Hello, a big welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.
We are a church based out of Chennai, India.
We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will
be refreshed, revived and energized by what you hear.
Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of
purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.
The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess
our promise. Today's sermon causes us to
assess ourselves and see if we live with a fear of God or a
fear of man. One gives life while the other
debilitates. 1 brings clarity and freedom, while the other
confuses and confounds. How would you choose to live
from this moment on? Hi church, this is a joy and a
privilege to be in God's word to you today counted an honour.
And even as we've been going through the entire book of
Genesis, we've been seen from the life of Abraham as to how he
took the first step of actually pursuing and pushing through and
seeing God's promise come through his life.
And even as we've started this year, our theme for the year is
positioned to possess the promise.
And I believe as we position ourselves, there are so many
things that changes in US. What we believe in changes, how
we decide to run the remaining race changes, our destination
changes, who we rely on changes, and probably even the
surroundings change because we're not positioned
differently. Suddenly the voices that meant
or governed us or, you know, gave us directions suddenly
don't make sense anymore. And we suddenly are realizing
that our entire focus is towards what the Holy Spirit is asking
us to do. Our dependence is on God's word.
We suddenly are keeping our eyes focused on what Jesus wants us
to do because we believe that promise is 1 where we would see
things happen in the eternal. And it's beautiful because we're
not waiting for eternity, but we're waiting for us to live
right here on this earth, bring heaven down to earth.
And I believe God's called each and every one of us.
Last week, when we saw Progenesis 19, we saw from the
life of Lot some of the lessons we gleaned from his life.
And we saw that we need to have a heart for the city where God's
placed us in eventually that heart.
Not only this translates to the people around us and to the
city, but also to the world where God's calling all of us to
really intercede and pray and stand in the gap for his
revival. We also saw that as the remnant
few, we need to ask for God's righteousness.
Yes, culture changes, culture dictates, but the remnant few
believe can I believe can shake the mountains.
I believe can shake the mountains of culture.
I believe they can shake the principalities of darkness if
God could choose 12. I believe the remnant fewer
enough to take this Kingdom of culture and darkness that is so
rampant across the world and bring hope, life and healing.
And the 3rd we saw that we don't make decisions out of our
temporary things that we need. We keep eternity in perspective
and we realize that we are in this long journey.
It's just not a Sprint. We are here, so we build
endurance to run this race well and today we moved to Genesis
chapter 20 and I've titled my sermon.
It's pretty much like a mathematical equation.
Fear of man is lesser than fear of God, which means the fear of
God in our life should be far bigger than the fear of man.
But eventually we given we are so surrounded by things and
people around us that we cave in to the fear of man.
We, so a lot of us are actually running our lives based on the
fear of man. And I think we need to come to
this place. Fear in the sense when you look
at it with the fear of God that we should have is one of
reverent fear where we are in awe, where we like we are
without anything. We, we are nothing without God.
We are solely dependent on God. But the fear that's associated
with man has this connotation where it's more or less this
unpleasant emotion caused by threat, danger or pain.
And today, if I have to ask you, do we all have fears?
Yes. Do we all have fears of certain
things around us? Yes.
Do we have fears around things that are within us that brings
out a lot of fear things around us brings out a lot of fear
things even the are concerned about in the future brings a lot
of fear and I believe God's word constantly encourages to
overcome fear. And even as we look into the
life of Abraham, there are certain things that I wanted to
point out because I believe it's a wrestle we have to have every
day. We have to have every day God
uses us because it's so easy to get confined to the four walls
of the fear that we are so used to living out of God saying I
want to liberate you, I want to set you free.
I want to turn our attention to Proverbs chapter 29 verses 25.
The fear of human opinion disables.
Trusting in God protects you from that.
The fear of human opinion disables.
And I think in a world where we are so digitally connected,
where we are, so, you know, going by what people say, going
back, what our opinion of people are, we believe to a certain
extent their opinion actually carries weight.
Yes, it does. To a certain extent credibility
does, but we but we can't be so in performance mode that we've
having and operating out of a fear of people and their
opinions. And this is where God wants us
to come to a place of the Bible talks about a a place of fear is
a place of trembling, of revidence of all.
But it's also showing that we are in a place of deep anxiety.
When fear of man is dead, there's deep sense of anxiety,
there's this physical trembling and it's dread that we have what
is to be shown towards God. We somehow are showing it
towards man because we feel the repercussions are immediate.
God is a distant repercussion. You know, eternity, I can manage
that. That's like 40 or 50 or 80 years
down the road, how long I live on this earth.
But then the fear of man is so heavy because we feel that, that
that that backlash might happen immediate.
That backlash might lick us up. That backlash might.
But this is where we need to move from the fear of man to
trusting God. It says in the amplified the
same words, The fear of man brings his net, but whoever
trusts and puts his confidence in the Lord will be exalted and
safe. Whoever trusts and puts his
confidence in the Lord will be exalted and safe.
You know, today we're living in the world where AI is evolving,
where perplexities come chat, GBTS come open.
AI has got this huge bid to be bought over and we see this a
lot of momentum around artificial intelligence and
machine learning. What does machine learning do?
Takes our own patterns, our own searches, our own queries and
starts giving us well formed content.
It starts answering for us and the, and the, and the problem
with this day and age, why the fear of man is far bigger is
because knowledge is at the, it's at its peak today.
You don't have to run after knowledge.
Knowledge is right there in your device.
You can, you can Google it, but we are beyond the Google place
right now. We, we ask, we, you know, we, we
can go deeper into all these topics because it's, it's, it's
learning of our questions. It's learning of the amount of
data that's there globally. And so today, as we look into
this, a lot of us have the fear that you know what, why?
Why do we fear man? Because knowledge is this whole
thing that's cultivated, this whole thing that's harvested is
of man. And so our major movement, a
major move is like God, this, this fear is so real.
We, we, we feel like if, if culture calls us out, if culture
shames as if culture calls us this particular thing today we
had lost it. But God's saying whoever trusts
in me and puts his confidence, it's just on trust but puts his
confidence that is do we take a bet on God and what he says
because this is what is looking like.
If we have to pursue a promise like how Abraham did, we will be
a few in number. This is not looking like many
coming towards many might come, but we don't know if everyone is
actually putting their confidence in God.
And so today I want to talk to you that in this fear of man, a
lot of us are worried about what others might see of us.
And that's that's a very prominent fear that is exist or
what they might do to us. We've also gone to the other
extreme where we are worried what they don't say to us or
what they won't do for us or do to us.
And so this, this, this looming thing about the fear of man is
real. And I'm not negating it.
All of us have walked through different journeys and stages in
life where we've been battered, bruised, and so there is an
unhealthy fear of man in US. When I say fear of man, it could
be from a family member, friend, colleague, associate, relative,
whoever. It's someone who's instilled
that fear. And so today I want us to stand
up to a place where you're saying God, our trust and our
confidence is solely going to be on you.
Fear of man probably is also coming from a place where we've
been let down, where we've, we've, we've seen people who
said we'll show up, have not showed up.
And that's become a big struggle for us where we've really felt
like we've disappointed someone because we've let them down.
As we go through this sermon, I want us to identify that this
fear of man is not what we can live by because God's promise is
real. God's promise is going to work
in and through us, but it cannot partake when the fear of man is
resident within us. So the three things which I
wanted to highlight from Genesis chapter 20, and I pray that
before it becomes a stronghold, before it becomes something that
we are governed by, we'll be able to say, Lord, I trust you
and I put my confidence in you alone.
The first thing that I wanted to take from Genesis chapter 20 is
the fear of man cripples us to only think of our own survival.
The fear of mancribles has to only think of our own survival.
Let's read from Genesis chapter 20 verses 1:00 to 2:00.
And we amplified. This is what it says.
Now Abraham journeyed from there toward Negev, the S country, and
settled between Kadesh and Shore.
Then he lived temporarily in Gerard.
Abraham said again of Sarah, his wife.
She's my sister. So ABI Malik, the king of
Gerard, sent and took Sarah into his harem.
Even as we read this, it's a reminder that yes, Abraham, it
shows the human side of Abraham. It shows the emotions that
Abraham had. What I'm really surprised is a
woman in her late 90s is actually so beautiful that men
actually want her king. A king actually wants her.
And we see Abraham is moving, but this time when he's moving,
he's not moving as just a household.
He's not moving as a nomad. He's now moving as a Chieftain.
He's a Chieftain. He's moving as person who's
accomplished, who's followed God for nearly 20 years.
He's moving to a place. He's moving from a place of
being a Chieftain who's who went and fought a battle.
He and his household went and rescued Lot and the entire
people of Sodom and Gomorrah in that battle.
We are moving to a place to see that his wealth is just
increased. We are moving.
He's moving from a place where he is a man in his own standing.
Yet when it came to being around the king, a king ABI Malik
there, what happened? He just thought of his own
interests. He didn't think of anyone else.
He didn't he? He knew that there was something
that would bring about the king to come and ask for his wife,
that he just said, she's my sister and I want us to come to
a place that is a hidden selfishness within us.
And it kicks in when the fear of man starts, when it gets
propelled. The reason being when we see
here, he just thought of himself.
He in fact, if you notice the conversation, it's, it's purely
for him. He knew if she goes in, he'll be
taken care of. And as a husband, I don't think
I would give up on my wife like that.
I wouldn't give up on my wife, but in this day and age, fear
set in. And I believe fear set in
because he was the king. There was a sudden shift in who
he was and the sudden shift when the king came along.
Remember, he met with the king Melchizedek.
He fought against other kings to rescue his own cousin.
He has seen kings, but in a time when there is peace, when a time
when there's quietness around, in a time when he's just moving
and moving into a place and wanting to settle, he gives in
to fear. And today, if you're in this
pathway to move towards a promise, the fear of man will
settle in US or get activated in US when we are on our journey
from moving from probably in in in abundance in everything going
right, the fear of man can set in.
And this is where we have to come to a place and as Jesus
followers and see what is our response going to be like?
Am I going to cave in? Because that's what causes us to
stand out. So today when you this isn't
about an authority submission issue in a workplace, but this
comes to a place where the fear of man is it causing you to do
something wrong just so that you'll earn the favour of your
immediate boss? Is this is the fear of man
causing you to take certain actions so that you can you can
steer your people or under you as your subordinates in a
different One Direction so that you can Curry the favor of
someone else on top as Jesus followers, this shadow can
become looming that it can't even cause us to be just
selfish. They'll be like you know what I
don't think it's what I'm called to do.
I don't think So. What I'm I'm I'm, I'm, it's not
my cup of tea, but Jesus followers have to move to a
place realizing that as long as we are walking on this world, no
one shadow can deter us from the promise that God's called us.
No one's shadow or no one's title can deter us from the
promise that God's called us. A lot of us today are basing or
wanting to be under someone's shadow because it's easier.
You don't have to feel the heat of the Scotch thing sun, you
don't have it. It seems cooler.
It seems like you're covered. It seems like you're protected.
It seems like there's a covering, but God's saying you
need, you will be moved to a place where we will have to walk
out in boldness so that our trust and our confidence will be
solely on God. And I'm reminded from the New
Testament of Paul encouraging Timothy because Timothy came
from this home where his grandmother and mother was
committed believers of Jesus. And as they were people of
faith, it was easy for him to walk in their shadows.
But Paul saying you have to fan into flame what has been
stirring in the new God's got something bigger.
You need to move out. You need to step out.
And I want to read that words because I believe a lot of us
today have been circling around the shadows of those who are
around us, whereas God is saying, step out in confidence.
Let not the fear of man make you selfish that you're like, you
know what, it's OK, I can. This is not the nature that
Jesus wants us to exhibit when he's calling us to possess a
promise. So 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 7.
This is what it says. For God did not give us a spirit
of timidity or coward or fear, but he has given us a spirit of
power and of love and of sound judgement and personal
discipline abilities that can result in a calm, well balanced
mind and self-control. So this is not us telling you
like you're a free bird, you have all the freedom to go do
whatever you want. No, it's this freedom that's
given with guardrails. It's this freedom that's
becoming knowing that God, when I step out, you're stepping in
to this area with me because you're going to be glorified.
All this while I was in the shadow of others where I could
see you. But now when I step out, I
believe and trust, the confidence is that you're also
stepping out with me. And there are times as a couple
where many a times we've responded in the fear of man.
Oh, what do people think or what people do?
But God's asking you today, would you step out not in fear,
but would you step out with power, with love and of a sound
mind? Confidence is on God.
We trust in God alone. And so today, if there's one
thing that's holding you back, I pray it may not be the fear of
man which is crippling you into a place of making it all about
yourself. Because here Abraham made it all
about himself. He wanted to be protected.
He didn't want to be killed somewhere.
He was willing to, you know, part with his wife.
He I don't know what happened. Fear has ways of muddling a
brain up. Fear has ways of confusing us.
But made the love of Jesus and the beautiful Spirit of God
guide us into having a sound mind, Sound mind.
So I pray that we'll rise up from the fear of man and not be
crippled anymore, that we won't operate our selfishness.
The second thing, the fear of man makes us think less of us.
The fear of man makes us think less of us.
And so most often we question our God-given identity.
A lot of us who follow Jesus have been washed, have been set
free, have been liberated from the clutches of sin.
And today we are walking in liberty with Jesus who is with
us. So he's given us his God-given.
90 When we allow Jesus to come into our hearts, our hearts are
open. He resides in US.
And so we have his identity in US.
He is in US. And today we need to walk in
that. Today when Abraham suddenly met
Abhimal, like the king of Guerrar, his title, his position
suddenly made him feel small. He suddenly didn't realize
Abraham was called to be the father of nations.
The God who had called him was with him.
He, in the midst of someone else, felt really small.
Fear of man will always make us look and feel small, but fear of
God helps us to realize what our identity is with Christ.
I want to read from Isaiah chapter 41 verses 8 to 10.
That's what it says. But you, Israel, are my servant.
You, Jacob, my first choice, descendants of my good friend
Abraham. I pulled you in from all over
the world, called you in from every dark corner of the earth,
telling you you're my servant, serving on my side.
I've picked you, I haven't dropped you.
Don't panic, I'm with you. There's no need to fear, for I
am your God. I'll give you strength, I'll
help. I'll hold you steady, keep a
firm grip on you. So today, Church, I would ask
you if fear is what is dictating you and making you feel small,
The fear of man who operates through man, the enemy, the
enemy. And so today, if people have
bullied you, if people have called you names, if people you,
if people have judged you based on your skin color, your body
type, whatever it is. I pray you move to a place of
realizing who God has created you to be, who God has created
you to be. The fear of man will make you
feel small. You know one of the things I've
been bullied, I've been called names, I've been shamed a lot
for my body type. I've been the beautiful thing
that I've seen is God bubble wraps us with his God-given
identity. There's many times where people
have, I've done said all these things, but it has never shaken
my identity in Jesus. For for even though I've walked
through abandonment, I've walked through loneliness, I've walked
through so many things which could have shaped my identity,
But God has moved me to a place to realize that I am his.
He is mine. And I believe that's where we
have to have a deep love for worship, a deep love for
worship, of knowing who we worship.
Because when we know who we worship, we are so comfortable
being in that presence. I don't know how many of you
I've, I, I take certain things very literally.
I take applying the blood on our doorposts very seriously.
I take being called His very seriously.
And I take the fact that I am his.
He's created me. And if he's create me, there's
nothing that can change because my looks don't determine where I
work. My my body type doesn't
determine what I get to do. I get to do all this because God
has opened that door. And when we come to that
understanding of who God is and where we are at, and we realize
that if he's knitters beautifully in our mother's
womb, whatever drawbacks I have, yeah, prematurely, I'm grey or
my skin is acting up or all these other, but I'm still his
masterpiece. And still, that's why the Word
of God says my earthly body is fading away.
And I pray and ask that each and every one of us will come to a
realization of that. That fear of man will make us
feel small. But with a God who comes inside
you, the God of the universe, when he comes inside the heart
of a man, he makes us feel unique.
There's no one else like you. You are his masterpiece and I'll
tell you how that manifests itself, especially when we get
married, when we go into a new place.
I remember when we were for a year in attending a church back
in the US, we were in this entirely white church.
It's close to 2000 people who come multiple services and and I
think that's where it's a deep communion of the Holy Spirit is
very important. We realized this is from day
one. We went there, we stayed there,
we fellowship there. We were part of that.
There were a handful of people I encountered with my hands, only
talked. There were some couples who said
we need to catch up but never caught up with them to have a
meal or anything. But we love the church so dearly
because God was present. God spoke to us.
God caused us to see how to do ministry and how not to do
ministry. We went into that church and
it's interesting every Sunday because we were the only
coloured people in that church. And it was interesting that
every Sunday that pastor would meet us.
We would linger long enough to meet and as we met him, he would
hug us. He would make us feel seen, make
us feel heard. And I came to an understanding
of what it is to be comfortable because that's where the Holy
Spirit was residing for us as a family.
And so today I pray that the fear of man won't cause you to
be disheveled. What is disheveled?
Disheveled is where you're running helters Caterpillar to
post like where is the Spirit of God?
You will come to a place God, if the Spirit of God is resting
here, I want to be here. If the glory of God is here.
This is where I'll call home if. And so I pray that even as you
are watching this or you're listening to this, wherever
you're at, I pray that you will have a God-given identity to
know that the world will make you feel small.
The fear of man will make you feel feel small.
You'll always feel like you have to measure, but when the living
God comes inside you, He will activate within you His strength
and make you realize who He has created you to be.
Psalm 34 was four to seven. I prayed to the Lord and He
answered me. He freed me from all my fears.
Those who look to Him for help will be radiant with joy.
No shadow of shame will darken their faces.
In my desperation, I prayed and the Lord listened.
He saved me from all my troubles.
For the Angel of the Lord is a God.
He surrounds and defends all who feared him.
It's protection. And defending happens only when
we fear God. We're protected and defended
only when we fear God. When we fear man, we we leave
the entire place open for us to be attacked.
And I pray that we won't walk around prideful.
A lot of us think, you know what?
Intellectually I know about Jesus, but the truth is, if he's
not done a work in you, you won't be able to see.
And the beautiful thing about fear of man will cause us to
protect everything on our own, keep everything constricted,
make boundary walls so that we think we are in control of
everything. No Fear of God will help us to
realize God, you are in control of everything.
If my kid is going through something this let me walk
alongside with them, but let me help them face the world.
Let me help them face the world. One of our kids, all three of
our kids in fact, have walked through different seasons of
their life where their entire friend circle changed.
And I know and three of our kids are highly social.
They they love people, they love being around people.
But this is a phase where we've seen with, you know, with three
kids, we've seen that this in this particular age group and
there's a shift happened academically.
We see this thing happen. And we told each of our kids in
that those seasons, hey, friends will change.
But you can be a friend to someone else.
You can be your friend to some. And it's interesting how their
entire friend circle has changed when they realized the others
have ditched them. And I believe it's this
navigating this different journey with each of them has
helped me realize many a times when we fear God, we live with
hands open because we know when we fear God, he's the one who
protects. He's the one who guards.
And so we realize that he's the one who will protect them.
He helps them, you know, shape their worldview, their mind.
We can't shape it. We we can walk around them.
We hope more will be caught than taught, but I believe that as
they shape that, I believe they will see that we are people who
didn't give it to the fear of man.
We are people who we lived with strong identity, strong
understanding of ourselves. That we will be mindful also as
we lead others, that we will lead them with the fear of God
in our lives. And I pray that as we go through
this that we will be a chosen vessel for God's given identity,
that we wouldn't, that when we are his chosen message, we would
radiate with joy. We won't radiate with
bitterness. We would be joyful and we meet
with everyone and just we'll talk to everyone.
It's interesting, the church that we have, I can see how
certain clicks form between body types, between people of the
same colour, people, people of the same language, between
people who are intellectually thinking.
You can see you can easily see you can see that some people
open their doors, the open doors, longer tables for
everyone. Some don't.
Some are very choosy of who they are love.
And you see the fear of man acting in all these different
spaces. And I want to come to a place
where Lord, we will move into a space where we will be confident
who you've created so that our faces will radiate with joy for
everyone, not just for the select few, for everyone.
And I pray that we'll see that happen because we are created as
his masterpiece of in this lesson.
When we see Abraham, what we see, we see that next to someone
who was bigger in that land, he felt small and he caved in.
And I pray none of us would cave in.
None of us would cave in because the minute we cave in, we leave
a foothold for the enemy. The minute we cave in, we are
allowing Him to meddle with our mind, to meddle with all that
God's deposited, and to meddle with the fact that our promise
is not important. As we move to the Third Point,
but before that, I want to read Ephesians chapter 3, verses 16
to 20. And So what it says.
I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you
with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ
may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may
have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how
wide, how long, how high His love for us to know this love
that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure
of all the fullness of God. Now to him who's able to do
immeasurably more than all we can ask, imagine, according to
his power that is at work within us, His love has to be wide,
high, long and wide enough. It surpasses our knowledge.
And I pray that our generation, that generation that is after us
and who's coming after us, who are being born, they won't use
knowledge to confine the love of God.
They will experience it. And this will come from a place
of realizing that fear of man will make you small.
But when you fear God and understand who He's created you
to be, it will give you a renew sense of identity that you can
walk confidently on this earth knowing who's created you.
Because when you are confidently knowing who's created you and
what you're created for, you start accomplishing the things
that will take you closer to seeing your promise being
fulfilled right here on this earth, right here on this earth.
The third thing, the fear of man can make us temporarily give up
on the promise that God has given upon us.
The fear of man can make us temporarily give up on the
promise God has deposited in US. I want to read 2 passages.
Genesis chapter 12 verses 10 to 13.
Now there was a famine in the land and Abraham went to Egypt
to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
As he was about to empty Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, I
know what a beautiful woman you are.
When the Egyptians see you, they will say this is the, this is
his wife. Then they will kill me, but will
let you live, say you are my sister, so that I will be
treated well for your sake, and my life will be spared because
of you. Fast forward from Genesis 12 to
Genesis 20. This is what it says when ABI
Malik had taken taken Sarah into his quotes and kept her there.
We see immediately God appeared to ABI Malik and I believe God
intervened because he didn't want the promise that his chosen
person Abraham and walked all these years to go to waste.
If ABI Malik got up here to ABI Malik, God confronted him and
told him, you've taken a man's wife.
And immediately the next day he called his people, he discussed
it and they called Abraham and said, what have you done?
And this is what Abraham says. Early the next morning our Malik
sermon, all his officials. And when they told him all that
happened, they had, they were very much afraid.
Then I mean Malik called Abraham and it said, what have you done
to us? How have I wronged you that you
brought such a great guilt upon me and my Kingdom?
You have done things to me that you should never have done.
And I mean Malik asked Abraham, what was your reason for doing
this? Abraham replied.
I said to myself, there is surely No Fear of God in this
place, and they will kill me because of my wife.
Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my
father, though not of my mother, and she became my wife.
And when God had me wander for my father's household, I said to
her, this is how we should, This is how you can show your love to
me everywhere we go, Say of me, he is my brother.
It seemed that they were creating a protection plan for
themselves, but God was saying, hey, you are mine, so you're
under my protection plan. You don't have to do this
because when you're under your protection plan, you're not.
You're unable to control or you're unable to govern the
promise. You can't.
You're not a keeper of promise because if you're not a keeper
of promise, Sarah could could not have protected it.
If ABI Malik had violated her, it it would have changed the
course. Rather the the the promised
child that was supposed to come out of her would have been ABI
Malik's. And here God intervened.
And I believe a lot of us today have somehow caved into the fear
of man and we've got a promise muddied.
If God has called you to take a step of faith into a particular
direction and you've, you've, you're caving in because of the
fear of man, rise up today. The God of Angel armies is with
you. He's wanting you to see clearly,
seek him. And faith step has to be your
step because that's where God honours the faith that you take.
And so take that step of faith. And here God stepped in because
he wanted his redemption plan to be secure.
He didn't want ABI Malik to be the father, to be the reason who
has been called out. And Jesus wouldn't have
happened. The story would look entirely
different. But in God's salvation plan, it
was Abraham's seed through which we would see redemption at the
end, who would be Jesus, who would come to save the entirety
of mankind. So Abraham thought his device
with his wife of a protection plan so that we'll safeguard
both of them. It backfired and God had to
intervene and say I am the one who can protect.
I am the one who governs. I am the promise keeper.
You aren't the promise keeper. When we allow fear to overcome
us in places like this, I believe God, word has to step
in. God's Holy Spirit has to step
in. The invitation is open for all
of us to let go of our fear and to allow God to come in.
And I pray today this fear of man will go.
This fear of man will go. And I want to pray specifically
as I, as we conclude in a couple of minutes, specifically for
those who've gone through abuse, specifically who've had a bad
touch in their life, specifically who feel like
they're unable to trust because something that man did has
gripped them strong. I want to pray that you'll find
freedom in Jesus, freedom in Jesus.
I pray the fear of man won't suffocate you anymore, that God
will bring down his radiant joy on you.
I pray especially that your heart, your mind, and your body
will find healing right now from every kind of fear that you've
been seeing. And that happens only when the
Holy Spirit comes. That's why the Holy Spirit's
invitation is very important. I believe when we allow the Holy
Spirit to enter into our lives, He changes.
He gives us the courage to face anyone.
I want to read a passage from Acts chapter 4.
The very disciples who got scattered away, who ran away,
who were scared. But the minute when they
encountered the Holy Spirit, they were able to stand before
before the sand, and they were able to stand before the very
men who had accused and put Jesus on the cross.
Acts chapter 4 says 5 to 8. The next day the rulers, the
elders, and the teachers of the Lord met in Jerusalem and on us.
The high priest was there and so was Caiaphas, John, Alexander
and others of the High Peace family.
They are Peter and John brought before them and began to
question them. By what power or what name do
you do this? The Peter filled with the Holy
Spirit said to them, rulers and elders of the people.
And Peter goes on to give a big speech.
Then they call them in again and come on them not to speak or
teach at all in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John replied, Which is right in God's eyes to
listen to you or to Him? You be the judges.
As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen
and what we have heard. After further threats, they let
them go. They could not decide how to
punish them, because all the people who are praising God for
what had happened, for the man who was miraculously healed was
over 40 years old. The fear of man can only be
overcome by the Holy Spirit. And today, I don't know what
your understanding of the Holy Spirit is, but if you want to
overcome the fear of man, it has to be overcome only by the Holy
Spirit. The fear of man will be
judgement. The fear of man will cause you
to have a lid over your cup. Won't won't see your full
potential, but the Holy Spirit will open that up to tell you
you're not called to operate in the spirit of fear, especially
the fear of man. Fear of man.
So I pray today, whatever we're fearing due to our experiences,
whatever we're fearing due to our circumstances, whatever
fearing due to our family and the situation that we've grown
up in, I pray we'll come to a place of allowing the Holy
Spirit to move that allow the Holy Spirit to move.
It says in one John, perfect love casts out fear.
The perfect love can come only from the person who is perfect
and who is that? That's Jesus, because Jesus, who
knew no sin, went to the cross for you and me.
Jesus died on our behalf. And it was not fear that took
him there. It was his submission to the
Father, deep love for the call that was on his life.
And what happened is when he rose again, every part of
darkness was broken and shaken. It was torn completely.
So today, fear has no room in Jesus.
Fear. There's no oh, I have Jesus in
me, but I have some fear. No, fear won't be there.
Fear reverent, All will be there.
But No Fear or what, man or no, You won't even be worried about
your name. No longer.
You won't be worried about what the world says because
everything has its timeline. Truth alone will build a legacy.
Lies will fade away after a time.
So I pray that you look to the cross.
I pray each and every one of us. What about fears you're
carrying? Fear of the future, fear of a
bank balance is being empty. Fear of our relationship being
and hanging on that last thread. Fear of a future, of our
children, what they'll become. Fear of everything that's around
will only cripple us, suffocate us, and leave us not being able
to move and fulfill what God has called us.
Whereas when we look to God, when we trust Him, when we call
on His name, when we understand the realness of His love, our
joy, our faces become radiant with joy.
We realize that He's the one who protects and guards us.
And I pray that we will move to a place of trusting Him holy, of
trusting Him holy. So just even as I close, I'm
praying specifically that God will work in and through your
life and my life. I have certain fears and I want
those fears to be relinquished. I want those.
I want to relinquish all. I don't want to walk in the
shadow of the fear of man. I want to be under the wings of
the Almighty. But I know also that God wants
me to take a step of faith out so that I'll be able to know
that He is with me in that step. What we see happen after this is
the King gives him back and restores him back.
Sarah's untouched. And I believe God protects us.
God protects his people. So I pray if you've done right
by what God's called you to do, He will step in.
Don't have any fear of man. Nothing can stop us to enjoying
the promise that God's calling us towards.
As we position ourselves, as we let go of every fear that the
enemy throws, he will constantly keep throwing fear.
The fear of business, the fear of clients, the fear of RP, the
fear of everything that is happening, the cost of living,
all the fear that you have. You can go to God.
He's not afraid of anything. He's overcome everything.
And I want to give you that message of hope that you will
trust him wholeheartedly. You will trust him
wholeheartedly. Can I pray with you right now?
Loving Heavenly Father, I just thank you a lot for this time.
I pray, Lord, even as people are watching and listening, I pray,
Holy Spirit, I pray would flood their space right now.
Their hearts will be flooded right now.
I pray every fear of man, Lord, everything that they have gone
through in life, every experience, every, everything
that they have imbibed, Lord Jesus because of of an attitude
of fear of someone else. Lord, I pray every negative
emotion, Lord, everything that's built over a period of time and
now has become a stronghold. We ask and we bind it in the
name of Jesus and we release freedom.
We release your love. We release Lord Jesus your
protection, We release your guarding.
Lord Jesus is that he'll come. I pray each and everyone of our
faces will be radiant with joy because we trust you and because
we see you do greater things. Lord, I pray you would go before
us. I pray you would strengthen us.
I pray you would take charge, Lord Jesus, and do greater
things. Lord, I pray that we will see
your Kingdom come. Lord, we will be people who will
be able to accomplish everything because we don't cave into the
fear of man, but rather we live with a reverent fear of you,
Lord Jesus. I pray, Lord, our convictions
will become stronger, our decisions, Lord, following you,
things that we choose to do for you will become more clearer,
Lord Jesus. And I pray that Lord, we will
have peace because you are with us.
You are with us, Lord, go before us and be with us.
Lord, your most holy name we pray, Amen.
Amen. I pray that even as you step out
this week, you won't be crippled by the fear of man.
You would overcome it, I pray. If you have any such thing,
reach out to us. We'd love to pray with you.
You know, it says that when two or three agree together, I
believe Jesus is there. And I believe a lot of times you
might want to ask someone to stand alongside with you to
overcome that fear. I pray that God will use you
mightily in the days to come, that you'll be able to live out
whatever God's called you to do, knowing that He's with you every
step of the way. God bless you and have a blessed
week. Thanks for listening to this
message. We hope you were blessed to hear
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Remember, whoever finds Jesus finds life.