February 19, 2015
In Jeremiah chapter 38, I want to focus on the story picking up in verse number 17 with Jeremiah speaking on the King Zedekiah. What I want to preach about tonight is the subject of fear. Now fear is a subject that the bible talks about over and over again. In fact just the word fear, afraid, fright or variations thereof that word appears 727 times in the bible. Over and over again when you're reading the bible you're reading about fear. The bible is very consistent in its teachings on fear that God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
In fact out of all these hundreds and hundreds of times that fear is mentioned, whenever it's fearing God, it's always a good thing. It's always positive when we're fearing the Lord. When we fear anything else or anyone else it's wrong and God is constantly telling us, "Be not afraid. Do not fear." In this story, we see how a man is afraid to do what's right and ends up not only destroying his own life but destroying the lives of everyone around him because of his fear to obey the voice of the Lord.
Now beginning in verse 17, let's look at what Jeremiah told Zedekiah. It says, "Then said Jeremiah to Zedekiah, thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, if thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house. But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand."
The message is crystal clear. There's no question as to what God wants Zedekiah to do. He says, "Look, you need to surrender to the king of Babylon. You're done. You've lost, just surrender and if you surrender everything is going to be fine. The city won’t be destroyed. You're going to be okay. Your wife is going to be okay. Your kids are going to be okay," but look at answer in verse number 19, "And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid." He knew what's right but he's afraid to do what right. He says, I'm afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand and they mock me."
What's he afraid of? He is afraid of the fact that when he surrenders unto the Babylonians the Jews that have already gone over to Chaldeans are going to make fun of him, maybe torture him or do bad things to him. He's just afraid of the fate that will be fallen. Jeremiah reassures him and tells him in verse 20, "Jeremiah said, 'They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee, so it shall be well unto thee and thy soul shall live. But if thou refuse to go forth …'" then he explains all the bad things that are going happen.
Flip over to chapter 39, let's see what happens. He's afraid to do what's right. Look at what happens starting in verse 6 of chapter 39, "Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes, also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with chains to carry him to Babylon. And the Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people with fire and brake down the walls of Jerusalem." All the things that God said would not happen if Zedekiah would have obeyed, none of those bad things would happen.
Now just imagine how horrible it would be for you to be taken captive of a foreign nation and they kill all your children in front of you while you watch. Then they punch out your eyes so that’s the last thing that you ever see before they poke out your eyes and put you in chains and take you off to live and die in a foreign country. Now think about another guy in the bible who had his eyes poked out. Who was it?
Congregation: Samson.
Pastor: Samson. What did they do with Samson after they poked his eyes out? They mocked him. They made fun of him. They made him work like an animal. They treated him poorly. Look what Zedekiah was afraid of, was being mistreated and mishandled if he obeyed God? He said, "Look, if I obey God, I'm afraid what the Jews are going to do to me on the other side." What happens? He disobeyed his God because of fear and what comes upon him? The exact thing that he is afraid of is actually what ends up happening to him and maybe even worse that he could have imagined, his children being killed, his eyes are poked out, et cetera, et cetera. Go to Proverbs chapter number 3.
Proverbs chapter number 3 and this is a very famous scripture beginning verse number 5. I'll start reading it while you turn there, "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil." Sometimes we, like Zedekiah, think that we have it all figured it out. If I obey God then these bad things are going to happen to me. If I disobey God then everything is going to be okay. [Inaudible 00:05:17] God says, "Don’t lean on your own understanding. You'll fear what men is going to do unto you. Just obey what I'm telling you to do."
Fear the Lord, keep His commandments and He says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding." Zedekiah thought that he had it all figured out, what the best course of action is going to be instead of obeying God. He was afraid to do what God told him to do. Instead of fearing the Lord like this passage tells us he is fearing men. He is fearing the consequences of what men can do to him.
Let's keep reading. It says, "Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." It's interesting just because it's right in this passage where he's talking about trusting in the Lord, not leaning on your own understanding. He brings up the firstfruits, which is another area of obedience to the Lord. We think of tithing which is the first bring and the firstfruits of our increase the 10 percent.
If you think about it, why would a person disobey the command to tithe? Go to Malachi chapter 3 if you would. Why would we disobey the command to tithe? Because you know what, I'm afraid that if I tithe I'm not going to have enough money to pay the bills. Isn't that what people would think? I'm just afraid. It's not that I don’t want to give unto the church. It's not that I don’t believe in what the church's program is, but I'm just afraid that if I give that first 10 percent, because it's the firstfruits, if I give that I'm just afraid that I'm not going to have what I need.
Look what the bible says in Malachi chapter 3, verse 8. It says, "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing and there shall not be room enough to receive it." What we see here is that God is saying if you don’t pay the tithe, He says, "You're cursed with a curse."
Think about it. Why are people not tithing? Because they're afraid of financial catastrophe as a result of tithing. What God is saying is when you don’t tithe the financial catastrophe comes. That’s when you're cursed with a curse. That’s when the devourer will eat up the fruit of your ground and that when you step out in faith and obey the voice of the Lord he says, "I'll pour out a blessing. I'm going to bless. It's going to turn out great." Zedekiah is thinking, "I don’t see how it's going to turn out great. There's all these Jews over there that have already gone over to Chaldeans. They all hate my guts. They're going to make fun of me. I'm just going to be turned over to them and they're going to do whatever they want with me."
Jeremiah is saying, "No, actually none of those bad things are going to happen." Actually if you obey the Lord everything is going to be great. It's going to turn up fine. He didn’t listen because he's leaning on his own understanding. We as Christians need to be careful that we don’t let fear hinder us from doing the will of God. Now I've got a whole bunch of points in my sermon tonight of different areas where that Christians do not obey the Lord in because of fear. There are so many different examples I could give, but just this exact example that we see with Zedekiah applies. Flip over to Proverbs 29. What was Zedekiah afraid of? He said, "I'm afraid the Jews are going to mock me." Think about it.
Today a lot of people are afraid to do a lot of things because they are afraid of being made fun of. They are afraid of standing up and being a Christian openly or maybe taking an unpopular viewpoint of standing up for biblical Christianity and just the traditional teachings of the bible, because our society is getting so weird and sinful. They want to fit in at school or fit in at work and be cool and be accepted of the world. They are afraid to stand up for what's right, because they don’t want to be mocked and Zedekiah said, "I don’t want them to make fun of me."
They made fun of Jesus. If you follow Jesus Christ, the bible says, "The disciple is not above his master." The servant is not above his Lord. If they call the master of the house be as above, how much more shall they call them of his household? He said if they hated me, if the world hates you, you know they hated me before they hated you. Bible tells us to expect people to persecute us and mock us and attack us. The bible says in Proverbs 29: 25, "The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." Again, just like the other scripture that we looked at, what's the opposite fearing man? Trusting in the Lord. You trust with the Lord is telling you to do or you fear man and what he can do to you.
Now flip over to Acts chapter 20, because a big problem today is that pastors are afraid to rebuke sin or they are afraid to preach on certain subjects because they are afraid of being persecuted. We read the scripture of Jeremiah in chapter 38. He is being thrown in prison. He is being attacked. He is in trouble with the law. A lot of pastors today frankly are afraid to preach the truth because they just don’t want to deal with the persecution. The bible says, "Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
A lot of pastors today are willing to trim the message because they don’t want to lose church members. They're afraid that people are going to leave the church and then they're afraid that they're not going to be able to pay the bills or they're just afraid of the persecution. They don’t want to be under attacked and they don’t want to have people retaliating against them in various ways. Thank God or Pastor Jimenez and you know what, that’s why this church is so important, because this church is not just another Independent Baptist Church in Sacramento. It isn't. There are other Independent Baptist Church, but how many of them are really willing to get up here and call a spade to spade and not leave anything out but to preach the whole council of God.
Look at what Paul said in Acts chapter 20, verse 19, "Serving the Lord with all humility of mine and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews." Watch this, "And how I kept back nothing." This is his style of preaching. Keep back … Who was it that told me before the service, "Don’t hold anything back"? Who was it? Was that you? She said, "Hey don’t hold anything back tonight." She must have read my outline. You know what? I'm not going to hold anything back, because you know what? If going to be like the Apostle Paul, he said, "I kept back nothing." There's nothing that I said.
Oh, I don’t know if they can handle that or I better not say that, that’s going to give me an [inaudible 00:12:11]. Look, if it's in the word of God it needs to be preached. Who are we to decide? I think this is appropriate in 2015 America whereas this chapter, this scripture is a little rough. It's a little edgy for our society. No, God said preach the word in season, out of season, if it's popular or not popular. Look down at the bible. He said, "I kept back nothing that was profitable to you," and the bible says, "All scripture is profitable." What he's saying is he preached all scripture. Anything in the bible he preached it. No subject was off limits. He said, "But have showed you and have taught you publicly."
Did he get up on Sunday morning and preach a water down positive only sermon and then take aside the inner circle and say, "Let me tell you guys what the bible really says"? No, he said, "I taught everything publicly. I got up and what was told me in the ear I preach it from the house tops …" as Jesus said, "… and I didn’t keep back anything from public preaching for everybody to hear." He said, "I taught it from house to house." He was going solo and he's preaching the word of God.
He said in verse 21, "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."
He said, "I know about the lying and wait of the Jews," he said in verse 19. He said, "I know that afflictions and bonds abide me. I know that I'm going to be persecuted." Because the bible says, "Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." He said, "None of that moves me. It doesn’t affect my preaching. It doesn’t stop me from doing the work that God wants me to do." He even said, "I'll tell it to the Jews and the Greeks. Even if the Jews are mad about it and hate me, I'll preach it to both." I'll preach it to everybody. I'll preach the gospel to every creature and I will keep back nothing from the church."
Then right after this, he's going to admonish those pastors there from Ephesus and those places. He said, "Feed the flock of God, which is among you. Teach the whole council of God. Speak all of it." Now let me tell you something. Lately, just to give a personal testimony from my life, I'm telling you the last few months I have been more persecuted than I've ever been in the history of my ministry or in the history of my life and I'll tell you why. It's because for along time I was working a secular job and pastor.
I've been full time pastoring for over a year and I've just ramped up everything that I've been doing because I just have more time now. I'm preaching more sermons. We've been putting out more films and juts really working hard to try to get the word of God and just preach it because of the fact that our country is on a horrible course right now, downward spiral and people are not preaching what need to be preached.
Whenever you ramp up your efforts for God, you have to just expect ramped-up persecution. I've been getting it from the IRS, the CPS. I had some transgender freak come to my church service a few months ago that I had to physically cast out. I either pull in the police are coming and try to figure out whether I assaulted this transgender freak when I picked him up and threw him out. It's the house of God. We can’t allow these filthy perverts in the house of God.
Just all the weird stuff I've been getting in the mail and the police pulled me out of bed at 11:45 at night a couple of weeks go. It seems like over the past few months it's just one thing after another of just hate mail and death threats and people outside my church yelling at me and people smearing stuff on the door of the church building. They want to intimidate you and they're trying to terrify you, put fear in you. It's a persecution to stop …
By the way, you know the CDs and the films that we do? I've got to point out where the companies that have printed CDs for us for years are refusing, "We won’t print your DVDs. We won’t print your CDs." I have to call around to try to find somebody who is even willing to print the CDs and the DVDs, because of the fact that we're getting to the point where if you're just a bible-believing preacher, you just ostracized of this world now.
It's funny because I've had a lot of people say to me, "Hey, maybe you should just back down just a little bit. Why don’t you just let off on the throttle just a little bit?" Here's what they say, "Aren't you afraid to keep preaching like that then if all this stuff is coming at you from all sides?" You know what the truth of the matter is you know who should really be afraid? Let me tell you who should be afraid tonight. The pastors who are holding back and letting these things stop them and they're being intimidated by this faggot-controlled mafia of, "We hate speech. We're going to shut you down."
We have the congressmen of our state. The congressmen are standing in front of our church doing a press conference in front of our church building, "This guy is saying all these hateful things and we need to stop this guy." Let me tell you something. The truth is hate to those who hate the truth. You know what? This book now the bible is being called speech now. Just saying what the bible says, you're hateful and you're this and you're that and they'll put all these labels on you.
Let me tell you who are to be scared, the pastor who's holding back and refusing to preach the word of God because it's not popular today. He ought to be scared of what the Lord is going to do to him. Scare to what man is going to do to me? I don’t care if some Jewish congressman comes and huffs and puffs and everything and doesn’t like my preaching or some filthy faggots are going to line up and hold up signs and everything like that. You know what? None of these things move me. You know what? I'd be afraid not to preach the way that I do, because it's these bunch of compromisers that ought to be afraid of what the Lord is going to do to punish them for standing up and say, "I'm going to preach to you the whole council of God," and then holding back part of it. It's fraud.
God wants us to preach the whole word of God. It's the compromisers that ought to be afraid. You know what? If we offend God, the bible says in Luke 12; you have to turn there, but the bible says in Luke 12, verse 4, "And I say unto you my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him." What can man really do unto us if you think about it?
Now go to SECOND Timothy chapter 4. What can man really do unto us if you think about it? They can kill the body, but you know what Paul said, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." Honestly, you know what I've noticed staying the bible and I want you to really get this point, because this is the point of the whole sermon. The whole sermon tonight is about the fact that Zedekiah was told by the Lord, "Do this." Real clear do this and you'll be fine. Disobey it, you're going to die and people around you are going to die [inaudible 00:20:00]. He disobeyed it because he was afraid and then all the bad things came upon him. That’s what the sermon is about.
Listen to me. I'm not disputing the fact that sometimes in the bible people were killed for their beliefs, like Stephen comes to mind. Stephen is stoned to death and there area lot of other people in the bible who are righteous people who died for their beliefs. The bible does say in Revelation the devil shall cast some of you into prison and you shall be tried. Let me tell you something. As I read the bible from over to cover and you look at godly people, most of the time God actually preserve them. It's not like they're just killed, they're all just slaughtered. Look how many people in the bible didn’t get killed, didn’t get slaughtered.
Jeremiah is a perfect example, because in the end Jeremiah ended up being completely safe. When the Chaldeans came in and were killing everybody and raping people, he is fine. They unchained him and gave him money and say, "You're free to go buddy," and he was fine. You know who else ended up his life fine? The Apostle Paul.
Now think about it. The Apostle Paul probably went through more persecution than anybody else that we read about in scripture. Think about the afflictions that the Apostle Paul went through. He was beaten with rods. He was thrown in prison over and over again. He was whipped and scourged. He was shipwrecked and he was at the point of being killed by the Roman guards because they were just going to kill all the prisoners and everything. One time he was even stoned. They stoned him and they thought he was dead. They're like, "He's dead," and they leave him there and then he gets up and walks away because he was still alive. Paul went through a lot of persecution.
Look what the bible says in second Timothy chapter 4, verse 17. Let me turn there. Actually, I want to start reading a little earlier than what I have in my notes. Let me just turn there myself, second Timothy chapter 4. It says in verse 16, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Now a lot of people will tell you, "Oh, the Apostle Paul was beheaded by the Romans." That’s not in the bible anywhere and in fact I think that that’s unscriptural because if you study this passage just a few verses earlier in verse 6 and 7 he said, "I'm now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I've fought a good fight. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith." He said, "I'm about ready to depart," and he's talking about departing and to be with Christ, done by dying of physical death.
Yet a few verses later he says, "The Lord delivered me from every evil work. I went through all these persecutions, but I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. I was delivered from all the evil works of men." I believe from the top of my head to the bottom of my foot that the Apostle Paul died of natural causes. Because if you read the Book of Acts, which is the story; a lot of it is the story of the Apostle Paul, it ends up the last words of the Book of Acts. He's on house arrest. He's living in his own house. He's preaching every day. His friends are coming over to his house every day.
No man is forbidding him to preach the gospel. He could preach whatever he wants from the bible. He can say whatever he wants. He continues for 2 years. Why would the Book of Acts end on such a positive note and then like, "Oh, by the way, here's what we're not going to tell you. They chopped off his head right after that." That’s not a biblical teaching. That’s man's history and it's all legend and folklore. The bible says that he is going to be preserved from that and delivered from the lion. He talks about that his death is impending, but it doesn’t sound like it's coming from men. Sounds like he's just an old man that’s about to die. He knows he's about to die.
Why do I bring that up? Because the bible says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." Did Paul go through a lot of afflictions? Yes. He's beaten. He's imprisoned, all these different things, stoned. Did he go through pain? Did he go through suffering? You know what? In the end he was blessed. The bible says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." Go to first Peter chapter 3.
First Peter chapter 3. While you're turning to first Peter chapter 3, let's just think of other examples in the bible of men who went through trials but they came out okay and God preserved them and they didn’t go to prison. They weren't killed. What about Job? Did Job suffer and go through trials? Yes, but the latter end of Job was more blessed than the beginning. He lived to be an old, old man and he got to see his children and his children's children unto the third and fourth generation. He was blessed. Everything went great. In the end, the latter end of Job was blessed. Look at men in the bible who served God. A lot of them ended up … and John. The apostle John ended up in old age.
Now there were some that are murdered, like John the Baptist or Stephen at a young age. If that’s God's will, so be it if that’s what God wants. Let me tell you something. It's the minority and the reason that I bring up the fact that that’s the minority is that here we are in America today, a bunch of pastors scared of our own shadow and don’t ant to preach the bible because oh we're going to go to prison, oh we're going to be killed. Most of it is a phantom that’s never going to happen. Even if it does happen, most of the time in the bible it's a tempor6ary affliction. Even a guy like Paul is thrown into the prison, he gets out the next day and he keeps on going. Big deal.
While I turn first Peter 3, look down in verse 13. Watch this, "Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" There's a protection there that’s promise from God. Verse 13, "Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled." He says, "Look. If you do what's right, God is going to protect you. You're not going to be harmed." He says, "But if God does decide for you to be harmed …" he says, "… you know what, don’t be afraid of that. Be faithful unto death and I'll give the crown of life."
Look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They stood up for what was right. They took a stand. You know what? They said, "Oh, I'm afraid," like Zedekiah, "I'm afraid of going into the fiery furnace, so here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to bow down before the image, but in my heart I may be bowing down to the Lord." You could see I could easily justify that. Everybody bows down to the golden image. You could just start, "I'm going to bow down so I don’t go into furnace, but I m just going to worship the Lord in my heart." In my heart I'll be bowing down and saying, "It's to Jehovah. It's not unto this idol."
They said to the king, "We're not going to do it," be they wanted to take a public stand because they are testimony under oath. You know what? The whole world heard that story. Think about it. What of these 3 guys were just compromising their heart, bow down and just pray to the Lord in their heart? What ended up happening is that a decree ended up going out to all nations that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's God is the true God. What's that worth when you take a stand and put your head on the chopping block and you're willing to go into the fiery furnace that the whole world will hear the gospel? It's worth it. Not only that, but we're still talking about the story today. It's still an inspiration to us today.
Even just that generation, it went out into the 127 provinces of the realm that nobody can speak ill of the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Look, 3 guys stood up, risked their lives and then they secured freedom for the whole realm where people were free to worship the true God of the bible. There are so many examples like that because when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown in the fire, they're preserved. Didn’t they end up unharmed? In fact when they got out of the fiery furnace, they're promoted.
See, this is where the prosperity preaching gets wrong. The prosperity preaching says, "If you do what's right, and things won’t happen to you and God is just going to bless you." Listen, whenever there's a false doctrine you see there's a little truth mixed in it but then they’ve twisted it and corrupted it. Here's the true story of what the bible teaches. When you do what's right you're going to suffer for it and go through affliction. That’s what the prosperity preachers not telling you, but most of the time in the end you come out as gold.
Somehow I think we missed that. Because we're so against the prosperity preaching, we forget that a lot of times God will bless us if we do right. After we go through the trial, after we go through the fiery furnace and the affliction, you take the beating, you go to jail, you get stoned but in the end you're living in your own house and everything is cool and everybody is visiting you and you're preaching the word of God and everything is great and you die of old age, like the Apostle Paul.
What am I trying to say? That people are afraid of something that's not even really going to happen. Even if t is going to happen, God says, "Look, that’s My plan for you." Fear not just do it. It's worth it. Stephen's death was worth it, because it inspired the Apostle Paul and many others. John the Baptist's death was worth it. Everybody who died for the Lord today up in heaven is glad that they did. Nobody is up in heaven thinking, "Man, why did I have to be that guy that got killed?" Here is Paul, old age. John is living into old age. Why was I the guy they just killed? I'm killed off at the very beginning of the Book of Acts. I barely even get any.
I could have been the main character. I could have been writing epistles and everything. Why am I the guy that’s just killed off in the first 5 minutes of the movie; yes it were? Hey, I don’t think he's saying that. He's glad, it's honor and privilege to die the Lord Jesus. You know what? It's a select few that will even do it anyway. What are you afraid of? Your own shadow in many cases, because God is going to see you through and protect.
Look, all things work together for good to them that love God and then that are called according to his promise. If you believe that then you just need to fear not. If God tells you, "Hey, preach the whole bible," you preach the whole bible. You say, "I'm not a preacher," then get into church where the pastor is preaching the whole bible what you take away from this point. If you're a preacher in here and I know that there are young men in this room that eventually will be pastors. My message to them is preach it all and let the chips fall where they may and only word about is God pleased with my sermon and that’s the one.
You know what? You know who I really couldn't care less what they think about my sermon? The unsaved wicked world. Why would I try to please them? Oh, but you're going to turn away from God. No, they already turned away because they hate the Lord. It has nothing to do with preaching the bible. Look, this thing of like, "Oh trim the message," it's hasn’t been working out for America. Anyway, let's move on to the next point. Go to Matthew 25.
I'm talking a little bit about preachers who are afraid to preach the whole bible. What about this? What about men who were just afraid to preach in general? The reaching night roles are out. I think you guys have a preaching night where there's an opportunity to get up and preach. I bet there are a lot of men that God could use at that preaching night and maybe use down the road to become pastors and preachers of the next generation that we desperately need. I think fear is stopping them from getting up behind that pulpit and doing that 10 minutes sermon. They're afraid of being mocked or they're afraid of making fool of themselves. They're afraid of getting up here and messing up.
Here's the reality. If you fear failure, you end up doing nothing which is failure. Now look down at the story. It's a perfect example, Matthew 25, verse 24, "Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid …" loo, whenever you see that in the bible, bad thing are going to happen to these people. I was afraid. I'm afraid. "I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine."
Now in the bible, the talent was a type of money. It was a measurement of weight or a measurement of monetary value of coin. We have a word talent today and when we talk about someone having talent, what do we mean? Skill and we say, "Hey, he is talented at the piano," or he's a talented speaker or he's not. Why do we call that talent? It actually derives from this word, because the Lord gave them money. He gave them a talent. It was actual money that he gave them. It was a measurement of how much money He gave them. He said, "I want you to do something with the money that I give you. When I come back I want to see fruit from it." When God gives us skills and ability the reason we call those talents is because they came from God.
Just as we call them a talent because of this story we should apply this story that God wants a return on His investment. He says, "Thou wicked …" verse 26, "His lord answered and said unto him, thou wicked and slothful servant …" slothful means lazy. He says, "You wicked and lazy servant. Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury."
"Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Now this scripture is about basically the Jews are the unprofitable servant and then the gentiles are the one who ended up taking the gospel and so forth and the Jews are cast out. That’s the theme of Matthew 21 through 25, all of those chapters deal with that subject of basically God turning from the Jews unto the gentiles and all of these different parables and so forth.
What we can take from this as an application tonight is that when God gives you talent you need to use it for the Lord and if not He might even take it away from you, because that’s what He did with this guy. You're no going to use it for me I'll take it from you. Think about the talent that goes to waste today and that’s why you see a lot of the most talented people don’t serve the Lord and a lot of people that are not as talented but they're willing, God uses them more just because they're willing to at least bring what they have to the table and be used by God.
Think about this. People are talented musically. They're able to play the piano. What good is it to sit there and become an expert in classical music at the piano? How much are you really going to be able to use that realistically in life versus if you learn how to play to Him is you can actually be used by God 3 times a week playing the piano and so forth or playing an organ or playing whatever musical instrument? The bible says, "God wants to be praised on musical instruments," or talented singing. Oh, you become a great singer. You're going to be the lead singer of some rock band and then we'll hear about you strong out n drugs and we'll hear about you making an idiot out of yourself because the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
Hey, if you have a talent for singing, learn how to lead the singing. Come to church and sing out with all your heart unto the Lord and worship God. That’s a good use of your talent. You have a talent to get up and speak, get up and preach the word of God and use that talent for the Lord. A lot of people are just afraid to get their feet wet. They're afraid to come to that preaching night and get up here and preach the sermon. The hardest part about learning how to preach is just getting up and doing it the first few times. It's just getting up and doing it.
Look, this guy in this story he said, "I was afraid. I didn’t want to lose the talent so I went and hid it." What was he afraid of? Failing at the mission, but his fear paralyzed him he ended up doing nothing and that is failure. When God looks down at your life and you're doing nothing with your life, He sees you as a failure. He says, "You wicked and slothful, I want you to sere Me. Get out soul winning." Look, people don’t go soul winning. Why? Because they're afraid? Oh, I'm afraid. I'm not going to know what to say. I'm afraid somebody is going to ask me a question I can’t answer. I'm afraid that I'm going to knock the door of someone I know. It's even humiliating.
Look, we've all knocked … Who's knocked the door of someone you've known when you went out soul winning? Somehow it's a little uncomfortable but just because it's weird like people think you're stalking or something, because you know these people and then you're just at their house like, "How do you know where I live? What are doing in my house?" I've had many times. Oh, I'm afraid of this, afraid of that, but you know what? I remember when I started soul winning, I would say probably the first year of soul winning, every single week when I went soul winning I was nervous for about the first year. Where literally when I would knock on the first door out soul winning, I hope that they wouldn't be home. You know what I'm talking about?
You go soul winning and you knock on the door and you're kind of, "I don’t think they're home," and you just hope in that first. I just remember the first door my heart will be pounding. You've been there. Heart is pounding. You knock the door. You hope they're not home. That’s how I felt. I started soul winning when I was 17 and that’s how I felt. After about a year or 2, I got to the point where I just knock that door. By the way, even in the beginning it was only the first few doors that are like that where you're scared. Because once you got warmed up, you realize this isn't so bad.
Look, the whole point of the sermon that I keep trying to drive in on almost every point is that the stuff you're afraid of is a phantom. It's a boogeyman. You say, "Oh, I'm afraid I'm going to make a fool of myself out soul winning." You're never going to see these people again. I'd rather make a fool of myself at the door with some stranger than with people I actually know. If it's somebody that you know, have your sound partner do it or whatever [inaudible 00:38:58]. I'm saying that you go out there and you're walking up that first door and you're scared and you're nervous and your heart pounding, but once you do a couple of doors you're like, "Wow, this is great."
I've talked to people where they struggled with it, "Man, I don’t want those soul winning. I'm scared," and they were nervous. Then they came out and they're like, "Oh, is this all?" it's like, "What did you think we were going to be doing," like we're just going to go out and just front people and we're just going to be in a fight every time. It's so easy. Look, so it's not that hard, is it? I don’t think it's that hard. It's hard work in the sense of strenuous, but it's not hard in the sense of you just show up. How is to be the silent partner? Look, if you're not out soul winning, you need to show up at the soul wining time and be the silent partner.
If you're afraid of that then you're just a complete weakling. You know what? The bible says that when they ere all fill with the Holy Ghost it says they spake the word of God with boldness. You know what it tells me if you're afraid to even do something as easy as showing up to be the silent partner tells me you're not filled with the Holy Spirit at all, because the evidence of the fullness of the Holy Spirit is that you'll have boldness. He says, "I'm still scared, I'm nervous." Pray for boldness.
Paul prayed for boldness in the bible and he asked other people to pray for hi0m. He said, "Pray for me that utterance will be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel." That was his prior request. Why don't people go soul winning? Because they're afraid. Why don’t preachers preach the whole word of God? Because they're afraid. Why won’t people get up and give their 10 minutes arm at the preaching class? Because they're afraid. Why won’t people pay their tithe? Because they're afraid.
Why won’t people take a stand in front of friends and loved ones and stand up boldly and proclaim the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because they're afraid to do it and it's wrong and it's not from God. It's the spirit of fear and God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou are with me," that’s what the bible teaches, Psalm 23.
What else are people afraid of? People are afraid to spank their children because they're afraid they're going to get trouble with the law. This one is Psalm that’s just near and dear to me right now, because the CPS was coming to my house because some filthy sodomite and you say, "Oh, you need to love." No, they are filthy. They are reprobate and by the way, AIDS is the judgment of God and all God's said, "Amen."
I'm not afraid to say that. Did you get that? I'm not afraid to say that. Listen, these filthy sodomites, I can show my email inbox. I went into my email inbox after the CPS and the police came to my house in the middle of the night. I went into my email inbox. I just search the word CPS in my Gmail. It's just all, "I'm going to call the blankety blank CPS on you. Oh, you hate homos. I'm going to call CPS. Oh, you're preaching against homos? Then you should have your kids taken away from you," and blah, blah, blah. I (voice sound). I better stop preaching against the homos. The round is too big series on the love of God because these people are really scaring me and intimidating me.
You know what? Somebody has got to get up and tell the truth tonight and I'm telling you that most people are shying away from that subject and that’s a big subject right now. You know and I know that they are taking over and cramming it down on our throat and somebody needs to be the voice of regent saying no. It's wrong. It's sin. It's hell has got to do it, but they try to intimidate you with that. Here's the other thing though. The CPS will sit there and say, "It's no secret that we know." This s what they told me, "We know you, Pastor Anderson, that you preach on spanking, so we need to make sure that your kids are being abused."
You know what they're trying to do? Scare pastors into preaching on spanking be then it's like, "Oh, if I preach what the word of God says, I'm going to have the government on my back and everything." You know what? Any pastor who won’t get up and preach that we should spank our children is a liar and a fraud and a compromiser. He should sit down and shut up and get an honest job and let a real man get behind the pulpit who will preach the Book of Proverbs that says, "Withhold not correction from the child, for thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell." That’s what the bible says. I'm quoting scripture tonight.
You're preaching spanking. No, the bible preaches spanking. The bible preaches that you discipline your children. That’s what the bible says. Is that what you think? Is that what you believe? No, the bible said it. If I don’t preach the bible then I'm not even the man of God in the first place. [Inaudible 00:44:05] get up and just preach whatever I want. No, I got to preach what the bible says. Now go to the New Testament. Hey, Hebrews 12 teaches the same thing. He said, "If you were without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons." He says every son. What son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
You know what? I'm not abusing my kids. I'm not harming my kids in any way. I'm just giving them a normal biblical Christian spanking like people of David for hundreds of years in this country. You know what? I'm not committing any crime, but these people want to intimidate you today into not telling the truth. You know what? They're never going to intimidate me and they should never intimidate you. If you say, "I'm afraid to spank my kids because I afraid of the CPS," you need to stop fearing men and start fearing God, because I would fear to disobey that commandment in the bible that says to discipline your children.
You know what I would fear? Oh, God is not going to bless my children. Hey, He said that if I spank them I'll deliver their soul from hell. I'm afraid my children are going to go to hell if I don’t spank them. That ought to be the fear. You know what? You know why children who don’t get spanked often go to hell? You know why? Because God is our Father in heaven and if you think about it if they have a father on this earth that won’t give them any consequence when they do wrong, you know what they think? Oh, that’s what God's like. I do whatever and there's no punishment.
That’s where this doctrine comes from, I don’t believe in hell. It's from some kid that didn’t get spanked. You know that filthy-faggot Rob Bell? I don’t think he ever got spanked as a kid, this Christian pastor who says, "Oh, I don’t believe hell is real," and this and that. Look, he didn’t get spanked as a kid that’s why he didn’t believe in hell. You're like, "Man, did your dad spank you that hard that it taught you about hell?" I'm just saying. You can see how somebody could think that oh God doesn’t punish. Why? Because the parents don’t punish them and their children they're grown up and they're not being punished by the parents. Why? Because they're afraid to punish them in many cases.
We talked about spanking these children. What about people who are just afraid to even have kids in general? Why are people not having kids today? You see so many people who are … Because a lot is that they're afraid because it takes a lot of faith to have a lot of children, because children are expensive. When they start eating a whole burrito and a whole pizza in 1 sitting and they're eating a whole foot long sup.
I have 8 children and literally if I stop and think about just how much it costs to feed them on a monthly basis and just how long they're going to live in my house, it's a scary thought. I tried to just not even think about it. My wife is like, "Do you know how much we spent on food?" Don’t even tell me. I'm just calculating. I was like, "Oh man, this is crazy." It's scary just the numbers and just huge pieces of me are being brought into my house, huge amounts of food. It's like1 meal. I was like, "What in the world." They get to start eating like adults and that age is like 7, seriously and it's scary.
You know what? It takes the faith of saying, "I'm not going to fear." God said, "Be fruitful and multiply." God said, "Children are blessings." Children are heritage of the Lord. Fruit of the womb is His reward. God said that He'll supply all our need according to His rich and glory by Christ Jesus. God said, "I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread." We need to take a lot of faith to believe that when you start looking at the numbers of just how much these kids are eating like locust (voice sound). You bring them all this food. Oh, that’s going to last (voice sound). It's gone. All gone. All consumed.
People there are afraid to have kids. Go to Hebrews 11. People are afraid to have kids today and so they disobey the Lord by not having kids when God wants us to reproduce. God wants us to have children. He wants us to see children as a blessing. You got to step out in faith and do it. Not only that, look here in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 23. I love this little saying of scripture about Moses and his parents, because it shows how the parents had the faith to do what was right and not to fear and then that was passed on to the child.
Look what it says in Hebrews 11:23, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. They said, "Look, I don’t care what the king says. I'm not going to sin against the Lord here. I'm going to preserve this child. I'm not going to have this abortion that they're trying to force on me, killing the male children. It says, "They were not afraid of the king's commandment."
Look what it says next, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to joy the pleasure of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king." Notice how it's almost the exact same thing. The parents did not fear the king's commandment and then Moses grows up, he does not fear the wrath of the king. That was passed on from generation to generation.
We need to set an example for our children and say, "You know what we're going to do? What God says by faith and we're not afraid to do it." We're not afraid to preach right. We're not afraid to go to a church. You go to that church? What are you doing going there 3 times a week and all that pastor men as a fanatic and too radical. What do you mean you spank your children? That’s abuse, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to call the Child Protection Service.
Look, you need to teach your children boldness so that we raise up a generation that’s not completely spineless like the current generation of Christians is today. Look, Christianity today, 99 percent of Christians in this country are scared with their own shadow and they're afraid to do what's right. Look, I get up and preach this stuff about the homos and most people agree with me. It's true, but what they are? Scared. It's not that I … If you look at all of my preaching, nothing that I preach is unique. It's all bible stuff that a lot of people have said before. I haven't come up with any new thing.
A lot of people don’t just don’t say this stuff anymore, but they used to say it. They just don’t say it anymore because there's this spirit of fear has come. We can let this creep in. Now there are so many examples we could go down the list here. Turn over to Psalm 27 if you would, so many things that people are afraid of. Here's another perfect example. How about wives who are afraid to submit to their husband?
Now you say, "What does have to do with fear?" Because the bible says, "Wives, submit yourselves under your own husbands as under the Lord." The bible says that the wives are to be of good and obedient to their own husbands that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. The bible says that they should love their husbands, love their children to be discrete, chase, keepers at home, good obedient to their own husbands. There are so many scriptures. Even Sara also obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement, a lot of scripture telling wives to obey their husbands, telling wives to submit under their husbands.
Why do so many women not obey their husband or not submit under their husband? Because they're afraid and here's what they're afraid. Oh, I'm afraid that if I let him lead he'll do something stupid because I'm smarter. U forward women say this. In my house I need to run things because my husband he is stupid with money so I have to handle it. There are women who think that. I need to run everything. Or if I let my husband run things, he'd take us off the cliff. financially. He'll take us off the cliff, spiritually or whatever. There are a lot of women who feel that way. They're just afraid of my husband is inept. He doesn’t know what he's doing so I need to run things because I'm afraid of him.
Or how about this? They are afraid that if they submit to their husband and humble themselves unto him, he's going to take advantage. He's going to take advantage of that. He's going to abuse if I give him that authority. Excuse me, God gave him that authority. Women say, "If I give him that power." That right there shows where they're at mentally and spiritually. If I gave him that power of being the boss, I'm abuse he's going to abuse it and he's not going to use it properly. Here's the keywords, I'm afraid. God told you to do it and you're afraid. Isn't this repeating over and over with almost every area of life?
Soul winning, God told you to do it, you're afraid. Tithing, God told you to do it, you're afraid. Preach the whole bible, God told you to do it, you're afraid to do it. Spank your kids, God told you to do it, you're afraid to do it. Submit under your husband, you're afraid to do it. It's not of the Lord. It's of this world that wants to instill fear in us and so women are afraid to obey their husband. In reality what they needed to do is step out in faith and say, "Hey, if the bible says that I'm supposed to submit under my own husband as under the Lord and I know that the path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience that if I step out in faith I just believe." You just have to sit back and let him screw things up a little bit, so what?
God bless is going to bless you if you do. Maybe you'll find out your husband isn't as stupid as you think. Maybe you'll find out that God is going to bless his decisions because he is the one that God actually ordained as the main decision maker. I'm not saying it's wrong for the husband to delegate authority and delegate things to his wife. The wife needs to be firmly the head of the home and he needs to be the boss. That’s what the bible teaches, but a lot of people are just afraid of that or they're afraid of what other people will think.
I'm respectful to my husband in public, people are going to call me a doormat and they're going to (voice sound). What's with her? She's respectful her husband. She call them sir. She was friendly and polite. Now here's what's funny. I went out to a restaurant with my wife and we're sitting at the restaurant and the waitress came over and was very friendly and attentive. In that hour waitresses usually are. When you go to restaurant they come over and they smile and they fill your drink, "Hey, would you like anything else? Are you enjoying the meal? Everything good? Hey, can I get anything else for you?" they're real nice and so forth.
This woman was serving us in that way and I was thinking to myself, "You know what's funny is that world respects a woman who goes and puts on a uniform, puts on a name tag and goes and serves strangers at a restaurant." If she does a good job and is really friendly, really humble, really good servant, really quick in bringing everything out and attentive, you know what they say? That’s a wonderful wai-... She's doing a good job. She's a good waitress and they'll respect that. That’s great, she's doing a good job, respect it.
Here's the thing. If a woman acted that same way toward her own husband and treated that as her job and brought him dinner. He sat down and she brought him the food and she poured his drink, can I get you anything else, smiling in front. They'd say, "What in the world? This is the 1950s," and all the stuff word wives. They would. Think about that for a while. Why is it that world has brainwashed us that serving strangers is honorable and wonderful, but serving your husband will make fun of you and say you're a doormat. You don’t have a self-respect and you need to show him and blah, blah, blah.
You know what? We need to cut through this brainwashing of the world and not be afraid of what people think of us and just run our home the way God told us to run it. Wives just need to step out in faith and say, "If God wants me to submit to my husband, I'm just going to submit to them as under the Lord. If I don’t feel that he deserves it, the Lord deserves it. He's the one who tells me to do it." Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." I'll do it for the Lord. Then you might find that your husband will love you more and that you'll love your husband more because you're actually on God's program and God is going to bless that.
The thing that you're afraid of the scary, oh the Jews that have fallen to the Chaldeans are going to mock me. Probably it won’t even happen. Your friends will probably respect you when they see you being a good wife and your husband is not going to abuse you or take advantage. He's probably start treating you better. When you start obeying, he'll probably start treating you better. Look at Psalm 27, verse 1, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident."
Psalm 3, you don’t have to turn there but verse 5 says, "I laid me down and slept; I awake for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about." It's pretty easy to say that, but just picture yourself. You're in your house and 10,000 people have surrounded the house and they're all coming to get you. Could you say I'm not afraid of any of this? I'm in God's hands. I know that I've done right. I laid me down and slept.
You know what? When you can go to bed at night and put your head on your pillow and fall asleep and sleep like a baby, not because your life is perfect, not because government agencies aren't on your back, not because everybody loves you, not because you haven't been hated and threatened and on peril every hour, you know why you go to bed and put your head on the pillow and lay you down and sleep like David said and with no fear, you know why? Because you know I did what was right. God promised to take care of me if I did what's right and so everything is going to be great and let the chips fall where they may because it's up to the Lord what happens to me and He's going to protect me and preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom.
You go to bed. Look, your whole life might be falling apart. When you do what's right, you could go to bed at night put your head on the pillow and sleep like a baby and say, "I'm doing what I can. I'm trying to serve the Lord. I love God. I did what was right." You go to bed and you sleep peacefully. The peace of God which passeth to all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. You just pray to the Lord and say, "Lord, here's what I'm going through. Here's what going on."
Go to Psalm 56. We'll close with Psalm 56. I've done what I can, Lord. It's up to You now to protect me and you can have peace in your life and not live a life of fear. How do I overcome fear? First of all, you just overcome fear in the sense that even if you're afraid you do what's right anyway even if you're afraid, you do it anyway. As you develop a pattern of doing what's right in spite of fear you'll start to realize, "Hey, a lot of the stuff I was afraid of didn’t even happen." Hey, I thought I went out soul winning it was going to be embarrassing. It actually was totally normal and well. He is afraid to get up and preach a 10-minute sermon actually he did okay. You start developing that pattern.
Secondly, you pray for boldness. You pray for boldness. The bible says, "In everything by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth to all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Look at Psalm 56, verse 2, "Mine enemies would daily swallow me up." Try to put yourself in the scripture. Just think about this is your life. Take it literally. You're David. You have enemies that just daily want to swallow you up. You'd be afraid humanly speaking without the Lord and His Holy Spirit giving you boldness.
It says, "Mine enemies would daily swallow me up, for they be many that fight against me, o thou most High. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise His word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Every day they wrest my words." You see, they're twisting my words. I say one thing they twisted like I said something else. "All their thought are against me for evil. They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul." Just imagine people are just lying and wait. They're conspiring against you. They're laying trap for you. They hate you. Everything you say they're listening so they can twist it.
"Shall they escape by iniquity? In thine anger cast down the people, O God. Thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears into thine bottle. Are they not in thy book? When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back. This I know, for God is for me. In God will I praise His word. In the Lord will I praise His word. In God have I put my trust. I will not be afraid what man can do unto me." This is the message tonight. We started out with the man Zedekiah who said, "I'm afraid." Zedekiah, obey the Lord. You're going to be fine. Your family is going to be fine. Your friends are going to be fine. Your city is going to be fine.
If you disobey, it's all going to be burned. Everybody is going to be killed. Everybody is going to be suffer. I besiege you, obey the Lord. I'm afraid. Here we end on the man David who said, "I will not be afraid." That’s what we need to be tonight, I will not be afraid. We started when we're talking the wrong guy that said. "I'm afraid, I'm afraid." You need to walk out here tonight and this is the … Memorize the whole chapter for crying out loud, but at least just memorize that 1 phrase. Let that 1 phrase sink into your ears, I will not be afraid.
I remember when I was much younger being n a really dangerous part of town at night by myself working. My job has sent me into a real dangerous part of town at night and by myself I'm working. What's the natural reaction? Fear. The fear is real because you're in a really bad area. It's at night, you're by yourself, there's a lot of crime. I used to quote Psalm 23 to myself and I will quote, 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me."
When I read this passage where he keeps saying over and over again I will not be afraid, I almost get the feeling that he's trying to convince himself a little bit when you read this passage. He's reminding himself with this Psalm. You know what? God is for me. He's reminding himself. He's asking the Lord, but he's also saying, "The Lord is for me. I know God is with me. I'm not going to be afraid. I'm not going to be afr6aid. I'm not going to be afraid Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no one."
Look, you're going to have decisions that come in your life and you're going to be like, "I know I need to start going to church," or, "I know I need to start soul winning," or, "I know God wants me to preach," or, "I know that as a pastor I need to preach the whole word and I've been holding back and I've kept back some things", or, "I know I need to submit into my husband," or, "I needed to start tithing," or whatever. I know I need to start spanking my children. The bottom line is the thing that’s going to come in is this fear is going to creep in. You have to just remember this sermon and just remember all the scriptures and just say, "I will not be afraid."
Whatever decision I make in my life, it's not going to be based on fear. It's never going to be based on fear because it's never of God. We could turn to all 727 mentions if you want of fear, afraid, and frighten and we can go through all of them. You know what you're going to find? Whenever people fear, it's wrong. I don't care what you're fearing or why. It's wrong unless it's the Lord. The Lord is the one that we fear and Him alone.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
