Fearless Feed Your Faith | Willie B. Williams III

[Music] jesus is in the middle of his teaching and here we are picking up uh in verse 25 and which of with taking thought can add to his statue one cubit and so what jesus is doing is jesus is preparing his disciples to have a certain type of mentality uh so so much of this uh this teaching uh is like this uh what i'm gonna do what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna go to kroger's i'm gonna grow kroger's because i gotta get the meat and when i get to meat i'm gonna lay all of that uh to the side i'm gonna put the oven on about 200 is that all right i'm gonna put the oven on two o'clock i'm gonna marinate the meat i'm gonna get everything ready i want to get everything uh i'm gonna get everything prepared also what i'm going to do is i'm going to go to hobby lobby i'm going to get some decorations going to get some flowers going to get some decorations uh make sure i decorate the entryway that make sure i decorate the table uh also what i'm going to do is got to make sure uh that i got to do the greens i'm going to do some ham i'm going to do some pork chops uh and so i'm going to time all of that because i'm expecting you to walk in in about 10 minutes and so what i'm doing is i got to make sure my greens i got to make sure my pork chop has not only be seeded i've been seasoning that for the last two days uh but i'm gonna slow cook that and make sure that the seasoning get in the meat just right uh i got all my decorations lined up uh i got i'm gonna set the scent uh i got the present uh it to me it took about three weeks for ups to to send uh your present i got the present uh sit on the table i'm making all the paper um i spent all morning got about uh three o'clock uh this morning sister honey and i was going around and i was vacuuming and i was cleaning i was cleaning the toilet i got behind the toilet because i'm a good christian and i was going through it i was getting everything uh together i make sure i wipe down all of the mirrors uh i make sure i even i even got my little dustpan and i make sure i got the uh the ceiling fans because you know this dust can get on the ceiling uh just in case they have allergies and i'll make sure i cleaned all of that i took all of those uh preparations and i got the present i got everything everything's just time right you about to walk in in about two minutes uh matter of fact i'm pulling everything out of the oven uh at this particular time i got everything set up and then at this particular time you walk in with mcdonald's mcdonald's you you walk in with mcdonald's and the bag is already open like the sandwiches you have about three more bites in the sandwich and i just made all these preparations and uh you fool how you think i feel what what do you think is going through my mind i made all these preparations but what do you what do you think is going through my mind now i'm at a i'm at a point now i'm kind of i'm kind of hurt i'm kind of disappointed now my first question to you is why did you go get something to eat your response is uh well i was hungry and i didn't i didn't know if you were really going to prepare so what i decided to do was i i decided to hear it and go get something to eat because i didn't know if you i didn't know if you had finished or i didn't know if you'd be finishing time and i was really really hungry so i just decided on my own to go get something to eat and i got a table i got a spread that's when you cooked i gotta i gotta spread and it's for you but because you didn't really trust in me you went and got some mcdonald's now i'm looking at these the sizzling pork chop and i'm saying to myself now don't get it wrong i'm eating myself don't get it wrong but i'm saying to myself but i did it for i did it for you in luke chapter 12 what jesus is saying is you're doing a whole lot of stuff on your own because you worried you worried about food you worry about clothes you are and what you not realizing is i spent all of today taking care of your tomorrow so that when you wake up in fact uh if the lord has planned for you to see tomorrow he said hey listen in a few more hours i'm expecting you to walk in tomorrow what i plan for you today because god uh god is not a spontaneous god god is very meticulous so with that whatever i'm experiencing today is because god has designed and planned for me so today i'm walking in god's yesterday's thoughts right so so today is a yesterday thought for god and if god loves me that means tomorrow and next week and next month so then it is sinful i never need to worry why because i have somebody who loves me so it's disrespectful to god for me to run and not wait on my blessing and run and go get a mcdonald's meal when god has prepared a spread for me so luke chapter 12 is god trying to explain to his disciples and say hey listen and you and which of you which taking thought can add statute to what to one cubit he says you worrying you worrying about your life you worrying about how and when and where and how much how many of you after worrying anything changed there's nothing in your life that has changed by you worry so what jesus is is teaching his disciples is stop uh i i don't like to admit it sometime but like back in the day uh i used to watch uh it's okay it's okay can i do it it's okay i used to watch dr phil uh that wasn't a joke somebody said people giggling uh i used to watch they used to watch dr phil and so uh i loved how he would psychologically break down some things sometimes but there's a there's a certain part in the show where somebody is explaining why they do a particular thing and they say no you don't you don't understand and they will give all of these reasons and they said because of these reasons this is why i do this and there was a there was a famous line that he would give that just penetrated me and his line was this how's that working for you so you don't understand so the reason why i act like this and the reason why i do this and the reason why i do that is because this happened to me and i experienced this and people are like this and people like that he said it's cool listen if you don't listen to me but how's that working for you because if it was working for you you wouldn't be here he said so you're right they said dr phil that won't work he said have you ever tried to know but i just know he said but listen mine mine may not work but you gotta quit yours cause yours is not working isn't it funny that we can keep doing something over and over and over again and you hate the results but you keep doing it so if you don't like your life you don't like your situation you don't like how things are going but you refuse to change how's that working for you are you good or are you i'm not happy then do something different i promise you you're tomorrow uh i was i was at a a particular establishment and y'all know the only establishments i i go to so i was i was at a a particular establishment and and so uh the waiter came and the waiter said you know i was trying to go to school and cove it happened this situation and i said uh i said okay you said but i'm you know i hate the city i just i just hate everything that's going on i just i just need to be in a better place and i said so what do you i said what time do you normally get off work uh they said you know i normally get off uh around 10 and then what i do and they told me their routine when they go home i said okay cool that's if that's your normal team i said well whatever you do don't do that tonight that's something i know i'm i said that's good but if it ain't working don't go home and do that tonight uh you know take a different route home go to you know go to dairy queens go do do something different so you can get a different result what jesus is teaching in verse 25 is why do you take a situation or a problem and why do you go over it and over it and over and over it and over it and over it and over it in your head why do you do that why do why do you replay the whole conversation back and forth over and over and over and over and over again why do you why do you do that why do you stress why do you tell the same story to 15 different people girl let me tell you what happened hey listen okay so let me tell you what happens okay so they did doing that improves what do doing that enhances what so many times when something happens hey it just happened what jesus is teaching is you worrying you stressing does nothing for you it makes no changes do you know the more that you think about a thing it does not move heaven it does it doesn't make god move on your situation and you crying and talking about one situation over and over and over and over and over again doesn't make the angels dispatch on your situation any faster so you know what that's not working for me me talking about and me stressing and me being sad and me talking about it again and looking at it at another angle and me talking about this part and me talking about that part it doesn't change your life so jesus is saying stop because you know what it's doing it's messing up your peace do you know when you worry you have no peace you can't have the peace of god and worry at the same time because the peace of god cannot dwell in a sinful place worry is a sin worry is it is agonizing over a detail or a situation or something of the past or something that has not occurred yet and so you get to the point you say oh my goodness what am i what am i going to do and it's difficult because you have something that's facing you but you worrying about it will never change the outcome of what's coming i had to come to an epiphany one time uh i used to i used to stress about some stuff in 2014 and i used to i used to trip and buy some stuff into in 2016 2016 i was tripping it was a bunch of stuff that and then in 2017 i was worried about some stuff now here i'm sitting in 2021 god has brought me through all of that stuff and you know what i said to myself i wasted some beautiful days worrying about something that god had already planned to bring me through and if i could go back now i promise i i would have went to the buffet them days i'd have taken a walk out of taking a trip uh i'd have relaxed i'd have had fun i would've done something those days when i was so sick you could make yourself sick worrying about something you made yourself so sick that you just laid in the bed and you couldn't get out of the bed and you didn't feel like eating because you was worried and you were stressing and you were so you was agonizing so much about this one thing and then you woke up in the next morning and god already took care of that thing you said you know what i've just wasted 24. lord if i can get that 24 stop wasting days i want to i want to identify and i want to bring some of you may know this i want to talk about six types of anxiety disorders i want to talk about six types of of anxiety disorders the bible says in verse one i mean uh the uh the number one that i want to go to is the separation anxiety disorder six types of anxiety disorders that i want to give number one the separation anxiety disorder anxiety is a form of fear anxiety is a form of fear the separation anxiety disorder is is normally found in children who become excessively anxious when separated from parents you can also find this in adults but it's the separation uh that causes anxiousness where i don't feel peace unless a particular person is around me you don't ever want to go anywhere by yourself unless this person and you won't go uh matter of fact we find this uh in the book of judges when god had ordered the judge to go out uh and fight and he said listen deborah i'm not going unless you go with me and he and she said you're a sorry man that's a different translation but she basically said you're a sorry man i'm gonna go fight with you but they're gonna talk about you and pull pits in centuries from now that's just a different uh translation don't try to find it um but a child becomes excessively anxious when separated from parents it's that anxiety where you end up it's the disorder that you end up holding on to people not because not not because you're going to contribute to their lives you end up holding on to them because you're afraid of what life will be without having somebody next to you so you always have to be around certain people are you uh or if not you're not going to go you won't participate you won't you won't engage you need this person so many times what it what ends up happening is you end up getting into toxic relationships holding on to somebody because the fear the fear of being by yourself is worse uh than what they contribute to the relationship and so uh this fear uh this fear is damaging uh to the christian walk the second one is specific phobia specific phobia it's an intense irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual uh danger specific phobia where you become it's an intense feeling you become extremely scared of something that poses no danger some of y'all look at me you don't know what i'm what i'm talking about uh if you if you ever grew up in the hood and uh you ever had a friend that didn't grow up in the hood if you ever grew up in the hood but you had a friend that that came to the hood but they didn't grow up in the hood they grew up in the suburbs and uh and then all of a sudden you know everybody may be chilling you may have some friends over put you in the hood but you got a few that didn't grow up in the hood and everybody's kind of watching television and the pets in the hood are different than the pets in the suburbs and so you know maybe one of the little friends you know like little pets you know maybe one of the little friends you know they go across the television right and they are screaming they are running around but everybody else is saying what's wrong it's you know what's uh this is specific phobia uh because it it poses no major threat uh but they're at the point that they're about to they're about to fall apart we we do this we do this with phone calls we do this with uh bills we we do this with little situations and we become so paralyzed over something whenever you face something you always have to compare god to whatever you're facing and when you compare god to whatever you're facing god says i don't understand why you're scared when you look at me and then you look at what you're facing i don't understand i don't i don't i don't understand why you're nervous when you look at me and then you look at what you're facing i don't understand all right so this is this is specific phobia the third one is social anxiety disorder or social phobia it is a chronic mental health condition in which social social interaction causes irrational anxiety this is this is different than separation anxiety separation anxiety says hey i feel comfortable as long as you are here as long as you're with me then i feel good matter of fact my peace my joy i can laugh i can have a good time my confidence comes for when i have this other person here the problem with separation anxiety is god wants to be that person so when you pick another person in the seat where god is supposed to be then he struggles then what you end up doing is you end up making that person that you're holding on to you end up making that person a target for the lord and god says there may be nothing wrong with that person but i gotta get that person out of your life because that is the beginning of idol worship idol worship is when you take a human being or you take an object and you elevate it above what it's supposed to be and anytime that you elevate a person above what they're supposed to be you make that thing a target because god always wants to be number one in your life and if there's anything that you are obsessing over which is why obsession is a sin anything that you're obsessing over and it's not god then you make god go after that thing and remove that thing out of your life so that i can teach you i should be the only one matter of fact i should be the number one and two and three on your list social anxiety is different social anxiety is not the desire that i need somebody with me so that i can have the courage to do things social anxiety is i don't want anybody around matter of fact when people walk in the keys i gotta get out of here what's wrong with you i'm just i got you know what i gotta i got i got something and then you're lying i got some that that i gotta do and i gotta wash some clothes but you don't watch i know but i gotta go i gotta go learn uh and i gotta go start uh that becomes a problem that becomes a problem when you have social anxiety disorder and it's difficult to be around people then it's difficult to evangelize you can't tell anybody about jesus christ because the idea of being around people is so intense that you only feel comfortable being alone the problem is the way that god blesses us god blesses us by his children so when god sends his children to you and you close the door then you just hinder your blessings on top of that the reason that you're here is because you have an assignment that you have to fulfill and all of our assignments have to do with people do you know that the reason why you're still here and the reason why you're operating and god is blessing you and god has given you life is because there is an assignment that we all have to fulfill and each and every one of you your assignment always always involves people somebody says what's my purpose what's my reason for being here your reason for being here if you're searching for it and you're looking for it it's in people in some form it's to bless help restore encourage do something it's about other people right you're not here for the trees you're not here for the grass you're not here for the butterflies god don't need you here for the animals god matter of fact what does the scripture say i take care of the birds and he says i'll take care of the flowers right and he says i also take care of you but your assignment is always in some form or fashion other people the reason why we need to deal with this is because if a person is struggling with this type of anxiety then the idea of coming to worship hurts they know they need to come but it's like ah man if i could just ah matter of fact the idea of watching through a screen was a relief for a whole segment of people because i maybe i could fulfill god's will and watch it and i don't have to be around people here's the problem church always involves people it involves connecting with people it involves being around people it involves walking with people and helping people to understand what the will of god is we move to our forefront panic disorder it's number four it's abrupt surges of intense fear are discomfort that peak within minutes frequent panic attacks uh everything can be fine everything can be well and then all of a sudden a person can have a panic attack and they become paralyzed uh they uh they're not able uh they're not able to function and they're not able to move and so a panic a panic disorder disrupts your life and it becomes very becomes very difficult to function because you never know when it's going to hit and so uh that's not something that's that's not only something that the church needs to be aware of but the church also needs to pray about and be educated about uh because of panic disorder is not just a feeling it's not just an emotion uh it can it can it is something um that's just beyond when somebody says well well just have faith no no it's more than that it's it's it's so much more than that and so people struggle with it and you don't even know who's struggling with it amen you don't know who's struggling with it so it's important for us to be educated it's important for us to be aware so that we can know how to minister so that we can know how to pray so that we can know how to encourage that's why you got to be careful what you say to people you got to be careful of the little comments you got to be careful of your side you got to be because you never know what level and then and then within that there are levels of anxiety uh that that require medication that require uh uh intense pain uh because it can be it's literally an attack and so that's something uh that we need to to be aware of and like i said the church needs to be educated about so that uh we can better serve because what's our purpose our purpose our our uh our purpose and our mission and our final earth involves other people and you're going to come in contact with people who's going to have one of these six in some form or fashion are used to have it still have it or deal with some form of it and so uh that's number four uh number uh number five generalized anxiety disorder generalized anxiety it is a severe ongoing anxiety that interferes with daily activity it's nothing specific it's different because specific is something like that one particular thing and it freaks them out generalized it's that thing that just stays with you all day matter of fact uh for some it can be a form of depression where somebody says what are you depressed about you don't quite know have you ever been there before you don't quite know what you're depressed over you're just depressed and everything is kind of going okay so you don't have anything specific to say of why you're depressed but you're depressed so you wake up in the morning you're heavy you go out throughout the you're making other people laugh but then you go and walk away and it just it never leaves you generalized anxiety is so imagine something staying with you all day long no matter where you go what you do what you watch uh you you try to do this you try to do that you try to change your routine and it's that thing that just stays on top of you all day long that's that's something uh that that's generalized anxiety disorder to the point where you can't function uh and you can't operate um the other one i'm going to spell for you uh even though it's a phobia uh agoraphobia but i'm gonna spell it for you a g o r a is our sixth one a g o r a f o f h o b i i i agoraphobia fear of places and situations that might cause panic helplessness are embarrassment so i'm not gonna i'm not gonna do anything if i think i'm gonna be embarrassed somebody said uh why don't you go and try to nah because there's a possibility that i might not be good at it it's a possibility they may laugh it's a possibility that i might fail so because of the possibility i'm not going to move somebody said you want to go no i'm not even going there i won't even step foot over it why won't you step foot off because of the possib this i might something bad might happen so what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna stay right here i'm gonna sit right here and that way i can be safe the problem with that is if god wants to use you over there if god the knowledge that you have the wisdom that you have the word that you have if god wants you to have it over there he he got to use somebody else because you have fear it's that it's the fear it's it's a fear of places and situations that might cause not that it has is that it might cause panic helplessness our embarrassment somebody said uh hey don't don't don't worry about it i'll i'll cover you people who struggle with this said no no i'm not gonna go unless i know for sure that i have it to cover it if you don't cover it and i need to make sure that i have a way out because i'm never gonna put myself in a situation where i have to lean on another person it can be so intense that you don't do anything say anything or go anywhere unless you can depend on you to get you out just in case something happens the problem is god doesn't work that way god is notorious for putting you in situations and putting his children in situations where you have to trust in god to come through and so what we end up doing is we we end up not being led by the holy spirit because if the holy spirit is leading us somewhere we said i'm not going over that i don't look safe and my check don't come till friday today thursday you trying to lead me into some place where it hasn't hit you then i'll go but the bible says to just show a walk by what that just shall walk by faith and not by sight so so so these anxieties they they can damage your faith these anxieties can damage your walk with god to when god is trying to speak to you the thing that you hear is the fear you don't you don't hear god telling you to move there's a difference between peter and the other apostles because only peter thought it was possible to step out of the boat only peter thought it was possible it was only peter that ass cannot come nobody even dared to ask when you have faith you see the impossible and you can do the impossible what fear does and what anxiety does is and anxiety tells you that's impossible you can't do that you can't accomplish that that's not healthy that's not good matter of fact i want you to turn your bibles back to luke chapter 12. we'll begin in verse 26. if you then if you then be not able to do that which is least why take he thought for the rest if you then be not able uh to do what what is least oh matter of fact i want to i want to read this to you in another version and which of you i'm in verse 25 in another version and which of you is able by anxious thought to add a moment to his life you can't think yourself into another day you can't think yourself into another color you can't think yourself into another height you can't think of you can't think your your way and worry yourself into anything verse 26 if then you are unable to do even a very little thing why be over anxious about other matters if worrying didn't fix this or add here then why if it ain't working for you then why take it to other areas of your life verse 27 i'm back in the king james version consider the lilies and how they grow they tore not they spin not and yet i say unto you that solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these if then god so clothed the grass which today is in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven how much more will he clothe you and then he says o ye of little faith so what jesus connects us to is that when you worry i'm not saying that you don't have faith what i'm saying is you don't have enough when you start to concern yourself about things that god said he would provide for you the illustration that i gave earlier is that all of these preparations and all of this spread is made for you and then you come in because you were worried that it wasn't going to be finished or that it wasn't going to be prepared that you went and got something on your own he says look at the lilies look at the birds look at the world study nature and see how i take care of nature you gotta know you're better than a flower you gotta know that you're better than a bird he says this in verse 29 and seek not ye what you shall eat or what you shall drink and neither be doubtful of mine here we are in verse 30. this is what i want us to focus on in verse 30. for all these things do the world do the gentiles do the nations of the world seek after but i want you to focus on part b of verse 30 and your father knows that you have need of these things god knows what you need let that marinate for a second god knows what you need god knows what you mean right now right now let that sink into your spirit right now god knows what you need now here's the thing god not only knows what you need but right now he knows what you want he knows what you're yearning for so we have to put this in two categories that there are wants right and and then there are needs that our wants and our needs your wants are the things that keep you up at night and it's the thing is the things that you can become real anxious over like i want this really really right now your needs are many times the things that you take for granted needs are many times not revealed until late needs are many times not revealed until late and so uh matter of fact in times of a crisis of what we just experienced here in texas all of a sudden having a warm place and and and some food uh and some water became gold like it was y'all got water y'all got that over there uh uh y'all y'all got heat y'all electricity y'all uh all of a sudden you became rich if you had a generator uh just a few if you had if you had a generator you were popular you were the person that we needed to talk to uh wants and needs are different the bible says god said i know what you need and you got to trust in me that i'm going to provide to you what you what you need but also at the same time if you trust in me to know what you need that means the things that i give you are the things that you need and the things that i keep away from you you need that too god i want that but the thing that you want it being absent from you is a need for you you need that thing not to be in your life when the bible says that god knows your needs he's constantly adding and removing things out of your life because you need this to be absent you need this to be in your life he knows the right amount of trouble he knows the right amount of pressure he knows the right the right amount of affliction he knows the right amount of problems that need to be in your life so that you can be what you need to be and so sometimes we cry and he says you need to cry you you you you need to cry you you need to cry uh matter of fact crime is necessary uh crime is necessary uh it may be it may be time for uh breakfast it may be time for breakfast and the baby reach for the baby reaches for uh stickers snickers so a butterfinger is my choice i don't know whatever whatever your situation is uh and then the parent says the parent takes the candy bar it says no you can't have that for breakfast i know that's what you want the candy bar is what you want but the parent if it's a ghoul takes the candy ball and says no you can't have it the removal of the candy bar immediately starts to stir up within that child pain and and tears and what the parent has to do is the parent has to ignore the pain and and ignore the tears if god is a good father sometimes what god has to do is he has to ignore your tears no you're going to cry this one out yeah no no you're going to cry this right now i don't understand no i understand okay just yeah don't go ahead get that out you know what an experienced parent would do when a child would be crying and an experienced parent don't even hear the tears no more it takes somebody from the outside hey you know your baby crying oh are they all right i know that they know that they're okay no no you need to tend to them and then you stop anybody else from what no no no no they okay they need to sit there no no they need to cry that out they need to get that out of their system sometimes god will keep people from consoling you you say god i just want to feel better you know nobody anybody feeling better tonight you go you have to go to bed yeah you have to go to bed and you're crying no you got to go to bed at night you you're going to have to go to bed but god i'm not happy you need to not be happy tonight yeah tonight tonight you need to you you god i'm angry yeah that that's a feeling that actually you need what if you understood god to look at your situation is the stuff that you need is gonna break you what if what if god said i need your heart because if i'm gonna make you a clean heart if i'm gonna make you a clean heart because right now your heart is calloused over what you want but what you want is not of me so what i'm gonna have to do is i'm gonna have to break your heart now when your heart breaks you're gonna be m.i.a for a good six weeks it's going to be a good six weeks before you you even kind of gather yourself again and then you realize have you ever looked back over something and you thank god for allowing your because when your heart was broken you was all over the place but now you didn't signed up for the application you just lost a little weight uh you didn't done this and and now you got some other opportunities open up you're traveling now you're doing this and you uh you got some uh you got some things lined up there wasn't a lot of you got a new outlook you got new friends and you you doing you got a new outfit your taste has changed it's something that when god allowed it to happen it burst a whole bunch of seeds in you it created a whole bunch of things i need your heart to be broken you know what for some of you i need you to be rejected because that's some stuff that you're pursuing now here's the thing knocking the door shall be all right just knock them five doors them first five doors they're gonna shut them in your face uh but i need you to keep what i need to keep knocking all right and then and then the bible says asks okay now you're gonna get up you're gonna get about 75 rejections i just need you to keep i just need you to keep asking i know you want to quit but you need the rejection you you need the rejection do you know the only way that you can keep asking you can only keep asking if you got faith have you ever prayed to god for something and then you didn't get it and you really thought about changing your prayer like i really need to stop praying for this because this hurts when when it hurts to pray for a particular thing that seems far away when it hurts when it hurts the only way that you're going to keep praying for it is if you have faith but faith in god's answer and not in what you want and sometimes sometimes we become we we become detached from the holy spirit and arrogant because sometimes god does give an answer sometimes god does give an answer but we become so focused on what we want that the know is actually what we needed and then god reveals to you why he says no and you thank god he kept it far from but it it takes it takes faith to keep asking keep knocking and keep seeking for the response of the father so the scripture says in verse 30 god knows what you need that means everything that i have right now i'm supposed to have everything that i have right now i'm supposed to have and all the stuff that i don't have if i needed it my loving father wouldn't keep it from me you say you say oh well god i i want this because god if i had this my life would be so much better but he said listen you don't you don't manage what you have right now why would i bless you with more and you don't manage what you have right now god i'm tired of working for this company god i want to start my own company but you don't do books you don't do books you know when you get your own company you got new books you got new accounting got to have hr you got to hire you you you don't like come you don't like conflict when you got your own company you gotta fire people unfortunately that's how it starts unfortunately today that's how they that's how they tell you i have i have experience that's how they tell you unfortunately today today is your it's your last day today so if if you don't if you don't like escorting people if you don't if you don't like directing then you can't you you can't have the things that you say that you want because god knows if i give you what you want you're going to damage yourself if god is invested in you and god cares about you god is not going to give you anything that destroys you another thing that you got to be careful of just like god gives gifts satan gives gifts so don't call everything that you receive a blessing you have to have discernment because everything that looks good and everything that glitters is not gold so sometimes well why would god bless me with this particular thing uh and then it'd be not good god god didn't give you that god didn't give you that satan you know what satan does satan gives jobs gives possessions and we all know this for a fact and satan can give you people you take a prayer you need a person look at what the lord the lord they give you that the lord do that listen that's that's something that's satanic there's something underneath you check the ground you need to do some tests try every spirit is what the bible say you need to test every spirit all right satan can give stuff satan can give things and places and satan can even give people you have to have the discernment to know what is satan trying to entice me with is this a mcdonald's meal because the lord is going to give me a spread and whatever the lord gives me it's going to be for my benefit even if it has pain in it even even if it has sorrow in it so then we talk about being fearless one of the things that we have to work at is this a lot of us have gone through a lot of things in our lives and then what you have to do is the things that i've gone through i can't let it rob the faith that i have to wake up the next morning and be fearless you can't let your past your history and your experience you from being fearless so you gotta you have to learn as a christian you have to learn to take shots somebody said wait a minute this happened to you that happened to you and you've been through that and something you told your story and say hell is my face there's something this before i face that and the average person they crumble and they fall down and they go hide after a few storms after a few major storms some people go into town and say that's it a person that's fearless and says says in spite of what i went through i'm still coming out swinging in spite of what i in spite of what i've been through is part of what's been said it's what's been done to me i'm still going to come out and if you look at my face and you see what i've been through you would assume that i've never been through anything matter of fact you can you can tell somebody who's really walking in faith because they look nothing like what they've experienced have you have you ever walked out the house and you and you look good somebody said oh you're looking at you so you have no idea you have no idea what i'm carrying you have no idea what decisions i'm having to struggle with and make and i still believe god and i'm still because i know everything is going to be all right and it takes fearlessness to get up in the morning and wash your face it takes fearlessness to put on your makeup and do your hair and shine your shoes and iron your clothes and not walk out all wrinkled like you okay is everything you're going through you want to put that up you want to find something else to put the heat to it or something like put it in the dryer or something let's just let's get it shake it out let's get something oh wrinkle free let's get some some of that out it takes it takes fearlessness it takes fearlessness to say no i'm i'm going to give my best today and what people don't realize what people don't realize is your basement your low point is somebody else's ceiling and and you barely making it you got a whole group of people looking up at you saying man i wish i could be where you are and you like i'm not even on my feet i'm i'm not i'm not here i'm not even operating like if i was healthy and i and i really had this stuff off my plate i would really be flying but maybe what god knows is because you got all that stuff on your plate you're better than the average people that don't even deal with half of what you deal with they struggle to do a quarter of what you do but because you got all that that weight what if god said you need that weight on your shoulders you need the amount of enemies that you have you need them they motivate you the amount of affliction the amount of setbacks that you face you need that because that's making you better sometimes what god will do is god will add or he'll take certain things out of your life and and and create an environment where you become sick and tired and he says oh it's gonna be about three more weeks until you get real sick and tired then we'll be able to make some changes what if god is waiting on some of us to just get sick and tired because it takes sick and tired before you really make changes in order for you to really make the changes that you need to make you almost you almost got to just get sick and tired and be like okay some some got to change right i can't i can't keep eating this bread like i gotta we're gonna have to do you know we're gonna have to do something we're gonna have to do something different we're gonna we're gonna have to make a change we're gonna have we're gonna have to make some alterations so i want you i want you to hear this about faith when we're close faith all right so then faith comes by okay good so so faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word god now fear fear is the same as faith right so almost what i want to do is i really just want to use one word i just want to use faith right remember we define faith faith is to trusting the definition of fear has the same definition to trust in so faith and fear are really the same coin two different sides right so in order to get faith moving requires the same fuel to get fear moving fear does not grow unless you feed it you have to feed fear faith does not grow until you feed it you have to feed faith right so the reason uh we come to bible class the reason why we hear the word the reason why you study the reason why you're reading the reason why you listen to messages and sermons why because you're trying to feed your faith that's why it's important for you to wake up in the morning and you already have a schedule and you already have messages and things that's going to pour pour in you i don't care even if you record yourself hello willy it's a beautiful day don't laugh you're awesome really you're tall really you're strong you're strong you can fly yes you can you're going to be also now whatever i tell myself that's my that's my business because it really is it's it's it's my business uh but but how i feel about myself it won't last like if i feel great right now but it won't last unless i'm intentional about feeding it so if i ride the rest of this night and i go tomorrow by the time you see me on sunday i'm gonna be i'm gonna be kind of heavy because if i don't feed my spirit anymore this week then then something's gonna happen that's going to take my energy away and i'm going to be feeling too good about myself because all you have to do is see an image you'll see a picture you'll see what you're not supposed what you don't have or what you have an obtained yet somebody will make a comment you'll get a text message somebody won't like something somebody didn't support somebody called you and said something off the wall you went to work and it was are you using traffic you get a flat tire anything can happen and starts chipping away at your confidence and then you know what you end up calling yourself i'm so stupid i'm sorry i'm just an idiot now i was calling myself superman right secretly i called myself superman you superman and batman all rolled up in one in a tortilla of ranch yes i am right so that's that's what i am but as time goes on life chips at that life trips like that and the chips at it and the chips at it and then you come in tonight you're not feeling too great just you can get a lot of compliments you gotta you have to be intentional i'm not up here just to just teach you like okay good lesson i want you to take this and i want you to go and apply it you got to be intentional about what you listen to on your drive home tonight feed that spirit and sometimes like that's why you gotta record yourself because sometimes you don't quite you can't quite find the right song or words to speak into so you gotta create your own you gotta write your own lyrics right you gotta put your own stuff together but but feed it feed it when you idly watch television you don't realize sometimes by what you watch it takes something from you and you got to be careful you can also watch something and you feel like i need to get up and do that and you can be inspired right yeah there's so many tutorials on youtube and if somebody will watch something on youtube and they say oh i need to do that they probably don't but they got inspired so something got fed something in their spirit got fed right so i'm not in the uh bathroom trying to do a twist that they saw on youtube that they don't need to be and they gonna mess up something but they got inspired and they keep feeding it you never know one day they might become real good at it now the same thing that feeds fear it's the same messages that's gonna feed your uh fee faith it's the same messages that's gonna feature for you so you say lord increase my faith change the station and some for some of us the last station you need to listen to is yourself you have negative self-talk it kills you you walk in the room timid you walk in the room insecure you walk in the room bashful because you're listening to your self-talk st change that station you talking to yourself has brought you here and if you don't like where you are and say lord i need i need a greater level of faith change the station that was a story there was a story of an eagle who got wounded and he fell about some chickens and the chicken raised that eagle and so uh one day another eagle came by and said what you doing amongst these chickens he said because we chickens and another ego had to tell him said man you're not a chicken he said you're an eagle he said man you belong you belong in the sky you don't belong down here with them you send me a clucking and and and eating eating what they eat so what you realize is when you find out who you really are your altitude changes your diet changes your view changes and your your associations change the problem is everybody that that ego was around had convinced him he was a chicken too to the point where when you look in the mirror you don't even see the real you at some point you gotta look in the mirror and say is this even really me or am i just kind of going alone are you avoiding the mirror are you not looking in your eyes are you not looking in your face and saying am i this this can't be have you ever looked around this can't be my life this this can't be my situation it gotta be it gotta be something better than this so here's the problem with fear we'll close on this though we'll talk more about this on sunday faith faith is a seed and whenever you put seed in the dirt it grows now faith alone can't do it now within the seed is a whole forest within a seed you have you can have generations of children you can have children you can have families upon families in one seed right within a seed it's generations of life right but you'll never see all that was that that's in a seed unless you put it in the dirt right matter of fact it has to it has to be planted right it has to be planted because a seed alone even with great potential stays locked but once it's planted then life can grow but here's the thing about a seed you can't just plant it and then walk away you have to water it it has to be fed so i don't talk i don't care if you're talking about uh vegetation i don't care if you're talking about plants i don't care if you're talking about a human if a woman gets pregnant or you put a seed in the ground the woman has to eat or the seed has to be watered right in order for it to grow faith in the bible is referred to as a seed so you have generations of life in you because god's word is in you all things asking you to do just water it every day just water it remove the weeds remove the things that's gonna choke it may make sure uh nobody comes and tramples upon the seed that you have make sure satan doesn't come in your garden and snatches out because all it takes is one little sign one little message one little commercial and all of a sudden you got different seeds in your garden you got to make sure you got a good garden and you got to make sure that it's clean and you got to make sure that it's pure and you got to make sure that you're watering right now i want to talk about fear fear is also a seed fear is also seed but the problem with fear is that even though fear is is a seed it's impotent it takes the nutrients it takes the water but it doesn't produce anything you know what it's like it's like the tree that jesus walked by and he says where the figs i don't where's the fruit y'all remember that and he cursed he cursed it and said why did you occur because it's a tree and it had all of the signs that it was supposed to produce but it was impotent when i feed you fear it is the possibility that something that might go wrong that may never happen and so if you keep feeding fear the problem is at the end it produces no fruit it's a it's a seed that has no life in it it's clouds that have no rain it provides no nutrients to your life so you have to ask yourself the question why am i feeding something that can't pour back into me why am i feeding something that doesn't give me life if you hear this evening and you realize you know what i've been operating on fear i've been operating on the possibility of something going wrong uh or maybe what you what you've been through or maybe what you're about to face has got you paralyzed maybe you say to this moment i really haven't been feeding my faith you can know you're in trouble when it's hard to read the bible you know you're in trouble when it's hard to pray when it's hard to get on your knees and talk to god that's an indication you're not in a good place when you sit down at the table and you open up your bible and you you're trying to read but your mind goes all other places instead of on what's in front of you that's a sign you're in trouble and if you don't turn around it can be the beginning of the end all the lowest times in my life is when i wasn't reading just when i when i wasn't reading i may have gone through a storm but it didn't feel like a storm because i was full of faith so it was like water to a duck somebody said maybe but but if i was in the word i feel it it became rough when i didn't have that word in me and then a simple storm come you ever had a central storm throw you off and you be like i normally i normally can get through this but now all of a sudden you can't shake it you have you have a problem shaking it because your cup is empty and you got to get filled up

Channel: North Colony Church of Christ

Views: 1,739

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Church of Christ, Gospel, Acapella, North Colony Church of Christ, Willie Williams, Preaching

Id: QPcZnZ8sjfQ

Length: 65min 45sec (3945 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2021