I love my family.
I'm the leader of his kids,
And they sit there in my heart.
I will protect his courts and friends.
I will sing this day that the Lord has made.
I will join his party and make me glad.
He has made me glad. He has made me glad.
I will join his party and make me glad.
He has made me glad. He has made me glad.
I will join his party and make me glad.
Oh God, you are my God,
And I will praise you.
I will sing you a song in the morning,
And I will learn to walk in your wings.
Step by step you'll lead me,
And I will follow you all of my days.
Step by step you'll lead me,
And I will follow you all of my days.
Okay, are we good?
Alright, so as you can see the title of the lesson is Fear Not What.
Okay, Fear Not What.
So you know in the Bible without even getting into it,
Before we even look at any of the verses,
That a lot of times God says fear not.
A lot of times it says do not be afraid.
In fact most of the time that God or an angel of God
Encounters somebody in the Bible, the first thing they say is
Do not be afraid.
So the question for today's lesson is Fear Not What.
Okay, so we start on the upper left there where it says Joshua 1 6.
And if you kind of know this verse a little bit,
You can kind of feel some of them,
But it doesn't follow the verse exactly.
Most of them do follow the verse exactly.
So let's see if we can get it.
Okay, so Joshua chapter 1 verse 6,
Does anybody know what the B, the S, and the C are?
Be strong and...
Be courageous.
Be strong and courageous.
Okay, that is, that's a classic verse from the book of Joshua.
One of the best for this topic.
Okay, the next part then is again,
Does not come directly out of the verse.
It is God, what?
Is?
Yep, God is?
The five.
Nope.
Dang it.
Be strong and courageous.
Okay, God is?
That's true, but it's God is with you.
Okay, and so basically remember this in Joshua is the commission of Joshua
and the Israelites to go into the promised land and take it as God said they would.
We can just kind of harken back for a moment,
and we're not going to go read it or anything,
but if you'll remember they tried to go into the promised land the first time.
They tried to go up against the city of Ai,
and God told them that they would take it.
He said, be, do not be afraid and so on,
and they grumbled and they pretty much refused.
They refused for God to go, refused for, to go with God into the promised land.
They said, well, we don't want to go up against it.
We're going to take too many losses or whatever,
and God said, you'll go or you'll, you know, you'll be in trouble.
You won't be my people.
And they said, okay, we'll go, we'll go, we'll go.
And God said, nope, too late.
Don't go now.
And then they went and they had horrible losses.
Lost thousands of people.
Okay.
And so then this time when Joshua was leading them in,
God would go with them.
After God said they would not go with them,
then they wandered in the wilderness, everything like that,
and now it's time to go in and God is with them.
So let's be strong and courageous.
God is with you.
God, what do you think it is?
So that D is a very small word there, so it's almost got to be what?
Do.
That's right.
God blank, do through blank.
Say again.
God will do through you.
That's right.
So he was telling Joshua and the Israelites that God was going to do something through them.
Okay.
So when I got commissioned as a Christian, so I was living for the Lord,
I knew that I was going to do things differently,
but I also knew that when I did things differently,
I would be in trouble to do those things if God did not do them through me.
Right.
So like for to preach.
Once I started preaching, I'm like, I can't do that.
No way I can get up on the stage.
No way I can preach.
No way I can be in the front of the room.
Right.
But that was not what God called me to do it by myself.
He said, I will do it through you.
Okay.
And then one more.
God's going to do this through you because he wants to what?
Nope.
Okay.
So it's work.
His purposes.
Okay.
So the Israelites could only go into the promised land because God wanted them to go into the promised land.
Right.
People can preach the gospel because God wants them to.
Trust me, if you want to preach the gospel and God doesn't want to let you do that for some reason,
you won't do it.
You won't do anything.
If it comes right down to it, if God doesn't let you do it, you will not do anything.
God can crush anyone that he chooses to and has on a number of occasions.
So we're working our way down and now we're at Isaiah 41.10.
So this one actually follows the verse.
Oh, it's on the second row because I moved back to the Bible.
Okay.
So again, this is a pretty famous verse.
Anybody want to take a stab at it?
Perfect.
Did you look it up or did you just know it?
You are awesome.
All right.
Fear not for I am with you.
That is correct.
Okay.
And same idea as what was going on in Joshua.
You have no reason to fear because I am with you.
God is saying, think about the power that God has.
Right.
So why would we be afraid?
We haven't really looked at what we would not be afraid of yet, but we're talking about not being afraid.
All right.
Now, number three, Psalm 27.14.
Okay.
So we're moving right along.
It's a little harder eventually, but here we are.
Okay.
So Psalm 27.14.
I'll just read it.
I doubt that anyone has this one memorized.
Psalm 27.14.
Almost there.
So many Psalms.
Okay.
Here we go.
Psalm 27.14 says, wait for the Lord.
Be strong and let your heart take courage.
Wait for the Lord.
Okay.
So what do you think it is?
Wait for the Lord.
That's right.
Wait for the Lord.
Semicolon.
Be strong and let your heart take courage.
And finish it.
Wait for the Lord.
Okay.
So this is almost our whole action plan right here in dealing with when God puts us up against opponents, when there are people coming against us, when life situations are bad, whatever like that, this is almost our whole action plan.
So when you wait on someone, let's say, let's take it from the perspective it's prom night and you're going with your boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever and you're going to get together and you're going to go to prom.
Alright.
And so you get yourself all decked out guys.
You're all decked out.
You're ready to go.
You got to go pick her up and you look at the clock and it's 20 minutes.
You still got 20 minutes before it's even time to leave.
You can jump in the car, drive over there, sit there and wait outside the house.
You can go knock on the door and wait in the house.
That's a little, could be with waiting with her parents.
That would be a little tough, right.
And you already planned some time to meet her dad or be there and talk to her dad and like that.
So that would be an extra 20 minutes with her dad.
That doesn't sound real good.
So what do you do?
20 minutes until it's time to go.
What can you do?
Huh?
Hey, there we go.
That's a great way to do it.
So he says read the Bible.
I can read the Bible for 20 minutes.
Yeah, you could do that.
Pray.
Boy, I hope her dad likes me.
I hope this night goes well.
You know.
Yeah.
Whatever.
Right.
Praise the Lord.
Protect me.
So you find the point is you find something to do.
Right.
You could just stand right by the door in your fancy get up with a little corsage packet
and just stand there for 20 minutes.
Do nothing.
Because we all do that.
Right.
That's not what you do.
So waiting isn't doing nothing.
Waiting is never doing nothing.
So when it says wait for the Lord, what does it mean?
If it's not do nothing, then what do you what do you do when you're waiting?
Okay.
And for what purpose?
I mean, because I mean, it's not going to happen.
When's it going to happen?
10 minutes?
An hour?
So we don't actually know when God is going to move to solve the problem.
Right.
So we have to.
So we might.
What if comes time to go to work?
Do you still go to work?
You're waiting on the Lord.
You still go to work.
Right.
So you still live your life.
You don't stop living.
So what does it mean to wait on someone?
Okay.
Trust.
That's perfect.
That's the attitude with which you're going to live.
When you go to work, you're going to do it trusting in God that you're still waiting on
God.
Right.
So you're trusting.
You're going to be prepared for Him to act.
Right.
You could take it in your own hands.
You could do an end run around whatever the problem is.
You could blow things up and make it so messed up that God could, now God can't do what God
wants to do.
Right.
So you're trusting and you're prepared that He is going to act.
That's what it means to wait.
And sometimes that involves reading your Bible, praying in the spiritual disciplines.
Right.
We do those things so we can be ready for God to act when the time comes.
Otherwise, when God starts to act, we might miss it.
It does not mean you jump on your phone.
It's very dangerous.
Jump on social media and spend 20 minutes on social media.
Because what happens with 20 minutes on social media?
It turns into 30.
It turns into 21 for sure.
It could be 30.
Right.
Oh crud.
I'm supposed to be over there talking to her dad right now.
Now we're going to be late to prom.
No.
Bad idea.
You don't take the garbage out.
Why don't you take the garbage out?
Because you're all dressed up.
You don't take the garbage out when you're all dressed up because what if you spill the
garbage on your dressed up clothes?
Now, yeah, that's going to be tough.
These are the clothes that I had for prom and I got garbage on them.
What am I going to do?
Right.
Don't eat sloppy food.
So you trust that it's going to happen and you prepare yourself.
You look forward to what's going to happen.
Okay.
All right.
We're going to go on.
Four.
Okay.
So that's the book of the Bible and it starts with P and it is Philippians.
Okay.
If it was Peter, it would have a number before it because you're first Peter or second Peter.
Right.
Peter in the Bible game, Peter starts with P but in real life it has a number, one or
two.
Okay.
So Philippians 1.28.
Number one.
That would be weird.
Three.
Yeah.
You could pick a few different things, I guess, up until, not three so much.
Maybe there would only be one of those.
Okay.
So Philippians 1.28 says, wrong page.
Hold on.
We'll get there.
There it is.
Okay.
It says, in no way, the verb is be, so be in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is
a sign of destruction for them but of salvation for you and that too from God.
Okay.
So on this page we've got Philippians 1.28.
In no way be alarmed.
Okay.
It doesn't say afraid.
There's a difference between the word afraid and alarmed.
Right.
Fear can be a natural reaction.
So you might not be able to not have fear if you're in a dangerous situation, if you're
up against an opponent that's dangerous, but what's the difference between being afraid
and alarmed?
You're the security guy.
What's the difference between being afraid and alarmed?
Okay.
So afraid is like the emotion.
Alarmed is like, oh no.
Surprised, startled, got to react.
You might react before you even know what's going on.
And so we can't do that.
It says, do not, in no way be alarmed by your, what was the word?
Opponents.
And we know we have many opponents.
You have the world system, demons, evil spirits, Satan himself, your own flesh.
You even have humans who will come against you.
So he's saying, in no way be alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction
for them, but of salvation for you and that too from God.
Nice try.
Okay.
Now, which one?
The O and T.
Opponents.
And then T is them and the last T is that.
So it's, in no way be alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but
of salvation for you and that too from God.
Okay.
So now let me ask you again.
Look at the verse.
Put your thinking caps on for a second.
What is a sign of destruction for them and of salvation for you?
In this verse, what is it saying is a sign of destruction for them and salvation for
you?
Well, just the opposite.
Not being alarmed.
Right?
So when you're not alarmed, I'll give you an example.
So Mike Tyson, does anybody not know Mike Tyson's name?
So let's say Mike Tyson.
Mike Tyson goes out with his friends to a restaurant and they get dinner and afterwards
they decide they're going to stop down and have a nightcap, a drink at a bar.
And they're sitting in the bar and a little fight breaks out between two or three guys
and it's starting to kind of push their way.
Mike Tyson looks over there and he's like, you think that's going to come over here?
And his heart begins to beat so fast because he's terrified that a fist fight might come
in.
Right?
No.
Mike Tyson's probably never been terrified of a fist fight since he did those four million
hours in the gym as a teenager.
Right?
So when you're not afraid, when you're not terrified, when you're not alarmed facing
an opponent, that is a sign to your opponent to know that they've come up against something
significant.
So same scene, the fight rolls that way and a guy gets slammed to the table and some of
the dishes go clatter, clatter, clatter and the guy stands up and the guy's a 5'11",
kind of bulky muscular dude and he's like, Mike Tyson scowls at him because he's interrupting
his little snack or whatever.
He scowls at him and the guy looks and says, you got something to say?
And Mike Tyson just kind of slides his foot over out of the booth and stands up.
The guy goes, sorry.
Right?
If you are not alarmed by your opponents when they come against you, I'm giving you a real
life illustration.
I'm a young Christian, less than five years old, working at Pizza Hut.
Pizza Hut saw fit to hire a bunch of managers away from Boston Market.
Boston Market is a chicken place.
They sell four-wheeled chicken.
It's still around by the way, but rumor was that that time they were going out of business.
They were in bankruptcy.
And the lady that they hired became my boss's boss just like that.
So she came in my restaurant and when she came in my restaurant, there was a customer
who had made a request for cavatini, which is a noodle dish, on the buffet and they asked
to have pepperoni in it.
I told the cook to go ahead and make it because the customer is always right.
It costs like 50 cents in pepperoni.
It really was not worth worrying about.
But she had given direction previously that we were not supposed to take any special requests
on the buffet for food cost reasons.
Not in our restaurant, but other restaurants have food cost problems.
So she found out I let the customer have pepperoni in their cavatini.
So she hauls me in the walk-in, which is this big refrigerator room, and she starts cussing
me out.
Now she's about 5'2", I'm 5'11", but she's my boss's boss.
She can fire me just like that.
And she's cussing me out, yelling at me and saying, what's wrong with you?
I'm calm as a cucumber.
I don't know.
I've had an endo.
I figure like she fired me.
Whatever.
Who cares?
God's got this.
I'm not afraid.
Finally, she looked at me and she said, you know what your problem is?
And I said, no, but I guess you're about to tell me.
She said, your problem is you're not afraid of me.
And I said, well, I'll tell you right now, I'm a born-again Christian, and since I became
born again, I'm really not afraid of anybody.
God only.
And she went, and she left.
That was it?
Not another word?
That was her problem.
Okay.
So at the point at which you know who you stand for and who is at work in you, then
what's going on here right now between me and you becomes your problem.
So if you're following God and the other person's not, that's their problem.
You just stand firm with God when opponents come against you and do not be alarmed.
And that will be a sign of their destruction.
So let our light shine before men so that they may what?
Glorify the Father and the coming of Jesus.
So when Jesus comes, they'll glorify God.
Do they glorify God now?
Some of them hate us.
They yell.
They throw a fit.
They back talk.
They sass.
These are all foul language.
They might even, you know, burglarize or vandalize or whatever, all because they hate God.
But when God comes again, then their eyes are going to be opened and they're going to
go, hey, that person was living for Jesus and I messed with them and I shouldn't have.
Don't be alarmed.
And that becomes a sign of their destruction and your salvation.
Now it's important that it's a sign of your salvation because you need that.
Go ahead.
When you're in the way of, when you're alarmed, you're alarmed or something.
So you already know what you're looking for because you're alarmed of it.
In other words, if you're alarmed of something, then Tarzan was alarmed of that fight.
So he knew what he was looking for when he got into that fight.
Right.
If you're alarmed, you know, that's what I think the way that they're approaching that
alarm is they, when you're alarmed, you're already, you're already know.
So instead of making it bigger than what it is and making a fight out of it, you're alarmed
of what you gave yourself into.
You're alarmed of that.
So you're going to know what to say in an appropriate way.
Yeah.
So if I could, so I could take what you're saying and blend it with what I'm saying.
Being aware that these opponents are going to come already, you don't have to throw a
fit, get excitable when they come.
You're already prepared.
That's what you're trying to say, right?
Yes.
Okay.
I agree with you on that.
So the reason the verse says do not be alarmed is, is partly, and I think Tim is pointing
this out.
We know they're going to come.
Why are you worried about it?
Jesus said, do not be surprised when they hate you.
They hated me first.
Right.
Okay.
So let's go on to number five.
Psalm 56, three, this is a pretty famous one too.
Can anybody do it without me going there and reading it?
You may not even recognize the reference, but still know the words.
It says when I, when I, yep.
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.
Psalm 56, three, that's word for word.
Okay.
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.
So we do have fear.
He doesn't say you can't have fear, right?
That's a natural human emotion because we have limits.
We have dreams, we have desires, that kind of thing.
We can be physically damaged, but what we do when we are afraid is we trust him.
First, then we go to number six.
Keep this moving so we don't get too far time wise behind.
Deuteronomy 31, six.
Okay.
Be strong and courageous.
Beautiful, word perfect.
Did everybody get it?
Sorry, one word short.
Okay.
So be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble because of them.
It says you can't be afraid, have a natural reaction, fear, but it says do not be afraid
or tremble because of them.
For the Lord your God goes with you.
He will not fail you or forsake you.
So if we can just take that simply for a second.
If God is with you and you're trembling because somebody is coming against you, then you must
think that God is going to fail, but he's not actually going to take care of the situation,
or he's going to leave you in the situation to take care of yourself.
Otherwise, why would you be afraid?
Why would you tremble because of them?
Right?
That's what he's saying.
Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble because of them.
Now seven, so you're going to up to the right.
Mark 5, 36.
So this is an interesting story.
Let me give you the background first and you might probably could already do it based on
what we've been saying.
But there's a man who comes looking for healing for his daughter.
He comes to Jesus looking for healing.
But while he's there talking to Jesus, he gets a report from home that she died.
And everybody's like, okay, well go away.
Don't trouble the master anymore.
There's nothing, no sense in asking for healing.
Now she died.
And Jesus says, what?
No, he does say that eventually, but do not be afraid.
Any longer, just believe.
Perfect.
Do not be afraid any longer, just believe.
And so if you want God to act and you know God is going to act, your faith is the question.
Are you going to trust him?
Behavior's on.
Only two to go and then the big one at the top, which we'll take the elevator for.
Psalm 112, 7.
This is an important one.
So I'm going to actually, even though you probably fill it out yourself, I'm going to
go there and read because we need a little bit leading into it as you can imagine.
Or number 8.
We took the road down to number 8.
Psalm 112, 7, as RJ said, says, he will not fear evil tidings.
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
Okay, interesting side note by the way, if you read that in your Bible, you'll see that
the word Lord there is all in caps.
Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Don't answer yet RJ if you know.
Does anybody know why?
Why the word Lord is all in capitals there?
Okay, now RJ, do you know why?
It's more than that.
So when you see in your Bible that it's capital L-O-R-D, that means that it's Yahweh.
The word there is Yahweh.
And what does Yahweh mean?
It's God.
Like what?
He's the Creator God, the original God.
Yahweh is the original Creator God.
He's the one who made everything.
There are other names like the Caring God, the Healing God, like he has other names for
him as well.
But when you see the word Yahweh, that's the God that created everything.
He spoke everything into existence.
That's important, isn't it?
Because that word means, listen, what they're saying is like, this person can be steadfast
and trusting in the Lord, the Creator God, the God that has all the power.
That make sense?
The God who spoke everything into existence.
The guy that's coming against you, the problems coming against you, the temptation that you're
facing, it wouldn't exist if it were not for that God.
And so it's okay that we put our trust in him.
So the question is who?
Because it says he will not fear evil tidings.
Who will not fear evil tidings?
That's the question.
And so it goes back a few verses to get that.
That's why I said we should read it.
We just need verse 6 actually.
Nope, let's go all the way back to verse 4.
You listen for it, okay?
Light arises in the darkness for the upright.
He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.
Talking about the upright.
It is well with the man who is gracious and lends.
He will maintain his cause in judgment.
For he will never be shaken.
The righteous will be remembered forever.
And then he will not fear evil tidings.
His heart is steadfast trusting in the Lord.
So who are those verses talking about?
The upright.
Okay?
So people get confused about righteous.
And somebody says somebody is righteous.
So very simply put, what does it mean to be righteous, Natalie?
Give me a shot.
What do you think it means to be righteous?
Take a stab at it.
Give me your gut instinct.
What does it feel like?
Okay, using a slang term.
He was righteous.
What does that mean?
That one we still use now?
Yeah, okay, good.
Yeah, it's good.
Righteous is simply good.
That's all it is.
It's right.
It's not wrong.
It's not evil.
It's not wicked.
It's not bad.
It's good.
Right?
So to say somebody is righteous, truly righteous, would be righteous like God.
And we get our righteousness from God, right, through Jesus Christ, his son.
So Jesus' righteousness becomes our righteousness.
But that's not what he was talking about in the Psalms.
That righteousness of Jesus is not what he's talking about in the Psalms.
So he makes it very clear and he says the upright.
If someone is upright, it doesn't mean they're still standing.
What does it mean, Chris?
What does it mean to be upright?
Doing good, yes.
And walking with the Lord would be probably the best way to do that.
But yeah, doing good.
Doing the right thing.
Remember Frozen, the movie, right?
It was the second or third Frozen movie or whatever.
Do the next right thing.
That's what it means to be upright.
You just say do the, it's the only really good one.
Anyway, but I won't watch it.
I won't watch it.
I don't watch it.
I'm boycotting Disney.
So you don't have to boycott Disney, but I'm boycotting Disney.
Anyway, so just do the right thing.
So the one who, so what does this say?
The one who just does the right thing.
Man, it's awesome.
The promises are awesome.
Light arises in the darkness for that person.
The person who does the right thing.
Light arises in the darkness for them.
That person is gracious and compassionate and righteous.
It is well with the man who is gracious and lenient.
So in other words, the upright, it's well with them.
He will maintain his cause and judgment.
In other words, he'll know when he goes to judgment that he did the right thing.
He'll never be shaken.
He'll be remembered forever.
He will not fear evil tidings.
So evil greetings, evil warnings, people bringing evil to you.
And his heart is steadfast.
That means his heart is solid on firm foundation, trusting in the Lord.
Okay, then we're going to go over to the right.
We're going to see number 10.
It's an elevator.
If you look all the way at the top, it takes us all the way to the very top of the page
to see the guy coming out of the elevator, number 10.
And we're at 2 Corinthians 12, 9 to 10.
Now I've given you all the words.
So what I'm going to ask you to do is circle certain words that we talk about.
If you want to make a note what we talked about with that so you'll remember later,
you can do that.
But you're just going to circle.
Yes, sir?
Did we do nine?
No.
No, I skipped nine.
Thank you very much.
So let's do nine before we take the elevator, shall we?
Second Timothy, 1, 7, 4.
For God has not given us the spirit of Timothy, but power and love and death.
Yes.
What was the T?
Timothy.
Say it again.
Timothy.
I think you're saying, I think you're having trouble.
It's timidity.
Tim-i-d-ty.
It means we're not timid.
Right?
Just exactly like it sounds.
Tim-i-d-ty.
Timidity.
Okay.
So spirit of timidity means kind of being like a little cowardly.
Right?
Or not wanting to face up to it.
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity.
Integrity.
Yes.
Integrity would be a way to not be timid.
Yes.
Probably the best way.
Yes.
Power, love, and discipline.
Discipline is when you make intentional choices and then you follow those choices.
I'm going to work out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 30 minutes from 11 to 1130.
Where will you be found at 1105 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?
Work it out.
I'll be in church every Sunday without fail unless I'm contagious.
And you can't say unless it cancels because we don't cancel.
Period.
So I'll be in church every Sunday at 1130 unless I'm contagious for sure.
Discipline.
We are given the spirit of power and love and discipline.
Not a spirit of timidity.
We aren't afraid of what's going to come.
Okay, now take the elevator that we talked about before.
Look, I even, I made the light, the up button is lighting up on the elevator.
And you're going to come out the top up there.
All right, so we're going to circle a few key words in these verses.
The first one you're going to circle is grace.
It says, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.
Somebody tell me what grace is.
Isn't it like, like the feeling of grateful and joy?
No.
You mean some people that don't deserve it.
Right.
So what did you say Tommy?
Getting something good that you don't deserve.
Yeah, so grace is when you get the good that you do not deserve.
That's grace.
So there's three of these that go together.
Okay.
There's justice.
Justice is when you get what you deserve.
So if you speed, you get a speeding ticket.
Right.
If you steal, you get caught, pay a fine, go to jail, whatever you lie.
Your reputation is ruined.
That's all justice.
Okay.
Justice is when you get what you deserve.
Mercy is when you don't get what you deserve.
You speed, you go before the judge.
He says, oh yeah, but I see that you didn't really mean it.
So I'm letting you off.
That's mercy.
Justice is when you get what you deserve.
Mercy is when you don't get what you deserve.
And grace is when you get what you don't deserve.
So you go before the judge, you're speeding that day, the judge says, man, why are you
speeding?
My car is crap.
It wouldn't start seven times.
I had to get to work on time.
I can't leave my job.
I'm so sorry.
And he's like, oh, I'm going to let you off the ticket.
Not only that, I just got a new car and I got like a five year old car that I'm going
to give you the car.
That's grace.
You got something that you don't deserve.
Okay.
So justice is when you get what you do deserve.
Mercy is when you don't get what you do deserve.
And grace is when you get what you don't deserve.
Those three all go together in the scripture.
But he said this to me.
My grace is sufficient.
Circle sufficient.
Yes, give me one word.
Somebody give me one word that is a synonym for sufficient.
Enough.
Exactly.
It's enough.
That's enough.
It's enough that God gives you what you don't deserve.
That's enough.
So he says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power.
So what is power?
Circle power.
Tell me, somebody tell me what power is.
Okay, kind of.
Strength is a form of power.
Right?
Yes, the ability to do something.
The ability to make something happen.
Change.
This word power is dunamis.
From which we get our word dynamite.
From where we get booms.
Right?
So this is power.
For my power is perfected in weakness.
Circle in weakness.
Together.
Put them together.
Okay?
So who's talking?
God.
God says my grace, the things that I gave you that you don't deserve, is enough for
you for my power, my ability to get things done, is perfected in weakness.
Yes, he is telling the story of how he could not get rid of his thorn in the flesh.
But it is the example of how everything that we need for this discussion actually is exactly
what we're talking about.
Okay?
So God's power is perfected, you could say made complete, right?
In weakness.
Keep going.
Just gladly therefore, I will rather boast.
Circle boast.
Yep, means to brag.
Okay?
So you look at something, wow!
Look how big I am.
Look how strong I am.
Look how smart I am.
Right?
Or look how weak I am.
That's what we're about to say right now.
That's what he's going to say.
I will boast about my circle weaknesses.
I'm going to boast about your weaknesses.
Okay?
Now let's be careful here.
This is not false humility.
There are no ugly girls in this room.
There are no ugly young men in this room.
So if you go around saying you're ugly, you're a liar, that's not the same thing.
You understand?
We're talking about boasting in our weaknesses.
So we're talking about, for example, you could say, I feel like I'm ugly and I'm trying to
get over that.
Or I feel like I'm not smart.
Or I feel like I can't be bold.
Something's holding me back from being bold.
Well those are your weaknesses.
You can boast about those things because in those things, God's power is perfected.
So what he's saying is, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that, circle, the power
of Christ, not the the, but power of Christ, may dwell in me.
You can underline dwell in me.
You want the power of Christ in you?
Stop thinking you're all that in a bag of chips because you ain't.
I say that all the time so I'm sorry you haven't heard it sooner.
So you're not that special on a world scale.
If you were a billionaire, you'd be one of thousands.
If you're a goth, you're one of 20 million.
If you're tattooed, you're one of like a billion.
Not special.
You don't get special by doing things to your body.
You don't get special by acting a certain way.
You're special and unique in Christ when you let Christ's power dwell in you.
And how do you do that?
By boasting in your weaknesses.
You got to recognize first that you need him to do something.
Okay, we're almost done.
Therefore I am well, circle, content with, now here's the list.
This is what, remember content, what is content?
Comfortable where you're at.
You could say aware, but really it's about not being worried about it.
Right?
I'm content.
I'm not, I don't have to fix it.
If it's something that needs fix, God's gonna fix it.
I don't have to fix it.
I'm okay, right, so I'm well content with, and here is the list.
Remember it's fear not what?
If you're content, you're not afraid.
Right?
You're alone in the house at night.
You're perfectly content.
You're watching TV and all of a sudden you hear a noise downstairs or in the other room
when you know you're home alone and your contentness is suddenly gone.
What is that?
I gotta figure out what that is.
Could be a rat.
Could be somebody got in.
Whatever.
I gotta go.
I'm no longer content.
The moment before you heard the noise, you were content.
You're like, hey, I'm watching TV.
This is cool.
Mom and dad are not here.
I get to eat all the popcorn I want.
You know, whatever.
Right?
Therefore, I am well content with, here they are, weaknesses.
Yep, circle weaknesses.
I ask you fear not what?
This is the answer.
Weaknesses, so the things that are wrong with you, the things that you come up short, don't
worry about it.
Don't fear those things.
With insults.
Insults.
Somebody insults you.
Somebody texts you.
Somebody shows you something mean.
Somebody calls you.
Somebody cusses you out in school.
Somebody at work, on the job, in the store.
Be content with weaknesses and insults.
So far we've circled weaknesses and insults and content.
Distresses.
A distress is something that makes you uncomfortable.
Right?
You with me, Caleb?
Do you circle distresses?
So if we circle in these words and know what they mean, otherwise you're not going to win
candy even though you already got candy.
Distresses.
So distresses are things that would normally make you uncomfortable.
You can say, I am not uncomfortable.
I'm fine.
Why?
Because the fight is not mine.
God is with me.
So I can be content in my weaknesses, my receiving insults, distresses.
Persecutions.
Persecutions are when somebody comes against you hard.
They steal from you.
They beat you.
They cuss you.
They blast you on social media.
They tell all your friends lies about you.
Those are persecutions.
And you can handle all of those things.
In fact, you can be content with all of those things.
With difficulties.
Sometimes life is harder than other times.
You understand?
So sometimes you're going to face difficulties.
It's just not going to go well.
If it doesn't go well, your car broke down.
Doesn't go well, you're sick with a fever.
Doesn't go well, you got food poisoning.
It doesn't go well, the bills do.
You're not sure where the money is going to come from.
You can be content with difficulties.
So you can be content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions and difficulties
for Christ's sake.
So here's where it does not work.
Are you with me Brady?
It does not work if you are in sin.
If you cause the difficulty yourself because you sin against God, there is no contentment.
If you cause the distress, like you get malty with somebody.
Okay, are you with me?
Get malty with somebody or you're not paying attention when the teaching is going on, for
example.
As you cause the problem, that's not for Christ's sake.
And then when the difficulties arise, you will find it very hard to be content.
Because you know you caused the problem.
You're not getting from God what you're getting.
Plus, you're making it impossible for God's power to show up in a perfect, complete way.
Because you're doing it.
And he ends with this, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
You get it?
God can do in you amazingly when you realize that you cannot do what God can do.
But if you try to do what God can do, or you try to screw with the world a little bit,
play with things, buy, consume, whatever to make yourself feel better, eat too much food
or stay up too late or expose yourself in some way so people will look at you more.
Any of those kinds of things?
You're kicking God out.
And then God's power does not show up in completeness and perfection.
You're not weak.
You're still consuming, trying to get things done instead of waiting on God, trusting in
God and fearing not.
So if you look at that fancy ribbon there, these are our last blanks and we're done.
Anybody want to try it?
B, start with a B. Be brave, it's brave.
Or bold, I guess you could do bold.
Either one would work.
Be brave and upright.
Things started in the beginning of the lesson, the one word action plan.
No, not wise.
Although that's a good word.
Brave and upright and check out Psalm 27 14.
Wait.
Brave and upright and wait.
This is what you do.
Somebody comes against you and you're walking as a Christian and they post something about
you, they say something or they do something or they're trying to provoke a fight.
Be brave, be upright.
In other words, your mouth does not start spewing cuss words, you're not slandering
them or trying to do things to get back at them, you're not plotting your revenge, none
of that is godly.
You'd be brave and upright and wait.
When I was a young Christian, last illustration, we've got just two phrases left and we're
done.
There was a man in my church who was an older man, an associate pastor and had been a Christian
for a long, long time, a lot longer than me.
One night I was running a WANA games and there was a little girl, eight years old, and she
brought one of her friends and I ran the games hard.
When I played games, the kids that come out from over here a lot of times, the multi-purpose
stuff and they look hot, they never, when I ran the games they were always like red
faced and sweaty, so I ran them hard.
This little girl that was with her had asthma and she asked for a drink of water at the
end of the games.
I said, sure, step over there to the kitchen.
I marshaled all the other kids where they were supposed to go and I said, you two, stay
with her.
I said, step over there to the kitchen.
One of the old ladies, nine years old, gave her a cup of water and she drank it down.
And then she went off with the other kids.
I'm talking like a 60 second delay.
And as I'm walking away and I'm going to clean up the game stuff, this guy comes up to me
and he says, you know what?
You are everything that is wrong with the world today.
I'm like, what?
What's happening?
I'm being ambushed here.
What is happening?
He says, you are the reason that kids are not tough.
People like you, they don't need a drink of water.
What do they need a drink of water for?
They play games with kids, they're fine.
They can drink water after a WANA is over.
And he's literally yelling at me.
He didn't use any vulgarities, but he's yelling at me for letting that little girl, and he
didn't know she had asthma, but even then, water, asthma doesn't necessarily connect,
but she wanted a drink of water.
And I said, you know, I feel like the Bible says that anytime somebody wants a cool drink
of water in the name of Jesus, we should give it.
And he goes, oh, you're going to quote scripture at me now?
He said, and he literally railed on me for like 10 minutes while I'm walking.
I'm picking this stuff up and he's walking around yelling at me, right, while I'm doing
this.
And boy, every part of me wanted to come back at him.
And I was pretty timid back then.
I was a young Christian, really.
I haven't been saved in maybe a year and a half.
I hadn't started preaching or nothing.
And every part of me wanted to just say, you know, just leave me alone, right?
I'm done.
I won't run games anymore.
You run the games.
You're such a big deal.
You run the games.
I'll just walk out and be done.
That's what I wanted to do.
And the spirit moved to my heart and I'm like, I know this is not right, but I also know
there's nothing to do about it.
He's a senior man.
He's been a Christian for 40 years.
I've been a Christian for like not even two, right?
He's an ordained associate pastor, whatever.
I'm like, and so this is what I said.
I said, Lord, I said, if I am in the wrong here, then convict me in my heart and change
me and make me the man you want me to be.
But if he is in the wrong here, shut him up.
Stop him because he's hurting me.
There's nothing I can do about it.
I didn't say this out loud.
I said, there's nothing I can do about it.
I said, Lord, you take care of it.
Six months later, he was diagnosed with cancer of the throat and couldn't talk.
Now had I prayed a curse on him and said, Lord, bring down the hammer, then I'd have
felt horrible.
But I didn't.
I just said, Lord, you sort this between us.
I had no conviction in my heart that I was in the wrong.
I wasn't disrespectful in any way.
And then he got throat cancer, couldn't talk.
Ten months later, he's in chemo, still can't talk.
He's a preacher.
Ten months later, he's in chemo and everything.
And the Lord convicted me of my heart to go and pray for him.
He said, go and pray for him.
And so I went and I spent a lot of time in prayer and then I prayed for him directly
and he was miraculously healed from his cancer.
Six months after he was miraculously healed, he was back teaching the Word of God.
Now it's not about me, but that's what I'm talking about.
Be brave and upright.
Know that you're doing the right thing, serving God.
Stop backing down.
Set yourself some rules, some discipline.
Be right, upright.
And then when somebody comes against you or something happens you don't like, be brave.
Be content even with your weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties
all for Christ's sake.
Do it for Jesus, right?
Don't be okay with your bad stuff for you or for Satan or for the world or some people
will like you.
But be okay with your bad stuff because it's going to Jesus and Jesus is working in it.
And then watch what God will do.
He will defend you every time.
But can you face real difficulties?
Yes.
God is with you through trials and suffering.
He's not with you through an easy pathway, right?
Remember, when they hate you, don't be surprised.
They hated me first.
Persecution, suffering, these are real bad things.
They're like, I never want to be persecuted.
I never want to face any difficulties, distresses, or be persecuted.
Raise your hand if you never want to be persecuted.
This is the participation part of the lesson.
My hand also is up.
I have been persecuted, but I never want to be persecuted.
However, if I am persecuted, what am I to do about it?
Be brave, upright, and wait.
That's what you do about it.
And then God will, God shows His, and that word there is strength and power, and He shows
it there.
Notice that God can show His strength and power anytime He chooses to.
So why does, this is the last question, why does God show His strength and power perfectly
in our weaknesses as opposed to some other time?
Because God doesn't want you to be perfect, He wants you to come to Him as you are.
That's a good answer.
Also if Mike Tyson stands up in the bar and backs that guy down, did God do that?
I mean maybe, maybe He made Mike Tyson, and He made Mike Tyson strong, but everybody is
just going to go like his 40 hours in the gym every week for 20 years, and all that
human growth hormone, or just a lot of beef that he ate, or whatever it was that made
him this big hulk of dude, and made him a great boxer, or whatever, that's what really
did it.
So it didn't take a miracle of God.
But if that same scene happens in a restaurant after prom night, and it's Kishon, and that
six foot guy all bulked up, falls across Kishon's table, and then gets up and he says, what
are you looking at?
And Kishon stands up and says, what?
What's he going to say?
Dude's four inches taller than him, and 50 pounds more muscle, what's Kishon going to
say?
What's Kishon going to do?
Kishon's going to be brave, he's going to be upright, and he's going to wait.
And if you're not afraid when that happens, the other person will see the signs of their
own destruction.
And if you are afraid, then they're going to think they have the upper hand.
Be brave.
Amen.
All right, so that's the end of the lesson.
You got a quick comment?
Yeah.
I like this word, but most likely therefore I would rather boast about the way, and I
don't want to boast so much because you won't have to boast.
Because he's working on the weaknesses.
And with our friends, he's working on the weaknesses.
You said something to the servant once that you want the inside of your body to show,
to come with your outside.
You're in there and you're outside.
And this kind of puts the sector in thinking, you're not going to boast about it because
people are going to see that in you.
He's drawing.
And that drawing is he's kicking you.
He's working inside you.
He's drawing.
He's working on the weaknesses.
Now, where I used to, you know somebody when they ran out in front of me with their car?
I'm not.
Wow, I'm slowing down.
I'm actually letting the guy go past, not saying nothing, and going, and going up and
down.
Now, there are some things that you, like you said, are not perfect.
There's some things like I don't like the inside, you know, I feel sorry and I start
crying.
There's some things that are not perfect because some things are going to go slowly and some
things are going to go quicker than others.
But I always materialize them.
I keep in the violin, keep with them, and keep working on myself to be a better person.
Amen.
That's a good word.
I kind of like this about growing.
I mean there's some things that I found out that I was doing.
One day I got my garage all ram-sack.
Everything took it.
Well, I used to.
When he yelled and all this about it, I'd go out there and my friends said, you're not,
I am a little upset, but I'm here.
Nothing happened.
I need to get home and bathe him.
You know, there's other things I had to look at.
And when I stop for a minute and not beat him and look at the whole picture and what
he's doing about me, Jim becomes a better person.
So much grace.
All right.
So we're going to pray in closing.