Who Do You Fear?

The scripture reading today comes from the book of Luke, chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

Please follow along in your bulletin.

Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together,

that they were stepping on one another,

he began saying to his disciples, first of all,

Beware of the laven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy,

but there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed,

and hidden that will not be known.

Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard,

in the light and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.

I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body,

and after that have no more that they can do.

But I will warn you whom to fear.

Fear the one who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

Yes, I tell you, fear him.

Are not five sparrows sold for two cents?

Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.

Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Do not fear.

You are more valuable than many sparrows.

And I say to you, everyone who confesses me before men,

the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God.

But he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man,

it will be forgiven him.

But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit,

it will not be forgiven him.

When they bring you before the synagogues,

and the rulers,

and the authorities,

do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense,

or what you are to say.

For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour

what you ought to say.

This is the reading of God's Word.

How's everybody doing?

Who made it in before they got poured on?

Because I saw some people just running.

I looked up, and all of a sudden it was dark,

and it was like just pouring out there.

And so you get an extra blessing if you made it in the rain, right?

You get an extra, extra blessing if you made it in the rain without getting wet.

So that's even no one else gets that, I understand.

That's okay.

Okay.

We are looking at this passage.

My question is,

when you heard Kelvin read the passage for today,

did you have a lot of questions about that passage?

If you're honest, you have a lot of questions.

I mean, there's a lot of things.

It's the passage where pastors don't like to teach it or preach it.

It's one of those passages that you get in there and you're like, wow, there's some really hard stuff here.

There's some really difficult stuff.

The way the room is configured, I might just walk back here and grab somebody.

This is interesting configuration.

But you read this passage and it's hard.

There's some tough stuff here.

I said, those last five verses, there's some hard words going on there, right?

When I was praying about this passage for the last couple weeks, I had a lot of things going through my mind.

One of the thoughts or these images I experienced, it kind of flashed me back to 1999, 2000.

So in 1989, I'm getting old, 1989, 1900.

A couple of friends and I were teaching in mainland China.

And we thought that we wanted to do something fun for the Chinese New Year.

And so we had this bright idea.

It was me and two other, another guy and two girls and our team.

We were in Tianjin.

And we had this bright idea.

We said, hey, let's take a vacation for the Chinese New Year.

Let's go to North Vietnam.

So this is 1999, North Vietnam.

And that sounds like a really neat place.

Sounds like a fun place.

We've never been there.

Let's do this.

Let's see what it's like.

And so we could speak Mandarin.

And so we went to Beijing and we went to the North Vietnamese embassy.

And the Chinese guard at the front let us in because we spoke Mandarin.

We walked in there.

And the guy came to the front desk.

And there's two pictures of the fathers, the father and the father in the back.

And the army officer came there.

And so we're still speaking Mandarin to him.

And we say, yeah, we'd like to visit your country during the Chinese New Year.

And he started asking some questions.

And finally he just stopped and he looked at us and he goes, what country are you from?

And we said, we're Americans.

And we just want to come check out North Korea because we've heard so much about it.

And we just want to experience your culture.

And all of a sudden the guy looked at us and he stopped speaking Mandarin and he spoke English.

And he said, perhaps we will not have tourism in our country this year.

We took that to mean that they didn't want Americans into North Korea in 1999.

And so we ended up going into Cambodia, which was also just weird.

I've said before that if I were going to write a book, probably the first chapter of my book would be the dumb things I've done in my life.

I would use stupid, but we're not supposed to use stupid in our family, right?

So the dumb things I've done in my life.

And chapter one, the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life would be this story here.

As we were walking into Cambodia, there was still this conflict going on with the Khmer Rouge and the government fighters.

In fact, when we went into Phnom Penh in 99, they had just built this kiosk with the skulls.

And there were actually skeletons still in some of the schools where they were torturing people.

And so we said, let's fly up to Angkor Wat.

Now, I've never been to Angkor Wat and I haven't been there since then.

Now I know it's this big resort area with casinos and all that.

But back then it was just an airport and a village.

And so we flew up there and we didn't know what we were doing at all.

So my wife is very glad that I wasn't married to her at this time and that I was a single guy.

And so we came into the airport and we just walked out of the door and this little boy grabbed us and he said, do you need a place to stay?

We said, yeah, we need a place to stay.

We don't have any place to stay.

We need a tour guide.

We want you to show us around Angkor Wat.

He said, okay.

And so something should have clicked in my head because we drove into the village of Siem Reap and there were army units everywhere.

There were soldiers guarding the bridge.

There were machine guns set up.

There were mortar emplacements.

There were just soldiers everywhere.

And we ended up staying in this guy's house with his parents.

And about 12 o'clock at night, all of a sudden the sky was lit up with machine gun fire.

And there were mortars going off and just everything was just chaos.

And the only thing we could think is, okay, we're going to get kidnapped.

We're going to get kidnapped and someone's going to sell us for a lot of money because we're a Westerner or whatever.

And that night we slept.

We got very little sleep.

And we made it through the night.

And the morning he took us to Angkor Wat and we were walking around this temple complex and it was beautiful.

We walked out the back of this temple complex and we ran into this UN mine sweeping team.

Okay, so there was a Swedish guy.

He might have been Finnish.

I can't tell.

They all look alike, tall, blonde hair.

And he was directing four Khmer guys and they were basically sweeping the field for mines.

And so we started talking to him and he showed us the mines that they were uncovering because Cambodia is one of the most heavily populated bombed mine places in the world.

And as we were talking, his walkie-talkie went crazy.

And he picked up his walkie-talkie and he's listening and he's yelling.

And we were just sitting there and we're like, okay, this cannot be good.

And he says, we have to leave right now.

And we said, why?

He says, a Khmer Rouge unit was just seen.

They're sweeping back into this area.

They've heard there's some foreigners here and they're looking for you.

We have to leave right now.

And we said, okay, where are we going to go?

We're going to go through this minefield.

And we said, what?

He says, we're going to go through this minefield.

He says, watch me wherever I step.

Put your feet there.

Know why?

Okay, so we're in the middle of this chaos in this jungle.

The Khmer Rouge are rushing in.

We're following this Finnish guy followed by four Khmer minesweepers.

And we're walking through a minefield.

And all I'm thinking is mines everywhere.

Mines bad.

Where's that guy's footprints?

And stepping in those footprints.

But we made it out.

When I think of today's passage, it's all about mines that we as Christians walk into every day.

Sometimes we don't know we're in the middle of the minefield.

Sometimes we're playing ball or basketball.

We're doing stuff within the minefield.

But the passage today is all about disciples.

Luke 12 is all about Christ followers.

It's all about disciples, people who are following Christ.

And what Christ is going to warn us and his disciples is that there's mines all around you.

Be careful where you step.

Because you'll get hurt.

Now in Luke 11, we haven't been there for about five weeks.

We're going through Luke as a church.

We're halfway through right now.

So we're about a year and eight months old.

We're halfway through.

So in two years from now, we'll finish Luke and we'll start something else.

But in Luke 11, remember, there was this scene.

And Jesus was having dinner with these Pharisees.

And it got intense.

I mean, it got really intense.

In fact, it got so intense that the Pharisees walked out.

And in their mind, we're told in Scripture, they want to kill Jesus.

That's all they're thinking about is we are going to get rid of this guy.

He's dangerous.

He's terrible.

We're going to kill him.

Now at the same time as he's having this conflict with the religious leaders of his day,

all the people are flocking to Jesus.

All the masses were told in Luke 11 and Luke 12.

The word there, myriads, is the largest word in Greek.

It means 10,000 people.

It means at least 10,000 people, maybe more than 10,000 people.

So all these people are flocking to Jesus because they want to hear of this young teacher who's come in,

and he's basically taking to task all the religious leaders of the day because everyone knows that the Pharisees are corrupt and they're no good.

And you have to understand here that as the people flock in in this passage,

it's becoming very difficult to keep being a disciple of Jesus.

On one hand, it's getting dangerous because now they know that the religious leaders, the synagogue, and everybody is out to kill Jesus.

And if you're with Jesus, you are in risk of getting killed.

So the disciples are worried, and some of them are actually falling away because it's becoming too difficult to say,

I follow Jesus.

The pressure in their workplace, the pressure at home, the pressure in their community,

it's just getting so high and so difficult, people are falling away.

And they say, I can't say it anymore.

Every time I say it at the bank, people laugh at me.

Every time I say it at school, people think, well, you must not be educated because everyone knows that Christianity and science can't interact with each other.

And so you have this group of disciples who are following Jesus, and they're sneaking out the back door

because they realize that pretty soon the cost is going to become very difficult and very high for them to follow Christ.

On the other hand, you have this mass of people that are coming to visit Jesus.

I mean, if you read the Luke 12 passage, the way Luke, the physician, very detailed, is writing it,

he's almost describing it like a rock concert.

He's saying, there's a rock concert, and 10,000 people have come to see Jesus perform.

And there's so many people that they're crawling all over each other.

I mean, literally in Greek, that's what he's saying.

They're stepping over each other to get to Jesus.

They want to hear him talk.

They want to hear him do miracles.

They want to see him perform.

They want to see him fight the Pharisees.

And so there's this atmosphere like Woodstock where everybody wants to be with Jesus.

And in the midst of this, Jesus sees all of these things happening.

And he knows what's going on in our hearts.

And he knows what's going on in the disciples' hearts.

And he pulls them aside.

And he teaches them a lesson about what it means to follow him when things are difficult and when things are good.

Are you with me?

Am I making sense?

Do you know where we're at?

And so if you go to your passage in Luke, we look at this passage here.

So the disciples are being pulled away.

Things are crazy.

And in Luke chapter 12, verse 1, we read these first passages here.

Luke 12:1

Jesus is going to warn his disciples.

He's going to warn us about something that we need to be careful of.

He's going to warn us that we're going to walk into this minefield.

And this minefield is going to destroy us.

And we're not even going to know that we're playing around in it.

Verse 1.

Under these circumstances, after so many thousands, the Greek word is myriads, the same word in heaven, myriads and myriads of angels,

at least 10,000 people are gathered together.

They're stepping on one another.

And he pulls his disciples aside.

Now he's speaking to Christians.

And he says this,

Beware.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Now the word beware is very intentional.

It says put your mind to, think about, study, know where it is, and not only do that, but avoid it.

Avoid it.

And so he brings his disciples together.

And he says this huge word picture.

The minute they heard leaven, they would have thought back to Exodus when all of the people of God left Egypt.

And they're to bring no leaven with them.

Leaven is this microbe.

It's this yeast.

It's a microorganism.

I mean, if you're a cooker, you know what it does.

You stick it in dough and put water in it.

And with sugar, and I tell, if you're at my home and I was telling my kids what I would say is,

you put this little creature inside the dough, it eats, and then it poops.

And its poop is gas, and the gas makes the bread rise.

Right?

That's what's happening.

So next time you eat leavened bread, you think you're eating bread with poop in it.

Right?

Little da bien.

Right?

Okay.

So anyway, so you're eating this leaven, and when Jesus uses that word for leaven,

he always attaches it to Pharisees, and leaven is almost always a bad thing.

Leaven is this small little thing that you can't see.

It's like a mine.

It's something that you don't know, but if it's there in your life, it does a lot of damage.

It changes, and it can hurt you, and it can destroy you.

And in this case, Jesus says that what it will do is it will make you a hypocrite.

Now, Jesus is going to tell his disciples three times to beware of leaven.

The first time he's going to say, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, because that's hypocrisy.

The second time he's going to say, beware of the leaven of the Sadducees, because that's materialism.

And the third thing he's going to say is, beware of the leaven of Herod,

which is political power in the misuse of friendships, because that will destroy you.

And so these mines are laid out there, and he's telling his disciples,

beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, because this leaven is hypocrisy.

Now, hypocrisy, to be a hypocrite, is a very interesting Greek word.

It's very, very old.

Actually, to be a hypocrite, all it meant would be to be one who speaks.

And the word hypocrisy, actually, all it means is to be one who is answering.

But that Greek word moved from being something that was in a monologue or a dialogue in a play

to being something that was done in acting.

And so now, when the people heard this word hypocrite,

immediately what they would understand is someone who wears a mask.

And so if you went to a Greek play, there wasn't a lot of costumes,

there wasn't a lot of fanfare, there wasn't a lot of backdrops.

It was barren.

But whenever somebody changed character, they put on a mask.

And in Greek, you would say, he is playing a hypocrite.

He is acting outwardly, what he's not like on the inside.

He's wearing a mask.

He's acting a part.

He's conforming to the values that everybody expects him to in his world, in his family.

He's a chameleon.

He changes who he is.

He's trying to fit in.

He's trying to make people think, to believe that there's something that they are not.

Have you ever met anybody like that?

He's inconsistent.

And what Paul says and what Jesus says about hypocrisy is that it is always deliberate.

It's always on purpose.

And that we use our words and our actions either positively or negatively to determine what people think about us.

Now, Jesus is going to talk about it a couple times here in this passage and later on.

Actually, he's going to use the word hypocrisy and fear four times.

And he's going to say, the reason you and I are hypocrites.

And let's just get this out right away, okay?

I'm not speaking because I'm not a hypocrite.

I'm speaking because I am a hypocrite.

And for three weeks, I've been struggling with this passage.

Like, okay, God, show me where I'm a hypocrite.

Show me where I'm acting hypocritical of people.

Show me where my actions and my words are hypocrisy.

For three weeks, I've been doing that.

You only get to do it for 40 minutes.

But Jesus wants to show us that there's a huge danger if we do that.

And if we do that, we lose the gospel.

We lose the power of walking in the spirit that God has given us.

And so he's going to talk about this struggle that we have.

And at the core of this struggle is this idea of fear.

He's going to say to you and me that we all fear something.

We all fear something.

We either fear man and the things around us or we fear God.

I mean, there's not two other thrones in our life.

There's one throne.

There's one center.

There's one heart in our life.

And Jesus is saying to his disciples, he's pleading to them as they begin this journey as disciples,

he's going to say, hey, you either fear man or you fear God.

And you need to be careful of who you fear because if you fear the wrong thing,

you're walking into a landmine field and it's going to destroy you.

Is that clear?

I mean, I want to make sure that there's no unclearness here.

Because sometimes my wife says that wasn't very clear.

And she's totally right.

I love you.

But I want to make sure this is really clear.

Because what Jesus is saying here is that you and I fear.

And this fear drives us to become hypocrites.

And it causes us to change our life and to change our actions.

And when we walk into the boardroom tomorrow, we're either fearing God or we're fearing man.

When you walk into your classroom as a professor or a teacher,

either God is on the throne of your life and you're fearing him,

or you're fearing your students, the administration, the people who pay your salary, you're fearing them.

When you walk down the street as you're living life, going to Lan Kui Fung,

or wherever God has you meeting people and being missional and sharing with them about Jesus in your life,

wherever that is, you're either fearing God or you're fearing man.

And whatever you fear controls the destiny of your life.

Do you see why this is so important?

I mean, everybody's becoming rock stars.

Everybody's getting popular.

Everybody's going towards the disciples.

They all want to be with them.

They're the in crowd.

Everybody wants to hear what they have to say.

And Jesus says, be careful.

Because when you get popular,

you tend to fear people

more than you fear God.

Be careful.

Because when people start liking you,

which isn't a bad thing,

you're going to change how you act

and how you dress

and what you say

because you want to keep that popularity.

And Jesus is saying,

be careful.

Be careful who you fear.

Maybe you could ask yourself these questions.

These are questions I've been asking myself

the last three weeks.

Are you a people pleaser?

When people come and ask you to do something,

do you say, yeah, I can do it,

even though you know you can't do it?

I mean, when you look at your schedule,

is your schedule overcommitted?

Do you have a billion things you're doing this week,

but none of them have a focus,

none of them have a purpose?

They're all just things that people say,

you need to do this,

you need to do this,

you need to do this,

you need to do this.

Do you answer yes to everything?

When people ask you to do something,

do you say yes?

Question two,

do you second guess your decisions?

Do you make a decision,

but then you change it

because you're worried about

what people are going to think?

Come on, girls.

I like the pink outfit.

No, no, no, I should wear the blue outfit.

Now, this never happens in my house,

but I've heard that it does happen

with women in households.

Guys, you're the same way.

Do I wear this tie?

Do I wear that tie?

What's the power tie?

What is going to give me

the most respect in this boardroom?

What am I going to do?

How am I going to dress?

And Jesus says, be careful.

Not that that's necessarily a bad thing,

but if you do it out of fear,

it's a terrible thing.

Do you struggle with peer pressure?

Is it important what people think about you?

Do you struggle with family pressure?

When your family says,

we need you to do this,

do you go, okay, we'll do that?

When your family sets up this agenda

of things you need to be doing

and how you need to be doing it,

do you drop everything

even if you already have your own family?

Do you struggle with,

as a 35-year-old guy,

your mom still coming into the house

and making your bed

and doing your laundry

and putting groceries

in your refrigerator?

And your wife looks at you and goes,

you know, I really hate it

when your mom comes in

and rearranges all the furniture.

Can you tell her not to do that?

And the guy goes, oh, man, oh.

Yeah, I wish I could,

but you know, it's my mom.

I can't do it.

Do you struggle with that?

And finally, the question is,

are you worried about your self-esteem?

Is self-esteem critical for you?

And how you answer all these questions

determine what you fear.

There's a lot of talk in America nowadays

about bullying and schools and Internet

and the interaction of peers

among our children

and in the American papers,

and I think it's a little here,

the big thought is peer pressure.

And when we talk about our high school kids,

we say there's a lot of peer pressure.

As adults, we use the words differently.

We don't use pressure,

but we say people-pleasing.

We're not under peer pressure.

We're under people-pleasing.

But what Jesus is going to say in this scripture

and what God's word says

is it's called the fear of man.

And hypocrisy is always a bad thing,

that it will destroy you,

it will destroy your life,

it will un-gospel you.

You won't understand what the gospel means

because you're so worried about living lives

the way people want you to live it.

And in the passage,

Jesus gives us four ways

to detect hypocrisy in our life.

He says four things

that you need to be aware of.

If you experience any of these four things,

or these are things that you get yourself

out of the minefield,

if you're about to walk into the minefield

of people-pleasing,

think about these four things.

And these four things,

he says to his disciples,

these things will change everything.

In verse two and three,

he says this,

but there's nothing covered up

that will not be revealed.

That word revealed is a word

that only can be associated with God.

And so what he's saying there

is there's nothing covered up.

It's this word of like,

you dug this deep hole,

10 feet deep,

you put something in it,

you buried it up,

and you say,

no one will ever find out what's here.

But Jesus says,

God will come around

and he will reveal that.

So there's nothing covered up

that will not be revealed.

There's nothing hidden

that will not be known.

Accordingly,

whatever you have said in the dark

will be heard in the light.

What you have whispered

in the inner rooms,

in Greek it's the secret place.

What you've whispered

in the secret place of your house

or of your heart

will be proclaimed,

shouted,

yelled out from the mountaintops.

And so the first warning

that Jesus gives us,

he says this,

if you're tempted

to be a hypocrite,

if you're being tempted

with fearing man

more than you fear God,

remember that whatever is said,

whatever is hidden,

eventually God will bring out

into the light.

Now in this passage,

he's saying it in a good way.

He's saying it to his disciples

who are worried about

what people are going

to think about him,

who are worried about

whether they're making a difference,

who are worried about

whether they leave father and mother

and come to follow Jesus.

Will that make a difference

in the end?

And what Jesus says

to his disciples

and he says to us is this,

keep doing the right thing.

Keep following me.

Keep fearing me.

Keep being a good employee

even though no one else

in the office recognizes

or cares about it.

Keep being a good boss

who treats your people fairly.

Keep being a kind wife

whose husband probably isn't here

on Sunday

and he could care less

about spiritual things.

But Christ is in your heart

and you're loving him,

you're caring for him,

you're serving him

and you wonder,

is this ever going to make a difference?

Because no one sees what I'm doing.

And what Jesus says here is,

yes,

it will make a difference.

because one day

everything good

that you've done,

even though it's been hidden

in the dark,

will be seen.

Honor me.

One day,

I am going to get up

on the hilltop,

I'm going to get up

on the housetop

and I'm going to reveal

everything

of your faithfulness

and your goodness.

In Hebrew,

there's an idiom

that's attached to this story

and it's basically

you can't hide the sun.

That if you're shining,

if you're being faithful,

if you're doing what God

has called you to do,

don't worry about

what's going to happen.

It might not seem

like anything's happening,

but what Jesus says here

is don't be a hypocrite,

don't cover it up,

don't stop doing it,

be who you are

because one day

all of these things

you're being faithful

right now,

all of these things,

you're going to be rewarded for.

All of these things

are going to be seen

in the light.

All of these things,

I'm going to bless you

for your faithfulness.

But the disciples

were struggling

and they were like,

well, no one sees

what we're doing.

I mean, we're speaking

the gospel to everybody,

but everybody wants

to do this.

What do we do

when you're gone?

And Jesus says to them,

be aware

that everything you do

will be seen.

Everything you do

will be seen.

Another thing

that Jesus says here

to avoid the minefields,

to avoid hypocrisy

is in verse 4 and 5.

He says to his disciples,

I say to you,

my friends,

it's the only time

in the Greek Bible

that that word

is used,

my friends,

it's the only time

that Jesus speaks it

and what he means there

is there's this

intimate relationship

with him

and his disciples.

There's an intimate

relationship with God

and you.

You are God's friends.

He says,

I say to you,

my friends,

don't be afraid

of those who can

kill the body,

but after that

they have no more

they can do.

But I warn you

whom to fear.

Fear the one

who after he is killed

has the authority

to cast into hell.

Yes,

I tell you

to fear him.

And what Jesus

is saying here

is that you can

avoid hypocrisy,

you can avoid

the minefield

by realizing

that as you walk

with him,

things are not

always perfect.

Because sometimes

stepping out

and saying

I follow Christ

has repercussions

to it.

Sometimes those

repercussions

are financial,

sometimes they're

emotional,

sometimes they're

physical,

sometimes they're

spiritual.

I mean,

we don't ever

talk about that

often in church

because we want

the gospel to seem

sexy and fun

and everything's

perfect and

everything's good,

but what Jesus

is warning his

friends,

what he's

warning us,

is that if we

walk with him,

if we do the

right thing,

sometimes things

will become

difficult.

And that's okay.

Be aware of that.

That same summer

we went to

Saigon

and I was in

this park of

Saigon

1990,

1989,

1990,

and we were

walking with

our friends

and this

little old

Vietnamese guy

came up to

us and he

spoke perfect

English.

I mean,

America still

hadn't normalized

relationships with

Vietnam,

so we could be

there as tourists

but we weren't

supposed to have

American dollars

in there and

we weren't

supposed to do

business there

and all these

things.

And this little

Vietnamese guy

came up to us

in the middle

of this park

and he spoke

perfect English.

And we were

astounded and I

said,

tell me,

who are you?

And he goes,

I was a high

school teacher.

And when the

communists came

in,

they put me in

prison for 20

years.

And after 20

years,

they just let us

go because they

figured we were

too old to do

anything.

And they said to

me,

don't share your

faith.

faith.

And I'm

looking at this

guy right there

and he's

speaking perfect

English to us

and I said,

so what are you

doing?

He goes,

well,

I just come to

the park and

anybody I see

who looks like a

Westerner,

I just go up and

start speaking to

them and sharing

with them about

Jesus in my life.

And I was like,

dude,

you spent 20

years in prison.

Aren't you worried

that they're going

to put you back

there?

And he said

this to me,

God's word says,

don't fear him

who can just

kill you.

But fear him

who can,

after he kills

you,

takes your soul

and separates

it away from

him.

You know how

big I felt at

that time because

I'm this missionary

living in China

doing all these

cool things and

sacrificing nothing,

which is okay.

But this guy

realized the

principle of

hypocrisy,

that if you

feel like you

need to change,

if you feel like

the pressure is

intense,

if you feel like

something's going

to happen to you

physically,

what Jesus says

to his disciples,

and every one of

them died that way

except for John,

he says,

don't worry about

those who can

kill you because

all they can do

is kill you.

But worry about

him who holds

your soul.

I thought about

that a lot.

I don't know if

you struggle with

it, but I think

I do sometimes.

I struggle with

thinking that

heaven is here

and now,

that this is all

there is.

And I don't

really think about

what happens

afterwards.

But what Jesus

is trying to tell

his disciples,

what he's trying

to tell you and

me, is that

amidst the

struggle, amidst

the minefields,

amidst the

hardness and

the difficult

times, realize

that your

physical body

will experience

hard things.

But that's

okay.

Because you

have an

eternity in

heaven waiting

for you with

me.

Jesus goes on

in verse 6 and

7.

Again, this is a

heavy passage.

This is like,

whoa!

He says this

to his disciples.

He goes, if

you're tempted

to be a

hypocrite, if

you're tempted

to walk into

the minefield,

if you're tempted

to realize that

I need to be

something that I'm

not, the

sixth, he says

this, are not

five sparrows

sold for two

cents?

Yet not one of

them is forgotten

before God.

I mean, he takes

the smallest animal

in their culture

in a market sense.

that you would

buy two sparrows

for one cent.

You could buy

four sparrows

for two cents.

But they were

so cheap, they

threw in a

fifth one.

That's how

worthless sparrows

are.

And what Jesus

says to his

disciples and to

us is that

here God has

so much concern

over something

that seems so

small and so

insignificant.

arrogant.

Surely, he's

more concerned

about us.

Melissa,

Henrika,

144,000.

Scientists say

that if you have

blonde hair,

you have 144,000

pieces of hair

in your head.

Ed,

Mervyn,

122,000.

Scientists say

if you have

dark hair,

the average

person has

122,000

hairs

in their head.

Charles,

for redheads,

it's 90,000.

So scientists

tell us that

for redheads,

you have 90,000

hairs in your

head.

Mike,

Kelvin,

some of those

guys who are

losing that hair

right here,

it's less than

90,000.

Okay, God is

subtracting there,

right?

But what the

scripture says

here is that

as you're tempted

to be a hypocrite,

as you're tempted

to act apart,

as you're tempted

to be something

that you're not

because you're

worried about

what people

are going to

think about you

and how they're

going to act

around you,

realize that

God loves you

so much

that every hair

in your head

is numbered.

And not one

hair in your

head can fall

out

without God

allowing it to

happen.

how do you

feel when you

hear that?

I got to tell

you, this is

the hardest

one for me

because I have

so many doubts

about God's

goodness sometimes.

I have so many

doubts of whether

he really

understands,

if he really

sees my future,

if he really

cares amongst

the hard,

difficult times.

I wonder

if he really

understands what's

going on in my

world

sometimes.

But Jesus

says when you're

tempted to

fear man

instead of

fear God,

you cling to

the fact

that God

loves you,

he knows you,

he's always

there,

he's always

involved,

that nothing

can happen to

you without him

allowing it to

happen to you.

And if you

cling to that,

if you understand

that,

then you won't

fall into

hypocrisy.

That you'll

fear God

more than

you fear man.

And that word

fear there

basically means

awe,

and reverence,

and worship.

And Jesus

says when we

walk through our

day,

Lenny,

when you

leave here

with your

family,

and you're

going out

to eat

lunch,

and then

you're

going to

go to

work

tomorrow,

and you're

going to

be doing

things that

no one's

going to

see you

do,

God's

going to

say,

be in

awe of

me.

Worship

me.

Jason,

when you

leave here

and you

go to

China,

and you're

doing what

God has

you doing,

every step

that you

take,

God is

going to

say,

no matter

what happens

to you,

I'm in

control of

those things.

and I

want you

to worship

me,

and love

me,

and be

in awe

of me.

Don't fear

man,

don't worship

men,

don't be

in awe

of men,

but be in

awe of

God.

And if we

keep that

in our

forefront,

it helps us

to see the

landmines,

and it

prevents us

from stepping

on them

and blowing

ourselves

up.

And finally,

the hard

verses,

verses 8

through 12,

Jesus says

this,

and I

say to you,

everyone who

confesses me

before men,

the Son of

Man will

confess him

also before

the angels

of God,

but he

who denies

me before

men will

be denied

before the

angels of

God.

Everyone who

speaks a

word against

the Son of

Man,

it will be

forgiven

him,

but he

who

blasphemes

against the

Holy Spirit,

it will not

be forgiven

him.

When they

bring you

before the

synagogues

and the

rulers and

the authorities,

do not worry

about how or

what you are to

speak in your

defense or what

you are to

say,

for the Holy

Spirit will

teach you in

that very

hour what

you need to

say.

And what

Jesus says to

his disciples

and he says

to us is

that throughout

our life we

have these

options,

we have

these choices

of who

we are

going to

put on

our throne.

Now you are

going to

come back

to that and

go what

does that

mean?

What does

number 10

mean?

I want to

know did

I blaspheme

the Holy

Spirit?

What does

that mean?

Am I

unforgiven?

Am I

unforgivable?

I think it

depends on

where you are

at.

If this is

written to

non-Christians

what that

means is that

God keeps

bringing himself

to you.

People keep

inviting you to

church.

You keep

hearing of

God's grace

and his

mercy.

You keep

seeing how

incredible community

is you keep

seeing the

power of the

gospel change

and transform

people's lives

and even as

that is put in

front of your

face you say

no, no.

No, I

just can't do

it.

No.

I don't want

it.

I'm more

happy where I'm

at.

I don't want

that.

And for those

he says that

on that moment

you close your

eyes you've

blasphemed God's

Holy Spirit

because the Holy

Spirit is the

giver of life.

He brings truth.

He presents

Jesus Christ

to people

and in

saying no

I don't

want that

what you've

done is you've

rejected him.

If you're in a

family of God

it doesn't mean

that you lose

your salvation

but what it

means and

there's a lot

of questions

on this but

what I tend

to think it

means is

that one

day as

Christians we'll

go before

God and

there will be

this panorama

played of our

life.

And every

word and

deed and

action will

be played

before us

and before

God.

And we

will see the

opportunities we

had to make

Christ known.

We'll see the

opportunities we

had to be a

part of his

kingdom and

allow it to

grow and reach

out to people.

We'll see

opportunities that

we had with the

giftings and

the talents and

the money that

he's given us to

make an incredible

impact.

And we said

no.

And there

seems to be a

sense that we're

going to lose

something.

We're still

saved.

But we're

going to lose

something.

We're going to

lose something.

The passage is

really clear.

you and I

have two

options.

We have

one throne in

our life with

two people to

put on it.

And the

question is do

we fear man or

do we fear

God?

Do we care

about what

others think?

Or do we

care about what

God thinks more?

And I'm not

saying it's bad

to care about

what other

people think.

But what I'm

saying is that

becomes the

idol that drives

you in your

life and it

predicts everything

you do.

then scripture

says that you're

fearing man

instead of

fearing God.

Do we strive to

please others

or do we strive to

please God?

Do we trust God

with everything

that we have

and everything

that he's given

us?

Or do we

trust whatever?

You fill in the

blank.

If you're like

me it was my

family.

It was my

medical degree.

It was the

people I hung

out with.

It was the

bank account.

It was the

280Z that I

drove in

college.

Whatever it is

you fill it in

there.

I don't know

what it is in

your life or

what you've put

on the throne

of your life

but the

question Jesus

asked in his

passage and

what he warns

us about is

that we're

walking into

this minefield

and we need

to be careful

of these

things because

if we don't

we'll become

hypocrites and

we'll fear man

instead of God

and the outcome

of that is

always bad.

It's always

bad.

It's always

bad.

Does that

make sense?

This is a

tough passage

guys because

this is the

only time where

Jesus actually

uses a negative

thing to

reinforce what

he wants us

to do.

It's almost

always positive

do this and

these things

happen but

here he's

saying guys

if you don't

do this

this is what's

going to

happen.

And he wants

us to be very

clear as we

walk with him

and as we

follow him.

So where are

you standing

today?

What do you

fear?

on Monday

when you

leave here

what's the

worst thing

that could

happen to

you?

What's your

greatest fear?

What's the

thing that's

going to

happen in

your place

that the

minute you

leave here

and you've

been worshiping

and everything

is good

and someone

looks at you

and all of a

sudden you're

like whoop.

And it's like

you just shut

down what God's

been doing in

your life for

the weekend or

however long you've

been in

community.

We need to

be in

community.

We need to

be with

brothers and

sisters all

the time.

We need to

have people

around us who

are continually

gospeling,

sharing the

gospel message

with us,

asking us

questions,

challenging us,

encouraging us,

spurring us on to

great and

incredible things.

We need to

beware that

there's a

minefield all

around us and

this minefield is

going to blow up

if we're not

careful and that's

why we need people

around us and we

need to understand

and think every

moment that we go

through our day,

who am I fearing

here?

Who have I put

on the throne

of my life?

Because Jesus is

saying to us,

the minute we

put anybody but

God on there,

we lose the

power of the

gospel.

And what we've

done, instead of

saying it's Jesus

plus nothing is

everything, we

say it's Jesus

plus something.

And Jesus is

telling his

disciples, and

Paul told us

last week, that

if we do that,

we've lost

everything.

every significant

event in my life

that's happened to

me is because for

some reason, I'm

hesitant to share

this, I wasn't even

going to share

this, for some

reason, I took a

step of faith and I

chose to fear God

more than I feared

man.

Now there are many

significant things in

my life when I did

not choose that.

And now as I look

back, I grieve and I

grab onto God's grace

and mercy and thank

him for where I am

now.

The first significant

thing was when I

wanted to tithe.

I was in high school.

I made $50 a week.

I heard this talk

about going on an

adventure with God

and giving money

because it was all

God's money anyway

and that was really

novel for me.

Because I grew up,

it's all my money.

And so I heard this

guy preach and I

said, okay, I'm going

to trust God and I'm

going to take a step

of faith and I'm

going to give my

$5.

I remember that $5.

Up until about 10

years ago, I

remembered the serial

number on that $5.

But I had it written

in my Bible and I

lost that Bible.

But taking that step

of faith and trusting

God changed everything

in my life.

Because it started to

free me from stuff and

from money and it

allowed me to give

freedom to give things

that God has given me

and see his kingdom

multiplied and blessed

and expanded in ways I

never would have

imagined.

marrying Christina.

I saw this girl walk

down this Christmas

conference and something

inside of me, all my

being said, you need to

go and pursue that girl.

I know without a shadow

of a doubt it was God

telling me that.

I don't know.

I'm not always mystical,

but I knew here.

I walked up to my best

friend.

We were roommates and I

said, what do you think

about Christina?

I really feel like God's

called me to marry her or

to pursue her.

I was 33 years old that

time, so I was getting

old, right?

I didn't think I'd ever

get married anyway.

And my friend looked at

me and said, don't do

it.

He said, because her old

boyfriend's coming back

in town.

And I think that they're

going to get back

together.

And so all the guys

around me, all the peers,

all the men said, don't

do it, dude.

Do the right thing and

let her get back with

her old boyfriend.

But there was just

something inside of me

that kept saying, pursue,

pursue, pursue.

And I took a step of

faith.

And we're here.

Coming to China.

I grew up in Montana,

Montgomery, Alabama,

Texas, New Jersey,

and Delaware,

and Colorado.

Never outside of the

States.

I felt God was calling

me to come to China to

work in mainland China.

All my friends, all the

words, all my parents,

everything said, don't

come to China.

China's terrible.

Go to Europe.

Europe's nicer.

But for some reason, I

just took a step of

faith and said, I feel

like God is calling us to

come to China.

And I don't know what it

looks like, but I'm going

to trust you.

And I'm not going to put

on a mask, but I'm going

to trust you and I'm going

to walk with you.

Those three things have

changed my life, but I

know there are many other

things that could have

changed my life.

But instead, I feared man

more than I feared God.

God, my prayer for us as a

church, my prayer for you,

where you're at right now, I

don't know what you're

fearing, but I pray that you

would leave it here before you

leave here.

And you walk in faith and

say, God, I don't know what

this looks like, but I'm going

to fear you.

Can you show me what it looks

like to fear you in my work?

Can you show me what it looks

like to fear you in this

relationship?

Can you show me what it looks

like to fear you at church so

that when I walk in those

doors, I don't have to put

this mask on and people say,

how are you doing?

Oh, great.

Everything's good.

My prayer for us as a church

is that we would hear Jesus'

words and that we would trust

God in the gospel to change

our lives and to turn it into

something so incredible we

could not even imagine instead

of walking in fear of man.

Father, we thank you for this

day.

We thank you for your word,

which is living and active,

and it changes us.

As we look back at the

minefields that your son puts

forth, we realize that so many

times we've made mistakes and

we've stepped on those mines,

and yet you're still there.

You're still with us.

Father, help us to trust you.

You know where each one of us is

that right now.

You know the things that we

fear.

I am very confident that most

of us would never want to share

them in any big group.

But I pray, Lord, that we would

share them with you, that we

would confess them to you, that

we'd repent of these things that

we fear more than you, and that

your spirit would change us, that

your spirit would renew us.

Father, we are thankful of the

mines we've already stepped on, and

so many times we've become

hypocrites.

And still you come towards us, and

you heal us, and you clean us, and

you pick us up.

May we be in a community of people

who know us so well, and who know

our minefields so well, that they

lovingly and quickly redirect us

away from them.

Father, I pray for those in here

who don't know you.

Your word says that they fear man.

And I think if we're honest, we

would say, yeah, that's true.

That there are certain things in my

life that hold me captive.

That I'm a slave to my work.

I'm a slave to alcohol or drugs.

I'm a slave to money and gambling.

I'm a slave to something that has

done a really poor job of being

master in my life.

Father, I pray for them that this

moment that you would speak to them,

that they would trust you in your

goodness and your son, and they

would confess those things and

invite you into their life.

And start off with a new mask.

mask.

The mask of a child of God.

And Father, I pray for our church.

Help us not to be a church who just

gathers on Sunday.

Father, if that's the type of church

we're going to end up being five

years from now, I pray that you would

just shut us down.

Just remove us from here.

Because your spirit has so many

greater things to do in Hong Kong and

beyond than to waste time with people

who just want to do status quo every

Sunday.

Father, help us to see the people

around us who don't know you.

Help us to see the community and the

government and the schools that need

fixing and praying for.

Help us to trust you to be big because

you are and you control all those

things and you have all their hairs

numbered also.

And so as we have this fear of becoming

hypocrites when we leave here, Lord,

help us to fall in love with you more

and more.

Help us to realize the power of your

spirit and the power of the gospel to

change us.

May we be different.

May we be different.

Lord, we love you.

We pray all these things in your son Jesus' name.

Amen.

Hey, we are back here next week.

There are some people with little blue

lanyards around their neck.

They're part of our prayer team.

Don't leave here without having someone

pray with you.

Especially if you're in this issue of

struggling about where you have your heart

focused.

Who's on the throne of your life?

What are you fearing as you walk into

the classroom on Monday or into the

boardroom or as you go on your business

trip or if you do dinner with the

extended family tonight or if you walk

home into your house and it's divided

or you have kids out of control?

The passage here says that God,

God is awesome and big enough for you to

trust him.

That he wants you to do that.

He wants to work in your life.

But he's not going to force himself in

there.

He wants you to surrender to him and

allow him to do that in your life.

And our hope and our prayer is that you

would do that.

All of us, that we'd be a people with

Christ at the center, fearing God and

all of him and allowing him to change us

in Hong Kong.

Father, we just thank you for this day.

I thank you for my brothers and

sisters here.

Again, I just thank you for this place

that you've made available for us.