What to Do With Fear? | August 31, 2025 AM

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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Ezra chapter #3 In case you noticed, an astute student of

the Word of God, Ezra is not second Peter.

And we'll be finishing second Peter next week and looking

forward to that. But we'll be outside of our

series this morning and this evening.

And Ezra chapter #3 and looking at a little bit of a different,

different thought this morning that I believe the Lord has for

us, that I hope will be a help and encouragement to you.

And I'm going to start by saying something that might seem fairly

controversial, not trying to be, but I really want us to hammer

home this thought today. So follow me all the way through

if you would. And that thought is this fear is

not rational. Fear is not rational.

Now I know that fear teaches you that it is the most rational of

all emotions, isn't it? But fear in its very essence, is

not rational. I'm not talking about the fear

of the Lord. The Bible talks much about the

fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom and the fear

of the Lord being the beginning of knowledge.

But I'm just talking about good old fashioned sinful fear.

The type that helps us make bad decisions.

The type that paralyzes us when situations call for action.

I think of a few different Bible verses that speak of this when

it says in Second Timothy 17 the Lord hath not given us the

spirit of fear. And the question is, if the Lord

is not the one who gave us the spirit of the fear, then who

did? I think we know the answer to

that. Psalm 56, verses 3 and 4 say

Psalms 56:3

what time I am afraid. I will trust in the in God, I

will praise His word in God. I have put my trust.

I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

And just those two simple verses, or rather 3 verses that

I read should put the issue to a rest of fear and whether it's

rational and whether it's right. And the answer clearly

biblically is that it's not. But like many things in the

Bible, they are simple to understand, but not always easy

to do. It's very simple to understand

that we should not be people who are governed with fear, not when

we belong to the God of the universe.

It's easy to understand, or simple to understand rather.

But it's not always easy to do. Because while I think a lot of

you are saying Amen on the outside, or at least wanting to

say Amen on the inside, maybe in your heart you're also

realizing. I know.

It, but I don't live it, and I know that's probably true of

you. Because I know very well it's

true of me. So what does the Bible say about

fear? This morning titled My Message

is this What? Do we do?

With fear we please stand for the reading of God's Word.

Ezra chapter 3 beginning in verse one.

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

Ezra chapter 3 verse one. And it says this.

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

And when the 7th month was come and the children of Israel were

in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as

one man to Jerusalem. Then stood up Jeshua the son of

Josidac and his brother the priest, and Zorrobel the son of

Shaltiel and his brethren, and building the altar of the God of

Israel to offer burnt offerings there on as is written in the

law of Moses, the man of God. That may not sound like a big

deal to you. I mean, they built an altar and

they're worshipping, but I would say to you this morning, that's

a very big deal because of what the time frame is and why

they're building it. And we'll look at that in a

moment. Verse 3.

And they set the altar upon his bases, for fear was upon them

because of the people of those countries.

And they offered burnt offerings there on unto the Lord, even

burnt offerings morning and evening.

They kept also the Feast of the Tabernacles.

It is written and offered the daily burnt offerings by number,

according to the custom, as the duty of every day required, and

afterward offered the continual burnt offering both of the new

moons and of all the set feast of the Lord that were

consecrated, and of everyone that willingly offered a free

will offering unto the Lord. From the first day of the 7th

month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord.

But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.

And that last sentence in verse number six gives us a hint of

the time frame that the temple as we once knew it doesn't

exist. And the fact that the altar is

being renewed upon its previous placement is a very big deal.

And there's a lot that's going on.

You say, pastor, what does this have to do with fear?

Well, I think we might have just seen that there was some fear of

the people who were in the area, but also there was some fear

that was within their own heart about the situation they'd found

themselves in. Why don't you be seated?

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, do pray that

you would just help me this morning as I'm back in the

pulpit. I'm so thankful to be able to be

back amongst these people, My friends, my family.

I thank you for them. I do pray that you would just

speak to us today. I really feel that this issue of

fear is something that many of us grapple with.

And although many of us don't want to acknowledge it, it's

true. It's something we deal with.

I do pray that you help us to be able to trust you more for

really that's truly what it comes down to.

People trust you for who you are and what you can do for us in

our lives. And we ask this all in Jesus

name, Amen. Verse #3 says and they set the

altar upon his bases for fear was upon them because of the

people of the countries. Now again, it does seem like

we've just come right into the middle of a greater story that's

taking place and that's because well, that's exactly what's

happened is that the book of Ezra takes place in the post

exile history of the people of Israel.

No, you remember that the people of Israel during the times of

Saul and David and Solomon, they were unified as 12 tribes

together as one, the way God intended it to be.

But that after Solomon died, the Kingdom was broken into two.

And that the northern Kingdom, that 10 tribes had no good kings

and the 2 tribes to the South had some good kings and some bad

kings. It ended up over a period of a

couple 100 years that the Israelites to the north were

taken into exile. And then finally Jerusalem and

Judah and Benjamin were also destroyed and they were taken

into exile as well with a very few people remaining in the

promised land. But then after a certain period

of time, God looked upon the people of Israel.

And it says at the beginning of the book of Ezra that King Cyrus

of Persia was stirred up by God to allow the Jews to return to

Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

By the way, that was a miracle in and of itself, that a Gentile

king who had the Israelites in captivity within his own

dominion decided to let them go back to their own country and to

be able to rebuild again. But it wasn't just that he

allowed them to go back. He allowed them to take many of

the vessels that were previously taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the

Babylonian Empire, which was then taken over by the Persian

Empire. He allowed them to take many of

those same vessels back with them.

And so he gave them building supplies.

He gave them materials. He gave them the hallowed

things. And he says, go back, repopulate

Israel, go back, rebuild Jerusalem and go back and

rebuild the temple. And again, we just ought to take

a moment to just acknowledge that a Gentile king to be able

to say this was an incredible thing.

It's just not something that conquering kings would do.

But yet God had moved in such a way that this is exactly what

happened. And so there was a group of of

people who went from the Persian Empire back to Israel.

And the Bible actually gives us the total.

It was 42,360 with another 7000 plus servants.

Now that's around 50,000 people. And that sounds like a lot of

people, but really it was just a remnant of who were previously

there when you consider the population of Jerusalem was many

times fold more over that at any given season.

And now you're looking at not only that, the population of

Jerusalem, but also the surrounding towns and cities as

well. Because remember in verse #1 of

chapter 3, it says they all came together to Jerusalem as one.

And so that meant they would have been spread out over the

land of Israel. And so there's just a a small

group of people who were there and there, it's a small band of

people who are very far away from the king who told them to

be able to go. There's no Internet, there's no

means of communication like we have today.

There's no phones, there's no, there's there's no Telegraph,

there's no smoke signals. They got nothing.

They're on their own. And they are surrounded by

hostile nations who want them destroyed.

What doesn't sound much different than today, does it?

Israel surrounded by hostile nations who want to see them

destroyed. And so they are there, and they

realize that they are few, that the enemies are many, and

they're afraid and they're afraid.

Say, well, pastor, what does this have to do with me?

Because I'm not dealing with anything like the people of

Israel are dealing with here. I mean, they're afraid because

their lives were at stake, but I'm not dealing with anything.

Like that within my own life. They're afraid because they had

already been wiped away from the land once, and they were afraid

it was going to happen again. And they saw how weak they were.

They saw how strong the other nations were.

Like, what on earth does this have to do with me?

Well, it has to do with you. Because their fear may not be

your fear, but your fear is just as real as the fear they're

dealing with. I'm not saying your fear is the

same. I'm not saying your fear is

equivalent. We're not comparing ourselves to

each other this morning. I'm just saying this.

Your fear doesn't feel better because someone else has

something greater to fear. You don't ever say to yourself,

boy, I'm really afraid. You know, there's not much money

in the bank account. I'm not getting paid for another

week. But you know what?

There's a lot of people who have it worse.

No, no, we can tell ourselves that.

And it's probably a good thing to remind ourselves of something

like that is it's kind of ground us into reality.

But listen, that doesn't just make the fearfulness go away.

It may put it into context, but it doesn't just dissolve.

You don't just say, oh, I never thought about it like that.

And oh, I feel so much better. Well, no.

Listen, fear on it's very basis is irrational.

Now hear me, some of you might want to argue with me, but fear

and it's very basis is irrational.

I think of several things that I deal with as far as fear goes.

I remember we first moved here. I had a great fear of driving in

Boston. So you know what we did?

We took the traps of, hey, we're all, maybe we have a support

group after church. All right, that sounds like.

And I started working Uber and I didn't realize when I started

doing Uber, I did it sometimes at nights.

I was still pastoring, but just needed to be able to have some

more funds. And so I would do that.

I didn't realize you couldn't put in the Uber app.

I don't want to drive in Boston. And so I picked someone up at

Easton and they wanted to go to the North End on a Friday night.

You're groaning. I didn't know what it was.

I know what it is now. And I found out what Hanover

Street was real quick. And I got down there and I

couldn't move. The people just said, hey, we're

like 3 blocks away, but we're just going to get out of the

car. And they just got out of the car

and walked. And I was still stuck there, but

I learned. Pretty quick to be able to

handle that and I'll be honest, I drive in Boston now and it's

not a big deal. I kind of enjoyed the sport of

it now, to be honest with you. I'm also afraid of heights.

Anybody want to join me in Ralph?

Yeah. I I don't, I don't like I don't

like heights at all. I don't like ladders.

Look, look. God.

God made us to have two feet on the ground.

Amen. You know what I'm saying?

And and I, I've been on Ferris wheels before, and, you know,

it's amazing to me. No matter how many times I go on

Ferris wheels, the next time is just as scary as the one before.

Because again, man wasn't made to be going in little carts that

wiggle back and forth going around in circles like that.

It's just that God never intended that.

What I'm saying is this. You're some of you are.

Some of you totally get the fear of driving in Boston.

Some of you totally get the fear of heights.

Some of you think I'm a lunatic for fearing either one.

But every single one of us have fears.

And what you would laugh at at me, I could maybe laugh at in

you, because your fear would seem irrational to me.

My fear seems irrational to you. But I would tell you that.

All fear is irrational. Fear of heights is it's

important. And fear of fear of electricity.

Well, no, listen, I get, you know, I fear no electricity.

I'm going to put this fork in a, in a, in an outlet and see what

happens. We should have a healthy respect

for electricity. We should have a healthy respect

for heights. I mean, listen, you want to be

careful if you're in a place that's high and you could be

precarious. I think there's healthy to have.

We're not talking about playing risks and playing it loose and

free with all of those types of things of life.

No, no, that's not what I'm saying.

I'm talking about an irrationality that comes with

fear of certain elements of our life.

And listen, people will just say this.

We'll just conquer your fear and listen, Some of them we can get

better at, others of them we struggle with.

Others of them we do well with for a while and then six months

or. A year comes later and it's like

we're right back at it where we were before.

What do we do with fear? Yeah, you can conquer fear.

But what do you do when you have fear?

That you have a test that's coming back and you're not sure

if it's cancerous or not? What do you do when you have

fear because you're going to be rejected by someone that you

love or you're afraid you will be?

What do you do when you have fear about losing your

possessions or your finances? There's no simple way to just

conquer it. Just get over it.

It's not that simple, is it? Israel had a fear of the people.

They could wipe them out, by the way.

There was a history of that very thing happening.

They were afraid. But Israel in this text gives us

a blueprint of how you and I can also handle fear.

And maybe you need to write this down in your Bible.

Maybe there's something you need to write in the flyleaf of your

Bible or, or on the back of the bulletin or something to help

you to deal with fear. Because how Israel dealt with

fear biblically is the same way that you and I can deal with our

fears here today. And the first is this #1

acknowledge it. Acknowledge the fact you deal

with fear. I'm not afraid of anything.

Well, then you're a fool, because every single one of us

should at least be able to acknowledge that there are

things we're afraid of. I'm not saying, again that fear

is rational, but I'm saying this we should all be at least be

able to acknowledge we deal with it.

We should all be able to say that we deal with this issue of

fear. Acknowledging it may seem like a

small. Step.

But it's an important one. And here's why it's so

important, because it's something that must be

confessed. Fear is sin.

Again, you might need to chew on that for a second.

Again, I'm not talking about, well, I have a fear of

electricity and we're not talking about having a healthy

respect for something that could take your life if it's used

improperly. We're talking about good old

fashioned irrational fear. Romans 14 verse 23 says for

Romans 14:23

whatsoever is not a faith is sin.

Proverbs 2925 the fear of man bringeth A snare.

You know what it means when it says a snare?

It's like trapping an animal. Fear of man is like.

Getting trapped. But whosoever putteth his trust

in the Lord shall be safe. You know it says in Revelation

Revelation 21:8

21 verse 8. But the fearful, the

unbelieving, the abominable, the murders, the whoremongers, the

sorcerers, idolaters, all liars, which have their part in the

lake which burneth with fire, and.

Brimstone. Which is the second death.

You say, Pastor, you're saying everyone that's afraid is going

to go to hell. No, no, that's not what I'm

saying at all. But I am saying this, that there

is a route to fear that is quite abominable.

There's a. Route to fear that is quite

damnable. And I'm not saying that everyone

that here has ever dealt with fear is going to go to hell.

No, no, what I'm saying is this. That is a fear that must, or

rather it is a sin that must be forgiven by the blood of Jesus

Christ. We just need to put it out there

that you and I deal with this issue of fear.

We fear physical pain. We feel fear the loss of a loved

one. We can fear other people.

We can fear financial ruin. We can fear the future.

There's so many different things that you and I can fear, but at

least we need to get out there first of all and acknowledge it

that we're afraid. And by the way, often times we

get to this place where we think that if we acknowledge we're

fearful that it makes us look weak.

If I acknowledge that I'm afraid of something, that that, that

I'm a nobody, I'm a coward, that people will look different at

me. You know, sometimes you need to

be able to acknowledge your fear to be able to help someone else

deal with their fear, because life isn't just about you.

These Israelites obviously had a conversation with each other.

Hey, we're afraid. We're afraid.

They had to acknowledge it, that they came to this conclusion

together because what they did that came up next, they also did

together. So they couldn't have done what

they did with the altar. We'll explain what that is in a

minute. But they couldn't have done what

they did with the altar together if they hadn't had a

conversation. You know, we're afraid of all

these people. You're afraid of that.

Why I am too. Why I'm too.

They at least need to say it and verbalize.

And there is something helpful about people being able to

acknowledge. Yeah, I'm afraid of some things.

I'm being honest, we all deal with these things.

Again, I found it helpful over the years and teaching folks how

to win other people to Christ to just say, you know, I get

nervous and fearful in explaining the gospel message to

other people. Well, you're a pastor.

You've been doing this for how many years?

I know I've been in full time ministry for 20 years, but every

time I talk to someone about the gospel, I realize their soul

hangs in the balance. And sometimes that gravity can

turn into fearfulness. No Should we understand the

gravity of it? Absolutely we should.

We should understand how important it is.

But that's gravity can sometimes turn into paralyzing fear where

instead of making sure I say the right thing, I'm so worried

about saying the right thing that I say nothing.

Or I'm afraid that they'll say no and reject the Lord.

But really, I'm not as worried about them rejecting the Lord as

I am them rejecting me. But I found.

That it's been helpful for me to explain that to people sometimes

because when I do, I can see just as I see right now.

Sometimes the lights turn on. Oh, you deal with that, too?

Yeah. That doesn't just go away when

you get a degree from a Bible college.

I was shocked it didn't go away the day I got ordained.

I still deal with it. Why?

Because Satan wants to make sure that we are so afraid that we

don't share our faith with anybody.

So what do we do? First, we acknowledge it.

That's what the Israelites did here.

I believe there had to have been a conversation here to bring

them to the place where they got to the next step.

And the next step was this give it to God.

OK, we can talk about how afraid we are all day, but if you don't

give it to God, it's worthless. I can admit that there are times

that it makes it. I get very nervous being able to

give the gospel to someone else, but if I don't actually give it

to the Lord and then give the gospel to someone else, what's

it? What have I accomplished?

It's one thing to acknowledge we have fear, but it's another

thing to, quote UN quote, conquer it.

Well, what does that mean? Give it to the Lord because He's

the Conqueror. He is the one that is the God

who can cast out the fears that we deal with in our life.

You see, they decided the best way to handle this was to stop

being afraid and start doing right.

Well, what do you mean? Go back to verse #3 it says

this. And they set the altar upon his

bases, for fear was upon them because of the people, those

countries. And they offer burnt offerings

there on unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and

evening. That you understand that God had

called the people of Israel to offer sacrifices every day, but

then also offer specific sacrifices during different

festivals and feasts, 3 in particular major ones that God

had called them to do. But but after they had left into

exile, or rather had they been taken into exile and come back,

the temple is gone. The altar is gone.

It's rubble. Jerusalem is rubble.

In fact, you go as far as Nehemiah and you'll find that

even the walls are still rubble, even as the temple has been

repaired. So they realize we're afraid and

we're afraid. So what are we going to do about

it? They said, you know what, we

need to honor the Lord. So they put the altar on its

bases. And what that means is this.

They basically found the place in the rubble where the old

altar used to be. And on the base of the old altar

they built the new altar. Now, why was this so

fundamental? Why was this so important?

Why was it so important that in the midst of their fear, and

again verse #3 acknowledges they were afraid of the people, Why

was it so important that they were to offer sacrifice during

that time? Well, what is a sacrifice?

Particularly the sacrifices that they were making was an

atonement for sin. You know, I think almost

visually it was like this. They were laying their fear on

the altar and they were giving it to God.

I'm not just acknowledging it, I give it to you.

I'll lay it here and I'll let the fire consume it.

You know what some of you need to do today?

Some of you need to lay your fear at the altar and give it to

God. Listen, you want to conquer your

fear on your own. Good luck.

You want to conquer those fears that you have.

Fears. Fears of failure Fears.

Of a marriage crumbling, fears of children not doing right,

fear of, of, of your of, of going to school and fearing what

your school think of you. If you live for Christ, you,

you, you have these fears. Well, what can I do with him?

I've acknowledged I've got him. Sure, Pastor, You twisted my

arm. Of course I have him.

So what do I do with it? Listen, God has given us an

altar. God has given us not just this

altar here, but God has given us a place.

God has given us a method to be able to go to him, to go to the

very throne room of God where he beckons us to be able to speak

to him. That the partition has been

taken away, that we can boldly go before the throne of grace.

You know what you and I need to do with our fear?

Lay it on the altar. Could call it what it is.

It's sin. Lord, forgive me.

Yes, that's good. I'm weak.

Man, I'm weak. I thought I'd get more events

with that, to be honest with you, but you are too.

This flesh is weak. Paul struggle with it.

Paul struggle with it. You think you're not going to

struggle with it? You think I'm not going to

struggle with it? In fact, Paul, you want to talk

about Paul, he goes to Corinth. Remember, we've been looking at

this and Wednesday nights and he goes to court.

He's already been beaten up and he's already been expelled and

thrown out and jailed and all these things have happened.

He finally gets to court and the things are lining up.

He's like, well, here, it's going to happen here too.

And what does that happen? The Lord appears unto him and he

says this. Be not afraid.

Well, why would God say that? Well, Cohen didn't because he

was afraid. Paul was afraid in his flesh.

What do you do? You got to acknowledge it.

You got to give it to God. These people said we're going to

build an altar. Even though it's going to be an

offense to those people, even though those people aren't going

to like it. Listen, we've got to obey God

rather than man. We've got to acknowledge him.

And listen, God is greater than those people.

And this is really the secret of all of these things.

Listen, God is greater than your fears.

God is greater than these people.

God is greater than your fear of the future because God is in the

future. God is greater than your health

concerns because God is the giver of life.

Listen, God is greater than your fears about your children

because God is the one who gave the life to those children and

allowed you to be their parents. Listen, God is greater than your

problems with your finances or your possessions because God

owns the cattle on 1000 Hills. What are you afraid of?

And what am I afraid of? Listen.

He is good, he is great. And you put those things

together, the greatness of God. There's no one more powerful.

The goodness of God that he is holy.

Now listen, what do we have to be afraid of?

Jesus says this Matthew 1128 to 30 come unto me all the labor

and are heavy laden and I will give you stress.

You were listening and you thought I made a mistake because

I wasn't looking, but I know this one.

I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn

of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest

unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Some of you thought I thought this pastor a new doctrine.

He's he's going off. Joanne was like, did I find the

right church? All right, So hey, but but we

act like that's what he says, but he'll give you rest.

So what do we do? We got to we got to acknowledge

it. We got to give it to him.

And then third, we listen, we got to get to work.

Get to work. You know what they did?

They built an altar. You know what they did in the

verses following that verse 4, verse 5, verse six, they got to

work. They had the altar.

They used the altar. It was a 7th month.

That meant it was a very busy feast month.

They had the Day of Atonement. You also had the Feast of

Tabernacles that are mentioned there as well.

You know what they did? They used the altar.

You know what, they had daily sacrifices.

They used the altar. Look at verse #7.

They gave money under the Masons into the carpenters, the meat

and the drink and the oil and them aside.

They have a tire to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the Sea of

Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus, King of

Persia. You know what they did?

They got to work. Maybe some of you are right now.

You're like, man, I love this pastor.

I'm all about this. I know I need this in my life.

I know I need this. I need to give this to the Lord

today. What here's the problem.

You can give it to the Lord today, but Satan's going to give

it return to sender to you tomorrow.

I know he's going to come back tomorrow and like this, this day

never happened. Like pastor, can you just can

you like, can you just hype me up every morning?

I was like, listen, no. I got to hype myself up, man,

before I get to you. I'm going to try my best, but,

you know, listen. Pastor, what do I do?

Listen, just get to work. Fear will come back tomorrow.

What do you do? Just keep going forward.

The fear will come back tomorrow.

You just keep going forward. 1st Corinthians 16, verses 13 and

14, says Watchy. Stand fast in the faith.

Quit you like men. Now we think of that.

Quit you like men, it sounds like, well, I just need to quit.

And a lot of times that's what fear makes us do.

We need to quit. But actually the word quit here

in our King James Bible means this.

To strengthen yourself, strengthen yourself like men.

Be strong. Let all your things be done with

charity. As I mentioned, even Paul needed

encouragement. And what did he do when he got

encouragement? He went to the workout for 18

months. He did what?

Nothing but preach the gospel to the people who were there in

Corinth. Everyone needs encouragement.

You need to go to the work. Moses had excuses, but what did

God say get to work. Gideon had excuses, what did God

say get to work. John Mark had excuses in the

book of Acts. What did he do?

He was afraid and he quit and he missed the blessings that God

had for him. Now thank the Lord near the end

of his life. We don't know exactly what

happened, but Paul said this bring John Mark for he is

profitable for me to the ministry.

There had been some sort of renewal in his life.

And that's what's great, is that even if you have dealt with fear

in the past, maybe if you've given into fear in the past,

maybe you're given into fear in your present, you can get it

right and God can restore you and renew you and make you

profitable as a servant. He sure can.

Don't be paralyzed by fear. Don't be paralyzed by fear.

It was amazing to me. We were at a church last week

and at the end of the message, they brought up a missionary and

there was a missionary in town. This missionary was in his 70s.

He was a missionary to Haiti. And of course, we have much

familiarity with our church with, with Haiti and, and, and

Haitian folks. And, and we know it is pretty

dangerous there when the State Department tells you get out and

stay out, That's what you need to know.

But this man said this. I thought he'd been a missionary

to Haiti for like 50 years. And he said this.

I've been a layman all my life, me and my wife, he said we're in

our 50s and we're thinking about retirement and what to do next.

When that phase of life came, he said the Lord.

Burned our hearts. To become missionaries to Haiti

and you could just see people's faces in their 50s.

That's young, right? All right, Yeah, that's good.

I thought I'd get a better reaction than that.

All right, closer I get the younger it seems.

I'll tell you. That, but this is what happened.

They've been there 20 years and they've been faithful.

And I thought, well, you know, they're back right now because

they're, you know, they can't go back.

He said, well, we're going to be going back here soon.

You know, I look at that and I think in my mind is that crazy?

But the Lord is laid on their heart.

People, He said this. The only thing I have to fear is

to not do the will of God. That's powerful.

That's powerful. How many of us in our later

years would be willing to stand up to our fear?

We're just so set in our ways. This is what I do.

This is how I do it. This is who I am.

God, you'll have to take me for who I am because it's baked in

the cake. Now.

This is the way I've been for so long.

Or maybe just say this, I'm going to get about the work.

Hey, people need to hear your voice.

People need to hear your voice. People need to see you present

Christ. I'm not just talking about it

outreach on Saturdays. I'm talking about in your daily

life. They need to see you present and

represent Jesus Christ. It's fearful.

We deal with all kinds of fear, but what do we do?

Get to work when we deal with it tomorrow will then by God's

grace get to work again, but I'll probably still deal with it

a few months later or years later.

Get get back to work again. Ask God to help you.

Ask for the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside if you

or if you're saved. I'm afraid I'm afraid to give.

I'm afraid to give. I don't know what it'll do to to

our our life. Listen, just give.

Just follow God and do what he's called you to do.

I would tell you this, our family's gone through a journey

of giving over the years and we tie, then we give to missions.

And I will tell you this, I never look at that, at this

place where I am now and say, Lord, what am I going to do?

I look at the say, Lord, thank you for the privilege and the

opportunity. Thank you for taking.

Care of us. In such a way, I'll be honest, I

would almost be afraid not to because God takes care of us so

good. Afraid of family?

Listen, be a believer no matter what your family thinks.

Be a believer no matter what your extended family thinks.

Listen, when you go to a gathering with your family who

are not believers, don't try to fit in with them.

OK, I'm coming down. You know, when you get together

with your family and maybe they're not believers, don't try

to be like them. No, I'm not talking about being

rude or unkind to them. No, there's nothing Christian

about that. But show them Christ, show them

Jesus Christ. How will you win them if they

don't see Jesus Christ in you? Listen, if family wants you to

do things that are not Christian, like apologize and

say you can't do it, listen, if family tells you, hey, we want

to do this thing during church time while I go to church 0 man,

I'm just going to turn around now because this is it.

Because I know I was not going to be very popular, but I just I

will say this, I'm going to say this, I'm going to say this to

the pulpit here. Listen, I would say it's the

Pope. I would say it's the water

bottle. This water bottle right here

looks good. Whoever brought this up, by the

way, thank you. Let's say this is the water

bottle. One of the best ways that you

can show your family that you are serious in your faith is to

be able to tell them that you're serious about the House of God.

But when everything else revolves around what everybody

else wants to do instead of Lord, what would you have me to

do? First, how are they going to be

able to see Christ in you? The hope of glory?

Amen. All right, I'm not, it's, I'm

not getting on anybody. I'm just saying that we can't

allow our fear while ostracize them, while people will think

I'm holier than thou. No, no, you'll love them.

You show them, love you show them Jesus.

Don't be afraid. Don't be.

Some of you are making some bad decisions because you're afraid

of what other people will say about you, what your extended

family will say about you, what your spouse may say to you.

Listen, some of you may be afraid to even act like a

Christian or be a leader in your home because you're afraid that

your spouse will. Guys will say, well, they, they

see me for who I am and you're afraid to be the man that you

need to be. I get that.

You know the answer to that. Give it to God, confess it.

Be honest with your wife. Tell her where you failed in the

past, by the way, she knows. Put this on.

I said she already knows. So just go ahead and confess it

and be right with her. Well, I could tell I've been

gone a couple weeks, man, I'm feeling no.

But listen, don't be afraid. Israel knew they were afraid,

but they said we got to move ahead.

We got to do what's right. Do not be paralyzed by fear.

I, I know I've gone long. I just give me a couple minutes

and I'm and I'm done. As some of you may know this, I

heard it was announced on church at church last week, but the

gentleman that I've been asking to pray for for some time, Steve

Baker passed away. He was the man who led me to

Christ. December 2nd, 1998, we found out

the very first day of vacation. We, we received the call

literally when we pulled in, I got the call that he had gone to

be with the Lord. And there's so much that I could

say about Steve Baker, what he meant to me and how he patiently

won me to Christ as a teenager when I had no clue about

anything and really didn't want to have a clue about anything.

But he loved me anyway. But I remember when I went to a

program called Neighborhood Bible Time.

When I graduated high school, I got to travel the country for a

summer and do vacation Bible schools in different states.

It was an amazing opportunity. I was gone for two weeks.

Remember, I was an only child. I hadn't even seen the I didn't

been out of the Eastern Time zone in my life.

And now I'm in Boulder, Co, which is next to Cambridge, one

of the most crazy cities and liberal cities on the earth.

And so I'm there in Boulder. I'm by myself.

I mean, there's other people there, but I just, I'm so alone.

I, I, I want to quit after like a week.

I was done. I'm going to do this by myself.

I'm going to go, I'm 18 years old.

I'm going to go to churches and they're giving me this program

to be able to teach and to preach.

I don't know how I'm going to do this.

And I was so homesick. I was so alone.

I just, I was done. And I remember getting on the

phone and back in those days, you know, it had a cord still.

And so I had got a calling card and I called Steve Baker and I

said, I'm done. He said, you're done.

It's been a week. I said, I know, like, I already

tell where this is going and I'm done.

I don't want to do this. And he said, I don't think

that's the right move. He says you do whatever you feel

like you need to do. I'll pray on it.

You pray on it. But take a couple days, you read

your Bible, you pray, and then you do whatever you feel the

Lord wants you to do. And I'm like, oh, now I got to

do what the Lord wants me to do. And that's not a good sign.

I remember the next day went up onto a mountain and again, I'm

from Florida, I'm a flat Lander. It will go up on the side of a

mountain, probably 8000 feet up. I looked out over God's creation

and I don't even know if I can fully explain this to you from

the mind of an 18 year old. And I had my Bible in my hand.

It was like 5-6 in the morning. We were all out there to be able

to read our Bible. They took us up on this hill or

this mountain. And I remember reading the book

of Joshua chapter #1 and I got to verse #9 which has since

become my life verse. And on that day it became my

life verse. I didn't know what a life verse

was before then, but I realized that's what it was because it

changed my life. Said, have I not commanded thee?

Be strong and of a good courage, Be not afraid, neither be thou

this maid, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou

goest. And I realized that the God of

Tampa was the God of Boulder, who would be the God of Oklahoma

City. Amen.

Will be the God of East. And do I still deal with fear?

I do, Unfortunately, Israel did too.

You know what's going to happen in the next chapter, by the end

of chapter #4 those enemies are going to appeal to a new regime

in Persia, and they're going to get shut down.

And they're going to get shut down for the tune of about 16

years. They're not going to build

anything. What I'm saying is this, you can

make a decision today that you're not going to be afraid

and you still could deal with it tomorrow or a week later or a

month later. Keep giving it to God.

And the last thing I'll say is this, the greatest thing that

you might be afraid of is what am I going to do with my

eternity? What do I do when this life is

over? When this life is over, what,

what happens next? Can I tell you, the Bible makes

it clear that there are only two places that people go after

death? There is heaven and there's a

lake of fire. There are only two places.

And that those who have called upon Jesus Christ to save them

will spend an eternity in heaven, and those who have

rejected the free gift of salvation will spend an eternity

in the lake of fire. That is not God's plan for

anyone, You say? How could you say that?

Because Jesus Christ died for all that all might be saved to

conquer even the fear of eternity.

So today, if you don't know Jesus Christ your Savior, and

maybe this all sounds like like such a far out way of thinking

you can't even understand it. I would tell you the reason you

can't truly understand it is because maybe you don't know

Jesus Christ your Savior. Because for those of us who are

saved, it resonates because we know, hey, he is big enough to

save me for eternity. So he can probably handle a bank

account. That's a little low.

He saved me for all eternity. He can probably handle people

who are being mean to me at school.

He saved me for all eternity. He can probably handle my car

problems. So if we get it, even if we

don't live it, we understand it because the Holy Spirit inside

of it's making clear. But if you don't know Jesus

Christ your Savior today, if you don't know where you spend

eternity, do not leave this building without talking to me,

without talking to someone else in this building that would be

able to tell you, open a Bible and tell you what it means to be

saved. There's no greater decision you

can make than that. Fear God first in salvation.

Not the fear that makes you shake or quake, but the fear of

reverence, awe and respect that He is the God that we read about

in Isaiah chapter 6, who's high and lifted up.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.