Introduction:
Top 10 Fears in 2017:
- Holes
- Flying
- Germs
- Small Spaces
- Thunder / Lightning
- Dogs
- Open / Crowded Spaces
- Heights
- Snakes
- Spiders Mayonnaise (Bonus)
What Are You Afraid Of?
Proverbs 28:1 - The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a Lion.
- Should I be afraid of my Past? (Romans 8:33-34)
- Should I be afraid of anything Today? (2 Timothy 1:7)
- Should I be afraid for my Future? (Psalm 118:6, Hebrews 13:6)
Acts 23:11 - The following night the Lord stood by him (Paul) and said, "Take courage..."
Acts 28:15 - On seeing them (Paul's Christian brothers), Paul thanked God and took courage.
Psalm 56:4 - In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid...
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:26-00:35
All right, open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Proverbs 28, verse one.
00:36-00:38
Proverbs 28, one.
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We are going to be covering one verse today.
00:42-00:48
If you're visiting and you plan on returning, don't get used to this.
00:50-00:55
But we're going to be looking at our theme verse for the entire year.
00:56-01:00
Okay, so this isn't an introduction to a sermon.
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This sermon is actually serving as an introduction to the entire year.
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So this is a very important message.
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Are you there? Proverbs 28.1.
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I want you to look at it in your own Bible.
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I believe we'll have it on the screen as well.
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Here's Proverbs 28.1.
01:19-01:40
says, "The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion." That's our theme verse for the year, and today we are going to talk about fear.
01:42-03:14
Because some of you, we talk about, you know, our theme for the year, "I will not fear you're like yeah I already got that I ain't scared of nothing yes you are actually when I was preparing for this I googled you know top fears that people have and there is a website that has this so updated that it had the 2017 top 10 fears like wow apparently that changes from year to year right like I I guess in olden times they were afraid of being in stagecoach accidents or something I bet it's changed over the years, so I'm just pleased to be able to tell you this is this is fresh. Okay, this is farm fresh top 10 fears 2017 and I'm gonna give you another little disclaimer. I'm gonna go through this list quickly I'm not going to give you the technical terms Okay, like it's such and such phobia and that means I'm just gonna tell you what it's a fear of okay, all right So number 10 and most surprising to me top 10 fears holes I Didn't make this up so when I read this I'm thinking oh, it's like somebody's afraid of like walking down the street And there's a manhole. It's like But that's not what it means. It's that and there was a little description of all these fears And it said people, and listen, if you have this, I'm not making fun of you, I just don't understand, okay?
03:15-03:18
But it says that people that have this fear are even afraid of things like sponges.
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And it must be terrifying to have a bowl of Cheerios.
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And again, I'm not making fun of you if you have this, because I'm gonna share mine here in a second.
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I'm just saying, I don't understand, I don't understand, but that's a fear that people have.
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Number nine is flying.
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I kind of do get that one.
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When you're in an airplane, you know an airplane is made of six million parts and none of those parts fly.
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Just saying.
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Number eight is germs.
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Get that?
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They're devastating, you can't even see them.
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Number seven is small spaces.
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How many people here are a little claustrophobic?
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Alright, that's a common fear.
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Number six is thunder and lightning.
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Number five is dogs.
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Okay, I don't get this one at all.
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And if this is you, I don't even want you to try to explain it.
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>> Who's afraid of the little puppy?
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>> I'm kidding.
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I understand why dogs are terrifying.
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When they come at you, they lead with their head and they are all teeth.
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I get they're terrifying.
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So it's a common fear.
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It's a common fear.
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Number four is open or crowded spaces.
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Even for some people to come into a room like this is -- And I know we're having some fun here, but some of these things are very serious.
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You know, some people have that anxiety.
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I can't be in a room like this because there's a lot of people and it's crowded and it's just so not comfortable for me.
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And number three is heights.
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Number three is heights.
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Ryan Stroop.
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How many times have you called me when you're up on that thing that puts you like 8,000 feet and you're like, "Guess where I am.
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I'm going to send you a picture." I'm like, "Stop!" okay because now this is hitting home i'm like that's why you do that and that's why i'm a preacher because this job requires me to be no higher than this okay you do that stuff maniac number two is snakes did somebody just say amen number two is snakes i totally get that or as some people call them, the "nope rope." You know what the number one fear is?
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Spiders.
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Spiders are the number one fear, according to this website that keeps us updated.
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Yeah, there's plenty to be afraid of, but I want to ask you, what's your fear? For some people it's public speaking.
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According to one poll, asking fears, they polled people that The number one fear that, in the one poll, they said it was public speaking, and the number two fear that they had was death, meaning that there are people that would rather die than speak publicly.
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For some people, it's drowning.
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For some people, it's needles.
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For some people, and I have a good friend that falls in this category, it's clowns.
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Scared to death of clowns.
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For some people, it's ghosts.
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So what about you?
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one of these things that we've talked about, some of these things, but like I said, I know we're having fun, but I want to get real personal. And I want to get really serious for a second here. What is it, honestly, what is it that seriously gnaws at your soul? What is it that Seriously, gnaws at your soul.
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When I was little, I'm not, I'm not making this up, but when I was little, do you know what my greatest fear in the entire world was?
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Statler and Waldorf.
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I'm not kidding.
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Now, you don't know who Statler and Waldorf is, you're about to in a second.
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They are the two old Muppets that sit in the balcony.
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I was scared.
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I'm serious.
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You guys are laughing.
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It's no longer funny.
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I was scared to death of them.
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And I remember my brother and sister, they'd be watching the Muppet Show in the living room.
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I couldn't even be in the room.
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I mean, those guys were terrifying because they're set apart and they're up there looking down at everyone.
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(laughing)
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Look at the frog.
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And it was terrifying to me.
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And I've gotten over that.
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I'm not scared anymore much.
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But that was when I was a kid.
07:50-09:06
I had that fear, but now as an adult I have some, I guess you could say more mature fears, but just as real, just as real. My wife will tell you one of my fears, I'm just going to be honest with you, okay? I'm just going to stick my neck out here and be honest with you. Permission to be honest in church granted. Okay. My wife will tell you, I fear saying hard things to people. That is very difficult for me. Middle child syndrome, maybe you could call it. I want everybody to get along. I have a really hard time, right Aaron, when I have to say hard things to people. And Aaron says, "Your problem is you just want everybody to like you." I'm like, "Well, that's not a problem. I think everybody should like me." But she's right. Sometimes you have to speak the truth in love, and I have this fear of damaging the relationship by doing that, and my wife reminds me that I'm in a position where I can't worry about damaging the relationship if I have to speak the truth in love. I'm gonna tell you that's a fear that I have, I'm just being honest. I'm working on it, I'm a work in progress like you, and God's growing me and teaching me, but I have a very difficult time with that.
09:08-10:12
Probably my greatest fear is what's going to happen with my kids when I'm gone, my wife's gone, they're adults. Who's looking after them then? You're visiting with, as you know, our kids have some developmental issues and I'm concerned for, more than concerned, it frightens me to death. What's going to happen to them when I'm gone? Who's going to take care of them? Who's going to protect them? Those are the fears that I have. Let me ask you, what is it for you? What's it, if I brought you up here and said okay now it's your turn to be honest you know correct me with microphone let's let's i'm not going to do that but if you were being totally honest what is it for you is it failure are you afraid of being a failure is it abandonment are you afraid of being left alone are you afraid of a loved one passing what am i going to do when he dies i don't know I don't know how I'm going to live when he...
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Is that a fear that you have?
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Maybe your fears are tied up with money and stuff.
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I can't lose this, and I've tried so hard, and I've worked so hard to protect this, and you have this constant fear about this stuff.
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Maybe for some of you it's infidelity or divorce.
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You live in this constant fear, borderlining on paranoia, that your spouse or significant other is going to cheat on you or leave you. And you live in that constant fear of that.
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Is that yours? You know, we talk about church business. There's a lot of fears associated with that too, isn't there? Like witnessing, sharing the gospel of Christ with people.
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For a lot of people that is a huge fear.
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Some people fear letting God down. What if I try to do this and I don't do it right?
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Is God going to be disappointed in me? And maybe you need to take some step of faith as it pertains to your job or as it pertains to your ministry and you haven't taken that step because you are afraid.
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So in your outline, the question we're asking today is, what are you afraid of?
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One verse.
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Let's look at the first half.
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Proverbs 28, first part of verse 1 says, "The wicked flee when no one pursues." Let's just think about that for a second.
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The wicked flee, the wicked run, the wicked, let's get out of here.
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And when there's no one pursuing, what in the world is that about?
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Why does that happen?
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How, why are we, why are we afraid when literally nothing is happening?
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Why are there people that act on imagination?
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And if we're honest with ourselves, as people, we like to look for things to be afraid of, True or false?
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Like, yeah, we don't really, yes, we do.
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How many people remember this was before like social media was big.
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When you get back quite a few years when it was email chains, you know, how many people remember the, make sure you pass this email along to your friends, but there was a burst.
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I know some of you remember this.
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Remember the whole hypodermic needle scare?
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You know, what's going to the gas station because people are putting needles, hypodermic needles in the pump handles and the hypodermic needles have the HIV virus needle so you got to watch and make sure you share this with everybody.
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You remember how long that went on? And then it was there's hypodermic needles with the HIV virus people are now putting them in movie theater seats.
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Does anybody else remember this? You know make sure you forward this to all your friends and when you go to the movies you know better check your seat before you sit down and I'm like where are people getting all these hypodermic needles with viruses in. They're apparently everywhere. But we're looking for things to fear. I'm here to tell you this morning, if you don't know the Lord, you have much to fear. If you don't know the Lord, if you're going to be honest, you live a life of uncertainty.
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Why am I here? What's my purpose in life and what happens to me when I die? If you don't And the Lord, you have judgment to fear.
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Somebody's got to pay for your sin.
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And if you won't receive the provision that God made in Jesus Christ, God says you can pay for your own sin.
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And that's eternal separation from God and hell.
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And you should fear that.
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Jesus said we should fear Him who is able to cast our bodies into hell.
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You have much to fear If you don't know the Lord, you should constantly be in fear.
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Now why is it that he says, "The wicked flee when no one pursues"?
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Well, one reason is because, notice he says, "The wicked", not "the foolish".
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He's talking about a person that's living in some kind of sin.
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And you know that when you are living in sin, in some way, You are always in fear. Like in fear of what? Always in fear of getting caught, right?
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Always looking over your shoulder, always trying to cover something up, always hiding something.
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And that brings some self-induced paranoia.
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The person living in sin, "I can't let my wife find out about this, and I've got to make sure that, you know, delete the history on the internet, and I gotta make sure I hide this thing, and I gotta make sure that I don't let my wife have access to my cell phone, and you're always trying to hide something.
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And after a while, "Does she know? Does she know? Does she know what I'm doing?
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Does she know? I think she knows. Why did she say that?
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Why did she say it the way she did? I think she knows.
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I think she knows what's going I'm trying to hide is crippling me because of the fear that I'm going to get caught. Now all of a sudden I'm running when nobody's pursuing. I'm acting on things that aren't even true because my sin has made me parent. Look at the second half of the verse. Okay, so the wicked flee when no one pursues. This is the main reason, this is our theme verse for the year. It says, "But the righteous or bold as a lion.
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Isn't that great?
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The Bible compares us to a lot of things, right?
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Bible says we're like sheep.
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Not so crazy about that comparison, honestly.
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Sheep are weak.
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They're helpless, right?
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They're helpless.
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When threatened, the most dangerous thing they can do is use their hair to knit you a sweater.
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And that's it for the sheep.
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So it's true that we are like sheep.
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We're dumb, we go astray, we're slow to learn, we need a shepherd.
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That's the main reason we're like sheep.
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But I really like this verse.
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Because here the Bible says, I'm not making it up.
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Do you see it there?
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It says we are like a lion.
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How so?
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I did a little studying on lions.
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You know, lions, when they hunt, you know how lions hunt?
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The females actually go and hunt and they form a semi-circle around the prey.
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And the weaker female lionesses herd the prey towards the middle and then the strong female lionesses, boom, jump in, make the kill.
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And do you know what happens next?
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The male lions come and eat.
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And I'm like, "So we are like lions. The women do all the work, and the lazy men are the first to reap the benefits. The Bible's right. We're like lions." But that's not the point of this passage. Here's something else about lions that was interesting. You know, lions are the only social cat. You look at every other cat in the cat kingdom, they prefer to be alone. They're a little aloof, right? Cats like talk to the paw, right? Cats are just like so snobby. But lions aren't like it.
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They're the only social cat. That's why they'll lay in a pile of each other and you see they're like licking each other's faces and the tops of their heads. They're the only cat that does that. I'm like, well that makes sense that the Bible says we're like lions because we need others, right? And we're not gonna, okay, if you're visiting, we're not gonna lay in a pile and lick each other's heads after church, but I'm just, it's an illustration.
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Something else I found is, they say that lions sleep for 16 to 20 hours a day.
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I'm like, man, I wish I was like a lion that way. That sounds great, but that's not the point either. Well, an adult lion's roar can be heard from over five miles away.
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And you're like, that's the point. You can hear my kid scream from over five miles away.
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Right? That might be true, but that's not the point. But we're getting closer to the Yes, a lion's roar can be heard from over five miles away.
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Why do they do that?
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Why in the world would a lion roar at the volume that can let every other animal in the area know, "I'm here!" Do you know why they do that?
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Do you know why they're not hiding themselves?
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Why they're not camouflaged?
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Why they're not underwater with snorkels, afraid of the predators?
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Do you know why?
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Because lions are not afraid of anything.
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You know lions if they get hungry enough, there's not enough other food.
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They will attack an elephant and try to eat an elephant. I kid you not.
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Who does that? Who goes after the biggest thing walking and says, "Well, I'm hungry. Guess I'm going to have to eat that." But that is the boldness of lions. They are not afraid of anything.
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And this is the point of this message and this is the point of the entire year that God says in Him you are bull as a lion.
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How's that working for you?
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What are you afraid of?
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I'd like you to consider three things.
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of all, letter A, should I be afraid of my past? Some people are like, "Yeah, Pastor, if I eat your sandwich, you don't know what I've done." Romans 8 says, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" It is God who justifies, who is to condemn. Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who who indeed is interceding for us.
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Love this passage.
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How many people here by show of hands, how many people watch court shows, courtroom shows, real or, we only watch the Gaithers at our house.
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Come on, one of you?
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How many people have seen Judge Judy?
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Oh, okay, and all of a sudden, okay, all right, all right.
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Okay, so imagine you're watching your favorite court show, and just imagine this scene that the judge, you know, slams down the gavel and he says, "Not guilty." And then all of a sudden in the back of the courtroom, the door kicks open and somebody runs into the court and points his finger in the judge's face and says, "You're wrong.
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"He is guilty.
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"He is guilty of sin and you are wrong." What would the next scene be?
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The judge going, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize. I guess we'll have to start this over." No, the next scene would be the bailiff dragging that guy out by his ear, right?
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Well, this passage in Romans is God's courtroom. Do you see it there?
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"Who's bringing charges against you? Who is condemning you? God is justifying you.
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And the one who paid our penalty for our sin is also our lawyer interceding for us.
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Put yourself in God's courtroom. Do you see that?
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You are the defendant, Satan is the prosecuting attorney.
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You're guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty.
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And God the Father is the judge, and your lawyer is Jesus Christ.
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And the question is, who's going to bring a charge against you?
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When Jesus says, "His sin has been paid in full, Father, Your Honor, because I paid for it." And the Father slams down His gavel and says, "You are not guilty of sin, now and forevermore." So when someone receives Christ, when someone is pronounced forever not guilty, Who is going to rush into the throne room of God, the courtroom of God, and say, "No, God, you're wrong. He's still guilty. You're wrong." Is somebody going to say that to the Almighty?
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When God says, "No, I'm the judge of everything, and because He received my Son, His sin is forever history, and He is pronounced not guilty.
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So should I be afraid of my past?
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The answer is no.
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Because God has that confidence.
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He already pronounced not guilty.
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Secondly, should I be afraid of anything today?
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Should I be afraid of anything today?
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Like, I hear what you're saying, "Pastor Jeff and I received Jesus, but you know what?
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I'm staring down some pretty serious things when I leave this building today.
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There's stuff today that I'm afraid of. I got some good news for you. Look at 2 Timothy 1.7.
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For God gave us a spirit, look at this, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
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Fear is a horrible place to live. If you or someone you know lives in fear, you know how debilitating that can be. There's something good though about the things that cause us or the things that tempt us to fear, whatever that is for you. The good thing about those things, when they come, you're going to see what your faith is made of. And you're going to see whether you live in fear or whether you trust God.
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But I want you to see from this verse from 2 Timothy, you have three things right now, three tools in your tool belt that can squash any fear.
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Do you see them?
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You know, for the person that says, "Well, I'm really afraid to witness, I'm really afraid, I feel like God's called me to do this ministry, but I'm really afraid to do it." God's answer is, "No, no, no, I didn't give you a spirit of fear, I gave you I gave you power And for the person that says I'm just I just have a lot of fear in my relationships And I'm I'm just not sure how to handle people God's answers. No. No, no. I didn't give you fear. I gave you love And for the person that says well I'm so afraid of what I might do and I'm tempted to to lose my anger lose my temper and get angry and I'm afraid Of what I might do when when I'm tempted to lust God says that you don't need to fear Because I gave you a spirit of self-control No fear that you face can stand up to those three things Power love self-control. That's what God gave you You're not going to face anything today that should cause you fear it can't be stopped by one of those three things Then finally should I be afraid for my future Okay past "Pastor Jeff, okay, alright, alright.
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Pass is covered, I'm good today, but...
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next week, next month, next year, I got some things that are..." Look at Psalm 118, verse 6.
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This is one of those verses that God was so fired up about, He put it also in Hebrews 13, verse 6.
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God's like, "I'm gonna put it in both Testaments, so you don't miss it." But it says, "The Lord is on my side. I will not fear." What can man do to me?
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Notice he says, "I will not." "I will not." Did you see that?
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Not today, I'm not going to fear today, and I will not, I'm not going to fear tomorrow.
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Why? Because God is on my side.
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Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished, God is on my side.
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What can man do to me?
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God is sovereign over all, and God uses pain to bring joy.
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And what's the worst thing that anybody can ever do to you?
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Just shout it out. What's the worst thing anybody can ever do to you?
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Somebody said kill you? That is incorrect.
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Why?
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The worst thing anybody can do to you is send you directly to heaven?
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That's what you're saying is the worst thing somebody can do to you?
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One-way ticket straight into the presence of my Savior? That's the worst? That doesn't sound so bad to me.
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So I'm not afraid of what might happen tomorrow because God's already in the know.
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And the worst thing that anybody can do to me, which technically I guess is killing me, that would actually be the best thing that ever happened to me because, goodbye earth.
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So I would suggest to you that if I'm covered in the past, and my sin is gone, I'm covered in the present because I have power and love and self-control today from God, and I'm covered in the future because nothing's coming that God won't use in my life, and my finish line is heaven, let me ask you, what could I possibly be afraid of?
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This year, we are going on a journey in an amazing passage.
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Acts 21-28, and preparing the sermons for this year, pre-preparing all the sermons for the year.
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I was studying this passage extensively, and I was staggered.
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Some of the things that we're going to see.
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We're going to see Paul get arrested.
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We're going to see Paul stretched out, about to be flogged.
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We see Paul facing attempts to kill him.
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We see Paul put in prison. We see Paul shipwrecked.
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We see Paul at one point bitten by a viper, which is the number two fear in the world, by the way.
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And as I was reading all of this and rereading it, rereading it, I'm seeing all this stuff Paul's going through, and I kept asking myself, "What's keeping him going?" Because let's be honest, temptation is real at any one of those points to say, "I'm done! I'm out! I can make tents!
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Enough with sharing the gospel because every time I do, I get my tail kicked!
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I'm done!" But what kept him going? What kept him going? What kept him going?
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And I found the answer right in God's Word, twice.
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We have those verses.
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Acts 23 11 says, "The following night the Lord stood by him, Paul, and said, "Take courage." Now on a scale of 1 to 10, how much of an impact do you think that would have on you if you're going through a period of fear and trials and God personally shows up and says, "Hey, don't be afraid. I'm with you." What kind of an impact would that have on you?
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Scale of 1 to 10, that'd be like a 13, 14, right?
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And we see it again, Acts 28.15.
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We're going to get there.
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But it says, "On seeing them, Paul's Christian brothers, Paul thanked God and took courage." So we see, the thing that kept Paul going was he was getting courage from God And he was getting courage from God's people.
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So we could say Paul was able to take on dangerous situations, and Paul was able to take abuse from man, because he was also able to take courage.
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Very simply, our goal this year for this church is I want every one of us to not just know but to live it, how Psalm 56.4 says it, "In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid." In other words, everyone in this church, I want us all to be able to say, with great conviction, from the heart, "I will not fear." Will you pray with me, please?
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Father in heaven, I thank you for the glorious promises of your Word.
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If we didn't have your word, Father, we would all be lost and desperate and mad.
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Father, you've given us your word.
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Your word tells us that you've taken care of our past, you're with us in the present, and you're already ahead of us in the future.
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What in the world are we going to face that should possibly make us fear?
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but Father, we take our eyes off of You.
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And we start magnifying our circumstances, and we start magnifying the perceived threat from other people, and we take our eyes off of You.
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God, I pray for my brothers and sisters here, and I pray for myself with all these fears that we are staring down as we go through Your Word and look at the life of the greatest missionary that you've ever used.
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I pray, Father, that we would learn what it looks like when we take courage from you, from our brothers and sisters in the Lord, that we'd learn what it looks like when the declaration is made, I will not fear.
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I pray, Father, that we would experience what it looks like and what it feels like when your word tells us that the righteous are bold as a lion.
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By your power, Father, and for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Proverbs 28:1
What were you afraid of as a child? How did you handle it?
What do you think the are biggest fears of people who don’t know the Lord? What do you think are the biggest fears "church people" have?
Do you fear God's judgment on your sin? Why or why not? What does Romans 8:33-34 say about this?
Proverbs 28:1 - Why are the wicked fearful? Why are the righteous "bold as a lion"? What accounts for the fear / boldness?
Breakout Questions:
What is your biggest fear (or temptation to fear) today?
How can the Lord help you overcome that fear?