Resist Fear So You Can Hear Pastor Christine Miller

Hallelujah! Glory to God! Alright, it's School of the Spirit. And, of course, the most important thing about School of the Spirit is being led by the Spirit. Right? So this morning, you know, I was planning to continue along the lines of speaking with other tongues and I kept hearing this phrase over and over again. And it's this. It's the title of my message. Resist fear so you can hear. Amen. Resist fear so you can hear. Now, I wasn't even sure that I was going to preach this. I just kept hearing it. And there are some things that I've dealt with in my life, you know, in recent weeks that I was tempted to get in fear about. You ever get tempted to get in fear about something? An evil report, maybe, or a situation. And so, but I was not letting it in. You know, you can feel things sometimes, but you keep it at a distance. And so, at one point, I went down to my husband's office to pray in the Spirit because it was noisy upstairs. And as I was sitting in the office praying, the Lord drew my attention to a devotional by Kenneth Hagin called Health Food. And it's good, but I just don't normally read it because my space is in a different corner of the house and I don't have that book in my space. And now, Pastor Jeff, he has all these devotionals stacked up, and it was not at the top. It was in the middle, but it just, I felt drawn by the Spirit. And so, I went and I opened it up to today's date, and this is what was in there. The following is a psalm given to me by the Lord. This is Brother Hagin talking. Doubt and fear, the two tormenting twins of the enemy, sent to torment you down here. Doubt and fear will rob you of faith, health and healing, and all spirituality too. Doubt and fear will dog your tracks as you walk down here. But doubt and fear do not belong to the child of God. For you see, you're a child of the Father, a child of faith and love. Faith and love come down from the Father above. Faith and love to abide in your spirit and heart for you to walk in love and to act by faith. And so, you'll not, when the enemy shows his head, run away and hide, but rather, you in the Word of God shall abide and will speak forth by faith in love and all of God's blessing shall be showered on you from above. Now, I thought that was good. In case you're wondering, a psalm, you know, we didn't get into it yet in too much detail, but we talked a little bit about psalms, hymns and spiritual psalms that come by the Spirit. And I just thought it was interesting that as soon as I opened up that book, I read that and I said, Now, all of you should have gotten the devotional by Joel Siegel, Reverend Joel Siegel, called Fearless. And something he said also really got my attention recently. He said, And if he keeps you out of peace, now listen carefully, And that is your ability to hear from God. Now, because I have great experience with worrying, I know for a fact that if your mind is racing with unhealthy thoughts, you will not be able to hear from God. We've all been there. Sometimes the more critical a situation is, the easier it is to embrace racing thoughts and not stop and take a few minutes to hear. I mean, because those thoughts are telling you, It's urgent. It's an emergency. You don't have time to pray. You don't have time to get quiet. You don't have time to talk to God. You better take time if it's that critical. Amen? And so anyway, I know that there are times where, you know, sometimes it seems urgent, but it's not really. Other times it really truly is urgent, naturally speaking. But we have got to learn how to shut down this kind of thinking. It comes to everybody. You know, fear is one of those things that shows up in so many forms, and sometimes we don't even realize it's fear in disguise. And worry, of course, would be the number one form of fear, if we want to put it that way. Worrying. Are you worrying about your finances? Worrying about your children? Worrying about how you're going to make it? Worrying about a symptom in your body? Worrying about a doctor's report? Worrying about your credit card being higher than it should be, and how are you ever going to pay it down? Worrying about this? Worrying about that? Where am I going to move next? What am I going to do? Right. Worry, worry, worry. I'm not saying I don't ever worry anymore, because the temptation does come to worry, but I have really done my best to try to put my foot on the neck of this thing. And it's something you have to master if you're going to live by faith in this life. Another way that fear shows up is through reasoning. You can reason your way right out of what the word says or the spirit is leading, because you're worried it might not work. Right. So even though you think you're just being reasonable, you're really trying to take matters into your own hands. Doubt is a form of fear. Anxiety is a form of fear. Panic, indecisiveness comes from fear. Why can't you make a decision? Because you're afraid you're going to make the wrong one. Depression is a form of fear. Depression only comes because we're dwelling on the wrong thoughts and their lying thoughts. And so, you know, if you remember the story of Brother Hayden when he was healed, when he was 16 years old, first and foremost, God dealt with him about worry. Right? Because the Lord knew. I mean, Kenneth Hagin didn't necessarily know at that point. But the Lord knew if he doesn't get a hold of a handle on this worry situation, he won't be able to hear the instructions. And if he did hear them, he won't be able to act on them. And then he won't receive his healing. So worry really is a huge problem, isn't it? Because it can keep you from receiving what God has for us. So we're going to talk a little bit about that tonight. I mean, when I was studying today, I realized that you can preach probably every single week for a whole year on this topic, just on the subject of fear alone. I mean, there are times like this where I wish I was a Keith Moore because he could do it. Oh, yeah. But I don't know if I'm just not detailed enough or what. But anyway, when I was looking some things up in the concordance today, I found this, the word fear, in the King James Version anyway, it shows up 400 times in the Bible, the word fear. So fear is a big topic. Now, the words fear not, if it's, you know, fear is one thing. Because sometimes it would say the fear of the Lord, which that's a good thing. That particular definition in the Hebrew or the Greek really just means reverence. But then there's this other type of fear. And when it says fear not, that's not referring to God. It's referring to situations, to people, to the devil. That's located 63 times. And fear ye not, in the King James, eight times. So it's interesting that it pops up that many times. This is an important subject. Now, let's turn to Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1. Hallelujah. If you master fear, you've mastered your life. Because Satan is the god of fear. Now, in Proverbs 1, let's start in verse 27. You know, I started out saying this because this is the title. Resist fear so you can hear. And I was praying and meditating and looking for specific scriptures to back this up. And this is something that popped out to me today. It says in verse 27, When your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. How many think that kind of sounds like panic, fear, worry? Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Now, I know this is in the context of people that are not listening to God. He's calling, they're refusing to listen. He stretches out His hand, they're not regarding. They would have none of His rebuke. In other words, God's always reaching out to us. He's always trying to give us answers. He's always trying to help us. If we don't take the help before the whirlwind, before the terror shows up, before the destruction comes like a whirlwind, before the distress and the anguish come upon us, if we don't take His help before those things come, then you're in a place where you call on Him, but you can't hear the answer. It's not that there is no answer. You're just not going to hear it. You can seek Him, but you won't find Him when you're in that state of mind. And we know this, that racing thoughts will drown out the voice of the Holy Spirit. I mean, think about it. Satan is, the Bible says, he seeks to devour us like a roaring lion. He roars, he's loud. He's the God of this world system. You could say he's the God of the flesh realm. So you're going to hear roaring and loudness when it comes to fearful thoughts. But when the Holy Spirit is trying to give you direction and calm you down, it's not a roar. You can see why you have to get the mind calm in order to get the peaceful instructions from the Lord. So there are commands throughout the entire Bible to fear not. Why? Because the Lord knows that fear is going to hinder your faith from working, and faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by hearing, so you have to hear. Right? When your faith is not working, then God's plan for you or God's plan for other people is not going to work. Now let's go to Acts chapter 27. We're going to look at a scriptural example here. In Acts chapter 27 and verse 20, and I pray that there's something that is said tonight that can help you. It says, now you know the story. Paul boarded a ship. He was on his way to Rome. He wanted to come before Caesar to plead for his particular case. And it says in verse 20, now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small tempest beat on us. In other words, it was a strong tempest. It was huge. All hope that we would be saved was finally given up. Now you know what he doesn't say here? He doesn't say all hope that we would be saved was given up by all of the crew except me. He could have very well been feeling the same thing they were. All hope that we would be saved was finally given up. I can't imagine how many days they were out there. This particular storm was of like hurricane proportion. We know that in the fall, that's usually hurricane season. And it's not the best time to try to set sail on a ship. And so they're stuck in this storm and it's just not stopping. Day after day after day, they're being tossed everywhere. I mean, if it wasn't large enough, they would have been tumbled right over. And so they start lightening the ship and doing all the things they can. It says in verse 21, but after a long abstinence from food. Would you call this a crisis situation, folks? Sure. Paul stood in the midst of them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster of loss. And now I urge you to take heart. Now he's urging them. He's giving them some words. For there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night. So this this night, meaning the night just before he's speaking this. So up until now, he wasn't even sure if he was going to make it. Hallelujah. But there stood by me this night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar. And indeed, God has granted you all those who sail with you. Paul was clearly praying. And he didn't just pray for his own safety. He was praying for everyone on board because this was an answer to his prayer. He said, God has granted you all those who sail with you. Therefore, take heart, men. In other words, be of good courage. For I believe, God, that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island. Now, here's the thing that's interesting about this story. Paul was encouraged by what he heard. Correct? He was tempted to be discouraged because he said, All hope that they would be saved was finally gone. That's a state of discouragement. All hope is gone. But an angel appears to him and says, Take courage. Don't worry. All is going to be okay. He receives words. And because he heard those words, faith came. Now that faith has come, fear is gone. Worry is gone. Concern is gone. So we see this, that fear is attached to wrong thoughts and words. And it could be literal negative circumstances or just perceived circumstances. You know, sometimes we fear things that don't really exist. Let's just be frank about that. Sometimes our mind goes into overdrive, worrying about something that's not even a reality. So we create a problem by thinking things. But sometimes there are actual circumstances like in this case. And, of course, if you're not saved, if you're not Paul, if you don't know God, there is no other way to think. You're thinking negatively. But even after they heard the right words from Paul's mouth, they still had to choose to believe. See, faith comes by hearing, but you have to choose to believe what you hear. It's a choice. And so Paul chose to believe that in the midst of this terrible storm that everything was going to be turned around. So we see this, that he got in a place where he could hear. He resisted the fear he was able to hear. Amen? I remember years ago, and I've told this story before, but it just came to mind today. I was working at Rush in Chicago, and I was pregnant with Tim. And I was working in an oncology unit that particular night, and I got stuck with a dirty needle. And at first I wasn't going to say anything, but then I went ahead and I reported it to one of the interns that was there that night. And so it wasn't that big of a deal. He didn't say anything. But then about an hour later, he came up to me and he said, Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but we think that man might have hepatitis. Something along those lines. And I just looked at him like, You weren't going to say anything. What kind of a response is that? And here I am about six months pregnant, and so immediately the thoughts start rolling through my head. What am I going to do now? I didn't have enough knowledge or information. I would have had to look into it. I didn't know if this could pass to the child. I didn't know what would happen to me. I didn't know what it meant. All I know is they actually said he could have AIDS or hepatitis. That's what they told me. So anyway, I kept on working for a couple more hours with my mind. Not necessarily speed fast racing because I had to be focused on my work, but it kept being bombarded with these thoughts. What are you going to do now? And finally when I sat down to do my charting that night, I got quiet, and I heard as clear as anything, still a small voice, nothing by any means shall harm me. And you know what happened after that? I heard from God. It didn't matter if I got stuck with a dirty needle. It didn't matter if the man had AIDS or whatever he had. It didn't matter because I heard from God. So you can resist fear so that you can hear. Amen. You have to hear. Now once you hear that, you have to hold fast to it. It doesn't mean the devil won't try to resurrect fearful thoughts, but you have to embrace what you know you heard. And it lined up with the word. So it wasn't like it was some random thing. It lined up with the scriptures, and I could take that word, and I made it my own, and all was well. Amen. So it's important what we hear, and it's important how we hear, and it's important what we do with what we hear. Now I'm just going to go ahead, just because I think it has a good impact. I'm going to read some of the scriptures that admonish people not to fear throughout the Bible. In Genesis Chapter 15 and Verse 1, it says, Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. I'm sure Abram had a lot of things that he was tempted to worry about. He left his homeland. He didn't have a child. Things weren't going the way he thought they would go. He had a lot to fear, but God said, Don't fear. Then in Exodus Chapter 14, and listen, we're skipping all kinds of references. You know, there's a lot. Exodus 14, 13, And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today. For the Egyptians, whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. Woo! I love using Egypt as an example. Right. The things of the world that you see today that have troubled you, disturbed you, stolen from you, put you in bondage, you shall see them again no more forever. I mean, they left them behind. They got swallowed up in the sea of forgetfulness. Numbers Chapter 14 and Verse 9. Only do not rebel. Okay, this is, you know, Joshua and Caleb. And they're saying, Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. Are we having trouble with the microphone, guys? Do I need to adjust it? Okay. So he's telling them, Don't fear them. It doesn't matter if there are giants in the land. It doesn't matter how large they are. It doesn't matter if they have fortified cities. Once again, natural circumstances. You know, when you read the Bible, don't think it's a fairy tale. I think there's a temptation to do that. Or they were different than we are today. Or circumstances were different. They thought different. They had different signs. They had this. They had that. No, they had the same mind. The same ability to reason. And these people were looking at the natural. You know, remember, these were slaves for 400 years. Slave mentality. They weren't warriors. They weren't soldiers. They hadn't fought battles. So now they're looking at giants and circumstances that look impossible. And they're all tempted to fear. And they chose fear. Fear is the reason they wouldn't go into the promised land. They were afraid to face the giants. But Joshua and Caleb had the spirit of faith. They had another spirit. They heard the same words as the ten other spies. They heard the same report from Moses. The same instructions. They were told they could do it. But they chose. You know, how many times have we talked about this story? There's two types of unbelief. And one type is flat out refusing to believe. One type is because you haven't heard. You can't believe. But the other type is choosing to disbelieve. That's actually far more dangerous. Because if you disbelieve what you've heard and it's your answer, there's no other choice for you. That's the end of the road, folks. Hallelujah. So they're trying to convince them, don't be afraid of them. Do not fear. All right, Joshua Chapter 1 and Verse 7. Joshua, now they didn't use the words fear, not fear. But he is told, only be strong and very courageous. Not just one time, but many times. That you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do you know it takes faith to obey the Word of God? Yeah. It took faith for Joshua to obey the commandments that Moses gave him. It takes faith. Yeah. Hallelujah. That it pays great dividends. Yes. He said, do not turn from it to the right hand or the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. So your prosperity is attached to you being courageous. It's attached to you fearing not. It's attached to you obeying the instructions of God, believing what he says and not fearing to do it. Can you imagine if Kenneth Hagin, when he heard these words, well, you say that you're healed, you say that you're well. That's right, I believe I'm healed. Well, healed people are not in bed at 10 o'clock in the morning. Right. Well, if you're paralyzed from the waist down 100% and mostly paralyzed from the waist up, don't you think fear could attack your mind about trying to get up? It's true. He was attacked with thoughts. The devil was right there to see to it. Yeah. And he'll be there in your case, too, whatever it is you're believing about. Right. So he's sitting right there on his shoulders saying, you know if you try to get up, you're going to fall on that floor. And if you fall on that floor, you're going to have to lay there all day until your grandfather gets home and takes you up off the floor. Right. So how many know he had to resist those negative thoughts. Absolutely. Which were rational. True. Right? Fear comes in the form of reason. He had to resist it and he had to act on what he heard. Yeah. All right. Now there are also accounts of angels appearing to people, which we know just every single time they said fear not. Why? Because we've been tempted to fear. Right. Remember Dr. Jacob's teaching. Yeah. Matthew chapter 28, verse 4. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. And I thought this was an interesting passage here because these guards that we know were highly trained like the best of the best, they shook for fear and became like dead men. But look at verse 5. Do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. So the angels didn't tell the guards to fear not. Right. In that case it served their purpose. Right. God doesn't tell people that have no interest in pursuing him fear not. That's right. It's always those that are pursuing truth and righteousness that are given these words of encouragement. They're words of faith. When God comes to you and says fear not, if an angel comes to you and says fear not, that faith can come. Right. Because fear not brings faith. Yes. That's right. Amen. And there are so many examples even that I don't have written here. Do you remember when Jesus is going with Jairus to his household to heal his daughter? Yes. And the woman with the issue of blood shows up and detains him? Yes. And you notice Jesus was never in a hurry? Right. Oh, we could learn so much from him. Oh, sure. You know why? Because, all right, Jesus knew that Jairus' daughter was at the point of death. Yeah. But he didn't rush over there. No. Because he had absolute perfect faith. That's right. He knew that when he got there, everything would be fine whether she was breathing or not. Exactly. Right. So when this other person with a need shows up and touches him, he has time. And it took time because he touched me. He stopped. He touched me. And we had to have time for her to show up and say it was me. And then have their little, you know, exchange of words. And then he even told her, go in peace. Be whole of your play. So peace was involved with her healing. That's true. And I'm sure she had plenty to worry about. Sure. Oh, yeah. You know, think about the day we live in, the kind of medical care that we have is so great. And I'm so thankful for it. I am. But I've said this before and I'll say it again. Sometimes our medical system could almost become a curse to us because we get so dependent on that and not dependent enough on the word. That's right. But thank God it keeps a lot of us alive longer. Amen. So he said to Jairus, you know, when the person from his household shows up and says, don't bother the master, don't trouble him anymore, she's dead. And what did Jesus say? Yep, it's too late. No. He said, fear not, only believe. That's right. Only believe. That's the message that the Lord's always going to give you. That's right. It's never going to be, well, it's a good time to start worrying. I think this is as good a time as any to start getting concerned. Now listen, you know, we're laughing because we all know that we've been there. Yeah. I mean, I'll just tell him myself, I can think of many times, because my husband has become this physician. And I had the more high strung. And he's never in a hurry. That's pretty much the truth. And so there have been many times where I have felt something was, like, so urgent and so critical. And we've got to do this now. We've got to deal with this now. And he'll just kind of sit there. You can't give him his brother's ruffles and truffles. And I would get so mad because it's a perfectly good time to be concerned. It's a perfectly good time to worry about this situation. And the fact that you're not reacting like I am means that something's wrong with you. Honestly, when I think back, now I don't really get like this anymore. But when I think back to, you know, some of us were born with a more calm disposition. And maybe we were raised in an environment where there's not a lot of fear or worry. I can't say that my mom was a worrier. I don't really remember that so much. So I'm not sure how it happened. Well, I am sure. I know some reasons why. But when I do have a psychology session with my mom. We're all raised in dysfunction to some extent. But the thing is, I remember getting married, and I did not. If you would have asked me, are you a worrier, I would have flat denied it. I had no clue that I was a worrier. You know, a lot of people are like that. They have no clue they're in fear. Worry is just a form of fear. Fear of losing control. If you can't control the situation, oh my God, it's a good time to get worried. Now I'm going to do everything I can to finagle this to get it back under my control. Because if I can control it, then everything will be okay. Only problem is it doesn't always work that way. It takes practice to give up trying to be in control of everything. And let God be in control. And so we came into a marriage where he really didn't worry, but I did. But I didn't know I was. And when I think back now, you know, we're all this way. Don't you wish you could go back and redo things with the knowledge you have today? I wish that I could go back and start over and say, wait a minute, that's worry. I'm not going down that avenue. Wait a minute, I don't need to overreact to this, because all will be well. But it took a while to train myself that everything would be okay. And it can be done. We're probably not going to get into the details of how to do that tonight, because there's too much to say. But anyway, those that were seeking Jesus were told, do not fear. Luke chapter 1, verses 11 through 13. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid. Luke chapter 1, verse 30. Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Luke chapter 2, verse 10. Then the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. Hallelujah. So those are just some of the angelic visitations. We know that Daniel was told not to fear when the angel appeared to him, and et cetera, et cetera. Now let's turn to Luke chapter 1. Can I switch microphones? Is everything okay? I can hear the feedback. Okay. Luke chapter 1. Now here's something interesting that I came across today. Is everyone still awake? Yes. Luke chapter 1, verse 67. Now his father, Zacharias, was, remember, Zacharias is the father of John the Baptist. We don't have time to read the whole chapter. We did just read shortly that the angel said fear not to him. But he was silenced because he didn't believe what the angel told him. Right. And so finally, after his tongue is loosed because he said his name shall be John, verse 67, now his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Now this prophecy is concerning the Messiah who is to come. And the purpose of the Messiah was to save us from our enemies, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear. Now underline that. If you don't have that verse underlined, this is the purpose. God swore an oath to Abraham to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear. Verse 75. In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. So one of the main reasons Jesus came was to be able to serve him without fear. Under the old covenant it was all about fear. People were in bondage to fear their whole lifetime. In Romans chapter 8 verse 15 it says, For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. When you got saved you received the Holy Spirit. You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. But you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father. So we see this. This was God's plan from the beginning. The whole world lies in fear. You know what? I've been listening to a series by Brother Hagin on faith in the evenings and one of the things he said, and I keep listening to it over and over again, but when he says certain things it jumps out at me. And you know when something jumps out at you it's because you need to take note of it. Right. And he said the whole world is against faith. Just the way he worded that. The whole world is against faith. You can see why we have to give diligent efforts to stay in faith. Because everything in the world is against faith. So what's the opposite of faith? Fear. Jesus came to deliver us from the bondage of fear. That we could serve him without fear. Glory to God. We serve him knowing that everything's going to be fine. Amen. Now there's so much more, but we won't get into it tonight. There's so, so much more that could be said about it. But because really I'm trying to stick with what the Lord spoke to me today. He said resist fear so you can hear. So let's go to Mark chapter 4. And we can bring this up in the Amplified, please. Mark chapter 4 and verse 1 is the parable of the sower. And this parable is all about how you hear. Yeah. Now here's the Amplified. In verse 1 it says, again, Jesus began to teach beside the lake. And a very great crowd gathered about him so that he got into a ship in order to sit in it on the sea. And the whole crowd was at the lakeside on the shore. And he taught them many things in parables, illustrations, or comparisons. Put beside truths to explain them. And in his teaching he said to them, give attention to this. Do you know what you put your attention on is what's going to produce something in your life. I found this now, you know, certainly, Pastor Nancy has some good teaching along this line too. But if your mind is being bombarded with fearful thoughts, the best thing to do is just praise God. But you could also continually confess the scripture over and over again. You know, both work. But praise is probably more effective. Because it's important what we give attention to. He said, behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. And other seed of the same kind, notice it's all the same kind of seed. We can't say, oh, we put different seed there, that's why the birds ate it. No, other seed of the same kind fell on the ground full of rocks where it had not much soil. And at once it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And when the sun came up, it was scorched. And because it had not taken root, it withered away. Other seed of the same kind fell among thorn plants. And the thistles grew and pressed together and utterly choked and suffocated it. And it yielded no grain. I'll tell you, when I think of fear, that's what it does. It chokes and suffocates. And other seed of the same kind, actually, let me just take a minute on that. There are people that actually show up in emergency rooms with panic attacks. And they feel like they can't breathe, like they're suffocating. Because you can get yourself so worked up thinking a wrong thought. Thank God I've never gotten to that place. But you can get so worked up to where you feel like you can't breathe and your heart's racing and you feel like you're suffocating. Another seed of the same kind fell into well-adapted soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielded up to 30 times as much and 60 times as much and even 100 times as much as had been sown. And he said, he who has ears to hear, let him be hearing and let him consider and comprehend. And as soon as he was alone, those who were around him with the 12, so notice there weren't just 12 with him, began to ask him about the parables. And he said to them, to you has been entrusted the mystery of the kingdom of God, that is the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly. But for those outside of our circle, everything becomes a parable. In order that they may indeed look and look but not see and perceive and may hear and hear but not grasp and comprehend, thus happily they should turn again and it, their willful rejection of the truth, which should be forgiven them. So some of these people aren't hearing because they're willfully rejected. And he said to them, do you not discern and understand this parable? How then is it possible for you to discern and understand all parables? The sower sows the word and the ones along the path are those who have the word sown in their hearts, but when they hear, Satan comes at once and by force takes away the message which is sown in them. So they're not hearing very attentively. And in the same way, the ones sown upon stony ground are those who when they hear the word, again they're hearing, at once they receive and accept and welcome it with joy. And they have no real root in themselves and so they endure for a little while and then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, they immediately are offended, they become displeased, indignant, resentful, and they stumble and fall away. You know, this would describe people that come to a good church, that hear the word of God, that start putting it into practice, but if trouble arises and they don't master it, they become offended and they can become resentful toward the message. They may actually become resentful toward the one that brought the message. And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the word, then, this is the one we want to focus on tonight, the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the word and it becomes fruitless. Fruitless. So we see here that one of the things that causes the word to not produce in our lives is care and anxiety. And if you're not resisting care and anxiety, and we entitled this Resist Care, but we said here there's many forms. So if you're not resisting anxiety, if you're not resisting worry, if you're not resisting the reasonings, reasoning away why the word can't work for you or whatever the case might be, if you don't resist it, then things are going to come in and choke and suffocate the word in you and it's not going to be able to produce fruit. And those sown on the good, well-adapted soil are the ones who hear the word and receive and accept and welcome it and bear fruit. Some 30, some 60, and some 100 times. Glory to God. Are you awake? You have to be awake, Apollo. Now let's go down to verse 23. If any man has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him perceive and comprehend. And he said to them, be careful what you are hearing. Now if you're just playing negative thoughts over and over again in your mind, you're not being careful about what you're hearing. If you keep playing negative scenarios over and over again, you're not being careful about what you're hearing. This can be a full-time job. I catch myself a lot of times, particularly when I'm in the bathroom getting ready, because it sometimes takes a while to do my hair and my makeup, your mind will start drifting. You can start thinking about something and dwelling on something and you don't even fully recognize that you're doing it. That's why a long time ago I started taking my phone in the bathroom and putting a message on while I'm getting ready. Because I don't want my mind to be mindlessly thinking things that aren't beneficial. So if I have something I'm focusing on while I'm doing all of this, then my mind stays solid, it stays planted on the Word. And you can say, well, who just listens to the Word day and night? Well, you know, you can either be thinking about the Word, muttering the Word, listening to the Word, conjuring the Word. You've got to get to the place where you take captive those thoughts that are trying to steal faith from you. Right. And get you in worry and fear. Right. Now he said here, the measure of thought and study that you give to the truth you hear will be the measure of virtue and knowledge that comes back to you. So this is an important scripture because it works in the positive or the negative. True. The measure of thought and study that you give to whatever you hear, certainly we want to give it to the truth, not to the lie. But if you give a lot of thought and study to a lie, it's going to become a problem. And so we have to be careful that we're resisting that. When we say we resist fear, again, we're resisting negative thoughts. We're resisting worry. And you have to kind of really get before God and pray and say, what are the triggers that I like? What is it that I worry about but I don't necessarily catch it or realize I'm worried? Because worry, unchecked, will start to have babies. Right. Come on. I can't think of a better way to say it. You ever see how rabbits multiply and mice multiply? It will just rapidly multiply into other issues. And then what you think the problem is is not the problem at all. Right. You can think it's somebody else. You can think it's your job. You can think it's your finances. The real problem is that you're worrying about something. You're being fearful about something. And then God doesn't have an avenue to work in that area. That's true. So we're to resist fear so we can hear. Amen. That's all we're going to say about it for tonight. Good word. Why don't we all stand up? Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. Lord, we worship you. We thank you, Lord, that you delivered us from the bondage of fear. We've been completely delivered from the bondage of fear. We thank you, Lord, for the peace that passes our understanding. It's keeping our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Lord, we choose to think lovely thoughts, truthful thoughts, peaceful thoughts. We will not embrace the enemy's thoughts. We thank you, Lord. We're going full force with faith and not with fear. We worship you and we thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Every one of us is going to face situations in life where you hear, What are you going to do now? Laughing is a good thing. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to act like the word is true. That's what I'm going to do. Hallelujah. If you came tonight and you need healing in your body, we would be happy to lay hands on you. So why don't you come forward right now? And if you've been worrying, that will keep you from receiving it. So, thank you, Jesus. Are we ready to give up worry? Yes. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. You are such a good God. Your mercy endures forever. You love your children. You want us well. So you give us answers, Lord, so that we can walk in hope. We thank you tonight, Lord. We thank you, Lord, in your spirit. And, Lord, I release the power of God now, and I command you to be whole from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. Thank you, Father. The power of God is working right now, driving out everything and restoring everything that does belong to you, in the name of Jesus. to summon our daily system into the angel. Lord, I thank you for the flow of peace and the flow of health and healing. Be whole in Jesus' name. If you're here tonight and you've been plagued with worry and thoughts, or this, that we have a part to play, we have to resist the enemy. We need to speak words of life and rejoice in you. But, Father, we know also that sometimes there are troubling spirits that come to trouble. And so we take authority over that. I command you, Satan, loose him and let him go free. In the name of Jesus, I command you, Satan, to loose her mind and let her go free. That which would trouble has to go. In Jesus' name. Amen. Hallelujah. Let's just lift our hands and worship the Lord. We worship you, Jesus. We embrace your presence and your peace in our lives. We know we must hear from you, Father. We must hear your words to live in victory. We will not allow that which troubles us to stay. Merciful delivery of very pleasant... You know, sometimes I know in my personality, how many of you know it's right and it's good to be conscientious of other people? But sometimes you can be overly conscientious to the place where it steals your peace. I remember I worked for a doctor for a season, and I said to her one day, I was sitting there working, and I looked up to her and I said, I'm beginning to think it's a curse to be an overly conscientious person. Because you can go from the point of being conscientious to the point of being worried about people. I tend to be careful that I don't worry about people. And worrying about people is not an act of faith. Worrying about, you know, if I don't help, or if I don't come to the rescue, or if I don't say the right thing, or if I don't pray enough, that's a big one. I love what Pastor Nancy said one time, obviously the Lord leads us to pray for people and pray for situations, but... Even if you missed it, and you should have prayed more, it wasn't your fault they got in that condition to start with. We are good at condemning ourselves, but God's not the condemner. Sometimes we lose our peace because we give in to condemnation. Now we have to enjoy the mercy of God more than you do. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. I said to my mom one day, I'm sure she heard what I said, Mom, when we were growing up, you never really worried about us. You just say, whatever, get over it, straighten up. There was none of this worrying about how we were going to turn out, or this or that, or the other. I mean, I know the older generations, many generations were that way. I don't know what happened with our generation. I mean, maybe you didn't do this, but sometimes you slip into worrying about, if I do this, then that's going to happen. If I say that, then that's going to happen. What's going to happen to this, and what's going to happen to that? Shut up! You're better off to just lay the law down and don't worry about what they think or how they react when they're kids. This is good for some of you having babies now. You're not going to damage their life because you lay the law down. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Too much Dr. Spock got into this panel. What was his name? It was Spock, right? Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Well, I'm just trying to be sensitive before we shut it down. God, we thank you. We thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Procedure or surgery? Thank you, Father, in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for taking care of that. Thank you, Lord. I release your power, and I thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Glory to God. Glory, glory, glory, glory. Thank you, Lord. This will not arise again in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. Thank you, Father. No more. We command this to stop in Jesus' name. Thank you, Father. For some time, may Jesus say to you, be on the safe, you take your hands off of him. We command this heart and this cardiovascular system to function perfectly. In Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Well, come back Sunday. It's going to be good. We love you all. God bless you.