The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Fear Not

Episode Date: November 25, 2018

The person of Jesus overcomes the power of fear.

Amen, amen, amen. Would you do me a favor across all of our campuses, would you please stand for the reading of God's word? And since it is Christmas, and we're all watching Christmas movies, Luke 2 makes sense, right? Luke 2. In those days, a degree went out from Caesar Augustus, that all the world shall be registered. This was the first registration when Crenius was governor of Syria,

and all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the end. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them,

and to the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angels said to them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. May God add a blessing to the reading of His Word.

Go ahead and grab a seat. Man, on behalf of the Church 1122, to all of our saints and all of our campuses and to the podcasters around the world, may I say Merry Christmas. And you don't know the joy that that swells up with me. If you have not been engaging in the kind gifts of the Lord already, meaning Christmas music and Christmas movies, may I invite you to join us to take part of what the Lord has graciously given us. The Stone family, we're 10 to 15 Christmas movies in already. It started multiple weeks ago with

the Nutcracker in theaters. And let me tell you, we love it. We've got our Pandora channel about dialed in that it only plays the greatest of Christmas music, right? If you're not into Christmas movies and Christmas movies and music, stop being a Grinch and enjoy. It is the good and perfect gifts of the Lord, right? Amen. Man, you should, if you haven't, you should go home today. You should start watching Christmas movies. I would start with Home Alone and I would make sure you get to Gremlins. That's kind of the spectrum. Obviously, die hard, a couple of others, but you need to get in and over the next five weeks we're going to be studying this message, this proclamation from the angels. We're going to go word by word through this proclamation to fear not. For behold, I bring you good

news of great joy that will be for all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. So we're going to be digging in over the next few weeks, word by word. And today we're going to start with those first two words, fear not. And there is so much packed into those two little words. And we got to start with this question. Why did the angels start by saying fear not? Because there was something to fear. I mean, think about it.

The shepherds are out in the field. All right, it's dark, it's nighttime. The campfire, it's just a bunch of dudes around a campfire, doing what dudes do around a campfire. And if you don't know what that is, I can't tell you from the pulpit. You'll just have to ask somebody afterwards. But they're just kind of doing the dude stuff around the campfire. And then boom.

an angel of the Lord appeared to them. And the glory of the Lord, like big, heavy, weighty glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were filled with great fear. Now, we can't look at the shepherds like their wimps. These guys could kill a lion with a slingshot. But when the messenger of the Lord showed up, it shook them to their core. Now, we can shake our hands at the shepherds. And here's why, because in our kind of marketing culture we live in,

we kind of think of angels as like toilet paper mascots and skinny chicks in underwear. They're not. Like angels are not to be cuddled. I mean, the shepherds feared for their lives because the angels have been and always will be warrior messengers. So the angels show up and the shepherds, they soil their britches. And then the first declaration from the warrior messenger is this, fear not. It amazes me the power of scripture that nearly 2,000 years later,

those two words are as pertinent today as they were in that field with those shepherds. Fear not. And why is that? Because the reality is there are things to fear. I mean, look around you, watch the news, scroll through Twitter, unless you're doing it right now during the sermon, put your phone up. Pay attention. There are so many things for us to fear. From sickness to violence to natural disasters to personal insecurities to past pains over and over.

the list goes on and on. There's so much for us to fear. So I'm not going to waste your time today by trying to convince you there's nothing to be afraid of. There is. There's a lot of things to be afraid of. The problem is, is ignoring fear won't make it go away any more than ignoring B.O. on a teenager.

Once it's there, it's there. You can't ignore it. But the scripture over and over again, 365 times tells us the fear not. So what do we do? How do we handle fear when it turns our gut inside out? If you're in your, you're in Luke 2, do me a favor. Flip over a few chapters of Luke chapter 8. It's in your worship guide. We'll also put it on the screens.

We're kind of big fans of the Bible around here. So it's everywhere. Luke chapter 8, verse 22, says this. One day he, Jesus, got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them, let us go across the lake. So they set out. and as they sailed, he fell asleep. Now, here's the key to proper boat riding. The key to proper boat riding is finding a proper seat, right?

Now, if you get on the boat and the captain's like, hey, can you help me with that rope? Just say no. It's his job. I, you get the right seat, put your feet up and get comfortable. That's what Jesus did, right? He gets comfortable, and he gets this beanbag in the back of the boat, and Jesus gets snuggled in, and Jesus, he takes a nap. The disciples are kind of driving the boat, and he's taking a nap.

It goes on to say this, and a windstorm can't. down on the lake and they were filling with water and they were in danger. Now this isn't very uncommon on the sea of galley because of the altitude and the mountain range. The storms just kind of roll through the sea all the time and it would kind of make it a little bit dangerous to travel. These flash storms would just come running across. Now can you imagine the fear of the disciples are kind of out in this kind of like a rowboat? Like when you think boat across the sea of galley, they're not in this like 80 foot yacht. They're in this kind of rowboat kind of thing and this storm rolls through and they're using everything they can do. They get their hands, they get a

bucket and they're just trying to shovel water out of the boat so that they can keep the boat afloat. Now, falling asleep on a boat ride is not very hard. You just ask my five-year-old, my seven-year-old, when they're on their papa's boat, it ain't hard at all to fall asleep. But staying asleep in the midst of a storm is a skill that only Jesus has. Here's what happens. Verse 24. They went and they woke him saying, master, master, we are perishing. In other words, they go, hey Jesus, we're all dying here. Do you think you could like, can you wake up? So he wakes up. He woke and he rebuked the wind and the raging waves and they ceased. And there was a calm. I love it. When they wake Jesus up, he's not scared. He's scared. Why? Jesus isn't scared of some wind and some waves because he holds all of creation

in his hand. Everything in creation, including the wind and the waves of the storm, is such a subject to him. Don't miss this truth, church. Everything you and I could fear is already under his authority. What the disciples could not control, he already controlled. What you and I cannot control in our own human efforts, he has had under control for all of eternity. The wind and the waves, they died. A hush fell over the boat. And then in this stillness, Jesus looks at his disciples, is not missing an opportunity to teach them. And he says, where is your faith? Now notice, Jesus doesn't question the reality of the storm.

He doesn't question, was there something that you could have been afraid of? He questions why wouldn't they have faith in the face of fear? Jesus is asking, when you face fear, well, let's be honest, we all face fear on almost a daily basis. And if you're like, I don't face fear on a daily basis, well, good for you, Scooter. You're completely in denial of the reality in which the rest of the rest of the of us live, and I can't talk to you anyway, but for the rest of us who have an awareness of reality, we live in fear. And Jesus doesn't say, there's nothing to be afraid of. Jesus says this, when you face fear, where is your faith? You see, like the disciples, you and I, we're prone to

choose fear over faith. We're prone. We all have a tendency to choose terror over trust because we lose sight of the one who controls the waves in our world. Jesus is not saying there are not things to fear. He's saying this, when fear arises, trust and faith are always better options. And this is what happened. It goes on to say this. They were afraid and they marveled. Look at this closely.

The presence of fear becomes a gift to them from the Lord. The fear of the storm leads them to marvel at the one who calms the storm. Much like Romans tells us that his kindness leads us to repentance, fear in and of itself can lead us to marvel. Now fear, DeWebster tells us fear is an emotion that alerts us that something is dangerous and can cause pain. There are good fears, there are bad fears. I got this real fear.

I think it's a healthy fear that my girls will start liking orange. They'll go to Gainesville. they'll get a degree from there, get kicked out of the will and ruin their lives forever. That's a real fear. But then there's silly fears, too, like Georgia Tech would ever beat Georgia. Those are just their good fears and they're silly fears. But faith is the opposite. Faith is a reality that nothing formed against us can harm us.

Whenever storm you are facing right now, and if you're not facing one right now, praise Jesus. I imagine one could come. whatever storm you are staring at cannot stand against the presence of Jesus. You see, fear is this emotion that this could be dangerous and could be caused pain, but faith is the reality that nothing can harm us. Here's what I mean.

When we stare at something that could harm us and we're looking at something that really genuinely causes fear, it leads us to marvel at the fact that Jesus took all the pains this world could ever accumulate. He put them on his back. He climbed upon the cross. And in order to make us whole, he took on the pain, the sting of death, the weight of the world. And nothing in this world can overcome us.

Because through him, we are more than conquerors. Through his death and resurrection, we have conquered both sin and death forever. Or maybe I can encourage you by saying it this way. Properly placed fear leads to passionately purposed. worship. Properly placed fear leads us to a passionate, purposed worship. I love this. The position we find ourselves when we are in surrender is the same posture in which we worship. I mean this. When we raise our hands and we say, God save me, when he cry out, I can't overcome this on my own, God, please save me. We are already engaged in worship. We are already engaged in worshiping that he is

bigger than us and he is bigger than our storm when we throw our hands up and say this thing scares me. Abba, father, daddy, would you please pick me up and take care of me in that moment? The position of surrender is the posture of worship. Many of us are staring a storm in the face right now. This whole weekend, this whole morning, it's been causing, paralyzing fear in our life. My prayer for us is this. I've been praying for our church this prayer for a few months now. I pray that what you fear will fail to compare to the one you marvel at. I pray that when you find yourself in fear that you would look and go,

that is scary. That is legit. That is a genuine thing to be afraid of. And yet it fails to compare to the one that I marvel at. That storm is raging, the one who, is over and control of that storm is bigger than that storm. It's in this moment of worship. They're afraid and their fear leads to them being marveling at Jesus. In this moment of worship, they ask this question. Who then is this? That he commands even the winds and the water.

They obey him. Don't miss this. I think the reason Luke tells us this story is that he wants us to answer this question. Who is Jesus? Church, your response to fear is directly related to your answer of this question. Who is this man, Jesus? The way you answer the question, who is this man, Jesus is directly connected to your response to everything in this world that could cause fear. Answering this question, who is this baby that was born that changed all of history? Who is this man that had the power to control even the wild fury of God's nature? Who is this sinless man that was crucified on a cross for the sins of the world, including my own sins?

Who is this man that left the tomb empty? What Colossians would say this. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created, and in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. The way you answered the question, who is this Jesus, it directly affects the way you respond to fear. Now again, I want to remind you, I would never say there's nothing to fear. Just that there's nothing worth our fearing because there's nothing outside of his authority.

There is absolutely nothing that is not being held together by this man named Jesus. There is not a storm that is not subject to his kingship. Look, I get it. There are things to fear. There are real things that press in on us each and every day. Every single day, I've been there. I am there. If it was just insecurities alone,

I would never sleep. All of us have these things that we are constantly, constantly battling and fear against. There are legitimately things to fear. And fear and pain are respecters of no man. Here's what I know. Fear has come to knock at my doorstep often. Nine years ago, Blair and I were poised to celebrate our first Father's Day. And instead of talking about the child that would be coming,

my wife let me know that we had miscarried our first child. And for years, we tried to have children. Fear is real. I watched my dad fight a nasty cancer for 12 years. Fearing every single moment with him would be the last moment. Fear is real. Like so many of us here, we found ourselves, we bought a house in 2007 thinking it was the greatest thing you could ever do. and then 2008 came and said, nope.

And we found ourselves upside down in a mortgage. I mean, having your hopes and dreams held hostage to a busted economy can cause many sleepless nights fighting off fear. I'm always wrestling with a question. Did some decisions I make financially jack my family up? Fear's real. Well, I'd be honest with you, I think, for me, fear gets heightened in these seasons in which I believe God is calling me

to do something that is bigger than I can control. I think when I begin to lose control, fear begins to wage war against me. That's the reality for our family with this one initiative. And if you're new here, maybe you're in town just visiting this one initiative, this two-year journey that our church family is on. Over the next two years, we're committing our time, our talent, and our treasures, that we would be one church united across many campuses

so that one more person would come to know the Lord. and we are begging the Lord that one more generation, that what God is doing in us wouldn't be for us, but it would be for a generation to follow. And can I just tell you what God is calling me and my wife and my family to surrender to him? It's changing the rest of our lives and fear rises. Some of you right now are in this same spot. You've been wrestling for weeks.

You call this place home and you've had this card and you've been wrestling with this commitment card for weeks. You keep taking it home or bringing it back and going, this is the week I'm going to turn it in. And you start to fill it out, and you're like, I'm going to hold on to it one more week. Or maybe you haven't even been here last couple of weeks. You're just getting back home from some long vacations. If you call this place home, I'd encourage you. These cards are in front of everybody at all of our campuses. And it's an invitation to join what God is doing.

And I'll tell you this, for some of us, I've had conversations with you who said, I want to fill this thing out, but I'm scared. I think I know what God does. may be calling me to do, but who, can I just tell you this from personal experience? The joy of obedience is the sweetest and lightest feeling you will ever embrace. Delayed obedience is still disobedience, and I would encourage you, don't wait for the joy that comes with obedience. Go ahead. Go ahead and complete the card and fill it in. If this is your home, please, we're not doing this because we're like, oh, we need your money. God is going to provide for the things that God calls his people to do.

We're extending an invitation as a church to say, God is doing something big here, and please don't just be a bystander to what God's doing. Be a part of it. Be an owner and see from the inside, this movement of God in us and through us. And while we're talking about one, I'll just encourage you.

Don't miss next week. Next week, Pastor Joby is going to be back, and he's going to have an opportunity to share with our entire church, our overall commitment, the financial commitment, our church has made and next week will be what we call our big give or our first fruits week where we'll announce this this this commitment we've all made and then we will all next week begin to give towards this one journey now here's the thing it this is the thing i've found to be

true there are many things to fear there are many in fact there's there's more than we could ever want to admit i mean for some of us we've got these financial fears that keep us up at night. For some of us, there's these family issues where we just, you know, we just not sure we want to be back in the same house again in 30 days with all the crazy family. For some of us, it's singleness and this fear of what if I'm never married. For some of us, it's a fear that we want to have a child, but we can't. There's all kind of things to fear. There's sickness for some of you, you're like me. This is the first season, first holidays you've gone through without a loved one. And there are so many things to fear, so many things that could keep us up at night. I'm not denials. denying that, but here's what I know to be true. The person of Jesus overcomes the power of fear. Let me say that again in case you weren't listening and taking really good notes. If this is the only thing you write down, you should write this down. The person of Jesus overcomes the power of fear. I wish I could teach you how to fear less. I can't. I can't teach you how to get rid of the

things you fear. I can't say, hey, put them all in this pile, put them all in this piece of paper, and burn the piece of paper and everything you fear will be gone. But I can do this. I can implore you to marvel at Jesus when fear comes. I can beg you to let faith outweigh fear. I will spend the rest of my days. Every day of my life doing this, I will plead with you to lean into the person of Jesus

when you're faced with the power of fear. I'll give my life to it. I can't teach you how to get rid of fear. I can't teach you to eliminate the things you should actually. actually fear, but I will spend every day of my life begging you as one of your pastors to lean into the person of Jesus. It's because when we stare at Jesus, our fears, they don't disappear, but they shrink to the proper proportion. So when fear begins to arise, I can't teach you how to get rid of it, but I can encourage you lean into the person of Jesus. Here's why it's so important.

intimacy with Jesus is the only way to rip from fear the power it holds over you. Intimacy with Jesus is the only thing you can do to rip away from fear the power it holds over you. Why? The person of Jesus overcomes the power of fear every single time. When fear arises, can I encourage you in a few things? One would be this. Become more desperate in prayer. Like when fear is,

looking at you, become more desperate in prayer. Prayer gives us a voice when fear tries to silence us. Prayer can come in like so many ways. You can journal your prayers, you can walk the beach and talk to Jesus, you can pray quietly, you can pray out loud, you can pray in the morning, you can pray in the evening, you can pray all by yourself, you can pray with others, but in the midst of fear, may I encourage you, in the midst of all that fear, our good, good father is inviting us to do this, to be anxious about nothing, but in all things, through prayer and supplication, come to him. When fear tries to leave you speeches, I beg you to turn your words to the one that hears you no matter what. I can promise you this church. The storm is never too loud for God

to hear his child's plea for help. It's not. I beg you, be desperate in prayer. A second area that I would encourage us as a church when fear arises is this, stand on the truth of Scripture. I pray verses like Isaiah 4110 will become rooted in your heart and press down into your bones. It says this. God says, fear not, for I am with you. That promise alone is worth everything in all of Scripture. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you.

I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right. hand. You see, scripture exposes fear like nothing else. It's this mirror that as we hold it up, it exposes fear. Now, I'm all for talking with a friend, sharing in disciple group. I'm a big proponent of counseling and pastoral care, but here's what I know. Nothing that another human can say to you will ever hold the authority and the power of scripture to expose fears in your life. Coupled with fear, God's gift. Coupled with scripture, God's gift to us. Apart from Scripture, it just returns void. But his word never returns void.

Look, the reality for me, if I can just confess a little bit, I don't know if I'm allowed to do that up here, but I'm not perfect yet. I'm getting close. The reality for me is that fear rises up in me in the face of finances. In fact, one morning, a few days, a few weeks ago, hours before my alarm clock went off, I woke up with this panic attack. like this panic attack about finances. Here's the thing about panic attacks. They don't even have to make sense to leave you paralyzed. So I woke up with this anxiety and this panic attack. I'm lying in my bed thinking, have my decisions and my financial decisions

absolutely jacked my beautiful girls in their future? It jacked it up. I don't know. I'm laying there. I'm in anxiety. And then I did what anybody would do when you're facing a panic attack. I reached over to my nightstand to grab my phone

so that I could open the Bible app and just let the word of the Lord. Lord, no, I didn't. I grabbed my phone to get social media because social media numbs my anxiety. I forget what I was anxious about looking at pictures of Georgia winning. I just get lost in it. It's beautiful. So I opened up Instagram and the first post I saw was the Bible verse, as if the Lord said, if you ain't going to do the work, I'll do it for you, son. And it was Matthew 6. And it's just this beautiful little Instagram picture of this scripture. Therefore, I tell you, be anxious about nothing in your life.

What you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, or what you will put on it. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet the Heavenly Father feeds them. And are you not more valuable than they?

It was as if the Heavenly Father said, I love you too much to let you face those fears. My scripture will expose them. God just kindly reminded me of his presence that it overcomes fear. So when fear arises, become desperate in prayer. Root yourself in the truth of scripture. And then let me encourage you with one more. When fear arises, can I encourage you to worship passionately? Worship passionately. Singing boldly does something to our soul. Now, notice, I didn't say worship good or sing well, because that would eliminate most of us, right? I mean,

just ask anybody that gets stuck next to me during the first three songs, they're like, what is that racket? Oh, that's pastor. stone. My wife sings like this most of the time. You know, just like can't handle it. Look, I'm not saying you got to sing well. I'm just saying sing loud. Sing like you believe it. Tell your face you're singing about Jesus. Worship passionately. There's just something that happens when we begin to open our soul and sing boldly. There's just something that God does it. I can't explain it, but worship begins to comfort our souls even in the midst of the worst fears. Look, and I'm going to admit to you, I'm not naturally good at worshiping. I'm not a good singer.

but I'm also not naturally good. My mind wonders all over the place. I am so bad, I have to keep a notepad in my pocket that halfway through the second song, I'm like, oh, yeah, I got to do that today. I have to write it down, put it in my pocket and go, all right, I'm back. My mind goes everywhere. But something happens every time I'm like disciplined my mind to stay in the moment. I tell you, this song gets stuck in me.

And I begin to sing this song throughout the day. And then all of a sudden I come up to something that should cause fear and the truth from this worship song begins to kind of just flow out of me. I find my heart engaging truth. Through worship, I find myself leaning into the person of Jesus. Now, this isn't just like rhetoric. This isn't like the pastor's guide to tell you how to fear less. This is real.

I can tell you, over the past 90 days, the Lord has reminded me of the gift of prayer and of the gift of scripture and of the gift of worship. And I'll tell you, these things are true, and I know they're true, because the last 90 days in my world has been rocked hard. Many of you know my dad passed away a few months ago. Like my hero. And if I tear up a little bit, it's only because it's our first Thanksgiving. His birthday was yesterday.

I'm preaching from his preaching journals, so at least if I cry, I mess his up, not mine. I mean, I'm a wreck. Like, I'm just a genuine wreck. And September 21st marked the day that my hero went home to be with me. King Jesus. And I thought that would be the hardest thing I would ever have to deal with in my life, but it wasn't. Here's why. Five days before my dad passed, I was sitting in his hospice room up in Atlanta. And we're sitting there, Blair and the girls had started driving back to Jacksonville because the hospice nurse said, you know, he hasn't eaten in a few days and his bowels are shutting

down, but his heart's so strong, he's probably not going to pass away for five or six days, which I was like, what's more Craig Stone than like, he should be dead, but his heart won't stop. Like, that's my dad. And when I'm sitting in the hospital room or the hospice room and my family's heading back, my grandma had just shown up, and I'm sitting there and all of a sudden my heart sank, like my gut turned. I was overcome with the fear that. I couldn't even quite connect because I just couldn't figure it out. I began to sit there for a few more minutes and I realized that, you know, it's been a few hours since my mom had left hospice to go home to get a shower and get some decent food and get some fresh clothes. and come back and I realized something was wrong. So I jumped in my car and I began to drive.

It was about 30 minutes from hospice to where my parents live. And the closer I got to the house, the more I felt this weight on my chest. And without a doubt, I was up against fear. I'm talking about the weight on your chest where you're like, all right, that was a breath. I think I can get one more. Like that kind of anxiety.

And I just heard the Holy Spirit say, it is well with your soul. So I Spotify is, you can ask your grandchild later. It's like this thing where you be like, hey, I want you to play this song. And it goes, and it plays this song.

So I just Spotify it as well. And I put that Joker on repeat. And I listened to every version of It Is Well ever written. Like there was the new Bethel version. There's the Gather brothers. There was a techno repop. There was a kid's bop version.

I don't know. What's a kid got to worry about? They need kid bop it as well. I listened to every version of It is Well I could find. And as I drove, each time the song would repeat, I would turn it up louder. I was crying. I was fighting back this deepest fear I've ever felt in my life. I didn't know what I was coming to until I walked in the door.

And I walked into the house to find my mom, the beacon of faith in my family growing up. Like the same woman that prayed my dad's sickness away over and over and over again. I found her incapacitated in her bed. I came out, I came later to find out that she had taken about 100 plus pills, including all of my dad's oxycotton and code, and all of his pain medicines from 12 years of cancer. She had stuffed in yogurt and stuffed it down her mouth. She was in such a desperate place that she decided the best thing she could do

to help my dad was to meet him in heaven. Fear is real. It was as palatable if I's ever tasted fear in my life. I literally stood there with my dad, in hospice, and I didn't know if I was looking at my mom dying in front of me. But the spirit kept whispering, it is well. Even as I sat and spent the entire night in my mom's emergency room, listening to life support, keep her awake, the spirit kept whispering it as well. I spent the next five days driving from my mom's hospital room where her body was fighting to stay alive.

I'd get in the car and then I would drive to my dad's hospice room where his body was a lot. giving way to the inevitable. It was clear to me that there were things to fear, but somehow fear had no power. The lack of fear, I'm just going to tell you, it's not because I'm a brave person. I'm not brave. I'm a little nervous right now on this stage,

and it's only three feet tall. I'm not brave. I'm not. It's not the fact that I lack the ability to emote properly. I emote everywhere. I'm an emoder. I was very aware that I should have been completely parallel and overcome by fear.

I watched the effect it had on my family. I watched my grandmother sit by the bedside of her son who was dying, overwhelmed and angry at her daughter-in-law. I watched my brother and his wife not even find words to say because there were none. I watched my beautiful bride carry the weight of my family on her shoulders as she loved my five and my seven-year-old. I watched our family rally around us, and all I could think about is this thing should be tearing us to pieces. And yet it wasn't. And it's not like I was trying to be strong.

I wasn't trying to be Hercules, but when fear would arise, the person of Jesus would overcome the power of fear every time. Here's what I knew. I knew there was this church family in Jacksonville, this church that was praying for my family. I mean, they literally were showing up to my house and praying for my wife. before she drove back up. I watched the power of Scripture every morning as I sat in either a hospice room or a hospital room and reading my Bible and crying on my Bible. I watched Scripture expose the lies of fear.

The spirit constantly, gently stirring worship in me, comforting my soul, constantly saying, Ryan, it is well. You see, what gave me strength in the midst of fear was not my ability to calm the waves or the storm around me. The storm around me was an absolute mess. I was spending between hospital and hospice. I was trying to figure out how to liquid it, look and fight all my dad's money so that I could pay the mortgage that if my mom was in the hospital for months to come, she wouldn't lose the house. And none of that was I having any time to mourn the loss of my dad or be burdened by the hurt of my mom. Peace didn't come from my ability to go, hey, waves, calm down. I got this.

Peace came from knowing that Jesus, he's already calmed the wind and the waves. He can do it again. My soul could let go and trust him because the winds and the waves, even today, they still know his voice. And his voice still has all authority. You see, my dad passed away before my mom was healthy enough to be released. I had to go to my mom's hospital room to tell her she had missed in my dad's last days. But there was plenty to fear. There was plenty to fear. Even now, my mom's been released and she's got no lasting effects, but every phone call and every text messages wells up fear in me. There are plenty of things to fear,

but whatever there is to fear has failed in every circumstance to compare to the one I marvel at. And I'm not saying this because I'm a pastor and I got it all together. I'm saying this because Jesus saved me the same way he saved you, and we are desperately dependent in the midst of storms for the one and the only one who can stand up and say, calm down storm you're not taking my child out like that i can't tell you the number of times that i have in the past 90 days realize that the presence of jesus is greater than the combination of every fear

i've ever had i know this to be true fear is real and i'm not foolish enough to sit up here and think that you don't have fears i have fears you have fears we have fears they're not going anywhere i can't tell you how to get rid of your fears but may i beg you and implore you and implore you and implore you you to do the one thing that can strip fear of its power, would you lean into the person of Jesus? When fear arises, would you know that the person of Jesus overcomes the power of fear? If he can calm the winds and the waves of a storm on a sea, it is nothing to him to calm the wind and the waves of the storm of your life. So here's what I'm going to ask us to do across all of our campuses. We're going to respond by leaning into the person of Jesus. So of all of our

campuses, would you do me a favorite? Would you just stand to your feet? And I want to give you very clear instruction, encouragement of how we're going to respond. My guess is that many of us are carrying a certain amount of fear. And let me just say, if you're not, praise Jesus that you're in the midst of a calm season in your life. But I'm going to ask us as a church to do two things. One is this, we're going to sing. And I'm not talking about the kind of sing that's like really haphazard. I'm saying sing loudly. Sing boldly. If you can't sing, it'll be muffled out by the thousands of people who also can't sing around you.

But we're going to sing. And for some of you, your world's falling apart, and you need to just sing it as well. It is well. Even if you're like, I don't even know if I believe these words yet. You just need to sing them and let the truth of those words wash into your heart and change your perspective on life. And some of you, things are going well. And I praise Jesus. He is the king of the storm.

and he's in the king of the calm. He's king of both. And if you're in the car right now, praise Jesus. You know the kindest thing you could do for your brother or sister sitting next to you is sing loudly over them? It is well, it is well, it is well, and the person next to you is going, no, it feels like hell, it feels like hell, and you just need to sing over them. No, it is well.

Would you love your brother and sister with all you got and sing over them? The second thing we're going to do is this. we're going to pray. And I mean like pray, like weeping, like just nasty cry, pray. We're going to pray. That's why we have prayer rails. This is one of the first thing we build at all of our campus. We have these prayer rails. And I'm going to invite you to come and to pray. And if you get somebody's hand on the back of your neck, it's okay. It might be me or one of our campus pastors or one of our staff or deacons going, we're in this with you. But we're going to pray. We're going to sing boldly and we're going to pray desperately. I'm going to pray for us and we're going to sing

and we're going to pray. In fact, some of you, even as I'm praying across all of our campuses, you don't have to wait for me to get done for you to come and pray. But may I beg you in the midst of the storm, would you lean into the person of Jesus? He's the only one that can strip the power of fear. You can't do it. I can't do it. He already has done it and he's ready to do it for you. Let me pray for us and then we're going to sing loud and we're going to respond well. Lord, we love you and we thank you, God, across all of our campuses, we just humbly submit. We just humbly, to the truth that you are a good, good father, that it is well. And it's not well because we're heroic. It's not well because we're ignorant of the pain. In fact, the bigger, the pain, the higher

the wall of fear, the more you accomplish. And the greater we marvel at you, that whether it's a one-foot wave or a 30-foot wave, you're still king and sovereign over it, and you tell it to sit. And we rest in that. Lord, I pray for those of us across all of our campuses who are in the midst of pain and suffering. And I beg you, Jesus, I beg you in this moment, would you comfort them? Would you step in? Would your person, would your presence overcome their fear? And God, for those of us who are in the calm, would we sing loudly as to just bestow the truth upon our brothers and sisters around us? And Lord, we thank you. We thank you that the first message that the angels shared after the birth of Jesus is fear not.

And it was the right message to share because the person of Jesus came to get rid of our fear, to overcome it. That the question asked of the disciples would be asked of us. When fear arises, where's our faith? May it be in you. We pray this in your precious and holy name. Amen.