Leading The Way

Dr. Michael Youssef: I believe with all my heart that there is a very important lesson that the Lord Jesus wants to teach every one of us today, and it is this: that faith conquers fear every time. That faith defeats fear every time. Trust in the God who is trustworthy. Trust in the God who keeps His word even if the world turns upside down. Trust in the God who has your best interest at heart.

Guest (Male): Thank you for making time in your day for Leading The Way, the Bible teaching of international Bible teacher and evangelist Dr. Michael Youssef. Has fear invaded your life? Maybe it is because of some financial struggles or medical challenges or relationship issues. Well, the fact is we know that when fear enters one area of life, it can quickly invade all.

Today, Dr. Youssef offers freedom from fear, first looking at how fear cripples but also how fear can empower. Dr. Youssef is taking you to Matthew chapter eight where a storm on the Sea of Galilee overcame the disciples with fear, even when Jesus was right there with them. So let us listen together as Dr. Michael Youssef begins.

Dr. Michael Youssef: There are things and there are times in life when we do face fear, when we experience fear. I am not here to send you on a guilt trip or tell you that you must never experience fear whatsoever. That would not be true. Listen carefully, please. I am here to tell you that allowing your fear to become your daily companion is wrong.

I am here to tell you that living in constant fear is not only a sin for those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, but it has such physical, psychological, and spiritual harmful consequences that you do not want to live in that way at all. Living with fear can hold you in a mental prison, literally. Persistent living in fear is going to impact all of your relationships. It is going to distort your view of reality.

It is going to distort your view of God. When your view of God is distorted, Satan will come in and he will find this to be his opportunity to take you away into a spiritual ghetto where he can have his way with you. That is precisely why the Bible is filled with, "Fear not, fear not, fear not." Whenever God said, "Fear not," He always gave you the reason why.

In 1 John chapter four, verses 16 and 17, "Fear not." Why? Because God loves you. In Psalm 139:10, "Fear not." Why? Because God holds you. In Psalm 121:5, "Fear not." Why? Because God keeps you. When God said to Abraham, "Fear not," He said, "Because I am with you." When He said to Isaiah, "Fear not," He said, "Because I have already redeemed you and delivered you."

God never says to us in His word, "Get rid of that fear. You have no business being afraid," or, "Get rid of that fear out of your life." In fact, Timothy was a very fearful young man and he was showing it in his life. That is why the Apostle Paul never once said to him, "How dare you? A budding preacher like you, a good gifted young man like you, a man of God like you has no business fearing." Absolutely not. You cannot find that in the scripture.

In fact, he just said to him, "Timothy, remember that when you experience fear, check your spiritual temperature. When you experience fear, go and check the gauge, the fuel tank of your faith. Check and see who you are listening to. Check and see who you have been hanging out with. Check and see who has got your ear. Go and check and see your thought pattern. Check and see your life goals."

Paul, of course, did not say all of that. I am just interpreting it for you. Here is what he said. He said, "Timothy, did you know that the spirit of fear is not from God?" What does it mean? It means that when a spirit, whether it be the spirit of fear or any other demon, is not from God, then it must be from Satan. There is no third source. Any spirit that is not the Holy Spirit is a spirit from Satan.

That evil spirit from Satan can overwhelm you every time. He can dominate your thought pattern. He can overcome you whenever you are not walking with the Lord closely, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The same goes with the spirit of lust and the spirit of greed that is destroying the world economy today. It is the same with the spirit of addiction that has many people enslaved in its grip.

Any spirit that is not from God and all of these spirits are not from God, therefore must and have no place in the life of a child of God. But if you hang out with God mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically even, these spirits will take off. They will not hang out with you for very long. If you fill your mind with the promises of God that are found in the Word of God constantly, those spirits will take off.

If your life's focus is the glory of God and the serving of God and ministering to others and witnessing for Him in your workplace, those spirits will take off. But if you hang out with the prophets of doom and gloom, if you listen too much to the merchants of panic, if you are daily immersed in the murky water of this world, if you spend few minutes a day in prayer and reading the scripture then spend hours listening and reading all of this bad news, then that spirit which is from Satan is going to cover you like a wet blanket.

Let me get to the bottom line. The bottom line about fear is this: it is distrusting God. Most fear, and I am not saying all of fear, I am saying most fear is based on what if, what if, what if, what if? That is why most fear is irrational. Now I want to show you from the Word of God, from the scripture, how the Lord Jesus was teaching His disciples not to hang out with the spirit of fear.

Turn in your Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter eight, beginning at verse 23. A very short passage, five verses. Basically, the disciples and Jesus, after a long hard day of ministering, got into a boat. Jesus, being bone-tired and exhausted, went to sleep right in the boat. Meanwhile, an unprecedented storm came. Can you say that word with me? Thank you. It is very important because most of us read that passage and run with it.

It was an unprecedented storm. They have never experienced anything like it. They had never seen anything like it in all the years on the Sea of Galilee, in all the years of fishing, in all the years of knowing that place backwards and forwards. They had never seen anything like this. So that unprecedented storm threatened to capsize the boat, and they were going to drown right in the middle of the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night.

The waves were just tossing that boat like a cork on the water. So they yell out, "Jesus, we are perishing! Master!" The one thing that sticks out in my mind in this whole incident is the fact that Jesus would not still the storm first and then rebuke them second. He does not do that. I know the story is familiar to so many of us, if not all of us, but please do not allow your familiarity with the incident to rob you of a new insight from the Word of God.

First, if anyone should be afraid and terrified, it is the person that is about to drown in the middle of the water in the middle of the night. If they had any right to be afraid, these folks should have been afraid. I want you to translate this into your life, whatever is going on in your life. What goes on in your life and in my life are very different. So translate that situation to your life.

What is causing you to fear? What is threatening the boat of your life right now? Is it your business that is going under? Is it your savings that seem to be vanishing? Is it your job that is being eliminated? Is it your marriage that is sinking? Is it your health that is tumbling? Is it your stocks that have taken a nosedive? Whatever it is that seems to be threatening the boat of your life today, you take those words and translate them to your situation. You will be blessed by the end of this message. Whatever is threatening to drown you happens often in the middle of the night.

Second, there can be no greater fear than the fear that comes upon us suddenly. No warning, no flashing lights. No one to say, "Watch what is coming, be prepared for this." Nothing. There is no greater fear than the sudden fear. There was no sign that a storm was brewing on the horizon. None. Otherwise, those veteran seamen would not have gotten in. The weather channel never predicted anything but smooth sailing.

The meteorologist said it is going to be a light breeze and beautiful sky. This storm came swiftly and with tremendous force. Third, they did not have life jackets. They did not have lifeboats. They did not have a mothership to retrieve to. They had no rescue plan. They had no backup plan. They had no plan B. Remember, there was no sign of a storm. Why would they make plans for anything like this?

Within a matter of minutes, their ship was being swamped by the roaring waves. Question: where was Jesus? Now, there was a time when they were in the middle of a storm and Jesus was up in the mountain watching, but this time He is in the boat. He is right there with them. But He was sleeping through it all. God's greater purpose in mind, namely to demonstrate the power of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's only anointed, over nature.

When He healed the diseases and healed the sick, He demonstrated His power over disease. When He raised the dead, He demonstrated His power over death. When He exorcised the demon-possessed, He demonstrated His power over Satan and all of his minions. And here He is demonstrating His power over the natural forces. But again, the amazing part is He rebukes the disciples before He calms the storm.

We would rather He stops the storm first before He teaches us the lesson. We want Him to answer our prayers first and then teach us whatever He wants to teach us later. But you know what? He is the creator. He made us. He knows us too well, far better than we know ourselves. He knows that once He gets us out of our fear, out of your fear, once He stills the storm in your life and in my life, once He delivers us from fear, we are not as willing to listen. We are not as willing to learn. We are not as willing to grow.

Try to use your imagination here. Imagine these guys who had never seen anything like it. They were absolutely terrified, seeing something they have never seen, never experienced before. And yet, the first thing Jesus said when they woke Him up was, "Why are you afraid?" Give me a break. Why am I afraid? Elementary psychology tells us that fear is the appropriate response to danger. In fact, somebody would think you lost your sanity if you are not fearful in a time like this.

That is not how Jesus saw it. He looks at them and says, "You of little faith." Faith? We are about to drown. We have never seen anything like this. What faith are you talking about? I know and you know that when you are going through a storm in life, the last thing you want and the last thing you need is somebody rebuking you.

Jesus is saying to them, "When you are fearful, you have so little faith. When you are afraid of things, you are not fearing God. When you are fearful, you have lost confidence in the God who loves you." Why? Because fear is to Satan what faith is to God. Fear is to Satan what faith is to God.

I believe with all my heart that there is a very important lesson that the Lord Jesus wanted to teach every one of us today and it is this: that faith conquers fear every time. That faith defeats fear every time. But the question is: what does Jesus mean by faith? Faith according to Jesus is not some sort of a vague notion of positive thinking or a stiff upper lip.

It is not some vague notion of possibility thinking. It is not some vague notion of a blind hope. It is not sheer willpower of, "I am going to get through this, I am going to fight this, I am going to win over this." No, no, no. This is not something you generate from inside of you. By faith, He is talking about an absolute, total, unqualified trust in Him. Did you get that?

Faith in the God who cares for you. Trust, absolute trust in the God who redeemed you and delivered you from eternal death. Trust in the God who is trustworthy. Trust in the God who keeps His word even if the world turns upside down. Trust in the God who has your best interest at heart. When Mark records this incident in Mark chapter four, verse 35, here is what he said. He said Jesus said to the disciples, "Let us go to the other side."

That is what He said. "Let us go to the other side." He did not say, "Let us go in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and drown." He said, "Let us go on the other side." And He is there in the boat, asleep. To be sure, He never promised an easy ride, but He promised a safe arrival. Listen, you have to understand that fear is the mother of all negative emotions. I do not care what it is that you dig deep; there is fear lurking in the middle.

Fear is the center of all negative emotions. Fear is the root of all negative emotions. That is why the scripture gives it such a wide press coverage. That is why the scripture gives it such big airtime. Because only faith can defeat fear every time. You are going to see it every time you read the scripture. Where there is an element of fear, there is faith. Psalm 34:4, "I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears."

Isaiah said in 12:2, "I will trust and not be afraid." Always one on one side and one on the other; when one is up, the other one is down. Hebrews chapter two, verse 15, "The Lord liberated us from the captivities of fear." What Jesus is saying to His disciples is, "Where is your trust in Me?" Where is it? Well, it was not there that night. Because faith defeats fear every time.

He is saying to them, "Had you exercised trust in Me, you would have conquered your deepest of negative emotions." I was thinking about this, and I was thinking about a very prominent man, a very significant man high up in society. A well-known man by the name of Jairus. He came to Jesus and he said to Him, and the Bible said he was begging Jesus, he said, "Please come. My 12-year-old daughter is sick to the point of death, and she is dying. Would you come and heal her, please?"

Jesus said fine and He went in the direction of Jairus' home. He was heading home with Jairus. He responded to his prayer. But here is the problem: Jesus was taking His sweet time getting there. Have you ever experienced that? Jesus always takes His sweet time. We are always in a hurry, but He is not. So Jesus gets waylaid.

Just put yourself in Jairus' place. Here you are on tenterhooks, literally. "Come on, Jesus, come on, come on. She is very sick. This is serious, Lord." And Jesus gets in and heals somebody here, talks to somebody there, prays over someone here. He is constantly getting waylaid. This poor man's heart is broken in two. Question: why was he afraid? Because he thought Jesus can heal his daughter but not raise her from the dead.

And so, sure enough, as he was begging the Lord, "Come Lord, come Lord," a messenger comes in. Like Job said, "All that I have feared has come upon me." A messenger comes in. "Do not trouble the Lord. Just do not trouble Him. Leave Him alone. Your daughter is dead." You can only imagine what washed over him at that time and at that moment. It is too late. It is too late, right? How many times have you thought it is too late?

Let me tell you something: it is never too late unless the Lord says it is too late. Did you get that? It is all over. She is dead. Jesus responds to this brokenhearted Jairus standing there thinking it is too late, it is over. In Luke chapter eight and verse 49, Jesus said to Jairus, "Do not be afraid." "Lord, what do you mean do not be afraid? My daughter died. I got the message. They said she is dead. The girl is dead. What do you mean do not be afraid?"

"Only believe and she will be healed. Do not be afraid. Only trust Me, and she will be healed." And sure enough, she was healed. What is Jesus doing? He is taking an opportunity, yet another one, in order that He may teach His disciples who are all with Him and walking with Him at the time, and teach Jairus and Jairus' messengers and servants. Everybody around He is trying to teach the same lesson over and over again. After all, He said He never promised an easy ride, but He promised a safe arrival.

Guest (Male): You have joined Leading The Way with international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Youssef. If you have allowed fear to take up space and authority in your life, the prescription for relief is listening to the entire Freedom From Fear series at ltw.org.

More than ever, technology is woven into all of life. Consider how, especially recently, schools and businesses have fully integrated tech to be the very backbone of their daily operations. Thankfully, as the world ramped up the use of tech, Leading The Way was already on the move, having prepared critical infrastructure for expanding the digital landscape of life and ministry.

Growing digital engagement all around the world continues to be one of Dr. Youssef’s highest priorities. Many of you have seen the updated Leading The Way app, offering ways to save notes, gain quick and easy access to My Faith Assistant, and provide enhanced search functions to make daily engagement with Dr. Youssef and Leading The Way just as easy as possible.

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This program is furnished by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world. Learn more at ltw.org.