Sermon

251 ~ FEAR OF MAN < FEAR OF GOD

We Are Zion - Sermon Podcast

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  1. Hello, a big welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

  2. We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

  3. We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

  4. be refreshed, revived and energized by what you hear.

  5. Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

  6. purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

  7. The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

  8. our promise. Today's sermon causes us to

  9. assess ourselves and see if we live with a fear of God or a

  10. fear of man. One gives life while the other

  11. debilitates. 1 brings clarity and freedom, while the other

  12. confuses and confounds. How would you choose to live

  13. from this moment on? Hi church, this is a joy and a

  14. privilege to be in God's word to you today counted an honour.

  15. And even as we've been going through the entire book of

  16. Genesis, we've been seen from the life of Abraham as to how he

  17. took the first step of actually pursuing and pushing through and

  18. seeing God's promise come through his life.

  19. And even as we've started this year, our theme for the year is

  20. positioned to possess the promise.

  21. And I believe as we position ourselves, there are so many

  22. things that changes in US. What we believe in changes, how

  23. we decide to run the remaining race changes, our destination

  24. changes, who we rely on changes, and probably even the

  25. surroundings change because we're not positioned

  26. differently. Suddenly the voices that meant

  27. or governed us or, you know, gave us directions suddenly

  28. don't make sense anymore. And we suddenly are realizing

  29. that our entire focus is towards what the Holy Spirit is asking

  30. us to do. Our dependence is on God's word.

  31. We suddenly are keeping our eyes focused on what Jesus wants us

  32. to do because we believe that promise is 1 where we would see

  33. things happen in the eternal. And it's beautiful because we're

  34. not waiting for eternity, but we're waiting for us to live

  35. right here on this earth, bring heaven down to earth.

  36. And I believe God's called each and every one of us.

  37. Last week, when we saw Progenesis 19, we saw from the

  38. life of Lot some of the lessons we gleaned from his life.

  39. And we saw that we need to have a heart for the city where God's

  40. placed us in eventually that heart.

  41. Not only this translates to the people around us and to the

  42. city, but also to the world where God's calling all of us to

  43. really intercede and pray and stand in the gap for his

  44. revival. We also saw that as the remnant

  45. few, we need to ask for God's righteousness.

  46. Yes, culture changes, culture dictates, but the remnant few

  47. believe can I believe can shake the mountains.

  48. I believe can shake the mountains of culture.

  49. I believe they can shake the principalities of darkness if

  50. God could choose 12. I believe the remnant fewer

  51. enough to take this Kingdom of culture and darkness that is so

  52. rampant across the world and bring hope, life and healing.

  53. And the 3rd we saw that we don't make decisions out of our

  54. temporary things that we need. We keep eternity in perspective

  55. and we realize that we are in this long journey.

  56. It's just not a Sprint. We are here, so we build

  57. endurance to run this race well and today we moved to Genesis

    Genesis 20 chapter mention

  58. chapter 20 and I've titled my sermon.

  59. It's pretty much like a mathematical equation.

  60. Fear of man is lesser than fear of God, which means the fear of

  61. God in our life should be far bigger than the fear of man.

  62. But eventually we given we are so surrounded by things and

  63. people around us that we cave in to the fear of man.

  64. We, so a lot of us are actually running our lives based on the

  65. fear of man. And I think we need to come to

  66. this place. Fear in the sense when you look

  67. at it with the fear of God that we should have is one of

  68. reverent fear where we are in awe, where we like we are

  69. without anything. We, we are nothing without God.

  70. We are solely dependent on God. But the fear that's associated

  71. with man has this connotation where it's more or less this

  72. unpleasant emotion caused by threat, danger or pain.

  73. And today, if I have to ask you, do we all have fears?

  74. Yes. Do we all have fears of certain

  75. things around us? Yes.

  76. Do we have fears around things that are within us that brings

  77. out a lot of fear things around us brings out a lot of fear

  78. things even the are concerned about in the future brings a lot

  79. of fear and I believe God's word constantly encourages to

  80. overcome fear. And even as we look into the

  81. life of Abraham, there are certain things that I wanted to

  82. point out because I believe it's a wrestle we have to have every

  83. day. We have to have every day God

  84. uses us because it's so easy to get confined to the four walls

  85. of the fear that we are so used to living out of God saying I

  86. want to liberate you, I want to set you free.

  87. I want to turn our attention to Proverbs chapter 29 verses 25.

    Proverbs 29:25

  88. The fear of human opinion disables.

  89. Trusting in God protects you from that.

  90. The fear of human opinion disables.

  91. And I think in a world where we are so digitally connected,

  92. where we are, so, you know, going by what people say, going

  93. back, what our opinion of people are, we believe to a certain

  94. extent their opinion actually carries weight.

  95. Yes, it does. To a certain extent credibility

  96. does, but we but we can't be so in performance mode that we've

  97. having and operating out of a fear of people and their

  98. opinions. And this is where God wants us

  99. to come to a place of the Bible talks about a a place of fear is

  100. a place of trembling, of revidence of all.

  101. But it's also showing that we are in a place of deep anxiety.

  102. When fear of man is dead, there's deep sense of anxiety,

  103. there's this physical trembling and it's dread that we have what

  104. is to be shown towards God. We somehow are showing it

  105. towards man because we feel the repercussions are immediate.

  106. God is a distant repercussion. You know, eternity, I can manage

  107. that. That's like 40 or 50 or 80 years

  108. down the road, how long I live on this earth.

  109. But then the fear of man is so heavy because we feel that, that

  110. that that backlash might happen immediate.

  111. That backlash might lick us up. That backlash might.

  112. But this is where we need to move from the fear of man to

  113. trusting God. It says in the amplified the

  114. same words, The fear of man brings his net, but whoever

  115. trusts and puts his confidence in the Lord will be exalted and

  116. safe. Whoever trusts and puts his

  117. confidence in the Lord will be exalted and safe.

  118. You know, today we're living in the world where AI is evolving,

  119. where perplexities come chat, GBTS come open.

  120. AI has got this huge bid to be bought over and we see this a

  121. lot of momentum around artificial intelligence and

  122. machine learning. What does machine learning do?

  123. Takes our own patterns, our own searches, our own queries and

  124. starts giving us well formed content.

  125. It starts answering for us and the, and the, and the problem

  126. with this day and age, why the fear of man is far bigger is

  127. because knowledge is at the, it's at its peak today.

  128. You don't have to run after knowledge.

  129. Knowledge is right there in your device.

  130. You can, you can Google it, but we are beyond the Google place

  131. right now. We, we ask, we, you know, we, we

  132. can go deeper into all these topics because it's, it's, it's

  133. learning of our questions. It's learning of the amount of

  134. data that's there globally. And so today, as we look into

  135. this, a lot of us have the fear that you know what, why?

  136. Why do we fear man? Because knowledge is this whole

  137. thing that's cultivated, this whole thing that's harvested is

  138. of man. And so our major movement, a

  139. major move is like God, this, this fear is so real.

  140. We, we, we feel like if, if culture calls us out, if culture

  141. shames as if culture calls us this particular thing today we

  142. had lost it. But God's saying whoever trusts

  143. in me and puts his confidence, it's just on trust but puts his

  144. confidence that is do we take a bet on God and what he says

  145. because this is what is looking like.

  146. If we have to pursue a promise like how Abraham did, we will be

  147. a few in number. This is not looking like many

  148. coming towards many might come, but we don't know if everyone is

  149. actually putting their confidence in God.

  150. And so today I want to talk to you that in this fear of man, a

  151. lot of us are worried about what others might see of us.

  152. And that's that's a very prominent fear that is exist or

  153. what they might do to us. We've also gone to the other

  154. extreme where we are worried what they don't say to us or

  155. what they won't do for us or do to us.

  156. And so this, this, this looming thing about the fear of man is

  157. real. And I'm not negating it.

  158. All of us have walked through different journeys and stages in

  159. life where we've been battered, bruised, and so there is an

  160. unhealthy fear of man in US. When I say fear of man, it could

  161. be from a family member, friend, colleague, associate, relative,

  162. whoever. It's someone who's instilled

  163. that fear. And so today I want us to stand

  164. up to a place where you're saying God, our trust and our

  165. confidence is solely going to be on you.

  166. Fear of man probably is also coming from a place where we've

  167. been let down, where we've, we've, we've seen people who

  168. said we'll show up, have not showed up.

  169. And that's become a big struggle for us where we've really felt

  170. like we've disappointed someone because we've let them down.

  171. As we go through this sermon, I want us to identify that this

  172. fear of man is not what we can live by because God's promise is

  173. real. God's promise is going to work

  174. in and through us, but it cannot partake when the fear of man is

  175. resident within us. So the three things which I

  176. wanted to highlight from Genesis chapter 20, and I pray that

    Genesis 20 chapter mention

  177. before it becomes a stronghold, before it becomes something that

  178. we are governed by, we'll be able to say, Lord, I trust you

  179. and I put my confidence in you alone.

  180. The first thing that I wanted to take from Genesis chapter 20 is

    Genesis 20 chapter mention

  181. the fear of man cripples us to only think of our own survival.

  182. The fear of mancribles has to only think of our own survival.

  183. Let's read from Genesis chapter 20 verses 1:00 to 2:00.

    Genesis 20 chapter mention

  184. And we amplified. This is what it says.

  185. Now Abraham journeyed from there toward Negev, the S country, and

  186. settled between Kadesh and Shore.

  187. Then he lived temporarily in Gerard.

  188. Abraham said again of Sarah, his wife.

  189. She's my sister. So ABI Malik, the king of

  190. Gerard, sent and took Sarah into his harem.

  191. Even as we read this, it's a reminder that yes, Abraham, it

  192. shows the human side of Abraham. It shows the emotions that

  193. Abraham had. What I'm really surprised is a

  194. woman in her late 90s is actually so beautiful that men

  195. actually want her king. A king actually wants her.

  196. And we see Abraham is moving, but this time when he's moving,

  197. he's not moving as just a household.

  198. He's not moving as a nomad. He's now moving as a Chieftain.

  199. He's a Chieftain. He's moving as person who's

  200. accomplished, who's followed God for nearly 20 years.

  201. He's moving to a place. He's moving from a place of

  202. being a Chieftain who's who went and fought a battle.

  203. He and his household went and rescued Lot and the entire

  204. people of Sodom and Gomorrah in that battle.

  205. We are moving to a place to see that his wealth is just

  206. increased. We are moving.

  207. He's moving from a place where he is a man in his own standing.

  208. Yet when it came to being around the king, a king ABI Malik

  209. there, what happened? He just thought of his own

  210. interests. He didn't think of anyone else.

  211. He didn't he? He knew that there was something

  212. that would bring about the king to come and ask for his wife,

  213. that he just said, she's my sister and I want us to come to

  214. a place that is a hidden selfishness within us.

  215. And it kicks in when the fear of man starts, when it gets

  216. propelled. The reason being when we see

  217. here, he just thought of himself.

  218. He in fact, if you notice the conversation, it's, it's purely

  219. for him. He knew if she goes in, he'll be

  220. taken care of. And as a husband, I don't think

  221. I would give up on my wife like that.

  222. I wouldn't give up on my wife, but in this day and age, fear

  223. set in. And I believe fear set in

  224. because he was the king. There was a sudden shift in who

  225. he was and the sudden shift when the king came along.

  226. Remember, he met with the king Melchizedek.

  227. He fought against other kings to rescue his own cousin.

  228. He has seen kings, but in a time when there is peace, when a time

  229. when there's quietness around, in a time when he's just moving

  230. and moving into a place and wanting to settle, he gives in

  231. to fear. And today, if you're in this

  232. pathway to move towards a promise, the fear of man will

  233. settle in US or get activated in US when we are on our journey

  234. from moving from probably in in in abundance in everything going

  235. right, the fear of man can set in.

  236. And this is where we have to come to a place and as Jesus

  237. followers and see what is our response going to be like?

  238. Am I going to cave in? Because that's what causes us to

  239. stand out. So today when you this isn't

  240. about an authority submission issue in a workplace, but this

  241. comes to a place where the fear of man is it causing you to do

  242. something wrong just so that you'll earn the favour of your

  243. immediate boss? Is this is the fear of man

  244. causing you to take certain actions so that you can you can

  245. steer your people or under you as your subordinates in a

  246. different One Direction so that you can Curry the favor of

  247. someone else on top as Jesus followers, this shadow can

  248. become looming that it can't even cause us to be just

  249. selfish. They'll be like you know what I

  250. don't think it's what I'm called to do.

  251. I don't think So. What I'm I'm I'm, I'm, it's not

  252. my cup of tea, but Jesus followers have to move to a

  253. place realizing that as long as we are walking on this world, no

  254. one shadow can deter us from the promise that God's called us.

  255. No one's shadow or no one's title can deter us from the

  256. promise that God's called us. A lot of us today are basing or

  257. wanting to be under someone's shadow because it's easier.

  258. You don't have to feel the heat of the Scotch thing sun, you

  259. don't have it. It seems cooler.

  260. It seems like you're covered. It seems like you're protected.

  261. It seems like there's a covering, but God's saying you

  262. need, you will be moved to a place where we will have to walk

  263. out in boldness so that our trust and our confidence will be

  264. solely on God. And I'm reminded from the New

  265. Testament of Paul encouraging Timothy because Timothy came

  266. from this home where his grandmother and mother was

  267. committed believers of Jesus. And as they were people of

  268. faith, it was easy for him to walk in their shadows.

  269. But Paul saying you have to fan into flame what has been

  270. stirring in the new God's got something bigger.

  271. You need to move out. You need to step out.

  272. And I want to read that words because I believe a lot of us

  273. today have been circling around the shadows of those who are

  274. around us, whereas God is saying, step out in confidence.

  275. Let not the fear of man make you selfish that you're like, you

  276. know what, it's OK, I can. This is not the nature that

  277. Jesus wants us to exhibit when he's calling us to possess a

  278. promise. So 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 7.

    2 Timothy 1:7

  279. This is what it says. For God did not give us a spirit

  280. of timidity or coward or fear, but he has given us a spirit of

  281. power and of love and of sound judgement and personal

  282. discipline abilities that can result in a calm, well balanced

  283. mind and self-control. So this is not us telling you

  284. like you're a free bird, you have all the freedom to go do

  285. whatever you want. No, it's this freedom that's

  286. given with guardrails. It's this freedom that's

  287. becoming knowing that God, when I step out, you're stepping in

  288. to this area with me because you're going to be glorified.

  289. All this while I was in the shadow of others where I could

  290. see you. But now when I step out, I

  291. believe and trust, the confidence is that you're also

  292. stepping out with me. And there are times as a couple

  293. where many a times we've responded in the fear of man.

  294. Oh, what do people think or what people do?

  295. But God's asking you today, would you step out not in fear,

  296. but would you step out with power, with love and of a sound

  297. mind? Confidence is on God.

  298. We trust in God alone. And so today, if there's one

  299. thing that's holding you back, I pray it may not be the fear of

  300. man which is crippling you into a place of making it all about

  301. yourself. Because here Abraham made it all

  302. about himself. He wanted to be protected.

  303. He didn't want to be killed somewhere.

  304. He was willing to, you know, part with his wife.

  305. He I don't know what happened. Fear has ways of muddling a

  306. brain up. Fear has ways of confusing us.

  307. But made the love of Jesus and the beautiful Spirit of God

  308. guide us into having a sound mind, Sound mind.

  309. So I pray that we'll rise up from the fear of man and not be

  310. crippled anymore, that we won't operate our selfishness.

  311. The second thing, the fear of man makes us think less of us.

  312. The fear of man makes us think less of us.

  313. And so most often we question our God-given identity.

  314. A lot of us who follow Jesus have been washed, have been set

  315. free, have been liberated from the clutches of sin.

  316. And today we are walking in liberty with Jesus who is with

  317. us. So he's given us his God-given.

  318. 90 When we allow Jesus to come into our hearts, our hearts are

  319. open. He resides in US.

  320. And so we have his identity in US.

  321. He is in US. And today we need to walk in

  322. that. Today when Abraham suddenly met

  323. Abhimal, like the king of Guerrar, his title, his position

  324. suddenly made him feel small. He suddenly didn't realize

  325. Abraham was called to be the father of nations.

  326. The God who had called him was with him.

  327. He, in the midst of someone else, felt really small.

  328. Fear of man will always make us look and feel small, but fear of

  329. God helps us to realize what our identity is with Christ.

  330. I want to read from Isaiah chapter 41 verses 8 to 10.

    Isaiah 41:8–10

  331. That's what it says. But you, Israel, are my servant.

  332. You, Jacob, my first choice, descendants of my good friend

  333. Abraham. I pulled you in from all over

  334. the world, called you in from every dark corner of the earth,

  335. telling you you're my servant, serving on my side.

  336. I've picked you, I haven't dropped you.

  337. Don't panic, I'm with you. There's no need to fear, for I

  338. am your God. I'll give you strength, I'll

  339. help. I'll hold you steady, keep a

  340. firm grip on you. So today, Church, I would ask

  341. you if fear is what is dictating you and making you feel small,

  342. The fear of man who operates through man, the enemy, the

  343. enemy. And so today, if people have

  344. bullied you, if people have called you names, if people you,

  345. if people have judged you based on your skin color, your body

  346. type, whatever it is. I pray you move to a place of

  347. realizing who God has created you to be, who God has created

  348. you to be. The fear of man will make you

  349. feel small. You know one of the things I've

  350. been bullied, I've been called names, I've been shamed a lot

  351. for my body type. I've been the beautiful thing

  352. that I've seen is God bubble wraps us with his God-given

  353. identity. There's many times where people

  354. have, I've done said all these things, but it has never shaken

  355. my identity in Jesus. For for even though I've walked

  356. through abandonment, I've walked through loneliness, I've walked

  357. through so many things which could have shaped my identity,

  358. But God has moved me to a place to realize that I am his.

  359. He is mine. And I believe that's where we

  360. have to have a deep love for worship, a deep love for

  361. worship, of knowing who we worship.

  362. Because when we know who we worship, we are so comfortable

  363. being in that presence. I don't know how many of you

  364. I've, I, I take certain things very literally.

  365. I take applying the blood on our doorposts very seriously.

  366. I take being called His very seriously.

  367. And I take the fact that I am his.

  368. He's created me. And if he's create me, there's

  369. nothing that can change because my looks don't determine where I

  370. work. My my body type doesn't

  371. determine what I get to do. I get to do all this because God

  372. has opened that door. And when we come to that

  373. understanding of who God is and where we are at, and we realize

  374. that if he's knitters beautifully in our mother's

  375. womb, whatever drawbacks I have, yeah, prematurely, I'm grey or

  376. my skin is acting up or all these other, but I'm still his

  377. masterpiece. And still, that's why the Word

  378. of God says my earthly body is fading away.

  379. And I pray and ask that each and every one of us will come to a

  380. realization of that. That fear of man will make us

  381. feel small. But with a God who comes inside

  382. you, the God of the universe, when he comes inside the heart

  383. of a man, he makes us feel unique.

  384. There's no one else like you. You are his masterpiece and I'll

  385. tell you how that manifests itself, especially when we get

  386. married, when we go into a new place.

  387. I remember when we were for a year in attending a church back

  388. in the US, we were in this entirely white church.

  389. It's close to 2000 people who come multiple services and and I

  390. think that's where it's a deep communion of the Holy Spirit is

  391. very important. We realized this is from day

  392. one. We went there, we stayed there,

  393. we fellowship there. We were part of that.

  394. There were a handful of people I encountered with my hands, only

  395. talked. There were some couples who said

  396. we need to catch up but never caught up with them to have a

  397. meal or anything. But we love the church so dearly

  398. because God was present. God spoke to us.

  399. God caused us to see how to do ministry and how not to do

  400. ministry. We went into that church and

  401. it's interesting every Sunday because we were the only

  402. coloured people in that church. And it was interesting that

  403. every Sunday that pastor would meet us.

  404. We would linger long enough to meet and as we met him, he would

  405. hug us. He would make us feel seen, make

  406. us feel heard. And I came to an understanding

  407. of what it is to be comfortable because that's where the Holy

  408. Spirit was residing for us as a family.

  409. And so today I pray that the fear of man won't cause you to

  410. be disheveled. What is disheveled?

  411. Disheveled is where you're running helters Caterpillar to

  412. post like where is the Spirit of God?

  413. You will come to a place God, if the Spirit of God is resting

  414. here, I want to be here. If the glory of God is here.

  415. This is where I'll call home if. And so I pray that even as you

  416. are watching this or you're listening to this, wherever

  417. you're at, I pray that you will have a God-given identity to

  418. know that the world will make you feel small.

  419. The fear of man will make you feel feel small.

  420. You'll always feel like you have to measure, but when the living

  421. God comes inside you, He will activate within you His strength

  422. and make you realize who He has created you to be.

  423. Psalm 34 was four to seven. I prayed to the Lord and He

  424. answered me. He freed me from all my fears.

  425. Those who look to Him for help will be radiant with joy.

  426. No shadow of shame will darken their faces.

  427. In my desperation, I prayed and the Lord listened.

  428. He saved me from all my troubles.

  429. For the Angel of the Lord is a God.

  430. He surrounds and defends all who feared him.

  431. It's protection. And defending happens only when

  432. we fear God. We're protected and defended

  433. only when we fear God. When we fear man, we we leave

  434. the entire place open for us to be attacked.

  435. And I pray that we won't walk around prideful.

  436. A lot of us think, you know what?

  437. Intellectually I know about Jesus, but the truth is, if he's

  438. not done a work in you, you won't be able to see.

  439. And the beautiful thing about fear of man will cause us to

  440. protect everything on our own, keep everything constricted,

  441. make boundary walls so that we think we are in control of

  442. everything. No Fear of God will help us to

  443. realize God, you are in control of everything.

  444. If my kid is going through something this let me walk

  445. alongside with them, but let me help them face the world.

  446. Let me help them face the world. One of our kids, all three of

  447. our kids in fact, have walked through different seasons of

  448. their life where their entire friend circle changed.

  449. And I know and three of our kids are highly social.

  450. They they love people, they love being around people.

  451. But this is a phase where we've seen with, you know, with three

  452. kids, we've seen that this in this particular age group and

  453. there's a shift happened academically.

  454. We see this thing happen. And we told each of our kids in

  455. that those seasons, hey, friends will change.

  456. But you can be a friend to someone else.

  457. You can be your friend to some. And it's interesting how their

  458. entire friend circle has changed when they realized the others

  459. have ditched them. And I believe it's this

  460. navigating this different journey with each of them has

  461. helped me realize many a times when we fear God, we live with

  462. hands open because we know when we fear God, he's the one who

  463. protects. He's the one who guards.

  464. And so we realize that he's the one who will protect them.

  465. He helps them, you know, shape their worldview, their mind.

  466. We can't shape it. We we can walk around them.

  467. We hope more will be caught than taught, but I believe that as

  468. they shape that, I believe they will see that we are people who

  469. didn't give it to the fear of man.

  470. We are people who we lived with strong identity, strong

  471. understanding of ourselves. That we will be mindful also as

  472. we lead others, that we will lead them with the fear of God

  473. in our lives. And I pray that as we go through

  474. this that we will be a chosen vessel for God's given identity,

  475. that we wouldn't, that when we are his chosen message, we would

  476. radiate with joy. We won't radiate with

  477. bitterness. We would be joyful and we meet

  478. with everyone and just we'll talk to everyone.

  479. It's interesting, the church that we have, I can see how

  480. certain clicks form between body types, between people of the

  481. same colour, people, people of the same language, between

  482. people who are intellectually thinking.

  483. You can see you can easily see you can see that some people

  484. open their doors, the open doors, longer tables for

  485. everyone. Some don't.

  486. Some are very choosy of who they are love.

  487. And you see the fear of man acting in all these different

  488. spaces. And I want to come to a place

  489. where Lord, we will move into a space where we will be confident

  490. who you've created so that our faces will radiate with joy for

  491. everyone, not just for the select few, for everyone.

  492. And I pray that we'll see that happen because we are created as

  493. his masterpiece of in this lesson.

  494. When we see Abraham, what we see, we see that next to someone

  495. who was bigger in that land, he felt small and he caved in.

  496. And I pray none of us would cave in.

  497. None of us would cave in because the minute we cave in, we leave

  498. a foothold for the enemy. The minute we cave in, we are

  499. allowing Him to meddle with our mind, to meddle with all that

  500. God's deposited, and to meddle with the fact that our promise

  501. is not important. As we move to the Third Point,

  502. but before that, I want to read Ephesians chapter 3, verses 16

    Ephesians 3:16–20

  503. to 20. And So what it says.

  504. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you

  505. with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ

  506. may dwell in your hearts through faith.

  507. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may

  508. have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how

  509. wide, how long, how high His love for us to know this love

  510. that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure

  511. of all the fullness of God. Now to him who's able to do

  512. immeasurably more than all we can ask, imagine, according to

  513. his power that is at work within us, His love has to be wide,

  514. high, long and wide enough. It surpasses our knowledge.

  515. And I pray that our generation, that generation that is after us

  516. and who's coming after us, who are being born, they won't use

  517. knowledge to confine the love of God.

  518. They will experience it. And this will come from a place

  519. of realizing that fear of man will make you small.

  520. But when you fear God and understand who He's created you

  521. to be, it will give you a renew sense of identity that you can

  522. walk confidently on this earth knowing who's created you.

  523. Because when you are confidently knowing who's created you and

  524. what you're created for, you start accomplishing the things

  525. that will take you closer to seeing your promise being

  526. fulfilled right here on this earth, right here on this earth.

  527. The third thing, the fear of man can make us temporarily give up

  528. on the promise that God has given upon us.

  529. The fear of man can make us temporarily give up on the

  530. promise God has deposited in US. I want to read 2 passages.

  531. Genesis chapter 12 verses 10 to 13.

    Genesis 12:10–13

  532. Now there was a famine in the land and Abraham went to Egypt

  533. to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

  534. As he was about to empty Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, I

  535. know what a beautiful woman you are.

  536. When the Egyptians see you, they will say this is the, this is

  537. his wife. Then they will kill me, but will

  538. let you live, say you are my sister, so that I will be

  539. treated well for your sake, and my life will be spared because

  540. of you. Fast forward from Genesis 12 to

  541. Genesis 20. This is what it says when ABI

  542. Malik had taken taken Sarah into his quotes and kept her there.

  543. We see immediately God appeared to ABI Malik and I believe God

  544. intervened because he didn't want the promise that his chosen

  545. person Abraham and walked all these years to go to waste.

  546. If ABI Malik got up here to ABI Malik, God confronted him and

  547. told him, you've taken a man's wife.

  548. And immediately the next day he called his people, he discussed

  549. it and they called Abraham and said, what have you done?

  550. And this is what Abraham says. Early the next morning our Malik

  551. sermon, all his officials. And when they told him all that

  552. happened, they had, they were very much afraid.

  553. Then I mean Malik called Abraham and it said, what have you done

  554. to us? How have I wronged you that you

  555. brought such a great guilt upon me and my Kingdom?

  556. You have done things to me that you should never have done.

  557. And I mean Malik asked Abraham, what was your reason for doing

  558. this? Abraham replied.

  559. I said to myself, there is surely No Fear of God in this

  560. place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

  561. Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my

  562. father, though not of my mother, and she became my wife.

  563. And when God had me wander for my father's household, I said to

  564. her, this is how we should, This is how you can show your love to

  565. me everywhere we go, Say of me, he is my brother.

  566. It seemed that they were creating a protection plan for

  567. themselves, but God was saying, hey, you are mine, so you're

  568. under my protection plan. You don't have to do this

  569. because when you're under your protection plan, you're not.

  570. You're unable to control or you're unable to govern the

  571. promise. You can't.

  572. You're not a keeper of promise because if you're not a keeper

  573. of promise, Sarah could could not have protected it.

  574. If ABI Malik had violated her, it it would have changed the

  575. course. Rather the the the promised

  576. child that was supposed to come out of her would have been ABI

  577. Malik's. And here God intervened.

  578. And I believe a lot of us today have somehow caved into the fear

  579. of man and we've got a promise muddied.

  580. If God has called you to take a step of faith into a particular

  581. direction and you've, you've, you're caving in because of the

  582. fear of man, rise up today. The God of Angel armies is with

  583. you. He's wanting you to see clearly,

  584. seek him. And faith step has to be your

  585. step because that's where God honours the faith that you take.

  586. And so take that step of faith. And here God stepped in because

  587. he wanted his redemption plan to be secure.

  588. He didn't want ABI Malik to be the father, to be the reason who

  589. has been called out. And Jesus wouldn't have

  590. happened. The story would look entirely

  591. different. But in God's salvation plan, it

  592. was Abraham's seed through which we would see redemption at the

  593. end, who would be Jesus, who would come to save the entirety

  594. of mankind. So Abraham thought his device

  595. with his wife of a protection plan so that we'll safeguard

  596. both of them. It backfired and God had to

  597. intervene and say I am the one who can protect.

  598. I am the one who governs. I am the promise keeper.

  599. You aren't the promise keeper. When we allow fear to overcome

  600. us in places like this, I believe God, word has to step

  601. in. God's Holy Spirit has to step

  602. in. The invitation is open for all

  603. of us to let go of our fear and to allow God to come in.

  604. And I pray today this fear of man will go.

  605. This fear of man will go. And I want to pray specifically

  606. as I, as we conclude in a couple of minutes, specifically for

  607. those who've gone through abuse, specifically who've had a bad

  608. touch in their life, specifically who feel like

  609. they're unable to trust because something that man did has

  610. gripped them strong. I want to pray that you'll find

  611. freedom in Jesus, freedom in Jesus.

  612. I pray the fear of man won't suffocate you anymore, that God

  613. will bring down his radiant joy on you.

  614. I pray especially that your heart, your mind, and your body

  615. will find healing right now from every kind of fear that you've

  616. been seeing. And that happens only when the

  617. Holy Spirit comes. That's why the Holy Spirit's

  618. invitation is very important. I believe when we allow the Holy

  619. Spirit to enter into our lives, He changes.

  620. He gives us the courage to face anyone.

  621. I want to read a passage from Acts chapter 4.

    Acts 4 chapter mention

  622. The very disciples who got scattered away, who ran away,

  623. who were scared. But the minute when they

  624. encountered the Holy Spirit, they were able to stand before

  625. before the sand, and they were able to stand before the very

  626. men who had accused and put Jesus on the cross.

  627. Acts chapter 4 says 5 to 8. The next day the rulers, the

    Acts 4 chapter mention

  628. elders, and the teachers of the Lord met in Jerusalem and on us.

  629. The high priest was there and so was Caiaphas, John, Alexander

  630. and others of the High Peace family.

  631. They are Peter and John brought before them and began to

  632. question them. By what power or what name do

  633. you do this? The Peter filled with the Holy

  634. Spirit said to them, rulers and elders of the people.

  635. And Peter goes on to give a big speech.

  636. Then they call them in again and come on them not to speak or

  637. teach at all in the name of Jesus.

  638. But Peter and John replied, Which is right in God's eyes to

  639. listen to you or to Him? You be the judges.

  640. As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen

  641. and what we have heard. After further threats, they let

  642. them go. They could not decide how to

  643. punish them, because all the people who are praising God for

  644. what had happened, for the man who was miraculously healed was

  645. over 40 years old. The fear of man can only be

  646. overcome by the Holy Spirit. And today, I don't know what

  647. your understanding of the Holy Spirit is, but if you want to

  648. overcome the fear of man, it has to be overcome only by the Holy

  649. Spirit. The fear of man will be

  650. judgement. The fear of man will cause you

  651. to have a lid over your cup. Won't won't see your full

  652. potential, but the Holy Spirit will open that up to tell you

  653. you're not called to operate in the spirit of fear, especially

  654. the fear of man. Fear of man.

  655. So I pray today, whatever we're fearing due to our experiences,

  656. whatever we're fearing due to our circumstances, whatever

  657. fearing due to our family and the situation that we've grown

  658. up in, I pray we'll come to a place of allowing the Holy

  659. Spirit to move that allow the Holy Spirit to move.

  660. It says in one John, perfect love casts out fear.

  661. The perfect love can come only from the person who is perfect

  662. and who is that? That's Jesus, because Jesus, who

  663. knew no sin, went to the cross for you and me.

  664. Jesus died on our behalf. And it was not fear that took

  665. him there. It was his submission to the

  666. Father, deep love for the call that was on his life.

  667. And what happened is when he rose again, every part of

  668. darkness was broken and shaken. It was torn completely.

  669. So today, fear has no room in Jesus.

  670. Fear. There's no oh, I have Jesus in

  671. me, but I have some fear. No, fear won't be there.

  672. Fear reverent, All will be there.

  673. But No Fear or what, man or no, You won't even be worried about

  674. your name. No longer.

  675. You won't be worried about what the world says because

  676. everything has its timeline. Truth alone will build a legacy.

  677. Lies will fade away after a time.

  678. So I pray that you look to the cross.

  679. I pray each and every one of us. What about fears you're

  680. carrying? Fear of the future, fear of a

  681. bank balance is being empty. Fear of our relationship being

  682. and hanging on that last thread. Fear of a future, of our

  683. children, what they'll become. Fear of everything that's around

  684. will only cripple us, suffocate us, and leave us not being able

  685. to move and fulfill what God has called us.

  686. Whereas when we look to God, when we trust Him, when we call

  687. on His name, when we understand the realness of His love, our

  688. joy, our faces become radiant with joy.

  689. We realize that He's the one who protects and guards us.

  690. And I pray that we will move to a place of trusting Him holy, of

  691. trusting Him holy. So just even as I close, I'm

  692. praying specifically that God will work in and through your

  693. life and my life. I have certain fears and I want

  694. those fears to be relinquished. I want those.

  695. I want to relinquish all. I don't want to walk in the

  696. shadow of the fear of man. I want to be under the wings of

  697. the Almighty. But I know also that God wants

  698. me to take a step of faith out so that I'll be able to know

  699. that He is with me in that step. What we see happen after this is

  700. the King gives him back and restores him back.

  701. Sarah's untouched. And I believe God protects us.

  702. God protects his people. So I pray if you've done right

  703. by what God's called you to do, He will step in.

  704. Don't have any fear of man. Nothing can stop us to enjoying

  705. the promise that God's calling us towards.

  706. As we position ourselves, as we let go of every fear that the

  707. enemy throws, he will constantly keep throwing fear.

  708. The fear of business, the fear of clients, the fear of RP, the

  709. fear of everything that is happening, the cost of living,

  710. all the fear that you have. You can go to God.

  711. He's not afraid of anything. He's overcome everything.

  712. And I want to give you that message of hope that you will

  713. trust him wholeheartedly. You will trust him

  714. wholeheartedly. Can I pray with you right now?

  715. Loving Heavenly Father, I just thank you a lot for this time.

  716. I pray, Lord, even as people are watching and listening, I pray,

  717. Holy Spirit, I pray would flood their space right now.

  718. Their hearts will be flooded right now.

  719. I pray every fear of man, Lord, everything that they have gone

  720. through in life, every experience, every, everything

  721. that they have imbibed, Lord Jesus because of of an attitude

  722. of fear of someone else. Lord, I pray every negative

  723. emotion, Lord, everything that's built over a period of time and

  724. now has become a stronghold. We ask and we bind it in the

  725. name of Jesus and we release freedom.

  726. We release your love. We release Lord Jesus your

  727. protection, We release your guarding.

  728. Lord Jesus is that he'll come. I pray each and everyone of our

  729. faces will be radiant with joy because we trust you and because

  730. we see you do greater things. Lord, I pray you would go before

  731. us. I pray you would strengthen us.

  732. I pray you would take charge, Lord Jesus, and do greater

  733. things. Lord, I pray that we will see

  734. your Kingdom come. Lord, we will be people who will

  735. be able to accomplish everything because we don't cave into the

  736. fear of man, but rather we live with a reverent fear of you,

  737. Lord Jesus. I pray, Lord, our convictions

  738. will become stronger, our decisions, Lord, following you,

  739. things that we choose to do for you will become more clearer,

  740. Lord Jesus. And I pray that Lord, we will

  741. have peace because you are with us.

  742. You are with us, Lord, go before us and be with us.

  743. Lord, your most holy name we pray, Amen.

  744. Amen. I pray that even as you step out

  745. this week, you won't be crippled by the fear of man.

  746. You would overcome it, I pray. If you have any such thing,

  747. reach out to us. We'd love to pray with you.

  748. You know, it says that when two or three agree together, I

  749. believe Jesus is there. And I believe a lot of times you

  750. might want to ask someone to stand alongside with you to

  751. overcome that fear. I pray that God will use you

  752. mightily in the days to come, that you'll be able to live out

  753. whatever God's called you to do, knowing that He's with you every

  754. step of the way. God bless you and have a blessed

  755. week. Thanks for listening to this

  756. message. We hope you were blessed to hear

  757. more messages like this. Make sure to subscribe and check

  758. out our podcast channel for past episodes.

  759. If you like what you are hearing, consider rating us,

  760. subscribing and even sharing it with friends.

  761. That would really help us. For more content from Via Zion

  762. to connect with us, go to viazion.in.

  763. Remember, whoever finds Jesus finds life.