what's gonna happen in my life I don't know what's gonna what if I get sick what if something terrible happens a wall that goes to me are like I don't have any of those crazy fears and now you're like oh dear God I have all four of those sort of here's what 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 says for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind so if you're in here this weekend and you're dealing with fear here's what I want you to understand God didn't give you that God didn't give you that and he gives you power he gives you love he gives you a sound mind so when you walk out of this room today you don't have to walk out of this room afraid that something bad is gonna you can walk out of this room trusting that God has everything under control and he walked out of this room with the peace of God that passes Bible says it passes understanding nobody exemplifies this idea of living with faith in the midst of fear more than David we find David on the backside of a field watching sheep in the beginning of his life he will go on to become the greatest king of God's people the only legitimate royal bloodline Jesus Christ is born into this bloodline but that's not where we meet him in the beginning in the beginning he's literally forgotten by his own father the Prophet comes to the house of Jesse and says God's going to choose the next king out of this house bring all of your sons and he brings seven sons and leaves David in the field have you ever been forgotten that's not a good place to be you ever found out about the party on Instagram and like oh you guys had a party looks fun thanks for inviting me oh we forgot you I was raised in church y'all church church like I slept under the Pew how many of you guys have ever been in a service that lasted longer than two hours just raise your hand go there's some gospel people up in here keep him up keep him up longer than two hours longer than three hours you've been in a service longer than three longer than four hours I don't even know why y'all are here you've already reached your church quota no when I was when I was a kid I mean we would sleep under the Pew and it was a jacket so I could get like full two hours of sleep and wake up still get a good hour of a sermon in and I remember one time though I woke up under the Pew I was about seven and I rolled out from under the Pew and all the lights were off ain't nothing scarier than a dark church you know what I mean like when the lights are on it's like oh the Lord is here God is here her God is enough some God lights off itself Jesus I woke up a roll out open my eyes I looked around y'all got to understand I was raised in like church church like super Church we preached a lot about hell and damnation a lot about one of these days God's gonna split the eastern sky the trap doors gonna open you're gonna feel the heat a lot of that so at the age of seven I thought the rapture had taken place I didn't realize my parents had just left me and went to Denny's and forgot your boy under the pew I was praying God forgive me take me take me now I didn't realize that that young tender age that if the rapture had taken place there be a whole lot of people still sitting out there with you I'm sorry I don't laugh at that guys come on it's not funny David's David's forgotten but whenever he comes into the house the Prophet says this is this is God's anointed and he anoints him to become the king fast forward we find him delivering food to his brothers who are on the front lines of a battle with the Philistines and and there's a giant in the valley and he's screaming obscenities at the people of God and David rolls up everybody's afraid all of his brothers everybody's hiding all of the men who were trained for this were hiding behind behind trees and behind rocks and David shows up and he's like hey guys I brought you a mini cheese sandwich just I'm here toasted the bread for you Eve just here for you and he hears this giant screaming at the people of God and he freaks out he says who is this uncircumcised philistine that he would defy the armies of God David that language is gonna end up in the Bible you sure you want to say that what he was saying is who is this man who is not authorized to speak against the armies of God who is this man instead of worrying about himself he's worrying about the glory of God at some point instead of cowering in fear you have to face the giant turn to somebody next to you and say face the giant you have to face the giant and David decides to do what nobody else is doing David is going to face the giant in all of his weakness in his youth it's gonna face the giant some of us have outgrown battle they preach to somebody today who feels the veteran mentality like I'm a veteran I've been there I'm talking to somebody right now they plan on saying this but I think I'm talking to somebody God's placed you in a church that knows how to pray God's placed you in a church that knows how to get after and I believe that your latter days are greater than the former days pastor I believe God's going to do more more amazing things in this church I believe here's what I believe pastor I believe that guys like me are gonna to you because we need to learn how you do what you do and one of the reasons why this church has been a great church is because of Wednesday night is because of Monday is because this is a church that knows how to pray get on the ground pound the ground and pray you've come to the right place I don't know what your giant is it's probably not it's probably not a guy in the in a valley with a sword screaming at you if it is call the Popo but maybe maybe it's it's bills you can't pay and it's great you can't make and people you can't please into marriage you can't seem to fix or a career that you can't find any way to advance maybe it's a past you can't get past or a future that you can't face I don't know what your giant is but at some point you got to face the giant and you have to learn how to convert your fear into faith how do you convert your fear into faith you have to change your perspective everybody say perspective you have to look at it differently you have to look at how how David looked at things and how his brothers looked at things his brothers are scared to death and David comes in with swagger why because he wasn't worried about himself he was worried about God's glory sometimes we just lived for us our story and not God's glory what if I stopped living from me and I started living for God and saying God whatever you want to accomplish in this world use me to do it whatever you want to accomplish in my marriage use me to do it whatever you want to accomplish in my family whatever you want to accomplish in our area use me to do it instead of God wile out that said oh I'm a and why here and why now and why what if we started saying Lord what can you what can you do through me when you gain a different perspective we call it maturity how many of you guys have kids you have kids you ever have that moment where your kids are like it's not fair it's not fair I remember that Jaden I love you baby girl 17 now but I remember there were kids there like dad can we have an allowance and it was like no it's not fair well it's like yes it's fair okay I'll give you an allowance I'll allow you to live here I'll allow you to stay in my house what I'm going to do I'm trying to change their perspective I'm trying to teach them something why because I don't want him to get eighteen or twenty-one or whenever they decide to leave the house and realize there is no allowance if nobody's gonna show up every weekend like here's your money no you have actually have to work to earn that my dad taught me the same thing he made me mow the yard we had for two quarter acres growing up I had to mow the yard and if I didn't do it right he made me do it again and as I got older I was like I want to get paid here's like I mow it again I'll pay you he paid me in pesos literally pesos that he had gotten on a missions trip I was like how am I gonna use these he was like it's incentive for you to go to Mexico someday and do great things for the kingdom like what's wrong with you but it but it taught me it changed my perspective David is not looking at himself he's looking at God's glory now there are three facts that were rooted in fear that we can talk about number one David is smaller than the Giant obviously smaller than the Giant maybe that's where you are you're smaller than the thing in front of you the second thing is his brothers are against him in it weird how sometimes whenever you declare a dream that God has given you that sometimes the people that attack you the most of the church people maybe I should have said that but I believe that sometimes God uses good opposition to teach you and to train you because you can't grow without resistance and if I can talk you out of your dream he probably wouldn't it done it anyway and he faces the opposition of his brothers literally his brothers look at him and go who are you you're not gonna fight the Giant what's wrong with you go back and watch the Sheep literally there's some sheep collar right now like David come back we hear them right now don't laugh and stuff like that is done his brothers are against him and the third fact rooted in fear is he's alone he's all by himself but just because it's true doesn't mean it's right when I don't have all of the facts sometimes I'll react to the wrong way I remember one time being in the house and my wife scream like scream I came in with all my punk food karate I couldn't get to my gun yes I just I just came in ready to fight she was like he rolled over Jackson rolled over I was like well scream he rolled over my son rolled over next time nobody was like come in red I was exhausted it took a year off my life is getting out loud I didn't have all the information so I reacted wrong and sometimes the enemy would give you information that it's not rooted or founded in the Word of God and I will react in fear rather than in faith but the last time I checked this but book says that God is going to be with me no matter what I go through he's gonna be there then I can trust him you ever ever thought about what it feels like to be wrong in fact let's what does it feel like to be wrong what say it louder embarrassing what else foolish what else tear up home and let me tell you that those are good answers they're wrong answers something like mmm that's what I've been wrong before and that's what it feels like you know you're describing what it feels like to find out that you're wrong but what it feels like to be wrong is right cuz you'll argue a point that is not right husbands come on you're with me right you're been in the middle of a fight and in the middle of it you realize she right but you're not gonna tell her right off you know you're gonna change the subject you like tacos tacos let's go get tacos you know when you're wrong it feels right and there are some of us that are wrong about the situation in front of us but we feel like we're right you feel like God has rejected you you feel like God has abandoned you you feel like the thing in front of you is greater than what you can deal with and I can tell you this you may you may you may feel like that's right but it's not you can look at the opposite facts rooted in faith in David's situation yes David is smaller than the giant but his God is bigger than the giant yes his brothers are against him but his God is for him yes he's alone but his God is with him just because it looks right doesn't mean that it is and I don't know what situation you're facing but I do know that the God that's inside of you is greater than the giant that's in front of you and you've got to start trusting that he knows what he's doing and he could give you peace in the midst of pain God be for us who can be against us at some point you just got to learn how to fight I remember sleeping under a Pew one time in church as a kid my mom was out of town my dad was preaching up on stage he's a pastor and I was trying to get some good rest in the house of the Lord and there was this dude sitting on the front row right above me right above where my head was and he was one of those guys who always got excited about the preaching of the word and he would say hey man and he would throw his foot back and every time he flew his foot back he would kick me in the head then I was praying lord I bind this spirit right now in Jesus name the spirit of violence against me Lord and I finally noticed like while this guy was while this guy was Amanda Amanda I'm like Amanda Amanda ain't even like that a man bro not Amanda who's Amanda the girls in the church are like wow you know it's weird and I notice that his shoes were these nice lace-up Oxford's and those those laces were they were divided and in the kingdom we need to be unified folks we need we need to be unified so I began to meticulously unify those laces and tie them together I was like hey if you don't kick you gonna kick is gonna be weird I never anticipated that his next move would be to stand and get with the preacher and he did he was like hey Amanda and he fell and he hit the ground the problem is I was in kind of a quasi Pentecostal charismatic church people didn't think he failed they thought he fell out they were like hey man he was like let me go they were like let him go it's like not set me free shirt him free Jesus at some point you got to fight what's coming against you right that was funny about this whole thing is my dad at first defended me because this dude turned around and just started punching me and then my dad realized what had happened he was like I'll take care of you later on your parents ever tell you they gonna take care of you that ain't the right definition you ever looked up the definition of the word care whatever they were saying that ain't the right I was scared of Care Bears for years but here's what's beautiful the Bible says that God is gonna be with us even in our failures and our mistakes and maybe you're saying but you don't know what I've been through healing the mistakes that I've made here's what I can tell you he'll realize the God that we serve just because you made a single mistake doesn't mean it's your final mistake yes when my father realized that I was an idiot and that I had brought all of that pain on myself he could have disowned me ha don't come home they didn't he loves me in fact my dad took off he's a pastor he travels and preaches and he took off this Easter so that he could be with us at Easter why because he wanted to cheer me on even though I made a lot of mistakes as a kid he's still there for me you have a Heavenly Father who looks past your pain who looks pastor mistakes who looks past your mess-up who looks past your failures and loves you in spite of them some of us are writing ourselves out of a plan that God's trying to walk us into sometimes the biggest fear that you deal with is the fear that God won't forgive you and that's not the problem it's that you haven't forgiven yourself David went on to defeat the Giant and become a great king but he still had mistakes and failures the reason he was a man after God's heart is because he was a man after God's heart all the time some of us downsized God to the size of our biggest problem Thomas Jefferson loved the teachings of Jesus in fact he said they are the most sublime and benevolent code of morals ever known to man but he just didn't agree with the miracles so he took the New Testament it took him a few nights Matthew Mark Luke and John he took the Gospels and he cut out all of the miracles Jesus walking on water water to wine all of the miracles he cut all of the miracles out and what you have is the life and teachings of Jesus Christ of Nazareth or the Jefferson Bible and it's a Bible with no power and you and I would say that's insane you can't have Jesus without the miracles the miracles are actually what proves who he is but many of us live cut and paste Christianity every day of our lives we'll believe for somebody else but when it comes to us it's a challenge I submit to you that I believe God has brought you to a house of faith that it's just crazy enough to believe that this book is true and that God can do what he said that he can do so no matter what you're facing he's with you Deuteronomy says he goes before you Psalms 23 says the goodness and mercy follow you you're surrounded either either way you put it like it or not he's with you and he may not deliver you out of everything but he will be in everything with you so how do I get filled with faith I'll close with this Psalm 37 and 4 gives us a formula delight yourself in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart this is an often misquoted verse of scripture because people believe that he's just going to give me whatever I want but when you look at that word give when I delight myself in the Lord which means when I make myself pliable or moldable in his hands he'll give me the desires of my heart that word give in the Hebrew means to grant but it also means to bestow or place so you could read it like this when I delight myself in the Lord he will place his desires in my heart it'll no longer be just what I want but I'll begin to want what he wants and he wants great things for you this is why we do this revival but you know why because he wants your friends to be saved he wants you to be a bringer I don't know if they'd like it just get them in here and let and let God do a work save them all let God sort him out he's reaching for people he's reaching for you how do i how do I delight myself in the Lord three things first you got to pray you got to pray and we're part of a church that prays let me let me show you what I'm talking about can you can you bring me those branches real quick prayer is so important which one of these is alive which one this one or this one this one's alive you think this one's alive listen no actually both of them are dead this one just doesn't know it yet it's just been disconnected for a shorter amount of time than this one this is why you need to come to prayer it's why you need to be a part of prayer because there are many of us who used to look a little bit like this and we actually thought we were better than that guy but when we're disconnected from prayer we're disconnected from God and you can't grow disconnected got a pray the second thing that you have to do you got to move forward in faith move forward in faith well how do I move forward in faith our church is very simple go to grow track go to grow track well I don't know about all that you're gonna learn a lot and grow track about you what about how God could operate through you and then get on the dream team want to get on the dream team I'm beginning to move forward in faith and then finally trust God trust God trust God turn to somebody and say trust God this is not an easy thing for me to preach this weekend I've never preached this at another church ever but I felt it for here because I believe that somebody has been walking through pain and you thought that God would radically deliver you out of it and he's actually stepped into it with you I have a friend who was in college and he was in a college math course I rebuke that I remember when my kids were in elementary school and they changed math they changed math like my kids were like here dad here's the problem I was like okay here's the answer like now you're doing it wrong I was like I'm not doing it wrong we've done it like that forever and they're like no you wanted to do it this way and I was like that's insane he was in college math and it was really hard and finally the professor realized that how hard that he had made this class and he said he said look I know I've made it hard he said so so for your exam I'm gonna give you a formula sheet and I'm gonna make it an open-book take-home test I want you to do well in this class my buddy went home he took the test he got in a hey he came back and the professor came in and he slammed papers down on the desk and he said I don't understand this more than 50% of you failed this test I gave you the formula you just didn't do the math it was an open book take-home test you had everything you needed you just didn't exercise what you had access to here's what I'm trying to tell you James River it's a open book take-home test you have everything that you need to get through this storm that you're in right now you just got to learn how to pray you just got to learn how to trust God in the midst of things you've just got to learn how to move forward in faith he's going to be with you trust trust the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds will you stand with me across all of our campuses I want to pray for you bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment

Channel: James River Church

Views: 43,779

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Keywords: facing fear, overcoming fear, david & goliath, david and goliath, facing giants, dealing with fear, how to deal with fear, jeremy foster, pastor jeremy foster, hope city church, james river church, james river church sermons, jeremy, foster, james, river, church, online, church online, online church, best sermon, best sermons, preaching, preacher, encouragement, inspiration, bible, god, jesus, biblical, teaching, goliath, david, sermon, sermons, sermon on fear, have no fear, christian, live, jrc

Id: uWtIDdmFt5k

Length: 34min 40sec (2080 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 09 2018