Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / How to Stop Sinking - February 15, 2026

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How to Stop Sinking - February 15, 2026 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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Well, good morning, everyone. For those of you who don't know
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me, my name is Vance Furtado. I'm a elder here at the church,
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which sort of means, I guess I'm an old guy, OK, But also I'm a
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teaching volunteer, teaching pastor here at the church as
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well. So we have been doing this
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series on losing different things, things that we would
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really like to get rid of. So this morning we're going to
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go to John chapter 14, and our topic is called Losing our
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Fears. All right.
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And for time's sake, we do not have time to look at everything
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in John 14. So I would really encourage
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everyone to read John 14, read the whole Gospel of John.
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It's a beautiful gospel. Now, let me tell you about ATV
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show. That kind of ties into our
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topic. There's ATV show, and Pastor
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Dave told me, I guess they brought this show back.
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It's called Fear Factor. All right.
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Now, for those of you who are not familiar with the show,
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imagine a man who was really scared of spiders.
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So this show would be the kind of show that would take someone
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like that, put him in a clear plexiglass cage so we could see.
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Then they open the top of the cage that he can't reach, and
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they dump in a couple of boxes of spiders.
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And then we watch or imagine a woman who happens to be afraid
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of heights, which is one of my fears.
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So they blindfold her, tie a safety rope onto her belt, lead
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her out to the edge of a Cliff, tell her to take off the
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blindfold. What a stupid idea for a show.
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Seriously. You know, one of my biggest
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fears, honestly, is losing control in a situation like
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missing a connecting flight, being stranded in an unknown
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airport in a foreign country on the other side of the world.
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This happened to me, OK? And I'll tell you, my fear and
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anxiety shot through the roof. Have you ever felt that kind of
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numbing, consuming anxiety? A deep fear or terror that feeds
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upon your darkest thoughts? The good news is this though, we
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do not have to live that way. You see, the idea we're looking
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at this morning is this. Jesus frees us from our fears,
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whether our fear is about a family member or a close friend,
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our need for a job, overcoming paying off debts, overcoming an
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addiction, finding that right person to spend our life with,
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finding that future job or career, the anxiety of a health
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crisis. Whatever our fear is, Jesus can
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give us freedom. So let's start reading some
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verses in John chapter 14. OK, beginning at verse one.
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Here we go. Let not your hearts be troubled.
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believe in God. By the way, it's Jesus that's
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speaking. believe in God, believe also in me.
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In my Father's house are many rooms.
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If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a
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place for you? And if I go to prepare a place
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for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I
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am, you may be also. And you know the way to where
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I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we
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don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?
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Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
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No one comes to the Father except through me.
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Let's jump down to verse 15. If you love me, you will keep my
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commandments, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you
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another helper to be with you forever.
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Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because
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it neither sees Him nor knows Him.
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You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
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Verse 25. These things I have spoken to
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you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit,
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whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all
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things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said
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to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace
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I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give
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to you. Let not your hearts be troubled,
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neither let them be afraid. OK, we're going to be looking at
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two ways Jesus frees us from fear.
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First way, Jesus frees us from fear when we make 2 choices.
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That's in verse one and then also in verse 27.
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Secondly, Jesus frees us from fear when we believe for facts.
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Now I say believe, but actually it's more than that because this
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is not information. This is basically information we
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have to act upon all right when we believe 4 facts.
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So let's talk first of all about how Jesus frees us from fear.
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When we make 2 choices, our first choice is actually there
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in verse one, Jesus says believe in God, believe also in me.
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Another way to translate that you believe in God, believe in
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me too. You know, sometimes we can
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believe some really strange things.
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Like when I was a kid, a little guy I never wanted to sleep in
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bed with dangling my arm off the side of the bed or my leg off
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the side of the bed. There might be a monster there.
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You know what? I'm now 65 years old.
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I still do not like to have my leg or arm dangling over the
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side of the bed. Jesus is not talking about
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childhood fear. Instead, he's referring to
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believing and trusting in the Almighty God Himself and
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trusting in Jesus himself, the perfect God, man who lived among
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us and who died for us. Now, earlier in this Gospel,
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back in Chapter 11, we're told there how Jesus's good friend
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Lazarus died, and Jesus arrived at the home of Mary and Martha,
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the sisters of Lazarus, about four days after he died.
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And everybody's upset, including Jesus.
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But as Jesus is standing outside Lazarus's tomb, he's talking to
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Martha, Lazarus's sister, and he says this.
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I am the resurrection and the life.
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Whoever believes in me, though they die, yet shall they live,
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And whoever believes in me shall never die.
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Do you believe this? That's the question.
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Because if we're going to overcome fear, we have to
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believe in Jesus. That is put up or shut up time.
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Martha was summoned to declare. Was she willing to believe and
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trust Jesus, especially when her fear said there is no hope for
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her brother and Jesus raised her brother Lazarus from the dead?
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You see, we can say, yeah, I believe, yeah, I trust.
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But honestly, it's a crisis that reveals just how much we're
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truly trusting God or not. You know, few years back, Linda
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and I, my wife, we were back in North Carolina and we were
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staying with our daughter and with her husband.
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Now Cat, real name is Kathleen, but we call her Cat.
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She was very, very pregnant. And once, you know, a day before
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their anniversary, she goes into labor.
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Now her husband Weston is there, Linda is there, her worry wart
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anxious, driven father is there. Every time my daughter would
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moan or groan, I was having conniption fits and finally this
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all happened at their house. Finally, my daughter sent me to
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bed. She said, Dad, you're making me
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nervous. So I went upstairs to their
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guest room and I finally started to do something right.
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I started praying. I was praying for my daughter.
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I was praying for myself. I was praying for the rest of
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us. And I kept praying.
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I had to choose to trust God. I had to keep up.
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You know what? I fell asleep.
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And the next morning I was in the house all by myself.
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I get this phone call. Beverly has shown up her
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granddaughter. Boy, that was a piece of cake.
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But seriously, bottom line is this.
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We have to either trust God or be trapped by our fears.
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We cannot do both. Second choice, first choice was
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to believe in God, trust God. Second choice, choose not to be
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troubled. You know, this is so important
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that Jesus actually says this twice.
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He says it in verse one where He tells his disciples, let not
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your hearts be troubled. And then he says it again at
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verse 27, the last verse that we read, Let not your hearts be
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troubled kind of bookends the whole passage.
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And the deal is, is that Jesus? The way he's saying this is it's
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an ongoing command, all right. It's not a one time deal.
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He's telling them and he's telling us every time you start
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to lapse into fear, into trouble, let not your hearts be
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troubled. Stop it now.
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Now the question is, why were their hearts so troubled?
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Well, if we go back to chapter 13, there's three reasons why
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they're troubled, why they're freaking out.
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First reason, Jesus tells them back in John 13, One of you will
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betray me. Now we know that it's Judas.
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Judas Iscariot, they don't know that, but somebody in that room
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is going to turn traitor. Secondly, Jesus tells us them
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he's leaving them and he's tells them you can't follow me now.
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They have followed Jesus for three years at this point and
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now he's going away. 3rd Peter, the leader of the 12 told Jesus
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at the end of that chapter that even if everybody else turned
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away, he would not. And Jesus told him, Peter, you
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are going to fail me miserably. Before this night is out, you
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will deny 3 times that you even know me.
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The disciples were stuck. They were stewing in their
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troubled hearts, and I wasn't doing them one bit of good.
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They needed to make and keep making another choice.
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It's it's like this guys in the Old Testament Israel too, a lot
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of times kept making the wrong choice, not trusting God, but in
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choose instead chose to be troubled.
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So it says this in Isaiah for the Lord God the Holy one of
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Israel has said you will be delivered by returning and
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resting. Your strength will be your
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confidence, but you were not willing.
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That's really sad. The Lord wanted to help His
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people, but they kept making the wrong choice.
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They kept turning away from Him. See, choosing to trust or
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believe Jesus and not letting our hearts be troubled.
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It's really not 2 separate things.
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It's basically two sides of the same coin.
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They really go together. The issue is this.
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Will we make the right choice and experience the freedom only
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trusting Jesus can provide, or will we choose our fears?
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Take a look at this picture on the screens behind me.
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This is taken from a movie called The Court Jester.
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Now, these two Knights are just about ready to fight each other
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to the death. And the littler knight, All
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right, you notice he's reaching down and he's picking up a cup.
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Now, the littler knight, his name is Hubert.
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He's about ready to poison himself.
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He knows one of these cups of wine is poisoned and he even
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learned a little poem to help him to remember which cup to
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pick and which one not to pick. He was told the pellet with the
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poisons in the vessel with the pestle.
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The flagon with the dragon has the brood.
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That is true. The poor guy still picks up the
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wrong cup. Likewise, Jesus is telling his
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disciples and us to stop letting our hearts be troubled.
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Instead trust His Father and himself.
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Don't pick up the poison cup. I can't tell you how many times
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I have picked up that cup knowing it doesn't do a bit of
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good. As a matter of fact, it's going
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to harm me. Instead, I have to trust God.
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So how exactly do we keep our hearts from being overwhelmed
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when trouble comes? That phone call or text in the
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middle of the night being told we lost our job?
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A sudden health crisis? You see, trouble is like an
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enrolling tide. There's nothing we can do to
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stop it. It's going to come.
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So what do we do? The answer is this.
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We need to focus on Jesus first. Let me show you what that
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actually looks like. All right, go with me over to
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Matthew, first book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 14,
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Matthew chapter 14. I'm going to start reading at
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verse 22. All right, Matthew 14, verse 22,
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immediately He, that's Jesus made his made the disciples get
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into the boat and go before him to the other side while he
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dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the
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crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
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And when evening came, he was there alone.
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But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten
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by the waves, for the wind was against them.
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And in the 4th watch, that's between 3:00 in the morning and
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six in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking
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on the sea. But when the disciples saw him
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walking on the sea, they were terrified and said it is a
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ghost. And they cried out in fear.
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But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart, it is
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I do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if
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it is you, command me to come to you on the water.
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He said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and
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walked on the water and came to Jesus.
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But when he saw the wind he was afraid, and beginning to sink.
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He cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out
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his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little
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faith, why did you doubt? It didn't matter how big those
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waves were. It didn't matter how fierce the
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wind was. It didn't matter how terrified
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the other disciples were. As long as Peter kept his focus
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on Jesus, he was fine. Likewise, when he took his eyes
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off of Jesus, started looking at the wind, looking at the massive
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waves, he began to sink. But we need to notice this.
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He was still fine because Jesus immediately took hold of his
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hand. He was totally safe being
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focused on Jesus. What are we focusing on?
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Jesus the Almighty Son of God or our troubles and fear that keeps
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yapping at us like one of those little rat dogs you know you
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just go away. He is more than enough to handle
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any fear or whatever it is that we are struggling with.
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We have to trust and keep our focus on Him.
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Now, something else that really have helps us out as well when
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it comes to losing our fears is remembering some very important
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information, and that is these 4 facts that I'm going to briefly
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touch on now. All right, so fact #1 going back
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to John chapter 14, fact number one is this.
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We lose our fears when we remember and believe.
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First of all, we have a permanent place.
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Jesus describes it in verses 2 to 4, where he said in my
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father's house are many rooms. Now I know the King James says
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mansions. Sorry, guys, it's rooms.
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OK, The word there rooms, Monet. It only shows up twice in the
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Greek New Testament, both times right in this chapter.
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All right. And Jesus's point is simply
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this. There is plenty of room for
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everybody, all right? And it's going to be nice.
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It's going to be real nice. You want to find out what your
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permanent home is going to be like, go read the last two
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chapters of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, chapters 21
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and 22. It's pretty awesome.
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OK. Fanciest house I've probably
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ever been in would be Hearst Castle.
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Over there on San Simeon, I guess.
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Yeah. No, it's over there.
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OK, Let me tell you, Hearst Castle would be like a tar paper
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shack compared to our Father's house.
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And you know what? The invitation is out.
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He is coming for us, He says. So specifically, He is coming
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for us, for every child of God to take us home to be with him
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forever. Second fact, we have a perfect
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path and that's Jesus. Did you notice what Jesus said
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at the Universe 4? And you know the way to where
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I'm going? And Thomas bless Thomas the
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honest, struggling disciple. Thomas is so confused, he blurts
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out, Lord, we don't know where you're going, how can we know
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the way? See what Jesus was telling him
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that he's going away. They know the way it made
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absolutely no sense. You know when the Lord tells us
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something and we can't figure it out doesn't seem to make a whole
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lot of sense. That's especially the time we
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need to trust him. We need to do what he wants us
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to do. So couple weeks ago our small
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group, we went on a tour after church at the Bakersfield
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Pregnancy Center over on 18th St. and one of the people that
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took us on that tour was Aaron Rodgers, long time friend of
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Linda, myself. And Aaron was describing for us
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something they do called the Teacup Talk.
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They actually have tea cups available and they will bring
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out these cups with certain clients that come in.
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And the whole point of the talk was to demonstrate to the client
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just how precious they are in the sight of God, made in God's
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image. So Aaron was talking with this
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client and boy, she was tough. She was like old shoe leather
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and this lady's laying out her story and Aaron's listening and
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talking to her in her office and clears a bell as they were
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interacting back and forth. Aaron hears this little voice in
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her hair head teacup. And she thinks I am not doing
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the teacup thing with this lady. She might, you know, you know,
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you never know. So she ignores it and they talk,
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and they're at her interacting some more.
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And then a second time she hears teacup.
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Keeps talking. Third time teacup she goes.
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She gets the cup, she brings it into her office, closes the
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door, explains how precious this woman is in the sight of God,
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and the lady breaks down sobbing.
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Didn't make any sense to Aaron, but she did what God wanted her
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to do. Thomas, what he's hearing from
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Jesus is not making any sense. So he asks a question.
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Where are you going? We don't know the way.
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You know what? Jesus does not mind at all when
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we ask him questions. Just need to understand
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sometimes the answer he's going to give you may not be the
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answer you want, or he might choose not to answer us at all
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at that time, but may answer us later.
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He's God, we're not. But this time, verse 6, Jesus
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gives him and us a direct answer.
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I am the way, the truth, and the life.
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No one comes to the Father except through me.
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One writer expressed it this way, what Jesus was saying.
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No one else has seen God or made him known.
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No one else speaks and embodies the truth as he does.
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No one else shares the very life of God.
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No one else can claim to know God while rejecting Jesus, his
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Son. Jesus is not just the way to
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God, He is the path that shows us.
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He shows us how we are supposed to live for God, how we can
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please and honor God. He gives us direction.
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He's our guide. All of us at some time have
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probably used GPS, you know, try to find something.
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And GPS is wonderful as long as it works.
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The thing about Jesus though is the Lord Jesus Christ gives us
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absolute perfect directions and a way to come into the very
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presence of the Father himself. He makes no mistakes. 3rd fact
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we need to be aware of we have a permanent partner.
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Jesus describes him as another helper, another meaning, simply
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another of the same kind. Just like the Father, just like
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the Son, so also God. The Holy Spirit is likewise
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fully and totally God Jesus. In the new excuse me, in the
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English standard translation, it says that Jesus called the Holy
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Spirit the Helper. In the Christian standard
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translation, he's our counselor. In the new living translation,
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he's our advocate. So which is true?
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All of them. There is no one single English
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word for the word Jesus is using Paraclete.
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It means one who comes alongside, one who was closest,
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closer to us than anyone else, one who was with us, constantly
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guiding, directing. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit our
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teacher. He guides us into a deeper
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knowledge of God's truth, a never ending, deeper, truthful
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knowledge of God Himself. You know, smartphones are pretty
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nice. One of the nice things about
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smartphones is that you can, we can take them out of our pocket
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and we want to know something. And so we just talk into the
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thing, OK, We even have a name for it, right?
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Googling. Well, The thing is, is when we
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get that information, sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not
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good. Sometimes, frankly, it's wrong.
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That's not how it is with the Holy Spirit.
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The Holy Spirit, He's our helper, counselor, advocate.
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As we walk with him, we are in a transforming relationship of
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friendship in which we become more like Jesus.
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The other thing about Jesus tells us about the Holy Spirit
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is He's our permanent resident. Once we come to know Jesus as
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our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes in and he never
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leaves. He'll be with us through all
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eternity. The 4th fact In some ways guys,
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verse 27 is perhaps the most important.
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We can have perfect peace. People are constantly looking
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for peace, rest, a sense of calm in the midst of turmoil.
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But the peace out there, it's transitory, it's elusive.
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It's a mirage that just keeps disappearing because quite
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frankly, out there in the world, there is no permanent peace.
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That's why we're told, but the wicked are like the tossing sea.
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It cannot be quiet. It's waters toss up mire and
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dirt. There is no peace, says my God.
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For the wicked Jesus, peace is totally different, He says.
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It's not like the world's peace. Jesus peace is the kind of peace
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that allowed him to sleep blissfully on the cushion of a
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boat in the middle of Lake Galilee as there was a terrible
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storm raging and his disciples were freaking out and there's
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Jesus fast asleep. Jesus peace is the kind of peace
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that later this same night as he was talking to his disciples in
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this chapter, later this same night, he will be betrayed, he
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will be arrested, he will be falsely accused, he will be
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tortured, crucified. He will also experience what was
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undoubtedly the most difficult thing the Son of God ever
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experienced, and that is as the sins of the entire world were
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placed upon him, the sinless sacrifice his Father for the one
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and only time God the Father had to turn away from him because
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God cannot look upon sin. And for that moment, Jesus was
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completely alone. He cried out, My God, my God,
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why have you forsaken me? The sacrifices was accepted, the
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payment was made. And then Jesus, after he had
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done everything he needed to do, he says it is finished.
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And then we're told, as his peace returned, he committed his
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Spirit to his Father, and he chose to die.
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Even in the midst of terrible things, Jesus still had peace.
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So how can we experience Jesus's peace, especially when our fears
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seem to be so overwhelming? We have to do three things.
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First, we keep our focus on Jesus, not our fears, just as
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Jesus kept his focus upon fulfilling His Father's will.
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Many of us, I'm sure, have driven over the Grapevine when
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there has been a strong wind blowing over that pass.
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And it can be a little crazy because you could feel the wind
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pushing against your vehicle, trying to push you off the road.
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So you plant both hands on the wheel and you hold on.
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That's exactly what we're talking in this first point.
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We have to keep our focus on Jesus, not our fears, just as
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Jesus's focus was upon doing what his Father sent him to do.
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Secondly, we keep passionately seeking God in prayer no matter
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what. I'll let you read that verse
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reference there, Philippians 4-6 and seven, but it's telling us
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take everything without exception, everything to God in
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prayer. You ever played whack a mole?
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Now, for those of you who are maybe not so sophisticated,
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whack a mole is simply, you know, you're standing in front
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of this board. It's got all these holes in
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there, and you have a mallet, all right, And something pops up
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out of the hole. You know, some little Gopher
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thing pops up out of the hole, and what are you supposed to do?
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All right, you're trying to whack the mole.
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So you whack the mole, and then little critter pops up out
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another hole. What do you do?
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You whack the mole. That's the idea.
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We keep taking every fear, every thought, every anxiety.
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We keep taking it to God and we keep whacking no matter what.
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And then we're told that if we'll do that, the peace of God
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will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
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The third thing we have to do, we have to seek out the
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strength, help and love of others in our community.
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I am so thankful for the guys I can hang with every week in my
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mentor group, for my small group.
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I'm thankful for years, Pastor Mark and I have hung out and now
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he's heading off somewhere. I don't like it.
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I might let the air out of the tires of his truck.
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No, I won't. The point is, though, is that we
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need help. We need help from our brothers
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and sisters in Christ. We're not meant to face our
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fears alone, guys. We need that community people to
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come alongside us, to love us, to encourage us, to support us.
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That's what we're supposed to do.
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All right, Our main idea again, Jesus frees us from our fears.
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Now, maybe you're someone that came to church this morning and
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you're not sure about the things that I've been telling you
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about. Maybe you're somebody who would
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say, no, I'm not really a Christian, but I, I just wanted
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to check this out. I wanted to find out what was
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going on here. Well, first of all, let me tell
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you, I'm glad you're here. We're glad you're here.
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But I need to also tell you this.
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The freedom from fear that Jesus offers, the peace he provides,
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You have not experienced it because you don't know him, but
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you absolutely can see. Receiving Jesus alone is when we
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make a decision to allow Jesus into our heart and life to be
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make him our Savior and Lord, to ask Him to cleanse us of the
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sins that prevent us from having a relationship with God.
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It's the new beginning. The Bible says that when someone
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does this, they are a new creation in Christ.
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All that old stuff is gone. The new has come.
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So if you would like to have that relationship with Jesus, in
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just a moment, I'm going to lead us in a prayer.
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And if that's where you're at, you want to know Jesus, I would
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invite you to pray this with me. Can I ask everybody to go ahead?
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Bow your heads. close your eyes. So there's no distraction.
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If you want to know Jesus, either pray out loud or in your
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heart with me, Jesus. I want a relationship with you.
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I want to know you as my Savior, as my Lord.
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I ask you, Jesus, to take away my sin, to give me a new life.
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Thank you Jesus for your love. Thank you Jesus, for your
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salvation. Now, if you prayed that prayer,
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would you just be willing to raise your hands so I could see
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you? You may put your hands down.
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Thank you in Jesus name, Amen. Can I ask everybody to go ahead
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and stand please if you prayed with me just now and ask Jesus
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to enter your heart and life. Welcome to the family.
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You just made the best decision you're ever going to make.
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In a little while, our service is going to be finished.
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But before our service finishes, I would strongly encourage you.
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We have over here a table over here, another table that says
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behind it. I raised my hand.
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Please go back there. We'll have people there.
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We'd love to help you. We have things a gift for you.
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We would love to help you in your new walk with our Savior
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and Lord Jesus. Now Christians, we have all
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struggled with fear. The question for us is this, are
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we willing to come to Jesus and passionately seek Him for the
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strength and healing that only He can provide?
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If that's your desire to seek Him out, to be set free from
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fear and anxieties and to keep seeking them out as those fear
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and anxieties come back, why don't we?
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You let us help you, help us help you, maybe by praying
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together with you right now, maybe by opening up and sharing
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with other Christian brothers and sisters.
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No one has to do this battle alone.
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We have a great Lord, but we also have brothers and sisters
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in Christ. I'm going to invite the prayer
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team to come forward now. If you would like prayer for
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help or if you want prayer for something else, you come
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forward. We want to pray with you.
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We want to encourage you. We want to see you grow in your
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trust and in your walk with Jesus.