Speaker 1: Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to
the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so
glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe
God will transform your life. Do today's message?
Speaker 2: All right? Are you all ready for the word today?
Let's get to it. We're starting a brand.
Speaker 3: New series called Fearless, So everybody say Fearless. Oh yeah,
this is about to be good, a cool thing if
you don't know. I've got the opportunity every summer for
the last six summers to preach.
Speaker 2: A series over the summer.
Speaker 3: And because during this time, our lead pastors, Pastors Michael
and Natalie, take a sabbatical every single year to refresh,
to reset, to get vision.
Speaker 2: Every time we come in January, we have a Word
of the year.
Speaker 3: Pastor Michael spends this time praying and fasting and getting
that word for the year. And so one, I'm just
grateful for our pastors. And I always love the summer
because it's just a fun, wild time.
Speaker 2: So one thing I'm gonna ask.
Speaker 3: You before we jump into this message is this summer,
would you be praying for our pastors as they are away.
Speaker 2: Resting and resetting. You have no idea.
Speaker 3: The toll it is to lead a global movement and
do all the stuff, just the regular stuff, just raising
your kids, making Peter butter, jelly sandwiches, you know, just
regular life stuff. Meanwhile, also pastoring and covering all of us.
So if you make a commitment to pray for our pastors,
can everybody just say I will?
Speaker 2: All right? All right, all right.
Speaker 3: So we're starting a brand new series called Fearless.
Speaker 2: And the truth is there's this old.
Speaker 3: Preacher saying that I heard a long time ago, which
is study yourself full, pray yourself hot, and preach yourself empty.
And I'm about to do all three. So just prepare
your spirits. I have so much information to share with you.
You literally yesterday and my wife will tell you I
was in our room for like three hours studying neuroscience
and your brain.
Speaker 2: And how it responds to danger and fears.
Speaker 3: So if we have a nerd moment together and you
check out, it's all right.
Speaker 2: I won't even hold you to it.
Speaker 3: Just go back and listen to it. But we're gonna
start off. We're gonna read Psalms fifty six, So if
you got your Bible, will go to Psalms, chapter number
fifty six, and we will read that scripture Psalm fifty six.
If you got it, say I got it?
Speaker 2: Great? Three people. I love that Three people.
Speaker 3: Y'all are like, oh, it's just a rhetorical question.
Speaker 2: Now I'm away for you. We a beout to read God.
There you go. I love the trickle in got it?
Speaker 3: Got it? Come on, some of y'all you just typing
it into Google. Man, shouldn't take that long. Come on,
you have to forgive us. We had a power outage
today at like nine to fifty five. All the power
shut out, and so we don't have the massive sky Bible,
as I call it, the back screen. So you have
to really read it for yourself and see if I'm
telling the truth. Okay, here we go, Psalm fifty six,
first number one.
Speaker 2: We'll go one through four.
Speaker 3: The Bible says, Oh God, have mercy on me, for
people are hounding me. You ever had anybody hound you?
Come on, I feel like my kids was hounding me yesterday. Jesus,
I was yesterday almost had one of those you just
stop like that.
Speaker 2: You've ever done that one? No? Just me okay?
Speaker 3: Now, literally it feels like my whole body gets electrocuted.
I'm like, come on, calm down, stop it.
Speaker 2: Okay. My foes attack me all day long.
Speaker 3: I am constantly hounded by those who slander me, and
many are boldly attacking me.
Speaker 2: Come on.
Speaker 3: It's one thing if they're trying to be passive aggressive,
but it's some people are.
Speaker 2: Like, that's what you're gonna wear. Okay. It's those type
of people that get you.
Speaker 3: First number three says, but when I am afraid, I
will put my trust in you. I praise God for
what he has promised. I trust in God. So why
should I be afraid? One of the most gangster lines
right here. What can mere mortals do to me?
Speaker 2: It's a gangster all right.
Speaker 3: Here's the title of today's sermon, week number one, Fearless.
The title is write it down. Born for danger, Born
for danger. I was born for danger.
Speaker 2: I don't know what you what's something?
Speaker 3: Tea?
Speaker 2: How you doing? My lower up? Vadis get to see you? Hey,
I just recognize my friends. Okay, Ah, I was born
for danger. Okay, all right, we're gonna pray.
Speaker 3: Lord, thank you that we are all born for danger,
and Jesus that we pray.
Speaker 2: Everybody said, all right, now let's get into it. Here's
the thing.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you know where you come from now,
I'm not talking about like where you were born. I
was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky. So I was raised
Bowling Green one fifteen Clearview Avenue. That's where my grandma stayed.
That's where we spent the summers. We was wilding out
back in the day when they just used to get
on your bike in the morning, come back, get food
at noon, and then go back on your bike until
the street light came on.
Speaker 2: That's how I grew up.
Speaker 3: Now, ain't no way my kids getting on the bike
to go down the street.
Speaker 2: What you crazy?
Speaker 3: No, you pedaling the circle in this driveway? That's exactly
abby is way more great that could be?
Speaker 2: Like can we go on the street. No, you can't
go on the street. What a car run you over?
Speaker 3: A car will literally hit you and you will break
your neck and I'm gonna have to take you.
Speaker 2: I say it exactly like that. They're like, yeah, they're
not gonna break our neck. And so but I grew up.
Speaker 3: And here's what I'm trying to get at is everybody,
you have something in you that didn't start with you,
and it's kind of your genes and your makeup and
your family of origin, and there's just stuff about your
DNA that makes you who you are. I got four kiddos,
and they all look and act like me and my
wife in different ways.
Speaker 2: And the other night, I gotta tell you a story.
This is last time O. The night before, we're.
Speaker 3: Sitting at the dinner table and we're going around and
this is just a random family activity.
Speaker 2: We're making up jokes and.
Speaker 3: Riddles, just making them up on the spot, and people
got a guess.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie it. I was crushing it. I was.
Speaker 3: I was doing so well. I'll give you one right here.
I'll see if I remember it.
Speaker 2: Well was uh, okay, what has I but no face?
What has uh? What was it?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: Runs but has no legs? And then what was the
last one?
Speaker 3: I don't remember the last part, But.
Speaker 2: Anyways, anybody got a guess?
Speaker 3: A shoe eyelets on the shoe, runs but doesn't have legs,
stinks and doesn't have a nose.
Speaker 2: Boom, That was it? Shoe. I'm great a riddles. Okay.
Speaker 3: Anyways, so we're doing riddles. Some of y'all get that.
Next week that's how good that riddle was. Man, I've
got so much time. Okay, uh, so we're doing riddles.
Abby goes, Now, listen, here's the thing. We've all got
our strengths. Clearly, I'm up here doing mine. So Abby goes.
And I'm not saying the riddles aren't her strength, but.
Speaker 2: So Abby goes to do her riddle and we're all just.
Speaker 3: Staring at her like I don't even what are you?
And the kids are doing this as well, and so
we're like, you gotta add that state.
Speaker 2: She only had one identifier, she didn't even have three.
It was just like, what is high but not low?
I don't know what she said, but it was rains
but no clouds. I don't even know.
Speaker 3: I still don't even remember what you said. See it's
bad right now, it's bad. Then it was bad now
she said it's a.
Speaker 2: Shower, rains but no clouds, a shower.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, Yeah, that's how.
Speaker 3: I felt when she did it the first time. So
but I promise I'm going to preach, but just wait.
So she does that exactly how that just.
Speaker 2: Went, where y'all are like, what, I don't we do that?
Speaker 3: And Luna Rose Metcalf who has strong Metcalf DNA, and
I mean that in her soul. She is a strong
black woman in her soul. On the outside, she's blonde hair,
blue eyes. Oh look, the screen's back.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So but Luna, right when Abby says a shower, she goes,
oh my gosh, that joke was so dumb.
Speaker 2: She said, this girl is so dumb.
Speaker 3: And unfortunately I busted out laughing early and I was like, Luna,
you cannot say that.
Speaker 2: She's like, what that joke was so dumb?
Speaker 3: And I wish I could say she didn't get that
from me.
Speaker 2: But she did, because that's what I thought when she
said it. That is such a bad joke. But that's
just looked like that came up out of her soul.
She did. Ain't nobody teach her that, and she ain't.
I'm not out out here, call up here. She just
felt that. And what I'm getting at is there.
Speaker 3: Stuff that is in your lineage that only in the
right circumstances will it present itself. And I want to
let you know in case you don't know that the
history of the church is.
Speaker 2: A people who were born for danger.
Speaker 3: Now I know this isn't something that we commonly talk
about because we think we're just supposed to be in here,
and we sing her songs. And then we got out
in the world and we live very shy, quiet, don't
interrupt anybody, don't be weird, don't be strange. And then
we come back and we do our thing all over again.
But this heritage of this movement started with people who
could care less about danger because they knew where they
were going when they died.
Speaker 2: And I am afraid the core element.
Speaker 3: That makes the church the church has gotten lost in
the last two thousand years. The origin in this movement
was not made in pews. It was made by people
who were writing in prison saying they're.
Speaker 2: About to kill me.
Speaker 3: But before they do, let me tell you something. To
live is Christ and to die is Gain, so they
can take my life.
Speaker 2: You're born from danger.
Speaker 3: This was not born from just some cute little things
that we do on the side. It was born from
people like a young man named David. David's who we
read in this scripture, who's a young shepherd boy and
there's a giant who is attacking God's people, and he
rolls up as a teenager while all of Israelites the
best warriors are hiding.
Speaker 2: And he says, who is this and listen to how
gangster this is? He says, who is this? Uncircumcised philistine?
He really cooked that man.
Speaker 3: It's like God's up, but he rolls up on a
giant kills him. Born from danger, Born from danger. God
named Moses. Born from danger, goes up to Pharaoh call
himself a god at the time. This is why God
deals so harshly with Pharaoh, by the way, because some
people have beef with like the ten plagues and like,
oh my gosh, God, such a terrible god. No, Pharaoh
was one of the only people in ancient times that
compared himself and said I am a god.
Speaker 2: There is no other god. Did it? Wasn't the claim
that they worshiped other gods.
Speaker 3: Pharaoh thought he was God. So God said, oh you
think you are a god? Okay, bet, I'm gonna take
your river, I'm gonna take your food, I'm gonna take
your stuff. And just to remind you, nobody else, there's
no other God like me. Born from danger, girl named
Esther who rolls up on the king. Born from danger,
you go to the New Testament. Born from danger, Jesus
Born from Danger.
Speaker 2: Paul all the scriptures we love to read. He's writing
from prison. They're throwing him in jail. He's about to
get out. Born from Danger.
Speaker 3: There's apostles who they boiled them in hot oil and
they wouldn't die. Ship them to an island. They won't die.
Born from Danger. Early Church history, if you study early
church history, there's a girl named Perpetua, and she's in
the colosseum, like the Roman colosseum, and they tell her
she's a high Let me give you the context. She's
a high Roman official's daughter. She gets into the movement
of Christianity, and to prove a point, they say, we
don't care who your daddy is. We're killing all Christians.
So they come to her and say deny your faith
or will throw you in the colosseum or in the arena.
She says, I'm sorry, I can't do that.
Speaker 2: So they take the government's daughter thrower in the arena.
Speaker 3: She's standing there. The gladiators are fighting. They stab her.
She stands there, pulls the knife in a little closer
and says, thank you.
Speaker 2: Now, help me reconcile that movement.
Speaker 3: With a bunch of people commenting back and forth in
the comments.
Speaker 2: And that's supposed to be brave. That's what our faith
has become. Our faith hasme.
Speaker 3: I come in here, I sing my songs, I go
argue on the internet. Nobody at work knows I'm saved.
I don't want to be too weird. And now I'm
a part of the same movement. Baby, No, no, don't no.
Not the same thing. Not the same thing. You were
born from danger. Now, when I originally said that, some
of you had issue with that because because you think danger, Like, bro,
we're supposed to.
Speaker 2: Be Oh, what's happening where y'all lefting at?
Speaker 3: Sermon title goes here? Yeah, hey, give us a second.
We had a power outah. But when I said born
from danger, some of you are are danger adverse.
Speaker 2: You're like, I don't mess with danger. We don't do danger.
Speaker 3: Why because as a kid, we are all reminded and
think if.
Speaker 2: It's dangerous, we don't want to do it. Because y'all
want to do dangerous things. Because when you're afraid, it's
because it's dangerous.
Speaker 3: My daughter Blue, she was on the back of the couch,
standing on it. They're jumping off. We clearly have no
rules in our house. We gave up rules a long
time ago.
Speaker 2: And they're standing on the couch, they're.
Speaker 3: Jumping off, and Sonny, she's thinking, I cannot jump, I
might fall. So the assumption is it's dangerous, you don't
want to do it. And here's the connection. Many believers
and many people think, if I want to have less fear,
I need to have less danger in my life. That's
how you control your fear, because things are dangerous make
you afraid.
Speaker 2: But here's what I can't reconcile.
Speaker 3: Why would the marker of our movement being God calling
us to do dangerous things? Things meaning like all of
jesus friends were murdered because they, like Stephen stoned to
death for his faith.
Speaker 2: So clearly dangerous, clearly and over three hundred times the
Bible says, do not be afraid.
Speaker 3: Why is it the mark of our faith is for
us to live a dangerous life, meaning dangerous relationally, because
we're not connected. Dangerous in how we live, dangerous in
taking risk, dangerous and starting things people.
Speaker 2: Won't start, standing up. When people won't stand up.
Speaker 3: We are called to live a dangerous life, and he
calls us not to be afraid. Here's the connection. I
want to say, this will kind of act as like
a core point, and then I'm gonna We're gonna go
through the Bible. Here's the idea. Danger is inevitable. Fear
is optional.
Speaker 2: Danger is inevitable.
Speaker 3: There is something in your life that will be quote
unquote dangerous.
Speaker 2: What do I mean by that.
Speaker 3: I'm not talking about evil caneval I'm talking about in
some theory, it'sous to get married because you don't know
if you could trust that person, so you don't know
how it's gonna go. You in theory, is dangerous to
try to have friends because you don't.
Speaker 2: Know if they'll be with you or they'll a bandy.
Speaker 3: It's dangerous to have kids because what if something happens
and it goes wrong. It is dangerous to do I'm
talking about there is danger in life.
Speaker 2: But you being afraid is optional. You have the choice
whether you want to be afraid or not.
Speaker 3: Now I know it's like, what do you What does
this man say?
Speaker 2: Okay, let's go. We all ready for the nerd part
of the sermon.
Speaker 3: Okay, she said, we'll try I love that. Okay, here's
the thing. Uh, there's a scientist, neuroscientist named Joseph. I'll
spare his last name because I mispronounce it. Every Diman
said for the last forty years, he's stead of your brain.
Here's how people traditionally understand fear. Fear happens in your amygdala,
which is your reptile brain, just instincts. That's what people understood.
When you're afraid. Your brain says, oh my gosh, we're terrified.
Palm sweat, heart races, adrenaline, and you do a couple
of things fight, flight or freeze. There's a new in
the added fawn, which is like people pleasing. Is anybody
ever heard of this fight or flight? Anybody just heard
that term? Okay, So that's how people understand fear. When
you're afraid, your body immediately goes into that thing because
it sense is danger. Here's what his research has been
proven over the last forty years that your body processing
danger and you being afraid are two totally separate things.
Speaker 2: You can be in danger and not be afraid.
Speaker 3: Here's what fear is. Fear is not just the awareness
of danger. It's the awareness that it's happening to you.
Speaker 2: Here's what I mean by that.
Speaker 3: If you go into the woods and the bushes.
Speaker 2: Rustle, danger. Your brain's gonna.
Speaker 3: Go whoa hold up, Hey, what is that?
Speaker 2: What are we doing?
Speaker 3: Boom, heart rate spipes, your palms start sweating, and you
go into one of three.
Speaker 2: Some of you are like, I'm about to fight a bear.
Some of you all like I'm running.
Speaker 3: Some of y'all freeze and you don't even realize what's happening.
That's the danger part. So danger is information. Fear is
the meaning you assigned to that information.
Speaker 2: Danger says something's gonna happen. I need a run.
Speaker 3: Your brain says it's a bear. It's gonna eat me.
I'm gonna die. And when the bear eats me, I'm
gonna die. Then who's gonna take care of my kids?
And then I'm gonna do? And then anxiety is you
continuing to build out that scenario. I'm really trying to
help you because this is gonna all click danger, this
is this is strange. I don't know how this feels.
Fear says, yeah, but let's make up a story about
that that includes our involvement.
Speaker 2: Now we're gonna go to our scripture.
Speaker 3: I promise it is all gonna come together at the end,
because you're all staring at me like I stared at
my college teacher when I went for one month and bailed.
But we're gonna do it. Here's the thing we're in
Psalms fifty six. The context of this, which is important
for you to know. He's writing this, my foes are
attacking me. I'm getting hounded, but I won't be afraid.
The context is Samuel twenty one, the story of David.
He's on the run from a guy named Saul. All
you need to know about that saw hates him. He's
on the run. Guess where he runs to. He runs
to Goliath's hometown. So the guy he killed, y'all remember
he slung the thing bam, knocked the guy down.
Speaker 2: He runs to his enemy's hometown and is.
Speaker 3: Hiding because he's terrified he's gonna get killed. That's what
Sosng fifty six is. So when he's riding, my foes
are attacking me. I'm scared. He is in his enemy's hometown, terrified.
Speaker 2: And here's what the Bible says.
Speaker 3: This is hilarious to be because when you picture him
writing this scripture, you don't picture this part. But the
Bible says, in order for the king not to kill him.
He starts acting crazy. Y'all don't know this, okay, let
me read it to you. Let me read it to you.
Let me read it to you. Let me read it
to you. Let me read it to you. Hold on,
where's it at? Samauh okay? First, sam of yo, look
at this.
Speaker 2: So David escaped from Saul and went to the king
of Gath as Goliath. You see the connection there. But
officiers were unhappy about this. Isn't David the king of
the land.
Speaker 3: Isn't he the one that people were honoring with dances, singing?
Saul has killed this stout. David's tens of thousands. Come on,
somebody all heard that. Remember the named David, y'all? Remember
that that's what that is. David heard these comments and
was so afraid, so he pretended to be insane, scratching.
Speaker 2: On doors and drooling down his beard. So I get
the picture. I can't not pass this.
Speaker 3: He's literally like when when my enemies.
Speaker 2: Are attacking it.
Speaker 3: He's acting crazy, y'all thinks is as funny as I
think this for this is hilarious. Superhero David is acting
insane because he's in a dangerous situation. But here's the
proof of the neuroscience. He says, I can be in
a dangerous situation, meaning I'm in the enemy's camp and
they're about to kill me. Yet when I am I
will not be afraid. When I am in danger, I
will not be afraid. Here's all I'm trying to say
to you. Danger in your life, however you interpret that.
I'm not talking about driving fast. I'm not talking about
doing something stupid. I'm talking about whatever you interpret as risk,
whatever you interpret as a threat.
Speaker 2: Some of you, it feels dangerous to.
Speaker 3: Actually step out and start the business God calls you
to start.
Speaker 2: Some of you.
Speaker 3: The honest truth of why you're single is because it
feels dangerous to trust somebody because you saw your parents marriage.
So you cover it like, oh, I can't sing, I
can't find the right person. The truth is you're terrified
to commit the danger of being the only different one
in your family. You were raised in a completely different religion,
you were raised in a completely secul their environment, and
it feels dangerous to actually claim your faith. The danger
at your job actually standing up for your faith, the
danger of God tells you to pray for somebody, and
you go up to them and you just pray for them.
Speaker 2: The danger of.
Speaker 3: At your school starting a Bible study, whatever you interpret
as danger, it's inevitable. But you do have a choice
on whether you're afraid or not. Here's here's the idea
with fearless. The goal is not for you to be fearless. Actually,
fearless would would low key be idiotic. Let me just
explain this for a second. If you go into the
woods you see a bear, it's not the time.
Speaker 2: To be fearless. I'm fearless. I'm gonna fight this bear.
Speaker 3: No, you're gonna We're gonna be praying for your family
because you're gonna be gone. Man, you don't need to
be fearless, But because of Jesus, you have the option
to fear less than other people. You do not have
to live your life afraid. And here's the summation of
of this sermon series. I wrote a book, God Chose Me.
Here's the connection. What good is it if God chose you?
If you are too afraid to do what He chose
you for? So here's the that's really the whole sermon.
When we spend a lot of time God Chose Me.
That's just to get you confident, secure, you know your love,
you know you're but you can be chosen and still
never do what He chose you to do. You can
be valued by God, love by God, secure in God,
and live your whole life afraid of what people think
about you, Afraid of losing something, afraid of how your
life's gonna turn out, afraid of risk.
Speaker 2: So you live your whole life loved, but.
Speaker 3: Never actually living, secure in your faith, but never actually
stepping out. And what I'm trying to get at in
this sermon and really in this series is you will
never experience the fullness of the life God has for
you until you stop letting your fear control your life.
You have to stop letting fear control your life. And
I know traditionally we're like, oh, I'm not afraid, there's
no us. But what I'm talking about over the next
couple weeks, we're gonna talk about four core fears.
Speaker 2: Here's my theory.
Speaker 3: Everybody in this room, there's one of four fears that
you have. It's the fear of man, which is what
a people think about me.
Speaker 2: Your whole life.
Speaker 3: It boils down to what a people think about me.
How do I know because you're doing people pleasing, so
you don't say stuff you really want to say because
you're afraid of what they think. You don't do what
you want to do because you're afraid with You don't
go where you want to go, because you're so everybody.
It's either the fear of man, it's the fear of loss,
what if I lose what I love?
Speaker 2: How do I know that one?
Speaker 3: Because you're usually a little controlling. I don't want to
lose my kids, so I control them. I don't want
to lose my money, so I can.
Speaker 2: I don't want to.
Speaker 3: I don't want to, so I'm afraid of losing, so
I control.
Speaker 2: The fear of man, the fear of loss, the fear
of failure, what if I don't have what it takes.
Speaker 3: I understand this one because if you struggle with this one,
you'll act like you don't want to do stuff that
you really want to do, and you'll be like, oh, no,
I could have, but I just didn't want to know.
The truth was you were terrified you were going to fail.
Speaker 2: So you never started.
Speaker 3: The fear of man, the fear of loss, the fear
of failure, and this last one, the fear of inadequacy.
What if there's something fundamentally broken with me? All of
your fears, We'll go down into one of those. You're
afraid of what people will think, you're afraid of if
you do it, you won't have.
Speaker 2: What it takes. You're afraid that something on the inside
of you is broken, or you're afraid if you try
you'll lose something. So what do we do.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna shortcut the next four weeks, so I'll probably
have to rewrite the next four sermons. But when you
replace all of those fears, not to remove them. I
hate to inform you to this. God doesn't want.
Speaker 2: You to remove those fears.
Speaker 3: You have to replace them.
Speaker 2: Okay, I am this. Okay, here we go. There's two
types of fear in the Bible.
Speaker 3: And I'll save you a lot of my nerd stuff
because I can see you guys aren't tracking today. I
don't know what it is. I mean, you need to
sleep better next week because you're not tracking. And it's okay,
but don't come back here like this next week.
Speaker 2: Lock in. Come on, I do this every time I preach.
Speaker 3: You're like, what no, but you're thinking caps on? Come
on now, two types of fear. I'll save you all
the boring Hebrew. One type of fear is oh like,
oh no. The other type of fear is all like,
oh my gosh. There's a difference. There's oh no, what's
gonna happen? Then there is the awe of something. So
when you have the fear of man, which is, oh no,
what do they think about me? When you have the
fear of losing, of what's gonna happen? When you have
to you have to replace that fear with a different fear.
This is where the scripture calls the fear of God.
Here's how you replace these fears. One fear says, what what.
Speaker 2: Am I going to do?
Speaker 3: And what do they think about me? What if they
don't accept me if I do this? Here's a better
fear to replace. That is what if you spend your
whole life being loved for someone you never were. I
see your fear, I'll raise you a better one. What
if I don't have what it takes? What if you do,
but you were so afraid to try you never found out.
Speaker 2: What if they think I'm weird?
Speaker 3: What if your prayer worked and their family line was changed,
but we don't know because you never did it. God
is not asking you, oh, I'm just gonna take all
these away. No, I want to give you a better fear,
which is when you fear and you are in reverence
of me. Not fear like you're terrified, not fear like
oh God, he's gonna hurt me, but a fear that
understands my dad can handle this.
Speaker 2: There's a different type of this. I was talking. I'll
never forget this.
Speaker 3: I was having a conversation with Belle and Avia pastor Michael,
the two daughters, and randomly they'll come over to our
house after church, and I was wearing a hoodie and
it said fear of God.
Speaker 2: She's like, what does that actually mean?
Speaker 3: And I was like, you know, how like if you
in a troubling situation, like maybe something's going on, your
fault is oh, if.
Speaker 2: I go get my dad, this is going dad. I say,
you know that feeling, but you also know when Dad
saying Isabella.
Speaker 3: You also know like, hey man, lock in, but you're
not scared, but you are a little like, hey.
Speaker 2: Let's lock in.
Speaker 3: There's this beautiful place with God where you know you're loved,
So you're not afraid in that regard, but you do
understand he is God, and this is a beautiful place
to understand of God.
Speaker 2: Job learns this place of God in the Bible.
Speaker 3: Job is complaining because God stuff's happening in his life,
and he's like, God, why are you doing this?
Speaker 2: Why are you doing that? Blah blah blah blah, And
so Job kind of.
Speaker 3: Starts firing back off at God, and God kind of
just lets him do his thing, and then God kind
of crosses over into the fear of God. Said, He says, okay, Job,
real quick, brace yourself like a man. Where were you
when I put Leviathan in the ocean? Where were you
when I hung the stars in the sky?
Speaker 2: Where?
Speaker 3: And this is God flexing saying, hey, before you get
out of a lineman start demanding stuff from me, just
remind yourself that's my breath you got right there. I'm
the one keeping your heartbeat right now. So just calm down,
all right, We're gonna get out of here.
Speaker 2: We're gonna close this thing down.
Speaker 3: Here's what we're gonna do. Man's first fear. We'll shut
it down. Go ahead and send the keys because we're
gonna get out of here.
Speaker 2: I'm serious.
Speaker 3: What come on, man, y'all expecting me to be way
too professional up here.
Speaker 2: Y'all gonna really have to okay, Man's first fear. Adam
and Eve are in the garden.
Speaker 3: God creates everything, perfect, perfect, beautiful. They have purpose, not
having to strive for anything, not having to make anything happen.
Everything is perfectly provided for them where they are. And
the Bible tells us that Adam and Eve. We don't
get this directly, but it's an inference based off of
what happens in Genesis chapter three. The snake comes to
the woman, Hey, why don't you eat from that tree?
Speaker 2: And the woman goes back and forth. She's like, I
don't know.
Speaker 3: We're gonna die if we touch it, which is interesting
because God didn't say you'll die if you touch it.
He said you die if you eat it. Which the
thread of this is humans love to add on to
what God said, and when you start adding on to
what God said, it always gets you in trouble. That's
just a separate little bit there.
Speaker 2: She touches the apple.
Speaker 3: The Bible tells us they both suddenly are aware that
they're naked.
Speaker 2: They've always been naked, but all of a sudden.
Speaker 3: They take off running and they sew up fig leaves
and cover themselves up.
Speaker 2: The Bible tells us in Genesis three.
Speaker 3: That Adam heres God walking in the cool of the day. Now,
this is so interesting and the language is just beautiful
here because the original.
Speaker 2: Hebrew word is the same word for spirit. It's ruach.
Speaker 3: And this word when the Bible says that the spirit
of the Lord was hovering above the waters, it's the
same word that means they hear the wind of God
coming through the trees.
Speaker 2: This is the language.
Speaker 3: The garden starts rustling, and they can't see anything yet,
and they don't feel anything yet, but they feel this noise.
And here's what happens. What does your body start doing?
Well before this moment, they would have ran to that noise.
Why because fear is not a part of the picture
at this point. Fear is nowhere to be found. So
when the bushes start rustling, I know who's there. I
know my father's there. I know I'm safe here. I
know I'm secure here. But what does the Bible? The
Bible says that they sowed fig lees and God.
Speaker 2: Can't find them. Adam and Eve, where are you?
Speaker 3: When God asked a question, he's not asking for himself
he's asking for you.
Speaker 2: Do you know where you are?
Speaker 3: And the Bible says they come out and this is
the first mention of the word fear in human history.
I'm sorry God, I was. I was afraid because I
was naked, and so I hid. Now, if I'm God,
I'm thinking, thank God, I'm not God. But as I
read the story, I'm thinking, what you mean, you afraid
because you was naked?
Speaker 2: You always naked.
Speaker 3: Why of a sudden you always been naked, but all.
Speaker 2: Of a sudden, now you're scared to be naked. Then
here's what I realized.
Speaker 3: And if maybe you were a little more locked in,
I would explain the science to you, but we can't
go there this week.
Speaker 2: But it blew my mind.
Speaker 3: I thought this was true based off my reading, praying,
and studying of the scripture. Then I spent five hours
studying science, and science confirms your brain understands your fear
this exact same way. And here's the idea. Fear is
what happens when your self awareness outpaces your God awareness.
Speaker 2: Fear is what happens up until this point. They're not
self aware, they're not self.
Speaker 3: Conscious, they are naked and free, They're not insecure. They're
not worried. They're not afraid of what people think. They're
not afraid of how they look. What does Adam think
about me? What does she think about me? Did I
name this animal?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Am I doing? They're not aware of that? Why because
their self awareness is so low and their God awareness
is so high that they can't even have time to
think about themselves.
Speaker 2: But when does fear show up?
Speaker 3: Fear shows up when you start thinking about you more
than you're thinking about God. So you start thinking, I
can't raise these kids, How am I gonna do it?
Speaker 2: And what happens if the thing goes out?
Speaker 3: And what happens if the business doesn't work out, and
what happens if I can't take it?
Speaker 2: And what happens if they don't love me? And what
happens if they leave?
Speaker 3: And what happens is But when you will stop for
one second and remind.
Speaker 2: Yourself, I don't have to think about me. It's not
my breath in my body.
Speaker 3: This wasn't my idea, this isn't my church. These aren't
my children, this isn't my plan. If it was up
to me, I would have been dead and gone a
long time ago. But thanks be to my God, who's
keeping me alive, who's put breath in my body, who
takes care of my children, who bottles up every one
of my tears.
Speaker 2: You want to know why you're afraid.
Speaker 3: Is because you underestimating God and you're overestimating yourself. You're
thinking about what you would do in this situation. And
let me tell your friend, you don't having to raise
the kids. That's why you're afraid, because.
Speaker 2: You know you. I was having a friend with a
conversation with a.
Speaker 3: Friend and we were talking about raising kids, and her
kid is going to high school, and she said, because
I'm thinking about what I was doing when I was
that age, and if they're doing what I was doing,
we're all cooked. Please don't be doing what I was
doing when I was doing what I was doing.
Speaker 2: And that's what fear is. Fear is God says, start
the business. And instead of thinking of.
Speaker 3: The fact that an eternal, infinite, not bound by omnipresent,
omniscient God is talking to you bowl of dust with
his lungs in it. Instead of thinking about that, you
think about, well, I hang out no money.
Speaker 2: Wait. Wait, the guy who.
Speaker 3: Spoke the stars has taken an idea out of heaven
and handed it to a bucket of dust on borrowed
breath who he saved because he wanted to when you
were not thinking about him. And you want to talk
about made up green pieces of paper that we've assigned
as how we do what we do or not? Oh
my gosh, I think we've got an out of order. Hey,
I need you to go up and pray for that person.
But God, what if they think I'm weird?
Speaker 2: Wait? Wait, wait, wait a second. That it can't be.
That can't be what we're thinking about. That can't be.
Speaker 3: God can't be trying to somehow supernaturally speak to you
about someone you've never met and giving you a prophetic
word or a word of knowledge from heaven that Susky
has opened up and.
Speaker 2: Imparted into your spirit.
Speaker 3: Go tell them, no matter what people say, they are loved.
Speaker 2: But God, what if that's weird? And what if that's strange?
Speaker 3: You have no idea that their parents spent their whole
life tearing them down, and instead of having God use
you and passed through you and prove to you and
them that He is real, we're over you're thinking, But
what if it's weird? And what if it's strange, and
what if I'm wrong? And if what if? What if
God is God? Let's go down that road for a second.
What if it's not an accident? What if it's not
just a happenstance. This is why it baffles me people
arguing that the whole universe is there was a random
explosion and your life is just chance.
Speaker 2: I will, let's let's go down that road.
Speaker 3: I don't know about the whole God thing because the
seven days of creation, I don't. I'm not arguing that.
But you're telling me that your whole life is an accident.
It's just a random explosion, and you know, explosion monkeys us.
Speaker 2: That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. That's so dumb.
And I love you if you believe that, I do.
I love you, and it's dumb. It's dumb.
Speaker 3: What if.
Speaker 2: Outside of time there was a God who.
Speaker 3: Was like, Okay, I got I gotta I got everything,
or got the trees, I got the fish, I got
the But there's something there's something I need, There's something missing,
there's something missing where there's nobody to enjoy all of this,
and I need to. What if he was thinking about
you back then, you don't ever think about that, because
he's all knowing and he stands outside of time.
Speaker 2: Chance is three. He's thinking about you.
Speaker 3: He starts with Adam, but he's thinking about you.
Speaker 2: And the whole story of man.
Speaker 3: Is God trying to invite us into an impossible life
and us being so terrified of what the other created
piles of dust think about us.
Speaker 2: Come on, just do it. But what if they come on?
Speaker 3: Just trust me, What if they come on, you can
do it.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I can't. And God is begging
and pleading, just like.
Speaker 3: He did in a dangerous situation where there was a
storm and.
Speaker 4: The disciples are on a boat and it's obviously dangerous,
but someone in the boat realized I can be in
a dangerous situation.
Speaker 2: But fear is a choice. And if I look out
on the water and that man that called.
Speaker 3: Me when I was nobody says, step out of this boat,
what business do.
Speaker 2: I have sitting in this boat listening to you? And
here's the thing Peter always gets so much flack.
Speaker 5: Peter couldn't keep his eyes off Jesus. He couldn't keep
his eyes on Gee. He didn't, he didn't. I mean,
if that's what it's a problem. You got to keep
your eye. That's the problem. You've you've never got out
of your boat.
Speaker 3: Who are you talking You've You've never gotten out of
a boat ever in your life.
Speaker 2: You've never don't come over here talking to me. You've
never gotten out of a boat.
Speaker 3: And here's here's my plea is we will read this book,
believe this book, but then not live how the people
were reading lived. Think the book's broken, and leave your faith.
Speaker 2: But you can't.
Speaker 3: Extract the message from the method. So you can't take
out the boldness that Paul walks with when he says,
before I was born, God chose me. You can't just
extract that and put it on a T shirt and
not be willing to go to jail for what you believe.
And I'm not talking about, oh, it's proof that you
love God because you go to jail. Know what I'm
saying is, if you're arguing with praying for a friend,
you're a.
Speaker 2: Little disconnected from what he meant.
Speaker 3: If you're worried about what people are gonna think when
you say I'm gonna I'm gonna quit this and I'm
gonna step into this, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: Why would you do that.
Speaker 3: If if he's asking you to do it, just I
promise you it's worth it. I promise, I promise, I promise,
I promise you don't have to be so afraid. So
I'm twenty seven. I read it when we started. Somehow
I'm sweating so much. These glasses are fogging. I don't
even know how that happened. The Lord is my light
and my salvation. So what am I afraid of? Here's
what he's saying.
Speaker 2: When it gets dark, I got a light, and when
I die, I'm with him. What I need to be
afraid for.
Speaker 3: You know, that's the only really like ace car we got.
The whole idea is supposed to be, we live so
boldly because we know the thing that humans are terrified
of the most dying we ain't.
Speaker 2: Got to be afraid of.
Speaker 6: That's really supposed to That's the central idea of this
whole message. You being salvage the salvation of your soul
is supposed to produce boldness on the earth because you
know my.
Speaker 3: Eternity is secure, so I can live how I need to.
Speaker 2: Right here, I prayer.
Speaker 3: For everybody is that whatever you have deemed too dangerous,
whatever you have deemed too much of a risk.
Speaker 2: The thing you want to do but you're afraid to
do because what.
Speaker 3: People might think if you do it.
Speaker 7: That thing.
Speaker 3: All I'm saying is is if you get out the boat,
we do have proof you can walk on water. We
do have proof. If you start the business, there's proof
it can work. If you work on your marriage, there's
proof God can restore. If you share your faith, there's
proof God can use it. And I just don't want
to get to the end of my life with a
bunch of man I wonder when would have happened. If so,
here's what I do. I'm gonna pray, and here's what
I'm gonna pray for. I'm gonna pray that God would
allow us in the next seven days, next seven days too,
by any minuscule amount, become less aware of ourselves and
more aware of Him, just any point zero zero one percent,
if we could just a little bit less aware of
our faults are fit and a little more aware of Him.
And here's the thing. Your self awareness, or your awareness
in general, it grows by what you give your attention to.
So what I give my attention to is what I
become aware of.
Speaker 2: Me and a friend. We're joking.
Speaker 3: But the New York Knicks won the finals.
Speaker 2: And his go next and his awareness.
Speaker 3: I don't know what happened to his, But his algorithm
is only the videos of the eighteen easy crackhead Knicks
fans that are beating up people. It is terrible, completely terrible.
I ain't seen that. All I see is New y'all,
New y'all, like people are singing in the streets and flying.
But you know, your algorithm is just a reflection of
your attention.
Speaker 2: So there's also my friends algonam.
Speaker 3: He's got videos of health and fitness and all these
everything that I don't have, because when I give more
attention to.
Speaker 2: It shows me more of your life. Works the same way.
Speaker 7: If you give more attention to God, you see more
of it. If you give more attention to His goodness,
you see more of it. If you give more attention
to hope, you see more of it. If you give
more attention to the grace of God, you see more
of it. If you give more attention to.
Speaker 3: The generosity of God, you see more of it. This
is why you can't trust everybody that tells you that
the world is terrible and it's bad. And we're all cooked.
Speaker 2: That's what they're giving attention to.
Speaker 3: But as for me and my house, what I see
is it's darker, and that means the light is even brighter.
Speaker 2: There's never been a better time for the church to
stand up.
Speaker 3: There's never been a better time for truth and goodness.
Everybody's standing all over this room. I'm gonna pray for
you that you will become more aware of God and
less aware of your self.
Speaker 2: Every head bow, every eye close.
Speaker 3: Lord, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,
thank you for thinking about us, for thinking about us.
You think about us an eternal God, a gracious God,
a God with no start and no end.
Speaker 2: We are on your mind.
Speaker 3: So much so that you invite us into your plan,
so much so that you invite us into your plan
and equip us and empower us for the plan.
Speaker 2: You gave us.
Speaker 3: Now what I'm asking, would you help us get our
eyes off ourself and our eyes on you, Our eyes
off our deficiencies and our eyes on you, Our eyes
off our insecurities and our eyes on you.
Speaker 2: May we become more aware of you.
Speaker 3: The every head bowed, every eye close. Before we get
out of here, If you're in the room, and you've
never accepted Jesus as your Lord and savior. If you're
watching online, you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and savior.
This is the ultimate moment of God awareness. It is
you realizing I will always be afraid as long as
I'm the source of my strength. I will always be
insecure as long as I am the source of my future.
But when you realize there is a God who loves you,
who cares about you, who has a plan for you, you
can surrender your life to his will. You can have
a fresh start and a new source of hope.
Speaker 2: And his name is Jesus.
Speaker 3: If you want to accept Jesus today, in this room
or online, every every eye close, I'm gonna count to three,
and if you want to accept Jesus, I'm gonna ask
you to bravely, boldly raise your hand. It's a brand
new start for you today. The Bible says that he
who knew no sin became sin so that we might
become the righteousness of Christ. I'm gonna count the three
and if you want to accept Jesus as your Lord
and savior, I'm gonna ask you to boldly raise your hand.
One he loves you.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 3: Today is the day of salvation. Don't wait another day.
Three right now in this room online, shoot your hand
up boldly, raise it high, don't apologize, don't worry about nobody.
I got you, sister. I see you right here, right here,
so proud of you. I got you a family right there,
a mom and a son together.
Speaker 2: Come on, what are we talking about? Beautiful?
Speaker 3: I got you over here, brother, So proud of you,
so proud of you.
Speaker 2: I see you, sister, so proud of you.
Speaker 3: Hey, everybody out loud, together as a family.
Speaker 2: Let's pray together. Everybody say, Dear God, thank you for
loving me.
Speaker 3: I admit I've made mistakes. I need you save me,
change me, transform me. I'm yours and Jesus same. I
pray Amen. Hey, can we celebrate and cheer for people
who just decided to give their life to Jesus. Hey, listen,
if you just made that choice, best choice you could
ever make. I would encourage you to text the word
save to the number that comes up on the screen. Also,
tell somebody, just somebody in your row. Hey, I raised
my hand and it was me.
Speaker 2: I don't even know.
Speaker 3: I'm just new, but to tell somebody and if somebody
tells you, here's the first rule, don't be weird.
Speaker 2: Second rule, give them a hug, tell them you love them,
encourage them. But we're so.
Speaker 3: Grateful for you and so happy of what God is
doing in your life. Hey, listen, over the next couple
of weeks, I really believe God's gonna help us to
walk out of fear and into a beautiful life, and
so I would encourage you join us.
Speaker 2: Every single week is gonna be amazing. But I want
to take a moment.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna pray for you, and if you need prayer
for anything at all, some of our prayer team is
gonna be.
Speaker 2: Up here at the front. There's nothing too big, nothing
too small.
Speaker 3: But we want to agree with you in prayer and
just agree and believe with you for.
Speaker 2: What you're believing for. But I worship team's gonna sink.
You can feel free to stay in worship or you
can head out. But got to thank you for who
you are.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your grace, for your love, for your mercy.
I pray Lord Jesus that this week we will become
more aware of who you are, your goodness and your grace.
Speaker 2: It's in the beautiful name of Jesus.
Speaker 3: We pray and everybody said, amen, Amen, Amen, we love you, we.
Speaker 2: Love you, we love you. Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: If you said that prayer and accept it Jesus into
your heart, it's the best decision you could ever make.
We want to celebrate with you, and we have some
tools to help you on your journey. Tech saved to
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