(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

I'm equipped to live the Christian life a little better, dear God, and I just pray that this sermon would speak to every heart and speak to my heart this morning, dear God, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. The verse that I especially want to focus on, and there's so much about this in this chapter, but the verse that I'd especially like to focus on is verse number 7 where the Bible says, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. I want to preach to you this morning about the spirit of fear. Now, if you read throughout the Bible, and if you study the Bible with this in mind, you'll notice that everywhere throughout the entire Bible, whenever fear is mentioned, it's always a negative thing, unless you're fearing God. That's the only exception. I mean, throughout the Bible, whenever you read about fear or being afraid, unless it's talking about having a fear of God, fearing the Lord, which is a very common theme throughout the Bible, every single other time that the Bible talks about fear, it's negative. It's not from God. I mean, do you see that? He says God has not given us the spirit of fear. He says if you have a spirit of fear, it did not come from God. God's given us a spirit of power. God's given us a spirit of love, and God's given us a spirit of a sound mind, and so fear is not of God. So think about this. Any time in your life that you feel fear, if you feel that emotion of being afraid and fear, it did not come from God. I mean, stop and think about that. I mean, every time that you're afraid in life, no matter what kind of fear we're talking about, whether you're scared for your safety, whether you're scared to talk to somebody about the gospel, whether you have a fear of your life is not going to go the way that you wanted it to go, God did not give you that emotion. God is not giving you that spirit that's making you feel fear. Fear is not of God. And the only time it's okay to fear is to fear God. Let me show you that in the Bible quickly. I'm just going to read down a list of you of what the Bible says about fearing God, and then I'll get into the message of the four kinds of wrong fear that you should never experience and that you should try not to experience. Don't look at it. I'll just read these for you. Ecclesiastes 12, 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. This is the end of the book of Ecclesiastes where Solomon sums up his whole great sermon on the meaninglessness of life, on the vanity of the life without God. He says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God. He said that's the number one synopsis. Twelve chapters of preaching by a man of God named Solomon, and he comes to this conclusion, fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. So fearing God is extremely important. Ecclesiastes 8, 12, in a different part of the book, he says, though a sinner do evil a hundred times and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him. First Peter 2, 17, of course, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Psalm 111, 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have all they that do his commandments, his praise endureth forever. You see how the fear of the Lord is related to keeping God's commandments? Have you noticed that a couple of times? I want to see that further, that a person who fears God and has that kind of a respect for God where they know that God can chasten them, kind of like my children fear me. And when you have that healthy fear of God, it'll cause you to keep his commandments because it's not that you're like scared and say, oh man, God's going to kill me. It's a fear that says, I know who I'm dealing with. I'm dealing with somebody that can do anything that controls my life, that holds everything about my life in his hand. I want to do right by God. Again, Proverbs one, seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs two, five, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs nine, 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 10, 27, the fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. Proverbs 14, 26, in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. And we'll get back to that idea later about confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge. Proverbs 14, 27, the next verse, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. Proverbs 15, 16, better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. Proverbs 15, 33, the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility. Proverbs 16, six, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Proverbs 19, 23, the fear of the Lord tendeth to life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied, he shall not be visited with evil. Proverbs 22, four, by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Proverbs 23, 17, let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. You see, don't look at them and think that they've got it all together. Be thou in the fear of the Lord all day long, which is something that they're lacking and they don't know what's coming to them. Listen to this, this is an interesting verse. Isaiah 11, two, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Let me give you a contrast. 2 Timothy 1, seven said, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but in Isaiah 11, two, he says, I have given you a spirit of the fear of the Lord. You see that? I mean, he says, I've given you the spirit of the fear of the Lord in Isaiah 11, two there. And then let's see, Isaiah 33, six, and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and strength of salvation. The fear of the Lord is his treasure. In Proverbs eight, 13, the fear of the Lord, and here's kind of, God gives us a little bit of a definition of what the fear of the Lord also is. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. As you catch that, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance, and the evil way and the forward mouth do I hate. And then turn to Romans chapter three and I'll show you the last thing about this. Turn to Romans chapter number three, great chapter in the Bible. There's a chapter that you probably use out soul winning to show people the sinful state of mankind, that every human being on this earth is a sinner, that mankind is not inherently good as the world will try to teach you, the humanists will try to teach you, that every child is born good and we just mess them up. Well, that's so stupid because if you keep going back, I mean, somewhere, some good person just really screwed everything up, didn't they? Yeah, his name was Adam. His name was Adam. He's the first human being that ever lived. And so maybe they're right about that, but, you know, this thing of, oh, man is good. It's just the environment. Who created the environment that we're in? It wasn't God. It's man's wicked heart. Let's see what God thinks about mankind. Look at Romans chapter three, verse nine, and we'll see this last thing about the fear of the Lord. What then? Are we better than they? Now what's he talking about? He's saying, you know, us as Christians, you know, us that know the word of God, are we better than the world necessarily? He says, no and no wise, for we have before approved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that do with good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues, they have used deceit. The poison of ashes is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. You see, that's how he sums it up. And then he goes on to another topic. He says, now we know that what things soever the law sayeth that sayeth to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. You see that, isn't it? It's a great chapter to tell you, look, the whole world is guilty before God. The whole entire world, every single human being is guilty before God. And he says, the reason that we live in such a wicked world, the reason that the world is so ungodly, the reason that the gospel of Jesus Christ is by and large unknown in the United States of America, let alone the rest of the world, is because there is no fear of God before their eyes. You see, we need to have a revival in churches and a revival among this world that says, we fear God. I mean, we'll fall on our face in reverence before God and say, oh God, what do you want us to do? I mean, goodnight. Well, let me read this verse for you, Psalm 36, one, I'll just read this for you. The transgression of the wicked sayeth within my heart that there's no fear of God before his eyes. He says, look, I can just look at what people are doing and I can just look at that person and say, that person has no fear of God, because you just see that the horrendous atrocities that they do, just the wicked depths of sin and just the shameless flaunting of their sin. Now, you know, I have these newspapers. My wife is always feeding me these newspaper articles and I find these in my drawer here in the pulpit and I find these and, you know, and really, I mean, this is just like from the last week or something, but it could really be any week because this stuff is in the news every single day. This garbage. And you know, that's true. If you follow the news, I don't really follow it that much. You know, my wife does for me and she finds all the garbage and gives it to me. But you know, this could be any week. I'm looking at this stuff, you know, Phoenix, this is a local news, Phoenix, the Phoenix chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is seeking volunteers for the Rainbows Festival on Saturday and next Sunday. So right here in Phoenix, they're having some big, you know, gay pride, rainbow festival just flaunting their wicked, ungodly perversity. And sometimes, see, I live in a little bubble. Let's face it. I live in a dream world. I mean, I literally just shut myself off from reality and that's kind of good and that's kind of bad because it's good because I just live in this happy land where, you know, Jesus Christ is my savior and I love the Bible and things are going great and I'm winning souls and hallelujah, I'm singing all the great music and reading the Bible. But you know, sometimes you hear about the wicked things that go on in the world and sometimes you get a little bit disjointed from reality and you just kind of, I mean, you believe it, but it doesn't really sink in that this is actually really happening. I mean, this is actually really where we're at. And I was looking at this one, Tempe, you know, right in our little town of Tempe, Fertility Center. Remember the Seven Sins of IVF sermon? If you didn't hear that, you need to listen to that. That was a very important sermon. Tempe Fertility Center offers pre-screening now. Okay, this is right here in town where they're doing IVF. Now they're offering pre-screening. It says that the Fertility Treatment Center in Tempe is offering one of the newest trends in fertility. Pre-screening embryos for about 60 genetic disorders such as Down Syndrome and certain cancers. Yeah, God forbid that some kid would be born who has Down Syndrome because we don't love them anyway. Why don't we flush them down the toilet? Isn't that just wicked as hell? I mean, isn't that just ungodly that they're going to say that a human being is not worth anything because they're not just perfect, you know, because they have Down Syndrome? You don't think God loves and died for a child with Down Syndrome? I mean, it's ungodly. The pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is available to any woman, but is usually used for embryos that are fertilized in a Petri dish at the center, you know, IVF, a typical test tube baby, and it goes on to explain how they do it. An expert can tell if the embryo has a disorder. One of these 60 disorders, I mean, 60 different reasons why they're going to throw it in the trash, this living human being. If it's healthy, it's inserted in a woman's uterus. If not, the embryo is discarded, so it's like when you're playing Rummy and you discard, you know, it's like when you throw something in the trash, that's how they feel about a human being. And then it says right here, listen to this, listen to the depths of what they'll go to. The center also can test for the gender of an embryo. Did you hear that? Male or female. They can tell you whether it's a boy or a girl. But Craig said that the center doesn't let patients select embryos based on gender. He would never do that, but listen to this though, he'd never do that, right, I mean, good night. Just letting people kill them because they're the wrong gender, no, no, no, never. Following ethical guidelines, yeah. Following ethical guidelines of the American Society for Reproductive Hoardom and Sorcery, I'm sorry, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The exception, see, see how inconsistent the hypocrisy of the world, of course there's the exception. By the way, God doesn't have exceptions ever for anything. The exception is if parents have, for example, six boys and they want to balance their family with a girl. You hear that? So you can't pick the gender unless you just have like too many boys and you really want a girl, then we'll just murder every male that you conceive. And this is happening down the street in Tempe, don't tell me that God's judgment is not coming on this country. Get on your knees and beg God that he'll do something in this country. Get on your feet and grab a Bible and go soul winning and do something about this because I'm going to tell you something, God will not look the other way because whatsoever this nation soweth, it shall also reap. And we're just racking up the judgment of God. You see, God is like a time bomb that's ticking and he just, it's like we're winding him up, just more and more, and you know what? The Bible says the Lord is long suffering and of great mercy. But you know what? He's long suffering, but you just keep just winding it and then pretty soon he just comes down like a ton of bricks and goes bam! I mean, that's what he, it's called New Orleans and you say, what? Hey, New Orleans was the judgment of God on a bunch of filthy sodomite perverts marching down the street. That's what it was. Their southern decadence, their gay pride parades and everything, and God literally clouded up and rained on them and killed them and destroyed their city. You say, what about September 11th? That's the judgment of God, my friend. The judgment of God, just a little shot across the bow. I mean, nothing compared to the judgment that God's going to send on this nation, but he just gave us a little shot across the bow. You say, how can you say that? I remember when that first happened, my dad told me, he said, yeah, Jerry Falwell. You know, he's this liberal guy who claims to be an independent fundamental Baptist. Jerry Falwell got on TV and said that September 11th was the judgment of God. And my dad's like, hey, you got to give him credit for that. I'm thinking like, Jerry Falwell, I'm not going to give him credit for anything. But then, but then he's like a couple of days later, right? Because I knew it was too good to be true. Couple of days later, Jerry Falwell comes out and just apologizes for the whole thing and just says like, I didn't mean that at all. And he's on Geraldo Rivera. My dad watched, he told me about it. He's on Geraldo Rivera and Geraldo Rivera's like literally like cursing him out. Like you stupid idiot. Why did you say that? You blankety blank fool. And Jerry Falwell is just like, I know, I know, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it. I don't know what I was thinking. That's what, that's the leader. That's like the big Baptist leader for us. That's our hero. God help us. A man who just, you know, goes like this and puts it out there and then sees which way the wind's blowing and then decides whether he's going to stick with it or not. And you know, maybe we'll study the book of Habakkuk soon on a Wednesday night in our Bible study because the book of Habakkuk, I could prove to you from the book of Habakkuk that September 11th is the judgment of God on this nation. I mean, God describes exactly how he does it. He describes exactly what he, how he uses wicked, heathen, ungodly people that are worse than God's people. And he'll use them to judge his own people and you know, he'd go on and on and see that. But I'm going to tell you something. There's no fear of God. I hate to break it to you, but in Tempe here, there's no fear of God. That's why they're deciding which gender lives, which gender dies. It reminds me of the land of Egypt where they killed all the men children. It reminds me of King Herod when he killed the children two years and under. There's no fear of God. That's why I was looking at this. This is what just came last night. You know, I'm writing my sermon. I'm working on my sermon and last night, you know, this pops up on my news there. Former US Representative Gary Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress dies at age 69. Now what do you think the first thing I said was? Praise the Lord. Okay. Hey, glory to God. Okay. And you know, if you, if you think that's wrong, you need to read the Bible. Maybe you can look up the verse like Proverbs 11 10, like where it says, when it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth. And when the wicked perish, there's shouting, hallelujah, because the wicked of Paris, listen to this. Listen to the depths of Satan that our country has gone to. Former representative, Gary Studds, who became the first openly gay member of Congress. This is how he was found out that he was gay. When his homosexuality was exposed during a teenage page sex scandal. Okay. So that's how you find out he's molesting teenagers. Okay. He's molesting teenagers and that's how they found out that he was reelected. Several times after that in Massachusetts as a Congressman, after he was found out for doing this, admitted to doing it, listen, listen to this. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry. I hate to do this to you on a Sunday morning to like bring you a little bit of reality into your life, but Studds regained consciousness, he's talking about his, his illness and seemed to be improving, but his condition deteriorated Friday because of a second blood clot. The origin of the second clot was not immediately determined, said Hera, who married Studds shortly after same gender marriage was legalized in Massachusetts in 2004. This guy's married to another man in the United States of America in Massachusetts. He got married in Massachusetts in 2004. This is his husband. It's filthy sodomite. Yes, he's a filthy sodomite animal. You heard me right. And then it says here Hera, said Studds, gave courage to gay people by winning reelection after publicly acknowledging his homosexuality through this thing of molesting teenage boys. He gave the people of this generation, and notice this, he gave courage to these gay people. See, no, see how there's no fear of God, just courage, that's the opposite of fear. He gave the people of this generation of my generation, because this guy's like 20 years younger than them, of future generations the courage to do whatever they wanted to do. Boy, isn't that wonderful? Wouldn't it be wonderful if everybody just did whatever they wanted to do? Doesn't that sound like a great society that you want to live in, where everybody just does whatever they want to do? This is our leader. This is our Congress, this is who makes our laws in this country. He stands up in the, in 1983 is when he got caught doing this, I mean he's just still Congressman for years after that. This 27-year-old man, you know, came out and said that as a teenager he'd been abused by this guy. And it says here, Studds did not apologize and defended the relationship as a consensual relationship with a young adult. He said, hey, this teenager's old enough, I mean, is this sick? And this guy was reelected by the American people, did not apologize, and then he stands up on the floor of the House. Can you imagine if you were like a Congressman, you know, like a righteous, upstanding Congressman, if there is one, I don't know, but, you know, somebody who's at least a decent human being, maybe there isn't one, I don't know, but, you know, somebody who's like a decent human being, there's 435 of them, right, I mean somebody's got to have some kind of character from Wyoming or something, I don't know. And sitting in this meeting, can you imagine, 435 of the people who were basically running this country, the House of Representatives, and this filthy sodomite standing up in front of everybody, just shamelessly, and this is what he said, everyone faces a daily challenge of public and, balancing public and private lives. They say they're all molesting kids, okay, and these challenges are made substantially more complex when one is, as am I, both an elected public official and gay. She's just standing up there, just shamelessly saying, I'm a filthy sodomite, I'm a pervert, I'm a pedophile, I'm a queer, hey, God help this nation. And God help the preacher who's afraid to get up and preach about it because he's afraid that somebody's going to walk out the back door. Hey, get up and walk out if you don't like that kind of preaching. Hey, get up and walk out if you don't like somebody telling you what the Bible says. Hey, get up and walk out if you don't like one person standing up and saying, it's gone too far, we're going to fight it. Yeah, that's right. There's no fear of God before their eyes. And so we need to understand that there is one positive kind of fear, and the positive kind of fear is where we stand in awe. As Moses said, when he was face to face with God, I mean, Moses, the man of God, said, I exceedingly fear and quake, is what he said. That was his synopsis of his experience being with God. And so yes, the fear of God is important, but I want to get onto the message. Sixty-three times in the Bible, the Bible says, fear not. So God's telling us not to fear. So there is a negative fear. I mean, the only fear that you'll ever find positive is the fear of God. And then twenty-six other times he says, be not afraid. Now there are four wrong types of fear that I see throughout the Bible, and I'm going to show you what those are. Number one, the first wrong type of fear is the fear of man, you know, fearing your fellow man. The Bible says in Proverbs 29, 25, the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. And I love this verse, Proverbs 28, 1, the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Hey, have the boldness to stand up for Jesus Christ. Have the boldness to preach the gospel to every creature. Have the boldness to open your mouth and preach the gospel. The Bible says in Ephesians 6, 19, and for me, that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. See, the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit, the Bible says, is that when they prayed, the place was shaken where they were all assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. See, don't tell me that you're a spirit-filled Christian unless you're a soul-winning Christian. Don't tell me that you're filled with the Holy Ghost unless you're speaking the word of God boldly, not cowering in fear, not, you know, like, well, you know, I mean, this is what I believe, but, you know, you don't have to believe it. I mean, get up and proclaim it and say, yes, the whole world is guilty before God, as we saw in Romans chapter 3, yes, that includes you, but thanks be to God, Jesus Christ loves you, he died for you, he paid your sins on the cross, he was buried, he rose again from the dead, and he says, whosoever will, let him come and drink of the water of life freely. Hey, preach the word of God and the gospel with authority. You know, that's what they said about Jesus. He didn't speak like the scribes. They said his preaching was totally different from the scribes because he spake his one having authority, and see, this is the authority, you've got all the authority you need. I mean, I don't care if you're a man or a woman, and, you know, obviously don't be obnoxious, but even if you're a woman, you can just say, look, I know this is true, you can boldly say, look, thus saith the Lord, and you don't have to be afraid to stand up to people and tell them that they're wrong. You know, and you do it kindly and tactly, the Bible says, speaking the truth in love, but nonetheless, speak the truth, and speak it with boldness. Matthew chapter 10, 27, I'll read this for you. Would I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light, and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops, and fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body and hell. Again, God's saying, fear of man? No. Fear of God? Yes. Fear God, but don't fear man, because man, the worst thing that a man can do to you is kill you, and then you'll go on to glory in heaven with him. He says, don't be afraid. He says, listen, preacher, get up and preach on the housetops, everything you believe, everything that you've heard in the ear. Just get up and yell and preach as loud as you can. And so, under the same point of not fearing man, the Bible also says that we should not fear, you know, being persecuted. You know, God forbid, but it's probably going to happen at some point in our lives that there's going to be some kind of persecution that we have to face for the Bible. John 16, 33 says, these things have I spoken unto you, then in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. Revelation 2, 10, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Don't live in fear of, oh wow, one day I might have to suffer for the cause of Christ. He says, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. That's kind of a tongue twister. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried, and you shall have tribulation ten days, be thou faithful unto death, and I'll give thee a crown of life. And then, of course, I was thinking about the psalm that everybody knows, Psalm 23. Great psalm. He's saying, look, and all throughout this whole sermon, and especially this point about fearing man, hey, don't live scared. God doesn't want you to go through life scared and worried and afraid all the time. He says, no, live a life of power. Live a life of a sound mind, and you shouldn't go through life always worrying and just scared all the time and afraid. You know, a lot of people, they get so into the news, and they just get scared all the time. Like, they think the world's coming to an end all the time. Hey, look, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer, and he's saying, look, don't live scared. I was thinking about Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leadeth me, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And listen to this, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. I mean, he says, even if I'm walking just right in the shadow of death, he says, I'm not afraid of anything, because God is with me. And he says, hey, thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Can you say that today, that you're going to be in church, perennially, that you will always be in church? I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. God's going to prepare me a table right in the presence of my enemies. I'm not afraid. Give us more than are with us and are with them. He says, if it's me and God, he says, I'm fearless, completely 100% fearless. Every man, woman, boy, and girl, God wants you to be completely without fear of mankind hurting you or anything that they might do to you. He says, I'll protect you. You don't have to worry about it. And so number one, the fear of man is something that's the wrong kind of fear. He says it's a snare. The Bible says in Philippians 1.28, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition. He said it's evidence of the fact that they're not saved because they're fearful all the time. Remember Revelation 21.8, but the fearful and unbelieving, see how those go hand-in-hand? The fearful and unbelieving, and we'll get to that in the fourth point, the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable, and murderers, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. See, fear is not of God. That's what I'm trying to teach you this morning. Fear is not from God unless it's fearing God. He's the object of all our fear. And so God says, no, be nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. He says this is part of life. Believe on Jesus Christ, suffer for his sake, that's your life, that's the will of God, and then be glorified with him one day at his second coming. That's the Christian life, my friend. So what's the opposite of the fear of man? One word, boldness. The opposite of fearing man is living a life characterized by boldness, not characterized by fear. Number two, there's another kind of fear that's a negative fear. One is fearing man, but number two is the fear of failure. The fear of failure. Look at Matthew 25. Actually don't turn there. We just looked at Romans and I'll read it to you. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where there has not shown and gathering where there has not strawed, and I was afraid. You notice that? And when it hid thy talent in the earth, lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, thou wicked and slothful servant, he says, you're wicked and lazy, thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I showed not and gather where I have not strawed, thou oughtest therefore to have proved my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received my own with usury. See, this master in the story here, he gives his servant a talent and he's so scared of failing. You know, he's so scared of doing something wrong that this servant actually, he's afraid of losing the money or something. And so he takes the money and he just buries it and says, I'm not going to do anything with it. He says, look, even if you couldn't double your money, he's like, could you at least just like put it in the bank, you know, and give it to the exchangers? And in the book of Luke, he describes it, I think, as giving it to the bank. I forget what word he uses, something like that. And so he says, couldn't you at least just put it in the bank and at least I could get some interest? You know, because if you know anything about money, if you don't get any interest on money, it's like you're losing money because of inflation. And so he says, you're lazy, you're stupid, you're wicked, because you could have at least just put it in the bank or done something with it or invested in something or at least, hey, at least try. Try and do something. But he says, no, I'm scared, I'm too scared to do anything. Fear has a way of paralyzing you, literally. I mean, fear has a way of paralyzing you and stopping you from doing anything. I mean, you get so scared that you just can't accomplish anything for God, you can't do anything. I was thinking about this, it's kind of a funny illustration, but you ever hear about people who they go to jail, you know, they're in prison for like 20 years, 30 years, and then they finally get out of prison and it's like they don't know what to do? You know what I'm talking about? And they'll get out of prison and it's like they're just so used to having somebody just run their life, having somebody just, you know, tell them exactly what to do, they got a place to stay, they don't have to mess with the bills or anything, they're just in jail. And they get out of jail and they'll actually literally commit crimes on purpose and get caught on purpose to go back to jail, because they just, they're scared. They're scared of living in the real world. And I was thinking about, and I'm against Bible college, but I was thinking about students who, they graduate from Bible college, and people that I know that graduate from Bible college, and it's like they graduate, and it's like they've been in Bible college for so long, it's like for years, they've just been, hey, actually you see this in secular college too, actually. And you know, they've been in Bible colleges for years and years, it's like finally they're done, right? And it's like they just don't even know what to do anymore. When they're done, like they, you know, they were going to go start a church or pastor or preach or be a missionary, they get out like they don't know what to do. And they're like scared to do anything. And so then it's like, I better get my master's degree. It's like, what? You know, you've been like, you've been trying and struggling and like looking toward this day of graduating, and it's like, uh, I think I'll get my master's degree, I don't know what to do. You know, or like, even if you're one of these career students, you know what I mean, who've been in college for like 20 years, because they don't know what to do, they're scared, and they're so scared they can't do anything. Hey, you know, these guys that are graduating from Bible college, it's like, listen you pansy, go start a church somewhere. Hey listen, go knock a bunch of doors somewhere. Hey, get up and start yelling about something. Hey, start a church somewhere. Get somebody saved. Baptize somebody in your backyard. Baptize somebody in a river somewhere. Preach under a tent somewhere. Do something. Don't be afraid. Don't be scared. Get the power of God and the boldness and the spirit of power and do something. Make something happen. But people just don't do anything. They just kind of float through life because they're scared. Bible college is like prison. You know, you get out and you don't know what to do. It's sad, but it's the truth. And I was thinking about this great passage in Philippians chapter 1. Starting with verse number 3. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Paul's writing to the Philippians. Always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now. Listen to this. Being confident of this very thing. Confidence. Being confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. See, the confidence to say, I'm not going to fail in the Christian life. A good man falls seven times and rises up again. And so God's saying, have the confidence to know. And Paul's saying, I have confidence in you that God's going to finish the good work that he started in you. He says, have the confidence that you're not going to fail. Because I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. And so just decide that I'm not going to go hide my talent in the earth, so to speak. I'm not just going to be so scared that I'm paralyzed and I'm afraid to do anything. Hey, I'm just going to have God's Spirit filling me and empowering me. I'm just going to go out and just try it. Just do something. You know, just try and go soul winning. Try and win somebody to the Lord. Try and preach something. Hey, do something. Don't let fear paralyze you because God will give you the confidence to know that he'll perform the good work that he began in you all the way until the day of Jesus Christ. We're just talking about the rapture. And he says, I will keep on sanctifying you. You know, I'll keep on working in you. I'll keep on molding you into my image. I'll keep bringing you closer to me. He says, don't be afraid. Just go forward in your Christian life. Think about Genesis chapter 3. Turn back there quickly. Genesis chapter 3. Right at the beginning of the Bible there, Genesis 3. And this is actually the first time that fear is mentioned in the Bible. In Genesis 3, it's the first time this concept of fear arises. Genesis chapter 3, and of course it arises as soon as sin comes into the world, then fear is the byproduct right away. Genesis chapter 3. And you know, it's funny, I think Amanda was the one that was telling me about, she works in the insurance business, and she's talking about how these homos, you know, come to her and give insurance. You know, come to her company. And these, I'm sorry, let me speak in words that are clear. Queers, okay, animals, sodomites, okay, they come in and they'll get insurance. And she told me that they're actually, the company likes dealing with them because they're so scared. You know, they want to buy like every insurance known to man. Isn't that right? And she'll tell them like, you need to up this coverage to like 100,000. They're like, sure, yeah, if you think so, you know, whatever. They don't care. Because why? Because where sin abounds, you know, fear abounds. That's why. And so the homosexual knows that death is just around the corner. He's going to be roasting in hell. And he knows that he's a reprobate. He's been rejected by God. He has rejected God, and that's why God has rejected him. And he knows that he's just a countdown until he burns in hell. And so that person lives a life of fear, scared all the time, afraid they're going to lose their stuff, afraid they're going to lose their life. They just live a life of fear, because wherever sin increases, fear increases. But look at Genesis chapter 3, verse 6. The Bible says, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. I love how the Bible rhymes, by the way. She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were open, and they saw that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? You see, what was the result of Adam's sinning? I mean, it's like the first sin. Adam sinned. What's the automatic result? He says, I want to distance myself from God. You notice that? He says, I don't want to talk to God. He said, God's coming in the cool of the day, you know, to talk to me as always. He's coming to fellowship with me and be with me. But he says, you know what, I'm scared. And so I want to distance myself from God. I don't want to talk to God. I don't want God to talk to me. I want to just get as far away from God as I can. And that's what sin will do to you. Sin will make you distant from God. And people that live in sin, you say, Why is it? And I've never understood this. I guess I do understand it. But I've always thought about how people will really enjoy going to a certain church. And they'll like going to a certain church. And they're growing and everything. But there are certain sins that they just will not give up. And the pastor preaches on those sins from time to time. You know, he's a good pastor. I mean, he's preaching on everything. And so they'll come to the point where those, I'm not going to go to that church anymore. Because I can't stand to hear that sin preached about. And I'm thinking to myself, you know, there's a whole lot of preaching about the whole Bible. There's a whole lot to life besides just that one sin. And you think, Why can't you just go to the church that you want to go to? Get what you can. I mean, grow, do the best you can for God. And hey, just deal with it if something's said that you don't like. I mean, big deal. There's something about, or people who are living a sinful, worldly life. And you try and tell them, Hey, well look, can you just still come to church and go soul winning? And like try and love God or do something for God? Hey, look, if you're not willing to live right, if you're not willing to give up all your sins, hey, can you at least just like read the Bible? You know, I mean, you can read the Bible and hey, you know what? Read the Bible, you know, while you're dressed wrong and while you're acting wrong. Just read the Bible anyway, you know. Come to church dressed wrong. Come to church in sin. Hey, at least do something good. But people have this attitude where it's like, because I have this sin in my life, it's like, I just don't want anything to do with it. And I mean, really, even if somebody has like one sin or, you know, I'm talking about like a perpetual sin or two sins or whatever that they're just dealing with. It's like, look, you can still come to church. You can still win people's glory. You can still do something for God. And then God will eventually purge you of that sin. But people just have this mentality of just, I want to just get away from God. I just want to get away from church. I just want to get away from it because I'm scared. Look, that's why sin's so dangerous. Because sin is not just something that, you know, you're going to get tasted for. It's not just something that's going to make you less powerful. I'll tell you what sin does. I mean, it'll get you to the point sometimes if you don't, if you don't, if you let it just go, it'll get you to the point where sin will like keep you out of church. It'll distance you from God. I mean, I've seen it happen with people. I mean, it'll get to the point where sin will get you to where you won't want to read the Bible because you know that you're naked, so to speak, like Adam. And you'll want to just go hide somewhere and say, I don't want the voice of God. And so it's very dangerous to play with sin because then what happens is as soon as you start hiding from God, that's when the downward spiral really begins. And as the Bible says, the dog has returned to his vomit and the sow to a wallowing in the mire. The sow that was washed went back to roll it in the mud. And so you've got to understand and you say, well, that's never going to happen to me, Pastor Anderson. That would never happen to me. Oh, really? The Bible says, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. He said, pride goeth before destruction and in haughty spirit before the fall, where you stand up in pride and say, I'll never get out of church. Never could happen to me. I'll never quit serving God. Hey, no way. Do you feel like you can play with sin? I mean, hey, go ahead and say that with confidence because you're saying I'm willing to be clean from sin. But you know what? You can't get that prideful attitude where you think that you can be involved in sin and it's not going to affect you. You know what? You're not above any of us. You know, any of us. If I start playing with sin, you know, I could be out of church. I mean, it could happen to me. It could happen to you. That's why you can't play with sin. You've got to run screaming the other direction from sin. You've got to have the fear of the Lord that makes you depart from evil. Otherwise, you're going to end up having a fear of even talking to God because your sin is so grievous. And so this is the danger of this fear. And so, you know, number one, we saw was the fear of man. Number two was the fear of failure, which was characterized by, number one, you know, a fear of I can't, you know, win souls. I can't make it in the Christian life. I think I just can't pastor a church, you know, if we're talking about a young man that God is dealing with. I can't be a soul winner. I can't pastor or whatever, you know, whatever the case may be paralyzing you, stopping you from doing what God wants you to do. And then there's the other kind of a fear of failure where you get this attitude because of this one sin. It's like, well, I'm just going to throw in the towel. You know, I can't make it as a Christian. That's another kind of fear of failure. So number one, the fear of man is wrong. The opposite of that would be boldness. Number two, the fear of failure, the opposite of that would be confidence. You have confidence that God's going to finish the work in you. And then number three, the other wrong thing to fear is the devil. We should not be afraid of the devil. But look at 1 Peter, chapter 5, and I'll show you what we should do. We're getting toward the end of the message here. 1 Peter, chapter 5. 1 Peter, chapter 5, and look at verse number 7. The Bible says, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. That's something like worry. That's what the Bible means by care. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Don't worry about anything he's saying. But then he says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who had called you unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you've suffered a while, yes, that's what it says, after that you've suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and then look at these last two words, settle you. You know what it means to settle you? I mean, it's like, calm down. You know, I think of settle you, I think of just dropping a couple of Alka-Seltzer's into a glass of water. You know, settle down. Hey, look, the thing is, God is saying, don't be afraid of the devil. Settle down, you know, don't worry about it, don't be scared, he says, cast all your care upon him for he cared for you. Don't worry about anything. But at the same time, he's saying, don't let your guard down, though. Okay, he says, don't worry about it, don't ever be scared of the devil. He can't hurt you, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. The Bible says, that wicked one toucheth him not. You know, the devil can't harm you, he's not going to physically appear to you or attack you or something like that. But he does say, be sober, be vigilant, watch out for him, and it says, the devil is a roaring lion. See, he makes a lot of noise, you know. Now he's trying to, like, intimidate you. He's this fear monger, that's the way the devil is. He wants to scare you, he wants you to think that he just has the power to destroy you, but he can't do anything to you. There's nothing the devil can do, you can destroy yourself, that's all. The devil cannot do anything to you, but he makes a lot of noise and he intimidates you and you just have to settle yourself, cast it all on God, don't worry about it, but at the same time, you better know that he's after you and you better have your guard up all the time, always sober, always vigilant, always knowing that your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. He's looking around, he's going up and down the congregation this morning saying, who in this church is the weak link that I can devour? Yes he is, that's what the Bible says. And so the devil wants to devour you, he wants to eat you up and chew you up and spit you out. Satan hath desired to have you, the Bible says, but I pray for thee, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Hey, the devil wants you, he wants to destroy you, but don't be afraid of him, but at the same time, don't let your guard down. I was thinking about how every single week these perverts are in the news, kind of like what we were talking about, like this senator that just died, glory to God, yes, glory to God, and I was thinking about Mark Foley, you hear about him this week in the news? Mark Foley, Republican, high ranking Republican government official, found out to be involved in pedophilia, of course, you know, doesn't go to jail, doesn't pay any kind of a fine, he just resigns from his office. No jail time, see how the government protects each other, the politicians protect each other. Just like Bill Clinton, he lied under oath, if I lied under oath, I'll go to jail. If Martha Stewart does insider trading, she goes to jail for a couple of years, even though she's a celebrity, but the politicians, they protect each other. So Mark Foley, high ranking Republican pervert, molested by a Catholic priest as a child, aren't you shocked about that? Pervert, why is he wearing a dress anyway? And then Mark Foley, this pervert, you know, preying on young boys that people are sending to the White House as teenagers, same exact situation, hey look, if you think that I'm going to leave my kids out of my sight, you're crazy. If you think I'm going to just leave my kids with some babysitter somewhere, if you think I'm going to drop them off in some church nursery somewhere with somebody that's been going to church for two months or something, and that's what these church nurseries, it's not like there's any accountability in these places. You just drop them off with some stranger, could be some pervert, and yes, I could give you a list of the names of perverts in the independent fundamental Baptist church that I grew up in. And so now I'm not going to drop my kids off and send them on some bus somewhere with a bunch of people I don't know, so they get molested in the back of the bus like some of my friends did when I was growing up in school. Hey, I'm going to tell you something, the devil has a roaring lion wants to devour my kids, he wants to devour all of us. And so be sober and be diligent, use your head and be smart and if God gave you children, if God entrusts you with children, then watch them! If God gives you children to raise, raise them! God didn't give them to the loving hands daycare and the whatever stupid daycare that's out there, Head Start, preschool center. Hey, God gave my kids to me and her right here in the front row and that's who's going to raise them. Not Barney and Friends TV show, not Sesame Street and some preschool daycare somewhere. Yeah, follow all my kids to go up and be a pervert and I'll send them there. I know of a great pastor, I was just talking to my buddy about this the other day. Great pastor, his son's a homosexual living with another man. Why? Why would a great pastor have this kid for his son? Maybe because he stuck him in some reprobate Christian school all day. Maybe because he stuck him in nurseries and daycare all day to be raised by somebody else. Maybe that's why his son's a pervert. You say, man, I can't believe you're preaching to us. I've never heard this anywhere. Hey, you can't hear it anywhere! You've got to come here to Faithful Word Baptist Church to hear it. Here only. Today only. Yes. Wall supplies last. Real preaching from the Bible. $19.95 that's all it'll cost us. How much would you expect to pay for this kind of preaching? Would you pay $200? It's not $200. Would you pay $100? No, it's not even $100. Just three easy payments of $99.99. Hey, how much would you expect to pay to listen to somebody tell you that there are perverts out there? How much would you expect to pay? You're obviously not getting it from the newspaper every day that's telling you that they're out there. They're in Tempe every week. It's not like they're making national news. They're in every town in America every week. And how much would you expect to pay to have somebody get up and tell you that the devil wants to devour you and he wants to devour your godly righteous children? Look, it's the truth. It's reality. But don't live in fear of that. I'm not scared. I ain't scared about that. Because I'm sober. Because I'm vigilant. Because I'm awake. Because I know what's going on around me. Because I'm walking circumspectly, as the Bible says. I know what's going on around me. And so I've got my guard up. And I know that God's going to take care of me. So I'm not afraid of that. Now if I can find my outline, the right page, I can figure out what the fourth kind of wrong fear is. Otherwise I'll just tell you that there's only three. There's only three you have to mess with. The fourth kind of fear. Number one is the fear of man. Number two is the fear of failure. Don't fear failure. You say, do you ever worry about whether your kids are going to turn out wrong? No, never. My kids will not turn out wrong. I'm not going to fail. My kids will turn out right. Well, you know, you never know. Hey, my kids are going to turn out right. Do you ever worry if your church is not going to grow like you want it to grow? Hey, no, never. Never. Failure is not something that I fear. I'm not worried about it. God's going to finish the work that he started in my family, in this church, in my life. God is going to finish the work that he began in me. Fear will not dominate me. Fear is not of God. If I did have a thought of fear, it came from the devil. It didn't come from God. Because God only has one kind of fear. It's the fear of God. You think he wants to share some of the fear that I'm supposed to have of God with the devil? With Satan? I'm supposed to fear God and fear Satan? No. He says, don't fear Satan at all. Worry about me. Fear me. I'm the one who really controls what's going on. The devil has no power over you unless I allow him to have power over you like in the book of Job. And so don't fear man. Don't fear failure. Don't fear the devil. But lastly, this. The fear of death is the wrong kind of fear. Now, the fear of death is something that the unsaved are characterized by. And Hebrews chapter 2, I'll just read this for you for the sake of time. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14 reads, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also, let's talk about Jesus, he also himself likewise took part of the shame that through death, let's talk about Jesus, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. You see that? He says, Jesus Christ when he died on the cross, he delivered those that through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He's talking about an unsaved person who he says unsaved people are scared to die. It's true. He says unsaved people are scared to die. And he says that fear puts them in bondage. Kind of like, we were talking about fear kind of paralyzes you sometimes. You ever drive down the road and you're going to run into a deer and the deer just like freezes up because the headlights scare it. That's what fear will do to you. And so fear will paralyze you and the unsaved world is in a bondage to fear. Because they fear death. Because they know that they don't know what's going to happen after death. Well worse yet, some of them do know what's going to happen and that's why they're even more afraid. And in Romans 8, 15 the Bible says, for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. Almost like the first verse we started with. God has not given you the spirit of fear. He says for you have not received the spirit of bondage or slavery, bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption. Whereby we cry Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Oh death, where is thy state? Oh grave, where is thy victory? We can know that we're going to heaven. And so there's no fear of death. God, great chapter and I'll close with this, in Corinthians chapter 5 where God says we are always confident, opposite of fear again. We're always confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. He says death holds no fear for me. He says for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you, he said. He said look, you need me to be here, Paul said, because Paul is talking to the Philippians who he was preaching to. He said you need me here. But he said I'd just as soon go to heaven right now. Death has no sting for me. The grave has no victory for me. Because I'm confident, always confident. What about when you sin? Hey, I'm always confident because I'm saved. He says I'm always confident and willing to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Glory to God. That's all of our destiny. There's nothing to fear. Fear man, what can he do? Kill the body, that's all. Fear the devil? He can do nothing. He's just a roaring lion. He can't do anything to you. Fear failure? Failure is impossible. Failure is impossible if God be for us who can be against us. I can do all things through Christ who are strengthened in me. Fear death? Doesn't exist. I have everlasting life. I'll never see death. Jesus said whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. And so the moment I breathe my last breath I'll just be absent from the body and I'll be present with the Lord. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. God thank you so much for the Bible's clear teaching about the fact that we don't have to be afraid. We don't have to live scared and God fear is something that comes upon all of us from time to time and it's not from you at all. I mean I know it's not from you. I know it's from the devil. And I know it's from my own wicked heart, dear God of the flesh. And so Father I just pray that you would help me to overcome any fear that I have. Help fear never to dominate me. And those that are in this room, they might fear that maybe their life won't turn out the way that they want it to turn out. Maybe they're afraid that they're never going to be a great soul winner. Maybe they're afraid that you're not going to use them in a mighty way. Maybe they're afraid that something bad is going to happen, a tragedy to them, dear God. God please just help us all to know that fear is nothing that should dominate the life of a Christian. Fear is something that should never come into the mind of a saved, born again child of God. Failure cannot happen. And dear God I just pray that you would help us not to have fear, but help us have boldness, help us have confidence, help us have power. And God we love you so much for giving us these promises, and for giving us this book where we can read these promises and be steadfast and unmovable and have no fear, dear God. As the Bible says, fear not. In Jesus' name I pray,