God's Cure for Anxiety, Fear & Worry Part 1 - Gabriel Swaggart

[Applause] we are going to begin a new series tonight and it was something that i had not really originally planned to do i was going to deal with something else this week but um i really just didn't feel like it was the right direction so i began to seek the lord and this morning sitting in my office i really kind of i felt i felt like i had the mind of god now i want you to turn with me we're going to read a little bit more scripture than normal i'm going to be jumping around i'm going to be reading from three different passages of scripture tonight so bear with me here first second timothy 2 timothy 1 2 timothy chapter 1 beginning in verse 7. you can follow along with us right here up here on the screen paul would write to timothy and he would say for god has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind turn with me again to philippians philippians chapter 4. you can follow along right up here beginning in verse number 4 paul would write and say rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice let your moderation be known unto all men the lord is at hand be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto god and the peace of god which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through christ jesus finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things appear whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of a good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things and turn with me finally to first peter chapter 5 reading one verse verse 7. peter would write casting all your care upon him for he cares for you and i want to deal with the subject tonight god's cure for all anxiety fear and worry god's cure for all anxiety fear and worry i don't even have to ask for a show of hands but i will ask this question how many of you have ever battled with anxiety fear or worry you don't have to i'll raise my hand all of us at some point in time has experienced one of these things if not all three but there is a cure for it we're going to look at that tonight let's pray heavenly father we come before you in the name of jesus we we ask for your help we ask for your anointing we ask for the leading and the guidance of the holy spirit we pray right now that you would minister to the need that if anyone that is watching or listening or on the sound of my voice that is struggling with fear worry or anxiety that the holy spirit would minister to them and break that that bondage and to break that spirit of fear we ask it in the name of jesus giving you the praise and giving you the glory and everybody said and everybody said every one of us as i mentioned are going to experience at times in our christian walk fear anxiety or worry i wanted to look at these three words and i wanted to find out really of course everyone knows really what they mean but according to believers webster's dictionary one of those dictionaries i was looking at this is what these words mean fear means anxiety caused by real or possible danger refers to pain refers to being frightened to be afraid worry means to be anxious trouble a troubled state of mind anxiety anxiety means a worry of uneasiness about what may happen an eager but uneasy desire fear worry anxiety could be looked at as some of the most destructive forces in the world today when a christians when it when a christian suffers from fear worry or anxiety their minds are constantly focused on things that are ahead of them that they don't know situations around that they worry about what's going to happen worry can drive a person to sickness fear anxiety can cause and can drive a christian to oppression now i'll say this in the text that i've read to you in these three passages of scripture in my opinion now this is just strictly my opinion this gives us some of the greatest scripture references to the answer and to the cure for fear anxiety and worry i remember uh i was a teenager late teens 17 18 19 somewhere right around there and i actually struggled with fear and worry there were certain things that were going on in my life personally that it consumed my thinking have you ever stayed up all night worrying about events that you know will never happen but you make up these events in your mind about what could happen oh it's real quiet now i know i'm hitting home all of us i i maybe maybe all of us maybe not maybe the majority of us we've all stayed up and kept ourselves up at night worrying about things that haven't happened worried about things that may not happen but you see a potential for things that could happen a potential for danger ahead and you make believe all sorts of scenarios in your mind and you worry about those things to the point where you don't sleep and you get up the next morning and you look like you haven't slept you're haggard you're tired your fear your face is full of worry and fear of something that may or may not even happen but god tells you as a believer you don't have to live like that as a believer the world will live like that but the word of god tells us that you don't have to live like that if you're if you are a son of god if you're a daughter of god if you're a believer you don't have to live in a state of fear worry and doubt you don't have to live a life of anxiety why because as a christian and i'll get to all of this later but as a christian the one thing that you have that you can rest assure of is the assurance to know that god has got you and has got everything under control the assurance that you have to have the assurance in your heart to know god has never let go of one single person he's never lost one single person he's never described he's never discarded one single individual but every person that has dared to trust him has been brought through their trials and tribulations now every one of us as i dealt with on sunday and i've dealt with here in times past every single one of us we're going to face trials and at times they're going to cause us to fear but you see the bible tells us that i read to you put first timothy or ii timothy back on the screen second timothy 1 7 the holy spirit through paul tells this young minister of the gospel timothy his son and the faith timothy grew fearful because he always had paul to go back on he always had someone to fall back on to ask questions and you have to think timothy was in charge of a lot of stuff at a young age i know what that feels like and it can be overwhelming and he grew fearful and paul told him for god has not given us the spirit of fear now there's a spirit attached to this doesn't mean that a person is demon-possessed but it does mean that as evil spirit can attach itself and deal with you regarding the spirit of fear you see i want to look at the mind for a second how many have ever heard the statement that the mind is the devil's playground if you haven't heard it you have now the mind is the devil's playground it's the gateway to the spirit but that's where the devil plays with you see god deals with your spirit he deals with your heart satan deals with your mind satan will begin to do things and say things and tell you things to get you away anything he can do to get you away and off you and your mind off of the things of god and he will plant things in your mind that's why we say is the mind is the devil's playground he will mess with your mind that's where worry comes in it's where fear comes in you can't do it you're too young you don't have the experience you don't have what it takes to do it you're not who you think you are and the devil's good at getting in your mind planning things in your mind to distract you from what god has in store for you and too many christians live in a state of fear have you ever been around somebody there's two sets of people have you ever been around somebody that you you look at them and say man they have no fear whatsoever they just do whatever and then you notice that the other person that says he don't ever want to do anything he's afraid of everything it's like you know you walk outside and you see the son oh you know you can't get out in the sun you're afraid of the sun you know i'm being facetious but being joking but still fear too many christians live in a state of fear do you understand something i want you to understand something god's called every one of you to do something he's not called you just to sit down on the sidelines and do nothing he saved you out of something and he's called you into something and he's called you to do something he's called you for something but too many of us sit back and say and i've been there said somebody else can do it somebody else can't do what god's called you to do come on now you are unique and god has designed something inside of you he's giving you gifts and talents that other people don't have he's given you ability to do something that somebody else can't do but too many are fearful of stepping out in faith to believe god to fulfill what god has called them to do but no god has not given you a spirit of fear no not a spirit of fear the devil wants to plant that on you the devil wants to plant that spirit of fear on you so where you won't do anything somebody there may be somebody that god is called to do extraordinary things that god gets called to do something phenomenal but they never step out in faith they sit back and they say i don't think i'm good enough i don't think i'm this i don't think and they're afraid to step out forget about all that if god's called you to something trust him you see the very opposite of fear is faith the antidote to fear is trust do you get that the very opposite of fear is trusting you see the world can't trust god it only trusts in himself but you can trust in god because god will see you through you can listen listen to me you serve the creator of the universe he controls the very universe you live in he controls the way the things are done he controls the sparrows that fly in the sky he controls the wind that blows he controls the sky above you he controls the sun and the moon and the stars and everything else in between if you trust him let him control you let him control you he said you have not given you the spirit of fear understand every one of us are going to go through situations but as i've said about a million times and i want and this is for me as well and i want you to understand this everything you go through it's caused by god or allowed by god and if god controls everything why don't you let him control your life he's never let me change that he will never do anything to harm you to hurt you now he'll allow you to go something through some things that are devastating but he in himself will never do anything to harm you but only to better you paul says to timothy but god has not given us the spirit of fear but he said he's given us the spirit of power that's really what that means he says not just it's just not power but the spirit of power you know what the word power means i wanted to look it up just to be safe and secure knowing what i was talking about tonight but that word power is dunamis it's the same word found in acts chapter 1 verse 8 but you shall receive power now i don't think you're getting this i'm telling you i think this is kind of like i'm not that word power means miracle working power god will work on you to make sure that you do extraordinary things he will take an ordinary person and make him do extraordinary things if you trust him god can take a man like peter who always stuck his foot in his mouth and turn him around and make him the chief priest to preach a pastor of the church to where he would see people saved healed and filled with the spirit i get it right in a second my mind starts wondering and it wants me to say things that my mouth hadn't caught up with yet you ever been there your mind's like going 90 miles an hour and your mouth's like wait just slow down put the brakes on for a second sorry if i get like that front row sorry if i spit on you it's holy spit just think about that have you ever been to sea world some of you have you been to sea world you've been to sea world and you said in the first few rows they always make you wear the splash gear see next time you may want to bring some splash gear bring an umbrella and just kind of you know but he said he's giving you a spirit of power power the power resides in the holy spirit the power resides in the person of the holy spirit there is no power greater than the power of the holy spirit you see paul tells in ephesians i believe it's ephesians 6 i believe it is ephesians 6 where he tells us what we face the powers and the principalities the rulers of the darkness of this world we are up against some powerful forces of darkness that we in and of ourselves cannot overcome no matter what you try to do and in the natural no matter what good you try to do that will never ever ever go against and overtake the powers of darkness so there had to be a greater power working in you to get you over the powers of darkness there is a power working in that perfect power is a part of the holy spirit he is the holy spirit and he comes inside at the very moment of salvation but at the same time when you get baptized with the holy spirit you've tapped into a power source greater than the powers of darkness but he said he's given you the spirit of power not just power but the spirit of power that resides in the holy spirit he is power dunamis working power glory to god miracle working power if you need a miracle joseph's saying in a moment if you need a miracle jesus is the miracle man and there's a power working in you that the powers of darkness can't touch the power of the holy ghost but you shall receive power you talk about power god taking regular people and they can turn a world right side up god can take you and turn you eternal world right side up god can take you and turn a school right side up god can take you and turn a job right side up god can take you and turn something right side up if you let him and if you allow he can use you to do it but here's another problem oh i wish that god would do that with me but there's no buts with god god wants to do something in you and he wants to work in you and he wants to make sure that you understand that you are not your own you've been bought with the price and you no longer belong to you and you no longer belong to the devil you belong to god and he wants to work inside of you to do something great he said haven't given the spirit of fear fear can be very debilitating i'm not knocking this but it's the truth fear can be very debilitating it could cause physical ailments sickness disease heart attacks i remember listening to someone they were they were it was a female lady and i don't remember where she was from but she said she's weeping on the on the phone and she said i'm afraid that i'm going to get cancer why well my mom had it passed away from me my dad had it and passed away from it my husband's family they had it and i'm afraid i'm going you don't have to worry don't worry about whether or not you know the healer you know the great physician and you put your life in the hands of god don't put it in your own hands put it in the hands of god okay all right he said he's giving us the spirit of power then he said he's given us the spirit of power and it says and of love it means the spirit of love what does that word love mean agape what does the word agape mean god like love it is the love that you experience the moment that you get saved you see the world cannot experience this the the the sinner cannot experience this the only time that a person can experience the god kind of love is when they accept jesus christ as lord and savior understand this you're loved one of the greatest battles that we face as young people no one cares about me no one loves me and the natural maybe not but there is somebody that does his name is jesus he loved you so much that he came down to earth to take my place and to take your place on calvary's cross to do for you what we could not do for ourselves the cross is god's greatest display of love found in human history it's the greatest display of love found in human history for every one of us in this place we didn't deserve this but he said i loved you enough even when you didn't love me i loved you enough to give and to lay down my life so that you could experience more abundant life he died so that you could live you think about that he died so that you could live love that god kind of love there is a hole in every one of us that only god could fill and he loved us enough to fill it for us and last i'm not going to be able to get to the other ones but he said another sound mind this means self-control how many know people that have no self-control don't raise your hand this means though i want you to understand this it doesn't mean that you have the will to overcome sin and overcome fear and overcome anxiety and worry it just means that now as a christian the will is present for you not to say no to sin not to say no to fear not to say no to anxiety or worry but to say yes to jesus you see the the main answer and the whole underlying factor got for god's cure for anxiety fear and worry which we'll deal with the other two at a later moment at later time is an understanding of the cross of christ without an understanding of the cross of christ we are going to struggle with fear worry and anxiety we're going to struggle with sin we're going to struggle with all sorts of different things yeah you're a christian absolutely are you a hypocrite no but not understanding what christ accomplished at the cross for you not just for salvation but for everyday life and living you will struggle with one of these things fear worry anxiety doubt failure sin oppression depression and the list is endless but once you finally understand it's not in what i do i'm not trying to overcome have you ever heard somebody just tell tell somebody who's struggling with that oh just snap out of it they can't it takes a greater power to snap out of it it takes a greater power for that person to be snapped out of it and it comes through an understanding of what jesus christ has done for us not just for salvation but i'm talking about for everything for our everyday life and living that everything that we will ever have need of was found in the cross of christ meaning this the cross is the means for victory over fear depression oppression anxiety and worry when a believer begins to be plugged in to what jesus christ accomplished you believe that you say yes to jesus christ it's not saying no to sin it's not saying just say no to drugs just say no to this it's saying yes to jesus christ romans chapter 6 verse 11. you can read it for yourself it's their promise romans 6 11 tells us it's not just saying no it's saying yes to him because when you say yes to jesus christ you're automatically saying yes to the cross and you're automatically saying no to sin you're saying when we struggle with these things you may be struggling now but there is an answer for it you don't have to stay like that god doesn't want you to stay like that he's invested too much in you for you to stay like that he wants you to be picked up he wants you he wants to dust you off he wants to turn you around and set you back on the right path he wants you to live a life of faith and not fear faith says god is able no matter what fear says god can't faith said god is god can and god will it all goes back the the whole bedrock of this his faith in christ and him crucified that's where the power comes that's where the holy spirit flows he said he's not given a spirit of fear but of power the holy spirit works through the cross he can't work through anything else he wants to do a work inside of you to constantly change you to make you into the image of christ to make you into something but he can't do it if you don't let him and for years i didn't let him because i was too worried about me having an understanding of the message of the cross provides the answer for all of this senior decisions come on back up i run out of time i want to leave this with i'll leave this with you tonight i was in college wasn't living here i was living in oklahoma at the time and i struggled and i'm gonna deal with this when i get to the subject of peter but i struggled and i had a bout with depression depression i literally would not come out of my room when i would come down to baton rouge i didn't really come out at all i tried to hide it but i struggled hiding it because of what i was going through depression it's a serious thing and i couldn't just snap out of it and come to and just get over it but the devil was hitting me so hard with this that literally did not want to do or be around anybody stayed alone a lot stayed in my dorm room and one day i was here in town was visiting was in my car and i got in my vehicle and i went to the store to grab something i was coming right back and nobody was home everybody was out i sat there in my vehicle for a moment pulled into the driveway i didn't understand the message of the cross i didn't know anything about the cross i just knew cross regarding salvation something inside of me cried out to god and i said god i lay this at the foot of the cross i didn't know what i was saying i didn't know the magnitude of what i was saying but i said i lay it down at the foot of the cross and the moment i said that i felt the power come into me and i felt that depression leave i mean i sat there for a moment here i am saved and baptized with the holy spirit but battling depression at the very moment i said god i lay it down at the foot of the cross at that very moment that spirit lifted because it was that very moment that god began to deal with me and tell me i'm bigger than that i paid for you and i paid the price so that you don't have to struggle with that he paid a price so you don't have to struggle with fear anxiety worry depression or oppression he died for you so you don't have to worry with that he died for you that you should have life and life more abundant he didn't say that you should have a life full of fear and anxiety and worry and doubt he said but i've died for you that i've come that you could have life and life more abundant more abundant life is victory over those things it means you standing over those things and those things not standing over you it is like david's standing over goliath with the head of death of goliath in his hand that's what he wants you to do that's what he paid for you to be like to you standing over the powers of darkness you standing over them and not them standing over you he paid a great price so that you could have victory and that means this i don't care who you are i don't care where you're from i don't care how old you are this is the beginning steps of having victory over fear worry anxiety is look to jesus the author and the finisher of our faith it's understanding that what jesus christ did was enough it was enough that what he paid for was enough what he did at calvary's cross was enough it was enough to break that bondage god does not want you to live life like that he wants you to experience that's not the right to reach your full potential as a son or daughter of god he doesn't want you to struggle with those things he wants you to stand in victory over those things next week we're going to look at philippians we're going to look at one of the greatest cures for fear anxiety and worry stand your feet stand your feet heavenly father we come before you tonight in the name of jesus lord i pray for everyone under the sound of my voice whether here or watching and listening by television radio or internet around the world if there is anyone in this building or anyone that is watching and listening lord that is struggling with fear worry anxiety that i pray that this little humble message would register in their heart to leave it at the foot of the cross to look to jesus the author and the finisher of our faith to believe that what christ did was enough i pray that these humble words which strengthen and help the hurting soul i'm not going to ask for a show of hands but whatever they feel led to sing i want us all just to gather around this front just for a moment and let's just have a time of worship i'm not going to like i said i don't want to embarrass anybody so i think the easiest way to do this and if you're one of these that are struggling with this tell you what i want everybody just to come around and i want everybody just to have a moment in time and just begin to praise him and worship him and just thank him for everything that he's done the greatest thing that you can do young people is begin to thank him for what he's done thank him for the price that he paid thank him for the grace that he has shown you go ahead and sing it right now whatever you feel led to sing just stretch forth your hands right now just begin to worship him for a moment [Music] jesus jesus [Music] jesus [Music] let him be the center of it all and if you're one of those ones that is struggling with fear anxiety or worry right now castor cares on him for he cares for you [Music] nothing else [Music] nothing in this world will do [Music] jesus be the center [Music] come on sing it now all about jesus yes it is it's all about him [Music] one more time [Music] jesus be the center of my life [Music] [Music] is say jesus jesus o say the same jesus say his name jesus say jesus jesus o say jesus [Music] jesus nothing else [Music] everything we've [Music] amen let's pray as we close lord we love you tonight god i pray god for your grace and your mercy lord to lord just control our lives lord as the word cave tonight lord i just ask you to let us help us god to let you control our life god and lord we as a group tonight lord we say yes to jesus god we simply say yes to jesus and lord you have showed us in your scripture tonight your word that the sound mind that you've given us has an ability to control the ability the opportunity to say yes to jesus and saying yes to jesus opens up the door lord for simply everything that's wrong to be made right god be the center of our life lord just bless the people as they go the rest of their week and what we do as your word says we take it as it says that we cast our care upon you and we walk out of this place tonight believing with our heart that you truly care for us we love you so much we thank you we praise you let's give jesus a hand clap tonight amen praise god thank you have a great day thank you for joining us for today's crossfire program and as i mentioned before i pray that this program was a blessing if you have any prayer requests any needs or any testimonies you can see the crossfire email address right there at the bottom of the screen feel free to send in your emails just to let us know what the lord has done in your heart and in your life thank you for being with us don't don't miss another crossfire program and you need to tell others about crossfire youth ministries we love you god bless you

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Length: 42min 3sec (2523 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020