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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Ezra chapter #3 In case you noticed, an astute student of
the Word of God, Ezra is not second Peter.
And we'll be finishing second Peter next week and looking
forward to that. But we'll be outside of our
series this morning and this evening.
And Ezra chapter #3 and looking at a little bit of a different,
different thought this morning that I believe the Lord has for
us, that I hope will be a help and encouragement to you.
And I'm going to start by saying something that might seem fairly
controversial, not trying to be, but I really want us to hammer
home this thought today. So follow me all the way through
if you would. And that thought is this fear is
not rational. Fear is not rational.
Now I know that fear teaches you that it is the most rational of
all emotions, isn't it? But fear in its very essence, is
not rational. I'm not talking about the fear
of the Lord. The Bible talks much about the
fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom and the fear
of the Lord being the beginning of knowledge.
But I'm just talking about good old fashioned sinful fear.
The type that helps us make bad decisions.
The type that paralyzes us when situations call for action.
I think of a few different Bible verses that speak of this when
it says in Second Timothy 17 the Lord hath not given us the
spirit of fear. And the question is, if the Lord
is not the one who gave us the spirit of the fear, then who
did? I think we know the answer to
that. Psalm 56, verses 3 and 4 say
what time I am afraid. I will trust in the in God, I
will praise His word in God. I have put my trust.
I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
And just those two simple verses, or rather 3 verses that
I read should put the issue to a rest of fear and whether it's
rational and whether it's right. And the answer clearly
biblically is that it's not. But like many things in the
Bible, they are simple to understand, but not always easy
to do. It's very simple to understand
that we should not be people who are governed with fear, not when
we belong to the God of the universe.
It's easy to understand, or simple to understand rather.
But it's not always easy to do. Because while I think a lot of
you are saying Amen on the outside, or at least wanting to
say Amen on the inside, maybe in your heart you're also
realizing. I know.
It, but I don't live it, and I know that's probably true of
you. Because I know very well it's
true of me. So what does the Bible say about
fear? This morning titled My Message
is this What? Do we do?
With fear we please stand for the reading of God's Word.
Ezra chapter 3 beginning in verse one.
Ezra chapter 3 verse one. And it says this.
And when the 7th month was come and the children of Israel were
in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as
one man to Jerusalem. Then stood up Jeshua the son of
Josidac and his brother the priest, and Zorrobel the son of
Shaltiel and his brethren, and building the altar of the God of
Israel to offer burnt offerings there on as is written in the
law of Moses, the man of God. That may not sound like a big
deal to you. I mean, they built an altar and
they're worshipping, but I would say to you this morning, that's
a very big deal because of what the time frame is and why
they're building it. And we'll look at that in a
moment. Verse 3.
And they set the altar upon his bases, for fear was upon them
because of the people of those countries.
And they offered burnt offerings there on unto the Lord, even
burnt offerings morning and evening.
They kept also the Feast of the Tabernacles.
It is written and offered the daily burnt offerings by number,
according to the custom, as the duty of every day required, and
afterward offered the continual burnt offering both of the new
moons and of all the set feast of the Lord that were
consecrated, and of everyone that willingly offered a free
will offering unto the Lord. From the first day of the 7th
month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord.
But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
And that last sentence in verse number six gives us a hint of
the time frame that the temple as we once knew it doesn't
exist. And the fact that the altar is
being renewed upon its previous placement is a very big deal.
And there's a lot that's going on.
You say, pastor, what does this have to do with fear?
Well, I think we might have just seen that there was some fear of
the people who were in the area, but also there was some fear
that was within their own heart about the situation they'd found
themselves in. Why don't you be seated?
Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, do pray that
you would just help me this morning as I'm back in the
pulpit. I'm so thankful to be able to be
back amongst these people, My friends, my family.
I thank you for them. I do pray that you would just
speak to us today. I really feel that this issue of
fear is something that many of us grapple with.
And although many of us don't want to acknowledge it, it's
true. It's something we deal with.
I do pray that you help us to be able to trust you more for
really that's truly what it comes down to.
People trust you for who you are and what you can do for us in
our lives. And we ask this all in Jesus
name, Amen. Verse #3 says and they set the
altar upon his bases for fear was upon them because of the
people of the countries. Now again, it does seem like
we've just come right into the middle of a greater story that's
taking place and that's because well, that's exactly what's
happened is that the book of Ezra takes place in the post
exile history of the people of Israel.
No, you remember that the people of Israel during the times of
Saul and David and Solomon, they were unified as 12 tribes
together as one, the way God intended it to be.
But that after Solomon died, the Kingdom was broken into two.
And that the northern Kingdom, that 10 tribes had no good kings
and the 2 tribes to the South had some good kings and some bad
kings. It ended up over a period of a
couple 100 years that the Israelites to the north were
taken into exile. And then finally Jerusalem and
Judah and Benjamin were also destroyed and they were taken
into exile as well with a very few people remaining in the
promised land. But then after a certain period
of time, God looked upon the people of Israel.
And it says at the beginning of the book of Ezra that King Cyrus
of Persia was stirred up by God to allow the Jews to return to
Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.
By the way, that was a miracle in and of itself, that a Gentile
king who had the Israelites in captivity within his own
dominion decided to let them go back to their own country and to
be able to rebuild again. But it wasn't just that he
allowed them to go back. He allowed them to take many of
the vessels that were previously taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the
Babylonian Empire, which was then taken over by the Persian
Empire. He allowed them to take many of
those same vessels back with them.
And so he gave them building supplies.
He gave them materials. He gave them the hallowed
things. And he says, go back, repopulate
Israel, go back, rebuild Jerusalem and go back and
rebuild the temple. And again, we just ought to take
a moment to just acknowledge that a Gentile king to be able
to say this was an incredible thing.
It's just not something that conquering kings would do.
But yet God had moved in such a way that this is exactly what
happened. And so there was a group of of
people who went from the Persian Empire back to Israel.
And the Bible actually gives us the total.
It was 42,360 with another 7000 plus servants.
Now that's around 50,000 people. And that sounds like a lot of
people, but really it was just a remnant of who were previously
there when you consider the population of Jerusalem was many
times fold more over that at any given season.
And now you're looking at not only that, the population of
Jerusalem, but also the surrounding towns and cities as
well. Because remember in verse #1 of
chapter 3, it says they all came together to Jerusalem as one.
And so that meant they would have been spread out over the
land of Israel. And so there's just a a small
group of people who were there and there, it's a small band of
people who are very far away from the king who told them to
be able to go. There's no Internet, there's no
means of communication like we have today.
There's no phones, there's no, there's there's no Telegraph,
there's no smoke signals. They got nothing.
They're on their own. And they are surrounded by
hostile nations who want them destroyed.
What doesn't sound much different than today, does it?
Israel surrounded by hostile nations who want to see them
destroyed. And so they are there, and they
realize that they are few, that the enemies are many, and
they're afraid and they're afraid.
Say, well, pastor, what does this have to do with me?
Because I'm not dealing with anything like the people of
Israel are dealing with here. I mean, they're afraid because
their lives were at stake, but I'm not dealing with anything.
Like that within my own life. They're afraid because they had
already been wiped away from the land once, and they were afraid
it was going to happen again. And they saw how weak they were.
They saw how strong the other nations were.
Like, what on earth does this have to do with me?
Well, it has to do with you. Because their fear may not be
your fear, but your fear is just as real as the fear they're
dealing with. I'm not saying your fear is the
same. I'm not saying your fear is
equivalent. We're not comparing ourselves to
each other this morning. I'm just saying this.
Your fear doesn't feel better because someone else has
something greater to fear. You don't ever say to yourself,
boy, I'm really afraid. You know, there's not much money
in the bank account. I'm not getting paid for another
week. But you know what?
There's a lot of people who have it worse.
No, no, we can tell ourselves that.
And it's probably a good thing to remind ourselves of something
like that is it's kind of ground us into reality.
But listen, that doesn't just make the fearfulness go away.
It may put it into context, but it doesn't just dissolve.
You don't just say, oh, I never thought about it like that.
And oh, I feel so much better. Well, no.
Listen, fear on it's very basis is irrational.
Now hear me, some of you might want to argue with me, but fear
and it's very basis is irrational.
I think of several things that I deal with as far as fear goes.
I remember we first moved here. I had a great fear of driving in
Boston. So you know what we did?
We took the traps of, hey, we're all, maybe we have a support
group after church. All right, that sounds like.
And I started working Uber and I didn't realize when I started
doing Uber, I did it sometimes at nights.
I was still pastoring, but just needed to be able to have some
more funds. And so I would do that.
I didn't realize you couldn't put in the Uber app.
I don't want to drive in Boston. And so I picked someone up at
Easton and they wanted to go to the North End on a Friday night.
You're groaning. I didn't know what it was.
I know what it is now. And I found out what Hanover
Street was real quick. And I got down there and I
couldn't move. The people just said, hey, we're
like 3 blocks away, but we're just going to get out of the
car. And they just got out of the car
and walked. And I was still stuck there, but
I learned. Pretty quick to be able to
handle that and I'll be honest, I drive in Boston now and it's
not a big deal. I kind of enjoyed the sport of
it now, to be honest with you. I'm also afraid of heights.
Anybody want to join me in Ralph?
Yeah. I I don't, I don't like I don't
like heights at all. I don't like ladders.
Look, look. God.
God made us to have two feet on the ground.
Amen. You know what I'm saying?
And and I, I've been on Ferris wheels before, and, you know,
it's amazing to me. No matter how many times I go on
Ferris wheels, the next time is just as scary as the one before.
Because again, man wasn't made to be going in little carts that
wiggle back and forth going around in circles like that.
It's just that God never intended that.
What I'm saying is this. You're some of you are.
Some of you totally get the fear of driving in Boston.
Some of you totally get the fear of heights.
Some of you think I'm a lunatic for fearing either one.
But every single one of us have fears.
And what you would laugh at at me, I could maybe laugh at in
you, because your fear would seem irrational to me.
My fear seems irrational to you. But I would tell you that.
All fear is irrational. Fear of heights is it's
important. And fear of fear of electricity.
Well, no, listen, I get, you know, I fear no electricity.
I'm going to put this fork in a, in a, in an outlet and see what
happens. We should have a healthy respect
for electricity. We should have a healthy respect
for heights. I mean, listen, you want to be
careful if you're in a place that's high and you could be
precarious. I think there's healthy to have.
We're not talking about playing risks and playing it loose and
free with all of those types of things of life.
No, no, that's not what I'm saying.
I'm talking about an irrationality that comes with
fear of certain elements of our life.
And listen, people will just say this.
We'll just conquer your fear and listen, Some of them we can get
better at, others of them we struggle with.
Others of them we do well with for a while and then six months
or. A year comes later and it's like
we're right back at it where we were before.
What do we do with fear? Yeah, you can conquer fear.
But what do you do when you have fear?
That you have a test that's coming back and you're not sure
if it's cancerous or not? What do you do when you have
fear because you're going to be rejected by someone that you
love or you're afraid you will be?
What do you do when you have fear about losing your
possessions or your finances? There's no simple way to just
conquer it. Just get over it.
It's not that simple, is it? Israel had a fear of the people.
They could wipe them out, by the way.
There was a history of that very thing happening.
They were afraid. But Israel in this text gives us
a blueprint of how you and I can also handle fear.
And maybe you need to write this down in your Bible.
Maybe there's something you need to write in the flyleaf of your
Bible or, or on the back of the bulletin or something to help
you to deal with fear. Because how Israel dealt with
fear biblically is the same way that you and I can deal with our
fears here today. And the first is this #1
acknowledge it. Acknowledge the fact you deal
with fear. I'm not afraid of anything.
Well, then you're a fool, because every single one of us
should at least be able to acknowledge that there are
things we're afraid of. I'm not saying, again that fear
is rational, but I'm saying this we should all be at least be
able to acknowledge we deal with it.
We should all be able to say that we deal with this issue of
fear. Acknowledging it may seem like a
small. Step.
But it's an important one. And here's why it's so
important, because it's something that must be
confessed. Fear is sin.
Again, you might need to chew on that for a second.
Again, I'm not talking about, well, I have a fear of
electricity and we're not talking about having a healthy
respect for something that could take your life if it's used
improperly. We're talking about good old
fashioned irrational fear. Romans 14 verse 23 says for
whatsoever is not a faith is sin.
Proverbs 2925 the fear of man bringeth A snare.
You know what it means when it says a snare?
It's like trapping an animal. Fear of man is like.
Getting trapped. But whosoever putteth his trust
in the Lord shall be safe. You know it says in Revelation
21 verse 8. But the fearful, the
unbelieving, the abominable, the murders, the whoremongers, the
sorcerers, idolaters, all liars, which have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire, and.
Brimstone. Which is the second death.
You say, Pastor, you're saying everyone that's afraid is going
to go to hell. No, no, that's not what I'm
saying at all. But I am saying this, that there
is a route to fear that is quite abominable.
There's a. Route to fear that is quite
damnable. And I'm not saying that everyone
that here has ever dealt with fear is going to go to hell.
No, no, what I'm saying is this. That is a fear that must, or
rather it is a sin that must be forgiven by the blood of Jesus
Christ. We just need to put it out there
that you and I deal with this issue of fear.
We fear physical pain. We feel fear the loss of a loved
one. We can fear other people.
We can fear financial ruin. We can fear the future.
There's so many different things that you and I can fear, but at
least we need to get out there first of all and acknowledge it
that we're afraid. And by the way, often times we
get to this place where we think that if we acknowledge we're
fearful that it makes us look weak.
If I acknowledge that I'm afraid of something, that that, that
I'm a nobody, I'm a coward, that people will look different at
me. You know, sometimes you need to
be able to acknowledge your fear to be able to help someone else
deal with their fear, because life isn't just about you.
These Israelites obviously had a conversation with each other.
Hey, we're afraid. We're afraid.
They had to acknowledge it, that they came to this conclusion
together because what they did that came up next, they also did
together. So they couldn't have done what
they did with the altar. We'll explain what that is in a
minute. But they couldn't have done what
they did with the altar together if they hadn't had a
conversation. You know, we're afraid of all
these people. You're afraid of that.
Why I am too. Why I'm too.
They at least need to say it and verbalize.
And there is something helpful about people being able to
acknowledge. Yeah, I'm afraid of some things.
I'm being honest, we all deal with these things.
Again, I found it helpful over the years and teaching folks how
to win other people to Christ to just say, you know, I get
nervous and fearful in explaining the gospel message to
other people. Well, you're a pastor.
You've been doing this for how many years?
I know I've been in full time ministry for 20 years, but every
time I talk to someone about the gospel, I realize their soul
hangs in the balance. And sometimes that gravity can
turn into fearfulness. No Should we understand the
gravity of it? Absolutely we should.
We should understand how important it is.
But that's gravity can sometimes turn into paralyzing fear where
instead of making sure I say the right thing, I'm so worried
about saying the right thing that I say nothing.
Or I'm afraid that they'll say no and reject the Lord.
But really, I'm not as worried about them rejecting the Lord as
I am them rejecting me. But I found.
That it's been helpful for me to explain that to people sometimes
because when I do, I can see just as I see right now.
Sometimes the lights turn on. Oh, you deal with that, too?
Yeah. That doesn't just go away when
you get a degree from a Bible college.
I was shocked it didn't go away the day I got ordained.
I still deal with it. Why?
Because Satan wants to make sure that we are so afraid that we
don't share our faith with anybody.
So what do we do? First, we acknowledge it.
That's what the Israelites did here.
I believe there had to have been a conversation here to bring
them to the place where they got to the next step.
And the next step was this give it to God.
OK, we can talk about how afraid we are all day, but if you don't
give it to God, it's worthless. I can admit that there are times
that it makes it. I get very nervous being able to
give the gospel to someone else, but if I don't actually give it
to the Lord and then give the gospel to someone else, what's
it? What have I accomplished?
It's one thing to acknowledge we have fear, but it's another
thing to, quote UN quote, conquer it.
Well, what does that mean? Give it to the Lord because He's
the Conqueror. He is the one that is the God
who can cast out the fears that we deal with in our life.
You see, they decided the best way to handle this was to stop
being afraid and start doing right.
Well, what do you mean? Go back to verse #3 it says
this. And they set the altar upon his
bases, for fear was upon them because of the people, those
countries. And they offer burnt offerings
there on unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and
evening. That you understand that God had
called the people of Israel to offer sacrifices every day, but
then also offer specific sacrifices during different
festivals and feasts, 3 in particular major ones that God
had called them to do. But but after they had left into
exile, or rather had they been taken into exile and come back,
the temple is gone. The altar is gone.
It's rubble. Jerusalem is rubble.
In fact, you go as far as Nehemiah and you'll find that
even the walls are still rubble, even as the temple has been
repaired. So they realize we're afraid and
we're afraid. So what are we going to do about
it? They said, you know what, we
need to honor the Lord. So they put the altar on its
bases. And what that means is this.
They basically found the place in the rubble where the old
altar used to be. And on the base of the old altar
they built the new altar. Now, why was this so
fundamental? Why was this so important?
Why was it so important that in the midst of their fear, and
again verse #3 acknowledges they were afraid of the people, Why
was it so important that they were to offer sacrifice during
that time? Well, what is a sacrifice?
Particularly the sacrifices that they were making was an
atonement for sin. You know, I think almost
visually it was like this. They were laying their fear on
the altar and they were giving it to God.
I'm not just acknowledging it, I give it to you.
I'll lay it here and I'll let the fire consume it.
You know what some of you need to do today?
Some of you need to lay your fear at the altar and give it to
God. Listen, you want to conquer your
fear on your own. Good luck.
You want to conquer those fears that you have.
Fears. Fears of failure Fears.
Of a marriage crumbling, fears of children not doing right,
fear of, of, of your of, of going to school and fearing what
your school think of you. If you live for Christ, you,
you, you have these fears. Well, what can I do with him?
I've acknowledged I've got him. Sure, Pastor, You twisted my
arm. Of course I have him.
So what do I do with it? Listen, God has given us an
altar. God has given us not just this
altar here, but God has given us a place.
God has given us a method to be able to go to him, to go to the
very throne room of God where he beckons us to be able to speak
to him. That the partition has been
taken away, that we can boldly go before the throne of grace.
You know what you and I need to do with our fear?
Lay it on the altar. Could call it what it is.
It's sin. Lord, forgive me.
Yes, that's good. I'm weak.
Man, I'm weak. I thought I'd get more events
with that, to be honest with you, but you are too.
This flesh is weak. Paul struggle with it.
You think you're not going to
struggle with it? You think I'm not going to
struggle with it? In fact, Paul, you want to talk
about Paul, he goes to Corinth. Remember, we've been looking at
this and Wednesday nights and he goes to court.
He's already been beaten up and he's already been expelled and
thrown out and jailed and all these things have happened.
He finally gets to court and the things are lining up.
He's like, well, here, it's going to happen here too.
And what does that happen? The Lord appears unto him and he
says this. Be not afraid.
Well, why would God say that? Well, Cohen didn't because he
was afraid. Paul was afraid in his flesh.
What do you do? You got to acknowledge it.
You got to give it to God. These people said we're going to
build an altar. Even though it's going to be an
offense to those people, even though those people aren't going
to like it. Listen, we've got to obey God
rather than man. We've got to acknowledge him.
And listen, God is greater than those people.
And this is really the secret of all of these things.
Listen, God is greater than your fears.
God is greater than these people.
God is greater than your fear of the future because God is in the
future. God is greater than your health
concerns because God is the giver of life.
Listen, God is greater than your fears about your children
because God is the one who gave the life to those children and
allowed you to be their parents. Listen, God is greater than your
problems with your finances or your possessions because God
owns the cattle on 1000 Hills. What are you afraid of?
And what am I afraid of? Listen.
He is good, he is great. And you put those things
together, the greatness of God. There's no one more powerful.
The goodness of God that he is holy.
Now listen, what do we have to be afraid of?
Jesus says this Matthew 1128 to 30 come unto me all the labor
and are heavy laden and I will give you stress.
You were listening and you thought I made a mistake because
I wasn't looking, but I know this one.
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest
unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Some of you thought I thought this pastor a new doctrine.
He's he's going off. Joanne was like, did I find the
right church? All right, So hey, but but we
act like that's what he says, but he'll give you rest.
So what do we do? We got to we got to acknowledge
it. We got to give it to him.
And then third, we listen, we got to get to work.
Get to work. You know what they did?
They built an altar. You know what they did in the
verses following that verse 4, verse 5, verse six, they got to
work. They had the altar.
They used the altar. It was a 7th month.
That meant it was a very busy feast month.
They had the Day of Atonement. You also had the Feast of
Tabernacles that are mentioned there as well.
You know what they did? They used the altar.
You know what, they had daily sacrifices.
They used the altar. Look at verse #7.
They gave money under the Masons into the carpenters, the meat
and the drink and the oil and them aside.
They have a tire to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the Sea of
Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus, King of
Persia. You know what they did?
They got to work. Maybe some of you are right now.
You're like, man, I love this pastor.
I'm all about this. I know I need this in my life.
I know I need this. I need to give this to the Lord
today. What here's the problem.
You can give it to the Lord today, but Satan's going to give
it return to sender to you tomorrow.
I know he's going to come back tomorrow and like this, this day
never happened. Like pastor, can you just can
you like, can you just hype me up every morning?
I was like, listen, no. I got to hype myself up, man,
before I get to you. I'm going to try my best, but,
you know, listen. Pastor, what do I do?
Listen, just get to work. Fear will come back tomorrow.
What do you do? Just keep going forward.
The fear will come back tomorrow.
You just keep going forward. 1st Corinthians 16, verses 13 and
14, says Watchy. Stand fast in the faith.
Quit you like men. Now we think of that.
Quit you like men, it sounds like, well, I just need to quit.
And a lot of times that's what fear makes us do.
We need to quit. But actually the word quit here
in our King James Bible means this.
To strengthen yourself, strengthen yourself like men.
Be strong. Let all your things be done with
charity. As I mentioned, even Paul needed
encouragement. And what did he do when he got
encouragement? He went to the workout for 18
months. He did what?
Nothing but preach the gospel to the people who were there in
Corinth. Everyone needs encouragement.
You need to go to the work. Moses had excuses, but what did
God say get to work. Gideon had excuses, what did God
say get to work. John Mark had excuses in the
book of Acts. What did he do?
He was afraid and he quit and he missed the blessings that God
had for him. Now thank the Lord near the end
of his life. We don't know exactly what
happened, but Paul said this bring John Mark for he is
profitable for me to the ministry.
There had been some sort of renewal in his life.
And that's what's great, is that even if you have dealt with fear
in the past, maybe if you've given into fear in the past,
maybe you're given into fear in your present, you can get it
right and God can restore you and renew you and make you
profitable as a servant. He sure can.
Don't be paralyzed by fear. Don't be paralyzed by fear.
It was amazing to me. We were at a church last week
and at the end of the message, they brought up a missionary and
there was a missionary in town. This missionary was in his 70s.
He was a missionary to Haiti. And of course, we have much
familiarity with our church with, with Haiti and, and, and
Haitian folks. And, and we know it is pretty
dangerous there when the State Department tells you get out and
stay out, That's what you need to know.
But this man said this. I thought he'd been a missionary
to Haiti for like 50 years. And he said this.
I've been a layman all my life, me and my wife, he said we're in
our 50s and we're thinking about retirement and what to do next.
When that phase of life came, he said the Lord.
Burned our hearts. To become missionaries to Haiti
and you could just see people's faces in their 50s.
That's young, right? All right, Yeah, that's good.
I thought I'd get a better reaction than that.
All right, closer I get the younger it seems.
I'll tell you. That, but this is what happened.
They've been there 20 years and they've been faithful.
And I thought, well, you know, they're back right now because
they're, you know, they can't go back.
He said, well, we're going to be going back here soon.
You know, I look at that and I think in my mind is that crazy?
But the Lord is laid on their heart.
People, He said this. The only thing I have to fear is
to not do the will of God. That's powerful.
How many of us in our later
years would be willing to stand up to our fear?
We're just so set in our ways. This is what I do.
This is how I do it. This is who I am.
God, you'll have to take me for who I am because it's baked in
the cake. Now.
This is the way I've been for so long.
Or maybe just say this, I'm going to get about the work.
Hey, people need to hear your voice.
People need to hear your voice. People need to see you present
Christ. I'm not just talking about it
outreach on Saturdays. I'm talking about in your daily
life. They need to see you present and
represent Jesus Christ. It's fearful.
We deal with all kinds of fear, but what do we do?
Get to work when we deal with it tomorrow will then by God's
grace get to work again, but I'll probably still deal with it
a few months later or years later.
Get get back to work again. Ask God to help you.
Ask for the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside if you
or if you're saved. I'm afraid I'm afraid to give.
I'm afraid to give. I don't know what it'll do to to
our our life. Listen, just give.
Just follow God and do what he's called you to do.
I would tell you this, our family's gone through a journey
of giving over the years and we tie, then we give to missions.
And I will tell you this, I never look at that, at this
place where I am now and say, Lord, what am I going to do?
I look at the say, Lord, thank you for the privilege and the
opportunity. Thank you for taking.
Care of us. In such a way, I'll be honest, I
would almost be afraid not to because God takes care of us so
good. Afraid of family?
Listen, be a believer no matter what your family thinks.
Be a believer no matter what your extended family thinks.
Listen, when you go to a gathering with your family who
are not believers, don't try to fit in with them.
OK, I'm coming down. You know, when you get together
with your family and maybe they're not believers, don't try
to be like them. No, I'm not talking about being
rude or unkind to them. No, there's nothing Christian
about that. But show them Christ, show them
Jesus Christ. How will you win them if they
don't see Jesus Christ in you? Listen, if family wants you to
do things that are not Christian, like apologize and
say you can't do it, listen, if family tells you, hey, we want
to do this thing during church time while I go to church 0 man,
I'm just going to turn around now because this is it.
Because I know I was not going to be very popular, but I just I
will say this, I'm going to say this, I'm going to say this to
the pulpit here. Listen, I would say it's the
Pope. I would say it's the water
bottle. This water bottle right here
looks good. Whoever brought this up, by the
way, thank you. Let's say this is the water
bottle. One of the best ways that you
can show your family that you are serious in your faith is to
be able to tell them that you're serious about the House of God.
But when everything else revolves around what everybody
else wants to do instead of Lord, what would you have me to
do? First, how are they going to be
able to see Christ in you? The hope of glory?
Amen. All right, I'm not, it's, I'm
not getting on anybody. I'm just saying that we can't
allow our fear while ostracize them, while people will think
I'm holier than thou. No, no, you'll love them.
You show them, love you show them Jesus.
Don't be afraid. Don't be.
Some of you are making some bad decisions because you're afraid
of what other people will say about you, what your extended
family will say about you, what your spouse may say to you.
Listen, some of you may be afraid to even act like a
Christian or be a leader in your home because you're afraid that
your spouse will. Guys will say, well, they, they
see me for who I am and you're afraid to be the man that you
need to be. I get that.
You know the answer to that. Give it to God, confess it.
Be honest with your wife. Tell her where you failed in the
past, by the way, she knows. Put this on.
I said she already knows. So just go ahead and confess it
and be right with her. Well, I could tell I've been
gone a couple weeks, man, I'm feeling no.
But listen, don't be afraid. Israel knew they were afraid,
but they said we got to move ahead.
We got to do what's right. Do not be paralyzed by fear.
I, I know I've gone long. I just give me a couple minutes
and I'm and I'm done. As some of you may know this, I
heard it was announced on church at church last week, but the
gentleman that I've been asking to pray for for some time, Steve
Baker passed away. He was the man who led me to
Christ. December 2nd, 1998, we found out
the very first day of vacation. We, we received the call
literally when we pulled in, I got the call that he had gone to
be with the Lord. And there's so much that I could
say about Steve Baker, what he meant to me and how he patiently
won me to Christ as a teenager when I had no clue about
anything and really didn't want to have a clue about anything.
But he loved me anyway. But I remember when I went to a
program called Neighborhood Bible Time.
When I graduated high school, I got to travel the country for a
summer and do vacation Bible schools in different states.
It was an amazing opportunity. I was gone for two weeks.
Remember, I was an only child. I hadn't even seen the I didn't
been out of the Eastern Time zone in my life.
And now I'm in Boulder, Co, which is next to Cambridge, one
of the most crazy cities and liberal cities on the earth.
And so I'm there in Boulder. I'm by myself.
I mean, there's other people there, but I just, I'm so alone.
I, I, I want to quit after like a week.
I was done. I'm going to do this by myself.
I'm going to go, I'm 18 years old.
I'm going to go to churches and they're giving me this program
to be able to teach and to preach.
I don't know how I'm going to do this.
And I was so homesick. I was so alone.
I just, I was done. And I remember getting on the
phone and back in those days, you know, it had a cord still.
And so I had got a calling card and I called Steve Baker and I
said, I'm done. He said, you're done.
It's been a week. I said, I know, like, I already
tell where this is going and I'm done.
I don't want to do this. And he said, I don't think
that's the right move. He says you do whatever you feel
like you need to do. I'll pray on it.
You pray on it. But take a couple days, you read
your Bible, you pray, and then you do whatever you feel the
Lord wants you to do. And I'm like, oh, now I got to
do what the Lord wants me to do. And that's not a good sign.
I remember the next day went up onto a mountain and again, I'm
from Florida, I'm a flat Lander. It will go up on the side of a
mountain, probably 8000 feet up. I looked out over God's creation
and I don't even know if I can fully explain this to you from
the mind of an 18 year old. And I had my Bible in my hand.
It was like 5-6 in the morning. We were all out there to be able
to read our Bible. They took us up on this hill or
this mountain. And I remember reading the book
of Joshua chapter #1 and I got to verse #9 which has since
become my life verse. And on that day it became my
life verse. I didn't know what a life verse
was before then, but I realized that's what it was because it
changed my life. Said, have I not commanded thee?
Be strong and of a good courage, Be not afraid, neither be thou
this maid, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou
goest. And I realized that the God of
Tampa was the God of Boulder, who would be the God of Oklahoma
City. Amen.
Will be the God of East. And do I still deal with fear?
I do, Unfortunately, Israel did too.
You know what's going to happen in the next chapter, by the end
of chapter #4 those enemies are going to appeal to a new regime
in Persia, and they're going to get shut down.
And they're going to get shut down for the tune of about 16
years. They're not going to build
anything. What I'm saying is this, you can
make a decision today that you're not going to be afraid
and you still could deal with it tomorrow or a week later or a
month later. Keep giving it to God.
And the last thing I'll say is this, the greatest thing that
you might be afraid of is what am I going to do with my
eternity? What do I do when this life is
over? When this life is over, what,
what happens next? Can I tell you, the Bible makes
it clear that there are only two places that people go after
death? There is heaven and there's a
lake of fire. There are only two places.
And that those who have called upon Jesus Christ to save them
will spend an eternity in heaven, and those who have
rejected the free gift of salvation will spend an eternity
in the lake of fire. That is not God's plan for
anyone, You say? How could you say that?
Because Jesus Christ died for all that all might be saved to
conquer even the fear of eternity.
So today, if you don't know Jesus Christ your Savior, and
maybe this all sounds like like such a far out way of thinking
you can't even understand it. I would tell you the reason you
can't truly understand it is because maybe you don't know
Jesus Christ your Savior. Because for those of us who are
saved, it resonates because we know, hey, he is big enough to
save me for eternity. So he can probably handle a bank
account. That's a little low.
He saved me for all eternity. He can probably handle people
who are being mean to me at school.
He saved me for all eternity. He can probably handle my car
problems. So if we get it, even if we
don't live it, we understand it because the Holy Spirit inside
of it's making clear. But if you don't know Jesus
Christ your Savior today, if you don't know where you spend
eternity, do not leave this building without talking to me,
without talking to someone else in this building that would be
able to tell you, open a Bible and tell you what it means to be
saved. There's no greater decision you
can make than that. Fear God first in salvation.
Not the fear that makes you shake or quake, but the fear of
reverence, awe and respect that He is the God that we read about
in Isaiah chapter 6, who's high and lifted up.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.