Fear (VBS wrap-up service message; Tyler Nichols, 07/02/22)

Your heavenly father, again, we thank you for this time to come and worship you and

learn more about that.

Our fear is not bigger than you, Lord.

Our fear, we can give it to you and we can come to you whenever we are scared or whenever

nervous or anxious and you will give us that ultimate peace that we need.

And please let these words that come out of our mouth be yours, Lord, and not mine.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So this past week, we've been learning in the teen group about fear and trusting God

and how it can be hard because in every single day, in every single situation in life, we

have some kind of fear or some kind of anxiety that comes over us.

And even as youth, we have that too.

If our friends are going to like us, are we making the right choice?

Because we want to make the right choice, especially as Christians, we want to stand

out and choose God.

But it's hard when a lot of your friends don't make that decision and you don't want to be

the odd one out.

You don't want to be the weird one.

And so we were just trying to help the kids learn that it's okay to be the weird one.

It's okay to have that fear and choose God because God will ultimately give you the peace

to overcome that fear.

I want to share a couple of Bible verses about fear.

Isaiah 41.13 says, for I the Lord your God hold your right hand.

It is I who say to you, fear not, I am the one who helps you.

And Matthew 10.31 says, fear not therefore, you are more valued than many sparrows.

The story that comes to mind that, or the story that comes best to my mind when talking

about fear and anxiety is Abraham and Isaac.

When God told Abraham to go up the mountain and sacrifice his son.

Could you imagine the fear and the anxiety that came over Abraham when God told him to

do this?

I couldn't imagine going up there and walking up this long hike, knowing what you're about

to do and having that trust in God, that God knows what he's doing and that you're going

up there to sacrifice your son to him.

But Abraham did it.

Abraham did it even though this was probably the hardest thing he's ever had to be like,

okay God, I'm going to follow you.

So when he got up there, he went as far as to tie him up and lay him on this stone tablet.

And he got that far.

And God said, you know what, you followed me.

And they gave him the lamp to take Isaac's place.

And our Bible verse as Caleb read, it's Psalms 192, bless our day, that keep his testimonies

that seek him with the whole heart.

And God will bless you if you choose to overcome that fear through him and you choose to seek

him in no matter what situation.

And as adults, we have those fears too.

You know, whether it's a new job or making a life decision that's life altering, it can

be hard.

But I want to read this.

There's a song called Fear Is Not My Future by Brandon Lake.

I want to read a couple of the lyrics because the whole time we were learning about fear

and this song just kept replaying in my head.

And the specific part, it says, fear is not my future, you are.

And sickness is not my story, you are.

And heartbreak is not my home, you are.

And death is not the end, Jesus, you are.

So goodbye pain, goodbye grave, goodbye fear, goodbye guilt, goodbye shame, it's a new horizon.

And every single day when we wake up and choose God, God says goodbye to all that stuff that

we deal with.

God says goodbye to pain, goodbye to shame, all that stuff that we're dealing with, the

loss of loved ones, the hard decisions that we have to make throughout the day, the day

that we don't feel like going, the day that we don't feel like getting up and choosing

to smile and be happy.

God says I'm there for you.

He says you can give me all your fear.

Because when we're down at our lowest, that's when God reaches the farthest.

So that's just a quick little recap of what we learned as teens.

And so I'm just going to end with a quick prayer.

And then I think there's one more song, right?

Okay.

So if you're by your heads with me.

Dear Heavenly Father, again we come to you, Lord.

And we understand that you are the ultimate peacemaker.

We understand that we can come to you, wake up every single day and choose you and that

you will help us with the hard decision that we have to make throughout this day.

And I want to thank you for this church and thank you for this, just their service to

the youth and help us to continue to grow and grow the youth and realize that this is

a place where the older generation and the younger generation come together with the

same goal to worship you, Lord.

In Jesus' name, Amen.