Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. I want you to look at verse 7, if you will. You say, preacher, we've been learning this.

I want you to look at it today. I started a while back for having us learn this verse in anticipation for this particular message. Today I'd like to preach on the giant of fear.

You say, well, I don't really understand how that would be in the list of giants. Listen to me, dear friend, I do not know of one thing that is more applicable to your day-to-day life than this. And so I want to look at verse 7, if you will. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear. That phrase, spirit of fear, you'd have to kind of get, you know, if you get you a good Bible dictionary and maybe get you a good concordance, you'll find out that that spirit of fear basically means a lifestyle. It doesn't mean that there's not going to be individual periods of your life that you will not ever be as scared of something.

That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a defeated lifestyle. That means living in constant defeat because of fear of things, fear of individuals, fear of circumstances, fear of outcomes, and literally a life, it's a pattern that you have in your life of constantly being defeated. And the Bible says that God has given us life more abundant. The Bible says that God has paved the way for us to have a victorious life through Christ. Verse 7, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Now listen to me. That phrase, spirit of, means almost lifestyle, a habit, a way of thinking. And he's saying this, that God has not made possible in your life for you to have a habit of, to get in the groove of, and have a lifestyle of being defeated, being overcome.

He said this, but of. That means this, God has made it possible for you not just to have power, not just to have love, not just to have a sound mind, but to have a lifestyle of it. A pattern of it. You're able literally to have a habit of having power and love and a sound mind. God's made that possible. But unfortunately, many times we live in fear.

Don't you think, well, just because of the earth ending, that's one thing, but that's not what I'm talking about solely. A life of fear. Father, pray you'd help us this morning. In your name we pray.

Amen. You know, there's a lot of fear of things. I don't know if you've ever, I want to give you a couple of things.

You've heard of a couple of these. Does anybody here know what mysophobia is? M-Y-S-O, mysophobia. It is the fear of dirt. Anybody suffer?

I guess you wouldn't tell me if you did. You could guess this, hydrophobia. The fear of what? Water. I don't know how they would term the fear of deodorant because some of you suffer from that.

No, I'm just joking. Called el stinkophobia or something like that. I don't know. Anybody know what nyclophobia is? The fear of darkness.

Some say night. Anybody know what acrophobia is? Not arachnophobia. Acrophobia. The fear of heights.

That's where we get the word acrobats, obviously. The fear of high places. There's one called taxophobia.

Now, I know what you think that means. Taxophobia is the fear of being buried alive. We all have that, don't we? Who wouldn't be scared of that? There's one called xenophobia.

It's spelled with an X, X-E-N-O, but it's pronounced xenophobia. That is the fear of strangers. A lot of people suffer from that, by the way. There's one called necrophobia, and that's the fear of what?

Of the dead. I think a lot of us have that, too. Obviously, the fear of confined places is claustrophobia, but I found one that I had never heard of. It's triskaidekaphobia. And it is the fear of the number 13. And whoever suffers from that is going to have a really hard year next year, can I tell you that?

All God's people said, it's going to be a rough year for them. Wouldn't it be great, wouldn't it be nice to go through life without the fear of anything? You know, there's some things that the Bible teaches us, and I want us to look at it. This morning, can I say this, that God has made it possible for you to have a victorious lifestyle.

I didn't say a lifestyle that doesn't have difficulties and problems. And, you know, if you watch TV enough, and some preachers on TV enough, they'll tell you that, you know, you're just supposed to speak into your life and you never have problems. You know, don't listen to all of that.

Listen to me. God has made it possible that you and I can make a habit of experiencing God's power, God's love, and a sound mind. I want you to notice number one this morning, we do not need to fear ourselves. You're like, what do you mean, preacher?

Well, it means a number of things. And I put these verses up on the board because it's a lot of turning, but I felt like the Word of God needs to be quoted today. It needs to be said, it needs to be heard, it needs to be seen.

Because do you know sitting right in an auditorium this size, half the time people won't even realize what the person sitting next to them is struggling with in their life. I'm talking about the matter of discouragement. And oftentimes you and I, we're just so scared because we just know it's not going to take much to get us discouraged. I think if I had to be honest that maybe I suffer from this a little bit. And I might have a weakness a little bit in this area that, you know, God's given victory, but, you know, there's just certain things that I guess discourage me and certain things that make me feel unworthy or failure or whatever the case might be. But can I say Luke 21, 34 says, Be to yourselves lest at any time your hearts, notice this, be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and, what, cares of this life. He's saying this, you've got to be careful because if you're not careful, the cares of this life, things that can literally overtake you. You don't have to be scared of yourself. You don't have to be scared of discouragement because God has given you inside of you if you've been saved, He's given you the Holy Spirit, which is able to take you beyond discouragement. It doesn't mean there's not going to be some discouraging things that happen in your life, but, dear friend, you don't have to live there. It doesn't have to be a lifestyle.

It doesn't have to be a pattern. I notice secondly it also speaks of weakness. Many times you and I are afraid to do anything for God because we're weak and we think I'm just not strong enough to do this. Many times there are folks that fight battles in their mind and sometimes they're so depressed and discouraged and then sometimes they're just not able to think and oftentimes through our own weakness we're scared of ourselves and we're scared to do anything for God.

Look at me, dear friend, Isaiah 41, 13, For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. I'm not trying to embarrass anybody here this morning. I hope that he wouldn't take that, but the last three or four weeks we've had a college and career class that we've started and we've been wanting to for a while and it's gone extremely well.

I couldn't tell you the encouragement it's been to a lot of them. We haven't even really announced it. We just wanted to start it and have it.

And Frank Newsome Jr., I talked to him about teaching this class. God laid him on my heart. And the first thing he said, I just don't know if I'm able. I just don't know if I'm able. Listen to me, dear friend, you need to be humble and you need to think that, you know what, I don't think I'm able.

I don't think I'm worthy. But look at me, dear friend, where we get into trouble is when we let our weakness keep us from doing what God wants us to do. This is what Frank said, I don't think I'm able and I don't know if I can do it, but I'm willing to do it.

If God's laid this on your heart, then I'll do it. Look at me, dear friend, we don't have to live, we don't have to live a life of weakness. We don't have to live a life scared to do anything for God. And often times what we often say, well I just don't think I have the ability. And what we're saying is I just don't want to do it.

Because it scares us. But can I say this, God says you don't have to fear, He will help you. And when you go through and do something what God wants you to do, He blesses it.

I think of the third thing of inability. Often times we're scared that I just don't have the talent and God leads your heart, maybe you want help in a Sunday school class or do this, we say I'm not good in front of people and I just don't think I'm able and I just don't think I have the ability. Isaiah 41, 10, fear thou not for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, I will help thee, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my what? Righteousness. That means this, you're not upheld by your righteousness, you are upheld by His righteousness. That means you are going to fail, but He won't. So don't depend on ourselves, don't base on whether we can do it or not based on our ability, we've got to base whether we can do it or not on God's ability. And I would ask you this, is God able?

Yes He is. You don't have to fear yourself. I think of depression. 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 that we've been quoting for weeks. It says that God hasn't given us a spirit of fear. Notice the end of this verse, but of a sound mind. You know the Bible says, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is what?

Stayed on thee. Dear friend, can I tell you something, depression's a real thing, and depression's a scary thing. I'm talking from experience. It'll get to the point that you literally just don't want to move, you don't want to get up. You just have no hope, you see nothing in the future that looks good. And dear friend, I know it's real, and I know that it's huge, but look at me, God has not given us that spirit. But He has given us a spirit of a sound mind.

I'm here to tell you, you don't have to be scared of yourself, you don't have to every time you turn around wake up scared of depression, because that is living a life of fear of our flesh. Look at me dear friend, God's not given us that spirit. He's given us power, and love, and a sound mind.

God's able. Second thing this morning, you don't have to fear not only ourselves, but secondly, and this is huge, you don't have to fear others. All God's people said right there? You don't have to fear others. I think first about criticism. You know the Bible talks about these things, you think it does? Oh yeah it does. John 18 verse 6 says this, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear what can man do unto me.

Did you hear that? The Lord is on my side, I will not fear. What can man do unto me? Look at me dear friend, what's the worst that a man could possibly do unto you? You say kill me, all right? Puts you right in the presence of God.

What's the worst that a man could possibly do to you? Doesn't mean you're not smart, doesn't mean you can't carry a gun, it doesn't mean you're not prepared, doesn't mean you're not wise, it doesn't mean you just walk around being haphazard with your life. Look at me dear friend, but you do not have to live a life of fear. You do not have to be defeated every time you turn around. And by the way, you don't have to fear the criticism of people, because the Bible says the worst that they could possibly do to you is better than the best that somebody has without Christ. You say this, the worst day as a Christian is better than the best day of an unsaved person. The Bible says this in Isaiah 51 verse 7, Harken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revelings. Did you hear that?

Am I the only one that's excited about this? Can I tell you something, look at me dear friend, if you're doing what God wants you to do, you don't have to fear the criticism of people. Maybe you don't have the weight on you that I do, and it doesn't mean as much to you as it does to me. But can I tell you something, I struggle with this. I struggle with this thing, I don't want to disappoint anybody, I don't want to whatever, I don't want to this, and I have already found out that there's times that come when you're doing what God wants you to do, you're going to get criticized for it. I'm not saying that it's always wrong to be criticized, you know what, sometimes people's criticisms are correct. And I've already faced that. And they say things like, well, you know, they're right.

They might not have done it the right way or the right spirit, but you know what, they're probably right, and I need to work on that. But can I tell you this, that you don't have to walk around your life being scared half to death that somebody's going to criticize you for something. You don't have to be afraid. Look at me crying about church, you don't have to fear that.

Secondly, you don't have to fear confrontation. Psalm 27 one says, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? I notice secondly, Isaiah 54 says this, fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame. There's another verse in Numbers chapter 14.

It says, only rebel not ye against the Lord, notice this, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us, their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us, fear them not. Many times you say, preacher, I'm trying to live for the Lord, people keep fighting me and people at work, they're trying to make my life miserable, and they have my number, they have it out for them because they know I'm a Christian and they know I do this. Listen to me, dear friend, you don't have to walk around life in fear. You don't have to constantly think, well, I've got to change this and I better not do this because I'm going to have fear.

Listen to me, you just live for God, you just obey God, you just do what God's laid on your heart, you serve Him with the heart of love, you try to keep your life pure and right and holy before Him, you just do that. Somebody criticizes you, you don't have to fear it. If somebody confronts you and somebody challenges you, you don't have to fear that, you know why?

Because if you're obeying God, He's on your side. Thirdly, this is a big one, is rejection. You don't have to fear rejection of others. Some of you sitting in this building have been through a life of counseling, been through a life of turmoil, been through a life of struggling because you were rejected by a parent, rejected by somebody early in life, maybe even rejected by a husband or by a wife or whatever the case might be.

Can I tell you something? Nothing hurts you worse than the fear of rejection. Nothing hurts you like that. Nothing hurts you more than you realize people aren't buying what you're selling.

They have no interest in you. Can I tell you something? I also struggle with this and God's given me some verses. Psalm 56, it says, In God I will praise His word. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

But even more importantly, I want you to see and hear this verse. Proverbs 29, verse 25 says, The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be saved. Listen to me, dear friend, do you know it can literally cause damage in your life for your fear of rejection from others to influence your actions? For you to go around in life so afraid that you're going to be rejected, so afraid you're going to offend, so afraid that you're going to criticize, so afraid that they might reject you and not want you and not like what you do or what you have. Do you realize if we walk around through life so afraid by that everything we do, it's literally going to be a snare to us? I'm here to say, dear friend, you don't have to go through life like that. I struggle with it every day.

I'm always afraid somebody's going to reject this church or reject my leadership or reject me as a pastor. But can I tell you something? I can't help it. There's nothing I can do about it. But do what God calls me to do. And there's nothing you can do about it unless you just do what God calls you to do.

That's all you can do. We live our lives. Listen to me. And oftentimes we live our lives trying to gain approval of people that are not in God's will. We're trying to get people that don't have any Bible desire and we're trying to impress or please them.

Why would we do that? But we do. Dear friend, listen to me. We do not have to fear rejection from others. Fourth thing I notice is this, is retribution. Say, preacher, what are you talking about?

Listen to me. Dear friend, you do not have to go through life in fear that somebody that has done you or your family wrong will not suffer for that. You say, is that really a fear? Oh, yeah, it's a fear. You have people that somebody did them wrong, somebody's done something, and they will say, you know what, they never answered for it.

Nothing ever happened to them. They just seem to go on with life. Let me tell you something.

I've watched people that literally, it would affect their entire life from then on because they're so scared that something, that justice isn't gonna happen and this person's never gonna have this and I've seen it with husbands and wives and to have a wife that'll cheat on them and do all kinds of stuff and then she seems to go on and have life great and make him look bad and then I've seen the opposite too. Look at me, dear friend. Let me read you a verse. Isaiah 35 four. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, he will come and save you. Let me tell you something, dear friend, the best lawyer might get your enemy off but nobody can get them off from God.

The smoothest talking lawyer, the smoothest talking person, can I tell you something, dear friend? God knows the hearts, God knows exactly what went on every second of every day in that person's life. God knows what's going on in your life and can I tell you something? You don't have to live in fear that nothing's gonna be done. You don't have to live in fear nothing's gonna be said.

You don't have to live in fear that they're gonna go on and have a wonderful life and you're stuck with all the pain and suffering. Look at me, dear friend. If that was the case, God would be a liar. God said, I'll recompense. I'll take care of it for you. What a wonderful thing to be able to go through life without that fear to know God will take care of it.

Hebrews 13, six says, so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Look at me. I want you to get this before we go to the next point.

We're not far from being done but I want you to get this. We fear man so much because we fear God so little. Are you looking at me? We fear men so much because we fear God so little. If we were as afraid of displeasing God as we are about displeasing men, we would live differently.

Look at me, folks. We are afraid of the wrong person. Third thing I want you to know is this, not only do we not need to fear ourselves, not only do we not need to fear others, but thirdly, we do not need to fear life.

Say, preacher, what are you talking about? Can I tell you something? Life can be hard. There's things in life sometimes that's not so wonderful. It's called sickness. It's called circumstances. It's called difficulty. It's called trials. And oftentimes, I've watched Christians that just couldn't seem to get over that hump, couldn't serve God and enjoy serving God because they're just so scared of all that's gonna happen in their life.

Now, I think first of circumstances. Can I tell you something? If you let yourself, you can talk yourself into the fear of everything that might possibly happen to you. 1 John 5, 4 says, for whatever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. That verse tells us that whatever this world throws at you, God can overcome that. You do not have to live in fear of circumstances. You do not have to live in fear of what might happen. In fact, you don't even have to live in fear when it does happen. Because God wouldn't have allowed it if it was too much for you to bear. And God would not have allowed it if He didn't know that it could help you and make you stronger. And by the way, God's also promised whatever you go through, He'll never leave you nor forsake you. We don't have to fear circumstances.

Secondly, we don't have to live in fear. I'm telling you what, you remember back when 2000 came? Man, everybody had, you know, they were putting up basements and canned goods and buying food. I knew one lady in Winston, man, she bought all these buckets of food and what's his face on TV now?

I'm not trying to criticize, I'm just saying. Used to do the PTL. What's his name? Jim Baker. He sells these big buckets of like 50 meals for end times and different things. Hey, guess what?

I'm out here. That's the nice thing about believing the Bible. When the Bible says the pre-tribulation rapture, I ain't gonna need the buckets. I'm gonna eat out of his buckets. I don't need Jim's buckets, okay? I don't need to eat powdered eggs.

I'm gonna be feasting at the marriage supper of the lamb, you know? I don't need all that. But look at me. Remember back in those days, man, we were setting up king?

Nothing wrong with king. Don't get offended. It was like, my preacher's against cannon. No, I'm not against cannon. I'm against throwing away a perfectly good Krispy Kreme donut.

That's what I'm against. But I mean, man, we had stuff and got generators and blah, blah, blah, and some people cashed out every bit they had and got the cash and all this stuff. I remember brother Joe and he had a generator and he had canned goods. He had some other stuff there and he had all this stuff set up at this house and he asked me, it was about two weeks away from 2000 it was gonna turn and all the computers were gonna shut down and electricity is gonna be gone forever. All this stuff, you heard all these things and he said, Daniel, have you done anything to prepare? I said, yes sir, I have. He said, great. He said, what have you done? I said, I got enough gas to get from my car to your house. You've done it all for me. Honest to God, I'm telling you the truth and he kind of looked and he said, well, yeah, you can come on over then.

I said, brother Joe, I found this to be much easier. Let me tell you something. We do not have to fear the unexpected and the unexpected. Proverbs 3 25 says, be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh. You don't have to be afraid of what's gonna happen suddenly. You don't have to be walking around in fear of all this. Look at me, if it does happen, God's with you when it does. If it does happen, God's not gonna put on you more than you can bear and so don't go through life fearing if it might happen or might not happen, just serve God and let him take care of it. Walk out of this building, get rid of your fear and live a life of victory through Christ.

Third thing is safety. Now I know I'm preaching to a bunch of gun carriers. Matthew 10 28 says, and fear not them which kill the body. Listen to this verse. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Does it mean you're not supposed to carry a gun?

No, it doesn't mean that at all. I hope you carry a gun. The way I preach, somebody's gonna try to shoot me before too long.

You say, why are you so fat? Because it takes a while for a bullet to get, this is self-defense right here. I'm gaining layers so that it'll stop the bullet. I know it's coming. I hope you carry a gun.

I hope you do it legally, obviously. Listen, I hope that if anybody tries anything at this church, it'll make news how many men take care of that before the preacher has to. I really do. You know how Walmart has plainclothes policemen? We got a whole bunch of them right here.

We got a whole bunch. Can I tell you something? I'm for all that, but you do not have to walk around fearing your safety because when it comes right down to where the rubber meets the road, it's up to God. Your safety depends on Him, not your gun, not your friends, not anything else but God. And this is what the Bible says.

Hey, you wanna be wise? Don't go around fearing all these that can only kill the body. Hey, if somebody killed your body, they cannot kill your soul. If you're on your way to heaven and they kill you, they cannot take heaven away from you.

All they've taken away is the pain and suffering of the earthly body. But let me tell you who we ought to fear, and that's the person that can destroy both body and soul. We're afraid of the wrong people. I want you to notice, lastly, we do not need to fear death. We don't have to fear ourselves, we don't have to fear others, we don't have to fear life, and we don't have to fear death. Psalm 23, a very well-known passage speaks of this. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Why? For thou art with me. Listen to me, dear friend, you don't have to fear death if you're a Christian. And you know what, and I shouldn't even say this, it should be understood what it means to be a Christian. You do not need to fear death if you've been saved by the grace of God. Some people think, well, I'm a Christian, no, I go to church, that's a Christian. No, you gotta be saved, that's what we're talking about. Not live a Christian life, have Christ in your heart.

Can I tell you something? You don't have to fear death. You don't have to fear, it is almost hilarious, some of you, to watch the media, watch movies, on how they're trying to speculate on what might happen after death. You ever watch that, like on NBC or something else, and they're having all these debates, and they talk to all these, somehow, these so-called Bible professors at non-Bible universities. And they're the experts on everything, and they're talking about is there a heaven, is there a hell, what happens after death, do you see a light, do you do this, do you go through all this?

Listen to me, dear friend, you do not have to fear death. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. And God bless you.