Jeremiah 40-43 • Safety in the center of God's will

jeremiah chapter 40 is where we are making our way through the old testament here on wednesday evening and we're getting down to the last bit here of jeremiah and we're going to actually make our way through these chapters fairly rapidly i think jerusalem has fallen and now we're dealing with the fallout and the aftermath and the drama that happens or took place after the fall of jerusalem by the babylonian army so let's pray heavenly father as we get into your word tonight we pray just a special prayer of awakening to our hearts lord to hear your voice to understand from the scriptures tonight what you want us to understand to help us to see you to help us to understand with with greater insight your heart your gospel your redemptive plan your righteousness your justice your mercy lord we we want to see you we want to see you tonight we pray that we would be able to receive all that you want to bring to our hearts we commit our hearts to just really focus on you tonight in jesus precious name amen amen amen all right again here as we get into chapter 40 uh the the city of jerusalem has fallen it starts off by saying in verse 1 that the word that came to jeremiah from the lord after neburidan the captain of the guard had let him go from ramah when he took him bound in chains along with all the captives of jerusalem and judah who were being exiled to babylon so stop there for just a moment after this first verse i want to just fill you in the the typical way that the babylonian army would conquer a kingdom and deal with the people of that kingdom was to take them captive to back to their homeland and so here's jeremiah who has been spending all this time telling people that the babylonian army is coming the devastation is going to happen and all and of course it all has and that the people are going to be taken captive to babylon he himself is bound and is going with the rest of the people in this i'm assuming what is a huge parade of people that are beginning to make their their their track what an arduous trek i mean can you imagine too for people to go all the way to babylon and he's he is bound just like everyone else but there is a word that the lord gives him when the captain of the guard comes up to jeremiah takes off his bonds and releases him and we'll we'll see more how this actually went but i want you to notice what happens here verse two it says the captain of the guard took jeremiah and said to him the lord your god pronounce this disaster against this place now notice that nebuchadn knew of the prophecies that had been given against judah by jeremiah obviously the word of these prophecies had made its way to babylon and these prophecies actually made their way to the babylonian leaders and so he is well aware notice what he goes on to say in verse 3 the lord has brought it about and has done as he said because you sinned against the lord and did not obey his voice this thing has come upon you this is incredible the insight that this pagan has which many of the jews still refused to see even though jeremiah had been saying it all along this man is just he you know he didn't he didn't say and this is interesting for the captain of the guard you would think he would say well the reason you guys are in this position is because we're strong and i've got a great army and we came and we laid siege against the city and it fell and now uh we're taking you captive and that's why you know this all has happened it's because you guys you know were rebellious against our leadership which of course they had been for years and we decided we'd had enough of you guys and we came and we attacked and uh we prevailed simple as that i mean wouldn't that be your typical sort of a understanding from someone outside of a relationship with god and the knowledge of everything that had gone on here and yet this man nails it with spiritual understanding yeah the reason you guys the reason this all happened to you he doesn't say it was because our army was strong he says because you guys sinned and god did this the lord did this this is this is really kind of mind-blowing verse 4 now behold i release you today from the chains on your hands if it seems good to you to come with me to babylon come and i will look after you well but if it seems wrong to you to come with me to babylon do not come see the whole land is before you go wherever you think it is good and right to go if you remain then return to get elia the son of ahikum and by the way he is the appointed well i guess it goes on to say that the son of shafan whom the king of babylon appointed governor of the cities of judah and dwell with him among the people or go wherever you think it's right to go so the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a present and let him go isn't this great this is the conquering captain of the babylonian army who has really i mean stop and think about it he has no incentive to let this man go other than the fact that jeremiah's been prophet doing all this prophesying for all this time he has spiritual insight and then he comes to jeremiah takes off his bonds and says just hey if you want to come to babylon great but you don't need to come as a captive just come and i'll take care of you i'll actually look after you or if you want to go back to the city i know it's in ruins but you can hang out with gadolia he's been made the governor of the land you can support him or you can go anywhere you want to go i it's fine either way people this is called the favor of the lord and this is what we pray for sometimes when we're dealing with situations that seem to be so completely out of our control and yet we need to walk in god's favor toward a particular situation you know if somebody's trying to get a visa to stay in the in a country where they're ministering and we say lord give them favor with the authorities maybe the authorities don't even know them but god can do this god can put favor in your path in such a way that someone might give you a job who might not have even given you any notice apart from the lord's favor or you could get a raise suddenly or you could it's just the favor of the yes and you chalk it up to that well how did that happen was the favor of the lord god gave me favor with these individuals and so forth and this is what you're seeing happening in in jeremiah's life and it says in verse six uh then jeremiah went to get elias so we know what he wanted to do he wanted to go back to the to the city essentially and support the governor the son of ahikum at mizpah and lived with him among the people who were left in the land and it says when all the captains of the forces in the open country and their men heard that the king of babylon had appointed gedelia the son of a heecam governor of the land and it committed to him men women and children those of the poorest of the land who had not been taken into exile in babylon they went to get elia at mizpah ishmael and then it names the ones who did and of note here is ishmael the son of nephaniah there's also this man named johanna and you're going to hear a lot about these guys in the next couple of chapters the son of korea then there's sariah the son of tanhuma tanumath the son of ephi or the sons rather of if i the netophthite jezeniah the son of mayakathite they and their men all right let me explain what's going on here because this might uh need a little explanation you'll notice that what we first read there in verse seven is that the captains of the forces in the open country and their men heard that gadolia had been made governor who who are we talking about here we're talking about some of the scattered forces of judah because even though jerusalem fell and the whole army that was there had been defeated by the babylonian army you have to know that there were certain straggling groups of jews that were out in the open country and they were essentially stationed out there to try to put up a defense before the the kingdom or the army of babylon made its way to jerusalem they were to kind of support the outer rim of their land but they realized the babylonian army was too strong and they probably just went into hiding for a period of time until things got figured out so you've got these captains and you've got their men and they're they're just they've been out living in the wilderness or out in forested areas or wherever they happen to be and word gets to them that people have been carried off into into exile and get elia has been made governor of the land and so they make their way to mizpah where gedelia has kind of set up his governorship of the land and again you you're going to take note of this man named ishmael the son of nephaniah and we're going to find out in the very first part of the next chapter that he was actually a descendant of king david but he was not a godly man he was not a man of faith um he he was also by the way one of uh king zedekiah's officers and you know the kind of man king zedekiah was he was a very godless man and and you'll you'll remember that he tried to escape when the city was broken into and uh he was captured he watched as his sons and his highest officials were put to death in front of his eyes and then they gouged out his eyes and so uh that's what what he got and we're going to read now about one of his officers it says in verse 9 that get elia the son of ahikum the son of shephan swore to them and their men saying do not be afraid to serve the chaldeans dwell in the land and serve the king of babylon and it shall be well with you so essentially what they're saying is they've sent word then to get a lion they've said we've been hanging out in the outer areas of the land so what's going to happen to us if we come out into the open are are the babylonians going to kill us are they going to take us captive what's going to happen to us so get elia as the governor gives them a word of assurance that if they come out they're going to be fine don't worry he says and if you'll just serve the the the chaldeans that serve the king of babylon it's going to be well with you so don't worry about it he goes on in verse 10 to say as for me i will dwell at mizpah to represent you before the chaldeans who will come to us but as for you gather wine and summer fruits and oil and store them in your vessels and dwell in your cities that you have taken so in other words just live your life just start just the babylonians have basically taken everybody they're going to take at this point so just they've left poor people in the land because they knew the poor people were too weak to bring any kind of a rebellious action against them and he's basically saying the danger is really kind of past just chill live in the land serve the king of babylon and let's just do this thing right because this is the lord's discipline let's submit to the lord's discipline so in verse 11 it goes on to say likewise when all the judeans who were in moab and that should it kind of means who had escaped to moab and among the ammonites and in edom and in other lands heard that the king of babylon had left a remnant in judah and had appointed gedelia the son of ahikum the son of shephan as governor over them then all the judeans returned from all the places to which they had been driven and came to the land of judah to get a liar at mizpah and they gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance so now we hear about refugees who are coming out of hiding they knew that this situation with babylon was dire they didn't want to die in any kind of a military conflict and so they ran off and hid in some of these neighboring countries like moab and and and ammon and so forth and so on so they hear that's what's going on babylon has come in they've conquered jerusalem they left they took exiles with them get elijah's in charge let's go back home because they're just going to probably leave us alone now and you know essentially they would have verse 13 tells us that now johanna and the son of korea and all the leaders in the forces in the open country came to get elia and mizpah and said to him do you know that baalas the king of the ammonites has sent ishmael the son of nephaniah that's that descendant of david to take your life in other words to assassinate you but look listen to this but get elia the son of ahikum would not believe them so it's interesting here and this is some of the drama that's going on post-destruction of jerusalem gedelia hears of this death threat against himself perpetrated by the king of the ammonites now the obvious question that's going to probably pop up in your mind is why would the king of ammon care and want to see the governor of the land assassinated and the answer really comes from a better understanding of of the relationship that judah had with ammon leading up to this attack by the babylonian army because you see they had actually had a secret meeting these two nations judah and ammon before the babylonian invasion and they met together to talk about how they might come together and rebel against the king of babylon and nothing really came out of that original meeting that they had but several years later pharaoh king of egypt and he was one of the he was pharaoh fairly recently he talked both countries into coming together along with him and with tyre okay right there on the coast and kind of creating a um a a a group of of nations that would come together and take their stand against babylon so pharaoh of the king of egypt goes to ammon goes to judah goes to tyre and to those leaders and says let's stand together united against the babylonian threat well um so the babylonians of course knew that this was going on they decided to respond to this rebellion by this group of countries and and and in their determination on which country to attack first they made the decision to attack judah first and of course they were successful the walls of judah eventually fell and ammon actually rejoiced at the falling of the walls of jerusalem and here's why when they heard that the walls of jerusalem had fallen they figured these are the ammonites now they figured well the babylonians are less likely to attack us because they're going to be busy for a long time cleaning up all this issue with the jews there in the southern kingdom of judah because they've got a they came in there they decimated the place they got to carry off all this stuff they've got to take all these people back to their homeland it's going to be a long time before they even come back in the area they they it's kind of like how other animals in the wild act after the lion has killed one of the gazelles have you ever seen that in the wild they'll they're all on high alert until the the one of the big cats actually makes a kill and then they'll start just grazing nearby this predator because they know that the kill has been made and the the predator is going to be busy with the kill and that's kind of way the ammonites treated this whole situation with the fall uh of of of jerusalem so now when when when the ammonites learned that gedelia was put in a position of governorship of the land and was cooperating with babylon and there weren't going to be any skirmishes or issues like that because the governor is cooperating with them now they're getting afraid again because they're thinking well if if order comes to the land and the babylonians aren't busy cleaning up little wildfires they're going to much sooner be able to come and attack us then so you see it was in ammon's best interest to destabilize the region by assassinating the governor of judah and creating an instability that babylon would have to keep coming back and putting out fires so their their their whole purpose is to keep babylon busy with judah are you with me that's why they wanted to assassinate gedelia let's keep the babylonians focused on judah let's kill the governor that they put in place and that's going to cause them to bring some kind of retribution or something like that okay verse 15. then johan and the son of korea spoke secretly to get elia at mizpah please he says let me go and strike down ishmael the son of nephaniah and no one will know it why should he take your life so that all the judeans who are gathered about you would be scattered and the remnant of judah would perish see that's the thing johanna knows and understands that if ishmael is successful assassinating gotta lie the babylonians are gonna come and they're gonna punish the people because they're gonna say why can't you people just live under our control why do you have to be do and and people are gonna die and so he's kind of prevailing upon the governor to let him go and assassinate this suspected assassin verse 16 says but get elia the son of ahikum said to johannan the son of korea you shall not do this thing for you are speaking falsely of ishmael chapter 41 in the seventh month ishmael the son of nephaniah son of elishama of the royal family there's the note that tells us that he was of the davidic line one of the chief officers of the king that's king zedekiah came with ten men to get elia the son of ahikim at mizpah as they ate bread together there at mizpah ishmael the son of nephaniah and the ten men with him rose up and struck down geddelia the son of ahikum the son of shafan with the sword and killed him whom the king of babylon had appointed governor in the land so ishmael is successful in destabilizing the region which is what wanted them to do ishmael also struck down all the judeans who were with gedelia at mizpah and the chaldean soldiers who happened to be there so he killed the jews that were also with god elia and whatever contingent of babylonian military was set up there at mizpah to kind of keep order he assassinated killed them all so you know he's again he's just trying to create issues on the day after the murder of gaddelia before anyone knew of it 80 men arrived from shechem shiloh and samaria now this is interesting people stop there these are guys these are cities from the northern region that used to be israel now israel fell long before okay to the assyrians many years before but you can tell that some of the jews were still living up in those regions and they were very still very much still connected to the southern kingdom of judah because of course that's where jerusalem and the temple were and these men are coming down and it tells us here as we keep reading why it says their beards were shaved their clothes torn and their bodies gashed and that's of course signs of sorrow and mourning bringing grain offerings and incense to present at the temple of the lord now of course the temple has been decimated but they're coming to the site of the temple to do this nonetheless and ishmael the son of nephaniah came out from mizpah to meet them weeping as he came now this is a ruse on ishmael's part he's trying to convince them that he's just as sorrowful at the fall of jerusalem as they are as he met them he said to them come in to get elia the son of ahikum and when they came into the city ishmael the son of nephaniah and the men with him slaughtered them and cast them into a cistern but there were ten men among them who said to ishmael do not put us to death for we have stores of wheat barley and oil and honey hidden in the fields so he refrained and did not put them to death with their companions so we're told here that 10 of the 80 actually managed to bargain for their lives by promising a cache of supplies of food and and that sort of thing which apparently was needed pretty badly because uh ishmael and his group of men took that bargain and it says in verse 9 now the cistern into which ishmael had thrown all the bodies of the men whom he had struck down along with gadolia was the large cistern that king asa had made for defense against baasha king of israel ishmael the son of nephaniah filled it with the slain so he's just throwing dead bodies into this cistern which one of the previous kings had made to carry water in the case of a siege when judah had been fighting with the northern kingdom of israel then ishmael took captive all the rest of the people who were in mizpah the king's daughters and all the people who were left at mizpah whom nebuchadnezzar and the captain of the guard had committed to get elia the son of ahikum ishmael the son of nephaniah took them captive and set out over to crossover to the ammonites so you can see that this where this guy's at he's probably going to get paid handsomely by the king of ammon for assassinating the governor destabilizing the region and bringing exiles uh with him basically uh captives but when johannen the son of korea and all the leaders and this is the man you remember who had warned gadolia about the assassination and all the leaders of the forces with him heard of all the evil that ishmael the son of nephaniah had done they took all their men and went to fight against ishmael the son of nethaniah they came upon him at the great pool that is in gibeon and when all the people who were with ishmael saw johannes the son of korea and all the leaders of the forces with him they rejoiced because they were thinking wow these people have come to help us they've come to set us free so all the people whom ishmael had carried away captive from mizpah turned around and came back and went to johannine the son of korea but ishmael the son of nathanael escaped from jihadin with eight men and went to the ammonites then jihan and the son of korea and all the leaders of the forces with him took from his paw all the rest of the people whom he had recovered from ishmael the son of nephaniah after he had struck down gedelia the son of ahikum soldiers women children in eunuchs whom johannen brought back from gibeon and they went and stayed at garuth shimham near bethlehem intending this is important intending to go to egypt why it explains it in the last verse because of the chaldeans for they were afraid of them because ishmael the son of nephaniah had struck down gedelia the son of ahikum whom the king of babylon had made governor over the land thus destabilizing the region so so this johannan guy he he gets all these people back that ishmael had taken captive he brings them back to the land they settle in this little area near bethlehem but they're saying among themselves you know the king of babylon is going to come back here with his army and they're not going to ask any questions and they don't know we've tried to be obedient all they know is gadolia is dead and and they're going to come in here swinging and so ishmael successfully destabilized the region and we better actually get out of here and wait for things to cool down so they're talking among themselves and they're saying i think we should go to egypt and just chill there because pharaoh you know at least gave expressions of friendship to us in the past so let's go to egypt let's see what the lord has to say about that now remember jeremiah is in this group he's in this group then all the commanders of the forces and jihad and the son of korea and jezeniah the son of hoshaiah and all the people from the least of the greatest came near and said to jeremiah the prophet let our plea for mercy come before you and pray to the lord your god for us for all this remnant because we are left with but a few as your eyes see us that the lord your god may show us the way we should go and the thing that we should do does that sound positive to you does this request sound positive to you it does to me sounds positive when anybody comes to a man of god and says hey we're asking you to intercede for us we're asking you to pray and we're we want to know where the lord would have us to go we want to be lit now that's an easy thing to say isn't it but remember these people are filled with fear because they believe the babylonian army is going to be returning to the land to bring justice for all of the destabilization that's been happening and all the the deaths and and everything that's been going on so they're scared they are scared and they're asking for prayer for the leading of the lord let's see how that goes verse 4 jeremiah the prophet said to them i have heard you behold i will pray to the lord your god according to your request and whatever the lord answers you i will tell you i will keep nothing back from you listen to this then they said to jeremiah may the lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the lord your god sends you to us whether it is good or bad we will obey the voice of the lord our god to whom we are sending you that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the lord our god boy that's strong language they're saying whatever happens whatever whatever god says we're going to do it we promise okay at the end of ten days the word of the lord came to jeremiah then he summoned johanna and the son of korea and all the commanders of the forces who were with him and all the people from the least of the graves so this is the whole whole remnant and said to them thus says the lord the god of israel to whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him if you will remain in this land then i will build you up and not pull you down i will plant you and not pluck you up for i relent of the disaster that i did to you do not fear the king of babylon you can tell that's what they were doing of whom you are afraid do not fear him declares the lord for i am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand i will grant you mercy that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land but if you say we will not remain in this land disobeying the voice of the lord your god and saying no we will go to the land of egypt where we shall not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread and we will dwell there then hear the word of the lord o remnant of judah thus says the lord of hosts the god of israel if you set your faces to enter egypt and go to live there then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of egypt and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to egypt and there you shall die all the men who set their faces to go to egypt to live there shall die by the sword by famine and by pestilence they shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that i will bring upon them for thus says the lord of hosts the god of israel as my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of jerusalem so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to egypt you shall become an execration which is a fancy word that means you will your name will be remembered in a very poor way in other words uh your name will be denounced and uh condemned all right a horror a curse and a taunt you shall see this place no more the lord has said to you o remnant of judah do not go to egypt know for a certainty that i have warned you this day that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives for you sent me to the lord your god saying pray for us to the lord our god and whatever the lord our god says declare to us and we will do it and i have this day declared it to you and jeremiah already knows he says but you have not obeyed the voice of the lord your god in anything that he sent me to tell you now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword by famine and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live wow here's the interesting thing about this this this scenario it was truly a dangerous scenario there's no question about that there's no question about the fact that they were in a dangerous place okay it was very common when there was this kind of upheaval for the conquering king to come back and punish the people and they knew it so this was a dangerous situation there's there's no denying it the natural instinct is to say let's go where we're going to be safe let's go to egypt but god comes back and says listen if you stay here i will take care of you i'll give you mercy and i'll make sure that the king of babylon shows you mercy in fact you'll be able to stay in the land and i'll prosper you in it okay but if you go all the things you fear will happen to you here will follow you there this is a really interesting truth that we are able to extract from this passage and this is it even in what would otherwise appear to be a very dangerous situation you are safer there in the center of god's will than you would be by going where you think it's safe to go very important we see that where's the safest place for you to be in the center of god's will following his word being obedient to his spirit that is the safest strongest best place for you to be but pastor this is dangerous this is a dangerous time we're living in there are dangers all around us and they could spring upon us at any time yeah that's true that's true here's the here's the question you really have to grapple with where does the lord want you to be that's the most important is the the most important question is not is this place more dangerous or is this place more safe that's not the important question the question is is where does god want you to be because where he wants you to be is the safest place to be even if it is rationally thinking the most dangerous place on the face of the planet so very important for us to kind of keep that in mind especially in the times in which we live we live in dangerous times we're living in increasingly dangerous times but just as we're seeing how god takes care of those who are faithful to him and who set their heart to obey him we can expect that same gracious merciful provision of the lord in our lives as well we are the safest at the center of his will chapter 43. when jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all the words of the lord their god with which the lord their god had sent him to them azariah the son of hoshaiah and jihad and the son of korea and all look at this the insolent men said to jeremiah you're telling a lie the lord our god did not send you to say do not go to egypt to live there but baruch the son of neriah has set you against us to deliver us into the hand of the chaldeans that they may kill us or take us into exile in babylon so jihan and the son of korea and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the lord to remain in the land of judah but jihan and the son of korea and all the commanders of the forces took all the remnant of judah who had returned to live in the land of judah and from all the nations to which they'd been driven and by the way that includes jeremiah the men the women the children the princesses and every person whom nebusharidan the captain of the uh guard had left with gaddelia the son of ahikum the son of shafan also jeremiah the prophet and baruch the son of neriah and they came into the land of egypt for they did not obey the voice of the lord and they arrived at tapanese and then the word of the lord came to jeremiah in taophenies take in your hands large stones and hide them in the mortar in the pavement that is at the entrance to pharaoh's palace antophanies in the sight of the men of judah and say to them thus says the lord of hosts the god of israel behold i will send and take nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon my servant and i will set his throne above these stones that i have hidden and he will spread his royal canopy over them he shall come and strike the land of egypt giving over to the pestilence those who are doomed to the pestilence to captivity those who are doomed to captivity and to the sword those who are doomed to the sword i shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of egypt and he shall burn them and carry them away captive and he shall clean the land of egypt as a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin and he shall go away from there in peace he shall break the obelisks of heliopolis at which is in the land of egypt and the temples of the gods of egypt he shall burn with fire so the word of the lord is is very clear through jeremiah that god is going to bring nebuchadnezzar to egypt to do exactly what he did in jerusalem so there is no place of safety outside of the will of the lord and we see that here very clearly in these passages so isn't it just interesting though i think we can all relate to this from the standpoint of responding to our circumstances with fear and not taking the time to pray and not making up our mind to truly follow the lord no matter what he says fear is a very powerful master and we have to be careful not to give into it in our own personal lives and things that are foisted upon us from outside as well because the enemy knows that we respond we'll respond obediently to fear we will put fear in a place above the lord our god we will do that we can do that it's important for i think every christian to admit it's in me to crown fear above god it's in me it's in my human heart and if i'm not careful and if i don't stay close to the lord stay in his word praying for discernment praying for courage and boldness i could do this i could let fear overwhelm me and begin to do things that are contrary to the will of god it's in me to think that it's not possible is to deceive ourselves to think ourselves immune to the power of fear and so we do have to be very careful the problem with fear is that we we learn to obey it in our daily personal lives all the time and we do it in in very small subtle sort of ways i'm afraid that if i do this this is going to happen so i'm going to do this to make sure that what i'm afraid about isn't going to happen and we do it all the time we don't even think twice about it i'm afraid if i go to the movie with my friends we're going to do i'm afraid that if i go on vacation at this time of the year we might run into the storm see i'm afraid i'm afraid we do it all the time all the time sue and i were talking earlier today about a passage that she was reading this morning in her own bible time from the book of acts after the disciples were released from jail after being threatened not to preach any longer in the name of jesus they they came back and they shared what had happened and there was a there was a there was a there was a very real threat you know on their lives there was a very real threat that was hanging in the air and so what the disciples decided to do and you can read about it in acts chapter 4 is they decided to pray for boldness they said lord give us boldness and the bible tells us that the house was shaken and the holy spirit fell upon the assembled believers and they were emboldened by the spirit to continue to preach the gospel to share the salvation that is only found in jesus christ but they didn't say lord come against our enemies take the teeth out of their threats they didn't they didn't pray those things lord stop this terrible persecution that's starting to happen to us they didn't pray that either they said lord make us bold so we don't give in to fear so we don't back down because you see you've given us a commission to go into all the world preaching the gospel baptizing people in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit and teaching them to obey you until you come back and we want to be faithful to that call but fear is an ever-present threat to stopping us from doing what we're called to do so lord make us bold bold to stand bold to stand amen father thank you so much lord i believe i i really do i believe that you're still emboldening your people through the spirit literally falling upon us with the spirit of boldness courage to do what you've called us to do and not to give way to fear not to live our lives in fear lord that's no way to live because when we do we give in and we make fear our master and we've already been pledged to another master and that's you and you have not given us a spirit of fear so heavenly father we long we long to serve you as our only master and we pray in jesus name that you would give us the courage to step out in boldness even in the face of an ever-present danger be with us we pray strengthen us we pray father god to do your will always to stay in the center of your will that's the safest place we can be even when everybody all around us is crying fear fear fear help us lord to trust in you with all of our hearts in jesus precious name we pray amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 3,235

Rating: 4.9322033 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

Id: 3DYkbEhprsI

Length: 47min 7sec (2827 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 22 2021