Repeated Words: Do Not Fear
Repeated Words • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
What do I believe God wants them to know? Do not fear
Why? Fear enslaves, freedom frees and gives hope and joy and peace
What do I believe God wants them to do? Praise, Pray, Think
Why? It frees us and gives us hope
ME/WE
Anybody in this church ever been afraid of something?
Anybody afraid of SPIDER or SNAKES or RATS?
Anybody been afraid of the DARK?
Elvators? I hated elevators…saw too many TV shows with people getting stuck in them
Change gears a little bit
ANYBODY EVERY FEAR OF NOT HAVING A ENOUGH MONEY OR LOSING A JOB? FINANCIAL CRISIS
FEAR OF REJECTION, NOT BEING LIKED....FEAR OF LONELINESS
FEAR OF FAILURE: TRY SOMETHING BUT DON’T SUCCEED AND FALL ON MY FACE
FEAR OF SICKNESS OR DEATH FOR YOU OR ANOTHER PERSON
WHAT IFS of life
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THIS FEAR…that doesn’t come from God???THIS UNHEALTHY FEAR...
Fear of the Lord which is said over 300 times in scripture..we will talk about that next week…we are going to define what that means
There are TWO main types of healthy…FEAR of being in danger…you are hiking and you run into A BEAR or POSIONS SNAKE…it is not good to say well I don’t fear…FEAR PUTS YOU ON ALERT...
But what do you do with this unhealthy FEAR…why do I call it unhealthy?
I like to define it UNHEALTHY BECAUSE IT HELPS UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS AND DOES.
Unhealthy fear that affects our mind, body, and emotions/heart in negative ways…it is this type of
It affects your mind: you cannot think straight…you are present with someone but not really present
Your heart races
Stress and worry consumes you
You have problem sleeping…that thing keeps circling in your mind
UNHEALTHY FEAR IS NO JOKE…it can ruin our whole day…whole week…month
How do we get rid of FEAR and WORRY???
Especially in light of the FACT the one of the most REPEATED COMMANDS IN SCRIPTURE IS “DO NOT FEAR”....over a 100 times in scripture it says “do not fear”
WHY WOUDL GOD SAY THAT SO MUCH? BECAUSE I believe God KNOWS FEAR IS ONE OF THE THINGS WE WILL DEAL WITH ON A REGULAR BASIS.... repeats it because it something we will deal with on a regular basis….FEAR IS ONE OF THE GREATEST TACTICS of the enemy
The question we need to ask is WHY do WE FEAR??? What is the root before we get to the solution??
What happens to us? What is the root?
The reason I worry and you worry and fear is because we have FORGOT who we are and who God is....our vision has been lost T...what do I mean?....BEFORE WE FEARED OUR GOD WAS A GIANT TO US…could raise the dead, split the seas, deliver us out of any problem....BUT then something happens that cause fear to RISE…our PROBLEMS GET BIGGER AND BIGGER AND BIGGER
Anybody been there?
OUR PROBLEMS BECOME SO MAGNIFICENT SO HUGE AND OUR GOD BECOMES SO SMALL....SO WHEN WE HEAR “DO NOT FEAR” IT IS HARD FOR US TO BELIEVE IT IS POSSIBLE NOT TO FEAR…BECAUSE WE BELIEVE OUR GOD IS TINY AND OUR GIANT OF A PROBLEM IS HUGE
I love what TIM KELLER says, “Worry is believing God will not get it right and bitterness is believing God did not get it right.”
NOT ONLY DO WE FEAR BECAUSE we have lost sight of the vision of God, we have lost sight of who we are.
Who are we?
Saints
Royal priesthood
As a being a SAINT has the LORD not given you? A SPIRIT OF FEAR
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
THAT SPIRIT OF FEAR IS FROM THE ENEMY…it is not from the Lord
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
You are God’s child whom the Father in heaven takes care of.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
THE REASON WE FEAR, THE REASON I FEAR, IS WHEN WE LOSE SIGHT OF THE BIGNESS OF GOD AND WHO WE ARE.
HOW DO WE THEN REGAIN OUR VISION?
Paul lays out for three ways we can regain our vision, regain our vision of the BIGNESS OF GOD AND THE SMALLNESS OF OUR PROBLEMS…Paul writes to us how to do that when in a place that he could really fear....where does Paul write to us from…the book of Philippians…prision
Why is Paul in prison…for stealing, cheating, hurting someone?
No, for preaching the Gospel, for being a believer
SO PAUL then writes to these other believers who too could be put in prison for being a Christian how not to fear.
What does he say? How do we get victory over fear
PRAISE CHANGES OUR VISION
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
Double command…Paul gives a double command…rejoice… you alll
I really want you to get this…you need to PRAISE....it is essential to your well being
Maybe you are like how C.S. LEWIS used to be....he didn’t understand PRAISING GOD and WHY it was so imporotant ???Why’s the big deal?
Then he started praising God!
he realized his vision of God started changing, his vision of who he was started changing and who he is
God was getting bigger and bigger and he was getting strong adn stronger.
Completes our joy
ANYBODY BEEN HERE?
Then sure enough PRAISE WORSHIP was PUSHING OUT WORRY.
Anybody been here?
Rejoicing changes our vision....we maybe come in here weighed down…bothered by fear and then we sing
No Longer a Slave to Fear
I’m no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
I’m no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
“The Goodness of God”
And all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God
[Verse 2]
I love Your voice
You have led me through the fire
And in darkest night You are close like no other
I've known You as a Father
I've known You as a Friend
And I have lived in the goodness of God, yeah
Where there is JOY there is no fear!
This what David does in the Psalms....so many Psalms David has enemies trying to defeat him and take him out and what does David do…PRAISE
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
WHAT THE REJOICING IS CHANGING OUR VISION OR WHO IS GOD AND WHO WE ARE
We see this with the disciples in Acts 4
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
PRAISE/WORSHIP drives away worry and fear
ANYBODY EVER DONE THIS OR HAVE THIS HAPPEN TO THEM AT HOME…YOU ARE FEARFUL AND THEN YOU COME TO CHURCH REJOICING OR REJOICING…AND IN A MATTER OF A 5-15 MINUTES YOU WENT FROM
FEAR IS BIG AND GOD IS SMALL
TO GOD IS BIG, I AM BIG BECAUSE THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS IN ME, AND
2. PRAY
This seems so simple but sometimes when we are fearful we forget to pray.
Anybody do this??
God or someone says have you prayed about?
PRAY ABOUT YOUR Worries/FEAR
OF COURSE…but we so no I haven’t
Sometime we don’t pray because are too proud and think we can figure it out ourselves....I need to plan it out
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Instead of planning it says pray....
Your is plural
Pray together
There is something powerful when brothers and sisters in Christ come together to pray
casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
What happens
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
There is this supernatural Peace that comes
Anybody have this happen to them?
I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
3. PREACH the TRUTH to ourselves and to others (you all think)
Sometimes why we fear is because we have stinking thinking...
We are fearful because we have incorrect thinking our problems are bigger than our fears
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
ANYBODY EVERY BELIEVE A LIE, even though it was a lie your life was totally
or we don’t doubt our fear of doubts...
What happens sometimes we think our doubts are real…they don’t like me, I am going to be fired or that WHAT IF is not a WHAT IF but 100% true
What happens we think that is 100% true, but what happens 80% of the time
it is not true
We worried something that was not true
They didn’t fire you
break up with
you didn’t have a health issue
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
How do we transform our minds....reading the Word privately, reading the word together, sitting under the word of God.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
How do we RENEW OUR MINDS?
We do this be being people of the Word, sitting under the Word, sharing the WORD with each other
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
ENCOURAING YOU: PUTTING COURAGE IN YOU
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.