Victory over Fear

I'm not much of a TV preacher fan. But I love Charles Stanley.

Fear is something many Christians have struggled with and Charles Stanley wisely shares on this subject.

Fear - an uneasy feeling, a feeling of dread, a feeling of an alarm warning us, feeling threatened by something.

He begins by telling us there is good and bad fear.

When the Bible speaks of fearing the Lord it means being reverent, acknowledging Him for who He is, to respect God as God, a holy righteous God.

This kind of fear does not mean being afraid.


But when we are afraid in life we should remember what the Lord has said and that He means what He says:

"Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10
                                                              
And its also important to know fear does not come from God:

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2Timothy 1:7 

He then shares these feelings linked with fear:

A. Greed is fear of not having enough.

B. Rejection is concern about not being accepted.

C. Guilt is apprehension that our wrongs might be discovered.

D. Discouragement is a fear of failure caused by a lack of confidence.

E. Anger is caused by a fear that we may not get our way.

F. Jealousy is the fear of losing control of what we desire.

G. Indecision is caused when we worry about making a wrong choice.

I can especially relate to the fear of rejection. It's a fear instilled in me from my childhood, but a fear that I'm learning is not from God.

Because of this fear of rejection as a child, I also feared God rejecting me.

I loved this sermon because Charles Stanley went through some of the same fears as me. I appreciated the part where he explained how having the wrong view of God can keep us in fear.

He explains here:

Growing up he says some people were - " fighting to hold onto a belief that if they sin against God and sinning while they die they will go to hell." In other words if you were a Christian and sinned, and then died before you repented, you would go to hell.

He continues: "I would not hold onto that belief one second!" 

But this is what was taught when he was growing up and what I often heard as well. It scared the life out of me and I often, as Charles Stanley says he did, went to bed feeling scared and asking God to save me over and over again.

We must look to the cross for the answer.

He continues saying:

"Jesus payed your sin debt in full. He has atoned for your sin, past, present and future. It doesn't mean you will not sin again but that when you do He will discipline you."

Jesus payed your debt in full!!! There is no need to fear rejection from Him.

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."      Col. 2:13-14

I love this quote by Francis Chan:

"To call someone a Christian simply because he does some Christian-y things is giving false comfort to the unsaved. But to declare anyone who sins 'unsaved' is to deny the reality and truth of God's grace."

Charles Stanley goes on to say:

"I was a pastor for a long time before I genuinely, emotionally felt, oh I knew it, I preached it, but before I emotionally felt God really loved me as a person. It was a long time. It was a wrong view of God."

If you are a believer in Christ then you are saved and you need not fear.

"And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Acts 2:21

Here's the full sermon:

Here's the Sermon Outline 

Charles Stanley has recently written a book dealing with emotions, one of them being fear. It's called Emotions: Confront the lies. Conquer with Truth.

I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Buy it  HERE on Amazon