Bobby Chandler - What if... I Stop Living in Fear
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Summary:
In this «What If» series message, the preacher challenges believers to stop living in fear, emphasizing that fear is an inevitable part of the process to victory but God promises to be with us through it. Recapping the previous week’s focus on offense, he transitions to facing fears using the story of Gideon (Judges 6-8). Gideon, found hiding in fear, is called a «mighty warrior» by God despite his self-doubt and past trauma (lies about his worth and the murder of his brothers). The key message: Stop believing Satan’s lies, notice what holds you back (e.g., idolatry, wrong influences), and stand your ground in faith. Victory comes not from retreating but from trusting God’s perspective, leading to miracles rather than regret.
What If Series Recap and Introduction
We have started a brand new series titled «What If.» How many of y’all enjoyed last week’s message, «What If?» kicking it off. We have been asking the question: would living a godly way really change your life for the better? Last week, we talked about what if we no longer lived offended? What if it didn’t matter what people said? It didn’t matter that Susie said something about your brand-new haircut, and it didn’t matter that Earl made that comment about your midlife crisis, right?
You know who you are in Christ and that’s all that matters. You know what God is doing in your life. If you were here last week, we talked about a few things: we discussed rejection, and we talked about betrayal. If you remember, the Greek word for «offense» is actually «scandalizo, » which means the same as the English word «scandal.» The enemy puts out a bait and trap a lot; he says, «You know what? This caused you pain. This really hurts. Come on in and trap yourself in your own feelings where you cling onto offense.» What happens is you walk around angry and upset because you’re fighting with people.
If you know what it feels like to try to pull people to your side, it gets tense; you feel like you’re being pulled apart. What God teaches us, what the Bible shows us, is that sometimes, God is going to allow you to wrestle with Him. Now, what does that mean? That means He wants you to be real: «God, I don’t understand why this happened in my life, but I need you right now.» What happens is that you no longer cling onto offense, but you cling onto God, and that is healing; that restores you, matures you, and helps your faith grow. Everybody say, «Let it grow, let it grow.» Don’t start singing that song; you know what song I’m talking about too. Let me remind you: James chapter one, verses two through four in the New Living Translation states, «Dear brothers and sisters, when any kind of troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy, for you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.» He says, «Let it grow, » and we celebrate this; we praise God, «Yes, You are good even through our troubles!» But if we were to be honest, we are also scared of this. Let’s be honest: nobody wakes up in the morning saying, «God, today I want to have a hard day. God, today I pray that when I get to my workplace, my boss is going to say some words that make me want to punch him in the face. But instead, I’m going to praise You; I’m going to jump and shout, and something good is going to happen today.»
Some of y’all’ve been praying: «That guy just cut me off!» You know what I mean. We talked about that last week: what if we prayed for them instead? «I don’t have to live in offense, “ but God, it is hard. It is hard! Like, I know I need it, but I don’t want it, right? When you wake up in the morning, you’re like, „God, please bless me today, provide for me today, protect me today.“ Not that I want to go through troubles, but if I do, can they be small? Just something little — like maybe my TV internet didn’t work today. That’s a good one; we can go with that. But don’t put somebody in my grill; don’t put somebody in front of me that I’m going to have to witness to today when I don’t feel like it.
What God wants to do with you is show you that He never said life is going to be perfect for you as a believer in Christ, right? He never said that you wouldn’t have to face your fears or face hardships, but what He did say is that you would never have to face them alone. So consider it pure joy.
Personal Story: Zipline and Fear
The reason I love this topic is that we’re never going to pray for it, so sometimes I feel like God gives us that little — you know what I mean — that little kick, that little push, that leap of faith. It reminded me of when my wife and I first got married. In our first few years of marriage, I used to be a youth intern at a church, and we were on this youth retreat. We were there, and everybody was talking about this big old zipline, right? How many of y’all love heights? Raise your hand. Something’s wrong with you; I’m just saying. I love you, but something’s wrong with you if you don’t know this about me: I hate heights! I am scared to death of heights. A big guy in the air — it doesn’t make sense, okay? I don’t want to do it, right? If you know what I mean. My wife, however, loves heights. If it looks like you’re going to fall to your death, she gets excited about it, right? She’s constantly trying to persuade me to go on roller coasters and all these things.
I remember she said, „We’ve got to go on the zipline! We’ve got to do this.“ So I said, „Okay.“ It’s funny because we have some pictures of that day: she’s all smiling, and I’m just like, „Man up! It’s time, man up! You can do this, come on!“ I remember taking steps off this wooden whatever of death, like I’m about to die, because every time I take a step, this thing is rocking. You remember it was rocking. Every time, I’m like, „All right, God, all right, step out on faith. You’re going to do something with me today.“ I remember sitting on the ledge. It’s funny: I remember sitting on the ledge; they strap us up, and I look at my wife. I can see now she’s thinking a little bit; this thing may not be secure, all right? It’s rocking; something’s not right. So she looks at me with her eyes really big and says, „I don’t think we should do this.“ I’m looking down, and I look at her, and I did what any loving husband would do: I said, „Nope!“ and I jumped off. I just left her behind and went down that zipline. Some of you are like, „Well, you’re a bad husband, ” but here’s the reason why! I didn’t want to go back! I had psyched myself up, „Okay, you can do this; you can do this; you can do this.“ So when she said that to me, I was like, „Nope! I rebuke you, Satan! I am going! I’m going to learn what it means to leap out in faith! Either I’m going to die, or I’m going to succeed, but either way, nobody’s going to call me a coward. Today, at least not today!“ I don’t like heights.
But again, sometimes God is going to call you into the unknown. Sometimes God is going to say, „Take that leap of faith, ” and it may scare you. But I promise you, I will be by your side because I need you to understand this powerful truth: fear will always be part of the process to victory. I’m going to say that again: fear will always be part of the process to victory. Do you want that miracle to happen in your life? Guess what? You’re going to have to face your fears. You want that relationship restored? Right? People to forgive you, and you to forgive them? Guess what? You’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations. You have to be a little afraid; you’re going to have to risk some things. Fear is always part of the process to victory.
Scriptures on Facing Fear
Let me show you some scriptures: Psalms chapter 34, verses 4 and 5. „I prayed to the Lord, and He answered me. He freed me from all of my what? My fears. When I was scared, when I didn’t know what to do, when I didn’t know how to get through the situation, I called upon the Lord, and He freed me from my fears.“
Psalms chapter 56, verses 3 and 4: „But when I am afraid, I put my trust in You, and I praise You, God, for what You have promised over my life.“ You want to face your fears? Remind yourself of what God has promised over your life. What has He spoken? What has He said about you that nobody else knows? What gives you the will to keep moving forward even when it’s very difficult and hard? And I love how it ends: „I trust God! I trust God! So why should I be afraid?“ God never said you would not have to face your fears. He said you will never have to face your fears alone. I need you to understand that because some of you have been praying for a long time, and you’ve been wanting something. You’ve been reaching for that miracle, and I believe some of you have even gotten to a place in your life where you have become bitter with God because it’s not happening right away, or you still feel like there are some things in your life that you need to get rid of. God is saying, „No! I have this for you! I’ve declared it for your life! But you’re going to have to step out in faith because there are some things on the inside that you still don’t trust Me with! You still don’t trust Me with it!“ This is how we mature; this is how we grow.
But let me ask you this question today: what are you afraid of? I want you to be honest with yourself; maybe write it down. What do you feel like you’re afraid of that is holding you back from living a godly life? For some of you, it may be that better position you’ve always wanted in your workplace, but it also means a bigger commitment and more responsibility on you. You start to think, „I don’t know if I can handle it. I don’t know if I can get there in life. I don’t know if I’m really the right person to be in this position.“ For some of you, it’s marriage. God has been speaking to you for a long time: „Hey! It’s time! It is time to make a commitment; it is time to propose; it is time to get married!“ But you start to think about it, and you’re like, „God, yes! I know it’s time, but I’m afraid because I saw my parents’ marriage fail.“ You saw these things in your life with your friends, and you just don’t know if you can do it. But what is God telling you? What is God speaking to you? „No! This is for your life! Stop fearing the world, and trust Me through the process!“
Sometimes it’s difficult, and I believe fear is the number one reason we stop growing in God. Fear is the number one reason we stop growing in God because we start to make excuses, and we justify our sins, right? „I’m afraid of that, God! I don’t know if I can give! I would love to give when I have more! I’ll start tithing and giving, but right now, I’m afraid to give some things up, or I’m afraid that I’m not going to have enough or even make a difference.“ For some of you, God has been telling you, „It is time to serve! It’s time to get involved! It’s time to be part of this family!“ God has given you talents and abilities, but are you using them? God is urging you, but you’re saying, „God, I would love to, but look at the time! I’m busy! I’ve got a lot going on in my life! Or maybe I’m just afraid that I’m going to look like a mess!“
„God! Please! What if the pastor calls me up front, and I’ve got to be one of those people that pray for people because that’s uncomfortable? I have to hear about somebody else’s situation!“ But I’m telling you, some of you will always feel stuck until you move out in faith. When you hear somebody speak to you, this is what I’ve seen over and over again: when someone speaks to you about what they’re going through, God will give you the words, and by His power, by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us, He will give you this courage and boldness, and you pray for them, or you speak over them, and then guess what? You leave Sunday like, „Who was that?“ All right? Something’s changing, but you’ll never know if you live in fear. Fear is the number one reason we stay behind or stop growing in God.
So here’s what I did for this sermon. The title of today’s message is „What If I Stop Living in Fear?“ „What If I Stop Living in Fear?“ Because I’m going to show you today that when you live in fear, you live in regret. When you live in fear, you live in regret. „I wish I had done this in my life! I wish that I had enough faith to get there, but I was too afraid to move!“ When you live in fear, you live in regret.
Introduction to Gideon’s Story
If you have your Bibles with you, go ahead and turn to Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6 is where we will be for most of the sermon today, and I want to talk about one of my favorite characters out of the Bible: his name is Gideon.
If you know the story of Gideon, he was not much of a warrior when God first met him. In fact, he was scared; he considered himself to be a coward. But when the angel of the Lord showed up to him, he called him a mighty warrior and said, „Listen, I’ve got a miracle for your life, but it’s going to cause you to walk by faith and do some big things.“ If you know the story, when he actually walks in obedience and attacks the Midianites, God does something crazy, and I’m going to explain it today. But he had an army of 32,000 men, all right? You can kind of puff up your chest with that one. But then God decreases the size of his army to only 300. Now, God brings Gideon and his army around the Midianite camp, and by trumpets and breaking jars, they defeated the enemy. The Bible tells us that they started to scatter and run. They were afraid; they were confused! God was on them!
But guess what? This is what I always love, and it’s something we skip: the Midianites already knew about the power of God, and they were afraid! When they heard that Gideon had heard from God, they were shaken! This is powerful because I need you to understand the context of Judges chapter 6 before I get into the word. Let me tell you what has been happening. For seven years, this tribe on the east of Jordan, the Midianites, has been oppressing the Israelites. That means they’ve been burning their houses, stealing their food, stealing their land, taking their women, and killing them — oppressing them for seven years. Now imagine what that feels like. Imagine what it feels like to go through a year of praying to God and feeling like your prayers are unanswered. Seven years! Again, seven is the number of completion in the Bible, so it’s cool how God does this. But just like we do, the people of Israel started to point the finger at God: „God, it’s Your fault! It’s been seven years now! We’ve been oppressed! Where have You been? Where are the miracles that we used to hear about all the time? You used to save our people, God! You’ve deserted us!“
Now, have you ever felt like that? It just didn’t make sense. You keep praying and praying and praying: „God, where are You? Where’s my miracle?“ For seven years, they are being oppressed by the enemy, and finally, they come to the conclusion that God has left. But isn’t that what the enemy always does? He twists the truth! See, here’s the truth: God never left them. They left God! I’m going to prove it to you: Judges chapter 6, verse 1, New Living Translation: „The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight.“ They worshiped their idols; they worshipped other gods. They turned away from everything that God was telling them to do, and they wanted to worship the world and be just like everybody else. So I love how it phrases this: „So the Lord handed them over, ” — He handed them over to the Midianites for seven whole years.
I need you to understand that this is the character of God, and it’s because He loves you and wants to give you a chance to repent. But a lot of us have said, „I don’t want to go to church! I don’t want to live like the Bible tells me to live! I want to do what everybody else is doing; I want to look like everybody else!“ So God comes up to you and says, „All right, you’ve got free will; go ahead, go ahead! You want to go out on the weekends? Go ahead and go out on the weekends! You want to look like them and talk like them? Go ahead and look like them and talk like them! I’ll let you go, but you’ll see what the world’s really like without My protection, without My grace, and without My love! But when you come running back, My arms will be wide open!“
I love it! Paul mentions this to the Corinthian church. There was one man causing a lot of trouble. He says, „Hand him over to Satan.“ „Pastor, we don’t do that in the church!“ he says, „No, he’s being disruptive. Hand him over to Satan.“ He was bragging about his sin, and when they handed him back to the world, guess what happened? The man came back and said, „I’m sorry; I was blind.“ See, God does this because He loves you, right? He gives you that free will to choose, but He’s always there to take you back. So at the end of seven years, because God has declared protection over His people, it doesn’t matter what things are looking like, okay? It doesn’t matter how big or bad the enemy may look; He said, „You know what? I’ve declared over My people that they will succeed!“
So at the end of seven years, God sends an angel of the Lord to meet a man named Gideon, and this is where we find Gideon. But I also want you to understand this: when you turn away from God, you turn towards Satan. Just being honest — every time you reject what God has for you, every time you turn away from His ways and what the Bible is telling us on how to live, you start to allow Satan into your life. You start to believe these lies, and you start to live this way, and it’s cold on the heart, and it’s that burden that so many of us feel because only with God is there hope!
But Gideon is found in an unusual place; it’s found in Judges chapter 6, verse 11. It states, „Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree of Oprah which belonged to Joash and the clan of Abiezer, and Gideon, son of Joash, was threshing wheat at the bottom of the wine press.“ Now listen to this: at the bottom of the wine press! If you don’t understand, this is not how you do that! You don’t thresh the wheat at the bottom of the wine press! The reason he’s in a wine press is because he is hiding from the Midianites! He feels like a coward; he is hiding! They can’t see what he’s doing; they can’t see his wheat; they can’t see that he’s working. Because of that, he feels like a coward because ultimately you’re supposed to do this on a threshing floor so everybody can see you, but instead, he is hiding, and it even says it is to hide the grain from the Midianites.
So Gideon is hiding, and this is why I love it: the angel of the Lord comes to him and says (Judges chapter 6, verse 12), „Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!“ Imagine yourself in that position, though. Because I think about me: if I’m hiding in a wine press threshing wheat, and I’m looking up at this man, this angel that came out of nowhere, saying, „Mighty hero!“ I’d be like, „Who are you talking to?“ Right? You’re not talking to me! Like you’re calling me a hero — like I’m part of the Avengers. „Hi, my name is Gideon!“ That’s not me! I’m a coward! I’m afraid! These Midianites could kill me! How can you come up to me and call me a mighty hero? Because God is going to declare something over you before you even understand He created you for a purpose! Don’t forget it! When you feel like a coward, it doesn’t matter because God is your strength! When you feel like you don’t have enough energy, it doesn’t matter because the Holy Spirit will keep moving you and guiding you even when you feel like you don’t have all the answers.
Let me show you something: how many of you feel like you don’t have all the answers? Only my son didn’t raise his hand; that’s okay; I get it! I get it! But God does! This is why we need to be in tune with Him; this is why we need to pray because God will give you confirmation! He’s a good Father, and He’s going to show you things in your life, and you’re going to be like, „Wow! How was I living before this?“ This is living: seeing miracles, witnessing Your love, knowing Your grace, no longer afraid!
So the angel of the Lord comes to him and says, „Mighty warrior! I’ve declared something powerful over you!“ Like I said, the story gets really interesting from here. He goes out to fight the Midianites as God decreases his army size. After the Midianites are scared to death and start running, if you continue the story, all of a sudden this man who was found hiding in a wine press is now going after the kings of Midian! He’s no longer afraid! He comes face to face with them!
Gideon’s Two Fears
I don’t have enough time to tell you the entire story, but what I do want to do today is show you two fears that Gideon had to face within his own life. Two fears that he had to face and overcome. At the end of the sermon, I want to show you three steps to victory over the fears in your own life.
Let me show you something about Gideon: I’ve preached about Gideon before, but today I’m going to reveal some things you have never heard of before. So point A is this: Gideon had to face two fears. Point A: fear of lies! All right? He had a fear of lies! So let’s continue the conversation between the angel of the Lord and Gideon. Again, it’s found in Judges chapter 6, verses 12-16. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, „Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!“ Now look at verse 13: an angel of the Lord is declaring this over his life, and Gideon immediately says, „The Lord is with us? You’re sure? The Lord is here? Then why has all this happened to us?“ Right? „Where are all the miracles, angel of the Lord? All the miracles that my ancestors used to talk about? The things that were recorded out of the book of Moses, out of the Torah? Where are the miracles that we see today? Because I haven’t seen it! Where is the Lord?“
Have you heard this before? You go up to people and say, „You know what? My life’s about to be different! God is really changing me!“ And they look at you and say, „Hey! Where’s Jesus? You’ve been saying He’s coming back! Where is He? Or where are these miracles that you believe in, right? I see you sometimes struggling in areas of your life!“ „Why are these miracles?“ And I’m telling you right now, God is still doing miracles every single day! This church is a testimony to that! It really is! God is doing miracles every single day! But what’s happened is that God has allowed a lot of people to turn against Him and follow the world, and they’re not living this way; they’re not seeing this happen!
And I promise you, every day is a day closer to the return of Jesus! He’s coming! Oh, He’s coming! And every knee will bow! This is the promise hope — this is what we get excited about! But people are going to doubt it. So he says, „All right! Where’s my miracle?“ Now think about that because you may have said the same thing.
Verse 14: „Oh, the angel of the Lord is about to get him!“ The Lord turned to him and said, „All right! You want a miracle? Go with the strength that you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites!“ See, Gideon didn’t understand that asking for this miracle would mean that he would also have to face his greatest fear. Think about that! „Oh! You want a miracle? You’re praying for a miracle? You want to see your people freed? Guess what? Here’s the miracle: I’m sending you!“ Can we talk about this? Right? Sometimes God is going to send you to be the bigger man or woman and talk about some things and forgive before the other person does. Sometimes God is going to send you to do things that feel uncomfortable, but you know that is going to ease the situation or get rid of division.
Sometimes God is going to cause you to revisit some things in your past so that you can let go and be freed and no longer enslaved to this trap. All right? Here’s the miracle, Gideon: I’m sending you! So you’re going to have to face your fears. Now, point A is called fear of lies, because look at how Gideon responds. The moment that the angel of the Lord declares this over his life, what does he say? „How can I rescue Israel?“ Right? „How can I? I’m the weakest. My clan is the weakest out of the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least out of my entire family!“ What he’s saying to God: „How can You use somebody like me? Because I’m a nobody! I’m a nobody! There’s nothing good about me! Nobody cares about me! I’m hiding in a wine press!“ This tells me that all of his life this is how he saw himself! All of his life, Satan put lies in his head that he believed about himself, that he is weak, that he is a nobody, that God can never use somebody like him!
I see it every day with the church. I see it with our own people! Isn’t this what we do? When we live out of fear, we think, „Oh no! I want miracles to happen! I want good things to happen! But I don’t know if I can do it!“ And God comes up to you and says, „You know what? I’m going to bless you!“ But I’ve seen people respond, „God, I’m not good enough for You to bless! I’m a sinner! I’ve done You wrong!“ Or God says, „You know what? Have patience! That special someone is coming! I do have someone for you! But you gotta wait!“ And you’re saying, „God, nobody could love me! Nobody’s here for me! That can never happen for me!“
And I don’t get it because God is telling you a powerful truth over your life, and all you’re doing is telling Him about your fears. Your fears don’t dictate God! Your fears don’t scare God! He looks at our fears and says, „I will wipe this away from your life!“ Somehow, along the process, just like Gideon, we have gotten to the point where we believe the lies of Satan over the truth that God has declared over us. Because I mean, he was quick! „I’m weak! I’m nobody! This is how I saw myself!“ So I want to ask you today, how do you see yourself?
How do you see yourself? What are you afraid of, and how do you see yourself? Because I’m also going to show you something new today about Gideon. See, there was something deeper there that you may not know about, and I’m going to show you the second fear that Gideon had to face. Point B is: fear of the past! And that can be a hard one for a lot of us: fear of the past! Yes, the Midianites stole; they burned down lives, and they killed! And yes, he was scared of this, but it goes way, way deeper than that because when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, here’s what I want you to understand: the angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and says, „Mighty warrior! I’m going to use you to rescue our people!“ You know what was happening in Gideon’s mind? The murder of his brothers!
A lot of people don’t know that part of the story because you don’t find it out until later in the story in Judges chapter 8. The murder of his own brothers! The angel was telling him, „You are the one!“ He said, „No, no, no, no, no! I’ve been down that road! I can’t deal with something like that!“ After Gideon walked in faith and, like I said, he took over the Midianite army and they started to scatter and run, we see in Judges chapter 8 that Gideon pursued. He was exhausted; the army was exhausted, and he pursued the two Midianite kings. In Judges chapter 8, verse 18 and 19, „Then Gideon asked Ziba and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, ‘What were the men you killed at Tabor like? ’“ So when they captured the two kings, he looks them in the face and confronts them: „What were they like?“ The kings looked back at Gideon and he asked, „The men that you killed?“ And they tell him, „They looked like you! They looked just like you! They all had the look of a king’s son!“
Now, look at Gideon’s reply, „They were my brothers! The sons of my own mother!“ A lot of us don’t know that part of the story: the past hurt that God is calling him to take on an enemy that has hurt his heart, that has torn up his family. So let me ask you today: is there still a pain from your past that’s stopping you from moving forward? Every time you feel like, „All right, God, I know that it’s time, and I want to step up, ” but then you’re reminded of something in your past. Maybe it was the last time you failed; maybe it was the last time you said something wrong; or maybe it was the last time that somebody got hurt. Maybe you grew up in the church and saw Mom and Dad so involved with the church that you never saw them in your own life, so you felt neglected by them, and you had this bitterness toward the church. This is what you saw! And so even though God is calling you and declaring something powerful over your life, sometimes we think about that and go, „No! I’ve seen what that can do!“
That’s the enemy always! Let me share this with you: this is the plan of Satan! Satan’s desire for your life is to live in fear so that at the end of your life, all you will know is regret, and I promise you that’s way worse! What if Gideon never obeyed God? What if he didn’t take on the Midianites, even though God declared this for his life? For some of you, right now, is a bunch of what-ifs going through your head! „Every week I would love to do that, but what if? I would love to go there, but what if? I would love to be free from addiction, but what if? I would love to change! I would love to mature! I would love to know the voice of God, but what if?“
God is saying, „Wrestle with Me on these things! Cling to Me! But some of you, you’re still here! You’re still here! Until you’re released from this trap in your life, you’ll never know what it means to see victory! I’m telling you, fear is part of the process to see victory in your life!“ Because you know what God has declared over you! Psalms chapter 23, verse 4: „Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid! Why? Because You are close beside me! Your rod and Your staff protect and comfort me!“
What I need you to understand is that Gideon never thought at first he would see victory! „How could I? God!“ „What if this happens?“ But God showed him victory! You may be in the same situation where there’s no way in your mind you can see victory out of this! But I’m telling you, with God, all things are possible! I’ve seen healing; I’ve seen restoration! It may not be in the way that you want it to be; it also may not be as fast as you want it to be! But God is going to work something perfect in your life! He’s for you!
„Even when I walk through the darkest valleys, it is an opportunity for what? For joy! Because it’s in the darkest valleys that God is calling us to raise our hands and worship and praise Him! That it doesn’t matter what things look like! With God, all things are possible!“
Three Truths for Victory Over Fear
So I wanted to show you that today. He had to face his fear of the lies that he already believed, and then he needed to face the fears of his past hurt! Now, what I want to do for the remainder of the sermon is show you three truths of victory today over the fears in your own life by the story of Gideon!
Point number one is this: stop believing Satan’s lies! I mean it: stop believing Satan’s lies! Because Satan is very tricky, and I want to show you his strategy. I want to let you know something today! We see from the very beginning to the end in the Bible that everything that God says as a positive, Satan will twist into a negative! That’s his attempt for you to open the door in your life! What God says as a positive, Satan tries to twist into a negative!
I want to show you because the very first deception in the Bible was found in Genesis chapter 3. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 1, we see that the serpent is with Eve, and it says, „The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made, and one day he asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? ’“ Did God say that? No! What God actually said was a positive. God said, „Hey! I’ve made all this for you! This perfection, this paradise is for you because I love you, and you can eat of any tree except one! Just one! That’s it! But everything else is for you!“
What Satan does is take this positivity for their life and twist it into a negative: „Did God really say you can’t eat of any tree?“ Because look at this one, right? Let me give you an example: somebody comes up to you; you’ve been dieting, and they’re like, „Hey! You’re looking skinny! Looking good!“ Right? You’re like, „Yeah!“ You feel good about yourself! But then somebody else comes up to you, „Hey! You’re looking skinny!“ Same thing! But one you took in as a positive, one you took in as a negative! And when you start to think about God’s blessings as a negative, it starts to open up that door in your mind!
Here’s Satan’s strategy: once he opens up that door just a little bit inside of your mind and twists it, then he inserts the lie — the bold-faced lie. Because what happens with Eve then, he says next, „You won’t die! Go ahead and eat it!“ The serpent replied to the woman, and because she let him twist it, she then started to believe the lie! This is what he does in our lives! Just like Gideon, we have lies in our head about us: „I’m a failure; God can never use me; I’m an addict; God can’t use me; I’m a bad parent!“ But if this is who you think you are, you will never grow to overcome your fears! I’m telling you!
If you wake up every morning and say, „This is all you’re going to be; this is who you are, ” then that’s all you’re going to see! But when you know the truth of His word and anything that goes against His word is not of God, it is a lie from the enemy! You need to know who you are! So if you have a rough past, if you have lies inside your head, let me declare this over you today: 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17: „Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person!“ Look to somebody next to you and say, „You’ve become a new person!“ Anyone who belongs to Christ becomes a new person! Why? Because the old life is gone! It is dead! It is out of here!
And sometimes you’re going to go back to where you grew up, and people aren’t going to understand! Right? It’s hard to go back to where you grew up, and people know your mistakes, and they’re going to say things about you that you’ve already forgotten! „Oh, yeah! I’m glad you’re holding on to that because I’m not! That’s cool! You can remember that story, but I got some new ones to tell you because I’m no longer who I used to be!“ That is what this word has declared over your life!
That’s the strategy that you need to use to go against the enemy! He starts bringing up these things; he tries to twist it: you say, „No, no, no, no! I remember what you did to Eve, and I know what you’re doing right now! I also know out of the Book of Genesis that God said He’s going to crush your head, right?“ You have no power over me because I am a new creation! Even if you felt like a failure, God says to you, „You’re going to succeed through Me!“ If you are an addict, God is going to say over you today is a day of your testimony, that people will be changed forever!
What I’m telling you is stop regretting and start restoring by moving forward through your fears! Because there’s no other way! You cannot remain comfortable and sit still and still expect the miracle to happen! You can’t! Sometimes God is calling you to battle the war! Now I’m going to show you this: point number two: notice what is holding you back! Right? Stop believing the lies of Satan! Point number two: notice what is holding you back! So this is interesting to me. If you know the story of Gideon, like I said, he had an army sized at 32,000 men, right? And then out of nowhere, God shows up and tells him, „You know what? Your army’s too big! 32,000 men—that’s too many!“
Because God wants to prove that it doesn’t matter the size or how big you are or how smart you are! Miracles take place only to His glory, not yours! And so God is doing something new here, and in Judges chapter 7, verse 3, this is cool, God tells him, „All right, here’s what I want you to do! The first thing I want you to do is say, ‘Anyone who’s scared, you can leave.’“ So I’m thinking like in Gideon’s mind, „Okay, all right, I’m going to do this! Maybe a hundred, maybe 500 people might leave.“ Judges chapter 7, verse 3 says, „Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain and go home.“
Gideon’s probably like, „Please, nobody go home! Come on! Let’s stay!“ 22,000 left! What would you do when God is calling you to battle, and everybody leaves you? A lot of people, I’m telling you, that’s where the miracle is about to happen! „Oh, everybody else left! It’s just me! I’m the crazy one! Okay, all right, God, You better come through because this zipline is going to kill me!“ You know? It doesn’t matter what people think or say! All that matters is what God says and what He has declared over you!
So when people leave, it doesn’t mean the miracle won’t happen! I tell people all the time because it’s a journey, and I was talking to another pastor just the other week, and I said, „You know what? If people are talking about you now, they’re still going to talk about you when you succeed because that’s just people! But we follow God!“ And so 22,000 of them went home. Here’s where it got interesting to me! Now, the second test was that they would have to go to a river and drink, okay? And he said, „God said pay attention to those that lap like a dog. Pay attention to those who actually kneel down.“
For a long time, I’ve never really understood this trick, okay? So anybody that kneeled down, they were sent home, and then we know out of the Bible that 300 men were left. That’s all he had! But why when they kneeled down? And I realized there are some commentaries on this — it’s really interesting because it states that inside of their heart, they were committing idolatry! And the moment that they got on their knees at the river was an example of their worship to other gods!
And so what I’m telling you today is we look at it as in numbers and strength, „Okay, Gideon! You’re going to need an army of 32,000 to beat this many Midianites!“ No, God is saying, „No! Actually, these people are going to hold you back! You don’t need them! You need to get rid of some things!“ And even in your life, there may be some people holding you back! There may be some sins holding you back! Some choices that you’re making right now, and you want to be better, but you keep going back to these things, and they’re hurting you!
And so God was saying, „No! These men don’t trust Me! They do not fear the Lord! Remove them because when it gets tough, they’re not going to be there for you! They’re not going to trust in My power!“ And then these men may proclaim My name in front of other people, but in the dark, in secrecy, they’re worshipping other gods! And I want the people brave enough, ready to believe and conquer their fears! Because you cannot serve God and the world and expect to see victory! You can’t! One’s light, one’s dark! You can’t expect to serve both! God doesn’t want that idolatry within your heart!
Illustration and Final Point: Stand Your Ground
And my last point is this: stand your ground! Stand your ground! I want to bring something on stage; we’re going to have some fun here. Where’s Kirk? Kirk, stand over there in that corner, buddy. Cameraman, you’re going to hate me, but I did prepare you guys today, so I love you! Let’s pretend Kirk is the big bad Midianite! Go ahead and flex if you need to, or do that; that’s fine! That will be shared this week! Look at Authentic Church; they’re doing some weird stuff!
A lot of time, from the human perspective, we feel low; like we feel about this big! And I’m looking at that, and let’s say that there’s my enemy, and he looks really big from here, from this perspective! And God comes to me while I feel like I’m hiding, and He says, „You know what? I want you to face your fears! I’m going to show you something new, something different!“ And He comes to me and says, „I’ve declared victory over your life! But just like Gideon, we’re like, ‘Huh, victory? God, where have You been? I haven’t seen miracles in a long time! I’ve been praying over my family, over the relationships that I’m not seeing, maybe over your marriage, over life opportunities: when you gonna provide?“
God is saying, „You know what? I’m going to provide! Take the step! Take the step!“ All right! Just like Gideon, it’s one step at a time! „All right! Now I got a different perspective, though! Already, the enemy is not as big as he used to be!“ But then, like I said earlier, I hate heights! Okay? So I love you guys by doing this! But sometimes God says, „No, no, no! This is still not the view that I want to show you! There are still some things in your life! I want you to step up! I want you to face your fears!“
„No! That’s too high for me! That’s not made for me! No! Step up! All right! Overcome the lies! I can do this! Keep stepping up! All right! Overcome the past hurt! I can do this! Keep stepping up! No, God! Keep stepping up!“ And all of a sudden, things start to really change! Because what God is doing is giving you His view of how He sees things! And I gotta be honest, up here, the enemy, the obstacle looks pretty small from what it used to look like! But I would never know if I didn’t walk up here in obedience and face my fears, the things that I don’t want to think about to understand the truth of God and to see things the way He sees things!
And when I have this perspective, fear no longer has its hold on me! And just like the book of Psalms, as I read out of God, I’m afraid, but You are my stability! „God, I don’t understand! Sometimes I feel high by myself on something that I don’t know how to get down from, but I trust that You will catch me if I fall!“ Imagine if the church lived this way: I’m not afraid of the enemy because I trust God! I trust God!
Point number three: stand your ground! Can everybody say that with me? „Stand your ground!“ The reason they saw victory is because listen, an army of 300 men refused to retreat! They refused it! „I don’t want to look like them! I’m tired of being oppressed! I’m tired of having this in my life! I want to be free!“ And they refused. Look at this: Judges chapter 7, verse 21. „Each man stood at his position around the camp!“ And they watched as all the Midianites rushed around in panic!
Imagine what this did to them! 300 men saw this victory! But what about the other men that ran away? Remember the 22,000? Guess what they’re feeling now? Regret! God doesn’t want that for your life! God doesn’t want that for you! He wants you to face things that you never thought you could do! Why? Because He’s declared it over you! But it starts with prayer.