Videos on YouTube about fear, how to get rid of fear are a dime a dozen. They're all over. No more fear. Get fear out of your life forever. You never have to have fear again. But is getting rid of fear really the best solution? No. No, God offers something much better than just getting rid of it. What is God's solution? We need to know that because fear is a miserable emotion. And if it lasts more than just moments, ongoing fear, that can make your whole life miserable. Fear is a gift from God designed to protect you from trouble, but it can be dangerous, especially if it leads to cowardice. So what's God's solution? Well, I'll tell you at the end, but first, it really is important that we understand the danger of cowardice. Cowardice is harmful to your soul, and cowards are dangerous people. And that's never more vividly on display than in the R-rated account in Mark 6 about what a coward did to one of the greatest men that ever lived. Let's look at the sermon clip, and then I'll be back to show you God's beautiful solution to fear in your life. We know that God works all things together for good for those who love Him, right? Romans 8, 28. Sometimes that verse is hard to believe, right? Most of the hardships that happen to us in life, if you're a mature Christian, it's not that hard to imagine how this could be part of God's perfect plan, how He could use it for good. But once in a while, something happens that is so horrific, it's so painful, it's so evil, it's so unfair, that it seems impossible to conceive of how this could ever be a good thing, ever be part of God's good and perfect plan. Even though he says everything is, still, some things are so damaging that you wonder. And we're going to read about one of those kind of events today in Mark 6. We left off last time with Jesus sending out the twelve on their first short-term mission. That was in verse 7. They're not going to come back from that trip until verse 30. So what are we going to do between now and when they finally come back in verse 30? Well, to kill some time, Mark gives us a story of what Herod did to John the Baptist in verses 14 to 29. So this account of Herod, it is sordid, it is seedy, it is slimy, but we need to study it because it has a lot to teach us and it's actually intended for our encouragement. And so you'll see that as we go, you'll see how. So in verse 13, the disciples are out there preaching repentance and doing miracles. And then in verse 14, Herod gets wind of this. But he doesn't hear about them, he hears about Jesus. Verse 14, King Herod heard about this, for Jesus' name had become well known. That's the greatest success story in the entire gospel for the apostles. Because they're the ones doing all the preaching, they're the ones doing all the miracles, and yet they manage to do it in such a way that makes Jesus famous instead of making them famous. That's remarkable. Great success story, and that's the goal of all missions and all Christian ministry, make Jesus famous. We don't want people to be impressed with us, we want them to be impressed with Jesus. So that happens here, and Herod gets word about all this, and what he gets word about is Jesus, and so he comes up with this theory about who Jesus is. And in order to understand his theory, we need a whole lot of background information, and that's why this passage is so long. All this information about Herod and his illegitimate wife, and what they did to John the Baptist. Now when I say, when I call her illegitimate wife, it's because they didn't have a valid marriage. Look at the end of verse 17. He did this, he arrested John, because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had married. So, this Herod here, this is Herod Antipas. His brother Philip had married Herodias, who incidentally was his niece. You say, isn't that incest? Yes, it is. But that's just how the Herod family rolled. They did that kind of thing. So Herodias marries her uncle Philip. But then after their marriage, she ends up having an affair with another one of her uncles, uncle Antipas, Herod Antipas. She wanted to live the life of a queen. She was tired of living with Philip. He was kind of a nobody. And she wanted to be a queen. And Herod Antipas, her other uncle, he was a ruler down in Israel. And he had this big palace and all that. That's the kind of thing Herodias wanted. So one day, Antipas, who was also married, goes up to visit his brother in Rome and proposes to his brother's wife, Herodias. And she says, yes, on one condition. You have to banish your wife. Don't just divorce her, banish her from the country. So Antipas says, deal. Banishes his wife, and Herodias dumps her husband, Uncle Philip, and marries Uncle Antipas. And she goes down to Israel to live with Antipas, and she brings her little daughter with her. So Herodias and her daughter get all settled in the palace down there in Israel with Antipas, and they're trying to get on with their happily ever after life as royalty. But then something comes along that's very rare, a courageous preacher, a fearless preacher. Most preachers are not courageous. Most preachers are afraid to preach anything that will offend anybody. If they might lose a few key families from the church, they won't say it. John the Baptist is Not like that. He is absolutely fearless. He's not afraid to rebuke a murderous, bloodthirsty tyrant, Herod, for his immoral marriage. And he does that repeatedly. Verse 18, John had been saying to Herod, had been saying, he's repeating this over and over, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So he's rebuking the king. The divorces were illegitimate, and so their marriage was illegitimate, because they didn't have biblical divorces. They wanted to just sweep that under the rug and get on with their lives. And John's, no. He's making a federal case out of it. He's bringing it up. He's calling them to repentance. And he repeatedly rebuked them. You hear this phrase today, speaking truth to power. Usually when people use that phrase, it means something like write a blog grumbling about the government. Of course, in our culture, that requires no courage whatsoever, because nothing happens to you if you do that. You can do it all day long. But you speak out publicly about the sin of an ancient Mideastern ruler at that time, that's a great way to get your head chopped off. John was not afraid. And he didn't just go around saying this to his friends or posting it on Facebook. He said it directly to Herod's face. He said this to Herod. So Herodias, the wife, is furious. She is beside herself with hatred for John. And so look at verse 19, Herodias had it in for John and wanted to kill him. Wanted to kill him. So what happens? Well, Herod Antipas has John arrested. Verse 17, for Herod had given orders to have John arrested and he had him bound and put in prison. Now Mark had already mentioned that way back in chapter one. We've already heard about this arrest. Now we're finally finding out why. Why did this arrest happen? Why did Herod arrest John? It wasn't because he wanted to. He did not want to mess with John. He was afraid. Look at verse 20. Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. Herod was afraid to mess around with John the Baptist because he knew he was a man of God, and you kill a man of God, and that could cause an uprising in the country and a lot of problems, and so Herod is afraid to touch him. But he does arrest him. Why did he arrest him? because of his angry wife Herodias. Verse 17, Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias. Now, I don't know if that was just a compromise to satisfy his wife with something short of killing him, or if maybe he was doing it to put John in protective custody so that Herodias couldn't get to him. So he doesn't end up with an unfortunate drowning accident at a baptism one time or something. you know, some poisoned honey and locust or whatever. Herod is protecting John one way or the other because he knows John to be a righteous and holy man. And that's one reason. And also, frankly, Herod liked to hear him preach. He kind of liked it. Verse 20, when Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled, yet he liked to listen to him. So can you imagine this? Prison guard shows up. John, get up. King wants to see you again. And Herod, he brings him up, goes into the king. Herod asks him some questions about the kingdom of God or about the Bible or something. And John preaches. And Herod kind of likes it. But inevitably, John works his way around to his marriage again. He starts going off on his marriage. And then Herod's like, all right, that's enough. Shut up. And then take him back to the hole. And he sends him back down there. And then later on, he's back to Herod, preaches another sermon, back down into the hole. And that's how it was going for John. That might sound a little strange, but honestly, it's not really that uncommon for people to be drawn to good, powerful, truthful preaching, and yet always walk away just puzzled, without ever repenting. This word puzzled, when it says Herod was puzzled when he heard him preach, it means to be inwardly disturbed, or shaken up, or perplexed. It had an effect on him, on his heart. A lot of people are shaken up by good preaching. And they like it, they like that. They're tired of hearing all the bland, yes-men people. They want to hear something that shakes them up. And that's Herod. But like Herod, those people never get around to making a decision about Jesus. Because they're afraid of commitment. They're afraid of what it might cost them. So they just listen to the preaching, listen to the preaching, but they never make any changes. We're actually all like that to some degree. Every one of us tends to be a procrastinator when it comes to spiritual things, aren't we? Don't we do that? You have some sin in your life, you have something you know you need to deal with, and someone said, well, what are you going to do about it? I don't know. I'm still thinking it over. Well, haven't been thinking it over for the last 20 years? Yeah, but I, you know, I'm still, I haven't really landed on a decision We're afraid to make a commitment, to make a change, and we're lazy about it. And what we're going to see today in this story is the dire consequences of spiritual indecision. Because this is Herod. So Herod, he likes to listen, he's taking an in, he's not changing. So Herod's protecting John. Herodias, his wife, is not the type of woman that will give up just because her husband said no. She's still looking for an opportunity to figure out a way to kill John. She's so angry at him. So she finally gets an opportunity in verse 21. Look at verse 21. Finally, the opportune time came. Here's what happened. On his birthday, Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. So back in those days, the Jews did not celebrate birthdays. They thought that was a pagan thing to do. Only egomaniacs and pagan rulers celebrated their own birthday. But that's exactly what Herod was, and so he throws this huge party to celebrate himself on his birthday. And anybody who's anybody in Galilee is there. All the big wheels show up for this thing, the big shots, and at a party like this, there'd be plenty of alcohol, no wives present, and so you can imagine what this sort of party ended up being like, complete with an exotic dancer. But look who it is, verse 22. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests." What in the world? Herodias sends her own daughter out there like some cheap prostitute in front of all these drunk slobs to perform, including her dad? And she's dancing in front of them? This girl, by the way, is 12 to 14 years old. How does she even know how to dance like this? I'm guessing her mom taught her that, too. So neither her mom nor her dad have any concern about her purity at all. They just send her out there to dance. They put her out there, and all these men, including Herod, her own father-in-law, or stepfather, get all excited, especially because she's a princess. Typically, usually they bring a dancer, be some prostitute or whatever, but usually not royalty. And so now they get to see royalty dancing, and they get excited about that. Herod gets so worked up, he blurts out this stupid promise in verse 22. The king said to the girl, ask me for anything you want, and I'll give it to you. And he promised her with an oath, up to half my kingdom, whatever you ask, I'll give it to you, up to half my kingdom. She can have anything she wants. So what does she ask for? Well, instead of asking for whatever she most desired, she goes and talks to mom. Verse 24, when she went out and said to her mother, what shall I ask for? Now at this point I'm reading it and I just want to shout into her and tell her, ask for a pony! Right? What 12-year-old girl in her right mind wouldn't ask for a pony if she could have anything she wants? But she didn't come to me, she went to her mom. She goes to her mom, what shall I ask for, mom? Now Herodias, her mom, Herodias can have anything she wants. What does she ask for? Diamonds? Fancy clothes? A trip to, you know, the luxury cruise? Now, she asked for the one thing she wanted more than anything else in the whole wide world. There's no hesitation. Verse 24, what shall I ask for, mom? The head of John the Baptist. Wow. You already made your daughter a prostitute. Why not make her an accessory to murder as well? Now, go ask for John's head. This is what bitterness will do to you. You have a choice between the greatest pleasures in the world and revenge, and you'll choose revenge. And that won't even satisfy you. That's how angry people get when the gospel starts exposing their sin, but they won't repent. Especially when it has to do with some kind of immoral relationship. That's what really makes people mad. If there's something about their marriage or some relationship. And what they want to do is just kill the messenger. When people reject God's word, they usually make it about the preacher, don't they? They don't want to admit they're rejecting God, so they want to make it about the preacher. And that's easy to justify, because every preacher has flaws, right? Every preacher has flaws. I can't listen to him. He's got all these sins, he's got all these problems, he's got this, he's kind of weird, and he talks too loud, and he goes too long, and he does all this. There are some Christians who never go to church because they can't find a good enough pastor. And if you make it about the pastor, you make it all about the preacher, then you don't have to admit that what you're really doing is rejecting God himself. And that's what Herodias was doing. By asking for John's head, she's rejecting God's message. She's rejecting the Lord himself. So she tells her little daughter, ask for John's head. Now what does the girl say? How does she respond? Is she horrified by that? She's like, oh mom, that's gross. Now look at verse 25. At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request. She's all excited. What a great idea, Mom! That's awesome! We'll just have them chop off John's head. That's great. So she goes running back with her request, and when she gives the request, she gets into the king, she's all dramatic about it, like she's building suspense. Verse 25, I want you to give me, right now, on a platter, it's just all this buildup, Here's my request, Dad. I want it right now, no delay, not later, immediately. And I want it to be brought out on a tray, on a platter. Are you ready for this? Here's the big finish. I want you to give me right now, on a platter, the head of John the Baptist. By the way, Herodias, the mom, didn't say anything about a platter. The girl comes up with that little gem on her own. She just thought it would be really funny to take one of those trays where they brought in all the meat for this meal and use one of those to serve up his head like a dish that they're going to eat. At a young age, she's already as twisted as her mom. It's amazing how early children pick up on the sins of their parents. Verse 26, the king was greatly distressed. So at this point, Antipas sobers up real fast. This just got serious. He's in an impossible spot. He considers himself to be in a really hard spot, which is amazing if you think about it. If you told one of your kids... If you made a rash vow and you said, you know what? For your birthday, you can have anything you want. Just ask for anything. And the child said, OK, how about you murder Billy Graham? You'd just be like, what? Would you consider that? Oh, what a big dilemma. Should I do it or not? I can't decide. No. You might be a little embarrassed to say, sorry, I made a rash promise. I didn't really mean absolutely anything. But you're certainly not going to grant the request. But for Herod. Embarrassment in front of those people was absolutely not an option. The word translated greatly distressed is a really strong word. He's worked up. This is the same word used later in the gospel to describe the distress that Jesus went through in the garden the night before he was crucified when he was sweating blood. He's really distressed. Why? Because when human approval becomes an idol in your heart, you have to have people's approval. then some of the easiest no-brainer moral decisions in the world become impossible dilemmas because you cannot sacrifice popular opinion. So Herod is greatly distressed, but not so distressed that he's actually gonna do the right thing. Verse 26, the king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So killing John, greatly distressing. Losing face in front of his friends, even more distressing. So after thinking about it for all of a few seconds, he gives an answer. Everyone's looking at him. Is he really going to do it? Does he really have the courage? Does he have the guts to actually follow through on the promise he made to that girl and kill a prophet of God? Risk an uprising? Herod turns to one of his bodyguards and said, go do it. Go do it. Verse 27, so immediately he sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. By the way, have you noticed in this account how he switches, as soon as the daughter dances, Mark switches from calling Herod, Herod, to calling him the king. Instead of Herod and the daughter, the first part's Herod the daughter, Herod daughter, and then it's the king and the girl, the king and the girl. What he's doing, he's showing us the irony of this. He's using an exalted term for Herod, and he's saying this big, powerful monarch versus this little kid, this girl. Guess who wins? The girl. Who has more power? The girl. She gets whatever she wants, the king gets nothing that he wants. Why? Because a man who is entrapped by his lusts is powerless. Powerless, that's Proverbs 6.25. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread. I've always thought that was a funny proverb. The prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread. You're nothing. When you get caught up with lust, you have no power. You can't say, when you can't say no to the impulses of your body, whether it's sexual lust or for food or for leisure or a habit that you have and you can't stop, anything like that, you become powerless and you become vulnerable to Satan who can destroy you. Proverbs 25, 28 says, like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control. If you don't have self-control, then you're vulnerable. You're just like a city with no wall. And that's Herod. So his lust, combined with his desire for human approval and his spineless cowardice results in the murder of the greatest man ever to live up to his time, John the Baptist. You know, cowards are some of the most dangerous people there are. Because other people have limitations on how much they'll hurt you. Cowards, there's no limit. If somebody puts enough pressure on them, they'll do anything to you. Cowards are dangerous. Whenever I read this story, for some reason, even though I know how it ends, I'm still, when I'm reading it, I'm holding out that Herod will change his mind. Like, no, don't do it. Don't do it. Surely it can't end this way. John is so young. He's in his early thirties. He's only been doing his ministry for a matter of months. He's such an important man. He's the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He's got such a good ministry going. He's doing so much good. He's holy and righteous and courageous. It's so important to have him around. Surely he's not going to just be slaughtered like some animal at the whim of a girl in a rash, drunk, promise at a party. Can't end this way, can it? But then verse 27, the unthinkable. The man went and beheaded John in the prison. You know, I saw a video once of a Christian being beheaded by a Muslim with a knife. I'll tell you, I'm not going to describe it to you, but I'll tell you, seeing something like that changes you. It is so horrific. John is in the dungeon. He's sitting there, all of a sudden he hears somebody coming, and he thinks, oh, Herod wants another sermon. He starts thinking, what am I going to preach this time? But then the guard comes into view, and he's got his sword out. And John realizes what's about to happen, and he can't believe it. His whole life has been devoted to announcing that the Messiah would come and bring judgment on the wicked. That's what he's been preaching. The axe is already at the tree. Judgment is coming. Christ is going to bring... Why are the wicked still breathing? And why are they winning? Why is He the one in prison? And now He's about to die alone in His prison? Because of some dancer at a party? Why is this happening? Whatever was racing through John's mind at that time, there isn't very much time to think, just seconds, John quickly breathes one last prayer, oh, I trust you God, forgive my doubts, and then it's over. The assassin leaves the body there, takes the head, puts it on a plate, brings it back into the party. The room goes silent. Now everybody sobers up. All those officials and big shots and leaders in Galilee are looking at the head of this man that they knew was a prophet from God, sitting there on a serving tray, and all the raucous laughter and lewd speech and the rest of it all comes to a stop. You know, sin seems so harmless at first, but it leads into such darkness. The assassin carries the dripping platter over to the girl. She takes it, carries it off, and gives it to her mom. Historians tell us that when Herodias got it, she took the head and started abusing it. It wasn't even enough for John to be dead. She pulled his tongue out and started piercing it with a pin. Not even his death was enough to satisfy the vengeance in her heart. So that's that ugly story. Now, why did you tell us all that, Mark? Why this big story? What's the point? Here's why. He told us all that because we needed all that background information in order to understand the point that he's going to make, which is this. We needed to understand why Herod comes up with this theory that he comes up with about Jesus when he hears Jesus' reputation. That whole story that I just told, it's all in the past. It happened way before Mark 6. John the Baptist is dead and gone by now. Herod's trying to get on with his life, but then he's sitting in his office one day, one of his advisors comes busting in, he says, Your Majesty, have you heard about this man who's out there performing miracles all over the place and all over Galilee and preaching? Yes, yes, I've heard about him. You're the fourth guy this week that's told me about him. Verse 14, King Herod heard about this, heard about what? Remember last week the disciples went out and they're doing miracles and they're preaching about Jesus? So he hears about this, for Jesus' name had become well known. They were making Jesus famous. So who is this guy, Jesus? Herod asks. Advisor says, well, there's several theories about who he is. Verse 14, some are saying John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That's why miraculous powers are working him. Others said he's Elijah. Still others claimed he's a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago. Which one of those theories did Herod buy into? The first one, verse 16, when Herod heard this, he said, John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead. This one who struck fear into the heart of Herod the Great, this Herod's father, 30 years earlier when he was a baby, now strikes fear into the heart of the son, Herod Antipas. And he says, John the Baptist whom I beheaded, the I is emphatic in the Greek. He's like, the guy that I myself killed is back from the dead. Now when he hears about Jesus, why does he immediately assume it's John? Why does that pop into his mind? Guilty conscience, right? He's got a guilty conscience. When there's something on your conscience, you tend to interpret everything in light of that thing that's graining at your conscience. That night after the party when Herod had John put to death, did he sleep that night, you suppose? Or does his conscience bother him? Probably. I think it probably bothered him a little bit. He was greatly distressed. What about the next night? Maybe? Night after that? Probably not. Probably not. It doesn't take much to bury a guilty conscience. But conscience is a gift from God designed to cause us to return after we stray. And in his mercy, God will sometimes, after we have buried a conscience, resurrect it. bring it back and call you once again to him. And I think that's what's happening here in verse 14. I think Herod had long since buried this, but now he comes up with this theory. And it's not some detached academic theory about Jesus. It's very personal. It's all about him. It's John the Baptist whom I myself beheaded. And it's just him. He doesn't say, oh, it's John the Baptist who my nagging wife got me to kill. No. No. No excuses. It's just on him. When conscience finally catches up to you, it's just you and your sin. There's no one else there. No excuses. And I think that's what's happening to Herod here. But he makes the mistake of letting his guilty conscience interpret who Jesus is. He thinks Jesus must be some kind of ghost of John sent to haunt him and torment him for what he did. Is that who Jesus is? Just the opposite. He didn't come to torment Herod for his sins. He came to save Herod from his sins. It's not John that's back from the dead. It's Herod's conscience that's back from the dead. God raised it from the dead as an act of mercy to bring him to repentance. Don't ever let your guilty conscience define your conception of who God is. Because you'll come up with the wrong idea of who God is. You'll think of God as some irritated father who's impossible to please and just wants to scold you for all your mistakes. A guilty conscience will drive you, if you use that to define God, you'll come up with the wrong definition. What your guilty conscience should do is cause you to repent and then run into the arms of a loving, merciful, forgiving God who always forgives those who repent. That's what conscience should do. Is that what Herod does? No. No, instead of listening to his conscience, he buries it again, and not long after this, he buries it so deep that not long after this, when he finally gets to meet Jesus, at Jesus' trial, right before the crucifixion, what happened to his fear? He's not one bit afraid of Jesus then. Jesus is one big freak show, and Herod just mocks him and ridicules him, makes fun of him, and sends him back off to Pilate. What happened to, oh, it's John the Baptist back from the dead. It's gone, right? That's gone. Did you realize that Herod had the power to set Jesus free at the trial? Everything was turned over to Herod. He could have just said, I'm not gonna have the blood of yet another righteous prophet on my head. I'm not gonna do that. I made that mistake once. I'm not doing it again. Jesus, you're free to go. He could have done that. He had the power to do that. But he didn't because he had utterly destroyed the gift of conscience that God had given him. Okay, so here's a question, a question you probably don't know the answer to, even though it's a question about you. We all think we know ourselves pretty well, but there are certain things in your character that you really don't know for sure whether it's there unless it's tested. So here's a question. Are you a coward? Now, if you're like me, your answer is, I certainly hope not. Most people hate the idea of being a coward, pretty much everybody. Even people who don't care about God, they don't care about morals, they don't know anything about the Bible, still, nobody wants to be known as a coward. Cowardice is one of those evils that's so obviously evil that even people who are okay with violence, and selfishness, and impurity, and all kinds of immoral things, other sins, They don't have any morals at all. Still, even those people think cowardice is a character flaw, something bad. Nobody wants to be known as a coward. And that instinct that all humanity has against cowardice is right on. It's biblical. Cowardice is condemned in scripture. And it's actually a bigger deal in the Bible than most people realize. The book of Revelation puts cowardice right at the top of the list of the people who are going to be thrown into the lake of fire. What is it about cowardice that is so evil that God singles it out as being especially deserving of punishment, and even people who don't care about morality understand the evil of it? What's so bad about cowardice? What is cowardice exactly? And what does it mean to be courageous? Well, this is where we learn the right way to think about fear. God's solution to fear is not always just getting rid of it. Sometimes that is the solution. There are some fears that we shouldn't have, we need to get rid of them, certain things we shouldn't be threatened by. There are other things that really truly are dangerous. They are real threats, and they should put your body and your nervous system and your spirit on high alert. They're dangerous. And when you face those real dangers, the solution to the fear that you feel is not to ignore the feeling and just become relaxed. The solution to the fear that tries to make you freeze and stop moving, become paralyzed in the face of that threat, the solution to that is courage. Courage is when you keep moving, even when fear makes you want to freeze, makes you want to stop in your tracks. Courage is when you keep moving ahead, even when fear makes you want to stop in your tracks and freeze. That's courage. And we all agree that courage is a virtue, right? Everybody thinks that. But there can be no courage without feelings of fear. You see that? It doesn't take any courage to keep moving ahead if you don't feel afraid. That's not courage. Courage is when you move in the face of fear. The only place that's even possible to have the virtue of courage is when you feel afraid. And how do you get that courage? How do you get so that you can keep moving even when you're afraid and not become paralyzed? Well, go back to Mark 6. The contrast to Herod's cowardice in that chapter is the incredible courage of John the Baptist, who wasn't afraid to preach against the marriage of a tyrannical, bloodthirsty, maniacal, Mideastern king. What gave John that kind of courage? Well, here's the key to how to become courageous in the Well, here's the key to how you can become courageous in the face of fear. John was probably very afraid. I mean, being thrown, I don't care how strong you are, being thrown into a miserable dungeon, Machairus, where he was thrown, and then having your head hacked off by a sword, that's going to make everybody a little uneasy. Anyone in his right mind is going to feel feelings of fear in a situation like that. But the thing that gave John the ability to continue to be courageous in the face of all that danger was, here's how he overcame his fear. It was through a greater fear, a fear based in love. a fear based in love. Now let me explain. Who would you say are the most courageous people in all of society? I would suggest it might be mothers of young children. Mothers, not to minimize the courage of the soldier who dives on a hand grenade to save his buddies and everything, those guys are amazing, but think of a young mother for a minute, maybe just, she's five, four, 100 pounds, and if she sees a mouse running across the kitchen floor, she screams and runs away in fear. That's how weak and vulnerable she is. Yet, that woman will fight a mountain lion if it's attacking her children. She will put her body in between that child and any danger without a moment's hesitation, not even thinking while that big tough soldier is running for his life. She's afraid of a mouse. What gives her that kind of courage to fight a mountain lion or a bear or something? It's a greater fear. It's a fear based in love. That's what gives her the courage. She loves her child so much. She's more afraid of life without her child than she is of being eaten alive. She might not consciously think all that in her mind in the moment. She's just acting on emotion, on how she feels, but she feels that way because of how much she loves that child. How do you deal with the fears in your life? You're afraid of running out of money, afraid of your marriage falling apart, afraid of being hurt again. I have two full chapters in my book, Anxiety and the Peace of God, on that subject, chapters 23 and 24. So if you want more on this, I would urge you to check out that book. But for now, just remember, if fear has you paralyzed, the solution is greater love for God, more love for God, which will give you a better fear. When you love God so much that you fear distance from Him more than you fear anything else, then no threat will be enough to keep you from doing what God has called you to do.