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I remember very vividly one of those times that only through the work of God in my life and much time did I ever forgive my older brother for scaring me so badly. You may remember that my brother is twelve years older than I am and so I had to grow up under the unmerciful hand of an older sibling.

I was about nine or ten years old when it happened one summer and one of my friends from North Louisiana had come to stay a few weeks with us. My brother was about to go back to college and so he was staying the summer with us until the new semester began. If I remember it correctly, my friend and I were alone one night in my father's study which was connected to the church only by an outside breezeway and therefore had three outside windows. We were playing a game and listening to a "scary" book on tape and we had been banished out of the house so that the whole family didn't have to listen to the kid's book. Somewhere during the story, it hit us: that old feeling of fear where every sound becomes vividly eerie and where suddenly you notice that the wind is blowing outside and you begin to think how lonely and isolated you are.

It was about that time that we heard a faint but distinct tapping at one of the windows. It tapped a few times and then went away and we nervously laughed and said "it must be the tree branch." Only in a few moments, the tapping returned but from a different window, one that we knew that there was no tree branch outside. We looked at each other terrified and moved to the center of the room and I made sure that the outside door was firmly locked. The tapping stopped and then suddenly started from the third window and by this time we were on pins and needles. I rushed to the phone to call 911 or my parents or "ghostbusters" or whoever and when I picked up the phone, the phone was dead. I turned around and in an increasingly higher-pitched voice announced to my friend "whoever it is has cut the phone line!"

It was about this time that from the first window, a soft scratching sound began to come, and as we looked around to find a weapon, all we could find was a letter opener and a heavy bookshelf end. It was about this that we also began to have a moment of courage and clear thinking. My friend was a couple years older than I and he said "it's probably a cat or something and this wind has knocked out the phone line. We're being dumb, it's probably nothing." And so I said, "the only way to find out is to look." And so we crept to the window where the sounds had just been coming from and we eased back the curtain and there was nothing there, but the sounds immediately began to come from the second window. It was again a scratching sound, this time. And this time my friend, Tony, reached the window first and boldly eased back the curtain and screamed and fell to the floor under the desk in horror. All the fear returned. And when I finally was able to understand what he was saying I heard "it's a little green hand. It's aliens. Oh, I knew that they were real and we're dead. I watched this movie one time...." And right about then, the scratching stopped but all of a sudden the door knob began to rattle and my friend and I got up to face our doom with all horror, we began to find something to try to jam up against the chair. By this time all logical reasoning was gone, and we were just trying to prolong what seemed to be our quick demise. And then the door started shaking as if something was trying to open the door and despite being locked of all times the fierce jiggling actually caused the door to come open and me and my friend screamed and fell to the ground . . . only to hear and see my brother laughing uncontrollably on the ground before us at the sight of our extreme fear.

If I would have stopped and thought clearly at any time in the situation, it would have occurred to me that my older brother was just wicked enough to do such a thing and that we had a backscratcher that was molded in the shape of a green alien-looking hand, and that all my brother had to do to kill the phone line was open the phone box outside and unplug it. But fear does not allow you to think clearly. It causes you act foolishly and rashly and make poor decisions and not see things as they really are. In a sense, fear enslaves you to itself. And by the way, I did get in a few blows with the heavy book end before my brother was able to get up and run away!

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A Gallup Poll conducted this year reveals the ten most common fears of teenagers in the United States. They are in order:

1. Terrorist Attacks

2. Spiders

3. Death

4. Failure

5. War

6. Heights

7. Crime/Violence

8. Being alone

9. The future

10. Nuclear war

Some other common fears were snakes, public speaking, going to the dentist, pain, and cancer. Scientists say that while fear is natural reaction, what we fear is influenced by four things:

1. We fear what our past history or knowledge has prepared us to fear. In other words, we have learned that snakes can bite us and kill us and so there are people who will respond in fear to their first encounter with a snake because of what they know about snakes. Some people tend to be extremely frightened by spiders, lizards, etc... even though all the deaths caused by snakes, spiders, lizards and similar creatures every year are less than a dozen. You have a much greater danger of drowning in the bathtub or choking on food than dying than from these things, yet we fear what we have been taught to fear.

2. We fear what we cannot control. Statistics show that in the late 1990s even including the World Trade Tower attacks and deaths in the figures, that Americans are 37 times more likely to die in a car accident than in a plane crash. One "fear expert," David G. Myers commented that "If people now fly twenty percent less and instead drive half of those unflown miles, because of the terrorist attacks, then they are spending two percent more time in automobiles and that translates that the terrorist have indirectly killed three times more people in our highways through the fear of flying this year, than they did in those four plane crashes. Simply put, if you fly somewhere, the most dangerous part of your trip is the ride to the airport. But yet people who routinely auto around the city, are deathly afraid to fly. Why? Because they feel as if they are out of control.

3. We fear what is immediate. If we view something as having a quick danger potential, such as the takeoffs and landings of an airliner, we fear it more. For example, people will sit white knuckled in their seats as the plane touches the runway and need the barf bag, and immediately get off and go light one up to calm their nerves, although illnesses and diseases related to smoking kills millions more each year than plane crashes.

4. We fear what is most readily available in our memory. There have been only 67 fatalities by the attack of an unprovoked white shark since 1876. Yet Jaws and the news images of last summer's Atlantic coastal shark attacks cause us to feel chills when something brushes against our leg in the water. You don't see replays of the flu killing people over and over on the news and yet it kills over 20,000 people in America every year. The next time you are afraid to fly, take a coin and flip it twenty-two times and record whether it lands on heads or tails and keep doing it. The odds are that you will flip heads 22 consecutive times in a row before you die in a plane crash. But pictures like the World Trade Tower tragedy makes a definite impression in our mind, and then that learned fear causes us to make foolish and silly decisions that don't add up to reality.

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Fear may be an ingrained response in us now, but we were not originally created for fear to be able to control and enslave us as it now does. A natural fear of danger so that we could avoid trouble and make quick decisions was placed in us by God, but a constant giving in to worry and anxiety -- "a spirit of fear" or attitude of fear that so often grips people and causes them to act foolishly was not given to us by God. Our text said:

The first show of fear in scripture came as a result of sin. Adam and Eve disobeyed the commandment of God and then when God came to fellowship with them in the evening as He always did, Adam and Eve hid themselves in the bushes. The first sign of sin's affects in their lives was the fear of their condition and the fear of approaching God. And of all of the specific fears of humanity, "Godophobia" is still the most dangerous. There are people who have never entered a church and never listened to the preached Word of God and never heard the good news about God's mercy and grace and salvation because their sin has caused them to believe the lie that they need to be fearful of such things. They are afraid of what might happen, and yet they fail to realize that this innate fear is a product of sin and that it is a lie that is distorting the reality that if they would allow Jesus Christ to completely change their life, they would be happier and better. And the devil knows this, so he puts a fear of the things of God in sinner's lives.

And if you feel that way today, then I want you to know and more importantly Jesus wants you to know that there is nothing in the kingdom of God to be afraid of. The only thing that can happen is that you would be delivered of your fear! For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and of a sound mind. The altar is your friend. The Word of God is your help. The Spirit of God is your salvation. What is there to be afraid of? Don't allow the conditioning of sin to cause you to reject the best thing that could ever happen in your life: Jesus Christ!

Ask yourself this question: Why did Jesus Christ come to this earth and live, die, and resurrect? Why did He send His Spirit to live inside of us and give us His Words that would change our lives? One answer would be "to save us." To save us from what? Sin, certainly, but not just the spiritual ramifications of sin but the everyday bondage of sin that comes through fear. If we gladly and by faith receive a spiritual cleansing of the power of sin because of the victory and sacrifice of the cross, then why should we choose to live our lives in slavery to the fear of the things that sin had done? Living in fear is a trick of the devil to try to get the children of God to live without the full power of the cross in their lives. It is not the will of God for you to be stressed out all the time. It is not the will of God for you to worry constantly. It is not the will of God nor the plan of God for you to be constantly bound and bombarded by fear, because when you give in to such things, you are unable to think clearly and respond to God in faith. Listen to what the Holy Spirit anointed Zacharias to say about the reason for the coming of Jesus Christ:

Jesus came that we "might serve Him without fear!" He did not come and die just to take away our sin, but to remove from us the effects of our sin. The Bible says this:

If God is on your side, then who could possibly stand against God? Understand that salvation can be simplified in the phrase "getting God for you." Sin causes a separation from God. Sin causes God's power to be against you. Sin creates confusion and death of your relationship with God. With unrepented sin in your life, God is not for you because He will not bless your sin or your sinful lifestyle. But He in His mercy and grace, has provided a way to deal with the sin problem. He died on Calvary and paid the price for your sin. You place that price upon your spiritual account through repentance and then having those sins washed away by being baptized in the name of Jesus. He then gives you the Holy Ghost to help "reprove" or "convict" you of sin so that you can stop living in willful sin and therefore not be under it's curse. When you have obeyed this plan of salvation, then God is no longer against you, but He is for you. And -- in the words of the Apostle Paul -- if God be for you, then who or what in the world can stand against you? And if God be on your side fighting for you, then what is there to be afraid of? Who can fight against God and win?

That's why Jesus told His followers in our other text, to not fear man or what man could do to you, but rather fear and obey God, and then He said this:

God takes care of the little and -- to us -- insignificant birds and does not forget one of them! There is not an event that happens in a single bird's life on this earth that God does not know about and that He does not allow or control. And yet, we are much more valuable to God than a sparrow, because He was willing to come to earth and die for us to be saved and have a relationship with Him! So don't you think that a God who is so careful and watchful and helping to some dumb bird who just comes to the temple to build nests and generally be a nuisance would be even more concerned about His prized creation who comes to the temple to worship Him? And whom He loves more than anything else? And so to paraphrase Jesus, if you are serving that kind of God, and He is for you, then what is there possibly to fear!?

I'm preaching to some people today that even this week a great fear has tried to consume you and distracted you to the point that you could not even joyfully enjoy your days. I know because God allowed me to feel what some of you were feeling. But I've got good news for you today, the scripture says:

And the Spirit of the Lord is here today and you do not have to stay bound to the slavery of fear! You do not have to leave the same way you came, but God has showed up announcing that it is time for us to live up to everything that God has brought in our lives. We do not have to live under the consequences of sin, nor it's spirit of fear, because we have a God who is for us!

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Do you know what the most common phrase spoken by God, or His angels, or His prophets is throughout the Bible? "Fear not." Do you know what is the most often quoted phrase that Jesus told His disciples? "Fear not." In Greek it is mee' fobei'sthe (may fo bay sthay). If there is a message that God would want you to hear today it is "fear not." He has again sent a messenger unto you to remind you that His kingdom and His power and His anointing has conquered everything that you could possibly be afraid of. But let me prove it to you with scripture today. God has conquered and therefore there is no reason to be afraid of:

Let me read you some scriptures that aren't read or believed much anymore but are still there:

Relax, we're not snake handlers. These scriptures do not mean that we go and look for serpents to hold to prove our faith. I read recently about a cult that as a show of their great faith, stands in the middle of interstates and preaches to the cars going by. They made the news because their leader, um, apparently didn't have enough faith to avoid a semi.

In other words, "if you want to make a big show about something, don't make it about the protective power of God, but rather of the saving power of God." Instead of handling snakes, why don't you rejoice and show off God's power by living right!? The scripture also says "thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" and so we know that these scriptures are not there for you to tempt Him by doing dumb things, but by the same token, they do promise that if the Holy Ghost is active in your life, you do not need to be afraid of serpents and poisons. Paul accidentally got bit by a viper while gathering wood for a fire after a shipwreck and God preserved him and he just "shook it off on the fire." I could introduce you to missionaries that were ate food that they did not know had been poisoned by their enemies and when they did not get sick and survived, their enemies became Christians! It was asked of Dr. Livingstone, the missionary/doctor who preached the Gospel first to many backward and cannibalistic tribes of Africa by himself because he couldn't get anybody to go with him: "why are so utterly fearless in facing danger for the cause of Christ?" To which Dr. Livingstone replied "I am immortal until God's will is done in my life." And that is true. Not in the sense of tempting God by jumping off a cliff, but if you are facing danger for His cause, then know that He will protect you until His will is finished. Why do you think the Apostle Paul survived stonings, shipwrecks, beatings, attacks, rods, snake bites, and various other things? It was almost like you couldn't kill the guy. Because he was doing the will of God and nobody but God was going to decide when it was his time to go! Serving God brings a freedom of fear of the danger of such things!

The disciples' reaction to the storms was a learned behavior based upon their past experiences. In other words, they freaked out when severe storms hit because they had barely survived such storms in the past relying on their own abilities. But Jesus repeatedly told them "fear not" and "do not be afraid." They had to learn that just because their past told them they should be fearful, that things were different now because they had Jesus on board!

We tend to react to hardships and storms in our lives in the same way: freaking out as we've always freaked out because we know that our own power is not going to get us out. But when you have Jesus come in your life you've got to rethink your fears. It's not the same as it used to be, because now God's on your side. Things that used to freak you out and stress you to the max, can be approached without fear because God's on the boat now! He can calm the storm with one word, or He can calm you and give you the faith to walk through it. Either way, it's not the same as it always has been. This time Jesus is involved!

Listen to what scripture says:

If you are trusting in Him, then even if every friend in the world were to desert you, you can know that He will not. Solomon wrote:

Being lonely might be a good thing, because it may be that some of your friends would have influenced you to do evil, but understand that Jesus is the friend that sticks closer than any brother or family relation! You might desert Him, but He will not desert you and so as long as you are serving Him, what have you to worry about?

God can help you when you need to speak -- ask Moses. Or listen to what Jesus said:

God may not have called you to be a preacher or a pulpiteer, but you are to be a testimony to others, and when that opportunity comes, if you will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, God will help you say what needs to be said. Stop worrying about it and just serve God, He'll help you speak when the time comes!

Jesus said:

If you are living for God, sold out to His cause, then the future will only get better! He will not withhold "any good thing" from His children! If you are submitting to His plan, then you know that the future will only turn out blessed! The scriptures says:

And need I remind you of these promises from God:

Without God in your life, you have every right to worry about being a failure and to worry about the future, but with God at the center of your life, you can get out of the boat of uncertainty and walk across the storms of life with confidence because you are relying on a power greater -- much greater -- than your own!

Add that to the scriptures that we already read about how the followers of Christ "shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover" and you have no reason to fear illness.

Furthermore, if God choose to allow the sickness to destroy this earthly body and you stay faithful to Him, then know that it can only destroy this lump of clay and then we shall live forever in a place:

Why worry about illness when if you serve God, you will live in a place for forever that will have no such thing? And furthermore you don't have to worry about that dreaded:

Listen to what the writer of Hebrews wrote:

And it was Paul who wrote:

The dead in Christ will one day rise up to be with Him! We'll be given a glorified body and death will have lost it's power. If you are living for Jesus and have His Spirit living within you, then death is nothing to be feared because it is not final or powerful at all! And I end by pointing out that if you live for Jesus then you will eventually overcome your fear of . . .

Even if you refuse to fly now, if you serve Jesus, you will leave this earth in a Final Flight that will forever cure you of your fear! Jesus Christ has come to save us from sin, and to bring freedom of fear. Let it go today and sell out to Him and you will find that there is nothing to be worried about!