back to index2021-12-26 A Year of Fear
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This is the last Sunday of the year, and there's nothing left now. 00:00:11.920 |
Now that Christmas is done, we kind of start to look forward to New Year's Eve. 00:00:16.240 |
So again, please join us this Friday as we reflect back on this past year and pray together, 00:00:20.940 |
and also look forward to the coming year, as it'll be a good time to do that. 00:00:25.680 |
And what I wanted to talk about today, after some meditation and contemplation on my end, 00:00:33.000 |
And it's because I actually gave the last Sunday sermon last year, too, and then I looked 00:00:37.240 |
back at it, and I realized, man, like the landscape, I don't know, the landscape hasn't 00:00:45.000 |
And just looking and seeing and thinking about a good topic to think about and to kind of 00:00:51.240 |
think together about as we end this year is on this topic of fear. 00:00:56.640 |
I'm going to read out a list for you of things we might fear, because a lot of the work is 00:01:00.720 |
going to be done in you as you listen, because I'm going to be talking about fear, but these 00:01:08.160 |
And so we all come with very different fears. 00:01:13.560 |
We have fear of people, fear of the unknown, fear of circumstances, fear of loneliness, 00:01:20.440 |
fear of losing reputation, respect, fear of purposelessness, fear of pain, fear of rejection, 00:01:29.240 |
And the reason why I want to think about this is because fear is something that drives all 00:01:40.560 |
Whether you realize it or not, whether you understand that it's happening or not, fear 00:01:47.960 |
It's something that's been happening in us all our lives, the last few years, the last 00:01:59.160 |
Wherever we have dreams, desires, hopes, or aspirations there, you're going to find fear. 00:02:08.480 |
Fear of the unknown, therefore many times it's because we're afraid of our hopes being 00:02:12.560 |
dashed, of our dreams and aspirations not coming into fruition. 00:02:21.680 |
Fear is central in our conviction, in our resolve. 00:02:26.160 |
And fear, many times, because it's so consuming, is going to cause us to want to be rid of 00:02:34.560 |
But today, because fear has been such a great talking point over the last year, over the 00:02:38.920 |
last couple years, today I want to take us down a very singular path, which is that we 00:02:50.320 |
And we were never meant to do away with fear. 00:02:53.320 |
We were never meant to bring peace into our hearts by trying to overcome these fears that 00:03:00.080 |
In fact, the only way we're to overcome those things is to appropriately place our fear. 00:03:05.320 |
And so that's what we're going to be talking about today. 00:03:07.360 |
What it is to fear God, because this is not a new and unique idea for us. 00:03:19.800 |
God, as we go into your word, I pray that we would hear and listen, obey and understand. 00:03:25.840 |
Father, help us to come before you, before your word, God, that this is not a text removed 00:03:35.920 |
from your very presence, from your very person. 00:03:41.000 |
Help us to respond not because we're at church listening to a sermon. 00:03:54.160 |
So we're going to kind of go through as fast as we can. 00:03:56.160 |
The first one, the first point is that fear is completely wrapped up in what we worship. 00:04:01.120 |
So we're going to equate the two things today, fear and worship. 00:04:10.780 |
Whatever it is that we deem to be the most important things in our lives, you will find 00:04:18.500 |
We fear that the object of our worship will be taken away from us. 00:04:21.760 |
That's a very common experience for all of us. 00:04:24.400 |
We see people doing crazy things because of the object of worship being threatened. 00:04:31.320 |
People do crazy things in order to protect and to retain the object. 00:04:39.160 |
One example could be a romantic relationship. 00:04:41.160 |
I've seen people who are like somewhat mature in their faith and when it comes to this romantic 00:04:46.600 |
sphere all of a sudden it seems like because of some kind of fear there, like they've done 00:05:03.160 |
Because fears very much drive us as objects of worship come front and center. 00:05:11.120 |
You see it in desire to uphold personal reputation, in the desire for prestige, comfort, some 00:05:19.320 |
Another place that's interesting is when you see yourself angry. 00:05:25.960 |
We can't go into that one, but it's an interesting thing. 00:05:30.400 |
We also fear that the power, we fear the power that the object of worship has over us. 00:05:36.200 |
It can be an unhealthy fear and the wrath that can be poured out upon us. 00:05:43.640 |
This is one of the main reasons why we fear men. 00:05:49.680 |
Even for people who pride themselves in saying, "I don't care what people think about me." 00:05:53.360 |
You get close enough to their inner circles, the people that they care about, and there 00:06:02.240 |
Fear is completely wrapped up in what we worship. 00:06:11.880 |
Where you see your greatest fears, there you will find your greatest places of worship. 00:06:18.040 |
Therefore, that's where you'll find the greatest places of idolatry in your life. 00:06:24.600 |
That's why generally we have this idea floating around in us of fearfulness. 00:06:29.680 |
When we fear things, we know we're not supposed to fear the things of this world, what can 00:06:33.840 |
be done to us, the losses that we might face, all that. 00:06:38.280 |
We know singularly we're supposed to fear God and God alone. 00:06:42.800 |
These are easy concepts for us, but we can see the great divide in the way we see things 00:06:54.520 |
It's because God might not be the object of our worship. 00:07:01.400 |
When we fear God, we don't fear anything else because we fear him. 00:07:08.360 |
The fear of God is the beginning point of everything we know, of everything we're supposed 00:07:15.260 |
The fear of God is central point, is the hinge. 00:07:20.520 |
In Proverbs 1, verse 7, it says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." 00:07:29.160 |
It doesn't say it is like a pinnacle or it doesn't say that it's great knowledge. 00:07:34.920 |
If you have a fear of God, it leads to great knowledge or greater knowledge. 00:07:48.280 |
You can't get to this idea of knowledge, you can't get to it unless you go through that 00:07:56.720 |
In Proverbs 9, 10, it says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge 00:08:04.740 |
This means that if our decisions and sight do not begin with the fear of the Lord, there 00:08:08.280 |
is no correct knowledge, there is no correct wisdom. 00:08:13.400 |
These passages aren't saying that the fear of the Lord is just a good thing, something 00:08:28.940 |
Unless we see and think and start to have a worldview that is going through the fear 00:08:35.440 |
of God, we're going to be on precarious ground. 00:08:39.440 |
That's why when the winds and waves come in this world, when the things of our greatest 00:08:43.840 |
fears come into fruition, what happens to us? 00:08:53.000 |
It says here that the fear of God is that foundation. 00:08:57.960 |
Because we were all made to be worshipers, we were all made to be fearers. 00:09:03.360 |
We know that if we're not worshiping God, we're worshiping something else. 00:09:07.960 |
But that also means if we're not fearing God, we're fearing something else. 00:09:14.840 |
I want to focus in the book of Luke to see this in action today, that people are encountering 00:09:21.240 |
It came to my thought in Christmas season, actually because last year I looked through 00:09:25.640 |
it and there was one phrase I found interesting. 00:09:32.400 |
In that worship, she says that God's mercy is upon those who fear him. 00:09:39.640 |
It's a very common, it's an inductive question you could easily ask. 00:09:50.100 |
Why is it like that God's mercy is upon those who love God, who follow God, who trust in 00:09:58.100 |
Through that fascination, I started a word study through the book of Luke. 00:10:03.780 |
In the book of Luke, what we see is that there is a common response to Jesus and that was 00:10:13.460 |
And now, be careful, because this makes too much sense to us. 00:10:20.620 |
Of course, there ought to be some semblance of fear. 00:10:24.940 |
But this is where I'm asking you, please don't jump the gap. 00:10:29.460 |
When you see this great divide between, I know I ought to fear the Lord, and then how 00:10:35.160 |
we're actually living, don't jump that too quick. 00:10:40.440 |
If this becomes a theological exercise of looking at Jesus saying, "Yeah, they're following 00:10:45.120 |
before Jesus, makes sense," without stopping and seeing what's going on, it's going to 00:10:53.460 |
What I saw as I was going through the book of Luke is that person after person in Calvary 00:11:00.140 |
Again, kind of makes sense on my understanding level, but when I start to sit there and think, 00:11:07.780 |
how would I have responded when Jesus is doing crazy things, when he's doing these miracles, 00:11:14.460 |
when this net comes up with wiggling fish and is threatening to break? 00:11:18.980 |
I think I would have responded, this is just what I think, right? 00:11:22.860 |
I don't know if my first thing would have been fear. 00:11:25.380 |
If I'm trying to place myself there, I think my first thing would have been some kind of 00:11:32.660 |
I think a smile would have been brought to my face. 00:11:35.300 |
I would have been like, "Dude, I'm going with this guy. 00:11:41.180 |
I would have left everything to follow this man. 00:11:43.100 |
It would have been this response of joy, of happiness, something like that. 00:11:59.740 |
In the beginning when Jesus is being talked about, it made more sense. 00:12:02.980 |
In Luke 1, verse 12, it says, "Zechariah was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear 00:12:08.560 |
Okay, so here's an angel of light, and that made sense. 00:12:12.700 |
And then in Luke 1, 65, it says, "Zechariah opening his mouth, fear came on all those 00:12:18.060 |
living around them, and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country 00:12:22.220 |
Now remember, Gabriel was, you can think of him as like a pointer, right? 00:12:28.900 |
And so, well, the person who points to someone that's coming is supposed to be lesser than 00:12:33.980 |
But there's appropriate fear that is given upon this angel who's pointing to the coming 00:12:39.980 |
And then Jesus comes into the picture, and then in Luke 5, verse 8 through 10, it's a 00:12:48.060 |
Jesus tells, remember he's a carpenter, tells a seasoned fisherman, along with a couple 00:12:53.560 |
other seasoned fishermen, what to do in the water in order to catch fish. 00:13:00.340 |
And they listen, and this net comes up full of wiggling fish, and look at what happens 00:13:06.900 |
"But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet." 00:13:26.060 |
When you look at it, he says, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. 00:13:32.660 |
For amazement," I love this word, "had seized him and all his companions because of the 00:13:42.440 |
And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon." 00:13:46.560 |
Because of the fish they had caught, why would fear happen? 00:13:53.020 |
Why not exuberance and joy and happiness and excitement? 00:14:05.020 |
What we're seeing here is the difference between knowing, right? 00:14:12.880 |
Maybe something like that was going on in his mind, right? 00:14:16.780 |
But this is what happens when you experience it, when you're in the presence. 00:14:33.560 |
How would you have responded in that situation? 00:14:36.860 |
Jesus comes and says, "Walk," and he gets up and he walks. 00:14:42.980 |
But look at Luke 5:26, "They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God, 00:14:57.780 |
Luke 7:16, Jesus heals the centurion's servant. 00:15:00.700 |
Fear gripped them, and they began glorifying God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among 00:15:07.860 |
When Jesus calms the storm, Luke 8:25, "And he said to them, 'Where is your faith?' 00:15:12.200 |
They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, 'Who then is this, that he commands 00:15:15.980 |
even the winds and the water, and they obey him?'" 00:15:18.060 |
Jesus and the demoniac, Luke 8:35, "The people went out to see what had happened, and they 00:15:22.340 |
had came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the 00:15:26.420 |
feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they became frightened." 00:15:29.300 |
This is my favorite one, because you would think that someone is afraid of a demon-possessed 00:15:35.340 |
If you came across a demon-possessed man, think of the fear. 00:15:38.000 |
These people are afraid because the demon-possessed man became normal. 00:15:44.280 |
They're filled with fear because he's thinking and talking properly. 00:15:59.040 |
In Luke 8:37, to conclude that story, "And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes 00:16:02.940 |
and the surrounding district asked him to leave. 00:16:05.440 |
They were so afraid to ask him to leave, for they were gripped with great fear." 00:16:09.640 |
And there's a lot of big language going on there. 00:16:17.760 |
"Jesus and the bleeding woman," Luke 8:47, "When the woman saw that she had not escaped 00:16:21.720 |
notice, she came trembling and fell down before him, and declared in the presence of all the 00:16:26.720 |
people the reason why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. 00:16:30.420 |
When Jesus resurrects the little girl," Luke 8:56, "her parents were amazed by the way 00:16:34.760 |
this word amazed has a type of fear imbued into it, but he instructed them to tell no 00:16:41.080 |
Jesus and the transfiguration," Luke 9:34, "While he was saying this, a cloud formed 00:16:45.080 |
and began to overshadow them, and the three, they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 00:16:50.240 |
And Jesus appears after the resurrection," Luke 24:37, "but they were startled and frightened 00:16:56.880 |
Now, regardless of the story here, this was just a cursory read through the book of Luke. 00:17:05.760 |
It was like, I'm like, "Why didn't I not see this?" 00:17:22.480 |
As much as we were all created to worship, it goes hand in hand with fear. 00:17:26.600 |
Fear is an appropriate response for every human being. 00:17:32.560 |
Now, we just saw encounters with Jesus, but that's what we do as human. 00:17:40.240 |
Today, we've grown much too casual with the Lord. 00:17:54.000 |
We say we are worshipers of God, and we're proud Bereans here. 00:18:01.320 |
We say our vision is engaging in God-centered worship. 00:18:15.760 |
If we say this casually, flippantly, when there is actually no fear in us of God, it 00:18:26.040 |
When we have no fear of the Lord in us, we have to question if we actually currently 00:18:34.760 |
We have to wonder about the quality of our worship. 00:18:39.020 |
We have to think, "Do I actually believe these things about God?" 00:18:44.640 |
Because if we're not careful, then we are going to fall simply into Christian ways of 00:18:49.880 |
living, habitually drawing out our action based upon Christian moralism, and trying 00:18:56.040 |
to follow sets of rules that we've established, and be able to say the right things with our 00:19:01.400 |
mouth that we are worshipers of God, who engage in God-centered worship, that we have a high 00:19:06.320 |
view of God, and then the way we live does not reflect it. 00:19:26.360 |
Albert Martin says, "One of the accurate measurements of true spiritual growth is the measure to 00:19:30.840 |
which one increases in walking in the fear of God." 00:19:38.080 |
Hebrews 4.16 says, "Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace 00:19:42.020 |
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." 00:19:46.840 |
We know this passage, one of my favorite passages, but I want us to take a look at it to show 00:19:55.160 |
how quickly, how quickly we move to just this understanding that we have instead of experience. 00:20:11.480 |
When you look at this passage, what's the word that we highlight almost every time? 00:20:18.520 |
I think, if I'm wrong, sorry, I think it's confidence. 00:20:25.760 |
Approach the throne of grace with confidence. 00:20:32.520 |
Why is he telling you to approach the throne of grace with confidence? 00:20:39.360 |
Because you're approaching the throne, right? 00:20:44.240 |
The reason why he's telling us to approach the throne of grace with confidence is because 00:20:49.440 |
the reaction ought to be foundationally fearful. 00:20:55.440 |
People use this image of a child who's in the president's office, and then he strolls 00:21:06.000 |
I think it's true, and it's a good image, but not without the appropriateness of the 00:21:15.000 |
That we run to this confidence word, that we can go up to this God without realizing 00:21:30.840 |
How can he say, "Approach him confidently," like ever? 00:21:43.800 |
He's saying, "Approach the throne of grace in confidence to find help in your time of 00:21:50.800 |
Because what the author of Hebrews is saying is the foundation is fear. 00:21:58.100 |
This is the king of the universe, and he says, "Approach the throne." 00:22:06.620 |
What amazing capacity we humans have to decrease the Lord. 00:22:14.500 |
What amazing is the human capacity when John the Baptist has to say something like, "He 00:22:19.860 |
must increase, and I must decrease," and we're challenged by it. 00:22:23.060 |
How sad that we're challenged by that statement. 00:22:32.980 |
That's so challenging to me, and it's so sad that I'm challenged by that. 00:22:44.220 |
Last week, Pastor Peter, he showed the magnitude of God by scrolling out. 00:22:52.060 |
We're a speck, even when it comes to just an aerial perspective of our state of California. 00:22:58.420 |
You zoom out to country and to planet, and you keep going on, and you realize, man, the 00:23:03.140 |
planet to the sun, the sun to the stars, and the stars, there's so many of these stars 00:23:08.220 |
in this galaxy, and there are billions of galaxies. 00:23:10.860 |
You go out and out and out, and you realize that the Bible says that God holds the universe 00:23:23.500 |
We should just stop talking, because there's no way our words can communicate the grandeur, 00:23:30.500 |
the magnificence, the hugeness, the immensity of our God. 00:23:37.540 |
And for John the Baptist to say, "He must increase," is an absurdity. 00:23:47.020 |
This isn't a ... The concept is not crazy, is we get it. 00:23:55.420 |
But it happens because we've somehow lost sight of God's actual magnitude. 00:24:12.960 |
His magnitude is a reality, is a truth that never changes. 00:24:25.620 |
And not only does he say, "He must increase," what else does he say? 00:24:37.540 |
Why does he say, "You have to decrease," because we're so big in our own eyes? 00:24:44.360 |
We look at this image of the suns and the stars, and we know right in here, I'm small. 00:25:04.680 |
That's why we need to coach ourself and convince ourself on these very seats before we sing 00:25:10.740 |
these worship songs to this great God to say, "Remember, remember, we have to pull ourselves. 00:25:21.260 |
Because he somehow decreased, and somehow I have increased. 00:25:31.000 |
The reason why John the Baptist says this is because, do you know why? 00:25:44.440 |
I have no grasp and understanding of present day reality. 00:25:59.840 |
It's my wishes, my desires, which is all that matters. 00:26:06.860 |
When something doesn't go my way, I will complain. 00:26:10.540 |
When troubles come, I will blame others and even God himself." 00:26:14.360 |
That's because we fear the things of the world. 00:26:16.720 |
When the things of the world threaten us, guess what? 00:26:19.720 |
We think we're God, but in reality we realize we have no power of God. 00:26:35.560 |
Because these things, I'm so afraid to lose these things because it's going against what 00:26:42.000 |
It's going against my desires, my wishes, my aspirations, my hopes, whatever it is that 00:26:46.800 |
my plans are, that those things I've set up and they have become idols in my life. 00:26:58.960 |
We can't sit there and mentally convince ourselves that God is someone to be feared because we 00:27:07.720 |
Isn't true fear something that needs to be experienced? 00:27:18.320 |
Go up, I don't care how high it is, anything past two stories I start getting really like 00:27:32.280 |
Whenever I go up into heights places, I just pretend that's not there. 00:27:39.040 |
The weird thing about people who fear things, you like thinking about it or you like imagining 00:27:43.560 |
What I like to do, actually my wife thinks I'm so odd for doing this, but I like YouTube 00:27:50.080 |
So people go up to these high places and look down and look and I go, "Ahh!" 00:28:00.600 |
I don't care how many inches of plastic there is there, get off. 00:28:12.320 |
If my wife were to explain to you what I look like at that place, I would probably have 00:28:18.520 |
But, okay, here's the difference with just thinking, contemplating, meditating on fear 00:28:27.120 |
and me actually going to a place where I'm like thousands of feet up. 00:28:34.600 |
Thousands of feet up in the air and I'm looking down and that fear that grips me, that reality 00:28:59.600 |
The difference between this and then when you're there, when you experience something. 00:29:05.720 |
For every parent, every parent, this happened at the OC fair a while back. 00:29:15.560 |
I was like, "Oh my gosh, how could you lose your kids?" 00:29:20.240 |
And so, I'm sitting there thinking about this and there's differences because as a parent 00:29:25.340 |
of three young kids, we've all done it, right? 00:29:32.560 |
But whatever the case, that feeling of fear, you watch these movies where the kid disappears, 00:29:41.200 |
But that moment when we couldn't find our child, even though it was a split, like maybe 00:29:47.000 |
it was like 20 or 30 seconds, that moment, sheer terror. 00:30:01.960 |
And all that kind of stuff, but the feeling was gripping. 00:30:19.280 |
Our fears are going to reveal something about us. 00:30:22.280 |
It's going to reveal the greatest places of worship in us. 00:30:25.360 |
And it's going to be many times, honestly, experiential. 00:30:32.280 |
So my question to you is, have you been cultivating a fear of the Lord? 00:30:37.640 |
There's no way for you to say, like, "I have to fear God more." 00:30:44.400 |
That was what was happening to these people that we saw in Luke. 00:30:51.480 |
They're coming across Christ, and then in his presence, experience happens. 00:31:02.160 |
I mean, do you understand, like, why the experience is so important in this? 00:31:09.040 |
When we think of the things we fear in the world, again, they could be bodily harm or 00:31:12.280 |
death, lots of financial security, loss of relationships, disapproval of man, loss of 00:31:17.880 |
reputation, having our aspirations ripped away from us, drawing near to the Lord, walking 00:31:23.720 |
with him, seeing him, ought to cast off all other fears. 00:31:33.880 |
As our fear of him grows, our rightly high and view of God, as that grows in us, it's 00:31:43.720 |
For Simon Peter, it caused him to turn his back on his entire career. 00:31:48.880 |
For James and John, it left their father and a lucrative business and a boat behind. 00:31:54.000 |
For Matthew, the tax collector, he left behind his identity, his friends, his riches, his 00:31:58.360 |
security, everything that he knew, it left everything behind. 00:32:02.600 |
For all of these disciples, it left behind fear of the loss of these things. 00:32:15.120 |
I don't think it was that fears that went away, here, I think they were still afraid. 00:32:22.240 |
You know, most of the original apostles, they were martyred, they were executed. 00:32:29.240 |
Do you think that they were without fear the night before they died? 00:32:33.160 |
You know, I think about it and I think, no, I think they were afraid. 00:32:42.640 |
Well, in a place where we're all called to be fears, a greater fear consumed them. 00:32:51.240 |
The greatest and only logical object of worship replaced their entire viewfinder. 00:32:56.640 |
Their sight got completely saturated with God. 00:33:03.220 |
It changed their entire paradigm for that reason. 00:33:07.480 |
It was a fear so powerful that it obliterated all of their fears. 00:33:17.520 |
It changed their dreams, their aspirations, their hopes, and their desires. 00:33:29.480 |
What fears today have been overcoming your fear of the Lord? 00:33:35.460 |
Are we people who have been cultivating a fear of the Lord that overcomes all other 00:33:39.920 |
Now, the third point today is that in the book of Luke, Jesus commands them not to fear. 00:33:47.320 |
I thought this was really funny as I was thinking about this. 00:33:51.080 |
Our second point was that the response, the common response to Jesus is to fear. 00:33:55.480 |
In the book of Luke, you're like, "Man, I need to fear God." 00:33:59.200 |
Over and over again, in the middle of it, the things that's all interspersed is, "Do 00:34:09.920 |
Then I realized, "If I'm not careful with this, I will choose what I want, when I want 00:34:15.200 |
I know I'm supposed to fear, so I'll try to develop a fear. 00:34:18.640 |
When I feel afraid of these things, I'll try not to fear." 00:34:21.600 |
There's the disconnect that can happen there. 00:34:25.240 |
In the book of Luke, there's a command over and over again. 00:34:27.360 |
Luke 1:13, "But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition 00:34:31.440 |
has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the 00:34:36.080 |
Then, later on, in Luke 1:30, "The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have 00:34:42.640 |
Then in Zacharias' prophecy, Luke 1:74, "To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand 00:34:49.280 |
of our enemies, might serve him without fear." 00:34:52.760 |
The angels come to the shepherds and says, "This is scary. 00:34:57.440 |
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news." 00:35:00.920 |
Luke 5:10, this is the story with Simon Peter and the fish in the net. 00:35:05.920 |
Jesus says, and Simon's scared, "Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not fear. 00:35:11.600 |
In Luke 12:4, he says, "I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body 00:35:15.040 |
after, and after that have no more that they can do." 00:35:19.720 |
The fear is essential before comfort can come. 00:35:23.240 |
Before God's peace is offered to us, there is actually fear in us. 00:35:30.960 |
Fear of God will lead us to a place where he says, "Do not fear," which is going to 00:35:49.000 |
Now what we do, because of the disconnect, because we know things, because we know about 00:35:55.520 |
who God is, so we're able to say, "Sovereign, good, omnipotent, omniscient." 00:36:06.960 |
So we say to each other, "Trust God, trust God, trust God." 00:36:10.720 |
Convince ourselves, "Trust God, trust God," without the experience. 00:36:19.640 |
We come to places where we fear, because we're fearers. 00:36:25.120 |
And we come to these little junctions or these crossroads, and with the fear, we want peace. 00:36:34.200 |
And so we go to God's word, and we try to take, and we try to go like, "Ngh," to our 00:36:43.140 |
Do you know why two of the passages that I have most readily memorized in my brain is 00:36:51.640 |
Because when we think about these passages that we remember in our brain, like, "Trust 00:36:57.200 |
We kind of go, and we say these things over and over and over again in our minds. 00:37:05.720 |
Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication. 00:37:09.440 |
It's because we desire the peace of God to come and envelop us, right? 00:37:15.560 |
We go to God, and we go to his word, because we want the peace. 00:37:23.460 |
We want that thing to be zapped into us, and we pray to our peers, and we say to our peers, 00:37:36.760 |
And there are certain prayer requests that drive me crazy. 00:37:38.480 |
Like, when we say, "Pray that I won't be lazy," it just makes no sense to me. 00:37:43.200 |
Sometimes I go like, "Okay, I'll pray for you," and then in my mind I'm thinking, "Don't 00:37:48.640 |
In a similar way, people say, "Please pray that God's peace will be with me." 00:37:53.800 |
Like, don't worry, I'm not judging you as you're saying that. 00:37:58.960 |
I think like, "But are you walking with the Lord?" 00:38:04.960 |
There's difficulties that come, fears that we face, and we want those things, and we 00:38:08.720 |
want to jam it into us with no experience of God. 00:38:18.640 |
We only want the effects of what God could give us. 00:38:22.620 |
And so what we do is we have all this knowledge of who God is. 00:38:25.760 |
So even the right theology, misapplied, is going to be because we are not effectively 00:38:32.120 |
And so knowledge of who God is and the truths that come out of that will not apply to you 00:38:37.200 |
no matter how much you think about it unless you know him and you're walking with him because 00:39:12.580 |
It's really interesting as parents of younger children. 00:39:20.420 |
So they all have different places of understanding. 00:39:24.380 |
One of the things that's very interesting about this command not to fear is that you 00:39:29.300 |
can't tell someone to not be afraid unless they're afraid. 00:39:43.540 |
There's things that happen very commonplace in young kids' homes. 00:39:47.300 |
And one of those things is you're doing something, you're doing the dishes or cleaning or trying 00:39:51.540 |
to get things done, and then you hear a "pah" in the other room. 00:39:57.500 |
Next thing you do is your ears just perk up and listen for the next thing. 00:40:00.220 |
There's a next sound that comes that's going to tell you what happened. 00:40:04.380 |
So if there's laughter, you're like, "Oh, okay. 00:40:09.940 |
But if there's the shrill cry, and every parent of a young child knows it, the shrill cry 00:40:16.260 |
that comes of a child who is just telling the universe that they've been wronged, and 00:40:21.500 |
you walk into this room, and then there's one child on the ground writhing in pain, 00:40:26.020 |
acting like they got shot, and then there's this other child just sitting there like a 00:40:29.380 |
sociopath just staring with no feeling in his face. 00:40:37.140 |
Okay, first of all, it's like, to my daughter, I'm like, "Stop being dramatic." 00:40:44.340 |
To my oldest daughter, "Stop being dramatic." 00:40:45.980 |
So I got to have the conversation, but my other kid's just staring. 00:41:28.900 |
Because when we see this in our face, in the face of our child, we can see it. 00:41:36.340 |
And so what I've noticed is that when this happens in my house, I can't tell this kid 00:41:52.100 |
So if they say, "Sorry," then we're not satisfied with that. 00:41:56.220 |
And so it's not about getting them just to say the right things. 00:42:05.280 |
Sometimes it can drive a parent crazy when they just stand there. 00:42:10.980 |
No understanding of broken law or trespass or sinfulness. 00:42:22.740 |
Now how could you extend comfort to this child? 00:42:27.300 |
How can you extend grace or mercy to this child? 00:42:30.460 |
As a parent, you come in and all you want is to restore this relationship and that relationship. 00:42:39.280 |
It's not even about the thing being done anymore. 00:42:41.240 |
Like initially, it's just like you want to get to a place where you love them and you 00:42:47.320 |
But you can't say, "It's okay," because of the hardness of their heart. 00:43:04.160 |
But there are other times when I see that they can understand. 00:43:14.000 |
So this kid is crying here and another kid is crying here. 00:43:26.920 |
In that place, can I tell you as a parent, my first response is to want to hug. 00:43:43.280 |
There's things that have to be talked about, but that's my heart. 00:43:48.240 |
I think about this sometimes when I think of this image of a Pharisee who's so bold 00:43:52.680 |
and arrogant and all the puffed up knowledge, who believes in his prayers about a great 00:43:56.880 |
God, a great God of great size and sheer magnitude, about a God that is so holy. 00:44:03.200 |
This Pharisee who's able to explain to great detail what the holy of holies is like, why 00:44:08.480 |
the curtain is there, why gold overlay, why the purple color, why all of these things. 00:44:14.680 |
They're able to explain it and teach it to people. 00:44:17.000 |
They're able to say with their mouths, with great theological understanding, that God 00:44:23.040 |
They're standing there before God saying, "God, thank you for not making me like this 00:44:26.880 |
You look and pivot and you stare at another man that's there that's broken, weeping, crying 00:44:35.320 |
All that's coming out of their mouth is, "Be merciful to me, a sinner." 00:44:46.920 |
Where does the heart of God go, here or there? 00:44:53.800 |
When Jesus says, "Do not be afraid," there is a foundational aspect of fear that ought 00:45:06.520 |
The natural response of fear has already been instilled. 00:45:09.120 |
He cannot say, "Do not fear," to those who are not fearing to begin with. 00:45:13.080 |
He cannot give us comfort, even in the things that we fear in this world, because we're 00:45:23.440 |
Where Jesus says, "Do not fear," it's because the natural response of fear has already been 00:45:28.720 |
That's why passage after passage, the response was, "Fear, fear, fear, afraid, scared, terrified, 00:45:36.640 |
falling, move away from me, get out of our city." 00:45:53.880 |
So when we think about the things we fear in our lives, the fear of God must be the 00:45:58.440 |
That's why the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. 00:46:01.640 |
It's the beginning of our sight, understanding, reality, paradigm. 00:46:10.980 |
It affects everything, because God brings us to our fourth point. 00:46:19.400 |
So in Luke, the common response was fear, and then He says, "Do not be afraid." 00:46:24.680 |
And so in our fourth point then, the fear of God actually brings us comfort. 00:46:33.280 |
When Jesus says, "Do not fear," notice that it's a command. 00:46:45.680 |
But how much of this actually is a command in the way we might two-dimensionally think 00:46:52.180 |
I thought about it as I sat there in the middle of the night with my son one day. 00:46:56.920 |
When he's crying because he's scared of the dark, I thought about it also with my daughter. 00:47:00.880 |
It's crying because she's afraid someone's going to walk through our front door and asking 00:47:06.120 |
I'm sitting there, and as a parent, especially as a male, I think it's a very male thing 00:47:17.320 |
So I'm sitting there with a five-year-old and a three-year-old trying to rationalize. 00:47:24.360 |
It was like the rationalizing I need to do is actually not quite rational, but I have 00:47:32.000 |
You don't have to be afraid of someone breaking into our house. 00:47:39.080 |
He's right back there, so I'm trying to be quiet. 00:47:47.280 |
You can't say that to a kid in the middle of the night. 00:47:53.280 |
I had to try all sorts of things, even ridiculous things, things that I'm like, that sound, 00:48:02.760 |
If you were to look at me through the monitor, you'd just be like, it's so funny, a grown 00:48:06.080 |
man trying to convince them that this doll will somehow protect them. 00:48:11.760 |
You're sitting there trying to rationalize, rationalize. 00:48:23.520 |
You figure out something that works, an hour later, they're calling you again and saying 00:48:32.360 |
It ends in heightened anger as you're like, go to sleep, please. 00:48:41.320 |
But as a parent, what I realized, the only thing that works is when I say, Daddy is here. 00:48:50.880 |
You don't have to be afraid because I'm here. 00:49:02.240 |
They think I'm the biggest, strongest, tallest person in the world. 00:49:07.920 |
I can take out any of you guys in my kids' eyes. 00:49:15.840 |
In my kids' eyes, if I'm going up against you, you're dead. 00:49:27.920 |
With my words, I could cause things to happen. 00:49:35.120 |
So when God is not big in us, it's kind of like, I wonder what kind of sight do we have 00:49:45.320 |
God says, do not be afraid, and we continue to be fearful. 00:49:49.600 |
What kind of relationship do we have with our God? 00:49:57.200 |
With them, it's almost ridiculous, but that peace comes to them. 00:50:06.200 |
Without the fear of the Lord, there can be no comfort. 00:50:08.840 |
Without an understanding of this fearsome sight of a huge God, about what he can do, 00:50:16.500 |
what he is able to do, the magnitude and scope of that is the thing that will bring comfort 00:50:22.800 |
into us, just as it will bring comfort from daddy to child. 00:50:28.800 |
It doesn't matter if their understanding is erroneous. 00:50:32.120 |
They're sitting there, and what matters is what they believe. 00:50:40.240 |
So that sight, that understanding, that belief causes them to be able to go back to sleep. 00:50:46.240 |
It actually eases all other fear, because dad is scary. 00:50:56.040 |
Luke, as a book, is filled with this idea of fear God, and then this comforting command, 00:51:06.060 |
This is where we encounter, just shortly, servile versus filial fear. 00:51:10.160 |
There's two types of fear that we can look at. 00:51:11.880 |
R.C. Sproul talks about servile fear as referring to a posture of servitude toward a malevolent 00:51:18.440 |
It's a fear of anxiety that comes because we are terrified of this person, this person 00:51:29.160 |
This idea of filial fear has more to do when a child has fear of their parents, something 00:51:39.800 |
R.C. Sproul says, "It is a fear of offending the one he loves, not because he's afraid 00:51:44.520 |
of torture or even of punishment, but rather because he's afraid of displeasing the one 00:51:48.680 |
who is, in that child's world, the source of security and love." 00:51:56.840 |
Sometimes we have that idea of displeasing God, and we're afraid of that, but this idea 00:52:01.280 |
of displeasing the one who is our everything. 00:52:08.040 |
They do something wrong, and immediately, do you know what they do when they do something 00:52:20.080 |
Even when they do something right, they go, "Did he see?" 00:52:27.960 |
This is the incredible nature of adoption as children of God. 00:52:31.400 |
Our response and reaction must be set immediately on true sight. 00:52:52.840 |
We don't jump to grace and mercy and love because we are so filled with a view of ourselves. 00:53:05.000 |
We must see God for who he is, the massive God, the creator. 00:53:10.820 |
He can do whatever he wants, but as soon as he adopts me as his child, when we have this 00:53:15.880 |
pervading and bigger and growing magnitude of God and who he is, that our fear of him 00:53:21.640 |
grows, that when that fear grows, he says, "Do not fear." 00:53:28.320 |
We cannot be afraid of anything in this world. 00:53:36.720 |
Now, if you're an unbeliever, fear is appropriate, but it's a servile fear. 00:53:44.840 |
Matthew 10:28 says, "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, 00:53:48.800 |
but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." 00:53:52.400 |
In Hebrews 10:30 it says, "For we know him who said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.' 00:53:58.240 |
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." 00:54:02.380 |
It is appropriate for you to be afraid of God because he is not for you, he is against 00:54:15.040 |
There is only a call for you to turn to him and surrender. 00:54:21.320 |
If you are a believer, it also means fear God, but you are now under not a servile fear, 00:54:32.320 |
He has not in any way changed in who he was before you became a believer. 00:54:36.320 |
He has been the same yesterday, today, forever. 00:54:48.640 |
Our fear of God as it's grown because we walk with him, we know who he is. 00:54:52.960 |
We understand not just in here, but because I am walking with him day by day. 00:55:01.560 |
You cannot think of abiding without experience. 00:55:04.320 |
That there is a true understanding that goes beyond just facts that are running through 00:55:10.880 |
I cannot doubt his existence because it is not just factual like, "Could he potentially 00:55:25.280 |
We look and we see this kind of God and isn't it so close to us? 00:55:30.960 |
Isn't it so quick when we look at something like, "He will do all things together for 00:55:35.080 |
the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purposes." 00:55:42.200 |
It is not just a Christian concept of belief. 00:55:55.600 |
Psalm 56.3 says, "When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you." 00:56:05.760 |
We fear things, but it says, "When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you." 00:56:13.560 |
If our view of God is so low and weak, our trust has to be weak because we don't actually 00:56:27.040 |
First Peter 5.6 says, "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt 00:56:31.080 |
you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 00:56:40.080 |
This is where I just want to give it back to you now. 00:56:57.720 |
The fear of God is the foundation and the hinge and the beginning. 00:57:10.260 |
Everything that we fear is not that God's going to correct it to the way we want it 00:57:16.840 |
Because our lives are not based upon what I see in my own life. 00:57:29.640 |
So even when things aren't going the way I might want it to go, in fact and in reality, 00:57:38.480 |
Because even if none of the things that I want happens in my life, it will not shake 00:57:53.040 |
When everything is going wrong, we understand that we live for God's glory, God's desire, 00:58:03.240 |
And at the end, his desire is for his glory and our good. 00:58:06.800 |
You cannot have the "for my good" without him. 00:58:12.640 |
And we'll be ultimately brought to a place where the things of this world are going to 00:58:17.280 |
I think great counseling happens just naturally every day in the lives of believers as they 00:58:24.520 |
Because there are places and times when we go to a counselor and we ask them to help 00:58:28.120 |
us to understand, but natural counseling always happens because all it's doing is drawing 00:58:37.800 |
Because when you're walking with him, fears just naturally melt away. 00:58:45.680 |
Try to really think about the experiences that you had in your life. 00:58:51.360 |
I'm saying the fear is dissolved, that your trust grows in those places. 00:58:59.160 |
We're not mastered by the fear of a pandemic or of a certain politics that's sweeping over 00:59:05.060 |
We're not afraid of kids getting the best education, the threat of lost jobs, of a career 00:59:11.680 |
that doesn't satisfy, never getting married, not having kids, developing a life-threatening 00:59:25.920 |
But because as we walk with the Lord, the fear of God dissolves all these things. 00:59:30.560 |
We understand that we want him to be everything. 00:59:34.880 |
There must be surrendering and yielding of our will before God in this. 00:59:42.200 |
So my hope is as we go into this new year, that we don't jump to that comfort part. 00:59:46.560 |
We want all of God's comfort so that we might attain to whatever it is that my heart desires 00:59:55.040 |
That we need to appropriately go through these steps. 01:00:03.560 |
So that's the question that I want echoing in all of us. 01:00:12.800 |
Have I been cultivating a fear of many other things? 01:00:20.480 |
And just to highlight, I know many of us know this, but the pronouns. 01:00:28.840 |
In Psalm 23, it says, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 01:00:38.240 |
He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. 01:00:41.000 |
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are 01:00:46.920 |
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. 01:00:52.440 |
Surely, goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will 01:00:59.240 |
There are so many things we know conceptually about our God. 01:01:05.120 |
We know that he will lead me into green pastures. 01:01:07.800 |
We know that he will lead me to quiet waters. 01:01:13.760 |
But in this passage, it's so powerful when David pivots into the you, from the third 01:01:19.320 |
to the second pronoun of God, and he says, "Even though I walk through the valley of 01:01:23.160 |
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for not he is with me, but you are with me." 01:01:28.480 |
And that idea of intimacy and knowledge is powerful because it's not about knowing facts 01:01:37.560 |
It's understanding that there are going to be dark times in our lives, and the fear isn't 01:01:42.080 |
going to evaporate in just knowing that God will just make things happen right. 01:01:49.760 |
When we know that all will be right in the world because I am in his embrace. 01:01:54.400 |
That if you today have gotten so far from that because of your present day fear, that 01:01:59.360 |
your fear of the Lord isn't exuding into the way we make our decisions, into our convictions, 01:02:04.680 |
into the way we even just feel, that we might properly go into the new year with a fear 01:02:11.560 |
of God that takes over and consumes all else. 01:02:24.280 |
Heavenly Father, I pray that you would not just cast away our fears. 01:02:30.760 |
God, some of the things that many of our church members are facing right now is scary. 01:02:47.320 |
We can't just insert facts that we ought to trust you into our brains. 01:02:53.360 |
Lord, I pray that our church will be people who walk with you. 01:03:03.880 |
We are so led by so many other worships, so many other gods. 01:03:10.760 |
We come again to you today and say you are our God alone. 01:03:26.000 |
Fill our lens, our landscape, our worldview that the way we see would be through the fear 01:03:36.000 |
Help us to be near to you, to draw near to you in every way.