back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 12/26/2021
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This Friday, we're going to be having our New Year's service 00:13:13.320 |
And so before that, we'll also be opening up, 00:13:17.320 |
if people want to come and spend some time with each other. 00:13:26.320 |
So please sign up and contact me if you have any questions 00:13:31.320 |
And at First Peter Bible Study, sign-ups are also going on. 00:13:48.320 |
or people who are looking to see what's going on at church 00:13:53.320 |
Next, our members meeting is on January 16th at 2.30 p.m. 00:14:03.320 |
And that's gonna be on January 16th for all our members. 00:14:09.320 |
we are gonna be having a special offering today 00:14:14.320 |
That's how we support some of the local missionaries 00:14:28.320 |
and also electronically, the instructions are on the slides. 00:14:38.320 |
Thank you that you are the giver of all the gifts that we have. 00:14:45.320 |
I pray that you give us an appropriate heart of worship 00:14:47.320 |
as we give to you the things that you have already given to us. 00:14:52.320 |
Lord, help us that we might give with all our hearts, 00:24:16.320 |
And, uh, just kind of, there's nothing left now. 00:24:19.320 |
Now that Christmas is done, we kind of start to look forward to New Year's Eve. 00:24:23.320 |
So again, please join us this Friday as we reflect back on this past year and pray together. 00:24:28.320 |
And also look forward to the coming year, as it will be a good time to do that. 00:24:32.320 |
And, uh, what I wanted to talk about today, after some meditation and contemplation on my end, 00:24:40.320 |
And it's because I actually gave the last Sunday sermon last year too. 00:24:43.320 |
And then I looked back at it and I realized, man, like the landscape, 00:24:48.320 |
I don't know, the landscape hasn't changed all that much. 00:24:51.320 |
And just looking and seeing and thinking about a good topic to think about 00:24:57.320 |
and to kind of think together about as we end this year is on this topic of fear. 00:25:04.320 |
I'm going to read out a list for you of things we might fear, 00:25:07.320 |
because a lot of the work is going to be done in you as you listen. 00:25:10.320 |
Because I'm going to be talking about fear, but these fears need to be applied directly to us. 00:25:15.320 |
And so we all come with very different fears. 00:25:20.320 |
We have fear of people, fear of the unknown, fear of circumstances, fear of loneliness, 00:25:27.320 |
fear of losing reputation, respect, fear of purposelessness, fear of pain, fear of rejection, just to name a few. 00:25:36.320 |
And the reason why I want to think about this is because fear is something that drives all of us, bar none. 00:25:47.320 |
Whether you realize it or not, whether you understand that it's happening or not, 00:25:55.320 |
It's something that's been happening in us all our lives, the last few years, the last few months, even the last few hours. 00:26:06.320 |
Wherever we have dreams, desires, hopes, or aspirations, there you're going to find fear. 00:26:15.320 |
Fear of the unknown, therefore, many times it's because we're afraid of our hopes being dashed, 00:26:21.320 |
of our dreams and aspirations not coming into fruition. 00:26:29.320 |
Fear is central in our conviction, in our resolve. 00:26:33.320 |
And fear, many times, because it's so consuming, is going to cause us to want to be rid of fear. 00:26:41.320 |
But today, because fear has been such a great talking point over the last year, over the last couple years, 00:26:47.320 |
today I want to take us down a very singular path, 00:26:52.320 |
which is that we are not supposed to do away with fear. 00:26:57.320 |
And we were never meant to do away with fear. 00:27:00.320 |
We were never meant to bring peace into our hearts by trying to overcome these fears that we see around us. 00:27:07.320 |
In fact, the only way we're to overcome those things is to appropriately place our fear. 00:27:12.320 |
And so that's what we're going to be talking about today. 00:27:14.320 |
What it is to fear God, because this is not a new and unique idea for us. 00:27:27.320 |
God, as we go into your word, I pray that we would hear, listen, obey, and understand. 00:27:37.320 |
And Lord, maybe today, even to say not just before your word, 00:27:41.320 |
but before your word, God, that this is not a text removed from your very presence, from your very person. 00:27:53.320 |
Help us to respond, not because we're at church listening to a sermon. 00:28:07.320 |
So we're going to kind of go through as fast as we can. 00:28:09.320 |
The first one, the first point, is that fear is completely wrapped up in what we worship. 00:28:14.320 |
So we're going to equate the two things today, fear and worship. 00:28:23.320 |
Whatever it is that we deem to be the most important things in our lives, you will find fear there. 00:28:31.320 |
We fear that the object of our worship will be taken away from us. 00:28:34.320 |
That's a very common experience for all of us. 00:28:37.320 |
And we see people doing crazy things because of the object of worship being threatened. 00:28:44.320 |
People do crazy things in order to protect and to retain the object. 00:28:52.320 |
One example could be a romantic relationship. 00:28:54.320 |
I've seen people who are like somewhat mature in their faith, 00:28:58.320 |
and when it comes to this romantic sphere, all of a sudden it seems like because of some kind of fear there, 00:29:15.320 |
Because fears very much drive us as objects of worship come front and center. 00:29:23.320 |
You see it in desire to uphold personal reputation, in the desire for prestige, comfort, 00:29:31.320 |
Another place that's interesting is when you see yourself angry. 00:29:43.320 |
We also fear that the power, we fear the power that the object of worship has over us. 00:29:48.320 |
It can be an unhealthy fear and the wrath that can be poured out upon us. 00:29:55.320 |
This is one of the main reasons why we fear men. 00:30:02.320 |
Even for people who pride themselves in saying, "I don't care what people think about me," 00:30:06.320 |
you get close enough to their inner circles, to the people that they care about, 00:30:15.320 |
Fear is completely wrapped up in what we worship. 00:30:24.320 |
Where you see your greatest fears, there you will find your greatest places of worship. 00:30:31.320 |
Therefore, that's where you'll find the greatest places of idolatry in your life. 00:30:37.320 |
That's why generally we have this idea floating around in us of fearfulness. 00:30:42.320 |
When we fear things, we know we're not supposed to fear the things of this world, 00:30:46.320 |
what can be done to us, the losses that we might face, all that. 00:30:51.320 |
We know singularly we're supposed to fear God and God alone. 00:30:58.320 |
but we can see the great divide in the way we see things and understand things. 00:31:07.320 |
It's because God might not be the object of our worship. 00:31:14.320 |
When we fear God, we don't fear anything else because we fear him. 00:31:21.320 |
The fear of God is the beginning point of everything we know, 00:31:28.320 |
The fear of God is central point, is the hinge. 00:31:33.320 |
In Proverbs 1, verse 7, it says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." 00:31:42.320 |
It doesn't say it is like a pinnacle or it doesn't say that it's great knowledge. 00:31:48.320 |
If you have a fear of God, it leads to great knowledge or greater knowledge. 00:32:04.320 |
you can't get to it unless you go through that door of fear of God. 00:32:10.320 |
Proverbs 9, 10, it says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, 00:32:14.320 |
and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." 00:32:17.320 |
This means that if our decisions and sight do not begin with the fear of the Lord, 00:32:21.320 |
there is no correct knowledge, there is no correct wisdom. 00:32:26.320 |
These passages aren't saying that the fear of the Lord is just a good thing, 00:32:41.320 |
Unless we see and think and start to have a worldview 00:32:52.320 |
That's why when the winds and waves come in this world, 00:32:55.320 |
when the things of our greatest fears come into fruition, 00:33:05.320 |
It says here that the fear of God is that foundation. 00:33:15.320 |
We know that if we're not worshipping God, we're worshipping something else. 00:33:21.320 |
But that also means if we're not fearing God, we're fearing something else. 00:33:27.320 |
I want to focus in the book of Luke to see this in action today. 00:33:36.320 |
actually because last year I looked through it, 00:33:39.320 |
and there was one phrase I found interesting. 00:33:45.320 |
In that worship, she says that God's mercy is upon those who fear him. 00:33:50.320 |
It's a very common--it's an inductive question you could easily ask. 00:34:03.320 |
Why is it like that God's mercy is upon those who love God, 00:34:10.320 |
Through that fascination, I started a word study through the book of Luke. 00:34:16.320 |
In the book of Luke, what we see is that there is a common response to Jesus, 00:34:33.320 |
Of course, there ought to be some semblance of fear. 00:34:37.320 |
But this is where I'm asking you, please, don't jump the gap. 00:34:42.320 |
When you see this great divide between, "I know I ought to fear the Lord," 00:34:47.320 |
and then how we're actually living, don't jump that too quick. 00:34:53.320 |
If this becomes a theological exercise of looking at Jesus and saying, 00:34:57.320 |
"Yeah, they're following before Jesus," makes sense, 00:35:06.320 |
And what I saw as I was going through the book of Luke is that person after person 00:35:14.320 |
Again, kind of makes sense on my understanding level. 00:35:18.320 |
But when I start to sit there and think, how would I have responded? 00:35:23.320 |
When Jesus is doing crazy things, when he's doing these miracles, 00:35:26.320 |
when this net comes up with wiggling fish and is threatening to break, 00:35:31.320 |
how I think I would have responded, this is just what I think, right? 00:35:35.320 |
I don't know if my first thing would have been fear. 00:35:38.320 |
If I'm trying to place myself there, I think my first thing would have been 00:35:45.320 |
I think a smile would have been brought to my face. 00:35:48.320 |
I would have been like, "Dude, I'm going with this guy. 00:35:54.320 |
I would have left everything to follow this man. 00:35:58.320 |
It would have been this response of joy, of happiness, something like that. 00:36:12.320 |
In the beginning, when Jesus is being talked about, it made more sense. 00:36:15.320 |
So in Luke 1:12, it says, "Zechariah was troubled when he saw the angel, 00:36:21.320 |
Okay, so here's an angel of light, and that makes sense. 00:36:25.320 |
And then in Luke 1:65, it says, "Zechariah opening his mouth, 00:36:31.320 |
and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea." 00:36:34.320 |
Now remember, Gabriel was--you can think of him as like a pointer, right? 00:36:41.320 |
And so, well, the person who points to someone that's coming 00:36:44.320 |
is supposed to be lesser than the one that's coming. 00:36:46.320 |
But there's appropriate fear that is given upon this angel 00:36:55.320 |
and then in Luke 5:8-10, it's a story of Simon Peter. 00:37:03.320 |
tells a seasoned fisherman, along with a couple other seasoned fishermen, 00:37:08.320 |
what to do in the water in order to catch fish. 00:37:12.320 |
And they listen, and this net comes up full of wiggling fish, 00:37:17.320 |
and look at what happens as a response, Luke 5:8. 00:37:19.320 |
"But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet." 00:37:39.320 |
He says, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." 00:37:45.320 |
"For amazement," I love this word, "had seized him and all his companions 00:37:52.320 |
because of the catch of fish which they had taken. 00:37:54.320 |
And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon." 00:37:58.320 |
Because of the fish they had caught, why would fear happen? 00:38:05.320 |
Why not exuberance and joy and happiness and excitement? 00:38:17.320 |
What we're seeing here is the difference between knowing, right? 00:38:22.320 |
Like, maybe he was like, "This is the Messiah." 00:38:25.320 |
Maybe something like that was going on in his mind, right? 00:38:29.320 |
But this is what happens when you experience it, when you're in the presence. 00:38:45.320 |
How would you have responded in that situation? 00:38:49.320 |
Jesus comes and says, "Walk," and he gets up and he walks. 00:38:55.320 |
But look at Luke 5:26, "They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God, 00:39:10.320 |
Luke 7:16, "Jesus heals the centurion's servant. 00:39:12.320 |
Fear gripped them, and they began glorifying God, saying, 'A great prophet has risen among us, 00:39:20.320 |
When Jesus calms the storm," Luke 8:25, "and he said to them, 'Where is your faith?' 00:39:24.320 |
They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, 'Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, 00:39:30.320 |
Jesus and the demoniac, Luke 8:35, "The people went out to see what had happened, 00:39:34.320 |
and they had came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, 00:39:38.320 |
sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they became frightened." 00:39:41.320 |
This is my favorite one, because you would think that someone is afraid of a demon-possessed man. 00:39:47.320 |
If you came across a demon-possessed man, think of the fear. 00:39:50.320 |
These people are afraid because the demon-possessed man became normal. 00:39:56.320 |
They're filled with fear because he's thinking and talking properly. 00:40:11.320 |
In Luke 8:37, to conclude that story, "And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes 00:40:15.320 |
and the surrounding district asked him to leave. 00:40:17.320 |
They were so afraid to ask him to leave, for they were gripped with great fear." 00:40:23.320 |
There's a lot of big language going on there. 00:40:26.320 |
"Gripped with great fear, they got into a boat, and he returned." 00:40:32.320 |
"When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before him 00:40:37.320 |
and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched them 00:40:42.320 |
When Jesus resurrects the little girl," Luke 8:56, "her parents were amazed." 00:40:46.320 |
By the way, this word "amazed" has a type of fear imbued into it. 00:40:50.320 |
"But he instructed them to tell no one what had happened." 00:40:55.320 |
"While he was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them, 00:40:58.320 |
and the three, they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 00:41:02.320 |
And Jesus appears after the resurrection," Luke 24, 37, 00:41:05.320 |
"but they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit." 00:41:09.320 |
Now, regardless of the story here, this was just a cursory read through the book of Luke. 00:41:34.320 |
As much as we were all created to worship, it goes hand in hand with fear. 00:41:38.320 |
Fear is an appropriate response for every human being. 00:41:45.320 |
Now, we just saw encounters with Jesus, but that's what we do as human. 00:41:53.320 |
Today, we've grown much too casual with the Lord. 00:42:13.320 |
And we say our vision is engaging in God-centered worship. 00:42:27.320 |
If we say this casually, flippantly, when there is actually no fear in us of God, 00:42:38.320 |
When we have no fear of the Lord in us, we have to question if we actually currently believe what we're saying. 00:42:46.320 |
We have to wonder about the quality of our worship. 00:42:51.320 |
We have to think, "Do I actually believe these things about God?" 00:42:56.320 |
Because if we're not careful, then we are going to fall simply into Christian ways of living, 00:43:03.320 |
habitually drawing out our action based upon Christian moralism, 00:43:08.320 |
and trying to follow sets of rules that we've established, 00:43:11.320 |
and be able to say the right things with our mouth that we are worshipers of God, 00:43:16.320 |
who engage in God-centered worship, that we have a high view of God, 00:43:19.320 |
and then the way we live does not reflect it. 00:43:38.320 |
Albert Martin says, "One of the accurate measurements of true spiritual growth 00:43:42.320 |
is the measure to which one increases in walking in the fear of God." 00:43:50.320 |
Hebrews 4.16 says, "Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace 00:43:54.320 |
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." 00:44:05.320 |
But I want us to take a look at it to show how quickly we move to just this understanding that we have 00:44:23.320 |
When you look at this passage, what's the word that we highlight almost every time? 00:44:30.320 |
I think--if I'm wrong, sorry--I think it's confidence. 00:44:37.320 |
Approach the throne of grace with confidence. 00:44:44.320 |
Why is he telling you to approach the throne of grace with confidence? 00:44:56.320 |
So the reason why he's telling us to approach the throne of grace with confidence 00:45:00.320 |
is because the reaction ought to be foundationally fearful. 00:45:07.320 |
Now, people use this image of like a child who's in the president's office. 00:45:21.320 |
But not without the appropriateness of the foundation that ought to be set. 00:45:30.320 |
That we can go up to this God without realizing the weight of what it's saying. 00:45:55.320 |
He's saying, "Approach the throne of grace in confidence to find help in your time of need." 00:46:02.320 |
Because what the author of Hebrews is saying is the foundation is fear. 00:46:18.320 |
What amazing capacity we humans have to decrease the Lord. 00:46:26.320 |
What amazing is the human capacity when John the Baptist has to say something like, 00:46:35.320 |
How sad that we're challenged by that statement. 00:46:55.320 |
And last week, Pastor Peter, he showed the magnitude of God by scrolling out. 00:47:03.320 |
That we're a speck even when it comes to like just an aerial perspective of our state of California. 00:47:12.320 |
And you keep going on and you realize, man, the planet to the sun, the sun to the stars. 00:47:18.320 |
And the stars, there's so many of these stars in this galaxy, in the single letter billions of galaxies. 00:47:24.320 |
And you realize that the Bible says that God holds the universe in his hands. 00:47:34.320 |
We should just stop talking because there's no way our words can communicate the grandeur, 00:47:42.320 |
the magnificence, the hugeness, the immensity of our God. 00:47:49.320 |
And for John the Baptist to say he must increase is an absurdity. 00:48:07.320 |
But it happens because we've somehow lost sight of God's actual magnitude. 00:48:37.320 |
And not only does he say he must increase, what else does he say? 00:48:55.320 |
We look at this image of the suns and the stars, and we know right in here, I'm small. 00:49:16.320 |
That's why we need to coach yourself and convince yourself on these very seats 00:49:20.320 |
before we sing these worship songs to this great God to say, remember, remember, 00:49:26.320 |
we have to pull ourselves, remember reverence, remember awe, remember worship. 00:49:35.320 |
Because he somehow decreased, and somehow I have increased. 00:49:42.320 |
The reason why John the Baptist says this is because, do you know why? 00:49:56.320 |
I have no grasp and understanding of present-day reality. 00:50:11.320 |
It's my wishes, my desires, which is all that matters. 00:50:18.320 |
When something doesn't go my way, I will complain. 00:50:22.320 |
When troubles come, I will blame others and even God himself. 00:50:25.320 |
And that's because we fear the things of the world. 00:50:28.320 |
And when the things of the world threaten us, guess what? 00:50:31.320 |
We think we're God, but in reality, we realize we have no power of God. 00:50:37.320 |
And so when things threaten us, what happens? 00:50:47.320 |
Because these things--I'm so afraid to lose these things. 00:50:50.320 |
Because it's going against what I've created to be my kingdom. 00:50:53.320 |
It's going against my desires, my wishes, my aspirations, my hopes, 00:50:57.320 |
whatever it is that my plans are, that those things I've set up, 00:51:10.320 |
We can't sit there and mentally convince ourselves that God is someone to be feared 00:51:19.320 |
Isn't true fear something that needs to be experienced? 00:51:30.320 |
I go up--I don't care how high it is, anything past two stories, 00:51:34.320 |
I start getting really--it makes my legs feel like jello. 00:51:44.320 |
So whenever I go up into heights places, I just pretend that's not there. 00:51:47.320 |
And that's how I overcome my fear of heights. 00:51:51.320 |
The weird thing about people who fear things, you like thinking about it. 00:51:55.320 |
So what I like to do--actually, my wife thinks I'm so odd for doing this, 00:52:01.320 |
So people go up to these high places and look down and look at it and go, "Ahh!" 00:52:08.320 |
Like, "Ahh! Please, get away from that ledge." 00:52:12.320 |
I don't care how many inches of plastic there is there, get off. 00:52:24.320 |
If my wife were to explain to you what I look like at that place, 00:52:26.320 |
I would probably have a smile on my face going like-- 00:52:33.320 |
With just thinking, contemplating, meditating on fear, 00:52:38.320 |
and me actually going to a place where I'm like thousands of feet up-- 00:52:46.320 |
Thousands of feet up in the air, and I'm looking down, 00:52:48.320 |
and that fear that grips me, that reality that I see before me, 00:53:11.320 |
The difference between this and then when you're there, 00:53:27.320 |
I was like, "Oh my gosh, how could you lose your kids?" 00:53:31.320 |
And so I'm sitting there thinking about this, 00:53:34.320 |
and there's differences because as a parent of three young kids, 00:53:44.320 |
But whatever the case, that feeling of fear-- 00:53:47.320 |
You know, you watch these movies where the kid disappears, 00:53:52.320 |
But that moment when we couldn't find our child, 00:53:56.320 |
even though it was a split, like maybe it was 20 or 30 seconds, 00:54:11.320 |
Inside, it was like, "Slow down. Okay, this is what you got to do." 00:54:30.320 |
Our fears are going to reveal something about us. 00:54:33.320 |
It's going to reveal the greatest places of worship in us. 00:54:36.320 |
And it's going to be many times, honestly, experiential. 00:54:44.320 |
have you been cultivating a fear of the Lord? 00:54:49.320 |
There's no way for you to say, like, "I have to fear God more." 00:54:55.320 |
That was what was happening to these people that we saw in Luke. 00:55:05.320 |
and then in His presence, experience happens. 00:55:14.320 |
Do you understand why the experience is so important in this? 00:55:20.320 |
When we think of the things we fear in the world, 00:55:24.320 |
loss of financial security, loss of relationships, 00:55:36.320 |
seeing Him ought to cast off all other fears. 00:55:45.320 |
As our fear of Him grows, a rightly high and view of God, 00:55:49.320 |
as that grows in us, it's going to transform our hearts in this. 00:55:55.320 |
For Simon Peter, it caused him to turn his back on his entire career. 00:56:05.320 |
For Matthew, the tax collector, he left behind his identity, 00:56:11.320 |
everything that he knew, he left everything behind. 00:56:14.320 |
For all of these disciples, it left behind fear of the loss of these things. 00:56:26.320 |
I don't think it was that fears that went away. 00:56:35.320 |
You know, most of the original apostles, they were martyred. 00:56:40.320 |
Do you think that they were without fear the night before they died? 00:56:44.320 |
You know, I think about it, and I think, no, I think they were afraid. 00:56:55.320 |
Well, in a place where we're all called to be fearers, 00:57:02.320 |
The greatest and only logical object of worship 00:57:08.320 |
Their sight got completely saturated with God. 00:57:14.320 |
It changed their entire paradigm for that reason. 00:57:18.320 |
It was a fear so powerful that it obliterated all of their fears. 00:57:29.320 |
It changed their dreams, their aspirations, their hopes, and their desires. 00:57:40.320 |
What fears today have been overcoming your fear of the Lord? 00:57:46.320 |
Are we people who have been cultivating a fear of the Lord 00:57:53.320 |
Now, the third point today is that in the book of Luke, 00:57:59.320 |
I thought this was really funny as I was thinking about this. 00:58:02.320 |
Because our second point was that the response, 00:58:07.320 |
So in the book of Luke, you're like, "Man, I need to fear God." 00:58:10.320 |
But over and over again, in the middle of it, 00:58:12.320 |
the things that's all interspersed is, "Do not fear. Do not fear. Do not fear." 00:58:21.320 |
And then I realized, if I'm not careful with this, 00:58:23.320 |
I will choose what I want, when I want in my life. 00:58:26.320 |
So I know I'm supposed to fear, so I'll try to develop a fear. 00:58:29.320 |
And then when I feel afraid of these things, I'll try not to fear. 00:58:32.320 |
And then there's the disconnect that can happen there. 00:58:34.320 |
But let's look. In the book of Luke, there's a command over and over again. 00:58:38.320 |
Luke 1:13, "But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah, 00:58:42.320 |
for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, 00:58:48.320 |
And then later on, in Luke 1.30, "The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, 00:58:58.320 |
"To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, 00:59:08.320 |
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news." 00:59:11.320 |
And Luke 5.10, this is the story with Simon Peter and the fish in the net. 00:59:19.320 |
Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear. From now on, you will be catching men." 00:59:22.320 |
In Luke 12.4, he says, "I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, 00:59:26.320 |
and after that have no more that they can do." 00:59:30.320 |
The fear is essential before comfort can come. 00:59:33.320 |
Before God's peace is offered to us, there is actually fear in us. 00:59:41.320 |
Fear of God will lead us to a place where he says, "Do not fear," 00:59:47.320 |
which is going to lead us into a place of comfort. 01:00:00.320 |
Now what we do, because of the disconnect, because we know things, 01:00:07.320 |
so we're able to say, "Sovereign, good, omnipotent, omniscient." 01:00:17.320 |
So we say to each other, "Trust God, trust God, trust God." 01:00:20.320 |
Convince ourselves, "Trust God, trust God," without the experience. 01:00:30.320 |
We come to places where we fear, because we're fearers. 01:00:35.320 |
And we come to these little junctions or these crossroads, 01:00:45.320 |
And so we go to God's word, and we try to take. 01:00:54.320 |
Do you know what two of the passages that I have most readily memorized in my brain is? 01:01:01.320 |
Proverbs--okay, so when we think about these passages that we remember in our brain, 01:01:06.320 |
like, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. 01:01:11.320 |
We kind of go, and we say these things over and over and over again in our minds. 01:01:17.320 |
"Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication." 01:01:20.320 |
It's because we desire the peace of God to come and envelop us, right? 01:01:26.320 |
We go to God, and we go to his word because we want the peace. 01:01:37.320 |
And we pray to our peers, and we say to our peers, "Please pray for me. 01:01:47.320 |
And there are certain prayer requests that drive me crazy. 01:01:49.320 |
Like when we say, "Pray that I won't be lazy." 01:01:54.320 |
Sometimes I go like, "Okay, I'll pray for you." 01:01:56.320 |
But in my mind, I'm thinking, "Don't be lazy." 01:02:01.320 |
In a similar way, people say, "Please pray that God's peace will be with me." 01:02:05.320 |
Like, "Don't worry. I'm not judging you as you're saying that. 01:02:10.320 |
I think like, "But are you walking with the Lord?" 01:02:16.320 |
There's difficulties that come, fears that we face. 01:02:19.320 |
And we want those things, and we want to jam it into us with no experience of God. 01:02:29.320 |
We only want the effects of what God could give us. 01:02:33.320 |
And so what we do is, we have all this knowledge of who God is. 01:02:36.320 |
So even the right theology, misapplied, is going to be because we are not effectively walking with Him. 01:02:43.320 |
And so knowledge of who God is and the truths that come out of that 01:02:46.320 |
will not apply to you no matter how much you think about it. 01:02:50.320 |
Unless you know Him, and you're walking with Him because you see Him. 01:03:24.320 |
It's really interesting as parents of younger children. 01:03:28.320 |
My kids are six, two, and four. They're very young. 01:03:31.320 |
So they all have different places of understanding. 01:03:35.320 |
One of the things that's very interesting about this command not to fear 01:03:38.320 |
is that you can't tell someone to not be afraid unless they're afraid. 01:03:54.320 |
There's things that happen very commonplace in young kids' homes. 01:03:58.320 |
And one of those things is, you're doing something. 01:04:01.320 |
You're doing the dishes, or cleaning, or trying to get things done. 01:04:03.320 |
And then you hear a "clap" in the other room. 01:04:08.320 |
Next thing you do is, your ears just perk up and listen for the next thing. 01:04:11.320 |
Because the next sound that comes is going to tell you what happened. 01:04:15.320 |
So if there's laughter, you're like, "Oh, okay. Someone did something funny." 01:04:26.320 |
the shrill cry that comes of a child who is just telling the universe that they've been wronged. 01:04:34.320 |
and then there's one child on the ground writhing in pain, acting like they got shot. 01:04:38.320 |
And then there's this other child just sitting there like a sociopath, 01:04:49.320 |
First of all, it's like, to my daughter, I'm like, "Stop being dramatic." 01:04:55.320 |
To my oldest daughter, "Stop being dramatic." 01:04:57.320 |
So I've got to have the conversation, but my other kid's just staring. 01:05:03.320 |
I'm like, "What is going on? Say something. Say sorry. Go to them. 01:05:32.320 |
And my parents, you guys know what I'm talking about. 01:05:39.320 |
Because when we see this in the face of our child, we can see it. 01:05:47.320 |
And so what I've noticed is that when this happens in my house, 01:05:51.320 |
I can't tell this kid to say, "Sorry," right? 01:05:54.320 |
And every parent knows this. This is a talking point. 01:06:03.320 |
So if they say, "Sorry," then we're not satisfied with that. 01:06:07.320 |
And so it's not about getting them just to say the right things. 01:06:15.320 |
Sometimes it can drive a parent crazy when they just stand there. 01:06:21.320 |
No understanding of broken law or trespass or sinfulness. 01:06:33.320 |
Now, how could you extend comfort to this child? 01:06:37.320 |
How can you extend grace or mercy to this child? 01:06:41.320 |
As a parent, you come in, and all you want is to restore this relationship and that relationship. 01:06:49.320 |
It's not even about the thing being done anymore. 01:06:51.320 |
Like, initially, it's just like you want to get to a place where you love them, 01:06:55.320 |
and you can hug them, and you can say, "It's okay." 01:06:58.320 |
But you can't say, "It's okay," because of the hardness of their heart. 01:07:14.320 |
But there are other times when I see that they can understand. 01:07:26.320 |
So this kid is crying here, and another kid is crying here. 01:07:40.320 |
In that place, can I tell you as a parent, my first response is to want to hug. 01:07:53.320 |
Now, there's things that have to be talked about, but that's my heart. 01:07:59.320 |
I think about this sometimes when I think of this image of a Pharisee 01:08:02.320 |
who's so bold and arrogant and all the puffed-up knowledge, 01:08:05.320 |
who believes in his prayers about a great God, 01:08:08.320 |
a great God of great size and sheer magnitude, 01:08:13.320 |
this Pharisee who's able to explain to great detail what the Holy of Holies is like, 01:08:19.320 |
why the curtain is there, why gold overlay, why the purple color, 01:08:24.320 |
why all of these things, that they're able to explain it and teach it to people. 01:08:28.320 |
They're able to say with their mouths, with great theological understanding, 01:08:33.320 |
They're standing there before God saying, "God, thank you for not making me like this man right here." 01:08:37.320 |
You look and pivot, and you stare at another man that's there that's broken, 01:08:46.320 |
All that's coming out of their mouth is, "Be merciful to me, a sinner." 01:09:17.320 |
The natural response of fear has already been instilled. 01:09:20.320 |
He cannot say, "Do not fear," to those who are not fearing to begin with. 01:09:24.320 |
He cannot give us comfort, even in the things that we fear in this world, 01:09:38.320 |
So going back to these passages where Jesus says, "Do not fear," 01:09:42.320 |
because the natural response of fear has already been instilled. 01:09:45.320 |
That's why passage after passage, the response was, "Fear, fear, fear, 01:09:50.320 |
afraid, scared, terrified, falling, move away from me, get out of our city." 01:10:10.320 |
So when we think about the things we fear in our lives, 01:10:12.320 |
the fear of God must be the foundation of everything. 01:10:14.320 |
That's why the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, 01:10:18.320 |
is the beginning of our sight, understanding, reality, paradigm. 01:10:41.320 |
And so in our fourth point then, the fear of God actually brings us comfort. 01:10:49.320 |
When Jesus says, "Do not fear," notice that it's a command. 01:11:02.320 |
But how much of this actually is a command in the way we might two-dimensionally think about it? 01:11:07.320 |
I thought about it as I sat there in the middle of the night with my son one day. 01:11:12.320 |
When he's crying because he's scared of the dark, I thought about it also with my daughter. 01:11:17.320 |
It's crying because she's afraid someone's going to walk through her front door and asking if the doors are locked. 01:11:24.320 |
And as a parent, especially as a male, I think it's a very male thing to try to solve, rationalize. 01:11:33.320 |
So I'm sitting there with a five-year-old and a three-year-old trying to rationalize. 01:11:41.320 |
It was like the rationalizing I need to do is actually not quite rational. 01:11:47.320 |
Like, "You don't have to be afraid of someone breaking into our house." 01:11:56.320 |
He's right back there, so I'm trying to be quiet. 01:11:59.320 |
I was like, "Someone could break in. That's the reality." 01:12:03.320 |
"But what do you say? You can't say that to a kid in the middle of the night." 01:12:11.320 |
I had to try all sorts of things, even ridiculous things. 01:12:19.320 |
If you were to look at me through the monitor, you'd just be like, "It's so funny. 01:12:22.320 |
A grown man trying to convince them that this doll will somehow protect them." 01:12:28.320 |
You're sitting there trying to rationalize, rationalize. 01:12:41.320 |
an hour later they're calling you again and saying the same thing. 01:12:44.320 |
Like, "We had this talk. What's the matter with you?" 01:12:57.320 |
But as a parent, what I realized, the only thing that works is when I say, 01:13:01.320 |
"Daddy is here." It's very fascinating to me. 01:13:05.320 |
I say, "Daddy's here. You don't have to be afraid because I'm here." 01:13:18.320 |
They think I'm the biggest, strongest, tallest person in the world. 01:13:24.320 |
I can take out any of you guys in my kids' eyes. 01:13:32.320 |
In my kids' eyes, if I'm going up against you, you're dead. 01:13:44.320 |
With my words, I could cause things to happen. 01:13:51.320 |
When God is not big in us, I wonder what kind of sight do we have of Him? 01:14:01.320 |
When God says, "Do not be afraid," and we continue to be fearful, 01:14:05.320 |
what kind of relationship do we have with our God? 01:14:22.320 |
Without the fear of the Lord, there can be no comfort. 01:14:25.320 |
Without an understanding of this fearsome sight of a huge God, 01:14:34.320 |
the magnitude and scope of that is the thing that will bring comfort into us, 01:14:40.320 |
just as it will bring comfort from daddy to child. 01:14:45.320 |
It doesn't matter if their understanding is erroneous. 01:14:49.320 |
They're sitting there, and what matters is what they believe. 01:14:52.320 |
"Dad will protect me. Dad will always be there." 01:14:56.320 |
So that sight, that understanding, that belief, 01:15:02.320 |
It actually eases all of their fear, because Dad is scary. 01:15:13.320 |
Luke, as a book, is filled with this idea of fear God, 01:15:17.320 |
and then this comforting command, "Do not fear." 01:15:22.320 |
This is where we encounter, just shortly, a servile versus filial fear. 01:15:26.320 |
There's two types of fear that we can look at. 01:15:28.320 |
R.C. Sproul talks about servile fear as referring to a posture of servitude 01:15:34.320 |
It's a fear of anxiety that comes because we are terrified of this person, 01:15:40.320 |
this person of power who can do us great harm. 01:15:45.320 |
This idea of filial fear has more to do when a child has fear of their parents, 01:15:55.320 |
R.C. Sproul says, "It is a fear of offending the one he loves, 01:15:59.320 |
not because he's afraid of torture or even of punishment, 01:16:02.320 |
but rather because he's afraid of displeasing the one who is, 01:16:05.320 |
in that child's world, the source of security and love." 01:16:12.320 |
Sometimes we have that idea of displeasing God, and we're afraid of that, 01:16:16.320 |
but this idea of displeasing the one who is our everything. 01:16:26.320 |
do you know what they do when they do something wrong? 01:16:36.320 |
Even when they do something right, they go, "Whew!" 01:16:44.320 |
This is the incredible nature of adoption as children of God. 01:16:47.320 |
Our response and reaction must be set immediately on true sight. 01:17:11.320 |
because we are so filled with a view of ourselves. 01:17:21.320 |
We must see God for who he is, the massive God, the creator. 01:17:32.320 |
when we have this pervading and bigger and growing magnitude of God and who he is, 01:17:39.320 |
that when that fear grows, he says, "Do not fear." 01:17:44.320 |
We cannot be afraid of anything in this world. 01:17:54.320 |
Now, if you're an unbeliever, fear is appropriate, 01:18:01.320 |
Matthew 10.28 says, "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, 01:18:05.320 |
but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." 01:18:08.320 |
In Hebrews 10.30 it says, "For we know him who said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.' 01:18:14.320 |
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 01:18:18.320 |
It is appropriate for you to be afraid of God 01:18:21.320 |
because he is not for you, he is against you. 01:18:30.320 |
There is only a call for you to turn to him and surrender. 01:18:37.320 |
If you are a believer, it also means fear God, 01:18:39.320 |
but you are now under not a servile fear, but a filial fear. 01:18:47.320 |
He has not in any way changed in who he was before you became a believer. 01:18:52.320 |
He has been the same yesterday, today, forever. 01:19:04.320 |
Our fear of God as it's grown because we walk with him, we know who he is. 01:19:08.320 |
We understand not just in here, but because I'm walking with him day by day. 01:19:17.320 |
You cannot think of abiding without experience. 01:19:20.320 |
That there is a true understanding that goes beyond just facts that are running through your head. 01:19:29.320 |
It's not just factual like, "Could he potentially be all this?" 01:19:48.320 |
When we look at something like, "He will do all things together for the good of those who love him, 01:19:54.320 |
I believe that. I know that that's who he is. 01:19:58.320 |
It is not just a Christian concept of belief. 01:20:08.320 |
Our God is for us. Who then can be against us? 01:20:12.320 |
Psalm 56.3 says, "When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you." 01:20:19.320 |
Fear is a given. We are fearers. We fear things. 01:20:23.320 |
But it says, "When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you." 01:20:29.320 |
If our view of God is so low and weak, our trust has to be weak. 01:20:42.320 |
1 Peter 5.6 says, "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, 01:20:45.320 |
that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." 01:20:56.320 |
And this is where I just want to give it back to you now. 01:21:13.320 |
The fear of God is the foundation and the hinge and the beginning. 01:21:25.320 |
Everything that we fear is not that God is going to correct it to the way we want it to be. 01:21:31.320 |
Because our lives are not based upon what I see in my own life. 01:21:46.320 |
So even when things aren't going the way I might want it to go, 01:21:49.320 |
in fact and in reality, a great trust happens there. 01:21:53.320 |
Because even if none of the things that I want happens in my life, 01:22:10.320 |
we understand that we live for God's glory, God's desire, 01:22:18.320 |
And at the end, his desire is for his glory and our good. 01:22:23.320 |
You cannot have the "for my good" without him. 01:22:30.320 |
where the things of this world are going to just start dissolving away. 01:22:33.320 |
I think great counseling happens just naturally every day in the lives of believers 01:22:40.320 |
Because there are places and times when we go to a counselor 01:22:47.320 |
because all it's doing is drawing you to God, to his words, 01:22:53.320 |
Because when you're walking with him, fears just naturally melt away. 01:23:01.320 |
Try to really think about the experiences that you had in your life. 01:23:07.320 |
I'm saying the fear is dissolved, that your trust grows in those places. 01:23:17.320 |
or of a certain politics that's sweeping over the state. 01:23:20.320 |
We're not afraid of kids getting the best education, 01:23:31.320 |
developing a life-threatening disease, loss of reputation. 01:23:37.320 |
Why? Because we're not supposed to? No, no, they're scary. 01:23:41.320 |
But because as we walk with the Lord, the fear of God dissolves all these things. 01:23:46.320 |
We understand that we want Him to be everything. 01:23:50.320 |
There must be surrendering and yielding of our will before God in this. 01:24:04.320 |
so that we might attain to whatever it is that my heart desires so much. 01:24:10.320 |
That we need to appropriately go through these steps. 01:24:19.320 |
So that's the question that I want echoing in all of us. 01:24:28.320 |
Have I been cultivating a fear of many other things? 01:24:35.320 |
And just to highlight, I know many of us know this, 01:24:53.320 |
He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. 01:24:56.320 |
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 01:25:02.320 |
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. 01:25:08.320 |
Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life 01:25:11.320 |
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." 01:25:15.320 |
There are so many things we know conceptually about our God. 01:25:20.320 |
We know that He will lead me into green pastures. 01:25:23.320 |
We know that He will lead me to quiet waters. 01:25:29.320 |
But in this passage, it's so powerful when David pivots into the you, 01:25:36.320 |
and he says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 01:25:39.320 |
I will fear no evil for not He is with me, but you are with me." 01:25:44.320 |
And that idea of intimacy and knowledge is powerful 01:25:48.320 |
because it's not about knowing facts about God. 01:25:53.320 |
It's understanding that there are going to be dark times in our lives, 01:25:56.320 |
and the fear isn't going to evaporate in just knowing that God will just make things happen right. 01:26:02.320 |
It's when we feel close to Him, when we know He's real, 01:26:05.320 |
when we know that all will be right in the world because I am in His embrace, 01:26:10.320 |
that if you today have gotten so far from that because of your present-day fear, 01:26:15.320 |
that your fear of the Lord isn't exuding into the way we make our decisions, 01:26:19.320 |
into our convictions, into the way we even just feel, 01:26:23.320 |
that we might properly go into the new year with a fear of God that takes over and consumes all else. 01:26:39.320 |
Heavenly Father, I pray that you will not just cast away our fears. 01:26:46.320 |
God, some of the things that many of our church members are facing right now are scary. 01:27:02.320 |
We can't just insert facts that we ought to trust you into our brains. 01:27:09.320 |
Lord, I pray that our church will be people who walk with you. 01:27:20.320 |
We're so led by so many other worships, so many other gods. 01:27:26.320 |
Will we come again to you today and say, "You are our God alone. 01:27:33.320 |
There is no one like you. There is no one but you. 01:27:41.320 |
Fill our lens, our landscape, our worldview, that the way we see would be through the fear of God. 01:27:51.320 |
Help us to be near to you, to draw near to you in every way. 01:27:58.320 |
Let's all rise as we sing our closing praise. 01:28:21.320 |
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art. 01:29:40.320 |
Riches I need not, riches I need not, nor man's empty praise. 01:30:38.320 |
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun. 01:31:27.320 |
Heavenly Father, help us, God, to not just desire to have our fears cast away, but again, 01:31:39.320 |
Lord, to walk with you, to see you rightly and clearly, and to fear you with all our hearts. 01:31:45.320 |
Help us, Lord, not to let these things be, again, concepts or passing convictions, that 01:31:52.320 |
you will not allow a single believer to walk out these doors without being transformed 01:32:00.320 |
And as small as we are, as small a speck as we are, help us to even understand the greatness 01:32:06.320 |
of your love for us, that you might do such a great and powerful work inside of people 01:32:16.320 |
Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father, and the fellowship 01:32:20.320 |
of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and forevermore. 01:33:37.320 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives. 01:33:47.320 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives.