Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Let's lift our voice together now.
Thank you.
Anywhere, everywhere, I would follow on.
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Everywhere he leads me, I would follow on.
Amen.
Thank you so much for singing this morning.
We're going to go before the Lord and ask his blessing on the service.
I've asked for the Jason next side.
If you would lead us in prayer, please.
Dear Holy Father, thank you for allowing us to be in church on this beautiful Sunday day.
I pray that you would bless the music as we sing praises unto you.
Please fill the pastor with your Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Up to hymn number 406, number 406.
Who is on the Lord's side?
Hymn number 406.
We'll sing this out together on that verse now.
406.
Who is on the Lord's side?
Who will serve the king?
Hymn number 406.
Lift your voice on that verse now.
Who is on the Lord's side?
Who will serve the king?
Who will be his helpers, other lives to free?
Who will lead the world's side?
Who will face the foe?
Who is on the Lord's side?
Who born in heaven?
By thy call of mercy, by thy grace divine We are on the Lord's side, Savior we are thine
Not for ways of glory, not for realm and mom Enter we the armies, praise the warrior's song
But for lives that lay there, lives for whom he died He who, Jesus' name, it must be on his side
By thy love and training, by thy grace divine We are on the Lord's side, Savior we are thine
Jesus, thou hast bought us, not with gold or land But with thy own white blood, o'er thy diadem
With thy blessing filling, each fruit comes to thee Thou hast made us willing, thou hast made us free
By thy grand redemption, by thy grace divine We are on the Lord's side, Savior we are thine
Fierce may be the conflict, strong may be the fall But by things all guarding, none can overthrow
Throughout this ever reigning, victory is secure For his truth unchained, we face the triumph's shore
Joyfully investing, by thy grace divine We are on the Lord's side, Savior we are thine
Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high, we'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service, Sunday nights at 6, Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week we will be in 2 Chronicles chapter 33. We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms.
Congratulations to the Urban family on the birth of baby Elias, born on Tuesday, January 21st, 7 pounds 10 ounces.
And so please speak to Mrs. Amanda Wright or Mrs. Ventura if you would like to help out with a meal.
And then of course next Sunday we'll have the coffee and donuts at 10 a.m. before the service.
At the bottom there's the note about the donation items, usually on Wednesday nights, but also frequently on Sundays we will have stuff over there, a lot of free food that gets donated.
And other free items and so that stuff is always just free for the taking and there's also lost and found stuff over there.
But hopefully we don't confuse those two. But yeah, that stuff is all free stuff. There's a lot of free food all the time and it's a lot of really good stuff.
There'll be like a lot of even like organic meat and produce and really quality stuff. So take advantage of that.
On the back keep praying for the ladies that are expecting that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
Speaking of which, there's a baby shower in honor of Lola on Sunday, February 2nd. So a week from today, 2 to 4 o'clock.
And that's for all ladies and teenage girls. Food will be provided.
And then other upcoming events. This Friday night I am preaching in Oklahoma City at Anchor Baptist Church, Pastor Dylan Oz.
And so I'm looking forward to that. If you know anybody who's in that Oklahoma City region, please let them know.
Or if anybody is watching that lives in that area, please come out. It's 7 p.m. this Friday night for the service.
And then we got Pastor Shelley preaching on February 19th. We got the Bahamas Cruise Mission Strip coming up March 23rd through 28th.
And then also briefly I'll just mention the reason that I wasn't here on Wednesday when Pastor Thompson was preaching is that Brother Daniel Reiter and I went on a short mission strip this week.
And so we went to the Cayman Islands and Jamaica. And between the two of us we had a total of 52 people saved.
So it was a really successful trip. It was extremely receptive and fruitful.
And we went to the Cayman Islands and we went straight to the community college because that's the best demographic young adults.
And it was just so great because we're just walking around the campus just talking to groups of like two, three, four students at a time and just going through the gospel with them.
We were there all day and that was where we had most of the people saved. I had like 17 people saved. Daniel had like 22 people saved just being at that community college all day.
Then we went to Jamaica. I'm not going to lie, I did not like Jamaica at all and I'm never going to go back. It was probably one of my least favorite places that I've ever been in my life.
But, you know, we had kind of a bad experience with the soul winning for the first few hours. But then finally we found this park where we were able to post up and talk to people.
And we ended up finally throughout the whole day getting a total between the two of us of 11 people saved.
So, I mean, it ended up like the numbers make it sound good, but because we did eventually find some receptive people to talk to.
But I think it's probably the, and here's the thing, I know I've heard from the Jamaica crew that they said, oh, Montego Bay is really good and they didn't necessarily like other parts of Jamaica so much.
So we were not in Montego Bay, which is what everybody loves. We were in Ocho Rios and I did not like Ocho Rios at all.
Okay. Within just a couple minutes of getting off of the ship, we had to just walk through like this gauntlet of literally like a hundred people trying to sell us something.
And look, I understand I've been to Tijuana, I've been to Nogales, I've been to these kind of places, but I have never been anywhere where people were this rude and obnoxious.
I mean, just shoving stuff in our face and just jumping in front of us and getting in our way and stuff.
I mean, it was like I had to just be like, you know, like to get, it was, it was insane.
Okay. We've been off the ship for like three minutes and you know, anybody who knows brother Daniel Ryder, he's super polite.
You know, he's a very polite young man. Okay. And some guy like, we've been off the ship for like three minutes.
Some guy is like trying to sell him marijuana and he's just like, oh, he just says, oh, no thanks.
And the guy just goes, okay, just keep walking mother peep. And I'm like, what the heck?
Like just dropping F bombs on us just for saying no thank you walking by.
I mean, I was offered drugs the whole time we're in Jamaica. Just people are just offering us drugs the whole time, all day.
Even when we got like a half hour walk from the cruise ship, just people just offering us any time they see us.
They're just holding out marijuana to us, holding out a doobie to us, you know, just trying to get us to smoke weed.
And it was just, I think I was literally offered drugs in one day more than my entire 43 years of life.
Up to that one day. It was, it was, am I, am I exaggerating Daniel?
You can verify all this with Daniel. This is how it was.
Then like, so then we did, you know, we did a bunch of successful soul winning and everything.
I mean, I had some scary guy with like tattoos all over his face just yell, hey dad, come here, come here dad, I need to talk to you.
I'm like, I never knew you. You're not my son. You're not my son.
I walk over to the guy thinking that he needs something. Hey, give me five dollars.
I'm just like, what the, it was, it was a little bit, I'm not going to lie, it was a little bit frustrating.
Not my favorite place. One star. Do not recommend.
And so I guess it doesn't really matter that I'm banned from there. So, cause I don't want to go back anyway.
All right. So enough about that. We had a great time. I don't want to be negative.
Back to the positive, 52 salvations, got a lot of people saved, had a good time and so forth.
So that was a blessing. And so, you know, want to keep, keep, keep on farming the Caribbean because there's so, the fields are white under harvest.
You know, somebody, somebody talked about the rise and fall of the new IFB and I was, you know,
I was trying to figure out what that could mean because of the fact that, you know, we're having just so many people saved.
All this preaching's happening. All these people are being baptized. All these lives are being changed.
Seems like things are going so great. And I personally, it's only what, January 26th?
I've already had my number one best month of my entire life for personal soul winning in January 2025.
I personally had my best month of my life for soul winning. And so I'm trying to figure out like, what is this fall of the new IP?
But then I figured it out. Fall means autumn. So I figured it out. It's the great harvest that we're experiencing.
So it was the rise and now it's the fall. It's like the end gathering of all the spiritual fruits.
So this is the fall. We are experiencing the fall of the new IFB. The new IFB is in free fall, it turns out.
And so, yeah, it's been great getting a lot of people saved. There's a lot of opportunities.
And so I hope that you will think about participating in one of these future cruise mission strips.
Cayman Islands is an awesome place to go. Bahamas is an awesome place to go.
You know, apparently Montego Bay is a great place to go. I, you know, I can't vouch for it, but Ocho Rios was kind of no bueno.
I think that it's almost like the opposite of the conventional wisdom, because if you think about it, in the United States of America,
you know, we like to go to the poorest areas. Like usually the best soul winning is we go to really poor areas and have a great time soul winning.
And when we plan soul winning marathons across the country, we pick the poorest places and that's where we have the best results.
I feel like in the Caribbean, it's kind of the opposite, because the countries that are better off in the Caribbean seem to be the better soul winning.
You know, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, because I think what happens is you get to a level where it just, it gets too derelict.
You know what I mean? Because it's like you want, because what you want is like you want to reach the poor, blessed are the poor, you know, and the poor are receptive.
But then you get to people that aren't poor, they're just derelicts. They're drug addicts, lazy, whatever, and it's sort of like trying to witness to homeless people in the United States.
Like you would expect that to be a really receptive demographic, but if you have any experience trying to witness to homeless people, they're some of the least receptive people.
So you can kind of get to a point where it's like you get so poor that it stops being receptive again.
You know, and I think that's what we kind of experience in some places.
So it's almost like you go to, when you're in a really super poor country, the nicer neighborhoods you have more success, and then in a rich country like America, the poor place is where you have the success.
So it's almost like a little bit, I don't know, it was just something I was kind of thinking about just from my experiences over the last couple months of doing a lot of soul winning in several Caribbean countries over the last couple months.
Anyway, I know it was a long announcement, but I just wanted to share with you a little bit of my experiences this week out on the mission field.
And so with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us.
You should find the insert in front of your hymnal with the hymn entitled, Rejoice in the Lord.
If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand and you'll receive one. We'll sing it on that verse together.
God never moves without purpose or plan. Let's sing it out together.
God never moves without purpose or plan. When trying a servant and molding a man, give thanks to the Lord, though your testing seems long.
In darkness he giveth a song. Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no mistake.
We know at the end of each path that I take, for when I am tried and glorified, I shall come forth as gold.
I could not see through the shadows ahead. Though I looked at the cross of my Savior instead, I bowed to the will of the Master that day.
When peace came and tears fled away. Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no mistake.
We know at the end of each path that I take, for when I am tried and glorified, I shall come forth as gold.
Now I can see testing comes from above. God's strength blesses children and purges in love.
My Father knows best and I trust in his hair. Through purging or fruit I will bear.
Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no mistake. We know at the end of each path that I take,
for when I am tried and glorified, I shall come forth as gold.
One hundred and thirty-six. We'll sing this out together on that first one hundred and thirty-six. Lift your voice on that first now.
Master, the tempest is raging. The billows are tossing high. The sky is o'ershadowed with blackness. Health is nigh.
Care is now not that we perish. How canst thou lie asleep when each moment so madly is threatening the angry deep?
The wind shall obey thy will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm's on sea, or demons, or men, or whatever it be,
the water can swallow the ship with life. The master of ocean and earth and skies.
They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still.
Master, with anguish a spirit, I vow in my grief today. The depths of my sad heart are troubled. Oh, within a save I pray.
The torrents of sin and of anguish sleep o'er my sinking soul. And I perish, I perish, dear master, always to give me control.
The winds and the waves shall obey thy will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm's on sea, or demons, or men, or whatever it be,
the water can swallow the ship with life. The master of ocean and earth and skies.
They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still.
Master, the terror is over. We are the concealing rest. Her sun and the public is mirrored, and heaven's within my breast.
Wait, girl, bless and redeem her. Leave me alone no more. And with joy I shall make the blessed armor and rest on the blissful shore.
The winds and the waves shall obey thy will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm's on sea, or demons, or men, or whatever it be,
the water can swallow the ship with life. The master of ocean and earth and skies.
They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still.
We'll pass our offering plates around, and we will turn our Bibles to Revelation chapter 21.
Revelation chapter 21, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with Brother Corbin Brock as he reads Revelation chapter 21, beginning in verse 1.
Revelation 21. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death,
nor sorrow, nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things. I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me,
saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain,
and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious,
even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal, and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels,
and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth.
And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
And he measured the wall thereof, and hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire,
the third a chalcedony, the fourth an emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth a topaz, the tenth a chrysoprasis, the eleventh adjacent, the twelfth an amethyst.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Father in heaven, we love you. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
We ask now, Lord, that you would bless and anoint Pastor Anderson, give him great wisdom as he teaches us this glorious chapter of the Bible.
Lord, we pray that our hearts would be drawn on to you, Lord, and that we would just be better Christians each and every day.
And we give you all the glory and honor for it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. The part of the chapter that I want to focus on is verse number eight, which is one of my favorite verses to use when I'm out soul winning.
And in fact, every single time I ever give the gospel to anyone, I use this verse 100 percent of the time, because I think it's just such a great verse to show that we've all sinned and that we've all been saved.
And that truth be told, we have all committed things that make us worthy of going to hell.
We all deserve to go to hell because we've all committed sin, and especially because in this particular verse, it even mentions that all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.
And I think it's pretty easy for everyone to relate with that as having lied before.
It's very rare that you'll ever run into someone who claims to have never lied.
And of course, just by making that claim, they're lying to you right then and there.
But it starts out here with this list of all these different sins, right?
But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
So we have this list of sins that would condemn people to hell.
You know, reasons why God is justified in sending the wicked to hell.
And so what I want to do, though, is just only focus on the very first one on the list in this sermon, which is the fearful, right?
Because when we're going down this list, some of them are pretty obvious, murderers and idolaters and so forth.
But what are we talking about here when we start out this verse by saying the fearful, right?
This is in the list of people that are sinful people who are deserving of hell.
And of course, we know that obviously every single person, if they were to be judged by their works, would be condemned to hell, but that we have salvation through Jesus Christ.
And so by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, all of our sins are forgiven.
So in spite of the fact that we have been fearful, unbelieving, et cetera, we've lied, we've done these things, we are going to heaven because those sins are forgiven and forgotten because we've put our faith in Christ.
But what does it mean to be fearful? Who are we talking about this group of people, the fearful?
And in this context, what we are referring to is cowards, right?
That's how we would say this in our modern vernacular. We would say cowards are going to hell, okay?
Now what does it mean to be a coward? Well, if you would turn to Isaiah chapter 35.
Isaiah chapter 35, and I want to preach this morning on the subject of the fearful because we as Christians, although we're saved and going to heaven no matter what because we have eternal life, we obviously want to live lives that are pleasing to God.
And apparently it does not please God for us to be fearful, otherwise this wouldn't be on a list of damning sins.
Fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, I mean some really bad things, apparently fearful is one of them.
Now in this context, we're not talking about the good kind of fear in the Bible because there is a good kind of fear and a bad kind of fear.
Good fear in the Bible is when you're fearing the Lord, fearing God, or the Bible says, let every man fear his father and mother.
So that's a good kind of fear of authority, respecting authority and so forth.
What we are specifically talking about here is the bad kind of fear, which is being a coward.
Let me give you some Bible verses. You turn to Isaiah 35, but I'm going to give you some examples of this from elsewhere.
Deuteronomy 20 verse 8, the Bible says, the officers shall speak further unto the people and they shall say, what man is there that is fearful and faint hearted?
Let him go and return into his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart.
And the Bible is talking about here that when you go out to war, you don't want to have cowards with you in the army.
And so the Lord instructed the Israelites that whenever they go to battle, the first thing that they should do is ask, look, is anyone scared?
Is anyone fearful? Is anyone faint hearted? Go home. We don't want you here.
We don't need you here because we're afraid that in the heat of battle, your cowardice is going to be like a contagion that would cause other people to become fearful as well.
Of course, this reminds us of the story of Gideon, where God actually tells Gideon to enact this thing that's found in Deuteronomy, right?
Deuteronomy has this law, but then Gideon actually puts it into practice and he has 32,000 troops and he says, anybody who's fearful, go home.
22,000 people go home and only 10,000 stay, which I think was pretty disappointing for him.
But it says in Judges chapter seven, verse three, whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead.
They'll return to the people 20 and 2,000. Okay.
And so we've got a lot of cowards out there, right? There are a lot of fearful people in this world.
And we as Christians, we do not want to be cowards.
And this is a big problem today in the United States of America with Christians just being scared of their own shadows.
And as a result, they're not boldly standing up for what's right, right?
I mean, we have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.
And yet people are fearful of just maybe getting made fun of or even just the slightest little bit of persecution.
And whenever I think about this statement that, well, if they fear they're going to cause the people around them to fear as well, and then that's why they should go home from the army.
I think about when a church goes through persecution, right?
And, you know, for example, our church many, many years ago was persecuted because I preached against homos.
And so we had a bunch of, you know, homos and homo sympathizers out there protesting our church and trying to cause problems for us and so forth.
And here's the thing. When that happened, we lost very few church members, very few.
Why? Because our church wasn't filled with cowards.
So it wasn't like we had some mass exodus.
But stop and think about it. What if we had just scores of people leaving the church as soon as persecution comes?
As soon as some, you know, sodomite weirdos are out there protesting our church, if a whole bunch of people quit, you know what?
That could cause like a domino effect where more people are, oh, everybody's leaving. Well, I'm going to leave too.
And, you know, and it could cause a domino effect.
And, you know, I've seen other churches where big chunks of the congregation left in times of persecution over the sodomite issue.
And here's the thing. That's harmful. Every single person who leaves during that kind of a fight, during those kind of persecutions,
not only are they a coward and a disgrace to the Lord, being ashamed of him and his words and this wicked and adulterous generation,
and allowing homos to tell them where to go to church, the worst scum of the earth are going to dictate to them what's right and wrong and what the Bible says and where they should go to church.
People who literally earlier in the week loved the sermon and then now all of a sudden they're cowards and leaving.
And not only that, but the sin of that is that they end up being a bad influence on other people and causing other people to be a coward.
And it just spreads. Just like boldness and bravery and courage can spread, so can cowardice.
I'm thinking of one person individual who literally called me on the phone and told me what a great sermon Pastor Jimenez had preached back in 2016 when he preached hard against the sodomites, a particular sermon.
This person called me on the phone to tell me how great the sermon was.
Less than a week later, quit the church, I don't agree with Pastor Jimenez, I don't agree with this doctrine, you're a coward is what you are.
And then of course this person has friends and then they lead other people to go be a weak little lame sissy coward like themselves and go let a bunch of fags and weirdos push them around.
It's wickedness. Now you're starting to see why this is on the list in Revelation 21 8? Being a coward, being fearful, being afraid to stand up for what's right and to be in the Lord's army and instead turn tailing and running and letting this world just overrun God's people with a bunch of perverts in the United States of America.
Folks, we need some boldness today in 2025. We don't need a bunch of cowards and you know what, that's why I'm just glad that our church isn't filled with cowards.
Because I know that if we ever get to a point where we go through intense persecution, we're going to have some strong, bold, courageous people that are going to stand strong and then it's going to help other people be strong as well.
It's going to strengthen the people around them and that's the kind of people you want to surround yourself with going into a fight, going into a spiritual battle.
Look if you would at Isaiah chapter 35 verse 3. Here's what we should be doing as preachers.
Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense.
He will come and save you. Right? So we need to demonstrate that kind of courage and we need to also exhort one another and admonish one another to be strong in times of tribulation, trials, persecution, etc.
And again, we haven't yet resisted unto blood striving against sin and you wonder, some of these really weak, cowardly Christians, how are they going to do in the great tribulation?
You know, when even the most minor hint of persecution freaks them out. It's pretty sad.
But not only that, go if you would to 2 Timothy chapter 1. The preacher himself must not be a coward, right?
Because if the preacher is supposed to be strengthening God's people, if God's people are supposed to be strengthening one another, the last thing we want is a cowardly preacher in the pulpit.
Preachers that are too scared to preach the entire Bible.
And if I could change one thing about pastors across America, if I could push a button to make all pastors, you know, that are independent fundamental Baptists believe the doctrines that I believe.
Or if I could push a button just taking away their fear, I would push the button that just takes away their fear.
Because in reality, multitudes of them already agree with me in their heart. They're just too scared to preach. I'd push this button and I'd be like, nothing happened. Exactly.
You know, if I push this button, all the pastors in America are going to agree with me on the sodomites. I'm pushing the button and nothing's happening.
Is it broken? No, no, no. A lot of these guys, they already know that these people are disgusting, repulsive, evil, reprobate. That's not the problem.
The problem is that they're scared. And so I'd rather push the button to just let pastors get their own beliefs from the Bible and the Holy Spirit.
I don't need to control what they believe. I don't need to influence what they believe. Let them and the Lord and the Holy Spirit figure it out themselves.
I just wish that they would stop being cowards and just get up and just preach what they believe. Even if it's not exactly what I believe. Even if it's a little different than what I believe.
Even if their doctrine is slightly different, I just wish they'd get up and preach what they believe. Just get up and preach something and not be a coward.
It's a huge problem today. I'm telling you, it is a big problem today. Just scared preachers.
It says in verse 6, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God. This is one preacher to another, right? This is the apostle Paul talking to his young protégé in the ministry, Timothy.
I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting out of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
He's saying, look, don't be ashamed of the word of God. Don't be ashamed of the man of God. Be a participant, a partaker, one who shares in persecution because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Hey, put yourself out there as a preacher, Timothy. Preach the word and let the chips fall where they may. Stir up that gift of God because God has not given us the spirit of fear. We need power. We need love and we need a sound mind.
Now, if you would flip over to Psalm 27. So if you think about it, fear that stops us from serving God is not a rational fear because God has unlimited power to protect us and care for us.
So does it really make any sense to say, oh, I'm scared to do what God told me to do because what if this bad thing happens to me? God has unlimited power to protect us. That fear makes no sense.
We should be much more afraid to not do what we're supposed to do because if God has it in for us, no one can protect us. Whereas if this world has it in for us, God can protect us all day long.
Look what the Bible says in Psalm 27. It says in verse one, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh. Sounds pretty rough there. These are some serious enemies when they want to come and they don't want to just kill you. They want to eat you.
He said, come upon me to eat my flesh. They stumbled and fell. Though a host, that's an army, a host should encamp against me. My heart shall not fear. Though war should rise up against me. In this will I be confident.
Right? We can be confident knowing that the Lord is our salvation. He is the strength of our life. There's no reason to be afraid of anyone. We should be confident. Go if you would to Psalm 56.
Speaking of confidence, the Bible says in Proverbs 3 26, for the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken. Right? He's not going to let you crash and burn. He can protect you.
The Bible says in Isaiah 8 13, sanctify the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread. Right? Only fear the Lord. Don't fear what man can do unto you.
Sanctify the Lord, meaning set apart the Lord in your mind as the one who is truly worthy of your fear and your dread, the Bible says. Let him be your fear. Let him be your dread.
Proverbs 29 25, the fear of a man bringeth, excuse me, the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Right?
So don't be ensnared or trapped by the fear of man. Fear God only. Look at Psalm 56 verse 1. Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up.
He fight, you know, first they want to eat him. Now they want to swallow him. He fighting daily oppresseth me. Mine enemies would daily swallow me up for they be many that fight against me.
O thou most high, what time I am afraid I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
I mean that sounds a lot like what we have written on the money. Isn't that what it says on all the money? In God we trust. Then that means he should be our fear. He should be our dread.
We shouldn't be worried about what other people think when we're commanded to do right in the word of God. Don't ever be scared to do the right thing. It's an irrational fear. We should always have the courage to do right because God has unlimited power to protect us and to control the outcome in our favor.
The Bible says in verse number five, every day they rest my words, meaning they twist my words, right? They're trying to twist the things that he says to attack him. All their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather themselves together. They hide themselves. They mark my steps when they wait for my soul.
Shall they escape my iniquity? In thine anger cast down the people, O God. He's saying, look, I'm going to trust in the Lord when I'm afraid because, look, inevitably there will be times when we're human when we will be afraid. What time I'm afraid I'll trust in thee. And then we pray to God to take care of our problem.
And that's what David is doing in this passage. If you would go to Jeremiah chapter 38, Jeremiah chapter 38. Now here's the thing. It's ironic, but oftentimes if you end up letting fear stop you from doing the right thing, the exact thing that you were afraid of ends up happening to you a lot of the time.
So it's kind of ironic, right? Like, oh, I'm scared this is going to happen. So I'm not going to obey God. And then that exact thing happens to you that you were afraid of. And here's what the Bible says. The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him. The thing that the wicked guy is afraid of? Yeah, it'll happen. But the desire of the righteous shall be granted.
Now look at Jeremiah 38. This is one of my most favorite classic examples of somebody being afraid to serve God, afraid to do the right thing, and then the exact thing that they're afraid of ends up happening to them.
But before we look at that, let me just give you some examples. How about a pastor who's afraid to preach hard because he's afraid of losing members? And then he ends up losing members anyway just by being so lame.
Because if you think about it, a lot of our independent fundamentalist Baptist churches across America are in decline right now. Why are they in decline? Because they're lame.
And so if they, you know, oh, I'm afraid to preach really hard. I'm going to run people off. And yet here you are running people off just with sheer suckiness. You know what I mean?
And the thing is, look, let's face it. If we go across America and visit a lot of the old IFP churches, old IFP is a pretty good name for them.
Because you just see a lot of gray heads out there, very few young people, very little new fresh blood coming into these movements, and they're in decline, unfortunately.
Now I'm not saying they all are. There are a lot of great old IFP churches out there. I'm just saying that in general, though, it's a problem where you don't have a younger generation coming in and the church getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
And you're not reaching new people. You don't have new life. You don't have the young people and so forth. And, you know, why? Because you're afraid to preach hard. You're afraid to be controversial.
You're afraid you're going to lose people. You are losing people. And if we want to go all the way to the end of that road, we could look at a place like England today where the churches have gotten so liberal and so watered down that no one goes anymore.
I think that, don't quote me on this, but it was some incredibly low statistic, like less than one percent of people in England go to church. Right? Because a lot of people go to church in America.
But in England, it's like less than one percent. Because what happens is the churches get so liberal and watered down, what's even the point anymore?
And so the more liberal the churches get, the more their attendance goes down. That's why all the mainline denominations have been declining for decades.
Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, their attendances are all declining for decades because of the fact that they're so...
It's like that weird lesbian creep that everybody... Who knows what I'm talking about in the news this week, right? That this female bishop or whatever. I was thinking maybe replace the SH with a...
Yeah, well, I better not say that. But anyway, the point is like this gross, weird lesbian that's out there, our little LGBT, just this disgusting, evil demoniac up there. Right?
And guess what religion she's a part of? Church of England, right? Episcopalian, Anglican or whatever, right? Isn't that what she was?
Because I'm pretty sure Anglican, Episcopalian, Church of England. It's like basically the people... Here's the good thing. When we got rid of the British in 1776, the Church of England in America essentially died.
You know, it wasn't really that popular to be part of the Church of England when, you know, we're independent now. But there's still a few weird lesbian holdouts, I guess, apparently in 2025 that are still into it.
But it's like what the heck? Like what could be more evil and satanic than this gross lesbian promoting sodomy from the pulpit? Burn it with fire. Good night.
So, you know, you're afraid to preach hard and lose... You say, I don't know, aren't you afraid you're going to lose members? But I don't know, I might gain a couple of members preaching hard, preaching what the Bible actually says.
Then getting up and being afraid of my own shadow. You know, and I saw so-called Christians and so-called born-again Christians saying, oh, don't judge all female ministers.
The Bible clearly teaches that women are supposed to keep silence in the church. Okay? Everybody knows that who's read the Bible.
Or how about this? You're afraid to tithe because you don't want to crash and burn financially. Then you crash and burn financially because you don't tithe. How about that?
Or how about this? You're afraid to be embarrassed or humiliated by preaching the gospel, by doing soul-winning. And then God just finds some other way to embarrass and humiliate you.
Because it turns out there are a lot of ways to be embarrassed and humiliated in life besides giving the gospel and getting made fun of for giving the gospel.
And, you know, look, if you give the gospel long enough, you're going to be in a situation where you give somebody the gospel and they laugh in your face. Or other people point at you and mock you.
But guess what? I guarantee you, let's ask a question right now. Who can remember a specific time when you were laughed at or made fun of for speaking up for Christ or the gospel and you were mocked and made fun of for being Christian?
Okay, go ahead and put it down. Now how about this? Who can think of a time in their life when they were ever mocked, humiliated, or made fun of for something else other than the gospel?
This would be every hand up unless you're just super sheltered. I mean, you really went your whole life never getting made fun of? You didn't go to my school.
The point is we've all been mocked and humiliated and made fun of for things that have nothing to do with Jesus. Probably hundreds of times in our lives.
And so here's the thing. You want God to protect you. You want God to bless you. Open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
You say, oh, I'm too shy. I'm too embarrassed. I'm afraid to get made fun of. I'm afraid to make a fool of myself. God has other ways of making a fool of you if you disobey the Great Commission.
If you obey the Great Commission, God can actually protect you from being mocked and ridiculed and actually make you a respectable person.
But let's look at the story because this is a great example. Jeremiah 38 verse 17 says,
So God's giving him a really clear commandment here. He's saying you must surrender to the Babylonians. If you do, you'll be fine. The city will be fine. Everything will be fine.
But verse 18, if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans and they shall burn it with fire and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.
Really clear message here. If you do this, God's going to bless. If you do this, it's all going to go bad. God's going to punish you.
Zedekiah the king verse 19 said unto Jeremiah, I'm afraid. Right? So here's getting the perfect advice from the man of God. Thus saith the Lord. Very simple what you need to do. Surrender.
Now what do you think is easier? Surrendering or fighting? Surrendering is easier. So he's being given a very easy thing to do. Just surrender.
That's what you have to do. If you do that, God's going to bless you. And what's his answer? I'm afraid. Do right. No, I'm afraid. I'm scared.
Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I'm afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans lest they deliver me into their hand and they mock me. I'm afraid of getting made fun of.
Does everybody see that? He literally just flat out says, I would do what's right. I know what you're saying is right. I'm just scared that I'm going to get made fun of.
And that's why I love this passage because it's so relevant today because people, they really worry about this today. Especially teenagers, young people, they really worry about what other people think of them.
And they're afraid of being ridiculed. They're afraid of being mocked or made fun of if they bring their Bible to school or if they preach the gospel or if they take a stand for Christ.
If they stand against drugs, you know, they're afraid that I guess somebody will treat them the way Daniel was treated when he turned down marijuana this week, you know.
They don't want to be ridiculed, right? You know, I was joking around with him that, you know, when you're in your teens you care what people think about you. You really care what people think about you.
When you're in your 20s you kind of stop caring so much what people think about you and then when you get to your 30s you realize people aren't thinking about you, you know.
But young people, they really worry about this. I'm afraid I'm going to get made fun of. Look at Jeremiah's answer. Jeremiah said, they shall not deliver thee.
He said, your fear is not going to happen. God will protect you. You will not be delivered over to those Jews that will mock you.
Obey! I beseech thee the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee, so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.
But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord hath showed me. Behold, the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes.
Watch this. And these women shall say, thy friends have set thee on and have prevailed against thee. Thy feet are sunk in the mire and they are turned away back.
He basically says in verse 22, just to summarize, women are going to make fun of you. If you disobey, the women are going to be mocking you and making fun of you.
You're worried about how you're going to look in front of the ladies, so you don't want to obey the Lord? Hey, if you obey the Lord, God can protect you.
If you disobey the Lord, God knows how to humiliate you in front of the ladies. Teenage boy that thinks like, oh, I've got to be cool in front of the ladies, so I'm going to show how, you know, how edgy I am and how I can drink or smoke or do drugs or, you know, be a little bit rebellious or whatever.
You know what? God has a way of making you look stupid in front of the ladies. So obey, I beseech you, the voice of the Lord.
And of course, he says in verse 23, they're going to bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans. Thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire.
He's saying, when this city is burned to the ground, it's going to be your fault. You're going to cause this city to be burned with fire because you disobeyed God. What could be scarier than that?
You're going to get made fun of. You're going to lose everything. Your kids are going to die. Your wives are going to be taken captive. Kids are going to be taken captive. You're going to be blinded, mocked, ridiculed.
Oh, but I'm scared though. Well, you ought to be scared because by disobeying the Lord, all that stuff is going to come upon you.
And so again, it's very irrational to be afraid to obey the Lord when in reality you should be afraid not to obey the Lord.
Another example of this, if you want to flip over to Judges chapter 8 quickly, another example of this is Jethur, the firstborn son of Gideon.
So Gideon had a whole bunch of wives. He practiced polygamy, which obviously never been right, but a lot of men in the Bible did do this, even though it wasn't something they were supposed to be doing.
But anyway, Gideon, he had multiple wives, he had a lot of children, and he actually had like 70 sons with all his various wives and so forth. So he had a pretty big family.
But here we see his firstborn son, and we don't really know anything about this guy except this one verse.
It says in verse number 20, and he said unto Jethur his firstborn, this is Gideon commanding his son, up and slay them.
So they've captured the enemy. They've got some enemies that have been captured, and Gideon wants his son Jethur just to basically execute these guys.
Like they're unarmed, they've been captured, and he wants Jethur to basically just finish these guys off. They're being executed, and somebody's got to do it.
And so Gideon says to his son Jethur, go kill these suckers.
But the youth drew not his sword, for he feared, because he was yet a youth.
So he's young, he's scared, and he won't do it. And he disobeys dad. I mean dad's giving him a direct order. Dad is saying, do this.
You know, we're in a war here. We're fighting. This is your duty. You're not just putting on that uniform for fun. You don't just have that sword for fun.
You know, you're here to fight. Take the sword out of the sheath and do what you came here to do. Kill this guy.
And the guy's like, I'm scared dad. Doesn't do it. So whatever happened to this guy? Well guess what? He ends up getting killed.
He's too scared to pull out his sword and fight when he's told to by his dad. And what ends up happening to him? He ends up getting smoked.
He ends up dying, and so do all his brothers. In fact, all 70 of Gideon's children, they all end up getting slaughtered.
You know, and I wonder if it started with the first born son being too much of a coward to engage in the fight. And you know what?
You might say, well I don't know if you're interpreting that story correctly, but you have to understand that warfare in the Bible is symbolic.
It's allegorical. It has to do with our fight in the Christian life. The Bible says fight the good fight of faith.
And there are a lot of people who are too soft and too cowardly to engage in the spiritual fight.
And they kind of just want to just, kind of just, you know, sorry I'm a little down on Jamaica today, but you know, kind of just the kind of
One love, let's get together and feel alright. You know, it's not, you know, I heard that song as I was just being offered pot by a million different people.
And I was thinking to myself, it's not one love. I thought the first verse that popped in my head was one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
That's what we need. We don't need Bob Marley pot smoking one love. Here's what we need. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
One God and Father of all who commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
And what does the Bible say? Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully and keep, cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
Now obviously we don't engage in a physical battle. We don't wrestle with flesh and blood. But you know what? The Bible says that we should war a good warfare.
That we should fight the good fight. News flash, you can't fight the good fight. You can't war a good warfare if you're literally afraid to take your sword out of its holster.
He can't, this guy can't even get his sword out of his sheath. He can't even get to first base of being a warrior. He's a pretender.
He's going through the motions. He's showing up to the battle. He's wearing a sword, but he won't take the thing out and use it.
He's showing up to church with the Bible in his hand, but he won't use the Bible to preach the word of God.
He won't use the Bible to stand up for what's right. He won't use the Bible to win a soul to Christ.
He's afraid to take the sword out of the sheath. Don't be a Jethur, my friend. You're going to get smoked like Jethur did and all of his brothers.
He's afraid to obey his dad and bloody the sword and so ultimately he ends up perishing by the sword of his brother, the bastard Abimelech.
Fear can also lead you into sin. Let's go quickly, I'm almost out of time, but go to Genesis chapter 18.
Genesis chapter 18. Fear can lead you to not do works for the Lord because you're too scared. You're too scared to pull out the Bible.
Too scared to take the sword out of the sheath. Too scared to preach the word. Too scared to say, I'm a Christian.
Too scared to stand up for what's right. Fear can also lead you into sin and here's a big sin that fear will lead you into lying.
Right? People who lie, they often lie because they're scared. Isn't that something that caused a lot of people to lie? Cowards lie instead of taking ownership of what happened, they lie about it.
Okay. Look at Genesis chapter 18 verse 12. We have an example of this. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying, after I'm waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also?
And the Lord said unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh? Wherefore means why? Wherefore did Sarah laugh saying, shall I of a surety bear a child which I'm old?
Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son.
Then Sarah denied saying, I laugh not. And why did she say I laugh not? For she was afraid. And he said, nay, but thou didst laugh.
And so he calls her out on the lie. She laughs and he's like, hey, why is Sarah laughing? Is anything too hard for the Lord? She's like, I didn't laugh. I didn't do it. I didn't take the cookies out of the cookie jar.
I didn't break this. I don't know what happened. I didn't take it. I didn't take the money. I didn't do it. You know, I didn't laugh. And he's like, nah, you did laugh. You actually did laugh. He calls her out on the lie. But why did she lie? Because she was afraid.
And another good example of this is Peter. He denied Christ. I don't even know who that is. And even the Bible says that he even cursed and swore saying, I know not the man.
It doesn't give us exact words, but he said something along the lines of, you know, may God strike me dead if I know him. The Lord do so to me and more also if I know Jesus.
You know, look, may I slip on a banana peel if I know Christ. He's basically saying, I do not know him. I swear I don't know him. I promise I don't know him.
And what it says to curse and to swear, he's literally like putting curses on himself saying like, you know, may this bad thing happen to me if I'm lying. You know, may I be struck by lightning if I'm lying right now when I say I don't know him.
That's pretty intense. Why did he do it? Wouldn't you say that's a big sin? And he felt super bad about it afterward. He's crying and felt bad. Jesus confronted him about it in John chapter 21.
Why did he do it? He did it for one reason and one reason alone. Peter was scared. That's why he denied Christ.
Same reason why Sarah denied laughing, you know, which is a much more minor example, but still same principle at work in both stories, denying the truth and lying because you're scared.
So you see how fear can lead you into other sins as well. There's no reason to fear, right? Because what does the Bible say? Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
Right? If God be for us, who can be against us? There's no reason in the world to be scared if God is on our side. And so in conclusion, what I want to say to you this morning is that you should pray for boldness. Pray for boldness.
Okay, what's the opposite of fear? Boldness. Boldness, right? What does the Bible say? Proverbs 28 verse 1, the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion. And whenever I read this verse, I always think about preachers in America because of the fact that nobody's pursuing.
It's 100% legal to preach anything you want out of the Bible. We have freedom of speech. We have the first amendment. We have freedom of religion. And I can get up and preach any verse in the entire Bible. I can apply it to our society.
I can rip so hard on all of the homos and sodomites and degenerates and lesbians. I can preach my guts out. I can say everything I want to say, and I have, and nothing's going to happen to me.
I'm not going to get arrested. I'm not going to face any issue whatsoever. Why? Because we have the freedom of speech in America.
Now here's the thing. You preach the exact same sermon in Canada, you could have problems. You preach the exact same sermon in Germany, you're going to have problems. You could preach the exact same sermon in Austria, you're going to have problems, right?
You could go to other places in the world where they don't have that same freedom of speech. But in America, we do. You know? And here's the thing. What's the worst thing that's going to happen to you in America? You get your YouTube account deleted.
You know, there's, I mean there should be a whole new chapter added to Fox's Book of Martyrs just for getting social media deleted. You know, like what you're reading about all these horrible things in Fox's Book of Martyrs and it's like, yeah, they, you know, Bank of America cancelled our bank account.
PayPal cancelled us. You went to Facebook jail for 30 days. Or you know what's even, you know what the worst thing about Facebook jail is, is like they let you go on Facebook but you're not allowed to, to, to say anything.
So you have to just look at what everybody else is saying and then, and then you'll type up some really cool comment and it's like, sorry, you can't say anything for the next month. Whatever.
Who cares? Folks, we could preach anything in the Bible as pastors and yet we have the wicked fleeing when no man pursues. We have a bunch of pastors scared to preach when nothing bad is even going to happen.
If they would just get up and just preach, nothing bad would even happen. They could get up and preach the most rip-roaring sermon against homos and their church would probably like it.
You know, except some, you know, dyke looking woman might fold her arms and, and frown at them or something in the, in the, in the audience.
But at the end of the day, nothing's going to happen. Nobody's chasing you. Why are you running scared? Be bold as a lion. Take a stand. Do what's right. The wicked flee when no man pursueth.
But the righteous are bold as a lion. Pray for boldness. You know, one of the evidences according to scripture of being filled with the Holy Spirit is boldness.
Because one of my favorite verses, Acts chapter 4 verse 31, when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness.
And just a few verses earlier, they had prayed and asked the Lord to grant them that they would speak with boldness. Ephesians chapter 6, the apostle Paul is giving his prayer request to the Ephesians.
He says, pray that I will have boldness. Pray that I will have courage. Right? We talked about it a few weeks ago with Joshua. Be strong. Be of a good courage. Folks, there's a reason why the first thing on the list in Revelation 21, 8 is the fearful.
And maybe, maybe you're like me where when you go soul winning, maybe you use that verse out soul winning. Who, who in their soul winning presentation typically goes to Revelation 21, 8 like I do?
Yeah, I go there every single time. So you've heard this verse a million times. There's a reason why the first thing on the list is cowards. Because it's a sin to be a coward, that's why.
This isn't just, hey, rah rah, let's be bold, let's have courage. No, no, no. If you don't, you're sinning. Anytime you get all scared and you don't want to do what's right because you're too scared or something, being that kind of a coward is a sin.
How do you overcome it? Pray for boldness. And get in the habit of doing the right thing and overcoming your fears in those situations. Because, you know, it's just like anything else. We're all human.
The first thing is, is the fearful. What's the last thing in, in 21, 8? All liars. And, and whenever we show this to people we always say, hey, I've lied before. Have you ever lied before?
Because that's just an easy one. But you know what we could also say? Hey, I've been a coward. Have you ever been a coward before? You know, and I'm not going to say that to people because I don't want to, that seems a little creepy or weird like to really like drill down on somebody's darkest fears.
I'd rather just do the easy way of just saying, hey, I've lied before. Have you ever lied? It's just a little bit more casual. But, but honestly we could say, hey, have you ever been a coward before? Have you ever wimped out?
Right? Have you ever had something that you should have done, you should have spoken up, you should have helped someone, you should have done the right thing, you should have preached the gospel and you were too scared so you didn't do it? Have you ever been a coward? I know I have. We've all done it. But that doesn't make it right.
And we need to work on overcoming fear in our lives and making sure that we sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and make him our fear and make him our dread and not go through life scared to do what's right.
And look again, of course there's good fear. There's good fear. Like for example, here's a good fear, fearing mom and dad. Here's another good fear, fearing the Lord. Here's another good fear, fear of like walking along the edge of a skyscraper or something.
That's a good fear that God gave you to protect you. You know, you see these videos of people hanging off the edge of a skyscraper and stuff. Like, nah, that's not normal. I'm not saying, hey, face your fears, go skydiving or something. That's not what the sermon's about.
Those kind of fears are actually legitimate to protect us from being reckless and stupid. You know, obviously like we should fear recklessly endangering ourselves and others.
So I'm not saying fear is always wrong. There's a lot of good fear in the Bible. Fear the Lord, fear God. Also, you know, it says blesses the man that feareth always talking about, you know, being circumspect, cautious, safe, like obviously want to, oh, scaredy cat, take off your seatbelt, let's drive 150. That's not what I'm saying.
That's the right kind of fear. Here's a good fear. Put on your helmet when you're riding a motorcycle so you don't get killed. That's a good kind of fear. But here's the bad kind of fear. Oh, I'm not going to speak up for Christ because I'm afraid of getting made fun of. Oh, I'm too scared to go soul winning. I'm too scared to give the gospel. Oh, I'm a pastor and I'm too scared to preach controversial sermons because I'm afraid Mr. Moneybags and Little Miss Boldike are going to, you know, give me guff about it.
You know, that's the wrong kind of fear and we need to work on having the boldness to speak God's word, to do what's right, to live our lives in a way that would please God, to obey him and let him be our fear. Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. We thank you so much for this great verse, this powerful verse that has been used to win many, many people unto Christ, Lord. Help us to continue to win many souls to Christ with its truth and Lord, help us also to not to just use this verse as a soul winning verse but also to look in the mirror and say, hey, is this something I need to work on in my life? Am I fearful? Am I faint hearted? Am I a coward?
Lord, give me boldness and Lord, I ask you right now, give me boldness to preach in 2025. Help me to preach everything that you lay on my heart as I read your word and I pray that our members would have the courage to continue standing for truth and right in 2025 even if they get mocked and ridiculed for doing what's right. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen, take your hymnals please. Turn to hymn number six. Hymn number six.
Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand. Hymn number six.
Lift us up together on that verse now. Hymn number six.
Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand.
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land. A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way.
From the burden of the new tidings and the burden of the day.
Above the cross of Jesus I die at times can't see.
The very dying form of one who suffered there for me.
And from my strings and heart with tears to wonders I confess.
The wonders of his glorious love and my own worthlessness.
I take across thy shadow for my abiding place.
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of his place.
Content to let the world go by to know no gain nor loss.
My sinful self I only shame. My glory all across.
Good singing this morning. We are dismissed.