Faith Over Fear – Acts 9 (Pastor Christian Torres)

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Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.
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It wasn't the type of people. Good morning church family.
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Blessings, grace, and peace to you from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is always such a privilege and an honor to study the word of God with you all.
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I brought my pen. I got my notes. I'm ready to learn what God has for me. We're going to be in Acts chapter 9 this morning.
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Acts chapter 9. And today's title is Faith over Fear.
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Faith over Fear. Now since we're all human beings in this room, I can safely wager that some of us have been afraid once or twice in our lives, correct?
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Fear is a small four letter word, but it has immense influence.
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Fear has been the cause of many wars in history, and fear has been the cause of many wars inside of you.
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Now before we talk about fear and how we should combat it, we should acknowledge that fear is not always bad.
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Fear is what we instill in our children to keep them alive. I remember when I was a kid, my parents instilled a fear of strangers.
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I wasn't allowed inside of any one of my friends' house. It's like, Mom, Dad, that's kind of mean. Why aren't you going to let me inside their house?
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Like, they're cool. You don't know them the way I do. It wasn't later on in life that I realized that it wasn't my friends that they were warning me about.
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It was the other adults that I didn't know. It was Mom, Dad, Uncle, Niece. These people that I couldn't see because I was a stupid little kid.
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But that fear is what kept me safe. So fear does have a purpose in our lives, and we use it.
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Fear plays an immense role in my personal sanctification.
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I am afraid of disappointing God. I am so deeply afraid. When Scripture says that pastors will receive double judgment, that scares me.
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Because what does that look like? What does it mean, stricter judgment? I have no idea.
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So that terrifies me, and it motivates me to study this passage. I can recite this passage from memory if I needed to, because I meditated it over and over, because I want to deliver something to you all that is worthy of God's attention.
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I am preaching to you right now as if Jesus Christ is in this room. So that does make me fearful, because I want to make sure
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I get them correctly. Moreover, about fear, how can there be courage apart from fear?
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You cannot have courage without fear being there as well. The same way that mercy and grace cannot exist apart from judgment, courage requires fear.
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It is a prerequisite of courage. Otherwise, you have no courage. Let me tell you something, church.
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Fear becomes evil when it paralyzes us and prevents us from obeying the
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Word of God. Fear becomes sinful when we use it as an excuse to disobey.
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Fear was a very popular kid in high school. He had all the girls' numbers. He was the captain of the football team.
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Fear had straight A's. He had many friends. Let me tell you some of the friends that fear had. Anxiety.
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Doubt. Panic. Cowardice. Rejection.
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Unbelief. Defeat, just to name a few. With such a friend list like that, we as believers need to understand how to fight our fears.
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So we're going to start in Acts chapter 9, starting in verse 1. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the
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Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found anyone belonging to the way, that is,
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Christians, men or women, he might bring them bound back to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached
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Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him,
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Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
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And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
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But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.
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Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.
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And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Let us pray.
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Father God, as I teach, I want you to teach me. Although I took notes and prepared,
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Father, I genuinely expect you to change my life. There are things in my life that need to change,
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Father. Reveal them to me. Let me leave different than the way I came in here. Let me actually apply your word, not just be hearers.
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Lord, you speak. I'm here to learn, too. I love you, and I thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.
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Let me tell you something about Saul. We know him as the Apostle Paul.
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He wrote the majority of the New Testament books, and he's a really cool guy. I like him. But before he became
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Paul the Apostle, he was Saul the Pharisee. And you can learn more about that in Acts chapter 6, 7, and 8.
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Let me tell you why Saul was so feared by the New Testament church, why the
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Christians were so afraid of him. Saul was the person who approved of the first Christian martyr,
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Stephen. And that account is recorded in Acts chapter 7. He was there when the first Christian died for his faith.
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He was the one that approved it, that said, do it. This young, overzealous
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Pharisee hated Christ and his church so much that he volunteered to hunt down the
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Christians. He led the first major Christian persecution after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
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This is the Apostle Paul we're talking about. This is his history. This is his past. He would invade people's homes to find
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Christians and take them prisoners to Jerusalem. Our Apostle Paul had a very dark past.
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And the more I think about this, the more sad it makes me. Because whenever I doubt
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God's promises for me, I read his letters. That the person that wrote to me also wanted to kill me at one point or another.
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That if I lived back in this time, Paul the Apostle wanted me dead. He wanted
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Christ to stay dead. Our Apostle Paul did have a dark past.
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Where the New Testament church saw an irredeemable evil, Christ saw his beloved Apostle.
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I want to introduce to you another person. His name is Ananias. We're going to read, continuing on in verse 10.
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Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision,
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Ananias. And he said, here I am, Lord. And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called
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Straight. And at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
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For behold, he is praying. And he has seen in a vision a man named
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Ananias coming in and laying his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. But Ananias answered,
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Lord, I have heard many about this man. How much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.
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And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.
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My first point, church. Fear is not an excuse to disobey God. Everything my brother
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Ananias said is true. Everything he said is true. This is not a rational fear that Ananias is having.
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This is logical. Lord, you want me to go heal the one that wants to put me in prison, that wants me dead, that could stone me if he wants to?
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Yeah. Brothers, I'm going to be frank with you.
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I love you all. We're family. But love requires the truth.
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The commands of God don't care what you're going through. The commands of God don't care about your anxieties, your fears, your situation.
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The commands of God don't care about your addictions. You must obey regardless if you're having the greatest day on earth or the worst.
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The word of God must be followed even when you think that it's not the right thing to do. Fear is not an excuse.
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Your situation, doesn't matter where you came from, doesn't matter your past, you shall obey the word of God.
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Not simply because God said to do it, but because it will bring you life. It will bring you peace.
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You're trying to fight for this little bit of peace here and there, but God wants to give you eternal peace.
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From your addictions, from your trauma. But you must first obey.
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Some of you might have been hurt by the church. The command to congregate and come together is still there.
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That's never going to change. The command to forgive your brother, even if he sins 7 times 70 against you, still stands.
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You shall obey no matter what emotions are going through your mind. There comes a point where you have to mature in your
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Christian faith. Look at your emotions and say, shut up and bow down at the feet of Jesus. Are your emotions, are your fears your idol?
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Do you respond quicker to your fear than the command of Jesus? I struggle with that,
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I'll be honest with you. I am not separate from you. At the end of this, I'm going to be in the altar with you.
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Because whenever I am scared, I will do everything in my power to not be scared anymore. I will think of anything.
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Fear is creative. I can think of a million reasons why not to obey. A million. I can maybe think of three reasons to obey.
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Fear is an excellent motivator. But it warps your theology.
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It warps your love for the Lord. Ananias looked at Jesus and said, but he's the man who's been doing this.
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Brothers, fear will have you questioning the sovereignty of God. God knew who
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Saul the Pharisee was. But in my fear, I question God's sovereignty.
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I question his promises. Fear can make any firm believer shiver and shake if you allow it to.
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Fear is a very dangerous thing in the heart of a saint. Ananias could have responded three different ways to the
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Lord's command. He could have been like Moses and said, I am not the right guy. He won't believe me.
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He could have been like Jonah. He doesn't deserve redemption. He deserves condemnation.
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Or he could have been like the young prophet Jeremiah. God called him when he was around 17 years old.
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And he said, I'm too young. I'm too inexperienced. Or for some of you,
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I'm too old. I have nothing to offer the church. I can't fully obey the Lord because of my limitations.
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Lies from hell. Lies from the pit of hell. If you are still breathing, you are to obey regardless of what you are going through.
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And I'm not saying that it's easy. That's why God created the church, so that we can help each other out. I couldn't do this by myself.
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If I didn't have y 'all holding me accountable, I'd be a prosperity preacher making millions. I assure you, it's not that hard.
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It really isn't. But the accountability of my brothers is not simply for, hey, you're doing wrong.
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Hey, you're doing wrong. It's also for, hey, you're doing right. Keep going. It's also for encouragement. So in here, if you are struggling with anything, anything at all,
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I advise you to get right with Jesus and find somebody here who can hold you accountable and encourage you on your worst day.
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But I'll save that towards the end. Like I said, fear is an excellent motivator.
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However, God is well aware that we fear and we fear often.
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Brothers, you can't get rid of fear. Sorry to burst your bubble. Fear is part of the human experience.
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Fear comes with the total depravity package, all inclusive, along with anxiety, sadness, and fear.
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Fear is something that we can measure in a science lab. We can put wires in your head and detect, oh, the fear part of the brain is activated.
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Fear is something that you can control. Fear is something that naturally occurs. However, what you do with it is 100 % up to you.
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That leads me to my second point. Fear can either be a stepping stone or a stumbling block.
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Let's read on in verse 15 here. But the Lord said to him, the
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Lord said to Ananias, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the
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Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much you must suffer for my name's sake.
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You get to choose what fear does in your life. You can either grow from it or it can knock you down.
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And fear doesn't go away. It'll stay and it will linger. Fear is an excellent idol.
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To idolize fear means I don't have to approach that person. I don't have to stand for Jesus.
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I could just do it quietly in my own home. Fear is very permissive. Hey, you can do whatever you want.
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Faith, on the other hand, demands your full response, your full heart and loyalty, even when it's not convenient for you.
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And I assure you, it rarely ever is convenient to be a Christian in this world. We cannot control many of the circumstances we find ourselves in, but we can control our fear.
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Ananias didn't ask for this. I cannot imagine what is going through this man's mind.
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He has put many of my brothers and sisters in prison so that they await execution.
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And he is on the way here so that if he finds me, he kills me.
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I couldn't imagine what is going through his mind. However, James 1 2 -4 says this, and this is a verse to commit to memory.
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Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
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For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
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You are to consider your fear, your situation, your anxiety, your addiction as a trial that God has allowed in your life.
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Now, sometimes we make these trials harder than they ought to be. Sometimes we build up our own trials.
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Some of us are living in the consequences of our own actions and we think God is punishing us. No, you're just reaping the benefits of what you worked so hard for.
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Simply put. However, I'll tell you this story.
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I don't know, Ricky, where are you? Okay, he's serving. That's excellent. So, Ricky and I went to IHOP about five years ago.
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And I was telling him how much I was afraid of evangelizing. So when I was a kid, I used to go to the mall,
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Wolfchase, on a Friday night, because I guess I was lame and had no friends. And I would go and I would find anybody that I could find and I would share the gospel with them.
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I have some really stinking cool stories. However, I was still afraid. And I said,
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Ricky, man, I might look confident, but I am really afraid on the inside.
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Now, y 'all know Ricky. He's crazy. However, every once in a while, he spits out some wisdom that's worth writing down.
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This man looked at me and said, I swear it was Jesus. He said this, Do not pray that your fear goes away.
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Pray that the love for Christ overpowers your fear. Oh, my gosh.
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Okay, okay, I got you. Loud and clear. Why would I pray for God to take a troll away?
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Why put it there in the first place if he's just going to take it away? Did I grow? No, you didn't grow.
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God puts things in our life so that we can grow in our sanctification. That, yeah,
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I am afraid of being embarrassed. I am afraid of, you know, people talking trash about me. However, I love you more.
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I love the Lord more. I love his commands so much more than my fear. That way, fear serves a purpose in my life as a stepping stone and not a stumbling block.
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But that is 100 % up to you. You get to determine. You get to determine when you receive the bad news, are you going to shrivel away in fear?
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Or are you going to stand firm and say, Lord, I acknowledge my fear. It's there. I give it to you. Fear makes an amazing offering to the
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Lord, let me tell you. When you give to God your fear, he will accept it. He gave it to you.
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Give it right back to him. I actually have a massive fear of public speaking.
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If you can believe that. Huge fear. This right here, it traumatizes me.
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However, in your life, in your work, in your school, with your friends, with your family, speak the truth even if your voice trembles.
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Stand alone, but stand strong even if your body shakes. It isn't easy.
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Again, I want to convey that it isn't easy. When I hear stories about Christians being persecuted in North Korea or in China or in other restricted countries,
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I'm tempted to look at the Christians who forsook the faith as not Christian. But I'll be honest with you.
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When there's a gunman with a gun to my child's head and he says, renounce Christ and he will live, that puts a little fear in my heart.
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As rough as it is to actually say this, I pray that I would love
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Jesus more than my kids. I do. And brothers, let me go ahead and address this fear in your lives.
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If you have children, you better devote them to the Lord. You better pray, Lord, these are your kids before they are my kids.
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Their health is your health. Whatever you want to do with my children, I give you complete and utter control.
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Understanding that you have no control to begin with. However, your children are not yours to the Lord's. He has given them to you for a time.
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You need to be okay with things happening to your family members. And you need to be full of faith whenever that happens.
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So if you haven't had that conversation with Jesus, the altar's open. Give God your kids.
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Because I assure you, if or when something happens, there will be more peace in your heart knowing that they're in the hands of Jesus.
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Again, fear can either be a stepping stone or a stumbling block. So let's go back to the passage here in Acts.
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Let's see what happens when Ananias actually goes through, defeats this fear. Starting in verse 17.
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So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said,
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Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the
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Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.
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Then he arose, was baptized, and taking food, he was strengthened. I want you to notice something absolutely fascinating.
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Before Ananias and Saul even had one conversation, do you see what
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Ananias called Saul? Brother. There was no fear in that man's eyes anymore because he believed in the promises of God, the words of Jesus Christ.
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He did not need to rely on his own understanding, which could be legitimate. However, God's commands will always trump what we can see and what we can hear.
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And he said, Brother Saul, Saul. Name changes are really cool in the
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Bible. It's a really nice study. I recommend you do them. However, when you look at the
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Apostle Paul, God didn't change his name. There wasn't a period in time where Jesus said, You are
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Saul, but now I will call you Paul. He changed it himself. Do you know that Saul is just the
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Hebrew form of his name, and Paul is the Greek form? Brothers, let me tell you something.
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This man, who had such a dark past, who would instill fear in me, if I was there, is now our apostle.
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I find that to be fascinating. This church has pastors, this church has deacons, and this church has apostles.
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Except, they're not alive right now, they're asleep. But this church is an apostolic church. We are built on the foundations of the apostles.
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And what he wrote to us is so valuable to me. This is one of the greatest conversion stories of the
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Bible, in my opinion. Because unlike the other twelve disciples, they weren't hunting
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Jesus down. He was. He was hunting and killing
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Christians. You know, I have a theory about what the thorn on the side was, but I'm not going to go into detail with it, but I am so certain that the
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Apostle Paul was traumatized by his past. I couldn't imagine being over the people that I hated and wanted dead.
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Having the death of Stephen in my conscience is insane. But I can assure you this, regardless of what you have done in your past, regardless of whatever the
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Apostle Paul has done in his past, when he died and entered heaven, guess who was at that gate, ready to receive him?
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Stephen. Because that is what redemption is all about. That's what grace is all about.
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When you begin to believe the promises of God, fear runs away. Do you want to stop being afraid?
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Live out the Word of God. Because God will supply you the strength. I just don't feel strong now.
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I feel, I still fear fearful. Let me tell you something.
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God will give you the strength when it's time. God will give you the strength when it is time to do what you need to do.
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Jesus said, hey, the world is going to hate you. The world is going to hunt you down.
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Mother divided against daughter. Father divided against son. There will be divisions.
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That's a promise. You will be brought before governing authorities, kings, magistrates, people who have control over your life.
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But don't be afraid. Because the Holy Spirit will tell you at that present moment what you ought to say.
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Scripture does not promise that you'll know what to say beforehand. He simply says, when you need it,
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I'll give it to you. Other than that, obey. Obey my words. You see that physical scales fall from Saul's eyes.
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But I want to go a little bit further. Although physical scales fell from Saul's eyes, spiritual scales fell from Ananias' heart.
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Can you believe how much his faith would increase after this moment? Seeing God redeem such an irredeemable evil person?
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Man, my faith would increase if I saw the conversion of someone I really hated. Because when you obey, scales fall from the people that hear you and see you and from your own heart.
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What you do affects the people around you. Stop being so selfish as to assume that your private sins affect you only.
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It affects the people around you. Wasn't there a man who was healed in the Gospels because of his friend's faith?
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Don't you think that your private disobedience will affect the church as a whole? But then look at the other side.
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Your obedience will benefit me. If I obey the Lord, you will benefit. If I disobey, you will pay the price.
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That is yet another encouragement to follow the Word of God and not disobey. Imagine living a life knowing that Christ will never leave us nor forsake us.
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Knowing that Christ will complete what He started in me. Knowing that Christ loves me and He waits for me in Heaven.
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What kind of life would I live if I truly believed that? I'd be so much bolder.
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Fear would be so much quieter. Again, fear serves a purpose, but it ought to be this big in your heart.
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For some of us, we expand it. John chapter 8 verse 31 and 32.
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Brothers, this is the secret to eternal peace. If you want the overall biggest secret of how to overcome your addiction, anxiety, fear, jealousy, greed, here it is.
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So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, if you abide in my
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Word, you are truly my disciple and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
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The truth is what will set you free from your fear. Some of us have been listening to voices that aren't of God.
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Some of us have been listening to our own voices. I will challenge you today. Come up to the altar and ask
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God for forgiveness. And maybe, just maybe, He might be gracious to you and shut your mind up so that He can actually speak.
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God has been speaking to a lot of you today and not because I'm preaching, but because the Word of God is being preached. He's been doing that.
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You and your rebellion. For those of you that aren't Christian, what are you waiting for?
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To have more scar tissue? To have more to regret when you become a Christian and you go, man, I wish? This is the day of salvation.
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This is the day, right here. The words of lamentations, man.
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Raise your hands up to the God in heaven for your children are in the streets, dying and fainting from lack of food.
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What you do or don't do affects more than just you. It affects children that aren't even born yet.
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Your repentance today will have generational impacts. And your rebellion will have generational impacts.
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Men, I'm talking to you mostly, you are to lead. If you have never publicly repented, what does that say to your kids who learn more from what they see than simply about what they hear?
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I think it was Pastor Josiah last week that mentioned about Bibles and I want to reiterate that.
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You know, you can read the Bible on your phone, that's cool. But having your children watch you read the
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Bible, the physical Bible, in your living room will have impacts. I remember when my father used to do this.
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I physically remember sitting there seeing him read with a little pen, writing notes down.
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I remember that. I don't know what he was reading, all I know is that he was reading the Word of God. Those memories will be engraved and they will learn more from what they see you do and from what you teach.
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Let me go ahead and call the music minister or music ministers up. Minister, gotcha.
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If you are here today and you have business with God, I suggest you settle it. I think I've hammered that point enough, but I still feel like there's some hard hearts in here.
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There's no amount of words that I can tell you that can change your mind. God can reveal himself physically to you and you will still not believe.
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Do you ever wonder why the people of Israel didn't get to enter the promised land? Because they were afraid of the people living in the promised land.
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When they approached the promised land, Moses sent out twelve spies, twelve individuals, twelve representatives from each tribe.
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Ten came back, freaked out. They are giants. They have armies.
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They have horses. We cannot defeat them. Two came back faithful,
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Caleb and Joshua. And they said, yeah? You know what? You're right. They are huge. You're right.
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They are stronger than us. But we have a God who's bigger and stronger. And he has brought us out of the grasp of Egypt.
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I mean this is nothing but a cakewalk to him. But fear of those ten spies went to the entire nation of Israel and its bread.
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Even worse, they were wanting to betray and overthrow
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Moses and Aaron and elect a leader for them that would send them back into slavery. Look how crazy being afraid makes you be.
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I want to go back into slavery. That is why the people of Israel didn't enter the promised land.
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The only two that were of that generation that entered the promised land, Caleb and Joshua.
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Being fearful, my brothers, and I'll finish with this, being fearful doesn't mean your salvation goes away.
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It means you'll miss out on blessings here on this earth. You can't live in a hell of your own making.
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Or you can live like the Holy Spirit of God is living inside of you.
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That every promise is fulfilled in Jesus. All of his promises have a yes in him. So if you have business with God, I suggest you settle it.
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I assure you I will be the first one down. I'm going to ask you to stand and please come forward as God leads.