"Faith Vs. Fear" 7/3/24 Pastor Benjamin Foster

well we're grateful for our being here on today for the Abundant the U Divine Encounter Church uh Ministries we're just glad to be here and for anyone who is viewing bya the internet we welcome you in Jesus name uh Divine Encounter Church our website is the www. Divine encounter church.net uh we meet on the Wasau Community College campus that's in an Arbor Michigan uh the Morris Lawrence building room ml150 is where we normally meet uh there are rare occasions where that we don't we're not able to meet there but that's generally where we are meeting at uh that's at 4800 East hon River Drive that's an Arbor Michigan 48105 Sunday 3 p.m. so when you're in the area do come by and visit us and see us in person we'll be glad to have you for this week for our Bible study we are going to continue to talk about the topic of faith and last week we dealt with taking action with your faith but this week we're going to go a little further we're going to deal with faith vers versus fear we're going to talk about faith versus fear we're going to compare the two and make sure that we have a clear understanding of the difference because faith and fear they just don't work well together uh so last week give it let's go do a brief recap last week we talked about uh taking action with your faith from Hebrews chapter 11 we went through a number of of verses uh we talked about how that without faith there's no guarantee of results you know if you really want results When you pray you you got to have faith and so without faith there's just no guarantee that you're going to get any results you got to have faith if you want results with God uh we gave the definition of faith as the Assurance of things that you hope for and the Very conviction of the Unseen realities of God's word conviction of things that are not seen that are from God's word we talked about how that faith is not hope hope is an expectation for the future but faith is having confidence in God's word now so you got got to make sure that you're not over in the dimension of Hope rather than Faith uh we talked about how that faith without works is dead now that you have to have the corresponding actions if you don't have actions that back up what you believe then you don't have real Faith because real faith is going to cause you to do something real real faith is going to cause you to take action it's not going to allow you to just sit still and do nothing but real faith is going to stimulate you and cause you to get active and do something so we want to have real faith we don't want to have just a m a bunch of words a bunch of talk we want to have real faith that stimulates us to do something for God and uh faith is going to motivate activity it causes you to become active it causes you to do things Faith motivates obedience to God it's gonna motivate you to obey God that's one thing about faith when you look at Abraham Abraham is noted as being a friend of God and the father of Faith he's like a father figure for us even today because had faith and that's what God was looking for and that's what God is still looking for and Abraham was motivated to obey God Abraham obeyed he did what God gave him to do he did what God wanted him to do why because his faith was strong in God and when your faith is really strong in God it causes you to get busy obeying God he was motivated to obey God and uh we dealt with Noah and other examples in Hebrews chapter 11 of people that got moved to do something people that were stimulated to take action because of their faith and so that's what we dealt with on last week now this week let's go on into the topic of Faith versus fear and uh we can read as an opening scripture from Hebrews chapter 11 uh Hebrews chap 11 verse one says now Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of Things Not Seen for by it the elders obtained a good report through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice and came by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts and by it he being dead yet speaketh by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was down because God had translated him for before his transl had this testimony that he pleased God verse six but without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him so faith is crucial to us as Believers faith is extremely important we've got to have faith without faith it's impossible to please God you just cannot please God without your faith so uh you got to make sure that you're a person of Faith you got to make sure that you genuinely believe God that you genuinely have faith in God you got to make sure of that because without faith you just can't please him you just can't get God's attention without faith so we got to have genuine Faith that's necessary for us as Believers genuine faith strong faith not just any faith but real Faith okay so uh let's open up with a brief word of prayer dear heavenly father in Jesus name we thank you for the Bible study this week and the time that we have to look into your holy word we value your word we Delight in your word we love your word now help us Lord God in the Bible study today to absorb your word oh God give us open eyes open ears to receive the truths from your word oh God I just pray that you would anoint my head with oil give me special Grace anointing favor wisdom to deliver your word effectively be with us and bless this Bible study to have a great impact that it would reach many people and many people would be able to view it and see it these rich blessings we ask in Jesus name amen okay so uh fear and faith is what we're dealing with and the differences between the two because they're definitely they're total opposites uh faith is trusting God uh but fear is not trusting God the basic definition of faith in a nutshell is that faith is trusting God a person that has strong faith really really trust God they just trust God they just somehow find a way to just trust him and believe him and to not doubt him they just trust him kind like a child trusts his parents you know you look at little children they trust their parents they're not concerned or fearful in any way that their parents are not going to tell them the truth they're not concerned in the in the least bit about their parents being deceptive towards them they just trust their parents somehow they just find a way to trust them they just trust what their parents have to say and so uh that's the nature of genuine Faith just just trust just like a child trusts his parents so that's what we have got to do we've got to be careful to make sure that we learn how to trust God in a very simplistic way in a very simplistic form just trust him don't be in any way fearful that God is going to fail you or that God is not going to come through for you but just trust God in a very simplistic manner just like a child trusts his parents that's what God is looking for from his people simple Faith there's something about that simple childlike faith that just gets God's attention and pleases God there something about that simple childlike faith that just causes God to take notice and it causes God uh to just uh look upon that given situation look upon that given person and honor their prayer so we got to learn how to do that we got to learn how to have that kind of simple Faith you don't have to make it complicated just trust God like a little child think about little children and their simplistic trust for their parents that's what faith is like but fear on the other hand is when you just don't trust God that's when fear really arises it arises because of the distrust towards God you just don't trust him you think that somehow God is going to fail you you think that somehow your circumstances are bigger than God you think that somehow the troubles that you're facing are just worst uh than God uh can handle and so uh this is what happens with people they get to a place where that they just don't believe that God can help them they don't believe that God is willing to help them they don't believe that God is going to help them they think that the circumstance that they're facing is just too big or they think that God just don't care this is the deception that's associated with fear another Point concerning fear is this fear is deceptive fear is deceptive fear will deceive you fear will trick you and cause you to have a false uh understand false uh vision of reality you just see things in the wrong way you won't see things according to God's word you'll just you'll just see things in a manner that is totally Incorrect and totally false why because fear has deceived you so we've got to be careful with fear it's very dangerous it's deceptive it's not trusting God and the reason that people that are given to fear don't trust God is ultimately that they are deceived they don't believe that God's word is to be trusted and they've been deceived so this is one of the weapons of our of our adversary fear fear that would cause us to miss out on the blessings of God and Faith uh is confidence in God's Superior power it's when you have confidence in God's Superior power you trust that God's power is going to Prevail and that God's power is going to win out you have genuine confidence in God and the greatness and the vastness of his power that's when you have genuine Faith You Got Confidence faith is trust in God but faith is also confidence faith will cause you to have Resolute confidence in the face of storms in the face of trouble in the face of great Danger horrific situations when those situations come your way fear will give you confidence fear I mean not fear but faith will give you confidence faith will give you boldness it'll give you confidence and it will give you boldness in those times it's confidence in God's Superior power but fear on the other hand is a lack of confidence in God's power you just you don't trust him like you should faith is believing God's word that's another way to look at faith faith is just believing God's word you see what God's word says you open the Bible for yourself and you read it you look into it and you just trust what it says you take God at his word because faith is just believing God's word faith just means that you just trust God and you take him at his word and you're not concerned about how things seem and how things appear you're not concerned in the least bit nope you're not concerned okay uh so faith is believing God's word but fear is believing the enemy's lies you have a you have a choice you can believe God's word or you can believe the enemy's lies okay which are you going to believe you're going to believe God's word which is eternal which doesn't change which is trustworthy or are you going to believe the lies that the enemy brings your way so we got to be careful and we got to make sure we got to just make sure that we believe God's word that our faith is in God's word and God's word alone that's where our faith has to be uh fear and timidity are not from God fear and timidity are just they're not from God the Bible says 2 Timothy 1 and7 for God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind God didn't give you a spirit of fear that word fear in 2 Timothy 1:7 is translated as timidity God didn't give you a spirit of timidity and timidity is a lower form of fear if God didn't give you timidity then he definitely doesn't give you fear he definitely doesn't give you fear that's not God's way there's no scripture in in God's word that tells you that you being afraid and walking around intimidated and fearful that somehow that is from God there's no scripture that tells you that instead God's word point you in the direction of being bold the righteous are bold as the lion that's what Proverbs 28 And1 lets us know the righteous are bold as the lion so uh boldness is God's nature boldness is God's way to be bold is to be brave to be bold is to be daring daring is what bold means god is looking for daring people dare to do his will that dare to just trust him just trust him just take him at his word and trust that when he tells you something that is reliable just take him at his word don't allow yourself to get over into the dimension of fear and timidity because it's not from God if God didn't give us the spirit of fear then who gave it to us what that tells you is that it had to have come from the evil one if God didn't give it to us the only other source would be the evil one the evil one is the one that sends us the deceptive spirit of fear the evil one is the one that sends us that spirit that oppes faith that stands against us believing God and causes us to just be intimidated causes us to question God's word causes us to wonder whether or not we can really trust it fully and completely that's exactly what fear does Fear works with doubt it's what it does okay we just got to always remember that if you got fear and timidity you got to realize it's not from God doesn't come from God okay first John 4:18 lets us know that fear has torment fear has torment that he that fearth is not made perfect in love is what the scripture lets us know okay he that fearth is not made perfect in love and it lets us know that fear has torment fear has torment fear has a way of tormenting us the literal translation of that verse is fear has punishment okay fear has punishment it torments you it punishes you is what it does there's a punishment that is associated with fear there is torment that is associated with fear if you really fall under the power of fear you'll be tormented by it it'll cause you all kinds of troubles in your life it'll cause you to think irrationally cause you to do foolish and silly things you're motivated by the wrong spirit you're under the influence of a spirit that's just not from God God didn't give us the spirit of fear fear has torment it'll punish you it'll torment you it'll cause your life to be miserable we look at King Saul Saul was tormented by fear and the fear that Saul had was fear of David and the blessing of God on David's life that's what tormented Saul he was just fearful that David was gonna take his position and David was going to sit on the throne that he hoped he could preserve for his children Saul wanted that throne to be passed down his family line he didn't want David to get it and Saul was concerned about his own preservation of power okay he became corrupted because of the power and his lack of character to handle the power he had a great gift and a great responsibility given to him but he just didn't have the character to to handle the gift didn't have the character to handle it so he's fearful afraid seeking to kill David fear caused him to act foolishly and irrationally that's what it caused SA to do it caused them to act foolishly and irrationally we don't want to function that way we want to have better sense than that we can't be governed by fear so fear fear is g to punish you is what it's going to do uh fear arises from doubt that's where fear really arises from that's where it stems from it's rooted in doubt you have doubt down on the inside of you and the doubt that you have causes you then to fear so doubt comes first and then from the doubt from the doubt arises fear fear in our hearts that's the way it works from the doubt comes fear and so the best way to stop yourself from falling into fear is you got to control your doubts you got to control your unbelief you got to make sure that you are not a person that is in any way governed by doubt you got to attack the doubt you got to fight against the doubt you got to control the doubt and if you can control the doubt you control the fear doubt is the root from which fear grows and what fear causes to happen if you let it get if you let it progress and you let it begin to manifest and move forward when you don't get rid of the doubt fear causes irrational thinking fear causes unreasonable thoughts unreasonable thoughts that thoughts that don't even make logical sense uh will uh dominate a person's mind that's controlled by fear here it will dominate their mind and cause them all kinds of trouble that's what happens uh when they are given to fear okay so irrational thoughts you know what I wonder if uh if something bad has happened because my son is two minutes late my daughter is 2 minutes late so maybe something bad has occurred maybe something uh Troublesome has occurred maybe they got kidnapped maybe something really bad has happened I don't know what it is but maybe just something really really bad bad something really bad has happened why because my children are two minutes late what is that that's irrational fear that's not even reasonable you shouldn't be fearful because your children are a little bit late you should be trusting God and trusting that the prayers that you prayed over your children are heard by God and that God is protecting them and God is preserving them he's keeping them and you there no reason for you to be fearful over minor things that happen in life oh you know what my boss walked by me and didn't say hi and since my boss walked by me and didn't say hi maybe is going to be bringing me to pink slip maybe my boss is going to pull me aside at the end of the shift and tell me you're you're G to have to let you go why because my boss walked by and didn't say hi see that's irrational that's not reasonable you're being tormented by fear fear is tormenting your mind and causing you to think things that are not even reasonable that don't make sense why would you jump to that kind of conclusion and this is what's happening in our world this is what's happening to many of us even in the church we're being tormented by unreasonable fears irrational irrational and unreasonable thoughts we've got to be careful that we don't allow ourselves to think that way okay fear what it does after it gets you into irrational and unreasonable thoughts if you hold on to fear and you keep going in that direction then fear opens a door for the evil one it opens a door for the evil one and the reason that it opens a door for the evil one is because you're not living by faith the Bible says the just shall live by faith that is the plan of God that's the vision of God that's the heart of God for his people is that we should live by faith when you're not living by faith you're not living in God's will you're not living in God's will you you've fallen short and you're opening a door to the evil one because you're fearful fear is a doorway is what it is it's a doorway that the devil uses to bring trouble and wreak havoc in our lives it's a doorway of Darkness it's a doorway uh of evil the devil loves it when people get over into the dimension of fear he just loves it when people do that get over into the dimension of fear because they're outside of the light they're outside of the perfect will of God they're over in The Realm of Darkness and The Realm of Darkness is the Dominion it's the domain of demons that's what darkness is darkness is the domain of demons light is the domain of God and his angels but Darkness sin the lack of faith fear distrust towards God that's the domain of demons and demons like it when they see saints of God get over on their territory they like it when they see God's people get over where that they can attack them get over on the domain into the domain of Darkness they like to see that they get excited when they see that you you're in our domain you're in our territory and that gives us a legal right to cause you trouble because you you've entered into our domain so we got to be careful to stay in God's domain okay which is faith we got to stay in the realm of Faith trust God believe God don't fear don't be afraid that oh the devil's gonna he's gonna get me or oh something really bad is going to happen to me just fearful afraid somebody's gonna do something real horrible to me I'm G to be betrayed and I'm G to be just uh I'm G to be left uh totally ruined everything's going to go down to nothing wake up and I'm gonna be totally bankrupt see fear fear we gotta always stay in the dimension of Faith your fear will open a door for the evil one and give him an opportunity to come in and cause you trouble it opens a door for him is what it does and what you fear consistently can become your reality what you fear consistently can become your reality you go around fearing a certain evil a certain trouble a certain uh bad circumstance you allow that to enter into your heart go into your mind and go from the Mind down into the heart and contaminate you on the inside deep down in your spirit and you get to the place where that you consistently are fearful of something you're on dangerous dangerous uh territory that's dangerous territory when fear gets down into your heart because what you fear consist ly can become your reality it can end up manifesting in your life it Canna end up happening and you say how did this horrible thing happen to me you got to question yourself and say did it happen because I feared it did it happen because I was afraid that it was going to happen did I give the devil a legal right to attack me by being afraid and fearful intimidated did I allow the fear to get down into my heart and contaminate me see so it can become your reality if you're not careful this is what happened in job 3:25 that's exactly what happened with job the thing that he greatly feared he said has come up has come upon me so uh job according to the Bible he brought uh he opened a door to trouble in his life because he he feared he see he had great fear that something bad was going to happen to him he had great fear he said the thing that I feared greatly feared has come upon me so we got to be careful you can look that up in job 3:25 but he allowed that fear to get down into his heart and it I believe it contaminated him opened the door and we just got to be careful that we don't open door yours in that way so what happens is that fear is the opposite of Faith fear brings evil to pass that's what it does when we Harbor fear and hold on to fear and don't let it go fear brings evil to pass but faith on the other hand brings good to pass you want something good to happen something positive and that is according to God's word you want a blessing and something that's genuinely positive you have got to have faith faith opens a doorway for Heavenly blessings Faith opens a doorway for blessings to come from from Heaven to Earth when God wants to bring a blessing from Heaven to Earth he uses the doorway of your faith that's the doorway that he's going to use he's looking for Faith he's looking for evidence that you're trusting him and when he sees that you trusting him and you're believing his word he then moves and he can have a legal right of AC access to bring good from Heaven into the Earth he has a legal doorway of access through faith fear will bring evil to pass but faith will bring good to pass and so we got to be very careful with fear we don't want to bring uh realities Troublesome realities into existence we don't want to do that we don't want to allow ourselves to think that something evil is just going to happen to us something really bad is going to happen don't think that way no don't think that way don't allow that to even uh be something that you Ponder or meditate upon always believe that what God's word says is going to happen is going to happen trust that meditate on scriptures that speak about good the blessings of God Psalm 91 is a good passage for you to meditate upon and think upon consistently you know um meditation God's word is is something that helps to protect your mind it helps to protect uh your mind and your very heart if you would do it so you got to make it a part of your life you got you got to meditate in God's word the Bible says that we should meditate in God's word day and night Joshua 1 and8 this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but Thou shalt meditate therein day and night that th th mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou have good success we got to meditate in God's word get the word down on the inside of you David said Thy word have i hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee meditation is is powerful Psalm 1 says blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of Sinners nor sth in the seat of the scornful but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season his Leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper we got to get into meditation and that there's something about meditation in God's word you know what I do uh consistently now I found out that there's a benefit from sunlight when you walk outside early in the morning and the Sun is just coming up and the razors are starting to shine they say there's a benefit in that for your uh where that those Rays enter in through your eyes and have all kinds of good health benefits I said well let me start just going out for a few minutes they say all you have to do is like maybe five minutes in the morning go outside and in the morning sunlight and let those uh sun rays enter in through your eyes and it has a lot of great benefits for your health so I started to do that and I said well you know what that's a good time to start my daily meditation that's a good good time for me to meditate on God's word and get something good uh into my spirit that's a good that's a good time for me to nourish my spirit man with Biblical truth and so that's what I have made it my Habit to do start my day that way go get out there early in my day and uh walk for five minutes Let the Sun raise enter into my eyes and meditate on God's word and that nourishes my spirit man that feeds my spirit that's what it's about you got to feed your spirit your spirit needs nourishment your spirits food the word of God is your spiritual food it's that's what it is the word of God is your spiritual food the Bible says man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God we're not to live by bread alone in other words don't live by physical bread alone don't live by physical food alone that's what bread speaks of physical food man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God and so that's what we got to do we got to learn how to meditate in God's word for the benefit of nourishing our spirit and so that we don't fall into fear we got to combat this fear thing fear is a weapon of the enemy there's no uh it's not a shocker at all to me that terrorists use fear as a weapon that's what terrorism really is all about it's about using fear as a weapon you go and do something that's that terrorizes a nation something that causes people great fear and the thought is that if you do that enough the people will be willing to submit in some way to your demands people will be more willing to just give you what you want because they're tired of the terrorist acts that you bring against them terrorism okay you're using fear to try to control people so it's not shocking at all that they use fear in that manner because this is the work of the devil this is the work of our adversary he wants you to be fearful he wants you to be dominated by fear controlled by fear he wants you to walk to live your life with fear fear that you're not going to make it fear that God is not going to come through for you fear that trouble is going to Prevail in your life fear that something very bad is going to happen that's what the devil wants you to believe so we got to fight fear control fear overcome fear okay you overcome fear with the word of God you speak the word of God when fear arises within you when you find fear arising within you how do you get rid of it you got to speak the word of God you got to say fear get out of my way fear you got no right you got no right in my mind I'm a child of God and my my trust is in him I believe him my faith is in the true and living God and you have no right to invade my mind you gotta Kick fear out speak the word of God and trust God and keep fear out of the equation don't let fear be something that is in your heart or in your mind okay so it's a battle yes it's a battle fear is a battle and uh it's from the evil one it's not something that is good at all not something that's good at all we got to overcome I'm grateful for pastor Andrew Moore looks like he just dropped in for with us thank you for visiting on our uh video cast so we're we're we're just uh we we've covered a number of points here as we wrap things up the key is this you've got to make sure that you don't allow fear uh to bring evil to pass in your life you got to instead make sure that Faith brings good to pass in your life okay because what you fear consistently can become your reality as we bow our heads in a word of prayer dear heavenly father in Jesus name we thank you for your word today and this time of Bible study now help us to absorb these things help us to understand these things in a deeper way and help us Lord God to put them into practice in our daily lives be with us keep us oh God until we meet again we ask these rich blessings in Jesus name amen may God bless you in Jesus name oh