Fear-Based Decisions

So we started a series a few a few weeks ago at the start of our year called Getting to Know God.

Getting to Know God.

There is nothing you can accomplish this year that would be more important for you in your life than if you could know God better at the end of the year than you did at the start.

Doesn't matter what your other goals are, have them, have big goals, big big dreams, go for it, you know, lose weight, get your finances in order, start the business, whatever it is that you want to do.

Accomplish that goal, that's great.

But if you accomplished every goal that you have and yet were further away from God, or at the very least, not any closer to him, you've missed the most important thing.

That's why Jesus said, What good is it to gain the world and lose your soul?

Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God and all these other things, they'll be added to your life, they'll get taken care of, but first and foremost, know God.

And Jesus has made a way for us to know him.

You can get to know God, you can become closer to God, you can become uh much more intimate in your relationship with God.

That is possible.

And so over the next several months, we're going to be doing that week by week.

We're going to be getting closer to God.

And we're doing that in an interesting way.

We're studying the life of a man in the Bible named Abraham.

Well, his name's Abraham, he gets it changed to Abraham.

Those are interchangeable.

Uh, Abraham is uh like a legend, truly, when it comes to characters in the Bible.

He's a man of faith, he's a man that's that's heavily praised in the Bible for the way he responds to God, and his story is very interesting.

We're gonna get to know Abraham as the story goes, but the person we really get to know is God.

Because at the beginning of Abraham's story, at least from Abraham's perspective, God is mysterious.

God is a voice.

He's a voice that calls, he's a power.

But he's not someone that Abraham knows.

He's someone that Abraham's heard of, he's someone that Abraham recognizes and believes in, but he's not someone that Abraham knows.

But over the course of Abraham's life, as God shows up in his life, as God speaks to Abraham, as God does things in Abraham's life, as honestly, as we're gonna see today, as Abraham makes major mistakes.

And then God still stays faithful to him through that and teaches him, Abraham gets to know the character and the nature and the person of God.

And through his story, we get to know God better too.

And so I want, just like we saying, I want to know you more.

God, I want to know you better.

I want to be closer to you.

I don't want to be so busy in my life with all the things I've got going on that I neglect the most important thing, which is just to know the God who created me.

And so through Abraham, we're gonna get to know God.

And I'm super excited about that.

Now, we're just gonna go ahead and jump in today in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

We studied so far the very first part of Abraham's story, which is where God calls Abraham to leave his home, to take his family, to take all of his possessions, and to just go.

Just go.

It's like getting in the car and not knowing where you're going.

You know, imagine just telling that to someone in your home, hey, where are you going?

I have no idea, but God told me to get in my car and just drive.

Are you gonna be back soon?

I have no idea.

Right?

I don't know.

That's basically what God said, hey, I want you to go.

And I'll tell you where you're going when you're on your way.

And that is very much how God likes to work.

I will say that.

I have experienced that in life.

We would love to know the destination, the time, the cost.

And he's like, nah.

But it's an adventure, that's for sure.

So Abraham goes on an adventure and he's he's obedient to God.

He has faith enough in God to do what he says, and that speaks volumes about his heart.

But after he's traveled for a while and he's he's worshiped the Lord, last week we looked at some altars that Abraham built and explored what that concept is, what it means to remember what God has done, we get to this interesting story in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

It says, at that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner.

As he was approaching the border of Egypt, Abram said to his wife, Sarai, look, you're a very beautiful woman.

This is starting off really sweet.

So, ladies, just imagine your husband having this conversation.

You are gorgeous.

You're like, oh.

But it takes a weird turn.

Uh when the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife.

Let's kill him.

Then we can have her.

And it was a barbaric time.

Guys, real quick aside, sometimes we read stories in the Old Testament, and we're definitely gonna read that in Abram's story, and you're like, that is barbaric.

What you have to understand is no, the barbarians were way after this.

They would have looked at these people and said, They are whatever that would have been.

Like, this is pre-barbaric, okay?

The world was a different place, and Abram probably has precedent for what he's saying.

He's like, they're gonna kill me, and they're gonna take you as as their wife.

So please tell them that you're my sister.

Then they'll spare my life and treat me well because of their interest in you.

So again, this conversation between husband and wife has gone a very different direction.

It went from you're beautiful, to let's just pretend to be brothers and sisters so everyone will be nice to me, not kill me.

You know, they'll they'll oh, it's weird.

And sure enough, when Abram arrived in Egypt, everyone noticed Sarai's beauty.

When the palace officials saw her, they sang her praises to Pharaoh, their king, and Sarai was taken into his palace.

Then Pharaoh gave Abram many gifts because of her sheep, goats, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

But the Lord sent terrible plagues upon Pharaoh and his household because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

So Pharaoh summoned Abram and accused him sharply.

What have you done to me?

He demanded.

Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?

Why did you say she's my sister and allow me to take her as my wife?

Now then, here's your wife.

Take her, get out of here.

Pharaoh ordered some of his men to escort them, and he sent Abram out of the country along with his wife and all his possessions.

That would have been a very awkward camel ride home.

Right?

I've had some awkward car rides with my wife, but I can't imagine they're like, so sorry about that.

You know, that's an interesting situation.

Now, a few things I want to note here, and we're gonna explore this.

Um, first of all, Abram didn't lie.

I'm just gonna say this right off the bat.

I said at the very beginning of this series, we're we're gonna go through it all, we're not gonna skip anything, and when it gets a little weird, we're gonna own that.

We're gonna talk about it.

Uh, Sarai technically was Abram's sister, his half-sister.

And if you're like, ugh, yeah, that's the right response to that.

We have to understand something, like, all funniness aside, uh, not everything the Bible records is something the Bible condones.

And sometimes people will attack scripture and they'll point to something in the Bible and be like, see?

Like, slavery is a great example of that.

There will be people, oh, if you believe the Bible, you must support slavery because, you know, that's in the Bible.

It's like, no, God frees the slaves in the Bible.

Like, not everything the Bible records is something that it condones.

Very often what we're seeing in scripture is we're seeing an accurate depiction of a culture that's very different than ours, of a time that's very different than ours, and God is meeting people where they are.

And in meeting people where they are, he has to sort of gradually get them to a better place.

That's a concept called progressive revelation.

That God takes people and he's like, Whoa, you are way off of where I need you to be.

We're gonna take some baby steps.

By the time you get to Leviticus, God's like, stop marrying your sister.

Stop it, don't do that.

Even your half-sister, not okay.

And they're like, But Abraham, he's like, No, no, no, no, that's over with, but that's the way cultures were.

So, yes, technically, Abram didn't lie.

Also, he wasn't wrong.

Let's just admit that on the front end.

He was absolutely right in his prediction.

They noticed how beautiful Sarai was, and they're like, let's let's have her for us.

He wasn't wrong, he technically didn't lie, but I don't think any of us would look at this and go, smart, Abram.

Way to go.

I mean, honestly, it even benefited him.

He leaves with way more stuff.

Like he is enriched by this act of deception.

It works out for him, I guess, in that sense.

But we don't look at this as a story that we commend and go, wow, Abram, smart thinking, way to play the system.

Technically, you didn't lie.

Sure, it was a little deceptive, but you came out with a lot, a lot more livestock, so there you go.

No, we look at this as a failure of Abram.

Even though he was right, even though technically he didn't lie, it's a failure.

And the reason it's a failure is because it's a decision rooted in fear.

Abram makes a fear-based decision.

And fear-based decisions are almost always destructive.

Now, I don't have to talk long about fear.

We all deal with fear, we all understand fear.

Fear is a natural thing.

Like, think back to when you were a kid and some of the things that you were afraid of that today wouldn't phase you at all.

It's one of the interesting things about raising kids is I have to deal with the dark dynamic.

I'm almost out of that.

My youngest is still like, I would prefer the lights to be on, and he shares a room with his older brother who's like, turn the lights off.

But we have to sort of find middle ground for my youngest, and that's okay.

I can't stand light when I sleep now.

Like, I would love it if we could do blackout curtains and no light whatsoever.

I'd love that.

I just want it to be as dark as possible.

When I was a kid, I wanted to see, I wanted light.

We all have things like that.

My wife, uh, when she was a kid, I learned she was afraid of Star Wars.

And I want you to think of those of you that watch Star Wars movies, like, yeah, okay, Darth Vader, yeah, terrifying, choking people, that's crazy.

Uh Chewbacca, this giant, huge animal with teeth.

But no, that's not what she was afraid of.

She was afraid of C3PO, the golden robot.

The least menacing character in the history of cinema.

Like, just the most bumbling, scared, you know, it's like they created a robot that is an actual coward.

And my wife was terrified of C3PO.

I've never heard that before.

I can't laugh at her though, I can't make fun of her because when I was I was a kid, um, this is a deep cut for those of you that are like 80s, maybe early 90s kids.

There was a show called Fraggle Rock.

You guys remember Fraggle Rock?

No, man, not for me.

I I didn't, I couldn't do it, I couldn't get past the intro.

In fact, I found uh it's pretty low resolution, but I found just the intro of this, and I want to show you this.

Um let me explain why I was so afraid of it.

Guys, go ahead and play that.

Um so it this was what it was.

It's all these tiny little puppets.

Like this the way they move, it's unnatural.

And there was something about that this stuff, I just couldn't handle it.

When I was a little kid, I was like, mm-mm, no, not doing it.

The Muppets Christmas movie is terrifying.

Okay.

Just something about puppets and the way they move.

Obviously, it doesn't scare me now, but as a little kid, I was just like, uh-uh, don't like all the little puppets.

When we're young, we're afraid of silly things.

As we get older, we become afraid of more rational things.

Become afraid of failure, become afraid of sickness, become afraid of losing people that we love.

Sometimes we have those fears because we've actually experienced it.

And it's a fear rooted in life.

We become afraid of going without.

What if I don't have enough?

What if I lose my job?

What if I can't provide for my family?

Fear of death.

There's so many things to be afraid of.

We have so many options.

Fear is a it's something we grapple with on a daily basis.

If we're really honest with ourselves, so much of what we do in life is rooted in fear.

We are, as people, we are easily spooked.

It's just true.

That's why so often in scripture we're told by God or by those that God sends to not be afraid.

That is a constant theme through scripture.

You look at the book of Joshua, for example.

Joshua replaces Moses as the leader of the people of Israel.

This is gonna be hundreds of years after Abraham's life.

And he says to Joshua, This is my command.

This is a command, not a request.

He says, Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or discouraged.

For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

He tells Joshua over and over again, be strong and courageous, don't be afraid.

Why?

Because Joshua was afraid.

And who could blame him?

He has huge shoes to fill in Moses.

He's got to lead the people of Israel into a land that's occupied by much more powerful nations, at least in terms of military strength and experience and things like that.

Of course he's afraid.

And God says, Don't be afraid.

When God sends angels to talk to people, one of the first things the angels always say is do not be afraid.

That is the constant.

Angels must talk in heaven, like, man, those people are always scared.

Every time, like every time I talk to them, like, don't be afraid.

But it's true, it's every single time.

So you look at like Luke chapter 1, verse 13.

Luke 1:13

Angel comes to speak to a man who's gonna be the father of John the Baptist.

And we have that, he says, The angel said, Don't be afraid, Zechariah.

Don't be afraid.

First thing he says, God has heard your prayer, your wife Elizabeth will give you a son.

You're gonna name him John.

Angel shows up to Mary.

Don't be afraid, Mary, the angel told her, You found favor with God, and you're gonna give birth to a son.

The angels appear to talk to the shepherds when Jesus is born.

Luke chapter 2, verses 9 and 10.

Luke 2:9

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them.

What's the result of that?

They were terrified.

But the angel reassured them, Don't be afraid.

He said, I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.

We have a tendency toward fear.

So here we find Abram.

Let's go back to his story.

Verses 11 through 14.

As he was approaching the border of Egypt, Abram said to his wife, Sarai, look, you're a beautiful woman.

And I'm afraid, basically.

When the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife.

Let's kill him.

Then we can have her.

So please tell them you're my sister.

Then they'll spare my life and treat me well because of their interest in you.

And sure enough, when Abram arrived in Egypt, everyone noticed Sarai's beauty.

Being afraid of C3PO or puppets is that's an irrational fear.

There's lots of irrational fears.

But not all fear is irrational.

Some fear is rooted in reality.

Abram was not wrong.

We could say that Abram had good reason to be afraid.

The problem is what he did with that fear.

Fear is not a sin.

It is not a sin to be afraid.

I was talking with an awesome man that's part of our church actually the night that we we housed our homeless people for the first time a couple nights ago.

And he was sharing with me that he's angry at God.

He's struggling with anger.

He's lost someone that he loves very, very much, very suddenly, and he's like, I just I love God, but I'm also angry.

I don't know what to do with that.

And we talked, and I said, look, it is not wrong to be angry.

Anger is not a sin.

Fear is not a sin.

It's just a matter of what we do with those things.

There might be things you struggle with, genuinely struggle with in terms of fear.

And you might, like Abram, have good reason to be afraid.

But even if that's true, what we cannot do is what Abram does here, and we're gonna see him do it again.

You cannot make decisions based on fear.

Fear-based decision making, it completely and totally undermines your life.

It sabotages everything that you're working for.

And we see this happen so many times in Scripture.

Let's take a couple of examples.

1 Samuel chapter 13, Saul is the first king of Israel.

1 Samuel 13 · chapter mention

He's ultimately going to be replaced by David because of what happens in this story.

So the setup for this is that they're about to go into battle against an enemy, and that enemy is much stronger than they are.

That's kind of a theme we have in Scripture.

And Samuel is a prophet who has actually chosen Saul to be the king, and he tells Saul, he gives him instructions, he says, Hey, listen, I'm gonna go for a little bit, then I'll be back.

When I come back, I'm gonna make a sacrifice to the Lord.

Do not do anything until I get back.

And then Samuel's a little bit late.

And so we read in verse 7 Meanwhile, uh Saul stayed at Gilgal, and his men were trembling with fear.

Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn't come.

Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away.

So he demanded, Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.

And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself.

Just as Saul was finishing the burnt offering, Samuel arrived.

Saul went out to meet him and welcome him.

But Samuel said, What is this you've done?

Saul replied, Well, I saw my men scattering from me.

And you didn't arrive when you said you would.

And the Philistines are at Mi'kmash, ready for battle.

So I said, The Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal.

I haven't even asked for the Lord's help.

I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.

How foolish, Samuel exclaimed.

You've not kept the command the Lord your God gave you.

Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

But now your kingdom must end.

For the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.

The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people Israel because you have not kept the Lord's command.

It's such an interesting story.

I think about that story often.

I think I've taught about that story many times because there's so much of what Saul does here that seems like it's just good leadership.

Take initiative.

Grab the bull by the horns, and he probably literally did that to kill it for the sacrifice.

Like, just do what needs done.

Be a man of action.

I love taking action.

I love it.

I like doing things.

I don't know if you're like me, anybody, like I'm a doer.

I don't like to sit and think about, oh, why did this happen and what's going on?

I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all fine.

Let's just do something.

Let's do something about it.

Let's get something done.

There's a lot of Saul in me.

The problem is, Saul was afraid.

His men were afraid.

They started slipping away.

He became afraid.

And what he did is in his fear, he disobeyed God.

He came up with a good reason to disobey God.

I heard a pastor say once, I thought it was brilliant.

I think about it often.

There's no such thing as a good reason to make a bad decision.

I love that line.

I'm grateful that I heard that.

That's what Saul does here.

Out of fear, he decides, you know what, it makes sense for me to do something that I know God has not told me to do, has not commanded me to do.

In fact, it's something that I was I was told not to do, but I've got a good reason.

And his reason was I'm afraid.

I was afraid.

Jesus taught a famous parable in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

It's often called the parable of the talents or the parable of the three servants.

And in this parable, uh God, well, we we associate it with God, a master, gives a certain amount of money to three different servants.

And talent was a, it's a word now that means like what God has given you, like your talent, but in that time period, it was a unit of measurement.

A talent was about 70 pounds.

And so God gives five talents to one of his servants, two talents to another, and one talent to the third servant, and says, Hey, I'm gonna go on a journey.

And when I get back, the master, who we again associate with God, says, I want to see what you've done with it.

And so the first two servants that he gives five and two to, they double their investment.

And the master says, Wow, well, well done, my good and faithful servant.

Well done, my good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful for a little, I'll give you even more.

It's a great story.

Then he gets to the third servant, the one he gave one talent to.

And that servant didn't do anything with it.

He just buried it in the ground.

He didn't lose it though.

He still has it.

He didn't lose it.

He comes and he says, Hey, I've here it is.

I kept it safe.

And the master's furious.

He's like, why what have you done?

Like, why have you not grown what I gave you?

And this is the response that Jesus tells us from this servant.

It says, Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, Master, I knew you were a harsh man.

This is like classic teenage strategy.

Like, let's pre-blame the parent before, you know, I know that you're not very patient, and you, you know, it's like, oh, I've I've been there.

All right.

Master, I knew you were a harsh man harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate.

I was afraid.

I was afraid I would lose your money.

So I hid it in the earth.

Look, here's your money back.

But the master replied, You wicked and lazy servant, if you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank?

At least I could have gotten some interest on it.

And then he ordered, take the money from this servant and give it to the one with ten bags of silver.

You know, we I typically read this as the servant making up excuses.

I don't believe that the master in this story is a harsh man because of the way he treats the other servants.

But nonetheless, Jesus says, the servant says, I was afraid.

No matter what story you look at in scripture, there's so many to choose from.

When you make decisions based out of fear, it is it is at best just complicated and cumbersome, and at worst, it is disastrous.

And we've probably all been there.

And I've made so many fear-based decisions in my life.

And live to regret all of them.

And some of them have been have been really interesting.

In fact, I'll tell you guys about one as we transition and get ready to wrap up.

Um, I became the pastor here when I was 30 years old.

I'm 42, and I love being 42.

I love it so much.

Because when I was 30, um, I looked like I was 25.

And uh, and that that's fun in some ways, but not when you're in the role that I was in, because it's just weird.

People would find out I was the pastor and they would just look at me, like with this perplexed look on their face.

It was always, I actually had one person say to me, I love this, but he's like, the main one?

Like, yeah.

And so no one says that anymore, which I love.

I love that.

That's great.

I've gotten old enough that that doesn't happen anymore.

I love it.

Pretty soon I'll be like the old pastor.

Oh, that old guy?

I'm fine with that.

But I was just, I was 30 years old and I was in way over my head, truly.

And this is an awesome church.

I very much feel like the five talent servants.

So, what I'm about to say is not a complaint because I feel like I was entrusted with something really precious here.

I love this place very, very much.

But there were some things that were were tough.

There were some certain circumstances, situations that were really tough.

Our church hadn't grown in several years.

We'd actually gone down in numbers, and it's not about numbers, but that.

Can often be a sign of like that's like a sign of danger at times if there's fewer people than there used to be.

I was maybe like Saul, the people are slipping away.

I felt afraid.

Our finances were in an interesting place.

We owed$10 million on our building, and that was a 0% interest loan from some private donors.

But it was still$10 million.

And I I had just become a thousandaire in life, and so, you know, I understood money.

Right?

I'd move beyond hundreds of dollars.

But millions, that blew my mind.

Our roof was in desperate need of repair.

It was$350,000.

We had nowhere near that in the bank.

In fact, our giving back then was really low.

And in large part because our founding pastors, they they paid for everything here themselves.

And that was awesome and generous on their part, but it just we hadn't stepped up yet as a church.

And I want to thank those of you who give because you guys have stepped up and and it's awesome.

It's really, really great.

It's great.

And we can talk about that another time, but thank you.

So you know, we had all these kind of headwinds we had to fight.

There was, we hadn't grown, and we were stagnant, and there was this huge debt, and the roof, and all kinds of, and there were other costs, and there was giving was really low, and I was I had no idea what to do.

And in my 30-year-old mind, I was like, I was nervous that we were gonna fall apart.

On my watch.

We can't have that happen.

And so I was like, We got we gotta do something.

And in my mind, the only thing I could think that would solve the problem was just if we grew.

I was like, we gotta grow.

We gotta grow.

And so we created like a growth strategy.

And that phrase, by the way, in church, I'm just gonna let you guys know as a pastor now, like it makes me want to vomit a little bit, like growth strategy.

I'm like, like, I don't, I just, it's not wrong, it's not a sin to have a growth strategy, but I just don't think that's how God's kingdom works.

I've learned that the hard way.

So we had a growth strategy, and that growth strategy involved adding a service.

We had forever been a one-gathering church, and it was you know simple and there was a sweetness to it, but it's like we gotta grow.

If we don't grow, we're gonna fall apart.

We gotta, there's no way we're ever gonna get out of debt and accomplish these things and fix the roof if we don't grow.

So we added a service.

Not because we had to, not because momentum demanded it, but because we had to grow.

And so adding a service meant we had to get like 200 more volunteers to volunteer, and so we did that, and we pushed for it, and we had a cool logo, and we were like rah-rah kind of stuff, and we got people to do it, and and it was exciting for a little bit.

And we did grow.

That happened, but it was exhausting because it was like growth out of the flesh.

It was like we we had to make it grow.

And years and years went by, and and we grew a little bit, and you know, we we had two services now, which meant more volunteers and half of our staff.

All we did was just like make sure we had all the holes filled for every single service, and it was just an absolute grind, and it was it was exhausting.

It was weird for me as the pastor, um, because you know, sometimes the first service would just feel like flat, and I'm like, what did I do wrong?

And then the next service I'd try to bring it a little bit more, or the first service would be like, Yeah, and I'd feel the pressure, like, gotta do that again, and that's kind of gone now.

I love that.

It was just it was hard.

And here's here's the crazy thing that happened we got out of debt, but not because we grew.

Yeah, yay, thank you.

Yeah, but we didn't get out of debt because we grew.

We got out of debt because something happened that I never thought possible.

I never foresaw this.

Is that our private donors forgave about eight million dollars of our debt.

They just wiped it away.

Now that would have been nice to know on the front end.

That's not how God works.

I never thought about that happening.

It was like God had in my mind, we have to do all these things, God.

Why?

Because I'm afraid.

I'm afraid if we don't add a service, we won't grow.

And I'm afraid if we don't grow, we won't be able to handle all the things that are coming up, we'll won't be able to pay off the debt, we won't be able to fix the roof, all these things like God.

We have to do this in order for this to happen.

I was like Saul or like Abraham, coming up with good reasons to make a fear-based decision.

And what it resulted in was just all this complexity.

And it just it changed.

It just changed.

And there's nothing wrong with like lots of churches have multiple services, but what I what I'm telling you is that I couldn't say with confidence, this is what God wants us to do.

That wasn't my motivator.

It wasn't this is what the Lord wants us to do.

And I've learned a lot over the years, so thankfully, um, sorry for all of you who volunteered during those two service days.

My bad.

Uh no, thank you.

And it wasn't, again, it wasn't a sin, it wasn't a bad thing, but I I'm just saying, my decisions were so much rooted in fear, not in hearing from the Lord.

Now, switch that to COVID, a time when no one was making overarching fear-based decisions, right?

That was just a really rational time in our country's history.

But when COVID hit, we were praying about our church because it forced us to pause for the first time in forever.

And I felt deeply from the Lord that we were supposed to be a one-service church again.

Like, deeply.

And at first I was bummed because it felt like a retreat, but then the Lord, like, I don't know, it was just one of those moments where God puts something on your heart, and at first you're like, no, no, no, but then in an instant, there's a peace, and you know this is from the Lord, and so we we went to one service.

And here's what's crazy guys, we now we average about 500 more people today at one service than we had at both services combined before COVID, which is crazy.

It is really cool.

Um last Sunday was our highest ever attended service.

Last Sunday we had 518 children last Sunday, just kids.

Yeah.

And and here's why I say that.

I've had a lot of people ask me, so when are we going to two services?

And the answer is just like whenever God tells us to, if He does.

Because I learned this the hard way.

I mean, we could do it now because, oh, out of fear that people aren't going to want to park at Lowe's, and they probably don't.

Uh or fear that, well, what if if it's too packed, people aren't going to want to.

We we can make a lot of fear-based decisions.

But I don't want to be Saul.

I don't want to be someone who comes up with good reasons to make bad decisions.

I don't want to be, I mean, I do want to be Abraham in a lot of ways.

He's awesome.

But not in this moment.

Not in the, hey, pretend you're my sister, which is technically true, kind of weird way.

Uh like I don't I don't want to be someone who makes decisions for my life rooted in fear.

Because those always complicate, they exhaust, they they they just take everything out of you, you ultimately regret them, and they very often end in disaster.

So, worship team, if you want to make your way up, we'll wrap up here.

We don't have to be afraid.

We don't.

Because God is never afraid.

This series is about getting to know God.

Everything that I was afraid of whenever we went to two services, God already had handled.

This is true.

And if he says to do it, we'll do it.

But it'll be because we know that the Lord has called us to, not because we're afraid.

God had an answer for everything I was nervous about, just in a way I couldn't imagine.

When you have God in your life and you're following him, and you're faithful to him, you do not have to be afraid.

Because he has a solution for everything, even death, by the way.

There is nothing that God is afraid of.

That's why we see in Scripture, 2 Timothy 1.7, God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, because God's children are human beings made of flesh and blood, the Son also became flesh and blood, for only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil who had past hence the power of death.

Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

Psalm 23, 4.

It says, even when we walk through the darkest valley, some translations, the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid.

Why?

Because you're with me, because God is with me.

In his presence, we don't have anything to be afraid of, ever.

Jesus in John chapter 16, verse 33, I've told you all this so that you may have peace in me.

John 16:33

Here on earth you will have many so many troubles, many sorrows.

But take heart, I have overcome the world.

I'm telling you that whatever you're afraid of right now is nothing to God.

It's nothing.

Paul in chapter in Acts chapter 17, Paul's preaching to the people in Athens.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

And uh, and in that, he ends up essentially saying, Listen, God, well, actually, I have it.

Let's just read this.

Acts 17.

He is the God who made the world and everything in it.

Let that sink in.

That's who he is.

That's our God.

He made everything.

Since he is the Lord of heaven and of earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples and human hands can't serve his needs, for he has no needs.

He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.

From one man, he created all the nations throughout the whole earth.

He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.

God himself determines the fate of nations.

Of nations.

Nations rise and fall and think that it's them.

And it's God doing what God is going to do in this world.

That's why when nations opposed God in Scripture, they lost.

Everyone is equally powerless.

Doesn't matter if you're a child or a king.

Guys, we have a powerful God, and He's afraid of nothing.

Everything you could possibly worry about, He already has a solution for.

So don't be like Abraham, don't be like Saul.

Don't be like me.

And out of fear, make big decisions that can complicate your life, that wear you out and exhaust you.

And could ultimately lead to destruction.

Now God is good and faithful, and He course corrects us, and I'm grateful He did that for me.

But don't let fear be the motivator in your decisions.

Don't let fear be the main thing, the main factor in the life that you're choosing to live.

Let it be faith in God.

Now we're gonna see Abram grow.

And later in life, he's gonna have some scenarios where he ought to be afraid.

But he says, no, God has made me a promise and I know he will fulfill it.

So I'm not worried about what's gonna happen to me because I know that God is gonna do what he said he's gonna do.

We can get to that point of faith, but it starts by recognizing that fear is not friends with faith.

And God is afraid of nothing.

So whatever your fear is today, whatever fear plays through your mind, whatever you struggle with, whatever worries you might have, I'm saying today's a day to leave them here, to surrender those to God and say, I'm not, God, I'm gonna be honest, I'm probably gonna still be afraid of this.

We're gonna talk about this a lot, God.

You might have to reassure me multiple times, just like you did to Joshua.

Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.

But I'm not going to make decisions in my life based out of this fear.

Because God is not afraid.

And Abram's gonna learn that time and time again in his story, and we're gonna learn it too.

Our God is never afraid, and we don't have to be.

So, with that said, we're gonna take Lord's Supper.

And actually, at this point, I'm gonna hand it off to my good friend Fred.

He's gonna do Lord's Supper for us today because I'm I'm baptizing a good buddy, and I gotta run and change clothes real quick.

Uh, and Fred is awesome.

And so let's hear it for Fred.

Here you go.

Oh, you got your own?

Do you want two?

All right, very cool.

Hey, here you go.

Now, I understand I've got what, 15, 20 minutes?

What did you say?

Oh rubber meets the road at this moment for us.

Uh, we're in this series on Abraham, and what we're doing, what Jesus did, it really goes back to that.

This covenant with Abraham that involved blood.

Centuries would pass, so then it's sealed even more with blood to establish who the people who belonged to God really were in Egypt, so they could be let out.

And the start of the celebration of the Passover.

That now is called the Seder meal.

It's what Jesus was doing with the disciples.

And it's a great mystery, isn't it?

Because Jesus said, This is my body, and this is my blood.

I've been pursuing the Lord for nearly 50 years, and I can't explain that.

But in faith, I believe it's true.

I believe it's true.

Now, what's also interesting is once Jesus died on the cross for us, just to put it in context, which was just, you know, the day after he said this about this, stretched out his arms on the hardwood of the cross, died, said he was sharing his blood for us, his life for us.

Three days later, he rises from the dead.

Fifty days later, the Holy Spirit is poured out.

What's very interesting in the early book of Acts, chapter two, in fact, those people who began to believe that and receive the Holy Spirit realized they needed to live a different kind of life.

A life of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't you think it's a different set of priorities when you begin living for Jesus?

Of course it would be.

And we're told that they had four devotions.

Of course, one of the devotions was the Bible.

Being very intentional about studying the Word of God, of course, we'd say that.

Another one was prayer, of course we'd say that.

Learning how to pray more, more intently, more in community, more individually, praying about everything.

Yes, that was one of the four devotions.

Yes, of course, a third was fellowship, fellowshipping with other believers, getting strength from being in the body, being in community.

But there was a fourth devotion.

There aren't five, six, or eight.

The book of Acts tells us there's only four.

And the fourth devotion?

The breaking of the bread.

What?

This is a devotion for a believer.

Well, they became world changers.

Because they trusted Jesus.

And we might say, in the context of our message today, they decided to not live in fear.

Not fear of death or sickness or relational breakups, not fear of finances or family dynamics or anything else.

Faith.

And this was one of the devotions.

That we are invited to take a faith statement and put it inside of us.

And Jesus died for me.

So I want to die to myself and live for him.

And that's why we do this every Sunday.

I'm going to live by faith in my Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's open up the bread.

Lord bless this bread that it would be that for us.

In Jesus' name.

Let's take the bread.

And Jesus then took the cup.

And he said, This is my blood.

Question is, will we believe it?

Will our day tomorrow be different because of what we're doing at this moment?

That we will live by faith, not by fear.

Lord bless this juice.

That would be for us the cleansing of the new life we need in Jesus our Savior.

Amen.