Participants: Jill Morikone
Series Code: HLFT
Program Code: HLFT000007A
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00:25 Hello, and welcome to Heart Lift.
00:27 I'm Jill Morikone, and I'm so glad that you 00:30 have joined us today. 00:31 We're on a journey toward hope, toward healing, 00:35 toward the transformation that the Lord Jesus wants to work 00:39 in your heart and mine as women, as daughters of God. 00:44 We're discussing fear. If you're just joining us, 00:46 If you're just joining us, our last program dealt with fear. 00:50 We identified six basic categories of fear that we 00:54 often face as women. 00:55 That would be: faith; fears about our faith, family, health, 01:01 finances, future, and relationships. 01:06 I don't know if you can identify with any of those fears. 01:09 I know I certainly can. 01:11 As women we fear loss of control, loss of life, 01:16 loss of loved ones. 01:18 We agonize over wearing the right thing, 01:21 saying the right thing, or doing the right thing. 01:25 We worry about our children's choices, 01:29 or our spouse's choices, or our own choices. 01:34 I think many times our fears are based in a lie from Satan. 01:41 Many times those fears come from something 01:44 that Satan has told us. 01:46 Today we're going to be discussing, looking at how the 01:51 Lord Jesus wants to break us free; how He can break us from 01:56 those fears that bind us. 01:58 Our Scripture today is Psalm 56:3, 4. 02:03 If you have your Bible, I invite you to open up, and to look, 02:08 and read, and follow along with us. 02:13 Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. 02:17 In God I will praise His word, in God I have put my trust; 02:24 I will not fear what flesh can do to me. 02:27 Or we could say, What can man do to me? 02:31 Let's pray. Father we come before You right now 02:35 in the holy name of Jesus. 02:37 And we ask for Your anointing. 02:39 We pray for Your presence. 02:42 I thank You that You came to set us free from the 02:46 fears that bind us. 02:48 And we just pray today, as we discuss those keys of freedom 02:54 from fear, Lord that You will work that deep into 02:58 each one of our hearts. 02:59 And we thank You in the precious and holy name of Jesus, Amen. 03:04 I was hanging up clothes on the line. 03:08 We have the washer inside, and a lot of times I'll use the dryer. 03:12 But this particular day was sunny and beautiful, 03:15 and I thought, Why not hang the stuff up on the line? 03:19 I carried the clothes basket outside, and I deposited it 03:23 on the back porch, because the clothes line is very 03:25 close to the back porch. 03:27 Then I went into the garage. 03:28 I got my clothes pins, and I walked out to the clothes line. 03:32 I hung up, on the clothes line, my clothes pins. 03:35 And just as I turned to go walk to the porch to get the clothes 03:41 basket, I screamed. 03:44 There was, in the grass, a snake. 03:47 Now I do not like snakes. 03:51 I don't like snakes if I know they're there. 03:53 I don't like going in the reptile house. 03:56 I just don't like snakes. 03:57 But especially I do not like to be startled with a snake. 04:02 The snake was almost at my feet. 04:04 It was a black snake, and it was probably,... 04:07 I'm not good with the measurements. 04:08 I would say it was this long. 04:12 To me it was huge! 04:14 And I almost had stepped on it! 04:15 It went real fast underneath the porch. 04:19 And I calmed my heart and then I went through the business 04:25 of hanging up my clothes. 04:27 Now some fears are just like that. 04:29 They are not premeditated, right? 04:32 It's not like a worry. 04:34 It's something that instantly happens, 04:36 your adrenaline rushes, and then your heart 04:39 returns to normal. 04:40 That's not the type of fear that we're discussing 04:43 in our program today. 04:45 We're talking about chronic, debilitating fear, 04:51 or you could say worry. 04:53 In my own experience I have found five keys, 04:57 five steps to dealing with fear. 05:00 And we're going to unpackage those steps here today. 05:04 How do we handle chronic fears? 05:06 How do we deal with that? 05:08 I think the first point, the first key is to understand God. 05:14 Lightening flashed across the sky, followed by 05:18 a sudden clap of thunder. 05:20 Rain fell in sheets across the house. 05:24 All of a sudden my ears picked up a new sound: hail. 05:28 It had begun to hail. 05:29 This was a pretty serious storm. 05:32 The back door banged, and Greg walked in. 05:36 Jilly, he said, the tornado siren, which is in 05:39 Thompsonville. We live a little ways out of Thompsonville. 05:42 The tornado siren is going off. 05:44 That means only one thing. 05:46 It doesn't go off when there's a thunderstorm, or a few clouds. 05:51 It goes off when funnel cloud activity has been spotted. 05:54 He said, We need to go under the house now. 05:57 Now we have a crawl space. 05:59 And he jumped out the back sliding glass door, 06:02 and I wiggled my toes into my boots, put a little coat on, 06:06 and jumped out, too. 06:07 I immediately pulled the hood up over my head, 06:10 because I was trying to keep from being pelted 06:13 by the balls of ice. 06:14 It was really hailing, the siren's going. 06:17 We knelt down... We have a crawl space under our house. 06:21 ...and we crawled underneath the house. 06:24 I had neglected to bring a flashlight, and I scraped my 06:28 finger on some sort of, I don't know, nail, sharp piece of 06:31 metal; something underneath the house. 06:33 We went all the way to the concrete barrier, the pier 06:37 that holds up the house right in the middle. 06:40 And Greg said, This will probably be the best place. 06:42 So he scooted in beside me. 06:44 And we sat there and we watched the storm. 06:48 I was trying to think. 06:51 Normally we don't get worked up, even over tornados. 06:56 I can think of many times when Greg and I have stayed in our 07:00 house even though the tornado siren was going off. 07:04 I can think of many times when we did that. 07:07 But just a couple days before, a couple days before this 07:12 happened, a tornado had ripped through Harrisburg, Illinois. 07:17 Now this story occurred a few years ago. 07:20 And if you're familiar with the news, we had a tornado 07:23 in Harrisburg, Illinois. 07:24 Six people died in that storm. 07:27 We had glibly weathered storms before, 07:31 not even being concerned. 07:33 But now I thought, This got a little too close for comfort. 07:37 I wondered, were their lives right with Jesus? 07:42 Had they prayed and asked God for protection? 07:46 I searched my own heart. 07:48 Was it going to end like this? maybe. 07:51 But I wanted to make sure there was nothing between me and 07:54 Jesus; nothing in my own heart and life. 07:57 The storm passed. We crawled out. 08:01 We went back up into the living room. 08:02 And later I saw the most beautiful rainbow 08:05 I think I have ever seen. 08:06 Its very edges seemed to touch the field, and it shimmered. 08:11 It was beautiful! But I couldn't help wondering why were some 08:15 people's lives destroyed while ours were left untouched? 08:21 I don't have the answer to this question. 08:23 I can't even pretend to understand, but I do know that 08:28 every day we see the outworking of the great controversy. 08:33 On Satan's side stands death and destruction, 08:37 fear and foreboding, chaos and confusion. 08:42 On the side of Jesus stand life instead of death, 08:47 faith instead of fear, peace instead of confusion. 08:52 And most importantly, the ultimate victory. 08:55 Because of Him we will live forever. 08:59 I believe if we truly understand God, and who He is, 09:03 its going to alter how we look at life, how we look at trials, 09:09 how we look at suffering. 09:11 But you say, Jill, how do I understand God? 09:13 How do I even know Him? 09:16 Spend time in the word of God. 09:19 Get to know who He is, apart from the lies of the enemy. 09:25 First, we understand God. 09:28 Second, we trust God. 09:31 I think that trust in God, and understanding God 09:35 are closely related. 09:36 If I don't understand God, and know that He's a God of love, 09:41 and know who He is, how can I truly trust Him? 09:46 Oswald Chambers said,... 09:48 And I love this quote. 09:50 Have we come to the point where God can withdraw His blessing 09:55 and it does not effect our trust in Him? 10:00 Am I willing to trust the Lord Jesus 10:03 regardless of what happens? 10:06 Will we lose our job, or our car, or even our home? perhaps. 10:13 Will someone we love be hurt, or injured, 10:16 or even killed? maybe. 10:20 Is our life guaranteed? it's not. 10:25 At least on this temporary place; this planet we call home. 10:30 Does any of that really matter? 10:33 It really doesn't. 10:35 God could save any of that. 10:39 He could save us from any of that if He so choose. 10:44 After all in Jeremiah 32:27 what does He say? 10:48 I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. 10:53 Is there anything too hard for Me? 10:55 God could do that in an instant, in a moment. We know that. 10:59 I believe when we come down to it, all that really matters 11:03 is that I face whatever comes hand in hand with Jesus; 11:08 that I can still trust Him when everything 11:12 is crumbling around me; that I don't serve Him for what 11:17 I get, but for who He is. 11:20 Because I love Him, because I trust Him, because where would 11:26 I go if I didn't have God? 11:29 Do we serve God because He's Santa Claus, 11:32 giving us what we want, when we want it? 11:36 Or do we serve Him because we love Him? 11:38 Because life without Him is really unthinkable. 11:44 Point 1. We understand God. 11:49 We understand He's a God of love. 11:51 We understand who He is in relation to those lies 11:55 that Satan wants to feed us. 11:57 2. We learn day by day, as we spend time in His Word, 12:02 finding out who He really is; we learn to trust Him. 12:07 3. We surrender to God. 12:11 I believe trust is essential to surrender. 12:15 I can't surrender to God unless I trust Him, 12:18 and I don't trust Him unless I know Him. 12:22 Do you see how they're all tied together? 12:24 Surrender the person or the fear. 12:27 I don't know what your fear is today, what you're struggling 12:30 with today, but surrender that person, or that fear, 12:35 to the Lord Jesus. 12:36 Go to God and say, God, I surrender my control over my 12:41 husband's choices. 12:42 I surrender my control over the choices my children 12:46 are making right now. 12:48 I surrender my control over my salvation, 12:51 or the salvation of the people I love. 12:54 I surrender my control over what other people say about me, 12:58 or think about me, or how they act. 13:02 I surrender my control over my finances, and my future. 13:06 When we surrender we say, God, I surrender my control. 13:10 Then we say, I give You my fear about... 13:13 And list what ever the fear is. 13:15 I give You my fear about their salvation. 13:17 I give You my fear about other people, 13:19 and what they think of me. 13:20 I give you my fear about my spouse, or about my kids. 13:25 Greg and I, every Sabbath night, when we have our sundown worship 13:31 Sabbath night, we do many different things when we 13:33 have Sundown worship, but one of the things we do: 13:36 we kneel down together by our little couch, and Greg will pray 13:39 many different things, but one part of his prayer 13:43 is always the same. 13:44 He says, God, we don't know what we will face this coming week, 13:49 but we trust You with our lives, and we want to face it with You. 13:56 That's a prayer of surrender. 13:58 That's a prayer of saying, God, I don't know 14:01 what the future holds. 14:02 I don't know what's coming, but I trust You. 14:05 I choose to trust You with that future. 14:10 We understand God, we trust Him, we surrender to Him. 14:17 And next, we claim promises from the Word of God. 14:22 Just like when we discussed forgiveness and bitterness 14:26 a few programs back, we talked about sometimes our feelings 14:30 don't match up with what God's Word says. 14:32 Have you ever experienced that? 14:34 That happens to me all the time. 14:35 Our feelings though are not reliable, and God says, 14:39 Put your faith, put your trust in what the Word of God says. 14:43 Bring your mind into line with what God's Word says. 14:48 Many times Greg will call me when he's coming home from work, 14:54 and he'll say, Jilly, I'm just getting ready 14:56 to leave work soon. 14:57 Now this happened when I was teaching music lessons, 14:59 and I was already home. 15:00 Now we usually leave 3ABN together at the same time. 15:04 But a few years ago I would be home. 15:07 I'd be fixing dinner. 15:09 And he would call and he'd say, Jilly, I'm on the way home. 15:12 And so I would hurry to finish. 15:14 Well, we live probably 3, 4 miles from 3ABN. 15:19 So now long does that take him to get home? max 10 minutes. 15:25 You could maybe make it in 5 or 6 if you were really moving. 15:28 So after ten minutes passes I think, That's strange. 15:32 Why isn't he home yet? 15:34 Fifteen minutes passes and I think, That's really strange. 15:40 Why isn't he home? 15:42 Twenty minutes, and I start to panic. 15:47 I'll think, How would I live if he was in a car accident? 15:52 What if something happened to him? 15:55 What if he got hurt, or what if he's dead? 15:59 And my thoughts start to spiral down a negative path. 16:04 And I'm ashamed to tell you, but I could even begin 16:08 to plan his funeral. 16:10 Like who would I like to speak, and all of that. 16:14 And then in the midst of my panic, God reminds me of a 16:19 verse from His Word. 16:21 It's found in Philippians 4, Philippians 4:8. 16:27 It says, Finally, whatsoever things are true, just, honest, 16:31 of good report;... 16:32 It goes through several different things. 16:34 But the first one, God says, Jill, Think on what is true. 16:39 In this situation what is true? 16:42 I don't know he's been in an accident. 16:44 I don't know that he is hurt. 16:46 All I know is he called and said he's coming home. 16:50 What is true? He's coming home, until I hear something else. 16:55 So I would choose to bring my mind into line with 16:59 what God's Word said. That's the key. 17:01 Our feelings are fickle; our feelings change. 17:04 And instead of dwelling on our feelings, or our fears, 17:09 choose to bring your thoughts into line with what 17:13 the Word of God says. 17:15 In this case I thought about what is true. 17:18 And pretty soon the lights of his pickup would swing across 17:21 the yard, and he'd come in and say, Jilly, I'm so sorry, 17:24 so and so stopped to talk just as I was leaving work, 17:28 and that's the reason I was late. 17:30 There's other Scriptures you can claim; many Scriptures we can 17:34 claim to combat the fear that's going on in our lives. 17:37 I love John 14:27. 17:39 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: 17:43 not as the world gives, give I unto you. 17:45 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 17:50 What about this one? 17:54 God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, 17:58 and love, and of a sound mind. 18:02 The New International Version says, self discipline. 18:06 That's bringing our mind, bringing our thoughts 18:09 into line with what the Word of God says. 18:12 What about Romans 8, Romans 8: 37-39? 18:17 I just want to turn there. 18:18 I really like this. 18:20 Who shall separate us from the love of God? 18:23 shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, 18:27 or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 18:29 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors 18:34 through Him who loved us, and who gave Himself for us. 18:39 What does God say? 18:41 He doesn't say trial won't come, problems won't come, 18:45 issues won't come, but that we can trust Him 18:49 in the midst of that. I love that. 18:57 Isaiah 43, we have another couple Scriptures here. 19:00 Isaiah 43. Now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob. 19:07 I like to put my own name in there. 19:09 What ever your name is, put it in there. 19:11 Now, thus says God who created me. 19:14 Put your name in the verse. 19:15 And He who formed you, O Israel. 19:19 Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you 19:25 by My name; you are mine. 19:27 And then my favorite part about the Scripture is this: 19:30 When you pass through the water, God is going to be with you; 19:34 and through the rivers, they're not going to overflow. 19:39 When you walk through the fire you will not be burned, 19:43 neither shall the flame kindle upon you. 19:47 What does God say? 19:49 He says, I love you. 19:51 I will be with you through anything. 19:56 Isaiah 41:10, Fear not; for I am with you: be not dismayed; 20:03 for I am your God: I will strengthen you; 20:06 yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right 20:11 arm of My righteousness. 20:14 And finally Isaiah 26:3, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace 20:19 whose mind is stayed on God: because he trusts in God. 20:24 That's pivotal; to keep our mind stayed on God. 20:28 Claim promises from the Word of God. 20:32 Don't go by how you feel. 20:34 Go by what the Word of God says. 20:37 And finally, 5., Key 5. to breaking free from the bondage 20:43 of fear is to praise Him. 20:45 Now you might say, That seems weird. 20:47 When I'm afraid, why do I want to praise? 20:50 Remember our opening Scripture; that was Psalm 56:3, 4. 20:55 It says, When I am afraid, I will trust in You. 20:59 In God I will praise... 21:01 Isn't that interesting? 21:03 When we're afraid, David the Psalmist 21:05 combines fear with praise. 21:07 When you don't see a way out, thank Him. 21:11 When you're lost and alone, praise Him. 21:15 When you're facing your fear, rejoice in Him. 21:19 I know that praise is a hard thing. 21:21 And many times it's hard for us to experience praise, 21:26 when we don't feel like it; when we're facing fear. 21:29 However, we know that God inhabits 21:32 the praises of His people. 21:34 That's Psalm 22:3. 21:37 So if we want more of the presence of God, 21:41 if we need more of His presence in our life, praise Him, 21:45 and God will draw near to you; He will draw close to you. 21:50 Nehemiah 8:10, The joy of the Lord is your strength. 21:57 Do you need strength today? 21:59 Do you need power? 22:01 Do you need victory? 22:03 Go to God, ask for His joy, and choose to praise Him. 22:10 Praise changes our perspective. 22:12 It changes our thoughts. 22:13 And as we bring our mind in line with what the Word of God says, 22:18 it will eventually change even our feelings. I love that! 22:23 My friend, Christine, used to battle with fear. 22:26 And she's honest about her battle. 22:28 But she said, God gave her deliverance, 22:31 and He sat her free. 22:33 And one of the Scriptures He used is Psalm 34:4. 22:37 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me 22:41 from all my fears. 22:43 I know the Lord Jesus Christ wants to set you free. 22:47 I know He wants to bring deliverance to your heart. 22:52 We're going to be back in just a moment. 22:54 We have to take a break now, but we'll be back in just a 22:56 moment to discuss some practical application; 22:59 something you can do this week. |
Revised 2016-05-25