From His Heart

Speaker 1

Does fear control your life? If so, today is the perfect day for you to join us on From His Heart.

Speaker 2

Lots of times you see athletes wearing shirts that say "No Fear." The truth of the matter is everyone gets afraid. Lots of people have physical fears. They fear going to the doctor and getting the report that says they have cancer.

Lots of times, moms and dads fear that their children will die. So many people fear that they'll lose their job, that they'll go under.

God doesn't want us to live life paralyzed and plagued by fear. The Lord wants us to face the giant of fear and defeat the giant of fear by the power of His Spirit and by the power of His Word from His heart.

Speaker 1

Years ago, I remember looking at a website that listed the most known phobias or fears. I counted 68 different phobias, and those were only the ones that started with the letter A. There are so many fears that truly paralyze and destroy people. They may seem silly to some, but they are real fears to them, even to God's own children.

Today, Pastor Jeff Shreve begins a two-part message designed to help you break free from that bondage to your fears. The message is called "The Giant of Fear." If you missed any of these messages this month from the "Land of the Giant" series or the "Facing the Giant" series we're in now, go to promisheart.org and listen again to any of these lessons. You can also download a free MP3 of any broadcast.

Right now, though, open your Bible to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 21, and let's let Pastor Jeff help us discover how to defeat the Giant of Fear.

Speaker 2

In the summer of 1996, Debbie, Jill, Amy, Sarah, and I moved from Houston to Wake Forest, North Carolina, to attend seminary. I didn't have a job; I just knew that God had called me to the ministry, and I needed to go to school and study. So we went, and I had a little bit of money saved up. We rented a small house, and we were there, and the Lord was blessing. Now, we didn't have any extras; there was no health insurance because I couldn't afford it. I was working three jobs just trying to make ends meet. Then Debbie got a job at the Baptist bookstore. It didn't pay much, but it was a place for her to work and make a little bit of extra money. One of the perks of working in the Baptist bookstore was that they had a little section of movies, and you could rent movies for free if you worked there. This was great, so we had Friday night movie night at our house with the girls. They were young—Joe was 9, Amy was 7, and Sarah was 5. Every Friday night, we'd have popcorn and watch movies together.

One night, I got the movie "A Thief in the Night" at the Baptist bookstore, along with its sequel, "The Mark of the Beast." I had heard about these movies; I'd never seen them, but they were about the Rapture and the Antichrist, and I thought, "This is really cool." So I got them. They should have had a little note: "Not for children under 10." I mean, it was rated "I" for intense. As we were watching this movie, all of a sudden, a guy is shaving, and the Rapture hits. His shaver falls into the sink, buzzing there, and his wife comes in, and he's gone. She's screaming. I looked over at my kids, and their eyes were wide, and they were freaking out. Then all these different people get Raptured, and the Antichrist comes, and people are getting killed. They even show a guillotine and blood. It was intense. Finally, Jill said, "Dad, I can't take this anymore. I don't want to watch this anymore." So we shut it off.

We put the girls to bed, but in the middle of the night, Jill came by my bed. I asked, "Oh, what is it?" She said, "Dad, I cannot sleep. I am freaking out over that movie. Can I sleep with you?" I said, "Okay, come on in." I felt bad; it was supposed to be a night of fun, but it turned into a night of fear. About an hour later, I heard a sick little voice. We had two bedrooms upstairs: Amy slept by herself, and Jill and Sarah shared a bedroom. I heard Sarah crying out to me, "Daddy!" Just a sick little voice. I thought it might have just been a bad dream, so I said, "Well, maybe it'll go away." But it didn't go away; it just kept coming, "Dad! Daddy!" So I got up, went into her room, and there was Sarah, shaking like a leaf. She was so scared. She said, "Daddy." I asked, "Sarah, what's wrong?" She said, "Daddy, Jill's gone." I replied, "Jill's not gone; she's in my bed." She insisted, "Well, I'm not sleeping in here by myself, okay?" So she ended up sleeping with me, and Jill slept with Debbie. Nobody got any sleep that night. I've never forgotten that picture of fear on her face.

Now, we are in a series called "Facing the Giants." We've talked about the giant of discouragement and the giant of shame. Today, we want to talk about the giant of fear. Lots of times, you see athletes wearing shirts that say "No Fear." People think they're pretty tough. They wear a T-shirt that says "No Fear." The truth of the matter is, everyone gets afraid. You do; I do. The guy wearing the "No Fear" T-shirt does. Fear is just something that we deal with. Webster defines fear as a strong sense of personal danger, whether real or imagined. We have all kinds of fears. We fear the future, change, failure, the unknown, rejection, and criticism. Many people have physical fears; they fear going to the doctor and getting the report that says they have cancer. We have family fears; we fear that our marriage might crumble. Kids fear that their parents are going to get divorced. Often, moms and dads fear that their children will go haywire or that their children will die. There are also financial fears; many people fear that they'll lose their job or go under. Single people, especially single women, fear that they'll never get married. I had a lady going through a separation in her marriage tell me once, "Jeff, I'm so afraid that I'm going to grow old alone." That's a big fear.

The Bible clearly says that God has not given us a spirit of fear. God doesn't want us to live life paralyzed and plagued by fear. The Lord wants us to face the giant of fear and defeat it by the power of His Spirit and by the power of His Word. In 2 Samuel, chapter 21, we'll read one verse today: verse 18. The Scripture says, "Now it came about after this that there was war again with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibakai the Hushathite struck down Saph, who was among the descendants of the giant." This is just a short little one-verse story about a guy named Sibekai who defeated a giant named Saph. What can we learn about fear from this story? Three truths.

Truth number one: fear is a thief. This is the third giant that David and his kingdom, his men, have had to face. We read about Goliath and Ishbi Benob; that giant represented discouragement. Now, here's the third giant. David is not fighting him, but one of David's mighty men, Sibechai, is fighting this giant. The giant's name is interesting: Saph. Not "staph," like an infection, but "Saph." The word "Saph" means to snatch away or to wait at the threshold. That's what fear does. Fear is one of those things that waits at the threshold to snatch away from us, to steal from us. Fear wants to steal and lurks in the shadows at the threshold to steal away your peace. Have you ever noticed how fear does that? When your heart gets fearful, there is no peace. Jesus said in John 14, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful." The Lord gave us peace. That's your birthright as a child of God. That's your gift as a child of God: peace. But when you allow your heart to get fearful, you lose your peace. Fear comes in and snatches away your peace.

When you lose your peace, you know the word for peace in Hebrew is "shalom." That word means peace and is also translated as well-being. But when you get fearful, fear steals away your peace and your well-being. Many people today are so fearful that they have ulcers, colitis, and insomnia; they can't sleep because they're too afraid. When I was a kid growing up, I watched my share of scary movies. Those scary movies would haunt me at about 2 o'clock in the morning. I would invariably wake up at that time, and I don't know why, but I always did. When you wake up at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, you start to hear all sorts of stuff, don't you? You hear certain creaks in the house that you've never heard before; they're just there. At that hour, all these creaks and little sounds make your mind race. For me, I just knew what it was: that sweet dear boy from Camp Crystal Lake, Jason, had found out where I lived, and he was at my door, ready to kill me. It scared me to death. I couldn't sleep; I was so scared my heart would start racing. It was over; it was curtains.

You might think, "Well, that's dumb." But what's your "Jason"? What do you wake up in the middle of the night fearing? Your health? You just know that you have this terrible, horrible disease and you're never going to get better. You wake up in the middle of the night and fear for your children, just knowing something bad is going to happen. I talked to a dear lady just today, and she said, "I struggle with fear. I fear something bad is going to happen to my husband or my child." Maybe you wake up in the middle of the night, and your "Jason" is your finances or your job situation. "What am I going to do? How am I going to make it?" You can't sleep. Fear steals away your peace, your shalom, your well-being.

But not only does fear lurk to steal your peace, it also lurks to steal your confidence. When fear comes in, you lose all confidence that you're ever going to be able to succeed. You start thinking in terms of failure; you think in terms of "can't." I remember when I was a senior in high school. I played basketball all through school. The very first game of the year, we were excited. We had a good team; we had played a varsity schedule my junior year, and I was one of the top three players on my team. I remember that first game; you always have butterflies in your stomach when you're playing basketball, but for some reason, mine didn't go away. Early on in the game, I was fouled and went to the free-throw line to shoot free throws. My first free throw? Airball. Man, that's something nobody wants to do. Anyone who plays basketball knows you don't want to airball a free throw; it's better to shoot a brick and hit something. But I airballed it. All the guys on my team started laughing; my coach was cracking up. He thought it was so funny. I tried to laugh it off too, but that stuck in my head for the whole year. I ended up shooting less than 50% at the free-throw line that year. Every time I got fouled after that, I thought one thought: "Don't airball." That's not a good thought when you go to the free-throw line. I lost all my confidence.

Peter had that happen to him too. Peter was the one who saw Jesus walk on the water. He said to Jesus, "Lord, if it's really you, command me to come to you on the water." Jesus said, "Come on, Peter." So he got out of the boat and started walking on the water. Things were going great until the Bible says, "Seeing the wind, he became afraid and began to sink." He lost all his confidence—all his confidence in the Lord's Word, all his confidence in what he could do in Christ, and he began to sink. That's what fear does. Fear tells you, "You can't." When you allow fear to steal your confidence, you end up staying in the boat. You end up saying, "I don't want to get fouled because I'll go to the free-throw line and might shoot an airball and embarrass myself." So you stay back; you let someone else play; you sit on the bench. Fear does that.

Fear steals your peace, your confidence, and your potential—your potential for all that you can do and all that you can be for God. Do you remember the parable Jesus told about the talents? The wealthy master went on a trip and gave one servant five talents, another servant two talents, and another servant one talent. Do you remember what the one-talent guy did? He took his talent, which was a sum of money, and buried it in the ground. When the master asked for an accounting, the servant said, "I buried it in the ground." The master asked, "Why did you do that?" He replied, "Because I was afraid." He was afraid to risk it. There was fear in his heart, and he didn't want to lose it, so he kept it in the ground. The other guy, the one with five talents, risked it and gained five more. The guy with two talents risked his two talents and gained two more. The one-talent guy was so afraid that he didn't risk it; he ended up losing all that he had. He was a total bust; he lost all his potential—all because of fear.

Now, I want to ask you a question. Think about this: What would you like to do in life? What is the dream in your heart? If you knew that it wouldn't fail, what would you do? How would you live? What venture would you enter into if you knew that it wouldn't fail? So much of the time, we play everything so close to the vest. Why? Because we're afraid. We're afraid this will fail, and we let our dreams die. Why? Because we're afraid. Some of you could be great witnesses for the Lord. You want to talk to your friends, neighbors, people on the airplane, and those you come in contact with about the Lord, but you're too afraid, so you don't. Some of you want to give to the Lord's work, but you're just so afraid you won't have enough. So you don't, and you miss out on the blessings associated with that. Some of you could sing, but, oh, you're just too afraid. Some of you could teach, but you're just so afraid you can't do it. God might be putting it in your heart to start a business, to do something really out of the ordinary from what you're doing now. God wants to bless that, and He has put that in your heart, but you're so afraid that you bury it in the ground. You bury that dream in the ground, and you don't let the Lord do what He wants to do because of fear.

Saph means to snatch away, to wait at the threshold, and snatch away. Fear is a thief. But truth number two: not only is fear a thief, fear is a liar. Fear lies to us. I think it was Zig Ziglar who said this: "Fear is false evidence appearing real." F.E.A.R. - False Evidence Appearing Real. That is fear. We look at the evidence and say, "Well, it must be this; it must be that." Then we take all that evidence and come to false assumptions because we just think, "Well, that's the way it is." When I would wake up in the middle of the night and hear those creaks, I just assumed, I took that evidence and said, "That means Jason's here." I want to tell you, Jason has never come to my house. Never. It was a lie. It was false evidence appearing real. Fear lies to us.

Speaker 1

And in just a moment, Pastor Jeff Shreve will return on from his heart as he continues the message the giant of fear with an example of just that. A man who examined the circumstances surrounding himself and unfortunately followed his fear to a terrible conclusion. You know, there are many giants that we all face, like the giant of anger or lust or guilt, insecurity, discontentment, and worry, among others. Are any of those on the attack in your life?

Well, Pastor Jeff Shreve has an inspiring seven-message series called "Land of the Giants" that addresses how to deal with your biggest problems. In this series, along with the booklet "When You Don't Like Yourself," are our two gifts of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount. These lessons will help meet you where you are in your hurts and will bring lasting healing to your heart. Just call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) or go online to fromhisheart.org and request the series "Land of the Giants" and the booklet "When You Don't Like Yourself." You can get them in the format of your choice when you make that gift today to From His Heart.

Remember, when you do give this month, you're also helping us launch a new initiative with Pray.com to have our radio and TV broadcasts translated into Spanish and Portuguese to reach a unique population around the world. What an opportunity for us to invest in kingdom work for people that we'll meet in heaven again. To join us in this effort, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) or go online to fromhisheart.org. We'll send you these resources as our thanks.

Now, let's conclude Part One of the message "The Giant of Fear." Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 2

A story just this morning about a man named Nick. He worked at the railroad. He was working with cars and he had a job doing that. He was a very good employee, but he was very negative. He always looked at situations negatively and he was given over to thinking the worst.

Well, one day they were going to have a party after work with all the guys that worked at the railroad yard, and so they were quitting early. The guys were all getting ready to leave early, and Nick somehow got caught in a refrigerated rail car, and the door locked behind him. He didn't know that. When he went to leave, the door was locked, and he began to yell and scream for somebody to let him out. But all the guys had left, and nobody could hear his screams. He began to pound on the door, pounding so hard that his hands started to bleed. But nobody heard his cries; nobody heard his pounding.

Then he started to look around. He said, "I'm in a refrigerated boxcar. I don't know what the temperature is, but I imagine it's gonna be 5 degrees, 10 degrees. It is so cold, and it's getting colder." He had a little piece of paper that he found, and he had a pen in his pocket. He began to write out notes, saying, "I don't think I'm gonna make it. It is so very cold." He was chronicling his experience in that.

Well, the next day they came to work, and they opened that rail car, and Nick was dead. He died from freezing. But you know what was interesting? They did a check on that rail car, that refrigerated boxcar. The refrigeration system didn't work. It wasn't 5 degrees or 10 degrees; it was 61 degrees in that car. He thought in his mind that the temperature was below freezing, and he willed in his mind his body to freeze to death.

It was false evidence appearing real. Fear is a liar. A liar, and fear causes you and causes me to make bad decisions. Listen, if you ever are faced with a decision and fear is entering into the picture, don't do what fear says to do because fear is a liar, and it will cause you to make bad decisions.

Speaker 1

Do you find yourself being tempted to pay attention to your fears today? In the conclusion to this message, on Wednesday, Pastor Jeff will lay out the practical, biblically based and unfailing plan for defeating fear with faith. Join us next time for part two of the Giant of Fear.

Well, we're going to close out today with a timely and appropriately heart-changing verse from Isaiah 41:10. It reminds us: "So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Well, that's a wonderful thought. To conclude today's message, the Giant of Fear, be with us on Wednesday for part two. Join us then as we share real truth, real love, and real hope. From his heart.

Speaker 2

There is tremendous truth There is bless, there is hope that you always dream of. He can heal every scars of Real truth, real love, real hope. From his heart.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener-supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at promisheart.org.