Laying Fear At The Altar

What a beautiful act of worship and obedience to the Lord it is to come and lay things down at the feet of God and say, God, this is yours.

And I trust you with it, and I'm walking away from it, and I'm taking your hand.

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Father, what a comforting and sometimes scary proclamation.

That there really is no hope other than you.

Nothing that we can plan and design and fashion is ever going to be hope.

Father, that is a that's a fitting proclamation every day.

Um, but I'm struck this morning of how fitting it is that God, you are our only hope, you're our only direction, you're our only thing to cling to.

And so we proclaim that together as a church that Father, you are our hope, and you are our trust.

And we praise things your name.

Amen.

Well, good morning.

My name is uh Wade Collier, and I uh have had the pleasure of being a part of Grand Park Way for uh well over a decade at this point, which seems strange to say out loud.

Uh, but my family and I have uh been at Grand Parkway for I think almost 15 years.

I don't do math well.

I don't know what year is it?

Um anyway.

But we've been here and uh from time to time um I have the opportunity to come and open God's word with you, and so uh I am humbled and excited to do so as we um jump into God's word.

So let's do that this morning.

If you have your Bible, um open with me to Isaiah chapter 41.

Isaiah 41 · chapter mention

I know we've been in the book of John.

I want you to go back over to the left to Isaiah 41.

If you don't have a Bible, um if you look around you or maybe under your seat, there's some uh black hardcover Bibles, and I'll be on page 601 in that Bible.

Isaiah chapter 41, beginning in verse one.

Isaiah 41 · chapter mention

Listen to me in silence, O coastlands.

Let the peoples renew their strength.

Let them approach, then let them speak.

Let us together draw near for judgment.

Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step?

Who gives up nations before him so that he tramples kings underfoot?

He makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.

He pursues them and passes on safely by paths his feet have not trod.

Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord, the first and with the last.

I am he.

The coastlands have seen and are afraid, the ends of the earth tremble, they have drawn near and come.

Everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother, Be strong.

The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer, him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good.

And they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend, you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.

Fear not, for I am with you.

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous hand.

This is the word of the Lord.

Um, just a few words of introduction as as we jump into this and and how I landed here and why we're going to be here this morning.

Um when my wife and I first started dating, she she told me this thing that had to be a fable about her family getting together for a family reunion that lasted three days every year, right?

And and I grew up with when I heard family reunion, I thought of my dad's family getting together maybe once every three years, and after two hours, people were reaching for their keys, right?

Anybody else?

Amen.

Yes.

But it was true, and so a couple years into us dating, I went and they rent out at this entire river lodge up in Canyon, and they are there and they are beaten down the door to get there, and management doesn't have to kick them out on Sunday.

It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen.

Family that wants to spend time together.

Who knew, right?

And and there's been several amazing things that have happened through me becoming part of that family and us just getting to build deep relationships where we never thought there would be, and and God just sitting down in the middle of those.

And and something neat, particularly for me, is this has gone from being my wife's family to my family and our family.

This is my my kids' cousins and aunts and uncles and so on and so forth, is about, I don't know, I I've lost track, but maybe seven, eight years ago, on a Sunday or on a Saturday, they said, Hey, tomorrow, we used to do this a long time ago, and we've kind of lost track of it.

We want to we want to start a church service on Sunday morning, just something small.

We'll sing together, pray together.

Would you bring a word?

And I said, I'd love to do that.

Um, and through the years, it's it's taken on different forms.

And um, at the end of last year's reunion, I was just praying.

I was just driving home, and I know none of y'all can relate to this where everyone's asleep and you're the only one, um, because you didn't have a long weekend.

Uh but uh I'm not bitter.

Uh so I was driving home and praying, and and and over the next weeks after that, I just feel like the Lord's saying, Hey, I want you to be real intentional between now and next summer.

Because I think you'd be doing a disservice to the family.

I think you would be doing a disservice to what I want to do in this if you're not um being intentional with the family.

And so some of you know a few of these things that have happened, but it's been a heavy year for my wife.

It's my family, but my wife's side of the family.

Um, we buried her dad in the fall.

Um, we've had three funerals in in less than a year.

Um, her father, her grandmother, as recent as two weeks.

Um, you know, there's been lots of opportunities through anniversaries and things to get together.

And there's been things we celebrated as well, don't get me wrong.

Um, but there's been lots of opportunities in short, over the last year, just have lots of conversations between families struggle with infertility.

Um, one of the members of the family struggling with his call to ministry.

He's in burnout and he's on sabbatical right now, just trying to figure out what the rest of his life looks like.

And and so I've just been praying about that.

And leading up to the reunion that was two weeks ago, I just felt um God drawing me to talk about fear.

Um, and so we did.

We talked about fear.

Her grandmother at the time was on her deathbed, um, and there was no ounce of fear in her at all.

She'd been telling me for two years, I'm ready to see Jesus.

I'm tired of this place, I think heaven's gonna be amazing, right?

But we just talked about that.

What does that look like?

And so I say all that to say, man, this is I knew I was preaching, and I was like, I get to cheat, right?

Because I felt like I was supposed to preach this here, and let me tell you that there is nothing in this sermon that was in what I preached two weeks ago.

I felt cheated.

I was like, I get to cheat, and now I feel cheated.

So I got home last night from doing the final revisions of my sermon, and Sally says, Well, well, how how you feeling about it?

And is it gonna be a lot like Sunday?

I said, There's not even the same scripture.

I don't that's not fair.

But anyway, so this is where we are, and we just read through Isaiah, we read these 10 verses in 41, and I said just a few words of introduction.

Um, one, because I think there's a bit of whiplash here this summer, there can be, because um, you know, I don't know if you've noticed, but when Neil, our lead pastor, is up here preaching, he's continuing on through the book of John, and and the rest of us that are filling the pulpit sporadically throughout their summer.

We're we're we're doing um separate sermons that are separate from John.

And so um, and that being said, especially as a church as we're studying through the book of John and studying through through one of the gospels, I think that we can oftentimes allow ourselves to create this mental um chasm, I guess, for lack of a better word, um, when it comes to connecting the Old Testament to our faith in and our relationship with Christ.

We think that there that there's this separation.

Um, but this this morning we're gonna dig into these 10 verses that we just read together from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, that are very deeply interwoven into our faith in and our relationship with Christ.

And here's why I say that.

If you read in the New Testament, Jesus, the apostles, and other writers of the New Testament, they quote the book of Isaiah over 400 times.

Over 400 times of the New Testament, Isaiah is quoted.

Um, 47 of its 66 chapters are quoted in the New Testament.

The only Old Testament book that's quoted more in the New Testament is the book of Psalms.

Right?

Um, and so it's often been said that it would be difficult to overstate the importance of Isaiah and the Christology of the church and Christ being center to the church.

It's very hard to overlook Isaiah.

And so this morning, as we dig in to Isaiah, I've titled, I've entitled this sermon, Laying Fear at the Altar.

Laying Fear at the Altar.

Um it's my hope that uh that as we gather this morning, you can walk away with with a few understandings.

One, um, what ways fear is in the driver's seat of your life in some areas?

In what way fear is in the driver's seat and uh in some areas of your life.

Two, admitting that there are areas of your life where fear is prevalent is actually opening the door to allow the Lord to begin to root that out of your life.

Does that make sense?

Um three, and I don't mean to sound cliche, but I think it's not cliche, I think it's true.

I think especially for the men need to hear this in the room.

Not that women don't struggle with pride just as much, but acknowledging the fact that you have fear in your life is not weakness.

It's actually the exact opposite.

And then lastly, what a beautiful act of worship and obedience to the Lord it is to come and lay things down at the feet of God and say, God, this is yours.

And I trust you with it, and I'm walking away from it, and I'm taking your hand.

I I love, I love, I have a son that's seven, I have a daughter that's ten.

Um, and don't get me wrong, there's there's in certain ways where they're not my little kids anymore, and I become more aware of that as they're kind of flexing their freedom muscles in ways that are healthy, separating themselves from their mom and their dad, the ways that a seven-year-old and a ten-year-old should.

But I love when we're walking through a busy parking lot or we're walking into a crazy public area, and I just have my hands on all of a sudden I just feel them grab my hands.

And they grab my hands and they're like, we're trusting, old man, that you're gonna get us through this, right?

These crazy people fighting for samples at Costco.

We're trusting that you're gonna get us through this.

And and and and this is this is what God is telling us to do with fear.

He's saying, take my hand and I'll lead you through this.

And and hear this: this is not through a therapeutic gospel five-step program.

God is gonna say this is through the gritty, salty truth of Him.

Um and so six things I want us to look at this morning.

The first one is the importance of silence.

Look at verse one.

It says, Listen to me in silence, O coastlands.

Let the people renew their strength.

Let them approach, then let them speak.

Let us together draw near for judgment.

When it says the coastlands, what it's talking about is the farthest reaches of the known world at this time.

When Isaiah wrote this book, the coastlands are the farthest reaches, probably as best as we can tell, the farther outreaches of Europe, right?

And this is the known world at this time.

And God is calling out to the ends of the earth, and by summoning them to be silent, the Lord is appealing to all the Gentiles that are out in these dark corners to listen to them.

And if you're new to this, let me help you understand.

When it says Gentiles, that's me and you.

Right?

The Israelites, the Jewish people, those are the children of God.

But through God's grace, he has adopted us outsiders.

He has adopted the Gentiles to be part of the promise.

And so, if you were to read Isaiah, which I would highly recommend that you do at some point in your life, is go and study through the book of Isaiah.

But in the chapter previous to this, Isaiah's talking and he's talking about God in third person.

But what we're picking up with here, what we started with in verse 1, is this is God speaking.

This is God speaking on his own behalf.

And God is speaking to the literal edges of the earth, out where the Gentiles are, right?

And he's and he's saying, look, as my adopted sons and daughters, I love you, I pursue you, and I will deliver you through trials such as fear.

And there's two parts of this that I want to make sure we understand this morning as we read this.

Um, one is understanding, and some of us that need to hear this again, for the first time, for the hundredth time, and understand this that God is in fact loving and adopting and pursuing us.

But at the same time, he is unapologetically requiring of us.

With the same fervor and passion and force that God pursues, adopts, rescues, and loves us, he also requires of us.

And in here in verse one, what God requires is silence.

Now I mentioned just earlier that I have a seven-year-old and ten-year-old, and these little loves of my life are usually all the way on eleven, right?

And so for me, demanding silence is like a two-week vacation in Bermuda, right?

I'm on board with that.

But but but but what what why silence?

Look back at verse one.

There's three things that happen as a result of convening with Christ, of convening with God in silence.

First, is it let the people renew their strength.

God is telling the Gentiles that they will sit and listen to Him, that their strength would be renewed.

For some of us in this room, this would be such incredible news if we didn't have our lives set up where this is an impossibility.

God is saying, be silent, listen to me.

But if we're not careful, we set a pace for our lives that makes silence completely unattainable.

But God is saying, this is where it starts.

Right?

It begins in us shutting down and shutting out the noise and just being okay with silence.

Alone with God.

Alone with his word.

No Instagram pictures of your Bible highlighters and a cup of coffee, hashtag blessed.

Just you and God, and God says that he will renew your strength.

And you're thinking, okay, I don't really do that, but let's say for the sake of argument, I choose silence.

I meet with the Lord.

Wade, I don't know what to say.

I think if you look at here, God says, you will know what to say.

He says, be silent, renew your strength, and then what does he say?

Let them approach and let them.

This is group participation.

Let's try that again.

Let them approach and let them.

God says if we spend the silent time focused on him, that we will approach, we will draw close, and we will speak with him.

We will begin to converse with the Lord.

Okay, so what does this conversation look like?

Well, in this instance, it looks like judgment.

Who's excited?

It says, let us draw together for judgment.

We hear that and we're like, not only do I not want to be a part of judgment, I am not drawing close for it.

Right?

But here's the problem, here's why we feel that way.

Much like a lot of words, the word judgment has been radically perverted.

And here's what I mean by that.

Here's a definition of judgment: the ability to judge, make a decision, or form an opinion objectively, authoritatively, and wisely.

Who's better to sit in judgment other than God?

I I certainly cannot be objective because I'm gonna find a justification for feeling the way I feel no matter what, and fearing what I fear no matter what.

But yet God calls the shots, right?

And by heeding, by heeding what God calls them to do, it says they will gain new strength.

It's the same strength that was Israel's privilege, and now the Gentiles are being invited in rather to be fellow heirs with Israel.

But what God is gonna begin to lay out for them, he's gonna begin to lay out for us, before that can happen, we have to meet with the Lord and arrive at a decision.

And the decision that the Gentiles need to make was one that you and I have to make on a daily basis.

And that is the decision is who is the true God of our lives?

Who is the true God of our lives?

God is going to begin to lay out a series of questions in the next few verses that will serve as a rock of judgment for the Gentiles.

And what I mean by a rock of judgment is all for us, the Gentiles, all of our hopes and our preconceived notions and all of our fear begin to crash up against this immovable object that is God.

And when by doing this, God is making this indisputable case that He is the God of all.

But before we move on to the next point, don't forget where this all begins.

It all begins with silence.

It all begins with quietly approaching the Lord and speaking with him.

And God reciprocates with a litany of reasons why coming up and laying our feet, laying our fears at his feet at the altar is a good idea.

Which leads us to our second point this morning, which is comfort and victory.

Comfort and victory.

That might be ill-fitting.

We're talking about fear, and you're talking about victory, and and and victory is good.

Why wouldn't it be a comfortable place to be?

Because here's the deal.

Fear, here's the dear deal, rather, thank you.

Here's the deal is that fear is a liar, right?

Not only is it a popular KSBJ song, or is it still anymore?

I don't know.

Um, not only my my dial doesn't move off 97-1.

I don't know about y'all.

Um anybody?

Classic country?

Four of you, thank you.

All right.

Because fear is a liar, and not only is victory far from our native environment, but many times we we can miss out on the spoils of victory.

What do I mean by the spoils of victory?

Something as simple as someone telling us that we've done a good job.

Some of us can't even accept that, right?

There's nodding heads in here already.

Some of us can't even hear that we've done a good job.

Even enjoying that spoil of victory is near impossible.

We're unwilling to accept it because we're afraid.

Some of you might be saying, afraid how?

Why would you be afraid of someone telling you to do a good job?

Tell me if any of this sounds familiar for you.

You're afraid that if something good happens, then ultimately something bad is right around the corner to even it out.

Afraid that the person telling you that you did a good job, actually encouraging us for our efforts.

They don't really mean it.

They're just being condescending.

They're just relieved that we actually did something right for once.

What do they really think about me?

What do they say about me when I'm not around?

It's ridiculous, right?

In this vacuum, it sounds ridiculous when you're surrounded by truth and we're proclaiming it.

But when you when you leave this place and you disengage from the mothership, right?

And you're in your own world, that begins to make perfect sense.

Of course, if they don't really mean it.

Of course, I should be fearful of trusting them, right?

This is why we apologize for having money.

We work hard, God blesses us with a good salary, and we feel bad about it.

Because we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're so driven by fear.

In the same way, we don't fully trust people in friendships, in relationships, and marriages.

Because to achieve a deeper level in relationship, there has to be this give and take of vulnerability.

And over a period of time, as you continue to give and give and give vulnerability, the spoil of that victory is a better relationship, a better friendship, a better marriage.

But because of fear, we don't even get a sniff of that victory because we're so scared of what it takes to get there.

But look at me, church.

It doesn't have to be that way.

Look at verse 2.

Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step?

He gives up nations before him so that he tramples kings underfoot.

He makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with a bow.

The Lord asks all these nations a question.

He's saying, Who is righteously summoned a conqueror from the east who would defeat nations and overcome kings as easily and swiftly as one blows down dust and chaff?

Later in Isaiah, if you're to read this, right about Isaiah 46, you hear about this king who has never set foot on the territory that he's conquering, and he just mows over it like warm butter, right?

But the reason he does that and what God is saying, he's saying, hey, that's great that he does that, but you know how he does it?

Because I'm Yahweh.

Because I'm God.

Because I called him to it, I equipped him to do it, and I followed him through it, right?

God is reminding the Gentiles and he's reminding us that he is the one that calls into action that leads to victory.

And it's not just on the battlefield, right?

He's calling you and me into action that leads to victory.

But but I want to make sure that we hear that correctly, that he's calling us into action.

And it's in that action, it's in the way that we approach and engage in that action that we're doing in accordance with the one who is calling us into action that equates to victory.

That's a whole lot of words.

What do I mean?

For us married men, here's a great example.

In Ephesians 5, there's a very black and white set of instructions for for the men who are married in this room, or the men who want to be married one day in this room for how we're to treat our wives.

You don't have to turn there, it'll be on the screens behind me.

But this is Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 25.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself and Splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way, husbands should love their lives should love their wives as their own as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of this body.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is profound, and I'm saying it that it refers to Christ in the church.

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

That's no joke, fellas.

That's a pretty serious command, a pretty serious directive we're given.

So that means this is purely hypothetical, of course, if you like had a crazy weekend and let's say you're just preaching three services at your church this morning, right?

And so you get up early on Saturday and you go to the coffee shop to put a couple more hours into the sermon, but then you gotta go to the other side of town and see a client, and then um you're gonna come back because your your wife has some stuff to do out of the house, so the kids aren't gonna get to do much, and so you take them to the pool and you're continually drop-kicked in the face and climbed on like a jungle gym in the Sahara, Richmond, Texas heat in the tepid public pool water.

Purely hypothetical, right?

So and then you come home after being super dead and super all these things, and then you um find that there's tons of dirty dishes in the sink, and there's unfolded clothes on a dining room table, and that happens, and you don't keep score.

Instead, you remind yourself of Ephesians 5.28, where it says, in the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes it and cherishes it just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

And so, hypothetically, you do the dishes and you fold the clothes.

Well, actually, you have your kids fold the clothes because you also read 1 Corinthians 12 25, where it says that we are one body with many parts, and then darn kids.

So, so what is the passage about the responsibility of men and marriage and my overly melodramatic story about my Saturday hypothetically have to do with laying our fear down at the feet of God?

If we're walking with God, church, if we if we're if we're talking with God and walking with God, and when I say walking with God, I mean following where he leads.

We remember who's holding whose hand, right?

He is going to give us what we need to be victorious in what he's led us to do.

It means that our fear is oftentimes, oftentimes wrongfully placed.

Because he has given and continues to give us what we need to lay down our fear and be comfortable in victory over that fear.

He's given us his word as believers, he's given us his Holy Spirit and direct access to him through Christ.

One of my favorite parables in John 15, Jesus tells a story or gives an illustration rather in this parable that the key to victorious Christian life is that Jesus is the vine.

Christ is divine, right?

And he says that he is the source of life and health and wholeness, and it says that we are the branches, and we are utterly dependent on that vine.

And so the word that's used over and over again throughout that passage is often translated as abide or remain in Christ.

But the truest original Greek of that word really means stay where you are.

If you want to know where you can be comfortable in victory despite fear, the Christian is in Christ.

Completely and wholly dependent on Christ.

Which means this moves us to our third avenue, laying down fear.

And that is simply this: trusting in God's reputation.

Trusting in God's reputation.

Says this in verse 4.

Who has performed and done this?

Calling the generations from the beginning.

I, the Lord, the first, and with the last.

I am he.

God's reminding his people here that he has always been the one who has called forth such conquerors to carry out his will in the land.

There's uh incredible preacher, theologian named A.T.

Pearson.

If you're taking notes, jot that down in Google.

There's like 14,000 of his sermons literally, you can read and have access to.

And the guy just crushed it all over the East Coast and then was more famous in Ireland than you too.

It was phenomenal, right?

But he he he famously and continuously said, history is his story.

History is his story.

God is the ultimate strategist who controls history.

It has always been so and it'll always be so, because no other God preceded Yahweh, neither will any other succeed him.

He has no genealogy.

Where fear begins to lie to us, take grip of us, and infiltrate our lives, God says, trust in my reputation and bring that fear to the altar and lay it down.

You might be sitting here going, Wade, why do you speak so confidently that the truth of God's reputation is just what you need sometimes to lead you to the altar?

Why is that such why is God's reputation such a big deal?

Well, one, because I'm I'm the discussion leader at my local irrational anxiety and fear anonymous gathering.

It's not a real thing, but it needs to be.

Maybe it's just church.

I don't know.

And two, I love, believe, and trust God's word.

I don't get a cookie for that.

That's what we're supposed to do, right?

But I love, believe, and trust God's word.

And those of you who heard me preach before know it wouldn't be a way to call your sermon without me sneaking at least one message translation portion of scripture in.

And there's never been a time for me to pull the rabbit out of the hat because I want us, as it pertains to God's reputation, to look on the screens behind me at Psalm 19.

We're going to begin in verse 9.

It says, God's reputation is 24 karat gold with a lifetime guarantee.

The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree.

God's word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds.

You'll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red ripe strawberries.

There's more.

God's word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure.

Otherwise, how will we find our way?

Or know when we play the fool.

Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh.

Keep me from my stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work.

Then I can start this day sunwashed, scrub clean of the grime of sin.

These are the words in my mouth.

These are what I chew on and pray.

Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, oh God.

My altar rock, God, priest of my altar.

It ain't any better than that.

I don't.

Let's just pray and be done.

You guys want no?

Just kidding.

Psych.

Uh the truth that I put in front of you.

Wade Burgess, our executive pastor, he texted me this week, and um, as well as as many of the rest of you, or others of you rather, that knew I was preaching this week, and that always means a ton to me.

Um, but Wade texted me and um I just texted him back and just said, hey man, I need you to be praying for me this week because I am deeply woven into this sermon.

And sometimes that's a really good thing, and sometimes that's a really hard thing.

Um and and and and so when asked the question of man, why does God's reputation weigh so heavy is because it allows you to say, I'm no longer a prisoner of fear.

Because God's word is better than a diamond.

So I will speak to the lies of fear and trust in God and his promise.

Um, and this promise allows us uh to make a turn towards the last three verses.

You guys still with me for the end?

God shifts from speaking to the Gentiles to speaking to the Israelites.

Because by his gracious adoption, we get to have a part of what we're about to read in these last three verses.

This applies to us as well.

And if you're following along, you're like, wait, you just skipped over three or four verses in the middle, just know that's fear, and that fear is real.

And don't ever let anybody tell you that fear is not real, and that if you're a Christian, you shouldn't struggle with anxiety and fear, because that's a lie, and it's true, and God addresses it.

But God also addresses the promise, and that's what I want us to hold on to this morning.

Um, beginning in verse eight.

But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend, you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its furthest corners, saying to you, You are my servant, I have chosen you, and not cast you off.

Fear not, for I am with you.

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

There's three things that we need to see in these last three verses, and these are our last three points.

Here's the first one from these last three verses that's actually uh point number four on your notes, and that is God is crazy about you.

God is crazy about you.

A little less than four years ago, um, I had the uh equally brutal and beautiful opportunity to go through a weeklong intensive uh counseling session.

And I met with my counselor, who was a man in his mid-80s, and he had this shock of silver hair, and he had this voice of like a 1940s movie star, right?

And we're sitting in his office and we're going through some deep cuts as to the dysfunction of me.

And I said something typical of me in response that was um rooted in just self-deprecation and fear, and and I'm I'm let me paint the picture.

I'm I'm sitting way too uncomfortably close to this guy.

Like our knees are almost touching in his office, and he just out of nowhere grabs my hands and his big bear paws and he stares at me right deep in my eyes, and he goes, He's crazy about you, Wade.

I was like, Great.

And I tried to pull away, and then he pulls me with just remarkable strength for an 87-year-old man.

I was like, I need to get to the gym more or this guy, there's something going on, right?

And he pulls me in closer, and our knees are touching at this point, right?

And he looks at me again and he says, He's crazy about you, Wade.

It's like, great, got it.

And I tried to pull away again.

He's crazy about you, Wade.

I'm in the middle of having my own goodwill hunting experience, right?

So I find so we proceed throughout the week, and after each counseling session, he takes my hands.

We're praying, we're holding hands, we pray, we get done, he doesn't let go.

He just stares at me.

He's crazy about you, Wade.

And what began to happen was that began to take root.

And it finally began to take root, and let me tell you, when I want to doubt God's love for me, and I want to let anxiety and fear take place of obedience and truth, I hear that crazy old man saying, He's crazy about you.

And because I promise you that I wasn't driving you down a path of a therapeutic sermon, look at God's own words to prove to you how crazy he is about you.

Jacob, my servant, whom I chose.

Abraham, my friend.

Church, God the creator of heaven and earth, God who is the beginning and the end, God is saying to you as a believer in Christ, I chose you, and you're my friend.

I chose you, and you're my friend, and I'm crazy about you.

Which puts you into verse 9, which is the importance of the reminder.

You whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corner, saying to you, You are my servant.

I have chosen you and not cast you off.

Here's my last group participation for the day.

How many of you, by show of hands, would say, This is me?

When God called me and found me, I was at the far reaches.

I was out in the corner somewhere.

Leave your hands up.

It's all right.

The guy preaching's got his hand up.

Look around.

That's what God does.

He comes, he seeks, he adopts, he loves, he requires.

The nine, um, I want to say this first.

So we're we're we're we're tempted, we're tempted to take hold of this fear, and we're tempted to let it take hold of us and let it rule over our lives, but but we need this reminder.

We need this reminder that God found us, that he sought us out, he chose us, and will not leave us.

And here's the reason I camp out here for a second is I think that that's the one thing that many of you in this room need to hear more than anything else.

Is not only that he go and find you, he's not leaving you.

As a family, we we've kind of fallen in love with um with adopting dogs because life isn't crazy enough, right?

And particularly boxers.

And so we're we're on our third boxer, and it's beautiful and heart-wrenching, and they've gone through these horrible stories, and typically they're sick and they haven't been taken care of before you've gotten them, so that we get them for short periods of time.

And so in 15 years, we're on our third boxer, Juni B.

Jones collier, right?

And one of the great things, and also one of like one of some of the most painful things sometimes is you find the stories of how these dogs ended up in adoption, how they ended up at a rescue, right?

And just the other day I was reading one and someone witnessed this, and so that's how they knew it was true before they ended up with the dog.

The owner of the dog pulls up to a park, big, wide open area, gets the dog out, dog's losing his mind, he's at a park, and that's what dogs do.

Takes a ball and throws it as far as he can the other side of the park, and as the dog takes off, the guy gets in his car and drives off.

First of all, what kind of scumbag do you Okay, I won't do that.

But I bring I bring this up because for some of us, this this is the root of fear for us.

That God is going to ask us to trust him, and he's gonna ask us to follow him, and then he's just gonna leave.

This is why the last point of this is so beautiful because God says, No, I have chosen you and I will not cast you off.

And he leads right into this command with a promise.

Verse 10, and we're done.

Fear not, for I am with you.

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

The previous nine verses set the stage for this.

God gives us a command.

This is a command.

Fear not.

And then he wraps this around with a promise because it's a command that only God can give.

Because there's no amount of trying to fix yourself or others trying to fix you.

And God says, Fear not.

Why?

Because I am your God.

And here comes the promise: I will strengthen you, which in itself is such hope that the God of all gives us strength.

He's not just asking us to trust in him, but also he says, I will help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous hand.

God is saying this world is broke, and there is sadness, and there is death, and there is injustice, and there are all these things that feed fear in you.

But God says, I will help you, and I will hold you in my righteous hand.

So just think about that.

The God whose hands form the earth, whose hands formed man and woman, whose hands literally hold existence together, says, I will uphold you with my hand.

God's reputation is 24 karat gold with a lifetime guarantee.

The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree.

His word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds.

You'll like it better than strawberries in the spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.

Let's pray.

So this is the invitation this morning.

Clyde is gonna come and he's gonna play.

He's gonna be sing something over us.

This is your opportunity to begin, maybe for the first time, to say, God, I'm I am tired.

Tired of the fear that grips, tired of the fear that makes decisions for me or keeps me from making the decisions I'm supposed to make.

Ultimately, I'm just tired of not trusting you.

This is an invitation to reach up and take his hand and say, I'm trusting you.

You're gonna get me through this.

I'm ready to lay it down.

God, you've never failed us.

You've never failed us, and that is enough.

That's enough to say, yeah.

I'm all in.

And so, Father, I pray that's the collective agreement, prayer, and movement of this church.

Oh, we love you.

We pray singing your name.

Amen.

Hey, I appreciate our time this morning.

Um, before we close, there are several things that are happening in the life of our church that we want you to know about.

So if you do me a favor and direct your attention to the screens behind me.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

The men at Grand Parkway will get together for burgers, baseball, and barbecue this summer.

We'll meet this Tuesday, June 25th at 6:30 p.m.

at Willie Burger and Cat.

Save each of these dates and we'll see you there.

The annual church budget for 2019 through 2020 is available.

If you would like a copy, contact Wade at Grandparkway.org.

If you're home from school for this summer, Knowing God is a Sunday morning Bible study for college students and young adults.

Jeff Wood will be teaching about the holy character of God and how it transforms our lives.

Pinecove Camp in the City and Camp Ark kick off this week.

Please be in prayer for our kids as they learn the gospel.

Our Romania mission team leaves this week.

Lift up Ovidio, Adina, and our team as they share the good news of Jesus with the people of Romania and encourage the local church.

Before you leave today, be sure and take a prayer card from the front of the stage.

If you have questions about anything you've heard today, or you would like someone to pray with you, some of our pastors and elders will be available at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Hey, do me a favor and stand to your feet.

And if you would hold your hands out like this.

I can speak a blessing over you.

God's reputation is 24 karat gold with a lifetime guarantee.

Hey, look at me.

He's crazy about you.

Go live in light of that.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.