Nicole Crank Fearless Conference 2019 Message

He's at work and he's gonna do something that you can't even imagine.

It's bigger than you can ask.

It's bigger than you can think.

Does anybody believe that today they were just doing what God told them to do, how God told them to do it when it didn't make sense, belittling him, complaining about his methods, and yet somewhere along the way, they ain't even looking. When you ain't looking, God's doing your mirac.

God sent me here with a word today, and basically he wants me to talk about how fear steals your power. Who wants to be more powerful? Say Amen. Who wants to be more powerful? Say, that's me. By the way, if you're a note taker, the number one way to become more powerful is to give power away. It's physically and naturally counterintuitive. But we don't live by physical laws. We live by spiritual laws. And every time you want to be more powerful, the number one way to become more powerful is to give power away. Now, the number one reason we don't give power away is because we're afraid that we're going to become less powerful and they're going to become more powerful. So if they're here and we're here, if we give away our power to them, then we might be equals, then they might pass us up, then they might go further than we've gone. And I get really. I'm scared of certain things in my life. Is anybody else claustrophobic? I'm very scared of closed areas, like when TJ Maxx is closed or Nordstrom is closed. Very, very freaked out about that. I'm not scared of the things that you would think I would be scared of. Like, I am not afraid of lions. I have pet lions. I have cuddled lions. I have gotten in a cage with a lion until they started poking him with the end of a broom and throwing raw chicken in the cage, at which case I was out. I'm not afraid of lions, but I am deathly afraid of. Well, let me ask you, which would you be more scared of, a lion or a squirrel? Only because you haven't heard my story. So this day, I was sitting on my back porch and I was just minding my own sweet business. It was me and Jesus, and I was reading my Bible and it was amazing. We were having this great time and it was very holy. And I heard these sounds of nature. Now I'm up on my deck. Nothing's coming up there. We don't even have Stairs that go down. I am safe. Safe in my wooded sanctuary. I can see the creation of the Lord. And I hear, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, caw, caw. Now, I've lived in the country most of my life, but I obviously have not done my research. You see, there was this one little squirrel, and he was making kind of this barking sound. Like, matter of fact, from right here, over. I want you guys to practice making that sound. Just go like, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff.

That's good.

The other sound, I actually looked in the air first, thinking, well, is there an eagle? Is there a bird? Is there? What is this thing going ca ca around? And I'm like, no, no. What is it? So I want this half of the room to just go, ca, ca.

Ca ca.

Very good. Have you guys heard these noises before? Because you're really doing. You're very true to life here. So what I notice is I hear.

Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, caw, caw.

And then there's this squirrel, and then there's this other squirrel. And what I have found out is one squirrel thinks the other squirrel is cute, but the squirrel who is cute don't like the other squirrel. Am I in your relationship life right now? And they start chasing each other and getting after each other. And I'm obviously not of any consequence to these squirrels because they start running around the deck making these noise at this frantic pace. And the only way I know how to bring you into the craziness was that moment is if you help me.

And.

And when I point to you, you make your noise. And when I point to you, you make your noise. So I'm sitting there, and I hear. And then I see a squirrel. And I hear. And the squirrel is on the other side. They look at each other, they dart, and I hear, you gotta be faster. And then I hear. And they dart, and they dart back and forth. And I'm like, ooh, they're moving really fast. And then I hear. And then I hear. And then they run across the back of my chair while I'm in it, while they're simultaneously making the noise. And then they start going in circles around the deck at a very high rate of speed. And they're making these mating call noises. They run across my lap. They have these very sharp claws. Don't stop making the noise.

Because this is all happening at one time.

I get off the deck, I try to get in the house, and my husband has locked the door. There is no scare taste.

Down off the deck.

I am trapped in the middle of this rabid craziness.

I'm probably gonna die.

My husband, I can see him through the kitchen window, is standing at the stove making a grilled cheese.

I'm like, let me in. Save my life.

So now I have a fear of squirrels. You can't unsee some things. It sounds irrational, but so are most of our fears. Most of our fears are based on either side, something we've experienced or something that is unknown. My note takers fear is based on what we have experienced or what we don't know. So I'm going to take you to a passage that I am very sure that you are super familiar with. And it's in 1st Samuel 17. This is the passage where David finally gets to go to the battlefield with Goliath. And I'm going to make five points today. And in those five points, number one point is don't listen to the people who have never done what you want to do. Don't listen to the people who've never done what you want to do because they don't know anything about it. So let me give you some history on David. So we're with David. We're in 1st Samuel 17. David is the youngest eight. The seven other brothers, they get called up to be prayed for because Samuel comes, he wants to anoint a king. Dad. He says, dad, get all your kids together. Jesse says, I'll do it. He doesn't. He gets seven kids, so he has the experience of his own father not claiming him as a child, but hiding him on the back of a hill. Anybody in the room got daddy issues? I was giving up by my daddy before I was born in Canada. I was adopted by my stepdad in the US when I was three. My thing is, how could you not like me before you even met me? At least give me an opportunity to annoy you. I could have done it. Anybody got daddy issues? So David's got some daddy issues. So then that whole thing works out. Samuel makes him go get David. David gets anointed king, but he gets anointed and nothing changes. You see, a lot of times we come and we meet Jesus, we get filled with the spirit of God, but we don't see all the change that's coming because we're trying to walk by sight and not by faith. And God has called us to walk by and not by. We can't see what God sees. Isaiah 55 says, Your thoughts. God is actually in heaven. The Nicole translation goes, girl, you don't even think like me, because you too busy looking at your lashes and wrapped up in your emotions of what is happening today. God is like, I am so 20 years ahead of you that if you will stay on this road that I have for you. Come on, somebody. Thoughts are not my thoughts. Your ways are not my ways. God's like, I so wouldn't do it like that. So he gets anointed. He gets anointed, and then he still gets left out. So in 1st Samuel 17, the brothers get sent off to fight the war. They get a chance to be a hero. Everything's going to be great. Everything's going to be good. They're going to have some fun. And David gets stuck at home on the back of the hill with some sheep. Well, everybody get to have some fun but me. What did I do wrong? Daddy always leaves me out here.

He goes, I just knew dad was.

Gonna do it again.

And when I had my opportunity, I lose my.

Anybody ever done that in your bathroom? Oh, come on. You know girls cry in the bathroom so we can see what we look like. I want you to raise your little honest hand. If you have cried and looked at.

Yourself and gone, look at me and.

The rest of y' all's liars. You just forgot. So he goes out back to the field, minding his own business. His dad says, hey, I need a favor. You want to go to the war? He's like, yeah, I want to go. It's my chance. Dad said, good, here's some bread. Here's some cheese. I need you to go feed the boys and come back. And David looks at his daddy and goes, what am I, Uber Eats? All right, so here he goes. Sometimes you have to be obedient in the trivial things to even get the opportunities that you're looking for. Because if that was too far beneath him to serve in that capacity, serve your church in that capacity, serve your husband in that capacity, serve your best friend in that capacity, serve a stranger in that capacity, serve your God in that capacity. So anyway, he takes. Takes the menial task and he goes out. And when he goes out, he notices that it starts talking about in 1st Samuel 17:24, that there's this guy out there, and he is huge. So let's talk about fear for a second. If you're wondering how tall I am, you were sitting kind of right behind me. Yeah. Will you come up here for a second? So you're probably wondering how tall I am, and I am 511 without my shoes. Go ahead and come all the way up. I'm 511 without my shoes. I was a cheerleader in high school. I was obviously not the one they lifted up on top. I was the one they crawled on. All of my friends were five foot two or so. And I spent my life standing, like, standing like this, trying to be more like my friends. I can still shrink in a picture, like really easily. Look at me. I'm like, I've got it down. So then, how tall are you? I don't know. In English, 154. 154 centimeters. Meters. What? Inches? 5. She's tiny. She is what I always wanted to be in high school. Yo hablo empaquito espanol. No mas. I'm Italian. Italiano. Agrazzi. Thank you. Thank you. So wait, wait. You know what? Stay here for a minute. Do you mind?

Okay.

You don't have to say anything. You can just hang out. You can just stand here. Because I never wore heels for years. I had trouble getting invited to dances because I was taller than the boys. Now I know you appreciate good shoes at this church, so I picked out this outfit particularly for this message. Because when you're 5 foot 11 and you put on 6, 7 inch heels, I'm probably about 6 foot 5 right now. And I might be the tallest person in the entire building. But when you're not afraid of what you used to be afraid of, you will do things that you never used to do. You can wear whatever you want to wear because I can see all the beauty in who she is. And I would really love to be petite and put my head on my husband's chest instead of his putting his head on mine. But it leads to a lot of fun. Anyway, you were talking about the marriage. That was a marriage conference promo. But David was a normal sized person and they said Goliath was more like 10ft tall. So here is the rest of the Israeli army. And here's Goliath, and he's coming out. And Goliath was bigger than me and built like all the ushers around here. And he came out and he was telling them all, he said, hey, you come out and just fight me. And if anybody beats me, there's no war. It's over. We will serve you. But if I beat your guy, the war is over and y' all gotta serve us. He did it for 40 days. 40 days. These guys were looking at, no offense to you, might be a black belt in karate. But I just want to say, if we were placing bets, you'd probably bet on me. If we were going to be in a fight, right? Because I could, like, I could just hold her right here.

She could never reach me.

God love her, right? So the Israelites are all looking at Goliath. They're betting on Goliath because we look at the natural and God looks at the supernatural. The problem with our natural eyes is we tend to naturalize every situation that we walk into. You did a great job. Thank you very much. So, Eliab, the oldest brother, here's David having these conversations about, hey, man, how come nobody's fighting Goliath? Like, why has anybody stepped up? Like, why are we letting him punk our country? Did you hear how he talked about our mama? Did you hear what he said about being merkin? Huh?

No.

Somebody needs to stand up. He's like, I would stand up. And they're like, well, if you stand up, you don't have to pay any taxes. You be the card of the kids. Get to meet her king's daughter. And David says, hold on, what do you get again? No taxes. Marry a princess, live in the castle, eat the good food, be with the king. Why aren't you guys doing this? And eliab, in verse 28, the older brother hears about it now. He's been standing there for 40 days without the courage. He's been standing there in 40 days in fear. False evidence appearing real. The look of what was in front of him. The mountain was just too tall. The problems in the marriage were just too great. The sass that they have spoken was just quite enough. The overtime they have asked to work was beyond expectation. We get that stanky face when we get sassy. And Eliab, David's older brother, came to him, heard him speaking, and he burned with anger at him and said, why have you come down here? You can't read the Bible. Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? Because, frankly, those people were not English right? They were real. He said, why did you come down here? And who did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness with? Belittled the job he had been given because he was afraid that his brother was going to pass him up. Point number one, you can't listen to the people who have never been where you're going. Come on. Somebody that points better than you're clapping. So word gets around, and they take him to Saul. Now, Saul is the king. Saul is important to Saul. Saul wants to believe in him. You see, I got really challenged by being fearless a few years ago, because as bad as I tried to be fearless. And I've faced some stuff in my life. I had been molested when I was in fourth grade. I told my best friend in fifth grade. She told everybody else. I didn't know what bullying was, but I got bullied from sixth grade to eighth grade. Like, sit by yourself. No more birthday parties. You can't have a seat on the bus, Eat lunch by yourself. Don't. All that stuff. Names, prank calls, calling. They answer. Mom's like, what was that? And I knew what it was, but I wouldn't tell her what it was. I got raped when I was 13 because somebody thought that having people do. You know when people get in trouble and they make them do a community service. They thought community service in a junior high was a good idea. It is not. And then we moved. We moved to a new high school. I got a new start, and I thought it was awesome. And I thought everybody was just, like, amazing. And they wanted to be friends with me, which I couldn't believe. And then boys, like, they wanted to go out with me, which I couldn't believe. And they're like, girl, I'm gonna kiss you. I'm like, okay, girl, I want you to come back here with me in this party, okay? I just wanted somebody to like me. I wanted anybody to like me. If we drill it down, really. It was a fear of being alone that made me a pregnant unwind mother when I was 17 years old. You see, life had failed me to that point, but I went ahead and failed myself then. Then it took me years to find a man who would marry a girl with so much baggage. And I found a guy, and he had the right medical initials after his last name, and he had high cheekbones, and he was a bodybuilder. And I couldn't believe he wanted me. He used to. He gave me a beeper when we first started dating. Yeah, it's been a minute, so. And he would say, when I paged you, call me back right away. And every now and then he'd be like, why didn't you call me back? Why didn't you call me back? And I was like, I was busy or I didn't see it. And he'd be like, no, how am I going to protect you if you don't call me back? I didn't see some little signs. But when he started taking prescription medication to stay up and go to sleep for the right shifts at the hospital, and that didn't work out, so he started doing cocaine to stay awake. And he's like. And when I found out about it. He said, everybody does it. Everybody at the hospital to stay awake. They're all doing cocaine. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but that was his excuse. And so one day, the guy he got the cocaine from didn't have cocaine for about three weeks in a row. He kept telling him, all I got is rocks. All I got is rocks. I didn't know what that meant. He's telling me the story. I said, I don't know what that means. He said all he had was crack. And he said on week number three, I was finally like, fine, give me some. And it just happened to me my birthday weekend. Can I talk to you about understanding deep rooted fears? So all of this is fearless. The word fearless was challenging me because I had a problem being fearless. I didn't know how to be fearless. I'd had too much happen to me to be fearless. So on my birthday weekend, he doesn't come home Friday night, he doesn't come home Saturday, he doesn't come home Sunday. I've called every hospital twice, every police station twice. I've called his parents, every friend in our phone book. And on Sunday night, he burst through the door of our house, tearing the house and me apart in his first fit of rage. That is drug related. I ended up, got a restraining order, he went to jail. He was sorry. He went to rehab. We restored the relationship. He beat me up again, got a restraining order, he broke the restraining order, he went to jail. I watched 2 cops. It take 2 cops to take him down.

He.

He was in handcuffs behind his back and his feet were back like this. They maced him in his face and in his private parts. And he was still fighting them. Broke my rib, herniated my C7. Finally had to get divorced after he'd cleaned out the house, he sold all the furniture out of the house. I was foreclosed on, I was bankrupt. It never even occurred to me that I was homeless. But I didn't have a home. I had to quit my job and hide because he had started stalking me. And the very thing I feared the most had come upon me. Does that sound like Bible to you? It happened to Job. Why is fear so dangerous? Because fear is the exact same same thing as faith pointing in the opposite direction. That revelation was better than your reception of it. But that's all right. The line of north and south, it is the exact same line. You go one way, it's north. You go the other way, it's south. So when you have all of your fear, faith, you're believing for that negative outcome. So I get a hold of that and I decide my answer to this is I have to be fearless. I cannot fear anything. But then I wake up and where's your husband at? He didn't come home. He's two hours late. You can't get ahold of him? He's not answering his phone. Oh, this has happened to you before. I bet I know what's happening. Maybe he. Maybe he got a girl. Maybe he got a drug. Fear comes knocking at the door. We can't answer the door to fear on our own. Here's a very, very, very important thing I had to learn. I am never going to be fearless. But my entire life, 100% of the time, I can fear less. Because when the devil comes knocking at the door, I can either open it and let him in, or I can leave that door closed and say, I know what direction you're trying to take me and I know I'm called to be faithful while I'm fearing less.

So you're asking me to walk this way, Mr. Devil? I am turning around and I am walking the other way. I am going to walk into faithfulness. My God shall supply all of my needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. My God never fails. He will never leave me. He will never forsake me. Even when I was alone, I was not alone. He is the glory and the lifter of my head. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. And every tongue that rises up against me will be cut off and shown to be in the wrong. Why? Because when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes his enemies to be at peace with him. Devil, you are my enemy and you can't touch me. Whatever I bind on earth is bind in heaven. Whatever I loose on earth is loose in heaven. I bind the devil and I loose the power of God in Jesus name. Somebody ought to shout God right now.

Fear less and be faithful. Not fearless. Fear less. Fear is going to come. Temptation is going to come. Well, how do you know? That's just not faith. No. If the devil came to Jesus, what makes us think we're exempt? He's just going to come and check. I'm just going to check. You see if you're still that way. Hey, girl, you still faithful? I don't know why the devil does this. What is that? Clueless? The bend and snap. Did you know even in the physical your IQ drops 15 points when you get scared? You ever watched a horror movie and Go. Why are you running upstairs? You can't get out of the house from up there. Because when fear comes, we make dumb decisions. Write this down. Never make a decision when you're scared. What am I going to do? I'm afraid he's going to leave you. Don't make a decision now. What am I going to do? I'm afraid they're going to fire me. Don't make a decision now. If you're ever making a decision, any decision made in fear is the wrong decision. Fear is trying to get you to forget everything and run. When most of the time God asks us to stay. I can't sing, but there's this girl, her name is Jennifer Nettles. She's a country singer and she's got a song that goes, why don't you stay down on my knees so tired of being lonely Won't you give me what I need? Sounds like a prayer, doesn't it? Well, at the end, she decides, guess what? I'm on my knees and I'm gonna stay. And I'm not moving for you, enemy. And she was rewarded righteously. And I'm here to tell you, how do we stay faithful? When you are planted in the house of God, when you are a part of the life group, when you are faithful to God's ways. Come on, somebody. When you are faithful to God's ways, when you are connected with him in prayer, you can keep your faith. Full second Timothy. For God has not given us a spirit of, but of power, love, and a sound mind. Power. How do you get more power? You give it away. That's exactly what God does right there. What does God do? He's not scared of giving away power. He knows this. When you give power away, the people you give it to are now a part of you. All you have done is increased your influence. But not Eliab. Eliab says, what are you even doing here? So he goes to King Saul. And when he goes to King Saul, I'm not going to finish this old message. I'm going to do it as fast as I can. When he goes to King Saul, King Saul says, okay, you're a tiny guy, I'm a big guy. You want to do this? Nobody else does. All right, we're going to give you a chance, but we need you to wear my armor. Can you run back up here for one second? Run real fast. I don't know how to say fast in Italian. Rabido. An Italian. Okay, so if I take this off and I try to put this on her, do you think this is gonna fit? So they put on, he's got this coat of mail, this chain armor, and he puts it on David and depending on the commentary you study, it's somewhere between £75 and £125. When I was reading the commentaries, I was like, how could the weight be so different? It must be like my scale every day. Then they try to give him a sword like Goliath. Goliath had a 20 pound sword. My clothes, do you think my clothes are going to fit her? Do you think her pants are going to fit me? You can't be who you're called to be trying to be somebody else. Thank you. Hey, you know what? Actually I'm gonna give you this book. As soon as I'm done with this, I'm gonna give you this book because she's been helping me so much. So point number two, never look at how the deck is stacked against you. So they try to put his coat of armor on him. He can't wear it, so he says, no, I have to go in. How God gifted me. What is your gifting and why are you despising it and belittling it so much? Because David couldn't wear the armor. David couldn't carry the sword. All he had was five smooth stones and a stick. And even his enemy made fun of him. He said, you come to me with a stick. I read the studies on Goliath. They say he was between 6 foot 9 and 10 foot tall. I'm like, these people can't weigh things and they cannot measure anything to save their life. He had a helmet of brass, the spear on the end. The spear, just the spearhead weighed 15 pounds. If he put that in you, that hole was going to stay forever. And he was making fun of David. If David would have looked at Goliath. If David would have looked with natural eyes. If David would have looked at the amount of debt. If David would have looked at how many times things have gone the wrong way. If David would have looked at every crossword that would ever said he would never ever have done it. We're scared of two things. Experience. Don't let experience dictate to you what God is capable of. And we are scared of the unknown because we have nothing to reference. Your past will beg of you. Look at me. Remember me. Remember your first husband left you. Remember the kids at school betrayed you. Remember what happened when you tried to make new friends. Remember how you let yourself down. Experience will beg you to look backwards. But the fact of the matter is you can't walk forwards and look backwards at the same time and get anywhere. Isaiah 41:10.

God says, Fear not.

With you. He said, I'm your God, don't be dismayed. He said, I, me, the one in heaven, I'm going to strengthen you. When you can't do it, I'm going to give you this energy. And where you're at the end of you, I'm going to give you this courage. And when you can't come up with the idea, I'm going to give you the knowledge. And when you have fallen down, I am going to pick you up and uphold you with my righteous right hand. God is faithful.

Do you believe it today? Redemption.

You can't look at how the deck's stacked against you. You can't listen to people who have never gone where you're called to be. And you have to create number three. You have to create tangible rewards. So I remember when I felt like I was supposed to write this book, but I had no time, so I was doing it. After everybody else went to bed, my husband would wake up. He would get really mad at me. He's like, you're not getting any sleep. You're gonna just burn the candle at both ends, you're burning out. And then I would cry and I would write about him. He had never been called to write a book. And I had to create for myself tangible rewards to follow what I thought. God had put it on my heart. David had the tangible rewards. He kept saying, what do I get again? No taxes. Married a girl, King's family, King's house. Then he said it. He asked again. He asked, I think three different times, what do I get again? Turn to your neighbor right now and say, what do I get again? I just want to tell you, you can never be a best selling author if you never write a book. You can never be the president of the company if you don't take the job. But it's the janitor. You know what? Sam Chan started there. Now he runs the whole university. So God told me, write little pieces, write prayers. What to say when you don't know what to say. Hi God, it's me again. I want to kill my husband and send him to heaven and marry a new man. I wore the outfit yesterday. If you see my Instagram, I wore my prison outfit to see how I look in orange. No, I'm teasing. My daughter bought me that and made me wear it. I. I love you, but I wrote this for the problems that we have in life. Like what we're doing when we're fear what we do when we think that. It says, I want to complain right now. Ever been there? How about when you're willing but you're not worthy? How about I gotta forgive who? How about one that says when I'm feeling moody at least once every 28 days? Anyway, I wrote this when I was facing a fear. And this fear, this particular fear was partially what is my husband going to say when he thinks I'm being disobedient, but I'm trying to be obedient to him and God at the same time. And I was on this tension line of thinking that everything I was doing was wrong, but I was trying to do everything right. Have you ever been there? This is hi, God, why not? Why not fear? Everybody else is afraid. Everything on the news is bad. The economy's struggling, people are being killed, leaders are corrupt, and they're even calling for rain. The news makes me want to not even leave the house. The Bible says men's heart fail them for fear. I'm only human and there might be a good reason to be afraid, so why not fear? You see us always start in the problem because we can't act like we don't have those and never be afraid to ask God the hard questions because he's got the answers. So then he starts to answer me and he says the phrase do not be afraid is written 365 times in the Bible. God, it's like you reminded me every single day to live fearlessly. I don't have to give in to fear no matter what's happening around me. So I declare no plague, terrorism, economy lapse or craziness can threaten me because you are with me, you strengthen me and you even uphold me when I feel like I can't stand on my own. Fear and faith have something in common. They both ask me to believe in something I can't see. So right now I choose to believe in you. There's a couple more things here, but I want you to participate. So I wrote this study guide. They call it a devotional, but it's only because there's 60 prayer topics. So they wanted to do it in 60 days, but whatever. You don't have a study guide for a devotional. This is for you to connect you to God. This is for you, for you to connect deeper to you. This is going to help you get honest. So if you have a notebook, get it out. If you don't have a notebook, get out your phone because we're going to Work together right now to address your fears and get them out. So this is part for Fear Not. It says, hi, God, faith and fear have something in common. They asked me to believe in something I can't see. So I choose to believe in you. And I will believe in you more than I believe in the things that scare me. So I'm going to write down five things the enemy has tried to get me. Fear. So I want you to start thinking of the five things that you might be afraid of. You see, they diagnosed me with a thyroid condition. And so my friend gave me a book. The book is as big as the Bible. It is 400 pages long. It is this huge book. And I was concerned my husband would say, why are you spending so much time concentrating on the problem? And I'm not concentrating on the problem. I am getting to know my enemy. And now that I know who my enemy is. So I read 67 pages. The first day I screenshotted about 10 different paragraphs to my husband. And I said, now we know what we're dealing with and now we know how to pray. So based on this, it was, I said, based on this five minutes of reading I just sent you. Here is my prayer. And here is what I'm going to ask you to agree with me. And I put at the end, the devil has overplayed his hand. I will take everything he is doing to me. I will expose him. I will be victorious over him. By the way, My daughter is 15 years old. Seventeen years ago, I beat cervical cancer with no radiation, no surgery and no chemotherapy. And 17 years later, I'm cancer free.

And I have a baby. So how about that?

But now what about you? I need you to write down five things. You need to know what you're fighting. This is how I fight my battles. What are you going to pray about? This is how I fight my battles. So you write down those five things that he's tried to get you to fear. Then it says, when I operate in fear and try to make decisions, I told you what that happens. Your IQ drops 15 points. Every decision made in fear is the wrong decision. You forget everything and run. False evidence appearing real. Right? That's what the enemy is going to try and tell us about fear over and over again. But God tells us about that same acronym. He said, you can face everything and rise. So it says, when I operate in fear and try and make decision, I'm functional in a low intellectual state. Fear tolerated is faith contaminated. I don't have to be afraid. You're with Me. You have what it takes to protect me and keep me safe. I will make faith filled, fear less faithful decisions with your help. These are some scary decisions. I want you to write down five that I need to make in faith. What do you need to decide? Do you need to decide what to major in? And college. College. Do you need to decide if you're going to stay at the job? Stay in the relationship? Number three was create tangible rewards. So those scary decisions, what are the rewards that can come on the other side of that decision? Let's think of a couple. If you stay in the marriage, you could have a 50 year anniversary. If you stay in the marriage, you get to have all your kids at Christmas time and not start splitting and fighting about the holidays. If you stay in the marriage. I have a broken bone right now. It's right here. I don't wear the brace on stage because everybody gets distracted. And I did it lugging around some heavy luggage and I twisted it the wrong way and I was concerned I would do it again because I live out of a suitcase. So I started doing research on bones. Did you know that when a bone gets mended, it's stronger than any other place on the bone? Why are we so afraid of our broken places? Because when God heals us in that place. Come on somebody, what have you been afraid of? We're going to turn that broken place into a human healed place. What are those? Tangible rewards. I'm going to sit here and make you write it down because I know you'll get busy, I know you'll forget and I know the devil will go to work distracting you because your breakthrough is getting closer by the moment. We do the work, God does the miracle. So number four, create tangible rewards. Or number three, create tangible rewards. Number four, rehearse your wins. So now I want you five times five things. Why five on all these? Because five is the number of grace. I want you to write down five times. God didn't let you down. God. When I was surrounded, I was surrounded by you. It looks like I'm surrounded. I'm surrounded by you. It may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm surrounded by you. When did God pay your rent? When did God heal your body? When did God forgive you? And he had no business because you knew you were going to do it again. I'm seeing the tears and I'm thankful because it means your heart and your spirit is open to what God's doing right now. I could, I could holler and it would be great. Or could Be quiet and it would be better. What are your wins? And lastly, once you know what your wins are, once you've rehearsed them, once you've rehearsed those rewards, you will feel faith rising on the inside of us. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Ashton, come up here with me for a minute. As soon as we start releasing faith. The spoken word is the most powerful force in the earth. More powerful than an atom bomb. Once the word is released out of the mouth, there's something called a quark. Basically, what happens when it is released? It never, ever leaves the atmosphere. It only travels. So every word we release never leaves. God knows. You can't say all the crazy stuff. You can't say all the fearful stuff. I need you to say fearless and faithful stuff because all that stuff is orbiting you for the rest of your life. Get a microphone, baby. So you have to create tangible rewards. Rehearse your wins and then know your gift. Know your gift. Why do you have to know your gift? You have to know your gift because that's the tool that God will flow through to deliver your miracle. If your gift is with children, don't despise the nursery. He will bring your healing in that space. This gift here is no more important. Matter of fact, it comes with a whole lot of hassle and hassle from hell that you pray for that you probably don't want. Don't think one position is more glamorous or more heralded than another. We are part of one body. We are part of one people. I can't do it without you. You can't do it without me. God created us to need one another. Matter of fact, I need you. Would you take these for me, my sweet Italian friend? May we eat pasta together forever and get fat and happy in Jesus name. Fight my battles. So I'm going to ask you right now because it takes being together. Matter of fact, if you're not in the life group yet, word from the Lord. Get in. The life group doesn't build the church. It builds you, silly. So I'm going to ask you to stand up with me. We're not going to listen to people who haven't been where we're going. We're not going to look at how the deck is stacked against us. We're going to create tangible rewards. We're going to rehearse the wins that we've been given and we're going to flow in the gift that God has given us. And right now, one of the gifts God has given us is the women that are around us. So would you go ahead and grab onto some of the women that are around you right now? And I know you're grabbing onto women, but I need to see some hands, and these are the hands that I'm looking for. Specifically, if you have been more fearful than faithful, if the balance has been tilted on the fearful side, we're going to pray over you, and we are going to cast that out, and we are going to pray that a spirit of faith is taken up with you. But we have to know who we are praying for. Would you go ahead and lift your hand if that is you, before we pray? Look around. Is this the same stupid game the enemy plays with us all? He told you you were alone, but he lied. You are not alone. He has empowered you to prosper in every area of your life.