Fear Not

all right good morning everyone well i heard that side of the church the rest of you gonna wake up or what so good morning much better good morning i want to welcome all of you that are watching online this morning we're just so thankful that you invite us into your homes we trust you'll be blessed as you worship with us from wherever you're at and for everyone here we are so happy to see you all here and for visitors we want to especially welcome you here if our style of worship isn't what you're used to we feel free to sit down if we stand too long and people will probably be clapping and raising their hands during our time of worship with the music another thing that's quite common is you may see people come forward for prayer during our time of worship to the music we just want you to know that's what's taking place if for whatever reason you'd like prayer we would love to to pray with you too let's see what else next week we actually switch to our summer schedule which means the there will not be an adult bible class before the church service and the church service will actually start at 9 30 instead of 10 o'clock that happens next week a reminder we sent out a couple times during the week but after the service we'll just take a brief five minute break or whatever i guess what it is is to give anybody an opportunity to leave that wants to leave but we're going to do an awards program presentation for our children so if you're able to stick around that'd be great but we're going to try to get going quite quickly after the service the award ceremony won't take more than 15 minutes or so so we want to recognize our kids have done a lot of hard work in the iwana program so we'll be doing that following the service if you want to give if you feel led by the lord to give ties and offerings we do not pass plates or baskets in here there's a box out in the foyer that you can put it in or you can text eight four three two one and follow the prompts or you can go on our victory ballot and dot org website we just want to continue to thank you and and remind you that your generosity is allowing us as a church to do so many things with different missions and different parts of the world actually as well as locally so thank you so much a couple of things i'm just going to mention quickly i want you to encourage you to go online and get some of the details at our website but there will be a men's small group that's getting organized and will be starting june 2nd if you want to be part of that men's group you will be blessed we encourage you to look at that the ladies the invitation that went out a few weeks ago about a silent retreat that is on june 5th more details can be found for that we're going to kick her out just because she yelled man tough family also the women's bible study will be starting there's information in the foyer on that that'll be starting in june also so there's a lot of opportunities for you to be involved in things as we move into the summer months also i want to uh just introduce because of scheduling we aren't going to be able to have osmond share with us in our congregation but osman would you stand up this is osmond jama most of you know that we've [Applause] most of you if you're regulars here members you know that osmond has an amazing testimony being raised in a muslim family in a different country and coming to the united states and what they've went through with him and his family his his testimony is very powerful and he works in reaching out to muslims sharing the gospel with muslims currently they're in the he's in the cincinnati area and most of you maybe you don't know but he is also a married man now so he's like yeah hey man and so he's learning what that's all about and if you follow them on facebook it looks like they're doing pretty well with that and then we're also privileged to have ben goodman with us this after this morning wherever ben is at he will be here he's in the building somewhere many of you know ben real well i'll be giving him a little more of an introduction in just when we get get to that time in the service so with that if you are able we invite you to stand and and pray with us and i just encourage you to enter into worship especially visitors so one other thing for the visitors we'd love to have you fill out a visitor's card and we'd love to give you a great coffee mug i mean it and i'm not just saying that it is a great coffee mug and a nice coffee or regular coffee after the service if you just fell out of one of the visitor cards heavenly father we thank you this morning for the privilege we have of coming together as the body of christ to to worship you to lift up the name of your son jesus to to let the thanksgiving that should be filling our hearts overflow as we lift up the name of jesus holy spirit we invite you to minister to each and every one of us here even as we are worshiping and lifting up the name of jesus holy spirit you know each one of us you know what's going on in our lives you know the pains that may be in our hearts you know the emotional healing that we might need you know the physical healing that we might need so holy spirit we invite you to have your way with us here today lead and guide us in everything that we do that everything would bring us and point to jesus father we thank you that we have a father that loves us so much and lord i just know that there's some here that really have a hard time grabbing hold of that truth that you love us unconditionally that you love us and you want nothing but good for us and even though we go through difficult challenges difficult times difficult circumstances you're still good and you still love us no matter what and i just pray holy spirit you would just speak that into the hearts of each one of us here give us greater revelation of what that kind of love really is and we pray god that that love overflows from us even back to you in our time of worship so father we just thank you and pray that our praise is a sacrifice that brings great joy to your heart as a heavenly father and we ask this all in jesus name amen amen amen well welcome this morning you know seeing osmond here this morning is just such an awesome thing for me because we're going to sing a new song and it's about battling and it's about overcoming and and putting our trust in god to do that and if you don't know osman's story i'd encourage you to just learn it medium it's just a it's a phenomenal thing that he's doing and we got to be a part of that amen that's awesome that we get to be a part of this battle and how many of you feel like you're in a battle right now just i mean you know feel free raise your hand how many feel like you're in a battle you know i'm i'm privileged maybe to be in a spot where i get to get engaged in a lot of conflict resolution a lot of conflict management some of you are probably like that in in your roles or whatever and [Music] i love the way that god sees past that in our lives and and you know some of you are also visionaries i know a lot of visionaries in the church here you can see past circumstances that you're in god sees that like he one-ups that in just an incredible way and so as we worship together this morning i just i believe that the holy spirit wants to teach us a little bit about that a little bit about how god sees us about how god sees beyond our circumstances so we're going to celebrate this jesus that we serve this morning in in a great way and maybe even a little bit of a loud way so join with us amen [Music] when all i see when all i see is a battle you see my victory yes you do [Music] when all i see is a mountain you see a mountain moved and as i walk through the shadow your love surrounds me [Music] and there's nothing to fear now for i am safe with you so when i fight so when i fight i'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high oh god the battle belongs to you and every fear i lay at your feet and i'll sing through the night oh god the battle belongs to you and if you are for me who can be against me [Music] for jesus there's nothing impossible for you when all i see are the ashes you see my beauty [Music] when all i see is across god you see the empty too so when i fight i'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high oh god the battle belongs to you and every fear i lay at your feet and i'll sing through the night oh god the battle belongs to you almighty fortress you go before us nothing can stand against the power of our god you shine in the shadow [Music] you go [Music] nothing [Music] [Music] fortress nothing can stand against the power oh god the battle belongs to you and every oh god the battle belongs [Music] belongs to you god it is with great expectation that we have this morning to experience you and worship god as we give our hearts and give our thoughts and we give our all to you god we just pray that you would help us to see the way god help us to surrender everything that gets in the way god there's just so many things but sometimes it's our circumstances but sometimes it's our own doing we thank you that you are the waymaker that you see past our circumstances that you see beyond the things that get in the way that we put on ourselves thank you that you are here [Music] you are here you're moving in our midst i worship you i worship you you are here you're working in this place i worship you i worship you you are you are way maker miracle worker promise keeper night in the darkness my god that is who you you are the waymaker miracle worker promise keeper light in the darkness my god that is who you are you are here you're touching every heart i worship you i worship you you are here healing every heart i worship you i worship you [Music] you are here you're turning lives around i worship you lord i worship you [Music] you are here you mend in every heart i worship you lord i worship you you are and you are way maker miracle worker promise keeper light in the darkness my god that is who you are way maker miracle worker promise keeper light in the darkness my god that is who you are waymaker and you are the way maker miracle worker promise keeper light in the darkness my god that is who you are it's telling this morning you are the waymaker miracle worker promise keeper right in the [Music] god is darkness you are that [Music] when i don't see it you're working even when i don't feel it you're working you never stop you never stop working you never stop you never stop working even when i don't see it you're working even when i don't feel it you're working you never stop you never stop working you never stop you never stop even when i don't see it [Music] [Music] is who you [Music] you are [Music] that [Music] that is who you are [Music] [Music] never stop you never stop working never stop and never stop working even when i don't see it you're working even when i don't feel it you're working you never stop you never [Music] [Music] you never stop working [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] darkness [Music] that is you [Music] are that is who you are [Music] [Music] god we thank you for your faithfulness lord your faithfulness your faithfulness lord thank you for the the history of your faithfulness in our lives god thank you that we can look back and see that you were faithful time and time again lord we stand on the truth that you will be faithful now lord we stand on the truth that you who started a good work in us will bring it to completion you will be faithful again lord we stand on who you are lord we look at you we look at the character of christ and we stand in awe and we say transform us lord into the image of you lord will you transform us into the image of you we earnestly desire to be more like you father we earnestly desire to be more like you and we become more like you as we immerse ourselves in your word as we immerse ourselves in your truth lord as we invite you holy spirit to wash over us to dwell in us lord we say holy spirit you are welcome here dwell in a sword we sit at your feet and we worship you holy spirit will you just fill the atmosphere this morning make your presence known we know you're here but lord we're asking you to move this morning on our behalf there's nothing worth more that would ever come close nothing can compare you're all living home [Music] it's your presence your presence lord i've tasted [Music] i've tasted seen of the sweetest silver loves where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone in your presence in your presence lord i sing there's nothing worth more [Music] there's nothing worth [Music] [Applause] [Music] hope [Music] [Music] of the sweetest of loves where my heart becomes free and my shame is under laying down our shame in [Music] [Laughter] [Music] here [Music] your glory god is what our hearts run for to be overcome by your presence [Music] there's nothing worth more that will ever come close [Music] your presence lord [Music] of the sweetest of loves where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone laying down our shame in your presence [Music] [Applause] holy [Music] fear your glory god is what our hearts long for to be overcome by your praises [Music] it's your presence let us become more aware of your presence let us experience the glory of your goodness let us become more aware of your presence let us experience the glory of your goodness let us become more aware of your presence let us experience the glory of your goodness let us your presence let us experience the glory of your goodness [Music] [Music] your glory god is where our hearts love to be overcome by your presence as we've been singing i sense the father speaking to my heart and probably to others here and he's just asking you a simple question what would you like for me and the word i keep hearing over and over is receive my child just receive i know your heart i know your needs and i love you so much just receive what i have to give to you this morning reach out and take it speak to me by your heart by your spirit what it is you want from me this morning and receive it [Music] lord i'll pour we want more the lord spirit of god fall fresh spirit of god for we need your presence your kingdom come your will [Music] is [Music] we need your [Music] we need you your kingdom come your will be done [Music] here [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] the is is all around the spirit of the lord is here in this place fill our hearts with your love your love surrounds us you're the reason we came to encounter your love your love surrounds us our hearts with your love your love surrounds us your love for [Music] we need your presence your kingdom your kingdom come your will be done here in heaven let's declare together spirits on us [Music] ever [Music] [Applause] [Music] us you're the reason we [Music] came [Music] raise so the music ends quietly but let's give him a clap offering anyway all right praise god thank you lord thank you lord praise your god amen you may be seated and the children that go to the victory for kids class and the volunteers are dismissed want to thank all of our volunteers as you go and serve in this way with our children we really are blessed by that put one on each corner well we're going to be blessed here as our brother from fayetteville north carolina comes to share with us many of you know ben i know some of you especially visitors don't know ben goodman we've had the privilege of working with men in ministry and becoming good friends for man it's way more years than we can hardly remember over 20 i believe so it's been a long time ben is on staff at a pretty large church down in fayetteville man at church and he's also travels when kovid's not limiting his travels he travels internationally and ministers to churches in many other countries and he travels a lot in the united states ministering to churches teaching a prophetic ministry one of the guys that comes here there is no such thing as working him too hard he just doesn't get tired well he might get tired but he doesn't quit so it's been a real blessing we've had a busy busy week some of you were involved with some of it that's uh it's been a blessing for us and as i shared when we had another visitor a few weeks back you know ben as he's a primarily an itinerant minister travels a lot it was very very limited during the last year matter of fact the foreign travels haven't really been able to open up yet but we want to be a blessing to him so we will be encouraging you and encouraging you to be praying uh we do not pass baskets but there will be baskets back on the on the sound booth for an offering that will go entirely to ben and his family to support him and his family and his ministry so we just want to encourage you to be praying about that as the service comes to close a little bit later on with that i want to turn over ben ben goodman please come on up here am i on i did it right this time in years past i usually do it wrong then mike's got to come up and do weird stuff behind my back but we don't have to do that anymore we're free yeah mike and i we first met when we were 12 years old and it's just wow i'm telling you uh there's going to come a time in the fall you know how the summer is supposed to be a down time get ready near the end of the summer it's going to start ramping up more people are going to want to come here and without really knowing why so start thinking now if you haven't already what are you going to do with two services what are you going to do two services and then when you think about there's going to be people who are going to travel from you know these little little towns like 20 minutes 30 minutes away these little like really there's a town there and some are going to come here and just get ready some of those people are going to go can we start a bible study in our town there's such expansion here and i'm going to say it just so you got something to do next couple of years it's going to be another building project that's just you need bigger more just saying and it's not you know bigger isn't always better unless god's behind it and god's behind it so uh enjoy the time of rest right mike enjoy your enjoy your sabbatical yeah um the kingdom god's always expanding have you ever noticed that and so uh when you have a church that's following god it's always expanding and you guys are love ministering a whole bunch of churches but there's there's a couple churches i really like coming to you because i have such good friends or at least you all pretend that we're friends and um you know i've said the the ballet and marshall area is sort of my home away from home so i always love coming here we do a lot of visiting i'm gonna unashamedly there's you know these minnesota holes on the wall these dives that you go why would anybody go into that building right let alone eat in that building all right i love those places i used to live in fergus falls many years ago and there's this little the viking cafe if you've ever been there it's just a hole in the wall they've been there forever i mean there's a waitress there that i think she's 80 years old that she can still sling the coffee and it's just an amazing thing well there's this place it's called bruisers right and you figure it's like you know it's a bar you know you go there drink heavily and fight no you drink heavily fight after you have a really good meal we went there yesterday it was really really good but it was it's a dive it's like there's nothing about it that makes you want to go there except the food now you know i'm from new jersey and i'm with these minnesotans and we get up we're going to leave and you know you know how you guys are you go they all went they looked at me and went he's not from around here they just sort of know they just sort of know okay i won't go here anymore they just sort of know like huh he's not from around here so uh thank you for your gift of hospitality um i want to pray and give you a message that's really really really really really on my heart i usually pray before whenever i preach but i just spent sort of digging in just a little bit more because uh what i think is going to happen at the end of this message only god can pull off so lord holy spirit we thank you that you're you're amongst us for those of us who have given their lives to jesus we thank you holy spirit that you dwell in us it's an amazing thing holy spirit would you please your presence is great but unless you do what only you can do uh well we'll just feel like there's more holy spirit you're the one that reveals jesus you're the one that makes real the heart the mind the power of jesus you're the one who does what only you can do so holy spirit i ask that you would do that today for my brothers and sisters amen there's a scripture in galatians chapter five it says uh it's for freedom that christ set us free i remember early on in my walk with jesus i saw that i'm going yes freedom right and i was a new believer and i didn't know much but i knew i was saved and i i just knew i was loved by god and every time i would read scripture and it would jump out at me i'd get excited about it even if my reading of that scripture was just whack you know and this was one of them it is for freedom that christ has set us free and i got all excited in my head i'm going well because what jesus has done i'm free i can do whatever i want like now with without getting in trouble or or going to hell i'm i'm free to to do what i want to think what i want to feel what i want and just choose whatever i want and uh that was pretty exciting for a short period of time but it's really interesting i'm not believe me i'm not slamming america i love america you got to say america that way and you know you're a patriot america you don't need the a america there's something about the american idea of freedom and it's a political idea of freedom and it's a legitimate political idea of freedom that non-interference non-interference i get to do whatever i want to do without your interference it's a very uh american political idea and i'm not dinging it i'm not i'm and i'm not going to get political here but spiritually that way of thinking of freedom will not ever work here's why scripture tells us i believe it's in romans that we're a slave to the one we obey and it doesn't say that you know we're free to choose whatever we want we're free to do this there's nowhere in the bible that that we have this radical free will that we can choose to be whoever we want we can do whatever we uh want to be no matter what our influences are no matter what our biology is you know i choose to self-identify as a three-year-old giraffe yes you know there's you know what i'm saying is it it's a fiction it's a there's some things we cannot choose we we cannot choose who our biological family is we can't it was chosen for there's so many things that we can't just separate ourselves from so the idea that i'm free to do whatever i want it's a fiction and it's a fantasy the human soul screams for a certain kind of freedom we're a slave to the one we obey if we are enslaved to the world system our heart will never be satisfied if we're a slave to our past our heart will never be satisfied we're a slave to money we're a slave to our own opinions that there's a whole bunch of things we can be enslaved we can even be just really committed we we're enslaved to getting every blessing from god we can that there's only one kind of slavery that will satisfy the human heart and that's where we are actually just hear me right a slave of jesus where we go you're the most important thing your wish is my command i don't care what i think i want to if you want me to do that fine you want me to become a certain thing okay yeah what whatever you know i can do the california thing whatever my girls were here where they go no you can't do it right and this thing i'm still learning how to do that i know you can do it you can do that oh come on you could do a video no mic at the lady behind you no can you imagine mike going hello everybody anyway i can't unsee that anyway the freedom that the human heart screams for has everything to do with how we actually relate to the real jesus not our idea of what jesus is what we want jesus to be real freedom there's three aspects to it i'm leading to something that is just so important for me as well as you real freedom uh has three components to the extent that we actually are developing a real live relationship with the real jesus to the extent that we know jesus then to that extent we're free just as an example let's say there's someone you really like you know your friend and when you're around them don't we say things like god when i'm around you i just feel so good we don't even have to talk about anything yet when i'm around you just being with you just lifts me up just being around you just learning more about you man i remember when i was chasing my wife before she was my wife and i was in fa i mean i was just oh my gosh i could spend a lifetime getting to know you she's just fascinating and it didn't have to have anything to do with me but of course hopefully it did i wanted to know about just get to know her and the more i got to know about her i'm going dang even her imperfections are just awesome i just love your imperfections it was just something being with her just satisfied with me on me and it it wasn't even something i had to get and so cultivating my relationship with her that's that sort of satisfied my heart not fully well take that and put it on steroids and that's what it is with jesus that's why pastors always going please have your devotionals with the real jesus why so you can check off the religious chuck mark and said you did something religiously correct no no no no what you do is you spend time with the real jesus get to know how jesus thinks how he feels he'll speak to you and just that you do that after a while there's a there's a sense of freedom the other one is to the extent that we actually trust jesus it's a it's a process well not you know if you're a christian you have you have said okay god i trust what you did on the cross i give you my past present and future here make me born again boom you know here's my life and he goes thank you and he takes he takes it we sign over our life to him and the deal's done and then we get to walk it out then we learn how to trust jesus with our emotions i hate them don't do that forgive them but i hate them you know do it my way all right i choose to forgive oh i feel so much better or trust jesus with with your money well first jesus i trust you with my money jesus goes no that's my money wait a sec no it's my no it's my money and i give it to you yeah there's something about when when we learn to trust jesus in the everyday affairs of everyday life there's something that happens it's hard as heck it is hard as heck sometimes you want to do one thing god wants you to do another and you i'm going to do what i want that never satisfies it it never satisfies it has never satisfied in the long run for five minutes you feel free because you gotta away with it but eventually it bites you in the butt i said that i'm so sorry anyway not really there's something about when we learn to trust jesus with just our life how we actually do life the more we do that the more that that cry of our heart gets satisfied and the third one is to the extent that we actually obey jesus it's great to know jesus just being with him great to trust him with things but every so often he goes i want you to do this and you go but i don't know how to do it forgive them but i don't want to i mean have you ever just done that i don't want to or that's not how i was raised or there's all the excuses no just do it it's so important that obedience is not this religious thing that god beats us over the head with obedience is the key to experiencing the freedom that our heart cries out for it's the weirdest thing for example there's this demoniac he was packing critters he had just a whole bunch of demons and he had self-destructive behavior and nobody liked him and then he felt the call of god to go after jesus and it was just an amazing thing he had all these issues he has all the self-destructive behavior and he's packing demons right but there was this call and he great he takes his issues he takes these demons and he brings them little by little to the real of jesus can you please don't say yes i can imagine this but can you imagine being a demon and you're inside this guy and you're going what are you doing you're not going to make it look there's more of us there are legion in you we own you we live in you you're spiritually defiled he's holy he'll never get you just stop now why fail that's what if you were a demon that's what you would say and then your your flesh would go oh my gosh i'm so messy i haven't bathed in months i cut myself god made me and i defiled me oh it says horrible and i let the demons in oh my gosh right there's all these things that mitigate against going toward jesus but none of those things could actually keep this guy from coming to jesus and guess what the closer he got to jesus i'm sure his flesh was going it's never going to work and the demons are going your history right but and then boom he he obeyed the call of god and the closer he got i'm sure there was battles but there was a time when he crossed over and it's like boom the demons are gone boom he had a bath boom he was of his right mind obedience even though it's a battle will always lead to experiencing satisfaction for the heart for the heart cry for freedom always sometimes it takes longer so real freedom is a matter of learning to obey jesus to trust jesus to know him out of that all the things that our heart want that's where we experience those things anyway there are two kinds of freedom the freedom from certain things and then there's a freedom to do certain things as we grow in our relationship with jesus we can experience freedom from things that hold us back here's one that i didn't put in my notes so you don't have to put anything up you're going wait it's not here okay um when when you have a relationship with the real jesus when you have signed your life over to jesus when you've bent the knee ask him to forgive you for all your sins and come into your life what that does is it delivers you from the from from the prospect of an eternity in hell i'm not trying to be mean i'm just trying to be clear yet god says that in the human heart he puts eternity in the hearts of all people and one way that i read that is every human being whether they'll acknowledge it or not whether they have the right words or not every human being knows there's a lot at stake we have a sense that eternity lasts a long time eternity is real and that after we die there's still stuff on the other side and we know it we know it when you are born again you have this i no longer have to worry about where i'm going and where i belong it's that when we're born again that that eternity thing it gets satisfied we know that even if our life's tough here we know there's a heaven with jesus and you don't want to carry around the idea of am i in where am i out am i his or my someone else's so that the freedom that jesus gives us is the freedom from that trajectory that ends up in hell that's my evangelistic thing now into more uncontroversial things there's a freedom from unbiblical thinking in colossians chapter two and this is very important for what's going on in our country uh see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than not on christ i'm telling you there are theories running around i'm going to say it critical race theory uh social justice theory this has nothing to do with whether i believe racism is wrong because it is biblically it's wrong but there are a whole bunch of theories that are actually they're not a not just not in the bible they're hostile to what god teaches that human beings come up with some of the greatest theories as groups of people we come up with our own theories we're really we're theory factories and we have a world system which is always developing theories that are designed to either water down or undermine god's ways and i have this strange feeling since god is god he's smart and his truth is the truth it's one of those things so we're commanded by god don't play around even though we have the freedom to have our own opinions don't let that thing uh don't let that make you believe that you have the freedom to to determine your own truth i mean sorry oprah my truth is based on my own lived experiences well maybe your truth will never satisfy only jesus is the truth so see to it don't believe everything don't get mad at everything don't believe it and see if it connects with jesus there's something incredibly liberating when you think certain things and that's how you frame your life and then you start seeing how jesus uh sees things when you start exchanging the lie for the truth it's like you're set free from foolish thinking second corinthians i got corinthians right this time chapter 10 verse three through five it says though we live in the world we don't wage war as the world does the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds what are strongholds many different ways to go but here we demolish arguments world views we demolish every pretension every idea that sets itself up against the knowledge of god that remember those three things about what freedom really is there's a whole bunch of ideas that are deeply ingrained in us that actually conflict with really knowing god really trusting god really obeying god it's amazing all those ideas we all know that god only helps those who help themselves that's not you some of you going amen no no no or you know i'm so bad i got to get myself good so god can help me that's religion there are so many ideas that we carry around with us or man i've just met so many guys who go well yeah christian is good it's great for women you know and children right but not for men like me oh my gosh may you meet a modern day king david you know for these manly men i don't need this little jesus stuff this little prissy jesus stuff go up to a modern day king david and go you know all this god stuff his little little wussy that's probably the last words you will say this side of eternity some of the most genuinely manly men have surrendered everything to jesus so and by the way jesus was no slouch himself anyway when when we follow jesus we put off old thinking and and just take on new thinking i'm telling we realize how can i think like that there's a freedom from that kind of dark familiar thinking and god's right all along then there's a kind of freedom from our sins have you ever done something and keep on doing it and you know it's wrong and you feel good just for a second or two but then you feel miserable and shame and guilt and you just keep on doing it just keep on doing it there's an addiction to sin feels good just for a little while and then you feel miserable right you try to justify but there's something about when we take our sins what we've done god not will not only break the addiction but if we confess our sins to him he will not only forgive us but he'll cleanse us now you you have no idea what it is to have your your guilt and shame removed until you confess the sin that produced it but when you do it it's like you're fresh i know this sort of gross but have you ever changed the baby's diaper of course you have all right and there it is the pile of stuff the but the baby always cries but they can get used to everything babies they just get used to carrying around the load you know and they sit down and go oh this feels good you know right you can you can get used to carrying that around but then when when when you get your diaper changed and everything's sort of cleaned up a little powder baby's always happy have you oh but this is so different that's what it is when we go to jesus and actually confess our sins to him not only will he forgive us for what we've done but he'll clean us this there's a freedom when your drawers aren't filled you smell better too then there's another kind of fruit free um freedom freedom from sin and i've already mentioned this our old self before we came to jesus our old self says i'm in charge of my life i own my life i will do what i want to do in my own strength my own ideas then when you give your life over to jesus have you ever noticed that little that thing never really goes away there's always the part of you going it's my life i'll relate to god so he can help me and my plan that sin another word for his iniquity was i'm going to live my own life that we give so much counsel people say well look you know i know you're having a problem yeah your wife goes to you know goes to work on a broom and you know things like that it's really horrible and all but just love one another no that's not it buddy so i are you living your own life or are you living the life that god wants you to leave i know if he just just fixed this woman that there's a captivity that comes when we go i'm going to live my own life and when we keep on doing we don't experience the things that we think we should be experiencing but when we go to god said i've been living my own life i got great ideas but god what's yours and i'll go with that there's something about when we follow the real jesus we're no longer as invested in doing what we want and getting god to come on board we're more into all right god this is what i want if you can do that that'd be fine but what do you want i want to get on board with you when you when you when you go over into that way of thinking there's something in your soul that goes this is what my heart was screaming for all along where i want to land here is this when we actually start following the real jesus and i mean you are but more and more and more we experience a freedom from fear let me tell you a story at the beginning of this year i'm not bragging but god called me to do it like a 40-day fast and uh it was pretty i i learned a lot and all but halfway through i was speaking to our our staff and i was talking about fasting and we talked about you know i said look uh we're all going to be going into a fast and there's some standard things yeah you fast social media you fast certain kinds of foods you know so there's there's some standard basic principles if you want to fast you do that and i what i'd all i did was encourage and says in addition to that ask god what does he want you to fast right and i had some examples like i want you fast interrupting your wife and just choose to listen to her you know and a couple guys giggled a couple guys groaned all right or yeah whatever god may ask you to fast something that is not just standard it's just customized to you or fast certain relationships yeah your buddy 30 years old but you know every time you're around him he drags you over to the dark side you know it's just fast at for a couple weeks this is a whole bunch of things and so i get this really good message everybody was just on it everybody was dishonest and as i'm walking off the stage god says i want you to fast fear and i went now i don't take myself to be a particularly fearful guy i just don't um i don't have a high degree of self-knowledge because when he said fast fear i almost started arguing with him god you got the wrong guy but then he just said i want you to fast fear and so i just chose i choose lord to fast fear and for the next couple weeks i saw how fear had crept in that there were a lot of things i was doing cautiously right that were just disguises for fear i mean i just saw just the thread you know well-marbled meat right it's got that little fat it seems like fair fear just been just got marbled into my life and i'm like oh my gosh this is like a virus i i was more afraid than than i thought and when i chose to fast fear when i would do something the holy spirit was just he was so faithful he goes there's fear involved here and instead of wrestling with the fear i go nope nope and it just sort of went away and then i was able to clearly and sometimes even boldly make some decisions i didn't realize that this little veneer of fear was sort of holding me back from doing some of the things or thinking some of the things that i knew god was leading me to do it was it was the craziest experience and after a couple weeks i'm going wow fasting fear works in luke chapter 1 verses 68 through 69 i want you and then verse 74-75 talking about jesus he jesus he has come to his people and he's redeemed them he has raised up a horn of salvation for us to do what to rescue us from the hand of our enemies we sang about that and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all of our days what would that look like what would it look like to actually serve god be led by god let him do great things in us and through us and do it and serve him without any fear all the days of our life i think that would be pretty good that'd be better than a diaper change many of us without really knowing it we're afraid of death not because we don't know we'll go to heaven just afraid of it and so we make decisions based on well you know some of us are afraid of the enemy oh the demons after us all i mean we need to respect but there's this fear of evil there's this fear of evil there's no fear of making mistakes there's somebody well i know god wants me to do it but i'm probably going to blow it so i'm not going to do it i'm going to play it safe aren't you tired of playing it safe aren't you tired of just playing it safe when god said why don't you just try this or go on sabbatical and see what happens you know there's a aren't you tired of playing it safe aren't you tired of playing it safe the the fear of making mistakes the fear of being ashamed when you make mistakes holds us back the fear of being rejected or abandoned because we're going to try this and people may not understand many people you know they've they've given their lives to jesus and they're still afraid of their past they're trying to go forward and they're waiting for their their past to come up and bite them you know say yeah you were forgiven of this but not really boom god's gonna get you people live many times they try to go into their future and they're afraid of their past they're not just weighed down by their past they're afraid of their past they're people who just flat out afraid of the future oh god i know you have the plan but you haven't told us what the plan is so until you tell me the whole plan i'm not going to do anything and even if you give me the plan i know i'm not going to do it so i'm just going to play it safe i'm telling you playing it's safe there's no freedom in it there's no freedom here's the one that if i i will be honest if i have to be honest i'm afraid of changing i know what i do i know what i'm good at know what i'm not good at and there's this new thing i don't know if i'm gonna be good at it the fear of change it's amazing when the prospect of change comes it's like what's going to happen here's another one fear excuse me the fear of man where we go forward yeah when we make decisions we should take into consideration what people might think and what people what people might do they call that wisdom and what but when other what other people think and what other people do that determines whether or not you obey god you're held captive scripture tells us that the fear of man is a snare and here's another one the fear of your calling each of us are called to become certain kinds of people to accomplish certain sorts of things not everybody's going to be like mike you know be a lead pastor and all that you know but we all have a calling sometimes we're afraid of it we're afraid of what would it be like to actually for me really experience the fullness of everything that god has for me what would be that i'm too afraid of that and then if you get real minnesotan you go well i shouldn't even think that because that's not very very humble there's something about experiencing the fullness of why you're here that makes your heart sing so there's things that we can be free from god wants to set us free from those things so we can be free to fulfill our callings to fulfill why we're here on planet earth in ephesians chapter 2 uh verse 10 says we are god's workmanship not an accident we're god's workmanship we've been created in christ jesus to do good works which god prepared in advance for us to do uh and in philippians paul tells us that because one of the marks of maturity is to forget what is behind and go forward to lay a hold of everything that god has for us that's not spiritual egomania that is a mark of spiritual maturity so how do you experience this the first way if you have fear especially fear don't do anything with your fear you drag your fear you come to jesus just hear this scripture this is jesus speaking to every one of us come to me not come to church although you should come to church don't go to your counselor always good to go to your counselor but fundamentally come to me all you who are weary and burdened and i'll give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and humble in heart and you'll find rest for your souls my yoke is easy and my burden is life you ever saw this movie called the help anybody ever see that movie okay three of you thank you well anyway there was this this black lady she'd been a a house lady for this real evil white lady right and then this evil white lady was just really evil to this black lady and this blacklist she was just so mad but she had compassion she just got right in front of this lady and she goes ain't you tired ain't you tired ain't you tired i'm telling you as soon as i saw that i went i'm gonna preach on that you know jesus goes it's basically real nicely very christ-like he goes ain't you tired the sins you've been carrying the sin you're carrying all that fear okay ain't you tired ain't you tired of managing all that stuff ain't you tired of that all the expectations all the ain't you tired jesus said first up ain't you tired come to me i'll give you rest you can't give yourself rest your spouse can't give you rest you come to me second you confess it first john chapter one verse nine if we confess our sins if we confess well just to say jesus he already knows but when we say it this is a problem for me he's faithful and just and he'll not only forgive us but he'll start cleansing us and start purifying us that's what jesus does and then surrender mark chapter 8 verse 35 whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me whoever wants to save their life and lose it whoever wants to save their life they'll lose it but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel is safe there's something about okay god please forgive me cleanse me okay here's this thing here's what you want i think i'll do it this way it's a surrender thing instead of going with what's familiar what god has cleansed you of what he's forgiven you take the unfamiliar route and then act hebrews chapter 12 verse one through two let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us fixing our eyes on jesus the author and perfecter of our faith we get rid of stuff that doesn't belong in us not so that we're more lovable we don't get forgiven from our sins so that we're more lovable we don't we don't surrender our sinful nature so we're more lovable we don't get rid of our fear so that we're more lovable god's love is not on the table the reason we throw this stuff off so we can run our race the reason we throw stuff off is so we can run our race to experience the fullness of why we're here to experience that kind of freedom that our heart screams for i'm deliberately speaking really low because i would really like to preach you all up into a frenzy but the spirit of god is here to do many things you may have some sins you need to confess them if you've been leading your own life and trying to get god to bless you you need to confess that but just on my heart is that veneer of fear that is so familiar to us we don't even know it's fear unless god shows us scripture is really clear god did not give us a spirit of fear no matter how familiar it is god did not give us the spirit of fear he didn't scripture also tells us that fear has to do with punishment getting in trouble everything blowing up not being good enough but the perfect love of god drives away all fear i'm not i'm not going to force or stir you up i'm going to give you an opportunity um if you know that you have fear in your life and you're going i'm tired of it i'm tired of even learning how to manage my fear i'm tired of fear being familiar i'm tired of being gripped by fear i try really hard but the fear is still there if that's you please stand i want to pray for you because the holy spirit is here to help you start fasting fear on your mark get set we're not gonna have an altar call but if you know you got fear running in your veins please stand and i'll pray for you fear of death fear what my friends will think and some people are sitting on i'm afraid of getting married i'm afraid of men this is from a woman's point of view i'm afraid of women from a guy's point of view i'm afraid of running my race and being i mean why ain't you tired of of just it's not like you get to do what you want but that veneer aren't you tired of justifying not taking little steps god is here not to slap you not to rebuke you but to touch you who's doing this she's just going to get up and do this no she's going to play some music i wish i had the magic wand that could go no fear fear not i wish i could do it boy did write me up in charisma but i know the holy spirit can that's what he did with me i'm going to pray for you pray for us lord jesus as much as we know we just invite you your presence is so powerful and so gentle all at the same time [Music] we're tired of being used to fear tired of it we're tired just carrying fear as if that's the normal baggage we're to carry but some of those fears become so familiar we don't even know it's like not to have the fear we try to manage it we try to compensate for it but it's just there fear of death fear the future fear of our past lord one of the reasons you came was so that we could serve you in holiness and in righteousness all the days of our life without fear we sure would like to start experiencing that i ask first god for all who are really into this god would you help us to fast fear that when it comes up we'll just go no no i'm fast and fear the holy spirit i ask right now for every person we're coming to you we've surrendered to you holy spirit would you come and would you bring just that that word that that touch just just a little drop of your love that makes fear unfamiliar it makes fear the voice of a stranger it drives away all fear god i ask that you would start something right now in our lives in this church where one of the hallmarks of who we are is now we're trying to prove something but we serve our lord we go forward we make decisions without fear give us that mark on our soul lord where there is fear replace it with the courage that can only come from god lord ask that you would not only just touch fear and remove it you would replace it with that quiet confidence that you know what you're doing you know the end from the beginning that we can trust you we can know you we can obey you we can go through anything knowing that you're in charge of our life god would you establish that in our lives [Music] lord for those who do not yet know you this is your day just say i want to be in i want to be i want to be a son of god not just a visitor just give it up and if you've been far from god don't be afraid just come on home he will welcome you he'll clean you up he'll give you new clothes lord i ask starting this day fear will no longer be familiar in any of our lives amen i just want to encourage you don't let that be just a five-minute thing that you just did now and hope you feel better you need to resist it there's certain things we need to receive and there's certain things we need to resist when that fear thing comes on you that is not of god that brings anxiety and pressure so you can speak to it like you would a very someone you don't like a lot well you wouldn't do that right we're christians but i encourage you take authority over that fear that doesn't belong to you don't take ownership of that so we're going to pray and close the service and then we're going to give some time for those that need to leave and then we're going to go ahead and have the children come back and present those awards uh if as far as giving uh to ben and his family and his ministry if you're going to write a check just make it out to victory church or victory whatever you put in there is fine maybe make a little note in the memo ben and then the baskets here or in the foyer would work fine let's pray heavenly father we thank you and praise you this morning that we can walk in the liberty and the freedom that christ died to set us free from fear and all other things that are that are not of you god that we can walk in this kind of freedom we have the freedom to choose to do the right thing thank you lord that we have been set free from the power of sin and death so lord i pray as we go we we not only walk leaving all those burdens behind us god we go out and prepare to share with others that we would come across to set them free to share the good news of the gospel to share that with them the freedom that is there available to all who receive jesus christ as our lord and savior that there is an abundant life that jesus died to give us so we thank you this morning lord for that new freedom for each one of us here today that we would walk in it we would embrace it that we would reject and renounce fear now that we give you all the praise and glory and thanksgiving in jesus name amen amen have a wonderful week and we encourage those of you that can stick around to be back quickly you

Channel: Victory Christian Church

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Length: 91min 45sec (5505 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021