And he said unto them,
Why are you so fearful?
How is it that you have no faith?
Fear them not therefore,
For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed,
And hidden that shall not be known.
Fear not therefore,
For you are more valuable than many sparrows.
And the angel answered and said unto the woman,
Fear not,
For I know that you seek Jesus.
But the angel said unto him,
Fear not,
Zacharias,
For your prayer is heard.
And the angel said to her,
Fear not,
Mary,
For you have found favor with God,
That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve God without fear.
And the angel said to them,
Fear not,
For behold I bring you good tidings of great joy,
Which shall be for all people.
Fear not,
For from this point on you will catch men.
And when Jesus heard it,
He answered them,
Saying,
Fear not,
Believe only,
And she shall be healed.
But even the very hairs on your head are all numbered.
Fear not therefore,
You are more valuable than many sparrows.
Fear not,
Little flock,
For it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
For God has not given us the spirit of fear,
But of power and of love and a sound mind.
So that we may boldly say,
The Lord is my helper,
And I will not fear what anyone shall do unto me.
There is no fear in love,
But perfect love casts out all fear,
Because fear hath torment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love,
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.
Yea,
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil,
Because God is with me.
I want you to imagine for a moment a wonderful,
Fabulous banquet in your honor.
And let's say you have some things that you've been struggling with,
Some things that you've been trying to accomplish,
And things get in the way,
Or you just seem to get to that point of success and something happens.
Or you get a great idea and something happens.
Well,
That's in the back of your mind as you're approaching this wonderful banquet that's set up in your honor.
In Psalm 23,
Verse 5,
The A-clause says,
God prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies.
Did you ever think what might be on that table?
All the wonderful foods that you love,
None of what you don't love,
Prepare just for you.
The tablescaping is just the way you like it.
Some people like a more formal table,
Some like a less formal table,
Some like a fun table,
Some like a table with a lot of candles,
And everything has to match.
But this table that God sets is just before you and for you and your family,
Your loved ones and your friends,
Coworkers,
All the supporters that you have are seated at that table.
What could be better?
You're sharing in conversation about memories and experiences that you've all had,
And they know about your dreams and hopes and visions.
There you are having a great time,
But suddenly you look over the other side of the room and the crowd of people who have invited guests,
And there's a party there that's unwanted.
And so you say to yourself,
How did this person get here?
How did they get here?
Who invited them?
And Spirit says to you,
Hold on,
That's just fear.
You invited them.
Fear makes a guest appearance.
Fear is not a party crasher because you invited them.
Oh yeah.
Fear may be a spoiler,
Maybe something that hinders everything,
Messes up everything,
Squashes your dream,
Disappoints you and discourages you.
But fear is not a party crasher.
You invited fear here.
In fact,
Fear has been at lots of your parties,
But hold on to your poise.
Hold on.
We've been down this road long enough.
And if you don't know any scripture except for the 23rd Psalm,
It talks about being in a valley and there has to be mountains on either side.
And in those mountains,
There may be fear and other things that are hinderest to your journey.
But Jesus,
Our master teacher says that we can move mountains with our words.
We can move mountains and fear is the granddaddy mountain of them all.
But fear can be moved just like the rest with our word,
A change of mind,
Of course,
Cause the mountains to crumble.
So hold on to your poise.
Beloved.
The Bible verse says that God spirit,
The universe has prepared a table before you in the presence of your enemies did not say they wouldn't be there.
Your enemies are present because you've opened the door.
You've left the door open,
Not intentionally,
But throughout your life and throughout your experiences,
They are there.
As a matter of fact,
They are so familiar to you that you don't even recognize their presence.
They're quiet and subtle,
Messing up stuff,
Causing you to not be successful in the areas that you want to be,
But they didn't crash the party.
It is of no consequence when you look at that scripture that God prepared a table.
It's no consequence that fear is present.
God is not concerned about little things like fear,
Fear and other members of its family,
Depression,
Discouragement,
Criticism,
All of that stuff.
They've been around for a while and they have also been at your party.
But the presence of the divine has prepared what I call before you a fabulously faith sumptuous table and it is yours.
So when you recognize fear at the party,
Just don't invite them to have a seat.
You're not going to all of a sudden bring the mountain down and throw the fear out.
We recognize first that it is there,
That it is present.
This is your life.
This is your party.
You decide who gets a place at your table.
How do I uninvite fear the next time?
Use the power within us,
Within you to cleanse the guest list.
Look inside of your belief systems and cleanse that guest list.
You'll find that fear shows up less.
All of its cousins and all of its relatives will show up less once you recognize their name on the list.
